#so well as Wyngarde does. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

willel · 2 years

Text

X-Men #134 (and #133/#135)

Looking back at more references and decided to delve into what this issue was about. Upon seeing it, I decided to look at #133 as well. I will just be emphasizing the relevant parts.

I will probably make another post referencing this one, but this one is very long so I will leave it as is.

In case you've forgotten, X-Men #134 is the comic book Will requested from Dustin for winning their bike race before he was taken in season 1.

Issue #133

...Upstairs, the other X-Men are the shackled prisoners of the Hellfire Club’s inner circle

...With a ruby quartz muzzle covering his head, Cyclops puzzles over how Mastermind was able to take control of Jean...

...She sees the X-Men not as her friends but as several captured thieves and a runaway slave who have betrayed her...

... She [Moira] is exhausted after extensively studying Jean's Phoenix powers. She admits her fears that Jean’s near-infinite power levels could threaten the entire world...

... Cyclops recalls the private picnic he and Jean had atop the butte (during the events of last issue). During that encounter, Jean asked to establish a psychic rapport between the two of them. Realizing that he and Jean still have the rapport, Scott tries to telepathically communicate with her through it in an attempt to shake Jean free of Mastermind’s control...

...Scott’s mind is transported to the astral plane...

...He’s stunned, though, when Jason Wyngarde appears as well despite the fact that Scott knows Mastermind has no telepathic abilities. The two get into a sword fight with Mastermind warning Scott that whoever dies here will likely die in the real world as well...

...Scott's psychic sword fight with Mastermind ends with Mastermind stabbing Scott through the chest with his sword. In the real world, the X-Men watch in horror as Cyclops suddenly keels over. As far as the X-Men can tell, their leader is dead...

Issue #134

...All seems lost for the X-Men. Having been defeated in a psychic duel with Mastermind, Cyclops had collapsed to the floor as if dead at the end of last issue. But instead, he manages to regain consciousness, albeit as a prisoner still, while Wyngarde gloats that he has permanently severed the link between Scott and Jean...

...But just as it seems there is no hope, Wolverine bursts through the door tossing off guards as he goes. Wyngarde orders Jean to attack Wolverine. Although she pretends to comply, her attack on Wolverine is merely a distraction...

...Witnessing the battle, Mastermind decides to use his illusion-based powers to hide by literally blending in with the woodwork...

...The disturbance at the Hellfire Club does not go unnoticed; authorities are called in...

...In the ballroom, Cyclops tries to calm the party goers down. But Mastermind uses his illusory powers to make them think that he is attacking them...

...With everyone else preoccupied with fights elsewhere (or so it seems), Mastermind comes out of hiding, intent on fleeing from the Club. But an unusually intense Jean has been lurking nearby, waiting for him to reveal himself...

...In the ensuing confrontation, Jean acts fundamentally different. She is profoundly altered in an alarming way. Despite nominally being aligned with the X-Men once more, she is cold and vicious in her actions. A terrified Mastermind is forced to confess that the White Queen devised a “mindtap mechanism” to enable him to access Jean’s mind. Although she is darkly amused, she destroys the device. As punishment for his actions, Jean gives Mastermind what he wanted all along: power. Opening up his mind to the vastness of the universe, she floods his consciousness with more information than a normal human mind can comprehend. Thus, Jean causes Mastermind to completely shut down and she leaves him in a drooling, catatonic state...

...Cyclops finds Jean and immediately senses something is gravely wrong with her...

...Cyclops is in a hurry to get Jean to Professor X, realizing that something is very wrong with her. Meanwhile, Jean feels herself succumbing to the dark forces that Mastermind has unleashed within her...

...They are then startled to see Jean, now in a darker version of her Phoenix attire. It’s clear that Jean’s mind has been overtaken by the dark side of the Phoenix force...

Suddenly, the X-Men's hover-craft explodes in mid-air.

Issue #135

...While escaping from the Hellfire Club, Jean Grey gives into the dark side of her soul awakened by Mastermind, becoming the Dark Phoenix and destroying the X-Men's escape craft over Central Park...

...Miraculously, the X-Men survive the explosion and with quick thinking manage to make it safely to ground with only minor injuries. Their attempts to talk Jean out of attacking them fails and she easily trounces the team with her cosmic-level abilities....

#stranger things #theory

7 notes · View notes

bamfdaddio · 3 years

Text

X-Men Abridged: 1980 - The Dark Phoenix Saga

The X-Men, those enduring mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 132 - 140, X-Men Annual 4) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, John Romita Jr. and Bob McLeod

Go on. Name a more iconic X-Men panel. I’ll wait. (X-Men 134)

If you were born in 1980, you were born under the sign of the Phoenix. This means you will have great hair, but you’ll also be absolutely corrupted by power. Don’t worry, as long as you don’t consume any stars and/or galaxies, you should be fine.

This year hits the ground running, introducing Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde and Dazzler in one fell swoop. The White Queen is the first of the Hellfire Club to make her move, but Phoenix is quickly able to dispatch of her, as you can read here.

Cyclops, worried that the rest of the Inner Circle will soon come in for the kill, decides to abscond to Angel’s Aerie in New Mexico to throw their pursuers off their scent. Jean decides to make the most of it and has sex with Scott on top of mesa. (Kinky!) She also shuts off his uncontrollable destructo-beams, nbd. This somehow inspires Scott to go from reactive to proactive and lead an ill-advised charge straight into the Hellfire Club on the night of their big ball… soirée... thing. Call it a Hellfire Gala-avant-la-lettre.

Fine, he might have been inspired by the raw power of the Phoenix. She’s the biggest gun on their side and, if there's one thing you can be sure of, it´s that reliable powerhouse Jean won´t switch sides in the middle of battle.

Oh wait, that's exactly what she does.

As soon as they enter the Hellfire Club, Jason Wyngarde, who reveals he’s actually Mastermind, takes control of Jean, finally turning her into the Black Queen. With the power of the Phoenix and the patriarchy on their side, the Inner Circle makes short work of the X-Men. They consists of:

Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind.

Sebastian Shaw. Often shirtless. The Jeff Bezos of mutantkind. Has the ability to absorb kinetic energy, which means punching him only makes him stronger. (Colossus and Storm figure this out the hard way.)

Harry Leland. Ability of mass manipulation, which has got to be one of the dopest powers ever. Uses it to dunk Wolverine three floors down into the sewer.

Donald Pierce. 25% robot, 100% asshole, 100% useless in taking out X-Men, 225% the worst.

Wolverine is the only one who escapes, resulting in another iconic image:

Apparently, this picture is solely responsible for the fact that Wolverine became the face of the X-Men in the zeroes. It also lit my cigar from the other side of the room. (X-Men 132)

Needless to say, stabbing ensues.

Meanwhile, Shaw pontificates what he wants with the X-Men. He means to use them as guinea pigs to isolate the X-Gene, which he’ll then reverse engineer to give everyone (with money) super powers and all of a sudden, I want Shaw to do a team-up with John Sublime. Jean is not all there, however: she’s trapped in the astral plane, cultivating a cruel streak a mile high.

And suddenly, Jean-turning-evil is not all that funny anymore. (X-Men 133)

Cyclops traverses the mental link he shares with Jean to confront ‘Sir Jason’ and challenge him to a duel. Guy can’t catch a break: in Jean’s mindscape, he is stabbed and he promptly collapses in the real world. Ruh-roh!

Wolverine, meanwhile, has done a passable impression of the Bride against the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill, and he interrupts the Hellfire Club and their gloating. That’s when Jean resurfaces as well, snapping out of her voluptuous Victorian fantasy and, playing a dubious tango with everyone’s trust issues, switching sides once again. The Phoenix is like the golden snitch: as long as your team holds it, it’s enough to win.

Colossus snaps Pierce’s robo-arm, Shaw gets punted through a floor and Leland uses his powers to increase Wolverine’s mass - just when Logan is jumping on top of him. Oops! Should have made him lighter than a feather, Leland.

Jean, meanwhile, is doing her own passable impression of the Bride and goes on what the advertisements would refer to as a ‘Roaring Rampage of Revenge’. (Oh, she roars, and she rampages, and she gets bloody satisfaction.)

This is what happens when you fuck around and find out, Jason. (X-Men 134)

Phoenix makes Mastermind’s mind touch the infinite. His tiny human mind can’t cope. And, just like me when I’m at Pride and surrounded by a bevvy of shirtless gym bunnies, he becomes a dribbling mess. A shell with nothing inside. For those of you paying attention: this is where your Lit teacher would shout “dramatic irony” and underscore Emma Frost vs. Storm on the chalkboard.

This is also the moment where she officially Breaks Bad.

We see powerless people become heroes all the time. The reverse, where the angel falls? That happens far more rarely. I think that is the reason this story was so shockingly effective in the eighties. The reason why it’s still so effective? I think because, like the One Ring, you can read the rise and fall of the Phoenix in a myriad of ways. Is this a victim, reclaiming power? Is this a woman, trying to rise in a man’s world? Is this someone who was always buttoned up, daring to embrace her own power, her sexuality, her dangerous side -- only to get promptly beat down? The ambiguity of the narrative gives it strength, which is why I think it keeps resonating even now. This counts especially in the X-Universe, inherently designed to appeal to the underdog.

Anyway, the X-Men try to flee, but it’s too late. Jean can’t hold it in any more. She explodes in Phoenixesness and vaporizes the X-Men’s aircraft over Central Park. Relishing in her power, Jean easily defeats her friends, before flying off into the galaxy.

In the Avengers mansion, Beast gets the report that the X-Men are trashing the Hellfire Club. Ignoring his duties as an Avenger, Beast chooses his old family and hops off to investigate on his own.

The report, by the way, comes from Shaw, who knows when to turn tail and cut his losses. Among the confused, scared refugees of their party, he begins working a politician on the importance of a Sentinel program. That politician? Senator Kelly. Remember that name.

Jean can’t talk, she’s doing hot girl things. Nomnomnom that star system, sis. (X-Men 135)

Originally, Jean wasn’t meant to die. This one panel, the one showing the inhabited planet, is the reason why she eventually does: Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief, felt Jean shouldn’t be able to get away with a literal genocide. Claremont and Byrne, who had planned to strip Jean of her powers at the end of this, had to change the end of their story within days before it went to print. Additionally, this stoked the adversarial fire between the two: Claremont claims that he hadn’t originally intended there to be an inhabited planet, but felt his hands were tied when Byrne drew one. I wonder how true this is, considering how embedded it is in the narrative, but that’s neither here nor there.

The Phoenix’s genocide alerts the Shi’Ar - and therefore Lilandra - to her presence. Lily says that Galactus is nothing compared to the Phoenix: he merely eats planets, she will consume all that exists.

A hungry Jean, meanwhile returns to Earth, not sure what she’s looking for. She pays a visit to the home of her parents, but when they warily come to greet her, she can’t help but read all the innermost thoughts of her family. Nothing is secret, nothing is sacred. (Imagine knowing all those little thoughts your parents had about you, all those little terrible human things they did in their life. Imagine knowing all their sexual fantasies. Brrr.) It sours the Phoenix against them and she is about to start familicide to her list of sins, when the X-Men attack!

Nightcrawler slaps a psionic scrambler designed by Beast on her, but she’s still too strong. Wolverine tries to end her, but he isn’t ruthless enough to do the deed. When the scrambler overloads, Scott tries reasoning with her, appealing to her love. This causes the Phoenix to waver and Charles Xavier (airdropped in by Warren), bolts Jean telepathically.

