(Russell Brand: The Early Years, or, My Skaggy-Wag)
Comments
This, at last, is the very first X-Men issue to provide what Claremont eems to have been wanting since the very earliest stages of his run: an X-Men story entirely devoid of superhero conflict. The closest we come is Colossus' efforts in the industrial vice which appears on the cover (short version: he keeps whining that he can't do it until Wolverine jumps in with him, forcing him to actually do something rather than forever complaining about not being able to do it), and Storm's rather minor use of her powers to put the wind up (no pun intended) some teenage skag-heads.
Indeed, since that latter encounter is the closest this issue comes to an A plot (it's really more of a series of vignettes than anything else, not that there's anything wrong with that), it seems odd that it's Colossus on the cover. I guess it looks more exciting than having Storm looming over barely post-pubescent heroin addicts. I also dimly remember reading somewhere that having a female be the only superhero on a cover was a definite no-no until more recently than you'd think. A quick scan of the covers to this point demonstrate that it has indeed not happened, though in fairness well over 90% of the covers feature multiple team members, so there's not much data to go on.
Anyway, Storm's confrontation is definitely the most interesting aspect to the issue, as she finally has to consider the possibility that there are some problems that no superhero can possibly solve, however powerful, and that beneath skies burning with the pyrotechnics of her and her kind, humanity is doing a fine job of eating itself without help from the Skrulls, or the Brotherhood, or HYDRA. It's not exactly a happy thought, but it's an important one to bear in mind.
In other news, Angus McWhirter's disappearance (he was attacked by forces unknown on Muir Island at the end of UXM #119) has now been noted, Colleen Wing has clearly fallen hard for Cyclops (apparently the way to deal with emotionally depressed men is to give them keys to your apartment and hope for the best), Jean has been targetted by "Jason Wyngarde" (who we already know is Mastermind from his shadow", Wolverine discovers Mariko has arrived in New York, Banshee and Nightcrawler try to fix the mothballed Blackbird, Charles watches on Imperial Center as Lilandra is crowned Empress, and Black Tom and Juggernaut have hired the assasssin Arcade for a very special assignment: kill the X-Men. Whew!
Clues
This story takes place over approximately a day.
Cyclops mentions battling the Living Monolith with Colleen Wing after they returned to the States. The issue in which that confrontation took place is missing from the online archive, so there's no way to tell how long that story was, but let's set aside a full day for it.
Date
Monday 17th of August, 1982.
X-Date
X+4Y+140.
Compression Constant
1 Marvel year = 3.59 standard years.
(Storm is 35 years old).
 |
| "No not threaten me, child." |
The German public become the first to gain commercial access to the newly-created CD.
Mark Salling is born, best known for becoming one of those responsible for the insane hyperglycemic auto-tuned audio-visual nightmare known in terrified whispers as Glee.
Standout Line
"They live in a society more concerned about cagin' 13-year-olds for life than tryin' to give 'em a decent chance." - Luke Cage. Not the most poetic phrasing possible, but it remains so miserably true that it's worth picking out in any case.
No comments:
Post a Comment