Last night I was able to buy:
Astonishing X-Men 64
Uncanny X-Men Volume Three 8
Will have reviews up in a day or two
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All posts by John Klein III
http://www.newsarama.com/18333-marvel-comics-october-2013-solicitations.html
Definitely Buying:
ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #32-33
BRIAN WOOD 
• ALVARO MARTINEZ (A)
Cover by GABRIEL HARDMAN
Issue #32 – “WORLD WAR X” CONTINUES!
• UTOPIA’s insane plan to end the war
• WORLD WAR X claims its first casualties
• Will the war finally unite, or divide forever?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Issue #33 – “WORLD WAR X” CONCLUDES!
• WORLD WAR X’s unbelievable conclusion!
• KITTY PRYDE takes extraordinary steps, shocks the planet!
• In the aftermath, who remains to pick up the pieces?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Definitely set on getting the last half of Battle of the Atom:
ALL-NEW X-MEN #17
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS • STUART IMMONEN (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
LEGO VARIANT BY Leonel Castellani
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 6!
• Magik and Young Beast have a special mission!
• The X-Men and Future X-Men have Jean Grey and Cyclops and are going to send them back in time with the rest of the Original X-Men.
• But who is opposing them and why?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
X-MEN #6
BRIAN WOOD • DAVID LOPEZ (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by TERRY DODSON
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 7!
• CHAOS AT THE JEAN GREY SCHOOL as the X-Men and Future X-Men are attacked!
• Rachel Grey is the only X-Man qualified to defeat the mystery opponents!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
UNCANNY X-MEN #13
BHAEL BENDIS • CHRISTOPHER BACHALO (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by CHRIS BACHALO
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 8!
• Wolverine, who just lost his healing factor, takes a mortal hit!
• And a surprise ending that changes everything in the X-Men Event of 2013!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #37
JASON AARON • GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by KRIS ANKA
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 9!
• All of the X-Men (present & future) and their adversaries are reeling from the events of Part 8!
• With the adversaries’ Plan A squashed, they turn to their far more sinister Plan B on the grounds of the X-Men’s first adventure!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM #2 (of 2)
JASON AARON • ESAD RIBIC (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by ESAD RIBIC
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 10!
• The biggest battle in X-Men history will melt your face off.
• All of the X-Men find their footing in the world much changed.
• The X-Men event of 2013 concludes and sets up the major X-Men stories for 2014!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
This will be probably my last big crossover I get to follow for quite some time, which I’ll be revealing why in a future post.
WOLVERINE #10
PAUL CORNELL • ALAN DAVIS (A/C)
PART 3 OF KILLABLE!
• Who says you can’t go home?
• Logan and Kitty’s road trip heads north – to the grounds of the former Howlett estate!
• But more than bittersweet memories are waiting for Logan in the place he once called home.
• The ghosts of Logan’s Canadian childhood meet the demons of his adulthood as he continues to grapple with his new reality!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99
Alan Davis drawing Kitty again, awesome!
Maybe Buying:
INFINITY #5 (of 6)
JONATHAN HICKMAN • JEROME OPEñA & DUSTIN WEAVER (A)
COVER BY ADAM KUBERT
Design Variant by JEROME OPENA
Generals Variant by IN-HYUK LEE
Hero Variant by SARA PICHELLI
Young Variant by SKOTTIE YOUNG
• The Avengers Universe.
• The Heroes of Earth rally to defeat Thanos.
• The war for Earth begins.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
I know Kitty was shown in the five pages of the Free Comic Book Day issue of Infinity, so I’m going to buy that first issue and at least reading the rest, if she shows up, then I will buy that issue. She usually doesn’t in these wide crossovers.
INFINITY: THE HUNT #2 & 3 (of 4)
MATT KINDT
STEVEN SANDERS (A)
Cover by SLAVA PASARIN
INFINITY TIE-IN!
• Thanos’ forces have attacked the Earth, but what part of his plan involves the super youth of the world?
• See the attacks on the Avengers Academy, Jean Grey School, Future Foundation, Braddock Academy, Wakandan School of Alternative Studies, the Pan-Asian School for the Unusually Gifted and the Latverian School of Sciences!
• The students at all of the world’s super schools try to put into play everything they’ve learned as they fight side-by-side with their super teachers!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Pending on who shows up from the Jean Grey School, I will pick it up.
HUNGER #4 (of 4)
JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV
LEONARD KIRK (A)
Cover by ADI GRANOV
THE BEGINNING OF THE END???
• Has RICK JONES failed to stop Earth from destruction?
• The death throes of a universe!
