I still say the ending where the cop shoots Stryker is WAY stronger as a moment. Please do that one next, while you’ve got the GN out? Please?

Hah!

Don’t worry, Aaron, that moment WILL be featured.

What about the moment where Stryker points at Nightcrawler and says “You dare call that a human?!?”

All in all, one of the better Claremont’s stories, and terrific art from Brent Anderson.

“artrocity”?

I believe that’s the same sequence, Tom. Unless I’m remembering wrong, that panel happens, Kitty stands in the way, and the cop kills Stryker.

“artrocity”?

Guess they didn’t have “spell check” back in the day.

>”artrocity”?

>Guess they didn’t have “spell check” back in the day.

Maybe Claremont didn’t like Anderson’s work and it was his way of slipping in a subtle dig.

“Muties” was the moment. Super-powered people vowing “never again” panels are a dime-a-dozen in comics.

Really happy to see this graphic novel being covered, as there are a few good moments. Definitely the final fate of Stryker, this sequence, and I’d even mention the interrogation by Wolverine, then Magneto, of the two Purifiers. Even Nightcrawler has a pretty bad ass interrogation scene.

I remember this story as being the most “adult” comic I’d ever read at that point as a kid. It was the first time I’d read “bastard” in a comic (Wolverine: “let’s nail the bastards”).

Plus, this is the first time I remember blood being colored red in a comic. Is that possible? Does anyone know if there had been a comics code provision to only hint at blood or to color it black (as it was shown in so many Miller Daredevils around this time)?.

Anyway, this was a great story, and Brent Anderson’s art provided the perfect atmosphere for a very dark tale.

Anderson’s art reminds me of Neal Adams’ 60′s X-Men work. This was one of the first real attempts at defining the true evil behind the anti-mutant agenda that had only been hinted at in the Sentinel stories.

Strong stuff. Those poor kids…

I love Magneto. What a great character.

i always have picked the moment the purifers string up the kids as a message of their hatred but also loved magentoes speech at the end of the pannel knowing that somone has gotten on his bad side. both moments chilling

This is pretty much the best work that Chris Claremont did in his long, long run on “X-Men”. Before Alan Moore and Frank Miller started their work on deconstructed superheroes, Claremont made took the subtext of the X-Men and made it overt. There is none of the garbage that weighed down some his work on the title, like Wolverine mooning over Jean Grey.

Great work here.

You say this is the fifth Marvel graphic novel, and had to wonder; what were the first four?

Let’s see… She-Hulk, Dazzler: the Movie, Death of Captain Marvel, and…?

The first 5 Marvel Graphic Novels are: 1) Death of Captain Marvel 2) Elric 3) Dreadstar 4) New Mutants 5) X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills

wasn’t there some spider-man thing, other-dimensional fantasy world type story?

“Super-powered people vowing never again are a dime a dozen in comics.”
Well this is a super-powered holocaust survivor vowing never again over two dead children killed sole because they were different. Slightly more of an emotional impact.

@Daniel O’ Dreams

Okay, I’ll give you that. But I still say the “muties” panel is the moment.

Considering how much a part of the X-Men story in all its forms this theme has become, it’s hard to believe this story, not THAT long ago, really pushed it further into that realm then before. Though I’ll admit, writing this kind of thing happening to kids is something I really hate to see on a comics page. But this was one of the early, “mature” graphic novel stories.

I have to guess these are two black children so one may first assume these are some extreme white supremacists, after them because of their race.

“I have to guess these are two black children so one may first assume these are some extreme white supremacists, after them because of their race.”

Of course. That’s why the “muties” panel was so cool.

This and the Dazzler GN really set the tone for years of X stories. I vaguely recall Walt Simonson trying to kinda bring the “Anti-Mutant Hysteria” (how many times was that phrase lettered?) to a conclusion in X-Factor after Scott’ and the gang beat Apocalpse back for the first time. NYC threw X-Factor a ticker-tape parade and everything. Not sure it really “took.” The whole “feared minority” theme really gets kind of wonky after House of M. How threatening can 200 people be? That’s why I’m glad its been largely ignored.

So I guess this was done sometime around the mid-eighties? I was buying more new comics around that time than any other time in my life, but for some reason I don’t remember ever hearing of it until years later. Was this what set off the whole ‘Anti-Mutant Hysteria’ theme that dominated Marvel for years? I always thought it was the Dazzler novel that started it. that’s what the footnotes in all the regular books all referred to at the time. In any case, the extreme persecution of mutants that took over in mid-decade pretty much ruined the mutant books for me, and came close to ruining Marvel for awhile. The anti-prejudice themes that had been used before were sufficient, I thought. There was no reason to turn the whole Marvel Universe into some dystopian Fourth Reich, especially as it never seemed to mesh with all the other Marvel books.

It might still be a good story, for all I know. I haven’t read it. There were no comic stores around here when I was young, so I missed all the graphic novels. (I really hated hearing that something was direct-sales only back then. We rural people miss out on too much already. And I never understood why a big company like Marvel would restrict a book’s distribution. Indepedent publishers I could understand. But Marvel could afford distribution.)

Is the theme week ‘pages featuring Mark?’

Glad to know that the ending of this story’ll get featured. It deserves it SO much it isn’t funny. Not an X-Men fan, and I =STILL= bought this. It’s just THAT STRONG.

Now if I could just convince you to do the moment from Secret Wars where Iron (James Rhodes) Man confronts Reed Richards over his being revealed as a “black man”…

Is the Kitty/N-word moment going to be featured?

I can’t believe no one mentioned the references in the initial panels especially in the scene where the boy & girl are hanging. This is an update from blacks being lynched in the south…the resonance is shattering….as moving as the conclusion is…the initial jolt starts this train….another point is that you have an extra dimension of Magneto who was later revealed to be a Holocaust survivor hover over these bodies and see the inherent racism there as well….this is even more powerful that even the readers realize and makes this a more groundbreaking novel.

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I’ve really tried to see what everyone else sees in Claremont’s X-Men stories and I just don’t get it. This book bored me silly

Everyone deserves to live…except Mad dogs, like the neo-Nazi Purifiers and other human monsters.
But the X-Men can’t go around killing people since it would set a bad example to the parents who want to send their kids to the school, so the X-Men handled the situation pretty carefully.
Only Uncanny X-force and The Punisher should kill, since they make their choice and really don’t care what other people think, they take care of those who do the wrong thing…
…no shade of grey.