Uncanny X-Franchise Question

[SuperJerk 0]

Any and all attempts by my to figure out what's going on in the X-books via internet articles has been met with the usually Marvel verbage of the creators tooting their own horns about how great they are without actually explaining what this "new direction" is.

 

Today I picked up Uncanny #444. Since the only other X-Title I read is "Ultimate" I have no idea what's going on. Its a totally different mag than the one I was reading just a couple of months ago.

 

Can someone fill in the gaps for me? Or are we not supposed to understand what's going on (which is a stupid move if that's what they're going for)?

[Kardo 0]

Today I picked up Uncanny #444. Since the only other X-Title I read is "Ultimate" I have no idea what's going on. Its a totally different mag than the one I was reading just a couple of months ago.

 

 

Ultimate = Seperate Universe to the other X-books. Uncanny has had Chuck Austen on it for a while, which means that continuity be damned and now I think they are relaunching all the X-books and changing their direction.

 

Go to http://comics.toonzone.net/solicitations/2004-05/marvel.php and look at the past solicitations to see what's happened etc...

[SuperJerk 0]

Thanks for the link, but it just proved my point for me. Marvel creators are more interested in tooting their own horns about how great they are without actually explaining what this "new direction" is.

 

I know Marvel was offering a "Handbook to the Marvel Universe: X-Men" this week to ease the transition, but good luck finding a copy.

 

I've been reading Ultimate X-Men since the first issue, so I have no problems following those stories.

 

Unfortunately (usually when Claremont's involved) the X-books become a thick mess of unanswered questions and continuity shattering storylines.

 

How the hell does Marvel expect to keep long-time readers if they completely change the direction of the books every couple of years and hit the reset button? (Witness the absurd relaunch craze that caused all the books to go back to #1 a few years ago...it didn't work then, and it probably won't work now.)

 

I like the fact that they're wearing costumes again, as absurb an idea as that is, but I really can't figure out what happened between last month's issue and this month's issue to explain it. And apparently the X-Men are federally sanctioned authority figures now! This completely goes against what the book was always supposed to be about.

 

I found out that the Austen/Larocca team moved to the "X-Men" book, so maybe I should look for answers there?

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Austen is actually worse than Claremont, believe it or not.

[SuperJerk 0]

I really don't get all of the Austen hate.

 

 

There are some storyline/continuity questions I'm not aware of the answers to that I hope someone can help me out with:

 

-When did Magneto die?

(This last time, I mean.)

 

-When did Jean Grey die?

 

-Who is Rachel Grey?

If she is the same girl who was in Excalibur, why'd she change her name from "Summers"?

 

-What's going on between White Queen and Cyclops?

 

I'm guessing all of this was in "New X-Men", but since I didn't read that title, I'm out in the cold.

[starvenger 0]

I really don't get all of the Austen hate.

Well, everyone loves Morrison, so therefore you MUST hate Austen. Never mind that Morrison has been about as consistent as Austen after "E is for Extinction". Austen is not a "superstar" writer, but merely a good freelancer, and therefore you cannot expect to like him. Especially since he ignores continuity and writers his story arcs to conveniently fit into a TPB. Not that Morrison ever did that. And Morrison's final story arc was crap, with some "eh" art from Silvestri, and I'd put it up against "The Draco" as one of the worst X-stories in the last couple of years.

[Steviekick 0]

"The Draco" made me drop Uncanny.

[SuperJerk 0]

Especially since he ignores continuity and writers his story arcs to conveniently fit into a TPB.

I think we have Quesada to thank for that.

Marvel's gone out of its way to chase the almighty Barnes and Noble dollar since he took over.

 

So, what HAPPENED in the last Morrison arc, exactly?

 

I quit reading after ""E is for Extinction", since I felt like he had no grasp of who the characters really were.

 

(The opposite goes for Claremont, who has an excellent grasp of the characters, but bogs down the story with too much redundant dialogue that never really explains anything and just ends up slowing down the story.)

