I learned recently that a good pal of mine has become a fan of my blog. (Hi, Jason!) He was very complimentary recently about how entertaining it is, which did my heart good. Sadly I reacted to the news by suddenly wondering whether I could keep up the quality for Mr. S, and so I now have gone for quite a while without updating.
However, I recently got another heart-swelling compliment, this time from another Mr. S (Hi, Neil!), so -- my confidence bolstered -- here I go, back into the fray.
Unfortunately, Jason, this one's about a comic book, so probably won't be as interesting to you as the movie or music posts. (I'll do another one of those soon, and hopefully you'll enjoy it. Man, the pressure's on now! But that's my fault, not yours. I really did appreciate the compliments.)
It's just a little comment about Uncanny X-Men #150. An exchange just earlier today between me and Neil ShyminskY about how even in the most effusive of my Klock-hosted Claremont appreciations, a moment of pure greatness might get by me. And that got me thinking about how I recently noticed something about Uncanny 150 that is really pretty neat, but which I didn't talk about.
Uncanny 150 is the fantastic issue that reveals Magneto to be a survivor of the Holocaust. Consider that, even in the broader scope beyond the comics, this is a hugely important reveal. Most of the population that is aware of the X-Men's existence is aware of it via Bryan Singer's films, the first of which OPENS during the Holocaust, with a young actor (playing a young Ian McKellan) dragged away to be placed in the camps. This is not only something that informs Magneto for every issue thereafter (and this was 1981, so we're talking going on 30 years), but it informs the entire tone and timbre of the first X-Men film (which I still say is the best).
Indeed, even now we are two issues into a brand new miniseries, "Magneto Testament," which aims to give us the definitive portrayal of Magneto's life during the years before and during the Holocaust.
So all on its own, that reveal -- which occurs during the final three pages of the issue -- is spectacular; striking; unbelievable.
Note also, the character had already existed for 18 years -- almost to the month, I believe-- before this point. For Claremont to do what he did was not necessarily unprecedented in other comics, but it certainly was in an X-Men comic, and it was boldly revisionist by any standard.
What I had missed on all my previous re-readings was how, on the level of pure story, Claremont set this reveal up in the very first few pages of the issue.
I don't mean Magneto's comment to Cyclops that he is the last person in his family. That, of course, I had noticed before, and pegged it simply as a little teaser for the major reveal at the end.
No, what had never occurred to me before was that Magneto says this just after Cyclops has told Magneto about the death of Phoenix.
(Jason, if you're reading, let me once again contextualize this in terms of the films ... the death of Phoenix was in X3 in the movies, but it played out much differently in the comics. In the comics, Cyclops didn't die, he actually watched Phoenix commit suicide. And Magneto was not involved in the Phoenix saga at all, far from it.)
So, Cyclops tells Magneto that Phoenix is dead. (It comes up because Cyclops is hanging out with his new gal-pal, Lee Forrester, when Magneto first finds him.) We get another reprise of the "SCOTT! JEAN!" panel from X-Men 138. And this is what really made my mind shut down on all the previous re-readings, because by this point we've seen re-hashed Jean's death umpteen times over the course of a single year, and this just seems like another gratuitous attempt by Claremont to milk that fantastic moment for a bit more drama.
But I realized this time ... no, no. It is quite significant for Magneto to learn about the death of Jean -- to hear the story related to him in excruciating detail. He is emotionally affected by it, perhaps unaccountably. Learning about the death of someone young and innocent, it's the first time he's had a reason to connect, in his mind, his present-day existence to his own tragedy-laden past.
He offers Cyclops sympathy, unexpectedly and uncharacteristically, and Cyclops accuses him of hypocrisy. Magneto then snaps back into antagonism. It is more in character with what we've seen from Magneto in earlier stories -- both Silver Age ones and earlier Claremont ones -- as he belittles Cyclops' pain and grief. Yet it is tinged with something a little different; this is when Magneto speaks of his own family. It comes so naturally, because the talk of Jean's death has brought it to the forefront of his mind. (Magneto also claims here that he "cared for" Jean, and there's an implication of a romantic attraction, but I'm not sure what to make of this. I don't recall any other Claremont or pre-Claremont issue that suggested this.)
Later, at the issue's climax, Magneto -- in a rage -- murders (or so he believes) Kitty Pryde, a thirteen year old girl. A thirteen-year-old JEWISH girl, no less, although we've no reason to believe Magneto would know this (on the other hand, we don't know for sure that he hasn't intuited her being Jewish; that's not impossible). He is immediately reminded of the death of his own daughter, and here is where the flood of new information about Magneto -- with Auschwitz mentioned by name, for the first time -- comes out.
I had *always*, for YEARS, read this as the result only of his shock at Kitty's seeming death. And while it seemed like a reasonable justification, I will confess it felt a little abrupt. For all the power of the moment, it was, I thought, perhaps TOO easy that Magneto at last opens up about his past for the first time here, at this moment.
Now I realize that Claremont was using the re-telling of Jean's death to subtly set this all up. THAT is the moment which inches open the psychological floodgates, so that they can come flying open at the end. It's quite ingenious, and I marvel now at its subtlety. (Or was it not subtle? Was it obvious and I just missed it?)
