tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post2715053471018293703..comments2024-03-28T10:18:00.370-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining X-Men (vol. 2) #1Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-50499685628985165972022-08-16T13:41:31.412-05:002022-08-16T13:41:31.412-05:00Have to disagree on that. They definitely had a co...Have to disagree on that. They definitely had a connection in the Savage Land. They were already teammates prior to FOTM, I imagine all the time they spend together in the Savage Land brought them closer. <br /><br />He most certainly did not force himself on her. <br /><br />In 274 towards the end of the issue they are seen embracing, so it definitely seems like there was something of a mutual attraction at the time. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-23119662042875362312021-07-13T15:48:32.593-05:002021-07-13T15:48:32.593-05:00It wasn't "Young Love" between Rogue...It wasn't "Young Love" between Rogue and Mag, they made no connection when she was in the Savage Land, they didn't have any kind of relationship or even a friendship. He nearly forced himself on her during the Savage Land event and only stopped when someone walked in on them, he later tells himself that he's "pledged to another", he was trying to take advantage of her naivety (Uncanny X-Men #274). Killing Zaladane right in front of her should have showed Rogue just how thoughtless and evil he really is and that he can't be reason with (Uncanny X-Men #275). Claremont and others really made Rogue too idiotic at times and he was simply not very good at writing relationships, he's barely got that right at times.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-44250492830742972212016-04-25T11:53:37.885-05:002016-04-25T11:53:37.885-05:00"Casandra Nova was pretty much a Morrison thi..."<b>Casandra Nova was pretty much a Morrison thing, but then he did a big space/Shi'ar storyline, a Jean/Emma psychic duel (shades of the first act of DPS), a dive into Wolverine's past (a la UXM #139-140), a big Magneto confrontation that also echoed DPS with the payoff to the building "return of Phoenix" thread that had been running through his entire run, and then finished the whole thing off, like Claremont/Byrne, with a "Days of Future Past" riff (which only seems less notable because DoFP riffs were old hat by then).</b>"<br /><br />True, I suppose his tribute is in the form of revisiting scenarios Claremont and Byrne had done with his own spin. I think I take the term "love letter" too literally. To me, a love letter to Byrne and Claremont would involve the same costumes Byrne drew, a similar writing style to Claremont, some of the same villains they used (besides just Magneto and the Shi'ar) and a status quo to mirror the one of the seventies.<br /><br />I have to admit I've been burnt more than once by taking creators too literally in that way. When (shudder) Chuck Austen came on UNCANNY, he said in an interview that he warmed up by re-reading the Claremont/Cockrum stuff, because he considered it definitive. I was all set for a return to a Cockrum-esque roster, more classic-looking costumes, some colorful action, maybe a Count Nefaria appearance, and then we got... whatever it was we got.<br /><br />Then when DEADLY GENESIS was announced for the thirtieth anniversary of the "All-New, All-Different" X-Men, Ed Brubaker said he'd grown up on Claremont and Byrne, so I was expecting something like an actual reunion of the "new" team, maybe fighting Krakoa or (again) Count Nefaria or something as a tribute. Instead he took a huge steaming dump all over the work of Len Wein, Dave Cockrum, and Chris Claremont. And it got even worse he killed Banshee!<br /><br />I just see words and phrases like "homage", "tribute", "love letter", "grew up with it", etc., and I assume that means we'll see... not exactly a straight retread of the past, I guess, but certainly something imitating it to an extent in terms of using classic concepts and set-ups while telling new stories.<br /><br />(Probably the best example I can think of to illustrate this point was the Kurt Busiek/George Perez AVENGERS. It moved the franchise forward in terms of storylines, but it did so by wallowing in, and embracing, the glory days of the past. <b>That's</b> what I expect when a new writer comes onto the X-Men and invokes the names of Claremont/Byrne/Cockrum/etc.)<br /><br />But like I said, that's probably my fault for taking these buzzwords too literally.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-8563060455213102422016-04-25T10:40:54.793-05:002016-04-25T10:40:54.793-05:00No one going to comment that Cyclops looks like he...