tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post1251071875512586820..comments2024-03-28T10:18:00.370-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining Uncanny X-Men #325Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-81859706696008341752023-07-18T09:39:29.179-05:002023-07-18T09:39:29.179-05:00lol I'm referring to the events of X-Men #8 as...lol I'm referring to the events of X-Men #8 as "the Great X-Traitor Picnic" from now on. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-42620054074235249802023-07-17T01:03:45.149-05:002023-07-17T01:03:45.149-05:00One thing I had to point out is that editorial bas...One thing I had to point out is that editorial basically <i>ordered</i> Lobdell to kill to have Storm kill Marrow, so Lobdell struggled to find some way to have this make sense. So he tried to create some justification by having a bomb attached to Marrow's heart, the problem, of course being <i>why</i> in god's name she would do such a foolish thing. (indeed Marrow will be a continuing problem for Scott Lobdell, one so insurmountable, it'll eventually cause him to abandon ship.)<br /><br />Also this is the anniversary of the Mutant Massacre, and they pay their due respect to this somber occasion with...a light-hearted baseball game. <br /><br />Er....<br /><br />Honestly, that has to be the most <i>hilarious</i> tone-def juxtaposition since The Great X-Traitor Picnic way back in X-Men #8!Jon Dubyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783906806644566810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-34241507427100905872020-09-01T07:47:14.008-05:002020-09-01T07:47:14.008-05:00// Reverb, a low-level telepath //
If that’s not ...<br><i>// Reverb, a low-level telepath //</i><br /><br />If that’s not a “Morlock tunnels” joke, it should be. (Also, <i>Hanging with Mr. Sinister</i> is totally a ’90s sitcom in some mashup universe.)<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-81757039050329375112020-02-03T16:15:30.700-06:002020-02-03T16:15:30.700-06:00It's interesting that, before Marrow, we had L...It's interesting that, before Marrow, we had Lucifer with a bomb somehow connected to his heart way back in X-Men #9.Cesar R. Pontualhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06375109987794647615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-19411547610868266832020-02-03T02:13:35.146-06:002020-02-03T02:13:35.146-06:00There's also the fact that the Storm/Callisto ...There's also the fact that the Storm/Callisto duel was a massive point in Storm's character arc, including the killing strike into Callisto's heart. She had been struggling with assuming the mantle of the leader of the X-Men after Cyclops, who had just been present (and naturally assuming the leadership) for the Brood story, and when Kurt challenges Callisto for a duel over the Morlock leadership, Pestilence-stricken Storm vetoes that and insists precedence as the leader of the X-Men.<br /><br />Here, there's zero surprise that Storm has it in her, and no larger thematic whatsoever. Unless you think that Storm (again) solves the pretty mansion people specific issue just by kniving the Morlock leader and despite the pomp and the talk stops caring about the Morlocks.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-14154760580675203382020-01-31T20:01:36.312-06:002020-01-31T20:01:36.312-06:00Who is the orange Gene Nation member who appear in...Who is the orange Gene Nation member who appear in the hologram picture, but not anyone else? The way that Madureira positioned him, it felt like he was the leader, but this was not the case. I only remember seeing him much later, having joined evil Havok’s team, whey they attacked an airplane in which Cyclops as in. Was he ignored after UXM 325? No one at the time thought about why was he included here, if he did not appear anywhere else?Licínio Mirandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12545823888354348526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-49844652691063961792020-01-31T06:52:21.035-06:002020-01-31T06:52:21.035-06:00Storm battles Marrow in a deliberate callback to h...<i>Storm battles Marrow in a deliberate callback to her duel with Callisto in issue #170, and while Joe Mad is dynamic in his own right, he’s no Paul Smith.</i><br /><br />Definitely not. The staging is very anime (especially that "cross swords, wait a beat, dramatic outcome" panel which I'm usually a sucker for) but without real care to its execution, and the big, distracting sound effects & end speech really take away from it. Nowhere near as powerful as Smith's wordless, grim original. Say what you will about Claremont's dialogue & captions, he knew when to NOT have anything said or described and just let the art do the heavy lifting.Melahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05539894845356203447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-77622636917040626772020-01-31T04:37:01.481-06:002020-01-31T04:37:01.481-06:00I found myself wondering, "why the Morlocks a...