Friday, April 27, 2007

UNCANNY X-MEN #202 Marvel Comics, 1986

One thing they kept in mind during the Golden Eighties was that every issue of a comic book was somebody’s first issue. This maxim has helped craft some of the classic conventions associated with American superhero comics, such as thought balloons, clunky expository dialogue, soliloquies, etc. Few people in my mind have reached the level of mastery at creating accessible pop fiction by using those conventions like Chris Claremont has.

Claremont is associated with The Uncanny X-Men, a book that he wrote for seventy-five years straight. Many of the themes and characters and plotlines we associate with the X-Men burst like Athena from Claremont’s head. He is Mr. X-Men (which sort of sounds like a Mexican wrestler.)

Back in the mid-Eighties, before the franchise’s inexorable slide into suckiness, Chris Claremont and artist John Romita Jr were cranking out some excellent X-Men books. This is one of my favorite Uncanny X-Men periods, the Good Magneto Era, which is characterized by Romita’s well-structured art, a hideous skunk haircut for Rogue and a Mohawk for Storm, and a reformed Magneto who is honor-bound to embrace Xavier’s methods and join his old adversaries the X-Men. This period seemed to strike the perfect balance between emo melodrama, sprawling high adventure, and yes, lesbianism. Because yay lesbians! I heart Storm and Kitty!!!

One thing Claremont was really good at was creating big superhero fight scenes. He used every tool and convention of the medium to create big battles that the casual reader could follow, because between the expository dialogue, thought balloons, and narrative captions, the only way you couldn’t tell what was going on was if you couldn’t read.
Or see.

With the current focus on Mametian dialogue and adopting cinematic values on to comic books , and the disdain many modern readers hold for thought balloons, I’m afraid comics like Uncanny X-Men #202 might seem quaint or old-fashioned. And in a sense, they are. When you throw Claremont’s distinctive writing tics into the mix, books like these seem as unnatural and stylized as Kabuki theater. Therein lays the drawback and the beauty of books like this, where naturalism takes a backseat to the true goal of the book: tell an involving story that anybody can pick up and understand.


Personally, I love these old Claremont books because c’mon, it’s the frickin’ X-Men, not Glengarry Glen Ross. How realistic do you want them to be? One of the fun things about old school spandex punch/kick comics is how unique they are as a storytelling medium. Thought balloons and overly explanatory dialogue are both a necessity and a part of their charm.

Today – and I’m generalizing like a mofo here – comics are so self-conscious and embarrassed by their heritage that most refuse to use the full spectrum of tools available to creators. I’m just guessing, but de-compressed wide-screen continuity porn holds little allure to the new reader – and industry-wide sales seem to back me up on that.

Anyway, the comic. This is a crossover issue that ties into the Secret Wars II mini-series, during which an all powerful David Hasselhoff looking bastard with a white track suit and a mullet comes to Earth to bug the shit out of mankind. His name was The Beyonder, a cosmic being more annoying than Mr. Mxyzptlyk and The Impossible Man and Q combined. Seriously, there’s something about The Beyonder that just takes me there, you know? Makes me violent.

In Uncanny X-Men #202, young X-Man Rachel Summers (aka Phoenix 2.0) confronts The Beyonder in San Francisco with her own nigh-omnipotent powers. Rachel is from a dystopian future where she served as a “hound,” using her telepathic powers to track down mutants for the giant purple Sentinel robots to destroy. The Beyonder can sense that Rachel has some issues about her involvement with giant purple robots, so he presents her with a scenario where she can ease her guilt. Said scenario involves siccing a bunch of Sentinels from the future on her X-Men buddies and encouraging Rachel to save them, of course.

I loves me the Sentinels. They are giant purple robots from the future who explain everything they're doing in really loud voices. How can you not get behind Sentinels?

I’ve always admired the way Claremont arranged his fight scenes. The guy was a pro. They weren’t just panel after panel of guys slugging each other and GUHHH!! sound effects – Claremont packed his battles with dramatic tension, narrow escapes, reversals of fortune, last-minute rescues, cheesy one-liners, clever applications of super-powers, and lots and lots of talking.

Here Good Magneto layeth the smacketh down on an Omega-series, using his magnetic powers to funnel the extreme cold of outer space (don’t ask), freezing the robot. In a panel or two Rogue will blast through the brittle Sentinel at full-speed, shattering his purple ass. F*&% Yeah! That's good stuff.

Magneto turns the City by the Bay into a big snow globe, and the fight continues elsewhere. Colossus is about to get smooshed by a big bell-bottomed boot when he's bailed out by his former girlfriend, Kitty Pryde, who can phase through solid matter. How do you know she can phase through solid matter? She tells you - FIVE TIMES!

