Comics You Should Own – ‘X-Men Unlimited’ #1-3, 5, 7-11, 14, 18-19, 31-33, 35, 37-38, 40, 43

X-Men Unlimited by various creators.

Published by Marvel, 20 issues, cover dated June 1993 – April 2003.

Some Comics You Should Own appeal to even non-comics fans, if they give them a chance. You can sit down, read a nice comic about Jack the Ripper, and move on with your life. Others are a bit more insular, as it does help to know a bit about, say, Batman to enjoy some of them. And then there’s X-Men Unlimited, a great idea by Marvel (that they replicated with other characters and, of course, stole from DC, who had already done it with the Justice League) – an anthology quarterly (more or less) that takes place in continuity, could lead into the regular titles if need be, but basically allowed creators to tell standalone stories. Not all of them were great, and even the ones I think you should own aren’t the greatest comics you’re ever going to read, but they’re really interesting stories set in the corners of the X-Universe, and that’s where some creators can do some cool work. I’m not going to spend too much time on digging into the themes of each issue, because they’re really not that deep – I’m just going to do a quick overview of them and explain why they’re pretty keen. Out of the 50 issues of the first series, 20 are worth a look, while the second series lasted only 14 issues and didn’t really have too much that was noteworthy. Let’s get to it! Some SPOILERS, but I’ll try to keep them at a minimum! And, as always, you can click on the images to enlargen them!

Issue #1: “Follow the Leader” by Scott Lobdell (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciler), Dan Panosian (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer). Lobdell gets things going with an intense tale right out of the gate, as Cyclops, Storm, and Professor X are ambushed as they leave the Savage Land (never mind why they’re there!) and they have to survive in a blizzard while the person who ambushed them is hunting them. Scott lost his glasses, so he can’t open his eyes, and Storm is a bit incapacitated because whatever hit them “tore and shred at the very womb of Mother Earth” (well, that can’t be good). It’s a rip-snorting tale of survival, and each character learns something about themselves and the others. Lobdell, working in the finest Claremontian tradition, tends to use five words when one would do, but he gives it his all, you can’t say he doesn’t. Scott and Charles finally come to a sort of new kind of relationship, one where Scott is finally able to treat Xavier as an equal – he doesn’t quite get there, but close enough – and Ororo comes to terms with her break-up with Forge, which had just recently happened in the regular books (see what I mean about these comics being for more hardcore fans?). The villain is Siena Blaze, one of the “Upstarts,” who were briefly menacing the X-Men back in the early Nineties – some of them were the children of some older X-foes, and they were all playing a “game” in which killing mutants earned them points. They kind of petered out after a while, but they were fun for a bit. This isn’t her first appearance, but Lobdell does a good job explaining what her powers are (she fires electromagnetic bursts, which – as Storm noted – do a lot of damage to the earth’s magnetic field) and showing how unhinged she really is. It’s a good set-up: three mutants, not exactly powerless but hindered, hunted by a very powerful and slightly psychotic mutant. The blizzard allows Lobdell to engage in some character development, and even bring in a mysterious character who helps Xavier when he gets lost in the storm (we don’t find out who it is in this issue, but it’s pretty clearly Magneto). It’s the kind of issue that might once have been part of the regular book (we all remember Uncanny X-Men #205, right?), but which was increasingly being phased out in favor of plot churn. Which is why it was keen that Marvel created this book for stuff like this.

Bachalo, meanwhile, kills it on the art. This was before he became more abstract, so he and Panosian really go heavy on the hatching, but for a story like this, with a lot of damage done to Blackbirds and wounds on the characters, it works nicely. Scott, Ororo, and Xavier look like they’ve been in a plane crash, and it makes their situation a bit more dire. His use of Kirby Krackle around Scott’s eyes when he’s trying to hold back his optic blasts is very keen, as we get a good sense of how powerful they are and how difficult it is for Scott to contain them. He has a ton of fun drawing giant snowflakes, so that they appear to be overwhelming our heroes whenever they step outside, adding to the pressure they’re under. His ambush scene is terrific – we get a full-page splash of energy ripping the jet apart, and then Storm and Cyclops working together to land the plane without killing them all, and Bachalo makes it exciting, tense, and beautifully orchestrated. When Storm tries to figure out what’s wrong with the Earth’s magnetic field, Bachalo gives us a riot of thick lines, and Oliver colors it wonderfully, making it a crazy-quilt of sickening hues, showing us why Storm breaks down – on the next page, Bachalo shrinks her against a backdrop of snow and lightning, and it’s amazing and tragic. When the X-Men cause some problems for Blaze, Bachalo does his thing where he slightly distends figures, making concrete what others might leave imaginative or up to the writer to describe. Bachalo has always been good at shifting the way we view things in his art from a “realistic” perspective to a more impressionistic one, and his work on the final confrontation between X-Men and Siena Blaze is an excellent example of it. This is really a gorgeous comic, and it’s pretty cool that Marvel got Bachalo to do it.

This might be the best-looking issue of X-Men Unlimited, although it’s not quite the best in terms of writing. But it’s a good start for the series!

Issue #2: “Point Blank” by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Jan Duursema (penciler), Dan Panosian (inker), Keith Williams (inker), Jimmy Palmiotti (inker), Joe Rubinstein (inker), Marie Javins (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). Fabian Nicieza has never been a great writer, but he really knocked it out of the park with “Point Blank,” which is about a German soldier who is tasked with killing Magneto if Magneto returns (this came out in July 1993, at a time when Magneto had just returned from yet another trip into the afterlife). Adrian Eiskalt has an agenda – in the opening of the book, he’s talking to a psychiatrist about the time he encountered Magneto on Wundagore Mountain and the mutant had killed his brother, who was trying to surrender. He can’t get past it, and thoughts of revenge haunt his mind. Meanwhile, we also get a bit of a biography of Magneto, courtesy of Gabrielle Haller, who’s giving a lecture at Empire State University about Magneto, in which we get his full name – Erik Magnus Lehnsherr – for the first time. She mets with Eiskalt because people in her government and in the American government want to come up with a way to capture Magneto, and Eiskalt is their chosen predator. Meanwhile, we’re getting hints that Magneto will soon return – Exodus shows up to offer a mutant passage to Avalon, the asteroid which is being prepared for Magneto’s return, and some other rumors are floating around. Haller and Moira MacaTaggart talk, giving us more Magneto history. Nicieza does a nice job incorporating the history of the X-Men’s greatest villain into the narrative, and as this was a time when Magneto wasn’t an out-and-out villain but a more nuanced character, there’s a lot to go over, and Eiskalt continues to see different sides of the man, sides he can’t reconcile with the butcher who killed his brother. A research lab in the States, headed by a man that I hope Nicieza implied deliberately is Jewish, comes up with a suit that will shield Eiskalt from Magneto, as it contains no metal and can displace energy wavelengths so Magneto won’t be able to see Eiskalt unless the man is standing right in front of him. They give him a weapon that’s a glorified TASER, and Eiskalt, who’s only supposed to capture Magneto, tells no one that he modifies it so it will kill. Then he goes hunting, finding him back at Wundagore Mountain. Obviously, he doesn’t kill Magneto, because it’s, you know, Magneto, but Nicieza does a really excellent job with the final confrontation. The entire book is really well done – it’s a clever recap of Magneto’s career to that point, an interesting way someone could take him out, and a main character who has his own demons to confront and isn’t sure he can. Eiskalt is the kind of character who works in this series – he’s a one-off, but he has a large impact on the life of a bigger character, and through him, Nicieza can examine prejudice, rage, fear, and shame without worrying about the consequences going forward. It’s a terrific story.

