The Batlord

Fair warning, this is gonna be long as ****, but in order to do these issues justice for their historical significance I don't want to do just the bare minimum.

First thing to notice about this run, which picks up exactly where Giant-Size X-Men left off, is that the writer, Chris Claremont, is already laying the groundwork for big things in the future of the X-Men that will unfold over the course of years, and whose aftershocks are still being felt to this day. "Ambitious" is as appropriate a word as any. I haven't dived into the Phoenix Saga, which begins with #101, so I can't yet gauge its quality, but the fact that it's one of, if not the most famous storylines in comic book history probably speaks for itself. Claremont obviously wants to take his time with this. Elements of what is to come are dropped without much explanation a few issues in, leaving us to wonder just what the frak is about to happen, and this foreshadowing is generally dramatic enough that you want to keep reading. Having the benefit of hindsight, and having watched the 90s cartoon series, which by all accounts is supposed to be relatively faithful to the comics, these events are not quite as mysterious as they could be, but they're still cool nonetheless.

Way back in issue #94 a subplot of a government-funded scientist out to destroy all of mutantkind is introduced, though not explored fully until later. Not exactly the most original of plots, but it reestablishes the idea of mutant persecution into the series, and also sets the scene for some very heavy **** that will happen later...

The most obvious sign of what is to come though is the first appearance of Lilandra and the Shi'ar in issue #97. It's in the form of a confusing dream sequence in Professor Xavier's mind of a space battle and someone in a helmet that looks like a bug that provides little answers, and with artwork that is simply spectacular. Even though I already know what is going on I was still fascinated. This was no throwaway pulp silliness. Even if I were reading this for the first time in 1976 I probably would have realized I was about to delve into something special.

Cyclops is likewise being set up for the okie doke. First, his friends are kidnapped in Giant-Size X-Men, which I'm sure does nothing for his confidence as a leader, then in the very next issue the entire rest of the original team, people who he had fought and laughed with since he was in his teens, quits the X-Men, leaving him alone with an entirely new team of strangers. It also further eats at him that while his teammates can easily live among humans (I guess Angel can retract his wings into his body), his eyes mean that he must remain isolated from humanity. Things quickly escalate even further when Thunderbird is killed on a mission, partly because of an order he gives. And did I mention that his brother is currently under the mind control of some goofball who calls himself Eric the Red? But with issue #100, Jean seemingly chooses to sacrifice herself to save the rest of the team, which must be the blow of all yet. Oh ****, and with all this space stuff going on his dad is probably gonna show up at some point in the near future too. Then of course there's the whole Phoenix thing. Ten bucks says he is cutting himself off-panel during this period. Much of this is covered in the 90s cartoon, but not in the way that ****ty bull**** is piled on top of ****ty bull**** right on his head. His characterization is definitely more ambitious in the long-term in this run. If I'm not careful I might actually start to see Cyclops as more than just a boring boy scout.

While this might not seem as important as other things that are about to hit, consider this... in the current run of Uncanny X-Men, Scott Summers has become disillusioned with Professor Xavier's dream of peace between mutants and humans, and so has split with the X-Men to become a terrorist agitating for mutant rights. He's also working with Magneto, so that should give you an idea of where he's at right now. I've not read the original original X-Men comics, so I can't say for sure, but I imagine this is where his idealism first starts to erode (though the original team will be addressed later in this journal when I cover the new All-New X-Men series ). How his character evolves between 1976 and 2014 I'm not really sure, but for this character arc to still be having repercussions almost forty years later, then this is probably stuff you should be paying attention to.

However there are problems with this arc. I guess with all of Claremont's big plans the actual issue-to-issue plots that aren't necessarily connected to what is coming are kind of phoned in. The mission where Thunderbird is killed is about stopping some guy who is actually called "Count Nefaria", who has the audacity to wear a ****ing monocle. I won't even dignify his douchey goatee and Dracula cape with a proper insult. He also has henchmen that are a frog guy, a gorilla guy, a cat guy, and a dragonfly chick. If I'm forgetting any of them it's because I don't give enough of a **** to go and look them up. They're called the "Animen". I believe that derides itself. And aside from its affect on Cyclops, Thunderbird's death is pretty shrug-worthy. He'd been in exactly three issues, and for the most part his sole character trait was regularly telling Scott to go **** himself. I'm paraphrasing of course. So, who really cares that they killed the guy who wore feathers in his hair? We have Wolverine to give Cyclops a hard time anyway. Then in the next issue they fight some Cthulhu-lite demon who isn't exactly the most inspiring villain.

Even the mad scientist out to destroy all mutants is kind of half-assed, and really just there for the purpose of having a space base. And the base's sole purpose is to give Jean a reason to fly a space shuttle back to Earth through a solar flare, where she of course picks up the Phoenix. A plot line involving resurgent sentinels that are just sort of there, evil X-Men-doppleganger robots, and a villain who is forgotten as quickly as it takes for him to fly his goofy hover craft into a giant TV aren't exactly the stuff of legend.

Characterization is kind of thin as well. With six new characters this is understandable, but it doesn't make Colossus or Banshee anymore interesting at this point. They're really just there to say Russian and Irish things like "comrade" and "me boyo". While it is humorous to hear Nightcrawler referred to as a "davarish", I can't say I am enthralled by it. I'm sure Colossus will be developed much more soon though, as I'm assuming one of the most beloved X-Men in history can't be summed up as merely a shiny, Russian stereotype.

