Chronological X-Men - Wolverine Part 1 Review

Wolverine! (Also a little bit of 'whose wedding is it anyway?)

Wolverine #1 – I’m Wolverine

Wolverine #2 – Debts and Obligations

Wolverine #3 – Loss

Wolverine #4 – Honor

This particular mini-series shows us what Logan has been up to since he left the X-Men. It starts off with Logan tracking an illegal hunter in Canada and eventually traveling to Japan to see Mariko after she refuses to speak with him or return any of his attempts to contact him. It turns out that the reason why she has cut off all contact with him is because when Mariko’s father Lord Shingen returns and basically forces Mariko into an arranged marriage with Noburu-Hideki. Logan doesn’t take it too well when he finds out that Mariko is physically abused by her husband but Logan doesn’t have much time to deal with it because he is quickly attacked by members of The Hand – it turns out that they are working for Shingen who has gotten the Clan Yashida involved with the Yakuza because he is heavily involved in illegal activity. After being rejected by Mariko Logan meets up with Yukio (her first appearance at all) who is basically the female version of himself. However all is not as it seems, it turns out that Yukio is working with Lord Shingen to kill Logan – unfortunately for her she has fallen in love with him. Once Logan learns that Shingen is behind the attacks from The Hand he confronts him and on their second duel he ends up killing Shingen in front of Mariko – who felt honor bound to kill her father herself if Logan hadn’t. So in the end Mariko ends up leaving her abusive husband and she and Logan become engaged leaving the series to end with the X-Men getting an invitation to Logan and Mariko’s wedding, and Yukio roaming around Japan a woman scorned. I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting a lot going into this mini-series. Wolverine isn’t really the type of character that can carry off a plot that doesn’t revolve around nothing but fights but this was a nice mixture of plot and action so it felt very even. There were a few things that didn’t really make any sense Logan mentions that he knows who his father is which is odd considering he isn’t supposed to have any memories of his life prior to working as a secret agent for the Canadian government. When the X-Men get the wedding invitation Scott is present – yet in The Uncanny X-Men he is currently in Alaska becoming involved with Madelyne Pryor. There’s all this turmoil with the Clan Yashida yet Shiro (Sunfire) is no where to be seen and he is Mariko’s cousin.

Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 – The Hunters and the Hunted!

Well now we have Spider-Man who is trying to track down Cloak and Dagger and help them bring the people who killed a bunch of teens to justice. Through a random series of events Cannonball, Psyche, Sunspot and Wolfsbane all become involved which results in Roberto and Rahne getting kidnapped by the drug dealers who are trying to use their drugs on mutants to create a counter part that will help protect them from Cloak and Dagger. There really isn’t much to say about this particular story it was good but I would much rather have had the writer switch out Dani with Xi’an. It would have been a perfect way to play up her history that surrounded around child exploitation and they could have had Spider-Man or cannonball pull her back from going over the edge once Rahne and Roberto where augmented and turned into mindless beasts by the drug dealers.

The New Mutants #5 – Heroes

The New Mutants #6 – Road Warriors!

