What I Bought 7/22/2026

What they told us a few months ago at work, if we didn't sign the agreement, we wouldn't have to use the AI, was not entirely true. We seem to have the option not to use it (for now), but still had to sign the agreement. And watch training videos, which were funny for how much they try to tap dance around the worthlessness of AI without actually saying so.

Use it for research, but make sure to verify what the answers it gives you. Why not just do the research myself then? Have it summarize e-mails or presentations, but double-check it didn't add anything just plain untrue. Don't put any proprietary or restricted information in there, because it could then share that information with anyone. If you use it, whatever you produced has to state that. So it's really just extra hassle across the board.

The video did end with a survey asking how often I expected to use AI for certain tasks. As, "when Hell is both empirically proven to exist, and then freezes over into a rainbow Popsicle," was not an option, I put "rarely, if ever" for each question. And the video responded, "That's OK. It's not for everyone!" No shit, tell that to the fools cramming it down our throats.

Moonstar #5, by Ashley Allen (writer), Edoardo Audino (artist), Arthur Hesli (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Every time I look at this cover, I feel like Dani's head is not centered on her body. Is it the sword, the shoulder plate? Something makes it look like it's off-kilter. 

Final battle for all life on Earth. Though Kian's burning up what life he's got on spells strong enough to make some sort of difference, while Kyrion keeps trying to goad Dani into taking the sword from him. It's the only way to stop him, but then she'll have to feed it two souls. His and, well, there's only one other person around.

Dani keeps refusing, firing off her psychic arrows and using spells. Which are very colorful, so that's nice. Hesli uses them to break up the depressing, deep-red that drenches everything else. Dani insists evil's always part of life, and so is chaos, you just have to learn to embrace the opportunities it holds. Chaos that is, not evil. Although it's not like evil doesn't have opportunities, too. Then she picks up the cursed sword, determined to be the one at the wheel

Dani doesn't want the sword's power, so she won't give it but one soul, the one trapped inside. Which is what sustains the sword, so it'll break. And Dani figures that's OK, because she can guide all the other souls to wherever they're supposed to go, being a valkyrie an all. I'm not clear on if that's back to their bodies, or to the other side. Maybe both. Her parents are back up and living, but I assume some of those souls no longer have bodies to go back to. Also, the part of the sword that was speaking gets ejected as well, which doesn't entirely make sense to me. I need to go back and re-read how the sword works.

Day is saved, parents saved, Dani's going to help Kian and Yansa with some of their society's work for at least a little while, and then Beta Ray Bill shows up to say thanks for handling the whole, evil Norse sword thing. Too busy off snogging with Sif or something, Bill? Not Cyborg-Horse-Thor's best moment. Also, he's carrying a big sword instead of a hammer. It just looks wrong. Do not approve.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #6, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Marc likes to give himself a handicap, so he's going to try staking vampires with blunt instruments.

This is a "get the team together" issue. Clea does the old Secret Defenders bit where the cards tell you who you need, and Moonie goes out to get them. Blade's easy. All Marc has to do is mention "Midnight Suns" and Blade's in. Well, he also had to kill some vampires to get Blade's attention. Couple of nice bits by the Pramanik/Rosenberg team here. One panel from inside a vamp's mouth before Moon Knight decapitates it, and the page where Blade agrees to help is three panels where the frames of the windows in the skyscraper act as the panel borders, with a full moon reflected off them. And the last panel is Blade stepping out through the window as he says, "Now let's go."

I'm also trying to figure out why Rosenberg colors the interior of Blade's coat as just solid red. No shading, shadows, or gradation. Just a solid red wall, every time. Feels significant, but heck if I can figure out what it would mean.  

That was the easy pitch, sandwiched between two harder sells. Although Robbie Reyes really just needs a chance to vent about, I guess, how badly he got treated in Jason Aaron's Avengers' run? Saving everything and getting left behind? I don't know, I didn't read any of the comics mentioned in the editor's notes. Nice intro for Moon Knight, though, reflected in one of the side mirrors of Robbie's car as he approaches. Robbie's not interested in doing any more world saving, but Marc just wants to save the people who pass for family with him, and that's enough to get Robbie on board.

And then there's Daredevil. Really?! Matt's being his usual holier-than-thou self. "Oh, I feel so bad about that one person I killed, and you don't feel bad about anyone you killed, blah blah." Yeah Matt, but as someone's who's read plenty of your history can attest, feeling guilty has never stopped you from doing another similarly dumbshit thing later. Just ask all your exes. The ones that are still alive, at least. Still, Moon Knight sells DD on demonstrating good choices, since Matt says he's one bad choice away from becoming Moon Knight. Pramanik uses Moon Knight's heartbeat as the top panel border a few times, showing it spiking as Matt keeps talking shit.

Of course, as they go charging in, it appears Moon Knight and Clea aren't being upfront with their new partners. Surely that won't come back to bite them (literally, with Blade around.) 

What I Bought 6/24/2026

Alright, this is it. Last day - hopefully - I have to play fake boss. He's supposed to be back in the office Monday. I'm so ready to be done with the added stress. It makes me dread getting up, and makes me want to go to bed earlier so I can wake up and be one day closer to being done.

Here's two X-books.

Generation X-23 #5, by Jody Houser (writer), Marco Renna (artist), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - That is definitely a picture of Laura Kinney lunging at the reader, claws extended.

X-80, the time traveler that originally clued Laura into this whole mess, shows up to rescue her. This is a younger version than the one Laura met earlier, because time travel, although that power is one that was grafted onto her later. The energy blades X-Infinite uses are her original mutation.

While Infinite drags Gabby off to use as a genetic material source, and the rest of the cast figure out he's a bad guy, 80 takes Laura on a trip through the past to see how things got to that point. Infinite (X-39, then) used to try and protect the others by getting the guards angry at him, but eventually a Dr. Chiles (and for some reason that name seems familiar) convinced him to help her with this grafting of powers. Except she was only interested in powers rich humans would pay for, which apparently doesn't include having wings and feathers? I mean, there are lots of other powers I'd rather have, but it's not a bad power.

Laura and 80 rescue the others, then free Gabby. Whose enhanced senses somehow still work, even with the mutant power neutralizing collar on. Don't quite understand that. Laura's willing to leave Infinite there and take the others to safety, but 74 decides to blow him up. Except 66 - with the bird powers - throws herself on the grenade, so he's still alive.

If the point of this arc was to give Laura and Gabby a supporting cast - and the remainder of this bunch are going to live with them, so that seems to be the case - Houser probably should have moved faster. Speed-run Infinite's reveal as the villain, weed out whoever you were going to kill, get on with having Laura be a leader/mentor/friend to the survivors. Especially given Marvel's quick-trigger on the cancellation button these days, I'm not sure you can afford to burn 5 issues just getting to the actual point of your book.

(Also kind of strange to introduce the Kimura Scorpion-bot and not have it be a bigger deal. Maybe save that for after Infinite was dealt with, or vice versa.) 

Especially since none of the new characters Laura's going to be interacting with have much in the way of personalities yet. 92 is silent and lurks in the walls, 99 is chipper and playful, which seems to be designed for her to interact with Gabby rather than Laura. 74 is the one with a quick temper. That's pretty much what I've got on them so far.

