"The End" Week: X-Men #41!

This issue had two covers, one of which is a nice Adam Kubert number with a ton of X-Men. The actual comic, well...from 2013, X-Men #41, "Tin Man, part 2" Written by Seth Peck, pencils by Jefte Palo and Guillermo Mogorron, inks by Palo, Mogorron, and Lorenzo Ruggiero.

I think this series started in 2010, with the Dracula storyline "Curse of the Mutants," but this was post-San Francisco, and I'm thinking Nightcrawler was dead for this stretch, so I didn't read any of it? Judging by this issue, I wasn't missing much: today, it's the X-Men versus a new Freedom Force, over a new mutant with power over machinery, Owen. This Freedom Force appeared to be soldiers given implants, and it takes the X-Men a minute to switch partners and fight them to a stalemate, which makes it seem like Storm and Iceman didn't have their heads in the game today. In the end, Storm says they can't make Owen's choice for him, and he decides to become a government stooge. I don't know if he or this Freedom Force appeared again, but there's no personality in any of them, so no great loss.

This title was being phased out, since Brian Wood and Oliver Coipel would get a new X-Men #1 that year, leaning more on the X-Women. If it wasn't for the cover, I wouldn't have even picked this one up, and it's very obviously limping over the finish line. Read more!

So the story goes, when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were working on Amazing Spider-Man, when it came time to unmask the Green Goblin, that Ditko didn't think it should be someone they had seen before, but Lee thought it if was Harry Osborn's dad Norman, that would be more dramatic. That story may or may not be true, but you shouldn't assume every masked character is someone you actually know. Like today's book! From 2001, Universe X #8, story by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger, pencils by Doug (Dougie) Braithwaite, inks by Bill Reinhold. 

I've mentioned before, I haven't done a big re-read of the Earth X/Universe X/Paradise X epic for some time; but I keep picking up random issues out of the cheap bins. Could I put together another run of it? Doubtful, that'd be like 40-some books total (if you stick to the original!) and includes #0's, #1/2's, specials...This issue, the Earth X narrator Aaron Stack joins up with this title's narrator, Kyle Richmond--Machine Man and Nighthawk, although neither are near their classic looks! They go after Isaac, the Gargoyle, who had betrayed Kyle to Mephisto in exchange for getting to feel again; but Mephisto tells him, "you could always 'feel' guilt, Isaac."

The current Daredevil was an unkillable, um, daredevil; a circus performer who may or may not have been anyone we actually knew. (At this point, anyway; someone might sub in later!) New York City was basically a colossal riot today, but DD is lamenting the lack of his audience; when he's approached by Ransak the Reject, who was looking for Reed Richards, since he could cure the mutations that had been caused by the Terrigen Mists. Which I don't think would help Ransak; who, like Harvey Dent in Dark Knight Returns, was convinced he was hideous. Ransak doesn't have his usual pal Karkas here, to keep him level. The NYPD, which included Peter Parker and Luke Cage, was all that stood between a colossal mob of mutates bent on destroying the "Human Torch" built by Richards, that was designed to cure humanity. A paunchy, accountant-looking Iceman maintains ice walls around it, while wondering when his old pal Warren became so gloomy...and unstylish. Daredevil confronts "Mr. Church," actually Mephisto, and his Church of Immortus. DD refuses to join, because he wants them to kill him; Warren sees the crowd tear him apart but is unable to help.

There's a brief aside to Wakanda, where Mar-Vell's group asks the Black Panther for the Cosmic Cube: the Panther's Earth X mutation is a rare miss from Ross, since it's just T'Challa with a realistic panther head. Back in Latveria, the reunited Reed and Sue Richards may not have much time left together, as the mob of mutated humanity attacks, and the Tong of Creel is there as well, intent on reassembling the Absorbing Man. The Thing's cheerful kids, Buzz and Chuck, try to defend them; but Creel's head and Doom's time machine are both gone. Ransak the Reject arrives in time, with the "Monster Generation," mutated humans who wanted to be un-mutated. 