• A hero reborn? The road to CATACLYSM starts here!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
The Ultimate X-Men did not show up during the last crossover, so not sure if I will get this. Usually I thumb through most of the comics, looking for certain characters and if I don’t see them, I put the comic back.
Same will go for Cataclysm.
MARVEL: NOW WHAT?! #1
SKOTTIE YOUNG, SCOTT ADSIT, WYATT CENAC, GERRY DUGGAN, BRIAN POSEHN, SARA SCHAEFER & MORE
SKOTTIE YOUNG, ERIC CANETE, COLLEEN COOVER, STEVE LIEBER, PATRICK OLLIFFE & MORE (A)
Cover by SKOTTIE YOUNG
• Get ready for the NOWest book in Marvel NOW History – Marvel NOW WHAT?!
• SEE NOW! Captain America get Cat Fished! SEE NOW! The Intervention of the Watcher! SEE NOW! The Wedding of Thor and Storm!
• All that and more as a cast of comedy’s shining stars and Marvel’s most exciting artists bring you the stories of Marvel NOW that you never thought you’d ever want to see – but you do want ot see it, and you want it NOW!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Be curious who shows up at Storm’s wedding, her last one didn’t go that well. Well, the wedding was beautiful, the marriage just didn’t last.
ALL-NEW X-MEN SPECIAL #1
MICHAEL COSTA • KRIS ANKA (A)
Cover by ALEXANDER LOZANO
Interlocking Variant Cover by J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
PART ONE OF “THE ARMS OF THE OCTOPUS!”
• The All-New X-Men cross over with the Indestructible Hulk and Superior Spider-Man!
• What does Doctor Octopus want with the All-New X-Men and HOW IS HE ALIVE?!
• This gets the immediate attention of Superior Spider-Man, but what does it have to do with the Hulk?
40 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T …$4.99
If Kitty doesn’t show up in any of these, I’m passing. At least they are not shoe horning Warren into this crossover. Odd to include Spider-Man and Hulk, but could be decent.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #68
MARJORIE LIU
GABRIEL HERNANDEZ WALTA (A)
Cover by PHIL NOTO
FINAL ISSUE!
• Through thick and thin, from marriage to apocalypse, the X-Men have always stood together as a family.
• Is there anything in this world – or any other – that could break them up?
• It all ends here as Marjorie Liu bids a fond farewell to the Astonishing team!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Might get this as Kitty has been showing up during these past couple issues.
X-MEN LEGACY #18
SIMON SPURRIER
TBA (A)
Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO
• The final showdown between Legion and the Uncanny X-Men!
• David faces off against his father’s murderer – but Cyclops and the telepathic Emma Frost still have some tricks up their sleeves!
• With two of David’s most formidable recent adversaries added to this volatile mix, is victory beyond his grasp?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99
States the Uncanny team, so hopefully Magik shows up.
…
8 for sure, so that’s $24
8 maybes for another $24
$48!
So let’s just hope my favorite characters only show up in only a few of these and let’s keep this hobby of mine under $30, and of course, I can always space it out but I like to imagine what my budget is going to be and try to save up that much. And of course, like always, no one is holding a gun to my head and making me buy these. I’ll always maintain that the side titles are nice but I would just follow the main titles anyways as that’s what really matters to the line.
Pretty exciting time though, to be an X-Fan!
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled and colored by Chris Bachalo
Inked by Tim Townsend, Jamie Mendoza, Al Vey & Victor Olazara
I have to be honest, I only wanted to review this issue because I just heard 3 Chicks Review Comics episode 54, their review starts at the 18 minute mark.
http://1979semifinalist.podomatic.com/entry/2013-04-15T00_41_55-07_00
I can only vouch for episodes 8, 22, 29, 31, and 56 as those ones deal with the X-Men. I got hipped to it has Kelly Thompson is one if the writers for Comics Should Be Good.
Back to the issue at hand
I wished we were back in the day of those useful Editor’s Captions, as this issue needs it. Should state “Go read All New X-Men issues 9, 10, 11” as it made sense when the issues first published as they all came out at the same time, but now, months later, I had to go back and figure it out.
All New X-Men 9, final page has Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Magik showing up at the Jean Grey School.
All New X-Men 10 has Cyclops’ initial offer for students to come and join his school, the New Xavier School.
All New X-Men 11 deals with Warren making the choice to join Future Scott’s school.
None of all that is mentioned in this comic, also, I miss the Letters Page for that reason too. Back in the 90s, that is how I learned about Marvel History with uber editor, Tom Breevoort.
I got the cover shown above, not the variant. I did not add it to my wishlist, as it only has Emma and the Cuckoos on it.