<i>No one going to comment that Cyclops looks like he went on a steroid binge during the "six-month gap"? So much for "Slim" Summers, huh?</i><br /><br />Heh. True story: for the longest time, I never "got" the Slim nickname, since my first introduction to the character was the 'roided up Lee version - and really, while previous iterations weren't as bad, it's not like the Simonson or Romita Jr. Cyclops were noticeably slimmer than anyone else. It wasn't until I read some of the earliest 60s issues that I got the idea that he's supposed to be skinnier than average. <br /><br />All that said, yeah, the general 'roiding up of everyone that happens as part of Lee's designs probably warranted a mention. I think I overlooked it just because I'm so used to it by now. :) <br /><br /><i>Speaking of which, I find the "X-Men Pool Party" kinda amusing, since this is around the SAME time Marvel was putting out swimsuit specials, correct?</i><br /><br />Pretty much, yeah. Maybe the early days of those issues, but certainly of a piece. <br /><br /><i>Finally, while i don't care for many of their actual members, I kinda liked the Acolytes as a group, a concept. </i><br /><br />Me too. And I do like some of the members of the later iteration: I like that Frenzy is one, just for having at least one member be an existing character (and I always appreciate callbacks to pre-PAD X-FACTOR), Amelia Voght gets some nice backstory in UNCANNY #309, and having Unuscione be Unus the Untouchable's daughter was a nice (heh) touch, even if that idea kinda came out of nowhere and never really got addressed. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-48441155980668973542016-04-25T10:34:08.147-05:002016-04-25T10:34:08.147-05:00Just a few degrees that high up can translate to a...<i>Just a few degrees that high up can translate to a massive distance on the ground.</i><br /><br />I know you've managed to talk yourself out of that explanation, but I do think there's still some truth to it. They weren't orbital, but they were high up, and while it may not have been a steep enough angle to account for Rogue's landing spot, it was probably enough to make it a little less egregious. <br /><br /><i>Is he able to instantaneously absorb or negate an object’s kinetic energy in addition to activating potential energy in an object at rest — or is this just Lee making him so kewl with skill that he don’t need no power to explain it?</i><br /><br />The latter, I believe, but the former makes for a nifty No-Prize explanation. <br /><br />Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-12338571503703470642016-04-25T10:31:33.333-05:002016-04-25T10:31:33.333-05:00Good point about EXCALIBUR being editorially-cutof...Good point about EXCALIBUR being editorially-cutoff from the other X-books. I never really considered that before, but that does explain a lot of why EXCALIBUR seemed like the forgotten X-book for a good chunk of its history. <br /><br /><i>I wonder if the Fabian Cortez dangler gets addressed on Claremont's 2009 book X-MEN FOREVER that picks up from where X-MEN #3 left.</i><br /><br />Not really, as I recall. The first issue opens with the X-Men (consisting of a roster that doesn't at all match the roster of X-MEN #3 (ie Shadowcat and Nightcrawler are there, Colossus isn't) hunting down Cortez, but then it segues pretty quickly into Claremont's whole "Wolverine is killed" plot and the return of Kid Storm. <br /><br />@wwk5d: <i>It was part of the Mutant Genesis ads at the time...</i><br /><br />Any idea where that ad came from? I've never seen it before! Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-32433861636979334252016-04-25T10:28:08.121-05:002016-04-25T10:28:08.121-05:00Technically, Iceman does get a new outfit, though ...<i>Technically, Iceman does get a new outfit, though given the nature of his powers, you don't really see it much.</i><br /><br />Ah, yeah, I forgot about that one. I think because it doesn't first show up until later (maybe circa UXM #284?) and then, as you say, not very often, I tend to forget it as one of the new Lee-designed ones. <br /><br /><i>CC did some good work with them recently, and it's too bad Lee and Portacio had no place for them.</i><br /><br />Yeah. Banshee comes out okay, getting the Generation X headmaster gig eventually, while Forge is okay in X-FACTOR post-AoA while that series goes to pot, but there's no reason both couldn't have hung around longer and done more. <br /><br /><i>Really? Interesting that Marvel actually had that planned out that far in advance.</i><br /><br />To be clear, I don't know that for sure. I've seen it suggested in a few places, and it kind of fits, but I've never seen an official explanation of that figure. <br /><br /><i>I guess we can also firmly place this issue after X-factor #71. </i><br /><br />Yeah, there's a footnote in XF #71 that confirms as much. <br /><br /><i>Unfortunately, it seems like Jim Lee has taken to the ugly Portacio redesign of Warren's wings...