Book Review: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 by G. Simone

The Uncanny X-Men Volume 1: Red Wave written by Gail Simone, art by David Marquez and Javier Garron

After the mutant island nation of Krakoa is wiped out, mutants are back on the run. Charles Xavier has also died, leaving no positive leadership and no group known as the X-Men. His Westchester school has fallen into the hands of a nefarious agency that turns it into a prison for mutants though the conversion is still in progress. Rogue and Gambit have married and are on a second honeymoon in Mexico when they get pulled back to the States to help out some fellow mutants in Louisiana. The call came from Jubilee who is tired of trying to hide her powers. Nightcrawler and Wolverine join up too. The informal team visits a mutant child dying in a hospital and then meets a quartet of mutants, one of whom may be the "Endling," the mutant who will see the last of the mutants die in a near future. Possibly by one of the many hunters sent by the nefarious agency that wants to put the four kids into custody.

The story shakes things up by having Rogue in charge of the team. She's okay as a leader but doesn't have presence that Professor X, Storm, or Cyclops has. She does okay but she does not do anything outstanding. Things move at a good pace but there is very little joy or excitement on display. Simone is a good writer but this is only average work. I don't think I will continue this series.

Mildly recommended.

TV Review: X-Men '97 (2024)

X-Men '97 (2024) created by Beau DeMayo based on the 1990s series based on the Marvel Comics

This series, a continuation of a popular cartoon from the 1990s, starts with the X-Men in crisis. Professor Charles Xavier has died, leaving a leadership gap for the team. Cyclops/Scott Summers naturally thinks he has to step up as leader, though he is reluctant since his wife, Jean Grey, is pregnant and soon to give birth. He was hoping they could live a more normal family life. The problem gets worse when Magneto shows up at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters with Charles's will. Xavier has bequeathed the leadership of the school and the team to Magneto. None of the X-Men are happy about the situation (except maybe Rogue). Scott feels he has to stay to make sure Magneto behaves. The narrative plays out from there.

This ten-episode arc covers a lot of ground. Scott and Jean have their baby though the infant is kidnapped and infected with a cyber-disease and has to travel to the future with the time-traveling mutant Bishop to get cured. Storm loses her powers in a fight and winds up on a journey of self-discovery. Jean discovers that she is a clone of the actual Jean Grey created by Mister Sinister, leading to lots of complications. The island country Genosha, set up as a mutant refuge, is trying to join the United Nations but is under attack both politically and literally. The stories move at a breakneck pace. If I hadn't read some of these story arcs in the comics, I think I would have been a little lost (seeing the movies helps a bit too). The series leans on nostalgia and prior knowledge too much, with a lot of characters lacking any development or depth. 

The animation does a good job looking like something from thirty years ago without looking cheap or rushed. The action sequences are creative, hewing to the X-Men's random set of abilities and applying them as best they can in given situations. Rogue is an exception--she never using her absorbing power, she just flies around and punches a lot of stuff.

Mildly recommended--this needs a bit of context to be appreciated. Of course, the series ends on a cliffhanger implying another season to come.

Book Review: X-Men Marvel Epic Collection Vol. 12 by C. Claremont et al.

X-Men Marvel Epic Collection Volume 12: The Gift written by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, pencilled by John Romita, Jr., Steve Leialoha, Paul Smith, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Dave Cockrum

This omnibus edition covers X-Men publications mostly from 1985, including Uncanny X-Men 189 to 198, X-Men Annual 8, X-Men and Alpha Flight 1-2, and Nightcrawler 1-4. 

A lot of these are episodic one-offs, showcasing two or three of the X-Men on an adventure. Claremont is a good writer but has a lot of dialogue in his stories. Even Wolverine talks a lot. The highlight of the collection are a two-parter called "The Gift" featuring most of the X-Men and the Canadian superhero group Alpha Flight. They all wind up in a wintery, isolated Canadian location where an amazing city has sprung up in a bubble of warm weather. Unbelievable healing has happened in the city--Cyclops can control his eye-blasts without any tech, Rogue is free from her absorbing powers (so she can touch people), Wolverine no longer has berserker rage, etc. Loki has given this "gift" to them in hopes of appeasing some even higher-up gods, though things do not work out for him. The very promising cover image of Doctor Doom fighting the X-Men is a later story and a bit of a disappointment to me. 

Woven through the stories is Storm's tragic situation--she has lost her power and returns to Africa to find out what to do. Another ongoing plot is Colossus and Kitty having relationship problems. And 1985 was the year the Beyonder showed up and had an epic story line that involved all of the Marvel universe, so he shows up in a few stories.

The collection ends with a four-part adventure for Nightcrawler, who gets sucked into other dimensions where he encounters a lot of whimsical situations and action. He fights a shark-man who is also a magician bent on gaining Nightcrawler's teleportation powers. It is very silly but also very fun.

This set is a mixed bag. Some stories I liked, some I didn't. The cover promises more than the content delivers which was disappointing for me. Otherwise this is a fine if less famous bit of the Chris Claremont X-Men era.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Hunt for Wolverine: The Claws of a Killer and Mystery in Madripoor by C. Soule et al.

Hunt for Wolverine: The Claws of a Killer written by Charles Soule and Mariko Tamaki, and art by David Marquez, Paulo Siqueira, Butch Guice, and Mack Chater

Wolverine died encased in adamantium (the same metal that makes his bones unbreakable). The X-Men had set up a cabin in remote Canada with his remains. A group of desperate villains, the Reavers, find the location and try to steal the encased corpse. The X-Men had set up some security and arrive to stop the desecration of Wolverine's grave. The Reavers try to get a little bit DNA so they have something to sell, only to discover the adamantium covering is only a shell--there's no body inside. The X-Men had moved his corpse to a grave not far away. When they go to visit the real burial place after the fight, the X-Men discover Wolverine's body is gone. Realizing this is a perilous situation, Kitty Pryde organizes several teams to search of the missing body.

