Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 3

Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men #3

by John Byrne

Hated and feared by a world they are sworn to protect, the X-Men face off against some of their most unforgettable foes – including Magneto, Mesmero, Garrok the Petrified Man, Sauron, Moses Magnum and Alpha Flight. Collects X-MEN (Vol. 1) #111-121

Genres: Comics, X Men, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.

Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

Reviews

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS WAS SO GOOD OMG!

Its one of those comics that is just a round the world trip and I freaking love it!

X-Men are attacked by Mesmero until Beast rescues them and then enter Magneto who has captured them and we see what his plans are and in Antarctica the X-Men go and are trapper and the ones who do escape aka Jean realizes her friends might be dead but they are trapped and then a battle with Magneto later and then coming to Savage land and fighting Sauron there and I freaking love it and the coming of Ka-zar and some wild adventures there and its so awesome!

Then seeing them in Japan and teaming with Sunfire and here's where Logan meets Mariko and I love it and going against Mandroids and Moses Magnum which was so fun and we see the X-Men working so well together and some great or the other and I love the bond-ness that forms between all the members and they are like a family now and then to Canada and facing off against Alpha flight and some hints as to Logan's past and a fight between the teams and also showing the bond b/w Logan and Slim!

One of my fav X-Men volumes ever and its a world tour and done so well with random enemies here and there but also using it to show different members and their motives and establishing how well they work together! A definite recommend from me!

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Claremont e John Byrne foram uma daquelas raras duplas de argumentista/ilustrador que marcaram os comics. O estilo intricado mas focado na forma humana de Byrne assentou como uma luva ao tipo de histórias de Claremont, que mantendo dramas pessoais e inter-relações como fio condutor, apostava em aventura explosiva seccionada em episódios para manter o interesse dos leitores. O tom de drama e aventura são elevados nesta temporada, com os X-Men dispersos. Enquanto a equipe principal regressa do espaço numa longa viagem que os leva ao oásis antárctico da terra selvagem e ao Japão ameaçado por um super criminoso, com um confronto final com Alpha Flight, a equipe canadiana de super-heróis apostada em fazer Wolverine regressar ao serviço, o professor X refugia-se no espaço com a imperatriz Lilandra, e Jean Grey/Phoenix vê-se isolada. Todas as linhas narrativas no Japão e com a Alpha Flight irão lançar as bases das histórias que tornarão Wolverine um dos mais populares personagens da Marvel.

[Kevin Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didnt plan to read this in just 2 sittings, but once i started, i literally could not stop. The Claremont/Byrne XMEN have always been my own personal comic book version of "The Beatles" - Top of the top, A - number one, top of the heap, the best....(for me) - as a wee small laddie, I stumbled on the bi-monthly xmen around issue 127 ("Proteus" saga) and i was totally hooked. It was a little more "adult" than all the other books and it was just so weird for that time. Truly alternative and made the other marvel & DC heroes look boring, staid & conservative. Mutants were exotic, strange societal freaks! And thus, a very small cult sprang up at that time....It exploded in full-on popularity as the Dark Phoenix saga unfolded...and It was pretty cool to nod my adolescent head and say "yep, been on board for a year" when everyone else had just "found" uncanny xmen. Fast forward 35 years later, half of this compliation i had not read before. It was always hard to buy back issues before about #120, too damn expensive.....Happy to report this TPB held my interest & attention. (I was afraid it might not). Still have a few of these original stories from this TPB in the individual issues! But they are "yellowed" :-( and i dont like to handle them, thus this wonderful compilation to re-read 30 years later! :-) -- i am not going to critique claremont/byrne, that would be mindless ---If you like them, do yourself a favor, Retrace their earliest steps as a team on this title. Buy this!

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading through the GNs of all the old X-men I bought and read as single issues so long ago, enjoying the visual power of Byrne's greatest art, and remembering when Chris Claremont was at the height of his game and hadn't descened into over-wordy, repetivity. This and the next volume are the penultimate chapters, leading up to the Dark Phoenix Saga. Getting to share these original works with my wife, who only knows the characters from the movies, is a real blast. She is enthralled with the complex charcters that are so thinly represented on the screen. I hand her each volume as I finish, enjoying the idea of her getting to read these for the very first time.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best. Claremont hits his full stride, distinguishing the characters, developing an excellent around-the-world adventure and "killing off" the team for the first time. Magneto is at his peak here, with some of my favorite character moments, including his seeming concern when robot "nanny" is on the fritz.

