Uncanny X-Men Volume Three Issue 17

Posted by John Klein III on February 24, 2014
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Uncanny X-Men V3 17

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils & Colors Chris Bachalo

Inks Tim Townsend with Al Vey & Jaime Mendoza

Lettering & Production VC’s Joe Caramagna

Issue opens with Magik teleporting the students into a mysterious new location.  We learn later that it is Tabula Rasa, which means that this issue takes place in Montana!  My adopted state.

I like whenever Goldballs freaks out, he loses control over his gold balls and they scatter.

This issue also has Phoebe having already dyed her hair, glad we didn’t have to witness her dying it.  So now we have Irma being a brunette and Celeste still a blonde but finally, we can tell them apart, which is awesome.

Magik teleports them in and then leaves, this is a test.  Irma refers to her as Magik and Celeste corrects her to state, Professor Magik.  I took it as Cyclops’ team wanting to be like Kitty and being called Professor now.

The students have no idea why they are there, they assume it is a training exercise.  It is fun to see how the students interact with their lives on the line as well as without the senior X-Men.

Irma thinks they are in the Savage Land and Phoebe says that they are not.  Tempus doesn’t know what a Savage Land is but wonders why it smells.  Triage starts thinking that they are in the Danger Room.

I like Triage and Benjamin in this moment.  Triage states that they use the Danger Room to beat on them, and Benjamin tries to correct him with, train.  Next Triage states that they use the room for mind games, and again Benjamin states, training.  Goldballs starts thinking that they are in the Danger Room.  We also find out that Hijack was a homebody before joining the New Xavier School, which I completely get that as why leave your house?

Irma wonders if they are even on the planet anymore and that surprises Tempus as an option.  Goodballs recommends that Tempus uee her time powers to get them out of there and she states that isn’t how her powers work, she thinks.  Which I really like that we are still tracking their power progression.

Hijack takes out his phone, Triage states that he shouldn’t even have that.  Hijack retorts that he couldn’t get out of his phone contract, so he kept his phone.  He’s older than these other students, so it makes sense that he is practical.  Benjamin explains why no phones, Cyclops doesn’t want them to be able to be tracked by SHIELD or any other agency.

Tempus pipes up that they should listen to what Cyclops wants.  This turns the conversation and everyone starts claiming she has a crush on Cyclops.  Which I have read online somewhere but I can’t recall when that is revealed or who she revealed that too.

Hijack reveals they are in Montana, so of course, they are in Tabula Rasa.  Irma now knows where they are.  Before she can reveal the location, we are treated to a double page spread of them being attacked by a giant rhino-like creature.  Goldballs loses his mind and also, control over his goldballs, big time.  They all scattered.

Goldballs and Tempus are one team.  Hijack, Benjamin and Celeste are another.  The third is Phoebe, Irma and Triage.

A giant ostrich comes across Tempus and Goldballs.  she throws up a time bubble but Goldballs was outside of it so only she is inside of it.  He keeps losing his godlballs and one of them goes into the ostrich’s mouth and he defeats it.

We get another two page spread, Triage and the two Cuckoos are trying to find their way.  I really like the use of the green lighting in the scene.  We learn that Triage is afraid of spiders and starts to panic, he is screaming.  Irma goes into his mind and makes him brave and not afraid of bugs.  They hear a rustle and it is Goldballs making his way to them.  He was following the girl’s screams and wonders which Cuckoo it was.  He lost Tempus.

Meanwhile. Benjamin and Hijack (the only ones in X-Men uniforms – Triage and the Cuckoos are wearing suits) and Celeste are trying to find their way.  I like the yellow in this scene.  Celeste explains what Tabula Rasa is.  Celeste picks up a foreign mind.  Next, she collapses.  Then three dude no faces show up.  Benjamin starts morphing into one of them, to try to communicate with them.

Cut to Phoebe and Irma, who sense that Celeste is no longer with them.

One of the no faces touches Benjamin’s face and he that lasts a bit.  It ends with Celeste waking up, extremely angry.  She wants to attack them and we see that the no-faces do in fact, have more than just eyes, and once we see their mouths, it have big teeth and are biters.  That panel is very unsettling.

Luckily, a time bubble appears around them.  We see Tempus, with long air and a very torn uniform.  She looks older, like nineteen to now twenty-five.  She sees Benjamin and hugs him, she has been through a lot.  The rest of the students show up, and Celeste telsl her sisters that she is okay.

Eva asks Celeste, who she knows can read her mind, to not tell the others what she just read.  Which is a nice moment as Celeste hates pretty much everyone who isn’t her sisters, and them, she barely likes.

Goldballs shows concern for Tempus and she kisses him on his forehead.  I’m sure it is the white streak in her hair but I’m getting a total Rogue vibe from the Aussie now.

Triage offers to heal her and gets punched as thanks, what is that about?  Maybe she likes being older or doesn’t want to lose the experience she went through.  I find it funny, and this has to be on purpose, that Tabula Rasa was made via a time bubble of sorts that caused Beavertown, Montana to age 130 million years in a span of a day.  Now Tempus has aged in a similar way, also in Tabula Rasa.

Turns out, that SHIELD has shown up.  We have some armored soldiers, Nick Fury Jr., Agent Coulson, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman.

Goldballs whispers to Hijack, that this is why they don’t have phones.  Triage reveals that Nick Fury isn’t a young man, Fury Jr. wants to move on.  He must get that a lot.  The agents and two Avengers are all shielded from psychic attacks, as Phoebe tried.

Hijack takes over the SHIELD armor and by doing so, reveals his powers to SHIELD.  I really need another word besides, reveal, I will work on that.  Before he can force the attack, they are teleported back to the school.

Uncanny X-Men V3 17 Magik Final Page

Hijack reveals that Cyclops is now going by Professor Cyclops, it just seems clumsy to me.  Cyclops states that it was a training exercise and he failed.  Celeste thinks he meant the students all failed and he only meant Hijack.  Cyclops is proud of Goldballs, but Hijack failed.  Not only did he reveal his powers to SHIELD but they did essentially get captured.  Cyclops straight up kicks him off the team.

Issue ends with Magik teleporting him back to his house and that is it.  No second chance, which I think is harsh.

I do like how Kitty is in the room when Cyclops is talking to the students, she is clearly part of the Uncanny team, if it isn’t official yet, hopefully soon.  Scott needs her as his right hand advisor.  It would be foolish to not use her as a resource.

Next issue’s cover looks stunning with a gun to Cyclops’ head.

Secret Wars 2

Posted by John Klein III on February 23, 2014
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Writer Jim Shooter

Penciler Mike Zeck

Inker John Beatty

Letterer Joe Rosen

Colorist Christie Scheele

Cover Dated June 1984

Issue opens where the last one ended, the heroes are being surprised attacked by the villains.

Captain America orders the heroes to form a wedge, that he will be at point.  They need to close ranks as the villains have the advantage of just blasting at anyone staring at them.

Bulldozer and Piledriver are on this machine that resembles the War of the Worlds tripod.  Piledriver has the responsibility to remind us readers, and the villains, that the Beyonder promised their hearts desire if they defeat the heroes.

Cap wants Hulk to start going on the defense, when Hulk is hit by one of the energy weapons, that apparently hit as hard as Thor.

Someone who deserves to get hit by something as hard as Thor is Colossus and once he does, he is knocked the heck out.  This little moment here is the beginning of Colossus’ arc in this series.  Lockheed lands on his chest and starts flaming away.  Wolverine is highly impressed, as he should be.  They are both scrappers.

Cap notices that the villains attacks are unfocused.  Hulk, who only at issue two, is wasting a bunch of time talking away.  I know he now has Banner’s brain, so is probably wanting to take advantage of being able to communicate with his fellow heroes and work on his bad reputation but every time he talks, you know he is going to say a bunch.  He can’t just throw a rock and hit somebody.  When he does try to throw a rock, due to all of his dialogue, it is blasted.

