The Mutants and the Magnum Force: X-Men 119

X-Men #119 (March 1979)

"'Twas the Night Before Christmas!"

Chris Claremont-John Byrne/Terry Austin

Karen: Ready for the wrap-up on this little two-parter? OK, let's get to it then! Nightcrawler takes  center stage as the X-Men look to assault Moses Magnum's dormant volcano base. Yup, it's right out of You Only Live Twice. Kurt bamfs inside, and thinks back about how they got there. The X-Men had listened to a briefing by Mr. Osama, Colleen Wing's grand-uncle. He described to the team how Magnum had threatened to destroy Japan, and had the power to carry out that threat, by triggering earthquakes along fault lines under the islands. The government refuses to give in to his demands, so the mutants are their only hope. Nightcrawler works his way further into the base, looking for a way in for Cyclops and his team. 

Doug: The splash page is magnificent! I know we gush over and over, but this era was the pinnacle of the Byrne/Austin team. Every panel could seem a masterpiece. I really like it when Nightcrawler and Colossus get major facetime in these stories. Maybe I'm just overly sullen when Wolverine's name comes up, but it's just refreshing to see that every member of the All-New team grabbed the spotlight on occasion. And speaking of the art team, all current readers should focus on that team shot in the first panel of Kurt's reflection. Scott may be drawn just a bit shy of his normal 6'3", but everyone else seems to be properly proportioned, including Wolverine!

Karen: Considering Byrne wasn't that fond of Nightcrawler, we were lucky whenever he was featured!

Doug: Question -- is it me, or are we working under the assumption that islands float? Because they don't. But, Mr. Osama makes the comment that "the home islands will shatter". Can something solid and anchored shatter? Would that be the appropriate term for a tree, or a mountain? Maybe I'm just missing a little geology and/or physics along the way here.

Karen: Don't look at me. I studied biology!

Doug: Prior to this storyline, I had not heard of Moses Magnum. That the dude had any sort of backstory at all was news to me.

Karen: He definitely wasn't a major player, but like the Mandroids, Claremont seemed intent on using him. Outside the base, Storm and Banshee provide a distraction. Ororo whips up an ice storm within the crater, while Banshee uses his sonic scream to put Magnum's defenses out of order. Storm wonders if things are going too smoothly -and you know she has a point! Things never seem to work out easily for this team. Far below the base, Cyclops and Sunfire have been using their powers to carve out a tunnel to sneak inside; Wolverine and Colossus round out their unit. Nightcrawler finally finds a good spot and signals them. As he does, though, he is startled by something. Cyclops' red force beam bursts through the floor of the room, and Colossus pokes his head up through the hole, relieved to be breathing fresh air again. His happiness quickly ends when he is suddenly grabbed by the neck and lifted up violently out of the hole. It's Moses Magnum! He punches Peter and sends him flying -literally. Colossus nearly shoots off the island until he manages to slow himself by dragging his fingers in the ground. After he comes to a halt, the Russian teen is disgusted with himself. He feels like he hasn't been carrying his weight lately, but vows that is about to change, and heads back into the base looking for Magnum!

Doug: I know time was of the essence in this story, but it does seem odd that the Japanese government wouldn't have contacted the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. Granted, the X-Men dropped right into their laps. I suppose their association with Sunfire made them an acceptable alternative to other American heroes.

Doug: I think making Nightcrawler invisible in shadows was a really cool innovation that came with development of the character over time. And as I said above, I love the fact that in this issue it seems like each individual X-Man is going to get that moment in the sun. Banshee seems really dangerous here, hmm? I wasn't buying Cyke's line about arriving undetected through their burrowing -- but, Banshee did screw up a lot of the instruments... It just seemed like part of the gear one would want to have if holed up in a volcano would be some seismographic equipment.

Karen: Check again pal, Magnum says he sensed their presence -"I am Master of the Earth, armored one! No one moves through it without my being aware of them!"

