This Issue! Things Get Worse! #137: Double The Size For Double The Tragedy!
Special Double-Size Issue! X-Men #137
“The Fate Of The Phoenix!”
Chris Claremont and John Byrne
Synopsis
The X-Men are brought before the Shi’ar Imperial council and given an ultimatum: Give up Jean Grey or die trying to save her.
Rolling Commentary
Thank god we have Uatu to fill us in on everything that’s happened in the last 37 issues. Has it really been that long? Man, it seems a lot shorter. Then again, I started with Giant Size #1 less than 3 weeks ago.
Page 4. Yeah, you tell them, Cyclops. These Shi’ar don’t know how to repay a favor at all!
Page 6. The Supreme Intelligence is one of my favorite characters. But he always works solely for his own benefit. So if he says “Go ahead and duel” that means he already knows his side will win.
Page 7. Yeah, Beast, you don’t really know these guys at all, so…
Page 9. Yay for Wolverine meditating and such! And, um, is Beast about to get some or something?
Page 13. The Blue Area of the Moon has the best ruins…
Page 14. Wow. That was really dumb, Warren. You really are out of practice, aren’t you?
Page 18. Wolverine just fell into the Watcher’s Citadel, in case you wanted to know.
Page 20. Something I’ve been wondering about here. Nightcrawler keeps talking about being afraid to teleport into a wall or something. The basic theory behind that is that if he teleports into the same space as another object he’d fuse with them or something. But every time he teleports he’s jumping into the same space as air molecules and whatever floating organisms and bacterium are present there. So how does that work, huh?
Page 21. Man, Uatu is a bigger jerk than Cyclops and Professor Xavier combined!
Page 25. You know, Gladiator is debatably at Superman (post-crisis) levels of power. Colossus is strong, sure, but he’ not the Hulk. I don’t think this is going to go well.
Page 28, Panel 3. Yeah, Cyclops, it’s not always about you.
Page 29. Oh, good job, Lilandra, now you’ve gone and done it.
Page 32. This is probably a good call on Wolverine’s part. But wait, didn’t Colossus kill Proteus?
Page 34. And thus does Jean become one of the first suicides in comics.
Post Mortem (literally) (no, really this time!)
It’s no secret that Jean’s death was not originally planned for in this issue. In fact, in the back of my Essential volume here there’s the would-have-been opening splash page for he next issue, had Jean lived. But when the editorial hammer came down, the story was changed, and Jean Grey was dead. Really. She wasn’t supposed to come back, I swear.
Clearly this is a very emotional issue, despite being rather action packed. Jean’s interactions with the people closest to her (Cyclops, Storm) and Wolverine’s realization that he didn’t have it in him to kill her… it’s all good stuff.
Also, it’s great that Jean was planning on her suicide from the beginning. She realized from the start that she was a risk to everyone and everything, as long as she lived. And she chose from the beginning to make sure that she wouldn’t hurt them again ever. It’s good stuff.
“The Fate Of The Phoenix!”
Chris Claremont and John Byrne
Synopsis
The X-Men are brought before the Shi’ar Imperial council and given an ultimatum: Give up Jean Grey or die trying to save her.
Rolling Commentary
Thank god we have Uatu to fill us in on everything that’s happened in the last 37 issues. Has it really been that long? Man, it seems a lot shorter. Then again, I started with Giant Size #1 less than 3 weeks ago.
Page 4. Yeah, you tell them, Cyclops. These Shi’ar don’t know how to repay a favor at all!
Page 6. The Supreme Intelligence is one of my favorite characters. But he always works solely for his own benefit. So if he says “Go ahead and duel” that means he already knows his side will win.
Page 7. Yeah, Beast, you don’t really know these guys at all, so…
Page 9. Yay for Wolverine meditating and such! And, um, is Beast about to get some or something?
Page 13. The Blue Area of the Moon has the best ruins…
Page 14. Wow. That was really dumb, Warren. You really are out of practice, aren’t you?
Page 18. Wolverine just fell into the Watcher’s Citadel, in case you wanted to know.
Page 20. Something I’ve been wondering about here. Nightcrawler keeps talking about being afraid to teleport into a wall or something. The basic theory behind that is that if he teleports into the same space as another object he’d fuse with them or something. But every time he teleports he’s jumping into the same space as air molecules and whatever floating organisms and bacterium are present there. So how does that work, huh?
Page 21. Man, Uatu is a bigger jerk than Cyclops and Professor Xavier combined!
Page 25. You know, Gladiator is debatably at Superman (post-crisis) levels of power. Colossus is strong, sure, but he’ not the Hulk. I don’t think this is going to go well.
Page 28, Panel 3. Yeah, Cyclops, it’s not always about you.
Page 29. Oh, good job, Lilandra, now you’ve gone and done it.
Page 32. This is probably a good call on Wolverine’s part. But wait, didn’t Colossus kill Proteus?
Page 34. And thus does Jean become one of the first suicides in comics.
Post Mortem (literally) (no, really this time!)
It’s no secret that Jean’s death was not originally planned for in this issue. In fact, in the back of my Essential volume here there’s the would-have-been opening splash page for he next issue, had Jean lived. But when the editorial hammer came down, the story was changed, and Jean Grey was dead. Really. She wasn’t supposed to come back, I swear.
Clearly this is a very emotional issue, despite being rather action packed. Jean’s interactions with the people closest to her (Cyclops, Storm) and Wolverine’s realization that he didn’t have it in him to kill her… it’s all good stuff.
Also, it’s great that Jean was planning on her suicide from the beginning. She realized from the start that she was a risk to everyone and everything, as long as she lived. And she chose from the beginning to make sure that she wouldn’t hurt them again ever. It’s good stuff.
posted by The Amazing Justin Palm! at 7/01/2006 02:16:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home