X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Reprints Uncanny X-Men #138-143, Uncanny X-Men Annual #4
Written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
Penciled by John Byrne and John Romita, Jr.
Inked by Terry Austin and Bob McLeod.

Note:This is a review of a 2011 tpb. Another tpb of the same name was recently published, but I do NOT recommend that book because I feel it contains inferior material. 

The X-Men have gathered together for the funeral of Jean Grey. She took her own life when she reverted back to Dark Phoenix, so that she wouldn't kill again. Everyone mourns Jean, but the loss is felt hardest by Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, who lost the woman he loved.

During the funeral, Scott meditates upon his career as an X-Man, from the early days up to the present.  Cyclops decides that Jean's death has brought him to a crossroads, and that he will take a leave of absence from the X-Men. But on the same day he announces his departure, Kitty Pryde arrives at the X-mansion to join the team.

Exit Cyclops, enter Kitty Pryde.

Shortly after the funeral, the X-Men celebrate Nightcrawler's birthday. All is well, until Kurt opens a present that turns out to be a crystal figurine of himself. The figurine explodes and kills Nightcrawler!

His teammates are shocked, but their leader Professor X thinks that there is one man who can help Kurt. Xavier calls on Dr. Strange, the Master of Mystic Arts!

 

Doctor Strange examines Nightcrawler and determines he isn't dead, just in suspended animation.  Suddenly, Strange and all the X-Men are attacked by a witch who calls herself Margali. The witch sends all the heroes descending into Hell itself! The X-Men and Doctor Strange find themselves in an adventure that's straight out of Dante's Inferno!

Can the heroes save Nightcrawler's soul and escape from Hell?

Following that adventure, Wolverine heads back to Canada to make peace with his former teammates in Alpha Flight and with the Canadian Government. When he resigned from Canada's Secret Service to join the X-Men, his resignation was not accepted. Nighcrawler accompanies Logan to "keep him out of trouble."

Wolverine looks back on the first time he encountered Wendigo.

But trouble is exactly what they encounter when they're attacked by the Wendigo! Wolverine will need the help of Vindicator, Snowbird and Shaman of Alpha Flight to stop the mythological flesh-eating monster.

Sometime after that, Kitty is participating in a training session in the Danger Room, when she suddenly collapses and falls unconscious. When she awakens, she calls herself "Kate" and speaks in the voice of a much older woman.  We learn that she has psychically exchanged places with her older self from the year 2013.

Kate tells the X-Men that the future looks grim. A new Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants assassinated U.S. Senator Robert Kelly. This set off a wave of anti-mutant sentiment, the mutant hunting Sentinel robots killed or imprisoned the X-Men and every mutant. Even non-mutant superheroes like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four were executed.

That very day, Prof. Xavier is testifying at a Senate hearing on mutants, with Sen. Kelly chairing the committee. Kate says the Brotherhood will kill Kelly at that very hearing.

The X-Men battle the Brotherhood in Washington, DC;
Storm confronts Wolverine about the use of his claws.

The X-Men head to Washington, DC to prevent the assassination. Just as Kate predicted, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by Mystique, crashes the hearing. Will the X-Men be able to intervene and save Sen. Kelly from assassination?

Lastly, it's Christmas Eve and everyone is departing the X-mansion to celebrate the holidays.  Everyone, that is, except for Kitty Pryde.

Residents of the X-mansion all have plans...except for Kitty.

In the woods nearby, a N'Garai demon has crawled to the surface and killed two people. The demon breaks into the mansion and terrorizes Kitty. She tries to call Prof. Xavier's car phone, but the N'Garai wrecks the phone.

The demon is determined to kill Kitty and will destroy the mansion to do so. Can Kitty survive the assault of the N'Garai all by herself? 

Review:
I'll admit up front that I've got lots of sentimental, nostalgic attachment to the stories reprinted in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. They were originally published shortly after I began collecting Uncanny X-Men and are among my all-time favorite comic book stories.
I remember the first time I saw the now-iconic cover of UX-M #141, and wondered how it was possible that so many superheroes could be killed (or "slain" as it said on the cover).