Reed comments that half of the heroes were knocked out due to the surprise attack.  He tries to cover them with his elastic body.  She-Hulk and Spider-Man are still in the fight.  Xavier, Rogue and Hawkeye were some of the ones who were knocked out.  Reed wonders where they got the energy weapons, as they were barely on the planet for a small amount of time.

Kang comments to the Absorbing Man, to not to get cocky, as they haven’t won until the heroes are all dead and without Doom, they are susceptible to a counter-attack.  Kang then states that t was a shame he had to kill Doom.  A little bragging on his part.

This transitions to Doom, reviewing the previous issues events from his perspective.  He still wants the Beyonder’s powers, he doesn’t want to wait until the needless fighting is over.  Doom comes to Galactus who is still knocked out.  In an image that has stuck with me since reading it for the first time, Galactus lifts himself by sheer will.  He doesn’t lift himself like a guy would after laying on the ground.  His entire body, in one movement is lifted and then placed on his feet, done of this bending over, lifting the shoulders first and then balancing.  Galactus doesn’t have time for all of this.

By the time I read this, which was in a trade format, this was already a legendary storyline and my mother bought it along with ten other trades so that I can read some classic Marvel stories that I kept reading about.

Doom tries to communicate with Galactus, trying to form an alliance, but Galactus ignores him as he is as beneath him as an ant is beneath Doom, which Doom of course finds insulting.  He takes no comfort in the fact that Galactus is the ant to the Beyonder.

Doom finds his way back to the villain base. Doom suspects what he needs to obtain this power is in the base.  Doom comes across Ultron, still deactivated and plans on using the shell to his own ends.

Cap is trying to get the heroes into a defense position.  He gets Iron Man and Thing to pull back.  He gives Thor an order and Thor hits the ground with his hammer, knocking several of villains over.

Hulk is attacking the tripod.  Human Torch tries to give him a command, and Hulk states that once Johnny can tear the tripod like it is paper, and only then, can he tell the Hulk to do something.  I like Hulk with some attitude, just keep it pithy!  Hulk knocks the villains down and Cyclops blasts them for good measure.  Good job, Scott!

We get She-Hulk versus Enchantress.  She-Hulk is surprised Enchantress can take one of her punches, Enchantress states of course she can, she is Asgardian.  This gives Jennifer permission to not hold back and she doesn’t.  What I wish she did hold back, saying “tubular to the max” ooof, the 80s everybody!

The villains realize this isn’t going their way and flee.  Thor asks Cap if they should follow and Cap wants to regroup.

Cap asks Storm to do some recon, she is glad her powers work on this strange planet.  She wonders if this was part of Beyonder’s plan, to make as perfect of a fighting situation as possible.  Storm finds them this gigantic tower of a fortress.  Iron Man states that it is bigger than the Pentagon, as he is Rhodey and he is a military man, and Hulk corrects him that it is at least 54 pentagons.  Which would seem like a jerk move but saying it is bigger than one thing when in fact it seems to be 54 times that one thing, I think Hulk is in the right.  Plus, he has to comment on every little thing.

Hulk offers to lead the way, if there are any traps he won’t be hurt as much.  Cap is quick to say that Iron Man and Thor might argue that they can accomplish the same thing, he likes to encourage Hulk.  No one states it, probably because Hank Pym isn’t there but with the Hulk working with the team, we have the classic Avengers line up again.  Except Tony isn’t Iron Man, as well.  I wonder where Hank Pym is during this?  Probably off being a professional scientist.

Kurt sees Colossus looking around.  He asks what he is looking for.  Colossus, trying to still pretend to be a good guy, states he is looking for Lockheed.  He hasn’t seen him since the battle.  If anything were to happen to him, Kitty will be devastated.  This will be the last time this adventure that he cares at all for her feelings.  Wolverine proving he is also a jerk, and probably explaining why the X-Men have the reputation that they do, states that it isn’t a sure thing that anyone is getting back and to forget the dragon.  I mean, really?  Lockheed earn his respect only so many pages ago and now he’s writing him off!?!

Later, Reed tells Cap that their prisoners are secured.  Their prisoners are – Bulldozer, Enchantress, Kang, Lizard and Piledriver.  He apologizes for taking so long to figure out the computers in this base.  Reed also discovered a healing device.  Cap compliments Reed, stating that he has earned the name Mister Fantastic and his reputation for being both compassionate and courageous.

Cap tells Reed to gather all of the heroes to the giant dome on the 451 level.  Which really?  That tower is too big, hopefully everyone isn’t too scattered throughout the tower, as with that many floors, and rooms, it can be confusing.

Cap has gathered all the heroes, Wolverine wants to go after the villains now.  Cap wants to secure their base and rest.  He has Thor, Human Torch and Iron Man on patrol.

We see Magneto’s new base, he is deciding his next move.

The villains make it back to their base, Doom has renamed it Doombase.  The villains mock him and he unleashes Ultron on them.  They get in line.  Doom makes a point to make sure Molecule Man is happy.

Octopus wants to know Doom’s plan.  Doom tells him not to worry about that, but to worry about what Galactus has in mind.

Magneto is, making his way to the hero base.

Wasp shares with She-Hulk her concerns about not getting home.

Cyclops is complaining to Reed about how he was on his honeymoon and not in costume.  Reed shares how he wishes he was with his wife.  Thing overhears this and wishes he was with Alicia.

Spider-Man is talking to Human Torch.  Johnny tells him that the Fantastic Four have been away from Earth before – which is a great point, most of these heroes have been on other planets for days, maybe even weeks before.  Why so worried this time?

Spider-Man’s danger sense goes off.  Torch makes a reference to how Spider-Man usually deals with muggers.  Which is an od comment, as by now, Spider-Man has been around for twenty years, our time, and has one of the best rouges galleries of all time.

Johnny goes for help.  When he comes back with the other heroes, we are treated to a very funny panel.

They see Spider-Man being thrown across the panel, in a metal ball as he shouts that it is Magneto who is attacking.  Thing states they figured that part out already.  Fun times.

Magneto captures Wasp.  He was going to destroy the power station of their base, but had to change his plan.  Thing tries to stop him but reverts back to Ben Grimm.

Monica, Captain Marvel, asks if anyone else noticed that the X-Men didn’t show up to fight Magneto.  Captain America tells her to not look for additional problems, especially as they have a real one to deal with.  Galactus is clearly starting something on his mountain top.

This concludes our Secret Wars portion of Lockheed Month.  We have two more issues of Uncanny X-Men before it ends.  For Secret Wars, one day, we will cover issues four and five, that reference Kitty, eleven has a reference to Lockheed and twelve has an appearance by Lockheed.

X-Men Legacy 24

Posted by John Klein III on February 22, 2014
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

X-Men Legacy 24

Writer Simon Spurrier

Penciler Tan Eng Huat

Inker Craig Yeung

Color Arist Jose Villarrubia

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Look how amazing Mike Del Mundo’s cover is!  Love that if you shave Legion’s ridiculous hairstyle, he sort of looks like his father.

Now, due to Hastings’ inability to actually keep track of their comic shipments, I don’t have issue 23, so I had to add it to my Wishlist as well as play catch up with this issue.

This issue opens with the conclusion of David and Blindfold’s mind sexcapades.  They tell each other that they love each other.

Once done, it is now on to the conclusion to this wonderful series.  One of them will not survive this final confrontation, as it has been predetermined since the beginning of the series.

Blindfold has to stop David from taking control of all mutant minds in the world and he has to stop her from stopping him and knowing true power.  He is on a course he cannot stop.  Blindfold is capable of stopping David, but she can’t bring herself to do it so now it is up to him to either stop himself or continue with his destiny.

David and Ruth are in his mindscape.  He is down to his core personality and the Weaver, the final personality that has yet to be absorbed.  David can’t bring himself to kill Ruth or watch as she dies so he closes his eyes.  David goes on about how he rules him.

David wonders what would have been if his life was a little different.  If Xavier stuck with his mother, Gabrielle Haller.  He feels like he could never live up to his father’s example nor could he do anything about it.  David could never match, be or impress Xavier.  Legacy is another word for burden.

