Chronological X-Men - Days of Future Past Part 3 Review

Days of Future Past.

Spider-Woman #37 – Who Am I?

Spider-Woman #38 – Criminal At Large

You know I’ve never read a single issue of Spider-Woman before so I don’t know what’s going on with pretty much every character involved with this story that aren’t X-Men centric. This would be a problem except for the fact that there’s a large portion of the book is devoted to flashbacks and exposition. We see what Black Tom Cassidy and Juggernaut have been up to ever since they contracted Arcade to kill the X-Men. We do get the first appearance of Siryn which actually works for me because it’s one more character that I’m already familiar with but I do wish that they had spent a little more time introducing her. Granted I needed the backstory for Spider-Woman but at the same time it’s odd that so much of the issue was devoted to exposing new readers to the exploits of Jessica Drew but Siryn has apparently working and training with her uncle Black Tom off of any book. Black Tom framing Spider-Woman for the treasury robbery he committed is nothing new (the villains are always trying to portray the hero as a bad guy) so there’s nothing much to talk about there. The X-Men go off to investigate what set Cerebro off (obviously it ends up being Siryn since Tom and Cain have already been established as characters) and end up working with Spider-Woman to clear her name and to take down the trio of villains. One thing I didn’t really like was a bit odd. I know that Tom’s identity is pretty much publicly known so by default relative would be exposed but was it really Tom’s best move to tell the X-Men in front of police to take care of his niece Theresa. It would be too easy to just track the activity of a ‘Theresa Cassidy’ and her locations at any given point could lead to the revelation of who is really an X-Man. But... maybe that was Tom’s plan all along? When I was done with this story I actually wanted to start reading all of Jessica Drew's exploits - so I guess that's a sign of good story telling.

The Uncanny X-Men #148 – Cry, Mutant

This issue takes place right after the recent Spider-Woman story. Sean, Illyana and Moira haven’t returned to their respective homes (yet Alex, Lorna, Bobby and Amanda have-,) Magneto makes his reappearance in the city that has suddenly appeared near the island that Scott and Lee have washed up on when their ship capsized. Sean meets Theresa for the first time (so first time Siryn appears in an X-book) and their instant bond bothers Moira because she’s afraid of ever having another child after what happened with her son Kevin. Jessica Drew arrives at the mansion (I’m assuming that she took Theresa there) and she, Kitty, Ororo and Stevie all go to a club to watch Dazzler perform. We get the first appearance of Caliban who is so desperate for a friend that he tries to kidnap Kitty, thankfully Storm, Spider-Woman and Dazzler manage to save Kitty and try to convince Caliban to join the X-Men. Scott and Lee bump heads when she tries to kiss him and the two fight and end up making up – oh well. One thing that’s interesting is that Illyana’s middle name is ‘Natalyanovna’ but later they end up changing it to: Nikolaevna.

The Uncanny X-Men #149 – And The Dead Shall Bury The Living

We get a series of flashbacks showing the X-Men’s various battles with Magneto over the years. Kitty tries to debut a new version of her costume which – is colorful to say the least. Charles is upset and yells at her for interrupting his ‘research’ and that she hasn’t earned an individualized costume that it comes when she graduates the school. I think that’s kind of odd because Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Banshee, Sunfire, Warpath and Wolverine never got the ‘school uniforms’ (they do use them later in the years as training uniforms… so I guess that counts for something) the strange thing I find about this is you can’t even argue that Kurt couldn’t wear one because of his tail hands and feet because Warren had an altered costume for his wings. Speaking of Warren – he’s still acting like a brat and won’t be an X-Man if Logan is, real convenient when Ororo is thrown down into a pit and the only ones who can save her are Kitty and Kurt. Garokk is back, he didn’t die when he and Ororo last fought, instead he was wounded and Magneto found him and he is now guarding Magneto’s old base. Kitty phases to keep Garokk from killing Ororo but it causes him to go falling over the ledge and plummeting to his death. Okay so they fixed Ororo having killed Garokk, but Kurt, Jean, Piotr, Kitty and Logan have all killed someone – it seems odd for Warren to take a stand against Logan. You can argue that Kitty was self defense, Kurt was an accident, and Piotr because he felt badly for Moira’s son dying but Jean still killed willingly and gleefully yet Warren seems to have no problem when he worked with her. Another odd thing is hearing Charles say he doesn’t know about Magneto’s origins, the history the two of them have is so intertwined that they’re almost two sides of the same character so it’s odd seeing it without the context of the retcon. Don’t get me wrong.. the issue individually is a good issue, and it’s a good starting off point for new readers – I just found it a little hard to swallow all the contextual errors that actually don’t even exist yet.

