The Final Alan Davis / Mark Farmer Excalibur Comic!
Issue title, Days of Futures Yet to Come
Inside front cover ad is for the Super Mario Brothers film. So disappointingly nothing like the game!
Issue opens with Tangerine explaining to Excalibur about the tragic loss of their allies. There was a base named, Camelot, and the Sentinels located it and killed everyone there. RCE was busy fighting Ahab and that is the only reason why they are alive today. Allies who died in that slaughter were – Union Jack, Motormouth, Darkguard and Death’s Head.
Dark Angel and Arthur try to comfort Tangerine, the memories are all too fresh.
Kurt is sad for their lost but they must take the fight to the Sentinels.
Captain Britain takes the time to introduce the team. At first, it looks like he was going to not list Lockheed as a member so Kitty has to say Lockheed’s name.
Arthur notes that they had a Captain Britain and Meggan as heroes but they along with their babies (!) were killed by the Sentinels. The only Excalibur Arthur knows is his gun, which has the old Excalibur logo on the side of it.
Arthur introduces his team to Excalibur. Ending by taking off his own helmet, to reveal Nigel Orphington-Smythe, who was the threat Excalibur just fought in the last storyline. He was using RCE there and now he is leading them here.
Kurt states RCE stands for Resources Control Executive but Nigel corrects him, it is Resistance Coordination Executive. He also notices how Brian and Kurt don’t seem to like him, so he believes he was a villain in their timeline. Kurt tells him that he was a man with a destiny, looking for a purpose. Nigel responds with a, I understand. I’m glad he does, as I sure don’t.
Brian can’t help but notice all the similiarities between their timeline and this future timeline. RCX, Camelot, Cloud Nine, Arthur and Peter. Kurt tells him that there will be time to think about that later.
Kitty tells them that they have to save Rachel. Arthur repeats that it is a suicide mission. Kurt tells him that that is what Excalibur is going to do, they must succeed. Kurt sees a destroyed Sentinel and creates a plan.
At Sentinel HQ. Master Mold is getting a progress report. Ahab is having his hands fixed. Master Mold informs that the Nimrod project is now 159.23 days away instead of 160 days, so last issue took place in a span of an hour. He informs that Rachel has psychic barriers so Ahab will have to interrogate her.
Rachel is stuck inside of a bubble. She could break out of it if she used the remaining Phoenix powers she has. She wonders if she could go the opposite route and drain the bubble’s energy.
Rachel notices Widget standing off to the side. Rachel tries to read its mind to see if Kate is still inside of it. When she does, in her mind’s eye, she sees electric fields. Then the fields form into Kate’s face. Kate explains her current situation, that the Sentinels experimented on her, and then she was merged with the Widget unit and now the unit is absorbing all types of energies and data. Kate regrets trying to hide Rachel from the Sentinels as now they know about alternate timelines and are creating a means of traveling to those timelines.
The united heroes have found a way to puppet the damaged Sentinel. It is carrying Grace, Dark Angel and Killpower.
Inside the Sentinel, Cerise as created a force field and that’s how she is operating the Sentinel. Also how she is carrying the other heroes. Kurt explains to Arthur how they are going to trick the other Sentinels, they will use Kylun’s actual mutant power to do it. Kylun is a great swordsman but his actual mutant power is sound mimicry. A power that isn’t used all that much, as it takes a writer some thinking to showcase it.
Kitty draws attention to herself, she is dressed as she is on the cover. It is a look that only lasts this issue, thankfully. She comments that she has found her new look. Kurt asks what she is playing at. Kitty is not playing about, she and Kurt lack fire power so they need guns. Which they have stored in the leg of the Sentinel. She references how Cyclops, Havok and Storm are heavy hitters, which Cyclops and Storm I get her naming but Havok? I’m sure she has no real connection to him. I’m not even sure they have been in the same room more than five times. I can’t think of a single time at the moment.
Brian wants to pick up his awkward conversation with Meggan from last issue. If he would love her if she looked like her fairy persona. He is honest with her that he isn’t sure, he wishes he had the right words to make things right. Those words would have been, of course I would love you no matter what you look like, but Meggan understands what he is trying to say. She just wants him to hold her now.
The heroes are approaching other Sentinels, Kurt tells them it is showtime!
Then there are ten pages of house ads regarding the thirtieth anniversary of both the X-Men and Avengers. As a kid, I must have have read those pages over and over again. Little did I know they were actually promoting a comic, MAX Yearbook. Marvel Avengers X-Men Yearbook. I’ve added it to my wishlist. Which I want to say I actually owned at one moment in time and read the heck out of it.
The heroes are lucky that Sentinels communicate with words, as they wouldn’t be able to pull this trick off. One Sentinel asks them a question, Kylun responds and they get an immediate follow up question. Kurt motions for Kylun to be silent. The Sentinel squad assumes it is malfunctioning and close ranks. The heroes are all smiles. It worked!
Inside HQ. Rachel is successful in absorbing the force field bubble. Rachel destroys the drones that were surrounding Kateget and they are free now to locate Master Mold again. Kateget teleports them straight there. Rachel then links her mind, Kate’s mind to Master Mold’s ‘mind.’
The heroes jump out of their Sentinel and notice all of these Sentinels are running around. The image of a Sentinel running is unsettling. Usually they just walk or fly.
The heroes are going to fight their way to Rachel.
Rachel is still trying to establish the link. Kateget warns that more Sentinels are making their way to them. Rachel assures her that Kurt and the others are about to make a dramatic entrance.
Killpower starts throwing grenades about, destroying Sentinels en mass. Kurt tells him to aim for Master Mold. Rachel belays that order, if they destroy the hive mind, then the Sentinels will just create a new one. Rachel is working on a solution that will fix everything. She just needs some time. Kitty shouts that they will do their best.
Tangerine starts having flashbacks to Camelot and is afraid of dying. Cerise, like a warrior Shi’ar, tells her to then die fighting.
Rachel has established the link but she can’t make sense of the data. Kateget states that they can.
Meggan is about to be clawed to death when Brian jumps in front of her, about to take the hit. Then the Sentinels all pause in their tracks.
Rachel explains what she and Kate did. They reprogrammed all the Sentinels, every single last one of them.
Ahab, in the shadows, sees Rachel winning and doesn’t like that. He comes out charging at her and throws a harpoon in her direction. One of the Sentinels grabs it, they have to protect all life. Rachel emphasizes, all life – human, mutant and even bigot cyborgs. Ahab vows to kill her and teleports away.
Kitty tells Rachel that she won. Rachel tells the ensemble heroes that Ahab is nothing without his Sentinels. She wasn’t interested in revenge, it was never about that. It was about giving Kate a second chance like how she gave Rachel.
Rachel goes on about how she learn a lesson about not needing to change the past but make peace with the present and make a better future.
Arthur tells her that she gave their future a chance. Rachel tells him that there is still work to be done. Arthur asks if she will help them (as apparently she hasn’t done enough – sheesh!)
The issue ends with Rachel telling him that she doesn’t belong in this future anymore. Her place is with her team, her home and her friends.
Kitty gets the final word, she loves happy endings. Everyone is smiling but Feron. The page is done sideways.
With that, Alan Davis ends his run on Excalibur. From here on out, Excalibur tries to find its place in the market, settling on being an X-Men in Europe book. They are connected more with the X-Men after this and it starts to feel more integrated into the X-World.
Back cover is an ad for Bleach’s Rocks, Chewy Fruit Candy, an ad I feel like was on the back of hundreds of comics during the early 90s.
I finally got to listen to more of this episode and they played my very first voicemail! You can hear it and the discussion afterwards from 36:38 to 39:18.
I think they did something to my voice as it doesn’t sound that horrible in my head. My wife has reassured me that it doesn’t sound as horrible as I think it does but oooof, I hear my own voice at a much lower octave.
Thanks again Brian and Rob for playing my voicemail, I really appreciate it.
Davis / Farmer’s second to last issue on Excalibur. Such a great cover by them.
There is an ad, on the cover, for Dragon Month, May 1993, that is promoting the new Dungeons and Dragons game. Which the very first comic I ever bought was Amazing Spider-Man 370, and that cover (amongst so many of the other captions) is another ad for Dungeons and Dragons. There are six pages of advertisement for this game. Apparently it is easily to play this version of D&D. I’ve never done it, but it looks fun on Community.
The issue’s title is, Back to the Present. Which is fun.
Issue opens with Kate Pryde, in 2013, connected to a giant machine.
Ahab gives the others in the room a quick rundown on who she is and what events have happened to her. We are given some dates, which is fun as from 1993’s perspective, must have been like forever from then. 1993, so 2013 is twenty years ago, probably explains why Days of Future Past is being revisited again.
October 7, 2005 – Kate is arrested with her fellow X-Men.
October 8, 2005 – (the next day) is sentenced to life in the concentration camps.
Nine days ago, had escaped with six mutants. Five of them are dead, the sixth, Rachel Summers, is still out there.
Professor Quinn, who is an ally of Ahab’s, probably the closest thing Ahab has to a friend in the future. Ahab, is in a flying box, sort of like Captain Pike from Star Trek’s Original Series, but his box gets to float.
Ahab, probably due to his name, has a vendetta that will know no end until Rachel is dead. He is pretty obsess about it.
We are told through these two’s dialogue that footage survived Kate’s bomb at the Nimrod facility. They see that Rachel teleported away and then the building explodes. Tests on Kate reveals that she was exposed to temporal energy. So they know that Rachel is time traveling.
So Kate is being held prisoner, she isn’t talking to anybody.
The bomb may have activated a Nimrod unit, they don’t know. We do know that it did as Nimrod has been a threat to the X-Men for years now. Funny how they being in the future doesn’t tell them that information but they are an alternate timeline, so they wouldn’t know it.
So, Kate Pryde survived the experience but not cleanly. She is suffering from terminal radiation poisoning, which I can understand. Even if she was phasing, being at ground zero of a nuclear attack, there has to be some repercussions.
Ahab and Quinn have tried full mind scans, using the Sentinels, and thanks to Xavier’s training, the results were unproductive.
One of the scientist announces that they are ten minutes away from the procedure. They want to use the energy signature from Kate’s temporal residue to recreate the time jump.
There is some concern that with the energy output, that Kate’s inhibitor collar could malfunction. Another scientist believes it shouldn’t matter as she is as good as dead.
Kate detects that her powers are coming back and uses this as her one last attempt to foil the plans and save Rachel. She is all about saving Rachel. Kate starts to phase and it disrupts the entire process. The machine starts to overload. Then there is a tear in time and space. Which is never good.
Once time heals (?) the year is 2015. Ahab looks like the man we know now, with the peg leg and purple armor. Can’t believe I never put two and two together before with Ahab’s name and peg leg. It wasn’t until I typed obsessed earlier in the post above that it dawned on me. I suppose I took it all for granted.
Kate appears but in the form of the humanoid looking Widget, so now we see what that has been about this entire time.
Kate/Widget is speaking as if she/it is a broken machine. In fragmented sentences. They are trying to figure out what their status is and where they are. There is some confusion in the room.
Quinn, who has also changed his appearance, as he is in a containment suit. Sentinels are also in the room. Kateget absorbs all wave lengths so no scans are able to work on it.
We learn that Widget’s name is … Monitor Unit Five. Sort of like how Robo’s proper name from Chrono Trigger is R-66Y, which yes, I do rename him that when I play. I do the same with Nadia and Glenn. But not Magus, as Janus is a horrible name. Sorry to any Janus(es) out there! Change your name to Magus, like you are suppose to! Funny how with seven characters, four of them have other names. Whereas Crono, Lucca and Ayla only have their one name. But they also are not trying to hide or start life new. Such a great game!