Drinking game rule for the Phoenix saga no 6: shout “ca-caw” and take a sip every time the raptor appears. (X-Men 136)

Xavier feels Jean helping him out from within the Phoenix and together, they slowly trap Phoenix in the same sort of energy-matrix as Jean did with the M’Kraan-crystal. The Phoenix finally lays dormant, the X-Men have Jean back and Scott, overwhelmed by emotion, sort of awkwardly proposes to her. Happy Ending! And then, pulling the rug out from under our feet, the X-Men (including Beast and Angel) are whisked away.

They appear in front of Lilandra. The Shi’Ar hold Jean accountable for her planet-killing ways and Lilandra orders her Imperial Guard to take her away! But Charles invokes an ancient law with the same relish of someone who invokes an obscure board game rule against the person who is about to win: he demands a trial by combat.

The rules are easy:

X-Men win: Jean lives

Shi’Ar win: Jean dies.

The trial will be on the dark side of the moon. The Shi’ar are way too strong and, one by one, the X-Men fall, until only Jean and Scott are left. In their last stand, Jean loses control and becomes the Phoenix again, wiping the floor with the Imperial Guard. Technically, they win, but she knows now.

Suicide by abandoned-machine-of-a-long-forgotten-civilization-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon. (X-Men 137)

She dies. Phoenix dies. The X-Men lose. Scott, bereft, leaves the X-Men.

One detail I love is the holempathic crystal that Lilandra bestows on Jean’s parents.

Without becoming too maudlin, the idea of this is beautiful. A condensed image of a person you love, one you can touch when you feel memories slipping away so you can remember who they were. (X-Men 138)

And with that, season 2 of the X-Men ends. Without Cyclops and Phoenix, the X-Men have to readjust. While Beast returns to the Avengers, Angel takes up residence in the mansion again. He confesses to liking most of the new X-Men, except Wolverine. (To be fair, Wolverine is an acquired taste.) Kitty Pryde also formally starts attending the school and slowly, the Jean-and-Scott-shaped void is filled.

Patriarchal Charles is thrilled to finally have a new teenager in the house who will hang on to his every word. It’ll be like the sixties all over again! (X-Men 139)

There are so many beautiful touches in the few panels:

Wolverine calling Charles ‘Chuck’

Nightcrawler getting drinks (and a beer)

Most amazingly of all, Storm becoming the leader. (I give Chuck a lot of flak, but this decision is Right.) Not just because Storm is the best X-Man for the job, but also because she was a black woman leading one of premier Marvel superhero teams for, what? The better half of a decade? The eighties had barely started, so this was a big fucking deal.

Storm also takes up a motherly role for Kitty, who takes up her suggestion for a codename: Sprite. (This after Kitty rejects Charles’ suggestion of Ariel, which is only fortunate, considering that name would soon be associated with redhaired mermaids.)

The rest of the year is dedicated to two adventures, both of them starring Kurt. The first is depicted in the annual: on Kurt’s birthday, he receives a mysterious package with a mysterious figurine that mysteriously explodes in his face. Professor X calls guest star Dr. Strange for aid, who deduces that his soul has been stolen. What follows is a quest to regain Kurt’s soul in an adventure that feels a little too I just read Dante’s Inferno, check how smart I am.

Hell is a little too pedestrian and boring, though we do get a King Minos hitting on Kurt and Ororo. A man of wealth and taste indeed. Anyway, at the end of this side quest, it turns out all of this was a convoluted revenge scheme concocted by one Margali of the Winding Road. She turns out to be Kurt’s (adoptive) mother, who’s getting revenge for Kurt killing her son.

Kurt, racked with guilt, reveals he had no choice. Stefan had always feared the darkness in his soul and he’d made Kurt pledge to stop him if he should ever succumb to it. After Stefan killed a child or two, Kurt had no choice but to end him. Stefan perished and Kurt was blamed for all of the murders, having to flee an angry mob.

Margali forgives him, with some help from Jimaine, Kurt’s foster sister. In a twist that is a little too soap opera for my tastes (and I watch Riverdale), Jimaine turns out to be Kurt’s squeeze, Amanda Sefton. I’ve always disliked this twist, and not just because of the incesteous vibes: I like the idea of Kurt dating a regular lady who is into him despite his appearance and his being a mutant. Making Amanda Sefton his sorcerous half-sister dilutes that message a lot.

The tail end of 1980 involves Wolverine going to Canada so Wolverine can make amends with Alpha Flight. Kurt joins him, ostensibly to flirt with Aurora, but in fact this shows that Kurt and Wolverine are establishing a rapport. A deeper friendship.

In a pretty paint-by-numbers adventure, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and the worse half of Alpha Flight take down a Wendigo. We don’t get Northstar or Aurora, but we do get more Snowbird, who can change herself into Canadian animals, with the danger of being consumed by her animal side.

We get this delightful panel out of it:

Scared Nightcrawler almost makes me forget how full of shit Jimmy MacDonald is, considering last time Kurt saw them, they tried to kidnap the fuzzy elf. (X-Men 139)

This whole arc is meant to show the softening of Wolverine. Not only does he share his name with Kurt (well, sort of: “Logan, is that your name?” “Yup.” “You never told us.” “You never asked.”), but when they fight the Wendigo and Snowbird turns into a white wolverine to deal the final blow, he talks her out of being consumed by her vicious animal nature.

The year ends with two details worth mentioning:

The Canadian government dissolves Alpha Flight, which I can only find a prescient move that highlights their good taste. A realistic note I like is the minister referring to the mutant problem as ‘an American problem’ even though they employ the Beaubier twins. Wankers.

Fred Dukes escapes prison to join the New Brotherhood of Mutants!

We’re now entering a run of the X-Men which I haven’t read much of yet, but Freddy mentions he was helped by some lady lawyer. That’s gotta be Mystique, right?

I can barely contain my glee.

Ugliest Costume: Despite that godawful hooded thing Kitty wears, I have to give this to Dazzler. There’s no salvaging that costume: I’m sorry, but she’s wearing a disco ball around her neck. It's a boot from me.

Best new character: Emma Frost. Fight me by the bike rack near the parking lot if you disagree.

Turns evil: Jean Grey, famously so.

What to read: X-Men 129 to 137, the Dark Phoenix run.

68 notes · View notes

tcm · 4 years

Text

Noel Coward: Renaissance Man of Stage and Screen By Susan King

Noel Coward was known simply in England as “The Master.” And for good reason. Coward (1899-1973) was a true Renaissance man. He was an actor, playwright, composer, songwriter, producer and director. (Lin-Manuel Miranda is our contemporary version of Coward.) He even headlined the Desert Inn in Las Vegas in 1955. He knew he was a genius. Coward once described himself as an “enormously talented man, and there’s no use pretending that I’m not.”

He wrote such classic plays as Private Lives, Design for Living, Blithe Spirit, Cavalcade, The Vortex and Present Laughter. And, he took the stiff-upper lip of his characters. His comedies were filled with extravagant characters firing off delicious bon mots. His dialogue was spare and contemporary. Kenneth Tynan once said, “Coward was the Turkish bath in which English comedy slimmed.”

Needless to say, acting styles changed with Coward and he ushered in a new style of theater. Performers were no longer trapped in the 19th-century style of more declamatory acting. As a composer, the flamboyant Coward wrote such beloved songs as “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and “I’ll See You Again.” Hollywood soon took notice of Coward the playwright. One of Coward’s biggest West End hits was 1931’s Cavalcade, a sweeping dramatic epic spanning 30 years in an upper-class family. The cast featured a staggering 200 actors, 22 sets including revolving stages and hydraulic platforms. Brad Rosenstein of the Museum of Performance & Design in San Francisco told the L.A Times in 2010 about the stage production: “In the earlier sections, it’s very realistic, almost like a movie, but as the story moves further and further into the 20th century, it becomes more and more surreal.”

Fox bought the film rights, shooting the stage production to use as a blueprint for its lavish 1933 film production starring Diana Wyngard and Clive Brook. “Designer William Cameron Menzies translated his stage montages into movie terms and that became the language of movie montages for the next 30 years,” said Rosenstein. CAVALCADE earned three Oscars including best film and director for Frank Lloyd. But truth be told, the film just hasn’t held up as well as other best film Oscar winners from that era. It’s handsome and well-acted but is a bit of a slog that screams prestige.

MGM’s “Boy Wonder” producer Irving Thalberg, who happened to be married to the studio’s top star Norma Shearer, bought the film rights to Private Lives for his wife. Rounding out the film adaptation’s cast was Robert Montgomery, Reginald Denny and Una Merkel. The farce, released in 1931, whirls around Amanda (Shearer) and Elyot (Montgomery), divorcees who reunite on their honeymoon with their new spouses and run off together.

Coward initially wasn’t thrilled that Shearer, who was best known for her heavily dramatic roles, was cast as Amanda. He didn’t think she was up to the comedic task. Shearer was unruffled: “I don’t care what he thinks.” Reviews were strong and so was the audience response. But truth be told, in the #MeToo climate, it’s hard to watch a film in which the leads scream, yell and throw things at each other and state that certain women should be struck regularly like gongs. Eleven years later, Shearer returned to Coward’s world in WE WERE DANCING (‘42) based on two short plays from the Master’s 1936 play Tonight at 8:30 She hadn’t made a film since 1940, so there was hope this comedy would revive her career. It didn’t.

Movie audiences finally got to see Coward the actor on screen in 1935. Not in a film based on one of his plays but an extraordinary morality piece, THE SCOUNDREL penned and directed by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Coward is remarkable as the title character, a New York publisher surrounded by sycophants and ruthless and callous in his treatment of people especially a lovely young poet (Julie Haydon). Coward’s Anthony Mallare destroys everything he touches including the poet and her lover (Stanley Ridges). When she learns that Mallare is taking a flight, she tells him that not only does she hope the plane crashes, she desires that as he dies, he knows no one will shed a tear for him. And when the plane crashes, he returns to the earthly world for a month to find someone who will mourn for him.

Mordaunt Hall wrote in his New York Times review: “As a suavely mannered portrait of decadence, The Scoundrel is a remarkably interesting motion picture. Mr. Coward is so perfectly attuned to the part we cannot help suspecting that he contributed to the dialogue. He is a master at delivering the barbed epithet. You have to hear him reciting a line like ‘It reeks with morality-stressing the r’s so as to make it exquisitely funny-to know how good he can be.”

Hecht and MacArthur won an Oscar for their story. Coward won his own special Oscar in 1943 for his stirring World War II drama IN WHICH WE SERVE (‘42) for “outstanding production achievement.” IN WHICH WE SERVE is far more than a propaganda piece to keep British morale up and the home fires burning. The film was inspired by Coward’s friend Lord Louis Mountbatten, who in 1941, lost his ship when it was sunk in the Battle of Crete. Coward stars, produced, penned the music and co-directed with a former editor by the name of David Lean. The story is generally told in flashback about the survivors of a Royal Navy ship that had been destroyed by German torpedoes. While recalling moments in their lives, they hang on to a small lifeboat waiting to be rescued.

Besides Coward, the film also stars Celia Johnson, John Mills and Richard Attenborough, who though uncredited in his film debut, is a stand-out as a sailor. A young Daniel Massey, who was the child of Raymond Massey, plays Coward’s son. Daniel was also Coward’s godson, and 26 years after the release of IN WHICH WE SERVE, he earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination as Coward in the Gertrude Lawrence bio-pic STAR! (‘68). IN WHICH WE SERVE was also nominated for the best film and screenplay Oscars.

