"Not A Cloud In The Sky"
In a Nutshell
The Gamesmaster traps the X-Men in a world that seems too good to be true!
Plot
Writer: John Francis Moore
Pencils: Steve Epting
Inks: Dan Green
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft/KF
Colorist: Brad Vancata
Editor: Kelly Corvese
Pencils: Steve Epting
Inks: Dan Green
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft/KF
Colorist: Brad Vancata
Editor: Kelly Corvese
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras
Plot
Life is good for the X-Men: they are treated like celebrities, chased through the streets of Salem Center by autograph seekers. Rogue and Gambit are happily dating, Beast has cured the Legacy Virus, and Cyclops can control his optic blasts. The government has shut down the Friends of Humanity, and Bastion has been arrested. But something doesn't feel right to Joseph. Looking at old photos of the X-Men, he realizes what it is: Jean Grey is missing, and none of the other X-Men seem to have any idea who she is. Worried about his sanity, Rogue and a reluctant Gambit humor Joseph as he uses Cerebro to track down Jean, discovering she is a captive of the omnipathic Gamesmaster. He explains that he's given the X-Men a perfect world in exchange for Jean — the one member of the X-Men whose psychic abilities could pierce the illusion. If they give her up— or sacrifice one of the other X-Men in her place — they can live in a paradise. If they refuse, he'll revert reality, but they'll always remember what they lost. Joseph manages to distract the Gamesmaster long enough for Jean to escape and attack him on the Astral Plane. She tries to learn as much as she can about him, but he escapes, leaving behind only an address of his possible location. The X-Men investigate it, but find the house abandoned, save for a TV playing a news report about crimes against mutants, making it clear the Gamesmaster's perfect reality has crumbled.
Firsts and Other Notables
Firsts and Other Notables
Gamesmaster, former overseer of the Upstarts contest, who last appeared being cryptic and nonsensical in X-Force, is the villain of this story. It makes his last appearance for a good long while, as he won't return until the second X-23 series in 2010.
A Work in Progress
The "perfect reality" setup in this issue has a couple of touchstones specific to this era of the series, including Bastian being arrested and the Friends of Humanity being shutdown, and Beast finding a cure for the Legacy Virus.
I'm pretty sure the picture of the original X-Men that keys Joseph in to the absence of Jean Grey is meant to be the same as the one which opens Uncanny X-Men #289.
When Joseph points out the things "wrong" with the altered reality, he mentions that Wolverine should still be half-animal, though at this point, Wolverine's post-Wolverine #100 animal regression has more or less ended.
Joseph uses Cerebro to find Jean; Gambit says that only telepaths can use it, but that's not quite true. Telepaths are better at using it, but technically anyone can.
Talking about villains who might be able to alter reality/warp perceptions, the Kulan Gath story from Uncanny X-Men #190-191 gets mentioned, though it gets attributed to Selene (in fact, Selene was involved in the story, but she didn't play a role in the transformation of Manhattan to "Conan times").
Gamesmaster apparently has a long-running beef with Joseph/Magneto because he's immune to psychic manipulation, which is broadly consistent with Magneto's natural resistance to telepathy but also, it's not like he's the ONLY person Gamesmaster can't affect — he should also be mad at Wolverine, Rogue, and Jubilee, to name just a few of the characters said to be "difficult" for telepaths to read.
When Jean dons psychic armor on the Astral Plane, it resembles Xavier's armor (from X-Men #117, amongst others).
The Grim 'n' Gritty 90s
The World Trade Center is featured on the cover.
The Reference Section
Jean is being held in the back room of a "Bullseye" store; I believe this is meant to be a reference to Target stores.
The Gamesmaster-possessed staff who attack the X-Men are referred to as "Stepford clerks" by Gambit.
Young Love
Gamesmaster tries to use the Gambit/Rogue/Joseph tension as a motivator to keep his altered reality in place.
Austin's Analysis
As far as non-Claremont/Adams annuals go, this is not half bad. All too often — especially in the 90s — these turn into a dumping ground, art-wise, but in Steve Epting this has an accomplished, established artist turning in top-notch work. John Francis Moore's story is well-suited to the double-sized format, which gives it more room to hit all the expected "establish the new reality, have someone realize it's wrong, blow it all up" beats without stretching a well-worn narrative out across multiple issues. It's a bit shaggy at the edges — at its heart, this is another story playing around with the Gambit/Rogue/Joseph triangle, but then the plot mechanics force Jean Grey to get thrown into the mix, and gin up a flimsy rationale for Gamesmaster to want to mess with Joseph — and if Gamesmaster is going to be used in a story, it'd be nice if he actually got developed as a character instead of just being a plot device. But this is still probably the best Joseph story yet, for whatever that is worth.
Next Issue
The final battle with the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn in Excalibur #110!
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Gamesmaster is definitely a character they didn't know what to do with, so they ignored him. Perhaps for the best.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair he was tied to the Upstarts and went that nowhere, they briefly tried to set him up as possibly setting up a rival team for Generation X, but forgot about that once Generation X was launched…
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ReplyDeleteI think Green’s inking really lets down Epting’s pencils here. Or maybe not but either way the looseness of the style puts me off despite the fairly strong layouts and figure work.
Apart from your correction, ”Selene once turned all of New York into her version of a Conan movie” is amusing since whether Conan is a fictional character or an enigmatic figure who actually fought Kulan Gath way back in the Hyborean Age depends on if Marvel is carrying the rights at the moment.
The Bullseye store is funny to me because I don’t recall seeing Target around before the early 2000s. It’s obviously been around longer, and not only for you-all in Minnesota, but the idea of it being familiar enough to reference this long ago does not compute. Perhaps I just led a sheltered existence.
I agree on this being a pretty good annual if you don’t poke at how Gamesmaster’s abilities have to involve the warping of reality and not merely be psychic manipulation on a phenomenal scale, which itself would make him insanely powerful, since then Jean wouldn’t disappear from the photograph before Joseph’s eyes for one thing as he’s so dubiously immune, and honestly as much as that all bugs me I don’t mean the praise this sentence began with as a backhanded compliment for the reasons you cite.
Without looking it up I suspect that, like the First Class photo you mention, the one of Charles, Magnus, and Gabrielle is from an earlier issue, around when that triumvirate was established. The faces have a very strong Cockrumness.
Y'know, I don't think I've ever actually read this issue. I know I didn't buy it when it first came out, though I have it in at least one Omnibus at this point. I should check it out.
ReplyDeleteMy bigger takeaway is that per your link to issue 117, evidently it's been 14 years since you wrote about the Claremont/Byrne run, which is around the time I discovered and started reading and commenting here. It looks like my first comment was circa UNCANNY #97 in April of that year. I can't believe it's been so long!! A lot has happened since then. We didn't even know yet that Roy Thomas single-handedly created Wolverine!
DeleteWhat is this Uncanny #97 of which you speak? 8^)
I had no problem, being an oldster who used to call Amazing Spider-Man just plain Spider-Man, appending the adjective once companion titles came along to be more specific — but I really get my head scrambled seeing issues of X-Men before Uncanny was even added to the covers referred to that way so they can be distinguished from the later adjectiveless X-Men. Seriously. Just does not compute. My initial reaction without fail is that the reference must be to a subsequent relaunch series.
You are now cordially invited to get off my lawn…