First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast Ep.39: Uncanny X-Men #245

A Marvel book?! What do Uncanny X-Men #245 have to do with Invasion? Find out, and do it fast before the Jean Bomb explodes! And while we're across the street, we might as well talk about Marvel's output in late 1988. Oh, and a special guest star crashes our penultimate episode. Remember Sidney!

Listen to Episode 39 below (the usual filthy filthy language warnings may apply), or subscribe to First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast on iTunes!

Relevant images and further credits at: First Strike ep.39 Supplemental

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20 responses to “First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast Ep.39: Uncanny X-Men #245

  1. Let it be known that if there’s an Invasion-relevant comic from the last 30 years that deserves to at least get mentioned in the finale, you should tell us about it! (We know about Swamp Thing #84 and 96, Doom Patrol #6, and the loose leaf Who’s Who entry, obviously, and we’ve been asked about Hawk and Dove v2 #1. I don’t think the new Inferior 5 is coming out in time. Anything else?)

  2. Now that Amelie has appeared on all your shows, I think she needs to pop into every F&W series. If Shag can have a World Tour, why can’t she?

    Bass, you were right with those opening notes. That WAS the 90s Spider-Man animated theme you were mouthing (composed and performed by Aerosmith’s Joe Perry).

    I had no idea this issue of X-Men existed, but this reminds me of how comics were still deemed …disposable even this late into the 80s. You could take one issue like this and toss out a fun breather, because no one was worried about putting it in a trade in 3 months time. Also there was a much friendlier and fun bit of competition between the big two, with no huge corporations to get their feathers rankled (or in WB’s case, they just didn’t care about DC back then).

    Fun show. I hate to see this go, but I’m looking forward to the wrap-up anyhow!

    Chris

  3. I did not collect XMen at this time but all my friends (and I mean ALL my friends) did. So I remember reading this one at the time.

    As a hard-core Jean Grey fan, I love the idea of a Jean Bomb. If only to get that gag in, this was worth it.

    And always nice to hear the OHOTMU gang sneaking into other shows!

  4. Thank you, gentlemen. I really enjoyed the discussion of what was going on in Marvel during Invasion, because that’s what I was reading at the time. I deliberately avoided the X-Men titles (though I eventually got into Excalibur), because they were too cool and popular for my tastes. I was following Daredevil, and remember that great Inferno crossover issue. Ironically, Silver Surfer was the other book I followed on a regular basis. I hadn’t fully realized it before now, but I must have been drawn to heroes who were of a more philosophical and introspective nature.

  5. Fun episode! I especially enjoyed the quick tour around the Marvel publishing world at the time.

    Amelie’s pop-in reminded me of (semi plug coming) a version of the song “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” by Bob Dylan on a compilation album. In the middle of the song, Mavis Staples shows up, and the whole proceedings stop so Bob and Mavis can do a sort of comedy sketch. Apparently it’s based on a Carter Family song from the 1950s, and is quite charming, as was this.

  6. Handjobs! Alf! Another great episode, guys. However, I’m not sure what the crowd scene criticism is (around the 20:20 mark) — that one can’t always tell who characters are? You pointed out a bunch of the cameos, so Rob was clearly up to the task of drawing a full crowd scene. (Not every crowd member can be a cute in-joke wink, so he padded it out with detailed anons.) Same with Todd; he might’ve snuck in a couple of generic costumes during the Suicide Squad battle in Inavsion #2, but *every other* page was meticulous is detail and referenced costumes (which he drew during his monthly Amazing Spider-Man job; lazy he was not.)

    Re: huge color washes. Sure, it’s a time saving measure, but it can also enhance depth perception in a single panel shot. It can also simply look great as a design choice. Coloring every single belt and helmet would be overkill.

    Home stretch!

  7. I guess this is my last chance to bemuse and befuddle Bass before the final curtain, so I’d better catch up on comments tonight.

    I remember seeing the Blasters special at one of the mall bookstores and basically going “what diss hit?” I don’t despise Snapper Carr like Rob, but he’s Gordy to Rick Jones’ Babe on his best day, and he’d be best served with white wine. Blasters typified “brand ecch” right as the bloom was off the rose of the Post-Crisis DCU for me, and I had dropped or was near to abandoning all their books. Byrne was off Superman, Perez stopped drawing Wonder Woman, Robin was dead and avenged so Starlin was out, Bates & Broderick were off Captain Atom, the debut issue of The Huntress failed to grab me, and neither did any of the other terrible newsstand launches (looking at you, Payton.) Probably the reason why I hold such a dim view of the Invasion! crossover is because it signaled the end of The New DC. I wouldn’t come back in a significant way for another two years. I did eventually buy the Blasters special during my hardcore DC years in the late ’90s, and I have affection for both Peter David and James Fry, but I’ve never felt compelled to read the damned thing. I thought I might do it to respond here, but all that intention led to was a two month gap in commenting.

