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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 14, 2020 1:04:39 GMT -5
Marvel Super Heroes #11/Ms. Marvel #25 (Unreleased)"Cry Vengeance"Cover Date: Sept, 1992 Writer: Chris Claremont (plot) Simon Furman (script) Artist: Mike Vosburg & Mike Gustovich Featured Character(s): Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) Villain/s: The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Mystique, Destiny, Rogue, Avalanche, & Pyro), The Hellfire Club (Sebastian Shaw, Harry Leland, Donald Pierce, & Tessa/Sage), & Peter Coelho (1st Appearance, Death) Guest Stars: Iron Man, Dr. Barnett, Mrs. Barnett, & Spider-Woman (In Present) Wolverine & Storm (recap) Official Plot:Continued from last issue... With Michael Barnett dead, Ms. Marvel has Iron Man help her find the killer. Using one of Stark Industries reconstruction device, they learn that the killer was Mystique. In investigating Mystique, Ms. Marvel learns that Mystique is trying to con the Hellfire Club out of weapons. This brings her into conflict with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants who are in Mystique's charge. When in a battle with Rogue, Mystique's adopted daughter, Ms. Marvel is subjected the full force of Rogue's powers to absorb the powers and memories of those she touches. As a result, Rogues steals her powers permanently, and Ms. Marvel would be dumped in San Francisco Bay where she would be rescued by Spider-Woman. This story is continued in Avengers Annual #10.. Brodie's View:Well, here we are, basically at the end of this run, as the last review for it will be both a repeat of a review I did a few years ago (although, I will add a few comments, as it is the end of the MARVEL ESSENTIALS for MS. MARVEL), and a story that takes place after Ms. Marvel's book ended (and even after Carol left The Avengers after the events of AVENGERS #200). This story, which was kind of sort of meant to be MS. MARVEL #25, and which I only assume was meant to be the actual last issue of the series, is meant to bridge the gap between the last issue and AVENGERS ANNUAL #10 (which will be that last review I was hinting towards). Chris Claremont wrote the plot to this issue, or I assume at least laid out where he was going with the story, and another writer, Simon Furman, was brought in to give this story a life it never ended up having. He does an all right job doing that, although, there are a few issues I have at times, but I'll get to those in time. Anyways, this issue starts with Carol already discovering that her Ex Therapist/Friend/On and Off Love interest, Michael Barnett, was killed some time after the events of #22, and with Iron Man's assistance, she tries to discover who could have been the one to kill him. She quickly find out that it was Mystique that did the deed, originally trying to seduce him disguised as Carol, she ends up attacking him and beating him to death (while still disguised as Carol) when he realizes that he's not kissing the actual Carol. This sets the plot in motion, as Carol goes undercover to try and get close to an arms dealer that is in potential business with Mystique. On the other end of things, we see Mystique conferring with her long time Ally/Friend/Love Interest, Destiny, who gave Mystique a vague premonition that Ms. Marvel would end up causing irreparable harm to Mystique's foster daughter, Rogue. Of course, this kind of annoyed me on a number of levels, as not only does it kind of completely ignore the fact that when we last saw her, Mystique was in the service of a higher up someone that was never really named, and now all of a sudden she's as she was (leading the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) when we next see her in UNCANNY X-MEN #141. Plus, Rogue is introduced as being involved, when we don't even see her until AVENGERS ANNUAL #10. In other words, it strains credibility that this issue was meant to be as it would have been in 1979, when we're seeing characters and plot lines that wouldn't even have existed in 1979. During her undercover time, Carol ends up discovering that not only was said arms dealer in potential business with Mystique, but he also was making a side deal with the Hellfire Club, leading to a fight between Ms. Marvel and Harry Leland and Donald Pierce (after being discovered by Tessa/Sage, who at that time was Sebastian Shaw's right hand person). Once again, this was annoying, as the Hellfire Club hadn't even been fully introduced yet, and I sincerely doubt that Claremont would have bothered introducing all of this and these characters/concepts in a book that was about to be cancelled. Yes, maybe I'm being nitpicky, but it really strains one's suspension of disbelief. Anyways, after all this is revealed, the arms dealer is killed by Mystique, while Carol is busy fighting Avalanche and Pyro (who also wouldn't make their first appearances until UNCANNY #141), and we then jump ahead after the events of AVENGERS #200 (in other words, where Jim Shooter had Carol seduced by a time rapist, and written off the book), where Carol is now living in San Francisco, recovering after the events (and afterwards) of the previously mentioned AVENGERS issue. It's here that Rogue attacks her, and we get the fight and lead up to where we pick things up in AVENGERS ANNUAL #10. In other words, we get the moment where Rogue took Carol's powers and a good chunk of her memories/persona. That's where this story ends, and I have to say, I'm of two minds about it. On one hand, I'm happy that somebody took the time to take at least the basic idea of where Claremont was going with this story, and tried to bridge the gap between the MS. MARVEL series and AVENGERS ANNUAL #10....I'm just kind of annoyed with how he did it. Not saying that the story or the writing is bad, but I really wish I would have gotten to see where Claremont ACTUALLY was going with the story in 1979, rather than a bunch of fan service posing as that story. Still, it wasn't bad for what it was. In the next review, we bid good bye to Ms. Marvel for now with.....you guessed it, AVENGERS ANNUAL #10. GRADE: B (Almost forgot....here is the original cover for the #25, which is probably the best thing about it....)
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 14, 2020 1:15:49 GMT -5
Avengers Annual #10"By Friends.....Betrayed" Cover Date: August, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Michael Golden Team: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, & The Beast Villain/s: The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Mystique, Destiny, The Blob, Pyro, Avalanche, & Rogue (1st Appearance)) Guest Stars: Jocasta, Spider-Woman, Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel), The X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, & Professor X), & Jarvis Official Plot:With her memories and powers wiped out by Rogue of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Ms. Marvel is rescued from San Francisco Bay by Spider-Woman. After her identity is revealed, Spider-Woman decides to call in her friends the X-Men to try and restore Carol Danvers' lost memories. Meanwhile, the Avengers are being singled out and attacked by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who are seeking to destroy the Avengers. Their assault is at first a success thanks to Mystique and Rogue taking out the most powerful of the Avengers. However, working together, the Avengers manage to defeat and capture the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Learning that Carol Danvers has been recovering at the X-Mansion, the Avengers pay her a visit having lost track of her following their last battle with Immortus. When they trivialize the reality of her forced relationship with Immortus' son Marcus, Carol rejects the Avengers and decides to stay with the X-Men. The Avengers, respecting her wishes bid her farewell. Brodie's View: Now you might be wondering why there's an AVENGERS Annual being reviewed here, rather than the next issue of X-Men. Well, for those that know their X-History, they'll know that this Annual is the first appearance of future X-Man, Rogue, who is a full on villain here, and the newest part of Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. In fact, there is so much pertaining to the future of the X-Men here, this story might as well have been called "FUTURE X-MEN STUFF! Guest Starring: The Avengers," as, while this definitely is an Avengers story, a lot of what happens concerns the future of the X-Men more than it does Marvel's (at that time) premier super team. Obviously, there is the introduction of Rogue, who would be an X-Villain for a minute before the deed she does at the beginning of this story comes back to haunt her, and she has no choice but to turn to Xaiver and the X-Men for help, hence, the face turn. Of course, the deed she does (during a fight with Ms. Marvel, Rogue absorbs her powers to the point that she takes a part of her personality/memories as well) to Carol Danvers is the big story here, as Carol would have little other option but to bum around with the X-Men for a while (She was actually in #150, but I didn't want to complicate an already complicated story by explaining her appearance, as I knew I was doing this Annual next, and would explain it there), and would stick around until we approach the #170's. However, beyond her connection to the X-Men through what Rogue does at the beginning, Carol being the main focus of this story also concerns what happened to her in Avengers #200, and the reaction to that by writer, Chris Claremont (and probably why Jim Shooter, who wrote #200, had a problem with Claremont after that, despite the fact that he was one of Marvel's top writers). In short, in Avengers #200, Long Time Avengers foe/ally, Immortus, had a son named Marcus, who kidnapped Ms. Marvel, brainwashed her into loving him, and impregnated her, with the baby ending up being Marcus himself. The Avengers' lack of reaction to one of their own basically getting raped and impregnated is the whole reason for the end of this issue, where Danvers goes off on The Avengers for allowing this to happen to her, and not doing anything about it. You can definitely see Claremont speaking through Carol, and blasting Shooter for allowing something like that to happen to what had been one of Marvel's major heroines, and Claremont would basically take the character and slowly build her back up, or at least give her a happy ending until Kurt Busiek decided to basically reboot the character back to being Ms. Marvel during his great Throwback run of the Avengers in the late 90's. However, looking past all that, let's go back to the meat of this issue, which is The Avengers vs. