Chronological X-Men - Nightcrawler Review

Nightcrawler!

The Uncanny X-Men #194 – Juggernaut’s Back In Town

This issue we have the first appearance of Fernis A.K.A. Andrea and Andreas von Strucker however only Andreas is named. They’re off in Africa apparently hunting and causing random trouble which Ororo stops. I liked touching bases with Ororo to see what she’s doing now that she’s powerless and trying to find herself. We also touch bases with why Charles and certain characters aren’t present because they’re off on Muir Island (off in the Legion plot) and we get a little bit more info with the whole Nimrod plot. I think I’ve said it before but I’ve always thought Nimrod was overhyped and an issue like this where he has many powers and can seemingly deal with everyone doesn’t really help with the overrated feeling. If anything makes the character more Mary Sue like. I like the idea of Rogue taking on more than one ability at a time and the type of struggle she would have to deal with because of that but I don’t really get why random parts of her body mutated. Sure it was for shock value, but I kind of wish they explained why which part took on a particular appearance. This was a good little filler issue and surprisingly I can see myself reading this one again.

Nightcrawler #1 – How much is that Boogie in the window?

Nightcrawler #2 – A Boggie Day in L’un D’un-T’wn

Nightcrawler #3 – To BAMF or not to BAMF!

Nightcrawler #4 – The Wizard of OOPs!

This particular story takes place right after Uncanny X-Men #194 but before Charles and the New Mutants return from Muir Island. At first Kurt, Kitty and Illyana are all alone in the mansion and Kurt is training himself in the danger room and forces himself not to use his teleporting abilities because there could be situations where he won’t be able to use them at all. Or course this causes Kurt to tell Kitty and Illyana all about his adventure when he was teleported to an alternate dimension with Vanisher and neither of them were able to use their powers. He tells the girls all about the Well at the Center of Time which leads Kitty to programming it into the danger room, only some how she actually manages to conjure up the real well. Kurt and Lockheed get sucked in and the two of them begin their own pirate adventure; which is actually perfect for Kurt’s character considering he’s always had a swashbuckler aspect to his character. Kurt and Lockheed stop the pirates from kidnapping a princess and the duo end up being sold to a shark creature who plans to use Kurt to learn how to teleport. The series is fun but it’s so out there in it’s comedy and sight gags that it goes past the obvious and into the ‘oh dear lord this is annoying when will it stop.’ We know that time moves differently in other dimensions which allows for this adventure to be larger than it is, but what wrecks it for me is one little blurb when we check back in with Kitty and Illyana and it says that Kurt has been missing for a few days yet the girls never once change their clothes. I don’t really understand why Illyana couldn’t use a locater spell and then just teleport to Kurt… I get that they included her because the whole story is a nod to magic and teleportation but here we have a character that can do both and she really doesn’t do anything in the story. The jokes aren’t really so much jokes as they are generic non copyright infringement based jokes off of other properties, places and people. I know that the BAMFS are supposed to be personifications from the story she told Illyana when she was a little girl – but to me they seem like sexually frustrated Smurfs. I do like the tie in to Kurt’s story from Bizarre Adventures and the referencing of Kitty’s Fairytale – it helps to sort of tie this story in with the real ones. And you could almost argue that this whole series was done for Kurt to prove to himself that he can lead the X-Men since he led an entire race of BAMFS. My only problem with the story was the ending. Did we really need to know that Illyana who is 15-17 (with all the aging and de-aging of Kitty I can’t keep track of Illyana’s age anymore) but like two years ago was only 7 has a collection of Playgirls?

The Uncanny X-Men #194 – Juggernaut’s Back In Town: A

Nightcrawler #1 – How much is that Boogie in the window?: B

Nightcrawler #2 – A Boggie Day in L’un D’un-T’wn: A

Nightcrawler #3 – To BAMF or not to BAMF!: A

Nightcrawler #4 – The Wizard of OOPs!: B

Chronological X-Men - Kitty Pryde and Wolverine Review

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine!

