x_men_classic | Entries tagged with character: banshee

A return to the readthrough and to Classic X-Men! This time, a story from Banshee's past.

( Dearest Friend )

( Thoughts )

Poll #22143

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Does Black Tom's characterization here work for you?

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Yes
4 (100.0%)

No
0 (0.0%)

Would you have liked a sequel/follow-up to this story?

View Answers

Yes
2 (50.0%)

No; this is a good place to leave off.
2 (50.0%)

No; I'm not invested enough in these characters
0 (0.0%)

Should the leprechauns have shown up?

View Answers

The leprechauns should always show up.
3 (75.0%)

No, but they should have met Maeve in a later story.
0 (0.0%)

No, it wouldn't have worked.
1 (25.0%)

I made icons of this one!

sheliak

Hi again!

( Home are the Heroes! )
( Classic Edits )
( Thoughts )

Poll #21978

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

View Respondents

Favorite Scene(s)

View Answers

Welcome Home
1 (33.3%)

Flashback with Jean, Ororo and Corsair
1 (33.3%)

Jean talks to her parents and Scott broods
1 (33.3%)

Kurt and Piotr
0 (0.0%)

Kurt and Scott
1 (33.3%)

Wolverine plans to sneak up on deer
0 (0.0%)

Wolverine vs Vindicator
0 (0.0%)

The Picnic
2 (66.7%)

Everybody vs. Vindicator
0 (0.0%)

New Scene: Vindicator is Nervous
0 (0.0%)

New Scene: Lilandra/Xavier
1 (33.3%)

New Scene: the Hudsons after the fight
1 (33.3%)

sheliak

With this issue, Dave Cockrum is off the book (although he'll be back) and John Byrne is replacing him as the regular artist. I have mixed feelings about that--I actually started with Byrne's stuff (and his uncolored inks are gorgeous; in the Essential collections), but as time goes on I've gotten more and more fond of Cockrum. I'll miss him.

(As a random side note, because I keep forgetting to mention it: the editor on this one is Archie Goodwin. A past editor was named Marv Wolfman. I just want to mention that I really appreciate those names.)

( Armageddon Now! )

Poll #21815

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

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Favorite Scene

View Answers

Corbeau and the Superheroes
0 (0.0%)

Jahf fight + Wolverine's orbital adventure
1 (25.0%)

Modt + Raza throws the Emperor
1 (25.0%)

The nightmares
1 (25.0%)

Ororo's offer
3 (75.0%)

Jean saves the universe
4 (100.0%)

Added Dark Phoenix foreshadowing
1 (25.0%)

Something else, which I will explain in the comments.
0 (0.0%)

Do you like the Dark Phoenix foreshadowing here?

View Answers

Yes
0 (0.0%)

No
4 (100.0%)

Favorite artist so far?

View Answers

Cockrum
2 (50.0%)

Byrne
2 (50.0%)

I like both equally
0 (0.0%)

I would like to stand up for someone else
0 (0.0%)

Next: Starjammer origin story!
After that: Vindicator interrupts a picnic.

sheliak

( The Gentleman's Name is Magneto )

Poll #21639

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

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Your favorite scene(s) in this issue were...

View Answers

The Doomed Hovercraft of Doom
1 (20.0%)

Trouble on the Beach
0 (0.0%)

Magneto Revealed!
1 (20.0%)

Moira & Scott Find Out What’s Going On
0 (0.0%)

The X-Men (Fail To) Fight Magneto
0 (0.0%)

Cyclops to the Rescue (And Retreat)
0 (0.0%)

Bonus Scene: Magneto, Art & Backstory
4 (80.0%)

Something else, which I will explain in the comments.
1 (20.0%)

sheliak

First, a bit of art, because the Classic fronstispiece for this story was great:

( Frontispiece by Mike Mignola, feat. Black Tom & the Juggernaut )

Onward to the story (and the promised leprechaun rescue)...

