Issue number 94 of X-Men, cover dated August 1975, was big; it was the opening volley of Chris Claremont's run on the title, which would go on to last a whopping 16 years and close to 200 issues. Len Wein, the writer of Giant Size X-Men 1, plotted the first two issues, and Dave Cockrum remained on board doing the art. Bill Mantlo was credited as a co-plotter for #96.
Another interesting point of note: between issues 94, which was edited by Wein, and 101, when Archie Goodwin took over, the book's editor was none other than Marv Wolfman. Wolfman later went on to greatness in the early 80s with, among other things, DC's New Teen Titans, which was very much a spiritual compatriot of Claremont's X-Men. Also, his name is really cool.
The relaunched book was bimonthly to begin with, all the way until #112.
The late seventies were a weird and wondrous time for X-Men fans. Most everything they knew was gone, and the revamped version they were stuck with was surprisingly good. The title stayed under the radar for a while, but unexpectedly, it kept getting better and better. In time, it became a true leader of the industry. There is some debate nowadays about how well Claremont's writing has aged. Personally, I think this period of his creative career, the first ten or so years of the X-Men, was unambiguously fantastic and remains a high water mark for superhero comics to this day. Plenty of people, however, are turned off by his wordy style and certain idiosyncrasies which we'll discuss at length over time.
The first arc of the All-New All-Different X-Men, told in issues 94 and 95, set up the new status quo.
For starters, Sunfire leaves in a huff and tells the Professor never to call on him again. Frankly, I think this devalues his choice to go along with the others in Giant Size X-Men #1 somewhat. His presence was ultimately rendered all but pointless. But Shiro's personality was probably far too abrasive to engender him to the readers, so he had to go. But less surprisingly, everyone from the original team except Cyclops also leave. This is justified by equating their decision to quit as, essentially, leaving the nest. In reality, they left because a clean break was needed. And obviously, a team of fourteen characters would have been unmanageable.
Scott's choice to stay with the team is enormously important to his characterization. It establishes point-blank that the X-Men are the most important thing in his life – keep in mind that he's an orphan – and also sets up his importance to the X-Men. But I also think the fact that Scott didn't leave with Jean still speaks of his basic insecurity. As the old X-Men say their goodbyes, Scott and Jean admit their love for each other and kiss. Considering their unspoken attraction had been milked fruitlessly for so long, this seems like a very odd time to put it out in the open.
#94 also includes a frankly hilarious scene of Scott bemoaning his mutant powers, a demonstration of the worst kind of melodramatic excess that Claremont will thankfully handle with more grace on future occasions.
But let's move on to this arc's main plot...
Count Nefaria, whom you'll remember from his appearance in X-Men #22-23, takes over the headquarters of Norad and holds the world ransom with nuclear missiles. His goons, the Ani-Men, are rather interesting - they're a group of humans Nefaria has transformed into beastmen and forced into servitude. The animals represented are: a cat, a gorilla, a frog, a bird and some kind of flying insect. Beast makes a cameo bringing this incident to the X-Men's attention, since the Avengers are otherwise engaged, and I have to say, I do not much like the way Cockrum draws Beast's furry form.
The X-Men make their way to Mount Valhalla to take care of Nefaria. This marks the first appearance of their iconic Blackbird jet. Impressively, Nefaria manages to shoot them down twice, but something as banal as a drop of a few thousand feet isn't enough to kill the X-Men. Colossus is durable enough that the fall doesn't harm him, and Storm and Banshee save the others. The team proceeds to infiltrate the base and fight off the Ani-Men, as well as groups of hypnotized soldiers. In this instance, Nightcrawler shows no aversion to blindly teleporting somewhere he hasn't been before as he would in the future. All their superpowers would be developed further over time. Nightcrawler's famous “bamf!” sound effect was already present, however.
The climax includes a slight dramatic failing: the team's battle in the case just happens to destroy some of the systems governing the nuclear detonation, which Xavier explains to the team as they try to stop the countdown. That's not particularly exciting. But before this, Nefaria already takes off with a fighter plane, with Thunderbird along for the ride. To prevent Nefaria's escape, James chooses to sacrifice his life.
