Fan Retrospectives: Chris Claremont's X-Men: Part 5: Greater Love Hath No X-Man
Chris Claremont is arguably the most influential X-Men writer and one of the most important superhero comics creators in general. His command of prose, deft use of subplots, and willingness to let characters grow in unexpected ways put a definitive stamp that few has been able to replicate since. Come and see how X-Men rose from obscurity into the a global pop culture phenomenon primarily under the pen of this one man.
"Greater Love Hath No X-Man" Uncanny X-Men #100
Writers: Chris Claremont
Artists: Dave Cockrum
Review by Eric Lee
Previously on X-Men: The Sentinels have captured half the X-Men, but the other half of the team hijacked a space shuttle to rescue them from the Sentinels' floating space base. As the team navigates through the villain base, they run into the original X-Men team and a unusually bloodthirsty Professor X commanding them to kill the new team.
Lets take a moment to admire the cover. Not only is the cover image highly iconic with the two generations of X-Men facing off one another, but the text also is interesting.
Above the logo, it proudly proclaims, "AT LAST... the spectacular 100th issue of... X-Men". The "At last" seems to be doubly true since it took X-Men much longer to reach that milestone than its other Marvel counterparts that launched around the same time.
In the 60's and 70's, Marvel was more cautious with new books and only releasing them every two months- as opposed to monthly like today. However, if the book was deemed successful, it will be granted a monthly slot. For comparison sake, the ultra-popular Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man became a monthly titles after only 6 issues being bi-monthly. But X-Men? That comic floundering for most of 15 years that it gained and then lost it's monthly status. It didn't become a regular monthly again until issue #112.
So yeah. When they say "At last" they really mean, at last... the last title of the initial Marvel age launch finally made it to 100 issues.
Anyways, that preamble is a whole lot of talk about comic book publishing schedules. Let's get to the fighting!
We pick up where the last issue left off with the two teams of X-Men battling out while a positively ecstatic Dr. Lang is cackling on how he's already won. And the original X-Men waste no time trying to destroy their replacements.
Every action beat is highly kinetic, even if it's often crowded-out by Chris Claremont's overly verbose speech bubbles. But you know what? We get treated to the first Wolverine and Colossus fastball special ever!
Now that's a historic moment! You can tell that Claremont and Dave Cockrum were really finding new ways to combine different powers and skill sets of the team.
The most interesting characterization is Colossus- who is positively furious at Havok. Note how Colossus is carrying a grudge from when a brainwashed Havok and Polaris tried to murder Xavier and the team in issue #97. It's genuinely intriguing to see a normally-kindhearted Colossus fly into a rage. He does not even know Havok that well, but he still feels betrayed. It is as if Colossus is quick to believe the good in others he meets, but then takes it ultra-personally when they don't reciprocate.
While the new X-Men have gotten the old X-Men on the run, a fed-up Wolverine fights his way to a sneering Professor X and demands what the hell is going on. To everyone's shock, Professor X casually gets out of his chair and wallops Wolverine so hard that he goes flying back.
With Wolverine distracted by the Professor, Marvel Girl takes advantage and starts zapping him with her psychic powers. Wolverine is stunned and is forced to rely on his animal senses and instincts- which is the first mention of those powers.
Upon relying on his instincts, he realizes that can't be the real Jean Grey and slashes her apart to everyone's horror.
What was weird and intriguing is that Lang's background is how unnecessarily complex it is. Claremont introduces in all of these little story elements that serve no immediate story purpose, like Lang being a part of the Council of the Chosen and their plans to control mutants.
It is almost as if Claremont introduce the Council as a seed for a later story that never bore fruition. The insane thing is that almost 15 years later, Claremont eventually did write a retroactive story that explains the Council of the Chosen in Classic X-Men #7. Apparently they were an off-shoot of the Hellfire Club who were quickly eliminated by the Inner Circle when they discovered Lang's plan to kill all mutants. Sometimes, comics can be so confusing with their chronology.
While Lang grouses about his X-Sentinels being dismantled by the X-Men, Cyclops shoots his optic blasts at his glass prison tube. This causes the tube to heat up and explode, which honestly isn't consistent with how Cyclops' powers work, but whatever.
Cyke makes quick work to free the others and deal with Lang. The clearly-deranged doctor hops into a hilariously small one man craft and starts targeting Cyclops with it. Like, look at it. Where do his legs go?
Anyways, Jean Grey telepathically shifts the craft's controls and sends Lang careening to his death a blows up the giant monitor screen. This technically would be the first time an X-Man purposefully sent someone to die. I say technically, because the speech bubbles awkwardly explain that Lang did himself in by trying to monkey with the controls, but come on guys. This looks like a case where Claremont saw the art and was thinking "Uh oh. I need to write an explanation of how Jean's not a murderer" Also, later comics retconned Lang's death into merely a "coma", so that's a thing too.
But what comes next is the most emotionally thrilling scene. Only Jean can successfully fly the shuttle by using her telepathy to gain the astronaut training from Corbeau and her telekinesis to block the sun's solar flare radiation.
The drama amps up as Cyclops refuses to let Jean sacrifice herself. But she telekinetically knocks him out so he can't protest anymore. Wolverine then tries to talk her out of it, which then she unleashes her true feelings to him. No, not those feelings. I mean her yelling at him a whole lot.
Wow. If Jean Grey isn't the most badass X-Men for trying to fly a space shuttle for the first time, then she is definitely is after putting Wolverine in his place. Really makes you rethink those Logan-Jean Grey ships now.
So Jean takes off the shuttle and is engulfed by solar radiation. I think it is curious that they used the sound effects of "Tac tac tac tac" to indicate the radiation leaking into the ship, not unlike the origin of the Fantastic Four.
Is Jean Grey dead or is she something else?
To Be Continued...
By the Numbers
Notable Developments:
- The first and only appearance of the X-Sentinels
- First use of the fastball special from Wolverine and Colossus
- First mention of Wolverine's animal senses and instincts
- First appearance of the Council of the Chosen
Subplots Count:
- What is Moira McTaggert's real role?
- Eric the Red brainwashes Havok and Polaris for an unknown reason.
- A mystery person is monitoring the X-Men.
- Why does Storm have claustrophobia?
- What is Wolverine's mystery backstory?
- Professor X is haunted by visions of a mecha-insectoid being.
- The mysterious Black Tom wants to thwart Banshee
- There is a major solar flare storm UPDATE: The solar flares are preventing the X-Men from safely escaping the space station.
Repetition is My Job, My Job is Repetition:
- Mystery villains spying on the X-Men so far: 4
- Characters
with accents so far: 8 (Moira McTaggert, Banshee, Nightcrawler,
Colossus, Wolverine, Black Tom, Mr. Flaherty, Irish Postal Worker)
Professor X is a Jerk!:
- Well he was unconscious for two straight issues. Is he truly knocked out or being a jerk?
The Most Claremontiest Quote of the Issue:
“Sorry, my friend--but since you will not come to me, the Beast and his dexterous digits must of a surety--Come up to you!!"- X-Sentinel Beast
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