The Uncanny X-Men #150 – I, Magneto…

Okay we get some revelations with this one, we see Carol Danvers for the first time in an X-book (she’ll play a major role with certain things later on) and it was kind of odd because of the reason for her spending time with the X-Men hasn’t actually happened yet – it’s funny because there’s a blurb that basically says ‘hey this hasn’t happened yet but be sure to read it when it does’ type of thing. We learn that Ororo has indeed killed someone before when she was younger and this is something that weighs with her heavily to this day. So much so that she hesitates in slitting Magneto’s throat long enough for him to wake up and attack her. We officially learn that Magneto was a Holocaust victim after he believes that he has killed Kitty. That’s something I thought was odd too, this is a double sized issue, yet the ending is still rushed. One panel Kitty is dead and Ororo is grieving over her dead body and then the next panel Kitty is alive and well on the beach hanging out with the rest of the X-Men while they wait for their transportation to be fixed. And what makes this odd isn’t that they didn’t have room for exposition but in a double-sized issue the only room they allotted for that particular scene was a blurb that said and I quote: ‘miraculously – because she was phasing at the time – Kitty survived Magneto’s energy blast.’ Really they couldn’t have done a better job with that? Really?

Bizarre Adventures #27 Phoenix/Iceman: Winter Carnival/Nightcrawler: Show Me The Way To Go Home

This particular book gives us three full length stories each focusing on an untold tale of the X-Men. The first story starts off with Jean’s sister Sara visiting Jean’s grave and flashes back on an adventure the two of them shared shortly after Jean revealed herself as Phoenix and a mutant to Sara. We learn how Jean’s telepathic powers initially grew out of control when her childhood best friend Annie died in her arms. This then sets it up that Charles visited Jean when she became too withdrawn. We learn that Sara is afraid that her children will end up being mutants. There is a little mistake; Sara keeps talking about her son ‘Tommy’ yet Sara’s children’s names are later established as being Joey and Gailyn. Jean and Sara get abducted by Attuma – a water dweller who wants revenge on the surface world and Namor by taking mutant women from above water and  umm.. basically breed them with his people to create a super powered army. The story was good, but I really didn’t need to read it at all, it was interesting to see that Jean’s mind wipe she performed on her sister to make her forget these things happened was undone when she died – I just wish that this was something that was followed up on like how she wiped Kitty’s parents minds when Emma Frost abducted the X-Men and Kitty. The next story shows us Bobby’s during his college years. He’s spending the winter break with some of his old friends (I’m not sure where they came from considering Bobby was with the X-Men since he was around 15 and stayed with the team until after he had turned 18. But the next time we see Bobby in an X-book he’s drinking beer – now assuming that he’s not doing it illegally- so it’s possible that Bobby could have met his friends in the three year gap. Bobby gets a taste of freedom and the spotlight when he’s forced to act as Iceman after someone tries to steal one of the computers from the school. He stops the thieves and participates in the winter carnival. Later Bobby learns that one of the professors staged the robbery to cover up for a real robbery later, Bobby finds out and takes the man down. I actually liked this story, probably more than Jean’s but it just seems kind of weird. The final story shows the X-Men encountering ‘half a mutant’ it turns out to be Vanisher who has only half teleported back to this world – the other half of him is trapped in another dimension. Kurt gets mixed up in it and the two of them travel through multiple realities (one of which has both of them as women, another reality has the two of them as animals) before landing in another dimension where the two of them are regarded as ‘Gods’ simply because they are men. Ultimately they end up back on Earth and whole so this isn’t really anything big – at least I don’t think so – but there was one thing I found interesting. One of the three women who declare Kurt and Vanisher ‘gods’ seems to look an awful lot like Roma – a character who is tied very closely to Excalibur down the road and is connected to Captain Britain. For me this was by far the best story out of all three, and it’s the first time that Kurt has actually felt like the version of him that I enjoyed so much as a child (he’s still not up to that point in the main book) the one thing that I could consider it to be a downside is that this story is essentially comic relief and I don’t usually go for that in comics but it really works here. And I can’t get the image and conversation Kurt has when he tries to teleport for the first time in this new dimension. All in all these stories are good, I think the only one that could be considered even remotely strong enough to stand on it’s own would be Kurt’s story but the entire issue is really a case of the sum being much greater than it’s parts.

