Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3

Reprints X-Men #111-121
Written by Chris Claremont.
Penciled by John Byrne.
Inked by Terry Austin and Ricardo Villamonte. 

Summary:
The X-Men have been turned into sideshow freaks and are performing at a travelling circus! It's up to former X-Man-turned-Avenger Hank McCoy, AKA the Beast, to investigate how this occurred.

Beast learns that it's the work of the X-Men's old enemy Mesmero. The villain has hypnotized them into believing they're part of the circus.

Once the trance is broken, the X-Men have a much bigger problem. Magneto, their deadliest foe, arrives on the scene. The master of magnetism transports them to his headquarters, which is buried beneath a volcano in Anarctica.

When they arrive, the X-Men attack Magneto. However, the battle is brief and the heroes are defeated with relative ease. Cyclops is frustrated to watch his team still fight as individuals, instead of confronting Magneto as a cohesive unit.

Magneto has been recently restored to adulthood after being turned into an infant. He wants the X-Men to feel the same humiliation, so he imprisons them in chairs that neutralize their powers, prevent them from speaking, and reduce their physical abilities to those of six-month old infants. Magneto intends to torture the X-Men indefinitely in this manner.

After several days, the X-Men are able to escape and battle Magneto once again. This time, they're finally able to fight him using teamwork. The X-Men hit Magneto from all sides, keeping him off-balance. The duel results in the destruction of Magneto's base and the volcano that surrounds it.

Rocks cave in, which splits the team into two groups. On one side of the fallen rocks stand Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Banshee, Colossus and Nightcrawler. Beast and Phoenix are on the opposite side of the cave-in. Each group believes the other to be dead.

When Cyclops and the others crawl out of the rocks, they find themselves in the Savage Land. It's a hidden prehistorical tropical preserve where dinosaurs still exist.

Beast and Jean have returned to the X-Mansion in Westchester, NY. Jean tells Prof. Xavier that her teammates have died. The professor is heartbroken and they all grieve over the loss of their friends.

Back in the Savage Land, Storm goes swimming in a lake. She's ambushed and her life forces are drained, which knocks out Storm. It's the work of Sauron, a half-man/half-pterodactyl who once battled the original X-Men. Wolverine attacks Sauron, but is hypnotized by the villain. Under Sauron's control, Wolverine sees the X-Men as monsters and attacks them!

How can the X-Men defeat an opponent who can drain their energies and turn them against each other?

While pursuing Sauron, the X-Men encounter Ka-Zar, lord of the Savage Land. He tells the heroes that he needs their help in combating Garokk the sun god, who has skin like stone and shoots heat rays from his eyes.

The sun god is assisted by high priestess Zaladane, who brought Garokk back to life. Garokk is powerful enough to destroy an entire village and construct cities. He plans to use his supernatural abilities to destroy the Savage Land and all the life it contains. Can the X-Men and Ka-Zar thwart Garokk's plans and save the Savage Land?

The X-Men flee the Savage Land by boat and eventually arrive in Japan. They discover that the island is being besieged by earthquakes. The X-Men assist local officials with relief efforts.

Cyclops reminds the team that they have no passports, identification or money. He decides they will visit Sunfire, who lives in Japan, so they may contact Prof. Xavier.

When they arrive at Sunfire's compound, the X-Men are surprised to find their friend (and Jean's roomate) Misty Knight and her partner Colleen Wing. Sunfire has hired them to do some detective work in Japan.

Sunfire's cousin Mariko Yashida also lives at the compound. Wolverine meets her and is immediately taken with Mariko. When another earthquake hits, Wolverine saves her life.

Shortly after that, Sunfire and the X-Men are attacked by Mandroids. They wear weaponized armor that enables them to go toe-to-toe with superheroes. The battle is short and Cyclops commends the X-Men for fighting the Mandroids with teamwork.

But their glory is short-lived, when they learn that the Mandroids were sent by Moses Magnum. He possesses the power to cause earthquakes and is responsible for the recent seismic activity. Magnum gives Japan an ultimatum: if the island nation does not surrender to him and declare him its leader, he will sink Japan. The X-Men and Sunfire are the only hope for Japan. The battle with Magnum will cause long term damage to Banshee's sonic scream.