</i><br /><br />That does seem to be the standard, even after they leave, until...maybe Madureira? <br /><br /><i>Mainly because his special attack, unlike the others, hit enemies in a 360 direction, whereas the others only had attacks that fired in a forward direction.</i><br /><br />Exactly! If guys came at you from behind, you could defend without turning around. <br /><br />Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-17075078588998830832016-04-25T10:20:41.409-05:002016-04-25T10:20:41.409-05:00Could be Cylla?
Ah, yeah, could be. I hadn't ...<i>Could be Cylla?</i><br /><br />Ah, yeah, could be. I hadn't considered that, but I see it. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-86086345043025360262016-04-25T10:20:01.718-05:002016-04-25T10:20:01.718-05:00Did your favorite band ever release a "best o...<i>Did your favorite band ever release a "best of" album, the kind that featured all the hits, plus one or two new songs that are kinda ok but really don't belong in the same discussion with all their really GREAT work? </i><br /><br />I do think that's a really great analogy for these three issues. Especially since so much of what comes after it (in the early post-Claremont goings) really does read like a Claremont cover band. <br /><br />@Jeff: <i>This. Can we all agree No More Mutants basically killed the X-Men as a comic franchise?</i><br /><br />Pretty much, yeah. Like Matt, I liked the idea of No More Mutants (around that time, I always liked to say that if I was given the X-Men to write, the first thing I'd do is some kind of event which scales back the number of mutants to make them more of a minority again. And also bring back Ted Roberts, which I would still totally do if given the chance), but thought the execution of it was botched - mainly because it only affected C-listers (at best) with no in-universe explanation for why all the marketable characters retained their powers (or, really, why ANYONE retained their powers. Wanda's command seemed pretty all encompassing). <br /><br />It also completely gutted the junior New X-Men team, which I adored. <br /><br />@Matt: <i> I couldn't find a speck of anything resembling their work in Morrison's stuff.</i><br /><br />Casandra Nova was pretty much a Morrison thing, but then he did a big space/Shi'ar storyline, a Jean/Emma psychic duel (shades of the first act of DPS), a dive into Wolverine's past (a la UXM #139-140), a big Magneto confrontation that also echoed DPS with the payoff to the building "return of Phoenix" thread that had been running through his entire run, and then finished the whole thing off, like Claremont/Byrne, with a "Days of Future Past" riff (which only seems less notable because DoFP riffs were old hat by then). <br /><br />I have some issues with Morrison's run (even beyond the inconsistent art making it difficult to enjoy as a whole), but I can definitely see the Claremont/Byrnes riffs mixed in with the now-standard Morrisonian whackiness. <br /><br /><i>For Teebore, I believe, it's the Romita Jr. era.</i><br /><br />That's my personal peek, but I'm hard-pressed to not admit that, objectively, his collaboration with Byrne was his peak. I mean, it's tough to beat Proteus into Dark Phoenix into Days of Future Past just in terms of sheer lasting impact and craft, even if I personally like later eras more. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-45873928316436349812016-04-25T10:00:18.715-05:002016-04-25T10:00:18.715-05:00Man, it's been 4 and a half years since I bega...<i>Man, it's been 4 and a half years since I began reading the X-Men reviews on this blog</i><br /><br />Don't make me stop and think how long I've been doing this. :P <br /><br />Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-49956376520095345492016-04-25T09:58:31.470-05:002016-04-25T09:58:31.470-05:00I did note that, thanks! :) I did note that, thanks! :) Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-58144095442226533142016-04-25T09:57:38.798-05:002016-04-25T09:57:38.798-05:00Also, considering "Blackbird" was the of...<i>Also, considering "Blackbird" was the official nickname of that spy plane, why isn't this new craft called something else?</i><br /><br />Given that the original Blackbird was already a pretty heavily-modified version of the real SR-71 (what with its multiple-person cockpit and all), I'm less bothered by them keeping the name. It's become a term that applies to both the real world plane and whatever the X-Men are flying in at this point. <br /><br /><i>I've also never understood why Psylocke knocking that robot's head off needs an explanation.