tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post6801438885331530394..comments2024-03-28T10:18:00.370-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining New Mutants #23Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-31393165016940857302013-03-11T11:53:58.611-05:002013-03-11T11:53:58.611-05:00@Blam: The cover is kind-of a misfire for me.
It&...@Blam: <i>The cover is kind-of a misfire for me.</i><br /><br />It's definitely pretty blah. <br /><br /><i>You can't help but wish that his </i>ego<i> was (nigh-)invulnerable while blasting.</i><br /><br />Ha! <br /><br /><i>"They were transformed into Indians by the Demon Bear in NM #20" has to be one of the most ridiculous things ever written, even for a comic-book footnote.</i><br /><br />Double ha! Funny cuz it's true. <br /><br /><i>albeit a [t]one-deaf one (on the part of Claremont, at least; we don't see Dani call Sam on it).</i><br /><br />Yeah, I definitely think Claremont simply isn't recognizing the implications of using that particular synonym for "leader" in regards to Dani. <br /><br /><i>would you mind changing it in the credits, since the errant "Seinkiewicz" there seems to get carried over from week to week?</i><br /><br />D'oh! <br /><br />I thought I'd corrected it in my template that I copy over into a blank post week to week, but apparently not. Consider it fixed. <br /><br /><i>I can't help but think that you'd do better to, say, cover Wolverine's appearance in </i>Alpha Flight<i> #17</i><br /><br />I may yet cover that issue. Chronologically, it falls into a gap after issue #192 (technically, between pages of that issue) along with a bunch of other ancillary stuff (an annual, the X-Men/Alpha Flight limited series), and since it's not one of the two main titles, I'm comfortable looking at it in its chronological place rather than when it was on sale. <br /><br />I have to double check my list, but I think I may have a slot to fill, and if so, I'll probably fill it with <i>Alpha Flight</i> #17 (instead of, you know, just taking a post off). <br /><br />As for <i>Iceman</i>, the more I thought about it, the more the reasons I came up with for skipping it (I haven't read it, I'd heard it's terrible, it wasn't handled by the X-office) gradually turned into reasons to cover it, so I figured what the heck. I'm sure I'll probably regret that decision...Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-20876981260203498162013-03-11T09:30:42.808-05:002013-03-11T09:30:42.808-05:00The cover is kind-of a misfire for me.
[Dani] als...<br>The cover is kind-of a misfire for me.<br /><br /><i>[Dani] also unveils a new use of her power, taught to her by Xavier, in which she generates an image based on a specific thought of a subject, rather than the subject's fear.</i><br /><br />And she can manifest an image from someone's memory as well, as she does right after this to show herself and Sam what/who the clerk checked into the penthouse suite.<br /><br />Dani's powers have clearly expanded wildly under Professor X's tutelage, while Sam is stuck barely maneuvering and plowing into the ground on a regular basis. No wonder he feels like a chump all of the time. You can't help but wish that his <i>ego</i> was (nigh-)invulnerable while blasting.<br /><br /><i>It's revealed that Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander have been convalescing on Muir Island following their encounter with the Demon Bear</i><br /><br />"They were transformed into Indians by the Demon Bear in <i>NM</i> #20" has to be one of the most ridiculous things ever written, even for a comic-book footnote.<br /><br /><i>Sam refers to Dani as "chief" in this issue, though it's unclear if that's a reference to her heritage or just her position as the ostensible leader of the team.</i><br /><br />He does it more than once in the issue, and I really took it to be merely a reference to her leadership — albeit a one-deaf one (on the part of Claremont, at least; we don't see Dani call Sam on it).<br /><br /><i>Dani describes her dream as being "a real yummy", another slang term I'm uncertain whether it's a Claremont thing or an 80s thing.</i><br /><br />You forgot "British" as an option, but I'll go with "a Claremont thing".<br /><br />Now that you've spelled "Sienkiewicz" right in the body of the post, more than once, would you mind changing it in the credits, since the errant "Seinkiewicz" there seems to get carried over from week to week? 8^)<br /><br /><i>Iceman</i>? Yeesh... While I applaud the completism, and in fact am sort-of curious as to what happens beyond #1 (for some reason lodged in my brain pretty well all these years, perhaps as a constant reference point for utter mediocrity), I can't help but think that you'd do better to, say, cover Wolverine's appearance in <i>Alpha Flight</i> #17, which as I mentioned in a comment recently on an earlier post came out "this month" and incorporates the events of Weapon Alpha / Vindicator / Gladiator / James MacDonald Hudson's introduction in <i>X-Men</i> #109.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-15463700150066666652013-03-08T13:14:05.750-06:002013-03-08T13:14:05.750-06:00@Matt: If it was the latter, then the exclusion wo...@Matt: <i>If it was the latter, then the exclusion would be perfectly acceptable.</i><br /><br />That is odd. Between this story and all the build-up to it/references to the MTU annual, it seems like a pretty necessary component. <br /><br /><i>I don't think Bill S. got the memo about proper Hellfire Club attire.