One group after Wolverine is led by Lady Deathstrike, who is a former Reaver. She's informed by the one Reaver who escaped the X-Men that Wolverine's body is missing, so she puts together a team to hunt for Logan. Old enemy Sabretooth and Wolverine's estranged son Daken follow Deathstrike to a small desert town. An adamantium scanner shows activity there, though when they arrive, the town is overrun with zombies. They have to fight their way out as they figure out what is going on.

The story quickly morphs into a Walking-Dead style horror story with the larger story looming over the action. A lot more people than Daken wind up having family issues by the end of the story. It wasn't that interesting overall though there were a few good moments. Nothing really happens to affect the characters or the bigger story. Meh...

Only recommended if you like the rest of the Hunt for Wolverine series.

Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor written by Charles Soule and Jim Zub, and art by David Marquez, Paulo Siqueira, Thony Silas with Leonard Kirk

The final group after Wolverine is led by Kitty Pryde. She takes a few of the X-Women (Storm, Jubilee, Rogue, Domino, and Psylocke) to Madripoor, an island overrun with crime (Wolverine had lived there years ago). Magneto has been in charge and he seems like a likely suspect for taking Wolverine's body. They arrive to find Magneto himself has been kidnapped and a group of villainous women led by Viper have their own project that may or may not involve the fate of Wolverine. 

The tone is like a James Bond-style spy adventure. The group of heroes tries to infiltrate the seedier side of Madripoor, so they dress scantily and head into action. They wind up fighting an interesting variety of opponents, also all female and scantily clad. So the whole package comes off a little exploitative. The story is interesting but does not resolve the larger mystery and only provides hints toward who really took Wolverine and where he is now.

Not really recommended--I guess you need to read this for the whole Hunt for Wolverine narrative but it definitely does not stand up on its own.

Book Review: Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost and The Adamantium Agenda by C. Soule et al.

Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost written by Charles Soule, art by David Marquez, Paulo Siqueira, and Matteo Buffagni

Wolverine died encased in adamantium (the same metal that makes his bones unbreakable). The X-men had set up a cabin in remote Canada with his remains. A group of desperate villains, the Reavers, find the location and try to steal the encased corpse. The X-men had set up some security and arrive to stop the desecration of Wolverine's grave. The Reavers try to get a little bit DNA so they have something to sell, only to discover the adamantium covering is only a shell--there's no body inside. The X-men had moved his corpse to a grave not far away. When they go to visit the real burial place after the fight, the X-men discover Wolverine's body is gone. Realizing this is a perilous situation, Kitty Pryde organizes several teams to search of the missing body.

One team is headed by Daredevil, who likes a good mystery. He recruits Misty Knight, an ex-cop from New York City with a cybernetic arm, and Frank Magee, an ex-detective from NYC who became an Inhuman when the city got dosed with Terrigen Mist. They start chasing down leads with the help of Cypher, a mutant who can communicate in any language and is addicted to the internet. Cypher finds a lot of online leads about Wolverine's whereabouts, too many for the team to investigate. They start narrowing the list and following up on the most likely leads.

The overall story has an interesting set-up and is spun out over several different series following the various teams (one lead by Iron-man, one by Kitty Pryde). The Weapon Lost story is deliberately noirish in style and provides an interesting investigation. The story is not fully resolved, so I will probably read the other series.

Mildly recommended--this is the middle of a larger narrative arc. I read this before I read Death of Wolverine, so the whole "encased in adamantium" fate was new to me. But I found it intriguing enough to keep going.

Hunt for Wolverine: The Adamantium Agenda written by Charles Soule and Tom Taylor, art by David Marquez, Paulo Siqueira, and R. B. Silva

The team in this book is headed by Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. His investigative group is Spider-man, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. Why those three? A couple of years ago, Tony and those three worked with Wolverine to stop a bomb from destroying Manhattan. Wolverine had made a mysterious deal with  all of them that brings them back together to search for Logan. Tony finds out about a black-market auction that promises the complete DNA of someone from the superhero community. Has the black marketeer has acquired Wolverine's body to monetize it? The group goes off on an adventure to find the sale and bring the seller to justice, hopefully finding out the fate of Wolverine along the way.

The mysterious backstory provides intrigue for readers and motivation for the main characters. I found the tale interesting even though it is not entirely conclusive.

Mildly recommended--this is stronger than the above tale.

Book Review: Uncanny X-Men: House of M by C. Claremont et al.

Uncanny X-Men: House of M written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Alan Davis and Chris Bachalo, and inks by Mark Farmer and others

Rachel Summers and Betsy Braddock travel between realities and wind up in one where Magneto, the mutant master of magnetism, has become the ruler of that particular Earth (thus the title "House of M" since he is the ruler, British-monarch style). The only problem is a "rift in causality" that is wreaking havoc with other different realities, threatening to destroy them all. Brian Braddock (Betsy's twin brother) is the ruler of one of these alternate realities where they realize the problem and his people threaten to destroy his home reality. Brian goes to the House of M reality where he will work with Rachel and Betsy to seal the rift.

The story is very convoluted and borrows a lot of technical jargon from science (there's a sidereal something or other), trying to paper over the dubious mechanics of what's going on. A lot of other mutant characters are brought in, which is fun if you know the roster but even I was unsure of a couple of them. I found the story hard to follow, especially when characters started possessing each other or speaking through each other. It's a bit of a mess and not up to Claremont's usual standards.

