Uncanny X-Men #5 - By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
This issue gives more of the spotlight to the
Toad and Mastermind after shirking them so much last issue. Oh, sure we get the drama of Magneto's relationship wtih Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (AGAIN, green on the cover!), but the less attractive mutants get to shine a little.
Magneto is still upset after losing his battle on Santo Marco with the X-Men in the last issue. He's now obsessed with finding their headquarters and destroying them. Early in the issue, Mastermind is skulking around New York trying to find any information he can about the X-Men and their base of operations, but returns empty-handed. Magneto devises a plan that he knows the X-Men can't refuse - he sets up the Toad in a very public display of mutant powers to encourage the X-Men to attempt to recruit him.
Toad enters a televised Track and Field event and clearly stomps the competition by using his mutant abilities - he hops over other racers in a sprint, clears all the hurdles in one leap and even decimates the high- and long-jump records. Once the crowd starts yelling, throwing things and accusing him of cheating, the X-Men are forced to act.
Leaving the now-powerless Professor Xavier behind, the X-Men rush to the stadium to rescue the hapless mutant. The heroes protect him from the riotous crowd and rush the false athlete onto a waiting subway train. Once aboard, the Beast questions him about his abilities and their familiarity and unmasks the athlete as the Toad. I question why Mastermind wasn't on-hand to use his illusion abilities to make a much more convincing disquise for the Toad. If he could whip up an entire army last issue, changing the Toad's appearance should be easy.
His ruse broken, the Toad bounds off the train at the next stop and Magneto enters the battle. The first slugfest of the issue happens in the train station as Magneto and his evil mutants attempt to rescue the Toad. Even though the rescue is unsuccessful, the Brotherhood manages to capture the Angel and escapes with him planning to trade him for the Toad later.
This is the first appearance of Magneto's headquarters Asteroid M - a hollowed-out asteroid that has been outfitted with all the comforts of a space station that maintains a geosynchronous orbit over the earth. The Brotherhood escape to the security of the asteroid in what amounts to a giant red iron. Definitely one of the sillier Kirby designs, it has a typical horseshoe magnet bottom and a top that vaguely resembles Magneto's helmet. It changes to a much more cylendrical design by the end of the issue.
At this point the story starts to fall apart with major plotholes of convenience. Toad develops a sort of trance-state when away from Magneto and uses a communicator to call down another magnetic transport to get the X-Men up to Asteroid M. There is absolutely no reason for this shown in this issue, but he does perk up when he's on the asteroid and nearer to Magneto. Must be Magneto's "magnetic" personality, huh? (Yeah, couldn't just let that one lie, sorry!).
The X-Men's ultimate escape is just as convienient. As Magneto tears off a piece of the asteroid, he just happens to do it while they're in a section that has an escape module - which Magneto only takes control of after it delivers the X-Men safely back to earth. UGH! I hate convenient plotholes. At least have them use their powers to survive the entry back into the atmosphere and crash-land safely. That would have been a bit more exciting as well!
Iceman has some cool displays of his powers in this issue - he stops Toad with an Ice-slick on the floor, creates an ice club to fend off Mastermind's illusions and later on creates an ice tunnel as an access tube in space! We see more development of most of the X-Men this issue. Their personalities diverge a bit more and we see even more of the Beast's ever-growing vocabulary and a few more hints at a budding relationship between Scott and Jean.
I didn't realize that Asteroid M shows up so early in X-Men continuity - it just seemed like that was a Chris Claremont invention to me. But it turns out that Magneto has set up his HQ very well and can operate it like one big deathtrap for intruders. Between mechanical traps and his own abilities, the X-Men barely survive their visit. It was sort of tough to see Magneto rip parts of it off so casually. Can't wait to see it come back, but hopefully it's not so easy to get to in future stories.
I admit the ending of the issue held some surprises for me. First, it's revealed that Professor Xavier is fine and completely healthy with his powers intact. It was all a ruse to get the students to pass their final exam. Professor X announces they have passed with flying colors and they are about to graduate from the school. Wow! I really thought Stan Lee had kept up the schooling for a lot longer then five issues! So now that they're going to graduate, there isn't a new class until the change in issue #94? That seems a little odd. Guess I'll have to keep reading and see what happens!
Professor Xavier and the X-Men #6 - By Fred Schiller (plot), Jorge Gonzalez (script) and Jan Duursema
In general, this issue is a pretty faithfu
l retelling of the original story, but Schiller and Gonzalez make a few changes that actually improve the story. As I said above, I thought this was a pretty weak effort by Stan Lee, but the writers of this reimagining put a little more thought into things and patch up some of those convenient plotholes.
Mainly, Magneto's intention in this version is not to find the X-Men's headquarters, but to lure them to his own HQ. This makes so much more sense from the very beginning. Here, Magneto plotted all along for the Toad to be the method to get the X-Men to his asteroid. Taking the Angel just seemed to be this last bit of enticement they needed and using Toad made for an easy trip.
