Comic Books Comic Book • Page 127

Lots of sales via Dark Horse and Comixology today.

 

I 100% agree that it's a cool idea, in and of itself the series isn't bad (although the Maddrox shit piiiiiiiisses me off). It's when it is taken in the larger context of the current X-landscape that is falls apart, because everyone in all the books were like "cyclops was a monster" "cyclops was a mass-murderer" "we have to rebuild from the damage cyclops did" and literally none of that is true or happened. i mean, the only people who died were mutants affected by the cloud. I suppose you could blame that on editorial and not the writer, but they've been hammering that for almost a full year now since Secret Wars ended and created the jump ahead.

 

This. 100%. The entire Hickman run from the first issue to the Future Foundation to Franklin (this made me the biggest grown-up Franklin fan) and then through NA and Secret Wars. It's a beautiful run.

Just wish he'd finish SHIELD so we can see how that may have played any sort of role.

 

This feels like a really fair and accurate critique of the series. If the same writers (Lemire and Soule) who hyped up what happened for a solid year failed to actually have anything happen, yeah, that sucks. "Cyclops" should have made some actual major decisions involving tons of death and destruction so that everything could have a deserved weight.

But, like, I see some people have a major problem with the twist itself, which is bizarre to me. Well, not that bizarre, lol. Comic nerds love asking for something creative, and then whining when it actually happens.

 

Today is the day I chat with Brett Booth about Titans. If anyone has a specific question they'd like me to ask, just let me know! The podcast will be up next Tuesday if all goes well with the audio. It's the first time I'll be recording an episode via phone call.

 

So I'm gathering up some stories to read for Christmas/holiday time. Any recs? So far I've got these on my list:

Spider-Man Tangled Web #21 (Twas the fight...)
Marvel Team-up #1 (Yes Virginia...Santron)
Marvel Holiday Special #1 (...Sandman Christmas)
Incredible Hulk #378 (Rhino Plastered)
Uncanny X-Men #143 (Demon)
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Annual #1 (Leah)

 

That's.....interesting. Honestly I think X-Men: Blue is a wasted opportunity. They already had a book with the O5 basically, but with added addition of X-23, Evan Sabanur and Idie Okonkwo, which was probably the best part about the book. With Mangneto leading Blue, will he still lead the Uncanny team? Will there even be an Uncanny book? Hopefully Evan and Idie move over to GenX, accompanied by Quentin Quire, Jubilee, and what looks like some of the New Mutants (although one would have to assume not Sunspot and Cannonball, and possibly Warlock cuz they're over in USAvengers).

And now after looking at these two teams, I'm kinda hope there's one last surprise X-book they're keep totally under wraps until after IvX. Cuz after starting off with a pretty dang good casts, we now have no place for Emma Frost, Magik, the Stepford Cuckoos, Psylocke, recently resurfaced Havok, M, Gambit, Fantomex, Sunfire, Whatever Apoca-Angel is now, or Forge. That's ALOT of big-time players off the board. Maybe one or two will end up as mentors for the GenX book.

I can kinda see Gambit and Forge just going back to being supporting players who pop up back at the school (even though I've loved the increased focus on Forge in Extraordinary). But it's really strange to me that almost Cyclops' ENTIRE team from Uncanny is strangely absent. Characters who had been increasingly important before Secret Wars. I think literally the only member of that team that's around in present 616-MU is Goldballs, and that's all the way over in Spider-man. Oh, and Triage made a cameo in both Uncanny and Eztraordinary. Nowhere in sight are Emma, Magik, Cuckoos, Benjamin Deeds, Hijack, and Tempus(who seemed like she was going to be real important to the future of the X-family, especially in regards to Beast).

 

That's so awesome. Looking forward to listening.

 

Yeah Death of X wasn't NEARLY as big a deal as the rest of the books made it out to be. Yeah it was significant in just explaining what happened to Cyke, but nothing happened that was nearly as bad as the books made it out to be. And wtf Magik is a willing and helpful participant in this huge thing, and then tries to fuggin slice Sunfire in half for "what he did". I would argue HE had less of a role than Magik did. Sunfire literally just flew around in the air.

 

See, Blue is the team I'm more interested in. Leaning into having verbatim the original X-Men roster (after some variations on it) mentored by their original nemesis could be really cool, especially with Cullen Bunn and Jorge Molina in charge.

I'm more upset that the Gold team is such a waste. They should have overcompensated there to make up for Blue naturally being all white and mostly male, but instead, they only have Storm on that team, and not even as the leader anymore! And, it's being written by Guggenheim? So much meh. Such an absolute waste of an X-Men title. Just picking a better creative team and adding Forge and Psyloche (let's pretend her weird origin doesn't exist and treat her as a non-white character, lol) would've helped a ton.

I'm putting a lot of hope in Generation X. Jubilee is gonna be in that title, and Dani Moonstar is featured heavily enough in the promo image that I could see her being there, too. Magik also could be a good fit. I'm scared that they're gonna set up Emma Frost to go villain again, but if they don't, she'd make sense to show up there; either way, it's also a good fit for the Cuckoos. I'm sure some other younger characters will show up there, too, including some of Bendis' Uncanny members.

