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In which Professor is too cool for the Phalanx; fatphobia is significantly more dangerous than Fred Dukes; Strong Guy catches a plane; Emma Frost will not let you coast; Jubilee says goodbye to the X-Men; and it’s probably for the best that we have avoided corporate advertisers.
X-PLAINED:
- Mr. M
- Thor: Metal Gods
- Ship (more) (again)
- The Phalanx vs. the Borg
- Several cover homages
- X-Force #39
- X-Factor #107
- Uncanny X-Men #318
- Prosh
- The myriad delights of embodiment
- A complex theory about Leprechauns
- Benefits of single-issue stories
- Strong Guy vs. the Blob
- Strong Guy vs. Gravity
- Strong Guy vs. an airplane
- Strong Guy vs. biology
- Several explosions
- The kids of Generation X
- Deluxe-format comics
- The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning
- Goodbyes
- Dazzler’s relative immortality
- Jay’s X-Men Happy Meal Toy wish list
- How to make a page-accurate Warlock toy
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Regarding Guido lifting the Blob along with the ground on which he stands, there’s precedence in an old Hulk issue where the green guy gets into a misunderstanding with Blob and Unus the Untouchable, who are laying low at a circus.
Found it, Marvel Fanfare #7. It’s pretty touching actually: Unus’s force field power is going haywire so he can’t touch anything, to the point where Blob has to feed him, and he fears that soon he won’t even be able to breathe anymore. And then Hulk shows up at the circus, eating all the hot dogs, and fisticuffs start.
I was thinking that too. The Blob’s powers aren’t just based on him being big or super-dense, but on on increasing the effect of gravity on himself (A bit like Harry Leland did, but focussing on himself rather than others), and the ground immediately beneath him, so there’s an attraction between him and a long stretch of ground below.
I think it’s sort of like he’s the top end of a deeply buried railway spike, so impact on him above is diffused by the effect of gravity down the length of the spike in the ground below, meaning he can’t be moved laterally, but he can be lifted out. (Not sure how much basis there is in physics for that, but I thought it a neat comic-book explanation of his powers)
The cover of Days of Future Past is definitely one of those iconic forever-referenced covers now as well.
With the Blob vs. Strong Guy fight, it reminds me a lot of Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Vader – it’s two very large, very strong guys, who are also very fast and agile (both can do moonsaults).
Probably the modern equivalent would be Killian Dane and Bray Wyatt, since Bam Bam and Vader are no longer with us.
Also, is this the first comic from the Big Two to have a big unbroken string of (presumably) narratively important dialog in untranslated Spanish – well before DC had an issue of Blue Beetle III’s solo book (Jamie Reyes) that was almost entirely in Spanish.
Random thoughts (as if I ever have any other kind)
Without wanting to sound like an echo of the Borg dicussion (and my inner nerd thanks you for that), you mention the Crisis on Infinite Earths cover without mentioning Michelangelo’s Pieta (or possibly Batman 156’s “Robin Dies at Dawn”, depending on how highbrow you want to go with it).
Somewhere in an ideal world, Prosh would have made a break for the forest where he would have met up with Zero and Douglock, and they’d happily head off into the sunset singing trio’s instead of duets.
I don’t think Dazzler dies in the that X-Men Annual Miles mentions, she saw herself as a global music sensation (her own dream), a successful lawyer putting away the Kingpin for life (her father’s dream) and a homeless bag lady, her own choice because she didn’t want to take risks.
I want a Warlock magnetic sculpture NOW. Alternatively black and yellow Lego embedded in yellow and black Play-Doh.
Scattered thoughts:-
– So X-Force are “outlaw mutant rebels,” are they? A new reader who started reading at this point would get a very inaccurate idea from that of what the characters in the comic typically do.
– I really don’t see the dilemma about Scott and Jean telling Nathan the truth. It seems like angst for the sake of joyless angst.
– So it was “incredibly kind” of Xavier to let Scott and Jean use a pre-existing house on his grounds? Umm, no, not really. Rises to an adequate standard of niceness at most.
– I am amused by UXM’s apparent belief that all that is involved in becoming a institution of higher learning is changing the sign on your building,
Yeah, kindness would have been buying them a house OFF campus, perhaps even somewhere nearbu in Westchester, so that there was at least some pretence of a distinction between work and home life.
Thinking more about this issue of UXM, I realized something. I really don’t like reading about Hank McCoy in this era. In fact, after Gambit (Gambit will always be number one) he’s my least favorite X-character at the moment.
It was a bit of a surprise, because in most eras he’s been one of my favorites, allowing for the need mentally to edit out the icky “pheromone” powers in his Avengers period. But this version just doesn’t finesse the distinction between “free-spirited” and “completely [expletive deleted] annoying” successfully. I feel for Angelo, and I’m amazed that he came back.
It means that when this era gestures in the direction of “No! Hank’s really deep and 90s Dark underneath,” I can’t bring myself to care.
Apologies to those whose love of Beast goes back to childhood viewing of the cartoon in this era, although my vague impression is that the version of the character was rather less OTT than this one.