charles xavier

The X-Men Go Out with a Bang. (Sorry Mr. Worthington!)

Posted on by GenoshaGirl85

Hey folx! I’m back, and we have some weird X-Men stuff to talk about. I didn’t get as much reading done on our camping trip as I’d thought, but that’s just because Kevin and I were having too much fun with our friends and we never got the rain that was forecasted. (I’d planned on spending the rainy day in the tent reading and listening to the rain on the tent. It’s my favorite thing!) Between that, an insanely busy week at work thus far, and two D&D campaigns, I’m just now getting time to write about the rest of the series. So, let’s get into it, shall we?

So, my darlings, we only have three, that’s right, THREE, issues left of the original X-Men run. This run ends with issue #66. Technically, the series will start back up with issue #67 in December of 1970, but these will just be reprints of the original stories. This was a format that Marvel used a lot at this time. X-Men had been cancelled, but then, seeing the sales numbers of the Neal Adams issues we’re going to talk about today, they decided to bring it back as reprints. Since we’ve already talked about these stories, we won’t be covering them again in the blog. I will let you know which issues were printed during the months we’re covering each time so we can keep up with it. But for now, let’s talk about these last few issues.

Issues 64 is a fun little romp that introduces us to a new mutant named Sunfire. The issue takes place right as the X-Men get home from their ordeal in the Savage Land, and they’re all still exhausted. But, while watching the news, they get a ping from their mini-Cerebro and Bobby, Hank, and Warren decide to go check it out. (Jean and Scott aren’t there). It’s Sunfire! He’s a Japanese diplomat’s son who wants to ruin his father’s legacy of working with the US. See, Shiro’s (Sunfire’s) mom was gravely injured by the bomb in Hiroshima and then died in childbirth. Shiro’s uncle has been raising him to hate the Americans for the bombing and the war. So, now, under his uncle’s conditioning, he sees his father as a traitor and attacks him at the UN in NYC. (Papa doesn’t know Sunfire is his sun, FWIW.) The three X-Men try to stop him, but Sunfire ends up hurting Beast pretty bad before getting away and the X-Men retreat to their city apartment to regroup. They meet up with Jean and Scott and the five of them follow Shiro and his father to DC, where they’re set to meet with Congress. Sunfire tries to blow up the Capital Building!! The X-Men try to stop him. Cyke’s powers are a fairly even match for Sunfire’s, but it takes Marvel Girl stepping in to help to turn the tide of the battle. And then, figuring out that this villain is his son, Shiro’s dad appears at the top of the Capital Building to reason with his son. But then evil uncle shows up and shoots dad. This is way too much for Sunfire, and he kills his uncle before rushing to his father’s side to renounce he behavior and turn himself over to the police. The X-Men shrink away into the trees before they can again be blamed for something that wasn’t their fault.

Like I said, this was a fun little issue, and overall I really enjoyed it. Per a note in the beginning of the issue, Don Heck subbed in on art for Neal Adams on this one, but this didn’t bother me as much as I’d thought it would. I do still have a problem with Scott CONSTANTLY telling Jean to stay out of the fighting, but since it’s just Scott doing it at this point, it’s less about overall treatment of women on the team, and more about super icky chauvinism from Scott towards his girlfriend. It’s a theme that’s going to continue in the series. The women are more and more treated like equal members of the teams, but the guys start exhibiting really problematic behavior in their romantic relationships that are presented as good or virtuous. So, best believe we’ll be talking about all of that toxic masculinity as we come across it! And speaking of toxic masculinity, lets jump over to our next issue!

We know you don’t, Scott. But you’re gonna have to figure it out ASAP.

Issue 65 begins with the X-Men arriving back at the mansion from DC to find Lorna and Alex in full costume waiting for them at the door. They say there’s no time to wait, the gang needs to change back into their uniforms because there’s a terrible danger. But either because the team is tired, or maybe because Roy Thomas is gone this month and Dennis O’Neil is writing, or maybe just because they needed to fill some pages, the X-Men proceed to start fighting with Alex and Lorna about this, going so far as to all use their powers on each other until FINALLY Scott takes his head out of his ass and calls for order. They all go in and change and then fight again. SOME. MORE. about these aliens that are headed towards earth to take over and enslave everyone. The X-Men are still skeptical, even after Alex lays out all the evidence and they fight some more until Alex reveals how they formed the plan to stop the aliens. Are you ready for this, my loves?… Fucking Xavier is still alive.

Not back from the dead. He’s been alive this entire fucking time. And Jean KNEW but was forbidden from telling anyone else. And it gets worse. He was never actually “dying” like he told the X-Men a few months back (a few years in real time, but only months in comic time.). What actually happened was this: He was researching this alien civilization because he figured out they were moving their planet towards ours to come conquer the Earth. In the meantime, apparently Changeling (remember him?) shows up and tells Chuck he’s dying, and wants to redeem himself. So Chuck asks Changeling to impersonate him so he can focus on this research, and then LETS HIM DIE IMPERSONATING HIM and lets the whole world think he’s dead. Oh, and apparently he’s been IN THE BASEMENT OF THE MANSION THIS ENITRE FUCKING TIME. So yeah, we’re going to stop right here and talk about how INCREDIBLY ABUSIVE this all is. Guys, Xavier is a MONSTER. Let’s make a list of the evidence, shall we? First, he took a venerable, dying mutant that came to him for help and manipulated the poor guy into dying for him. Next, he lied to everyone but Jean for MONTHS and then made her lie to all of her teammates/friends and her boyfriend. (I won’t even get into the shitty, patriarchal bullshit that is making the only woman on the team be Xavier’s emotional confidant because it’s automatically a woman’s job to be the emotional sounding board for toxic men.) Then, he just shows back up, apparently weakened, and just starts ordering everyone around again. THEN he takes this band of exhausted, confused, and betrayed kids, MENTALLY ERASES THEIR EXHAUSTION, forces them to keep training, and then sends them on a suicide mission. All in one goddamn issue! I seriously want to scream. This man cares NOTHING about these kids. They are simply tools for him to use to advance his plans. The writers gloss over his jumping into their brains to erase their exhaustion, but we’re not going to. This is so fucking fucked up. Because look, the kids have been running non-stop for days now. They just got done fighting Sunfire, who really messed them up, and they haven’t rested or slept. They’re not just mentally tired. They’re physically exhausted and injured. So, a mental wipe isn’t healing injuries, it’s just making their brains ignore it. He’s forcing them to keep training through physical exhaustion and injury. Someone is going to get REALLY hurt. I mean, not literally, because obviously the writers didn’t actually think this plot point through to it’s conclusion. But for real, it sucks!