( The Fall of the Tower )

Poll #21581

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

View Respondents

Favorite Scene

View Answers

Leprechauns to the rescue!
0 (0.0%)

Kurt saves the day with his image inducer
2 (40.0%)

Ororo frees everybody
1 (20.0%)

Kurt stands up for Ororo (and invents the Fastball Special)
1 (20.0%)

Banshee vs. Black Tom
0 (0.0%)

Juggernaut throws himself into the sea to save Black Tom
2 (40.0%)

Something else, as I will explain in the comments.
1 (20.0%)

...for "Kurt stands up for Ororo" obviously read Piotr; I can't fix that because I only noticed it after I clicked post. Sorry!

Any other thoughts on this issue, or Black Tom and the Juggernaut as characters (since we won't be seeing them for a bit)?

And, in honor of the leprechauns of Cassidy Keep: are there any creatures from mythology or folklore that you'd like to see in the X-Men? Favorite canonical examples?

sheliak

( Like a Phoenix, From the Ashes! )

Poll #21472

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

View Respondents

Favorite Scene

View Answers

Jean's resurrection
4 (66.7%)

Wolverine buys flowers
3 (50.0%)

Scott in the hospital
0 (0.0%)

The X-Men learn Jean is okay
0 (0.0%)

The "four-wheeled torture chamber"
0 (0.0%)

Kurt and Ororo flirt
2 (33.3%)

Kurt, Ororo and Piotr on their way to dinner
2 (33.3%)

Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut make their entrance
1 (16.7%)

Something else, which I will explain in the comments.
0 (0.0%)

Sunday: While waiting for news of Jean, Kurt makes a friend.
Next Thursday: Nightcrawler must save his teammates from Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut!

sheliak

This issue opens with the X-Men celebrating Christmas! They’ve gone out in a group to the city, and are about to split up, largely along romantic lines: Jean and Scott together, Sean with Moira, and Piotr and Kurt off with some ladies they just met. (Or in Kurt’s case, “just met”. But we’ll get into that later.)

Wolverine is not onboard with the festive spirit of the day. Before going off to be grumpy alone, he responds to Jean's polite inquiry about his plans with, “What about me, Miss Grey--? I got no use for Christmas.” That line amuses me way more than it has a right to.

There’s a new page added in Classic, in which Amanda Sefton’s thought bubbles reveal that she knows way more about Kurt than he does about her, and Piotr thinks wistfully of Anya Marakova. Apparently, this issue marks the point when Dave Cockrum was no longer able to draw the add-ons; instead, they’re done by James Fry. (I didn't end up scanning anything from his pages, but still wanted to mention it.)

( Merry Christmas, X-Men--The Sentinels Have Returned! )

Poll #21328

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

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Should Professor X be able to mind-blast Sentinels?

View Answers

No, they don't have brains for him to blast!
3 (37.5%)

Yes. Sentinels are jerks and have it coming to them, whether or not it particularly makes sense.
0 (0.0%)

How do we know that they don't have brains? They were built by comic book scientists, who are not logical beings.
5 (62.5%)

In your understanding of (Claremont-era) canon, how does Cerebro work?

View Answers

Only telepaths can use it.
3 (37.5%)

Other psychics can use it.
2 (25.0%)

Any mutant can use it.
0 (0.0%)

Anyone can use it.
0 (0.0%)

It's inconsistent.
3 (37.5%)

I have a different theory and will explain it below.
0 (0.0%)

Did Steven Lang build his sentinels to be sexist jerks?

View Answers

Yes. He built them in his own image.
6 (75.0%)

No. They're still basically Silver Age robots, and would have been that way anyway.
2 (25.0%)

Favorite moment this issue?

View Answers

Stan and Jack disapproving of this kissing nonsense.
4 (50.0%)

Scott and Jean's short-lived date.
2 (25.0%)

Professor X and Peter Corbeau's equally short-lived fishing trip.
0 (0.0%)

Ororo wipes the floor (well, sky) with a Sentinel.
7 (87.5%)

Professor X vs. Sentinels that swim.
1 (12.5%)

Lang's short-lived gloating.
0 (0.0%)

Logan sticking up for Jean.
2 (25.0%)

Something else, which I will detail in the comments.
0 (0.0%)

Next Sunday: Jean was really looking forward to that date, damnit.
Next Thursday: Space adventures! Although alas, not the fun kind.

sheliak

Welcome to a very special point in X-Men history: the birth of the Angry Claremontian Narrator!