[JasonX 0]

Lets set things up:

 

Astonishing X-Men: Cyclops and White Queen running the School with Shadowcat, Beast, and Wolverine as senior staff. It's in this book that we will get the explaination for the return of the costumes (in that Cyclops mandated their return on the grounds that the public will trust them more in spandex than in leather). Emma and Scott are now lovers and Shadowcat is currently hating herself for letting herself be dragged back onto the X-Men team after scorch earthing her bridges with the team when she left them.

 

X-Men: Going back to the adjectiveless title, this book is supposed to be mix of super-heroics and soap opera antics. The title has two major soap storylines going on, one involving Rogue and Gambit (who's pissed at Rogue for activating his lost powers behind his back) and Havok and Polaris and the evil Nurse Annie, who had her son brainwash Havok into forcing him to fall in love with her against his will and dump Polaris at the alter and going insane as a result.

 

Uncanny X-Men: Last year, Chris Claremont did an arc where Storm got the US Government to create the XSE (which is the police force Bishop is a member of in his timeline) and UXM now focuses on this X-Men team.

 

Excalibur: Nothing to do with the old Excalibur book, as the series focuses on Professor X and Angel's attempt to rebuild Genosha.

 

Chuck Austen sucks because he's a below average writer who blames everyone but himself for his writing's flaws. Not only that, but Austen very mysoginistic and writes all of his female characters as either being whores (Husk, Polaris, and Mystique) or unlikable harpies who everyone loves despite the cruelties they inflict upon men (see Stacy X and Nurse Annie).

 

In Austen's defense, he writes Nightcrawler and Juggernaut VERY well and ditched the stupid ass Nightcrawler the priest angle Claremont started. And aside from Northstar, he does give the rest of the team plenty of spotlight time unlike Claremont, in which if your name isn;t Sage or Storm you don't get any pagetime...

 

<-When did Magneto die?>

 

New X-Men #150

 

-When did Jean Grey die?

 

New X-Men #150 but Morrison created an out for the inevitable resurrection by establishing a Phoenix Cocoon up on the moon.

 

<-Who is Rachel Grey? If she is the same girl who was in Excalibur, why'd she change her name from "Summers"?>

 

Rachel Grey= Rachel Summers. She changed her name to show her contempt for Scott for cheating on Jean/shacking up with Emma on the day of Jean's funeral.

 

<-What's going on between White Queen and Cyclops?>

 

They are now a couple, after engaging in "psychic" fucking for several months.

 

<So, what HAPPENED in the last Morrison arc, exactly?>

 

We see a future where Beast led the X-Men after Cyclops permenantly retired after Jean's death and gets possessed by John Sublime (who is a parasited created from the john byrne Avengers West Coast run who is also know as "That Which Endures"). In the future, Sublime/Beast finds Jean's coccon and frees her and then does some gene splicing to give Sublime/Beast access to the Phoenix Force. Sublime/Beast-Phoenix goes on a rampage until Jean and the future X-Men (including the future Wolverine, the Stepford Cuckoos who are now going by their newly revealed original name "Weapon 13", and the descendants of Beak and Angel) stop him. Sublime/Beast-Phoenix is defeated and Jean leaves earth to go to another dimensional realm where all those who have been touched by the Phoenix Force go to to meet and such. Once there Jean meets with Kid Omega (who we learn is also a potential Phoenix) and is told that the only way to change the future was for Scott to lead the X-Men. And for him to lead the X-Men, Jean would have to give Scott up to Emma. So Jean is able to contact Scott through time and space and tells him to move on. The arc ends with Scott and Emma kissing as they become an item....

[Steviekick 0]

I'm confused now. So how did Jean die?

 

I'm propably going to look at Uncanny because I'm a Claremont mark (I do agree that lately he uses WAY too much dialogue and it bogs down the flow of the story). Excalibur sound interesting, I really like the Angel character and enjoyed the Genoshan storylines of the past.

[JasonX 0]

I'm confused now. So how did Jean die?

 

I'm propably going to look at Uncanny because I'm a Claremont mark (I do agree that lately he uses WAY too much dialogue and it bogs down the flow of the story). Excalibur sound interesting, I really like the Angel character and enjoyed the Genoshan storylines of the past.

