tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post5458502378730361754..comments2024-03-22T04:20:11.870-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining Uncanny X-Men #283Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-65205344290736785382017-02-26T10:20:19.841-06:002017-02-26T10:20:19.841-06:00Out of the three X-Men to come out of the immediat...Out of the three X-Men to come out of the immediate transition of the X-Books out of Claremont's hands, Gambit is still my favorite, but Bishop is -- or was -- a very close second.<br /><br />His 90s attitude was far, FAR more grating in the Fox animated series, where they took away the stiff formality and erudition of his dialogue -- one of the things I felt worked remarkably well against his cliched "Angry Black Man With A Mullet" look -- and turned him into a generic 90s tough guy. Eventually, his character in the comics would settle for some combination of the two, and weirdly, both sides of his personality would be best reconciled by Chris Claremont in X-Treme X-Men, in a surprising move for a man who supposedly rarely cares about anyone or anything he didn't create himself.<br /><br />Of course then House of M and Messiah Complex would happen, and he'd end up betraying the team and turning into a raging asshole...but all of that is irrelevant to this.<br /><br />Aside from his intelligence and stilted diction, both of which feel less like character missteps and more like intentional traits, Bishop's reverence for the X-Men is a really, REALLY nice touch. It makes him reonate more with fans than, say, Marrow or Cecilia Reyes when they joined the team in '97; neither of them really took off with fans the way Bishop did, and I feel its largely because they're contemptuous of the team and nearly everyone on it, for their own varying reasons.<br /><br />See, we'll snark and make commentary, but fans keep coming back to the X-Books because they love the X-Men. Bishop represents that love personified -- he tries to seem cool and put on a tough front, like most teenagers in the 90s (I know, I was there), but in the end he's fanboying about meeting the X-Men just as much as any of us would, and when he sees 'continuity errors', he reacts like any fanboy, with rage and denial (search your feelings,, you know it to be true).<br /><br />It's actually a shame that the books chose this moment to take a "back to basics" approach that basically ignored the entire time Professor X was not heading the team, as I feel Bishop would have worked extremely well with the more proactive, post-Mutant Massacre incarnation of the X-Men, especially the Outback-era roster during Inferno. Only problem there is, he doesn't fulfill any particularly unqiue niche; Havok and Dazzler (and Storm, post-Fall of the Mutants) are the long-range blasters, and Rogue, Colossus, and Wolverine are the tanks. Still, character-wise I feel he'd have made a much better fit with them than with Storm's post-Claremont "kinder, gentler" Gold Team.<br /><br />Bobby Drake in these issues is kind of a jerk to the woman who's been more responsible for the X-Men at this point than Scott Summers could have ever hoped to be. But then, that's fitting for his character.<br /><br />As we saw in the very first Classic X-Men side story, and would see again in a particularly crigneworthy exchange between him and Nightcrawler in the 00s -- Iceman, deep down (and sometimes not so deep down), believes that the only X-Men of note are the original five: him, Beast, Angel, Marvel Girl, and Cyclops. You can tell by the way he's almost aggressively dismissive of everyone else on the team who's not a hot chick he wants to bang (see: his interactions with Rogue, Psylocke, Emma Frost). Little throwaway moments like this go a long way towards fueling my dislike of the character, but at least they're tonally consistent with his whole "MY X-Men were better!" schtick.<br /><br />(Side note: Why, oh why, could Beast not have been the secretly-gay member of the O5? Why did it have to be the painfully obvious Iceman?)Ingonyamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17767964255684263275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-26432597873483947902016-05-30T00:02:17.250-05:002016-05-30T00:02:17.250-05:00Wow, what an amazing opportunity! Wow, what an amazing opportunity! Kevin Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08985159338926363214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-84622142817404061332016-05-27T18:09:33.676-05:002016-05-27T18:09:33.676-05:00I don’t think the phenomenon is quite unique to th...