But, back to the plot. The kids head to the magnetic south pole to fight the scout ship that’s already there, while Lorna stays back to help Xavier with his part of the plan. They get there just in time to see SHIELD send some jets at the ship and get completely destroyed. (We also get a quick cameo from Nick Fury himself!) But our X-Men are stupid brave and fly their specially designed ship directly inside of the scout ship, fight a giant green alien puppy/sea monster thing, and then fight some of the aliens. Meanwhile, Chuck connects himself telepathically to EVERYONE on the planet, and zeroes in on the good will of those who have it. Polaris (Lorna for those that don’t remember) uses her magnetic powers to help him direct all of this good will to Marvel Girl at the magnetic south pole. MG directs this at Havok, who somehow uses his powers to amplify it and send it into Cyke, who then sends it via his solar eye beams up at the planet of the would-be invaders. Meanwhile, Iceman uses his powers to keep Cyke from overheating from the raw power running through him. This plan succeeds in turning the aliens away because apparently, they have no sense of compassion or empathy, so sending all of that to them freaks them out and they run away. I know it sounds SO. FUCKING. CORNY. But, I have to be totally honest. It kind of works! It at very least gives us some gorgeous artwork of how all of the powers build on each other.

The downside to all of this awesome power combining? Chuck is in a coma!! Did I say downside? I meant bonus. (Look, I’ve made my feelings about Chuck known since the beginning, so let’s not act surprised that I’m happy he’s out of commission.) And it’s this comatose leader that moves us into our final X-Men issue for awhile: Issue #66.

See, the kids don’t know how to help Xavier out of his coma, so they fight amongst themselves like always. Especially Alex and Bobby, who seem to be fighting over Lorna until she puts them both in their place. They try mind-probing the prof, but it doesn’t really work. And only then do they realize that they have a fucking telepath in the room as ask Jean to try and get into his head. This really bothers me, because Jean has been getting stronger and stronger lately, she was the only one who knew Xavier was alive, and she’s been communicating with him telepathically for months. So, there is no reason she shouldn’t have offered to try right away, or why no one else should’ve thought of it too. I have a really hard time with how much Jean is pushed to the side constantly, basically until Claremont gets his hands on her in the 70’s and 80’s. She’s so incredibly awesome and powerful and these early writers don’t get that AT ALL. It’s so frustrating.

Anyway, Jean finally jumps into Xavier’s head and gets flashes of the Hulk. Eventually, the gang figures out it’s probably Bruce Banner, and not the Hulk that the prof needs, and they head out to find him. Scott asks Alex to stay behind to guard the professor. Lorna offers to stay with him, so, OF COURSE, a crazy jealous Bobby insists on staying too. Because, they don’t need everyone available to confront the FUCKING HULK or anything, Bobby. Goddess, I can’t even with this toxic jealousy between these boys. I am so fucking over it. I love Bobby Drake y’all, but I really hate him in this era. I miss the sweet kid who went on double dates with Hank and didn’t pick fights with everyone. He’s turning into Hawkeye. I take that back, it’s worse than that. He’s turning into fucking Henry Pym. Don’t do that to my Bobby, Roy Thomas! Seriously!!

Okay, so, Marvel Girl, Cyke, Beast, and Angel head out to find Bruce Banner. They find the Hulk in Vegas, and of course Hulk won’t listen to them so they fight. MG finally brings him down mentally (Yay Jeanie!!) and he turns back into Bruce Banner. Bruce tells them he worked on a device with Xavier that should help save him, and that it’s in one of Bruce’s hidden labs. But just then, the Army shows up to get the Hulk, which just turns Bruce BACK into a giant green rage monster, and he takes off. The X-Men follow before the Army can arrest them, and they end up out in the desert. They fight again because Hulk doesn’t like people talking about Bruce. Their fight causes an avalanche, which reveals a hidden lap in the mountain. The kids find the device in there, and let the Hulk take off as they head home with the device and save the professor. And we end the series with the whole team around the professor’s bed getting ready to fight another day.

Let’s pause here to talk about this run of X-Men as a whole. I’ve gotta be honest, loves. This was REALLY HARD to get through. This over-the-top, hyper masculine writing its not for me at all. I know there are a LOT of people who love these old comics for the nostalgia of the beginnings. And that’s totally fair. Maybe it’s because my intro to the X-Men was the 90’s cartoon, but for me, this was just painful. Honestly, there’s a part of me that feels a little guilty for hating this era so much. I really WANT to like it. But I just can’t overall. I mean, there are definitely good moments throughout. Magneto is so over-the-top and fun during this era. And it’s been a lot of fun seeing the first appearances of characters like Havok, Polaris, Ka-Zar, and Sauron. Plus, I think starting at the very beginning for this project was important, no matter how painful it was. But I’m not gonna lie folx, I am so excited to be moving on to the Claremont run. We’ve got some of my absolute favorite characters coming up once we get to Giant Size and I cannot wait. We’ve got some Avengers to read before we get there, but we’re getting close!

Before we get to Avengers or Giant Size, we need to talk about parts of Ka-Zar 2&3. So, this series of Ka-Zar only lasted three issues, and it was a quarterly magazine with multiple stories in each issue. Issues 2 & 3 included a story about Angel that we are going to cover. It seems to take place after issue 66 of X-Men, even though issue 2 came out the month before. In these issues, Warren’s father, Warren Worthington Jr., is ill and Warren is at home visiting after stopping a bank robbery solo as Angel. He leaves for the evening to take his girlfriend, Candy out on a date. (We’ve met Candy once or twice in the X-Men comic, and, if I remember correctly, this won’t be the last time we see her either.) Anyway, we cut to the goons Angel stopped earlier, and they work for a villain called The Dazzler (not to be confused the the AMAZING Alison Blaire who won’t make her spectacular debut for another nine years!). The Dazzler has some nefarious plan we never really learn the details of, but somehow pulling them off hinges on murdering Mr. Worthington Jr. So, the goons sneak into the Worthington mansion and do just that. Because Warren’s father is a well known businessman and socialite in NYC, his murder is reported on the radio as soon as the police arrive at the mansion. Unfortunately for everyone, Warren hears this report in the car on his way home with Candy. He FREAKS out, and takes off to chase the murderers, leaving Candy alone on the side of the road (luckily, he also left her the car since he ran into the woods and then took off as Angel). He finds the murderers on their flying pogo sticks (Yes, that’s really what they’re called. LOL.) and fights them. He’s beating one of them mercilessly when the police show up. They’re about to arrest Angel as well as the murderer, but luckily FBI Agent Duncan is there too, and let’s Angel go with a warning about not taking the law into his own hands, which Angel is clearly not going to listen to. For those that don’t remember Agent Duncan, he was the FBI agent we met all the way back in X-Men #44 and he’s being coordinating with Xavier to help the X-Men save the day. (Yeah, I’d completely forgotten about him too!)