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and the team having to deal with the then unknown threat of Rogue, who instantly takes the powers of some of the power houses of the team (Thor and Wonder Man), and starts to take out the rest of the team (* In the 90's, there would be a WHAT IF that would concern Rogue going too far with the stealing of Thor's powers, basically becoming Thor, and by the end of that issue, she would take his mantle literally, right down to Odin crafting her a new Mjolnir), and it's only due to the Avengers working as a team that they are able to defeat The Brotherhood. However, there are definitely some bad feelings left over the whole thing, which would once again haunt Rogue later, as she tries to make her way as a hero. To finish this whole deal up, this is not only a fun annual, but an important one that lays a lot of groundwork for X-Men stories to come. ( 2020 COMMENTS: So, here we are the end of the first major chapter in Carol Danvers'/Ms. Marvel's life. After this, she would end up palling around with the X-Men for a while, even being drawn into the conflict with The Brood. It's here that she would be experimented on, which would unleash her full potential, powers wise, transforming her into the entity known as Binary. After Rogue ended up becoming an X-Man, Binary would leave the X-MEN series, becoming one of the space pirate group known as The Starjammers. She would pretty much remain with them until the mid 90's, when she would make her way back to Earth, and depowered down from the heights of her Binary powers, she would rejoin the Avengers in 1997. During this run, she would get back the costume she had at the end of the original MS. MARVEL run, but she would call herself Warbird. Eventually, she would reclaim the Ms. Marvel mantel, and during the 2010's she would officially become known as Captain Marvel....and that pretty much takes us up to the present. I will say, though, that it was a lot of fun to finally get to read the MS. MARVEL series, as it was definitely ahead of its time where it concerned the writing of a female heroic lead during the 1970's. It never reached the Greatness Claremont would reach on UNCANNY X-MEN, but it was pretty damn good at times. In the next review....well, I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure yet, but it will be good....promise. ) GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 16, 2020 2:54:02 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #444"The End of History (Part 1)" Cover Date: July, 2004 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X-Men (Beast, Cyclops, Gambit, Husk, Iceman, Juggernaut, Karma, Magma, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Dani Moonstar, & Emma Frost) & X.S.E. (Bishop, Cannonball, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Sage, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: Weaponeers (Achmed Al-Khalad & various others)(1st Appearance of) Guest Stars: Lockheed, Advocates (Rogue's Squad) (Naiad, Boggart, Pinpoint, Trovao, Umbra, & Xenon) Official Plot:The X-men played a baseball game, in the ninth inning with Storm's team winning by one run, Emma Frost was at bat and Marvel Girl was pitching, Marvel Girl taunted her while throwing fastballs that Emma Frost couldn't hit. When Emma read Marvel Girl's mind she thought she knew how she would throw the ball but Marvel Girl threw it in a different way and Storm's team (the one Marvel Girl was on) won. Emma read Marvel Girl's mind and saw a thought that made her very angry. They started arguing, Bishop and Nightcrawler tried to break it up. Cyclops went over to Emma and calmed her down, she made a comment about how Marvel Girl was born in a currently non-existing future. Sage monitors the mansion and sees some of the students talking to reporters until Cannonball sends the reporters away. Rogue brings some students to the Danger Room and shows them Nightcrawler, Storm and Wolverine fighting simulations of sentinels. Sage tells Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Storm that they have missions. The Central Saharan Republic is raided by some Weaponeers. Marvel Girl tries to arrest them,they refuse and Bishop starts to attack them. Marvel Girl creates a forcefield around some civilians to block attacks from a Weaponeer aircraft. A snowstorm begins, Bishop absorbs the energy blasts from the Weaponeers' guns. Cannonball rams into the aircraft, he tells Storm that the aircraft systems are crippled and rams it again and destroys it. Storm blasts the Weaponeer leader from behind with a lightning bolt and blasts the remaining weaponeers. Meanwhile in Washington, Nightcrawler tries to convince some mutant-hating police officers to let him and Wolverine help with an alpha-level mutant. Wolverine and Nightcrawler teleport into the building and it explodes. Brodie's View: Since we've been talking so much about Chris Claremont and his writing during this last MS. MARVEL run, I decided for my next trade paperback run to jump to another Claremont run, but this time on the book he MADE the huge success it was for a good number of years, the X-Men. Now, I wasn't going to review the year or so he was back in charge of the main X-MEN books from 2000/1, as, one, I don't own any of it in any form, and two....it sucked. Not quite Chuck Austin suck, but it definitely was a disappointment when factoring in how awesome that original run was. In fact, that was the common statement from when he left in 1992 to when he came back, that "the day Chris Claremont comes back to the book is when X-MEN will truly get back to the greatness it once was." Unfortunately, all that 2000/1 run did was make people nostalgic for the Scott Lobdell and crew stuff, or wanting someone to truly think outside the box with the whole X-Men concept. That would happen later in 2001, when Grant Morrison would come on the book, but he would be gone a few years after. This would lead to Joss Whedon's run in 2004, which this particular book was part of that new era on the X-books, as Whedon only wanted to work with a set number of characters in a mostly self contained book (ASTONISHING X-MEN). This left most of the other X-characters in play, and who better to handle them than Chris Claremont, so, he was invited back to write UNCANNY for a 2-3 run, and this trade will cover at least chunks of that run. I will say that this second run, while not being as great as that first run, was most certainly better than the second. It seems that the changes that both Morrison and Whedon brought to the concept reinvigorated Claremont, or at least made him realize that perhaps it was better to work with concepts that had already been introduced, rather than trying to create a whole new rogue's gallery that would fall flat on it's face in 2000/2001. That's not to say that there isn't some new characters/threats introduced, but he does definitely go back to some classic concepts as well. Another advantage for this run, particularly the three clusters of stories that make up this trade entirely, is that he brought his EXCALIBUR cohort, Alan Davis, along to do the artwork, so, needless to say, the artwork is all just gorgeous. So, in this storyline, we get the hints of a lot of future things happening, but Claremont spends most of this issue setting up the new status quo for the book. The X-characters, after basically being officially outed as being mutants during Grant Morrison's run, now all use the X-Mansion as more of a reservation than they did in years past, and Claremont's main team of X-Men, or a team within in a team, are known as the X.S.E,. which means that they are acting as kind of a police force within the mutant populace. Chris was kind of going in that direction with a few of the characters (especially Bishop) in his XTREME X-MEN book that he had written in between the 2000/2001 run and this one, so, making it official most certainly works. We begin the issue in the most classic X-Men way, with an old school X-Men baseball game, where we mainly see that there is definitely some tension between Emma Frost and the new Marvel Girl, who is Rachel Summers/Grey, who has taken the last name and the mantle of her then dead "mother," Jean Grey (who had died near the end of Morrison's run)(BTW, I used "mother" in the way I did due to the Jean that actually was Rachel's mother was from an alternate timeline----the "Days of Future Past" timeline). We then see the former Tessa, (from the Hellfire Club, speaking of Ex members who went on to be X-Men) who is now known as Sage, and who is the official monitor of all things mutant (a job she basically is doing again in the current X-books), keeping an eye on the various goings on in the X-Men's world. Part of this involves a new group of mutants that Rogue has kind of taken under her wing, watching a Danger Room session involving some of the main team members from this specific team (Wolverine, who is also on the other main X-Men teams, Nightcrawler, and Storm). However, the team is soon split, with Storm, Marvel Girl, Cannonball, and Bishop going to the Middle East to stop a group of tech heavy terrorists (this being 2004, Middle Eastern terrorists were very much the go to villains during this period) known as the Weaponeers. However, Storm's team is quickly able to take them out, as, yeah, look at the firepower just in the four characters I named. Plus, I imagine the Weaponeers were pretty much just introduced to be an easy threat for our team to take out, as their threats would become a LOT more serious sooner than later. Speaking of which, Wolverine and Nightcrawler go to an old church to try and investigate a potential Alpha Level mutant (however, they spend a lot of time arguing with mutant hating cops before they can enter the church), but when they finally enter the church, it blows up on the very last page, leaving us with a major cliffhanger. Now, of course, I doubt Claremont would kill off two of the most popular X-Men in his first issue, at least not in a book taking place in the main continuity, but it does make for one heck of a "Oh Shit!" moment. Needless to say, we're off to a good start, and, as I said earlier, it's all Alan Davis art, so, it looks f***ing AMAZING. Speaking of Alan Davis goes, in the next issue, we find out who the main threat is going to be for this first story arc, and I will say it's someone (or something) that Davis has quite a history drawing. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 17, 2020 0:46:06 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #445"The End of History (Part 2): Death and the Maiden"Cover Date: Aug, 2004 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Cannonball, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Sage, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: The Fury (1st Appearance in American comics) Guest Stars: Warbird, Wade River police and fire department, United States Department of Homeland Security, Lars Hoel, & Tommy Reichert (1st and only appearance of; Dies) Official Plot:A Washington high school is set ablaze after a young mutant manifests his uncontrollable powers. The police and fire-fighters then investigate the wreckage; certain that Wolverine and Nightcrawler are responsible for the explosion. As some officers assault the regenerating Wolverine, the others locate Kurt protecting the surviving students. The two X-Men are promptly taken into custody whilst the corpse of the mutant boy is wheeled off. Before Nightcrawler can demonstrate his grievance against the racist sheriff, Storm and Warbird arrive to release them. Later that night, Sage monitors the backlash of the Wade River tragedy on a global scale. Storm enters Nightcrawler's room and comforts him on what had happened. They use his image inducer to dress in formal wear and then dance via Ororo's air currents. In Great Britain, Marvel Girl, Cannonball and Bishop travel to Braddock Manor so that Rachel can pay her respects for the deceased Psylocke. When they arrive, they find the place deserted and lose contact with Sage's cyber-network. They see a huge gaping hole in the floor and follow it to an old abandoned mind shaft. Suddenly, a mysterious figure analyses and attacks them. The X-Men fight back with all their might, but the creature is far too strong for them: The men lay unconsciousness while Marvel Girl is