Subsequently, the X-Men are flying home when their plane is diverted due to a winter storm. They are forced to land in Calgary, Alberta. When they hit the runway, Vindicator, who once battle the X-Men as Weapon Alpha, calls out Wolverine and tells him to surrender. Canada's government invested lots of time and money training Wolverine to be their agent and they want him back.

This time, Vindicator has brought along the rest of his Alpha Flight team. His teammate Sasquatch wrecks their plane and the X-Men flee the scene, breaking up into smaller groups to hide in Calgary.

Members of Alpha Flight have also split up and are hunting down the X-Men. Wolverine is apprehended by Sasquatch while North Star and Aurora take out Nightcrawler. They take their captives to the world famous Calgary Stampede, where the Alpha Flight and X-Men will face off in a final showdown.

Can the X-Men defeat Alpha Flight and return home with Wolverine?

Plus, Professor X flashes back to his meeting with Amahl Farouk, the first evil mutant Xavier ever encountered!

Review:
This volume contains what became known as the X-Men's "World Tour," as the team travels from Antarctica to the Savage Land to Japan to Calgary and finally back to their mansion in Westchester County. It's another triumph for one of the all-time great comic book creative teams.

Story:
Chris Claremont and John Byrne are credited as co-plotters for most of Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3. The book opens with the Mesmero story and it's somewhat offbeat. It drops the readers into the middle of the tale, when the X-Men have already been turned into circus attractions.

The Magneto story is one of the best depictions of the master of magnetism that you'll ever read. I should mention that at this point, Magneto's backstory as a Holocaust survivor had not been retconned yet. Magneto's use of prison chairs and the Nanny robot are still legitimately disturbing today. 

There's lots of great fight scenes and worthy adversaries here. In addition to Magneto, we get another "classic" X-Villain in the form of Sauron. X-Men #115 was one of the first X-Men back issues I ever purchased, so I'll always have a sentimental attachment to the Sauron/Savage Land story.

The battle with Moses Magnum in Japan is one of the few X-Men adventures where Banshee gets to save the day. It's also the last time he gets to use his sonic scream for a decade, pushing it to the limit in order to save Japan.

The book closes on a high note with the Alpha Flight battle at the Calgary Stampede. It's an entertaining fight that leaves the door open for another chapter. 

Claremont and Byrne also give us some more character development and some good "quiet" moments. During the Christmas celebration, Storm talks about how the team has the team has grown closer and become a family. Wolverine displays a softer side when he meets Mariko, who will become a very important character in Logan's life.

On more than one occasion, Cyclops shows why he was Marvel's best team leader of the Bronze Age. After being highly critical of the team, Scott tells them (after beating the Mandroids) that "you did good tonight. There's hope for the X-Men yet."

The weakest story here is the battle with Garokk in the Savage Land. Garokk isn't a very interesting adversary. But it's not bad, it just isn't in the same league with the rest of the book. And Cyclop's eye-beam fight with Garokk is pretty good.

I also enjoy Claremont's "travelogue" narrations that show up whenever the X-Men visit a new location. For an example, check out his description of Calgary in the scanned pages below:

And now the negative portion of this review:

I've always found the "X-Men are dead" part of this era to be silly. When Jean and Beast are separated, it makes sense for them to think the other X-Men are dead and vice versa. After that, we get a scene where Jean runs into Misty Knight at the airport. When Misty tells Jean to "give my love to Scott," Jean says nothing, which is somewhat understandable, since they're both catching planes.

But later, Cyclops and Misty run into each other in Japan. You would think Scott would tell Misty that her roommate is dead. Or that Misty would mention that she saw Jean at the airport. We see Misty's friend Colleen Wing get romantic with Cyclops on the flight from Japan to Calgary, but we never see Misty react to this in any way. Why wouldn't she confront Cyclops for "cheating" on Jean? For that matter, why wouldn't Banshee attempt to call Moira MacTaggert in Scotland? Beast was an Avenger, why didn't anyone call the Avengers' mansion and tell them Hank McCoy was dead? It's an "idiot plot" device and it's unnecessary.

Having said all that, these stories are still very good, in spite of the "death" of the X-Men.

Art:
John Byrne and Terry Austin continue to provide outstanding art in Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3. I love this depiction of Xavier's flashback.