<i>I found myself wondering, "why the Morlocks again?" X-creators liked to return to that well once in a while, and I never got it.</i><br /><br />This is not about the Morlocks; the Claremont era Morlocks had enough interesting characters who should be there if it was about the Morlocks specifically. <br /><br />This is about The Mutant Massacre. I'm obviously biased as it happened in my formative year as a reader, but it was an extremely powerful storyline in what possibly were formative years for some of the creators too. The ante got upped when the Marauders showed up, especially in and for the UNCANNY.<br /><br />And the Morlocks really weren't central characters in the storyline, they were just fodder for it. As a reader, I feel called out here for not really having <i>cared</i> about the dead Morlocks when a number of X-Men got severely injured. Maybe they (and the creators) are targeting humans, as the readers are humans. I would guess that is why the Morlocks are a bit of an itching sore that has gotten brought up every now and then after Claremont's departure. Claremont pretty much discarded them, so maybe there's even a bit of "yeah but whatabout" by the follow-up act, because if you want to be the man as an X-Men writer, Claremont is the man you need to beat.<br /><br />Alas, the execution here is completely meh. The Mutant Massacre changed the whole direction of the book, culminating to the Outback era. It also was the original X-over. This story, at this time, is essentially a one-off threading water between the crossovers with nothing really allowed to change in the big scale, so all the potential gets wasted in the end. Not least in the angst department. But let's have Storm rip a heart out of someone instead.<br />Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-20851437130521418152020-01-30T19:36:25.714-06:002020-01-30T19:36:25.714-06:00Didn't Storm also kill Reverb without much hul...Didn't Storm also kill Reverb without much hullabaloo? I think this too lessened any impact that Marrow's death might have otherwise had.John Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12600335496622438290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-74472035504926904402020-01-30T17:46:43.223-06:002020-01-30T17:46:43.223-06:00I love that the celebration of the "All-New, ...I love that the celebration of the "All-New, All-Different" team is composed of an issue of UNCANNY starring and/or cameo-featuring four of the "new" X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Banshee), while X-MEN's contribution is an issue starring two characters who joined the team years later and one original X-Man.<br /><br />Anyway -- I liked this one originally, mainly for the superficial stuff you mentioned above: Madureira back on art, Colossus reunited with Storm and Wolverine, the fastball special, etc. -- and Mister Sinister talking cryptically was of course a major plus. But even back then, I found myself wondering, "why the Morlocks again?" X-creators liked to return to that well once in a while, and I never got it. I liked the original Morlock story for what it was -- though I've wished for years, ever since learning about it, that Paul Smith's inclusion of a million more Morlocks than Claremont intended could be undone. But I've never cared for the Morlocks beyond that story. I just find them uninteresting.<br /><br />I do think Lobdell hits some interesting character moments here, as he always does, but as a wrap-up to the Gene Nation story and a turning point (?) for Storm, I agree that it misses the mark.<br /><br /><br />"<b>This issue has an ad for Overpower cards, Marvel's foray into the collectible card game market that was quickly supplanting the existing trading card industry at the time.</b>"<br /><br />I wasn't a massive CCG guy (I was way more into tabletop RPGs), but there were a few I tried: Decipher's STAR TREK and STAR WARS, and OverPower. I liked OverPower somewhat, though it never felt "comic booky" enough to me. I tend to feel that if you can strip the license out of a game and the game still plays the exact same way, then it's not a great game for that license -- and OverPower felt that way to me. It wasn't a "Marvel game"; it was a game with the Marvel name slapped on it.<br /><br />That said, I had a friend who absolutely loved OverPower, and to this day says it's the best CCG ever made -- but to my point, he's also said that he would've kept playing a "generic" version of the game if Fleer had lost the Marvel license.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.com