Well the New Mutants go to the local Fair as a reward for everything that they had been through recently and they encounter Team America – a group of stunt riders that Roberto looks at as heroes; so much so that he even creates a fictional sister just so he can get Team America’s autographs for ‘her.’ The fair is quickly crashed by The Silver Samurai (first time he appears in an X-book) and Viper (I’m pretty sure that this also her first appearance in an X-book) who plan on using Team America to steal a crystal from AIM’s ‘Project Matrix’ unfortunately Dani gets kidnapped by the evil dup and Viper adjusts her plan telling everyone that unless they bring her the crystal she will kill Dani. Charles and Lilandra work with Team America to obtain the crystal while Xi’an, Sam, Rahne and Roberto try to locate Dani. Charles looses contact with everyone when he is struck down with a telepathic blow (that also effects Lilandra and Karma) so he has no idea what’s going on with Xi’an’s team. Unfortunately she has taken the team to meet with her uncle to try to get him to give her information that will help her locate Dani. Finding herself unable to kill her uncle she ends up agreeing to a deal – if he reveals the location of Viper’s headquarters she will work for him no questions asked for a year. Ultimately Charles is able to regain telepathic contact with The New Mutants and shortly after that Xi’an is tormented by a voice only she can hear unfortunately before anyone can do anything about it The Silver Samurai sets off a series of bombs that blow up the island. My only problem with this is that given the current storyline it feels odd that suddenly Charles and Lilandra are in Japan for Logan and Mariko's wedding and that Storm knows the outcome of this particular battle yet there's a whole other storyline that continues in the next issue of the New Mutants that goes on for a few issues actually but the start of it happens just before the rest of this particular overall plot line (Logan and Mariko's wedding) so you could almost read like the first 2-3 pages of the next issue of New Mutants and then jump back to this story and finish it up. It's an odd little thing and it doesn't bug me much which is surprising but oh well.

The Uncanny X-Men #172 – Scarlet in Glory

The Uncanny X-Men #173 – To Have and Have Not

The X-Men (including their newest member Rogue) arrive in Japan for Logan and Mariko’s wedding. Unknown to Logan Yukio is still ‘looking out for’ Logan and encounters The Silver Samurai who has returned to Japan after his recent battle with The New Mutants in an attempt to stop the wedding and take back control of the Clan Yashida (since he is Mariko’s half brother.) Viper manages to poison all of the X-Men except for Rogue, Logan and Storm which causes Logan to try to get revenge on Viper and Keniuchio with Rogue’s help. He doesn’t want anything to do with Rogue at first but she more than proves herself when she risks her life to save Mariko. Storm continues to struggle with her sense of self and lose control of her powers – thankfully she meets up with Yukio and sort of models this new way she’s thinking and behaving after Yukio’s train of thought ‘you only die once.’ Speaking of only dying once… after a heated battle where Ororo loses control of her powers and is flung into the water to keep from burning herself to death she sees a giant flaming Phoenix rising out of the sky. Ororo continues her metamorphosis and ends up shaving her head leaving only a mohawk and donning a brand new all leather outfit. Meanwhile before traveling to Japan with Alex, Lorna, Corsair and Madelyne; Alex catches Scott going through the records of their grandparents business specifically looking at Madelyne’s file because he believes her to be the reincarnation of Phoenix. In Japan though Madelyne’s presence doesn’t go over too well at first, Lilandra tries to kill her, everyone else is shocked to see her and Kitty (possibly on purpose) scares her by making her watch Lockheed. At the wedding Mariko refuses to marry Logan stating that he isn’t, and never will be worthy of him and as she walks away we see a cropped image of Mastermind. Obviously he had gone after her and used his powers, but it remains to be seen how he dug his way out of his mind from his past encounter with Phoenix, why he targeted Mystique, and if he has any thing to do with the recent attack Charles suffered or if he had anything to do with the voices Karma heard before she died (oh yeah, there’s a little error here and it is revealed that Storm knows that Xi’an did in the explosion – there’s a bit of a timeline error her since the next main story Nova Roma takes place after Logan and Mariko’s non-wedding yet Xi’an’s death isn’t revealed until that story, and Charles and Lilandra are still dealing with the New Mutants with Ororo’s help in New Mutants #7 yet they’re over in Japan now – it’s a minor error that I can over look so it’s not too bad) or the giant Phoenix that Ororo and Yukio saw. There is one little change – a cosmetic one that isn’t really explained (but it doesn’t need to be either, I just find it odd) up until this point Rogue has had her white streaks on the side of her head and now it’s suddenly just one streak in the front. You know it’s a pretty good story if all I can nitpick about is someone’s hair.

What If? #43 – What If… Wolverine Had Married Mariko?

