Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Volume 5

Reprints X-Men 132-140, X-Men Annual #4, Phoenix:The Untold Story #1 and Bizarre Adventures #27
Written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
Penciled by John Byrne, John Romita Jr. and John Buscema.
Inked by Terry Austin, Bob McLeod and Klaus Janson.

Summary:

The X-Men have been captured by the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club!

Jason Wyngarde, who has been driving Jean Grey crazy with illusions, succeeds in convincing her that she is living in the 1700s and is the Hellfire's new Black Queen! Before Cyclops is zapped unconscious by Black Queen, he notices that Wyngarde is actually Mastermind, master illusionist and one of the X-Men's oldest foes! Hellfire Club leader Sebastian Shaw takes down Colossus and Storm, while Nightcrawler is apprehended by cyborg Donald Pierce.

Elsewhere, Wolverine has been apparently killed by Harry Leland. The villain possesses the power to increase mass of any object. Leland makes Wolverine so heavy that he falls through several floors, into the sewers below.

The Hellfire Club is victorious and they celebrate with a toast to Jean, their new Black Queen.

Unbeknownst to Shaw and the others, Wolverine survived his fall and sets out to help his captured teammates. He starts with a brutal assault on the Hellfire Club's hired goons. When Wolverine locates the heroes, Jean break's Mastermind's spell and the X-Men turn the tables on the Hellfire Club!

Hank McCoy, the former X-Men known as the Beast is monitoring a police scanner nearby at the Avengers' mansion. When he sees that the NYPD is headed to the Hellfire Club to arrest the X-Men, he heads there himself to help his old friends.

While the X-Men are flying away in their skycraft, Cyclops notices something is wrong with Jean. Suddenly, she changes into a new red and gold Phoenix costume and announces she is now Dark Phoenix! She blows up the skycraft, which sends the X-Men falling into Central Park.

The X-Men do their best to subdue their teammate, but Dark Phoenix is too powerful. She defeats her fellow mutants with relative ease and departs into space. Dark Phoenix needs energy and decides to consume a star. Unfortunately, this star serves as a sun for the D'Bari system and it leads to the deaths of five billion D'Bari people.

A Shi'ar starship witnesses this and its captain contacts Empress Lilandra. During their transmission, Dark Phoenix destroys the ship. Lilandra says that she has feared that this would happen ever since Jean became Phoenix.

When Dark Phoenix returns to Earth, the X-Men battle her once again. She gains the upper hand again, until Cyclops tries to reason with Jean. While Phoenix is distracted, Professor X (who has arrived with the former X-Man known as the Angel) zaps her with a psi-bolt. Xavier engages Jean in a psi-war and succeeds in removing Dark Phoenix and her powers from Jean. It seems that the X-Men have won the day, when suddenly they disappear.

The heroes discover they've been teleported to a Shi'ar spaceship. Lilandra states that that Jean must stand trial before the Shi'ar since she committed genocide. Xavier challenges Lilandra to a trial by combat. The X-Men will battle the Shi'ar's Imperial Guard team. If the X-Men win, Jean may return with them. If they lose, Jean will be turned over to Lilandra.

The battle does not go well for the X-Men. They are far outnumbered by the Imperial Guard and the Shi'ar fighters are too powerful.

Scott and Jean are the only X-Men left standing. They somehow manage to defeat the Imperial Guard.

But Jean suddenly turns back into Dark Phoenix. Knowing that she will kill again, Jean sacrifices herself for the sake of the universe.

The X-Men are shocked and crushed by Jean's death. At her funeral, Scott flashes back to all of his experiences with the X-Men. He tells Professor X that he has "a lot to think about, to get straight in my head," and Scott decides to take a leave of absence from the team.

