Customer Reviews

The Essential X-Men, Vol. 2: Uncanny X-Men, No. 120-144

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was nice to see that inker Terry Austin was credited on the cover of "The Essential X-Men Volume 2" along with writer Chris Claremont and pencilers John Byrne and Brent Anderson. Of course, Byrne is also the co-plotter for most of these issues and Anderson only draws one of them, so it is not like all names are created equal when it comes to such things. But Austin was always the best inker of Byrnes pencils and deserves some of the credit for making "X-Men" the premier comic book of its day during this particular run of issues from #120-144.

As the cover shot indicates, this particular collection of stories is highlighted by the Dark Phoenix saga and the "death " of Jean Grey. It was the controversy over the latter that was partially responsible for Byrnes decision to leave the book, which came from Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter's dictum that superheroes never kill anybody. In issue #135 "Dark Phoenix," Jean Grey's alter ego goes over to the dark side and jets off into space to find something to eat, which ends up being a G-Type star. The problem is that of the eleven planets in that system the fourth is inhabited by an ancient, peace-loving civilization hitherto known as "the Asparagus people." The bottom line was that in the super nova that resulted 5 billion beings died; at which point Dark Phoenix took out a Shi'ar warship as well. The consequence of this was a trial in the count of Lilandra; originally Claremont and Byrne intended for Jean to have the Dark Phoenix entity psychically removed, leaving her a mere mortal who had to live with the great guilt of what she had done. The idea was that down the road Magneto would offer her the chance to regain her power and in a moment of great triumph she would refuse. But Shooter decreed otherwise and the new ending was that issue #137 "Phoenix Must Die" now became a literal fate.

I have always been of the mind that Shooter was not just wrong but stupid; following the simplistic rules of 1940s superhero comic books is shortsighted. Eventually Marvel comics would deal with a superhero forced by circumstances to kill: Captain America, without his shield, gunned down a guy with a machine gun who was shooting a crowd of civilians. Even Superman had to take some lives and live with the consequences. Claremont and Byrne had come up with a serious storyline and Shooter threw it away on a simplistic principle.

This Volume 2 collection represents the high point of the "X-Men" comic book, not just because of the Dark Phoenix saga, which is still pretty good even with the altered ending, but because we have the Canadian government's attempt to bring back Weapon X (a.k.a. Wolverine), an encounter with Arcade's Murder World, a showdown with Proteus, and a lengthy fight with the Hellfire Club. Kitty Pride also joins the X-Men at this point in their history and one of my all-time favorite stories is issue #141 "Days of Future Past"/#142 "Mind Out of Time" when the Kitty Pride of a dystopian future ruled by the Sentinels sends her mind back in time to her younger body to try and change the future. This two-parter is a great time travel story and ends up being Byrne and Austin's swan song for the "X-Men," even though they did one more issue.

I am well aware that there are those who disparage the Marvel Essentials collections because they reprint the original comics in black & white. Getting these same comics reprinted in color in the Marvel Masterworks series would cost you four times as much. From an economic standpoint this is the way to go. But I would also argue that the artwork of Byrne and Austin, as with that of Steve Ditko, actually looks better in black & white. You might not want to go beyond this collection of X-Men comics, but picking up the first two Essential volumes does give you almost four years worth of issues representing one of the celebrated runs of a particular title in the history of the field.

With the X-men movie lighting up the box office, there is no better time than the present for new fans to be introduced to the classic past of this long-running comic title. "The Essential X-Men Vol. 2" delivers, nicely covering the terrific Chris Claremont/John Byrne run which resurrected the X-Men and made the book must reading for a generation of comics fans.

The collection features the most tumultuous and terrific two years of the dynamic duo's run on the book, including the legendary "Dark Phoenix" saga and "Days of Future Past". During this run (Uncanny X-Men 120-144), Claremont turned up the realism and alienation a couple of notches and delivered some incredible stories. John Byrne's art is bold and detailed (the black and white presentation here only reinforces his fine pencils).

If the movie left you hungering for more X-Men (and the current spate of mutant books left you cold), check out this collection and see what made this such a great book.

Essential X-Men Volume 2 is essential reading! This volume contains the classic Marvel Comics run of the Phoenix Saga. These issues lead to the death of one the most beloved X-Man in the comics, Jean Grey. Chris Claremont wrote a powerful story on how the Phoenix force turned evil and she tried to destroy the Uncanny X-Men and the Marvel Universe! The artwork was done by John Bryne. The set collects Uncanny X-Men #120-144. Buy it! Highest Possible Recommendation. The only problem with this paperback edition is that it's not in color. If you want to see the Dark Phoenix Saga in color, I suggest you look for the actual comics and the old X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga trade paperback.

I was hoping to get a reading/thrash copy to stop the wear and tear on my issues, but had to return this. It's B&W, and printed on very thin cheap newspaper, and is, essentially, the bargain-basement manga version of the X-Men. If you've never seen the Byrne/Claremont run before, this is a nice, inexpensive way to rip right through some of the best stories our Children of the Atom ever had (including the introduction of Alpha Flight, and the Dark Phoenix Saga), but archival-quality, this ain't.

