Chronological X-Men - Nova Roma Review

Nova Roma!

The New Mutants #7 – Flying Down To Rio!

I spoke about this before but I’ll touch on it again. The first few pages of this story feel like it should have fit in the last storyline instead of being included in Nova Roma, but there isn’t a way to break up the issues in the middle of a book – so in my mind the first few pages of this story take place right before the X-Men go to Japan for Logan and Mariko’s non wedding and the rest of the Nova Roma arch takes place before the Scott/Madelyne wedding. The story itself gives us the first appearances of a mercenary mutant by the name of Axe and Roberto’s mother Nina (and his butler Simon.) The main story has the New Mutants off with Roberto’s mother as they prepare to go on an expedition, but not before they first experience Carnival. Roberto’s mother gets kidnapped by Axe who is working with the Hellfire Club to stop Nina’s work all the while Sebastian Shaw is courting Roberto’s father for membership in the Inner Circle. This was a pretty good start to the story, but it felt like filler. There were a few things that I wish they had expanded on though – what’s with all these telepathic attacks that Charles is experiencing, what happened with attacks Xi’an had right before she died? Are they connected, is what Charles is feeling at all connected to the attacks that he has been experiencing in The Uncanny X-Men? It is hard to judge this though since it is the very first chapter in the story so it does need some time to build.

The New Mutants #8 – The Road to… Rome?

The New Mutants #9 – Arena!

The next chapter of this story gives us the first appearances of Amara Aquilla and her father Lucius who is a senator of Nova Roma and just so happens to be in a political battle with another senator Marcus Domitius Gallio and his wife Selene (oh yes, that Selene.) Sebastian Shaw is still courting Roberto’s father for membership in the Inner Circle and they both plan to use Nova Roma as a way to gain more wealth and power. Lucius disguised his daughter and her servants and sent them out into the jungle to protect them from becoming victims of the Black Priestess; naturally that’s when Amara runs into the New Mutants who are betrayed by Castro and the crew of the boat they are on. It turns out that Castro and his men have been given orders by Roberto’s father to keep the group from entering Nova Roma. After surviving the sabotage the New Mutants and Amara are taken into Nova Roma and the girls are forced/drugged into being slaves and Roberto and Sam are made to battle in the arena where the survivor will also become a slave. When Roberto and Sam use their mutant powers in the arena the crowd turns against them assuming that they are demons who have been sent by the Black Priestess to destroy them all, everyone is against them until Rahne transforms into a wolf and Senator Gallio announces that the girl was sent by the Gods and that her and her friends must be honored. They did touch on something here that I almost wish that they didn’t; evidentially Rahne has somewhat of a healing ability that goes along with her powers. There’s nothing wrong with this idea but there are a few mutants already who can heal or can’t be hurt out there already. It doesn’t have to be that every mutant with feral powers can rapidly self heal, but it’s even worse that they introduce this idea with Rahne and then slowly phase it out.

The New Mutants #10 – Betrayal!

The New Mutants #11 – Magma

Well we get quite a few big reveals here. We learn that Roberto’s mother Nina didn’t die in the boat crash, that she’s being held prisoner by Senator Gallio who has learned of what Castro was sent to do and wants to arrange a partnership between himself and the Inner Circle. Another big reveal comes when Dani sneaks out of the palace once everyone starts to get uncomfortable with their settings and is attacked and taken to an underground temple where she finds an unconscious Amara and another random girl. The three of them are set to be sacrificed to the Black Priestess and her cult. While Dani and Amara are fighting for their lives Sam, Roberto and Rahne are almost killed by Castro and the three of them learn that the whole thing has been set up by Gallio and that Amara’s father is really the one they should have been helping out the whole time. While the New Mutants take a stand and find their place in Nova Roma’s civil war the Black Priestess reveals herself to be none other than Selene. After that everything happens pretty quickly Selene creates a blood bond with Dani and plans on turning her into a younger version of herself, Amara’s father kills Gallio, Selene attempts to sacrifice Amara like she did the unnamed girl, only to have the process trigger Amara’s latent mutant powers – control over molten lava, and the Earth’s magma. The team finally reunites and Roberto is forced to kill Selene and bury her in the rubble of her temple. Amara’s father decides that the best place for her is with the New Mutants and at Xavier’s school so she can learn to control her powers as well as learn the ways of the world. Nina decides to stay behind to help prepare Nova Roma for what the outside world is like and to teach them a way to defend and protect their city if her husband and the Inner Circle ever decide to try to take the city.

The New Mutants #12 – Sunstroke

So now that Gallio and Selene have been defeated the New Mutants (including Amara) head off to Brazil where Roberto confronts his father and the rest of the team enjoys a much needed vacation from their recent vacation. Roberto confronting his father doesn’t go over too well, Emmanuel ends up cutting off his son and uses it as the final push he needed to join the Inner Circle. Amara doesn’t end up much better either. A mixture of culture shock as well as not being used to the different climate causes her to panic and trigger her powers and she’s so lost in her own little world that she can’t shut off her own powers. The team ends up tracking down Amara and saving herslf and Brazil from Magma’s unintentional wrath. One thing that kind of bothered me was the fact that Dani used her powers for the exact same thing only a few issues ago, in this same storyline no less. Dani has such a cool power, but to reduce it to nothing more than basically keeping her teammates from getting sweaty is a waste of her potential.

The New Mutants #13 – School Dayze

So we get the first appearance of Doug Ramsey but I’m getting ahead of myself here. The issue starts with the team finally returning to the mansion where Amara meets Charles Xavier and she joins the team. Amara is given the codename Magma – which should have been pretty obvious why. It makes sense that Amara struggles to adjust to her new surroundings and after how she had been drugged and controlled by Selene it would make sense that she wouldn’t take to well to the idea of Charles being able to enter her mind. It turns out that kitty has been using her friendship with Doug so he can help her monitor what Sebastian Shaw has been up to. After moving on from manipulating Roberto’s father he’s gone back to working with Henry Peter Gyrich on Project Widewake. Valerie Cooper has also joined the project in an attempt to track down mutants to create a governmentally sponsored mutant team. It appears that she is currently unaware of the fact that Henry plans on killing or imprisoning all mutants, and both Valerie and Henry are unaware of the fact that Sebastian Shaw is a mutant and is planning on using the project to protect the Inner Circle and target all the other mutants. The whole thing I find odd about this issue is the fact that Kitty is sort of manipulating Doug – that’s not in character for her at all, and it gets even more weird when it begins to appear that Charles has no idea that Kitty is doing this. There is a mistake when Charles says he wishes Amara had a ‘confidence’ like Kitty does Illyana – it’s obvious he meant ‘confidant.’ It was a good issue, but I don’t think it was smart to close out the arch with it. The story would have been stronger if it ended last issue. But all in all it was good.