Not recommended unless you are up on your X-Men lore.

Book Review: X-Men: From the Ashes by C. Claremont et al.

X-Men: From the Ashes written by Chris Claremont, penciled by Paul Smith, Walter Simonson, and John Romita Jr., and inked by Bob Wiacek

The volume of classic X-Men stories covers a lot of ground. Kitty Pryde is upset that she's been put on the New Mutants, the junior mutant team. She's mad at Professor Xavier and wants to upgrade. Meanwhile, Logan, aka Wolverine, has gone to Japan and is about to marry a woman who is inheriting leadership in a shady organization. If that wasn't bad enough, her half-brother wants control of the organization, which means offing her. Also meanwhile, Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, is in Alaska dating a woman who has a striking resemblance to Jean Grey, the former X-Men who died as Dark Phoenix, a powerful entity that nearly destroyed the universe. Additionally meanwhile, Storm and a handful of X-Men (by this point, Kitty has made the grade so she joins in) confront the underground mutants who call themselves Morlocks, led by the mutant female Callisto. Storm discovers her powers are getting out of control and she adopts a new look (the mohawk) to go with her newly discovered attitude. Finally meanwhile, Professor X is struggling with a new body that should be able to walk but something is wrong. His space princess girlfriend helps out.

Reading this volume out of context with the rest of Claremont's run will cause a lot of confusion. I knew about most things going on (except for Professor X's clone body) from other reading I've done. The story telling comes off choppy. Claremont also got a lot wordier in his later years, making the plots sound a bit like a soap opera (is Cyclops' girlfriend really Jean Grey reincarnated? The girlfriend did miraculously survive a plane crash just when Jean died...). I enjoyed this for the most part but it's not the best stories from the mutants' history.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: X-Men Milestones: The Fall of the Mutants by C. Claremont et al.

X-Men Milestones: The Fall of the Mutants written by Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson, pencils by Mark Silvestri, Walter Simonson, and Bret Blevins, and inked by Dan Green, Bob Wiacek, and Terry Austin

In a late 1980s semi-crossover event, The Fall of the Mutants story appeared in Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, and The New Mutants. While thematically tied together as earth-shaking events for each group of mutants, the stories did not intertwine (though events in each are mentioned in the others). They could be read separately without loosing the continuity of storytelling but they are offered as a group in a trade paperback.

In Uncanny X-Men, the X-Men (led by Wolverine and featuring Colossus, Havok, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, and Longshot) go to Dallas, Texas, where they search for their missing leader Storm. They go to Eagle Tower, a building that's home to Forge, a mutant whose ability is to construct technology. He and Storm have escaped to another dimension where they hope to get Storm's powers back. But in the normal world, Dallas is falling into chaos. Dinosaurs, prehistoric men, Native Americans, and humans from the future are pouring in and fight with each other and with the current-day Texans. If that was not enough, another group of mutants called the Freedom Force have shown up to arrest the X-Men. Freedom Force is led by Mystique and includes a lot of former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants members. So the two teams are natural opponents until they realize the bigger problems they all face. Then they cooperate to fix things. The story is fairly epic but suffers from the excessive verbosity of Claremont and the retreading of the same themes (X-Men as oppressed, misunderstood outsiders) with nothing new to show. I found it only mildly interesting, more like reading a re-run than a new story.

In The New Mutants, Magneto is in charge of Xavier's School, though the children are quite rebellious even though at this point in the story Magneto is a good guy. Most of the mutant children head off with Bird Brain, a half-human/half-bird that wants to return to his home and free the other animal-hybrids living there. They have all been created by a mad scientist who wants to build a slave race to menial work, freeing regular humans for the good life. The battle is very hard and costs one of the Mutants' lives. The roster of mutants was mostly unfamiliar to me so the story wasn't as impactful. Otherwise it was a fine adventure.

In X-Factor, the classic X-Men (Jean Grey, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman) face off against Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen who are about to wipe out Manhattan. Apocalypse has a surprise fourth Horseman--former X-man Angel, whom he has refashioned with new metal wings and named Death. The mutants spend their time fighting and getting angsty over whether mutants and humans can live together in peace. Apocalypse doesn't think they can live in peace so he is making war on humans to drive the two groups farther apart. The X-Men make the argument that mutants are humans too, though they have a hard time convincing the humans of the X-Men's humanity. Things work out in the end without any really earthshaking changes, other than the return of Angel and an upbeat ending for the downtrodden group.

The group I knew the least about, the New Mutants, had the most interesting story. They play hooky to help a friend and get embroiled in a plot that is almost too big for them. The story had some suspense and a different, more fatherly take on Magneto. The other stories are fine but did not have the substance I was looking for. They were more like typical stories than milestones.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Vol. 6 by C. Claremont et al.

Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Volume 6 written by Chris Claremont, penciled and co-plotted by John Byrne, penciled by Dave Cockrum, Brent Anderson, and Bob Wiacek, and inked by Terry Austin and Josef Rubinstein

This book starts with the famous Days of Future Past storyline, which I have reviewed as a Dual/Duel review comparing it with the movie. The story is a classic time-travel thrill ride with an adult Kitty Pride traveling from a dystopian future to try and stop the dystopia from happening. It follows the usual line but in an enjoyable way.

The second story is a self-conscious imitation of the movie Alien. Kitty Pride is left alone in Xavier's mansion and has to fight an ancient and horrible monster while everyone else is off celebrating the Christmas holidays. It works as a story on its own but is not particularly outstanding.

