"The End" Week: X-Men Gold #36!

I'm almost positive there's at least one of these last issues this year where the heroes win in dramatic fashion, then go on to bigger and better adventures. It's not this one, but maybe it's around somewhere. From 2018, X-Men Gold #36, "Feared and Hated" Written by Marc Guggenheim, art by Pere Pérez.

This was from late 2018, but still feels like a million years ago from the current X-books. Part of that was by design: on the closing letters page, Guggenheim mentions the book "was conceived as a love letter to that era. Sometimes at the expense of some originality, I admit..." It may have been a bit more retro, but I did like this series more than the previous Extraordinary X-Men. On the other hand, I'm hard pressed to tell you what stuck from this run: Storm had a magic hammer, oops, lost it. Rachel Grey had a new codename--Prestige--and costume; I don't think they stuck. Nightcrawler was unkillable for a bit, that plot was just dropped. There was a replacement Pyro, but don't we have the old one back? Kitty and Colossus were about to get married, didn't; but Rogue and Gambit did, and that may be what stuck?

Kitty, Storm, Kurt, and Rachel get called on a mission, the manifestation of a new Omega-level mutant. There's a bit of the usual soap opera first: Kurt still sad Rachel declined his proposal, Storm missing the extra oomph of her lost hammer, Kitty wondering if being an X-Man is mostly just loss. The Omega kid, scared and throwing random energy blasts all over, is panicked; but Kitty talks him down to a powered-off state. He is then promptly shot by a bystander. Kurt ports them to the nearest hospital, where in the same vein, the doctor refuses to treat him: if the kid's powers went off during surgery, he could destroy the entire hospital.

Furious, Kitty runs down her options: have Kurt get Cecilia Reyes, too far. Have Rachel psychically make the doctor do it; Rachel points out that's a bit too far. Kitty's still willing, but another doctor steps up: she had met Kitty back in the first issue, when Kitty said they were going to earn back people's trust. Surprisingly, here at least, they did. The X-Men wait, into the night...and since I don't think we've seen this kid again, he maybe didn't make it. I haven't been paying enough attention, I don't know if the Krakoa mutants have brought back the forty or so Omega mutants that went out like that.

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"Keep Hope Alive."

Of course, the first thing I think of when I think "Keep Hope Alive" is the classic from the Crystal Method. I was just thinking I hadn't listened to that album in forever, but most of the hook of that one is lodged in the old PS2 game Motor Mayhem, a surprisingly fun little vehicle based shooter.

Still don't like Hope Summers, of course; but doing this one I realized I still like Rachel Grey--formerly Summers. When she returned to the X-Men for Claremont's last stretch on the book, seeing her 'dad' Cyclops with the White Queen prompted Rachel to take the Marvel Girl codename and change her last name to her mom's. To the best of my recollection, she didn't seem hurt, just disappointed in Scott; but hated Emma. It was pretty endearing, really. (To be fair to Scott, for a change, he probably shouldn't have to give too much thought to what his daughter from another timeline thinks of him.)

To emulate Nightcrawler's death in Second Coming, we used the killing glove from the DCUC Darkseid. Since I have that piece, not the whole Collect-and-Connect...the "Cable small arms" piece we've used before: from the pre-ML Toy Biz Spider-Man 2099 figure. I really like it, even if I still don't know why they included it with him.

More later today!
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Two new figures...or one, an axe, and a head...

I hit Target again for another pair of new Marvel Legends, Hope Summers and the Constrictor! One I was quite looking forward to; the other character was mostly purchased for the Build-a-Figure parts for Terrax, and to make fun of a bit. Can you guess which is which?


The Constrictor is a welcome addition, of course: he was the bad guy in one of the first issues of Captain America I ever read (#228) and spent a brief stint as Deadpool's roommate. (That was first series, #39.) Frank Payne looks a little manic today, but maybe he's just excited to finally have a figure. I hadn't realized he used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, either; my main memory of the character was him telling the Serpent Society to get bent when they asked him to join, then being one of the few villains to survive a run-in with the vigilante Scourge.

