Growing up, I built up my vocabulary of adjectives by reading comic books: Amazing. Astonish. Impossible. Incredible. Invincible. Fantastic. Mighty. Savage. Sensational. Uncanny.
The strangest one being, of course, uncanny. Which, ironically, means strange. Did that mean it was the opposite of canny? And what did canny mean? Apparently, it means clever or shrewd, so I'm not sure how something strange, eerie, or mysterious is the opposite of clever or shrewd.
Anyway, remember when only one superhero team was uncanny? And remember when there was only ONE X-Men comic? It's hard to conceive of now. Now, there are three uncanny teams: Avengers, X-Force, and X-Men. It kind of lessens the uniqueness and impact of the word, the team, and the comic, doesn't it?
The original Uncanny X-Men series ran for an -- get ready for it -- astonishing 544 issues. That's pretty long for a comic book series. Of course, following DC's restart of all their long-running series (including Action Comics, Detective Comics, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman), Marvel decided it was time to restart their long-running series as well. Following the "schism" between Cyclops and Wolverine seemed like the perfect opportunity. It also allowed for the entry of another X-Men comic (Wolverine and the X-Men). And not only another X-Men comic, but an X-Men comic starring Wolverine. (He's one busy fella!)
Sadly, volume two of The Uncanny X-Men only lasted for 20 issues. Then along comes
Brian Michael Bendis and the Marvel NOW! initiative. I'm sure the conversation went down something like this:
Marvel: "We'd like you to write the X-Men."
Bendis: "Okay, but only if I can start with a #1 issue."
Marvel: "But we just restarted the Uncanny X-Men after 50 years."
Bendis: "I don't care. Take it or leave it."
Marvel: "Sigh... Okay. Let's axe volume two and start all over again."
Bendis: "Deal."
Now came volume three in 2013. Hopefully this one will last significantly longer than volume two. Unless, of course, Bendis leaves and Marvel wants another high-profile writer to take over who has high demands.
The current Uncanny X-Men features Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magneto, Magik, and a bunch of new young "students." Cyclops sports a new costume with a headpiece that really reinforces his codename's namesake (although his costume looks too similar to DC's new Superboy costume, which itself is too Tron-like for my taste). Emma Frost sports a new, all-black costume, thus reinforcing the idea that she is no longer the Hellfire Club's White Queen (but how about a new codename?). And I'm not sure what's up with Magneto's new look. Wearing a white and black costume that resembles the Punisher's? Bald? I'm not loving Emma's or Magneto's new costumes.
Now let's talk about artwork. Chris Bachalo's art is a bit unflattering to the characters. It's very rough-looking, and it certainly doesn't bring out Emma Frost's sexiness in the least. And because nobody's costume is very distinguishable and the artwork is a bit sloppy, I sometimes can't tell if the woman in a panel is Emma, Magik, or one of the Stepford Cuckoos without some additional clues. And don't even get me started on the new characters. Who's who? Who knows? They all look too similar. Is that Rogue? No, it's a new student who also has a white streak of hair. Really? The entire book is very dark, too. There's no real color to it; just shades of black and gold, which makes it doubly difficult to decipher between characters. Visually, the entire book just isn't very appealing to me.
I'm still reading the book, though, because Cyclops and Emma Frost are two of my favorite characters (even though they've gone through some pretty drastic changes over the years). And Bendis does provide good dialogue between the characters, even though the characterization isn't optimal. Are those the personalities we know? Are these people always in costume and running around? Do they ever do anything else? What about their private lives?
A great, new recent addition to the comic is the underutilized Dazzler. She's now an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D., but her costume is very new Fantastic Four and Magneto-esque. Unfortunately, she, too, is pretty indistinguishable from the blond-haired Emma, Magik, and the Stepford Cuckoos. In fact, when she first appeared, I didn't even know who she was until someone spoke her name. Why not make characters more recognizable? Isn't that the point of distinguishable costumes? Readers should be able to instantly recognize their favorite heroes or villains, no matter which artist is drawing them. She, too, doesn't seem to be very Dazzler-like in her characterization. Does Bendis need some Cliff Notes on each of the team's members?
Let's hope that Marvel can one day bring its flagship X-Men title up to the level in which it was in the 1980s, quality-wise. It has a lot to live up to. Welcome to Uncanny X-Men, Volume 3, hope you survive the experience.
I remember reading about Emma Frost (aka the White Queen) and the Hellfire Club back in the 1980s when John Byrne was drawing The Uncanny X-Men. It was one of my favorite storylines, and she was one of my favorite villains because she was so outright evil. By day, she taught at a school (Massachusetts Academy) that rivaled Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. By night, she enjoyed torturing the X-Men. Returning to comics in 2008, I discovered that there had been some MAJOR changes made to Emma Frost's character over the years. She was no longer a villain. She could turn herself into diamond. She had joined the X-Men. She replaced Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) as the X-Men's telepath. She was in a relationship with Scott Summers (aka Cyclops). She had her own 18-issue comic book series. And, last but not least, she had become this giant sex symbol.
Intrigued by reading more about her alongside her fellow X-Men in recent issues of Uncanny X-Men, I picked up all 18 issues of her series, simply titled Emma Frost
. At first, I was a bit embarrassed buying the issues because I felt like I was buying 
porn. Every issue of the first half of the series consisted of a painted cover of Emma in some provocative pose. Ironically, the stories on the inside had nothing to do with the sexy portraits on the outside. In fact, they were about her as a young girl growing up, attending school and dealing with her wealthy family members. Something about that felt almost...pedophiliac. The covers were geared toward an older, horny, straight male audience. The interior stories were geared toward adolescent and teenage girls. I almost feel like that's where Marvel Comics went wrong. They could have used Emma Frost to try to attract a young female audience to comic books. Instead, the series attracted the horny boy/guy by its sexy covers and then disappointed them by providing a Hannah Montana/teenage angst storyline. For this reason alone, I think the comic book failed after 18 issues.
The first sex...er, six...issues of the series takes place when Emma is a young girl in school. She gets picked on at school, she has a crush on her sympathetic teacher, and she's beginning to discover (and be frightened of) her mental abilities. We also see her in her homelife as one of the children of an affluent Massachusetts family. Her siblings have their own definite (and intriguing) personalities, her father is very controlling, and her mother is blissfully ignorant because of her prescription meds. All of this was fascinating and I was disappointed to see it end after six issues.
The next six issues were about Emma breaking free from the control of her father and living on the streets. During this period, she meets a man and they try to extort money from her father by her pretending to be kidnapped and held for ransom.
The final six, Emma has taken all of her ransom money and enrolled herself in college. She meets a fellow telepath who poses as her best friend but then secretly wants to destroy her.
The series was all wonderfully written by Karl Bollers, and I would have loved to have seen him write about 100 issues of each of those three segments of her life, continuing on into her joining the Hellfire Club and apparently having "romantic" trysts with some of Marvel's prominent male superheroes like Iron Man and Namor. What I also especially loved about Bollers' storytelling was his use of supporting characters in Emma Frost. Her family members, teachers, schoolmates, friends, etc. all had their own definite, unique personalities and I wanted to know about them as much as I wanted to know about Emma. That's the sign of great writing.
I'm sad that Emma Frost was cancelled after 18 issues. However, I still believe that there is a market out there for her stories as Bollers told them, if the series was properly geared toward the right audience. Not every comic has to be about battles and good vs. evil. Emma Frost's brilliant first six issues demonstrated that (if not for the conflicting Penthouse covers). Sometimes the writer can transport the reader away into the world of their superhero characters with just their social interactions. It's sad that Marvel Comics dropped the ball on this one.