Coward and Lean next collaborated in 1944 with the moving THIS HAPPY BREED, another sweeping epic. Based on Coward’s hit play of the same name, THIS HAPPY BREED revolves around a middle-class family who move into a rented house in 1919 and it follows their lives until the declaration of World War II in 1939. Lean directed this classic solo and he gets fabulous performances from the cast which includes Celia Johnson, Robert Newton, Stanley Holloway and John Mills. Ronald Neame provided the stunning Technicolor cinematography. It’s funny, moving and poignant and you’ll find yourself shedding a few tears along the way.

The year 1945 was a prolific one for producer Coward and director Lean. The duo went the Technicolor route with gorgeous results for the hit film version of Coward’s popular comedy-fantasy BLITHE SPIRIT. Rex Harrison portrays a writer who finds his world is turned upside-down when an eccentric medium (a perfect Margaret Rutherford) accidentally conjures up his dead first wife (Kay Hammond) who is jealous of his current spouse (Constance Cummings). The film lacks the spark of the stage play, but it’s still fun and the then cutting-edge special effects won the Oscar.

And what can one say about BRIEF ENCOUNTER (‘45)? One of the most romantic films of all time and stars the delicate Johnson and the handsome Trevor Howard as married people who meet at a small railway station café and fall in love. Everything comes together perfectly in this masterpiece that was released in the U.S. in 1946. Based on Coward’s play Still Life, BRIEF ENCOUNTER is beautifully directed by Lean who really came into his own with this film. The performances of Johnson and Howard are pitch perfect and poignant; Robert Krasker supplied the atmospheric black-and-white cinematography and the use of Rachminoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 just adds to the romance.

Lean won the grand prize for his direction at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946 and earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Director in addition to sharing a screenplay nomination with Anthony Havelock-Allan and Neame. Johnson was nominated for best actress which she lost to Olivia de Havilland for TO EACH HIS OWN (’46), but Johnson did win the New York Film Critics honor.

#Noel Coward #Blithe Spirit #Brief Encounter #Private Lives #Norma Shearer #playwright #David Lean #Susan King

61 notes · View notes

kurtty-drabbles · 4 years

Text

House of M (part 3)

N/A: Is this au still alive? YES. But I want to try to keep this au alive, nothing grandiose here. BTW, I better introduce the villain right away.

@dannybagpipesarecalling @djinmer4 @tieflingteeth @muninandhugin

When a person has money, lots of money is only natural for people to inquire where the money comes from. Sometimes, the person comes from a privileged background, furthermore is easy to pinpoint why- how many riches families like to send their kids to private institutions? not so many, and that´s another indication of how wealthy they are- and Genosha doesn´t have a higher count of wealthy families. A small law that Magento made is still in vigor to prevent any social conflict.

Sometimes, however, a person appears to have money in unusual ways. Seldom, one can claim to have a winning lottery ticket. The chances of this happening are slim to none-not impossible and the winner certainly prefers anonymity- but it has happened before.

Or the other option is to believe the person got the money thanks to some illicit way. When people see Logan Howlett sailing in his yacht-showing zero characters of a rich man from a prestigious background- people are quick to jump to conclusions.

Logan is far from being a man from a nice background- that is something anyone can see- but, how he got the money is far related to crimes, at least, not ones made by him.

His yacht is sailing in the Mediterranean ocean. The man just wakes up-leaving his new girlfriend sleeping soundly on the bed- and is admiring the view. The ocean is indeed impressive and Logan takes a whiff of the salty scent with a grin on his face. "Goot to be here"

His cellphone rings. Logan has the mind to ignore the call in favor of the view- the ocean is so agreeable now. Logan is almost singing a sailor´s song. Almost- but the phone is still rining and Logan rolls his eyes and tisk too loud. "What?" his tone is a bit barbed and unapologetic about it.

"How is the rich man´s life?" Raven Darkholme´s voice is unique and Logan learns to identify her timbers very well. Logan sighs louder and is threatening to end the call-an empty threat he himself is all aware of - as the woman starts to cackle too loud-loud enough to give a migraine to Logan- and then she speaks again.

"Oh, Logan...I´m not here to bother your rich man´s life...which model are you dating this time? Vanessa?" Raven makes a pondering sound. And Logan wonders if he can toss his cellphone in the ocean. "saw in the magazine ...dating Swedish models, are we?" there´s this chided tone and Logan rolls his eyes.

"What? Will you give me tips on how to date Swedish models or how to break up things with them?" and Logan feels so proud of this line.

"I´m not here to fight, Logan...not to tease you"

"Good, because your sources are wrong...not dating a Swedish woman...I´m with Mariko" Logan feels silly to use her name. In fact, this woman makes him feel so silly. Love is an emotion so new for him. "She´s great....too great for me, but, I´ll try to be the man she needs"

"That´s...noble of you" no sarcasm in her tone. Rare, but, it does happen sometimes. "I´m not here to talk about your love life...Logan, do you remember about Project X?"

Logan can be sarcastic. "The program which makes me this?" and Logan pops his claws. Raven can´t see it. Raven can hear it. "No, Raven...I completely forget about it..."

"Look, a few weeks ago. Juggernaut tried to kidnap the Genoshas princes...it fails for obvious reasons, but, you see my son is convinced that a woman...yes, a woman faced Juggernaut, could be related to this program" and now reality kicks Logan´s face. Hard.

"Look, when we settle that agreement...I was speaking the truth...the only subjects of that program, as far I know, are me, Laura and Gabby" and the man grith his teeth. "That´s why I accept their money...instead of killing them...Laura and Gabby deserve a normal life...when I testify, and just to be clear, I told you I was sure there´s only me, Laura and Gabby....if there´s another subject...I have no clue"

"I see...Look, I don´t want to worry you" Logan´s expression says otherwise. "And I think there´s 99% of chances of my son taking the scene out of context...but, I want to be sure...I´ll say her name and I want to know if you know or if jog your memory"

Logan grunts but accepts.

"Katherine Anne Pryde"

"Never heard of..."

"Are you sure?"

"My memory is a bit fuzzy, I´ll give you that, but...this name rings no bells"

"Ok, thank you, Logan...have a nice trip"

And just like that, the call is ended. Logan chuckles slightly. "Always have to get the last word"

He turns up to see Laura already up and watching the birds flying away. The look on her face really makes Logan never regret accepting this money. __________________________________________________________________________________________

Yana Rasputin has her fair share of bad calls and bad decisions. Making a demon do her chores wasn´t the best decision-the demon has his own unique style and Yana had to bear the consequences- but, in all her life she never expected Piotr to do anything inherently bad.

Yana´s mind peaks at some images in the past and how Piotr didn´t accept Katya breaking up the relationship with him, and while Yana can´t fault Kitty for that, she refuses to think Piotr would hold any grudges.

The phone rings and in a moment Yana´s world is upside down. "My brother is being arrested for attempted murder?" Yana parrot the person´s information in a question. The man has a German accent-oh, must be Nightcrawler. The only German in Genosha and one to make such a call- who is explaining the situation.

"Piotr Rasputing will face charge...and I recommend call a lawyer, young miss, your brother seems to like to assault any men Miss Pryde ever enter in contact"

Yana has a grim image in her mind and needs to know. "Is Kitty alright?"

"Yes, she´s shaken...but, she´s alright..."

"And...and my brother?"

"I didn´t use unnecessary force to stop him, only what´s necessary to make him stop. Right now, he´s sedated, but, is fine...would you like to talk with him?"

"No, I mean, yes but not by phone...Tell him I´m coming" and Yana turns off the cellphone. She has a lawyer just for that and hopes he can help in this case.

"Berto...I need help! my brother did something really stupid" and Sunspot can´t even pretend to be surprised by this revelation.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Mastermind was a man who served Magneto proudly. A man that loves illusions more than reality is not one to be a fatherly type- and less so as the man loves to date younger women- Regan Wyngarde can say how her father was foolish to trust Magneto. And Regan will deny ever missing her father- not a fatherly type, but, he was her only father...- as right now, she looks at the helmet in her hands.

"Don´t worry...you´ll have a Jewish funeral, Erik...and I´ll destroy Genosha" she promises to put the helmet on the table. One of her servants arrives.

"Regan" and stops as the blonde woman give a seething look. "I mean, Lady Mastermind...should we inform the 3 rulers of Genosha what happened to Erik?"

"Erik may have been a bad father...but he was their fathers...they have this right." and is all the information the servant needs.

Now, Regan has to set her next move in action. Regan has to wait and Regan is now a patient woman...so unlike her father.

#house of M #Kurt wagner is mentioned #Kitty is mentioned #Poor Yana #Piotr facing consequences #Logan made a deal and got money #Logan/Mariko needs more love #Raven and Logan know each other #things are happening #See Marvel even the villain in this story can give a Jewish person a Jewish funeral

7 notes · View notes

heroicheart · 4 years

Note

“Don’t break the spell.” ( remy )

RUMORS STARTERS

THEY’RE PAWNS IN A LARGER GAME, but every once in a while, it’s nice to pretend. she, put on the council to reign in shaw while he’s traveling the world with betsy, kept in the dark every step of the way. perhaps that’s why he’s pulled so far from excalibur –he doesn’t like being lied to by those he’s supposed to trust.

maybe this is a power trip for them, fake identities, pretending to be someone else as they toy with aristocrats like prey. they make a good team, really. he’s pickpocketed almost every loser in this joint and she does a good job of playing a straight face for anyone who asks, luring them into a false sense of security so he can strike. all of this money he’s pocketed, it’s going back to the morlocks he sold out all those years ago. his biggest sin yet…

beneath good intentions, he can’t deny that he gets a high off it, and it’s no secret she’s enjoying herself as well. it’s not just about finding power while feeling powerless, it’s about taking a break from the grind of their daily lives, to be other people. perhaps for tonight, they can pretend the skeletons in their closet don’t exist.

❛ keep dat necklace by de way, it suits you, chere. ❜ he teases, pushing her hair to the side so he can adjust the clamp on her necklace he’d just gifted her. he’d taken it from jason wyngarde before he could gift it to his “date,” but he’s sure neither of them will notice it’s missing by the end of the night. but he’s right, it does look far better on her.

a spell is an apt way to put it, like cinderella at the ball, they’re living lives that aren’t particularly theirs and by tomorrow, they’ll be back to their regular selves. his smile falters upon the realization, fixing her hair back to the state he found it in. ❛ yeah. let’s just hope dis spell lasts longer than midnight, yeah? i don’t wanna be de one turnin’ into a pumpkin. ❜ he teases. a gloved hand extends to her, beckoning her to take it and follow him back out to the lions den. ❛ let’s go give ‘em hell. ❜

#diamvnd #ASKS: REMY LEBEAU #i guess the remy and emma dynamic is 'we cause problems' asdfjkm

2 notes · View notes

spaceorphan18 · 4 years

Text

Marvel Movie Night: X2 X-Men United

For some reason, I have the full screen version of this. Not sure what I was thinking when I made that decision. Anyway....

What exactly are you a professor of? Art

There was a time when X2 was considered the best comic book movie ever. And judging from everything I’ve watched up to this point -- I can understand why it got the reputation. The film is much more philosophical, the story more intellectually stimulating than a bunch of good guys beat up a bunch of bad guys. There’s humor to it, and good action, and it makes for a (mostly) good popcorn flick. But a lot like the first film, it doesn’t hold up nearly twenty years later.

