BAB Classic: Born Only to Die?

X-Men #95 (October 1975)
"Warhunt!"
Chris Claremont-Dave Cockrum/Sam Grainger

NOTE:  This post was originally published in March 2010.

Doug: Welcome back to the conclusion of our look at the first "regular" (albeit bi-monthly) adventure of the All-New, All-Different X-Men. When last we saw our favorite mutants, they'd been blasted out of the Blackbird by the missiles of Count Nefaria - recent appropriator of the weapons of Valhalla Mountain. If the team makes it safely down, they'll have to contend with a doomsday clock Nefaria has set, threatening to unleash the entire USA missile inventory. It's certainly a precarious situation as we join the X-Men in mid-fall!

Doug: In the midst of the freefall, Cyke barks out orders to Storm and Banshee to grab X-Men and carry them down. An interesting nugget is revealed about Nightcrawler as Cyclops orders him to teleport himself to safety. We learn that Nightcrawler must exit at the same velocity he enters, so in effect he'd go "splat" no matter what -- I have to wonder... was this a Claremont idea, or did it come from Dave Cockrum, Nightcrawler's creator?

Karen: I definitely think the Nightcrawler 'physics lesson' was a Claremont bit - the guy is a science fiction buff and science geek. But does it make any sense to you that Nightcrawler, a guy probably with no formal education at all, would be spouting stuff about the the Law of Conservation of Energy? Why not just say, "When I teleport, I retain the speed I started with" or something like that? It just felt out of character.

Doug: I agree. It was almost like someone else had told him the explanation at some point. You're probably spot on about his education, as it's my impression that Nightcrawler never mutated -- he was born with those elfish looks.

Doug: We see some bitterness (mid-air bickering is great, isn't it?) directed from Colossus toward Wolverine, and Colossus tells that he can get down on his own. His is certainly the best landing. Eventually all mutants make it back to terra firma and are accounted for. Thunderbird wastes no time in getting under Cyclops' skin, referring again to him as "One-Eye". I'll say again that Claremont had his finger on the pulse of this team in the same manner that Stan and Jack had the Fantastic Four all those years ago. Nightcrawler is ordered to teleport inside the mountain, and does so.

Karen: In these early issues, Colossus certainly seemed very self-assured. How could he know he would survive such a fall? Were they trying to show his bravery, or even a little cockiness?

Doug: One could argue that the Soviet government had tested his limits -- after all, if Piotr's brother was a cosmonaut, they would have known about him. But then, that doesn't make sense, because when Xavier came to ask him for his assistance, the word "defection" was never used. Curious...

Doug: Once inside the mountain, Nightcrawler is engaged by Frog-Man of Nefaria's Ani-Men and promptly insults him by referring to him as Herr Frosch. A simple teleport to the rear, a solid shot to the jaw, and Nightcrawler was on his way again. Triggering a door in the mountainside, Kurt is reunited with the team. Entering the mountain, however, proves dangerous as Nefaria attacks the X-Men first with gas, then with entranced Air Force troops.

Karen: Nightcrawler's easy defeat of Frog-Man is pretty much what I would expect for all the Ani-Men. They are completely out-classed. But this is only the third outing for the team, so we'll roll with it. We get a very good example of how powerful Storm is when she creates a flood in the base (!) to wash away all those hypnotized troops. I love the expression Cockrum drew on her face - amused and pleased with herself. Behind her, it's obvious that Cyclops is realizing that these new X-Men of his are a big change from his old buddies.

Doug: I thought Cockrum's art was better in this issue than last, perhaps because of the inks of Sam Grainger (Grainger had done a bang-up job over Sal Buscema in Avengers in the late 1960's). It still wasn't as good as I'd seen of Cockrum in other stories (later X-Men, Legion, and his short but fine run on the Avengers), but it was better than #94.

Doug: Shortly after Storm disperses the soldiers, the Ani-Men attack en masse. It's a good chance to again showcase the abilities of the team, and the Ani-Men match up well in terms of powers. The X-Men prove victorious when they switch off their natural enemies, and do some cross-butt-kicking (with a little teamwork thrown in here and there). Once the dust settles, it's apparent that Banshee and Thunderbird are going to have to sit out the next step, as they were knocked out by Gort the Gorillaman. So it's off to find the Count!