He realizes that he has to stop complaining and has to start doing the mature thing.  We get a nice panel recapping with images what has come before, we see Pete Wisdom, Abigail Brand and his fist fight with Cyclops.

Ruth hears a voice in David’s mind, the voice that forces her to speak in dialogue that isn’t readable at all.  She thinks she is dying and goes toward the voice.  We get an awesome splash page of Xavier, from the afterlife, beautifully drawn and colored.  Xavier says something that every son wants to hear and every father needs to say more often, I’m proud of you son.  Since reading this comic, I’ve said it to my two month old every day and plan on doing so.  I swear, it almost brought a tear to my eye.  This moment here is going to cement this comic as my favorite and I can’t imagine what will knock it out of consideration but I will have to update my list.

This brings out the Weaver to David.  Weaver states that Xavier is proud of him and David states that his father is proud of him.  Weaver implies that it is David who is the split personality and not the Weaver.  With this, they are merged and finally, David is whole.  Now that they are merged, David can touch all of reality and time.

This is where I get confused over what happens and what doesn’t.  He has all of this power and needs to figure out what happens next.  he states it is no effort to restore the dead, so we see Abigail Brand waking up, Chamber’s power coming back and that young lady holding her head.

He asks where he should stop.  Should he bring his mother back from the dead?  Should he bring Ruth’s brother back to life?  I take it that he doesn’t restore those individuals.

We see Magik, and how David helped her kill the Elder Gods, which resulted in Illyana being put in the X-Brig on Utopia but still on Cyclops’ Extinction Team.

David is tempted to burn all of reality away and start anew.  He recognizes that he is not a god but he’s not arrogant.  He’s not a judge nor an acolyte.  He has come to a decision.

He realizes what it means to be a grown up.  It isn’t about accepting responsibility but when to step off.  He is going to rewrite history so that he was never born and let history sort itself out.  Ruth shouts for him to stop.  David states this great line, stories are stronger than time and space.  Lives still matter whether they happened or not.

It looks like David turns to camera and tells us that this isn’t an unhappy ending, this what has to happen.  It isn’t a defeat.  That’s old thinking.  He doesn’t want to live in a universe where he can’t rule himself.  With that, he is out of the timestream.

So if he is never born does that mean the Elder Gods are not dead and Illyana spent all of that time in the brig for no reason?  Does that mean Age of Apocalypse never happened?

Pixie enters Ruth’s room and tells her she needs to come out.  We enter the scene at the time when Xavier had just died.  Pixie doesn’t know who this David that Ruth keeps talking about.  Ruth starts repeating, no, over and over.  This freaks out Pixie and she leaves her alone.

We enter Ruth’s mindscape and we see that there is a piece of David that still exists in her mind.  Which is going to be weird for anyone in the room with her but she will probably learn to not respond to him aloud.

Issue ends with Ruth stating that she rules her, which is awesome.  We get Haut’s version of Oya, Quentin Quire, Genesis and Kid Gladiator and I like his style on these characters.

The final message is – The things that stay with you forever are the things that come to an end.

Issue ends with a letter from Simon Spurrier, which is very nice.  Also, Mr. Spurrier, I just want to say thank you for a perfect 24 issues.  I know I didn’t read nor buy every issue but the ones that I did, I enjoyed the most every week they came out.  I know there was no chance for this title to be considered a core title but when the core titles were off on crossovers or directions that were not amazing, this title was always on point and amazing.

Secret Wars 1

Posted by John Klein III on February 21, 2014
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Jim Shooter

Penciler Mike Zeck

Inker John Beatty

Letterer Joe Rosen

Colorist Christie Scheele

Cover Dated May 1984

See Nightcrawler’s feet on the cover, with that empty space?  That is where Kitty was, until Shooter figured this would be a great place to end the Kitty and Colossus relationship – because of their age difference.

Secret Wars 1 Lockheed 1

The heroes are teleported from Central Park to a space station.  We see Lockheed floating between She-Hulk and Hawkeye.  Poor little guy seems rounder than usual.

If you read Uncanny X-Men 180, you would see (or not see) that Lockheed was not with the X-Men as they entered the building that brought them here.  They had just drop Kitty and Doug off at the airport as they were heading to the Massachusetts Academy.  Xavier is also in a wheelchair, for some reason.

Reed explains the most obvious using the biggest words possible.  Hulk agrees, he has Banner’s brain at this point.  Iron Man is Rhody as Tony is off being drunk.

Secret Wars 1 Lockheed 2

There is this awesome panel where Wasp wants to introduce everyone – which is super new reader friendly, if not awkward.  She also goes on about how everyone should know the Avengers, as they are famous.  Xavier introduces his X-Men, leaving out Lockheed, as Xavier is a jerk.  Colossus, in his last decent act in this series, pipes up to introduce Lockheed.  I wonder if there was ever a plan to get rid of Lockheed during this series?

The heroes are : Wasp, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Xavier, Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Lockheed, Hulk, Spider-Man, Reed Richards, Thing and the Human Torch.

A second ship appears.  This one has the villains.  Doom has no time to be cute with introductions, he states who everyone is.

The villains are : Doctor Doom, Enchantress, Ultron, Absorbing Man, Wrecker, Thunderball, Piledriver, Bulldozer, Kang, Galactus, Lizard, Molecule Man and Doctor Octopus.

Back at the hero ship, Thing points out that Magneto is counted amongst them.  Magneto defends himself, he is no murderer, he only defends his race against humans.

Everyone looks outside and sees a galaxy get destroyed.  Then they see that a new planet is formed from various other planets.  They all know that there is an even greater force than Galactus.

Ultron freaks the heck out and attacks his fellow villains.  Doom convinces Molecule Man to throw Ultron at Galactus.  Galactus lifts Ultron to his eye level and depowers / drains all of Ultron’s energy.

We hear the Beyonder’s voice setting up the plot.  The two sides shall fight, the winner gains their hearts desires.

Galactus isn’t afraid and leaves the ship to attack the source of the voice.  Doom tags along.  They get to the crack of the universe and are swatted away.  Now everyone knows who is streets ahead.

The two ships land on Battleworld.  Magneto still has to defend himself to Wasp and the heroes.  Cyclops stands up for his fellow mutant.  Hawkeye grabs him by the shirt.  Wolverine states that Cyclops is a jerk but he is their jerk.  Cyclops says he can defend himself.

So interesting how this is Marvel’s first big event so this is the first time many of these characters are going to spend an extended amount of time together.  Also, how separate the X-Men are from the other heroes.

Magneto is tired of all this and attacks.  I like how he claims only Thor may be s equal.  I don’t care for how Hulk explains how Magneto is able to fly away using magnetic fields.  Let’s not be overly explanatory.

Xavier states they need a leader, and turns to Reed.  Reed is worried about his pregnant wife, who is due any day now.  Reed turns to Hulk, Human Torch states that he has a hard time not thinking of him as a mindless monster.  Wasp, states she is the leader of the Avengers but looks to Captain America to be the leader during this adventure.

Cap isn’t sure, Xavier states he can read people’s hearts and they will all follow him.  Wolverine states that Cap is only a man, who would follow him.  Thor, God of Thunder, states he will – shutting Wolverine’s dumb face right up.

I do love how Secret Wars is where Captain America becomes the beloved tactician of the Marvel Universe.  Also, Doctor Doom becomes the premier villain of the Marvel Universe.  Both were respected in their own titles, but it is this series that cements their standings to the rest of the characters and the readers.

Galactus is still knocked out, but Doom stands and walks away, he must have that power.  He gets to the villain base, they all want him to lead.  Of course they do, but he has no time for that and attacks them.  So much infighting!

I don’t remember Kang being in this at all.  As Doom leaves, Kang blasts him from the sky.  He lands near Cap.  Cap offers him a hand up.  Doom needs no help to get back on his feet.  He then attacks the heroes.  Before they can come up with a plan, Wolverine turns around to see all the other villains have arrived.

