Banshee

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Graphic Novel Collection #36

by Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, Fabian Nicieza

The original X-Men face a blood-curdling new threat as the Banshee descends in his deafening first appearance! Then the Banshee leads a new generation of mutants in a fight for survival as a devastating techo-virus tears through the fledgling team! Will the dream of Generation X be over before it's begun? Find out in The Phalanx Covenant. Collects X-Men vol. 1 #28, X-Men vol. 2 #36-37 and Uncanny X-Men #316-317.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Marvel

Hardcover

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 36.
In the first of these two stories we see the Banshee's first appearance as he confronts the X-Men and attempts to kidnap Professor X for mysterious reasons.
The second story, part of the X-Men crossover event 'The Phalanx Covenant', sees Banshee discovering that the X-Men have been replaced by duplicates and sets out to rescue the next generation of mutants from the techno-organic aliens known as the Phalanx.

Two of Stan Lee's most irritating habits as a writer are to introduce new heroes by having them fight existing heroes for spurious reasons and constant alliteration in his text. Unfortunately both of these are prevalent in 'The Wail of the Banshee!'.
It's a pointless fluff story really, made all the more pointless by the fact that here we don't get to find out who's behind it all or the reasons Xavier is being kidnapped.

Much better is Lobdell and Nicieza's contribution to 'The Phalanx Covenant' crossover. This was the era that originally got me into X-Men comics (in fact some of this book seemed so familiar that I wonder if I used to own the original issues back in the 90s) and I always had a particular fondness for the misfit teens of Generation X.
What I liked most about this story, however, was the fact that the major-league X-Men are all tied up elsewhere leaving semi-retired Banshee, novice Jubilee and former villains Emma Frost and Sabretooth to save the day. I enjoy stories featuring underdog or mismatched teams and this is a perfect example of that.
Also, I'd forgotten just how creepy the Phalanx are and it adds almost an element of horror to this story, which already had overtones of 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers'.

Let's be honest, Banshee is no-one's favourite X-Man, but this book serves to remind you that he is, nevertheless, an interesting one.

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[Sarah-Jayne Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven't really seen much of Banshee in the comics I've read so far... I've only seen the version of him in the X-Men movies... but I liked being able to see him in this collection. It was interesting to see a superhero whose primary ability lies in being able to manipulate sound waves. It was really interesting to see all the things he could do using that ability, as well as just making glass smash with the force of his scream.

I did feel that the ending of the first comic didn't really fit in with the rest, since there was little foreshadowing of Banshee having been forced into attacking the X-Men. It was, however, quite intriguing to have the opportunity to see the original X-Men at work... along with Mimic, who I hadn't met, but had thought was one of the bad guys originally.

I liked the second set of comics better, though I was incredibly confused by the first one. The idea of the Phalanx was a particularly scary one... though I found it hard to understand exactly what the main bad guy was trying to do.

I would have liked some explanation about where the real X-Men were... though along with Sean, I did get very suspicious about the ones he was interacting with. It was also interesting to see Sabretooth as a reluctant ally with them... though I wasn't sure why he came back after he left the group in the first place.

I wasn't that sure of what to make of Emma Frost, though it was good to see the way she was interacting with Jubilee. I would have liked some more detail about the Second Generation X-Men and how all their abilities worked... and the final comic seemed to move straight into an action scene that hadn't been indicated by the end of the previous.

I felt that Blink's fate in the comics was really sad. I would have liked the opportunity to see more of her... and more than that, I felt it was intense when Banshee couldn't save her. It was good to see him having to work together with the others... as well as trying to keep the peace between the enemies.

I think I would like to see more of Banshee in the later comics.

[Johnny Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sean Cassidy aka Banshee has always been a sideline X-Man to me. Always known him since getting into X-Men due to random comics and the 90s cartoon series however the majority of this book The Phalanx covenant just proves why he is such a likeable character even if he is that slightly older member of the team that is more often than not out of the picture.
But before that we obviously have his first appearance as a reluctant bad guy with a more leprechaun-odd looking face and I guess lazily a non-Irish lilt it's a fairly good story for its time and definitely shows us the power of Banshee as with certain wails he can pretty much knock out the whole city and even the X-Men.
But it is the 4 issues of The Phalanx Covenant: Generation Next a pure 90s comic from the art work to the intricate use of panel space that just shows us what makes a man scream. The X-Men have disappeared unknown at first when Sean comes back only to find the alien tech-creatures called the Phalanx have duplicated certain members the only members still around are former bad girl-Emma Frost, Jubilation Lee and a subdued prisoner/patient Sabretooth. What does the Phalanx want? To eradicate the mutant population starting with new mutants, the young mutants so trying to work with Frost, Sabretooth and Jubilee, Banshee uses all his charm and courage to fight for these new mutants and rescue them from this alien threat.
It's a great read that pushes the laid back Irishman to his limits.