He does have an unnecessary vestigal belt, though; leftover from the Bullseye body he uses. I hesitate to point it out, since once you see it you can't unsee it--I forget what site pointed it out to me, but thanks heaps. It's not a dealbreaker or anything, just a mild flaw.


Hope Summers...arrrgh. I've read maybe one comic with her, part of Second Coming, and you might recall I wasn't overly fond of that one. Even though she's had her own book (that I think is getting cancelled soon) I only see her as a plot point, a MacGuffin. She's less a character than something to chase after or fight over, and she was in Cable, in Second Coming, and probably in the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men.

That said, she's not a terrible figure; although I really haven't given her a lot of time yet, either. Her silly tattered cape is removable, as is her head, hands, and arm guards. (She doesn't have alternate hands or head, they just pop on and off.) Hope comes with a somewhat over-large for her rifle (that came with Forge some time ago) and Terrax's head and axe. I won't put him together until I get Klaw and Iron Man, though--this particular Target store had two of the stealth IM's left and a Klaw, so hopefully I'll finish him up soon. (I probably should get a stealth one, since I don't think I have a single stealth Iron Man; but I have a joke in mind for the plain one...we'll see.)

Terrax's axe is a good sized thing, though. Can't wait to see him all together...
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As usual, Alan Davis carries it...

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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Timing, part three.

Back in Claremont's last run on Uncanny X-Men, there's a moment where Rachel and Kurt kiss, then have no idea if that's something they should pursue or not. Apparently, not. There was also a lot of weird tension between Storm and Kurt, and that carried over into the Nightcrawler solo book; but also didn't really go anywhere. On the other hand, either false start is still more entertaining than another installment of "Kurt builds a chapel," in the most current issue (#505?) so now I feel bad for bashing Claremont. Sigh.

Ah, Cable. While Deadpool was the draw for me on their team-up series, Fabian Nicieza did a good job of selling him as the straight man to Pool's comedy. I also see Nate as an insane planner, who probably has little hidden bases, gun drops, and hideouts all over the world; because things tend to go south around him. Of course, he's not gonna tell that blabbermouth Pool where they are: Pool's not a snitch, but I'm betting he can't keep a secret; and he'd be far too likely to loot Cable's guns anyway.

In case I haven't mentioned it by now, the most recent issue of Deadpool(#4, and counting his two limited series, I think this is his fourth solo #4) is great. I'm not sure about the multiple voices in Pool's head, but it's a good narrative device for using a solo Deadpool: no Cable, Blind Al, Weasel, Bob, etc. The hallucinations don't quite work for me yet, though.

Strangely, we've got another post scheduled for later today. Weird. "Timing" continues next week!

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Timing, part two.

Giant Final Fantasy-style sword or no, Korvus really does suck; but his suckiness is undermined by the fact that he's so totally doomed. He's got tragic death that's forgotten twenty minutes later written all over him.

I like Rachel a lot, since she was on the team way back in John Romita Jr.'s first run on Uncanny X-Men, back when I first started really reading it; then her stint on Excalibur. She always seemed to have a pretty cheery attitude considering she's likewise utterly doomed on so many levels; and her origin needs a flowchart to make any sense.

The last I saw, she and Korvus were the only Starjammers or X-Men or whatever still on the loose, since third Summers brother/tool Vulcan had taken over the Shi'ar Empire and captured Havok, Polaris, and the rest. I know it's leading up to the next crossover thing, "War of Kings," but it seems like they've been out of play for a while. Also, can anyone explain to me why Gladiator (the big mohawked Superman type) and the Imperial Guard (the thinly, thinly veiled Legion of Super-Heroes analog) always, always, always, end up on the bad guy's side? Worse still, they know it! Some jerk takes over, but because he's on the throne, the Guard obeys, even when said jerk declares war on the universe. Every time...

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