</i><br /><br />It seems weird that he'd draw Emmanuel correctly but not Selene. Maybe he thought that was Emmanuel's normal look (though he also drew Shaw correctly)? <br /><br /><i> For whatever reason, that particular issue of Uncanny is a favorite from around the time I started reading regularly.</i><br /><br />Mine too. "X-Cutioner's Song" was my fist exposure to Harry's as well. <br /><br /><i>Also, it kind of miffs me that Claremont turned Harry's into the longtime hangout of all the X-Men. Didn't the original class already have a hangout?</i><br /><br />They did (the Coffee-a-Go-Go). And while you could certainly argue it's not the worse thing in the world to update the original X-Men's hangout from a beatnik coffee shop, especially in light of Marvel's sliding timeline, I'm not certain Claremont was responsible for that. <br /><br />I'm fairly certain he never actually uses Harry's in <i>X-Men</i>, just <i>New Mutants</i>. Maybe there's a casual reference in an upcoming issue to the original X-Men going there, but I'm pretty sure that's an invention of Lobdell from those very same "X-Cutioner's Song" issues that stuck. <br /><br /><i>We may have already discussed this in your God Loves, Man Kills comments</i><br /><br />I think we did (there or somewhere else) and yeah, from Claremont's perspective, at this time, I don't think "God Loves, Man Kills" was considered in-continuity. But it is now, so I noted it as such in terms of the overall X-Men narrative (that's actually why I mentioned it in "Firsts and Other Notables" (aside from it the stuff with Magneto and Lee being genuinely notable), because in that section I'm comfortable referencing future stories, as opposed to "A Work in Progress", where I try to keep track of things as they unfold, as though we were reading these issues as they were published, with no knowledge of the future). <br /><br /><i>Though I think it's alternately used with and without the "E" on the end.</i><br /><br />That might be what's throwing me. I certainly remember seeing "'Lock" thrown around a lot, just not "Locke" specifically (why add the "e" on the end? That's just stupid...). <br /><br /><i>Which is of course code for "Angel is paying." Or maybe "Lilandra's robots are repairing the place."</i><br /><br />Ha! I would love to see in the background of a panel in a future issue a bunch of little robots working on Harry's. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-11452369952443388622013-03-07T18:39:12.522-06:002013-03-07T18:39:12.522-06:00I think I mentioned before the the New Mutants Cla...I think I mentioned before the the <i>New Mutants Classic</i> trades do not contain the <i>Marvel Team-Up</i> annual that this issue follows up on. Claremont makes things easy enough to follow here, but that missing issue seems odd to me. After all, the series is called <i>New Mutants Classic</i>, not <i>New Mutants Visionaries: Chris Claremont</i>. If it was the latter, then the exclusion would be perfectly acceptable.<br /><br />"<b>Emmanuel Da Costa and Selene officially join the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club as of this issue</b>..."<br /><br />I don't think Bill S. got the memo about proper Hellfire Club attire. Emmanuel is wearing appropriate 19th century clothes, but Selene and the others just appear to be in random fetish gear.<br /><br />"<b>Harry's Hideaway, the restaurant/bar in Salem Center which will eventually become a frequent hangout place for Xavier's students, appears for the first time (as does its owner, Harry), though it goes unnamed in this story and later stories will suggest that the X-Men have been going to it for years.</b>"<br /><br />My first exposure to Harry's Hideaway was the scene where Caliban trashes it during "X-Cutioner's Song" and then when Beast and Archangel repair it soon after. For whatever reason, that particular issue of <i>Uncanny</i> is a favorite from around the time I started reading regularly. I can still see the image of Beast, wearing goggles and firing up his blowtorch, in my mind's eye as if the issue was right in front of me.<br /><br />Also, it kind of miffs me that Claremont turned Harry's into the longtime hangout of all the X-Men. Didn't the original class already have a hangout? I don't understand what's gained by shoehorning this place into their history. Why not just say that the new X-Men discovered Harry's and made it <i>their</i> hangout in Salem Center?<br /><br />"<b>She tells Magneto that the X-Men have abandoned it in favor of returning to the school, a move Magneto believes is foolish (though he already knew this - he was at the school with the X-Men in 'God Loves, Man Kills').</b>"<br /><br />Although... I'm not sure the graphic novel was considered to be in-continuity yet when this story came out, right? I don't think it was officially acknowledged until Stryker came back in <i>X-Treme X-Men</i>. We may have already discussed this in your <i>God Loves, Man Kills</i> comments; I don't recall.<br /><br />"...<b>notes that the New Mutants have taken to calling him "Locke" (a nickname which, as I mentioned in the annual, I don't believe sticks).</b>"<br /><br />You may be surprised, then. Though I think it's alternately used with and without the "E" on the end.<br /><br />"<b>Dani describes her dream as being "a real yummy", another slang term I'm uncertain whether it's a Claremont thing or an 80s thing.</b>"<br /><br />Considering that he's continued to use "yummy" and "yum" well into the 21st century, I'm leaning toward it being a Claremontism.<br /><br />"<b>Xavier notes he's paying Harry for the damages Roberto caused to his bar.</b>"<br /><br />Which is of course code for "Angel is paying." Or maybe "Lilandra's robots are repairing the place."Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.com