I'd like to read the issue this cover should've been on, not enough to read more of these, but still.

Some of this maybe aged better than I would've guessed, but again, not enough to make me want to keep reading. From 2015, Uncanny X-Men #29, written by Brian Bendis, pencils by Chris Bachalo, inks by Tim Townsend, Mark Irwin, Jaime Mendoza, Victor Olazaba, and Al Vey.

The cover appears to be a bunch of characters trying to read Charles Xavier's will over She-Hulk's shoulders; including some of Xavier's closest compatriots, Howard the Duck, the Man-Thing, Doctor Doom, and Forbush Man. I--just--anyway, that's not in this particular comic; instead, we've got Cyclops in his red-X mutant liberator/terrorist mode, trying to win over an insanely powerful new mutant, Matthew. Magneto confronts them, but while he cautions Cyke not to "poison him against me," Matthew still teleports him away, since nothing Cyke says about him was false, really.

Magik goes back in time for help with this, from Doctor Strange; who isn't thrilled about time-travel, but trains her in the use of the Eye of Agamotto, so she can see for sure if Matthew is going to be good or bad. Before they can do that, Magik, Cyclops, and Matthew are all blown to bits by what appears to be a helicarrier. But, another mutant, Eva--who looks way too much like Rogue, I assumed it was her, but it's Tempus--opts to also go back in time, to tell Professor Xavier that his plan for Matthew maybe hadn't worked out, hopefully without telling him um, his best student would kill him? This seems fairly typical for the X-books: somebody brings up, should we do this thing? Thirty seconds of debate over the morality of said thing, before somebody unilaterally decides to just do it.

Nightcrawler did not appear often in this series, but I know he's there at the reading of Xavier's will, because I've seen the scene where he flirts a bit with She-Hulk. What issue is that? Before or after this one? Read more!

"Troubling."

All the kids sat well except for Jubilee, with her coat. The recent Age of X-Man crossover went with Nate as a creepy, sexless, false messiah: it's not necessarily the direction I would've gone with him, but it's a direction. I know Cable is much younger than usual now for some reason, which makes poor X-Man redundant--more redundant, then. (EDIT: If I had any sort of opportunity, I would absolutely do something I don't always like when other writers do it, and roll X-Man back to the 'recognizable' version: younger, jacket, weird relationship with Maddie Pryor, nosebleeds. The hook would be, first he thought this world was a million times better than the Age of Apocalypse, but was now starting to notice everything awful here--not necessarily related to mutants, either.)

I don't know if the X-kids are supposed to stay on Krakoa: that seemed like a rule Professor X would make, and some of the X-Men would completely ignore. Unrelated, but "X-rated-X!" is from a dubbed version of Hard Boiled, one of my favorite movies. The subtitles/dubbing has been updated from the old VHS versions though; I miss them a little.

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90% sure this was my first issue of this book...

I don't think I had the gold-covered reprint of the first four issues at that point, since I think I bought this new. I couldn't be positive, but I'm almost sure I had seen The Man Who Fell to Earth before reading this issue; I wonder if it occurred to me what kind of balls it would take to use that title? From 1995, X-Man #5, "The Man Who Fell to Earth" Written by Jeph Loeb, pencils by Steve Skroce, inks by Bud LaRosa.

X-Man had been the alternate version of Cable for the Age of Apocalypse crossover, in which all of the X-titles had been replaced with darker versions like Gambit and the X-Ternals or Generation Next, but it would be the only one to continue afterwards. The titular X-Man, Nate Grey, was created by Mr. Sinister from genetic material from Cyclops and Jean Grey, I believe in the hopes of creating a weapon to destroy his master Apocalypse. With the help of that universe's Forge, Nate rebelled, and during the final battle (that may or may not have destroyed the AoA earth, depending on when you ask...) he was caught in an explosion that launched him into the mainstream Marvel universe. (He was fighting Holocaust at the time, but that villain wouldn't turn up for a while.) Finding himself in the Swiss Alps, Nate has no idea where he is or what happened, but his telekinetic/telepathic powers still make him incredibly dangerous.

A local helps him, after perhaps a slight telepathic nudge, which also gives Nate the ability to speak the local language. But when he wakes up, he's greeted by...Madelyne Pryor! This would've been Maddy's first appearance in...a good six years, since dying during Inferno in X-Factor #38. Thematically her appearance makes sense; she was created by (this universe's) Mr. Sinister, and was a clone of Nate's "mom," but I don't know how exactly she would've found him. Also, that very much sets the title up as "for" hardcore X-Men fans: if you hadn't been reading the X-books for years, this reveal would mean little. Still, I had been, so I know I stuck with the book for a couple years. (It helps that comics were cheaper then, right?) I know I left eventually since it was taking Nate forever to accept the nicer Marvel U, but looking at it now, he was from a crapsack universe with very little kindness or compassion; so it probably would take him a long time to adjust.
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His big purple mug was on the back cover, it's not a surprise reveal.

