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: The Defenders #51

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: September 1977

COVER PRICE: $0.30

17 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

So up until a few years ago, I only ever owned one Defenders book. It was #152, which was the last issue of the original series, as well as a Secret Wars II tie-in. I'm pretty sure I bought it because I bought every other Secret Wars II tie-in as well. I can't remember too much about it, and that's the way it stayed for a long time.

There's always been something about The Defenders though, that kind of intrigued me. The idea of a "non-team" of super-heroes seemed like something that, if it was done well, would be really entertaining to read. Unfortunately, everything I had heard was not very encouraging.

So fast forward about twenty years and my brother-in-law informs me that he has come into possession of a comic book collection from the late 70's/early 80's that was given to him by a family friend. Being the resident "comic book guy" of the family, I volunteered to see what he had, and get the collection in order so that his son could have a nice-sized collection. He offered to let me have whatever I wanted from these as well.

All in all, it was a nice little collection of about 1000 books ranging from 1975 all the way up to 1995. Alot of this collection was stuff I already had, so my nephew got a pretty decent collection of books including some Claremont/Byrne X-Men and some McFarlane Spider-Man.

There were a couple of runs that I did end up keeping for myself that allowed me to finish off my Byrne Fantastic Four run and 50 or so issues of The Defenders. My curiosity was finally going to be sated, as far as the The Defenders were concerned.

So what was the verdict? Where they any good? Let's find out...

A Round With The Ringer!

• Writer: David Kraft
• Penciller: Keith Giffen
• Inker: Klaus Janson
• Letterer: Bruce Patterson
• Colorist: Phil Rache
• Editor: Archie Goodwin

The story begins with an epilogue of sorts from the previous storyline featuring a battle against Scorpio. Joining the Defenders on this adventure were Nick Fury and Moon Knight, who are still around as S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up the pieces from the epic battle.

This is a style of storytelling we just don't see anymore. With most books these days being written with the trade paperback collections in mind, it would just be too difficult to work out how to package this epilogue to the previous four issues, and not butcher the next volume.

It does date the book slightly, but I always enjoyed this technique. It makes the title seem more serial in nature, and not just a random collection of 6 issue adventures.

It's during this epilogue that we are reminded that Nick Fury's brother was killed. Whether or not his brother was Scorpio, I couldn't tell from the dialogue. He does seem to be at peace, however, just knowing the final fate of his missing brother.

We also see Moon Knight and Nighthawk palling it up and remarking about how well they fought together, with Moon Knight recapping how he managed to escape certain death with the help of a beer can (see the previous post here for more details).

Everyone soon goes their separate ways, and it's a rather uneventful couple of weeks in the life of the Defenders before we pick up their story again. Kyle Richmond and Barbara Norris (a.k.a. Nighthawk and Valkyrie) are riding in his limo as he is escorting her Empire State University, where he has convinced her to enroll for classes.

Here, Valkyrie encounters a villain more dastardly than any the Defenders have previously fought...the bureaucracy of college admissions. After a full day of standing in the wrong lines, filling out the wrong forms, and missing most of the classes that she wants, her day comes to a close with her application forms being ripped up in front of her. She leaves, vowing to get Kyle for getting her into this, but not before splitting the administrators desk in two with her bare hands.

So that was what the Valkyrie was up to. Let's check in with Nighthawk to see what sort of villainy he is now thrown up against. Arriving at the Manhattan offices of Richmond Enterprises, he finds that it is surrounded by S.W.A.T. teams who are trying to capture a small time villain known as The Ringer.

Without a moment's hesitation, Kyle changes to Nighthawk and bursts into the building to stop the Ringer. Unfortunately, it doesn't go to well for him as the Ringer uses his Rapid-Fire Wrist Rings to snare and constrict Nighthawk, crushing his jet pack.

Nighthawk does manage to get a couple of good shots in, using his damaged jet pack as a projectile, but the relentless barrage of rings is just too much. Reeling in pain and momentarily unable to stop him, the Ringer collects his loot and begins to make his escape.

While Nighthawk attempts to recover in time to stop the Ringer, let's check in with the next member of the Defenders to see how she is coping with the rather hum-drum villainy of ordinary, everyday life.

And apparently it's not going well for Hellcat, who has lost a momentous battle with the coffee pot.

Will this torture never end for our heroes?

Back in the thick of battle, Nighthawk has recovered enough to catch up to the Ringer and cut short his escape. The Ringer continually calls out Nighthawk as a hypocrite for indulging in violence and hero worship, all the while doing it to protect somebody else's money. Little does he know that the man he fights is actually the owner of Richmond Enterprises himself!

