Random Longbox

TITLE: X-Men (Vol. 2) #1

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

COVER DATE: October 1991

COVER PRICE: $1.50

37 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

I didn't think so at the time, but looking back, this issue can plainly be seen as the downfall of my voracious interest in all things X. It would be years before I would give up on Marvel's mutants all-together, but from this point on there would be only brief snippets of genius intermingled with monthly mediocrity.

I still can recall vividly buying this issue (and all of the different covers) from my comic book store. I also remember laying all the covers out on my floor, to make one big panorama. This was when Jim Lee was king, and at this point he could do no wrong in my book.

Oddly enough, most of my memories of this book deal with my emotional reaction and ties to the issue, and not to the quality of the actual story itself. I don't really have a sense of the story, only that Magneto returns. Although, now that I think about it, this must be where Magneto's Alcolytes are introduced as well. I really didn't care for these jokers as villains or antagonists, so if this is dealing with them in detail, color me bored already.

Still, we'll give it the old college try and see how this issue holds up after close to two decades.

Rubicon

• Writer: Chris Claremont
• Co-Plotters: Chris Claremont, Jim Lee
• Penciler: Jim Lee
• Inker: Scott Williams
• Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
• Colorist: Joe Rosas
• Assistant Editor: Suzanne Gaffney
• Editor: Bob Harras
• Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

In space, a group of mutants in a hi-jacked space shuttle are desperately trying to find Mageneto's old base of operation, Asteroid M. They are just about caught by trailing military personnel, when Magneto makes his presence known.

Demanding only to be left alone, Magneto destroys their ships and is about to hurtle them all back towards Earth when one of the fleeing hijackers appeals to Magneto as a fellow mutant, as it's him they've come looking for.

Back on Earth, the fracas in space does not go unnoticed as both the Soviets and the Americans initiate their own plans to deal with Magneto once again.

The X-Men, meanwhile, are oblivious to what is going on out in space as they are in the midst of one of their ever-present training exercises. Professor Xavier has recently returned from Shi'ar space, and is back in a leadership position among his students. After being gone for so long, however, he looks to re-familiarize himself with their abilities and fighting styles.

What we get is eleven pages of the X-Men divided up into three different teams. Rogue and her group attack the mansion from outside and above, penetrating it's walls, only to fall within feet of the Professor at the mercy of Jean Gray and her psychic powers.

Wolverine and his group take a different tack and try to infiltrate the mansion from the tunnels below. Gambit falls first, as he takes the time to impress the ladies instead of delivering the killing blow. Wolverine proves that he's the real deal and manages to pop his claws mere inches from Professor X's nose...game over.

After the battle has ended, Wolverine and Cyclops have their usual pissing match that typified much of their relationship in this era.

It's not long, however, before they are summoned by Nick Fury and briefed on the recent happenings on Asteroid M. With the Russians and the Americans both on edge, Fury thinks it's best that the X-Men are notified. Cyclops agrees, while Wolverine thinks a man should be allowed to make a mistake first, before you condemn him.

Again with the disagreement...why don't you two get a room already.

Back on Asteroid M, Magneto has saved both the mutant hijackers and the American military that were chasing them, trying to stay neutral in their struggle. All he has done, however, is bring their conflict to his doorstep as one of the mutants is gunned down at his feet.

Using his magnetic powers, he forces the soldier's gun to point itself back at it's bearer and fire. Prodded and goaded on by Fabian Cortez, another of the mutant hijackers, he is once again brought into the struggle for mutant equality. These mutants, who have pledged themselves to his cause, will be his Acolytes.

Realizing that the Americans are unlikely to let this death go by unanswered, he decides to act pre-emptively in his own self defense. Returning to the scene of one of his own greatest tragedies, he raises a Soviet submarine that he was responsible for sinking earlier. He's not here to reminisce, however, as he uses his magnetic powers to salvage the remaining nuclear missiles that are still lodged within.

Unfortunately for him, the X-Men are here to talk him out of it. Its a pitched battle, but Magneto is able to withstand their assault long enough to gather his nuclear missiles and make good his escape.

Rogue is not willing to let Magneto go without hearing a piece of her mind, however, as she tries to draw on their recent time together to reason with him.

During her speech, the two of them have inadvertently flown over Russian airspace and the Russians have decided to take this chance to get their revenge on Magneto for the sinking of their submarine. Their fighter jets open fire, with Rogue caught in the crossfire. A further enraged Magneto reacts, with the closest weapon at his disposal...a nuclear weapon!

Before the rest of the X-Men can mourn Rogue for too long, Professor X sends a psychic communication that he has found her. She has ended up in a hospital on the island nation of Genosha? Now exactly how and why this happened remains a mystery (to me, at least), but it gives the X-Men a chance to go toe to toe against Magneto's Acoyltes because they all happen to be there as well, wreaking havoc on the city streets.

