Joel Phillips
Sep 15, 2003, 02:50 pm
<a href="http://pages.sbcglobal.net/harahap/top40xs3.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://pages.sbcglobal.net/harahap/top40xs3.gif" align=left alt="Top 40 X-Stories"></a>Greatest 40 X-Stories of All Time, Part 3: #20-11
Edited and assembled by Joel Phillips
Our 40th anniversary celebration continues with stories 20 through 11 on our Top 40 X-Stories countdown. Read our previous installments: Part 1 (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21443) and Part 2 (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21688)!
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen226.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen226.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #226 – Fall of the Mutants"></a>#20: Fall Of The Mutants
Uncanny X-Men #225-227
Written by: Chris Claremont
Art by: Marc Silvestri
(NOTE: Even though the other chapters of Fall of the Mutants were spectacular in their own way, only the Uncanny X-Men chapter was chosen.)
The eternal cosmic agent of chaos, the Adversary, has begun his gambit to take over the omniverse. His cosmic opposite, the guardian of the omniverse, Roma, is a prisoner within her own home, the Starlight Citadel. Meanwhile the X-Men, after having received an ominous prophecy from Destiny about their future, travel to Forge's home in Dallas to look for their missing leader, Storm. Unbeknownst to them, Storm and Forge, after having been tricked by the Adversary (who has possessed Forge's mentor's body, Naze), and are now on an alternate Earth. In an attempt to tempt his two greatest opponents, the Adversary offers them the opportunity to become the life essences (the god and goddess) of this soulless Earth. Storm and Forge spend a couple of months on this other-earth coming to terms with themselves and each other.
However, back on the real 616-earth (the timeframe is days to the other-earth's months) the X-Men (Havok, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot), lead by Wolverine and friend Madelyne Pryor, have a run in with Freedom Force who have come to arrest the X-Men (though Mystique's true agenda is to save her daughter, Rogue, from death). The environment turns strange (i.e. time eras merging in Dallas and the sky being torn open in the middle of the night), so the two teams decide to join forces. By this time, Colossus has unexpectedly popped (literally) into the midst of all the turmoil (he ends up being the "wildcard" in the end scenario). Eventually, the X-Men journey alone into Eagle Tower to find Storm and uncover the perpetrator of the twisted events. As the struggle continues Storm regains her powers, and she and Forge make their move against the Adversary and are captured. The X-Men make their way to the Starlight Citadel, and repel the Adversary, but cannot finish the deal. Finally it comes down to the X-Men (and Madelyne) having to give up their souls, and lives, in order to vanquish the enemy and close the gateway from which he came. Forge was the person who had opened the portal years ago during the Vietnam War, sacrificing the souls of his dead comrades to bring demons to earth to slaughter the Vietnamese, and so he finally comes full circle and throws the life force of the X-Men at the Adversary. The gate is locked away, and the X-Men die. Roma, now free, transports Forge and Neal Conan (a reporter, who had been along for the ride) back to earth. Back in the Citadel, Roma reclaims the lives of the X-Men, stating that the Adversary has a place in this the order and must never be forever locked up. The X-Men's lifelines were truly cut at the moment of their sacrifice, so Roma offers them their hearts desire. The X-Men and their loved ones have been experiencing a spike in atrocities instigated against them, and have been wanting some way to get back at their enemies. They decide to enact their "Plan Omega", which is to strike at their enemies from the shadows, thereby protecting their family and friends.
This story holds a special place in my heart. This was the arc that I truly discovered the world of the X-Men. I had only read of the X-Men's exploits in guest appearances and did not care for Wolverine one bit. Then my friend let me borrow Uncanny X-Men #226. I had never before read characters with such depth as I had in this issue, and I was instantly hooked. The plot and story was very compelling, but the Fall of the Mutants was special because of Chris Claremont's portrayal of real people and the numerous choices they had to make.
Mystique and Rogues' mother-daughter relationship was more pronounced in this arc than in any other I have seen. Mystique's hatred for Forge begins here as well. Unlike today's brutal and unscrupulous Mystique, Claremont was transforming Mystique into another deep and complex antagonistic figure, where the lines of good and bad are too fluid to make a “one or the other” determination. Unfortunately, the last time the reader saw this Mystique was in All New, All Different...Here We Go Again.
One of my favorite parts about this arc was Wolverine as the leader. He is probably one of the best characters qualified to lead, but because of his own personal tastes, he chooses not to (even here Storm had to beg him to!). He stepped up and made some great decisions, and it also allowed the reader to see the softer side of the guy.
A highly important part of the story was Storm getting her powers back. Ororo had been powerless for years. Before Wolverine ever lost his adamantium and was considered weakened, Claremont had already played that scenario out with Storm, who truly was at a loss. Claremont really set the foundation for Storm's will and strength during this time and made her grow so much. Fall of the Mutants was where Claremont gave the reader the more vulnerable and heart-felt side of Storm after her long run as the hardline leader. With the return of her powers, she became entrenched as one of the most dynamic female protagonists in comics. On top of that, her hair grew back. (Thank God!)
An incredible and tragic move by Claremont was cleansing of the "Outlaw" label. Neal Conan and Manoli Wetherell, two reporters, were present during these three issues. Neal became trapped with the rest of X-Men, but continued to roll film. While the rest of the world's heroes were being held in reserve, which made this even grander in scope without having to make it a crossover (another subtle, masterful ploy of Claremont), the world got to see the X-Men for what they truly were: heroes. However, as mentioned above, the X-Men died, so there would be no recognition of their selfless act.
Another poignant touch is Madelyne Pryor, and her last words (via television camera) to Scott: I love you and find our son. Remember, Inferno is not even a glimmer in the readers’ eye, but going back to these issues really shows how well Claremont began the transition into that sub-plot and further development for Maddie.
A couple of other bonuses for the reader was the appearance Kitty and Kurt. Their first appearance (along with Colossus's) since almost dying in the Morlock tunnels (see Mutant Massacre) was very exciting, but their reaction to the X-Men's death made it that much more impactful. Don't forget, the supposed death of the X-Men made the formation of Excalibur possible.
Fall of the Mutants represented a crossroads for the X-Men. Not only did this lead to the Australian era for the X-Men, choices were made that impacted individuals and teams for years to come. Claremont tied up loose plots into a wonderful story while adding others… continuity done right. What makes this arc worthy of the 40 greatest stoies? Within a microcosm, this three-issue gem represented why the X-Men were miles ahead of the rest: characterization, relationships, dialogue, and heart. Today's X-books have yet to come even near the level of this synergy.
This entry written by Tan K.
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen153.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen153.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #153 – Kitty’s Fairy Tale"></a>#19: Kitty’s Fairy Tale
Uncanny X-Men #153
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Dave Cockrum
For every old, jaded X-Men fan out there, the ones who've seen everything from Phoenix's death to Inferno to Operation Zero Tolerance to the Living Monolith... there has to be a warm spot in their comic-loving hearts reserved for the stand-alone, not-related-to-X-continuity-in-the-slightest story by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum called Kitty's Fairy Tale.
When this issue first came out, the X-Men had been going through hell. Just a year ago, Jean Grey had died on the moon. Then Cyclops left. Then the mutants saw their own doomed futures in the Days of Future Past. Then they all got kidnapped by Arcade and Dr. Doom. This was quickly followed by epic battles with the Hellfire Club and Magneto. It was a rough time to be an X-Man.
Luckily for them, Chris Claremont has always been a writer who knows when to give his characters some down-time. That's why Uncanny X-Men #153 wasn't yet another colossal struggle against the Juggernaut or Moses Magnum... it was a spotlight on their newest member, Kitty Pryde, as she told young Illyana a bedtime story. Thus, the title, Kitty's Fairy Tale.
Kitty wove a story of a faraway land where Pirate Kitty sailed for adventure with her loyal... ah... friend, Colossus, at her side. Along the course of their adventure, they would meet a noble prince whose eyes shot fire, a powerful wizard with immense mental powers, an intimidating clawed fiend with no name, and an incorrigible, girl-crazy fuzzy blue elf, to name a few. It was the tale of the noble prince's efforts to save his lady from the evil power of Dark Phoenix, assisted by Pirate Kitty and her friends.
The story-within-a-story is a rare thing in the graphic medium, and it's a great treat when it's done right. Kitty's Fairy Tale is probably the best example in modern comics history of this kind of change-of-pace, completely different, self-contained story. Besides being a fun romp through a fantasy world (so much fun, in fact, that Dave Cockrum would revisit it in his original Nightcrawler limited series), it worked on levels of both historical significance and clever foreshadowing. In Kitty's swashbuckling saga, we saw both how Kitty perceived her teammates, and how Kitty wanted to perceive herself. Pirate Kitty was a confident combatant and a born leader, very reminiscent of Cyclops, the leader who Kitty herself most looked up to. The wizard of the story showed Kitty's view of Charles Xavier: extremely old, frail and lacking in the physical, but very powerful regardless. The genie was Kitty's version of Storm: a beautiful and talented goddess, honorable above all else. And, of course, there was our "kind of" first appearance of Lockheed the Dragon; Kitty's version of the team's SR-71 Blackbird jet was a crafty and mischievous dragon named Lockheed... who was, of course, completely devoted to Pirate Kitty.
The old expression "And now for something completely different" was never more true than when Claremont and Cockrum released this fun detour in Uncanny X-Men #153. It was also the last light-hearted moment the team would have for some time: the entire team would be infected with Brood eggs and trapped in deep space within a few issues. A master of pacing, Claremont took this opportunity to simply revel in creating a fun comic... something the X-Men themselves seemed to enjoy as well, as the book showed us the various team member's reactions to their portrayals in Kitty's imagination (Wolverine's, especially, was great - and all the funnier with Nightcrawler teasing him for it).
