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