UNCANNY X-MEN #382 (July 2000)

Lost Souls

Credits: Chris Claremont (writer), Tom Raney (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Comicraft’s Saida Temofonte (letters), Brian Haberlin (colors)

Summary: Cable offers the team psychic protection to enter Phoenix’s mind. Soon, he must also defend her body from a new attack by the Shockwave Riders. Phoenix successfully defends herself inside the mind of the dying Shockwave Rider, but is unprepared for the astral arrival of the Lost Souls. The shadowy Neo faction invade the minds of the X-Men, manipulating their greatest fears, pressuring them to give in to despair. Phoenix overpowers their dark force, then uses her powers to revive the dying Shockwave Rider. The X-Men attempt to part peacefully with the Neo soldiers. Later, Gambit urges the team to join him on a mission he declares more important than the Neo.

Continuity Notes:

·       The concept of Phoenix regaining her memories from the Shockwave Rider’s mind is entirely forgotten this issue.

·       Gambit asserts that Apocalypse is dead, proclaiming Cable’s future is up for grabs. Again, not what we saw in the actual comics.

·       Claremont’s having Gambit speak in “dese,” “dat,” and “dis,” seeming at random, since he’s also using the proper spelling at other times. This might’ve been inconsistent editorial “correction.”

·       A narrative captions reveals the Morlocks included Gambit’s “friends and even lovers.” Quite the retcon.

Continuity Notes - Special Neo Edition:

·       Cable states legends of the Shockwave Riders “survived to my own time,” declaring them “the stuff of legend…even Apocalypse respected them.”

·       Inside the Shockwave Rider’s mind, Phoenix sees an ancient forest, and a home that’s “an essential harmony with nature.” She then realizes the surrounding farmland has been devastated, but with “no logic or coherence to the damage.” Presumably, this is an allusion to the damage to the Neo’s society caused by the earlier erasure of mutant powers.

·       For unclear reasons, the Neo blame the X-Men for what’s happened to their society. I think the idea is that they lump mutants and humans (“spikes”) together…but still, why single out the X-Men?

·       Cable notes the Neo are willing to slaughter Phoenix’s psyche, but go out of their way to avoid physically harming her.

·       The new Neo faction introduced, the Lost Souls, consist of Lament (the Goth girl), Dirge (the European-looking one in the nice suit), Requiem (the big one), and Desolation (the cloaked female). They all have the ability to block the X-Men’s attacks, from within the mind of the dying Neo, and can “swallow” the X-Men’s mental forms.

Critics’ Corner: The sequence of Gambit fighting against the Neo’s manipulation, declaring boldly his choice “To Laugh!” instead of wallowing in misery was roundly mocked online. Tony Isabella, who reviewed several of these issues, found it a powerful sequence, however.

Phoenix also gives us a “this is so not good!”, pleasing everyone already irritated by Claremont’s new writing tic. And, the Lost Souls are sure to introduce themselves by outright stating their names as “I Am…”—another butt of jokes at the time. An argument can be made that Claremont is introducing several new characters, and if the villains don’t say their names…how are the heroes going to learn them? (Given the context of this specific story, though, it does seem Phoenix should’ve been the one to telepathically learn the info.)

“Huh?” Moment: The X-Men allow the Neo to leave…even as they’re still declaring their desire to kill the team? Phoenix also, bizarrely, states “their motives and character were as noble as our own” during this fight. They tried to kill your friends—your own son, Jean!

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture! : The font used on the cover blurb will soon become standard in the comics, an attempt to mimic the font used in the movie’s logo. Another Universe (a big sponsor in those days, and once the host site of Newsarama) is running ads for the X-Men movie action figures. Apparently, they only have permission to unveil what Xavier’s figure looks like. Also, Dynamic Force has ads for their variant editions of the X-Men movie comic tie-ins, starring Wolverine, Magneto, and Rogue.

Review: Second issue of the relaunch and Adam Kubert’s already ducked out. He’ll return for the next issue, which (for no apparent reason) is double-sized. Kubert, the regular penciler, drew half of issue #378, missed #379-380, then popped back up for last issue before missing this one. When Kubert is here, he’s more consistent than Yu, but it’s obvious he can’t do a team book on a monthly schedule. Marvel presumably planned ahead, with Tom Raney onboard as the regular guest artist on both books.

Raney isn’t as flashy, but I have a feeling I would’ve preferred him over both Kubert and Yu. His storytelling is mostly clear, the characters look consistent from panel to panel, and when the script calls for an emotional beat, or a small character moment, he does deliver. Witness this issue, in the midst of too much chaos, Storm pausing for a second to wash away the grime on Jean’s face. That character work is at the heart of Claremont’s writing, but too often in this era, he’s paired with artists who just can’t render it.

This chapter allegedly resolves the Uncanny portion of the Neo storyline, although even a cursory reading reveals that to be untrue. We never fully learn why the Neo are attacking the team, nor why they’re adamant about taking Jean alive. (And there’s another wrinkle this issue—they want her physical body, but don’t seem to care if her psyche is destroyed.) There’s no talk of Jean regaining those memories, which was the big cliffhanger last issue. The ending has the X-Men declaring peace, yet the Neo are explicitly rejecting the offer to their faces. The X-Men just shrug their shoulders and, literally, go out for lunch.

What could drag this story down even lower? How’s about the introduction of yet another new faction of the Neo. We already have Domina’s team from X-Men, the unnamed flunkies who just debuted with Rax in the same title, the Shockwave Riders last issue, and now the Lost Souls.

How many of these characters are we really supposed to be keeping up with? Who possibly thought any of them could make a mark when competing for attention with dozens of new faces? Why are Neo sub-factions receiving the spotlight literally a month after we’ve been introduced to the basic concept? Also, so far in the actual comics, the idea of the Neo as the next evolution of mutant still hasn’t been stated. Claremont mentioned it repeatedly in interviews, but the stories have yet to establish this.

It’s not as if the Neo are a hopeless concept; there are some striking designs in here, and the idea of them merely retaliating for an unprovoked “attack” has potential. But they read as one collection of action figures after another, tossed into the story with no obvious forethought. And, undermining this even more, we have Gambit on the final pages, declaring some unrelated plot is actually more important than this Neo business.

The hints of what a Claremont return to the X-Men could be are here, to be fair. He’s clearly put some thought into Cable’s character, how life experiences have shaped him, and how this mentality clashes with the X-Men’s. Jean has a nice talk about heroism being more than conquering your opponent, alluding to the larger moral point of view Claremont represents in his work. (As goofy as the ending is, I do like the scene that has her resuscitating the Neo rather than causing him more mental strain.) And the dynamic between the characters, the analytical Beast questioning Gambit’s freewheeling style, with Storm caught in the middle, has potential.

Claremont’s even trying his best to get something out of the questionable creative choices made in his absence, such as Gambit’s retconned complicity in the Morlock Massacre. (Gambit is now questioning just how a thief like himself didn’t see this con coming a mile away.) So, at times we can see hints of what we wanted a Claremont return to be, but the main plot is becoming such a mess there’s no escaping its shadow.

This entry exists thanks to those who posted Amazon reviews of my new novel, Black Hat Blues. I’ll continue posting installments in this series—one for every review the book receives. So if you want this series to continue, please, leave a review!