Chronological X-Men - Kitty Pryde and Wolverine Review

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine!

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #1 – Lies

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #2 – Terror

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

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #3 – Death

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4 – Rebirth

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

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #5 – Courage

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #6 – Honor

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

Marvel Team-Up #149 – The Incandescent Man

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

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

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

The New Mutants Annual #1 – The Cosmic Cannonball Caper

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

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #1 – Lies: B

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #2 – Terror: B

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #3 – Death: A

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4 – Rebirth: A

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #5 – Courage: A

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #6 – Honor: A

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

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

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

Chronological X-Men - Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Part 1 Review

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars!

The New Mutants #15 – Scaredy Cat!

The New Mutants #16 – Away Game!

The New Mutants #17 – Getaway!

Well this particular story takes place right after the X-Men vanish. Kitty is being held captive by Emma Frost – who has woken up from her coma with no real explanation as to why, and Doug is now at Emma’s Massachusetts Academy and being telepathically controlled by Emma.  Wet get several new characters thanks to Emma’s own team of teenaged mutants The Hellions: Catseye, Empath, Jetstream, Roulette, Tarot and Thunderbird (II) – who is really James Proudstar who has joined Emma’s team to take down the X-Men and Charles Xavier whom he blames for his older brother’s death. Some of the team’s powers act as direct opposition to the New Mutants- Catseye can switch from cat form to human, but she performs her feline form, so she’s their version of Rahne. Jetstream’s abilities are similar to Cannonball’s only Sam is stronger, but Jeatstream has better control over his abilities. Thunderbird is the powerhouse, much like Sunspot is for the New Mutants. Tarot who can create psychic visions based off of her tarot cards is Dani’s counterpart. Empath and Roulette are kind of just extras, and since Emma didn’t know about Amara or Illyana she never recruited counterparts for them. The plot revolves around the New Mutants (which now includes Magik) going after Kitty and Doug to rescue them from Emma Frost once Illyana spies on the Massachusetts Academy while in her astral form and sees what is really going on. There are some interesting things here: Illyana’s ability to use astral projection (so far only a few characters could do this, and with the exception of Magneto they all had telepathic powers,) Dani’s growing ease with using her powers yet they’re taking a toll on her soul – it would be really nice to do some bonding with Illyana and Dani, I always wished the two of them were closer and this would have been the perfect opportunity to do it. I really love Tarot’s powers and I wish she would have had a more visible role over the years. There are a few things though that I wished they cleared up, or explained. Illyana wants to keep her sorceress side hidden from everyone, then maybe she shouldn’t have chosen the codename Magik (the secrets out now though), another odd thing was the fact that Kitty could see Illyana’s astral form, yet Kitty has no psionic powers. How did Emma wake up? Why did she want Doug so badly, when even Charles Xavier didn’t consider him ‘worth’ recruiting? Why did Emma go through all this trouble of taking Doug just to let him go? Why does the team have such a hard time even being in the same room as Magik because they’re afraid of her and what she is and can do, yet the team watched Roberto kill Selene and bury her in her temple? The plot was good, it got us some good new characters and it will provide future material for people to pull from – but there were a lot of unanswered questions that created too many loose ends. One thing I’m really excited for though is to see where they’re going with the whole Demon Bear. It was rather surprising to see him suddenly appear in front of Dani and tell her that he’s coming to claim her soon.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 – War Begins

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2 – Prisoners of War!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3 – Tempest Without, Crisis Within!

Okay let me get one thing out of the way first: this is a huge massive event that was created back in the 80s in order for Kenner Toys to have a publishing event to help promote the sale of their Marvel properties toys. That being said, the cast is HUGE: Captain America, Captain Marvel II (not the original guy, but a new lady taking the name), Hawkeye, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Thro, Wasp, Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine, Lockeed, The Hulk, Spider-Man, Magneto, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Enchantress, Galactus, Kang, Lizard, Molecule Man, Ultron, Absorbing Man, Bulldozer, Piledriver, Thunderball, and Wrecker. That being said we get (so far) three new characters introduced: The Beyonder, Titania and Volcana. All this and I’m only on issue three. It turns out that The Beyonder has been responsible for the recent disappearances on Earth and he has also been the one who was behind the psychic probing of various characters over recent months. There’s a lot going on here which at times makes the series a bit hard to follow, but I don’t know if it would be easier if I was up to date on the books of the non X-characters. I’m going to try to be more objective about this story until I read all of it. I mean the storyline is pretty popular, but at the same time it was created just to sell toys so it’s either going to be awesome or awful.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #4 – Situation: Hopeless!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #5 – The Battle of Four Armies!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6 – A Little Death…