The New Mutants #7 – Flying Down To Rio!: B

The New Mutants #8 – The Road to… Rome?: B

The New Mutants #9 – Arena!: A

The New Mutants #10 – Betrayal!: A

The New Mutants #11 – Magma: A

The New Mutants #12 – Sunstroke: B

The New Mutants #13 – School Dayze: B

Chronological X-Men - Days of Future Past Part 1 Review

Days of Future Past.

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1 Ill Winds

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #2 Uneasy Alliances

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #3 Chain Reactions

This three part story takes place directly before the events of Uncanny X-Men #141-142 – this issue serves as sort of a prequel as well as a retcon to throw in all the new characters that have appeared long after the original story was first told. The retcon part I’ll deal with first.. the Sentinels are no longer the regular version but they are mass produced versions of Bastion’s Prime Sentinels. Wolverine is off on his quest to find Amiko (although she wasn’t introduced until roughly forty issues after the original Days of Future Past), the story now includes Emma Frost, Synch, Jubilee, Leech, and Psylocke – who has joined Shinobi Shaw and taken up the position of The Red Queen within the new Inner Circle. We see that Pietro, Sam (Cannonball) died along with Kurt and Archangel (which prompts Betsy to go bad and turn traitor.) Something happened on Genosha which is never revealed happened, something so bad that Magneto becomes unhinged if anyone even mentions ‘Genosha’ to him. We see Wanda being tortured by Shinobi and Betsy in order to use her Hex powers to destroy what little is left of civilization so they can take over. Eventually Wanda dies, but not before Magneto is crippled trying to save her. Emma restructures Betsy’s mind and sends her off for ‘rehabilitation’ that will involve her spending time with her brother Brian. The main thing about this story is it shows how and why Magneto joined the few X-Men that are left and how he was crippled – so in that respect it’s a prequel, plus the fact that it happens directly before the events of the main storyline. I haven’t read the Days of Future Past storyline yet so I don’t know how difficult it will be to deal with the retcon aspect when all of these characters that were in this particular miniseries aren’t around and since they don’t exist yet aren’t mentioned at all.

The Uncanny X-Men #141 Days Of Future Past

The Uncanny X-Men #142 Mind Out Of Time!

Alright, we’re in to the main story here… We see a lot of new things, but we get some resolutions as well. Blob meets the new Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants – consisting of Mystique (she had already appeared in Ms. Marvel’s book but this story right here begins her long standing reign of terror in the X-books) the rest of the Brotherhood is made up of Avalanche, Destiny and Pyro – this is the first time they appear anywhere. Mystique plans on killing off Senator Kelly, Moira MacTaggert and Charles Xavier to teach the world to be afraid of mutants. Initially she succeeds which sends the world spiraling into a dark and twisted world where Sentinels rule, mutants are either killed off or kept in concentration camps and the entire world is on the verge of nuclear war. In the future the only ‘X-Men’ that are left are Ororo, Piotr, Kitty – who now goes by Kate and is married to Piotr, the two had children that were at some point murdered by the Sentinels- Magneto – for the first time he is called Magnus, and is crippled, Franklin Richards – the mutant child of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, and his wife a redheaded telepathic/telekinetic mutant named Rachel. (We know from Wolverine: Days of Future Past that Jubilee, Psylocke, White Queen, Synch and Leech are all still alive too) Logan is alive, and ‘free;’ he’s been feeding Kate pieces of equipment that will disable the collars that cripple their mutant powers which then allows Rachel to send Kate back in time switching her mind with her younger self Kitty. Back in the past the X-Men battle the Brotherhood, only to find themselves evenly matched, Kurt squares off against Mystique and is taken aback by how much they look alike. Mystique doesn’t reveal too much, only that Kurt should seek out his ‘mother’ Margali for the truth. Kate in the past is able to stop Destiny from killing Senator Kelly which drastically changes this future timeline (which is a good thing because by this point in the future Ororo, Logan, Magneto, Franklin and Piotr have all died leaving just Kate/Kitty and Rachel. Kate returns to the future bringing Kitty back to the past with no memory of anything that has happened. Kelly and the newly elected president (we don’t see his face, just a shadowed outline) have teamed up with Sebastian Shaw to contract Henry Peter Gyrich to create a new breed of Sentinels to control mutant kind.

Dazzler #1 So Bright This Star

Dazzler #2 Where Demons Fear To Dwell!

Well… this as published around the same time and mentions of it lead us to believe that it takes place directly after Uncanny X-Men #142. We learn Dazzler’s real name is Alison Blaire, of course considering this is the first issue we get a bunch of new characters: Stevie Wildfire (the owner of the club Alison and Enchantress are auditioning for,) Joseph R. Ercoli (who essentially introduces Alison to her new agent,) Harry S. Osgood – her new agent, Cassandra Ferlenghetti – Harry’s secretary, Alison’s father Judge Carter Blaire, and her Nana. Since Alison appeared in Uncanny X-Men, and is a mutant this is essentially the first X-book spinoff so it’s the first time we see The Enchantress in and X-title. There are a TON of characters in this first story which almost makes this book more of a ‘Team-Up’ title rather than a ‘real’ book. So for guest stars we get: (aside from Enchantress) Human Torch, The Thing, Spider-Man, Angel, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Professor Xavier, Sprite, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron-Man, Wasp, Jarvis and Spider-Man. I’ve got to be honest this is going to be a hard book for me to get through, while I’ve always liked the idea of Dazzler, I’ve never been a fan of what they had done with her character over the years and I think that’s going to drag the book down for me. Part of me hopes I’m just remembering how she was portrayed in the 80s wrong because I was only a child then, but I’m not hopeful that the book will contain anything that will want to make me come back to the book and read the stories over again. I don't mean to bash the book - there are elements that are good but I don't really need to see parts of the book devoted to Alison putting on her make up, or running around on roller skates, or even really talk about how hard it is to sing because she can't get paying gigs, but she doesn't want to quit because it's her passion. Okay sure the struggle with her life choices should be touched on, but they don't need to be brought up every single issue- and unfortunately I think they'll keep it up for a while.

Dazzler #3 The Jewels of Doom!

Dazzler #4 Here Nightmares Abide!