Okay much like with almost every single What If… that I’ve read so far this story teaches us that no matter what is different everyone dies and I’m kind of sick of it really, there’s a way to have an alternate reality story that doesn’t involve killing most of the characters involved. In this particular story Logan does indeed marry Mariko and the two of them stay in Japan (which is a major cause of disappointment for Kitty) to regain the honor of Clan Yoshida and dissolve any and all involvement with the Yakuza. Eventually Mariko’s half brother The Silver Samurai betrays the person he is working for claiming he wants to regain his own personal honor and become a member of Clan Yoshida once again. Logan learns that the leader of the Yakuza is none other than Wilson Fisk… the Kingpin. After a series of battles Logan and Mariko almost die but are saved by her cousin Shiro (Sunfire) and he joins up in the battle as well. Logan agrees to a duel to the death with Kingpin and manages to defeat Kingpin and then it is revealed that Silver Samurai has been working as a double agent for Fisk and kills Mariko. Logan goes crazy and ends up killing The Silver Samurai by extending his claws into the man’s head. Fisk takes off vowing that he will one day seize control of the Clan Yoshida, Logan refuses to stay in Japan and returns to the X-Men after turning over Clan Yoshida to Mariko’s cousin Shiro. Like I said before, I don’t like the idea of alternate realities where one thing is different and it leads to many deaths. There is a way to do an alternate story that doesn’t kill most people off and I’d rather see stories like that instead of the usual – one thing different, everyone dies, this teaches us that if something different happens everyone dies….

Wolverine #1 – I’m Wolverine: B

Wolverine #2 – Debts and Obligations: B

Wolverine #3 – Loss: A

Wolverine #4 – Honor: A

Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 – The Hunters and the Hunted!: B

The New Mutants #5 – Heroes: A

The New Mutants #6 – Road Warriors!: A

The Uncanny X-Men #172 – Scarlet in Glory: A

The Uncanny X-Men #173 – To Have and Have Not: A

What If? #43 – What If… Wolverine Had Married Mariko?: C

Chronological X-Men - Magik Review

Magik!

Dazzler #26 – Against the Wind

Dazzler #27 – Fugitive!

Dazzler #28 – Vendetta!

This is one of those plot lines that is kind of a wash. I liked it, but I didn’t; it was good, yet it was flawed. Alison continues to grow closer to her half sister Lois who continues to suffer from headaches and black outs. We finally learn why – it turns out Lois is also a mutant and when her powers manifest she accidentally murders a homeless man who tries to attack and sexually assault her in a deserted street. This causes Alison and her sister to go on the run because thanks to Stryker Anti-Mutant hysteria is at an all time high and they both fear that Lois will never get true justice simply because she might be a mutant. On the run Alison is forced to create a disguise to keep from being recognized now that she’s famous. After Lois’ powers manifest again and lead to the death of a cat they take off again and head to LA. Meanwhile Rogue hasn’t taken too well to her many recent defeats at Alison’s hands and has begun hunting her down to exact her own revenge even though Mystique and Destiny both believe she should let it go. Everything comes to a head when in LA Alison receives pictures of Lois killing the homeless man and they are blackmailed into killing someone else – it turns out to be Lois’ biological father Nick Brown. The two of them kind of reconnect and Alison seems to like him, but she can’t get past the things her mother said he did to her – not that she has much time to because Warren has been shot (he’s recovering at a nearby hospital though) and Rogue is chasing her through Nick’s home trying to kill her. Ultimately Alison defeats Rogue and this time it must have sunk in that being with the Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Evil Mutants doesn’t pay off because she officially leaves the group off panel but this is the last time she’s an actual member of the team.