[Edward Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

The X-Men fight Magneto in space! There's a trip to the Savage Land, Japan and Canada as the X-Men meet friends and foes both old and new. Some great stories from Claremont and Byrne as one oft he most famous runs in comics history continues.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this is the beginning of the classic era of X-Men, when Claremont, Byrne, and Austin were throwing out the twists and turns not just every issue but every page!

[Toad Soup · Rating 5 out of 5]

The X-Men have become friends :.)..

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

After being captured by their enemies and believed to be dead by Jean Grey and Professor X, the X-Men have to undertake the long journey home, starting in Antarctica and passing through Japan and Canada on the way.

This is what I think of when I think of Claremont's run. It's all one long story, packed with side plots, and it's generally pretty fun.

[Rummanah (Books in the Spotlight) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Number of times Wolverine says “bub” in this volume: 20

Kidding aside, I’m starting to appreciate the time Claremont takes to allow the reader to get into the characters’ inner monologue. I also like seeing Storm become more powerful in these issues.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I HAVENT HAD THIS MUCH FUN READING A COMIC IN SO LONG THIS IS SO GOODDDDD

[Holli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning: Smallish rant ahead. I apologize, but I had to let this out otherwise I was going to scream and throw things. And everything I wanted to throw is breakable and probably expensive.

1) The mounting references to outside comics is insane! If you can't find a synopsis for the comic that one throwaway line of another story comes from, you have to go through pages of bios to find out what they are talking about. Interesting, but it takes a long time to find it and by the time I did I really didn't care anymore. Makes me wonder what happened when this series first came out and someone back then didn't have access to every comic ever written and couldn't borrow them from anyone or find them in a store near them.

2) The X-Men seem to completely forget they have the magical power to close their eyes when it's called for. If someone is trying to hypnotize you or you have a power that blasts out of your eyes, close your eyes already! It's not hard. You do it every time you blink, sleep, get something in it, whatever. Unless the bad guy is holding them open (which he wasn't with Beast, by the way) you have this talent.

3) The X-Men are taken by Magneto 70,000 feet in the air. This is almost as high up as Olympus Mons is tall: the volcano on Mars and the tallest mountain in the whole solar system. The highest point on Earth is Mount Everest, which is 29,029 feet high. A place where cold and lack of oxygen kills very quickly. How did those in the circus cart breathe, not have their blood boil, and not freeze to death? They may be mutants, but they still have human bodies which are suseptable to the elements and can die in such extremes. I realize in the 1970s researching things was limited, but there were no doubt people around the writers could ask about such things. You don't even have to learn some weird, secret handshake. Mostly it's all a matter of "can I borrow you and your brain for a moment?" type of things. Most people are delighted to share their knowledge in such matters as they want it done right in books, movies, shows, etc.

4) Erm, when was Lilandra's exile ended? She's on Earth because she can't go home. Then suddenly, she can and takes Xavier with her. I missed something here. She didn't even say "oh, sweetums, my exile's over with. They sent me a memo this morning I'me free to rule my world now. I can go home now, isn't that wonderful? Wanna come with?"

5) I've also decided I'm not really crazy about the solid backstory issues. Yes, they fill in holes. But they are a mega info-dump in the middle of a storyline. It's distracting, no matter how interesting they might be. It must have been entirely frustrating when these comics came out originally and you had to wait a month to find out what happened next in the story you were reading before the history lesson. I realize they still work this way in being monthly issue releases, but they didn't have electronic, instant access to those comics the moment they came out as we have now. They had to wait for the local comic book store to open before they could race in, find the latest issue, and learn what happened next to their superhero friends in the main storyline.

Okay, rant over. I feel better now. Overall, I liked this comic book collection (or graphic novel bindup, whichever term you prefer) but they continue to drive me batty. Despite my problems here, I plan to continue. I'll just keep some non-breakables around to fulfill my need to throw things when they gang up on me.

[Joseph R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magneto attacks again, this time kidnapping the X-Men and taking them to his Antarctic base underneath a volcano. While they are trapped, he works on his orbiting base. The X-Men just barely manage to escape, though they are split up and each group think the other has died. Beast and Jean Grey make it to the Antarctic surface where they are discovered by a search plane. They return to New York where Jean tells Professor X the others are dead. Xavier closes up the school and leaves with the new love of his life, the space queen Lilandra. He leaves for her kingdom while Jean goes to Scotland. Beast goes back to the Avengers.

