Uncanny X-Men #23 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #23
“Where Monsters Dwell, part one”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The X-Men look shadowy in a swamp.
The cover still has the “Shadows of Tomorrow” strapline. It also bills this as “Where Monsters Dwell, part one”, using the logo of the Where Monsters Dwell series that ran for 38 issues between 1970 and 1975 and consisted of reprints of old monster books. (The first issue reprinted “I Brought the Mighty Cyclops Back to Life!” from Tales of Suspense #10, “Gorgolla! The Living Gargoyle!” from Strange Tales #74, and “I Alone Know the Dread Secret of Gor-Kill, the Living Demon!” from Tales of Suspense #12. You know, that sort of book.)
THE X-MEN:
Gambit. He’s being corrupted by the Left Eye of Agamotto. Exactly as predicted by Sadurang, he’s started hunting cats to eat (presumably a stray rather than one of his own pets) and he’s bitten Rogue in his sleep, somehow managing to draw blood. When the rest of the team stage an intervention, he starts by denying a problem, then refuses to give up the Eye on the grounds that he’s a monster and nothing can change that; finally, he fights the other X-Men to hold on to the Eye. It’s an addiction angle, basically.
Being confronted by Rogue seems to bring him to his senses, and he asks her for help. When the team come under attack, he seems to snap back to something approaching normal, and focusses on dealing with the immediate threat.
According to Wolverine, he smells different.
Rogue, Wolverine, Jubilee and Nightcrawler. Well, they stage the intervention, to limited success before the attack. Jubilee, specifically, sees obvious parallels between Gambit’s condition and her early days as a vampire. In that context, it’s probably no coincidence that it’s specifically Morbius holding her as a captive at the end of the issue.
GUEST CAST:
The Rawhide Kid. Kind of. The B-plot of this issue involves Marcus St Juniors reading a bedtime story to Chelsea about an adventure of the Rawhide Kid. This version of the Rawhide Kid is Johnny Bart, and as the story indicates, he’s a western hero whose gimmick was that he was wanted as an outlaw. His series ran from 1960 to 1973, and then continued in reprints until 1979.
Specifically, the art shows Marcus reading a copy of Rawhide Kid #17, with a reprint of that issue’s cover. That was the first issue of the Silver Age series – it continued the numbering from a 1950s book that featured a different character of the same name. However, that’s clearly not the story that Marcus is telling.
This story – entitled “The Rustlers of Gunshot Gulch” – seems to have involved the Rawhide Kid being called in for help by the town of Willow Flats to help deal with a gang of cattle rustlers and horse thieves. We don’t know how far any of this is based on events that actually happened in the Marvel Universe, or how closely Marcus is even following the story. The first part, which seems to be following the original story, involves the Kid escaping execution at the hands of the villains and making a break for it. After that, Marcus starts rewriting the story to work in the Outliers, with Ransom as the Sheriff of Willow Flats and the others as his allies; himself as the Mayor; and a bunch of zombies who seem to have abducted Chelsea.
This plot doesn’t seem to be based on any particular issue of Rawhide Kid as far as I can tell, though it’s not exactly the easiest book to research. However, Willow Flats does come from the original series – it appears in (at least) issues #45 and #50, and the Rawhide Kid’s older brother Joe Clay was the local Sheriff there. In that context, it may be significant that Marcus’s version casts Ransom in Joe’s role – particularly given the emphasis that Deathdream has placed on seeing Ransom as an older brother figure. Or, you know, the town name might just be an easter egg.
Oh, and there was a theme park called Gunshot Gulch in Iron Man #224. That’s almost certainly just a coincidence, but you never know.
Nightwind. The Rawhide Kid’s loyal horse is also there.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Marcus St Juniors and Chelsea St Juniors. As noted above, Marcus is telling a Rawhide Kid story to Chelsea, who seems surprisingly into it. Marcus is clearly well aware of the Outliers listening in and invites them in, then works them into the story. He also starts working monsters into the story at around the same time as actual monsters show up outside – but he is responding to a prompt from Deathdream, so that might be a coincidence. Then again, Chelsea gets captured by the monsters in his story at roughly the same time that Jubilee gets captured by the monsters outside…
The Outliers: Ransom, Calico, Jitter and Deathdream. They start off being mildly amused by Marcus’ story but soon become enthralled.
