Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Volume 8

Reprints Uncanny X-Men #161-167 and X-Men Annual #6, plus material from Marvel Treasury Edition #26-27 and Special Edition X-Men #1
Written by Chris Claremont, Mary Jo Duffy and Scott Edelman.  
Penciled by Dave Cockrum, Paul Smith, Brent Anderson, Bill Sienkiewicz and Ken Landgraf.

Summary:
While the X-Men are having a training session at their temporary headquarters on a Caribbean island,  Colossus' sister, 6-year-old Ilyanna Rasputin, goes missing. She has been transported to Limbo by a demon known as Belasco, who intends to make Ilyanna his apprentice and train her to be  a sorceress.  When the heroes investigate, they also wind up in Limbo and are forced to battle Belasco's super-strong minion S'ym.  

The X-Men are able to save Ilyanna and are about to transport away out of Limbo when Belasco grabs the child for several seconds. Because time moves differently in Limbo, Ilyanna ages seven years during those seconds. She is now 13 and her brother is devastated that Ilyanna's childhood has been destroyed.

The X-Men's leader, Prof. Charles Xavier is comatose due to a psychic attack in outer space. He flashes back to his younger days, when he worked in a mental hospital in Haifa, Israel. Xavier used his mutant mental powers to help heal victims of the Nazi Holocaust. One volunteer at the hospital is a concentration camp survivor named Magnus, who would later become Magneto, the X-Men's deadliest foe.

Xavier treats a catatonic Holocaust survivor named Gabrielle Haller, who hasn't spoken in years. His power quickly remedies this and the two begin to fall for one another. Their new life is interrupted by an attack of Hydra agents led by Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker. Gabrielle is captured by Hydra because she knows the location of gold reserves hidden by Nazis at the end of World War II. Strucker plans to use the gold to fund his plans for world conquest. Only Charles and Magnus can save Gabrielle from Strucker!

Later, the X-Men and their friend Carol Danvers (the former Ms. Marvel, who is currently staying at the X-Mansion) are invited to a banquet held on the spaceship of their friend Lilandra, Empress of the Shi'ar. Their dinner is broken up by Lilandra's sister Deathbird and her alien associates, the Brood,  who have discovered that the X-Men's mutant genes make them ideal hosts to carry Brood eggs. Each member of the team is implanted with an egg. The eggs will transform the X-men into Brood and kill them.

Wolverine is the first to discover what has happened. When his egg comes to term, his healing factor kills it. But Wolverine is reluctant to tell his teammates that they are doomed.  

The Brood are fascinated with Carol Danvers' Kree/Human physiology and conduct experiments on her. These experiments, combined with Carol's encounter with a White Hole, bring out new superpowers.  She has the power of a star and calls herself Binary. Carol's new powers play a crucial role in their fight against the Brood.  

Team leader Storm decides to launch herself into space to kill her egg and herself. She is rescued by the Acanti, the race of space whales that the Brood lobotomizes and uses as their living spaceships. Storm becomes "one with the Acanti" and learns they hold the key to freeing the X-Men and defeating the Brood.  

When the X-Men return to their mansion on Earth, they are attacked by the New Mutants, Xavier's new group of students. The heroes deduce correctly that Professor X is hosting a Brood queen egg and realize they have to stop his transformation.  

However, it's too late and X-Men must battle a Brood queen with the abilities of their leader and mentor. Can even the combined might of the X-Men and New Mutants defeat this new Brood queen?

Plus, the X-Men battle Count Dracula, lord of vampires!

Wolverine runs into the Olympian Avenger Hercules at a bar and a fight ensues!

Former X-Men Angel is targeted for death by Karl Shanken, his father's former business partner!

And last, but not least, Kitty gives Ilyanna a very thorough tour of the X-Mansion!

Review:
Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Volume 8 features a great multi-part space saga and a few other good stories.

Story:
Chris Claremont writes all but eleven pages of this book. He really had a grasp on the characters by this point and gives us lots of action and character development.  

The first story, featuring Belasco, is legitimately sad and disturbing. The demon steals Ilyanna's childhood and I've always felt a bit sad every time I've read it since it was originally published.  Claremont makes you care about every member of this team and their friends and family members.  

The flashback story featuring young Xavier and Magneto was important in making Magneto a more "complicated" character and less of a Silver Age-style bad guy. It also retroactively introduces the relationship of Professor X and Gabrielle Haller, which would later produce the character Legion.  

The Brood storyline is considered one of the classic X-Men storylines and rightly so. The first part is narrated by Wolverine and added more depth to his character. Carol Danvers has fought crimes under many names, but Binary has always been my favorite of her superheroic characters. Claremont previously wrote Danvers stories when he served as writer on Ms. Marvel and the stories reprinted here show that he genuinely cared about Carol.  

Kitty Pryde's life is forever changed when she's rescued by a small dragon. He would follow Kitty to Earth and become Lockheed, her pet dragon and be featured in X-Men stories for many years.  