Re-checking the reading order, the Beasts special was next: it's a dark one!

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"Dancing."

The song playing last time was Real Life's "Send Me an Angel," but maybe I should've gone with They Might Be Giant's "Spiralling Shape." Which was on the soundtrack to the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy, but was also used in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. "Okay, guys...have the last candy bars of your childhood." Just a bit of fluff this week: I don't think Kurt would really let Spiral run off with Longshot...no matter how annoying he is...and rest assured, she didn't get very far with him. But more Angel next time! Read more!

"I don't like huntin' kids. That ain't why S.H.I.E.L.D. is in business." Coming up next, S.H.I.E.L.D. hunts another kid.

I hadn't read this Iron Man Annual before, but maybe I had seen it referenced, by or maybe with another book that came out a week later! From 1986, Iron Man Annual #8, "When Innocence Dies!" Written by Bob Harras, pencils by Paul Neary, inks by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. Cover by Walt Simonson!

This was set during the earliest version of X-Factor, where the original five X-Men had a front as mutant hunters. They get involved in the search for Willie Evans, a young mutant with reality-altering powers, who had a little frog in a suit named Grunt encouraging him to act out. Willie had gotten abducted by the government, and taken to Project: Pegasus to be experimented on. Current Pegasus security head Michael "Guardsman" O'Brien isn't keen on that, and neither is Iron Man when he sees some of that on a visit to drop off a new project. When the inevitable superhero fight happens, there are of course hurt feelings on both sides: while Willie was dangerous and had accidentally-on-purpose hurt some people, that didn't mean he was now a lab rat, he still had rights...I'm sorry, I can't even finish that sentence. Even good soldier Michael is sick of this, and thinks they've stretched the definition of "national security" too far. I have bad news for him, about every year since then.

Nick Fury and Reed Richards get marginally involved in the search for Willie later; neither of them happy about it but not seeing how to de-escalate the situation, either. (Willie had appeared in an earlier issue of Fantastic Four.) Anyway, Grunt turns out to be a manifestation of Willie's own anger, a way for him to vent the guilt he felt over killing his mother. Willie turns on Grunt, killing it and himself; although a sad Grunt spends the end of the issue on Willie's grave, promising to make them pay...He hasn't yet, to the best of my knowledge, but I'm more worried about how this reminded me of another book: from a week later, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #118, "Ashes to Ashes" Written by Peter David, pencils by Mike Zeck, inks by Bob McLeod.

Because this was a Peter David book, there were more jokes here, starting with the Foreigner, disguised as a bum, stopping by to visit the Kingpin. They have a bit of lunch, and sniping with each other, as they discuss recent events in this title and Daredevil. ("Born Again" had just wrapped, I think.) They also hear an explosion downtown, which annoys the Kingpin, since he didn't have any scheduled: it was "orchids," to the Foreigner's ex-wife. I remain 100% convinced that was supposed to just be a throwaway joke, but later stories indicated his ex was Silver Sable!

But, the main point this issue, was young Alex Woolcot: his teacher catches up with Peter at the Daily Bugle. They had seen the boy was abused, and the boy's father had threatened them when confronted; and both had since disappeared. The teacher asks Peter to contact Spider-Man; snarkily, Peter asks, how? Signal-watch? This was 100% not his problem, he was trying to quit being Spider-Man, of course he's going to get involved. What they didn't know, though, was that Alex was right outside, and oh yeah, his dad was dead as hell. Monkeying around with his dad's weird science experiment ("What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?") Alex now had occasionally glowy-hands and disentegration powers. He gets spotted by the cops, who think he's a truant they can scare back to school, which of course leads to a blowed-up cop car. The cops call it in, with one suggesting X-Factor get involved, but someone else fields this one: some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, who seem to be looking for glory while Fury was away.

