Chronological X-Men - Secret Wars II Part 1 Review

Secret Wars II (review part 1)

Dazzler #37 – The Girl in the Machine

Alison gets a call from an old friend of hers asking for help and Alison jumps at the chance to reconnect with her. The only problem is when she reaches Diana’s home she is told that Diana died over six months ago! We see the return of Revenge Inc which was nice but between their return, Diana’s involvement and the whole story behind Revenge Inc using Diana and giving her those operations that eventually caused her to be absorbed into this machine that apparently only she could use and then turn against them was a bit too much and it made it seem forced. This story could have easily been more than one issue, or they should have had a few things here and there that led up to it. Sure there’s the Revenge Inc thing, but we’ve never even heard of Diana Simon before this particular issue. It didn’t need to be a B or C plot in other issues, but at least one page or 2-3 panels here and there would have made this story better than it was.

Dazzler #38 – Challenge

See this right here – the few pages with O.Z. Chase and that mysterious man that we don’t see who suddenly turns to a pile of dust is exactly what I was talking about in the previous issue. There needs to be some kind of build up to the plots – it doesn’t need to have the bulk of an issue devoted to it, but it’s a perfect thing to put in to beef up stand alone stories, or filler issues. I was actually much more interested in the whole bounty hunter thing and that mysterious figure than I was about the main plot. It jumps around too much First Logan and Piotr are fighting Alison then it flashes back to Alison going to the X-Men wanting to train her new powers. There were just too many weird things. I understand Logan’s disgust at Alison wanting to train when she has no interest in being a super hero. I don’t understand why Piotr is all gaga over Alison when he’s busy ‘not loving’ Kitty. Rogue being all pro Alison is odd considering the two of them despise each other and I have no idea why Scott shows up out of the blue.

The New Mutants #29 – Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion…

Roberto and Amara are kidnapped by members of the Gladiators and it’s up to Sam and Illyana to save them. We see the return of the Gladiators from the Beauty and the Beast miniseries as well as Lila Cheney, Dazzler (obviously), Magneto and Lee Forrester. We have the first appearance of Guido Carosella AKA Strong Guy. Charles and the rest of the New Mutants are still on Muir Island so we basically only get Amara, Roberto, Sam and Illyana this time. There isn’t really much to say about this issue, Roberto and Amara stay with the Gladiators to save a bunch of runaway children; Charles contacts Magneto to let him know that the Beyonder has returned and charges Magneto to assemble a team to go up against him to save the world (Illyana and Sam join).

The Uncanny X-Men #195 – It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

We meet The Power Pack for the first time which I guess is okay – honestly I don’t feel one way or another about their appearance here. The X-Men are a little too old to be dealing with kids that young, it would have fit a bit better if this happened in The New Mutants title instead of Uncanny X-men but what can you do? The Morlocks are back: Annalee is still suffering from the murder of her children (they were killed in Uncanny X-Men #193), Leech, Callisto, Masque and Sunder we’ve seen before, I think this is the first time we’ve seen Ape or at the very least the first time Ape has had more than just a group shot in the X-Books I mean. Beautiful Dreamer, Erg and Tar Baby show up for the first time in this book. I’m not really sure where Kurt or Piotr are or why their absence means that Kitty is running point on this mission, especially over a tracker like Logan or a telepath like Rachel. It was a good issue though which is fine by me. Of course we have the build up to Secret Wars II here too because Rachel is summoned telepathically by Magneto ordering that she (how he knows about her I have no idea) and the rest of the X-Men return to the mansion immediately.

Secret Wars II #1 – Earthfall!

You know, I thought that the first Secret Wars series was packed with characters but this one takes the cake. This is just the first issue and we’ve got: The Beyonder, Molecule Man, Volcana, Wolfsbane, Warlock, Mirage, Cannonball, Magik, Captain America, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Shadowcat, Magneto, Rogue, Rachel Summers, Iron Man (James), Tony Stark, Professor X, Moria MacTaggert, David Haller (Legion) Dazzler, Lila Cheney and Doug Ramsey *who for some reason is colored with black hair that makes him look like Roberto. We get a new character ‘Thundersword’ who is a TV writer who obtains a portion of the Beyonder’s power and pretty much goes crazy. I do like the idea of a potential inside joke looking back on it. The writer is sick of having to play by everyone’s rules and just wants to write what he wants to write. It’s funny once you consider that many X-book writers expressed their dislike of having to throw away their own plots to fit in with massive title wide crossovers and events. I like the concept of The Beyonder wanting to learn and grow but I think I need to see more of it before I can really judge it.

