Uncanny X-Men, New Comics

New comics!

Swing vol 3

Swinging lifestyle aside, this is a surprisingly predictable look into a marriage between two people who clearly love each other but have some communication issues.  Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s still a nice relationship comic with a not-so-predictable twist in the formula.  Sexy and well drawn, but not salacious for fan service’s sake.  Still enjoying the heck out of this.

Die 15

Things finally come to a head in this issue, and makes the slow build up of the arc totally worth it.  The shit really hits the fan, and it’s super fun to read.  Removes any doubts I had about waiting for the trade when the next arc starts up in a few months.

Rorschach 2

A well done murder mystery, solved by fine detective work by the protagonist.  No idea how it ties in to the big picture, but that’s Tom King for you.  (In a good way.)

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity 6

Nothing new to say; this is still creepy and well done.  Continuing to hope that it doesn’t fall into the stereotypical Joker/Harley dynamic.

Uncanny X-Men 239-243

X-Factor 37-39

Inferno.  Madelyne Pryor’s swan song.  (Though I’m pretty sure she comes back at some point.)  The X-Men have always been a metaphor for how minorities have been discriminated against in society.  Madelyne’s arc for the last seventy issues or so takes it a step further, and I can’t help but see a parallel to class stratification - Here’s someone born (created by Mr Sinister) into circumstances beyond her control.  No matter how much she tries, she can’t break free of the downward spiral she’s caught in.  There’s a longer essay in there somewhere, I wish I had the time to delve into this.

Anyway, this arc is pretty good on the X-Men side, way less good on the X-Factor side.  I never warmed up to the run by Mr. and Mrs. Simonson.  In issue 37, for example, Madelyne literally rants for an entire issue, it’s zero fun.  Her death is also completely anti-climactic.  She just...fizzles out.

That's it?  A tiny panel in the middle of a page?

Classic image.

Regular check in on Tom Orzechowski's brilliance

A sweet reunion that will be mirrored next post.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good (Fine for X-Factor)

Uncanny X-Men 246-247

The fight scene between the X-Men and Master Mold stands out as a really well done sequence.

She doesn't look unconscious, she looks like she's posing for SI.

It's hard to take Nimrod seriously when he has mittens for hands.

Early Jubilee speak is like totally painful.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 248-255, 259

The Australia roster of X-Men never really clicked for me.  Claremont never developed them the way he did for the Giant-Size X-Men team.  Dazzler, Longshot, and Forge never gained that third dimension.  Rogue and Psylocke didn’t blossom until Jim Lee started drawing them.  Havok and Polaris needed Peter David to work his magic in X-Factor.  These issues aren’t bad, but they don’t sing, either.  

First Jim Lee X-Men!

Great, great color.  The purple and green is unorthodox, but effective.

A tiny panel, but super creepy.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice to Fine.

Uncanny X-Men 256-258

Jim Lee and the introduction of Asian Psylocke!  Another instance where Claremont makes an insane change to a character and it doesn’t get reversed.  (Ignoring all the Kwannon nonsense.)  A major improvement over Psylocke 1.0 in every way.  And the art!

(I didn't do it for Rogue, but I'm totally keeping track of the focused totality of Psylocke's mental powers.)

1.  (LOVE this costume!!)

2.  (Jim Lee fight scenes are so kinetic.)

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Uncanny X-Men 265, 267

Gambit!  Now we’re really getting into my favorite era of X-Men.  It unsurprisingly comes with the installment of Jim Lee as regular penciller.  (Though he doesn’t draw either of these.)  I like Storm-as-child, it made for some interesting storylines.  I’m also glad it didn’t last for long.  Gambit!  (So sad I don’t have 266, his first appearance.)

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 268-269

Jim Lee joins full time.  It’s so glorious.  

This original art recently sold for $300,000

Like I said earlier, Rogue didn't come into her own until Lee.

Heh.  Reminded me of...

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Really good

End of X-Men Box 3!

