With the advent of "Hereos Return," Avengers once again became my favorite title, a status it maintained right up until the launch of X-Men: The Hidden Years a year later. the premise of the series is that it would fill the gap from #67-93 when X-Men was a reprint title. Although that's 27 issues, XM:THY was ongoing and could have lasted indefinitely due the vaguries of "Marvel Time." Problem #1, however, was that series was announced at the same time as John Byrne's Spider-Man: Chapter One, which he did 13 issues of before beginning work on Hidden Years, pushing its launch back more than a year. Problem #2 is that when Joe Quesada came along as editor-in-chief he cancelled Hidden Years because he felt fans would find it "too confusing." (Ironically, XM:THY was probably the least confusing X-title being published at that time.) It was to have shown what was happening to the X-Men "behind-the-scenes" as it were, from their POV while their series was on hiatus and they appeared only as guest-stars in other titles. This would have included the Beast's own series in Amazing Adventures, but I was particularly looking forward to the "Secret Empire" story which Steve Englehart kept going across multiple titles, eventually culminating in Captain America. Unfortunately, thanks to Quesada, the series never got to that point (although it did get to behind-the-scenes of Fantastic Four #102-104, which featured Magneto but not the X-Men).
Artwise, The Hidden Years is a perfect blend of "classic" (Tom Palmer) and forward-looking (John Byrne). The series got a ten-page preview X-Men #94 (1991 series), which takes place some 30 hours after the end of the original X-Men #66, in which Professor X puts the team through its paces with images of Magneto, the Blob, the Toad and the Juggernaut placed in their minds. This tactic did not sit well with the X-Men themselves, especially Iceman. There was one particular criticism leveled against this title back in the day that I was not aware of at the time, nor did I notice it while reading. I'll be keeping an eye out for it this time through, and will report on it if I am able to confirm its veracity.
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ISSUE #19:
This issue begins with four of the X-Men (Beast, Cyclops, Marvel girl and Iceman, in order of appearance) trapped in some world of gigantic vegetation. Have they been shrunk? Or transported to the distant past? They soon discover that the vegetation arcs above them, forming an eclosed vault. Trying to blast out of it reveals some sort of Alloy inknown to modern science. Nor does Marvel Girl's telepathy offer any answers, as if they were in some sort of Neutralizing field. CUT TO: Dunfee, Illinois. Charles and Teri are now on a first name basis, and she feels comfortable enough to wear nothing but a t-shirt in his presence. (It is late at night, and he is also wearing a t-shirt and is barefooted.) Somethning has happened to disrupt his subliminal bond with the X-Men, "Almost as if the X-Men are... no longer on Earth!" Yet, elsewhere, the Mole Man is aware of them.
Back to the four X-Men, a mental projection of Tobias Messenger appears in their midst. He reveals his origin and tells them The Promise are about to re-enter their ten-year "hibernation" cycle. During that time, the X-Men will remain imprisoned in this underground environment, where there is enough food to sustain them. Havok, Magnetrix and the Angel have all been captured and will undergo the freezing process as well. It doesn't take the X-Men long to escape the trap, and they make their way thropugh a series a dangers until they are defeated and captured by the Mole Man. In Messenger's lab, one of the women emerges from her cryo tube and frees Angel. she says she cannot free Havok and Lorna without killing them, "But none of that matters! You're going to come with me, Angel! You're gong to come with me... and you're going to help me take back the life these people stole from me!"
ISSUE #20:
X-Men: The Hidden The Hidden Years #20-22 is interwoven with the events of Fantastic Four #102-104. The Hidden Years #20 begins shortly after the Sub-Mariner found Magneto on a beach in THY #12 (or Fantastic Four #102 if you prefer), where he washed up from the aforementioned THY #12 (or X-Men #63 if you prefer). Now, at last, this comic book begins to display some of the actual "retroactive continuity" we had been promised before the title even launched. But don't think I'm complaining because it too 20 issues to get to this point; no, John Byrne thought he had all the time he needed to unfold the behind-the-scenes scenes we had been expecting. I'm complaining because Joe Quesada cancelled the series just as it was about to kick into high gear. Before I begin, I'd like to address that "one particular criticism leveled against this title" I mentioned back in the initial post to this thread, namely that the (comic book) time frame of the plots and sub-plots of this series does not work. Now that it is fresh in my mind, I vehemently disagree. On the contrary, Byrne is acutely aware of the passage of time in this series, several times mentioning how many days or weeks have passed between issues in this series or between this series and particular issues of the original X-Men series. Some accomodation must be made for story pacing, plus how many times does Byrne have to say "Not quite meanwhile" for the idea to stick?
Xavier is still unable to make telepathic contact with the X-Men. Meanwhile, they regain consciousness only to find themselves in the cluthes of the Mole Man, whoim they have met once before in issue #34 of the original seriers. He uses the same moves against them that he used against Mr. Fantastic in FF #1, then he exposes them to the brightness of the Valley of Diamonds, then he sets the same monsters against them that he set against the Fantastic Four. These tribute panels go uncredited as he did in #12), but he gave Kirby a big tribute, complete with a number, on the cover, so I'll let it pass. Besides, I have always thought that credited panel tributes within the story itself detract from the flow of the narrative. (Byrne started adding them to tribute panels of his own after many uncredited swipes of his own material.) Besides, Byrne's swipes are are always patently obvious.
Meanwhile, the Angel flies his rescuer, Lucy, to be reunited with one of her sons, but the experience doesn't go well. She has been out of his life for 30 years now, and he is now older than she is, with a son of his own. Her first time out of the hibernation cylinder, she learned of her older son's death in Viet Nam. She was an uneduated housewife when she was taken in by The Promise in the '50s and didn't understand what he was offering. Instead of being aware only one week every ten years, she thought she'd be gone for only a week. But due to the teaching circuitry in the hibernation cylinders, she now realizes what Tobias Messenger has done to her life.
Back in Dunfee, Illinois, Teri Martin brings a news broacast to Professor Xavier's attention: the Sub-Mariner is attacking the surface world... again. In his astral form, Professot X leaves his body to confront the invading ships and learns that Namor has been goaded on by Magneto. This is the first time each learns that the other is still alive. This is a good cliffhanger to puase on, as personl business is going to take me off the board again for a few days. In the meantime, I am going to re-read Fantastic Four #102-104 which, as I mentioned earlier, are also included in the omnibus.See you back here next week!
ISSUES #21-22:
Now (as I mentioned last time), at last, this comic book begins to display some of the actual "retroactive continuity" we had been promised before the title even launched. These issues remind me of nothing so much as Fantastic Four #256 and Avengers #233, which tell the same story from two entirely different points of view.
The only difference is that the Avengers/FF crossover was planned that way, but the FF/X-Men one was done years after the fact. The story itself leads directly into Magneto's next (chonological) appearance in Amazing Adventures #9-10, which is so close to the launch of the Beast's short-lived solo series (Amazing Adventures #11-17) I can almost taste it. Byrne spends much of these issues wrapping up sub-plots and tying off loose ends: The Promise, the Moleman, Teri and Ashley Martin, Avia. The issue ends with Hank McCoy's 20th birthday party (now he is no longer a teenage mutant super-hero), in a scene reminiscent of the flashback from Amazing Adventures #11. The next story to be told before that (so far as we know) is Spider-Man #92.
Not only did Burne leave the Ashley Martin story open-ended, but also the Teri Martin relationship unresolved. Byrne also threw in Ikaris and Pixie of the Eternals (not to mention "The Lost Generation"). Instead we are left with this sad (in more ways than one) image:
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