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Art by David Wynne! Prints here, or contact David for the original.
There is a lot going on in The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans.
The best thing about Metron is that his eyebrows are part of his costume. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Things we never get tired of: Cyclops using his powers to cheat at pool. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Darkseid is Creepy Santa (so, basically, Santa). (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Cyclops has a bad day. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
How Gar manages to get an image that specific from her description remains a mystery. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Flash Fact: Wally West is the best Flash, and anyone who tells you otherwise is full of lies.
Deathstroke the Terminator: the assassin who designed his costume to be as visible as possible against pretty much any backdrop. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
The Greys just CANNOT catch a break. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Simonson doing cosmic Kirby is our jam, now and forever. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Were we less mature and tasteful, this is where we’d put a “butte sex” joke. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Probably not actually the fourth wall. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Oh, that’s not gonna end well. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
TEAM-UP! (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
You know this is the happiest moment of Kitty Pryde’s entire life. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Along with fire and life, slightly creepy Cyclops feels are a running Phoenix Force motif. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
Can we talk about how very much better this Cyclops-as-Phoenix costume is than the AvX version? (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
This isn’t actually all that relevant, but we couldn’t resist one last page of cosmic Simonson art. (The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans)
We are pretty into crossovers that come with convenient captioned character guides! (The X-Men and the Micronauts #1)
This is Kitty’s regular Ariel costume, so, no need to drink. Yet. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #1)
Baron Karza is Darth Vader Plus. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #1)
A possibly recognizable villain. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #1)
I’d like to take a moment to point out that the Professor Xavier who is punishing Kitty for thinking too loudly is explicitly good Professor X. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #1)
Action-figure-sized people fighting normal-sized people: NEVER NOT HILARIOUS. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #1)
Look at that snazzy title treatment! (The X-Men and the Micronauts #2)
Okay, that’s extra creepy. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #2)
One of the better pratfall panels. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #2)
Let’s check and see if the action-figures-vs.-full-size-people thing is still funny when the action figures are the good guys. YES. YES, IT IS. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #2)
This conceit really never stops being entertaining. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #2)
Seriously, how the hell did no one see Onslaught coming? (The X-Men and the Micronauts #2)
To be fair, she’s both body-swapped with Baron Karza AND mind-controlled by Evil Professor Xavier. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #3)
“Oh, HELL, yes,” says Kitty. “Cross THAT one off the bucket list.” (The X-Men and the Micronauts #3)
The worst part is that he gets so much creepier. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #3)
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE (The X-Men and the Micronauts #4)
Remember the time Phoenix wiped out one planet, so Jean Grey had to die? Yeah, so do we. Marvel editorial, not so much. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #4)
Modified rule: When someone else in Kitty’s body makes her a new costume, steal someone else’s drink. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #4)
JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO IMAGINE HOW MUCH FUNNIER X-MEN WOULD BE IF THEY’D STAYED SIX INCHES TALL. (The X-Men and the Micronauts #4)
Next week: Captain America in a loincloth!
Links and Further Reading
- Information and links to donate toward Bill Mantlo’s ongoing care
(You can also send physical donations–and cards and letters–addressed as follows:
Mike Mantlo
26364 East Pintail Road
Long Neck, DE 19966
Please make out any checks to “Michael Mantlo” — Bill’s legal guardian.) - The Hero Initiative
- Some notes on X-Men Origins: Jean Grey, and why we’re adamantly pro-Jean.
Wow. After 20 years, I started re-reading all the x-men in order because of this podcast, and I’m really excited to keep following along. But I’ll admit I skipped the Micronauts arc because it just bored me. But now, man am I glad I did. The arc sounds horrifying and to see the visual example above is even worse! Ugh. Anyway, can’t wait for you to get to X-Factor, which was always my go-to x-book and thanks for getting me back into the Amazing X-Men!
Cyclops-as-Phoenix from this continuity needs more love. It’s a subtle form of genius that works on two levels while also being lazy as hell. Which is Walt Simonson being awesome, really.
The addition of the Phoenix emblem atop his current outfit really, to me, shows that Scott is secure in the knowledge of who he is. While the power of the Phoenix has been added to him (which is the other level, a simple visual one): he remains Scott Summers, Cyclops of the X-Men, and he knows what needs to be done.
That, of course, may have something to do with the fact that it’s a remnant of the Phoenix merging with him, rather than an actual clone made by the Phoenix while Cyclops himself chills in a cocoon in Jamaica Bay, but still.
Those simple panels of the Phoenix showing regret, showing Scott struggling to keep the Phoenix’s power from bursting forth and (presumably) killing him, are really powerful to me. And to see Scott “Master of the Humblebrag about his Horrifyingly Awesome Powers” Summers rip off his costume’s hood and visor, directing the totality of all his strength at Darkseid?
Awesome.
I really wish some of that had been kept in mind for AvX, really, even if it’s totally not canonical to 616.
As someone who played with the Micronauts toys, I feel I should mention that the Baron Karza toy had spring-loaded fists, so you could indeed shoot his hands at the good guys. And yes, you could turn him into a centaur.
Oh yes. Thanks for the links to donate. I’ve just sent some money off to each, plus the CBLDF.
Im thrilled you covered the X-men/Micronauts crossover- but Im fucking flummoxxed at the… the.. yeah you know what I mean. I read that back when it was released and I guess as a 14 year old I totally missed that.
As for the Micronauts, it was a damn good sci fi book. Unfortunately, they put it in the Marvel universe. The entire Microverse was so well designed. You dont have to read the entire run(its awesome) but at least the first 12 issues. mIn retrospect, I’d probably consider it a sci fi X-men. There was always character development much like x-men.
Wow, just, yeah. The levels of ick in the Micronuts crossover is horrifying on multiple levels. But the crossover with TT is fun and I would love to see a modern replay of this with the original characters, that are nut dead.
Holy cow! The art for the Teen Titans crossover is just gorgeous. That two-page skull wall panel would make such a great poster.
Another really enjoyable podcast. I read (and still have)X-men/Titans, didn’t read X-Men/Micronauts and now really don’t need to… however I’d like to know who inked Jackson Guice (I think that’s JG doing a reasonable Mike Golden impression)as that looks pretty nice. I’d generally like to hear a bit more about inkers as at this ea they bring so much to (or take away so much from) the art. It’s fine if that’s not your interest, so I’ll just leave a little love for Dan Green in this comment. Looove that texture!