The New Mutants #30 – The Singer & Her Song

The New Mutants #31 – Saturday Night Fight

After having the evil portion of her soul pulled out into the open and becoming the demonic Darkchilde by the Beyonder Illyana transports herself, Rachel, Sam, Kitty and Dazzler to Limbo. Kitty manages to take Illyana’s Soulsword and use it on Illyana which effectively causes Darkchilde’s essence to retreat back into Illyana’s soul. From there the group returns to LA where they find that the Beyonder, X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man and Lila Cheney have all vanished. Kitty steps up as the leader of the group and they make their way back to the Gladiators to try once again to free Roberto and Amara. The big reveal here is that the mysterious person that has been running the Gladiators is really Xi’an Coy Manh! Obviously they can’t give out all the details of her sudden resurrection or why she has changed not only in behavior but drastically in the looks department as well. What is kind of explained is why the sudden change in the Gladiators mindset; while it’s not expressly said I’m choosing to believe that is why they returned to their old ways. Ultimately Xi’an gets away and Kitty decides that the New Mutants need to go on their own and track down Karma while she, Rachel, and Alison reconnect with the X-Men.

Dazzler #37 – The Girl in the Machine: B

Dazzler #38 – Challenge: C

The New Mutants #29 – Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion…: B

The Uncanny X-Men #195 – It Was A Dark And Stormy Night: A

Secret Wars II #1 – Earthfall!: B

The New Mutants #30 – The Singer & Her Song: A

The New Mutants #31 – Saturday Night Fight: B

Chronological X-Men - Part 17 Review

It’s like squatting at an apartment, only not at an apartment but in other Marvel Comics while the X-Men look for a place to call their very own. A Mutant Road Trip if you will.

Amazing Adventures #11 The Beast

Amazing Adventures #12 Iron Man: D.O.A.

Amazing Adventures #13 Evil is All in Your Mind

Amazing Adventures #14 The Vampire Machine

Umm.. okay, where to start with this one… I was actually kind of let down by the over all story. It’s one of those fixed points in the X-Men history that is so relevant that it can’t ever be ignored but at the same time I don’t think that it really lived up to all the hype it had in my head. It doesn’t help either that some things just don’t track: we’re led to believe that the X-Men are in hiding due to anti-mutant hysteria and that Charles has forbidden everyone aside from Hank from leaving the Xavier Institute yet in the few scenes we do have with the X-Men in this story we never actually see Lorna or Alex- it’s almost as if they don’t exist at all. It’s also unclear as to exactly how much time has passed between this and the end of the X-Men title (as well as the future Hidden Years book, but that becomes an issue with larger reasons in future books that I’ll talk about shortly) but it appears that a rather significant portion of time has passed because Hank is no longer with Vera, instead he is in love with his assistant Linda Donaldson. Anyway for the actual plot Hank is trying to single out and cure genetic mutation but through a series of events he has to take his own ‘cure’ and it ends up jumpstarting his mutation and turn him into the furry Beast that’s been around for years. There are a lot of characters that we touch base with through the course of this story: the X-Men, Iron Man, Mastermind, The Blob, Unus, Quasimodo, a strange woman always in the shadows who is looking for Hank, Patsy Walker, Buzz Baxter, Linda, and the ranks of ‘the Secret Empire’ who play a rather large role in the over all X-Men plot for the next year-ish. IN the end though, it just didn’t live up to the hype I had built up in my brain- it’s kind of sad actually, I really wanted this to be a lot better than it actually was.

Amazing Adventures #15 Murder in Mid-Air!

Amazing Adventures #16 … And the Juggernaut will get you… if you don’t watch out!

