let's vault in

drive-by readings

X-Men Legacy #239 (Marvel) "Collision Part Two" Mike Carey Clay Mann Jay Leisten Brian Reber Cory Petit Leinil Francis Yu (cover)

what we learned: Luz or Luisa, the stray they picked up last issue and now defended against Sentinels in this one, is more trouble than they bargained for. and why do we say that? ah, as i mentioned last time, the inhabitants of the world (uh, "The Corridor". duh.) she came from bear a resemblance to - uh, hello, Children of the Vault. how you doin'?
oh shit moment: Rogue gives Magneto one big uppercut just to let him know that there is nothing (nothing! nothing!) between them.
what's next: rematch! only Rogue is left from the original team of X-Men they clashed with before.


HDTV? 3D? pfah. solid state light shows are the bomb!

children of the corridor

drive-by readings

X-Men Legacy #238 (Marvel) "Collision Part One" Mike Carey Clay Mann Jay Leisten Brian Reber Cory Petit Leinil Francis Yu (cover)

what we learned: since this is Mike Carey driving the ship, he injects new (Spanish-flavored) enemies similar to the Children of the Vault circa the Supernovas story arc (thoroughly enjoyed that one), for a collision course with our mutants (Rogue being one of his faves, i feel). Rogue and Magneto accompany Paras and two other kids to Mumbai for a parental issue, but Mags has his suspicions of an extranormal anomaly. i hope the continuous suspicion of his current teammates doesn't push him again over to the supervillain side of the fence.
oh shit moment: where the hell did these quasi-Sentinels come from? (uh, "The Corridor". duh.)
what's next: i'd rather have someone else other than Clay Mann drawing this, but what the heck - bring it on.


20% tip mandatory.

full circle, part 1

drive-by readings

Second Coming #2 (Marvel) Zeb Wells Ibraim Roberson Matt Milla Mike Carey Esad Ribic Matt Wilson Craig Kyle Christopher Yost Greg Land Jay Leisten Frank Martin Matt Fraction Terry Dodson Rachel Dodson Brad Anderson Joe Caramagna Clayton Cowles Joe Sabino Adi Granov (cover) David Finch/Matt Banning/Peter Steigerwald (variant cover)

so this is the end of the one of the more exciting X-Crossovers in recent years (i'm still partial to Messiah Complex). Hope's initial worth was a few limbs, and the lives of Kurt and oh yeah ... that guy on the cover above. if you didn't see that coming ... well, i guess some of us didn't, despite the obvious buzz on Nightcrawler's death. hey, if you Google "cable is dead", all the top hits are about the ex-Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable. no respect for you, Nathan.

the final story is divided into four chapters, and the first one is easily the most interesting. there's Peter getting his broken arm reset (25000 PSI!). there's Magneto showing flashes of his old self (quite characteristic actually). and there's that poignant shot of Hope holding her known father figure's arm (all that remained of him). i can't believe they're getting rid of Cable this easily. then again, this is comics. he'll probably come back as a baby as well.

if i have a beef with the first chapter, its this:


we know Karma lost her leg several issues ago. either they created costumes (unstable molecules!) for her that really ends high up that leg, or she never changed clothes since.

chapter 2 has a flashback with Hope and Cable, and kind of confirms in a way that he may not be gone forever. erstwhile best pal Deadpool shows up at his funeral (and the 3rd chapter will show why). Magneto is there of course, full costume and all, and its ironic, for someone who remembers the '90s.

in chapter 3, we have a philosophical argument between Storm and Wolverine about X-Force, and they agree to disagree. Logan disbands the rest of the team, and reports back to Cyclops of the dissolution. Scott heroically confirms that he'll do it all over again, and is even willing to go to jail if the oh-so-heroic Avengers ever learn about their activities and attempt to arrest him. despite their differences over the years (not the least of which was fighting over a certain redhead), Scott and Logan are the perfect foils to each other and work well as anyone. that relationship is going to be strained when Scott learns about this:


is Warren holding a gun? Psylocke too? and why are they all facing us? was there a presscon and they need to pose, a la Dark Avengers? are they LMDs? Deadpool finally gets to be a full time member of an X-team. sort of. by the way, is Logan required to change costumes when doing X-Force meetings?

so, Uncanny X-Force it is.

two things on the last chapter: Emma gets the bejeezus scared out of there because of some connection between Jean Grey/Phoenix and Hope (redheads just won't die), and Namor getting to be more and more of a team player (a gruff one at that, and he can't shoot the rock a lick). the co-opting of Magneto and Namor under the X-banner is one of the most welcome events in X-Men history. like i keep repeating on this blog, do not turn back the clock and make them villains again.

snaps: X-Men Legacy #231

... where Blindfold's tweets with Destiny lands a bunch of them in Muir Isle and come face to face with an old enemy (who of course was supposed to be dead, as usual). oh, and Magneto gets slapped down by Rogue. which could trigger another meltdown back to supervillain status in issue #250.

1) Rogue demonstrates the tuck-and-roll to Blindfold.


2) in another lifetime, Kurt, you would have a steel bar wrapped your throat for that comment.


