This is a random review of issue I dug out of the boxes during the week..and it's pretty cool... I love this era of the Uncanny X-men because after a little bit of a lull after John Byrne left, Claremont had really hit his stride again. Not that the issues, the first 18 or so, that were done after Byrne were bad, far from it, it's just that they paled in comparison to what had come before when Byrne was co-plotting the book.
Byrne was better at pacing a story and making the events in a storyline unravel in the most organic way. Nothing seemed forced. During their collaboration events and circumstances took the characters along and they developed.
Claremont now was on his own plotting the book and conversation and character development carried the stories instead, with a lot of action thrown in..
Artist Paul Smith took over after Dave Cockrum left and the series looked very different. X-Men #176 was future superstar John Romita's first full art job on the book...and it looks gorgeous...
Claremont really played up the public fear of mutants during this era, and the stories are much darker than they were during the earlier run with John Byrne, and very few artists could capture urban decay or reality at Marvel at that time than Romita Jr. When he drew a subway scene or he took you into a darkened alley (visually, ahem!) you felt like you were there with the graffiti , cigarette smoke, pimps and just general urban sleaze.
This world looked a hell of a lot more dangerous than the polished and perfectly coiffured artistic world of Byrne and Terry Austin, as great as that style was. Romita, unlike Cockrum, was in tune with the zeitgeist of the era. Romita Jr. was his early 20's at the time he captured the fashions and the 'vibe' of the mid 80's perfectly.
This issue is basically the story of Cyclops and Madelyne Prior's honeymoon as the plane they are flying becomes stranded at sea. They end up being attacked by a giant octopus and they eventually escape as Cyclops blasts it into submission and the plane starts again. Pretty basic stuff. But it is obviously intended as one issue thriller in the mould of Jaws, except with an octopus, and this works really well and the sense of peril and life threatening danger is palpable.
Other important stuff happens in the form of interludes with a two page vignette with Wolverine in Japan trying back Mariko who jilted him at the alter after being brainwashed by mastermind. She tells Logan that she needs to take care of enemies in the form of the Yakuza as a matter of honor and then she may be free to be with Logan. The Morlocks plot against Shadowcat, and there is a governmental meeting discussing the 'mutant menace' and these interludes keep things moving along quite nicely outside the main plot.
Byrne was better at pacing a story and making the events in a storyline unravel in the most organic way. Nothing seemed forced. During their collaboration events and circumstances took the characters along and they developed.
Claremont now was on his own plotting the book and conversation and character development carried the stories instead, with a lot of action thrown in..
Claremont really played up the public fear of mutants during this era, and the stories are much darker than they were during the earlier run with John Byrne, and very few artists could capture urban decay or reality at Marvel at that time than Romita Jr. When he drew a subway scene or he took you into a darkened alley (visually, ahem!) you felt like you were there with the graffiti , cigarette smoke, pimps and just general urban sleaze.
This world looked a hell of a lot more dangerous than the polished and perfectly coiffured artistic world of Byrne and Terry Austin, as great as that style was. Romita, unlike Cockrum, was in tune with the zeitgeist of the era. Romita Jr. was his early 20's at the time he captured the fashions and the 'vibe' of the mid 80's perfectly.
This issue is basically the story of Cyclops and Madelyne Prior's honeymoon as the plane they are flying becomes stranded at sea. They end up being attacked by a giant octopus and they eventually escape as Cyclops blasts it into submission and the plane starts again. Pretty basic stuff. But it is obviously intended as one issue thriller in the mould of Jaws, except with an octopus, and this works really well and the sense of peril and life threatening danger is palpable.
Other important stuff happens in the form of interludes with a two page vignette with Wolverine in Japan trying back Mariko who jilted him at the alter after being brainwashed by mastermind. She tells Logan that she needs to take care of enemies in the form of the Yakuza as a matter of honor and then she may be free to be with Logan. The Morlocks plot against Shadowcat, and there is a governmental meeting discussing the 'mutant menace' and these interludes keep things moving along quite nicely outside the main plot.
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