The next story follows Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, who is on a leave of absence from the X-Men. He's in Florida and has been working anonymously on a fishing boat. He's still trying to deal with the loss of his beloved Jean Grey who died as Dark Phoenix. Scott gets drawn into a trap when the demon D'Spayre, who thrives on other intelligent beings' despair, has been tormenting some local people, including Man-Thing, the Marvel Comics version of Swamp Thing. The story is okay though it is very obvious about what it's trying to do. A little more creativity would have given it at least some subtly. 

Next, Doctor Doom has kidnapped X-Men villain Arcade and threatens to kill him. Arcade's henchwoman, Miss Locke, kidnaps some of the X-Men's loved ones to blackmail them into saving Arcade. Professor X sends one team of X-Men to Doom's castle to free Arcade while another team goes to Arcade's Murderworld amusement park to free the hostages. Lots of action ensues. The Doctor Doom half of the story is more interesting and enjoyable.

The X-Men have an uninteresting encounter with a subterranean mutant named Caliban while Scott is shipwrecked with Aletys, the female captain of the fishing boat. He loses his glasses and can't open his eyes lest his optic blasts destroy things, so she has to lead him around. They struggle with romantic feelings and then a big, mysterious island rises out of the ocean. They go to investigate, hoping for food and water. They discover Magneto. Scott has been reduced to rags so Magneto does not recognize him (the girl is also scantily clad, in case you were wondering). 

The other X-Men go to Antarctica to investigate Magneto's old lair, which has been excavated a bit. They have a run-in with some bad guys there. They fly back north when Magneto unleashes his big plan. He demands the entire world disarm and submit to his rule or he will destroy them. He wants to pacify all the homo sapiens so the mutants, which he refers to as "homo superior," will be safe from fear and oppression. A Soviet sub fires nuclear weapons at Magneto's island. He handily dispatches the nukes and punishes the sub. The X-Men's jet comes flying over and he downs it, forcing a confrontation. Meanwhile, Professor Xavier has come on a yacht and contributes to the battle from a distance. After a long conflict, Magneto's plan is defeated. In the course of the fight, Magneto thinks he's killed Kitty Pryde, which causes him to rethink his attitudes. He flees, leaving the X-Men victorious.

This book is bookended by the best stories, Days of Future Past and the confrontation with Magneto. The rest is okay, more like filler episodes between the big story arcs.

Recommended.

 

Movie Review: The New Mutants (2020)

The New Mutants (2020) co-written and directed by Josh Boone

Native American Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) survives a tragedy that wipes out everyone else on her reservation. She's taken to a special hospital which turns out to be a prison for young mutants with control issues. Dani's first issue is that she isn't really sure what her powers are. There's four other inmates and one doctor in charge. Her methods seem normal (group therapy sessions, one-on-one discussions, some drugs every now and then) but her goals are ambiguous. She says she's getting them ready to work for her boss on the outside. The kids are rebellious and withdrawn and occasionally frightened by bad memories from their past. Will they go crazy before they get whatever cure or control that the doctor is offering them?

The movie suffers from a lack of focus. It seems at one point like it wants to be an insane asylum horror drama. At another point it seems like The Breakfast Club with mutant teenagers. At another point it seems like it wants to set up a new set of X-Men to keep the franchise going. But it never lands satisfyingly on any of those possibilities. The humor and the action are very minimal, which would be okay if there were stronger characters or dramatic plot lines to keep the movie engaging. Everything in the film is average. The creepy hospital/jail was only mildly creepy. The conflicts between the characters didn't feel original or compelling. I've seen it all before and seen it done better in many other films.

Not recommended.

TV Review: Marvel: X-Men Season One (2011)

Marvel: X-Men Season One (2011) produced by Madhouse and Marvel Animation

Jean Grey, having been manipulated by the Inner Circle, kills herself in the opening sequence of this story. The other X-Men (Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, and Beast) are distraught and return to America. Well, everyone but Cyclops, who mourns Jean. Back at the Xavier Institute, Professor X has a problem with Cerebro. It can't detect anything in Northern Japan, even though there are reports of mutants being kidnapped there. He gets the four remaining active X-Men back together to go investigate. They find the U-Men, an anti-mutant group that harvests organs from mutants. They use those organs to give themselves power to fight mutants. The X-Men fight their way into the bad guys' headquarters where they discover one of the Inner Circle, Emma Frost, plugged into the organ-draining equipment. They free her and reluctantly ally with her. She claims she left the Inner Circle and that female telepath they saw manipulating Jean Grey was an image created by Mastermind, the evil head of the Inner Circle. The X-Men also discover that mutants in the area are suffering from Damon-Hall Syndrome, a secondary mutation that often turns the mutants into uncontrollable and unthinking monsters. 

The series, as anime produced in Japan, is subtitled (though there is a dubbed track that I didn't listen to, though I guess dubbing is not as problematic with animated programs as opposed to live action ones). The story has some anime tropes, the most disappointing one being the unnaturally large busts of the female characters. The other problem I had was the ultimate revelation of the hidden bad guy's plan, which did not fit with his actions. Sure, it made the plot more exciting but it killed the creditability somewhat. The characterizations are good. Fun and funny moments abound and the fight scenes are fun.

The Sequel Was Better? X-Men vs. X2

The Sequel Was Better? is a series of reviews looking at famous movies with sequels that are considered, rightly or wrongly, to be better than the original movies. Typically, sequels are a step down in quality, acting, and/or production value. But not always. See other reviews here.

