X-Men - Page 5

The X-Men: Phoenix - Endgame
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X-Men: Phoenix Rising 1999 (SC TPB) 96 pages

Written by Bob Layton, John Byrne, Roger Stern. Pencils by Jackson Guice, John Byrne, John Buscema. Inks by Tom Palmer, Terry Austin, various.
Colours/letters: various.

Reprinting: The Avengers (1st series) #263, The Fantastic Four (1st series) #286, X-Factor (1st series) #1 (1986)

Rating: * * *  (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1 (and a bit)

This collects a cross title story that both returned Jean Grey to Marvel continuity (after having been killed off a few years before) as well as inaugurating an X-Men spin-off comic, X-Factor. Though X-Factor evolved into a significantly different title, the initial premise featured here was to reunite the original X-Men in their own title: Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Ice Man, and, of course, Jean Grey a.k.a. Marvel Girl.

The significance of the story has been dulled somewhat by time. With Jean Grey alive and well a decade and a half later (well, okay, I guess she died again after I first posted this review), her "death" and resurrection seems a minor footnote in her history, and with X-Factor no longer comprised of the original X-Men, this origin tale will have little resonance for later fans. For X-Men completists, though, the story bridges some of the gap between the classic Dark Phoenix Saga and modern stories. And for nostalgists, this provides a nice window on its time period, with a Stern/Buscema Avengers, and John Byrne's work on the Fantastic Four.

As a stand alone, read it for the story story, Phoenix Rising is O.K. Not bad, not a must read, either.

It begins with the Avengers investigating an underwater disturbance in New York's Jamaica Bay. As written by Stern, and nicely illustrated by John Buscema (with Palmer on inks) it's an enjoyable tale, with the character interplay (mainly Wasp, Black Knight, Sub-Mariner, Captain Marvel II, Hercules and Captain America) taking priority over action; but there's enough mood and suspense generated by the Avengers' investigation to make it a page turner. There's a sedate approach taken that is oddly appealing, which I also noticed in another run of Stern/Buscema stories in Avengers Under Siege.

The Fantastic Four story (at a time when She-Hulk had temporarily replaced the Thing) picks up where the Avengers leave off. Jean Grey is resurrected and we are given the obligatory re-imagining of key X-Men history, explaining how everything we knew about her transformation into Phoenix and eventual death wasn't what we believed. This is the most significant, mythos-wise, of these issues. But it's also, perhaps, the weakest. I wasn't as big a fan of John Byrne's tenure on The Fantastic Four as many others are, so that plays into my ambivalence. I didn't entirely warm to his take on the characters, or his plotting in general. Here, the story isn't an adventure, per se, yet neither does he fill up time with on going character stuff (as Stern did in his Avengers issue) -- in fact, She-Hulk and the Human Torch appear only briefly. That makes for a piece that, though O.K., is a bit...dry. Even the dramatically powerful emotional stuff Jean Grey must deal with is muted because this is, after all, and FF story, so it's told more from their perspective than from her's.

Surprisingly, the strongest tale is the double-length X-Factor issue. I say surprisingly because I had read it when it was first published years ago (unlike the other two issues which I got recently)...and I had never bothered re-reading it in the ensuing years. I really didn't like it. That was partly because I was incensed at the decision to bring back Jean Grey. After all, the Dark Phoenix saga was such a milestone in comics history, how could they so cavalierly cheapen and negate it by bringing back Jean Grey -- particularly in the manner they did? As time went by, and Jean's return was a fact, I mellowed somewhat, and realized the question could also be turned around and asked, what right did Chris Claremont (and artist Byrne) have to kill her off in the first place? If they had the right to kill off a character others had created, didn't someone else have a right to bring her back? As well, at the time I wasn't impressed with Guice's workmanlike art, or other things. And maybe the fact that I just wasn't that familiar with the original X-Men meant the comic's basic appeal -- a reuniting of the old team -- was lost on me.