This volume contains some of the all-time classic X-Men storylines, including the Dark Phoenix saga, and my personal favorite, "Days of Future Past". Both of these stories are epic and moving (at least to me). You shouldn't have much trouble figuring out where you stand plot- and character-wise, because at the time extensive recaps and internal monologue explaining everybody's powers was par for the course.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm trashing the writing, here. Some people probably have trouble with this style -- very word-heavy, paragraph-heavy even, and not very conversational at times. ("Malefic destiny"? Dude, Scott, it was cheesy when the narrator said it, so you had to pick it out of the ether?) I admit if you have a headache it's not the comic book to head for. But the plot is engaging, the action is quick, and the intense verbiage can be thought of as opera arias -- certainly not realistic, but an important part of the art form.

The characters are well-defined but not shallow -- each of them has problems and quirks that play into non-fight interaction, as well as the personality and style that is obvious in fights. Storm is claustrophobic, still grieving for her parents, and really alien to mainstream American culture; as well as being "dignified and moral." Colossus misses his family and farming, thinks it would be wrong to act on his and Kitty's mutual attraction (she's 14 or so, he's 17), and questions why he's a hero and whether it's disloyal to the USSR to be an X-Man; as well as being "stalwart and kind." You get to know these characters very quickly -- there's not much subtlety at play -- but you can't help but care about them.

The art is really great. Of course it's dated, and some people's costumes (especially the bit players -- Havoc and Polaris need a re-draw STAT) are just a bit weird, but Byrne draws action-packed fights that are easy to understand; clear, realistic emotions; and well-proportioned human figures (leaving aside the comic-book pretty-people issue -- I mean that their eyes, heads, legs, always look comfortable and graceful, and in the right place. Don't scoff, I've seen some really gifted comic book artists put eyes too high or forearms too short.) My only real beef is that a lot of the white girls look the same. Jean Grey is "pretty white girl with medium-length curly red hair." Amanda Sefton is "pretty white girl with medium-length wavy blonde hair" et cetera. That, frankly, is still common (Ultimate Spider-man, I'm looking at you!), and at least these are really pretty 'pretty white girls'!

In short? If you hate four-color superheroes...why are you reading this? If you can take a bit of camp and still care about the characters, this is a great thing to pick up. It has great characters, twisted plots, pretty pictures, the occasional funny, and, I'll admit it, the first time I read it I cried at least twice. ("Once upon a time, there was a woman named Jean Grey, a man named Scott Summers. They were young. They were in love. They were heroes." I get misty just quoting that.) Time travel, gods, alien empires, love, betrayal, racism, pinball, roller skates, disco, and sweet sweet continuity. Can't beat that for the low low Amazon price.

the good: picking up from where vol. 1 left off, this offers another 20+ issues of continuity. And what a collection of stories!! chronicled within are x-men battles with Alpha flight, Arcade, Proteus, Hellfire Club, Wendigo, Sentinels. This collection is significant because it includes epics such as the "dark phoenix saga" and "days of future past". IMHO, the most moving story was "Elegy" in which Cyclops recounts his memories in the aftermath of Jean Grey's death. A bonus is the introduction of Kitty Pryde - who eventually proves her mettle in her encounter with the Ngarai demon. FYI, you can purchase the "dark phoenix saga" and "days of future past" stories separately (F/C graphic novels) but you should still also buy this volume. Claremont's writing and Byrne's artwork is outstanding!

the bad: wish it was in colour!!!

This incredible book contains 25 consecutive issues of The Uncanny X-Men from 1979-81. Included in this collection is all of The Dark Pheonix Saga and The Days of Future Past. Essential X-Men brings back memories of the glory days of the X-Men and marvel comics, and I reccomend this book to anyone. The only downside is the book is in black and white.

This is a brilliant book, and while the 'Dark Phoenix' Saga is a large part of it, there is more to it than that! Any X-Men fan, or even someone who has never heard of them, can't help but enjoy this book. It also includes 'Days of Future Past', in which, to prevent a future where mutants are hunted and killed, Kitty Pryde as a woman is transferred into her body as a girl. She warns the X-Men, and they set off to stop the chain of events that will result in the nightmarish future. The story flashes back and forth between the future and the present, showing as each X-Man is killed by Sentinels in the future, even as they fight on in the past. It is a brilliant story, and at the end no one can be sure that the future has indeed been changed.

Besides that there is a fight with Proteous, Moira's mutant son who manipulates matter, and can take over bodies. The X-Men are attacked by Arcade, who runs a fiendish amusement park called 'Murderworld'. And Kitty Pyrde joins the X-Men, livening up their slightly serious world with her thirteen and a half year old personality.

All in all this is a wonderful collection of stories, the X-Men and Chris Claremont both doing amazing things.

Ok, first of all, "only" 4 stars, and that's based on the packaging (black'n'white + cheap paper), not on the quality of the material.

These are more of the classic X-men stories that turned Chris Claremont into a comic-book superstar. Found within are some of the best stories ever written, the "Dark Phoenix Saga" and "Days of Future Past", stories that by far and wide supercedes anything else written in those early days of the "modern" comic-book.

John Byrnes art is flawless, and manages to almost look as good in black and white as it does in it's original glorious coloring.

Quite simply, buy this if you are at all remotely interested in the X-Men. There are 4 issues in this series of "Essential" X-Men, but this one is probably the one that has the most to offer for a new fan. Heck, buy 2 and give one to a friend!

...before the hype and all starts about the X-men movie coming up! The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the best X-men stories ever. Read it here, now. Get a load of the John Byrne artwork (he's doing Superman, nowadays)and see why Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart were a bit of great casting...