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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 1, 2017 4:00:00 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #140 "Rage!"Cover Date: December, 1980 Writer: Chris Claremont & John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: The Wendigo, The Blob (briefly) Guest Stars: Vindicator, Shaman, and Snowbird from Alpha Flight (which is disbanded, but don't worry....they'll be back), & Stevie Hunter Official Plot: Continued from last issue... Angel flies around Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Having only recently returned to the X-Men, he is still adjusting to the team’s most recent members. He converses briefly with Colossus, as the latter pulls a rotting tree stump out of the ground. Professor X summons Angel and asks him his opinion on the X-Men. Angel does not hide his feelings concerning Wolverine. He thinks that he is a dangerous psychopath with "freaky claws". Professor X reminds Angel that the purpose of the school is to cater to all mutants – no matter how rough they may appear on the outside. In Salem Center, Storm endures an uncomfortable encounter with an amorous pimp before stopping at Stevie Hunter’s dance studio to pick up Kitty Pryde. She is surprised to see how closely Kitty and Stevie have become in so short a time, and shamefully admits to herself that she is growing jealous. Kitty phases into the passenger side of the car, and Storm scolds her for such a showy display of her powers in public. Kitty assures her that she checked to make sure no one was watching before she attempted her stunt. Meanwhile in Northern Canada, the Wendigo charges at Nightcrawler, forcing the X-man to retreat farther into the woods. The surrounding environment is too congested for Nightcrawler to risk blindly teleporting, so he avoids Wendigo's grasp by acrobatically flipping through the trees. The monster manages to latch onto him however and begins squeezing the life from his body. Nightcrawler has no choice but to teleport blind, and he transports himself several yards directly into the air and then teleports again safely to the ground. The Wendigo catches up to him however, and throws him hard against the side of a wood cabin. Inside the cabin, Vindicator, Wolverine, Shaman and Snowbird are discussing their strategy on how to deal with the Wendigo. Wolverine hears the sound of Nightcrawler's body slamming against the side of the building and rushes outside. He finds Nightcrawler's unconscious form, and the Wendigo brandishing a pick-up truck as if it were a baseball bat. Vindicator flies outward from behind Wolverine and begins firing his laser blasts at the Wendigo, but the Wendigo easily bats him away. Wendigo throws the pick-up truck which explodes creating a fire. He then takes off deeper into the woods. Shaman uses powder from his medicine pouch to put out the flames while Snowbird and Wolverine begin chasing the Wendigo. They eventually track the monster back to its lair where he has camper Eileen Parnall and her infant son trapped inside of a cave. He tells Snowbird to regroup with the others while he tackles the creature directly. Like his namesake, Wolverine dives on top of the Wendigo and begins voraciously slashing at him with his claws. The Wendigo has supernatural strength however, and is able to continue fighting despite his injuries. He grabs Wolverine and begins smashing him against the side of a tree. Suddenly Nightcrawler arrives and attacks the monster from behind, distracting it long enough to give Wolverine a chance to catch his breath. Snowbird returns with Vindicator, and realizes that only brute savagery can possibly stop this menace. She transforms into an actual wolverine and launches herself at the monster. She succeeds in bringing the Wendigo down, but the violent passions of her animal form have consumed her and she is now completely feral. Wolverine softly approaches her, and coaxes her down until she is tame enough to revert to her normal humanoid form. Shaman uses his magic to counteract the curse of the Wendigo. He cures the creature's condition, transforming him back into the human, Georges Baptiste. Vindicator is faced with a difficult decision. As a duly licensed agent of the Canadian government, he is forced to place Baptiste under arrest. When Vindicator returns to Parliament, the Prime Minister informs him that the Ministry of Defense no longer maintains the budget to continue funding Department H. He tells him that he will allow him to keep his security status, but as of this moment, Alpha Flight is officially disbanded. Epilogue: In a maximum security prison in Demming, New Mexico, the evil mutant known as the Blob escapes from his prison cell. He refers to a mysterious contact who has invited him to join a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Brodie's View: This is the second half of the Wendigo story, and we see Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and three of the future members of Alpha Flight (Vindicator, Snowbird, and Shaman) all getting to fight the savage creature. Finally, Snowbird shapeshifts into an actual wolverine, and tears the Wendigo's throat out (assumingly), with Wolverine having to talk her out of her berzerker rage. The Wendigo is stopped, but James Hudson (Vindicator) finds out after the fight that the Canadian government no longer has the money to finance Alpha Flight, and they disband the team. Hudson would end up just reforming the team on his own, without a major connection to the Canadian government, which finally once and for all ends the whole "Hunting Wolverine" storyline, and allows Alpha Flight to become the superhero team they could be (and they do). We also get some moments early on with both Kitty Pryde (who uses her powers in public, and then is scolded by Storm for doing so, which would start the whole motherly relationship Storm takes with Kitty over the next 20 or so issues) and The Angel (who has a small scene with Colossus, and then goes on to talk with Xaiver about Wolverine, and whether or not he's too dangerous to be on the team). Little small things, sure, but they set up where things are going to go in the near future, and definitely where things go after Byrne departs. Speaking of Byrne, however, we do get a set up at the very end of this issue (With the Blob breaking out of jail), for the next few issues, which is the final masterpiece the Claremont/Byrne team leave us before splitting, but we'll get into that in next issue's review. I will off by saying this: I just finished up my Hulk reviews (as we have come to the end of that particular run), and that whole thing had started with #272, where the villain was The Wendigo. Now, we come to the end of the Hulk run, and who is the villain of the issue of X-Men that I'm writing after doing my last Hulk issue(?)......The Wendigo. Coincidence? Absolutely. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 1, 2017 22:43:32 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #141 "Days of Future Past"Cover Date: January, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont & John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: The Sentinels, Senator Robert Kelly, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Mystique, The Blob, Destiny, Pyro, and Avalanche) Guest Stars: Future versions of Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Colossus, Franklin Richards, and (Introducing) Rachel Summers, tons of Marvel Heroes and Villains who were killed by the Sentinels, & Moria MacTaggert Official Plot: In the 21st Century, New York City had become a nightmarish environment run by mutant-discriminatory Sentinels. Kate Pryde a mutant slave, is out on what is supposed to be a medical run, when she is attacked by the Rogue Pack, human scavengers who hate mutants. She is rescued by Wolverine, who is now part of the Canadian resistance against the Sentinels. He has come to warn Kate that there are plans to launch a full scale nuclear assault on America if the Sentinels are not stopped. Understanding this, Kate hopes their gamble works and is given the last component of a device Kate has slowly been smuggling into the concentration camp she has spent most of her adult life. When she returns to the South Bronx facility where she lives, she makes it through a Sentinel security sweep and walks past the cemetery of dead heroes and mutants all slaughtered for trying to stop the Sentinel invasion. She meets up with her husband Colossus and the last surviving members of the X-Men: Storm, Rachel Summers, Franklin Richards, and Magneto, who is now crippled and relies on a wheelchair to get around. In their private quarters, the last of the X-Men put together the last component of a device that will jam the power dampeners that prevent them from using their powers. With her mutant abilities available to her, Rachel would then use her vast telepathic powers to send Kate's consciousness back in time.... The date is October 30, 1980, and the X-Men are in yet another training session in the Danger Room. Their newest member Sprite walks in, unaware that the session is in full swing. Realizing the inexperienced X-Man is in the room, the other X-Men break their concentration to save Kitty from harm before Nightcrawler can teleport to the emergency shut-off switch. After, Kitty is scolded for entering the Danger Room when a training session was in progress. When Nightcrawler tries to lighten the mood, Kitty instinctively flinches in fear. When the X-Men go up to the control room to prepare for Kitty's first Danger Room session, Nightcrawler admits that seeing Kitty flinch like that hurts but he is confident that the girl will soon warm up to him. When Kitty's session begins, she concentrates enough to activate her phasing powers and walks through the obstacle course with her eyes closed. None of the traps that Xavier had set up to try and stop her from getting to the other side of the Danger Room seem to stop her, which causes the X-Men to burst with laughter at the fact that Kitty is easily walking through Xavier's obstacle course. However, when Kitty goes to exit the room she is struck by some strange force and collapses. When they rush her to the infirmary they scan her brain for a mental attack and find that her brain patterns have changed, having become more complex. When Kitty wakes up, she surprises Nightcrawler by hugging him and is happy to see him and the other X-Men alive. Kitty, or Kate as she begins to refer to herself, shocks them all with this: She is really the mind of her older self from 30 years in the future. She explains that she has come back in time to prevent the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from murdering US Senator Robert Kelly, Professor Xavier, and Moira MacTaggert during a hearing on the potential dangers of mutants. Their murders will bring about a the apocalyptic future in which she lives in. Although the X-Men (except for Wolverine) are not so quick to fully believe this story, they decide to go and check on the Professor anyway. Aboard one of Warren Worthington's aircraft, they fly toward Washington DC. Along the way, Kate tells them how these assassinations would increase anti-mutant hysteria and by 1984, an anti-mutant President would be voted into the White House who would pass the Mutant Control Act. Soon, almost every mutant and super-human in North America would be wiped out by the Sentinels. The robots were meant to protect humanity, however, they would soon enslave the entire United States. She explains how her friends in the future had sent her mind back to her younger body, as she would have been the only one who hadn't been prepared with psychic defenses by Professor X at that point. She also tells them that the surviving X-Men in the future were also planning on shutting down the Sentinel's operation in North America in order to avoid nuclear war in case she failed her mission in the past.... Back in the year 2013: Rachel, Franklin and Peter manage to escape from their concentration camp thanks to Magneto sacrificing his life so that they can escape. Carrying Kate's unconscious body, they meet up with Wolverine who leads them through the sewers in the hopes of reaching the Baxter Building, where the Sentinels have set up their primary operations since taking over America. As they move through the tunnels the Sentinels rip through the ceiling above to get them. Their first blast kills Franklin, incinerating his body. The remaining X-Men fight back, and despite their ages, manage to defeat all of the Sentinels facing them before continuing on their trek to the Fantastic Four's old headquarters. Meanwhile, back in the present, at the Pentagon, Raven Darkhölme enters her private office and reverts back to her natural form -- that of Mystique, the mutant terrorist. She has gathered the mutants Destiny, Blob, Pyro and Avalanche into a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for the purpose of assassinating Senator Kelly. When checking with Destiny's precognitive powers, Destiny informs her that some unknown factor makes the future hard for her to read. Despite this, and despite in fighting between Blob, Pyro and Avalanche, they move on to enact their plans. Later at the United States Senate, the hearing over mutants is in full order and Senator Kelly is questioning Moira MacTaggert when the X-Men arrive in their civilian guises. When the Professor telepathically asks them what's going on, Storm imparts the information that she gathered from Kate. Just then, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants smashes through the wall and before they can attack Kelly and the others, the X-Men change into their costumes and step in their way to stop them. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View: Talk about a double sucker punch by Claremont and Byrne. First they kill off one of the team in a super shocking way, and then just as the readers were recovering from that, they pull this jarring story out of left field on us (the readers). This story begins in an apocalyptic future where Charles Xaiver's dream has most certainly failed, and the Sentinels have pretty much taken over America; either exterminating or nullifying any mutant/super powered being, and putting the rest in concentration camps. We see this through the eyes of an older Kitty Pryde (Kate Pryde), who along with a rag tag group that represents the last of the X-Men in any form (Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Magneto, Franklin Richards (the son of Reed and Susan), and Rachel Summers, who makes her intro here), have a plan to try and stop this future before it happens. They plan to send Kate's consciousness back into the body of her younger self in 1980, and have her convince the X-Men of that time to stop the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly, who is riding a wave of Anti-Mutant sentiment in his campaign. The potential assassins are Ms. Marvel villain, Mystique (who pretty much becomes an X-Villain/Character from here on in), who has assembled a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (The Blob, the precog Destiny, Pyro (who can control fire), and Avalanche (who can create earthquakes)) in order to take out Kelly/handle whoever tries to stop them. So, we basically have a story taking place over two time periods: The future, where the future X-Men hope to stop the Sentinels, while Kate does the work in the past to stop all of this even happening, and "the present," where Kate and The X-Men try to stop the event that helps cause all of this (Kelly being assassinated). Once again, the X-Men in a truly hopeless situation, as one doesn't even know if what Kate does will even prevent that future, or whether it'll just splinter the time line (it does) to create a situation where maybe Kelly's assassination doesn't cause this apocalyptic future, but perhaps something else does, or doesn't.....Argh!!! All this time travel talk is giving me a headache. Anyways, this story, while only being a two parter, is a powerful close to the Claremont/Byrne era (there would be one more story afterwards, but that's more of a one off that features Kitty), as they have basically created the idea of giving their team a dystopian future to fear and fight against. We also see a return to the idea that human prejudice is the greatest enemy to the X-Men, and all they represent, as the Sentinels are most definitely a drastic end result of mankind's hatred of people different than them leading down a horrible path. There are some shocking images in this issue that makes one's soul hurt (the cemetery of the super heroes, the idea that the remaining mutants were herded into concentration camps), and I would guarantee that it's images like this that fed into a young James Cameron's vision of what would eventually become THE TERMINATOR'S equally dystopian future. However, this is just the set up; in the next issue, EVERYONE DIES....well, there are quite a few raw deaths, but it'll still be some shocking shit. Trust me. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 2, 2017 1:19:32 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #142 "Mind Out of Time"Cover Date: February, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont & John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: The Sentinels, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Mystique, The Blob, Destiny, Pyro, and Avalanche) Guest Stars: Future versions of Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Rachel Summers/ & Moria MacTaggert Official Plot: Continued from last issue... In the present, the X-Men have appeared at the US Senate to stop the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. They have been led there by the adult mind of Kate Pryde who's mind has been projected into the body of her young self from 30 years in the future. While in this same future where the assassination of Kelly would lead to the passage of the Mutant Registration Act and the enslavement of all mutants, the last surviving X-Men head toward the Baxter Building to stop their Sentinel overlords before the rest of the world attempts to nuke America. 1980: The Brotherhood easily knocks past the security and attempts to attack Senator Kelly, but the X-Men get in their way. As the two groups battle each other, Wolverine attempts to gut Pyro with his claws, but is stopped by Storm. As the battle rages, a security guard leads Professor Xavier and Moira MacTaggert away, only to gas them as she is really Mystique in disguise. With Xavier and MacTaggert as hostages, Mystique checks what their future is like with Destiny. Destiny still cannot see past the interference that prevents her from seeing the course history is destined to take. Destiny is unaware that it is the adult mind of Kate Pryde existing in the body of her younger self that is causing the interference. 2013: The last X-Men arrive just outside the Baxter Building, former headquarters to the Fantastic Four and now the primary nerve center of the Sentinel forces that rule America. With Rachel staying behind to watch over Kate's unconscious body, Storm, Colossus and Wolverine go into action. Storm easily disables the Sentinel that is guarding the door, granting the team access to the building. Once inside, Wolverine uses one of the Fantastic Four's old signal belts to gain access to the private elevator that would lead them up to the FF's old headquarters. As they ride the elevator up, they prepare to face the greatest challenge of their lives. 1980: As the battle continues to rage, Storm gets down on herself for not being as good a leader as Cyclops when she failed to see that battling indoors is not helping their fight. Using her mutant powers, Storm creates a wind that blows the Brotherhood and X-Men outside of the Senate building where their battle continues. The battle becomes more complicated with the arrival of the National Guard with some tanks and soldiers which the Brotherhood easily exploit. When soldier arrives with a flame thrower, Pyro uses his powers to turn it's flame into a giant fire monster that grabs hold of Wolverine. Storm manages to generate powerful enough wind to blast the flame monster apart before it can seriously harm him. When Wolverine is approached by who he thinks is Nightcrawler, another Nightcrawler lungest tat the other and a fight ensues. Unable to tell them apart due to the damage done to his enhanced senses from being burned, Wolverine decides to dive into the middle of the fight with his claws. Storm stops him and manages to order him to put his claws away. Wolverine, hating to be ordered around, complies but warns Storm that the argument isn't over. They are soon attacked by Blob and Avalanche. Wolverine and Colossus create a level which allows them to toss the Blob at Avalanche, while Storm creates a monsoon rain around Pyro making it impossible for him to use his flames. While the real Nightcrawler lands a blow on his doppleganger, forcing Mystique to revert to her normal form. When Nightcrawler notices a resemblance between the two of them, Mystique tells Nightcrawler to ask his adopted mother Margali Szardos about that next time he sees her. When Angel swoops in, it distracts Nightcrawler enough to allow Mystique to escape. Realizing that Kate and Destiny are unaccounted for, the X-Men rush back into the Senate building hoping that they aren't too late. 2013: Exiting the elevator in the Baxter Building, the X-Men spot a Sentinel working at one of the main computers. Wolverine orders Colossus to toss a Fastball special. However as Wolverine is hurtled toward the Sentinel it detects his presence and incinerates him with a laser blast, leaving nothing but a charred Adamantium skeleton. Storm takes down the Sentinel with a lightning bolt, however more Sentinels enter the room. One impales Storm through the torso with a harpoon. This one is destroyed by Colossus, however he soon dies as well. While down on the streets below, Rachel Summers listens to her friends die and sheds tears hoping that Kate succeeds on her mission in the past. 1980: Destiny has cornered Senator Kelly in an office within the Senate and is about to shoot him with a crossbow. She is unaware that Kate Pryde is in the room, and just before Destiny can fire the fatal, history making shot, Kate uses her phasing powers to pass through Destiny. This disorients her enough to make her shot just miss Kelly's head by inches. With history changed, Kate's mind is shot back into the future and the strain causes Kitty to pass out. Storm arrives shortly after and takes Kitty away while Destiny is taken into police custody. Later aboard Warren's jet as it heads back to the X-Men's headquarters, Professor X probes Kitty's mind and finds no trace of her future self. Further, young Kitty has no memory of the battle either. When Warren asks the Professor if they indeed managed to change the future, the Professor can only say that time will tell. Brodie's View: This, the second part of the DAYS OF FUTURE PAST storyline, is really the story of two different battles fought by the X-Men in two different timelines. One goes pretty well for the team, as they prevent the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from killing Senator Robert Kelly (Whose death sets off a chain of events that lead to the apocalyptic future also shown, where the Sentinels have taken over America). One....really doesn't go very well for the team, as a last ditch effort to stop the mutant killing robots fails miserably, and all the future X-Men but Kate (an older Kitty Pryde) and Rachel Summers (we'll get to her in a second) die. If you couldn't tell by the cover, Wolverine gets the flesh seared off of him before the fight even starts, and Storm and Colossus are taken out in pretty short order, leaving things looking very hopeless in the future, as Rachel hopes Kitty was successful in her mission, causing this future to have never happened. Of course, the joke is on her, as it obviously just created an alternate time line, as we would see Rachel herself transported in this past later on in this run, and tell the story of her experiences. Rachel Summers is an interesting character, as she is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from an alternate timeline (where she assumingly never became Phoenix, or never died at the very least, but rather the two got married and had Rachel before things went dark). Even despite the rise of mutant hate, Rachel was able to lead a normal life until several X-Men were assassinated, and the Mansion destroyed. It was there that Rachel was found by the U.S government, and conditioned to be a Hound, or a mutant that due to her abilities was able to seek out other mutants that were in hiding from the government/Sentinels. She would be this, and lead many a mutant to their deaths until she was able to shake the programming instilled in her by Ahab (who ran the Hound program), and she was put in the concentration camp that the remaining X-Men were sent to, which led to this plan being hatched. As I said before, eventually she and Kate would institute another plan, one that would send Rachel to the past, rather than Kate (who would accidentally merge with the time warp that sent Rachel to the past, to create future Excalibur "member," Widget). This would happen in Uncanny X-Men #184, and we'll pick up then with more about Rachel, but for now, we'll just say she's very important to the future of the team, beyond what happens in this issue and the last. For now, we'll talk a bit about Mystique and her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who battle the X-Men in this issue (but lose). Mystique is a shape changer who has been around a LOT longer than her age appearance would suggest. She would begin her character life as a reoccurring foe for Ms. Marvel, but that wouldn't last too long, as future Brotherhood member (and Mystique's adopted daughter, Rogue), would soon steal most of Ms. Marvel's power and memories, leaving her a broken shell of a woman for a while, until hanging with the X-Men gives her a new purpose, identity, and powers (we'll see this all play out shortly after Byrne leaves). Mystique also (in this issue) hints that she might have a closer relationship to X-Man Nightcrawler than he knows/suspects (Pssst, she's his mother.....it's revealed in full later), which throws the fuzzy elf off, and allows Mystique to be able to run away and plot again for another day. Mystique's closest teammate/companion/romantic interest, Destiny, is a mutant with the power to see the future (Of course, this ability must not stretch very far in the future, as she has no clue about what the actions of the Brotherhood may lead to, and if she does, she's pretty messed up for going along with it); the irony being that out of her costume, she's merely a blind old woman with precog abilities. As for the Blob, he was an enemy of the original X-Men, and is basically a huge mutant that can't be moved, unless he wants to. Pyro and Avalanche are two brand new mutants, and as stated before, the first can control fire, while the other makes earthquakes. The team does make a tough fight for the X-Men, but the heroes are able to defeat the Brotherhood, but this isn't the last time they would fight. Not by a long shot. Anyways, this almost marks the end of John Byrne's run on this book, as after next issue, he would leave the book, citing the need to be alone in his vision of writing/creating both ALPHA FLIGHT and THE FANTASTIC FOUR. Chris Claremont would pick up the slack left, though, and actually make the book bigger than when he and Byrne were at their best. However, it is important to remember that this was the run that gave him a hell of a plateau to work off of. GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 2, 2017 3:14:40 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #143"Demon"Cover Date: March, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont & John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: A N'Gari Demon Guest Star/s: Mariko Yashida, Lee Forrester (1st Appearance) Official Plot: Flashback - The X-Men's first battle with the N'Garai, specifically Storm's destruction of the obelisk which was the nexus of the gateway between their world and ours. The X-Men believed that, with the obelisk gone, the gate was sealed, but a lone demon slowly crawled from amidst the rubble, free in our world. In the present day a couple out looking for their first Christmas tree. Quickly their happiness became ashes - the N'Garai demon killed them swiftly and then feasted upon them, body and soul. Meanwhile at the X-Mansion Kitty was learning how the Blackbird ran, backwards and forwards, when, to her relief, Angel interrupted to let Xavier know that it was time to be going. In the entrance-way, Logan introduced Mariko Yashida to Professor X. A mistletoe prank of Kurt's with Mariko drew Wolverine's ire, but things were soon set aright, although the mood was tense. Kitty lightened it by playing a similar trick on Colossus, who blushed deeply. Then most of the X-Men departed: Wolverine and Mariko, Angel off to see Candy Southern, and Professor