thrust high up into the sky. The Fury (as it is called) then picks up Sage's cybernetic glasses, and tracks the network back to its source; planning to assimilate it... and Sage. Brodie's View: I've said it before, and I'll say it again here; Chris Claremont does more business in "character" issues with no real conflict (although, that does change in the last few pages, but I'll get back to that) than most of today's writers do in several regular issues. We get the fall out from last issue's explosive ending, but not in the way one would expect. It turns out that Alpha level mutant that Wolverine and Nightcrawler were sent in to investigate was one who was able to make explosions, and he was the one that blew the building up, forcing Wolverine to kill him. However, to the mutant hating cops that were already arguing with the two X-People before they went into the building, it looks like Wolverine killed a normal student, and they instantly attack him. Wolverine, feeling shame for having to do what he did, let's them beat him into a pulp, knowing he'll heal from it. He and Nightcrawler are then cuffed, but Kurt, angered at being blamed for what happened, even when he personally saved the rest of the kids, goes after one of the cops, but is stopped by Storm and....Warbird (AKA Carol Danvers....how awesome is it that she guest stars when I just covered Claremont's run on her book; I didn't mean for it to happen, but I'm glad it did), who ends up being the perfect character to explain to them that the people they saved far outweighs the one Logan killed. We later see Storm consoling Kurt in a moment that definitely makes it look like there's some romantic interest between the two characters. It'll be interesting to see how Claremont follows up on that. Anyways, the first half of the issue has some wonderful character stuff, and classic Claremont moral dilemmas that most writers wouldn't bother with. Plus, as always, Claremont reminds us that the greatest enemy of mutant-kind, human prejudice and hatred, is always out there, and growing worse in the wake of recent events in the X-Universe. This incident with Wolverine has only aided the enemy in their propaganda war against mutant-kind. While this is all important, as it always is, it's actually pretty unrelated to the main threat of this particular storyline, which is uncovered when Bishop, Marvel Girl, and Cannonball go to visit a couple of characters also very familiar to readers of these reviews, Captain Britain and Meggan, who are mysteriously missing from Braddock Manor. It also looks as if huge holes have been blown into the foundation of the building, but when the three mutants go to investigate, they are attacked by the near unstoppable robotic killers known as The Fury, who were long time Captain Britain threats, but making their first appearance in the main Marvel books here. Needless to say, one of the Fury are able to take out all three of the X-Characters (seemingly killing Cannonball), and at the end of the issue, appears to have used Cannonball's communication device to jump onto Sage's computer, threatening to assimilate the X.S.E's. (and X-Men's) computers....and Sage herself. ( ) Wow, talk about jumping into the frying pan very quickly, even after most of an issue of character stuff. Both were pretty great, as Claremont seems to want to start this run off strong, which he most certainly does. In the next issue, the rest of the X.S.E. group try to come to Rachel, Sam, and Bishop's aid against The Fury, but will there be anything left of those characters by the time they get there? GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 18, 2020 0:50:25 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #446"The End of History (Part 3): Burning Sage!"Cover Date: Sept, 2004 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Cannonball, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Sage, Storm, & Wolverine) X-Men (Beast, Cyclops, Rogue, Dani Moonstar, & Emma Frost) Villain/s: The Fury Guest Stars: Advocates (Rogue's Squad) (Naiad, Boggart, Pinpoint, Trovao, Umbra, & Xenon) & various other Xaiver's students Official Plot:After the Fury attacked the X-Men at Braddock Manor, Sage is aware that something is wrong. As soon as she makes Storm aware of this, she is attacked, remotely, by the Fury. It uses Cannonball’s cyber shades to interact with Sage’s. Nanites are created in Sage’s shades and they dig their way into her mind, soon gaining partial control of her. The Fury then tries the same trick with Storm, but she manages to get free of them before they sink in too deep. Wolverine, too, experiences another such attack, but survives. They head to Sage’s carriage house, to discover what’s going on, but Sage attacks Nightcrawler and fends off Wolverine. Storm sounds a full security alert, but the Fury, acting through Sage, activates the mansion’s defenses, gassing all but the trio of X-Men with Sage. As laser beams then strafe the area, Wolverine has Nightcrawler teleport them into the tunnels below the estate. In England, Cannonball has survived the Fury’s attack and, in saving Bishop, he thrusts the Fury into a propane tank. To his astonishment, the Fury emerges unscathed through the flames. The three X-Men at the mansion prepare to use unusual tactics to bring Sage down. They play against type when she appears, keeping her off balance. Helping them is Sage herself, using her indomitable will power to defend herself against the Fury’s insidious invasion. She battles Nightcrawler, who manages to keep her at arms length long enough for Storm to attack with an electromagnetic pulse. Sage lashes out at them, but the pulse does the job, crippling the nanites long enough for her to rip the shades from her face in a desperate last ditch attempt to assert her own free will. Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Storm ensure she is all right but, even though Sage is herself again, she is already making plans for the Fury. Brodie's View:One would think, after all the time's it's been turned on them, that the X-Men would avoid overly relying on tech, and just use telepaths and land lines to communicate. This issue is just another example of their tech being turned on them, as The Fury (who laid out four of the X.S.E. at the end of last issue) goes after all the other mutants using the communication devices that the team were using to keep in contact with each other, as well as to mutant super computer, Sage, who is possessed by The Fury through her glasses/communication device. It tries to do the same to Storm and Wolverine, but both are, in their own ways, able to fight the near unstoppable robot killer's influence off. Not so Sage, who is completely taken over by it, and starts trying to take out the other mutants at Xaiver's. He takes out a good number of them with gas, but seems intent to take out the rest by hand (or with guns). The three main X-Men that are left, Wolverine, Storm, and Nightcrawler (who were pulled right out of their romantic dance from last issue) must try to take down the possessed friend without harming their fellow X-Man. Meanwhile, back at Braddock Manor, we see that Cannonball did survive his first encounter with The Fury, although, he got his legs broken in the process. He tries to use his human rocket powers to slam The Fury into a propane tank, but the robot walks out of the inferno completely unscathed. Meanwhile, back at the Mansion, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Storm take the fight with the Fury controlled Sage down into the former Morlock tunnels (or at least the tunnel they used to get to the Morlocks), where Nightcrawler distracts Sage long enough for Storm to hit her with an Electromagnetic Pulse. This allows Sage to regain control enough to purge the Fury elements from her mind (by getting rid of her communication device), and at the end of the issue, she vows vengeance on The Fury for taking her over. She won't have that long to wait, as in the next issue, we'll get the full X.S.E. battling The Fury for all the marbles. I do want to say, however, that this was a pretty cool issue, and it was great to see the three Giant Size X-Men "originals" teaming up to take out a threat without any of the newer, or for that matter, older X-Men getting in the way of things. We get a tease of Cyclops joining in the fray, but that never ends up happening. Once again, I have to give a shout out to Alan Davis for some BEAUTIFUL art, as he has actually gotten better and better with time. That all being said, in the next review, we will see the wrap up to this four part opening shot of Chris Claremont's third (and as of this date, FINAL) run on the main X-MEN book. And then, Wolverine meets the closest thing he has to a REAL daughter. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 19, 2020 1:57:27 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #447"The End of History (Part 4): Hell Hath No Fury!"Cover Date: Oct, 2004 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Cannonball, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Sage, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: The Fury Guest Stars: Jamie Braddock & Jean Grey (Appears as a hologram) Official Plot:The Fury is still attacking Cannonball in England, as his fellow X-Men take off from Xavier’s in the Blackbird. En route, they pick up Rachel, who emerges from the Irish Sea, a little light headed. She discovers Jean Grey had created a holempathic crystal, which reassures her about her purpose in life. Wolverine backs Jean up, telling Rachel she deserves this fresh start. Back in England, Bishop rejoins the battle and blasts the Fury, but it grabs Sam before he can escape. Bishop explodes a liquid nitrogen canister above them, though Sam’s blast field protects him. With the Fury frozen, the others arrive and Storm uses her powers to ionize the air around it, effectively rendering its scanners useless. Sage grabs the Fury’s core processor and Storm uses the Blackbird to fire three cluster bombs at the Fury, which tear it to pieces. Sage knows it is vulnerable, but will soon adapt. Her plan is to have Kurt place a module inside the Fury, which Rachel can telekinetically lock onto. Wolverine and Nightcrawler manage to place the module within the Fury and Rachel goes to work. She locks onto the module and, despite the enormous effort it takes, creates a controlled breach of the dimensional interface, with the help of her teammates, into which the Fury is banished. With the threat over with, for the time being, the X-Men look forward to their next challenge. Brodie's View:We get our big blow out, with the X.S.E. vs. The Fury, in this, the last part of this four part opening story for Chris Claremont's third run on UNCANNY X-MEN. It's really too bad The Fury didn't become a regular threat to the X-teams, but then again, like NIMROD, there's only so many times you can have whatever team fight something that's as deadly as either robot....at least not without ending up like the future vision of Jonathan Hickman's, with NIMROD and the Sentinels basically killing everyone eventually. And I will say that the fight is pretty great, although, Claremont reuses some of his own devices from the past in order to finally defeat The fury, or at the very least, send it away where it can never come back, which is what Rachel Summers/Grey ends up doing. However, I will say that this isn't even her shining moment in this issue; that comes earlier, on the flight over to Braddock Manor (where the X-Men that went over