Ahab teleports in, seeking answers. I get the impression that he’s been waiting two long years for any new leads. Ahab reveals that he has dealt with Rachel once already. Which I believe is a reference to the Days of Future Present storyline, I don’t believe they encountered each other again any other time since then. I could be wrong. Ahab gives himself the sweet title of, guardian of time – so it must be from Days of Future Present.
A Sentinel goes to remove Kateget when Kateget loses its mind and starts shouting about how it will be used to get to Rachel. It then disappears.
Ahab heard it state Rachel’s name, and proceeds to create a plan of action to locate the confusing device. He is going to make Rachel beg him to kill her. Which is intense.
The Present. Excalibur is returning from their adventure with the Cloud Nine facility with their time with the resistance group, RCX. They have returned to their base of Braddock Manor.
Poor Kurt and Kitty might be under the impression this is the beginning of a down period after a big adventure, but they will be wrong in thinking that.
Kitty asks why Rachel is feeling down. Rachel hasn’t been to the Manor, she was in a Phoenix coma at the time, so her Excalibur home is the lighthouse. Which is odd as the Manor is so much bigger and not as cold. It is a major step up, in terms of headquarters. So much has changed.
Kitty completely agrees. She looks like Kurt and Kylun (so many K names!) and how they both have new costumes, as their old costumes got ruined in the last story. Rachel is wearing the red version of the Phoenix costume. Which leaves Kitty as the only original member of Excalibur, still wearing the same ol’ costume as from issue one. She claims it is bad for her image. Which is funny as it seems more like that is her style. Pick a new costume, then wear it for five years longer than she should.
I’ve been wanting current day Kitty to get a new costume for the longest time. She looks like she’s wearing the trainee uniform. In her defense, she is the only one still wearing that uniform for the most part.
Rachel and Kitty see Kurt and Cerise, who are enjoying their newly started romantic relationship. Of all of his girlfriends, I may like Cerise more than Amanda. It is a cleaner relationship.
One relationship segues into an older relationship. I see what you did there, Mr. Davis! Brian asks Meggan to wait a minute for him. Meggan was traveling with Kylun to Sat’neen’s grave, the woman he loved that died recently. Brian understands but he wants to talk to her now, as the moment is fresh.
Meggan has been distant to Brian as of late. He worries she is having second thoughts about accepting his marriage proposal. Meggan confesses that she always saw Brian as this big glowing light, but now that his powers are gone, she realizes that it was a big part of what attracted her to him. Literally attracted, like a moth to a flame.
Brian tells her that they are more than how they appear. Meggan counters, and good for her, that she has always appeared to him in this form that he has come to love. Would he love her natural state, the form he originally found her in. He is stunned by the question and doesn’t have a response. Which is the wrong response. He could have said, yes of course. It isn’t like she would challenge him and be in that shape from this point on. She has horrible memories in that form, but Brian – being a dumb man, plays it wrong.
Kitty and Rachel see from a distance that the couple are not having a fun conversation. They are confident that they will work whatever it is out. Then the cutest scene of the issue happens. Feron and Lockheed come around the corner. I feel like I haven’t read anything with Lockheed in it for months! Shame it has it be in a back issue. But that is the nice thing about back issues. He was in that Wolverine issue but that is one new appearance out of thirty he could have, easily, been in.
Feron is mad as the team left him behind in a big mansion with no food. I get the impression he was scared after a while. Lockheed is only happy to see Kitty back. The next three panels are of Lockheed jumping into Kitty’s arms, them hugging and then him wrapping himself around her shoulders, his preferred spot. That is what is happening in the background as Feron confronts Rachel. Rachel no longer has the full Phoenix Force within her. He claims it was his rightful power to have, and not hers to give away. She wouldn’t have given it to him if she could.
She can’t even give up the little power she still has, as she needs it to go back to the future. Kitty corrects Rachel, to take them all to the future. Rachel reminds Kitty that her power only allows her to project her astral self to the future, she needs the Phoenix Force to bring her body along. She doesn’t have enough power to bring a team with her.
2015. Ahab is conferring with the latest Master Mold. Which I suppose would make it the President of the Sentinels. Ahab wants to get a squad together to take out Rachel. Master Mold informs him that they have to eradicate mutants in this time era before they can move on to all other timelines. Which is a super scary thought. Bad enough they took out the Americas and now dealing with the other world nations, who even thought they had plans to branch out to different time periods. Very Terminator!
Ahab doesn’t like the idea of waiting, he wants to strike now! Master Mold informs him that they have too many wars going on right now to spare anyone. They are in Russia, fighting the Soviet Super Soldiers. Asia, fighting the Asian Alliance, and on top of that, there are pockets of resistance in Europe and South America.
Master Mold tries to assure Ahab that they are aware of Rachel’s energy signature, if it shows up, they will take action then. Master Mold continues to prove why it and Sentinels are a threat, as they are cold calculating machines. They have a three stage plan.
Stage One – in 45.7 days (.7 ?) the Nimrod Project will be at production capacity. In 160 days, functional mobilization.
Stage Two – Sentinels stationed in all timelines.
Stage Three – Total mutant eradication.
The stakes are high, ya’ll!
Present Day. Rachel has gathered the team together and has told them her plans. Kate sacrificed everything to give Rachel this second chance and Rachel has finally decided now is the time to do something about giving Kate’s future a second chance. She’s been busy before this. Kitty still wants to bring everybody along with Rachel, even with limited Phoenix power, Rachel can only do so much. Kurt doesn’t like the high level of risk involved either.
Then without much fanfare, Rachel takes a step backwards, and braces herself to travel through time. No machine needed. Then she screams out in pain! It appears as if she is merging with Widget.
2015. Katget is going on still about Rachel having to be free. She is surrounded by the British heroes of the day. These heroes are – Albion, Arthur (a British Iron Man), Dark Angel (the future version), Grace, Killpower and Tangerine. They make up the future version of the RCX, which is good timing as we must met the present versions in the last storyline. See how well planned the Davis run is?
Arthur instructors Tangerine (their telepath – every team needs one!) to scan the machine. Killpower wants to just blow it up, in the future, all robots are evil. It stands to reason. I’m all for it. Dark Angel can tell that it isn’t a robot. She senses a bio-genetic aura. Tangerine goes on further to state that she senses emotions – fear, love and sadness. Also, an all consuming thought to save Rachel. Dark Angel tells them all to step back, as the robot is getting intense.
Tangerine senses a second human soul inside the machine. Just then, Kateget starts shouting, Sentinels! Just then, Sentinels start showing up. Killpower is insulted that only Delta and Gamma classes were sent.
Grace states that they make up Ahab’s retinue. A word I had to look up, meaning advisers, assistants or just people who travel with an important person. Must be a British word.
The Sentinels identify the gathered heroes as members of the resistance group, RCX. The Sentinels were not expecting to actually fight anyone this day. Ahab instructs them to continue to search for the energy readings they are tracking.
Tangerine finally can make contact with Kate’s mind. She gets her memories of her lost teammates, her husband and her babies. Kateget starts chanting about how Rachel must be warned.
Poor Albion, Kateget is far too distracting and doesn’t notice Ahab creeping up on him and is killed. Tangerine gets flung away by Ahab. Ahab finally sees Kateget.
A Sentinel comments on a presence bridging space and time. Those are fancy scanners they have!
The Present. A timequake occurs. An expression I haven’t seen since that storyline in What If? so many years ago. Kurt asks Rachel to stop, she is quick to inform him that it isn’t her. Rachel had only sent her mind ahead, found Kate, and that woke her up.
Kateget appears before them, telling Rachel to trust her, it is Kate. She’s stuck in the machine. She gives them a warning.
Ahab can see Rachel through the timequake. He wants the Sentinels to stabilize the bridge.
Tangerine figures out, once she wakes up, what is happening. She realizes that anyone Ahab hates, must be an ally of hers (the ol’ enemy of my enemy theory at play, it exists in the future – as it should). She begins to attack Ahab’s mind.
Cerise shouts that the interface is stable. Kitty darts through, saving Tangerine. Kateget tries to warn Kitty (she calls her younger self, Katherine) of Ahab’s energy harpoon. Which, of course, he has a harpoon. I read Kitty and harpoon on the page, I think of the Marauder Harpoon and the Mutant Massacre and how he broke Kitty’s powers for a while.
Rachel, in a fit of rage, melts Ahab’s hands. He’s reaction of, not again, is awesome! Once your body has had pieces torn from it, you probably walk around the planet fearing that the replacement parts will follow suit one day.
The Sentinels retreat, they have what they wanted – Rachel and Kateget. The enemies teleport away.
Leaving Excalibur and their new friends the RCX by themselves. Kitty asks Tangerine for help to locate Rachel and her future self. Tangerine explains that there is no helping them. They were sent to Sentinel HQ.
Arthur informs them of the impossible odds. There are millions of Sentinels in their main headquarters. Each one able to defeat their targeted foe.
Kurt tells them that they have fought Sentinels before. Arthur repeats that it is an impossible mission.
Kurt ends the issue with how dire the situation is, they have to either defeat the entire Sentinel army or die trying. They have no other way to get back home.
I am reviewing the next issue, so we will see how that plays itself out!
. . .
I just heard on Uncanny X-Cast 153 that Comic Geek Speak co-host Jamie D died on May 2nd. I really liked him, he was a huge Strangers in Paradise fan as well as a Kitty Pryde fan. Comic Geek Speak has a great salute episode remembering the podcast legend that is Jamie D. I am glad we have well over 1400 podcasts, so his voice will forever live on in our ears.
Thanks for YouTuber MarvelKid1990 for hosting both videos!
Part One
Part Two
Part Two has the fight between the X-Men and the Brotherhood, which takes place from the ten minute mark to the fourteen minute mark.
Part One is pretty much a waste, but I include it for completion sake.
So this is what happens when you take Kitty Pryde out of a story that she is largely the star of and try to replace her with Bishop. As it turns out, it isn’t nearly as good as the original story.
But since Kitty (and Lockheed) was punished for the failure of Pryde of the X-Men, she wasn’t allowed to be in the 90s Cartoon – that’s my theory anyways.
After reading Uncanny X-Men 142, the second half of the Days of Future Past storyline, I really wanted to rewatch the fight scene as I thought it was a pretty good adaption of it.
Turns out, that was only in my memory. The Brotherhood are the right members (minus Destiny) but the entire fight is wrong – which naturally would happen when Wolverine and Storm are the only X-Men from the comic to be in the fight sequence.
Hopefully the film version of Days of Future Past doesn’t fall short – though we already know that it is mostly borrowing the theme of the original comic story but if it can be better than these two episodes, that would be ideal.
Last issue, Wolverine join a gang as he no longer has his healing factor. Also, he killed a regular guy, to ensure his place in the gang. Their leader is a man named, Offer. The members of the gang are – Pinch, Fuel and Lost Boy.
This issue opens weeks ago. He doesn’t have his fancy armor yet. Wolverine is in the sewer, trying to talk to the Superior Spider-Man.
Has SpOck’s back spider always have that red button design? Looks like if you press it, you would activate his kung fu grip.
Superior Spider-Man is fighting a Green Goblin gang, as Norman is taking over all the gangs of New York City.
Wolverine joins the fight, even though SpOck doesn’t want nor need his help.
At one point, a gang member puts a gun to Wolverine’s temple and Wolverine freezes in place – out of fear. Superior Spider-Man comes in for the save, knocking the thug out.