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #1 – Lies

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #2 – Terror

Kitty is still struggling with her recent breakup from her non-relationship with Piotr and has temporarily left the X-Men to spend some time visiting with her parents. I’m not really a fan of the plot device because it’s a little overdone. I do like that she went to visit her father but I’m not exactly glad that they used him. The main plot of the first two issues revolve around Kitty first visiting her father and then finding out that he’s in business with a Japanese crime lord – see that’s a bit odd because it doesn’t seem like something Kitty’s dad would do. Not that we know much about him but it seems odd that Kitty would have been portrayed the way she had been over the previous years and have had her father suddenly be revealed as someone who is willing to bend the rules. Kitty ends up being taken by Ogun as payment for services rendered and he end s up hacking off her hair and after some ceremony she ends up becoming a ninja. Despite the overused ‘my heart is broken let me run home and do soul-searching’ plot the story has been pretty good so far, the art is a little odd – I’m not sure I like the artist’s work but I didn’t really focus on it. There were a few things that I had found odd, first of all Kitty’s haircut I get it, but it is odd that she was sporting short hair when she left the X-Men (I know, I know ‘wig’ but that’s not something Kitty would have done anyway) and I’m not entirely sure why Charles couldn’t have sensed when Kitty got sick, or the fear she felt, or why none of the X-Men noticed when Kitty was caught on camera phasing into an ATM to steal money. You’d think that at least one of those things would have set Charles off and they wouldn’t have had to have resulted to Logan being brought into the plot because of Kitty phoning the mansion.

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #3 – Death

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4 – Rebirth

Logan arrives in Japan to help Kitty out and runs into Yukio who agrees to help Logan out and find out what happened to Kitty. I like Yukio but I don’t really get the point of her in this story other than to prove that Logan isn’t as cold-hearted and willing to kill as he used to be – and she is one of Logan’s few allies in Japan so it does make sense that she would show up in the story. Ogun sends Kitty out to kill Logan (his former student) but the two reach a stalemate. I do like the fact that this possession has made Kitty into a fighter because in the long run it will make her less of a target in battles. I was surprised that Yukio let Shumai live, she doesn’t seem like the type to let others think she has mercy. It was interesting to see how Yukio treated Kitty’s father; maybe she has some daddy/betrayal issues of her own? I didn’t really like the time jump between the two issues – it was too big of a gap, first Kitty runs Logan through with her sword and then suddenly Yukio, Carmen, Logan and Kitty are all in Yukio’s car. The big reveal here is James Hudson’s death but it wasn’t really needed for the progression of the story. Logan’s connection to Ogun is something that anyone could see coming a mile away so there’s no real surprise there.

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #5 – Courage

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #6 – Honor

Logan struggles to break Ogun’s hold on Kitty by giving her an abridged version of the training he endured only this time leaving the decision to continue or stop all on Kitty instead of having it forced upon her by Ogun. Kitty ends up fully shedding her past and takes a new codename ‘Shadowcat’ because she doesn’t feel like she will ever be the person she used to be. Carmen decides to make things right and goes and spills all of Shingematsu’s secrets to shut him down which might result in Carmen facing major jail time (but we’ll never know because we really don’t see him again for quite some time.) Mariko and Akiko make appearances when Ogun goes after them to flush Logan and Kitty out. I’m a little confused as to how much time has passed because when we saw Akiko the last time she was barely older than a toddler and now she’s old enough to be in school. I did like the sudden switch from Logan trying to save Kitty from becoming like Ogun to Kitty trying to convince Logan that him killing his former teacher that he actually saved himself and Kitty. I would much rather have seen Yukio be involved in the battle between Kitty, Logan and Ogun – it would have better showcased the differences in the paths of all involved – at the very least they should have included a shot of her looking in at Logan, Mariko, Carmen, Akiko and Kitty all eating ice cream.

Marvel Team-Up #149 – The Incandescent Man

This is an odd little team up here Spider-Man and Cannonball but after the heaviness of what happened to Kitty and the whole Demon Bear/Adversary Dire Wraiths thing recently a light hearted little romp is just what I needed. It was a bit random to see Sam in the city going hat shopping though, and how did he have any money for it – I’ve always wondered how the people associated with the X-Men had money if they didn’t have real jobs plus if they started off as kids (like Illyana, she was a kid, aged rapidly and came from a poor family, Kitty’s family is going through financial trouble, and so is Sam’s so how do they afford stuff? Does Charles just give them money?) At least you get to see some of the struggle with Dazzler and also Spider-Man but he’s not a mutant. The Incandescent Man and his sister don’t really fit in with Sam and Peter since they are part of Project Pegasus – it would have made more sense to have Peter re-team up with Dazzler since they’ve worked together more than once (Sam and Peter only teamed up once so far) and she has had quite a few dealings with Project Pegasus in the past. It was a fun little issue and I liked it but I’m not fully partial because Sam is one of my favorite characters and Spider-Man is starting to grow on me with his interactions with the X-Men.

