tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91968686312367685312024-03-18T11:55:02.311+00:00Year XEvery X-book considered and assembled into a slipshod time-line, September '63 to May '86.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.comBlogger516125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-52944978990820113922016-07-19T08:00:00.000+01:002016-07-19T08:00:13.056+01:00FRS #3: "This Lady Kills!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dizcpGldOBE/V39uNT3kXzI/AAAAAAAAI24/aRp5VKmx5E0vALBPRteXPwnFVzQpHLhzQCLcB/s1600/firestar3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dizcpGldOBE/V39uNT3kXzI/AAAAAAAAI24/aRp5VKmx5E0vALBPRteXPwnFVzQpHLhzQCLcB/s320/firestar3.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
(Reheated meal)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
There's not a great deal I can say about this one; it's the third issue of the series, and clearly an instalment which only exists to get us to the four parts Marvel minis of the era apparently all needed to have. The first 15 pages simply retread the material of the second issue, with the White Queen trying to train Angelica to be more aggressive with her powers, and Angelica herself dealing with the resentment of her fellows. This reiteration would be fairly irritating under most circumstances, but compounding the problem here is that Emma is still trying to persuade Firestar (through android training replicas and the "hallucinator" bracelet) that the X-Men desire the young woman's death even after she faced them in <i>UXM </i>#193 and found out there were pretty much OK. Not only does this make much of this issue seem pointless, the need to have Emma explain via flashback what happened during that confrontation means by far the most exciting event of the issue isn't even <i>in </i>the issue, once again raising the question of what this mini-series is actually supposed to be doing beyond filling in some rather uninspiring background on a character only briefly glimpsed before.<br />
<br />
There's exactly one moment in the first two thirds of the issue that I like; when Roulette uses one of her bad luck discs to make Angelica trip during a dance class, Empath has to ramp up the teacher's frustration with his own powers to make her explode at Firestar for her "clumsiness". It's maybe not a particularly important thing in the grand scheme of the universe, but I always appreciate the suggestion that an education professional isn't going to start screaming at one of their pupils in the middle of a class because they screwed up. Given the almost endless number of scenes in teenage-aimed stories (and beyond, frankly) in which teachers are portrayed as sadistic tormentors always seventy minutes away from a coronary incident, it's nice when a story reminds us the intersection between those who want to educate children and those who want to terrify and humiliate them is actually pretty small. Of course, this is less an impressive piece of scripting from DeFalco than it is a moment of baseline competence that's somehow ridiculously rare.<br />
<br />
In the final third, things get a little better, as Angelica takes a trip home to be reunited with the father who essentially disowned her as a mutant last time they met. It'd be easy to have him remain a one-note bigot and for Firestar to refuse to acknowledge him from the off (which, to be clear, would be a perfectly reasonable position for her to take). Instead Angelica is delighted to see her father, and keen to jump-start their relationship. As always, having never been disowned by my family for an irreducible part of my identity (I've probably come close with my politics, but that's another matter) I can't sensibly describe this as the more "realistic" approach, but I'd characterise it as a more interesting one.<br />
<br />
It can't last, of course, Mr Jones, like Rusty in <i>XFC </i>#4, has spent too much of the last seven years hating mutants to be able to process them no longer being just images on the news. His confession to Angelica's "bodyguard" that he sometimes thinks his daughter would be better dead than <strike>red</strike> mutated has a horrible ring of verisimilitude to it. And he can try all he likes to insist his problem is not one of genetic bigotry but concern for how Angelica manifests her powers, but screaming "Are you <b>crazy</b>, girl?" at his only daughter for the crime of touching a cat makes that a pretty difficult sale. Over the long term, this might actually have been a story with some mileage in it, though one would have hoped it could be written by someone other than a cis-het white guy.<br />
<br />
Whilst the final third is a step up, though, it's still not a total success. Frost has only allowed Firestar to come home so one of her agents - dressed as the Star Trek IV boombox punk, for some reason - to fake an attempt on Mr Jones' life. The hope is that this immediate threat to Angelica's last known living relative will finally trigger a willingness to kill. Which is exactly what happens, leaving Emma's pseudo-punk assassin in critical condition, and the White Queen herself in high spirits. At long last Firestar finally cannot claim to have never deliberately microwaved a human's innards. After all that sweat, Frost can finally make use of Angelica Jones as a deadly assassin against... <i>Selene</i>?<br />
<br />
Selene. After two issues of Frost plotting to use Jones to murder Xavier - something <i>we already know she didn't do</i> - we suddenly switch to a character not even mentioned in the mini until this issue, when she annoys Shaw (also missing from the first half of this series) and he announces she must be killed.<br />
<br />
This is simply terrible writing. It's terrible writing for (at least) three reasons. First there's the fact that failing to introduce Selene until this issue makes it even more clear that this miniseries is just an afterthought to an <i>Uncanny X-Men</i> storyline, rather than anything with its own internal weight. Second, it essentially sets up a final issue in which Emma's plot pretty much has to fail, since there's no way Selene will be taken off the board here rather than in one of Claremont's ongoing series <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>. And third, there's nothing even approaching an attempt here to explain why Angelica's instinctive reaction to save her father will work against Selene. Is the plan to have Selene threaten Mr Jones too? How does Frost intend to get the Black Queen to cooperate? I mean, we still don't even really know why anyone expects Firestar to get the job done in the first place. Pretty much the only thing we know about Selene is that being thrown into a lake of boiling rock doesn't actually finish her off. Why assume microwaves would do the job, even if Angelica is minded to try? And if Frost and Shaw are using Angelica as their weapon in the hopes that should she fail, the attempt can't be traced back to them, surely having her spend well over a year as an enrolled student at the Massachusetts Academy was an entirely terrible idea.<br />
<br />
It's an understandable mistake, sure; the Hellfire Club had never heard of Selene when Frost first took charge of Firestar's education. But that just further demonstrates the structural problems here. This is a story about how Emma failed to get Angelica to murder Xavier, and then undertakes more or less the exact same approach to get her to murder Selene, with what is likely to be the same result. After a rather interesting first issue, this mini has rapidly lost my interest.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Yes, no reader is going to be headed into the final issue wondering whether or not Firestar is going to end up a murderer. But knowing Jones won't kill Selene is not the same thing as knowing she won't die.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This issue takes place over six days.<br />
<br />
It's now been a year and half since Angelica joined the academy, which puts the action here as kicking off in June 1985. This implies it's been six month since <i>UXM </i>#193, which seems rather a long time given Shaw is apparently only just now reading Frost's report on what happened, but this can't be helped;<i> UXM</i>'s own timeline makes it clear months pass between Firestar's first appearance and Selene becoming the Black Queen, so this title's implication that the two events more or less follow one after the other has to be ignored.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Tuesday 4<sup>th</sup> to Sunday 9<sup>th</sup> June 1985<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+93 to X+7Y+98.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Josef Mengele's body is exhumed in Brazil.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"I sometimes think I'd rather see her dead than have her suffer through life as a mutie..." - Bart Jones. Ouch.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-16781877029390873722016-07-13T08:00:00.000+01:002016-07-13T08:00:29.909+01:00XFA #4: "Trials And Errors"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GSghqF-hUYs/V3zbC7_FDFI/AAAAAAAAI2o/sx8ozA9pGFIgehAulRP9gSo5Rgsh_PGQwCLcB/s1600/XFA4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GSghqF-hUYs/V3zbC7_FDFI/AAAAAAAAI2o/sx8ozA9pGFIgehAulRP9gSo5Rgsh_PGQwCLcB/s320/XFA4.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<br />
("Are we the baddies?")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
There is no trial here without an error. No error that does not prove a trial for someone else, almost always Jean.<br />
<br />
Jean in fact is the focus of this issue, in particular how she's still struggling to come to terms with her return to a now-unfamiliar world. Rather pleasingly, this is kept in the realm of subtext - no clunky dialogue outlining her frustrations here - but it's all still pretty clear. There's three issues she's struggling with: her relationship with her former team-mates, her relationship with her new charges, and her relationship with the team she's on.<br />
<br />
It's not particularly surprising that Jean's struggle to work out how and why the dynamics have changed among the five original X-Men mainly boil down to not understanding how and why her dynamic has changed with Scott. Naturally, she's getting nothing from the source, because Cyclops is an inscrutable cove even when he isn't hiding the fact that once he thought his true love was dead he married her exact double. So instead she goes to talk to Warren to see if he has any insights.Which is an entirely sensible idea, in theory, but one rather complicated by the fact Warren is carrying a torch for her as well, and would rather that was the primary topic of conversation.<br />
<br />
Which is fine in theory. Nothing wrong with telling someone you think you'd make for a better match than the one they're currently chasing after. But in this particular case things are rather complicated by Warren knowing Scott's secret, and choosing not to divulge it. Starting a relationship with Jean with that feline still in the Prada would surely be problematic; she clearly still feels something for Scott, and might choose to pursue that or not once she knows the whole truth. Propositioning her without her having that context seems like a pretty good way to build up resentment. I'm not saying Warren should necessarily tell her about what's going on with Scott - breaking a good friend's confidence is no small thing, even when doing it seems like it would save another good friend pain, or at least render the pain acute rather than chronic. But if he doesn't want to do that, then he doesn't get to chase after Jean. Those are his choices.<br />
<br />
There's also the small issue of Candy Southern to consider, as well. The fact that she and Warren are still together isn't in itself a reason to criticise Warren for wanting to confess his feelings to Jean. Like Scott, he can be absolutely forgiven for not seeing this turn of events come to pass, and even if he had, if Warren is poly or even just struggling with unresolved feelings that separation had suspended but not swept away, we can sympathise. What's much harder to let slide is the fact he's clearly ignoring Candy whilst all this is going on. She feels the need to remind him who she is when she calls, and he still brushes her off and hangs up on her. That's acting like an arsehole whatever agreement regarding other partners Candy and Warren have reached. And Jean calls him on it, for all that that conversation, like the one in which Warren tries to confess his feelings, gets interrupted by an incoming call.<br />
<br />
This second call is from Cameron Hodge, summoning X-Factor for a mission. The team are off to a Massachusetts boarding school to investigate Martin Davies, a student blackmailing both his classmates and the staff with the secrets he's stolen from them with his terrifying mutant brain-powers. There's just one problem: Martin isn't a mutant, and can't read minds. All he can do is build listening devices.<br />
<br />
What we see here is several parts of the current public hysteria over mutants interacting. One hopes Headmaster Woodley was never a maths teacher, because he's terrible at probability. Even with a student claiming to be a mutant, the idea that it's more likely he's telling the truth than that he's bugged rooms in the school, or even that he's listening at keyholes, is flatly ridiculous. Aside from wanting to absolve himself of guilt over his failure to keep his secretary-shagging a secret, his reaction stems from the same root as those who become hysterical following terrorist attacks - the sheer scariness of the concept utterly overwhelms the rational knowledge that you will almost certainly never come close to encountering it. It's almost as stupid as insisting a Muslim child is less likely to commit a minor infelicity of common English than he is to claim he's invented clocks in a deliberate attempt to imply he's a bomb-maker through the sheer absurdity of the statement, to take a random example.<br />
<br />
X-Factor itself is contributing to this failure to understand risk. Their very existence seems to serve as proof that mutants are less rare an occurrence than sources like the media and scientists and personal experience suggest. If there really is only one mutant per ten thousand people, and if only a fraction of those have the power to be truly dangerous, how could X-Factor make a living by hunting them down? Either they're more common than the official line, or they're more dangerous, or both, and with people like Senator Kelly drafting anti-mutant legislation (his change of heart notwithstanding), it's not like the official line is particularly comforting to begin with. <br />
<br />
All of which is a pretty convincing argument that X-Factor doing more harm than good. And things are likely to get worse, too, The longer X-Factor gives the impression of having a successful business model, the more chance there is <i>genuine </i>mutant-hunter businesses will spring up. Which means the faster X-Factor saves mutants from mobs, the more mutants will be kidnapped off the streets and imprisoned/deported/executed.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DQ4SVzabQJk/V4PMa-Tl7XI/AAAAAAAAI3I/7W3nmmKnV8clygPc9KQ26hZj_WA3QNp0gCLcB/s1600/DtBH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DQ4SVzabQJk/V4PMa-Tl7XI/AAAAAAAAI3I/7W3nmmKnV8clygPc9KQ26hZj_WA3QNp0gCLcB/s1600/DtBH.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"We're taking you in, Sabertooth!"<br />"WHICH ONE IS SABERTOOTH!?!"<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As real as these concerns are, though, it's something else that clues Jean into how bad an idea X-Factor might actually be, and that's the reaction of the alleged mutant mind-reader to the team's arrival. Martin is obviously utterly terrified. He pretended to be a mutant in a desperate attempt to escape being tormented by his classmates - and it's interesting how he's figured out that (claimed) membership of a widely despised ethnic minority can paradoxically earn one cultural cache, or at least help you sidestep personal oppression even as you (claim that you) are subjected to grotesque systemic oppression - but now he thinks he's going to be kidnapped by bounty hunters and the idea horrifies him. A kid being bullied knows what X-Factor is when he sees it.<br />
<br />
The realisation that her team has stumbled into the business of scaring the crap out of schoolchildren who just wanted to be left alone brings Jean up rather short - especially since Scott is clearly deliberately upsetting Martin as a way of uncovering the truth. It makes her think of Rusty. If the faked half of X-Factor's approach has backfired so spectacularly, maybe their actual mission isn't working out either.<br />
<br />
Certainly, it's been tough going training Rusty recently. A lot of that isn't Jean's fault, admittedly. Cyclops contributions to the newcomer's education this issue consist of blundering into Rusty's training session for no reason - which is an utterly inexcusable thing to do when dealing with a pyrokinetic with major control issues - and then ticking off Jean for "overreacting" when she yells at Rusty for almost flash-frying both Scott and Artie. Apparently Cyclops won't say anything to Jean about his past or his feelings, but he'll happily harangue her for the crime of not wanting him burned alive.<br />
<br />
Rusty himself isn't making things any easier, in part because he's still having great difficulty in accepting who and what he is. Rusty seems to be consumed by the kind of denial and self-loathing you see in those who one day learn they were what they've been taught for years to fear and hate. By this point in the Marvel Universe mutants have been known to exist for at least seven years, and been hated and mistrusted by the public for virtually this entire time. It's obvious that many young people who learn they are mutants will have spent most of their conscious lives hating what they suddenly are. This manifests itself in a particularly - and ironically - ugly way, with Rusty congratulating Hank on the fact he can now pass as human, and yelling about how much he hates the fact the team insist on treating Artie Maddicks as if he's "normal", rather than a "freak". Even as Rusty stews in self-hatred about his new status, he's wielding his passing privilege as a metaphorical weapon against those who can't go out without the benefit of an image inducer or heavy make-up.<br />
<br />
Plus on top of all of that, he's still a teenager, which means everything is much worse. Even if Artie was the platonic ideal of an eleven-year old boy, you can bet Rusty would still throw a strop about having to share a room with him. It's just not, we can presume, "fair".<br />
<br />
Still, despite all this, Rusty does have a solid point: he genuinely didn't ask for any of this. Perhaps that's a rather facile comment from most teenagers - though I've always had some sympathy with the sentiment - Rusty's specific situation lends it more weight. It's perfectly acceptable for him to have no ambition beyond not being too dangerous to walk down the street anymore. Jean's insistence he buy into the team's larger goal of harmony between human and mutant must seem colossally presumptuous. Sure, the former X-Men are trying to help him, but when your doctor gives you your prescription they don't generally suggest you should take the pills whilst helping out at a soup kitchen.<br />
<br />
It's only upon meeting Martin that Jean realises this, and it's pretty important that she does. There's a direct link between Martin's terror and Rusty's misery, and that's that the team has lost interest in actually making the argument for mutant/human collaboration. Rusty is just expected to work out the importance of this for himself, and the general human population are supposed to do the same even though X-Factor are themselves working to make that harder. Their tactics don't just fail to align with the goal, they're running contrary to it. And no-one seems to have noticed, because no-one actually seems to be talking to each other. Scott wants to hide the truth from Jean; Warren wants to sleep with her, Hank is (understandably) busy looking at his own face a lot, and Bobby? Well, I'm not sure what Bobby's deal is, but given the position this blog has repeatedly taken we can assume he's got a lot of Hank-staring to get done as well.<br />
<br />
Which leaves Jean the only one obviously interested in how all this is actually going to work long term, as half the team fret about situations that are obviously unstable and the other half apparently checked out more or less totally. On this occasion her post-revelation activity centres on improving her teaching approach (again, without any help from the rest of the team). But the suggestion is clear that it can only be a matter of time before she take the next logical step, and starts tearing down this entire rotten structure. It is time for something new.<br />
<br />
It is time for something that can work.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place over a single day. Rusty says the team brought Artie back to base "last week". Since we have that as happening on the Saturday, that would presumably mean this story takes place on the following Saturday at the earliest, which is what we'll go for.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Saturday 20<sup>th</sup> April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+49.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Johnathan Davies <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz89CQLpuSs">plays his first match for Wales</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"When has Scott ever <b>not </b>been broody?" - Warren.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-5137786592357113862016-04-25T08:00:00.000+01:002016-04-25T08:00:08.429+01:00ALF #34: "Honor"<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D4qqdV1l04w/VwVHObWmAHI/AAAAAAAAIxs/3uco_8zP0XQHyHRiVirjIDA0VN13Ro9mg/s1600/ALF34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D4qqdV1l04w/VwVHObWmAHI/AAAAAAAAIxs/3uco_8zP0XQHyHRiVirjIDA0VN13Ro9mg/s320/ALF34.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<br />
(The latest samurai.)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments </b><br />
<br />
This is the most Byrne-esque the title has been since his departure. Those who've been reading for a little while will know I do not consider this to be a good thing. Mantlo's nods to his predecessors here involve a) clunky exposition flashbacks and b) problematic stereotypes.<br />
<br />
As best as I can tell, you cannot be a samurai any more. You can carry the weapons of the samurai, you can clad yourself in their armour, you can even live your life according to one of the philosophies the samurai espoused (which of course was far from homogeneous over time and location within Imperial Japan). But you can't actually be a samurai, because it's a title of nobility within a social structure that no longer exists. You can no more become samurai than you can become prince-bishop, no matter how many prayers you say.<br />
<br />
So I have something of a problem with the idea that so many of them are still about in the Marvel Universe. I mean, the whole obsession so many Western writers have with samurai is problematic for all sorts of reasons anyway - it's hard for me to get behind any group of people who had it written into law that they could execute without repercussion any peasant who failed to show them sufficient deference. What I want to focus on here though is the idea that Japanese culture hasn't actually moved on since the last samurai passed into the veil of history somewhere between 1877 and 1947, depending on how you look at it. There's simply no samurai left to act as the bodyguard for Yuriko Oyama.<br />
<br />
There seems to be an easy get out here, of course: clearly Lady Deathstrike's minions have just given themselves the title of samurai because it sounds cool. But that's a problem of its own, feeding as it does into the stereotype of Japanese people being obsessed with the history of their culture in general and its concept of honour in particular. This also suffuses the story of Yuriko herself, which I should probably outline. Yuriko's father styled himself as Lord Dark Wind, and had been a famous Japanese fighter ace during WWII until he was chosen as a kamikaze pilot. He managed to hit his target in his ensuing attack, but his explosive payload failed to detonate, resulting in him being badly injured but alive, and captured. As a result, he suffered great shame.<br />
<br />
All of which is utter bullshit, of course. Kamikaze pilots weren't famous fighter aces - if you're a valuable military asset like that, the brass isn't going to want you dead for the sake of one more explosion. The kamikaze flights were a last-ditch effort to stave off American invasion put into action precisely because the actual functioning air defences of Japan had been decimated. Japan simply couldn't replace its losses with aircraft of sufficient quality, so instead they built shitty, outdated planes and stuffed them with explosives. Many kamikaze pilots joined up (often by force) without ever having so much as set foot in a plane. The last thing on these young men's minds would that they would bring shame to themselves by failing their mission, they were concerned they would bring punishment on their families by refusing to commit suicide for their government. It's not that there were no willing kamikaze pilots, of course, but that's the thing about fiction; you can do a lot of damage by underlining stereotypes even when people who match that stereotype actually exist(ed).<br />
<br />
Incredibly, it then gets worse. Once recovered and released after the war, Dark Wind dedicates his life to reversing Japan's shame by building a force of superhuman warriors, and enlists his three children to help him, ritually scarring their faces to ensure they can't go off and do something less obviously insane. Yuriko, understandably unhappy about this arrangement, ultimately rebels and kills her father, whereupon her beloved commits seppuku because something something fanaticism, Later, Yuriko learns her father's story, and, deciding his dedication outweighs the ritual scarification and indenture of his children, dedicates her life to finding out who stole the adamantium-bonding process he had developed to restore Japan's glory.<br />
<br />
Which brings us to now, and Deathstrike's announcement that despite having never met or even heard of Logan before, the fact he has adamantium-laced bones means honour demands she murder him and take the metal back. This is just utterly ridiculous. It's a plot that can only possibly exist if you just accept that Asian people do inscrutable things inscrutably because of their inherent inscrutability. If you conclude "honour" is the overwhelming motivation for the Japanese, and that it doesn't even matter how that honour is defined. It's ahistorical bullshit, as ugly as it is lazy.<br />
<br />
And look. I don't actually enjoy basing these posts around ways 30 year old comics have dropped the ball in terms of representation. But there's just nothing else here that's worth picking at. Well, that's not quite true. There's a wonderful moment at the very end where Heather defeats Deathstrike effortlessly - indeed she simply stands there and allows Yuriko to shatter her sword against Heather's forcefield - and asks a dumbfounded Wolverine and Puck if they're still scrambling to protect her. It's not only nice to see Heather getting to have a say in her own love triangle. it's a nice demonstration of her faith in her husband, trusting the suit he built to keep her safe. And even this is rather undercut by Heather thinking she remembers seeing a translation from the Japanese of the bonding process on Mac's desk, and immediately concluding he must have used their honeymoon as bait for Logan and employed her feminist wiles to keep him quiet until he could be captured. I'm not saying that couldn't be what happened - it's the kind of pointless Byzantine set-up beloved by superhero comics - but having Heather make all these assumptions based on a half-buried memory and the say-so of someone trying to eviscerate her friend doesn't really make her look too good.<br />
<br />
All of which leaves us with one moment of fractured beauty amongst a sea of ugliness. This is very much not OK. It is, as I nodded to, a much bigger problem than just this issue or just Mantlo. Even I let far too much of this kind of thing slide when Claremont was doing it - though at least his Logan in Japan stories are thoroughly enjoyable as well as problematic. But as we find ourselves ever closer to the precipice off which we shall fall into the 1990s, we need to identify each unpleasant strand that goes into its weaving. Alas, shoving samurai - along with any number of other misappropriated iconography from Japan barely understood but pushed into service nonetheless - into the panel is very much going to be a major part of that.<br />
<br />
(Meanwhile, in sub-plot corner, Doug Thompson arrives at Mansion Alpha with an ill Snowbird who he refers to as his wife, Shaman begins a voyage to discover how much of his power remains now he's forsaken his medicine bag, and the long-absent Marrina is kidnapped by Attuma.)<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This issue follows on directly from the last, and takes place in approximately real time.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Tuesday 17<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+47.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Iraq ratifies the 1979 Occupational Safety and Health (Dock Word) Convention<br />