Meanwhile, Cyclops, Storm, Banshee, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine have escaped by tunneling away from the base. They wind up in the Savage Land, an Antarctic pre-historic jungle heated by geothermal sources. They have adventures with the local inhabitants, finally escaping to the sea where they wind up on a Japanese science vessel that's in lockdown until they return to Japan. Six weeks later, in Japan they try to contact Xavier only to find no one answering. That's just as well, because a supervillain threatens Japan. The X-Men team up with Japanese superhero Sunfire to take out the threat. They almost make it back to America--the Canadian government detours their plane so they can get Wolverine back. He was a multi-million dollar experiment and part of a plan to develop a Canadian superhero team.

The world-travelling nature of the story keeps things interesting, as does the human drama of dealing with the supposed deaths of their comrades (even by the end, no one finds out the others survived). The plotting is fantastic and fun, making this a very enjoyable read.

Highly recommended.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Claremont's legendary run on the Uncanny X-Men is largely collected in a 12-volume (and counting) set in the Marvel Masterworks series that takes us through some of the most pivotal stories in X-Men lore. (As of volume 12, it gets up to Uncanny X-Men #200.) Here we see the launch of a new X-Men team that includes, over time, Cyclops, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Rogue and many others. The stories include some of the most iconic in X-Men history, including the Hellfire Club saga, the Dark Phoenix saga and the Trial of Magneto. All told, the Marvel Masterworks - Uncanny X-Men series is must-read material for anyone who wishes to dive deeply into the rich (and often difficult to navigate) history of the X-Men. It is must-read material for anyone who wants to get a taste for what it was like during a period of time when the X-Men grew from an also-ran Marvel title into one of the greatest superhero tentpole franchises of all time. And if all that isn't enough, within these volumes are some of the most enjoyable writer/artist pairings you'll find from this era of Marvel comics, including Claremont's epic collaborations with John Byrne, Dan Green and John Romita, Jr. Within these volumes are stories that continue to resonate today, tales that beyond beyond people in colorful tights punching each other out and into an ongoing commentary on what it means to be hated for one's nature, on what it means to protect those who see you as an enemy, and what it means to live with heroic dignity in a world committed to stripping that very thing from you. These are some of the finest comic book stories ever published. They are deeply fun to read, and most of all, they are an important chapter of a beloved medium.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection sees Magneto separating the team shortly after they return from Phoenix fixing reality. The X-Men really start to gel as a team during a series of adventures on their way back home from the Magneto encounter.

The Byrne art is really amazing and it just really pops even after all these years and rereads. I have been slowing down to study the panels. Noticed the reprint colors are redone and I even caught an edit that removed that Magneto had a run in with the FF and Dr. Doom between his appearances. So far I prefer the older colors, which seem moodier and less flat. The continuity edit probably made for some clarity for the new reader, but I didn't realize how much tighter appearances could be in the Marvel U in the 70's until I started this chronological read.

Quite a shift with Byrne too. According to the supplemental material I have read recently, Byrne rescued Wolverine and highlighted him because he is Canadian, so it's all his fault. The characters seem more familiar with each issue by Byrne--sure they are continuing the story, but something about Byrne really anchors them.

I need to edit the above statement that I am studying the panels to say more accurately that I am TRYING to study the panels, but I get swept up in the story and read it at a natural pace.

These are essential X-Men stories.

[Shawn Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many beginnings

The first Shadow King. The debut of Alpha Flight. Introducing Zaladane. The return of Mesmero, Magneto, Sauron and Moses Magnum. Special guest spots from Ka-zar, Sunfire, and the Daughters of the Dragon. Wolverine falling madly for Mariko. Colleen becoming interested in Scott. Charles and Lilandra in outer space. This one keeps up the pace and doesn't stop, with one crisis and adventure on the heels of the next. The X-men wind from Japan to Scotland to the Savage Land, all while learning more about themselves and each other. John Byrne supplies his best flowing pencils, Dave Cockrum supplies dramatic covers, and Terry Austin inks most of it. This is super hero team hijinks of the highest order , influential for years to come.

[Sananab · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last few issues take place in Calgary. For a person who grew up in Calgary, that couldn't possibly be more weird. Calgary is not an interesting or pleasant place, so its pop-culture footprint is almost non-existent. It's just normal that Calgary isn't in books, or on TV. Most Canadians seem to barely know Calgary exists, in spite of it being one of the country's largest cities.

Some of it takes place near my old appartment. Some takes place near my old high school. What's extra strange is that downtown Calgary changed very little from the 70s to the 00s, when I last lived there. About a dozen landmarks show up in these comics, and none of them had changed an iota.