Amazing Adventures #17 Birth of the Beast!

The Incredible Hulk #161 Beyond the Border Lurks Death!

The next chapter in this story is a little better but it’s more disjointed. We find out that the shadowed woman has been Vera, Hank’s ex-girlfriend so it appears that the two of them either parted on good terms or it has been an even larger period of time that has passed since the end of the X-Men book and the last few adventures. She’s been looking for Hank to take him to Canada to stop some massive threat that can end the world. It makes you wonder if she had figured out if Hank is a mutant, but it turns out she just wants his help for his brain, the threat that can end the world actually ends up being Calvin Rankin, the Mimic who is quickly loosing control of his powers and is afraid that he will cause the death of everyone he comes in contact with. The Hulk comes into play for two reasons here: Amazing Adventures was canceled before this story could finish so it had to wrap up somewhere, and they explained the Hulk’s weakening powers as a result of Mimic inadvertently draining them. In the end it appears that Calvin dies of radiation poisoning from prolonged draining of the Hulk’s gamma radiation. Back in Amazing Adventures we see a sort of Halloween tale where Hank fights Juggernaut- which I think they could have skipped that story entirely because it would have allowed them to wrap up this plot without having to outsource it’s conclusion to yet another book. The final issue of Amazing Adventures ends up being a reprint of the Origin of the Beast that ran as one of the many back up features in the X-Men books. It’s basically just a reprint of: A Beast is Born, This Boy- This Bombshell, The Lure of the Beast- Nappers!, The Crimes of the Conquistador! And Welcome to the Club, Beast! There really isn’t anything to say about this so we’re going to move on now.

Ka-Zar #2 From the Sky, Winged Wrath

Ka-Zar #3 In the Den of the Dazzler

Marvel Tales #30 Te Cage an Angel!

Here we see the start of the story that gave us the plot of X-Men: The Hidden Years #13-15. We see how Dazzler (Angel’s uncle Burt, not the Dazzler we come to know and love later) had Warren Worthington JR killed, we see him capture Angel and learn that he is Warren Worthington III- there really isn’t anything much to say about that. We see the FBI agent who has been working with the X-Men for some time now try to talk Angel fof of a ledge and keep him from killing Dazzler’s men and we see more of Warren’s relationship with Candy. The story is pretty good, if not rushed, which is sort of to be expected considering it ran as a back up feature over the course of three books, so it’s barely large enough for one full comic book to begin with. I think my problem with this story is the fact that I read the retcon first, so I already knew that Burt didn’t die when Warren dropped him to save Candy from falling to her death, but at the same time we don’t actually see Warren tell Candy that he’s Angel, let alone take the time out to explain everything X-Men and Charles Xavier related to her. It’s a safe bet to assume that it happens off panel, but still with how bold Candy acts in the Hidden Years, you would at the very least think that Warren ‘outing’ himself as a mutant would have been shown.

Avengers #110 … And Now Magneto!

Avengers #111 With Two Beside Them!

This next story also sort of suffers from the retcon of The Hidden Years because this particular story then becomes very much displaced. We still haven’t seen Lorna or Alex, so this must take place around the same time they appeared in The Hulk, but that’s iffy too because in Amazing Adventures it is stated that Charles has forbidden the X-Men except for Hank from leaving the Institute. Now this story obviously takes place after The Hidden Years because Hank is now the blue furred Beast, but that doesn’t make sense because the X-Men are shocked that Magneto is alive but by that point they all should know he survived what happened to him in the Savage Land because they have dealt with him several times since then. We do learn one important thing here and that is that someone has systematically been targeting and abducting mutants for a while now and in the midst of the confusion between Magneto fighting the X-Men and then posing as Angel someone has made off with the real Angel. Another thing I found a little strange is during the whole Savage Land story in the X-Men Ka-Zar snapped the Piper’s neck in order to get him to stop, so it leads us to believe that he’s dead only now he’s up and around working for Magneto yet again. It’s just a little too weird. It would have been a good read but I’ve read maybe a total of 5 Avenger comic books in my entire life so I’m not familiar with that universe at all so I honestly didn’t care about Black Panther’s people wanting him to return home, Pietro and Wanda’s falling out over her falling in love with a robot (the Vision) or Hawkeye leaving the team to be with Black Widow only to find out she’s been shacking up with Daredevil and her eventually joining the Avengers to help replenish their ranks while giving her some time and space to pick between Hawkeye and Daredevil.

