species diseases

despite being a lifelong X-fan, there's a conspicuous dearth of X-related posts in this blog, and am correcting that now.

the latest summer X-crossover is "Endangered Species" and springboards off the House of M/Decimation storylines of 2 years ago (the mutants were basically benched in Civil War), where the Scarlet Witch pretty much switched off the mutant gene (except the -cough, cough - major characters in X-Men, of course). as a result, there are no more mutants being born or exhibiting powers at puberty. so basically, if you can kill off the X-Men and their affiliates, you'd pretty much wipe out mutantkind. oh, the joy of Steven Lang and Cameron Hodge's ghosts, dancing on top of tables right now.

given the poster/cover above, we should expect a lot more mutants to go six feet under. well, that's what they want us to think; writers usually kill off insignificant characters, or if they do kill major ones, there's already somebody out there planning the comeback from the grave. c'mon, we know the drill.

since they don't do wraparound covers anymore, this means hardcore fans have to shell out double or triple bucks for variant covers. capitalism rules!!!

let's check who's on deck ... courtesy of the always-fun Chris Bachalo.

Colossus? check. i know its been a couple of years, but how glad are you that he's back, rendering his spectacular sacrifice for curing the Legacy Virus moot? if not for Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men - where he was ironically brought back - i'd be really, like, disappointed. ah dunno if you like Sam's toothpick-in-mouth look, but he does look a lot more like a redneck. and is that Northstar on the upper left?

we got Rogue, the leader of the adjectiveless group of X-Men (to distinguish those from the Astonishing ones). Cyclops with minimalist visor, Beast, Kitty Pryde, and Bishop. did you notice what he wrote on his gun barrel? badass!

i still wonder they associate with Mystique - bloodlines to Rogue and Kurt be damned. i guess we got a whole new confident Iceman now, and Cable's still holding the line (heh). i don't like Wolverine's pose here - is he having a bad case of diarrhea?

and even this little spy is in the mix! let's have him breath fire on Mystique's smug face!

over to the other side, courtesy of i-do-like-him-but-really-cant-figure-out-why Humberto Ramos ... we have the antagonists of the piece.

Sunfire, we know ... looking closer to his Age of Apocalypse incarnation, and more recently, involving himself more and more into mutant affairs (he was one of The Twelve, after all, not to mention served as a Horseman). not like in 1970, when he walked out of the Xavier's school even before they made him an official X-Man. something about Bobby making a joke about Japanese internment camps.

we have the usual gaggle of Marauder suspects - Vertigo, Harpoon, Scalphunter, Arclight and Riptide - who may or may not be clones. i don't know anymore; didn't Mr. Sinister get the memo? clones are so '90s! ask Spiderman.

should i be surprised that petulant jerk Random is on this side? and why is the White Queen doing a sexy pose here? you mean to say she loses it again and flips again like a pancake/Democrat? Scott should dump her right now! what in the name of the Shi'ar is going on?

and who's leading the charge from the bad side? why, its none other than Rogue's ex and ex-X-Man, Gambit, who's been more on the side of the crazies in the past 5 years or so. really?? that lovable Cajun? i guess he's been twisted inside so much he doesn't know which way is up anymore. or there's something here that Mike Carey isn't telling us. yet. so i'll bet on that.


the loser Exodus is onboard as well, as is Marauder Prism (that's him, right, with the V-shaped forehead?). rounding out the posers are two chicks who were most recently on the side of the angels - Omega Sentinel and Lady Mastermind. they switch to the other side right here.

and the biggest switch of all, which probably sent most X-fans into a cesspool of shock, anger, and i-told-you-sos, was this:


and this after boinking Iceman (he won't live the teasing down for awhile).

oh, it's on, baby!


(damn, i need a mutant refresher course)
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X-Men: Endangered Species #1, X-Men #200
Mike Carey, Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos, Carlos Cuevas, Tim Townsend, Scot Eaton