tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post3023965128495972214..comments2024-03-22T04:20:11.870-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining X-Men (vol. 2) #41Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-59643722681703804802023-07-31T17:25:17.937-05:002023-07-31T17:25:17.937-05:00Matt, I was just about the same with that 'Ada...Matt, I was just about the same with that 'Adam vs Erik' mystery panel for YEEEEARS! But as you might have heard by now, the defunct (me thinks.) 'X-men Legends' 2021-22-ish 'untold tales a-la-MFanfare' series, devoted its first 3-issue arc to Nicieza and his finally telling that story (illustrated by Ian Churchill! 90s overload alert!) even footnoting how it takes place before X-Men #40. It's quite a way joverdue joy to (be)hold in our 40+ yr-old hands :DBen GILhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00837744284971986381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-31444462705257093332019-04-21T19:20:01.340-05:002019-04-21T19:20:01.340-05:00Just a few quick notes:
— You left Ron Garney off...<br>Just a few quick notes:<br /><br />— You left Ron Garney off the credits.<br />— I really appreciate all of that (potential) explanation re the M’Kraan Crystal.<br />— A Mild Gimmick is my new band name.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-91545162495544921892019-04-18T17:19:54.926-05:002019-04-18T17:19:54.926-05:00Now my head hurts...Now my head hurts...Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-64936293113636497792019-04-18T17:19:34.688-05:002019-04-18T17:19:34.688-05:00Also, this is the last hurrah for letterer Bill Oa...<i>Also, this is the last hurrah for letterer Bill Oakley, who's been on the title since issue 19.</i><br /><br />Ah, good to know! I am terrible about acknowledging inker, letterer and colorist milestones like that. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-61631846152442238102019-04-18T17:17:28.939-05:002019-04-18T17:17:28.939-05:00that could mean the same amount of time that happe...<i> that could mean the same amount of time that happens between Ucanny #1 and Fall of the Mutants happens between Xavier's death here and the death of AOA Wanda...I guess?</i><br /><br />Yeah, I guess as well. Once again, I really would like some kind of non-fiction summary of the historical events as they occurred in the AoA timeline. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-12655915702387396802019-04-18T17:15:57.457-05:002019-04-18T17:15:57.457-05:00Yeah, that's not present day Apocalypse in tha...Yeah, that's not present day Apocalypse in that scene, it's "20 Years Ago" Apocalypse deciding to make his move, ahead of when he did in the "main" timeline, which is what accounts for the Age of Apocalypse. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-39211936827664664552019-04-18T17:15:06.603-05:002019-04-18T17:15:06.603-05:00It actually would have been interesting to hear Le...It actually would have been interesting to hear Legion cite the "kill baby Hitler" argument to Magneto. It could have further served to underscore his turn to the heroic in AoA. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-5244227911216031822019-04-18T13:40:40.307-05:002019-04-18T13:40:40.307-05:00The Israeli TV broadcast references the Six Day Wa...The Israeli TV broadcast references the Six Day War (of 1967) as a (somewhat recent) thing of past, to further mess up your chronologies.<br /><br />Like, if one wants to cross-reference that to Hama's concurrent enough WOLVERINE, Logan referenced the Epsilon Red business having taken place in or around 1968 (previous summer having been the Summer of Love and TET offensive still going on).Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-34246967860794394232019-04-18T13:21:55.363-05:002019-04-18T13:21:55.363-05:00Good issue! Great "sendoff" for the exis...Good issue! Great "sendoff" for the existing universe. I agree the artwork is a little iffy, though. I noticed that Kubert intention seemed to be that Bishop is not wearing his bandana/scarf here, but no one else got the memo. He's clearly drawn without it on the first page, but colored as if wearing it. Later, Garney draws him with it (as does Ryan on the pages Kubert only laid out), though Kubert consistently draws him without it.<br /><br />Seeing the X-Men stand around, waiting for the end of the universe and unable to do anything about it -- I feel like I wasn't as impressed with it as a teen, but now it somehow really strikes a chord, and it feels way more impactful than I remember it being. Maybe because I'm more aware of my mortality at age 40 than I was at 16? But in any case, I love the characters reactions -- Cyclops, Jean, and Archangel taking it like seasoned pros, as you mentioned, but also the fact that the once brooding and solitary Archangel has decided that he doesn't want to die alone, and lands beside his oldest friends to meet the end with them. Plus Gambit and Rogue watching Xavier and Lilandra, separated by galaxies and unable to touch one another, which leads to their kiss as the wave hits.<br /><br />Other things I liked: the continuity references to UNCANNY 117, the Eric the Red cameo (as an Eric aficionado, I spent quite some time trying to figure out what issue that scene came from before eventually giving up), and Apocalypse's oblique reference to Mister Sinister -- as I've noted many times before, I ate up that sort of pseudo-cryptic stuff when I was younger.<br /><br />Also, this is the last hurrah for letterer Bill Oakley, who's been on the title since issue 19. Comicraft takes over for "Age of Apocalypse" and remains on letters for the rest of the decade (and a bit beyond) after reality is restored.<br /><br /><br />"...<b>if we take that as true while reading it now, in 2019, then the events in the past are taking place in 1999, or five years after the story was published</b>."