So no, Kitty's Fairy Tale wasn't a huge multi-part epic, and it didn't have any berserker rages, dramatic deaths, or racist homo sapiens. No Magneto, no Sentinels, no Cassandra Nova. The story didn't have a huge lasting impact on the team... as a matter of fact, most of it wasn't even in continuity.
It was just a lot of fun. It was so much fun, and it was such a great look at these still-relatively-new X-Men characters, that it easily earns a high spot on this list of the greatest X-stories of all time.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen270.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen270.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #270 – The X-Tinction Agenda"></a>#18: The X-Tinction Agenda
Uncanny X-Men #270-272, New Mutants (Vol. 1) #95-97 & X-Factor (Vol. 1) #60-62
Written By: Chris Claremont & Louise Simonson
Art By: Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld & Co., Jon Bogdanove & Guang Yap
Have you ever listened to a finely composed piece of music? Like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue? Pieces where each movement slowly builds, introducing phrases and then overlapping them, letting them fall away as new phrases come in…but at the very end, all of these themes that have been lingering yet ever present rejoin in one final climactic movement that stirs the senses and stimulates you on a pure emotional level, so that you cheer with each triumphant fanfare and weep with the lilting strains of a single violin? That’s the level of artistry that X-Tinction Agenda strives for.
On one level, it’s just a great story, spanning all three titles in the X-Men family (remember when there were just three?); a sweeping action drama of high stakes and shocking twists. But on another level it is a crux point in X-Men mythology, the culmination of several long running plot points in all three books and the catalyst of events that resonate even today.
The island nation of Genosha had been an adversary of the X-Men for some time, a Huxley-an utopia maintained by a police state and a mutant slave caste. And after having apparently been killed (and unbeknownst to the public, resurrected), the X-Men had passed through the mystic Siege Perilous, scattering them to the ends of the Earth. Upon the return of a handful to the mansion, there was an immediate tension between them and the mansion’s current residents: the New Mutants, having fallen under the tutelage of the mysterious and militant Cable. X-Factor’s former ally, Cameron Hodge, had proven a turncoat and survived decapitation only by a demonic bargain for immortality, one that left him a grotesque cybernetic monstrosity…with a great deal of power, a hatred of mutants and a score to settle with the students of Xavier. An alliance between Hodge and Genosha would be all it would take to ignite this powder keg. In short order, an army of Genoshans invade American soil and kidnap the New Mutants Boom Boom, Rictor, Wolfsbane, Warlock and Storm (regressed to an earlier age), prompting the remaining X-Men and New Mutants to team up with X-Factor to launch a counter strike to bring home their missing brethren. Too late, however, to save Warlock’s life or prevent Storm and Wolfsbane from being turned into mutates, the mindless mutant slaves who secretly fuel Genosha’s economy. And the intervention of Wolverine, Jubilee and the now Asian Psylocke is offset by the revelation that Havok had emerged from the Siege Perilous in Genosha and was now leader of their mutant police force. As the invaders are captured and sentenced to death, a series of plots and counterplots among Hodge, the Genegineer (the scientist who pioneered the “mutate” process) and the President of Genosha begin to unravel…allowing the heroes to take hold of the Genoshan citadel and, with the newly restored Havok, Storm and Wolfsbane, make one final stand against Hodge to eliminate their old nemesis and the oppressive government. Though victorious, the teams would not leave unscarred. The mutate process somehow allowed Storm to revert to adulthood, but it would lock Wolfsbane in her lupine state for some time to come. X-Men who had been lost in the Siege Perilous reunited, but the loss of Warlock and Wolfsbane would haunt the New Mutants…and upon further such losses would prompt their conversion into X-Force. And of course Genosha would become an ever-present element in stories for years to come, culminating in its cession to Magneto, an aborted war with humanity and its final tragic destruction.
If the story suffers anywhere, it’s in the art. Between the four (or more) artists involved, there is a distinct lack of artistic unity and flow. It’s a common problem in crossovers when so many artists are working, but such drastically different styles can distract the reader. Jim Lee is at the top of his game here, and his chapters resonate with beauty. And Rob Liefeld has some good work…but assistance in his first chapter, a change up in inkers halfway through his second, and his complete absence from the third leads to a lack of visual uniformity within a third of the story. And Jon Bogdanove, while an absolute genius in the brilliant Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men, has never impressed me too much with his exaggerated cartoony style, especially when attempting to blend with Jim Lee’s far more “heightened realism”. The contrast is just incredibly jarring and occasionally distracts the reader from the real action of the story.
But writing wise, this is how crossovers are meant to be done. The elements that Claremont and Simonson had been developing for years organically grew into this final conflict. Nothing was certain in this high stakes game, with the antagonist not merely being a powerful villain but the ideology and resources of an entire nation. The casts merge and interact seamlessly, allowing for each chapter to flow into the next rather than stiffly shifting focus between each individual title. And the greatest compliment I can think to give it is that it was not afraid to change the status quo. These big event stories of the 80s and early 90s would shake things up with an almost sadistic delight. Anything could happen and no one was safe. Want to change a team line up? Go ahead. Need to kill off a character or radically change another? Be our guest. The reason that stories from this era shine while those of the latter part of the 90s suffer and stagnate is that at a certain point, the audience realized that no change would come out of those later stories. Even if there was change at the very end of a story, the status quo would be reestablished within a very short time. Without change, without risk there are no stakes, no real conflict, no drama. And that is what X-Tinction Agenda is all about: risk, stakes, change.
This entry written by Jordan T. Maxwell
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen251.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen251.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #251 – Fever Dream"></a>#17: Fever Dream
Uncanny X-Men #251
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Marc Silvestri
If you don't like Wolverine, you won't like Fever Dream. Or maybe the reason you don't like Wolverine is because you haven't read Fever Dream.
Let's be clear: Claremont's version of Wolverine bears no resemblance to the growling, inhuman beast he is often portrayed as today. Claremont has always portrayed Wolverine as a creature driven equally by honor and instinct... two conflicting impulses to be sure. Though the animalistic part of Wolverine is always present, it is not something Wolverine willingly surrenders himself to. In the tradition of the samurai, Claremont's Wolverine knows that there is greater strength in not killing a man than in killing a man... which is not to say he won't kill if need be.
What does any of that have to do with Fever Dream? Quite simply, Fever Dream is Wolverine at both his most vulnerable and his most strong. The aura of indestructibility that had always surrounded Wolverine was significantly diminished here, as Wolverine finds himself completely at the mercy of Donald Pierce. Crucified upon an X, an image portrayed in one of the best comic book covers ever produced, Wolverine's mind begins to retreat into itself even as his seemingly invincible body withers. Wolverine has a series of hallucinations, which are actually visions sent to him by the mysterious Gateway, and which are a combination of twisted flashbacks of past events and portents of things to come.
In his lucid moments, however, he is engaged in a psychological struggle with his captor, Donald Pierce. It is here that Wolverine's strength shows itself, as he easily wins each battle in the war of wills. When Pierce taunts Logan, Logan taunts him back, and it is Pierce who loses his cool. When Pierce, no longer content to leave Logan chained upon the X, produces stakes and crucifies him, Logan refuses to scream, further infuriating Pierce. This is a Wolverine we hadn't seen before: physically vulnerable but mentally determined, making him more real and more human in both ways.
The story also marks an important first: pulling himself off the cross, Wolverine finds himself staring into the face of Jubilee for the first time, and he asks the young stranger for her help. It is a scene that is, in a way, recently mirrored in Uncanny X-Men, where Wolverine pulls Jubilee off a cross she was put upon by the Church of Humanity. It also marks an important last: the last appearance of the Siege Perilous, which is crushed here by Donald Pierce in another (failed) effort to break Wolverine's spirit.
Fever Dream is a great character study of one of the most over-exposed and yet least understood characters in comics today. It ought to be required reading for anyone who reads (or writes) a Wolverine story.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/Marvels2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://Www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/Marvels2t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Marvels #2 - Monsters"></a>#16: Monsters
Marvels #2
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Alex Ross
"Protecting a world that hates and fears them."
This statement defines what the X-Men is all about. Surely, a lot of fans may have fallen in love with the X-Men because of the good characters, the action/adventure and the soap opera, but these are not the things that make the team stand out from the rest of Marvel's superhero populace. You can get that from ANY superhero book. What makes the X-Men unique is that they are the heroes that always get the short end of the stick. Whatever good deed they might have done, the people would always hate them. This theme of discrimination, a concept ahead of its time when Stan Lee introduced it, brings a very unique atmosphere to any X-Men related comic. And nowhere can we see a better representation of this misplaced geneticism in the Marvel Universe than in this short 44-page story called Monsters.
A brief overview: It was the dawn of the Silver Age of superheroes. With the birth of the Fantastic Four, the return of Captain America, and the formation of Earth's Mightiest Superheroes, these superheroes - these "Marvels" - have New York City and the rest of the world gaping in awe and in wonder. Capturing the story from behind his camera lens was Phil Sheldon, a freelance photographer who has made a reputation for catching the caped heroes in their full glory. But something was amiss in this world. For with every Marvel the people choose to adore, there was also a Monster - a mutant - that they have chosen to hate and fear. And when Phil Sheldon had an unexpected close encounter with a homo superior, he got struck with a startling realization. A realization that would change the way he perceives the Marvels - and the Monsters - forever.