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the short succinct writing of Claremont and the beautiful yet classic artwork of Byrne. The X-Men find themselves fighting the likes of Magneto, Sauron, and even Alpha Flight. No matter who they face, the X-Men prove that they can work as a team to prevail. I love the strength and beauty that Storm shows in the issues. It is nice to see Logan fleshed out as a character especially his interest in Japan and Mariko and his past in Canada. Overall a great book from two of my favorite X-Men collaborators.

[***Dave Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claremont and Byrne at their early X-Men most-awesomest, complete with Magneto, the Savage Land, and the introduction of Alpha Flight. Seriously, kids, this is the run that made the X-Men a franchise.

[Mphill968 · Rating 5 out of 5]

It doesn't get any better than this!!!

Almost 40 years later and these issues are still as wonderful as I remember. There are many wonderful writer /artist combinations, but nothing beats Claremont/Byrne/Austin.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I miss the days of unconvoluted X-men stories. These first three collections are so refreshing to go back to w/o all of today's overly ridiculous storylines and crossovers.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Savage Land, Japan, and exotic Calgary! Beautiful John Byrne art and a lot of development for Wolverine. Always a good time!

[Kevin Nobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still love the direction X-Men is going after the reboot. I can't believe how dry it was before.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of my 60th anniversary read. I was supposed tonread this slowly but slipped and finished in a day. I appreciate Byrne's touch of characterization more and more.

[Doom70 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. The foundations of so many X-Men Legends. A fun read.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

With John Byrne settled in on art and the comic selling well enough to go monthly, it's time for Claremont to dig into what he's best known for. Complex character work and long-running subplots? Well, yes, those too, but Vol. 3 also gets stuck in right away with the mind control and weird fetishes. If you like Jean Grey getting bad-girlified by Mesmero in the first story here, then (ahem) buckle up as there's PLENTY more where that came from. On the other hand, readers who share Magneto's adult baby kink will be saddened to know that's one bizarro deathtrap we don't really get close to again.

There's a lot to be said for pouring your id onto the page - it makes for vastly stranger and more engaged comics, even in a work-for-hire environment - and Claremont is always a smart enough writer to make sure that the tail never wags the plotting dog. Mind control is a natural device for a writer as interested in characterisation as he is - how better to explore personalities than by making your cast step outside them as contrast. The search for identity and the repression (or realisation) of your 'true' self is central to Claremont's X-Men, and we'll see it play out again and again in more complex (as well as more lurid) forms.

In this 11-chapter chunk the character whose identity Claremont picks at most is Wolverine, partly because Byrne apparently loved him, partly because the angry-short-dude thing he had going on previously was getting unsustainable. So he gets a name, a few more motivations, and hints at a more complicated past than was apparent (there's no sense at this point how tiresomely convoluted this idea would get).

It works, partly because it's in the context of a conscious general move away from the bickering team of Claremont's first 20 issues - he's gone as far as he could with that stuff, and the long "World Tour" plot feels like a deliberate excuse to put it to bed by giving the team a stretch of time when they only have each other to rely on and the process of bonding can be completed. The plot kicks off with the group's first successful fight as a team (against Magneto), which ends in them escaping but divided into two groups, each of whom think the others are dead. This feels like it's going to be resolved in an issue or two - instead it becomes a year long status quo.

