X-Men -1

X-Men –1
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Carlos Pacheco

What Went Down: We are greeted initially by the last page of the preceding issue, followed by some exposition from Stan Lee in an exaggerated fantasy Marvel office.  He discusses how the X-Men have continuously multiplied from the original five, and points out Xavier as the foundation to it all. 

We find Xavier, prior to starting his school, floating in his pool and contemplating his place in the world.  His reverie is interrupted by Amelia Voght: the nurse who helped him after he was paralyzed and became his girlfriend.  Amelia joins him in the pool and tries to get him to see how futile his goal is.  Charles cannot stand to live in his mansion comfortably while knowing there are threats to humanity, both human and mutant. 

Up in space, Magneto is busy constructing his space station Asteroid M.  Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, founding members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants before both turned hero, observe him from inside the base.  Wanda is amazed that Magneto can hold the base together with the strength of his will.  Quicksilver dismisses him as mad, but Scarlet Witch worries if he is reacting in a sane manner to an insane world.  Magneto tells the twins to prepare to travel to Earth.  Pietro does not appreciate being ordered around, and Magneto essentially tells him that under his house, it is his rules. 

Xavier and Amelia wait for Magneto in the ruins of a Nazi concentration camp.  Magneto and the twins show up.  He and Xavier debate over whether humanity can be trusted and over the necessity of subjugating them.  Both men agree they should kill the other to ensure their goals, but neither one can.  Magneto reveals that he knows Amelia’s name and that he and Charles have been watching potential mutants for a long time.  Amelia tries to make Magneto realize how similar the two men are and how they should be working together. 

Outside Asteroid M, Magneto struggles with the decisions he will have to make.  Stan Lee ends the issue, talking over a sleeping Carlos Pacheco on a drawing table.

How It Was:  Poor Scott Lobdell had to do a bunch of these flashback issues: this one, one for Uncanny, and I think one for Generation X.  Since most of the X-Men are just normal kids before the school is opened, Lobdell makes the wise choice to focus on Xavier and Magneto and the forming of their dreams.  This also gives Lobdell a chance to fill in some info on his retcon of creating the character of Amelia Voght and tying her to Xavier personally after the loss of his legs; previously we had only really seen it in the Uncanny #309 flashback.  Their dynamic works well; Lobdell makes the characters playful, but only as a means of diffusing the tensions looming over them, and all the while Xavier’s passion can’t help but surface.  Magneto and the Brotherhood’s scenes are okay; mostly they just “foreshadow” events that happen later in continuity.  While Quicksilver is, as usual, a one-dimensional hot-head, I like Wanda’s sympathy for Magneto as she successfully figures out what drives him.

Since this whole issue is devoid of any action, its success rests on the debate the two characters have.  Surprisingly, Lobdell manages to pull it off, even though it is a discussion we’ve seen these two characters have dozens and dozens of times.  Yes the setting of a concentration camp is a bit of an emotional grab, but it doesn’t come off as too indelicate because both characters are able to use it to support their sides; Magneto for the inevitability of man’s fall and Xavier for the need to proactively go after such ignorance before it breeds this type of hate.  Somehow Lobdell manages to make it feel like the first time these characters have had this talk, post-Israel anyways. 

Honestly, Pacheco’s art here looks like his art in a normal issue, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  The colorist’s use of brighter colors does sell the throwback illusion a little, but nobody would ever mistake this for coming from the sixties.  What really matters in an issue like this is the expressions of the characters and the way they conduct themselves, since there is absolutely no action; Pacheco succeeds on that front.  Overall, this is a great issue that doesn’t really do anything new, but works because the characters’ voices are so thoughtful and true to the characters.

A

X-Men #44

X-Men #44
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: A mysterious armored person is standing over the unconscious body of Colossus in Antarctica. Colossus mistakes the stranger for an attacker and wonders what has become of Magneto. The mystery person blasts Peter unconscious again and hints at a former romantic connection to him.

In space, we see Xavier’s astral form breaking apart as he strains to make contact with his X-Men; this is due to an “unknown force” which I think is supposed to be the emergence of Nate Grey. Amelia Voght questions why Charles is going to all this effort, and Xavier has to explain that he is committed to the safety of his students. In case you were wondering, Cerebro is still out of commission from when Banshee destroyed it during the Phalanx story.