X, Peter, Ororo, and Kurt off in the Rolls. Kitty Pryde was left in the mansion alone. Kitty, feeling lonely, tried calling her parents with no luck. Scott called to wish everyone a merry Christmas. Finding only Kitty in the mansion, he promised to call tomorrow. He then found Lee Forrester to see about taking a job as a sailor. He is a little surprised to find that Lee is a woman when he was expecting the ship captain to be a man. Still at loose ends, Kitty decided to work out, using a Danger Room exercise program. However, her work-out was interrupted by the intruder alarm activating in Ororo's room. Not wanting to disturb the police over what may be something as simple as a fallen branch, Kitty decided to investigate only to discover the N'Garai demon. Kitty lead it on a merry chase through the mansion, phasing through walls with it fast on its heels. Losing it briefly at one point, she tried to make it to a phone to call the other X-Men. The demon was waiting for her, however, and while she phased in time, she still felt the claw as it scythed through her incorporeal form. She escaped to the Danger Room, air-walking up to the control booth to use the room against her. The demon was taking its time to show, however, and she was starting to wonder just how smart it was when it entered the control booth instead of the room below. Kitty backpedaled into the Danger Room and it pursued her through the 'unbreakable' glass. The Danger Room came alive, and Kitty managed to barely keep just ahead of it and not get nailed by the room. Of course, the demon just tore through everything the room had to offer, but it delayed it long enough that Kitty got a good head-start, out of the Danger Room and to the rail-car to the hangar. Halfway to the hangar the demon ruptured the rail, forcing Kitty to travel the rest of the distance on foot. Weary from exertion, Kitty got into the blackbird, its turbine engines pointed down the tunnel, the only realistic path for the demon to follow into the hangar. She started going through the ignition checklist. At the last second she ignited the engines, crisping the demon but wrecking the blackbird. She exited the plane, air-walking, confident nothing could have survived, when a burned claw arced towards her. The X-Men returned home to a darkened house, having encountered police earlier warning them of gruesome murders that had occurred in the area. Wary, and with Professor X's telepathy somehow foiled, they entered cautiously. Kitty was curled up watching TV with a fire, and was overjoyed that the X-Men had returned. Kitty's parents were also with them. It turned out that last swipe was the creature's dying attempt to kill Kitty. It made the supreme effort and it failed. Brodie's View: And with this, we officially end the John Byrne era, at least as it relates to the X-Men. Sure, Byrne would do a couple little spots here and there (He would draw a few pages for the X-MEN: HEROES FOR HOPE charity comic, and a few pages for UNCANNY #273's artist collage, and of course, due to his drawing ALPHA FLIGHT, he would still get to draw Wolverine quite a bit), but as far as it relates to this particular team of X-Men, he was done after this issue. And this issue really does seem like an epilogue to his and Chris Claremont's run together, even though it actually starts a few subplots that Byrne wouldn't be around to follow up on (Such as the introduction of Captain Lee Forrester, who we be the somewhat love interest for Cyclops during this period), and most of the story featuring Kitty Pryde having to prove herself against a fearsome threat (A N'Gari demon, remember them from X-MEN #96?), but the fact that the story is set during Christmas, which features most of the X-Men acting very loose and relaxed (well, for the most part.....looking at you, Logan). But all the same, this is a very solid ending for this era, as this issue really lays a lot of groundwork in exploring Kitty Pryde as a character; how lonely she is away from her family, and yet how determined she is to prove herself to her new one. The main threat comes from, as previously stated, a N'Gari demon, that broke free from the rubble of the giant statue/portal that Storm thought she completely destroyed in #96, and it would stalk Kitty through the mansion, until the last part of the issue, which is very reminiscent of ALIEN, as a slightly wounded Kitty Pryde (It's claws were able to cut her, even though she was phased) must evade this gruesome threat, or not live to survive the experience. She manages to lead the creature into the Blackbird's hanger, and basically fries the thing with the jet's jets. ( ) This would definitely send a message that despite her age, Kitty, both in intelligence and skill, was a formidable threat on her own terms, and throughout the next few years, this would grow even more true. (P.S.....this is also the issue that officially starts the whole Kitty/Colossus thing, as she gives him a quick kiss under the mistletoe, and while he blushes, it didn't look like he hated it. It kind of reminds me of that TOYFARE: TWISTED TOYFARE THEATER moment where Kitty is introduced to Colossus, and Kitty says, "Tee Hee, I'm fourteen," and Colossus replies with, "Da, I am for teens as well." ) GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 2, 2017 22:54:32 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men Annual #4"Nightcrawler's Inferno"Cover Date: November, 1980 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: John Romita Jr. Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde/Sprite (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: Margali Szardos (Working through various demons) Guest Stars: Dr. Strange, Amanda Sefton Official Plot: It is Nightcrawler's birthday, and the X-Men are celebrating, while everyone enjoys the revelry, the newest X-Man, Kitty Pryde, still feels like an outsider among the group. When Kurt begins opening his gifts on of them turns out to be a crystal statue of himself. As he examines it, it suddenly explodes in his face, enveloping him in a black cloud that knocks him out. Finding no vital signs, the X-Men rush Kurt to the infirmary where the Professor can examine him. However, despite his best efforts he reports to his students that Kurt is dead. As the X-Men mourn Kurt's passing there is a knock at the door. When Kitty answers it, in enters Dr. Strange, master of the mystic arts. He has been summoned by the Professor, as Xavier believes that the attack on Kurt was mystical in nature. Scanning Kurt's dead body with the Eye of Agamotto confirms this. Strange's probe also reveals that Kurt is not dead, merely in a state of suspended animation and that some mystical force has stolen his soul. Detecting a mystical presence, Strange demands it appears. Complying the being responsible reveals herself to be Margali of the Winding Road who accepts Dr. Strange's challenge. From the dark void she has come from issues demonic tentacles that ensnare Strange, Wolverine, Colossus, Storm and Nightcrawler's inert body. While Kitty and the Professor manage to escape into another room, closing the door behind them. When Kitty phases through it to see what happened to the X-Men on the other side she finds that they, and the dark void they were pulled into had vanished, leaving them to wonder where their teammates had vanished to. Dr. Strange, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler all revive to find themselves in a hellish realm fashioned after Dante's Inferno. Recognizing the place from the famous poem, Strange believes that Margali wants them to follow the same path as Dante and meet Satan himself. Opening the main gates of warning they come the shores of the River Acheron. They are greeted by the ferry man of the dead known as Charon, who warns the other X-Men that if they follow Nightcrawler they will share his same fate of death. Unwilling to leave their friend behind, the X-Men and Dr. Strange agree to accompany Charon across the River Acheron to a massive palace. Inside, they are greeted by it's ruler, the charismatic Minos, the Guardian to the Gate of Hell. The charismatic Minos explains to Kurt that he has been brought here to pay for his crimes on the surface world. However, before the demon can explain things further he launches Kurt into the air to send him to the proper circle of Hell to pay punishment. Storm flies after him to his rescue, and catches him over the various circles. However the winds blast them down to the Second Circle, a place of Stygian darkness where the souls of the damned are whipped about in powerful gale force winds. Storm and Nightcrawler are attacked by Harpies, and although Storm tries to defend both of them, she fails to stop them from taking Kurt away from her. She is struck down and falls deeper into the circles of Hell. Nightcrawler manages to teleport back to the others, who are before the mocking Minos who finds Storm's sacrifice amusing. Minos tells them that she will be transported to the appropriate circle of Hell where she will spend all eternity unless someone gets her out. Wolverine accepts the challenge on behalf of the X-Men, and when he asks Dr. Strange if he will accompany them, he agrees to go with them. As they descend deeper into the Inferno, on the third level they are attacked by Cerberus, whom Wolverine and Colossus manage to fight off into fleeing. While crossing a stench-filled bog in the Fourth Circle, they are attacked by a demon horde, and it takes all their mystical might and mutant powers to fight past them. When stuck at a gate, Colossus manages to pry open the doors with his massive strength, scaring away the demons on the other side. Wolverine eventually becomes sick of the slow progression and dives down to the Seventh Circle where it appears that Storm is being attacked by a bunch of demons. As Strange and the others free this being they are horrified to find that she has a slightly demonic form. However, Wolverine comes out of the fray with a snake creature and tells them that Storm and this demon swapped forms. With Storm free, the X-Men and Strange travel deeper to the final circle of hell, a realm of frozen ice, where Nightcrawler suddenly is frozen in a solid chunk of ice. When Colossus smashes it open, they unleash what appears to be Satan, ready to bring his final punishment on Nightcrawler. Dr. Strange however uses his magic to reveal that it was really Margali of the Winding Road. Margali is surprised to see these invaders, and when it turns out that she had never met them before, Just then Margali's daughter Jimaine appears. She tells her mother that she posed as her to get the X-Men and Dr. Strange to go after her in order to save Nightcrawler's soul. Betrayed by her daughter, Margali uses her powers to incapacitate her daughter. When the X-Men demand to know what crime Kurt had committed, she tells them that he had murdered her son and must pay for it. Not believing that Kurt would willingly murder someone, the X-Men demand that she spare him. Dr. Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to replay that fateful day for all to witness.... They learn that Kurt was found my Margali and her family when he was a month old and taken into their family where he grew up as part of their gypsy circus. Kurt would develop a love for Jimaine and become great friends with her brother Stefan. Stefan would have Kurt swear to him that one day, if he were to ever become evil that he will kill him. Years later in the city of Winzeldorf, Stefan would become evil. Murdering many, forcing Kurt to live up to his promise and slay the man that was like a brother to him. Kurt would be blamed for all of the murders and would be chased by the angry mob that he would eventually be rescued from by Professor X. Realizing the truth, Margali ends her vendetta, apologizing to Kurt and reverses all the damage she had done. Sending the X-Men and Dr. Strange home before departing, telling Kurt that they shall meet again soon. Back at the X-Mansion, Kurt notices that Jimaine has been transported there as well, and she reveals to him that she has been closer to him than he thought, revealing that she was really Amanda Sefton in disguise. Reunited with his childhood lover, Kurt proclaims that this is the best birthday gift he could get. As the X-Men celebrate their victory, Wolverine notices Kitty standing off to the corner and asks her to join them as she is one of the X-Men also. Kitty joins them in their celebration. Brodie's View: Okay, looking at the cover date, I'm sure the 1-2 of you that read these are thinking, "Hey, 1980? I thought we were into 1981, issue-wise," and you'd be correct. We are backtracking a bit, but although it started out as a simple mistake (I had written the review for #139, not realizing that this annual took place before it, but didn't feel like writing a completely new review). Then I was going to post it before DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, but at the same time, I didn't want to break up the end of Byrne's run, so, I decided to do this review here, as it is a bit of a pallet cleanser before we move on to the Post Byrne era of the team, and really, this already seems like it's concerning the Post Byrne era, as the focus is on a character that never really got much play during the Byrne era: Nightcrawler. In fact, we get a nice little chunk of his backstory, and are introduced to people from his past, one of whom has kind of been standing in the background since like #97, and would become very important to the fuzzy elf for a good chunk of Claremont's run, and even beyond that, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. The basic story of this annual is that during a surprise party for Kurt, he receives a mystery gift, which upon its opening, hits him with a black smoke that apparently kills him. However, the X-Men suspect that there is magic in play here, so, Xaiver gives a call to Marvel's resident sorcerer supreme, Dr. Strange, who discovers that Nightcrawler only appears to be dead, and he and the main part of the team (Minus Kitty and Professor X) journey into what very much appears to be Hell, and they make their way through the different levels (ala Dante'), each more horrible than the last, until they meet what appears to be Satan, but instead is revealed to be a witch named Margali Szardos, Nightcrawler's adopted mother, who cursed him to this manufactured Hell to punish him for killing her son, and Nightcrawler's Step Brother. However, Margali's daughter, Jimaine, who had a past romance with Kurt, even though she was technically his step sister, steps forward to help reveal the truth: That Margali's son had turned murderous, and Kurt had killed him only as a last resort to free him from his bloodlust. Having a change of heart, Margali releases Nightcrawler's soul, and the team and Dr. Strange returns to reality. Jimaine then reveals herself to be Amanda Sefton (remember her?), who has been there all along for the fuzzy elf. The issue ends with Kitty being made to feel like part of the team by Wolverine and the others, which helps the start of cementing her place with the X-Men. This was a pretty cool story, with some good art by John Romita Jr, who was still in the early part of his artistic career. We would definitely see a different Romita by the time he rejoins the book in #175, as his art would grow more gritty and stylistic. Some would say that his art would later become TOO stylistic, but I thought his X-Men stuff was pretty awesome, and perfect for that mid 80's era. We also get to see the first solo writing by Claremont in a while, and one can tell that he's planning to take the reigns back fully in this issue, and take it in a different direction than if Byrne had remained on the book with him the entire time. There's some great moments in this book: one that sticks out for me was Storm being drug down into a pit full of demons, and having her mind temporarily switched with a snake-like creature. A moment of pure horror in a comic book-ish story. We would get other such moments over the next few years, especially when Claremont was paired with certain artists. A very solid annual. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 3, 2017 0:47:23 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 144"Even in Death..."Cover Date: April, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Brent Anderson Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: D'Spayre Guest Stars: The Man Thing(!!!) & Lee Forrester Official Plot:Jock Forrester, broken by the news that he was being killed by cancer, returned to the swamp he grew up in. Unbeknownst to him, he was watched by two entities: the empathic Man-Thing and a sinister presence. That presence pushed Jock over the edge, causing him to take his own life, and then it revealed itself as D'Spayre. Man-Thing attacked him, but D'Spayre was victorious, and then took the form of Jock Forrester. Not too far away, Scott Summers was adapting to life as a fisherman. After a successful fishing trip the crew headed to a pub, where Scott caught up on his letters. Meanwhile at the X-Mansion reconstruction is preceding apace. Wolverine and Nightcrawler were playfully ribbing Kitty for the amount of damage she caused, but unintentionally ended up hurting her feelings. Back at the pub, Scott's shipmates got him up to play some pool, and while everyone was distracted by the football game he used his optic beams instead of the pool cue to sink every ball on the table. Lee got a call from her 'father' asking her to come visit, and she asked Scott if he minded keeping her company. Scott agreed. They entered the house, only to discover that "Jock" was actually D'Spayre, and Lee's father killed himself that morning. Then reality went wild. Scott found himself as a child on the plane with his parents, being pushed out with Alex in the only parachute. Then he found himself in Larry Trask's sentinel base with his brother, only the original X-Men were dead. Suddenly, sentinels that looked like the new X-Men battered through the walls, and though Cyclops managed to destroy them all, Alex was slain. But the sentinels rise again, but then Scott found himself with Jean on a mesa. They kissed, and then suddenly Scott was wearing a tux over his costume and walking down the isle with Jean, whose clothes switched from one incarnation to the next. They reached the altar, and were pronounced man and wife, and then Jean asked Scott to remove his visor, telling him nothing would happen - but this time he blasted her. Coming back to reality, but laden with despair, Scott ran from D'Spayre and tumbled headlong through a window, falling to the ground below. He lied there for a long time. Coming to his senses, he discovered Man-Thing approaching him. Almost blasting the creature, he realized he wasn't under attack, as the Man-Thing traveled past him towards the door. Scott followed, to find Lee in the grip of D'Spayre. Man-Thing attacked the demon, but D'Spayre caused him to fear, which caused the Man-Thing to set himself on fire. After proving Cyclops' optic beams to be useless, D'Spayre disappeared, but Cyclops recalled him by thinking of Jean, and then grabbed hold of him. Cyclops had beaten his fear, and his resolve bolstered the Man-Thing, who grabbed hold of D'Spayre and the two were locked in a death-grip as Scott grabbed Lee and fled from the now-burning house. Then they left. In the morning, the house was ashes and the resurrected Man-Thing searched for signs of D'Spayre, but found none. Brodie's View: I will say, first off, that the first actual issue of the Post Byrne era is mostly a Cyclops story. We get a bit of a peak at what's going on with the actual team, as Kitty Pryde is getting ribbed by Wolverine and Nightcrawler for destroying a nice chunk of the mansion, while trying to escape a N'Gari demon in the last issue. She takes it pretty hard, and Nightcrawler feels a bit bad about it, as he wants the young X-Man to like him, and not be freaked out by his demon-ish appearance. Both would eventually happen, but this is still the early part of Kitty being an X-Man, so, there's still some ironing out that is happening between her and certain X-Men. Wolverine would actually be the most startling change, as he would accept her to the point of actually taking her under his wing and teaching her how to fight. This would be the first (but not the last) of the "Father/Daughter" relationships he would form with certain female characters over the years. However, barring that little cutaway scene, this is, as previously stated, a Cyclops story, and while it's kind of important in the sense of strengthening the bond somewhat between him and Lee Forrester (his short term love interest), this issue sadly suffers from a feeling of Deja Vu, as it very much is reminiscent of an issue of MARVEL TEAM UP that happened during the period Claremont and Byrne had been writing/doing the art on the book. The villain is the same (D'Spayre), the guest star is the same (Man Thing).....hell, even the plot is similar (Hero has to fight the Fear causing effects that D'Spayre creates, and then once that happens, he teams with the Man Thing to take D'Spayre down). I will say that some of the "dreams" that D'Spayre gives Cyclops are kind of interesting, as it relates to Jean Grey and his family, but, yeah, a repeat is a repeat, and this issue definitely seems like a repeat to buy time until a new story begins (Luckily, a new one would start next issue). I will, however, give extra points for having The Man Thing guest star, as I've always dug the character, but on a whole, this issue was kind of a let down after the awesomeness of the last 20-30. GRADE: C+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 3, 2017 2:42:42 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 145 "Kidnapped!"Cover Date: May, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Dave Cockrum Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villan/s: Dr. Doom/Arcade (and Ms. Locke and his henchmen) Guest Stars: Havok, Polaris, Iceman, The Beast, Sean Cassidy, Lee Forrester, Stevie Hunter, Illyana Rasputin, Moria MacTaggert, & Amanda Sefton Official Plot:Stevie Hunter and Ororo went to see an Britain's Royal Ballet. While watching the ballet, Miss Locke entered their box and touched them with a fatal contact poison, a poison she had the antidote to. The poison was merely to buy their undivided attention as Miss Locke related how and why Doom captured Arcade, that she would like the X-Men to rescue Arcade, and that many of the X-Men's family and friends had been captured to ensure that they would. Ororo fell unconscious, and when she awoke Stevie and Miss Locke were gone. She checked on Amanda Sefton and the Greys, but they were all missing. She returned to the mansion. The X-Men contacted Beast to get information about Dr. Doom from the Avengers. Wolverine argued that they couldn't submit to blackmail, they had to nail Murderworld so hard no one would attack their loved ones and friends again. Ororo agreed, and had a plan. Professor X telepathically contacted former X-Men Havok, Polaris, Iceman, and Banshee to provide extra manpower for the two-pronged assault. Team 1 (Storm, Angel, Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler) would rescue Arcade from Dr. Doom, buying time for Havok, Polaris, Iceman, and Banshee to rescue their friends from Murderworld. Professor X was unable to contact Cyclops. That may have been because he was just waking up on an unknown Caribbean beach where he and Lee Forrester may have been the only inhabitants. Lee had been tossed overboard by a freak storm, and Scott dove in after her, and now they were stranded. Meanwhile at Doom's Castle, the Adirondacks, Storm made a dramatic entrance and demanded to speak with Dr. Doom. Dr. Doom emerged and consented to discussing Storm's demand (that he release Arcade) over dinner. Meanwhile the other X-Men in her team infiltrated the castle to rescue Arcade. Unfortunately for them, they found Arcade's cell empty, and were then set upon by men in battle-suits. A fierce battle ensued with the X-Men victorious. In the dining room, Doom was monitoring the battle while engaging Storm in conversation. When it became apparent the battle-suits had lost, Doom presented another of his guests, Arcade. Realizing it was a trap, Storm attacked Doom, but he withstood the assault and hit Storm with a weapon that turned her into a statue. The other X-Men arrived seconds too late, only to be laid low by energy weapons. Colossus emerged unscathed, but Dr. Doom paralyzed him with a neural disruptor and emerged victorious. Brodie's View: First off, let's give a big WELCOME BACK to the Giant Size X-Men-#107 artist, Dave Cockrum, as he makes his grand return to the book; a position he would hold (for the most part) until #165. As much as I kind of gave him a bit of shit in his first run on the book, he really had picked up his game upon returning (Of course, he kind of had to, as following a rising superstar artist like John Byrne kind of meant that just standard art was not going to cut it), and in the same respect, Chris Claremont had a heck of point to prove here as well, as it would be largely theorized at the time (and by some, years later) that Byrne had brought the "It Factor" during his run that made the book so great, and after his leaving that the book would falter, creatively. However, while I would say that this period isn't up to the standard of #123-143, it certainly isn't bad, and Claremont and Cockrum try to hit the ground running with this storyline, as we bring back a cool villain from the recent past (Arcade) and one of the ULTIMATE Marvel Villains (Dooooooom!!!! ) to give the X-Men a run for their money, threat-wise. Long story short, Arcade had insulted Dr. Doom in some way, which Doom didn't cotton to, and so ordered a hit on the crazy assassin for hire. This put a scare into Arcade, so, he decided to enlist the X-Men to protect him from Doom. He does this by having Ms. Locke and his other henchmen kidnap the relatives/love interests of the team (Amanda Sefton, Stevie Hunter, the parents of Jean Grey, Illyana Rasputin, & Moria MacTaggart) to ensure that the X-Men will do what they want. Xaiver does send the main team (other than Kitty, who is sick with the flu, and therefore doesn't participate in this particular storyline) to confront Doom, but he also enlists what I will call The X-Men B Team (Havok, Polaris, Sean Cassidy, and Iceman (To make up for not having him involved in the whole Phoenix saga era)) to go to Murderworld and try to free Arcade's hostages, in case all isn't what it appears to be. Xaiver also tries to get Cyclops, but little does anyone know that Cyclops and Lee Forrester have been shipwrecked on a deserted island (This comes more into play in a couple of issues). Anyways, Storm and the other X-Men attempt to infiltrate Doom's castle (Storm by encountering Doom directly, and having dinner with him), and the others by sneaking in through an assumed weakness in security. However, it proves to be a trap, and the X-Men are quickly taken down by Doom and his guards. Storm, in particular, is encased in the worst kind of trap, as Doom hits her with a weapon that turns her into a living statue. Arcade pops out briefly before the chaos breaks out, and it appears that the two villains are really working together. This is really a fun issue, and a fun storyline, as Arcade and his henchmen are always fun, and the promise of a team of supporting character X-Men having to survive Murderworld (this happens next issue) is a pretty awesome one to contemplate. Plus, of course, we get Doom, who is always kick ass, and it is interesting to see him interact and fight a team he rarely gets to encounter/battle with the X-Men. An interesting idea that is sadly never followed up on is the mutual attraction between Doom and Storm, as both can sense the royalty within the other. It'll be interesting to see how this whole storyline plays out over the next few issues before we build to another major threat in #150 (wink, wink). GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 3, 2017 22:24:37 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 146"Murderworld!"Cover Date: June, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Dave Cockrum Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: Dr. Doom/Arcade (and Ms. Locke and his other henchmen) Guest Stars: X-Men B Team: (Havok, Polaris, Iceman, & Sean Cassidy), Lee Forrester, Moira MacTaggert, Stevie Hunter, Illyana Rasputin, Candy Southern, & Amanda Sefton Official Plot:Dr. Doom captured the X-Men (last issue) and devised cunning traps for each of them. Nightcrawler was in a featureless box, incapable of knowing where he was or where he could safely teleport to. Colossus was on an apparent mountain peak, with a whirlpool slowly climbing upwards. Wolverine was in a checkerboard amorphous anti-gravity room that was driving his senses crazy and every time he hit a wall, it accelerated him and Angel was in a giant birdcage where the perch was safe, but any attempt to leave it lead to many low-intensity lasers turning the air into a