Box summary

Time spent reading: 21 hours 7 minutes

Issues read: 164

Issues cut: 0

Highlights (Good or better): Uncanny X-Men 131-137 (Dark Phoenix Saga), New Mutants Special Edition 1, Uncanny X-Men Annual 9 (Asgardian Wars), Uncanny X-Men 205, Uncanny X-Men 256-258, 268-269

Project Summary:

Time spent reading: 31 days, 5 hours, 25 minutes

Issues read: 6405

Issues cut: 815

Things I've been watching

Some shows of note that I’ve been watching:

Queen’s Gambit

As good as all of the hype surrounding it.  Anya Taylor-Joy is marvelous in this, it wouldn’t be nearly as good without her.  I want to see her Emma now, something I had zero interest in before.  (Gwyneth Paltrow’s version is perfection in my book.)

That said, I don’t need to watch the whole thing over again.  Her personal story is absolutely necessary for the whole thing to work, but there are only a few scenes that I have been revisiting over and over:

The speed chess scene is transcendent in its joy, and that song has been stuck in my head forever:

The match with the unbeatably elegant and gracious Levertov:

Advice from her friends:  (This is so like Dragonball; Everyone Beth Harmon defeats ends up becoming her training colleague.)

Day 2 of the final Borgov match:

The final scene in the park.  The smile she gives as she takes off her gloves is perfection.

Midnight Diner

I’m utterly enchanted three episodes into this series.  The owner of a tiny hole-in-the-wall diner in Japan stoically gives wise advice to his motley crew of regulars while cooking up delicious food on request.  It’s charming, sentimental, hilarious, and whimsical all at the same time.  Can’t wait to watch it all.

Mindhunter

The first season was okay.  I love how the production team, led by David Fincher, executes all of the serial killer interviews.  Those are breathtakingly spellbinding.  The rest is so-so, which means I won’t be watching season 2.  (Cameron Britton was nominated for an Emmy for his performance as Ed Kemper.  I don’t see how he could have lost.)

Food Wars

Food as sex in this hilarious, over the top anime.  The first two seasons are wonderful, the third and fourth less good (I hate Control and their bullying ways). The fifth goes completely off the rails in a bad way.  Still, I have no regrets about watching all of it.

Love is War

I don’t know where this anime has been all my life.  (Kudos to my wife for finding it.)  Two high schoolers can’t admit that they love each other, and scheme to get the other to reveal their feelings first.  It’s got a sense of humor that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and I can’t get enough of it.  Can’t wait for the second season to come to our shores.  

Jupiter Ascending

I just rewatched the criminally underrated Speed Racer, and wanted to see more Wachowski action.  Sadly, this completely bored me and I quit midway through the first interminable chase scene.  

Terminator: Dark Fate

I’ll keep watching these because there’s always at least a kernel of something enjoyable in them, whether it’s a well executed chase scene, an exciting hand-to-hand fight, or Arnold doing something amusing tongue-in-cheek.  But overall, meh. 

Uncanny X-Men, New Comics

New Comics!

Seven Secrets 4

Not much to say; Tom Taylor’s tale continues with beautiful art from Daniele Di Nicuolo.  Will continue reading.

Marvel Action: Chillers 1

I bought this all-ages comic solely for Jeremy Whitley’s writing credit; I’m still following him around after Wasp, even though his follow up Future Force (? or something.  I can’t remember, it was so boring).  This is a pretty by-the-numbers issue, but I’ll keep it up since...I might as well, I guess.  Not the most ringing of endorsements.  

I didn’t buy it, but the cover for Hawkman 29 is gorgeous.  Why Mikel Janin is drawing covers instead of drawing Wonder Woman is beyond me.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 10, 11, 12

Man, it must be nice to have Art Adams and Alan Davis to draw your annuals…

Those tiny claws are so cute.

Giant doggie!

Storm always looks awesome, regardless of the era.