That’s how the issue ends.  Starts a little rough and Lockheed is not seen again this issue since he was introduced but he shows up next issue before not being seen again until the final part, he is at least referenced in issue 11.  Kitty is referenced in issues 4 and 5, for the record.

Marvel May 2014 Solicitations

Posted by John Klein III on February 20, 2014
Posted in: Solicitations. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Marvel May 2014 Solicitations

http://www.newsarama.com/20360-marvel-comics-may-2014-solicitations.html

AVENGERS #29
Jonathan Hickman (W) Leinil Francis Yu (A/C)
WHAT DID HE SEE?

AVENGERS #30
Jonathan Hickman (W) Leinil Francis Yu (A/C)
WHAT DID HE SEE?

MIGHTY AVENGERS #10
AL EWING (W) Greg Land (A/C)
WHAT DID HE SEE?

DEADPOOL #29
Gerry Duggan & Brian posehn (W)
John Lucas (A) • Cover by Mark Brooks
WHAT DID HE SEE?

ORIGINAL SIN #1 (of 8)
Jason Aaron (W) • Mike Deodato (A)
WHAT DID HE SEE?

ORIGINAL SIN #2 (of 8)
Jason Aaron (W) • Mike Deodato (A)
WHAT DID HE SEE?

Not sure how excited I am about Original Sin.  It strikes me as an Avengers event just like Age of Ultron was so I will most likely pass on it.  All of this secrecy is hurting the title, from my vantage point. 

Now that I know the secrets are all made up, meaning that they are not coming from continuity but are never-been-told-to-readers types of secrets, I will definitely be passing on this until they announce the X-Men Tie in. 

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1
DAN SLOTT (W) • RAMoN PERéZ (A)
YEAR ONE: LEARNING TO CRAWL!
• He sought revenge… and found responsibility. From that night on, a new life began.
• Join Peter Parker as he takes his first steps towards finding his way in the world as Spider-Man.
• The chapter you never knew about the story you know by heart.
• Dan Slott (SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH) and Ramón Perez (the Eisner winning TALE OF SAND & WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN) bring you a new & reverent spin on the first 60 days of Spider-Man.

No interest in this.  Yet another retelling of Spider-Man’s origin, which only took eight pages to do the very first time. 

CYCLOPS #1
GREG RUCKA (W) • RUSSELL DAUTERMAN (A)
Cyclops just discovered that the father he thought died long ago is alive and well and A SPACE PIRATE. Spinning directly out of ALL-NEW X-MEN, comes the first ongoing solo series for one of the time-traveling Original X-Men. After the events of “Trial of Jean Grey”, Scott Summers stays in space to learn some valuable lessons from his dad: 1) How to shave, 2) How to talk to girls, 3) How to steal a Badoon space-ship.

I wish I could be more excited about this but everything I’ve read seems like this is highly missable.  I am tempted to only get the first issue and the last issue as those will be the most important ones but I also suspect that everything that happens in this series will be repeated when Scott returns to All New X-Men. 

DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU #1 (OF 4)
MIKE BENSON (W) • TAN ENG HUAT (A)
MURDER! MYSTERY! MARTIAL ARTS!

Yet another new number one that I have no interest in. 

MAGNETO #3 & 4
CULLEN BUNN (W) • GABRIEL HERNANDEZ WALTA (A)
ISSUE #3 –
• MAGNETO CUTS LOOSE!
• At the source of the newest Sentinel threat, Magneto puts what’s left of his magnetic powers to good use.
• This may very well be the first step in Magneto becoming the VILLAIN he once was…
ISSUE #4 –
“PROFILE OF A SUPREMACIST”
• In the most brutal issue yet of this new noir/horror series, Magneto ruthlessly dismantles the latest threat to mutantkind…
• …and we gain a greater understanding of why his mission is so important to him.

Who knew this series was suppose to be a noir / horror series? 

NIGHTCRAWLER #2
CHRIS CLAREMONT (W) • TODD NAUCK (A)
• Someone is hunting down Nightcrawler’s loved ones…and Nightcrawler and Wolverine are determined to find out who and to what ends!
• Classic X-Men characters meet contemporary threats as the newly-resurrected Nightcrawler crosses the globe to save his nearest and dearest from suffering the fate he just escaped…

Could this be the issue Kitty shows up in?  One can only imagine that she would be named in the solict.  Maybe Amanda shows up?  That could be cool. 

ALL-NEW DOOP #2 (of 5)
PETER MILLIGAN (W) DAVID LAFUENTE (A)
Cover by MIKE ALLRED
• Doop takes Kitty Pryde for the trip of her life!
• See the treasures DOOPSPACE has to offer!

So excited about this miniseries!  Glad it really is a Doop & Kitty series, I thought maybe that was only the first issue plot. 

UNCANNY AVENGERS #20
RICK REMENDER (W) • DANIEL ACUNA (A/C)
• Unite or die! The Avengers Unity Squad pull it together, but is it too late?
• Which of the seven futures will become dominant? Kang’s ultimate goal revealed!
• The Uncanny Avengers learn that even if you have no other choice, never trust Kang.

Still only interested in this if Kitty or Magik show up but the storyline has been pretty great thus far. 

GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN #1
JOE CARAMAGNA (W)
SCOTT KOBLISH, FRANCESCA CIREGIA, GIANCARLO CARACUZZO,
ELENA CASAGRANDE & TIM SEELEY (A)
• Young Peter Parker is the high school bullies’ favorite target. But all that changes the day a science experiment goes wrong, and Peter begins to transform!
• When a personal tragedy teaches Peter a harsh lesson in responsibility, he must find the inner strength to become a hero!
• Can the brand-new Spider-Man master his new powers in time to take on the villainous Vulture?
• When a giant robot spider attacks New York, Spider-Man must prove his innocence by tracking down the scientist responsible: the diabolical Dr. Octopus!
• When the sinister Sandman assaults Midtown High, it’s up to Peter to stop him — even if must risk revealing his secret identity!
• Four titanic tales set in Spider-Man’s past!

Wow, almost as if there is a movie of his coming out this month!  Is it just me or does this sound not very good?  Also, Giant-Size should really be kept for the X-Men.  Get your own thing, Spidey!

MILES MORALES: THE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • DAVE MARQUEZ (A/C)

I am going to have to miss this but maybe with this third relaunch of the Ultimate titles, the continuity will be tighter between the three titles. 

ALL-NEW ULTIMATES #2
MICHEL FIFFE (W) • AMILCAR PINNA (A)
THE NEXT GENERATION OF ULTIMATES!
• The YOUNG ULTIMATES are put to the test as they try to survive their first mission: going head to head with the city’s most ruthless gang, the SERPENT SKULLS.
• KITTY PRYDE takes the bait and finally joins the team in an effort to push back the unrelenting wave of brutality.
• Jessica Drew takes on the mantle of BLACK WIDOW!!!

From what I’ve read online, this would make Jessica the third Black Widow in the Ultimate Universe.  Crazy, so I wonder how involved Kitty is in the first issue but glad she is officially joining the team in the second issue! 

Did you see the cover to Fantastic Four?  I like that Reed and Sue’s uniforms are the opposite of each other but I rather Reed’s was the official suit for both of them.  Sue’s has way to much red going on for my taste.  I guess that’s the whole point, to change the Fantastic Four’s costumes from mostly blue or black to black and red.  I will need to see it more.  

X-MEN #14
BRIAN WOOD (W) • CLAY MANN (A)
• The Jean Grey School is under attack, leaving a young X-Man dead on the school’s front lawn.
• Jubilee’s worst nightmare has come to pass… and the future’s being rewritten.
• Clay Mann (GAMBIT) joins Brian Wood for a terrifying new chapter in X-Men history!

I wonder who the dead student will be?  

AMAZING X-MEN #7
KATHRYN IMMONEN (W) • PACO MEDINA (A)
• Guest-starring THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!
• Iceman, Firestar and Spider-Man renew their amazing friendship to save New York City.
• Guest-Issue by Kathryn Immonen (AVENGERS ANNUAL) and Paco Medina (X-MEN, NOVA)!