Amazing Adventures #11 The Beast: C

Amazing Adventures #12 Iron Man: D.O.A.: B

Amazing Adventures #13 Evil is All in Your Mind: B

Amazing Adventures #14 The Vampire Machine: B

Amazing Adventures #15 Murder in Mid-Air!: B

Amazing Adventures #16 … And the Juggernaut will get you… if you don’t watch out!: D

Amazing Adventures #17 Birth of the Beast!: C

The Incredible Hulk #161 Beyond the Border Lurks Death!: B

Ka-Zar #2 From the Sky, Winged Wrath: A

Ka-Zar #3 In the Den of the Dazzler: A

Marvel Tales #30 Te Cage an Angel!: A

Avengers #110 … And Now Magneto!: C

Avengers #111 With Two Beside Them!: C

Chronological X-Men - Part 08 Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chronological X-Men - Part 03 Review

Okay, part three of who knows how many it will end up being.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #7 The Return of the Blob-

Well the X-Men graduate which is a major thing on it’s own. It didn’t feel like they were ‘in school’ long, but that could be because when the series first came out it started as bi-monthly instead of being read over the course of three sittings. Magneto and The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants tries to recruit the Blob and it almost works but Magneto’s willingness to murder the Blob in an attempt to also kill the X-Men leaves the Blob not wanting to be apart of anything mutant related and he goes back to working at the circus/carnival. We get two introductions this time one in the form of a girl named Zelda who ends up dating Bobby in the future and this is the first time we see Cerebro, Charles’ mutant detection device. A few more major things happen here, Charles leaves on a quest and appoints Cyclops the leader of the X-Men, also Magneto’s willingness to murder even more people helps to deepen the growing rift between himself and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #8 The Uncanny Threat of … Unus, the Untouchable!-

Hank and Bobby save a boy who managed to climb to the top of a building only to have the crowd turn on them thinking they were only doing it to trick humanity into thinking they aren’t evil. Fed up with how he has been treated Beast quits the X-Men wanting nothing more to do with the quest for acceptance; he ends up using his mutant powers selfishly and becomes a pro-wrestler where he meets Unus the Untouchable who can repel anything that touches him. Magneto learns that Unus is a mutant and sends him on a trial mission, defeat an X-Man and he can join The Brotherhood. Hank builds a device that augments Unus’ powers which causes the X-Men to think Hank is working for Magneto also. Hank’s device increases Unus’ power so much that he can’t touch anything, he agrees to not work for Magneto and Hank reverses the devices powers and rejoins the X-Men. We get to see a little bit of what Charles is doing, he’s repelling down into some cave looking for a man called Lucifer.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #9 Enter, the Avengers-

 

Well this issue here has a whole lot of firsts: the first appearance of Lucifer, the first time the X-Men fight The Avengers, the first appearances of Captain America, Giant-Man, Iron-Man, Thor and Wasp; the first retcon and actually the second retcon too. In X-Men #1 Charles states that he was crippled in a childhood accident only now a mere 8 issues later it’s revealed that he was crippled in the middle of a heated battle with Lucifer. The second retcon isn’t that big of a deal actually it almost doesn’t even count considering Angel and Iron-Man meeting was sort of a ‘what if’ type story and doesn’t technically exist within the X-Men universe.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #10 The Coming of… Ka-Zar!-

 

This issue is a big on because it introduces Ka-Zar, and his pet Zabu as well as The Savage Land, which plays a larger role in the Universe as the years progress. Other than that, this issue wasn’t that big of a deal. The copy I read was riddled with mistakes, Jean is held prisoner with Angel but she calls him by Scott’s name was really the only mistake that took me out of the story, the others weren’t that big, just spelling errors so it’s not that bad – it just sticks out because of Ka-Zar’s speech pattern being the way it is you sort of expect more from the rest of the writing and characters.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #11 The Triumph of Magneto-