<b></b><br />
(Yes, I admit it; I'm struggling.)<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
"Are we a <b>team</b>... or are we back to being a bunch of hot-headed individuals , each going his or her own way?"<br />
"I for one never saw anything wrong with that!" -- Box and NorthstarSpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-41019569329900392462016-04-07T08:00:00.000+01:002016-04-07T09:17:29.808+01:00NMU #39: "Pawns Of The White Queen"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
(<i>In loco parentis</i>)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
It's stage two of the New Mutant's post-death therapy programme. Magneto hasn't been able to jolt them from their existential hard-drive crash; is Emma going to have any better luck?<br />
<br />
Well, no, obviously, but the route by which we arrive at this foregone conclusion is an interesting one, rooted in Emma's growth as a character. Long gone is the one-note cackling villain the White Queen first arrived as. It's very clear here that Emma genuinely wants the New Mutants to feel better about themselves. The pride she takes in helping massage Rahne's mind to help her get past her trauma demonstrates that this is about more than simply getting the New Mutants back into fighting shape so she has more troops for her elite mutant army.<br />
<br />
That's clearly part of it, obviously. But even there things aren't entirely simple. As the front cover of the issue shows, Emma wants to turn the New Mutants into Hellions, but there's more to that impulse than a simple craving for additional minions. Emma seems to genuinely believe our heroes would be better off in pink and black. And honestly, she's not utterly without a point here. After all, the Beyonder massacred Xavier's charges for the sake of making a point, not hers. Shan didn't find herself mentally compelled to become a villain and develop an eating disorder whilst studying at the Massachusetts Academy. There will come a time when Frost's cupidity (along with general '90s bullshit tendencies) will cause the total collapse of the Hellions, but right now she can make a strong case that she's protecting her students rather better than Xavier or Magneto ever has.<br />
<br />
But the fact Frost's motivations mark her out as more than a simple villain, it doesn't mean they're not shot through with selfishness. She might genuinely want to help Rahne recover, but she can't resist poking around with the girl's sense of propriety so she won't be scandalised by Emma's clothing anymore. It's obviously none of my business what Frost wants to wear in her own home, but manipulating Rahne's reactions to it clearly isn't cool. But then this is precisely Emma's problem; the Hellion project has worked out fine for her so far, so she's convinced it's the only way to go, and everyone should get on board. Everyone should, in short, think the same way. No wonder she has Empath supercharge Magneto's self-doubt to the point where he willingly gives up his students to her. As far as Emma is concerned, every moment the New Mutants spend with Magneto whilst he blunders around looking for a way to help them is a moment wasted. He can't succeed; he can't look after students as well as she can. The sooner he admits he has failed, the sooner she can get the job done right. <br />
<br />
This isn't exactly a slam-dunk reading, I accept. It's rather more interesting than assuming Emma is literally interested in nothing but adding the New Mutants to her recruitment pool. But even this comparatively generous reading of her actions needs to recognise that altruism is not her driving force here. The title of this story alone makes that clear. There's also a wonderful visual metaphor at the start of the issue in which see first the New Mutants' POV of Emma in her office, and then flip round to see her view of them.<br />
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<br />
What the teenagers are seeing is all opulence: fashionable chairs, sculptures, what appears to be a <i>solid gold lamp</i>, etc. What Emma sees, in contrast, is all function; uniform shelves of books and arrays of computers. Visitors to the office see luxury, the trappings of power (note Emma is talking to her new students whilst sipping at what is surely a tremendously expensive cocktail). What Emma sees is tools to use and resources to be employed. And you can value what you make use of. You can even come to care for it. But it remains, fundamentally, something that you take an interest in because it can get you what you want.<br />
<br />
And really, realising that Emma's view of her charges is fundamentally as assets she happens to care for is the only way to understand why she keeps Empath around at all. Because Magneto is absolutely right; if we were to ever accept that there are certain people who deserve to be executed for their crimes, it's a man who is not a serial sexual assaulter of women, but who just last issue forced two colleagues and close friends to <i>rape each other constantly for days</i>. I mean, that's so horrific an idea I have a real problem with Claremont for putting it in <i>NMU </i>in the first place, but since it's here it serves as clear evidence that no-one who willingly employs Empath can possibly claim to have any real interest in people as people. Yes, Emma keeps tabs on Empath and - so far - has been able to intercede and shut him down every time he has attempted to rape one of his own teammates, but that's a dance she can keep up only so long, and even she must realise that. But Empath is a useful tool for her, and so he gets to be kept on the shelf alongside all her other tools.<br />
<br />
As an amoral policy of expedience, allowing Empath the run of the Academy is so horrendous I can imagine Richard Nixon balking at the idea. For as long as he stays, there can be no chance for Emma to even claim the moral high ground, she is simply too grotesquely compromised. She can tell herself this is for the New Mutants' own good all she likes, but the truth is she wants them to share the halls with a dangerous monster, because that dangerous monster makes her life a little easier.<br />
<br />
What this ultimately means is that, whilst Emma Frost has become a more complicated and rounded character, and whilst she now seems to have embraced her duty of care, however twisted her conception of that is, things are worse than ever at the Massachusetts Academy. Something is going to have to break.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place over a single week.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Monday 7<sup>th</sup> to Monday 14<sup>th </sup>May, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+55 to X+7Y+62.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
Nothing much worth noting this issue. Well, there's Catseye dismissing Cannonball and Jetstream as "Noisyboys", I suppose. That's kinda fun.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-38532679915340770542016-02-02T08:00:00.000+00:002016-02-02T08:00:21.358+00:00UXM #205: "Wounded Wolf"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x6DEeky-dtY/Vm7VjWsq5VI/AAAAAAAAIo8/icX3QviBO8I/s1600/Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x6DEeky-dtY/Vm7VjWsq5VI/AAAAAAAAIo8/icX3QviBO8I/s320/Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_205.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
("Viene la tormenta!")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
<i>UXM </i>#205 is not an easy issue to take on its own terms. The spectre of the '90s looms too large over it. "The bloodthirsty amoral cyborg warrior era" might as well be what we call that decade when we want to confuse people who don't read comics (or watch films, I guess). Given that, the fact that this issue is shot through (sorry) with bloodthirsty amoral cyborg warriors triggers a host of flashbacks ( bought my first X-Men comic in 1995).<br />
<br />
In other words, this tale of three cybernetic organisms wreaking havoc in a city just to bring down Wolverine seems like a good example of where it all went wrong. Except, like the soon to appear <i>Batman Year One</i>, things are a little more complicated than that. The problem the comics to follow this one had was not that machine-augmented utter bastards are in themselves a bad concept, at least not necessarily (overplayed to ludicrous levels, sure, but that's something different), it's that presenting them as interesting or cool in and of themselves is lazy at best and harmful at worst.<br />
<br />
And Claremont seems to get this. For starters he makes it very clear via Spiral's internal monologue that the idea of someone deliberately undergoing major (and magical) surgery in order to become more like Wolverine is absolutely desperately messed up. You have to more or less literally be insane to see that as something to aim for, to the point where even Yuriko herself (AKA Lady Deathstrike, making her second appearance after showing up in <i>ALF </i>#33, but her first chronologically post-adamantium, though before that procedure she first appeared in <i>Daredevil</i>; comics, man) takes pains to ensure that once Wolverine is dead Spiral will return her to her previous, less stabbyclaws appearance. This is an act of desperation, not some montage offered as a prelude to full-on arse-kickings.<br />
<br />
But of course plenty of similar stories try to sell the tragedy of a character needing metal augmentation and then pivot to revel in the resultant carnage - <i>Robocop </i>is an obvious example, though there the glorification of violence is of course at least supposed to be ironic. Claremont needs to do more than shed crocodile tears over what's happened to Yuriko and her three companions, the Reavers (cyborgs slapped together from the remains of three Hellfire guards Wolvie carved up back in issue #133).<br />
<br />
Claremont does this in an interesting way: by including Katie Power. Fun fact: <i>Power Pack</i> and <i>Terminator </i>made their respective debuts less than half a year apart, and both less than two years before this issue. It's beyond obvious that the two properties are about as far apart as one can easily get. Which is entirely fine, obviously. One is a former editor having fun with a book designed to not be too taxing - a book that ended up decidedly retro in effect if not in intention - and the other is a dark sci-fi story for adults inspired by a fever dream. But in writing a story featuring both killer cyborg soldiers and Katie Power - not just a member of Marvel's first all-child superhero team, but its youngest member - Claremont allows us to process the former through the eyes of the latter.<br />
<br />
What we see through Katie's eyes is uncomprehending horror. With Wolverine rendered incapable of higher thought processes by a wound suffered off-panel, there's no-one, at least at first, to shield Katie from the full unpleasantness of what is happening. The implication is clear: it's just not possible for Power Pack and the Reavers to share the same story space. They're simply too different. If Marvel needs to change, it can head for <i>Power Pack</i>, or it can head for <i>Terminator</i>. It cannot expand to include both. Not yet, anyway, and not for quite some time.<br />
<br />
There is a war going on in this issue for the future of the X-universe. Or perhaps a better metaphor is that we're enduring a storm - certainly Claremont is heavy-handed in deploying it. Katie's world has been surrounded by something utterly strange and dangerous. Either she endures it, or she perishes. We know now that ultimately, Katie's world would not be the one to survive (or perhaps more accurately, that it would be buried for decades), but even so, it's important to note Claremont's adjudication here: Katie endures. It's perhaps a small victory by superhero standards, but she succeeds in keeping Logan alive for long enough for him to recover his wits and go on the offensive.<br />
<br />
As one might expect given the above (and attitudes to childhood in general) Wolverine doesn't let Katie see what comes next. We get to see it, of course, which might seem like Claremont wanting to have his cake and eat it. What good is it to lament the foolishness of fixating on characters like Wolverine carving their way through their enemies if you end the story with Wolverine carving his way through his enemies? Claremont does try pretty hard to square the circle, though; Logan's entire scrap with Lady Deathstrike is just an excuse to harangue her about how appalling a choice she's made, and how trying to become more like him physically has required she become as little as possible like him psychologically. The whole point of Wolverine, as he is kind enough to explain himself, is that he doesn't want to be who he is, or do what he does. His physical state, his beserker rages, his horrifying kill stats: these are not there to be admired or celebrated. They're there to be unsettled by.<br />
<br />
And so, ultimately, Katie's world wins out. The monsters that do not belong are banished, and the storm is lifted. But winning in a story is not the same as winning in the real world, not unless the story is <i>very</i> good. The nineties, of course, arose. In 1990 <i>Power Pack</i> was retooled to make it more "edgy". In that same year Cable was introduced into <i>New Mutants</i>, and it was decided that Rob Liefeld was going to take over writing duties the title, which was almost immediately renamed <i>X-Force</i>. Out in the real world the storm didn't lift, not for a very long time.<br />
<br />
Which is not good news for us, because we're going to have to head into it.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place in approximately real time. Since this story shares no characters with <i>UXM</i> #204, we can set it as taking place on the same day. The issue is clearly supposed to be set in December, given the references to carol singing, but our usual rules about ignoring Christmases apply.<br />
<br />
The fact this issue apparently takes place before <i>ALF </i>#33 may mean some rejigging of the timeline in the near future, but I'll wait until Yuriko's appearance there is done with in case further evidence comes to light.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Monday 15<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+45.<br />
<br />
<b>Compression Constant</b><br />
<br />
1 Marvel year = 3.18 standard years.<br />
<br />
(At the time of this post, Beast is 34 years old)<br />
<br />
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<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"All he does is make growly noises..." Katie PowerSpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-47388437563189038802015-12-14T08:00:00.000+00:002015-12-14T08:00:07.173+00:00FRS #2: "The Players And The Pawn!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FVHEL4iD9-Y/ViYT6PTVyII/AAAAAAAAIkQ/pwP5tgZaZ38/s1600/Firestar_Vol_1_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FVHEL4iD9-Y/ViYT6PTVyII/AAAAAAAAIkQ/pwP5tgZaZ38/s320/Firestar_Vol_1_2.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
("We are all in this together.")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
<i>Firestar </i>issue 2 is something of a wrenching leftwards skid in certain ways. Gone is the framing of a beautiful, intelligent teenage white girl finding reasons to sulk, and in its place we have... well, OK, really it's pretty much exactly the same thing. This, we learn, is a girl who can sulk about an "awful school" which has <i>given her her own pony</i>.<br />
<br />
But everything surrounding Angelica's moping has become radically different. Whereas last issue set up a standard teenage narrative into which the idea of mutantism was then dropped, this installment has something of a political taste to it, concerning itself with the practice of cutting teenagers off from the wider world in order to render them vulnerable to indoctrination. In addition to Angelica's attitude, there's a common theme between the issues of her feelings of alienation, but this time the problem stems not from the banal cruelty of teenage girls, but a deliberate policy of Emma Frost. She and Sebastian Shaw have a plan: Angelica Jones (now called Firestar for the first time) is to be forged into an undetectable assassin. Someone the Hellfire Club could use to kill anyone, at any time, an unremarkable civilian who could incinerate her targets without warning. Frost isn't educating Jones, she's grooming her, as made clear by the hilariously unsubtle metaphor of Angelica getting her own horse to groom.<br />
<br />
The idea of young people being kept separate from a wide experience of humanity in order to radicalise then to the point where they think nothing of condemning their fellow humans is a rather hot topic right now. It's just been in the last few days, for instance, that there has been a renewed call to force teachers to act as informants on their pupils, as though teachers get remotely sufficient training (or really any at all) on how to actually spot the signs of radicalisation, and as if this inevitably cack-handed extra scrutiny would stop teenagers becoming radicalised, rather than giving them one more enemy to hate. It's hard enough to persuade fifteen year-olds that your on their side to begin with; add in the idea that you're studying for signs of deviant behaviour takes the comprehensive school one step closer to the battleground everyone always says is the last thing they want it to be (so long as avoiding it doesn't require we spend any money or treat teachers with any respect, naturally).<br />
<br />
And it's obvious that comprehensive schools are the targets here. More to the point, Muslim pupils at comprehensive schools. Which is why it's so delightful that in this issue, the people doing the radicalising are rich arseholes from the United States, at an academy for the richest of the rich. Because if we want to talk about enclaves carved out of general society, places of learning where students are exposed to no viewpoints except for those deemed acceptable by those with a deep-seated distrust of alternative political philosophies - those whose political axioms can only survive so long as they go essentially unchallenged - it's far from obvious that teenagers being groomed in our state schools, or for that matter in Middle Eastern madrasas, are the ones who are going to cause the most damage. How many people are immiserated to the point of suicide because David Cameron and George Osborne went to Clarendon schools where poverty was no more real for them than goblins? How many bombs have deviated in air currents and killed innocent people in foreign countries because military adventurism in Africa and Asia is to some people simply what Britain is supposed to do.<br />
<br />
Angelica isn't intended to be used as a weapon against those with power <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>. She's intended to be used as a weapon <i>by </i>those with power. Frost and Shaw plan for Firestar to boil their enemies from the inside out; to kill without a trace of accountability. A weapon, in other words, of the elite.<br />
<br />
It is these nods to the dangers of sealing young people away from the experiences of pluralism <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span> that makes sense of Xavier's decision here to allow the New Mutants to attend a dance at Frost's Massachusetts Academy. From whatever angle you look at this, it's a ridiculously dangerous decision. There's some dialogue about how Frost is pretty unlikely to actually literally murder any of them in front of her students (because if there's one thing life in the X-Men teaches a person, it's that a telepath is powerless to deal with someone who remembers something they don't want them to), but there's any number of malicious plots Frost might (and does) have afoot that would be served by the New Mutants' attendance even if she doesn't have them all violently massacred. And against this risk we have Sunspot, who argues it's important they go to the dance so he can sniff for tail in a different state.<br />
<br />
So what could possibly justify this ludicrous risk? It's Xavier's fear that without this kind of experience, the New Mutants will become too insular, too cut off from the world. He needs to risk their safety because the alternative is them never learning anything from anyone other than himself. And for all that I like to give Xavier stick about his classic white male progressive tendency to insist that all types of people should get a say so long as he can be the ultimate arbitrator of who has a point, his decision here cuts against that ugly tendency.<br />
<br />
Of course, that choice leads to disaster, with Frost nudging Cannonball and Firestar together so Angelica can have her first kiss. Frost then sets fire to the nearby stables and kills Firestar's favourite horse, blaming the young woman's lack of control over her powers for both. Combined with the amount of time the White Queen has spent conditioning her with training sessions and dreams to fear the X-Men, Frost hopes this will secure Angelica's loyalty forever, leaving her with literally no-one else to trust. One could argue that this is a major problem with the narrative - if you want to imply the pursuit of pluralism involves a refusal to avoid risks, having such a risk go wrong could be seen as a suggestion that such a risk shouldn't have been taken. Ultimately I think this is some distance from convincing. Partially this is because of plot structure; at most the presence of the New Mutants only very slightly helps Frost's plan. She could just as easily snagged a random teenager from down the street and have him pose as someone from Xavier's. Yes, that would result in a tiny chance of complications if Angelica ever faced the New Mutants in the field and somehow had time amid the punching to ask whatever happened to Random McFakeguy, but this is surely some distance from a deal-breaker.<br />
<br />
More importantly, though, this kind of approach bothers me, since it plays too much into a depressingly ubiquitous mode of thinking that says that if a refusal to avoid risks in the name of progressivism fails even once, it's evidence that it should never have been tried. That if you hire a convict despite warnings from others and they rob you, you should take it as proof that hiring convicts is something only the naive and the foolish would do. That if we let in a refugee that ends up a suicide bomber (and Gods help this country if that happens) it's proof that Katie Hopkins was right and we should have let them all drown in the ocean. That insufferably smug Irving Kristol quip about how "a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality" gets cast about endlessly, a line so disgustingly self-satisfied that the Fates punished him by having his son grow up to be Bill Kristol. Not only is it absurd on its face, now more than ever - how was George W Bush mugged by reality? How was David Cameron? Donald Trump? George "Let them eat sneers" Osborne - it sets an almost impossibly high bar for success; if it is not unalloyed, then it cannot exist. This is not only self-evidently too strong a condition for success, it is transparently hypocritical. To date the left has made no headway with arguing that the near- or total failure of every bombing campaign western civilisation has embarked upon this century to achieve its aims might we should stop reaching for it as a first response. It would seem some ideas cannot survive their first failure, and others can survive nothing but. If liberals are mugged by reality, conservatives mug reality themselves and then complain it only didn't work out because their victims had too little money in their wallets.<br />
<br />
But I've strayed off the subject. To summarise, the fact that Xavier's risk-taking has benefitted Frost does not invalidate the need to take such risks. Indeed, given how easily Frost could have achieved her ends some other way, it's entirely possible that this whole might ultimately be counted as a net positive. Alternatively, perhaps next issue is stuffed full of dialogue about how terribly Xavier has erred and that the best way to live is in a state of constant paranoia, because when has that done any harm? Obviously, that would suck, but my point is that we shouldn't go down the route of assuming this argument is being made until it's made. Otherwise, it's not the writing at fault, it's us.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Or more accurately, against those who happen share a nationality with the powerful, or those who happen to be visiting the country of those who share a nationality with the powerful. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[2] It's interesting that Frost tells Angelica that she's helping her gain practice in using her powers defensively - the kind of defence where you microwave a person to death, naturally - because of anti-mutant sentiment in society. An important step in at least some methods of radicalisation is to persuade the victim that there is no such thing as an innocent person, that the bigotry against them evidenced by society in general means that every member of that society is equally guilty. </span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
Randal states here that it's been four months since Angelica joined Ms. Frost's academy. This issue takes place over approximately four weeks, and features Xavier in the mansion with the use of his legs. It also features Storm, who left for Kenya six days before this story would be set if we used the dates from the last post. I've moved everything back by a week to keep things workable.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Friday 4<sup>th</sup> April to Friday 2<sup>nd</sup> May 1984.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+6Y+32 to X+6Y+60.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
The discovery of the AIDs virus is announced by US researchers.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"I didn't ask to be born a mutant!"<br />
<br />
OK, so maybe we haven't completely moved past the "standard teenager narrative plus mutantism" model just yet...SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-46888099360039637352015-12-13T18:49:00.004+00:002015-12-13T18:59:22.625+00:00Timeline: 1983 Jul-Dec (Take 8)Here is what's hopefully my final stab at the 1983 timeline. Things
get pretty light towards the end of the year, due to Claremont's
somewhat inconsistent handling of the arrival of Amara.<br />
<br />
<b>July </b><br />
<br />
1<sup>st</sup> <i>MGN </i>#4: Renewal<br />
2<sup>nd</sup> <i>MGN </i>#4: Renewal<br />
3<sup>rd</sup> <i>MGN </i>#4: Renewal<br />
4<sup>th</sup> <i>MGN </i>#4: Renewal<br />
5<sup>th</sup> <i>MGN </i>#4: Renewal<br />
6<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#1: Initiation<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">6<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#2: Sentinels<br />
9<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#3: Nightmare<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">9<sup>th</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#167: The Goldilocks Syndrome (Or: "Who's Been Sleeping in my Head?")<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">9<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills<br />
10<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#167: The Goldilocks Syndrome (Or: "Who's Been Sleeping in my Head?")<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">10<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills<br />
11<sup>th</sup> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills<br />
12<sup>th</sup> <span style="color: red;"><i>UXM </i>Annual 6</span>: Blood Feud!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">12<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills <br />
13<sup>th</sup> <span style="color: red;"><i>UXM </i>Annual 6</span>: Blood Feud!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">13<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills <br />
<span style="color: #444444;">13<sup>th</sup></span> <i>DAZ </i>#25: The Jagged Edge <br />
14<sup>th</sup> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills<br />
15<sup>th</sup> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills<br />
16<sup>th</sup> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills<br />
17<sup>th</sup> <i>MGN </i>#5: God Loves, Man Kills<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">17<sup>th</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#168: Professor Xavier is a Jerk!<br />
18<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#168: Professor Xavier is a Jerk!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">18<sup>th</sup></span> <span style="color: red;"><i>OBN </i>#1</span>: Something Slimy This Way Comes<br />
19<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#168: Professor Xavier is a Jerk!<br />
20<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#168: Professor Xavier is a Jerk!<br />
21<sup>st</sup> <i>ALF </i>#7: The Importance of Being Deadly<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">21<sup>st</sup></span> <i>ALF </i>#8: Cold Hands, Cold Heart<br />
22<sup>nd</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#26: Against the Wind<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">22<sup>nd</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#4: Who's Scaring Stevie?<br />
23<sup>rd</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#26: Against the Wind<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">23<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#5: Heroes<br />