Dying while punching out a Harrier is not a bad way to go, but Thunderbird's death is emphasized to be pointless. Banshee was flying alongside them and could have stopped the plane with his sonic powers. Furthermore, the only thing at stake was whether Nefaria got away or not, which wouldn't have been worth dying over. But the previous issue had effectively established James to be an uncertain young man with something to prove. Thunderbird's death was ultimately a foolish attempt to convince himself and others of his valor. Both Cyclops and Professor X are hit hard by this.
Behind the scenes, it certainly seemed odd to kill off a newly introduced character. The reason was apparently a perceived similarity between Thunderbird and Wolverine. Thunderbird's powers, generic super-strength and toughness, were certainly the dullest and visually least impressive among the team, so he was the one to go. In the long run, this choice paid off fantastically well. Even if James had developed beyond a Native-American stereotype, he probably wouldn't have become the kind of break-out character Wolverine turned out to be.
What about Count Nefaria though? Well, it turned out exploding was only a minor setback for him. He returned a few years later and successfully acquires superhuman powers.
The next issue begins with a guilt-ridden Cyclops taking a walk in the grounds of Xavier's school. In a fit of grief over James's death, he fires his optic blast into the woods and damages a small, hidden cairn, which releases a demon called Kierrok, who attacks him. It goes without saying that the idea that there happens to be a random portal to the netherworld in Westchester, a stone's throw away from the Mansion, is both stupid and contrived.
In other happenings, Banshee finally gets a proper name – Sean Cassidy. Interestingly, he is already portrayed as being somewhat apart from the rest of the team. While the others are training in the Danger Room, he is standing in the sidelines in his civilian clothes and chatting with Xavier.
#96 also introduces a major supporting character, Moira MacTaggert, an old friend (and perhaps something more) of Xavier's, whom the Professor asks to come to the Mansion as a housekeeper while he goes on a vacation. When Kierrok attacks the Mansion, Moira gets an awesome scene where she bursts into the scene with a machine gun and unloads it into the demon. I imagine this was quite shocking for readers at the time, since that wasn't exactly common behavior for female supporting characters. Sean is also immediately attracted to her.Moira's presence here puzzles me a bit though. Okay, actually a lot. Why do the X-Men need a housekeeper? Xavier had left the original team on their own under the guidance of Cyclops several times. He would have had no reason to have less faith in the inexperienced new lineup either, since they were all independent grownups. Besides that, why bring in a geneticist all the way from Scotland to act as a housekeeper? And why did Xavier choose this moment to have a vacation? Though he was troubled by Thunderbird's death, especially due to his mental link to him at the time, he should really have realized that this was the time his students needed him the most.
The X-Men prove unable to defeat Kierrok in combat, despite Wolverine's novel berserker rage, but Xavier mentally determines that the demon originated from the cairn. Storm flies off and destroys it, causing Kierrok to disappear into nothingness. Along the way, when Ororo is about to be trapped inside the cairn by demons, we see tantalizing glimpses of her backstory. We see how much the idea of being trapped discomforts her, as she lets loose both literally and figuratively. She has her first major emotional showing, while also blasting lightning left and right like a true weather goddess. Another foe of the X-Men is also introduced in this issue: Stephen Lang, a military scientist working for the government. He is very nicely established as a threat when he kills his friend and colleague who was going to speak out against Lang's anti-mutant project to their superiors.
#96 is a very fascinating story. Even though it has a co-plotter, it represents such a microcosm of everything that is Chris Claremont. This issue has it all: ponderous angsty monologues, badass female characters, subtly developing storylines, and plot threads that go nowhere. That last one is especially notable, because it's something Claremont is kind of infamous for. At the end of the issue, Xavier amusingly declares that he doubts they'll ever know who Kierrok was and what he wanted, but that they surely haven't seen the last of him and his kind. Of course, Kierrok is never heard from again, ever.
Issue #97 starts off a major new plotline that'll be picked up and resolved in the Phoenix Saga, which we'll cover in the next installment. Another mystery villain is introduced, and Professor Xavier starts having strange dreams of alien starships battling in space. As it happens, these events are connected.
This issue has a few guest stars.
Jean joins the X-Men to see off the Professor to his vacation. From this point on, she'll be an unofficial part of the team, despite not being featured on the covers. Her presence makes sense though. You see, by this point, Angel and Iceman had joined the lesser-known superhero team called the Champions, and as you'll recall, Beast was a member of the Avengers. That meant Jean was the only one of the original X-Men not featured in any book at all.
