Ianlovescomix

19h

Sorry to hear that Walter Koenig has passed.

20h

From Prog #2010, an advert for the 2016 Xmas issue, featuring the beautiful art of #CliffRobinson, who'd been drawing #JudgeDredd strips for about 30 years at that point. #2000ad #houseads

OK, back round to #xmen90s, and it’s time for the #MuirIslandSaga, where #ChrisClaremont ties off the last off his main plots, ahead of some big plans that he has, which will NOT come to fruition. The Muir Island Saga covers #UncannyX-Men #278-280 and #X-Factor 69-70. 5 issues. 3 writers. 5 artists

We then get a little epilogue, by new X-Factor writer #PeterDavid, which has quite a nice scene between #Rogue and her not-dead stepmother, Mystique, and not much else, other than Prof X posing the question “What am I going to do with fourteen X-Men?” To which the answer will be along shortly.

So, that's the end of the Muir Island Saga, Claremont's last big story (albeit it's mostly written by #FabianNicieza, while Claremont got prepped for his NEXT big story. It wasn't a classic, but compared to some of what came later, it wasn't half bad. End.

Everything wraps up pretty quickly after that. There’s a big fight between the possessed Muir Islanders and the X-people, while Professor X confronts the Shadow King on the psychic plane.

The Shadow King loses, Legion ends up in a coma (where he’ll stay until he’s needed for another big crossover), and the Professor ends up back in a wheelchair.

Meanwhile, it’s good news/bad news for X-Factor. The bad news is that Val Cooper fell under the influence of the Shadow King a few issues back. The good news is that this isn’t Val Cooper, it’s the shapechanger #Mystique (in one of her more heroic moods)

Mystique tries to save the day by killing the Shadow King’s human host. Unfortunately, the bad guy just picks another host - #Legion, who’s Professor X’s neurodiverse son, and who has a veritable “legion” of powers.

After freeing Colossus, the Prof decides to go hit up X-Factor to help out. We skip over to X-Factor #69, where reunites Prof X with his original students, who are helping #ValCooper (long-time government liasion/stooge/nuisance) find out why people all over the world have gone racist.

Back on Muir Island, the X-Men have been turned into more fight club participants, except for #Forge, who’s cleverly whipped up devices to free them from the Shadow King’s domination.

For reasons best known to himself, the Shadow King’s encouraged Moira and the other people on the island to set up some sort of mutant fight club, and the X-Men (just back from outer space) pay a visit to find out what’s going on.

While they get the crap beaten out of them by Moira’s mob of mind-controlled miscreants, the Professor has headed instead to the ruins of the X-Mansion, where he’s attacked by ex-X-Man #Colossus (last seen happily enjoying life as an amnesiac artist), who’s possessed by the Shadow King.

So, the story. The #ShadowKing, a mutant pervert that #ProfessorX once had a ruck with, has decided to take over the world. And he’s started by taking control of Muir Island, the mutant research centre run by Prof X’s old girlfriend, #MoiraMcTaggart.

My first five ttrps in the order I played them: 1. Judge Dredd 2. Cyberpunk 3. AD&D 2nd Ed 4. Star Wars 5. Warhammer (4 and 5 may be the other way around. It’s a long time ago!)

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From Prog #154, a taste of things to come later in 1980: #StainlessSteelRat! #CaptainKlep! #TheMindOfWolfieSmith! #TheJudgeChild! Some of these are more fondly remembered than others by the Squaxx Dek Thargo... #2000ad #houseads

In Dundee for one of the many Thin Lizzy tributes. Hoping the storm stays away long enough to get home!

From Prog 712 in 1991, one of #MickAustin 's "Things To Look Forward To..." posters, from the olden days when we were still worried about climate change. #2000ad #houseads

Rom’s a PLAYAH! #Rom #Rogue

Here we are with another #xmen90s Annual crossover. This one’s called “Kings of Pain”, it’s all written by #FabienNicieza, and, as well as #NewMutants, #UncannyX-Men and #X-Factor, it guest-stars the #NewWarriors. Don’t know who they were? I got ya, fam.

Handily, they’re saved having to make that decision, when Proteus decides that he’d sooner be dead than live as an energy vampire. Which is a bit of a downer ending.

Oh, and it turns out that the shadowy figures behind the whole thing were #Gideon (one of #RobLiefeld 's new cast in X-Force) and #Toad, formerly of the #BrotherhoodOfEvilMutants, who were just manipulating everyone for shits and giggles. Which makes a change from plotting world conquest, I guess.

After that, the teams head to Edinburgh to try to stop Piecemeal absorbing the last of Proteus’ lost energies. Sadly, they’re a bit too late.

