UNCANNY X-CERPTS: 2018

Monday, December 17, 2018

UNCANNY X-MEN #124: He Only Laughs When I Hurt!

The X-Men are at Murderworld, where all of the rides are unsafe but at least the lines aren't long.

UNCANNY X-MEN #123: Listen -- Stop Me If You've Heard It -- But This One Will KILL You!

The X-Men are at it again - "it" being getting kidnapped, brainwashed, and stuck in deathtraps. But this time there's a giant pinball machine!

UNCANNY X-MEN #122: Cry for the Children!

The X-Men are home at last!

A Quick Note

Last year around this time I took an unannounced two-month break from November to January. At that time I had just accepted a new permanent job (which spun out of the temporary one I had been doing) and it was the holidays and I ended up moving. With so much going on it was a li'l hard to find a few spare minutes to talk old comics. You know how it goes.

This year I was able to keep the plates spinning a little longer, but the gist is the same - in October I switched roles and, being that I work for a retail company November and December has been insanely packed. The sensible thing to do would be to stop completely until January but I get too much of a kick out of running this blog, so my hope is to slow it down to one post every other week (starting this coming week) or so until the New Year, to take the pressure off but not leave any doubt that things will get back to normal. We are coming up to some of the biggest stories ever told in X-History and I would really like to give them the attention and thought they deserve.

I know this isn't exactly the world's most heavily-trafficked blog. It's probably not even in the top ranked internet projects with this exact premise. But I know a few of you out there are following along, so I hope you enjoy what's to come.

Keep on rockin'
Scotto

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

UNCANNY X-MEN #121: Shoot-Out at the Stampede!

All Alpha Flight wanted was their Wolverine back. He really ties the team together.

UNCANNY X-MEN #120: Wanted: Wolverine! Dead or Alive!

The X-Men Go Canadian, Eh?

UNCANNY X-MEN #119: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

The X-Men must go to x-treme lengths to stop Moses Magnum's earthquake machine!

UNCANNY X-MEN #118: The Submergence of Japan!

The X-Men lend a hand in Japan

UNCANNY X-MEN #117: PSI-WAR!

Young Professor X battles a psychic pimp.

UNCANNY X-MEN #115 & 116: Visions of Death! / To Save the Savage Land!

Guess which mad scientist energy vampire were-dinosaur has "saur"-ed back into our lives??

UNCANNY X-MEN #114: Desolation

They ded.

UNCANNY X-MEN #113: Showdown!

The X-Men need to grow up.

UNCANNY X-MEN #112: Magneto Triumphant!

Are the X-Men ready to face the Master of Magnetism? Probably not, right?

UNCANNY X-MEN #111: Mindgames!

The X-Men have run away and joined the circus, and Beast intends to find out why.

UNCANNY X-MEN #110: The "X"-Sanction!

The X-Men fend off the ultimate home invasion!

UNCANNY X-MEN #109: Home are the Heroes!

The X-Men get a little downtime and Wolverine catches up with an old friend

UNCANNY X-MEN #108: ARMAGEDDON NOW!

Armageddon ready for the X-Men to stop the M'kraan Crystal from destroying the Universe!

UNCANNY X-MEN #107: Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!

Outer! ... Space!

UNCANNY X-MEN #106: Dark Shroud of the Past!

This nonsense again?

UNCANNY X-MEN #105: PHOENIX UNLEASHED!

The Princess arrives on Earth and Eric the Red makes his move!

UNCANNY X-MEN #104: The Gentleman's Name is Magneto!

Magneto is back and all grown up and ready to make his return to supervillainy!

UNCANNY X-MEN #103: The Fall of the Tower

The X-Men and their leprechaun friends team up to thwart Black Tom and Juggernaut!

UNCANNY X-MEN #102: Who Will Stop The Juggernaut?

The X-Men meet the cast of Deadpool 2!

UNCANNY X-MEN #101:Like a PHOENIX, From the Ashes!

Jean Grey... LIVES!

UNCANNY X-MEN #100: Greater Love Hath No X-Man...

It's robots.

UNCANNY X-MEN #99: Deathstar, Rising!

The X-Men get to go to space!

UNCANNY X-MEN #98: Merry Christmas, X-Men...

It's Christmas in April in July! Dress accordingly.

UNCANNY X-MEN #97: My Brother, My Enemy!

As Professor Xavier worries he's losing his bananas, Cyclops and the X-Men are attacked by an unexpected enemy... Scott's brother, Havok!

UNCANNY X-MEN #96: Night of the Demon!

In the wake of tragedy, the X-Men must face their demons. Not their inner-demons, mind you, just literal otherworldly monsters.

UNCANNY X-MEN #95: WARHUNT!

One of the X-Men pays the ultimate sacrifice to defeat Count Nefaria once and for all.

UNCANNY X-MEN #94: The Doomsmith Scenario!

Count Nefaria is back -- hell yeah!

GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1: Second Genesis!

Cover of Giant Size X-Men #1, depicting the All-New All-Different X-Men bursting through the page

The X-Men have disappeared on a mission, so Professor X hatches a brilliant scheme to keep throwing mutants at the problem until it goes away!

Gone but Not Forgotten: X-Men in the Early 70's (aka the Inter-X-num)

A brief look at what the X-Men got up to during the Watergate years...

A Note on the Future

Hey X-Fans, it's Scotto here, your X-cerptor-in-Chief, your main mutant-watcher... the guy who writes this nonsense.

So far, writing UNCANNY X-CERPTS has been a blast, really more fun than it has any right to be, and I hope the three or four of you who check in regularly agree. We've just finished that lengthy early drag of X-Men comics from the 1960's to 1970, when the book started as a font of inspiration, regressed into a bit of rote superheroics, then morphed into a frequently-retooled property on the verge of cancellation.

After March 1970's Issue #66, the book and the characters go away for a little bit, and I will too. Not for as long as my unannounced 2-month Holiday leave in 2017, but a few weeks, just to refresh and get my bearings. Sometime in Mid-May I'll do a post recapping some key appearances our heroes made in the early 70's, which might be necessary for context going forward (or otherwise fun to think about.) And then by the end of the month I'll be back to regular updates with a (possibly very long) write-up of the epochal Giant Size X-Men #1.

A few notes to think about... awhile after that, the amount of X-Men product available starts to snowball, with spin-off titles like the New Mutants, X-Factor and Excalibur, as well as Annuals that are occasionally vital to the understanding of ongoing stories. We'll be covering these on an ad-hoc basis, but since I've made the mandate of this blog simply to cover Uncanny X-Men (and, should we survive that long, the second X-Men title that launched in 1991,) there will be a bit of "Something happened in New Mutants that led up to this."

I also exect to dial updates back to our previous once-weekly schedule, but this is subject to change, as it always was. And probably I'll update the About Page just to fuss with it.

In the meantime, if you honestly can't get enough of me, I've taken to spilling my words all over again at the Better Late Than Never blog, where I write up whatever is on my mind, in pop culture and entertainment or life in general, usually way, way past the point where it matters.

Keep on rockin'
-Scotto