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 - The Brood Part 3 Review

The Brood.

The Uncanny X-Men #160 – Chutes and Ladders!

Despite the fact that Illyana is in my top five favorite Marvel comic book characters (and possibly just top 5 favorite comic book characters ever) I’ve never actually read this issue before. I had always known the basics though Belasco abducts Illyana and corrupts her and steals her soul piece by piece to form bloodstones so he can rule Limbo and through all the various Magik and Limbo-centric issues I’ve read I’ve fleshed out most of the story on my own, but it was interesting to read it. We see for the first time in an x book (in publication order) Limbo, Belasco makes his first appearance here (but he’d been in other books) and we see S’ym for the first time. Kitty gets tortured by Belasco and in a sort of alternate timeline with in the dimension Storm learns magic to save Illyana, Piotr and Logan die and Kurt becomes corrupted by Belasco and becomes a creature of pure evil. All that being said though the X-Men with the older Ororo’s help manage to free Kitty and rescue Illyana but they lose track of the little girl and once Kitty finds her again and pulls her through the closing portal that the older Ororo created Illyana is no longer a young child but a 13 year old girl. The story is very good – don’t get me wrong but it does have two things going against it for me. First of all, I think I’ve built it up so much in my head that I thought it would be better than it was. Secondly, the book feels very disjointed, in general – I’ve spoken of this before but the plots hop around a lot recently and it can be a bit confusing because it feels like there are things that have been left out. But in the end, even if I didn’t love the character so much, this issue will always bring a smile to my heart because it’s the August 1982 issue, and that’s when I was born.

Marvel Team-Up #100 – Karma!/Cry - Vengeance!

Okay this next story doesn’t really fit here because in the backup feature with Ororo Charles is up and about (but currently he’s in a coma) but I couldn’t really think of where else to fit it in. Starting with the first story we have Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four we see Xi’an “Shan” Coy Manh (Karma) for the very first time and we meet her family: her uncle General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, Xi’an’s twin brother Tran and their younger siblings Leong and Nga. Xi’an uses her mutant ability to possess Spider-Man and uses him to attack her uncle and twin brother in an attempt to take her younger siblings back from them.  After much confusion and a huge battle Xi’an ends up teaming up with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to battle her uncle the crime lord. Xi’an goes toe to toe with Tran and ends up absorbing his essence forever bonding the two (she then takes on the name Karma) and rescuing her younger siblings from being ‘tested’ for mutant abilities and then have to suffer either growing up like Tran or a fate much worse if they were normal. The backup feature has Ororo being attacked by a sniper who was hired by Andreas deRuyter who has harbored a grudge for years after he lost a battle between himself and Ororo and T’challa when they were only twelve years old. Honestly I don’t have much to say about this story because it was kind of a weak follow up to Karma. Plus it was a little too much of the same thing: both stories involved war torn countries, attempted stealing of children and in both stories the bad guy ends up dying. It almost would have been a better plot if they swapped out Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four with Black Panther and Storm and just made it one massive story.

The Uncanny X-Men #161 – Gold Rush!

More jumbled stories here. Scott, Corsair and Carol are all around – Carol just seems to come and go, she would have done well to be in the last issue since she has had previous ties with Limbo but they left her out, yet she’s around for this issue and just a background character. Scott and Corsair have returned from visiting Alex, but there’s no mention of why Alex didn’t come back with them to see their father off. Last issue there were only mentions of Charles and the focus was on the horrible things happening to Illyana, and now this issue it’s the other way around – a brief mention of Illyana and the focus is on Charles. The ‘flashbacks’ show us Gabrielle Haller for the first time and we see what Charles did directly after his battle with Amahl Farouk and meeting Ororo as a little girl. Now there is something that bugs me we learn that Charles does indeed known Magneto (going by Magnus) and that he was in a concentration camp yet during the previous issues Charles states that he doesn’t know Magneto’s origin and even then it fluctuates between that and not knowing Magneto exists and then founding the X-Men for the soul purpose of fighting Magneto. Another thing but this is just a pet peeve of mine, I’ve gone into it before with Scott’s mother; is the name changes: Magneto, Eric, Magnus… PICK ONE! It’s different with Kitty because they are all variations of the same name and only specific characters call her specific things… Anyway, that’s not really the point. I guess the issue was good I mean the whole point of the flashbacks were to tie in to how Charles wakes up from his coma and it’s all just justification to have a big party to get the bulk of the characters together so Deathbird and the Brood can crash the party and attack everyone.

