Thursday, July 28, 2011

As usual, Alan Davis carries it...

Two-page shot, all that would fit in my scanner!
From Uncanny X-Men #450, "The Cruelest Cut, part 1" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer.

After the dark times of Chuck Austen, Chris Claremont came back to Uncanny X-Men in issue #444, and stayed until #473. Of course, this run wasn't anywhere near as good as his glory days on the book, but it beat the hell out of his first return, with the Neo and the Shockwave Riders and crap like that.

And Claremont got a lot of support from Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. For me, it was usually worth the price of admission to see them draw Nightcrawler and Phoenix/Rachel Summers Grey again. Rachel at the time was using the Marvel Girl codename as well as her mom's last name, since she was pissed at her dad, Cyclops...and you know I love that. This month, as Kurt and Rachel play pirates in the Danger Room, and they kiss once before being interrupted by Wolverine and Storm.

Storm hadn't gotten together with the Black Panther yet, and Claremont seemed to be teasing a possible relationship with her and Kurt, or her and Logan. Nothing would come of that, or of Kurt/Rachel. And the rest of this issue is pretty terrible, with murders in District X, Tessa wondering if she will leave the X-Men, an armored girl gang called the Bacchae, and Logan's first meeting with X-23. Look, the Danger Room sequence is nice, at least.
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1 comment:

  1. CalvinPitt4:41 PM

    I started buying Uncanny monthly when Joe Casey came on the book, and this was the last issue. Which means I went through the whole Chuck Austen running (always thinking it would get better), and bailed right as when got a less morose Nightcrawler back. I was an idiot. I think it was X-23, who I'd never heard of - so I'm thinking "Girl Wolverine? Oh, what the heck?" - that did it, though.

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