As a transition issue that sees the X-Men return from Canada following their retrieval of Wolverine from Alpha Flight, and prior to their first engagement with the assassin-for-hire known as Arcade, "cry for the children!" from mid-1979 lets us see some down time for a few of the team members even as they collectively face the mystery of the absence of Professor X and finding their Westchester school for all intents and purposes mothballed. Scripter Chris Claremont continues to guide these diverse characters on a steady course toward becoming a solid fighting team while also establishing deeper ties getting to know one another; but you'll also find impressive work here by Terry Austin, who once again inks but also acts as finisher to the pencil breakdowns of John Byrne (their roles being the same in the first half of the Arcade arc), though frankly it's difficult to tell if Byrne is simply a strong layout artist or Austin is more than than comfortable with giving Byrne's style room to breathe.
As for the opening pages of the story, "down time" for the X-Men doesn't necessarily mean their "Danger Room" training facility is going to be collecting dust, if Cyclops has anything to say about it; in fact, you might say the recent performance of Colossus in the field has become Scott Summers' *ahem* pressing concern.
In spite of Claremont's opening narrative, my gut feeling is that the writer is using Peter Rasputin's feelings of his homeland to set up the character's actions as the Proletarian in the Arcade story (which result from a session of brainwashing completed in record time), more than attribute Peter's performance issues to "homesickness." Peter isn't barred from visiting his homeland and his family, after all (or for that matter, calling them every day on the school's dime), nor had he shown any heretofore doubts in adventuring with the X-Men until those seeds were laid during the team's encounter with Magneto.
At any rate, Wolverine is feeling understandably proud of his contribution here--that is until Cyclops practically throws a bucket of ice water on it.
Where were those eye beams of yours during the crisis, Scott? One blast could have saved you from all of that before-and-after worry and disabled (if not wrecked) the machinery at any time.
A sharp turn in both story and direction takes us to West Harlem, a neighborhood where Storm was born and now feels compelled to visit. But her parents' former residence is now occupied by others, the appearance of which will prove to Ororo to be both surprising and potentially dangerous.
Storm's reception by these teenagers (well, not quite convincing on that score, Mr. Austin), who are also addicts spending their days and nights shooting up, is what you might expect. Ditto for her reaction to their threats.
Yet in focusing her efforts on those still on their feet, Storm neglects her first assailant, who closes in for the kill. Fortunately, Harlem is home to another hero, whose intervention comes just in time.
The story ends with a prologue of what's to come for the X-Men: A meeting introducing Arcade, who's hired by "Black Tom" Cassidy and the Juggernaut to kill the X-Men, a decision to "outsource" that infuriates Cassidy's powerful partner. (That is, until Cassidy reminds him of all the times he's failed at that task--a conversation-stopper if ever there was one.)
"Peter isn't barred from visiting his homeland and his family..."
ReplyDeletePossibly you might be forgetting how difficult regular travel was between the US and the USSR back then Comicsfan?
International calls would have been a bit easier, but still... unaccustomed as I am to defending Chris Claremont, I do think thats a legitimate characterisation of an immigrant away from his family and I can believe it came first, before that Arcade nonsense. 'The Proletarian' is a very Claremont development - like, if he's getting into Banshee theres gonna be a bit of exposition about character and then onto the &@#%ing leprechauns, so with Colossus you get a bit of complaining then the cartoon commie stuff.
Similarly, Storm spends her spare time in Harlem being attacked by junkies. After all, what else would a black comic book character be doing in America in the 70s?
Although to be fair to Claremont, that was a general Marvel thing...
Hope you had enjoyable break CF, and happy new year.
-sean
sean, I think the jury's out on whether Peter formally emigrated from Siberia (at the time, he certainly didn't react like he was leaving his parents and sister for good), so I wouldn't envision complications on a native's return. (And Peter would seem to agree, when on one occasion he describes his homeland to Storm and pauses: "I am sorry, Ororo. I have not the words. I can only take you there, show you." and fail to amend that with "... if only I could." Claremont's characterization of the man's feelings still stands--but homesickness affecting him to this degree? Unless Russian agents are standing by at the airport to deny him entry, I can't buy it as a pretense for this scene.
