Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

445 – Dick War

In which not every story needs to be an event; Alan Davis returns to the X-line; X-mansion security is not what it once was; Rogue needs some new fantasies; and Magneto wants a country.

X-PLAINED:

  • A poor governance decision
  • X-Men: The Magneto War #1
  • Uncanny X-Men #366
  • Astral demerits
  • A very dramatic dream
  • The yolk of oppression
  • Several Acolytes
  • Nightcrawler’s nightcap
  • Our standards for advertisers
  • Suburban Magneto
  • Ferris
  • Magnet problems
  • Forged DNA
  • Mutants from Georgia, Florida, and Indiana
  • Flying with Storm

NEXT EPISODE: Magneto wins.


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10 comments

  1. On Senyaka’s revival: it happened off camera before the Quicksilver/Heroes for Hire crossover (I can’t remember if he was in the first half of QS written by Tom Peyer, or just the Ostrander issues). The story that got posted around at the time, which may or may not be true, was that the writer was told not to create new followers for Exodus and was given a list including several dead ones. As a result, there’s a single line in the crossover about Exodus having somehow learned to raise his dead followers and it is never mentioned again. But he wasn’t the only one in that arc–I think Seamus Mellencamp was there too.

      1. Went back and read Siege of Wundagore for the first time since it came out. Senyaka’s first appearance there is in Quicksilver #11 (part 2) and in #12 (part 4) page six, Man-Beast says “Exodus can shield himself from [the McGuffin’s] effects, but he cannot protect the acolyte too. He may be able to resurrect his dead followers, but he cannot alter their evolution should I turn the isotope against them.” That’s all we get. (Also, I had misremembered Mellencamp)

  2. Just to clarify the different Serpent groups .. .the Sons of the Serpent are the white supremacist group of mercenaries, they have no powers. They are just snake themed.

    The super-villain teams were the Serpent Squad, which was later integrated into the larger Serpent Society. The Society was consistently the most well-developed group of Captain America villains of the 1980s, appearing in dozens of issues in a row, and were the main baddies in the lead-up to the famous “Captain” story. They were an attempt at a supervillain union, with the members each receiving fair pay. Most of them have reptile-related abilities or names. Three of them — Diamondback, Asp and Black Mamba, attempted to reform from criminal activities to varying degrees thanks to Captain America.

    Puff Adder, who is black, was definitely not a member of the Sons of the Serpent.

    Hope that helps!

    1. Extremely important disambiguation. Thanks Jeff!

      (The one part I know is Diamondback’s sorta-reformation: she was great in Gail Simone’s Domino series a while back.)

    2. Interesting, I didn’t know Puff Adder was anything other than Caucasion, though it appears he started out as Caucasian and then different artists (and colourists) decided he was African American and that’s been the norm since.

      Cottonmouth and Bushmaster, on the other hand were African American throughout.

      I thought I had seen a story where the Society worked with the Sons of the Serpent (Which would have been an unfortunate choice), but I think they just showed up in rapid succsssion during Sam Wilson’s first Captain America run.

  3. Sad that we’re getting watered down Alan Davis writing here, but that does explain why this was never a favourite era, despite looking gorgeous.

    Penguins? At an Arctic base? Miles, you surprise me! (Unless they were mutant teleporting penguins who have been trading places from the Antarctic, with Arctic polar bears just to mess with them.

    I think Magneto does try and make a menacing entrance in suburbia during the “Vision and the Scarlet Witch” maxi series where he reveals himself to be Wanda’s father, and it is slightly surreal.

    I like the idea of “forged” DNA, just something based on the original, but with maybe not quite the same quailty parts.

    Thank you for noting Neophyte’s rank now being the codename, as that always annoyed me.

    As for Ferris’s level of banter, I don’t necessarily think Magneto programmed, him, he has people to do stuff like that for him. Isn’t one of the Acolytes into reading electronic signals and the like? I suspect he does tech support on the side.

    As I’ve probably mentioned before, I’ve always been amused by the notion that Storm flies. when she really doesn’t. Phoenix flies by telekinesis, Northstar flies by … something to do with gravitons and generating telekinetic thrust, and Cannonball lights up a thermochemical reaction from his waist down.

    Storm basically flies by blasting a jetstream up her own backside, and hoping she can keep her balance whilst it hurtles her through the air. Her wearing a cloak gives her more control (like a flying squirrel), but I never quite thought of leather jacket era Storm being quite as graceful.

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