Chronological X-Men - Part 11 Review

Oh thank heaven … part eleven!  

(The Uncanny)X-Men #54 Wanted: Dead or Alive…Cyclops!/The Million Dollar Angel-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #55 The Living Pharaoh!/Where Angels Dare to Tread! -

(The Uncanny)X-Men #56 What is…the Power?/The Flying A-Bomb!-

This is the first time we see Scott’s brother Alex Summers as well as the villain The Living Pharaoh, who later becomes The Living Monolith – again this is kind of hard to get into without trying desperately to forget the connection between the Summers’ family, The Living Monolith and Apocalypse (who hasn’t even been introduced yet.) One thing that’s odd is that Scott mentions that Alex is now old enough to drink, which at means that Alex’s graduation is from college and not high school because he has to be at least 21. This is kind of weird because he’s supposed to be Scott’s younger brother and events in the near future point to at least three years having passed since the start of this series and Bobby turned 18 like 20 issues (or so) ago and he’s the youngest X-Man… anyway… the whole thing is odd because in a few more issues the tagline ‘The Strangest Teens of All’ starts to reappear predominantly on the cover. Anyway, the story itself was a good read and had the feel of watching an old Egyptian Mummy movie (even though there are no mummies at all in this story. Personally though, I thought it was a bit odd that Scott had never before mentioned that he had a younger brother – but that’s just me.

The back up feature finally gives us Warren’s origin story starting with him as a little boy who likes to climb on things and follows him all the way through his time at a private (what I’m assuming is high) school to his first adventure as ‘The Avenging Angel’ – a name which he still uses off and on mostly when he breaks away from the X-Men and goes solo. One thing that I thought was a nice little touch was that in the flash backs Bobby is more ‘snowy’ and less ‘icy’ the more ice-like look of Bobby’s didn’t appear until later on in the series, well after Jean joined the team.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #57 The Sentinels Live!/The Female of the Species!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #58 Mission: Murder!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #59 Do or Die, Baby!-

The next storyline picks up right where the last one left off (I only broke it up because of how some of it is edited it appears that there was a lapse in time at least a little, that isn’t explained so it sort of implies that enough time has passed for this to at the very least be the second chapter of the previous story. There are a bunch of returns here, Bolivar Trask is seen through a series of flashbacks, as well as Lorna Dane (who is now living in Manhattan and while not officially with the X-Men it seems like she’s considered to be part of the team; Alex is also back along with the Sentinels. Banshee, Mesmero, Magneto, Toad, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Mastermind, Blob, Unus and Vanisher all make cameos. In the way of new characters we get Judge Chalmers (who makes sporadic appearances in the future as well as Larry Trask, Bolivar’s son who blames the X-Men for the death of his father, Professor Ahmet Abdol who we met in the last story as ‘The Living Pharaoh/Monolith and a new breed of ‘Neo’ Sentinels that have the ability to adapt and counter act any given mutant’s specific power. And finally we see Dr. Lykos (who plays a larger role in the next story.) This adventure wraps up a few things… Alex officially takes the name Havok, we find out that Mesmero hasn’t really been working for Magneto over these past few months (and in the story that introduced Lorna and Mesmero) but really a robotic version of Magneto. The only thing I didn’t really care for was the reveal of Larry Trask actually being a mutant. My only problem with it was the fact that somehow Larry’s medallion not only negates his mutant powers (of seeing the future) but also erases his memory of his ability to do this. It would have been alright if they at least attempted to explain how that was possible but they just sort of shoehorned that in. Another thing that was actually more interesting was that Professor Abdol’s mutant powers began to re-activate in front of a group of people, so that right there throws out his secret identity.

 

This storyline also sees the end of the back up features. This time we visit Jean and her abilities. There was no sense going into her origin in a back up story since we saw (what was the then current origin) introduction of Jean back in issue one. This story was all about her powers and how she can use them. There was nothing really special there but it is what it is, you know? I did find it really funny that in the first page of the story there’s a blurb that basically says nothing more than ‘OMG guys…. A girl wrote this story!’- I know things were different back in the 60s but that seems really funny to me. What makes it even more strange is that this particular story goes with the other stories where the X-Men explained their own respective powers, but with those other stories you get a sort of sense of a time frame but with Jean's story it almost reads like 'a day in the life of Jean Grey' as opposed to her explaining how her powers work. It sort of feels like a back up back up feature instead of just a back up feature- if that makes any sense.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #60 In the Shadow of… Sauron! -

(The Uncanny)X-Men #61 Monsters Also Weep-

Most of the characters from the last storyline return for a cameo just to wrap up the Sentinel part of that chapter. Lorna officially joins the X-Men as they take an injured Havok to see Dr. Lykos to help him recover from his battle with the Sentinels. Dr. Lykos gets his first full appearance since he only popped in for the very last page of the last story, and through a series of flashbacks we see his life as a child, his father, Dr. Anderssen and his daughter Tanya.  Karl Lykos has been hypnotizing his patients as a means to feed off of their energy in order to sustain his own life, but after ‘treating’ Alex Karl is transformed into Sauron and ends up hypnotizing Warren and using him to escape his battle with the X-Men. The X-Men meet Tanya (the love of Karl’s life) and follow her back to Antarctica where she tries desperately to find Karl. The only problem is it has been too long since Karl has absorbed any energy and is forced to throw himself off of a cliff in an attempt to keep from having to feed off of Tanya.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #62 Strangers in a Savage Land-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #63 War in the World Below!-