Spider-Woman #37 – Who Am I?: A

Spider-Woman #38 – Criminal At Large: A

The Uncanny X-Men #148 – Cry, Mutant: B

The Uncanny X-Men #149 – And The Dead Shall Bury The Living: C

The Uncanny X-Men #150 – I, Magneto…: B

Bizarre Adventures #27 Phoenix/Iceman: Winter Carnival/Nightcrawler: Show Me The Way To Go Home: A

Chronological X-Men - Proteus Part 2 Review

Proteus.

The Uncanny X-Men #129 God Spare the Child…

Classic X-Men #35 Paper, Not Paper

Okay things are starting to heat up here. The X-Men finally leave Muir Island, only they leave Sean behind to help with Moira. Scott asks Lorna and Alex if they will come back to the team but they refuse so he tries his luck with Jamie who also turns him down. Jean’s flashbacks to ‘her other life’ are coming more frequently and are starting to get harder to snap out of, however she decides for now not to tell any of her friends about it. Charles is now back on Earth at the mansion and after learning of everyone’s survival he steps back up as the leader of the team. This doesn’t go over too well with Logan who ends up storming out, and Scott doesn’t fare much better because Charles basically calls him a failure and tells him he is disappointed in how he has chosen to lead the team in Charles’ absence. Cerebro goes off detecting two new mutants and Charles decides to split the team up to go after each of the emerging mutants. Meanwhile we get the first official appearances of The Hellfire Club, The Inner Circle, and Emma Frost – The White Queen herself. In a shadowed meeting we also meet Harry Leland, Donald Pierce and Sebastian Shaw, but they’ll have their first full on appearances soon enough. In this issue we also see Kitty Pryde and her parents Carmen and Terri for the first time. I find it interesting that according to Kitty she’s only thirteen and a half – this is a little creepy considering that Piotr is well over eighteen and I know eventually the two of them get together. On another note though if this is 1979 and Kitty is 13 ½ which means she was born in 1966 and as of today that would make her 44 years old. Man comic book timelines are screwy. Speaking of screwy there are a few things that don’t really track… why doesn’t Cerebro register Jason Wyngarde or Emma Frost? Why doesn’t Charles recognize Emma as a mutant and a telepath when they briefly encounter each other when they both attempt to recruit Kitty for their ‘schools.’ The issue ends with Emma ambushing  and kidnapping Logan, Ororo and Piotr after the failure of three armored units to kidnap Kitty Pryde. Emma informs a man named Cutler – it will be hard to keep track of anyone in the Hellfire Club since all of the Inner Circle’s henchmen wear the black and red outfits with the expressionless masks – that failure is not something The Hellfire Club will accept and triggers bombs planted within each of the three armored units… well armor. The back up issue shows exactly how Kitty ended up stowing away on Emma’s hovercraft. Again we get some funky art which once again I can excuse because it’s a dreamscape of a thirteen year old girl who just experienced the shock of her life… I do find it a little odd that everyone in Kitty’s dreamscape was female, including a wheelchair bound woman who was clearly supposed to represent Charles. Despite the fact that the Classics cover bills this as part of The Dark Phoenix Saga it is still largely considered to be part of the Proteus storyline because The Dark Phoenix Saga doesn’t officially start until Uncanny X-Men #132 when Jean becomes The Black Queen of The Inner Circle.

The Uncanny X-Men #130 Dazzler

Classic X-Men #36 Outside In

I’m not really sure where the back up story is supposed to fit in but obviously it takes place after the X-Men return to the states. Moira is naturally having trouble moving past the deaths of her son and husband is using all of her previous research to try to find a way to bring Kevin back and give him a peaceful powerless life. The story does clear up a little bit of the confusion with this retcon of her being married. Now it’s clear that Moira married Joe, he was an abusive man to the point where one night he raped her and got her pregnant – I’m assuming that since he knew nothing about the child that this is when she took off for the states and sought out a divorce and met Charles and she leaves him before she starts showing. It helps to flesh out her background and explain why she suddenly left Charles back in the day, but over the years Charles' backstory gets so muddled with that I almost hate this one simply because I know it's only the start of historical retcons yet to come. The main story shows Scott, Kurt and Jean off to find the other mutant that Cerebro discovered – this time it turns out to be a young woman who is a disco singer going by the name Dazzler. We learn that the reason why The Hellfire Club knows so much about the X-Men and how their abilities work is because they used Warhawk to bug the mansion when he attacked them 20 issues ago. Jean is continuing to experience her time slips each one is getting progressively worse, now it’s at te point where they are happening right in front of Scott and it’s getting harder and harder for Jean to snap out of them. Scott and Jean save Alison Blaire (Dazzler) and she agrees to help them rescue Kitty and the rest of the X-Men from Emma Frost.

