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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 16, 2017 22:38:09 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #234"Glory Day" Cover Date: Late September (for brief spurts during this period, the comic is running Bi-Monthly), 1988 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) Villain/s: The Brood (Harry Palmer, Temptress, Brickbat, Dive-Bomber, Lockup, Tension, Spitball, Whiphand, Blindside), S'ym Guest Stars: Gateway Official Plot: Continued from last issue... In Denver, the X-Men continue to try and hunt down mutants infected by the Brood and prevent their attempt to try and take over the world. Their battle explodes into the trendy Mile High Diner when Dazzler is thrown through the front window by the fire-breathing Brood known a Spitball. When the patrons believe Dazzler is the villain they grab her until Spitball tries to incinerate them all. Ducking to safety, Dazzler is open to an attack by Whiphand, and she is then knocked out by the teleporting Blindside. When the humans in the diner attempt to attack the Brood, they prove to be no match. Dazzler and the patrons are rescued by her fellow X-Men who arrive in the nick of time. As Longshot saves a diner patron from Spitball, Colossus snaps Whiphand's neck and Storm arrives and summons lightning to slay Blindside. While the other X-Men are checking on Dazzler, Spitball flees the scene and is pulled out of the area by Rogue -- who is still controlled by Temptress's psyche that she accidentally absorbed in an earlier battle. While back at their secret outback headquarters in Australia, Madelyne Pryor is still knocked out after being blasted by an exploding monitor screen. As Gateway watches over her, she dreams that she is a featureless humanoid forced to choose a path in a long desert. As the beating sun causes her faceless form to melt into her current appearance, Madelyne trips over a skull and tumbles down a hill into cool water. She is helped up by the demon known as S'ym who drapes her in a sheet and brings her to a beautiful palace. There he offers the woman her hearts desire. Madelyne accepts this offer and he shows her the fingernails on his hand. Each nail shows a different aspect of her personality. Believing this to only be a dream, Madelyne chooses the one depicting her as a vengeful woman. S'ym corrects her on her assumption then plunges his finger into her chest, binding the two together and dressing her in strange garb. Back in Denver, at the Red Rocks auditorium, Reverend William Conover is making last minute arrangements for his sermon. He once more notes the constant arthritic pain his wife feels and once more wishes there was something he could do to cure her pain. As the Reverend leaves to address those gathered, Hanna is approached by Harry Palmer's partner Josey Palmer who tells Conover's wife that she has something that can help her arthritis. While not far away, Rogue is flying Temptress and Wolverine toward the Red Rocks. Logan, even though he is slowly transforming into a Brood, resists the conversion with his healing factor. When he revives, he slays Temptress and Rogue -- still under her control -- tosses him down to the ground. This causes Psylocke great pain as she (still under Temptress's control as well) travels with Harry Palmer and the other surviving Brood as they race toward the Red Rocks in a car. Their car is stopped when it rams into Colossus. Palmer orders the X-Men dead, and while Psylocke begins shaking free of Temptress's control, Rogue attacks Storm. When Longshot and Dazzler arrive, Dazzler uses her powers to blast Rogue, saving Storm's life. This interrupts the reverend's sermon, and his congregation is horrified when Logan appears before them. The reverend tells them not to fear him, that he needs help. However, as Logan begins to transform into a Brood, the priest prays to God to save his life. Logan's healing factor kicks in killing the Brood embryo and causing him to revert to normal, leaving Conover to believe that the power of prayer saved Logan's life. The reverend is then attacked by Tension, but Havok arrives and incinerates him with a plasma blast. As he wonders if he will continue to find killing so easy he is attacked by Spitball and Lockup, however, he is saved by Longshot and the attack causes a wall to collapse on the two Brood killing them. In the confusion, Harry Palmer has grabbed William's wife Hanna and threatens to kill her. While he keeps the X-Men at bay, Logan crawls under the stage and gets the drop on Palmer, pulling him under the stage. In an attempt to shake Logan's nerve, Palmer reverts to his human form and pretends he doesn't know what he's doing. Logan, unmoved by this kills Palmer without a single shred of mercy. In the aftermath of the battle, the Psylocke uses her powers to alter the memories of those present so they don't fully recall who had saved them. When Trish Tilby interviews William he tells her how they were saved by mutants and how people should not discriminate against them. When noticing that Hanna's arthritis has been miraculously cured, Conover wonders if God had something to do with it. Overhearing this, Josey Thomas grins. As the X-Men return to their base, Havok is commended by Wolverine, however, he doesn't feel so proud because he was forced to kill. While down below, Madelyne Pryor still lies in the pool, more dead than alive and truly changed from the events that happened in her dream. Brodie's View:It's kind of telling that the image on the cover of this issue concerns transformation, as this issue is just chock full of them. There is, of course, Wolverine attempting to be transformed into a Brood warrior, only for his healing factor and skeleton to once again save him (in full view of the Reverend William Conover's revival, which Conover takes as being the power of the Lord curing Logan of demonic possession). Speaking of demonic possession, though, is the transformation nobody sees, and that is Madelyne Pryor making a deal with "a" devil in order to get payback on Scott Summers (her estranged husband) and Jean Grey (His first love, who was thought dead, but was retconned back to life a couple years previous. An added bonus is that the two women look almost exactly alike, which isn't coincidental at all, as we'll soon see). This is brought about by a demon we saw a few issues ago; former right hand for the Demon Lord, Belasco, and former reluctant servant of demonic sorceress (and New Mutant), Illyana Rasputin: AKA Magik, and that is S'ym. Of course, we'll see that S'ym is also working for someone else, another demon with an agenda to use Pryor and Rasputin to open a portal between the Hell-like Limbo and the Marvel Earth, and we'll see that really start to come to pass in the next few issues, and then the INFERNO will begin. However, Madelyne's full transformation into the "Goblin Queen" will be gradual, but will advance throughout the next storyline. The sad fact is that the X-Men, much as they are in this issue, will be too distracted by other stuff going on to notice until it's too late. Speaking of the X-Men, half of them spend the issue still fighting (and in many cases, killing) the Brood infected mutants created by Harry Palmer, who is the last (or is he? ) to die, and at the end of Wolverine's claws. The other half (well, Rogue and Psylocke) spend a good portion of the issue under the control of the Brood Mutant known as Temptress. Wolverine kills her as he's starting to transform, and Psylocke is able to shake off her influence, and takes Rogue out of the fight long enough to remove Temptress' influence from her as well. Another X-Man affected by the battle, although, not in the same way as Psylocke, Rogue, or Wolverine, is Havok, who feels guilt over killing the Brood Mutants, even though he is told by the X-Men who have fought the Brood before that the people are already dead, and he is merely killing a pestilent alien species. This is probably another nail in Havok's already damaged (over losing Polaris to Malice and the Marauders, in addition to his obvious inferiority issues over being the brother of the born leader, Cyclops) psyche. This will be exploited by Madelyne Pryor in the direct lead up to INFERNO, and will lead to his taking a more heelish role for at least the first half of that story. So, yeah, the Brood have been defeated and wiped out (for now, although, we definitely see hints that Palmer most likely infected his co-paramedic, who we see taking care of Reverend Conover's wife (who in addition to being shaken up by the conflict climax, suffered from terrible arthritis), which one would think would set up a future story for the X-Men, and it does, but it won't happen during the rest of Claremont's run. It actually happens in 1996's X-MEN/BROOD: DAY OF WRATH, which is actually a really good story, and a great follow up to the loose ends left by Claremont at the end of this issue. However, in the actual next issue and story-line of this run, we'll see the introduction of a storyline that goes back to that classic story; human hatred of mutants, and something that hits home directly, when using mutants as a stand in for marginalized races, and that's slavery. That's right, kids....pack your bags. We're going to Genosha. (But first, an Annual) GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 17, 2017 0:13:52 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men Annual #12"Resurrection" and "I Want My X-Men!"Cover Date: October, 1988 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Arthur Adams Team: (1st Story): Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) (2nd Story): The X-Babies (Child like versions of the current team) Villain/s: (1st Story): Garokk (As Terminus), The Savage Land Mutates (Zaladane, Amphibius, Barbarus, Brainchild, Gaza, Lupo) (2nd Story) Mojo, Major Domo, Minor Domo Guest Stars: (1st Story): Gateway, The High Evolutionary, The Fall People, Ka-Zar, Shanna (The She Devil), and Zabu (2nd Story): Ricochet Rita Official Plot: (1st Story)Having detected an attack on the very Earth itself, Storm flies away from the X-Men's headquarters in Australia, almost pulling Longshot into the sky in the tail-wind, if not for the fast thinking of Dazzler who saves his life. Rogue shoots off after Storm to follow her while Madelyne and the other X-Men track her with their bases equipment. Pinpointing Storm's trajectory to Antarctica, Logan realizes that Storm is heading toward the Savage Land. In order to meet Storm there, Logan and the other X-Men gear up and have Gateway teleport them there. Upon their arrival, the X-Men are shocked to see that the Savage Land has been decimated and is nothing more than a barren frozen wasteland. Finding a bone, Logan has Longshot use his psychometric powers to learn what happened and he relates a story how an alien creature known as Terminus was responsible for the land's destruction that seemingly killed everyone in the area. Hearing this, Colossus becomes upset that a woman -- member of the Fall People -- whom he first made love to when the X-Men first traveled to the Savage Land might be dead. When Psylocke begins scanning for signs of life, the X-Men are suddenly shaken by a sudden earthquake. Elsewhere in this frozen wasteland is the High Evolutionary, whom has come across a sample of Sarcodes Sanguinea, proving his theory that the former Savage Land is not truly baron and that life can once more thrive here. He is suddenly attacked by what appears to be Terminus, who bursts from the ground and grabs the High Evolutionary in his massive hand. Seeing "Terminus" rise from the ground, the X-Men come to the High Evolutionary's aid however none of their attacks have any effect on the creature -- except for Wolverine's Adamantium claws, however they provide little damage and the armors repair systems instantly fixes the damage done. Storm and Rogue arrives, Storm realizes that "Terminus" is the reason she was drawn to the Savage Land and unleashes the full fury of the windows to knock him into the side of a mountain, burying him in rubble while Rogue rescues Wolverine, Longshot and the High Evolutionary from the giant alien. With the battle over, the High Evolutionary explains that he has come to attempt to restore the Savage Land to it's former splendor and the X-Men agree to try and aid him, sending Havok along with the Evolutionary while the X-Men keep an eye on Terminus. Longshot meanwhile wanders off and when he slips on a patch of ice he is shocked when he suddenly passes through some invisible portal. When Alex arrives with the High Evolutionary at the temporary base he has set up in the area, he is surprised to learn that the Evolutionary's interests stem around evolution and that he has focused much of his life to get all species to reach their true potential. Seeing a photograph of his Knights of Wundagore makes Alex consider that the Evolutionary is not all that different from Professor Xavier and his formation of the X-Men. He is then introduced to the Evolutionary's aid in attempting to restore the Savage Land, Zaladane. Alex finds her striking and wonders if he has not met her someplace before. As they begin discussing how to restore the Savage Land, the High Evolutionary tells Havok that someone of great power -- likely a mutant -- would be the key to restoring the Savage Land. Havok considers that he knows of only one person that could succeed in a task but so far as he knows, that person is dead. Back out in the wasteland, Dazzler realizes that Longshot is missing and decides to go looking for him, with Wolverine (weary of Dazzler's love-sick nature regarding Longshot) tags along while Storm, Rogue, Colossus, and Psylocke go to keep an eye on Terminus. When Logan's tracking of Longshot's sense leads him through the invisible portal, Dazzler screams when she witnesses Logan suddenly disappear. While not far away, Storm notices that her Cameo crystal is glowing and races back to find Dazzler, ordering Rogue and Psylocke to stay and keep an eye on Terminus. When Colossus and Storm catch up to Dazzler, Storm raises her Cameo crystal and a portal suddenly opens and the massive form of the Warhound C'Jime emerges from the portal. Before Colossus can attack, Storm explains that she met this creature during their first visit to the Savage Land. The X-Men are surprised that a number of beings from the Savage Land survived, rescued by Storm's friend M'Rin and brought to her dimension. Colossus is happy to be reunited with Nereel, whom also survived. She has a son named Peter, however she asks Longshot not to reveal that Colossus is the boys son. Just then, Terminus revives, and as Rogue attempts to pull Psylocke away, they are knocked out of the sky. With Storm staggering their foe with a lightning bolt, everyone gets into C'Jime's back and the giant beast attacks Terminus with it's advanced weapons, however they have no effect on Terminus. During the course of the battle, Havok and the High Evolutionary return with a plan. Quickly implementing it, Rogue uses her powers to absorb Longshot's luck powers. With them, Rogue flies toward Terminus's mask, smashing through it -- revealing their enemy not to be Terminus at all, but Garrok hooked up to the machine. Under the machines influence, Garrok attempts to attack Rogue, however she begins absorbing his powers as well weakening him to the point where he pulls away from the devices controlling the massive suit of armor. Without Garrok powering the giant suit, the X-Men are then easily able to smash it into a flaming pile of rubble while Rogue and Garrok are rescued by Storm and Colossus. Free from the machines influence, Garrok is shocked to see what has happened to his land, and agrees to help the High Evolutionary restore the Savage Land. When Colossus asks Nereel about her son's father, she doesn't tell him the truth, telling him that the man is gone and she will raise the boy on her own. Soon at the High Evolutionary's citadel, it is determined that Garrok would have to sacrifice his life in order to restore the Savage Land to it's glory. Garrok, having cheated death many times and having enough love for his land to sacrifice his life for it agrees to do so. As the X-Men oversee the operation, the Savage Land Mutates (led by Zaladane) watch eagerly, seeing this as playing into their hands and the first step to their goal of conquering the world. The High Evolutionary is aware of this and he secretly plots to foil this plan and activates the device that converts Garrok into pure energy that restores the Savage Land to it's glory -- restoring the vast tropical forest and it's prehistoric wild life. The X-Men then help the survivors of the Savage Land rebuild before leaving, however Storm orders Psylocke to alter their memories so that do not fully remember who helped them. Some time later after the X-Men have left, Ka-Zar and his family returns to the Savage Land and is surprised to see that the survivors have formed together as the United Tribes and have created a banner given to them by their saviors. When Ka-Zar and Shanna ask who helped them, all Nereel can tell them that their saviors were merely legends. (2nd Story)In the Mojoverse, Mojo is furious that in order to stop the Adversary, the X-Men sacrificed their lives cutting off any future records of their exploits ruining his ratings. With the danger of dropping out of the number one spot he makes demands to his writers, the head writer balks and has his head turned into that of a child by Mojo. His prisoner, Ricochet Rita tells Mojo that it would be simpler to just find replacements for the X-Men. Finding this idea brilliant, Mojo orders his Warwolves be pulled in for the job, however he learns that they are still on a mission to recapture Phoenix. He then latches Rita to his ship to pilot the Wildways to find suitable replacements. Rita is up for the challenge, telling Mojo that she survived the trip before. Doing a casting call, Mojo rejects every alternate version of the X-Men from an all female version, all robot, kinky, and animal X-Men. When the final pull is a new incarnation of X-Babies based on Rogue, Wolverine, Havok, Storm, Dazzler, Longshot, Colossus, and Psylocke, Mojo is instantly angered. Horrified at a lil' Longshot, Mojo uses his powers to turn Lil' Longshot into a photograph