The rest of the X-Men are forced to carry on without their long-serving leader. Cyclops' departure is not the only personnel change. Storm takes over as team leader. Angel, an original member of the X-Men, returns to the active roster. The X-Men get their newest member. She's Kitty Pryde, a 13 year old who has the mutant ability to phase through walls. Professor X gives Kitty the codename Sprite and he hopes to train her to use and control her power.

Later, when Nightcrawler dies, the X-Men must got to Hell itself to save Kurt's soul. They're aided by Doctor Strange, master of mystic arts!

Finally, Wolverine visits Canada, hoping he can get its government to leave him alone and allow him to stay with the X-Men. While meeting with members of Alpha Flight near Hudson Bay, Logan and Nightcrawler are attacked the flesh-eating monster called the Wendigo!

Can the heroes defeat this savage menace?

Review:
I first read these stories more than thirty years ago. Sometimes, when we revisit great works, we're disappointed. We notice all the imperfections and decide that nostalgia has a lot to do with why we revere some things more than others. Or that something we loved when we were younger now seems dated. Having just re-read the Dark Phoenix Saga, I'm very happy to report that it's aged nicely and is as great as ever.

Story:
Chris Claremont and John Byrne serve as co-plotters and these tales are damn near perfect. We get inside the heads of all the X-Men and learn how much Jean means to them.

When Scott tells Jean he loves her "more than life itself," it doesn't feel sappy or melodramatic in any way, but true to the characters' shared history.

I'm not spoiling anything when I mention that Jean's death was retconned five years later (something I've never been crazy about). But that doesn't impact the greatness of these stories.

As great as the characters are, comic book stories depend on action and Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Volume 5 delivers plenty of excitement. The Hellfire Club proves to be a tough opponent for the X-Men and we get lots of great fight scenes. Wolverine's encounter with Leland and subsequent solo attack on the Hellfire Club is a defining moment for Logan.

The duel on the moon with the Imperial Guard is one of the best battles in Marvel's history. It's a bold move by Claremont and Byrne to (more or less) put the X-Men in the unusual position of defending a genocidal criminal. But it's consistent of the heroes to do anything to help one of their own.

The Dark Phoenix Saga was a tough act to follow, but Byrne and Claremont do a great job with the later stories as well. Kitty Pryde joins the team in these tales and she would go on to be a long-serving and very beloved character. The Wendigo/Alpha Flight two-parter is also a strong story.

Claremont gets sole writing credit for "Nightcrawler's Inferno." It's okay, but it pales in comparison to everything else in this book.

Art:
Byrne and Terry Austin continue their fabulous art in these tales. Their depiction of Dark Phoenix makes us believe Jean has become an embodiment of evil. Things that could have looked ridiculous, such as a tree that Phoenix turns into gold, look fantastic.

The fight between the Imperial Guard and the X-Men features dozens of characters and I imagine Byrne and Austin were exhausted when they finished its art. But it looks great and their art is the reason it's one of the best fights in Marvel history.

The great art continues during Scott's flashback of the X-Men's adventures during Jean's funeral. It's great to see Byrne and Austin's depictions of all the X-Men's early foes.  These villains never looked better.

Austin and Byrne also do a great job on the Wendigo/Alpha Flight adventure. Wendigo never looked as fearsome and frightening before this art team got to draw him.

John Romita, Jr. and Bob McLeod serve as penciler and inker for the Doctor Strange/Inferno story. They provide good art, but it's not in the same class as the work of Byrne and Austin.

How does it look?:
Here's how pages 2-3 look scanned from a copy of X-Men #137:

This is how the two-page spread appears in Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Volume 5:

Extras:
The biggest "bonus" feature is the alternate ending to the Dark Phoenix storyline where Jean is allowed to live. It's followed by "The Dark Phoenix Tapes", a transcript of a conversation between the X-Men creative team and their editors about why the decision was made to kill Phoenix.

We also get Phoenix solo tale that was originally published in Bizarre Adventures #27, a black and white anthology magazine. It's a good story, written by Claremont with pencils from John Buscema inked by Klaus Janson.

