New X-Men? #114

The Uncanny X-Men #114

“Desolation”

Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Synopsis

Don’t believe the cover, the X-Men aren’t really dead. They’re just trapped in the Savage Land. Which, now that I think about it, is almost the same thing.

Rolling Commentary

That’s a pretty badass splash page to start out with.

Page 5. As inexplicable as the X-Men’s rather impressive survival is, I actually want to bring something else up: I don’t get the savage land. Oh, I enjoy the Savage Land. I love dinosaurs, and I love the X-Men and dinosaurs put together. But there is simply no rational way to reconcile its existence with actual logic. Oh, I know it’s all crazy alien technology and such, but seriously… sigh. I guess I should just accept it on the basis that dinosaurs rock and stop questioning it.

Page 9. Sigh. Only Cyclops would bitch at Wolverine for saving another X-Man’s life by chopping up a gigantic carnivorous Pterosaur to bits.

Page 10. Look kids! It’s Beast! Wearing pants! A shirt, even. Wow!

Page 14. I know this is a serious moment, but who wants to bet the other half of that photo had Scott in it?

Page 16. I guess it’s a good thing the X-Men had time to put on their costumes here.

Post Mortem

Sauron’s back. Hmm. I’m not sure I feel about that. Sauron’s one of those villains that’s hard to get right. Plus he’s never made much sense to me, intellectually speaking. Okay, he needs to drain people’s life forces to survive, I get that. And when he drain’s a mutant (or any other metahuman, if I remember correctly) of their life force, he gains some powers… that I can follow. But why that means he turns into a pissed off pteranodon? That, I don’t get.

Still, visually, he can be one of the X-Men’s more interesting villains. And he certainly can be one of their bigger threats. When he takes out a team member (in this case Storm) he drains them, making them useless in battle and making him more powerful. And he’s great fun for Savage Land stories, I’ll grant that.

The majority of this issue is all character driven (that’s not a complaint) as part of the team deals with the “deaths” of the other part. I don’t know if Scott’s not grieving Jean’s death because he’s just a tool, or because he instinctively knows Jean’s still alive. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.