So here we have the second story... Carter Blaire, Allison’s Nana Bella, The Human Torch, The Thing, Cassandra and Harry are all back. We met Lancelot Steele who is acting as Harry’s field representative so I guess that makes him Alison’s manager. We continue the floating in and out of characters from other books which brings us Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, Dr. Arturo Frazen and Dr. Doom. Alison is scheduled to perform at the United Nations benefit concert and she’s so excited about it that she tries one more time to reach out to her father – it doesn’t go well. Of course just before it’s time for Alison to perform as Dazzler comes the Latverian jewels are in the process of being stolen, Alison tries to stop them only to end up being captured by Dr. Doom. Seeking a second Merlin Stone Doom transports Dazzler to the dimension he has tracked it down to in order to use her as a pawn to draw out whoever is guarding the second stone. Allison enters a stand off with her anti-self who feeds off of darkness. Alison outwits her dark self and then has to battle the real guardian of the stone. Thankfully he is also afraid of light and she quickly bests him and takes the stone and is transported back to Doom’s lair. She manages to escape the prison Dom is holding her in and uses her powers to destroy both Merlin Stones, a furious Doom destroys the building, crushing Alison underneath it and when Johnny Storm finds her he can’t revive her. Okay this story was actually more my speed than the first one but the series still has a long way to go before it becomes a good book (in my eyes at least.) One thing I think that the second issue had going for it was I remember having it as a kid. I have distinct memories of the cover, yet I don't remember reading it at all so it did bring back memories of when I was younger (I still hadn't been born when this issue was published but I remember going to the 'Giant Comic Book Warehouse' and spending like 3 hours digging through the back issue boxes with my older brother and finding this one on clearance for 30 cents so I grabbed it up.

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1 Ill Winds: A

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #2 Uneasy Alliances: B

Wolverine: Days of Future Past #3 Chain Reactions: A

The Uncanny X-Men #141 Days Of Future Past: A

The Uncanny X-Men #142Mind Out Of Time!: A

Dazzler #1 So Bright This Star: C

Dazzler #2 Where Demons Fear To Dwell!: B

Dazzler #3 The Jewels of Doom!: B

Dazzler #4 Here Nightmares Abide!: A

Chronological X-Men - The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 3 Review

The Dark Phoenix Saga!

 Uncanny X-Men Annual #4 Nightcrawler’s Inferno

Well this issue borrows heavily from La Divina Commedia, so it’s basically Dante’s Inferno X-Men style. We do get some things cleared up here – not that they needed being cleared up, because by this point things that I’m aware of haven’t yet happened. Kurt celebrates his 21^st birthday which is odd because the new team is supposed to be older age wise than the first team and Jean was 24, yet Kurt is 21? Anyway this issue takes place directly after Scott leaves the team so it’s still part of The Dark Phoenix Saga. Kitty is struggling to find her place at the Institute – so that only helps to ‘date’ this story. We see Margali Szardos for the first time and learn of ‘The Winding Way’ both of which play larger roles much farther down the line. We learn that Margali had a biological son Stefan and daughter Jimaine in addition to taking in Kurt as a baby. Stefan had become corrupt and in a heated battle with Kurt Stefan ended up breaking his neck and Kurt takes the blame for his death. We find out that all of this happens prior to Charles finding Kurt, and that’s why the villagers were chasing Kurt. It turns out that Jimaine is actually Amanda Sefton – the girl Kurt has been dating. They explain the reason why Kurt couldn’t recognize her was because she had used a spell to mask her identity. One thing that isn’t explained though is why Charles couldn’t sense that Amanda wasn’t who she had claimed to be. Granted he didn’t have much interaction with her (or any on panel at all) but Jean did, she should have been able to tell even without the additional power of Phoenix. Another thing that seems odd is that Margali mentions finding a newborn Kurt who was laying next to his dying biological mother.. granted this gets retconned out when they reveal that Mystique is Kurt’s mother.

What If? #27 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?

Well this is interesting, mostly because part of this ‘What If’ stems from the original end to The Dark Phoenix Saga in which Jean doesn’t commit suicide but instead is basically lobotomized by the Shi-ar. Jean stays with the X-Men, struggling with her place within the team (so is Kitty, who since Jean is alive Ororo has a friendship with her instead of her friendship with Kitty) eventually becoming the person who runs the danger room programs and sort of acts as the teams pilot. The team goes off to battle Galactus and his herald Terrax the Tamer. Jean witnesses Scott get hurt and that unleashes Phoenix yet again. She depowers Terrax and is offered the position of Gelactus’ new herald she turns him down and the team returns to Earth. Jean struggles with her power and eventually ventures out into space and starts feeding off of asteroids eventually working her way up to a small star. Meanwhile Kitty has been spending all her time with Charles and the two form a close bond – especially when Charles begins to suffer bouts of illness, during a monitoring exercise Kitty and Charles watch Jean feed off of the star and kitty confronts Phoenix when she returns to Earth. This is where it all goes to hell… Phoenix quickly turns to Dark Phoenix when confronted with what just happened and incinerates Kitty in front of the X-Men’s eyes. Next Dark Phoenix destroys Charles’ mind leaving his body nothing but a vegetable, she telekinetically crushes Warren’s skull, buries Ororo alive, crushes Bobby, sets Kurt on fire, uses Logan’s claws to puncture Piotr’s heart and then burns Logan to death,  she also incinerates Lorna, she uses Scott’s powers to kill Alex. Finally she uses her powers to kill Scott but that proves too much for Jean and she regains control over Phoenix and in her grief destroys the entire world.

What If? #33 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?

This ‘what if’ also comes from the original plot of Phoenix not committing suicide but instead had been lobotomized. However unlike the story before this one we see yet another scenario. This time Scott stays with the X-Men, only he divides his time with his new wife Jean. Jean hasn’t been doing well at all, she feels as if part of her soul had been ripped from her and relives the time she ate a star leading to the deaths of over five billion people. This leads Jean to a suicide attempt that fails, partly because Scott stops her and partly because Magneto crashes their honeymoon and takes Jean to Asteroid M. He tempts Jean with the offer to bring back her powers as Phoenix. While the X-Men battle Magneto Jean almost gives in to temptation but destroys his machine. Later back on Earth Jean returns to the mansion only to find it empty, and shortly after she is confronted by Mastermind who wants his revenge on Jean. Only it’s not Mastermind it is in fact the Shadow King who has sensed that The Phoenix Force will be more than enough to sustain him. He kills Jean and takes her newborn daughter Rachel.  The physical death of Jean’s body leads her to discover that she isn’t Jean at all; she is in fact Phoenix and always has been. She goes to the underwater location where she had stored the real Jean’s body. Afraid that Phoenix will lose Scott forever she simply wishes that she didn’t exist and Jean dies.

What If? #34 What If Phoenix Rose Again?