Whatever the reasons, re-read now, a decade and some later, I enjoyed it. Of the three issues reprinted here, it's the one that most becomes a story, showing how the original X-Men decide to form a new group, and their first adventure, while Cyclops struggles with his mixed feeling over his one-time love Jean Grey's return -- now that he's married and with a son. Like the other issues, this isn't chock full of action (though there is action) but it works well as a story, with nicely realized personalities. I enjoyed Guice's art now, appreciating the unsplashy, just-tell-the-story style in contrast to the garish cartooniness that is common today. Maybe it helps that I'm more familiar with the original team, and have developed an affection for them in the years between readings (thanks to TPB reprints).

What writer Bob Layton captures is the essence of the old team, and what distinguished them from most super hero groups: a sense that they're a family. The characters aren't as colourful as some, they don't bicker or butt heads so much, but there's an easy, believeable comaraderie, here given extra depth by the fact that these are older, seasoned people. In fact, Layton maybe does a better job than John Byrne did when, years later, he tackled the original team in the X-Men: The Hidden Years series.

Of course, as noted, the X-Factor here bears little relationship to later incarnations. Most of the original X-Men drifted back to the parent comic over the years. And the ethically problematic concept -- the team exploiting mutant hating prejudice by pretending to be an anti-mutant organization -- was dropped early, apparently.>

There's nothing here that makes Phoenix Rising a must read (just as a story, that is), but it's enjoyable enough, particularly when it indulges in its soap opera-y/character stuff. Heck, the X-Factor issue kind of makes me wish that comic was cheaper in the back issues bins, because I wouldn't mind sampling a few more issues. And for X-fans assembling a TPB collection, this acts as a necessary bridge netween various creative eras of the merry mutants.

This is a review of the story as it was orignally published in various Marvel comics.

Cover price: $__ CDN./ $12.95 USA. 

X-Men & The New Teen Titans: Apokolips...Now! 1982, 64 pages.
(Technically, its official title is: Marvel and DC presents, featuring The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans...but that's pretty wordy)

Written by ChrisClaremont. Illustrated by Walt Simonson. Inks by Terry Austin.
Colours: Glynis Wein. Letters: Tom Orzechowski. Edited by Louise Jones (and Len Wein)

Rating: * * * (out of five)

Number of readings: 3

This probably doesn't count as a graphic novel. Graphic novels are supposed to have stiff spines (as opposed to the folded/stapled format of a periodical) and, like books, generally they aren't supposed to appreciate much -- that is, if you come across a graphic novel that was originally published ten years ago, it still probably won't cost you any more than the cover price.

However, this was published on expensive paper, and I have come across it in the graphic novel section of comic stores, and it's been re-issued at least once. And at this point, I'm looking to include things, just to create the sense of a big, comprehensive site. And, last but not least, it's my site, and I can review what I want!

This company crossover is an entertaining, fast paced little romp, as the different teams -- Marvel's X-Men and DC's New Teen Titans -- find their separate investigations dove tail, taking them from New York to New Mexico to the end of the Universe and back again, to battle the evil cosmic baddie, Darkseid, lord of the planet Apokolips. Darkseid has nasty plans for earth, and with the help of Titans' foe, the Terminator, has conjured up a kind of doppleganger of the then-still-deceased Dark Phoenix to help him put them into effect.

The characters are reasonably in character (Chris Claremont was the regular writer on the X-Men, but had never written the New Teen Titans before) and the action and adventure clips along breathlessly. I suppose the main weakness is that, despite the resurrection of Phoenix, and the potential emotional repercussions for the X-Men, this is basically a breezy, superficial read. More pulp than profound; fairly fun while you read, but not much lingers afterward.

Interestingly, I enjoyed the Titans part of the story more than the X-Men, even though I was more of a fan of the merry mutants than the "New" Titans. Perhaps that's because company crossovers tend to be, in a way, ads for the various characters. You know, a Teen Titans fan buys it, and maybe gets turned on to the X-Men, or vice versa, resulting in a certain generic familiarity to some of the scenes and lines. The very fact that I was less into the Teen Titans meant their scenes seemed a little fresher.