24<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#26: Against the Wind<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">24<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#5: Heroes<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">24<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#6: Road Warriors!<br />
25<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#6: Road Warriors!<br />
27<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#27: Fugitive!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">27<sup>th</sup></span> <i>DAZ </i>#28: Vendetta!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">27<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Who's Scaring Stevie?<br />
28<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#28: Vendetta!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">28<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
29<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#29: Fame!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">29</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#29: Debt<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">29<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
30<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#30: Debt<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">30<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
31<sup>st</sup> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">31<sup>st</sup> </span><i>DAZ </i>#31: Tidal Wave!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">31<sup>st</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
<br />
<b>August</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">1<sup>st</sup></span> <i>DAZ </i>#31: Tidal Wave! <br />
<span style="color: #444444;">1<sup>st</sup> </span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
2<sup>nd</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#31: Tidal Wave!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">2<sup>nd</sup> </span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio! <br />
3<sup>rd</sup> <i>UXM </i>#169: Catacombs<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">3<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>DAZ </i>#31: Tidal Wave!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">3<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#170: Dancin' in the Dark<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">3<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
4<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#171: Rogue<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">4<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
5<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#7: Flying Down to Rio!<br />
6<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#172: Scarlet in Glory<br />
7<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#172: Scarlet in Glory<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">7<sup>th</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
8<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
9<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
10<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
11<sup>th </sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
12<sup>th </sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
13<sup>th </sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
14<sup>th </sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
15<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#173: To Have and Have Not<br />
20<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#8: The Road to... Rome?<br />
21<sup>st</sup> <i>NMU </i>#8: The Road to... Rome?<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">21<sup>st</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#9: Arena<br />
22<sup>nd</sup> <i>NMU </i>#9: Arena<br />
23<sup>rd</sup> <i>NMU </i>#10: Betrayal!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">23<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#11: Magma<br />
24<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#11: Magma<br />
29<sup>th </sup> <i>UXM </i>#174: Romances<br />
31<sup>st</sup> <i>UXM </i>#175: Phoenix!<br />
<br />
<b>September</b><br />
<br />
1<sup>st</sup> <i>UXM </i>#175: Phoenix!<br />
2<sup>nd</sup> <i>UXM </i>#175: Phoenix!<br />
3<sup>rd</sup> <i>UXM </i>#175: Phoenix!<br />
5<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
6<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
7<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
8<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
9<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#12: Sunstroke<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">9<sup>th </sup></span> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
10<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
11<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
12<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
13<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
14<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
15<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
16<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
17<sup>th </sup> <i>UXM </i>#176: Decisions<span style="color: #444444;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;">17<sup>th</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#177: Sanction<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">17<sup>th</sup> </span> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
18<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
19<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
20<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#178: Hell Hath no Fury...<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">20<sup>th</sup></span> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
21<sup>st</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
22<sup>nd</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
23<sup>rd</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
24<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
25<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
26<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
27<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
28<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
29<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
30<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
<br />
<b>October</b><br />
<br />
(<i>FRS </i>#1: "Mark of the Mutant!" continues throughout) <br />
<br />
<b>November</b><br />
<br />
(<i>FRS </i>#1: "Mark of the Mutant!" continues throughout)<br />
<br />
3<sup>rd</sup> <i>DAZ</i>#32: Moon Lighting<br />
4<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ</i>#32: Moon Lighting<br />
<br />
<b>December</b><br />
<br />
1<sup>st </sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
2<sup>nd</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
3<sup>rd</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
4<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
5<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
6<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
7<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
8<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant!<br />
9<sup>th</sup> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
10<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#9: Things Are Not Always What They Seem<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">10<sup>th</sup></span> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">10<sup>th</sup></span> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
11<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">11<sup>th</sup> </span> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
12<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">12<sup>th</sup></span> <i>FRS </i>#1: Mark of the Mutant! <br />
13<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle!<br />
14<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle!<br />
15<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle!<br />
16<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle!<br />
17<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#10: Blood Battle! <br />
26<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#13: School Daysze<br />
27<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#13: School DayszeSpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-68337300280654497112015-10-26T08:00:00.000+00:002015-10-26T08:00:11.698+00:00XFA #3: "Regression Obsession"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3hlnlWkI_1s/ViYTWml6Q8I/AAAAAAAAIkI/IKVfrig-tuc/s1600/XFA3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3hlnlWkI_1s/ViYTWml6Q8I/AAAAAAAAIkI/IKVfrig-tuc/s320/XFA3.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
("A useless, futile thing...")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
So far in my still-new coverage of the<i> X-Factor</i> title, the overwhelming theme has been the book's obsession with the glories of the past, and how they can repackaged, replicated and reordered in the present. This book, as is obvious simply from its cast list, has one foot defiantly planted in the 1960s.<br />
<br />
This in and of itself is no vice, at least not necessarily. But in issue #3 a sense of dread is beginning to descend. By all appearances, this is not an issue interested in riffing off the past. It is interested only in restoring it.<br />
<br />
The most utterly obvious example here of course is Henry McCoy's reversion to his original appearance. As an unrepentant Beast fan I must confess to enjoying the idea of him finally escaping the consequences of a single mad impulse half a decade or so earlier. But from a writer's perspective, the immediate question raised is what we actually gain by having Henry be no longer blue and furry. What potential does a restored Hank have drama-wise? The possibilities of furry Beast were obvious and wide-ranging, hence why those few<i> Amazing Adventures</i> issues in which he was introduced were so powerful. A genius forced to look like an animal by their own arrogant hand. A peaceful intellectual warring with animal instincts and violent rages. These are not in anyway original concepts ("What if Dr Jekyll ALWAYS needed a haircut?" would seem to be the elevator pitch), but they were at least <i>there</i>. What does a reverted Hank get us, other than one more way in which this title can claim to be resurrecting the past?<br />
<br />
(Speaking of resurrection; note how Beast is shown on the cover: wrapped in the standard visual shorthand for an Egyptian mummy. A nod to those whose time is long past but might yet rise as pale fractions of their former selves, unable to face their irrelevance in the present day? Given what Layton is doing with this issue, that's a pretty hilarious sight gag.)<br />
<br />
The sense of what we might call a "traditional" approach to comics were we feeling generous - and a "dated" one if not - continues throughout. The rather interesting interplay between the X-Men's identities as X-Factor and rebel mutants (in effect, attempting to run two conflicting secret identities at once, which must get confusing) that we had last time round is swept away in favour of an utterly standard plot template: the X-Men need to rescue their friend, so they attack a base filled with gun-wielding goons. There's nothing in the A plot that couldn't have been written back before Jean Grey first died. This feeling of a comic out of time is only strengthened by moments like Dr Maddicks' page-long exposition explaining his plan. It's a clunky sequencein any event, but it jars all the more for coming at the issue's conclusion, robbing the story of any momentum whilst we view a psychic slideshow of his life following his appearances in <i>AMA</i>. I'd have thought it would be obvious to almost any professional writer that the right place for this would've been at the start of the issue - why not have him explain he was searching for a way to regress his son Artie's mutation (which left Artie mute, an interesting wrinkle in the "is a 'cure' for mutants morally acceptable?" debate) to Beast at the top of the issue? Could Layton really have been so incompetent?<br />
<br />Well, who knows, but there is an alternative explanation which helps Layton to come off rather better - perhaps Maddicks reveals his plan so late so as to delay the audience guessing that his genetic meddling might give us back the original, far less hirsute McCoy. But whilst that's an argument that makes sense, it's hardly one that gets Layton off the hook, because it immediately suggests the entirety of this story exists for no other reason than to return Hank to his pre-Brand Corporation days. Maddicks' desperation to "save" his child and Artie's horror at what his father is prepared to do become more or less irrelevant, no more than a nostalgia delivery system. A pointless tale to justify a pointless character cleanse.<br />
<br />
Viewing the issue like this makes one suspicious even of what otherwise might be strong material. The revelation that Cameron Hodge has a friend inside the government looking out for mutants is a very interesting one, and his arrival to tell Hodge what a mistake he's made with X-Factor might have given hope at the time that the whole ridiculous idea of the original X-Men abducting their fellows under the guise of mutant hunters was going to be dropped. Coming as it does in this issue, though, readers could be forgiven for fretting that this was similarly an attempt to sweep the present away to allow a return to the past; that as with the tale of Carl and Artie Maddicks, X-Factor was just scaffolding to allow the construction of "The X-Men" 2.0. Hell, even Jean and Scott's interactions here feel just like the good old days. Scott's refusal to open up might now be because of secretly having an estranged wife and son, but the basic dynamic is unchanged; Jean wants to engage and Scott won't do it, or tell her why. Needless to say, the fact they're interrupted before the conversation can progress absolutely doesn't help matters.<br />
<br />
There is, obviously, a hard limit to how long this rush backwards can last. Sooner or later - and it'll be sooner - the reset will be complete, and <i>XFA </i>will have to start moving forwards again. The sooner it does so, the better, but the fear remains that we've already seen the only direction Layton is interested in.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
The narration states this issue begins just five minutes after the last one ended. The story itself continues into the following day.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Friday 12<sup>th </sup>to Saturday 13<sup>th</sup> April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+41 to X+7Y+42.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br /><br />Transgender model Carmen Carrera is born.<br /><br /><b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"So why didn't you just float us up over the fence?!"<br />"I was showing off!" - Iceman and Marvel Girl.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-89359819813513952142015-10-15T13:00:00.000+01:002015-10-26T09:36:47.652+00:00Time-Line: 1985 Jan-Jun<b>January </b><br />
<br />
1<sup>st</sup> <i>NMU </i>#30: The Singer and Her Song<br />
2<sup>nd</sup> <i>NMU </i>#30: The Singer and Her Song<br />
3<sup>rd</sup> <i>NMU </i>#30: The Singer and Her Song<br />
4<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#30: The Singer and Her Song<br />
5<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#30: The Singer and Her Song<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">5<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#31: Saturday Night Fight<br />
11<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#196: What Was That ?!!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">11<sup>th</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#198: Lifedeath: From the Heart of Darkness<br />
12<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#198: Lifedeath: From the Heart of Darkness<br />
13<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#197: To Save Arcade?!?<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">13<sup>th</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#198: Lifedeath: From the Heart of Darkness<br />
14<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#197: To Save Arcade?!?<br />
14<sup>th</sup> <i>SW2 </i>#2: I'll Take Manhattan!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">14<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
15<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#197: To Save Arcade?!?<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">15<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
16<sup>th</sup> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
17<sup>th</sup> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
18<sup>th</sup> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
19<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#32: To the Ends of the Earth<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">19<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">20<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#32: To the Ends of the Earth<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">20<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
21<sup>st</sup> <i>UXM </i>#199: The Spiral Path<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">21<sup>st</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#32: To the Ends of the Earth<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">21<sup>st</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
22<sup>nd</sup> <i>UXM </i>#199: The Spiral Path<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">22<sup>nd</sup><span style="color: black;"> </span><i><span style="color: black;">NMU </span></i><span style="color: black;">#33: Against All Odds!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;">22<sup>nd</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#34: With a Little Bit of Luck!<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #444444;">22<sup>nd</sup></span></span> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">23<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#3: The World Is Mine!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">23<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>SW2</i> #4: Love is the Answer!<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">24<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2</i> #4: Love is the Answer!<br />
25<sup>th</sup> <span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: red;"><i>NMU</i> Special Edition<i> </i>#1</span></span>: Home is Where the Heart Is<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">25<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#5: Despair<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">26<sup>th</sup> </span> <i>SW2 </i>#6: Life Rules!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">27<sup>th</sup></span> </span> SW2 #6: Life Rules!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">28<sup>th</sup></span> </span> SW2 #6: Life Rules!<br />
<br />
<b>February</b><br />
<br />
11<sup>th</sup> <span style="color: red;"><i>UXM </i>Annual #9</span>: There's No Place Like Home!<br />
22<sup>nd</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
23<sup>rd</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
24<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
25<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
26<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
27<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
28<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">28<sup>th</sup> </span> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
<br />
<b>March</b><br />
<br />
1<sup>st</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
2<sup>nd</sup> <i>UXM </i>#200: The Trial of Magneto!<br />
10<sup>th</sup> <i>SW2 </i>#7: Charge of the Dark Brigade! <br />
11<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#201: Duel<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">11<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#35: The Times, They Are A'Changin'!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">11<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#7: Charge of the Dark Brigade! <br />
12<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#201: Duel<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">12<sup>th</sup></span> <i>NMU </i>#36: Subway to Salvation!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">12<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#7: Charge of the Dark Brigade! <br />
13<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#202: X-Men... I've Gone To Kill -- The Beyonder!<br />
26<sup>th</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
27<sup>th</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
28<sup>th</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
29<sup>th</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
30<sup>th</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
31<sup>st</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
<br />
<b>April</b><br />
<br />
1<sup>st </sup> <i>DAZ </i>#39: Deathgrip <br />
<span style="color: #444444;">1<sup>st</sup> </span> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
2<sup>nd</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
3<sup>rd</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
4<sup>th</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
5<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#40: Travellers <br />
<span style="color: #444444;">5<sup>th</sup></span> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
6<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#41: Revelations <br />
<span style="color: #444444;">6<sup>th</sup></span> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
7<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#41: Revelations <br />
<span style="color: #444444;">7<sup>th</sup> </span> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
8<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#41: Revelations<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">8<sup>th</sup></span> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
9<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#41: Revelations <br />
<span style="color: #444444;">9<sup>th</sup></span> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
10<sup>th</sup> <i>XFA </i>#1: Third Genesis<br />
11<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#42: Curtain!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">11<sup>th</sup></span> <i>XFA </i>#2: Bless the Beasts and Children<br />
12<sup>th</sup> <i>DAZ </i>#42: Curtain!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">12<sup>th</sup> </span> <i>XFA </i>#2: Bless the Beasts and Children<br />
13<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#37: If I Should Die<br />
14<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#203: Crossroads<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">14<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#8: Betrayal! <br />
15<sup>th</sup> <i>UXM </i>#203: Crossroads<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">15<sup>th</sup></span> <i>SW2 </i>#8: Betrayal!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">15<sup>th</sup></span> <i>UXM </i>#204: What Happened to Nightcrawler? <br />
16<sup>th</sup> <i>SW2 </i>#9: God in Man, Man in God!<br />
17<sup>th</sup> <i>ALF </i>#32: Shorty Story!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">17<sup>th</sup></span> <i>ALF </i>#33: A Friend in Need<br />
30<sup>th</sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!<br />
<br />
<b>May</b><br />
<br />
1<sup>st </sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!<br />
2<sup>nd </sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!<br />
3<sup>rd </sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!<br />
4<sup>th </sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!<br />
5<sup>th </sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!<br />
6<sup>th </sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!<br />
7<sup>th </sup> <i>NMU </i>#38: Aftermath!SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-37818076256307137252015-10-14T13:00:00.001+01:002015-10-14T13:00:06.945+01:00Timeline: 1984 Jul - Dec (Take 6)<b>July </b><br />
<br />
(<i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler the Movie continues throughout)<br />
<br />
24<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><sup>th</sup></span> ALF #30: Enter... Scramble!<br /><span style="color: #444444;">24<sup>th</sup></span> ALF #31: The Ungrateful Dead!<br />
<br />
<b>August</b><br />
<br />
(<i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler the Movie continues throughout)<br />
<br />
<b>September</b> <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">1<sup>st</sup> </span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">2<sup>nd</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">3<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">4<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">5<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">6<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">7<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">8<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">9<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">10<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">11<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">12<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">13<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">14<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">15<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">16<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">17<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">18<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">19<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">20<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">21<sup>st</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">22<sup>nd</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">23<sup>rd</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">24<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">25<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">26<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">27<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">28<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">29<sup>th</sup></span> <i>MGN </i>#12: Dazzler: The Movie <br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">30<sup>th</sup></span> <i>ICE </i>#1: The Fuse!<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="color: #444444;">30</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><sup>th</sup> </span><i>ICE </i>#4: The Price You Pay!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"></span><br />
<b>October</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">3</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">rd</span> </sup> </span><i>DAZ </i>#35: Brawl!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">4</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span> </sup> </span><i>DAZ </i>#35: Brawl!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">5</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span> </sup> </span><i>DAZ </i>#36: The Human Touch!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">6</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th </span> </sup> </span><i>DAZ </i>#36: The Human Touch!<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">7</span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><sup>th </sup></span> </span><i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1 <br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">8<sup>th </sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">9<sup>th</sup> </span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">10<sup>th</sup> </span><i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">11<sup>th</sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">12<sup>th</sup> </span><i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">13<sup>th</sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">14<sup>th</sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