maze of criss-crossing beams. Storm was trapped in organic chrome - the epitome of confinement - a state which triggered her claustrophobia and caused her to unconsciously generate a fierce Storm across the whole eastern seaboard. That storm caused a near miss lightning bolt to jolt Cyclops' eye-bandage off, revealing his optic blast to Lee Forrester. The bandage was re-applied, but Scott would have some explaining to do. The reserve X-Men called in to follow the second half of Storm's plan to fly over the derelict amusement park where the X-Men were released last time they tangled with Murderworld. Polaris used her magnetic powers to trace the underground structures back to Murderworld. Havok 'dug' a tunnel and Polaris short-circuited the electronics to prevent detection, or so she thought. But then a holographic Miss Locke welcomed them, and the games began. Trap doors separated our heroes. Havok found himself on a roller coaster with spacecraft shooting at him. Some were holograms, but some were dangerously real. He blasted some, but then things looked to get worse as he was headed into a large mother-ship's mouth. He jumped out at the last second, landing on the outside of the mother-ship. Predictably, his roller coaster car exploded. Iceman found himself on an ice rink with some enraged hockey players. An ice shield kept them at bay, but the excess weight tumbled the robot players through the ice and into acid. More players skated into the rink, and heating vents turned on. Banshee found himself in an old-west shoot-out. Deprived of his powers, he had to rely on his Interpol training. He out shot the other robot, but its padres wanted in on the action. Sean used a 'micro-bomb' to destroy them, blowing a hole through the wall where he saw Moira being tied to train tracks. Polaris found herself on a merry-go-round. She got distracted by what looked like Illyana Rasputin running by her, only to be attacked by the merry-go-round's horses. She destroyed them with her power, and went after the girl, except it wasn't Illyana at all, but a robot with a gun. Of course, robots nor guns were no threat to a mistress of magnetism, but then the ride started spinning incredibly quickly, launching itself into the air and detonating, but Polaris managed to protect herself. However, an inhibitor field caused her to fall. Polaris fell into Iceman's chamber, who caught her. However, the weight of his ice-slide collapsed the rink surface below, meaning he needed to escape now or be eaten by acid. He super-cooled the wall in front of him, making it brittle enough to smash through. Havok got into the utility tunnels, and shorted out a major box. Chambers went to investigate, and was taken out by Havok. Banshee defeated the villain tying her, but she was tied with wire so untying her quickly was impossible. However, along the track came Amanda Sefton and Candy Southern tied up in a roller coaster car, so blowing up the track would kill them. Banshee resigned himself to having to blow up the track when Polaris and Iceman arrived, preventing anyone's death. Suddenly Moira, Amanda, and Candy exploded. They were all robot simulacrums. Our heroes were saved by Polaris's quick magnetic shield. Miss Locke watched all of this with glee, until Havok showed up and trashed her firearm. The control center disabled, the X-Men quickly freed the hostages and made it back out to the hover-jet to discover a major storm outside. Doom had also noticed the Storm, and it worried him. Arcade however was unconcerned and he noticed that Nightcrawler just disappeared from his cell. Brodie's View: We begin Part 2 of this whole "Dr. Doom/Arcade" storyline with the main team captured by Dr. Doom (Who was joined last issue by a fellow villain that we thought was Doom's prisoner, and in a way he is, but in a way not; Arcade), and placed in traps designed to counteract their various powers (Angel in a bird cage surrounded by lasers, Wolverine in an anti-gravity room that messes with his heightened senses, Nightcrawler in a metal box that prevents him from teleporting (or at the very least knowing where he is teleporting), Colossus on a mountain peak that is being slowly submerged with water, and Storm (in the worst trap of all) being frozen as a living steel statue). As Doom and Arcade play their strange game of chess against each other, a crazy storm is building due to Storm's clausterphobia. We briefly see Cyclops and Lee Forrester still on their deserted island, as a stray lightning bolt causes Cyclops to accidentally reveal his mutant powers to his maybe girl friend, and we check in one more time with Doom and Arcade, as it is revealed at the end that Nightcrawler has managed to escape his trap by teleporting blind. All of the above being said, the rest of this story involves the "B X-Men Team" (Havok, Polaris, Iceman, and Sean Cassidy) that has been assembled by Xaiver to invade Murderworld and rescue Arcade's prisoners (The parents and various loved ones of team members and former team members), which is really quite fun, as other than Cassidy as Banshee, the other three have no idea what they're in for, and have to combat the tricks, traps, and lookalike robots that Arcade (working through Ms. Locke and his other henchmen) has designed for them, anticipating their doing this. We haven't seen Iceman in this book since GIANT SIZE, so, it's nice getting to see what he can do once again as an X-Man, and it was quite nice seeing Havok and Polaris getting to be heroes, rather than someone's pawn. Sean Cassidy is also an interesting hero in this, as with his powers being jacked at the time, he has to rely on his Interpol training, so, we get to see Banshee getting all Nick Fury on the robots and traps of Murderworld. Polaris, Cassidy, and Iceman at one point think they have rescued some of the hostages, but it turned out they were Muderworld robots that explode on cue, almost killing the heroes (Polaris saves them with a magnetic shield). Havok finally ends things by finding Arcade's control room, and using his powers to shut Murderworld down (at least for the moment). Once again, this was a very fun follow up to the events of last issue that allowed Dave Cockrum to draw a lot of fun and crazy settings, and Claremont does his part in making this storyline quite interesting, as we rarely get to see Dr. Doom interacting with a character like Arcade. It's almost what one would imagine Doom and The Joker teaming up would be like (although, I could see Doom tiring of The Joker, and just killing him at some point), and I'm always down for two different types of villains being forced to work together against a team of heroes. I will say that not everyone liked how Doom was portrayed in this storyline. John Byrne, for instance, seemed to have a real problem with Doom tolerating the actions of someone like Arcade, and in a later FANTASTIC FOUR storyline, he makes it a point to "reveal" that the Doom we see in this storyline was merely a Doombot, who tolerated Arcade because he thought Arcade might be of future use to him, which leads to this moment.... A pretty sweet Doom moment, yes, and probably more in line with the character, but at the same time, a bit of massive pettiness by Byrne that I'm sure his former writing partner, Claremont, didn't really appreciate. This was kind of the start of this whole "Dick Measuring" thing that took place between comic writers that didn't like each other, who would retcon their foes previous stories for little other reason than to just retcon them for the sake of being shitty. Not that you needed to know any of this to appreciate the current story, but I felt it fair to mention. For the record, I will be treating the Dr. Doom portrayed in this story as DR. DOOM, and not a Doombot. More often than not, retconning doesn't impress me, and I usually find it to be a pretty shitty thing to do, unless one is trying to make sense of a storyline that needed a better explanation than the one given. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 4, 2017 0:56:51 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 147"Rogue Storm!"Cover Date: July, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Dave Cockrum Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: Dr. Doom/Arcade (and Ms. Locke and his henchmen) Guest Star/s: Lee Forrester Official Plot:Nightcrawler finds himself high in the air above Doom's castle, having teleported blind from a featureless room (last issue). Falling unconscious briefly, Nightcrawler awakes to find himself falling frighteningly fast. He skydives for an updraft, and then teleports into the lake near Doom's castle - emerging alive but shivering. He reflects on the circumstances that brought him to this situation (last two issues). Doom has not failed to notice Nightcrawler's escape, and he orders his men to recapture the X-Man. Doom is worried about the growing storm centered on his castle, although Arcade is unfazed. Doom's unease is echoed by NORAD. Nightcrawler makes his re-entrance to the castle, disabling two guards. Elsewhere, Colossus has discovered that the lasers below are attuned to size, and that chunks of Colossus's size are zapped, those of Peter Rasputin's size are left untouched. Taking a deep breath, he swims downwards, past the cannons, turning into Colossus only when he's safely past. He punches a hole in the wall. In his giant birdcage Angel has figured out that the lasers which fire when he leaves the perch are actually patterned to create a maze. He flies this maze at high speed, and escapes just as his cell detonates behind him - only to get a mouthful of water as Colossus's flood washes over him. Wolverine, trapped in a anti-gravity chamber which is royally messing with his senses, tries to embrace the beast without letting it control him. He hacks into anything he hits, and eventually the anti-gravity gives out, dropping him onto the floor. Wolvie carves his way out of the cell, and notices the loud thunder shaking the very castle. Ororo must be in trouble, so he rushes up the stairs to confront Doom! Doom tells 'Ororo' (a robot) to deal with him, and Wolvie trashes the robot. Doom blasts Wolverine, but Nightcrawler's timely arrival is enough for the X-Men to turn the tables. Wolverine offers a deal - Doom's life for Storm's. Doom hands them a device that will restore Storm... and it does... Storm has become one with the planet, with all it's myriad of elemental forces at her command, and though Doom uses the other X-Men's distraction to escape Wolverine's clutches, Storm easily overpowers him. Of course, Storm's not-so-tender ministrations aren't reserved solely for Doom, as Colossus finds out when he tries to reason with her. The castle is being torn apart by the storm outside, and Dr. Doom and the X-Men may well be torn apart by the Storm inside. Finally Colossus says something that triggers Storm's psyche to re-assert itself, and she brings the storm back under control, although it costs her much. Doom is strangely pleased that Ororo survives the ordeal. Storm again asks for Arcade's freedom, which Doom grants for an apology (rather grudgingly given) from Arcade. Doom also apologizes to Storm, and asks to begin anew (with Storm in particular - yes Doom is hitting on Storm), and Storm consents - a clean slate from that point. In the Caribbean, Lee and Scott awaken to discover a strange building has emerged from the ocean over night on the island they're stranded on! Brodie's View: Don't let the cover fool you, Storm doesn't go out and eat a sun in this issue. In fact, other than the crazy ass storm her unconscious has been creating ever since being encased in metal by Dr. Doom a couple of issues ago, the one most threatened by Storm's actions are Doom himself. Of course, the X-Men are a bit worried about being destroyed in Storm's frenzy as well, but Colossus is able to talk her down. This is, of course, the end of the whole "Dr. Doom/Arcade" saga, as the X-Men are able to escape Doom's traps by thinking their way out of them, starting with Nightcrawler taking the chance to teleport blind, but it is a good chance, and one by one, the other team members (other than Storm) unconsciously takes his cue. With Wolverine, in particular, we get to see a flashback of his time with James and Heather Hudson, and his trouble with containing his craziness. Another great Wolverine moment in this issue is upon reaching Doom and Arcade, Doom tries to fool Wolverine with a robot version of Storm, but Wolverine just slices through the robot without hesitation, freaking the other X-Men (especially Angel) out. This little act would lead to one of the team leaving next issue, and based on the previous sentence, one can guess which one it is. Let's just say The X-Men's loss is The Defenders' gain. We also get a continuation of the side story with Cyclops and Lee Forrester discovering they aren't quite as alone as they thought they were on the supposedly deserted island they washed up on a couple of issues ago. We will reveal who the owner of this building is next issue as well, and I'll just say that it's someone the team knows quite well. But for now, we finish up this story with Dr. Doom and The X-Men forming kind of a strange truce with each other, parting as neither friends nor enemies, which is rare for super hero comics of this era. Of course, it might help that Doom kind of still has a hard on for Storm (Sadly, we wouldn't really see a follow up for this whole idea. Perhaps because of the whole Byrne burn discussed in the last review). Next issue we finally get to see Kitty Pryde back in action (somewhat), a few cool guest stars, and the introduction of a character that will lead to the discovery of some new mutants living in a place more familiar to the Ninja Turtles. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 4, 2017 2:50:00 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 148 "Cry, Mutant!"Cover Date: August, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Dave Cockrum Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and The Angel (Leaves Team) (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: Caliban (kinda), Magneto (Briefly) Guest Stars: Dazzler, Spider-Woman, Sean Cassidy, Siryn, Moria MacTaggert, Lee Forrester, Illyana Rasputin, & Stevie Hunter Official Plot:Scott Summers and Lee Forrester are investigating a city that recently arose from the Caribbean depths. Lee kisses Scott, but Scott isn't ready for intimacy, which leads to Lee running off. The sightless Scott, his eyes bound with cloth to prevent him from using his optic blasts, vents his frustration, but Lee eventually comes back and they make up. At the X-Mansion, Wolverine and Nightcrawler are playing a game of hunter and hunted outside since the Danger Room is still out of commission. Inside, Storm, Angel, and Professor X are debating Wolverine's membership on the team -- Angel maintains that the "psychopath" doesn't belong with the X-Men. Storm and Professor X insist he stays, and so Angel leaves the team. In the Hangar, Colossus and Banshee are repairing damage done during Kitty's battle with the N'Garai while Illyana looks on. Professor X asks Banshee to come up to the mansion. When he does, he's greeted not by the professor but by a bonny lass who turns out to be his daughter! All of the X-Men are happy for Sean except for Moira -- when Storm confronts her about it, Moira confesses that Theresa represents something she can't give Sean, a child, for fear of it being another monster. Saturday night, a mysterious figure comes out of a NYC manhole cover. He refers to himself as Caliban and can sense the presence of others of his kind (mutants) in the high-rise nearby. In that high-rise, Ororo, Kitty, Stevie, and Jessica Drew are at a night club to see Dazzler in concert. Down below, Caliban fights his way past two security guards to enter the building. Above, Dazzler's show begins. During her performance, the X-Men notice a disturbance near the door -- Kitty tells them she's going to investigate and phases through the floor! Dazzler notices Kitty's disappearance and Storm's annoyance, so she distracts the crowd enough for Ororo and Jessica to step out a door and change into costume. Back near the elevator, Kitty discovers the mysterious subterranean mutant. Caliban grabs Kitty, provoking Storm and Spider-Woman to attack him upon arriving, but he knocks them for a loop and retreats back down the elevator. Jessica and Ororo regain their wind and go after him. They catch up on the streets below, and finally defeat Caliban, only to learn that he was merely looking for company, for he is lonely as an outcast beneath the streets. Incoming police sirens distract our heroes, and Caliban slips away unnoticed, much to the X-Men's regret. On the Caribbean island, Lee and Scott are hungry and hoping to be discovered. And discovered they are -- however, their "rescuer" fills Scott with more fear than pleasure, for he is none other than... Magneto! Brodie's View: Well, here we are. This is the first comic book I ever bought as a young child (well, technically my mom bought it from Lawson's, but I picked it out ), and while I will admit, it's kind of the (mostly) uneventful filler until we get to the next major threat (who we see at the very end of this issue), it is a fun little issue that acts as both transition and a future story planter. We get the introduction of a mutant named Caliban, who lives in the sewers of New York City, due to the fact that he's kind of an ugly mutant. Of course, we'd later learn that he's far from alone down there, but that's not to come for another 20 issues, so, it's nothing to think too much about right now. However, we do get to see that he's quite smitten with Kitty Pryde (who finally rejoins the action, after spending the last 3 issues sick with the flu), and kidnaps her from the club she, Storm, Jessica Drew (AKA Spider-Woman), and Stevie Hunter had been at (while watching Dazzler perform). There's a bit of a scuffle between Caliban and Storm/Spider-Woman, until they both realize that Caliban himself is harmless, and merely did what he did because he was lonely. Storm makes him an offer to come back to Xaiver's with them, but Caliban declines, returning to the sewer to remain.....alone (or at least with others that he'd rather not hang around). The rest of this issue is pure subplots and teasers/continuations of other things. Some of the X-Men had just appeared in Spider-Woman's book (hence why she appears in this one, as Claremont was writing both books at the time), and we see the fall out from that, as Spider-Woman was left with the custody of Black Tom Cassidy's niece, Theresa Rourke (AKA Siryn), who turns out to be the secret daughter of former X-Man, Banshee (aka Sean Cassidy), and we see the heartwarming reunion between the two in this issue. We also see Angel quit the team, as he hates the fact of having to work alongside a psycho (His words, not mine) like Wolverine (we would see this mutual dislike between the two even years later, as they would actually square off against each other during INFERNO, although, Angel would be quite different than he is here). IMO, this really is no big loss, as Angel really added nothing to the team that others couldn't do better, and he was merely the placeholder in the team until Cyclops returns. Finally, speaking of Cyclops, we get to see the continuation of the subplot with he and Lee Forrester being stranded on a (not so) deserted island, and upon exploring, they find out who they're sharing the island with.....Friggin' MAGNETO . Talk about your hot teasers for the next couple of issues. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 4, 2017 23:11:09 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 149 "And the Dead Shall Bury the Living!"Cover Date: September, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Dave Cockrum Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde/Sprite (Cyclops--on leave)(Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: Garokk, Magneto Guest Star/s: Lee Forrester Official Plot:Professor X is trying to figure out what Magneto is up to, sure that he will strike again, and soon. Suddenly, Kitty phases through the wall, putting the computer system on the fritz, all because she wanted to show off the new costume she designed. Professor X dresses her down and sends her away so he can get back to what he was doing. Kitty phases down into the Danger Room, where the other X-Men are still working on repairs, looking morose. Storm decides to lighten her mood by getting the other X-Men to play catch with her, startling her out of phasing with a roll of thunder, and leading to a fast-paced game of toss Kitty that ends with her in Colossus's arms. Then Professor X summons them for a briefing. The X-Men take the Blackbird south to Antarctica to explore the ruins of Magneto's base that was underneath a volcano there. Most of the way through the flight, Wolverine discovers Kitty stowed away on the plane. Storm is upset, but there's no going back now, for Professor X had some urgency behind this mission. They re-enter the base through the hole Phoenix carved out, breaking through some hardened lava, only to find that the base has been partially excavated! Ororo splits the X-Men up to explore the base more quickly. Kitty and Colossus go one way, Kurt and Logan another, and Storm a third. Suddenly, Storm hears Garokk's voice in her head, and flashes back to when she failed to save Garokk. But the voice speaks no more, and she detects no one. Colossus and Kitty come to the end of their tunnel, finding nothing, and are about to report back to Storm when Colossus is struck from behind and knocked unconscious! Kitty phases through him, and it hurts him, buying her time. Unfortunately, she's unable to wake Colossus, nor is she able to raise the other X-Men on the radio. Garokk punches a hole in the rock wall, opening a passage to the molten lava core of the volcano! Kitty screams, and Storm responds from far down the tunnel by summoning up a chill wind to harden the lava in its tracks. Garokk sends the unconscious Colossus sliding down the now icy corridor, and knocks Ororo for a loop. It turns out Garokk was rescued by Magneto before he was fully destroyed by magma, and Magneto set him to guard this base. Wolverine and Nightcrawler encounter Garokk next, but he easily gets the better of them, knocking them both out. Kitty, who survived the lava by phasing, rushes up to see Garokk forming a pit into which to hurl Storm, and the others unconscious. She quickly wakes Wolverine and Nightcrawler, and tells Logan to fastball special her at Garokk. Garokk is badly hurt by Kitty phasing through him, but he throws both himself and Storm into the pit. However, Logan hears Storm moan, and deduces she's landed on a ledge. Kitty goes down to investigate, and Garokk attacks her while she's bent over Storm. Fortunately for Kitty, she phases instinctively, and Garokk tumbles down into the blackness. They retrieve Storm and return to the mansion. In the Caribbean, Scott and Lee get garments in better repair. And then Magneto reveals that he knows who Scott is, and he can take off the blindfold because his powers are neutralized! Brodie's View: In this one, we get the build towards next issue's big showdown between the X-Men and Magneto, who we reveal has brought back another threat from the past to keep the team busy, knowing they would return to the site of their last battle with the metal controlling mutant; the volcano in the middle of the arctic that Magneto had been using as a base when he captured the team back in #112-13. And coincidence of coincidences (or maybe not), that threat is the Big Bad they faced after the battle with Magneto, none other than Garokk (THE PETRIFIED MAN !!!), who now really looks petrified due to his falling into a volcano after Storm failed to be able to save him. Of course, he holds a major grudge over that, and is out to kill her and the rest of the team as payback. Of course, what sucks for Garokk is that after he tries to toss Storm and himself in a pit, he ends up suffering the same fate after trying to also get Kitty (as she is trying to save Storm). This wouldn't be the last time we see Garokk, but it would be the last time we see him for a loooonnnngggg while, and he would play a very different role in things the next time we see him. As previously stated, this issue, as cool as it is, is really just the set up for the main threat, Magneto, who entertains Cyclops and Lee Forrester on his island base, without knowing who Scott Summers REALLY is (Or does he.... ). Of course, if you read the Official Plot, you know he does reveal that he knows who Scott is, and that he wouldn't be able to use his powers, as Magneto has a power dampener (well, except for himself) over the island that nullifies mutant powers. This sets up a bit of a problem for next issue, as the X-Men are going to have to defeat Magneto WITHOUT THEIR POWERS, which is going to be interesting to say the least. The other thing worth noting about this issue is Kitty deciding to sneak onto the Blackbird to join the rest of the team, as she is sick and tired of being left behind on major missions. Of course, this would help her gain her stripes with the team much quicker, as she literally faces death a couple of times in the next couple of issues alone, and she would do it in one of the worst costumes imaginable, as she is going through the phase of wanting a new costume, but designing really terrible ones, which made her even more endearing to the readers at the time (well, many of them.....I know there was actually a contest at this time to design a new costume for Kitty). Gaze upon the terribleness. Poor kid.....all I can say is.....The 70's. Nuff said. Grade: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 5, 2017 1:16:10 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 150"I, Magneto..."Cover Date: October, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Dave Cockrum Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and Cyclops (Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: Magneto Guest Star/s: Lee Forrester, Moria MacTaggert, Carol Danvers, & Ronald Reagan Official Plot:Magneto gives the world an ultimatum - cede total political control to him and disarm all conventional and strategic weapons, or he will end life on earth as we know it! But rather than his previous maniacal plots, he now sees himself as mankind's future benevolent dictator! The Soviet Union does not take kindly to these threats, and the nuclear submarine Leningrad is ordered to launch nuclear missiles at Magneto's island. He disarms and disposes of these menaces, and then destroys the submarine in retaliation! Additionally, he uses a device to allow him to cause an eruption in Varykino which totally destroys the city, although no lives are lost (he allows it to proceed slowly enough for an evacuation to occur). Shortly thereafter, the Blackbird is flying over Magneto's island when their controls are overloaded by a magnetic pulse. Wolverine goes flying forward into Storm, knocking her unconscious, as the Blackbird goes into a power dive. Storm finally wakes up moments before impact and manages to blunt said impact, but the Blackbird is still lost beneath the waves! Professor X, Moira, Peter, and Carol are on a boat not too far away, and notice that the Blackbird was over Julienne's Cay when it went down. They hypothesize Scott and Lee may have also ended up in that vicinity. The X-Men are at that time disembarking the Blackbird in scuba gear, all except Colossus (because he doesn't breathe in armored form). This soon proves a mistake, as he suddenly reverts to his Peter Rasputin form and cannot change back! Night time. Lee leaves Scott sleeping to go for a walk near the water. Wolverine grabs her ankle and pulls her in. She identifies herself as a friend, recognizing their codenames from Scott's descriptions. The X-Men haul Peter out of the water, and Logan and Kitty perform CPR, reviving him. Wolverine goes scouting, but his senses are dulled by the inhibitor, and he walks right past Scott! Reunited, Scott tells them what Magneto plans and comes up with a way to thwart them, even without their powers. The men head for the machine which allows Magneto to create eruptions, intending to disable it. The women head for the computer room - hopefully to disable the power inhibitor. Ororo notices another door and discovers Magneto sleeping. She contemplates murdering him. Back at the machine, Wolverine goes to work cutting support beams, with a deadly fall averted by Nightcrawler's acrobatics. Ororo realizes she cannot kill him, and just then Magneto awakens, sees Storm with a knife, and thrusts her out the window! Realizing where Storm is the other X-Men cannot be far behind, he suits up. Just then Professor X confronts him on the astral plane - it is a fierce battle of wills, one Magneto wins by bringing Professor X's physical body into his inhibitor field with his magnetic powers! Wolverine has just sliced through the last support, sending the machine down a deep pit, when Magneto walks in on them. He casually reassembles