X-Men: Road Trippin'!

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #138, 244-245, 323

by Chris Claremont, John Francis Moore, John Byrne (Illustrator)

Reprints Uncanny X-Men #138, #244-245, and #323; Generation X #5; Wolverine (2nd series) #78; X-Force (1st series) #71 and #75; Marvel Treasury Edition #26

Genres: Graphic Novels Comics, Graphic Novels

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love (sarcasm font on, as per usual, so read: hate) how Marvel takes a “theme” and tries to pigeonhole a bunch of stories, half of which, are barely relevant to the aforementioned “theme” and attempt to cram them into a book and slap a misguided title on it, just to make a quick buck or two. Plus, the cover looks as bland and milquetoast as you’re gonna find: “Hey girls, need a ride to the clam bake?”

This was a bargain find, so it’s not like I paid hundred bucks for the gilded platypus skinned edition. Someone sold a bunch of used X-Men titles to the local comics store, but by the time I got there - no Days of Future Passed, no Phoenix Saga, no God Loves, Man Kills – this…

It’s an anthology of sorts, so it’s gonna be a grab bag of fun…

Or not.

The Generation X story, although they take the subway into New York (not much of a road trip), in contrast, proves how horrible the current version of this title is.



The kids from X-Force, told to skedaddle by their leader, jerk-face Cable, seek to “find” themselves by traveling around the weirdest, most dangerous small towns in America.



The sign at Dani Moonstar’s feet should read, “Will fight Magneto for food.”

And they hang at a Burning Man festival.



Now, those are road trip stories.

Cyclops, I guess, takes a road trip in his head as he stands over the grave of Jean Gray.



I would most certainly be thinking of beating up Sauron or The Blob, as I stand around moping during my girlfriend’s funeral.



Another issue has Rogue and Iceman, travel around in the desert for two pages…



Whilst a dozen or so X-plots get worked out or muddled.

The Bobster, what the hell?

Remember that time the X-Men hung out in the Australian outback? Sure you do. The X-guys and X-gals take turns taking a break from the hot-assed encampment. Some of the ladies do what every unimaginative writer has female characters do – shop.



…and party.



Jubilee makes her debut here.



Hi.

The X-dudes travel to Sydney and get into trouble with aliens.



Way to undermine Storm’s credibility Canucklehead.



And speaking of runts, Wolverine has a couple of road trips…



He leads an undead fellow and friend into the Canadian wilderness…



In the other, cross out road trip and insert drinking at a bar. Forsooth, it’s Wolverine against Hercules…



Zounds and pass the peanuts.



Bottom Line : This one’s for X-fans who don’t mind their convoluted storylines taken out of context.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Individually, these stories are pretty good, but the collection suffers from a lot of unexplained subplots and unresolved endings. Too much of a mixed bag of things to be more than of interest to hard core X-Men fanatics.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd and somewhat random collection of X-stories featuring many different characters (and teams of characters), with the only (somewhat tenuous) common theme of them being on-the-road stories. (It was amusing to note that Dani Moonstar is reading a copy of ON THE ROAD in one of the X-Force stories included.) They were originally published in different titles over a spread of almost twenty years so it's difficult to get a feel for what's going on from episode to episode, and some of the references to current events fall flat. The classic Claremont/Byrne "Elegy" is included, which is probably the best introduction to the X-universe one could hope for from the two best creators. Claremont is represented by two other stories, and there are also a couple from Scott Lobdell. There's a nicely-drawn Wolverine story from Adam Kubert. The name Bryan Hitch wasn't familiar to me, but I thought his art for an Uncanny issue was the best that was included in this book. Altogether it's a nice but somewhat uneven collection.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

As easy as it is to dislike the unwieldy crossovers that usually make the X-books easy to hate on, the stories that often fall between those storylines are usually well worth the effort to find. Somewhere along the line, Marvel got the bright idea to put a bunch of those "issues that happen between those crossovers no one likes" into a book. Not surprisingly, it's a very good book.

As it's an X-book, no surprise Chris Claremont has probably the two best chapters, following up off the Inferno storyline. One issue for the guys and girls on the X-Men at the time (hiding out in Australia). Other iterations of X-teams (X-Force, Generation X) dilute the idea somewhat, but it's still a good series of "done-in-one" yarns that might it ideal for idle thumbing through