15<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><sup>th</sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">16<sup>th</sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">17<sup>th</sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">18<sup>th</sup> </span><i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">19<sup>th</sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">20<sup>th</sup> </span><i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">20</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#1: A Man Without a Past</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">21<sup>st </sup></span><i>BAB </i>#1: Beauty and the Beast, Part 1<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">21</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">st</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">22<sup>nd</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">22</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">nd</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">23<sup>rd</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">23</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">rd</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">24<sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel <br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">24</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">25<sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">25</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">26<sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel <br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">26</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">27<sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">27</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">28<sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel <br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">28<sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span></sup><i><span style="color: black;"> LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#2: ..I'll Wave to You From the Top!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">28</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">th</span></sup><i> LGS </i>#3: Just Let Me Die<br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">29<sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
30<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel <br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;">31<sup>th</sup></span><i> BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">31<sup>th</sup><i><span style="color: #444444;"> </span><span style="color: black;">LGS </span></i><span style="color: black;">#4: You Can't Give it All Away!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;">31<sup>th</sup></span><i><span style="color: #444444;"> </span>LGS </i>#5: Deadly Lies<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>November</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">1</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">st</span> </sup> </span><i>BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">1<sup>st</sup></span><i><span style="color: #444444;"> </span>LGS </i>#6: A Snake Coils...<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">2</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">nd</span> </sup> </span><i>BAB</i> #2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">3</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">rd</span></sup> </span><i>BAB</i> #2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">4</span><sup><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">t<span style="color: #444444;"> </span></span> </sup> </span><i>BAB </i>#2: Heartbreak Hotel<br />
11<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>BAB </i>#3: Showtime<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">11<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup></span> <i>BAB </i>#4: Checkmate<br />
14<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#37: Girl in the Machine<br />
15<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
16<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
17<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
18<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
19<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
20<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
22<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
23<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
24<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
25<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
26<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
27<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
28<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
29<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <i>DAZ </i>#38: Challenge<br />
<br />
<b>December</b><br />
<br />
7<sup>th</sup><i> UXM </i>#192: Fun 'n' Games!<br />
8<sup>th</sup><i> UXM </i>#193: Warhunt 2<br />
9<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#193: Warhunt 2<br />
15<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#26: Legion<br />
16<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#26: Legion<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">16<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#27: Into the Abyss<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">16<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
17<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
18<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
19<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
20<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
21<sup>st</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">21<sup>st</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
22<sup>nd</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">22<sup>nd</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">22<sup>nd</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NGT </i>#1: How Much is That Boggie in the Window?<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">22<sup>nd</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NGT </i>#2: A Boggie Day in L'un Dun-T'wn <br />
23<sup>rd</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">23<sup>rd</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
24<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">24<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">24</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span> </sup><i>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<br />
25<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">25<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">25</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span><i> </i></sup><i>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">25</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span><i> </i></sup><i>NGT </i>#3: To Bamf or Not to Bamf!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">25</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span><i> </i></sup><i>NGT </i>#4: The Wizard of Oops!<br />
26<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">26<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">26</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span><i> </i></sup><i>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<br />
27<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">27</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span></sup><i><sup> </sup>DAZ </i>#39: Deathgrip<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">27<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">27</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span><i> </i></sup><i>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<br />
28<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#194: The Juggernaut's Back in Town!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">28<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">28</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span><i> </i></sup><i>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<br />
29<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>UXM </i>#195: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...!<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">29<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">29<sup>th</sup></span><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<br />
30<sup>th</sup><i><sup> </sup>NMU </i>#28: Soulwar<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">30</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">th</span><i> </i></sup><i>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">30<sup>th</sup></span><i> SW2 </i>#1: Earthfall!<br />
31<sup>st<i> </i></sup><i>NMU </i>#29: Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion...<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #444444;">31</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">st</span><i> </i></sup><i>NMU </i>#30: The Singer and Her Song<br />
<span style="color: #444444;">31</span><sup><span style="color: #444444;">st</span><i> </i></sup><i>SW2</i> #1: Earthfall!<br />
<br />SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-26894965830130065332015-10-14T08:00:00.000+01:002015-10-14T09:44:58.495+01:00ALF #33: "A Friend In Need"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WQt4457NYiM/VhAVRP4WX0I/AAAAAAAAIi4/zUd12jaGL2M/s1600/Alpha_Flight_Vol_1_33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WQt4457NYiM/VhAVRP4WX0I/AAAAAAAAIi4/zUd12jaGL2M/s320/Alpha_Flight_Vol_1_33.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
("You're the most beautiful woman in <i>most </i>rooms.")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
So this is nice. With Alpha Flight seemingly having lost some of its spark with the transfer between Byrne and Mantlo (however aggravating the former was) it's good to see an unquestionable improvement in at least one area. This, by the admittedly abysmal standards of the time in general and this title in particular, is quite a nice one from a feminist perspective. Not great, mind you, but with some ideas to genuinely approve of.<br />
<br />
Partly the feminism marks given out here stem from the issue's focus. With Heather clearly the main character on this occasion and some time spent checking in on Snowbird and, pleasingly, the seemingly forgotten Marrina. Neither are in good shape - Marrina is still partially devolved and on the run, and Snowbird is suffering from an unknown malady - but it's still nice to see them.<br />
<br />
In general, though, this is an issue about Heather Hudson. In particular, it's about the conflict between who Heather is, and who other people want her to be; how they see her versus how she sees herself.<br />
<br />
Heather, of course, has always been a character defined in large part by reference to men. She was James Hudson's secretary, and then his wife. She's the secret object of Puck's adoration. And as we learn in this issue, Logan always had a thing for her as well. The three most important men in Heather's life all saw her as the woman for them. On paper, that might sound flattering, but in reality is has led to problems; first Puck and then initially Logan both refuse to help her become a superhero because they're more comfortable with her in the role as superhero's girlfriend. By admitting this Logan comes out of this looking better than Puck - who has apparently told all of Alpha Flight except Heather, which is a punk move - but the problem still remains; Heather can't get what she wants because the men in her life who love her (overtly or otherwise) don't want to see their image of her change. It's all too appropriate that the X-Men's reaction upon seeing Heather approach is to view her as a threat and attack her. Yes, that's an entirely understandable reaction of mutants facing an unannounced super-powered intruder diving towards them at dusk (one of the few times the "superheroes fight due to mistaken identity" riff doesn't feel forced), but it's also an underlining of the central point here, which is that even among strangers, Heather's own status and nature is thoroughly subsumed by the views others have of her.<br />
<br />
In interrogating that, Mantlo is pulling double duty, because in having a female character insist on her right to control who she is on her own terms the story strikes not just against the sexism in stories of the time, but begins the process of answering the criticisms of the title's own past. Byrne never had any problem with writing Heather like a lame sidekick to her superhero husband, just as he had no problem writing Aurora as simply a deranged woman for first her brother then Sasquatch to worry about. Here we learn that this approach is no longer sufficient. Heather may have let James and Puck and Logan define who she was - hell, the dialogue here suggests Heather did the exact same thing to herself - but she's made her choice regarding who she wants to be, and she will let no-one stop her from reaching that goal. Tragically and utterly obvious though such ideas should be, and simplistic though their treatment is here, that's some proper feminism right there. Even when the issue starts to waver by taking us on an extended Wolverine flashback (about how he first found out about his adamantium claws, a strange tale to be telling here rather than in <i>Uncanny</i>..., perhaps) it's saved by having Heather yell at Logan for his so-called love for her having turned into the desire to protect her, whether she asks for it - whether she <i>needs </i>it - or not. It's a reminder that whilst the desire to protect someone you love is a perfectly reasonable impulse, you can easily take it to the point where you're putting someone in a glass case, and that, like erecting pedestals for women, is no less of a sexist attitude for being well-meaning. It's particularly refreshing that the man Heather is upbraiding is Logan, already at this point probably the most popular X-Man since "Second Genesis" debuted - no-one else has been in two minis with their name in the title. It was already starting to occur to Marvel that they had a cash-cow on their hands, so an on-panel feminist critique of him, however milquetoast, is somewhat impressive. <br />
<br />
There's even more here, though, because for Puck and Logan at least (along with the sadly departed Mac) the point at issue is their deep attraction for Heather. This reminds me all too well of my younger days, when the girls and young women deemed most attractive were surrounded by swarms of boys and young men. The one's who were scurrilous arseholes were one thing, but the bigger problem - if only by volume - were the men who were convinced that they were being nice, and thoughtful, and kind, and helpful, when really they were treating the object of their desire as just that - an object. I confess shamefacedly that in my teenage years I was one of those boys convinced that women only went for arseholes <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>, but my own treatment of women wasn't any better, because it was still utterly wrapped up in what <i>I</i> wanted and what I thought <i>I</i> deserved. And that can end up being even worse for those you claim to care so deeply about, because when you make friends with someone and then pull the rug away from them with ultimatums of "love" you cost them much more than an underage drunk kissing the wrong girl at some profoundly depressing house party. <br />
<br />
Adults, of course, are not supposed to behave or think this way. But there's a lot of ways we're not supposed to behave and things we're not supposed to think that stubbornly refuse to leave us. So, rather unfortunately, it's not as though either Puck or Logan are behaving in a totally unbelievable way. And besides, this is a book aimed at teenage boys. Having adults behave as badly as they tend to and showing why that behaviour is bullshit is a damn good use of the title's time, at least on occasion.<br />
<br />
Given all this it's then rather a shame that this issue also features the first appearance of Lady Deathstrike, a female character once again defined - at least in her early appearances - entirely in terms of her father and her hatred of Wolverine. Since none of that is mentioned here, though, I don't want to complain about this too much; on its own terms, this issue has a great deal to recommend it.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] I do still wonder if there is some small truth to this in teenage circles, not because straight sixteen year old girls are attracted to horrible sixteen year old boys, but because the teenage boys they're attracted to have learned - consciously or otherwise - that they don't actually have to be nice to be popular. To the extent there is any truth here, there is no doubt in my mind that it works just as powerfully in the opposite direction, my taste in women was by and large <i>appalling </i>when I was sixteen. Because what I was interested in was how pretty they were.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Of course, an even simpler explanation is that teenagers, by and large, are all arseholes for much of the time. Finding excuses to dislike someone dating the person you wish was with you is not a particularly difficult job when no-one involved is old enough to vote.)</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place immediately following the previous issue, with Heather still on the flight she began in <i>ALF</i> #32. This causes problems, since the current Alpha Flight timeline we've been using is still so far behind the parent title that Magneto is still eight issues away from his trial. Obviously, with Mags leading the team in this issue that's not going to work, and we can't move this issue alone forwards because it ties in so well to the last one. Fortunately <i>ALF </i>#32 gave no indication of when it was set, so I can move both this and the last issue forwards to contemporary issues of <i>UXM</i>. In particular, we'll set them both the day after the Beyonder returns to his own reality.<br />
<br />
Colossus mentions that it's been months since the original Guardian died. By my estimation it's been a little over a year in fact, but that's close enough, especially since Piotr could be forgiven for not having rigorously kept track of what Alpha Flight has been up to. <br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Tuesday 17<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+47.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Luke Mitchell (Lincoln Campbell in <i>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.</i>, which I long ago lost track of) is born.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
"I sense strange troubled thoughts...!"<b></b><br />
"You're describin' half the human race, sweetheart!" - Rachel and Rogue<br />
<br />
This issue even passes the Bechdel Test! You know, very briefly...<br />
<br />SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-86485900556936177262015-10-01T08:00:00.000+01:002015-10-01T08:00:11.332+01:00NMU #38: "Aftermath!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cqsPqrZR0yg/VgQGEKjQVCI/AAAAAAAAIho/fjbpnYXwOpg/s1600/new_mutants_038_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cqsPqrZR0yg/VgQGEKjQVCI/AAAAAAAAIho/fjbpnYXwOpg/s320/new_mutants_038_0.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
("A Godforsaken fucking <i>tomb</i>.")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
A familiar approach in later years, this is the <i>New Mutant's</i> "Secret Wars II" comedown issue, although really it's just the first installment in their comedown arc. Which is fair enough; being brutally and callously murdered only to be raised from the dead as bodyguards for your murderer is exactly the kind of mind-fuck you can imagine taking a while to untangle.<br />
<br />
Obviously doing this story justice is rather difficult. There's no real-world analogue for being brutally murdered and then resurrected by your killer (not unless you're the most cynical Christian imaginable) but the closest analogue must be some kind of horrifically traumatic near-death experience deliberately brought about by someone vastly more powerful than you, and there's no real hope that something like that could ever be satisfactorily worked through in a superhero comic, or at least not in a superhero comic where the heroes have to go back to punching people in a couple of weeks.<br />
<br />
The degree to which this matters is open to debate; one would hope there are very very few people who can come close to understanding what the New Mutants are going through, which makes questions of accurate depiction of distant concern, and clearly <i>something </i>had to be done to address the events of last issue. In any case, Claremont's solution to the impossible problem of tackling an utterly unrecognisable situation in a ludicrously short space of time by shifting the focus to Magneto's struggle to help his charges, rather than their own experiences. In general this is not an approach I'm happy with, since it subsumes the story of the victim(s) into the story of the observer, but there are two things to be said for using it here. The first is the aforementioned unreality of all that happens here; it's harder to object to someone not telling their own story when that story has no meaning for the real world (though as mentioned there may be people who can come close to relating here, and I'm not sure they'd be happy with the focus on Magneto). The second is that it allows Claremont to at least mine the comic's set up, as he offers up a story about how the adults just cannot understand what the children's problem is.<br />
<br />
In fact, what Claremont manages here is genuinely impressive. The idea that the teenagers' trauma would lead to them being listless, inattentive and unconcerned with the future is at least plausible; they don't see any point in embracing or preparing for a life they know can be snatched from them at any time. You can't strive for a future you can't imagine existing. But as well as being a plausible approach regarding the New Mutants' trauma, it represent perfectly a common form of teenage behaviour, and in a way that actually strengthens the idea that this is how our heroes would respond to their trauma. There are, fundamentally, two types of school pupil who aggravate their teachers; the badly behaved, and the apathetic. The former are the ones who terrify the student teachers - hardly without reason; I was all of four weeks into my main teaching placement before one of the maths teachers was poisoned - but it's the latter who are ultimately the bigger problem. You can teach a child to behave (and if you can't a decent school will have strong support structure in place). What you can't teach them to do is care.<br />
<br />
The area in which I did my teacher training was not a fun place to visit, and what I saw strongly suggested it wasn't improved by having stayed their through your childhoods. When I think back on the kinds of small, economically devastated former pit towns I worked in, I start thinking that Lord Howell's greatest sin wasn't in calling the North East desolate, but in failing to realise the extent to which his comments were accurate (which is little, but not none), <i>his party</i> is the reason why. Thatcher tore the heart out of those places no less surely than the Beyonder murdered the New Mutants, but when you kill a community the individuals who remain go on living. They go on living, and they go on having children, children who grow up seeing vast swathes of the adults around them living their lives on the dole because there's no other way to generate money. For an entire generation - perhaps even two by now - the assumption among the schoolchildren in these former mining communities was that school was just what stood between playing in scrubland and spending a life not being able to find work.<br />
<br />
Try telling those kids that if they work hard enough they can improve their futures, and see the looks you get. They will stay with you, I promise you.<br />
<br />
So as much as I question making this story so about Magneto (there is some stuff from Dani's perspective too, in fairness) the resulting image of a new teacher trying to pull students from an existential funk strikes me as an enormously powerful one. This is all the more true for how closely it cleaves to certain subsections of our own world (one wonders whether the Guthries are fated to go the same way one day). Like so many new teachers, Magneto has not yet built up an understanding of how children can be motivated, or the vocabulary he needs to do it. He knows what punishments he can dole out, but he has no idea how to use such sanctions in a constructive way. Even were he more experienced, thought, there's always the horrible possibility that the only thing that could potentially save these kids is to get them rolled in a different school where they would have a chance to interact with children whose backgrounds give them hope for the future. Enter Miss Frost and the Massachusetts Academy. In the context of the story the transfer is from a school without a telepathic teacher to one with (playing on Magneto's fear of being unable to replace Charles, in another nice touch), but within the metaphor of hopelessness, this is clearly about taking those who believe their lives have no meaning and taking them somewhere where they can learn what life can offer to those fortunate to have above average skills/talents/intelligence/whatever.<br />
<br />
I must be careful here, because this is cleaving dangerously close to an argument in favour of private schools, or at least in favour of some kind of voucher system that can take those who are sufficiently gifted out of state schools and into private education. That's not what I actually think at all; what I think is that the obvious correct response to failing state schools is to <i>make state schools better</i>. It may well be true that voucher systems really are of benefit to those students who can make use of them, but the result is that those left behind are even more bereft of hope, even more aware of how thoroughly the deck has been stacked against them for reasons entirely outside of their control (it also relies on our society being even-handed and thoughtful about how we define "gifted", which I completely don't believe we're realistically capable of). So technically speaking, in terms of the metaphor Magneto makes the wrong decision politically.<br />
<br />
But of course we don't need our heroes to make the right choice every time. They have to be allowed to make mistakes once in a while. Indeed, this is ultimately I think an entirely forgivable error on Magneto's part; he's inexperienced, his charges won't talk to him, and he has the luxury of being able to send his entire school to somewhere "better" rather than having to pick and choose which students get the break. It's also worth noting that in a few issues the recuperation of the New Mutants will prove to only be possible with Magneto and Frost working together - true co-operation between social strata, in the language of the metaphor. So Magneto's mis-step here, born as it is of frustration and concern and fear, is entirely understandable.<br />
<br />
So much so in fact that it's actually a real shame that it turns out he's being manipulated by Empath to feel as rotten and confused as he does. The set-up here is almost perfect in terms of what it shows us about students and teachers and the difficulty in instilling hope. Magneto's reactions are so human and believable that learning it took Empath to push him to those straits actually makes me think less of Magneto, though I suppose if you wanted to argue Mags would never see so clearly through his colossal impenetrable arrogance without psycho-emotional manipulation, I'd have a hard time arguing with that idea. In the end, though, Empath's involvement simply serves to give something for Magneto something to punch (or intend to; we'll see next issue how successful he is) and given how wonderfully this issue works in reminding us that there are some fights that simply can't be won with a square jaw and a strong right hook, distracting us from that fact seems unfortunate. Again, though, since this story-line ultimately ends with Magneto and Frost both realising the New Mutants can only be helped with time, space, and compassion, perhaps Empath's intrusion here doesn't actually make all that much of a difference in the great scheme of things.<br />
<br />
In short, you can question the specifics here, and you can certainly ask why the tale of these children's recovery is being filtered through their teacher rather than told themselves. But the tack Claremont has taken here does much to remove the bite from that line of criticism; there's just too much to be said for showing us the complexities of pupils who are bereft of hope from the perspective of the teachers who just don't know how to help them.<br />
<br />
Of course, what we really need now is to see those same issues from the student perspective. Roll on <i>NMU </i>#39.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place over at least a week. Doug Ramsey's father notes that his son has been depressed for at least a couple of weeks. We'll therefore set this story to end just a hair under three weeks after the Beyonder was returned to his own dimension.<br />
<br />
That places us in the early weeks of spring. This is contradicted slightly both the amount of snow on the ground (my limited understanding is that late April snows aren't unheard of, but this density pretty much is) and the fact someone says "Merry Christmas" at the local party, but there's no way to deal with that without unpicking the whole of "Secret Wars II". Problems exist here anyway since Magneto states here that he agreed to take over the school in summer, which would put his X-books on a time scale slightly <em>faster </em>than that in real life. But this would require the events of "Secret Wars" to have taken place over the course of well over a full year, which isn't plausible for all sorts of reasons. This is one of those occasions where we're just going to have to ignore our lyin' eyes.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Monday 30<sup>th</sup> April to Monday 7<sup>th </sup>May, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+47 to X+7Y+55.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
This cheque is cut, apparently. Points available for naming the movie.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7j51b3QjR6Q/Vgvr-2-9DMI/AAAAAAAAIiE/Aow0ki9Yy9w/s1600/cheque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7j51b3QjR6Q/Vgvr-2-9DMI/AAAAAAAAIiE/Aow0ki9Yy9w/s400/cheque.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b></b><br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Brightwing?!! You're bowing!?! To a <strong>frog</strong>?!?" - Dani<br />
