2016 Comic Challenge 060 Uncanny X-men #281

TITLE-Uncanny X-men #281
PUBLISHER-Marvel

By the time this issue came out I had let right at 2 years worth of Uncanny build up. Sure I got copies in the mail every month. But they got bagged and boarded and stuck in the Uncanny shortbox. Which at this time had from 100 to 281. Sure lots of them were readers copies. But it was a nice run that I had managed to assemble for fairly cheap.

After the great cover by Whilce Portacio on the pencils and the great Art Thibert  on the inks. You get a story that while a fun quick read,suffers from way too many writers trying to each get their own version of what the X-men should be in the issue.

Jim Lee and Whilce are listed for plot and John Byrne is listed for plot. But it feels like a miss mash of all three.

The only reason why this issue got read back then,instead of being filed away for investment value,was everyone I knew that read comics was talking about how this was a start of a new golden age of X-men. I had long gotten tired of the annual multi-issue crossovers.

This new golden age never happened. At least not for me. I have never been a huge fan of Jim Lee's art. It is great for covers,posters,static shots. But for me his storytelling skills are just horrible. Whilce Portacio can do great art. But not bright pretty stuff like 90s era X-men.Really Thibert's inks save the art in this book.

Damn it sounds like I totally hate this issue. And I don't it just represents the end of the X-men for me. Maybe it is because Claremont is gone,and he had his problems before he left. Maybe is is the focus on art over story. But this is an issue that when I first read it I was excited. Excited enough to read Uncanny and every other damn X-title until Uncanny X-men 300 came out.

Uncanny X-men #281 gets a borrow,or if you find this for under 3 bucks BUY it. But be warned it is very very 90s Marvel.

2016 Comic Challenge 059 Uncanny X-men #244

TITLE-Uncanny X-men 244
PUBLISHER-Marvel

This was pretty much the last issue of Uncanny I read until 281. After Mutant Massacre,Fall of the Mutants and Inferno I was just fed up with having to read 4 to 5 books a month to get the story. I kept subscribing more out of habit,I got a damn good deal at the comic shop. But each new issue was filed away and never read until years later.

Psylocke,back when she was British,Rogue,Storm and Dazzler go shopping. And some kind of bootleg Ghostbusters ,who bust Mutants come after them. It is a light silly story. But a nice change after the boring gloomy Inferno shitpile.

Claremont is writing,Marc Silvestri was doing the pencils and Dan Green is on the inks. The art looks nice. Silvestri can be a good and fun artist when he wants to be. Claremont is his wordy self. But admit it we all loved it back then.

The only real thing of note is this issue is the first appearance of Jubilee. Who thanks to the 90 Fox Kids X-men cartoon is fairly popular. While I did like her. I found her a poor Kitty Pryde subsitute.

The issue was fun. And worth reading if you can find  it cheap or grab it in a trade. I think the Essentials line of trades made it at least this far.

Uncanny X-men #244 gets a buy,but don't spend more than $5 on it.

2016 Comic Challenge 058 Uncanny X-men #193

TITLE-Uncanny X-men #193
PUBLISHER-Marvel

I doubt I have read this issue since sometime in the late 80s. For my birthday in 85 I got mail order subscriptions to three comics.GI Joe,Muppet Babies and Uncanny X-men. I had been reading X-men almost every month since what issue in the 130s introduced Kitty Pryde. But cause I was relying on the comic racks at K&B drugs sometimes I would miss an issue or two.This was the first issue I got in of my subscription. One that I kept going until Uncanny 300.

Being the 100th appearance of "The New X-men" this was a double sized issue. Were the little brother of Proudstar stages an ambush for the current X-men team.

And I gotta talk about the team. This is my favorite grouping. You got Nightcrawler as Field leader.Kitty Pryde,Colossus,Wolverine,Rachel Summers and Rogue with a greatly weakened Professor X.

The writer is of course Chris Claremont. This was cover dated May 1985 so we are in the John Romita Jr era of art. He is assisted by Dan Green.

One last thing last issue Prof X got the shit beat out of him by a group of anti-mutant asswipes. So he was taken to the Morlocks tunnels and saved from death by the Healer. Caslisto dresses him in some messed up BDSM great. Yeah at an early age I was subjected to seeing bald ass Prof X in BDSM gear.


Really this issue,while wordy as fuck,is gonna get a high level of approval from me on nostalgia basis alone. I got lucky and got into the X-men a few years before they got hit my crossover madness.

Uncanny X-men #193 gets a BUY!