#IReadsYou Review: X-MEN GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS Extended Cut #1

X-MEN: GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS EXTENDED CUT #1 (OF 2)
MARVEL COMICS

STORY: Christopher Claremont
ART: Brent Eric Anderson
COLORS: Steve Oliff
LETTERS: Tom Orzechowski
EDITOR: Louise Jones (original); Jennifer Grunwald (extended cut)
EiC: Jim Shooter (original); Akira Yoshida a.k.a. C.B. Cebulski (extended cut)
COVER: Salvador Larroca with Guru-eFX
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Brent Anderson; Rod Reis; Giuseppe Camuncoli and Erick Arciniega
44pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (June 2020)

Rated T+

The X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The X-Men are a Marvel Comics superhero team and franchise created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Jack Kirby.  In The X-Men #1 (cover dated: September 1963), readers were introduced to a professor who was also team-leader to his students.  Each student had unique powers and abilities because he or she was a “mutant.”

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (Marvel Graphic Novel #5) was an original graphic novel published in 1982 by Marvel Comics.  It was written by Christopher Claremont and illustrated by Brent Eric Anderson.  Colorist Steve Oliff and letterer Tom Orzechowski completed the graphic novel's creative team.  The story pits the X-Men and their longtime enemy, Magneto, against a fanatical religious leader bent on exterminating “mutantkind.”  The graphic novel went on to become one of the most popular and beloved X-Men stories of all time.  Elements of the God Loves, Man Kills were used in the 2003 X-Men, film, X2: X-Men United.

Back in 2020, Marvel republished X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills as a two-issue miniseries, entitled X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut.  The series divides the story in two parts and brackets it with a new ten-page framing sequence or story produced by the original story's creating team.  The first issue of this “extended cut” opens with five pages of the framing sequence and the second issue ends with the other five pages.

In this new sequence, the member of the X-Men known as Kitty Pryde and her pet dragon, Lockheed, are in southwest Texas.  There, Kitty visits a young woman named Kate who met Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. “Magneto.”  Kitty has decided to tell the young woman the story that is X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut #1 opens in the “Gold Star Cafe,” somewhere in southwest Texas.  There, Kitty Pryde of the X-Men meets Kate, a friend of Magneto, and decides to tell her the story of a time when Kitty was new to the X-Men and was known by the code name, Ariel.

Once upon a time, there was a popular and fanatical religious leader named William Stryker who led a religious organization called the “Stryker Crusade.”  Under the guise of evangelical Christianity, Stryker hatched a plot to destroy all mutants on Earth.  To begin, Stryker targeted Charles Xavier a.k.a. Professor X, the lynch pin to his plot.

To get to Xavier, Stryker will have to go through the X-Men:  Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Kitty Pryde/Ariel.  To fight the X-Men, Stryker had a strike force, a form of armor-wearing men he called the “Purifiers.”

Professor X and his X-Men were unaware of the danger to their lives.  Colossus' younger sister, Illyana, was also living with the team.  After Professor X and two of his X-Men are captured, the X-Men begin to fight back, but they will find themselves needing help from the greatest enemy, Magneto.

THE LOWDOWN:  I read X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills several times in my youth, but prior to reading this reprint series, I don't think that I had read it in decades.  I didn't read the sequel to it that Chris Claremont wrote for his former X-Men comic book series, X-Treme X-Men (2001-04).  Entitled “God Love, Man Kills Part II, it ran from X-Treme X-Men #25 (July 2003) to X-Treme X-Men #30 (October 2003).  The entire story line was collected in the trade paperback, X-Treme X-Men Vol. 5: God Love, Man Kills (October 2003).

It turns out that I had forgotten quite a bit of “God Loves, Man Kills.”  That includes the action-packed final battle against the Purifiers and that final debate with William Stryker at the “Stryker Building.”  I also had forgotten that Claremont has Kitty Pryde use the term “nigger-lover” in anger at Stevie Hunter.  An African-America woman, Stevie was a recurring, non-mutant character, who mostly appeared in The Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants in the early 1980s.  Four decades later, I have to say that I don't like that scene very much and I'm not happy about the use of that term.  I'm not surprised that Marvel did not remove it, but I am sure that it would not be used today in a scene of a similar context.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills is a pivotal point in the publication history of the X-Men.  I believe that the X-Men began as a group of costume adventurers and superheroes who were defined by the fact that they were mutants and who faced prejudice because of it.  However, the original X-Men comic book series also focused on the action and was essentially an adventure serial.

