Excalibur: Special Edition

Excalibur:  Special Edition (1987)
Rating:  ★★★★★★★★
The Sword is Drawn
Writer:  Chris Claremont
Artist:  Alan Davis
Inker:  Paul Neary

This issue marked the first x-team introduced since the New Mutants.  Unlike the New Mutants, however, this team was established entirely of already known characters.  Kitty and Nightcrawler, fresh off of their recovery from injuries, Phoenix (Rachel Summers) who had been missing for a few years, and Captain Britain and Meggan who were both part of Marvel's UK line and had made some appearances in American comics, including Uncanny X-Men.  In fact, Psylocke of the X-Men is Captain Britain's twin sister (fraternal, obviously).

In Mojo's world, the X-Men are movie stars

This issue is Claremont at his finest, even if the villains are a bit more comical than we're used to.  Technet (led by the ugly Gatecrasher) is rather inept and you can't help but chuckle as they stumble through and successfully (at least momentarily) capture their prey.  Still, Claremont reminds us all that these are people he's writing about who just happen to have fantastic powers.  Shadowcat and Nightcrawler are still grieving for the X-Men (whom they believe perished in Dallas).  Captain Britain is a drunk as he grieves for his sister (again who is believed to have been killed in Dallas).  Meggan doesn't know how to deal with him (by the way, turns out he's an angry drunk).

Some of my favorite moments are outside of the battles.  Seeing Phoenix pulled in chains by her supposed friends (in Mojo's universe, of course, but still), Kitty crying over a picture of the X-Men, and Nightcrawler trying to sober up Captain Britain all rank among my favorite.  Especially Nightcrawler confronting Britain.  Seeing Nightcrawler slam the drunk up against the wall and how his own humility and pain is just fantastic.

Nightcrawler tries to sober up a drunk Captain Britain

The villains, like I said, are a bit silly.  The Warwolves are henchmen and Technet is just a standard villain team with little thought into their motivations (turns out, they're bounty hunters).  I will give credit to their powers.  They really do have some unique abilities. The big villain in this issue is really just pulling the strings and that would be Mojo.  Unfortunately, you really never get to explore that aspect.  Mojo works through his Warwolves and we seldom see any of that fight.

The art is fantastic.  I love Alan Davis.  His style is sometimes a bit more cartoony than others, but the characters are always very smooth and everything is where it needs to be.

Overall, even if you never cared for the Excalibur series, this issue is a must read.  It definitely makes you love the characters.

New Mutants #64

New Mutants #64 (June 1988)
Rating:  ★★★★★★
Instant Replay
Writer:  Louise Simonson
Artist:  Bret Blevins
Inker:  Terry Austin

So with Fall of the Mutants over, we are now left to deal with the repercussions.  Each title seems to deal with it in their own way.  Over in X-Factor, Cyclops starts looking for his lost son while the rest of the team deals with being celebrities.  In X-Men, they search for ways to do good in the world while maintaining their "death".  Here in New Mutants, the kids deal with death for the first real time in their lives.  Sure, Sam's father had died and Dani's grandfather, but none in the group had really faced death to one of their own, a peer.

The artwork, unfortunately, is mediocre at best.  Bret Blevins leaves a lot to be desired.  However, while Louise Simonson comes up with the weirdest stories, she really does know how to write children and we have to remember that many of the New Mutants are children, especially Rahne and Warlock.  Sure, Warlock may be physically old (I don't think we ever really find out for sure) but emotionally, he's a toddler, unable to grasp the concept of death.  He doesn't understand why they can't just recharge Doug's batteries like they would do to Warlock.

Rahne is still a wreck in this issue.  Her actions are just unhealthy, using the Danger Room to replay the events over and over again, this time saving Doug's life.  When the others find out what she's been doing, she completely breaks down, lashing out at them.  She simply doesn't know how to deal.  Magik is having trouble as well as she continues to mull over the X-Men's deaths in Dallas, her anger intensifying.  And Warlock?  He's having the hardest time of all.

At the wake, both Warlock and Rahne freak out at Doug's body.  Especially when Warlock finds out that Doug will be buried.  He cannot grasp the idea that there is nothing more to be done.  It gets into an interesting philosophical debate about religion and the afterlife.  Sam tries to explain judgment day, but how do you explain such a concept to a child?  Warlock gets the idea that why wait until later?  Why not have Doug walk around now?  His intentions are noble, but his actual actions are horrifying.  He artificially animates Doug's body, thinking that everyone would be happy to see his selffriend.  Doug's mother has a nervous breakdown.  Rahne once again freaks out.  But it is this incident that forces her to realize just how much she had been in denial.  It was time to let Doug go.

