tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post4412021704526177773..comments2024-03-19T03:17:15.936-04:00Comments on Remarkable: Jason Powell on Uncanny X-Men #129Geoff Klockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09080580776997273785noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-1214799335346307552008-05-30T17:11:00.000-04:002008-05-30T17:11:00.000-04:00I'm a little behind so I'm not sure anyone is look...I'm a little behind so I'm not sure anyone is looking at this one anymore. Just in case ...<BR/><BR/>Marc Caputo: LOVE THAT STORY!<BR/><BR/>Doug M.: Excellent points, as always. I have a different paradigm in my head for how the run from issues 110 to 143 break down, but yours is quite canny as well. I'll discuss mine in a later post, or in one of these Comments threads, for a little compare/contrast.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13298753675007196538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-39054613390220343592008-05-30T07:41:00.000-04:002008-05-30T07:41:00.000-04:00My friend has the original art to the splash page ...My friend has the original art to the splash page of # 129. He bought it 20, 20+ years ago for what amounts to a song. In 1991, we went to Forbidden Planet to see Claremont at a signing. The art had already been signed by Byrne; Mike wanted it signed by Claremont (shouldn't he try for Austin for the trifecta? How about Orzechowski (sp?), the letterer?)<BR/><BR/>Anyway, we're about 3 people back from the desk and Claremont happens to land his eyes on the art and is visibly surprised. As we're moving up, he's looking back to us several times. I was just marveling - since I'd just returned to comics after a 7-year absence - at how hot girls who read comics had gotten. OK, I was just marveling at the fact that GIRLS READ COMICS?<BR/><BR/>Anyway again, he gets to the desk and Claremont has this Obi-Wan-like moment of "I haven't seen this in a very long time."<BR/><BR/>Very cool.Marc Caputohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03293532769174212726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-82035305041783854082008-05-29T23:46:00.000-04:002008-05-29T23:46:00.000-04:00...edit to say: for Angel, obviously, the father w......edit to say: for Angel, obviously, the father was dead as well as an asshole.<BR/><BR/>SFStephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16524368948187746248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-60923856516747187692008-05-29T23:44:00.000-04:002008-05-29T23:44:00.000-04:00I don't recall if Kitty's father was an asshole ye...<I>I don't recall if Kitty's father was an asshole yet. I'm sure he did become one later. Someone said that in Claremont comics, fathers are always dead, conveniently absent, or assholes. Pryde _pere_ certainly fit the bill, but I don't recall just when.</I><BR/><BR/>I don't recall for certain, but my memory is that he became an asshole later -- the Kitty/Wolverine limited series (which I may be the only person on the internet to have fond memories of, judging by what I've seen people say of it) was a particular point of reference here, although there were some earlier signs (i.e. the shipping Kitty off to Emma's school in issues #151-152). But I don't think it was <I>this</I> early.<BR/><BR/>Incidentally, that description of Clemmont's fathers pretty much fits most Joss Whedon characters (who's admitted CC as an influence) -- doesn't it?<BR/>Look at his fathers:<BR/>Buffy - first asshole, then absent<BR/>Willow - absent<BR/>Xander - shown to be an asshole in absentia<BR/>Coredlia - ditto<BR/>Oz - absent<BR/>Tara - asshole<BR/>Angel - asshole<BR/>Wesley - asshole<BR/><BR/>...and I can't recall any fathers from Firefly offhand for *any* of the characters...<BR/><BR/>Just a thought.<BR/><BR/>SFStephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16524368948187746248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-60010258864074519172008-05-29T23:40:00.000-04:002008-05-29T23:40:00.000-04:00At last! We get to the issues I've read!! (Not i...At last! We get to the issues I've read!! (Not in real time -- I read back to #129 with an avant la lettre trade and some back issues -- but I did read them in the 80's, even the early 80's).<BR/><BR/>And while I don't think that this stands up as a Great Work of Art in any sense (well, except maybe for <BR/><A HREF="http://andrewrilstone.blogspot.com/2008/04/umberto-eco-sums-up-what-ive-been.html" REL="nofollow">this sense</A>, plus some Bloomian points for influence), this was a terrific reading of the issue, lots of insightful points made, and the context from issue 60 & Schuter definitely adds a nice layer.