ReplyDeleteMy break was a very welcome one, sean, thank you--and a Happy New Year to you, as well!
In the preceding panel to what you display here, Wolverine observes to Cyclops that Colossus is too wrapped in his own head worrying about pulling his weight on the team. And we know this to be true, because we've been inside Peter's head thru recent issues. So, I don't know why Wolverine flips to this "homesick" idea when talking to Colossus. Doesn't make much sense.
ReplyDeleteOroro wandering Harlem was complete drivel, in my opinion. We're told repeatedly that Ororo was raised as a thief in the rough streets of Cairo, but she wanders Harlem like the most clueless of naifs. She actually hopes her parents survived, and then maybe moved straight back to the apartment of her youth? An X-Man trained in the Danger Room being unable to deal with a group of brain-dead stoners? And the very sour cherry on top is a ponderous sermon concerning the miseries of poverty and the war on drugs. Bleh.
Still and all, #122 was more acceptable than most other "nothing happening at all" issues. Of course, "nothing happening at all" issues soon became the norm with Claremont's X-Men, and that's why I left the title.
On to 2023!!
One thing that puzzled me was that we never really saw the consequences of a Soviet citizen with the X-Men during the Claremont era even if we got some doofus bits like the Proletarian. No shots of Gyrich or someone else in the US government concerned that a Russian is now with a US super team (especially one that was inside Valhalla Command, the expy for NORAD in Marvel), or that an "international" team of mutants might mean that a mutant identity is eroding native loyalties to one's country.
ReplyDeleteLikewise we never had any Soviet attempt to "get back" Colossus so he can use his powers on behalf of the Motherland or World Communism. The CANADIANS are willing to stage multiple interventions to get back Wolverine, but the Soviet Union does nothing!?! We have both villainous Soviets (Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo, many others) and more sympathetic Soviets (Gremlin, Darkstar, Vanguard, the second Red Guardian) existing in 1978 and more to come. Either approach or a mix of both could have been used, but we got nothing.
I understand Professor X likely used some bits of telepathic powers to get both Peter out and later Illyana, but surely someone in Moscow would have noticed that a prominent member of the new X-Men was a Soviet citizen. Claremont was obviously not interested in this rather obvious story hook, but I always thought it a disappointment that it was not addressed at some point, especially in the first few years of Claremont's run.
= = =
Unrelated, the scenes with Storm shows Claremont's attempts to turn Storm/Ororo into something other than what she is. Len Wein's origin is very simple - she is from a pastoral people of Kenya and acts as a religious leader because of her weather control powers. The Western world is brand new to her. But Claremont keeps adding lots of stuff to that. So she's also an urchin street thief in Cairo. And now also grew up in the slums of NYC. None of the additions make much sense. But there is a trajectory (perhaps not intentional at the time) to Storm as a mohawked street punk leading the Morlocks. For all practical purposes, that Storm is a completely different character than the one originally created.
Chris
Sorry to nitpick, CF, but this issue of Uncanny X-Men wasn't from "mid-1979". It's cover-dated June so it would have been on sale in the US in March 1979. If you lived in the UK however it would indeed have been mid-1979 as imported US Marvel comics went on sale in the same month as the cover date.
ReplyDeleteColin, I try to be consistent when listing dates by going by the indicia of the issue, which in this case indeed lists it as the "June, 1979 issue." I hope that clears it up. :D
ReplyDeleteChris - Soviets were one thing, but you have to watch out for those dangerous Canadians!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, maybe it could be argued Wolverine had actually been a state operative the Canadian government had invested a lot of money in? But broadly I agree, even in the 70s era of detente it seems unlikely a Russian - let alone a mutant superpowered one - could come and go in and out of the US so freely without the Soviet or American authorities taking a definite interest.
And yeah, the whole Storm is originally American thing didn't work for me either.
Wasn't it also Claremont that first established a relationship between Storm and the Black Panther - retconned back to when they were young - in an issue of Marvel Team up?
They're both African, so obviously they must know each other... that was as dumb and predictable as Storm hanging around in Harlem.
-sean