Leialoha

All posts tagged Leialoha

New Mutants Volume One Issue 34

Posted by John Klein III on January 31, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

New Mutants V1 34

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist Steve Leialoha

Colorist Glynis Oliver

Letterers Buhalis & Orzechowski

Cover Dated December 1985

So last issue, it looked like Magik betrayed the team to Shadow King, who is currently using Karma’s body, as a host.  Warlock isn’t happy about that.

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 1

Warlock is out to hurt Magik!  Which is silly, as Magik can defeat every member of the team, but I guess trying deserves a few points.

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 2

Magik believes that Warlock has been given some bad advice from that always-scheming S’ym.  Since this fight is happening in Limbo, the demons of the realm want to help their boss.  I could always be down for a miniseries or ongoing, of just the politics of Limbo, as I can only imagine that Magik has a slew of contacts and friends there.  Will, not anymore, since she absorbed the region, but during the classic years.

Warlock wants to attack but Dani told him never to absorb living matter, unless she told him too.  Since she is a hostage of Karma, all bets are off!

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 3

He turns two of the demons into techno-organic matter, so that he can absorb them, properly.  Magik knows that this is her fate, if Warlock has his way.  But she governs this realm, and can do anything she desires.  I like how she refers to it as “my magick is law” does she pronounce it with a very hard k?

Magik changes from her New Mutants uniform to a powder blue dress, to calm him down.  She looks so different, dressed like an innocent girl.  She tells him that she has a plan and he is important to it.  Warlock is still not trusting of her, so if he wants to kill her, she won’t stop him.  This conflict blows up his head, as they are friends.

My copy is in VF condition, which I normally don’t really notice it but this copy of the issue, has some thick inks over some words.

Warlock starts melting, so disappointed in himself.  She gives him a very encouraging pep talk and he is back together.  I do like how he keeps calling her, OnceFriend.  Like Doug is, TrueFriend, and I want to say he calls Wolfsbane, FirstFriend.

Magik opens a scrying pool, to spy on Karma.  So they must not know that she is being controlled by the Shadow King, yet.  The rest of the New Mutants and Storm, are Karma’s prisoners and puppets.

Karma has instructed Storm to humiliate her body and have her soul savaged.  Since this goes against Storm’s true nature, she starts fighting the command.  Karma brags that only Xavier can resister her commands.

Illyana feels horrible, as she herself has been made into a slave of a foul and cruel master.

I do like Karma insulting her clientele, loud enough for everyone to hear.  They may think her disgusting but her club, Pharaoh, is the hottest place to be.

Karma starts toying with Storm, stating that Storm knows Karma’s true identity, that of Xavier’s oldest, bitterest and deadliest foe.  I suppose that is up for debate, who is the biggest opponent of Xavier’s, Magneto or Shadow King?  I think as exclusively Xavier villains, the Shadow King gets the point but I feel like Storm shares him with Xavier.  Magneto is more of a team villain but so is Shadow King.

Karma King’s big goal, for the night, is to do some psychic operations, to ensure that her puppets are her’s for all time.

Cairo, twenty years ago.  So Storm must be 26 or 28, I can buy that.  We see (as does Magik and Warlock) Ororo stealing Xavier’s wallet.  Xavier stops Ororo but then Xavier is stopped by an unknown force (Shadow King).  I adore how happy Magik is, with herself, for getting a time jump correct.

Magik witnesses the great mental battle of Xavier v Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King.  I love that Leialoha doesn’t cut to the astral plane.  We see Xavier sit down, Farouk fall face first onto a table and Xavier get up.  That is how you do it!

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 4

Magik uses some sweet deduction skills, and figure out that Farouk may have physically died but may have lived on, psychically.  I do like how of the New Mutants, Magik and Warlock have the least experience with Karma, so they are having to figure out why this former team member has turn bad.

Warlock brings up the excellent point, that they should probably call the X-Men, but FriendIllyana tells him that they don’t have any time, after tonight, the stakes will be at an all time low, as Karma would permanently have control of their friends and Storm.

Is the kiss to Warlock, Magik’s first kiss?  It is on the check but still,, it should count.