The issue also benefits from perspective of the future - the characters are more well-defined and we get more information on X-Men canon. Once again, Magneto is really the focus of the issue and we get a lot more of his backstory explained. He is fully identified here as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr for the first time, and the narration relates his youth in Poland and his survival from the atrocities of Auschwitz. Its a compelling notion that Magneto moved from thinking of the Jews as his "people" to believing the same only of mutants. Gonzalez makes this transferrence in only a few sentences, but it makes for a powerful character point - the people whom Magneto allied with, believed in, and survived with eventually looked down on him for being a mutant, thus proving themselves no better, in his mind, then their own Nazi oppressors. This is really a poignant moment and a real turning point in the characters past. It's really a shame that this is sort of overlooked in this short-lived reimagining title. I hope it gets picked up elsewhere in the main line in the future. Or hopefully in the X-Men Origins: Magneto movie!
This time it's also not so easy for the X-Men to escape Asteroid M. They actually have to use a combination of powers to survive and get to the vehicle that Toad brought them aboard in. And to even find it, they had to backtrack and use a device taken from the Toad (albeit "off-screen"). Jean uses her telekinetics to hold the corridor intact and iceman then reinforces it with his ice tunnel. Cyclops takes command of the team and ultimately flies everyone home by mimicing the functions he observed the Toad using when he brought them up.
In the end, Professor Xavier is up and well again, but there is no mention of his faking his injuries or that any of this was a test for the students. All is remaining the same and there is no mention of a graduation. I'll have to see how they play this out in the next several issues.
Just another quick note - Jan Duursema is back on the art chores in this issue. Glad to see that since I wasn't thrilled with Steve Ellis in the last issue. I really do enjoy Duursema's version of Magneto, even if she does tend to overuse the dramatic poses and Spawn-like splahes of him.
Overall, this is one of those rare ocassions where I enjoyed the reimagining more then the original. Not that the Lee/Kirby version doesn't have its charms, but from a story-telling standpoint the new version worked a lot better. After all, Schiller and Gonzalez had 32 years to think of how to fill those plotholes, right?
Up Next: Strange Tales #120
This issue gives more of the spotlight to the
Toad and Mastermind after shirking them so much last issue. Oh, sure we get the drama of Magneto's relationship wtih Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (AGAIN, green on the cover!), but the less attractive mutants get to shine a little.Magneto is still upset after losing his battle on Santo Marco with the X-Men in the last issue. He's now obsessed with finding their headquarters and destroying them. Early in the issue, Mastermind is skulking around New York trying to find any information he can about the X-Men and their base of operations, but returns empty-handed. Magneto devises a plan that he knows the X-Men can't refuse - he sets up the Toad in a very public display of mutant powers to encourage the X-Men to attempt to recruit him.
Toad enters a televised Track and Field event and clearly stomps the competition by using his mutant abilities - he hops over other racers in a sprint, clears all the hurdles in one leap and even decimates the high- and long-jump records. Once the crowd starts yelling, throwing things and accusing him of cheating, the X-Men are forced to act.
Leaving the now-powerless Professor Xavier behind, the X-Men rush to the stadium to rescue the hapless mutant. The heroes protect him from the riotous crowd and rush the false athlete onto a waiting subway train. Once aboard, the Beast questions him about his abilities and their familiarity and unmasks the athlete as the Toad. I question why Mastermind wasn't on-hand to use his illusion abilities to make a much more convincing disquise for the Toad. If he could whip up an entire army last issue, changing the Toad's appearance should be easy.
His ruse broken, the Toad bounds off the train at the next stop and Magneto enters the battle. The first slugfest of the issue happens in the train station as Magneto and his evil mutants attempt to rescue the Toad. Even though the rescue is unsuccessful, the Brotherhood manages to capture the Angel and escapes with him planning to trade him for the Toad later.
This is the first appearance of Magneto's headquarters Asteroid M - a hollowed-out asteroid that has been outfitted with all the comforts of a space station that maintains a geosynchronous orbit over the earth. The Brotherhood escape to the security of the asteroid in what amounts to a giant red iron. Definitely one of the sillier Kirby designs, it has a typical horseshoe magnet bottom and a top that vaguely resembles Magneto's helmet. It changes to a much more cylendrical design by the end of the issue.
At this point the story starts to fall apart with major plotholes of convenience. Toad develops a sort of trance-state when away from Magneto and uses a communicator to call down another magnetic transport to get the X-Men up to Asteroid M. There is absolutely no reason for this shown in this issue, but he does perk up when he's on the asteroid and nearer to Magneto. Must be Magneto's "magnetic" personality, huh? (Yeah, couldn't just let that one lie, sorry!).