While this story basically picks up right where the last issue left off it could also stand as a singular issue given the basis of this series. Phoenix battles Shadow King who now possesses an aged version of her daughter Rachel who also contains the Phoenix Force. Phoenix finds that her own ability cannot work against her daughter because she is a ‘chosen heir.’ Phoenix changes her tactics and focuses strictly on Shadow King and expels him from Rachel’s body. After de-aging Rachel Phoenix finds that Mastermind has killed himself rather than have to fight Phoenix again. Phoenix and Rachel return to the mansion only to be surprised by all the X-Men, she lies to Scott about what happened. Phoenix struggles to be as human as possible; Robert Kelly is elected president and begins his anti-mutant hysteria. Phoenix mind wipes the president and forces him to take a pro-mutant stance. Shortly after Kelly is assassinated on live TV, this leads to the reinstatement of the Sentinels who have been programmed to kill all super heroes – mutant or not. While the super powered population shrinks Rachel begins to have memories of what happened when she was possessed by the Shadow King and had to fight her mother and tells Logan about it. Logan goes to confront ‘Jean’ and after becoming enraged Phoenix reveals her true self. It turns out this was all a set up between Scott and Logan and after being ‘outted’ Phoenix leaves seemingly for good. The mansion becomes a haven for all mutants while the world is falling apart. The Sentinels soon ambush the mansion and kill several mutants in the process, after going on the run Phoenix arrives yet again and works out a plan where she will destroy all of the Sentinels with the X-Men’s help. Once destroyed Phoenix asks Destiny what her possible futures hold, once Destiny reveals that all of the paths of Phoenix’s future lead to death and destruction Phoenix leaves for the deep end of space wondering if it would be best if she had just allowed Jean to die.

Marvel Treasury Edition #27 Joyride Into Jeopardy!

The final leg of this journey is a brief back up feature in the Marvel Treasury Edition showing Warren just before he rejoins the X-Men. This isn’t really anything major, and it’s not supposed to be. He’s flying around and is attacked by a man who lost everything he had once Warren’s father shut down his company. It’s just a quick battle, there’s not room for much of anything considering it is only six pages long so before you can even get really into it the story is over. While I probably never will read this particular story again I wouldn’t be opposed to them going back and telling an extended version of this tale. With it being as short as it is it suffers from of a case of ‘what it lacks in plot it makes up for in lack of plot;’ this could easily be fixed by fleshing it out and making it a bit longer. Personally I wouldn't have chosen to close out this storyline with this particular story, but it is the final time we see Warren before he rejoins the X-Men so this is the only place that it would have fit.

 

Uncanny X-Men Annual #4 Nightcrawler’s Inferno: B

What If? #27 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?: A

What If? #33 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?: A

What If? #34 What If Phoenix Rose Again?: A

Marvel Treasury Edition #27 Joyride Into Jeopardy!: C

Chronological X-Men - The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 2 Review

The Dark Phoenix Saga!

The Uncanny X-Men #136 Child of Light and Darkness!

Classic X-Men #42 When Dreams Are Dust

There are so few back stories left for this set so I’ll just start with this one and get it out of the way. We have the continuing adventures of Scott in the orphanage – Scott, Robyn Hanover and Mr. Sinister (as himself, Administrator Pearson and Nate) are all back and we meet two of Robyn’s friends: Rick and Trish Bogart. Robyn takes Scott to a nearby airfield to watch a show only it ends badly when Scott starts to have flashes of what happened to him as a young child. Rick and Trish want to adopt Scott, but they also want to have him find any living family connections he might have – naturally Mr. Sinister has them killed – which leads Scott to believe that they just abandoned him. After a confrontation with Sinister Robyn begins to act differently; the same night Scott has a nightmare and sort of runs into Charles and Jean. This is just a continuation of the retcon where Charles met Jean as a young child and bound her telepathic powers because she couldn’t control them. So with this we get to see Charles try to teach Jean how to use her powers. The main story shows Lilandra and her council trying to decide what they will do about Phoenix now that she has turned evil. Jean returns to Earth and to her childhood home where she struggles with what she has done and how difficult it is for her to feel her parents’ emotions. We meet Jean’s sister Sarah Grey and learn that she has two children. Beast creates a device that he thinks can contain Jean’s powers long enough for them to stop her. A battle on the Grey’s lawn leads to Logan almost killing Jean after she destroys Hank’s device but he falters. Charles shows up (thanks to Warren) and battles Jean on the astral plane – with Jean’s help the two of them are able to separate Jean’s mind from The Phoenix Force and leave her depowered to her Marvel Girl level of abilities. Just as the battle ends the X-Men vanish in a cloud of light, leaving Jean’s family to wonder if their daughter is even alive. The only real problem I had with this issue was the fact that Warren just suddenly appeared, granted Charles had to be there but Warren was kind of pointless.

The Uncanny X-Men #137 The Fate of The Phoenix!

Classic X-Men #43 Flights of Angels

Umm there’s a whole lot going on here and for the first time we meet The Watcher, The Recorder, R’kill (Skrull Empress) and The Supreme Intelligence of the Kree. Since Lilandra has become ruler the Imperial Guard’s line up has changed a bit, it now consists of: Earthquake, Gladiator, Hussar, Manta, Oracle, Smasher, Starbolt, and WarStar (C’cll and B’nee.) But given the fact that there was so much going on the last time we saw the Imperial Guard it’s possible that they were always members and the ‘new’ people are just now being featured. Charles requests a duel between the Shi-ar and the X-Men to determine the fate of Jean Grey. If the X-Men win Jean goes free, if the Imperial Guard win Jean belongs to the Shi-ar and her fate is up to them. The team is allowed one night to rest before their battle and all are left to wonder if fighting for Jean’s life is the right thing to do. The next day the X-Men (Hank and Warren included) and the Imperial Guard are transported to the moon for their battle. One by one the X-Men fall until Jean and Scott are the only ones left. Scott is wounded and Jean freaks out once again unleashing the Phoenix Force. Ultimately Jean ends up using the X-Men to battle her enough to keep her power from increasing and when there’s just a fraction of it left she triggers an ancient weapon on the moon which shoots and kills her effectively allowing Jean to commit suicide. I like this issue but it just feels off – Jean had this planned out all along? So she knew exactly how the X-Men would break up, that all of them would fall, that Scott would get hurt, that Phoenix would rise again, that the X-Men would then reappear and successfully fight her off long enough to use up all of her newly returned and weakened powers, beat her back enough so that she can’t kill them, yet is strong enough to use her powers to set off a weapon that was placed on the moon long ago – that no one knew was there – and that the weapon would be strong enough to kill her? Umm… since when can Jean predict the future? The back up feature shows Jean and a construction worker that turns out to be none other than Death himself. He tells her that everything happened was pre-ordained and that Jean and The Phoenix Force (this is the first time it’s called that) were always one and the same and that Jean always was and always will be both life and death. Jean reflects on her life and relives the death of her childhood friend Annie Richardson – witnessing that is what triggered her powers to begin with, but that hasn’t officially been established as of yet. We see Jean in a white version of the Phoenix costume – which isn’t something that’s dealt with again until well into the 2000s. And we also see The Phoenix Force returning to Earth looking for Jean, and instead finding something else – Madelyne Pryor in a container in Mr. Sinister’s lab and breathes life into her. I love the back up story because it ties in Madelyne and she’s always been in my top three favorite X-Men related characters of all time.