Duursema wasn’t quite as good as she’d become later in her career, and as this is 1993, it does feel a bit like she’s “Image-izing” her art, which is something far too many good artists did around this time. It’s certainly not bad art, but everyone’s thighs are a bit too big, their hair a bit too spiky and/or long, their chins a bit too square, and it just makes the look of the book a bit odder than it should be. Her Eiskalt, despite his on-point hair style, is really good, as he wrestles with his demons as he tries to exorcise the one in front of him. The final few pages are wonderful, as he breaks down because he failed to kill his demon. The book is busy, but not in a bad way – Duursema does a very nice job with the layouts, so that it’s easy to read even as we get a lot of visual information. She’s good at faces, too, despite the “x-treeeeem” Nineties aesthetic of making everyone angry all of the time. There are a lot of angry people in the book, but when Exodus offers only Phantazia a place in Avalon, leaving out the Blob, Pyro, and the Toad, after she rejects him to stay with her friends and they don’t seem to care, Duursema does a really nice job with the disappointment on her face. This isn’t Duursema’s greatest work, but it’s clear she’s a very good artist who is coming into her own.

Overall, this is another excellent issue of the new series. I’m not sure if it’s the best thing I’ve ever read by Nicieza, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Granted, I’m not a big fan, but even if you are, this has to be one of the best things he’s done, right?

Issue #3: “The Whispers Scream” by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mike McKone (penciler), Mark McKenna (inker), Steve Moncuse (inker), Mick Gray (inking assistant), Dana Moreshead (colorist), and Joe Rosen (letterer). This isn’t quite as good as issue #2, but Nicieza still does a nice job with it, as he tells a nice Sabretooth story that ends up with Creed living at the mansion, with several dire consequences for the team in the regular title. It’s actually a bit of a creepy story, as we begin with Maverick – hey, it’s Maverick! – finding dead priests in a Spanish church, with Nicieza setting the scene well. Sabretooth, of course, killed the priests, and he escapes from Maverick, but not before telling him that he no longer has “Birdy” to alleviate his madness, and there is a reason he’s killing people. Nicieza, in the grand tradition of old-school Marvel comics, manages to explain a little bit about who Birdy was (she’s dead) and why her death has pushed him over the edge, and Maverick knows he needs Wolverine’s help. Nicieza has him stupidly attack Xavier’s mansion (non-lethally, of course), which feels like just an excuse to have some action in the book, as some of the other pages have a lot of exposition about why Sabretooth is doing what he’s doing, so I get it, but it’s still a bit dumb. Logan isn’t around, so Maverick asks for the X-Men’s help. Nicieza brings in Silver Samurai, who’s always fun to see, as he has a telepath in his employ whom Sabretooth thinks can help alleviate the problems in his head. When that fails, he – naturally – goes after Xavier. Oh dear.

It’s a good, tense thriller, and Nicieza does well building it. We learn some things about Sabretooth that make him both more sympathetic and more repugnant, and once he reaches the X-mansion, his confrontation with Xavier – who doesn’t take the easy way out, as Birdy did – is very well done. Even Rogue is able to understand Creed a bit more, as she accidentally touches him during a fight and gets hit with the full force of what he’s going through. Sabretooth is a killer, and it’s harder to redeem him than Rogue herself (you might say she “killed” Carol Danvers, but it was clearly an accident), and Nicieza wisely doesn’t do that (and, of course, Creed doesn’t work too hard at it in the regular series after this issue), but it’s still a nice look into what might make someone turn into such a dark person, with no hope of a better life. It’s a tragic story, and Nicieza makes sure that even though it’s tragic, Creed is still a monster. The balancing act works well.

McKone does his typical yeomanlike work – he’s never been a superstar, but he’s a good, solid superhero artist, and that’s in evidence here. His thin, precise line always works with a character like Maverick, with his overly-Nineties uniform (someone like Mark Texeira, who has also drawn Maverick, doesn’t do as well with it), and he’s on-point with hair, which might sound weird, but, I mean, everyone’s hair looks great. McKone never really uses motion lines, so his sense of action is dependent on the way he poses the characters, and he’s pretty good at it – there are a few panels with awkward poses, but nothing egregious. Moncuse’s inks, I think, make his lines a bit rougher, but not to the art’s detriment (I’m far more familiar with McKenna’s inks, which is why I think the rougher ones are by Moncuse, but I could, of course, be completely wrong), and both inkers keep McKone’s art clean and clear. In both flashbacks, McKone does nice work digging into Sabretooth’s psyche, showing us both the monster and the innocent child Creed has been. It’s nice work.

Another good issue for X-Men Unlimited. Plus, that awesome Sienkiewicz cover. Issue #4, sadly, did not continue the trend (although it’s not the worst issue in the world). But that’s okay – it’s the beauty of standalone issues!

Issue #5: “Hard Promises” by John Francis Moore (writer), Liam Sharp (penciler), Kevin Conrad (inker), Steve Moncuse (inker), Robin Riggs (inker), Matthew Ryan (inker), Marie Javins (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). The X-Men in space, as I have famously said, is a dicey proposition at best, but writers can’t seem to resist sending them there! I don’t hate the idea, but usually it turns into a Shi’ar story or a Starjammers story, and those, sadly, tend not to be as interesting as X-Men stories. It’s true! In X-Men Unlimited #5, however, Moore writes what is essentially a Shi’ar-versus-Kree story, but because Jubilee is his focal point, he’s able to ground it a bit better and keep it within the realm of the X-Men, which makes it resonate much more. Plus, a lot of “X-Men-in-space” stories go on and on and on and … Moore has only one (albeit longer) issue to tell his story, so he doesn’t fall into the multi-issue trap!

Some X-Men are in Shi’ar-Land, thanks to the absolute rudeness of a Shi’ar emissary, who basically abducts Xavier, Storm, Forge, and Jubilee to Hala, the Kree homeworld, for ceremonies joining the two empires … under Shi’ar rule, of course (the Kree get kicked around a lot in the Marvel U, man). When they arrive, Moore makes some obvious observations about the destruction war brings and how paradise is built on the bones of the conquered – nothing original, of course, but something worth remembering. Jubilee neither knows nor cares what’s going on, so while Storm and Forge decry the slaughter, she simply bugs out (making sure to rip her clothing a bit, because it’s 1994 and she’s so x-treeeeem!) and finds a Kree teenager to hang with … for a moment, until her ragey brother shows up and hustles her off. A moment later, that same dude tries to assassinate Deathbird (who’s back in the Shi’ar good graces and has been named viceroy of the Kree territories) and, when that fails, he commits suicide. Jubilee, naturally, has stumbled into a Kree conspiracy to rebel against the Shi’ar!

Moore actually does a nice job with the pseudo-complexities of the story (I mean, it’s still a superhero story, even if there’s some nuance). Using Jubilee, who’s always been ignorant and/or scornful of protocol, as the POV character, basically, allows him to point out the absurdity of some of what’s going on, as Jubilee has always been keen to point out absurdities, but also to make the emotional scenes feel a bit rawer, as she’s not an adult like Storm and Forge, and is therefore less able to contain her emotions. Jubilee is offended that the Shi’ar ignore her, which leads her into the bad part of town, where the Kree girl – Shym’r – finds her and takes her to the rebels – probably not the wisest thing she could have done, but she’s also a kid. Moore wisely gives us a whole variety of participants – Deathbird wants to kill all the Kree rebels, of course, while Lilandra is more willing to meet with them. The rebel leader is open to talk, but one of his subordinates is more than happy to carry through a terrorist attack that might destroy Hala itself. Moore does go a bit “kumbaya” on us at the end, but it works because the character are well done and his point is good: superficial things like someone being the same race shouldn’t necessarily mean they’re allies with us, as some people – no matter their race! – are just dicks. It’s nice that Moore gives us different kinds of people – the X-Men, Kree, and Shi’ar – working together, while also acknowledging that just having a brief common purpose doesn’t necessarily mean everything will work out, and just because someone is a dick doesn’t mean they’re not useful. He also does a nice job showing how duty can interfere with our feelings, as the book doesn’t end exactly how you think it will. Even in the context of an X-book and their history of commenting on race relations and “otherness,” it’s a surprisingly nuanced story.