When asked who my favorite artists are, I’m quick to name Paul Smith as my favorite with Bachalo as a close second. Their styles could not be more different. There is just something about the way Bachalo draws boots and gloves, that I always liked, and then I started to notice his layouts and such. He really is working on a whole different level.
I still am not loving Illyana’s new costume, but I’m getting more use to it. I like Cyclops’ new look, Emma’s doesn’t do anything for me one way or another, and I still can’t believe Magneto is running around bald and completely in white.
I’m glad Bachalo got to draw Kitty in this issue.
I loved every scene with the Stepford Sisters and Emma, as Bendis’ dialogue is spot on and the layouts are stunning. The page that is done in black and white, amazing use of the page.
Scott’s students back at his school: Tempus, Triage, Benjamin Deeds, and Fabio Medina, all get fun character moments when they pick out their dorm rooms and experience their first accidental Danger Room session.
End of the day. New Xavier School gets four more students. I loved Scott’s introduction for Past Warren, sirt of wish we can hear Scott’s opinion on the rest of the Original Five X-Men.
Issue ends with Illyana’s powers going crazy!
…
I should be able to buy this week’s comics on Friday night, but I’ve been already told that my previous two week’s woth of comics may never come in and I have to give them a list of what I should have received. Which is annoying, but hopefully the latest Astonishing and Uncanny are there and that they can back order the other ones for me.
Written by Gerry Duggan
Penciled by Salvador Larroca
Colored by David Ocampo
Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles
Now, this is a fun comic!
So glad that the interior art is not as cheesecake as the cover would imply.
I would love to buy a SWORD mini starring Spider-Woman and Lockheed.
That homeless guy is both funny and oddly placed.
Kitty making a Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, from Game of Thrones, was a matter of time, but so spot on.
Kitty vs. Absorbing Man, such a good battle and this is the first of two fights where Kitty puts her hand into someone’s skull, the other happening in Scarlet Spider 17.
AIM and Hydra falling in line was awesome too!
I would like to see Duggan get some more work based off of this, he writes women well.
One of my goals here is to eventually scan all of Lockheed’s appearances per panel, but without a computer, that’s going to be difficult. Hopefully within a year, I can get one.
There is a Deadpool/Hawkeye story that is decent.
Brian Cronin, who is pretty awesome as I can only imagine that these events take like ten hours to complete, is requesting people sumbit their Top Ten X-Men stories.
What I like to do with Brian’s Lists is to imagine what the top ten are, and even if I agree with them, I like to make those the bottom of my list as I know for a fact the people are going to be giving those the top spots so I can play with my suggestions a little more.
Brian states that you can’t just consider collections as the full “story” such as Paul Smith’s run (Uncanny X-Men 165 through 175) as they are several stories and not one whole story. Which I’m fine with as it made my creating a list easier. What made it not easier was me deciding to only do issues from Uncanny as (I’ve already submitted my list like a fool) I thought it would be more of a challenge and it wasn’t until later that I thought about throwing a mini series or an Ultimate storyline into the mix. I also kept it to just issues that I actually own as well.
My Submitted List is:
1. The Mastermind/Phoenix story from Uncanny X-Men 175, I’m hoping Brian comes up with a better name for this, its officially titled “Phoenix!” but I wanted to be clear on which one it is. That is one of the fun things about these is that you find out what other people refer to these titles as. For me, Paul Smith’s nine issues (171 is drawn by Walt Simonson) is the be all of X-Men runs.
2. Wolverine’s Failed Wedding, Uncanny 172-173, whenever you see Rogue/Wolverine as friends, its all based on these two issues where their friendship began. It also gave us 80s Mohawk Storm.
3. The First Appearance of the Morlocks, Uncanny 169-170, gave us the awesome Callisto/Storm battle and the Kitty/Caliban … let’s call it friendship, begins here.
4. The Brood Saga, Uncanny 165-167, the ending of it, I guess, the beginning has the incredible Dave Cockrum pencils but I don’t recall those as well. 167 has the X-Men meeting the New Mutants for the very first time, and 166 gave us Lockheed!
5. Days of Future Past, Uncanny 141 & 142, a story so amazing its going to be the basis of a feature film next year and a lousy two part episode back for the 90s X-Men cartoon. Kate Pryde goes back in time and switches bodies with a young Kitty Pryde, who just successfully completed her first Danger Room session. What I love about this story is that the characters in the past are so quick to go along with Kate Pryde’s story, they don’t waste a bunch of time making her prove herself. A quick mind read and they are off to Washington DC. Kate Pryde is going to be part of the Future X-Men in the upcoming 50th Anniversary story, Battle of the Atom, so I’m very excited about that. This is also why Brian is doing the Top 50 X-Men Stories as CSBG is celebrating the 50th anniversary of both X-Men and Avengers this year.