The Brood are great villains. They look frightening and disgusting and seem to be without any redeeming values. Having Wolverine and others call them "sleazoids" is a nice touch by Claremont.  

However, what makes these stories great is that Claremont gets to the heart of what makes a hero. At one point the X-men believe they will all die when the Brood eggs they're carrying hatch. They don't give up, but decide to fight for the freedom of the Acanti and for their friends and family on Earth.  Because heroes never give up.  

The Dracula story, reprinted from X-Men Annual #6, is good, if a bit of a step down from the Brood adventure.  

And Kitty's guided tour of the X-Men's mansion headquarters is fun.  

Mary Jo Duffy wrote the short barroom brawl between Hercules and Wolverine. Duffy nails their characterizations and this story is enjoyable, if slight. It's Logan's first appearance away from the X-Men, which makes it somewhat historically important. Scott Edelman penned the Angel solo tale and it's also enjoyable.  

Art:
Brent Anderson provides pencils on the book's opening Belasco story.  He provides good Marvel "House Style" art. 

Dave Cockrum pencils the first half of the book and does a great job depicting the Brood's homeworld and their environs. This two-page spread of an Acanti carcass is a great example of Cockrum's work here:

Cockrum's depiction of Gabrielle Haller's Holocaust memories is haunting.

While Cockrum excels in depicting otherworldy settings, Paul Smith does a great job penciling characters. Smith's art is gorgeous and he does a great job juggling all the characters during the fight between the X-Men and New Mutants.  

Bill Sienkiewicz pencils the Dracula story. At the time his art was transitioning from his "Neal Adams-esque" look to a more abstract approach and it works well with Dracula.  

Inker Bob Wiacek provides solid embellishment for all the pencilers.

How Does It Look?:
Here's a two-page spread from Uncanny X-Men #166:

This is how those pages look in the reprinted version:

Extras:
Longtime Marvel editor and writer Louise Simonson (who edited these stories) contributes a new introduction. We also get five pages of original art.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Volume 8 features some great art and stories and for me represents the beginning of the end of the "classic" era of the X-Men. The Brood saga was one of my favorite stories and I'm happy to have it presented in the Masterworks format. The other stories are entertaining as well and this book is highly recommended to fans who read these stories back in '82 and new readers alike.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7

Reprints Uncanny X-Men #151-159, X-Men Annual #5, Avengers Annual #10

Written by Chris Claremont.

Penciled by Dave Cockrum, Michael Golden, Brent Anderson, Bob McLeod, Jim Sherman and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Inked by Josef Rubinstein, Bob McLeod, Armando Gil and Bob Wiacek. 

Carol Danvers, the Avenger known as Ms. Marvel is attacked and left for dead in San Francisco Bay. She's rescued by Spider-Woman and taken to the X-Men's mansion. Their leader Professor X hopes to rehabilitate Carol.

We later learn that Ms. Marvel was defeated by Rogue, an evil mutant who has the power to temporarily absorb superpowers by merely touching superheroes. She has stolen Ms. Marvel's powers and memories. Rogue touched Danvers for too long and has permanently absorbed the powers.  

Rogue is the newest member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, a team of super-powered criminals that previously battled the X-Men. She and team leader Mystique team up to break their teammates out of prison. Thankfully the Avengers learn of the Brotherhood's plans and battle the villains. However, the odds are stacked against them, since Rogue has already taken out Captain America and Thor. Can the Avengers overcome the Brotherhood?!  

Subsequently, three members of the Fantastic Four are captured by the alien race known as the Badoon. The lone FF-er left is Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl. She goes to the X-Men for help rescuing her teammates. The X-Men and Sue are assisted in the fight with the Badoon by their friend Arkon!

When the X-Men return to Earth, they receive some shocking news: their youngest member, Kitty Pryde, is being removed from Xavier's school and transferred to Massachusetts Academy! It's a plot concocted by the X-Men's foe Emma Frost, AKA the White Queen, who serves as the Academy's headmaster. She's used her mental powers to coerce Kitty's parents into sending her to the Academy. 

When Storm takes Kitty to the new school, Emma zaps Ororo with a gun that causes them to swap minds and powers. In Storm's body, the White Queen leads an attack on the X-Mansion with the help of her Hellfire Club teammates and several mutant-hunting Sentinels!

Later, the X-men are relaxing at the mansion, but Colossus' sister Ilyanna is having trouble getting to sleep. Kitty Pryde tells Ilyanna a fantastical fairy tale where the X-Men are pirates and wizards!

After that, Storm and Cyclops are having a quiet dinner at the mansion when a spaceship crashes outside. Inside the ship they find Corsair of the Starjammers, who also happens to be Scott's father. Corsair is being chased by Sidrian hunters from space. The heroes escape and defeat the hunters, but the X-Mansion is destroyed in the process.  

Cyclops, Storm and Corsair are beamed aboard a Shi'ar spaceship. Their friend Lilandra, empress of the Shi'ar, has been kidnapped and taken to Earth. Acting Shi'ar leaders Araki and Samedor tell the X-Men that if Liliandra is not rescued, Earth will be destroyed. When they return to Earth, the X-Men learn that Lilandra's sister Deathbird is behind the kidnapping. The heroes battle Deathbird and her allies, the Brood. Colossus is severely injured in the fight and is near death.  