Marvel Team-Up #150 – ‘Tis Better To Give!

It’s Black Tom Cassidy’s birthday and Juggernaut wants to give him a present so he ends up taking the mystical gem that gave him his powers and giving it to Tom in the hopes that it will also give his friend the power of Juggernaut. Things don’t go exactly as planned though and it ends up dividing the power evenly between Cain and Tom. Peter Parker is still trying to earn money for Aunt May’s hat (Sam gave him the idea last issue) so he takes pictures of the two of them fighting and ends up getting involved himself and eventually teams up with Rogue, Rachel, Colossus and Nightcrawler to take down their shared foes. Rachel struggles with her actions because in her timeline Tom and Cain were allies so she wants to give them a chance to do the right thing but ends up realizing that in this reality they are evil. Rogue doesn’t do too well once she absorbs Cain and Tom’s powers – it leaves her very confused because basically she just absorbed the same abilities twice in a row. Overall the issue was good, there wasn’t anything bad about it – but there wasn’t anything spectacular either.

The New Mutants Annual #1 – The Cosmic Cannonball Caper

I almost feel like this doesn’t belong being lumped in with this current storyline because of the fact that it introduces Lila Cheney who is a mutant rock star (unlike Dazzler who is also a mutant singer Lila can teleport on an intergalactic level whereas Alison has the ability to convert sound into light) it feels like it should be lumped in with a storyline a few more issues down the line but I needed to round things out here. The main plot revolves around the New Mutants (Rahne, Sam, Roberto, Dani, Illyana, Doug and Warlock) enjoying a night out on the town at Lila Cheney’s farewell concert. Sam struggles with finding his place on the team and his inability to control his powers, Dani is continuing to go through her physical rehab with Stevie and struggles with the fact that she just can’t hold her own when it comes to the physical aspect of the team, Doug is of course trying to deal with the fact that his ability to understand almost every form of language and communication is pretty useless in the middle of a physical confrontation with a group of aliens who are trying to steal the Earth. Some of these things play into recurring themes in the main book which work well, and there’s this idea of Sam slowly coming out of his shell which is nice – I like the character but I’m kind of over the younger version of Sam’s ‘Beverly Hillbilly-ness.’ I haven’t read too many stories featuring Lila (aside from her run in the A.O.A. line) so it was nice to see her first appearance here I do wonder what she meant by Earth selling her out already so it justifies the fact that she’s willing to sell Earth. Did she mean the world turned against her because she’s a mutant? I doubt that because of her being so popular in the public eye – so now I really want to know what she meant by that.

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #1 – Lies: B

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #2 – Terror: B

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #3 – Death: A

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4 – Rebirth: A

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #5 – Courage: A

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #6 – Honor: A

Marvel Team-Up #149 – The Incandescent Man: A

Marvel Team-Up #150 – ‘Tis Better To Give!: B

The New Mutants Annual #1 – The Cosmic Cannonball Caper: A

Chronological X-Men - Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Part 2 Review

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7 – Berserker!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 – Invasion!

The next part of this story was actually the most entertaining so far. First Lizard goes crazy when he thinks the Wasp died, then Volcana goes crazy when she learns that Wolverine nearly gutted Molecule Man, then She-Hulk goes crazy when the Wrecking Crew throw Wasp’s corpse into the heroes camp. If that weren’t enough Titania really doesn’t take it well when Spider-Man gives her the smack down, Volcana makes a deal with Enchantress and Doom nearly gets himself killed when Galactus finally notices that he is on his homeworld. I don’t really understand the point of introducing the new Spider-Woman if they’re not going to use her, especially after She-Hulk goes to Doom’s base to avenge Wasp’s death only to nearly get killed herself. If the team is loosing powerhouses left and right, you’d want someone strong on your side, especially if they’re practically begging you to join them. I also didn’t really understand why Captain America was so willing to accept Magneto and the X-Men back into the fold just because Charles said he’d promise to help. I also have a hard time buying Volcana and Molecule Man’s feelings for each other – it’s too sudden. Of course the major things here are the heroes capturing most of the villains, Spider-Man gaining his black costume (considering how major of a thing that ends up being in the Spider-Man books it’s odd that they would have introduced it in this miniseries,) Wasp coming back to life and Galactus begins to devour the planet they’re all trapped on.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #9 – Assault on Galactus!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #10 – Death to the Beyonder!