3) careful there, Mags - that 'child's' brother is upfront piloting the plane. oh, wait, he joined your cause that day, and that child (editorially) came back to life eventually anyway. ok, fine, you can talk.


4) Psylocke. Husk. on the same plane. hmmm. nobody noticed this?


5) lookit!!! a Maggott sighting! X-fans do the wave!!!

US Bank, standing tall against the pigs

we commend the position of USBank, one the largest banks in the United States, to stand tall with our beleaguered mutants, especially those who choose to live in San Francisco (Castro district).

when Norman Osborn's jackbooted sentinels come in quell unrest, our mutants will not go quietly into the night. no, siree. USBank also stands behind them (to the side).


i was curious whether the background did exist, and according to Google Maps, yes it is quite accurate.


and we heartily cheered as a whole wall of the bank collapses on now-i-don't-like-him-cause-he's-on-the-other-side Ares, courtesy of Gambit's charge cards (heh).


this is one heck of a product placement. is Michael Bay involved in this?

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X-Men: Legacy #226

drive-by readings: X-Men: Legacy #225

X-Men: Legacy #225 (Marvel) "The Retreat" Mike Carey Phil Briones Brian Reber Corey Petit Daniel Acuña (cover)

big whoop: Charles Xavier takes down the annoying, way-past-their-15-minutes Acolytes (finally) without firing a shot. well, of course, he's just the damned best telepath in the whole wide universe and he's pretty much indestructible, despite getting bullet surgery in the brain, among other things. its pretty much how this should go down (if you want to live in the past, go read X-Men Forever). Mike Carey ties up the strings after the events of Deadly Genesis/Messiah Complex, though am not sure since when did Exodus start talking like a modern American man. so whether he follows up on change we can believe in (as Charles prods him to), we don't know. and when Norman Osborn is on the scene, expect no good to come out of it.

the killing time

cliffhangers of the week!

riding high on their laurels post-Secret Invasion, the T-Bolts go for a much vaunted target: Moon Knight!

ahhhhh ... screw it. like either of them is really gonna end up dead.

Moon Knight #24
Mike Benson/Mark Texeira/Javier Saltares/Dan Brown/Joe Caramagna


the fight to control Wolverine's long-lost son hurtles towards its conclusion with the kid about to throw down with his pop.


X-Men: Legacy #218
Mike Carey/Scot Eaton/Andrew Hennessy/Jason Keith/Brian Reber/Cory Petit


what? another Bullseye sighting? Norman Osborn cleans house, and sics his most ethics-challenged dogs to do it. if Bullseye doesn't get to really whack anyone next issue, that makes him only good for killing Goliath Skrulls. his stock is really plummeting like the stock market. if you want to hire a hitman, you'd be better off hiring the Punisher.


Thunderbolts #126
Andy Diggle/Roberto Dela Torre/Frank Martin/Albert Deschesne

cliffhanger of the week #1

counting down the best (i.e., the ones i read) cliffhangers of the week.

#3
Iron Man #25
Knauf Brothers/Roberto De La Torre


Maya finally learns who "Tem Borjin" is, Sec Def Koonig sings, and Tony goes head to head with the old geezer with rings in his retro Iron Man armor and without Extremis. oh joy.


#2
X-Men #207
Mike Carey/Chris Bachalo/Tim Townsend et al.

though it is a concluding issue, there are still a lot of questions that pushed us over that cliff - starting with "what the hell is going on with Bishop???" who is this new mutant baby? what happens to Gambit? is Sinister really dead? is Charles really dead? what happened to Layla? will Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination?

#1
Astonishing X-Men #24
Joss Whedon/John Cassaday

just whose side's on whose? does Peter have the balls to break this alien world? and with a ten-mile long non-electronic bullet fired at Earth, will the X-Men be able to stop it in time? will i be able to hold my pee? tune back next month! (or months, because this will be allegedly be concluded in a giant-sized issue)

X-terminated

oi!!!

its the conclusion of Messiah CompleX storyline over in X-Men #207, and the world (and our merry mutants) is/are stunned as a rogue Bishop shoots down Ol' Baldie, Chuck Xavier himself.

oh, who are we kidding? Xavier died already several times in the past, at the least regaining/losing the use of his legs as well. we just need Lilandra to get back the Shi'ar Empire and use their technology to bring Xavier back to life again. what's that, Havok? issue #5 of Emperor Vulcan is still going to press? how about those alien jerks in Astonishing X-Men? didn't they revive a dead Cyclops? what, no continuity links between those two? how do you explain Colossus, hmmmm??

here's a curious scene. look carefully, don't blink and you tell me where Xavier's body went.

huh? huh?

well anyway, Chuck's "death", as it were, is the convenient premise for the next storyline, Divided We Stand, and it just means we are just fish that can't fight the hook. damn you, Mike Carey!

but what i really wanna know is ... what the hell's up with Bishop? (yeah i hope no one forget that itty bitty part)

ps. props to everyone for kicking Marauder ass.

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X-Men #207
Mike Carey/Chris Bachalo/Tim Townsend/Victor Olazaba/Jon Sibal/Al Vey

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