The Uncanny X-Men #162 – Beyond the Farthest Star

 

Okay this issue itself is pretty trippy, but given what’s going on it’s supposed to be. This is the first time we see just how powerful Logan’s healing factor can be when his body starts fighting off an egg the Brood Queen implanted within him. The issue switches between what is currently going on and a sort of drug induced haze while the egg tries to take control of Logan’s mind. One thing I find odd is why in Logan’s mind he saw Kitty figure out that ‘Lilandra’ was really the Brood Queen – maybe his brain worked it out that since Kitty is the smartest member of the team that naturally she would figure it out on her own also. We see that Deathbird also gave the Brood (at least) one of her faction of the Imperial Guard that turned against Lilandra. Fang was also implanted with a Brood egg and when it hatches we see what happens. You know, I’ve always been freaked out by the Brood but I’ve never considering the fact that when an egg hatches the hosts’ body transforms into the Brood as part of the reason why they bug me. The issue was fine but with things switching from reality to fantasy would have been easy to follow if I hadn’t been taking cold medicine for the past week.

The Uncanny X-Men #163 – Rescue Mission

Logan continues his search for his friends and stumbles on Carol who is being ‘examined’ by the Brood. I’ve always known that wasn’t entirely human but she’s not a character I’ve ever been invested in so finding out the full extent of it – but it would have been nice for a little more of a build up to why she can’t be implanted with a Brood egg. The bulk of the issue is devoted to the X-Men waking up one by one on their own with Storm clearly taking the recent events the hardest. That is until Kitty wakes up and is forced into a life or death standoff and is put in a situation where one of the Brood dies. I find it kind of interesting that now essentially every member of the current team has taken a life; it’s not surprising because the tone of the book has changed quite a bit since the series first began but it will be interesting to see if this knowledge bothers Warren as much as it did when he found out Logan ‘killed’ a robot.

The Uncanny X-Men #164 – Binary Star

The ‘testing’ that Carol underwent by the Brood activates a latent aspect of the results of her genetic code being combined with that of the member of the Kree race. Kitty almost dies in the middle of a space shootout but is saved by the Brood egg she’s carrying and Storm begins to lose control of her powers. At first she thinks it’s because she’s in space and away from the Earth but she quickly discoverers that she is carrying a Brood egg and that pretty much cases her to go crazy and in a panic Storm takes off in one of the ship’s rescue pods. Back on Earth Charles and Illyana have dinner together and it’s… odd. Charles tries to read Illyana’s mind buy he can’t – he even goes as far to question why he can’t but then decides that he just doesn’t have the time or energy to care about finding out why he can’t read her mind. There’s one scene where she asks Charles if she could be a mutant and Illyana hints that she ‘can do neat things too.’ One thing that I didn’t really care for with this issue was the fact that suddenly Carol’s new powers (and new codename ‘Binary’) just appear exactly when the team needs more firepower.

The Uncanny X-Men #165 – Transfigurations!

Well a lot happens this issue, and at the same time nothing happens too. Storm decides to commit suicide in space and technically she ‘dies’ for the first time in this issue so that’s important. But the Acanti find her and ‘join’ the two of them together. I wouldn’t really mind this and the sudden (temporary) shift in a character in space if only it hadn’t been done the issue before this with Carol and then many issues ago with Jean. It seems all the X-Men do is go into space and die, be brought back from the dead and get their powers magnified beyond their control. Back on Earth be see that Mr. Fantastic has reached out to Charles about Karma and at first Charles wants nothing to do with her until Moira suggests that they allow Magneto to train her or enroll her in Emma’s Massachusetts Academy. It turns out I must have been right in figuring out Moira’s timeline – she was indeed pregnant with her son when she and Charles were dating and when she found out she was carrying the child she left him. Kitty makes her move on Piotr, which I knew was coming. It’s not as creepy as it was a few issues ago because now they state that she’s fifteen; so 15 and 18 aren’t that far apart but it is funny how Piotr is getting younger each year and Kitty is getting older. They never should have made such a big deal about Kitty being thirteen and a half and Piotr being ‘older than the original team’ as much as they did.