Pharoh.  Shade-ma (Shadow King / Karma) tells Ororo how Shadow King survived.  Once his body was dead, he escaped onto the Astral Plane.  It took a while for him to focus, and once he did, he found Karma in a weaken form.  Shadow King’s scheme is to find another body, and leave Karma to be arrested for his crimes.  Plus, super overweight.  Shadow King plans on having Storm kill Xavier, which would be a bonus.

There is a two page ad for the NBC Saturday Morning lineup –

1985-1986
Snorks
Adventures of Gummi Bears
Smurfs
Punky Brewster
Alvin & the Chipmunks
Kidd Video
Mr. T
Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends
Plus : One to Grow On

During Shadow Karma’s big speech, Illyana interrupts, like a boss!  One can’t merely lock a door, against a teleporter.  Magik wants to be Shadow Karma’s partner.  S/he wants to seal the deal with a kiss.

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 5

Shadow Karma starts crushing Illyana’s hands. As this is happening, Illyana is teleporting the team away.  As her hands are about to be crushed, her entire body melts away.  It was never Magik, it was Warlock!  Which is pretty awesome of Claremont, as I wouldn’t have anticipated that.  Thanks to their unique abilities, Shadow Karma wouldn’t have been able to read either of Magik and Warlock’s minds, so this twist is a real surprised.

Since Magik brought the team to Limbo, she can undo any damage anyone did, as in Limbo – she rules supreme.  The team returns, super enraged and ready for a battle!  Dani makes FarouKarma (Warock’s name and it really does work!) see their worst nightmare, which is invading helicopters in Vietnam.  So Karma is in confront.

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 6

Poor Karma, wakes up, possibly in the worst situation.  Cannonbal and Sunspot are quick to think that Farouk has jumped into another body.  Wolfsbane is taken out, as she would be able to detect his presence.

Illyana shouts that Farouk must be in Storm’s body and jumps at her, with soulsword primed to strike!

The Checklist –

New Mutants 34
Squadron Supreme 4
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1, completely revised and up-dated!
Power Pack 17
Micronaunts 15
Alpha Flight 29
Longshot 4 – guest-starring Spider-Man and She-Hulk
Vision and Scarlet Witch 3
ROM Annual 4- Guest-starring Gladiator and the Imperial Guard, from the X-Men!
Marvel Heroes for Hope – A special event featuring the X-Men
ROM 73
Nightcrawler 2
X-Men 200 – Magneto is tried before the World Court in Paris, in this anniversary double-sized issue
X-Men / Alpha Flight 1 – Mutants united to battle the menace of Loki!  Special cross-over with the New Mutants Special 1
Secret Wars II 6 – Featuring the greatest super hero of all — The Beyonder!  With Cloak & Dagger, Power Pack, the Micronauts Thor, Power Man and Iron Fist!
New Mutants Special 1 – Up against the combined might of Loki and the Enchantress by Claremont, Art Adams and Austin!  Special cross-over with X-Men / Alpha Flight 1.
Marvel Agge 33 – A first look at X-Factor!

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 7

Magik does a classic fake out and stabs Doug!  oh Dani, she says (very loudly) that Doug is their weakest member!  That’s pretty harsh!  Pretty good plan, on Farouk’s part.  That could have been a decent What If, right there!

Storm fights DougFarouk but Karma gets to give the finishing blow.  Cool visuals, Doug v Karma, until we cut to the Astral Plane.  We get to see Karma’s original skinny body.

New Mutants V1 34 Magik 8

Shadow King escapes.  Karma freaks out, as she rather die than have him take over her body again.  Karma starts straight weeping, as she is super overweight and ashame of everything that has gone on.  The team promises to stick with her, and will get her back to normal.  Which segues us to New Mutants Special Edition, where Karma will lose all of the weight due to Loki putting her in the middle of a desert, and letting her walk it off.  That Loki, he is a good guy.

There is a house ad for Nightcrawler’s original miniseries, that is awesome, written and drawn by legend – Dave Cockrum.  The minsieries also guest stars Lockheed!

Inside back cover is for Secret Wars II 6 with its tie in issues – Thor 363, Micronauts 16, Power Man and Iron Fist 121, Power Pack 16 and Cloak and Dagger 5.

. . .

So again, long time readers know this – but today is my birthday.  I am now 34 years old today – hence the issue 34 reviews.  I’m a clever one.

