Lincoln Crisler

Last week’s installment gave us the second of Barry Windsor-Smith’s two Storm-based collaborations with Chris Claremont, a standalone issue called “LifeDeath II” that foreshadowed the return of (still powerless) Ororo to the X-Men. This week gives us a killer issue leading up to Uncanny #200…and, as comics fans well know, those issues with important numbers are always…well…important. Claremont, Romita and Green certainly weren’t resting up for the main event, though! [Read more…] about Old-School X-Men with Lincoln Crisler: Uncanny X-Men #199

Last week’s installment was a pretty zany one-off featuring Arcade and Dr. Doom that nevertheless managed to serve a purpose in the overall 80s X-Men story–namely, the rekindling of Colossus’ and Shadowcat’s kinda-relationship, which Piotr dumped water on by hooking up with an alien chick during the Secret Wars. This week, we get the sequel to Barry Windsor-Smith’s epic LifeDeath collaboration with Claremont. The original, which appeared in Uncanny #186, dealt with the repercussions of Ororo being de-powered by a device created by the tech-wizard mutant Forge (at this time, still a new character known only for creating this weapon). Subsequent repercussions include her leaving the X-Men, returning to Africa, running afoul of the Strucker Twins (Fenris, to long-term Marvel fans, and also brand-new creations in 1985) and being gunned down by them a few issues later. [Read more…] about Old-School X-Men with Lincoln Crisler: Uncanny X-Men #198

Last week’s installment gave us an issue from Claremont’s classic run that pretty much flipped the X-Men’s typical moral stance on its backside, with Rachel calling for the quick demise of a mutant-hating human and Magneto of all people coming down on the side of peace. This week’s issue, featuring Arcade, is much more black-and-white. Arcade, bless his heart, doesn’t leave much room for moral gray areas. By this time, his character has been around for most of a decade and has tangled with the X-Men a few times in the past, making for some pretty memorable stories from the early Eighties. He’s more or less a blend of the Joker and the Riddler, and his stories usually involve a theme park with deathtraps, which makes for fun reading, even if he never, ever beats the heroes he traps, which doesn’t do much to set him up as a serious threat. [Read more…] about Old-School X-Men with Lincoln Crisler: Uncanny X-Men #197

After last week’s lackluster (in my humble, and frequently-refuted, opinion, of course) issue featuring the Power Pack, Claremont gets us back on track with an X-Men issue that’s about…you know…the X-Men. Uncanny #196, with art by Romita, Jr. and Green, opens with Professor X teaching, not his mutant proteges, but a psychology class at Columbia University. His telepathy kicks in and he “hears” one of his students thinking about killing someone. Despite the efforts of the Morlocks’ Healer, however, he’s still not completely recovered from the beating he took a few issues back, and he doesn’t feel capable of scanning the entire lecture hall to figure out exactly who’s plotting murder in their mind. Of course, that doesn’t mean Charles is throwing in the towel. [Read more…] about Old-School X-Men with Lincoln Crisler: Uncanny X-Men #196

Last week, we talked about a killer battle between the unstoppable Juggernaut and Sentinel from the future, Nimrod. This week, three issues into my coverage of the 80s and 90s X-Men, we come across that rarest of birds–a Claremont issue that’s only about half as impressive as his standard fare from this era. A lot of that has to do with the guest characters featured: the Power Pack kids. [Read more…] about Old-School X-Men with Lincoln Crisler: Uncanny X-Men #195