Bishop calls in to let Xavier know that Jean Grey and Skids have survived their reentry into Earth, but Jean’s rapport with Scott is gone. Cyclops and the rest of the Acolytes have landed in the middle of the Australian outback. The Kleinstock Brothers keep finding things to complain about, while Unuscione and Cargil are actually grateful to Cyclops for saving them. Cyclops blasts a hole in the ground to get water for them to drink. Then they begin their trek.

Later the group comes across Scanner, who has exhausted herself trying to search for signs of life; Cyclops carries her until they break for camp. Scott reassures the Acolytes that they are going to make it through this.

In Antarctica, the mystery person is dragging Colossus to Magneto’s abandoned citadel. At Xavier’s, Jean has plugged herself into Cerebro, despite Charles having claimed it was broken earlier in this issue. Charles comes up with a plan where he can use Amelia to channel his powers somehow since his physical body is what is holding him back. He also mentions that Amelia’s mist state has become her natural form, and she has to concentrate to remain solid, creating fear that she might lose her humanity. Amelia reluctantly agrees to the plan.

Back in the Outback, Scanner returns from recon, claiming to have found civilization. Cyclops blasts a hole through the mountain in front of them, and the group finds the X-Men’s old home base from when they lived in Australia. Xavier and Amelia try their physical/psionic link, but it fails. Luckily, Scott contacts them from Australia, letting them know he is all right. Scott also mentions that someone else has recently used this base, but I don’t think that this is ever brought up again.

Amelia gets angry since they risked their lives for nothing, but Xavier explains how important it is to have a cause to believe in. Amelia realizes she isn’t strong enough to sacrifice for Xavier or Magnus, so she teleports away. In Magneto’s citadel, the mystery person has placed Colossus in a healing machine of some kind. Peter wakes up and demands to know who is under the mask, and it turns out to be Calisto—the former leader of the Morlocks, asking if Peter wants to save the world.

How It Was: Andy Kubert’s back after taking a couple months off to recuperate from all of the work he had to do to help create Age of Apocalypse. The art is fine, although it’s a sharp departure from Paul Smith. Plus, there are a lot of art errors that contradict the previous issues. Colossus and Amelia are both shown wearing the wrong costumes, and it looks as if Kubert has drawn Jean Grey in Cerebro, even though it’s supposed to be broken. On the plus side, look at the cover. It’s a fantastic depiction of the best, or at least my favorite X-Man, Cyclops.

And this issue really does justice to the first X-Man as Nicieza demonstrates exactly how to make Cyclops work. He’s the man with the plan and even though he’s stuck with a team that he neither likes nor trusts, he still knows exactly how to lead them. Nicieza understands that Scott doesn’t need to be cracking jokes or barking orders; he needs to be calm, stoic, and collected. And while the others argue about their petty complaints, Cyclops gets it done. Very awesome. The rest of the Acolytes aren’t as fleshed out; the Kleinstocks come off as particularly annoying, making me wish Holocaust had killed them too.

Speaking of annoying, Amelia sure is whiny this issue. She comes off as an apathetic teenager, complaining to Xavier every time he does something because apparently caring about people is stupid. I guess it does fit in with her character, but she could tone it down a little. Plus Colossus comes off as a little hostile and jumpy.

Well, Magneto’s body has disappeared, creating a bit of mystery for a couple months, and Calisto is back in town. Even though Lobdell wrote the Last Morlock Story years ago, they are coming back again. So the X-Staff destroyed one awful group of mutants only to resurrect another. However, I like that Xavier risks his life unnecessarily to try to save one of his students, even if Lobdell has already had him do this once in X-Men Unlimited #1. This issue features fantastic characterization for Xavier and Cyclops, and legitimately feels like the end of a significant story with the destruction of the Acolytes, even though they’ll be back much later.

