Joe Sinnott:1926-2020

We lost another giant of the comics industry the other day. Joe Sinnott, one of the greatest inkers in this history of comic books, died this past Thursday at the age of 93.

Sinnott's career began in 1950 and ended when he retired from inking the Spider-Man daily comic strip in 2019.  He was best known for inking Jack Kirby on the Fantastic Four from 1966 to 1971.

Sinnott was also one of the most prolific inkers of the Bronze Age. He embellished some of the best pencilers of the 70s and early-80s, including John and Sal Buscema, George Perez, John Byrne, Keith Pollard, Rich Buckler and Don Perlin.

Sinnott inked Fantastic Four for 15 years and helped maintain a look for the characters that stayed consistent in spite of the many pencilers that came and went. However, Sinnott was so skilled that his inks never overpowered the work of the great pencilers he embellished. Perhaps that was his greatest talent.

John Byrne inked by Joe Sinnott, from a 1978 Marvel calendar.

I send my deepest sympathies to Sinnott's friends and loved ones. From what I've read in the last 48 hours, "Joltin' Joe" was almost universally loved and respected by everyone in the comics industry. I never got the chance to meet Sinnott, but if I had, I would've told him thanks for all the great work and thank you for bringing so much enjoyment to my life and the lives so many other fans.  

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4

Reprints X-Men #122-131 and X-Men Annual #3
Written by Chris Claremont.
Penciled by John Byrne and George Perez.
Inked by Terry Austin.

Summary:
After a trip that took them around the world, the X-Men are back home at the X-Mansion. Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops is overseeing Colossus' training center in the Danger Room. Banshee and Nightcrawler are repairing the team's airplane, the Blackbird. Wolverine and Storm are planning to drive into New York City. Everyone is generally enjoying their downtime. 

Scott later heads out to run errands around Salem Center. He's accompanied by Colleen Wing, who he began dating after the presumed death of Jean Grey. They have a serious discussion about where their relationship is heading.

In Scotland, Jean is trying to get on with her life without Scott. While shopping for clothes in Stornoway, Jean (literally) bumps into a man named Jason Wyngarde. When they part, he says he hopes to see her again, Jean says that would be nice. Wyndarde watches as Jean sails back to Muir Island. He thinks to himself that she will soon fall in love with him and that Jean will belong "mind, body and soul--to the Hellfire Club."

Storm Visits her old family home in Harlem. The neighborhood has changed a lot since her childhood. Storm enters her old apartment and is shocked to find that it's filled with teenage drug addicts. When they attack her with knives, she gets help from Misty Knight and Luke Cage!

Sometime after, all of the X-Men are captured. It's the work of Arcade, one of the world's most expensive assassins. When the X-Men awake, they find themselves locked inside Murderworld, the amusement park Arcade uses to kill people. Murderworld contains a deathtrap created for every member of the X-Men.

Arcade targets Colossus in a unique and cruel manner. Peter finds himself in a dark room interrogated by a KGB agent. Knowing that Peter misses his family in the Soviet Union,  the agent asks Colossus how he could betray his Russian homeland by teaming with the X-Men in the U.S..

The X-Men are shocked when Colossus attacks them. He is wearing a different costume and tells them he is now called the Proletarian, workers' hero of the Soviet Union! Peter has been brainwashed and turned against his friends.

How can the X-Men survive the dangers that surround them in Murderworld and defeat their own teammate?

Shortly after that, Arkon the imperion, ruler of the planet Polemachus arrives on Earth seeking Thor. Arkon's home world is in a state of darkness and he believes the thunder god's lightning can restore its sunlight.

When Thor isn't available, Arkon learns of Storm's powers and invades the X-Mansion. The X-Men defend their home and battle Arkon. The imperion fights back, hurling a lightning bolt at Storm, which causes her to vanish.

Cyclops (correctly) theorizes that Storm is still alive and the X-Men travel to space with Arkon to search for Ororo.

Subsequently, Moira MacTaggert performs some tests on Phoenix at Muir Island. Jean's powers have greatly increased and this has Moira a bit worried. She thinks that Phoenix is approaching a level of power akin to a god. MacTaggert isn't sure how long Jean can keep such power under her control.

Charles Xavier is in space with Lilandra at the Shi'ar Imperial Center. Professor X studies files that the Shi'ar have compiled on Phoenix after Jean saved the universe. Xavier comes to similar conclusions as Moira and heads back to Earth.

Back in Stornoway, Jason Wyndarde has a moment of introspection. Through his thoughts, we learn that he has been using illusions to disguise himself as various people who meet Jean. He plans to use his illusions to manipulate Jean and mold her into an alliance. This will help Wyngarde take power in the Hellfire Club, a very exclusive club of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. If Wyngarde succeeds, Phoenix' amazing powers could become a force for evil.