leading to a battle between Mojo's forces and the X-Babies. As Mojo unleashes his Trademark Police on them, the X-Babies pound them while Sugah and Lil' Dazzler fight over the Longshot photograph. Wolvie and and Psychild free Rita and when Mojo surrounds them all, Major Domo informs his master that X-Babies are an instant hit. Realizing the marketing potential of these cute little X-Men, Mojo accepts them with open arms although Wolvie takes the opportunity to poke the ruler of Mojoworld in the rear with his claws. With the X-Babies Mojo's new sensational stars, Rita wonders if she will end up regretting this. Brodie's View:NOTE: There's also a third story in this Annual, as many of the Annuals from the rest of this run would have multiple stories within it. In addition, the Annuals would have an ongoing story that would go through several (or all) of the Marvel Annuals that year. In this case, it would be The Evolutionary War, and our first story would tie in to that story-line. In addition, a story at the end of the book, "The High Evolutionary Chapter Seven: Demon Night," which I won't be covering, as it's merely an ongoing origin story for the High Evolutionary, and therefore, not having crap to do with The X-Men, other than the fact that the HE makes an appearance in the first story Speaking of the first story, it does deal with the High Evolutionary, as I said before, in brief, as he steps in to help the X-Men restore the Savage Land, which has been decimated by the robotic creature known as Terminus (last seen in John Byrne's FANTASTIC FOUR), who the X-Men briefly fight before finally taking him out. When they smash through the top part of the head piece, they see that it is being controlled (somewhat) by Garokk (remember him?), and once they show him what happened to his former land, he and the HE team up to restore the Savage Land to what it was. We also see what happened to the (Fall) people of the Savage Land during that period (Including the female that Colossus had slept with back in #115 (which was hinted at in the actual issue, but was confirmed in the back up story in CLASSIC X-MEN, when that issue was reprinted), who all escaped on a giant "Neverending Story-like" giant flying dog (who was also introduced in a CLASSIC X-MEN backup story during that same storyline). Pitor and the woman have a nice reunion, and we see that she has a child as well, which is also named Peter (Later revealed in an "Off Handed Comment" to have been named after his Father .....sadly, this is never followed up on, unless it happened in the last 10 years of continuity). That's pretty much all there is to really know about this story, which probably would make more sense had I read the other parts of the EVOLUTIONARY WAR, but I hadn't, so, I kind to had to take it as it was, which is a decent, if forgettable (other than Colossus being a Deadbeat Dad) story, but, hey, at least it had some nice Art Adams art. Speaking of Arthur Adams, he also would do the art chores on our other story, the highly entertaining "I Want My X-Men," which deals with Mojo after the events of FALL OF THE MUTANTS. He's freaking out over no longer having an X-Men team to exploit (Which leads to a funny moment where he blames his "writers," including Chris Claremont himself, who Mojo transforms his head into an infant's). He has several X-Men offshoot concepts brought to him (X-Animals, X-Robots, S&M X-Men, ect.) until he finally is presented with a new version of the X-Babies, which are based on the team as it was during the FOTM. Needless to say, the children act up, and eventually escape from Mojo, using Longshot love interest, (and as we'll later reveal, future Spiral) Ricochet Rita, as their protector/enabler. This storyline will continue here and there over the next few years, and usually with Adams and Claremont re-teaming. Okay, that's about it for this Annual. Come back later, as the X-Men will go to Genosha, and see a reality that makes even the worst human/mutant hatred we've seen so far look like just normal bigotry. GRADES: (For the two stories I'm reviewing) B+/A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 17, 2017 1:12:10 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #235"Welcome to Genosha" Cover Date: Early October, 1988 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Rick Leonardi Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) Villain/s: The Genoshian Press Gang (Hawkshaw, Pipeline, Punchout) Guest Stars: Gateway Official Plot: Welcome to Genosha, a prosperous island paradise... if you're a human. Case in point, a lone mutant flees into the night with its young child using its powers to escape the deadly Magistrates and smuggle the child aboard a commercial jet to Australia. While the mutant succeeds in smuggling the child into the planes landing gear, he himself is spotted and sent fleeing until he is shot and killed by the Magistrates. When news of the child's discovery hits the newspapers, the Genoshan government sends their Press Gang to collect not only the escaped child, but Jennifer Ransome. Ransome, the daughter of a governor, had her gene testing doctored to appear as though she was a normal human, when in reality she is a mutant. Waiting at the airport, the Press Gang waits for Ransome -- a nurse for the Australian flying doctors service -- to arrive. She arrives in a plane flown by Madelyne Pryor. When they disembark from their plane, the Press Gang attacks them head on. When Jennifer pleads that she is innocent and an Australian citizen, they tell her that a Genoshan born is always a Genoshan and subject to their law. The two women are easily over-powered by the super strong Punchout. They are then taken to Pipeline who uses his special modem to convert both Jennifer and Madelyne into data and electronically transmit them to Genosha for processing. With Madelyne unaccounted for a few hours, the X-Men decide to investigate, sending Rogue first who spots Madelyne's wrecked plane. Gateway then teleports both Storm and Wolverine to the location to investigate the wreckage and Logan determines there was some kind of struggle as the two women were dragged onto a jet that just recently left. Relaying this information to Alex (who is surprised about how concerned he is over Madelyne) scans the flight data using their hideouts sophisticated computer systems. Finding them difficult at first, he manages to track the flight to Sydney, Australia. Soon the entire team is dispatched to the Sydney Airport where Wolverine determines that the scents of their kidnappers is still fresh in the plane, but those of Madelyne and Jennifer are not as such, as though they got on the plane but left well before their kidnappers did. Tracking the Press Gang's scents, Logan and Rogue find themselves at a hospital where they put on disguises to sneak into the pediatric ward. When they are stopped by Punchout, Logan recognizes her scent as one of the kidnappers and attacks. When Punchout knocks Wolverine back and tries to land a blow on Rogue, Rogue absorbs her super-strength and knocks her out. When Logan and Rogue confront Hawkshaw and Pipeline, they panic and use Pipeline's modem to transmit a Magistrate soldier who blasts them out of the building. Seeing that they need reinforcements, they then summon and entire squad of Magistrates to their location to deal with the mutants that have come to oppose them while they go looking for Punchout. While the other X-Men approach the hospital they are soon attacked by the Magistrate soldiers transported to the hospital. Despite their superior fire power, ruthless nature, and complete disregard for human life, the Magistrates are soon easily defeated in combat by the X-Men who bind them up, and flee when they hear the authorities coming, Psylocke altering their memories so they cannot clearly remember who attacked them. Meanwhile, Pipeline and Hawkshaw comes across Pipeline as well as Wolverine and Rogue, who are still knocked out. Realizing that they cannot be detected on any of their scanning equipment, they decide that the two X-Men are of interest and have them teleported to Genosha for examination. While later, when the authorities arrive they find the Magistrates all bound up in steel girders with the X-Men's calling card. When they ask the Magistrates what happened they refuse to talk and the officer tells them that whoever did this to them will likely come back for more information from them, and whatever might happen might be more than they'll deserve. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:So, we move from the Brood and the whole High Evolutionary things, both of which being very other worldly or very Marvel science fiction type stuff, to the island of Genosha, and while it still kind of has sci fi trappings (as the Genoshian government genetically modify the mutants to make them servile to them), it still goes back to a very realistic concept: An oppressive majority government turning a minority into slaves/robbing them of basic human rights, and using them to build/maintain their economy/infrastructure. It's been going on in various countries for centuries, and in every case, there was an eventual overthrow of that way of living. That's what this four part storyline (and beyond that, the eventual X-TINCTION AGENDA storyline that would happen a few years later, which is kind of the retaliation for what happens by the end of this storyline) concerns, as with this issue, we are introduced to the seemingly idyllic (well, if you're human and Genoshian) island of Genosha, where that type of perfect existence is maintained due to the mutant slave labor that the Genoshian government uses, and there is most definitely a difference between the two classes, as mutants are basically seen as being "the lesser species," and only good for slave labor. The way the X-Men discover all of this, and how they get involved in this drama relates to Madelyne Pryor-Summers, who is flying an Genoshian nurse named Jennifer Ransome (Who has been doing work in Australia, and is secretly a mutant) back into Genosha, when both are captured by "The Press Gang," a group of mutants who are willingly working for the Genoshian Government, and taken in for "processing" for slave labor. After Madelyne doesn't return, the X-Men investigate her disappearance, and they wind up splitting their forces, whith Rogue and Wolverine going undercover to find out what happened, while the rest of the team end up fighting the Press Gang as a force, and messes the three mutants up. The rest of the team basically warn the Genoshian government not to continue their actions or else, but it ends up being a hollow threat, as by the end of the issue, not only do they still have Madelyne as a prisoner, but they have also captured Wolverine and Rogue, who are found out before they can discover where Maddie is. This sets up quite an interesting quandary for the next few issues, which will be made even more interesting when we find out that Jenny Ransome was dating the son of the Genegineer (Basically the President figure) of Genosha, who was oblivious to the fact she was a mutant, which starts to wake him up to the very real issues going on, as it relates to the human/mutant issues, on Genosha. To add to this, on the Maddie side of things, we will start to see more build towards INFERNO, as Madelyne starts to display.....certain powers, as well as communicating with another of the major architects behind that upcoming X-Crossover, the demon known as N'Astirh. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 18, 2017 1:35:29 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #236"Busting Loose" Cover Date: Late October, 1988 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) Villain/s: The Genoshian Press Gang (Hawkshaw, Pipeline, Punchout), Wipeout, Genoshian Magistrates, Genegineer (David Moreau), N'Astirh Guest Stars: Gateway Official Plot: Continued from last issue... Wolverine and Rogue have found themselves transported to Genosha, an island nation that forces it's mutant population into slavery, and they are not happy about it. Fighting their way through the Magistrates that await them when they are transported by the Press Gang member named Pipeline, the two mutants fight off their captors and manage to bust out of the extraction room. In the next room they find Madelyne Pryor and Jennifer Ransome prisoners. However, before they can rescue their friends, the Genoshan known as Wipeout nullifies their powers. Elsewhere on the island, Philip Moreau, son of David -- the Genegineer of Genosha -- is awoken by an early morning phone call for his father. Going out to see his father working on the garden, tells him that he is needed right away. When a craft comes by to pick him up, it burns some of the grass, however one of the mutant slaves Mutate #7781 uses its powers to repair the damage done while Philip goes on his morning job before classes. As the Genegineer is flown to the Genoshan capital, he is briefed by Chief Anderson who tells him about the two mutants that were brought to Genosha by the Press Gang. She explains that they are invisible to any of their equipment scans and that any attempt to record or search information regarding them turns up nothing. Data entered into their databases also leads to the data being deleted, making them wonder if a virus is at work. When checking in on the two, they find Wolverine passed out and Rogue in a catatonic state. Anderson explains to the Genegineer that some of her Magistrate troops had their way with her before they were discovered and she has been in that state ever since. She explains that the Press Gang are still in Australia working to extract the soldiers that were arrested there after their clash with a group of unknown mutants. This happens to be the X-Men, who teleport into the captured Magistrates cells and demand answers. When the guards refuse, Storm orders Psylocke to probe his mind. Doing so she learns all about Genosha, and how it has enslaved it's mutant population as a worker class. Disgusted by what she sees she lashes out on them until Storm orders her to stand down. As they teleport back to their base, Psylocke warns them that if their friends have suffered at their hands she will make them pay. Just after the X-Men depart, the Press Gang break into the prison to free their comrades. The X-Men meanwhile go from their base, learn what Betsy has pulled from the minds of the Magistrates and teleport off to Genosha to rescue their friends. While deep below their base, the demon known as N'Astirh attempts to contact Madelyne Pryor via the bases communications system, but finds that nobody is there but assures that he will be back later. While elsewhere in Genosha, Phillip Moreau goes on his daily jog when he sees the Ransome family being arrested by the Magistrates. As Jenny is his fiancée he demands to know what's going on. Instead of answers, Phillip is roughed up by one of the Magistrates until he realizes who the boy is and lets him go. They explain that the Ransome family was found guilty of switching Jenny's gene scan with some other girls. Phillip does not want to believe it and flees the scene. In the holding cells, Rogue continues to withdraw into herself following her first "intimate" encounter with people being a near rape. In her subconscious mind she finds traces of the psyches of all those who she had touched when her powers were still active. There she runs into the psyche of Carol Danvers, who asks Rogue to let her take over as her military training skills can help get them out of the trouble they are in. With no options or guarentees that Carol will return control back to her, she agrees to do so. When Magistrates enter her cell to rough her up for the trouble they got in earlier, Carol uses her combat training to easily beat them and steals one of their uniforms and keys. She then goes to Logan's cell and finds that Logan is in pretty rough shape due to having his powers nullified. Recognizing Carol's personality, Logan tells her to leave him, but she refuses to do so after he saved her from the KGB many years earlier. Dressing Logan up in one of the uniforms they sneak out of their cell block and find that Madelyne and Jennifer are missing. Back at the Genegineer's residence, Phillip accesses his fathers computer and learns the truth, that his Jenny is a mutate and that she was to be re-engineered as a mining slave. When he father enters the room, he demands answers and when he realizes the shocking truth -- that Genosha's prosperity has come on the backs of mutant slaves, he cannot bring himself to believe that Jenny is a mutant, or that she is going to be genegineered into a slave. His father grimly tells his son that it has already been done. Back at the Citadel, guards begin the genegineering process on Madelyne and Jennifer, when suddenly N'Astirh appears on one of the monitors. Seeing that she is busy, he asks if he should call on her another time, Madelyne tells the demon to come later and the monitor suddenly explodes. While not far away, Logan and Carol decide to try to sneak out of Genosha in a craft, fighting their way through guards and stealing one they make a clean getaway. Carol tells Logan that they'll get their powers back and when they do, they'll come back and make the Genoshans regret every crossing paths with them. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:This is the second part of this whole "Genosha" storyline, and in it, we see some of the fallout from what happened last issue. Wolverine and Rogue are captured, their powers are nullified (which means that Rogue can touch people or can be touched, and Wolverine, without his healing factor, is slowly starting to die from adamantium poisoning), and after being imprisoned, Rogue is "nearly" raped, and basically falls into a catatonic state due to that. We finally see truly inside her mind for the first time, and we see that she carries pieces of personalities of all the people she's touched over the years, the most powerful being, obviously, Carol Danvers AKA Ms. Marvel, who Rogue took the powers, memories, and part of the personality of. With Rogue basically out of action, "Carol" convinces her to let her take over Rogue's body, so she and Logan can escape. Rogue reluctantly does (and Carol will take over Rogue's body here and there for the near future), and Carol, in control of Rogue's body, uses her military training to bust her and Wolverine out, and after not being able to find Madelyne and Jennifer Ransome (who were captured last issue, and who basically caused the X-Men's involvement in the first place), attempt to escape from the island. We also see the rest of the team trying to find out what happened to their missing team members, as well as the demon N'Astirh trying to contact Madelyne Pryor as well, and, as we can guess, his intentions are not as pure as any of the X-Men. We'll see cameos from the demon for the next couple of issues, and then, the REAL fun begins. The main part of this story, however, concerns the son of the leader of Genosha (Genegineer David Moreau), Philip Moreau, who comes to discover that his girlfriend, Jenny Ransome, is a mutant, and will be encoded and made into one of the many mutant slaves at work on the island (as per the orders of his own father). His is probably the most interesting journey of this story, as he realizes that his life of wealth and privilege was built on the back of slave labor, and although it took his being personally affected by this to make him realize that this is a bad thing, at least the realization comes, and in subsequent issues, we'll see what he ends up doing with that wake up call. We'll also see Wolverine and Rogue/Carol attempting to escape the island (and then deciding to bring the whole rotten organization down), and then the whole X-Men finally getting involved for the big conclusion, and then, the INFERNO begins. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 18, 2017 1:43:19 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #237"Who's Human?" Cover Date: Early November, 1988 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Rick Leonardi Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) Villain/s: TGenoshian Magistrates, Genegineer (David Moreau) Guest Stars: None Official Plot: Continued from last issue... Having detected the transport that Logan and Rogue (whose Carol Danvers persona has taken over her psyche) stole as it flies across the Indian Ocean. However, when the Genoshan Magistrates board the ship they find that it is empty and has been booby trapped. Although they narrowly avoid casualties, it informs them that the two loose mutants are still on Genoshan soil. While Chief Anderson finds this a relief, the Gengineer -- David Moreau -- still finds that this who incident still has the potential of being an utter fiasco. They both find the idea that two mutants who have had their powers nullified by Wipeout incredible and are frustrated by the fact that their scanners still cannot detect them. Further, attempts to use their technology to examine the two mutants proved equally as frustrating as any data about Wolverine and Rogue entered into the computers was instantly erased. However, all the hard copy work remains intact and the Gengineer is happy to see that the nullification of Logan's powers has caused his hemoglobin count to drastically drop, and that he will die within the day. Meanwhile, in the streets, Logan and Carol attempt to keep a low profile and upon catching an promotional video on Genoshan prosperity, Logan finds it a crock as it has come from mutants being slaves to the human population. After watching some Magistrates giving a garbage clearing Mutate a hard time, Logan reunites with Carol who has put on a revealing outfit. She explains that this will help them steal some new security passes, as the ones they lifted from the Magistraites they jumped in the Citadel would likely have been red flagged by now. Entering a bar full of Magistrates, Carol does her thing while Logan keeps a low profile. Also in the bar is Philip Moreau, drinking his sorrows after hearing his fiancée Jenny had been tagged as a mutant and is to be shipped off the slave camps. When the Magistrates pick a fight with Philip, Logan uses it as an opportunity to escalate the fight into a full on bar brawl. In the middle of the fight, Logan and Carol grab as many security passes as they can get and high tail it out of the bar. However, when Phillip is tossed outside he overhears the Magistrates who bring the fight out with him recognize him as the Gengineer's son. They decide to teach the boy a lesson by putting him in a Mutate skin-suit and tossing him on the next Mute train out of town. Thinking this might be something of benefit for them, Logan and Carol decide to follow after them and board the Mute Train -- which they are disturbed to see is powered by mutant slave. At the Citadel, Jenny -- who is just beginning the gengineering process to change her healing powers into ones that can form rock and minerals is brought before the Gengineer. When she begs David not to do this to her, he tells her that a Genoshan citizen has to do their part for the prosperity of their country, and that without the mutant workers they would not be able to maintain their quality of life. When he is told that Mutant-9818 (Madelyne) is ready for psi-scans he tells the guards that Mutant-9817 (Jenny) is ready for final processing. In the psi-scanning room, the technicians bond Madelyne's skin suit to her body and begin psi-probing her mind, however she warns them to stay out and begins to resist the psi-probe. Meanwhile, the other X-Men arrive on the island before a convoy of Magistrates that are on patrol. The soldiers are shocked to see that none of the mutants register on their scanning devices and the X-Men make short work of them. With the Magistrates defeated, Storm orders Psylocke to scan their minds for useful information. She finds rudimentary psi-screens but as she attempts to cut through them she suddenly reels back and screams in pain. This is caused by Madelyne, who has caused a psychic backlash on her psi-probers that they are all slaughtered and sends out an alarm to the Magistrates who escort an increasingly weary Gengineer to her location. When Betsy recovers from the attack, she tells her friends the source of the psychic scream was shielded from her. While aboard the Mute Train, Wolverine and Carol realize that they need to take cover inside the train. Logan opens the door with one of his claws and Carol is surprised when Logan begins to bleed heavily. Bandaging up his hand he explains that his healing factor used to heal the woulds every time his claws would pop out, cutting through his skin. Carol realizes that Logan has been getting weaker by the hour and realize that if they do not do something soon, Logan will die. They find Phillip Moreau among the Mutates, and as they are recovering him the mutants aboard the train begin to swarm them. This is until other Magistrates board the train, having detected the disturbance, and begin beating down the mutants. When the captain demands answers from Logan and Carol (not realizing they are escaped mutant prisoners) they explain that they came for Moreau's son. The captain tells the two to get the boy out and bring him to turn the boy over to their superiors to let them handle it. As Logan and Carol carry the unconscious Philip to a jeep, Logan is furious at the sight of mutants being beaten by their slave masters and swears to Carol that he will not leave Genosha until he brings the entire country crashing down. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:With the exception of a little bit of the X-Men (other than Wolverine and Rogue, but we'll get to them in a second, as well as Madelyne Pryor) trying to find out what happened to their missing friends, and Madelyne Pryor and Jenny Ransom being "processed" into being mutant slaves (which doesn't go well for the gengineering crew, particularly where it concerns Madelyne, who starts to manifest latent powers. It's kind of interesting that it's the unwitting Genoshian government that ends up kicking into function Maddie becoming the "Goblin Queen" as much as the demons who are currently attempting to corrupt her into helping bring about their INFERNO), most of this story concerns Wolverine and Rogue, who escaped their own captivity last issue, and are trying to find their way off of the Genoshian Island. However, along the way, they come across Phillip Moreau, who, after discovering that his girlfriend was a mutant and doomed to become one of Genosha's mutant slaves (and what's worse, his father, who is the Genegineer/President of the Island, ordered this to happen), decides to get shitfaced and talk crap to some of the Magistrates, who beats him up, and then decides to teach him a lesson by treating him to the mutate experience. This includes bonding him to a "skinsuit" (which all the mutates wear), and throwing him on a "Mute Train," which is the equivalent of the Nazi trains that would transport their undesirables to concentration/work/death camps. Logan and Rogue (who is still being controlled by the psyche of Carol Danvers, which gives her the advantage of military/spy training that Rogue wouldn't have) wind up talking the train conductors into giving them Philip, and then secretly vow to take down this country, no matter what the cost. While I'm liking this story so far, I do think there's a few factors that keeps it from being what it should have been. For one, the rotating art chores, which I can kind of understand due to both the book being Bi-Monthly at this point, and Marc Silvestri gearing up for INFERNO, but I will say that Rick Leonardi's art, while not horrible, is definitely inferior to Silvestri's, which kind of downgrades the comics themselves, as the art change from one artist to the other kind of ruins the flow of the story. I will say that's the only downfall of future Crossovers as well, as you have good/great art leading into issues with terrible/inferior art. Of course, I will be talking about this more as these issues happen, but it's hard to keep up the quality of a story with major art style switches like that. That being said, the story is definitely solid, and Claremont is hitting some very solid points with comparing Genosha to things that have happened in this country and others (and are probably happening in other parts of the world currently), and while the opinions and actions of the Genoshian government are certainly terrible, they are not made to be mustache twirling villains at all. They're very much like real politicians who can be good, upstanding people, while still holding horrible views on certain people, and in the right set of circumstances, we could see them acting very similar to David Moreau and his underlings. In the next issue, we'll have our big conclusion, which while ending things on the X-Men's end of things for a while, will definitely leave the door open for a next chapter (which takes a while to happen, but when it does, WHOO BOY, does it). And then......well, you know. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 18, 2017 2:19:29 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #238"Gonna Be a Revolution" Cover Date: Late November, 1988 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) Villain/s: Genoshian Magistrates, Genegineer (David Moreau), Wipeout Guest Stars: None Official Plot: Continued from last issue... When Madelyne Pryor managed to manifest psi-powers to kill the Genoshan psi-probes, the Gengineer demands to review the recordings of the psi-probe. The footage shows a young Madelyne picking flows when she is confronted and demanded answers by a psychic representation of the Gengineer and the Magistrates. When she refuses to answer and he lashes out, she is reborn in a blaze of glory that destroys the island. The "Gengineer", decked out in a Mr. Sinister costume then would run into Madelyne in her Goblin Queen form. She warns them about igniting the match that will bring about an inferno. This display shocks all gathered to watch the video and the real Gengineer demands to know how Wipeout failed to eliminate her mutant powers. Wipeout is as shocked as they are, telling them that he detected no mutant powers -- latent or otherwise and therefore there was nothing to wipe out. The Gengineer then goes to Madelyne's cell and demands to know who she is, however Madelyne is not forthcoming with anything but mocking answers. When she begins chastizing him for enslaving mutants, and the two debate on the use of mutants as workers in Genoshan society until Chief Anderson reports to him telling him they have word on his son. In the Genoshan Highlands, Logan and Rogue (with the psyche of Carol Danvers in full control of her body) show Phillip Moreau the facilities where the mutant slaves are kept after their days work. Seeing it's concentration camp style layout, Phillip is shocked at the reality of Genosha's mutant population. They are soon confronted by Chief Anderson who has come to arrest all three, pointing out to Logan and Carol that their cover was blown due to the fact none of the security systems picked up the two "Magistrates" who came in with the Gengineer's son. They are promptly arrested and flown back to the Citadel for final processing. Anderson tells Phillip that due to the fact that he saw things that none save the Magistrates and the director are supposed to see he will remain in custody until his situation is sorted out. As they fly back to the Citadel they are suddenly hit by some freak weather, making both Logan and Carol smile to each other. While inside, Madelyne listens to Jenny's lamentations of her situation telling her cellmate that all she ever wanted to do was to heal people and now she will be forced as a slave. Madelyne tells the girl to be strong, and endure when she is taken away by the Magistrates for final processing. As she is being led away, Madelyne watches coldly, telling the guards that she will see them all burn. Elsewhere in the facility, Logan and Carol see the baby that was captured in Australia being led away and learn that it's mutant parents found a way to nullify their skin suits and managed to procreate and have since been killed. When the three are brought before the Gengineer, Phillip demands to know why his father is part of a government that would enslave part of it's population. Believing that this is wrong, he tells his father that he rest of the Genoshan people would not stand for it. When David tries to explain to his son that this is for the better good of his country, Phillip realizes that both he and his father have a very different opinion on the future of their homeland. Meanwhile, the X-Men -- having stolen Magistrate uniforms use the cover of a massive storm created by Storm to sneak into the Citadel facility unnoticed. While Logan and Carol are told that they are going to be sent for final processing. Logan tells Chief Anderson that he would rather die first and feigns succumbing to his illness to pop his claws. This causes enough distraction for both Logan and Carol to fight off their captors. As this is happening, the X-Men are making their presence known and storming through the Citadel with their powers blazing, easily fighting their way through the ranks of the Magistrates. The X-Men first go looking for Madelyne but Havok finds it empty. When he comes across Phillip Moreau while he is looking for Jenny the two agree to work together. Madelyne however has stripped off her skin suit and come to the Creche, a place where mutant babies are genetically bred for work. She is confronted by the Gengineer who threatens her at gun point. She calls his bluff telling him she could kill him in an instant, however before he can try to shoot her he is stopped by his son and Havok. Phillip points the gun at his father and demands to be brought to Jenny. With the X-Men reunited with Logan and Carol and the Magistrates standing down due to the X-Men's hostage, they find Wipeout and with Psylocke's aid force him to restore both Logan and Rogue's powers, saving Logan's life. When Logan tells the X-Men they should tear down the Genoshan government and put the island in ruins, Phillip begs for the chance to reveal the truth to the Genoshan people and make them revolt against the government. The X-Men decide to allow Phillip the oppertunity, but warn the Magistrates that should they not change their treatment of mutants, they will be back. Havok shows what the X-Men mean by using his powers to destroy the Citadel. However he realizes that Madelyne and the mutant children might have still been inside, he is surprised when Madelyne shows up alive and well and kisses him. She tells him not to worry about the mutant children in the Creche as thy have been taken care of. Storm tells Phillip that his fight to free the mutants of Genosha would be better done outside the country and he and Jenny join the X-Men in leaving through Gateway's portal. Wolverine reminds the Gengineer that if they do not change their ways on their own, the X-Men will be back and there will be blood. Brodie's View:As one would expect, we get a slam bang ending to the whole "Genosha" storyline (at least for now), as The X-Men finally invade the island, and eventually meet up with Wolverine and Rogue (who is being controlled by Carol Danvers), who have both been depowered. This happens just in time for Logan too, as the lack of his healing factor was causing him to slowly die from Adamantium poisoning. The X-Men take out the Genoshian defenses, and threaten to dismantle the whole operation, but Phillip Moreau (the son of the Gengineer/President of the Island, and the one behind the mutant slavery program, David Moreau, who we'll talk about more in a second) begs them not to, and he convinces them to try to appeal to the Genoshian people's better natures, and end the mutant slavery the legal way. Big mistake, as he's not quite as successful as he would hope he would be, and the X-Men, X-Factor, and The New Mutants kind of pay for that later, particularly the third group, but that will be a while down the road. The other major story in this issue, and what will basically be the main story for the next 4-5 (Plus the X-Factor crossover issues, which I will be reviewing, as they directly connect) issues, concerns one Madelyne Pryor, who thanks to Genoshian meddling, manifests powers we haven't seen until this point. She slaughters the Genoshian psychics, and when David Moreau tries to find out why, he's threatened by Madelyne (who is in what will be her Goblin Queen outfit, with his, in a very telling moment, transformed into wearing Mr. Sinister's outfit), who warns him that messing with her more will create an INFERNO that will consume his whole island. She makes several such ominous statements, as it's quite clear that this isn't the same Madelyne we've been dealing with since being introduced back in #168. Hell, it's not the same Madelyne from FALL OF THE MUTANTS. This is a new Maddie, fueled by hate and revenge, and we'll begin to see her sink her claws into Havok (who has developed feelings for her), and through him, the other X-Men. Her goal, to get revenge on The Marauders for trying to kill her and take her baby (and through them, Mr. Sinister, although, she only knows this on a subconscious level so far), and then her main goal; her estranged husband, Scott Summers, and the woman he left her for, his first love and her doppelganger, Jean Grey. That's right, folks.....we're being driven towards the X-Men and X-Factor very much discovering each other, and the bad feelings springing from that (and being driven on by the effects of the INFERNO that is about to consume NYC) might just make them fight to the death, which is Maddie's wish made reality, and it all starts.....Tomorrow. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 19, 2017 0:18:25 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #239"Vanities" Cover Date: December, 1988 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) Villain/s: Mister Sinister, N'Astirh, Malice/Polaris Guest Stars: Nathan Summers (The Future Cable) Official Plot: In Manhattan the Empire State building starts to grow, demons possess many technical things like elevators and telephones. In a secret hideout, Mr. Sinister thinks about the X-Men as Malice rushes in. She tried to separate from Polaris’s body and discovered that they are permanently bonded. Sinister says, that this was the reason why he ordered her to possess Lorna Dane, he knew that the woman’s hidden hate, combined with the interaction of the unique energy matrices would lead to such a result. Malice is very angered, but Sinister convinces her, that this is for the better, for now she is the only unique and irreplaceable member of the Marauders. The missing baby of Cyclops and Madelyne is also seen in his secret hideout. In Australia, Dazzler uses a day off to do the single thing she loves most – singing. She and Longshot enter a bar and Alison is allowed to sing with the band. The audience loves her. Havok thinks about how much rejoining the X-Men changed his life, not only did he have to fight the woman he loves, he also had to use his powers to kill, even if it were only Brood. Madelyne comforts him. Storm researches some video footage, and discovers the interview with X-Factor's Cyclops and Marvel Girl. She is shocked to see her best friend alive. Immediately she tells Wolverine, who said he already knew; twice he caught her scent he did not say anything, because he did not trust his senses, he thought he was going mad to smell the woman he loved. In an underground cave Psylocke fights Rogue and Colossus in a training session. At first she does good, distracting them with her telepathy, but with teamwork she is defeated. Rogue holds her and Psylocke asks her to let her go, yet Rogue refuses with a "Make me". Psylocke gives Rogue a mind-blast and knocks her out. Rogue gets up, again the eye colour change from green to blue occurs, while Rogue is out of the picture Carol has taken over again. Psylocke decides to take a bath in an underground lake, after the tempers cooled down, she and Carol talk it through, Carol touches Betsy with the bare hand and is able to hold Rogue’s absorption powers in check. Slowly Madelyne and Alex seem to fall in love. They both lost the loves of their lives and now are all they have left. They spend a night together. Later Madelyne calls N'astirh and makes a bargain. Madelyne wants the Marauders found (who nearly killed her and stole the baby), but most of all she wants her son. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:Hell yes. In addition to having one of the best covers of this era, this issue officially begins the INFERNO story-line, at least where it concerns the X-Men, but really, this story is more of a Prologue, as it is kind of the calm before the storm (although like in #210, you can see the storm clouds gathering, and it makes sense that once again, Sinister and the Marauders are involved). In fact, Sinister plays a HUGE role in at least the beginning and the end of this storyline, as it's due to his machinations that this whole deal happens (well, at least on the X-Men side of things), especially where it concerns Madelyne Pryor. Heck, one major thing this storyline does is explain everything that's been quietly brewing in the background since Maddie made her first appearance in #168, and deepens both Sinister's villain cred, and his involvement with the X-Men, which we'll later find stretches back farther than anyone could have guessed. One of the early hints of this is that he is the one that has been holding Maddie and Scott (Cyclops) Summers' child, Nathan, since the Marauders took their failed shot at killing Maddie back in #206. This will, of course, not only become important to the INFERNO storyline, but will become HUGELY important as we move through the rest of Claremont's run, and beyond it. As far as the rest of the issue, other than the beginning, where we see Sinister "scheming," we basically see the various X-Men enjoying life in their Australian setting, not realizing that things are about to get REALLY BAD. We also see the INFERNO brewing in the background, as we see New York starting to transform into the demonic hell hole it's going to be for the next few issues. We also see Madelyne making her plays, as she winds up seducing Alex Summers (Havok, and Cyclops' brother), and then we later see her speaking to the demon N'Astirh, offering up what the demon is wanting (her assistance in opening a portal between New York and Limbo) in exchange for the Marauders' heads and her son (which, she might know on a subconscious level, as demonstrated last issue with her trans-configuring David Moreau's outfit into that of Sinister's, is all linked back to the architect of the MUTANT MASSACRE, and the events before that). Of course, as we'll find, Maddie's mission is much more....Sinister than just wanting her son back, and revenge on those that took him, and as this storyline really starts to kick into play (the next few issues), her darkness become a web that increases further and further to include not only the X-Teams, but all of the New York based Marvel heroes period. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 19, 2017 1:15:02 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #240"Inferno Part the First: Strike the Match" Cover Date: January, 1989 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue Villain/s: Mister Sinister, N'Astirh, Madelyne Pryor-Summers/The Goblin Queen, The Marauders (Malice/Polaris, Sabretooth, Scalphunter, Vertigo, Scrambler, Arclight, Riptide, Blockbuster, Prism, Harpoon) Guest Stars: Gateway Official Plot: Continued from last issue... Alex Summers and Madelyne Pryor have decided to spend the evening at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan. They have a romantic evening and can't help but notice that the place is empty and that the weather in Manhattan has been unseasonably warm. Their evening is interrupted by a group of paranormal investigators who have come to set up equipment to monitor the Empire State Building, which they believe is growing in size. Their disturbance upset the owner of the shop and the scientists are kicked out. As they enter the elevator they are surprised when the walls come to life and attack them. While Havok talks to the owner, Madelyne examines the Empire State Building through binoculars and sees it as it really is and is happy. When Alex rejoins her the two decide to return home to their secret hideout in Australia. As they enter the elevator, Alex finds one of the scientists pairs of glasses and wonders what happened. Madelyne, noticing the scientists are now part of the demonic mural in the elevator dismisses their abrupt departure and the two are soon teleported back to Australia by Gateway. When Alex tries to spend more time with Madelyne, she decides to have some alone time and is teleported away by Gateway. Realizing she's upset, Alex thinks he can come up with a way to help her and rushes towards the X-Men's base. Madelyne, having adopted her Goblin Queen persona has come to Bard College where she finds the grave of Jean Grey. She is angry that her husband Scott Summers supposedly gotten over his love of Jean when they married and angrily destroys Jean's tomb stone. Coincidentally, Jean's parents John and Elaine had come to the grave site and mistaking Madelyne for Jean, they are easily overpowered and transformed into demons, something she finds incredibly funny. When N'Astirh joins her, she demands that he bring her to her son otherwise face her wraith. N'Astirh complies and the four beings are teleported away. Back in Australia, Rogue has taken to wearing some of Dazzler's clothing and trying to teach Longshot how to roller skate. When Dazzler jealously confronts her, she upsets Longshot when she suggests that he is her own private property, not realizing that while she loves Longshot he only regards her as a friend. This leads to a fight that tramples into an artists session of Colossus who is sketching Betsy in the nude. Seen on the monitors by Alex, he comments to himself how Longshot should be careful with Dazzler's feelings. Using the devices, Alex manages to track down the Marauders. When he realizes that Wolverine and Storm have sneaked up on him, he tells the two that he has tracked the Marauders to the Alley where they had originally slaughtered the Morlocks. Meanwhile, N'Astirh has teleported the Goblin Queen to a complex below an orphanage in Nebraska where she finds device similar to the Crech's she saw in Genosha. Wondering what it is, she gets a vision that suggests that she was grown in there. When she looks at the plaque she finds that the experiment inside was called "Madelyne". While in the Alley below Manhattan, the Marauders are settling into their new headquarters when Blockbuster runs into the X-Men down one of the darkened alleys. He is knocked flat by Colossus, starting the X-Men's ambush on the group. The X-Men are out for blood and attack savagely, taking the Marauders by surprise. In the confusion of battle, Blockbuster is surprised when the wall behind him suddenly comes to life and swallows him whole. The battle takes another turn when Polaris uses her powers so snare Colossus and she gets into a "tug" of war with Storm, who pits her wind generating power against Polaris' magnetic abilities -- the loser would be pummeled to death by Colossus's body. However Polaris turns the tables by causing Colossus to smash through the top of the tunnel allowing the Marauders to escape to the surface above. When the X-Men follow after them both groups are shocked to see the entire city has undergone some transformation. Back in Nebraska, the Goblin Queen is furious over the lack of answers that N'Astirh has provided when they are both confronted by Mr. Sinister who tells Madelyne that he is her father. This story is continued next issue.... Brodie's View:All right! The prologue is over, and now it's officially time for the games to begin. We start with Madelyne Pryor (who I've officially moved to the Villain side of things, as she really crosses that line in this issue) and Alex Summers (Havok) enjoying a romantic evening in New York. However, New York is starting to change, and strange things are starting to happen in the background (the mural of an elevator comes alive and attacks a group of wannabe Ghostbusters, as Alex and Maddie continue their evening), which Maddie seems to know about, but the lovestruck Alex is completely clueless to. They leave, and then she leaves Alex in Australia, while she handles some personal business, which really should have tipped Alex, once again, off that something was amiss, but then again, like his kinda sorta ex girlfriend, Polaris (who is currently under the mental control of the Marauder known as Malice), Havok always had an easy mind to control or manipulate. We next see Maddie at the gravestone of Jean Grey, who was thought dead, but was recently revealed to be very much alive (go back to #201's review if you want the story to that little piece of work). Maddie curses Jean for being alive, and destroys her tombstone. Jean's parents just happened to be visiting her grave at that time, and Maddie angrily turns them into demons, which officially represents her crossing over into Villain territory. She is joined by the demon, N'Astirh, who has located Maddie's son, Nathian Christopher Summers (who will later become the time traveling warrior, Cable), and the two teleport to a strange mock orphanage, where she finds a container that is revealed to be the one she was grown in. Before she can grasp what she's seeing, they are joined by Sinister, who tells her that she can call him Father. Meanwhile, back in Australia, Alex watches Rogue and Dazzler have a spat over Longshot, who they both have the hots for (Ugh! ), and is soon joined at the computer by Wolverine and Storm, who wonder what he is doing. What he is doing, which is probably thanks to Maddie's influence, is locating the Marauders, who are currently in the Morlock tunnels. What happens next is what most readers at that time wanted to see happen to the group of Assassins, at least since the MUTANT MASSACRE storyline, and let's not pull any punches here, the X-Men ambush them in the tunnels, and for the most part, totally own them. What makes it worse, at least for the Marauders, is that their boss, Sinister, probably served them up on a silver platter to the X-Men, in order for him to have a clear path to his true target, Madelyne. The two teams fight their way out of the sewers and into the city, but what has happened to the city stops the battle cold, at least for the moment. We don't see the full extent of it here, but we will in the next issue. We will also get the full story of who/what Madelyne Pryor is, for those who haven't figured it out already, which I think was meant to be the explanation before her fire was put out. However, being that this storyline is named INFERNO, it doesn't work out quite like that for (Mister) Sinister. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 19, 2017 1:42:13 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #241"Inferno, Part the Second: Fan the Flames!" Cover Date: February, 1989 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue Villain/s: Mister Sinister, N'Astirh, Madelyne Pryor-Summers/The Goblin Queen, The Marauders (Malice/Polaris, Scalphunter, Vertigo, Riptide, Prism, Harpoon), Various demonic creatures Guest Stars: Nathan Summers Official Plot: Madelyne refuses to believe that Mr. Sinister is her creator. Instead she and her pet "Grey" demons attack him, because he is the mastermind behind the Marauders, who stole her baby. But the orphanage is Sinister’s headquarters, he has built in defensive systems, that chain the Goblin Queen and use her own energies against her. She calls to N’astirh for help, but he remains hidden in the shadows. In the transforming New York, the X-Men continue to fight the remaining Marauders. Colossus is shocked to see Riptide among them, for he killed him during the Mutant Massacre. The police, riding demon-transformed police cars interfere. Polaris / Malice destroys one of the vehicles and hurls the debris against the X-Men, while Vertigo uses her powers to create a general nausea. The X-Men are almost defeated when Longshot throws randomly a blade, which hits a sign over Vertigo's head; it falls down and knocks her out. The fight continues and the X-Men fight more aggressive than ever, Havok even uses his power in full force killing Harpoon. The Goblin Queen continues to ignore Sinister, she thinks of herself as a normal person with parents and a past. Mr. Sinister asks her that she tell him of her past memories to prove it. Madelyne tries to remember and comes up with an incident at the age of ten; she was playing with her best friend Annie, but suddenly she was hit by a car. Mr. Sinister finishes the story, the ten-year old redhead holds her friend in her arms, and suddenly she found herself in her friends head, sharing her last thoughts as they went out. Madelyne asks how he knows, Mr. Sinister explains that this is a memory of Jean Grey, actually it is the day when Jean’s power manifested. Back then Jean was put in the care of Professor X who trained her. Originally Sinister had planned to kill her parents, that Jean would have been brought to the orphanage, but he was too late, so he came up with the plan to steal a blood sample of Jean and clone her. Later though, when the clone hit puberty he was disappointed to see that she did not develop mutant powers. Then one night her incubation chamber exploded in a bird of fire, and the clone shouted "Scott" before passing out. In the shadows N'astirh thinks that if he saves Madelyne, she would be totally under his control, he leaves. In Manhattan some of S'ym's techno-organic demons recognize the X-Men and the Marauders; they join the fight and shoot Prism. The X-Men kill off the whole squad, besides one who is captured by Colossus. He recognizes the species from his stint in Limbo. Colossus interrogates the demon and is surprised to hear that his sister Magik is no longer Limbo's ruler, because she was overthrown by N'astirh and S'ym. They also plan to transform the whole earth into Limbo, casting a special spell on the Empire State Building. Colossus smashes the demon to pieces and as his teammates cheer at him, he realizes that the demonic surrounding has a bad influence on them, only he is protected by his armored form, because iron shields against magic. He decides to search for his sister, because saving her might end Inferno. Mr. Sinister continues his story. He researched that the exact instant "Jean" aka Phoenix sacrificed herself on the moon and it was the moment when the bird of fire appeared at the clone tube. He thought that they were connected like twins and now with