I did pick up all four issues of Claremont's Superman/Wonder Woman: Whom Gods Destroy Elseworlds, but I haven't had time to flip through them yet, and they probably won't fit in the scanner anyway. This issue does, though! From 1982, Uncanny X-Men #159, "Night Screams!" Written by Chris Claremont, guest-pencils by Bill Sienkiewicz, inks by Bob Wiacek, letters by Tor Orzechowski, colors by Glynis Wein.

This was a lead-in to X-Men Annual #6, one of my first X-reads and still a classic. The X-Men stop off at Misty Knight's apartment, but instead meet her roommate, model Harmony Young. The X-Men had arrived in costume, but Kitty had to change for dinner with her parents: Ororo didn't have clothes for it, but Harmony gets her dressed up. Still, later when Kitty calls the apartment, Ororo had left hours ago, but hadn't arrived back, as we see her laid out in an alley.

Logan and Piotr rush to the hospital, where Ororo had been brought in. Having lost a ton of blood, the doctor wanted to do a full transfusion, but couldn't because of unusual elements in her blood. The X-Men were still largely secret back then, and Logan worries the doctor was very close to putting two-and-two together; but then Ororo seems completely fine, save not remembering who (or what) attacked her, and she has a momentary twinge of fear at the night, that passes after she thinks she saw eyes in it. Back at Misty's, the worried guys tuck her into bed (and Bill appears to misdraw Kurt's hand turning out a light, on an otherwise amazing page!) but Ororo's rest is troubled, until she opens up the windows, and a fog sweeps in...

When Kitty arrives back two days later, she finds the guys moping, as they were at a loss how to help Ororo, who seemed to be losing the will to live. Kitty rushes up to see her, and opens the drapes; Ororo protests that "the sunlight...hurts." She also has a fancy scarf, embroidered with a 'D,' around her neck; "a...gift, from an admirer. But how can that be? He's a figment of my imagination." Ororo flinches, when the light reflects off Kitty's Star of David, and while Kitty starts putting it together, Ororo shoves her away. It's Dracula, haven't Kurt, Logan, or Piotr read a book or seen a movie? Well, this issue does predate Fright Night, so I guess they've got some excuse: probably less, since I'm pretty sure it's been retconned since that Logan had run into vampires before, and possibly even Kurt as well. (Kurt seemed at least aware they existed in the Marvel U. and Logan himself later mentions he's "seen the movies!")

Dracula shows up, to take Ororo away, but Kitty makes a valiant if ill-advised attempt to stop him alone, with a kicky little hat and a cross. Which fails miserably, since she wasn't Catholic or Christian or whatever; but her Star of David saves her from Drac's chokehold. Still, she can't stop Dracula and Ororo from flying away, as the guys arrive. Logan is skeptical, but Kurt trusts Kitty; and either way they can't just let Ororo take off. Logan tracks her to Central Park, where Dracula confronts them, with some wild dogs to even up the numbers. Kurt gets clobbered, Logan whiffs a fastball special when Dracula turns into mist, and even Piotr is thrown back. Logan tries to make a cross with his claws, but he doesn't believe. However, Kurt does, and staggers Dracula for a moment, before he summons lightning, which Kurt can barely teleport ahead of...

Kitty had slipped away, to try and find Ororo, and finds a coffin deep inside a weather station. She fouls it with holy water--I'm mildly curious where she got that, but you can get anything in NYC. Kitty then gets smacked by Ororo, who isn't really a vampire yet, but her mind had been warped. Kitty tries to reach her, saying Ororo had been "a goddess consecrated to life," and drops her stake, refusing to fight her. Meanwhile, Kurt tries to turn Dracula's lightning against him, teleporting over the vampire, but that just seems to knock out all the X-Men, leaving only Dracula and Ororo standing. Dracula orders her to kill them, but she turns on him, hitting him with another lightning bolt! Dracula takes a bat-man (or Man-Bat!) form and takes off, taunting Ororo that she was still is, but she knocks him through a window with an arctic wind. Dracula takes a hostage, but Ororo refuses to become a vampire, or to kill: "I was born free, vampire, and free I will remain." Dracula admits, she had earned her respect, and takes off...for now.