The next two parts of this series are possibly the most interesting because of the types of questions they raise – but I’ll get to that in a second. The big thing here is obviously the fact that the Wasp isn’t dead but that’s one of those things that you knew was coming so it isn’t really that big of a deal. I was a little surprised by Doom dissecting Klaw in order to create a device that would allow all of the energy Galactus absorbed from destroying his own homeworld and channel it into Doom rather than the world devourer himself. It does raise an interesting question though, if creating that device was all it took to take the giant out and Klaw doesn’t die from the process why hasn’t anyone used it since to take down Galactus? Of course if it was common knowledge it would have taken away from the dramatic effect when Reed Richards and the rest of the superheroes were trying to decide if it would be best to let Galactus destroy this planet and kill all the heroes was the best thing to do. I understand the logic, if Galactus wins he’ll get his wish and the Beyonder will take away his hunger, if the Beyonder doesn’t make good on his deal than Galactus will attack the Beyonder and get killed as a result of that. I like the idea of how Doom went about fighting the Beyonder, but it felt like a little more of it should have been shownwe get some stuff, and then at the end of this issue Doom shows up and is pretty much all ‘hey, the Beyonder is dead.’

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11 – …And Dust To Dust!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12 – …Nothing to Fear

Now the finale here is where I kind of lost interest in the story. I would have much preferred that the story ended with issue 10, but obviously they couldn’t just leave everything with the entire cast trapped on Battleworld and Doom with the power of the Beyonder but for the most part this felt like filler. Now we do need to know how the villains got off of the world, but did we really need to see scenes with the Enchantress locking herself in the bathroom and conjuring up an Elemental? Did Enchantress even serve a real point aside from lounging around saying she wasn’t going to do anything, trying to kiss Thor and that funny scene where she was drunk? Did we need scenes of Spider-Man eating? Or everyone trying to sleep? Did we need at least two pages worth of dialogue from Doom where he was telling Klaw that he can’t ever let him fall asleep? On the other hand the issues do tie into major changes in the Marvel Universe – we get the return of Klaw, new villains in Titania and Volcana, a new hero with Spider-Woman. The Thing decides to stay on Battleworld for a while which moves She-Hulk from The Avengers to the Fantastic Four and of course we get Spider-Man in his black costume – which will lead to the introduction of Venom. There’s the friction between Charles and Ororo, we get a new costume for Rogue (which she debuts in the next issue of Uncanny X-Men) and Piotr falling in love with the alien healer Zasji – before she ultimately dies – leaves him in love and later in mourning long enough to keep him and Kitty from hooking up until she’s over eighteen. Oh and there’s that dragon that teleports back to Earth with the X-Men. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the ending of this story, and it was surprisingly well done considering the series was created specifically to promote a line of action figures but I feel like issue eleven and twelve could have been condensed to one double sized issue instead of there being the regular sized 11 and then a double sized 12 – but at the same time it would have been odd for it to end with number 11, and of course it wouldn’t have been a year long event.

The Uncanny X-Men #181 – Tokyo Story

The Uncanny X-Men #182 – Madness

Well the X-Men are now back on Earth, only instead of returning to New York they end up in Tokyo along with Lockheed’s dragon ‘friend.’ I do find it a little odd that the X-Men claim to have a relationship with the now much larger dragon. In the Secret Wars series Lockheed takes off pretty early on and doesn’t show up until just before the X-Men return to Earth with the dragon in tow. It appears that while the heroes have been gone for a very long time, on Earth only a week has passed. Scott returned with the X-Men but he ended up back at home where Madelyne was waiting for him so it leaves me to wonder did She-Hulk return to where the Avengers vanished from instead of reappearing with the Fantastic Four? And did Spider-Woman go back home, or did she return to the location the Avengers vanished from? Rogue ends up flying home to check on Kitty (I’ll talk about that in a second) while the remaining X-Men try to stop the giant dragon from destroying Tokyo. It was kind of a filler plot and after reading a year long event I’m actually alright with an issue that doesn’t give us a lot of revelations. The major thing is the passing of Senator Kelly’s Mutant Affairs Control Act bill. The other half of the story (which is actually the next issue since it takes place at the same time) is Rogue’s return to the mansion. She begins checking over phone messages, first from a scared Madelyne, and next she receives one from Colonel Rossi who tells Charles that their suspicions were right and then there’s the sound of him being abducted. Rogue ends up taking off to save him before she hears the phone message from Illyana. I do have a little problem with this because Illyana leaves a note saying that Kitty went with Doug to the Massachusetts Academy to check things out – it kind of implies that Charles knew nothing of Kitty going. It’s a problem because not only was it mentioned that all of the X-Men knew this in the last issue, but it was shown both in the New Mutants and Uncanny X-Men issues before the whole Secret Wars saga that Kitty and Charles came up with the plan. To make matters worse both books are written by the same person so you can’t even base it on lack of communication between the writers of the two books. I like the idea of Rogue struggling with what she had done to Carol and how her mind is now massively fractured but I would have liked more of a build up. Rogue suddenly appears on the mansion’s door step claiming that she’s having trouble dealing with the extra mind in her head, but beyond that issue it isn’t touched on again – and when Rogue was hanging out in the Dazzler book before she left the Brotherhood her fractured mind wasn’t an issue. So it was like they dropped the plot and then suddenly remembered that they needed to do something with it. There’s a little bit of an overlap with the scenes where Emma uses astral projection to appear to Sebastian to tell him she has the New Mutants, but if you think about it, and read this in publication order it wouldn’t have been an overlap. I like the idea of The Inner Circle spying on S.H.I.E.L.D. but I’m going to reserve any judgment on it until I know why they’re spying. Oh, I almost forgot – we got the first appearance of Amiko Kobayashi – Logan’s foster daughter.