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Live Free or Die!

Yet another giant sized issue brings us yet another giant sized space battle. There are a few contradictions here that I don’t really understand. Lilandra was all ‘Phoenix must die!’ when she fed off of a star and destroyed people to live yet now that it personally effects Lilandra she’s all for killing an entire planet. This time it’s Kitty’s turn to be ‘altered’ by a space being – this time by the soul of the Acanti Prophet-Singer, although her change is the most temporary change of all (only like 2 pages maximum) by this point 4 ‘X-Men’ over the course of roughly 60 issues have experienced similar circumstances. It’s averaging out to be one every fifteen issues…. They really need to give this particular plot point a rest for a while. Broodworld is destroyed and along with it the Brood Queen, but we are far from over with this story.. she states that her death will not be ‘her true death’ and that there is someone else implanted with a Brood Queen Egg and that will hatch soon. Of course it turns out to be none other than Charles Xavier, and now It’s up to the X-Men to return to Earth in time to save him. Oh yeah, and we see Kitty's pet dragon Lockheed for the first time - although at this point he has no name and isn't Kitty's 'pet' but he does save her life.

Dazzler #17 – The Angel and the Octopus!

Doctor Octopus and the Absorbing man make their first appearances in an X-book which is okay – I guess. There are a few things here that just don’t really make any sense. First Warren just randomly shows up and wants to date Alison because her being a mutant can give him a better sense of adventure that he hasn’t gotten from dating Candy. This is weird mostly because I didn’t know that Candy and Warren had broken up to begin with, but for Warren to show up and act the way that he acted in this issue seems very out of character for him. He comes off very smarmy and forceful. The other odd thing is that Alison doesn’t recognize Warren at first, but she should know who he is. Not only is his identity public, he’s a public figure and on top of that he was an X-Man and Alison knows their real identities.There really isn't much to say about this issue, the whole plot of it involved Alison in a love triangle and I really don't want to read a 'romantic' comic but it was a decent break from the Brood saga (this story takes place while the X-Men are in space) and Warren finding the note from Jessica Drew and his desire to win Alison over by finding her mother will move that plot along so I'm thankful for that.

 

The Uncanny X-Men #160 – Chutes and Ladders!: A

Marvel Team-Up #100 – Karma!/Cry - Vengeance!: B

The Uncanny X-Men #161 – Gold Rush!: C

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Beyond the Farthest Star: B

The Uncanny X-Men #163 – Rescue Mission: B

The Uncanny X-Men #164 – Binary Star: B

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Live Free or Die!: B

Dazzler #17 – The Angel and the Octopus!: D

Chronological X-Men - Proteus Part 1 Review

Proteus.

The Uncanny X-Men #125 There’s Something Awful on Muir Island

Classic X-Men #31 Spigot At The End of The Universe

I’ll start with the back up feature here. It’s one of those stories that could either fit within the pages of the main issue, or it could happen either before or after the current storyline. Charles isn’t fitting in too well on Lilandra’s homeworld and it’s making him restless. Lilandra suggests that he spends time with Chakra the Shi-ar’s plumber. It’s a little odd because Charles who always boasts about equality and treating people the same but now he’s acting like being a plumber is the worst thing that could ever happen to someone. It was kind of a middle ground story, not good, not bad yet it still holds potential to be read again. The main story is pretty good but clearly some time has passed. Beast visits the mansion and is surprised to run into all of the X-Men that he thought were dead, Sean is still suffering from the damage to his throat and decides to leave the team at least until his powers return. Lilandra is dealing with issues in the Shi-ar galaxy and Charles is suffering homesickness and is basically still moping around about not being treated fairly among Lilandra’s court. All that changes when he sees how Jean saved the universe, she’s so powerful now that it actually scares him enough into feeling like he needs to return to Earth. Mastermind reveals that he is officially working for the Hellfire Club and wants to turn Jean into his Black Queen – we also see through a series of flashbacks how Mastermind has been working his way into Jean’s life over the past few months, a lot of this is explained in recent back up stories of ‘Classic.’ Magneto still recovering from his battle with the X-Men on Asteroid M and is severely missing his wife Magda. The two major things that happen are Moira discovers that there is something wrong behind the door marked ‘Mutant X,’ which will lead us into our current story. The second thing is Jean appears to be spending time in another life where she was a noble woman – the first flash lasts just long enough for Jean to succumb to an ambush. Jamie and Alex go to investigate but Lorna decides to answer the phone in case it’s Charles, Hank or the Avengers calling because she thinks that they’ll need whoever it is help taking down whoever was strong enough to scare Phoenix like that. It turns out to be the X-Men and Lorna is ambushed while talking to Scott.