Before I read this story, I always thought that the blind hatred against mutants in the Marvel Universe is a mere plot device used to make the X-books feel different from other books. Viewing the X-Men from a detached third-person perspective made me think that the people should have been really stupid to actually hate a bunch of heroes trying to save them. But Monsters changed my perspective on this issue. Because of Busiek and Ross' man-on-the-street approach, I was made to experience why people in the Marvel Universe hate mutants. The sense of paranoia against the next evolutionary step - reinforced by a sensationalizing media and words from prophets of doom like Bolivar Trask - was all perfectly captured in the pages of this story. It made me realize that one should never underestimate the people's capacity to act blindly because of the fear of the unknown. Just like how a lot of people blindly feared and hated any communist or Russian in the 60s just for being who they are, it's not hard to imagine how mutants could also suffer from such blanket profiling and stereotyping. Had I been in the Marvel Universe, I most probably would have found myself snapping and blindly lashing in an anti-mutant riot. I guess any of us would be after watching the Sentinels kill Bolivar Trask on public television.
Monsters successfully elicits a very emotional response from its readers due to two elements. First is the pacing. Starting from a very optimistic atmosphere, Kurt Busiek slowly builds up the tension and paranoia in the story by methodically inserting scenes showing Phil Sheldon's growing awareness of the mutant situation. From his first encounter with the X-Men, to his unexpected mutant encounter in his own home, to his dilemma on how to protect his family from a mutant-hating public, we see a natural progression in Phil's view towards mutants. And the pacing is complemented perfectly by the second element - Busiek's excellent use of contrast. The story was set against the backdrop of Reed and Sue Richards' wedding, one of the happiest moments in Marvel's Silver Age history. The extreme contrast in the public's adoration of the glamorous heroes and their vitriol over the mutants was a perfect irony. To paraphrase a line from the story, the Monsters were the dark side of the Marvels - the negatives without which the pretty pictures would never exist.
The X-Men appeared in less than 10 panels in this 44-pager. However, the theme of discrimination, which distinguished the X-Men over the years, could definitely be felt as the driving force behind this moving story. With Monsters, Busiek and Ross fully realized Lee and Kirby's commentary on man's propensity to blindly fear and hate the unknown. Add in a disturbing ending which could really depress the hell out of you, Monsters definitely deserves its position in the Top 40 X-Men stories of all time.
"Protecting a world that hates and fears them. "
Open your eyes and experience this world. Welcome to the world of Monsters.
This entry written by Erwin Rafael
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/257/astonxmen1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/257/astonxmen1.jpg" align=right alt="Astonishing X-Men #1 – Age of Apocalypse"></a>#15: The Age of Apocalypse
X-Men: Alpha, Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen, Amazing X-Men #1-4, Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 1) #1-4, Factor X #1-4, Gambit & The X-Ternals #1-4, Generation NeXt #1-4, Weapon X (Vol. 1) #1-4, X-Calibre #1-4, X-Man #1-4, X-Universe #1-2 & X-Men: Omega
Written By: Warren Ellis, Larry Hama, Terry Kavanagh, Scott Lobdell, Jeph Loeb, Howard Mackie, John Francis Moore, Fabian Nicieza & Mark Waid
Art By: Renato Arlem, Chris Bachalo, Roger Cruz, Tony Daniel, Terry Dodson, Steven Epting, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Salvador Larocca, Ken Lashley, Tom Lyle, Joe Madureira, Carlos Pacheco, Val Semeiks & Steve Skroce
The Age of Apocalypse (AoA for short) was a different kind of crossover. While stories like The X-tinction Agenda or Inferno featured X-titles crossing over to tell a common story, the AoA was actually a series of separate stories with a unifying factor between them: the alternate reality in which they existed. What's more, never before had the entire X-line been set aside for such an event, actually suspending the publication of the main titles in order to explore this separate world.
Alternate realities were nothing new by the time the AoA was conceived of, but they almost always took place in the future. What makes the Age of Apocalypse all the more interesting is that it altered the reality of the present, allowing us to get a glimpse of alternate versions of our favorite characters as they exist today: from the Summers brothers serving under Mr. Sinister, to Moira MacTaggart as part of a Sentinel-wielding Human High Council, to a mindless Multiple Man whose powers unwillingly provided Apocalypse with an army. And even the variations that were slight were enjoyable: the unbreakable Wolverine with only hand, the Cyclops with only one eye, the Iceman whose powers were so far beyond the limits of his regular counterpart.
And, though there was a shared storyline running through the titles, you didn't have to care. Each limited series was its own, self-contained story, and if you didn't want to be concerned with the larger story you could still enjoy the pieces on their own. And some of the pieces were startlingly good.
In fact, two are particularly worth mention. The first is Warren Ellis' X-Calibre, a personal favorite of mine, which followed Nightcrawler to the Savage Land to track down Destiny. This one featured a deliciously cruel Dani Moonstar; a mindless Deadpool, AKA "Dead Man Wade"; a great original character called Switchback; Damask, a variation on the Black Queen of the London Hellfire Club, who was far more interesting than her real world counterpart; and the Shadow King in possibly his coolest incarnation ever. This was "I've got a gun and I'll use it" cool. The AoA Nightcrawler made a great lead character, the villains were standouts, and Ellis' four issues did more with the Kurt/Mystique relationship than has ever been done in continuity.
The second worthy of individual recognition is Scott Lobdell's Generation NeXt, which followed the AoA's X-Men understudies on a mission to save Illyana Rasputin. Lobdell did an excellent job with all his characters, particularly the team's teachers Colossus and Shadowcat, and artist Chris Bachalo did some of his best work with the dark settings the story required. But the real success was in the ending: though the team succeeds in their mission, it costs all the young students their lives.
The AoA even gave us some characters that were continued over from after the story concluded. X-Man, the AoA version of Cable, continued his life and his series after the world was restored to normal, and continued his exploits for 75 issues. Several AoA villains-- the evil AoA version of the Beast, the grotesque Sugar Man, and Holocaust, the powerhouse offspring of Apocalypse - made the switch over to the post-AoA Marvel Universe, though all three are missing in action as of right now. And let's not forget that everyone's favorite Exile, Blink, started out in the AoA as well.
The Age of Apocalypse is a fanboy's dream: a look at our favorite characters and the world they inhabit from a new and fascinating perspective. What makes the story great is that it succeeds in the very thing most crossovers fail at: it functions as both a single, continuous story and as a series of separate tales, making it both epic and accessible at the same time.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/196/xmen-110.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/196/xmen-110.jpg" align=right alt="X-Men (Vol. 2) #110 – One Tin Soldier Rides Away"></a>#14: One Tin Soldier Rides Away
X-Men (Vol. 2) #110
Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Leinil Francis Yu
After Colossus’ death in Uncanny X-Men #390, the longtime X-Man deserved a poignant sendoff. That is what Scott Lobdell and Leinil Francis Yu gave him: a story that truly resonates with the reader.
The story follows Katherine Pryde’s thoughts and travels to Moscow to take Peter Nikolaevitch Rasputin’s cremated ashes to his homeland. Kitty was a friend, lover, and teammate to Peter. Through Kitty’s narration, we feel for her anguish and sorrow. It is hard to explain the real emotion you feel by reading this story. Colossus has grown up with X-Men fans, and everyone, even a fan like me who started in the 90’s, can love this tale.
Along with saying farewell to Colossus, Lobdell provides a goodbye to Kitty too. Instead of taking advantage of the X-Men’s advanced technology like the Blackbird jet, Kitty flies on an airplane with other normal people, starting off her new normal life at college. Kitty’s tired of the loss of her loved ones at Xavier’s Institute and hopes to gain a new life by getting an education, using her intelligence rather than her powers. In the end, Kitty’s thoughts assemble a letter to Xavier saying goodbye and Xavier deleting all of her files in Cerebro. Lobdell ends both characters significantly and excellently. Kitty’s leaving was a practical, fitting, and smart resolution to her career with the X-Men.
Kitty’s point of view is also highly enjoyable. The scene at Ye Old Malt Shoppe from Uncanny X-Men #129, where Storm recruits Kitty, is retold well. Kitty explains her first impressions of Peter, Logan, and Storm. Lobdell scripts fun dialogue and Kitty even mentions possibly eating leftover Shi’ar food.
Leinil Yu crafts an amazing story. Even though his style is gritty and rough, he portrays a wide-eyed young Kitty and towering Colossus. The double splash page of Kitty releasing Peter’s ashes into the wind was brilliant. Each scene uses appropriate colors to set the mood. Yu’s action scenes were intense and his Magneto is definitive.
One Tin Soldier Rides Away deserves its place with the greatest 40 X-Men stories of all time because of its authentic emotions, saying goodbye to two X-Men and beginning a new journey for one.
This entry written by Omar A. Safi
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/173/excal016.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/173/excal016.jpg" align=right alt="Excalibur #16 – Cross-Time Caper"></a>#13: Cross-Time Caper
Excalibur #11-19 & 21-24
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Alan Davis, Dennis Jensen, Rick Leonardi & Chris Wozniak
The early years of Excalibur were some of the most fun you could have in comic books, and no single story represents that spirit better than the Cross-Time Caper.
The Excalibur team, along with long-time hanger-on Alistaire Stuart, is transported into an alternate reality by way of a dragon-powered bullet train (yes, you read that correctly). Over the next fourteen issues, the Excalibur team hops madly from reality to reality in their attempts to return home. They pass through a magical, medieval kingdom; an unsettled England a la the Wild West; a war between an evil sorceress and a spunky space pirate; and several dystopias that range from the seemingly dire to the downright nutty.
The Cross-Time Caper, even in its more dramatic moments, was still pure escapist fun. The storyline never took itself too seriously, and how could it? You had an ogre in jockey shorts, smoking a cigar, holding Kitty hostage in a giant glass jar; you had Kitty sitting in a bar right out of Star Wars, relating her tale to a bunch of babbling aliens; and you had a Speed Racer-style hotrod race with an alternate Jamie Braddock.