We've checked out a couple of these before: in 1998, Marvel did a batch of team-up annuals, often with odd pairings. Deadpool/Death. Machine Man/Bastion. Alpha Flight/Inhumans. Generation X/Dracula. We looked at X-Men/Doctor Doom and Hulk/Sub-Mariner, and today we've got X-Man/Hulk '98, "Call of the Wild" Written by Terry Kavanagh, pencils by Chriscross, inks by Caesar Antomattei, Keith Williams, and Hector Collazo.

I don't think I had this issue back in 1998, and looking back I don't think I was reading X-Man or Hulk at the time. Maybe on Hulk: this might've been right around Peter David's last issue but before Joe Casey's last issue of the series. Bruce Banner was on the run from the military for the millionth time, while carrying the guilt of his wife's death and the recent spinal injury of Rick Jones. Meanwhile, Nate Grey was struggling to make a living deforesting the woods in France. Something had happened, in some other X-book, that affected Nate's telepathy, so he couldn't understand the language now, which is mostly played for laughs; except now he couldn't Jedi-mind-trick his way across borders...

A mysterious voice reaches out to the Hulk from the "dark dimension," enraging him to smash up a chunk of the Grand Canyon (Hey, it only makes it Grander.) and reveal a Stonehenge-like circle. Meanwhile, Nate checks out something weird happening at the real Stonehenge; both events are Thanos! The Mad Titan is trying to get an anchor in the real world to pull him out of wherever he's stuck, and Nate is afraid the Hulk may be tempted by "that demon," but the Hulk is nowhere near that dumb. Nate does appear to get a telepathic glimpse of Thanos's consciousness, and is terrified of him.

When Thanos turns on the Hulk and tries to squeeze Nate out of his "psi-armor," the Hulk inadvertently destroys the stone ring, freeing Thanos. Nate then armors up the Hulk, to keep Thanos in the ring while he rebuilds it, and Thanos is sucked back into whatever. Not his best showing, here. While the Hulk is not greatly affected by the experience, Nate begins to realize the earth may need him, as much as he needs it.
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As usual, casual Friday goes too far...

Longtime readers may know that I go to work at the crack of early every morning, and I assure you: the motivation to dress like a respectable human being, fades awfully quickly at four in the morning in the dead of winter. I don't know if I'm a slob, but I admit I probably usually look like I just rolled out of bed, slapped something on, and stumbled out of the house. Doubtless because I did!

And that's probably just as well, since I remember actually caring what I wore in the 90's, and still wearing some dumbass outfits. For example, I distinctly remember having an orange, heat-sensitive long sleeve shirt. I looked like goddamn Aquaman, if Aquaman had been a skinny drunk kid with purple hair. Jesus, how I managed to have children, I have no goddamn idea sometimes...Which brings us to today's post, from 1997's X-Man #26!

First up: Nate Grey, rockin' a mesh t-shirt, leather jacket, and some kind of entirely too-tight pants; as he pays a visit to Peter Parker at the Daily Bugle. You don't see Pete with the five o'clock shadow, or the vest, very often:
Then, there's Moira MacTaggert, with her lab-ready scrubs...and Borg eyepiece. That just does not look comfortable, and I have no idea how that stays on her head. Hopefully, not attached to her hairband...

Pete Wisdom usually wore a black suit and tie: that's cool. And he usually wore it for days, smoking, drinking, smoking, eating crappy British food, smoking, and setting things on fire with his powers. Like smokes.

Mind you, I'm not complaining about Kitty's outfit.

Then, we've got Nightcrawler's on-and-off girlfriend Amanda Sefton, who appears to have zip-a-toned her legs; and Kurt in a kilt. Yeah, I have no idea why either; unless he thought maybe he could bring it back or something.
Admittedly, I wish I was brave enough to wear a kilt in everyday situations: I have the legs for it.

From X-Man #26, "Down to Earth" Written by Terry Kavanagh, pencils by Pascual Ferry, inks by Jaime Mendoza and Hack Shack. I remember X-Man as being an enjoyable read back in the day, but after a while, Nate's distrust of everyone he should trust got old. Yes, you lived in the Age of Apocalypse and everything's topsy-turvy here; but after a couple years worth of issues you should start to put it together. Granted, I seemed to recall the X-Men being surprisingly intolerant of Nate: he's not a mutant, he's a dirty mutant from an alternate reality!


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