The Uncanny X-Men #131 Run For Your Life!

Classic X-Men #37 Was Not What Will Be

What the heck, I’ll start with the back up feature again. I didn’t really like it. A lot of it was used to ‘date’ Alison to stress that she character is all about the late 70s and 1980 – I could have done with out it. The other half of it was used to show that Alison isn’t your typical rock star, that she keeps up with current events and can engage in a well spoken debate. Honestly I would rather have had this just be a few additional pages in some story instead of it being an entire back up feature. The big confrontation between the X-Men and Emma frost continues. Alison, Kurt, Jean, Kitty and Scott storm Emma and her troops to free Ororo, Piotr, Logan and Charles. Kitty gets her first interaction with Logan – which will build into him eventually mentoring her, and is smitten with Piotr. Emma faces off against Phoenix in a battle to end, ultimately Emma proves no match for Phoenix and she uses the last reserve of her power to bring down the entire building they are in. At the end everyone is safe and accounted for except for Emma and the X-Men believe that she committed suicide rather than become the X-Men’s prisoners. Back at Kitty’s house Jean uses her abilities to completely wipe out Kitty’s parents memories and create new ones for them in which they are very close to allowing Kitty to join Charles’ school – this doesn’t go over well with Scott and Ororo. Meanwhile Alison decides that her place isn’t with the X-Men and Charles trusts her enough not to reveal any of their secret identities and she departs off on her own adventure and her own title. I do find it just a little bit odd that Jean would go to the lengths of doing that to Kitty's parents, yet she doesn't do anything about the fact that Dazzler knows the identities of the X-Men. And it is a little odd that everyone is so concerned with Jean wiping out people's minds when Charles has done that in the past before for example with Blob and they didn't even bat an eyelash at that.

Amazing Spider-Man #203 Bewitched, Bothered and Be-Dazzled!

Welcome to the pit stop Alison makes before she starts her own title. Dazzler is performing in New York and is chased through the city by a giant ball of light, Spider-Man tries to save her but she wants nothing to do with him. It turns out that the giant ball of light is Lightmaster who has been trapped in a different dimension and is being called back to Earth by Alison’s powers. He plans to use her like a living battery that can keep him on Earth and in power for the rest of his life. Spider-Man interferes and as a result it causes Lightmaster’s device to backfire and instead of using Dazzler as a battery he is now possessing her. The now possessed Dazzler and Spider-Man fight but he quickly gets the upper hand and uses the device once again to separate Dazzler and LIghtmaster and send him back to the light dimension. The problem with this issue is that it is in a main title so a lot of it is devoted to aspects of Peter's life that don't really move the 'mash up' plot along which leads to an all too quick resolution for the plot. We spend a large part of the issue dealing with Alison being chased and then possessed and then in one page Peter solves the problem.

The Uncanny X-Men #129 God Spare the Child…: B

Classic X-Men #35 Paper, Not Paper: D

The Uncanny X-Men #130 Dazzler: A

Classic X-Men #36 Outside In: A

The Uncanny X-Men #131 Run For Your Life!: A

Classic X-Men #37 Was Not What Will Be: D

Amazing Spider-Man #203 Bewitched, Bothered and Be-Dazzled!: B

Chronological X-Men - The Phoenix Saga Part 2 Review

The Phoenix Saga!

Marvel Team-Up #53 Nightmare in New Mexico

Marvel Tales #262 Nightmare in New Mexico

This story takes place right after the events of Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, the X-Men and Spiderman are on their way back to New York after dealing with their recent battle only to have find out that The Hulk is fighting Woodgod in The Dead Zone. Charles and Phoenix are too weak to take part in the battle so they head back to the Xavier Institute leaving Banshee to help deliver Spiderman to the battle. It is a little odd that Banshee just drops Spiderman off and then leaves, but I guess that’s good considering it means I don’t have to follow the Hulk plot. Meanwhile the X-Men are shot down by the mysterious Sunstroke of the Desert Dwellers. It’s an all out smash up battle between the X-Men (sans Banshee who is traveling back to them as this is happening, Charles who is still too weak from recent events and Jean who only lasts a few moments before tapping into the power of Phoenix drains her) and at first Sunstroke but he is later joined by Cactus and Butte. Banshee shows up and basically saves the day before Gila the final member of the Desert Dwellers shows up. When all is said and done the X-Men continue to head for home while the Desert Dwellers wait for their master to summon them again.

