X-Over

Tales of Suspense #49 - By Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

I'm not sure I'll make a regular habit of discussing crossover issues. This one looked fun mostly because it's Iron Man. I just watched the movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. again last week and I'm really excited about Iron Man 2 in May, so I'm in the right frame of mind for an Iron Man story.

I've not really read too many Iron Man comics over the years. Sure I read the origin story back in the day in the big, phone-book-sized Secret Origins (not yet called a Trade Paperback) and I read more Iron Man in the 90s and early 2000s, but I'd never have called myself an Iron Man "fan!" I've been told by friends that there are some compelling stories from the last several years and heard that Iron Man (Tony Stark, perhaps) had become director of SHIELD. That's all well and good, my TARDIS is still parked in 1963.

This story opens with Angel winging his way back to Xavier's mansion and taking a short-cut over the Stark Industries plant. It just so happens that the plant is about to detonate an atomic device for testing and the Angel is about to fly right through the testing zone. Iron Man does his best Bruce Banner and tries to stop the wayward mutant, but both get caught in the blast. Iron Man's armor protects him, but the Angel's mind is affected by the atomic rays and his personality changes - he's now becoming evil!

The newly evil Angel defeats Iron Man by flying higher then Iron Man's Power Jets can handle and takes off back to the mansion to deliver his notice that he's quitting the X-Men. The others try and stop him, but his new evil personality must have brought some new insight to using his powers with it, since he's much more skilled then in the previous issues of X-Men. Angel escapes and declares he's off to find the "Evil Mutants" to help them rule the world.

It all seems pretty comical - detonating atomic devices in New York City, atomic rays affecting your personality and the general silliness of the Angel's plans. But somehow the innocence of it all is rather charming. And when Angel runs off to find the evil mutants, it's very much like a petulant child running away from home and expecting the circus train to stop by and pick him up.

Iron Man reenters the scene during Angel's search for the evil mutants. They have a few scuffles and Iron Man decides that the only way to save the Angel is to shock him back into his right mind. He stages the same incident as earlier in the story with the boot jets failing, and the Angel is forced to snap fight off the effects of the atomic rays and save him. Cliched now, but back in 1963 we hadn't seen that too often.

Overall this was a fun and entertaining little cross-over. Ditko's art isn't outstanding and his X-Men must have been based on Kirby's original sketches. I do like the stiffness he gives Iron Man. You get the feeling that he's in armor compared to the Angel's agile flight. It was also fun to see tiny cameos of the other Avengers - Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp. No Captain America yet, so I'm guessing even this reference was to point readers to that comic as well as to the X-Men next time they were at their local newsstand.

The issue also featured a back-up story starring the Watcher. This little five-page story isn't so much a story as a call to straighten up our act. The story focuses on a race called the Sneepers who currently rule most of the galaxy, but feel threatened by humanity. They watch us from afar because they can't get to us with their present technology. The Sneepers begin to put effort into finding a way to destroy the earth until they find out someone else might do it for them - us! Nuclear weapons, rioting, the Cuban Missile Crisis and more makes them feel that we will destroy ourselves. In the end, the Watcher calls out to us to change our destiny and not allow the Sneepers to take the galaxy by default. Its a little over-bearing, but interesting to see that there was a call to kids to be socially conscious and pay attention to the world around them.

Up Next: Uncanny X-Men #4 and Professor Xavier and the X-Men #4

Sideshow Blob

Uncanny X-Men #3 - By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Y'know, I like the Blob. I get him. He makes sense to me. I mean here's a guy who's been relegated to the life of a sideshow freak with little hope of fitting in with the rest of the world and suddenly, here come the X-Men telling him that he's something better - Homo Superior. Do you blame the guy for getting an attitude and deciding to run the joint?

We were all in high school at some point. So, we can understand that everything that made us feel insecure about ourselves around the "cool kids" might make us feel freakish by comparison. Now this guy finds out that those things actually make him BETTER then the "cool kids" and he decides it's his turn to rule the school. Rub their jock faces in it! Use what he's got to be the best. Most high-schoolers would do the same thing. I really give Stan Lee credit for putting all of that into this story and really showing its not the best idea.

The X-Men offer Blob a place in their ranks but he refuses, believing his powers to be better then theirs. He returns to the carnival only to turn his fellows into his own army. Way to make the ones who put you down work for you, eh? He decides to attack the X-Men in their home and take their secrets for his own.