Just in time for both Spider-Man and the X-Men films!  Still not buying it.  If I want to read Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, I will reread those Ultimate issues. 

X-FORCE #5
SIMON SPURRIER (W) • JORGE MOLINA (A/C)
• X-Force comes face-to-face with Volga, the mastermind who’s been weaponizing superhumans and using them in the undercover war that’s being waged across the globe.
• But little does X-Force know that Volga has already weaponized one of their own…
• …And by the time this issue is through, one member of X-Force will meet their end!

Someone dies?  Has to be either Marrow, Fantomex, Pyslocke or Cable?  I can only imagined it can’t be Psylocke or Cable. 

ALL-NEW X-MEN #27
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • STUART IMMONEN (A/C)
75th Anniversary Cover by ALEX ROSS
• The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from “Battle of the Atom” are back and still gunning for the ALL-NEW X-MEN!
• Jean Grey came back different from her trial. What does this mean for the rest of the X-Men?

Whose 75th Anniversary is it?  Timely’s?  Has it really been five years since the 70th Anniversary border covers came out?  Still not sure why they did 70 when they should have waited for 75.  Can’t believe the tie in to Days of Future Past film is to have the Future Brotherhood X-Men come back?  Who wants that? At least Immonen is drawing them.  I wonder how Jean is different now, maybe she wants to go back to the past and course correct the present to save the future?  Maybe?  Also, maybe we will get more about the events that lead to their future, as there were some comments that were intriguing. 

UNCANNY X-MEN #21
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • CHRIS BACHALO (A)
• The Cyclops Revolution marches on!
• Who is the mysterious figure building Sentinels for SHIELD?
• Find out what happened to Dazzler since Mystique took her down back in UNCANNY X-MEN #9!

Finally!!! Getting to know what happened to Dazzler this entire time. The answer better be that she’s being well treated!  Glad Cyclops is getting back to the revolution too!  That guy has been distracted as of late. 

SAVAGE WOLVERINE #18 & 19
ISSUE # 18 – Jen Van Meter (W) • Rich Ellis (A)
ISSUE # 19 – Gail Simone (W) • TBA (A)
ISSUE #18 –
• In the 1960s southwest, Wolverine must defend a group of innocent workers from evil.
• Meanwhile, in Dallas, an event will change the world.
• Jen Van Meter (CAPTAIN MARVEL) and Rich Ellis (SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN) bring you a moment in history through the eyes of Wolverine.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99
ISSUE #19 –
• He’s the best there is at what he does – but what if he has a bad day?
• Logan collides head first with some bad luck on the worst possible day. Can Jubilee lend a hand?
• It’s Wolverine’s no good, very bad, extremely awful day by Gail Simone (Batgirl) and Somebody!

Not buying this but how cool is it that Gail Simone is writing for Marvel again?  That’s pretty cool. 

WOLVERINE #6 & 7
PAUL CORNELL (W) • GERARDO SANDOVAL (A)
THE MADRIPOOR JOB – Part 1 & 2
• As his plan to take down Sabretooth takes shape, Wolverine goes undercover in Madripoor – but he’s not the only one with his eyes on Sabretooth’s empire – what do PETE WISDOM & MI-13 have to do with it?
• Paul Cornell (WOLVERINE: KILLABLE) and Gerardo Sandoval (CABLE & X-FORCE) bring you a two part epic that’ll push the mortal Wolverine to his limits!

It took this long before Cornell found a way to work Pete Wisdom and MI-13 into his Wolverine run?  That’s some restraint!  Unless Pete makes a reference to Kitty, still not buying it.  Which he may as every third appearance by Wisdom, he makes a Kitty reference.  

DEADPOOL #28
GERRY DUGGAN & BRIAN POSEHN (W) • SCOTT KOBLISH (A)
• Deadpool and his bride go on a honeymoon…to Japan!
• How will married life agree with our mouthy merc?
• Will he start doing the “take my wife” joke all the time?

They have me with issue 27 and the wedding but then I’m jumping right back off.  Glad he is taking his bride on a honeymoon.  That’s the least he can do.  

JEPH LOEB & TIM SALE: YELLOW, BLUE AND GRAY HC
Written by JEPH LOEB Penciled by TIM SALE
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s classic “color” masterpieces are collected in one lush oversized hardcover! Blind acrobat Daredevil was inspired to heroism by the example of his prizefighter father — but Matt Murdock is a young man in love with Karen Page. Relive Daredevil’s heartwarming, heartbreaking debut! Then, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy want to spend the rest of their lives together — but first, Spider-Man must run a gauntlet of his greatest foes. And finally, no matter how powerful the Incredible Hulk becomes, his heart can still be shattered by Betty Ross — the daughter of his greatest enemy! Join the Eisner Award-winning team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Superman For All Seasons, Batman: The Long Halloween) for a touching, insightful and gorgeous look into the early days of Marvel’s most popular heroes. Collecting DAREDEVIL: YELLOW #1-6, SPIDER-MAN: BLUE #1-6 and HULK: GRAY #1-6.
540 PGS./Rated T+ …$75

I wonder if this is to test the market for a new miniseries?  Maybe one for the X-Men? 

MARVELS: THE PLATINUM EDITION SLIPCASE HC
Written by KURT BUSIEK Painted by ALEX ROSS
Marvel’s super-sized, slipcased “Adamantium Collection”-style format continues, shining a well-deserved spotlight on a true Marvel classic! Within the Marvel Universe, heroes soar high in the skies, ready to battle the villains who threaten their world. Yet living in the shadow of these extraordinary icons are ordinary men and women who view the “Marvels” with a mixture of fear, disbelief, envy and admiration. Among them is Phil Sheldon, a New York City photojournalist who has dedicated his career to covering the exploits of the Marvels and their effect on humankind. A richly painted historical overview of the entire Marvel Universe, MARVELS spans from the 1939 debut of the Human Torch to the fearsome coming of the world-devouring Galactus — culminating in the shocking death of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s first love. Plus: an extensive and gorgeous Alex Ross art gallery! Collecting MARVELS #0-4.
512 PGS./Rated T …$200

Whoa, now this is overly expensive!  Even with an art gallery and a hardcover, unless they sneak a hundred dollar bill in there, how can this be worth $200!?!

REVOLUTIONARY WAR TPB
Written by ANDY LANNING, ALAN COWSILL, KIERON GILLEN, ROB WILLIAMS & GLENN DAKIN
Penciled by RICH ELSON, DIETRICH SMITH, SIMON COLEBY, NICK ROCHE, BRENT ANDERSON, RONAN CLIQUET & GARY ERSKINE
Cover by MARK BROOKS
Marvel UK’s greatest heroes come together for the first time in 20 years to face a threat that could destroy the world! A troubling vision in Darkmoor Castle portends the horrible truth: The sinister MYS-Tech organization has returned! When MYS-Tech’s magical cloning experiments are discovered, Dark Angel and the Knights of Pendragon have no choice but to return to action! Death’s Head comes face to face with Death’s Head II as they rally against MYS-Tech across time! The Supersoldiers take on MYS-Tech’s army of Psycho Wraiths! And from beyond space and time, Motormouth, Killpower and the Warheads join the fight! Featuring Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, Union Jack, Dai Thomas and a host of British heroes from Marvel UK’s past, present and future! Collecting REVOLUTIONARY WAR: ALPHA #1, DARK ANGEL #1, KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON #1, DEATH’S HEAD II #1, SUPERSOLDIERS #1, MOTORMOUTH#1, WARHEADS #1 and OMEGA #1.
184 PGS./Rated T+ …$24.99

Before even the first issue comes out, the trade is being solicited.  Hopefully its good.  It would be instant buy if they just reunited the original Excalibur for one more adventure.  I wonder if $25 for the trade beats buying the individual issues?  8 issues times 4, $32, yes, it is cheaper to buy the trade.  Problem solved. 