Jean begins to experience "time slips" where she finds herself in the 1700s, wearing clothing from that era. It's the work of Wyngarde, part of his plot to force Jean to join him and the Hellfire Club.

Subsequently, Hank McCoy, better known as the Beast, decides to check on the X-mansion, which was recently abandoned when Professor X departed for space. The X-Men think he's a villain and attack. Beast is shocked and overjoyed to learn that Cyclops and the others are not dead.

Hank informs the X-Men that Jean is also still alive, so Scott calls her in Muir Island. When Lorna Dane answers the phone, Cyclops hears a scream and learns that Jean and everyone on the island are under attack.

The X-Men quickly fly to Muir and learn that a mutant known only as Mutant X has escaped from his holding cell in Moira's lab. Mutant X is a creature of pure psionic energy. He needs to possess the body of another person to survive, a process which kills the host. He takes the name Proteus and goes on a killing spree.

The X-Men meet with Moira and discuss how they should deal with Proteus. Moira says that Mutant X has only one weakness: metal. She also shocks Cyclops when she reveals that Proteus is her son! In spite of this, Moira is willing to do anything to stop Mutant X, even if it means killing her own son.

When the X-Men track down Proteus, they learn he can manipulate reality itself. Mutant X can bend the laws of physics, turn buildings into liquid and can transform metal into bees! When he uses his reality-warping abilities on Wolverine and Nightcrawler, the heroes are traumatized and ready to give up the fight.

Can the X-Men find a way to defeat Proteus? Is it possible to stop Mutant X without killing him?

Finally, the X-Men return to the mansion in Westchester, NY where they are reunited with Prof. Xavier.  After presuming them dead for months, Charles is very happy to see them alive and well. Their Cerebro device, which detects mutants, locates two heretofore unknown mutants, one in Chicago, the other in New York.

Unbeknownst to the X-Men, the Hellfire Club has been spying on them. The club's leader, Sebastian Shaw, tells Jason Wyngarde that they have bugged the X-Mansion and are able to access Cerebro. The Hellfire Club also sends agents to locate these new mutants.

Storm, Xavier, Wolverine and Colossus head to Chicago, where they meet with the mutant, a 13-year-old girl named Kitty Pryde. Professor X meets with her parents and asks him to send her to his school for gifted youngsters.  

When Storm and her teammates take Kitty to a local soda fountain, they're attacked by men in armor. The X-Men defeat them, but then they are confronted by the villain who sent them: Emma Frost, White Queen of the Hellfire Club! She easily takes out Wolverine, Storm and Colossus with a telepathic attack. Emma later captures Charles Xavier and imprisons all of them. Meanwhile, Kitty Pryde escapes when she discovers that she has the mutant ability to pass through walls!

In New York, Cyclops, Phoenix and Nightcrawler learn that the other newly discovered mutant can be found in a disco. The mutant is a singer named Alison Blaire, who uses Dazzler as her stage name. Alison has the ability to transform sound into beams of light and lasers. The Hellfire goons attack Dazzler, but Cyclops and Phoenix are able to help her defeat them.

When the X-Men learn of their teammates' fate in Chicago, they depart for the Windy City for a showdown with the White Queen!

Review:
The X-Men's adventures keep getting better with each volume of Marvel Masterworks. The stories reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 were my jumping on point for these characters. These are "my" X-Men. The way they act and the way they're drawn are what I think of when I think of the X-Men.

Story:
Chris Claremont and John Byrne really put the X-Men through the ringer in these stories. The book opens with a "quiet" story where the heroes get to rest and talk a bit, reflecting on the state of the team and what they've been through. It gives the creative team another chance to develop and define the characters. Storm's history gets fleshed out a little more when she visits Harlem. Wolverine tries to visit Mariko at the Japanese consulate. To me, this shows he's gotten over his crush on Jean and that the "softening" of Logan continues.

After that, the X-Men are captured and sent to Murderworld. Arcade is certainly psychotic and evil but he's a very entertaining character. He became one of their top villains in the future. Murderworld itself presents the X-Men with lots of interesting obstacles. Since the Arcade story was one of the first I ever read, he's long been one of my favorite Marvel villains.

I mentioned in my last review that I've never cared for the "X-Men are dead" subplot. That continues until page 107 of Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4, but thankfully Beast and Jean learn the others are alive, and vice versa. Scott and Jean have a nice reunion scene where they reaffirm their love for each other.

The Proteus tale is often overshadowed by the Dark Phoenix Saga that came a few issues later. But it's one of the best X-Men stories of all time. Cyclops at one point calls Proteus the most dangerous adversary they've ever faced, and it's an accurate statement. There are some disturbing overtones here. Proteus possesses the body of his father Joe at one point, and then attacks Moira. It's very Oedipal.