</i><br /><br />Yeah, in terms of script covering for the art, this is less egregious. It's pretty standard comic book logic that martial artists can destroy robots. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-54711574685308716542016-04-19T02:14:03.006-05:002016-04-19T02:14:03.006-05:00But Excalibur was considered something of a mutant...But Excalibur was considered something of a mutant title. It was part of the Mutant Genesis ads at the time...<br /><br />http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WTMvioP2NpU/UQg_de6GXbI/AAAAAAAAB1k/Sd-l0DWzp-c/s1600/mutantgenesiscardfront.pngwwk5dnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-46554278705624987742016-04-18T14:34:53.245-05:002016-04-18T14:34:53.245-05:00But what's not to love there? It's Magneto...But what's not to love there? It's Magneto wearing his big M here costume, most popular in-universe from his trial in #200, and the Soviet folks are still horrified, as they justifiably should be. I love the special bad blood between Mags and the Soviets, that probably started for Mags with the Vinnitsa incident, which in turn may have had something to do with Mags' staunch response to the attack in #150, which the Soviets in their turn didn't take at all well and probably have on some level pinned what happened to their Vostok 3 base in Antarctica in #275 on him too.<br /><br />The Soviets won't be at all happy of Mags going to meddle with the wreck of the submarine Leningrad. It's awesome interplay between real-world folks who make great comic book villains, and perhaps the <i>greatest</i> comic book villain.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-88891322285927039602016-04-18T12:27:27.593-05:002016-04-18T12:27:27.593-05:00Also, as Paul O'Brien points out in his X-Axis...Also, as Paul O'Brien points out in his X-Axis review, it's a major plot point that Cortez's power is actually not the ability to heal someone, so how does Anne-Marie get healed in the first place?Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14447265712189987074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-21419919713858508912016-04-18T09:25:49.212-05:002016-04-18T09:25:49.212-05:00The next issue states the altitude of Asteroid M t...The next issue states the altitude of Asteroid M to be 250 km, so I guess it's pretty much the same difference. I don't know how sensible altitude that is supposed to be for an orbital construct, but the ISS is about 355–368 km high. <br /><br />Everyone knows new crap now, we can chalk this up as a victory anyway.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-84259275975151263122016-04-18T06:31:49.594-05:002016-04-18T06:31:49.594-05:00Harry Delgado is introduced in this issue as one o...<i>Harry Delgado is introduced in this issue as one of the SHIELD agents chasing the future Acolytes; then he shows up as an Acolyte, complete with powers.</i><br /><br />The Acolytes are a righteous mess here. There are three SHIELD agents who end up to Asteroid M, and one of them, Deke, gets killed, leaving Harry Delgado and Nance. Then we see a moustached agent who must be H. Delgado on same panel with the big bearded Acolyte who is later called Delgado, and they don't seem to know each other so they're not brothers or anything.<br /><br />Anne-Marie obviously dies first, but then she apparently gets later healed by Fabian Cortez who already spoke of her as "was" before that. He speaks her as "sister" like he would rather mean "one of mutantkind", but everyone seems to take them as siblings as the character gets named Anne-Marie Cortez.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-58373584090028831682016-04-18T06:27:48.526-05:002016-04-18T06:27:48.526-05:00I just went and looked at the issue again, which I...<br>I just went and looked at the issue again, which I should’ve done the first time, and you can pretty much ignore everything I wrote. Like you say, Rogue and Magneto are still within the atmosphere — even "low enough to have a decent conversation". For some reason I pictured them at the height of Asteroid M like the ships in the opening scene. Maybe because Teebore used the words “high orbit” and maybe because it doesn’t even seem like a scene transition when the first panel after the detonation — which is just one panel after Rogue falls — Magneto is back on Asteroid M. So while I stand by what I said in general, as it applies to stuff I had in mind when I first replied to the post, <i>mea culpa</i> on both the faulty memory and not going back to check the actual text.