In the same story, Byrne and Austin's art for Xavier and Amahl Farok's psi-war looks fantastic. The "psychic" gladiator armor is a nice touch:

And this two-page of Wolverine attacking Sauron is one of my all-time favorite comic book images:

It's not surprising that this drawing of Wolverine had a second life on various Marvel merchandise. Byrne and Austin also give us a great looking Sauron in that story. He was one of my favorite villains when I was a kid and that's largely because Austin and Byrne made him look so cool.

And Byrne himself makes an appearance in the Alpha Flight tale, dining in Calgary Tower.

It's a shame that this book contains the only time this art team worked on a Magneto story. The X-Men's oldest and greatest foe looked never looked more menacing.

For the first part of the Japan two-parter, Austin is replaced as inker by Ricardo Villamonte. His embellishment of Byrne's pencils isn't bad, but Villamonte's work is a step down from Austin.

How Does It Look?:
The image below, was taken from a copy of X-Men #118:

The same pages look like this in Marvel Masterworks:Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3:

Extras:
Stan Lee's introduction to the 1993 edition of this book is included here. It's fun and full of the sort of hype that only Stan Lee can write.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3 features features great battles with X-Men foes old and new, it's got tons of action, drama and (most importantly) character development. Claremont, Byrne and Austin are great and getting better. The fake death of the X-Men is silly, but the art and the other stories make this another highly recommended book. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Wolverine: First Cuts

Reprints X-Men Origins: Wolverine #1, Uncanny X-Men #118-119, Wolverine (1982) #1-2, Marvel Team-Up #83-85 and material from the Best Of Marvel Comics hc.
Written by Chris Yost, Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
Penciled by Mark Texeira, John Byrne, Marshall Rogers Frank Miller and Sal Buscema.
Inked by Terry Austin, Steve Leialoha, Mark Texeira, Josef Rubenstein, Ricardo Villamonte and Randy Emberlin.

Three Bronze Age tales that introduce people who would be important in the life of Wolverine!

The X-Men sail into the Japanese port city Agarashima. The city is on fire and an earthquake has recently occured. Team leader Cyclops says they must visit Sunfire, a former X-Man so that they can remain in Japan legally.

Wolverine meets Mariko for the first time.

When they arrive at Sunfire's compound, Wolverine meets Sunfire's cousin Mariko Yashida. They are instantly attracted to one another. Wolverine and Mariko are having a pleasant conversation, when suddenly another earthquake hits. Wolverine saves Mariko while the house around them is reduced to rubble. Storm says the quake was likely man-made. 

The X-Men battle the Mandroids.

In the midst of this, the X-Men are attacked by Mandroids. They're easily defeated, but the real brains behind the threat has arrived: Moses Magnum, a criminal arms dealer who previously battled Spider-Man and Luke Cage. Magnum demands that he be appointed ruler of Japan. If his request is denied, he will sink the island nation. Can the X-Men stop Magnum before he destroys Japan?   

Next, Wolverine takes a leave of absence from the X-Men to visit Mariko in Tokyo. He has not heard from Mariko in months.  All his letters to her have been returned unopened and she will not take his phone calls.

Wolverine learns that Mariko is married and that her husband is abusive.

Upon arrival in Japan, Logan learns that Mariko has been forced to marry a man she does not love. Her father, Lord Shingen Harada has returned and arranged this marriage to a man named Noboru-Hideki, to settle a family debt.

Wolverine visits Mariko and finds that Noboru is abusing her. He's determined to exact revenge, but is attacked by ninjas who drug him with poisoned shurikens. 

When he wakes up, Wolverine is brought before Shingen. He says Wolverine is unworthy of his daughter's love and challenges him to a duel, with wooden bokan swords. Wolverine is still suffering from the effects of the poison, and Shingen is a master swordsman. The battle is brief and Shingen wins easily. He has succeeded in humiliating Wolverine in front of Mariko, who turns her back on Logan.

The Hand attacks Wolverine & Yukio.

Wolverine is dumped in an alley. A street gang finds the drugged, beaten-down Logan and attacks him.  But he's saved by a woman named Yukio, who takes down the gang with knives and martial arts. She claims to be a ronin, a samurai who serves no master. Wolverine is grateful to Yukio for saving his life and he feels they are very similar. Yukio is falling in love with Logan, but his heart is set on Mariko.  He will need Yukio's help if he wants to take down Shingen and win back Mariko's love. But can Yukio be trusted?