X-Men (2000) co-written and directed by Bryan Singer

The movie opens at a German concentration camp where a young boy is separated from his parents. The boy resists, showing power over metal when he almost pulls down a gate separating him from his family without touching the gate. The story then jumps to somewhere "in the near future." A teenage girl named Rouge (Anna Paquin) is hanging out with her boyfriend planning a trip to Alaska. They wind up kissing which hurts him. Her mutant power is to absorb other people's life force temporarily when she touches them, leaving them weakened, sometime in a coma. She panics and flees. In Washington, D.C., Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) testifies at a congressional hearing on a mutant registration act. She is argued down by Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) who wants mutants registered as lethal weapons. In the gallery, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) watches thoughtfully. He spots his old friend Eric Lensherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen), who was the boy in the opening scene. They talk about the situation of mutants. Magneto will do whatever it takes to keep mutants free and says they are the future of humanity, not regular humans. 

Rogue has hitchhiked as far as Canada on her own. She is in a small town where the local bar features cage fights between tough mountain men. One man is unbeatable--Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). He drinks and smokes and takes no guff from anyone. One of the defeated man tries to make trouble afterward, forcing a confrontation where Wolverine shows his claws. No real violence happens and he leaves in his camper truck. Rogue hides inside the truck. She's discovered by Wolverine and they have an awkward conversation in the cab. That's interrupted when they are attacked by Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and Toad (Ray Park). The attackers work for Magneto and want to kidnap the mutant. Cyclops (James Marsden) and Storm (Halle Berry), who work for Xavier, come to the rescue. They bring Rogue and Wolverine back to the Professor's school in Westchester, New York.

Wolverine is brought in unconscious. When he wakes up, he roughs up Dr. Grey (who is treating him) and wanders through the school, which is more like a mansion. He meets Xavier who tells him about his efforts to help mutants like Wolverine. He shelters mutants at the school and prepares them to live in the world. A few of the students, like Cyclops and Storm, stay at the school to teach and to go on assignments like the Canadian rescue mission. Wolverine is more of a loner and not so interested in joining up. Xavier offers to help Wolverine investigate his past since Wolverine can't remember anything before getting adamantium (a mostly unbreakable metal) attached to his skeleton and claws. Wolverine sticks around. He has a nightmare; Rogue comes to wake him up and he accidentally stabs her. She absorbs his healing power to heal herself. The next day, she's convinced to flee the school by a fellow student who is actually one of Magneto's operatives.

The operative is a shapeshifter called Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos). She went on an earlier mission to kidnap Senator Kelly. Taken back to Magneto's island lair, Kelly is subjected to a machine that causes him to mutate. The machine requires Magneto's power but nearly kills him. Magneto thinks it is worth the risk because he hopes that Kelly will change his tune once he's also a mutant. Kelly manages to escape and return to the mainland, where he flees to the school. He hopes they can help him because he's afraid of the regular hospitals. They try to treat him but the mutation is too severe and he dies.

The X-Men discover Rogue's absence and Xavier uses a special mutant-finding machine called Cerebro to find her location. She's at a local train station. Wolverine immediately goes after her; Cyclops and Storm are not far behind. A big battle at the train station results in Rogue being kidnapped by Magneto, who plans to use her to power his machine by forcing her to take his power temporarily. A large gathering of world leaders on Ellis Island will happen the next night. Magneto plans to turn them all into mutants, making them sympathetic to his cause. Magneto's crew brings the machine to the Statue of Liberty, using that to broadcast the radiation to Ellis Island. 

The X-Men figure out the plan and mount an attack on Liberty Island, hoping to rescue Rogue and capture the bad guys. Magneto's lackeys battle the X-Men for a while, then Magneto steps in and traps them. He then starts the machine with Rogue inside. Wolverine breaks free, frees the other X-Men, and rescues Rogue just in time. A careful blast from Cyclops disables Magneto and the machine. Rogue is almost dead, so Wolverine touches her to give her his healing power. 

Back at the school, Xavier give Wolverine some new leads on his past, specifically the location of an abandoned military base in Canada. Xavier goes to visit Magneto in his plastic jail where they have another sparing match over what should be done to improve mutantkind's situation. 

X2: X-Men United (2003) co-written and directed by Bryan Singer

Set shortly after the first film, this movie opens with an assassination attempt on the President of the United States by Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming). He looks like a blue devil, teleports, and is an acrobat, so the infiltration and fight with Secret Service is exciting and tense. Nightcrawler fails at the last minute. Anti-mutant sentiment goes high. The president meets with military scientist William Stryker (Brian Cox) and Senator Kelly who is Mystique masquerading as the senator. The president encourages Stryker to go ahead with an operation against Xavier's school. Kelly/Mystique asks about Magneto's prison, which Stryker designed. Stryker tells the senator to leave the war (between mutants and humans) to him. Stryker visits Magneto to get more information out of him by drugging him. 

Mystique infiltrates Stryker's offices and gets information on the prison and on Stryker's secret base where he plans to set up another Cerebro. She idenitifies one of the guards and surreptitiously injects him with more iron, so that Magneto will have some metal with which to escape.

Meanwhile, Wolverine has gone to the Canadian base and found nothing. He returns to the school just in time to babysit the students. Xavier and Cyclops will meet with Magneto to find out if he was behind the assassination attempt; Storm and Jean Grey will go after the assassin. Xavier and Cyclops are kidnapped by Stryker after the interview; Storm and Jean find Nightcrawler and convince him to come with them. The school is attacked by Stryker's forces They kidnap a few of the children and steal some key components of Cerebro. Most of the mutants escape, with Wolverine, Iceman, Rogue, and Pyro fleeing to Boston to catch up with Storm and Jean. Iceman's family lives there, though they think he's at a prep school. His family knows nothing of his mutant abilities. The visit is awkward and goes bad when Iceman's brother calls the cops. Pyro lets loose, confirming the bad feelings about mutants. Storm and Jean show up in the jet and get all the mutants out of there.

