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!

Blade: Black And White

Reprints material from Vampire Tales #8-9, Marvel Preview #3, 6, Blade: Crescent City Blues #1 and Marvel Shadows And Light #1
Written by Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, James Felder and Christopher Golden.
Penciled by Tony DeZuniga, Gene Colan, Rico Rival and Jose Landronn.

Armed with nothing but wooden knives, Blade, the vampire slayer fights a one-man war against vampires!

Blade has returned to London. He learns that a man known as Billy-Blue has been murdered and all signs indicate that he was killed by vampires. Blade locates Billy-Blue at a morgue and learns that Billy has become a vampire. The vampire hunter ends Billy-Blue's suffering, but not before he gets some crucial information from him.

Blade learns that the vampires who attacked Billy-Blue are part of an organization called the Legion Of The Damned. Their activities are coordinated by a vampire named Anton Vierken. Blade locates the Legion's headquarters and pays them a visit. When he arrives, he's attacked by several vampires.

The vampire hunter battles Vierken and his minions and is bitten during the scuffle. Vierken believes Blade is now his slave and will become a vampire. Shortly after this, Vierken is called away by the Legion's true leader, Lady Marguerite D'Alescio. She is not a vampire, but Lady Marguerite has a telepathic connection to Dracula himself!

Thanks to his immunity to vampire bites, Blade does not become a vampire.  He also escapes with a computer printout that details the Legion's activities.

In addition to the vampires, Blade must also contend with Scotland Yard. He gains the particular ire of Inspector Dai Thomas. The inspector tolerates Blade's activities but doesn't approve of his methods. The vampire slayer doesn't care what the police think, but Thomas is just waiting for Blade to screw up so he can arrest him.

Vierken and the Legion do not take Blade's activities lightly. They kill several of his friends, including Lady Vanity, who was like a mother to Blade.

The Legion also captures Blade's girlfriend, Safron Caulder. Lady Marguerite makes a deal with Blade: If he wants Safron to live, he must surrender to the Legion and trade his life for Safron's.

Blade is dropped off at a location where the Legion is waiting for him. Instead of surrendering, he lashes out with his wooden knives.  His fight with the vampires takes place in a dense fog. When he throws a knife at a vampire, he is shocked to see it kill a 12 year-old girl named Josie Harper. Blade is shocked and disgusted with himself.

Blade plans to turn himself in to the police for Josie's murder after he rescues Safron from the Legion. Dai Thomas is investigating the murder and believes Blade is guilty. However, Inspector Kate Fraser, a police psychic, says Blade didn't murder the girl. Her psychic powers tell her Josie was killed by the Legion Of The Damned, who framed Blade for the murder. Fraser needs to find concrete evidence of this to prove Blade's innocence.

Will Blade be charged with murder? Can the vampire hunter free Safron from the Legion before he turns himself in? Will he succeed in taking down Vierken and Lady Marguerite?

Plus, Blade visits an old house that's full of vampires. When they attack him with lethal intentions, killing them is his only means of survival. But how can he do that, when all of the vampires are children?

Review:
I've been a fan of Blade for a long time, but these stories were all new to me. They're just good, solid horror tales filled with action from start to finish. I should mention that these stories were originally published as part of Marvel's magazine line, which was aimed at an older audience. This explains why there's more killing than the average Bronze Age comic story. Also, even though the word "brothel" never appears in the script, it's obvious that Lady Vanity runs a brothel. This tpb is rated PSR+, which means it's intended for readers age 15 and up.

Story:
The first part is co-credited to Chris Claremont and Blade's creator, Marv Wolfman. Blade is constantly outnumbered by vampires in every fight scene. Yet he's always confident and trash-talking the whole time. I couldn't help but admire his boldness. Blade is the type of person you'd want on your side in a fight.

Wolfman wrote the last portion of the book. "The House Of Terror" is short, but it contains some good character development for Blade. He's often been depicted as a cold-hearted, ruthless killing machine, even if it's for a righteous cause. But when he encounters vampire children, it's difficult for Blade to kill them, even if he knows they are centuries old. Blade has more empathy than he lets on.

Nice work from Wolfman and Claremont.

Art:

Tony De Zuniga pencils most of the book and his art looks good here. He penciled a bunch of horror stories for Marvel and DC and always worked well in the genre. De Zuniga gives us lots of great fight scenes between Blade and the Legion and also does a good job drawing London landmarks.

The last portion features art from Gene Colan, who penciled Blade's first appearance in Tomb Of Dracula. It looks great. Colan truly was a master of horror comic art.

How does it look?:
I usually deal with recoloring issues in this portion of my reviews. That doesn't apply here, since these stories, like this reprint book, were originally published in black and white. Nevertheless, here's a page from Marvel Preview #8, borrowed from one of my favorite blogs, Diversions Of The Groovy Kind:

Here's how the same page appears in Blade: Black And White:

Extras:
The book contains two Blade stories that were published in the 1990s.

Blade: Black And White features some great stories from Blade's early days. This book makes me wish Marvel had published more Blade solo tales during the Bronze Age. The only thing that keeps me from giving this tpb a higher rating is that it's a pretty thin book.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.