Sean Gibson’s Reviews > The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 3 > Status Update

This Magik series underscores just how dark Illyana's backstory is--I mean, a 7-year-old girl basically gets sent to hell and spends 7 years being tortured by demons. That's an insane origin story for a child character in a mainstream superhero comic at one of the Big Two. It would be like if Wolverine's origin story was having his genitals gnawed on by actual wolverines for a few years. Well, sort of.

God Loves, Man Kills stands up as a phenomenal X-Men story—it’s powerful stuff. And, geez, I really miss when Cyclops was the most articulate champion of Xavier’s dream rather than a psychopathic monotone robot killer.

Jeez...Dracula really has a thing for Storm. It's getting creepy, even for an Eternal Dark Lord.

Look, I'm not a psychiatrist (though I play one on TV), but I'm pretty sure there are some strong prohibitions against sleeping with your patients, especially those you've just telepathically removed from a catatonic state. Can someone get Professor X an updated code of conduct, please?

Next up: I go full-on fanboy as the the X-Men take on Dracula, which is simultaneously the most ridiculous and entertaining concept since the Scooby gang teamed up with Mama Cass to battle a malevolent ham sandwich with the nefarious intent to do Mama Cass some serious harm...

Claremont was just so damn good at characterization. This Cyclops/Corsair stuff is fantastic (not to mention the genuinely friendly rivalry between Cyclops and Storm).

I know captions and thought bubbles are considered antiquated and quaintly gauche by most modern comic writers, but I always thought that, well-used, they added depth to the story.