Rating:
The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the best and most influential storylines in comic history and it has defined the X-Men for more than three decades. Claremont, Byrne and Austin would break up shortly after these stories were published, but if you need any evidence that they were one of the greatest creative teams of all time, Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Volume 5 is the best place to look. This is one of the best reprint books you'll ever read and I give it my highest recommendation.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus

Written by Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, Steve Leialoha, Bill Mantlo, Marie Severin, Jan Strnad and Tom DeFalco
Penciled by John Byrne, Marie Severin, Mike Zeck, John Romita Jr., Jim Mooney, Denys Cowan, Rick Leonardi, Luke McDonnell, Jim Shooter, Ed Hannigan, Greg LaRocque, Al Milgrom, Bob Hall, and Ron Frenz.
Inked by Steve Mitchell, Al Gordon, Bruce Patterson, Jim Mooney, Dave Humphry's Josef Rubenstein, Frank Springer, Vince Colletta, Gene Day, Pablo Marcos, Bob Wiacek, Dave Simmons, Dan Green, Frank Giacoia, John Romita Sr., Bob Layton, Terry Austin, Klaus Janson, Brett Breeding, Kevin Dzuban.  

Variant cover.

Note:Many of the stories reprinted in this book have been reprinted in other books and have already been reviewed here. This review will focus on tales that I have not previously covered.

Summary:
Over 1200 pages of Spider-Man stories written by one of his best scribes!

Nitro, the exploding man is released from the gas tanks that served as a prison. He uses his exploding powers to rob a bank. This draws the attention of Spider-Man. If Spidey wants to beat Nitro, the webhead will need to use his scientific knowledge instead of his spider-powers.

The mercenary known as Jack O'Lantern is taken to a hospital. He's recovering from a recent fight with Machine Man when his thugs arrive to break him out. When the police show up, Jack O'Lantern takes the hospital hostage. Spider-Man arrives and attempts to save the hospital from "Jackie!"

But for Spidey, this is no ordinary hostage scenario. One of the patients being held captive is Nathan Lebansky, boyfriend of Peter's Aunt May!

J. Jonah Jameson is holding a party and has invited many of New York's movers and shakers. The cause for celebration is that his girlfriend Marla Madison has been hired to work for the Brand Corporation.  Peter Parker is on hand to photograph the party. The party ends when the villain Killer Shrike shows up and captures Marla.

He takes her to a Brand facility, but doesn't seem to be in control of his actions. Can Spider-Man save Marla and figure out who is controlling Killer Shrike?

The super-criminal known as the Ringer is ordered to fight Spider-Man by a mystery villain. Ringer doesn't really want to fight, but he's got a device strapped to him that can be detonated from a remote location. If Ringer refuses to battle the wallcrawler, he will be blown up.

After defeating him, Spidey learns that Ringer was merely a pawn of his old foe the Beetle, who has revamped his costume. This makes Beetle much more dangerous than ever. But Spider-Man gets an unlikely ally when the Gibbon helps him fight the Beetle.

The villain called Moonstone attacks the campus of Empire State University. She breaks into the office of Dr. Curtis Connors. Spider-Man tails Moonstone and confronts her.

During their fight, Peter's colleague Marcy Kane shows up. Marcy is zapped and knocked unconscious by Moonstone. Peter must figure out a way to get Marcy to safety and defeat Moonstone. 

Sometime after that, a criminal named Georgie flees from Spider-Man and takes refuge underground in the sewers.  Georgie stumbles on an old hideout of Green Goblin. While Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, is dead, the warehouse is full of the Goblin's costumes, gliders and pumpkin bombs.

Georgie shows this off to his (unnamed) boss, who kills Georgie and then augments a glider and dyes a costume orange. A new villain is born—The Hobgoblin!

