Back to Sunnydale

When I was in High School I pretty much collected two comics almost exclusively: Amazing Spider-Man and The Uncanny X-Men. Over the years, I have read each title on and off, but I have no idea what’s currently going on with UXM while I am pretty much caught up with ASM these days. Two movie franchises have been made from both but while the quality on the comics have dipped a bit, there’s no denying UXM in the 80s and 90s was the strongest title in Marvel’s stable of books.

For my money, nobody wrote better X-Men stories than Chris Claremont and with the recent return of the Marauders in X-Men #200, I thought it would be fun to look back at the issue which introduced them to the world: Uncanny #210. Last month’s issue of X-Factor paid homage to that classic cover. I mean, just look at that gorgeous cover! Minus the cheesy Clint Eastwood reference, that visual alone should get you to pick up the book, but then the story within the cover absolutely blows you away.

Not only was this the prelude to a fantastic storyline in which the Morlocks (mutants living in underground tunnels below New York City) were massacred, but it also features a pretty nifty story about racial intolerance which harkens back to Nightcrawler’s introduction to the team when he was recruited by professor X back in Giant Sized X-Men #1.

Also around this time, the X-Men were dealing with the “threat” of X-Factor. X-Factor wasn’t the same as the team we know of today even though the series was still written by Peter David, their lineup at the time consisted of Beast, Angel, Cyclops, Iceman and Jean Gray, the original X-Men who were “capturing” mutants only to actually train them to use their powers. Claremont masterfully crafts an intriguing character study of Rogue who is handled much better here than on current issues of X-Men and almost as an afterthought, he re-introduces the reader to the threat of the Marauders with some pretty chilling executions of hapless mutants, only a hint of the carnage which was yet to come.

Throw in some pretty impressive artwork by John Romita Jr. and Dan Green and you’ve got yourself one bitching comic book!