This is also probably why Alex and Lorna are brought in, though in their case, the attention paid to them ended up being somewhat more negative in nature. As it turns out, they're living together in Westchester and pursuing doctorates (in archeology, I believe, though the story doesn't mention details). Unfortunately, they're attacked, brainwashed and made to attack Xavier. Lorna takes on the identity of Polaris, complete with evil costume.
Incidentally, this is not the last time either Alex or Lorna is mind-controlled. They spend a lot of time in the coming decades being somebody's bitches, and they've been screwed over in general quite a bit over the years, especially Polaris. In that sense, this story marks the beginning of an unfortunate trend.
The pair engages the X-Men at Kennedy Airport, joined by their master, Eric the Red. Yes, Eric the Red. Cyclops points out that Eric is an identity he invented – to infiltrate Mesmero's organization in X-Men #51-52 – but no explanation is offered. The fight ends up destroying one empty jet and damaging another. Cyclops manages to hold his own against Havok (it has not yet been established that they powers don't work on each other), while Storm completely destroys Polaris. In the end, Eric has to retreat, but the X-Men fail to free Alex and Lorna. On a side note, this issue features the first appearance of Nightcrawler's image inducer (holographic technology invented by Tony Stark of Iron Man fame) and his disguise of Errol Flynn. This is just the first of many movie references from Claremont. It also serves as a subtle bit of characterization for Kurt.
The lead-up to the big 100th issue, #98-100, compromises the third Sentinel storyline.
The machines attack the X-Men as they're enjoying Christmas in New York and kidnap Jean, Sean and Wolverine. (Of note are the facts that, for all intents and purposes, Jean and Scott are now a couple, and that the new team is supposed to have been together for almost a year at this point. That would indicate that time is passing concurrently with the title's publication, which will in time become quite ridiculous and be swept under the table.)
Professor Xavier is also taken by the Sentinels from a yacht near the Bahamas. His kidnapping is witnessed by old friend Peter Corbeau, director of the Starcore space station project, introduced in the Incredible Hulk's book a short while earlier (he was actually Bruce Banner's college roommate). Corbeau makes his way to X-Mansion to warn the team. He subsequently even became a minor supporting character. Stephen Lang is revealed to be behind the construction of the new batch of Sentinels, based on Bolivar and Larry Trask's models. Notably, Wolverine angrily breaks free of his shackles when Lang strikes Jean. Along the way it's established for the very first time that his claws aren't a part of his gloves at all, but actually spring out from within his forearms. He manages to free the Sean and Jean and together they all fight their way to freedom. Unfortunately, their escape does them no good, since they turn out to be imprisoned on a space station.
The first issue's cliffhanger, with Banshee breaking down a wall ahead of them and thus sending them all flying out into the vacuum of space, is effective, and amusing. The Sentinels fly out and save them immediately at the beginning of #99.
Meanwhile, their reappearance has sparked an anti-mutant hysteria in America. Judge Chalmers, who appeared in the previous Sentinel storyline in X-Men #57-59, is briefly mentioned. Having become a mutant rights spokesman, his home is firebombed by extremists.
While this is going on, Cyclops and Corbeau figure out where the Sentinels are holed up, and Corbeau gets the X-Men into space by arranging a shuttle launch just for them. In real life, the first orbital flight by space shuttle took place in 1981 (and cost at least several hundred million dollars). Of course, the space program is much more advanced in the Marvel Universe. Whatever the case, Corbeau had to have some serious connections to pull this off. Also, it's made clear early on that the flight is endangered by hazardous solar activity.
Peter flips out during the launch and destroys his spacesuit by armoring up. He tells the others of his cosmonaut brother Mikhail, who was killed during a mission. (Much, much later, in 1992, someone had the bright idea of revealing Mikhail never died at all.) Claremont was very systematic in this regard. With all the new cast members on the map, he revealed something small about each of them in turn and then slowly started exploring them in depth.
Also in this issue: in Ireland, one Mr. Flaherty posts a letter for Banshee, warning him of his cousin's sinister plans, and is then killed by that same cousin. Dun dun duuun. We'll get back to this in my next post. While it may feel incongruous to see this mentioned, I feel it makes a point about Claremont's style of storytelling.