The Uncanny X-Men #169 – Catacombs

The Uncanny X-Men #170 – Dancin’ in the Dark

This storyline brings us the first appearance of the Morlocks (who are named after the subhuman group of subterranean from H.G. Welles’ ‘The Time Machine.’ We’ve seen Caliban before but this is the first time we see Callisto, Masque, Plague and Sunder – there are other Morlocks but they haven’t been given names yet. There were a few things that seemed a bit off, mostly because it is a bit hard to keep track of every single action every character makes in every book – the fact that there are some things that don’t exactly fit make me concerned that it will only get worse when they add in more X-books. Right now there are only three, but for a huge chunk of time there is a period of time where there are no less than 6 X-books at any given time. Now for the odd things.. Angel is kidnapped and taken to the Morlocks’ tunnel to be married to Callisto – this is odd because in the story he is with Candy yet for like the past year’s worth of comics he’s been off in the Dazzler book where he pretty much walked out on his relationship with Candy so he can pursue a romantic relationship with Alison Blaire, on top of that there is no mention (not like Warren has the chance what with being strung up, knocked out and having large portions of his wings plucked out) of him being hounded by Rogue, Mystique and Destiny nor the fact that he was recently shot. Another thing that’s ‘off’ is the fact that Storm says she knows what Angel is going through only the way she says it makes it sound like she ran away and escaped from the man who raped her when she was twelve and that she would never kill anyone because she would become a monster like that man when the whole build up over the years has been the fact that Ororo had killed her rapist and swore that she would never take another human life. There are a few more things that are … off … Mastermind has been tormenting Mystique through nightmares where she is the animal that he and Lady Jean Grey killed when he was trying to corrupt Jean. I don’t really understand why he’s after Mystique because up to this point Jason has never crossed paths with Raven or Irene. Rogue goes missing –which places this story right after the recent Dazzler one. The change in Ororo’s behavior is interesting, I wish they’d explain it though – I’m betting it had something to do with things that happened to her during the Brood storyline. We get much more interaction between Scott and Madelyne which is nice (because by now you all should know how I feel about her character) but it seems really sudden. It would have benefited from a slower build up. The story wasn’t bad but it was far from being very good and it left me wanting a lot more than it delivered.

The New Mutants #4 – Who’s Scaring Stevie?

This story almost could fit better during the whole God Loves, Man Kills plot simply because of the subject matter but it doesn’t really fit that time line. This story revolves around the New Mutants trying to figure out who has been harassing their teacher Stevie over the phone for a period of time. It’s one of those stories that is a good read but it’s not really an issue you’d jump at the bit to read again. I don’t know why, but for some reason I’m still fonder of the New Mutants stories than the Uncanny X-Men – maybe it’s because it’s a whole new set of characters. I still have issues with the art – it isn’t bad but it’s hard to look at things for example how Sam is drawn and not laugh or think he looks like some 40 year old country singer but that’s how he’s supposed to be portrayed so I can’t find too much fault with it. I don’t really have anything bad to say about this story my only complaint was the little mistake where Dani said that they were invited to the dance when at the time that the team was invited Dani was busy being locked in the Danger Room and assaulted by the Brood Queen that had taken over Charles.

The Uncanny X-Men #171 – Rogue

Ororo offers the Morlocks a home at Xavier’s school if they ever want it and she promises to continue to look in on them as she is now their leader. We see a little of Carol struggling with her life and lack of emotional connection she has to her newly recovered memories. Logan is still off on his own, and Scott is in Alaska busy starting up his own relationship with Madelyne. Speaking of Madelyne we learn that she was the lone survivor of a fiery crash that happened on the exact same date that Phoenix died. Granted you have too look at the event not the actual year because the yearly scale is a sliding one because even assuming that all the characters were 20 in the early 80s they would all be at least 50 now. The main plot involves Rogue having difficulties dealing with Carol’s mind trapped within her own and she goes to the X-Men for help, none of the X-Men take it well but Carol takes it the hardest leaving the X-Men behind for good since Rogue has been given status as a member of the team. Kitty has officially given up her codename of Sprite and gone back to Ariel which is like okay.. whatever. Illyana programs in a new training session for the X-Men (who are in need of blowing off steam while Charles examines Rogue) and somehow manages to program in a recreation of Limbo and particular events that happened there. Kitty tries to comfort Illyana who has started to panic and draws out the Soulsword for the first time and actually scratches Kitty with it while she is phased. The big thing with this though is that seeing Limbo again has forced Illyana to remember everything she had so far blocked out.