At least three of them claim never to have been told bedtime stories as a kid. This makes sense from what we know of Ransom’s relationship with his father, and Calico claims that her mother thought they were beneath her. Jitter doesn’t give any particular reason for this odd claim, and we don’t yet know much about her family.
As for Deathdream, he replies “Mother read me the obituaries – does that count?” He might even be joking, but even if he isn’t, it suggests that he had a much healthier relationship with his mother, who was actually trying to deal with him on his terms. He also lobbies for the story to have more monsters, on the grounds that “I really, really, really like monsters” – this is wide-eyed enthusiasm by his standards.
In Marcus’ story, Ransom is the town sheriff, befitting his usual leader role; Jitter is a marksman; Calico is a horsewoman; and Deathdream is the town undertaker, though he’s shown with guns.
VILLAINS:
The Legion of Monsters. Although their group name isn’t given here, the five characters who show up at the end are the Legion of Monsters, with the line-up from their 2011 miniseries. They were last seen as a group (minus Elsa) in Venom War: Deadpool, where they were living in Monster Metropolis below Manhattan. In particular…
Elsa Bloodstone. Elsa is normally a monster-hunter – she was in the 2011 line-up as a sort of alliance of convenience thing, and hasn’t been seen with them since. But in this story she positions herself as a monster herself (“our kind”), and refers to an unspecified female “leader”. She claims that they want to live openly and seize New Orleans for the purpose.
None of this is in character for Elsa, but from her blank eyes, she seems to be possessed or something – though she still talks about her father, so she’s not just a channel for someone speaking through her.
Elsa was last seen in issue #17, where she was one of the talking heads reacting to the Murder Me, Mutina film (and had pupils). In that issue, she seemed more sympathetic to the film than many others, essentially arguing that a fear of powerful mutants was rational.
The Living Mummy. The guy in the bandages is N’Kantu the Living Mummy, who had a very short-lived solo series in Supernatural Thrillers in 1974-1975. He’s a Swahili chieftain from ancient Egyptian times who is, well, a living mummy. It’s in the title, really. He was last seen in Venom War: Deadpool.
Morbius, the Living Vampire. Debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (1971), and technically not a real vampire at all, but a guy with vampire-like abilities. Morbius is much more extensively used outside monster stories than the rest of these guys, and had his own series between 1992-95, with brief revivals more recently. He was last seen in a storyline in Amazing Spider-Man Infinity Comic last summer, and stories tend to be very inconsistent about whether he’s a hero, villain or somewhere in between this week.
Jack Russell, Werewolf By Night. I mean, technically it could be any old werewolf as far as this issue is concerned, but with the Legion of Monsters, it’s normally Jack Russell. He debuted in Marvel Spotlight #2 (1970) and had his own series from 1972 to 1977. His last significant appearances were in the Werewolf By Night: Red Band series, where Elsa also appeared – that book isn’t available in digital format, and only lasted ten issues.
Manphibian. Marvel’s stand-in for the Creature from the Black Lagoon. He debuted in the 1975 Legion of Monsters one-shot (which was a magazine anthology). He’s an alien who spend a millennium trapped underground. He was last seen in Venom War: Deadpool.
Frankenstein’s Monster. Exactly what he sounds like. Marvel’s version had his own series in 1973-1975. Again, he was last seen in Venom War: Deadpool.
CONTINUITY REFERENCES:
- In page 3 panel 5, the comic that Marcus St Juniors is reading from has the reprinted cover of Rawhide Kid #17 (1960), the first issue of the Silver Age series. (It continued the numbering of an unrelated Rawhide Kid series featuring a different character of the same name, which had been cancelled in 1957.)
- The “robot dog” that Marcus refers to is Deathdream’s cyborg pet Waffles, who doesn’t appear in the issue.
- Sadurang told Gambit that the Left Eye of Agamotto would make him hunger, first for live animals and then for people, in issue #13. The rest of the X-Men weren’t there, but evidently Gambit has relayed the message.