This is why I love Claremont's work so very much. I read it again and again and always discover new and surprising depths.
However, I recently got another heart-swelling compliment, this time from another Mr. S (Hi, Neil!), so -- my confidence bolstered -- here I go, back into the fray.
Unfortunately, Jason, this one's about a comic book, so probably won't be as interesting to you as the movie or music posts. (I'll do another one of those soon, and hopefully you'll enjoy it. Man, the pressure's on now! But that's my fault, not yours. I really did appreciate the compliments.)
It's just a little comment about Uncanny X-Men #150. An exchange just earlier today between me and Neil ShyminskY about how even in the most effusive of my Klock-hosted Claremont appreciations, a moment of pure greatness might get by me. And that got me thinking about how I recently noticed something about Uncanny 150 that is really pretty neat, but which I didn't talk about.
Uncanny 150 is the fantastic issue that reveals Magneto to be a survivor of the Holocaust. Consider that, even in the broader scope beyond the comics, this is a hugely important reveal. Most of the population that is aware of the X-Men's existence is aware of it via Bryan Singer's films, the first of which OPENS during the Holocaust, with a young actor (playing a young Ian McKellan) dragged away to be placed in the camps. This is not only something that informs Magneto for every issue thereafter (and this was 1981, so we're talking going on 30 years), but it informs the entire tone and timbre of the first X-Men film (which I still say is the best).
Indeed, even now we are two issues into a brand new miniseries, "Magneto Testament," which aims to give us the definitive portrayal of Magneto's life during the years before and during the Holocaust.
So all on its own, that reveal -- which occurs during the final three pages of the issue -- is spectacular; striking; unbelievable.
Note also, the character had already existed for 18 years -- almost to the month, I believe-- before this point. For Claremont to do what he did was not necessarily unprecedented in other comics, but it certainly was in an X-Men comic, and it was boldly revisionist by any standard.
What I had missed on all my previous re-readings was how, on the level of pure story, Claremont set this reveal up in the very first few pages of the issue.
I don't mean Magneto's comment to Cyclops that he is the last person in his family. That, of course, I had noticed before, and pegged it simply as a little teaser for the major reveal at the end.
No, what had never occurred to me before was that Magneto says this just after Cyclops has told Magneto about the death of Phoenix.
(Jason, if you're reading, let me once again contextualize this in terms of the films ... the death of Phoenix was in X3 in the movies, but it played out much differently in the comics. In the comics, Cyclops didn't die, he actually watched Phoenix commit suicide. And Magneto was not involved in the Phoenix saga at all, far from it.)
So, Cyclops tells Magneto that Phoenix is dead. (It comes up because Cyclops is hanging out with his new gal-pal, Lee Forrester, when Magneto first finds him.) We get another reprise of the "SCOTT! JEAN!" panel from X-Men 138. And this is what really made my mind shut down on all the previous re-readings, because by this point we've seen re-hashed Jean's death umpteen times over the course of a single year, and this just seems like another gratuitous attempt by Claremont to milk that fantastic moment for a bit more drama.
But I realized this time ... no, no. It is quite significant for Magneto to learn about the death of Jean -- to hear the story related to him in excruciating detail. He is emotionally affected by it, perhaps unaccountably. Learning about the death of someone young and innocent, it's the first time he's had a reason to connect, in his mind, his present-day existence to his own tragedy-laden past.
He offers Cyclops sympathy, unexpectedly and uncharacteristically, and Cyclops accuses him of hypocrisy. Magneto then snaps back into antagonism. It is more in character with what we've seen from Magneto in earlier stories -- both Silver Age ones and earlier Claremont ones -- as he belittles Cyclops' pain and grief. Yet it is tinged with something a little different; this is when Magneto speaks of his own family. It comes so naturally, because the talk of Jean's death has brought it to the forefront of his mind. (Magneto also claims here that he "cared for" Jean, and there's an implication of a romantic attraction, but I'm not sure what to make of this. I don't recall any other Claremont or pre-Claremont issue that suggested this.)
Later, at the issue's climax, Magneto -- in a rage -- murders (or so he believes) Kitty Pryde, a thirteen year old girl. A thirteen-year-old JEWISH girl, no less, although we've no reason to believe Magneto would know this (on the other hand, we don't know for sure that he hasn't intuited her being Jewish; that's not impossible). He is immediately reminded of the death of his own daughter, and here is where the flood of new information about Magneto -- with Auschwitz mentioned by name, for the first time -- comes out.
I had *always*, for YEARS, read this as the result only of his shock at Kitty's seeming death. And while it seemed like a reasonable justification, I will confess it felt a little abrupt. For all the power of the moment, it was, I thought, perhaps TOO easy that Magneto at last opens up about his past for the first time here, at this moment.
Now I realize that Claremont was using the re-telling of Jean's death to subtly set this all up. THAT is the moment which inches open the psychological floodgates, so that they can come flying open at the end. It's quite ingenious, and I marvel now at its subtlety. (Or was it not subtle? Was it obvious and I just missed it?)
This is why I love Claremont's work so very much. I read it again and again and always discover new and surprising depths.