Warren heads home to console his mother before going to find The Dazzler, but he doesn’t get the chance, because apparently The Dazzler has technology to transport Warren from his mansion to Dazzler’s lair. So now Warren is a prisoner. But, since no one knows he’s Angel, he easily sneaks out of his cell and confronts The Dazzler, who tries to convince Angel to back down by revealing that he also has Candy prisoner. He’s banking on a hero not being willing to let her die, even if he doesn’t know her. (Cause, you know, no one’s figured out that Angel is Warren. LOL) The thing is, Warren was already blaming Candy for his father’s death, because our egotistical, hot-tempered Angel is not coping with his very fresh grief well, my loves. He freezes in place and The Dazzler’s goons close in to remove his mask. And that’s where we end! We’re told the rest of this story will appear in Marvel Tale’s #30, but that won’t be published until April of 1971, so we’ll have to wait to see how it plays out. I have to say, this was a good little arc thus far! It’s super sad, and just the beginning of a pattern of tragedy and trauma for all of our mutants. Angel is super angry and hyper-masculine in this arc, but this time it doesn’t bother me. All of this takes place in two days, and his father was just violently murdered. This feels like a REAL response from a young kid who is also a superhero in this situation. I just hope it’s wrapped up well when we get to MT#30.

And with that, we’re done with our X-Men for a few years. We’ll be jumping back into Avengers with our next outing, as our favorite mutant twins are making their return to the group. And we’ll be there for awhile while we wait for Giant Size to come in 1975. We’ll also be adding more titles before then, as our wayward mutants join some other teams to bide their time. I’m excited to move on to this next chapter, and meet some really fun new characters. So, until next time my loves, keep searching….

1969 Part 1: Let’s talk Representation

Posted on by GenoshaGirl85

Hello my loves! It’s been a REALLY long time since I’ve written about comics, so I’m feeling a little rusty and anxious about this post. So, bare with me as I get my bearings again.

Since currently the only title we’re reading is X-Men, (and because I am DESPERATE to get to Giant Size and Claremont’s run!) we’re going to fly through 1969 in just two posts. This post will cover issues #52-59. It’s a lot of ground to cover, and a few different story arcs, so lets jump in!

So, X-Men #52 is the end of the arc we started 5 years ago. (Oops!) I’ll do my best to catch you guys up, but you can also refresh your memories here! Basically, Mesmero is trying to carry out Magneto’s vision of mutant supremacy. He has captured Lorna Dane, telling her she’s Magneto’s daughter and that she must rule in his stead until he returns. We learn that Magneto is apparently NOT dead, and Bobby storms off on the rest of the team when they are forced to leave Lorna behind with Mesmero. Cyke tells the team he has a plan, and we cut to Erik the Red, challenging Mesmero for leadership of this whole silly plot. And that brings up to #52!

So, issue 52 is the wrap up to this arc. Eric the Red proceeds to fight his way through ALL of Mesmero’s goons and Mesmero until he is face to face with Lorna, who, despite recognizing that her dad’s plans are evil, feels she must help him because he’s her blood. Erik talks his way into joining Magneto as his second in command, and Mesmero is pissed guys! The whole thing is crazy silly, but it’s still fun. Then we cut to X-Men, where Jean is telepathically reaching out to each of them to begin Cyke’s plan that he mentioned at the end of issue 51. We still don’t know exactly what it is, but Bobby isn’t part of it since he stormed out on the team last issue. MG, Beast, and Angel arrive at the hideout of Mags and Mesmero and sneak in. They’re confronted by Erik the Red, who turns out to be Cyclops!! I have to be honest, I didn’t actually see that one coming. I probably should have, but I didn’t. It’s a great little plan on Scott’s part, until his identity is IMMEDIETLY discovered by Mesmero and the X-Men accidently use the trap they’ve laid against Bobby instead of the bad guys!! Way to go guys!

Anyway, the X-Men fight Mesmero and his henchmen after Beast gets an unconcious Iceman to safety. Bobby wakes up and find Lorna. He tells her that he spoke with her adoptive parent’s and has proof that she is NOT Magneto’s daughter. Thus free of her allegiance to Mags, Lorna absolutely destroys the remaining base and bad guys. Mags escapes (because of course he does!), our X-Men + Lorna live to fight another day, and Bobby and Lorna seem to be getting very close. But let’s pause here for a second to talk about Lorna. Cause guys, I have issues. Lorna Dane is a pretty cool character who is going to get totally under-utilized as the years go on, but this is the first time I’ve read her origin. And I have to say, it really sucks. Like Jean and Wanda before her, she starts off a totally one-dimensional character. A damsel in distress that is too stupid to question these villains feeding her some legit CRAZY story about how a mass murderer is her real father and also too weak willed to not question it and just go along with them because “blood” or some such nonsense. SERIOUSY?!? Like, she spends all of issue 52 complaining about how Mags is evil, but she has to defend him to the death because he’s her father. Girl, you’re powerful enough to bring this entire operation down in a second, and you don’t even think to do it until Bobby tells you that you were lied to?!? Even then, you just believe Bobby with no proof (although, in Bobby’s defense, he does have receipts and offers them to her, she just apparently doesn’t need to see the evidence.) I’m so fucking sick of reading women who are nothing but pretty things for the guys to swoon over and sometimes have small victories against the villains. It’s exhausting. Especially when I’ve read more modern stuff and know how fucking bad-ass these same women will be under a better writer. Jean, Wanda, Lorna: they will all eventually have world-ending, reality-bending, earth-shattering powder and they deserve better than this. Ok…rant over for now. Let’s continue on.

On top of this silly story, issue 52 brings us the art of Werner Roth who has made a few appearances as artist in the past. His art is great, if a little “house style” for my liking. It’s awesome art, it’s just not Steranko, so I’m a little sad. But nothing I can’t get past. And also, we need to talk about Erik the Red’s AMAZING bondage outfit. Who knew Scotty had that side to him?!?

