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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

X-aminations in February

As we're entering into a period where the X-Men start making significant appearances outside their own comic (and, further down the road, a spin-off starts up), the last Tuesday of each month I will post the issues we'll be covering in the upcoming month for anyone who is following along at home. This would also be the place to quibble with what issues I'm including or the order in which I'm covering them (though I make no promises that quibbling will result in a change, but I'm open to suggestions).

So without further ado, here's what February looks like:

2/1: Uncanny X-Men #143
2/8: Uncanny X-Men #144
2/15: Spider-Woman #37-38
2/22: Uncanny X-Men #145
2/29: Uncanny X-Men #146

9 comments:

  1. Quibble! Shouldn't the Spider-Woman issues come after the Arcade/Dr. Doom trilogy (but before issue #148)? Or is there a continuity-based reason why they can't?

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  2. @Anne: well look at you all organized

    It's the only way I can keep myself sane (well, at least as it pertains to these posts...).

    @Matt: Shouldn't the Spider-Woman issues come after the Arcade/Dr. Doom trilogy (but before issue #148)?

    I'm going off the most recent Marvel Index, which places the two Spider-Woman issues before the Doom/Arcade story (they actually have it going #144, then Marvel Team-Up #100, Rom #17-18, and finally Spider-Woman# 37-38 before #145, but I'm skipping MTU and Rom because the former isn't much of an X-Men story and the latter is harder to track down because of all the rights issues with Rom, but I'll mention both in #144's post).

    In general, I try to stick to what the Index goes by, at least in these early goings, unless I have a good reason not to. It's been awhile since I last read the Spider-Woman stuff, but I can't recall any reason it has to go right before #148 and after Doom/Arcade, so I'm deferring to the Index in this case (but if you do recall a reason why it explicitly falls after Doom/Arcade, let me know).

    I'm also trying, as much as I can, to group the non-X-Men issues alongside the X-Men issues in a given month, to continue the feeling of "reading these comics for the first time, as they come out" that I've tried to cultivate as much as possible (something that will begin in earnest once we hit New Mutants). Spider-Woman 37-38 are cover dated April and May '81, which coincide with #144 and #145, so I'm okay with going by the Index's placement of them prior to the Doom/Arcade trilogy.

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  3. On the upside, I'm happy to have the advance notice (and I think it's really neat that you'll be covering outside appearances to varying degrees). On the downside, I gots me some boxes to move and they're not necessarily gonna be the boxes I'll be moving for other reasons, which is kind-of like directing three-point turns for two different cars in one blind alley.

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  4. @Blam: ...which is kind-of like directing three-point turns for two different cars in one blind alley.

    Ha!

    I'm certainly not going to cover ALL the X-Men's various appearances outside their titles, but I do want to cover the highly significant ones and ones for which I have some personal affection.

    Another use of these particular posts is to give people a chance to lobby for a particular appearance if it appears I'm not covering it, so as time goes by, if there's anything anyone thinks we should be discussing and it looks like we're not, let me know and make a case for it.

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  5. Well, you know I think you should just review the issues in chronological order of when they hit the shelves, since that's how the readers at the time would have experienced them (regardless of their chronological place in the continuity of the Marvel universe).

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  6. Teebore -- "...if you do recall a reason why it explicitly falls after Doom/Arcade, let me know."

    I haven't even read the Spider-Woman issues... I just thought it was odd that the X-Men would (SPOILERS) meet Siryn, invite her back to the mansion, then just go about their daily business, not telling Banshee about her until he just happened to show up one day.

    But then, the entire Claremont run is full of characters going about their daily business while other characters are kidnapped or brainwashed or comatose or what have you, so I guess it's not that unusual.

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  7. Teebore: I'm certainly not going to cover ALL the X-Men's various appearances outside their titles,

    Nor am I going to re-read them all even if I have them, especially not if they're just a hard-to-get issue here or there from various series. But I appreciate that you're covering them, like I said. I do plan to re-read actual series, though, as of New Mutants, to whatever extent I own copies.

    Teebore: Another use of these particular posts is to give people a chance to lobby for a particular appearance if it appears I'm not covering it,

    You're giving my brain far more credit than it deserves. I actually still have a pretty vivid memory, but recalling a story (or a real-life event) in whatever detail doesn't necessarily mean I'll remember when it occurred. Getting my collection transposed over from alphanumeric to date order will help with that, but at the rate I'm going maybe not soon enough.

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  8. @Dr. Bitz: Well, you know I think you should just review the issues in chronological order of when they hit the shelves, since that's how the readers at the time would have experienced them (regardless of their chronological place in the continuity of the Marvel universe).


    Yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm doing the Spider-Woman issues before issues #145-147, because they would have been on the shelves at the same time as #144 and #145.

    I may play fast and loose with that a bit for some of this ancillary appearances (especially with the annuals, which technically weren't published in a particular month), but when it comes time to cover New Mutants, it'll be month-by-month, rather than continuity. It's really the only way to do it that still allows me to do the posts the way I want.

    @Matt: I just thought it was odd that the X-Men would (SPOILERS) meet Siryn, invite her back to the mansion, then just go about their daily business, not telling Banshee about her until he just happened to show up one day.

    It's been awhile since I last read them, but I *think* there might be a reason they either don't tell Banshee right away, or that Siryn doesn't go with the X-Men to appear in issue #145.

    But then, the entire Claremont run is full of characters going about their daily business while other characters are kidnapped or brainwashed or comatose or what have you, so I guess it's not that unusual.

    But this is also true. :)

    I do plan to re-read actual series, though, as of New Mutants, to whatever extent I own copies.

    Excellent! I'm actually really looking forward to going back over New Mutants, despite the extra work it'll create, as its a series I enjoyed but really only read in its entirety once or twice, and it's been awhile since then.

    Getting my collection transposed over from alphanumeric to date order will help with that, but at the rate I'm going maybe not soon enough.

    No worries, I just want to make sure everyone knows they're welcome to shout out if they think I'm skipping something important. I may have a good reason to do so, but odds are I'll just be forgetting it.

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