Entry tags:

char: colossus/piotr rasputin, char: nightcrawler/kurt wagner, char: triton, creator: george perez, creator: roger cruz, creator: scott gray, creator: val staples, group: inhumans, publisher: marvel comics, title: uncanny x-men: first class

It's not often I deliberately buy a comic to showcase it here, normally my recent purchases and longboxes are adequate, but this one appealed to me a lot, as it raises some interesting questions (notably about one of the oldest groups in the Marvel universe which I don't think have ever been asked before) but doesn't provide pat answers.

One of my earliest comic reading memories was of a subplot in an old Inhumans issue (With early George Perez art), where a woman, her hair withered and grey and her face and skin covered in all manner of boils, blotches and wrinkles, pleads with Black Bolt to be allowed to use the Mists. Despite some (Gorgon for one) objecting to such a request being made out of vanity, Black Bolt permitted it, perhaps out of sympathy with her plight. And she later emerged from the mists looking like this;



Now as a kid, I don't think I was vain, but I was aware that I was perhaps never going to be amongst the greatest looking people on Earth, so there was a certain element of wish fulfilment that there might be a magical process which would make me special somehow (but handsome to boot), but in retrospect, is it a "Looks ARE everything" message here? I don't know, but one likes to think it's a story of compassion leading to lessening the pain of an individual.

Now, taking that story in a slightly different direction, from: Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1 and #2(and republished in the UK as this years X-Men First Class Annual) I present approximately 14 pages from a 44 page story) where the X-Men discover....



I should mention I've cut a LOT of fight scenes from these issues. They are perfectly decent fight scenes (I have nothing against such things) and some of them are enormous fun, but slugfests you can get anywhere. Awkward questions less so.

We start, however, with a dose of the pretty, and a glorious splash page which I make no apologies for sacrificing a whole page for.



Damn, but I miss this Kurt... and having him in an outfit which appears to gleam like it's liquid latex is just FINE with me! :)



This ends about as well as you might expect in the MU, in the sort of fashion that makes me want to take a 2x4 to the general Marvel population.



See what I mean... sigh...

We cut to a Danger Room workout, where the team are engaging in the usual trashing the giant robots, but Kurt's absence is noted by a rather annoyed Cyclops...

And I'm sorry, just looking at that first panel, I'm having naughty thoughts about Kurt and that tail of his...



Aaaawww.... don't you just want to hug him... at least. (and it's not like he doesn't have a valid point)

Events at the school are interrupted by a state visit by the Royal Family of the Inhumans; Black Bolt, Medusa, Triton, Karnak, Gorgon, and our favourite teleporting puppy; Lockjaw. They have stopped by their old friend Professor Xavier's after a long and gruelling session at the UN as the Inhumans seek official recognition on Earth.

Pleasantries are exchanged (and there's a nice little running gag about Wolverine and Gorgon I won't spoil) and Triton explains to Kurt about "the Great Refuge" the Inhuman's hidden city in the Himalayas. Kurt is fascinated at the concept (since he's slightly PO'd at the human world) and asks if he can visit it as sort of a cultural exchange. The Inhumans and X-Men agree, and Piotr, suspecting something perhaps, asks to go too.

There's a lovely rather Kirby-ish splash page of the Inhuman city which I could scan, but won't, as if, as a result of this posting, you go out and buy these issues, you deserve the treat! It does also highlight how physically disparate the Inhumans are. They meet other Inhumans, including a suitably snarky and short tempered Quicksilver and his wife, Crystal.

Kurt is, to say the least, impressed (by the city, not Crystal... well, no more than he usually is by a beautiful woman)



As always, it's nice to see an artists who can draw different body types (Though all gorgeous, and not a spare ounce of fat on any of them, Triton, Kurt and Piotr are different builds and shapes).



You have to feel for the blue fella here. But someone else can see where this is leading.



Ooh, that's cruel Kurt.... though Piotr does have the advantage of being able to look human any time he wants without needing an image inducer.

A new sound interrupts proceedings.





And this is where it gets interesting IMHO.



This does not end well. amid cries of "Blasphemy!" and "Desecration!" from the crowd (and especially Gorgon), Kurt manages to damage the chamber of the Terrigen mists, but is blasted by the High Priest, and Piotr is prevented from intervening only by Triton's appeal to him for calm backed up by Medusa and Black Bolt, who intervenes, upsetting the High Priest by over-ruling him and insisting there be a trial rather than a summary execution.

However, even Triton feels this will be more or less a formality, as the only punishment for such a crime under Inhuman law is death.

Piotr wants to bring the X-Men to, at the very least, be with Kurt as his friends. Triton is less struck on this. (Oh, and Triton's reply here refers to his very early adventures in the MU back in the Lee/Kirby FF era, when he was one of the Inhumans sent out as a scout for his people.



I ADORE that Lockjaw has dog toys in his basket, including what appears to be a Godzilla toy... or possibly Crocky the Crocodile (picked up in a jaunt to the DCU)

The X-Men are contacted though and set out at once (There's also a lovely scene between Scott and Professor X, where Scott is seen to over-rule the Professor's decision to join them, which is the sort of thing one might imagine happening between Picard and Riker, if Riker hadn't so often been such a complete personality void)

And now Kurt proves he's not just a pretty face (and posterior, though he's that as well), asking some rather intriguing questions of the Royal Family and the Inhumans as a whole.





Some food for thought there.



Yeah, they might, but when there's a telepath like Jean Grey (in her Phoenix phase) on board, you'd be amazed at what sentries won't see.

A fight breaks out, not helped by Jean being so overwhelmed by the anger the Inhuman crowd feels for Kurt and the other "outsiders" that she starts acting a little irrationally.

A REALLY BIG fight breaks out. Storm finds that she's not the only elemental in town thanks to Crystal, Medusa gags Banshee with a LOT of hair, and Gorgon and Colossus duke it out.

There's also this little encounter which alters things a little...



Now that's also an interesting question.

It's perhaps worth noting that Karnak does indeed have no terrigen granted power. His ability to detect weakspots is apparently naturally trained ESP. it is also worth noting perhaps that A) Karnak IS a member of the Royal Family, and B) The reason he was not subjected to the Mists in the first place was that his parents were concerned about how they might effect him, since his older brother had one of the most extreme transformations in Inhuman history, and his older brother is none other than Triton (Who needs a special "wet suit" to be able to even walk amongst the Inhumans, instead of having to live underwater all the time.)

Gorgon accidentally triggers an avalanche in the course of his combat, a very, VERY LARGE avalanche which can only be defetaed by Jeans newly amped up telekinesis and Balck Bolt having to speak aloud (For those not familiar with Black Bolt, the reason he never speaks is that his voice, even at a whisper, unleashes destructive power that makes an atom bomb look like a water balloon)



And so they leave, with bridges, if not completely rebuilt, then at least under construction.

So s_d, does Kurt have a point, or was he operating arrogantly? What does happen to Inhumans who don't undergo the Terrigen process, and who aren't Royalty?