The funeral was especially touching as both Rahne and Warlock finally accept the finality of it all.

The artwork in this issue was difficult and inconsistent, but the writing was spot on.  Louise Simonson did always have a great grasp of the characters and knew how to write them.  This was a great issue to finalize the events from Fall of the Mutants.

"Good-bye, Selfriend.  Self will miss you and a piece of self will always be in heavendimension of livingdead with you."

What If...? #50 (Fall of the Mutants)

What If...? #50 (June 1993)
Rating:  ★★★
What if the Hulk Killed Wolverine?
Writer:  Joan Arcudi
Artist:  Armando Gil
Inker:  Armando Gil

So, I have finally finished my Fall of the Mutants issues and back to "normal".  However, I figured that a good way to send it off would be to review the What If...? issue that explores the question "What if the X-Men's battle had gone just a little differently?"  For those of you who don't know about the What If series, it was several self contained stories that took a look at a particular event in Marvel and wonder what if things had gone a little differently.  Most of them were told by The Watcher (the big bald guy, but not the one in the wheelchair) who could see all realities.  I actually enjoyed most of the series (until the more recent issues that weren't actually numbered).

Unfortunately, What If #50 wasn't one of them.

See, it turns out that right before the X-Men's adventures in Dallas, Wolverine encountered the Hulk.  They fought.  Wolverine stabbed Hulk through the heart and then walked away to join up with the X-Men.  The rest is history (see the last two issues I reviewed).  However, here one little thing changes and everything is altered.  Ever see The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher?  No?  Well, it's actually a good movie.  But the idea is that one little change can have drastic and unforeseen consequences.  Here, Hulk doesn't just walk off, but he gets up and is totally enraged.  In his rage, he actually manages the impossible:  he kills Wolverine by severing his spinal cord.  To be fair, I can somewhat see how this could kill Wolverine back in the day.  The spinal cord is one part of your body that can't actually heal.

Once Wolverine is dead, the Adversary makes his move early, killing Madeline Pryor, Longshot, and Dazzler.  Once things calm down, Freedom Force finally arrives.  Spiral then announces the approach of the Hulk and Rogue takes off to avenge Wolverine.  Of course, the Hulk beats her.  Freedom Force and what's left of the X-Men then join in the fight.  Of course, the madder Hulk gets, the stronger he gets, and by now he's pissed.  He easily kills Avalanche (see the picture below) and when the rest charge, he kills Blob and Pyro (it's actually kind of funny - Pyro tries to burn the Hulk so Hulk picks up Blob and uses him as a shield - he then tosses Blob on top of Pyro creating a Pyre - like the play on words?).  Blob then clobbers Super Sabre killing him.

Then Rick Jones shows up to try to calm the Hulk down.  It's actually working until a Wolverine appears (much to everyone's surprise).  The Wolverine then stabs Rick through the heart and it's revealed that Rick was just Mystique in disguise.  Hulk then attacks Wolverine and it turns out that Wolverine was just the Adversary in disguise (sure are a lot of disguises around here).  The Adversary then takes a moment to kill both Destiny, Psylocke and Havok.  Meanwhile, Forge and Storm are freed (because the Hulk managed to reveal the Adversary's true form by throwing a lamp post through him) and with the help of Spiral, they drive the Adversary back to the portal but not through it.  Then Forge decides to sacrifice himself and use his own lifeforce to temporarily ban the Adversary long enough for Roma to regain control.

What...what?  You mean that all Forge had to do to stop Adversary was to kill himself?  That's all it took?  Then why the hell did he sacrifice the X-Men's lives in the regular world?  I guess Forge really is a coward and a villain.

See, that was one of the problems I had with this issue.  It didn't really stay true to the source material.  I mean, sure, I can believe that Wolverine's death would kick things off like this, but the ultimate climax made the ending of the original story completely worthless, showing that the X-Men's sacrifice actually meant nothing.

On top of that the various deaths don't really seem to mean anything.  Many are killed just as background characters, so if you really like Longshot, Dazzler, or Destiny, you'll be disappointed.  They barely get a mention (in fact they don't even get referred to by name, only getting killed in the background).

And the artwork.  Oh, don't get me started on the artwork.  I hated this artist.  It's confusing and inconsistent.  The faces all look misshapen and the artist seems to fail to grasp basic anatomy.

The story may have had such potential, and it's too bad that a better artist didn't tackle the issue.  Too bad that a better writer didn't pick it up.  Heck, too bad that Marvel didn't give it to a college writing class to figure out.  They probably could have done better.