<br>I don’t think the phenomenon is quite unique to the X-Men, by the way. <i>The New Teen Titans</i> paralleled Marvel’s mutants in this regard as in others. It’s true that a full one-half of the new team consisted of original members (Robin, Kid, Flash, Wonder Girl, and renamed latter-day addition Changeling, formerly Beast Boy), and there was some choice <i>Titans</i> stuff published in the ’60s, but no question the runaway-hit new series, which over time incorporated more of the team’s previous membership, retroactively pumped up what was long the subject of ridicule.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-16658632044936066142016-05-27T17:51:22.744-05:002016-05-27T17:51:22.744-05:00The fact that Bobby, Hank, and Warren were called ...<br>The fact that Bobby, Hank, and Warren were called in on occasion to help the All-New, All-Different (Plus Cyclops) team or just to bond, schmooze, or mourn always struck me as neat and something that gave the series depth. I was no longer a regular reader by the era Teebore’s covering now, when the founding five were reintegrated as X-Men proper, and Hank will always be a wisecracking Avenger to me, but even though Xavier’s was no longer primarily a school at that point the fact that the originals had <i>graduated</i> imparted a certain wow factor to their guest appearances. They were cooler as emeriti, just because they were emeriti.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-73591256825422005672016-05-26T07:45:40.874-05:002016-05-26T07:45:40.874-05:00Welcome to ( New-World Vampire Kingdom). Do you wa...Welcome to ( New-World Vampire Kingdom). Do you want to be a vampire,still in human,having talented brain turning to a vampire in a good posture in ten mines time to a human again, with out delaying in a good human posture. A world of vampire where life get easier,we have made so many persons vampires and have turned them rich,you will assured long life and prosperity,you shall be made to be very sensitive to mental alertness,stronger and also very fast,you will not be restricted to walking at night only even at the very vampire virus to perform in a good posture.if you are interested contact us on<br />powerfulvampirekingdom@outlook.commichealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05108388711376340859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-49282272977884285562016-05-25T12:38:23.266-05:002016-05-25T12:38:23.266-05:00There are probably other examples, but a period th...There are probably other examples, but a period that particularly stands out about Iceman's dismissive attitude toward NON "original" members was the 2000s era, particularly the Austen and Milligan years.Jon Dubyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783906806644566810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-3374683131444051622016-05-23T07:01:35.392-05:002016-05-23T07:01:35.392-05:00Here's the comic book legend detailing the his...Here's the comic book legend detailing the history of Bishop's ethnicity:<br />http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2015/09/25/comic-book-legends-revealed-542/<br /><br />The short of it is, Portacio wanted the character to be Filipino, marketing wanted the character to be black.Cerebronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-37646768028268417322016-05-21T21:55:34.837-05:002016-05-21T21:55:34.837-05:00// TL;DR - *shrug* //
Quote of the day, there.<br><i>// TL;DR - *shrug* //</i><br /><br />Quote of the day, there.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-62216287421737705352016-05-21T21:54:39.445-05:002016-05-21T21:54:39.445-05:00@Michael: // I feel like Iceman has a bit of a his...<br>@Michael: <i>// I feel like Iceman has a bit of a history of disrespecting non-original X-Men characters //</i><br /><br />I couldn’t point to exactly when/where, but I feel the same, and I think it has at least something to do with him being the youngest member of the original group in combination with the newer X-Men taking up residence on his old home turf so successfully while he was knocking around as a sometime college student and member of decidedly less memorable superteams.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-19228629676935213422016-05-21T20:18:27.029-05:002016-05-21T20:18:27.029-05:00It's kind of interesting to think about the ph...It's kind of interesting to think about the phenomenon, as it strikes me as possibly being unique to the X-Men. The first part isn't ... the original characters aren't doing it for people, so a brand new roster is brought in. The next part ... in which the 2nd generation really catches fires and breathes new life into the franchise ... is fairly rare, but not unheard of. But the third part ... where the franchise becomes SO hot that it kind of retroactively makes people excited about the original, failed group, strikes me as incredibly unlikely. <br /><br />I can't say I'm immune myself. I've come to really like the original team, and it's entirely a result of Claremont making me a fan of his X-Men, particularly the Australian group, which was at least two iterations removed from the Silver Age, and then some.