It's all a bit too much, and screams plotting by committee as everyone had to get their favorite location inserted into this issue. The X-Mansion...check. Asteroid M...check. Genosha...check.

It all comes to a head, as Magneto reappears to collect his wayward acolytes and pronounce that Asteroid M shall from this day forward be a sovereign nation for all mutantkind. Any act of violence perpetrated against a mutant, shall now be answered in kind.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

I think the biggest thing we've learned with this issue, is how much the economy of comics have changed in the previous two decades. Thirty-seven pages for a buck-fifty? That's crazy.

What's even crazier, is that all thirty-seven (and a two page centerfold also) are drawn by Jim Lee! I think that pretty much matches his output for the last three years?

As much as I enjoyed looking at all thirty-seven pages of this issue, it was probably twice as long as it needed to be. I mean, I love a good danger room sequence as much as the next fanboy, but a dozen pages worth? That's a bit much.

There's also an interesting kernel of a story in here, but it just gets buried by word balloon after word balloon. Claremont has never been the most terse of writers, but I don't ever remember it being this bad. Maybe it's the fact that Jim Lee co-plots starting with this issue, and it ended up cramping his style somewhat...who knows?

I liked the idea of Magneto being out-crazied by Fabian Cortez, and seeing him essentially being used by him, but it just takes us way to long to get there and did we really need to go to Genosha too? Say what you will about Claremont's meandering, years in the making, simmering plot lines, but they've always at least seemed like Claremont's heart was in it. This time...not so much.

It's too bad that this story ended up being Claremont and Lee's swan song as a team on the X-Men, as they were really put out high-quality work up until this point. Still, it didn't hurt the X-franchise any as they would go on to dominate the market for the better part of the rest of the decade.

TITLE: Factor-X #1

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: March 1995

COVER PRICE: $1.95

22 pages



WHAT I REMEMBER...

So here's a fact that hasn't been uncovered at The Random Longbox yet...I used to be a huge X-Fan. It was the second title I started collecting after The Avengers way back in 1985. For the next 10 years or so, I read every title that Marvel put an "X" in front of, behind, or smack in the middle of.

If you're looking for someone to blame for the speculator boom of the 90's, I'm sure I can accept my fair share of the blame. As collateral, I can put up my six copies of X-Force #1 or my ten copies of X-Men (vol. 2) #1.

Hell, just to show you how old school I am, I'll even throw in my five copies of X-Factor #1 from 1986! Yes, speculation before speculation was cool!

So there is a good chance that we'll be seeing more X-books here at The Random Longbox in the future. But don't worry too much, as I did ebay off my Chuck Austen run of Uncanny last year, so we've dodged that bullet.

Anyways, back to The Age of Apocalypse. I remember being so excited for this story when it came out. I actually recall thinking these exact thoughts... "You can't cancel the X-titles carte blanche! And replace them with new titles?! That's insane!"

Oh, but it was a brilliant insanity. With Professor X dead and removed from timestream, continuity took a turn for the worse with Apocalypse now ruling the world. Magneto and his band of freedom fighters are the only heroes left with any means to set things right. What happened next was thirty some issues of alternate universe awesomeness.

X-Factor became Factor-X, and it's focus was on the Summers brothers. In this reality they are the main enforcers for Mr. Sinister, who is one of Apocalypse's four horsemen. As always, however, Sinister has plans of his own, and it will only be so long before the sibling rivalry between Havok and Cyclops pops up.

So slap on your evil-version goatee, and let's get started...

Sinister Neglect

• Writer: John Francis Moore
• Penciler: Steve Epting
• Inker: Al Milgrom
• Lettering: Starkings/Comicraft
• Colorist: Glynis Oliver
• Editor: Kelly Corvese
• Chief: Bob Harras

In this issue, pretty much everyone we meet (with the exception of Sinister) is a direct opposite of their 616 incarnation. It opens up with Cyclops, Havok, Northstar, and Northwind chasing down a group of escaped mutants. The refugees have broken out of Sinister's breeding pits, and it's up to his elite guard to track them down.

It's really no contest, and the opening pages tell us just how different things are as Havok and Northstar lay into the mutants, killing at least one of them. It also sets the stage for the conflict between Cyclops and Havok. They've not always had the cosiest of relationships, and that is amped up in this reality.


The costume design for the elite guard is your basic black leather, with some nondescript red markings. Cyclops is the only one with a different look and he suffers the most for it. First and foremost is that hair! People give the mullet Superman a hard time, but he ain't got nothing on "Lorenzo Lamas" Cyclops. It was interesting that they gave him only one eye here, taking the Cylops nom de guerre one step further. I'm sure the real reason they did it was so that he wouldn't damage his flowing locks which perpetually dangle in front of his left eye.

