The Uncanny X-Men #245, Excalibur #8, Wolverine #7, Punisher War Journal #6, Marvel Comics Presents #24.
Theme Music:
Lazlo Hollyfeld – Buffaloallamericacity
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Danger Room: The X-Men Comics Commentary Podcast
Adam and Jeremy lovingly recap the X-Men Universe issue by issue.
The Uncanny X-Men #245, Excalibur #8, Wolverine #7, Punisher War Journal #6, Marvel Comics Presents #24.
Theme Music:
Lazlo Hollyfeld – Buffaloallamericacity
Podcast (dangerroompodcast): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
I feel like you missed a lot of this issue because you weren’t reading DC comics in the late 80s. This is a blatant parody of the DC crossover Invasion which was drawn by Todd McFarlane and set in Australia. I’m sure they picked Rob Liefeld for this issue as his art was very McFarlane-esque. All the major aliens are take offs of the DC aliens (the Daxamites were a whole planet of Superman which is why it appears they are playing Superman at cards) and the Jean-bomb is a direct reference to the gene-bomb which messed up all the powers of the DC heroes. Obviously the problem with parodies is they only work if you know what’s being parodied.
Genuinely this reads as much funnier if you’ve read Invasion.
It’s also worth noting that the Collosus make-up scene references Revlon and the Bullpen Bulletins for this issue is the one that announces that Ron Perelman has bought Marvel and that he also owns Revlon. This is the start of the eventual bankruptcy of Marvel comics.
Weird issue. Loving the podcast. I’ve only recently discovered you and I’ve listened to all of the episodes starting from my first issue (Uncanny X-Men 211) and I’m really enjoying your reviews. We do disagree strongly on artists though as Rick Leonardi is my favourite comic book artist of all time.
I second most of the points that D. Whiter made in the comments for this episode. The parody that was being orchestrated in #245 was actually kind of a clever inter-company trolling, but obviously period-specific and very context reliant.
Like the political and social satire from the early 20th century, this issue doesn’t translate well decades removed from its original publication and ultimately ends up feeling out of place in the main continuity of the X-Men series. Maybe it would have worked better as an issue of “What If”? Or a backup feature in the X-Men Annual for that year?
Anyway, starting with the next issue (#246), the last 2 years of Claremont’s run evolves into a superb muli-narrative epic. Reminds me a bit of what Stephen King did in The Stand (which coincidentally was restored and re-released in ’89/’90). For my money, this is perhaps one of the all-time boldest arcs in comics. It’ll be interesting to hear your what you think.