The word "rape" never appears in this book. But it's very strongly implied that Proteus was conceived as a result of rape and it's suggested that it's also the reason why Moira's son is evil. I can't agree with that, but Proteus is certainly one of the most frightening villains in Marvel's history. I don't believe Mutant X has ever been resurrected, and that's a tribute to the strength of this story.

Kitty Pryde shows up for the first time and she makes an impression right away. When X-Men are kidnapped, Kitty is forced into action and bravely frees the heroes. She would later go on to become one of the most popular X-Men of the 1980s.

 

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 also introduces two other villains who will be long term foes of the X-Men in Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club.

Byrne and Claremont show us that Cyclops' leadership skills are ever evolving.  He starts a fight with Wolverine and Nightcrawler in order to snap them out of their fear of fighting Proteus.

 

In earlier stories, Scott tried to get this group of X-Men to function as a team in the same manner as the original X-Men. In Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4, Scott doubts that will ever happen, but also states that that goal is no longer "desirable."

We get another one of Claremont's great "travelogue" narrations. This time, Chicago gets the Claremont treatment:

The X-Men's first interaction with the Hellfire Club eventually leads to Phoenix becoming Dark Phoenix....but that's something I'll get to in my review of the next volume!

If there's anything to criticize, it's Scott's break-up with Colleen. Jean and Scott's reunion is nicely handled, but we never see any sort of "on-panel" talk between him and Colleen. When Jean telepathically picks up a "stray thought" about Colleen from Cyclops, he tells her "Colleen's a friend, nothing else." After Colleen gives Scott the key to her apartment (!), shown in the image below, she just disappears from the book after the Arcade story and is never seen again in the pages of the X-Men.

Colleen Wing is a great character. Claremont wrote some great stories that featured her in Iron Fist and Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu. I've always thought she deserved better treatment from Byrne and Claremont in re her relationship with Cyclops.

The Arkon story is bit of step down from the rest of the book. It's not bad, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the stories reprinted here. It also feels like the sort of story that would've made more sense as an Avengers or Fantastic Four adventure.

Art:
John Byrne and Terry Austin provide fantastic art in these stories. The Phoenix/White Queen duel is brilliantly depicted.

Another favorite scene is Proteus' attack on Nightcrawler and Wolverine.

Spider-Man makes an appearance in the Murderworld story, since he was the first superhero to face Arcade. He doesn't get to do much, but Spidey looks great (dare I say he looks amazing?) when drawn by Byrne and Austin.

When Jean and Scott search for a mutant in a disco, the art team even manages to sneak the Joker into the top left of the image below:

George Perez penciled the Arkon story, with inks by Austin. They do a nice job and I've always loved this image of Colossus on a flying dragon:

How Does It Look?:
The two pages below were scanned from a copy of X-Men #128:

This is how the pages appear in Marvel Masterworks:Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4:

Extras:
At the end of the book, you'll find three pages of original art, plus a character design sheet of Kitty Pryde.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 contains some of the greatest stories and art of the Bronze Age. The Proteus saga makes it worth purchasing all by itself, and the rest of the book is great too.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

The Thing: Project Pegasus

Reprints Marvel Two-in-One #42-43, 53-58
Written by Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald.
Penciled by Sal Buscema, John Byrne, George Perez.
Inked by Joe Sinnott,Alfredo Alcala, Sam Grainger, John Byrne, Gene Day.

Variant cover.

Project PEGASUS (Potential Energy Groups/Alternate Sources/United States) is a top secret research facility operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. It's located in the mountains of Upstate, NY. PEGASUS' mission is to study all possible forms of alternative energy.

The Thing visits his friend Wundarr who is being studied at Project PEGASUS. Wundarr has the power to absorb energy and turn it into strength and power. Unfortunately, Wundarr also has the brain and personality of a toddler. The Cosmic Cube, a device which can reshape reality, has been brought to Project PEGASUS because the energy experts want to see if Wundarr's abilities can unlock the secrets of the Cube. But the Thing is incensed when he sees Wundarr chained up and frightened. Captain America is present and convinces Ben to calm down.

The testing of Wundarr's power on the Cube is underway, when it's suddenly sabotaged, leaving Wundarr comatose. It's the work of a man who calls himself Dr. Victorius. He steals the Cosmic Cube and flees to the swamps of  Florida's Everglades, pursued by Ben and Cap.

When the heroes arrive in Florida, they find that Victorius is not alone. The villain is joined by Jude, the Entropic Man and his cult of entropists. They are dedicated to spreading atrophy and decay all over the the world. Captain America and the Thing have their hands full, but thankfully the Everglades are also the home of the macabre Man-Thing! He unwittingly assists Ben and Cap in overcoming Victorius and his followers.