B+

X-Men #43

X-Men #43
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Paul Smith

What Went Down: At the mansion, Bishop and Beast are observing Xavier straining to find Jean and Cyclops after they disappeared last issue. On Avalon, the Acolytes are attacking the two X-Men while Exodus and Holocaust continue to fight and tear apart the space station. Some of the Acolytes blame the X-Men for bringing Holocaust aboard, which makes absolutely no sense at all, but there you have it. Jean discovers that Skids is outside in space, protected only by her forcefield. Jean reads her mind to figure out what is going on, as well as fill in new readers on what the story is about. They also find out Rusty Collins is dead, which angers them because they used to take care of Rusty as members of X-Factor.

Jean tries to contact Exodus, and we learn that Exodus is a very powerful telepath as well. Holocaust kills another Acolyte, Javitz, and Exodus flips out on him. In another part of the station, Colossus gets the catatonic Magneto to an escape pod, but decides to go back to help Scott and Jean. Outside the X-Mansion, Amelia Voght is trying to get in, but Bishop won’t allow her to enter. Voght just teleports in instead, but the effort weakens her. She tells Xavier that he won’t find his X-Men anywhere on the planet because they’re on Avalon.

Cyclops convinces the Acolytes to stop fighting so they can all help each other escape. Jean leaves to go help Skids while Cyclops leads the other Acolytes to safety. Xavier contacts Jean, then Colossus, telling him to make his escape. The Acolytes find that all of the escape pods are gone, so Cyclops has the Acolyte Unuscione project her exoskeleton around the chunk of station they’re all in. Jean joins Skids on some space debris and helps boost Skids’ forcefield with her telekinesis.

How It Was: For an introduction to such a forgettable villain, this story really does stand on as feeling significant, even today. The stakes work because the Acolytes have been genuine presences in the X-Men books, yet it doesn’t feel like Nicieza is wasting perfectly good characters because the Acolytes have mostly been faceless dead weight in all of their appearances. The destruction of Avalon is an awesome sight, and the addition of Scott and Jean just adds to the chaos of the story. There’s plenty of action, but all of the action serves a greater purpose, and the reactions of the characters mostly seem natural for the given situation.

Xavier’s scenes searching for his students are a little slower; it feels like it takes Voght forever to cross the X-Men’s front yard from last issue. The art is once again really nice looking, and the only nitpick I have is that the artist depicts Scott’s blast going through his glasses instead of having him lift them up. It’s also nice to see Colossus still putting himself before others. Just a really exciting issue.

B+

X-Men #42

X-Men #42
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Paul Smith

What Went Down: The Acolytes have recovered the space debris from X-Men: Prime and brought it aboard their home base Avalon. Kooky old Exodus is convinced that this is some kind of fortuitous sign from God, and many of the other Acolytes start to catch on that Exodus might not be all together sane. Many, including Colossus, question the safety of bringing an unknown life form aboard. The Acolyte Milan is tasked with analyzing the mystery mutant; he is overwhelmed with images and memories of the Age of Apocalypse before being disintegrated and absorbed by the mutant, who turns out to be Holocaust.

In the mansion, Professor X is watching a news report about the battle with the Juggernaut in New Jersey. Storm comes in to announce the club murder plot points from Uncanny #322 for the Professor’s benefit, as well as voice her fears about Wolverine’s well being. Down in the basement, the Beast is analyzing Juggernaut after their fight; he is also taking care of Gambit and Sabretooth in the medical ward.

In Florida, a trenchcoated figure who looks a lot like Gambit charges a card to break into a house to steal a helmet. The figure is stopped by Iceman, and we learn that it’s Rogue, who is reliving memories from Gambit’s life.

Up on Avalon, Rusty and Skids are talking about possibly defecting with Colossus. Scanner calls and tells them that Exodus has ordered Rusty to check in on Milan. Skids worries that Exodus is aware that they were questioning his authority, but Rusty tells her not to worry. Rusty finds that Milan is missing and that the stranger looks stronger. Rusty is then killed, but not before Scanner calls and sees him die.

Holocaust emerges and is confronted by Exodus. Holocaust mistakes him for the Exodus in the Age of Apocalypse that was an X-Man; he also reveals Exodus’ real name, Paris. Exodus gets mad for being called an X-Man, and the two begin a fight that tears a hole in the space station.

