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

X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men

So I stumbled upon this and decided to give it a watch. X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men first aired back in the 80s as what was intended to be a pilot for an animated series for X-Men. Like with almost every single X-Men cartoon out there the lineup is kind of odd. You have Charles Xavier, Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine – all of them have been staples of the various X-Men cartoons over the years; the rest of the lineup is what always changes. The team is fleshed out by Nightcrawler, Colossus, Dazzler and we’re introduced to their world via the arrival of Kitty Pryde. The villains are also a little random: Pyro, Blob, Toad, Juggernaut, Magneto, the White Queen and Lockheed the dragon.

Some of the casting choices are odd due to their lack of explanation. Obviously they included Lockheed because he is Kitty’s pet/friend in the comics, but why is he with Magneto up until the very end? Dazzler, who at the time in the comics loved being a mutant as long as she could perform her music and have nothing to do with the X-Men or super heroics in general is suddenly an active member of the X-Men. Scott is around yet there’s no Jean or hints of the original X-Men so who knows if they would have dealt with the whole Phoenix/Dark Phoenix thing. The Brotherhood of ‘Terrorist’ Mutants (I’m not sure why ‘terrorist’ was less harsh of a word for children in the 80s than ‘evil’) seems to be a smash up of the original incarnation of the Brotherhood: Magneto, Toad; and Mystique’s incarnation of the Brotherhood by using Blob and Pyro. Juggernaut was never a member of the Brotherhood, but considering he was a frequent rival for the X-Men I can see why they included him.

There were two things that I had huge problems with and if the show did get turned into a series it would have wrecked the ability to rewatch the show. The first one wouldn’t have been too bad, I could have always used fast forward or the mute button to get through the HORRIBLE theme song. The other thing though – that would have really ruined it for me; for some reason Wolverine - you know the Canadian super spy government lab rat who is the best at what he does… and what he does isn’t very nice has an Australian accent for no reason whatsoever. On the other hand the inclusion of Dazzler was a plus because Alison had always gotten the shaft (she was in like 2 episodes of X-Men the Animated Series, I don’t remember if she was in X-Men Evolution, and it’s a shame Wolverine and the X-Men was cancelled before season two since it was supposed to be the Age of Apocalypse arch and Dazzler was very noticeable during that arch. The White Queen also hasn’t had the best luck with her turn in the cartoons, she had an odd accent in Pryde of the X-Men, was only in a handful of episodes (4 max) of X-Men the Animated Series, was completely omitted from X-Men Evolution, she was a huge part of Wolverine and the X-Men but also she’s got an odd accent, for some reason she’s British.

The art, even for the time was really good which surprised me. Another surprise was the actual voice cast. Almost every single voice sounded familiar to me and when I looked up the cast and I could see why. If you watched TV at all from the 80s up until 2000 you have heard almost every single one of the cast’s voices. This first came out in 1989 when I was seven but for some reason I never saw it up until today and I was actually entertained by it today. I can see if this had been turned into a series and I had known about it when I was a kid I totally would have gotten into it.

Rating: C+

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 - The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 3 Review

The Dark Phoenix Saga!

 Uncanny X-Men Annual #4 Nightcrawler’s Inferno

Well this issue borrows heavily from La Divina Commedia, so it’s basically Dante’s Inferno X-Men style. We do get some things cleared up here – not that they needed being cleared up, because by this point things that I’m aware of haven’t yet happened. Kurt celebrates his 21^st birthday which is odd because the new team is supposed to be older age wise than the first team and Jean was 24, yet Kurt is 21? Anyway this issue takes place directly after Scott leaves the team so it’s still part of The Dark Phoenix Saga. Kitty is struggling to find her place at the Institute – so that only helps to ‘date’ this story. We see Margali Szardos for the first time and learn of ‘The Winding Way’ both of which play larger roles much farther down the line. We learn that Margali had a biological son Stefan and daughter Jimaine in addition to taking in Kurt as a baby. Stefan had become corrupt and in a heated battle with Kurt Stefan ended up breaking his neck and Kurt takes the blame for his death. We find out that all of this happens prior to Charles finding Kurt, and that’s why the villagers were chasing Kurt. It turns out that Jimaine is actually Amanda Sefton – the girl Kurt has been dating. They explain the reason why Kurt couldn’t recognize her was because she had used a spell to mask her identity. One thing that isn’t explained though is why Charles couldn’t sense that Amanda wasn’t who she had claimed to be. Granted he didn’t have much interaction with her (or any on panel at all) but Jean did, she should have been able to tell even without the additional power of Phoenix. Another thing that seems odd is that Margali mentions finding a newborn Kurt who was laying next to his dying biological mother.. granted this gets retconned out when they reveal that Mystique is Kurt’s mother.

What If? #27 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?