His costume also has that classic 90's trope, which is the singular bare arm or leg. His right arm is bare, while his left arm not only is covered by his costume, but it also has gold plated armor covering it as well. It's purely an aesthetic design and has no functionality whatsoever, a perfect statement on costume design of the period. It's not like his energy blasts emit from his arm!


Speaking of questionable costume redesigns, up next is Sinister. Here, he is modeling his Iron Patriot Mach One armor design. He truly was a man ahead of his time.


He explains that it is time for him to double-cross Apocalypse, but to do so require him to abandon his "children". Who knew Sinister had a softer side, as he caresses the monitor with an image of Scott on it.

Back at the breeding pits, we see a couple more twisted versions of Marvel heroes with the Guthrie siblings. Cannonball and his sister, Elizabeth, now a size changing mutant, work to keep the rabble in line. Cannonball appears to be a bit of a hothead in this reality, as he gets into a pissing contest with Cyclops. There's something about how Steve Epting draws Cannonball here that I really like.



While we're busy being introduced to new characters, up comes one of my favorites from the AoA storyline...The Dark Beast! Just one look at this panel, and you know that this is one twisted version of our reality.


I love that they amped up the scientist aspect of McCoy's history and turned him into an amoral, mad genius. He's one of those characters that must be a blast to write, as Moore gets several good lines of dialogue with The Dark Beast in this issue alone.

Epting does a great job with these two pages, keeping him in the shadows and drawing him from behind. When he finally does give you a close-up, it's a doozy.


Just look at the contempt and condescension oozing from the backwards glance. It's a shame that they were never able to do anything with this character after AoA ended. Yeah, the brought him over to our reality, but his potential was never realized as a classic X-villain.

Havok decides to let off some steam from the days events by visiting The Angel. In a scene straight out of Casablanca, Warren runs a nightclub in the heart of Manhattan that is frequented by mutants and humans alike. Naturally, trouble ensues as Henry Gyrich shows up, ready to blow himself up and take the club with him in the name of human freedom.


All of that is bad enough, but that's not really the most upsetting aspect of this scene. That honor belongs to Angel's costume! How that bulky costume helps Angel maintain any level of aerodynamics while in flight is beyond me. And what's with the granny panties?

Returning from the club, Havok is confronted by Cyclops who is concerned that he has not been able to contact Mr. Sinister in days. With Havok noting his objections, they break into Sinister's private lab and find the place destroyed. Scott immediately surmises that Sinister destroyed everything himself to cover his tracks, as he has now gone obviously rogue. Scott takes it upon himself to take charge of Sinister's empire.


In a final hint of the brother vs. brother to come, Havok seems to think he should be in control.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

Aside from some questionable costume redesigns, this issue was pretty damn good. John Francis Moore did a great job setting the underlying tensions between both brothers and allies alike. Everyone has their own agenda, and watching them plot, plan, and double-cross was very enjoyable.

I can't remember much of anything at all that John Francis Moore has written. His name sounds vaguely familiar to me, so I'm sure I have some more of his work in my collection. I just checked my database and it looks like he was also the writer for X-Force when Adam Pollina was the artist. I recall enjoying that run too, so maybe we'll get the pleasure of reading one of those too, if the Randomizer sees fit to do so.

On the artistic front, we are treated to the pencils of Steve Epting. As regular readers are well aware, I'm a big Avengers fan from when I first started reading comics. Steve Epting had a pretty lengthy run on that title, and while the stories during his tenure were average at best, they always looked pretty. His style here is similar to his Avengers work, which is very different from his current style on Captain America. Aside from the aforementioned costume changes, he does a bang up job on this issue and it was a real treat to see his old work again.


A couple of years ago, Marvel did the ten year anniversary of the AoA storyline. I didn't pick any of those issues up, and I'm glad I didn't. Even more so after I reread this issue. I think I'd like to keep this storyline as complete and finished as told originally. This storyline was the last hurrah for me and the X-Men. I gave 'em a shot for a while after this, but aside from Grant Morrison's revisioning and Joe Kelly's aborted run, nothing really connected with me.

There's one more observation before I go. If you have the issue, take a look at the checklist at the end of the titles that kicked off the AoA storyline. It's definitely a sign of how much the X-Men ruled the comic book landscape by the level of talent that they could get on their titles. Joe Madureira, Jeph Loeb, Chris Bachalo, Adam Kubert, Warren Ellis, Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert, Steve Epting, Tony Daniel, Terry Dodson, etc...

And that was only the first month of titles.

• Steve Epting's blog
• Marvel's Age of Apocalypse website
• Own the original art for page 1 of this issue...only $80!