The story, even after all this time, even after growing up, is still as readable and enjoyable as it was the first time around. It provided images that will never leave me: Alistaire Stuart blushing in his kilt, Kurt expertly disarming his lovely opponent with a twirl of his swords, Kitty Pryde trying (and failing) to look sexy for Alistaire. And there were a few moments that, though glazed over at the time, were to set up more serious drama later on. Kitty Pryde took a life during the story, stabbing the Princess Anjulie in the back to save her friends. Though the event was not one of serious drama when it happened, Kitty's angst over this and other things she has had to do in her years as a mutant adventurer remain with her to this day.
The Caper deserves to be on the list because, taken by itself, it's actually an excellent symbol of what comics at their best have always been about: allowing readers to enjoy themselves by slipping away into another place, another time.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/85/mcp072.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/85/mcp072.jpg" align=right alt="Marvel Comics Presents #72 – Weapon X"></a>#12: Weapon X
Marvel Comics Presents #72-84
Written By: Barry Windsor-Smith
Art By: Barry Windsor-Smith
There are two stars to this story: Wolverine and Barry Windsor-Smith. Of course, the story itself is about Wolverine, one of the most popular comic book characters ever created (and this is one of the tales that helped cement that position). But whereas most often in mainstream comics the creator is merely an instrument to tell stories about the characters, here the character is as much a vehicle to showcase the talents of the uniquely talented Barry Windsor-Smith, who not only wrote and penciled the entire story but also inked and colored it as well. The only aspect he left to another was the lettering (but more on that later).
Many ask what makes Wolverine so incredibly popular. Ask a middle schooler and the answer will typically fall into the response of “because he’s so kewl.” The claws, the attitude, the fact that he’s “the best there is” at what he does? Yes, but there’s something more: an almost iconic, archetypal quality. Wolverine is Oedipus. Not with the modern connotations of wanting to sleep with one’s own mother (though, as revealed in Origin, he did most likely kill his own father), but a powerful man easily angered into berserker rages on a quest to discover the secrets of his mysterious past, no matter the cost… and one who runs from his own destiny only to encounter it. Slap on a pair of claws and mousse up the hair a bit, and the tragic hero of Sophocles’ play cycle is a dead wringer for our own Logan. That mystery, that destiny, the forces of fate that shaped Logan into Wolverine, are explored for the first time in this quietly intense tale. A government agent, suspended for his violent behavior, drowns his sorrows in pills and booze. His oracle is a hotel called the Prophecy, and the nightmare visions he receives are of darkness, death, spikes, pain, bones and dagger hands. He contemplates the storm that’s coming, unaware of the forces slowly aligning, the threads of fate entwining around and about him. He’s soon abducted and taken to a testing facility where amongst the staff and guards we meet the three characters who will prove so pivotal to the destiny awaiting their captive. Cornelius, Hines and the ironically named Professor who appears to be in charge of the operation. They bond an unbreakable metal, adamantium, to his bones. They act surprised when an excess of the metal seems drawn to his forearms. Even moreso when claws protrude from his hands. He is set against creatures in the wilderness and trained to hunt, to kill, his mind controlled by machines… machines that cannot suppress his own killer instincts as he slips free of his control and tries to escape, to no avail. And we begin to realize that there is someone else in control of these operations, an unknown puppet master who holds even the Professor’s strings. As the surreal and Byzantine loops of the story lead us deeper into carnage, death and the twisted psyche of Wolverine, nothing is certain except that you can’t hope to control a weapon of such power as Weapon X.
The level of artistic unity that comes from Windsor-Smith handling almost every creative aspect of this book is astounding. While there is much to be said for the collaborative process and the kind of synergy it can infuse a work with, it is also compelling to watch a singular vision and drive create completely on its own. And the lettering of Jim Novak integrates Windsor-Smith’s text so deftly into his imagery that it becomes a part of the portrait, captions leading your eye across the page in ways it normally would not go, absorbing layers of information as it travels. But beyond the energy that comes from the creative process, there’s just incredible work here. The writing is utterly engaging and hypnotic, with a quiet intensity that makes you very aware of your own pulse and breathing, and how they both quickly get caught up in the rhythm and flow of the prose and dialogue. Each character has a distinct feel and tone. There’s a kind of sympathy for Cornelius, an affection built for Hines and while the Professor is at first viewed as the ominous antagonist of the piece, he is eventually revealed to be the most foolish of them all. And of course, there’s Logan: his despair at the beginning, his pain throughout, and his final twisted psychic journey, tearing himself apart. But even worse is when there is no fear, no hate, only the cold stare of a soulless killer. The first part hooks you in, and perfectly juxtaposes text and imagery to enhance or redefine meaning. The subsequent tale leaves you breathless and hungry for more (even more torturous, since this was first revealed in serialized short story form), driving you forward to the violent cathartic end. The attention to detail is astounding, and every panel breathes. The claustrophobia of the tank, the paranoia in the control room, the pain and desolation of the wilderness… and the fear. Fear bleeds through every word and picture. Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of death.
There are answers here, if you look for them. The fact that Wolverine’s claws might not be artificial is first hinted at here. The fact that a greater power was controlling the project is all but stated at several points throughout the piece… perhaps the calls were coming from the recently revealed Weapon Plus program? The hand of destiny is at work in this piece (you need only look at the very first two panels to see that), and it is our first peek into the mysteries of Logan’s origins. But for the mysteries it answers, it still leaves many behind. If Wolverine was found by the Hudsons and brought into Department H after the incidents in these stories, then why do both refer to him as Weapon X? Who really WAS the mastermind behind the project? And what really happens at the end? The best answers always leave more questions in their wake. The best stories never hand you everything on a platter, and they make you work for the answers you do get. In the case of Weapon X, the rewards are well worth the effort.
This entry written by Jordan T. Maxwell
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen390.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen390.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #390 – The Cure"></a>#11: The Cure
Uncanny X-Men #390
Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Salvador Larocca
I understand if you dislike this story. Many X-fans have nothing but bad things to say about the Legacy Virus as a story device, and have a hard time accepting this speedy resolution, not to mention its cost: the life of a popular X-Man, Colossus. Like I said, I understand if you don't like this story. But you're wrong to do so.
The purpose of this story, as the name suggests, is to cure the Legacy Virus, to take it off Marvel's table. For years the Legacy Virus had merely been sitting there, with a number of high profile names contracting the disease and then carrying on, business as usual, for years and years. For a deadly contagious disease there seemed to be no real danger involved in its presence in the Marvel Universe. It had become ineffective and something of an embarrassment, and the time had come to do away with it.
There are two things about this issue that irk fans. The first is the quick and easy solution to what should have been a very complicated problem (curing the Legacy Virus). The second, of course, is the death of Colossus.
The dispersal of the cure is quick and easy, maybe even a little too convenient. That said, the process of searching for that cure was anything BUT convenient, a process that took years and years of stories and was documented in staggering detail. In many ways that's how I imagine a cure to a real world disease might work: years of painstaking research, filled with alternating periods of no progress and sudden spurts of success, yielding an eventual cure. Once that cure was found, the process of distributing it to the public would ideally be a speedy one. Scott Lobdell does take a shortcut here, using Colossus' energy signature to disperse the cure across the world, curing everyone. Perhaps it would have been nice to see the process involved in actually getting the cure out to people, the X-Men traveling abroad and gathering sufferers together to inoculate them. But Lobdell's shortcut, though wanting for realism, sets up the focus of the issue: one man's struggle with himself, and what is the right thing to do.
Which brings us to Colossus. Peter's ending of his own life in order to cure the disease can be seen many ways, and all of them make perfect sense for who he is. You can see it as an act of heroism, a selfless sacrifice to ensure that no one else dies of this awful disease. You can see it as an act of penance, a way to punish himself and to pay for what he perceived as his failure in keeping his sister safe. Or you can see it as an act of cowardice, the actions of a man with nobody and nothing left to live for, taking the easy way out and using mock heroics as a veil for his own weakness.
I choose to see it as all of the above. Ever since the death of his sister from the Legacy Virus, Peter's life had been a spiral of pain and sorrow. He suffered so many defeats, so many tragedies that his very mental state was called into question. For years he was alternating between losing control and just hanging on, his emotional devastation displayed throughout the decade with a realism rarely seen in the medium. Here, in this single issue, that all comes to a head, to a single choice in a single moment, one that would come to define everything Peter Rasputin had become.
What makes this story worthy of inclusion on this list is the fact that Scott Lobdell realized that this was where the Peter Rasputin story HAD to end. There are some pains you don't heal from, and Peter had suffered several such injuries to his mind and soul. Peter Rasputin would have continued to wallow in that pain forever, only occasionally struggling, and failing, to free himself from its grip. Peter HAD to die, it was the only way to move the character forward, to end that struggle once and for all. And, in the Legacy Virus, Scott Lobdell found the ideal instrument with which to bring Peter to his devastating climax.
The final image of Peter lying on the floor, dead, is what this all comes down to: loss, pain, the end that must come for every new beginning. Lobdell's narration of the final scene reuses dialogue from Giant-Size X-Men #1, from Peter's struggle with whether or not to join the X-Men in the first place. The advice Peter is given for that first decision, when viewed in the context of his final decision, is the kind of send-off every major character ought to have: a fitting and poignant finale to this story, and to Peter's story.
"The Professor wants to take me with him, to teach me how to deal with my mutant powers. There is wisdom in his words, papa... but I am happy here. Tell me, papa... what should I do?"
"Do as your heart tells you, my son. It will not betray you."
"My heart tells me to stay, papa... but my conscience tells me otherwise. I must go, papa."
"Then, it is right that you do."