Iron Fist #15 Enter, The X-Men

Hey it’s a party at a recently dead but not dead girl’s house! The X-Men are now back in town, only recently have landed which is obvious I guess because of the fact that Logan is still wearing Fang’s costume – although this makes no sense when you think about how in Marvel Team-Up he’s back to his regular costume. The X-Men want to celebrate having lived through the recent events out in the middle of the Shi-ar Empire’s homeworld. Of course there’s some misunderstandings when Iron Fist shows up at his friend Misty’s apartment at roughly the same time as Wolverine and each of them think the other is after their respective friends. Soon Kurt and Piotr show up and join the battle. Next to enter the fight is Storm, for quite possibly the most ridiculous reason of all… a plate of potato/egg salad falls on her face. Things are finally worked out and Iron Fist joins Jean’s party just in time to save her from being evicted from her apartment due to all the recent damage. It’s a fun little issue but honestly considering this was the last issue of Iron Fist it was a let down- so many dangling plots and unresolved issues- I can imagine how hard it would have been to swallow for someone who was actually a fan of the book and it’s characters.

The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 At the Sign of the Lion

This is just a standard reprint here of Wolverine’s first appearance. There’s nothing new to cover which is good because I did say that I probably wouldn’t ever re-read this particular story. The new feature is okay for what it is. Logan is itching for some action – I guess the freedom he experienced while battling D’Ken and the Imperial Guard got to him now that he has to show restraint now that he’s back on Earth. It doesn’t take Logan long to find some action because as soon as Hercules shows up at the same bar the two of them get into a huge bar brawl. It was kind of fun to see how ticked off Logan got when Hercules kept taunting him about his height. Eventually the two of them decide that they’re wasting their time and start drinking again. I actually liked this issue, it wasn’t strong enough for it to have been stretched out into a full length storyline, but for what it was it was really good.

Marvel Team-Up #65 Introducing, Captain Britain

Marvel Team-Up #66 Murder World

This is an odd one here because while this is Captain Britain’s first appearance in the ‘American’ Marvel Comics publishing he’s been around in the UK Marvel Comics for a while now. And again while this is his first appearance in the American it’s still not his first appearance in an X-title so I have no idea where or how to categorize this. The same could be said about the ‘Siege Perilous’ which is tied to Captain Britain and later is part of a major X-Men event. It was interesting to see a young and inexperienced version of Brian and I wish that they kept him in this mindset for longer than they did, but there isn’t anything I can do about that. The whole story revolves around Arcade and his assistants Miss Locke and Mr. Chambers being hired to take out Brian Braddock who is believed to be one of fifty people who might be Captain Britain. We see an abridged version of how Brian came into his powers and we actually get the first real appearance of Arcade, Miss Locke and Mr. Chambers on any side of the pond, and since this is the first time we see Arcade this is by default the first time that we see Murderworld which is sort of Arcade’s playground. I liked the issues and I was glad that it was a two-parter. Normally I don’t like crossovers because this early in the game it’s with books that aren’t X-titles so I have no idea what’s going on in the mythology of the other half of the team up but considering this was the first time we see Captain Britain and Arcade it didn’t matter that I didn’t know what was going on in Peter Parker’s life because the whole aspect of the team up involved shaking up the events of their individual lives and starting a new chapter so I didn’t feel like I had been weighed down by some unseen mythology.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #109 Home are the Heroes!