The Uncanny X-Men #138 Elegy

Classic X-Men #44 Her First and Last

Well okay, a few things to note here…. Jean’s tombstone shows that she was born in 1956 – she’s 24 when she died but other than that it’s hard to figure things out because she’s died and come back so many times it’s almost impossible to tell how old she is. The story is basically a giant recap of every issue of the X-Men so far – all told through Scott’s perspective while everyone is at Jean’s funeral. They did leave out White Queen’s image from the flash backs but we get a new character in the way of Sara’s husband Paul Bailey. The issue ends with Scott leaving the X-Men and Kitty sitting on the doorsteps of the mansion ready to start her new life. The back up feature in Classic is actually the very last back up story within the series. This time they focus on Rogue growing up and Mystique and Destiny raising her. Rogue is going through all of her teenage angst and desperately wanting to be normal and wanting to kiss somebody. The feature was alright for what it was, but to close out the features with that story it doesn’t seem appropriate especially when it follows the issue with Jean having conversations with Death.

Phoenix: The Untold Story #1 The Fate Of The Phoenix!

Remember when I said that the end of The Dark Phoenix Saga didn’t really make that much sense? Well it turns out there’s a reason why, Jean was never supposed to die! Originally the plan was to have the X-Men be defeated by the Imperial Guard only instead of the extra battle between Jean and the X-Men and jean’s suicide Lilandra returns everyone to her ship and uses her scientists to lobotomize Jean and completely alter her brain functions so she can no longer even access her powers at all. Jean was then going to stay with the X-Men and deal with the fact that she can no longer use any of her powers and has to live with the fact that she murdered over five billion people. Jean would eventually be taken by Magneto who would offer to restore her powers and Jean would once again be tempted by The Phoenix Force. There were other ideas too but none of them ever got more established than this one. The editors thought it was too easy to have Jean not have to suffer any consequences for her actions so instead they opted to let her die a hero rather than live as a victim. I don’t know where I stand with this one because I’ve always liked Madelyne a lot more than Jean so I wouldn’t have liked the idea of Jean living because everything that would have happened with her (Inferno, becoming the Goblin Queen, having Nate … etc) would have been used for Jean once she became corrupted once more by The Phoenix Force. However I don’t like the idea of Jean dying because she keeps coming back, it gets used as a plot device too frequently. They write themselves into a corner, Jean dies, they mess up a storyline, Jean dies, they can completely and utterly trash her character… well it’s okay Jean dies.

The Uncanny X-Men #136 Child of Light and Darkness!: A

Classic X-Men #42 When Dreams Are Dust: C

The Uncanny X-Men #137 The Fate of The Phoenix!: B

Classic X-Men #43 Flights of Angels: A

The Uncanny X-Men #138 Elegy: B

Classic X-Men #44 Her First and Last: D

Phoenix: The Untold Story #1 The Fate Of The Phoenix!: A

Chronological X-Men - Proteus Part 1 Review

Proteus.

The Uncanny X-Men #125 There’s Something Awful on Muir Island

Classic X-Men #31 Spigot At The End of The Universe

I’ll start with the back up feature here. It’s one of those stories that could either fit within the pages of the main issue, or it could happen either before or after the current storyline. Charles isn’t fitting in too well on Lilandra’s homeworld and it’s making him restless. Lilandra suggests that he spends time with Chakra the Shi-ar’s plumber. It’s a little odd because Charles who always boasts about equality and treating people the same but now he’s acting like being a plumber is the worst thing that could ever happen to someone. It was kind of a middle ground story, not good, not bad yet it still holds potential to be read again. The main story is pretty good but clearly some time has passed. Beast visits the mansion and is surprised to run into all of the X-Men that he thought were dead, Sean is still suffering from the damage to his throat and decides to leave the team at least until his powers return. Lilandra is dealing with issues in the Shi-ar galaxy and Charles is suffering homesickness and is basically still moping around about not being treated fairly among Lilandra’s court. All that changes when he sees how Jean saved the universe, she’s so powerful now that it actually scares him enough into feeling like he needs to return to Earth. Mastermind reveals that he is officially working for the Hellfire Club and wants to turn Jean into his Black Queen – we also see through a series of flashbacks how Mastermind has been working his way into Jean’s life over the past few months, a lot of this is explained in recent back up stories of ‘Classic.’ Magneto still recovering from his battle with the X-Men on Asteroid M and is severely missing his wife Magda. The two major things that happen are Moira discovers that there is something wrong behind the door marked ‘Mutant X,’ which will lead us into our current story. The second thing is Jean appears to be spending time in another life where she was a noble woman – the first flash lasts just long enough for Jean to succumb to an ambush. Jamie and Alex go to investigate but Lorna decides to answer the phone in case it’s Charles, Hank or the Avengers calling because she thinks that they’ll need whoever it is help taking down whoever was strong enough to scare Phoenix like that. It turns out to be the X-Men and Lorna is ambushed while talking to Scott.

The Uncanny X-Men #126 How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth…!

Classic X-Men #32 Shreds of Humanity

The X-Men arrive on Muir Island to a brief confrontation because Alex doesn’t know the X-Men are really alive. Jean is still having flashbacks of another life, only they are getting progressively worse. This time she’s with her husband (Mastermind) and for sport they are hunting a human – thankfully she snaps out of it before she actually has to kill the man. Jamie creates a large amount of dupes in order to search the island faster only one of them becomes possessed by Mutant X who is jumping from body to body draining them of their lives leaving nothing more of them than a mummified corpse when he jumps to the next body. We learn that Mutant X is in fact Moira’s son, which I guess could explain why she abruptly cut things off with Charles in the past. Given that Mutant X essentially kills everyone he possesses and he has taken one of Jamie’s dupes this is the first time Jamie actually ‘dies.’ The back up feature for this issue takes place in the middle of the battle between Logan, Kurt and Mutant X (now possessing a cop) who has decided to take the name Proteus. It focuses on Proteus’ using his reality warping ability to basically torture Logan and take advantage of how Logan relies on his healing factor so much so that he has gotten to the point where he enjoys being hurt. I really wasn’t feeling the art here, but considering it is supposed to be sort of like a dreamscape I can ignore it. This is one of the few times the weird art style actually works for the story, but I've noticed recently the quality of the art in relation to the actual story being presented is starting to decline, and that's not something that I'm loving.

