I was entering my fourth and final year of my Honours Degree at University and was a devotee of Billy Bragg and Paul Weller's Style Council. Among my favourite comics were The New Teen Titans, The Legion of Super-Heroes, Alpha Flight and The X-Men. Legacy of the Lost is a Marvel Pocket Book published by Panini UK last year, collecting seven issues from the Claremont/ Romita Jr. Era.
Public Enemy: For the first time, IIRC, we learn something of Rogue's backstory ( some of which was utilised in the first X-Men movie) Since, at this point in her life, her stolen memories of Carol (Ms. Marvel) Danvers had lead her to clash with SHIELD, the agency goes after her with a power-neutraliser. Unfortunately, Storm is collateral damage.
Lifedeath: This is a beautiful extended issue by Barry Smith which deals with Storm's power loss; her tentative relationship with Forge, the Native American Tony Stark; and the grisly Dire Wraiths from Rom. It's a great loss that Smith only pencilled two more issues (especially given the Hyborian Age setting of the final two-parter in this collection).
Wraithkill: While Forge and Storm are attacked by Wraiths, Forge's shamanic mentor Naze is possessed by a mystical entity. The Galadorian Spaceknights make a cameo appearance.
Legacy of the Lost: This story ends the Wraith encounter, thanks to a last-minute cavalry charge by sorceresses Illyana and Amanda ( who hadn't done anything magickal for several years). The focus then returns to the time-lost Rachel, who has come from the death-camp Sentinel future.
Meanwhile, Magneto, is rescued from the drink by Cyclops' former love interest Lee Forrester. (Mags ended up in the sea after Asteroid M was hit by the New Mutant Warlock).
Wardrobe Malfunction
Two Girls Out to Have Fun: Rachel and under-used volcanic powerhouse Amara have another encounter with the ageless psychic vampire, Selene. Meanwhile,the Hellfire Club's Tessa displays her analytical powers (many years later, she would be revealed as Xavier's double-agent, Sage)
An Age Undreamed Of/ Raiders of the Lost Temple: a time-twisting two-parter. Kulan Gath, an enemy of Marvel's Conan and Elric, warps NYC into his private sword-and -sorcery kingdom. The X-Men, New Mutants, Avengers and Spider-Man in a variety of medieval guises play a deadly game of Dungeons & Dragons to defeat the cadaverous mage and restore reality. I enjoyed this complex High Fantasy adventure although at the time it seemed like a diversion from the Storm/Rachel plots. It also feels like it should have been an annual.
The Wraith War is perhaps a step too far for the X-Men. It is a conflict that really has nothing to do with their role as mutant outcasts/ambassadors. But the aliens are a threat to the entire MU, so Marvel's biggest stars of the day had to participate. The X-Men already had their own parasitic matriarchal alien nasties, the Brood, making the Wraiths seem a shade redundant.
The Kulan Gath plot would probably be a company-wide cross-over these days (Ssh! Don't breathe another word!). As I recall from one of the final issues of Foom Magazine, it was originally an unused, late -70s Ms. Marvel plot .Not only does it have a cast of thousands, it ends anticlimactically with Dr. Strange, Magik, Storm, Warlock and Selene effectively pushing a big, sorcerous reset button. More heinously, it introduces Claremont's shameless Terminator rip-off, Nimrod.
The Avengers roster, amusingly, also features Eros aka Starfox, who would be a left-field addition to the Avengers movie sequel!
Speaking of rosters, it's interesting that Cyclops, Kitty and Wolverine (!) play no part in these stories. I'm not Logan's biggest fan but I think of those three as quintessential X-Men. Colossus has very little to do, except smash stuff and react to Illyana. It seems natural to pair up Magma/Amara with Rachel since they're both girls out of time but they both seem too powerful and overshadow their team-mates.
The problem is, I think, that Ann Nocenti's editorial control isn't tight enough. Claremont's sprawling cast of characters means none of the heroes -beside Storm- really gets enough of the spotlight. He seems more keen to give his Bad Girls (like Callisto) page time. Also, this is a point in the X-Men's history when stories cross-pollinated with New Mutants and in some cases didn't pay off for years (viz the trickster god known as The Adversary who would usher in the Australian outback era of the X-Men drawn by Marc Silvestri.). Finally, the JR Jr costumes rival Perez's designs for sheer "ugliosity". Despite the quibbling, however, it was worth picking this up from the library if only for the Windsor-Smith art.
Next: Byrne's Hidden Years
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