All month-long we'll be featuring top five lists about either the Avengers or the X-Men. Here is an archive of all the past top five lists!
In this installment, we'll look at the top five instances of "Bang! You Dead!" in Chris Claremont X-Men comics.
Enjoy!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Louise Simonson actually titled New Mutants #86 with it! Not Claremont, but still, she named the whole story with the phrase (or close enough)!
Now on to Claremont stuff!
Chris Claremont actually used the basic phrase all the way back in 1975 in Marvel Premiere #27, starring Satana...
Not an X-Men comic, so it doesn't count, but still, pretty funny.
Uncanny X-Men #279
This one misses the list in part because Claremont likely only plotted the issue with Fabian Nicieza mostly writing the issue (Nicieza also wrote X-Men #32 by himself. That issue is the one whose image I got the display from).
Wolverine, Gamit and Jubilee are on Muir Isle and have all been sort of taken over by the Shadow King's influence. So they go off walking when Gambit has reason to remember an incident from six issues earlier...
5. Uncanny X-Men #213
This is hurt by the fact that it really doesn't make much sense for Sabretooth to be able to kick Rogue's ass like this...
4. X-Men #1
This was the end of the long opening sequence where we meet the newly recombined X-Men squad in their new outfits while doing a training sequence where the majority of the X-Men try to break into the Mansion to "capture" Professor X.
Claremont left the series (after seventeen years writing the X-Men) two issues later.
3. Uncanny X-Men #277
In this issue, the X-Men are split up, with a number of them (including Wolverine) being captured and replaced by Power Skrulls, Skrulls that can mimic the abilities of the people that they mimic (through the usage of a special device that the victim is hooked up to). Gambit and Wolverine have a rematch of a fight that they had four issues earlier, only this time it is a Skrull Wolverine...
2. Uncanny X-Men #255
I loved how Freedom Force (who are sent to Muir Isle to help defend the island by an attack by the Reavers) were given so much character development in this story. Pyro and Mystique seemed like legitimate friends. And then an awesome moment...
Silvestri and Claremont really set up this moment well. Granted, it is not precisely "Bang. You Dead" but close enough!
1. Uncanny X-Men #273
This issue was drawn by a number of different artists, including this fight between Wolverine and Gambit by Claremont and the legendary Michael Golden that had such an impact on Claremont that he referenced in twice. Remember, at the time, a big part of Wolverine's portrayal in the title was how his skills were slowly but surely slipping...
What a stunning piece of orchestration by Golden.
That's the list! Agree? Disagree? Let me know!