But seriously, with that arc neatly wrapped up, lets move on the the next one! But first! Issue #53, “The Rage of Blastaar!” (AKA, the useless filler issue) Seriously, this is a one-off story about some alien named Blastaar who gets pulled down to earth when Jean tries to use some of Chucks equipment. He’s very angry and ragey, and he’s absolutely destroying our X-Men until Jean and Bobby make a bunch of ice mannequins to throw at him, they melt, and make a connection between him and the machine and he’s sent right back to where he came from. I wish I were kidding. We’re even treated to Jean being sad at watching this creature “die” even though he’s clearly pure evil and wants to destroy then entire world. Because, girls are emotional you guys! (Please see above for my feelings on this matter. LOL)

Let’s move on, shall we? Awesome! Cause I’m super excited for this next arc. It’s a dumb story, but I have reasons for being excited. Issue #54 starts a new arc that will run for like, three and a half issues, centering around the Living Pharaoh (LP) and it also introduces the one and only, Alex Summers!!!! (*insert happy dance here*!) That’s right, it’s time to meet the baby Summers brother, my loves! Are you as excited as I am? You really should be!

So, first off, just want to mention that as this arc unfolds, we go from Arnold Drake writing and Don Heck taking over on pencils, to Roy Thomas writing with Don Heck’s art, and finally to Roy Thomas writing with Neal Adams doing the artwork. This pair will continue for the next eight issues, and it’s a great pairing. I really like Neal Adam’s art. It’s clean and crisp in a way we haven’t seen yet and it’s really pretty. So, anyway, this whole arc is about a new mutant villain who has named himself the Living Pharaoh. He’s kidnapped Scott’s younger brother Alex, who by the way, Scott has been in touch with, but has told no one about. The entire team is with him to watch Alex graduate from college, all thinking about how Scott never told them he had a brother. Not even Jean! Alex doesn’t appear to have any mutant powers, FYI. The team fights LP and loses, the LP tries to frame Cyclops for his death. Cyke escapes the police and find LP and LP ends up kidnapping him as well, and he takes them to Egypt. The rest of the team follows, and they fight some more. In the fight, Alex suddenly manifests his mutant powers and stops LP! (Here’s my shocked face that Alex is a mutant. LOL. As if a Summers could get through this world without powers or tragedy.) As they try to find someone to turn the captured LP over to, they stumble into his base and there’s more fighting. LP kidnaps Alex AGAIN. SOME MORE. And the team is left trying to find him somewhere in the Egyptian desert. And yes, I know, this recap is very tedious. Trust me, so was the arc. LP goes on and on to Alex about cosmic rays being the source of their powers and that he grows stronger as Alex grows weaker? Don’t ask. It doesn’t make sense to me either. LOL. Anyway, LP drains Alex of his powers and, I kid you not, transforms into a giant stone being and calls himself “The Living Monolith”. I wish I were making this up. But the X-Men eventually defeat him (and by X-Men, I mean Alex. They’re getting their asses handed to them until Alex takes control and breaks out of the machine draining him and uses his powers. This apparently drains LP of all of his powers and he’s no longer a giant stone creature and passes out.) We end with Alex freaking out about not being able to control his new powers. Whew!

So, there’s still like, half an issue left of this arc in #57, but it’s just a wrap up of Alex, not LP, so let’s pause to talk about LP. Because it’s super icky. We’ve talked a tiny bit about representation and politics and such in the past, but, fair warning, we are going to be discussing it more going forward. It’s important to me to talk about how these things evolve and change. That said, back to the current issue at hand, which is that every last one of these “Egyptian” henchmen and LP himself are white men dressed like ancient Egyptians. You see the problem here, right? It’s made even ickier when the Living Pharaoh explains that he thinks he is an ancestor of the ancient pharaohs. And he thinks a very white Alex is too. So, not just a white boy with an Egypt fetish. A white boy who wants to claim status in this non-white culture. We have ourselves a lot of weird, imperialist, white-washing politics going on here. Historically, this isn’t surprising. This is completely on brand with a long history of white-washing Egyptian culture and representation in American media. (For further examples, please see Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, the entire cast of “The Ten Commandments“, and basically the entire cast of “Gods of Egypt” just to name a few) I’m not exaggerating when I say that American media really likes to cast white actors as Egyptian rulers and gods. Like, a LOT. To be honest, I’m not sure if this is worse then some villainous stereotype like we had with the Mandarin in Avengers? They’re obviously both bad choices. Like, if the only representation of non-white characters is villains, that’s obviously shitty. But, white-washing everyone isn’t the answer. (Nor do I give the writers and artists enough credit to think that was their intention when making these villains white.) But either way, it’s super gross to have all of these white superheroes (Avengers and X-Men alike) fighting villains from all sorts of non-white cultures when those cultures don’t get any representation as heroes. There are no Asian superheroes in this era. There are no African superheroes. But we’ve seen villains from all over Asia in Avengers that were gross stereotypes, and now we have Egyptian villains here. Guys, I need some Storm and Sunfire in my life like, right fucking now. So, lets end this rant and keep going so we can get to Giant Size and get to at least some representation in the hero’s line-up!

If it’s not clear from the covers above, this next arc (Issues 57-59) is bringing back those undaunting, ever-returning, amazing X-foes: THE SENTINELS!!!!!! And, as should be clear from the cover of issue #58, we get the first appearance of Alex as Havok as well!! Guys, I’m excited for this arc. Not just for these appearances, but because it’s just a better arc in general than the last one. So lets go!

