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Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Perfect cover is perfect. (Uncanny X-Men #239)
Hey, kids! Can you count the OSHA violations on this page? (Uncanny X-Men #239)
Does it get more Mr. Sinister than sitting on a giant crystal throne playing with X-Men action figures and expositing dramatically to himself? No. No, it does not. (Uncanny X-Men #239)
This moment is so good, and so chilling. (Uncanny X-Men #239)
Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you. (Uncanny X-Men #239)
ABORT ABORT BAD IDEA ABORT (Uncanny X-Men #239)
“Also, apparently they were really into Pinterest.” (Uncanny X-Men #239)
I am pretty sure I have seen this exact image on the front cover of at least one VHS tape. (Uncanny X-Men #239)
Here’s every panel of Madelyne’s black dress, in order. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
Hi, M-Squad. Bye, M-Squad. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
This whole scene is so exquisitely unsettling. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
Rogue, that is… quite an outfit. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
Meanwhile, in a completely different comic book. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
“Mr. Weatherbee didn’t really go into the details of this exchange program.” (Uncanny X-Men #240)
I don’t know why I find Scrambler so endlessly hilarious, but, GOD, I do. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
Silvestri doesn’t get to do nearly as much as Blevins or Simonson with possessed objects; but he’ll make up for it with the amazing demonic cityscapes in #242. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
Close Encounters with the Fourth Wall, Colossus Edition. (Nah, they’re clones. BUT STILL.) (Uncanny X-Men #241)
I swear this police-car demon is a reference to SOMETHING, but I can’t for the life of me remember what. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
“Fuck this. I’m gonna go hang out in New Mutants.” (Uncanny X-Men #241)
This cannot POSSIBLY end well. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
“Also, I liked that scene way more when Paul Smith drew it.” (Uncanny X-Men #240)
The Greys really never catch a break. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
Nebraska: Definitely the worst state. (Uncanny X-Men #240)
And you thought your family holidays were awkward. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
Oh, damn. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
There’s at least one alternate universe in which Mister Sinister founded the X-men; but the only detail I remember is that their costumes are WAY fancier. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
This detail makes Madelyne’s story infinitely sadder. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
In which Mister Sinister effectively seals the fate of the world. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
That’s. My. Girl. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
Oh, snap. (Uncanny X-Men #241)
And then a hot dog stand ate Calvin and Hobbes. (X-Factor #36)
Awwww. (X-Factor #36)
Cool scene; dumb hats. (X-Factor #36)
In a just world, every time you looked at this panel, heroic music would start playing. (X-Factor #36)
Let’s all just take a moment to admire the composition of this splash page. (X-Factor #37)
These panels were fine in context of the page, but then I cropped them, and now all I can think of is that one really unsettling video of a sloth petting a cat. (X-Factor #37)
“Okay, but that’s gonna be really awkward at the bank.” (X-Factor #37)
Wait, what? (X-Factor #37)
“Also, you literally just teleported.” (X-Factor #37)
NEXT WEEK: The Passion of Madelyne Pryor
LINKS & FURTHER READING:
- For our Inferno coverage, we’re working (somewhat loosely) from the reading order mapped out at UncannyXMen.net.
- Jay is the worst at Valentine’s Day.
- The amazing BelleChere cosplays a phenomenal page-accurate Goblin Queen, sometimes alongside either Rule-63 or original-flavor Sinister! (Madelyne is only one of a ton of really terrific X-Men cosplay BelleChere has done over the years; we highly recommend clicking through her galleries to see the rest!)
- Amanda Lafrenais draws awesome comics and has rats named after soup! (Link may not be work-safe–contains some cartoon nudity.)
For a more in-depth timeline of the Inferno events, check out my Website link.
Maddie & Scott’s wedding wasn’t drawn by PMS, but by JRJR. As a matter of fact, that issue was the changing of the guard between them.
https://hoomahmoos.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/scott-and-maddy-marry.jpg
I never thought a sloth petting a cat could be unsettling, but you’re totally right. This is weird. The music somehow makes it worse.