Magneto (who was possessed by the John Sublime/That Which Endures entity) zapped Jean with an ultra-powerfull electro-magnetic pulse that FUBARed Jean's body and caused her to suffer a fatal stroke. The explaination given was that Sublime made Magneto do it since Jean (who had fully tapped into the Phoenix Force and was in full Dark Phoenix/Angel of Death mode) was the only one who could sense that Sublime/TWE was pulling Magneto's strings and could free Mags from it's control.

[Steviekick 0]

Wow.

 

I'll stick to my more simple Fantastic Four comics.

[SuperJerk 0]

Thanks for the massive explanations, JasonX. Looks like I picked a good time to come back on board.

 

the evil Nurse Annie, who had her son brainwash Havok into forcing him to fall in love with her against his will and dump Polaris at the alter and going insane as a result.

I don't remember that part. When was it revealed to be mind control?

 

Chuck Austen sucks because he's a below average writer who blames everyone but himself for his writing's flaws. Not only that, but Austen very mysoginistic and writes all of his female characters as either being whores (Husk, Polaris, and Mystique) or unlikable harpies who everyone loves despite the cruelties they inflict upon men (see Stacy X and Nurse Annie).

 

In Austen's defense, he writes Nightcrawler and Juggernaut VERY well and ditched the stupid ass Nightcrawler the priest angle Claremont started. And aside from Northstar, he does give the rest of the team plenty of spotlight time unlike Claremont, in which if your name isn;t Sage or Storm you don't get any pagetime...

I think his willingness to focus on other characters is the reason I like him.

 

Even I thought "The Draco" sucked, though.

 

We see a future where Beast led the X-Men after Cyclops permenantly retired after Jean's death and gets possessed by John Sublime (who is a parasited created from the john byrne Avengers West Coast run who is also know as "That Which Endures").

Was this the arc that Silvestri drew?

 

I remember "That Which Endures". It was going to use the Scarlet Witch as a host, the Avengers stopped it, and then Capt. America came at the end and made a big speech about how there had to be more to humanity than the host for a parasite (or so I recall).

[Vyce 0]

The thing which pisses me off most about this latest reboot of the franchises is that it's totally unnecessary. Even if you're going to install new writers on a couple of the books (Uncanny, New X-Men), there's no need to overhaul the ENTIRE franchise.

 

It makes no sense, and it's only going to fuck things up.

 

And I have to add my two cents to the Austen discussion: while I'm not anything resembling a fan of his, he is so NOT worse than Claremont.

 

Pretty much everything Claremont writes these days makes me cringe. Austen's work is at least passable. He's not really up to writing a major book like X-Men, though.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Yeah, well, I don't like either of them so I am not about to fight for either one. I do think Austen is worse, but it doesn't really matter much. They both suck.

[starvenger 0]

Chuck Austen sucks because he's a below average writer who blames everyone but himself for his writing's flaws. Not only that, but Austen very mysoginistic and writes all of his female characters as either being whores (Husk, Polaris, and Mystique) or unlikable harpies who everyone loves despite the cruelties they inflict upon men (see Stacy X and Nurse Annie).

 

In Austen's defense, he writes Nightcrawler and Juggernaut VERY well and ditched the stupid ass Nightcrawler the priest angle Claremont started. And aside from Northstar, he does give the rest of the team plenty of spotlight time unlike Claremont, in which if your name isn;t Sage or Storm you don't get any pagetime...

From what I understand, Morrison made Polaris all crazy and stuff, while Joe Casey is responsible for inflicting Stacy X on us.

 

And yes, Silvestri drew the final Morrison arc. My favourite part of that is the Ripclaw... er, Wolverine cover he drew for one of the issues. Seriously, it looked like he took an old Cyberforce cover and touched it up.

 

And "That Which Endures" was a HORRIBLE AWC storyline to begin with, and frankly Morrison's use of it didn't change my opinion much. Valiant's Eternal Enemy was a MUCH better version of the same idea.

 

btw, Exiles looks like it's still a keeper.

[Kardo 0]

Wow.

 

I'll stick to my more simple Fantastic Four comics.