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-16721914312812255072016-04-17T23:59:56.615-05:002016-04-17T23:59:56.615-05:00The damned Comics Code should have made it mandato...The damned Comics Code should have made it mandatory that when there are too many of these concepts of Physics in play, there would be a first page exposory with graphic diagrams and Dr. Val Cooper explaining these things to a bunch of generals and UN apppointees like to children.<br /><br />Sure I can nowadays look it up from internet that "near-space", or Upper Atmosphere, is 20 to 100 km from the Earth surface, but good luck with that in 1991 (well 1993 in my case). You'd need <i>books</i>! (I <i>did</i> have a spectacularly good series of ones under the title of "TOP - School Student's Know Books, but that's besides the point here)<br /><br />Claremont has to choose this moment to fail me by not applying any yellow box plane porn prosa to the scenes with MiGs. I would so look up their ceilings if I had the identification. Mainly because I started thinking that with the Earth radius of 6,371 km, even a hundred km on top of that would be pretty negligible for the difference in distance as the degrees go, and them fighters get capped at, what, 20k meters? Them Acolutes must've dragged unconscious Rogue with them to Genosha to make a point or something; her ending there otherwise would demand that the nukular detonation threw her thousands of miles and by coincidence to the place of the next fight.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-54839914056547885352016-04-17T21:32:11.301-05:002016-04-17T21:32:11.301-05:00Me: // Just a few degrees that high up can transla...<br>Me: <i>// Just a few degrees that high up can translate to a massive distance on the ground //</i><br /><br />Teemu: <i>// Actually isn't going the same amount in degrees high up there going to need you to cover a lot more distance than it would on the ground? //</i><br /><br />Yeah. Unless you’re so high that you’re breaking the “sphere of influence” — sorry; the physics term escapes me right now — Earth holds on you through gravity and other vectors, allowing the planet to rotate beneath you. So it was a poor or incomplete choice of words on my part; I merely said “that high” when I meant “so high you’re not geosynchronous by default”. The jumping in a bus is a popular expression of relative motion, as is tossing a ball in the air on the back of a pickup truck and having it land back in your hand even though the truck has covered a fair bit of road while it was up — but if you toss the ball high enough to escape your cocoon of relative velocity it will indeed end up back down on the road behind you. And I should point out that I’m no physicist or I'd be explaining this better assuming I’m not outright screwing it up.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-72399894367787411152016-04-17T19:53:19.985-05:002016-04-17T19:53:19.985-05:00No one going to comment that Cyclops looks like he...No one going to comment that Cyclops looks like he went on a steroid binge during the "six-month gap"? So much for "Slim" Summers, huh?<br /><br />I LOVED this issue when it first came out. Even now, I still think the writting and art holds up well, even with Claremont's tics and Lee's over-dynamic sexualization (nice "brokeback pose" there, Storm")<br /><br />Speaking of which, I find the "X-Men Pool Party" kinda amusing, since this is around the SAME time Marvel was putting out swimsuit specials, correct?<br /><br />Magneto's comments about Wolverine and Cyclops would become incredibly ironic about 20 years later.<br /><br />Finally, while i don't care for many of their actual members, I kinda liked the Acolytes as a group, a concept. As we'll see, fanatical devotion and symbolic reverence to Magneto will be a big sub-theme in a lot of X-Men stories which makes a bit of sense given Magneto's statsus as rebellious mutant leader and all. That type of person typically inspires cult-like worship.Jon Dubyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783906806644566810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-48389123725651069892016-04-17T10:06:58.794-05:002016-04-17T10:06:58.794-05:00Just a few degrees that high up can translate to a...<i>Just a few degrees that high up can translate to a massive distance on the ground</i><br /><br />Actually isn't going the same amount in degrees high up there going to need you to cover a lot more distance than it would on the ground?<br /><br />Anyway, Jimmy Hudson had that fancy trick of "stopping" himself in relation to Earth's turning, effectively nigh-instantry transfering him a considerable distance to... westwards? in relation to Earth surface. I also vaguely remember there is some sort of Physics-related thingy to prevent that effect happening if you for example jump in a moving bus.