Another major guest appearance
featuring the X-Men…wow! Over the first 18 months or so, the X-Men have met, either individually or as a group, Iron Man, the Human Torch, Namor, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. And that means, only about half of their adventures have been on their own. You can see the efforts that Stan Lee has gone to in order to make them a part of his new Marvel “Universe.” All of these characters have been shown together to establish the fact that they all exist at the same time, in the same world as the others and can freely walk from the pages of one comic to the next. While this had happened before – and even super groups like the Justice Society formed – Lee wanted to make sure that no one was confused about his new creations and the universe was going to be a living thing, growing and changing with the events in EVERY Marvel comic. Completely accepted nowadays, but a very new idea in 1965.In this particular instance, the Avengers (with newly-thawed Captain America in the midst) are really bit players. You can see they really don’t serve a major purpose in the story except to further Lee’s idea of a cohesive universe. Thor’s hammer detects evil and the Avengers rush to confront it, only to arrive and find the X-Men in their way. The obligatory fight scene ensues.
Stepping back from my jaded, adult view of comics, it’s always fun to see your favorite heroes “throw down” and see who can get the upper hand on whom. We still can discuss and debate over who can really win in a fight – the Thing or the Hulk, or who can win in a fair race – Superman or the Flash? These are the moments when comic-creators give us those nuggets. And it IS fun to see the young, up-start X-Men tangle with the stoic, adult Avengers. This isn’t a fight for the ages, mind you, but it’s still fun seeing the Beast snatch Cap’s shield out of mid-air or see Cyclops disarm Thor with a blast of his eye-beams which then ricochet into Iron Man, knocking HIM down. And how can anyone not enjoy Kirby’s versions of Iron Man, Thor and Captain America?
The real story happens far below ground as the “vacationing” Professor Xavier confronts the deadly Lucifer in his lair. Lucifer is a really interesting character, whom we learn almost nothing about in the issue. The Professor alludes to the fact that it was Lucifer who cost him the use of his legs in a previous battle, but there are no details to that story here – and no details at all to Lucifer’s origin. I’m a sucker for a good mystery, so I’m hoping this character resurfaces soon.
In this instance, Lucifer plans to kill Xavier, finishing what he wasn’t able to in that previous encounter. To insure the outcome of the fight, Lucifer has connected a thermal bomb to his body which will detonate if he’s harmed. It will destroy Antarctica and cause catastrophe around the world. But of course, the solution for Xavier is easy. He reaches into his favorite well and “turns off” the thinking part of Lucifer’s brain – leaving his autonomic functions operating.
In the most nerve-wracking part of the story, Xavier calls the X-Men to him, telling Cyclops he must help disarm the bomb. Xavier and Cyclops are dropped on the top of the bomb, where the Professor uses his mental abilities to determine the weak spot in the bombs wiring. As he’s doing this, Lucifer’s body functions are fading. Then, Xavier telepathically communicates the weak spot to Cyclops, who must now use a needle-thin beam to cut ONLY the correct wire. It’s a nice moment for Cyclops who always worries about the colossal power of his eye-beam, and having to use it surgically is an incredible challenge. He comes through with flying colors.
After removing his mental control from Lucifer, the X-Men let the defeated and dejected villain simply walk away. Even Iceman is left wondering about Lucifer’s past and his connection to Professor Xavier.
While the Avengers were merely set-dressing in this issue, the Lucifer story was very compelling and added a new wrinkle to the mythology of Professor Xavier and the X-Men. The character looked familiar to me – kind of like that Master that appears in Alpha Flight stories in the late 80’s or so. I’m not sure if it’s the same character,
but I can see the similarities. I’ll wait and see what the next appearance of Lucifer brings.Note: This issue was reprinted in December, 1970 as the first story in Uncanny X-Men Annual #1 (Cover by Jack Kirby) and again in Januray, 2005 as X-Men: The Early Years #9 (Cover by Carlos Pacheco).
Professor Xavier and the X-Men #10 – By Art Holcomb and Nick Gnazzo
As far as re-imaginings go,
this one is, again, fair. Some of the changes made to the story were done for no real reason than to make bigger bangs, and so much more of Lucifer’s story is related in this issue then the original.
In the opening sequence, the X-Men cross the Atlantic on a cruise ship. In Lee’s original script, Cyclops used his eye-beam to decimate a huge iceberg. The story reason for this was to show how powerful his eyebeam can be, countering it with the fine surgical skill needed at the end of the story. In this version, there is no iceberg, but a floating mine released by Lucifer that looks left over from World War 2. Cyclops uses his beam to detonate it before the ship hits it. This can’t take as much energy as the destroying an iceberg, but yet poor Scott is equally drained. I felt this was just a silly change that needn’t have been made.
Other changes are made to update the story with a more 90’s feel. Lucifer’s weapon is now an Electro-Magnetic Pulse weapon that will wipe every computer chip on earth, thrusting us back into another dark ages. Actually, I thought this was a nice update as it sort of hit the same chord as the whole Y2K virus fears of the time.
We do get WAY more information about Lucifer here than in Stan Lee’s original. Again, I’m guessing that Holcomb took advantage of hindsight to fill in these details, but it also removes a great sense of mystery from the character. Apparently, Lucifer is an alien scout – a precursor to an alien invasion. He’s a member of the alien race the Quist (which I kept misreading as “Quisp” and thinking it was time for alien breakfast cereal) and his leader’s are not very forgiving. The detonation of the EMP device would shut down earth’s defense systems and allow the Quist easy access to our planet and resources. Lucifer narrates a rather nasty version of his original encounter with Xavier in which he relishes the injuries he caused, but no more is revealed about that then in the original.
The story resolves with the disarming of the device in the same manner as the original, except that Holcomb feels he needs to add the obligatory countdown clock to heighten the tension. It was more effective to think that Lucifer was dying and they couldn’t save him without the Professor releasing him.
But, like the original, the Avengers are really nothing more than a prop for the X-Men to keep busy while Professor Xavier confronts Lucifer. The art is lackluster here as well – not even the two-page center spread splash page is all that exciting. Gnazzo just can’t compete with the unique perspectives and action panels of Kirby.
Up Next: Uncanny X-Men #10 and Professor Xavier and the X-Men #11
No comments:
Post a Comment