The Uncanny X-Men: Making Me Ride an Emotional Roller Coaster Since 1998

There has been a lot of news with the X-Men lately and being the uber X-nerd that I am I have been all over it like unnecessary pockets on a Rob Liefield character. (teehee comic book humor.) Starting with the release of the movie X-Men: First Class I went in not entirely knowing what to expect. I was really didn't like X-Men 3 or Wolverine but this movie was directed by the same guy who did Kick-Ass (which I greatly enjoyed) and didn't have Wolverine as a member of the main cast so you knew it wasn't going to be all about him (though he does make a brief cameo which was both humorous and in good taste.) In the end X-Men: First Class was amazing, one of my favorite X-Men movies thus far. ( I haven't decided yet if I liked it more or as much as the second one yet, it's hard to say, I'll have to rewatch the second one.) My only criticism is that I'm a little confused as to where the movie stands with the others in the series. It has been advertised as a prequel to the previous series of films but there were several key things within this movie that clearly contradict the continuity of the previous films. (Examples; who invented Cerebro (it was Beast in this movie who invented it prior to even meeting Xavier, where as in the previous films it was always said that Xavier and Magneto built it together), the crippling of Xavier (Patrick Stewarts as Xavier is seen walking in both X-Men 3 during a flashback and Wolverine), Xavier and Magneto's break up and when it had occurred (in the begining flashback of X-Men 3 both Xavier and Magneto are seen recruiting Jean Grey together both played by their full grown conterparts), Moria McTaggert's relationship to Xavier, her occupation, and her ethnicity (again X-Men 3, like the comic she is a scottish geneticist where as in First Class she is an American CIA agent) , the age of William Stryker (the main villain of both X2 and Wolverine who appears significantly older in First Class than he does in either of his previous appearances which is weird considering this movie takes place in the 60's before either movie.) So if anything First Class is more like a prequel to a reboot (a preboot?) which at this point I really don't mind because X-Men 3 and Wolverine were just that bad to me, so this movie had me giddy with X-Men joy that I hadn't felt in a while until Schism happened. though the big X-event of the summer hasn't actually started yet it's certainly been making some headlines in the Comic book related press because in this event Cyclops and Wolverine are getting divorced and they're taking joint custody of the X-Men. Right now Schism is being described as the Civil War of X-Men and something that happens in this mini series is going to drive Wolverine and Cyclops apart which means Marvel is doing something uber stupid; They're canceling Uncanny X-Men in October with issue 544 and then in November they're coming out with a new series also titled Uncanny X-Men with the exact same creative team starting at an all new #1 issue.

What. The. @#$%.

It's the exact same series! Why are you restarting the numbering!?! hate it when comic book companies do this, Marvel did it to the Avengers twice in the last ten years, they did it to the Fantastic Four just recently, and they're doing something very similar to Captain America now. And do not even get me started on DC with this whole Flashpoint business. A comic books number is like it's Legacy, it's a testament to how long the series has gone on and how things have changed over the years, and these days the comic book industry just doesn't seem to get it. It's not about being a number one issue it's about being the start of something much bigger, (and I can prove it with my 6 copies of 1991's X-Men number 1 via the 25 cents bin at North Coast Nostalgia in Lyndhurst Ohio.) I wish marvel understood that I'd rather have issue 545 than issue number 1.

Northstar and Dazzler

So recently I'm managed to get a copy of the X-Men: Nation X TBP. (that includes Tim Fish's Northstar short story). I've really liked the direction that Uncanny X-men has been going in lately, (though I haven't gotten the chance to read anything post second Comming) between moving to San Fransico, then to Utopia, and then with Cyclops leading army of like every X-Man that ever existed plus Magneto and Namor. Two mutants part of the current line up are Northstar and Dazzler, who were always some of my favorites though they never really got that much of the lime light. A trend I've started to notice with these two that inspired this piece of fan art is that ever since they've rejoined the team they are always together. Getting Pixie drunk, protesting Prop. X, fighting Dark Beast, stopping crime, saving Magik from Limbo, these two are inseperable, which leads me to the conclusion that Northstar is Dazzler's gay boyfriend. It makes sense all my chick friends have one, why not Dazzler. Though Northstar is certainly not a sassy gay friend, like most of my chick friend's gay boyfriends, he's more like a witty gay man, like if Emma Frost had a penis, was French Canadian, and acted manly. Dazzler could certainly use the company too, what with that mullet fashioning Longshot running around with X-Factor always forgetting who he is and making all the ladies fall in love with him and stuff. I just hope that with the start of the new Alpha Flight series, (yeah cause if history has shown us anything it's that Alpha Flight is a series that really lasts.) that they don't pull Northstar away from the X-Men thus breaking up this totally platonic gay boy/ straight girl love affair.

In Loving Memory of A Great Poster...

One of the most heart wrenching things for any nerd happened to me this past Thanksgiving when I went home to visit my family. When I joined AmeriCorps my parents were in the process of moving so I couldn't be there to help them with that. But in my absence my Father threw away my 1980's Art Adams X-Men poster! I've had that thing since I was 7! (and let me tell you that poster was a good 10 years old before I got it.) This poster depicted some of my favorite mutants at the end of one of my favorite periods of X-men. (pre-Mutant Massacre) Now, in my Dad's defense, the poster had seen a lot of wear and tear over the years even after being mounted on foam core but even so, that was a piece of history there from one of my favorite artist at the high point of his career. This poster was the inspiration of many of my drawings as a kid. So in honner of this fallen piece of art I have drawn some pictures of some of my favorite characters from the poster. (Don't expect to see any Dazzler, Longshot, or Rogue, they looked awful with those mullets) This first picture is of Shadowcat, Psylocke (pre-asain), and Havok. Kitty is one of my all time favorite mutants and this poster was right before she left the X-Men and joined Excalibur until the late 90's. She and Psylocke both had these weird poofy sleeves that make no sense today but I remember being fascinated with them as a child. Psylocke being the former model that she was seems like the kind of person who Kitty would look to for style so here's Psylocke approving of Kitty's poofy sleeves. Then you've got Havok, another one of my favorites, but man, he has some of the weirdest costumes in all of comicdom. It's this all black costume with mask and then he's got that bizarre tiara on his head. (It actually means something, which they explained in an issue of Exiles once but I can't remember.) so basically he's going to Kitty "How should I know what's fashionable, clearly I can't dress myself."

The next picture is of the original five X-Men as X-Factor, a classic line-up that always has a place in my heart. This was before Angel became Apcolypse's Horseman death and then later Archangel. I never really liked the whole metal wings and blue skin thing and I was so glad when they changed him completely back to normal in like 2003. Now-a-days however he can change between the two forms which is okay with me. Something that was interesting about this poster was that for some reason Jean Grey's X-Factor costume was completely yellow where in the comic it was green and yellow and then later red and yellow.

The final picture is less of something I liked about the poster and more so something I never quite got about the poster, and that's Sunfire's presence. As far as Sunfire's career as an X-Men he was a member for about one issue, and after that made seldom few appearances. There were several characters who would have made more sence to put on the poster. Magneto (though he spent most of time with the New Mutants) Banshee, or the best arguement, Rachel Summers who spent the majority of the late 80's as part of the X-Men and over all more than Sunfire ever did. Naturally she's pissed about the whole thing and Sunfire feels akward.