Sharp is a good artist for it, too. This is relatively early in his career – he was in his mid-20s at the time – but he had already developed his distinctive style, and like a lot of young artists, his insistence on drawing every line actually helps him here, as we get a world full of beauty but with ugliness on the fringes. He does really nice work with the architecture, as the Shi’ar are housed in opulent palaces with fecund gardens while many of the Kree struggle in the slums. Sharp designs gorgeous finery for the ceremony, which he hatches with incredible detailing, so the clothes look real, despite the oddness of the fashion. He adds strange little details, like fish swimming through the air, to make the scene a bit more alien. His characters are all, naturally, buff and beautiful, but that doesn’t mean that Sharp doesn’t know how to do excellent facial expressions, from the Krees’ despair over their plight to Jubilee’s anger at the unfairness of the universe to Deathbird’s menace. It’s a very emotional story, and because some of the characters don’t have eyeballs (Storm because that’s the way it is, the Shi’ar and Kree because they’re weirdo aliens), Sharp needs to do some more work than you usually need when characters can emote more with their eyes. He’s up to the challenge. It’s another busy book, and at this point in his career, Sharp did have some trouble with layouts, but thanks to his gorgeous line work, it’s not as much of a nuisance as it might otherwise be. I don’t know how cognizant Marvel editors were of matching artists to a particular story, but Sharp works really well with alien stuff, which makes this a beautiful comic.

See? I can deal with the X-Men in space, as long as they don’t overstay their welcome! Another good entry for the “Unlimited”! The next issue was a Sauron story, and it was … fine. Not worthy enough to make the cut, though!

Issue #7: “Memories” by Howard Mackie (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Joe Rubinstein (inker), Matt Webb (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). Mackie is another writer who doesn’t seem to move the meter very much – he’s competent, but nothing special – yet when Marvel gave him just a bit of freedom on X-Men Unlimited, he responded with a strong story about Ororo heading back to Cairo to meet with her old thief mentor. Now, granted, this isn’t Morrison-level writing here, but it’s a good story, and Mackie gets to add a nice amount of character development, which is why these longer issues are such a good idea – there’s plenty of action, but the writers don’t have to be beholden to it all the time. Storm takes Gambit (a nice touch, taking another thief) and Jean (because they’re … buddies?) to see Achmed el-Gibar, the master thief of Cairo, who’s dying. There’s a bit of a power struggle over who’s going to lead the thieves once Achmed is gone, as Jamil, an angry teenager, thinks he should take over, but he’s so very, very angry that it might not be a good idea. Candra of the Externals shows up and tries to get Jamil on her side, promising him a lot of vague things about power. Karina, another thief, decides to help Storm and X-Men because she likes Jamil and doesn’t want him to fall into Candra’s clutches. So this is a nice Faustian thing going on, and Mackie does a nice job showing how kind Storm is and how insidious Candra can be – she’s not necessarily unkind to Jamil, but Mackie does a good job showing that their relationship would not be exactly equal if Jamil went with her. There’s the generational question, of kids not wanting to follow in their parents’ footsteps (Achmed isn’t Jamil’s father, of course, but close enough), how to learn what’s best for yourself, how to stand up for yourself, and how to distinguish true kindness from disguised self-interest. Candra doesn’t really tell Jamil much, but Mackie does a pretty good job showing that she might not even be that bad – sure, she wants Jamil to come with her, but she doesn’t force him. She’s more of a temptress than anything, and it’s actually a nice move by Mackie to show that some people might actually want the life she offers. Readers don’t have to know Candra’s convoluted history to get what’s going on, and they certainly don’t need to know what happens to Jamil (which is ludicrous even by X-Men standards), because Mackie is telling a nice, timeless story, incorporating Storm’s history well (glossing over the fact that her parents were killed in the Suez Crisis, which never fails to crack me up) and doing a good job with the characters. That’s always nice to see.

This was during what I think of as “Peak Romita Years,” when JRjr had become a master at his craft and had not reached that point where he started experimenting a bit with his style. Rubinstein is a bit of a heavier inker than, say, Al Williamson on Romita’s Daredevil work, so his art doesn’t look quite as delicate as it did on that book, but that’s okay, because the setting – a gritty, somewhat poor desert city – meshes well with the rougher inks. Romita does very nice work giving us a sense of place – he creates dark, labyrinthine alleys and rough buildings to show the underbelly of Cairo, but he also shows its opulence as well, and he gives it a good, Middle Eastern style, both with the mosques he places in some scenes and the clothing the characters wear. You know what Romita’s art looks like, people! Webb’s colors are great, too, as he makes sure everything is a bit drab (I’ve been to Cairo and I live in a desert, and “drab” is, sadly, a good adjective) even though the book, like most Marvel books of this time, is pretty bright (glossy paper and bright colors even when the colors are dark does that). It also provides a good contrast to Candra, whose cherry-red outfit stands out among the dun-colored clothing of many of the other characters. It’s a good choice.

It’s really best if you don’t know what happened to Jamil after this story. It’s … wow, it’s bizarre. Let’s move on!

Issue #8: “First Contact” by Howard Mackie (writer), Dan Lawlis (penciler), Tom Grummett (penciler), Ian Akin (inker), Matt Webb (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). Mackie’s back in town with an even better story (although the art isn’t quite as good as Romita’s!) in issue #8, giving us another kind of story that I’d love to see more of in the regular series: focused on a teenager who begins to manifest his mutant powers, and the X-Men are a mysterious presence well into the story as Chris (the dude’s name is Chris) starts thinking something is seriously wrong with him. As you might recall, I dig stories about “normal” characters interacting with the DC or Marvel superhero universe for the first time, so making us see the story through Chris’s eyes helps lend it that weirdness, “what-the-hell-is-happening” vibe that Chris experiences, and we get his paranoia about the strange people hanging out around his school (although, because he’s a teenager, he also thinks Jean Grey is smoking hot). The story begins with Chris exhibiting some kind of electric power, but he still goes to school, finally asks a cute girl out, gets freaked out by Jean and Gambit, who are keeping tabs on him, and finally has a meltdown in the bathroom, from which Jean and Gambit rescue him. The cool thing about the story is that Mackie treats it like a coming-out tale, as Chris isn’t ready to accept what’s going on, his parents aren’t sure how to react, and his friends certainly don’t know how to deal with him. Despite the X-Men’s long-standing civil rights component, ever since its inception, mutant-ness has been linked to puberty, and as society has become more open, mutant-ness has been more linked to sexuality, so Chris’s “coming-out” as a mutant can be linked to the idea of sexual identity that so many people have to go through. Mackie does a very good job with this, keeping us on our toes with how the characters react to Chris’s situation, and it helps make the story more realistic … which it needs, naturally, as Chris is shooting lightning out of his fingers a lot. Chris goes to Xavier’s school, and he bonds with Bobby most notably, and then he contracts the Legacy virus, which bums him out quite a bit, naturally. I never liked the Legacy virus, and I don’t here, but it does allow Chris to ponder his life a bit more and figure out what’s important to him. It’s a nice story about acceptance – Chris has to accept what he is and what that means, while others have to decide if they’re going to accept him. Mackie pushes the parallels to real-life situations a bit because they’re so obvious, but the book isn’t too heavy-handed. This is just a nice story about a situation that happens in the Marvel Universe, one we often only hear about in flashback (such as when an X-Man reminisces), and Mackie does a good job with it.

There’s not really a whole lot to say about the art. Grummett and Lawlis are fine – bland, workmanlike, easy to read, but not spectacular – and Webb’s digital coloring, which makes Chris’s effects light things in occasionally weird ways – is the highlight of the illustrated part of the book, frankly. There’s really not too much to say about the art – it’s just good, solid, kind of forgettable superhero art. That’s kind of always been Grummett’s thing, and while I’m not as familiar with Lawlis’s work, he has it done, too.

Chris shows up again in issue #15, which isn’t as good, and then he had a brief career in the regular titles, but like Jamil above, it’s probably best if we don’t get into that. Moving on, would Mackie make it three in a row with issue #9? Well, no, because he didn’t write it. But it’s still pretty keen!