potential powers he wanted to create the perfect child with her and Cyclops, so he designed a cover identity and memories for Madelyne and organized for the pair to meet. Everything happened as Sinister foresaw and wanted, till Jean Grey was found alive at Jamaica Bay. He knew that if the two would ever meet, Jean would telepathically discover the truth, so he ordered the Marauders to kill Madelyne and steal the baby, but they botched the job. In New York, the X-Men dealt with all Marauders except for Polaris/Malice who got away. Longshot is concerned, how his teammates become more and more bloodthirsty. Suddenly N'astirh appears and bites him in the arm. Havok tries to nail him with a blast, but the demon vanishes, promising to feast on the X-Men’s souls like he just had Longshot. During the fight, Dazzler seems more concerned with her beauty. The X-Men prepare to follow N'astirh, but suddenly Wolverine’s senses pick up someone he knows. In the orphanage in Nebraska, Sinister tells Madelyne that the failed assassination did not matter since she died a short time later in Dallas. To his surprise, she is now back alive and invisible to all technical sensors as well as she has displayed powers he never knew that she had. He plans to dissect her, to discover what changed her. The Goblin Queen gathers more and more energy till she overloads Sinister's defense systems. Before the two start a fight, N'astirh, now techno-organic, arrives on the scene again. He hands the baby over to Madelyne. The Goblyn Queen is thankful and loyal to N'astirh, she tells Sinister that she will destroy the baby, for it represents all of Sinister's manipulations and all of Scott Summers' hopes and dreams, and with this sacrifice she will give herself completely to the fire, to Inferno. Brodie's View:INFERNO is in full swing here, as The X-Men and The Marauders, in mid battle, suddenly find themselves in the middle of a demon possessed New York, and they find their battle constantly being interrupted by various demons; some actual demons (who had been made techno organic due to S'ym's being made such (Off stage, N'astirh is also made techno organic, which makes him an even greater threat), some demon possessed New Yorkers (at one point, the two teams are attacked by Demonic cops, whose vehicle Polaris/Malice uses as a projectile weapon against The X-Men, who are able to deflect the attack. What makes things crazier, is that the X-Men themselves are starting to transform due to INFERNO's demonic influence, with the more impure the soul, the more the possession takes hold. Needless to say, Wolverine soon starts to look quite scary. Longshot is temporarily able to fight off the influence until N'astirh bites him, infecting him as well. The only X-Man able to completely resist INFERNO's effects is Colossus, due to his being in his organic steel form. He winds up leaving the battle to find his sister, as it is revealed that she is no longer in charge in Limbo, hence, this whole INFERNO thing happening in the first place. His story continues in the pages of THE NEW MUTANTS, which we won't be reviewing, but I will basically say what happened in those issues at the end of the Crossover. I will do the same with EXCALIBUR, whose members also skirt by the events happening in the main X-books. While the X-Men are dealing with the demonic mess New York City has become, the other important stuff in this issue is happening, and that is the full origin of Madelyne Pryor, delivered by her "Father" of sorts, (Mister) Sinister, who quickly captures her and explains how they got to that point. To make a long story short, and I will add in stuff revealed later as well, but stuff that kind of fills in the spaces left open by Sinister's explanation here. Nathan Essex was a scientist who wished to perform experiments that were beyond the pale of the scientific methods used during the time he lived in (The Nineteenth Century). Along the way, he came across Apocalypse, who granted him various powers, one of which being the power of pretty much immortality. Sinister used these powers to take his experiments to a new level, and as we went into the Twentieth Century, and the age of heroes and more importantly, mutants. Sinister began collecting DNA from pretty much everyone, and did a lot of work with cloning, using that DNA. He took a vested interest in the Summers blood line, particularly Cyclops, who he watched over in the orphanage years between Corsair tossing he and his brother, Alex, from their crashing plane, and the period where Charles Xaiver discovered him. Once he was Xaiver's, Sinister lost the control over Scott, so, he decided to find a way to keep tabs on him. This was done by getting Jean Grey's DNA, which after her "death," he was able to create a clone that was the spitting image of Jean. This clone would become Madelyne Pryor, who, of course, met Scott, fell in love, and allowed Sinister to still have a window into Scott's life, (and to make things even better, a child produced between the two, Nathan Christopher). However, once Jean was revealed to have been alive, it made Madelyne an instant giveaway to Sinister's involvement. Thus, Sinister sent The Marauders to take Madelyne out before she could be discovered for the clone she was. However, The Marauders failed twice (which might have something to do with why Sinister basically set them up to be discovered and taken out by The X-Men last issue), and suddenly Sinister knew he had to take matters into his own hands. However, before he can erase his "mistake," Maddie displays her "Goblin Queen" powers, and breaks free from his control. Realizing what her child basically is, she vows to sacrifice him, thus both destroying Scott Summers and Sinister's plans with one action, and with this, her journey into being a true Villain is complete (however, this isn't the last we'll see of Sinister in this storyline. Not at all ). In the next couple of reviews, we'll check over on the X-FACTOR side of things, where that team is dealing with what has happened to New York, and start on a path that leads them towards The X-Men, and a greater conflict. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 19, 2017 22:28:02 GMT -5
X-Factor #36"Transformations!" Cover Date: January, 1989 Writer: Louise Simonson Artist: Walt Simonson Team: Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Ice-Man, Beast, and "Dark" Angel/Archangel Villain/s: N'Astirh, The Goblin Queen/Madelyne Pryor, Various demonic creatures Guest Stars: Nathan Summers Official Plot: New York City has gone insane, lifeless objects are transforming into demonic creatures and terrorizing the citizens of the city. Beast and Iceman attempt to fight off a transformed hot dog cart and fire hydrant. Witnessing the battle is reporter Trish Tilby, who is put off not by the Beast's restored furry form, but his devil-may care attitude and returned intelligence. Before she can communicate this, a demonically transformed subway train smashes out of the ground and swallows her and her camera crew up before diving back underground again. While elsewhere in the transformed city, the demon N'Astirh prepares for the arrival of the kidnapped baby mutants, particularly the child of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, who's sacrifice will smash open the barriers between Earth and Limbo, turning the Earth into a true inferno. As he waits, he considers the fact that Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor's similar appearances and muses how they are both two sides of the different coin. He turns his attention to Warren Worthington, who is still at the Boston headquarters of the Right, having slain Cameron Hodge and his minions he now cradles the lifeless body of Candy Southern in his arms. When N'Astirh appears to mock him and tells him that he granted Cameron Hodge immortality (although seemingly false) the former Horseman of Apocalypse notices that the demon is projecting his image from New York City. When N'Astirh finishes his communication following the arrival of the mutant babies, Warren vows to hunt down N'Astirh and kill him for his part in Candy's death. Meanwhile, Marvel Girl and Cyclops are flying toward New York City, Jean still psi-linked to young Christopher Summers, she feels the child's pain and fear. Scott tells her to control these powerful emotions so that they can focus on his location and rescue him. While down below the city, the Beast and Iceman board the demonically transformed subway train to try and save the people trapped inside. As it speeds down the subway tunnels of New York, Iceman pulls Trish aside and tells her that Beast is still a great guy and that under his current personality he is still fundamentally the same guy she has begun to have feelings for. While high above the city Cyclops and Marvel Girl notice that some power has transformed the Empire State Building into a giant obelisk that continues to grow. As they witness this they are attacked by a demonically transformed airplane, which Cyclops fights off with his optic blast before they decide to land and try and land to see what's going on. Back aboard the train, Iceman uses his powers to freeze up it's rails as they pass under the Manhattan Bridge. This stops the creature temporarily and allows Iceman and Beast to evacuate the people on board either down to the Circle Line ferry in the East River below or onto the bridge. When the monster subway car breaks free, Trish disobeys Beast's orders to flee so that she can grab a live electrical wire and toss it toward the creature. Seeing what Trish is doing, he dives toward her and pulls her away as the live wire hits the subway train and causes an explosion. The couple make amends of sorts as they flee. As Scott and Jean attempt to land their craft they witness a giant mystical pentagram appear above the city. Their ship is then struck by lightning forcing them to abandon ship. As they pull themselves away telekinetically, they witness in horror as the pentagram turns into a portal and spews forth an army of demons into the city. While elsewhere in the city, Iceman and Beast witness the same thing and Trish tells Beast to go off to save the city, kissing him for good luck. As Cyclops and Marvel Girl defend themselves from the demon horde, they are soon aided not only by the timely arrival of Beast and Iceman, but the Dark Angel as well. Having fought all the demons off, X-Factor is happy to have Warren back in their ranks and after comparing notes they rush off to try and find young Christopher. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:Okay, so, now we're taking a look at the other major part of the INFERNO Crossover, that of the team that used to be the original X-Men, X-Factor, who have gone through quite a few changes since reuniting a few years earlier. Particularly, Angel and Beast, with the first having his wings amputated (after being crucified by them by The Marauders during the MUTANT MASSACRE) and then briefly becoming one of Apocalypse's 4 Horsemen before seeing the light and turning on him. In fact, this storyline kind of his return to the team after that whole deal happening (Which did during X-Factor's part of the FALL OF THE MUTANTS storyline), and after finally killing his supposed friend, Cameron Hodge, who secretly was running the Anti-Mutant group, The Right, and who also secretly was working with the demon, N'Astirh (who we don't know it at the time, but N'Astirh ends up turning Hodge into a Techno Organic being like himself. This would come into play during the next major X-Crossover, THE X-TINCTION AGENDA, but that's not for a while down the road). This all happened after Hodge basically killed Warren Worthington's (The Angel/Archangel) longtime girlfriend, Candy Southern. After killing Hodge, Warren is taunted by a video from N'Astirh, which Warren notices is broadcasting from New York. Meanwhile, the rest of the team, including Beast, who has recently returned to his blue and furry "Ape" look, after regaining his human form during the early issues of the book, but slowly losing his valued intellect around the time of FOTM. After being infected by a mutant that spreads diseases, the Beast went back to the form he started the group with, but with his strength amplified. This leads us to the last three, Ice-Man (who had recently regained control over his powers after losing control of them for a time), Cyclops, and Jean Grey (the last two being a main focus of X-Factor's side of things, as obviously they are major targets of the very vengeful Goblin Queen/Madelyne Pryor, Cyclops' estranged wife and the mother of his child, who Scott dumped to run back to his first love, and Maddie's doppelganger, Jean). Anyways, Jean and Scott fight their way through the demonic New York (and trying to find Nathan Christopher, Scott and Maddie's son, who had been kidnapped by Sinister and then Maddie herself, with the intentions to sacrifice him and make INFERNO permanent), until they are joined by Beast and Ice-Man, and surprisingly "Dark" Angel, who would become known as Archangel by the end of this storyline. This is a decent, but definitely the inferior side of the whole INFERNO deal, at least when compared to what was happening in the main X-Men book. This is due to a few reasons, and they are all personal feelings. For one, I never found the original X-Men team to be that great. Don't get me wrong, I liked Beast, and the others were OK as smaller characters in the larger X-Teams to come, but as a unit, they never did much for me, so, they were kind of my least favorite X-Book at this particular time. The second thing is that while Louise Simonson is an OK writer, she isn't up to the standard of Chris Claremont, and one can tell when reading the two books side by side. To makes things worse, her husband, Walt Simonson, was a far inferior artist to Marc Silvestri, who was really knocking it out of the park with his work in INFERNO. Granted, while I think Simonson's work was decent in THOR, he was one of those artists that as his art went on, and he decided to get more expressive with it, the art grew more ridiculous and ugly, and his INFERNO stuff is a perfect example of this, as sometimes one doesn't know what the hell they're supposed to be looking at in certain panels. It's not the worst art I've ever seen, but it's definitely lacking when compared to Silvestri's work on X-Men, Alan Davis' work on EXCALIBUR, and even Bret Blevins' stuff on the NEW MUTANTS. Of course, it looks like John Byrne's stuff when compared to the artist on X-FACTOR when we get to THE XTINCTION AGENDA, but I'll talk about that when we get there. For now, we'll go on to one more X-FACTOR issue later, when the team fights The Goblin Queen, and then, we get the meeting we've been building to for three years. GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 20, 2017 0:18:54 GMT -5
X-Factor #37"A Matter of Honor" Cover Date: February, 1989 Writer: Louise Simonson Artist: Walt Simonson Team: Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Ice-Man, Beast, and "Dark" Angel/Archangel Villain/s: N'Astirh, The Goblin Queen/Madelyne Pryor, Various demonic creatures Guest Stars: Nathan Summers, Wolverine (cameo) Official Plot: The team fights more demons to follow Christopher's trail. Not very far away N'astirh reassembles himself after he was torn apart in an explosion, shortly after his infection with the techno-organic virus. He orders his lesser demons to bring him baby Christopher. The demons recognize the change in N'astirh, and he tells them that since he absorbed the spell computer and his abilities, he now is magic. Jean picks up Christopher's thoughts overhead, she telekinetically levitates the team in the air, where the demons hand over baby Christopher to N’astirh, but before they can do anything about it, he teleports away with the boy. The demons around continue to fight X-Factor. Suddenly the Goblyn Queen appears, in her arms the baby, behind her are N’astirh and the "Grey demons". She orders the demons to stop their attack on X-Factor, because they are hers. X-Factor is surprised to see Madelyne alive, they thought she died in Dallas. Cyclops asks what she plans to do with Christopher, but Madelyne replies that she does not call him by that name anymore, she prefers his middle name Nathan, because Scott hates it. The Goblyn Queen starts to fight Cyclops, she is mad at him, because he never loved her, he only married her because she resembled Jean. During the fight the baby starts to cry, but as Jean telepathically calms him, Madelyne gets even more mad. N'astirh fears that Madelyne will kill X-Factor and the baby too early. While he shields them from her attack, he reminds Madelyne that he was always loyal to her and that he awakened the powers in her. Madelyne is really angry, she doesn’t want to be only N'astirh's puppet, she has powers that make her his equal. N’astirh sweet-talks, he says he cannot control one of her mastery, but he can advice as a loyal ally. He warns her that the X-Men are nearby and about to meet X-Factor and it would be wiser to influence that meeting. Yet his true purpose is that she sacrifices the baby on top of the Empire State Building, for there he can cast a spell using the baby’s powers to create a permanent hole to Limbo. N'astirh leaves. Madelyne and the demons continue to fight X-Factor. She orders the "Grey" demons to grab Jean. Upon their touch, Jean recognizes that this pair of demons are her transformed parents. The fight goes on, Beast rips his brown-and-yellow costume apart, because it hinders him in his furry form, leaving only the blue shorts. The battle culminates in a big powerful blast from Madelyne towards X-Factor. As the dust settles, the team finds itself unhurt in the crater the explosion left behind. Next to them is Madelyne, suddenly she wears normal clothes and asks Scott why he wants to take her baby away. The X-Factor members wonder what happened. Wolverine arrives on the scene, he touches Jean and says he has to make sure she is real. This story is continued in Uncanny X-Men #242 Brodie's View:Once again, we're playing catch up on The X-Factor side of things, but we're building towards what happens at the end of the issue, which leads directly into the events (as it states above) of Uncanny X-Men #242. Of course, this happens due to the major inclusion of Madelyne Pryor to the proceedings, who attacks X-Factor, hoping to get the maximum amount of pain and suffering out of her estranged husband, Cyclops/Scott Summers, and the woman he left Maddie for, Scott's first love and Maddie's doppelganger, Jean Grey. There are a couple of things that makes this even worse, and that was Maddie finding out that her life (as a Sinister created clone of Jean) was always just meant as a Sinister scheme to keep tabs on Cyclops (who was one of Sinister's pet projects), which has driven Maddie even more insane with hatred, and she's using her newfound powers as The Goblin Queen (and the craziness of INFERNO) to take out Scott, Jean, and the rest of X-Factor. The other thing that makes things worse is that she's basically holding her's and Scott's child, Nathan Christopher, hostage, and is planning to sacrifice him to make the demonic portal over New York a permanent one. Heck, at one point, the demon N'astirh (one of the major architects of INFERNO in the first place) has to protect X-Factor, as Maddie intends on killing them outright. However, the demon convinces her to stick with the plan, and she does, changing her form to resemble herself pre Goblin Queen, and begging X-Factor not to hurt her or her child. The group is confused, until Wolverine walks up on Jean, and grabs her, wanting to see for himself if she were real. The next moment takes place in Uncanny X-Men #242, and it is a major one. Heck, it's the meeting we've been building towards since the events of UXM #201, and the various issues that were taking place around that time, with the discovery of Jean Grey and the forming of X-Factor. The two teams have come close to running in to each other, but never quite did......until now. I will say that there are both some hard feelings, but also some good ones, which kind of makes things better than they could of been, or what Maddie and N'astirh were hoping it would be. But, yeah, there is a bit of fighting that takes place before the superhero team up takes place, so, look forward to that, and of course, the very first page of that issue, which kind of tells the whole story. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 20, 2017 0:47:47 GMT -5