6. Dark Phoenix Saga, I noted Uncanny issues 129 through 131, though they really are just the Hellfire issues of the story, its mostly Hellfire Club then the Space Opera from Uncanny 132 to 137. Kitty only shows up in the first half of the story and then at the end of 138 but people don’t usually include 138, which is odd as that’s the funeral issue and Cyclops leaving.
7. Hunt for Xavier, Uncanny 362 to 364, to celebrate the X-Men’s 35th Anniversary, Marvel cancelled Excalibur and brought Kitty, Kurt and Colossus over to the main title. Hunt for Xavier was the first storyline of that era. The other members of the team were Storm, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue and Marrow. Which is not a bad classic team. Seven to eight members makes for a good cast. I would prefer one of the original five X-Men being on it as well but that’s okay.
This is where I was just looking at what multi-part stories did I own from Uncanny X-Men.
8. Quarantine, Uncanny X-Men 530-534, humans are trying to give themselves the X-Gene. The mutants on Utopia are getting sick and must pull it together to attack the humans. Not my strongest moment adding it. If I was going to add it, should have made it number 10 and given it one vote.
9. Breaking Point, Uncanny X-Men 535-538, now this story is the direct sequel to Unstoppable, Kitty becomes tangible again (which was silly in the first place as they already did that to her during the 80s) and The Dodsons did the artwork, which is never bad.
10. Mutant Massacre, Uncanny X-Men 210 to 213, the original story where Kitty becomes intangible, Colossus kills for the second time (he killed Proteus much earlier) and falls into a coma, Kurt can’t teleport due to injuries, X-Men are beaten, the Morlocks are practically killed off, some intense moments here.
That was my submitted list, I should have swapped out Quarantine with Ultimate X-Men: Hellfire Club arc that gave us Ultimate Kitty Pryde. That’s what I should have done.
Be curious to see which Paul Smith stories make the cut, hopefully at least two.
Over the weekend, I was trying to locate a copy of Peter David’s prose adaption of Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, Whedon/Cassaday’s first arc on the title. When asked which is my favorite of the Whedon arcs, it will have to be Torn. Gifted is nice as it brings the team together, Dangerous has a decent battle sequence and Unstoppable has powerful moments but I couldn’t fully enjoy it until Matt Fraction brought Kitty back, like three years later.
Torn has the best character moments, and as most people know, Whedon is all about character moments. The story is essentially Emma versus the X-Men with Kitty mounting the comeback. Emma takes down Cyclops mentally, Kitty and Colossus have sex for the first time (though, did she do it with Pete Wisdom, something about Warren Ellis tells me that she probably did as that was a mature relationship) Emma turns Wolverine into an adult James Howlett (a proper Canadian gentleman), Emma turns Hank McCoy further down towards a beast. And all that is by part two!
These issues take place in Astonishing X-Men 13-18.
Part Three has that awesome moment where Kitty relives Wolverine’s famous turn during Dark Phoenix Saga. We find out that SWORD has a traitor in the midst of the X-Men, turns out its Lockheed, which I wish they had dealt with more. We got some interaction with the “Meanwhile” storyline in Astonishing later (like in the 30s/40s) and just recently in A+X with Spider-Woman/Kitty/Lockheed.
Part Four, Kitty gets to live through a fake future where she has a son named Michael, which I’m not sure where that name comes from. I doubt its in honor of Colossus’ older crazy brother.
Part Five, Beast and Wolverine have an awesome chase sequence.
Part Six, Beast and Wolverine both get their memories back, McCoy with science and Logan with a beer, which has to be seen to fully enjoy.
I also want to give a special shout out as Cassaday’s artwork looks amazing and a huge part of that is due to Laura Martin’s coloring, makes the book look like a classic read and these issues still look great seven years later.
Its nice to see Cyclops’ eyes for the first time in a long time.
I own this storyline as the proper individual issues, the original trade, the beautiful hardcover Omnibus, and now the Motion Comic.
I really enjoyed the motion comics (I own the entire Astonishing four disc set), I just wish they had some additional features on it but for ten dollars, its a pretty good deal as I’ve seen them all repeatedly.
There is a lot of action in Torn, a lot of great character interactions and some good suspense, that really makes this one stand out. Part Six leads directly into the final arc, Unstoppable.