there initially are still fighting for their lives), where we see Rachel talking to a hologram of her then late mother, Jean Grey. This leads to a touching moment with Wolverine, who seems to be taking that Older Uncle role with her that he's taken with a few younger female characters in the past (Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, Armor, ect.). It's Chris Claremont at his Chris Claremont-y best. Eventually, however, the battle must be joined, and we get one Hell of a battle, with The Fury getting hit with everything, and yet still repairing itself and continuing to try and take out all the mutants. Finally, they decide to redo a trick they did in INFERNO to kill the then techno-organic demon, N'astirh; basically deep freezing the robot, and then overloading it with heat, causing the Fury to literally crumble apart. Of course, this is only a temporary solution, so, Wolverine and Nightcrawler rush in and try to delay the robot's reforming long enough to place a module in the middle of it. Rachel then basically uses it to create a black hole in order to such The Fury inside, but even then, the robot tries to fight its way back. It's then that Claremont reuses yet another device he did earlier, with all the other members of the team giving their life forces to Rachel, allowing her to raise up enough power to seal The Fury in once for all. I will say that during this part, Rachel sees what appears to be Jamie Braddock (Brian and Betsy's insane/reality warping brother, who was thought to be dead) cheering her on. Jamie will probably make another appearance or two in our particular run, but his main story wouldn't come until almost the end of Claremont's run, which won't be in the trade I'm reviewing. Therefore, I'll just mention Jamie briefly here....and move on. Anyways, this ends the first story arc for Claremont's final run on UNCANNY X-MEN. We get a few fill in issues that I won't be reviewing, but Alan Davis will return to do a two part story that takes place in UNCANNY #450-1, so, that is we'll be picking up in the next review. We'll also get the basic introduction between our favorite mutants and a character that wasn't created specifically to be in the main X-Books, but once she was introduced, it was only a matter of time before she joined them. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 19, 2020 23:40:39 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #450"The Cruelest Cut"Cover Date: Dec, 2004 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Sage, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: Bacchae (Sabine) (1st Appearance of) Guest Stars: X-23, Marie Ancanto, "Doc," Jade Parisi, Don Parisi, & Carl (1st Appearance of the last three) Official Plot:Marvel Girl and Nightcrawler battle pirates in a non-powered Danger Room session. After a daring rescue, Kurt pulls Rachel in for a passionate kiss. Wolverine and Storm interrupt the impulsive moment, and Rachel is disappointed to read Nightcrawler's thoughts on the romantic waltz he shared with Storm. In an area known as District X, Jade Parisi (the daughter of mob boss Don Parisi) runs from a group of mutant-hating thugs. However, a mysterious defender appears from the shadows to tear the men to pieces. Back at the Xavier institute, Sage stops the harassment of former anti-mutant terrorist, Marie D'Ancanto, by four male students. Storm and Wolverine's Broadway date is also cut short when they are called in to the City Morgue. They are told by the mutant Medical Examiner, "Doc", that the slashes on four male corpses are from Wolverine-like adamantium blades. In the super-being themed nightclub, Wannabees, the X-Men interrogate an informant in hopes of locating Jade. Then Wolverine is drawn to the dance-floor; spotting Marvel Girl enjoying the party, as well as the armor clad Bacchae surveying the area. Rachel is knocked by a waitress and uses her telekinesis to save the drinks she was holding. An instant telepathic scan reveals that the waitress (X-23) is the murderer they've been searching for. X-23's actions are impossibly quicker than Rachel's thoughts and she begins to brawl with Wolverine. The Bacchae respond by firing into the air, causing a panicking stampede that ensures their escape. Wolverine underestimates X-23 and is stabbed in the chest by her dual retractable claws. Brodie's View:So, after a two part story involving a new Hellfire Club, which isn't in this trade, so, I'm not going to review it, we move on to a two parter which will fill the void of this team left by Cannonball, who left after being injured during his fight with The Fury. This two parter will introduce, at least to the main X-Books, a character was introduced in a short lived series that was meant to be a hip retake on the mutant idea, NYX, Laura Kinney, AKA X-23. Created from Wolverine's DNA, this character (also seen in the movie LOGAN) is a younger, faster version of Wolverine, who has two claws on her hand vs. Wolverine's three (although, she also has a claw that pops out of her feet ), and I imagine Chris Claremont probably jumped at the chance to bring her onto his X-team. I mean, a female Wolverine....how could he resist? Her introduction comes through her being framed for the kidnap/murder(?) of the daughter of a mob boss, as well as the murder of the four anti mutant thugs that were chasing after said mob boss' daughter. We find this out during the mutant version of a scene that could have happened on any procedural, where Wolverine and Storm (pulled from a Broadway date, where they apparently watched whatever musical Hugh Jackman was in at this point...lol) are pulled into a morgue to ID some bodies (as well as a car motor that was ripped to shreds by what appears to be Wolverine's claws) by a mutant mortician. This eventually leads some of our team to hit up a mutant themed bar, where we eventually find X-23 working as a waitress. Rachel, while making contact with the young mutant, realizes that she is the one they're looking for, which brings X-23 into a conflict with Wolverine, and X-23 runs him through with her claws to end the issue. (double ) That's the main story, but like with all Chris Claremont stories, there's a lot going on in the background. We start the main part of this issue with Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers/Grey enjoying some swashbuckling fun in the Danger Room, which ends with a pretty hot kiss between the two. Considering that Kurt was just macking on Storm a few issues ago, this brings up quite the dilemma for everyone's favorite fuzzy elf. I'll add to this by saying that I'm SO happy Claremont brought Nightcrawler back to his essence here, as during his last run, he made Kurt a SUPER serious Priest, and, yeah, it wasn't very good. Of course, that was nothing compared to what Chuck Austin would do to him, so.... We also get Sage still wondering what her old employer, Sebastian Shaw, was up to with this recent reformation of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle (after defending a reformed mutant hater from being harassed by some of Xaiver's students, which makes her think of her own past "villain" status). Of course, we'll get to all of that, but not in our reviews, as it happens in between the Alan Davis issues, which is primarily what I'm covering here. Anyways, in the next review, we will get X-23 vs. the X-Men, as we find out how well Logan recovers from being stabbed in his chest by adamantium claws that weren't his. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 21, 2020 0:15:12 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #451"Impediments"Cover Date: Dec, 2004 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Sage, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: Bacchae (Sabine) & Geech Guest Stars: X-23, Marie Ancanto, Jade Parisi, Don Parisi, Carl, & Matthew (1st Appearance of) Official Plot:As the terrified crowd continues stampeding out of Wannabee’s club and nearly tramples Marvel Girl, a wounded Wolverine attempts to confront X-23, the mutant girl suspected of the murders of several humans and the kidnapping of Jade Parisi, baseline daughter of a local mob boss. X-23 thoroughly trounces Wolverine and makes her escape. Nightcrawler pursues her, while Storm and Bishop tend to Logan's and Rachel’s wounds. X-23 exits the club and pursues the group of Bacchae that opened fire in the night club until she is apprehended by the X-Men. Logan and Kurt watch over X-23 while the remaining X-Men defeat the Bacchae gangsters on their own turf and rescue Jade Parisi’s boyfriend Matthew. The X-Men learn from X-23 and Matthew that Jade had been on her way to meet Matthew when she was attacked. As X-23 informs the others that Jade is quite safe, Geech (an enforcer for the mob) drops from the sky and begins throwing the X-Men around like paper dolls and demanding to know Jade’s location. Just as the X-Men gain the upper hand, Kurt appears with Jade and calls Geech off. After things have cooled down, X-23 leaves. Sage watches the events of the evening through her communicator lenses, cuts contact with the X-Men and makes her way back to the Hellfire Club. Brodie's View:We get Wolverine Vs. X-23 at the very beginning of this issue, but as we saw starting at the very end of the last issue, this fight doesn't go so well for Logan. Now, granted, he was more trying to reach the younger, female clone of him rather than fight, but still, she kind of messes him up in their first official meeting. Barely recovered from being run through at the very end of the issue, Wolverine tries to grab X-23, but she ends up popping her foot claw and totally messes up his face. She then escapes, with Wolverine and Nightcrawler electing to follow her. However, once Logan and Kurt are able to talk to young Laura, they realize that she is not responsible for the attack last issue that she was under suspicion for. Rather, the culprits are a group of armored amazons (who first popped up during Claremont's run on the FANTASTIC FOUR, and that seem to based off of the idea of the Amazons from Wonder Woman turned evil) known as the Bacchae, and Laura is actually protecting the mob boss's daughter (that she was suspected of kidnapping) from them. However, before X-23 and the X.S.E. can go after the Bacchea, they are attacked by a huge mutant known only as Geech (who works for the mob boss), who is almost like an Italian version of the Juggernaut. Finally, however, the team is able to bring him down, and the revealing that the mob boss's daughter was never kidnapped ends his assault. The mutants (minus Geech) then are able to go after the Bacchea full force, and they take them out pretty easily. All's well that ends well for them, but after they report what happened to Sage, we reveal that she is going into the Hellfire Club to once again confront her old employer, Sebastian Shaw. Once again, this will lead us into a three part story that we won't be covering, as, once again, it's not included in the trade I'm covering. I will say, though, that this story, with X-23 was a pretty decent way to introduce her to the main X-books, and she will, at least on an unofficial level for a time, join the team. Anyways, with that all being said, we'll be jumping ahead once again to #455, as Alan Davis will return, as will another character that he's very used to drawing from the past. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 22, 2020 20:28:03 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #455"World's End (Part One: Not Dead Yet)"Cover Date: April, 2005 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: Hauk'ka & Vargas (the second in flashback only) Guest Stars: X-23, Psylocke, Mary McKenna (only appearance, dies), Action Force (María Pilar Cortés & Diego Sandoval), & Jamie Braddock (as a voice in Psylocke's head) Official Plot:The X-Men return home from Paris and Hong Kong only to be called back out to France to see a rather angry Psylocke who has recently returned from the dead. The mystery deepens as Psylocke’s mind proves to be unreadable for Marvel Girl. Wolverine and an old friend of his, Mary McKenna (unknowingly accompanied by X-23), tackle a solo mission in Canada which ends tragically. The X-Men come to the rescue, but may be too late. Brodie's View:The trade which I am covering ends with a five part story, which we're entering the first part of in this issue. Evidently, in the last few issues, we had a power struggle for the control of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle that Sunspot (due to his parents being members) wound up winning control of, and Sage wound up leaving the X-Men/X.S.E. to help guide him, as she did Sebastian Shaw many years ago. Thus, our team is kind of shrinking (as Cannonball also left after the first story arc), and new (or returning) members are needed to fill the ranks. Cue the return of another Claremont favorite (and Alan Davis, who drew her for a long period in the early/mid 80's), Betsy Braddock, AKA Psylocke, who makes her official return after being killed by a superhuman named Vargas in the pages of X-TREME X-MEN, a series Claremont wrote between his second X-MEN run and this one. The reasons for her return are unknown up to this point (and we might not even get an answer before this trade is done), but the point is that she's back....and she's kind of pissed at the X-Men for letting her die. However, this is only one part of this story, which starts to expand into an even larger one by the end of this issue, and, once again, being that this is a set up issue, Chris Claremont uses most of this issue to start or further stories already started. We start with Wolverine and Storm having a mock fight (to better Storm's self defense methods) that neither hold back too much on; this ends up leading to X-23 busting into the Danger Room, attempting to attack Storm (as she has grown very protective over Wolverine), which is quickly settled by the other team members, who were watching and commenting on said mock fight. We also get a kiss between Storm and Wolverine that Nightcrawler isn't too happy about (I love how Claremont puts complex love triangles in his stories, although, Kurt is a big one to get mad about that, as he was just macking on Rachel Summers/Grey a few issues ago...Kurt, you dog, you...lol) before the call is made that Psylocke has been discovered alive. In the middle of all that, though, Logan gets his own call, and goes off with X-23 to help an old friend (and former lover) with a problem. This all happens while the rest of the team is dealing with Psylocke, but they can't reach Logan when they try to touch base with him after picking Betsy up. They quickly rush to where Wolverine's ship was, but only find a battle damaged X-23, who warns them that they are in BIG trouble. However, that warning might come too late, as the last page reveals that they are being stalked by a group of dinosaur like people (lol....Claremont and his love of lizard/reptile people). Of course, this is all to be continued, but I will say that we're off to a really good start to far, and it's GREAT to see Psylocke back in the fold, but then again, good comic characters NEVER stay dead. It'll be interesting to see where this current story goes, as I have an idea that we're about to see some Savage Land fun and games (this also means I have to deal with Ka-Zar's lame ass, but that is to be expected). In the next review....well, I kind of already talked about it; dinosaur people, Savage Land, Wolverine missing, and a Psylocke back that the X-Men aren't sure they can trust....it sounds like a fun time. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 24, 2020 2:13:27 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #456"World's End (Part Two: On Ice!)"Cover Date: May, 2005 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Nightcrawler, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: Hauk'ka (Kaidan, Masano, Raina, Vikram, & R'chel) & Vargas (the second in flashback only) Guest Stars: X-23, Psylocke, the Saurians, & Jamie Braddock (illusion) Official Plot:While Psylocke waits imprisoned in the X-plane and has a strange encounter with her mad brother on the Astral Plane, the X-Men are ambushed and do battle with a band of costumed humanoid dinosaurs. The dinosaurs use their superhuman abilities to usurp Rachel’s mind causing her to think she is a dino-mutant. Rachel turns her telepathy against her teammates and helps the dinosaurs defeat the team. The X-Men are taken captive and carried through a glowing portal. X-23 alone escapes and frees Psylocke from the X-plane who single-handedly defeats the remaining dino-humanoids; together, she and X-23 enter an open portal to rescue the kidnapped X-Men including Wolverine. Brodie's View:Wow! This definitely ended up being the best issue of the run so far, especially if one is a Psylocke fan, as a good portion of this issue's focus, at least in the second half, belongs almost exclusively to her. However, we'll get back to her in a second; when we left the X-Men/X.S.E. last issue, they were being stalked by dinosaur like people after they tried to find Wolverine and X-23 after they lost communication with them (Logan and Laura had gone to help an old friend/lover with a situation in Canada, however, the friend was killed, Logan was (?) kidnapped, and X-23 was messed up after her first confrontation with said dinosaur people). In this issue, the four mutants are attacked by the dinosaur people, including dinosaur mutants, which one of them end up taking over Rachel Summers/Grey, convincing her that she's really one of them. This results in kind of a physical transformation that makes Rachel even look lizard-like, and once that happens, Rachel ends up turning on the other X-Men. As this happens, Kurt ends up teleporting X-23 away before rejoining the doomed battle, and even though the main X-men all fall, Nightcrawler's good idea ends up being their saving grace, as Laura ends up freeing Psylocke, leaving the two characters being responsible for freeing the others from being prisoners of the dinosaur people. Now, I will say, before I go any further, the only bad thing I would say about this issue is that the whole Rachel being turned into a dino-person was kind of corny, but the good far outweighs the bad here. And a lot of that good, as I said at the beginning of this review, comes from Claremont's focus on Psylocke, as while prisoner on the ship, she goes deep into mind, where she sees past memories, reminding her who she truly is. This is beautifully illustrated by Alan Davis, which is not surprising, considering he kind of started out his career drawing the various members of the Braddock family. Speaking of which, we yet again see Betsy's crazy (yet ridiculously powerful) brother Jamie; this whole sub plot would be resolved before Claremont once again left the book, but not in any of the remaining issue's I'll be covering, so, if you're interested in reading it, it actually is a pretty decent story. Once she snaps awake, she is back to 100% being herself, and once we see her in action against some of the dinosaur people, we see that she's actually gotten better as a fighter since her demise, including being able to now manifest a psychic sword, which she takes out the entire crew of dino-people that came to search the ship. This leaves Psylocke and X-23 being the only two characters not lost, taken out, or turned against the others, which is pretty awesome. I would actually rate this issue an "A" due to the Psylocke stuff, but I will say the Rachel being turned into a dino-person thing makes me have to drop the grade slightly. Still, the parts that are great really ARE great due to both Claremont's writing and Davis' amazing art. In the next issue, we get two kick ass female X-characters kicking dino ass as only Chris Claremont can truly provide. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 24, 2020 22:21:47 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #457"World's End (Part Three: Cutting Edge!)"Cover Date: May, 2005 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Psylocke, X-23, Nightcrawler, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: Hauk'ka (Kaidan, Masano, Raina, Vikram, & R'chel) Guest Stars: Ka-Zar, Zabu, & The Savage Land Mutates (Amphibius, Barbarus, Brainchild, Gaza, Leash, Lupo, Piper, Vertigo, & Whiteout) Official Plot:Having been captured by the evolved Saurians known as the Hauk’ka, the X-Men are taken as prisoners into the Savage Land. Psylocke and X-23 follow to attempt a rescue and begin to bond, but are stopped by mysterious attackers. Rachel continues in her delusional belief that she is a Saurian, and she even subconsciously begins to alter her DNA structure telekinetically to reflect this. Storm, Bishop, and Nightcrawler attempt an escape and the latter two succeed while Storm is once again subdued by the delusional Rachel. Bishop and Nightcrawler are reunited with a strangely powerful Psylocke and X-23 who have been joined by the Savage Land Mutates and Ka-Zar. Brodie's View:We get both male and female bonding between X-Men/X.S.E. members, while another moves (both mentally and physically) farther away from the team in this issue, which the third part of a five part story. On one hand, you have Bishop and Nightcrawler, who are among the X.S.E. members who were kidnapped by the dino-saur people known as the Saurians, who we learn have taken over the Savage Land almost completely, enslaving many of the land's previous inhabitants (including a family of dinosaur people that encountered the team before, and aid in their cause). Speaking of the Saurians, we see quite a bit of them, particularly the super powered group of them that are behind all of this, and find that despite their motives and plans, they act remarkably human, even engaging in that time honored tradition of banter. Meanwhile, there is the newest member of their team, Rachel (or R'chel, as she calls herself), who is mutating herself (through her telekenesis) to resemble the dino-people more and more, while mentally convincing herself that she has always been one. She helps them subdue Storm, who goes nuts with her weather powers trying to escape (and actually allows Bishop and Nightcrawler the ability to), which gives the Saurians the idea to use R'chel and Storm in tandem to basically trigger a new Ice Age that would wipe out most/all of the human populace, giving them the entire Earth to rule. However, as I said, Bishop and Nightcrawler do end up escaping, and they end up rejoining the other two X.S.E. members (well, not counting Wolverine, who has gone missing period) that are running around loose in the Savage Land. And that would be Psylocke and X-23, who fight and explore their way through a Savage Land that has been ravaged by both Storm's weather freak out and the Saurians' take over. They bond over their mutual ruthless nature, as Psylocke finds in X-23 a kindred spirit. They eventually come across a new group of attackers, who at the very end of the issue, and after they've reunited with Bishop and Kurt, are