<br />
Oh, I forgot to mention: Thor is in this too. As a frog. Man, I love this stuff.<br />
<br />
(Full credit to Claremont for his permutation approach to punctuation there, too.)SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-65041061704732713212015-09-01T08:00:00.000+01:002015-09-01T08:56:42.698+01:00UXM #204: "What Happened To Nightcrawler?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cK6HKjHH7Dg/VeIJhjFm2DI/AAAAAAAAIfU/IdgfEgwB1Bw/s1600/UXM204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cK6HKjHH7Dg/VeIJhjFm2DI/AAAAAAAAIfU/IdgfEgwB1Bw/s200/UXM204.jpg" style="-ms-user-select: none;" width="128" /></a></div>
<br />
(Serious failure.)<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
Sweet magnetic Jesus, it's Arcade again.<br />
<br />
I'm sure at this point that my feelings regarding Arcade are sufficiently clear that I don't need to go over them again, I shall simply point out here that at this point his failure rate involving the X-Men has gotten high enough for severe monster fatigue to be setting in. Not that he's intended as a genuine threat of course (making his back-story utterly ridiculous, but never mind); Arcade is only wheeled out when Claremont is in the mood for some lighthearted hi-jinks.<br />
<br />
Which in theory is fine, and indeed necessary from time to time. I figure I have it in me to recognise the benefits of fun romps even if I'm not a fan of the mechanism being cranked to generate it. But the problem here is bigger than Arcade's presence, it's that this is fundamentally not the Nightcrawler story to be telling right now.<br />
<br />
I understand the temptation, after months of anguished cloth-rending over the capricious omnipotence of the Beyonder, to unwind with a simple tale of damsel rescue as a palette cleanser before the next global crisis. I also understand the desire to choose Kurt Wagner for the focus; swashbuckling adventure is what he does, as he reminds us here. My principal objection here is not one of content (though I do have issues there, as I shall get to) but of timing: Kurt's existential angst here is horrible, but it's fascinating, and it deserved to be explored rather than shoved aside.<br />
<br />
The concept of a person of faith coming across something so incomprehensibly powerful as to meet their definition of God is sci-fi staple, obviously. But the fact it has been done elsewhere doesn't imply there's no value to it being tried here. Nightcrawler's faith is already more complicated and interesting can you might find elsewhere because of his status as a mutant. Kurt faces a daily battle to reconcile his Catholicism with the fact that literally millions of other Catholics believe he is evil, either because of his appearance, or because of his genetics. The metaphor shines strong here; how do gay Christians maintain their faith in America when so many of their fellows insist they exist on a scale somewhere between sinners and out-and-out abominations? There was real potential here to use the mutant idea for something stronger than generating bizarre powers and cheap melodrama, but Claremont doesn't reach for it.<br />
<br />
He does, in fairness, start strong with the argument between Kurt and Amanda Sefton that results in the sorceress leaving him in fury. I can't even come close to blaming her; Kurt - already on the sauce first thing in the morning - asks whether she used her magic to make him love her. That is not the kind of shit anyone should have to put up with. But at the same time that question, though unbearably cruel, is something I can understand as striking Kurt right now. After all, if the Beyonder really is God - and I don't remember there being anything in the Bible that Yahweh does that the Beyonder couldn't replicate - and his infinite compassion is revealed to be instead self-absorbed petulance, how can Kurt expect all of us profoundly flawed sinners to be any less selfish and manipulative? Kurt and Amanda's breakup is horrible and vicious, but within the context of the story it makes sorrowful sense.<br />
<br />
Seeing Nightcrawler deal with all of this could have been fascinating. Would he have cast his faith aside? Or would he have concluded that the Beyonder's resemblance to how he always pictured God was proof that God himself must be vastly more than Kurt or any other human could ever possibly conceive; that he must be as far beyond the Beyonder as the Beyonder is beyond us? And if he did come to that conclusion, would it reassure or terrify him? There's so much to work with here, but instead Kurt is offered a young woman in distress so he can pretend once more to be Errol Flynn.<br />
<br />
It is, admittedly, nice to see Nighcrawler enjoying himself; the problems surrounding the sudden gear-shift into unironic swashbuckling dents the fun, it doesn't ruin it. I mean, I could point out that Kurt having so much fun in his attempts to save Judith Rassendyll rather suggests the mortal danger she's in isn't all that important, reducing her to a prop in 'Crawler's recovery story. But the whole tone and intent of the issue makes it clear that Rassendyll has to make it out alive and unhurt, so her status as plot device/trophy is no more egregious than similar examples in a million other stories. That doesn't make it OK, but ultimately its a general criticism rather than one to push too far here, especially since the issue ends with Judith calling Kurt on his adrenaline-junkie approach, 'Crawler refuses to let the point hit home, and it's immediately swallowed by the last-panel revelation that Judith is the last of the Elfburgs and Queen of Ruritania, so there's not much sense the narrative wants the idea to sink in too far, but it's something.<br />
<br />
So whilst this story bears the fingerprints of centuries of male dominance, the specific problem is in how something potentially fascinating is cast away in favour of another nonsensical romp in Arcade's playground. And I do mean nonsensical. A brief list of the ludicrous moments in this issue include the idea that Arcade's man-catchers are perfectly disguised as garbage trucks but have a sound so distinctive Kurt can hear it from a mile away; the authorities twice having checked the abandoned fairground, found no trace of Arcade's lair, and so just <em>left it alone</em>; and Arcade being able to hold a Mad Max drag-strip race across a vast trackless desert in the comfort of his own subterranean lair <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>. I could go on, but I'm getting annoyed and I assume you're getting bored.<br />
<br />
So I'll stop there. This is a deeply silly and inconsequential romp, both of which are fine things, but it comes at the cost of undercutting something far more interesting. But the fact that such interesting ideas are there, nibbling at the edges of what we see, is encouraging. The force behind the mutant metaphor continues to grow.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Yes, yes. I know. "Holograms". Bollockograms, more like. I can get behind a hologram replicating an environment. I can even get behind it being able to give the impression of driving through it. But multiple cars carrying real people? You need actual physical space to pull that off. Of course, this has been pissing me off since I saw my first holodeck, so I'm willing to accept the possibility that this might pretty much just be my problem.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story starts in the morning and goes on over several hours. With no link to the rest of the X-Men, there's nothing to tie this story to the wider time-line, so I'll assume this tale takes place the morning immediately after the Beyonder's sunrise defeat in UXM #203.<br />
<br />
Nightcrawler mentions that Kitty and Piotr last encountered Arcade a few months ago, which fits with our time-line.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Monday 15<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+45.<br />
<br />
<b>Compression Constant</b><br />
<br />
1 Marvel year = 3.17 standard years.<br />
<br />
(At the time of this post, Beast is 34 years old)<br />
<br />
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<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
South Africa lifts its ban on interracial marriages. I know I've used that one before, but I can't find much else. And anyway, it's important enough to mention twice, I think.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Being an X-Man was fun! We were <b>mutants </b>-- outcasts from human society because of the powers we were born with -- but our hearts were light! Now, everything is grim. The joy -- the romance -- the innocence -- all gone."SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-38457629208591229352015-08-29T08:00:00.000+01:002015-12-10T20:33:22.474+00:00Firestar #1: "Mark Of The Mutant!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
(The All-Consuming Fire)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
Reading this book is an odd experience for me, providing me as it does with the earliest link to my own X-Men history. The very first time I ever heard of the X-Men (to the best of my fading memory) was lying on the carpet in my parent's living room, watching <i>Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends</i> on some Saturday morning magazine show (<i>Saturday Superstore</i>? <i>Going Live</i>? I think it was BBC1, but I'm not even sure on that). Much of what happened in the episode where Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar teamed up with the X-Men I'd long forgotten [1], but the residual memory - remembering how desperately impatient I was between the two halves of the episode, split up with what always seemed like hours between in the standard cruel manner of such morning shows - is part of what prompted me to tune in to the X-Men animated show in the early '90s, where of course I became lost forever.<br />
<br />
So seeing Firestar in comic form - the only female character there was in the show that exposed me to the X-Men, and along with Daphne from Scooby-Doo likely almost entirely responsible for my redhead preference - is wonderfully circular for me. And it's circular in general, of course; the Spider-Man comics were successful enough to generate a cartoon series, which in turn was successful enough to generate first a cameo for its only original main character, and then her own miniseries. These days such circularity is everywhere, with Marvel's movie sideline now having grown so massive at its parent format dwindles that is now quite clearly wagging the dog. Scuttlebutt has it in fact that sweeping changes are coming in the wake of "Secret Wars III" (it's important to be able to count, folks) which are designed to bring the Marvel Universe more in line with the world the films portray, with the X-Men therefore marginalised so the Inhumans can take their place. How true this is remains to be seen (or at least it does for me; I've still not reached SWIII in my reading).<br />
<br />
But enough of the circumstances: what of the plot? I've been talking recently about the value of taken well-worn stories and dropping a mutant into them to see what happens. "Mark of the Mutant" is very much an example in point. The basic structure here - teenage girl starts new school, falls foul of the established dominant clique, but turns the head of the local hunk, while a father who <i>just doesn't get it</i> looks on helplessly - was a fully-established staple long before Tina Fey got around to skewering it in <i>Mean Girls</i>.<br />
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fact. BTW, the "M" Angelica is referring to is a shape in her palm<br />
her grandmother insists is proof of her specialness.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Throw in a beloved grandmother who dies near the end to generate extra tears, and you're all set to go.<br />
<br />
Now, the broad strokes of this kind of narrative are problematic. The basic idea that you should be yourself and ignore bullies and people will like you is fine, I suppose (though I tend to think the idea that bullies are best ignored is generally one spouted by those not inclined to bother getting involved), but in practice it always revolves around the heroine being conventionally attractive and them being rewarded for their perseverance with a conventionally attractive boyfriend. This boils the blood for two reasons: firstly it treats physical attractiveness in your partner as something you earn by being a good person - God forbid we suggest that being being nice you might end up with someone who is <i>also nice</i> - and secondly because it taps into the idea that "the bullies are only jealous" which again works as a bromide rather than a solution, and in addition directly implies certain people are better than other people, generally for reasons beyond anyone's control. I understand the impulse of my teachers to tell me I was being bullied (not in the worst way, really, when I compare it to the experience of others, but still) because they were jealous of how smart I was, but the idea that this doesn't mean being smarter than someone doesn't mean being <i>better </i>than them is not something my teenage brain was equipped to handle, and I don't think I've ever been able to shake this concept from my subconscious. Not fully, at least.<br />
<br />
<i>Firestar </i>#1 suffers from all these problems, but since they're inherited from the narrative which mutantism is invaded, that's to be expected. What's important is how much adding the X gene to proceedings does to critique the standard set-up. Whilst exploring that, it's useful to compare the story of Angelica Jones with that of Katherine Pryde, who also features here. Kitty Pryde, I know, gets a lot of love from people, in no small part because Claremont - conditional on his addiction to garrulous melodrama - managed to write her as a fairly believable teenage girl. Which is a fair point (though as I've noted before believably irritating teenagers are still irritating teenagers), but if we're pinning any part of Kitty's popularity on her being a realistic teenager who happens to also be a mutant, we have the non-trivial problem of her <i>also </i>being a computer science genius. Shadowcat's story is not and never was about taking an average teenage girl and making her a mutant, it was about taking a standard genius-level superhero - Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Hanks Pym and McCoy, on and on and on - and seeing how they work as a teenager. It's not a standard narrative with added mutants, in other words, it's a standard mutant narrative with added youth and inexperience.<br />
<br />
That's not what we have here. Angelica Jones is described by her father as very intelligent, but it doesn't seem to have translated into her grades; she's certainly a far more average kid than Kitty is, even if the rules of her narrative means she has to be pretty. But the comparison with Shadowcat raises an important point; what exactly is the difference between a teenager who's unique amongst her peers for her amazing ability at programming computers, and a teenager who's unique amongst her peers for her amazing mutant powers? Sure, the latter is impossible, but while I'm hardly an expert, it seems to me that Kitty's skills with
computers are no more plausible than her ability to walk through brick
walls. There's an obvious and at least slightly welcome difference in how well Angelica's power fits into the story, at least: her emerging heat powers means she's quite literally going to... well, take your pick. Get hot under the collar. Feel her blood boil. Demonstrate a fiery temper (making her a redhead always was a little on the nose, but there you go). Heat is something we associate with anger, with impatience, with frustration, which is to say with being a teenager. That horrible burning sensation all over your body at just how perverse and unfair and badly cobbled-together human life is and how nobody more than five years older than you has the slightest fucking interest in doing something about it. The all-consuming fire we had when we were young, spilling out in all directions as we raged at the world that might actually be OK if it would just <i>listen</i>.<br />
<br />
To be a teenager is to be on fire forever. There's a reason it was Johnny Storm who got to be the second Human Torch, after all.<br />
<br />
But nodding at Sue Richard's little brother just demonstrates how obvious the metaphor here is. Whatever Stan Lee's many strengths, generally speaking if he works a metaphor into one of his characters you shouldn't feel too smug about being able to spot it. In other words, comicdom's most talented hack writer ever dreamed this up in the '60s, seeing it rejigged here isn't particularly impressive. Especially when you consider that we're supposed to have another metaphor to call on here: mutantism. Long gone are the days where being a mutant was just a way of bypassing questions about how someone acquired their powers (not that that wasn't a smart idea in itself). Being a mutant is different to being super-human. This is what I mean about the value of placing mutants in standard narrative templates; it's analogous to putting minorities into narratives they've previously been excluded from. There is always much to debate on which minority groups are being and have been included in this way, how well that inclusion has been handled, and whether this seemingly endless parade of cis-het white male writers are the best people to be doing it in any case, but the attempt is still supposed to be made.<br />
<br />
So how much use does <i>FRS </i>#1 make use of its built-in metaphor? Alas, almost none. There's a point towards the end in the wake of her grandmother's death where Angelica showcases her powers to her father, who freaks out, fretting to himself that his daughter is a "freak" and a "mutie" - odds that Angelica will tell him she wishes he'd died rather than Nana by this mini's end can't be worse than one in two - but otherwise her status as a mutant is only relevant insomuch as it provides the justification for the X-Men to try and recruit her only to find Emma Frost has arrived there first. It's a MacGuffin in other words, at least in this first issue, which given we already know Firestar will sign up for the Massachusetts Academy one way or another means it doesn't convince even on the unengaging terms it sets for itself.<br />
<br />
All of which rather underlines the central question of why we needed a Firestar miniseries. Rogue hadn't had one yet. Cyclops hadn't had one. Any of the New Mutants, beyond the one Illyana shared with Storm. Literally the only mutants to have solo miniseries at this point were Wolverine and Iceman (with Longshot being retrospectively added to the list much later). There is something delightful about giving a female mutant her own series so soon, and I don't want to ignore that. From a certain perspective the idea of saying "Iceman was on that show and got a miniseries, why can't Firestar" and willfully refusing to consider any additional context is a wonderfully maximalist position, and it should be applauded.<br />
<br />
So maybe we can argue this series' mere existence is enough. That doesn't mean it couldn't have started better.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] I remembered only that Nightcrawler smelled of brimstone when he
jaunted, and that there was a girl with a rubbish costume who could walk
through walls. I didn't even remember the TV Thunderhawk could turn into a bear, which I guess was probably for the best, John Proudstar's run was cruel and pointless enough without being upset that there was no longer an opportunity for Logan to ride into battle on a grizzly.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place over several months, beginning on the first day of the new school year, and continuing through to mid-December. I more or less at random found a county in New Jersey and made use of the term dates to give an idea of when this story starts.<br />
<br />
The first page tells us this story takes place before <i>UXM </i>#193. Since that story takes place (according to our timeline at least) in early December, I'll put this story some way further back, during the previous winter. That puts this somewhere around the first appearance of the Hellions in <i>New Mutants</i> #16, which seems about right.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Monday 5<sup>th </sup>September to Monday 12<sup>th </sup>December, 1983.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+5Y+186 to X+5Y+284.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
St Kitts and Nevis becomes an independent state. New Caledonia however has the offer of independence withdrawn by France after violence erupts between French ex-pats and the indigenous Kanak population.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
This one is really the kind of "What were they thinking?" that you have to see for yourself:<br />
<br />
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SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-23387318247234924232015-08-20T08:00:00.000+01:002015-08-20T08:45:36.716+01:00XFA #2: "Bless The Beasts And Children"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
("It's not the same world I knew before.")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
It's an entirely obvious and common point that whilst the first issue (or arc, these days) of a new comic needs to set up the characters and concept of the series, the second issue (or arc) has the job of demonstrating what a "standard" adventure in the title should look like. <i>X-Factor</i> #2 is an interesting example of this, in that in some senses it clings to this approach, but in other ways it rejects it.<br />
<br />
The most obvious rejections are at the story level. Yes, there's a brand new mutant-of-the-week for our heroes to battle (the thoroughly uninteresting Tower), but his attack on Vera's apartment causes complications for the team's X-Factor cover identities, meaning we're only two issues in and already the ostensible structure of the title is in danger of toppling over. The decision to outright reject writing a story in which X-Factor works as intended is a fascinating one, and combined with Jean and Warren's horror over the causal anti-mutant slurs offered to them whilst in disguise as mutant hunters makes it clear Layton realised very early on that the X-Factor scam couldn't last for long. In other words, only two issues in this title is obviously already in a state of transition.<br />
<br />
Which makes sense given the wider context of the issue. Whilst plot-wise this doesn't operate as a template for later issues to riff off of, the underlying theme of <i>X-Factor</i> is very clear here, which is that this is about the past and the future meeting. Naturally this is clear from the book's very nature; how could a book reuniting a '60s super-team to fight '80s threats <i>not </i>be about that? But the degree to which past and future interact and often clash here demonstrates Layton's commitment to the idea. Newcomer Rusty develops a crush on Jean that pits him against Scott - new against old - but Scott himself can no longer function with respect to Jean in the way he used to, being now married with a child (though both have now disappeared leaving no forwarding address). Beast bumps into his old girlfriend Vera, only to find that she's ditched her '60s librarian look to bring herself up to date - a link to the past that demonstrates just how much has changed since we first heard names like Juggernaut and the Mimic. Tower's hunting and kidnapping of Beast seems like a new threat until we learn it was on the orders of Carl Maddicks, a villain from <i>Amazing Adventure</i>'s Beast run at the start of the '70. Maddicks too has changed, though, he's no longer doing the bidding of the Secret Empire, instead he's looking for an "antidote" for his mutant son. Even Angel becomes part of this through his old friendship with Cameron Hodge which is now taking on a new and unfamiliar shape, exerting new and unfamiliar stresses on the old girders that structure their relationship.<br />
<br />
The situations, relationships and characters have been returned to us, but in new configurations, underlining just how much has changed since Jean was thought dead (the opening pages of the issue make this explicit, in fact). Indeed, as Scott's refusal to open up to Jean and Bobby's desire to "steal"<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span> Vera from Henry demonstrates that's there no good reason to believe this team can actually function at all any more, save for nostalgia. This of course would hardly be the last comic to attempt to power its sales mostly or even wholly through nostalgia, but it's nice to see it so thoroughly recognised in the text.<br />
<br />
That said, there is a problem here, which is that the brand-new elements of the story aren't particularly interesting on their own terms. Rusty is an obvious analogue for a younger Cyclops - his powers are horribly dangerous and beyond his control, and he has a serious crush on Ms Grey - but he does little here to make himself interesting in and of himself. Tower as mentioned is thoroughly boring, a random mutant goon with nothing to distinguish him beyond an unusually unappealing costume. Artie Maddicks, the son for whom Carl went to the effort of abducting Beast is nothing but a prop, a staring, dead-eyed MacGuffin to be waved at to explain Carl's plotting. In fairness none of these characters really get enough to do here for things to be otherwise, but that just demonstrates that there are pacing problems here too. Either way, it's obviously concerning when an issue about how the old inevitably changes to give rise to the new doesn't actually have much in the way of newness that can excite us. This issue does a fine job of demonstrating the problems of a comic that spends its time looking backwards for inspiration.<br />
<br />
Now it needs to show us some solutions.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Just to be clear, I'm not arguing Dr McCoy has any kind of proprietary rights over Vera. Is she wants to pursue her ex's best friend, that's entirely up to her. I'm simply pointing out that it can be plausibly argued there was once a time when Bobby would never <i>think </i>of trying to make a move on Vera. The two of them used to strike me as being much more into the "bros before hos" mindset. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Well <i>actually</i>, the two of them struck me as an obvious gay couple deep in denial (am I shipping? Is this what shipping is?). And following recent revelations in Bendis' X-books, I appear to have been proved at least half-right.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
It's not clear how long this story takes to run its course. The pace of the narrative suggests it all takes place within the same day, but since it's also implied Carl's men drive Hank from New York to Atlanta, and at a sensible speed, which means a trip that would surely take some fourteen or fifteen hours to complete.<br />
<br />
We shall therefore assume the action here straddles two days.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Thursday 11<sup>th </sup>to Friday 12<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+40 to X+7Y+41.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Ladyhawke escapes into the world to frolic through the imagination of a hundred thousand geeks.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Orr6FrDPkSg" width="360"></iframe>
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Brainwashed by aliens?"<br />
"Nope."<br />
"Drug overdose?"<br />
"Doubtful."<br />
"Vietnam flashback?"<br />
"Unlikely."<br />
<br />
Bobby and Hank attempt to figure out the root cause of Vera's extreme make-over. The correct answer, by the way? Elvis Costello. Go figure.<br />
<br />
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<br />SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-31019724987905830102015-07-30T08:00:00.000+01:002015-07-30T08:00:07.129+01:00ALF #32: "Short Story!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
("Leave comedy to the bears!")<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
From the tasteless pun that starts this issue to its final moral on how much it sucks to be a little person, this is a deeply frustrating issue. In part that's because there's quite a bit I like here.<br />
<br />
So let's start with the positive. Putting the focus on Puck is a tremendous idea, because Puck is awesome for all sorts of reasons. Indeed, it strikes me as I write this that I haven't given him sufficient credit. Puck is brilliant. Not only is he a man entirely without super-powers who has trained himself to the extent where he can operate quite happily in the world of capes, he's done this despite suffering from achondroplasia. In a world still having trouble seeing little people as anything beyond a casting pool for sci-fi films and pantomime, Puck is not just showing himself to be the equal of those of average height, but superior to most of them. Some might like to argue it unrealistic that someone suffering achondroplasia could achieve such a physical peak, but even were such people to persuade me they had the medical knowledge and/or direct experience to make that call, this is a <i>superhero comic</i>. Unrealistic physical feats are <i>literally </i>what they are all about. It is, to say the very least, hard to see how Puck's fitness and strength are more implausible than those of Batman, or Hawkeye, or Daredevil. Just as importantly, Puck's abilities here are serving a worthwhile purpose, pushing back against the idea that little people are no more than pratfalls and problems with door handles. Why choose this moment to take a stand on how comic stories should realistically depict the human frame and its limitations? Well, I know full well why, but I'm hoping the rhetorical question will scare off the those inclined to argue the point.<br />