the device using his magnetokinesis, and makes the X-Men his prisoners. Storm, her cape caught on a projection, comes back to consciousness far above the ground. She climbs back in through a window and smashes a computer, destroying the inhibitor. Scott, realizing his powers are coming back, he distracts Magneto so he get a full power blast against him, momentarily stunning him. He frees himself and the other X-Men, but Magneto is back on his feet. The X-Men hold their own for a little while, but Magneto is too powerful. Cyclops instructs Kitty to destroy the computers, and Kitty runs off while the X-Men continue the battle. Magneto has the X-Men on the ropes when suddenly the computers start exploding! Magneto, furious, rushes to confront whoever did this. Kitty, frightened, tries to phase through him, but Magneto ruthlessly responds with a jolt of electricity, almost killing her! Thinking he has in fact killed her, Magneto is snapped back to his senses, and starts talking to himself about his past. Storm comes upon him then. Seeing Kitty apparently slain, she threatens to kill him. In resignation, he tells her to do it. He has seen the truth about himself, that he has become much like those he hates. Storm asks for Kitty, and Magneto departs. Kitty recovers, surviving because she had been phasing at the time. The next day comes. The X-Men shall be staying until the following morning. Kitty tells the other she is going to lift the Blackbird out of the water using the "Force", and miraculously, the Blackbird starts to rise! Everyone is amazed, until Colossus also emerges, carrying it on his back. The X-Men repay her prank by dunking her. Brodie's View: Wow! This is definitely meant to be THE X-Men vs. Magneto issue. It would kind of end up being an "End of an Era" story, as it would start a slow burn face turn for the Master of Magnetism. Of course, it would be after pulling a couple of his most villainous stunts; the most dire being the sinking of the Leningrad (Granted, he did it somewhat in self defense, but killing everyone on the sub was a pretty raw move). This would eventually come back to haunt him, but not until MUCH later. However, it's made pretty clear that this is not a Magneto who is here to play, and it would take the X-Men working together as a team, and using the abilities that having nothing to do with their mutant powers (which is good, as for a good portion of the issue, they aren't able to use them, as Magneto has some sort of dampener in effect over his island base), to be able to even put Magneto on the ropes. That being said, it's interesting that it's not even a direct action by any of the X-Men (unless you want to count Kitty trying to phase through his machinery and damage them) that ends this whole conflict; it's Magneto that goes to far, attacking Kitty, and upon doing so, finally realizing that the means don't justify the ends, when the ends are horrible. It's a powerful moment, and we learn quite a bit about Magneto in this issue, the biggest bombshell being that he was a Holocaust survivor. It really kind of changes the game for that character, as no longer could he be boiled down to just being "Doctor Doom for the X-Men." He had fully developed as his own character, and over time, Claremont (and then later writers) would expand the character into being the most complex villain in the Marvel Universe. This is probably one of the highlight issues of the 2nd Claremont/Cockrum run (At least until #162), as all hands are on deck, talent wise, and Chris and Dave don't disappoint, as things have definitely changed, status quo-wise, for both the team and their main enemy. We would see Magneto kind of slowly come around to realizing he was taking the wrong approach, and by the time we reach the #190's, he even becomes part of the team. However, there are other cool things that happen in this issue. Cyclops pretty much rejoins the team for a while, after taking his leave in #138, and we can see that this is a Scott Summers who, if he hadn't fully healed from the death of Jean, he had healed enough to be able to enjoy things again, and we would see a less stiff Cyclops for this last run with the team (well, until the 90's). In addition, Kitty being injured by Magneto really brings out the mother instinct in Storm, which helps the family bonding that kind of takes place over the next dozen or so issues. There would definitely be things that would help further this, and the next three issues, in particular, really help further that bonding. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 5, 2017 3:06:03 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. GRADE: A-
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Post by Hurbster on Feb 5, 2017 4:21:39 GMT -5
Loving these.
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Post by sternrogers01 on Feb 5, 2017 5:53:19 GMT -5
It's a pretty sad thing Marvel really don't specialize too much in "fixfics" like the one above...they usually do the reverse and do stories that try to fix what's NOT broken.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 5, 2017 22:26:23 GMT -5
I'm glad you guys are digging these. I plan on writing some new reviews once I'm done with the Claremont run, but that's still a while down the road. For now, keep on reading, as we're getting to the next great era of this run VERY soon. Also, yeah, I wish writers would take the higher road much more often, rather than the dick measuring retcons that too many writers do to mess with other writers they have personal beefs with. As I said in #146's review, it's just pettiness for the sake of being petty, and it doesn't impress me at all. I will say my favorite piece of "fixfic," or retconning to fix, rather than make things more complicated, took place during Kurt Busiek's awesome AVENGERS FOREVER mini series, where he used the whole Kang/Immortus thing to fix quite a few confusing plot holes that had been created by various writers throughout that book's history. Very cool, and very much worth checking out for those who haven't. But enough about The Avengers.....let's get back to the X-Men.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 5, 2017 22:33:13 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 151"X-Men Minus One!"Cover Date: November, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Jim Sherman Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and Cyclops (Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: The Hellfire Club, The Sentinels Guest Star: Amanda Sefton Official Plot:Professor X has the misfortune to announce that Kitty's parents have withdrawn her from the school. The X-Men object, but there is nothing they can do - it is Kitty's parents' prerogative. Kitty runs off to her room to cry. Later Storm comes to comfort her, but Kitty refuses to be comforted - her parents have taken her out of Xavier's to enroll her in the Massachusetts Academy, an institution run by Emma Frost! The time comes for Kitty to leave. She says goodbye to each of the X-Men, with an especially fond farewell for Colossus, and Storm volunteers to drive her. The drive is fairly uneventful, and Storm is shown to a lounge while Kitty gets squared away. Storm's stay is not to be uneventful however, as the White Queen drops in to see her... Kitty sees Storm off, and then goes to get settled in. Storm gets just out of the valley where the Massachusetts Academy is located and pulls over to the side. She gets out of the car and summons up a storm! She is heedless, and barely in control, and reveling in her mastery. Finished for the moment, she lands, reveals herself as not whom she seems (by implication, Emma Frost), smokes a cigarette, and places a call to Sebastian Shaw at the Hellfire Club! Mysterious references are made to a phase 2 of their plan, to be started after Emma as Storm rejoins the X-Men. Beneath the Academy, Storm in Emma's body comes back to consciousness. She feels strange, her body not responding as she's used to, her night vision gone, her elemental powers fail to respond! She finds a light switch, and discovers she is in Emma's body! The X-Mansion. Nightcrawler and Amanda Sefton are having a romantic stroll by the lake when a Sentinel ambushes them! Cyclops blasts it off its feet from the mansion, the X-Men alerted by Professor X, who felt the terror in Nightcrawler's thoughts. And the other X-Men come to their aid to help withdraw towards the mansion as additional Sentinels emerge from the lake. The X-Men and the Sentinels battle, and Nightcrawler mostly ends the threat by teleporting plastic explosives onto their legs! "Storm" arrives, realizes Shaw has started without her, and swoops into action, blasting a last Sentinel 'carelessly' so that it careens into Wolverine, knocking him unconscious. She defuses the rest of their wariness with a ploy, and then zaps them all to render them unconscious. Massachusetts Academy. "Emma Frost"'s fingers might be less adept than Ororo is used to, but she still remembers how to pick locks. She opens the door of her cell and escapes into the corridor, only to attract the guard with a cry of pain - she now has Emma's telepathy and now outside the shielded cell she cannot keep others' thoughts out of her head. She forces herself up and pushes past the startled guards to run off. She goes to Kitty's room to gain her aid, but Kitty only sees Emma Frost, and tries to phase through the floor. On instinct, Ororo blasts her with a psi-bolt, knocking her unconscious, although she's afraid she may have killed her. Brodie's View: This story should be called "The Revenge of the Hellfire Club," as we finally get the big payback for their ass kicking by the X-Men (With some major help from the late Jean Grey/Phoenix) in #134, or at least the attempt of it. The first step is ripping out the heart of the team, which Kitty has begun to evolve into, as Emma Frost (assuming) used her powers to convince Kitty's parents to pull her from Xaiver's, and enroll her instead in the Massachusetts Academy, which is owned by The Hellfire Club. Step 2, as it was correctly assumed (due to the HC still having a bug in the X-Men's computers, I can only assume) that Storm would be the one to drive Kitty to the school. The White Queen uses this as an opportunity to zap Storm with some sort of HC created gizmo that switches personas, and she becomes Storm, and vice versa. Step 3 would be the Emma Frost Storm returning to the mansion, and weakening/distracting the team long enough to leave them easy prey for the Sentinels they have ready to attack, not to mention what remains of the HC's inner circle (Pretty much Shaw, Frost, and Harry Leland....and some of the guards that Wolverine wounded in #133), who all want their personal payback. They quickly take out the rest of the team, leaving them completely under the power of the Hellfire Club, other than the Storm controlled Emma Frost and Kitty, who are now the team's only hope. As I said in the last review, this whole plot (and #153) was basically put in place to solidify Kitty's place in the team before the events Claremont must have known were coming. We definitely get to see that the young mutant had grown on the rest of the team, as even Wolverine is being nice to her, and that her being pulled away from them is a painful loss for all. Plus, we get the return of Emma Frost, who returns in her role of the Evil Queen to Kitty's Princess role, which is made even more complicated once Frost and Storm have switched bodies, which definitely also strengthens their adversarial relationship as well. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 6, 2017 1:56:41 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men # 152 "The Hellfire Gambit"Cover Date: December, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Bob McLeod Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and Cyclops (Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: The Hellfire Club Guest Star: Amanda Sefton & Stevie Hunter Official Plot:Storm is attacking a sports car driven by the White Queen, but appearances can be deceiving! Inside the car, Kitty Pryde comes back to consciousness, only to instinctively start phasing when she sees the White Queen. Ororo/White Queen lunges for Kitty, and just then the car hydroplanes and flies off the road! Emma/Storm is caught in the resulting explosion and summons a gust of wind to carry her to safety. Kitty recaps last issue as she comes back to her senses - having been thrown free of the car while phasing - and comes to investigate the crash. There she sees the White Queen just outside the fire, and while she almost leaves her there, she decides that as a hero it's her job to rescue her. Storm/Emma returns to X-Mansion, where she curses Ororo's name for having destroyed her body. Sebastian assures her that her current body is quite pleasing. Near the crash scene, Ororo/White Queen comes to consciousness bound and with Kitty. She tries to persuade Kitty that she is in fact Ororo, but nothing seems to work - until she slips the bonds Kitty had tied using knots Ororo herself had shown her. In the X-Mansion, Storm parades herself before the captured and neutralized X-Men dressed as the White Queen. Wolverine is stopped from revealing what actually happened (he can presumably smell it). Reese, Cole, and Malcolm want revenge on Wolverine, as does Harry Leland- They take him out into the hallway to deal with him, permanently. Outside, Ororo/White Queen and Kitty have Stevie do a drive-by of the mansion, and then move in on foot. Stevie is about to get going again when Sebastian Shaw and Emma/Storm catch her. Inside, Wolverine is getting thrashed, but then Amanda Sefton casts a spell to make it look like Wolverine died. They express their disappointment to the X-Men. Ororo/Emma makes a mind-link with Kitty to show her how to pick locks while Kitty phases through the ground into the hangar to open it for Ororo. Suddenly, Ororo is captured by Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost, who are surprised to see her alive. Ororo notices that there's a powerful storm brewing, and wonders whether Emma is aware of what she's doing. Just then Kitty opens the hatch to the hangar, throwing them off-balance and allowing Ororo to get away. Kitty and Ororo split up, Ororo hoping to slow Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost down enough that they can't interfere with Kitty's rescue attempt. Kitty, however, gets ambushed by a very much alive Wolverine! Together they hatch a plan. Kitty phases through the captured X-Men, neutralizing their power