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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Be sure to check back next week for our fabulous finale: Part 4, #10-1! For more special articles, features, and columns celebrating the 40th Anniversaries of the Avengers and X-Men, click here! (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21464)
Edited and assembled by Joel Phillips
Our 40th anniversary celebration continues with stories 20 through 11 on our Top 40 X-Stories countdown. Read our previous installments: Part 1 (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21443) and Part 2 (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21688)!
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen226.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen226.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #226 – Fall of the Mutants"></a>#20: Fall Of The Mutants
Uncanny X-Men #225-227
Written by: Chris Claremont
Art by: Marc Silvestri
(NOTE: Even though the other chapters of Fall of the Mutants were spectacular in their own way, only the Uncanny X-Men chapter was chosen.)
The eternal cosmic agent of chaos, the Adversary, has begun his gambit to take over the omniverse. His cosmic opposite, the guardian of the omniverse, Roma, is a prisoner within her own home, the Starlight Citadel. Meanwhile the X-Men, after having received an ominous prophecy from Destiny about their future, travel to Forge's home in Dallas to look for their missing leader, Storm. Unbeknownst to them, Storm and Forge, after having been tricked by the Adversary (who has possessed Forge's mentor's body, Naze), and are now on an alternate Earth. In an attempt to tempt his two greatest opponents, the Adversary offers them the opportunity to become the life essences (the god and goddess) of this soulless Earth. Storm and Forge spend a couple of months on this other-earth coming to terms with themselves and each other.
However, back on the real 616-earth (the timeframe is days to the other-earth's months) the X-Men (Havok, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot), lead by Wolverine and friend Madelyne Pryor, have a run in with Freedom Force who have come to arrest the X-Men (though Mystique's true agenda is to save her daughter, Rogue, from death). The environment turns strange (i.e. time eras merging in Dallas and the sky being torn open in the middle of the night), so the two teams decide to join forces. By this time, Colossus has unexpectedly popped (literally) into the midst of all the turmoil (he ends up being the "wildcard" in the end scenario). Eventually, the X-Men journey alone into Eagle Tower to find Storm and uncover the perpetrator of the twisted events. As the struggle continues Storm regains her powers, and she and Forge make their move against the Adversary and are captured. The X-Men make their way to the Starlight Citadel, and repel the Adversary, but cannot finish the deal. Finally it comes down to the X-Men (and Madelyne) having to give up their souls, and lives, in order to vanquish the enemy and close the gateway from which he came. Forge was the person who had opened the portal years ago during the Vietnam War, sacrificing the souls of his dead comrades to bring demons to earth to slaughter the Vietnamese, and so he finally comes full circle and throws the life force of the X-Men at the Adversary. The gate is locked away, and the X-Men die. Roma, now free, transports Forge and Neal Conan (a reporter, who had been along for the ride) back to earth. Back in the Citadel, Roma reclaims the lives of the X-Men, stating that the Adversary has a place in this the order and must never be forever locked up. The X-Men's lifelines were truly cut at the moment of their sacrifice, so Roma offers them their hearts desire. The X-Men and their loved ones have been experiencing a spike in atrocities instigated against them, and have been wanting some way to get back at their enemies. They decide to enact their "Plan Omega", which is to strike at their enemies from the shadows, thereby protecting their family and friends.
This story holds a special place in my heart. This was the arc that I truly discovered the world of the X-Men. I had only read of the X-Men's exploits in guest appearances and did not care for Wolverine one bit. Then my friend let me borrow Uncanny X-Men #226. I had never before read characters with such depth as I had in this issue, and I was instantly hooked. The plot and story was very compelling, but the Fall of the Mutants was special because of Chris Claremont's portrayal of real people and the numerous choices they had to make.
Mystique and Rogues' mother-daughter relationship was more pronounced in this arc than in any other I have seen. Mystique's hatred for Forge begins here as well. Unlike today's brutal and unscrupulous Mystique, Claremont was transforming Mystique into another deep and complex antagonistic figure, where the lines of good and bad are too fluid to make a “one or the other” determination. Unfortunately, the last time the reader saw this Mystique was in All New, All Different...Here We Go Again.
One of my favorite parts about this arc was Wolverine as the leader. He is probably one of the best characters qualified to lead, but because of his own personal tastes, he chooses not to (even here Storm had to beg him to!). He stepped up and made some great decisions, and it also allowed the reader to see the softer side of the guy.
A highly important part of the story was Storm getting her powers back. Ororo had been powerless for years. Before Wolverine ever lost his adamantium and was considered weakened, Claremont had already played that scenario out with Storm, who truly was at a loss. Claremont really set the foundation for Storm's will and strength during this time and made her grow so much. Fall of the Mutants was where Claremont gave the reader the more vulnerable and heart-felt side of Storm after her long run as the hardline leader. With the return of her powers, she became entrenched as one of the most dynamic female protagonists in comics. On top of that, her hair grew back. (Thank God!)
An incredible and tragic move by Claremont was cleansing of the "Outlaw" label. Neal Conan and Manoli Wetherell, two reporters, were present during these three issues. Neal became trapped with the rest of X-Men, but continued to roll film. While the rest of the world's heroes were being held in reserve, which made this even grander in scope without having to make it a crossover (another subtle, masterful ploy of Claremont), the world got to see the X-Men for what they truly were: heroes. However, as mentioned above, the X-Men died, so there would be no recognition of their selfless act.
Another poignant touch is Madelyne Pryor, and her last words (via television camera) to Scott: I love you and find our son. Remember, Inferno is not even a glimmer in the readers’ eye, but going back to these issues really shows how well Claremont began the transition into that sub-plot and further development for Maddie.
A couple of other bonuses for the reader was the appearance Kitty and Kurt. Their first appearance (along with Colossus's) since almost dying in the Morlock tunnels (see Mutant Massacre) was very exciting, but their reaction to the X-Men's death made it that much more impactful. Don't forget, the supposed death of the X-Men made the formation of Excalibur possible.
Fall of the Mutants represented a crossroads for the X-Men. Not only did this lead to the Australian era for the X-Men, choices were made that impacted individuals and teams for years to come. Claremont tied up loose plots into a wonderful story while adding others… continuity done right. What makes this arc worthy of the 40 greatest stoies? Within a microcosm, this three-issue gem represented why the X-Men were miles ahead of the rest: characterization, relationships, dialogue, and heart. Today's X-books have yet to come even near the level of this synergy.
This entry written by Tan K.
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen153.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen153.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #153 – Kitty’s Fairy Tale"></a>#19: Kitty’s Fairy Tale
Uncanny X-Men #153
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Dave Cockrum
For every old, jaded X-Men fan out there, the ones who've seen everything from Phoenix's death to Inferno to Operation Zero Tolerance to the Living Monolith... there has to be a warm spot in their comic-loving hearts reserved for the stand-alone, not-related-to-X-continuity-in-the-slightest story by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum called Kitty's Fairy Tale.
When this issue first came out, the X-Men had been going through hell. Just a year ago, Jean Grey had died on the moon. Then Cyclops left. Then the mutants saw their own doomed futures in the Days of Future Past. Then they all got kidnapped by Arcade and Dr. Doom. This was quickly followed by epic battles with the Hellfire Club and Magneto. It was a rough time to be an X-Man.
Luckily for them, Chris Claremont has always been a writer who knows when to give his characters some down-time. That's why Uncanny X-Men #153 wasn't yet another colossal struggle against the Juggernaut or Moses Magnum... it was a spotlight on their newest member, Kitty Pryde, as she told young Illyana a bedtime story. Thus, the title, Kitty's Fairy Tale.
Kitty wove a story of a faraway land where Pirate Kitty sailed for adventure with her loyal... ah... friend, Colossus, at her side. Along the course of their adventure, they would meet a noble prince whose eyes shot fire, a powerful wizard with immense mental powers, an intimidating clawed fiend with no name, and an incorrigible, girl-crazy fuzzy blue elf, to name a few. It was the tale of the noble prince's efforts to save his lady from the evil power of Dark Phoenix, assisted by Pirate Kitty and her friends.
The story-within-a-story is a rare thing in the graphic medium, and it's a great treat when it's done right. Kitty's Fairy Tale is probably the best example in modern comics history of this kind of change-of-pace, completely different, self-contained story. Besides being a fun romp through a fantasy world (so much fun, in fact, that Dave Cockrum would revisit it in his original Nightcrawler limited series), it worked on levels of both historical significance and clever foreshadowing. In Kitty's swashbuckling saga, we saw both how Kitty perceived her teammates, and how Kitty wanted to perceive herself. Pirate Kitty was a confident combatant and a born leader, very reminiscent of Cyclops, the leader who Kitty herself most looked up to. The wizard of the story showed Kitty's view of Charles Xavier: extremely old, frail and lacking in the physical, but very powerful regardless. The genie was Kitty's version of Storm: a beautiful and talented goddess, honorable above all else. And, of course, there was our "kind of" first appearance of Lockheed the Dragon; Kitty's version of the team's SR-71 Blackbird jet was a crafty and mischievous dragon named Lockheed... who was, of course, completely devoted to Pirate Kitty.
The old expression "And now for something completely different" was never more true than when Claremont and Cockrum released this fun detour in Uncanny X-Men #153. It was also the last light-hearted moment the team would have for some time: the entire team would be infected with Brood eggs and trapped in deep space within a few issues. A master of pacing, Claremont took this opportunity to simply revel in creating a fun comic... something the X-Men themselves seemed to enjoy as well, as the book showed us the various team member's reactions to their portrayals in Kitty's imagination (Wolverine's, especially, was great - and all the funnier with Nightcrawler teasing him for it).
So no, Kitty's Fairy Tale wasn't a huge multi-part epic, and it didn't have any berserker rages, dramatic deaths, or racist homo sapiens. No Magneto, no Sentinels, no Cassandra Nova. The story didn't have a huge lasting impact on the team... as a matter of fact, most of it wasn't even in continuity.