<br /><br />My head hurts!<br /><br />(And this is why, as I've said before, I have my own version of Marvel Time that makes everything easier for me to take. This story was published in 1995. Thanks to the compressed timeline, it was probably only a few years ago for today's X-Men, but as far as I'm concerned: in the Marvel universe, today it's 2019, a few years ago it was 1995, and twenty years prior to that it was the 1950s. It makes no sense, but it works for me.)Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-24967669982340074572019-04-18T05:19:20.447-05:002019-04-18T05:19:20.447-05:00"This, then, is the catalyst that will launch..."This, then, is the catalyst that will launch the Age of Apocalypse, as Apocalypse sets about testing the world ten years before he did in the main reality, and without a fully formed team of X-Men to immediately oppose him."<br /><br />So what his catalyst in the original timeline? Uncanny X-men #1? And assuming he keeps the same time schedule in AOA, that could mean the same amount of time that happens between Ucanny #1 and Fall of the Mutants happens between Xavier's death here and the death of AOA Wanda...I guess?<br /><br />"One final observation on the whole "the events in the past are taking place twenty years ago instead of in a specific year" thing: if we take that as true while reading it now, in 2019, then the events in the past are taking place in 1999, or five years after the story was published. Not at all what was intended (or what we should do) but something kind of fun to think about."<br /><br />Which doesn't help out Magneto or Ganny with regards to their history being tied to WWII...<br /><br />"The encounter with Cable in Uncanny #321 has unblocked whatever restraints Iceman had subconsciously put on his powers"<br /><br />Those restraints will be back post-AOA, sadly.<br /><br />"but I appreciate Niceiza writing in an explanation so I don’t have to ask “why didn’t Xavier stop Legion telepathically?”"<br /><br />I thought the explanation was always Legion was so much more powerful than Xavier at this point.<br /><br />"It is, to borrow a phrasing, nigh-operatic"<br /><br />One could also say it becomes the focused totality of his character in AOA. Well, at least, I hope - I pray - others agree with me.<br /><br />"It’s just a silly excuse to make readers excited with the coming event."<br /><br />Well, to be fair, the entire idea of AOA is rather nonsensical to begin with. <br /><br />wwk5dAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-77776526202239107082019-04-18T00:42:25.186-05:002019-04-18T00:42:25.186-05:00The real standout character, though, is Past Magne...<i>The real standout character, though, is Past Magneto, as he desperately tries to defend himself against Legion while also arguing against the notion of executing him for crimes he has yet to commit, and as with the previous chapter, it does a lot to setup Magneto as the central figure of "Age of Apocalypse".</i><br /><br />In UXM #203, in the aftermath of Rachel failing to end the universe with the M'Kraan crystal, right after assuming the mantle of teacher from Xavier, Magneto tells the X-folks: "In the early days of our friendship, Charles Xavier asked if I would slay the infant Adolf Hitler -- an innocent baby -- to spare the world the horror of the Holocaust? I said, yes. Then he asked -- would I slay Hitler's grandparents? I said, yes again! I would gladly pay any price, to make any sacrifice, to expunge such trancendent evil. But now... I wonder...?"<br /><br />Apparently Legion got Magnus to reconsider his position on the question here and then.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-18326231364977127682019-04-18T00:25:54.425-05:002019-04-18T00:25:54.425-05:00They do nothing of the sort. What Mister Sinister ...They do nothing of the sort. What Mister Sinister (I presume) had predicted was the "mutant menace" becoming a publicly known thing, something that in the main Marvel Universe happened about a decade later, but here people are watching it from their tv. Apocalypse apparently decides to speed up the planned schedule of his ascension in the face of the news.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-89299280418969504832019-04-17T23:38:24.599-05:002019-04-17T23:38:24.599-05:00There's lots to say about AoA, and I'm loo...There's lots to say about AoA, and I'm looking forward to following along over the next several months, but I'll save the storytelling and art discussion for the issues themselves. What struck me most about the series when I first read it is how editorially tight it was. I don't know if that was Harras, the higher-ups, the writers policing themselves, or some combination of everyone miraculously being on the same page. Whatever the case, it's extraordinary to see plot and (especially) character continuity on such a massive scale*, much less when you're essentially reinventing dozens of characters at the same time. The temptation by the writers to "get crazy with the cheez-wiz" must have been nearly irresistible, and they do go a little wild here and there, but overall AoA stands up after 25 years as a master class of organization and cooperation. <br /><br />*just go back a few years to "Days of Future Present" for an example of how disruptive crossover inconsistencies can beBobnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-82509762445669824772019-04-17T22:41:26.788-05:002019-04-17T22:41:26.788-05:00Let’s be honest: Mr Sinister and Apocalypse someho...Let’s be honest: Mr Sinister and Apocalypse somehow knowing that something in the past would change, and that this would lead to Apocalypse dominating the most of the world makes no sense. It’s just a silly excuse to make readers excited with the coming event.Licínio Mirandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12545823888354348526noreply@blogger.com