A game of cat and mouse ensues within the massive office building, with the Ringer's head games keeping Nighthawk off balance. Again, it looks like our hero is going to be trapped by the wily wrist bands of the Ringer, when fate smiles upon him. Not anticipating to meet any superpowered resistance, he didn't pack enough wrist ring and has now run out. Eager to put a stop to this battle, Nighthawk delivers a swift kick to the jaw of the Ringer.

We'll leave the final fate of the Ringer for a few pages, as we catch back up with Hellcat. She was distracted from seeking revenge on the coffee machine as Valkyrie's estranged husband, Jack Norriss, has arrived at the team headquarters. They take a walk and attempt to work out their feelings for each other, and Valkyrie.

Which finally brings us to the last member of the Defenders that we haven't seen engaged against uncanny villainy from the most mundane of sources. That's right...it's the Hulk!

And who is he pitched in fierce battle with?

A hot dog street vendor, who else. But seeing as how this is the Hulk we're talking about, it's a rather one-sided battle.

Back at Richmond Enterprises for the last time, we catch up with the Ringer as he jumps through a window trying to escape Nighthawk.

Nighthawk picks up the Ringers discarded ring chain and ensnares him as he bursts through the window. A few witty rejoinders about the true nature of jealousy and hypocrisy later, and the Ringer is down for the count.

The issue ends with a rather bizarre scene where we find Valkyrie still on campus, trying to regather her wits at a local coffee bar. She is soon hit upon by a couple of people who I get the impression I should know, but I am drawing a blank. They go by the names of Dollar Bill and Ledge, and they are soon escorting her to the movies.

To make this sequence even stranger, the are being followed in the shadows by a man with a lead pipe who has just assaulted a fellow pedestrian for littering. It's definitely tough living in a world full of vigilante justice.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

I think I caught the Defenders on an off day, as they seemed to have had no end of problems dealing with the most mundane of ordinary problems and the D-Listiest of D-List superheroes. I get the impression from the epilogue at the beginning that they'd rather be fighting super-villains attempting world domination than stand in line at the D.M.V.

Seriously though, this issue was a blast. I can definitely see how a cult following has built up for this title over the years. It's fun and goofy, while at the same time hitting on some big time themes of loss, responsibility, honor, duty, inequality, and social justice.

Although what exactly the Hulk was trying to teach us by stealing hot dogs, I can't quite figure out. I guess every group needs it's Kramer.

The other thing I absolutely loved about this issue was the artwork from Keith Giffen and Klaus Janson. I've long admired Janson as an inker, but haven't had too much exposure to Giffen as a penciller. Together, I think they make a fantastic team. It's got a great Kirby sensibility to it, without trying to be an outright clone of his style. The storytelling was top notch, and the facial expressions and acting worked perfectly with a touch of humor that balanced everything out.

All in all, this issue was a real winner and definitely one of my favorites that I've reviewed on this blog so far. Unfortunately, most of the 50 issues that I picked up from my brother-in-law are not from this era, but from the early-to-mid 80's. That just means that I have another excuse to go longbox diving and find at least the rest of the Keith Giffen issues of this title, but I can also see myself not stopping with just those.

I know that I mentioned yesterday how I was looking forward to reading The Defenders #51 for some good, old-fashioned Hulk action. Well don't hold your breath, as Hulk was barely in the issue, although he does have one rather riveting scene with an ice cream cone vendor. You Nighthawk fans, however, will be quite pleased.

One thing I did notice in this book was how different in tone it felt from today's comics...and I mean really different. I know it was the swingin' seventies, but come on.

We'll start out with the tame one first.

Comic book characters have been smoking cigarettes and cigars for decades, so this one really isn't that big of a deal. Maybe more so for some readers who have only started reading comics since the turn of the century, but back in the old days there were a certain group of characters who would've seemed out of place without a stogie...Nick Fury first among them.

Still, it's not something that you see much of anymore so it definitely stands out. Check out this post over at Silver Age Comics for an even older example that is too funny to believe.

And since this book is drawn by Keith Giffen, we're even treated to panels drawn from Fury's second hand smoke!

That wasn't that bad, but they only get worse from here.

You know what would go really good with that stogie?

Why an ice cold Schlitz Beer! And here's Moon Knight to tell you all about it.

This panel kinda makes the whole brouhaha about Superman holding a bottle of beer on a recent cover of Action Comics seem kinda silly.