Wolverine wants to ask a question. Spider-Man thinks he is there on Avengers business. Both ‘heroes’ are currently not with the Avengers.
Now. Offer takes Wolverine to his office, he wants to make sure Logan is doing okay. Logan tells him he doesn’t have to do that, his line has always been to not kill by-standers, everyone else is on the field. I like how the scar Wolverine has over his right eye is still there. That should be how he looks during this No-Healing-Factor-Era. Not sure if it was the coloring or the light in the room, but I like Logan’s hair being a little grey, that’s a nice detail. Good job, Curiel!
Offer explains what his big plan is. Green Goblin has most of the gangs in town. Sabretooth is trying to take over the gangs Goblin doesn’t have. Offer got his gang to save one of Sabretooth’s ninjas, which will work as an olive branch. He is also employing Wolverine, so that should get his attention as well.
If Sabretooth absorbs Offer’s gang, then Offer can start making changes and slowly start taking over Sabretooth’s business.
Cut to weeks ago. Wolverine comes out of the sewer and Spider-Man is having to fight off more henchmen. Spider-Man gets a gun pointed to his head and Wolverine tackles that thug with a one liner. They are even now.
Spider-Man comments on how Wolverine sounds like the old him, he was using jokes out of fear as well. Now he is better. Speaking of which, now we are given a shot of the Superior Spider-Man costume and the back spider still looks like a button to me. Like, you are meant to thumb swipe down on it and it opens the compartment. I also like how black the costume is! I thought it was mostly a black instead of blue change but it really is mostly black with some red aspects to it. Even the mask eyes are black. It is a very cool design.
That’s from the Marvel Heroes online game, that I wish I could be playing. I sort of love that costume. Up there with the Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider and the Spider-Carnage costume. I wish you can see the back of it more but apparently I’m the only one trying to discuss the back of his costume. Google is really letting me down on this!
Spider-Man still believes Wolverine is there on Avengers business. Wolverine finally convinces him that he isn’t – Wolverine isn’t into teams at the moment. Good, Spider-Man says, as teams really hold one back.
Wolverine tells Spider-Man that Green Goblin is taking over the gangs of New York City. Spider-Man quips that he is glad someone else finally noticed. Which is an awesome comment about how so many ‘big events’ happen in hero’s titles but no one ever talks about them in other titles. That’s how I read it, anyways.
Wolverine finally gets to ask his question. If Spider-Man knows where Sabretooth is. Spider-Man’s reaction is so wonderful. He tells him that he tires of that question. Wolverine’s “tired?” response is also great.
I really could get into Doctor Octopus as Spider-Man, every time he shows up in a comic I’m reading, he is so fantastic. I might even go as far as to say, Superior.
Spider-Man mockingly explains why he finds the question irksome. Of course, Wolverine wants to know where Sabretooth is, that’s all Wolverine is about. Where is Sabretooth so I can fight him once again, just like I did last month and just like I will do next month. It is a boring cycle.
Once Cornell is done with Wolverine, he should write Spider-Man but by the time he gets to, Spider-Man will be Peter Parker again – so that’s a shame as I doubt Marvel will allow a Superior Spider-Man miniseries just so a creator can write the character. Superior Spider-Man Unlimited, would work as a format though.
I really do miss the Unlimited format, a quarterly title that cost a dollar more and we got three or four stories in each issue. It was a great way to catch up on characters that we haven’t seen in forever.
Meanwhile in Alberta, Canada. Kitty Pryde is reading a book with Lockheed perched next to her. In my comic I’m writing with Kitty, that’s how I start the issue. Of course, I’m working on a silly script starring Kitty. I would have liked to see what book she is reading. She notices a piece of paper that is floating with a purpose towards her. She grabs the letter, it is from Storm. “If you don’t want to talk to us, at least talk to Logan. He needs you.” She crinkles the letter, she doesn’t have time for that nonsense after the last time she saw Wolverine in his last ongoing series.
I really like how Stegman draws Lockheed. I really miss seeing Lockheed! Glad he made it into this issue.
Cyclops asks what that was about and Kitty tells him it was nothing. Good for Kitty, not getting wrapped up in Wolverine’s nonsense.
Spider-Man and Wolverine get into a bit of a conversation about their opinions on the hero business, which I like. Spider-Man comments on how maddening it is that they put on a costume, fight the same people in a constant cycle. Nothing changes until you choose to make a chance.
Wolverine asks if that is what Spider-Man did, have a breakdown of values. Wolverine wants to know if he is the same person Spider-Man has always been. Spider-Man counters with a, your senses tell you that I am.
In a weird panel, Spider-Man puts his palm down to the ground, right at Wolverine’s head level. He shoots a strand of webbing. Wolverine wants to know what he is doing.
Now. Logan is in bed with Pinch, his fellow gang member. Oh Logan, how you must have a special lady friend in every new adventure you have. The weird thing is, and I’m not sure if Stegman meant to do this but her bed, all it has is the blanket. We get to see them in bed in two different segments and both times, I don’t see any sheets, not by their heads or at their feet when the blanket slides down. Who sleeps with a blanket but not sheets? Weird.
Back with the heroes. Spider-Man didn’t answer the question. Spider-Man tells Wolverine that if he finds a connection to Green Goblin and Sabretooth, he’ll keep the information to himself. He then pushes Wolverine over the ledge of the building. Now, that’s a cliffhanger!
This issue’s title tell you everything you want to know! “All You Ever Wanted To Know About Phoenix… But Were Afraid To Ask” and they mean it! It is essentially the origin of the Phoenix and Rachel Grey. If only the writers were given this single issue when they are writing AvX. It would have given some great insight on what the Phoenix has done before. Or if they were familiar with Rachel as a character, that would have gone a long way as well.
Since this issue deals heavily with Rachel’s origin, we get to see more of the early days of the Days of Future Past timeline.
That cover by Alan Davis is so much fun! Since the first issue, an appearance by the X-Men have been teased and it became an ongoing gag from there.
Awesome that I have an issue by Jimmy Pamiotti in my collection as I really liked his work on the Kevin Smith Daredevil run. That motion comic DVD is pretty outstanding. Great guy too, met him once at San Diego Comic Con, had to be 1998 has they were promoting their Daredevil / Marvel Knights run.
Issue opens with Xavier reading a book in his study. Then he notices Scott in the room. What really confuses him is that Scott starts changing his costume / appearance right in front of him, so Xavier knows someone is playing a mind game with him.
Xavier tries to leave the study but Cyclops tells him to stay as it is safer in this room. Xavier wants to know what he needs to be safe from but Cyclops just repeats his statement. Cyclops tries to optic blast Xavier but it is psychic energy so Xavier can deflect it easily.
Then a voice states that Xavier won’t fare well against his X-Men. Xavier turns to see Magneto speaking and his X-Men are coming down the stairs. Colossus, Kurt, Rogue, Kitty, Wolverine and 80s Storm. Not a team I would want to go up against.
This is usually how the X-Men appeared in Excalibur, if it wasn’t an alternate timeline or dimension version of the team, it was evil decoy versions or flashbacks from either Kurt or Kitty.
Xavier knows that whoever he is up against, is using old information but still precise information so his opponent must be … Phoenix! She resembles Jean in her classic green and yellow costume. Phoenix blasts him and he falls backward.
He is awake now. Jean has caught him. Xavier notices that he is now in Braddock Manor. Jean reminds him that they are there to help Rachel.
Unfortunately, Jean tells him that Xavier started the process ten hours ago. Which is a long time to just let a man in a wheelchair stare at a young lady while she is sleeping and not ask any questions.
Xavier is both baffled and amazed that ten hours as passed. He only has a memory of the above events, which would have taken thirty minutes at most.
Jean had tried to wake him but was kept being pushed out.
Excalibur has been in the room the entire time. Kurt’s leg is still in the cast, as he broke it a while ago and the healing process is slow, which I liked. He broke his leg landing badly back in issue 43.
Xavier knows the memories are from Rachel’s time with the X-Men. Kurt tells him that her memories have been scrambled or Swiss cheesed. Rachel was tired of not having her memories so she forced her Phoenix powers down so that she could have her mind heal. Over the past several weeks, her memories were coming back, revealing details of her past, and their future.
Jean corrects him, that it is an alternate Earth. Jean and Rachel have rarely actually been on Earth at the same time and for any length of time. So Jean is still uneasy around her. She learned in X-Factor Annual 5 that she is Rachel’s mother as did Scott learn that he is her father. He’s hurt by her keeping this from him while they were on the X-Men together. It really is odd how much time they served together and she really should have told him.
Jean didn’t like having her future foretold to her as she barely wanted to be Scott’s girlfriend again just because she didn’t want to fall back into old roles immediately once she came out of her Phoenix-educed cocoon.
Kitty wonders what the significance of Rachel wearing the green and yellow costume is. Xavier believes it is the key to figuring out why Rachel is in this coma. Xavier believes that the Phoenix Force is keeping her unconscious.
Xavier wants to get some answers. Kitty wants him to rest. He is quick to point out that he’s been resting for ten hours. His physical hunger will help focus his attention on the issue at hand.
He believes the Phoenix Force saw him as a threat, so he gets the entire team to be linked telepathically, once he has his support group in place, he dives back in. Included in the team is Alistaire Stuart, who tries to play with the mindlink, as he can see it now. I like how this is old news for Brian.
Xavier tries to encourage Jean to be involved in this process as both the Phoenix Force and Rachel have sought Jean out in the past and will be willing to spend more time with her.
Up to this point, I’ve been under the impression that Rachel has the powers of the Phoenix, or at least a fragment of it, but that she didn’t have the Phoenix Force itself, living in her head. I believe this is a new development.
As they enter the astral plane, there is nothing. Then they are treated to the Phoenix Force as it explains its origins. From the nothing, came the Big Bang. The universe is alive as is the Phoenix Force. The Phoenix Force is going to give the ensemble heroes a tour of what it is.
The Phoenix Force was alone. It had no emotion or goals. It simply existed. Then one day, it was summoned to Earth. It met its first human, Feron – not the kid who had helped up out with the latest attack by Necrom – the being that put Rachel in this current state. Feron is a title that is passed down. They are a group of people who prepare themselves to be the host of the Phoenix. The very first one was a cruel man. The Phoenix Force open itself to any new experience and this Feron was horrible to it. I keep wanting to refer to it as a she but it really is a cosmic force, it is beyond gender.
The Phoenix Force was hurt and it ran away. It couldn’t revert to what it once was, it had experienced too much. It came back to Earth eventually and tried to find Feron again but found another. A young woman who was about to make the ultimate sacrifice for her friends. That woman is, of course, Jean.
The Phoenix Force wanted to experience what Jean has experienced. A deal was struck and after taking a piece of Jean’s life force, the Phoenix Force put Jean into a cocoon and took on her life. Thus begins the story we know already.
Phoenix Jean comes out of the waters, X-Men I’m No Longer the Woman You Once Knew – I am now and forever the Phoenix! Which, really, they should have known something was up at that moment.
Phoenix Jean learns so much being Jean. She learns about friendship, camaraderie and love. Has it ever been a plotpoint before that Scott was able to not only have sex with the Phoenix but satisfy her/it? That seems like something I would brag about, constantly. Scott, may in fact, be a better man than me. Seems like a moment Scott should have. I know he felt betrayed by the Phoenix Force, tricking him into loving it and thinking it was Jean that entire time. But once that raw emotion left, and in his quiet times, wouldn’t the think about that from time to time. A cosmic force of the universe and he had sex with it. It wanted him for who he was. There has to be a deleted scene somewhere out there. Or if there was a moment like that during AvX when the Phoenix Force and him (well a fifth of the Force) were finally united – one would think there would have been a thought there, regarding that.
