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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

X-aminations in September


Next month, we enter publication year 1989, and with it, the first appearance of everyone's favorite sass-mouthed, fireworks-generating, trenchcoat-wearing character, Jubilee! Plus, Rob Liefeld makes his first appearance in the X-books (or, at least, his art does).

It may still be 1989, but the 90s are knocking at the door!

On Sale January 1989
September 3rd: Uncanny X-Men #244
September 4th: New Mutants #75
September 5th: X-Factor #40

September 10th: Marvel Comics Presents #17-24 (Cyclops story)
September 11th: Excalibur #8
September 12th: Wolverine #7

On Sale February 1989
September 17th: Uncanny X-Men #245
September 18th: New Mutants #76
September 19th: X-Factor #41

September 24th: X-Men Annual #13
September 25th: Excalibur #9
September 26th: Wolverine #8

10 comments:

  1. Any idea how far you're gonna take this? X-Men V2 and beyond?

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  2. I'm also curious how far into the X-books you'll be going. It seems like the latter half of the 90s were pretty rough, worse than the more infamous stuff from the early part of the decade; but that might just be my impression. So I'd more than understand wanting to stop at a certain point.

    In other news, Jubilee debuted that soon after Inferno and I never noticed? Huh.

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  3. Originally, my answer to "how far am I taking this?" would have been "until we're caught up to the current books, and I can just release a new X-amination post with the publication of each new issue".

    Lately, I've started thinking that Uncanny #544, the point at which the X-titles fully succumbed to Marvel's annoying habit of relaunching series every 1-3 years, might make for a good stopping point, or at least a pausing point while I move on to a different series or franchise for a time, and then maybe come back and cover the "modern" era of X-books in some form or another.

    Because that's also something I've started thinking about: there's a ton more X-books out there these days compared to 1989, but at the same time, it feels like the level of content is the same, in that one Claremont-penned issue has as much story and takes about as long to read as maybe three or four issues of the stuff published today. "Writing for the trade" and all that. So as we move closer and closer to the current modern era, a different approach might be called for, something that looks at a storyline or batch of issues per post rather than a single issue. We'll see.

    Bottom line, the X-Men of the 90s, warts and all, are *my* X-Men, the ones I grew up with, so my plan is to keep this series going, in its current format, at least through that decade.

    I can say that I've read everything we've covered so far (excluding some of the mid-60s stuff) up through probably "Zero Tolerance" countless times, and everything after that maybe once. So I'm looking forward to the pre-OZT stuff because they're old favorites, while I'm excited to return to the post-OZT stuff for the first time and look at it more closely. Beyond that, we'll see where things are at when that time comes (which won't be for awhile).

    @Mela: In other news, Jubilee debuted that soon after Inferno and I never noticed? Huh.

    Yeah, she debuts immediately after "Inferno", but is only on the fringes of the book for awhile after that initial appearance, and even when she starts appearing regularly, it takes some time (and Jim Lee) before she's the yellow coat wearing, bubble gum popping character people think of when they think "Jubilee".

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  4. Liefeld is coming up soon? Lets all start sharpening our knives from now ;)

    The latter half of the 90s had some good runs here and there...the "Road Trip" issues of X-force, Alan Davis writing both Uncanny and X-men (which was actually a good run overall except for the ending to the Twelve story), Joe Kelly on X-men...it wasn't a total wash so much as much of the rest of the line was mediocre.

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  5. @wwk5d: Liefeld is coming up soon? Lets all start sharpening our knives from now ;)

    He fills in on X-Men #245 and X-Factor #40, then disappears for awhile before his New Mutants run begins.

    I am now officially taking suggestions for what we should call the section that points out the more humorless flaws in his art, though.

    For example: "The Feet, Oh God, Where Did Their Feet Go?"

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  6. How about just "Because, Liefeld!"

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  7. (def.: "to take something from (someone) by unlawful force")

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  8. Had no idea you were planning to go so far. Stoked that you're going through the 90s. I would have been excited to get up to Fatal Attractions, but this is great. As excessive as the 90s could be, the early part of the decade is actually still pretty fun. It's still kind of shocking how much the franchise really changed with the revamp. Nowadays we take that kind of thing for granted (plus nothing ever really lasts anymore). But really, post Muir Island Saga, there are many places the franchise never went back to again. It really was all new and all different. Some would argue all shitty, but I'm not one. :)

    Can't wait for Bishop and Magneto's return to villainy.

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  9. As I mention on occasion (well, possibly ad nauseum) I've barely read any X-Stuff since 1985 — roughly a handful of issues every few years, once and cursorily, and nothing at all since about 2000. So I'm curious to continue reading along even as I'm quite wary that we're getting into an era that will seriously test my commitment. Having alternative material to read and review for my own purposes (not to mention pure enjoyment) will only make Liefeld, et al. less appealing.

    I do love, and totally support, that you've expected to continue until catching up to the present day. Now that you're only doing the main series every other week, however, and the line is snowballing to the point that however cursorily you cover it all you'll almost surely never do more than one month's worth of issues every two weeks, isn't Uncanny #544 still at least a decade away?

    To say nothing of other demands on your time. 8^)

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