The Uncanny X-Men #183 – He’ll Never Make Me Cry

When I read this I wasn’t sure what to think about it – I didn’t really care about the main plot at all, but the little sub-plots helped to carry things on a bit. I have decided that when Chris Claremont isn’t writing epic end of the world battles he must be convinced he’s writing a soap opera. The largest chunk of this story revolves around the break up of Piotr and Kitty from a relationship they weren’t even really in to begin with. Kitty needs time on her own so she leaves to spend time with her father, and then Logan and Kurt take Piotr out to teach him what it means to be a member of the team. The side plots are what I really enjoyed here, Rogue still dealing with the fall out of her encounter with Michael Rossi, Valerie Cooper traveling with Raven Darkholme to meet someone named Forge; and it’s revealed that Selene is still alive and now she’s in New York to begin her plan to rule the world. We do get some new info on her, she claims that she is over 2,000 years old, and implies that she was imprisoned (I’m assuming in Nova Roma) and now she is finally free. We also get to see a new way of how she ‘feeds’ which is much more visually disturbing than simply throwing her sacrifices into a volcano. Now there were a lot of mistakes here and that doesn’t help with the overtly soap-y plot. In the issue it states that Kitty has spent almost 2 years at Charles’ school, so she joined when she was 13 ½, so that makes her almost 16 now, yet later on in the issue they specifically state that she is only 14. Now Piotr who started off as over 21 (because the new X-Men were older than the original team) was then de-aged to 18 to take away some of the creepy factor of Piotr/Kitty has now been aged to 19. Make up your mind on their ages already!! Sheesh. The drinking thing isn’t a mistake because it turns out that when this story was written the drinking age was 18 in New York. What happened to Amiko? There’s absolutely no mention of her whatsoever. Also what’s up with Kitty’s hair? It’s suddenly short, yet for an upcoming storyline Kitty’s hair getting cut is a plot point, so to explain this away they claim that Kitty is wearing a wig in Uncanny X-Men 183…umm okay, except Kitty hasn’t ever done anything like that ever before so it seems odd that she would do it suddenly and that no one would mention either the wig or her hacking off her hair assuming that she’s doing it because Piotr broke her heart.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7 – Berserker!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 – Invasion!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #9 – Assault on Galactus!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #10 – Death to the Beyonder!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11 – …And Dust To Dust!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12 – …Nothing to Fear: B

The Uncanny X-Men #181 – Tokyo Story: B

The Uncanny X-Men #182 – Madness: A

The Uncanny X-Men #183 – He’ll Never Make Me Cry: 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 18 Review

The road trip ends… for now.

The Incredible Hulk # 172 And Canst Thou Slay… The Juggernaut?

I’m going to be honest folks; I’m really biased here. It’s common knowledge that I hate The Hulk with a passion so it’s hard to be objective here, especially when I know I’ll have a few more issues of his title to read over the course of several storylines yet to come. Just like always I can’t comment on any of the cast of characters because I don’t know enough about them to know who is important and who I can just ignore. Basically the story is Hulk gets captured and the government uses a ray to try to banish him to another dimension and in the process this brings Juggernaut back to Earth and quite a few pages are devoted to catching everyone up on what Cain Marko’s been up to over the years. The issue ends with the X-Men (Charles, Scott and Jean) trying to find out what happened to Warren. I wish I could give this a better rating system because an alphabet grade doesn’t really work for me this time. I’d rank this one some where between ‘meh’ and ‘ehh.’