The Uncanny X-Men #127 The Quality of Hatred!

Classic X-Men #33 So Good It Hurts

The back up story here takes place shortly after the X-Men split up last issue (so before the battle between Logan, Kurt, Ororo and Proteus.) Alex and Lorna are looking for Moira’s son but Alex keeps getting pulled into these visions of a darker world where both he and Lorna are getting hurt. He claims that this is because of how afraid he is of the fact that if he and Lorna ever go back to the X-Men that they will die, and then he switches to this idea that he can’t separate the feelings of how if their relationship ends it’s like death for him. Personally I think that Alex is just too close to Proteus and has succumbed to his reality altering powers than Alex having panic attacks and creating this whole dark world all on his own. It’s easier for me to just over look the fact that Alex and Proteus haven’t had any contact yet than it is to accept that Alex is doing this all on his own. This is the first time we see Joe Mactaggert – Moira’s husband and father of their son Kevin (Proteus.) I’m not sure I’ve got the time line right but it seems that Joe and Moira were together (it turns out he’s a real abusive little man,) she goes to the states and meets and falls in love with Charles. Charles gets drafted and Moira tries to get a divorce from her husband only he doesn’t go along with it and soon after Charles has left she discovers that she is pregnant. Knowing that it can’t be Charles she decides to end their engagement in the Dear John letter she wrote him and then went back to Muir Island to raise Joe’s baby. Anyway, enough exposition… Moira goes to warn Joe, it doesn’t go well and Proteus ends up possessing his father and threatens to kill Moira if the X-Men choose to follow them.

The Uncanny X-Men #128 The Action of the Tiger!

Classic X-Men #34 Double Negative

This issue ends the main storyline here. Joe is dead because Kevin possessed him. The X-Men struggle through a heated battle, which isn’t going well considering every time Proteus uses his powers he grows stronger. It doesn’t make it any easier considering that all of the X-Men that aren’t metal based (metal is the only thing that can hurt or even kill Kevin.) The X-Men work to force Kevin to use up Joe’s body faster than he normally would, one by one the X-Men use their abilities on him until the only one left is Piotr. By this point Kevin is without a body, desperate and near death he tries to take possession of Piotr only to be surprised when he transforms into Colossus. By this point Kevin is so badly damaged that one punch actually managed to kill him. This is a big thing because for the first time a villain doesn’t die as a result of his own actions but instead is essentially killed by the X-Men. Granted with a villain that can kill anyone he comes within physical contact with there are very few ways that he can be dealt with but it’s still a shock because it’s something totally different than Logan using his claws to kill some random henchman. The backup story shows a typical night at the Hellfire Club and the members of its Inner Circle. Emma and Jason engage in a game of chess on the astral plane, the two of them are so evenly matched that the only way to end the game is with both of their ‘deaths.’ I don’t really care for the server girl and Emma’s talk with her about sexism.. it wasn’t really needed – I would much rather have had them spend those pages showing us more of Emma and Jason’s duel.

Marvel Team-Up #89 Shoot Out Over Center Ring

This time Kurt and Spider-Man team up. Nothing real spectacular here, Kurt meets Amanda at the airport and the encounter Miss Locke near one of Arcade’s private jets. They stow away in the trunk of the man that was meeting Miss Locke and find out that he has hired someone to murder Spider-Man. It turns out that all of this leads back to the circus and Kurt pretends to be Spider-Man to draw out the shooter. Umm okay the issue was good, but there were too many weird things that started to add up. Kurt was taken in by the circus and was sort of raised as Amanda’s foster sister, yet none of this is revealed yet – this could just be a case of me knowing too much too soon so I can over look that. But then it gets worse when Kurt runs into the man who was running the circus he was a part of, the guy remembers Kurt but makes no mention of knowing Amanda. So it seems to me that eventually Kurt and Amanda knowing each other as children and being raised together will be a retcon the writers will deal with later on. This was a good issue, but it would have been a lot better if I didn’t know about Amanda’s future events.

The Uncanny X-Men #125 There’s Something Awful on Muir Island: A

Classic X-Men #31Spigot At The End of The Universe: C

The Uncanny X-Men #126 How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth…!: A

Classic X-Men #32 Shreds of Humanity: B

The Uncanny X-Men #127 The Quality of Hatred!: A

Classic X-Men #33 So Good It Hurts: F

The Uncanny X-Men #128 The Action of the Tiger!: A

Classic X-Men #34 Double Negative: B

Marvel Team-Up #89 Shoot Out Over Center Ring: C

Chronological X-Men - Murderworld Review

Murderworld – or just how deadly a game of extreme pinball can be.

The Uncanny X-Men #122 Cry For The Children

Classic X-Men #28 Who Am I?

I’ll start yet again with the back up feature because it doesn’t fit within the main storyline at all. Jean and the X-Men are interacting so it’s at a point where they all know each other are actually alive so that places it in the future. It doesn’t help that a few issues ago it was Christmas Eve and now suddenly its Halloween so almost an entire year has passed over just a handful of issues. I like the idea of Kurt being into Halloween because he can actually be himself for once, but other than that the whole thing was a mess. It just threw together as many Halloween clichés as possible and that really hurt it; still though it wasn’t anywhere nearly as bad as most of the recent back up features have been though. The main issue shows us the first X-Book appearances of Arcade, Miss Locke and Luke Cage. Logan begins to court Mariko Yashida so we see the start of that relationship. Jean, Moira, Lorna, Alex and Jamie are one step closer to Muir Isle. Jean runs into Jason Wyngarde (who is really Mastermind) as he begins his subtle manipulation of her. He doesn’t really ‘begin’ seeing as how this started in the additional pages and back up features of previous ‘Classics’ issues. Scott and Colleen are sort of dating I guess and Ororo goes back to her parents home in Harlem only to find that it has been turned into a crack house and is attacked by the teens there and is saved by Luke Cage and Misty Knight. One thing I don’t like is the fact that Misty used to live with Jean and she is really tight with Colleen, doesn’t either of them know that Jean is actually alive? If they do shouldn’t they tell Scott, or if they don’t know shouldn’t Misty be affected by the death of her friend? The issue ends with Black Tom and Juggernaut hiring Arcade to take down the X-Men. I think I’d like this issue more if they actually idd something with the drugged teens instead of just using them to shock Ororo with how drasticly different things are from what she is used to.

