UXM #53: "The Rage Of Blastaar!"

(They tame lions with their fists!)

Comments

Is it weird that I can't stop looking at Blastaar's briefs?  It's just that they seem to change shape and colour every panel.  It's hypnotic.

What exactly is the purpose of the machine Jean Grey is trying out?  From what Beast says, it might be a teleporter (though he doesn't say anything about being able to rematerialise, which makes it essentially an exceptionally snazzy furnace), but Jean's experience whilst running it suggests it might have a... different application:

Internal vi -- vi -- vibrations -- beginning to b -- b -- build!... OOOO! W -- what was that?  S -- sudden burst of energy!" 

Whatever floats your boat, love.  "This machine was totally built by a dead guy who said I could use it, honest!"

This whole issue has a distinctly thrown-together feel, both in terms of Drake's writing and Barry Smith's artwork.  Given that the story promised at the end of last issue ("Wanted: Cyclops, Dead or Alive") is showing up in issue #54, I suspect there was a delay somewhere that required this be
rushed through instead.

I mentioned a little while ago how much I liked the idea of Cyclops using his optic blasts to hurl himself out of harm's way.  This issue he uses them to fly, though, about which I am less pleased.  On the other hand, Iceman's use of his powers to create tiny wisps of liquid oxygen is a really good idea, and I presume it would work to rouse people from unconsciousness, though potentially in a pretty painful way.

Having him create and animate ice-men is a pretty neat idea as well, it's a shame he doesn't do it more often.  Mind you, since this first outing led to the melting constructs accidentally electrocuting Blastaar, maybe he figured it was more trouble than it was worth.

Clues

This issue plays out in real time.

Iceman is clearly back on his feet after the beating he took last issue.  Of course, it's already been established that Bobby has exceptional healing ability, so that needn't slow us down to much (besides, it was pretty heavily implied that Bobby was faking last issue, in the hopes he might get a pity ticket to Lorna's friskoteque).

We'll give him four days to recover, then.

Date

Tuesday 20^th May, 1980.

X-Date

There'll be a new approach to X-Date from now on: X remains the day that Jean Grey first joined the X-Men, but we'll start counting the years separately (as Y, natch), so as to keep the numbers from getting too big.

X+2Y+50.

Compression Constant

1 Marvel year = 2.53 standard years.

(Iceman is 34 years old.)

"Sometimes I think we made our biggest
goof when we gave women the vote!"

Contemporary Events

A public referendum in Quebec rejects the plan to claim independence from Canada.

Standout Line

"A living rocket -- aimed at your vitals!"  Yeah, I've tried that chat-up line a few times too.  Didn't do me any more good than it did Blastaar.