revealed to be The Savage Land Mutates and....ugh, Ka-Zar and Zabu. Of course, I knew Ka-Zar's lame Tarzan rip off ass was coming, so, I won't throw too much of a fit over his showing up. It kind of just goes with the territory of having a story set in the Savage Land...Ka-Zar is going to show his worthless ass up at some point (sorry, Ka-Zar fans). Anyways, with that all being said, this was a solid story that set up the major world (at least the human population of it) ending threat that the Saurians now pose, thanks to capturing a couple of mutants. In the next issue, we'll see if a partially re-united X-Men/X.S.E,. with the aid of another group of mutants...and Ka-Zar (and Zabu) can stop the Saurians before they plunge the Earth into "da Ice Age!" (/Ah-Nold). GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 25, 2020 23:38:52 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #458"World's End (Part Four: The Enemy of My Enemy)"Cover Date: June, 2005 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Psylocke, X-23, Nightcrawler, Storm, & Wolverine) Villain/s: Hauk'ka (Kaidan, Masano, Raina, Vikram, & R'chel) Guest Stars: Ka-Zar, Zabu, & The Savage Land Mutates (Amphibius, Barbarus, Brainchild, Gaza, Leash, Lupo, Piper, Vertigo, & Whiteout)/Rogue, Sage, and Thunderbird II in flashback form Official Plot:The X-Men form an uneasy alliance with the Savage Land Mutates and a fierce battle ensues between the allies and the reptilian Hauk’ka. At Bishop’s request, Psylocke hesitantly agrees to use her unpredictable psychokinetic katana to restore both his and Nightcrawler’s mutant abilities, and the battle continues. R’Chel, still under the dino-delusion, attacks and very nearly ends the battle, but Bishop takes her down with his newly restored power. The X-Men and Mutates defeat the Hauk’ka and capture one of their number, Raina. Nightcrawler teleports the X-Men and their allies to a cave out of the range of the Hauk-ka as the defeated Saurians carpet-bomb the jungle. Kaidan commands Masano to return with R’Chel to the citadel which she does. Despite the growing doubts of some of the Hauk’ka, Rachel begins to usurp control of Storm’s mind with the goal of world-domination. Snow begins to fall in the Savage Land. Brodie's View:Distrust is the name of the game for this issue, as not only are there hurt feelings between Psylocke and the rest of the X-Men/X.S.E,. but also between the X-characters and their new "allies," Brainchild and the rest of the Savage Land Mutates (and Ka-Zar (and Zabu) as well, but who cares about him?). Evidently, when the X-Treme X-Men were last in the Savage Land, Brainchild ended up brainwashing some of the X-Men into fighting the others, and wound up brainwashing Storm into thinking she was some primal wind rider figure (that seems to be a running theme with Claremont and Savage Land stories in the recent years; at least one of the team are turned against the others and transformed). Needless to say, for those who were involved in that especially, like Bishop, there are some hard feelings between the heroes and the SLM, however, as the title states, "The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend," so, suspicion must be put aside for now, as the Saurians are planning to kill all warm blooded life on Earth by using Storm and Rachel (or R'Chel) to trigger a new Ice Age. The two sides do end up joining forces against the Saurians (including R'Chel, who ends up doing the most damage to the hero side on her own), and after Nightcrawler and Bishop finally convince Betsy to plunge her psychic sword into their minds, re-igniting their powers, the battle swings back the other way. During this, we also see that Lame-Zar is being controlled by some unknown entity (I'm thinking either Malice or a resurrected Zaladane), as he basically leaves the battle (and Zabu) to run off to find whoever is controlling them. Knowing they're about to get carpet bombed, Kurt manages to teleport the rest of the people on the hero side (and one of the Saurians, who they take as a prisoner) of things away from the battle, as R'Chel is also taken back to the citadel to start the process of ending humanity once and for all. This will all lead us to our big finale, for both this storyline and the trade paperback I'm doing. One major thing that I will say that does happen in this issue is the mending, or at least the start of mending, fences between Psylocke and the X-Men, as they start to fall back into trusting each other. I'm sure Claremont was quite ready to bring Betsy back, as she's definitely on the short list of female characters that he's always taken special care with over the years. Plus, her powers have been amped up since her return, as, now she seems to have had her physical strength enhanced, as well as those of her psychic abilities. She'll need all that, though, as the super powered Saurians, with the addition of R'Chel, are no slouches, and we really don't know how far or long one can trust Brainchild and the Savage Land Mutates as well. Point is, in the next issue, we're going to see a big ass fight for all the marbles, and it's not a guarantee that everyone will make it out of this (maybe Ka-Zar will finally get it ). Once all that is done, we will move on to the next decently long run I'll be doing. What run exactly? I know, but I'm not telling. GRADE: B+
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,398
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Feb 26, 2020 13:37:49 GMT -5
Always nice to see Alan Davis on the X-men.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 26, 2020 23:48:18 GMT -5
Always nice to see Alan Davis on the X-men. Yeah, that's what caused this to win out over the other short X-Men run I was going to do....that beautiful Alan Davis art.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 27, 2020 0:09:47 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #459"World's End (Part Five: Bad Company)"Cover Date: July, 2005 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Alan Davis Featured Character/s: X.S.E. (Bishop, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers/Grey), Psylocke, X-23, Nightcrawler, Storm, & Wolverine) X-Men (Cyclops, Beast, Emma frost, Kitty Pryde, Havok, & Iceman Villain/s: Hauk'ka (Kaidan, Masano, Raina, Vikram, & R'chel) Guest Stars: Ka-Zar, Zabu, & The Savage Land Mutates (Amphibius, Barbarus, Brainchild, Gaza, Leash, Lupo, Piper, Vertigo, & Whiteout) Official Plot:All over the world, sub-zero temperatures are sending civilization into a frosty panic. The X-Men wait in a cavern in the Savage Land until the time is right for them to strike. After X-23 frees Ka-Zar and Raina from Leash’s mind control, the X-Men and the remaining Mutates teleport to the citadel to confront R’Chel. They fight their way through the Hauk’ka soldiers and enter the stasis vault where R’Chel is controlling Storm. With the help of Brainchild’s invention and Betsy’s psychic katana, the group is able to stop R’Chel, but Brainchild’s treachery sets the ice-storms in motion even worse than before. After X-23 dispatches Brainchild, R’Chel accepts the advice of Kaidan, Raina, and Masano that this plan was ill-conceived and will result in the deaths of the Hauk’ka as well. She merges minds with Storm and is able to stop the global freeze. In the process, she is freed from her dino-delusion. Later, Kurt’s skillful use of charismatic diplomacy convinces the Hauk’ka to live at peace with the world. Brodie's View:We end off this story arc and the trade we've been covering for the past week or so with a big bang, as the remaining X-Men (along with the Savage Land Mutates and you know who ) make a final all out assault to try and stop the Hauk'ka from using Storm and Rachel Summers/Grey (or R'Chel, as she's still in her mutated dino-person form) to create a new Ice Age that will end all of humanity. Of course, over the course of the issue, everyone (including the Hauk'ka) start to realize that the end result of this plan might lead to all life on Earth ending....period. What makes things worse for the heroes is that it is pretty much confirmed that Brainchild can't be trusted, as he's been using Savage Land Mutate, Leash (yes, I was wrong once again with my guesses as to who was behind this), to control Ka-Zar, and tries to do it again with Raina (one of the Saurians that they took prisoner after last issue's battle). It's here that X-23, due to her enhanced senses, figures Brainchild's scheme out (although, in a hilarious moment, Brainchild tries to act like this has all been Leash's doing), but the X-Men must still trust the large headed mutate long enough to stop Storm. Of course, during the main conflict, Brainchild tries to betray them again, attempting to take control of Storm to finish what the Hauk'ka had started, but X-23 pretty much ends that noise once and for all, and messes Brainchild up in the bargain. Finally, it's the Hauk'ka-ians themselves that must convince R'Chel to release Storm for the good of the planet period, which also frees her from the Saurian mind control. We end the story off with Nightcrawler actually proving what a good leader he is, by establishing diplomatic relations with the Hauk'ka. And that's where this trade, and therefore, our run, ends. Chris Claremont would end up writing the book until #375, when Ed Brubaker took over, and the X-Books would go down a very different path than Claremont and Whedon were taking them in. I like to call it the "Dark Decade," as it's pretty clear that the X-books fell down lower on Marvel's priority list, and it wasn't until last year that a serious effort was made to change that. Meanwhile, Claremont would go on to write X-MEN FOREVER for a few years, which was an alternate time line that picks up right after Claremont left both the X-Books and Marvel in 1992. It allowed him to kind of do what he wanted, without being a slave to continuity. He also wrote the short lived NIGHTCRAWLER series from a few years ago, and does the occasional X-story. With all that being said, though, it's time to leave Chris Claremont and the X-books behind for a while (although, we'll see both pop up a few times in the course of this next run), as we move on to my next decently long run. I will say that I don't have all of the next run I'm doing, but I have a good chunk of it, definitely enough to make my doing it worth while. I won't tell you which book I'm doing next. You'll have to tune in next time to find out, but I will say that it will, once again, take us back to a simpler time, and deal with my actual favorite Marvel character of all time....and some other folks. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 28, 2020 19:50:06 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #1"Have Yourself a Sandman Little Christmas!"Cover Date: March, 1972 Writer: Roy Thomas Artist: Ross Andru Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & The Human Torch Villain/s: The Sandman Guest Stars: Misty Knight (1st Appearance of), Mrs. Baker (only appearance), NYPD (Harry/Joe---1st and only appearances of) Official Plot:
While covering a Polar Bear Swim for the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker's jolted out of his thoughts with the arrival of the Sandman on the beach. Changing into Spider-Man, Peter tries to stop the Sandman, but the villain proves to be too much for the hero to handle and he escapes. Deciding that since the Sandman has been more a Fantastic Four foe, Spider-Man decides to pay the FF a visit at the Baxter Building. There he only finds the Human Torch, and the two agree to work together in trying to track down the Sandman. While tracking down their enemy, the Human Torch and Spider-Man stop thieves from stealing Christmas presents from Misty Knight. Finally tracking down the Sandman, the two heroes try to stop him but are knocked out and left inside a water tower while the Sandman escapes. Breaking free, the two track the Sandman down and learn that he broke out of prison to visit his sick mother for Christmas. Telling them that his mother doesn't know that he's a criminal, the two heroes agree to let the Sandman visit with his mother on the promise that he will return to prison. Spider-Man gives Sandman the gift he intended to give to Gwen Stacey to give to his mother. After the Sandman's allotted time is up the two check out his mother's apartment and find that the Sandman escaped out the drain pipe. The two decide to accept their loss and celebrate the holidays before tracking down the Sandman again. Brodie's View:Oh yeah! It's time to jump from the mid 2000's back to the early 1970's, as we enter the next long run (with some short newer reviews thrown in at times) I'll be doing; the Team Up book that started it all (well, at least for Marvel; DC had been doing them for a few decades at that point). Originally, this was merely meant to be a regular Team Up book for Spider-Man and The Human Torch, who had a nice little friendship that had developed over the years, even when the two characters were constantly taking the shit out of each other. This reflects in the first few issues of this, as the Torch is the main Guest Star for a few different stories, however, one can also tell that the writers got bored of that quickly, realized that the selling point was Spidey teaming up with different people, and decided to just do that (although, the Torch would return as the "star" in little one off Team Ups). I will be up front and say that I don't have all 150 issues of this book; only around the first hundred were collected in the MARVEL ESSENTIALS line before that line was discontinued. I own the first three ESSENTIALS (which takes us up to #75), but I hope to have that last one before I reach that point. So, in other words, this run will roughly cover the first hundred issues of MTU (minus a few issues that weren't included because of rights issues...I'll get to those when they arrive). This first issue is kind of interesting in the sense that it's more of a stand alone Christmas story than what the rest of the book will kind of be. Yes, there is a villain involved, The Sandman, and, yes, Spidey and the Torch do fight Sandman. However, when it's been made clear that it's Christmas, the Sandman splits out of there with a quickness. Wondering what could be up, Spidey and the Torch follow the Sandman to his mother's house, where despite being a ruthless criminal, Sandman wanted to make sure his mother had a nice Christmas, which causes the two heroes to put aside their grudge and help the villain do exactly that. They then basically let him escape because it's Christmas, and then go off to try and enjoy the holiday before it's over. Once again, a nice and touching story (that's popped up in a few Christmas story compilations Marvel has released) that was kind of a strange first issue for the book because of that. I will also say, even though this process doesn't accelerate under the Sandman shows up in another team up book, Marvel Two In One (which I covered a while back), this issue basically starts the face turn for The Sandman, as it shows that despite being a bad guy and all that, he still is a guy that loves his mother enough to try and make sure she had a good Christmas, which softens the character a bit. Of course, as we'll see in the next issue, it doesn't soften him THAT much, at least not yet, as the Sandman will once again face Spider-Man and The Human Torch, but this time he'll be bringing along some Frightful friends. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 3, 2020 0:15:48 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #2"And Spidey Makes Four!"Cover Date: May, 1972 Writer: Gerry Conway Artist: Ross Andru Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & The Human Torch Villain/s: The Frightful Four (The Wizard, The Sandman, & The Trapster) & Annihilus Guest Stars: Nathan (1st Appearance of) Official Plot:Dealing with his ended romance with Crystal, the Human Torch takes the sage advice of a drunkard dock worker and tries to seek solace from his friends. However, when he tries to get Spider-Man to cheer him up, it is met with a less than warm reception. Meanwhile, the Wizard, Sandman, and Trapster have reunited and have begun looking for a new member to induct into the Frightful Four to get revenge on the Fantastic Four. Seeing Spider-Man swing by, the Wizard and his cohorts attack and put Spider-Man under a trance. Using Spider-Man as a means to get the Torch's guard down, the Frightful Four knock out the Torch and take control of the Baxter Building. Examining Reed Richard's devices, the Wizard accidentally opens the Negative Zone portal in such a way that it empowers Annihilus with more energy. Annihilus then seeks to break free into the positive matter universe to take it over, with only the Wizard trying to keep the creature at bay. The Torch breaks free, and snaps Spider-Man out of his trance, the two then defeat the Frightful Four and stop the Negative Zone machine, shunting Annihilus back to the Negative Zone. After, Spider-Man thanks the Torch for freeing him and leaves Johnny to call the police to collect the Frightful Four. Brodie's View:So, after the first issue of this comic being kind of a stand alone Christmas story, issue #2 finally drops us in neck deep when it comes to good, old school, comic book action (the way YOU demanded it, True Believers ). New regular writer Gerry Conway (who also was writing the main SPIDER-MAN book at the time) doesn't waste any time getting to the good stuff either. We start the issue kind of slow, as Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) has a little heart to heart with a homeless man, who convinces the Torch that he needs to seek out his friends to get over his recent heartache (dumped by Crystal from the Inhumans). However, when the Torch tries to pal up with Spider-Man (who is out on his regular patrol), Spidey kind of acts like a dick to him, and the two part ways. This is a mistake, as the two are being watched by old FF enemies, The Frightful Four (or the Frightful Three, as Medusa split to hook back up with Black Bolt, also of the Inhumans), who take control of Spider-Man right after the heroes go their separate ways. The four then go back to the Baxter Building, where the Torch is tricked into lowering his defenses. He ends up getting beaten into unconsciousness by Spidey, and set aside, as he never was the target. Rather, it was Reed Richards' portal into the Negative Zone, which, The Wizard (the leader of the Frightful Four) wants to harness the power of. With the rest of the Fantastic Four off doing something, the villains knew that this was their perfect chance to strike. This sets up the KICK ASS second half of this book, as The Wizard kind of messes up trying to access the Negative Zone, and instead catches the attention of Annihilus, ( ) who starts to absorb the energy produced by Reed's machine (and growing larger in the process), while also trying to enter our world through the portal. It's during this distraction (as Annihilus starts attacking the Frightful Four) that the Torch frees himself, but then has to fight both a mind controlled Spider-Man and the non distracted members of the Frightful Four....all while trying to stop Annihilus from coming through Reed's portal. Holy Shit, right?!? Finally, the Torch is able to snap Spidey out of his mind control, and the two heroes manage to not only whoop the asses of the Frightful Four, but also repel Annihilus at the very last second before he would have fully crossed over into our world. Needless to say, at the end of the issue, both heroes realize the full value of the friend/ally-ship they have formed. Talk about a kick ass little example of classic comic book storytelling. We'll get a lot of this in this run, especially the early part of it. In the next issue, we get our last Spidey/Torch team up for a few issues, as a threat from Spider-Man's book will end up making his presence felt in this one. This will eventually lead to our first non Human Torch Team Up in #4, which will involve a team that was quite frankly....Uncanny. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 3, 2020 23:22:12 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #3"The Power to Purge!"Cover Date: July, 1972 Writer: Gerry Conway Artist: Ross Andru Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & The Human Torch Villain/s: Morbius & Jefferson Bolt (only appearance of the 2nd; Dies) Guest Stars: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, & The Thing), Jacob Bolt (only appearance of), Hans Jorgenson (1st Appearance of), Martine Bancroft, Emil Nikos (both appear in Flashback), Paul, Tracker, & Burt Official Plot:When Jefferson Bolt spends a night arguing with his brother Jacob about the merits of getting an education in a "white man's world", Hans leaves the argument. Jefferson then comes across the body of Morbius the Living Vampire washed ashore who revives and tries to feed on him. Meanwhile, Spider-Man swings through the city, when a sudden bout of illness causes him almost lose consciousness. Meanwhile, at the Baxter Building, the Fantastic Four are visited by Martine Bancroft, who has come seeking Reed's help dealing with her fiancé, Michael Morbius. Johnny, remembering Spider-Man's earlier battle against Morbius, leaves on his own to find Spider-Man and seek his help, and to find Morbius' former partner, Hans Jorgenson. Meanwhile, Jefferson Bolt has been turned into a vampire by being bitten by Morbius and seeks to use his newfound power for crime. Meanwhile, a worsening Spider-Man decides to go and seek out Jorgenson himself. The two end up arriving at the same time interrupting Jorgenson's lecture, Jorgenson, however, takes them in and tells them all he knows about Michael Morbius. When Morbius next strikes, Spider-Man and the Torch are there to try and stop him, however, things are complicated when Jefferson Bolt and members of Bert Tacker's gang intervene. However, during the fight, Morbius tries to feed on Jacob Bolt, forcing Jefferson to defend his brother. Jefferson is killed when Morbius pushes him away, the shove causing him to strike his head on a rock. Morbius flees and the gang quickly disperses, while Jacob mourns the loss of his brother. Brodie's View:Our last Spidey/Human Torch Team Up (for a few issues at least) carries over storylines/characters from Spider-Man's actual book (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #101/2 to be more specific), which allows the two heroes to do battle with Morbius....THE LIVING VAMPIRE(!!!). Morbius was one of the first signs, at least on the Marvel end of things, of the laxing of the comic code where it relates to having horror type characters involved, as that had been a big no no since the controversy of the 1950's. Gerry Conway was able to skirt the issue, however, by having Morbius be a vampire created by scientific means, rather than supernatural (as well as being alive, which was a big departure from typical vampire lore). The character ended up being a big hit, which caused the walls