After the debut of the “new X-Men” in 1974, writer Chris Claremont wrote the X-Men comic book as a serialized soap opera, although the X-Men team of the time traveled around the world having adventures and facing one peril after another.  Under Claremont, the X-Men and mutants, in general, became outcasts because of their mutant status.  No matter what they did as superheroes, being a mutant overshadowed or defined their actions.

Eventually, the X-Men, which was eventually re-titled “Uncanny X-Men,” became a comic book in which the narrative focused on prejudice, bigotry, racism, and hate.  The X-Men's struggles were a metaphor for the struggles of persecuted and hated minority groups fighting to be accepted by the wider society.  What made them different did not make them “less human” was a recurring theme, even as the traveled around the world and off it.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills was the point of no return.  Never again would the The Uncanny X-Men and its various spin-off series really be about adventure.  Past, present, and future – even future-past – would be about the mutant struggle and what forms the struggle would take.  Eventually, the X-Men would become a franchise that was insular and redundant.  I think that is why over time the Uncanny X-Men went from being a bestselling comic book franchise to being in the shadow of titles like Avengers, Batman, and Justice League, to name a few.

The mutant struggle became repetitive and tired and it began with a really memorable story, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills.  The X-Men were once mutants who really wanted to prove that they could be the kind of superheroes who protected both mutants and humans and fought to save a world upon which both shared.  Then, the X-Men became just mutants.

Apparently, individual issues of comic books that are reprints of other individual comic books have been popular with buyers for more than a decade.  That is the only reason to reprint X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut.  The X-Men are not as relevant as they once were, and the original X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills was rendered irrelevant by repetition of its themes long ago.

As for the new framing sequence:  there is a kernel of something relevant in Claremont's scenario.  And Brent Anderson's art reminds us that he is still an important artist in the history of X-Men publications despite his small output in the franchise.  If one of the themes of X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills was and still is “hope,” then, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut, at least for me, suggests that there is hope for the X-Men  It is hope that the franchise can be more than what it is now – a consumer product, an intellectual property (IP), and for some, a fetish.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of the original X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills will want to give X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut a try.

[This comic book includes two interviews, one with Chris Claremont and one with Brent Anderson.]

A-
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and  syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: The Death of Captain Marvel

THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #1)
MARVEL COMICS

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Jim Starlin
ART: Jim Starlin
COLORS: Steve Oliff
LETTERS: James Novack
EDITOR: Al Milgrom
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jim Shooter
COVER/BACK COVER: Jim Starlin
68pp, Color, $5.95 U.S. (1982)

Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

Introduction by Al Milgrom

“Marvel Graphic Novel” (MGN) was a line of paperback original graphic novels published from 1982 to 1993 by Marvel Comics.  The books were published in an oversize format, 8.5" x 11", similar to French comic book “albums,” which generally had cardboard covers, full-color, slick pages.  [In response, DC Comics would also establish a competitor line known as “DC Graphic Novel.”]

The first Marvel Graphic Novel was released in 1982.  Entitled The Death of Captain Marvel, it was written and drawn by Jim Starlin, who had been the comic book creator most associated with the character of Captain Marvel up to that time.  The rest of The Death of Captain Marvel's creative team included colorist Steve Oliff and letterer James Novak.  The late Allen Milgrom was the graphic novel's editor and also provided a short introduction to the story.

Captain Marvel is a Marvel Comics superhero and science fiction and fantasy character.  He was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and designed by artist Gene Colan and first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (cover dated: December 1967).  He is the original bearer of the name “Captain Marvel” within the world of Marvel Comics.

Before he became Captain Marvel, he was named “Mar-Vell,” and he was a member of the alien Kree race.  Captain Mar-Vell came to Earth to spy on humans, but he eventually rejected the Kree, and took the name “Captain Marvel.”  While living among humans, he also used the identity of “Walter Lawson” and was a member of the Avengers.