Issue 11 is a surprising standout, showcasing Wolverine’s heroism along with an unexpected kiss:

Completely out of nowhere.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes (No for 10)

Rating:  Nice  (Fine for 10)

Uncanny X-Men 214-219

A bulk of the issues I’m reviewing today are from an Essential X-Men trade.  On the one hand, it’s amazing value; twenty issues of classic X-Men for sixteen bucks. On the other, it’s in black in white.  This is the fourth Essential trade I’ve read for this project, and thank God it’s the last.  These really prove just how important colors are to comic art that’s meant to be colored.  Without them, backgrounds and foregrounds get jumbled up into a mess of lines.  It takes just a touch more mental strain to decipher what to focus on, like playing a VR game where everything is in focus.  No fun at all.  It may be the reason why the issues that I don’t have the individual color comics for are generally rated Fine, while the others are Nice.  Color matters just that much.

It’s the first sighting I can remember of Chris Claremont’s “greater than the sum of the parts” old chestnut.  (I kind of wish now that I kept track of the number of times Rogue describes her powers with the exact same phrasing.  It might very well be every issue in which she appears.)

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Fantastic Four vs X-Men 1-4

Better than I expected it to be.  I’m mostly affected by the genuine anguish from Franklin Richards and the rare moment of true fatherhood from Reed Richards.  Claremont nails them in a way that touched this new parent.  I was surprised to see Jon Bogdanove on the pencilling credits, this is before he developed his distinctive style on Superman.

I really felt his pain and fear here.

This would crush me too.

Bogdanove's unmistakable Superman.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Uncanny X-Men 220-227, 232-234

My admiration for Chris Claremont’s character development increases with every issue that I read.  Every one of his X-Men grow with each passing month, such that each one of them is clearly different now from when they first appeared - Wolverine has gained significant depth with his samurai spirit, Storm has gone through significant from her initial goddess mentality to her punk phase to her powerless stage.  Nowadays, a loss of powers would be seen as a clear stunt to be reversed in a couple of months.  But with Claremont, it felt like a legitimate, permanent change.  And while Ororo does get her powers back, it would have been just fine if she didn’t.  The character would have remained viable under Claremont’s direction.  

The same can be said for any other number of X-Men - Rogue, Havok, Cyclops, etc.  There’s so much actual character growth that isn’t seen in most other mainstream superhero comics - the very nature of their existence prohibits it.  John Byrne’s Fantastic Four, Simonson’s Thor, Stern’s Avengers - All of these characters end up the way they started.  (WIth the exception of Wasp, who grows into an amazing leader, but I digress.)  Here, though, there’s true evolution.  (Let’s not forget what happens to Psylocke, too!) 

It’s all most impressive.

Having said that, I really wish he had done more with Dazzler and Forge - Two characters with awesome power sets who have loads of potential that were never truly tapped.  Sound-fueled light powers?  The ability to invent anything?  Come on!  (Also, why is Forge never mentioned along with Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and all the rest when it comes to the most brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe?  If I had any kind of writing ability, Forge is the C-list character that I’d pitch to my editor.)

Her powers always felt so different from everyone else's. 

Kerry Gammill has to be an influence on Tom Grummett, right?

Gammill.

Grummett.  Such similar faces and bodies.

Love the Fall of the Mutants house ad.  I remember seeing this in my Transformers comics as a kid and being haunted by the image, not knowing anything about the X-Men.

The Fall of the Mutants arc itself is one of the classics, though there really isn’t much of a fall.  No X-Men actually die, only Cypher over in New Mutants.  It does have one of the most memorable fight moments ever, between Blob and Wolverine:

Love the THOOM.

Always makes me laugh.

Some other odds and ends:

I like how Silvestri draws Storm here, with the longer mohawk.

No sympathy for Sally.  Idiot.

Creepy creepy dream sequence.

More on Madelyne next post.

Something about this layout really works for me.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Uncanny X-Men 230

There’s a random issue where the X-Men play Santa.  It’s as improbable as Santa himself covering the entire world in a night, but it’s still sweet.

Betsy gets the quote wrong.  The first "oft" shouldn't be there.  (Thanks to Mrs. Cole, my 8th grade English teacher.)

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 228, 231

These fill-in issues with fill-in artists are absolutely dreadful.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Stupid