Issue #9: “Horse Latitudes” by Larry Hama (writer), Val Semeiks (penciler), Bob McLeod (inker), Tom Vincent (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). Belasco is an oddly popular villain for the X-Men Unlimited writers, as he’s the bad guy in this issue and another one coming down the pike (two might not sound like a lot, but it’s two more than I would have expected), and because it’s Belasco, that means the Caribbean (don’t ask me why; it’s the guy’s bailiwick), and that means Lee Forrester, and it’s never not a time for a Lee Forrester story! (If you accuse me of having a bit of a crush on Lee Forrester, I would not deny that accusation.) Lee finds a man on a raft floating in the middle of the sea, muttering crazily about “Bloodscream,” so she calls in the X-Men – Beast, Psylocke, and Wolverine, who knows “Bloodscream” (this book came out in late 1995, perhaps the height of the ridiculousness that was Nineties Marvel, hence “Bloodscream,” even though, technically, he was created in 1989). A bunch of ships and their crews have been going missing, and when the X-Men investigate, they find Bloodscream, who fancies himself a pirate (he was a pirate when he was alive, back in the 16th century, so he really leans into it). He’s controlling the missing crews with his mind (which he can do, apparently) and delivering them to Belasco, for … reasons. Don’t worry about it! The X-Men land on Belasco’s island and find him up to shenanigans involving … hey, is that the N’Garai? It’s old home week at X-Men Unlimited! Belasco wants to access the N’Garai dimension because of, well, I mean, with dudes like this, it’s all about power, ain’t it? Again, don’t worry about it!

I mean, yes, this is a bit goofy. It’s supernatural bad dudes fighting while the X-Men kind of get in the way and Lee Forrester saves the day because Lee Forrester is the motherfucking bomb. But, come on, it has a weird monstrous dude with lit firecrackers in his hair, Belasco getting impaled by a giant demon (doesn’t kill him, though), and Psylocke using her motherfucking psychic knife (“the focused totality of my psychic powers!”) on a motherfucking shark. It’s a high-pitched, frenzied adventure that feels deadly serious but doesn’t take itself too seriously, something Hama tends to be pretty good at. Semeiks is a good artist for this, too, as he designs a very weird Bloodscream (obviously, he’s working from a template, but he has fun with the creature) and a nice, ragey Belasco, and his N’Garai are bigger and buffer than, say, Cockrum’s (they’re not as scary as Byrne’s, but that’s partly because of the tone of Byrne’s story). This is glorious 1990s excess, but because Semeiks is better than a lot of the Image artist knock-offs and also because he really didn’t adapt his style too much to the “Image era” of comics, the art is demented in its own beautiful way, not in an annoying and obnoxious way. Vincent’s colors are wonderful, too – you can’t say the comics of this era weren’t vibrant!

There’s not much else to say about this. It’s fun as all heck, it has Betsy in a bikini, and it has Lee Forrester kicking ass and reminding us all that maybe, juuuuuust maybe, Scott would have been better off trawling the tropics with her. Ah, there’s no “maybe” about it!

Issue #10: “Need to Know” by Mark Waid (writer), Frank Toscano (penciler), Nick Gnazzo (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Matt Webb (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). In terms of story, this is probably the best issue of X-Men Unlimited, which isn’t surprising, as Waid is a good writer. It probably had the biggest impact on the regular titles, too, as Waid makes a major change to the status quo, at least for a while. It’s a very clever issue, with an unexpected ending that hits pretty hard because it’s not something that usually happens in an X-title. In this issue, the “Age of Apocalypse” Henry McCoy, the “Dark Beast,” is now trapped in the regular reality, and he’s trying to stay away from this reality’s Mr. Sinister, as he was once Sinister’s slave in the Age of Apocalypse. The Age of Apocalypse was probably the most successful “Big Event” in X-Men history, and the fact that they brougth a few characters into the “real” reality was very clever, because we get things like this story. McCoy is trying to figure out what makes the “real” Beast tick, and he’s going around visiting people and places from Hank’s past to do that (pretending to be the Good McCoy, of course). We get an interesting backstory of the Beast from the perspective of people who knew him, which is a good one, as it allows us to see how was a nerd even before when he could “pass” as a regular human, and while he had a thirst for knowledge that the Evil McCoy shares, growing up with people who were able to teach him the value of life meant he didn’t become a sadistic scientist like his dark doppelgänger. Waid shows how nasty Evil McCoy is, as he simply kills everyone he talks to, a few in particularly nasty ways (I mean, it’s all nasty, because he kills them, but one he just blows up, which is at least quick). His last stop is to see Hank’s parents, and while we’re almost completely sure Evil McCoy isn’t going to kill them off, Waid does a really good job building the tension so that we’re really not sure (they survive, of course). Meanwhile, our hero is trying to find the cure for the Legacy virus, and he’s burning the candle at both ends. He’s very much obsessed, he’s not sleeping (or eating, or drinking), and Bobby and Professor Xavier are getting worried. Bobby tries to get him to leave the lab, but Hank won’t do it, until he gets a cryptic message from someone and decides to track them down. That … is a mistake, as Evil McCoy is sending the messages in an attempt to lure Good McCoy to an abandoned warehouse (Hank even thinks to himself how stupid it is to go in alone, but he does anyway) and trap him, which he does. In a nice twist of the knife, Waid actually has Evil McCoy defeat Hank, whom he then bricks up inside a wall, “Cask of Amontillado”-style. He then goes on his merry way, replacing Hank in the X-Men as a way to hide from Sinister, “in plain sight,” as he says. It’s a terrific ending to a tense story, and Evil McCoy stayed with the X-Men for a bit, although they didn’t do quite as much with it as they could have. It’s still a clever story.

The story works so well because Waid is able to build the tension nicely, but also because he understands Hank’s nature and how easily that could turn evil. Obviously, superheroes in general tend to fall on the worrisome side of obsession, and it doesn’t take too much to make them act a bit squirrelly, but Hank has always been that kind of “mad scientist” type who we could easily see going too far. In this issue, Waid expands upon the Evil McCoy from the AoA, showing us someone who’s willing to experiment far beyond the bonds of ethics in order to push the limits of science. He doesn’t see this as necessarily a bad thing (he knows he’s evil, but he thinks science is too important to worry about morality), and that provides a good contrast to Hank, who doesn’t go too far. However, Evil McCoy pushes all the right buttons with Hank when he confronts him, pissing him off by mocking him about his ethics and driving him further into a rage when he reveals that he’s killed a lot of people in Hank’s life. Hank is a “Beast,” after all, and Evil McCoy knows that he can be pushed past his rational mind, because Dark Beast himself has given into that. Then, when he thinks he might have pushed Hank too far and the Beast will simply kill him, he wins by once again appealing to Hank’s scientific curiosity – if he dies, Hank will never know where he came from. This kind of trope is a bit clichéd (I don’t know how clichéd it was in 1995, but it felt like I’d seen it before when I first read this, so I guess it was around), but it works here because of who Hank is (if it had been me, I’d have just killed him and not worried about it), and his hesitation allows Evil McCoy to triumph. It fits the character well, which is why it works. Waid ends the story on a downbeat, obviously, but he gets there in an interesting way.

I don’t have much to say about the art. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything else drawn by Toscano and Gnazzo, and they seem like those pencilers who bubbled up in the mid-1990s when everyone was looking for artists who would draw vaguely like the Image founders but not cost as much. The art is exaggerated and cartoony like so many of those “Image knock-offs,” and it gets the job done without being all that memorable. The story is really the reason to get this comic.

Despite the art not being top-notch, this is still a terrific comic. That Mark Waid – he knows a thing or two about writing comics, doesn’t he?

