Uncanny X-Men 270

[Jason Powell takes us into the home stretch of his look at every issue Claremont's initial Uncanny X-Men run. I apologize for this coming out a day late but some LOST foolishness distracted the blog. It will not happen again (for obvious reasons).]

“First Strike”

With the previous two years having seen massive, line-wide crossovers, Marvel were perhaps a bit concerned about the fans becoming a bit fatigued. (Current Marvel doesn’t seem to worry about this.) Thus, 1990’s X-over is a quick, self-contained 9-issue affair. As someone noted during the “Inferno” discussions, the early Marvel X-events did a fairly admirable job of possessing a true sense of occasion. “Mutant Massacre” and “Fall of the Mutants” both featured large changes to the status quos of the series involved; “Inferno” succeeded in resolving several very long-running plot threads. And “X-Tinction Agenda” marks a large change as well, as it reunites the long-splintered X-Men and also introduces the new editorial standpoint, wherein the arbitrary divisions among the different mutant series are dissolved, and the X-universe becomes more of a melting pot, with characters freely moving from one series to the next. This attitude hasn’t really changed in the 20 years since – if anything, it’s become more extreme, with characters like Wolverine being gleefully dropped into every X-title on the shelves. (Much to the consternation of fans such as those who run the Marvel Chronology Project.)

The 1990 mutant crossover, titled “X-Tinction Agenda” comprises nine chapters published over three months, appearing in three issues each of Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and X-Factor (the latter two series still being penned by Louise Simonson at this point). As the Uncanny author, Claremont writes chapters 1, 4 and 7 – the beginning of each month’s triad. With the “Days of Future Present” crossover in the summer X-annuals, Claremont was able to write the final chapter, expertly cleaning up the mess left by the earlier parts. Here, the inverse occurs: Claremont provides a slick, exciting beginning in collaboration with new regular art-team Jim Lee and Scott Williams, only for things to go haywire as the narrative ball is passed to Louise Simonson and a collection of less effective artists.

In 1988’s “Inferno” crossover, Claremont gave his chapters a faux-literary gloss by naming them “Part the First,” “Part the Second,” etc., alluding to Dante’s Inferno. He uses a similar trick in “X-Tinction Agenda,” with the opening page presenting the “Dramatis Personae” a la Shakespeare. Claremont even does his best to mimic Shakespeare’s style of listing his characters in order of social rank – note that the X-Men are placed at the top of the page, and the New Mutants along the bottom. (See also: X-Men Annual 9.) (“Dramatis personae” literally means “masks of the drama,” making it a particularly canny choice for a comic about superheroes – granting that very few of the X-Men and New Mutants actually wore masks at this point.)

Lost Season 6, Episode 17 and 18: The End

[Spoilers. I wrote this RIGHT AFTER the show ended. I wrote it during Jimmy Kimmel. I sent it to Smartpop at like 2am but now the day is over and they did not post it, and I have not heard from them. There is a book expo in New York the Smartpop folks are at so maybe that accounts for it. Anyway, here it is. Look for Jason Powell's X-Men post Wednesday.]

Wow what a deeply WEIRD show.

I was going to start off here with a gag about that Chekov line where if you have a loaded gun in the first act you have to have it go off in the third, and I was going to say something about how Lost has a small arsenal of unused weapons. I was also going to talk about how much I love Kill Bill (the two volumes as one movie), and how I wanted one ending (BIG FIGHT SCENE), and got something totally different (The Bride and Bill did not even get out of their chairs) -- and was totally satisfied. I want to see plots reach their natural conclusion, but I can also be convinced to care about something else. I feel like Walt, and Aaron, and Dharma, and time travel, should mean something -- I don't want to feel like Jin time travelled and Sun did not for no reason other than the writers thought it would be more dramatic to keep them apart. (Don't tell me Jacob did not time travel her because she is a mother: so was Kate and he offered her the job.)

I have no idea what I think about the end of Lost. It is going to take me a while to think it through. I at least three quarters liked the episode. The whole series is going to take me longer to figure out. But I gotta write so here I go.

The summary. Jack and Locke get Desmond and send him down into the light, where they bet on what the result will be. They end up being both right: Jack is right that when he guesses disturbing the source it will allow him to kill the Man in Black, but the Man in Black is right that it will destroy the island -- except it turns out it can be reversed. Jack and the Man in Black fight and both mortally wound each other. Hurley becomes the man in charge of the island with Ben as his second in command -- and their first order of business is to get Desmond back. Kate and Sawyer make it to the plane in time to join Richard, Miles, and Lapidus as they leave. In the alt universe everyone remembers and in the big twist of the night the alt U turns out to be a kind of pre-heaven. In the end they are all ready to let go and move onto whatever the afterlife has to offer.