The jet is pursued by military planes and eventually shot down. They almost crash but luckily are right near Magneto (who did escape from the plastic prison) who uses his power to catch the plane. They form an alliance to go back to the Canadian base because Wolverine missed the underground lair of Stryker. Stryker gave Wolverine his adamantium during his earlier experiments on mutants. Stryker's mutant son went to Xavier's school many years ago. Stryker had hoped for a cure but Xavier doesn't do that. When the son came home, he drove his mom crazy by causing hallucinations. She committed suicide; Stryker never forgave his son and that's why he thinks all mutants are dangerous. Now, he will use his son to trick Xavier into using Cerebro 2 to kill all the mutants on earth (the drug he used to force Nightcrawler to attack the president and to get information out of Magneto doesn't work on Xavier). 

The allies make it to the Canadian base and mount an attack to save Xavier and stop Stryker. Wolverine has lots of flashbacks to the horrible surgery that caused his amnesia (maybe?) and gave him the unbreakable bones. He fights Lady Deathstrike who has similar regeneration powers and unbreakable claws (and is under Styker's mind control). The other mutants fight mostly soldiers, though Cyclops fights on Stryker's side until the mind control drug wears off. Stryker flees the base when Magneto infiltrates Cerebro 2. Magneto convinces the son to switch plans and have Xavier kill all the regular humans instead of the mutants. He pursues Stryker, chaining him up and stealing his helicopter (Pyro joins him because he's been steadily turning bad). Storm and Nightcrawler free Xavier just before he kills all the humans. 

The base is badly damaged and the dam under which it is built breaks. The mutants flee to their jet. Jean Grey uses her power to stop the flood waters from hitting the jet but is killed while saving her friends. The X-Men visit the president to reassure him that they are not a threat and return to the school.

So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.

• SCRIPT--The first movie's script is an amalgamation of a lot of the intro stories of various characters. The story is enjoyable and sets up some of the classic issues from the comics--what is it to be human, how to deal with the new powers you get growing up, can people live together peaceably in spite of their differences, are the differences really significant enough to make some people better than others. The second movie takes on these issues but spends less time with character intros and more time dealing with them in multifaceted ways. The story is based on Chris Claremont's God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel, though they make a lot of improvements and adjustments for a cinematic experience. X2 definitely has the stronger script.
• ACTING--The cast is mostly the same, with some new characters added in the sequel. Most of the actors give top-notch performances, especially Stewart, McKellen, and Jackman. I'm sure it was fun too for the actors to have turns playing Mystique as she morphed into in the sequel. This is a tie. 
• ADVANCES THE STORY/MYTHOLOGY--The second movie expands on the themes of the first. The conflict between Xavier and Magneto, who had been friends, plays out in the action and in the ideas. The addition of Styker fills out the moral spectrum of the story. Stryker is pro-human and anti-mutant; Xavier is pro-human and pro-mutant; Magneto is anti-human and pro-mutant. The other characters provide the shades of grey between those points. Advantage X2.
• SPECIAL EFFECTS--The special effects in both films hold up fairly well twenty years later, though the occasional flying body looks wrong in the first film. The second film has more elaborate characters like Nightcrawler and Lady Deathstrike. The Cerebro effects are a little bit better in the second film. Minor advantage X2.
• VISUAL STYLE--Both movies have the same director and his style is consistent. The opening sequence in X2 is still amazing to see and rivals the Quicksilver slow-motion scenes in the much later films, the X2 this scene is played for drama and the Quicksilver stuff has a humorous tone. This also is a tie.
• THE BIG FINALE--Both movies have big battles at the end which have both physical and moral stakes for the characters and the world at large. There's a bigger price paid in the second film, but the last scene has a Jean Grey voiceover as the camera pans over the flood water and the shape of a bird can be seen on the water. For comic book readers, that's a pretty big hint that she will be back as Phoenix and/or Dark Phoenix, which she did come back as in X3. Slight advantage to X2.

FINAL THOUGHTS

After two great movies (with the second being slightly better), the X-Men franchise became very hit-and-miss. Logan and Deadpool are the outstanding later films, the rest are in the mediocre-to-bad range. Maybe with the franchise coming into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they will mutate into a higher entertainment form?

Book Review: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills by C. Claremont et al.

 X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills written by Chis Claremont and art by Brent Anderson

The X-Men face off against a new sort of challenge: An evangelical preacher named Stryker is advocating a campaign against mutants since they are "the spawn of the Devil." While Stryker's rhetoric for the cameras is vitriolic, he also has a clandestine organization called "The Purists" who run around killing mutants. The story opens with Magneto, typically the villain, trying to save some young mutants from the misguided vigilantes. He teams up with the X-Men after Professor X, Cyclops, and Storm are apparently killed (really they were kidnapped by the bad guys). They work to uncover Stryker's plans and find out the true fate of their comrades.

Like most of Claremont's work, this is a very wordy story. Characters argue a lot about the issues of humanity and justice. Unfortunately Stryker comes across as a one-note villain. The backstory of his motivation is not particularly convincing but it does generate the conflict and shows how his self-centeredness creates his hatred for mutants. He winds up selectively quoting the New Testament to justify his actions. While Claremont has the X-Men argue from the other side, he also shows a lot of the regular people who have a hard time figuring out which side is right, or even caring about which side is right. The bigger context is interesting and gives a grounding to the story. The ending certainly is a satisfying wrap-up.