This isn't the best company crossover I've ever read (that distinction belongs to 1981's treasury-sized Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk by Len Wein and J.L. Garcia Lopez -- not that I've read that many), and it's not necessarily a must-have, but it's certainly a good read. There was talk of a second X-Titans project, but I don't think it ever materialized.

X-Men: Vignettes (vol. 1) 2001 (SC TPB) 176 pages

Written by Chris Claremont. Illustrated by John Bolton.
Colours: Glynis Oliver. Letters: Tom Orzechowski. Editor: Ann Nocenti.

Reprinting: the back up stories from Classic X-Men #1-13 (1986-1987)

Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

Additional notes: intro by Claremont.

In the mid-1980s, Marvel published Classic X-Men (later X-Men Classics) -- a reprint comic representing the early issues of the "new" Uncanny X-Men. Marvel had done this before with other titles, but by this point the X-Men had long become one of the companies biggest titles. So they decided to do something a little more "special" -- particularly as this was before TPBs were so ubiquitous. Most of those issues hadn't been seen since they were originally published, a decade before.

So along with reprinting the issues, original writer Chris Claremont inserted "lost" scenes, supposedly making the issues like "director's cuts" of movies. Even at the time I had some qualms about this, feeling it was more an alteration than a restoration (like the debate that has raged around George Lucas' tinkering with the Star Wars movies). Even though Claremont (like Lucas) claimed these were scenes he had intended, but had to be cut for space -- I'm not sure I fully believe it. Some came across as scenes Claremont looked back and wished he had thought of, rather than scenes he originally had. Of course, now that the unadulterated issues are so readily available in the Essential collections, maybe the "director's cut" isn't so problematic.

All of which, to be honest, is irrelevant to this review -- except to set up the context. Because in addition to the reprinted old issues (with added scenes), Claremont also provided brand new back up stories -- usually 12 pages -- that were set in the same era, some directly supplementing or tying into the main reprinted issue, others more isolated. And though there was occasional action and super-heroing, they were more meant to be character pieces, human dramas -- vignettes.

The first thirteen have been collected here (a second TPB collected the next dozen stories).

Paired with Claremont was British artist John Bolton marking possibly his first (and maybe only) monthly American comics gig. Earlier I had seen Bolton's breathtaking art on a King Kull story in Marvel's black & white magazine, Bizarre Adventures. The art in these X-Men stories wasn't on the same level -- less detailed and meticulous. Whether an artistic choice, or simply so he could meet the deadlines, I dunno. It's still attractive, but a little stiff, a little less than that Kull story had promised.

And the resulting stories are a little hit and miss -- sometimes in the same story. Obviously, the de-emphasis on action might be problematic, particularly collected here without benefit of the more action-oriented Uncanny X-Men reprints as a lead in. At the same time, the thinking was that the X-Men -- as much as any comics characters -- had built up a following as interested in the personalities as the pyrotechnics. And on that level many of the stories do work, in little tales such as Wolverine daring Nightcrawler to walk around Salem Centre without benefit of a human guise and others. The characters focused on can be curious -- Cyclops, for instance, is never more than a peripheral character in any of the tales, while Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler and Wolverine all are prominent in at least two each. Colossus gets one solo tale. Branching out from the to-be-expected, the tales also include unlikely focuses. Sebastian Shaw and the sinister Hellfire Club get a look-in in a tale set long before they were officially introduced into the comic. Another story focuses on arch foe Magneto. While another focuses on Jean and her housemate, Misty Knight -- despite the fact that Misty (a Power Man & Iron Fist supporting character) never really became part of the X-family.

Stories like that reflect Claremont's desire to rectify missed opportunities. After all, in those long ago Uncanny X-Men issues, he did make Jean and Misty housemates -- but never really did anything with it (I'd have to flip through my Essential volumes, but I doubt Misty ended up appearing in more than a handful of panels).