Following the explosion, Spidey finds Alex, and quickly gets a sinking feeling what happened to his dad. There is another fun bit, as Spidey perches on a building he thinks was "abandoned" and scheduled for demolition; a common cliche then; only to find the building packed! S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up on the scene, with a helicopter full of Mandroids: Alex stands his ground, and fries one of those "dumb robots" before realizing there was a guy in there. (The bacon scent would be a clue! Ah, he'll live.) Lethal force is authorized, and Spidey has to help Alex escape, even though he doesn't think he can control him. Spidey's a bit of a scold, too; telling Alex he shouldn't have run; but Alex tells him he almost got sent to jail when he was six for stealing a superball, and last week he disentegrated his dad; what would they do to him for that? (Thank you, Scared Straight.) After getting the Mandroids to shoot each other, Spidey nearly has Alex calmed down, just in time for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to empty his gun into Alex's back.

His Spidey-sense went off a little late there, but should it have gone off at all? He wasn't in danger! The agent driving is heard to say, Fury would have their heads; which feels like backpedaling: just a couple bad apples, right? And if you told me there was another comic that same month with another kid killed, I kinda wouldn't be surprised? Maybe at the scheduling, more than anything? I was thinking Fury might mention S.H.I.E.L.D.'s track record versus little kids, but that wasn't here, anyway. These were probably tapping into the times, the fear that kids were becoming killers; but Marvel maybe wasn't quite ready for that story with guns. Or, maybe kid death is a cheap and easy way to make your heroes feel bad, and not winning in the end was so adult, right? Ugh, I have to stop, before I find a Power Pack issue from that month with a double-digit body count... Read more!

I probably read this when it came out, and probably read the title for some time after this; partially on goodwill for the Simonsons, partly because comics were cheap then. From 1988, X-Factor #26, "Casualties" Written by Louise Simonson, pencils by Walter Simonson, inks by Bob Wiacek. 

This has the "Fall of the Mutants" crossover banner on the cover, but the bulk of it was over: this issue would be largely about reabilitating X-Factor's reputation, in-universe and metatextually. They had defeated Apocalypse, or at least driven him and his Horsemen away, returning Archangel to their side; but when Beast disabled the colossal Ship it had done a lot of damage before crashing in the Hudson River. This was that stretch where the human-looking Beast had super-strength, but using it made him stupider. Or more stupid? There is a great panel in What The--?! #3 lampooning his problem there...(Written by Kurt Busiek, art by Kyle Baker.)

As the team helps rescue efforts across the city, Beast was eaten up by guilt, Archangel was consumed with rage, Cyclops mistakes an endangered bystander for his presumed-dead and long-abandoned wife Maddie and confesses how he failed her, and Marvel Girl gets exhausted telekinetically carrying everybody around. Still, their efforts seem to prove their goodwill to humanity, who hails them as heroes with a bona-fide parade. (Meanwhile, unnoticed by the team, the X-Men were about to fight their final battle in Dallas, and Maddie tells Scott to find their son.)

One of the cops tailing X-Factor through the story suggests they could stay on the downed Ship, since it wasn't going anywhere (yet) and humans were electrically barred from entering it. Jean takes Scott to bed, no longer willing to "let anybody's ghost stand between us." Later, the team gets new costumes, from a grateful tailor they rescued earlier. (How he got their measurements, who knows? Maybe he was a mutant.) And Apocalypse watches, thinking the power would corrupt X-Factor soon enough...which seemingly leads back to the cover, as the team seems to be giants, towering over the Statue of Liberty and the city. Was their real fall to come?

Love the Simonsons, and see what they're trying to do here, putting to bed some of the book's problems: no more mutant-hunter cover-story, no more will-they won't-they with Scott and Jean, trying to make them unequivocally heroes. I'm not 100% sure it worked, though; I'm still mad at Cyclops, but he's had to do like three image-rehab tours since then.