The story mixes the famous X-Men graphic novel God Love, Man Kills with Wolverine’s backstory. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the X-Men’s subtext has always been about the ostracization, fear, and discrimination of minorities, a more intimate and philosophical story may not balance well in an action film filled with characters who mostly don’t get to do things until their one or two scenes happen.

Watching it over again, I still think it works overall. The story is relatively tight, weaving the two stories together pretty well -- and Wolverine continues to be the main protagonist. I think it does a decent job telling the story it’s interested in telling. But this is where I lament that X-Men isn’t a TV series. Each of these characters (besides Wolverine) deserve their own stories to be told -- and a two hour film is very limiting when it comes to the character’s own arcs. X2 is wise not to go crazy chasing every tangent, and stick close to the story, but at the same time, the potential of all these characters often seems wasted.

The special effects are much better in this film, and the film does take the time to showcase everyone’s powers. My one big issue with the action, however, is that it’s limited to one person at a time. What makes X-Men so special is that they’re a team -- and we don’t get to see team dynamics at all in the film, which is a shame, since there are so many good players on the board. On top of that -- this kind of turn based action kind of makes the film feel sluggish in parts. (Though - I’m sure it’s just me being a modern action film watcher watching something of a different time.)

So, let’s talk about the characters, shall we?

Wolverine - Of course, since Wolverine is the most popular X-Men is going to be focused on. We get development of his backstory, and I think the bits and pieces we’re given work well. If you know his backstory, it’s a fun little tease, if you don’t, I’m sure they give enough to piece it together. The unfortunate thing, however, is that this film is so plot driven, the only character development stuff (besides his backstory) ends up being with Jean and.... ug, I hate this love triangle stuff (but I’ll whine about this later).

That said - I think my favorite aspect of Wolverine’s story in this film is when he gets to play babysitter. His actions with the kids make an interesting dynamic, and I could just watch a whole move with Wolverine trying to run a school.

Professor X and Magneto - Of course, the heart of the philosophical story comes here again, much like it will in every X-Men film. I very much enjoy any time Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen get to be together on screen. The unfortunate thing is that there’s so much plot to cover, and so many characters to service, they don’t get a whole lot to do in the film. But what we do is a delight.

Jean Grey and Cyclops - I keep laughing every time they say Dr. Grey. What??

Anyway, Famke Jansson continues to be a delight as Jean. Other than Xavier and Magneto, she seems to be the closest to her comic counter part (mostly). And she does really well with all the hints they lay about the Phoenix force. It’s a shame the third film is going to truly do a great story a disservice.

Meanwhile, though, we have Cyclops. And, geez, I just feel so bad for James Marsden, because he gets such an iconic character to play, and literally has nothing to do with him. He even overacts in his emotional scenes with Jean, and it’s almost as if he’s like he’s trying make up for not having anything to do. It’s a real shame because Cyclops, believe it or not, is a fascinating and complex character, who really deserves so much more than the one-note character this trilogy portrays him as.

As for the love triangle... I hate love triangles in general, but this one is just even worse than usual. It’s barely a triangle, because the film doesn’t even bother with one third of it. I could go on a whole diatribe, but I’ll spare you. If you’d really like to know - send me a message! Otherwise, I’ll leave it at - I hate love triangles.

Storm - You can tell Halle Berry asked for more to do. And, like, most of the rest of the characters, she gets more lines, but not much more character development. I still feel she’s incredibly miscast here. Where’s the woman who did her voice for the cartoon? That was a Storm. But, Berry’s acting aside, Storm is another character who is complex and varied, and it’s a shame so little of her comes through in these films.

Nightcrawler -- We get a new character! It’s kinda weird that they steal some of the unpopular traits he has in the comics (the religious leanings) and tone down some of his more notable characteristics -- like his goofing around and swordplay. I get why they did this, somewhat for plot, somewhat to make philosophical points. But I do miss the charming, Errol Flynn wanna be of the comics. That said -- I think Alan Cummings did a great job with his role, and the action sequences with NIghtcrawler look great!

Rogue and Bobby -- **sigh** I won’t bore you too long with my feelings about Rogue. Anna Paquin is fine. The character makes sense for what this universe has made her out to be. I just... I miss my girl from the comics. I hope some day we do get to see a closer to comics version of her -- sassy, brassy, and yet very vulnerable. But -- since the plot doesn’t need her (or her powers) she’s relegated to second string.

Bobby gets more to do, and having read a ton of comics since this first came out, I have a much bigger appreciation for Iceman. I love the actor who plays him here - he’s great! I do enjoy the little bit that he gets to do. And the scene where he ‘comes out’ to his parents is perfect on a lot of levels. (Even funnier, now that comic book Iceman is gay.)

I still don’t think, overall, Rogue and Bobby make much sense as a couple, but for the purposes of this universe, it works fine enough.

The Brotherhood -- Okay, so this is primarily this is Mystique and Pyro. Where are the others? Well, this film is a little stuffed already. Mystique is fine - this film has no interest going into her psyche, and while she is a character who deserves development, the next trilogy is going to kill any interest in a film version, so I’m fine here. I’m still confused as to why she’s naked, though. I miss her white, flowy dress of the comics.

Meanwhile, in the comics, Pyro is a third rate villain. They bring him in here to offset Iceman. I get it. He’s fine. Whatever.

I get why they bring the villains over to side with the X-Men, but not going to lie when they’re not fighting each other, and just humans, I don’t think it’s as exciting, but that’s just me.

Oh, and before someone gets upset that I don’t mention her -- Lady Deathstrike. Is in the film. It’s an extended cameo. It’s fine, I don’t really care all that much about Lady Deathstrike, so I’m fine with it.

William Stryker - The main villain of the whole thing. I think he works on paper, and he’s fine. I’m not going to lie - I find scenes with him pretty boring, but plot revolves around him, and that’s fine. Interestingly, I think his son, Jason, was a nod to Jason Wyngarde - Mastermind, who can project different realities around you. I feel like that’s a nice little nugget there. But other than that, I don’t have a whole lot to say about the main villain of the film.

Cameos and Easter Eggs -- there are a lot of little nuggets in here, and I’m not going to go through them all, but it’s nice to see a lot of other mutants scattered around, as well as nods to the comics. It does add a fun layer onto the film.

Final Thoughts: I think the ending sequence works to great effect - but I still say this film’s thinner, and more philosophical plot leaves most of the characters by the wayside. It was a great step forward for comic book films, it was lighter than the first one, had more humor, had some great talking points, and some good action sequences. It’s still, unfortunately, wastes the potential of nearly all of its characters.

Next Up: Oh, god, there’s a Hulk movie worse than Incredibly Hulk....

#marvel movie nights #xmen

4 notes · View notes

thewhitehotroom · 5 years

Photo

Welcome to Comic Cover Friday where we take a look at comic covers featuring Jean Grey and examine some of the details and plot points from within the book to learn more about Jean Grey!

With Dark Phoenix coming to theaters in a week what better a way to celebrate then to highlight comic covers from the Dark Phoenix Saga.

If you have any suggestions for Jean Grey Comic Covers that I should feature and examine please feel free to message me and I will gladly look into them!

This Week the cover I have chosen to highlight is: Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 Issue #134

Cover Title: Heroes and Hellfire

Book Title: Too Late, the Heroes!

Cover Artists: Made by the combined talents of John Byrne, Terry Austin and Gaspar Saladino!

The Cover: The first cover of the Dark Phoenix Saga to prominently feature Jean shows her in her already spiraling state. We get a glimpse of Jean as the Black Queen with the X-Men and foes in a now icon vs pose. Jean is the only person on the cover colored fully and it allows your eye to be drawn to her standing in the flames of the Phoenix. The cover is powerful, and the story even more so!

The Comic Book: Cyclops has survived his encounter with Wyngarde on the astral plane, albeit barely. However, their battle has had another effect, unguessed by either, as Jean – the Black Queen – looks at both of them strangely. When Wolverine crashes into the room, intent on freeing his friends, Wyngarde orders Jean to stop him. She complies, but secretly also uses her powers to free Cyclops – she has shaken off Wyngarde’s control. Cyclops acts quickly and decisively, freeing the other X-Men. Now, with surprise on their side, the X-Men handle the Club members astonishingly well, though they get split up in the process. Wolverine does Leland a grievous injury, as the other mutant uses his gravity-increasing power on him. Colossus destroys one of Pierce’s bionic arms and Shaw only barely escapes from Storm and Nightcrawler. He vows grimly that the X-Men will pay for this. Elsewhere, Mastermind was trying to slip away unnoticed, but Jean easily confronts him and, in revenge for what he has set in motion within her, drives him mad, by forcing upon him the powers and perceptions of a god. The X-Men flee in their plane, intent on getting back to New Mexico, but they are too late as the aftermath of Mastermind’s manipulations is a startling change in Jean. She transforms into an evil version of herself – Dark Phoenix – and blows up the X-Men’s plane. In the meantime, Avengers’ Mansion has been alerted to the goings-on at the Hellfire Club. Currently on monitor duty is the former X-Man, Beast, who decides to ignore his duty and help his old friends instead. (Synopsis courtesy of Uncanny X-Men.net)

42 notes · View notes

thecomicsnexus · 5 years

Photo

UNCANNY X-MEN #125-128 SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 1979 BY CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOHN BYRNE, TERRY AUSTIN AND GLYNIS WEIN

SYNOPSIS (FROM MARVEL DATABASE)

On Muir Island, Moira MacTaggert begins examining Jean Grey to learn the upper limits of her Phoenix powers. After some examination she points out that Jean had unconsciously put up barriers to keep her powers at her previous levels following saving the universe from the M'Kraan Crystal but now they seem to be returning to their cosmic level powers, and would like to know why. As Jean finishes up her test for the day, she recalls the events that brought her to Muir Island following the supposed deaths of her comrades.

However, the other X-Men are alive and well and believe Jean to be dead. They practice in the Danger Room until Wolverine loses his temper over "playing games" with the team and storms off. While high up in space aboard Asteroid M, Magneto goes over his computer records. When he comes across an old datafile on his late wife Magda, he deletes it so that he does not have to relive the pain of her passing. Meanwhile, the man named Jason Wyngarde, a mutant himself has been slowly molding the mind of Jean Grey since he first met her, taking on different guises and accessing her mind planting the seeds to transform her into his beloved Black Queen. This is while Jean is talking to Lorna about her relationship with Alex. In Moira's lab, Moira pores over the data and ponders over the fact that Jean has been granted the powers akin to a god and wonders where Charles Xavier may be and wishes he would come back. Xavier is still in the Shi'ar galaxy as Lilandra's consort. Xavier is spending his time considering the power that Jean Grey wields and realizes that he needs to return to Earth.

Back on Muir Island, Moira is going to tell Jean about the extent of her powers when she steps on a gold tooth. Examining it she realizes the problem and rushes to the room where Mutant X is stored and is horrified to find that the being is not there. Elsewhere on the island, Jean is wandering around when she detects an intruder in the vicinity. Changing into her costume she begins to search for the intruder when suddenly she finds herself seemingly transported back in time to the Victorian era for a brief moment. She snaps back to reality when someone jumps her, looking into the mans face she screams in terror bringing Alex and Madrox to go and investigate.

And in the States, having detected activity at the X-Mansion, the Beast returns to his old home to find that the X-Men he thought were dead are alive and well. He tells Scott that Jean is still alive and is staying on Muir Island. When Cyclops puts in a call, Lorna answers the phone and tells him that there is a security situation going on at the island. However, before she can explain further, Lorna is attacked by some strange being that has a need for her. The last thing Cyclops hears before the line goes dead is Lorna's screams.