Please come back tomorrow for the beginning of . . . Lockpool Month!  Or, Deadheed Month!  We are going to do both Lockheed Month and Deadpool!  Sort of like last August, when I tried to do both Big Brother and a proper Fantastic Four Event Month.  I’m hoping it all works out though.

Fantastic Four 296

Posted by John Klein III on August 14, 2015
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Fantastic Four 296

Plotter Jim Shooter

Script Stan Lee

Art Teams Pencils / Inks

1 -5 Barry Windsor-Smith
6 – 10 Barry Windsor-Smith & Kerry Gammill / Barry Windsor-Smith & Vince Colletta
11 – 20 Ron Frenz / Bob Wiacek
21 – 30 Al Milgrom / Klaus Janson
31 – 40 John Buscema / Steve Leialoha
41 – 49 Marc Silvestri / Joe Rubenstein
50 Jerry Ordway / Joe Sinnott
51 – 57 Jerry Ordway / Bob Wiacek
58 – 64 Jerry Ordway / Joe Sinnott

Letterer John Workman

Colorist Glynis Oliver

Cover Dated November 1986

Cover Artist Barry Windsor-Smith

Marvel’s 25th Anniversary Frame Cover!  Which also means it is the Fantastic Four’s 25th Anniversary, hence all of the artists for this issue.

Thing is pretty down this issue.  He goes to where the team crashed landed in their first appearance, in Stockton.  Surprisingly, there is no monument, plaque or even a museum there.  People can just walk right to the spot and see the skid mark in the grass that the spaceship landed.

I like how the feature villain is Mole Man, who is, of course, their first villain that they encountered.  So it is his 25th birthday as well.  Which is pretty cool, poor guy gets sidelined so often and isn’t that well remembered.  From what I can gathered.  After a few Google searches, I can’t even find that many websites that even bother to try to list their greatest villains.  He seems to be in the Top Five, so that’s nice.  Of course, Doctor Doom is first and he doesn’t even appear in this issue, so that’s the last we will reference him.

She-Hulk and Scott Lang are paling around with the Fantastic Four.

Thing is tired of being a monster and gets an old guy to take him to Monster Island, where he will become the best friend of Mole Man.

Thing gets dressed in a purple onesie and wears the Mole Man’s blue glasses.  Thing gives the team a tour of the island.  Reed doesn’t like the idea of Mole Man’s new machine, it can ruin the world.

Johnny’s face gets pretty messed up, so he can know what it feels like to be a monster.  He doesn’t like it.

I like the subplot of Mole Man’s Danger Room that he uses to just have a fancy party with pretty people, even though they are all holograms.

Thing rejoins the team, Johnny face hits some water, and his face is fixed.  Issue ends with the classic Fantastic Four all hands in, which is nice.

New Mutants Volume One Issue 33

Posted by John Klein III on January 13, 2015
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

New Mutants V1 33

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist Steve Leialoha

Letterer Lois Buhalis and Tom Orzechowski

Colorist Glynis Oliver

Cover Dated November 1985

Issue opens in a nightclub called, Pharaoh, in Cairo. The club belongs to Karma.  Karma spies the Sullivans, Phil and Dale.  I haven’t known Dale to be a lady’s name.  Karma sics Cannonball onto the couple.

All of the New Mutants, minus Magik, Dani and Warlock, are under Karma’s control.  Karma takes control of Dale.  She turns on her husband.  He walks away.  Karma lets go of Dale and Sam turns her down.  That marriage is over.  Interesting, with the captions, that we learn how Karma’s powers work.  Those she takes over, are aware of their actions, they just don’t realize they were mind controlled.  That’s pretty interesting.

Karma senses Storm in the audience.  Storm implies she knows who really is controlling Karma, and Karma treats Storm like an old opponent.  It isn’t said in the issue, but Karma, herself, has Shadow King inhabiting her body.  Hence, her extra body weight.

Magik and Dani show up to get Storm out of there.  Dani, via her psi-link with her, frees Wolfsbane.

Dani shows Karma her biggest fear, which is Xavier.  Another cool hint at who the true villain is.

Warlock acts as a magic carpet and flies Dani and Wolfsbane out of the club.  They regroup at Storm’s old apartment.  I like the idea of how Storm grew up a thief, her mutant powers kicked in and she made her way to Africa.