The X-Men and The Brotherhood battle over the fate of ‘the Stranger’ who everyone thinks he’s a mutant only it turns out he’s some space traveler who goes from planet to planet collecting ‘mutant species’ for study. I don’t know how I feel about this issue but it does serve some importance: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch officially leave the Brotherhood and head back to Europe, Mastermind is turned into stone by the Stranger, Magneto manages to defeat the X-Men but that’s not really a good thing because a result of the battle leads to the Stranger taking Magneto (and Toad) back with him into space.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #12 The Origin of Professor X!-

 

We meet the Juggernaut – Charles’ step-brother Cain Marko. Most of the story is told in flashbacks where we meet Dr. Kurt Marko and Sharon Xavier-Marko and a young Charles and Cain. We find out Kurt let Charles’ father die in an explosion so he could marry Sharon and gain her wealth and status. This is also the first issue where we see a version of Charles that can walk. The Juggernaut isn’t a mutant, he’s only magically augmented. There really isn’t much to say about this issue, it was good and I liked the use of flashbacks but I have a very hard time believing that Charles would be so afraid of his brother that he’d go to the lengths he does to try to stop him, yet he’s calm enough to essentially sit around and tell the X-Men a story.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #13 Where Walks the Juggernaut!-

The battle with Juggernaut contines and all of the X-Men, with the exception of Jean are severely injured in the battle. Charles reaches out with his mental powers for help and manages to contact The Teen Brigade (a bunch of kids listening to police scanners I guess,) Matt Murdock/Daredevil and the Human Torch. See this is why I counted Iceman meets Human Torch as cannon because Johnny has a richer history with the X-Men than Tony Stark does. Granted the meeting between Bobby and Johnny isn’t touched on here but you get the sense that it really did exist. I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws here mostly because I like Johnny a lot more than I do Tony so it’s harder to ignore.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #7 The Return of the Blob: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #8 The Uncanny Threat of … Unus, the Untouchable!: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #9 Enter, the Avengers: B-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #10 The Coming of… Ka-Zar!: C-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #11 The Triumph of Magneto: C+

(The Uncanny)X-Men #12 The Origin of Professor X!: A-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #13 Where Walks the Juggernaut!: A-

Chronological X-Men - Part 02 Review

Okay, part two of lord only knows how many it will end up being.

Tales of Suspense #49 The New Iron Man Meets the Angel-

This one was interesting, I’m not a big fan of crossovers because they’ve devolved into nothing but random characters meeting up fighting, realizing that they’re really on the same side; making up and finally fighting the real bad guy. Things were a bit different back in the sixties though. This still has random characters meeting up, but it isn’t all about massive fights on a large scale. Since this is sort of a mixture of a crossover and a ‘what if’ type scenario I’m not going to include any of the characters as being ‘introduced’ into the X-Men universe (but if you care this is the first time Iron-Man, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan (all Iron-Man characters), Bruce Banner, Thor, Henry Pym (Ant-Man) and Janet Van Dyne (Wasp) show up. The ‘what if’ aspect is simple, Angel gets caught in a radioactive blast and turns evil and tries to join the evil mutants. Iron-Man eventually helps Angel work through the poisoning and back to normal. It’s not a meeting I remember ever being referenced before so I don’t think it had that much of an impact on anything.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #4 The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants-

This is the first time we see Toad, Mastermind, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch and we see how Magneto saved Wanda from angry townspeople who tried to attack her because of her powers. Once again it’s hard knowing the things I do know yet having to accept that I’m not supposed to know them yet; of course I’m talking about the fact that Pietro and Wanda are Magneto’s children. This is sort of a step up for Magneto; he went from trying to take over an army base to taking over and ruling San Marco until the X-Men stop him. The one thing that sort of bothered me about this issue was the ending: an explosion causes Charles to lose his telepathy. No matter how I look at it, I don’t see how that would have happened, there wasn’t even a single scratch on Charles so how was the explosion forceful enough to alter his mental capacity?