A typical session in the Danger Room.

Story:
Chris Claremont and John Byrne are credited as co-plotters here and it's some of their best work. Claremont had been writing X-Men for about five years and almost 50 issues by this point. Byrne began co-plotting shortly before this. The "Days Of Future Past" two-parter is an absolute classic, and the rest of the stories reprinted here are also very good.

Great splash shows Kate Pryde running through the New York of 2013.

The Cyclops funeral flashback was a great history lesson for me. I wasn't familiar with many of the villains and stories Scott mentions and it made me want to seek out X-Men back issues.

Nice to see the X-men's early villains drawn by
John Byrne & Terry Austin in Cyclops' flashback.

The Wendigo/Alpha Flight story was my introduction to both the Canadian heroes and the monster.  Wolverine was still a violent and mysterious character at this time. This story gave us a little more background, showing flashbacks of Logan and his interactions with Heather Hudson. Plus, the fight with Wendigo was very exciting.

Nightcrawler tries to evade the attack of the Wendigo.

Kitty Pryde joins the team in these stories and she takes a prominent role early on. Kitty is the character who saves the day, preventing the mutant holocaust from occurring in the future. And she fights the N'Garai all by herself and lives to tell the tale. Byrne and Claremont must have guessed early on that Kitty would become a fan favorite.

The N'Garai story is one of my favorite standalone issues. I read it every year around Christmas time.

Mystique and the new Brotherhood make their first appearance here and they make a strong impression right away. This team of villains would go on to be a thorn in the side of the X-Men for years to come.

We meet the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for the first time.

Another big change was that Storm became the new team leader when Cyclops quit. This was a big change for the series and a step forward for comics in general. I can't think of other superhero teams that featured Women in charge in or before this. And she makes an impression right away, telling Wolverine that he will do what she commands during a battle.

The weakest part of the tpb is Nightcrawler's Inferno. It's not a bad story, and it was fun to see them interact with Doctor Strange. I just didn't believe for one second (now or when I first read it) that Nightcrawler would die or that the X-Men would be marooned in Hell.  

Minos greets the X-Men, who are surprised by the way he looks.

Art:
John Byrne and Terry Austin are one of the greatest art teams of all time. The stories reprinted here are the final issues of The Uncanny X-Men that feature their work. In this blogger's opinion, all X-Men stories that followed paled by comparison. Byrne's Bronze Age work was always good, but Austin was his best inker by far. I want to call out the cover of the book for only crediting Claremont and Byrne. Austin is part of the X-Men's "Holy Trinity" of creators and fans of Bronze Age X-Men stories should never forget his contributions.

I love the cartoonish/scared reaction of Nightcrawler on the mid-left.  
Great art from Byrne & Austin.

The story from Annual #4 features pencils by John Romita, Jr. and inks by Bob McLeod. Romita's style was still evolving here, but McLeod's inks are so heavy that very little of Romita is visible. It's decent art, but it's a step down from the Byrne/Austin portion of the book.

The X-Men & Doctor Strange encounter Cerberus, the 3-headed dog!

How does it look?
Fantastic, no signs of recoloring or anything odd looking here. Here's another scan from the book that shows how great it looks:

In the future, the X-Men take out a group of Sentinels.

Extras:
At the end of the book, we get a gallery that features covers from previous reprints of these stories. Most are from the Classic X-Men series.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past contains some of the best X-Men stories of all time, and some of the finest tales of the Bronze Age. They are just as good now as they were 34 years ago. If I ever create a "Hall Of Fame" of Bronze Age reprints here, this book will be one of the first inductees. The amazing (or should I say "Uncanny" ha ha!) team of Claremont, Byrne and Austin went out with a bang. Highly recommended!

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Spider-Man: Son Of The Goblin

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #136-137, 312 and Spectacular Spider-Man #189, 200
Written by Gerry Conway, David Michelinie and J.M. DeMatteis.
Penciled by Ross Andru, Todd McFarlane and Sal Buscema.
Inked by Dave Hunt, Frank Giacoia, Todd McFarlane and Sal Buscema.