This story feels a little bit off following the events of the last story. The fault of that can be chalked up to the writing; there was a time jump between the end of the last story and the start of this one. Some of it is attempted to be explained away in a series of flashbacks with Angel so that takes care of some of that but it’s just left up to assume that the rest of the X-Men would have climbed down the cliff to look for Sauron. I’m sure they would, but it seems kind of odd considering other times when the people they’ve fought have attempted to kill themselves the X-Men just seem to move on, so it’s pretty obvious that they only went after Sauron as a plot device to get them back into the Savage Land. With the Savage Land back we also get the return of Ka-Zar and Zabu (and mentioned earlier because of the flashbacks Angel guides us through we get Tanya Anderssen, Dr. Anderssen, Lorna and Alex.) This story also beings us the return of Magneto, now going by ‘the Creator’ who after faking his death stumbled on The Savage Land and built a device that create mutants. Something has happened to Magneto though because now he is forced to wear a metal brace on his neck and arms, it could be because of his fall to his ‘death’ last time we saw him, or it could even be because he had to channel his energy for a prolonged period of time into the Magneto robot that was working with Mesmero up until recently – either way it wasn’t explained before Magneto once again ‘died’ this time trapped in an explosion of his lab. His mutant machine did bring us a few new characters: Equilibrius, Brainchild, Lupo, Gaza, Piper (who is quickly killed by Ka-Zar), Amphibius, Barbarus and Lorelei; however once Magneto’s machine is destroyed all of the Neo-Mutants return to their pre-enhanced states.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #64 The Coming of Sunfire!-

This issue introduces us to Shiro Yoshida – Sunfire, his uncle Tomo Yoshida and Shiro’s father Saburo. This is sort of a filler issue, but it’s pretty substantial all things considered. We learn that Tomo has been manipulating his nephew Shiro into blaming America for the death of his mother. In reality though Tomo was a hate filled man who couldn’t get over Saburo being willing to forgive America for the war and spends years manipulating Shiro, turning him into the perfect weapon to seek revenge. Shiro eventually sees the light which forces Tomo to kill Saburo and in turn Shiro kills his own uncle.  I liked it because this was actually the first time that the X-Men truly failed someone and that alone is a game changer. There are a few mistakes, but nothing really significant so it’s easy to over look, but you would think that 64 issues in they would stop making mistakes like calling characters by different names.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #65 Before I’d Be Slave…-

Speaking of game changers… this issue is HUGE. It turns out that Charles Xavier never died but instead he’s been held up in the basement of the mansion preparing for an intergalactic war that was on the verge of breaking out. So there’s a whole lot of ret-conning going on here. Charles isn’t dead, it was really The Changeling who contacted Charles and asked him for help in seeking redemption for the things he had done because he had just found out he was dying. Charles split his powers between Changeling and Jean (which I’m till not sure how they explain that one away, you can’t just give your powers to someone else, and this will be changed again once they get to tinkering with Jean’s own timeline, but that’s a story for a different time….) Havok officially joins the X-Men – nothing big here – just in time to fight the Z’Nox. I guess this was supposed to be a good story, I get the point of it, but some of it just seems odd. For example, Lorna stays behind with Charles while the others go fight the Z’Nox, wouldn’t it have made sense for her to go since she has magnetic powers? That could have been just as helpful as Jean’s telekinetic powers. Why did Charles have Lorna contact the X-Men when he could have just done it telepathically? Why did Charles reveal himself to Lorna and Alex of all people, when he kept everything hidden from everyone but Jean? Why tell the three most recent members of the team instead of the three original members? Like I said, there were just a few too many things that seemed weird. On the plus side (if you can call it that) we get the first appearances of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Crystal (who later goes on to marry Quicksilver.)

(The Uncanny)X-Men #66 The Mutants and the Monster-

Well this issue closes the book on the X-Men’s first set of adventures, and I’m kind of bitter sweet with it. I know they couldn’t have done a huge story since they only had one issue to spare, but it almost would have been better if the series ended with the last issue and Charles in a coma. I hate that so much of the final story was devoted to The Hulk/Bruce Banner (and a little bit of Major Glenn Talbot) the story should be about the X-Men, not other characters – but still. It’s made even stranger by the apparent connection that Charles and Bruce share, it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t wait until the very last issue of the series to bring it up. I don’t know though, I wasn’t a big fan of the last story, but it wrapped up things that had gone on for over the past 20 plus issues, so it would have been hard to follow that up anyway let alone have to follow it up with a self contained story that has to be strong enough to bow the series out with.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #54 Wanted: Dead or Alive…Cyclops!/The Million Dollar Angel: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #55 The Living Pharaoh!/Where Angels Dare to Tread!: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #56 What is…the Power?/The Flying A-Bomb!: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #57 The Sentinels Live!/The Female of the Species!: B+

(The Uncanny)X-Men #58 Mission: Murder!: B+

(The Uncanny)X-Men #59 Do or Die, Baby!: B+

(The Uncanny)X-Men #60 In the Shadow of… Sauron!: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #61 Monsters Also Weep: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #62 Strangers in a Savage Land: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #63 War in the World Below!: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #64 The Coming of Sunfire!: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #65 Before I’d Be Slave…: C

(The Uncanny)X-Men #66 The Mutants and the Monster: D

Chronological X-Men - Part 10 Review

Part ten – Supersize me!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #43 The Torch is Passed…!/Call him…Cyclops-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #44 Red Raven…!/The Iceman Cometh!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #45 Mutants Clash!/And The Mob Cried… Vengeance!-

The Avengers #53 In Battle Joined!-

There’s a lot going on here with this four-part multi-book crossover. First let me talk about the back up features. We get a brief little one-shot about how Scott’s powers work – there’s nothing too special there. There was a little mistake though because the previous issue said that the next back up story would be Bobby’s origin yet they give us a science lesson in Scott’s powers. We doo get Bobby’s origin in the next few issues and that’s pretty good, one thing needs to be ignored – the specific date given for the story is 1963, given the fact that Bobby is 18 in the current time line if you don’t ignore the date that would make Bobby at least 65 today. The other thing that was odd was seeing Bobby’s father (we meet William and Madeleine Drake for the first time with this story) is accepting and approving of his son, yet as the years progress Bobby’s father is far from being depicted as being supportive and accepting of Bobby being a mutant.