The X-Men's ultimate escape is just as convienient. As Magneto tears off a piece of the asteroid, he just happens to do it while they're in a section that has an escape module - which Magneto only takes control of after it delivers the X-Men safely back to earth. UGH! I hate convenient plotholes. At least have them use their powers to survive the entry back into the atmosphere and crash-land safely. That would have been a bit more exciting as well!
Iceman has some cool displays of his powers in this issue - he stops Toad with an Ice-slick on the floor, creates an ice club to fend off Mastermind's illusions and later on creates an ice tunnel as an access tube in space! We see more development of most of the X-Men this issue. Their personalities diverge a bit more and we see even more of the Beast's ever-growing vocabulary and a few more hints at a budding relationship between Scott and Jean.
I didn't realize that Asteroid M shows up so early in X-Men continuity - it just seemed like that was a Chris Claremont invention to me. But it turns out that Magneto has set up his HQ very well and can operate it like one big deathtrap for intruders. Between mechanical traps and his own abilities, the X-Men barely survive their visit. It was sort of tough to see Magneto rip parts of it off so casually. Can't wait to see it come back, but hopefully it's not so easy to get to in future stories.
I admit the ending of the issue held some surprises for me. First, it's revealed that Professor Xavier is fine and completely healthy with his powers intact. It was all a ruse to get the students to pass their final exam. Professor X announces they have passed with flying colors and they are about to graduate from the school. Wow! I really thought Stan Lee had kept up the schooling for a lot longer then five issues! So now that they're going to graduate, there isn't a new class until the change in issue #94? That seems a little odd. Guess I'll have to keep reading and see what happens!
Note: This issue was reprinted in September, 1994 as X-Men: The Early Years #5. Cover by Tim Sale.
Professor Xavier and the X-Men #6 - By Fred Schiller (plot), Jorge Gonzalez (script) and Jan Duursema
In general, this issue is a pretty faithfu
l retelling of the original story, but Schiller and Gonzalez make a few changes that actually improve the story. As I said above, I thought this was a pretty weak effort by Stan Lee, but the writers of this reimagining put a little more thought into things and patch up some of those convenient plotholes.Mainly, Magneto's intention in this version is not to find the X-Men's headquarters, but to lure them to his own HQ. This makes so much more sense from the very beginning. Here, Magneto plotted all along for the Toad to be the method to get the X-Men to his asteroid. Taking the Angel just seemed to be this last bit of enticement they needed and using Toad made for an easy trip.
The issue also benefits from perspective of the future - the characters are more well-defined and we get more information on X-Men canon. Once again, Magneto is really the focus of the issue and we get a lot more of his backstory explained. He is fully identified here as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr for the first time, and the narration relates his youth in Poland and his survival from the atrocities of Auschwitz. Its a compelling notion that Magneto moved from thinking of the Jews as his "people" to believing the same only of mutants. Gonzalez makes this transferrence in only a few sentences, but it makes for a powerful character point - the people whom Magneto allied with, believed in, and survived with eventually looked down on him for being a mutant, thus proving themselves no better, in his mind, then their own Nazi oppressors. This is really a poignant moment and a real turning point in the characters past. It's really a shame that this is sort of overlooked in this short-lived reimagining title. I hope it gets picked up elsewhere in the main line in the future. Or hopefully in the X-Men Origins: Magneto movie!
This time it's also not so easy for the X-Men to escape Asteroid M. They actually have to use a combination of powers to survive and get to the vehicle that Toad brought them aboard in. And to even find it, they had to backtrack and use a device taken from the Toad (albeit "off-screen"). Jean uses her telekinetics to hold the corridor intact and iceman then reinforces it with his ice tunnel. Cyclops takes command of the team and ultimately flies everyone home by mimicing the functions he observed the Toad using when he brought them up.
In the end, Professor Xavier is up and well again, but there is no mention of his faking his injuries or that any of this was a test for the students. All is remaining the same and there is no mention of a graduation. I'll have to see how they play this out in the next several issues.
Just another quick note - Jan Duursema is back on the art chores in this issue. Glad to see that since I wasn't thrilled with Steve Ellis in the last issue. I really do enjoy Duursema's version of Magneto, even if she does tend to overuse the dramatic poses and Spawn-like splahes of him.
Overall, this is one of those rare ocassions where I enjoyed the reimagining more then the original. Not that the Lee/Kirby version doesn't have its charms, but from a story-telling standpoint the new version worked a lot better. After all, Schiller and Gonzalez had 32 years to think of how to fill those plotholes, right?
Up Next: Strange Tales #120
Thanks for another great review! I need to read the Prof. X book, as that scene about Magneto's origin sounds fascinating!
ReplyDeleteYeah, this was one issue where Lee was "phoning it in at times".
The stuff about Magneto is really only on two pages and it would be easy to miss the subtext if you were skimming along saying, "Yeah..Magneto origin...got it." But when I thought about what was being said it was really fascinating.
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