Warlock cheers up Wolfsbane.  Wolfsbane spends her next minutes trying to clean herself.  Dani admires the dress Wolfsbane was wearing.  Storm notices and Dani leaves the room, ashamed.

Storm goes outside.  Dani feels like Karma’s influence is still in her head.  The controlled New Mutants attack.  Cannonball attacks Magik, Warlock saves her.  I like Warlock interacting with members of the team, who are not Doug.

Sunspot tries to attack Dani and Magik but they trip him up.  I really like this arc, as those two gals are great together.  Magma attacks them next.  Magik teleports them away, except she drops Dani off right in front of Karma.  Then ditches her there.  Karma believes this is a peace offering act.

Magik and S’ym teleport Warlock to Limbo.  Once she is gone, that dirty S’ym starts trying to corrupt Warlock.  He is off to a great start by showing Warlock a dead Colossus (the only good kind), that is hung on the wall.

Back in RL, Dani got her own pretty dress!  Karma speaking via Dani, tells Magik that the two of them are kindred souls and leaves her alone.

We get two awesome pages of Storm fighting off the New Mutants.  Is there any better version of Storm than Powerless Storm?  I don’t think so.  The fight only ends because Magik teleports the two of them straight to Karma.  Ditching her there as well.

Issue ends with Magik feeling bad in Limbo, she has a plan but it has to work.  What isn’t great is Warlock shouting, Traitor!, at her.

X-Men Classic 93

Posted by John Klein III on March 12, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

59306_20060825012055_large

Writer Chris Claremont

Penciler John Romita Jr.

Inker Steve Leialoha

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Colorist Glynis Wein

Reprint of Uncanny X-Men 189

Cover Dated March 1994

I prefer this cover by Tom Raney over the original.  Mostly, it is due to Magma’s effect looking better, but are horrible though.  Also, Rachel is wearing, for her, a sensible outfit on the newer cover.

Issue opens with Rachel Summers and Magma having a day in New York City.  The narration informs us that one is from the future and the other from a land forgotten by time.

Amara is drawn prettier than Rachel.

Poor Rachel lives through another flashback.  I have forgotten how much Rachel harps on her origin in these early days.  Rachel was the best Hound in her future.  She assisted in many mutant murders.

The two ladies are killing time in the city while they wait for the X-Men to see Storm off on her voyage to Africa, to relearn who she is.  Not sure why they are not on the ship.

Kitty and Wolverine are still in Japan due to their Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries, which I adore how real time that miniseries is taking to occur.

In attendance on the ship is Illyana, even back then, they were trying to put her in the big leagues – where she belongs.

X-Men Classic 93 Lockheed

Kurt opens a bottle of champagne.  We get the very first indication that Lockheed enjoys himself some adult beverages.  He drinks right out of Kurt’s glass.  Lockheed spends the rest of the party around Storm’s shoulders – the first time he has spent time with an older woman.

Rachel and Amara are shopping.  They come across a Roman Museum piece and this gives Amara a chance to talk about Nova Roma and how she misses her father.  Amara is homesick and this causes Rachel to realize she can never go home again.  Though would she want too?  I suppose it is different when you can’t go back at all.

Rachel senses a familiar thought pattern and starts chasing after it.  She reveals she sensed Selene, who killed Amara’s mother, so both ladies are now invested in seeking her out.  Amara is upset with Rachel for taking that information out of her mind.

The trail leads to the Hellfire Club.  They change into maid outfits.  Rachel is hesitant as she never wants to be a slave again.  The maid’s outfit requires a choker and that’s what triggers the thought.  Rachel also notices that the club has enough psychic barriers to even prevent Xavier from knowing what is going on.

They are surprised when a butler shows up, once they are in their new uniforms, and he needs one of them to come with him.  Rachel realizes she isn’t going to be able to rely on her telepathic powers at all as she didn’t sense him until he was in the room.

Meanwhile, Selene is auditioning for the role of the Black Queen, as they haven’t found a new person since Jean, over forty issues ago.  Or they have and the new ladies have failed at lasting a while, but I imagine they would have told us of those ones.  Sebastian Shaw and Tessa (who will take the name Sage much later) are watching.  Shaw likes that she looks the part but the position has to be earned.

