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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15973
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| Posted: 11 April 2019 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | 1
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In my head, I've long had Colossus pegged as being 17 years old. Not sure where I got that from originally. Some annoying part of my brain just made me remember Colossus going to a bar and being ID'd in UXM 183, so Chris had him as 19 at that point. To have done that story nowadays, it would put Colossus at 21...
18 works for the character for me!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 11 April 2019 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | 2
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That the characters were the ages they obviously were made it even more frustrating and absurd when Shooter rolled out his Whim of Iron to declare that being “students of Charles Xavier” (which was part of the top copy) was what defined the book. Chris and I insisted that the defining clause was “feared and hated by the world they are sworn to protect.”
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Greg Kirkman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 May 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 11 April 2019 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | 3
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The inherent absurdity of that statement is borne out by the fact that the original team graduated in issue # 7!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 11 April 2019 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | 4
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A point Chris and I made!
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Richard Palmgren
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 May 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 328
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 7:54am | IP Logged | 5
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“students of Charles Xavier” (which was part of the top copy) was what defined the book--------
a Prep School where the majority of the class are over 18!
For me, the idea of Prof. X being able to consider the New X-men students ended when he tried to give Wolverine "demerits" . That one scene summarized the change. Scott's body language was brilliant when he was trying to reason with Charles
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 8:27am | IP Logged | 6
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As some of you already know, Kitty was introduced as the first member of a second team, kids who would function as students, with the older members being the teachers. (Hm, why does that sound familiar?)This was an attempted to give Shooter what he wanted, while we stayed true to the identity of the book as seen since GIANT-SIZED X-MEN 1. Shooter immediately quashed this idea, declaring it the "Legion of Substitute X-Men". He wanted what he wanted. This was one of the things, among many, that contributed to my departure.
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Richard Palmgren
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 8:34am | IP Logged | 7
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Here's a couple of questions:
1. With Elsewhen, there's always questions about the original ending of 137 and how things would have gone had that ending been published, but, did you have any plans for story lines or characters after the published 137 and before you knew you were leaving the book with 143?
2. Did Chris end up using anything you guys had planned to do after 137?
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 8:39am | IP Logged | 8
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1) Of course. We weren't plotting the stories issue to issue!!2) He did his own version of PROJECT WIDEAWAKE, which was introduced at the end of 142. (That's what led to the Sentinels taking over the world, and was the basis for "Days of Future Past". I'll be addressing it in ELSEWHEN, since it was basically my idea.)
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Richard Palmgren
Byrne Robotics Member
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 9:44am | IP Logged | 9
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Of course. We weren't plotting the stories issue to issue!!---------
Oh, I didn't mean to imply that you were, but issues 139 - 143 never felt like they were building towards anything, but, rather, with hindsight, seemed more like an epilogue to everything you had done before. And after the fun of 143, the book seemed to meander here and there for like 20 issues, so I had been curious if there was some sort of "grand plan" that you guys were working on that fell apart.
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 10:33am | IP Logged | 10
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The one thing I remember is that after I left, Chris seemed to be doing all the things I hadn’t wanted to do—in order!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 11:18am | IP Logged | 11
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Another note on the Seven Year Rule: it didn’t take long before the microbrains started to “do the math” and figure if it was seven years in 1977, then in 1985 it should be ten years, and in 2000 it should be....GUK!
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 12 April 2019 at 11:26am | IP Logged | 12
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Yeah, you also showed Reed Richards celebrating his 40th birthday in FANTASTIC FOUR (which jibes with Stan stating that he was in his mid-30s during the early days of the series), and just prior to that made a reference to the initial Skrull incursion from FF # 2 as having taken place "six years ago", so the seven-year-rule seems like a good fit.••• T’was in a lettercol that Stan told us Reed and Ben were in their “late thirties” while Sue was “in her twenties.” This was what set in my mind that Sue and Reed were no closer in age than 10 years. Of course, Stan forgot this, and had Reed as 18 in WW2, with Sue the “girl he left behind”. Eight year old Sue? (I sort of referenced this by having 8 year old Sue have a huge crush on the shy, bookish, 18 year old Reed.)
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