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13298753675007196538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-68100868593151890792016-05-21T20:11:26.867-05:002016-05-21T20:11:26.867-05:00True, "Tone deaf" might be too harsh. I...True, "Tone deaf" might be too harsh. I probably dislike it more just because I can really see his persona in it, and the person himself is so unsavory.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13298753675007196538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-21468810023710777182016-05-21T20:08:42.980-05:002016-05-21T20:08:42.980-05:00Yeah, Iceman is a jerk in that backup. It's gr...Yeah, Iceman is a jerk in that backup. It's great. Although Angel is the one who is more derisive of Wolverine. Iceman disses Peter and Kurt.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13298753675007196538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-19146848402706670672016-05-20T16:25:08.429-05:002016-05-20T16:25:08.429-05:00Yeah, I know that Davis does some work with DoFP, ...Yeah, I know that Davis does some work with DoFP, but having not read the issues, I've never known what, exactly, he does. <br /><br />Given that I've never felt like I was missing something from having not read those issues, I'm not surprised that whatever he does seemingly gets ignored by the rest of the line. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-64397993562637871862016-05-20T16:18:24.242-05:002016-05-20T16:18:24.242-05:00Of course, none of that takes into account how the...Of course, none of that takes into account how the SPOILER ALERT! the DOFP timeline was somewhat resolved during Davis' last story on Excalibur. <br /><br />Of course, given that other things, like the Phoenix explanation, are ignored, I'm not surprised the DOFP resolution was ignored as well.<br /><br />At this point, just say Bishop comes from an alternate timeline that may or may not be the exact same one as DOFP, and leave it at that. wwk5dnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-15016396563618497492016-05-20T16:13:48.061-05:002016-05-20T16:13:48.061-05:00Ha! Yeah, not intentional, just forgot to fill tha...Ha! Yeah, not intentional, just forgot to fill that in. Maybe some subconscious commentary, though. :) Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-68215983370741356742016-05-20T16:13:07.527-05:002016-05-20T16:13:07.527-05:00Selene being involved in the Upstarts isn't in...Selene being involved in the Upstarts isn't inherently a problem - the problem is just that she's another element that gets switched up/changed as the plot meanders along to a conclusion that doesn't quite fit all the various hints and teases. She's definitely a victim of that, though, not the perpetrator. <br /><br /><i>Outside of Claremont, there seems to be a weird fetishization of the original X-Men in general, which I never got, since that was a time so unremarkable, the book was low-rated enough to resort to reprints. Who'd want to relive the days when the book was almost cancelled?</i><br /><br />My appreciation for the original X-Men comes entirely from Simonson's X-FACTOR. In some cases, I didn't even read some of the original Silver Age issues starring them until I started this project, but reading those X-FACTOR back issues as a kid gave me an appreciation for them as a unit. Definitely a case of telling, not showing - lots of cases of being told how effective they are as a group, without ever really seeing it - but it worked to make me a fan of the group as a whole as a kid. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-69755287300535420802016-05-20T16:09:35.424-05:002016-05-20T16:09:35.424-05:00I've seen the discussions of Portacio wanting ...I've seen the discussions of Portacio wanting Bishop to be Filipino and marketing stepping in, but I didn't know Byrne contributed the DoFP element. Good to know (and nice touch, Byrne!). Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-851642015393261582016-05-20T16:08:30.034-05:002016-05-20T16:08:30.034-05:00I think (and I could be totally wrong on this, bec...I think (and I could be totally wrong on this, because I've only read "Messiah Complex" once) the idea is that Bishop is from the DoFP timeline (albeit further in the future of that timeline than the time in which Kate Pryde first left), but after Scarlet Witch does the whole "No More Mutants" thing, it also obliterates all those future timelines (because they had mutants in them, and her spell prevents any more mutants from being born). <br /><br />Then, when Hope is born, her birth creates two (maybe more?) alternate timelines in which mutants exist once again, one of which is now the timeline Bishop is from, having grown up in concentration camps triggered by Hope's