Responding to Lorna Dane's call for help, the X-Men rush to Muir Island in the Blackbird. Splitting into small groups to quickly search the facility, the X-Men deploy before their jet has even finished landing. Banshee and Cyclops find Lorna and the body of Angus MacWhirter. In short order the X-Men find the rest of the station's known inhabitants.

Moira tells the X-Men that Mutant X has escaped. Jamie recounts the events that happened after the X-Men were called - Jamie created duplicates to search the grounds after Lorna screamed. When one of them found Proteus, he possessed the doubles body, knocking Jamie for a loop. Wolverine brashly argues for immediate pursuit, but Cyclops, intimidated by the ease at which Proteus overpowered Jean Grey, Polaris, and Jamie Madrox, asks Moira for more information. Moira at first refuses to talk, but finally relents and reveals Proteus is her son.

Elsewhere, Proteus has escaped the island in Madrox's doubles body to the city of Stornoway. There he finds himself in need of a new body, but his attempt to snag Jason Wyngarde's is foiled by some sort of psychic defense. Ferdie Duncan fares less well.

The next morning the X-Men head to the mainland, reasoning Proteus will head towards a major city, and split up to search the area. Their activity does not go unnoticed - Jason Wyngarde observes their dispersal, and causes Jean to suddenly experience another reversion to the 18th century. She's riding a horse with Jason, on a hunt. Suddenly the dogs bring their quarry down, and when Jason clears them off they find its a man playing the part of the stag. And then Jason tells her it was her idea! She comes back to reality to find a mummified corpse where the man-stag's body was!

Wolverine, however, has picked up Proteus's scent. Ignoring the radio call that Jean has found a body, he follows his nose to a policeman. Proteus, impressed by how fast Wolverine saw through the flesh facade, tries to possess him - only to discover his body is laced with metal, a substance that is highly toxic to him! Nightcrawler comes driving up as Wolverine threatens to gut Proteus, only to find that Proteus is capable of warping reality itself! Wolverine's connection to the natural world via his heightened senses makes him especially susceptible, and he and Nightcrawler seem as if they will be overwhelmed when Storm arrives. While her attack distracts him, he quickly turns gravity upside down on her, smashing her into the earth. Injured, and soon to become Proteus's prey, she tries her hardest to blow him away with a massive gust of wind... and fails!

Storm has failed to drive Proteus off with a powerful gust of wind as he inexorably closes to steal her body as his own! She risks flying once more, but Proteus warps space around her and brings her back to the ground - knocking her unconscious. Just when Storm seems doomed, a sniper distracts Proteus - the deadly metal of the bullets a real threat to him. On a nearby ridge, Moira MacTaggert aims to finish him off, but Cyclops stops her, not understanding that the only way to end this is with Proteus's death. Moira knocks Cyclops out to get her shot, but Proteus takes off in the X-Men's jeep, not wanting to be vulnerable while he switches bodies. Moira takes off after him.

The X-Men regroup and patch up their wounded. Wolverine, badly shaken by his encounter with Proteus, is verbally abused by Cyclops to snap him out of it. This escalates into a brawl, as Cyke planned, and he brings the other X-Men who fought Proteus into it. Finally, he sues for peace and explains his motivation - to test their psyches to see if there was any other damage not immediately apparent.

South of them, Proteus claims his next victim, Jennie Banks. He then hides the policeman's body, and fixes Jennie's flat tire, and continues on his way talking about killing "the one he hates".

Moira goes to see Joe MacTaggert, her estranged husband. She tells him he has a son, and that he's trying to kill him, and leaves. Proteus knows of this visit, and that it has hurt Moira, and he closes in for the kill.

The X-Men detect Joe's psychic 'death scream', and know they are close. However, Proteus has decided he wants Moira, and reality suddenly goes wild in Edinburgh! The X-Men arrive, but Proteus foils their initial assault, and grabs Moira as a hostage!

Holding Moira as hostage, Proteus causes reality to bend and break in the city of Edinburgh, forcing the X-Men to save the innocent people thrown into harm's way. Proteus reflects on how he got here.

The X-Men finally bring the fight to Proteus, but he foils each of their assaults in turn. Proteus makes a tactical withdrawal, bringing Moira with him, but Phoenix catches up and nails him with a powerful psychic attack. He finally manages to retaliate, but Wolverine has caught up and puts his deadly adamantium claws to use through Proteus's side! Cyclops and Havok then let Proteus have it with both barrels, but though the attack weakens Proteus, he escapes and snags Moira from Wolverine's grasp!

Colossus pursues, and throws Proteus away from Moira, shattering his decaying body! Uncloaked by flesh, Proteus is a being of pure energy, and he delights in torturing Colossus's psyche as he slowly roasts him with fire. But Proteus didn't figure on Peter Rasputin's ability to transform himself into organic steel! Colossus transforms, and thrusts himself into the heart of Proteus's energy form where his metal body is anathema to his foe.

In the end, relieved that their foe is defeated, the X-Men grieve for having to take his life.

REVIEW

The X-Men finally reunite (and soon they will meet Professor X), but it won’t be for long, as the Dark Phoenix Saga is coming up next.

Proteus as a faceless villain is a bit hard to remember (you cannot sell a toy like that). This was later corrected by giving him some kind of shape.

The whole story in the background with Jason and Jean is quite... adult... to say the least. This is not a modern age comic-book, but it was pretty edgy. Chris Claremont seems to be known for his recurring fetish plot devices. So I am not completely surprised. I would wonder if John Byrne was ok with this, then I remembered that issue where Superman and Big Barda were mind-controlled to film a porn. I guess I will review that book some day.

There are a few new developments. Wolverine’s skeleton is revealed to be made of adamantium (it wasn’t revealed that it was covered in adamantium til much later). Moira reveals she had a son and a husband (both dead by the end of this story). And Xavier is returning to Earth.

There is one point of the story when the pace was halted completely and it was that useless fight between the x-men just to prove they were ok.

I give this story a score of 8

#dave cockrum #terry austin #danny crespi #john byrne #george perez #dark phoenix #marvel comics #comics #review #1979 #bronze age #x-men #uncanny x-men #wolverine #cyclops #phoenix #jean grey

24 notes · View notes

spacejellyfish3 · 5 years

Text

Thought I was joking about that essay in my last post, didn’t ya?

Well guess again.

So if you know me, you know that my absolute favorite comic book storyline, NAY, fictional storyline of all time is the incredible, incomparable, indomitable, Dark Phoenix Saga...

I love this story to death! It’s such a great tale of love, loss, pain, action, and space genocide! It’s the story that cemented Chris Claremont as the definitive X-Men writer AND catapulted Wolverine into the ensemble darkhorse we know now! What’s not to love?

But everytime DPS gets adapted, it falls flat with an unimaginable thud. There are many reasons for this, and in this tangent I will be listing the reasons why I, in all my teenage wisdom, think adapting the Dark Phoenix Saga will be a thankless, thankless result for everyone of its fans:

1–The Changes:

This is the reason I hear of the most whenever a DPS adaptation is criticized. You know the drill; they changed it, now it sucks yadda yadda I’m gonna complain to the internet about it! (Hello irony, it’s been a while...)

But in all seriousness, this complaint is a mixed bag of sorts; any adaptation has to have changes not only to be unique and original to fans new and old, but also to fit the new medium it’s being adapted into. This is true for many Marvel films; Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse may be adapted from the Spider-Verse event comic, yes, but it’s change of the method of transportation from The Great Web of Life and Destiny to a particle collider as well as its focus on just six Spider-People instead of thousands makes the story more clear and concise but still adhering to the roots of the comics, and while Days of Future Past’s switching up of the characters involved and plot points is annoying to some, it did so in a way that made sense and kept true to the plot of the original.

But for some odd reason, any changes made to the Dark Phoenix Saga ends in tragedy (which is hilarious to me considering how the storyline ends). The Last Stand (which I am only acknowledging as existing for the purposes of this essay, and everything besides Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, and that one scene with the family in the car on the Golden Gate Bridge can go die in a dumpster fire..) changed the Phoenix from an intergalactic force to a psychopathic split personality in Jean that Professor X suppressed for years, which, to be frank, I could forgive since the 2000s X-Movies were set up to be more realistic than the comics. What I can’t forgive is the addition of characters like Magneto to a story that they weren’t even a cameo in, the numerous plot holes, the atrocious Phoenix costume, and fusing DPS with The Cure storyline for some god forsaken reason...

And while Dark Phoenix 2019 seems to at least try and be more faithful to the original story (with a Mastermind analogue, aliens, and keeping the Phoenix Force an actual intergalactic force of power), only time will tell whether or not it is as such...

2–The Characters:

In any story, the characters are one of the most important aspects. They move the plot, twist the narrative, make funny quips, etc...And for the Dark Phoenix Saga, the most important character is Jean Grey herself.

And you might be saying: “But Jellyfish, isn’t that kind of obvious?” Well, in any other case, you might be right. But for some weird reason, Jean is never defined enough as a character for us to care.

In The Last Stand, Jean is basically an afterthought while the audience is subjected to “The Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine Show”; she’s just there to act as a macguffin for the characters to fight over who occasionally has a line or two with a hint of character depth. It’s insulting how I know more about Movie!Nightcrawler (who we got to know over the course of a single movie) than I do about Movie!Jean (who we had THREE movies to get to know). Dark Phoenix 2019 does carry the positive of putting Jean in the role of main character, but we still know nothing about her because the writing in X-Men Apocalypse for Jean is very, very lacking...

In the original Dark Phoenix Saga, Jean Grey was simultaneously hero, victim, and villain. She was a heroic figure who tragically fell from grace, ultimately sacrificing herself to save the entire universe. She was a selfish, cruel, and wicked monster who cared only for her own passions and desires, with no regard for the hundreds of thousands of lives she destroyed in the wake of her malevolent acts. She was caring, kind, fiery, fierce, terrifying, vain, passionate, etc...In every aspect of her—from Jean Grey to Marvel Girl to Phoenix to the Black Queen to Dark Phoenix—you could see shades of all of these traits and emotions in her. Phoenix and Dark Phoenix weren’t two separate entities, and neither were Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force itself. Two sides of the same coin. Yin and Yang. Mortal and Goddess. Maiden and Monster.

In the end, however all these problems with defining Jean Grey’s character are symptomatic of a much larger issue that these movies continuously fail to acknowledge. That reason being:

3–Buildup:

This reason may be, in my opinion, the one that ultimately causes the failure when it comes to adapting DPS.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most impactful and powerful stories ever written, and the reason behind that distinction is, in my opinion, because of the amount of buildup it had; this storyline wasn’t done in just a few months, it had taken place over 41 issues, which is five years in real life time. There was time spent with the X-Men and building up the Shi’ar Empire and Princess Lilandra as allies and friends to them. We were intrigued by the mystery of Jason Wyngarde and his intentions towards Jean, all while the sinister Hellfire Club lurked in the shadows. We saw the gradual change in Jean Grey as she became more powerful, as she seemingly relived the life of her ancestors all while growing more unsure of her identity with each timeslip. As Jean lost control of her reality and sense of self, the audience was right there with her, trying to make sense of the world we had come to love and enjoy.