Some months later, Ben returns to Project PEGASUS to work as a security guard. He's doing this partially so that he can check on Wundarr. The facility's chief of security is Wendell Vaughn, who fights crime as the superhero Quasar. He wears wristbands that give him super-strength and the ability to shoot energy beams.  

The Thing learns that Wundarr is still in a coma and that his interaction with the Cosmic Cube enhanced his power. Wundarr now has the ability to cancel out any source of power when he is within ten feet of it.

One of the PEGASUS scientists, Dr. Thomas Lightner is acting in a suspicious manner. Lightner previously battled the Thing as a villain named Blacksun, but has since been cured. Lightner communicates with someone known only as Nth Command, telling them that Grimm's presence has complicated their plans.

During his first night, Ben goes exploring aroung Project PEGASUS. He's suddenly attacked by Deathlok, the cyborg super-soldier from the future! The Thing and Quasar battle Deathlok, forcing the 'borg to self-destruct. But the fight leaves the Thing with an injured arm that was shot by Deathlok.

At the same time, Ben's old friend Thundra, the super-strong femizon from an alternate Earth is visiting New York. She's been recruited by a promoter named Herkimer J. Oglethorpe to become a professional wrestler. Thundra fights and defeats a team of women wrestlers known as the Grapplers

Back at PEGASUS, Lightner continues to act strangely behind the scenes. The nuclear-powered manchild Nuklo is held at the facility for testing. Nuklo is very dangerous, so Lightner releases him in hopes that Nuklo will cause havok.

Lightner's hopes are realized when Nuklo endangers PEGASUS. The Thing subdues Nuklo with the assistance of Giant-Man, who works at the facility in his civilian identity, Dr. Bill Foster.

In New York, Thundra has her first wrestling match. She dominates her opponent Titania, until Titania injects her with a fluid that renders the femizon unconscious.

When Thundra awakens, she learns that her "wrestling career" was just a ruse to get her to break in to Project PEGASUS. Thundra leads her team of Grapplers into the energy facility and deliver a mysterious device.

The Thing, Giant-Man and Quasar are able to defeat and detain Thundra and the wrestlers. But we learn that the device they've brought will be used by Lightner to build something called the Nth Projector. Lightner plans to use this to transform himself back into Blacksun. But things don't go according to plan. The Nth projector turns Lightner into the Nth Man, a being of pure, negative energy! He threatens to absorb everything around him.

In the middle of all of this, Wundarr escapes from his holding cell. He suddenly has the intellect of an adult and is more powerful than ever. He changes his name to Aquarian, in honor of the location of his home planet.

This is a very good development, because the Thing and the other heroes will need all the help they can if they want to prevent Nth Man from destroying the world!

Plus, in the midst of this crisis, Project PEGASUS is threatened by villainous duo Solarr and Klaw!

Review:
It's hard to do justice to this storyline without spoiling large portions. But it's one of the best mult-part sagas of the Bronze Age.

Story:
The Thing is one of my all-time favorite characters, and he's well-written here. Ralph Macchio and Mark Grunenwald co-wrote these tales (Macchio wrote the first two issues reprinted here by himself) and they really get what Ben is all about. Early in the book, the Thing makes a comment about how he doesn't know anything about advanced technology. Captain America tells Thing stop the "hick routine" and reminds the readers of Ben's previous life as a test pilot.

The writers also do a nice job showing how much the Thing cares for Wundarr.

Giant-Man, Quasar and Wundarr/Aquarian all serve as good partners for Ben Grimm in this story.
Gruenwald and Macchio also do a great job with the "B-plot" involving Thundra. Just when you might think the wrestling storyline is an excuse for the writers to stall and draw out the saga, Macchio and Gruenwald merge it with the goings-on at PEGASUS. This saga made me wish these writers had written some solo-Thundra stories during the Bronze Age. 

This is also a case of the parts being greater than their whole. It's basically just Ben Grimm interacting with a bunch of other heroes and battling a bigger bunch of villains. But it's a whole lot of fun.   


Art:
The art features work by several of the biggest names of the Bronze Age and it's excellent.

John Byrne penciled four issues here, mostly inked by Joe Sinnott. Their art looks great, just as it did in issues of Fantastic Four that were published around the same time.

George Perez and Gene Day take over and finish the book. They also make a fantastic art team. Take a look at this great image from Perez and Day:

And here's another, where Screaming Mimi's scream nearly drives Quasar insane:

The book has fantastic art from start to finish.


How Does It Look?:
Here's a page scanned from an original copy of Marvel Two-In-One #55 (borrowed from the excellent blog Comics Should Be Good):

And here's how that same page appears when it's reprinted in the Project PEGASUS book:

Extras:
This hardcover contains Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Quasar and Project: PEGASUS.

The Thing: Project PEGASUS features some excellent story and art from some of the greatest comic creators of all time. This is without a doubt the high point for Marvel Two-In-One and this book is highly recommended.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!