Some stories are both surprising in their focus -- and their effectiveness. A tale focusing on the aftermath of the death of Thunderbird is astonishingly good, giving dimension and background to a character who never seemed like more than a cliche (the ethnic with a chip on his shoulder) and was killed off a couple of issues after being introduced (in part, probably, because he wasn't more than a Wolverine echo).

The low-key, character-oriented tone of the stories gives them a gentle, atmospheric flavour. A flavour that even serves well in one of the more "super hero" stories, where Wolverine is hunted by a mysterious nemesis, the story playing up suspense and building tension rather than action.

Where the stories falter a bit is with Claremont's writing. A verbose writer who tends to hammer away at points with the subtlety of a sledge hammer, even when writing action stories, here, allowing his pretensions free rein, the stories can be a bit pompous and obvious. Characters launch into stiffly phrased self-knowing monologues, pondering their doubts and fears, Claremont sometimes losing the individual "voice" of the character in favour of the "meaning" he wants to impart. As well, the stories can tend to be a bit simple, and obvious, "twists" not as unexpected as he might have intended.

There's also the "continuity" question, which is: some of these stories were meant to sit next to specific issues of the Uncanny X-Men, or derive meaning from retroactively foreshadowing much later stories. As such, despite the attempts at sophistication, at character over mindless action that might make it seem like the ideal collection to impress non-comics snobs, some of the tales will have little meaning if you don't know your X-Men lore. At the same time, though I have read the issues these stories were paired with, I haven't read them too recently -- yet I still recognized most of the necessary references and allusions.

So for X-Men fans, it's a nice little collection of atypical and introspective tales, but even at 12 pages some seem a bit stretched, and they can run to pretentious more than profound. But a decent enough book to keep with your collection.

Cover price: $__ CDN./$17.95 USA

X-Men Visionaries 2: The Neal Adams Collection 1996 (SC TPB) 190 pgs.

Written by Roy Thomas (and Denny O'Neil, with a one-issue co-story credit for Chris Claremont). Pencils by Neal Adams. Inks by Tom Palmer.
Colours/Letters: Various. Editor: Stan Lee.

Reprinting: X-Men (1st series) #56-63, 65 (1969-1970) (with covers) minus the back-up stories that appeared in #56 and 57.

Rating: * * * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 2

Additional notes: intro by Tom Palmer

Collecting the complete run comic art legend Neal Adams had on the original X- Men (the team comprised of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and hangers on Havok and Lorna Dane) where his organic style, kinetic figures, and experimental panel composition helped shake-up the industry, X-Men Visionaries: The Neal Adams Collection turns out also to be a surprisingly nice encapsulation of X-mythos, as well.

Over these nine issues our merry mutants have an epic battle with the robotic Sentinels (highlighting the whole mutants-as-persecuted-minority thing), tussle with arch-villain Magneto, team-up (sort of) with jungle hero Ka-Zar (who was re-introduced into Marvel continuity a few years previous in the X- Men) and do the whole globe-hopping thing I associate with the team...among other, less archetypal tales. If Roy Thomas had set out to concoct a run of stories epitomizing the X-Men, I'm not sure what he would've done different. Heck, the Sentinels story even involves a zillion cameos of X-friends and foes.

This collection is even disillusioning for later-day fans, demonstrating just how little the series has evolved over the years. Many of the elements that I assumed came much later are present here. There are scenes and images that anticipate later X-stories (and non-X-Men tales like Justice League of America: The Nail). In fact, there's actual dialogue that, whether conscious or not, Chris Claremont "borrowed" for his X-Men scripts years later.

One of the most memorable pieces in the collection is an atypical two-part Jekyll and Hyde-type tale. Perhaps it's memorable precisely because, by using a foe not seen before or necessarily intended to recur (though recur he did), it has some freshness, some -- gasp! -- originality. It also plays around with pathos. Likewise, the Sentinels story is as much memorable for some twists and turns revolving around the characters created solely for this story, as for the presence of the big tin guys themselves.