And even before all of this—before the Dark Phoenix Saga and the Phoenix Saga—from the very first issue of Uncanny X-Men, we’ve been with Jean Grey. From being the newest student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters to awakening her telepathic powers for the very first time to piloting a space shuttle in the middle of the worst solar storm in history, we’ve been with her every step of the way. And with that history, seeing that fiery redhead fight a herald of Galactus to a standstill, save the universe from destruction! It was so triumphant, so full of awe!!

And...it only served to make things even more tragic with the coming of the Dark Phoenix Saga. Seeing this girl, this heroic girl, as she was twisted and controlled and tamed and broken. As her struggles mounted, with each manipulation and lie, every use of her awesome power growing more tempting and seductive, Jean began to crack—piece by piece—until eventually she just...snapped.

To see her consume that inhabited Star like she was simply drinking a bottle of water, fighting her friends with no remorse, her kind face twisting into a monstrous mockery of a smile...It was terrifying. The buildup gave this story depth, impact, emotion! You could feel every punch, every blast of energy, every scream, every cry, every word echoing in your head and in your heart. And seeing her sacrifice—it was truly uncanny. Begging Cyclops, the man she loved with all her heart, to kill her before she transformed into a nightmare goddess of death was heartbreaking, but his refusal to do so led to her doing the unthinkable; from the moment they were abducted by the Shi’ar to face trial, she knew what she had to do. To destroy any chance of the Dark Phoenix rising ever again, she had to destroy it...and herself as well. So, to save the galaxy, Jean Grey killed herself. In the words of Uatu the Watcher:

“Jean Grey could have lived to become a god. But it was more important to her that she die...a human.”

This storyline was filled with blood, sweat, and tears. It’s a reading experience like no other. A love letter to every X-Men fan, past, present, and future. It astounded me when I first read it 5 years ago, and it still astounds me when I read it now...

And that’s why I think we might never get a great adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga; to build up a story like this is a undertaking. It wouldn’t be like the buildup to Infinity War, because that was done so that every character in the movie would be well-defined and known to the audience so that they would care what happened to them. If you wanted to make the Dark Phoenix Saga into a movie, you would have to build up Jean Grey throughout each and every movie before that while simultaneously building up the other X-Men too. It would require more than 5 movies to do this; introducing Jean Grey, having her in the X-Men as Marvel Girl for a 2 movies, doing the Phoenix Saga with the M’kraan crystal and the Shi’ar, another movie where she grows in power and develops, and finally the actual Dark Phoenix Saga.

This storyline is incredibly close to my heart for many reasons, not the least of which being that it was the comic book that officially got me into comic books for real. I want to see it done right so badly!!

It’s a tale of tragedy and terror. A symphony of love and loss. A story of absolute power corrupting absolutely, and the unbeatable spirit of humanity that triumphs forevermore...

#the dark phoenix saga #my magnum opus #dear lordy this took way longer than i expected #i’d like to thank chris claremont #and john byrne #and stan lee may he forever rest in peace #x-men #marvel #jean grey

10 notes · View notes

elizasmarkgatissblog · 5 years

Text

Mark Gatiss reveals why it took him 5 years to make another Christmas ghost story with The Dead Room

"What excites me a lot is honouring a tradition, but pushing it forward."

MORGAN JEFFERY

18/12/2018

It's been a little while since Mark Gatiss last delved into the eerie world of MR James, but the lack of a Christmas ghost story on the BBC since 2013's The Tractate Middoth isn't entirely down to the writer/director/actor/producer's busy schedule.

Instead, it's the lack of funding for half-hour TV movies, of the sort that aired under the Ghost Story for Christmas strand in the 1970s, that's prevented him from returning to the format... until now.

The Dead Room, airing on BBC Four on Christmas Eve (December 24), is a short, sharp and spooky tale about a pompous radio host (played by Simon Callow) whose past comes back to haunt him. It was filmed in just three days, and for, Gatiss says, "very little money".

BBC

[Sacha Dhawan in 2013’s The Tractate Middoth]

"I hope, having made it, that I can make some more, for the same money," he tells Digital Spy. "Because it works! And I just think it's a shame, because there obviously is a hunger for it every year.

"I mean, I would very happily make them all, till I drop, but it doesn't have to be me. I just seem to be the only person who keeps trying to bring them back!"

This particular tale was inspired by Gatiss' own tenure as presenter of BBC Radio 4 Extra's The Man in Black, an anthology horror series similar to the one hosted by Callow's character Aubrey Judd.

"The producer was always asking me to write for it," he explains. "I had an idea for a story called The Dead Room, about me as the Man in Black, in this studio that was being haunted. It never happened, but I sort of filed the idea away..."

GETTY IMAGES

EAMONN M. MCCORMACK

The final product is not a direct adaptation but rather an affectionate tribute to the work of MR James, father of the modern ghost story who penned such classics as 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad', 'Casting the Runes' and, of course, 'The Tractate Middoth'.

Though an original narrative, The Dead Room strictly abides by all of James's rules on how a ghost story should be written – all except one. "The ghost should be malevolent and usually vengeful, you need a haze of distance [from the present day] and there should be no sex – though I broke that rule," Gatiss says.

The spectre in this tale is no headless horseman or Victorian spook, but a figure from the 1970s, a period that Gatiss says feels familiar but somehow "just out of reach" – and the social issues of the time are very much at the heart of The Dead Room.

The film's plot was "very much inflected" by Gatiss' previous work on the BBC Four series Queers, a series of monologues chronicling the experiences of LGBTQ+ figures throughout history, as well as the plights of Peter Wyngarde, a popular actor best known for playing the womanising Jason King who was arrested for "gross indecency" in 1975, and of Norman Scott, the subject of Russell T Davies' recent drama A Very English Scandal.

BBC/ADORABLE MEDIA

"The shadow of Norman Scott hangs over it, [the idea of] a vengeful lover," Gatiss says. "I thought, 'I'm not going to write about Aubrey as a 70-year-old married man with three children... why not make it a gay story? I'll write what i know'. That's very unusual, if not unique so far, in broadcast terms…

"And despite Monty James' rules, I thought it could have a hint of sex, without it being entirely about that. Really, it's a love story, and I think of the best ghost stories out there are."

If the BBC does come knocking next Christmas, Gatiss is enthused by the possibilities of what type of ghost story he might tackle next, naming "James's hero" J Sheridan Le Fanu and EF Benson as two more authors he's eager to adapt.

"What excites me a lot is honouring a tradition but pushing it forward," he says. "I mean, if someone asked me to adapt [James's 1904 short story] Count Magnus, set in 1890, I would absolutely do it.

"But also I'd be very happy to do Count Magnus set today, and see how that would work. Or another new story. Or some other people's stories... because there are a lot of them!"

The Dead Room airs on Christmas Eve (Monday, December 24) at 10pm on BBC Four.

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a25613311/mark-gatiss-dead-room-bbc-four/

#MG #mark gatiss #the dead room #digital spy #interview #all things MG

3 notes · View notes

mariocki · 4 months

Text

Peter Wyngarde guest stars as Dr. John Hallam, eminent physician - but also criminal mastermind - in The Champions: The Invisible Man (1.2, ITC, 1968)

#fave spotting #peter wyngarde #jason king #the champions #the invisible man #itc #1968 #what's that? no‚ no‚ don't worry #I'm not rewatching the champions... yet...#one of my... shall we say less prudent purchases of recent months was getting my hands on a cheap copy of Network's retro action set #basically a sampler of single itc episodes in shiny HD; the intent was to attract customers to their burgeoning blu ray upgrades of #various itc serials. imprudent bc of course I've seen most of these episodes; i own a lot of them on dvd in fact (and cough some on blu ray #so yes not a wise investment perhaps... but with network gone (forever in our hearts) and their blu ray range finished (with little #chance of any other label picking up the mantle) this was my only chance to see certain things in brilliant high def... maybe highest on #the list was The Champions‚ a series I've always had an inordinate fondness for. it seems unlikely anyone will give it a blu ray release #so here it is‚ the one and only hd ep. sigh. part of me wished they'd gone for another ep tbh; this has never been a favourite‚ with #Richard and Sharron sidelined for most of the episode and a strangely underwhelming ending (the villains just sort of crash their vehicle #through no fault of the champions). but... it does look beautiful... and finally we can appreciate Peter's wonderful wardrobe as it always #deserved to be seen! he's always dressed in such a particular way that I'm half convinced he provided his own clothes for tv work #here he's... well im fairly certain he gets referred to as Dr but he seems more likely to be a surgeon‚ performing sinister operations on #unwitting stooges. his coconspirator is the lovely James Culliford‚ who like Wyngarde was a relatively out gay actor within the biz #i must admit it lends the episode an even deeper frisson of camp knowing the two actors were gay; Hallam and friend Charles do seem #and it makes the line 'Charles‚ use the vibrator!' utterly risible #still it's good fun. oh! and i finally got to see Tremayne's desk in hd! i always knew he had a bundle of crayons in a jar (a bizarre bit #of set dressing that was presumably an afterthought nobody was expected to see); what i didn't know and shiny blu ray revealed was that the #crayons are sitting on top of a bundle of marbles at the bottom of the jar... Tremayne what are you doing with your office time?#eta: half a tag got eaten‚ i meant to say Hallam and Charles seem remarkably close...

6 notes · View notes

thexavierinstituterp · 6 years

Photo

–you– NAME YOU’D LIKE TO GO BY? Joss YOUR PREFERRED PRONOUNS? She/her AGE? 31 TIME ZONE? MST 1-10 ACTIVITY LEVEL? 5-7

Your app below for Regan Wyngarde/Lady Mastermind has been accepted! Please IM the main from your character’s blog within the next 24 hours so we can link you to the ooc blog. Congrats!

–your character– CHARACTER? Lady Mastermind THEIR PREFERRED PRONOUNS? She/her THEIR BIRTHDAY (day and month)? February 28th, 2001 QUESTIONS/REQUESTS YOU HAVE ABOUT THEM, IF CANON? There’s very little mentioned about the alternate reality that Regan was in for a year during her coma. If possible, I would like to craft this alternate reality with your input since Regan has vivid memories of it and is missing memories of her actual life, to the point where she is not sure what did or did not happen. My idea is a fantasy built around the fairy tale of Cinderella, where she is Cinderella, her two sisters are the wicked stepsisters, her mother is the wicked stepmother, and her father never seems to notice she’s in peril. She does increasingly complicated tasks to earn his approval, but he’s unmoved. There’s no prince, no ball, and the friendly animals are ones she’s created to serve her, with her succumbing to her own powers in an effort to protect herself from the subconscious knowledge that her father isn’t coming for her/doesn’t care.

SAMPLE PARA:

School was entirely useless most days, but Regan attended, because people noticed when she didn’t. They noticed when she altered her school uniform to make it more slutty, and when she wore thick black eye make up that made her look like a sad raccoon. Mom had begged her to just actually go to class, for once, please, just this once, for her. Her mom didn’t usually beg, but shouting, grounding, and taking away her phone hadn’t worked. She’d given in, finally, because she hated to see her mother beg. She never used her power on her mother, not even when she wanted to. That was part of her rules. No powers on Mom or the Step-Creature, and not on Martinique. She would definitely have used them on Tini if she could have, but her sister was immune. Everyone else was fair game, but she didn’t bring it home. She wasn’t a monster, she had a code.

Her very proper, all-girls, private boarding school was only an option because of the Step-Creature’s swanky job in Manhattan, but since Regan hated it and would happily have gone to the shitty public school down the block, she didn’t view it as any kind of nice gesture. Her stepfather did it because his precious Megan needed a supportive environment to help her, aka she had fucking pink hair and black eyes. And was somehow still better than Tini. Go figure.