nullifiers. The X-Men make short work of the now-cyborg hellfire guards and Leland, and then Emma and Shaw burst through the wall! With a little help from Cyclops, Colossus throws Shaw fastball special style into the lake while Emma deals with Nightcrawler. Just then the magnitude of the storm outside becomes apparent to everyone, and a humongous bolt of lightning strikes Shaw dead on. He doesn't get up. Then Ororo rushes up to Emma and mind scan her. Emma tries to fly out of her reach, but Ororo holds on - they struggle in mid-air. Suddenly the White Queen falls - but who's mind is inside? Then Storm flies down and catches her, demonstrating that their minds have been switched back to their rightful bodies. Vindictively, Emma attacks Storm with a mental assault, but Storm zaps her and is ready to kill her but Wolverine steps in to prevent it. While the X-Men are victorious, they have to allow the Hellfire Club to leave, and they part on uneasy terms, although Emma does concede 'the brat' to the X-Men. Kitty being the brat. Brodie's View: This is the second part of this whole Hellfire Club storyline, and we find that Emma Frost ("The White Queen" of the Hellfire Club) has used some sort of device to switch minds with Storm. This was part of a plan to take down the X-Men, and with the exception of Storm (who is running around in Frost's body) and Kitty Pryde (who has escaped the Hellfire Club's Massachusetts Academy, and after a bit of convincing by Storm, the two, along with Kitty's dance teacher, Stevie Hunter, represent the X-Men's last hope), the rest of the team has been taken down by The Inner Circle of the Club, along with some Sentinels. Of course, Wolverine is the HC's prime target, as Leland and several of the HC guards felt Wolverine's claws during the DARK PHOENIX SAGA, and they get their payback by killing Wolverine (!!!), or so it would seem. In fact, Amanda Sefton (Nightcrawler's witch girlfriend) cast a spell to make both the X-Men and the HC think that Wolverine was dead, which allowed him the chance to free himself. From there, and with the added help of Emma Storm and Kitty, the X-Men are freed from the clutches of the Hellfire Club, and once again hand their rich and powerful asses to them. The final fight involves, of course, Storm and Emma Frost, as Storm forces Frost to lose control of Storm's powers, until she has no choice but to switch back bodies. The ending has Frost agreeing to give Kitty back to them/no longer targeting the X-Men, and she honestly does keep to her promise, to a point. The fact is that this is really the last time (at least during Claremont's run on the X-Men) that the Hellfire Club try this type of major attack on the team. Not saying that the X-Men and the HC don't fight in the future; they do, but it's more due to circumstances than a planned attack by either side on the other. In fact, while the Hellfire Club (and more specifically, the team of New Mutants they assemble to compete with Xaiver's, known as the Hellions) continue to be competition to the X-Men, the two groups kind of form an uneasy truce after the events of this issue and the last, and the next time they come in contact with each other, they are both being played as pawns by someone with a grudge against both groups. However, this is still 20 or so issues in the future, so, we'll move on to the immediate future instead. The next two reviews will go back a couple of months in order to review all the X-Man related stuff that was released during this period. The first one will be an Annual with some Fantastic guest stars.....the other project, well, let's just say that it spans companies. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 6, 2017 3:17:51 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men Annual #5 "Ou, La La -- Badoon!" Cover Date: October, 1981 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Brent Anderson Team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and Cyclops (Charles Xaiver) Villain/s: The Badoon Guest Star: The Fantastic Four, Arkon, Franklin Richards, & Moira MacTaggert Official Plot:The Fantastic Four go to investigate police reports of a woman with a laser just outside their doorstep. They find D'Syndri, a Shi'ar scout seeking the X-Men and running from the Badoon. Her pursuers are invisible to normal sight, and manage to kill her, but not until after she delivers a cryptic message to the Fantastic Four. Not knowing what happened, most of the Fantastic Four are knocked out by subsequent laser blasts from the Badoon, who hops dimensions with the unconscious heroes. Susan, having finally seen the attackers through the sensor screen of the gun, leaves the scene to get the X-Men to help. Storm has been having nightmares about unending battles in Arkon's world. Following her most recent dream she goes downstairs to get coffee, where she is disturbed by Susan carrying little Franklin. The X-Men are soon roused, the tale told, and the X-Men suit up to go to their friends aid. Franklin is left in the care of Professor X and Moira, and the X-Men use some of Arkon's dimension-hopping bolts to shift to his dimension. They are greeted by Sashia upon their arrival, who explains that it is she who was sending Storm the dreams, and that the Badoon have destroyed much of their proud civilization. Cyclops splits up the X-Men - Susan and Storm will infiltrate the Badoon Citadel; Cyclops, Colossus, and Kitty will be their back-up; and Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Sashia will go after the trans-dimensional stargate to prevent the Badoon from resupplying. Susan and Storm make it as far as a video screen showing Reed in pain, at which time Susan loses control, causing their cover to be broken. Their back-up hears the commotion and spring into action, coming face to face with the Monster of Badoon. Susan and Storm free the rest of the Fantastic Four and Arkon. Cyke, Colossus, and Sprite trash a bunch of Badoon, and Colossus KO's the Monster. At the gate, Wolverine, Sashia, and Nightcrawler are being overwhelmed when Nightcrawler takes the initiative and teleports into position to destroy the gate with a stolen blaster. As the gate explodes, Arkon's people begin their revolt. Back in the Citadel, the Badoon are routed, and an explosive device is disarmed by Reed, Cyclops, and Susan. A celebration follows their victory. Notable features include early flirting between Piotr and Kitty, and implications of romantic feelings between Arkon and Storm as they share a passionate kiss. Brodie's View: Okay, so, it's time to step back a couple of months before we "leave 1981," and review Annual #5, which goes back to the Conan-like world of Arkon (Annual #3), and the latest plight this warrior and the planet he rules is suffering from, the Invasion of the alien race, The Badoon. Once again, someone from his world (well, actually a Shi'ar scout, which causes one to wonder how news from other dimensions reaches alien races from the dimension that contains the Marvel Universe we all know and love, but then again, it's comics, so....) tries to warn the X-Men about the Badoon, but instead find the Fantastic Four first. All the male members of the FF are captured by the Badoon, leaving Sue Richards (with her son, Franklin) no choice but to seek out the X-Men. Long story short (and after Kitty tries to debut another makeshift new costume, which gets.....a kind response), the X-Men and the Invisible Woman step through a dimensional gate to Arkon's world, and after freeing the rest of the FF, the two teams (plus Arkon's warriors and Arkon himself) team up to wipe the floor with the lizard-like aliens, and we end with a big celebration (and more logs thrown on the growing fire of feelings between Kitty and Colossus), and the hint that we might see Arkon again in the pages of X-Men (we don't, at least not during Claremont's run). This was a fun Annual; a one shot battle that really doesn't pertain to anything else going on in either the X-Men's or Fantastic Four's respective books. The Badoon were a nice throwaway evil alien race, that could be sinister when needed, but then get their asses properly kicked by two of Marvel's superteams when needed as well. It's nice to see the differing personalities of the FF mixing with the X-Men we've all grown to know and love, especially that of The Thing, who is always solid for a great line or two. It's cool that we got some closure for the Arkon storyline, and it was kind of a perfect point to have a story like this, as things would get WAY more serious for the mutants (with a few exceptions) VERY soon, and it would be a very different X-Men that would encounter Marvel's First Family by the time we got to Secret Wars. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Feb 6, 2017 22:53:19 GMT -5
The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans "Apokolips... Now!"Cover Date: January, 1982 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Walt Simonson Team: (X-Men) Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and Cyclops (Charles Xaiver) (Teen Titans) Robin, Raven, Starfire, Changeling (Beast Boy), Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Cyborg Villain/s: Darkseid, Dark Phoenix/The Phoenix Force, Deathstroke (The Terminator), Ravok the Ravager, Parademons Guest Star: Metron Official Plot:The image of their late teammate, Phoenix, appears in dreams to the X-Men, and to Raven of the New Teen Titans, seeming to warn of a coming catastrophe. At the same time, Robin encounters the Terminator working in partnership with one of Darkseid's Para-Demons. When Starfire reveals the history of the Dark Phoenix to her comrades, the Titans investigate the connection between Phoenix and the X-Men. They are mistaken for the mutant heroes by attacking Para-Demons and captured, along with Professor X, by Darkseid, the demonic lord of Apokolips. Meanwhile, the Terminator, sent by Darkseid to gather Phoenix's residual energies from locales where she had expended a great deal of power, is able to defeat and capture the real X-Men. Drawing on their memories of their deceased partner-in-peril, Darkseid is able to use the gathered energies to bring Dark Phoenix back to life, after which he intends to use her power to transform Earth into a second Apokolips. Freed of their bonds with the evil god's departure, the Teen Titans and the X-Men meet for the first time, and discover the abandoned Mobius Chair of Metron of the New Gods, which they use to travel back to New York to fight a return match against the Terminator. They are then attacked in turn by Darkseid and Dark Phoenix, and in the ensuing battle, Raven and Professor X psychically weaken the Phoenix-entity so that she it is forced to possess the body of Cyclops to survive. Reunion with her former lover returns Phoenix's memory of her life as Jean Grey, and she turns on Darkseid in revenge for his having reawakened her from death. In a mammoth explosion, both Darkseid and Dark Phoenix vanish, and Metron regains the Mobius Chair. Brodie's View: Wow, where to start with this one? This would end up being the last in a series of crossovers that Marvel and DC would undertake during the late 70's to 1982, and sadly, it wasn't even due to this. In fact, there was a follow up to this particular crossover planned, with the NEW TEEN TITANS creative team (Marv Wolfman & George Perez) doing the honors, which would have been an awesome follow up indeed. However, due to the pissed off feelings at both companies due to the next intended crossover, The Avengers and the Justice League (which Perez had actually drawn 21 pages to before the plug was pulled ), any kind of X-Men/Teen Titans follow up would never happen, leaving this as the only meeting between the two teams, but what a meeting it would be. In fact, out of all of the early Marvel/DC crossovers that took place, this is definitely my favorite, as one can tell that Claremont really GETS the characters he's writing, and one never feels like any of the characters are being shortchanged. In short, Darkseid wants the Phoenix Force to use for his own horrendous usage, and he enlists both his various minions and the mercenary, Deathstroke, to capture the X-Men to reform the Phoenix using the memories of all that knew Jean Grey, namely, the X-Men (and Jean Grey's parents). The X-Men kind of get wind of this, as they are tormented by dreams of the Phoenix, as is Raven of the Titans. She warns the other Titans about this possible coming evil, but Starfire already knows of the Phoenix and the death she brings. They figure out that Phoenix was an X-Man, so, they try to investigate, only to come face to face with Professor X (as the rest of the team are gone), whom they take out. They, in turn, are taken out by Darkseid's parademons, who think they are the X-Men (who at that moment are being taken down and captured by Deathstroke), and soon both teams find themselves at the mercy of Darkseid, who uses the memories of the X-Men to revive Dark Phoenix. The villains depart, and the heroes free themselves, and after a bit of bonding, they take off after the bad guys as one force (with the help of Metron's chair, which has been apparently abandoned for them to find). By teaming up, they are able to weaken the Phoenix enough to be forced to possess Cyclops, who then launches her at Darkseid, and after a huge explosion, the heroes are left victorious, and we end with the team watching literal fireworks back on Earth, and it is revealed to us that Metron leaving his chair was no accident, as he ponders that Darkseid has been merged into the wall of Apokolips. What a boffo crossover, as, once again, Claremont definitely showed he was a fan of the DC characters as much as the Marvel ones, and he's able to weave the two company's histories together almost seemingly. Before I did this review, I kind of wondered whether or not they purposely set this crossover before Terra joined the team. I was surprised to find that the unstable character wouldn't join the team until a year or more after this crossover came out, and that the team that was at the time was the Titans depicted here. One does kind of wonder what would have happened, had that follow up came out once Terra had joined the team. The whole Judas Contract thing would have had to have happened there, as I don't see either Xaiver or Wolverine being fooled by Terra's facade. That all being said, this was a KICK ASS crossover that I would definitely put in my Top 5 of the best Marvel/DC crossovers ever done. It really is THAT good, Folks. GRADE: A
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