As the first half of this story closes out we get two apparent deaths – Doom kills Kang for questioning his orders and in the process of trying to bring Lizard back into the villain’s fold it appears that the Wasp was killed trying to save him. We get the introduction of new characters in the form of Spider-Woman II aka Julia Carpenter – but it’s just a cameo, and we meet Zsaji – a healer who fixes Johnny’s broken arm, heals up Spider-Man and saves Colossus. I did find it a little odd that Johnny and Peter have apparently fallen in love with her after she healed them. It’s not odd, but it would make more sense if Spider-Man was also affected by this weird love obsession – especially if it is caused by Zsaji’s healing abilities. Speaking of odd, Piotr’s love for Kitty comes off a little like he’s obsessed with her. It definitely amps up the creepy factor that was always there because of their age differences. We also get the resurrection of Klaw (who had been killed by Dazzler) – honestly I don’t mind this one at all. I know that over the years quite a few of the X-Men have had to kill people but still. I mean out of all the ‘active’ mutants pretty much the only ones who hasn’t killed someone are Sam and Rahne. I do find it a little odd that Charles is so upset that he manipulated Spider-Man’s mind only because over the years he has done that to quite a few people. His guilt over it starts to ring a little hollow when he keeps doing it. So the story has really picked up: why does the Thing keep changing from human to ‘thing,’ is Wasp really dead, is Kang really dead, who is in the shadows watching everyone, is Galactus really about to eat the planet?

The New Mutants #15 – Scaredy Cat!: A

The New Mutants #16 – Away Game!: A

The New Mutants #17 – Getaway!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 – War Begins: C

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2 – Prisoners of War!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3 – Tempest Without, Crisis Within!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #4 – Situation: Hopeless!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #5 – The Battle of Four Armies!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6 – A Little Death…: A

Chronological X-Men - Wolverine Part 1 Review

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

Wolverine #1 – I’m Wolverine

Wolverine #2 – Debts and Obligations

Wolverine #3 – Loss

Wolverine #4 – Honor

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

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

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

The New Mutants #5 – Heroes

The New Mutants #6 – Road Warriors!

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

The Uncanny X-Men #172 – Scarlet in Glory

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

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

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

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

Wolverine #1 – I’m Wolverine: B

Wolverine #2 – Debts and Obligations: B

Wolverine #3 – Loss: A

Wolverine #4 – Honor: A

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

The New Mutants #5 – Heroes: A

The New Mutants #6 – Road Warriors!: A

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

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

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

Chronological X-Men - 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 - Days of Future Past Part 4 Review

Days of Future Past.

Dazzler #6 – The Hulk May Be Hazardous To Your Health

Dazzler #7 – Fort Apache, The Hulk!

Okay this next storyline for Dazzler has a lot going against it for me: the Hulk, country music, the woe is me I’m a starving artist thing, and Nurse Collins – who is still acting like she’s time traveled from 1940 and thinks Alison is a bad seed and how she has to save Paul (the man that she secretly loves) from Alison. All that said the issue is kind of passable, I don’t think I’ll ever read these issues again, but I don’t feel bad that I’ve spent the time to read them. Sure there are some weird things like the fact that the cover of issue 7 is very similar to issue 3 and there’s the whole ‘Hall of Science’ thing – this is a college, shouldn’t at the very least it just be ‘the science building? – and the previously mentioned cliché and far too campy storyline that Nurse Collins is sporting; but at the same time the disco singer is performing country music and fighting The Hulk. I know I complained in previous issues that Dazzler is feeling more like a Marvel Team-Up spinoff instead of an additional X-book, but this is one time where they could have afforded to throw in some Avengers, or Spider-Man or X-Men simply given the fact that Alison and Hulk are on such drastically different power levels that it’s not even funny. We get more of the whole Alison/Paul plot which I can take or leave, and we see Alison experience some anti-mutant bashing of her own which I know this is going to sound weird is nice. I don’t like that she’s so far been exempt of the anti-mutant hysteria and everyone who knows that Alison is a mutant just loves her and accepts her. We meet ‘The Enforcers’ (Montana, Ox and Fancy Dan) who are working for some shadowed figure that believes Alison’s agent Harry S. Osgood a murder who in his own right deserves to die. On top of that Alison’s also being followed around by the Techmaster – in his first appearance. Technically he’s a Dazzler character because outside of his appearances in her book he’s only ever popped up one time and that was in an issues of an Avengers book over 20 years later. The one thing that really stuck out for me in these two issues was the story pacing – there was actually a build up and a seamless progression to the storyline instead of rapid mid-page gear shifting that has been going on for a few issues now in Uncanny X-Men.

Marvel Team-Up #109 – Critical Mass!

Spider-Man and Paladin are in a heated battle with the new villain Thermo when Dazzler runs into them while she’s on her way home from a recent performance. She jumps into the fight when Thermo is about to kill Spider-Man and distracts him long enough so the three of them can escape. Alison and Paladin take the critically injured Spider-Man back to Alison’s apartment to recover while everyone tries to figure out their next move. Thermo runs into some cultists who quickly turn into his lackeys when they are promised similar powers to his. After another rather large battle Thermo eventually falls and everyone else goes on their own separate ways. This was actually interesting, I want to know more about Paladin (so much like Spider-Woman this might be something I look into after I’m all caught up on the X-books) and I’m honestly surprised by how much I enjoy the interaction between Alison and Peter; I wish that they would team up a lot more than they do.

