tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post7593466648599206223..comments2024-03-19T10:41:35.976-05:00Comments on Bronze Age Babies: When Weapon Alpha Met Weapon X: X-Men 109Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04248324005584963229noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-7872459940241814672012-02-07T15:48:02.460-06:002012-02-07T15:48:02.460-06:00"Inkatained Wretch" is actually a Skrull..."Inkatained Wretch" is actually a Skrull impersonating me. Watch out!Inkstained Wretchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-20801949137430511002012-02-06T18:39:11.380-06:002012-02-06T18:39:11.380-06:00Wait a minute... a post from "Inkatained Wret...Wait a minute... a post from "Inkatained Wretch"?? Perhaps a cousin of our own Inkstained Wretch??Karenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17032477453891087135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-44102046860629898332012-02-06T18:22:31.331-06:002012-02-06T18:22:31.331-06:00I really liked that interaction between Kurt &...I really liked that interaction between Kurt & Scott, highlighting one of those little bits about the Marvel superteams, particularly the FF and Cap's Kooky Quartet era Avengers, mainly that the heroes were familiar with one another out of costume and excepting Cap & Hawkeye, the public knew their real names too and it was rare that they were referred to by their superhero names. Re-reading the early FF mags, it stood out when Johnny or Ben were referred to as "Torch" or "Thing". Naturally, the X-Men, both old and new, were trying to keep their civilian identities secret from the public but certainly at home there was no need for Scott to call Kurt "Nightcrawler", apparently forgetting that despite their mutant powers and costumes, they were still human. These type of stories that focused on the human aspects of the heroes were part of made me enjoy reading Marvel comics from the Silver & Bronze ages.Fred W. Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07602124919964053532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-73770968571598873202012-02-06T12:42:56.779-06:002012-02-06T12:42:56.779-06:00I have this issue at home, but I haven't read ...I have this issue at home, but I haven't read it in a long, long while. I bought it fairly cheaply back when Alpha Flight was hot. I then socked it away assuming it would only appreciate in value. I'll bet the selling price hasn't budged since I got it. Sigh.<br /><br />This really was John Byrne at his prime, wasn't it? Everything seems so rich, full and highly detailed wiithout the art looking overly busy. I didn't like the way his style had evolved by the 90s, but here it was stellar.Inkatained Wretchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-32771689026335289692012-02-06T11:23:05.527-06:002012-02-06T11:23:05.527-06:00I really loved this issue. Up to this point, Xmen...I really loved this issue. Up to this point, Xmen had been superb, but it had all been 70mm: Nefaria, Sentinels, birth of Phoenix, Juggernaut, and for a bit of relaxation, the Shi’ar epic. This issue is mostly just the Xmen at home, but you still remember it as a superb issue. Now that’s good stuff. <br /><br />I like the fact that Orora is beautiful & womanly but still verrrrrry powerful. The girls often seemed to divide into girlish-but-not-powerful (Jan, Natasha, Medusa) or powerful-but-masculine (Valkyrie). I always thought they got it right with Storm, and, later with Wanda. I always thought Storm’s nudity was more about her connection to nature than gratuitous. The first time we met her, she was butt naked, but her modesty protected by a conveniently-wafted hairdo. <br /><br />As Edo says, Amanda Sefton is revealed as Kurt’s adoptive sister in Annual #4. IMHO, maybe the single greatest annual ever....Nightcrawler’s Inferno (someone corrected me on this ending a while back!). You might think it was crap and over-complication by Claremont, but he seriously went for it in that annual in terms of literary reference, all of it relevant to Kurt’s catholic back story. I never thought it was creepy that she was his adoptive sister. They weren’t blood, more like childhood sweethearts, as I read it. You lot have read too much Modern Age...it’s corrupted you! Too many butt-floss bikinis.<br /><br />Peter’s homesickness, yes, but not because he was less worldly so much as less western, I think. And the others all grew up in big cities, he was a farm boy. <br /><br />Ref. Logan, what I took from that was not to do with Wolvie’s ‘thuggishness’. It seemed to me that we had seen him portrayed as an animal in a negative way (‘red in tooth and claw’) and now we see that atavism in the context of him being part of nature. Feral and savage, but not gratuitously violent. <br /><br />RichardAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-33775793799502158402012-02-06T11:13:27.745-06:002012-02-06T11:13:27.745-06:00What a nostalgia trip! Right back to a Friday even...What a nostalgia trip! Right back to a Friday evening in the winter of 1978! This issue was hugely significant to me- it was the first new X-Men story I'd read since # 100, thanks to spotty distribution in West Central Scotland.