This book inspired the plot of X2, the second X-Men film by Bryan Singer. You'll get my opinion on that in the next post.

Recommended.

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Vol. 5 by C. Claremont et al.

Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Volume 5 written by Chris Claremont, penciled and co-plotted by John Byrne, penciled by John Romita, Jr., and inked by Terry Austin and Bob McLeod

This book includes the finale of the Hellfire Club plotline (which introduces Kitty Pryde and Dazzler) and leads directly into the famous Dark Phoenix saga. I reviewed that storyline here, and it was just as enjoyable to re-read it. The book also has the aftermath, where Cyclops leaves the group and Storm is put in charge. The group has some smaller, single or double issue adventures afterward. Wolverine finally sorts out his relationship with the Canadian government; Nightcrawler faces his past in an interesting story involving Dante's Inferno; Kitty Pryde starts to gel with the team.

The book ends with some interesting bonus material. The original ending to the Dark Phoenix saga, where Jean Grey doesn't die but is only depowered, thus forcing the Phoenix entity out of her, is given. It's less satisfying than the published version. Another bonus story has Jean's older sister trying to connect with her younger sister while facing the possibility that Jean's nieces and nephews might have mutant powers. The story is in black and white and a little hard to read but interesting. There's also text from an interview with the X-Men creative team discussing the decision to switch the ending of the Dark Phoenix saga which had some nice insights but ran a little long.

Recommended.

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks X-Men Vol. 4 by C. Claremont et al.

Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Volume 4 written by Chris Claremont, penciled and co-plotted by John Byrne, art by George Perez

The X-Men face a variety of enemies in this collection. They also get reunited with Professor X and other associates. Moira MacTaggert summons the X-Men to her island lab just off Scotland's shores. A powerful mutant (who happens to be her son) manages to escape confinement. The X-Men reunite with Jean Grey, who came to Scotland after the volcano erupted in Antarctica. Jean is being stalked by Jason Wyngarde, who psychically makes Jean have odd flashbacks to a life in the 1800s. In the fantasy he's created, she's enamored with him and plans to marry him. Jean becomes more confused as readers' understanding becomes more clear--Wyngarde is a member of the Hellfire Club, a gentleman's club in New York City full of powerful people who want more power. They are behind a lot of shenanigans and are clearly on their way to being the next big problem for the X-Men.

This series also sees the introduction of Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, and Emma Frost as well as the exit of Banshee, who seems to have permanently lost his powers. He stays behind in Scotland to comfort Moira after that story ends. The story is exciting, especially the ongoing Jean Grey plot. Her powers are only growing while her mind is deteriorating. Dark Phoenix is on the horizon!

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Vol. 3 by C. Claremont et al.

Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Volume 3 written by Chris Claremont, penciled and co-plotted by John Byrne

Magneto attacks again, this time kidnapping the X-Men and taking them to his Antarctic base underneath a volcano. While they are trapped, he works on his orbiting base. The X-Men just barely manage to escape, though they are split up and each group think the other has died. Beast and Jean Grey make it to the Antarctic surface where they are discovered by a search plane. They return to New York where Jean tells Professor X the others are dead. Xavier closes up the school and leaves with the new love of his life, the space queen Lilandra. He leaves for her kingdom while Jean goes to Scotland. Beast goes back to the Avengers.

Meanwhile, Cyclops, Storm, Banshee, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine have escaped by tunneling away from the base. They wind up in the Savage Land, an Antarctic pre-historic jungle heated by geothermal sources. They have adventures with the local inhabitants, finally escaping to the sea where they wind up on a Japanese science vessel that's in lockdown until they return to Japan. Six weeks later, in Japan they try to contact Xavier only to find no one answering. That's just as well, because a supervillain threatens Japan. The X-Men team up with Japanese superhero Sunfire to take out the threat. They almost make it back to America--the Canadian government detours their plane so they can get Wolverine back. He was a multi-million dollar experiment and part of a plan to develop a Canadian superhero team.

The world-travelling nature of the story keeps things interesting, as does the human drama of dealing with the supposed deaths of their comrades (even by the end, no one finds out the others survived). The plotting is fantastic and fun, making this a very enjoyable read.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Vol. 2 by C. Claremont et al.

Marvel Masterworks: X-Men Volume 2 written by Chris Claremont, art by Dave Cockrum and John Byrne

Jean Grey pilots the X-Men's shuttlecraft to safety, exposing her to the most intense solar storm in centuries. The exposure kills her, but in true comic book fashion, she doesn't die. She comes back as Phoenix, an extremely powerful mutant. So powerful, in fact, that Jean is afraid of these new abilities. She can kill almost at whim, which delights and disgusts her. She hides this truth from the other X-Men as they have various adventures against various foes. Often, they are taking a break from action only to be interrupted by by an enemy. They visit Shaun Cassidy's ancestral Scottish home for a little vacation. They are attacked by his evil brother. During a picnic at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, they are attacked by a Canadian superhero who wants to bring Wolverine back to the homeland. Heroes don't get any time off!

The stories are exciting if a bit repetitive. The real interest is Jean's character arc as she deals with what's happening to her. Her parents come to visit, creating more drama. Also, Scott (aka Cyclops) is wondering about their relationship, especially as Wolverine, the inveterate loner, starts showing interest in Jean. Cyclops and Wolverine are at odds usually (leaders and loners don't mix well). The new situation only ratchets up the tension.

Recommended.