- Jubilee was transformed into a vampire after being bitten by Xarus in X-Men vol 3 #1 (2010). Her period of lacking control didn’t last very long, broadly until the Wolverine and Jubilee miniseries the following year.
- Elsa Bloodstone’s father was Ulysses Bloodstone, who had a feature in Marvel Presents in the mid-70s. I don’t think the bit about him being pro-mutant has any particular reference.
- Elsa refers to the mutants “getting a mini-mall”; she’s presumably thinking of the mayor’s “Uncanny Village” pitch from issue #19.
While I understand the story Simone’s telling, it’s weird that an Eye of Agamotto is causing this when Strange is regularly surrounded by two and isn’t a dragon/monster yet.
I can easily see mystical artifacts having effects on normies like Remy but not Dr. Strange. Strange knows how to handle that sort of thing; we can just assume he’s magically inoculated somehow.
MacKay should have used this story-arc with X-Men, then he could have titles the first chapter “I Brought the Mighty Cyclops Back to Life”.
Morbius also had an ongoing feature in the Fear series during the 1970s, featuring stand-out writing by Steve Gerber.
Rogue claims that she was “just coming’ into my own as an X-Man when Gambit showed up”. That’s odd- Rogue joined in Uncanny X-Men 171 and she met Remy in Uncanny X-Men 280. Then again, she just got rid of the Carol Danvers personality in Uncanny X-Men 269, so maybe that’s what she’s referring to.
I wonder who their leader is. Bloodstone claims that “she” wants juke joints and elegant restaurants. The obvious answer is Shuvahrak but that doesn’t sound like her.
Am I the only one that thinks that Marvel is doing too many stories right now with a leader taking command of the monsters and telling them to war on humanity? The Eldest in Hulk, the Immortal in Magik & Colossus and the mysterious leader this issue. I wonder if the monsters get confused:
“Excuse me. Am I supposed to follow the Eldest, the Immortal or that lady in New Orleans?”
“You’re a Russian monster, right? You follow the Immortal.”
“Thanks, I’ll be sure to save you some human blood.”
@MaakuJ, Adam- Rogue refers to it as “the LEFT eye of Agamotto”. Left is associated with evil. So presumably it’s only this eye that turns people into monsters if they use it too long.
Simone probably never read any X-Men comics going back that far (pre-Gambit).
Pity. Gambit was the worst thing to happen to Rogue as far as I’m concerned. She was much more interesting to me before that idiot came along. Her existence has been primarily defined by her relationship to him ever since.
And she came into her own much earlier than Gambit. The agony she endured to help save Colossus after Pyro and Avalanche messed him up earned her place on the team.
Yeah, their relationship was really creepy and toxic in the early stages. In a way that teens and (shudder) tweens, as the term would be coined, the main audience Marvel was trying to appeal at the time (well, and speculators, of course) wouldn’t notice.
It’s sort of surprising that Marvel would allow them to mature and have an actual positive relationship in the end after Remy was an abusing jerk to Rogue originally.
I liked the Claremont/Romita Jr. Rogue the best.
Yep, JR Jr. and Paul Smith. That’s the Rogue I liked.
It’s because of that damned FOX cartoon that Rogue and Gambit are eternally tethered to one another. A whole generation of readers grew up on that cartoon. It’s all about the cartoon. Mustn’t disrespect the cartoon.
I hate that cartoon.
@Moo X-Men Evolution wasn’t that bad.
How long did they keep Jubilee a vampire anyway? It felt like that dragged on forever, not even because anybody thought it was a good idea so much as nobody wanted to deal with writing a storyline to get her back to normal.
Nostalgia for the ’90s cartoon is pretty much all that’s saved her from ending up as obscure as Banshee and her classmates.
Until 2018. You don’t want to know any of the details…hint: It involves the Phoenix (no, seriously).
So, eight years. Of no one having any idea what to do with the idea.
Jubilee has a one-shot scheduled for April. It’s written by Gene Luen Yang, snd I’m actually interested in this X-comic as it sounds like something different for Marvel (GLY is a great writer).
“Nostalgia for the ’90s cartoon is pretty much all that’s saved her from ending up as obscure as Banshee and her classmates.”