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 20, 2017 1:32:55 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #242"Inferno, Part the Third: Burn!" Cover Date: March, 1989 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue Villain/s: N'Astirh, Madelyne Pryor-Summers/The Goblin Queen, Various demonic creatures Guest Stars: Nathan Summers, X-Factor (Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Ice-Man, Beast, Archangel) Official Plot: Story continued from X-Factor #38... To be sure that his senses are not fooling him, Wolverine kisses Jean Grey, confirming for him that she is still alive. Now for the first time ever, the X-Men and X-Factor have crossed paths as they are gathered around Madelyne Pryor who has her and Cyclops's son Nathan Christopher. With the X-Men having arrived, Madelyne has hidden her Goblin Queen form from them. Jean pushes Wolverine away when he refuses to stop coming on so strong, prompting her to tell Storm to control her people. When Iceman and Beast attempt to grab Christopher from Madelyne, Havok gets in their way. Tempers begin to flare out of control due to the X-Men's manipulations by the Inferno, and their continued belief that X-Factor are mutant hunters. This causes Wolverine and Dark Angel to come to blows. Warren manages to strike down Wolverine with his wing feathers. Rogue flies in and attempts to stop Warren by kissing him to absorb his strength, powers and memories. However, she only sees the image of Apocalypse in his mind and is shocked when Warren is capable of pulling away from her embrace. Before she can do anything about it, she is blasted from behind by Cyclops. This leads to a full out fight between the X-Men and X-Factor. As Iceman attempts to ice up Havok, he uses his powers to melt the ice sending a flood. When Dazzler and Longshot get caught up in the water, the two -- having been affected by the Inferno spell -- start making out in the middle of the battle. As Cyclops pulls Madelyne out of the water, she berates him for abandoning her. When Scott tries to defend himself, his brother Alex appears and begins attacking him, telling him that he betrayed his marital vows to Maddie the day that he left her. Just then, N'Astirh appears before them and swats Havok away, and then unleashes two demons on Marvel Girl. The moment the creatures make contact with her, Jean realizes -- to her horror -- are her parents transformed into demons. As the battle rages on, N'Astirh summons a demonic stage-coach and is about to leave with Madelyne, putting Cyclops in a position where he must make a tough choice: Does he save his wife and child from being taken into the clutches of the technogranic demon, or save Jean from the creatures that are her parents transformed. Cursing himself, Scott chooses Jean, and N'Astirh picks up Maddie and little Christopher and flee the scene. Havok, cursing his brother as well jumps onto the back of the coach in the hopes of rescuing her himself. Scott runs to Jean's side and Jean condemns Madelyne as a being of pure evil. Scott and Jean then go to where the members of the X-Men and X-Factor are still battling it out. While speeding through the city, Madelyne drops her innocent appearance and readopts her Goblin Queen uniform. Havok meanwhile holds onto the coach for dear life. As the wind rips through his costume, he feels as though that it's doing something worse to his soul. When the coach finally stops at the transformed Empire State Building, he reveals his presence to N'Astirh and the Goblin Queen. Maddie remarks how his tattered uniform now resembles her and asks for his loyalty. Giving it willingly, she christens him her Goblin Prince. As they enter into the building to prepare for the sacrifice of young Nathan, they are watched by Colossus who begins to scale up the side of the building in order to stop them. Back in Central Park, the battle between the X-Men and X-Factor rages on, as the members of X-Factor learn that the X-Men still believe that they are mutant hunters and are unaware that they revealed themselves as mutants. As Wolverine and Dark Angel fight it out, Cyclops wonders where Storm is hoping that he can talk her into getting the X-Men to stop fighting. Storm has spent most of the battle floating above Central Park looking at the transformed Empire State Building and wondering how the Inferno has affected her and her comrades. The obscene obelisk reminds her of the butte from the other dimensional world that the Adversary banished her and Forge not too long ago and wonders about it's significance. While high above the tower, N'Astirh, the Goblin Queen and Havok prepare for the coming sacrifice by creating an altar. N'Astirh is shocked to see how quickly Madelyne is adapting to her newfound powers. When the demonically transformed Grey parents arrives with young Christopher Summers, Madelyne is disgusted by their ability to sense that the child is somehow related to them. As Madelyne finishes commenting about how only the baby is truly hers, she is angered to find that young Christopher has telepathically communicated to Jean Grey about his impending sacrifice launching her into a fury and deciding to hold off on the sacrifice until she can destroy Jean Grey once and for all. Down below in Central Park, Jean Grey's battle with Rogue is cut short when winds carry her up to where Storm has been watching the battle. When the two are finally reunited, they agree to get both of their teams to stand down so that they can save Christopher from his insane mother. However their reunion is cut short when N'Astirh teleports before them and attacks, despite the combined efforts of both X-Men and X-Factor, none prove to be much of a match against the newly technogranic demon. However, when he grabs a hold of Rogue and attempts to infect her with the Transmode virus, he learns that she had developed an immunity to it thanks to her encounter with the Technarc named Magus.. While atop the Empire State Building, Colossus reaches its peak and when he attempts to stop the Goblin Queen, she blasts him away. As he flies across the city he is saved from a nasty landing by Iceman, who uses an ice slide to send him flying into N'Astirh, weakening the creature due to its natural weakness to iron, forcing the demon to teleport away. With the X-Men and X-Factor unified, Storm orders Psylock to boost her psi-powers over the static created by the Inferno by psi-linking with Marvel Girl. This is a pleasant surprise for Jean, who for months has not had the benefit of her telepathy. They exchange information regarding Rogue and Colossus's encounter with the Magus in order to learn the weaknesses of technorganic beings so that they can better deal with N'Astirh when they make their final assault on the Empire State Building. Sending Colossus up the tower again to distract N'Astirh, the Goblin Queen and Havok, he finds himself bound by strange tentacles. When Dark Angel and Wolverine join the fracas, they injure N'Astirh and save Colossus giving Storm and Iceman and opening to freeze N'Astirh in ice. As N'Astirh boasts that the cold allows his computer systems to operate at peak efficiency he attempts to cast a massive spell. However, this is when Cyclops and Dazzler chime in with their powers along with Storm increasing the humidity under the ice barrier causing N'Astirh's circuits to overheat. As the final salvo, Storm unleashes a powerful torrent of lightning bolts that quickly overload N'Astirh's circuits causing him to explode. Unfortunately for the two groups of mutants, even though N'Astirh was seemingly destroyed, the Inferno spell still appears to be intact. Cyclops is appalled at Storm's willingness to slay their enemy, and this begins a debate between the two groups' different methods in striving for defending mutants. In the middle of the argument, Jean is suddenly caught in a mystical noose and pulled away, when the X-Men and X-Factor turn to see who has attacked Jean, they are shocked to see that the Goblin Queen is still alive and possessing all her magical might and demon hordes and that she now intends to destroy them all. Brodie's View:This is it, Folks. The meet up we've been building up to for the past three years, in more ways than one, and I will say that in the case of one of those meet ups (Wolverine and Jean Grey), it's THE moment of this issue, as we begin with Logan planting one on the woman he's loved and lusted over since the early issues we reviewed here, and needless to say, it sets off the hard feelings build up between the two groups. This starts to build into the demonic X-Men and X-Factor fighting until they are forced to realize that it is N'Astirh (and through him, Madelyne Pryor/The Goblin Queen, who has taken Havok as her "Goblin Prince") manipulating them into fighting each other, and like all good superheroes, they put their various animosities aside and team up against the Big Bad, using the perceived added strength of N'Astirh becoming a techno-organic being to defeat/destroy him. Ice-Man covers the tower the demon is standing on with Ice, which causes N'Astirh to operate better (as the cold helps machines) until they shatter the Ice, which causes N'Astirh to overheat, and then Storm overloads him with lightening until he explodes. However, N'Astirh was only the low level Boss, as we reveal that the two teams must go to that next level leading into the next issue of X-FACTOR (where the story continues), as they must fight/stop Madelyne Pryor before she can sacrifice hers and Cyclops' child, Nathan Christopher, in order to make the INFERNO spell a permanent one. However, while this is merely the main plot of the story, there are some great moments in this issue. From Wolverine making out with Jean, which ends up setting her teammates off on him, in particular, Archangel, who has a past of disliking Wolvie, and uses the chance to fire his new wings at Wolverine, showing he can be a viscous now as Logan was in the past. Then we have Dazzler and Longshot, who are acting like vain bullies, which is probably the most entertaining Longshot has been in his entire run with the team, even if is just being a dickish version of his normal behavior. In the middle of all of this, we have the big confrontation with Scott and Maddie, where she justifying-ly blasts him for abandoning her and their child, which before he can defend himself (although, could he really?), his brother (who has taken a shine to her, which she, being eaten up by revenge, has manipulated him into turning his back on his friends and family for her) Alex attack him, and then N'Astirh snatches Maddie and Nathan up and transport them (although, Alex clings on to the demonic vehicle taking them there) to the Empire State Building, which has been transformed into the sacrificial alter needed to kill her son. Of course, this brings us to the big showdown that takes place next issue, as the two mutant teams combine forces (well, other than Havok, who tries to defend the woman he's fallen "in love" with) against the woman that has been wife/lover to some, allies to others, and the carbon copy of one, Madelyne Pryor/The Goblin Queen, and I will say that someone doesn't survive this confrontation. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 20, 2017 20:23:15 GMT -5
X-Factor #38"Duet!" Cover Date: March, 1989 Writer: Louise Simonson Artist: Walt Simonson Team: Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Ice-Man, Beast, and "Dark" Angel/Archangel Villain/s: The Goblin Queen/Madelyne Pryor, Various demonic creatures Guest Stars: Nathan Summers, The X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue), The Phoenix Force Official Plot: Continued from Uncanny X-Men #242... With the demon N'Astirh seemingly destroyed, the combined forced of the X-Men and X-Factor are surprised to not only find that the Inferno spell is still in effect over Manhattan, but that the Goblin Queen still has all her powers and is holding Marvel Girl as her hostage. Before the two groups of mutants, Madelyne tells her estranged husband Cyclops that she is doing all this for revenge against all those who destroyed her life, which she maintains was nothing more than borrowed from others, alluding to the fact that she was not born by conventional means. When Colossus points out that the gate to Limbo has been closed and N'Astirh defeated he tells her to give up her mad quest. Madelyne refuses, having her own horde of demons to command and that she still intends to sacrifice her son Nathan. When the two teams attempt to attack, Longshot's tainted luck powers cause the group bad luck, causing them to bump into each other, while fighting the Goblin Queen's demons. This leads to the two groups getting into blows once more, as Cyclops and Storm battles Storm once more calls X-Factor mutant hunters saying that they had recorded media reports following their missions to allow them to keep tabs on X-Factor's operations. When Scott wonders why they didn't know that X-Factor revealed their true purposes recently, he asks her who was keeping the recordings for them. Storm realizes it was Madelyne who did, and sees how the woman had deceived the X-Men, and has likely been making sure that he two groups would not come into contact with each other for quite some time. When Cyclops attempts to attack the Goblin Queen, the evil sorceress uses her powers to move the demonically transformed father of Jean Grey to deflect the blast. Storm's similar attempt to try and strike Maddy down is blocked. The Goblin Queen then convinces Dazzler and Longshot (still tainted by the Inferno spell) to help her in exchange for being "stars" of the battle. With magically created spotlights following them wherever, the two agree to help, attacking Dark Angel, blasting him out of the sky and in Maddy's proximity. She uses her magical powers to break Warren's resolve and transform him into a demonic form before he passes out. She then unleashes her full magical fury and sends the demons after the X-Men and X-Factor. As the mutant groups fight through the demon hoards, the Goblin Queen orders Havok to slay his brother Cyclops. Alex, very much in love with Madelyne now and under her thrall willingly attacks his brother. When Longshot and Dazzler attempt to try and kill Cyclops at all they are swept away from Storm. Dark Angel meanwhile manages to shake off Madelyne's influence and uses his wings to cut the magical restraint that has been keeping Jean under Maddy's thrall, this also causes some sort of magical feedback that allows Wolverine to shake off Inferno's influence on him and regain his control. As the other members of the X-Men and X-Factor are busy keeping Dazzler and Longshot under wraps, Cyclops and Havok battle it out. While Havok does not listen to any of Scott's attempts to talk sense into him. When Alex puts himself at risk of being buried under rubble, his gambit works out when his brother saves his life allowing Alex to knock him out. Jean meanwhile has shaken free of the Goblin Queen's control and the two are locked in mental combat, and Maddy creates an impenetrable force-field around the two women and young Christopher Summers so that the others cannot interfere with their final battle together. As the two women battle it out, Madelyne once more begins to allude to the fact that she was artificially created. Jean wars on, furious that between the Phoenix Force and Madelyne portions of her natural course in life have been usurped by other people. While not far, Cyclops is about to be blasted by Havok when Dark Angel fires his razor sharp feathers at Alex, sending him over the edge of the Empire State Building. Despite this, Havok unleashes a powerful blast in the hopes of sending Cyclops over the edge of the cliff as well. Cyclops manages to grab onto a ledge and save himself, while Havok is rescued by the Dark Angel. Inside the force bubble, Madelyne attempts her final revenge: Psychically willing her brain to die while psi-linked to Jean -- taking a cue from Jean's experience with her school friend Annie Richardson -- this time however, Madelyne intends to keep Jean in her mind while she dies