Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 3

Rating:
Summary: The Claremont-Byrne years on "The X-Men" begin in earnest
Review: John Byrne had drawn a couple of issues (#108-109) of "The Uncanny X-Men" before the issues (#111-121) collected in this third volume of the Marvel Masterworks series devoted to the merry mutants. But the Chris Claremont-John Byrne period began in earnest with issue #111 as the Beast finds the rest of the X-Men as side-show exhibits in a carnival: the Banshee is the carnival barker, Wolverine is the shackled Man-Beast of the Yukon, Phoenix is aerialist named Miz Destiny, and the rest are being shown as freaks. At first it seems that it is their old enemy Mesmero who is playing "Mindgames" with them, but then on the stunning last page full panel shot it turns out to be Magneto himself.

The stories collected here remind me of the period in the Sixties when Jim Steranko and Neal Adams were drawing the pictures to go with the scripts of Roy Thomas; not just because of the artwork but because many of the super villains are the same. Claremont and Byrne not only continue their story with another two issues devoted to Magneto defeating the X-Men but then having to run away when they escape and he is tagged by Wolverine, but they then split up the group. The Beast and Phoenix escape into a blizzard while the rest are plunged into the depths of the Savage Land where they again encounter not only Sauron but Ka-Zar and the transformed human who became Garokk, the petrified man and god to a local tribe. While Charles Xavier takes a walk down memory lane in "Psi-War" (#117), the lost X-Men make it to Japan for another meeting with Star-Fire and then to Canada where Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sends Alpha Flight to capture Wolverine again.

The battle with Magneto is the high point of "Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 3," not only in terms of Byrne's artwork (the close up of Magneto at the end of #112 is nice), inked by Terry Austin, but also in terms of the story that Claremont comes up with. By the end of the saga Claremont and Byrne are co-plotting the comic book that was about to become the hottest on the planet. I had been a fan of the X-Men from early on, preferring them to the Avengers, and while they had their moments right before the comic was given over to reprints for several years, "The All-New, All-Different" version of the X-Men was a big improvement. You still had the star-crossed lovers with Scott Summers and Jean Grey, but now you had the loose-cannon Wolverine and the foreign flavor of Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler, all played out against the growing social prejudice against mutants. Banshee is a bit of a stick in the mud, but he gives Professor X somebody his old age to talk to, and I certainly like the improved Beast as the group's resident tragic figure.

For fans of the Claremont-Byrne years of "The Uncanny X-Men" be aware that if the Marvel Masterworks series keeps to a dozen issues of the comic reprinted in color in each volume that Volumes 4 and 5 will take you through Byrne's stink as the book's artist. Volume 4 will begin the Hellfire Club saga and introduce both Kitty Pride and Dazzler, while Volume 5 will have both the Dark Phoenix epic and the powerful "Days of Future Passed" issues that are still one of the best time travel stories I have ever read in a comic book.