Unless all of the underage drinking that has been ravaging our vulnerable American teenage population can be blamed on this one Moon Knight panel. Then I guess I can kinda see DC's concern.

And since this book is drawn by Keith Giffen, we're even treated to a panel drawn in the shape of a beer can!

So now that Marvel has subconsciously suggested that we should all be smoking and drinking our way through life, what are they going to try to sell us in their advertisements?

Guns and ammunition, of course! It seems perfectly safe and reasonable to me.

Finally, after a hard day of reading comics, smoking stogies, drinking beer, and shooting squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional neighbor kid...how's a boy supposed to wind down and relax?

With your very own movie projector. That's right, now you too can kick back in the privacy of your own home and watch home movies.

Although somehow I don't recall my home movies being as sexy as the ones in this advertisement. Wait a minute...they're not subtly suggesting that we watch something else on this, are they?

Nah, these books are for kids. They wouldn't do that.

UPDATE: So while I was helping the wife sell her photos on the campus of Michigan State University over the weekend, a new and previously unkown bit of her history came into the light.

She used to belong to the local chapter of the Daisy Air Rifle Gun Club when she was a girl!

I truly don't know what is more amazing...the fact that she can shoot an apple off of my head at fifty paces, or that there are still untold stories about her past that I'm discovering after 15 years of being together.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen any of her old home movies either.

TITLE: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #23

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: May 1991

COVER PRICE: $1.50

23 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

Nick Fury's a badass...that's what I remember.

In a perfect world, that's all you need to remember. Unfortunately, the world has not been a perfect place for Nick Fury. I was too young (read not born yet) for the classic Lee/Kirby and Steranko stuff. My golden age for Nick Fury begins and ends with this title.

Jackson Guice brought me in (as recalled here), and I've been a fan ever since. It's been a rough couple of decades since then. When Fury has not been outright ignored, he's been mis-handled. Jonathan Hickman has been doing the best with the status quo he was given recently, but the jury is still out on Secret Warriors.

So what was it about these issues that jaded my view of all Fury comics since then? Was this run that good, that I was browned off of all future interpretations?

Let's stop messing around and find out...

Storm Warning

• Writer: D.G. Chichester
• Penciller: Jackson Guice
• Inker: Doug Hazelwood
• Letterer: Phil Felix
• Colorist: Steve Buccellato
• Editor: Mike Rockwitz
• Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

We open up with a speedboat cruising down a river through Moscow. On board is Fury and a small team of operatives, along with one of his old Soviet army pals from WWII. Yuri Spetsburo has called on Fury to help him track down some rogue K.G.B. agents, for as he comments, "A scandal at this time within the Soviet Union could set back all of the gains from Glasnost and Perestroika."


Nina, the precog on the team, gets a mental impression of one of the rogue agents. It seems they are chasing a Miss Rosa Kleb, formerly of the Soviet Glavnoe Razvedyvatelnoe Upravlenie. I hope her telepathic powers came with a spell checker, cause that right there is a lot of consonants and vowels all scrambled up.

They track Miss Rosa down to an abandoned cargo ship at the edge of the river. Nick Fury, ready to put an end to this chase, jumps out and into the cargo ship. Not ready to sit on the sidelines either, Yuri charges in shortly thereafter.


In a foreshadowing of the double cross to come, Fury catches Yuri sneaking up behind him. Yuri recalls their past associations and comradeship and brushes it off as Nick overreacting. Fury must obviously be getting too jumpy in his old age. They decide to split up, in a hope to find the girl faster.

Fury comes across her first, and quickly has to dodge the wildly flailing pipe that she comes out swinging with. So wild and uncontrolled are her strikes, that the floor gives way beneath them, sending them falling deeper into the cargo ship.


This is another one of those pages that I have forgotten about over the years, but as soon as I turned the page I instantly remembered it. There's something about the way this page is structured and laid out that I liked at the time, and still enjoy.

Back into the action, Nick manages to grab hold of a crossbeam and snags Rosa's arm, saving her from falling to her death. He heaves her over to some planks to safety, while Nick makes the climb back up himself.


Something about her blackmail plot just doesn't sit right with Fury, so he channels his best James Bond suaveness in an attempt to get her to talk. I already highlighted the most entertaining pick-up line of the issue here, but old Nicky keeps laying it on.

No one can resist the charms of Nick Fury!

She is just about to explain how they were secretly working for someone else, when Yuri sneaks up behind her (it's apparently his signature move) and snaps her spine with his prosthetic hook hands.