As The Death of Captain Marvel opens, Marvel has been living a live of semi-retirement on Titan, one of the planet Saturn's moons (satellites).  Marvel is recording a mini-autobiography of his life while on board a spaceship belonging to his allies, the demigod, Mentor, and his son, Eros.  Mentor and Eros are also the father and brother of the recently defeated and killed, Thanos, the mad warlord of Titan.

The trio is heading to the command central ship of Thanos' space fleet.  Inside, Thanos is dead and encased in stone (because of events depicted in Marvel Two-in-One Annual 1977), and they want to make sure he has stayed that way.  A surprise meets these heroes, however, as they discover that followers of Thanos live aboard the ship, awaiting what they believe will be the inevitable resurrection of the mad Titan.

The intense battle to defeat these alien zealots inadvertently reveals the secret that Marvel has been keeping from his closest friends, Mentor and Eros.  Marvel is dying of cancer – what the Titans call the “Inner Decay” and the Kree call “the Blackend.”  [Captain Marvel was exposed to the nerve gas that would lead to this cancer in Captain Marvel #34 (cover dated: September 1974)].  Now, Marvel must also share his diagnosis with his lover Elysius, the woman with whom he had hoped to share his life.  He must also inform, Rick Jones, the young human who once shared an existence with Marvel.  When he shares this news with the current members of the Avengers:  Black Panther, Iron Man, Thor, Vision, Wonder Man, Beast, and Yellowjacket, they immediately spring into action, bringing all their scientific knowledge to bear in a bid to save Marvel from death.

As the greatest heroes of the Marvel Universe gather on a deathwatch, Captain Marvel still has one final battle.  The hero must face his greatest enemy, Thanos, and Thanos' dark mistress.

THE LOWDOWN:  I first discovered the existence of The Death of Captain Marvel via in-house ads published in various Marvel Comics titles that I read at the time.  Those ads made me quite interested in the book, but it was only sold in comic book shops via the “Direct Sales” market.  At the time, I bought all my comic books at the now-defunct K&B drug store chain (headquartered in New Orleans, LA), and a few other places that sold comic books, mostly other drug stores and grocery stores.  They all placed the comic books in those old “spinner racks.”  I didn't know if there were any comic book shops near me, although it turned out that there was one about a 45-minute drive from where I lived at the time.

When I first started visiting comic book shops, I sometimes came across a copy of The Death of Captain Marvel,  By that time, however, I wasn't really as interested in reading it as I was when I first heard about it.  I recently decided to go back and re-read the Marvel Graphic Novels that I had previously read and read the ones that I had not.  On eBay, I found a nice copy of the second printing of The Death of Captain Marvel, which went through several printings just in the first decade of its original publication.  The second printing was apparently published within months of the first printing.

I am glad that I read The Death of Captain Marvel now, as I don't know if I would have appreciated it decades ago the way I do now.  The way comic book stories are told and structured has radically changed in the four decades since the debut of The Death of Captain Marvel.  This had made me appreciate what Starlin did with only 66 pages, which is more than most modern comic book writers do with over 100 pages.

Jim Starlin was certainly a good comic book artist.  His drawing style has similarities to some of the most popular comic book artists that came before him.  Still, Starlin's style is unique, and his illustrations always grab me.  The background elements, the figure drawing, the landscapes, the backdrops, the costumes, the alien and fantastic landscapes:  the way Starlin illustrates a comic book page is like nothing anyone else did or does in superhero comics books.  Starlin has created a unique visual and graphical language, and no other artist's work could be mistaken for his.

Surprisingly, Starlin may be an even better comic book writer than he is a comic book artist.  The stories that he writes and other artists illustrate maintain Starlin's imaginative and inventive storytelling.  Starlin was one of the best mainstream comic book writers of the last quarter of the 20th century.  Yes, he was right up there with Alan Moore, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Steve Englehart, and Grant Morrison, to name a few.

You can discover this for yourself, dear readers, in The Death of Captain Marvel.  This stand-alone story references the past, but is singularly focused on Captain Marvel's final battle.  It is philosophical, thoughtful, and contemplative.  It is surreal and also matter-of-fact in its realism, all of it leading to the last act, a breathtaking death-dream that gave me pause.