As the sun rises, Ororo returns to the X-Men, and hugs Kitty for her braveness. But the X-Men don't have long to rest, as they get a phone call from Moira MacTaggert: Professor Xavier's condition had taken a turn for the worse... 

I don't think Claremont was ever shy about wearing his influences on his sleeve; and this feels like a speedrun through Bram Stoker's novel. But the character work, and the art, make it a great one. If you were a fan of the alt-universe series Mutant X, this issue was a load-bearing plot point, as Ororo didn't resist there and gobbled Kitty up to become the vampire Bloodstorm. I also think I read Claremont's Dracula, long, long before I'd ever get to read Tomb of Dracula: those I probably didn't see until the 1993 reprints.

Read more!

This might not seem like a horror book; and it's not!

Really could've been, though. From 1990, Uncanny X-Men #260, "Star 90" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Marc Silvestri, inks by Dan Green.

When this came out, I would've maybe read like one issue of Dazzler's solo book off of the spinner racks; but her former agent Eric Beale had appeared before, although not as a drooling psychotic. Well, cocaine is a helluva drug, although it's not pictured, and described as "primo snow serious buzz" with some monstrous sound FX for sniffing. So, Marvel won't show drug use, but a ton of simulated violence against women, that's just fine. Cool, cool. Anyway, Eric's lost the reality knob, and plots to murder the recently returned Alison Blaire, who at the moment, was not that far away in Malibu. After going through the Siege Perilous, she was back, but without a lot of her memories, which she seems to see as baggage she was better off without. She was currently staying at one of Lila Cheney's houses, with her old friend Fred Stanachek and Lila's bodyguard Guido Carosella, the future Strong Guy.

Fred is not only crushing super-hard on Alison; he also had found maybe the only surviving print of the Dazzler movie. After a screening, Guido admits it ain't bad; but Alison has no interest in promoting it or becoming a star: that was another woman, another life. She opts out of the conversation in possibly the most dramatic way, by stripping down to a swimsuit, grabbing a board, and hitting the beach for night surfing. This gives Eric a chance to shoot at her: he misses his first shot, then clips her surfboard. Ali zaps his gun, but Eric gets away as Fred and Guido pull her out of the water. Still, this gives her something to do: promote the movie, to draw out her potential killer.

Next, hey, more violence against women! Who would usually do a better job taking care of themselves, even. Colossus, also having gone through the plot device Siege Perilous, didn't have his memory and was fixated on a beautiful woman he had seen but kept disappearing on him. He gets another chance, as she's attacked by an X-Men themed gang, while wearing what appears to be a prom dress. Peter steps in, and also does a crap job, but is saved by Genoshan mutate Jenny Ransome. The woman disappears again, though: she was really Callisto; her old face taken away by Masque. Usually she'd have been able to slaughter that gang with one arm tied behind her back, but maybe the dress was a hindrance.

Fred gets Alison a meeting with a movie studio, that she doesn't seem particularly invested in; telling the exec she wasn't Dazzler, but her "evil twin, Skippy." This leads to a couple pages of makeovers, interspersed with Eric's slapstick attempt to murder her, that gets interrupted by his own forced makeover. Then, three more subplot pages, as Forge and Banshee are on their way to Muir Island, to see what was going on there. They are sidetracked, first by the new issue of People with Alison on the cover (artwork, she still didn't show on film!) then by the plane they would've been on getting shot down by Fenris! Who, like typical rich kids, halfass their job and don't even bother leaving their yacht to make sure they got Banshee: they had got a tip-off from someone; I suspect Moira/the Shadow King, or whatever. Banshee flies off with Forge, taking a page from the X-Men's book: let everyone think they were dead.

On the beach at Malibu, Alison's all dressed up for her movie's premiere, but still doesn't really care. She misses it anyway, as Eric...sneaks up on her with a three-wheeler, disguised as a cop, and bops her with a nightstick? Unless her powers were working overtime, she should've heard that blocks away! Back at his house, Eric changes Alison's outfit to her classic Dazzler spandex, but with a bag tied over her head. She's able to blast eyeholes through it with a photon blast, but her hands were still tied and she was in roller-skates, and she was running out of options: even if she had the juice for a laser, that would be a fatal response...which Eric probably deserves. Instead, she cranks up the lightshow to hypnotise him, mellowing his buzz out to the point he was harmless.