Doug: True. But I was thinking more along the lines of the lackeys in the fortress. Moses indeed had his ear to the ground, so to speak! Colossus was my favorite X-Man when I was a kid. Fastball special, landings out of aircraft, his devotion to his friends and teammates -- swell guy!

Karen: Cyclops, Sunfire, and Wolverine are shocked by Magnum's unexpected powers -super-strength, durability, and power blasts. He's changed! Wolverine goes in to attack and gets knocked out with one punch. That's right, one punch. This was Wolverine B. G. (before godhood). Cyclops is stunned to see the feisty runt taken down so easily. He tells Sunfire to go get Storm and Banshee -they're going to need them. However, that leaves him alone with Magnum, maybe not the best move. But Magnum surprisingly decides not to "waste his power" on Cyclops -instead, he calls in a couple of Mark II Mandroids to battle the X-Men's leader. Mandroids again? We'll never know how Cyke would have fared, because Colossus leaps into the fray, fighting almost like Wolverine -like he's gone berserk. He's taking all his frustrations out on these two! Magnum decides discretion is the better part of valor and hightails it out of there, sealing the door behind him, just as Banshee and Storm show up. Banshee has some sort of epiphany and figures out what Magnum is up to -and that he's the only one who can stop him. Uh oh -can you see the sacrifice play coming up? He tells Cyclops to get everyone out of the volcano fast and then flies outside.

Doug: One of the "funner" elements of comic book storytelling is the choreography of a battle scene. Byrne and Austin get it right here, with varied camera angles, close-ups that show Magnum's furious expressions, and then John Costanza finishes each panel off with the appropriate sound effect. Really, when Colossus was trying to dig his fingers into the rock to halt his projection toward the sea, I imagined *fingers on a chalkboard* and that's basically what Costanza gave us. Nice piece of cinema overall!

Karen: Wouldn't you like to see them try that in an X-Men movie? And hey, Colossus sure doesn't get much screen time in those, does he?

Doug: I wasn't quite sure why Magnum suddenly decided to bolt, other than the fact that he'd lost the element of surprise. Now a known commodity, maybe he wasn't as powerful as we initially believed? Banshee complained to himself that maybe he was getting old -- I always liked that he was older than the other new X-Men and often had that "older brother" feel, maybe even like an uncle at times.

Karen: I think that age differential was a problem in some ways. Having both Banshee and Cyclops together sort of undermines Cyke's authority, at least I felt that way. Not that Banshee was anything but a team player, but he could have been seen as an authority figure, given his age and experience. Magnum enters into his power chamber, deciding to make his threat good. A couple of captions explain that he didn't die in Power Man Annual #1, but was instead somehow imbued with "the power primal" - the ability to manifest an infinite amount of energy anywhere on Earth. Say what? OK, as I've said before, let's just go with it. Magnum starts to build up his energy, ready to project it out of the volcano. Banshee, flying outside, begins to project a "wall of sound" (where's Phil Spector?) around the volcano to counter Magnum's energy. Magnum, not knowing what's going on, boosts his power, and so does Banshee. Eventually, the whole island explodes.

Doug: That Power Primal is some nasty stuff, hey? It would seem that Barry Allen got shortchanged when the lightning hit his chemicals and all he got was super speed... I thought the crescendo of this tale was a bit too far-fetched. In other words, my disbelief didn't quite get suspended. First off, sound dissipates in intensity, so that Banshee could be that far away from the top of the volcano and emit that sort of energy seems off -- unless he was way more powerful than we were ever led to believe. Secondly, if he could determine the "energy frequency" that Magnum was using on the inside of the volcano, well that just opens up a whole new set of uses for his power: intercepting secret codes, extraterrestrial contact, etc. So while this scene looks really cool, and there was a build up of tension within the reader, I'm not buying it all (some of it, not all of it). Awesome page, though!