Then the Dark Phoenix Saga starts. Her thirst for power meant she wanted more power. Then she was tricked by Mastermind and the Hellfire Club. She was out of control until Xavier was able to place mental blocks that brought out the Jean essence of the Phoenix Force.
Then the Shi’ar show up. The Phoenix Force learns what sacrifice means as the X-Men are willing to die for it. She didn’t want to keep tricking everybody anymore. She does confess to loving Scott. Then she vaporized herself on the moon.
Of course, it is all about life and rebirth so only the shell died. It watched as Scott grieved for his lady love. It realized it had to make things right. It went to find Jean but on the way, it noticed Rachel floating in the New York Sky. It appeared to be also a portion of Jean. It did an initial scan and learned that this lady was the daughter of Jean and Scott. It had to learn more.
Which explains why the Phoenix didn’t give Jean the life force slash memories initially. It eventually does at the end of Inferno, when it gives its memories and Madelyne’s memories to Jean. Which I know drives Jean a little crazy. Imagine getting your husband’s memories of him having sex with not only your evil clone but also a cosmic entity? And that’s just the stuff I’m curious about. I wonder if Madelyne’s memories of her wedding spurred Jean to have an even bigger wedding?
There is an ad for the Nintendo game for the film, Hook. That’s how far ago 1992 is, not even Super Nintendo. Also, no other video game companies are shown. Nintendo is it.
So now we get the Rachel memories section. Almost immediately we are shown where the divide is between her timeline and ours. These X-Men never met the Phoenix. Mastermind set off a nuclear bomb in Pittsburgh (it shall be missed!) and Jean dies in this event. So I wonder if it would be the opposite of Fallout 3 where Pittsburgh looks like the DC Wasteland and DC looks relatively intact like the Pitt is?
On the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins, is the COOLometer for May. Which was a feature that confused me as a ten year old and leaves me scratching my head as a 32 year old. Here is the list, from cool to uncool
-Ralphing
-Charge-Parity Violation
-The New Commonwealth of Independent States
-Paradigm Shift
-Spin Doctors
-Demystification
-Tech Noir
-Character Generators
-Institutional Memory
-Mystery Winds
-Pair-Bonding
-Florabundance
-US / Japan Trade Relations
-Couch Cowboys
-Identity Politics
-Perceived Value
-Impersonal Computers
-Not
What a crazy list! What was happening during May 1992!?! How is vomiting (ralphing) the top of a list? Spin Doctors, I get. Some of them are just words that must have made some one smile when they saw them on the list. How is Paradigm Shift even a concept someone thinks about and then rank it?
At the X-Mansion. Kurt and Amanda, who are married (swoon!) are walking Illyana (who is still a kid (aww!) to the bus station. The military straight slaughters them with a hail of bullets. It is a horrible panel to see! The captions build up the possible nice future, the panel shows death and the second caption finalizes it.
Rachel begs Xavier to leave, he tries to plead one last time. The mansion is destroyed. Rachel is left in a state of shock. Though this flashback, when the Phoenix initially experienced it, it felt even more new emotions – fear, panic and true terror.
The caption states that the guards ‘cruel hands’ dragged Rachel away. Is that the same as when Rogue’s guards cruelly touched her when she lost her powers the first time as a prisoner of Genosha?
Rachel did her best to fight off the drugs and the mind washing but it was eventually too much. Ahab used her as the first of his hounds. She will be the example the other will follow. She was mindless as she hunted old friends.
Which reminds me, that we saw how Kurt died at the sort of hands of Rachel once already in Excalibur 35. I wonder if this is Alan Davis’ attempt to correct what he thought Scott Lobdell did wrong. Or did he just now read anything not written by Claremont and himself? I know there is that example of the editors going out of their way to fix a few storylines before Alan Davis came back to the title, so that he can not go back and rewrite issues that he had already done why on hiatus.
Rachel’s technique as a hound, was to mentally scan for her prey. Learn their heart and desire and then hunt them down. When they were killed, Rachel made sure to feel their death so she can feel that punishment as there was a part of her still that was trying to fight it. The deaths will give her fuel as she felt the shame, grief and anger.
Ahab saw that Rachel was holding back and doubled his efforts to make her more of a hound. Eventually he went to far, as caused her too much pain. She lashed out and throw him into some electronics, crippling him. Which she didn’t do to Rory Campbell, in the proper timeline but with each day Rachel lives in the present, she must be changing small details of the future. Maybe with how her powers work, that each change effects her memory of how it should unfold now. That is never shown, just a theory I’m working on.
Each day she saw the physically impaired Ahab, it gave her strength. Ahab tires of this little game and throws her into the concentration camps. Rachel is taken in by the Future X-Men. We are not shown if she is forgiven or even talks about her hound days. They need her for a plan of theirs. They will send back Kate Pryde into the past and fix what once went wrong. Days of Future Past, yo!
We are finally shown what Kate saw once she came back. She fixed history but not their history. So they had to figure out a plan to try to make their present better. They stormed into the Baxter Building, it isn’t named but that’s what it has to be. It is a suicide mission but Kate has a secret plan. As Kate came back to her present, Rachel’s mind was hovering above the city. Which is when the Phoenix finds her – which I don’t think matches up as much as it thinks it does but I could be wrong. Who am I to doubt Alan Davis?
I guess Dark Phoenix Saga ends at 137 and Days of Future Past ends on 142 so yeah, it probably makes sense. I just don’t get Rachel being actually in the past with Kate as we see her awake in that storyline. Maybe that’s what is throwing me off. But it makes sense, I suppose, that a piece of Rachel has to be in the past to monitor Kate to bring her back. It could be after Colossus dies in the future and it was just good timing. Yeah, that must be it. Where is my No-Prize?
The Phoenix Force really likes Rachel and doesn’t want all of her hard work of overcoming the odds to regain her soul and spirit to be wasted so it follows her to the future. Before it goes all in, it does release its portion of Jean’s life force back to Jean. Which would have been around Uncanny X-Men 201 as that came out in January 1986 when Fantastic Four 286 (the storyline Phoenix Rising that brought Jean back to life). But Rachel shows up around Uncanny 184 – but maybe Jean is still healing at that point and then is fully healed by 201? That has to be it. Another No-Prize!
So in the future, Rachel and Kate sort of switch roles. Kate is awake and Rachel is unconscious now. The Phoenix Force reveal itself to Kate. The Phoenix Force recognizes Kate from the brief moments they shared back when she was Kitty. Kate comes up with a plan so that the young Rachel can still live a happy life.
Maybe they are not heading towards the Baxter Building as the captions state that they are going after Project : Nimrod now so that could be a different building. Right when their deaths are for certain, Kate says the magic words – Dark Phoenix – and Rachel’s third mutant power kicks in. Rachel had Jean’s telepathic and telekinesis powers inherited but her own mutant power was the ability to travel through time, mentally. With the Phoenix Force boosting her powers, she was able to do it physically.
This will pay off later in Excalibur 66 where we see what happens next, this scene fully shown and the origins of Widget! I have plans to review it next, so the wait shouldn’t be that long. Such a good issue!
Kate is going to detonate a device. Once the device goes off, it should vaporized everything so none of the Sentinels should investigate what happened ot Rachel. Not like they could go back in time, if they did find any evidence. Though it is the Nimrod program so time justice could have been a thing if Kate wasn’t successful. Which should make this an alternate version of Bishop’s future? Maybe?
Actually I relooked up Uncanny X-Men 191, Nimrod’s first appearance. Curse that 90s X-Men cartoon on FOX! Curse it! I was getting that storyline with Bishop confused with the comics. So it came to the present to hunt Rachel, that is some tight continuity! In retrospect, I should have gone from Days of Future Past to Days of Future Present to Rachel’s first appearances in Uncanny X-Men as now I won’t be getting to those for this event month. I really wanted to do these Excalibur issues as they really delve into Rachel’s origins, hence they get into the origins of Days of Future Past. So that was my rationale.
Rachel’s memories are Swiss cheesed as Kate told the Phoenix Force to do that so that Rachel wouldn’t be haunted by her memories of the future. Instead, she is only haunted by the wanting of those memories. Best laid plans and all of that.
Jean makes a snide comment about, only following orders. Ooof, Jean really hates the Phoenix Force and for very understanding reasons.
Kitty is tired of all of this mumble jumbo and asks where Rachel is right now. The Phoenix Force shows them a baby Rachel. Necrom essentially killed her as a last second move during their fight. The Phoenix Force didn’t care for that and put her in a mental cocoon so Rachel can heal properly. Since we see that she is a baby, mentally, it is going to take some time to reach her rightful age again. Which is probably 25 or so.
Kurt is curious if she will ever fully heal. She should, the Phoenix Force states. And I can tell you that she does.
The Phoenix Force can’t guarantee that her memories will be intact or that she would even know who Excalibur is but she will be whole at least.
The Phoenix Force can tell them something, that it and Rachel are forever merged. Well, as forever as comics allow.
The Phoenix Force wants to know if Jean can forgive it. She doesn’t answer that question, asking one of her own. What is its next step? The Phoenix Force takes control of Rachel’s body and they both are going to heal somewhere in the stars. Rachel accepted the Phoenix Force freely and without reservation, so they are one now.
Kitty wonders as they only have the Phoenix Force’s side of the story, if they can believe that. It seems like the Phoenix Force just likes to take possession of red haired ladies.
Kitty cries as she just lost another friend. She is down to Kurt now.
Jean and Xavier both tell the team that there really is little they could have done to stop the Phoenix Force. Which isn’t really that comforting of a thought.
Issue ends with a setup of the next issue, as there is a sleepy little town – Skufington Wallop, and everyone is missing from the town. Two officers are walking around. It seems people just up and left as there is still warm coffee and half eaten sandwiches.
The Crazy Gang are watching from a distance.
The back cover ad is for, Honey I Blew Up the Kid. Which, whenever I tell Walker it is nice for a nap, I think about this movie at least once that day as that little kid hated naps. Also, that kid loved his mother.
It wasn’t until I was showing off that I own both Kitty Pryde’s and Lockheed’s first appearances, years ago, that I held these covers up at the same time for the first time.
So it took me until then to notice Colossus was holding something above his head on both covers. Coincidence? Most likely. How much thought would Paul Smith had given a John Byrne cover?
Smith would have known Lockheed was going to be Kitty’s new companion, but I can’t imagine him going back and making sure that there were similarities. Such as the Colossus move. Or that Kitty doesn’t appear on her first comic cover, nor does Lockheed. Or that Wolverine is maskless on both. I do like how Wolverine has opposite claws extended so that the two covers mirror each other.
Seems like Marvel is trying to figure out where to place the credits now. Half my comics had them up front with the recap page and the other half, on the final page.
The issue really picks up once Rachel and Kurt meet up. Before that, we are shown Kurt and Wolverine in the Danger Room. This is after Wolverine has lost his healing factor and is now wearing a new armor costume – which looks horrible here. I’m sure that’s not Nauck’s fault as the costume doesn’t look very good. Like a black version of Shocker’s costume but it looks pretty lackluster.
Kurt is trying to find a weakness in the armor. Wolverine gets set off into a berserker rage as he really doesn’t want to be reminded of his lack of healing factor as it keeps tripping him up. He’s not used to being so vulnerable. He also isn’t use to being able to pop his claws and not have any repercussions of doing so.