And, I think that's a wrap for Alison in this run of Uncanny: pretty sure Guido would appear again before she would. This issue takes its title from the Dorothy Stratten biopic Star 80 but instead plays the stalker mostly for laughs: I don't know if Claremont wasn't interested in going harder with that, or if he had been limited editorially. Despite the overwhelming magenta hue, the Jim Lee cover makes it seem like it was going to be a much darker story, although Alison's powers do maybe keep her out of a lot of danger. This also feels like a missed opportunity, to maybe toss out some problematic aspects of her continuity--some stuff from the Dazzler graphic novel is deeply skeevy, but Jim Shooter also gets a cameo here, so mixed messages? Read more!

Satana should get to properly host a horror comic.

Today's book was not what I thought it was going to be: From 2018, Avengers Halloween Special #1, featuring "The Eyes Have It" Written Rob Fee, art by Eoin Marron, color art by Mike Spicer; "Whatever Happened to the Richards Family?" Written by Gerry Duggan, art by Laura Braga, color art by Arif Prianto; "The Thing From Another Time" Written by Jen and Sylvia Soska, art by Jonas Scharf, color art by Jordan Boyd; "Punisher of the Opera" Written by Jay Baruchel, art by Luca Pizzari, color art by Michael Garland; and "Haunted Mansion" Written by Robbie Thompson, art by Bob Quinn, color art by Cris Peter.

The title page is a repurposed Vicente Alcazar Satana, warning the reader the heroes are gone, and monsters are in their place. I kinda thought the whole thing was going to be reprints, but no; the rest is new. Sort of. These are mostly versions of classic horror stories, repurposed with Avengers. Or other heroes, as in the opening "The Eyes Have It," where Matt Murdock finally gets new eyes. It's strictly in horror movie territory, so I don't think it's a spoiler to tell you he's not going to like what he sees. That could be a riff on anything from Dead Man's Eyes to the Eye; it's fairly well-trod ground, but still nicely done, especially since I wasn't expecting it right off the bat.

Next, in "Whatever Happened to the Richards Family?" Doctor Doom attacks the FF, not for his usual vengeance, but because only he has realized the horrifying truth about them. There may or may not be a direct horror analog for that one (or if it's the first one that occurs to me, it'd be a spoiler) but "The Thing From Another Time" wears its influence on its sleeve: it's John Carpenter's the Thing with Iron Man versus another thing from the ice, Captain America! Guest-starring (briefly!) Colossus and Deadpool! It's an interesting homage; but I'm not sure if it needed a few more pages to play out, or if the bit would've worn too thin if pressed further.

"Punisher of the Opera" is an odd mashup spin on two stories you know, as a French Francis Castiglione avenges his wife, a murdered opera singer. I liked that one better than "Haunted Mansion," where some kids explore the spooky, abandoned Xavier's School for the Gifted, and find some literal and figurative ghosts.

DC seems to do this type of story more often (as we'll see Thursday!) so I wonder if this was Marvel testing the market. I don't know if all of DC's stories are as um, directly inspired, as this one was. I wouldn't mind if Marvel tried this again, though: you could pretty easily get a few issues out of Spider-Man horror.
Read more!

(Sort of) a Review: Diamond Select X-Men, Cyclops, Colossus, Gambit, and Storm!

It's not something I do very often anymore, but sometimes I might buy--or be tempted to buy--a figure just for the accessories. I don't think there's as many really great accessories of late, or I may just be telling myself that because of price: the figures look great, but I would take just the weapons from Mezco's Star Trek One:12 Collective Kirk and Cage Spock, if I could get them. But sometimes, there's the opportunity to get something at a deal--like this lot! Diamond Select's X-Men, Storm, Cyclops, Gambit, and Colossus!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned some time back--probably back when we looked at the Diamond Select Nightcrawler--that I had passed on getting Cyclops before. (I want to say Nightcrawler was the last of the X-Men to be released, and did not appear to be as widely available, but we'll come back to that.) Still, Hastings was up to 60% off action figures a bit ago, and I picked up all four of these, and a couple other Diamond Select figures that we'll look at some other time.