Starlin offers some melodrama, mainly involving the characters to which is he intimately connected – from the bitter and frustrated anger of Rick Jones to the quite acceptance of Elysius.  I am surprised that Marvel Comics published a story in which a superhero must face his imminent death – and one executed with such honesty.  Captain Marvel freely admits that he does not want to die, and that he thought that when death came – a long time in the future – it would be a warrior's death.

Instead, the hero died in bed, ravaged by disease.  Still, The Death of Captain Marvel gives the title character the kind of epic story of his end that would be befitting of elite superheroes.  We know, however, that such superheroes don't stay dead.  Instead, the story of Captain Marvel/Mar-Vell's death is one of Marvel Comics' greatest stories, and he did stay dead.  I'd like to believe that Jim Starlin created a story so powerful that even the most arrogant Marvel editors and superstar creators could not summon the gall to undo it.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of the greatest Marvel Comics stories ever told will want to read The Death of Captain Marvel.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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Review: THE GREEN LANTERN #1

THE GREEN LANTERN No. 1
DC COMICS – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Grant Morrison
ART: Liam Sharp
COLORS: Steve Oliff
LETTERS: Tom Orzechowski
EDITOR: Brian Cunningham
COVER: Liam Sharp with Steve Oliff
VARIANT COVER: Frank Quitely
40pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (January 2019)

Rated “T+” for “Teen Plus”

“Intergalactic Lawman”

The DC Comics superhero, Green Lantern, first appeared in All-American Comics #16 (cover dated:  July 1940).  Created by artist Martin Nodell with writer Bill Finger, Green Lantern was Alan Scott, a railroad engineer who found a magic lantern from which he fashioned a magic ring that gave him various powers.

In 1959, editor Julius Schwartz, writer John Broome, and artist Gil Kane introduced a new Green Lantern, a science fiction hero rather than a magically powered hero like the Alan Scott-Green Lantern.  Introduced in Showcase #22 (cover dated:  September-October 1959), Green Lantern was Hal Jordan, who received his green power ring from a dying alien named Abin Sur.  Sur was a commissioned officer of the Green Lantern Corps, an interstellar law enforcement agency overseen by the “Guardians of the Universe” (or “Guardians of Oa”).  Jordan, upon receiving Sur's ring, took his place as the Green Lantern of the space that Sur had patrolled.

DC Comics has launched a new ongoing Green Lantern comic book series.  Entitled The Green Lantern, it is written by Grant Morrison; drawn by Liam Sharp; colored by Steve Oliff; and lettered by Tom Orzechowski.  The Green Lantern stars Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and focuses on Green Lantern as an intergalactic policeman rather than as a superhero.

The Green Lantern #1 (“Intergalactic Lawman”) opens as Maxim Tox, the Green Lantern of Sector 2018.2, captures three of the deadliest killers in the galaxy.  However, an accident or act of sabotage drops these miscreants in Hal Jordan's lap.  Jordan may be estranged from the Guardians of Oa, but they need him now...

If it's Grant Morrison, there is a good chance that it will be weird, and the best Morrison, his 1980's run on Animal Man and his 1989 to 1993 run on Doom Patrol, is deliciously weird.  Morrison's references to Hal Jordan-Green Lantern's past might not prepare the reader for the Morrison's new take on the character, but it seems that he is mining both Green Lantern and DC Comics' past (perhaps, especially the Silver Age) for ideas and concepts.

Artist Liam Sharp summons the work of the late artist, H.R. Giger, especially his Oscar-winning work on the 1979 film, Alien, to give The Green Lantern #1 a striking visual appearance and graphic design that is atypical of twenty-first century American comic books.  The closest antecedent I can think of is the 1980s work of English comic book artist, Kevin O'Neill (Nemesis the Warlock), and the science fiction and horror comics of 1950s EC Comics, especially the comics drawn by Wally Wood and Al Williamson.

The Green Lantern #1's unique striking graphics would not be so striking without Steve Oliff's colors, which are part subdued and part earthy, but also have a vibrant quality.  Tom Orzechowski, one of the best letterers in the history of comic books, adds a stylish touch that completes this comic book's eccentric flair.

I have to admit to being a little put off by The Green Lantern #1, but I am anxious to see how Morrison and Sharp will pull off the intergalactic cop thing.  So I'll be back.