Issue 57 starts with Lorna, home in NYC, getting kidnapped by a Sentinel!?! And then, before we can question it, we cut back to our X-Men in Egypt. Alex has fled and the Egyptian authorities are on scene of the last battle with LP. LP turns out to be some renowned archeologist, and he blames Alex for the destruction of the ancient ruins he was using as his base (Not wrongly either, as Alex literally razed the entire structure when his powers went off in the last issue!). But Cyke is pissed that these cops are after his brother and he fucking attacks them, because of course he does. **Quick aside here. Do you guys remember my undying love for Scott? Full disclosure: it’s gone. I warned you all that I’m a different person and comic fan than I was five years ago. This will probably be most apparent in this specific shift. You’ll find I no longer love Scott. In fact, I have very little patience for his quick temper or his martyrdom or (spoiler alert!) the absolutely terrible way he treats Jean and other partners in the future. He’s got a lot of toxic traits and he reminds me too much of my ex husband, and it isn’t until MUCH MUCH later on that he starts to redeem himself. So, just be prepared. LOL.** Anyway, the team runs off to find Alex, but it’s for naught because he was hiding in a nearby cave, but he is also captured by a Sentinel. The team tries to contact Lorna so she can turn on Cerebro for them to find Alex, and they discover her apartment in shambles. Iceman freaks out because she’s his girlfriend and he’s worried. So the team splits up. Iceman and Beast head back to the states to find Lorna and the rest of the team continues to search for Alex. When Iceman and Beast arrive at Lorna’s, they’re confronted by two NYPD officers and we learn through the TV that while they’ve been in Egypt, a federal judge has been working with Bolivar Trask’s son to stir up anti-mutant sentiment again and restart the Sentinel program!! And these aren’t his father’s Sentinels. Dear son Larry has improved them. They’re now the purple and pink giants most of us think of when we think of the Sentinels. And they’ve been upgraded with specific attacks meant to counter the X-Men’s powers. (Heat for Iceman, water for fire, etc.) The boys are attacked by a Sentinel and Iceman sacrifices himself so that Beast can get away and contact the rest of the team to warn them. The rest of the team rushes home, but not before Angel throws a fit about being “The Avenging Angel” (we’ll talk about that at the end. It’s part of his back story that’s been happening in the ends of the last few issues) and decides to FLY HOME FROM EGYPT HIMSELF. WITH HIS WINGS. I can’t even with this. Cyke warns him that he’s never flown that far before, that they’re in a hurry, that he’ll be too exhausted to fight, and 100 other reasons this is a terrible fucking idea. But, of course, Angel does it anyway.

Cut to Larry Trask’s base of operations where we learn he has a way to temporarily block mutant powers. We also learn that he has Alex and Lorna there and Alex has agreed to work for Trask as “Havok” in return for Lorna and the other’s safety. Iceman is relieved to see Lorna still alive, but fights with Havok about his deal, calling him a coward. But then Havok takes down a Sentinel single-handed and that basically shuts Iceman up. Alex is POWERFUL you guys. Like, incredibly so! It’s awesome!! And he’s now in a very basic Havok costume: all black with the circles around his head. Anyway, Trask blocks Havok’s powers and we cut to Professor Abdol (the Living Pharaoh!) bitching about the X-Men and mutants to a room of Trask cronies, just to then turn back into LP as Havok is weakened by some device of Trasks and is attacked and carried away by Sentinels. It’s a fun bit of karma carried over from the last arc, and it’s done well. I really appreciate how at this point in the series, Roy Thomas blends these arcs into each other so organically.

Meanwhile, Angel is captured by two Sentinels as he streaks across the ocean, and guess what? It happens right outside of the commercial flight that Scott and Jean are on, so fuck off Warren. You weren’t any faster then them and you were too exhausted to even try to fight off the Sentinels. These boys and their fucking egos. Anyway, we cut to scenes of other mutants being captured by these new and improved Sentinels. We see Mesmero captured, but when the Sentinels try to capture Magneto too (who is with Mesmero) we learn that it’s not really Mags!! It’s a fucking Android!!! And Mesmero had no clue!!! I love it. I love it so much. Of course Magneto isn’t really there. Is he actually really dead? Is he just too cool to actually hang out with Mesmero? Who knows?!? But then Judge Chalmers shows up at the base. He and Larry fight as we see the remaining three X-Men (Marvel Girl and Cyke have met up with Beast) trying to sneak into the base outside. The judge pulls a medallion off Larry’s neck that his father gave him, and suddenly the Sentinels stop obeying him. Guys, turns out little Larry is a fucking mutant (because of course he is!). He is clairvoyant and predicted his mom’s death. That freaked out Bolivar, so he gave him a medallion to block his powers. Then he created the Sentinel program to wipe out mutants because, I guess, he was scared they’d out his son or something? But now that the Sentinels can sense that Larry is a mutant, they refuse to listen to him. They lock him up with Havok, Lorna, and Iceman and prepare to receive other mutants that have been captured so they can kill all of them. We see Banshee (!!!!) for the first time in years, as he’s been captured and tries to overpower everyone in the base. He fails. We also see Sentinels capturing Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toad, and Unus, Mastermind, and Blob. Our three remaining X-Men sneak into the base, switch costumes with SW, QS, and Toad to confuse the Sentinels, and then fight their way to the rest of the captured mutants. Between Cyke and Havok, they take out a lot of the Sentinels. And then Cyke convinces the Sentinels that they have to protect humans by ending the source of mutation itself, so the Sentinels all fly away to go try to destroy the sun. For real. It’s so ridiculous, but it works and is HIGHLY entertaining. We end with Havok injured and the team calling a mysterious old friend of Charles’ for help. A friend named Dr. Lykos!!!! (If you don’t know Dr. Lykos, I won’t spoil the surprise, but I’m so fucking excited!!!)

So yeah. That ends the reading for this entry. We still have to talk about the back stories at the ends of these issues, but I first want to say that this reading ended on a major high note for me. You guys, I LOVE the Sentinels. They’re awesome adversaries and, while these original ones in the 60’s are a bit silly, they become absolutely terrifying as the years go on and I can’t wait to see them evolve. It’s going to be lots of fun!! But lets talk about the origin stories in these issues:

First off is the rest of Beast’s backstory. We left off with him captured by El Conquistador and forced to help him to save his parents. Hank has to steal an experimental nuclear reactor. He does no problem, but of course EC lied to him and won’t release him or his parents. Then Angel, Cyke, and Iceman show up to save him and take him back to the mansion. (Yes, I know we haven’t gotten Angel’s backstory yet. The writers are also aware and mention it. Apparently we’re getting them out of order.) Beast joins the X-Men and Chuck ups his game this time and erases the memory of Hanks powers from the ENTIRE FUCKING TOWN. I am so glad he is dead. Like, for real. This man has no concept of consent at all.

Next up is Angel. He’s in boarding school when his wings start to grow. He freaks out and gets himself isolated from the other boys in the dorms so no one knows. Then one night, there’s a fire in the dorms and he flies in and saves everyone, pretending to be an actual angel. This gives him the bug for hero-ing and he rents an apartment on his own and begins fighting crime as “The Avenging Angel” (I told you we’d get it it! Lol). Anyway, Cyke and Iceman show up to recruit him as he’s coming back from stopping some thieves. He still has the vial the thieves stole. Chuck telepathically tells Cyke and Iceman to capture Warren with NO explanation and they fight. Then Chuck jumps into Warren’s head to tell him that the vial he has is going to explode because, I kid you not, his MUTANT BODY activated it. *Sigh* So Warren does the noble thing and flies it up into the upper atmosphere to freeze it (because of course right before this he knocked Iceman out, so he conveniently can’t freeze it). He almost dies, but doesn’t, and agrees to join the team. And this time, Chuck doesn’t have to mind-wipe anyone!! Yay for small victories I guess! Let’s go with that as we jump to Jean, cause it’s not going to be fun.