Moonstar #4, by Ashley Allen (writer), Edoardo Audino (artist), Arthur Hesli (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - We got a zombie bear, zombie elk (stag?), zombie wolf, and zombie hyena? I was thinking this was in North America, in which case the hyena's a long way from home, but they end up in Iran, so maybe all those are native fauna.

Dani thinks it through and concludes Kyrion will want to kill her parents in front of her. So they have time to get to the tablet first, and hide it, then rescue her parents. Dani has enough of the residual magic from the sword infecting her to use it as a tracking beacon, so they fly to Iran on Brightwind. Dani says she learned a spell that can provide acceleration over short distances, but Colorado to Iran wouldn't seem to qualify as short.

As it turns out, this is where Kian grew up, and where he first started messing with magic, which is why his eyes are messed up now. Something else that's messed up: the native wildlife, which is back from the dead and running rampant. Kian tries some kind of spell to dissolve the reanimated corpses, but they just combine into a monstrosity that would make John Carpenter proud. I mean, that thing is truly disgusting looking, props to Audino.

Dani's able to panic the chimera by hurting it, then playing off the instinctive reaction that pain causes, which leaves them free to continue to the tablet. Kian keeps advising her to at least consider alternative approaches, like taking out Kyrion's backup and saving her parents, but Dani won't be swayed. She's certain she can save everyone if she does things her way.

It's funny she doesn't ever point out that if they don't keep Kyrion from getting the tablet, saving her parents will be a moot point, because he'll kill everyone. As it turns out, the tablet is somehow too big to move now, and Kyrion's brought her parents along to use it as a sacrificial altar. And Dani's arrows don't seem to be doing much. That's not a great turn of events.

I'm curious to see how Allen wraps this up. Kyrion and Kian both keep commenting on Dani's optimism or hopeful attitude, which feels significant in a story about accepting death as part of life. Or refusing to accept it, in Kyrion's case. Whether Dani saves people today, she can't save them forever, but she still persists in trying, and in believing she can save everyone today. I don't know where Allen's going with that. There's also the fact Kian's caught feelings, as we get a panel where he's very close and asking if she can lend him some courage, while Hesli colors the background a very soft focus pink. Dani's either oblivious or too locked in to notice, so I guess we'll see if Kian just booked himself a room in the fridge next month.

What I Bought 5/20/2026

As I glide into a long weekend (followed by a short work week), let's look at one comic from last week, and one from this week. The local store didn't have Fantastic Four again, so I don't know if he's getting shorted on it, or my buying a copy every month wasn't enough for him to keep ordering it.

D'orc #4, by Brett Bean (writer/artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer) - Damn, that thing is too ugly to live. But enough about D'orc!

D'orc comes under attack from a Thrawg, which I guess is "Cerebus, but a pug." D'Orc avoids being eaten, though he learns Thrawg's have flammable saliva in the process. This is what's known as "Chekov's Gastric Fluids."

D'Orc then has a soliloquy about how tired he is of everyone trying to kill him, and frustrated it makes him, and that frightens him, because he's afraid if he gets angry enough he'll lose control and kill someone like he did the chicken. The talking shield gives him some reassurance that he's doing good and providing hope. And in the morning, D'Orc wakes up to a bunch of goblins accusing him of working with a different group of goblins, led by the leader's brother.

The shield was supposed to keep watch, but explains they snuck up on him and he can't hear. So how does he know what D'Orc's saying all those times D'Orc has the shield on his arm with the eye facing out?

The brother goblin shows up, and the two sides start to squabbling about which side gets to kill the Thrawg that destroyed their villages. Then the Thrawg shows up and eats all of them. Once it eats Barry the goblin, who was looking forward to going home and rebuilding their villages, D'Orc gets angry and dives inside the Thrawg's stomach, where he uses two stones to make a spark and ignite the drool. So, the Thrawg's stomach acid is also flammable, or are we just assuming it swallows a lot of its own drool? Barry was swallowed whole, and survives the explosion, so he can point D'Orc towards the Silver Witch, and that's that.

Outside of saving Barry, I'm not sure what D'Orc accomplished. And maybe that's enough, if there are other goblins that weren't part of the hunting party that will listen to Barry and get the villages working cooperatively. Otherwise, D'Orc saved one goblin, who is going to rebuild two villages to live in, alone. 

Moonstar #3, by Ashley Allen (writer), Edoardo Audino (artist), Arthur Hesli (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - No no no, you're supposed to attack with the focused totality of your mind, Dani. This is much too scattered.

Dani is inside her own mind, courtesy of the cursed sword. it's sifting through her memories, moving backwards from Krakoa, to her time as a Valkyrie, to her days as a New Mutant. The sword takes the appearance of Hildr (more of less, she's got chalk-white skin and red eyes where the skin around them looks burned), the woman trapped within the sword, and spends a lot of time attack Dani and critiquing her for being weak. Oh, you have to rely on spells to avoid my attack. Oh, you're getting help from the memories of your friends.

It does show how what the sword's told Kyron is a lie. Kyron thinks he's sparing people the pain of losing others to death, by keeping everyone inside the sword. But the sword clearly sees relying on others, or really anything beyond your own strength and speed, as a weakness. Unless this is just meant to dig at Dani, that she isn't capable enough to actually do anything on her own, so she'll give up.

But I don't think that's it, because the sword's been rifling through Dani's memories looking for someone whose soul it can take, if not Dani's. Or someones, more accurately, and it hits paydirt with Dani's parents. Dani gets into the sword's mind enough to see a little of Hildr's true past and what the sword needs for its plan, but the sword's already sent the location of Dani's parents to Kyron. It's a nicely done page by Audino and Hesli. Dani is seeing through Kyron's eyes, so we are as well. And we see things in the reflection of his sword. First Dani, then Kyron (with a similar complexion to the one Hildr is sporting inside Dani's mind) and then the Moonstar family ranch.

And the sword dominates more and more of each panel, as it gets closer to what it wants. Either outcome, because Dani can either go after her parents, or go after the tablet Kyron needs, but not both. I would say, if he hasn't killed them already, simply taken them somewhere, she should just go get the tablet, and make him come to her, with her parents. But it's easy for me to say, not my parents in danger of having their souls sucked up by a sword. 

What I Bought 4/8/2026

I feel I've hit a wall on most of the games I'm playing. Granted, I'm not playing anything all that often, but whenever I try, it seems like a lot of quick deaths and no progress. I'm learning things in Outer Wilds, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with the information I'm learning.

D'Orc #3, by Brett Bean (writer/artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer) - Well, pull on a dwarf's beard and you ought to expect them to try and drive you into the ground like a tent peg.

The angry dwarf is hunting D'orc. This plays out as D'orc doing helpful things and the dwarf then killing the people D'orc helped. A white mage offers some new intel, but it doesn't help the dwarf. Except in terms of giving him more people to terrorize, which was probably not the mage's intent, since the mage is actually D'orc.

I'm unclear on what D'orc was hoping to accomplish. He says he's ready to deal out a beating to the dwarf for the damage he's done, but dude, some of those people got damaged because you sent him in their direction! Why didn't you just kick his ass sooner?

Oh, because you can't actually kick his ass. All attempts at sneak attacks fail, but the beating gives D'orc a chance to swipe the potion meant to erase him, and hit the dwarf with it instead. The dwarf says it's supposed to burn away any mistake it's hit with, but he just kind of falls over the cliff when he takes it in the face. So, did the Bone Witch who made it sell him a bum deal, or is it just a strict definition of mistake? 