so that Jean will die as well. As Jean struggles to free herself suddenly a portion of the Phoenix Force appears. The portion of it's power explains that following it's death on the moon, it attempted to send a portion of itself (with it's memories and experiences) to Jean as she was healing below Jamaica Bay, however Jean who refused it when she learned the genocide it caused in her image and it instead found a host in Madelyne. Outside, the regrouped X-Men and X-Factor begin determining a means to find a weak spot in the telekinetic shield. They manage to convince Dazzler to help by pointing out to her that Madelyne has tricked her and that she is not the star of this battle. Havok is also convinced to help, however still angry at his brother for how Madelyne was abandoned, he only does so to help his brothers estranged wife over anything else. With a common cause the two groups begin attacking the field in an attempt to break through and rescue Jean. Inside, Jean learns the shocking truth about Madelyne Pryor: That she is in reality a clone of Jean herself created by the evil mutant known as Mr. Sinister. Sinister had intended for Madelyne to be the perfect mate for Cyclops in order to spawn a child for some unrevealed reasons. When she fulfilled her intended purpose and after Cyclops abandoned her to join X-Factor, Sinister sought to eliminate her and take the child. He would send the Marauders to assassinate her, however she would join up with the X-Men and seemingly sacrifice their lives to save the world, eventually her seething hatred would lead to a deal with N'Astirh. Outside, Psylocke manages to convince the depressed Longshot that he still has his good luck power and has him toss one of his daggers at the shield to find a weak point. Finding it, the teams manage to burst through just as Madelyne attempts to kill both herself and Jean. With this distraction, the Goblin Queen tosses young Christopher, sending him father diving for his boy. Attempting to kill them all in the chaos, Madelyne is over powered by Jean, who's love for the X-Men gives her the strength to fight back. She then decides the only solution is to accept the portion of the Phoenix Force that resides in Madelyne, and in the process also absorbs all of her clones memories and is restored. The power of the Phoenix Force manages to break the Inferno spell and make Jean a complete woman once more, however Madelyne dies in the process. With the battle over, Jean goes to Scott who is both in mourning for the death of his wife but also eternally happy to finally be reunited with his son. In the aftermath, everyone gathered notes that the X-Men haven't been restored to normal following their exposure to the Inferno spell and wonder if this will cause problems to them in the future. Beast commends Warren for his selfless acts that day and his ability to fight against his evil impulses and rechristens him Archangel. Cyclops tries to make amends with his brother, however Alex still resents Scott for what he did to Madelyne and tells him that if he could join her side again he wouldn't do things differently. In the end Jean looks at the lifeless body of the woman cloned from her DNA and realizes the pure evil that is Mr. Sinister and rallies both groups together to hunt Sinister down and put a stop to him before he cause this sort of travesty again. Brodie's View:This is kind of a strange, but in the end, fulfilling follow up to the events of last issue, as I'm not sure if Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson (the respective writers of the two books crossing over, Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor) were 100% agreed on how this story was supposed to play out, as both kind of ignore certain things that the other had just done in the previous book in order to tell the story how they saw fit. In this case, it's the X-Men and X-Factor, who had come together against the larger threat of N'Astirh and the INFERNO portal over New York, now start squabbling and fighting each other again, when confronted with Madelyne Pryor snatching up Jean Grey, and preparing to kill her and Maddie and Scott's child, Nathan Christopher, even though it would no longer serve its main purpose, making the INFERNO spell a permanent one. Meanwhile, Maddie tries to turn Dazzler and Longshot (who are still acting like vain douche bags, due to the INFERNO spell bringing out the worst in them, as even though the portal is gone, some of the effects of the spell remain, especially where it concerns the X-Men) and Archangel (by appealing to the darkness given to him by Apocalypse) against the others, in order to help her in her quest. She also has her "Goblin Prince," AKA Havok, attack his brother, who Alex already had quite a bit of built up resentment for. Meanwhile, Maddie surrounds herself, Jean, and Nathan with a force field that prevents the others from interfering, and when she can't kill Jean, tries to basically will herself into dying, and taking Jean with her, as they both are mentally connected. However, it's at this moment that the Phoenix Force shows up, and explains that Maddie's powers were basically part of itself that it tried to give Jean after its death in (UXM #137), but when Jean unconsciously refused it, it went to Maddie, who had recently been cloned by Sinister, and bonded itself to her, and with Maddie dying, it winds up basically bonding itself and Maddie's essence with Jean, making her fully whole again. Just then, the X-Men and X-Factor, who have come together again, after much talking down on both sides, break the force field, winning the day, but at the cost of Madelyne Pryor, who was so consumed with hatred and anger (much of it justified) that she sacrificed her life to kill those she felt had wronged her. Once again, a decent story, but it isn't really 100% in simpatico with the story Claremont was trying to tell here, and one can tell at times when certain things contradict, as far as how certain characters act in this issue compared with the last issue. That, and, of course, Walt Simonson's ugly art, which I mentioned when I first started reviewing the X-Factor part of this story, keep this side of things from being as good as Claremont/Silvestri's section of the story, which I guess is almost always the issue when doing multi-book crossovers like this. Not all writers/artists are created equal, and sometimes all it takes is putting inferior teams against superior ones to see which ones are which, which never bodes well for the inferior team. Ah well, it all ended well at least, or did it? Well, being that we still have one more issue from each book before this is done kind of answers that question, and I will say that the two mutant teams have one more Boss (and his minions) to fight before all of this is done, and it's the guy who started this whole deal, at least where it concerns the Maddie part of things, in the first place, and the last two issues of this Crossover will be quite.....Sinister (and will end with a BANG! ). GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 20, 2017 22:48:26 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #243"Inferno, Part the Fourth: Ashes!" Cover Date: April, 1989 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue Villain/s: Mr. Sinister, Marauders (Polaris/Malice, Sabretooth, and Blockbuster) Guest Stars: Nathan Summers, X-Factor (Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Ice-Man, Beast, Archangel Official Plot: This story is continued from X-Factor #38... On top of the Empire State Building the X-Men mourn for Madelyne Pryor and talk about everything that happened during Inferno. Suddenly Jean Grey cries out. She forms a telekinetic bubble around herself and lets nobody in. Psylocke uses her telepathy to bring herself, Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine inside Jean's mind. There they are at the Blue Area of the moon and witness the last instants before Phoenix sacrificed herself. She perishes shouting Scott's name. The X-Men see that her energy does not dissipate, but rises towards earth. Cyclops wonders how Jean knows of these events, since she is suspended animation at Jamaica Bay at the time. Suddenly a large fist appears and smashes the memory, it is Sinister. Psylocke tells the others that if he destroys all memories, Jean's soul and mind will be completely obliterated. The X-Men float through more shards of memories, which are clearly Madelyne's. In the center they find Jean's memories loosely assembled around an image of the mansion, which is guarded by a redheaded figure. As the X-Men approach she looks like the Goblin Queen and fires a blast, then she turns into Jean as Marvel Girl and asks for forgiveness. Betsy understands that Jean's condition is a result of trying to integrate two powerful individual psyches. Storm suggests to bring Rogue into the mind-scape too, since she faces a similar effect each time she uses her powers, but Psylocke discovers that an outside force blocks her from going outside of Jean's mind. A huge image of Sinister appears and he destroys another memory shard. The X-Men try to fight him, but physical powers are useless, only Betsy's telepathy stands a chance and she succeeds in building a barrier, keeping Sinister at bay. The others try to talk some sense into Madelyne's personality, who gained the upper hand again. Both Scott and Logan fail, she refuses to help and is glad that the X-Men might die along her. Storm realizes that this isn't Madelyne at all, it is Jean who is about to give up; she was terrified about the Phoenix force's offer and denied it with her every being. The results were Dark Phoenix and the Goblyn Queen, maybe it would be better if things ended right now. Psylocke's shield breaks and Sinister gets through again. He heard the last part of Jean's fears and offers her to break the terrible cycle by stripping her of memories and identity that have caused nothing but pain. Madelyne refuses, she changes into Dark Phoenix, then into Jean and tells him that this is her mind, her soul, her life and she means to keep them herself and she blocks Sinister out. In Xavier's mansion, which he uses as a hideout, Sinister tells Malice to alert the others, since the X-Men are on their way. Jean learned of his location during their final battle for her mind. The X-Men and X-Factor have split up into smaller teams, the first, consisting of Jean, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine and Archangel enter the mansion through Storm's former attic. Psylocke and Rogue use the hangar bay as their way in. Meanwhile Beast and Longshot brought Mr. And Mrs. Grey and baby Christopher to the X-Factor ship. They argue which one stays behind to guard the Greys and who may go to help fighting Sinister. The remaining mutants, Colossus, Iceman, Havok and Dazzler, approach the mansion through the Morlock tunnels beneath the Xavier estate. They cover forty miles without problem, but right before the mansion they run into a demon-transformed Blockbuster. He is faster and stronger than they remember and knocks Colossus and Iceman out before they can do anything. In the narrow tunnels Dazzler shoots a full force laser beam, but she has no effect. Blockbuster grabs her, but suddenly Havok unleashes a plasma beam and kills him. Alison wonders, because he was always afraid of that, Alex replies that Inferno changed him. In the hangar bay Sabretooth sneaks up on Betsy and slams her into the ground, he wants to rip her throat, but Psylocke reaches into his animalistic mind and stops him in mid-air and fries his mind. Upstairs in the mansion, the first group discovers that Sinister has searched through everything, personal and private rooms, even the Professor's office. While they are most distracted Malice strikes and hurls metallic debris around and Jean and Ororo quickly defeat her. The X-Men gather in the main room and start to interrogate Polaris/Malice, who is held in one of Jean's telekinetic fields. She refuses to reveal any information about Sinister. Storm orders Psylocke to mind-probe her and try to separate the two women, but Malice says that would surely kill her, because the bonding is permanent. She turns to Havok, claiming that she still loves him, and Alex asks her to prove it by giving them the needed information. The mansion explodes, all lie around unconscious. The only one who is unhurt is Malice. Ironically the field that held her shielded her from the impact. Sinister comes out of hiding and pulls Jean from the debris, now he has the original to tamper with and he orders Malice to kill the other members of the X-Men and X-Factor as Longshot arrives on the scene to stop them. Brodie's View:The main part of INFERNO is over with, but we still definitely have some loose ends to deal with, and one of them, who also happens to be the Final Boss of this whole story-line, is the person responsible for all of this to start with, well, at least where it concerns Madelyne Pryor, and that's (Mister) Sinister (and the few Marauders that stuck around after having their clocks cleaned by the X-Men a few issues back). The X-Men and X-Factor were planning to hunt down the evil mutant scientist anyways, but Sinister makes his presence felt first, trying to do what he was planning to do from the get go in this story, eliminate any evidence of his work with creating Madelyne Pryor, and since in the last issue of the story (X-Factor #38), she had bonded with Jean Grey upon her dying, Sinister goes into Jean's psyche and starts erasing memories. After convincing the Maddie part of her to reject Sinister, she finally kicks him out of his mind, while figuring out his current location, which is the X-Mansion ( !!!!), which has been abandoned by the X-Men since shortly after the MUTANT MASSACRE, and the New Mutants shortly after FALL OF THE MUTANTS. The two groups split up and try to invade through the front way and the Morlock Tunnels, but are met by some of the remaining Marauders (Polaris/Malice, Sabretooth, and the now demonic Blockbuster), who the X-Men are able to take out pretty easily (Heck, in the case of Blockbuster, Havok just out and out kills him), and they are about to force Malice to spill the beans on Sinister location when suddenly, the Mansion BLOWS UP (Double ), leaving the two teams at the mercy of Sinister and Malice/Polaris, with the exception of Longshot (lol, yeah, good luck there, buddy ), and we continue this story in the last chapter of INFERNO, in X-Factor #39. Once again, comparing this with the X-Factor issues this bleeds into are like night and day, as Claremont rocks this story like an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo, and I must say once again that Marc Silvestri does the best work on his run with these issues, as one can tell he's really getting off on drawing this surrealist stuff, whether it's a demonic New York or Sinister wrecking Jean Grey's memories. It's too bad this story wasn't just all self contained in the X-Men book, but I guess that's what the point of doing a multi-book crossover is for in the first place, making different writer/artist teams come together to tell a single story. Anyways, we get our grand conclusion in X-Factor #39, and then we'll return to the next issue of X-Men to see a couple of lighter issues (though there is some important things that happen behind the scenes that will impact the book's future) after the high drama of the last era of issues. One of which will feature an early work from an artist that will go on to be one of the "Rock Star" artists of the early 90's, but not on the main X-Men book. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 21, 2017 0:39:45 GMT -5
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 21, 2017 1:29:00 GMT -5