MARVEL FIRSTS: THE 1980S VOL. 2 TPB
Written by BILL MANTLO, ROGER STERN, JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JM DEMATTEIS, JIM SHOOTER, MARK GRUENWALD, ANN NOCENTI, DAVE COCKRUM, WALTER SIMONSON, STEVEN GRANT, BOB LAYTON, TOM DEFALCO, MARTHA THOMASES & PETER B. GILLIS
Penciled by MARK GRUENWALD, BOB HALL, JOHN BYRNE, AL MILGROM, ALAN KUPPERBERG, MIKE MIGNOLA, MARK BADGER, ARTHUR ADAMS, DAVE COCKRUM, SAL BUSCEMA, MIKE ZECK, JACKSON GUICE, MARY WILSHIRE, TONY SALMONS, JOHN ROMITA JR. & BRENT ANDERSON
Cover by VARIOUS
Marvel continues exploring the awesome ’80s with a cornucopia of collector’s item classics — from the debuts of the West Coast Avengers and X-Factor, to solo spotlights for Spidey’s amazing friends Iceman and Firestar, to the birth of a whole New Universe! As mutant mania takes hold, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine and the swashbuckling Nightcrawler grab a chance at glory! And Marvel’s next big-screen icon, Rocket Raccoon, takes his bow alongside brave Balder, lucky Longshot, insatiable Galactus — and the all-powerful Beyonder! Collecting QUESTPROBE #1, WEST COAST AVENGERS (1984) #1, KITTY PRYDE & WOLVERINE #1, ICEMAN (1984) #1, ROCKET RACCOON #1, GARGOYLE #1, SECRET WARS II #1, SQUADRON SUPREME #1, LONGSHOT #1, NIGHTCRAWLER (1985) #1, BALDER THE BRAVE #1, PUNISHER (1985) #1, X-FACTOR (1986) #1, FIRESTAR #1, DAKOTA NORTH #1, STAR BRAND #1, STRIKEFORCE: MORITURI #1 and material from EPIC ILLUSTRATED #26.
488 PGS./Rated T+ …$44.99

$45 seems odd for a sampler of stories.  If you read Kitty Pryde & Wolverine 1, you are definitely going to want to read the other four issues.  Same for Nightcrawler 1, you will want the other three issues.  Same holds true for Squadron Supreme and the other eleven issues plus the Captain America issues that the trade includes. 

So if I’m doing my math right, I’m only set to buy four comics in May.  All New Doop 2, All New Ultimates 2, All New X-Men 27 and Uncanny X-Men 21, so four times four is sixteen dollars so that’s easily affordable.  I quit my job at Hastings to spend more time at home with the family so now I’m no longer saving that one dollars.  On the maybe list is only Uncanny Avengers 20, so twenty dollars is perfect for me for an entire month! 

X-Men and The Micronauts 4

Posted by John Klein III on February 19, 2014
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

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Writers Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo

Penciler Butch Guice

Inks Bob Wiacek

Letters Rick Parker

Colors Julianna Ferriter

Cover Dated April 1984

I was wrong, there was no two page recap of the previous issue.  There is fallout from the previous issue, but no narration or long thought bubble sequence.

Essentially what happen previous, that I can gather is this – Kitty and Karza are still in each other’s bodies, but now Kitty has control over the armor.  The X-Men and the Micronauts are have a rough go as the Entity spanked them hard.  Speaking of which, it was revealed that the Entity is the negative part of Xavier’s personality.  Also, those two have switched bodies with Entity in Xavier’s body on Earth and Xavier in Entity’s in the Microverse.

X-Men Micronauts 4 Xavier Dani mind rape

Dani is sleeping at her desk, wearing a brown shirt and a pair of white panties.  Not that questionable as it is nighttime and her own room.  Unfortunately, the Entity is feeling feisty.  We learn he is every dark thought Xavier ever had, and apparently, Xavier has been suppressing a slew of desires for his young female students.  This is only the beginning that will eventually lead to Onslaught – which I don’t think this miniseries is ever referenced in that regard.  Probably as Marvel doesn’t own the Micronauts rights any more.

So Entity rolls into Dani’s room and gives her ‘throes of indescribable … pleasure” by force, so this issue has her essentially raped by her professor.  And people wonder why I don’t miss him at all.

He then gets her to agree to turn the rest of the New Mutants, if she wants more and to be a good girl.  I’m sure that at one point, her memory of this must be erased, off panel.

In the Microverse, we learn that the Entity’s body is dying.  The comic keeps referring to the teams as the Uncanny X-Men and the Mighty Micronauts, even having the characters state it too.

Karza, still in Kitty’s body, slayed the Entity.  Now he wants to finish the heroes.  His choice of weapon?  A sniper rifle.  Wolverine notices the glare of the gun and warns the teams.  Has Wolverine’s time as a soldier been stated before this?  With his warning, Colossus armors up and takes the shot.  Kurt sees the glare and teleports over there.

Kurt finds the shooter, he is surprised to see Kitty holding the rifle.  What I find surprising is that Karza took the time to change into a pink bikini.  Can we agree that if you switch bodies, that you should try your ever loving best to not change clothes or do anything perverted?  It isn’t right.  I wonder if we are given a proper motivation in the previous issue.

Kurt suspects that Kitty is only being manipulated by the Entity, they still don’t know about the switch.  Karza phases away.

Meanwhile at the battlefleet, Kitty (as Karza) is controlling the army of Dog Soldiers.  With her is her second in command, Degrayde.  Degrayde is one of those second in line types who is always planning on taking out the top guy.  He has been noticing a change in Karza, he’s been caring about the soldiers and worried about the cost of battle.  He plans on taking advantage of this.

Xavier mentally reaches out to Kitty.  She orders Degrayde to stop the attack and teleports away.  Of course, he chooses to not stop the attack, as they are winning.

Karza wishes he knew more about the X-Men, so that he can kill them.  Kitty also shows up in the same room where the Entity’s body is dying, if it died while Xavier is still in it, then he dies with it.

Kitty attacks Karza with that detached glove move.  Karza is pinned to the wall.  Of course, this is when the heroes come in and want to protect ‘Kitty.’  She tries to explain.  Luckily, Xavier gets a chance too.  Wolverine also confirms the switch happened, as Kitty would have phased through the glove by now.  Karza curses his elementary control over her powers.

Meanwhile back on Earth, the Entity has found Celebro, and plans on destroying Microverse altogether.

Bioship, who is dying, picks up the heroes to head to Earth.  Getting there drains even more of its life force.  The X-Men learm it is alive, making a reference to the Acanti, who look like whales and not like robots.  Both races are used for transport.

Karza has switched into a new outfit that looks pretty stylish.  Kitty is afraid she will never get her body back.  Storm tries to comfort her.

Bioship, who is man sized now, is attacked by the New Mutants.  The heroes exit but are all toy sized.

Xavier explains to Kurt that he needs two things.  One, distract the Entity for as long as possible.  Two, once he says so, let the Entity’s body die – either naturally or by killing it.  Kurt killef his adopted brother, so he is no stranger to that.  Then he dated that guy’s sister, Amanda.

Dani is wearing hipless chaps, a fashion choice that doesn’t catch on.

I’m not the only one to have the Bishop / Bioship problem as while Kurt is looking for a safe spot to stashed the Entity’s body, in a thought bubble, refers to Bioship as Bishop.  I had to look at it twice to make sure I saw that right.

Xavier’s astral form is looking for his body.  He comes across an unconscious Illyana, who Lockheed is protecting.  Guice draws him more as a purple lizard with wings, which sort of works for me.  Lockheed notices Xavier in astral form, surprising the professor.

X-Men Micronauts 4 Lockheed crash window

Lockheed flies off, Kitty must be in trouble.

We see how Xavier’s mind looks like to himself, mirrors upon mirrors.  Guice gets a chance to draw the Original Five, original Brotherhood and Dark Phoenix.  The battle for his body begins.

Lockheed comes across Kitty and Karza.  He senses something isn’t right.  He feels that he understands the situation.  But his instincts kick in and spits hot fire at Kitty in Karza’s armor.

Marionette’s song finally makes it possible to switch Kitty and Karza back.  Now Kitty is wearing a green bathing suit.