Captain America #172 Believe It or Not: The Banshee

Captain America #173 The Sins of the Secret Empire

Captain America #174 Its Always Darkest….

Captain America #175 Before the Dawn!

The next pit stop brings us a whole lot of things going on. We learn that while mutants are being hunted down and captured by a mysterious force it turns out that Falcon and Captain America are actually the most wanted men on the block. Banshee shows up for an issue and runs into Cap and Falcon, after a misunderstanding they end up fighting but when Cyclops shows up Banshee takes off. The remaining X-Men and Cap and Falcon team up to go after The Secret Empir who had not only managed to frame Captain America for murder but also kidnap several mutants (Iceman, Havok, Lorna, Beast, Unus, Mastermind, the Blob, Angel and Mesmero and is using them to power a machine that they will end up using to force the United States into either surrendering their power to The Secret Empire or just destroy them outright. We learn that Hank, Bobby, Alex and Lorna were all captured as well which really just serves as an explanation as to why none of them appeared in any of the X-Men’s off book adventures recently. One thing that I couldn’t help but laugh at was the fact that the leader of The secret Empire who calls himself Number One looks an awful lot like Cobra Commander, in reality he’s a ‘high ranking government official’ while his true identity wasn’t revealed it had been later stated that it was intended that his alter ego would end up being Richard Nixon. This whole thing is a big thing in and of itself because of the fact that after Captain learns the true identity of Number One and witnesses his suicide Cap decides to leave the superhero business behind 3for now.

Marvel Team-Up #23 The Night of the Frozen

Bobby and Johnny Storm both get framed for a robbery by the villain Equinox who has both ice and fire based powers. Naturally there is some confusion where Bobby thinks Johnny did the break in and Johnny things Bobby is responsible for it. They end up fighting each other before they figure out who really did it and then team up to go after him. I don’t know what to think of this one, I mean it was a fun little read and I’ve always liked the way Johnny and Bobby play off of each other but I’m not entirely sure that I wanted to read this story. However I think the reason for that is simply a case of bad timing because if I think about it, I would honestly read this story again, and there have been quite a few issues that I’ve reviewed since I started this journey that I will never pick up and read again even if my life depended on it. It was still a pretty good story. I think that I might have read this one a bit out of order because it feels like the X-Men are off looking for the missing mutants and if that's the case this would have had to have happened a lot sooner than the Captain America issues, but at the same time it feels like it could also have taken place after because Hank isn't anywhere to be seen and it's around this time that he joins the Avengers, and that happens after the whole Secret Empire thing.

The Incredible Hulk #180 And the Wind Howls… Wendigo!

The Incredible Hulk #181 And Now… the Wolverine!

The Incredible Hulk #182 Between Hammer and Anvil

Speaking of things I’ll never read again even if my life depended on it this story has to be one of them. I’ll be honest here, I only read this because it’s the first appearance of Wolverine and almost all of the X-Men related stories that I’ll be reading from this point on will heavily feature him so it’s pretty hard to ignore. Maybe I would have enjoyed this story more if I had any idea what the hell was going on half of the time but there isn’t anything that I can do about that. Well there is, but I’m choosing not to. The debut of Wolverine was kind of lackluster but considering he just shows up and fights Hulk and then goes back into Weapon X’s custody there isn’t that much that can be said about it- the story is supposed to be just a violent battle and that’s what it delivers so I guess ultimately it lives up to that promise, but still…. I guess for me the worst part of this is that Logan only appears in the last page of the first issue and the first page of the last issue so it makes me feel like I had to sit through two extra stories that I didn’t have to read just so the middle issue would make sense to me. Not that it made it any better because while I liked the whole plot with the Weendigo, Georges and Marie I had absolutely no investment in what happened to them at all so it didn’t end up being as important as I’m sure it was meant to be.

The Incredible Hulk # 172 And Canst Thou Slay… The Juggernaut?: D

Captain America #172 Believe It or Not: The Banshee: B

Captain America #173 The Sins of the Secret Empire: B

Captain America #174 Its Always Darkest….: A

Captain America #175 Before the Dawn!: A

Marvel Team-Up #23 The Night of the Frozen: C

The Incredible Hulk #180 And the Wind Howls… Wendigo!: D

The Incredible Hulk #181 And Now… the Wolverine!: C

The Incredible Hulk #182 Between Hammer and Anvil: D