<br />
Puck's impressive levels of fitness is also the springboard for this particular plot. Heather Hudson has been talking for several issues now about wanting to get into the cape game, and finally she has her chance thanks to Jeffries and Bochs having rebuilt the powered suit "Dark Guardian" had been wearing during her period of pretending to be the original Vindicator. Fighting in the armour your husband's killer wore to pretend to be him? Even George R. R. Martin hasn't tried that one yet. Or maybe he has; it's tough to keep track.<br />
<br />
Heather's desire to up her game slapping-wise provides Puck with something of a dilemma, though, because she wants him to provide the training (in the new Alpha Flight Danger Room, modelled on Xavier's original). On the one hand, that would mean lots more time hanging out with his secret love, but on the other, Puck doesn't want to encourage Heather in any endeavour that might lead to her getting hurt or worse. That's not an easy problem to navigate, and indeed Eugene screws it up, yelling at Heather for messing around where she doesn't belong (mere seconds after she's almost blown up by a brace of missiles, in his defence), mightily pissing her off in the process.<br />
<br />
Poor Puck. What's a secretly love-sick super-acrobat to do? Well, he could try actually telling Heather how he feels. Puck's behaviour here is a problem because he won't give Heather the information she needs to understand why he won't train her. Refusing to help put the one you love in danger is a bit of an issue when they're asking you to do just that - it's hard to think of a way to define real love that encompasses the total refusal to respect your loved one's choices - but it's even worse when you won't let them know why. But as poor a showing this is on Puck's behalf, it's an entirely understandable, entirely human one. Who hasn't been desperately in love with someone and been convinced that fact could never be revealed? And when that someone is the former spouse of your dead friend, I'd imagine that cranks the complications dial up a few notches, too.<br />
<br />
If that were all that were going on here, I'd be perfectly happy. I'd feel bad for Heather, trying to work out why her friend is acting so out of character, and I'd feel bad for Puck, because as flawed and unreasonable as he is he's trying to do what he thinks is the right thing. But then Mantlo has to push it a stage too far and have Eugene admit to Bochs (who he derides as a "cripple", just to make everything even nastier) that part of the problem here is that he thinks Heather is too wonderful a woman to settle for a dwarf.<br />
<br />
And this simply isn't on. I'm not saying there is no such thing as a little person who believes their lack of height somehow disqualifies them from dating anyone closer to the population average. I'm saying that's not a suggestion we want reinforcing. It's entirely <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nwA6tT6NIM">too well-ingrained already</a>. The existence, opinions and mental states of self-hating little people are not subjects that writers of average height should be dabbling in. Hell, I may just have linked to it to demonstrate a point, but even <i>Life's Too Short</i> bothered me a great deal on multiple occasions, and that was written with Warwick Davies' direct input and whilst Merchant and Gervais were presumably trying to atone for getting the nomenclature so wrong in an episode of the <i>Office</i>. Getting this right is <i>hard</i>.<br />
<br />
Maybe that's why Mantlo decides that this is the issue where he will reveal Judd isn't a little person by birth, but has been shrunk by an evil Baghdad spirit which has lived within him for decades. If that <i>is </i>the reason - and I see no evidence of a better one - then it's a horribly wrongheaded one. Revealing a member of a minority isn't one at all is a despicable story move; a conscious choice to make a title less diverse. And for what? So we can have 14 or so pages of a giant jet-black Arabian demon (who I'm also less than happy about by the way) attack our heroes? I'd be furious with what Mantlo was doing here whatever the specifics, but at the very least you'd hope the story that results from learning Judd's dwarfism was mystical in nature would lead to something more involved than a done-in-one fight with a djinn named Razer. <i>Razer</i>? Tuwthbrush was taken, was it? Loofarh didn't quite scan? Don't try to tell me loofahs are less dangerous than razors, either; those things could scratch your eyes out quite happily so long as you keep them out of the bath long enough.<br />
<br />
This isn't even a good story. The pacing is truly awful. At one point Aurora finds herself alone against Razer attempting to keep him from killing her unconscious brother, and Jeffries announces she can deal with the monster herself so Puck can explain why he's almost seven foot tall now. Speaking of which, this sudden change in age makes it all the more obvious how unnecessary the change to Puck's stature is. It's revealed here that Razer's presence inside Puck caused not only the agony Bryne had attributed to Eugene's achondroplasia (one of around 200 different forms of dwarfism, and so one would think it rather a specific diagnosis for something mystical in nature), and the condition itself, but a retarding of Eugene's aging process, so that he appears decades younger than his actual seventy one years would suggest. So why not just have Razer's escape from his body cause Puck to become a seventy-one year old little person? Why link Puck's stature into this<i> at all</i>?<br />
<br />
Alas, the answer is not difficult to discern. Razer's escape returns Eugene to his old height simply so he can sacrifice his "normality" and become a dwarf again to re-absorb the djinn. The subtext here is almost deafening: "How awful it must be to be a dwarf". And there's nothing you can do with that idea but stare at it hatefully and hope it will shrivel up and die from the sheer force of your loathing. Mantlo is telling us being a little person must be terrible at the same time as he removes the identity of that little person in front of our eyes. John Byrne has gone on record about how much he didn't like this story, and he's completely right. There are far too many people who won't understand what I mean by this, but by replacing a determined, irrepressible man with achondroplasia with a tall man cursed by a djinn to live in agony as a magic dwarf, Mantlo has made the Marvel Universe that little bit less filled with wonder.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place in approximately real time. There are no references to how long it's been since, so I'll take this opportunity to move the action forwards a full month to bring <i>Alpha Flight </i>closer to the parent title.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Friday 24<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> August 1984.<br />
<br />
<b>X</b>-<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
X+6Y+176.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
It's the last full day in the life of Truman Capote.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
There's nothing particularly pretty or well-formed in this whole issue, so instead I present an example of just how ugly Mantlo's prose can get. This is truly, truly clumsy stuff.<br />
<br />
"The turret blows off the tower enclosing the elevator shaft up which the pain-wracked Puck had been ascending to the roof when he collapsed."<br />
<br />
Yeeeeeeeuurgh.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-71035800685235580082015-07-14T08:00:00.000+01:002015-07-14T08:08:52.740+01:00DAZ #42: "Curtain!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FLTO0ln2qM8/VVzjoTMhLxI/AAAAAAAAIRg/KE9mWV9KcG4/s1600/dazzler42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FLTO0ln2qM8/VVzjoTMhLxI/AAAAAAAAIRg/KE9mWV9KcG4/s320/dazzler42.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
(Sound Mathematics)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
Spoiler alert: this is not a good final issue.<br />
<br />
I've been complaining for a little while now about how the final stages of Dazzler's title seem to be pushing her towards the margins of her own story. This final instalment is no exception. Of the 24 pages in this issue, Dazzler is completely missing from seven. In nine more, she can be seen (often in the background) but has no dialogue. That means Dazzler actually gets to pass comment on this story in only one third of the comic's pages.<br />
<br />
Compare this to the final issues of Wolverine, Iceman, and Longshot, the other three titles we've considered here that have a single main character (admittedly all three were mini-series rather than ongoings). Dazzler is seen in 71% of these pages and heard from on just<i> 33</i>%. Those numbers are 64%/50%, 91%/65%, and 80%/76% for Wolverine, Iceman and Longshot respectively.<br />
<br />
I trust you see the problem, but just to make it explicit: Dazzler is the only title character who spends more than half her final issue not speaking (to other characters or to us via thought bubbles). Indeed for fully two-thirds of the issue she is completely silent. Only Wolverine comes close to matching that, and that's because the structure of <i>WOL </i>#4 deliberately strictly rations Logan's appearances in the first half to ratchet up expectations. Likewise the low level of Wolverine's commentary is at least in part due to pages of silent swordplay, rather than Dazzler passing out or appearing in the background of other people's flashbacks.<br />
<br />
There is, however, an argument that I'm being unfair here. Of <i>course </i>she spends most of this issue saying nothing; her enemy here is literally named Silence. This is why Dust's wife is so existential a threat to Alison. She doesn't just want Dazzler dead, she wants her <i>silenced</i>. This must surely be the scariest fate imaginable for a singer; to be worked to death and not even get a song out of it. Silence is the ultimate manifestation of what anti-mutant protesters want from her: to crawl into a corner and die without making a fuss. Every time someone told he she couldn't sing because she was bad, or that she could never sing professionally because she wasn't pretty enough, or that she shouldn't be allowed to sing because she was a mutant; these were all demands for silence to claim her. Silence's assault upon Alison manages to do what this title intermittently tried with varying degrees of success - parallel Dazzler's professional and personal crises.<br />
<br />
Not that dying in silence is something only a singer or a mutant need fear, of course. The concern that we will die without the chance to speak out terrifies all of us. It's why we're so obsessed with people's last words. It's why when we dream of nobly sacrificing ourselves it's for some great cause that will outlive us and venerate our sacrifice. It's hardwired into every teenager's belief that they might die, and "then they'll be sorry". When you comprehend death as a statement, or even a moral message, the idea it might take place whilst you are utterly silent is terrifying. So when Dazzler ultimately breaks free here by short-circuiting her own powers so that instead of turning sound into light she absorbs and redirects the sound directly, she is literally refusing to be silenced, and that act of total defiance destroys Silence, guaranteeing Dazzler her voice.<br />
<br />
All of which is actually rather clever. So why am I unhappy? It's because whilst Goodwin is taking great pains to silence Dazzler, he's more than happy to let others do all the talking, and the result feels more than ever as though Dazzler is simply guest-starring in her own strip. Not only do we again have O.Z. Chase and his mutt taking up space, but he's joined by Beast in his quest to rescue Alison. Adding in Beast is a terrible idea for two reasons. Firstly, it hearkens back to the "Beauty and the Beast" mini-series, which Ann Nocenti didn't do a very good job with (the difference between this and her incredible "Longshot" mini is remarkable), and therefore carries with it all the problems of that earlier story. More importantly, though, inserting a character who has (on and off) being a Marvel mainstay for over two decades overbalances the narrative. This is no surprise, of course, this is what big names from other branches of a franchise do if they're given any more than a spit and a cough. We might call what Goodwin does here "The <i>Enterprise </i>Manoeuvre" after its most <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/These_Are_the_Voyages...">infamous deployment</a>, and whilst that's a particularly egregious example, it almost never works well, because either the narrative is warped by the character into something unrecognisable as the story you are ending, or that warping is avoided and the interloper feels entirely tacked on.<br />
<br />
Here we have the former problem, with Beast teaming up with Chase to beat up some New Wave hoods and then breaking into Silence's HQ to rescue Dazzler. The final battle of the first superheroine to get her own book in the X-Universe, and she spends most of it as a princess needing rescue. To be fair to Goodwin, he does manage to temper this somewhat, with Chase and Beast ultimately merely distracting enough of Silence's guards that Dazzler can defeat Silence herself, but the focus is far too much on how O.Z. and Hank track Alison down, and too little on how Alison ultimately refuses to surrender to Silence. This problem is added to by the inclusion of the almost brand new character Arthur Allan Smith (he first appeared last issue), a troubled young man rarely out of one institution or another, but who once caught Alison singing as a support act at a rock gig and fell in love with her. The gig also activated Smith's New Wave powers, allowing him to both sense Alison is now in danger and escape so he can help her out.<br />
<br />
As with the overall Silence plot, there are things to appreciate here. Smith's ability to be ignored in plain sight is almost certainly a nod towards the geeky teenagers assumed to be comics' primary consumers - the big clue here is that he's a massive fan of what we know to be a comic book heroine - which ties the reader in to the story. And the idea that Dazzler is ultimately saved because her art touched the life of someone she didn't even know and one day he decided to repay her is a really rather touching one; it's already too late for Silence to silence Alison, because the songs are already out there, echoing back in ways that cannot be anticipated.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, though, the problem with a fan rescuing Dazzler here is obvious: it is the fans who have <i>killed </i>her, by not buying the book. They may have had very good reasons for not buying the book - it should be clear from my posts that I think the title's best days ended long before this issue, and that Goodwin was tasked with trying to pull up a stalled plane with its engine on fire. But whatever the motivation, kill it they did. The cover even suggests Marvel readers <i>demanded </i>the title come to an end. The comic even references this with the ultimate solution to the stand-off with a revived Dust involving Smith shooting the undead villain and then using his powers to make everyone think the cadaver is Alison's (this is the second time in two issues that Dust has been shot by a man with a gun just as he's about to beat Dazzler). The end result is hopelessly murky. The fans have killed Dazzler... in order to save her? So that she can go join X-Factor? Help me out here.<br />
<br />
Really though my objection to Smith is that he's just one more character in this issue who isn't Dazzler who takes up space and who the titular heroine then needs to have save her. Combine that with the slightly icky way in which this feeds into the teenage boy dream of gaining a pretty girl's gratitude by rescuing her from harm (trying to capture her interest when not in the slightest danger is apparently right out), and Smith's inclusion seems to raise more problems than it does potential.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, most of the problems I have here stem from this being the comic's finale. Silence's negation of Alison for much of the comic, Beast's cameo, the strange interference of Arthur Allan Smith might all work just fine as parts of an ongoing story. But by throwing them all in together at the very end does Dazzler - and <i>Dazzler </i>- a huge disservice. With the title having gone through so many artist teams and accordingly so many iterations, a coherent conclusion to the whole run was never really possible. But that's not really the point here. The point is that at the very least, the last <i>Dazzler </i>story should have been about Dazzler finally getting to shape her own fate, and that small, simple thing is entirely denied to her - and to us - as the curtain finally falls.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place two days after Dazzler agrees to help Silence, and takes place over two more days.<br />
<br />
The story ends with Beast inviting Dazzler to join - or at least meet - X-Factor. This causes all sorts of colossal problems, since events in Uncanny X-Men forced the formation of X-Factor to take place in April at the earliest, three full months after where we've been placing Alison's adventures up to this point.<br />
<br />
The solution to this is to pull <i>DAZ </i>#39 a good deal forward, since that is the latest issue which doesn't directly tie in with the one following. We need to be careful when doing this, though, because <i>DAZ</i> #40 features the Beyonder in his pre-massacre mood. Fortunately the Beyonder goes berserk sufficiently late in the course of <i>Secret Wars II</i> that it doesn't really affect things here. As a result we have that O.Z. Chase was hunting Dazzler down for a loooooooong time, but then America is a pretty big place, and he had to make a lot of stops for his dog to drink in bars, so I guess it makes sense.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Thursday 11<sup>th </sup> to Friday 12<sup>th</sup> April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+6Y+40 to X+6Y+41. <br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Socialist leader of Albania for over 43 years, Enver Hoxha dies in office.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Silence enfolds every sense you possess... strangles every emotion until you have no choice but to <b>shatter</b>! Break!" <br />
<br />
This much I will give this last story: Silence is an absolutely wonderful villain. Is there any person more likely to become selfish and cruel to the point of actual evil than someone who is physically pained by having to listen to anyone but herself? If Dazzler hadn't killed her she'd be David Cameron's cabinet right now.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-64428646743582732172015-06-21T08:00:00.000+01:002015-06-21T08:00:07.666+01:00SW2 #7-9: "Charge Of The Dark Brigade!", "Betrayal!", "God In Man, Man In God!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
("Marge, I'm confused. Is this a good ending or a bad ending?"<br />"It's an ending, that's enough!")<br />
<br />
<b>Trigger warning</b>: sexual assault.<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
Usually I like to run through the ongoings from a given month before turning to the minis, but I'm keen to get the second <i>Secret Wars</i> series off my desk as quickly as possible.<br />
<br />
In issue #7 Mephisto, concerned that the Beyonder is a threat to him, finds ninety-nine supervillains willing to enter into a pact with him. Their job is to attack the Beyonder whilst each imprinted with a mystical symbol that will destroy the Beyonder should they touch him, or should his power touch them. He also hopes the Thing will join in the carnage due to his hatred of the Beyonder, but ultimately Ben Grimm attempts to save the godlike being instead. Oooh, Mephisto is cross!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZK603dUC1Eg/VYWQsk12XqI/AAAAAAAAIXI/wh5XhL9g_PM/s1600/Meph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZK603dUC1Eg/VYWQsk12XqI/AAAAAAAAIXI/wh5XhL9g_PM/s400/Meph.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I got ninety-nine flunkies but the Thing ain't one!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There's some fun to be had here playing spot-the-villain, as well as speculating about what Mephisto offered, say, Emma Frost or Victor von Doom that was tempting enough for them to mess around with literal Faustian deals. The issue also has the advantage of actually tapping into what made the original series work, or at least the structure that allowed what worked about the first series to take place, i.e. the sudden attack of dozens of the Marvel Universe's most notorious villains (a genuine strike, not the brief illusion <i>SW2 </i>#4 ended with to justify its terribly misleading cover). Even supercharged as he is, I'm not sure how the Thing manages to do so well stopping any of them from getting past him, but Grimm has had a hard life; I'm not going to begrudge him a big win here.<br />
<br />
That said, the focus on the Thing is odd. This issue contains enough back-story on recent issues of Ben's own comic that I can see how this story represents a change to his status quo, but for anyone not reading that book this must have read very strangely; the clearest indication yet that this series isn't intended to work on its own terms so much as shake up other books. Certainly this all underlines how poorly the Beyonder works as a protagonist <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>. More than anything, this issue reads like an admission that the last six instalments were totally unsuccessful. Which, since generally speaking they were, and since this is a lot better in comparison (it's slight and silly on its own terms, but there's clearly a large group of fans for whom it ticks a lot of boxes, so fine) seems like a sensible statement to be making. Plus, it's always fun when Mephisto actually has a pretty solid point. And sure, his plan will release energy that will flash-fry fully one third of the universe, but that still makes him three times more sensible than Rachel Summers.<br />
<br />
(I suspect there's something I'm missing here with the subplot about the Beyonder accidentally setting up an island retreat for the rich to sit around and think all day. Was this a craze in the mid '80s I was too young or insufficiently American to catch?)<br />
<br />
But if issue #7 suggests Shooter has belatedly realised the Beyonder just isn't that interesting, how can we explain issue #8, which focuses on Molecule Man's attempts to psychoanalyse the Beyonder by having him discuss his childhood. Which I suppose is proof Peter David didn't actually invent the idea of putting superbeings on the therapist's couch, though he could well still be the first to get it even close to right. Owen Reese is no Doc Sampson, though in fairness he himself admits he's just trying to ape the process his own therapist took with him. Which is a rather useful warning, really; listen to your friends, offer what advice you can, but don't try to play the role of a qualified therapist. You're playing with matches in an oil field, and the blazes can take years just to find, let alone put out.<br />
<br />
Certainly, Owen doesn't achieve a great deal here other than to let the Beyonder briefly summarise his adventures to date (which were underwhelming enough the first time) and then enrage him with vacuous homilies. The Beyonder is about unity and wholeness - the result of originating in a dimension where he was literally everything - and simply cannot comprehend the worth humanity places on attempting to complete oneself with possessions, experiences, or other people <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span>. On paper, there's something intersting to this conflict: no man is a dimension-spanning island, leaving humanity and the Beyonder unable to understand each other. In practice, though, this is used as nothing more than a motivation for the Beyonder to want to blow everything up. The focus then - since even readers at the time must have been comfortable knowing the story wouldn't end with the utter destruction of Marvel's intellectual properties <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span> - is on what changes the Beyonder's mind (or who changes it for him). That was always going to be a tough job, since by definition we can't understand how the character's mind works in the first place. Still, I'm sure one could come up with a better approach than what we get, which is for the Beyonder to be attacked by both mutant teams (who get nowhere) to visit Spiderman and the Hulk (who do nothing, though I'm sure it helped to have their current states of play plugged to readers), in-between which he rapes someone.<br />
<br />
Yes, <i>Secret Wars II </i>#8 includes a rape. Not on-panel, but it's there. The Beyonder forces a woman to come to his suite with him, and when next we see her she's partially dressed and begging him to let her stay longer. It's done in such a way that it isn't a slam-dunk case, of course - maybe the Beyonder only mentally compelled her to unbutton her blouse; maybe she wasn't wearing a bra to begin with, etc. etc. etc. - but you have to work harder to believe the Beyonder didn't have sex than to believe he did. In a book where actually showing sex is never going to happen, the conclusions we are meant to draw are fairly clear. It's a standard case of the horrible sci-fi rape, of course, where someone is mind-controlled into wanting sex, as though that can possibly make it better. It doesn't. It's still rape, and the casualness with which it's just thrown into the issue and then forgotten about (serving as it does literally no plot function) takes a poor book and makes it very much actively disgusting. Before I was bored, and now I am offended. This tale? Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing. But sod it, let's toss a rape in. Gritty! Real!<br />
<br />
(Actually, speaking of classic tragedies, I actually quite like the ending of this issue, whereby the Beyonder decides he's been hasty and owes Owen an apology, only to get back to Reese's pad to be attacked by the Molecule Man before he can make good on his original promise to destroy reality. The end result of this betrayal, to no-one's surprise, is that the destruction of all that is returns to the top of Beyonder's to-do list. It's the best part of a terrible issue and one of the rare highlights of the whole story. There's also a way we could tie together issues #7-8 in terms of the dangers of the powerful failing to think through their actions: all that keeps Earth safe in issue #7 is the Beyonder refusing to engage the Crazy Evil Ninety-Nine, and reality itself only dodges the bullet in #8 because he chooses to spend time thinking things over.<br />
<br />
But who cares? What can themes or local maxima matter? Shooter has ticked the "Unnecessary Rape" box. Everything else here is irrelevant).<br />
<br />
The penultimate issue ends with Earth's mightiest heroes declaring war on the Beyonder, only to be almost instantly squished. Issue #9 picks up with the Beyonder determined to destroy everything. First, though, he has one more experiment to run: what happens if he places himself in a human body, and tries to see things from the perspective of the tiresome insects that keep crawling over him, biting and stinging whilst he's trying to think? Like the other issues in this final third, then, there's some credible attempt to point out the importance of the powerful considering their actions and attempting to understand those they have power over, though at this point the repeated last-minute callings off of universal destruction are becoming rather silly. We'll just add that to the eighty-two reasons the Beyonder makes for a poor protagonist. Still, his choice here has interesting consequences (and leads to the resurrection of the New Mutants to be his bodyguards, which is not so much interesting as useful information for later). The Beyonder creates his "mama machine", a device that will turn him human, and after a few failures (by which I mean he ends up <i>too </i>human and freaks out about stuff like getting stitches and the inevitability of cellular decay) he hits upon a formulation he thinks will combine the best of humanity and his own limitless power, and returns to the machine. It's at this point that pretty much the entire heroes' roster of the Marvel Universe show up, assembled by Molecule Man, for a last stand against the thug who announces the universe has had it approximately twice a week.<br />
<br />