The split-team plot defies credibility (how does Misty Knight not know Scott is supposed to be dead? How come Professor X doesn't check?) but works fine on an issue by issue basis - peril after peril thrown at our beleaguered team and a real sense that these guys are earning their various wins, plus ample opportunities for Byrne to draw the shit he loves: dinosaurs, robots, Canadian politicians... Structurally, too, it makes a lot of sense: with the team forged into a unit, Professor X can be removed for a while and Claremont can park the Phoenix plot until the book is ready for its next stage. Even so, brilliantly done and necessary wheel-spinning is still wheel-spinning, and there's a reason these stories don't often show up on lists of all-time X-classics.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y después del viaje al cosmos y de salvar el universo, los X-Men volvían a la Tierra para encontrarse con que un par de viejos enemigos les estaban esperando, pero también un viejo amigo, pues la Bestia, que ahora formaba parte de los Vengadores, será el encargado en los primeros números de seguir el rastro de la Patrulla-X, en una historia que comienza in media res, y que va a revelarnos que los X-Men se han convertido en rarezas de circo de mano de uno de sus antiguos enemigos, Mésmero... pero la presencia de Mésmero es solo una pantalla para el enemigo real, el mismísimo Magneto, que después de haber regresado en el tomo anterior, había dejado una lucha inconclusa con los X-Men y que ahora volvía para acabar con lo que había empezado. Así, comenzaba un largo río argumental que comenzaría en el momento en el que los héroes son aprisionados por Magneto y llevados a la Antártida, para verse allí separados, con cada grupo pensando que el otro ha muerto. Y mientras la Bestia y Fénix conseguían regresar a su vida normal, el resto del equipo (Cíclope, Rondador, Lobezno, Coloso, Tormenta y Banshee) aparecían en la Tierra Salvaje, donde ayudarían a Ka-Zar y a la Tribu del Río a enfrentarse a Garokk y a la sacerdotisa Zaladane, evitando el colapso climático de la Tierra Salvaje, para luego enfrentarse a Moses Magnum en Japón (ayudando a Fuego Solar y conociendo a su prima, Mariko Yashida, que se convertiría en el interés romántico de Lobezno), y tener que hacer frente en Calgary a Alpha Flight, en su primera aparición como grupo, con el equipo enfrentándose a Vindicador, Ave Nevada, Estrella del Norte y Aurora, Shaman y Sasquatch, en un largo viaje que, si tiene alguna carencia, es lo poco sostenible que es la idea de que contando con telépatas del calibre de Fénix y Xavier, e incluso encontrándose Misty Knight con Jean y con Cíclope sucesivamente, se pudiera mantener la idea que que unos y otros pensasen que los demás estaban muertos...

Por lo demás... pues Claremont en estado puro...

[Tony Romine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection houses issues #111-121 of the Uncanny X-Men. These 11 issues take the team everywhere, starting with the X-men trapped in a circus as victims of Mesmero and ends with them fighting Alpha Flight in Canada. In between they are once again faced with fighting Magneto on Astroid M, trapped in the Savage Land fighting Sauron, and helping the citizens of with the help of Sunfire.

One major thing missing here though is Professor X, as he is not featured at all for most of the issues aside from a couple pages explaining how he thinks the X-Men are dead and now is going to leave the school to go to space with his alien lover (not like he has a giant effing mutant tracking machine or psychic powers to telepathically confirm they are dead or anything). He does get a whole issue to explain some weird backstory that is him have a psychic battle with another mutant in a Casablanca setting. He is really poorly written here and his powers are wasted.

It's quite the run with a lot of story, but you could tell it was still finding it's footing in terms of storytelling with storylines still married to this idea of 2-3 issue arcs. Instead of investing time in making some actual progress in terms of character building with the team, it's more of just a bunch of action scenes with about 2-5 pages of just poor exposition that sort of give context to what's happening and, of course, 2-3 pages recapping what happened in the previous 2-3 issues of the storyarc. The worst thing about this is how conveniently everything seems to fall in line (the Alpha Flight storyline is terrible about this...they literally destroy like a major portion of Calgary fighting each other and in the end Wolverine just surrenders and then just escapes from them to reunite with the X-Men...it's pointless and dumb). It's fun for a while, but I can see where it would frustrate some people.

[Adam Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this is where Claremont's run on X-Men really clicks. We go from the Stan Lee Every X-Men Is A Hothead Who Argues Over Everything to the characters working together as a team, and Wolverine being the one character who continues to question authority.

We see the Claremont team of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Banshee really gel and become The X-Men while Jean Grey and Charles Xavier are written out to have their own adventures that we check in on periodically but which are not the crux of the story.

Claremont really begins to weave his storylines well here. Introducing elements that won't resolve for several issues, and introducing characters and tropes that X-Men writers will continue to chip away at for decades.

This is an absolute must for any X-fan. It's the beginning of Claremont at his best, and includes several stories that were revisited in The Animated Series.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Claremont and John Byrne are an amazing paring. These are the comics that really introduced me to reading comics and the Marvel universe. The stories are tightly written and the art is detailed, bright, and entirely eye catching. This is the world of the X-men for me. It's a soap opera full of larger than life characters who are a family. The look and flavor of the setting is hard to describe but is very uniquely X-men for me, equal parts 60's and 70's aesthetic/Op art style mixed with cinematic high-tech/sci-fi. If you love the X-men and X-Universe and haven't read this magnificent run I suggest starting here. This may not be the exact starting point of the New X-men, but for my money its certainly where they hit their stride.