Did I mention that he had a prosthetic hook for a hand? Honestly, what good double-crossing espionage villain worth his salt doesn't have a prosthetic hand.

Paralyzed, Rosa is unable to defend herself as Yuri shoves her out into the open towards Fury, yelling that she's armed. In all the confusion, Fury takes the shot, relying on his military training and reflexes.


Yuri "explains" to Fury how she had come at him in the dark and just barely managed to hold her off until Nick saved he day. It doesn't sound like Nick buys his story, but it's apparently convincing enough for him to not notice the blatant lack of a sidearm that she was supposedly brandishing. Ah well, Yuri, whatever you say...

We now take a complete 180 with this story and head over to a convention hall, where A.I.M. is holding a weapons and technology expo. It seems that A.I.M. has cut its ties to Hydra and is trying to rebrand itself as a weapons manufacturer, minus all of that "world domination" nonsense.

I was going to recap this scene, but I can't draw any logic about how an ex-criminal organization which specializes in weapons manufacturing is holding an expo which caters to "individual malcontents right up through aggressive nations." How any of this is legal, or allowed to happen so openly is beyond me. It's not like they're trying to be inconspicuous about it, as a reporter from Modern Warrior Magazine is on the scene because their "readers are very interested in learning more about A.I.M.". I'm sure the U.S. Government is too, hopefully they have a subscription as well.

The reporter continues to interview the A.I.M representative down on the show floor, as we see a bald man shopping for weapons in the background. Just as he finds the biggest (and also conveniently loaded) rocket launcher at the show, the reporter shows her true Hydra colors by assassinating the A.I.M. rep with her secret camera gun. The bald man uses the rocket launcher to blow a hole in the ceiling as Hydra agents parachute down and secure the entire area.


Enter Baron Von Strucker, who praises his agents for an operation well done. All of A.I.M.'s prototypes and their full inventory of weapons is now his. Everything is now in place for his war on S.H.I.E.L.D.

But wait, the issue's not over yet. What good Fury story is complete without a visit from The Red Skull, and that's just what we get in the last three pages.

It seems our friend Yuri from the first half of the book was double-crossing Nick Fury for The Red Skull. The whole "rogue K.G.B. agent and blackmail plot" was a ruse to keep Fury occupied so Baron Von Strucker could take out A.I.M. without any interference from S.H.I.E.L.D.


Yuri was nothing more than a reluctant double agent, as he was being blackmailed by The Red Skull. It seems The Red Skull had some papers that implicated Yuri as a Nazi sympathizer back in WWII and was threatening to release them unless he helped The Red Skull distract Fury. Now that the mission was complete, the documents are Yuri's as The Red Skull bids a fond farewell.

In the end, Yuri learns an important lesson about dealing with supervillains, as the papers that he sold Nick Fury out for turn out to be completely blank. The double crosser gets double crossed. Despondent, he turns his gun on himself, unable to live with what he has done.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

The big takeaway that learned form this issue is that typing out anagrams are a pain in the butt. In this issue alone we have S.H.I.E.L.D., the K.G.B., and A.I.M. all doing their best to wear out the period key on my laptop. Although, now that I think about it, it's easier than typing out Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate every other paragraph.

In the end, that wasn't enough to distract from my enjoyment of this issue. If you ignore the rather silly premise of the A.I.M. convention, you end up with a nice little espionage tale. This is a story that works well on it's own, but is also obviously part of a larger storyline.

D.G. Chichester (no, not more initials) does a good job setting the scene and keeping you guessing as to who is actually working for whom. Yeah, for the most part the double-crosses are telegraphed well in advance, but I did enjoy the final three pages with The Red Skull. I had forgotten about our boy Yuri by this time, so it was nice to see Chichester bring it all back together.

I've already expressed my admiration for Butch Guice several times already, so in lieu of sounding like a stalker I'll just say that I enjoyed his work here. It wasn't the strongest work I've ever seen him produce, as the consistency was spotty, but it was good nonetheless.

At the end of the day, we have a solid Nick Fury storyline featuring A.I.M., Hydra, Baron Von Strucker, and The Red Skull. You can't ask for much more than that.

Damn you, Hydra!!

It appears I had a technical glitch, so check back later on tonight for the full Nick Fury review.

In the meantime, enjoy this panel of Fury chatting up a double-crossing KGB Agent who he has been sent to capture. It's good to know that with national security at stake, you're priorities are in order.

Smooth Fury...real smooth.

I can't tell if you're going for a James Bond approach, or Austin Powers!

It's that time again, so let's start up the old Randomizer and get to it.