Issue #11: “Adrift” by Scott Lobdell (plotter), Terry Kavanaugh (scripter), Steve Epting (penciler), Mike Miller (penciler), Mike Sellers (inker), Al Milgrom (inker), Scott Koblish (inker), Harry Candelario (inker), Matt Webb (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). The mid-1990s in the X-Universe was dominated by Onslaught, which led to Bastion and the “Friends of Humanity”/”Humanity’s Last Stand,” an idea with some merit that went on interminably and ended poorly, but the writers had to buy in, so in this issue, we get a Bastion story, one which isn’t bad at all because Bastion is kind-of, sort-of a peripheral presence in the book? (I mean, he’s the main villain, but he’s still kind of peripheral.) Rogue finds herself in South Carolina, working as a hostess in a diner (this was when she was taking a sabbatical from the X-Men) and rooming with a single mom and her son. The mom, Melody, visits a Humanity’s Last Stand office in her town because she’s bought into the fear about mutants. She tells them about Rogue, but can’t handle the guilt, so she tells Rogue. Unfortunately, Bastion and his armor-plated goons attack and capture her (paying little attention to the safety of Melody’s son, of course), but “Joseph” (Magneto – sort of – in his de-aged and super-hot stage) has infiltrated the organization and rescues her. They fight back against Bastion and the baddies, and when they triumph, they eliminate prejudice forever! Okay, maybe not. Obviously, in the Marvel U., there’s always going to be anti-mutant prejudice, and Lobdell and Kavanaugh do a decent job showing how stupid prejudice really is, even though they don’t change anything. Bastion is willing to sacrifice humans and blame it on mutants, but the humans are too blinded by their fear and hatred to see it (to be fair, both the writing and art don’t do the best job conveying Bastion’s plan and the humans don’t get much time to react to it). Melody, who started the whole thing, apologizes to Rogue when it’s all over, and that’s not a bad thing, as generally prejudice can only be overcome on a case-by-case basis, sadly enough. In a nice twist, Rogue has to overcome her own prejudice concerning Joseph, as she struggles to overcome her bias against his Magneto-ness (he and Rogue were close when they were in the Savage Land together, so her history comes into it a bit). It’s not the deepest story, but at least it has some things on its mind beyond the obvious “Bastion be evil, racist humans are jerks” plot.

Epting doesn’t draw much of this, but it’s interesting that even early in his career, he’s significantly better than Miller – Miller exaggerates a bit too much, and his cartoony style doesn’t fit the story quite as well as Epting’s rougher, more realistic style (Miller seems a bit close-minded himself, which makes him drawing a X-comic a bit ironic). There’s not too much to say about the art – it’s fine, and while it’s a bit busy in places, it tells the story reasonably well. Magneto-as-Joseph always looks a bit ridiculous, which his long, flowing locks and his super-hot face, but that’s just the way it is. It’s a mid-1990s Marvel comic, and that should tell you all you need to know about the interior art.

Issues #12 and #13 are fine, but nothing special. Let’s move on to issue #14!

Issue #14: “Innocence Lost” by Terry Kavanaugh (writer), Jim Cheung (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Kevin Somers (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). A young Jim Cheung draws this story about Franklin Richards not handling the loss of his parents all that well (do writers ever show him in therapy? ’cause the kid needs it) and almost killing Joseph over it (Marvel in the mid-1990s really sold Magneto-as-Joseph hard). Franklin is hanging out with Artie and Leech on the McCoys’ farm, where Hank (the real Hank!), Ororo, and Gambit are getting some r-‘n’-r, but of course, there are mutant-hatin’ humans in town, and they don’t take kindly to those freaks polluting their land, so they’re off to do some killin’! You might think this is a bit too similar to issue #11 to be noteworthy, but if we eliminated all the stories in which regular humans tried to kill mutants, we’d never read an X-comic, now would we? Obviously, the mutant-hatin’ humans are just window dressing, as Kavanaugh makes them as stereotypical as possible and shows how most folks aren’t full of hatred (the “one bad apple” argument is always strong in comics, because no one wants to confront real-world problems, as they’re far too complex for superhero fiction), but the story is really about how a kid – especially one who might be the most powerful person alive – processes grief. He teleports Joseph to the farm and attacks him, almost killing him, and Gambit has to talk him down. It’s pretty well done by Kavanaugh – yes, a lot of it is clichés, but that’s because a lot of what gets said to people experiencing grief is cliché, but that doesn’t make it untrue. Franklin doesn’t know how to handle the emotions, and in this case, Joseph’s oddball status works for him, because he is innocent, but Franklin can’t understand that, so Joseph’s protestations make no sense to him. Anything Joseph does, including giving up and allowing Franklin to kill him, only push Franklin further into rage, because he doesn’t know what’s happening inside his head. Plus, as usual, it’s revealed that Reed Richards is a terrible father, because he knew Franklin had these powers but he never trained him in their use, so Franklin can’t stop his emotions and can’t stop his powers once he gets worked up. The anti-mutant stuff is the window dressing, but Franklin’s acceptance of his grief is the heart of the story.

Cheung’s art is pretty good, although it’s much more cartoony than it would later be. He does a nice job with Franklin’s nightmare to begin the story, but his mutant-hatin’ humans are a bit too goofy to take too seriously. He does a nice job laying out the scenes where Franklin attacks Joseph, which is important, and while Franklin seems to cry every tear in the world (seriously, it’s like there’s a faucet in his head), it’s done for emphasis, so I can’t fault it too much. One thing Cheung does really well is show how bad Franklin is doing even from the beginning of the story and how the adults are ignoring him. Edna McCoy says, rather stupidly: “Don’t worry ’bout the child none, either. Best thing for ‘im now, while he’s trying to adjust to his loss — for all the young ‘uns, if you ask me — is some country air, country rest …” Whenever a fiction writer writes something like this, I can’t decide if it’s satire or a misplaced nostalgia for a time that never existed, but Franklin doesn’t need “country air, country rest” and “country cookin’,” as Gambit helpfully finishes, he needs therapy, as his entire family has been wiped out by a supervillain, and no amount of Ma McCoy’s flapjacks will help with that. Kavanaugh may or may not be writing satirically, but on the same page, Cheung draws Franklin as a kid who is not okay – his face is downcast and sullen, and he’s withdrawn within himself. On the next page, Hank gets a hug from his mom, and Franklin looks in through the window, and the look Cheung draws on his face is terrific, as the child who’s lost his entire support system is wondering, “Where the hell is my hug, damn it!” It’s a nice job by Cheung, showing again why comics is such a unique and interesting medium.

Franklin eventually got his family back, and I assume Reed and Sue still ignored his great need for therapy, and Edna McCoy probably continued cooking flapjacks and dispensing meaningless homilies, and everyone moved on. Let’s do the same, as we skip a few (the return of Chris Bradley, which is just okay; a Banshee/Emma Frost story that’s not bad; a Wolverine/Sabretooth “Freaky Friday” story) and get to our next entry!

Issue #18: “Once an X-Men …” by Tom DeFalco (writer), Marcello Frusin (penciler), José Marzan Jr. (inker), Shannon Blanchard (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). Despite my disdain for Gambit, DeFalco gives us a pretty cool story about him here, as Remy is living in San Francisco in the aftermath of the X-Men discovering he helped the Marauders find the Morlocks (which led to their massacre) back in the good ol’ Claremont days. This was a big revelation in the X-books, and Rogue ended up leaving Gambit in Antarctica, of all places, but now he’s back, at least in the country, and he’s trying to figure out if he deserves and can gain redemption. He’s been stealing (off to a good start, Remy!), but only from bad dudes, but one of them is dead when he arrives, so he needs to figure out who’s killing them (easy enough) and why. He decides to stop the murders, but the killer is Hydro-Man, who’s kind of tough to fight, so Gambit has to figure that out, as well. DeFalco has him hallucinating the X-Men throughout, as they talk to him and either convince him to be a hero or point out why he’s not, and it’s not a bad device to get into Gambit’s head and show how conflicted he is. Gambit has always been written as a “bad boy” (which might be part of his charm for some people, but not me), so this is a good conflict for him to have, but DeFalco doesn’t quite pull it off, mainly because he never really convinces us that Gambit might walk away. He’s always going after Hydro-Man, so he’s always going to be a hero. Despite some of the visions saying he’s not a hero, that’s never really in doubt. Still, it’s not a bad way to show how Gambit’s time with the X-Men has changed him, as he never considers not stopping Hydro-Man. It’s just not in his make-up anymore. DeFalco actually does a pretty cool thing at the end of the book which I’m not going to spoil for you, but the growth of Gambit as a character remains. He’s still a douchebag, though.

Frusin’s art is pretty good – it’s early in his career, and he hadn’t quite evolved into the artist he would become, but the talent is certainly there. He has a cartoony style, but his thick line and use of spot blacks help keep the art grounded, and the way he draw Hydro-Man is pretty keen. There’s a pretty good sense of San Francisco – in superhero comics, the background often fades too much as the action takes over, but Frusin is able to remind us where we are quite often, and it’s neat. He can’t save Gambit’s costume, but nobody can, as it’s just that butt-ugly. Other than that, it’s a nice-looking comic.