Wolverine pops his claws, at Kurt, and comes charging at him. Storm, Beast and Cecilia Reyes, who have been monitoring this session come running down. Wolverine is bleeding all over the place.
Can’t believe Kurt is back to the land of the living, and is spending time with his ol’ friend, Wolverine, and his friend tries to kill him in a simple battle stimulation. Good grief!
Storm cools Wolverine down by casting a giant rain storm. I really like the panel of Kurt and Storm, with their hair wet.
Rachel telepathically speaks to Kurt as he is hanging from the ceiling in one of the many hallways of the Jean Grey School. The latest mutant going by Sprite, is frighten of his appearance – a call back to when Kitty was frighten by his appearance.
Rachel and Kurt go back to his apartment that Storm set up for him. In the back, is a poster on his wall that is the cover to the original Excalibur first issue. Which how does that work, in-universe, did they pose for that? An artist rendering? I don’t own this issue for the poster alone, or at all.
Rachel and Kurt are talking about where Kitty is nowadays. Kurt knows now that Kitty is off with Cyclops and his school. I wish we were getting Kurt and Kitty at the moment but Rachel and Kurt is fun to see.
Eventually, Kurt makes his way to Amanda Sefton’s apartment. Which is a complete callback to the Paul Smith era, so of course, I love it. He is on her couch, with a Bamf doll and ten actual Bamfs. Which is a fun modern take on it. What isn’t a fun modern take, is Amanda’s latest hero costume. What is going on there!?! Like a lady version of the Punisher costume with a cape and I don’t know. It seems too much.
Amanda’s apartment gets attacked. Kurt thinks it is an attack on him but it turns out it is an attack on Amanda. Kurt drops a wall on the foe.
The foe teleports away. Amanda wants to find her mother, Margali, to make sure this isn’t an attack on all mages. Kurt agrees to come along, so that is how this title becomes a global title.
Screenplay Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn
Story by Sheldon Turner and Bryan Singer
Premiere Date June 3, 2011
I own the cover seen above.
For whatever reason, we didn’t see this in theaters. I asked my wife and we couldn’t figure out why we didn’t go. I know I was keeping up with news and would have liked to have seen it. I wasn’t doing anything silly by boycotting it or wasn’t going to support a film that didn’t have Kitty Pryde in it. I’m not that much of a loon.
Once it came out on DVD, I made a point of buying it that Tuesday. It still took us until Saturday to watch it but the important thing is to buy it.
Looking at the films that came out Summer 2011, we didn’t see any of them in the theater so it was probably just a busy time.
Vaughn was suppose to be the director of X-Men 3 but had to pass on the opportunity. The only film of his I have seen is Kick Ass.
They decided to not keep the X fade from the FOX logo. That is a shame but it was such a small detail before.
Onto the film!
The film opens as the first X-Men film did. Poland 1944. With Magneto has a boy, at the concentration camp as he is separated from his family. He holds his hand out for them and causes the metal fence to move until a soldier hits him in the head with the butt of a gun.
The man in the window watching the scene unfold is Kevin Bacon as Sebastien Shaw. When they announced Shaw and Emma Frost as the villains of the film, I was excited. Finally a film where Magneto wasn’t the threat – though he is still in the film. Plus, Kevin Bacon!
As a child of the 80s, Kevin Bacon has always been a force in my life. Then I learn of the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game and sough to watch all of his films and see how good at the game I could be. I was much better at it when I was younger. Nowadays, I’ll try to get everyone to Sleepers or JFK and call it a day. Someone once tried to stump me once with Bill Crosby but luckily I remembered Meteor Man that also had James Earl Jones in it.
I, myself, am five degrees of Kevin Bacon. I was in Comic Book the Movie (for like a second, I’m sitting next to Mark Hamill at a panel) who was in Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back with Judd Nelson who was in St. Elmo’s Fire with Demi Moore who was in Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon. There might be a faster way.
Kevin Bacon films that I’ve seen are – Animal House, Diner, Footloose, (Planes, Trains and Automobiles if it counts) Tremors, Flatliners, JFK, A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Sleepers, Picture Perfect, Wild Things, Hollow Man, Loverboy (which he directed his wife in, also a weird film) and Crazy Stupid Love.
Making the list, along with Sleepers and JFK – Flatliners, A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Wild Things and Crazy Stupid Love are all good connector movies. Essentially any film that has Bacon and at least four other big name actors (or actors who would later be big names).
I am such a fan of Flatliners! Probably one of my favorite films that I have yet to own. I’m waiting for an awesome anniversary edition to come out with at least some special feature involving the cast.
We see Shaw for only a split second as lightning strikes and we transition to Westchester, New York 1944 with a young Charles Xavier waking up. He heads downstairs to the kitchen where his mother offers to make him a snack. His mother wouldn’t even know how to make a snack, she would have the maid do it. Then we see a very young Mystique, going by Raven – the codenames will come later. I really don’t care for the nude twelve year old version of Mystique. If only the first movie had her wearing the classic white dress with skull belt, we wouldn’t be subjected to seeing this.
Xavier offers her anything she can find, to eat as well as that she doesn’t have to steal ever again. A friendship is formed!
Back to Poland. Shaw brings in young Magneto to have him display his power before him. Young Erik can’t do it. Shaw brings in Erik’s mother, he will kill her on the count of three if Erik hasn’t moved the coin by then.
Bacon is speaking German during this entire scene. Shaw pauses between two and three as Erik is trying his best to do it. Then Shaw fires his gun and Erik’s mother is dead – which is ice cold! Erik loses his mind and destroys or bends everything that is metal in the room. The guards who were holding his mother are dead but Shaw still stands.
Shaw tells Erik that is anger and pain that allows Erik to focus his power.
We move up a few years. We see the Magneto we will be following in this movie. He is played by, of course, Michael Fassbender. Who I really really like in this movie. I could have gone with an entire movie of just Magneto as he hunts Nazis or grocery shopping. I really need to watch more films of his. I do a weekly search for Shame but none of the movie channels seem to want to air it.
He’s in 300 but I don’t remember him from it. The same for Inglorious Bastards. Him being in Jonah Hex, Jane Eyre and Prometheus makes me want to watch those films.
I missed out on 12 Years a Slave, probably get around to that film one of these days, especially after it won Best Picture at the Oscars. I know he’s in the upcoming Assassins Creed film and the movie, Frank, sounds super interesting.
These two X-Men films are really going to stand out on his IMDB page.
Erik is in a hotel room, as he is planning his next move. We see his arm, and production made sure his number on his arm matches older Magneto from the previous films.
Geneva, Switzerland, 1962.
Erik is following the gold, he is hunting Shaw’s current location.
Oxford University, England.
If it wasn’t obvious how different Magneto and Xavier had it growing up, it is now.
We see Xavier and Mystique – played respectfully by James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence.
McAvoy, I don’t really know. We love the American Shameless and we gave the British version a chance, the pilot was too similar so we chose to abandon it. We kept noticing the differences and we just prefer the one we met first – though we recognize that the British one came first. McAvoy plays the Jimmy / Steve role in that series, he is only there for the first 13 episodes from what I’ve read. Which I was tempted to just watch those episodes. Maybe one of these days.
McAvoy is Mr. Tumnus in the first Narnia film, which he must love being reminded of that. I’m now interested in watching Last King of Scotland now that he’s in it. I know Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for the role but it didn’t seem like my type of movie. Same for Atonement, I am sure I haven’t seen one of Keira Knightley’s films. I came close with Anna Karenina but the production of the film threw me off. I do love that book, and should try to get pass the first fifteen minutes.
I didn’t see Wanted. He is the voice of Arthur in Arthur Christmas, which I saw most of when my nephews were watching it.
Now, Jennifer Lawrence, on the other hand, I’ve seen a slew of her films. Winter’s Bone, her performance in it was good but the film was a hard watch. Still want to watch Beaver as I like Jodie Foster (for the most part) and the cast and story seems interesting. Hunger Games, I’ve seen both films. In Catching Fire, she looks different in almost every other scene of the film. It made me realized that I’m not sure I can picture Jennifer Lawrence in my mind, besides the posters and she looks different in each poster. Am I the only one who notices that? Maybe I’m crazy.
Silver Lining Playbook, I really liked. Should own it but one of these days. American Hustle, I really need to watch as I love almost everyone in the main cast. I would have made a point of owning it first week if Amy Adams or Christian Bale won their Oscars.
Jennifer Lawrence’s opening monologue from her episode of Saturday Night Live may be my favorite monologue ever. She does this run down of smack talking all of her fellow nominees for Best Actress and ends each one with a nice compliment. It is amazing, and made better by her actually winning her Oscar.
Thanks to YouTuber Jasmin Lehmann for hosting the video. The subtitles are only midly distracting – I imagine she has them on screen for the copyright issue or something. Either way, glad I have this blog so I can find that easily – and not have to go to YouTube and search for it. There was other ones but they were filmed off of their televisions and poor quality so no wonder Lorne Michaels has left them up. Her episode wasn’t that bad but the monologue is the true gem.
This is probably the best five minutes of her career, definitely the funniest.
Also, I really like how healthy Jennifer Lawrence looks in First Class.
Both actors play their roles pretty great. I think McAvoy does a great job of Xavier but I don’t think he could carry a film on his own. But that isn’t the role he is asked to do.
At a local pub, Xavier hits on broads with how sexy mutations are. They are groovy. It works for him.
Later in their shared apartment, Raven is in her blue Mystique form (which I like how limited they have her in this state as it must have made filming so much easier) and she gives us our first “Mutant and Proud” that will creep up again towards the end of the film. She mockingly says it now.
She asks if Xavier would date her, he tells her that any man will be happy with her. She repeats the question but emphasizing in her blue form. He gives her a, blue? Well, she is his oldest friend, so he can’t be dating her. It isn’t very convincing and she should feel comfortable in her true form, she shouldn’t have to hide, filming be dman!
I like how Raven claims some small victory by stating that she is Xavier’s only friend, which knocks him down a peg.
Erik, at the Bank scene. Erik is super intimidating and then add the powers on top of that. I wouldn’t have put up a fight at all. I will repeat it here, magnetism is probably the most powerful power one could have. That’s why Chronicle was such a good film. Really shows what jack arse teenagers would do with the greatest power in the world.
Last Vegas, Neveda.
The club that the CIA are watching is the, Atomic Club. Get it?
Rose Byrne plays Moira MacTaggert. Who I really like in this movie, and not just because she gets down to her underwear in the first scene. Oh, did we really make women wear all of those undergarments in the 60s? No wonder women went on the attack from this decade forward. I would want justice as well!
Moira is a CIA agent instead of a scientist in this film, also gone is the Scottish accent.
I’m not that familiar with Byrne has an actress as I didn’t watch Damages. I tried the pilot and I didn’t take to it. She was the assistant to Natalie Portman’s queen in Star Wars : Attack of the Clones, Dorme. The name rings a bell but I’m sure she was wearing that white face during her scenes. She’s in Casanova which I want to see as David Tennant is in it. She’s one of the soldiers in 28 Weeks Later, which as soon as I read the title, her face appeared in my mind’s eye so I guess I do remember her from it.
She’s in Get Him to the Greek, which I still say that the best part of the movie is every single scene that has Sean Combs in it. If someone wanted to make a YouTube video of just him, I would totally watch that. So I don’t remember her in it at all but the film does lend itself to cameos. Also, not enough Jason Segel involvement.
She’s the one of the members of Bridesmaids. I am one of the few who didn’t care for that movie at all. I like the ending song but Hold On by Wilson Phillips is one of the best songs of all time.