Her classmates knew enough to avoid her, most of the time. They didn’t know why, just that bad things happened if they got in Regan’s way. And that was how she liked it. Her teachers hadn’t penalized her for not handing in an assignment since The Teacher’s Lounge Incident. She’d arranged things where she really didn’t even have to go to class, except that that fucking cow of a secretary, who seemed to be partially immune to Regan’s powers, refused to stop calling home about her absences.

Today’s target was Tessa Sage, another of her fellow mutants. Regan generally didn’t target other mutant. Freak solidarity and all that, her father would expect no less. She hadn’t seen him in three years, not since the Grand Divorce, but she still tried, occasionally, to live up to his extraordinarily low standards. There’d been a time when she worshipped the ground he walked on. Then one too many people had shown up at their apartment after he’d done something to them, because apparently while he viewed protecting himself as top priority, protecting his family came somewhere below polishing his shoes.

Tessa’s crime du jour was that she’d hacked into the school records and altered people’s grades, for money, but refused to do it for Regan. Regan would allow a certain level of that sort of behaviour for the mutant cause, but fuck if she was going to settle for a C in biology when there was a better option.

Since Tessa could mindfuck people too, though not as well as Regan, obviously, Regan felt it only fair that Tessa get a taste of her own medicine. She was already spinning an illusion by the time she came across her classmate, who was hiding in the computer lab like usual. “Hey bitch. Last chance to play nice.” Tessa said nothing, which was usually the case, and shrunk even lower down into her chair, like the whole thing would just go away if she ignored it.

Though Regan couldn’t ‘see’ her illusions with her eyes, they hung over her mind like a transparent curtain, where she could tweak the details until they were right. She normally dug through people’s minds to find their fears, or possibly hopes and dreams, to project, but since Tessa was decent enough to make that difficult, she just went with a classic. One of the computers exploded, and fire started to spread across the room, the smoke small at first but becoming choking quickly. Just for fun, the fire seemed to chase Tessa, who’d jumped up at the explosion and was backing away. When she hit the wall, Regan made the flames burn hotter, so that sweat started to bead on the girl’s forehead. “Do you know that old rumour about people dying in their dreams and then dying in real life? You wanna find out if it’s true?” Flame licked across the floor towards Tessa, the room disappearing underneath the clouds of smoke and tar. The taste of the air would be foul with all the plastic burning. Regan took pride in the details of her illusions.

Tessa was screaming, and Regan was just about to open the door and let the whole school see her spazzing out over nothing, when Tessa shoved a hand out and pushed the air. It was as if something skipped through Regan’s body and then slammed into her mind with all the force of a 600 pound gorilla. She was aware for a moment of flames, smoke, and the burning taste of plastic in the back of her throat, before the world went black.

HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS RP? The LSRP tag

FINAL REMARKS Triggers: Rape, CSA, animal cruelty - graphic descriptions only

#accepted

3 notes · View notes

bamfdaddio · 3 years

Text

X-Men Unabridged: Proteus

The X-Men, those beautiful mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. We’ve been untangling that history for a while, but sometimes, you really want a more in-depth look. Interested? Then read the (un)Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 125 - 128) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Fun* fact: this particular issue is the oldest comic I physically own.

* for a given value of fun

Something sinister lurks on Muir Isle…

This arc is very much set up like a horror movie. It starts out as a regular X-Men narrative, where Claremont is weaving along several plot threads. We check in with the X-Men in Westchester, we check in with Magneto who has retreated to Asteroid M and we even check in with Xavier in space, who finally learns more about the true scope of the Phoenix and its nature. Finally, we’ve got Jean stationed at Muir Isle, where Moira is investigating the sheer scope of her powers. (She has realized how strong Jean truly is; akin to a god. Her theory is that Jean’s recent power dampening is the result of her human mind trying to cope with her massive power level.) It’s about as everyday as it gets for the X-Men, but, well…

I always thought Jean molecularly restructured her own outfit into the Phoenix-costume whenever she needed to change, but here, she just… wills it away? Also, why did you need an outfit change for this, anyway? Does the costume simply appear whenever she exerts too much of her powers, like an angry forehead vein? So many questions. (X-Men 126)

Other residents at Muir are Polaris, Havok and the Multiple Man, all of them blissfully unaware that something skulks about in the shadows: the remains of an unfortunate captain, whose body has been taken over by something… other.

But someone else is skulking around in the shadows, too. Jean isn’t aware of it, but a familiar stranger is manipulating her from the sidelines.

I’ve been gaslighting a cosmic force, ask me how! (X-Men 126)

1979 marks the first appearance of the Hellfire Club, though we only meet one member for now: Jason Wyngarde. (Maybe all of this could have been avoided if he’d had a Barbie doll to dress up in black lace as a child, but alas.) ‘Jason’ is a pseudonym and though most people these days know that he’s a familiar villain from the X-Men’s past, the reveal of his true identity will follow later.

Meanwhile, Beast finally gets off his ass to check on the Xavier mansion, even though the X-Men must have been tripping intruder alarms for months now. Still, we do get this sweet moment out of it:

Of course she’s going to be surprised at the sheer amount of plot contrivances that were thrown up to keep all y’all apart for a full year. (X-Men 126)

Beast knows that Jean went to Muir, so Scott immediately goes for the phone. Lorna picks up, but during the call she starts screaming, leaning heavily into the horror genre. She fends off the withering remains of the captain, so instead, ‘Mutant X’ jumps into a duplicate of Jamie Madrox and promptly flees to the mainland on a boat.

Guuurl, that body is snatched. (X-Men 126)

The X-Men (sans Beast) hit Muir Isle, where Moira debriefs them. Moira reveals who Mutant X is: his name is Kevin MacTaggart, her son, who has the terrifying power to warp reality. Because his power is so vast, he burns through bodies at an alarming rate. He can only be contained - or killed - by inorganic metal. In an effort to contain him (and, presumably, help him at some point), Moira locked him in a metal cell. He was kept there, alone, for god knows how long, until Magneto accidentally freed him. They know he escaped the island and, because of his parasitic need for fresh host bodies, Moira posits that he’ll be heading for a big city.

Kevin - who dubs himself Proteus - racks up an impressive body count in the country side, killing 7 people in total. (6 people and 1 dupe? Eh.) He’s a terrific villain, because he’s powerful, has a well-defined weakness and, even though it’s not impossible to emphasize with him -- isolation tends to drive people mad -- the way he discards his victims is truly chilling.

The X-Men chase after him, Wolverine picking up the scent. When Proteus tries to claim him, Logan’s adamantium skeleton repels him. In response, he unspools reality.

I’ve had this trip. I think they call this strain Dragon’s Dynamite. (X-Men 126)

Storm intervenes, but Proteus leaves Nightcrawler and especially Wolverine rattled. Logan’s heightened senses root him in reality more than most, and when Proteus uses his powers, everything is just screaming wrong at him. But nobody is safe: little Kevin MacTaggart turns gravity against Ororo, taking her out as well.

He tries to claim Storm, but Moira repels him, sniping at him from afar. Proteus fears (metal) bullets, knowing they can kill him. When Cyclops realizes Moira’s shooting to kill, he intervenes - X-Men don’t kill, after all. Moira knocks him out with her gun, but Kevin escapes in the confusion. Moira finally realizes where her son is headed, while the X-Men regroup.

In Edinburgh, Moira pays Joe MacTaggart a visit - her husband, Kevin’s father.

The MacTaggarts are definitely in the running for the Xavier/Marko-award for Fucked Up Family Dynamics. (X-Men 127)

There’s a calculating coldness to Moira’s character that I’ve never responded well to, but I like how Claremont fills in the blanks here. It’s part unhappiness, part a deep frustration with her inability to help her own son. I wonder how Kevin was a child, before his mutant gene activated: was he a sweet boy, or one with a cruel streak? Did she fear what he might become?

There’s a few gaps in Claremont’s narrative, but Hickman has drawn on this very well, I think: the Moira X in HoXPoX is equally calculating, equally cold. But how can she not be? How often has she raised Kevin? How often has she had to kill him? How many times has she watched these people, these X-Men, die?

Anyway, Moira’s warning is as effective as anger management therapy for Sabretooth, because Kevin comes by Joe’s office a little while later and snuffs out his dad. Phoenix hears Joe screaming telepathically across the moors, allowing the X-Men to pinpoint him. Claremont also makes sure to show that Jean’s power is steadily growing:

Polaris be like: “No, no, I’m carrying my own emotionally stunted Summers boy, thank you.” (X-Men 127)

Proteus takes Moira hostage as the X-Men confront him. They fight.

Ordinarily, I don’t pay a lot of attention to the fight scenes, because recapping those usually boils down to “Cyclops conks Magneto in the helmet” or “Wolverine snikts Pyro in the gas tank”, but this one is truly great. John Byrne delivers some excellent work, showcasing the scope of Proteus’ powers through his art, his panelling. Don’t just take my word for it:

I love how trippy all of this is. Pivoting gravity, changing an optic beam into flowers… Sure, Proteus might be a callous and cruel SoB, but he’s also one imaginative motherfucker. (X-Men 127)

One by one, Proteus manages to distract or take out the X-Men, either by endangering passers-by, encasing them in amber (Storm) or burying them alive (Banshee). One of my favorite details is how afraid they all are: especially Wolverine and Nightcrawler hesitate before jumping into the fray. For them, this villain is truly beyond their scope.

In the end, it’s Phoenix who manages to drive him back, outside of the center of Edinburg and up an old castle, where there are fewer civilians to threaten. There, on the ramparts, it’s Colossus who makes the final stand: he destroys Proteus’ physical body and realizes that right now, there’s only one thing they can do to stop him. All it will cost is Piotr’s innocence.

Showcasing an ancient Japanese truth: Psychic Pokémon are weak to Steel attacks. (X-Men 128)

Proteus scatters to the winds and the X-Men emerge victorious, though Moira has lost both her son and her husband after this ordeal. Moreover, I think this is the first villain that the X-Men explicitly kill, simply because they have no other options left. This marks the first time that their ideal of mutant rehabilitation fails. What’s worse is that Kevin MacTaggart was essentially nothing more than a supremely screwed up boy who got access to way too much power way too quickly.

I wonder if it would have turned out differently had Xavier been there. (I also wonder if it’s a coincidence that this takes place right before the Dark Phoenix saga.)

I think this might be Claremont’s best arc yet, heightened by John Byrne’s excellent art. Chris deftly mixes horror, action and his usual soap opera elements, serving one cohesive narrative that (for once) doesn’t leave much hanging. Proteus is an excellent villain whose powers work visually (pay attention, MCU) and whose entire being touches on one of the same aspects as Krakoa: can and should every mutant fit into any sort of normal society?

If you have someone who’s interested in vintage X-Men and you want to recommend something that doesn’t require a confusing explanation of all the necessary backstory (and perhaps a crude sketch of the Summers and/or Lensherr family tree), I would recommend this arc.

And the rest, as they say, is Hellfire. 1980 is gonna be a doozy.

39 notes · View notes

wittypenguin · 5 years

Text

Flash Gordon (1980)

I have never seen this. Ever. I had some expectations going in because it had been referred to by many people over the years, but these are basically unedited and verbatim notes as I watched the film, often with time references for those who wish to follow along with their own viewing of this cinematic milestone (and God help you all).