Moonstar #2, by Ashley Allen (writer), Edoardo Audino (artist), Arthur Hesli (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Aw crap, Papa Smurf has gone to the dark side, and he's grown to enormous size!

Moonstar and Kian travel to China, because there's some vessel deep in a cave that will let Kyron collect more souls. There's some arguing, and then they reach the bottom and - the vessel is gone. Great work! There's a meaningless fight with some undead - unless each of them saving the other at some point is going to be significant later - and Kian stalks out to try and contact some people.

And then Dani's grandfather appears, carrying the cursed sword and talking about how she didn't avenge him, so he's gonna do it himself. By killing Dani? I know I'm not well-versed in her backstory, but I think I'd have heard about her murdering family members.

OK, it's actually Kyron, trying a disguise. They fight a little, Dani grabs the sword, gets some sad backstory for Kyron about watching a sister die of some illness and him not accepting that nothing could be done. And then the sword got it's hooks into him, with some spiel about how it would keep everyone he cares about safe inside it forever, rather than letting their souls go wherever it is souls go in the Marvel Universe, I don't even know any more what the theological cosmology is after Ewing made such a big literal thing about The-One-Above-All in his Hulk stuff.

Anyway, Kian saves Dani from getting killed, but the sword still took her soul? I think. Well, Strong Guy ran around without a soul for awhile, right? No big deal. Though I guess he lacked empathy, which might be an interesting twist on what we've seen of Dani so far. If she didn't care about the cost of being wrong, and just dove into whatever plan she'd settled on. Though there'd still be the question of why she was bothering to stop him at that point. 

What I Bought 3/4/2026 - Part 2

It's the annual big book sale for the regional library this weekend. I plan to hit it today with my dad, even if, as my mother says, bringing him is like taking an alcoholic to a brewery. Hopefully, this means lots of book reviews in the near future!

Moonstar #1, by Ashley Allen (writer), Eduardo Audino (artist), Arthur Hesli (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I've never thought to ask, what is Dani's belt made out of, with all those big ovals? Are they glass, polished turquoise, something else entirely?

So there's a dwarf-forged sword, cursed with a valkyrie's desire to keep fighting and a host that made some sort of deal with it. A group Moonstar was working with were responsible for keeping the pair under lock and key, but Moonstar and Magik took the group down, and everybody's forgotten about Asgard (and apparently the other seven realms besides), so the sword and its host are on the loose.

Two members of the group show up, wanting Dani's help finding the sword, because whoever is using it is killing larger and larger numbers of people. Dani knows Norse mythology - as they don't accept she was a Valkyrie, since they've forgotten such things existed - and they figure it was her actions that let the sword escape, so she can help clean up the mess.

They find the guy, Kyron, doing some sort of ritual that's going to collect an entire city worth of dead souls. Or just souls? I'm unclear if he only collected the souls of those already dead, or everyone's souls, living or dead. The attempt to stop him fails, one of Dani's allies sacrifices herself to give them time to escape, but the ritual wasn't enough for whatever Kyron and the sword are after - an end, apparently, to avoid nothingness - so he'll need something bigger.

Allen writes Dani as someone who wants to help, whether that's mutantkind in general - she apparently joined this Society of the Eternal Dawn thinking she could help protect mutants' future - or a person specifically - a comatose child, a friend. But she also tends to take the most optimistic view of how things will work out, and this perhaps causes her to rush into things without weighing consequences. So when things go wrong, she beats herself up and bleeds (metaphorically) for the people who she feels she failed.

I think the idea driving the conflict is going to be Kyron suffered losses at some point that made him decide it was better to simply not suffer, but there was still enough kindness and empathy in him the sword convinced him that really, it would be better to grant everyone that same gift, of no longer losing anyone. And if Dani's attempts to stop him keep failing, her doubts about her judgment will grow, and there'll be a moment where she may be ready to stop losing.

Audino makes Dani look really young. The fact she seems significantly smaller than everyone doesn't help with that. Maybe that's always been the case. Kyron's design isn't bad; the tattoos on the sides of his skull that curve onto his cheekbones help draw attention towards the eyes, which Helsi makes an attention-grabbing gold-yellow pupils surrounded by red. Action scenes are, OK. Not sure how Kyron went from winding up for a full, two-handed swing to simply bopping Dani on the forehead with the pommel. I'm curious to see if the red coloration begins to cover more of Dainself as more lives are taken into the sword, like a warning it's hitting critical mass.

Sunday Splash Page #354

 

"Deconstruction Site," in Mekanix #5, by Chris Claremont (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Edgar Tadeo (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

Mekanix focused on Kitty Pryde, attending college in Chicago, bartending to pay for off-campus housing, and trying very hard not to deal with the recent death of her father amid the mass Sentinel attack on Genosha that occurred early in Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men.

Unfortunately, even if the other students don't know she's a mutant, that doesn't mean she's free of stupid bigots and their nonsense. When the story begins, she's already attending mandatory counseling sessions after she whupped the shit out of some anti-mutant guys that tried to get her to listen to their propaganda. That same hate group targets the project team she's part of, and when their sabotage causes a meltdown Kitty only narrowly keeps from killing anyone, the FBI naturally treats Kitty and the scientists as suspects, rather than the right-wing hate group that posted very public threats about them online.

In the midst of that, a few of the Sentinels from the Genosha attack - smaller, more insectile in appearance, but highly adaptable - hitch a ride on a freighter into the city and begin targeting mutants. The only other X-Man around to help is Karma, who has her own concerns trying to protect and care for her younger siblings. There's also Shola, who I think was a new character, a very powerful telekinetic from Genosha, trained to use his powers for defense by his parents, and dealing with his own grief at their recent deaths.

Bobillo's very good at making the various Sentinels look a bit different, but in similar ways. They remind me a bit of the machines that patrol the real world in The Matrix, but less uniform, and certainly less sturdy. Lots of thin wires and cables, and multiple optical lenses, rarely any weapons beyond their own mass (though one does incorporate a pistol Karma had been carrying.) Nodding to their ability to rebuild and improve themselves from whatever is available.

I feel like his human characters' heads are a little big for their bodies, or their bodies - especially the women - are too narrow for their heads, but he's good with body language. Critical in a Claremont-written book, where there's going to be lots of talking - Kitty naturally has to make a big speech in an impromptu debate with the leader of the hate group, a moment where she sets aside her anger and focuses on trying to help rather than just fight - and Bobillo keeps the characters moving or gesturing in ways that are appropriate so things don't grow too static.

This version of Shadowcat's hardened by loss and experience, or is trying to be. The way Claremont writes her, she's more like an open wound, taking very little prodding to provoke a reaction, whether from the bigots, the feds, her therapist (I'm not qualified to determine if this therapist is any more competent than most of the mental health professionals in the Marvel Universe. She at least doesn't appear to be evil.) Her grief, like Shola's, is mostly still directed into anger. She's trying to run from "mutant" stuff, but that didn't work, and now she's almost resigned to the notion of never having a moment's peace to enjoy herself or love anyone. Claremont also seems to moving towards a romantic relationship between Kitty and Karma, which so far as I know never went anywhere. Nowadays it always seems like they're going to push Kitty into bed with Emma Frost, which is just a terrible idea.

Anyway, the point seems to be Kitty can't give up on letting people in, on thinking things can be better.