Obviously we are not supposed to care about a lot of the mysteries. I can live with it a bit. That we are not supposed to care what happens to Jin and Sun's kid is more troubling. That feels like it is going to continue to bug me for a long time to come. My friend Brady points out that the baby is not a character and thus I should be fine with not returning to her, but I am not convinced. Nothing to do with mystery being better as mystery: you can't introduce a abandoned baby three episodes from the end and just leave it there. Or maybe you can. I don't know.

Free Form Comments

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If I forget, remind me. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.

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AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.

You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.

WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.

Lost, Season 6, Episode 16: What They Died For

My Smartpop review of Lost is up. Here is a sample. Click for more.

One thing the second to last episode of a season of Lost does well is ANNOUNCE stuff. They say they are going to do stuff, and then they DO it in the last episode of the season. “We have to move the island.” “Let’s set off a nuke.” “I am going to kill Jacob” and now “I am going to destroy the island.” (I am probably forgetting similar pronouncements from the end of seasons 1, 2, and 3: “I am not going to push the button” maybe?). The moment was a little undercut tonight, the only flaw in tonight’s fantastic episode — as a friend pointed out, earlier in the episode The Man in Black told Ben he could have the island if Ben would help him, presumably help him kill Jack (and maybe the others if, now that Jack has become the new Jacob, they still even matter). He tells him in the end he is going to destroy it — so what exactly is Ben’s motivation again? I got a little lost there.

I noticed a lot of people bothered by the campfire scene, where Jacob tells the four of them any of them can have the job if they want it. I was fine with it. I think the problem the writers ran into here was it was pretty clear how the candidate was being chosen -- everyone else was dead. They needed to do this now and in this way because they don't want Kate, Sawyer and Hurley dead just to make Jack the protector of the island.

Jacob here joins a long list of fictional characters who take FOREVER to actually die after they are said to be dead.

One thing I would like cleared up that I feel is not going to get cleared up is how "the rules" work. "Rule" is a word like "law" -- there is ambiguity if it is what you should do (like civil law) or what you must do (like the law that nothing can go faster than the speed of light). In one of the best episodes of season 4 we were told Widmore "broke the rules" when he had Alex killed, and another rule kept Ben from killing Widmore in that episode -- but not from trying to kill his daughter. I guess these rules went out the window when Jacob died, but it seems weird and I feel like it might mean nothing.

One more thing I want to know is about the babies dying. We still don't know what caused that and with the birth of Ethan Rom in the 70s it is clear something happened after that to cause it. I hope this one gets answered. I can live without the other half of the outrigger shootout -- which was clearly supposed to take place in What They Died For. But there are some things Lost needs to land. What do they need to land for you.

Uncanny X-Men #269

[Scott wanted to do the intro for this one. Here is what he said:

There are only a handful of men in this world that I truly admire: Bono, Phil Collins, Clarence Clemons... and, of course, Jason Powell. I have a dream that, one day, these men will perform a supergroup. I imagine that Jason would play bass and each note he played would be as deep and resonant as his analysis of EACH AND EVERY ISSUE of Claremont's Original X-men run. That's a lot of bass notes... Yes, Jason Powell is a great man... but he also likes Thundercats, because all heroes must have a flaw. On a personal note, I asked to do the intro to this week's post as this was my first issue of the X-men as a regular reader; a pretty odd issue to enter the series when it comes down to it- I had no idea who Rogue was as a character or any of the Carol Danvers backstory, there's no Wolverine here-or any character that I had previously associated with the X-men for that matter, in fact, I'm pretty sure that the main reason I bought this issue was the naked Rogue at the top of the issue (and, if I remember correctly, she didn't exactly put on much after that- cute little T-shirt with an 'X' logo on it, right?). So, I didn't buy this issue so much as my 13-year-old hormones did but, that's the power of Claremont, he had me hooked within a couple of issues.]

“Rogue Redux“

Carol Danvers, the original “Ms. Marvel,” was the quintessential Claremont Female – starting life as a second-stringer, she became a kind of beacon of feminist achievement when Claremont wrote her in the 70s: a solider, secret agent, astronaut, magazine editor and superhero, all while still in her mid-twenties.

Back in 1982, when Claremont was struggling to find his own voice in the wake of losing John Byrne (the Lennon to his McCartney), Carol became his icon in issue 158, wherein the character decides that her past is prologue and that the future belongs entirely to her. As I wrote in the blog for that issue, Carol was a stand-in for Claremont in that moment, declaring independence and fearlessly looking towards the future. As such, Uncanny 158 was the first issue of the series to belong entirely to Claremont himself, distinct from “Claremont AND Cockrum” or “Claremont AND Byrne.”

So, it is not insignificant that in Uncanny 269, Claremont’s last issue of Uncanny before the fall crossover (followed by an arc explicitly co-plotted by artist Jim Lee, and thereupon by Claremont quitting) … Carol Danvers dies. If there is any single comic in the latter day X-Men run that specifically points to a future in which the author leaves the franchise he poured his heart into (a franchise which would, in turn, barely miss him after he was gone), then this is it.