7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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I Reads You Review: Marvel's MIRACLEMAN #1

MIRACLEMAN #1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

STORY: The Original Writer (Alan Moore)
ART: Garry Leach
COLOR: Steve Oliff
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
COVER: Joe Quesada with Richard Isanove
64pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (March 2014)

Miracleman Book One: A Dream of Flying

Prologue by Mick Anglo (plot) and Don Lawrence (art)

Essay “Kimota! The Secret Origin of Mick Anglo’s Marvelman” by Mike Conroy

Marvelman is a British superhero character created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for British publisher, L. Miller & Son.  The character was originally created as a substitute for the American character, Captain Marvel (Fawcett Comics), in the U.K.  Marvelman comic books were published until 1963, but the character was revived in 1982 by writer Alan Moore, who offered a darker, post-modern take on the character.  Author Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) wrote the series after Moore.

In March 1982, Warrior, a British monthly, black-and-white anthology comics magazine, was launched by editor and publisher Dez Skinn, who decided to revive Marvelman.  Warrior published the new and darker version of Marvelman, written by Alan Moore and initially illustrated by Garry Leach and later by Alan Davis.  In August 1985, Eclipse Comics began reprinting the Marvelman stories from Warrior (in color) in a comic book entitled, “Miracleman” (to avoid legal problems with Marvel Comics).

Miracleman issues #1-6 reprinted all the Warrior content, and then, Eclipse began publishing new Miracleman stories written by Alan Moore and drawn initially by artist Chuck Beckum and later by Rick Veitch and then John Totleben.  Moore wrote the series until issue #16; Neil Gaiman took over with issue #17.  Gaiman continued to write the series, but Miracleman ceased publication with issue #24 when Eclipse closed due to financial difficulties.

Now, Marvel Comics is bringing Eclipse Comics’ Miracleman series back into print, but in a special edition with extras.  This reprint also means that Neil Gaiman will get to finally finish his Miracleman story arc, more than two decades after it began.

Miracleman #1 begins with a reprint of an old Mick Anglo story, entitled for this story as “Prologue: 1956 – The Invaders from the Future.”  The main body of the story, “…A Dream of Flying.” opens in Great Britain in 1982.  It introduces Michael Moran, a 41-year-old freelance journalist, who has been having a bad time lately.  The strange dreams that have plagued him for years are worse, and he suffers from migraine headaches.  If only he could remember “the damn word” that is at the edge of his dreams/nightmares.

Moran travels to Larksmere for the opening of a nuclear power plant, and that’s where it all changes.  Later, Mike Moran will have a great story to tell his wife of 16 years, Liz Sullivan, but will she believe it?  Can Mike believe it?

It has been so many years (so so so many) since I first read the Miracleman #1 published by Eclipse Comics that I don’t remember exactly what I thought about it.  I know that I really liked it, but my memory is telling me (or lying to me) that I liked this series even more as it progressed.  Reading this #1 issue again, now, I enjoyed it, but I’m not overly impressed with Alan Moore’s story, although I do like it.  I get the feeling that once upon a time, I was more in awe of Miracleman #1.  After all, it was like nothing I had read up to that point.  Like I said, I think I liked Miracleman more in the later issues.

What impresses me now is the fantastic art by Garry Leach.  A delicate line is meshed into intricate line work.  Supple forms and advanced draftsmanship yield impressive compositions.  Did Leach know that he was just drawing a comic book?  I gotta find more Garry Leach.

Extras in this new Miracleman include an essay and an interview.  Mike Conroy’s two-page essay, “Kimota! The Secret Origin of Mick Anglo’s Marvelman,” is a quickie piece on Marvelman’s origins.  “Mick on Mick,” Joe Quesada’s interview of Marvelman creator, Mick Anglo, is short, but gives a nice look at Anglo as a bit of a rascal.

There are also reprints of three black and white stories taken from Marvelman #25 (February 3, 1954) and #32 (March 24, 1954).  The best of the extras is a six-page section that offers examples of Garry Leach’s original art, sketches, and developmental art for Marvelman, including his logo for Miracleman.  Once again, Leach makes Miracleman #1 worth having.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.