Magik #1 – Little Girl Lost

Magik #2 – Cold Iron – Hot Blood!

Magik #3 – Soulquest

Magik #4 – Darkchild

This is one of those stories that gives you a big bang for your buck. Illyana is contemplating her life and how to figure out exactly how old she is. It is her birthday but if she had stayed on Earth she’d only be turning seven but thanks to being trapped in Limbo and time moving differently she is actually turning 15. Of course she’s still struggling with her newly resurfaced memories. We learn quite a bit with this story – not only how Ororo learned how to tap into magic but how Belasco initially planned on using her and using her soul to make a series of bloodstones with. We see how Piotr died trying to protect his sister, Kitty becoming ‘touched’ by Belasco’s magic and first becoming a cat/human hybrid before being ultimately changed and transformed into a cat. We see Ororo try to teach Illyana white magic before she runs away with Cat (Kitty) and trying to use the stepping disks to return to Earth. Cat ends up killing a totally corrupted version of Kurt and as punishment Belasco makes her his new servant. A series of spells, trials and events allow Belasco to teach Illyana black magic eventually corrupting her and pulling portions of her soul into a new series of bloodstones that he intends on using because there’s something about Illyana’s soul that will allow Belasco’s masters a way to destroy all of the Earth. Illyana slowly learns how to control her magic, eventually learning that the stepping disks are actually her own creation – which finally solves the question of if she is a mutant or not. She is, and her powers are similar to Kurt’s – this is a bit odd though because I’m not sure why she would have blocked out the fact that she has mutant abilities once she returned to Earth considering pretty much all Illyana ever said before going to Limbo was asking questions revolving around the fact that she might be a mutant, and she continued those types of questions once she returned to Earth. We finally get an explanation as to why Illyana hasn’t seen her parents – when she attempted to escape Limbo with Cat she managed to escape briefly and returned home to Russia and encountered her parents. Her mother and father ended up rejecting her (not aware of the fact that time moves differently in Limbo) thinking she is no more than an unruly teenager who is wicked and pretending to be Illyana just to torment them. It still doesn’t make sense to me as to why she hasn’t gone back to them, or why Piotr hasn’t visited them and told them what happened. Things drastically spiral out of control and Illyana ends up snapping Cat’s neck and killing her and shortly after that killing Ororo. According to a dying Ororo though these were mercy killings and didn’t end up costing her soul anything – unfortunately this causes the third (there needs to be five total) bloodstone to be created which leaves Illyana more evil black magic than white magic. Illyana tries a spell that Ororo did once only to find out that it will never work for her since she has become more corrupted than Ororo ever is – Illyana cannot create life like Ororo did, instead she focuses her magic to create the Soulsword to use as a means of preventing others from ending or perverting life. A heated battle with Belasco leads to Illyana transforming into Darkchylde for the first time only the good in her rejects the transformation and won’t allow herself to kill Belasco. She realizes that if she stays in Limbo she would be able to make it better but the ultimate price would be the destruction of her soul and would lead to the re-corruption of Limbo so Illyana decides to leave Limbo and return to Earth. In the End we see Illyana wandering around the mansion finding the New Mutants and she realizes that just maybe the ending of her innocence was only just the beginning of her life. I’ve got to say I really love this story, I could read it again now, and then when I’m finished I could go right back and re-read it. There honestly is not a single bad thing that I can say about this story, and if Illyana wasn’t in my top 5 favorite X-Men characters of all time I would still want to read the story three times. I wish that Illyana was given a real series at some point. It’s been a major gripe with me, she’s gotten a few miniseries over the years but when you see characters like Captain Brittan, Rogue, Blink and Gambit get multiple series over the years I just wish that they gave Magik one.