This whole announcement is just so underwhelming thus far, but maybe they'll pull an Uncanny Avengers and reveal some more cool team members a couple issues in? lol.

 

I really thought Cyke was gonna do something devastating. Instead he just organized the destruction of a single Terrigen cloud, of which I wasn't even sure there was more than 1 until this book. He barely did anything the bigger Terrigen cloud just keeps on a rolling making more Inhumans and more mutants sick. And for some reason there's riots in the streets again against mutants? The only explanation I have for that, is maybe Red Skull is still influencing the general populace to hate mutants, but I guarantee X-editorial doesn't even remember that's a thing.
Whatever. Maybe Rogue will finally retrieve Xavier's brain and he'll be the "reasurxion". As much as I dislike Uncanny Avengers right now (Deadpool, Synapse, Cable? Really?) other than maybe Cable leaving for his solo book, as I assume adult Iceman is, I don't see the team changing much whatsoever after the Skull crisis, but it's the only book with Rogue as a main character, and debatably the lead character at that, so bless Marvel for that at least.

 

Haha I was just thinking that about Uncanny.

But yeah both titles are kind of a waste IMO, unless they end up being the kind of books with rotating supporting members. WHERE THE F IS MY PIXIE DAMMIT?! Dani Moonstar for GenX is a pretty sure thing, can't imagine why else they would randomly give her half a books worth of story in the All-New annual that just came out. And she wasssss pretty buddy buddy with Magik.

But the Gen X poster is a little confusing. Jubilee will def be there she's featured a few times. Looks like Hope Summers as well. Pixie herself even has a whole image to herself. Hopefully Gen X is a much more loosely defined team that tries to cover all the X-students.

 

Batman:Noel is pretty great! Planning to reread it this holiday season.

 

I could definitely see Generation X being a really big roster of students and teachers, with different arcs leaning into different permutations and combinations. There's just so much to work with there.

I'm also really curious about Weapon X. There's been a lot of vagueness on All-New Wolverine and Old Man Logan's futures; maybe WX will replace both and also take Sabertooth from Bunn's Uncanny. But, I don't know how a team with all of them would mesh. Will Laura still go by "Wolverine"? Will OML fight alongside her and Sabertooth? Who else will be in that series?

 

Thanks! I'll post it here once it's up.

 

So I read somewhere online that this was set in a snowy alley and fit the whole winter holiday feeling, but damn that was depressing. It's only the last 5 pages of that annual and it was one of the saddest things I've encountered in comics so far. Merry Christmas haha.

 

Finished the Hickman's FF and loved it. Everything tied together and was explained surprisingly well in the end. (Minus Nu-World stuff which I have no idea what that was about but it wasn't super important so whatever). I think the best part was that in this spanning epic, the character moments were so special and important and the fact that he took the time to develop them even after his epic had ended. Spidey and Franklin talking about their uncles was heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once, older Valeria disciplining her younger self was perfect, and the entire theme of fatherhood was so refreshing and a story that would only work with Marvel's first family. If anyone hasn't read this and has Marvel Unlimited, it's a must. Onward to Hickman's Avengers runs.

 

WTF I just read the leaked IvX #0, and I had NO idea that Kenneth Rocafort is going to be the artist in this series. Holy hell I loved his work on Ultimates. I think he might be my favorite artist under only Esad Ribic. I'm going to have to buy IvX once it's all collected, because no matter how awful the story is, goddamn is it going to look good.

And surprisingly, #0 sheds some light on certain decisions made in the last year of X-books, or at least makes you view them completely differently. Such as Magneto's and his team joining the Hellfire Club.

Honestly, if Death of X didn't get you on board for IvX, than maybe #0 will. It's not super plot progressive, but there is enough intrigue here to reignite my excitement for IvX.

 

Just looked up some of his stuff and he's great. What other books has he done?

 

I know he's done some New 52 stuff, mainly Superman and Red Hood & The Outlaws for awhile

 

definitely recommend Geoff Johns whole run of The Flash. that launched Flash into my top 3 comic book heroes.

 

Yep! I'm still trying to find his run pre-Rebirth at the library but haven't been successful yet. I think that's the only part I haven't read of his Flash run although that's quite a bit haha

 

I think Kenneth Rocafort is only doing that issue, and then Leinil Yu is taking over. Which, I personally like Yu a lot more than Rocafort, lol. His Marvel interiors in recent years have been great, especially in the Secret Wars Civil War mini.

 

Oh that's disappointing :( I want Rocafort as a regular artist on a book again. Idk why he left Ultimates, his style was PERFECT for those crazy cosmic stories. I like his kinetic framing and penciling. Really made it feel like the characters were breaking through dimensions and whatnot.


I also want Ribic back for more than just variant covers. Secret Wars and Thor: The God Butcher are two of the best looking books ever IMO.

 

He also drew that horrible Lobo reboot for the New 52. But that's more DC's fault than his I'm sure.