Colossus counter attacks by swatting the Sentinel with a light post. The Sentinel practically laughs at Colossus, until the lamp post lodges in his torso. Kitty Pryde has made Colossus and the big pole immaterial, but when he lets go, the pole solidifies inside the robot. Psych your mind, robot!

Phoenix flies up and channels 100 giga-shitloads of energy into the lamp post, frying the Sentinel. Game over. Then she goes and gives The Beyonder the Mark V Open Hand Strike. Dick.

Is this comic perfect? No. Is it more than a little overwrought and verbose? Oh yes. But this was comics before the Age of Irony, the Age of Decompression – when Claremont was king and the target audience was actually below 18. Fans love to bitch about Chris Claremont and how his best work is long behind him, but I’m not so sure. I think Claremont is writing the same kind of books today as he was back in The Day, but the audience has aged and industry standards have changed.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my post-modern meta-textual self-referential cinematic comics as much as the next guy, but every now and then I pine for the days of crappy color separation and thought balloons and the smell of newsprint.

Because I’m old.

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Few people in my mind have reached the level of mastery at creating accessible pop fiction by using those conventions like Chris Claremont has."

And exactly how many people are there in your mind?

Anonymous said...

Totally agree. When I first read this issue in Dutch, as a 10 year old kid on holiday with my folks, I simply couldn't put it down. I kept rereading it, simply because it felt so perfect.

All my favorite characters were there... Good Magneto (TM)and depowered Mohawked Storm using the Blackbird to take down a Sentinel. Potent stuff...

Secret Wars II was a horrible, horrible crossover but the Uncanny tie-in made the best of a bad situation. The next issue featured professor Xavier, the Starjammers and the M'Kraan Crystal as Phoenix wanted to end the Beyonder threat by breaching the Crystal and rebooting the universe. The X-men prevented Rachel from ending everything in a truly powerful tale, including a sobbing Magneto. Cool, just cool. Thanks Dave for making me relive some cherished childhood memories!

spacekicker said...

I love me some thought bubbles. Grand sir Brian Bendis is starting to use them in Mighty Avengers which is cool to see!

Velocity DeWitt said...

Ah, now *that's* my formative comic-book-reading era! Good times.

Anonymous said...

What the deuce?!?!

What the hell is THIS?!?!

Your site does comic reviews now?!?!?!?!??!?!?

Edward Liu said...

Forsooth, Dave Campbell doth speak truly in yon blogge post. I was but an awkward teen lad, and didst love the X-Men for the same reasons Dave hath proclaimed. Except that yon Secret Wars II cross-over did blow the chunks of the donkey, for it derailed the story for at least two issues when I wished not to see the stupid Beyonder. Verily, it taught young Ed a lesson burned into mine brain like a mystic beacon of divine fire: Comic Cross-Overs Sucketh Mightily.

(And no, I don't know why I'm speaking in Thor, either, but if Chris Claremont were writing my life, I'm sure you would.)

Martin Wisse said...

This was in fact my first X-Men issue, together with the trial of Magneto one. Read them in Dutch; blew my mind.

Sleestak said...

I've long been of the opinion that someday someone will find Chris Claremont's secret stash of Storm/Kitty lesbian slash fic that he wrote and never showed anyone.

Because you just know he wrote it.

Tyson said...

Good review, but I do find it immensely amusing that this sentence is used to slam current comics:

"I’m just guessing, but de-compressed wide-screen continuity porn holds little allure to the new reader – and industry-wide sales seem to back me up on that."

And the next two sentences, leading into effusive praise of the old school comic are:

"Anyway, the comic. This is a crossover issue that ties into the Secret Wars II mini-series..."

Continuity porn has been with us lo, these many long years.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but Secret Wars 2 simply provided writers with an excuse for over-the-top villains and situations, and had virtually no effect on any actual continuity. Like Infinity Gauntlet. These were not events that "changed everything", they were fun super-romps that changed nothing. I still love the SWII issue where Thing beats down every villain Marvel had. Because that was silly fun...

Siskoid said...

Agreement across the board Dave.

You hated the Beyonder because of THAT scene. You know the one. With Spider-Man. And how to use a toilet. Can you feel the rage boiling up?

Didn't mind him when he was a light in the sky though!

Anonymous said...

In total agreement here.

She-Hulk's Bitch said...

over 20 years ago!

Mob said...

I remember buying this at a 7-11 in my youth.

Thanks for the memories, those were the days indeed.

Anonymous said...

Man, this was the glory days of the X-Men-this was the stuff that made me realize just how awesome JRjr is. And Claremont at the height of his game-Good Magneto, Wolverine spouting off about how great he is, those wonderful usages of their powers. Great, great stuff...

thekelvingreen said...

Gosh, look at that clean, dynamic JRJR art. See kids, you can be a great artist without having to resort to endless crosshatching and "texture lines" (I'm looking at you Finch).