The Uncanny X-Men #126 How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth…!

Classic X-Men #32 Shreds of Humanity

The X-Men arrive on Muir Island to a brief confrontation because Alex doesn’t know the X-Men are really alive. Jean is still having flashbacks of another life, only they are getting progressively worse. This time she’s with her husband (Mastermind) and for sport they are hunting a human – thankfully she snaps out of it before she actually has to kill the man. Jamie creates a large amount of dupes in order to search the island faster only one of them becomes possessed by Mutant X who is jumping from body to body draining them of their lives leaving nothing more of them than a mummified corpse when he jumps to the next body. We learn that Mutant X is in fact Moira’s son, which I guess could explain why she abruptly cut things off with Charles in the past. Given that Mutant X essentially kills everyone he possesses and he has taken one of Jamie’s dupes this is the first time Jamie actually ‘dies.’ The back up feature for this issue takes place in the middle of the battle between Logan, Kurt and Mutant X (now possessing a cop) who has decided to take the name Proteus. It focuses on Proteus’ using his reality warping ability to basically torture Logan and take advantage of how Logan relies on his healing factor so much so that he has gotten to the point where he enjoys being hurt. I really wasn’t feeling the art here, but considering it is supposed to be sort of like a dreamscape I can ignore it. This is one of the few times the weird art style actually works for the story, but I've noticed recently the quality of the art in relation to the actual story being presented is starting to decline, and that's not something that I'm loving.

The Uncanny X-Men #127 The Quality of Hatred!

Classic X-Men #33 So Good It Hurts

The back up story here takes place shortly after the X-Men split up last issue (so before the battle between Logan, Kurt, Ororo and Proteus.) Alex and Lorna are looking for Moira’s son but Alex keeps getting pulled into these visions of a darker world where both he and Lorna are getting hurt. He claims that this is because of how afraid he is of the fact that if he and Lorna ever go back to the X-Men that they will die, and then he switches to this idea that he can’t separate the feelings of how if their relationship ends it’s like death for him. Personally I think that Alex is just too close to Proteus and has succumbed to his reality altering powers than Alex having panic attacks and creating this whole dark world all on his own. It’s easier for me to just over look the fact that Alex and Proteus haven’t had any contact yet than it is to accept that Alex is doing this all on his own. This is the first time we see Joe Mactaggert – Moira’s husband and father of their son Kevin (Proteus.) I’m not sure I’ve got the time line right but it seems that Joe and Moira were together (it turns out he’s a real abusive little man,) she goes to the states and meets and falls in love with Charles. Charles gets drafted and Moira tries to get a divorce from her husband only he doesn’t go along with it and soon after Charles has left she discovers that she is pregnant. Knowing that it can’t be Charles she decides to end their engagement in the Dear John letter she wrote him and then went back to Muir Island to raise Joe’s baby. Anyway, enough exposition… Moira goes to warn Joe, it doesn’t go well and Proteus ends up possessing his father and threatens to kill Moira if the X-Men choose to follow them.

The Uncanny X-Men #128 The Action of the Tiger!

