Read All the Comics!: Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wild Storm

Wild Storm 4-12

I liked the first three issues well enough on the re-read to pick up the first two trades used. The first two trades are good enough that I’ve purchased the next (and last) two. This is basically the Ultimate version of the original Wildstorm universe; Everyone is just far enough from their original incarnations to be uncanny and fun to figure out. Pretty art by Jon Davis-Hunt:

Nice body language here.

Sublime colors by Steve Buccalleto

Stunning.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 308-311

The last John Romita Jr issues on Uncanny. These are flat out good, mostly eschewing action to focus on the interpersonal relationships within the team. Scott Lobdell does a wonderful job of making the characters feel like family with a long, storied history. (And he throws in a great fight between Bishop and Sabretooth in 311.) Lobdell is underrated at writing humor, by the way. Tons of moments in these issues made me smile:

Bishop's brand of fish out of water works for me.

He's right about the football...

I've added "It's the same answer" to my own lexicon.

Heh, Jubilee.

This feels real.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

X-Men 30

Scott and Jean get married. For some reasons, this issue plus Uncanny 308 and 310 were missing from my collection, and I’m positive I owned them at some point. I tracked down the back issues last week because I remembered them as good enough to merit rebuying. I wasn’t wrong. This isn’t as good as the Uncanny issues, but it’s still a milestone that I enjoy reading.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

X-Men 31-35

On re-read, this is where I’m starting to realize that writer Fabian Nicieza isn’t that good. X-Men just isn’t as fun to read as Uncanny, and it’s not close. Nicieza tries to imitate Claremont with his catchphrases and florid prose, but his stories fail to stand out in any way. (The Psylocke/Revanche disaster continues to bore and confuse. At least he cleans it up.)

Psychic knife 11

Early Andy Kubert art doesn’t help - it looks muddy and messy, and that feeling doesn’t help Nicieza’s scripts.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Doesn’t suck

Uncanny X-Men 312-314

Woots, Joe Madureira shows up to start his epic run (with a ton of fill-in help; this guy was never the fastest of pencillers…). Plus, Emma Frost possesses Iceman’s body for an issue, starting the process of a major level up for his powers. Pretty cool.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 315

Horrible fill in issue that tries to justify Colossus ditching the X-Men for Magneto. A trainwreck with depressing Jim Lee-clone art by Roger Cruz. Only keeping to maintain the run.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Boring

Uncanny X-Men 316-317

X-Men 36-37

The Phalanx Covenant crossover, setting up the launch of Generation X. The Phalanx are a blatantly obvious rip off of the Borg from Star Trek, and completely uninteresting as villains. This arc is notable for the introductions of Skin, Monet, Synch, and best of all, Blink. She dies in this story, but will come back better than ever (this version was a sad sack anyway) when Age of Apocalypse comes around in a few issues.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good. (Fine for X-Men, the difference between Joe Mad and Kubert’s art is that stark.)

Wolverine 85

Cable 16

The Phalanx Covenant issues that actually detail their defeat. While the bad guys are fairly generic, Larry Hama writes a great adventure for Wolverine, Cable, Cyclops, and Jean Grey. Their teamwork, interpersonal conflicts, and methods of overcoming obstacles is really fun to read. The art by Adam Kubert and Steve Skroce is great as well. Super fun.

Yes, that's really a shoulder mounted gun.

That swivels up when not in use.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 318-321

X-Men 38-41

Cable 20

Legion Quest and the issues leading up to it. Adam X shows up again, and I still wish the original plans to make him the third Summers brother came through. Something about his 90’s-ness reminds me of Gambit; I just think he’s really cool. I may have to get his original appearance in X-Force Annual 2, I no longer have it in my collection.

Legion Quest is a fine setup to Age of Apocalypse. Surprisingly, it’s Cable that does the best job of selling the finality of it all, that the universe for these X-Men is really ending. I don’t think, even as a high schooler, that I ever thought this was a permanent thing, but the writers did a good job of making me second guess myself.