Broken Frontier

Uncanny X-Men hits its landmark 500th issue this week; a remarkable achievement as it becomes the first Marvel book to reach that anniversary without having been restarted, renumbered or renamed (apart from the adjective "Uncanny" being added to its title a few years into the run).

To celebrate this momentous event the Broken Frontier team will be sharing their memories all this week of some of their favorite issues of Uncanny, plus a couple of related oddities that fall under the parent X-title's umbrella. Today it's the turn of Retroflect columnist Tony Ingram and Inter-Reviewer Dave Baxter to talk about two issues from two very different eras of the book's history...

X-Men #63: The Shape of Things to Come
by Tony Ingram

If you asked most people to pinpoint the issue which revitalised and reinvigorated the then moribund X-Men title, their answer would probably be Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), the book which introduced the all-new, all-different X-Men. I disagree. I think the creative team which first put Marvel’s not-so-merry mutants on the path to greatness was not Len Wein and Dave Cockrum but Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, back in late 1969. More specifically, the story which began in X-Men #60, and concluded in the mildly magnificent X-Men #63

The 60s X-Men issues tend to be overlooked, these days. While Lee and Ditko’s Spider-Man is rightly celebrated, as far as comicdom at large is concerned it seems the X-Men debuted in 1975, when Wolverine and Co. arrived on the scene. But in the space of less than a year from May 69-February 70, Thomas and Adams revolutionised the X-Men, turning a book which nobody read into one which nobody dared miss. They introduced the Living Pharaoh, and Havok, and Sauron. They showed that the X-Men could be, if written well, interesting. They laid the groundwork for Wein, Claremont and all those others to come

X-Men #63 is the high point of their run, for me. Pursuing the missing Angel to the Savage Land, our heroes find him in a new costume (the now familiar blue and white classic look) given to him by the mysterious "Creator"; really, Magneto in disguise. Drawn into battle with the newly introduced Savage Land Mutates alongside Ka-Zar, they have a glorious showdown with their arch-foe. It doesn’t sound like much, but Thomas brings the characters to life, makes them realer than Stan Lee ever managed. And as for the art-well, let’s just say if you think Cockrum or Byrne were the definitive X Men artists, it’s clear you’ve never seen Adams’s version. The man draws the Angel better than anyone else alive, and as for Savage Land siren Lorelei-whoah!

Thomas and Adams only did one more issue of X-Men (#65). The book was cancelled with #66. But boy, did they leave a legacy!

Uncanny X-Men #280: The Muir Island Saga
by Dave Baxter

For nearly fifty issues prior to, the X-Men went through some of their oddest adventures, with the most inexplicable twists—Wolverine crucified, the Siege Perilous, one cracked-out trip to the Savage Land, Psylocke transferred to an Asian body, Fall of the Mutants, Inferno , The X-Tinction Agenda , Professor Xavier returning at long last from space (with the Shi’ar), and all throughout the Shadow King came and went, a sort of über-plot weaving in and out.

Thanks to Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri’s art, the series was very popular, but honestly, it was in desperate need of coherency. Enter: The Muir Island Saga, a crossover barely acknowledged as one, even by its editors (it got a small tag printed in the upper right-hand corner, as though the crossover itself was just a tie-in to itself, and even this was only printed on half of its meager four-parts). It’s astounding because this four-parter brought it all together. Everything. Every plot, sub-plot, and character all came smashing into one another and in seemingly natural fashion. Everything was resolved in one fell swoop and I have never again experienced a payoff within the X-verse of remotely the same effect.

Uncanny X-Men #280 was the finale of this four-part finale. So much action and melodrama was packed into its pages, so many events and resolutions, and all in the midst of a single, incredible battle with the Shadow King. Couple this with incredibly dynamic, polished art by Andy Kubert (Origin) and Steven Butler (Web of Spider-Man, Power Mark) and this single, regular-sized issue outshone even the super-sized conclusion of "The Dark Phoenix Saga" in UXM #137. I never knew so much action could fit into a single issue. I never knew every panel of every page could be so integral. This issue showed me what a single comic book could be. And it taught me what the X-Men could potentially become, no matter how many endlessly directionless stories I had to wade through to get there.

That's pretty much the equation to this day - long aimless runs spiked by sudden, world-shattering events. But no final solution ever felt so right, as did Uncanny #280.