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-86114349291926205762016-04-17T07:58:49.906-05:002016-04-17T07:58:49.906-05:00I just love how on Pg. 5 the Russians have put a 2...<br>I just love how on <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/112544365095293670244/XMen#6273230078539106690" rel="nofollow">Pg. 5</a> the Russians have put a 200-foot-high image of Magneto onscreen at the Cosmodrome, so everyone knows what’s under discussion — and how it understandably freaks out the crewmen in the foreground.<br /><br />Also, Cyclops’ and Wolverine’s faces, as well as Wolverine’s bicep, in the last panel <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/112544365095293670244/XMen#6274410439758278114" rel="nofollow">on Pg. 15</a> look awfully like Byrne.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-41878378985554005352016-04-17T07:47:52.518-05:002016-04-17T07:47:52.518-05:00// and reaching this point in my survey of the X-b...<br><i>// and reaching this point in my survey of the X-books feels like a big deal //</i><br /><br />It should. Congrats! While it’s not the milestone for me, personally, that it is for the franchise as a whole and for most of the other commenters here — on whom I seem to have 8-10 years at least — <i>yeah</i>, it’s a big deal indeed and something that seemed unquantifiably far in the future even when we did reach <i>Giant-Size X-Men</i> #1 or the launch of <i>New Mutants</i>. <br /><br /><i>// I actually had to pay more for #2 //</i><br /><br />Given that second issues have long had notoriously smaller print runs, especially in the days before pull lists at shops (or the likes of Westfield and now Internet mail-order subscriptions) were very common, that’s not surprising. There’s no real sell-through data to inform orders on a monthly title until the second or even third issue is out, never mind where things will level off, and ordering’s all the crazier after a first issue that has multiple covers or some other gimmick. Even with the big deal <i>X-Men</i> was, I’d assume that stores didn’t order much beyond what their usual math of regular buyers plus extras to shelve and later bag for the bins dictated, so unlike the first issue you wouldn’t have either store overages or sold-back variants/duplicates from disappointed “collectors” on hand; readers simply bought a copy of the second issue to read and keep until they were ready to sell the run, unless they were savvy enough to know that second issues tend to pay out much better in the speculation game.<br /><br /><i>// [Rogue] going from Soviet airspace, albeit in high orbit, and landing in Genosha, which is near Madagascar, is dubious //</i><br /><br />Just a few degrees that high up can translate to a massive distance on the ground. It actually bugs me whenever comics — and now TV/movies — show a character reaching the upper atmosphere only to fall, as opposed to intentionally fly, straight back down to the same city block from which they took off. Maybe this instance does go too far in the other direction, though.<br /><br /><i>// Gambit is able to catch a bullet in midair. //</i><br /><br />Is he able to instantaneously absorb or negate an object’s kinetic energy in addition to activating potential energy in an object at rest — or is this just Lee making him so kewl with skill that he don’t need no power to explain it?<br /><br /><i>// It's a primer on the X-Men, but also on the fact that these characters aren't brand new, and come with history. //</i><br /><br />What you write about it being the gateway and transition point between history and the new stuff is all very nicely put. And I have to say that it’s exactly that sort of thing which intrigued me as a kid discovering comics, be it through dialogue and flashbacks in landmark introductory issues like this or, more prevalent in that era, themed reprint collections like DC’s <i>100-Page Super Spectacular</i> issues or the Fireside <i>Origins of Marvel Comics</i> books. <br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-60688403294363855192016-04-16T02:30:45.888-05:002016-04-16T02:30:45.888-05:00Ouch. I mean, for Excaliber. Then again, given how...<i>Ouch. I mean, for Excaliber. Then again, given how it rarely crosses over with any of the other titles, I guess it's expected. Though still funny to see that it isn't seen as a "mutant title" at this point.</i><br /><br />It's Bob Harras speaking I guess, from his POV that doesn't include the editorial duties of EXCALIBUR which belongs to Terry Kavanaugh.<br /><br />I wonder if the Fabian Cortez dangler gets addressed on Claremont's 2009 book X-MEN FOREVER that picks up from where X-MEN #3 left.Teemunoreply@blogger.com