Marvel Super-Heroes #10 – Sabertooth Stalks The Subway

Marvel Super-Heroes #11 – Cry Vengeance

This next stop isn’t so much a retcon as it is fleshing out of history. Ms. Marvel originally had her own comic book series, but it was canceled on the 23^rd issue, and these next two stories were supposed to be issues 24 and 25. The Sabertooth issue was obviously closer to being finished because this one actually had a cover done for it. I would have skipped this one but it does tie in to Department H going back on their word to leave Logan alone by recruiting Sabertooth and extraditing him to Canada to begin his training to return Weapon X to them. Carol has to deal with his escape when her friends almost get killed when the transport crashes in to the café they are in, and Carol begins to be haunted by visions of her own death thanks to her 7^th sense. The second issue takes place directly before Avengers Annual #10- Mystique and Destiny are trying to keep Ms. Marvel and Rogue separated because of all of the potential futures that Destiny has seen will lead to Rogue’s death. The teenage Rogue doesn’t take this well and looks at it like she’s being excluded and she goes off to fight Ms. Marvel on her own. They do add some additional information when they talk about Rogue joining the X-Men after needing their help and how Carol eventually transitions into Binary – but those are stories soon to be told….

Avengers Annual #11 – By Friends – Betrayed!

Speaking of stories soon to be told… here we have the first appearance of Rogue. Spider-Woman finds a woman floating  in the river and takes her to the hospital to be examined. A little funny nod there’s a young girl named Maddie Pryor running around the hospital. Jessica brings in Charles Xavier to mindscan the woman after finding out that she is Carol Danvers a former Avenger. Carol’s memories have been removed and Charles begins to work on helping her regain who she is. Jessica goes the Avengers for help only to find out that Rogue has been there and absorbed Captain America and Thor’s powers as well and is using them to break out the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants who have been in prison for some time now. Rogue and Mystique do manage to free the Brotherhood but when Rogue’s powers start to decrease they are forced to flee which leaves Blob, Avalanche, Destiny and Pyro back in prison after the lost battle with the Avengers and Spider-Woman. Jessica takes the Avengers back to the X-Men’s mansion to come face to face with Carol. There’s a few things that they talk about that I really had no clue what was going on because I don’t follow The Avengers but the gist of it seems to be that Carol met a man from Limbo (oh I can’t wait until we get to some Limbo stuff in the main X-books) who used his powers to make her believe that she was in love with them – he gook her with him and basically got her pregnant with… himself and she returned to earth to give birth to him only it didn’t happen, or it did and then the Avengers sent him back to Limbo or something. Like I said I didn’t really follow what was going on. I know this is an Avengers book, but I would rather have had the book focus more on Rogue and Carol as opposed to Jessica and the Avengers fight the Brotherhood. Since this was essentially Rogue and Carol’s story it feels like they spent more time on other characters than they did the two of them.

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #5 – Oh, La La… Badoon!

The next story brings us the return of Arkon and his homeworld as the X-Men and Sue Storm team up to save the Fantastic Four and Arkon from the evil Brother Royal and his Baddon warriors who have not only taken over Arkon’s world, but have now apparently been killing Shi-ar scouts and preparing to move on to Earth next. Ororo has been suffereing bouts of nightmares thanks to Sashia who has been using them to reach out to her friend in an attempt to show her that her people need help. All in all the story was good, I liked this visit to Arkon’s world a lot more than the first annual that featured him. This is what an annual should be; it’s a little bonus reward for everyone who has stuck through the book the entire year. Big events or revelations (like Amanda or introducing her mother and Kurt’s foster mother Margali, or the introduction of Rogue) or a chapter of a major over all story arch that forces you to read it. It should be a fun little outing that has little to nothing to do with the current plots of it’s main book.

Dazzler #6 – The Hulk May Be Hazardous To Your Health: B

Dazzler #7 – Fort Apache, The Hulk!: B

Marvel Team-Up #109 – Critical Mass!: A

Marvel Super-Heroes #10 – Sabertooth Stalks The Subway: B

Marvel Super-Heroes #11 – Cry Vengeance: B

Avengers Annual #11 – By Friends – Betrayed!: C

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #5 – Oh, La La… Badoon!: A

Chronological X-Men - Proteus Part 2 Review

Proteus.

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

Classic X-Men #35 Paper, Not Paper

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

The Uncanny X-Men #130 Dazzler

Classic X-Men #36 Outside In

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

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

Classic X-Men #37 Was Not What Will Be

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

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

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

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

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

The Uncanny X-Men #130 Dazzler: A

Classic X-Men #36 Outside In: A

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

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

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