Peter hears news reports about break-ins at several Osborn facilities. On a hunch, he checks out one of Green Goblin's old hideouts. Spider-Man busts in and finds Hobgoblin and a battle ensues. Hobgoblin escapes and learns that Spider-Man is tougher than he expected. The Hobgoblin is determined to find a way to defeat the wallcrawler.

Spider-Man's old enemy the Vulture is leading a relaxed life in a retirement community. But that changes when he sees an ad for an electronics expo in New York. One of the companies presenting at the show is Bestman Electronics, headed by Gregory Bestman. Seeing Bestman's name sets off Vulture and he heads to New York.

When the Vulture arrives, he kidnaps Bestman and takes him to an old hideout. Can Spider-Man save Bestman from the Vulture? And why does the Vulture hate Bestman so much?

The Hobgoblin realizes that if he wants to face Spider-Man in combat, he'll need to enhance his strength. The villain reads Norman Osborn's journal and learns that Green Goblin developed a super-strength serum. After testing the serum, Hobgoblin decides he's ready to face Spider-Man once again, but their fight ends in a way Spidey could have never predicted.

Later, Peter Parker reads a Daily Bugle profile of a boy named Timmy Harrison, who is known as "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man". Timmy has a scrapbook that contains clippings of dozens of articles from newspapers and magazines. He even owns some old film footage of Spidey's appearances on television.

When Timmy asks how he acquired his spider-powers, Spider-Man reveals more about himself to Timmy than he has ever told anyone else.

Finally, the Hobgoblin continues his crime wave and concocts a plan to defeat Spider-Man once and for all. He creates a device that will nullify the webhead's spider-sense!

How can Spider-Man defeat the Hobgoblin without one of his most important super-powers?

Review:
I've said here before that I believe Roger Stern to be the best Spider-Man writer since Stan Lee. Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus contains more evidence to back up that claim.

Story:
Stern gives us just about every type of Spider-Man story I can think of. We get old villains like Vulture and Tarantula coming back for revenge. Stern utilizes Marvel villains who have never faced Spidey before, such as Nitro, Thunderball, Ringer and Moonstone. His Juggernaut story is one of the best Spider-Man stories ever published.

Thunderball gets a face full of webbing!

We also get quieter stories, like "Options". In this story, Peter Parker decides to quit graduate school. It contains about three pages of superhero action (Spidey easily captures some gunmen) and the rest is all about Parker's personal life and decisions he must make. He decides to quit graduate school to focus on photography and being Spider-Man. It's a major moment for the character, since one of Peter's defining characteristics since his introduction was straight-A student and science whiz. It was a gutsy move by Stern.

Another good but "lighter" story is "The Daydreamers". Stern shows us what Spider-Man, Black Cat, Jameson and Mary Jane think about when their minds wander. In the case of Black Cat, she dreams that under Spidey's mask she'll find...Cary Grant?

The Beetle story is a high point. Beetle had become a joke of a villain with a silly costume. Stern gives us a character that continues to be a major presence in the Marvel Universe. In recent years, Beetle has been better known as MACH-1 of the Thunderbolts.

Best of all, Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus reprints the introduction and early adventures of the Hobgoblin. Reading these stories took me back to when I first bought them back in the early 1980s. Hobgoblin was a fascinating villain, cunning, calculating and possessing as much intelligence as Spider-Man himself.

Spider-Man battles Hobgobin in the battle van!

As far as I'm concerned, "Hobby" (as Spider-Man derisively called the villain) is up there with the best villains in Spidey's rogues gallery.

Fans of Spider-Man's supporting cast will also appreciate the way Stern writes them here. Mary Jane makes her return to Peter's life and J. Jonah Jameson is written as a complicated character, not just a one-note Spider-Man hater (though he does still hate Spidey in these tales!). Even Aunt May gets to do more than usual, getting a boyfriend and turning her home into a rooming house for senior citizens.

Art:
As you can see in the credits at the top of this review, Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus contains art from a lot of pencilers and inkers. They all do a good job and none of the art stands out as bad.