So… this is, at its core, a ‘comic book hero film’ sort of thing, much like Marvel or some such, except it’s totally aware of its ridiculousness, apparently. The character began as a comic strip character, then Universal bought the rights to transition it into a movie serial, which would have been seen weekly at the cinema prior to a matinee feature [plus, apparently even the evening shows]. I’ve actually seen a partial run of the Buster Crabb “Flash Gordon Against Ming the Merciless” series (not sure if that’s the title), so I already have an entry point. At least, I think I do. Let’s find out.

We start on Mongo and someone’s attempt at ‘serious computer graphics’ that is super simple, and I think I’ve seen out-performed on TRS-80s about three years later.

QUEEN!! Sing along, people!

Weather and earthquakes on Earth are controlled by Ming. Boys will be boys, and he’s just having fun! Look at him go!

Why didn’t they put Freddie Mercury in the cast as someone like Ming? He’d have been great. What a missed opportunity.

Ming has a “hot hail” setting on his weather-o-matic!

Huh. Ming is sending lava balls now. Unique!

Flash Gordon is not only on the cover of People, he’s also on this airplane. He’s chatting up the only other passenger: a lady travel agent.

Who is this super-dreamy guy playing Flash? Is my gaydar supposed to be going off like this?

0:07:20 • So, when you were training to fly planes, Flash, did they tell you what CAUSES THE SKY TO TURN THE DEEP RED COLOUR OF BLOOD…‽

0:08:00 • Topol, previously seen as ‘Tevya’ in Fiddler on the Roof, is playing a ‘fringe element’ scientist whose theories are called “insane.” Well, let’s hear from him, shall we? [:: blah blah blah::] Yup, checks out! He’s been arguing for years that the Earth will be attacked! Okay, he’s right about it, but… he’s a nutbar.

Who is playing Munson? He’s great! [turns out it’s William Hootkins, best known as ‘Red Leader’ in Star Wars, with the memorable line “Almost there… almost there…” in the run through the trench to drop a missile down the throat of the Death Star]

How does Topol immediately identify moon rock samples after they arrive in the lab both red hot and smoking? Also, how can he tell the moon is being hit by a ray of some sort? He’s got all the answers just a little too quickly. Is he a part of this attack plan?

0:09:59 • Why is Munson running away, Topol? BECAUSE YOU’RE POINTING A GUN AND ORDERING HIM TO FLY INTO SPACE!

0:10:44 • I’ve just noticed that Flash is wearing a shirt with his own name on it. Is this to help him remember it, or to help people identify his body if he’s killed? Surely his rugged good looks would suffice?

0:16:20 • Okay, so they’re in space now, and I’ve just realized how co-ordinated his outfit is to the one the lady he rescued is wearing. It’s almost like it was designed that way.

I’m impressed with the model work in this. This is only a couple of years after Star Wars, after all.

0:18:00 • The whole landing on Mongo sequence has got to be a double of the original Buster Crabbe one. I remember the ship coming in like a plane, rather than landing like a rocket might.

Oh good, Flash has introduced himself to Dale again. This is at least the second time he’s done it. In case she can’t read his shirt, I guess.

0:19:44 • Oddly, the first thought one might have is fairly unlikely to be ‘is this organized as a police state which I can lead in a campaign of open revolt?’ The local government system model really wouldn’t be what I would focus on, guys.

Huh! A floating orb. With eyes. And speech.

John Hallam, Brian Blessed, and Ted Carroll in Flash Gordon (1980)

0:20:50 • Leather boys with wings & helmets? There has to be a name for this kink. They are a group of kinksters, right?

Brian Blessed’s beard has never been so large. It’s possibly bigger than his voice!

Oh! They see ’re ‘Hawkmen!’

Who’s this gold-Chrome version of Skeletor…? Klytus is his name. [played by Peter Wyngarde]

There’s a small person named ‘Fellini.’ [played by Deep Roy; no, really, that’s his name] Okay…

0:27:30 • What in blazes is Dale experiencing? Is she having an orgasm? [apparently she’s experiencing a idiom of a picnic with Ming, complete with food, etc]

0:32:30 • After a football sequence, complete with Brian Blessed having far too much fun with his mace, now Flash is in a jail, wearing some sort of upturned bucket on his head, which was designed to look even more ridiculous than an upturned bucket ever could.

I’m not sure if this film influenced Terry Gilliam or Luc Besson more?

0:35:50 • Why is Flash now wearing leather bootie shorts? Is that de reguerre for Mongo executions?

0:41:00 • Dr Zarkhov’s memory is being emptied. “My mind is all I have!” If only he were a rich man…

0:52:20 • In the middle of a bunch of people wearing virtual reality headsets in a security office, there’s an old electric microphone from the 1940s. Sure!

0:57:00 • So, the tree people test a young man’s coming of age — after there’s some sort of circle jerk — by getting him to shove his hand into a massive stump and grab a poisonous thing.

Sorry, “wood beast.”

Leave him! He’s mine. I hunt him alone!

This is wonderful!

Sam J. Jones [centre, waaaaaay in the back] in Flash Gordon (1980)

So this ‘Arborio’ is a cross between Endor and the swamp planet of Yoda [above]!

1:10:00 • I think Flash has been eaten by the farty area from Labyrinth.

1:10:30 • If insects were spacemen, these would be their ships [above].

1:12:00 • It’s good they’ve found a shirt for Flash which has a symbol of a lightning bolt on it. It’s not quite as good as a Batlabel, but it’ll do.

1:17:00 • Somehow, Brian Blessed even grins loudly.

1:18:40 • The death of Klytus is extraordinary!

1:22:00 • Ming’s outfit is a cross between a Soviet General’s, a Supreme Court Judge’s robes, and an explosion in a glitter factory.

1:25:30 • A pillow fight on satin lamé sheets? Really?

1:28:30 • I’d love to know how they created all of these clouds! They look great! Maybe it was coloured milk or tempura in water? [turns out I was guessing correctly]

Also, there are so many faces that look really familiar. They must have pulled every spare character actor they could lay their hands on.

1:34:30 • I’m a little confused about this campaign. They blew a hole in the side of the ship, went in, then they’re… what, exactly?

1:35:45 • I love the Houdini line, but it would be better if it had a longer gap before they went back to him again.

1:36:30 • Did so many beads have to die to make one film?

1:40:20 • Freeze, you bloody bastards!

Well, that was a great line too!

1:41:30 • Pretty sure those button sounds are a touch tone phone.

1:44:10 • I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch me fly…

1:45:30 • What was the countdown for? It really ought to have been clearer.

1:46:10 • Who in the hell names their kid “Flash,” anyway?

1:47:30 • “The end…?” Really?

1:48:10 • Not enough Queen for my liking. But this part is good during the credits.

1:50:00 • There are a great number of people who, like Topol, are credited using a single name. [13, to be precise]

1:51:22 • Over and… wow! That is ridiculous!

★★★★☆

#FlashAAAAAAaaaaaaah!

0 notes

comiconverse · 7 years

Text

Review: Superman #24

Superman #24 followed up on the previous issue’s shocking revelation of the mastermind behind events in Hamilton County with the fifth chapter of Black Dawn. Patrick Gleason shared the story credit with Peter J. Tomasi and the pencilling chores with Doug Mahnke in this eye-opening installment, which ComiConverse contributor T. Kyle King is here to review.

(Warning: Spoilers follow!)

Superman #24 Review:

Manchester Black has shown Jonathan Kent the potential risks of using nonlethal force against would-be fatal invaders. Will the telekinetic villain’s extreme methods bring Superboy over to the dark side… or turn his own followers against him?

Superman #24 Synopsis:

In a flashback to his spacefaring days, Black is seen rescuing the green-skinned alien Kobb and his granddaughter, Kat, from the genocidal Kroog. As the collapsing reactor of the Kroogarian war pod opens numerous quantum rifts in the space around them, Manchester promises his new comrades he will teach them to be lambs who can slaughter wolves. Later, however, after Hamilton County has come under attack from gargantuan creatures, Kobb and Kat — now known as Cobb and Kathy Branden — begin to doubt.

Clark Kent likewise finds himself questioning his own methods until the recovering Lois Lane reaffirms her faith in him and sends Superman to rescue their son. Manchester brings Superboy to face his father at the Branden dairy farm. Despite Black’s impressive powers and impassioned speeches, Jon holds fast to what his parents taught him. Cobb and Kathy turn on the heartless antihero, and the Metropolis Marvel frees Batman, Robin, Frankenstein, and the Bride to help his cause, so Manchester fights back with the mightiest weapon at his command: Superboy.

Superman #24 Analysis:

There is a high degree of variety to the graphics of Black Dawn — Chapter 5, owing to the involvement of pencillers Gleason and Mahnke, a quartet of inkers (Mick Gray, Jaime Mendoza, Joe Prado, and Mahnke), and a trio of colorists (Hi-Fi, John Kalisz, and Wil Quintana). Rather than presenting a blend of different and somewhat disparate styles, though, Superman #24 features a stark demarcation between the issue’s seventh and eighth pages. When Clark changes into the Action Ace, the artwork shifts from one penciller’s hand to the other’s. This represents rather a jarring transition, as the previously clean simplicity of Gleason’s imagery instantly gives way to the exaggerated photorealism of Mahnke’s more heavily lined figures. The pictures do not mesh so much as they coexist.

Because Black Dawn — Chapter 5 represents the culmination of multiple intertwined plot threads, it is a busy issue. The introduction of the alien Kat is well executed, effectively mirroring the sequence showing Superboy on the penultimate page of the prior installment, but matters get considerably more convoluted from that juncture. There is a lot to explain in Superman #24, yet the audience is left to piece everything together from a stray status report by an unnamed lieutenant on Black’s ship, a dense rapid-fire exchange between Branden and Goodman, and a single-panel speech bubble in which Superman talks to himself. Despite a cool cameo by Krypto, there is too much left to conjecture in this chapter. Add to that the implausible facts that Cobb turns on a dime and Manchester suddenly speaks with overemphasized British accent and slang, and the problems with this issue abound.

The previous issue’s conclusion — in which Lois’s leg was severed — was deeply troubling, and Superman #24 did little to allay those concerns. A hospitalized Lois appeared only briefly, exhorting Clark by reminding him of his heroism, but the status of her own health remained a mystery. No mention was made of Lane’s injury, and the shapeless sheets of her hospital bed betrayed no hint whether her limb had been saved. Of course, Lois was seen standing on her own two feet in Action Comics #980, but it is unclear whether that story happened before this one. The Kents were moving to Metropolis in that issue, which suggests that it took place later, but, after the events of Black Dawn, it seems unlikely that Jon would want to remain in Hamilton County.

My bet is that Lane’s injury was an illusion. In Action Comics #796, after all, Manchester Black faked the murder of Lois in an attempt to provoke Superman to exact vengeance by killing the supervillain. When the Man of Steel stayed true to his values, Black revealed that her death had been telepathic trickery rather than reality… and I believe the same false fridging is occurring here, as well. While this lends to the cigarette-smoking Briton a clever nefariousness reminiscent of Jason Wyngarde from the X-Men’s Dark Phoenix Saga, it nevertheless perpetuates some of the worst trends of the era that the character of Manchester Black was created to help the Big Blue Boy Scout refute. Perhaps this will end well, but, until and unless it does, this installment will remain a bit of a distressing and messy muddle.

Is it always darkest before the Black Dawn? ComiConverse with us in the comments about Superman #24!

T. Kyle King is an Expert Contributor to ComiConverse. Follow him on Twitter: @TKyleKing.

The post Review: Superman #24 appeared first on ComiConverse.

0 notes