The Uncanny X-Men #123 Listen – Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before, But This One Will Kill You!

Classic X-Men #29 Motherland

Well this issue we see the return of Colleen Wing (although she’s been around a lot lately, so it’s almost like she’s a part of the book), Mariko Yashida, Amanda Sefton, Betsy Wilford, Arcade, Spider-Man and Miss Locke. Mr. Chambers and Colonel Alexei Vazhin appear for the first time, for Chambers it is the first time in the book, for Vazhin it’s the first time at all.  This issue shows Mr. Chambers, Miss Locke and Arcade picking off the X-Men one by one – and in the process kidnapping Colleen, Amanda and Betsy. Spider-Man tries to help, but that doesn’t end well and Arcade manages to brainwash Piotr into thinking he has betrayed his homeland and is a traitor because he works with the X-Men, which causes Colossus to temporarily take on the name ‘The Proletariat’ while he is brainwashed. The back up feature actually works best if you look at it as how Arcade brainwashed Piotr instead of a seprate trip to Russia where his entire town considers him to be a traitor.

The Uncanny X-Men #124 He Only laughs When I Hurt

Classic X-Men #30 Play With Me

This issue concludes the main Murderworld arch. The X-Men help Piotr overcome his brainwashing and make him realize that he is truly among his family with the X-Men. It’s clear that Amanda knows about Kurt before this point, but now we know for sure that Betsy knows about Kurt and Piotr being mutants as well. I don’t know if it is just because there was so much going on with this story that they couldn’t devote the time to showing Betsy freak out about learning the truth or if she actually knew about this before hand. We see in a brief flashback the first X-Book appearance of Captain Britain and a little recap of when he and Spider-Man were in Murderworld. One thing I found out was Miss Locke’s comment about having ‘taken care’ of the girls. I mean at the end of them they are clearly alive, so did Miss Locke set them free and lie to Arcade- are we seeing the beginning of a rift here- or did she put them in a place that would lead to their deaths and lived up to her partner’s game rules by giving them a chance to escape on their own? The back up feature could be before this storyline, during or even after but we do gain some insight into how Arcade’s mind works because the whole issue is about his nightmares and what it was like growing up with his father. We see how Arcade killed his father and ultimately we learn that he himself is trapped in Murderworld, and to make matters even worse he programmed this game himself, so on some level he’s either fighting or punishing himself for his actions.

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #3 A Fire In The Sky

This was a fun little story even though the current events spin out of something that happened previously in another book, but I think that added with the fact that there are a bunch of characters and things happening made me pay closer attention to the story. Basically Arkon arrives on Earth yet again to seek the Avenger’s help save his world from being destroyed. By this point though Thor has left the Avengers and the rest of the active team aren’t around so that leads him to the X-Men and in particular Ororo. A huge battle happens ending with Storm being zapped by one of Arkon’s bolts which transports her to his homeworld. The X-Men overpower Arkon and use his bolts to transport all of them, except for Sean to wherever Storm ended up. We see more battles, this time it’s the X-Men against an entire army. Kurt looks for Storm who is more than willing to give her life in order to save an entire world. We learn exactly why the world is being plunged into darkness and this leads the X-Men to come up with a plan that won’t involve Ororo basically committing suicide. Colossus is going to act as a grounding material to amplify Storm’s powers that she is building up and then shoots Scott to power up his optic charge and he then uses his powers to repower the machine that keeps the planet going. I could actually see myself reading this issue again, not just once, but multiple times.

The Uncanny X-Men #122 Cry For The Children: B

Classic X-Men #28 Who Am I?: D

The Uncanny X-Men #123 Listen – Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before, But This One Will Kill You!: A

Classic X-Men #29 Motherland: B

The Uncanny X-Men #124 He Only laughs When I Hurt: A

Classic X-Men #30 Play With Me: B

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #3 A Fire In The Sky: A

Chronological X-Men - The Phoenix Saga Part 4 Review

The Phoenix Saga!

The Uncanny X-Men #116 To Save the Savage Land

Classic X-Men #22 Solace

This issue concludes this particular turn in the Savage Land for the X-Men. Garokk and Zaladane’s men have captured Ka-Zar, Cyclops and Banshee leaving it up to Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm and Wolverine to rescue them. I don’t know how I feel about the scene where Logan seems to be communicating with Zabu and that the animal can actually understand what Logan is saying. We get another all out brawl between the X-Men and a mini-army, which seems to be happening a lot recently – it doesn’t help that the X-Men escape in the exact same way from Garokk’s crumbling city as they did from Magneto’s base underneath the volcano. There is a little subplot with Ororo’s claustrophobia when she fails to save Garokk from falling to his death (I bet you he’ll show up again later, it seems that any villain that dies in the Savage Land doesn’t actually die) and that effects Ororo deeply. Of course that leads directly into the back up story where she spends time off in the Savage Land alone trying to cope with the ever increasing difficult fact that as an X-Man her actions could lead to the death of someone. She saves a woman and wakes up on her flying ship in some alternate reality. I don’t know if I like this or not, it feels a little too ‘The Neverending Story’ for my tastes. While I was enjoying this particular Savage Land plot, I’m glad that it has been wrapped up and the issue ends with them leaving.

The Uncanny X-Men #117 Psi War!

Classic X-Men #23 Nightcrawler’s High Adventure

Well this time we get a little more of Charles’ history fleshed out. We learn that Charles and Moira dated before he and Cain were drafted and went off to war and for some as of now unknown reason Moira decides to break up with Charles via a Dear John letter. After the war (while Charles was dealing with the apparent death of his step brother) Charles decided to travel. He ends up in Cairo where he runs into a young pickpocket who he later discovers is Ororo and begins to chase her through the city only to get blindsided by a psi-blast from an unknown source. It doesn’t take long for him to find out what’s going on and meets an evil man by the name of Amahl Al Farouk and the two of them fight an epic battle on the astral plane that leads to Amahl’s body shutting down and he is now trapped within his mind. It’s sort of like a reverse vegetative state where his body has shut down and his mind hasn’t instead of the other way around. It’s hard to be surprised by his ‘death’ when I know he later becomes The Shadow King. The additional page is boring, it’s just Logan pining away over the loss of Jean. The back up feature shows Kurt trying to save a woman from falling off of the ship that has saved them in the middle of a storm. He ends up saving her but they get washed away onto an island where the girl is almost sacrificed by a village of beastmen. Kurt saves her again and the issue ends with him getting rescued.

The Uncanny X-Men #118 The Submergence of Japan!

