UNCANNY X-MEN #64: The Coming of Sunfire!

Here comes the Sunfire, doodoodoodoo....

Originally Published January 1970

The X-Men recieve a push notification from Cerebro that a potentially powerful new mutant is on the loose. In fact it is suggested that this mutant could be the most powerful yet. It turns out to be Sunfire, who admittedly, does have a potent skillset of shooting fire out of his hands and flying (like fire does) , but let's be real here. Nobody is going to believe this guy is the most powerful mutant, up there with Magneto and The Living Monolith.

Sunfire seems to be targeting a visiting Japanese diplomat named Saburo Yoshida, who preaches strengthening relationships between America and Japan. Seems Sunny is not a fan.

We learn that Sunfire is Shiro Yoshida, the son of Saburo Yoshida, who had been raised largely by his uncle Tomo and indoctrinated against America due to hailing from Hiroshima as a weapon of Japanese revenge.

The X-Men are basically unable to stop Sunfire from doing anything, but when Tomo demands Shiro kill his father - as has undoubtedly been the plan all along - he hesitates. Tomo decides to do his own dirty work (admirable) and shoots Saburo, killing him.

Shiro is left contemplating the price of revenge and the X-Men decide that's basically good enough.

Further Thoughts:

Although there's nothing wrong with this issue superficially, it did kill off some of the enthusiasm I had snowballing since Neal Adams came aboard. Don Heck gives one of his best efforts, whether because he has learned to imitate Adams or because the new artists have caused the reins to loosen down the line and show what the backbenchers were also capable of.

While the book does miss Adams' storytelling zeal, it is very much in the "oh poor villain" mode that has been the trend of late. In fact part of what is so off -putting is that the X-Men are mostly guest stars in the Sunfire story. Aside from a halfhearted attempt to ascertain his identity, and a few scuffles where the X-Men are soundly bested, the heroes are afterthoughts. This is in the service of the story's ironic twist ending, which probably only read slightly less cliche the than it does now.

There's also some baggage with Sunfire, who is obsessed with national pride, revenge at all costs and the honor of his ancestors, embodying a number of stereotypes prevalent about Japanese culture from the American perspective. Whether or not you believe this is the best that could have been done in 1970, reading it today is really quite dicey. While there's more dignity about this than say, Mickey Rooney's performance in Breakfast at Tiffany's, it still really just boils down to an evolved version of the classic yellow peril villain. It's clear there was a ways to go.

Yiiiiiiikes.

Hell, there still is: This very week we're all talking about "The Problem With Apu," and I am not learned enough, personally, to write definitively on the subject., but I do think it's tricky to tell a story like this that is different from your learned experience. Especially now that we, you know, hold people accountable for it, and have people of those experiences to tell them themselves. My most positive instinct is to say that trying to expand the scope of mutantkind, when the X-Men had never met an African-American by 1970, was a well-intentioned move. But being "progressive" decades ago without bothering to continue moving forwards is bogus, and we all know it, right Al?

The character of Sunfire, of course, eventually was redeemed by looking cool and badass in the Age of Apocalypse. I mean, who wasn't?