It was just a lot of fun. It was so much fun, and it was such a great look at these still-relatively-new X-Men characters, that it easily earns a high spot on this list of the greatest X-stories of all time.
This entry written by Jim Lemoine
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen270.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen270.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #270 – The X-Tinction Agenda"></a>#18: The X-Tinction Agenda
Uncanny X-Men #270-272, New Mutants (Vol. 1) #95-97 & X-Factor (Vol. 1) #60-62
Written By: Chris Claremont & Louise Simonson
Art By: Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld & Co., Jon Bogdanove & Guang Yap
Have you ever listened to a finely composed piece of music? Like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue? Pieces where each movement slowly builds, introducing phrases and then overlapping them, letting them fall away as new phrases come in…but at the very end, all of these themes that have been lingering yet ever present rejoin in one final climactic movement that stirs the senses and stimulates you on a pure emotional level, so that you cheer with each triumphant fanfare and weep with the lilting strains of a single violin? That’s the level of artistry that X-Tinction Agenda strives for.
On one level, it’s just a great story, spanning all three titles in the X-Men family (remember when there were just three?); a sweeping action drama of high stakes and shocking twists. But on another level it is a crux point in X-Men mythology, the culmination of several long running plot points in all three books and the catalyst of events that resonate even today.
The island nation of Genosha had been an adversary of the X-Men for some time, a Huxley-an utopia maintained by a police state and a mutant slave caste. And after having apparently been killed (and unbeknownst to the public, resurrected), the X-Men had passed through the mystic Siege Perilous, scattering them to the ends of the Earth. Upon the return of a handful to the mansion, there was an immediate tension between them and the mansion’s current residents: the New Mutants, having fallen under the tutelage of the mysterious and militant Cable. X-Factor’s former ally, Cameron Hodge, had proven a turncoat and survived decapitation only by a demonic bargain for immortality, one that left him a grotesque cybernetic monstrosity…with a great deal of power, a hatred of mutants and a score to settle with the students of Xavier. An alliance between Hodge and Genosha would be all it would take to ignite this powder keg. In short order, an army of Genoshans invade American soil and kidnap the New Mutants Boom Boom, Rictor, Wolfsbane, Warlock and Storm (regressed to an earlier age), prompting the remaining X-Men and New Mutants to team up with X-Factor to launch a counter strike to bring home their missing brethren. Too late, however, to save Warlock’s life or prevent Storm and Wolfsbane from being turned into mutates, the mindless mutant slaves who secretly fuel Genosha’s economy. And the intervention of Wolverine, Jubilee and the now Asian Psylocke is offset by the revelation that Havok had emerged from the Siege Perilous in Genosha and was now leader of their mutant police force. As the invaders are captured and sentenced to death, a series of plots and counterplots among Hodge, the Genegineer (the scientist who pioneered the “mutate” process) and the President of Genosha begin to unravel…allowing the heroes to take hold of the Genoshan citadel and, with the newly restored Havok, Storm and Wolfsbane, make one final stand against Hodge to eliminate their old nemesis and the oppressive government. Though victorious, the teams would not leave unscarred. The mutate process somehow allowed Storm to revert to adulthood, but it would lock Wolfsbane in her lupine state for some time to come. X-Men who had been lost in the Siege Perilous reunited, but the loss of Warlock and Wolfsbane would haunt the New Mutants…and upon further such losses would prompt their conversion into X-Force. And of course Genosha would become an ever-present element in stories for years to come, culminating in its cession to Magneto, an aborted war with humanity and its final tragic destruction.
If the story suffers anywhere, it’s in the art. Between the four (or more) artists involved, there is a distinct lack of artistic unity and flow. It’s a common problem in crossovers when so many artists are working, but such drastically different styles can distract the reader. Jim Lee is at the top of his game here, and his chapters resonate with beauty. And Rob Liefeld has some good work…but assistance in his first chapter, a change up in inkers halfway through his second, and his complete absence from the third leads to a lack of visual uniformity within a third of the story. And Jon Bogdanove, while an absolute genius in the brilliant Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men, has never impressed me too much with his exaggerated cartoony style, especially when attempting to blend with Jim Lee’s far more “heightened realism”. The contrast is just incredibly jarring and occasionally distracts the reader from the real action of the story.
But writing wise, this is how crossovers are meant to be done. The elements that Claremont and Simonson had been developing for years organically grew into this final conflict. Nothing was certain in this high stakes game, with the antagonist not merely being a powerful villain but the ideology and resources of an entire nation. The casts merge and interact seamlessly, allowing for each chapter to flow into the next rather than stiffly shifting focus between each individual title. And the greatest compliment I can think to give it is that it was not afraid to change the status quo. These big event stories of the 80s and early 90s would shake things up with an almost sadistic delight. Anything could happen and no one was safe. Want to change a team line up? Go ahead. Need to kill off a character or radically change another? Be our guest. The reason that stories from this era shine while those of the latter part of the 90s suffer and stagnate is that at a certain point, the audience realized that no change would come out of those later stories. Even if there was change at the very end of a story, the status quo would be reestablished within a very short time. Without change, without risk there are no stakes, no real conflict, no drama. And that is what X-Tinction Agenda is all about: risk, stakes, change.
This entry written by Jordan T. Maxwell
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen251.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen251.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #251 – Fever Dream"></a>#17: Fever Dream
Uncanny X-Men #251
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Marc Silvestri
If you don't like Wolverine, you won't like Fever Dream. Or maybe the reason you don't like Wolverine is because you haven't read Fever Dream.
Let's be clear: Claremont's version of Wolverine bears no resemblance to the growling, inhuman beast he is often portrayed as today. Claremont has always portrayed Wolverine as a creature driven equally by honor and instinct... two conflicting impulses to be sure. Though the animalistic part of Wolverine is always present, it is not something Wolverine willingly surrenders himself to. In the tradition of the samurai, Claremont's Wolverine knows that there is greater strength in not killing a man than in killing a man... which is not to say he won't kill if need be.
What does any of that have to do with Fever Dream? Quite simply, Fever Dream is Wolverine at both his most vulnerable and his most strong. The aura of indestructibility that had always surrounded Wolverine was significantly diminished here, as Wolverine finds himself completely at the mercy of Donald Pierce. Crucified upon an X, an image portrayed in one of the best comic book covers ever produced, Wolverine's mind begins to retreat into itself even as his seemingly invincible body withers. Wolverine has a series of hallucinations, which are actually visions sent to him by the mysterious Gateway, and which are a combination of twisted flashbacks of past events and portents of things to come.
In his lucid moments, however, he is engaged in a psychological struggle with his captor, Donald Pierce. It is here that Wolverine's strength shows itself, as he easily wins each battle in the war of wills. When Pierce taunts Logan, Logan taunts him back, and it is Pierce who loses his cool. When Pierce, no longer content to leave Logan chained upon the X, produces stakes and crucifies him, Logan refuses to scream, further infuriating Pierce. This is a Wolverine we hadn't seen before: physically vulnerable but mentally determined, making him more real and more human in both ways.
The story also marks an important first: pulling himself off the cross, Wolverine finds himself staring into the face of Jubilee for the first time, and he asks the young stranger for her help. It is a scene that is, in a way, recently mirrored in Uncanny X-Men, where Wolverine pulls Jubilee off a cross she was put upon by the Church of Humanity. It also marks an important last: the last appearance of the Siege Perilous, which is crushed here by Donald Pierce in another (failed) effort to break Wolverine's spirit.
Fever Dream is a great character study of one of the most over-exposed and yet least understood characters in comics today. It ought to be required reading for anyone who reads (or writes) a Wolverine story.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/Marvels2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://Www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/Marvels2t.jpg" border=0 align=right alt="Marvels #2 - Monsters"></a>#16: Monsters
Marvels #2
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Alex Ross
"Protecting a world that hates and fears them."
This statement defines what the X-Men is all about. Surely, a lot of fans may have fallen in love with the X-Men because of the good characters, the action/adventure and the soap opera, but these are not the things that make the team stand out from the rest of Marvel's superhero populace. You can get that from ANY superhero book. What makes the X-Men unique is that they are the heroes that always get the short end of the stick. Whatever good deed they might have done, the people would always hate them. This theme of discrimination, a concept ahead of its time when Stan Lee introduced it, brings a very unique atmosphere to any X-Men related comic. And nowhere can we see a better representation of this misplaced geneticism in the Marvel Universe than in this short 44-page story called Monsters.
A brief overview: It was the dawn of the Silver Age of superheroes. With the birth of the Fantastic Four, the return of Captain America, and the formation of Earth's Mightiest Superheroes, these superheroes - these "Marvels" - have New York City and the rest of the world gaping in awe and in wonder. Capturing the story from behind his camera lens was Phil Sheldon, a freelance photographer who has made a reputation for catching the caped heroes in their full glory. But something was amiss in this world. For with every Marvel the people choose to adore, there was also a Monster - a mutant - that they have chosen to hate and fear. And when Phil Sheldon had an unexpected close encounter with a homo superior, he got struck with a startling realization. A realization that would change the way he perceives the Marvels - and the Monsters - forever.
Before I read this story, I always thought that the blind hatred against mutants in the Marvel Universe is a mere plot device used to make the X-books feel different from other books. Viewing the X-Men from a detached third-person perspective made me think that the people should have been really stupid to actually hate a bunch of heroes trying to save them. But Monsters changed my perspective on this issue. Because of Busiek and Ross' man-on-the-street approach, I was made to experience why people in the Marvel Universe hate mutants. The sense of paranoia against the next evolutionary step - reinforced by a sensationalizing media and words from prophets of doom like Bolivar Trask - was all perfectly captured in the pages of this story. It made me realize that one should never underestimate the people's capacity to act blindly because of the fear of the unknown. Just like how a lot of people blindly feared and hated any communist or Russian in the 60s just for being who they are, it's not hard to imagine how mutants could also suffer from such blanket profiling and stereotyping. Had I been in the Marvel Universe, I most probably would have found myself snapping and blindly lashing in an anti-mutant riot. I guess any of us would be after watching the Sentinels kill Bolivar Trask on public television.