Back on Earth, Scott and Jean are returning from Jean’s parents’ house after telling them that her sister Sara was dead in Uncanny #322. Coincidentally, Amelia Voght teleports directly in front of their car, which somehow causes them to go through the portal she opened. This results in Cyclops and Jean ending up on Avalon in the middle of all of the wackiness.

How It Was: The highlight of this issue is probably the characters on Avalon. While Exodus is still a one-dimensional loony toon, it’s nice to see that a lot of the Acolytes are starting to question the overt craziness of their leader, you know, like real people would. Even more surprising is that characters like Milan, Skids, and Rusty are shown with actual personalities, relationships, and flaws for the first time in a long time. Of course then two of them die, which is a shame for the Acolytes to be dissolved right as someone thought to characterize them a little. But I actually felt a little bad when Rusty died, and he hasn’t had any character development in ages.

I also really like Holocaust’s response to the whole situation as he mistakes Magneto and Exodus for X-Men trying to battle his father. And it’s nice to see Exodus get some comeuppance as the “sign” he foresaw turns out to be a character as crazy and powerful as he is.

It’s also nice to see the X-books making a bigger effort to connect with each other. This is done really well with the scenes of Beast analyzing the Juggernaut, and not so well when Storm shows up to info-dump a bunch of information from other X-Men books that the Professor should already be aware of. Even the fact that Cyclops and Jean get hijacked while returning from events in a different title is a neat detail for fans. The Rogue/Gambit stuff is a little bit of a misfire since Nicieza has her remember all this stuff about Gambit’s past only to forget about it in a couple of issues.

Paul Smith’s art is a little softer then Kubert’s. It’s really nice and the colorist does a great job with the issue, but there are a few details to pick at. Smith uses the Age of Apocalypse design of Iceman, which is never used again. Also, Holocaust outside of his suit turns out to equal Ghost Rider with beady eyes, which is a real disappointment. Plus Xavier’s mansion is drawn much smaller than it usually is.

This book is doing slightly better than Uncanny at this point in regards to quality. The story has bigger stakes, and it’s nice to see Nicieza take some blank slates and make them actually interesting, even if he does kill them off a couple of pages later. Once again, the narrow focus is working well for the book, and it’s great to see Colossus again.

B+

Uncanny X-Men #315

Uncanny X-Men #315
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Roger Cruz

What Went Down: We open up on an awesome, although incredibly different looking, splash of Avalon--the Acolytes’ space station base. Colossus is serving as the council for prisoner Neophyte, the Acolyte who turned on Fabian Cortez in Uncanny #300. The Acolytes want to sentence him to death for betraying them, but Colossus believes everyone should have the right to choose their destiny.

In another part of the base, Exodus is ranting to the comatose Magneto, showing that he is probably not all together there in the head. The Acolyte Scanner interrupts his rant, and Exodus threatens her for seeing the face of Magneto.

Amelia Voght is serving as the prosecutor for Neophyte’s trial. Even though she disagrees with the other Acolytes, she doesn’t trust that her decisions matter at all. Peter argues that Neophyte was really honoring Magneto in his own way, by stopping the torture of an innocent and exploring other ways of furthering mutantkind. Voght calls the boring Acolyte Milan to the stand. He uses his power to project thoughts visually (yawwnn) to show how the Acolytes first rescued Neophyte from an abandoned church before he joined the team. Some of the Acolytes start a fight when Xavier is mentioned, and Exodus uses his powers to separate them.

As the judge and jury of the trial, Exodus tells the Acolytes that he is going to discuss the evidence with Magneto. Once again, Magneto is sitting on a throne drooling, so Exodus is not exactly acting logical. Exodus returns and seems to be leaning towards executing Neophyte, but Colossus interrupts with a long diatribe. As Colossus’ words start to convince some of the Acolytes, including Voght, Exodus decides to just banish Neophyte as opposed to killing him. Exodus returns to Magneto’s room to rant some more to himself.