The Green Goblin, known to the world as Norman Osborn, was one of Spider-Man's deadliest foes. He knew that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were one and the same. This led to the Goblin's murder of Parker's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. Shortly after Gwen's death, Osborn accidentally killed himself while trying to kill Spider-Man.

Months have passed and Peter has tried to move on with his life. He has begun a new relationship with Mary Jane Watson. But Peter and his roommate Harry Osborn (son of Norman) haven't spoken much lately.

Mary Jane and Peter have arrived at his apartment, but as he unlocks the door, a bomb goes off! Peter believes that, despite Norman's death, the Green Goblin is somehow responsible.

As Spider-Man, Parker visits one of Norman Osborn's old hideouts. Sure enough, the Green Goblin is alive, flying around on a bat-glider. Spidey immediately addresses the Goblin as Harry,correctly guessing the son of the Goblin has donned the costume.  He blames Spider-Man for Norman's death and says Spidey will pay with his life.

Spider-Man meets the new Green Goblin for the first time.  Nice 2-page spread.

Spider-Man is on the verge of defeating this new Green Goblin, but the Goblin hits back with some sort of knock-out gas.  He moves in for the kill, but his costume is out of power.  Harry flees, saying that Spider-Man is finished.  If he fails to kill the wall crawler, he will reveal his identity to the world, thus ending Spidey's crime-fighting days.

The Green Goblin disappears, Spidey spends the next 2 nights searching for him in vain.  Finally, he finds the Goblin in Norman's old townhouse and a brawl ensues.  Harry hasn't taken the strength serum that his father used, so Spider-Man defeats him with relative ease.  But Green Goblin has an ace in the hole.  He has captured Aunt May, Mary Jane and Peter's friend Flash Thompson and has placed bombs over their heads. Spidey has only 6 minutes to save them.

Green Goblin steals explosives in New Jersey, while Spider-Man searches for the Goblin in New York.

Will Spider-Man succeed in saving his friends?  And even if he does, will the Green Goblin reveal to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man? 

 Review:
I'll state up front that I'm only reviewing 2 of the 5 issues reprinted in Spider-Man:Son Of The Goblin because the rest were published after the Bronze Age.  As I've said before, I only review Bronze Age stories here.  But I thought the appearance of Harry Osborn in the recent Spider-Man movie made this tpb worthy of a review.

Story:
This is a good-but-not-great sequel to the original Green Goblin/Death Of Gwen Stacy story.  Gerry Conway wrote both.  When he scripted these stories, he had been writing Amazing Spider-Man for more than 2 years.  Conway has a great feel for Peter Parker and his supporting cast. 

It must have been quite a surprise for readers to see Green Goblin alive when this story was first published.  The problem here is that Harry never feels like much of a threat.  Spider-Man says more than once that he's more mentally ill than evil.  And when they battle one-on-one, Spidey has little trouble beating Harry, since this Goblin never took Norman's super-strength serum.  

Art: 
Ross Andru was the definitive penciler of Spider-Man during the Bronze Age and he does a great job here.  Dave Hunt and Frank Giacoia are the inkers here.  I'm not sure why they needed two inkers, but the art in this tpb is fine.  Here's a great drawing that features Spidey's supporting cast.

Peter goes to the hospital to check on Mary Jane's condition.  Check out Liz Allan's pants in the top-right panel!

How does it look?:
I don't notice any weird re-coloring in this reprint.  It looks great, here's another scan from the book:

 Extras:
The book contains the three stories I mentioned above, published in the late-80s and early-90s. They're okay as far as comics from that time goes, two feature art by Sal Buscema.

Spider-Man: Son Of The Goblin isn't great. But it's a fairly inexpensive way to read the story of Harry Osborn's turn to villainy. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


2 and a half Sals.

Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #1, Spectacular Spider-Man #42, Fantastic Four #218, Marvel Team-Up #100, 132-133 and Untold Tales Of Spider-Man Annual 1996.

Peter Parker goes on a cruise to Liberty Island with his fellow Empire State University graduate students. While on the ferry, he sees a message from the Human Torch, asking Spider-Man meet him at the Statue Of Liberty.

