Been reading Uncanny X-Men #194, wherein the Juggernaut fights Nimrod, and Rogue pulls the, I'll call it the "Chimera stunt"*. The issue starts with the police freaking out because the Juggernaut has been spotted in town. This is relayed to us by a cop explaining the situation to a plain-clothes Cain Marko. Really, I'm surprised there are that many huge guys wandering around New York, to the point where Cain doesn't draw any suspicious glances.Anyway, the X-Men hear the report and come looking for ole' Unstoppable**. The X-Men find him. . . sitting calmly inside a bank, discussing something with a bank official. Well, okay then. Not quite what I was expecting. Black Tom is nowhere in sight, and Marko is causing no trouble, right up to the point when Nimrod bursts in and starts attacking him, at which Marko slaps on the helmet and starts, well getting his butt kicked, actually. Yeah, lots of surprises in this issue.
I find myself wondering what the Juggernaut was doing at the bank. Was he just checking on the status of accounts he's filled with money from his various jobs? Was he looking into a loan for a payment on his and Black Tom's hangout? I don't know, but the idea that Cain would just calmly walk into the bank and discuss financial matters with people there is kind of intriguing. A little outside the norm for him.
Oh, one other nice thing about the issue. As Cain is walking through town, he overhears a reporter discussing the fact Juggernaut was spotted on a ferry this morning. The reporter gives a quick rundown of some of Juggernaut's past fights, mentioning Spider-Man and the X-Men. In a shocking twist, the reporter notes that even though most people consider Spidey and the X-Men outlaws, they consistently leap to the defense of innocent civilians, even against someone as powerful as the Juggernaut. He closes by saying he hopes this isn't the day they turn their back on the people. Holy crap, a person in the Marvel Universe who recognizes the heroism of some of the put-upon members of the costumed sect, who questions whether the public's assumptions about them are correct, and hopes those heroes won't wise up and say "To hell with you ungrateful jackasses!"
Mick Travis, reporter on page 3 of Uncanny X-Men #194, I salute you for your intelligence! Sadly, I imagine that Mr. Travis was probably run out of the reporting business for not properly fawning*** over Norman Osborn during his recent ascent to power, and is probably working for a local TV station in some small town, if he's even in the business at all anymore.
Cover courtesy of Grand Comics Database.
* I was going to call it the "Rogue absorbs the powers of several of her teammates all at once to hit the enemy with a serious whammy", but damn that's wordy. "Chimera stunt" is more succinct, don't you think? ** I was suprised to see Nightcrawler was team leader, with Cyclops married, Storm off in Africa, and Xavier having run to Muir Island for some New Mutants thing. I didn't remember that ever happening, but my 80s Uncanny X-Men collection is pretty patchy.
*** Also known as having common sense.
7 comments:
Claremont's old run on X-men actually had a few reporters who recognized the good the X-men and other misunderstood heroes did.
Neal Conan and Manoli Wetherell were both with the X-men in Dallas during fall of the mutants. A lot like your reaction to this issue I remember being impressed that one of the featured aspects of the story was the two journalists realizing that these X-men characters were actually heroes.
And one weird thing I discovered while looking up the reporters names. Neal Conan is an actual person. Weird, I wonder if he puts coverage of the death of the X-men in his resume. :)
Yeah, but Neal Conan is stuck reporting for NPR. Supporting the X-Men obviously gets you black-balled from the networks.
Anyhoo, I really love this little run of issues from about 180 - 200, there's a lot of wierd stories in there, especially the Kulan Goth two-parter. Romita had some excellent art. I wish they would collect that stuff (in something other than a B&W Essential).
There are a few people in the Marvel Universe who aren't complete fools, but they seem to be few and far between.
Well Jason, if you're willing to read them on the computer, the 40 years of X-men DVD has them all in color PDF formats. It's actually a great collection since they include scans of all the ads and letters pages, etc, which are a lot of fun at times.
Sean - I do mean to pick that up sometime (if possible) since I have the Avengers and FF DVD collections. But, since I'm a horrible, dinosaur of a man, I just prfer to have it in trade-form (despite owning the original issues and the Essential). One day I need to take a book-binding class and just bind up all my old issues.
seangreyson: That's cool. I think I might put "Recognized the X-Men as heroes" on my resume. Provided there was enough other stuff on there to convince them I wasn't off. They can learn the truth after I'm hired.
jason: I only have a couple of issues from this stretch, including the one immediately before this where they fight the Hellions, and yeah, they're pretty good.
sallyp: I think it's connected to all the atomic weapons that were going off back in the 60s, plus the Celestials and Galactus and the Watcher mucking around all the time. It's disrupted normal brain function in most people.
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