Punch Up: “To Me My ❌-Men”

Chapter Ten:

September. 1983 Uncanny X-Men 176 by Romita Jr, Wiacek, G. Wein, Orzechowski, Rosen Claremont + Louise

Mixtape track: Swordfishtrombone by Tom Waits

Chapter 10 of to me my ❌-Men, where Logan and Scott are in the midst of plot twisted love stories, because this is a romance comic.

Previously on “to me my ❌-Men,” where our pop music romance comic features, Logan in an epic fight for all times, murders his betrothed’s father…and more death; are the kids alright?!; we have a, meanwhile in Canada, moment; we spend time in the snow to illustrate the utility of lettering.

And thusly Logan’s sometimes rival, Cyclops is iconic. That’s his superpower. He visually is compelling. By design.

Comics have a history with tentacles. We have discussed this related to ❌-Men ’97 and shokushu zeme, which predates its 1985 anime and manga international distribution. The timing of this cover in 1983 is probably not worth speculation, but it does make me go, “huh!?”

The juxtaposition of these two design elements in Romita Jr’s hands is the reason I am including it. I am lucky however that there are some narrative building blocks that are worth our time. It took me decades to come around to the understanding of how influential Romita Jr. is on my reading of the ❌-Men. The work he is doing during this period for Marvel is excellent. And while I will not be including it, his work in the 90’s on the ❌-Men is a unique bright spot.

Maddy AKA Mrs. Summers is being hopefully simply distracted and not assaulted on this close up splash page on the assumption this is a happy couple.

I really love this splash page in terms of execution. Wiacek and Glynis are steady hands which refine lines and support them with the right pallets. That seems to be what they do, just like Orz is able to design words in a way that helps brings the ensemble together.

There is some faulter on subsequent pages, but to be honest, I think experience will improve this as we read along.

I really am trying to avoid the Mastermind narratives. But as we transition form the happy newlyweds we find ourselves with an update that Mariko called off the wedding with Logan, because she was under mind control. BOOOOO! Mariko has responsibilities that in her culture create conflict with the marriage.

Maddy and Scott crash, a shark comes, they survive this.

Gyrich and Cooper are part of an event in DC, discussing Mutants and Magneto ultimatum. It’s pretty dry, but I do appreciate seeing Vallerie here. I never like Gyrich.

A tentacle emerges from the water surrounding the crashed plane with Scott and Maddy trying to fix it.

Calisto has dropped in on Calliban under NYC. Callisto is lying through her teeth about caring about all Morlocks. This is like a house call shakedown. I still love them both, and Mask creeps me out still. They are tentatively all on the same page…get Kitty is still on.

The tentacles have Maddy. It takes a few fun pages and a retrieval of Scott’s mask to make the moment iconic, so they are safe and the plane works. Huzzah.

Next: A San Diego Comic Con