Gambit, obviously, made his way back to the X-Men. I don’t have to like it, but at least DeFalco tried to make him interesting!

Issue #19: “Unforgiven” by Ben Raab (writer), Jim Calafiore (penciler), Mark McKenna (inker), Ian Laughlin (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer). Belasco is back, because why not, as Nightcrawler gets a solo issue (Peter and Kitty try to help, but he ditches them) and goes to Limbo to rescue his mother, with his foster sister, Amanda Sefton, along for the ride. Only there’s a twist, which I’m not going to reveal here. Belasco wants to control of whatever it is that Margali Szardos – the woman who raised Kurt – controls … some mystical thing. Amanda has apparently been sacrificing people to get to Belasco, which makes Kurt kind of upset, given that he has a thing for Amanda, but there’s a twist! Again! And again I won’t reveal it! Anyway, this is a swashbuckling adventure with very little consequence – I mean, Kurt and Amanda make out at the end, but it’s more of a good-bye kiss than anything, so other than that, this issue is just a way for Kurt to have a sword fight with Belasco, because Claremont decided a long time ago that Kurt wanted to be Errol Flynn, so every subsequent writer decided he needed to sword fight! It’s still a fun adventure, with S’ym the demon showing up, Kurt questioning his mother’s actions even though she’s always been a bit dicey, morals-wise, and Amanda taking over the rule of Limbo. Raab is another one of those not-great writers who actually comes up with a decent plot and script, even though it’s certainly not going to win any awards or anything like that. Calafiore does a very good job on the art, giving us a crazy, vertiginous Limbo full of weird creatures (not the least of which is S’ym) and interesting-looking characters. His Belasco is good, as he uses thick lines on him to make him weightier, while his naturally angular style always seems to work better on villains, who look sharper and more menacing. His Nightcrawler is terrific – both Kurt and the weird twin that Belasco keeps around as a pet – because he very much looks like a demon, and Kurt always works best when his outward appearance is scarier because it works nicely as a contrast to his gentle nature. Calafiore’s penchant for thin, precise lines and a slight lean toward overhatching means that Limbo looks both incredibly detailed and yet a bit decrepit, as Calafiore makes sure all the cracks are seen. His gate studded with skeletons is a highlight of the issue. Kurt and Belasco’s sword fight, though brief, is wonderfully rendered, as Calafiore’s crisp lines aid here, too. Calafiore’s angularity limits him in some ways, but here, it’s more of an asset than anything.

There’s not too much to say about this issue – it’s an adventure with a bit of darkness, but certainly not enough to make it a bummer. Kurt gets to rescue a damsel in distress (although she’s not in as much distress as we might think!), and he gets to defeat an odious villain (with some help). It’s nicely-written and nicely-drawn. That’s always fun!

X-Men Unlimited entered a bit of a weak period after this issue, so I’m skipping ahead a few years. When next we encounter it, it’s become even more of an anthology title, with multiple stories in each issue. Let’s take a look!

Issue #31. “Monsters” by Michael Golden (writer/artist), Gina Going (colorist), and Paul Tutrone (letterer). Golden does an odd story (mainly due to the art, which I’ll get to) in which Rogue and Jean decide to wander around a very crowded New York, which means Rogue eventually touches someone (seriously, what was she thinking?) and gets a sense of something extremely evil right near them. It turns out to be a child pornographer, and Rogue beats the shit out of him, but the “evil” thing is something different, which never gets addressed. Golden does a nice job showing how traumatic it is for Rogue, as she can’t handle the overwhelming sensations and she wrecks quite a bit before honing in on the evil dude filming children. It’s an interesting short story, and Golden’s art is part of that, although it’s definitely not Golden’s usual style. It’s not as cartoony as it often is, and his lines are much rougher than usual. He’s a bit more abstract, and his lines are thicker, and it’s a bit of a departure. Going’s colors are muted, which fits the subject matter, and it makes Golden’s art even a bit rougher, as he colors work nicely with his thicker lines to keep the art from popping too much. It’s a bit strange, but quite good, and Golden’s story is unusual for an X-Men comic, so that’s kind of neat.

“Hindsight” by Brian Stelfreeze (writer/artist/colorist) and John Costanza (letterer). Stelfreeze gives us an inconsequential story about Cyclops losing his glasses when a street gang gets in his grill, but because he’s trained, he’s able to beat them all up, Daredevil-style, without seeing them. It’s fun, and it’s worth it simply because Stelfreeze is a fine artist.

“Gold” by Steven Grant (writer), Charlie Adlard (artist), Jung Choi (colorist), and Paul Tutrone (letterer). Grant was writing X-Man at this time (it was right at the end of the run), so he gives us an X-Man story! It’s actually quite a good story – Nate finds out about a mutant who is being held prisoner on by a Japanese financier because she can turn anything to gold. So that sucks. She also can’t be in contact with oxygen, so she’s kept in a room full of pure nitrogen. The financier tries to kill Nate, but that’s dumb, and Nate rescues the girl, who would rather die than live as a prisoner. It’s a sad story, sure, but also triumphant, as it’s more about being free than being alive. Adlard’s terrific art helps the story quite well, obviously. It’s a sweet, sad, happy story.

Issue #32. “Dazzler: Beyond the Music” by Will Pfeifer (writer), Jill Thompson (artist), Atomic Paintbrush (colorist), and Paul Tutrone (letterer). Pfeifer’s story of Alison Blaire appearing on VH1’s “Behind the Music” and a mild-mannered dude named Bruce who wants to watch it (he doesn’t remain mild-mannered for long when the bar patrons start making fun of him for wanting to watch it) is one of the funniest and funnest X-stories ever, and Thompson is the perfect artist for it. The Hulk loves watching Dazzler, and Pfeifer simply goes over the highlights of Alison’s life and career, with Hulk commenting on it (and missing some of it while he’s in the bathroom) and cameos by some other Marvelites who are also commenting on it. Doom gets grumpy when the documentarians try to get him to admit that Dazzler beat him in a fight, there’s a savage Michael Jackson satire (I’d say it hasn’t aged well, but only because any references to Jackson haven’t aged well – Pfeifer certainly doesn’t pull any punches with what we did know about Jackson at the time), and Hulk has a good cry. It is, sadly, one of the best Dazzler stories ever, and it’s only 12 pages and technically, Alison only shows up in the last panel. Man, Dazzler deserves better! I love this story. It makes the entire issue worth it, but there are two more good stories to go!

“The Gift” by James Pruett (writer), Mike Deodato Jr. (artist), Jung Choi (colorist), and Sharpefont (letterer). Pruett’s story is the weakest one in the issue, but it’s not bad, just kind of mawkish. Kurt is having a bit of a crisis of faith, so he visits a priest for guidance, and naturally a gun battle breaks out on the steps of the cathedral. One of the dudes runs in and clocks the priest (who knows him from when he was a kid, of course), and the others try to flush him out, but Kurt takes care of them. The priest is able to talk the dude in the church down, and it all ends hopefully. Yay, understanding! It’s a fine story, but Deodato’s art is the highlight. This was when he was transitioning to the style he uses now, and it’s quite nice. It’s not as cartoony and bold as his mid-1990s stuff was, and it’s not quite as stylistically fascinating as his stuff is now, but there’s also not quite as much Photoshopping in evidence. His rougher lines work very well on the paper, which isn’t that glossy stuff Marvel was using in the mid-1990s, so the colors are a bit muted and the blacks are deeper, giving the story a nice, dark feel. It’s digitally colored, but due to the paper, the stuff that is patterns dropped into the space doesn’t overwhelm the line work, and it fits nicely into the aesthetic. Deodato’s Nightcrawler is excellent, too – to heighten the disconnect between Kurt’s character and what he’s talking about with regard to the reaction people have to him, Deodato makes him look very demonic – I noted that Calafiore did this in his story, and Deodato leans into it, too. It’s a nifty story that works much better due to the very nice artwork.