<br />I'd glimpsed Phoenix on two covers reprinted in Foom Magazine so I was fascinated by her, Lilandra and by the tiny images of the Starjammers and Imperial Guard. I knew Byrne's work from The Champions but there was a realism and detail to this comic that was thrilling. X-Men immediately replaced Avengers as my late-70s favourite.Dougiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03965448821892833703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-82293738688854003482012-02-06T08:11:32.883-06:002012-02-06T08:11:32.883-06:00I certainly don’t consider the characterization a ...I certainly don’t consider the characterization a waste of space at all. To me, that’s one thing that set the X-Men apart and made it the best comic of its day. Also, I loved the “Mother Earth” aspect of Storm and was sad to see it fade away, starting, I think, with the Mohawk. And yes, I’ve seen some pretty tasteless female costumes of the years, not to mention highly impractical for fighting crime! I’ve never understood why a female superhero would choose to go into action wearing heels. Really?<br /><br />I guess I haven’t seen enough of the modern one page recaps to be able to properly compare it to the in story recap, but it sounds like an idea with merit. You “waste” fewer pages telling what just went on, plus it often seems forced to have a character recount what they just went through. Not in this instance, mind you. I do miss thought balloons, though. I wouldn’t mind the caption with the characters’ thoughts, but sometimes it’s tough to tell who is “thinking”.<br /><br />As fas as the friendship between Kean and Ororo happening off panel, that reminds me of a nice little backup story by Claremont in the Classic X-Men series. Maybe Claremont felt the same are Karen. So yes, Doug’s memory is good there. I know there was at least one such story. Even though I don’t remember the specifics of Nightcrawler’s speech to Cyclops, I do remember being impressed by it.<br /><br />As far as the revelation that Amanda was Kurt’s “sister”, that was definitely before Jim Lee. I think it was Annual #4, in 1980. I agree with Karen that Claremont seemed to need to over-complicate everyone’s backstory. Frankly, it almost seems as if he ran out of good ideas and so had to come up with a bunch of nonsense.<br /><br />I loved Wolverine’s “hunt” and Storm’s misconception. That adds some wonderful depth to Wolverine’s character. It was such a nice idea that JM DeMatties “borrowed” it in the opening scene of Marvel Team-Up #117.<br /><br />I felt that Piotr always had a crush on Ororo, but the feeling was not mutual. Ororo thought of Priotr as a little brother. Let’s face it, in the early days, she was the only unattached female on the team, so naturally that’s where the bachelors’ eyes would gravitate…except for Wolverine, of course. :-)<br /><br />To me, Colossus is what made the X-Men feel like a family. I think it’s because he’s the only one who really had a family, and as he clearly missed them, he tried to make the X-Men his surrogate family. He treated his fellow X-Men like siblings, especially in his protectiveness of them. He also had the soul of a poet. When I was a kid, I thought Colossus and Storm were OK, but in re-reading the X-Men a couple of years ago, I gained newfound appreciation for their wonderful characters. There weren’t just superheroes but real people. As far as Banshee, yes, in that page you’ve shown, I agree he does look like the Banshee of old. By the way, the Silver Age Banshee was one ugly dude, if I may say so. Or aesthetically challenged, if you prefer. He had a bit of a monkey face.<br /> Nice foreshadowing about Alpha Flight, too, though it did indeed take a while before we would know what Alpha Flight was. Yet another home run by Claremont/Byrne/Austin.dbutler16https://www.blogger.com/profile/00046066729353639991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-3929943673819155042012-02-06T08:04:25.359-06:002012-02-06T08:04:25.359-06:00This outstanding issue right at the onset of the B...This outstanding issue right at the onset of the Byrne/Austin tenure as X-men artists pretty much sums up everything that made that run so great: the little bits of human interaction between the team members, great action scenes, set-up for a future story (the introduction of Alpha Flight) and some tantalizing hints about Wolverine's (not yet hopelessly convoluted) past. Great stuff.<br />By the way, the annual featuring the reveal about Amanda is #4. Otherwise a rather good story, except for that really creepy aspect of having Kurt's lover turn out to be his adoptive sister...Edo Bosnarnoreply@blogger.com