Classic X-Men #16 Dearest Friend

Well it had to happen sooner or later but the X-Men have FINALLY arrived back to the Xavier Institute. The X-Men are all dealing with the recent events in their own way: Scott is brooding, Jean is telling her parents all about what happened on the space station and how she became Phoenix (I’m assuming that she also is telling them that she’s a mutant too, but since there is no dialogue for this particular scene it’s hard to tell, it could be argued that she’s not telling them about that, just that she died and became Phoenix since it is later retconned that Jean’s parents knew she was a mutant when she was a little girl and Charles came to seal off her telepathic abilities.) Kurt, Moira, Sean and Piotr go on a picnic which is soon crashed by Weapon Alpha (later known as Vindicator and Guardian) who has come to reclaim Wolverine/Weapon X. It was a little odd that Logan says that James Hudson was there when Logan left (what later becomes known as ) Weapon X considering that James didn’t appear at all in Giant-Size X-Men #1. The additional pages show more of James before and after he targets Logan, including a scene between himself and Heather (still not her first official X-Men appearance though) and Lilandra exploring the mansion and learning how to use the shower. The back up story shows us a little of Sean in his teen years when he was growing up with his cousin Tom. We see them battle over Maeve Rourke (which get this.. this is actually her first appearance period, she shows up again later in the 90s and once more in X-Men: First Class, but this was published before either of them happen;) while she’s not a ‘major’ character there are important events that surround her; the first being the more fleshed out feud between Sean and Tom.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #110 The X-Sanction

This is just a filler issue so it’s hard to judge it because only one major event (that we’re supposed to know about right now) happens: Jean rejoins the X-Men. The bulk of the issue is devoted to Mitchell Tanner (Warhawk) breaking into the mansion in order to test the X-Men’s abilities and monitor them for his as yet unknown, unseen boss. We get to see Colosso 2.0, mostly as an excuse to get all the X-Men in the Danger Room long enough for Warhawk to trap them in there. We do get to see something now for the first time that later becomes a recurring staple in the X-Men’s lives when they need some time to unwind; we see the first ever X-Men baseball game. Half the time in the future this is used as a fun little outlet and other times it’s used to just get everybody together long enough for something bad to happen. I really don’t know what to say about this issue, it’s kind of forgettable but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad issue. The whole thing just stinks of ‘filler’ and things that will later be explained. This is just a hard issue for me to rate.

Marvel Team-Up #53 Nightmare in New Mexico: C

Marvel Tales #262 Nightmare in New Mexico: C

Iron Fist #15 Enter, The X-Men: B

The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 At the Sign of the Lion: A

Marvel Team-Up #65 Introducing, Captain Britain: A

Marvel Team-Up #66 Murder World: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #109 Home are the Heroes!: B

Classic X-Men #16 Dearest Friend: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #110 The X-Sanction: C

Chronological X-Men - Phoenix Rising Part 2 Review

Phoenix Rising part 2!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #101 Like A Phoenix, From the Ashes!

Classic X-Men #9 The Gift

The X-Men return to Earth crashing in the water and Jean suddenly rises from the water in a brand new costume and screams that she is ‘Phoenix’ (so we get the first appearance of Phoenix II here) before passing out and falling back into the water. The additional pages show the X-Men leaving as Ororo masks their getaway through fog and Peter Corbeau covers for them telling everyone that only he survived the crash and the crew he left with (the X-Men in disguise) all perished. The one thing that I really don’t like and honestly it’s some hate that I’ve got left over from the old X-Men Animated Series where even before Jean transformed into Phoenix she would just randomly pass out and faint. I couldn’t stand that, and I know that it happens a lot while ‘Jean’ is Phoenix but I’m not looking forward to that at all. The back up story actually takes place in the middle of the main story while Jean is critical condition in a coma. Kurt spies a boy out walking around in the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning. They bond and Kurt teaches him how to juggle in an attempt to get Daniel to open up about what is going on. They each have a profound effect on each other, so much so that Kurt shows Daniel who he really is without the image inducer. It’s a little odd because in the end the boy dies and it gets iffy because Kurt was speaking with the boy when he was really dead. So was Daniel a mutant himself, or was he a ghost who was seeking out Kurt who was going through a crisis of faith? You could argue either because Daniel tells Kurt that Jean will indeed be fine (and ultimately she was.) With Jean now awake, Charles insists that the X-Men go on vacation while Scott, Moira and Charles himself stay behind. The newer members of the team go off to Sean’s newly inherited castle only to find an ambush waiting thanks to Sean’s cousin Black Tom Cassidy and The Juggernaut.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #102 Who Will Stop The Juggernaut?

Classic X-Men #10 Tag, Sucker!

