UNCANNY X-MEN 235 PAGE 2 BY RICK LEONARDI AND P. CRAIG RUSSELL

Here we get a page from a fill in issue of Uncanny X-Men when all fill ins offered sumptuous art by fantastic artists, Leonardi being one of those (McLeod, Davis, Guice, Blevins, Adams, Simonson, etc…).

This issue is notorious for being the introduction of Genosha.

(so, yes, for all you first appearance… … … enthusiasts (?), that would make this a first birthish appearance page whose historical meaning in worldwide comics is gigantic. I mean this page is the FIRST time in Worldwide Comic History we get to see the Genoshan Airport !!! OMG! And this is the first page ever where magistrates appear and are mentioned. O-M-G !!! AND it is expected to appear as a key location in future X-Men movies projects, potentially serving as a geopolitical hotspot for mutants. Are you kidding me? I will retire on the value of this page alone !!! ^^)

And what an introduction it was. Chris Claremont being in excellent form, opened the issue with a very intense 5 pages escape attempt from two Genoshan mutants, a father and his baby child.

Being at the right age when I read it, the sequence was laser burned in my mind. Being the age that I am now with young children, the intensity of the escape, (SPOILER alert) the ultimate sacrifice of the father who has to decide what’s best for his child in a split second that makes Kal-El early life look like a picknick in the parc is what makes these works of fiction resonate so much with the adults we (may) have become.

Speaking of laser burned, the first panel of the bulky father speaking to his child with that leaning protective stance is THE image I remember from that issue for whatever reason. Leonardi’s stylised anatomy is so dynamic (he looks so young, so afraid), the worried look on the baby who seemingly perceives something is wrong is subtle and the dad looking at the light on the right…

…to the second panel in which we get another great intense bit of Claremont X-Men philosophy. There lies freedom, my son. How powerful. No cut corners on that one by Leonardi either. It’s small and thin a panel and yet you get the perfect feel of what and how an airport functions. The fact that he added the fences reinforces the sense of needed freedom to the scene.

In the third, the baby points to the dangerous magistrates’ copter coming to hunt them back. The dad is immediately pulled from his reverie of better chances and his stress is evident here.

The before last panel is a typical trope of escape movies. The would-be escapist is seen from above ground running from his captors.

I also remember that last panel vividly as it is the first visual indication in the scene that the dad is indeed a mutant as he effortlessly jumps the fence like it’s nothing. Again, the body language and fluidity of movement sued by Leonardi is exceptional, with the subtle way the dad tuck his baby against his torso.

While not my favorite on Leonardi (who IS one of my TOP favs’), P. Craig Russell was certainly a suitable inker for Leonardi as could later be seen in their Colossus serial in Marvel Comics Presents. I’d argue that his inks were tighter here compared to there and it is likely due to this being an earlier collaboration (their first?). Russell would adopt a more vaporous approach for their future projects together.

In any case, no X-Men here would the snobs shrug but plenty to enjoy as far as I’m concerned from 3 master storytellers at the top of their A-game.

(last fun bit of info, this one had been sitting on Jim Warden’s site for years when I entered the hobby. And did for years on at the hefty asking price of 100$. I had too many squirrels to chase to go for it though it did made the list as a back up plan of a back up plan…until it was gone. And I of course had to may multiples of that price to secure it when it popped up at auction a few years ago. No regret).

This is part 5 of my 2026 CAF birthday party.