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x_men_classic2019-01-03 05:07 pm
sheliak) wrote in x_men_classic2019-01-03 05:07 pm
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Readthrough: Giant-Size X-Men #1
Okay, this one isn't actually Claremont—the writer is Len Wein, working with artist Dave Cockrum—but it seemed like a good place to start! This issue relaunched the series after the Silver Age, and introduces the All-New All-Different team.
This post is a bit image-heavy; future installments will probably be less so.
I tend to forget that the reader doesn’t get an explanation for what’s going on until the characters do—after the splashpage, the story jumps right into the individual character introductions. Specifically, Kurt Wagner, pursued by a mob.
It’s a classic! And a good dramatic way to introduce anti-mutant prejudice; "sworn to protect world that hates and fears them" packs a bit more punch when you've seen that hate and fear. As a minor oddity, Kurt doesn’t actually teleport in this scene, although you’d think it would be his first resort.
And Professor X showing up to the rescue is a nice way to introduce him as well. It helps establish him as a hero, explains what his powers are, and it’s the one mention of the school as a school in this issue.
By contrast to Nightcrawler, Wolverine’s main problem seems to be boredom; he goes along with Professor X mostly because it sounds more interesting than waiting at his military base for something to go wrong.
He's already established as working for a secret agency of the Canadian government, but everything is pretty vague at this point. It will become less so. In fact, it will become terrifyingly convoluted (and occasionally just terrifying).
Banshee gets all of two panels—most of the cast get two pages, three for Kurt, but he’s just crammed in on the top of someone else’s page, poor guy.
On the other hand, it’s kind of sweet how quickly he agrees to help!
And Storm. In contrast to everyone else (fitting into human society with varying degrees of success), we see her as the “weather goddess”, complete with worshippers. (I understand this has been retconned recently; I can definitely see why modern writers wanted go back and rework this situation.)
Storm's situation does serve to underline her relative power. The rest of the team are relatively low-level characters, at least as they’re presented here—Nightcrawler is barely ahead of the mob, Wolverine uses his claws to cut up a guy’s shirt, and so on. The first thing we see Ororo do is break an apparently serious drought. Whether the “goddess” role was her idea or someone else’s, she’s living up to it. Both her powers and her degree of control over them are unique in the team at this point.
Like Banshee, Sunfire is introduced very quickly. (Perhaps it's because they were the only "new recruits" to have appeared in X-Men before, albeit as adversaries? Wolverine had previously fought the Hulk; all the rest are new.)
Sunfire is quick to remind Professor X that he owes him nothing, but he agrees to pitch in nonetheless. (Again, in two panels—the other one is just him showing off his costume.) He will spend the rest of the issue repeatedly quitting and rejoining the team. In between, he insults his teammates. I’d probably get tired of the guy if he stuck around longer, but as it is he’s entertaining.
And then we have Colossus, slaying a runaway tractor in defense of his adorable little sister.
He then worries about how his neighbors will manage to replace it, which is pretty nice of him under the circumstances. He's close to his parents, to the point of consulting them before he agrees to join the team. Colossus seems happy where he is, and close to his community in a way that most mutants aren't.
And finally, there’s Thunderbird, who is randomly wrestling a bison when Professor X shows up, becauseit’s the most stereotypical way possible to demonstrate that he has super-strength why not. He’s a bundle of rage and stereotypes at this point; Claremont will flesh the character out a bit later, but for now there’s not much there. After the two insult each other a bit, Professor X manages to get him to join by calling him a coward.
I do care about the guy, but this scene is not why.
It’s only after the whole team is assembled that we get an explanation of what’s actually going on—from Cyclops, who’s appearing for the first time. (And has apparently had a slight power-up to his optic blasts, although that’s not terribly relevant; a force beam is a force beam. It’s mostly an excuse for a visor redesign.)
After a brief but angsty flashback, he reveals that they’ve been gathered to save their predecessors, who vanished on the mysterious island of Krakoa, where they were seeking an unknown mutant.