Monsters successfully elicits a very emotional response from its readers due to two elements. First is the pacing. Starting from a very optimistic atmosphere, Kurt Busiek slowly builds up the tension and paranoia in the story by methodically inserting scenes showing Phil Sheldon's growing awareness of the mutant situation. From his first encounter with the X-Men, to his unexpected mutant encounter in his own home, to his dilemma on how to protect his family from a mutant-hating public, we see a natural progression in Phil's view towards mutants. And the pacing is complemented perfectly by the second element - Busiek's excellent use of contrast. The story was set against the backdrop of Reed and Sue Richards' wedding, one of the happiest moments in Marvel's Silver Age history. The extreme contrast in the public's adoration of the glamorous heroes and their vitriol over the mutants was a perfect irony. To paraphrase a line from the story, the Monsters were the dark side of the Marvels - the negatives without which the pretty pictures would never exist.
The X-Men appeared in less than 10 panels in this 44-pager. However, the theme of discrimination, which distinguished the X-Men over the years, could definitely be felt as the driving force behind this moving story. With Monsters, Busiek and Ross fully realized Lee and Kirby's commentary on man's propensity to blindly fear and hate the unknown. Add in a disturbing ending which could really depress the hell out of you, Monsters definitely deserves its position in the Top 40 X-Men stories of all time.
"Protecting a world that hates and fears them. "
Open your eyes and experience this world. Welcome to the world of Monsters.
This entry written by Erwin Rafael
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/257/astonxmen1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/257/astonxmen1.jpg" align=right alt="Astonishing X-Men #1 – Age of Apocalypse"></a>#15: The Age of Apocalypse
X-Men: Alpha, Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen, Amazing X-Men #1-4, Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 1) #1-4, Factor X #1-4, Gambit & The X-Ternals #1-4, Generation NeXt #1-4, Weapon X (Vol. 1) #1-4, X-Calibre #1-4, X-Man #1-4, X-Universe #1-2 & X-Men: Omega
Written By: Warren Ellis, Larry Hama, Terry Kavanagh, Scott Lobdell, Jeph Loeb, Howard Mackie, John Francis Moore, Fabian Nicieza & Mark Waid
Art By: Renato Arlem, Chris Bachalo, Roger Cruz, Tony Daniel, Terry Dodson, Steven Epting, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Salvador Larocca, Ken Lashley, Tom Lyle, Joe Madureira, Carlos Pacheco, Val Semeiks & Steve Skroce
The Age of Apocalypse (AoA for short) was a different kind of crossover. While stories like The X-tinction Agenda or Inferno featured X-titles crossing over to tell a common story, the AoA was actually a series of separate stories with a unifying factor between them: the alternate reality in which they existed. What's more, never before had the entire X-line been set aside for such an event, actually suspending the publication of the main titles in order to explore this separate world.
Alternate realities were nothing new by the time the AoA was conceived of, but they almost always took place in the future. What makes the Age of Apocalypse all the more interesting is that it altered the reality of the present, allowing us to get a glimpse of alternate versions of our favorite characters as they exist today: from the Summers brothers serving under Mr. Sinister, to Moira MacTaggart as part of a Sentinel-wielding Human High Council, to a mindless Multiple Man whose powers unwillingly provided Apocalypse with an army. And even the variations that were slight were enjoyable: the unbreakable Wolverine with only hand, the Cyclops with only one eye, the Iceman whose powers were so far beyond the limits of his regular counterpart.
And, though there was a shared storyline running through the titles, you didn't have to care. Each limited series was its own, self-contained story, and if you didn't want to be concerned with the larger story you could still enjoy the pieces on their own. And some of the pieces were startlingly good.
In fact, two are particularly worth mention. The first is Warren Ellis' X-Calibre, a personal favorite of mine, which followed Nightcrawler to the Savage Land to track down Destiny. This one featured a deliciously cruel Dani Moonstar; a mindless Deadpool, AKA "Dead Man Wade"; a great original character called Switchback; Damask, a variation on the Black Queen of the London Hellfire Club, who was far more interesting than her real world counterpart; and the Shadow King in possibly his coolest incarnation ever. This was "I've got a gun and I'll use it" cool. The AoA Nightcrawler made a great lead character, the villains were standouts, and Ellis' four issues did more with the Kurt/Mystique relationship than has ever been done in continuity.
The second worthy of individual recognition is Scott Lobdell's Generation NeXt, which followed the AoA's X-Men understudies on a mission to save Illyana Rasputin. Lobdell did an excellent job with all his characters, particularly the team's teachers Colossus and Shadowcat, and artist Chris Bachalo did some of his best work with the dark settings the story required. But the real success was in the ending: though the team succeeds in their mission, it costs all the young students their lives.
The AoA even gave us some characters that were continued over from after the story concluded. X-Man, the AoA version of Cable, continued his life and his series after the world was restored to normal, and continued his exploits for 75 issues. Several AoA villains-- the evil AoA version of the Beast, the grotesque Sugar Man, and Holocaust, the powerhouse offspring of Apocalypse - made the switch over to the post-AoA Marvel Universe, though all three are missing in action as of right now. And let's not forget that everyone's favorite Exile, Blink, started out in the AoA as well.
The Age of Apocalypse is a fanboy's dream: a look at our favorite characters and the world they inhabit from a new and fascinating perspective. What makes the story great is that it succeeds in the very thing most crossovers fail at: it functions as both a single, continuous story and as a series of separate tales, making it both epic and accessible at the same time.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/196/xmen-110.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/196/xmen-110.jpg" align=right alt="X-Men (Vol. 2) #110 – One Tin Soldier Rides Away"></a>#14: One Tin Soldier Rides Away
X-Men (Vol. 2) #110
Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Leinil Francis Yu
After Colossus’ death in Uncanny X-Men #390, the longtime X-Man deserved a poignant sendoff. That is what Scott Lobdell and Leinil Francis Yu gave him: a story that truly resonates with the reader.
The story follows Katherine Pryde’s thoughts and travels to Moscow to take Peter Nikolaevitch Rasputin’s cremated ashes to his homeland. Kitty was a friend, lover, and teammate to Peter. Through Kitty’s narration, we feel for her anguish and sorrow. It is hard to explain the real emotion you feel by reading this story. Colossus has grown up with X-Men fans, and everyone, even a fan like me who started in the 90’s, can love this tale.
Along with saying farewell to Colossus, Lobdell provides a goodbye to Kitty too. Instead of taking advantage of the X-Men’s advanced technology like the Blackbird jet, Kitty flies on an airplane with other normal people, starting off her new normal life at college. Kitty’s tired of the loss of her loved ones at Xavier’s Institute and hopes to gain a new life by getting an education, using her intelligence rather than her powers. In the end, Kitty’s thoughts assemble a letter to Xavier saying goodbye and Xavier deleting all of her files in Cerebro. Lobdell ends both characters significantly and excellently. Kitty’s leaving was a practical, fitting, and smart resolution to her career with the X-Men.
Kitty’s point of view is also highly enjoyable. The scene at Ye Old Malt Shoppe from Uncanny X-Men #129, where Storm recruits Kitty, is retold well. Kitty explains her first impressions of Peter, Logan, and Storm. Lobdell scripts fun dialogue and Kitty even mentions possibly eating leftover Shi’ar food.
Leinil Yu crafts an amazing story. Even though his style is gritty and rough, he portrays a wide-eyed young Kitty and towering Colossus. The double splash page of Kitty releasing Peter’s ashes into the wind was brilliant. Each scene uses appropriate colors to set the mood. Yu’s action scenes were intense and his Magneto is definitive.
One Tin Soldier Rides Away deserves its place with the greatest 40 X-Men stories of all time because of its authentic emotions, saying goodbye to two X-Men and beginning a new journey for one.
This entry written by Omar A. Safi
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/173/excal016.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/173/excal016.jpg" align=right alt="Excalibur #16 – Cross-Time Caper"></a>#13: Cross-Time Caper
Excalibur #11-19 & 21-24
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Alan Davis, Dennis Jensen, Rick Leonardi & Chris Wozniak
The early years of Excalibur were some of the most fun you could have in comic books, and no single story represents that spirit better than the Cross-Time Caper.
The Excalibur team, along with long-time hanger-on Alistaire Stuart, is transported into an alternate reality by way of a dragon-powered bullet train (yes, you read that correctly). Over the next fourteen issues, the Excalibur team hops madly from reality to reality in their attempts to return home. They pass through a magical, medieval kingdom; an unsettled England a la the Wild West; a war between an evil sorceress and a spunky space pirate; and several dystopias that range from the seemingly dire to the downright nutty.
The Cross-Time Caper, even in its more dramatic moments, was still pure escapist fun. The storyline never took itself too seriously, and how could it? You had an ogre in jockey shorts, smoking a cigar, holding Kitty hostage in a giant glass jar; you had Kitty sitting in a bar right out of Star Wars, relating her tale to a bunch of babbling aliens; and you had a Speed Racer-style hotrod race with an alternate Jamie Braddock.
