Me: This is my friend, Michael.
Other Friend : Hey, Mike!
Michael : Fuck you!
Like, how much more clear could I have been!?! If I said his name was Michael, maybe take a cue from that. Get to know the guy and maybe he’ll say “call me Mike” or correct me and say he prefers “Mike.”
I supposed, knowing that he doesn’t, I could have quickly added “don’t call him, Mike’ but that isn’t a great introduction.
Michael keeps things honest.
Writer Chris Claremont
Penciler Salvador Larroca
Inks Art Thibert
Colors Liquid!
Letters RS / Comiccraft / DL
Cover Dated August 1998
I own this for the awesome chess set, but we will get to that later.
Issue opens with Reed Richards, Invisible Woman and Thing fighting off the Captain Britain Corps, minus one important one.
There is an ad for Small Soldiers, a decent little film. This is one of those movies, with a super young Kirsten Dunst, that when I see her nowadays, she reminds me of how old Tommy Lee Jones must be these days.
The Human Torch shows up, wanting a set-rep but there isn’t any time. Franklin is annoyed that this fight over him is even happening. He kick starts his family’s powers that they are working on a massive power surge. Johnny goes supernova in the sky and burns hotter than ever before.
Johnny grabs Gatecrasher and learns who the key factors are. Human Torch demands an audience with Opal Luna-Saturnyne, the Omniversal Mastrex. We see Roma is sitting at a chess board. The previous people who met with Saturnyne, was the cosmic identities – Eternity and Infinity. So Johnny knows how big of a deal this is.
Now, that is a Marvel Chess Set I would buy!
I wonder how the script was written. Did Claremont specify which characters to feature?
CC : Larroca, you may include anyone you want, just make sure you have the Fantastic Four and Kitty Pryde.
SL : Chris, may I call you Chris?
CC : No
SL : Chris, how do I make sure it is Kitty Pryde?
CC : You beautifully colored artist you, you put Lockheed on her shoulders and call it good.
Or something like that.
I like the idea of Saturnyne and Roma being used here. I’m sure they should be used in those Incursions in the New Avengers stories by Hickman.
I really enjoy seeing Human Torch stepping up and stepping up and confronting Saturnyne and Roma. He always seems to have one foot ready to go out of the door. Thing talks a big game but he’s never really going to leave.
Franklin has given all of his family members a power boost. Torch’s Nova Flame was as strong as a sun burst but now it is as hot as the sun itself. Reed can stretch from the Earth to the Moon. Sue can crush tanks now. Thing is small moon destroying strong.
Not to mention that Franklin created Counter-Earth and sustained it for a year. Good thing he is being raised by loving parents.
Saturnyne is tempted to destroy Earth, to keep Franklin’s powerset under control. Johnny makes a bargain that the Fantastic Four will watch Franklin and if they fail, all five of them will be prisoners of Saturnyne. The day is saved!
We learn from Gatecrasher that the real New York City was never in jeopardy of the Fantastic Four / Captain Britain Corps battle. It looked like the Corps appeared in front of them but really, the team showed up in front of the Corps, as they were in a pocket dimension. Pretty clever!
There are a few pages of the abandoned Jose Landronn Fantastic Four / Inhumans project. He is still my favorite Cable artist, as his and Joe Casey’s run on the title is still the only readable Cable solo title.
Letters this issue are from – Brian Elliott, of unknown whereabouts, Frank Sutherland of Stafford, VA, Scot W. Myers of Davidson, NC and Steve Wissinger of Cairo, IL.
Issue Nine promises to have a classic old school team-up of Spider-Man and the Human Torch. I remember it being pretty good.
I was talking to a friend about how Kitty Pryde was the greatest character of all time.
This third party overheard it and decided, foolishly, to throw Harry Potter’s name into the hat, as if we were reenacting the Goblet of Fire.
I bit my tongue for a second, as I wanted to be all like “bitch, please, he isn’t even the best character in his own books”
So after taking a beat, I politely pointed out how Harry Potter’s series of books should be, instead, titled – Hermione Granger Fixing Fools’ Problems – Books One through Seven.