“All’s Swell That Ends Swell” by John Ostrander (writer), Ian Gibson (penciler), Eduardo Alpuente (inker), Jung Choi (colorist), and Paul Tutrone (letterer). Ostrander gives us a Starjammers story, which ought to make me roll my eyes (I’m not the hugest Starjammers fan), but it’s short, it’s fun, and it’s drawn by Ian Gibson, so it’s all right. Corsair takes a job to rescue a princess from a kidnapper and return her to her father, but it turns out things are not what they seem! There’s no reason for me not to spoil a 20-year-old story in an anthology series that has no bearing on anything in X-Men history, but I still won’t spoil it!!!! It’s just a fun story, drawn by a dude whose style is perfectly suited for wacky science-fiction action, and that’s all there is to it. I got nothing more to say!

Issue #33. “The Blob” by Steven Grant (writer) and Sean Phillips (artist/letterer). The Blob visits a rodeo in New Mexico and gets peeved, but a tiny, skinny dude outwits him and makes him laugh, so he doesn’t wreck the town and takes the dude under his wing. It’s a fun story because it brings up an interesting point about villains – often they’re nerds themselves, or at least unpopular people, so the fact that they become villains when they get powers isn’t too surprising. The star quarterback never becomes a villain, because why would he? Fred Dukes was obviously marginalized at some point in his life, so when he was able to fight back, he turned bad. The people who bug him in this story are the upstanding members of society, and the reason he gets mad at them are because they pick on the tiny, skinny dude who outwits the Blob (they trip the dude, and the drinks he’s carrying spill all over Fred). The Blob just wants to be left alone and watch the rodeo, but the “cool kids” (no, they’re not kids, but you know they were the “cool kids” in high school) just can’t leave well enough alone. Phillips provides really nice art – a lot of sepia tones and bright blues (Phillips nails the colors of the desert) and a lot of sharp shadows. This is still relatively early in Phillips’s career, but he’s already very good at what he does.

“Special Attraction” by Will Pfeifer (writer), Walter Taborda (artist), Jung Choi (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). The first of Pfeifer’s three stories in this issue is a fun one about a carnival owner who finds a wrecked Sentinel on the beach and uses it in his act. A dude he just hired happens to be a pretty good mechanic, and he’s convinced he can fix the thing (the “normies” don’t know what it is, apparently, or they’d have left well enough alone). He gets it working, with, well, some dire consequences. I mean, it’s a mutant-killing machine, and you never know where you’re going to find mutants! It’s a silly if dark story, and Taborda does a really nice job with the artwork. I wonder whatever happened to that Sentinel …

“The Sport of Queens” by Will Pfeifer (writer), Estaban Maroto (artist), Jung Choi (colorist), and Dave Sharpe (letterer). The best story in the issue is the one reflected on that superb Kaluta cover, and that’s a wager between Emma Frost (this story proves that Emma should always, always, always be a bad guy) and Selene, as they’re bored with the villainy they’re doing in service of the Hellfire Club, so they pick out a hunk from the Hellfire Club soldiers and bet they can make him fall in love with them. Pfeifer has fun raising the stakes, as they keep taking the dude to fancier and fancier places and showing him more and more secret schemes (they know the Oscar winners beforehand! they have a pill that allows your car to run forever! they have a time machine!) until something has to give. It’s a very fun (and also a bit dark) story, with excellent art by Maroto. Emma is horrible, and that’s how she should be! Evil Emma 4Evah!!!!

“The Grand Illusion” by Will Pfeifer (writer), Quique Alcatena (artist), Jung Choi (colorist), and Dave Sharpe (letterer). Pfeifer shows us what happened to Jason Wyngarde after Jean Grey gave him total consciousness (he’s got that goin’ for him). We know the whole thing is in his head – he fights all the X-Men, then the Avengers, then a bunch of bad guys who don’t like him before ending up on the pavement, where he’s found by Sebastian Shaw and Donald Pierce. Of course, there’s one more twist! It’s a fun little story, with great art by Alcatena, and while it’s probably not in “canon” (as Wyngarde was very active in the Paul Smith issues of Uncanny X-Men), it’s still an interesting look into his psyche.

“Survival of the Fittest” by John Ostrander (writer) and Sean Phillips (artist). Phillips uses really nice blue tones in this story of a shipwrecked man who washes up on a deserted island, but … I don’t get it. It’s wordless and only three pages long, so it’s going to be hard for Ostrander to get his point across, but it seems like … the man would rather take his chances in the jungle than with Magneto, who’s on the island? I mean, of course you would! I guess that’s the point? Whatever – it’s a beautiful if enigmatic moment.

“Lucky Day!” by Buddy Scalera (writer), Mike Collins (artist), Jung Choi (colorist), and Dave Sharpe (letterer). This one-page story has a dude for whom everything is coming up roses who gets into a taxi … driven by Sabretooth? I mean, it’s funny and all, but why is Sabretooth driving a cab? Why is he stopping for fares when he’s doing something sinister? Is that Gambit co-creator Mike Collins on art (that last one, as least, is easy: Yes, yes it is)? Poor nameless lucky dude. You’re about to have some problems.

Issue #35. “Triptych” by John Smith (writer), David Finch (penciler), Livesay (inker), Matt Milla (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). This is a pretty cool story that’s split into three parts (hence the name), with Finch doing three horizontal panels stacked on top of each other, each telling a different part of the story, until they all converge. In the top portion, Jean Grey shows up at a high school just in time to fight Sabretooth (we never find out what he’s doing there, but oh well). Meanwhile, inside the high school, a super-Goth kid is getting picked on by other students and castigated by the principal for not fitting in, but the principal forgets about him when their mutant alarm goes off and they have to scramble (the high school is in Westchester, and it’s kind of fun that they have a mutant alarm, giving the problems that town has had over the years with mutants fighting there). Finally, we see the kid’s home, where his parents are worried about him because he’s not around (the story breaks down a bit here; it looks like a normal school day, so why are they surprised he’s not at home?), and when they find out about the mutant alarm, they hurry to the school. We get a nice twist (two, in fact), and it’s a hopeful story about being different and not letting that get to you. Finch’s art is terrific – he draws a great Sabretooth – and it looks a bit more intricate than we sometimes get from him, possibly because the story is only 16 pages long and he wasn’t under any time crunch. It’s just a good, solid mutant story. Nothing wrong with that!

“Unhappy Anniversary” by Jimmy Palmiotti (writer/inker), Amanda Conner (penciler), Paul Mounts (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). Rogue goes on a road trip on the anniversary of the day she kissed that dude and her mutant powers activated, leaving him catatonic, and because this is a comic, she gets harrassed by mouth-breathing dudes in a pick-up, who run her off the road when she sasses back and cause her to crash Wolverine’s motorcycle, which she does not like. She tries to get restitution, and of course a fight breaks out, and of course they’re in a bar where women in bikinis are mud wrestling, and of course Wolverine is already there. Fun stuff all around, and Palmiotti has a good time with it, and Conner draws it beautifully. You really can’t go wrong with Palmiotti and Conner, and you won’t here!

“X-Men: The Untold Story” by Gail Simone (writer), Kevin Maguire (penciler), Wade von Grawbadger (inker), Andy Troy (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). This is another very fun story, as Simone gives us a yarn about the making of an X-Men movie, which is going poorly until the actors get taken hostage and have to fight to survive. Simone has always been good at satire, and it’s very funny here (they can only have a Sentinel foot because they’ve gone over-budget). It’s just a funny story (I mean, Lockheed-as-Jar Jar wasn’t too funny then and it still isn’t, but that’s a minor part of the humor), and Maguire, naturally, is the perfect artist for it. I’m not sure what else to say – it’s a gag story, but it works!