The main story brings us the return of Magneto (I think his escape from The Stranger should have been covered in an issue of X-Men instead of some other book like it was, maybe they would have been time if they hadn’t spent so many of the recent issues dealing with the foes and characters from other books) and Toad, Pietro and Wanda are back with Magneto and the Brotherhood now because Wanda has lost her powers and Magneto has promised to help them help her recover them (but it turns out he let her get shot in the head which caused the loss of her powers.) In addition to the return of those characters we get a few new ones along the way in the form of Red Raven and the return of the Avengers with Black Panther as a new member. The story is good, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot going on and a lot of name and reference dropping to events that have happened/are happening outside of the X-Men title. There is a mistake in the final two parts of the story with Wanda though, first she’s freaking out because Pietro is fighting Scott, yet in the recap in part four shows Wanda worried because she doesn’t know where Pietro is – this error can almost be explained by the brain damage Wanda is suffering from as a result of being shot in the head recently; however the same can’t be said for the mistake in the first half of this story where Scott tells Warren to go find the Avengers and ask for their help and then like three pages later Warren decides that he should go look for them and see if they’ll help out the X-Men. I wish that they would have dealt with Magneto’s return in the X-Men books instead of suddenly opening up an issue to see him back but with everything going on I can understand why there wasn’t room for that. The issue ends with what appears to be Magneto’s death. I guess that would be shocking except for knowing for a fact that he’s still alive and kicking in the Marvel universe as I type this.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #46 The End of the X-Men!/…And Then There Were Two-

This issue introduces us to Foggy Nelson, a lawyer who works with Matt Murdock (Daredevil); and the return of Fred Duncan and Cain Marko/Juggernaut. For some reason Fred introduces himself as ‘Amos’ which I found pretty weird, maybe it’s his middle name, maybe somewhere in the time line Charles wiped either the X-Men or Fred’s minds to make them forget that they know each other. Who knows? But that doesn’t even seem likely because Scott recognizes him almost instantly. It is kind of odd that Jean said that Charles was ‘so young,’ I know it’s the standard line people say when someone dies, but Jean is in her late teens (possibly early 20s because over the next few issues they drop the ‘teen’ tagline in the opening page. This issue doesn’t actually have a title so I just went with the tagline that was written on the cover, assuming that’s what it was supposed to be. Juggernaut pops in and seeks revenge on Charles and the X-Men and has a very difficult time, to say the least, dealing with the fact that his step-brother died at the hands of someone other than his. He vanishes almost as suddenly as he appears which kind of bugged me but I guess it isn’t that important. The back up story wraps up Bobby’s origin and officially establishes him as the second person to join the X-Men. Charles tells Bobby that he’s going to erase the town’s memory of Bobby being a mutant (including his parents)- I guess Charles went a little overboard with it because Bobby’s father’s acceptance of his son being a mutant also seem to have been wiped from his memory.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #47 The Warlock Wears Three Faces/I, the Iceman -

This is the first issue since the team has disbanded so the focus shifts for a few issues to the pairing off of characters. This issue focuses on Beast and Iceman so Jean, Scott and Warren don’t show up except for the thought bubble/recap on the first page. The issue might be light on X-Men but it’s made up for with the return of Vera, Zelda and Warlock who is now going by ‘Maha Yogi.’ Warlock has been traveling from city to city performing in sold out shows under the name of ‘The Maha Yogi’ and secretly hypnotizing everyone at the show into doing his bidding. For a stand alone issue focusing on just two characters it wasn’t that bad of an issue, the only thing that I didn’t really like about it was the fact that the sound of an alarm was enough to defeat Warlock when last time he fought the X-Men it took the entire team’s combined efforts to do it. The back up feature isn’t really anything to write home about either, it’s like the Scott feature a few issues ago where they explain how a character’s powers work and this time we get a scientific glimpse at how Bobby’s powers work.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #48 Beware Computo – Commander of the Robot Hive/The Beast -

This issue focuses on Jean and Scott. They have both been placed in New York where Scott is working at a radio station and Jean has become a model. The model thing, I think is kind of cliché to begin with, but it’s only made worse when years later it gets revealed that Psylocke was also a model – but I’m getting ahead of myself talking about Betsy here. There is a ‘Candy’ in the issue, but it’s unclear if she’s the same Candy who has been dating Warren over the past few issues. It’s possible that they’re the same character because over the past few issues Vera’s appearance has changed somewhat and Zelda’s hair color and style has been changed as the issues progress as well. There’s a smarmy studio owner Mr. Dane -  I guess that looking back on it, it’s sort of a retroactive inside joke considering there is a Lorna Dane and a Zaladane (later changed to Zala Dane, Lorna’s sister) but given that he’s introduced before Lorna it’s doubtful that he’s connected to either Lorna or Zala, especially since there is questionability when it comes to Candy being ‘Warren’s’ Candy, or another Candy. The backup feature is alright, but kind of a waste, I mean do we really need to know that Hank can write his name with his feet?