Karen: The next day, Misty Knight is out in a search plane, looking for the X-Men. Sunfire signals her and the team is rescued -but Banshee is in bad shape. Storm fears he has lost his power. We skip ahead ten days. Banshee is getting out of a car at Sunfire's palatial home. He thinks to himself that he's disappointed none of his team-mates were at the hospital when he was released -it's obvious he's hurt by their absence. But when he enters the home, the whole team is gathered under a big banner that reads, "Welcome Back Sean -Merry Christmas!" That's right, it's Christmas. The team is celebrating -although Nightcrawler and Wolverine are still in costume (I'm waiting to hear about this, Doug). Banshee can barely get out a hoarse whisper of appreciation -he really may have lost his sonic powers. Wolverine heads off to see Mariko, and Storm thinks about how close she's become with her friends. She gives Kurt a little kiss on the cheek and he looks like he's in Heaven. Peter stands out on the balcony alone though, until Storm asks if he's OK. He's melancholy -he misses his family.

Doug: This epilogue is what makes Bronze Age Marvel so great. We see the culmination (to this point) of relationships forged through accountability in battle. There is no action in the last 23 panels of the story (OK, well maybe the last two), yet I found this part of the book as gratifying a read as the "real" story. Early on I always felt that Kurt and Peter were vying for Ororo's affection; now we see how they've become their own little corner of the team, as brothers and a sister. And Wolverine -- I wish this direction (with Mariko) was where they'd taken his love interests all along. I never did buy, nor care for, the subplot with Jean. It may have created some tension, but I just couldn't see it heading toward any resolution that would be satisfying (to Logan or to me!).

Doug: I think some day in the future, when you and I are ready to ride off into the sunset, our last post should be a montage of our favorite panels -- a collage of heroes in civvies while doing normal things, and rubber masks!

Karen: How about some Buscema blasts too? Our tale ends in Scotland, where Jean Grey, who still believes the X-Men to be dead, has come to spend the holidays with Moira McTaggert, Alex Summers, Lorna Dane, and Jaime Maddrox. As the foursome prepare to celebrate, back on Muir Island (Moira's home) Angus MacWhirter, who rented the X-Men a hover craft that promptly got blown up back in issue #104, decides to get his revenge. He plans to plant some bombs in Moira's lab -but is suddenly stopped by something - something inhuman.

Doug: So I'm dense. Been a looooonnnnnggg time since I've read these X-Men stories in a run. Is Jean not the world's strongest telepath? Wasn't she stronger than Xavier when under the Phoenix Force? This whole subplot of Jean's dead/the X-Men are dead was kind of dumb to me then and now.

Karen: I thought the whole "X-Men are dead/Jean and Hank are dead" sub-plot was stretched to ridiculous lengths. And yes, you'd think Jean and Scott shared a psychic bond that she would have felt. Oh well...

Karen: Although this is not one of my favorite stories in the Claremont/Byrne/Austin era, it still had some nice character moments, and as always, it felt like the team was moving forward. They were really starting to feel like a team, and like friends. Each adventure seemed to bring them closer together -and pulled those of us reading these tales when they first appeared into that circle, making us feel like we knew these characters. I think that was the key to the title at this time. The reader felt a part of something.

Doug: I want to say this 2-parter was like a get-me-over fastball -- don't want to walk the batter, but you also can't afford to miss with your best stuff. I agree with you -- it's pretty darn good, but not the very best. Think about it -- other than a couple of one-off misses (Warhawk?), this train had been picking up steam since X-Men #94. No breaks. And look where it's headed! From here to the first Alpha Flight story, then to the Arcade tale (which I think I like better than do you), then Proteus, then on to the "Dark Phoenix Saga" and finishing with "Days of Future Past". Wow!! Counting Giant-Size X-Men #1 and a couple of Annuals, that's over 50 issues of generally can't-miss entertainment. I'm not sure at the height of the Lee/Kirby/Sinnott Fantastic Four they rattled off a run of 50+ like this. Close -- no argument. But this All-New, All-Different business was just solid.