(The Uncanny)X-Men #5 Trapped: One X-Man-

Finally a non self-contained story! The X-Men are still trying to cope with the loss of Charles’ mutant powers all while fighting Magneto after he kidnaps Angel (but the X-Men sort of have Toad too) on Asteroid M (not a person but still the first time we’ve seen this, and it does come into play in some other storylines in the future.) On top of that the X-Men have to hide what their school really is from John and Elaine Grey; Jean’s parents, when they stop by for a visit. The story is pretty good but it’s still hard for me to get past the end of last issue, and I’m sorry, I know things were written differently back then but they’re acting like Charles losing his powers is the end of the world. I mean sure it’s bad, but these guys are walking around like they’re watching Magneto murder puppies and babies on live TV or something.

Strange Tales #120 The Torch Meets Iceman!-

Next is another crossover, this time it’s Iceman and The Human Torch; this isn’t a throw-away like Iron-Man meets Angel, because Iceman and Torch end up developing a large history over the years. Johnny is here so of course that means there’s a cameo by the rest of the Fantastic Four and there’s Dorrie Evans who appears off and on through various titles over the years and the villain is Captain Barracuda, but he doesn’t show up as often as Dorrie does in the future. The plot is simple, Bobby gets depressed because all the other guys ask Jean out so he goes on a teen cruise to meet a girl, of course she ends up being Johnny’s date so there’s a bit of friction there and naturally the cruise ship gets raided by Barracuda. Torch and Iceman end up saving the day and going their separate ways and all is said and done. Like I said, this is important because of the future history the two will share, but as a story itself it was alright, better than Iron-Man meets Angel, but still not really anything spectacular. The backup feature involved Doctor Strange, but it had nothing to do with the X-Men so I skipped it for now.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #6 Sub-Mariner Joins the Evil Mutants!-

We meet Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Both Charles and Magneto think he’s a mutant, and both want him working for them. Everybody goes searching for him but magneto gets a hold of him first. This issue just felt funky to me, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t memorable either. There were a two things that absolutely ruined it for me, first off Magneto searches for Namor using telepathy and communicates with it, now the problem here is Magneto ISN’T a telepath, he shouldn’t be able to do it at all, let alone as well as he does. Secondly while Namor had decided not to join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the final straw is how Magneto speaks to Wanda? I know, I know, things were different then but still… I mean come on, you’re going to leave a (terrorist) group of people who are bent on controlling the world because the leader yelled at a woman? Um… okay…

Tales of Suspense #49 – The New Iron Man Meets the Angel: B-

(The Uncanny)X-Men #4 – The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: B

(The Uncanny)X-Men #5 – Trapped: One X-Man: A-

Strange Tales #120 – The Torch Meets Iceman! : A

(The Uncanny)X-Men #6 – Sub-Mariner Joins the Evil Mutants!: C

Ultimate Iron-Man Volume 2 Issues 1-5 Review

Well I’m still in a Marvel state of mind so today’s review will cover Ultimate Iron Man Volume 2. Let’s get this out of the way already: ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not a fan of Iron Man.’ Before we get into the plot I want to take a minute to talk about two things that bugged me. First off it’s a five issue mini-series just like the first volume, however for the first three issues of the series it is boldly displayed on the cover that it is ___ of FOUR and only on the fourth issue does it say that there is another issue coming out. When the story was first published I can imagine that being quite annoying, especially since I find it annoying and it’s been over three years since the 2006-2007 series first ran.

Another thing that bugged me was the art. I’ve never been a fan of this particular style (the first run of the Buffy comic series also dabbled in this style near the end of the run.) It makes it difficult to appreciate it the way it’s meant to be because it ends up being all over the place. One panel can look amazing and the next really gritty in a way that almost makes it look like it’s done by a different artist who is trying to simulate the style of the original. Granted this could possibly be the fault of the colorist and inker, in fact I’d place it more on their shoulders since it looks to be over stylized and textured when they’re trying to define where light meets shadow.