(The Uncanny)X-Men #49 Who Dares Defy… the Demi-Men?/A Beast is Born-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #50 Hail, Queen of Mutants!/This Boy - This Bombshell!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #51 The Devil Had A Daughter!/The Lure of the Beast-Nappers!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #52 Twilight of the Mutants!/The Crimes of the Conquistador!-

First I'm going to talk about the back up story mostly just to get it out of the way, and secondly because since it doesn't conclude when the main storyline does I know I'll have to speak about it later (and rather quickly.) We get Beast origin this time out which introduces us to Hank's parents Edna (Andrews) McCoy and Norton as well as Hank's uncle Bob and the villain The Conquistador. By default we get Angel as well but that's an editing error because we haven't even gotten his origin storyline yet (obviously these two stories were switched in publication order) that's an editing mistake though so it's nothing personal. On the personal aspect though we get yet another mutant who in addition to their mutant powers they are also smart and a great athlete - granted with Hank that's not so big of a deal because it's always been a part of his character but I'm getting kind of sick of every single mutant that's appeared so far been a great student and athlete.

Now onto the main story, much like the back up feature we get a few introductions most of which are characters that stick around for quite some time. Mesmero the hypnotic mutant servant of Magneto first appears (with his own army of servants- that also give us yet another editing mistake because they call Mesmero 'Magneto') as well as Lorna Dane who Mesmero gives the name M2 (granted that won't stick around long because eventually Lorna becomes Polaris) and Erik the Red shows up, only to have it turn out that he's really Scott in disguise - but years later there is a 'real' character introduced who goes by that name also. Magneto returns and it's revealed that Lorna was adopted after her parents died in a plane crash - only Magneto tries to convince her that he was really her father all along. It's hard to talk about anything Lorna/Wanda/Pietro/Magneto at this point because of all of the future events surrounding those characters that take place that I'm well aware of. Lorna's introduction was a good story with larger than life consequences - Magneto wants to use Lorna's latent mutant abilities to trigger the mutant gene in everyone on the planet so he can have an army of mutants. One thing I didn't like was how the issue with Lorna's parentage was (briefly) dealt with. I mean.. okay Lorna accepts way too easily that Magneto is her father and when Bobby comes in on his ice sled telling Lorna that he has a sworn statement from her adoptive parents that her biological father isn't Magneto she believes him just as readily.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #53 The Rage of Blastarr!/Welcome to the Club, Beast!-

 The only new character in this one is Blastarr, but he's not really new, he's yet another character on loan from another Marvel book (this time Fantastic Four.) Since this issue doesn't really try to be anything other than a filler issue a lot can be forgiven here - but if you look at it as a whole it doesn't stand up that well. Jean's guilt over her actions supposedly leading to the death of Blastarr are good foreshadowing for things that happen to her character in the future, but that's not really enough to sink your teeth into. The conclusion of Beast's origin in the back up feature doesn't help things either. Like I said before, it's not bad, but it's not great either - it just is. In addition to the mistake of Angel being around when we haven't had his origin story told yet we have an added mistake of Charles mentioning that he has telekinetic powers. It's getting boring, anytime anything happens when a member of the team's physical powers don't cut it Charles can do it mentally - wiping the minds of the entire city, firing off mental bolts, reading minds, manipulating minds, telekinetic powers, reading the 'minds' of machines... etc.. it's getting to be way too much.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #43 The Torch is Passed…!/Call him…Cyclops: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #44 Red Raven…!/The Iceman Cometh!: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #45 Mutants Clash!/And The Mob Cried… Vengeance!: A

The Avengers #53 In Battle Joined!: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #46 The End of the X-Men!/…And Then There Were Two: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #47 The Warlock Wears Three Faces/I, the Iceman: B-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #48 Beware Computo – Commander of the Robot Hive/The Beast: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #49 Who Dares Defy… the Demi-Men?/A Beast is Born: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #50 Hail, Queen of Mutants!/This Boy - This Bombshell!: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #51 The Devil Had A Daughter!/The Lure of the Beast-Nappers!: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #52 Twilight of the Mutants!/The Crimes of the Conquistador!: B
(The Uncanny)X-Men #53 The Rage of Blastarr!/Welcome to the Club, Beast!: D

Chronological X-Men - Part 09 Review

Part nine – I wonder who has more lives a cat or Jean Grey?

(The Uncanny)X-Men #40 The Mark of the Monster!/The First Evil Mutant! -

Well it didn’t have to happen but they did it anyway… in this issue the X-Men fight Frankenstein. I guess it’s okay, I mean it’s not exactly a bad story but yet again we basically have another character from another book (although this time a novel) showing up in the X-Men universe while characters like Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Unus, Blob, Mastermind, Master Mold and the Sentinels just waste away waiting to be brought out of the X-Men Rogues Gallery closet. The back up story was actually better to read than the main one, Jack Winters continues his manipulation of Scott while they go on the run from the police and FBI while Charles tries to find them. We learn Jack’s origin and he ends up teleporting himself and Scott away just before the police barge into his home.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #41 Now Strikes… the Sub-Human!/The Living Diamond!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #42 If I Should Die!/The End… or the Beginning?-

