Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Uncanny X-Men #334 (July 1996)

We'll finish off the comic week with a final Retro-Review, this time a review for Uncanny X-Men #334. I can't say the cover of this one is ringing any bells for me, so let's crack it open and see what's inside!

Uncanny X-Men #334:

Summary: Lots of stuff going on here as this was the issue RIGHT before Onslaught was revealed, so needless to say, all of the pieces were being moved around the chessboard. We start with Juggernaut sneaking onto the grounds of X-Mansion in order to see Cyclops and Jean Grey, who were living in the Mansion's lake house at the time. Juggy ducks underwater, but spots a security camera, which he destroys before it can get a good look at him. Meanwhile, Archangel and Psylocke(who were living in Colorado at the time) are disturbed that they couldn't contact X-Mansion and decide to fly out to make sure everything was on the up and up. From there we head to Cannonball and Professor Xavier. Cannonball tells the Prof that he felt like he wasn't pulling his weight with the X-Men and was considering heading back to X-Force. Instead of reassuring Sam, the Prof tears into him, telling him to go whine elsewhere, and that if he didn't think he was X-Men material then he should get lost... Damn! Jean Grey, who had been confronted by Onslaught just prior to this issue, tells Cyclops that very fact. Cyclops recommends Jean see the Prof about Onslaught, but Jean is reluctant to do so... Gambit and Bishop see that one of the cameras under the water had been wrecked, and head off to see if there was any trouble, and are taken by surprise by Juggy, who defeats the two with ease. From there, the Prof continues to act out of character, and berates Cyclops upon bumping into him before vanishing, much to Cyclops's surprise... I have to say, crazy Prof. X was awesome... Juggy heads to the lake house, finds Jean, and asks her for help, since Juggy felt he knew who Onslaught was, but couldn't remember due to mental tampering. Jean doesn't trust Juggy, so he removes his helmet as a way to prove he wasn't there looking for trouble. Jean decides to take Juggy to a psi-shielded room under the school grounds where she could read his mind without anybody interfering, while Cyclops discovers that Prof. X was in his study, and had been for the past 48 hours, leaving him puzzled by the meeting he had just had.

Thoughts: This comic was a fantastic lead-in to the Onslaught event! Besides all of the stuff I listed above? We also had Dark Beast masquerading as regular Beast among the X-Men, and Graydon Creed and Bastion meeting. Seriously, this was a PACKED comic book! Naturally the increasingly insane Professor X stole the show here, as he should have, considering what was coming. The two main X-books around this time period(Uncanny X-Men and X-Men) were slowly setting up the Onslaught-as-Xavier reveal, but this may have been the first issue it became clear that Onslaught was indeed the Prof. Now, I don't know what it was like to read these books when they first came out, since the first time I read these X-books was probably around 8 years ago, and as such I knew who Onslaught was, but I'd think that after reading this issue the Onslaught/Prof link would have been pretty much confirmed. Make no mistake, this was a set-up issue. But as far as set-up issues go, this was one of the better ones I've ever read, and clearly laid the groundwork for what was about to happen to the X-Men, and why.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
uncanny x-men #334
I love crazy, snarky Professor X!

8 comments:

  1. Hey look!....why...it's Nate Grey when he was the awesome one with insecurity issues. I guess Nate WAS part of history according to Bishop's that is, especially by what XaviOnslaught just revealed. Bishop obvious didn't know who Nate was or his connection in his history books. Cool, considering Blaquesmith swore he was an error. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You had to know I'd find a way to work Nate into this post, Radtrainer! He's only on ONE page, so that's the page I scan! :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. A good news and a maybe a bad new

    The maybe bad one Peter Milligan will take over stormwacth at issue 9 as regular writer I hope he can reach Paul Cornell talent with those characters.

    And the Good one (at least for me) Jeff Lemire will take over Justice league Dark at issue 9!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. DEAR GOD ALMIGHTY!
    http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=36724

    Lee Bermejo...........RORSCHACH
    Adam Hughes..... doctor Manhattan=silk spectre









    DC SHUT UP AND TAKE MY FUCKING MONEY JUST GIVE ME NOW!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey, if you want some more of crazy Professor X, here he is:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWTV2u7WaJY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

    And he's got an EVIL cap too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hah, this one brings back memories. I got this issue back in the heyday of my first comic era. Madureira on pencils for the UXM, man times were good. At the time, I was def caught off-guard by the reveal that Prof X was Onslaught. This issue was more ambiguous back then than it seems in hindsight - I thought there was a strong chance of there being an imposter.

    The setup for Onslaught was so good that it's a real shame the story turned out as poorly as it did. Onslaught really set a precedent in terms of bloated crossovers and editorial interference.

    ReplyDelete
  7. HA!! Jeez, what is it with DC swapping their writers up all over the place! Thanks for the info, Alien. I'm actually hopeful about both of those books with those writers.

    I'm not really sure how I feel about that Watchmen news, Movieartman... On one hand I REALLY want to get my hands on those books, but on the other, I can't help but feel that it's gonna be a letdown... Methinks this is simply being done to try to get another Watchmen movie.

    HA!!! Thank you for that link, Arw! I hadn't seen that episode in years! I'm gonna find that on Netflix ONCE I'm done here tonight to watch crazy Prof. X in all his glory!

    Hmm, I guess I can understand the impostor idea, TRobb. I mean it was pretty ballsy for Marvel to actually make the real Prof. X into a world-destroying bad guy. As for your thoughts on the Onslaught x-over? I couldn't possibly agree any more! I've been saying the same thing for years! If Marvel would have simply allowed Onslaught to take place solely in the X-titles, it would have been SO much better... Maybe as good as the AOA storyline. Instead, they went for the money grab, and tossed pretty much EVERYBODY into the story, completely disrupting all of the work the main X-writers and editors had been doing. Whenever I think about the Onslaught story, I'm always thinking about how much better it SHOULD have been...

    ReplyDelete