Sunfire does not like this idea. He quits the team, then changes his mind and makes them open the Strato-Jet (not the Blackbird yet) to let him in. This seems impractical, but they do have a weather-controller aboard; maybe she could handle any air pressure issues.
Storm, Banshee, and Colossus are ready to make friends and work with people; Cyclops is frantic with worry; everyone else just wants to bicker. And in Wolverine’s case, to complain about their teammates’ powers. (Although Wolverine does have a right to be unhappy about being carried into battle by Banshee, given his super-senses—not that he’s told anyone about them yet.)
They split up on the way in, mostly to give us a few character moments while everyone is paired off. A couple of these are interesting. There’s a brief scene where Piotr tries to protect Ororo from a targeted avalanche; sweet, but unnecessary. And called out as such. I do like that Storm is treated as a powerhouse from the start, even before Claremont comes aboard. And there’s a random line as Thunderbird is grabbed by overly-active vines (“Thunderbird Gets Grabbed By Stuff” is going to be a recurring theme of his brief career as an X-Man): “John Proudstar has never much liked the jungle—and apparently, the feeling is mutual!” This will be followed up on.
Once the original team has been rescued—well, semi-rescued, since they're still on the island—it’s time for our dramatic reveal: the mutant they were seeking is in fact the island, and it wants to eat them for their mutant energy!
The X-Men fight Krakoa (with varying degrees of effectiveness), before the Island That Walks Like A Man is thrown off of the planet by Storm, Polaris, and a bit of technobabble. And miraculously, the X-Men’s plane is just fine, so they’ll be able to make it home. Happy ending—for now!
There are some weak spots, but overall I like this issue. The character introductions make me want to know these people better. There are some great new character designs—especially Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Storm—and Krakoa is a cool-looking monster.
What do you think?
The next readthrough post will be Classic X-Men #1 on Sunday; next Uncanny X-Men post will be in a week.
This post is a bit image-heavy; future installments will probably be less so.
I tend to forget that the reader doesn’t get an explanation for what’s going on until the characters do—after the splashpage, the story jumps right into the individual character introductions. Specifically, Kurt Wagner, pursued by a mob.
It’s a classic! And a good dramatic way to introduce anti-mutant prejudice; "sworn to protect world that hates and fears them" packs a bit more punch when you've seen that hate and fear. As a minor oddity, Kurt doesn’t actually teleport in this scene, although you’d think it would be his first resort.
And Professor X showing up to the rescue is a nice way to introduce him as well. It helps establish him as a hero, explains what his powers are, and it’s the one mention of the school as a school in this issue.
By contrast to Nightcrawler, Wolverine’s main problem seems to be boredom; he goes along with Professor X mostly because it sounds more interesting than waiting at his military base for something to go wrong.
He's already established as working for a secret agency of the Canadian government, but everything is pretty vague at this point. It will become less so. In fact, it will become terrifyingly convoluted (and occasionally just terrifying).
Banshee gets all of two panels—most of the cast get two pages, three for Kurt, but he’s just crammed in on the top of someone else’s page, poor guy.
On the other hand, it’s kind of sweet how quickly he agrees to help!
And Storm. In contrast to everyone else (fitting into human society with varying degrees of success), we see her as the “weather goddess”, complete with worshippers. (I understand this has been retconned recently; I can definitely see why modern writers wanted go back and rework this situation.)
Storm's situation does serve to underline her relative power. The rest of the team are relatively low-level characters, at least as they’re presented here—Nightcrawler is barely ahead of the mob, Wolverine uses his claws to cut up a guy’s shirt, and so on. The first thing we see Ororo do is break an apparently serious drought. Whether the “goddess” role was her idea or someone else’s, she’s living up to it. Both her powers and her degree of control over them are unique in the team at this point.
Like Banshee, Sunfire is introduced very quickly. (Perhaps it's because they were the only "new recruits" to have appeared in X-Men before, albeit as adversaries? Wolverine had previously fought the Hulk; all the rest are new.)