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It's probably rainy now, but it was nice enough to go out to my garage and dig for comics today. Did I find what I was looking for? Well, close enough? From 1986, Thor #373, "The Gift of Death" Written by Walt Simonson, art by Sal Buscema.

On his way from Asgard to Midgard (Earth!) Thor is suddenly stricken by a momentary weakness, but shrugs it off: once he arrives in New York, he immediately attempts to use Mjolnir to get to Muspelheim. Odin and Surtur had seemingly fallen into a rift to the fire giant's realm, but Thor finds "the way to Muspelheim is closed!" Not with signs, but some sort of barrier. Glumly, Thor returns to the apartment of his civilian identity, Sigurd Jarlson; which is basically a mattress in the middle of an otherwise empty room. He's regretting not putting in the effort to flesh out his civilian life, and can't bring himself to stay there or visit the Avengers' mansion. The next day, as Sigurd, he visits his old construction boss Jerry, who's thrilled to see him even if it's been like twenty-some issues. After hearing he had just lost his dad, Jerry invites Sigurd home for dinner.

Later, to repay his friend's kindness, Sigurd takes Jerry's kids out for a day in the park, and tells him a story of Thor, getting hoodwinked by his dad for an object lesson about self-reliance. Or a laugh. Tough to say with Odin. But, another story is interrupted by an old friend--Puddlegulp! After a warning from the frog, Thor tries to tell the kids he's an undercover cop: for someone who had Loki for a brother, he's really so bad at lying. The kids don't let him keep digging, though: they know he's Thor! Jerry had thought 'Sigurd' had been Spider-Man at one point, but he's too big, and the kids had snuck a peek at his bag and found Mjolnir. (If one had accidentally kicked his bag, they wouldn't have been able to move that, would they?)

Thor sends the kids home, assuring one that he wasn't going to be killed by the Midgard Serpent...probably. He heads to the sewers, where Puddlegulp said he had heard screaming: Thor had previously met the Morlock Piper, and knew there were others living there. After a bit of ominous foreshadowing from Hela, Thor finds multiple bodies, then X-Factor's Angel, nailed to the wall by the Marauders! Although Thor drives them off, before he can help Angel, he can hear someone coming...

A dark turn there! I had forgotten this was the "Mutant Massacre" crossover, since this was the Marvel 25th anniversary covers month. I dug this issue out for the back cover, which was surprisingly not forthcoming online. I was making another spinner rack that was going to be all of those covers, and there were less than I would've thought. Sure, Spider-Man had four books, but only 29 books had the anniversary border. Limited series, annuals, indexes, creator-owned Epic titles, and the debuting New Universe books did not. But the kids' line Star Comics did, and some of those are the rarest ones today! In fact, a high-end copy of Muppet Babies #10, is possibly worth more than a complete set of New Universe comics. (G.I. Joe Special Missions and Droids were bi-monthly at the time, or they would've had one!)
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He can fly and is rich, but I'm still not sure he'd be my first call for help...

I know I flipped through the first issue on the spinner rack because of the guest-stars, but after that Dazzler was completely off my radar. I must've had to flip past it when I looked through everything, but looking at some of the covers they didn't seem familiar at all. And up until this issue, they were fairly straightforward super-hero numbers, just with a female lead. I wonder if I would've noticed, or appreciated, this one: from 1983, Dazzler #27, "Fugitive!" Story and art by Frank Springer, inks by Vince Colletta, cover by Bill Sienkiewicz.

This was the first of nine issues Sienkiewicz did covers for, although he did return to ink Paul Chadwick's cover for her final issue. And it's a gorgeous cover, even if it has nothing to do with the interior: Alison Blaire, Dazzler, is incognito in a black wig and on the run with her half-sister, Lois London. Lois was also a mutant, and had accidentally killed a mugger with her melty-hands power; now Alison was "'accessory after the fact,' or is it 'aiding and abetting'? Whatever..." She thinks back on the villains she had faced in her book's run, and the friends she had made, particularly Warren Worthington III, the Angel. But, on the bus to California, she gets an unpleasant surprise when she asks a hooded passenger the time: it's her old foe, Rogue!