While the art appears to be a downgrade from the first volume the story is actually better. They still play up the dynamics between Tony and Obadiah but the whole soap opera aspect of the drama between their parents and the generation long family feud and attempted company stealing and the gold digging ways of Howard’s ex-wife Loni are gone. Instead we get new characters like Deloris and Whiplash, foreign terrorist plots, stolen nuclear weapons, Tony and Obadiah getting kidnapped and an assassination attempt on the imprisoned Howard Stark. There is definitely more action in the second volume than there was in the first, this is obviously because the focus clearly shifted from interpersonal struggle and family dynamic into dealing with the consequences of those things.

One thing I’m not too sure about though is the change in Tony’s origin. I know that Marvel launched the Ultimate line in an attempt to make their characters more accessible and relevant to the next generation of comic book fans, but that model doesn’t hold water here. In Tony’s ‘canon’ origin he has a heart defect that is made worse by his alcoholism, in Ultimate we have the very beginnings of Tony and his battle with the bottle – it can’t be that big of an issue since he’s still a teenager in the second volume – Tony’s heart defect is a thing of the past, instead replaced by altered DNA as a result of a lab accident.  I don’t know about you but I know a lot more people with heart problems than I do know people who had their DNA altered when their mother accidentally ingested blood from a genetically altered test monkey. How is that more ‘relevant’ and ‘accessible’ than someone with a heart problem? Seriously, can some one explain that to me?

I liked the twists and turns the plot, when the series was over I was left wanting to know what would happen with Tony and to see how the new dynamic would play out between Obadiah and Tony once Obadiah experiences his change of heart. Nifara’s death was abrupt and not really expected – it certainly shows that this isn’t your daddy’s Marvel comics, if you’re being held hostage you won’t get shot in the hand and then say ‘oww’ and act like nothing happened; in fact you’re more likely to be shot at pointblank range right between the eyes.

The main villain of the piece isn’t Deloris or even Whiplash; instead it turns out to be Loni. This somehow manages to work and not work at the same time. I can easily buy that Loni would be willing to sacrifice her own son and let him die in order to get money and power; I can buy her misguided passion fueling her hate for both of her ex-husbands for their inability to satiate her bank account. However I just can’t buy that she’s essentially the head of a terrorist cell and manipulating multiple factions just so she can get a hold of the armor suit and nuclear weapons. That’s where it lost me; a gold digger with aspirations of world domination is a little too hard to buy. Although the art makes her look a lot more like a generic knock off of Black Widow than how she looked in the first volume, the drastic change in appearance just ends up serving as more of a disconnect from the persona the character had in the first run.

This run had a little bit more flaws and ups and downs than the first run did but it still left me wanting more. I wanted to read more stories of the teenage Tony Stark. I wanted to see Rhodes’ reaction to Tony telling him that Loni brutally murdered Nifara. That’s saying a lot considering that I’m not a fan.

Rating: B-

Ultimate Iron-Man Volume 1 Issues 1-5 Review

For a while now I’ve wanted to get into Marvel Comics’ Ultimate line – unfortunately the longer I put it off the less likely it seemed that I would ever get into it.  That was until Marvel decided to launch a new title Ultimate X.  I picked up the first issue, and without going into detail I liked it but was left confused by what was going on because I hadn’t had any prior source material to read.  That was when I decided to go back and read the entire universe in chronological event order, which is different than the order the individual series were published in.

For those of you not in the know the Ultimate universe was, well to put it bluntly, Marvel’s attempt at making their properties such as X-Men and Spiderman (since they launched the universe) younger, more hip, grittier, more up to date with the way the ‘modern’ world is.  Essentially it was Marvel’s attempt at making themselves much more relevant in order to increase their fan-base. It must have worked, the line launched in 2000 with the previously mentioned Spiderman and X-Men and now near the middle of 2010 and the universe still exists and is publishing ongoing series: Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate X and has more ongoing series and mini series scheduled to come out later this year.