What happens next is interesting. We get the standard superbeing smack-down an issue like this pretty much demands, but with two teams of Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Namor, Cloak and Dagger, and even Alpha Flight (team motto: "Maybe the villains will trip over our bodies and hurt themselves, eh?") ranged up against the brainwashed New Mutants, things wrap up rather quickly, and the heroes descend to the Beyonder's underground bunker, where obviously they are defeated almost instantly. Fortunately, they escape, and when they make their second strike they find not the omnipotent bully they expect to lose their lives fighting, but a baby growing in a machine.<br />
<br />
This sets up a rather nice moral quandary in place of the expected beat-down. It's a common enough fictional crisis: can you justify killing a horrifically powerful enemy whilst it is still in its earliest, helpless form? But there are differences to the standard model of this question. We don't here have the innocence of youth angle which exists with, say, the old question about whether one could be justified in killing Hitler as a baby. Nor do we have the ugly idea that all those of a specific race must essentially be the same; the kind of "burn the alien eggs!" approach that's horribly reductive and would have denied us those like Broo who can grow beyond a compromised culture. Here the heroes know the baby was, is and will be the Beyonder, a single specific person who has repeatedly threatened to kill them, something he could do almost effortlessly. So is it morally acceptable to kill this baby? And if one is tempted to say no (as, alas, only the female heroes seem to) is that because of something inherent in the nature of babies? Or is it just stemming from our <i>idea </i>of babies; a set of ingrained assumptions which have no relevance in the case of the Beyonder? As endings go, that's more interesting than the expected brawl, and whilst you could make a case for this being anti-climactic, that rather assumes a degree of build-up from the preceding issues that is almost entirely lacking in any case. Simply put, this series has a structure vastly too screwed up for the ending to do much damage.<br />
<br />
So do we kill the baby? Thinking of the Beyonder in terms of the oppressor (as I did when discussing <i>New Mutants </i>#37), the answer is an unequivocal "yes". The oppressed are under no obligation to leave the oppressor alone in his times of weakness. On the contrary, that is clearly the best time to strike. Whether the Beyonder really fits the description of oppressor well enough to justify his murder perhaps a little harder, especially since he's proved himself able and willing to reverse what damage he has done, even when that damage has been fatal. But even if the Beyonder doesn't quite fit the oppressor mould, I'd have thought it's at least arguable from a legal perspective that executing him is justifiable, since the only alternative is his escape. He's committed serious crimes, he's announced his intention to commit more, and literally the only way anyone can see to stop him is to kill him. As always this argument makes me a little uncomfortable, because deciding we have no other choice but to kill almost always betrays a lack of interest in considering alternatives, and a body-count generated simply through a lack of imagination or care. But as a solution to this particular moral quandary, I can live with it.<br />
<br />
Whatever the moral justification for it, it's ultimately the Molecule Man who takes the shot, sparing our heroes the job. You could argue this is a cop-out, but really I'm happy enough none of the '80s super-heroes are actual baby-killers, there just isn't sufficient maturity in the setting to handle that even if anyone wanted to try. Besides, one of the few successes this series has had has been its work on Owen Reese, and letting him be the one to save reality is rather nice. It also makes sense since he alone has the necessary ability to deflect the shock-wave released by the Beyonder's death, which he shunts into the Beyonder's old reality to kick-start a parallel universe (making me think of <i>Lucifer</i>, of all things).<br />
<br />
The resulting coda is short but nice, reminding us that the Beyonder's real problem was trying to balance his dislike of the boredom of immortality with his fear of the finiteness of life as we know it. By transforming him into a new reality, he gains both the unchanging unending vastness of the cosmos, but also the endless cycle of death and rebirth of those who live within it. In other words, the Molecule Man finally does what the Beyonder was hoping he would since the very first issue, and brings him peace. It's a neat end to an appallingly messy series, but what matters more than the neatness is the fact that it is at long last finally over.<br />
<br />
But for all that this series has many insurmountable faults, it added to the tool-box for crossovers generated by its predecessor, tools that are still in use today. It would be almost thirty years before Marvel tried the <i>Secret Wars</i> title once more, but like the Beyonder itself, <i>Secret Wars II</i> has generated a series of cycles that roll on, so far as I can tell, into infinity.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Or at least, the Beyonder as Shooter writes him. Claremont's unknowable ultimate threat actually works fairly well, though of course that's as antagonist. Either way, though, Shooter's bellicose rampant arsehole isn't getting the job done.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[2] In a sense the Beyonder is the ultimate solipsist. Or really, he goes beyond that, reaching a degree of self-love so profound the actual existence of the not-him causes him aggravation. How appropriate it is to focus on this idea in a sequel written on the basis that the best character to come out of <i>Secret Wars</i> was the only one the writer actually created himself is left as an exercise to the reader.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[3] Though those reading <i>Crisis on Infinite Earths</i>, which started before this series and ended in the same month, might have suspected a thorough shake-up could likewise be in the offing here. I confess to having no idea how obvious it was that the DC Universe was about to undergo total restructuring one month before the final issue of that series.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
Issue #7 opens days after the events of <i>SW2 </i>#6, and takes place over three days. It must take place before <i>Uncanny X-Men</i> #202. Issue #8 starts some brief amount of time after the previous issue, and takes place over two days. Issue #9 also seems to follow on quickly from its predecessor, and takes place over a single day.<br />
<br />
The timing of all this is somewhat tricky. Issue #9 obviously has to take place after <i>NMU </i>#37 and <i>UXM </i>#203, and the text boxes suggest issue #8 takes place after <i>UXM </i>#202. This is a problem since those two X-Men issues (as always on this blog,<i> Uncanny X-Men </i>is the central text around which all timing issues revolve) are at least days and more likely weeks apart, and yet this issue explicitly states it's only a day or two on from <i>SW2 </i>#8. I don't see much option here but to ignore the proposed reading order for the crossover issues (which of course are determined by publishing schedules rather than continuity in any case) and assume the Beyonder's attack on San Francisco happened before<br />
<i>SW2 </i>#6.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Thursday 11<sup>th </sup>to Tuesday 16<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+30 to X+7Y+35.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
The <i>USS Coral Sea</i> collides with the <i>Napo</i>, an Equadorian tanker ship.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Good help is <b>so </b>hard to corrupt." - MephistoSpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-88772221949105630192015-06-18T08:00:00.000+01:002015-12-19T15:06:26.536+00:00UXM #203: "Crossroads"<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BYVVw58OtHI/VVtqpdCsdXI/AAAAAAAAIP0/epyokJM2AJc/s1600/Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BYVVw58OtHI/VVtqpdCsdXI/AAAAAAAAIP0/epyokJM2AJc/s320/Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_203.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
(<i>Mass Effect 3 </i>can piss off as well.) <b><br /></b><br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
"Good morning, Ms... Summers, is it?"<br />
"I prefer Phoenix."<br />
"The... I'm sorry. The Phoenix that took over your mother, murdered billions, and came within inches of obliterating the entirety of existence?"<br />
"The very same."<br />
"I see. Well, welcome to the First Bank of M'Kraan, Ms Phoenix. I hope your journey wasn't too arduous?"<br />
"It was fine. I stole the life-force of several of my friends to power me, so it wasn't too long a slog in the end."<br />
"That's... good. Onto business, anyway. As I'm sure you can understand, there are a number of stages to an application like this, all sorts of dots and crosses we need to push through. But let's start with the biggest question: how much do you intend to borrow?"<br />
"Everything."<br />
"Everything?"<br />
"Everything. Everything you have. Everything the <i>universe</i> has. The whole nine billion trillion square yards. I'd like to take every life, every planet, every molecule in the universe. Right now. Please."<br />
"Ms Phoenix, that's... well, that's certainly a refreshingly original request. Just so as we can understand your application fully, when exactly were you planning on paying this back? Because I'm not entirely sure how I can start calculating compound interest on literally everything. It'd be a philosophical and mathematical nightmare, I would've thought."<br />
"I wasn't exactly planning on paying anything back. There won't actually be anything left five minutes after you approve the loan. Not so much as two molecules to rub together."<br />
"Hmm. This is not exactly what banks like to hear, Ms Phoenix. One of our central operating principles is that, on balance, we be repaid through cash or electronic transfers that actually exist."<br />
"I thought you'd say that. But there is a deal that I can offer you. Once I've obliterated all that exists, I'm quite sure a new universe will be created in the resulting vacuum. You can consider that yours."<br />
"So to summarise, Ms Phoenix - and our apologies if we appear dense, but I'm sure you can understand that it is rather new territory to discuss the destruction of all territory of any kind - you are proposing that you borrow the sum total of corporeal existence, and utterly obliterate it?"<br />
"That's right. I want it utterly absent. I want to finish what my mother started. And don't worry; I know what you're thinking."<br />
"There are very few thoughts to choose from regarding a proposal such as this."<br />
"Also I'm a telepath. I know it sounds insane, even inhuman-"<br />
"<i>We </i>are inhuman, Ms Phoenix. Do not attempt to... tar us with your brush, is it?" <br />
"-But it's the only way. The only way to stop the Beyonder's horrific plan."<br />
"Which is?"<br />
"To destroy the universe! To obliterate all that lives!"<br />
"I thought that was your plan?"<br />
"That's different. I don't actually <i>want </i>to have to do this. but it's the only way to kill the Beyonder!"<br />
"And you're sure he wants to annihilate existence?"<br />
"Absolutely. I read his mind just a few weeks ago."<br />
"A few weeks? People can change their minds, Ms Phoenix. I came in to work this morning thinking I would enjoy this meeting, for instance. I ask again: are you sure this is what he wants?"<br />
"OK, maybe not totally sure. But how can we afford to take that risk?"<br />
"I am - look, there's so much here it would take six weeks and a qualified psychotherapist to wade through it. We might have to dissect your brain. But again, start with the biggest question. Why would the Beyonder want to destroy reality? Won't he end up just as dead?"<br />
"No. He's not like us. Not tied to one reality. He can side-step into his own dimension once the fuse is lit."<br />
"So, if I may summarise: you are so terrified an entity of terrifying cosmic power <i>might </i>destroy the entire universe, a process only he can survive, that you want to use your status as an entity of terrifying cosmic power to <i>actually </i>destroy the entire universe, so as to kill the only person who can survive the process?"<br />
"He won't escape if he doesn't see it coming!"<br />
"So as long as the being who can see atoms doesn't see the universe collapsing, we'll be OK? Well, except all the people who will die. Which is everyone."<br />
"Stop twisting things! It's not the same! At least my way will result in the birth of a new universe!"<br />
"Are you really going to sit there and tell me you have sufficient background in theoretical physics to guarantee this is a restart and not a shutdown? Weren't you just moments ago arguing the stakes are too high for us to take risks?" <br />
"I know that framed like that it sounds foolish-"<br />
"No. It does not sound foolish. It sounds <i>monstrous</i>. It sounds like a madman with his finger on the button, convinced that if destruction might be coming anyway all that matters is that he fired first. It sounds ike a lunatic convinced that their foe outstrips them so totally in every way that mutually assured destruction is the only way to destroy him, as though it were impossible this utterly superior enemy might not have prepared for such a scenario. You should never run a battle plan that relies on the enemy being stupid, Ms Phoenix. Especially when the enemy is a god and the battle plan is "set fire to all that lives". You come to our bank shouting "Nothing lasts forever, so why not destroy it now?" and expect applause for the sacrifice you demand everyone else must make. You're a nihilist who wants to be seen as a humanitarian, a murderer who wants credit for not stretching out her kills. You'll forgive us if we don't find you sympathetic. You'll understand if we look at you and struggle to keep our breakfast down. You stole your friends' lives to betray their life's work, and you did it because you thought your banal desperation someone made you better than them. You've taken the genocidal heritage of the Phoenix Force and somehow made it worse. We are the oldest banking institution in the cosmos, but even we aren't going to touch something <i>this </i>fucking evil."<br />
"So... I don't get the loan then?"<br />
"You don't get the loan. Good day Ms Phoenix. Do please take a complimentary pen."<br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
It's apparently been a few weeks since the events of<i> New Mutants</i> #36, which puts this issue towards the end of March/start of April. Since this issue has to take place after <i>NMU </i>#37, I'll start this on the following day. The issue itself starts in late evening and continues to sunrise of the following day.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Sunday 14<sup>th </sup>to Monday 15<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+44 to X+7Y+45.<br />
<br />
<b>Compression Constant</b><br />
<br />
1 Marvel year = 3.17 standard years<br />
<br />
(Beast is 33 years old)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rfULMDh-77s/VX71ZbhHs_I/AAAAAAAAIV8/fDnJN_KJGlY/s1600/The_Duke_of_Cambridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rfULMDh-77s/VX71ZbhHs_I/AAAAAAAAIV8/fDnJN_KJGlY/s320/The_Duke_of_Cambridge.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"I'm not an executioner, Ray. We do that... we play the Beyonder's game -- provin' ourselves no better than him." - Logan.<br />
<br />
The one and only time this argument will ever be acceptable, folks. You saw it here first. Or, you know, back in 1986. Or any time between then and now. SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-1960026946943955252015-06-16T08:00:00.000+01:002015-06-16T08:00:02.942+01:00NMU #37: "If I Should Die"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vtPPY7dldYw/VVzh-2GLPYI/AAAAAAAAIRU/u8wpFsECWgs/s1600/New_Mutants_Vol_1_37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vtPPY7dldYw/VVzh-2GLPYI/AAAAAAAAIRU/u8wpFsECWgs/s320/New_Mutants_Vol_1_37.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
("What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night" - Crowfoot, Siksika First Nation)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments </b><br />
<br />
This is about as far as you can get from the swashbuckling larks. Everything here that isn't gloom is doom instead. Well, there's a brief bit at the start featuring the kids relaxing whilst the senior team is away. These little "slice of life" sections are always some of Claremont's best, even if they tend to be stuffed with more corn than just the kernels Amara is popping to make snacks. Even here there is sadness, though, as Rahne is forced to take the others to task for cheering on a Western filled with villainous "Indians" whilst their friend Dani<i> is in the same room</i>. Not being American, and to my great shame never having to my knowledge ever met or spoken to a Native American (though I've read writing from some) I can't tell whether this is too heavy-handed or not, but I personally appreciated it. Especially since Dani is trying to talk to her Cheyenne mother but can't hear her over the sound of hooting teenagers rooting for the US Cavalry. That's a hell of a metaphor about the violent overwriting of indigenous dialogue by colonial oppressors to be found tossed away on the first page of an '80s superhero comic.<br />
<br />
But then what is the Beyonder but the ultimate colonial, a force come to our lands to overwrite the story of humanity however he sees fit, secure in the knowledge we cannot stand against him, and utterly convinced that this same weakness makes us ineligible to contribute to the discussion of our fate. It's the ultimate white man's fear: that someday someone else is going to do to us exactly what we did to others for centuries with impunity <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>. Shooter's main <i>SW2 </i>title rather bypasses this in favour of elevator-pitch tales of hilarious misunderstandings and reality-juggling, but Claremont here takes the far more plausible route (to the extent that phrase has meaning here) and presents the arrival of the Beyonder as being a terrifying black swan event that would terrify you so much every internal organ would vacate your body.<br />
<br />
Here Claremont ties in the sheer incomprehensible horror circling humanity's head by tapping Dani's status as an agent of death, specifically Hela. I've discussed before my discomfort with having a native American forcibly added to the ranks of the force of a white culture's god, but it certainly has some power here. There's a particularly nice moment in which Dani sees death hovering over each of her friends, but the form death takes depends on the beliefs of each New Mutant - so for Illyana it's a demon, for Amara it's Pluto, etc. For some reason Sam's death appears to be Jesse Custer, but then I suppose he did do more than his share of killing, so fair enough. Roberto manages to escape the portentathon, since he's elsewhere, doing a bit of standard hero work and Claremontian brooding, presumably to remind us that normal service at least continues somewhere; that the Beyonder's shadow does not yet cover everything. But for everyone else on the team, it looks like being a pretty bad night.<br />
<br />
For Beyonder, God of Imperialism, is a jealous deity, easily offended. He offered Illyana the chance to join him willingly last issue, and she refused. He came to her all smiles and gifts, and yet she rejected him, wanting to choose her own path. What is the Beyonder to do in response to such obvious and total irrationality? How could anyone fail to see his way is the best way? Who else can claim such power? Why would he have such total control over reality if not to rearrange it as he saw fit? Illyana's refusal is a sign she does not understand. Worse, that she would happily doom her own people rather than attempt that understanding.<br />
<br />
The Beyonder turns her to dust the moment he sees her.<br />
<br />
The rest of the New Mutants try desperately to avenge their friend, but the fight is obviously hopeless. Indeed, the only reason it happens at all is because the Beyonder seems to want to toy with them, offering them hope specifically so he can take it away, as Dani puts it. This is more or less inarguable, given the Beyonder could have erased them all from existence without them even knowing he was there. Ultimately, though, the effect is the same; the Beyonder murders the team one by one (in a way that's probably the most horrifying team wipe-out I can remember since Alan Moore gave us The Fury) and then erases them from the entire timeline. Removing their stories utterly, and replacing them with his own.<br />
<br />
The End.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Claremont underlines this by gifting Dani a vision of her grandfather explaining how some amongst the Cheyenne believed the white man had been sent to punish them for their pride. I confess I've been unable to find anything on whether this is something that was genuinely believed at the time, or whether it's entirely fictional.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place over a single evening.<br />
<br />
Sam mentions that summer is almost over, though since he turns that into a discussion about Thanksgiving it's not clear quite how good his grasp of chronology is. In any event, with the Beyonder having been on earth since at least the start of the year (see <i>UXM </i>#196) placing this issue eight or so months later strikes me as letting him plague the planet for entirely too much time - the gaps between issues of #SW2 would have to become too large. We can move the timeline on a few weeks, though, since it's clear from the next UXM issue that the X-Men have spent quite some time in San Francisco trying to sort out the mess there.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Friday 13<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+33.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
American model, burlesque dancer and actress Carmen Carrera is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"They're watching some dumb cowboy movie -- of course we're the bad guys -- yeah, I wish things were different too." - Dani.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-35351824280339507832015-05-20T08:00:00.000+01:002015-05-20T08:00:06.862+01:00NGT #4:"The Wizard Of Oops!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-54b1sSKcYwE/VTAbL-LutII/AAAAAAAAILI/fIJ2A9wzFqc/s1600/Nightcrawler_Vol_1_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-54b1sSKcYwE/VTAbL-LutII/AAAAAAAAILI/fIJ2A9wzFqc/s1600/Nightcrawler_Vol_1_4.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
(Like <i>Sliders</i>... on acid!)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
This shouldn't take too long to wrap up. since all the problems of the last issue are still present here: Claremont's "Boggie World" didn't really work as an exploration of Kitty's whimsy in any case, but it's even more unsuccessful as the primary location in the second half of a four-art mini, unless you have a much stronger tolerance for silliness than I do.<br />
<br />
Actually, I don't think it's silliness that's the problem<i> per se</i>, it's silliness that doesn't show much in the way of invention. The basic building blocks are borrowed, and the structure Cockrum builds with them entirely unsurprising. It's not entirely without charm, I confess; every now and again something surfaces here that I really quite like. The giant lumbering Dark Bamf is lots of fun - his dismissal of our own dimension as being "<b>weird</b>... all straight lines!" is such a nice little artist's joke - and Nightcrawler trying to get home by taking a cue from Mr Mxyzptlk is a nice nod to the Distinguished Competition. And defeating a living wall of grasping tentacles by discovering it is ticklish is exactly the sort of silliness I adore, which if nothing else suggests my aesthetics as regards this kind of romp are all over the map and shouldn't in any way be trusted.<br />
<br />
Still, though, the not-X-Men fight Shagreen for a while, then defeat him, and nothing else happens beyond a parade of individual slices of nonsense. These don't have a high enough hit rate for me, though YMMV. The one thing here that seems to move beyond personal taste into something genuinely unfortunate is the inclusion of the female Bamfs, who are just as horny as their male counterparts, but look like teenage girls rather than stuffed toys.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ega9Xf7fxcI/VVtGcXsTwJI/AAAAAAAAIPY/p8vTssXTaQc/s1600/FBa.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ega9Xf7fxcI/VVtGcXsTwJI/AAAAAAAAIPY/p8vTssXTaQc/s320/FBa.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The problem here is a stuffed toy with omnidirectional horniness is funny (or at least, it's funny to a point, in small doses and not pushed too far). A young woman with the same drive is something rather different. <br />
<br />
Anway, as I say, fight fight fight, win. Nightcrawler gets sucked into a vortex as a result of breaking Shagreen's staff though, and ends up in yet another dimension. And then all of a sudden, a cowboy dinosaur appears, and everything is briefly wonderful. Let's just take a moment to process that. A Cowboy. Dinosaur.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wC68p00XqV8/VVtKF3y1wbI/AAAAAAAAIPk/wERDjZSrD6c/s1600/Cretacious%2BSam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wC68p00XqV8/VVtKF3y1wbI/AAAAAAAAIPk/wERDjZSrD6c/s400/Cretacious%2BSam.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't deny mammals, Kurt! Mammals are your mother!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If only it all could've been like this. I mean, I highly doubt a Tombstonasaurus tale would keep up the momentum through a whole issue, let alone a four-part mini, but it's an indication of how much more interesting and fun this title could have been had Cockrum had more interest in exploring his own whimsy instead of borrowing Claremont's.<br />
<br />
A little more reality hopping, a thoroughly unconvincing (though commendably brief) bit of hand-waving about how all this came about in the first place, and Nightcrawler is back where he belongs. And same as he ever was, of course. No changes to body, mind or soul. Hell, even the clocks haven't shifted all that much, what with the Narnia effect in play. The whole story, in effect, might as well never have happened. Which is about as appropriate a conclusion to this minseries as you could ask for, really.<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story seems to take place over a few hours max in the "real" world. Kitty and Illyana are in the same clothes as the previous issue, suggesting it takes place on the same day.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Tuesday 25<sup>th</sup> December, 1984<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+6Y+298.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FtEBtv64LBM" width="360"></iframe>
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Dark Bamf only <b>pawn </b>in game of life".<br />
<br />
Poor Dark Bamf. All he wants is love. And to smash people. That most of all. SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-46182354833926869892015-04-23T21:00:00.000+01:002015-04-23T21:00:04.366+01:00Yielding The FloorGiven the focus of fully two thirds of my blogs, you might have been expecting me to comment on the news that Iceman will soon be coming out as gay in All-New X-Men. Really, though, Rachel Edidin has concussed that nail so <a href="http://fangirlnation.com/2015/04/22/iceman-is-gay-superhero-sexuality/">totally</a> - poor thing must be seeing Angel and Xorn's face flying around its head right now - that there's precious little for me to add. Just read that piece, twice.<br />
<br />(Yes, that's a Playboy link, but obviously Edidin's article itself is smut free, and the surrounding ads are no less SFW than any other ad involving models in bikinis).SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-84329388459771236342015-04-17T08:00:00.000+01:002015-04-17T08:07:40.016+01:00LGS #6: "A Snake Coils..."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5PuMWGavS0g/VRfRZyRzVxI/AAAAAAAAIJk/8mOCs3TeKjU/s1600/Longshot-6-Spiral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5PuMWGavS0g/VRfRZyRzVxI/AAAAAAAAIJk/8mOCs3TeKjU/s1600/Longshot-6-Spiral.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></div>
<br />
('84 in '86)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
We reach the final issue of a title I've thoroughly enjoyed up to now. Each one of the first five issues has included some lovely ideas riffing on the nature of stories, whether comic-book tales or fiction in general.<br />
<br />
With the need to bring the series to an end, however, opportunities for such cleverness are harder to come by, even with 41 pages to play with. Giving something thematic heft is hard. Writing a satisfying ending is hard. Trying to do both at once must be like juggling mercury.<br />
<br />