Up until now, all of our heroes have had multi-installment back stories that involve danger and adventure. But that’s all about to change. Because Jean Grey doesn’t get a backstory. She gets five fucking pages at the end of issue #57. The whole thing is told from her perspective and is entitled “The Female of the Species”, so I’m already seeing red. We’re told on the first page that Stan Lee has brought in a female writer (Linda Fite) for this special “origin”, but if you think that’s going to help, you’re sorely mistaken. What we get is Marvel Girl explaining her powers to us in the most ridiculous ways. We see how her telekinesis helps her make apple pies and do housework, how her levitation helps her escape “boring garden parties” and we end with her telling us that just walking down the street is an adventure because she can stop purse snatchers (without taking any credit for it) and that she can “turn men’s heads without trying” because apparently being appealing to the opposite sex is more important that being a badass superhero. Guys, I’m livid. We get absolutely no explanation of how her powers manifested, how she was originally recruited to join the X-Men, or anything else. We just get, basically, a Good Housewife article with superpowers.

And on that less than stellar note, it’s time to wrap up this EXTREMLY long entry. Please know that, despite all my rage, I do love these comics and these characters. These stories are silly and convoluted, but they’re still a lot of fun. And we’re about to get into an arc that introduces a really fun villain in our next section of reading, so that will be cool to get into. I think you guys will really like him! I know I do. He’s just so over the top and silly, you can’t help but love it! So, hang in there with me my loves. I promise I won’t always be so negative and grouchy with our merry band of mutants. Let’s get excited about what’s to come, and until next time, keep searching my darlings!

We’re Losing Heroes Left & Right…

Posted on by GenoshaGirl85

Hello my darlings! It’s time for some more mutant madness. After the excitement of FCBD, and pulling myself away from my new books and my new obsession with Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, I’ve read through six more issues getting us about a quarter of the way through 1968. But things are going to be a little different now.

Recently I’ve realized that part of the reason I’ve been finding it so hard to keep consistent with these posts and my reading is that I really just hate the Silver Age. I understand why others love it but to me it is just so boring and so frustrating. So, I’m going to do my best to power through the rest of the Silver age as quickly as possible so we can get to one of my favorite X-Men periods: Claremont!!! So, these posts may be a little less detailed as far as storylines go, and much more about my thoughts and impressions along with quick recaps. (At least, I’m going to try to do that. But lets be honest, brevity is NOT my forte.)

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So with that, let’s check in on our Maximoff twins over at Avengers Mansion in issues #48-50. Er, at Garrett Castle. As you may remember, when we last left our mutants they had been captured by Magneto (!!!) who returned to Earth and wants to re-form the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Wanda and Pietro are refusing to join him. While all this is happening, Dane Whitman has woken up and broken out of the room Mags locked him in. He has apparently been improving the Black Knight (BK) armor and weapons and he plans to take up the mantle as a super-hero to make up for his uncle’s wrong doing. So, he dons the armor and takes off to get the Avengers to come rescue Wanda and Pietro. But of course all superheroes are idiots, and especially Hawkeye now that Cap is gone, so they attack BK before he can tell them why he’s there and they all fight. Eventually they stop fighting after Goliath is forced to grow to his full 25 ft. height (which will be important later) and BK tells them where the twins are, but refuses to help  them since they attacked him. They get to the castle, but Mags and the Maximoffs are gone.

As the Avengers (At this point it’s just Hawkeye, Wasp, and Goliath. Cap has quit and Hercules has gone to Olympus to try and make up with Zeus. He has his own plot thread going on through all of this that I’ll talk about at the end) head back to HQ to regroup, Mags takes the twins to his secret base to try and persuade them to join him. He’s telling them that he’s changed his ways. He no longer wants to use violence, and just wants to protect mutants. He says he’s going to be addressing the UN and brings Wanda and Pietro with him. Basically, he’s insisting mutants be given their own sovereign nation with a seat on the UN Security Council or there will never be peace between mutants and humans. He’s set it up so the council HAS to say no (because it’s an insane idea) but will look like the bad guys doing it. He’s trying to play on Pietro’s bitterness towards humans. When the council says no, Mags tries to attack them but is thwarted by the just-arriving Avengers (They saw his address on TV and rushed over). During the fight, some guards aim their guns at Magneto. He uses his powers to make them fire at the mutants and then directs one of the bullets to hit Wanda’s temple, effectively sending Quicksilver into a rage strong enough to make him side with Mags and attack the Avengers. He then leaves with his unconscious sister and Magneto! This is how Wanda & Pietro’s stories tie up for now, and we spend the rest of this issue and the next one on Herc’s storyline. So lets jump in:

While all of this has been going on, Hercules has returned to Olympus to try and get his father to lift his exile. When he arrives, all the gods are gone and most of Olympus is in ruin. Hercules is attacked by a Titan named Typhon who Zeus had banished long ago. Typhon has destroyed the Temple of Promethean Flame which banished all the gods to the Land of Shadows. He and Hercules fight, and then Typhon calls forth a monster to kill Herc. Obviously, this doesn’t work, so Typhon instead banishes Herc to the same realm as the gods. Once there, Hercules finds Zeus and the others and explains what happened and who banished them. Since Herc is half mortal, Zeus is able to send him back to Earth. Meanwhile, Typhon has also gone to Earth to conquer it. He runs into the Avengers who are out looking for Herc and they fight. It’s looking bad for the Avengers until Hercules shows up and they manage to defeat Typhon. Hercules says he needs to take Typhon to Olympus to be dealt with by Zeus. Once he’s there, it becomes clear to him and to the Avengers that he will be staying in Olympus for now, and so the Avengers are down yet another member. So, our mighty team is now just Hawkeye, Wasp, and Ant-Man. I say Ant-Man because Hank Pym can no longer change into Goliath thanks to him growing to his 25 ft. height a few issues ago.

the big bang theory kaley cuoco frustrated penny facepalm

Overall, these were good stories. It’s interesting to note that Hawkeye’s temper seems to be back now that Cap has left. He’s sulking about Cap quitting and he and Hank are fighting constantly. Also, Hawkeye mentions that Natasha has taken off “on vacation” without telling him, so it seems his temper has also ruined that relationship. Janet’s costume changes twice during this arc. She wears a bright pink costume that essentially makes her look like a Playboy Bunny with wings for a second, but then it changes again to a blue and yellow outfit that’s surprisingly adorable. And, more important to our mutants, I liked this story-line about Magneto basically manipulating Quicksilver into joining him again. It was paced well, and given the seeds of bitterness we’ve seen in Pietro recently, it made sense character-wise. We’ll see how this plays out Avenger’s wise soon. But for now, it seems our twins may be headed back over to the X-men book for a bit. And speaking of X-Men books:

Issue 40 is a silly stand-alone story about Frankenstein’s monster. Basically, some explorers found him in ice in the arctic and brought him back to New York and are thawingxmen40 him out. Apparently Xavier knows the monster is real and has always thought Dr. Frankenstien must be a mutant. He also apparently gets premonions now and can project his thoughts onto the wall like a movie projector. (This is why I hate the Silver Age.)