Issue #37 by Kaare Andrews (writer/artist), Dave McCaig (artist/colorist), Mike Kunkel (artist), Joshua Middleton (artist), Troy Nixey (artist), Skottie Young (artist), Dave Stewart (colorist), Pat Duke (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). We get a throwback to the days of one story per issue, as Andrews gets a bunch of artists to draw a multiple reality tale that has a nice heart – where do we belong, and with whom? We get a grieving father, whose wife and son were killed when the boy’s mutant power activated and burned them both, who creates a version of his son so he won’t be so lonely, but at what cost? AT WHAT COST?!?!?!? Meanwhile, Kitty is grieving Illyana, but because this is a story about multiple realities, she gets to see a version of Illyana … unfortunately, one who’s not quite as nice as the dead one from our reality. It’s a nice story – there’s a hidden bad guy, but he’s not to hard to figure out, and the other Illyana, the boy, and his father will have some hard choices to make, and Andrews makes some nice points about loss and grief and acceptance. It’s not a deep story, but it is a nice one, and it’s, as usual, the kind of story we might have seen once in the regular titles but which have gone by the boards a bit as plot churn takes over all.

Andrews has a bunch of good artists working on the issue, and their responsibilities are clearly delineated, which is nice. Kunkel draws the reality with the man and his boy, which, given Kunkel’s cartoony and slightly childlike style, works very well with the powerful emotions of the two characters, as Kunkel is never subtle about his characters’ emotions. Middleton draws the “real” reality – Earth-616, I guess – and that works, too, as Middleton has a clean, unpretentious line, and he’s the most “realistic” of the artists on the book. Andrews likes fantasy stuff, it seems, so he draws the collision of all realities, in which hundreds of X-Men, all designed differently by Andrews, clash with each other while a cold and dispassionate Illyana looks on. Young draws an odd Wolverine vignette which seems to add little to the story except to let Young draw a bunch of different Wolverines, so good for him! Nixey gets the draw the big bad and most of the big confrontation, and his archaic, Bruegelian style works perfectly for what he gets to draw. It’s a really nice blending of disparate art styles, and the book looks very cool.

I’m not sure why Marvel went back to the full-length story for this one, but good for them! There’s nothing wrong with it!

Issue #38: “Yartzeit” by Greg Rucka (writer), Darick Robertson (artist), J.D. Smith (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). Boy, Kitty mourns a lot, doesn’t she? Last issue it was Illyana, and now she’s mourning Peter, as this came out during that brief time when he was dead. Good times! Economic difficulties have overtaken comics, and this comic, once a nice thick slab of pretty pictures, is now a sad 22 pages, but that’s enough for Rucka! Kitty is acknowledging a year since Peter died in a Jewish ceremony, and she’s trying to forget about him by going to college in Chicago, far from the X-Men. She’s angry at him for dying, which she knows is selfish, but she can’t help feeling it, and then she … sees him? Maybe? He’s a cop? She freaks out, because she knows it can’t be him, but she doesn’t know what’s going on. As she talks with Kurt on the phone (a conversation that ends badly, because Kitty isn’t ready to hear the possible truth), they discuss the many possibilities of bad guys messing with her head, but this isn’t that kind of story, and it isn’t a bad guy. Kurt decides to visit, and they patch things up, and Kitty tells him more about the cop, whom she followed and who saw her, which snapped her out of whatever fantasy she was living in her head. She just needed closure, obviously, and Rucka gives it to her, as she’s able to talk through her feelings with Kurt and, eventually, apologize to the cop for stalking him. Rucka does a good job incorporating Kitty’s faith into the story, which is always interesting when it’s done well, and he shows how Kitty has grown since she first joined the X-Men, which is also pretty keen.

There’s not a ton to say about Robertson’s art – it works because it’s not flashy, and he’s not drawing a superhero story, so it stays grounded nicely. Presumably the digital coloring makes it look a bit lusher than some of his earlier work, and the colors are quite good, as the earth tones tinge it with the slightest hint of nostalgia, something Kitty is grappling with. Robertson is a good artist, and he does a good job. That’s about all there is to it.

I don’t know why this issue, particularly, is only 22 pages. Our next entry (after we skip an issue) is once again longer. Don’t ask me about the economies of publishing!!!

Issue #40. “Hunters” by Steven Grant (writer), David Finch (penciler), Livesay (inker), Guru eFX (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). Grant has always seemed like a tough guy, so of course he’d do a story in which a human hunts Sabretooth! It’s pretty good, too, as the dude is very well-prepared to take Creed down, using interesting weapons to neutralize his healing factor and luring him in to administer the kill shot … which, of course, he doesn’t do. Grant can’t kill Sabretooth, so he has to have the hunter do something stupid, as all good evil dudes do when they have their target at their mercy. Oh well. It’s still a clever story, and Finch draws it really well. It’s another short story that he can take his time on, so it’s really nicely hatched and shadowed. It’s a nifty tale.

“Animals” by Chuck Austen (writer), Clayton Henry (penciler), Mark Morales (inker), Guru eFX (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). Hey, it’s another Sabretooth story! This time, Creed is out in the wilderness when a woman in a ripped dress staggers onto is campsite. He gets her onto a ship heading for Canada (in return for … favors), but the woman is more resourceful than he thinks, and the story is fairly clever in how it plays out (which I don’t want to spoil, so I won’t). Austen doesn’t do anything too fancy, which is probably why this works far better than his Uncanny X-Men run, with its creepy sex and stupid stories. He just gets in, gives us a 15-page story, and gets out. Henry’s art is a bit more cartoony than it would later become, but it’s early in his career and he was still evolving. It’s pretty good, though, which is nice. Just a clever short story. Too bad Austen couldn’t handle multi-issue epics!

“Slam” by Nick Bertozzi (writer), Dean Haspiel (artist), Jeromy Cox (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). Juggernaut writes a poem to perform at a poetry slam because he has a huge crush on the organizer of said slam, and Toad tries to stop him. It’s awesome. Juggernaut wears a tie. Over his helmet/armor. Toad doesn’t want to follow Juggernaut because he’ll miss his yoga class. It’s far too much fun for this world!

Issue #43. “Keepsake” by Chris Claremont (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (artist), José Villarrubia (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). Claremont and Sienkiewicz reunite for a New Mutants story, which is pretty keen. Rahne gets mugged and her necklace – a fairly valuable antique – gets stolen, and the O.G.N.M. – Dani, Sam, Roberto, Shan – help her get it back. It’s a charming story, showing the bond between these characters, and it’s right in Claremont’s wheelhouse, and Sienkiewicz, of course, is amazing. I mean, look at that cover!

“Lockheed the Dragon” by Steven Grant (writer), Paul Smith (artist), Jeromy Cox (colorist), and Randy Gentile (letterer). Grant’s story is charming as well, as Lockheed, bereft because Kitty is dead (or at least Lockheed thinks so – who can tell which superhero is dead at any given moment?), is wandering the English countryside, chased by hunters, until he’s found by the Wolcroft sisters, whom he thinks are pretty swell. They take him home, but it soon becomes clear that they’re not as wonderful as Lockheed thinks, and soon he has to choose between them and their rival, a girl named Thorne. It seems the north of England is rife with witches, and they don’t like each other! In the small space he has, Grant does a clever thing – once we realize the Wolcrofts aren’t that great, he introduces Thorne, who also seems not that great, so Lockheed is stuck between two not necessarily good options. That changes, but it’s not a bad way to give the story a bit of tension. Smith doesn’t always have “it,” but this is a nicely drawn issue, with a nice sense of both whimsy and menace. It’s a neat little story.

X-Men Unlimited went on, but the stories weren’t as good, and it eventually ended with issue #50. Marvel rebooted it, but the stories in that series weren’t as good, either, and it limped to 14 issues before getting the axe. As I noted at the top, these issues aren’t brilliant, life-altering comics, and if you’re not a pretty good X-Men fan, they might not resonate with you due to the fact that they often comment on what was going on in the regular titles of the time (not all of them do, obviously, but quite a few). These have been collected in a scattershot way, often appended onto other collections thanks to their publication date and because Marvel likes to fill out a trade, so it’s probably best to pick up the issues, which, as it’s an anthology title, means you only have to get one to get a complete story! Huzzah!

So that’s X-Men Unlimited. A cool idea, some cool stories, and the kind of thing that I, for one, would like Marvel to do more of. We can dream, can’t we? In the meantime, take a look at the archives for other interesting comics!