Selene is has vampire powers but also has power over inanimate objects.  Or maybe it is that she has to use a power similar to a vampire to maintain her actual power?  She absorbs life forces, taking them from living to skeleton.  She creates this rock formation that captures Shaw.  Since his power is based on kinetic energy, meaning, don’t punch him as that makes him stronger – the way Selene’s power works, it is passive.  So she can kill him pretty easily and he knows that now.  What he doesn’t know, is if Selene knows that or not.

She then recreates Shaw’s throne, as it was destroyed in the demonstration.  Shaw notices that she is sitting in his throne.  She states that he is her host, for the moment and it is her custom to give him a gift.  She disappears to retrieve it.  Shaw asks Tessa if Selene can teleport and Tessa states that it was more of a hypnotic affect.

Rachel was the maid the butler chose.  We don’t see what she had to do for them but what we do see if Rachel start cracking up once she believes she can’t be seen by anyone.  She realizes she hasn’t laughed in forever and is glad she hasn’t forgotten how.

That nice moment doesn’t last long as Selene is near by and Rachel attacks her. She knocks her out, easily and when she goes to finish the job, turns out it was only Magma, wearing Selene’s cloak.  Rachel is then taken captive.

Selene presents the two mutants to Shaw as presents.  Tessa notices that Rachel looks like Jean.

In Rachel’s mind, we see that she is a prisoner of her own.  She can’t do anything without tripping Selene off to her plan.  She takes her consciousness and jumps over to Amara’s body.  In Amara’s mind, we see her in the security of the Roman Empire.  Amara fights Rachel as she is an invader, by causing an earthquake.  By reestablishing her connection to the planet, Amara wakes up in control again.  Turns out, that earthquake wasn’t only in her mind but in RL as well.

Shaw orders Selene to fix her mess as Tessa is worried the building is going to be ruined.  Rachel sends out a distress call to Xavier, as innocents may be hurt as Magma cuts lose.  She has only been a New Mutant for a limited time, so she doesn’t have the precise control over her powers for what she is attempting to do.

Since Selene has control over inanimate objects and Magma’s actions are tearing the ground up, Selene is actually stronger as the debris can be used as weapons.  Before she can take advantage of the situation, Nightcrawler shows up and teleports Selene away.

Colossus and Rogue knock down a wall and Xavier is present as his astral form.  Xavier tells Shaw that if he wants a fight, the X-Men are here to deliver one.

When Kurt teleported Selene away, he knocked her out with a nerve pinch.  Magma wants to finish Selene, and Xavier has to tell her that his students are forbidden to kill.  She has to accept that and she reluctantly does.

Shaw tells Xavier that it wasn’t his plan to take the ladies captive.  If they all want to leave, Shaw won’t stand in their way.

Rachel doesn’t want Amara and her be seen in french maid uniforms.  Rogue makes a joke about how they are in New York City, so who would notice.  Rachel doesn’t want to be seen at all and uses her telekinesis powers to change their clothes to more proper attire.  Rachel then passes out.  Almost as if it wasn’t necessary then.  She should have just formed jackets around them.  Wouldn’t have left her open to future attacks.  Luckily, this is the end of the issue so she is safe.

In a fun moment, Magma asks how Xavier found them.  Was it due to Rachel’s distress call?  When they exist the mansion, she gets her answer.  She has pretty much destroyed the city block.  Magma feels bad as the damage didn’t result in anything.  Selene is still alive, her mother is unavenged.  Rachel states that it will be a while before Selene does anything again.

Issue ends with another tease to the upcoming Kulan Gath storyline.  It should start next issue.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7

Posted by John Klein III on February 15, 2014
Posted in: Paul Smith, Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

14865_20051204001929_large

Writer Chris Claremont

Pencils Michael Golden, pages 1-27, 33-39 and Bret Blevins, pages 28-32

Inks Michael Golden, pages 1 & 2; Tom Mandrake, pages 3-7, 20-23; Bob Wiaceck, pages 8-11; Terry Austin, pages 12-13, 16, 38-39; Brett Breeding, pages 14-15, 17-19; Bill Anderson, page 24; Joe Rubinstein, pages 25-27, 30-31; Steve Leialoha, page 28; Sam de la Rosa, page 29; Al Milgrom, page 32 and Bret Blevins, pages 33-37

Colors Glynis Wein

Letters Tom Orzechowski, pages 1-31, 33-39 and Michael Higgins, page 32

Cover Dated 1983, and continuity wise, at least after Uncanny X-Men 175 for sure.