The story, even after all this time, even after growing up, is still as readable and enjoyable as it was the first time around. It provided images that will never leave me: Alistaire Stuart blushing in his kilt, Kurt expertly disarming his lovely opponent with a twirl of his swords, Kitty Pryde trying (and failing) to look sexy for Alistaire. And there were a few moments that, though glazed over at the time, were to set up more serious drama later on. Kitty Pryde took a life during the story, stabbing the Princess Anjulie in the back to save her friends. Though the event was not one of serious drama when it happened, Kitty's angst over this and other things she has had to do in her years as a mutant adventurer remain with her to this day.
The Caper deserves to be on the list because, taken by itself, it's actually an excellent symbol of what comics at their best have always been about: allowing readers to enjoy themselves by slipping away into another place, another time.
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/85/mcp072.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/85/mcp072.jpg" align=right alt="Marvel Comics Presents #72 – Weapon X"></a>#12: Weapon X
Marvel Comics Presents #72-84
Written By: Barry Windsor-Smith
Art By: Barry Windsor-Smith
There are two stars to this story: Wolverine and Barry Windsor-Smith. Of course, the story itself is about Wolverine, one of the most popular comic book characters ever created (and this is one of the tales that helped cement that position). But whereas most often in mainstream comics the creator is merely an instrument to tell stories about the characters, here the character is as much a vehicle to showcase the talents of the uniquely talented Barry Windsor-Smith, who not only wrote and penciled the entire story but also inked and colored it as well. The only aspect he left to another was the lettering (but more on that later).
Many ask what makes Wolverine so incredibly popular. Ask a middle schooler and the answer will typically fall into the response of “because he’s so kewl.” The claws, the attitude, the fact that he’s “the best there is” at what he does? Yes, but there’s something more: an almost iconic, archetypal quality. Wolverine is Oedipus. Not with the modern connotations of wanting to sleep with one’s own mother (though, as revealed in Origin, he did most likely kill his own father), but a powerful man easily angered into berserker rages on a quest to discover the secrets of his mysterious past, no matter the cost… and one who runs from his own destiny only to encounter it. Slap on a pair of claws and mousse up the hair a bit, and the tragic hero of Sophocles’ play cycle is a dead wringer for our own Logan. That mystery, that destiny, the forces of fate that shaped Logan into Wolverine, are explored for the first time in this quietly intense tale. A government agent, suspended for his violent behavior, drowns his sorrows in pills and booze. His oracle is a hotel called the Prophecy, and the nightmare visions he receives are of darkness, death, spikes, pain, bones and dagger hands. He contemplates the storm that’s coming, unaware of the forces slowly aligning, the threads of fate entwining around and about him. He’s soon abducted and taken to a testing facility where amongst the staff and guards we meet the three characters who will prove so pivotal to the destiny awaiting their captive. Cornelius, Hines and the ironically named Professor who appears to be in charge of the operation. They bond an unbreakable metal, adamantium, to his bones. They act surprised when an excess of the metal seems drawn to his forearms. Even moreso when claws protrude from his hands. He is set against creatures in the wilderness and trained to hunt, to kill, his mind controlled by machines… machines that cannot suppress his own killer instincts as he slips free of his control and tries to escape, to no avail. And we begin to realize that there is someone else in control of these operations, an unknown puppet master who holds even the Professor’s strings. As the surreal and Byzantine loops of the story lead us deeper into carnage, death and the twisted psyche of Wolverine, nothing is certain except that you can’t hope to control a weapon of such power as Weapon X.
The level of artistic unity that comes from Windsor-Smith handling almost every creative aspect of this book is astounding. While there is much to be said for the collaborative process and the kind of synergy it can infuse a work with, it is also compelling to watch a singular vision and drive create completely on its own. And the lettering of Jim Novak integrates Windsor-Smith’s text so deftly into his imagery that it becomes a part of the portrait, captions leading your eye across the page in ways it normally would not go, absorbing layers of information as it travels. But beyond the energy that comes from the creative process, there’s just incredible work here. The writing is utterly engaging and hypnotic, with a quiet intensity that makes you very aware of your own pulse and breathing, and how they both quickly get caught up in the rhythm and flow of the prose and dialogue. Each character has a distinct feel and tone. There’s a kind of sympathy for Cornelius, an affection built for Hines and while the Professor is at first viewed as the ominous antagonist of the piece, he is eventually revealed to be the most foolish of them all. And of course, there’s Logan: his despair at the beginning, his pain throughout, and his final twisted psychic journey, tearing himself apart. But even worse is when there is no fear, no hate, only the cold stare of a soulless killer. The first part hooks you in, and perfectly juxtaposes text and imagery to enhance or redefine meaning. The subsequent tale leaves you breathless and hungry for more (even more torturous, since this was first revealed in serialized short story form), driving you forward to the violent cathartic end. The attention to detail is astounding, and every panel breathes. The claustrophobia of the tank, the paranoia in the control room, the pain and desolation of the wilderness… and the fear. Fear bleeds through every word and picture. Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of death.
There are answers here, if you look for them. The fact that Wolverine’s claws might not be artificial is first hinted at here. The fact that a greater power was controlling the project is all but stated at several points throughout the piece… perhaps the calls were coming from the recently revealed Weapon Plus program? The hand of destiny is at work in this piece (you need only look at the very first two panels to see that), and it is our first peek into the mysteries of Logan’s origins. But for the mysteries it answers, it still leaves many behind. If Wolverine was found by the Hudsons and brought into Department H after the incidents in these stories, then why do both refer to him as Weapon X? Who really WAS the mastermind behind the project? And what really happens at the end? The best answers always leave more questions in their wake. The best stories never hand you everything on a platter, and they make you work for the answers you do get. In the case of Weapon X, the rewards are well worth the effort.
This entry written by Jordan T. Maxwell
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<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/media/188/uxmen390.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/4images/data/thumbnails/188/uxmen390.jpg" align=right alt="Uncanny X-Men #390 – The Cure"></a>#11: The Cure
Uncanny X-Men #390
Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Salvador Larocca
I understand if you dislike this story. Many X-fans have nothing but bad things to say about the Legacy Virus as a story device, and have a hard time accepting this speedy resolution, not to mention its cost: the life of a popular X-Man, Colossus. Like I said, I understand if you don't like this story. But you're wrong to do so.
The purpose of this story, as the name suggests, is to cure the Legacy Virus, to take it off Marvel's table. For years the Legacy Virus had merely been sitting there, with a number of high profile names contracting the disease and then carrying on, business as usual, for years and years. For a deadly contagious disease there seemed to be no real danger involved in its presence in the Marvel Universe. It had become ineffective and something of an embarrassment, and the time had come to do away with it.
There are two things about this issue that irk fans. The first is the quick and easy solution to what should have been a very complicated problem (curing the Legacy Virus). The second, of course, is the death of Colossus.
The dispersal of the cure is quick and easy, maybe even a little too convenient. That said, the process of searching for that cure was anything BUT convenient, a process that took years and years of stories and was documented in staggering detail. In many ways that's how I imagine a cure to a real world disease might work: years of painstaking research, filled with alternating periods of no progress and sudden spurts of success, yielding an eventual cure. Once that cure was found, the process of distributing it to the public would ideally be a speedy one. Scott Lobdell does take a shortcut here, using Colossus' energy signature to disperse the cure across the world, curing everyone. Perhaps it would have been nice to see the process involved in actually getting the cure out to people, the X-Men traveling abroad and gathering sufferers together to inoculate them. But Lobdell's shortcut, though wanting for realism, sets up the focus of the issue: one man's struggle with himself, and what is the right thing to do.
Which brings us to Colossus. Peter's ending of his own life in order to cure the disease can be seen many ways, and all of them make perfect sense for who he is. You can see it as an act of heroism, a selfless sacrifice to ensure that no one else dies of this awful disease. You can see it as an act of penance, a way to punish himself and to pay for what he perceived as his failure in keeping his sister safe. Or you can see it as an act of cowardice, the actions of a man with nobody and nothing left to live for, taking the easy way out and using mock heroics as a veil for his own weakness.
I choose to see it as all of the above. Ever since the death of his sister from the Legacy Virus, Peter's life had been a spiral of pain and sorrow. He suffered so many defeats, so many tragedies that his very mental state was called into question. For years he was alternating between losing control and just hanging on, his emotional devastation displayed throughout the decade with a realism rarely seen in the medium. Here, in this single issue, that all comes to a head, to a single choice in a single moment, one that would come to define everything Peter Rasputin had become.
What makes this story worthy of inclusion on this list is the fact that Scott Lobdell realized that this was where the Peter Rasputin story HAD to end. There are some pains you don't heal from, and Peter had suffered several such injuries to his mind and soul. Peter Rasputin would have continued to wallow in that pain forever, only occasionally struggling, and failing, to free himself from its grip. Peter HAD to die, it was the only way to move the character forward, to end that struggle once and for all. And, in the Legacy Virus, Scott Lobdell found the ideal instrument with which to bring Peter to his devastating climax.
The final image of Peter lying on the floor, dead, is what this all comes down to: loss, pain, the end that must come for every new beginning. Lobdell's narration of the final scene reuses dialogue from Giant-Size X-Men #1, from Peter's struggle with whether or not to join the X-Men in the first place. The advice Peter is given for that first decision, when viewed in the context of his final decision, is the kind of send-off every major character ought to have: a fitting and poignant finale to this story, and to Peter's story.
"The Professor wants to take me with him, to teach me how to deal with my mutant powers. There is wisdom in his words, papa... but I am happy here. Tell me, papa... what should I do?"
"Do as your heart tells you, my son. It will not betray you."
"My heart tells me to stay, papa... but my conscience tells me otherwise. I must go, papa."
"Then, it is right that you do."
This entry written by Joel Phillips
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Be sure to check back next week for our fabulous finale: Part 4, #10-1! For more special articles, features, and columns celebrating the 40th Anniversaries of the Avengers and X-Men, click here! (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21464)