No April Fool's gags today folks, just a nice, overdue editon of Back Issue Spotlight.
For today's picks and every other spotlighted issue, I'll be choosing random back issues from the month of April all month long.
Should be fun.
Uncanny X-Men#391(Vol.1) "Dad" by Scott Lobdell and Salvador Larroca.
Ah, the Dad issue. This is the one that unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, was the issue that directly followed the last one, where Colossus died in an attempt to cure the Legacy Virus.
Back then Colossus' sister, Illyana, had contracted and succombed to the dreaded virus that was pretty much the comic analogy version of AIDS, but for mutants.
Sure he got better, as did his sister, but at the time nobody knew that.
This particular issue I guess, acted as a sort of break or breather after the shock of the previous issue.
In this one, Lobdell continues on with the theme of family, choosing to focus on the Summers clan, namely Cyclops and his dad, Corsair.
You remember him right?
He was the leader of the intergalactic outlaws,
Yeah, that guy.
So basically the whole issue's about Cyclops and his dad trying to re-connect, and all sorts of awkwardness happens, but not in the typcial super-villain-shows-up-to wrceck shit awkwardness.
No, this is all natural, and strictly the type of awkwardness you only get from family.
Like this for example:
HA!
But don't front, because you guys know some of you out there used or sometimes still think this.
Anyhoo....
Pretty damn solid issue overall.
Cyclops at this point in time, has just returned from being merged with Apocalypse after the end of "The Twelve" storyline. So you know he's all shades of fucked up emotionally.
Add in a a long history of daddy abandonment issues, and you have one of the most realistic portrayals of family awkwardness in a long time.
After a huge blowout between the two, they make up, and finally sort things out.
Honestly one of the better issue Lobdell wrote.
Now where was is that Lobdell in the DCU? 'Cause we all know his NU52 work is the drizzling shits.
Personally, it's a damn shame they killed Corsair off. It was purely for shock value, and added nothing to the franchise or Scott's life. In fact, by robbing him of his actual father, and then the whole Professor X deal, it's no wonder Cyclops is so damn unstable.
4 comments:
Yeah Scott sure wrote amazing stuff at Marvel... such a change to now. Still this is a great post. Until Grant wrote him and breathed new life into Scott i always thought the most interesting part about him was having a space pirate father. Something I hope the movies eventually get too.
Also Corsair is back. In the Cyclops solo series he's taken the young Cyclops on a tour of the galaxy. Written by Lazarus's Greg Rucka it's a pretty sweet read!
I thought Corsair's dead?
When he did he get better?
Glad you enjoyed this one Dan.
That was a rough period back then for X-Men stories, not tooo many memorable moments, but pretty art though.
"When he did he get better?" -It's comics, man... he was never really dead to begin with!
This issue needs more Hepzibah.
Man, I just can't bring myself to care about Cyclops. Make him a villain, give him a thong, make him young, put him in space... I just can't bring myself to give a fuck. He's just so lame... He'll never recover!
No, seriously, during Matt Fraction's run, he killed off Corsair via his own son Vulcan.
Yeah I know comics, but still.....
Cyclops, while not being a total favprite, was pretty good up until after Morrison left. Of course it can and should be argued, that Scott's not been his real self ever since he hooked up and then left Madelyne Prior.
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