What I Bought 10/23/2024

When Microsoft sent out their monthly updates a couple of weeks ago, it did something where their stupid News & Interests feed wouldn't stay turned off. I'm used to their crap - I always check whether they've reinstalled their AI "Helper" before I open Word, and delete it if they have - so I long ago set N&I to not show up on my taskbar. Now, according to Task Manager, it was running in the background anyway. Always when I was trying to do something, thus slowing my computer down. I'd tell it to end task, it'd start itself back up again before long.

After trying at least 4 different things I found online, I finally hit one that actually worked. True, it seems to have disabled the Search function on my computer, but I'm willing to call that acceptable collateral damage. Especially since my laptop runs much faster now.

Dazzler #2, by Jason Loo (writer), Rafael Loureiro (artist), Java Tartaglia (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - What is happening to Strong Guy's face? Or did they just shave Magilla Gorilla and figure no one would notice the difference?

Scorpia doesn't know who hired her, only that a lot of people took jobs to wreck Dazzler's tour. Oh well, the show must go on. Appearing on some morning talk show in London, Dazzler defends her music as not being solely for mutants, and neatly disses the host (who is wearing a suit so hideous, I think he must have escaped from Gotham.)

Then Dazzler goes nuts during her live performance on the show. No, wait, she was being mind-controlled. Oh, that's the X-Men's excuse for everything. The telepath's kind of mediocre at best, as it turns out to be one of the production assistants for the show. An anonymous person knew he was a mutant and threatened his family if he didn't make Dazzler look bad. Mission probably accomplished, but then Lila Cheney shows up to offer to get Dazzler to her next tour stop.

For some reason, I thought Lila was initially talking in lyrics, or singing or something. Not sure why, other than, "That live stream was hard to watch. Looked like you found yourself in quite the jam," read as so stilted I didn't think a person would actually talk like that. Especially not Lila Cheney, who I tend to expect to make more of a spectacle of her arrival. Or maybe "Wing! Bling! Ding!" sufficiently lowered the bar for my expectation of lyrics.

Anyway, outside of some vague interest in the person behind all this trouble, there's really nothing selling me on this book. Other than the flashback last issue showing her sparring with Domino, Loo's not doing much of anything with the characters he assembled as her road crew. Loureiro's art is fine; I like the civvies look Dazzler sports for the talk show appearance, and there's no trouble following the action this time around. But it doesn't impress me wildly or make me go "wooooooooo".

What I Bought 9/18/2024

The last two days of this week have dragged. Not that the first three were anything spectacular, but I was, for better or worse, busy. Real "C" grade kind of week. Plus, there were 3 comics I was expecting out next week, but the solicits don't show any of them. Will I ever get to actually see an issue of Loop?!

Deadpool #6, by Cody Ziglar (writer), Roge Antonio (artist), Guru e-FX (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I see Wade's pissed off Radioactive Man.

Deadpool's healing factor remains missing in action, so he's down two limbs. Which means not is Deadpool now handling finding his new business jobs (Deadpool, in charge of something that requires organization and follow-through?), he's sending Ellie out in the field with Taskmaster and Princess. In her own outfit, but with non-lethal weaponry.

And for their first job, take out an ex-KGB weapons smuggler, who wears a mask that makes me think he's the Plunderer, that villain that likes to act like a pirate sometimes. But it's not him (I think.) For all her talk, Ellie's nervous if the stuttering and hesitation throughout the fight is anything to go by, but they make it work. With only a little bit of people being eaten alive! But their guns literally go "PewPewPew," so they deserve it.

Deadpool's very proud. Then Deadpool's very dead, because Death Grip is not dead. I still don't get this guy's deal. He does his magic thing to slice off Deadpool's other arm, then grabs him and, I'm not sure, magic-burns him from the inside out? Anyway, Deadpool's dead now, just when he thought he was getting his life together! For, what, the 14th time?

Assuming Antonio designed Ellie's outfit, it's solid. The jacket reminds me of early-'90s Avengers, or maybe the one Firestar rocked in the back half of New Warriors volume 1 (that might just be the Taskmaster emblem on the sleeve that reminds me of the Warriors having a logo/communicator in that spot.) The fight scene's illustrated well, good mix of wide panels and close-ups. Deadpool's face looks a odd. Softer than usual, maybe, like Antonio went light on the lines to emphasize Wade's oddly happy with the situation? Until he died, although once Preston tracked him down (and there's no way she's not noticing a dark-haired girl calling herself "Deadpool"), he'd have been in a lot of pain.

Dazzler #1, by Jason Loo (writer), Rafael Loureiro (artist), Java Tartaglia (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - Yep, she's definitely singing.

Dazzler's on tour to promote her new album! And she's in the middle of culture wars, with your various conservative bigot types spewing the usual nonsense about her leading the youth down a - whatever, you're probably on social media more than me, you know the kind of stuff being said.

First concert, she's singing a song about dating Archangel, gets attacked by Scorpia, beats her mostly without using her powers offensively, per her manager and Domino's request. I have a hard time picturing Domino going along with that, even with the flashbacks showing her sparring with Dazzler to help hone her self-defense skills. "You can't worry about bad p.r. if you're dead," or something like that. Especially since she got a little casual with a light shield she made and some of the audience got hit with Scorpia's bad aim. Maybe if she just used a hard light shot they fight would have been over sooner.

I'm not entirely clear what she did to ultimately finish the fight. She makes a big light display that seems to surround Scorpia. Then Loureiro draws a panel of her pointing her glowing fingers towards us while singing "Bling! Wing! Ding!" as actual lyrics. Then Scorpia's unconscious on the ground. So, Dazzler did use her powers in an offense-minded way after all?

But Loo seems to be setting up a subplot where Dazzler's manager is trying really hard to downplay Dazzler being a mutant, seemingly for fear of commercial backlash. So, no using powers in an aggressive manner. Ask Allison's drummer, Shark-Girl, to wear an image inducer collar, which sure as heck looks like a power dampener more than the thing Nightcrawler used to wear. Lots of talk about "transcending barriers", and being "inviting and friendly as possible." You know, bullshit.

I don't know. Dazzler's a character I'm typically more interested in as part of an ensemble than a lead, so this was always going to be a bit of a hard sell, but it didn't set my world on fire. Maybe her being a singer is something that doesn't translate well to comics. Maybe it's that it feels like Loo's nodding hard in the direction of Taylor Swift, who I have no particular feeling about, beyond getting annoyed when drunk college girls would yell at Alex to play "Blank Space" again. 

I can probably afford to give it another issue, but it's on life support.

Random Back Issues #133 - Mekanix #6

Couldn't you just start a Facebook group, or get a bunch of cats or something?

We looked at an earlier issue of this 4 years ago, but we've jumped to the end today, with what is essentially an issue-long chase sequence.

The Student Union at the University of Chicago was hosting a meeting to decide whether to ban the mutant-hating group Purity from campus, only to have a bunch more of the person-sized, buglike Sentinels that wiped out Genosha crash the party. The only ones standing in the way are Kitty Pryde, former New Mutant Karma, and Shola, a telekinetic from Genosha attending school.

Shola's doing most of the work, as he's got some serious TK power and combat training in how to use it courtesy of his parents. Also, Sentinels like these killed his parents and everyone he had back home, so he's got plenty of anger for fuel. He encases the Sentinels in a big energy bubble, but these are the adaptive-style of Sentinels, so they figure out some way to escape and attack from underground.

