scans_daily: Chuck Austen: Not that bad?

starwolf_oakley (

scans_daily,
@ 2011-07-15 11:15 pm UTC

Entry tags:

char: juggernaut/cain marko, char: professor x/charles xavier, creator: chuck austen, creator: philip tan, title: uncanny x-men

Chuck Austen: Not that bad?

I've never been a big fan of all the Chuck Austen hate. Was he really that bad? Well... maybe. Polaris going batshit crazy and actually being Magneto's daughter are some of the bigger problems. But some of the special dislike is for "The Draco." But there's a very good scene in Part One of the story.

Chuck Austen is mentioning Silver Age elements of how Xavier used to have little problem with using his mental powers for less then "perfectly moral" reasons. Xavier using his powers so the bad guys will forget what they were doing and go home was used a couple of times in the early issues. Cain smacking Charles when they first met was in the first Juggernaut story, UNCANNY X-MEN #12.

Well, when you put it like that...

This is a powerful page, because the Juggernaut is absolutely right. Xavier left him under a mountain for decades. It is something we knew and yet... never really thought about.

In the original story, the "Reds" shelling the area causes the cave to collapse. Has that been updated to Cain's transformation causing the collapse?

Kurt Marko being an abusive dick is relatively knew. I think it was first revealed in UNCANNY X-MEN #309 that he beat Sharon Xavier. Kurt beating Cain and Charles might be totally new for this story.

So... not everything Chuck Austen did on his UNCANNY run was mind-numbingly bad. Just wanted to say that.

Comic Book Resources cleared up on major "flaw" with "The Draco."
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/06/04/ten-goofiest-moments-in-uncanny-x-men-426-435/

If only I could return to Earth. I know! I’ll go to Earth and do something to allow myself to one day return to Eart…wait a second…

One of the plot points of “The Draco” that gets mocked a lot, and I think a bit unfairly so, is the whole bit about how Azazel impregnated women on Earth so that when they got older he could manipulate them into using their teleportation powers to bring him back to Earth. A lot was written about how it was silly that Azazel went to Earth so that he could one day have kids who could bring him to…Earth.

However, that was not his plan, really. His plan was to bring his entire army of demonic mutants back to Earth (after they had been driven to this hell-like dimension centuries ago), so the fact that he alone could visit Earth himself once or twice wasn’t the point…
that said, Chuck Austen sure doesn’t make that very clear in the comic, including this bit that definitely makes it sound like Azazel just wants to get back to Earth himself (in which case, why did he leave in the first place? If he was forced to return, they never say as much in the comic itself)…

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suzene
2011-07-16 06:07 am UTC (link)

The effectiveness of this scene is much-diluted when one recalls that Austen gave a fuckton of characters under his pen an abusive/evil father - Carter, Sammy, Stacey X, Nightcrawler, Northstar, which was especially WTF due to the fact that his biological and adoptive parents were killed before he was in first grade.

Dude had issues to work out, and I'd have greatly appreciated if he had done it elsewhere.

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	no subject zenbro 2011-07-16 02:33 pm UTC (link)
	I should know this - but if Northstar's biological and adoptive parents died when he was that young, who raised him? (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject suzene 2011-07-16 05:09 pm UTC (link)
	A series of foster homes or one unhappy one before he ran away at age 13/14 and was raised by Raymonde Belmonde. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject okkult3000 2011-07-16 08:54 pm UTC (link)
	"Austen" is not his original surname. He changed it due to distaste for his father. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

	no subject suzene 2011-07-17 05:49 am UTC (link)
	Last I'd heard, "Austen" was his pen name, hadn't heard he'd actually changed it. He mentioned a couple of times in interviews that he'd had an abusive dad, which is sad but, again, if you can't bring your filter to bear, don't project your issues onto the page. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

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wizardru
2011-07-18 12:09 pm UTC (link)

Well, whether he legally changed it or not, I don't know. But back in the 80s, one month he was Chuck Beckum and then the next month he was Chuck Austen and the editorial note at Eclipse (iirc) basically sort of made a jokey reference about why he changed it which sounded weird and confusing at the time. Later entries pointing out that he didn't want to keep his father's name as the reason didn't elaborate further.

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