Peter & the ESU gang go on a cruise;
Bottom left: Mike Zeck (who penciled this image) makes a "cameo".

But when the wall-crawler arrives, he is attacked by "the Torch", who turns out turns out to be Spidey's old villain Electro in disguise.

We learn that Electro is not alone. He's the newest member of the Frightful Four! His teammates Wizard, Trapster and Sandman join in and easily take Spider-Man captive. Spidey is imprisoned in the Trapster's super-paste.

But the Frightful Four aren't finished yet. They attack the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four. The villains manage to take down the Thing, Invisible Girl and Human Torch. They've got Reed Richards in trouble, when suddenly Spidey is able to break free and help Mr. Fantastic. Will Spider-Man and Reed be able to defeat the Frightful Four?

Shortly after that adventure, Spider-Man is swinging through New York when he's mentally possessed by someone. We observe a teenage girl on a rooftop who is amazed by how it feels to climb walls. The possessed Spidey is forced to attack a charity party held in a luxury apartment, where he tries to take two young children away from their uncle. The Fantastic Four are attending the party and try to stop Spider-Man.

When they fail, a young man named Tran intervenes. He tries to possess Spider-Man as well, enabling the FF to restrain the webhead. Spidey wakes up with no memory of the fight.

The Fantastic Four team up with Spider-Man and try to find out who possessed him. With the help of Professor X's Cerebro machine, they find the girl. We learn she is a Vietnamese immigrant named Xi'an Coy Manh. She tells the heroes that the kids at the party are her younger brother and sister, Leong and Nga. Their uncle Nguyen is a gangster and is holding the younger siblings against their will. Xi'an's brother Tran also has the ability to possess people but uses it for evil.

Will the combined might of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four be enough to stop Tran?

Months later, Reed is visited by a young man named Larry Ekler. Through flashbacks, we Larry's father Milton was a close friend of Reed. Larry grew up calling him "Uncle Reed." Milton believed in achieving the American Dream through hard work, but he was never able to pull himself out of poverty.

Reed looks back on Larry Ekler's life.

Milton's early death drove Larry insane and he became a costumed criminal called Everyman, declaring himself a hero for the working poor. Everyman killed two policeman before he was defeated by Captain America. Reed wonders how Larry got out of the metal institution where he was being treated.

Larry puts on a featureless mask and calls himself Everyman once again. Reed is shocked when Everyman attacks him and shows off his new super-strength. Everyman stuns Reed with a weapon called the Absorbascann that drains Reed's power.

Everyman then battles the police at the New York Public Library.  When Spidey and Mr. Fantastic arrive, Everyman overpowers them with brute force. But Reed is able to briefly reason with Larry, showing him the errors of his ways. Everyman runs away feeling terrible about what he's done.

Reed is determined to bring Everyman to justice. But we learn that Larry is not the real menace here.  He's being mentally manipulated and controlled by Dr. Faustus, an evil psychiatrist.  Reed sets out to capture Larry and Faustus, but his primary opponent in the battle will be his own mind and memories.

Review:
The stories reprinted in this fairly slim volume aren't classics (despite the title), but I enjoyed them. I can think of a few more Bronze Age team-ups of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four that could've been featured here, but I'll focus on what's in the book.

Story:
Bill Mantlo wrote the Frightful Four story and it's a good one. I've always been a big fan of the evil FF.  It makes sense to have the Frightful Four go after Spider-Man, since Sandman and Wizard had battled both the Fantastic Four and the wallcrawler. Mantlo scripts a very funny scene near the end where the Thing taunts Trapster over his former alias, 'Paste Pot Pete'.

The Frightful Four easily take out the Liberty Island police.

The next story, written by Chris Claremont is also good. The Vietnam War had been over for less than ten years. It was interesting to see the Vietnamese immigrant experience depicted in a Bronze Age comic. Claremont would bring back Xi'an Coy Manh as a member of the New Mutants a couple years later, giving this story some "historical" significance. 