Shola tries to draw their attention so Karma can escape since possessing people isn't a terribly effective power against robots, but two follow her down a dead end alley. Fortunately, Kitty shows up, having gotten lost in the building and pulls Karma through the wall (Karma apparently describes being phased as swimming through oatmeal.) Kitty leaves the wall phased to fool the Sentinel into thinking there's no barrier, then turning the wall solid again to trap it. She even calls it a 'poor bunny', which sounds more like a Psylocke expression to me, but the X-Men do so much psi-linking they probably all ought to speak in a weird melange of each other's verbal tics.

Except there were two Sentinels chasing Karma, and they're down to Karma trying to smash it with a pickax before Shola shows up and launches the thing into the air. Meanwhile, the cops showed up! Well I'm sure everything is under control now! The Sentinels register genome patterns within the range of potential mutants, and elect to attack. Shola gets tagged, but Kitty's able to phase him to keep him safe, for now.

Needing to clear potential casualties, Karma uses her power to make all the students and cops calmly walk away from the battlefield, while Kitty calls for help. Tom had been dating the head of the Purity group, but decided he wasn't a bigot, so he shows up in his car and the three mutants pile in and burn rubber. About the time they reach the university industrial complex the Sentinels catch up. Kitty phases everyone out of the car and then into the tunnels leading to the building where her group was trying to figure out cold fusion. The experiment was sabotaged, but there's still tons of heavy stuff to trap and crush all the Sentinels, if they can be lured in.

So Karma possesses Shola (with his permission) to push him past his limits. Kitty uses herself as bait while Tom, who the Sentinels ignored because he's a baseline human, pulls the lever to dump all the stuff. Kitty phases the Sentinels so they can't try to escape, though they figure out how to hurt her. Kitty uses Tom to pull herself through the junk before Shola/Karma compress the Sentinels down into nothing. I'm not sure if Kitty needed the help because she was tired, because of something the Sentinels were doing, or if it was the strain of escaping the TK field.

All that done, Kitty visits her school-mandated therapist and admits she's a mutant, then goes to the bar where she works part-time (and where the FBI is still surveilling her) to meet up with her friends. We can't have too happy of an ending, as Alice Tremaine, the leader of the Purity Group, found a little bit of one Sentinel at the student union and is helping it rebuild itself in her parents' basement.

{7th longbox, 20th comic. Mekanix #6, by Chris Claremont (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Avalon (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)}

Sunday Splash Page #286

 

"Speech Balloon Tetris," in Jubilee #5, by Robert Kirkman (writer), Derec Donovan (artist), Transparency Digital (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

This was part of yet another, most likely half-assed, attempt by Marvel at reaching a younger audience. Jubilee leaves the X-Mansion to move back to Southern California and live with her Aunt Hope and go to school. So she's crushing on guys, earning the ire of said guy's girlfriend, dealing with authoritarian principals, hanging out at the mall, stuff like that.

She also meets another young mutant named Shane who can shoot lasers out of his fingers and has his own street gang. And Aunt Hope and her butler aren't what they seem to be either, so it isn't all everyday teen life in the big city. Wolverine of course shows up at the end of issue 5.

Is it any good as a book teenagers might be interested in? Hell if I know. It wouldn't have been my thing at that age, but Marvel already had my money, so no reason to give a crap about what I wanted. I'm guessing it didn't find a market, because it ends at 6 issues with Jubilee thinking her great-aunt is dead and moving back to Xavier's.

Where Marvel would fail to do much of anything with her. She got depowered by House of M,  became a vampire during that "X-Men fight vampires" thing. Then she adopted/stole a baby. I think they made her a headmaster in a new Generation X book, that was canceled almost immediately. The high point was probably Jubilee joining the supporting cast of Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat after Civil War II's dumbassery took She-Hulk off the field.

Random Back Issues #105 - Uncanny X-Men #237

It's the introduction to Genosha, aka, Apartheid for Mutants, oh boy. Maddie Pryor accepted a job trying to help a mutant escape Genosha, but they were both captured because Genosha doesn't want anyone to know how they achieved their utopia (slave labor). Not out of fear of sanctions, heavens no, but because someone might steal their idea.

That is the more realistic response, for all I'd like to see the Avengers show up and just beat everyone's asses. The New Warriors might have done that, but we're still a couple years too early for them. Or X-Force, for that matter.

Wolverine and Rogue went to investigate, they got caught and powers neutralized, which produced two pieces of bad news. One, with his healing shut down, Logan's dying of blood poisoning from all the Admantium. Two, Rogue was assaulted by some of the magistrates and retreated into her own mind from the trauma. There she's being tormented by the specters of all the people she's grabbed bits of memory from. So Carol Danvers, stronger than the others because it's basically all of her, is running the show. Turns out she and Logan worked together at some point. Of course they did.

While the magistrates are chasing an aircraft Logan and Carol hotwired, those two are sneaking around Genosha itself. Well, Carol's not really sneaking so much as trying to draw as much attention as possible for Logan to swipe keycards. At least it keeps him from trying to stab people.

The Genegineer's son - friend of the girl Maddie was trying to help - chose the same bar to get drunk and pick a fight in. Which makes Carol and Logan's work easier, but when the magistrates decide to throw the kid on the "mutant train" to teach him a lesson about how Magistrate Lives Matter, our super-spies decide to hitch a ride. They find the kid and try use him as a way to get deeper into the facility where mutants are experimented on. Logan's fading fast, but he really wants to bring the country to its knees.

Elsewhere, the Genegineer's talking with Jenny, his son's friend. Her father abused his position to switch her positive gene-scan with another girl, who died as a result. So Jenny owes it to that dead girl and their country to be altered against her will into a mindless slave, you see. Fortunately, the bullshit is interrupted because the medical staff are about to start messing with Maddy, including trying to probe her mind with a telepath, despite her warnings to stay out.

It's about this time the rest of the X-Men arrive. After easily dispatching some magistrates, Psylocke is floored by a psychic shockwave of rage she describes as 'like being cast into the molten heart of a star.' Back in the lab, the Genegineer finds everyone other than Maddy (still strapped to the table) brutally murdered. Well, that's not ominous. . .

{12th longbox, 45th comic. Uncanny X-Men #237, by Chris Claremont (writer), Rick Leonardi (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)}

"Necessary" Requires Some Level of Competence

As you are likely aware, I don't buy the current volume of X-Force. I do, however, see scans of it online here and there, and read Paul O'Brien's reviews. The book comes off as odd in the context of certain quotes I've seen from the writer, Benjamin Percy.

Percy has made a point, more than once from what I can tell, that X-Force in general, and the character of Beast in particular, is about examining the messy things people do in the name of nation-building. The underhanded, unfriendly-regime-toppling shit the CIA got up to. And so he states that Hank McCoy believes himself to be a, 'necessary bastard.' 

Hank feels he has to do stuff like turn an entire country into zombies so they don't produce drugs that can compete with Krakoan products. Or have the Five resurrect Wolverine as a nearly mindless weapon Hank can use to assassinate Senators.

The problem with this is that, while Percy's version of Beast has the "bastard" part down cold, he's fucking up on the "necessary" side of things. None of Hank's schemes seem to work out well. The zombification of an entire nation nearly backfires at their first stupid Hellfire Gala, and it's only the people he victimized being unbelievably understanding that keeps it from being a huge embarrassment.

