SOME THOUGHTS ON :
UNCANNY X-MEN #496

     It wasn’t always in my nature to be so down on Marvel Comics like I have been as of late. In my teenage years, most of my comic budget (which was pretty much all of my allowance which was given to me by my parents for doing chores around the house) went towards buying comics from the House of Ideas. My favorite title at the time, like a good number of comic readers from the early eighties, was the Uncanny X-Men.  I would search far and wide for the next issue from convenience store to convenience store. The not-so-merry band of mutants seemed to be in short supply back in those days before Macon got its own comic book store sometime in 1983. Due to the nature of collecting comics in those days, I managed to miss an issue here or there. This annoyance did not deter my readership and loyalty to one of the finest runs from a writer, penciller, and inker team in comic history. I am, of course, referring to the Chris Clairmont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin days of the X-Men when the X-books were one and Jean Grey had not yet died on the blue area of the moon.

One of the cooliest covers from the early adventures of the all-new X-Men!

     As I got older and got more of a steady income from various jobs, I filled in the gaps of the run between Uncanny X-Men 108 and 143. Having a comic book store and working in one in the 1990s gave me ample opportunity to do so. I even went back a little further and got Giant Size X-Men #1 and issues 94 thru 107. For a great number of years afterwards, this was my favorite run in all of the comics that I had ever read. Those individual issues are long gone now. They were sold in my college days in times where money was needed more than comics. I have the Marvel Masterpieces collections of volumes one thru five. For the first time in over a decade, I am re-reading them and re-visiting my childhood. I can tell you that they are just as good now as they were then.
     Even if you asked me today, I would be hard pressed to choose a better run of any comics. I read X-men long after the three comic legends stopped working on the book. I saw artists come and go - John Romita, Jr., Marc Silvestri, Paul Smith, and even a very young Jim Lee. None of them matched, in my mind, the artwork of John Byrne inked by Terry Austin. The stories back then seem more dynamic…more thoughtful than what has followed.
     I have returned to the X-Men many times through the years hoping to find a familiar friend. More times than not, I found a confusing jumble of a team with too many titles and too many crossovers to keep up with. I couldn’t keep track of who was on which team. Or how Wolverine could be on all of them at once? Could Professor Xavier walk again or was he still in a wheel chair? Was Jean Grey dead or was she alive? After these questions and the countless times the X-Mansion was flattened and destroyed, I gave up and moved on to other comics that were less convoluted.  A little over three years ago that changed however.

One of the great covers from John Cassady from the Astonishing X-Men run.

     When the first issue of the ‘Astonishing X-Men’ hit the shelves by Buffy scribe Joss Whedon and artist extraordinaire John Cassidy, it quickly caught my attention. The team was a finite number and you didn’t have to read seven other X-books just to get a vague idea of what was going on in the current month’s issue. By the nature of the storylines that Whedon had developed, it was isolated from the rest of the Marvel Universe and, more importantly, the other X-Men books. The Astonishing X-Men was more of an ultimate X-Men team than, well, the Ultimate X-Men. I was hooked and on-board from that first issue.
     Since that time, twenty four issues have been published and the book has been a sales boom for Marvel and the store. Other than Batman: Hush Volumes One and Two, no other trade paperback continues to sell out like these first three volumes do.  A further testament to how good this comic has been is that when a new customer comes in and tells me, “I have been out of comics for a few years, what is good?”, my first response (after I learn if they are either a DC or Marvel reader) is always “the Astonishing X-Men.” This run comes closer to matching the spirit of Byrne/Clairmont more than any others that I have read in the long history of the X-Men.
     We are currently waiting for Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1, the final installment, to come out which has been advertised with the not-so unique selling point that someone will die. This brings me back to an earlier point in this article. I still look at the other X-Men titles hoping to find a hidden gem. As of late, Uncanny X-Men, written by Ed Brubaker, has been pretty good. Last week in the comics preview pack that Marvel sends out to me, a copy of ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #496’ was included. With a cover featuring Colossus, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler, I eagerly flipped through its pages searching for that faint glimmer of brilliance from the X-Men of my youth.
     While the issue does deal with some weird hippie-infestation in San Francisco that has managed to subvert Angel and a few other X-Men hanger-ons, it centers mostly on Logan and Kurt who have accompanied Peter home to Siberia to visit his parents’ graves. After they pay their respects to the dead, the trio looks for a bar to have a drink. As an homage to an earlier X-Men issue from Clairmont’s run, Brubaker even wrote dialogue for Wolverine cracking to Nightcrawler as he looked around nervously “What ‘re you lookin’ for , Elf? Juggernaut?” This is a reference to Uncanny X-Men # 183 in which the trio found themselves in a bar with Cain “I’m the Juggernaut, Bitch!” Marko and a brawl erupts between ole Juggs and Colossus which brings down the house - literally. In this issue a barfight does erupt but there is no sight of the Juggernaut. Keen-sighted old school X-Men readers will even recognize Kurt utilizing the image-inducing device (a Tony Stark invention) to look like Errol Flynn while at the bar so to not be too conspicuous.
     In this otherwise fine issue, there is one line of dialogue that gets my blood boiling and rouses my ire. The line spoken by Nightcrawler over drinks with his two long-time friends is, “The man has just visited his parents’ graves…and just a few weeks ago he lost the woman he loves.” When I read it, I was stunned.  Did Marvel really screw up again? Did they really reveal the dead X-man before the issue in which she dies is even published? Wow. Thanks again, Joe Q! You really are trying to make Marvel a company where anything can happen.

HEY BOYS AND GIRLS, THIS IS MY REACTION TO MARVEL'S LATEST BLUNDER...WHERE'S MY MEDS???

     The slip up - if that was what it was- could be explained by the fact that ‘Astonishing X-Men’ has always had issues with running late and shipping on time. In the 44 months since the premier of its July 2004 cover date, Marvel has only managed 24 issues of the Astonishing X-Men. Being behind schedule is not a valid excuse. If Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could produce more than half of the Marvel comics in any given month in the 60’s, then Whedon and Cassidy can get one out a month. In addition to ensuring that “anything can happen in the Marvel Universe” and wrecking twenty years of Spider-man continuity, I suppose that an editor-in-chief’s job is to make sure that the various creative teams meet their deadlines. If they can’t, you either get someone who can or make contingency plans. The point is - don’t let the cat out of the bag before the cat expires. Just when the medication for the coronary I had over Spider-man was starting to ease the pain - this happens.
     I have a tendency to expect Marvel to be the Marvel of my youth - the comic company that would brighten my day, not darken my thoughts with mid-town Manhattan office shootings. Last year, Marvel let me down and they did it big time. It seems that everytime I pick up a Marvel Comic, I find another reason to be annoyed. This year, it looks like more of the same. But it’s ok. This is the Marvel where anything can happen. Right, Joe?