This annual is titled, Scavenger Hunt, and it stars Impossible Man and the X-Men chasing him all over the place as he finds and locates items.  I miss these old school annuals, this also happen during Assistant Editor month, which I also miss, where they use that excuse to have goofy fun comics for an issue.  This is one of those few annuals where the entire 39 pages are dedicated to one storyline.  Typically, you will get 30 pages of story, then maybe a pinup or two and a second quicker story, sometimes a third.

The very first panel, I really like the way Golden draws Lockheed, seems very majestic.  Being the second artist to draw the character, he could have gone any direction but he stays on model.  Kitty seems older in some panels, but I like how Marvel gradually aged her over time.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Shadowcat a

Issue opens with a baseball game, classic Claremont, and we haven’t had a baseball came in years, not since Uncanny X-Men 444, unless I missed one and that was way back in 2004.  The current titles are almost perfect for another baseball game with the sides being so divided.

The match up is Kurt, Wolverine and Rogue versus Kitty, Colossus and Storm plus Xavier, Lilandra, Illyana and Lockheed.  The captions hint that the it may seem like a disadvantage but appearances can be wrong.  This is never brought up again why it was three versus seven.

Colossus is up to bat.  Lilandra tells Xavier that she is going to miss this, he tells her that there is a simple solution, which she is quick to state, that he and his X-Men can come with her to the Shi’ar Empire, which silences him.  I know the X-Men were only fighting the Brood five issues ago, but I wonder why they didn’t decide to go with Lilandra, help her get her empire back and then come back to Earth?  It would not have taken that long, as I believe it doesn’t take that long in the proper history.  I see that they probably didn’t want to end up in a civil war or a political mess, but still, Xavier’s girlfriend needs help and no one even offers to assist.

Wolverine pitches to Colossus and without armoring up, hits the baseball out of orbit.  Which is silly, he isn’t that strong without his armor, he relies on that state for everything, even knocking a tree over.   They see a ball coming back down but Kitty states it can’t be the ball, the trajectory is wrong.  Turns out it is a ship!

It isn’t any ol’ ship, it is Galactus’ ship.  But he exists the ship and he is purple and green, instead of blue and purple.  By this time, I had been exposed to the Impossible Man before I had read this.  The X-Men have no or little to no experience with Galactus, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t pick up on the purple and green combination.

‘Galactus’ tells them that he has come in peace, he only wants their home.  Xavier attempts a mental scan, and this panel is pretty narly, with his face being bent.  He passes out.  Storm puts up a fight, shoots lightning and he is impressed with her attempt and tells them to back away from the mansion.  He then straight up steals the mansion, leaving a grater with a pool of water in its place.

Chapter 2

The team is on its way to New York City, via the Blackbird.  Rogue doesn’t want to be on the mission once Lilandra has briefed them on who Galactus is.  Wolverine asks if she is scared, which is pretty insensitive of him, but she tells him that she is.  Xavier defends Rogue, as they have good reason, they have never fought an opponent such as Galactus.  Except they have, Dark Phoenix but I guess one forgets these types of things.

The trace Galactus to the SHIELD heli-carrier, which confuses them as how can someone so gigantic but in that size of a ship.

Storm tells Kurt and Kitty to head over there and figure out what is happening.  These two need a duo name as well.  Once they teleport over, Kitty tells them they are not alone. In a very cute panel, Lockheed has attached himself to Kurt’s tail and has tagged along for the ride.  Kurt tries to shake him loose.  Very funny and cute.  I have no idea how people can not like Lockheed.  He’s adorable!

We see Nick Fury and La Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine in a classic Agent of SHIELD style page.  But now we are in the 80s so the last panel doesn’t have to be a gun, we can see them kissing.

We see a shadow of a hand about to interfere, when Kitty phases through the wall.  The hand turns into a green snake.  Lockheed blasts a hole in the wall and Impossible Man turns into a wooden Indian and flies out the hole.