But again, Professor Xavier whips up a Telepathic Intensifier to use on the Blob and his carnival of creeps. The X-Men leap to defend the mansion and the Professor, only to be mostly defeated by the Blob. In the end, the Professor uses the machine to once again wipe the memory of the X-Men's location from the Blob and his goons - just like we saw him do last issue to the Vanisher. This time, however, even Stan Lee knows this gag can't last forever and closes the story by saying "some day in the future, the Blob's memory may return..." So I'm expecting these guys to come back with a real mad on for Xavier for taking their memories.

Now as to the X-Men themselves, we finally get to see some distinct characterization here. We see Scott worried about his dangerous powers, Warren being the cavalier playboy and Bobby being the care-free kid. Small steps away from the Fantastic Four rip-offs from earlier issues. The most drastic change starts in Hank McCoy as we see his intelligence here and start to get the characteristic loquaciousness and verbosity that become his trademarks later on - the brilliant mind in the body of the beast. No more is he just a bouncy version of the Thing and he starts to come into his own.

I think the most disturbing and creepy development is Professor X apparently having feelings for Jean! To himself, he thinks, "As though I could help worrying about the one I love! But I can never tell her! I have no right. Not while I'm the leader of the X-Men and confined to this wheelchair!" Well, actually you have no right 'cause she's 16 and you're old enough to be her father! I thought I misread this and so I went back and read it over and over and I can't see any other interpretation. I hope this just goes away quietly or pays off in some other manner. Jean even reciprocates these feelings on several occasions as she demonstrates concern for Xavier's safety. I'm going to put this one aside for now and see where it goes.

There are a few nifty uses of the X-Men's powers in this issues as well. Cyclops literally shoots the earth our from under the Blob to knock him down; Marvel Girl (with direction from Xavier) telekinetically manipulates a knife to free herself from being tied up; and the Beast defeats a couple of tight-rope walkers on their rope with his amazing agility.

Overall, this issue was a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing more of the Blob. It actually made me want to find some old Spider-Man comics and look up the Carnival of Doom again! Another comic for another day!

Note: This issue was reprinted in July, 1994 as X-Men: The Early Years #3. Cover by Adam Hughes.

Professor Xavier and the X-Men #3 - By Fabian Nicieza and Jan Duursema

Normally, I've liked Fabian Nicieza's writing, but in this particular case he "dumbed-down" this story in so many ways it was really sad. In the original, Stan Lee was pretty subtle with the analogy of being an outcast kid and how that makes all of us feel. Nicieza found it necessary to take this to the literal level of including a flashback of how thirteen-year old Fred Dukes was picked on as soon as he started developing his abilities. He also uses the first two pages for very heavy-handed descriptions about how the audience perceives the Blob. I never thought that I'd be saying that I enjoyed Stan Lee's more SUBTLE approach to story-telling!

At the same time, Nicieza also decided that the Blob had to be stupid. He literally turned him into a "dumb redneck" who doesn't understand the Beast's big words and is too "stubborn and stupid" to be effected by the Professor's psychic commands. The Blob was a more interesting character when he could think for himself and decide intelligently on his actions. At the end of the story, Xavier actually ventures into the Blob's memories of being taunted as a child and lectures him about how wrong it is to hate those who have treated him poorly. Again, way too heavy-handed.

This issue even took away almost all of those fun uses of the powers I talked about in the original issue. There really isn't a battle with the carny freaks - Professor X tells the X-Men to get captured so he can lure them into the mansion and blast them with his machine. Kind of a waste as it reduces out main characters to only the most mundane displays of their powers.

The only thing this issue added to the X-Men mythos was a few lines of technobabble about the Blob's powers. Apparently, his skin is imperviously pliable and he can control gravitational fields to some degree around himself. Yawn. I like the fat guy whose skin you can't pierce and you just can't move. That was much more fun and compelling then the pseudo-science behind it. Next you'd expect the Blob to find some way to make people float when they're beside him or something silly.

I also have to say that I was a bit disappointed in Jan Duursema's art as well. She really disfigured the Blob - overly so. He was actually TOO Blobby - too homely and overexaggerated. And that's saying a lot during the really stylized art popularity of the 90s.

I have to say, all in all - read the original and skip this "reimagining."

Up Next: Tales of Suspense #49