Issue: The Uncanny X-Men 300
Publication Date: May 1993
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Penciler: John Romita Jr
Inker: Dan Green
Publication Date: May 1993
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Penciler: John Romita Jr
Inker: Dan Green
Story Synopsis
The X-men are investigating the kidnapping of Moira
MacTaggart, a long time alley of Charles Xavier. They believe the Acolytes,
pseudo-religious followers of a recently deceased Magneto, have abducted Moira
and absconded with her to a remote location in France. The Acolytes torture Moira
searching her mind for secrets pertaining to Charles Xavier and Magneto’s past
while the X-men prepare to storm their location. A confrontation ensues between
the X-Men and the Acolytes which tests the metal of individuals on both side of
the conflict.
Writing
I found the writing in this issue to be excellent.
Nearly everyone in the story struggled with an internal or interpersonal
conflict which complemented their external actions. The plot was action
oriented but it had beats of pathos and emotion woven into each fistfight. All of the core heroes and villains were given character moments which
further developed their personalities and each received a panel or two that
showed them at the top of their game. It’s an amazing feat of writing that each
major character was given at least one moment to shine with their mutant
powers. No one was shortchanged. Each of the X-men and villains received at least one panel of artwork that showed them using their mutant ability in a visually dynamic way. My only
complaint is that the Acolytes dialogue bothers me a bit due to them being
turned into more of a religious cult rather than an extremist political
movement. I’ve seen far too many writers use religious terminology to stereotype
people of faith as brainwashed psychopaths. I wish that there had been a counter-weight moment to contrast
their verbal religiosity with the Christian faith of Nightcrawler. Other than that gripe, the writing was top notch.
Art
I have a bone to pick with X-men cover art. It’s lazy. Lazy
covers are epidemic to the entire line of 90’s X-men comics. Just about every
X-Men comic in my long box collection is either a flat shot of the title
characters with minimal environmental details, or a cropped scene of several
characters fighting with the camera zoomed in just a little too close to the
action. Rarely are there any concepts to the covers. Rarely does the cover ever
tell a story.
I recently purchased about 250 Fantastic Four comics as a gift for a friend and was astounded at the story telling displayed on that series' covers. Every issue’s cover seemed to have a concept behind it to sell the book’s narrative. It would be an interesting experiment to take several 90’s X-Comics and to re-illustrate the covers so that they sold the concept of the story instead of pin-ups of the main characters.
I recently purchased about 250 Fantastic Four comics as a gift for a friend and was astounded at the story telling displayed on that series' covers. Every issue’s cover seemed to have a concept behind it to sell the book’s narrative. It would be an interesting experiment to take several 90’s X-Comics and to re-illustrate the covers so that they sold the concept of the story instead of pin-ups of the main characters.
Despite my gripes about the cover art, the interior pencils
by John Romita Jr are as well done as the writing. His page layouts aren’t
splashy, but his brush strokes and inking style are gorgeous. He has a
different inker this issue that the last issue I reviewed, but I can’t tell a
major difference. The entire story takes place during a rain storm which adds
some wonderful atmospheric effects to the key scenes. The constant rainfall
also frees Romita from having to draw background details in every panel without
coming across as being lazy. I absolutely love how John draws his men. He was born
to draw Bishop, Colossus, and Wolverine. His inking style lends itself well to
depicting hairy or metal-clad men. He even cuts loose with some looser impressionistic
inking on the building architecture in the smaller establishing shots.
Professor Xavier confronts a mob. I love this sequence. The rain effects and inking add an extra layer to the scene. It’s a great character moment for Professor Xavier to shows him both as a compassionate man, but also a man that is taking drastic actions that are chipping away at his character.
Inking on the establishing shot of the castle and Colossus’s face is top notch and adds an extra layer of visual interest.
Bulky Anatomy & Well Written Character-Driven Dialogue
The beat between Archangel and Bishop is excellent. It gives the viewer a nice pinup up the two characters, while the dialogue expresses Archangel’s personality as he comments on how Bishop’s personality has altered Professor X’s personality(!) I also love how John draws big, beefy tough guys. They all look like they should be co-stars in the movie Predator.
The scene where an innocent bystander is murdered is powerfully rendered and written. The added narration in the 2nd to the last panel adds even more "oomph" to violence.
I love the background patter between Archangel and Iceman.
Jean Gray’s moment to shine in the issue was fun. She quips about her enemy looking like Mephisto’s child and then gives an awesome display of her mutant abilities. We also see another great panel of impressionistic inks used to depict architecture.
Strong Visuals to Augment Strong Emotions & Dialogue The last few pages of the comic feature an epilogue penciled by Brandon Peterson. While I’m not a fan of his art, the last two pages are very effective when married with the narration. Turning out the light in the last panel is a nice use of visual symbolism of a character’s impending death.