J.M. DeMatteis, one of my favorite writers of the 80s, penned the portion that features Everyman taking on Reed & Spider-Man. Everyman was created by DeMatteis in a Captain America story and he's an interesting villain. His arguments about the American Dream (and those who can't achieve it) have some validity, but his methods, as Spider-Man says, stink. 

Art:
The art is excellent here, featuring some of the best pencilers of the Bronze Age.

Mike Zeck pencils the first part of the Frightful Four story. Jim Mooney inks Zeck and they're a great art team.

The next portion features John Byrne inked by Joe Sinnott, the regular art team on the FF at the time.  Sinnott tended to be a "heavy" inker, but I've always thought his inks worked well over Byrne's art. Byrne and Sinnott together were a wonderful combination of old school and (then) new school art.

Frank Miller and Bob Wiacek provide the art in the first Marvel Team-Up story. I don't recall Wiacek inking Miller elsewhere, but they work great together here. Here's a great scan that features Xi'an's story of how she became aware of her powers:

Sal Buscema pencils the Everyman story, with inks by Mike Esposito. This isn't their best work, Esposito inks are a little overpowering at times. But their work is still pretty good, demonstrated by the image below:

How does it look?:

The comics reprinted here look fine, with no odd recoloring. Here's another scan that shows how great the pages look:
 

I love the expression on Wizard's face in the center, great work by Byrne & Sinnott!

Extras:
This book opens with the classic, first ever meeting of Spidey and the FF, from Amazing Spider-Man #1. It closes with a story published in the 90s.  

Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic is a fun read, featuring some stories I enjoyed 30 years ago and enjoy just as much now and it features some of my favorite writers and artists of the Bronze Age. But as I said above, it's a thin book, which keeps it from getting a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Cloak & Dagger: Crime And Punishment

Reprints Spectacular Spider-Man #64, 69-70, 81-82, 94-96, Marvel Team-Up Annual #6, Marvel Fanfare #19.
Written by Bill Mantlo & Al Milgrom.
Penciled by Ed Hannigan, Al Milgrom, Ron Frenz, Tony Salmons, Rick Leonardi, Kerry Gammill, Terry Austin & Kevin Nowlan.

Inked by Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney, Kevin Dzuban, Tony Salmons, Terry Austin, George Freeman.

Variant Cover.

Spider-Man is hot on the trail of a drug dealer named Simon Marshall. Suddenly, Marshall is attacked  by a teenaged duo who call themselves Cloak & Dagger!  

Spider-Man encounters Cloak and Dagger for the first time.

Cloak wears a cloak that envelops people and makes them cold. He also has the power of teleportation. Dagger is extremely agile and shoots light-knives from her fingers. She uses her light-knives to kill Marshall. Spidey is enraged, reminding them that even criminals have rights. He attempts to capture them, but Cloak teleports away with Dagger in tow. 

Spider-Man looks into Marshall's activities and learns he was involved in a drug experiment conducted by the mob. Marshall and his cohorts kidnapped homeless teenagers, including Cloak and Dagger, and housed them in the ruins of Ellis Island. The teens were then injected with an experimental drug. All the other kids were killed, but Cloak and Dagger survived and gained super-powers.    

Spidey checks out Ellis Island and finds Cloak and Dagger holding a trial for the other men involved in their drug experiment. Spider-Man intervenes, but one of the drug dealers gets the drop on Dagger. The dealers are accidentally killed during the ensuing melee. Spider-Man tells the duo that they need to stop acting as judge, jury and executioner, but they flee, telling him they have no choice. Cloak and Dagger then teleport away from Ellis Island.

Cloak & Dagger break up a drug deal.

Sometime later, Cloak and Dagger investigate another drug ring. It turns out the dealers are working for the gangster known as Silvermane, leader of the Maggia crime syndicate. Cloak & Dagger are determined to kill Silvermane for his crimes.

Spider-Man tries to discourage Cloak & Dagger from going after Silvermane

But Silvermane is barely alive. He's recuperating from a long fall and his mob doctors are helping him cheat death. Dagger attacks the bedridden Slivermane and appears to kill him.