And yet Nocenti hits a home run here <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>. The issue is perhaps slightly fractured, with lots of good ideas thrown in without all of them necessarily getting time to breathe, But there's a through-line here, and that to my mind is what matters. It starts with having Longshot team up with the terminally pessimistic Quark, another resistance fighter from Longshot's dimension. Quark came over with the slave-hunters as an undercover agent but is now having major second thoughts about joining up with Longshot's rebellion. At first glance Quark's endless complaining and conviction in his cursed luck seem overly reminiscent of Jinx in issue #3, but the focus is subtly different. The tale of Jinx was all about how people can blame endless bad luck as a way of refusing to both take responsibility for their actions and accept the ways in which they've been dealt a much better hand than plenty of others. Quark's miserable attitude is born of something different; whilst Longshot suffers from near-total absence of memories, Quark suffers from having far too many.<br />
<br />
Frankly, given the way Quark describes the struggle for freedom from Mojo's tyranny, I have a hard time blaming the guy for being sick of it. I've mentioned before how unnerving and twisted Mojo's zaniness is, and Nocenti keeps it up here as Quark describes how many of his and Longshot's comrades have been "turned inside-out by wizards", an image at once deeply silly and profoundly disturbing. The result has rather understandably left Quark an embittered, hopeless wreck, which of course contrasts with Longshot's almost unhinged positivity. There's a certain irony in Quark being the grizzled veteran to Longshot's wide-eyed rookie considering as best as we can tell it was Longshot who first recruited Quark, but things go deeper than that. The idea here seems to be that too <i>much </i>memory can distort your view of the world just as much as too little. For every one of us who hasn't had lessons to learn from, there's someone who attended the lesson, but learned the wrong thing from it. This again nods to poor old Jinx, whose famed bad luck comprised in large part of him making conscious decisions he later came to regret.<br />
<br />
But let's be fair to Quark, he's got better reasons for sulking than Jinx could claim. Not only is he clearly suffering from his time spent fighting a horrific war, but he's also stuck with a goat's head in a world where goats get fenced in and forcibly milked every day, and that's if they're lucky. It's this, more than anything else that takes place in the series, that makes it feel like an X-Book; though there's more to Quark's issues than simply the standard conflict a mutant feels when being asked to save those who oppress them. Quark is a slave who first fought simply to be free, but now is being asked to fight to save people who hate and fear him because he reminds them of creatures they have already enslaved. Little wonder he's not convinced he wants to risk his life taking on Mojo.<br />
<br />
Speaking of which: the spineless sultan is on great form here. Once again Nocenti writes his dialogue as coming from the exact midpoint of a desperate stand-up comic and a narcissistic serial killer. This latter characteristic comes to the fore here as he demands Spiral and multiple mind-controlled humans construct a cathedral to himself, from which he can draw power. Fame, it seems, is not just the goal or the coin of the realm in the Mojoverse, it's how one generates power, and potentially immortality. <br />
<br />
Which is a little like how it works in real life, I suppose, and has been standard operating policy in fiction going back at least as far as J.M. Barrie, but it's rather more sinister when it involves a murderous villain. This is always the risk with writing, that you'll unleash something that lurks in the shadows forever. How many innocent actors have had to pretend to die at Dracula's fangs alone? Thousands? Tens of thousands?<br />
<br />
(Besides, what demonstrates the immortality of popularity better than comic characters? They get to outlive their titles, their times, even their creators; living forever for as long as people demand it. It's in this context that I note when Fliss flicked through this book to see what I was up to she asked why a a blob with spider legs was fighting Ziggy Stardust,)<br />
<br />
But Mojo's long-term prospects aren't nearly so concerning as what he's up to right now. Already he has the power to turn cats to skeletons and turn dog's heads the wrong way round. But as Longshot points out, the dog's head looks like it was <i>always </i>on backwards. Mojo isn't just killing, he's rewriting lives out of existence. Longshot - already having had his memory overwritten, at least in pencil - isn't just fighting for his life, he's fighting to avoid being written out of his own story.<br />
<br />
This demands an appropriate response, and fortunately Longshot can remember just enough of his creator Arize to know he already provided it: you simply tell the slaves they're not slaves any more (say, what does "Arize" sound like anyway? What does building one's own legs imply?). As a literal piece of advice, this is surely insufficient, perhaps even insulting. But what matters is the philosophy the suggestion carries with it. Slavery is an abomination, a brutal parade of broken bones and bleeding skin, death and worse than death and degradations I cannot possibly even imagine. But is also a narrative, a story told not only to the slavers but also to the slaves. This is what you deserve. This is all you can be. This is for your own good.<br />
<br />
Tyrants are also storytellers, turning fiction into a weapon. Which means stories can be weaponised against them, too. This is what Longshot ultimately learns here; victory will come not by slaying Mojo on Earth where his people cannot see the dictator humbled. Instead he must return to his own lands and spread the story that the tyrants are vulnerable. Orwell always knew this: what the powerful fear above all else are the stories that say the powerless can have access to all the power they want. You defeat a vile, damaging story by choosing to write a better one.<br />
<br />
Which, if nothing else, Nocenti has without doubt achieved.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] If you'll forgive the mixed metaphor. You can't hit a home run in mercury juggling; the metal would wrap itself around the bat.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place over a single day. Since Mojo makes a point of greeting the sunrise as this issue begins, we'll place it on the day following the conclusion of <i>LGS </i>#5. <br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Thursday 1<sup>st </sup>November 1984.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+6Y+245.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Natalia Tena - everyone's favourite Order of the Phoenix member/raccoon-channelling Wildling - is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Hallowed be his fame!" - Random Mojo worshipper.SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-4073873425238445122015-03-27T08:00:00.000+00:002015-03-27T09:19:24.880+00:00X-Factor #1: "Third Genesis"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1bRISiFkR1U/VN4k9hLXM1I/AAAAAAAAIFQ/BIv0E2ezD7c/s1600/X-Factor_Vol_1_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1bRISiFkR1U/VN4k9hLXM1I/AAAAAAAAIFQ/BIv0E2ezD7c/s1600/X-Factor_Vol_1_1.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></div>
<br />
(Ray Wilson)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
Sometimes you get famous for all the wrong reasons.<br />
<br />
To get the obvious out of the way, <i>X-Factor</i> #1 was intended to be a major deal. The original five X-Men back together? Including the one thought dead for years? A new series of adventures for them now they've outgrown the teenage angst Lee lumbered them with over two decades earlier? That's a far stronger hook than <i>Dazzler </i>or <i>Alpha Flight</i> could claim. And indeed, with those two titles being at best tremendously oblique spin-offs (to the point people have asked me why I bothered including either of them on this blog), there's an argument to be made that this stands as the X-Universe's second genuine title to grow from <i>Uncanny X-Men</i>, and the first to not be written by Claremont.<br />
<br />
Given this, it's perhaps something of a shame that this issue is arguably best known these days for two absolutely colossal fumblings of the ball. The first of these is the decision to have the new team pose as mutant-catchers so as to hunt and whisk away new mutants without causing suspicion. That goes away soon enough, though, so whilst the idea is awful it does no lasting damage. It's the second problem - turning Cyclops into a deadbeat dad - that really haunts the title going forward.<br />
<br />
I think it's a fairly common reaction when something has been so slated for so long to try and offer some kind of defence. So how could we construct such a defence, and how far does it take us? Regarding the plan to save mutants from persecution by pretending to persecute them, I think any attempt at a defence has to be considered DOA. As always, it's not my place to tell an oppressed group how it should combat its oppression. But it does seem fairly clear to me that if in the '70s a group of gay men decided to pretend to be PIs who people could call to hunt down down gay men and cart them off to prison for them, that would fairly unarguably be the worst idea ever. There's a reason Edward Murrow fought McCarthyism by decrying it over the airwaves rather than pretending to help the State Department track down suspected pinkos and then hiding them in his house, and I don't think that reason was just that he was more comfortable behind a microphone.<br />
<br />
So that pretty much can't be salvaged, indeed it went down so badly that Layton's successor Louise Simonson revealed it all to be a deliberate plot by Warren's PR man Cameron Hodge to make things worse for mutants - a twist that rather makes our heroes look like utter idiots, but I guess that barge had sailed. Can we get anywhere arguing Scott Summers acted less atrociously than is commonly accepted? Is it possible we can get some way towards forgiving him on the grounds that almost no-one reading this post has the slightest idea how they would deal with learning they were wrong about the unquestioned love of their life dying two and a half years earlier?<br />
<br />
That's something I'll come back to, but for now I want to move on to Jean's actual return from the dead; talking about how that affects Scott before it affects Jean herself doesn't strike me as sensible. The interesting thing about Jean being revived by Marvel just in time to put her in X-Factor is that the two ideas came from separate sources. The original cover for this issue simply has a blank outline where the fifth, female member of the team would be placed once it was decided who it was going to be (with Dazzler being a front runner for the role).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K2m3vh0aFQw/VRFGGHDdA7I/AAAAAAAAII8/UcBPITZg1TU/s1600/150px-Xfactor1undecided.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K2m3vh0aFQw/VRFGGHDdA7I/AAAAAAAAII8/UcBPITZg1TU/s1600/150px-Xfactor1undecided.jpg" height="400" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not hard to criticise this from a feminine perspective, is it?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Meanwhile, Marvel writer Kurt Busiek was exploring the possibility of resurrecting Jean Grey, basically because he was a big fan and didn't like how her story had originally ended. With him pushing the idea of bringing her back, it was eventually decided that it could be allowed, so long as she was completely exonerated of any role in the Phoenix's genocidal actions, and one of comic's most notorious retcons was on its way out of the door.<br />
<br />
Whether or not one agrees with Busiek regarding the conclusion of the <i>Dark Phoenix Saga</i>, it's clear his solution raises problems of its own. This is where the levy breaks, and we start down the road ending in it becoming standard policy in the X-Universe to run stories that, should they go wrong, will stink up the past as well as the present. The X-Men can now no more die than the titles of the comics which feature them can. There can always be another chapter, so long as we fans demand it, unloading onto the internet, clamouring to vote for who should become immortal. Ultimately those fans can end up in the bullpen themselves, like Busiek, a new generation of writers determined to fix the mistakes of the old, for rather idiosyncratic definitions of "mistakes". That all of this should kick off the very moment someone other than Claremont gets their claws into the franchise proper is perhaps fitting.<br />
<br />
As to the utility of bringing Jean herself back, I'm defiantly agnostic. I suspect that for many fans the desire to see her return stems mainly from nostalgia. After all, the Jean of the '60s and '70s was at worst a sexist cipher, and even at best she was defined almost exclusively by her relationship with Scott and the generic "strong woman" approach so beloved of male comic writers who don't to put the effort in with actual characterisation. The result was a woman so eminently replaceable Claremont managed to do so with the exact same person; Jean was never anything more than an attractive redhead who loved Scott. It would be nice to think that Jean's reappearance here was intended as a way to allow her to be written right this time, but with the explicit motivation for this resurrection basically being that Jean was too good a character to die the way she did, hopes obviously aren't high.<br />
<br />
Anyway, on to Cyclops. First let's talk about how his presence here bends the narrative. Generally speaking, when kicking off a new book it's important to justify its existence to the punters. One tried and tested method for this, as we recently saw in <i>Alpha Flight</i> (though in that case it was a change of creative team necessitating justification rather than a new title) is to have the characters themselves doubt and debate their usefulness, so that they can go on convince themselves - and hopefully therefore us - that they are a viable concern. Instead, the narrative <i>gives </i>them Cyclops, and goes out of its way to reinforce the idea that the other guys can't adequately function without him, something which I imagine came as a surprise to any number of <i>Defenders </i>fans.<br />
<br />
The reason why this is done is fairly obvious, of course. Leyton wants to justify Summers' return from his retirement. But inevitably placing Cyclops above his three oldest male friends rather makes them look weaker, which is an odd choice when they're 60% of your new book's main cast (it's particularly strange in a book that's already referenced Scott not having the skills to run the X-Men anymore, which means this book is being pitched as a second-tier hero leading his third-tier mates). Instead of learning why we should read about this team, we learn only that we couldn't read about this team without Scott, which frankly reads like Layton is justifying himself to Claremont rather than to the reader. And there's yet another problem generated here. Cyclops' decision to choose the team over his marriage can really only be as justifiable as the team's existence is itself, and that justification hovers somewhere between sketchy and idiotic here.<br />
<br />
But even if <i>XFA </i>#1 had done a much better job of selling us the new team (and at the very least they do prevent Rusty Collins from getting himself and plenty of other people killed), would that help exonerate Scott? Let's review what he actually did: he left his wife and newborn child to go on a trip he refused to discuss, and then didn't call them for <i>over two weeks</i>. What manner of defence can we possibly mount here?<br />
<br />
First of all, let's do some parsing. I think it's worth considering Cyclops' decision to take the trip separately from his decision to not phone home for a fortnight. The first of these two we can possibly at least partially justify. As I've said, there's a low ceiling on the extent to which we can process Scott's predicament here. And it isn't as though Maddie is helping here either, having just the previous day laid into Scott for caring too much about mutants and not enough about her and the baby. Which is a pretty ugly look in any case - until I come up with a better name for this I'm going to go with "flatscan privilege" - and is particularly ridiculous when you consider that Christopher <i>might be a mutant as well. </i>When you insist someone need to stop worrying about the safety of themselves, their friends, their minority group, and possibly your own baby because it's slowing them down getting hold of the nappies, it's possible it isn't your priorities that need rejigging. Yes, Maddie apologises for her outburst that night, but since she then does exactly the same thing again when Scott gets the fateful phone call, I'm not actually all that impressed by her contrition. If you keep pulling the same shit it stops mattering if you're mumbling "sorry" in between.<br />
<br />
But if we're going to talk about a pattern of repeated behaviour, we need to shine that harsh light on Cyclops as well. As <a href="http://x-marathon.blogspot.co.uk/">Abigail Brady</a> pointed out when we briefly discussed this issue (whilst on different continents; I love Twitter), the degree of ferocity behind Maddie's outbursts strongly suggest that this is a recurring problem. And yes, whilst I'm no fan of telling mutants to stop stressing, I can certainly see it might be more helpful if Cyclops could brood and perform simple tasks simultaneously. He made the decision to quit fighting evil and raise a family instead. Requiring him to stick to that decision - at least to the extent that it allows him to function as the father of a new baby - seems entirely reasonable, and if Maddie has reached the point where she's driving that point home with what seems absent context unnecessary force, well, I don't think anyone who reads this blog needs to be reminded that Scott's tendency to brood can be an issue.<br />
<b><br /></b>
In addition to all this, we have the fact that the situation is weighted in favour of Madelyne in any case. In part this is because she just spent nine months carrying Scott's child, and ended up having to give birth without him whilst he was - of course - stress out about mutant rights. As once again Abigail pointed out, a certain degree of benefit-giving and slack-cutting is in order here. Maybe even stronger a point, though, is that this is another instance of a fake oppression - anti-mutant laws - rubbing up against the very real problem of women being abandoned to raise kids alone because the father suddenly discovers something more important they should be doing (here it's literally another woman Scott wants to see instead). Trying to generate fictional situations where a man can legitimately abandon their wife and baby without explanation (and it is abandonment; two weeks of silence after a superhero disappears on a secret mission and you're fully justified in believing they're dead) is not a writing exercise we should in any way be encouraging.<br />
<br />
So how far can we defend Summers over leaving? Not very far at all. Maddie might have been a pain over the last day, and she might have told you to never come back (because you should clearly take everything your partner shouts at you in anger completely literally) but you still have a responsibility to the woman you agreed to support, and you certainly have a responsibility to the child you fathered. That simply cannot be said enough. You have a responsibility to the child you fathered. We should <i>Clockwork Orange</i> that sentence into every new dad as a matter of course.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c6B_D-P0DiU/VRRz3Ih-z6I/AAAAAAAAIJQ/-93Fa4-APDY/s1600/COT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c6B_D-P0DiU/VRRz3Ih-z6I/AAAAAAAAIJQ/-93Fa4-APDY/s1600/COT.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
All of which leaves us with no option but to conclude we can't excuse Scott over his decision to skip out with no explanation. And with the decision to not phone home for an entire fortnight whilst he moped around Westchester clearly utterly unacceptable, I'm afraid legal counsel simply has very little it can do. You should have taken the plea deal, Mr Cyclops.<br />
<br />
So ends the trial of Scott Summers. The verdict is guilty. The sentence is... well, we'll get to the sentence soon enough.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story takes place over sixteen days. It has to start after Cyclops and Storm had their duel in <i>UXM </i>#201, and from the sound of it that must have been weeks ago. We'll therefore start this story a fortnight after that issue. I'd like to set this earlier, since the first page states this is set before the winter, but since this issue has to follow Cyclops and Storm's duel in <i>UXM </i>#201, there's nothing to be done.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Tuesday 26<sup>th</sup> March to Wednesday 10<sup>th </sup>April, 1985.<br />
<br />
<b>X-Date</b><br />
<br />
X+7Y+24 to X+7Y+39.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KKGQdapez3E" width="360"></iframe>
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b><br />
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<br />
"Taking off your clothes -- in my office?"<br />
<br />
Beast knows how to deal with bigotry. You rescind a job offer because of your colleagues' witless bigotry, you're going to get the Real McCoy. Strip For Justice!SpaceSquidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760939592584995876noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196868631236768531.post-70217792774580125852015-03-01T08:00:00.000+00:002015-03-01T11:37:06.182+00:00ALF #31: "The Ungrateful Dead!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QK3VEMNFFPY/VN4k2AwTnzI/AAAAAAAAIFI/mpSeZGaNTFY/s1600/Alpha_Flight_Vol_1_31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QK3VEMNFFPY/VN4k2AwTnzI/AAAAAAAAIFI/mpSeZGaNTFY/s1600/Alpha_Flight_Vol_1_31.jpg" height="320" width="204" /></a></div>
<br />
(The one who got away.)<br />
<br />
<b>Comments</b><br />
<br />
LOLgrim, as we used to say in Durham. This is no skip through the summer meadows.<br />
<br />
A major recurring theme of the blog is going to be how we ended up in the blood-slicked nightmare of Marvel's output in the early and mid-nineties. One of my central assumptions on that is that much of the problem can be traced to Frank Miller's two seminal series, <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i> and <i>Batman: Year One</i>. As the Bronze Age reached its end cape writers began to cast about for ideas and approaches that could sustain a genre that risked becoming lamentably quaint at best and actually extinct at worst. Seeing the tremendous success of Miller's one-two punch must have - ironically - seemed like a beacon in the darkness, lighting the way towards continued relevancy for a genre struggling to grow up. The problem came with all this though is that whilst Miller's contemporaries were easily capable of aping the dark, violent set-dressing of his masterworks, they were utterly unable to grasp the structural and thematic considerations that put that nastiness into context. <br />
<br />
<i>Alpha Flight</i> #31 seems very much a case in point. Just look at how the story opens; a callous murder (for the sake of stealing clothes, no less) in the middle of a red light district at night. The setting, the utterly unnecessary violence, this could all have been lifted straight out of <i>Batman: Year One</i>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7N-p_606b44/VO4o6TYDW-I/AAAAAAAAIGU/CQjfrqEktNw/s1600/ALF31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7N-p_606b44/VO4o6TYDW-I/AAAAAAAAIGU/CQjfrqEktNw/s1600/ALF31.jpg" height="168" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note also the face in shadow, an ubiquitous '90s motif</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The only problem here is that <i>Year One </i>is still months away at this point.<br />
<br />
So something else is going on, some more general trend that Miller will perfect, rather than create from whole cloth. The obvious culprit here is the grime-streaked, cynical output of Hollywood during this period, where it was almost impossible to watch a movie for adults which didn't feature absurdly gratuitous nudity and/or a scene in a strip club. For now I can't offer this more as a gut feeling, but that's my suspicion.<br />
<br />
Once we move away from this early auguring of the coming darkness we settle into a done-in-one struggle against a supervillain that distinguishes itself from the herd in two ways: the bonkers nature of Deadly Earnest, and the spectacularly grim manner in which he is ultimately dispatched.<br />
<br />
A quick review for those who don't remember my spluttering disbelief: "Deadly" Earnest St Ives fought on the battlefields of the First World War, and became immortal after Death came to claim him and he refused to go. Which, and I'm no expert, doesn't seem to be the way it works, unless we want to assume that literally every other human being who died in the Marvel Universe saw Death rock up and figured they could do with the vacation. That's not really Mantlo's fault, of course, but then I assume no-one was holding a gun to his head insisting he brought back so ludicrous a villain, so it's not like our new writer gets out of this with his hands clean.<br />
<br />
Anyway, we learn here that Earnest's indefinite reprieve from death comes with some rather harsh small print; he makes it home to his ecstatic wife and daughter only to kill the former during his welcome-home hug. As a result, his traumatised daughter dedicates herself to being the antithesis of everything her father has become - in other words, taking the equivalent path to Shaman's daughter Elizabeth. Which is a nice parallel, though rather over-signified since this issue decides to offer us a potted history of Michael Twoyoungmen so as to drive the point home. Subtlety is for other genres. I guess, or at least other decades.<br />
<br />
So St Ives Jr, dedicates herself to the pursuit of revenge, picking up a codename (Nemesis), costume (ridiculous) and mono-molecular sword (inexplicable) along the way. The latter is ultimately lent to Puck so he can save Heather Hudson from Earnest's lethal clutches, and it's here that we return to the grimness angle, as Eugene borrows Nemesis' vorpal sword to lay down the snicker-snack on Earnest (not something you expect from two characters named Earnest and Eugene). The villain has kidnapped Heather Hudson, Puck's secret love, and this our dude will most certainly not abide.<br />
<br />
Ultimately this leads to probably the most horrific scene this project has covered to date, as Puck first chops off half of St Ives' arm, and then chops his head off, resulting in both the severed limb and the decapitated torso still crawling towards our heroes as Earnest's head screams with rage. This, obviously, is awesome.<br />
<br />
Not everything about the finale goes off without a hitch, though. Much is made here of Puck having sworn to never again take a human life, which I don't remember having been mentioned before. Certainly it hasn't been prominent. What this means in practice is that Puck only really mentions this tremendously important vow a few pages before he decides to break it. This is bad idea, partially because it's unearned drama - "I will NEVER kill agai- oh wait I've killed again FROWNYFACE" - but mainly because it feeds into a much larger problem, namely the self-congratulatory myth we tell ourselves that killing is an absolute moral wrong <i>except </i>for those occasions when we regretfully have no other choice, It's a nice fiction, but the inevitable result is that rather than deciding to kill only when we have no other choice, we can persuade ourselves that we <i>must </i>have had no choice whenever the urge to kill comes over us. What should be a bright moral line becomes instead a panacea, and worse, a panacea legitimising real and terrible damage. Yes, Earnest St Ives us the kind of character it's hard to care about receiving an extra-judicial execution - he's a multiple murder who killed three of Puck's friends in front of him, requiring some existential hand-waving from Nemesis to save Box and the Beaubier twins - but that's the benefit of fiction; it can generate the villains that would make our choices simple.<br />
<br />
Fiction should explore reality, It shouldn't legitimise it. In this sense, St Ives' (latest) death may have caused more trouble for our world than his life did for that of our heroes.<br />
<br />
And speaking of causing trouble...<br />
<br />
(Meanwhile, in subplot corner, Shaman finds himself back in his old shack and chatting with his grandfather's skull, both of which should be hundreds of miles away, and Snowbird finds herself suffering from unexplained attacks, which I presume is her godly masters once again refusing to send her memos like normal people.)<br />
<br />
<b>Clues</b><br />
<br />
This story kicks off very soon after the last one ended; we have to assume Deadly Earnest couldn't have been wandering naked through Montreal for all that long. We'll therefore set this issue on the evening of the same day St Ives was reassembled.<br />
<br />
<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
Tuesday 24<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> July 1984.<br />
<br />
<b>X</b>-<b>Date</b><br />
<br />
X+6Y+145.<br />
<br />
<b>Contemporary Events</b><br />
<br />
Frankie Goes To Hollywood enjoy the first and second spot in the UK charts. Which is well deserved, obviously.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Standout Line</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
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