(But first, a correction re: last Uncanny issue—Len Wein was still plotting that one, which I missed the first time through. And this issue, Bill Mantlo is credited with a "plotting assist". After that, Claremont is sole plotter. I think.)

Anyway, back to the story...

( Night of the Demon! )

Poll #21185

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

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This is the only time anyone talks back to the narrator. What’s up with that?

View Answers

Cyclops warned the others not to respond to malevolent narration, lest more demons be unleashed.
3 (33.3%)

No one else can actually hear the narrator, and after this Cyclops is doubly careful not to be provoked.
5 (55.6%)

The narrator felt bad about helping to unleash demons, and decided not to push mutants so far in the future.
1 (11.1%)

Something else, as I will explain in the comments.
0 (0.0%)

What's up with the demonic cairn?

View Answers

Professor X knew it existed, but not its true nature. Possibly the first X-Men wrote reports on it.
2 (22.2%)

... ditto, but he knew what it was and just never got around to fencing it off.
1 (11.1%)

It's invisible unless broken.
1 (11.1%)

Demonic cairns are just really common in this universe, so no one really gave it a second thought.
5 (55.6%)

I have a different theory, which I will explain in the comments.
0 (0.0%)

Any thoughts on Steven Lang, Michael Rossi, or Kierrok the Damned?

And why do you think Professor X and Moira MacTaggert decided to introduce her as the X-Men's "housekeeper?"

This Sunday: Wolverine and Nightcrawler bond in "The Big Dare".

Next Thursday: "Erik the Red" steals Cyclops's old alter ego and brainwashes Havok and Polaris into attacking the X-Men.

Current Mood: determined
Current Location: The X-Mansion

sheliak

In this issue, the X-Men return Thunderbird's body to his family, and mourn him. Along the way, both they and the reader learn a little more about John Proudstar, and why he made the choices he did.

This is the story that made me care about John Proudstar. I still think it’s one of the best of the Classic backups.

(Apologies in advance—some of my scans have a blurry edge, on account of being taken from a large and not entirely cooperative hardcover.)

( Mourning )

I adored this story as a teenager; it made me care about (and yes, mourn) John Proudstar, when before all I'd felt was that it was a shame he'd died before getting fleshed out at all.

I’m fairly sure that this was published after James Proudstar made his first appearances in New Mutants and X-Men; that surprised me, as this story read like foreshadowing, and as a teenager I assumed it really had been his first appearance. And James’s furious speech in the end is by far the weakest part of the story, for me. I’m afraid it put me off of the character for years; I thought of him as the ‘boring’ brother even though he’s had much more characterization, simply because he’s so much less nuanced in this story.

Poll #21162 Favorite Scene

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

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Which scene(s) are your favorite?

View Answers

Jean and the Professor
2 (66.7%)

Sean's internal monologue
0 (0.0%)

Kurt and Piotr's flashback
0 (0.0%)

Ororo's flashback
1 (33.3%)

Logan putting the pieces together
2 (66.7%)

James at the funeral
0 (0.0%)

Something else, which I will explain in the comments.
0 (0.0%)

What did you think?

Next Thursday: Cyclops mourns, and also quarrels with the narrator, with catastrophic results.

Next Sunday: Wolverine and Nightcrawler bond.

Current Mood: contemplative

sheliak

Last week, we left the X-Men hurtling through the air towards certain doom! (More literally than usual, but otherwise, pretty normal for them.)

( Warhunt! )

Poll #21141

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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Should Thunderbird continue to stay dead, or is it past time for a resurrection?

View Answers

Yes. Someone should stay dead in comics.
2 (33.3%)

No. Everyone else seems to get to come back eventually; why not him?
1 (16.7%)

The 616/main universe version can stay dead, but I'd like to see more alternate versions.
3 (50.0%)

What do you think of this issue, and of Thunderbird’s brief X-career? Relatedly, does the flexible nature of death in comics annoy you or do you like it?