Sunfire is quick to remind Professor X that he owes him nothing, but he agrees to pitch in nonetheless. (Again, in two panels—the other one is just him showing off his costume.) He will spend the rest of the issue repeatedly quitting and rejoining the team. In between, he insults his teammates. I’d probably get tired of the guy if he stuck around longer, but as it is he’s entertaining.
And then we have Colossus, slaying a runaway tractor in defense of his adorable little sister.
He then worries about how his neighbors will manage to replace it, which is pretty nice of him under the circumstances. He's close to his parents, to the point of consulting them before he agrees to join the team. Colossus seems happy where he is, and close to his community in a way that most mutants aren't.
And finally, there’s Thunderbird, who is randomly wrestling a bison when Professor X shows up, because
I do care about the guy, but this scene is not why.
It’s only after the whole team is assembled that we get an explanation of what’s actually going on—from Cyclops, who’s appearing for the first time. (And has apparently had a slight power-up to his optic blasts, although that’s not terribly relevant; a force beam is a force beam. It’s mostly an excuse for a visor redesign.)
After a brief but angsty flashback, he reveals that they’ve been gathered to save their predecessors, who vanished on the mysterious island of Krakoa, where they were seeking an unknown mutant.
Sunfire does not like this idea. He quits the team, then changes his mind and makes them open the Strato-Jet (not the Blackbird yet) to let him in. This seems impractical, but they do have a weather-controller aboard; maybe she could handle any air pressure issues.
Storm, Banshee, and Colossus are ready to make friends and work with people; Cyclops is frantic with worry; everyone else just wants to bicker. And in Wolverine’s case, to complain about their teammates’ powers. (Although Wolverine does have a right to be unhappy about being carried into battle by Banshee, given his super-senses—not that he’s told anyone about them yet.)
They split up on the way in, mostly to give us a few character moments while everyone is paired off. A couple of these are interesting. There’s a brief scene where Piotr tries to protect Ororo from a targeted avalanche; sweet, but unnecessary. And called out as such. I do like that Storm is treated as a powerhouse from the start, even before Claremont comes aboard. And there’s a random line as Thunderbird is grabbed by overly-active vines (“Thunderbird Gets Grabbed By Stuff” is going to be a recurring theme of his brief career as an X-Man): “John Proudstar has never much liked the jungle—and apparently, the feeling is mutual!” This will be followed up on.
Once the original team has been rescued—well, semi-rescued, since they're still on the island—it’s time for our dramatic reveal: the mutant they were seeking is in fact the island, and it wants to eat them for their mutant energy!
The X-Men fight Krakoa (with varying degrees of effectiveness), before the Island That Walks Like A Man is thrown off of the planet by Storm, Polaris, and a bit of technobabble. And miraculously, the X-Men’s plane is just fine, so they’ll be able to make it home. Happy ending—for now!
There are some weak spots, but overall I like this issue. The character introductions make me want to know these people better. There are some great new character designs—especially Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Storm—and Krakoa is a cool-looking monster.
What do you think?
Poll #21061 Who has the best intro?
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14
Who gets the best introduction?
View Answers
Nightcrawler (and pursuing mob).
7 (50.0%)
Professor X (to the rescue).
0 (0.0%)
Wolverine, aka Weapon X.
1 (7.1%)
Banshee, thwarted concertgoer.
0 (0.0%)
Storm, weather goddess.
8 (57.1%)
Sunfire, who owes you nothing.
1 (7.1%)
Colossus, foe of tractors.
7 (50.0%)
Thunderbird, wrestler of bison.
1 (7.1%)
Krakoa, the Island That Walks Like A Man.
1 (7.1%)
Actually, I prefer Cyclops's flashback of woe.
1 (7.1%)
Someone else, as I will explain in the comments
0 (0.0%)
The next readthrough post will be Classic X-Men #1 on Sunday; next Uncanny X-Men post will be in a week.