Xavier causes a stroke to his own body.  This scares the Entity to leave for its original body, but it has died so he dies.  Bioship has also died from its injuries.

The Micronauts head home and this adventure comes to an end.

There is an ad for Secret Wars, with the original cover that includes Kitty surrounded by Kurt, Rogue and Cyclops.  There is a Marvel Age cover that uses this image, so I will show that once we get around to that issue.

All New X-Men 23

Posted by John Klein III on February 18, 2014
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

All New X-Men 23

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Penciler Stuart Immonen

Inker Wade Von Grawbadger

Colorist Marte Gracia

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Trial of Jean Grey Part 3 of 5, though the checklist on the back shows six issues will be involved so who knows anymore.

All New X-Men 23 Cyclops Wake up A All New X-Men 23 Cyclops Wake up B

Scott wakes up from a dream about Jean Grey, which I like how innocent the dream is, of her telling him that he should have told her she loved her sooner.  He wakes up to see he is on the Guardians of the Galaxy spaceship.

In a fun double page spread, but not fully pages – how are we suppose to describe these pages!?! – Bobby is explaining what he missed.  How they met a talking raccoon, Groot says his thing, “I am Groot” and talking trees.  Hank is loving being this close to actual aliens.  Angel pipes up about the talking trees and being in outer space, this is the first big outer space adventure.  Their present day selves have so many of these.

I like the comment about how Earth’s orbit is so clutter, as I imagine other planets don’t have all of these satellites that we have.

Starlord calls Scott ‘Summers’ that is going to pay off later.  He also predicts Hank is going to nerd out the entire time, and Hank states that he probably will.  Scott asks where Jean is and that transitions us to where Jean is.

Jean is in a giant bubble that blocks her telepathic abilities.  In another same style of the previous page, Immonen packs the giant panel with so many aliens.  Gladiator explains to Jean why she is there and who he is and who most of the people are.  Gladiator tells her that she is there for her crimes and Jean shouts that that doesn’t make any sense.  He doesn’t tell her what crimes but she knows she hasn’t committed any space crimes.

On the page where she is separated from the bridge of the ship and put into isolation, Immonen makes great use of black space.  Also Gracia does a stellar 😉 job on coloring the scene with shades of blue.

All New X-Men 23 Kitty Self Blame

The Guardians and the X-Men are on the outskirts of the Shi’ar Empire.  Kitty is beating herself up for not seeing this coming.  Bobby thinks she is being too hard on herself, as does Angel as how could she have known this would even happen.  She should have known as she is an X-Man.  Angel makes a comment about how she can’t be put on trial for crimes she didn’t commit.  Rocket speaks up and says “yet.”  Angel says “crimes that we didn’t even know she did or was capable of or” and Rocket states yet again.  Angel tells him to shut up and Kitty says, yeah.  Starlord tells Kitty that she is being too hard on herself.

Rocket asks why the young X-Men are here.  Bobby states because they offered them a ride and Hank corrects him by saying that Rocket is asking about why they are in this time period.  This issue is so fun and funny.

Bobby reveals that he knew that, he just likes talking to a talking raccoon.  It makes him feel like a “Disney Princess” his words.  I do like how Bobby is drawn to appear very soft in his ice form, more like snow form.  Freshly fallen snow.  Hank starts explaining “We’re here because …. princess?”  Which is a great in the moment thing, as why wouldn’t he say something along the line of “in a Disney film” or something.  Bobby tells Hank that he would make a better princess than him.

Scott states that everything was a lie.  Beast lied to them about  a mutant genocide or apocalypse and how that convinced them to come to the present and now they are stuck here.

Angela, who is still near to this universe (she is from the Image Universe, how fun is it that she is now in the Marvel one and in actual comics?  You would never see that done between DC and Marvel) wants to know what a mutant is.  Hank, who has to have heard the thing about his future self lying to them and Scott’s rage slash disappointed about it, is about to explain to Angela what mutants are.  He starts with how they are mutants.

Rocket is bored with the answer already and wants him to stop.  He also wants them to stop calling him a raccoon.  Which now that I know he is sensitive about it, I won’t be calling him Rocket Raccoon again.

Bobby, like me, is shock about it.  He handles it with asking if he isn’t a r-word.  How actually funny, for once, is Past Bobby?  Hank is surprised as well, that he resembles a raccoon so close.  I know for a fact that he is a raccoon, as he was from a prison planet where Earth like animals were given intelligence to help the insane, so he is a raccoon but he is so much more than his species.  Which you would think the X-Men would be sensitive to that.

Their ship gets attack by a bigger Shi’ar ship.  They are being flipped around, and no one was wearing seat belts, we learn from Angel.  Rocket tries to summon the attacking ship.  Angela wants to get closer so she can jump to that ship and attack it.  Rocket is having fun with these Shi’ar as they are humorless.

X23 wants to aid Angela in the attack.  Groot adds a helpful, I am Groot, three times on one page!  Poor guy, do his teammates know what he is actually getting at or are they humoring him.

Then the Shi’ar ship shoots a massive blast at our heroes’ ship.

Kitty makes a comment about how she hates space, she has bad luck in space.  Which for me, my first thought was about the original Brood saga and it wa scary but she met Lockheed because of it.  Then I remembered, immediately after that, the ending to Whedon / Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men run with the Breakworld.  She was stuck in a bullet for three years our time.  I really like that Bendis had her make that comment.  She really shouldn’t be over that, she must have been gone for at least a year, Marvel time.

Meanwhile, Oracle of the Imperial Guard, is interviewing Jean.  The blues in the room really make Jean’s red hair pop, Gracia’s choice keeps paying off.

I like how Oracle refers to her power as it makes her a ‘minder’ as well as Jean.  There is no reason why other species will refer to their powers with the same names as we call them, in this case, minder and telepath.

Jean is now at the Shi’ar homeworld, she is there as she is under arrest and will be facing a tribunal.  Oracle confirms that Jean’s memories of the Phoenix are learned memories and not experienced memories.  So, for sure, Jean reading Beast’s mind and learning her fate, was a colossal mistake.

Immonen treats us to another two page spread, this time with eight smaller panels.  Oracle confirms that there was no way, in that one moment, that Jean should have comprehended the entire lifetime’s worth of memories.  Jean asks what did she do, and Oracle plainly states that she murdered a planet.  Which is pretty heavy, and should never been forgotten.  Those poor Broccoli people.  Jean cries.  Jean states that she hasn’t but we know that she did.  Well, technically, the Phoenix buried Jean in the ocean, took her identity, fooled around with Cyclops – like a bunch! – went crazy with power (due to Mastermind of the Hellfire Club) and ate a sun, killing a planet and then sacrifice herself on the moon.

Oracle finds it interesting that Jean has no first hand memory of the Phoenix.  Is she seeing through her king, Gladiator’s lies?  Jean states that now that Oracle has read her mind, that she knows Jean is innocent.  Oracle states that is what the trial is for.  Oracle warns Jean to watch her temper, she isn’t helping her cause.  Jean gets put back into her bubble.

Oracle, Groot and Drax are in space, heading over to the Shi’ar ship.  Gamora is getting ready, Scott isn’t using the extinguisher correctly as there is a fire onboard.  Angel hates the situation and Bobby states that he isn’t loving it either.  X23 really wants to head out to the fight.  Rocket wants to propose to Angela, they would have such cute babies!  It isn’t because she doesn’t know how to dress for battle but he doesn’t get a chance to explain his true motivations.  Hank announces another ship is coming.

There is an ad for the new Ghost Rider series coming out, and the design is not very good.  I had no interest before but ooof, that is hard to look at.

As a longtime fan, I recognize the Starjammers’ ship immediately but due to the reveal that is sure to come, Bendis plays it slow.  Rocket recognizes it as well.  Hank wants to know who it is.  Starlord calls his team back to his ship.