We learn a few new things in the battle over Cassidy Keep; we see Kurt first use his ability to blend into shadows, we officially learn of Ororo’s claustrophobia, we learn that Sean was once an Interpol agent and a series of flashbacks show us David and N’Dare Munroe, Ororo’s parents. We learn that her father was a journalist while her mother was a real African Princess, so while over the years we learn that Ororo isn’t indeed a Goddess she is at the very least nobility. We also see her young days as a thief where she worked for Achmed El-Gibar. The additional pages show us Charles being driven even more insane than he already thinks he is when he keeps seeing the armored alien and he confides in Moira that he feels his powers are driving him insane. The editing of the story clears up a few things to make the characters not so ‘dated’ because in the original story it established that Ororo was born in 1951 which would make her 59 now- so obviously they needed to cut that part out. The back up story shows Logan wandering around New York unwillingly playing a game of tag with Sabertooth, the story was alright but I could have done without ever reading it. It doesn’t help that I’m not entirely sure where this story is supposed to take place. Does it happen roughly the same time Kurt is wandering the city with Daniel, or does it happen shortly after Logan joins the team but before Jean becomes Phoenix, or does it happen after  the X-Men return from Cassidy Keep? 

(The Uncanny)X-Men #103 The Fall of The Tower

Classic X-Men #11 Hope

Oh.. okay.. Cassidy Keep is full of Leprechauns, one of which works for Sean. Yeah, okay… moving right along then. We learn that Black Tom and Juggernaut were sought out by Eric the Red in an attempt to take the X-Men down to keep the ‘Princess’ from reaching them. We get our first look at Emperor D’Ken who has sort of contracted Eric the Red to make sure Princess Neramani doesn’t arrive on Earth. D’Ken is none too pleased that BlackTom and Juggernaut fail, but Eric tells him that he has already made arrangements with the X-Men’s oldest foe (so obviously Magneto) to take a crack at them next. The additional pages show the armored alien continuing to reach out to Charles which drives him deeper into madness. It doesn’t help that Charles can feel Ororo’s pain and gets into a huge fight with Scott trying to get him to take down Juggernaut only to have Scott refuse to leave Jean’s side. I’ve got to admit, I’m not a big fan of the back up story. We see Ororo in England, which means that the story could take place before the X-Men return to the states, or it could have been set in an entirely different timeframe. Storm meets Phil Halloran, a writer who is contemplating taking his own life because he just doesn’t have passion when it comes to writing anymore. There’s a killer at large who has been targeting women, and goes after Ororo who is in turn saved by Phil. It’s a story that tries to be too powerful and relevant for my tastes, plus it doesn’t fit in with the current storyline and for it to have happened so soon after the Kurt and Daniel story makes it redundant. It just is and honestly I really didn’t like it in context, out of context it might be better, but it doesn’t belong set around this timeline.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #104 The Gentleman’s Name is Magneto

Classic X-Men #12 A Fire in the Night

This is the first time Magneto battles the new X-Men which leads to some interesting revelations. We see the Muir Island Mutant Research Facility for the first time and learn just how much Moira gave up to become the Xavier Institute’s ‘housekeeper.’ We learn that this place has held several mutants prisoner, presumably because a regular prison cannot contain them and their powers. We see Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man) who has been in charge since Moira left. Magneto who had been turned into a baby has been re-aged –I guess this could take care of the fact that he should be well over 100 within the current time line, but it’s hard to retcon him too much because of his origin story. We finally get the reveal of the armored alien as being none other than (Princess) Lilandra Neramani; we see the return of John and Elaine Grey who have come to welcome Jean back to her apartment she shares with Misty Knight (it’s hard to keep track of all the retcons, flashbacks, hidden years, shoehorned in events, and additional pages but I think this is the first appearances of Misty within the X-Men title) only for the issue to end with Erik the Red, Havok and Polaris who are still under Erik’s mind control watching Jean through her apartment window. We see The Starjammers for the first time, although not all of them… however we do get Ch’Od, ‘Christopher’ (long story, many twists, turns, and retcons for him too so I won’t get into that now but he is ultimately the character known as Corsair,) and Cr+eee. Magneto fails in his battle with the X-Men but there’s something awakening behind a door labeled ‘Mutant X;’ and the X-men realize that someone is trying to divide them all in order to make Charles vulnerable enough to succumb to an attack. Having figured this out the X-Men now understand that they need to get back to Charles as quickly as possible. The back up story takes place directly after Magneto has been defeated. He has fled to Paris and in a dream we learn exactly how Magneto and his wife Magda’s child Anya died in a fire and how Magda left her husband after the death of their daughter and seeing him murder everyone around their burning home becomes too much for her to deal with. Naturally this means that he wakes up only to find another apartment burning and another mother and child trapped within it. He decides to save them which lays the foundation for him slowly moving away from the ‘evil villain’ to the ‘tragic figure pushed too far’ type of character. We do get to see a photograph or Eric, ‘Gabby’ and Charles back in ‘happier’ times. I don’t like this idea that Eric knew all along that Charles was trying to manipulate him with his mutant powers, I don’t see it actually happening, but I do see how from Magneto’s perspective that would be how he would look at it.