This story introduces us to a handful of new characters like Prince Gor-Tok/Grotesk, the Sub-Human and Dr. Hunt, we also get King Krono, Princess Ingar and an entire race of subterrans, but they’re all in flashbacks and are all dead. We get the return/continued appearances of Jack Winters/Jack O’Diamonds/Living Diamond (who also dies,) Zelda and Vera both come back too. This story, along with the back up story have quite a few weird little ‘mishaps.’ In the backup story Charles exhibits what looks like are telekinetic powers instead of just his telepathic ones. In the main story Charles has been acting off ever since the battle with Factor Three, first he’s teaching the X-Men to fight in the dark (while that wasn’t seen, it has been mentioned) and by the end of this issue it’s revealed that Charles is suffering from a fatal illness that actually ends up claiming his life by the end of this issue and that’s why Charles has been acting so strangely, he’s been desperate to push the X-Men so they’ll be able to function once he dies. Charles’ mechanical legs have been showing up a bit too, which is odd because they were beyond repair the last time we saw them. He isn’t the only one acting strangely though, Jean has been weird recently too and how she’s starting to show some signs of telepathic powers (but this is Jean Grey after all, you all know where this is going to end, so I won’t get into it too much because lord knows a huge chunk of reviews will be devoted to nothing but her.) Next let’s talk a little bit about the WTF moments shall we? Why does Charles lead Grotesk to the machine that will destroy the Earth- weren’t there other places he could have lured him? Why did Charles have to use a rubber mask to look like Dr. Hunt – couldn’t he have just wiped the minds of the people in the building, or made them believe he was Dr. Hunt? What is the point of Charles remaining in disguise while he confronts Grotesk? It’s not like the Sub-Human knew what Dr. Hunt looked like.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #40 The Mark of the Monster!/The First Evil Mutant!: C-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #41 Now Strikes… the Sub-Human!/The Living Diamond!: C

(The Uncanny)X-Men #42 If I Should Die!/The End… or the Beginning?: C

Chronological X-Men - Part 08 Review

(Part) eight is great (ba-dum-dum)

(The Uncanny)X-Men #34 War – in a World of Darkness! -

One problem I had with this issue was the fact that yet again we have another character transplanted from a different non X-Men related title that is introduced into this series. It’s a problem for me considering we have  so many characters that already exist within this series (Magneto, Vanisher, Blob, Unus, Toad, Mastermind, Master Mold, The Sentinels, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch – both of which are just as much X-Men characters as they are Avengers) that are just going to waste because of bringing in characters from other series that honestly don’t do anything to serve the plot at all. There is a mistake here that happens not once, but twice Jean and Bobby call Warren ‘Scott,’ it’s a simple mistake but it’s one that’s happened a few times over the past issues. We get some plots resolved here, but only because they are never mentioned or touched on ever again. It’s revealed that Ted does indeed know that Jean is Marvel Girl, yet he and his brother are never seen again after this issue. This is also the last time we ever see Metro College, which isn’t that odd considering it’s pretty much established last issue that Jean si back at the Xavier Institute- what makes it odd though is the fact that they waited until this point to introduce Jean’s college roommate Carole. If Jean was never going to go back to Metro College ever again why even bother introduce Carole at the very end of that story arch?

(The Uncanny)X-Men #35 Along Came a Spider…-

There’s a lot going on here and oddly enough that both works for and against the story. We get Spider-Man fighting the Robot Spider, we get Spider-Man fighting the X-Men, we get Banshee fighting Factor Three, we get the return of Factor Three and the rebuilding of Cerebro and we get a small sneak peek at the leader of Factor Three. There’s a lot of action that goes on in this particular issue, so much so that they make a little joke when the scene switches to Jean sitting around waiting for Cerebro to go off that this is the ‘boring’ part of the book. An interesting thing I noticed was that Banshee was depicted as having pointed almost elf like ears, I find it odd because as the universe and mythos evolves that aspect of his appearance just gets dropped along the way. The thing that I really didn’t like was the fact that all of a sudden Jean magically finds a hand written note by Charles that basically says ‘hey, if you do this one thing it will provide you with the current location of Banshee.’ I know that it was a plot point to move the over all story along but it was way too convenient and it happened so abruptly that it almost doesn’t even make any sense.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #36 Mekano Lives!-

Okay I’m going to talk about one thing here and one thing only and that is the fact that this issue is basically nothing more than the X-Men trying to find a way to pay for their trip to Europe (where Charles and Sean are being held.) Now why is this a problem? Well… here we go… Problem 1- It’s doubtful that Charles doesn’t have money set aside somewhere that the X-Men would have access to in case something just like this happened. Problem 2 – Warren is LOADED, he’s over 18 so he should have access to some, if not all of his family’s wealth and should have to have his parents give it to him, on top of that given how rich his family is it’s almost certain that Warren does have a trust fund, now he’s over 18 so at the very least he should have access to that. Problem 3 Jean, Warren and Scott as X-Men decide to go to a construction site and basically work as day laborers… now I know they can’t be flush with money (except for Warren) but they go out for drinks and to coffee bars and things like that.. they should have *SOME* money. Problem 4 Hank and Bobby use their powers to act as street performers to pretty much beg for money. The X-Men need to be secret, so I doubt they’d use their powers to beg for money. Problem 5 Jean and Warren go to a WELFARE OFFICE to try to get them to pay for the plane tickets… come on.. really? Really? Problem 6 – after fighting Mekano the X-Men’s need for money is basically resolved by the fact that Mekano’s father realized that heneeds to pay more attention to his son so he pays the X-Men for their help in learning that he needs to pay attention to his own kid. The only good thing I guess could be the fact that we get our first look at The Changeling, and this is the first time that the X-Men have been described as ‘The Uncanny X-Men.’

