#xmv2n3

Well this is it. This is Chris Claremont’s final issue of X-Men. Not counting when he comes back later. That’s not this Chris Claremont. That’s a different Chris Claremont. More importantly, this is the dead end halt of his 17 year run on the X-Men comic series, and the end of a meticulous long line of storytelling. It’s rushed. It’s abrupt. And you can tell there was a lot more in the hopper that gets unceremoniously dropped in the garbage bin with this issue. I’ve finally read it all, with the conclusion of this issue. This is actually going to be the last comic I cover for the ol’ blog for a while, but more on that later. For better or worse, let’s just read and enjoy this last issue, as if we have no idea it’s bringing everything to an end, much like I did when I was 12 years old. (X-Men Vol. 2 #3 – Dec 1991)

You’d think they would have saved this big X-Men A-team vs X-Men B-team fight for some big climactic story, but with Claremont leaving so quickly I guess they didn’t have time to build up to anything. “Chris, set up the biggest selling comic book series of all time, and then GIT ALL YOUR SHIT AND GIT OUT!!” I wonder if that’s what it was like. “AND DON’T FORGET YOUR CARDBOARD BOX OF BALL GAGS.” (X-Men Vol. 2 #3 – Dec 1991)

Holy shit Forge and Banshee are still on the team? I had no memory of this, likely because they, like Jubilee, were left out of the iconic 5 variant cover of X-Men Volume 2 #1, which I had assumed included every member of the team (there were 5 different covers for crying out loud, and they couldn’t fit these guys on there??). I mean, even X-Factor were allowed on those covers, way in the background. How disrespectful! Man, getting on those covers must have been like some kind of reality TV show popularity contest. Anyway, it’s fitting that this story ends in the upper atmosphere, where so many of Chris Claremont’s climactic X-Men moments took place. Is it just me? Or is there a bittersweet sense of regret in these pages, subtly placed there, perhaps unintentionally. Oh to be a fly on the wall at Marvel during the genesis of these changing times. (X-Men Vol. 2 #3 – Dec 1991)

And unfortunately, this is going to be the last post from me for a while. I’m going to write a review for this reading, which will encapsulate everything I read since my last review, everything since Inferno, but I don’t know how long that’s going to take to write and get posted. After that, I guess we’ll see. I’m still going back and forth on whether to continue making new posts on the X-Men material that follows this. Right at this moment, I think I need a break. I just finished reading Sandman for the first time ever, which of course was excellent, but very dense, and now I’ve started Saga which feels like a dainty breeze in comparison, and I’m just kinda jazzed about reading a bunch of stuff without being concerned about summarizing it. I don’t want to make any decisions right now, so if I see ya, I’ll see ya. And if I don’t, I’ll at least be back to say goodbye. Because I really appreciate those who followed me for all this time. I saw your likes, and I appreciated your comments. Especially the ones that explained the shit I didn’t get or corrected my mistakes. Thanks for taking the time to be here. (X-Men Vol. 2 #3 – Dec 1991)

This is like the 5th or 6th time the X-Men have been brainwashed or possessed that I can think of just off the top of my head, and it’s literally the 3rd story IN A ROW where the X-Men have been brainwashed or possessed. We went from the Shi’ar storyline where everyone got body snatched by Skrulls (ok technically not brainwashing or possession, but essentially the same narrative), straight to the Shadow King Muir Island story in which everyone would still be under the Shadow Kings influence if it weren’t for Forge and his neural inhibitors. And now this. Magneto is altering everyone’s genetic code so they follow his orders. The X-Men fighting brainwashed X-Men is a dead horse at this point and it’s no wonder these first comics of the second X-Men series seem a little stale already. (X-Men Vol. 2 #3 – Dec 1991)

Oh stick a butt plug in it Magneto you’re literally living on an asteroid having temper tantrums and getting put to bed by your henchmen. Are you sure you’re not still an insane baby? At the very least, you could use some regular therapy. (X-Men Vol. 2 #3 – Dec 1991)