She’s in Place Beyond the Pines, which I should watch as I like Ryan Gosling (the Gos) since I time I saw him build a house. I’ll look for it and record it off one of the movie channels.
Moria sees Colonel Hendry go into the club. Colonel Hendry is played by Glenn Morshower, who whenever I see on a show, I say “It’s Aaron from 24!” as my wife and I love that show and we really like Aaron Pierce on it. I’m such a fan of his that when he was on Revolution and they only showed the top of his head, I said it was Aaron from 24. Then two scenes later it was him! He was also on the West Wing, to which I usually shout “West Wing represent!” whenever someone on the show shows up anywhere else (even non-main cast members) – I’m a real treat to watch shows with – but him being on 24 trumps the West Wing shout out. He’s also in Air Force One (he gets type casts a bit) and Star Trek Generations.
So the CIA agent with Moira notice that the girls who are going into the club are wearing only their underwear. Moira strips down, surprising her fellow agent. She is using something the CIA didn’t give her. An odd line but Byrne pulls it off.
Once in the club, we are treated to January Jones as Emma Frost. Which, I still wish they went with Alice Eve in the role as she would have been sexier in it but I get them going with a more known actress in January Jones. Jones does look good as Emma, also in her underwear, but there is something lacking that I can’t quite place. She does a great Emma though, perfect attitude for the part.
I first saw January Jones in American Wedding as Alyson Hannigan’s character’s sister. I don’t remember her from Anger Management nor Full Frontal – but I saw that second film when I was probably too young for it. You’ll think with how much of a fan of the Uncanny X-Cast, I would have seen Love Actually by now. One of these days, I will.
I vaguely remember her from, We Are Marshall. At least, I know there is a blonde in the diner, and I can only assume that is who she is. Finally, of course, I don’t watch Mad Men. You’ll think I would has I’m a huge Alison Brie fan as well as Jon Hamm but my wife started the show without me and I have no time to watch shows without her (or I do but I’m watching the three shows she doesn’t watch) so I have completely missed out on the phenomenon that is Mad Men.
I do love how the Hellfire Class (only really represented by Shaw and Frost – from the comics) are the villain in this movie. The X-Men do have other villians besides Magneto. Pretty excited about Apocalypse going to be the villain of the official First Class sequel (Days of Future Past is a sequel to First Class but it works more as Star Trek Generations – giving the fans a chance to see everyone in a film together than a proper sequel). I do worry that Apocalypse is going to be shown as a white dude wearing a blue business suit but time will tell on that.
Before the CIA was concern with mutants, they were mostly worried about communists, which is why Moira was watching the club for Hendry. Which Hendry and Henry sounds too alike, they should have changed Hendry to some other name. They quit talking about Hendry by the time McCoy shows up but still.
Shaw wants Hendry to place nuclear missiles in Turkey. They keep referring to them at Jupiter missiles but that’s what they are. Hendry doesn’t want too.
In the background, we get to see Alex Gonzalez as Riptide. He is never called, Riptide in the film. I saw the entire film the first time, and whenever he was on screen, I kept trying to figure out which character he was suppose to be. Riptide of course, is one of the Marauders during the infamous Mutant Massacre storyline. He is the fool that Colossus crushes the neck of in retaliation for hurting Kitty. Well, Harpoon is the one who hurts Kitty but Riptide tries to protect Harpoon and gets killed in the process. It is awesome.
I do like how Gonzalez suits up for the role. Very business like.
Shaw motions over to Riptide (who in my notes I kept calling Whirlwind – who is an Iron Man villain but I couldn’t think of any other wind villains) to create a whirlwind (that didn’t help) and he does so. Which blows Hendry back against a wall.
Moira is watching all of this through a slot in the wall.
We see that film Emma has her second mutation, diamond form. It looks pretty decent here, much better than Wolverine Origins. Which that is a whole thing with how can these two be the same character but Vaughn didn’t want to worry about all of the continuity stuff like that (just like a new comic book writer) he wanted a fresh start on the X-Men franchise, a spy film and a movie set in the 60s. Which he got to do all three, so that’s pretty impressive!
We see the final member of the Hellfire Club, Jason Flemyng as Azazel. Which is a cool visual of a character to see and it must have made Chuck Austen some money. Who knows if a relationship between the he and Mystique will be hinted at during Days of Future Past. Production must have really wanted to reuse the teleporting effects from X-Men 3.
Flemyng is also in films I’ve seen but don’t recall seeing him in them (doesn’t help that he’s red in First Class) such as Rob Roy and Stealing Beauty. Apparently he is one of the many cameos in Spice World. I saw From Hell but I’m sure I fell asleep during it and have no intention to ever rewatch it. Rock Star, I was tempted to rewatch as it was on Showtime or some channel and I wanted to see Mark Wahlberg drive the batmobile again. Maybe I will record it next time I see it is on.
Here we go. He’s Dr. Jekyll in League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Is he the only one to show up in two different Alan Moore adaptions? Maybe?
He was in Kick Ass, so that makes two Vaughn films.
We see the American War Room, straight out of Dr. Strangelove. Moira is trying to warn CIA Director McCone that Hendry is working against American interests in Vegas when she is told that he is sitting there in the War Room. McCone is played by Matt Craven, a great character actor. He’s been in A Few Good Men, Timeline and Public Enemies – he is also type cast as this type of role.
Hendry changes his vote to place missiles in Turkey.
Cut to Oxford. Xavier has earn his Professor title. He tells Raven that he isn’t technically a professor until he has a teaching position. We are shown that Moira is following Xavier.
Villa Gesell, Argentina. It is this scene that I realize how large the scope of this film is, it really is quite the international film.
Magneto is hot on the trail! He gets to a bar where the two people he needs to direct him to Shaw are.
How amazing is this Magneto, he uses his powers so effortlessly. How fast he is with that knife trick and controlling the bartender’s gun, incredible!
Fassbender is full of such charisma! As excited as I am about Ellen Page in Days of Future Past, I’m really looking forward to Fassbender in the film. Especially after the second trailer shows him even more casual with his powers. McAvoy looks like he gets to do some good acting in that movie too.
How nervous the two Germans at the table, good acting from the day players.
Scene ends with Erik referring to himself as Frankenstein’s Monster and looking for his creator. So points for referring to himself as the correct character.
Xavier is drinking beer, he’s not murdering people. Moira asks him about his thesis on mutations. He starts to hit on her like she was a regular broad. He then reads her mind, and knows that she is serious about mutants. I like how Moira asks if anything is wrong, as from her perspective, he’s just staring at her touching his temple.
Miami, Florida.
Shaw talks to Hendry. Hendry tells him that he hasn’t spoken to anyone regarding their deal. Then he pulls out a grenade t kill the mutants. Shaw grabs the grenade and explodes it. We see how Movie Shaw’s powers work. Sort of the same, he absorbs kinetic energy but instead just doing it, the movie shows his absorption by this sort of wave effect. Also, Shaw reveals that his power keeps him young. That’s the boring part, the fun part is what he can do with that power once he has it. He touches Hendry and poor Hendry explodes.
CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virgina.
Xavier is giving an unimpressive impromptu speech about mutations. The CIA folks don’t care.
We see Oliver Platt in the back. Now, I love Oliver Platt almost as much as I love Kevin Bacon. He’s credited as “Man in Black Suit” which is fun.
Oliver Platt was in Flatliners, The Three Musketeers, Executive Decision, A Time to Kill, Bulworth, Lake Placid, Three to Tango, Ready to Rumble, Martian Child (John Cusack’s worst film of that I’ve seen of his), Letters to Juliet. I still need to see, Love & Other Drugs.
On television, he was on the West Wing for eight episodes – West Wing represent! He was also on the Big C, which we really liked until that final portion season, we couldn’t even get through the six episodes. I think we gave up at three. That show would show progress and then jump backwards. It was hard to watch but it had its moments.
Oliver Platt can do practically any type of film.
Xavier has to reveal that he is a telepath. Of course, the CIA Director believes he is a spy and that Moira is a fool for letting a spy in.
At the thirty minute mark, Raven shows her true blue form. That shuts the CIA folks up.
Olivier Platt’s character tells the director that he can house the mutants at his off site base. Platt is very Pro-Mutant.
Moira, off on her own, is in a hallway. All of a sudden, people are frozen in place. Xavier communicates with her telepathically and she agrees to join them at Platt’s site.
Moira has a lead on where Shaw should be going.
I can only imagine this next action sequence takes place in Florida.
Erik has made his way onto Shaw’s boat. Shaw is impress to see him, it has been two decades.
Erik tries to kill Shaw with a knife and Emma catches it in her diamond form. Emma then pushes Erik overboard. Shaw tells her that she shouldn’t use her powers on their own kind.
Emma then senses Xavier on another boat. Xavier is impressed to finally meet someone like him.
Riptide starts taking out the Coast Guard boats.
Xavier senses someone is in the water. Erik is in the water, trying to stop Shaw’s submarine. Shaw had to use his fancy escape submarine (who plans for their boat to be destroyed?) as Erik has taken the anchor of the boat and completely wrecked the upper deck of the boat. I keep typing, boat, but I suppose it is more of a yacht situation.
Xavier dives into the water to try to convince Erik to let go of his hold on the submarine (he isn’t really slowing it down at all) but if he keeps it up, he will surely drown. It is a very interesting way to get these two characters to meet.
Who, by the way, McAvoy is credited as 24 year old Xavier, whereas the Trilogy implies that he was 17 when he first met Erik. But again, Vaughn didn’t want to be held down by continuity and it makes more sense to have him be a little older than 17. What would 17 even be? Barely old enough to be a soldier.
Covert CIA Research Base – fun description
Platt explains that his base’s goal is to investigate paranormal activity. The 60s version of the X-Files.
We see the model of a Pre-Blackbird jet, I’m not sure if they give it a name. I keep calling it the Pre-Blackbird, which isn’t great.
We meet Hank McCoy played by Nicholas Hoult. Hoult was in the Weatherman, who I don’t remember him being in it. He must have been the young son. He was in Warm Bodies, which we liked. I believe my wife liked the book more. Which is typically the case. Decent romantic comedy with a zombie twist. He was Jack in Jack the Giant Slayer, which I have no interest in except to see what Bryan Singer is up to – visually but I now have Days of Future Past to look forward too. The commercials make it look like a real special effects heavy movie, so I’m glad he got more exposure to special effects.
Xavier outs McCoy as a mutant, like a dick. I’m not sure if it was the excitement of meeting more mutants in 24 hours than he has in his 24 years. But still, a dick. Movie McCoy’s power is that he has finger toes, but real finger toes. I wish he had big hands as well but its okay. Poor guy doesn’t even wear special shoes, he just crams his toes into his shoes.
Hank tells Platt that Platt never asked, so this is the first instance of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Hank gets to show off a bit, he even hangs upside down. Erik, Xavier and Raven are all impress.
Raven even is attracted, a little bit. We’ll see over and over again that Hank, if he would just shut up and listen, could have had Raven has a girlfriend but wouldn’t stop looking at her as a cure for his condition. Its painful to watch.
We start seeing where Shaw’s plans are heading as America and Russia are heading towards something, what could it be?
Shaw reveals to Emma his fancy new helmet that the Russians made for him. He puts it on his head and Emma can’t read his mind. Which I like the unspoken change in power here. Not sure if she has been manipulating him at all but now she can’t. The look on her face when he asks her for ice for his drink, is priceless.