Iron Fist #14 Snowfire

Okay I’ll be the first to admit I know less than next to nothing about Iron Fist (I’m weird, I love the Marvel Universe, but I hate anything not tied to the X-Men at all) so I have no idea what the heck is going on with 90% of this issue. I only know that Iron Fist and Colleen (whoever she is) are tied to Misty Knight who is currently roommates with Jean and that this battle is the first time we ever see Sabertooth – you can’t count the backup feature in the recent Classics book because while it takes place before this issue it hasn’t actually been written yet. Like I said I only read this because it’s the first appearance of Sabertooth and I figured because he’s such a huge figure in the X-Men mythos that I had to read it, plus if I sat through Logan’s introduction in The Incredible Hulk I could sit through this. It was kind of blah for a story, it might be better if I was invested in it at all, but I don’t think I’ll ever reread it, and I’m not looking forward to the next time this character pops up in the X-Men’s time line (unfortunately it’s going to be the very next issue.)

(The Uncanny)X-Men #101 Like A Phoenix, From the Ashes!: B

Classic X-Men #9 The Gift: A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #102 Who Will Stop The Juggernaut?: B

Classic X-Men #10 Tag, Sucker!: D

(The Uncanny)X-Men #104 The Fall of The Tower: B

Classic X-Men #11 Hope: D

(The Uncanny)X-Men #104 The Gentleman’s Name is Magneto: B

Classic X-Men #12 A Fire in the Night: B

Iron Fist #14 Snowfire: F

Chronological X-Men - (Part 20) Second Genesis What If Review

If ‘if’ were a fifth we’d all be drunk.

What If #9 … The New X-Men Had Died on Their Very First Mission

The whole ‘second genesis’ arch ends with a few ‘what if’ stories, the first we have ‘What if the new X-Men had died on their very first mission’ in which we see the deaths of quite a few X-Men: Sean, Scott, Jean, Lorna, Alex, Bobby, Warren, John, Ororo, Kurt, Piotr, Shiro and Logan all die on the mutant island of Krakoa when it gets sent into space. Charles is devastated which causes Hank to leave the Avengers and return to the Xavier Institute in order to take care of Charles. Hank ends up reaching out to Moira for help and she brings along Rahne. In this reality Count Nefaria still takes over the weapons base with his Ani-Men and Hank uses Cerebro to reach out to a new set of mutants to help him take Nefaria down. Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver join the battle (but leave afterwards in order to return to their respective spouses) Namor’s cousin Namorita, Thunderbird II – John’s brother James, Banshee II – Sean’s daughter Theresa and Wolfsbane – Rahne once Charles activates her latent mutant abilities. It was kind of a fun read for what it was, so I don’t really have anything against it.

What If #23 … The All-New All-Different X-Men Had Never Existed

Okay, basically this one is just what it says it is- only it covers a lot of storylines. Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Havok, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Lorna (know known as Polaris) and Charles are all still X-Men. We see the Shi-ar empire and it’s princess Lilandra, we get the Hellfire Club, Mesmero, the Phoenix Force, Thunderbird (who is a villain in this reality) Nightcrawler (who is a villain in this one too) the Sentinels, Eric the Red II (so the Shi-ar version not Scott in disguise) Alpha Flight, Sean Cassidy, Dr. Corbeau, Dazzler, Dragonfly (of the Ani-Men) The (Shi-ar) Imperial Guard, Moira MacTaggart, Magneto, Mutant X, Storm, Kitty Pryde, the Starjammers and Sunfire. Okay so very quickly the X-Men don’t get captured by Krakoa, Eric the Red brainwashes Thunderbird and Nightcrawler, Lorna goes on the mission in space so Jean doesn’t have to sacrifice herself and get possessed by the Phoenix Force, Lilandra is still branded a traitor by her brother and run off of her home world, the Phoenix Force still goes batshizz and it is Kurt who sacrifices himself in order to make up for being so misguided by Eric the Red’s manipulation. The story is good, but it covers a whole hell of a lot of other plots within this one issue and there are a crap load of characters here so there isn’t too much individualized focus for anyone in particular.

What If #23 … The All-New All-Different X-Men Had Never Existed: B

What If #9 … The New X-Men Had Died on Their Very First Mission: B