We later learn that Silvermane's doctors turn him into a super-strong cyborg in order to save his life.  His new "body" will act as a life support system. He goes on a rampage around New York, seeking to kill Cloak and Dagger. Eventually, he encounters Spider-Man. Dagger succeeds in killing Silvermane with her light knives, much to the disgust of Spider-Man.

Silvermane gives his new "body" a workout.

Shortly thereafter, the New Mutants visit New York City to take in a performance of Cats on Broadway. But team members Sunspot and Wolfsbane are captured by gangsters who are trying to recreate the drug that brought about Cloak & Dagger's powers.

It will take the combined forces of Spider-Man, the New Mutants, and Cloak & Dagger to save the day.

Subsequently, Cloak and Dagger defeat a small-time drug pusher. They learn that his source is none other than Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime! Spider-Man learns of this is worried more than ever before about the teenaged duo. He tries to stop them from going after the Kingpin.  

To complicate matters, the Punisher has escaped prison and arrived in New York. He's continuing his one-man war on crime, gunning for every criminal, no matter how minor their offenses. Punisher is determined to kill the Kingpin, but he'll have go through Spider-Man, Cloak, and Dagger first.    

After that adventure, Kingpin hatches a plan to kill Cloak & Dagger. He has revived the cyborg body of Silvermane and will use it as his personal killing machine. Kingpin appreciates the irony of using one of his rivals to take care of the young duo.

Spider-Man does his best to protect Cloak & Dagger, but he's having problems of his own. His girlfriend and crime-fighting partner, the Black Cat, has been acting distant. She recently went to the Kingpin to get super powers and hasn't told Spidey about that for obvious reasons. This creates tension in the relationship.
 

Plus:
Spider-Man gets a new villain in the form of the Answer! He works for the Kingpin and has the "answer" to every problem!

Also, Dagger wants to feel like a normal teenager again, so she goes out to dance club. But she runs into an infamous drug dealer.


Review:

This is a great introduction to Cloak and Dagger. I'd read most of these tales, but their first appearance was a story I never owned. Bill Mantlo created the duo and writes most of the stories contained here.  I get the impression that Cloak and Dagger mean a lot to Mantlo.

Story:
The first story in this book is a great debut for Cloak & Dagger. They make an exciting first impression. We see them in action, killing a drug dealer and we get an origin story as well. Mantlo also makes nice use of New York landmarks: Spider-Man discovers the drug dealers hideout is on Ellis Island. This story took place when the famous immigration center was abandoned and in disrepair. I found this especially interesting, since, like Mantlo, I had family that arrived in America through Ellis Island.

I also enjoyed the Marvel Team-Up Annual story that featured the New Mutants. I can't recall any other stories where Cloak & Dagger interacted with their peers.

I enjoyed Mantlo's portrayal of the Punisher. He's depicted as a total madman here, sentencing passersby to death for littering.

If there's any problem with Crime And Punishment, it's that some of the stories seem a bit too similar to one another. Several stories center on generic drug dealing gangsters. It doesn't ruin the book, but it's something that's more effective when it's spread across several months (which was the case when these issues were published).  

The Answer captures Dagger & flies away.

Art:
The early parts of this book are penciled by Ed Hannigan. This represents some of Hannigan's best work. To my eyes, the covers and splash pages look like homages to comics legend Will Eisner.

In fact, you can even see a sign for a business named "Eisner Industries" in the background of one panel (see image below) . Al Milgrom does a fine job inking Hannigan.

Milgrom takes over as penciler for the later stories, so there's not a drastic stylistic change. The portion that reprints Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 features pencils by Ron Frenz inked by Kevin Dhuzban. Their art isn't flashy, but it's solid.

The final story of the book features 3 different art teams, each getting 10 pages a piece. The best of these are penciled by Rick Leonardi and inked by Terry Austin.

Dagger wants to go out dancing & feel like a normal teenager for just one night.

How Does it look?:It looks great. Here's another scan from the book:

Extras:
We get several full-page pinups of Cloak & Dagger, plus some covers that feature the duo.

Rating:
Cloak & Dagger: Crime And Punishment features action-packed stories from start to finish, with plenty of 80s grittiness thrown in for good measure.

 

4 Sals