One of the fun things about old school spandex punch/kick comics is how unique they are as a storytelling medium. Thought balloons and overly explanatory dialogue are both a necessity and a part of their charm.
Indeed! And it would be wonderful if people like Bendis would stop trying to make the medium into something it's not. Just because he can't get a job writing film scripts shouldn't mean he has to enforce his withered ambitions on us.

Of course, now he's hip to the thought balloons (in Bouncy Avengers), and the horror is unimaginable. It's like watching your Dad trying to rap.

How can you not get behind Sentinels?
But they're not "realistic" or "relevant" Dave! Get with the programme!

I’ve always admired the way Claremont arranged his fight scenes.
For all his faults, and he has so very many, Claremont can still do a good fight scene. That weird Nightcrawler/Wolverine vs The Fury thing from a couple of years ago aside, of course.


I thought this one might be the very first X-Men comic I read, but it's, er, not. The one that was (the first X-Men comic I read) was a similarly snow/winter-themed issue that I'm sure also had Sentinels in it. There was something about ice-skating in New York, and everyone got captured at the end. And I think Banshee was in it.

Anonymous said...

Have you read Claremont's run on Exiles yet? It's chock full of HYDRA!

Anonymous said...

I'm a teenager who reads comics and I read Essential X-Men collections of the Claremont era. It's not just the conventions of the genre--the caption boxes and thought balloons. Claremont was just a genuinely good writer. The way he gives such a huge cast each their own character arcs and problems? The way he develops plotlines and situations? It's fantastic. Look at Mighty Avengers. If a comic sucks, it's not because it does or doesn't have though balloons. It's because it sucks.

Ununnilium said...

There were good comics in 1986. And in 1966, and 2006.

This does indeed seem to be an example of that. Man, I want to get my hands on some Essential volumes...

Tyson said...

kelvingreen said:
"And it would be wonderful if people like Bendis would stop trying to make the medium into something it's not. Just because he can't get a job writing film scripts shouldn't mean he has to enforce his withered ambitions on us."

Um, "mainstream super-hero" does not equal "comics". You're confusing your narrow interpretation of a genre with a whole medium. And, anyway, Bendis isn't forcing anything on anybody - don't buy his books if you don't like them. (I do like his stuff - as long as I can read it in trades.)

Ununnilium said:
"There were good comics in 1986. And in 1966, and 2006."

Amen to that, brother. Just because this was a really good comic 20 years ago doesn't mean that all things today are all bad.

However, I do think that, very broadly speaking, the best work in comics today is not in mainstream super-hero stuff. So, compare the X-men of 1986 to the X-men of 2007, and the 1986 stuff will usually be much better. But I don't think that there's really anything from 1986 comparable to Fables, and there's nothing at all from 1986 doing the same things as something like Flight.

So, if you read the same titles for 20 years, sure, they were better back then. But there are a lot of good comics happening today.

Unknown said...

A while back I picked up a minicomic, "Dogs Playing Poker with Jesus", by the curator of the Cartoon Art Museum. One of the bits features the Beyonder. You might get a kick out of it.

http://img112.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stanleesex0014tb.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stanleesex0023jv.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stanleesex0031rg.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stanleesex0046fq.jpg
http://img112.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stanleesex0051ui.jpg

vericode: ibaxc. Isn't he a Captain Marvel villain?

Anonymous said...

One of the my favourite things about the X-Men those days, apart from everything you've mentioned, was the lettering.

Tom Orzechowski, you're my hero.

Peter said...

Kelvin, that first X-comic of yours sounds like it was, mmm, #98 I think (94-95 was Nefaria, 96 was the N'Garai, so maybe this was #97).

Winter + Sentinels + Banshee = Dave Cockrum & Stephen Lang on a satellite in space :)

Also, pretty much agree with everything Dave said. And you. Although like tyson points out, I'd substitute "medium" with "super-hero (team) books" in your Bendis comment. He's shown many times in Ultimate Spidey that he knows how the medium of comics works. He just comes up with different types of stories. It's his ideas over in New and Mighty (and back in HoM) that are shaky at best. Also: interchangeable and flimsy dialogue, as stereotypical as Claremont's was, only I don't think it'll age as well. But that might be me :)

Wondering what my first X-book was. It might have actually been one of the Flashback issues, the Pacheco one. And then I dove into the Essentials, which were coming out at the same time. Whoo, 10 or 11 years of Essentials already, thanks muchly Marvel!

(PS: JRJr rocked. And rocks still.)

thekelvingreen said...

Tyson:
Um, "mainstream super-hero" does not equal "comics". You're confusing your narrow interpretation of a genre with a whole medium.
Yeahbutwhatnow? Comics aren't films. They can mimic films, and they can do it well, and you can get good stories out of doing so. But you also lose some of the unique features of comics that only comics can do. My problem with Bendis is not that he restricts the potential of comics, but that he does it and then produces trash as a result.