Hank confronts Raven, he believes her DNA might be the best option for curing physical mutations. Not mutations themselves, but the physical aspects – which I like the concept behind it. She can shapeshift so in theory maybe her genes can help. But my issue is, if Hank’s physical power is changed, so that he has normal feet, he won’t be able to use his power at all, as how will he grip onto things?
Hank wants her blood and she gives it to him. I take it that if he wanted some kissing, she would have let him, but he’s an idiot. I do like how Lawrence plays all of these scenes. Subtly putting herself out there but knowing he is never going to take the bait.
Erik interrupts them, telling them that they should be happier that they have powers than they are. This is the beginning of Erik’s move on Raven, I’m not sure if the character – at this time – is planning it but he makes it no secret that he prefers her in her natural blue state. Really, he doesn’t like that Raven is hiding.
Erik finds the files the CIA has on Shaw. He is now leaving the base when Xavier confronts him. Xavier is surprised that Erik has waited this long before leaving. Xavier convinces Erik to stay with the idea that Shaw has friends, so Erik will need friends of his own.
Xavier and Platt are having a conversation when Erik comes back the next day. Erik agrees to join the team, but only if he and Xavier find the mutants. No government agents on site. Platt starts saying that is unacceptable but Xavier picks up on how this is the deal, if not, Erik is gone. Xavier agrees and Platt is out of luck.
Hank has created a Pre-Cerebro. So in the Trilogy of films, when Xavier and Magneto are claiming they built it, they must mean they built another one and not giving Hank his due credit.
Hank tells Xavier that it would work better if Xavier was bald. Xavier tells him to not to touch his hair. Pre-Cerebro is inside a giant golf ball. No one in the film makes the comparison. How could they not? Or is it too obvious?
Erik comments that Xavier is a lab rat. Xavier really wants to test it out, to see how strong his powers can get.
We are treated to some mutants – though how some of them can be present in the 60s is beyond me. We see Storm and Cyclops and a few others that I can only imagine are meant to be known mutants.
The road trip begins!
We first meet Angel Salvadore (from Morrison’s run) played by Zoe Kravitz. Daughter of that Kravitz – which I’m sure she loves that people point out who her father is. She was in It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which is by far my favorite Zach Galifianakis. The DVD is one of those bare bones DVDs, with maybe an interview feature or something but I wouldn’t mind owning it. She plays the would be love interest, if it wasn’t for Emma Roberts in the film – which I do like her in this film as well. Probably her best role but I haven’t seen everything she is in.
Xavier and Erik meet Angel. Erik shows off his powers, so she shows off her wings. She’s a stripper.
Xavier and Erik next meet taxi driver, Darwin – played by Edi Gathegi. Edi was in Gone Baby Gone, as Cheese. A role that stands out, due to the character name. He is Laurent in the Twilight movies.
Once the Atlas Shrugged trilogy is finished and available on Netflix, we are going to marathon those films as my wife loves that book.
Darwin is one of the mutants Xavier lost to Krakoa during X-Men : Deadly Genesis. One of the four Lost X-Men between the Original Team and the All New All Different Team. One of Moira’s students. None of that is even hinted at in the film. How could it even be?
Havok is the third mutant shown. He is played by Lucas Till. I only know him as being the love interest in Taylor Swift’s You Belong With Me music video. He’s in the film, All Superheroes Must Die, which is a film I’ve been somewhat curious to watch. It looks like a low budget film, so that could be very interesting or truly horrible.
Havok is in self imposed isolation in prison. From the dialogue, I’m not sure if he committed a crime or is it like Ali Larter’s character from Final Destination 2, where she just checked herself in one day.
Banshee is next up, he is hitting on some girl in an aquarium. She likes the fish, turns her back, he whistles at the fish and has her turn around, there’s no fish. Not sure how that is suppose to attract her.
Banshee is played by Caleb Jones. He doesn’t have an Irish accent, which is a shame. Apparently, before his film he was in movies with the sweet credit of “Boy …” in No Country for Old Men (on bike), Superbad (at party) and Social Network (Fraternity). So of course, who knows who he is. He seems like a natural redhead so might be able to pick him out during Superbad’s party scene. Though there are two party scenes so it could be either of those. Apparently, he was not asked back for Days of Future Past, that has to burn, especially has Havok was asked back. Banshee being the only First Class member to not be in the next film. Ooof!
0:48:04 – we get the Wolverine cameo by Hugh Jackman that was all the buzz when the film came out. He gets to say the one F-Bomb you are allowed to say in a PG-13 film. Which is how the latest Die Hard films are allowed to get away with it and stay PG-13. It is a little awkward with how Xavier and Erik show up, Logan says his line and the two leave.
In the submarine. Shaw has a special room in the back of the sub. He refers to mutants as, the Children of the Atom – which is one of the taglines for the X-Men comics at the time.
Emma can sense Xavier, his powers have been increased somehow. Emma can also sense that Xavier has been recruiting.
In front of the Lincoln Memorial. Xavier and Erik are having a nice chat. I could have used more scenes like this, where the two just chat. We only get one more. The topic they are discussing is what the government will do once they know about the mutants. Erik believes they will be forced to register and Xavier believes that the government will realize American mutants and humans will have a common enemy in foes like Shaw, that there will be peace still.
At Platt’s base, he gave the mutants a nice room with a window. Mystique believes they should all have codenames, as they are members of the CIA and agents get cool codenames. So they all take the names, they are known for. She calls herself Mystique, to which Banshee wishes he could have had that name. He calls himself Banshee, and Hank asks why that name. Which leads into people showing off their powers.
Darwin shows that he can grow gills if his head is under water. Banshee breaks the giant window to their room.
I really like this scene as it shows young mutants being young mutants.
Angel is her stage name. She then spits hot lava.
Poor Hank, everyone is accepting everyone’s power and then he shows off his feet. Havok, who is essentially a real dick to Hank for the rest of the movie until right before big conclusion, offers to call him, Big Foot. I wish the movie took a turn here and all the other mutants pounce on Havok and let him know that mutant on mutant name calling will not be tolerated. But it doesn’t go in that direction.
Mystique, to her credit, tries to stand up for Hank. Commenting on what
people say about guys with big feet. Then she points out how Havok’s feet seem rather small.
CIA Office. Moria gets permission to have mutants fight mutants.
Back to the young mutants. They are all drunk and having a good time. Even Hank. Xavier, Erik and Moira show up and the mutants get in trouble. Mystique has no time for this as she has to let Erik and Xavier know what is up.
They have decided that Erik will be Magneto and Xavier will be known as Professor X. Which is awesome. Even better, Erik likes this new name and finds it acceptable. Almost as if this is what he’s been waiting for, mutant identities.
So since the kids are drunk and out of control, they don’t get to join the next mission. That’ll show them. I’m not sure how the next sequence would have been if they were allowed to go.
Russian Military Retreat. The CIA has news that Shaw is going to be meeting with a Russian General.
The truck that Xavier, Magneto, Moira and a few soldiers are on, gets pulled over. Xavier tells everybody to be cool. When a Russian soldier opens the backdoor, he sees an empty truckload.
They get to the General’s house and they see only Emma entering, Shaw is nowhere in sight. The military are only interested in Shaw so they pull back. Magneto wants to go as Emma would clearly know where Shaw is.
This next sequence is spectacular! Magneto makes a run at the mansion, and the way he takes out guards is fun to see. He is so powerful and good with his powers.
Xavier can’t leave Magneto behind so he goes after him.
Emma has met with the Russian General, played by Rade Sherbedgia, who if you ever need to cast “Russian male” he is the go to guy. He was the main villain in The Saint with Val Kilmer. But he also in Eurotrip and in the latest M&M ad with the yellow M&M (who is voiced by JK Simmons). He was also in Eyes Wide Shut, Space Cowboys, Mission Impossible II, Stigmata, he’s the man Wayne gives his jacket to in Batman Begins and he was on 24 (Day 6).
The Russian General gets a fun scene, where he believes he is making out with Emma but really, she’s bored and trying to read a book when Magneto and Xavier barge in. It takes the General a while to figure out why Emma disappeared and is sitting on the couch. On top of that, why two men are staring at him.
The General gets knocked out. Magneto tries to get Emma to talk. She turns to diamond form. So he turns the bed frame into a strangling device and the Emma’s neck starts to crack under the pressure. She turns back to her human form. If she turns back, Magneto will break her.
Emma is now their prisoner.
Cut to Shaw, as he is planning on convincing Russia to move nuclear missiles to Cuba.
At Platt’s base. The young mutants are sitting around when they start hearing this thud noise. They look outside and it is raining men. Except these CIA agents are being killed when they hit the ground.
We see Azazel is doing the ol’ teleport to the sky, drop a fool routine.
Oliver Platt, unfortunately, is one of these guys. He’s killed as if he wasn’t an important character in the film, which is ice cold.
Shaw enters a room with a nice staircase. The agents open fire. He absorbs all the energy. Then with one stomp, the staircase and the second floor all crumble before him. All of those guys are dead. He only wanted to know where the mutants were.
The agents try to not reveal the location and they die. So those faceless guys get redemption.
All of this death and it is done by three mutants. That’s power. That and Riptide hasn’t had to do anything yet.
Azazel not only has teleporting but also uses swords – he is a swash buckler. Just like his son will be one day. Not sure if Chuck Austen shown him liking to use swords but Jason Aaron has in his opening arc of Amazing X-Men, its only taken the comics three years to incorporate it if that’s the case.
Before Shaw enters the young mutants room, we see some agents say “the mutants are in there, let us normal people go” to which Shaw kills them, and rightfully so. We have no room for prejudice people in this new world we live in.
Shaw meets the cast of the X-Men. He offers them a place in his club. They can be kings and queens.
Angel accepts with little hesitation.
Darwin pushes Havok, not sure if Havok actually knows at this point what Darwin is up too.
Darwin tells Shaw that his power is to adapt to survive and being with Shaw means to survive.
He tells Havok, now!, and Havok does his best to blast the Hellfire Club. He has no control so they go wild.
Shaw gets hit and uses that energy to kill Darwin. His body puts up a decent fight but he still explodes. Or does he adapt and becomes a being of air? I’m sure we are meant to believe he is dead as he doesn’t show up again.
These Pre-X-Men just got dealt their first lost.
Moscow, Russia. Russia has agreed to move missiles to Cuba. This is starting to look familiar.
Xavier greets the young mutants and hugs Mystique. Those poor kids have been through something.
The kids are ready to quit. Magneto tells them all that they will have to avenge these deaths. They are now, The Avengers! If only!
Xavier realizes that they all need to train, luckily he has a place for that.
We see the fancy prison cell Emma is in. There are two CIA agents talking about what to do and what will be done. The agents talk about how they can’t just keep her there, there are laws. To which the other comments on how those laws are for humans. That didn’t take long!
Emma uses her diamond finger to cut a circle in the glass and pushes it out. She tells them that she has an idea.
We are shown that it will take Russian ships a week to get to Cuba. So that’s how long these next couple scene’s time frame.
Ray Wise, is the Secretary of State. I know Ray as being the Devil from Reaper, a show that I somehow missed the second season of. I read that it ended on a cliffhanger, so that’s disappointing. He’s also the second (and final) actor to play Robin’s father on How I Met Your Mother. The original actor was Eric Braeden, he only portrayed the character once.
Ray Wise has been in a slew of films and television shows. Robocop, the wonder that is Twin Peaks, He was on West Wing once and 24 Day Five. He also gets type cast in essentially the same type of role.