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks X-Men Vol. 1 by C. Claremont et al.

Marvel Masterworks The Uncanny X-Men Volume 1 written by Chris Claremont and Len Wein, pencilled by Dave Cockrum

This volume of classic X-Men comics from 1975 starts with the introduction of a new team. Professor X recruits Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Banshee, and Wolverine to go on a rescue mission with Cyclops. The original X-Men went to recruit a mutant on a Pacific Island only to mysteriously disappear. The new crew trains and goes back to the island, only to discover the island itself is the mutant! The new crew saves the old crew. Once everyone is back at Xavier's school, most of the old class heads off on their own as the new roster takes over. They aren't gone for long as future adventures draw them back in. The final issue (#100) leaves a big cliffhanger...in space!

I'll admit the island-is-the-mutant is a weird idea, even for comic books, and sometimes the book has more dialog than it needs. That being said, the new roster of X-Men become very iconic very quickly. They have a lot of friendly and not so friendly interaction with each other, giving them a family feel. I enjoyed this step back into the past and will definitely read more.

Recommended.

TV Review: Legion Season One (2017)

Legion Season One (2017) created by Noah Hawley based on characters by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz

David Haller (Dan Stevens) has suffered from mental illness all his life. He was adopted as a baby and grew up in a house that wasn't haunted until he showed up. The show starts with him as an adult in the Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital. He has the monotonous but safe existence of eating meals, taking drugs, attending therapy sessions, and having odd conversations with the other patients. This comfortable routine is broken by a new patient, Syd (Rachel Keller), with whom he falls in love. She's there because she doesn't like people touching her, though she does agree to be his girlfriend. Their relationship pushes him out of his comfort zone and into a path of discovery. It turns out he may not be schizophrenic--he's really a mutant with off-the-chart powers. But he still hears voices, has unreliable memories, and sees a "Devil with the Yellow Eyes" all the time. What if he's an all-powerful mutant and mentally ill? He escapes the hospital and a group of good mutants help him to sort out his problems, hopefully before the bad guys catch up with them.

This intriguing premise, where no one really knows if he's mentally ill (they are sure about the psychic powers), is reflected in the style of the series. The images and narrative are mixed up in a deliberately semi-coherent mishmash. Actual reality blends in with David's mental world which also blends into an astral plane where characters have a bodiless existence. The dividing lines between these three states aren't always clear to the characters or the viewers, creating an interesting experiential puzzle. Unfortunately, the pacing is very uneven. One whole episode feels like an exploration of visual amazingness with little actual coherent story going on, followed by a five minute exposition dump to explain what's going on. A couple of other sequences are unnecessary and self-indulgent. The shifts are jarring, and not in a good way.

The performances are universally excellent. Stevens does a great job playing the wide range of mood shifts and sanity of Haller. Other stand outs are Jemaine Clement as a guy stuck in the astral plane (and in the 1960s) and Aubrey Plaza as Haller's druggy/boozy mental unhealth friend who is also a patient at Clockworks.

Guarded recommendation--as a viewer, you have to pay attention to get a lot of the details but the whole picture is not quite narratively coherent. The show doesn't lack substance but there is definitely an emphasis on style over substance. The ending is very satisfactory except for a dopey "after the credits" style scene.

Parental Advisory-this is rated TV-MA, and is definitely only for mature audiences.While there's only one or two bare bottoms, the show has many discreet but obvious sexual encounters, lots of recreational and medicinal drug consumption, hard violence, a bit of gore, and the occasional swearing.

Book Review: Avengers vs. X-Men by J. Aaron et al.

Avengers vs. X-Men written by Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction, and others; art by John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert, and others

The comics industry is always looking for two things--a big epic storyline and an excuse for the heroes to fight each other. Fans are always debating who could beat whom if the heroes ever faced off against each other. Companies want a hook that keeps readers coming back for more. Have they pulled it off with this storyline?

The story starts with the discovery that the Phoenix entity (the one that drove Jean Grey crazy and to eventual death way back in the day) is coming to Earth. Presumably the entity is coming for Hope Summers (who apparently is no relations to Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclopes). She's a mutant whose destiny for greatness has been predicted since her discovery. She was the first mutant born after Scarlet Witch did something to reduce the number of mutants on Earth below 200. The X-Men and a bunch of the mutants (including Hope) live on an island called Utopia off the United States west coast. Once everyone knows about the Phoenix entity, Captain America and the Avengers want to take Hope into protective custody; Scott Summers and his X-Men want hope to embrace the Phoenix entity in the hopes that she will bring back the mutants. As the entity approaches, battle lines are drawn and the mayhem begins.

So the set-up is a little convoluted but this book contains enough explanation that it works as a stand-alone story. Back story is explained to get readers ready for the epic battle of epic epicness that ensues. The writers shoe-horn in a lot of characters (clearly hoping to please the fans) and have lots of battles all over the globe with all sorts of match-ups that are interesting and handled well. The main story keeps moving forward at a good pace and comes to a satisfying conclusion.

The book also contains six issues of a companion series to the A vs. X main storyline. In the companion, various battles between individuals are given in detail, though with a lot of humor thrown in for good measure. The companion stories are clearly fan service, the more outlandish being the more fun (like the Cyclopes vs. Captain America verbal abuse battle where they argue about who is a lamer character, or the Toad vs. Jarvis battle where Toad (who acts as a butler in one of the mutant schools) comes into conflict with the Avengers' master butler). Unfortunately there is a "Spider-woman vs. X-Women" that confirms a sexist attitude toward the female characters. Deliberate pandering to adolescent male attitudes is not good.

Recommended, except for that one page.