Classic X-Men #24 Vacation

Well this issue brings us the first appearances of a few characters (first appearance altogether and first time in an X-book) and the returns of a few characters as well. The new characters are Mosses Magnum (I think this is the first time the Mandroids show up too, but they’re robots so I didn’t really pay too much attention to when they first showed up) and Mariko Yashida. Colleen Wing and Iron Fist are in the book as well, but it’s not the first time the X-Men have run into the two of them. The returns are Misty Knight, Sunfire and through the additional pages we see Mastermind (who is also using his abilities to be a new character ‘Nikos.’) Charles has decided to leave Earth behind and is now on the Shi-ar homeworld with Lilandra. Jean is on her vacation in Greece, her purse is stolen – it turns out by children who Mastermind who is manipulating Jean into falling in love with Nikos so he can corrupt her and turn her into his own personal Black Queen - so by this point Mastermind has now joined, or is in the process of joining the Hellfire Club. The main story shows us that Japan is on the verge of being destroyed by a series of earthquakes and it’s up to the X-Men, Sunfire, Colleen and Misty to save Japan from being destroyed. I liked the main story but it did feel kind of blah. There’s nothing wrong with it, I just don’t care for how years later the entire X-Universe seems to revolve around Wolverine so I know that they will be going into that aspect of the character soon, and it’s not really something I’m looking forward to.

The Uncanny X-Men #119 Twas the Night Before Christmas

Classic X-Men #25 Just Don’t Look In Its Eyes

I’m going to talk about the back up story first this time, not because it takes place before the main story, I just want to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. It’s basically Logan giving n to his animal instincts and hunting out in the snow not harming anyone until a bear attacks him and then he has to kill it. The whole time he’s being annoyed by the fact that there’s an amateur hunter trying to track him. Eventually this would be hunter takes his shot only to have Logan catch the arrow and throw it back to him. In a word… boring. The main story shows the conclusion of the battle to save Japan from destruction at the hands of Moses Magnum. The second half of this story actually works better than the first part, it isn’t just straight up action but you see the team come together, Piotr continues to struggle with the fact that he’s the strongest X-Man yet he seems to be the one who is constantly messing up and doing more harm than good in their battles. Sean gets to save the day with his sonic scream and stops Moses from triggering an earthquake that will sink Japan, but it ends up being too much for Sean and he ends up in a coma (not for long though.) The X-Men find themselves yet again on ‘death watch’ waiting to see if another one of their friends will die. The additional pages show us that Moses was given his abilities and knowledge by Apocalypse (so this is his first appearance in the X-Men mythology but it’s not his first appearance in the ‘book’ – have I mentioned how happy I’ll be when the back stories start to become few and far between instead of every issue?) We also see Jean who has now left Greece and meets up with Moira, Lorna, Alex and Jamie Madrox. Agnus MacWhirter returns wanting justice from Moira when the X-Men ‘rented’ a hovercraft from him like ten issues ago. He breaks in to the Muir Island Mutant Research Facility, passes by the door marked ‘Mutant X’ and is brutally murdered. While we don’t see the death actually take place the issue ends with ‘a life ends and a nightmare is born,’ so it’s pretty obvious that he dies.

The Uncanny X-Men #120 Wanted: Wolverine, Dead or Alive!

Classic X-Men #26 So Much In Common!

Again I’m going to start with the back up story here. This story takes place right after the X-Men return from Calgary fighting Alpha Flight. It is kind of a boring story (and I don’t like the art for it at all but that’s not important right now.) The X-Men are at the bar near the Xavier Institute taking some time to cool off after everything that’s happened recently and Logan decides to tell everyone about a particular con he used to run twenty years ago. As the story progresses we find out that Sean was actually in the same place back then while he was working for Interpol on a mission. In the end Logan and Sean bond over the fact that they both were ‘government men.’ Like I said, it was a boring story and it was mostly for filler anyway. The main story shows us the X-Men trying to return from Japan only to be ambushed by Weapon Alpha – James Hudson, only now he’s going by the name Vindicator and we see Aurora, Northstar, Sasquatch, Shaman and Snow-Bird all for the first time in the X-Books. James mentions Heather, but she doesn’t show up in the main issue, only in the additional pages, which I’ll get into in a bit – not the Heather part though. Most of the issue shows the X-Men, Colleen Wing and Misty Knight splitting up and going in random directions to try to avoid Alpha Flight, only it doesn’t go so week because they have a Cerebro-like device of their own and use it to track all the X-Men and end up capturing Kurt and Logan. The additional pages are basically Jean showing off her powers in front of Moira while they’re on a break in the middle of returning to Muir Isle. I really liked this issue but the extra pages and the back up feature in Classics were not needed at all so if I ever do read this story again I’m definitely skipping the ‘Classics’ half of this storyline.

The Uncanny X-Men #121 Shoot-Out At The Stampede!

Classic X-Men #27 Backlash!

This issue concludes the battle between the X-Men and Alpha Flight. Sean and the girls remain trapped outside of an invisible mystic force field that Shaman created while Piotr, Ororo and Scott battle Alpha Flight and try to free Logan and Kurt. The storm that Shaman created to force the plane that the X-Men were using down begins to rage out of control, farther beyond the point where Shaman can control it. Ororo manages to stop the storm just before she is ambushed by Northstar. Ultimately Logan decides to give himself up in order to save his friends. The additional pages show Canada’s government going at it with Japan’s in order to call off Alpha Flight’s attack, in the end they decide to let Logan go free unknown to anyone at the time, and the final page shows that Logan did indeed escape, but I would rather have the extra pages show how he escaped instead of cutting from the plane with the X-Men and Logan to the torn up transport vehicle. I’m not a fan of the back up story at all. First off It has to take place later in the time line because Jean is back with Scott and they both know the other is alive, which places this one at least 4 issues past the current one. Secondly, I know there’s always been a push pull between Jean and Logan but he comes off extremely forceful with her in this one, and after she asks him to stop several times Logan sort of comes off like a creepy serial killer stalker than someone who is in love with Jean. The back up stories haven’t been doing too well lately which is sad.

The Uncanny X-Men #116 To Save the Savage Land: B

Classic X-Men #22 Solace: F

The Uncanny X-Men #117 Psi War!: A

Classic X-Men #23 Nightcrawler’s High Adventure: D

The Uncanny X-Men #118 The Submergence of Japan!: B-

Classic X-Men #24 Vacation: A

The Uncanny X-Men #119 Twas the Night Before Christmas: B

Classic X-Men #25 Just Don’t Look In Its Eyes: F

The Uncanny X-Men #120 Wanted: Wolverine, Dead or Alive!: A

Classic X-Men #26 So Much In Common!: F

The Uncanny X-Men #121 Shoot-Out At The Stampede!: A

Classic X-Men #27 Backlash!: F