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.