Fortunately, #X-Factor (in their annual, drawn by #TerryShoemaker) turn up to help out, and, weirdly, they don’t insist on having “a bit of a tussle” before doing so. From then on, it’s a short lurch to the end, with our heroes trying to decide whether to help the resurrected Proteus, or kill him.

Proteus is also the son of #MoiraMcTaggart, one of #ProfessorX’s ex-girlfriends, who’s currently at her research centre on #MuirIsland, under the domination of the #ShadowKing (though he generously “loosens his hold” on the residents of Muir Island, so they can take part in the story).

So, over to Uncanny X-Men Annual #15 next, with art by #TomRaney) , where, after (you’ve guessed it) a “bit of a tussle” between the New Warriors / X-Force and the Muir Islanders (Moira, #MadroxTheMultipleMan, #Siryn, #Polaris and #Legion), everyone calms down enough to explain the story so far.

Because it’s a crossover event (and now we’re in New Warrors Annual #1, drawn by #MarkBagley), you’ll not be surprised to know that there’s a misunderstanding between X-Force and the New Warriors, which results in a bit of a tussle, before the two teams decide to team up.

Our heroes soon work out which sinister corporation is behind Harness and Piecemeal - it’s AIM ( #AdvancedIdeaMechanics ). And AIM are trying to bring the dead mutant #Proteus back to life. Proteus was a reality-warping psychic vampire, last seen in 1979, being punched to death by #Colossus.

And behind the sinister corporation, there’s a couple of shadowy figures pulling the strings.

In this case, there are TWO sets of villains: the #AllianceOfEvil, old #X-Factor villains, and Harness and Piecemeal, an abusive mother and her energy-gobbling son. And it’s the all-new, all-shouty #X-Force who turn up to fight them. Not only that, but the New Warriors are also looking into things.

They’re a team of young heroes, who are “the new players in the war on crime!” Or, if you prefer, they’re like what the #Avengers would be if they were obnoxious teenagers. Here they are! I was 17 when I first saw them, and honestly hoped that #Juggernaut would pummel them to death.

Anyway, the story starts in New Mutants Annual #7. You know the drill - sinister corporation employs a bunch of villainous types to track down and collect some mysterious energies, which inevitably brings them into conflict with one or other team of mutants.

Not one, but TWO #houseads from #2000ad prog 894 in 1994 for next week’s issue. First, a fun pic of #ThargTheMighty by #RianHughes, and then a shot of #JudgeDredd by veteran Tooth artist, #RonSmith.

From Prog 949 in 1995, an advert for the Millennium, which doubtless triggered another wave of "what will 2000AD be called in the year 2000?" letters into the Nerve Centre. #2000ad #houseads

And we’re back with #xmen90s, and a visit to #X-Factor, where the very-90s artist #WhilcePortacio draws his first x-book, and the quite-80s writer #LouiseSimonson writes her last x-book (for a while - she’ll be back, after nearly a decade writing #Superman books).

The heroic future-woman, calling herself #Askani, is too late to stop the wee lad from being infected with a mystery virus by Apocalypse. Which makes Cyclops unhappy.

Unable to save Nathan, Cyclops grudgingly lets Askani take him to the future to cure him. Nathan's lost to them forever. Or IS he??? So that's more or less the end of the original X-Factor. From here on in, they'll be back in the X-Men. That's once they've dealt with a problem on #MuirIsland. End

Turns out, Apocalypse is after #Cyclops’ baby son, Nathan. And, because every supervillain must have at least 2 evil plans in motion at any one time, he’s also trying to conquer the #Inhumans, the enigmatic aliens who live on the Moon and occasionally make #FantasticFour comics worse.

But good news! A mystery woman from the future has been sent back in time to save Nathan’s life. Also, #Terminator has been out for a few years now. ALSO also - dramatic poses abound!

With Simonson off the book, #JimLee and #ChrisClaremont arrive to co-plot and script the next 4 issues, for a “final” confrontation with #Apocalypse, the big blue mutant with the “survival of the fittest” fetish.

Apocalypse was created by Simonson, I expect she was delighted to see him turn up immediately after she left the title.

Simonson’s last issues (#63 and #64) are a low-key affair, with #Iceman ’s girlfriend Opal being kidnapped by Japanese super-mobsters, and X-Factor rescuing her from her evil relatives. And all the while, Portacio is developing his art style, from a pretty “normal” one to something a bit weirder.

From Prog 2402, 2024 an ad for the upcoming #DevlinWaugh strip "Two Months Off", by #AlesKot and #PJHolden, sometimes (though not often) to be found in the pages of #JudgeDreddMegazine. #2000ad #houseads

From Prog 1065, 1997, an ad for the "sex special", in which #ThargtheMighty (or perhaps his assistant, David Bishop) decided that comics weren't for kids, and stuck a "not for sale to children" sign on the cover. #2000ad #houseads