Fantastic Four is on fire at the moment. The Hereafter arc was awesome and the last issue of it was VERY satistfying. This 2 parter with Johnny and Spider-Man has also brought the laughs, especially Ben paying Franklin off to annoy Johnny.

 

Waid is a pretty fun writer, especially his run on the Flash (though his JLA last couple arcs were a bit confusing. 6th Dimension Aliens???).

[SuperJerk 0]

Joe Casey is responsible for inflicting Stacy X on us.

Is that the one with Lisa Kudrow and Damon Wayans?

[Steviekick 0]

Wow.

 

I'll stick to my more simple Fantastic Four comics.

Fantastic Four is on fire at the moment. The Hereafter arc was awesome and the last issue of it was VERY satistfying. This 2 parter with Johnny and Spider-Man has also brought the laughs, especially Ben paying Franklin off to annoy Johnny.

 

Waid is a pretty fun writer, especially his run on the Flash (though his JLA last couple arcs were a bit confusing. 6th Dimension Aliens???).

Waid's talent is being able to write super heroes like they are every day people. They can be serious, but they just come across as acting like people that you know.

[Steviekick 0]

double post.

[teke184 0]

No wonder I only pick up TPBs for X-Men issues no later than the mid-90s... I quit reading around the time that the Legacy Virus killed both Illyana Rasputin and Multiple Man and they must have done over 4 restarts since then, not including the Age Of Apocalypse.

 

 

What I find so funny is that the books so fucked up by the Onslaught storyline, such as The Avengers, didn't end up nearly as FUBAR as the books that "survived" the storyline such as X-Men and Spiderman.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I'm confused now. So how did Jean die?

 

I'm propably going to look at Uncanny because I'm a Claremont mark (I do agree that lately he uses WAY too much dialogue and it bogs down the flow of the story). Excalibur sound interesting, I really like the Angel character and enjoyed the Genoshan storylines of the past.

Magneto (who was possessed by the John Sublime/That Which Endures entity) zapped Jean with an ultra-powerfull electro-magnetic pulse that FUBARed Jean's body and caused her to suffer a fatal stroke. The explaination given was that Sublime made Magneto do it since Jean (who had fully tapped into the Phoenix Force and was in full Dark Phoenix/Angel of Death mode) was the only one who could sense that Sublime/TWE was pulling Magneto's strings and could free Mags from it's control.

And she exits with one of Morrison's best lines, to Scott: "All I ever did was die on you."

 

Most of Planet X was rushed, but I really liked #150. And I liked Here Comes Tomorrow, but I like a lot of Morrison's crazy-nutty Invisibles stuff too, and it still wasn't quite up to what he achieved on there with similar philosophy.

[Vyce 0]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I browsed through "Excalibur #1" in the comic shop the other day, and am I to infer that Magneto is, in fact, already alive again, even though he was killed off YET AGAIN a few issues back in New X-Men?

 

I'm not wasting spoiler tags on this, BTW.

 

If so: Jesus fucking Christ.

 

I'd love a moratorium on the character. You kill him off, you leave him dead for something like a DECADE, at the least.

[Steviekick 0]

Unfortunately your right. Magneto is back from the dead again.

[teke184 0]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I browsed through "Excalibur #1" in the comic shop the other day, and am I to infer that Magneto is, in fact, already alive again, even though he was killed off YET AGAIN a few issues back in New X-Men?

 

I'm not wasting spoiler tags on this, BTW.

 

If so:  Jesus fucking Christ.

 

I'd love a moratorium on the character.  You kill him off, you leave him dead for something like a DECADE, at the least.

I'd say a decade may be harsh depending on the character and the method of death involved. Five years may be more appropriate, especially if they died in a way that can be explained somewhat logically.

 

 

Baron Zemo II being only unconscious instead of dead after an induced stroke/anurysm/whatever is a good one, as it no one apparently checked to see that he was actually dead.

 

That's more plausible than Kingpin being stabbed to death then coming back a few months later or Galactus being erase from existance with the Ultimate Nullifier. (The continuity problems in that are that the Nullifier is supposed to erase their FULL existance from history, which means that the asassain Morg, a former herald of Galactus, never received his Power Cosmic from Galactus and, thus, never would have been in a position to kill him.)