Xavier Mansion. Everyone is impressed with Xavier’s home. Magneto wonders how Xavier could possibly get by, living in such suffrage. I love Magneto in this movie so much!
Also, great is the angle we see the Mansion at, can really see how gigantic it is.
We get the first of two speeches by Kennedy. I really like the use of Kennedy to put this film into real terms. I’ve been joking up to this point. We are clearly heading into the Cuba Missile Crisis.
Xavier Mansion. The first scene is Xavier holding a gun to Magneto’s face. Magneto wants him to shot him, as he needs to train. If Magneto knows he can stop the bullet, then he isn’t really pushing himself.
Havok gets the first of three scenes, which I like the progress shown of him trying to control his power. Xavier’s father built this bunker to withstand a nuclear blast, it should hold Havok. Havok tests out his power, Xavier reenters the room and sees the entire place is on fire. Even behind Havok!
Banshee is told by Hank that he should be able to control his power enough to fly. He gets a third floor window and pushes himself out of the window and falls on his face. Poor kid.
Xavier and McCoy get into a conversation about Jekyll and Hyde. The story is all about controlling impulses. Hank needs to let the beast free! Once he is able to do so, he is able to lap Xavier around the mansion.
Havok shows up, tells Hank that he needs a red nose to go with those feet. Going as far as to call Hank a bozo. Xavier thanks Havok for making such a comment.
Mystique is lifting weight and Lawrence looks great in this film. Which I know I’m the millionth person to comment on how Jennifer Lawrence is stunning to look at but there it is. Though I’ve only ever found her truly attractive in this role and Silver Linings Playbook. Though American Hustle looks like another film that plays up on her beauty.
Magneto tells Mystique that if she is using some of her focus to maintain her Raven persona, then she isn’t fully focusing on the issue at hand. He’s been holding up her weight bar during this and drops it on her, forcing her to shift to her blue form. I didn’t pay attention to how much she is lifting but I wonder how much. The weights look rather big.
Hank creates the famous Havok circle thing, proving he is the bigger person. Havok is now only slightly better with his power.
Hank is shown also working on Raven’s blood. Raven sits on his lap to look into the microscope. oh Hank, just kiss the girl!
Magneto, Hank, Xavier and Banshee are on the giant satellite dish. Magneto pushes Banshee off of it and luckily, Banshee is able to activate his powers so that he can fly. I’m not sure what the rescue plan would have been if Banshee didn’t get his powers to work correctly. None present would have been able to save him.
Havok finally gets to focus his powers with the device after Hank and Xavier stand on opposite sides of the test dummy.
Xavier shows Magneto a happy thought and now Magneto can obtain true focus. Which apparently is right right between serenity and anger. The memory causes both of them to cry, they are officially bromancing.
Kennedy’s speech, if Russia crosses the embargo line, there will be war.
Hank has created two serums that should cure his and Mystique’s physical mutations. Right when she was coming to terms with her mutation. Even here, he could have grabbed her but he’s too focus on getting his feet fixed. Raven is even in a robe, still he is not distracted.
How often does Hank even go without shoes? Seems like a man in his profession, he is always wearing shoes. Though he does have to live with the time when he is shoeless, but clearly this is a big issue for him that he can’t overcome.
Raven tells Hank that society should strive to be more like them after he tells her that even after they are successful after the mission, society won’t accept them due to their physical mutations. Raven rejects him.
We are given the second scene with Xavier and Magneto chatting. They are playing chess, which is a callback to the original trilogy. They are defining their outlooks with Xavier being an optimist and Magneto is a realist. Xavier believes all humans are like Moira whereas Magneto believes they are all like Shaw. Which is a great point, late in the movie, these two still believe Shaw to be a human. I guess the young mutants never told these two about Darwin and Shaw’s power.
Magneto gets this awesome, peace was never an option, line.
Hank takes the cure. It works for a moment and then he starts turning blue, which reminds me of a werewolf movie transformation scene.
Magneto goes to his room. Raven is in bed, waiting for him. She is has to be nude, under those sheets. He isn’t in the mood for such games. Raven thinks it is because of how young she is, so she shifts to Rebecca Romijn, which is a fun cameo. Erik isn’t happy with that either. He wants the real Raven. So she becomes Jennifer Lawrence again and he repeats, the real Raven. She shifts to her blue form.
Raven attempts to grab her robe, Erik tells her she doesn’t need to hide anymore. Which is odd, she’s nude but with scales. She can still wear clothes. I think she misunderstands him at this moment and he never corrects her (after all of these years) he only meant in his bedroom, outside of it, she should wear clothes but be blue.
At the hour and a half mark, Erik and Raven are kissing!
Scene fades to black and once it comes back, we are treated to Jennifer Lawrence in full nude blue Mystique form – from toe to head. She is looking good.
She greets Xavier and he does the right thing, of seeing her nude and wanting her to wear clothes. Raven leaves, disgusted with him. Xavier took some hits this night.
On Hank’s door, is a note telling the others that he is at the airbase and to bring the crate with the giant X on it.
Xavier opens the crate, from the crate’s angle, so the team sees what is inside but we don’t yet. It is the suits and since none of them can withstand zero-g, they better suit up!
I like how the color scheme is gold and blue, just like the original X-Men uniforms. They look nothing alike but still, the colors are represented.
We see full on Blue Beast!
Magneto gives him an honest, never looked better and Beast loses his mind and starts choking him. Xavier convinces him to let go. Havok speaks up that even he, the dick of the group, has to admit that Beast looks bad arse and gives him the Beast name.
Cuba.
2 navy fleets go to war.
Michael Ironside plays the American Navy Captain. I know him mostly by his voice, as he is a sensational voice actor. On the 90s DC cartoons (Superman and Justice League), he was Darkseid. In live action, he is in Top Gun, Total Recall (the original), Highlander II, Free Willy (where I probably saw him first), The Next Karate Kid, The Perfect Storm, he was Lois Lane’s father on Smallville. He was also on Community, playing his typical role – stern high ranking military man.
From the Russian side, their captain doesn’t want another world war as he already lived through one.
One of the Russian ships is about to cross the embargo line. We see that everyone on the ship has been killed by Azazel. Xavier is the way we find this out. Xavier takes control of one of the Russian soldiers and has that man set off a missile that destroys the ship.
The missile almost hits the Pre-BlackBird and the plane gets a little out of control. Xavier almost stops short with Mystique.
Shaw knows that he has to take a more direct route to ensure a world war.
Since they can’t see Shaw, they know he must be underwater. The plane does not have sonar. I do like how Banshee steps up so quickly, that yes they do. Moira sends out a message that the soldiers might want to take off their ear phones.
Banshee locates the sub. Shaw knows they are detected and moves back into his secret room. Shaw has Azazel turn the nuclear reactor to one hundred person. Shaw puts his hands on it, he is becoming a nuclear bomb himself.
Thus begins the sequence that becomes the conclusion to this film.
Magneto lifts the submarine out of the water, it is awesome. There is no denying that mutants (and superpowers) exist in this world.
The sub has the name, Carportina, but not sure if that means anything.
Riptide throws out a whirlwind and Magneto loses control of the sub, crashing it onto the beach. Their plane also crashes on the beach, practically right next to it.
A fight breaks out, three X-Men versus three Hellfire members. Azazel versus both Beast and Havok.
Moira tries to radio both countries to turn their ships around.
Magneto gets into the submarine. He turns off the nuclear reactor, which lets Shaw know that he is about to have to confront somebody.
Banshee saves Havok from Angel. Havok loses his circular device in the fight.
Shaw reveals himself to Magneto, they enter Shaw’s secret room so Xavier can’t monitor Magneto anymore.
I really like this scene of the two characters who haven’t been on screen together for like an hour.
Angel spits onto Banshee’s wingflap so he has to crash onto the beach along with Havok.
Magneto tries to stop Shaw by throwing metal pieces of the sub around Shaw. This creates rips inside the room that gives Xavier a slight opening to see what is happening.
Shaw realizes that he made Magneto into the man that he is. As a viewer, we can tell that Shaw’s philosophies are what shape Magneto’s outlook.
Havok has a better control over his power, even without the device’s assistance.
Shaw implies that Magneto hasn’t even hit his prime yet.
Azazel versus Beast. Good use of teleporation. Shaw comes out and tells Azazel to stop, Beast knocks him out. Good use of Mystique here.
Shaw makes the mistake of calling Magneto, son. Magneto does a call back to the earlier bar scene by calling Shaw his creator.
Magneto takes off Shaw’s helmet and Xavier freezes Shaw in his tracks. Magneto puts on the helmet, it is awesome!
Magneto agrees with Shaw but he hates Shaw for what he has done, he killed his mother, which is unforgivable. He pulls out the coin from the very beginning of the film.
Great directing choice with intercutting Shaw’s silent face with Xavier’s face as he is screaming, on top of the camera pan and cutting between the two characters, as their faces move from right to left as the coin goes into ‘their’ heads.
America and Russia have a shared enemy now, the mutants.
Magneto brings out Shaw’s dead body, resembling a scarecrow. Makes a great speech.
The two teams are split.
Missiles are fired, Magneto turns them around back at the ships.
Moira realizes that she is collateral damage.
It looks like Magneto is controlling a hundred missiles.
Xavier makes the mistake of telling Magneto that the soldiers are only, following orders. A line no one should ever repeat after the Nuremberg Trials.
Xavier tackles Magneto and they fight like brothers, with slaps. Due to this, Magneto lets some missiles drop.
Both captains make peace with their pending deaths, and thank their fellow soldiers for their service. Which is a very nice touch.
Moira comes at Magneto, guns ablazing! Magneto tosses the bullets aside. Except one of them hits Xavier, right in the spine! Where is this going!?!
Magneto starts choking Moira with her own dog tags! Xavier tells Magneto that it isn’t her who did this but Erik. This wakes Magneto up.
Magneto gives another speech. The assembled (!) mutants have two paths to go. Magneto takes the Hellfire Club members
At the two hour mark, Mystique runs over to Xavier. He tells her to go with Magneto. Which she does. Magneto has the beginnings of a group or a brotherhood, if you will.
I wonder where Azazel teleports them to, as there is no dialogue about it. Maybe just a few miles away and then Erik gives him proper directions.
Before they teleport, Mystique tells Beast to be “Mutant and Proud” which I’m surprised wasn’t the tag line to the film.
Xavier tells the rest of the mutants, and Moira, that he can’t feel his legs.
Kennedy gives his third speech of the film. It has been four weeks since the Cuba Missile Crisis.
At the Xavier Estate. Xavier is in a wheelchair. He tells Moira that they are G-Men but without the G. Moira tells him that they are now, X-Men!
Xavier is going to open an academy. Xavier is sure he will be going bald next.
To thank Moira for her service, he Superman kisses all of her memories of the past weeks away. What a great guy, not!
Cut to the CIA Director, as Moira reveals she only has flashes of what happened. She does remember a kiss, which the director rolls his eyes so hard and states that this is why women can’t be field agents.
Magneto frees Emma. She calls him, Erik. The camera turns to reveal Magneto in an image I can look at all day. He rather be called Magneto!
Love the shade of purple with red, purplish red, I don’t know.
The loss of Xavier has left a gap in his life and he needs Emma to fill it. Yeah, he do!
Two hours and four minutes, the credits begin! Jennifer Lawrence comes in at number five of the single card credits. That would probably be different now if they released the film, she would definitely be above Rose Byrne.
Thus our time with the film comes to an end!
I’ll review Wolverine Origins whenever the next Wolverine film comes out, which is slated for 2017. Unless I do it before then but I can’t imagine it coming up before then.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 