And that same nostalgia is precisely why she doesn’t appear to have changed at all since the ’90s.
I just took a gander of the cover of that upcoming one-shot Chris mentioned. Still looks like a kid. Same age. Same costume. Same hair. She’s been encased in ’90s glass.
@Moo- How old was Gail Simone when she started reading the X-Men? She was born in 1974. Uncanny X-Men 280 came out in 1991. 17 is late to start reading the X-Men.
@Chris V- To be fair, Rogue doesn’t have clean hands in their early relationship either. There was the whole “leaving him to die in Antarctica” thing but that wa due to Seagle misunderstanding how her powers work. And in X-Men 45, she brings down the ceiling on him- he could have been seriously injured. Not signs of a healthy relationship.
Yeah, they tried to explain away Rogue trying to kill Gambit in Antarctica as Rogue holding onto Gambit’s self-hatred and wish to die due to his actions after they…uhh…“made out”, sure. That really looks a lot worse on the X-Men (it was another Avengers #200 moment) than Rogue. There was no excuse on the other X-Men’s part. “Gee, Rogue. We’re just going to allow our teammate to die? Whatever you think is best.”
That was when Marvel decided to mellow out Gambit and make him a less problematic character (not a predator). It gave us the Gambit ongoing series which was a fun series and did make Gambit a much better character (instead of relying on creepy and mysterious).
In this story, we have a father telling a perfectly good story his daughter was enjoying… until the Outliers show up and then even the bedtime story is about them!
Seriously, though, I thought this was one of the better issues because we actually got to spend time with the X-Men for much of it. I’m not terribly interested in the legion of monsters, but seeing some movement on Gambit’s possession plot and some reason for Jubilee to be here was something, at least.
@Chris V- Personally, I think it sounds like a bad idea. What killed Jubilee’s 2004 series was Kirkman introducing a never-before seen aunt of Jubilee’s. So what does Gene Yang propose for the one-shot? Introducing another long-lost relative of Jubilee’s.
@yrzhe- It’s not just the cartoon. Jubilee is the X-Men’s highest profile Asian character that isn’t really a white British woman.
What almost destroyed Jubilee as a character was House of M. Jubilee just doesn’t work as a character without her powers and she was arguably the highest-profile character that stayed depowered the longest. None of the ideas for her during that time- she’s a New Warrior, she’s a vampire- really worked.
Here’s a novel idea for Marvel as to what they could do with Jubilee: pretend she’s a real young woman.
No self-respecting nineteen or twenty year old woman would be caught sporting the exact same look they had in junior high. As a young man in the early ’90s I wasn’t about to present myself in public still looking like a backup member of the Flock of Seagulls.
Marvel either goes too far or too stupid whenever they attempt to evolve her. First they depower her, then they make her a tech-based hero, then they make her a vampire, then they make her an adoptive mother.
How about just having her grow her hair long? Have her ditch the jacket and the sunglasses. Put her in a new costume. If they’re worried about character identification, keep a color scheme or keep some details vaguely reminiscent of her old look. That’s all they need to do.
Michael-I’m not sure that’s what killed the Jubilee series so much as the fact it wasn’t a superhero comic. Marvel fans usually want to see X-Men characters doing X-Men things and being superheroes with other X-Men. It’s why most X-Men solo series fail because the fans would rather see the X-Men doing X-Men things as part of one of the X-teams than doing X-Men things by themselves (except Wolverine, who is just too cool).
The Jubilee series faced a much bigger problem by being written like an indy series; if Marvel readers wanted to read indy comics they would buy an indy comic, and indy fans have no interest in reading a mutant book. It appealed to a very small niche audience: readers who like indy comics but are willing to read a bunch of superhero universe titles.
Besides, this is a one-shot. They usually have little relevance outside of telling their own story. It’s not like Marvel is testing the water for an ongoing Gene Yang Jubilee series. I think he has better things to do right now.
“I’m not sure that’s what killed the Jubilee series.”
It wasn’t. Introducing previously unheard of family members is silly and old hat, but the idea itself isn’t a series-killer. The introduction of bald-headed Charles Xavier’s previously unheard of and equally bald-headed evil twin sister didn’t kill Morrison’s New X-Men run.