His Wolverine puppet is so brain-dead it doesn't wait for Hank to turn off the security cameras, so Logan is caught on video murdering the Senator. His secret outer space prison where he conducts illegal experiments falls apart and he ends up imprisoned for a time. The dude fucks up everything he attempts.

Now, if the point Percy's driving at is a nation does not, in fact, require "necessary bastards", he might almost be pulling it off, considering Hank's Sideshow Bob-esque ability to step on every rake in the world, has yet to actually damage Krakoa's standing or safety in any demonstrable way*. If that were Percy's goal, it would seem like someone needs to actually, you know, remove Hank from a position to cause problems. Tell him Krakoa has moved beyond such tactics, or whatever mutant supremacist nonsense they're spouting these days.

But outside of Emma or Sage giving him the occasional talking to, Hank's received no censure whatsoever. Has not lost his official position, not been condemned to the Pit. X-Force still go on the missions he gives them, even though it should be abundantly obvious this is a terrible idea. Hank's written like when DC fucks up Amanda Waller and just make her cartoonishly evil and incompetent.

On the other hand, if Percy thinks nations do need "necessary bastards", whether because they want to build/maintain an empire, or simply feel outnumbered and besieged from all sides (either of which you could apply to Krakoa), then shouldn't some of Hank's plans actually work? Shouldn't we be seeing more evidence of him actually nipping a real threat in the bud, rather than create potential public relation time bombs the rest of the cast have to scramble to defuse?

If Percy wants to question the ultimate utility of even those successes - make it that Hank's turned himself into a monster for the equivalent of sticking fingers in a leaky dam - make them only temporary wins, or have unexpected effects. Some people in the zombified nation show natural or developed resistance, and this helps them make even better drugs. Or it turns out another nation was on the same track, several of them even, and Hank can't turn them all. Wolverine isn't caught on camera killing Senators, but it doesn't matter, as their successors run on the same platform and gets elected because, surprise!, killing a politician did not alter the demographics or beliefs of his electoral district.

The current approach seems like the worst of all worlds. Hank fails all the time, so he certainly doesn't demonstrate the necessity of his actions. Especially as Krakoa seems to be just fine no matter how badly he fails. But his ineptitude produces no negative consequences for him either, even though there are certainly enough people who know about his shit with the power to get him removed, and at this point, I can't see Hank having anyone in his corner to save his job, so the fact they haven't ousted him in favor of Sage (alcoholic or no), or hell, Gambit or Lady Mastermind or someone, just seems ridiculous.

* Although you could argue that's because the Quiet Council figuring they could let Mr. Sinister help clone them and there'd be no problems blew up first.

Saturday Splash Page #56

 

"Kitty's New Dragon," in Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans #1, by Chris Claremont (writer), Walt Simonson (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Glynis Wein (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

Back in the '80s, Marvel and DC got on well enough to do these kinds of crossover one-shots. I don't know where this one ranks compared to, Batman/Hulk drawn by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, or either of the Spider-Man/Superman books, but it's the only one I've got. And hell, we got Walt Simonson drawing this thing, that's no small potatoes.

Darkseid sets about bringing back the Dark Phoenix as part of a plan to turn Earth into a second Apokolips, as a way to give him a leg up in his war against New Genesis. His plan involves gathering psychic resonances of the Phoenix, from different people and places she knew. Which drags the X-Men in. The Titans get involved because Raven has a premonition, and when Beat Boy tries to re-create what she saw, Starfire recognizes Phoenix and freaks out. Which sets the Titans after the X-Men since Phoenix was one of them, but only gets them caught by the Parademons who think they're the X-Men.

If it feels like the Titans are somewhat secondary to this, Claremont throws in Deathstroke as a hired gun for Darkseid to get some sort of Titans connection in there (although I do like the notion the Tamaraneans were one of the species aware of the Phoenix wiping out an entire star system). So we get some brief - and I mean like two panels at a time - skirmishes between Deathstroke and Wolverine. Nowadays that would get it's own 6-issue mini-series, at minimum.

At this time, though, fans had to settle for each character getting the drop on the other once, and each being able to avoid the other's attack, once. Deathstroke does beat the X-Men (with the help of some Parademons), but in the last big fight, gets KO'ed by Cyclops of all people. Not even by one of Cyclops' bank shot optic blat tricks. Just zaps him while Deathstroke's busy trying to hit Wolverine.

Among all the normal emoting and fighting you'd expect from something Chris Claremont wrote, he does give Simonson plenty of opportunities to go big. Lots of big splashes of characters standing before the Source Wall, or giant angry birds of fire.

Claremont's Darkseid has some of the over-the-top aspect of Darkseid, but he probably gets too involved in the actual fighting. Watching Cyborg, Wonder Girl and Colossus try to wrestle Darkseid to the ground just seems off somehow. Even with Simonson's art, Darkseid seems lesser when he's grappling with superheroes than when he's scheming and gesturing dramatically. But we're decades past the point of writers turning him into something to be punched.

To be fair, Darkseid's ultimately defeated because the thing he resurrected is a being of evil and malevolence that realizes it used to be so much more, and turns its darkness on the one responsible. And Simonson draws it as Dark Phoenix, having tried to merge with Cyclops to save herself, only to be overwhelmed by his emotions, firing herself at Darkseid through Cyke's optic blasts.

Claremont does follow the notion only children are able to perceive Darkseid for what he truly is, although I'm not sure if he and Simonson interpret it the way Kirby intended. Shadowcat's the only X-Man who wakes up when their memories are being tapped, and Simonson draws what she sees as this close-up of Darkseid's face, shadowed and outlined by a grin and red eyes. And Kitty freaks and phases right through the floor trying to get away. So that part was pretty effective.

Saturday Splash Page #55

"Midnight Cowboy", in Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, by Chris Claremont (writer), Alan Davis (penciler), Paul Neary (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

It's the only Annual I own for this book. It's hard to pinpoint when it's set, because the X-Men are living in the school, but Havok is there, and he didn't join until after they'd packed up and ran to Muir Island, and Storm was off to look for Forge not long after Havok's arrival.

But whatever, the team - plus Captain Britain and Meggan, who are there to visit Psylocke - are captured by some incredibly powerful goober named "Horde", who demands they steal the "Crystal of Ultimate Vision" from the "Citadel of Light and Shadow", or else he'll destroy the Earth.

Once inside, they find that the danger of the citadel is that it offers each person their fondest desire, to draw them away from the prize. And so the team is picked off, one by one. Rogue merrily rushes into a Gone with the Wind fantasy. Dazzler embraces being a homeless person, because it's safer to never try. Ouch. Havok, I'm not sure exactly. His body is there, but his mind may have been transported into a star. Davis and Neary make it look good, this enormous, prismatic maze, interrupted by whatever the X-Men happen to be seeing. I think the panels get narrower - either vertically or horizontally - as each one is gradually ensnared.

(Also feels very Claremont for Storm's fondest desire to apparently be to run around with Yukio in Tokyo. Just two gals bein' pals, right?)

It ultimately comes down to Wolverine, who has not spent the issue covering himself in glory. He got blotto up there because this is what would be the anniversary of his marriage to Mariko. You know, if Mastermind hadn't messed with her head and made her call it off. Still find that both a dick move and a really stupid move by Wyngarde. Good idea, fuck with the guy who stabs people even when he isn't pissed off. When Horde showed up, Logan rushed out in a bathrobe, nearly stabbed Dazzler by accident, and gone facepalmed and thrown down the hall into Dazzler and Havok by Horde like a chump. But there's always another chance to make good.