Fury is not happy with the interruption.  Kitty gets Kurt to teleport the three of them away.  Fury’s eye patch has been taken, he thinks this must be a panty raid.

Chapter 3

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Lockheed Savage Land

We are in the Savage Land.  Kitty is super excited, as she has never been before.  We know Colossus has been there as he has a son there, that he still doesn’t know about.

Ka-Zar and Shanna show up, and they informed the X-Men that Zabu has gone missing.  Rogue figures out that they are witnessing a Scavenger Hunt.  I’ve never been in one, but they look like fun.

Chapter Four

Avengers Mansion, we see Jarvis and She-Hulk watching a monitor.  They see the Fantasi-car filled with the costumes of the Wasp.  They also see that Rogue and Colossus are by the gate.  She-Hulk sees them as villains even though Jarvis tells her that Colossus is an X-Man.  It doesn’t matter, Jennifer is already outside.

Rogue starts to fly after the Impossible Man, but She-Hulk throws her into the ground.  Colossus knocks her out, but Iron Man takes him out.

Meanwhile, Dr. Strange’s fancy roof window is stolen, releasing a slew of demons.

Rogue absorbs She-Hulk’s powers, turning green and Hulking out.  Colossus throws Iron Man onto the ground.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Kitty Pryde beats Iron Man

Then comes the moment that I remember about this annual.  We get proof that Kitty can defeat Iron Man.  Grant it, it is Rhondy in the suit – but still.  Kitty disrupts his armor, leaving him defenseless.  She blows him a kiss and they take off.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Shadowcat b

At the Hellfire Club, Emma is still in the coma that Mastermind put her in.  Storm is happy she is in a coma.  Xavier offered to help, but he was turned away.  We see Lockheed is perched on Kitty’s head.  Emma has a green and purple boutique in her hands.

Sebastian Shaw enters the room, Rogue rushes over to him and punches him.  Shaw absorbs the rest of She-Hulk’s powers.  If Rogue knew Shaw and his power set, she would never have hit him – she’s still new at this.

The boutique turns into a balloon.  Impossible Man is there to steal Jean Grey’s Black Queen outfit.

Storm creates a tornado, which the team uses to follow the alien.

Chapter Five

At the Marvel Comic’s offices, we see a who’s who of the Marvel Bullpen.

We see Impossible Man riding Zabu.  The X-Men are chasing him.  Kitty is apologizing for the mess.

Impossible Man asks Larry Hama and Michael Golden where Stan Lee is.  Hama tells him that Stan is in Hollywood.

We see Michael Hobson and Jim Shooter.

Rogue takes off a glove and grabs Impossible Man.  He sees his life force being drained as an attack.  They all start chatting and he confirms that he is doing a scavenger hunt.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Kitty Pryde Paul Smith

We see Chris Claremont and Paul Smith in the office.  Claremont apologizes.  Smith states he is off the book.

Chapter Six

The Gobi Desert, where Impossible Man is keeping all of his found items.  He has also found Batman’s giant penny, Superman’s space ship and the Millennium Falcon.

Kitty wishes she can keep some of Wasp’s suits.  Rogue thinks she has no taste.

He explains why the hunt is happening, the winner becomes the leader of his people.  He chose Earth, others got other planets.  All of these aliens show up, wanting his head.  Lilandra offers to be the judge of the hunt.  Impossible Man doesn’t win.

Epilogue

He is still crying.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Lockheed on Towel

I like the bathing suit options the ladies are wearing.  It makes sense that Kitty is in a one piece while Illyana is in a bikini.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Lockheed

They are eating ice cream.  Impossible Man shifts into Magnum PI and they give him their ice cream.  Lockheed is confused.

Issue ends with Impossible Man as Garfield and Lockheed ashamed.

New Mutants Volume One Issue 32

Posted by John Klein III on January 9, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

4609_20060815135424_large

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist Steve Leialoha

Colorist Glynis Oliver

Letterer L. Lois Buhalis

Cover Dated October 1985

Back around issue ten or so, the team lost Karma and presumed she was dead.  The team never got over it, especially Sunspot.  He had to make a choice between Karma or Cannonball, and he chose Sam.

Now, they located Karma, she is large and in charge of Madripoor.