(The Uncanny)X-Men #37 We, the Jury…!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #38 The Sinister Shadow of Doomsday!/A Man Called… X-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #39 The Fateful Finale!/Lonely are the Hunted!-

The Factor Three plot concludes and we also get a second story which acts as a prequel to the first issue of the series. We get two new characters, the first being Mutant-Master (who ends up committing suicide after he fails to destroy the world) the leader of Factor Three, and the second is Jack Winters who, at this point I know nothing about. We get a rather large amount of returning characters here: Banshee, Blob, Changeling, Mastermind (who is no longer a stone statue and it’s only explained as ‘oh well that wasn’t permanent.. given everything going on in these three issues I can excuse the fact that it’s just glossed over without a real explanation), Unus, Vanisher, Juggernaut (through I guess you could say flashbacks) and we get the return of FBI agent Fred Duncan in the flashback/origin story. The main story was really good, except for Mutant Master committing suicide (that seemed random) and I’m glad that this story is wrapped up. We get another set of uniforms for the X-Men thanks to Jean, this is their third overall costume change, and the second one designed by Jean. A problem I had with the backup story, which I’m not entirely sure is actually a problem since I’m not finished reading this storyline yet is the fact that Fred Duncan knows who Charles Xavier and Scott Summers really are. He knows they’re mutants, he knows that they (will be/)are X-Men and he knows of Charles’ plan to create the X-Men. Given how protective Charles is of the identities of himself and his X-Men I find it hard to believe that Charles would just roll up to the FBI and admit to being a mutant. But like I said, this story hasn’t concluded yet, and I haven’t read it before so I don’t know if it is something that will be resolved by the end of the run.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #34 War – in a World of Darkness! : D

(The Uncanny)X-Men #35 Along Came a Spider…: C-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #36 Mekano Lives!: F

(The Uncanny)X-Men #37 We, the Jury…! B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #38 The Sinister Shadow of Doomsday!/A Man Called… X A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #39 The Fateful Finale!/Lonely are the Hunted!: B

Chronological X-Men - Part 07 Review

Part seven- FOUR MORE ISSUES! FOUR MORE ISSUES!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #30 The Warlock Wakes!-

This time around the X-Men battle ‘The Warlock,’ a science/magic-based mutant who claims to be none other than Merlin from King Arthur’s time period. Now this is something I know about from future events in the Marvel Universe, so I know that he’s not really Merlin but an immortal from a different time period that fights the X-Men a few times, but spends most of his time in the Thor and Doctor Strange books. Speaking of Thor and Doctor Strange, the flashbacks in this issue features scenes from previous Thor and Journey into Mystery issues. This is pretty much a stand alone issue that really doesn’t do anything at all for the overall plot of the series, there are a few throw away comments about Factor Three, but that’s about all we get this time out.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #31 We Must Destroy… the Cobalt Man!-

A few more returns here, Vera, Zelda and Ted are all back; ‘Bernard the Poet’ is back as well and he’s sort of becoming a running gag here, other than that I don’t really see him contributing much to the plot at all. We also get two new characters, first Ted’s brother Ralph – who ends up becoming Cobalt Man, a sort of evil version of Iron-Man, and an old friend of Warren’s Candy Southern. We get some things resolved here, we finally find out why Ted pushes himself so hard, and there is somewhat of a resolve to the whole Scott-Warren-Ted/Jean thing. It was a little odd to see Charles play matchmaker between Jean and Scott, but that’s beside the point. Finally it seems that Ted has learned that Jean is really Marvel Girl. This issue was alright, but I'm kind of tired of this theme where the bad guys from other books pop up here in an X-Men book. Bring back the Brotherhood, The Sentinels, Magneto, Juggernaut or the Mimic back- this is an X-Men title, I don't want to see characters from Fantastic Four, Thor, Iron-Man or Spider-Man show up unless it's for a major event. Just don't put them here to have them pop in and pop out serving no point other than to fill the gap before they start the next storyline.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #32 Beware the Juggernaut, my son!-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #33 Into the Crimson Cosmos!-

Vera, Zelda, Candy, Bernard the Poet, Cain Marko/Juggernaut and in a way Factor Three all return to the book with this issue. We also get a few new characters in the form of Dr. Strange, Xorak the Outcast and the Ancient One. Once again we get another series of flashbacks and for what is either the third or fourth time we see Charles’ life in danger yet he takes the time to stop and tell a story. It’s a little odd this time because it’s a story that has nothing to do with him, yet at the same time it makes sense because he has had access to Cain’s mind. This issue also marks Bobby’s 18^th birthday, so now the ‘youngest X-Man’ is now technically an adult. It does make me wonder exactly how big the age gap was supposed to have been considering Jean is in college and Warren tells Candy that they are taking ‘college level’ courses, so that puts the two of them between 18-20. Also Jean tells Candy that she’d love it if she enrolled at the school so she wouldn’t be the only girl there anymore. I know this was just Jean paying lip-service to Candy, but it hasn’t officially been said that Jean left Metro College and returned to the Xavier Institute, yet her comment implies that she has done just that. Through the plot it is made a point to pair off the X-Men Warren with Candy, Bobby with Zelda, Hank is with Vera and by default leaves Jean and Scott to pair off with themselves. Taking aside everything (that even someone who has only heard of the X-Men in passing) known about Jean and Scott’s romantic pairing, it isn’t that much of a shock to see them paired off like that since in the previous issue the Ted-Warren-Scott/Jean love triangle turned love square had been narrowed down to just Jean and Scott. The issue ends with the X-Men returning to the mansion only to find that Factor Three has abducted Charles which I’m sure sets up the plot for the next few issues at least. One thing I found to be a bit odd is the fact that the reason the door in the basement was locked was because Charles had been keeping Cain in there. That’s odd because it means that basically Charles has been holding Cain (even though he was in a coma) against his will for some time now. The thing that they use to explain it is that Charles had convinced the government to give him custody of Cain, which makes no sense either because that would mean that either Charles had used his abilities to wipe the minds of the people holding Cain and ‘convincing’ them into letting him keep his step-brother, or the government knows that the identity of the Juggernaut is really Cain Marko and Charles went through the proper legal channels to obtain custody of his step-brother. That doesn’t seem too likely because that would put Charles’ identity out into the world. I guess that could be done considering it still wouldn’t connect Charles or Cain to the X-Men, but it would make it easier to connect the dots if someone bothered to. So this has Charles acting a bit out of character because the most likely scenario means that Charles mentally manipulated multiple people into basically kidnapping and holding Cain Marko prisoner in the basement of the Xavier Institute.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #30 The Warlock Wakes!: B-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #31 We Must Destroy… the Cobalt Man!: B-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #32 Beware the Juggernaut, my son!: A-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #33 Into the Crimson Cosmos!: B+