Like I said earlier I intend on reading the entire universe in story order, not publication order so I won’t be starting with either Ultimate Spiderman or Ultimate X-Men, I’ll be starting with the 2005-2006 Ultimate Iron-Man Mini Series Volume 1.  Honestly this starts off as a major problem for me since I make no apologies over my personal distaste for Iron-Man, Tony Stark and roughly 97% of his cast of characters.  Seriously all of this blog’s readers should start a drinking game and take a shot every time I say something negative about Iron-Man.  You’ll be drunk for half of the time I cover anything non X-Men in the Marvel Universe.

There are differences in Tony’s origin which personally work better for me.  His tissue is a ‘living brain’ due to his mother’s exposure to the blood of a monkey who was being used as a test subject.  A side effect to the ‘living brain’ aspect is that he is in constant pain, which is why he needs to armor to help ease the pain of his over stimulated neural cells.  Another side effect is that he can regenerate his limbs and heal from physical damage and injury.  I like this aspect of the character, and I really like that we got a peek into Tony as a young boy and a teenager; which again is the whole point of the Ultimate line.

The story doesn’t feature too much in the way of super-heroics or action; in fact it has more of a soap-opera quality to it for the majority of the five issues.  Tony’s father Howard is in the middle of a bitter divorce with his gold digging wife who is already with Zebediah Stane and they are attempting to take control of Howard Stark’s company.  They are ultimately successful in getting the company (at least for a while) only to find out that Howard never put anything on paper so the company is essentially worthless.  Howard begins a relationship with a brilliant scientist Maria Cerrera, Tony’s mother.  Like I said she gets the monkey’s blood in her mouth while she is pregnant with Tony, not much to go into here other than the fact that she dies in labor.  Howard arrives and places a blue substance that he had been developing on Tony to act as a biological armor.  The armor is what Zebediah was after all along.

To make a long story slightly less long Zebediah manages to track down Howard while he is on the run and kidnaps and tortures Tony.  Zebediah is taken into custody and remains there for several years. Years later Zebediah and Howard’s ex-wife comes to Howard announcing that she has left Zebediah (who is still in prison) and wants Howard to put her and Zebediah’s son Obadiah into a special school, he agrees and that’s the last we’ve seen of her.  Tony, now a teenager is going to a private school and befriends a young man named Rhodes who is being beaten up by a group of kids who were later hired as de-facto hit-men and told to throw Tony into the school’s furnace. They actually almost get away with it but Rhodes and his friend Nifara, partly in thanks to the suit of armor Tony had built wand was testing with Rhodes when they were attacked; manage to stop them and keep Tony alive until Howard comes along.

Howard convinces both Rhodes and Nifara’s parents to let them go to a new school along with Tony, this turns out to be the same school that Obadiah goes to.  They aren’t there long before Tony witnesses something truly horrific – Obadiah murders two other students by throwing them off of the building, he gets away with it too by claiming that the two students committed suicide.  This only helps to strengthen Tony’s resolve to make his suit of armor more effective.

That wasn’t the last of Obadiah’s evil acts though. He manages to get his imprisoned father brutally murdered apparently successfully frames Howard Stark for the murder.  Howard awaits trial for the crime he never committed and turns over control of the rebuilt Stark Enterprises to Tony, who has now turned to alcohol to help dull the pain of his altered neurological system.

The mini-series ends with Tony officially donning the armor to stop a ship at sea that has been taken hostage and is full of explosives, and the final panels are of an unconscious Tony being pulled from the water after the explosives detonated.

Now given that I’m not a fan of Iron-Man this was a weird one for me, especially since this story takes place first in the Ultimate line – it made for an interesting introduction.  Like I said I do like the twist on Tony Stark’s origin. The soap opera-esque subplot with the parents does move the story along but it also sort of makes it a totally different story as well. I enjoyed the fact that the mini-series ends with a cliffhanger without really being a cliffhanger.  I can only imagine that the wait for the second volume would have been difficult for the hardcore Iron-Man fans, especially given the fact that at the end of Vol. 1 Issue 5 they announce that there will be a follow up to the series, but that it would be a year away. I actually ended the first series and wanted to read the second volume, which is saying a lot.  If the second volume is anywhere near the same quality as the first volume I could imagine becoming a fan of Iron-Man, Ultimate Iron-Man that is.

Rating: B