I'd say John Romita Jr. provides the best pencils in this book. He gives us lots of great fight scenes and does a great job depicting Peter and his supporting cast as well as Spider-Man and the super-villains.

John Byrne penciled the first story in the book and also Spidey's duel with the Ringer. I believe Byrne also helped redesign Beetle's costume and it's a major improvement over the old one.

How Does It Look?:
This page was scanned from my copy of Spectacular Spider-Man #58:

And this is how the same page looks in Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus:

Extras:
This super-sized book features a plethora of bonuses. Roger Stern wrote a brand new six-page introduction. Most of the letter columns from the reprinted issues are included. It also includes fifteen pages of Spider-Man pin-ups (which feature text written by Stern) and a two-page humor story (written by Stern) from Marvel's What If? series.

Rating:
Spider-Man By Roger Stern Omnibus contains every Bronze Age Spidey story written and/or scripted by Stern. This book contains lots of milestone moments, great villains and fantastic art from the best pencilers and inkers of the era. It's highly recommended.
J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Amazing Spider-Man:Mark Of The Tarantula

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #231-237 and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16
Written by Roger Stern and Bill Mantlo.
Penciled by John Romita Jr. and Bob Hall.
Inked by Jim Mooney, Dan Green, Frank Giacoia and John Romita Sr.

Klaus Vorhees, better known as Spider-Man's enemy the Cobra, is on a crime spree. Using his snake-like powers, he's been sneaking into the NYPD's evidence room and stealing stolen jewels. He thinks to himself how much better his life is compared to days when he partnered with fellow super-villain Mr. Hyde. The Cobra betrayed Hyde when he fled from prison and didn't attempt to free his ex-partner.  To Cobra's relief, Hyde died in a battle with Captain America. 

At the same time, the Daily Bugle is planning an investigation of the Brand Corporation. The paper's publisher J. Jonah Jameson has a personal stake in the story. His girlfriend, electro-biologist Marla Madison, recently turned down a job offered by Brand when she grew suspicious of their activities. Bugle reporter Ned Leeds has a contact in the underworld named "Nose" Norton. Leeds agrees to take Marla with him to meet Norton at a waterfront bar. Ned's wife, Betty Brandt Leeds, is worried about her husband and calls Peter Parker. So Peter dons his Spider-Man costume and follows Ned.

Coincidentally, Cobra also shows up at the same bar out of costume. He sees Norton meeting with a reporter and gets suspicious, since Norton is the only person who knows Cobra and Klaus Vorhees are one and the same. The villain goes after Norton, but Spidey jumps in and battles Cobra. Nose Norton disappears in the middle of the fight.

The battle is brief, with Spider-Man winning easily. But there's no time to celebrate, as another villain shows up: Mr. Hyde! It turns out Hyde is not dead and wants revenge on the Cobra for abandoning him in prison. Mr. Hyde demands that Spidey hand over Cobra.

Hyde is determined to wring Cobra's neck and he'll destroy Spider-Man if the wallcrawler gets in the way. A brutal battle ensues between Hyde and Spider-Man.

Shortly after that, the Bugle and the police are searching for Nose Norton, and the webhead joins the manhunt. Things get more complicated when Spidey's old sparring partner the Tarantula is hired to kill Norton. When they converge on Norton, Spidey easily trounces "Taranny" (as he calls the villain), but he escapes and Norton is shot.

Things heat up (quite literally) at Brand Corporation. Will-'O-The-Wisp attacks a Brand factory in Boston, blowing it to bits. Spidey (correctly) presumes that Brand's facility in Queens, NY is next on Wisp's list and pays a visit.

While Spider-Man is tangling with Will-'O-The-Wisp, we learn that Tarantula was hired by Brand to kill Norton. Brand offers to give Tarantula the powers of Spider-Man, but it doesn't work out the way they planned. Tarantula is transformed into a monstrous half-man, half-spider creature. He goes on a rampage and blames Spidey for his loss of humanity.