Peter:
Winter + Sentinels + Banshee = Dave Cockrum & Stephen Lang on a satellite in space :)
Yes, that's the one. Although I'm absolutely certain that I must have had it in some reprint form, as it's well before my time. Thanks!

Also: interchangeable and flimsy dialogue, as stereotypical as Claremont's was, only I don't think it'll age as well. But that might be me :)
Definitely. Marvel should call him New Claremont. I just hope he doesn't stick around for as long as Claremont did; I'm already weary of him.

JRJr rocked. And rocks still.
No arguments there.

Anonymous said...

What a brilliant, brilliant essay on the nostalgic awesomeness of Chris Claremont's X-Men. But then again, I'm probably the same age as Dave.

Unknown said...

Duh, should've made those into links.

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5

Teddy said...

Lordy I hated that Claremont style of writing; all elipses, cliches, and more thought bubbles than a Garfield cartoon.

West said...

The X-Men really used their powers in interesting ways, back then.

Good stuff.

Jeff Rients said...

I still love the SWII issue where Thing beats down every villain Marvel had.

Holy crap! I must own it!

Any idea which book we're talking about?

Anonymous said...

Man, I HATED that kind of over expository way people used to talk in comic books. Even when I was a wee lad, I used to think that nobody talked like that. Sometimes now I reread older comics and I find myself doing what I consider the cardinal sin of any kind of reading, skimming over text. Its because I know what they are going to say, either reintroduce themselves or explain their power. Its a case of show, don't tell. I will figure it out eventually.

Anonymous said...

I still love the SWII issue where Thing beats down every villain Marvel had.

That would be Secret Wars II #7.

KENT! said...

Just as your opening statement, erm, states, this was indeed someone's first X-Men comic... mine to be precise. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Anonymous said...

I first picked up X-Men right around the Dark Phoenix saga, so it was mostly going downhill from about my third month of buying the book. :-)

I finally got tired of it after seeing Claremont at a comic con where he answered almost every question from the audience about the future of various characters with a smug "Just wait until the Fall of the Mutants." So after a gajillion Mutants Who Don't Matter(tm) were killed off-camera, I stopped reading X-Men.

BTW, one of the first X-Men books I picked up was Kitty's first appearance. A Jewish girl, who's MY age? I was hooked.

Strange, though, Kitty doesn't look 41 in the comics these days...

joncormier said...

Ah who doesn't enjoy a good shake of the cane at the new fangled comics every now and again?

Carla said...

Wow.
Thank for saying all this in a fairly straight forward and catchy kind of manner because I have been looking for these exact same words myself.

Because I'm old.

Adam said...

i heart dave's long box. this is a great, insightful article. kudos.

Anonymous said...

Ah, but can you remember that Claremont, at the height of his authorly hubris, released a couple of mediocre novels, FirstFlight and Grounded. Said novels had characters suspiciously like our beloved mutie heroes.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Dave, I'm a huge comics fan, just found your site and lovin' it!
Very smart reviews and funny comments, I'll visit frequently and link your blog to my "favourites list" ^^.
Rawk on,
W.

SUBZERO said...

tyson said :

" Amen to that, brother. Just because this was a really good comic 20 years ago doesn't mean that all things today are all bad.

However, I do think that, very broadly speaking, the best work in comics today is not in mainstream super-hero stuff. So, compare the X-men of 1986 to the X-men of 2007, and the 1986 stuff will usually be much better. But I don't think that there's really anything from 1986 comparable to Fables, and there's nothing at all from 1986 doing the same things as something like Flight.

So, if you read the same titles for 20 years, sure, they were better back then. But there are a lot of good comics happening today. "

Hmm, something from around 1986 that´s comparable to FABLES ? How about this little unknown title from 1985 called SWAMP THING written by this little known fellow going by the name of Alan Moore ? Or that other comic that started at 1988 or 1989 called SANDMAN by that Neil Gaiman guy ? Nope. I wish we had something like FABLES back then. We had to read such crap like AMERICAN FLAGG or NEXUS.

j. bowers said...

i never really saw any lesbianism in that era of uncanny...more of a tender mother/daughter relationship between Storm and Kitty...

Tyson said...

Subzero -
Not arguing with you, but hadn't really thought of either of those books as doing the same thing as Fables. Interesting point - I'll have to think about that one a little bit.

I still await the 20 year old comparison, delivered with the proper amount of fanboy snark, to Flight. (Actually, I really would love to hear that - I'd go track that book down.)

Please allow me to slightly rephrase my position, while hopefully still maintaining the point I was trying to make:

I think that, in general, super-hero comics were cooler 20 years ago than they are now, and non-superhero comics, in general, are cooler now than they were 20 years ago.

(Note: I said 'in general' because I agree that there are exceptions both ways - I am generalizing here.)

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