It turns out that the Deathbird is receiving help from within the inner circle of the Shi'ar Empire itself! While most of the X-Men are battling the Brood, it's up to Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler to save the day and discover who has betrayed Lilandra. Things get even more complicated when it appears that Dark Phoenix has returned from the dead!

Back on Earth, the X-Men learn that anti-mutant sentiment is on the rise. They fear that any information the government has on the team will be used against them. Wolverine, Storm, and Carol Danvers sneak into the Pentagon to erase the X-Men's file from the DOD computers. However, things don't go as planned when Rogue and Mystique also show up at the Pentagon. Can Storm and Wolverine keep their foes tied up long enough for Carol to erase the files?  

Finally, the X-Men visit their friend Misty Knight's apartment in New York City. Misty is away, but her new housemate, fashion designer Harmony Young, welcomes the heroes. When Storm goes out for a walk in Manhattan and doesn't return right away, the rest of the team, especially Kitty, grows worried. They are shocked when they learn that Ororo has fallen under the power of Dracula, lord of vampires! Can even the combined might of the X-Men defeat Dracula?   

J.A. Morris says:

I first read these stories when they were brand new back in 1981-82 and have always had mixed feelings about them.  

Story:

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 opens with a reprint of Avengers Annual #10, which was written by Chris Claremont. This story introduced future-X-Man Rogue and it's an absolute classic. The Brotherhood takes out half of the Avengers before the main battle even begins. Rogue is depicted as being extremely dangerous and powerful. She defeats Ms. Marvel, Captain America, and Thor in her first appearance! The X-Men's role is limited in the story, but it sets up the subplot of Carol Danvers living in the X-Mansion to get help from Professor X with regaining her memories.  

This story is also famous for righting wrongs that were done to Ms. Marvel in Avengers #200 (I'll go into more details about that in a forthcoming review).

Next up is a reprint from another annual that features the X-Men teaming up with the Fantastic Four and Arkon to fight the Badoon. I've never been a big fan of the Badoon who are rather generic green aliens (I've always seen them as skrulls without the ability to shape-change) or Arkon, who is basically an outer-space version of Conan the Barbarian. Not a great story and the presence of the Fantastic Four doesn't add much of interest.

The Hellfire/Sentinels story is okay, but not particularly memorable. It's a typical mind-swapping story.

Kitty Pryde's fairy tale is another high point and has long been a fan favorite. It's basically a simplified version of the Dark Phoenix saga told in a pirates/wizards setting. It might not be an "essential" X-Men tale, but it's charming and fun.  

The bulk of Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 is taken up by a four-part story involving Lilandra, Deathbird and the Starjammers. It goes on for too long and the stakes are so huge (Earth being destroyed) that we never believe the X-Men will fail. Colossus' critical injury doesn't add much to the story either. I don't know how most X-Fans feel about the Shi'ar, but I never found them very interesting. I feel the same way about Deathbird.  

This story is important for one reason: the introduction of the Brood. These alien "sleazoids" first seem to be nothing but hired thugs working for Deathbird, but they would become a major adversary of the X-Men shortly after this.  

Kitty plays around with a Shi'ar costume-making machine!

The Rogue and Dracula stories that end the book are both pretty good. A nice way to finish a book of inconsistent stories.

Art:

The art is generally better than the stories contained in this Masterworks book.  

Michael Golden penciled (with inks by Armando Gil) the Avengers/Brotherhood adventure and it looks gorgeous. Here's a nice example of Golden's work:

Armando Gil provides nice embellishment to Golden.

Brent Anderson provided art for the Badooon story and Hellfire Club tale, respectively. They both bring some nice Marvel house style art to this book.  

Dave Cockrum drew most of Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 and fans of his work will be pleased. He obviously loved drawing pirates and pirate-influenced costumes. This is readily evident in the costumes worn by the X-Men in Kitty's fairy tale and the Starjammers, who are "space pirates." 

Cockrum's most interesting design is the Acanti, a race of alien space whales who the Brood use as living spaceships.   

Bill Sienkiewicz drew the Dracula story and it looks great. At this point in his career, Sienkiewicz was transitioning from his "Neal Adams"-influenced style to the more abstract pencils. So we get a great combination of his early and later art.  

How Does It Look?:

Here's a two-page spread of the Acanti as it appeared in Uncanny X-Men #156:

It looks like this in Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7:

Extras:

This book contains four pages of original art plus a Crazy Magazine cover that features the X-Men.  

Rating:

Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 contains some stories I've loved for years. I'm happy to see the Avengers annual, the fairy tale, and the Dracula story get reprinted in the Masterworks format. But this book gets otherwise bogged down in mediocrities like the Deathbird story and the Hellfire two-parter. Hardcore Dave Cockrum fans might enjoy the book a bit more than others.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

2.5 Sals.

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!