How It Was: This one comes straight out of left field, mostly because Lobdell doesn’t want to start a new story before two crossovers. It’s also an entire issue with no current X-Men members whatsoever. The narrow focus of just the Acolytes actually works in this issue’s favor. It is nice to see that Colossus is still the character we all know and love and joining the Acolytes hasn’t altered his personality greatly. This is a great issue for Peter; Voght and him really shine among a collection of one-dimensional Acolytes, including Neophyte. The idea that Colossus tries to incorporate Magneto’s philosophy into his own established worldview is a really interesting take on a hero turned villain. On the other hand, I feel like some of Peter’s observations about Magneto are somewhat skewed as he really gives the villain the benefit of the doubt in a lot of instances and exaggerates the villain’s tolerance for people and their intentions. There are also the beginnings of a political framework being introduced that unfortunately never really get expanded upon after this issue.

Exodus is just a really disappointing antagonist. The fact that his super villain team is just sitting around doing nothing in space shows how little there is to old crazy, powerful Exodus. He is even abusive to the other Acolytes, which creates an interesting tension where later the members feel trapped and want to rebel, but for now the Acolytes just look like morons for blindly following an even bigger moron.

In case you’re keeping track, Joe Mad is once again absent from his drawing duties, although to be fair, Kubert is also off this month to work on upcoming crossovers. Still, this is two months in a row, which isn’t a good sign.

This is actually a really interesting one-shot story that presents and analyzes the themes of the comic in an interesting way. Really it is an entire issue of characters just standing around and talking, but this issue has some great merits. This is the best-written Colossus that has appeared in a while; he’s not the broken and (rightfully) depressed sad sack. Here he is confident, righteous, and doing more than he has done in many, many issues. One to check out if you’re curious for something different than the usual.

B-

Uncanny X-Men #309

Uncanny X-Men #309
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: John Romita Jr.

What Went Down: We start out with Xavier flashing back to the blizzard back in X-Men Unlimited #1. It is finally revealed that Magneto was in fact the one who rescued him from dying in Antarctica. The majority of this issue takes the form of a dream where Xavier is having a conversation with Magneto; one could argue that this is simply an aftereffect of having destroyed Magneto’s mind, or even the beginnings of the formation of Onslaught.

Magneto and Xavier discuss the professor’s guilt. In a really great scene, Xavier chastises dream versions of Cyclops and Jean for abandoning the team and taking up the best of Xavier’s years. Xavier also remembers his mother, who was abused by Kurt Marko—his stepfather and the father of the Juggernaut. Magneto continues to probe the cause of Xavier’s resentment of Cyclops and Jean. He brings up Charles’ relationships with Gabrielle Haller, Lilandra, and Moira MacTaggert, but those don’t seem to be the source either.

We then get to learn about Xavier’s past relationship with current Acolyte Amelia Voght. Voght was a nurse assigned to take care of Xavier after he lost the use of his legs in battle with the alien Lucifer. During his recovery, the two fell in love. By coincidence, Amelia also turned out to be a mutant. Later, Voght became frustrated with Charles’ obsession with his dream and his school. As she was leaving, in a weak moment, Xavier reached out and used his powers to change her mind, just for an instant. He realizes that this is the true source of his guilt and regret.

Professor X wakes up to Jean putting a blanket over him. The two X-Men share a tender father/daughter moment where they say they love each other.

How It Was: One of my favorite single-issue stories, this one has such a wonderful surreal quality to it. It’s really just an excellent character study that offers an opportunity to show Professor X in a different light. While the revelation of Magneto saving Xavier from X-Men Unlimited #1 comes off as a forgotten detail, the internal conversation between Magneto and Xavier makes for a nice epilogue to the Fatal Attractions story. I like that this internal reflection is brought about by something as innocuous as Xavier’s reaction to Scott and Jean’s engagement, and the way this is explored through conversation, hallucination, and flashbacks is really engaging.

Once again Lodell demonstrates what he does best, humanizing the X-Men. Seeing Xavier give in to his own selfish desires, even for a brief moment, is just fascinating to read. His relationship with Amelia Voght, while not particularly deep, offers an interesting glimpse into the formative years of Professor X and paints him in a more tragic and human light. Romita’s art isn’t quite at its best here; some of the faces are a little flat and the bodies can be a little blocky. Still, this is a really great issue for the Professor; it does something new with his character, but still feels like it fits with everything that has come before.

A