Chronological X-Men - Part 06 Review

Part six!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #27 Re-Enter The Mimic-

This issue sees the return of quite a few characters: Mimic, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Zelda, Vera, Ted and Puppet Master (who appeared in the Fantastic Four/X-Men crossover I covered in part 5.) With Warren wounded, Jean in college and Scott doubting his place within the X-Men Charles uses his powers to reach out to Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in an attempt to get them to join the X-Men’s dwindling ranks – they decline, next Charles uses Hank and Bobby to try to reach out to Spider-Man (his first appearance in the X-Men universe) only to be declined as well. Eventually whole visiting jean at college the X-Men meet up with Calvin who now has his abilities back and is taken back to the Xavier Institute to join the X-Men on a trial basis.  I guess at the end of the day the issue was good, it moved the plot along- it’s not exactly a self contained story, but it’s not a multi-issue storyline even though certain plot points do extend into other issues. The issue sort of feels like the whole point of it was to tie up several loose ends that had developed over the past 10 issues or so, which I guess is a good thing.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #28 The Wail of the Banshee!-

With this issue we still have Jean ‘away at college,’ Calvin still a member of the team, and Warren still recovering from being wounded by Scott a few issues ago. Ted Roberts is still hanging around, which makes me think that they might be planning something with his character because the X-Men cast isn’t too vast at this point and the only real ‘hangers-on’ are Zelda and Vera, everyone else introduced has served a purpose except for Ted. We meet The Ogre (who isn’t a mutant but has a mind control device that is forcing Banshee (Sean Cassidy) into working for a mysterious group called Factor Three. There was a big mistake here, and it was on the artists part, Jean hands Hank a screwdriver but she tells Hank she’s giving him a pair of pliers, and Hank thanks her. That tells me it has to be a mistake on the artist’s part because someone as smart as Hank certainly knows the difference between a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. The whole thing about something hidden behind the oak door in the mansion’s cellar seemed a bit odd, but I guess they’re going to go somewhere with that eventually.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #29 When Titans Clash!-

Jean is still away at college, Calvin is still a member of the X-men (although he is officially kicked off of the team by the end of this issue. I’m actually sad to see Mimic go, I liked the idea of not everyone on the X-Men being a ‘goody goody,’ and I know I’m not alone in that because if it weren’t for love of the jackass/troubled anti hero type of character we wouldn’t get X-Men like: Hellion, X-23, Wolverine and many others through the years. This time the X-Men fight an android that calls itself ‘The Super-Adaptiod’ who once it comes within contact with someone for a certain amount of time it obtains their powers- it had previously met the Avengers and obtained Captain America, Hawkeye, Goliath and The Wasp’s abilities. In an attempt to gain Mimic’s powers the two sort of short circuit themselves out and Calvin ends up losing his powers, but his sacrifice sort of resolved his conflict with the X-Men, but without his powers there wasn’t a place for him on the team any more. I wouldn’t call it a mistake, but clearly a large chunk of time has passed between this issue and the last one since it was summer in the last issue but now it’s winter time. This issue felt more like a filler issue than anything else, but that’s not actually a bad thing, I just wish that there was more to it than simply a plot point to remove Calvin from the team.

 

(The Uncanny)X-Men #27 Re-Enter The Mimic: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #28 The Wail of the Banshee!: A-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #29 When Titans Clash! B

Chronological X-Men - Part 05 Review

Part five!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #20 I, Lucifer-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #21 From Whence Comes… Dominus?-