Classic X-Men #34 Double Negative

This issue ends the main storyline here. Joe is dead because Kevin possessed him. The X-Men struggle through a heated battle, which isn’t going well considering every time Proteus uses his powers he grows stronger. It doesn’t make it any easier considering that all of the X-Men that aren’t metal based (metal is the only thing that can hurt or even kill Kevin.) The X-Men work to force Kevin to use up Joe’s body faster than he normally would, one by one the X-Men use their abilities on him until the only one left is Piotr. By this point Kevin is without a body, desperate and near death he tries to take possession of Piotr only to be surprised when he transforms into Colossus. By this point Kevin is so badly damaged that one punch actually managed to kill him. This is a big thing because for the first time a villain doesn’t die as a result of his own actions but instead is essentially killed by the X-Men. Granted with a villain that can kill anyone he comes within physical contact with there are very few ways that he can be dealt with but it’s still a shock because it’s something totally different than Logan using his claws to kill some random henchman. The backup story shows a typical night at the Hellfire Club and the members of its Inner Circle. Emma and Jason engage in a game of chess on the astral plane, the two of them are so evenly matched that the only way to end the game is with both of their ‘deaths.’ I don’t really care for the server girl and Emma’s talk with her about sexism.. it wasn’t really needed – I would much rather have had them spend those pages showing us more of Emma and Jason’s duel.

Marvel Team-Up #89 Shoot Out Over Center Ring

This time Kurt and Spider-Man team up. Nothing real spectacular here, Kurt meets Amanda at the airport and the encounter Miss Locke near one of Arcade’s private jets. They stow away in the trunk of the man that was meeting Miss Locke and find out that he has hired someone to murder Spider-Man. It turns out that all of this leads back to the circus and Kurt pretends to be Spider-Man to draw out the shooter. Umm okay the issue was good, but there were too many weird things that started to add up. Kurt was taken in by the circus and was sort of raised as Amanda’s foster sister, yet none of this is revealed yet – this could just be a case of me knowing too much too soon so I can over look that. But then it gets worse when Kurt runs into the man who was running the circus he was a part of, the guy remembers Kurt but makes no mention of knowing Amanda. So it seems to me that eventually Kurt and Amanda knowing each other as children and being raised together will be a retcon the writers will deal with later on. This was a good issue, but it would have been a lot better if I didn’t know about Amanda’s future events.

The Uncanny X-Men #125 There’s Something Awful on Muir Island: A

Classic X-Men #31Spigot At The End of The Universe: C

The Uncanny X-Men #126 How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth…!: A

Classic X-Men #32 Shreds of Humanity: B

The Uncanny X-Men #127 The Quality of Hatred!: A

Classic X-Men #33 So Good It Hurts: F

The Uncanny X-Men #128 The Action of the Tiger!: A

Classic X-Men #34 Double Negative: B

Marvel Team-Up #89 Shoot Out Over Center Ring: C

Chronological X-Men - The Phoenix Saga Part 2 Review

The Phoenix Saga!

Marvel Team-Up #53 Nightmare in New Mexico

Marvel Tales #262 Nightmare in New Mexico

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

Iron Fist #15 Enter, The X-Men

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

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

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

Marvel Team-Up #65 Introducing, Captain Britain

Marvel Team-Up #66 Murder World

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

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

Classic X-Men #16 Dearest Friend

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

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

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

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

Marvel Tales #262 Nightmare in New Mexico: C

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

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

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

Marvel Team-Up #66 Murder World: A

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

Classic X-Men #16 Dearest Friend: B

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

Chronological X-Men - The Phoenix Saga Part 1 Review

The Phoenix Saga!

(The Uncanny)X-Men #105 Phoenix Unleashed!