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Anyway, they go to the museum to try and stop them from waking up the monster, but they’re too late. They fight the monster, but the Prof is being so dumb. He keeps holding Iceman back and won’t tell any of them why or what the plan is. The monster runs way and tries to go south on a ship, but again the X-Men stop him. They eventually corner him on the ship and Iceman uses his powers to try and encase him in ice again. Instead, the monster blows up because he’s not actually a monster, but an android sent to Earth all those years ago by an alien race from a tropical planet to test how humans would respond. The android went nuts and the aliens chased it to the arctic, where it jumped into the water and froze. Seriously. This is the stupidest story ever. But wait…it gets worse. After saving the day, Xavier MAKES THE SHIP’S CREW FORGET EVERYTHING. This is because according to Xavier, the X-Men don’t search for personal glory or something. I mean…come on!! There is absolutely no reason for this. In fact, it works against their whole mission. They want to protect the world and show that mutants aren’t all bad. But then every time they save the day, X makes all the witnesses forget. WTF? How is the world ever going to know the X-Men are good guys if they never take credit for the victories? Guys, I’m sooooo done with this. This is moronic. Can we just move onto the next moronic story-line? K, thanks!

Issues 41 & 42 aren’t as bad as the previous story, but they’re close. In these issues, NYC is xmen 41attacked by Grotesk, the Sub-Human. He’s the last remaining member of an ancient race that lived under the earth. Atomic weapons testing caused all of his race to die out from radiation sickness and left him deformed. He’s here to get vengeance by stealing a machine that apparently causes man-made earthquakes and turning in all the way up to make the Earth crumble and killing everyone on it. So, Bobby and Hank learn all this when they encounter him in the subway while on dates with Vera and Zelda. They rush back to the mansion to tell the rest of the gang and find the other’s training with a VERY grouchy Xavier. He’s testing Scott, Warren, and Jean and is being a huge dick. They call him on it, but he just gets more angry and refuses to listen to Bobby and Hank when they arrive. He leaves for his office and takes Jean with him. He’s told her some secret the others don’t know and she’s helping him with secret experiments. After this useless cutaway so that the reader can learn about these secrets, he and Jean go right back out to tell the boys to go stop the Sub-Human. They go,  they find his hide-out, and Angel and Iceman go back to get Jean to help while Cyke and Beast continue on and fight Grotesk.

Jean refuses to come with the boys and also refuses to let them see Xavier who is not there. Angel gets rightfully pissed off and starts yelling at Jean. Xavier shows up and says that NONE of them can go help Cyke and Beast. He orders them to stay but won’t tell them why. Cyke and Beast get totally beat up by Sub-Human and then head back to the school as well. Jean again refuses to let anyone see Xavier or leave the room, so she and Scott get into a fight. Suddenly she says that NOW the Prof wants them to meet up with him. Apparently he’s decided to stop Grotesk alone but he fails and Grotesk turns on the machine. The X-Men show up and try to help. They’re losing big time until Marvel Girl and Xavier slow down the machine. Grotesk tries to make it go faster again and it blows up, killing him! Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your feelings of the man) Xavier is also caught up in the blast. The X-Men rush  to his side to save him, but he tells them that he was dying anyway from some total mystery illness that he couldn’t cure. He uses his dying breath to explain Grotesk’s motives (even though the kids already know  them because like every other villain over, Grotesk told them about it at length) and then he dies.

angry frustrated embarrassed embarrassed facepalm

Guys. Seriously. This is why Professor Xavier is just a huge dick. He was dying for some time and only told Jean. First of all, that’s shitty. He should have told them all. And if he wasn’t going to, he shouldn’t have told Jean and made her keep that secret. Also, this feels so rushed. This storyline of him keeping secrets and Jean working on experiments with him just started in this arc. And secondly, him dying is not a legit reason for him trying to stop Grotesk alone. He has NO good reason for this. If he and the X-Men had attacked together from the start, and he had clued them into what Grotesk was doing, they probably could have stopped him before he even turned the stupid machine on. And X probably wouldn’t have been caught up in the explosion. It’s so frustrating and so stupid. It’s also a little on the creepy side that he only tells Jean, the only female on the team, and has her in his office working on experiments with him. Before this reveal, it would be pretty easy to assume they were having some sort of affair, which is totally gross. Scott even thinks to himself that the reason they’re spending so much time together alone is because the Professor is in love with Jean. Guys, Xavier is at LEAST in his 40’s at this point. And Jean is like, 20. And his student. Eww. I seriously hate this arc. And to be totally honest, I’m kinda psyched that X is dead for now (Come on, it’s X-Men. You already know he’s going to come back at some point.)

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But, moving on. In the back of these three issues they have continued the “Secret Origin” storyline about how Xavier met Scott. Last we saw, Scott was running away from some cops and found a cabin with a mutant inside. This is Jack Winters or “Jack O’Diamonds”. Jack has hands made of pure diamond and also can influence other mutants with his mind. (minor telepathy basically) He essentially forces Scott to help him break into the nuclear power plant he used to work at. There was an accident there that gave him his powers and he thinks that if her repeats it, he can make himself diamond all over and thus be invincible. Basically what happens is they break it, Scott refuses to kill anyone so Jack leaves him behind and starts up the machine he’s looking for. The experiment works and he’s now a “Living Diamond”. Xavier shows up and he and Scott manage to stop the Living Diamond, but Jack dies in the process. X recruits Scott to his school as his first student and tells him about the dream and the X-Men. There are more continuity issues with Xavier’s powers (he seems to be telekinetic also since he’s opening locks  and such with his “mental powers”).