X-Factor #39"Ashes to Ashes" Cover Date: April, 1989 Writer: Louise Simonson Artist: Walt Simonson Team: Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Ice-Man, Beast, and Archangel Villain/s: Mr. Sinister, Malice/Polaris, Sabretooth Guest Stars: The X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue), The Phoenix Force Official Plot: Story continued from Uncanny X-Men #243... Mr. Sinister and the Malice controlled Polaris stand in the ruins of the X-Mansion, the members of the X-Men and X-Factor defeated and Jean Grey his captive. The only person standing in their way is Longshot, who despite his doubts is able to create a distraction with his luck powers long enough for the Beast to recover and try to fight back. This in turn allows Cyclops to revive. Scott easily defeats Polaris and tries to turn his powers against Sinister, however Sinister has some form of control over him. When Rogue and Psylock revive and attempt to fight Mr. Sinister, Besty's mental attack is fended off, and when Rogue attempts to absorb his mind and powers, Sinister actually takes full control of her body. During this brief possession, Cyclops sees Sinister standing over him and recalls a lost memory from his youth, where Mr. Sinister experimented on him as a young body. As Polaris tricks Havok into "helping" her only to bind him, Sinister explains that he had been manipulating Cyclops from the start, that he was in charge at the orphanage and stifled Scott's early powers and implanted false memories. As Havok is binded in metal by Polaris, he warns her that Inferno has changed him and he is no longer afraid of using his powers. Sinister explains that he also attempted to manipulate Jean Grey knowing that their combined DNA would create the ultimate mutant, however when Jean had seemingly died, he instead cloned Madelyne from Jean's DNA in order to fullfill this purpose. As Scott struggles to free himself, Colossus attempts to attack and is similarly held at bay by Polaris. As Mr. Sinister continues to explain how he manipulated Scott at a young age, Psylock establishes a psylink between the scattered members of the X-Men and X-Factor, and they begin to formulate a counter attack plan. They note that Sinister appears to be keeping Scott under his power, as though he is afraid of Scott's powers, and figure that might be the key to defeating Mr. Sinister. Havok tells the others to let him deal with Scott and they launch their attack. As the X-Men pile on Mr. Sinister, Havok goes to his brother and while taunting him for being weak begins to bombard Scott with his atomic energy powers, charging Scott up with a massive amount of energy. As the X-Men fight on, Sabretooth comes out of the rubble of the X-Mansion prompting Wolverine to break off from the attack to deal with him, impaling his rival with his claws before returning to the battle. Storm uses her wind powers to sweet up Jean and uses rain to revive her as the others continue to pound Mr. Sinister with their mutant abilities -- however none seem to have an effect. Sinister manages to collect Jean back and begins kissing her, the final thing to push Scott over the edge. When the Beast pulls Marvel Girl to safety, Scott breaks through the mental barriers and manages to blast Sinister with a full power optic blast, seemingly destroying his enemy. In the aftermath of the battle, Alex reports that Polaris escape and he and Scott make amends. With the battle over, the X-Men depart from X-Factors company, telling Scott that they will continue to fight Xavier's dreams in their own way and the two groups part as friends. Left in the rubble of Xavier's school Scott once more reflects on how he let his dead wife down so badly, however they all agree that they managed to save young Christopher and they will be committed to raising him together. Brodie's View:Well, here it is. The end of the storyline that I've been reviewing for the last few days (and really much longer, as it really stretches back, story-wise, to the Phoenix dying in #137, and most definitely from the introduction of Madelyne Pryor in #168), and it all really boils down to the X-Men/X-Factor Vs. Sinister, who is the main architect behind this whole deal to begin with. However, this is also basically the end for the Marauders storyline, at least where it relates to Claremont's run, as the last two remaining of the group, Polaris/Malice and Sabretooth, provide somewhat backup for Sinister, but get taken out pretty quickly, allowing the might of the two mutant teams to pile on Sinister, who plans to take Jean Grey and do all the experimenting he couldn't do on her due to her apparently dying. To make things worse, he goes into great detail on how he's manipulated Cyclops (Scott Summers) since shortly after being tossed from a crashing plane by his parents, allowing his brother, Havok (Alex Summers), to realize that Cyclops is the key to defeating Sinister. Havok starts to chide his brother into fighting back, blasting him with his power (which only makes Cyclops stronger), and continuing to work on him until Cyclops finally has enough, and blasts Sinister with his full optic blast, incinerating the villain (or appearing to, as Sinister showing back up again later kind of proves that Scott's blowing him up into bones was an illusion intended to make the two teams think Sinister had been disposed of). With all the baddies taken care of, the two teams part as allies again, and really won't come back together again until the period leaving up to the X-TINCTION AGENDA Crossover, which takes place 20 or so issues in the future, so, not for a while (though they do meet up in minor ways, but we'll get to those as they happen). So, yeah, that's it, folks. INFERNO. Thus ends a dark period for the team, stretching back to the MUTANT MASSACRE storyline. We get a bit lighter for the next two issues of the main X-Book, and then, we slowly start building towards the next ongoing storyline for the book, where the X-Men stop being a team....period. However, I will use the last bit of my review space here talking briefly about what happened in INFERNO in the other two major X-Books at the time: THE NEW MUTANTS and EXCALIBUR. For the second book, we get a bit of a fun spin (as EXCALIBUR was more of a lighter book), as the team comes to New York, only to quickly get separated and caught up in (As Rachel is turned into a mannequin, and is almost married to a demon, while Kitty is caught up in a slasher movie scenario, and is chased by a possessed Captain Britain (whose girlfriend, Meggan, is also possessed by the INFERNO spell, and Nightcrawler helps a friendly gargoyle (who has become animated by the INFERNO spell, fight off demons)) the INFERNO fun. However, things are not so fun in the NEW MUTANTS book, as Illyana winds up losing control over the Limbo she was put in charge of after defeating Belasco, and the New Mutants (with the help of Colossus and a group of random young mutants called the X-Terminators) do what they can to fight off S'ym and other demons. Finally, Illyana must give in to her Darkchilde persona to end her part of the INFERNO spell, and in the process, is regressed back into being the age she was when she was pulled into Limbo to begin with (back in UXM #160). The younger Illyana ends up dying shortly after the Claremont run from the AIDS like disease that mostly affects mutants known as The Legacy Virus, but in the last few years, she has somehow came back, and in her Magik persona. How that happened, I have no clue, as I had stopped reading around that time, but that's kind of par for the course for Marvel (and comics period) nowadays. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 21, 2017 21:38:02 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #244"Ladies' Night" Cover Date: May, 1989 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Marc Silvestri Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue Villain/s: M Squad Guest Stars: Jubilee (1st Appearance) Official Plot: In the Hollywood Mall in Los Angeles a young teenager calling herself Jubilee uses her mutant powers to generate light and small fireworks to entertain mall patrons for money. The mall security notices the young performer and attempts to apprehend her. After an unsuccessful attempt, they decide to call a group of mutant hunters called the "M-Squad" to solve the problem for them. In Australia, Rogue causes friction with her teammates because of her rage at sharing a mind with Carol Danvers. Carol is forced to resume control when the tension rises to a breaking point. Dazzler suggests that tensions could be eased with some fun and shopping. Gateway transports Storm, Rogue, Psylocke and Dazzler to the Hollywood Mall in LA where they are noticed by the young Jubilee. After a few hours of shopping the group notices the commotion of the arriving M-Squad. After dispatching the Squad, and their Inferno enhanced equipment, the four X-ladies return through Gateway's portal, unaware that the young Jubilee has followed them. Brodie's View:Unfortunately, from here on out, the person doing the issue plots decided to say "Screw It!," and so these paragraphs are about the best we get. However, in the case of this particular issue, a paragraph is really all that's needed, as there really isn't that much to this story. Of course, I think this was intentional, as this issue (and the next) are kind of fun bookends of a sort for the "Australian Era" of the team, as, after these issues, we start to see the dissolving of that team, and by the time we get to #252, there is no X-Men for a good twenty issues. Not to say that there aren't still stories that happen, but something happens that basically ends the team, and we get a 20 plus issue story of how a new team comes back together. However, that's all several issues away, for now, let's talk briefly about this story, where the female members of the X-Men, still bummed and pissed over the events of INFERNO, decide to travel to L.A for a good old fashioned mall visit/makeover. They end up attracting the attention of a group of wannabe mutant hunters (Who are very similar to the wannabe group of Ghostbusters from #240. I guess Claremont felt he didn't get enough out of that group, and decided to somewhat recreate them for this story) called the M Squad, who the ladies quickly dispose of, and then head back to the Outback, unaware that someone has secretly traveled back with them. And that would be Jubilee, who makes her first appearance here. One can always tell whether one first came to know the X-Men in the 80's or the 90's, depending on how they feel about characters like Jubliee. While the 90's reader know and love her due to the 90's FOX cartoon (which was a spin off of the highly popular Jim Lee era of the team, which we'll get to shortly), the 80's readers would say that she's basically a cocky, Asian rip off of Kitty Pryde, and I think they would be partially right. I think with Kitty being off in EXCALIBUR, and Claremont realizing that with the direction he was soon to go with on the book, that Wolverine would need a character to play off of during his (mostly) solo adventures, as he already had a solo book. I think Chris wanted to use Wolverine as a starting point to rebuild the team around (well, one of the characters), and Logan did so well as a mentor to Kitty, that it was decided to give him a new younger female character to mentor. Granted, Jubilee was quite a bit cockier than Kitty, and would end up taking a very different path than she would, the comparison is a valid one. However, like it or not, she's a part of the book now, and will basically remain a part of the team for the rest of this run. Speaking of that, we'll get another light issue in the next review (a better one than this one, as well, as, let's face it, the 1st appearance of Jubilee is really the only thing worth remembering about this one), and one of the first X-works of a name that will go on to join Jim Lee as one of the "Rock Star" artists of the 90's. Not sure who I'm referring to? Come back and see. GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 21, 2017 23:23:25 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men #245"Men!" Cover Date: June, 1989 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Rob Liefeld Team: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue Villain/s: The Conquest, Cosmic Cutie Commandos, Hades Horde, Tessa, Hellfire Club Soldiers Guest Stars: Gateway Official Plot: In deep space, a group of interstellar conquerors, comprised of myriad species and calling themselves 'The Conquest', make plans against their newest objective: Earth. Meanwhile in Australia, Wolverine notices the low morale among the men in camp. Taking a cue from Storm's all-ladies trip to LA, Wolverine suggests a trip with the guys to town. Shortly after arriving in Sydney, Wolverine's group, comprised of Colossus, Longshot, Havok and himself, witnesses the arrival of the invading Conquest. The reactions of the citizens of Sydney confuse the Conquest causing their leadership to decide to cut their loses and activate a bomb of unimaginable devastation. A half inebriated Havok destroys the command ship before the bomb is activated, saving the day and stranding the strike force members of Conquest. Meanwhile, in the highlands of Kentucky, Tessa of the Hellfire Club is shown a devastated installation that once imprisoned the now free Donald Pierce, the former White King. Brodie's View:And we come to Part 2 of our "silly story" double parter, with this one featuring the Male X-Men characters, and in a story far goofier than the previous issue's. Speaking of last issue, Wolverine takes the "Girl's Night Out" that the Female X-People had as an inspiration, and he ends up taking Colossus, Havok, and Longshot for a night on the town, to take their minds off of the events of INFERNO. They do, and wind up getting quite drunk in the process. Little do they know that an Invasion is being planned by an alien race known as "The Conquest" (who are based on, and are a spoof of, the alien race invading the DC universe in the INVASION mini series that had just happened, in addition to Darth Vader, Chewbacca, an Alien from the Alien movie series, Alf, and various others), who plan on taking over the Earth, starting with Sydney, Australia. However, the X-Males, drunk as skunks, pretty much treat the alien invasion like a big joke, forcing the aliens to use their secret weapon....The Jean Bomb, a bomb in the form of a hot redhead that will cause mass confusion and conflict in the male populace ( ), but Havok ends up drunkenly destroying the alien ship, stranding the invading aliens on Earth, and ending this whole deal in pretty hilarious fashion. We do, however, get a serious coda at the end of the issue, where we see that someone has broken into a Hellfire Club installation, and freed Donald Pierce. Of course, this doesn't mean much at the exact moment, but definitely will down the road, as we will see the Cyborg Pierce joining up with various characters we've seen before, and they will become a pretty large threat to the team for a good portion of the remains of Claremont's run. Speaking of Claremont's run, or rather, the cause of the end of it, we get the artistic introduction (at least to the X-Books) of the guy who will end up becoming one of the "Rock Star" artists of the early 90's, and will end up causing Claremont's friend, Louise Simonson, to be fired from the New Mutants book, which will foretell Claremont having the same thing happen to him shortly after (thanks to Jim Lee, another "Rock Star Artist" we will be seeing soon), Rob Liefeld. While people crack on Liefeld's art now, (and his lack of regard for any kind of human anatomy) at the time, his art was seen as a breath of fresh air, and an exciting new variation on the classic art style so many artists had used up to this point. It is interesting to see Liefeld's early work here, which would develop further by the time we see his work again during the X-TINCTION AGENDA storyline, as he would be the regular artist on NEW MUTANTS by then. In a few issues, we will see a similar experience, as it relates to Liefeld's fellow "Rock Star Artist" pal, the before mentioned Jim Lee, who makes his debut in #248. However, before that, we see the beginning of the end of the current X-Men team start to take place, and the return of the Sentinels, both current and future models.....but first, a kind of crappy Annual. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Mar 22, 2017 0:53:05 GMT -5
Uncanny X-Men Annual #13"Double Cross," "Jubilation Day,"and "Saga of the Serpent Crown: Serpent in the Garden" Cover Date: August, 1989 Writer/s: (1st Story) Terry Austin (2nd Story) Sally Pashkow (3rd Story) Peter Sanderson Artist: (1st Story) Mike Vosburg (2nd Story) Jim Fern (3rd Story) Mark Bagley Team: (1st and 2nd Stories) Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, & Rogue (3rd Story) None Villain/s: (1st Story) Llyra, Ghaur, Mr. Jip, Sidewinder, Diamondback, The Serpent Society (Cobra, Asp, Puff Adder, Boomslang, Anaconda, Black Mamba, Coachwhip, Rock Python, Cottonmouth, Black Racer, Bushmaster, Rattler) (2nd Story) None (3rd Story) Various via flashbacks Guest Stars: (1st Story) Gateway (2nd Story) Jubilee, Gateway (3rd Story) Various Official Plot: 1st story:The Serpent Society has taken on a job for Ghaur and Llyra to acquire some mystical items. Diamondback tries to steal something from the mysterious Mr. Jip. As punishment, he switches her and Dazzler’s consciousnesses. The X-Men try to set things right again but, instead of being transported to Mr. Jip’s place, they are sent to three different locales where the X-Men battle the members of the Serpent Society for the magical trinkets. In each case, the X-Men win but Longshot becomes lost in an avalanche. The X-Men are transported back to Mr. Jip, who returns Diamondback and Dazzler to their right bodies and returns Longshot to them in exchange for the trinkets. However, Diamandback and Sidewinder pull a fast one on him and steal the trinkets for Ghaur and Llyra, unaware what horrors the Lemurians plan to unleash with them… 2nd story:When the X-Ladies return from their trip to the mall, Jubilee stows away with them. With Gateway’s help, she makes herself a home in the Outback complex with none of the X-Men the wiser. One day, while bathing in the underground lake, Jubilee is attacked by a robot dog. Terrified, she unleashes her power at it and realizes that, far more than just sparkles, her power can actually destroy things. 3rd story:Some of the protohumans of prehistoric Earth return to their sacred garden to find strangers there who offer them gifts, provided they turn against their own people and help them with the space gods. The wanderers refuse, fighting the strangers, who turn out to be disguised Serpent Men, the servants of Set. Soon the Celestials come to alter and elevate humanity while leaving the servants of Set behind. Humanity fights the serpents until King Kull finally eradicates them. Brodie's View:Totally forgot about this Annual, as originally, I wasn't planning on covering it, as while it took place during the Claremont run, Chris, himself, had no hand in writing any of this. However, rather than just ignoring it, I figured I'd at least briefly mention it, as it really only warrants a brief mention. Like the last Annual and the rest of the Annuals we'll be discussing for the rest of this run, this is a collection of multiple stories; the first being part of an overarching story that runs through the various Marvel Annuals that year (as well as the 3rd story). It pits the X-Men against Captain America villains, The Serpent Society, as the two groups try to search for various mystical trinkets (The Serpent Society, of course, being in the service of the Big Bads of the overarching story). Probably the most interesting thing that happens in this story is that Dazzler and one of the SS (Diamondback) get body switched, and Diamondback, while in Dazzler's body, tries to seduce Wolverine. Needless to say, the real Dazzler isn't too happy about this. That...that's pretty much it. The second story concerns Jubilee, who is left on her own while the team go out on a mission, and explores the X-Men's Australian hideout while they're gone. It's a cute story, and gives a bit of character background for her before she becomes kind of a major part of the ongoing story, but like the other stories in this book, is pretty skippable if you're not a huge Jubilee fan. The third story is a feature that runs through all the Annuals, where a bit of background is given of the villains and threats in this "Atlantis Attacks" story. However, once again, it's only really necessary reading if one gives a crap about the storyline in the first place. I really didn't, so, we'll be moving on. GRADE(S): C/B/NR.....we'll say a B- Average overall
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