Jason Powell on Uncanny X-Men #163

[Guest blogger Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men Run. For more in this series, see the toolbar on the right.]

“Rescue Mission”

At this point in his run, Claremont seems generally to have pulled free of the long shadow of his work with John Byrne (as well as that of Kirby, Lee, Adams, et al). Recent months have seen him take the series in directions not at all predicted by anything seen previously in an X-Men comic – proof that Claremont alone has the imagination and creative wherewithal to steer the X-Men into exciting and surprising directions, irrespective of his artistic partner.

Still, a job is a job, and the relentlessness of the monthly deadline – combined with Claremont’s own recognizable writing idiosyncrasies and quirks – make it inevitable that he will still repeat himself from time to time. (Ultimately, the same is true of any writer in a serialized medium.)

In the present issue, there are distinct shades of the middle act of the Dark Phoenix Saga, wherein Wolverine and Cyclops were the lynchpins of the X-Men’s escape from the Hellfire Club. Here, Wolverine is once again the catalyst for an escape, this time from the Brood (whom the X-Men all seem to spontaneously nickname “sleazoids” – a prime example of Claremont’s aforementioned quirkiness). Furthermore, Claremont seems to be heading Carol Danvers towards a Phoenix-like transformation. Danvers’ arc will eventually play out fairly innocuously, but readers at the time of this issue’s initial release must have heard danger-alarms when reading Carol’s dialogue on Page Six: “Fire ... burning within me – so bright, so ... beautiful.”

The more interesting bit with Carol Danvers actually occurs pages earlier, when Wolverine off-handedly references having once rescued her from the KGB. That seed will blossom to awesome effect years later, during Claremont’s four-part Genosha storyline with Marc Silvestri in Uncanny issues 235-238. For the moment, it’s an intriguing bit of back-story, tossed out in that off-handed manner that Claremont employs so well when it’s called for.

After the initial sequence with Wolverine and a disconcertingly Phoenix-like Carol, “Rescue Mission” settles into an entertaining dead heat. With Claremont and Cockrum back in sync after the previous issue’s weird creative dissonance, the X-Men once again seem right at home in a sci-fi milieu. Cockrum’s action sequences are infused with effervescent fun, while the feminist in Claremont takes clear delight in bolstering the X-Men’s male-heavy lineup with gun-wielding females Carol and Lilandra. (Toward the end of his Uncanny run – the Jim Lee era – Claremont will make fun of his fetish for tough, armed females twice inside six months. Uncanny #276 will actually contain the phrase “bad, beautiful babes with really big guns.”)

Meanwhile, the less amusing penchant for sexualizing Kitty Pryde again rears its ugly head – even on the cover, which depicts Kitty in a ravaged dress and covered in gashes. The trend seems even more tasteless in the wake of the deliberately disturbing material from Uncanny #160.

Wolverine’s angst is nicely handled in “Rescue Mission.” Suffering from premature survivors’ guilt at being the only X-Man not implanted with a Brood egg, here Logan can think of no better way to express his grief than to try and murder the alien queen. It’s perfectly in character – even poignant, in its way – and contributes to the overall sense of dread that Claremont weaves regarding the whole Brood-egg concept, which will go on to play out expertly over the next few issues.

Streebo records Ellis at Heroes Con 2006

Here is what he said about it when he sent it to me:

"I just uploaded some footage of Warren Ellis that I've been holding onto since 2006. It was shot on a cel phone - but it features a few minutes from his Night With Warren Ellis event. It was never meant to be professional nor for public consumption - but I figure there are some out there that would appreciate it. I have a much longer clip of Ellis from the same event - but am having troubles converting it into a manageable size for youtube."

Comics Out September 4, 2008

Boy I should not have switched to trades on several titles I was getting, because now often I pick up nothing.

If you would like to regularly write small reviews of the comics you normally get I would be more than happy to post some of them here, the week they come out.

I will say that I really found the "official" title of this comic to be really weirdly hilarious in its mash up of elements: "Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Season 2 #2 Incentive Monkey Variant Cover"

And this interview with Grant Morrison is really excellent. Troy Wilson pointed us to it in the comments of last week's Comics Out post.

Scott on the Sound of Silence and the Graduate

[Scott discusses a famous film moment, and I ask a question at the end.]

Here's the clip of the last few minutes of The Graduate just to refresh everyone's memory.



Last week I posted “Sound of Silence” at the end of The Graduate as my all-time favorite ending music for a film. This is because, the moment that the song enters, the ending is transformed from typical happy ending into a far more poignant moment that would become symbolic of the uncertainty of an entire generation.

The final few minutes of The Graduate has become one of the most parodied/homaged sequences in film history and the basic trope of this ending has become one of the most imitated. Countless romantic comedies have ended with a boy/girl rushing to stop the wedding/departure/bar mitzvah of the object of their affection. This can be seen in movies as diverse as Crocodile Dundee, Runaway Bride, My Best Friend’s Wedding and pretty much every other Julia Roberts vehicle.

The difference in The Graduate comes about in that final thirty seconds before the credits roll. First of all, there is the use of “Sound Of Silence”, not only is this song far from celebratory in its tone but it has also served as a theme of uncertainty and lack of direction throughout the film. Then, we also have that moment where Ben and Elaine stare forward and take a deep breath before the smiles slowly fade from their faces. I once heard this referred to as the movie’s “Oh, Shit!” moment. This is the moment where the consequences of their actions finally set in; both have become so desperate to escape their past that they are willing to burn every bridge behind them by storming out of the wedding. They have also invested a great deal of their future happiness in one another, in a relationship that still has a lot of issues that need to be worked out, mainly, that they don’t even really know each other that well (they’ve had one date and a few days of Ben pestering Elaine), not to mention the fact that he had and affair with her mother. It is only in the final few seconds, however, that they realize all of this. Their only hope is that their future life, however uncertain, is better than the lives that they are leaving behind.

Had the movie ended thirty seconds earlier, it still would have been a great movie, perhaps it would still even be a classic but those final seconds that turn all the conventions of ‘Happily Ever After’ on its ear, beautifully emphasized through the use of “Sound of Silence”, are what truly make this film a masterpiece.

[Here is my question -- this moment is so famous, but I cannot, off the top of my head, really think of many films that have learned from it, incorporated it, revised it, or played with it in any way other than parody. Maybe there are tons, but they are not coming to me. What am I missing?]

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