keeping monsters/supernatural characters out of mainstream comics to completely fall. Soon we would have werewolves, mummies, The Frankenstein Monster, and Dracula himself becoming regular characters in the Marvel Universe, but Morbius was a pretty daring move by Marvel at the time. Another interesting thing to note about this issue is that two African American characters (a pair of arguing brothers, one of which ends up being turned into a "vampire" by Morbius) playing a part in this story, which was also a pretty rare thing for Marvel in 1972. A third interesting thing to note, and one that connects to the Morbius story, is the ongoing story of Spider-Man suddenly becoming quite ill, seemingly the after effects of his mutating and growing extra arms in #100-102. This storyline will continue into next issue as well. That all being said, this is kind of a multi layered story happening here; Spider-Man suddenly falls ill, losing his balance while web swinging, and falling unconscious on a nearby building rooftop. Meanwhile, Morbius ends up attacking one of the brothers I mentioned earlier, turning him into a living vampire like him. Meanwhile, the Human Torch ends up encountering a woman that knew Morbius, which ends up sending him on a trail that will eventually lead to his teaming up with (a very ill) Spider-Man again, as both are looking for answers where it relates to Morbius (and for Spidey, why he's suddenly so sick). Eventually, this all leads to the two heroes confronting Morbius, who tries to feed on the brother of the guy he turned into a vampire. The new vampire tries to confront him, only to be backhanded by Morbius, which kills the new vamp instantly. Spider-Man, being ill and not thinking straight, instantly jumps Morbius, beating him viciously until the Torch pulls him off of Morbius. The Living Vampire then escapes, leaving the brother that's still alive to mourn the loss of his brother....again. That ends the story for them, and for the Torch for now, but both the Morbius and the Spidey being sick storyline will continue into the next issue, as our web slinging hero will need the help of a certain bald guy and his group of teenage mutant non ninja turtles. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 5, 2020 0:02:33 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #4"And Then....The X-Men!"Cover Date: Sept, 1972 Writer: Gerry Conway Artist: Gil Kane Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & The X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, The Angel, Iceman, and Professor X) Villain/s: Morbius Guest Stars: The Beast, Hans Jorgenson, Harry Osborne, The Lizard, & The Human Torch (the last two in recap form only) Official Plot:Plagued by dreams of Morbius and becoming even iller, Peter Parker decides to resume his hunt for Michael Morbius after his latest nightmare rouses his roommate Harry Osborne. Deciding to seek out Hans Jorgenson once more to see if there are any leads, Spider-Man arrives just after Jorgenson is kidnapped by Morbius himself. When Spider-Man is spotted by the landlady, Spider-Man is blamed for the scientists kidnapping. When news of Jorgenson's supposed kidnapping by Spider-Man reaches Charles Xavier (an old colleague of Jorgenson) he once more summons his charges the X-Men. Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel and Ice Man all answer his summons, however, the Beast refuses to join, having a mission of his own to accomplish. Professor X sends the X-Men out into New York City to track down Spider-Man. When they find the wall-crawler, a battle ensues ending with Spider-Man being over-powered by the X-Men and restrained by Marvel Girl. Learning via a psi-probe that Morbius kidnapped Jorgenson, Xavier orders the X-Men to bring the now comatose Spider-Man back to the X-Mansion for further probing and to study Jorgenson's notes. There they learn that Spider-Man will soon die due to a toxin used to cure him of four additional arms that he gained during his last encounter with Morbius. They also learn that Jorgenson was working on a cure which could be utilized by Morbius' blood. In order to rescue his friend and save Spider-Man, Professor X sends the X-Men out to capture Morbius. After a lengthy battle, the X-Men manage to defeat Morbius and rescue Jorgenson. Afterwards, Jorgenson is able to cure Spider-Man, who thanks the X-Men before leaving them to deal with Morbius. Brodie's View:Yay! We're finally into the portion of the book where we'll start to see Spider-Man team up with Marvel characters NOT named The Human Torch, and what better way to start than with the original X-Men (Minus Beast, who is off being a scientist during this period; he does make a small appearance in this issue, though). This was the beginning of trying to keep the young mutant team in the picture after their actual comic was cancelled (well, as far as their being new stories; reprints of the previous issues would run until 1975's GIANT SIZE X-MEN relaunch), which is why they just kind of pop up here. I will note that it's obvious that Gerry Conway wasn't too up on where the X-Men were, character development wise, since their book was cancelled, as he still has them wearing the original X-Men school outfits they had discarded years ago. Or perhaps that was artist Gil Kane not being sure, as they pretty much are in street clothes for the rest of the issue. Anyways, the X-Men are brought in to investigate the disappearance of Hans Jorgenson, a former colleague of Morbius (THE LIVING VAMPIRE), who kidnaps the doctor to try and cure his vampirism near the beginning of the issue. Spider-Man tries to investigate as well, which leads the X-Men to think that he was the one behind Jorgenson's kidnapping. This leads to a fight between the web slinger and the mutant heroes, which Spidey ends up making a good showing for himself during, until he collapses due to his sickness. One Xaiver mindscan reveals that the X-Men's real target is Morbius, and the four X-Men go after Morbius to not only save Jorgenson, but also Spider-Man, who is near death due to an adverse reaction to the formula he was given to rid himself of the extra arms he grew in ASM #100. This leads to a nice little fight between the mutants and the Living Vampire that surprisingly goes Morbius' way until Cyclops catches him with an optic blast that knocks him clean out. We then jump ahead, as Jorgenson was able to save Spidey's life while he was unconscious, and all is well that ends well (and hey, Spidey gets to plant one on Jean Grey, who is revealed to have been the one that was able to psychically locate Jorgenson in time ). The X-Men would keep Morbius contained for a short time, but he would eventually escape to drink blood once again. As for Spider-Man, he will go on to the next issue, which will finally bring us into a brand new story, and will have Spidey teaming up with a character he had never really encountered before up to that point. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 5, 2020 23:12:56 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #5"A Passion of the Mind!"Cover Date: Nov, 1972 Writer: Gerry Conway Artist: Gil Kane Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & The Vision Villain/s: The Puppet Master and Monstroid Guest Stars: Harry Osborne Official Plot:When web-swinging across the city, Spider-Man happens upon a strange man in a long-coat and hat and soon learns it's the Vision. When Spider-Man tries to help him, the Vision passes out, prompting the wall-crawler to take Vision back to the apartment he shares with Harry Osborne. After checking to make sure Harry is still asleep, Spider-Man rouses the Vision who talks of having seizures. Unknown to them, the seizures are caused by the Puppet Master, who has recently discovered a crashed alien ship and a robot inside. Using his special puppets, the Puppet Master has been using the "Monsteroid" to do his bidding. The process would interfere with the Vision's brain functions. Deciding to help the Vision, Spider-Man takes him to a hospital where he uses machines to try and find the source of Vision's seizures. Other than learning that the Vision has two brainwave patterns they learn not much else. However, when they spot the rampaging Monsteroid, the two battle it. When the Vision traces the source of his seizures to the Puppet Master's lair, the Vision uses his phasing powers to knock the Puppet Master out. This causes him to drop his puppet, shattering it on the floor and rendering the Monsteroid inert. Confused about why the robot he was fighting suddenly stopped, Spider-Man is informed by the Vision of what happened before the Vision departs, leaving Spider-Man to deal with Philip Masters and the Monsteroid. Brodie's View:It's a little bit of a mixed blessing for this issue, as we're finally on to new storylines, characters, and villains for MTU. However, the first major villain being the lame ass Puppet Master is kind of a bummer; even more so since we have to deal with him for TWO issues ( ). Not saying that a good writer couldn't make a compelling story with the Puppet Master being the villain, and not saying that Gerry Conway isn't a good writer, he is. However, for the most part, stories with the Puppet Master as the main villain seem to end in one of two different ways due to his simply being a skinny, bald doof off with special clay (who happens to be the father of Alicia Masters). We get the first of those two endings in this issue, and I'll straight up say that we get the other in the next issue. I will say that it was kind of interesting that due to the Puppet Master using his clay to control a Skrull created robot, the fact that The Vision operates on a similar wavelength as the robot causes the Avenger to go into seizures every time PM orders the robot to do something. This leaves Spider-Man to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting for this one, as Vision is often times completely useless for most of the conflict. However, I will give The Vision credit for pulling himself together long enough to do his little "materialize inside someone's chest" bit on The Puppet Master, ending the conflict completely. Up until then, it was basically Spider-Man doing his best to fight the Skrull robot (called Monsteroid by the Puppet Master; no relation to the shitty early 80's monster movie of the same name ), while The Puppet Master was trying to raid the Baxter Building, as this whole deal was an attempt to get revenge on The Fantastic Four (Jeez, you'd almost think this was MARVEL TWO IN ONE instead of MARVEL TEAM UP, with how much the FF are playing into some of these early stories). However, The Vision is able to quickly end this whole deal, once he realizes that his pain is due to The Puppet Master's actions, and, well, that's about it. This was a pretty simplistic one and done story that had a few decent moments, and I'll will give it points for having Spidey team up with The Vision, a character that I don't even think he had really met up to that point, as this was still the time where team ups didn't happen as often as they do now. Still, this was probably the weakest issue so far, but I will say a lot of that was due to my considering The Puppet Master to be kind of a lame villain. Unfortunately, he returns in the next issue, but he will be joined by a better villain, so, there's a plus, and Spider-Man will be joined by....one of the people The Puppet Master was trying to get revenge on in this issue. GRADE: B
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