I just watched it and oh my goodness that was indescribable
I love your podcast it makes me remember why I loved the x-men stories. The bit about Sinister breaking his toys put that scene in a new context for me, especially knowing that Sinister was originally supposed to be an immortal child that run the orphanage while also ‘living’ along with Scott and Alex. I can see how Claremont was setting this up even naming baby Christopher to Nathan (short for Nathaniel… Essex maybe) during Inferno. I loved this era of X-men so much.
Those Police Walkers look rather like ED-209
That or the Imperial AT-ST Walkers from Star Wars.
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/e/e9/At-st_large_pic.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150502053616
So looking at the images of Sinister’s “explanation” of Madeline’s orgin. He makes a point that powers emerge at puberty, but hers didn’t. At the same time though there’s no images of her having a childhood. So did Sinister just leave Madeline in her pod for her entire “life” until the Phoenix force woke her up?
That would also seem to be implied by her lack of her own childhood memories (and only having the shattered remnants of Jean’s). But it makes the story of her life and complete lack of agency in her relationship with Scott so much worse! It would almost mean she was “born” the instant the Phoenix force arrived, and then within a few months she was meeting the man her “father” picked out for her to marry.
I kind of want a Madeline story about those few months working as a bush pilot for the Summers grandparents. Not because there’s necessarily anything major that happened there, but just so we can get a story about the brief period of her life where she was her own person and had some level of happiness.
Now I’m kind of depressed.
A young girl who tells a police officer “I’m Maddy Pryor. I’ve been sick but I’m better now.” appears in a hospital in Avengers Annual #10… so its possible that either Sinister used his mental powers there to disguise himself as the nun and her as a child or she has a false memory that she was an adult when the phoenix force awoke her as seen in (The Uncanny X-Men #241)… or that child just happened to have the same name as her and was just a random unrelated character. However Avengers Annual #10 was written by Claremont so coincidence is suspect.
Claremont’s been known to recycle names before, and hers comes from a real-world source, so I’m actually inclined to guess coincidence.
I always wondered about that.
Her wiki entry does go into it in a little detail and cites 2010’s “X-Men: Phoenix Force Handbook” as a source.
“Claremont named the character after Steeleye Span singer Maddy Prior. Claremont had already created a character named “Maddy Pryor”, a little girl that appeared very briefly in Avengers Annual #10 (1981), and has no in-story connections to the X-Men character.[2] Claremont, nonetheless, years later used the opportunity to indulge in an in-joke: in Uncanny X-Men #238 (1988), a similar child would appear as Madelyne’s mental image of herself, wearing the same clothes as the little girl from Avengers Annual #10, repeating the girl’s same line of dialogue, but also singing “Gone to America,” one of Steeleye Span’s biggest hits.”
To me, the police car looks like the mutated frog from “Blaster Master” on NES. Check out the cover of the game to see what I mean.
Inferno (UXM #240 in particular) is the beginning of the end of Dazzler & Longshot pairing. In a smart swap of gender roles (very usual when Longshot is involved, bravo!), Ali shows up an almost ‘macho’ jealousy beating up the one who dares to have fun with her lover (let’s set aside for a moment that she’s got some other issues with Rogue…). Unfortunately, if there’s one thing Longshot can’t stand is possessiveness, and one thing he won’t offer is submission, so ‘feminist’ empowerment rises up from him and we can witness an angry mood very unusual in him.
The ultimatum to Ali seems a bit cutting, but we may imagine it didn’t escalate. Then Inferno sparked so there was no time for more, and during the increasing ‘evilization’ something happened between them which was very controversial among many readers… Well, I guess you’ll talk about it in time, but after that nothing was the same again.
“Sometimes you eat the bar…”
JAY.
I kinda think the police car looks like the Rancor from Star Wars. That’s the best I’ve got.