Listen to the episode here!
You can get prints of David Wynne’s “Back to the Future Past” art here, or contact David for the original!
This guy.
We searched for the source for this for like an hour, with no luck. Wherever it comes from, we would very much like to send it back. (Update: It’s from X-Factor #69, with art by Whilce Portacio. Thank you, Breadcrumb!)
Rogue, no! He’s not worth it! He’s not even a Super Doctor Astronaut! (Uncanny X-Men #182)
Rogue’s schtick was–very briefly–throwing silver dollars. It did not last. (Uncanny X-Men #182)
Ooh, moral awakening! (Uncanny X-Men #182)
Aw, Kitty. Also, ace tandem use of speech and thought balloons. (Uncanny X-Men #183)
Remember when artists used to draw Wolverine at the proper height? (Uncanny X-Men #183)
SUNDAY PUNCH. Juggernaut, you delightful scamp. (Uncanny X-Men #183)
Wolverine is full of valuable life lessons, a remarkable number of which involve massive real-estate damage. (Uncanny X-Men #183)
Forge’s sweet, sweet pad. (Uncanny X-Men #184)
LOOK AT THIS DELIGHTFUL GENTLEMAN AND HIS DELIGHTFUL SHORTS (Uncanny X-Men #184)
Fun fact: Wolverine and the X-Men Forge is an unsettlingly accurate Miles doppelgänger.
He’s a nice dude. Too bad he’s SUPER DOOMED. (Uncanny X-Men #184)
Pro tip: the better Storm’s haircut, the better the general state of the timeline. (Uncanny X-Men #184)
Rachel Summers: THE SADDEST TIME TRAVELER. (Uncanny X-Men #185)
“What would Dracula do?” (Uncanny X-Men #185)
Well, then. (Uncanny X-Men #185)
And that’s why you always leave a note. (Uncanny X-Men #185)
And now, Barry Windsor Smith! (Uncanny X-Men #186)
God, that opening. (Uncanny X-Men #186)
Storm does not need superpowers to be more badass than you. (Uncanny X-Men #186)
Straight talk. (Uncanny X-Men #186)
In a lot of ways, Storm’s arc over the last twenty or so issues has equipped her with the tools to get through this. (Uncanny X-Men #186)
Straight talk, part two. Love that “Lifedeath” is veyr much a love story that very much doesn’t resolve as such. (Uncanny X-Men #186)
Let’s take a moment to consider the logistics of this kick, shake our heads, and weep quietly. (Uncanny X-Men #187)
SHADOW PTEROSAURS (Uncanny X-Men #187)
Yukio callback! (Uncanny X-Men #187)
The best part is that he dressed up as a pilot, like that will somehow make this less conspicuous. (Uncanny X-Men #187)
Colossus: Terrible boyfriend, pretty great brother. (Uncanny X-Men #187)
As it happens, Magneto’s asteroid got knocked out of orbit by THE BEST SPACE-ROBOT TEENAGER EVER, but we’ll get to that next episode. (Uncanny X-Men #187)
Seriously. Saddest time traveler. (Uncanny X-Men #187)
Next episode: Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.
that scene with prof x and colossus is from X-Factor 69 (vol 1), page 8. Muir Island saga. Whilce Portacio on pencils.
Thank you! I thought it looked like Portacio.
Lifedeath is SO PRETTY. Of all Barry Windsor-Smith’s impressive artistic achievements, however, my favorite is probably his most dubious. He created Hawkeye’s miniskirt/headband costume from the 70’s.
ROM and Rogue had a very important overlap in the ROM series, which was probably pivotal to Rogue’s development toward a hero.
When she attempted to absorb ROM’s powers, she felt his nobility and was deeply affected by it.
Jonathon Silvercloud is Forge’s name in AoA, in the 616 he has never been given a name which is why some (most) references don’t list him as having another name. However since I don’t think any AoA characters have different real names then their 616 counterparts, its very likely that Jonathon Silvercloud is Forge’s name. Love, Love, Love the podcast. And yes Rachel, waiting 7 months for this arc was like hell, and not the cool hell that Illyana hangs out in.
-Tig
He is also known as Maker and Cheyenne.
Also, those super short shorts were very trendy in 1984. I have pics of my dad wearing similar around the same time, and he was no Forge.
I’m not a huge fan of John Romita Jr., but there’s one technique he uses in this run of issues that I really dug: that scribbly shadowing that indicates confusion or trauma. You can see it above in the Rachel Summers “NO!” scene, but there’s an even more effective bit during the Dire Wraith fight when Storm is being possessed by some demonic force (which I think turns out to be The Adversary). It’s a really cool, disorienting effect, but he must not have liked it all that much, since I haven’t seen it show up again in his work.
By the way, I’ve been reading the Essential volumes as I listen to the podcast (I’ve gotten a bit ahead; I just finished Fall of the Mutants), and I really liked this run of issues. The character development with Rogue and Storm is top notch, and even if the Dire Wraiths are kind of crammed in from elsewhere in the Marvel Universe, the fight against them is pretty exciting stuff that features some good character moments. I wasn’t as keen on the next couple arcs, what with the strange magical transformation of New York City and the endless whining of Rachel Summers, but there’s still some decent stuff here and there, like the fight with Nimrod, or that issue where Wolverine and Katie Power fight the Reavers. Still, I’m excited to listen to you guys talk about it.
I really love the one page with the phone conversation between Rachel and Scott. Specially, the way he uses the phone cord as a panel gutter and leaves the last Scott panel blank since he’s hung up the phone. That is legit amazing.
I’m not too familiar with JRJ’s modern work, but if he moved away from doing more experimental stuff like that in his work then that’s pretty tragic.
I always thought it was Rom THE Spaceknight. I don’t know what to believe in anymore.
Is it ever explained what Storm’s super-early coordination is about? I supposed she was one of those mutants who don’t wait to puberty for some of their power set, but this story (much as I love it) suggests that isn’t so.
Also, I like how John Romita Jr loves drawing Juggernaut. It just looks to me that he’s having fun every time that guy turns up.
Yay! Caught up to right around when I started collecting X-Men and playing Marvel Superheroes RPG (gaming brought me into comics). Let’s see how bad my memory really is…
Latecomers ho!
Re: The Dire Wraiths: I would love to hear someone from inside Marvel address the choice of having them appear in many titles at once. My impression is that as ROM was moving from its “Body Snatchers in West Virginia” origin toward the impending destruction of Earth in ROM’s final issue, someone higher up at Marvel said, “There is no way this doomsday would escape the awareness of the superhero heavy hitters.”
So everybody got involved in the ROM conclusion story, and the Dire Wraiths crossed over into all the main Marvel books. I seem to recall that some authors approached the material quite grudgingly, e.g. Byrne’s FF basically having a couple of pages of “Eww, alien! Kill it! Moving on…” in one issue.
Also, as a prelude to the crossover, the appearance of the Dire Wraiths changed from puffy cloudlike amorphous humanoids (which makes total sense for a shape-shifter’s “natural form” but looks silly) to a scary Aliens-inspired space monster with a drill-tongue (which looks way cooler while being less likely plotwise).