    JLI #24, the last Kevin Maguire issue. I’d missed most of JLI in its teens, but I picked up the Invasion tie-ins and fell back in love with the book, only to lose a key reason a few months later. Not to diminish the talents who followed, but Maguire was too perfect for that title to ever be replaced. I dropped it during the Templeton period, and for the most part, the only thing I really “missed” out on was the first Despero arc. There were a few good issues after #24 and maybe even a number of great ones, but none as good as the Maguire run and far too many that weren’t much of anything at all.

    I think Ace’s phrasing of his request for a Wonder Woman show on the Fire & Water Podcasting Network was very deliberately phrased, but I appreciate your plug regardless. I overdosed on Wonder Woman in 2017 and took a one year sabbatical to work on other things, but it looks like the Diana Prince podcast will be back for a Halloween-themed crossover. Yeah, there are a lot of not-so-Amazing Amazon comics and covering the dreck takes its toll on a body’s enthusiasm. I plan to cover some material that I actually enjoy, if only so that I can eventually podfade content with my output. Related, I’ll keep my Chris Marrinan exposure to a minimum.

    I intend to watch Young Justice someday, if only for the Miss Martian content. Not someday soon, though.

    Did I miss you guys referencing Dan Vado & Norm Felchle’s Griffin characters in Uncanny X-Men #245? This was during the long dark period when I was buying but not reading the series, supposedly saving them for summer vacation. My copies got stolen by a “friend” at school, but I never really missed these issues, because I never truly wanted to read them in the first place. I still had a neighborhood comic shop at this time, and I see that my new Marvel purchases were not in keeping with my “brand.” For February ’89 I got Dragon’s Claws, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #1, The Punisher & War Journal #6 and The War #1. I think I was focusing on the shop’s indie -rich quarter bins and stocking up on back issues (before it up and closed on me one day that year without warning.)

    I’ve listened to and enjoyed every episode of this show, but I’m not sorry to see it go, because its time is over. The same winning hosting duo are off to a show with even greater variety covering material I’m far more familiar with and affectionate toward. I gleefully welcome the end, and more importantly, the new beginning…

  8. This was a fun episode. I appreciate the thoroughness of covering this issue of Uncanny X-Men and it allowed for a change of pace and a change of universe.

    I, like many of my generation, spent some time with the X-Men. It was hard to avoid it. I almost didn’t because of a kid named Jason giving me crap about liking Superman in the seventh grade and trying to get me to read X-Factor because Archangel was cool. I finally broke down and did a tour with the X-books in 1991 thanks to the one/two punch of Liefeld’s X-FORCE and Lee’s X-MEN. X-FORCE fell by the wayside rather quickly (because it’s pretty bad) but I stuck with X-MEN through X-Cutioner’s song before deciding to not re-up for another tour of duty. Years later I would buy a friend’s collection and read most of the late eighties to early nineties X-books and for the most part I really enjoy them. Maybe it’s nostalgia. Maybe it’s the fact that I like soap opera comics. In any case, this was the last gasp of Claremont’s time with the mutants so it was nice taking a trip down memory lane for this one.

    I don’t know if you mentioned this but this issue is a part of a two part storyline where the two issues didn’t really lead in to each other but were connected thematically. Issue 245 features the male members of the X-Men. The issue before it featured the female members to kind of show what they do in their off hours. The only reason this makes me smile is that the television series LEVERAGE did the same thing during their fourth season. At least I think it was the fourth season.

    Finally, I liked the Hulk and Captain America talk. Hulk and Cap are my favorite Marvel characters so it was nice to hear them get some love. Siskoid and I need to talk some Hulk at some point. It seems like we’re eye to eye on the character for the most part.

  9. Nice change of pace episode. Looking forward to the next and final installment.

    Siskoid has a point about the Wonder Woman library. There is lots of bad. Lots.

  10. I was in college during Invasion!. I was not buying X-Men at that time, but my roommate was. When I told him about the Invasion taking Australia, the first thing he said was “boy, that’ll piss off the X-Men.” Swear to god.

    Covering a fun, goofy issue seems like a great lead-in to the big finale! Thanks, Invasionaries!

  11. Geez Siskoid! Why do we have so much in common!! Both our loves for DAREDEVIL came from the Anne Nocenti run!! That turned me into a life long fan. And the Uncanny X-Men were my greatest love for several years as a collector. From the era of Secret Wars 2 until well into the 90s, I was a die-hard X-Men reader.

    Brothers from another Canadian Bacon, eh?

  12. Waiter, there’s a Marvel in my DC soup!!! Did not know about this, but it sounds a bit fun.

    Gene-bomb got a mention in the recent Steve Orlando Wonder Woman arc (issue 51). I wish I could think of more Invasion-related content to keep the show around a bit longer.

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