Karen: "Gort" - you know those guys had seen The Day the Earth Stood Still! But I love a good gorilla. Nefaria is such a wimp here, really doing next to nothing in the story; but I guess that's what masterminds do -they leave the dirty work for their henchmen.

Doug: And don't think Nefaria didn't know they were coming! Nefaria makes it into a Marine Harrier and takes off. Banshee and Thunderbird, freshly awakened, pursue and Thunderbird leaps onto the plane as it roars out of the hangar. Banshee takes to the air, screaming at John Proudstar to let go and let Banshee catch him. Thunderbird refuses, and pounds the cockpit in an attempt to get at Nefaria. Meanwhile, the other X-Men have reached the control room and attempt to disable Nefaria's countdown to missile release. Suddenly, Professor Xavier psychically contacts Cyclops to inform him that the battle with the Ani-Men had destroyed the launch capability. He also tells the team to get out to assist Banshee.

Karen: Yeah, you know things are not going to turn out well.

Doug: Finally bursting through the cockpit, Thunderbird bashes the controls until the jet begins to spiral out of control. As Xavier confronts him in an effort to implore him to get off the plane, Thunderbird defiantly continues his assault. Soon the jet explodes, apparently killing both Proudstar and Nefaria. On the ground a horrified Banshee tells Cyclops how he begged Thunderbird to get off, but he would not. A single red feather clings to the wreckage, now strewn across a ravine. 

Doug: I felt the ending of this story was a little rushed. The build-up was done well, and an appropriate amount of time was given to the jet scene to enhance the drama. However, I thought that finishing the scene with three panels where Cyclops is quite callous toward the death of a teammate, and then the team apparently turning to just walk off into the sunset, was not only in poor taste but seemingly done without much emotion. To be blunt, it was a real downer on top of a real downer -- and I felt that way even when I first read this as a 9-year old.Karen: Due to the vagaries of the comics distribution system back then, I didn't actually get to read this issue until many years later. All I knew was I opened up issue 96 and Thunderbird was dead. Whaaat??? Although he'd only been around a couple of issues, I really liked the character, in part because my grandmother was Sac and Fox Indian and I'd never seen an Indian superhero before, so it seemed really cool. But to find out he was dead...it was a big time bummer.

Karen: But I did eventually read the story itself, and it still left me cold. Sure, the guy had feelings of inadequacy, and he was a troubled Viet Nam vet, but why kill himself? It was only when I began to read interviews with Claremont and Cockrum that I learned the truth: Thunderbird was killed because he was redundant. I pulled out my copy of The X-Men Companion volume 1, and in the Dave Cockrum interview, when asked about Thunderbird's death, he had this to say:"We didn't know what to do with Thunderbird because we never thought him out. It was easier to kill him off than think him out." When asked about if he was too similar to Wolverine, Cockrum responded, "He duplicated both Wolverine (and Colossus)...Almost everybody in the group did something he did, and he seemed kind of superfluous." The shock value of killing off a character so early in the book was also mentioned as a factor. This I think owes a large part to what Gerry Conway did with killing Gwen Stacy. Remember, Gwen's death had only occurred a couple of years prior, and was considered shocking at the time. After that, it seemed like everybody was killing off characters.

Doug: This was my first issue of X-Men, and to be honest I can't remember if I'd seen Amazing Spider-Man #'s 121-122 at this point. Regardless, the death was indeed shocking to me. I wonder if they'd chosen to make Thunderbird the champion of mutant civil rights, how he'd have grown. Obviously the backstory of the history of Native Americans would have tied in nicely, as would his deep mistrust of the federal government. I did think that the epilogue to this in X-Men 96 was good, and somewhat of a tribute to Thunderbird's loss. Perhaps we'll get to that issue someday.

Karen: That's an interesting thought. I had a different idea: what if Thunderbird had just quit the team in issue 95, when he got in the fight with Cyclops, and years later he wound up being recruited by Magneto? I think it would have opened some intriguing story possibilities -former ally turned enemy and that sort of thing. He certainly had enough anger in him to "go to the dark side". Now his younger brother is running around in the X-Men black ops group, X-Force, as Warpath. I haven't seen much of him but his look is reminiscent of his brother's.