Jubilee’s book had bigger problems.
Does Rogue even have blood? I thought she has Wonder Man’s ionic boogie. Enough to make Gambit’s bite really impressive.
Also, if you find yourself hunting your own cat for food, simply hold your tablet close to your face and the cat will get in right next to your mouth. Gambit as Gollum. It’s original, if nothing else.
@Si – Thanks for the tip. I’m hungry and I was torn between “order pizza” and “eat my cat.” Think I’ll try out the tablet thing.
No-Prize theory: maybe the reason why the Eyes of Agamotto don’t turn Dr Strange into a compulsive cannibal is because they neutralize each other , but Gambit only has one Eye .
And X-Men Evolution was impressive to me because it was a series where , for once , Rogue a) wasn’t the team physical powerhouse , and b) had a romance with someone other than Gambit , Scott this time around , a couple which was both unexpected in its pairing in its yet undeniable in its logic (such that it was even implied on-screen in the finale and confirmed off-screen in an interview by the showrunners themselves that Scott X Rogue was end-game in the future of that AU , after Jean breaks bad by becoming Dark Phoenix)
@Chris V
Morbius actually had two concurrent features back in the 1970s – more than a year before Spider-Man himself did. “Vampire Tales” was a B&W magazine that had him as a headliner (Gerry Conway writing, Esteban Maroto penciling) shortly before his “Fear” feature debuted. And then he had his own title in the 1990s, back when everyone and their second cousins also did.
There are two “Werewolf by Night” characters coexisting right now. One is Jack Russell, who goes back to the 1970s. The other is Jake Gomez, who seems to have debuted in a 2020-2011 four-issue series with Red Wolf as a supporting character, then appeared in a 2022 “Crypt of Shadows” one-shot anthology co-starring with Moon Knight in a single story, and finally had his most exposure in the “WbN: Blood Hunt” one-shot a couple of years ago.
Apparently this second WbN is something of a self-insert by his co-creator, who happens to be Taboo from Black Eyed Peas. He was presumably cured less than a year ago in “Werewolf by Night: Red Band” #10, where he and Elsa Bloodstone were supporting characters to Jack Russell.
The Werewolf in this issue is probably Jack Russell, though.
^True, but Steve Gerber only wrote one of the Morbius stories for Vampire Tales (#1). It may be the most gloriously ‘70s comic story I’ve ever seen though (which is quite a statement), so that does recommend it.
“Gambit only has one Eye.”
Now Remy’s a pirate?
I think a Werewolf by Night series could really be a hit today if Jack Russell were actually a Jack Russell terrier instead of a person. A cute little doggy that’s incidentally also a lycanthrope. “Doggy by Day, Werewolf by Night” That’s what you call the series, followed by a tagline that reads: “Who’s a Good Boy?”
I can already feel Marvel writers stealing this idea from me.
Kitty’s Bedtime Story was cute for one issue. Mister St Junior’s Bedtime Rawhide Kid Fan Fiction stretched over an arc might be a little too much.
Anyway. I could have used some foreshadowing – I mean, we had repeated mentions of what the Eye would do, but we haven’t seen it have any effect on Gambit before now, right?
The problem with Gambit’s early appearances is that they work perfectly for what he was at the time: Nathaniel Essex’s psychic sleeper agent, a 12-year-old’s idea of a cool, mysterious loner who can charm anyone, kind of a dark Longshot.
It’s just that, along with manipulating the X-Men, he also manipulated readers and all the post-Claremont writers into thinking he was cool as well, so they junked the original backstory and make him an actual hero. In which case those early portrayals don’t sit so well, since he was, you know, a bad guy.
@ChrisV,
Remember , in 616 , Gambit IS the crown prince/king of the New Orleans chapter of the global Thieves Guild
Drew-We were talking about Gambit post-Claremont when he was in a relationship with Rogue. Gambit never did anything very “villainous” during the Claremont days. He was robbing from wealthy bankers, helping Storm, and seemed out for himself…all of which are typical cool anti-hero tropes.