Once they approach the SHIELD space station appropriated by Lang, Corbeau is forced to ram the shuttle into it. The team engages the Sentinels inside of it and outside. Storm takes on one of them in outer space, by applying her powers to solar winds. This was, I believe, a bad idea, but it was easy to forget as an early inconsistency of her powers. After the team is separated from Cyclops, they come across what seems to be original X-Men, who attack them, calling them impostors.
The clash between the two generations of X-Men is the main draw of the big 100th issue. This battle includes the very first “fastball special” - a battle maneuver that consists of Colossus picking up Wolverine and tossing him at the enemy. It's so famous it even has its own Wikipedia article. Throughout the fight, the members of the new team can't help but notice that Beast isn't as furry as he should be, and that Cyclops is wearing the wrong visor.
The original team is, of course, actually robotic copies, “X-Sentinels” created by Lang. (It was strongly implied that Lang kidnapped the new X-Men to make robotic copies of them as well.) The X-Men are clued into this when Wolverine goes nuts and slashes the Marvel Girl android's chest open. This incident also establishes his animalistic enhanced senses.
Meanwhile, Cyclops frees the other prisoners and Lang dies an amusing death. He loses control of his hoverchair (which is armed with a laser cannon, by the way) and gets blown up while begging for the X-Men to help him. He's another character that would needlessly be resurrected quite a while later. The explosion also starts a fire that's going to destroy the entire station.
The X-Men gather up, but find that their shuttle to be very inconveniently (or very conveniently) damaged. This is where the solar flare mentioned earlier figures in. The autopilot is unworkable, but the shuttle's cockpit is cracked open and exposed to the radiation. The only solution is for Jean to do the piloting. She can telepathically learn the necessary skills from Corbeau and telekinetically protect herself. She has to knock out Cyclops to get the chance, since it doesn't seem possible for her to survive. Her energy field breaks down and the issue ends with Jean crying out Scott's name as she's exposed to the conflagration.
Jean's flight was the stepping stone for some of the biggest storylines of Claremont's first years on the X-Men. In the long run, it proved to be one of the most significant events in the history of the team. It was the beginning of Jean's infamous string of deaths, the birth of an iconic plot device, and the basis for one of the franchise's most painful retcons. Ignoring all that though, the scene itself was wonderful. The circumstances of Jean's sacrifice felt very natural and not contrived, her farewell to the X-Men was genuinely emotional – helped out by Lang earlier suggesting that she was the heart and soul of the team. The contrast to Thunderbird's selfish and meaningless death is striking.
This arc, while probably better written than Roy Thomas's tale, doesn't quite oust it as the definitive Sentinel story (so far). For starters, Stephen Lang's models are explicitly weaker than the originals (because they're based on incomplete schematics). The focus is clearly on Lang and the atypical X-Sentinels as the main villains of the arc, with the giant robots themselves serving only as easily thrashed goons. It's entirely forgivable that the Sentinels didn't rebel for the third time in a row – that would have just been dull – but I can't help but feel that their passivity cheapens their appearance here.
So what can be said about the first issues of the new era?
Well, they're good. I think we can safely say that the title had never been this good before.
Although Claremont is generally known for being talkative, these issues balance action with dialogue very nicely. Some of the new characters were more compelling than others, but there were seeds of greatness in each of them. As I mentioned above, they were starting to be fleshed out very systematically, the reader finds out more about them and their histories in bits and pieces. The plotting worked in much the same way, by tightly weaving in subplots. Claremont is always setting up the next thing. In time, this web would get more and more complex... The art maintained Cockrum's high standard. In fact, it improved significantly from #96 onwards.
Overall, it was a promising start that nevertheless belied the heights to which the quality would soon skyrocket.
Index of Happenings:
Deaths: 6. (1) Thunderbird dies in battle with Count Nefaria. And this is one character who won't be back.
(Thunderbird: 1 death.)
Resurrections: 3.
Anti-heroes: 2. Wolverine, the X-Men's iconic anti-hero.
Revamps: 1.
Team: Seven – technically eight. Sunfire never properly joins. Warren, Bobby, Jean, Lorna and Alex all leave to pursue their own lives. Thunderbird dies. But Jean rejoins the team in all but name.
Overall: sixteen.
Writers: 7.
Artists: 13.
Final word: Alright, Jean doesn't actually die that often.
Next time: Death and rebirth! This and that about Sean Cassidy! The return of Magneto! The X-Men save the universe! Yes, this is the original Phoenix Saga! Also, Canadians.
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