Viper's recent history is recounted.

Lastly,we get the first ever team-up of Viper and Silver Samurai! Viper has hypnotized SHIELD agents and has taken over their Helicarrier base. She plans to crash it into the United States Capitol while Pres. Carter is giving a speech. Viper believes it will encourage the smaller nations of the world to rise up and destroy the U.S..

Silver Samurai & Boomerang battle the heroes and teleport away.

But all hope is not lost. Spider-Man, Black Widow, Shang Chi (Master Of Kung Fu) and SHIELD chief Nick Fury have teamed up to thwart Viper's scheme. If they want to stop her, they'll have to get through Silver Samurai and Boomerang first!

Shang Chi takes on Boomerang on the Hellicarrier.

Review:
As the cover image would indicate, Wolverine: First Cuts features stories that introduce characters featured in the 2013 movie The Wolverine. It's an odd hodgepodge of stories (see the "Extras" section below for specifics) from all over Wolverine's history. As per usual, this review focuses on the Bronze Age stories contained in this tpb.

Story:
The two-part X-men story is pretty good. It's from a long-ish arc from X-men that ran from 114 through 125. The X-men are presumed dead and go on a "World Tour" that will eventually take them home.  Mariko's introduction is a small part of this story. But it's an important step in Wolverine's growth from animalistic killing machine to complicated hero. Chris Claremont and John Byrne give us a solid story here that features plenty of action.

The X-men attack Moses Magnum, Wolverine gets slapped around.

Moses Magnum is hardly an A-list villain, but he works okay here. These stories have been reprinted several times in Masterworks and Omnibuses, but the non-completists will appreciate their inclusion. I hadn't read it in 20+ years and it holds up pretty well. It's not exactly essential, but it's a good "battle" issue, and it includes Banshee's finest moment as a superhero.  

I've always been a sucker for stories that take place at Christmas time, so that was a nice touch.

Banshee is released from the hospital, just in time to celebrate Christmas.

The second portion comes from the 1982 Wolverine miniseries, but we only get reprints of the first two issues. I recently reviewed the book that reprints the whole series here, so I won't go into detail about the content. At the end of the reprint from #2, we get an ad that directs the reader to buy the book that reprints the whole series. You'd think Marvel could have reprinted the whole miniseries here (and included the follow-up story) and just raised the price by a buck or two, but no. Feels sort of like making readers buy the same material twice.

The highlight of the book is a story that does not feature Wolverine at all. The reprints from Marvel Team-Up #83-85 are here because they feature the first time Viper worked with Silver Samurai. It's a three-part epic, with heroes taking on three villains. Claremont writes this as well, though we get a much different dynamic between the Viper & the Samurai than we're used to. She treats him like a hired thug, whereas they treat each other more less equally when they later battle the X-Men and the New Mutants.

Another nice part of this is story is that it mentions John Belushi...twice! In the Silver Samurai's previous appearance (Marvel Team-Up #74), he attacked Belushi on the set of Saturday Night Live.  This is discussed in two separate flashbacks. As a big fan of the original SNL cast, I think Belushi would get a kick out of being referenced twice in a reprint book published 30+ years after his passing.   

Art:
The X-Men story features pencils by John Byrne inked by Terry Austin. They're one of the all-time great art teams and they were hitting their stride here.  Simply gorgeous.

The Wolverine portion contains art by Frank Miller and Josef Rubenstein that I gushed over in my earlier review.

Lastly, the Marvel Team-Up story simply credits Sal Buscema and Steve Leialoha as "artists". I don't see a lot of Buscema here. Perhaps Sal drew some rough breakdowns, because all the faces certainly look like they're drawn by Leialoha. I'm geneally not a big fan of his penciling, but Leiloha does a nice job here. They make a good art team.

How does it look?:

Looks fine to me, and here's another scan:

Extras:

We get stories published after the Bronze Age, plus entries from The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe for several characters. 

Wolverine:First Cuts would be a better book if it included the whole miniseries. The X-Men story can be found elsewhere. The inclusion of the Marvel Team-Up story makes it worth reading, but it shouldn't be at the top of your Bronze Age Reprint reading list. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


2 and a half Sals.