One thing I don't understand is why Horde even needed the X-Men, since he eventually shows up right as they reach the crystal. I guess to distract the Citadel, keep it from attacking him. Although it was able to get Meggan and Captain Britain in one go, so I don't know why it couldn't grab Horde and say, Longshot, simultaneously.

(I also don't know why Oliver colors Brian Braddock like he's Adam Warlock. Looks like the guy went nuts with Spray-On Tan.)

The end of the issue reveals the Citadel is a test, and if you fail, your species is doomed to be frozen in its current evolutionary state. And we see both a Kree and Skrull represented there, and the fact they were deadlocked genetically definitely got used in stories later on, by other writers. Don't know if they just picked up what Claremont set down, or if this was something a few writers coordinated on.

Saturday Splash Page #54

"Snowblind", in Uncanny X-Men #407, by Joe Casey (writer), Sean Phillips (artist), Hi Fi Design (colorist), RS Comicraft's Saida! (letterer)

Through the '90s, I only bought X-Men comics sporadically. This does mean I mostly missed the whole Onslaught era, so, not entirely a bad outcome. I got back into the X-Men because of Wizard Magazine, of all things. They did a special issue just about the hot new creative teams that were going to shake up the X-Books. Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly were going to take over New X-Men, while Joe Casey and Ian Churchill got Uncanny X-Men. At the time, I wouldn't have known a single one of them from a hole in the ground, but Uncanny was going to have Nightcrawler in the book, while New was going to prominently feature Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Emma Frost. Gee, three characters I give fewer than zero fucks about. Also, Quietly made Xavier's head looked like a peeled potato, which is funny, but was not aesthetically appealing to early-2000s Calvin. Or mid-2020s Calvin, for that matter.

Uncanny it was, then.

I know Casey has said he wasn't really inspired for the project, or didn't have a strong idea, something like that. He took it because, basically, you only get offered a major title like Uncanny X-Men every so often. I think that's a harsh assessment, because you can see the outlines of some of the ideas Casey would go on to explore in his WildCATS work, but it's certainly true Morrison and Quietly were the ones who ultimately set the tone for the line. Having Xavier and the school be openly for mutants, greatly increasing the number of students at the school, the expansion of mutant culture.

Casey focused more on the new economic power of mutants, how they could use it, and how others attempted to exploit it. Archangel using his company to speak at a big European summit, or learning that his company had invested in a brothel specializing in mutant sex workers. Chamber being used by a Britney Spears analogue looking to boost her career from the notoriety of dating a mutant. The last story of Casey's run involved the Vanisher, of all people, trying to become a Mista Big by dealing Mutant Growth Hormone to people looking for the rush of having mutant powers. Considering he got outflanked by Warren Worthington, who is nobody's idea of a savvy businessman, that was never likely to end well. But it did speak to an idea where conflicts between mutants might start being fought with money rather than powers.

The cast Casey assembled was an interesting mix of characters from different eras and socio-economic viewpoints. Two Original Five members in Archangel and Iceman, two All-New, All Different in Nightcrawler and Wolverine, one Gen X alum in Chamber, and then Stacy X as a new character. Chamber and Stacy both had experience with people wanting to use their mutant identity to enrich themselves, although Stacy was positioned as having more control or agency over her life. Quite possibly an unrealistic view, but what we have to go on is she and the other women were friends who seemed to enjoy their lives. Wolverine of course has a lot of experience with people wanting to exploit his abilities, and Nightcrawler was a top act in the circus.

Of course, each of them also learned there were limits to how much leeway the lucrative nature of their gifts bought them. Chamber was tossed aside once he wasn't profitable. Nightcrawler was hunted by a mob once they figured out he wasn't wearing make-up. Logan has an extensive history of being mindwiped and experimented on when he's not being an obedient killer. The X-Ranch was burned down by insane religious bigots once it got too big to remain secret. Once their power becomes a possible threat or challenge, it had to be curtailed, which was only happening more frequently as mutants grew in number and status.

The book went through a lot of artists, many of them with wildly different styles, sometimes in the same story arc. Going from Ian Churchill to Tom Raney might not be too big a shift, but from Raney to Ashley Wood, then over to Ron Garney, certainly is. Wood's stuff is nearly incomprehensible, frankly. I can't tell what the fuck is going on in those issues.

The last three issues of the "X-Corps" story go Garney-Sean Phillips-Aaron Lopresti, without the tone of the book really shifting much. I think Phillips was who Casey really wanted, although it's hard to see his art fitting the more action-packed stories, but Marvel kept giving him more conventional superhero artists. Which I didn't mind, but possibly didn't help with what Casey was going for. Phillips drew the story with the Vanisher, which was rather grounded. Stacy using her powers to get Vanisher off the board for a couple of weeks so Archangel can efficiently buy out Vanisher's guys. There looks like there's going to be a fight briefly, but it's handled off-panel. Perfunctory. The Vanisher can't accept he's not ready to play in this new world.

But I'm not sure the X-Men, as presented by Casey, have entirely adjusted either. There's a hypocrisy where some of them - Archangel and Iceman mostly, the two upper or middle class WASPs - judge Stacy for continuing to hire out her powers to people looking for pleasure or release. The notion Stacy might not be willing to subsist on Xavier or Worthington's lagresse apparently not registering with them. However, they are perfectly fine with her using to seduce Vanisher and keep him in a doped-up euphoric haze for two weeks so Archangel can make his power play. Logan, Iceman, and Nightcrawler all hassled Chamber about dating the pop star. Not so much because they seem concerned for him, but they don't like him letting himself be used like an accessory. I mean, they're right that's what was happening, but it should still be Chamber's call. They're still pretty limited in their view of what's "acceptable".

Saturday Splash Page #53

"Light Show," in Uncanny X-Men #247, by Chris Claremont (writer), Marc Silvestri (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

The Australian era began with the X-Men's deaths. Fall of the Mutants required them to give their lives in a mystical ritual performed by Forge to seal away a trickster god (sadly, not Loki). But Roma undid it, because chaos is necessary, but only after everyone believes the X-Men are dead.

So the team leans into the idea, as Storm figures they can more effectively strike at those who mean harm to mutants if those foes think the X-Men are no longer a factor. That this includes not telling any friends or loved ones the truth is a bit sketchier, but I wouldn't say the plan woks terribly well anyway, so it's mostly academic. As usual, "proactive" superheroics fail.

The Outback era seems to be a polarizing one. I see people who love it, and people who hate it (often, but not exclusively, related to the team letting their loved ones continue to grieve). While there are more lighthearted issues, including one drawn by Rob Liefeld that spoofs DC's Invasion! event, the team seems cursed. While taking command of the Reavers' base in the middle of the Australian desert does limit attacks against their home, their being presumed dead doesn't convey a ton of advantages. They still seem to be performing triage.

Stopping a Brood plot that involves specifically targeting mutants that's already in progress. This is the era when Genosha as a pretty thinly (if at all) veiled apartheid South Africa is introduced, with a mutant underclass treated as test subjects to be experimented on and altered at the will of the homo sapien overclass. The X-Men only get involved because Maddy Pryor takes a job flying someone Genosha wants back, and they go ahead and abduct Maddy to keep her quiet.