Dazzler #26 – Against the Wind: B

Dazzler #27 – Fugitive!L B

Dazzler #28 – Vendetta!L B

The Uncanny X-Men #169 – Catacombs: B

The Uncanny X-Men #170 – Dancin’ in the Dark: B

The New Mutants #4 – Who’s Scaring Stevie?: C

The Uncanny X-Men #171 – Rogue: B

Magik #1 – Little Girl Lost: A

Magik #2 – Cold Iron – Hot Blood!: A

Magik #3 – Soulquest: A

Magik #4 – Darkchild: A

Chronological X-Men - God Loves, Man Kills Review

God Loves, Man Kills

Marvel Graphic Novel #5 – X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills

Okay this is one of those stories that have been praised for being so strong and so ahead of the times and all that jazz – it’s one of the stories where when you mention the X-Men people know this story. Anyway, it was a little hard for me to place this story because currently Logan isn’t with the X-Men, he’s in Japan and Scott is off in Alaska, yet the X-Men are all together back on Earth so this takes place after the Brood Queen Egg that Charles was carrying had been destroyed.  Kitty has already switched to the Ariel codename (she was currently Sprite – but given that all this is going off of the Purifiers files it’s possible that they only knew her as Ariel – even though that doesn’t make any sense because she only used that codename for like 10 seconds when she first joined the team before switching to Sprite) and Ororo hasn’t gone through her own extreme makeover et. This is one of those stories (much like when Jean died) that you can’t help but go ‘$..! just got real.’ Not only were there quite a few deaths but there was torture, violence, execution style killing of children – and it wasn’t done in a way like the Brood story was where it just happens with this story there is a lot of shock value that makes the story extremely heavy. The plot revolves around the introduction of William Stryker and his Purifiers who believe that they have been commanded by God to purge the world of all mutants and they intend on using Charles own mutant powers as a way to destroy all the mutants. The only other (like there weren’t enough major events going on already) big revelation is that Stryker’s mutant detection device doesn’t know what to make of Illyana she registers as human yet not human, mutant yet not mutant so that’s interesting. I really don’t have anything bad to say about this story I can see why it gets all the hype that it does.

The Uncanny X-Men #168 – Professor Xavier is a Jerk!

I put this story here because it seems to fit after everything that the X-Men recently went through with Stryker it would make sense that Charles would still be hesitant to put Kitty back with the X-Men. Logan has left the X-Men to go to Canada (so this takes place after God Loves, Man Kills) and Scott leaves for Florida to meet up with his kind of former girlfriend Lee before he takes off for Alaska with Alex and Corsair so Scott and Alex can meet their grandparents (we haven’t seen them yet) and meet a pilot Madelyne Pryor who looks identical to Jean. Kurt goes to visit his girlfriend Amanda and Kitty tries her best to prove to Charles that she deserves to be an X-Man. Unfortunately that leads Kitty into a not so pleasant encounter with a nest of Sidri hatchlings that have just been born – the good news is somehow the dragon (that kitty names Lockheed) managed to follow her back to Earth and he destroys most of the nest.

Dazzler #25 – The Jagged Edge

This is another story that felt like it belonged in this plot line simply because of the story matter. Alison continues her rise to stardom and fame only to gain a brand new fan that turns out to be a psychopathic stalker army vet who lost his grip on his sanity and reality once he heard that his father had died. It was a good story when you lump it in with the current plotlines and I actually think it was almost strong enough to stand on it’s own too which is saying a lot because there aren’t that many issues of this book that I would ever read again but not only is this an issue that I can picture myself reading a second time – it’s actually a story that I would want to read again and for this book that is a huge deal. There isn’t really anything negative that I can say about this issue which is a good thing. The only downside I can think of is that this is the final issue of the series before it switches from monthly to bimonthly. And given certain plots this book has had in the past even this could almost be considered a good thing.

Marvel Graphic Novel #5 – X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills: A

The Uncanny X-Men #168 – Professor Xavier is a Jerk!: A

Dazzler #25 – The Jagged Edge: A