What’s Covered?
UXM # 379 - 380, XMV2 # 99
Roster Watch
*Even though Marrow doesn't "leave" in this arc, she won't make it to Claremont's return next issue, so we'll say goodbye to her here.
Synopsis
UXM 379 - 380, XMV2 99 (No Powers)
Script- Alan Davis
Script - Alan Davis (UXM 379), Terry Kavanaugh (XM99, UXM 380)
Pencils - Tom Raney (379), Brett Booth (XM99, UXM 380)
379
Prof X leaves to help the mutant Skrull find a honeworld
Wow, what do you know, another author invents a reason why Professor X needs to leave again. Get him out of the way!
Kitty is pissed, hurt, and annoyed with X
Who isn't these days? Good riddance.
The remaining X-Men play baseball
I hear that Claremont was ghost writing some earlier issues before he was officially announced. Could this be his influence!?
Polaris agrees to stay with Magneto in Genosha
They attack Fabian Cortes as he plots a mutiny
This is interesting as it kicks off a pretty long period of Polaris hanging out with Magneto. I'm surprised, after all these years, no one has even hinted at her being related to him.
Mystique is breaking into a government facility
Brotherhood up to something
Blob, Toad, Mimic, Post
Toad is no longer the evil mastermind he was during the Kings of Pain Crossover. It could have been easy for Post to disappear as quickly as he was introduced, but I appreciate that he's sticking around even though he wasn't an Alan Davis (or Claremont?) creation.
Iceman and Beast are sneaking into Genosha
The High Evolutionary shows up and reverts all mutants into humans
XM99
The High Evolutionary wonders if he went too far
Dr Essex eggs him on
I really like this art!
Mutants/Mutates under attack now that they are powerless in Genosha.
NC really struggling. No balance without tail, too many fingers, less agility, etc
AA and Betsy living it up on the beach
Kitty taking classes
Sarah and Storm working at a summer camp. Sarah has a BF
W is dying of Adamantium poisoning
Talks about it being bad timing.
Rogue checking on Raven (Mystique) in jail
Sinister takes over the High Evolutionary's plans
380
Beast discovers that all beings will mutate by weeks end
There may be a connection between the HE and Sinister
Marrow is dating a boy named Brad
W is dying from Adamantium poisoning, but he was keeping it quiet so Rogue and Marrow could live a normal life
XM still going to try and stop Sinister
They are successful
W almost dies but their powers come back
Lorna still helping (and impersonating) Magneto in Genosha.
My Connections and Creators
End of Alan Davis
This marks the end of the Alan Davis run on X-Men. After not being thrilled with the Manga style of the mid 90's (Joe Mad) or the sloppy stylings of Chris Bachalo, I felt it was such a breath of fresh air to see Davis's art, however they barely let him draw too often (or he choose not to).
I think the Davis era started off really strong with the return of Magneto and the story that put him on the throne in Genosha. However the space/time travels, weak but ambitious Twelve storyline, and the terrible Ages of Apocalypse leaves it tough to reminisce too fondly over this era.
Overview of this arc
As you've probably noticed so far, I have two styles of blog writing. First is when I really care about the plot, I write out my story synopsis, I include a lot of images from the comics, and I have a full characters section. Unfortunately, most of my recent blogs have been pretty weak and you get straight bullet points for plot coverage, condensed opinion, and not a lot of pretty pictures. I wasn't sure what to do with this one, but ultimately I thought the story was pretty weak and therefore I didn't feel motivated to do much more than what you see here.
I've heard rumors that this wasn't actually Alan Davis writing, and it was actually Claremont ghost writing. I see a few Claremont trappings which makes me see that as a possibility, but I don't think anyone knows for sure. I really liked Brett Booth's art in X-Men 99, but since I've never heard of him, I have a feeling he won't be around long for the re-boot.
Prof X Leaves again.
Well, well, well...another author couldn't wait to get rid of this guy. Man I've been writing about this since Blog # 1. The cartoon and movies make it seem like he's this great guy who's always been around, but in the comics he's typically either missing or fucking things up for everyone else. Here he needs to go off to help the Skrulls. Even though he's clearly being written out by the editorial team, even that flippant decision to ditch the X-Men is characteristic of who he is. They did some major damage to him during Onslaught, he was missing, then he came back and was a huge dick during The Twelve. He needed more time to get back in our good graces, but looks like they are content to just say bye to him.
End of Marrow
Even though nothing specifically happens in this comic to show the exit of Marrow, I know that she doesn't make the leap to the short lived Claremont re-boot. For that reason, I'll take a second to say goodbye. I didn't love this character, but I was definitely consistently intrigued. It was nice to take someone who was pretty darn evil and throw her in with the X-Men, and then she stayed pretty negative and sassy throughout (unlike Rogue).
No Powers
This is a pretty big idea. I'm actually glad they did it because sometimes you need to switch up the status quo. However, even though I bitch when a weird status quo lingers too long (like Storm being powerless for years), I felt like this came and went so fast, it seems like a bit of a waste.
The biggest direction they could have taken this was Rogue, but other than Wolverine paying lip service to how great this must be for her, we really don't get much. You would think she might be in a hurry to get back with Gambit (I'm ignoring that he may have been intimate with Marrow) or at least find a new boyfriend. I mean...I'm sure she has needs. It was fun though seeing her reconnect with her mom (Mystique) who was stuck in jail since she was impersonating someone when her powers left her.
There was a lot of surprising focus on Nightcrawler. His story was always that he was the biggest freak with the smallest chip on his shoulder. I guess I need to give credit to this being done well...in fact this does seem rather Claremontian now that I think about it. He looked like a regular human, but he was struggling without the extra agility, balance that comes from having a tail, etc. He didn't even seem to mind losing the teleportation, but the agility was killing him.
I'm glad Wolverine got a little attention. Pretty cool that he was dying of Adamantium posioning but tried to hide it so that Rogue and Marrow (who did get a boyfriend) could live normal lives. Is that Philosopher Logan coming through!?