<BR/><BR/>Now that I've caught up to it -- or vice-versa? -- I can tell I'm going to enjoy this series a lot.<BR/><BR/>SFStephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16524368948187746248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-31032368074116193542008-05-29T07:05:00.000-04:002008-05-29T07:05:00.000-04:00Ah, Jim Shooter. It's twenty years since he left/...Ah, Jim Shooter. It's twenty years since he left/was fired, and his legacy is still a source of endless controversy.<BR/><BR/>It's true that Shooter's direct interventions in the creative process -- like this one -- were often painfully clumsy and off-key. On the other hand... well, this is probably not the forum. Note that he was a damn fine administrator, and move on.<BR/><BR/>So. Agreed, that C&B here reboot the X-Men to "normalcy", briefly, if only so that they can have that much more fun blowing up their world. Thinking about it, the last time the X-Men were "normal" -- all together, and all at home --was issue 110. That makes me wonder if the Warhawk reference here was deliberate, linking these two issues together.<BR/><BR/>And when do they get back to normalcy again? I'd say issue 143, which has them once again all together and at home. In this sense, you could say that 110 and 143 are the bookend issues for the extended-play Phoenix storyline, while 129 marks the point where it moves from low to high gear.<BR/><BR/>Slow reveal of the villains: as noted, this was a Claremont specialty: Alpha Flight, Proteus, now this. I'm old enough to remember when these comics came out, and I can testify that it was effective. You pored over each old issue looking for clues, and then you greeted each new one with a little "aha!". This has since become part of the standard comics creator toolkit, but even today few do it as well as C&B did in the X-Men.<BR/><BR/>Kitty Pryde: Byrne drew her almost ridiculously coltish, with oversized eyes, long skinny legs, and a huge mass of hair. I'm not sure what he was after here -- trying to emphasize how much younger she was than the grown-up X-Men? -- but it never worked for me. Apparently I was in a minority, though, as Kitty immediately developed a large and devoted following among the fanboys.<BR/><BR/>Note also Kitty's Jewishness. This is partly Claremont's diversity thing -- if we're going to have a new mutant, let's have her be female, and something other than whitebread American. There's nothing wrong with this, though later in Claremont's career it would be carried to ridiculous extremes. (IMS the Marauders included a North Korean and an Eskimo.) And, in retrospect, one suspects that Claremont was setting up the (rather powerful) Magneto scene from issue 150 long in advance -- maybe so long that he wrote Kitty Jewish just for that purpose. <BR/><BR/>That raises a couple of other points. One, you'll notice that both the new mutants are female. Well, this was the middle of Claremont's "is there any reason this character couldn't be female" period, so it's hardly surprising.<BR/><BR/>Two, notice how diverse the Hellfire Club /isn't/. They're a bunch of rich, whitebread Anglo jerks -- very much a contrast to the X-Men. In this context, Emma Frost's wacky outfit makes perfect sense; as the only female in this rather louche and retro group (Tessa was just a handmaiden or something at this point), she pretty much has to dress down. Grant Morrison, that clever fellow, would spot exactly this point and mock it mercilessly in his "Doom Force Annual" some years later. (That's the one where the villain mocks the villainess for wearing too much clothing -- it shows she's not really evil, you see. She ends up in a thong and pasties.)<BR/><BR/>I'm doing these issues from memory, so I don't recall if Kitty's father was an asshole yet. I'm sure he did become one later. Someone said that in Claremont comics, fathers are always dead, conveniently absent, or assholes. Pryde _pere_ certainly fit the bill, but I don't recall just when.<BR/><BR/>Finally, a nice touch that we don't see any more: Wolverine checking out a porn magazine (with Peter staring appalled in the background), then picking a fight when the shopkeeper does the "this isn't a library" thing. This version of Wolverine is pretty far from the high-minded samurai warrior of later issues.<BR/><BR/>cheers,<BR/><BR/><BR/>Doug M.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com