Monday Night Murals Tuesday Night Towers: All Four One

As I mentioned last night, whoopsie! My new Monday Night Murals feature is so brand-new I plum forgot it last night. (That's what happens when your little stuffed brain is made of beans and fluff.) Sooner or later the old garbanzos start ticking, though, and even tho' it's a day late, here's your Monday Night Mural. Except, it's a day later. And, it's tall rather than wide. Well, gosh, I guess that makes it a...Tuesday Night Tower:


Covers from Fantastic Four v.3 #51-54 (March-June 2002), art by Mike Wieringo, colors by Liquid! Graphics

This is one of my favorite interconnected images, not simply because it's got Jolly Orange Ben Grimm anchoring the bottom (altho' that don't hurt!) I really like the way there's a hint of the other's presence or powers on their teammates' spotlighted covers: Johnny's flame rises the entire length of the mural, Reed stretches up the bottom three, and the debris thrown up by Ben's clobberin' flies as high as Reed. Sue's "invisible" force field is anchored behind Ben, right next to her husband's lower, um, half. It's not merely a lovely image, it's a wonderful metaphor for the FF as a family. Remember that Claremont and Byrne X-Men where Phoenix saves the universe by knitting the fabric of time, space, and Professor X's wooly jumper back together while inside the M'Kraan Crystal?


Panel from [Uncanny] X-Men #108 (December 1977), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by John Byrne, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Andy Yanchus, letters by Denise Wohl

Whoa, that's a lot of info crammed into that panel that's kinda tiny on my ever-lovin' blue-eyed blog. Let's magnify the important bit here...Claremont's ever-so-poetic captions, lettered by Denise Wohl:

Whoa, that's heady stuff! Phoenix has called upon the X-Men to form a lattice of power to reform the broken M'Kraan Crystal (and I think we all know how painful that can be!). The family of X-Men take on the base and brances of a tree of living energy: strong man Colossus at the base, Xavier as the leafy bit at the top...um, Cyclops is the squirrels that gather in the branches, Wolverine is the part that's carved with naughty words in the bark...I dunno, it's Claremont's metaphor, let's just go with it. By the way, I coulda swore there was an actual pictorial representation of the X-Men forming this "tree", but it ain't in UXM #108. I'm sure I saw it somewhere...! Am I imagining it, or did I see it in another ish? Clue me in the comments if'n you know!)

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ADDITION on 12/2/09: Sharp-eyed commenter H.P.L. noted that the panel I'm thinking of was actually from Classic X-Men #15, a reprint of X-Men #108 with newly-inserted panels by Chuck Patton. Thanks, H.P.L.! Please help yourself to a Bull-Prize (and if you're really H.P.L., please don't fill my nights with a nameless, un-ending ennui and dread, 'kay?' Kay!)


Panel from Classic X-Men #15 (November 1987), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by Chuck Patton, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Glynis Oliver, letters by Tom Orzechowski

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Anyway, tree, schmee. The X-Men can have their ol' tree if they want:



The FF don't need no steenkin' tree: they are forming a tower or power as strong and as solid as a city skyscraper. Why, in fact, there it is right behind their portraits: The Baxter Building. Which in and of itself ain't, when you consider it, that bad a metaphor for the Fantastic Four themselves. Just like the FF themselves, the BB is strong, it's advanced, it's full of wonder, it has a gift shop in the lobby, Willie Lumpkin delivers mail to it, Doctor Doom shot it twice into space...wait a minute, where was I? Ah, yes. The FF: not merely solid as a rock, but mighty and awe-inspiring as a skyscraper.

Also, occasionally Reed blows up the top part.