Classic X-Men #13 Lifesigns

So this is it ‘The Phoenix Saga,’ possibly one of the top five most well known X-Men stories ever done. We get a little cameo by Dave Cockrum and Chris Claremont, Firelord shows up for the first time here and we learn that Eric the Red’s real name is Davan Shakari, and some Shi’ar cruiser crew member named Mr. S’lar (obviously this is a nod to Star Trek because this was done 20+ years before Sylar of Heroes fame came around.) The additional pages don’t really add much to the plot this time. Logan is mad at Scott for ‘running away’ from Magneto. Lilandra is off being chased by her brother’s men in space. Charles is still having flashes of Lilandra, this time in front of Jean and she then telekinetically lifts him up the stairs to her apartment. First the X-Men fight Firelord and don’t fare too well against him, then he moves on to attack Charles, Jean, Misty and Jean’s parents. Phoenix takes over and blasts Firelord over twelve miles away from her apartment but can’t stop Eric the Red from building a stargate and taking Lilandra back into space. Jean uses the Phoenix Force to force the gate to reopen and the X-Men follow through, not knowing that Firelord has returned and is out for blood. The backup story I could have done without. Honestly it bored me, I know it was supposed to be about Jean’s first night out of the hospital, but I didn’t need to see her and Misty at the beach and rescuing a baby dolphin and Misty being attacked by a shark. I guess this story is supposed to take place before the events of the actual issue because by now Jean is off world with the other X-Men.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #106 Dark Shroud of the Past!

I’m going to be honest here (like I’d actually lie to you guys) I am not a fan of this issue at all and I think that is because of the placement of it. Sure the first page sort of continues the whole Firelord plot – as much as it can be wrapped up I guess; but the rest of the issue ends up being nothing more than Charles’ dreamscape. It almost feel like the entire issue (not counting the first few pages) belong back before the X-Men go to space to fight Steven Lang, not where it’s placed now. I like the idea of Charles’ mind being so stressed that it creates a war within itself, and that’s something that comes up in later plots for various reasons so it is a time tested thing, but it just doesn’t fit herer. And I don’t think I’m entirely wrong because in all the trade collections of this part of The Phoenix Saga this issue is almost always cut out entirely so it must not have been well liked or received back then.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #107 Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!

Classic X-Men #14 What Stuff Our Dreams Are Made Of

Well with this issue we get the first appearances of Raza and Mam’selle Hepzibah (not sure where the whole ‘Mam’selle thing came from but to avoid all of the issues with spell check I almost feel like calling her ‘the cat lady’) it’s a little odd considering the rest of the Starjammers all showed up a few issues ago. There’s not that many of them so it’s weird to me to introduce them all at different times – oh we get another member of the Starjammers ‘Waldo’ in the additional pages. We see the Imperial Guard for the first time, while not all are named and not all of them are as prominent as the others we officially meet: Astra, Fang, Gladiator, Hobgoblin, Impulse, Mentor, Smasher, Starbolt and Tempest and we see that D’Ken has a creature that he uses called the Soul Drinker that he plans on sacrificing his sister Lilandra to. Phoenix discovers that Corsair is really Scott’s father – it’s understandable that she doesn’t tell Scott since the world is literally ending but it feels odd that she waits as long as she does (it ends up being like 40 issues later) that Scott finds out. We see a lot of flashbacks by way of Lilandra telling her tale which go over some recent things like Eric using Havok, Polaris, Juggernaut, Black Tom, Magneto and Firelord against the X-Men but we find out that the first time Lilandra and Charles mind-locked was back when the X-Men were fighting the Z’nox- so it seems like she’s been traveling trying to make her way to Earth for quite some time. This is supported by the back up feature that shows D’Ken declaring Lilandra an enemy of the Shi’ar Empire – in a moment of mercy he offers her banishment like their sister Deathbird but she doesn’t show up for a long time still so her name was almost included just to make it look like she didn’t randomly pop out of nowhere. I like the journey of Lilandra but it kind of ruins it by having her try to get to Earth for so long yet it only takes a few seconds for them to go from Earth to the Shi-ar Homeworld.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #108 Armageddon Now!