This storyline brings us a few returns: Lucifer, The Blob and Unus are all back, and we receive a new character in ‘The Supreme One’ who is Lucifer’s boss and a mind control machine called Dominus that the two of them are trying to set up on Earth in order to control the planet. We get the flashbacks once again, but it seems to be a mixed bag here, especially when it comes to flashbacks in relation to Charles. This time he gets blasted by Lucifer and has basically lost control over his body and can barely speak telepathically, so instead of trying to explain to Jean how to stop Lucifer he takes the time to explain to Jean his first battle with the space alien. It didn’t seem like it was integrated too well into the story, it almost would have been better if it were a separate issue instead of worked into this plot. There are a few mistakes but that’s more on the part of the editor than the actual plot (Charles calls Hank Warren and in the ‘voice over’ box Bobby is called Bobby Blake instead of Bobby Drake) and two mistakes that aren’t exactly mistakes and are easily forgiven. The last time we saw Unus and Blob they both swore off the mutant battle and vowed not to fight again, yet now they’re both here pretending to be X-Men in order to lure the real X-Men out. This isn’t really an issue considering it’s revealed pretty early on that Lucifer has been controlling them mentally for some time now. The story was good, and it seems to resolve the Lucifer plot line (at least I assume so since in all the time I’ve been reading Marvel comics I never ran across the character before, even though I knew he existed) but even though he’s dead it doesn’t mean that he can’t pop up again. I think my problem with this storyline is that I don’t get Lucifer being as big of a threat as he’s made out to be, maybe back when the story was first done over forty years ago it was more nail biting, but reading it now it’s like ‘oh… okay.’

(The Uncanny)X-Men #22 Divided We Fall-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #23 To Save A City-

Next up we have another two part storyline and boy is this one jam packed. It’s almost too packed. We get a whole slew of new characters, actually a total of technically 7. We get Count Nefaria, Eel, Plantman, Porcupine, Scarecrow, Unicorn the criminal group The Maggia, and General Fredericks, who appeared back in the Sentinels storyline, but wasn’t named until this issue. Zelda and Vera (Bobby and Hank’s respective girlfriends) are both back but like usual they don’t serve any real point to the plot at all. Now on to the plot…. We’re getting a whole lot here and it really doesn’t work well. The X-Men fight Colosso in the Danger Room. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal but Charles built him specifically to help the X-Men learn to battle robots, but over the past ten or so issues we’ve had the X-Men fight the Sentinels, Master Mold and Lucifer’s robots – so this has been going on for a while. We get Nefaria using his abilities to create false X-Men in order to lure out the real ones. Again this is a problem, not because it’s been over used, but because this had just happened in the last story with Unus and Blob pretending to be X-Men. And finally we get the X-Men going on yet another vacation only having it to end abruptly because of the current danger. We’re 23 issues in and this has happened THREE times already. There is just way too many plots all being reused especially since they’re reusing things that have just happened, and you can’t even use the bi-monthly excuse because starting with the Sentinels storyline the title went monthly, so for some of the plot points they were used directly before now. There’s so much going on here that I couldn’t have cared less about any of the new characters (and not even because Nefaria is an Iron-Man based character, and you all know how I feel about that universe) and honestly I don’t want to see anything more about them than what I got in these two issues. It was hard, I kept staring at the page numbers at the bottom of each page and couldn’t help but think ‘wow, the issue is almost over.’ I was actually counting down until the end of the story because that was the only way I could get through it.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #24 The Plague of… Locust!-

This overall was a better read than the previous two issues so that’s a big improvement right there. We get two new characters in Dr. August Hopper (aka Locust) and Ted Roberts. Jean officially leaves the X-Men to enroll in a normal college since she had officially ‘graduated’ the school Charles runs. The issue itself is sort of an easy read because with the exception of Jean leaving the X-Men it is very much a stand alone issue. We get more of the Scott/Jean/Warren non existent love triangle that sort of becomes a love square when Jean meets Ted. Like I said, there’s not much to say about this issue and I’m not too big on stand alone stories, but after a real stinker that was two issues it was a nice bridge to the next plotline. One thing that I didn't really enjoy too much about this issue is that the X-Men don't even consider the idea of using Locust's armor. I know with some X-Men in the future protective covering is required, but you would think that they would want to study his armor, especially when it could stand up to the X-Men's individual powers.

 

(The Uncanny)X-Men #25 The Power and the Pendant!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #26 Holocaust! 

The next storyline is a two parter that very much feels like you’re watching an old 60s horror movies. Ancient curses, raided tombs that lead to the transformation/possession of one of the characters, an epic battle for the fate of the world (even though it doesn’t really involve more than 6 people), the local college containing the exact information needed to stop the evil demigod. The museum heist – the whole nine yards. Three new characters this time, Juan Meroz (aka El Tigre) who once possessed becomes Kukulan and Ramon and Toloc (Juan’s ‘servants’) and the return of Ted Roberts and Calvin Rankin (The Mimic.) Charles mechanical leg braces that allowed Charles to walk get damaged, possibly beyond repair because they’re never used again.

Fantastic Four #28 We Have To Fight The X-Men!

Finally for today we have another crossover of sorts, this is actually the third major crossover we’ve had so far which is kind of funny because this is also the third time Johnny Storm has interacted with The X-Men. It’s a pretty good story; I’m not up on any thing Fantastic Four so I can’t comment too much on anything outside of the X-Men involvement. There appeared to be two mistakes here, the first being that the X-Men have never even fought the Space Phantom so it’s impossible for them to have defeated him. The other mistake here is that Cyclops seems to know that The Mad Thinker has been the one pulling all the strings even before he reveals himself to the X-Men. Another thing that could almost be counted as a mistake is Jean appears to be back with the X-Men for this little brawl- it’s excusable though because while she has currently left the team she still is a part of the book and participates in missions with the team.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #20 I, Lucifer: C

(The Uncanny)X-Men #21 From Whence Comes… Dominus?: C

(The Uncanny)X-Men #22 Divided We Fall: D+

(The Uncanny)X-Men #23 To Save A City: C-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #24 The Plague of… Locust!: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #25 The Power and the Pendant!: B+

(The Uncanny)X-Men #26 Holocaust! A-

Fantastic Four #28 We Have To Fight The X-Men! B-