This is what I have to put up with.
If I was Ellen Page, I would be pretty annoyed. As soon as she heard the next X-Men film was going to be titled, Days of Future Past, she probably made sure her voicemail wasn’t full, that she was near her phone at all times, her agent was told to be expecting a phone call at any moment.
I’m sure when she was cast as Kitty Pryde for X3, due to her being an amazing actress, she did a quick Internet search for “best Kitty Pryde stories” and near the top of the list was Days of Future Past, issues 141 and 142 of Uncanny X-Men. Also, since it was only two issues, she probably read those and noticed how important Kitty is to that story line. Hopefully she also read 143 which is a definitive issue that I’m sure here at S&FwM (ooof!), we’ll be revisiting.
I’m not sure, naturally, how the conversation went with Bryan Singer, but I know I was annoyed when they announced her casting for X:DoFP within the same sentence with Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore. Which I’m glad all three of them are in the movie but I would have liked Ellen Page to be given a more spotlight casting choice, sort of implies her importance to the film. Is she going to be a main focal or just be one of the gals in the back of the room?
I can only imagine the conversation went something like this:
“Ellen, I would like you to be part of this upcoming X-Men film of mine”
“Sure, I would love to, surprised its taken you this long to give me a call”
“Oh, why would you say that?”
“I imagine you’re going to have Kitty be the one who actually goes back in time, right”
“Oh, … uh, well, you know, we are going in a different route for this film”
“You mean there will be no time travel?”
“Yes, there will be time travel”
“If I’m not the one doing the time travel who is?”
“We’ve decided to give Jennifer Lawrence the time travel aspect to the movie”
“I guess that makes sense … so am I at least going to be the leader of the Brotherhood gang and attacking Washington DC?”
“Oh … … well … no, not really, we’ve also decided to give Jennifer Lawrence that role too, you know, because of how great she is”
“Right … she is pretty great and all, but you are titling this Days of Future Past”
“Yes! Which is why I’m calling you now to see if you would be interested in being part of this movie”
“Well, Bryan, I appreciate you calling me this far into the process and I would love to. I’m going to be paid like three million dollars for this right, due to the injustice of all of my character’s fans?
“Oh Ellen, you crack me up, see you in November!”
*click*
It had to be something like that right?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Jennifer Lawrence as much as the next guy and eventually will get around to watching Silver Lining Playbook but I’m going to Babe Ruth this right now and say that they’re going to be giving Lawrence an incredibly big role in this movie and I’m really hoping that Ellen Page isn’t going to be Wall Flower, as that’s a different character. (Oh, if only you can see me laughing a little right now.)
Really liking the casting thus far, glad Patrick Stewart is coming back, as I’m – I don’t want to tip my hand too much as I’m sure I’ll be reviewing X3 one of these days – completely okay if they just ignored X3 besides the amazing casting choice in Ellen Page. She was Kitty Pryde for like two months before the world knew her as Juno and got Oscar nominated and has had quite the career. Really dug her in Hard Candy and Super. Should buy Super one of these days. She was cool in Inception too, should rematch that one too!
What I’m getting at is that Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde was by far the best part of that movie and would like to see someone edit that movie down to just her scenes and that would be cool.
I love the story Hugh Jackman told about how he was about to eat some pasta as he was done shooting Wolverine’s Japan Adventure, and though he was done when he got the call to be in X:DoFP and had to stay in that astonishing shape.
Should be a good time and now that I’m thinking of Wolverine, that movie is coming up on July 24th, so I’m sure I’ll be talking about that movie and such in the next couple weeks.
Hopefully Singer is going to at least get that image of Wolverine and Kitty in front of a Wanted Poster a la the cover to Uncanny X-Men 141:
Even if it’s just a marketing image, that would still be awesome! Now with First Class, they do have all the roles cast so it’s a possibility!
| Number One Lockheed… on Star Lord and Kitty Pryde… | |
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| Moxiemk5 on SDCC : New Mutants @ Home |
Shadow and Flame with Magik 