As I mentioned with Nightcrawler, these figures do not have the same level of articulation as their slightly-smaller Marvel Legends counterparts. In the picture above, it may look like Cyclops has his right hand raised to his visor: he does not. This is about as far as he can reach:

Let's take a moment to look at each of them.

Cyclops, here in a classic look: this pretty much covers him from 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1 to 1986's X-Factor #1. He also comes with an unmasked head that seems to have the same expression.

Colossus is also rocking his Giant-Size X-Men #1 outfit, one he would return to on occasion over the years. Unlike Cyclops, Colossus gets a bit of chest articulation, but that has the unfortunate effect of breaking up his top, which is a loose separate plastic piece, like he's wearing a bib or a dickey. Still, the sculpt is nice, and if you buy Marvel Select figures to integrate with Marvel Legends, strictly speaking I think he's well too big to squeeze into a six-inch scale, but would look good anyway. No accessories, save one we'll get to at the end.

Gambit was not in Giant-Size X-Men #1: although I think there's been some retcons, he wouldn't appear until 1990's Uncanny X-Men #266. His look changed slightly since that first appearance; but this is a pretty traditional one. The soft rubber trenchcoat is not especially movable, but he wins the accessory count: a throwing card, two thrown-cards-in-motion purple effects, two extra hands, and a staff that I couldn't get him to hold that well.

Storm brings us back to Giant-Size X-Men #1; she'd keep this look until 1983's Uncanny X-Men #173 and her mohawk days. Some fans have been clamoring for years for this version of Storm in Marvel Legends, but this figure may show why they shouldn't: her plastic cape, which is less soft than Gambit's coat, is pretty heavy and hinders her articulation a lot. Same for her hair, actually. Because of that weight and since Storm wore thigh-high leather high-heel boots, she also comes with a simple raised black base to keep her standing.

Like...every single Diamond Select figure I've purchased, these aren't the most dynamic toys in terms of articulation. (They aren't the worst offenders in that area though, we'll see later.) The sculpt and the paint are nice, although I'd have to say Marvel Legends has been closing that gap--if there's even a gap. I've never been a fan of Diamond Select's huge "bookshelf" packaging, either. I've always preferred when Marvel Select did characters that were either too big, too obscure, or too weird for Hasbro or Toy Biz to get them onto a toy aisle; like Mephisto or Cloak & Dagger. (I wish I had their Watcher figure, and the Select Thanos was many ML collectors' version for years!) But Diamond Select does do one thing particularly well: bases. Not the little one Storm has, although it is weird that she needs a base for her base...

Cyclops, Gambit, and Storm each come with a three-piece assembly that makes a corner of the Danger Room. They are identical, except Storm's comes with a couple holes to attach the included buzz-saw arm and open flame. Colossus comes with a colossal spiked metal...deadfall? It looks like the sort of thing that was always trying to crush him in the Danger Room. There are four large metal-press like legs on the deadfall (unarticulated) but I didn't find a clear way to attach it to anything...ooh, unless you kind of overhang those legs on the other bases. That's not bad!

I didn't have Nightcrawler's base handy, but it was just a little teleport-smoke piece and pales in comparison to the Danger Room parts. Early solicits seemed to indicate he was going to have some Danger Room piece, but that didn't happen in the end. There's also a DS classic Wolverine, but he comes with a little Weapon X piece instead. I'm guessing Diamond isn't planning on Sunfire, Thunderbird, or Kitty Pryde; so this may be as much Danger Room as there's going to be. (Diamond did make a couple Phoenixes and Jean Grey, the Phoenix more modern and the Jean more classic than this lot.)

I haven't tried it with Legends figures yet, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're going to look pretty good there. I can't say I'd recommend these all at full price, but I really do like the Danger Room, and they do look good as a group. I've said before, if you find Marvel Legends figures fiddly or loose; Diamond Select has you covered.


Read more!