The isolation doesn't seem to do good things to the team. Maddy accepts a demon's offer, thinking it's a just dream she's having, which eventually leads to the whole mess where she recovers her infant son, only to try and sacrifice him so Scott and Jean can be portrayed as the "proper" parents or some shit. Havok gets romantically involved with Madelyne, and that whole circumstance does a number on him (Claremont seems to abandon Havok trying to recover Polaris from Malice's grasp.)

With her powers neutralized, Rogue gets assaulted by Genoshan guards used to taking what they please, prompting Carol Danvers' psyche to take control, something it starts doing more regularly. That Storm in particular is not sympathetic to Rogue's situation puts more stress. I feel like it's telling that Rogue and Dazzler's relationship actually seems to improve to one of at least mutual trust, but it isn't like Alison has a lot of options for girl friends at this point.

(It's a running notion that Nightcrawler does horribly as a team leader, but based on the 50 issues after she sends Cyclops packing, there's plenty of evidence Storm sucks at it, too. The Morlocks would no doubt agree, if they hadn't been mostly murdered at the time.) 

Storm gets captured by Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, age regressed and eventually meets, ugh, Gambit. Logan has wandered off during all this to handle personal business, and by the time he comes back, the team is gone, because Psylocke has telepathically coerced them into giving up and retreating through the Siege Perilous. Logan gets shredded by Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers, and it's only Radical Teen Jubilee that manages to save him.

You could look at the whole stretch from 200 up to 255 or so as part of theme on how people react to constant high-levels of stress, with the answer apparently being, "badly". The X-Men are hurt and hounded and just trying to keep themselves together and find someplace safe for a while. So they hide away in the middle of nowhere, cut off all contact with anyone close to them, abandon any pretense of teaching or guiding the next generation of mutants (and I don't think X-Factor was doing much of that by this point, either), in favor of focusing on hitting back. The Australian era X-Men are almost a proto-X-Force, minus the pouches and firearms.

Marc Silvestri remains the primary series artist  up to about the time the team falls apart entirely. His works gets a bit stronger as he goes along, cuts out some of the excess cross-hatching and shading. But he seems able to handle the quieter or lighter moments better. It helps Claremont is occasionally able to go silent and let the art tell the story.

After the team shatters, we're into the Jim Lee era, baby! Psylocke body-swapped into an Asian ninja lady to be an assassin for the Mandarin, plus Jubilee wearing an outfit deliberately reminiscent of Robin's, while Wolverine talks to psychic phantoms of Carol Danvers and Nick Fury (weird Acts of Vengeance tie-in, to be sure)! Rogue running around in the Savage Land in relatively little! Gambit! Er, well, you know, it's a mixed bag.

Saturday Splash Page #52

"Full Retreat," in Uncanny X-Men #215, by Chris Claremont (writer), Alan Davis (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

Now we're into an era I'm familiar with. It's an odd stretch, with the X-Men contending with a sentient universe at the start, and a trickster god at the end. Those more unusual threats bookend more conventional mutant-hunting robots and other mutants. But variety makes for the spice of life, right?

The 200th issue brought a couple of major changes to the book. First, Xavier got badly injured attending yet another trial for Magneto and had to be whisked into space for advanced medical treatment by his bird princess girlfriend Lilandra. Then, before he left, Chuck asked Magneto to take over running the school.

This was followed up in the next issue by Cyclops losing a duel to Storm (still minus her powers) and being forced to relinquish leadership of the X-Men for the horrors of, gasp, marriage and fatherhood. How awful. Of course, as we covered in Saturday Splash Page #16, ol' Slim Summers couldn't bail on Maddy and Baby Cable to hang out with his school chums fast enough, but it would be a while (blessedly) before he'd befoul the pages of this book again. So that's the oldest of the X-Men gone, the teacher and mentor replaced by a guy who had repeatedly kicked this team's ass.

This could be considered a period of long, downward spiral for the team, as internal and (mostly) external forces dismantle the team. Rachel Summers first tries kill the Beyonder, who then tries to goad her into unleashing the neutron galaxy within the M'Krann Crystal, which would have wiped out the entire universe. After that, she tries to kill Selene (who is, after all, a vampire that's killed thousands to continue her own existence), only to nearly be gutted by Wolverine, under the questionable Logan logic it's better he nearly kill the girl than allow her to become a killer herself.

Rachel staggers off, into Spiral's waiting hands, at the same time Nightcrawler is nearly killed in battle with Nimrod. Wolverine had already nearly been killed by Lady Deathstrike, and then Rachel did a number on him on her way out the door. Then the Mutant Massacre starts, and the X-Men lose three of their number to severe injury.

Part of what I like about this stretch is how well Claremont makes it feel as though the tables are turning against the X-Men. Nimrod is out there, adapting even further with every encounter. No one has any real idea who is behind the Marauders, who take a break from attacking the X-Men to attack Maddy Pryor and abduct Baby Cable. Mystique's branch of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants get themselves declared a federal law enforcement group. The X-Men bucked the odds for a long time, but they couldn't keep it up forever, and they're left scrambling for answers, even as the damage spreads beyond their roster.

The Morlocks are decimated.  Even the Hellfire Club is taking casualties. The Beyonder temporarily kills the entire New Mutant squad and erases their existence so no one, save Shadowcat (thanks to her "bond" with Illyana), even remembers them. They're brought back eventually, but so traumatized Magneto hands them off to Emma Frost to help deal with their psychic trauma. Predictably terrible idea, entrusting children to Emma. Meanwhile, Magneto's taking a spot in the Hellfire Club as part of an alliance. I think that's one of those Claremont subplots that never went anywhere.

Backs against the wall and roster depleted, the X-Men are pretty much whoever the holdovers (Storm, Wolverine, Rogue) can find. Psylocke's there as an instructor for the kids, but has to fend off Sabretooth by herself. Dazzler shows up controlled by Malice, and once she's free, sticks around for lack of anywhere better to go. Malice switches to Polaris, which has Havok looking for X-Men assistance, only to find the mansion abandoned. Longshot. . .just kind of shows up?

I especially like the few issues where Wolverine has to try and lead a team that isn't much of a team while Storm's hunting Forge in attempt to regain what he took from her. Logan had always resisted taking command, but now he had to take being responsible beyond just acting the gruff mentor to one teenage girl at a time. He can't stop to settle scores with Sabretooth, because Longshot doesn't understand the danger they're facing, Rogue and Psylocke are both overconfident, Dazzler doesn't trust Rogue, and Havok doesn't trust himself. Maddy's there too, doing her best to stay alive while not understanding why the Marauders are trying so damn hard to kill her.

John Romita Jr.'s the regular artist at the start of this stretch, although Rick Leonardi, Barry Windsor-Smith, Alan Davis and Jackson Guice, among others, pop in for an issue here and there. By the tail end, primary art responsibility is in the hands of Marc Silvestri. His lines are considerably thinner and lighter than Romita's, and his work is a lot busier as well. It gives the characters more of a harried look. They're on edge, worn down. Of course, Silvestri also tends to have every woman stand like she's wearing high heels, whether she is or not. It's distracting when Dazzler's got her heel four inches in the air for no apparent reason. (I do wonder if there was any connection between Silvestri becoming the new artist at a time when the cast shifted to being over 50% women.)