It was after Claremont that writers decided that Gambit wanted to get with Rogue because she seemed unattainable, as a trophy for himself rather than any other reason. It wasn’t that he was “villainous” which was the problem, as he was otherwise written as a mysterious but heroic character, but the fact that their relationship was just creepy from an adult perspective, although it wouldn’t really seem that way to the target demographic of teens, where those types of relationships were often portrayed as “romantic”. The emotionally abusive, self-centered boyfriend who the woman wins over and can start to change.
I used to think that Bishop was going to be a villain shortly after he was introduced.
That’s where I thought the X-Traitor plot was going when it first came up. I thought there was going to be this ironic twist where the guy from the future who’s investigating and trying to stop the X-Traitor from killing the X-Men actually turned out to be the X-Traitor.
That’s why I thought “the Witness” didn’t say a word when Bishop asked him who betrayed the X-Men. Because he knew it was Bishop.
Little did I know that the real reason the Witness didn’t say a word was because he had no interest whatosever in dredging up that piece of shit Onslaught storyline. I wouldn’t have said anything either.
Well, on a long enough timeline Bishop turned out to be an X-Traitor if not the X-Traitor.
I was convinced that the revelation of Gambit’s terrible secret after reading X-Men #45, involving Seattle, was that Gambit was a huge Tears for Fears fan while living there during the early days of Grunge. Hipster Sinister, who had been into the Pixies since the late-‘80s, used to make fun of Remy for saying that “Everybody Wants to Rule the World is a far better song than Smells Like Teen Spirit.” and threatened to reveal Remy’s taste in music to Rogue.
I still think this would have been far better than the actual story reveal.
I’m definitely going for some sort of possession angle on the Legion of Monsters, especially with Elsa being more of a hunter and/or protector than an outright monster in her own right. But then again, there’s been a lot of continuity implants where the Bloodstones are concerned, ever since she was originally introduced. (The Elsa we’ve gotten since the introduction is vastly different, in part thanks to her makeover in Nextwave.)
The use of Rawhide Kid (as a comic) out of all Marvel’s many Western characters is an interesting choice. Especially when you consider how many of those Western characters have also been depicted as actual people in the context of the MU, thanks to time travel and other nonsense.
“ Well, on a long enough timeline Bishop turned out to be an X-Traitor if not the X-Traitor.”
Indeed: On a long enough timeline, everyone is an X-Traitor.
@Chris V- It should be noted that even under Claremont, Gambit kissed a female minion of Cameron Hodge against her will.
@TheOtherMirchael,
Since the only thing the original Elsa Bloodstone has in common with the current Elsa Bloodstone is that they’re Young White Englishwomen, I prefer to think that Blonde PigTailed Good Girl Elsa is from the all-ages Marvel Adventures universe , while Ginger PonyTailed Bad Bitch Elsa is from the 616/Prime-Earth universe
While I don’t think Simone is going there, it did occur to me that the Rawhide Kid comic *could* legitimately have the Outliers in it, due to Time Travel Bullshit ™.
@Alexx Kay,
The Outliers traveling back in time to have adventures with the Rawhide Kid make a fine feature or backup story in an annual. I don’t believe it should drive an arc in the main book.
However, I have a feeling Simone is setting up an arc involving the Rawhide Kid and the Outliers. After all, Elsa Bloodstone appeared in issue 17 before returning with the Legion of Monsters.
Why are people saying Doctor Strange has two Eyes of Agamotto? He has one, later retconned to be the Eye of Knowledge. Gambit’s Eye is the Eye of Power, and the third has been lost. Previously, the Eye of Knowledge has never been shown to cause cannibalism. In Savage Avengers, Strange wanted to give it to a time-traveling Conan.
@neutrino- Presumably they’re thinking of the Amulet of Agamotto, which has been referred to as the Lesser Eye off Agamotto:
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Amulet_of_Agamotto
Simone also did an odd one-off Western issue of Secret Six — the ongoing, pre-Flashpoint volume — with Old West counterparts of the characters in the 1800s. It wasn’t explained and was never mentioned again. It seems to be an unlabeled Elseworlds story.
So it may be that she’s just telling an Old West genre story that will have some broad thematic connections to the Outliers or the X-Men in the present.