I would be totally happy if Banshee had been replaced by Sunfire though (the Japanese guy from Giant-Size X-Men). Sunfire is just an *******, and I respect that. He seems to have gone along with the team merely as a favor to Xavier, and proceeded to spend the entirety of the issue mocking his teammates and being an arrogant douche who made sure that everyone knew just how little he cared about them or the plight of mutantkind in general. To drive this point home, he leaves the team in the first few pages of the next issue, #94, and all but gives them all the finger on his way out the door. His only loyalty is to his Emperor after all. (I'm just going to pretend that that, his implied xenophobia and isolationism, and one of the X-Men casually referring to him as a Jap aren't racist.) I suppose Wolverine already has "Resident Team Asshat" covered, but everyone knows that while he may be hard on the outside he has a creamy filling. Sunfire is just a cunt. I like that.

Nightcrawler receives a bit more of a personality, likely due to his being so ****ing cool looking. How could you not concentrate on him? One might expect someone who has to have had such a hard time as him to be tormented and withdrawn, but in fact he is rather colorful and flamboyant, playing the circus performer working a crowd in battle, and pointing out a nice pair of legs to a Colossus who is a bit uncomfortable with these Western women and their immodesty.

Storm definitely has the most panel time of any X-Man besides Cyclops and Professor X though. Not surprising, as between a strong personality gained from her years assuming the role of a benevolent goddess, the most visually impressive powers of the entire comic, and being a beautiful black woman with white hair she is obviously a star in the making. Much old school comic book dialogue can be seriously cheesy at times, but with Storm's flair for the dramatic she manages to make it sound appropriate. Likewise, action scenes tended to lack the dynamic quality of modern comics, with panels tending to look more jumbled and two-dimensional the more things are going on at any one time, and X-Men being a team-based series, this can be an issue. But no matter these problems it's still bad-to-the-ass when Storm forms a hurricane over the buildings of New York city to destroy a sentinel. And I'm sure many a comic book nerd around this time was diagnosed with a previously dormant case of Jungle Fever.

In contrast, for such an iconic character, Wolverine starts out as pretty much just a grumpy guy with a few funny lines. But Claremont is obviously taking his time with Logan as well. Around the end of this arc he gets a few tasty moments of character building that show his potential. The most obvious would be during the battle with the doppleganger X-Men (aka the X-Sentinels) aboard the space base in issue #100. All of the other new X-Men are under the illusion that their predecessors are being mind-controlled. Havoc and Polaris have previously been shown to be under the control of Eric the Red after all, so this is a reasonable assumption. Using his sense of smell however, Wolverine realizes that these are in fact machines, and in a berserker rage seemingly eviscerates Jean Grey, to the horror of his teammates. Having seen his violent, unpredictable nature in previous issues they assume that he has just murdered her. Obviously this isn't the case, but the other X-Men's reactions are telling.

It's also interesting to see the seeds of Wolverine's relationships with Cyclops and Jean. For the most part he doesn't say much to Scott, but when he does it's usually rather unfriendly, such as "critiquing" Cyclops for refusing to cut down his mind-controlled brother in issue #97. For the most part nothing so blatantly insulting as Thunderbird, but I'm sure their dynamic will soon deteriorate even further. Having quit the X-Men, Jean doesn't feature much in earlier issues, but is still apparently in a relationship with Scott, so she has a cameo or two. She is a major player in the mad scientist/sentinel/space base arc though, for obvious reasons. Most of the team seems to let Wolverine get away with his standoffish attitude, but Jean is the one person who's willing to get in his face and tell him to **** off. I'm paraphrasing of course. At any rate, she certainly doesn't think much of him at this point. This culminates in a brief, but intense argument just before Jean pilots the space shuttle through the solar flare. He doesn't say much, but the look he gives her over his shoulder immediately afterward seems to be the first hint of the Scott-Jean-Logan love triangle. It's subtle though, and in 1976 I probably wouldn't have thought it anything more than him being butthurt.

Speaking of the space shuttle, though Claremont had up to this point shown promising but occasionally mixed results with building emotional tension, he really tops himself with this scene at the end of #100. Basically, the space shuttle that the X-Men used to go into space had been damaged in a previous battle, and so the auto-pilot is now no longer functional. But the largest solar flare in recent history means that any human pilot will be exposed to lethal levels of radiation. While a few of the X-Men may be able to survive outside of a shielded "life cell", the only qualified pilot is a human. The only solution is for Jean Grey to use her psychic powers to extract the knowledge to pilot the shuttle directly from his brain, and then use her telekinetic powers to shield herself from the solar radiation. This being a comic book, it's pretty hard to sell that a character is about to die, but Claremont manages this. Thunderbird's death was pretty anti-climactic, but Jean Grey is a main ****ing character, so the stakes are obviously much higher. Claremont keeps this scene from being overblown however. It would be easy for Scott and Jean's farewell to be eye-rollingly cheesy, but Jean knocking him out with a mental blast in order to prevent him from stopping her after only a panel of Scott nearly panicking over Jean's safety keeps this exchange from becoming too melodramatic, while building tension at the same time. They could have spent a few more panels on this, but space limitations probably played a part. The inevitability of Jean's death is brought home even further when, after a tearful farewell, she asks Storm to tell Scott that she "loved him". A understated little line, but it's still powerful. The issue then ends with Jean, alone in the cockpit of the shuttle, about to set out for Earth, supposedly to her death...

While this batch of issues may have some hiccups, the potential they show is obvious, and knowing what is about to happen gives me an appreciation that I might not have had at the time, even if it comes at the expense of suspense. I'm pretty stoked to start the first half of the Pheonix saga with issues #101-108, so stayed tuned for that review pretty frakking soon. Not that this journal will be all X-men, all the time, but for the foreseeable future they'll definitely be featuring pretty prominently.

X-celsior!

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