In a way, that's what makes some of the stories different from later X-Men comics I've read (and a lot of superhero comics in general): the creation of characters, and the exploration of same, who are not on the regular roster of X-Men or their recurring foes. In other words, there's a refreshing element of human drama squeezed into the action-adventure shenanigans. There's also a lack of the brutality and nihilism that came to mar some later X-Men stories.

Compared to later scribes (most notably, Claremont) Thomas isn't as character- heavy, or sub-plot oriented. But that's not always a bad thing. Sure, these stories are mainly fast-paced adventures, but instead of bombarding the reader with reams of self-analytical monologues as the characters analyse every little nuance of their psyche (as Claremont was wont to do), Thomas is content to let the characterization play itself out naturally as the moments arise. There are memorable character bits -- Thomas' stuff is just subtler. His poortrayal of the camaraderie among the group is appealing, as well.

The final story, written by Denny O'Neil, is the weakest. His ear for dialogue is more naturalistic than Thomas was using at the time, and the story has a potentially interesting way the heroes beat the bad guys...but his portrayal of the characters is grating, going for the pointless-bickering-as-a-substitute-for-characterization route. Thomas' X-Men were family, not so O'Neil's. As well, the plot, an alien invasion story, is just kind of lame. It also ends awkwardly. The X-Men beat the bad guys, but Prof. X faints, leading into the next issue -- which wasn't included since it wasn't drawn by Adams. Sure, it's not a big cliff-hanger, but still...

Another weakness is that Adams began drawing the X-Men at the end of a storyline, meaning the first issue in this collection plops us down in the middle of a story. At the very least, a little recap "for those who came in late" would've been nice. Likewise, like a lot of TPBs, the original footnotes have been removed. There's nothing more aggravating than having a character refer to previous events...but having no idea when or where they took place.

The greatest source of ambivalence, though, stems from the decision to re-colour the stories using modern, multi-tone colouring -- in fact, more elaborate colouring thaan the average comic on the stands uses. On one hand, the colours can be pretty breathtaking...on the other hand, surely the reader wants to get a sense of what the stories were really like 30 years ago? The book is hyped as a chance to see how revolutionary Adams' work was, but then the editors seem to have no faith in the material themselves by trying to update the process. In addition to new colour, and the use of coloured ink on the Iceman and energy beams, they've added a kind of "focus" effect in spots, blurring backgrounds to give a 3-D effect. Again, something Adams hadn't done. The new colours are also a bit dark in spots, actually obscuring Adams and Palmer's work.

Since the X-Men went into reprinting older stories just one issue later, the question arises, if these are such classic stories, how come they didn't sell better at the time? Like a lot of trade paperbacks, X-Men Visionaries: The Neal Adams Collection allows the work to be seen in a different environment. Maybe on a monthly schedule, Thomas and Adams just weren't delivering enough meat-per-issue to bring the readers back, who knows? But read together, when the next issue is just a page turn away, this run of stories is thoroughly enjoyable. Adams' art, is, of course, stunning (well served by Tom Palmer's inks -- better than I thought it would be) and Thomas' scripts are well-paced and interesting. The way some of the stories overlap, though probably annoying when originally serialized (the reader thinking the story's coming to an end...only to have a new plot rise up and continue into the next comic) is actually kind of fun here, since the whole saga is at your finger tips.

Unfortunately, the price tag is a bit...outrageous (assuming you can't find it marked down, as I did). I don't know if that's because Marvel didn't think it would sell, so they needed to milk as much money as they could from a limited readership, or whether they thought the audience would be willing to pay any price for a chance to see these stories, or whether it was needed to off-set the cost of the new colouring. Either way, it's a bit daunting. Still, back in 1983, Marvel published a three issue mini-series reprinting at least some of these issues called X-Men Classics (not to be confused with the later on-going series reprinting the New X-Men stories) which might be worth trying to track down -- though good luck on that, brother.

Original cover price: $34.95 CDN./$24.95 USA

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