 

 

Other characters, though, need to stay dead.

 

Norman Osborne is one of those who should have stayed dead instead of being brought back after 25 years as a deus-ex-machina explanation to the shitty Spiderman storylines of the past few years.

 

Part of what made the original Green Goblin's legacy so powerful is that Norman stayed dead even if Harry Osborne, Bart Hamilton, and the Hobgoblins ripped off his schtick. Hell, Goblin was a mid-level Spidey villain until killing Gwen Stacy and being killed in turn while fighting Spidey put him over the top. He was below Dr. Octopus, Kingpin, etc. in the Spidey villains pantheon until that time.

 

 

I don't know if Kraven ever came back, but his spot in Spidey history went up considerably due to the Kraven's Last Hunt storyline in which he went totally nuts and ended up killing himself. If they brought back someone that was obviously dead like him, it shits on the character's legacy.

[starvenger 0]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I browsed through "Excalibur #1" in the comic shop the other day, and am I to infer that Magneto is, in fact, already alive again, even though he was killed off YET AGAIN a few issues back in New X-Men?

 

I'm not wasting spoiler tags on this, BTW.

 

If so: Jesus fucking Christ.

 

I'd love a moratorium on the character. You kill him off, you leave him dead for something like a DECADE, at the least.

I guess that's one of the problems. Magneto has been shown, time and time again, to be the antithesis of Xavier, and it has often been shown that the only way to stop Magneto is to kill him. But without Magneto around, Xavier really has noone to play off of, and frankly becomes a bit of an unlikable, boring, preachy, holier-than-thou character. So Marvel keeps bringing him back.

 

Personally, I think that this is one of the failings of Morrison's run, although this is more of an editorial thing than anything. They gave Morrison free reign, and really, they should've stepped in when they found out what he was going to do. So instead, they have to do a retcon which may-or-may-not make sense in the end.

[pochorenella 0]

I don't know if Kraven ever came back, but his spot in Spidey history went up considerably due to the Kraven's Last Hunt storyline in which he went totally nuts and ended up killing himself. If they brought back someone that was obviously dead like him, it shits on the character's legacy

 

I'm pretty sure KLH was the original Kraven's last appearance (he shot himself in the mouth). Then came his son who took the father's mantle to mess with Spidey.

 

I haven't read Excalibur yet, but how in the blue hell can anyone come back to life after being beheaded?? Can someone please explain, use spoiler tags if necessary, thanks.

[starvenger 0]

I haven't read Excalibur yet, but how in the blue hell can anyone come back to life after being beheaded?? Can someone please explain, use spoiler tags if necessary, thanks.

A few theories:

 

- If Sean Connery can do it in Highlander 2, why not Magneto?

- Doombot

- Duct tape. Lots of duct tape...

- Morrison's run never existed. Except for Jean dying (again), White Queen and Cyclops hooking up, secondary mutations...

[pochorenella 0]

I haven't read Excalibur yet, but how in the blue hell can anyone come back to life after being beheaded?? Can someone please explain, use spoiler tags if necessary, thanks.

A few theories:

 

- If Sean Connery can do it in Highlander 2, why not Magneto?

- Doombot

- Duct tape. Lots of duct tape...

- Morrison's run never existed. Except for Jean dying (again), White Queen and Cyclops hooking up, secondary mutations...

LOL

 

Now, really... was there a somewhat plausible explanation for Magneto's miraculous recovery? I'm pretty sure Baron Blood would love to hear it (he was beheaded by Captain America years ago, for those too young to remember.)

 

The only time I've ever seen that a beheaded character came back to life in a comic book was when Balder cut Loki's head off in the "Surtur Saga" over 20 years ago in the pages of Walt Simonson's Thor. You see, he cast several spells over himself so he could be "as difficult to kill as possible". Maybe Magneto paid off Loki to give him a similar spell?

[starvenger 0]

Since I didn't read Excalibur, I got no answer. Let's try this: the High Evolutionary has cloned cells of Magneto when he was deaged to an infant, and managed to recreate Magneto using those cells plus those of Joseph that happened to be lying around.