Dazzler finds a boom-box, to generate enough sound for her powers, but Rogue smashes it; then steals Lois's power, and melts Dazzler's face! Terrified, perhaps dying, Dazzler channels a the sound from passing truck's horn into a light-blast, knocking out Rogue...and blinding the driver, who goes off a cliff! Luckily, this was just a dream, although Alison does the cliché wake-up scream on the bus, which would probably be embarrassing if she wasn't scrambling for a mirror to make sure she was "...all right! Alive! Pretty!" She wouldn't know, but Rogue was currently in Westchester: this issue was the same month as Uncanny X-Men #171! When much later they were both on the team, it took a long time for Dazzler to accept Rogue; she may have even held this one against her.

At a motel, Alison tells Lois they may have to return and "face the law," but they're interrupted by a knock on the door: someone left a note, with photos of Lois's mugging. Lois freaks out a bit, since that may have meant they were being watched even then, but Alison calls the blackmailer's number, and instead of being hit up for money, they're given a job: murder! Alison plays along, but makes another phone call hoping to reach some back-up.

In a rich neighborhood, Alison and Lois are supposed to kill someone in bed, then rob the joint; but when Alison calls out for Warren the blackmailer appears, dressed like a taller version of the Penguin. (The coloring and stripes match! Also, Alison recognized his voice.) The Angel swoops in through an open window, and is promptly shot; while Alison finds a TV and turns it on full blast: since this is the second time she's done this in this issue, I suspect this was not unlike the Sub-Mariner always having to find water to turn the tide of his fights. Zapping the blackmailer, she then tends to Angel; while Lois looks at the drugged man they were supposed to kill, and they know each other...somehow, it's not gone into here!

The above page bothers me a little, but is pretty typical comic book fight scene shenanigans: Angel would have to be moving at a pretty good clip just to stay airborne; he couldn't hover like a hummingbird. No one should have time to say more than "FFF--!" if that long, before he would have smashed into the blackmailer. I'm also not sure he could just swoop through that window. In the same vein, the bus is drawn as roomier than an aircraft carrier; but that was a dream sequence.

The letters page mentions Dazzler had gone bi-monthly, because it was a special book and needed the extra time. I'm not sure if I buy that...maybe for the covers, though.
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In lieu of contact content, here's Ben Grimm in a white leisure suit:

Slightly under the weather, so here's a page from Marvel Two-in-One #68, "Discos and Dungeons!" Written by Mark Gruenward and Ralph Macchio, art by Ron Wilson and Gene Day. The Thing and the Angel are kidnapped by the Toad, who may be setting his sights a little too high there, even with "financing" from Arcade. This would've been a good place to end the Toad's story, rehabilitating him; but he would fall back into bad habits later. Anyway, new strip tomorrow, see you then!

Really, really need to proofread more...
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More Pirate Kurt!

From Ultimate X-Men #50, "Cry Wolf" Written by Brian K. Vaughn, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Danny Miki. While most of the other X-Men can pass as normos and get to go to the carnival, Nightcrawler and Angel are left to play pirates in the holodeck Danger Room. Unfortunately, this issue also has Ultimate Gambit...

I read a bit of Ultimate X-Men, but after Ultimatum...yes, we shall speak no more of this.

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Retro Toy Week: Mutant X's the Fallen!