Lockheed shows up, mostly in the background but that’s pretty much what he did during this era. It hasn’t really changed since then but at least Cassaday got to draw him like every four issues or so.
http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-1690.php
CGS are known, to me at least, as not being X-Men fans, they are more Avengers fans but this episode has Chris Eberle, and CGS alums Murd and Pants (who may be the X-fans of the bunch)
:29 minute mark has them discussing Kitty Pryde’s origins
1:01 minute mark discusses Illyana’s first appearance in Giant Size
1:43 minute mark discusses Kitty’s first appearance in Dark Phoenix Saga
1:57 minute mark discusses Kitty’s Welcome to the X-Men issue
1:58 minute mark discusses Days of Future Past
2:04 minute mark discusses Kitty’s Christmas Story / Byrne’s final issue
All issues I will review over time. Was looking for a new podcast to pass some time, and thought I’ll revisit CGS as they will surprise me from time to time with some X-talk.
The episode is very educational and fun, and I hope they are set to release their “X-Men in the Copper Age” episode soon. I really like episodes with Murd as he takes comics seriously and I wish there were more documentaries on the subject.
Byrne turns 63 today. Without him, we would not even have Kitty Pryde, so he will always have a special place in my heart.
Netflix has X-Men Evolution Season One now streaming. After watching all 13 episodes, the show still holds up. Kitty gets two spotlight episodes, her origin in “The X-Impulse” and an adventure with Nightcrawler and Wolverine in “Grim Reminder.” She does get a moment in every other episode for the most part, but I forgot how centric the season was on Rogue/Nightcrawler/Mystique, which I really dug. It always amazes me that Mystique and Kurt were not always related and that Marvel had to come to that conclusion, sort of like the whole Magneto/Wanda/Quicksilver family. Which I should do a post about how much I love the Magneto/Pym family as its a shame Marvel doesn’t do more with how connected they are.
Mutant Crush is a little hard to watch with all the implications between Blob and Jean, it gets a little dark for a Saturday morning show.
I sort of wish that the show did more with the Rogue/Scott/Jean love triangle, and had even more courage to pair Scott with Rogue, that would be awesome. After Scott/Emma, I’m pretty much willing to see him with anybody who isn’t Jean. Not sure if I like the idea of Scott/Illyana but it would be different and good for her to get a guy like Scott. Though Illyana has never truly had a love interest in the comics, probably due to her own personal demons but a guy should be able to look beyond that. Though Limbo doesn’t seem like an idea spot to stick around in, even just for a portal jump.
Season Three’s Dark Horizon Part 1 always gets a lot of attention for having Kitty sleep with a plush purple dragon, and I wonder how much production wish they had thought about that during Season One’s Shadowed Past where Kitty is sleeping with a plush green dragon. Still, a wonderful touch to the comics.
I really liked how they didn’t keep harping on the fact that Kitty was uncomfortable with Kurt on the show, she has some issues with him during her first episode and then half of Rogue’s first episode and then they start bonding, sort of like in the comics. When she doesn’t care for him later in the series, its due to him being immature as oppose to her not liking him due to him being blue and fuzzy.
I also liked the bromance between Scott and Kurt, which is only really shown on this show, Kurt’s more of a Wolverine friend than Cyclops in the comics. I do like how they try to loosen Scott up on the show.
It makes sense now all of those Kurt/Kitty videos you will see on YouTube, there is a lot of chemistry but on the show itself, they keep pairing her up with Lance Alvers, Avalanche. Who really is more of a cartoon/movie villain, his powers don’t lend well to comics as much as in action.
I liked how Magneto was played up, always kept in shadows until the big reveal in the final two parter.
Animation holds up, characters are pretty spot on, you get different pairings and its just great to see the X-Men again in motion.
Still wish they would release Season Four on DVD, so crazy how that isn’t happening and no rumors of it either. And now that so much time as passed, who knows if they ever will now.
This sparked my interest to see if they released a comic version of this show and they did, it was nine issues, Kitty is on the cover to issue one and then stars in it from issue four to issue nine, so I’ve added those issues to my Wishlist.
Hopefully Netflix keeps adding episodes, I own them all up to Season Three but its nice to just be able to click play and let the show just ride through instead of having to replace DVDs in the player.
This is the last ID reference from me (probably)
As I tell peeps in RL, please make it a safe one!
For those who can’t watch videos, this is the speech from the second greatest fictional president, President Thomas J. Whitmore:
The President: Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.
Mankind — that word should have new meaning for all of us today.
We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore.
We will be united in our common interests.
Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution — but from annihilation.
We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist.
And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:
“We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We’re going to live on!
We’re going to survive!”
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!
Thanks to AmericanRhetoric.com for having this speech typed out.
Also, thanks to YouTuber Manoj Thansi for the video!