Well this is interesting, mostly because part of this ‘What If’ stems from the original end to The Dark Phoenix Saga in which Jean doesn’t commit suicide but instead is basically lobotomized by the Shi-ar. Jean stays with the X-Men, struggling with her place within the team (so is Kitty, who since Jean is alive Ororo has a friendship with her instead of her friendship with Kitty) eventually becoming the person who runs the danger room programs and sort of acts as the teams pilot. The team goes off to battle Galactus and his herald Terrax the Tamer. Jean witnesses Scott get hurt and that unleashes Phoenix yet again. She depowers Terrax and is offered the position of Gelactus’ new herald she turns him down and the team returns to Earth. Jean struggles with her power and eventually ventures out into space and starts feeding off of asteroids eventually working her way up to a small star. Meanwhile Kitty has been spending all her time with Charles and the two form a close bond – especially when Charles begins to suffer bouts of illness, during a monitoring exercise Kitty and Charles watch Jean feed off of the star and kitty confronts Phoenix when she returns to Earth. This is where it all goes to hell… Phoenix quickly turns to Dark Phoenix when confronted with what just happened and incinerates Kitty in front of the X-Men’s eyes. Next Dark Phoenix destroys Charles’ mind leaving his body nothing but a vegetable, she telekinetically crushes Warren’s skull, buries Ororo alive, crushes Bobby, sets Kurt on fire, uses Logan’s claws to puncture Piotr’s heart and then burns Logan to death,  she also incinerates Lorna, she uses Scott’s powers to kill Alex. Finally she uses her powers to kill Scott but that proves too much for Jean and she regains control over Phoenix and in her grief destroys the entire world.

What If? #33 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?

This ‘what if’ also comes from the original plot of Phoenix not committing suicide but instead had been lobotomized. However unlike the story before this one we see yet another scenario. This time Scott stays with the X-Men, only he divides his time with his new wife Jean. Jean hasn’t been doing well at all, she feels as if part of her soul had been ripped from her and relives the time she ate a star leading to the deaths of over five billion people. This leads Jean to a suicide attempt that fails, partly because Scott stops her and partly because Magneto crashes their honeymoon and takes Jean to Asteroid M. He tempts Jean with the offer to bring back her powers as Phoenix. While the X-Men battle Magneto Jean almost gives in to temptation but destroys his machine. Later back on Earth Jean returns to the mansion only to find it empty, and shortly after she is confronted by Mastermind who wants his revenge on Jean. Only it’s not Mastermind it is in fact the Shadow King who has sensed that The Phoenix Force will be more than enough to sustain him. He kills Jean and takes her newborn daughter Rachel.  The physical death of Jean’s body leads her to discover that she isn’t Jean at all; she is in fact Phoenix and always has been. She goes to the underwater location where she had stored the real Jean’s body. Afraid that Phoenix will lose Scott forever she simply wishes that she didn’t exist and Jean dies.

What If? #34 What If Phoenix Rose Again?

While this story basically picks up right where the last issue left off it could also stand as a singular issue given the basis of this series. Phoenix battles Shadow King who now possesses an aged version of her daughter Rachel who also contains the Phoenix Force. Phoenix finds that her own ability cannot work against her daughter because she is a ‘chosen heir.’ Phoenix changes her tactics and focuses strictly on Shadow King and expels him from Rachel’s body. After de-aging Rachel Phoenix finds that Mastermind has killed himself rather than have to fight Phoenix again. Phoenix and Rachel return to the mansion only to be surprised by all the X-Men, she lies to Scott about what happened. Phoenix struggles to be as human as possible; Robert Kelly is elected president and begins his anti-mutant hysteria. Phoenix mind wipes the president and forces him to take a pro-mutant stance. Shortly after Kelly is assassinated on live TV, this leads to the reinstatement of the Sentinels who have been programmed to kill all super heroes – mutant or not. While the super powered population shrinks Rachel begins to have memories of what happened when she was possessed by the Shadow King and had to fight her mother and tells Logan about it. Logan goes to confront ‘Jean’ and after becoming enraged Phoenix reveals her true self. It turns out this was all a set up between Scott and Logan and after being ‘outted’ Phoenix leaves seemingly for good. The mansion becomes a haven for all mutants while the world is falling apart. The Sentinels soon ambush the mansion and kill several mutants in the process, after going on the run Phoenix arrives yet again and works out a plan where she will destroy all of the Sentinels with the X-Men’s help. Once destroyed Phoenix asks Destiny what her possible futures hold, once Destiny reveals that all of the paths of Phoenix’s future lead to death and destruction Phoenix leaves for the deep end of space wondering if it would be best if she had just allowed Jean to die.

Marvel Treasury Edition #27 Joyride Into Jeopardy!

The final leg of this journey is a brief back up feature in the Marvel Treasury Edition showing Warren just before he rejoins the X-Men. This isn’t really anything major, and it’s not supposed to be. He’s flying around and is attacked by a man who lost everything he had once Warren’s father shut down his company. It’s just a quick battle, there’s not room for much of anything considering it is only six pages long so before you can even get really into it the story is over. While I probably never will read this particular story again I wouldn’t be opposed to them going back and telling an extended version of this tale. With it being as short as it is it suffers from of a case of ‘what it lacks in plot it makes up for in lack of plot;’ this could easily be fixed by fleshing it out and making it a bit longer. Personally I wouldn't have chosen to close out this storyline with this particular story, but it is the final time we see Warren before he rejoins the X-Men so this is the only place that it would have fit.

 

Uncanny X-Men Annual #4 Nightcrawler’s Inferno: B

What If? #27 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?: A

What If? #33 What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?: A

What If? #34 What If Phoenix Rose Again?: A

Marvel Treasury Edition #27 Joyride Into Jeopardy!: 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