During last year's Retro Toy Week, we took a look at the Goblin Queen, Madelyn Pryor; from the 1998 Mutant X series. This time around, we have that universe's Warren Worthington the Third; no longer Angel, or Archangel, now the Fallen. As opposed to the typical What If? timelines for Marvel, where one domino tipping changes everything; in Mutant X several things appeared to have gone wrong in succession, or at least drastically differently. Storm had been transformed into the vampire Bloodstorm, the Beast's experiments caused a more drastic mutation and loss of intelligence, and Warren's transformation at the hands of Apocalypse was less...techy here. Instead of metallic wings, the Fallen would get green, lizard-like ones, and the ability to breathe fire. If I'm not mistaken, here Warren went bad and generally stayed that way, even if he broke Apocalypse's control. Since these figures were Preview Exclusives (and predating Marvel Legends) there was a lot of re-use--modern toy fans may see a bit of re-use in buck-based lines like DC Universe or Masters of the Universe Classics, but this is straight-up slapping on a new coat of paint and new head. (Well, and the wings, which draw the eye away from some of the flaws.) I'm pretty sure the Fallen's body is Quicksilver's, which had a somewhat undersized left fist. The wings are a nice sculpt, though, being about the only new pieces here. I don't know about that head, though: the hair is a bit clumpy. And of course, the articulation is of it's time, that is, not so great. I don't know if Mutant X was a huge seller; and the book seemed to have an unfortunate tendency, like a lot of What If? stories, to have to drag in versions of every super-hero they could for unfortunate, dramatic demises. And by the time a book gets to their own version of the Beyonder, well, maybe it's run its course. Still, I think it was cancelled less because of sales, and more an editorial mandate from Joe Quesada to stop the dilution of the X-Men brand. You can make your own call to how well that worked... Read more!

Azazel, part six! Our blog national nightmare is over!

Homestretch time! The last chapter of "The Draco" and I do believe Azazel's last appearance to date! Uncanny X-Men #434, "The Draco, conclusion." Written by Chuck Austen, pencils by Takeshi Miyazawa, inks by Craig Yeung with Scott Elmer. I don't know why Philip Tan dropped out at the last lap, but here we are.

Polaris has opened a hole to Azazel's prison dimension, that opens in the young mutant Abyss. Nightcrawler smirkingly teleports Abyss away from his "pops," leaving Azazel with Mystique suggesting which side of the family he gets lying from. I'm not sure how Kurt is able to teleport there, since they're in the dimension he teleports through. Nor is it ever really explained how Azazel controlled Kurt and the others at the beginning of this story but can't now.

After six more subplot pages of Juggernaut vs. Alpha Flight; Azazel finds the situation unraveling more, as Kiwi Black proved immune to Ginniyeh's telepathy and bugged out of there. Black attacks Angel's torturer, while Ginniyeh goes to kill the other captured X-Men, and kicks the hell out of them with her freaky and ill-defined powers, until Iceman sucks the moisture out of her and reforms.
While Kurt and Abyss try to find the other X-Men, Polaris sticks her head through the dimensional hole in Abyss, which may be the closest thing to sex he's going to get. She starts enlarging the hole, which is scaring the crap out of Abyss but not really hurting him, and starts wrecking up the place. Wolverine's arm comes loose, and he kills his captor. Iceman and most of the other X-Men get through the gateway (and Havok is dismayed to see Iceman get a kiss from nurse Annie for saving Carter) while Kurt, who has been pantsless for four issues or so, fights Azazel. For like two pages, with a quick "Join me" bit that Nightcrawler doesn't have time to make a Star Wars reference to, before the castle collapses...or something, and Azazel falls laughing to his 'death.'
Kurt and the rest get out, and life returns to normal. He now has a couple half-brothers, but I'm pretty sure Kiwi Black and Abyss haven't been seen since either. Kiwi stays silent until the last issue, and when he finally opens his mouth, his dialog sounds cribbed from a Fosters ad. Come to think of it, I have no idea how Abyss gets back to earth without getting turned inside out...Professor X asks Kurt if he's all right with losing his father; but Kurt says he hasn't: Professor X has been like his dad for years, and he's fine with that.

Just for artistic continuity, it would've been nice if Philip Tan had done this issue. Not that I cared for his art, but this isn't much better. But, that wraps up the saga of Azazel; although with him appearing in the X-Men: First Class movie some writer's bound to get the bright idea to use him for something. You've been warned.
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