(And finally: if anyone wants to stick up for Count Nefaria and/or the Ani-Men in the comments, please feel free to do so! They will not be appearing in X-Men again, so this post is the place to do so if you so desire.)

Next Sunday, the X-Men and Thunderbird's family mourn in Classic X-Men 3. And next week, in Uncanny X-Men 96, Cyclops angsts so hard about Thunderbird's death that he accidentally unleashes a demon. (Professor X should really put up warning notices around that cairn...)

Current Mood: tired

sheliak

In this issue, Chris Claremont comes aboard as scripter! Len Wein is still plotting, though, and I assume Wein is the one responsible for splitting the story into chapters (which he also did in Giant-Sized), since later issues don’t use them.

Sunfire storms off on the first page, giving a speech about how he will definitely not be helping the X-Men again, because they’re “a pack of idealistic fools” and his duty is to Japan anyway. Given his absence from last issue’s backup story, I’m going to assume that he spent that evening in his guest room, planning his dramatic exit. Everyone needs a hobby!

The original X-Men—aside from Cyclops, of course—also leave, although more politely. (Given how quickly Claremont brought Jean back, I tend to assume that her departure was Wein’s choice as well, and Claremont was just stuck with it.)

( The Doomsday Scenario! )

Poll #21105

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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Which character would you have liked to see remain on the team longer?

View Answers

Sunfire
1 (16.7%)

Jean Grey
2 (33.3%)

Iceman
0 (0.0%)

Angel
1 (16.7%)

Havok
1 (16.7%)

Polaris
3 (50.0%)

Thunderbird
4 (66.7%)

Also, on the subject of Classic X-Men and the new material it added: in that situation, what would you add? Which characters would you like to spend more time with, or introduce early?

sheliak

Classic X-Men reprinted the early Claremont run a few years after the fact—but with a lot of edits and new material. Ads were removed and replaced with new pages and panels of story; dialogue was edited to bring it into line with later continuity or characterization (e.g. Ororo would not say ‘Good Lord’ in a moment of stress, so in the reprints she says “Goddess!” instead; Kurt can’t teleport blind). There was new cover art, fancy frontispieces (some of those are pretty cool) and most importantly, a new short story in each issue.

Most of the new stories were character-focused standalones. The best of them are some of my favorite X-Men stories ever.

The first issue was a bit of an odd case. Giant-Size X-Men #1 was huge; there wasn’t room to stick in a backup story. So, they cut a lot out to make room. Classic X-Men #1 kept the character introduction scenes from Giant-Size, and nothing else. It opens with a new version of Cyclops staggering home from Krakoa (costume in tatters, of course) and Professor X deciding to recruit a new team. (Remember when I said that I always misremember the order of events in Giant-Size? I'm pretty sure that this story is why.) Cyclops gets to angst a bit about the return of his powers, which he’d briefly hoped were gone for good; the Professor advises against self-pity, but sympathizes more with Scott’s worries about losing his friends. Then it segues to the original intros, and then quickly summarizes the actual fight against Krakoa before settling in to tell a new story about the combined team at the mansion, the evening before half of them decide to leave. That's the bulk of the story, and my favorite part of the issue.

It’s a bit of a mission statement for what Classic would be at its best: character studies and slice of life.

( First Night )

Poll #21078 Favorite Scene

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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Which interaction did you like the best?

View Answers

Scott and the Professor
0 (0.0%)

Alex and Lorna
2 (33.3%)

Scott and Jean
0 (0.0%)

Sean, Piotr and Kurt
3 (50.0%)

Sean, Kurt, and Bobby
2 (33.3%)

John and Bobby
1 (16.7%)

Jean and Logan
1 (16.7%)

Jean and the Professor
3 (50.0%)

Something else, as I will explain in the comments
0 (0.0%)

Current Mood: content

sheliak

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.

( Second Genesis! )

Poll #21061 Who has the best intro?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

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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.

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X-Men Classic

A Claremont-Era X-Men Community

Entries tagged with character: banshee

Readthrough: Classic X-Men 16

Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 109

Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 108

Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 104

Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 103

Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 101

Readthrough: Uncanny X-Men 98

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Readthrough: X-Men Classic 3

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