Classic X-Men #15 Starjammers Aloft

The M’Kraan Crystal is self destructing due to D’Ken’s actions and the X-Men, D’Ken and the Starjammers are all pulled within the crystal (I’m pretty sure the Imperial Guard is too, but there’s a whole lot going on at the moment and there’s a massive amount of characters floating around so it’s hard to keep track of everybody. Jean realizes that she has the power to seal off the crystal and she attempts to do so but it turns out she isn’t strong enough and needs Corsair and Ororo’s help to anchor her which kind of implies that Ororo is also now aware of the fact that Corsair is Scott’s father. The additional pages show Jean’s struggle to seal off the crystal and that the Phoenix Force will give her the ability to do so but it will open her up to a great evil. Granted this turns out to be Dark Phoenix and Jean rejects her, but still manages to obtain enough power to seal off the crystal. The X-Men return to Earth and the fact that Firelord, Misty and Charles are all still on the roof of Jean’s apartment it could be argued that they’ve only been gone a few seconds, even though it feels like it’s been a lot longer. Lilandra has now been exiled to Earth while she waits to be cleared of her ‘traitor to the Empire’ status so she can rule in D’Ken’s place now that his evil and insanity has been exposed. The back up feature shows us what happened with Christopher and his wife Katherine when they were taken by D’Ken. This ends up being retconned down the line so it’s like oh well- but at least we got Katherine in the real story. We see how Corsair meets the Starjammers and his joining of them. It was alright, but I don’t really know what to say about it.

Marvel Team-Up Annual #1 The Lords of Light and Darkness!

This is an odd one because it takes place while Jean is still Phoenix, but Charles is still having his nightmares of the alien in the armor so it feels like this issue is supposed to take place before Jean becomes Phoenix, yet the costume she wears and her power level imply that it happens after they return from the Shi’ar Homeworld. The odd thing is Peter Parker knows the identity of the old X-Men – which to me makes no sense. This story doesn’t really fall within any main plot considering all the stuff going on in their respective books, and we see a bunch of characters that pretty much never show up ever again. I really don’t know what to make of it, it’s a good story I guess, but it really doesn’t fit where they say it does. I get the idea of these powerful forces trying to use the Phoenix Force in order to achieve their goals, I mean it’s happened many times so it’s an easy go to thing but this issue overall just felt really weird to me. I can’t even say that I had a good time reading it, but I do know that it’s one of those issues that I’ll never read again- I’ve done it so lets move on.

(The Uncanny)X-Men #105 Phoenix Unleashed!: B

Classic X-Men #13 Lifesigns: D

(The Uncanny)X-Men #106 Dark Shroud of the Past!: D

(The Uncanny)X-Men #107 Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!: B

Classic X-Men #14 What Stuff Our Dreams Are Made Of: C

(The Uncanny)X-Men #108 Armageddon Now!: B

Classic X-Men #15 Starjammers Aloft: C

Marvel Team-Up Annual #1 The Lords of Light and Darkness!: C

Chronological X-Men - Part 16 Review

Today we bid a not so fond farewell to X-Men The Hidden Years, as well as look at a few of the adventures that too place in other Marvel books while the X-Men were without a book to call their own.

Fantastic Four #102 The Strength of the Sub-Mariner

X-Men: The Hidden Years #20 Worlds Within Worlds

X-Men: The Hidden Years #21 Let Loose the Dogs of War!

Fantastic Four #103 At War with Atlantis!

Fantastic Four #104 Our World – Enslaved!

X-Men: The Hidden Years #22 Friends and Enemies

Wow, this is a big one, and I honestly don’t really think that it’s a good thing. In X-Men: The Hidden Years we see a brief recap and retelling of the events from the Fantastic Four series back in the 70s. It was nice to see an updated version of it and how things such as writing styles have changed over the years but it was something that honestly didn’t need to be done in the X-Men title, especially with only three issues left of the series. It makes for a quick wrap up of the current plots. We see Warren and Lucy try to reconnect with her family only to have that end badly and then they return back to ‘the Promise.’ Now the whole time Lucy had told Warren that she can’t wake Alex and Lorna up without killing them, and then suddenly Charles shows up and pretty much says ‘uhh.. no, she’s wrong.’ Alex wakes up first and then Charles sends him off to try to stop Magneto, only he never gets there. The rest of the X-Men finish their fight with Mole Man; Avia (who has been around since like the third issue) is returned to the Savage Land off panel so there’s no real pay off with that and Charles just up and decides to leave Ashley and Teri again for no real reason other than all the X-Men need to be back at the Xavier Institute by the end of the series, this also explains how the remaining X-Men suddenly get off of Monster Island- they’re just magically back at the mansion. They decided to shoe horn in the whole plot of Magneto tricking Namor into going to war with the US to try to wrap up that particular plot it wasn’t required. We see Charles connecting to Magneto via astral projection and that’s pretty much it; like I said Alex never makes it to the battle, and the X-Men don’t appear at all within the story in the Fantastic Four series so it wasn’t really needed at all. In fact if they had cut out those few events then it might have given them more time and more pages to have everything else make much more sense. All that being said I actually enjoyed the Fantastic Four part of the stories, it was a nice interesting read and honestly I’d probably read it again (without reading the Hidden Years #20-22, which is sad to say since it’s the final issues of that series.)