 Later, the failed villain known as Stilt Man has fallen on hard times. Years ago, he fought and (briefly) defeated Spider-Man, but his criminal career went downhill after that. He reads an article in the Bugle about a device at Cordco, a subsidiary of Stark International. Stilt Man decides to steal the device, thinking it will help him regain his status as a super-criminal. However, Spider-Man arrives at Cordco and does something that will have a major impact on Stilt-Man's life.

Last but not least, Spidey meets a new superbeing who calls herself Captain Marvel. She has the power to transform into pure energy. She uses this to travel at super-speed and shoot blasts of electricity.  When she accidentally zaps the webslinger with a bolt of energy, Spider-Man isn't sure if she's a good guy or a villain.

And if that's not enough, we get guest appearances by the Thing and the Avengers!

Review:
More excellent Spidey stories from Roger Stern.

Story:
The Cobra/Hyde two-parter is a great way to open the book. The battle with Mr. Hyde is one for the ages.   

The Daily Bugle/Brand Corporation storyline is excellent and takes up most of the book. Stern makes good use of the Bugle in this story. Even Jameson is more multidimensional than usual. We get several scenes of him and Ned Leeds discussing their expose of Brand, not just the ranting JJJ we know and love. Sure, Jonah wants to tie Brand's corruption to Spider-Man at the beginning, but he eventually gives in to reason.

Casting Brand Corporation as the primary villain also makes this an interesting tpb. The bad guys in the real world usually don't dress in costumes, and Brand is shown to be just as evil (if not more so) than Tarantula, Hyde and Cobra. The ending of the story shows that, like the real world, crime does NOT always pay.

Stern engages in a little bit of what we would today call "meta" commentary. Spider-Man wonders aloud why the Tarantula gave him so much trouble in the past. The webhead is expressing Stern's belief that Spidey shouldn't struggle to defeat foes who don't have superpowers. But Tarantula also works here as a sympathetic and tragic character, victimized by Brand Corp.

I appreciate that we get to see Cobra's thoughts in the opening pages of Mark Of The Tarantula. Cobra talks about how happy he is to be living in a luxurious apartment (obtained through ill-gotten means, naturally) and how much better it is than his prison, where he's spent most of his adult life. By taking us inside Cobra's head, Stern humanizes the villain without excusing Cobra's crimes. 

The portion reprinted from ASM Annual #16 is unrelated to the Brand story, but it features the debut of Captain Marvel. Monica Rambeau was an exciting character and her origin story is lots of fun.

Stern also brought back Spider-Man's armpit webs, which was a nice nod to earlier depictions of Spidey's costume.

The Stilt Man story was penned by Bill Mantlo.  He does a nice job of adding some depth to Stilt Man, a villain who was generally treated like a joke at this point.

Art:
Most of this book is penciled by John Romita, Jr.and he does a great job. His work is nicely embellished by several inkers. But the most interesting portion is inked by Romita's father, comics legend John Romita, Sr. We get to see the best of both Romitas and they make Captain Marvel's first appearance feel like a classic tale.

Bob Hall and Frank Giacoia take over art on the Stilt Man story that finishes the book. They're a slight step down from Romita & Co., but they give us some good Marvel "house style" art.

How does it look?:
Here's a page scanned from my copy of Amazing Spider-Man #232:

And here's how the same page looks in Mark Of The Tarantula:

Extras:
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 contained two one-page features (one about Peter Parker's romantic history, one about the Daily Bugle) and they're both reprinted here. This book also contains entries from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for Captain Marvel and Tarantula. Mark Of The Tarantula ends with three pages of original art.

Amazing Spider-Man: Mark Of The Tarantula features great villains, good fight scenes, corporate crimes and is very enjoyable from start to finish. Excellent work by Roger Stern, John Romita Jr., and everyone else involved.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!