apparent killing of millions of humans years earlier. <br /><br />Of course, all that get complicated by the fact that Hope has kind of fizzled out as a character, and then the whole "no more mutants" thing was undone, then done again via the Terrigen Mists being released on Earth (aka "Marvel Can't Make X-Men movies so no more mutants again!"), and then the recent Secret Wars did whatever it did to the concept of the multiverses and alternate timelines (I haven't read it yet, so I don't much about the specifics). <br /><br />TL;DR - *shrug*Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-120863184593177442016-05-20T15:58:33.375-05:002016-05-20T15:58:33.375-05:00Good point about Iceman - he's dismissive of t...Good point about Iceman - he's dismissive of them (particularly Wolverine) in Claremont's CLASSIC X-MEN #1 backup story, and I think maybe again during the Doom/Arcade story and "Inferno"? <br /><br /><i>Either way, this whole issue makes me Claremont's Storm. No other writer has ever known how to write her.</i><br /><br />At this point, Storm's glory days are definitely behind her. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-49478641734088646692016-05-20T15:56:55.456-05:002016-05-20T15:56:55.456-05:00I always wondered what Lee and Portacio had in min...<i>I always wondered what Lee and Portacio had in mind for this story. </i><br /><br />Me too. They definitely had something in mind, but all we get from them are setup and teases. <br /><br /><i>A retcon of a retcon of sorts, but I think this statement is the only time it's suggested things played out this way. After this, we're back to suppressing her powers, I believe. </i><br /><br />Yeah, I don't think it ever gets brought up again. It just stuck out to me as another example of curmudgeonly Byrne trying to bring everything back to the 60s status quo. <br /><br /><i>Iceman, or Byrne? ;)</i><br /><br />Oh yeah, definitely Byrne. Though you'd think he'd be a little more forgiving of Storm, a character he had at least had a significant role in shaping (as opposed to if, I dunno, Gambit was the leader). <br /><br />Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-88484960371107704482016-05-20T15:53:56.253-05:002016-05-20T15:53:56.253-05:00We had so little to go on versus what the ‘Net aff...<i>We had so little to go on versus what the ‘Net affords today; it’s crazy.</i><br /><br />Right? Like, it's easy to think of how the ready availability of media (via streaming, digital downloads, comprehensive reprint programs, etc.) is so much better/different than years ago, but sometimes I forget just how much more pure INFORMATION is readily available nowadays compared to when I was a kid. I can find out just about anything I want to know via a device I casually carry around in my pocket (and "finding stuff out for me" isn't even the primary purpose of that device). It's wild when you stop and think about it. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-85921880142853839512016-05-20T15:51:07.940-05:002016-05-20T15:51:07.940-05:00The whole mind/body swap thing is weird - it's...The whole mind/body swap thing is weird - it's never made clear if Jean's body "died", or if they just thought she was dead because her mind left it. But if her body was fine, why did her mind leave it? <br /><br />I forgot the letters page claims the second presence was Maddie. I've always assumed it was the White Queen's mind for some reason. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-48307914618657321212016-05-20T15:49:32.506-05:002016-05-20T15:49:32.506-05:00No, she isn't identified as such here. As a ki...No, she isn't identified as such here. As a kid, I had no clue who she was (this might be the first comic I ever read to have Selene in it), so it's definitely ambiguous if you're not familiar with the character. <br /><br />And yeah, Byrne's dialogue is really blah. Not even tone deaf so much as just...monotone. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-81361831902457006962016-05-19T20:56:39.375-05:002016-05-19T20:56:39.375-05:00"In a Nutshell
Pencils 'n' Plot: Wh..."In a Nutshell <br /><br /><b>Pencils 'n' Plot:</b> Whilce Portacio"<br /><br />What with everyone saying the issue was in all regards all over the place, this bit is kind of hilarious in its harshness.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-47387158619892866402016-05-19T20:47:26.290-05:002016-05-19T20:47:26.290-05:00In the earlier issue Shinobi and Fitzroy were thro...In the earlier issue Shinobi and Fitzroy were throwing taunts at each other suggesting a certain amount of depravity in their respective characters, and Shinobi certainly was at the time in his place and surrounded by scantily clad people, both women and men, who were having their hands all over him.<br /><br />It's good to be the king.Teemunoreply@blogger.com