 Marvel Team-Up #4 And Then, the X-Men

This is one of the X-Men’s many pit stops while remaining bookless and honestly it really isn’t that important to the mythology other than it sets up that something is going on with Hank to explain his absence from this particular adventure… and not to spoil it because it won’t be covered in this review but at this point in Hank’s life he’s feeling a little… blue-. Anyway the X-Men enter a brief battle with Spider-Man when they are led to believe that he kidnapped Hans Jorgenson only to learn that Hans had really been taken by Morbius. Everything here is pretty much a mash up and you don’t expect much of a plot but Spider-Man is suffering side effects of a drug he had to take to stop his mutation (he ended up getting 6 arms for a while) and now the side effects are killing him so he goes to Hans for help. The X-Men fight Morbius and take him back to the Xavier Institute along with Spider-Man and Hans where Spider-Man receives the cure and is no longer in danger of dying. All in all, it was a pretty fun read- and I’m not just saying that because I lean more towards monster/vampire stuff and Morbius is basically a vampire. The one thing I didn’t really like about this though was that all of the X-Men use their real names in front of Spider-Man and that’s a big superhero no-no.

The Amazing Spider-Man #92 When Iceman Attacks!

Alright, this one I don’t really consider too important or honestly even worth reading. I mean okay it’s good by itself so I’m not faulting that but there was no real need for Bobby to meet up with Spider-Man at all. Like I said though it’s a good issue- it’s kind of interesting to see the corrupt Sam Bullit who is running for district attorney try to portray Spider-Man as a villain and then manipulate the situation to make it seem like Iceman had been working for Bullit in an attempt to take down Spider-Man. I’m not really sure how that was a good idea considering how the X-Men and mutants in general aren’t well liked, certainly Spider-Man has to have a better public standing than mutants. Another thing that kind of stuck out was how Sam kept referring to Robbie Robertson as a black man, it’s hard to explain but the way it came off was him being racist, which considering the time period that this story was written in I guess it makes sense, but it’s odd because of how Sam appears to at the very least hate mutants less than he hates Spider-Man and Robbie.

The Incredible Hulk #150 Cry Hulk, Cry Havok!

Okay, lets just get this out of the way… next to Iron-Man The Hulk is quite possibly my least favorite Marvel universe character to ever have existed. That being said… the issue didn’t totally 100% suck, it’s far from the worst X-Men related issue I’ve reviewed so far, but it’s far from the best either. There isn’t much I can talk about here because I’m not too familiar with anything related to the Hulk (my ignorance is by choice though because in general the character just isn’t my cup of tea) so I don’t know if there are any major things going on here or any big mistakes. I know this was meant to fill in the gap with what the X-Men were doing while they were bookless but I would like to have seen Havok leave the X-Men and try to start this new life instead of him taking less than one full page to explain to Lorna why he did it. Lorna on the other hand, she had been dying her hair to hide the fact that it’s naturally green, yet she’s just riding around with her green hair in civilian clothes now, so that kind of didn’t make much sense.

  

Fantastic Four #102 The Strength of the Sub-Mariner: B

X-Men: The Hidden Years #20 Worlds Within Worlds: C

X-Men: The Hidden Years #21 Let Loose the Dogs of War!: C

Fantastic Four #103 At War with Atlantis!: B

Fantastic Four #104 Our World – Enslaved!: B

X-Men: The Hidden Years #22 Friends and Enemies: D

Marvel Team-Up #4 And Then, the X-Men: A

The Amazing Spider-Man #92 When Iceman Attacks!: C

The Incredible Hulk #150 Cry Hulk, Cry Havok!: D