On the plane to Madripoor, Doug is explaining what they can expect to find there.  Warlock, Doug and Magik were not on that mission when Karma went missing, neither was Magma.  Only Dani and Wolfsbane and the boys were there that fateful day.

Dani is the leader of the team at this point.  Cannonball and her usually share leadership but she is typically the go to leader.

There is a picture of the original five New Mutants, Cannonball’s head us cropped out if the picture.  He is one lanky guy.

There us an ad for the film, The Heavenly Kid.  I never even heard of it before.  Jane Kaczmarek is in it, she is the mom from Malcolm in the Middle.  Jason Gedrick from Boomtown is the young kid in it.  One great show, and one not as good show.

Once in Madripoor, the team does some scouting and plan formation.  Doug is upset that he has to stay behind on the mission.  He is back up with Warlock.

Do they even make Nestle Quik any more?   They use to make va Banana flavor, I used to love that.

On the mission, I have forgotten how often they referenced that Dani is Wolfsbane’s soul mate, and that is why they can communicate with each other when Rahne is in her wolf form.

Illyana offers to just teleport the team to Karma’s estate. Dani states it is too risky.

Back at the beach, Doug and Warlock get captured.  Karma has been recording their moves since landing.  She knows their entire plan.

The team beeaks into the estate, and Wolfsbane runs up the stairs.

This breaks the team’s concentration, and Karma possesses their minds, rather quickly.  Dani is knocked out, so she avoids the initial attempt.  We see Karma, and she has to be 500 pounds.

Magik teleports Dani to Limbo.  Professor X can’t read Illyana’s mind, thus Karma can’t take it over.

The two ladies, and probably my favorite New Mutants members plus Doug, regroup.  They come back to the estate, with Magik’s second in command, Sym.  The police are already there, and the ladies see dead guards everywhere.  What is worst, is that their teammates killed the guards.  Karma had no need for them, now that she has super powered teenagers.

The police spot Magik, and open fire.  She teleports the new team back to Limbo.  Doug told the team that Karma has a second base in Cairo, Egypt.  Magik doesn’t want to teleport there as her powers are risky at long distances.  Even the last jump, they were a week later.  Which I love this about early Magik, she had only a decent control over her teleporting powers.  She was great with a sword and a fantastic ruler of Limbo, but no guarantees with the when aspect of her stepping discs.

There is an ad for Tootsie Rolls, a product that I don’t even see anywhere outside of Halloween.  I use to love the other flavor packs.  There was Vanilla that was in a blue and white wrapper.  I remember a green wrapper and a yellow wrapper, both of those were good too.

Magik teleports the two of them to Cairo.  Of course it is many generations ago Cairo.  The ladies are spotted, and they run to hide.  Magik is out of juice, so they can’t try a second teleport just yet.  They hear someone in English tell them to come over here, so they do.  They see an African lady with white hair and blue eyes, and assume it is Storm.  Xavier only teaches them about racism, so what do you expect?  She is an ancestor of Storm, her name is Ashake.  She is a sorcerer.  She felt Magik’s presence and wanted to help.

She gives them a place to rest.  During this time, Magik’s tie in issue of Mystic Arcana takes place.  I will have to review that issue one of these days.  I haven’t reread this issue, so I have been curious if there was a time gap for that adventure to take place.

Magik gets some rest, and teleports her and Dani to the present.  Well, she tries.  She misses the present by maybe three decades. We see old, crazy and super evil versions of Sunspot, Magma. Cannonball and Wolfsbane.  Through their rapport, Dani knows these are her former friends.  Dani says aloud, The New Mutants.  I didn’t think or recall them actually referring to themselves as that name.  Pretty sure they don’t in the third volume.  I always took it as the name we call them here in RL, and they call themselves something else past the first few issues.  At one point, they are not ‘new’ anymore.  It is a marketing name for the group at this point.

Magik teleports the two of them again.  She believes she got it right this time.  Before they can check, Dani has herself a good cry.  Poor Illyana, she doesn’t have it in her to console Dan, plus there was a part of her that wanted to stay in that future.

Dani pulls herself together, wondering if they can even change the future.  This has happened before, when the team saw themselves as members of Emna Frost’s Hellions.

While they bicker, Warlock shows up with Storm.  This is after she lost her powers due to Forge.  She is in Egypt due to taking some time off after Life Death.