So my darlings, that’s all for now. As I’m sure was evident, I didn’t really enjoy these arcs (at least the X-Men ones) that much. Here’s hoping it gets better now that Xavier is dead. Also, I promise I won’t ALWAYS be this negative. Just today since X-Men is being dumb. I just keep telling myself that Silver Age X-Men ends in 25 issues and I can suffer through until then. And with that my loves, I’ll end this not-at-all-shorter-like-I-said-it-would-be post. Until we meet again, keep searching….

 

Why Stan Lee is Basically George Lucas!

Posted on by GenoshaGirl85

I’m back! With most of 1967 finished now! I’m really starting to get into the reading more now, and am enjoying some of the stories more then before.  I really think I just needed to get acclimated to the ’60’s style of writing. Or,  I just needed to get to a point that Roy Thomas was writing everything. LOL.

In all honesty, I think that has a lot to do with my increased enjoyment. My husband, C, put it perfectly when I was trying to explain why I prefer Thomas’s writing to Stan Lee’s. He said that Stan Lee is a lot like George Lucas. He’s AMAZING at world-building, big idea stuff. But when it comes to the details and the human relationships, he’s better when he has help. I think C nailed it. Stan and Jack Kirby created an amazing world with amazing characters within the Marvel 616. But when it comes to writing the day-to-day stories of those characters, Stan is better as an editor and not the writer.

With that said, let’s talk Avengers. I’ve now read through Avengers 42, but we’re only going to talk about Avengers #39 & 40 today. Like I said earlier, I’ve read most of the way through 1967, and I think we need to break it up over multiple posts! So…here we go!

avengers39In issue 39, the Avengers are captured by the Mad Thinker and his Triumvirate of Terror (Hammerhead, Pile Driver, and Thunder Boot). Cap is still gone, and everyone thinks Black Widow is a traitor. (We knows she’s not, obvi! But poor Hawkeye isn’t too sure.) Anyway, Mad Thinker succeeds in capturing all the Avengers and is holding them prisoner in Avengers Mansion. Just when it looks like he’s won, Hercules returns from a night on the town and saves the day. Guys, I love Hercules. He’s so powerful, and so full of himself. It’s like having Thor around, but with more self-importance. Where 60’s Thor can sometimes pull his punches literally and figuratively when dealing with mortals, Herc is always Herc. He goes full boar always, demolishing anything in his way (including Goliath’s training equipment) and constantly complaining that he’s not being challenged by the mortals and super-villains he fights. It’s what I imagine hanging out with Kayne West is like. Dude is totally in love with himself, but he’s so good, you kind of can’t fault him.

Another thing I love is the attention to continuity and the timelines paid in the early years. Right now, in Tales of Suspense, Cap is off chasing a lead that may take him to Bucky, and is undercover pretending to work with Red Skull. So, he’s missing from the Avenger’s adventures and they make mention of his exploits. It’s nice. It seems that so often with current comics, the timelines don’t add up, or characters are everywhere at once when stories are supposed to be taking place simultaneously. Wolverine, for example, spent years on the X-Men or Uncanny X-Force, but was also an Avenger, and had a least one current continuity solo series going on. No way he’s in all those places at once. It gets confusing…

I know it’s harder to do now that there are so many monthly on-goings. I get it. But it’s refreshing to read this older stuff and have the characters only on one adventure at a time. It grounds the 616 in a bit more reality. And that’s the end of my little rant.

xmen31Let’s talk about X-Men 31, shall we? Here, the X-Men battle Cobalt Man, and we get to see a bit more of our teenagers’ lives outside of their costumes. The Professor tries to play match-maker with Scott and Jean (You go, Chuck!!) by asking Scott to take some library books back to Jean at school on the boy’s night off. Warren offers to drive him (because, you know, dumb love triangle. GRR). Bobby and Hank head to the Village to see their girlfriends.

Meanwhile, Jean is on a date of sorts with Ted. They’ve met up with his older brother Ralph. Ralph is a scientist who is trying to create armor like Iron Man’s to give to the government. The three of them meet up with Scott and Warren for dinner, and then they go to Ralph’s labs. Warren doesn’t go, clearly seeing how into each other Scott and Jean are, and decides to go out on his own. (*insert happy dance here*)

While at the labs, Ralph, who has a concussion, tries on his suit for Ted and he loses it a bit. He goes crazy, and decides to go after Iron Man. Scott and Jean rush into action, and the Prof telepathically sends the other three to help them. They manage to stop Ralph before his suit blows up from radiation, and he comes to with no memory of what happened after he hit his head. But, in the last panel, Ted hints to Marvel Girl that he may know she’s really Jean Grey!

We’ll see how that revelation plays out going forward, especially if Ted begins to see Scott as a threat for Jean’s affections (which he should!) It’s a lot of fun to see Cyke and Marvel Girl fight together. We get to see the beginning of the spark these two grow to have on the battle field. They become a seamless pair in many ways, and this seems like a nice beginning. It’s also about time that Warren moved on from Jean, and it’s nice to see that happening. He meets up with his old friend Candy in this issue, and they seem to hit it off right away.

So, with that thought reassuring my Cyclops-loving heart, let’s head back over to NYC and Avengers Mansion, shall we? Avengers 40!  Cap is still gone, “working” with Red Skull. Widow is still undercover in the “Far avengers40East”. Wanda is bed-ridden. (The Mad Thinker caused her hex power to kind of back-fire on her last issue, and it’s messed her up a bit.) The Avengers receive a message from Cap that they need to try to go find the Cosmic Cube (for those who’ve seen the Marvel movies, this is what they call the Tesseract in the MCU). They head off towards the coordinates Cap left them, but meanwhile, Namor is headed there too. It seems there have been submarines in his neck of the ocean, and he’s not happy about it. He’s headed to the naval base to destroy all the subs. When the Avengers (plus Hercules) arrive, they battle Namor thinking he’s after the cube as well. Namor manages to get his hands on the cube, and is winning the battle, when his pride kicks in. He wants to fight Hercules on even terms to prove he’s better. During the battle, the Wasp manages to get him to drop the Cosmic Cube, but it falls into a crack in the ocean floor before anyone can get it. It lands near the Earth’s core, where it is discovered by Mole Man, who just as quickly tosses it away, not realizing what it is!!

This was a fun issue. I always love seeing Namor, and it’s fun to watch he and Hercules battle. They’re basically evenly matched strength-wise, and Namor’s ego could give Herc’s a run for it’s money. This is also the last issue in this trade, so we’ll be moving on next post!

X-Men #32 is the beginning of a two-issue arc, so we’ll talk about that next time. Just know, I’m about to get really excited about the return of a certain giant bad guy!

So, until next time, my lovelies…keep searching!