Over the intercom, Starlord says “Summers, I thought you were dead.”  Scott is in the background and clearly heard his last name.  On the Starjammer, we see the classic team – Corsair, Hepzibah, Raza, Ch’ord and a Shi’ar dude.  Corsair tells Starlord, that he heard that Starlord was dead.

Scott asks Starlord why he referred to that other guy as, Summers.  Starlord stammers.  Corsair wants to help with anything that involves hurting the Shi’ar.  Starlord tells Corsair, that there is someone who wants to meet him.

Issue ends with Corsair stating, “This is Major Christopher Summers.  USAF…who am I talking to?”  Why would he give a mysterious third person his Earth name and military rank?  That is over twenty years ago and should just be saying, I’m Corsair of the Starjammers, clearly you have heard of me?  The most famous space pirate there has ever been.

We are now at the halfway part of the Trial of Jean Grey, and surely Guardians of the Galaxy issue 12 will have the trial at least starting, yes?  But I’m not even that interested in that at the moment, now I want o witness the Corsair / Teen Scott conversation as that is going to be fun!

X-Men and the Micronauts 1

Posted by John Klein III on February 17, 2014
Posted in: Reviews, Websites. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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Writers Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo

Penciler Butch Guice

Inker Bob Wiacek

Letterer Michael Higgins

Colorist Bob Sharen

Cover Dated January 1984

X-Men Micronauts 1 Title Page

The Micronauts are Huntarr, Acroyear, Bug, Fireflyte, Commander Rann and Marionette

The X-Men are Colossus, Kitty, Nightcrawler, Storm and Wolverine – Kitty looks very pretty in the line up picture, like she is all dolled up.

The only Micronauts I have read is issue 37, of their series.  I am sure I must have been pretty confused by it as this issue is broken in two parts, first with the Micronauts and the second with the X-Men – and the Micronauts section is so confusing.  Maybe not confusing, as everything I need to know is fully explained, as it is co-written by Claremont, after all.  It probably more of an Issue of being interested, as I am not invested in their struggle.

This is what I know about the Micronauts, issue 37 has a guest appearance by Nightcrawler – that must have Kitty or Illyana in it, as I own that issue.  They are the champions of the Microverse, and they are the size of toys in RL.  Bug is their most famous member.  Bill Mantlo wrote every issue, and just like ROM – both were licensed properties.

Issue opens in the Microverse, the Micronauts are in their spaceship, Bioship – that looks like a toy from the 80s, like a poor man’s Transformers.  Bioship, kept looking like Bishop when I was reading this.  The Micronauts are on their way to a planet that is under siege – they were a peaceful farmer race and now they have become warriors.  There is a mysterious force that is making its way through this universe.

Bioship responds to Commander Rann’s thoughts, so he can make instant decisions.  Rann doesn’t want to take any prisoners, but it may be the only way to get any information about this mysterious force.  Then a Dog Soldier, a race bred to be warriors, is teleported onto the bridge of Bioship, this catches the team by surprised as Rann never made the call.

Turns out, Baron Karza made the decision.  He has a very interesting design, he is the toy on the cover with the four red circles on his chest.  In the panel that he is revealed in, he looks bad arse.  He is the Micronauts greatest enemy, so this alliance must mean that mysterious threat is that dangerous, which is a classic storytelling method.  We are told the mysterious force has taken territory from Karza.

The Micronauts join the fray on the planet against the Dog Soldiers, and Karza stays on Bioship.  He’s already lost two battles and doesn’t want to lose a third.  Karza keeps Bioship in reserve, it wants to join the battle but if they need to escape, he wants it to be easy to get away.

The mysterious force appears, known as the Entity, lands on the planet and is surprised the battle is still happening.  He resembles Xavier’s astral warrior form, which is interesting.  He is the gold figure from the cover.   He comes up against the Dog Soldiers and starts killing them with psychic attacks.

Karza has Bioship scan for survivors, it states there are a few but then the Entity turns his attention to the ship and Karza has it retreat as quickly as possible.

X-Men Micronauts 1 Lockheed 1

On Earth, we are in my comfort zone, which is nice as so are the X-Men.  We see Storm relaxing in the pool along with Kurt and Wolverine at poolside.  Kitty wants to join them but has school work from Xavier, which Illyana reminds her of it.  Kitty remarks that if Xavier had his way, they would never be done studying.  Kitty is not drawn here like she is on the first page, so she isn’t wearing any make up.  Lockheed is enjoying himself on the floor, by their feet.

Xavier, in the Danger Room, with the New Mutants minus Magma, so Illyana hasn’t officially joined that team, as she does so in issue 14, taking the name Magik.  Which is odd that they had her sit around the mansion, as a teenager with gifts, and never had her become a member.  She did go through an extremely dramatic experience in Limbo, so Xavier was probably letting her catch her breath.

Another odd thing is that Dani is referred to as Spellbinder.  A codename that doesn’t stick and is only slightly better than Psyche.  Mirage is a better name, but I usually refer to her as Dani or Moonstar, her last name.

X-Men Micronauts 1 Kitty computer

Sunspot is up first, as Xavier is doing their quarterly exam.  Which I like that they are at least trying to make the school feel like a school.  Xavier catches Kitty’s comment about him wanting her to never stop studying, he thinks to himself it is due to whenever she is too excited or angry, her control over her thoughts weakens, so any telepath can read them.  Which is an odd thing to have to live with, having to keep mental blocks up to prevent one guy from reading your thoughts.  Though, if I was Xavier, I would also punish the students for it as a mansion full of teenagers now, it can’t be easy.  So he punishes Kitty with 30 more minutes of psionic shields and defense studying, thus proving her point all along.

There is an explosion in the Danger Room and the New Mutants are thrown about.  Sunspot catches Xavier.  Karza is there, as he detected that the mysterious force is linked to something at the mansion.  Since Karza is in out of the Microverse, he is a size of a toy.  Cannonball recognizes him from the Micronauts toyline, which I am curious what the in-story reason of that.  Did the Micronauts come to Earth once, meet a toy designer, sell their rights and story to that company, and now there are toys based on them that Cannonball’s sister plays with?  There is a footnote I wish was offered.  Cannonball doesn’t name which sister it is who plays with those toys, but I can only imagine Paige is the only one old enough.

Sunspot assumes Karza isn’t a real threat and lowers his guard, and then Karza blasts his own hand off his arm and that hand goes straight for Sunspot’s neck, choking him out.  Karza is there to kill Xavier as that is exactly where the source of the trial lead.

Cannonball believes that they are only fighting a toy of Karza and not the real thing.  Which is another weird thing about the Marvel Universe, that that could be an actual thing.  Karza states that he is no toy and shoots Cannonball.

Wolfsbane and Sunspot, back in the fight, attack Karza.  Dani wishes she could help but her powers, at this point, are still only pulling one’s worst thoughts out of their mind and showing them.  Which she does, and Karza’s image is him back when he was a man.  Now he is energy contained in a suit of armor.  Karza turns it around and shows Dani her greatest fear, which is The Demon Bear.  Which is an awesome storyline in New Mutants.

Eventually the X-Men come into the Danger Room.  They didn’t have time to change into their uniforms so Storm is fighting a toy size threat in a bikini.  Karza recognizes that these new opponents are older and fighting as a unit.

Kurt runs out of the room with Xavier, as he is worried about turning him via a teleport jump as he wasn’t there to see the extent of the damage done to him.

Colossus fastball specials Wolverine, who successfully cuts Karza’s armor.  He tries the disconnected hand trick again.

X-Men Micronauts 1 Kitty Karza 1

Karza teleports himself to where Kurt and Xavier are, why fight the distraction when he only needs to kill his main target.  He takes Kurt out with a blast.

Kitty enters the Infirmary, finally done with her extra work and alerted to the battle.  She sees a toy and assumes that it is mechanical in nature and phases through it.  Which is a huge mistake as something horrible happens.  I do like how this is the fourth or fifth example, and there is plenty more to come, of Kitty thinking she is safe when she phases, or that her phasing ability can ruin anything mechanical, and she has to pay a price due to that assumption.  It shows that she still doesn’t know her extent of her power, plus it shows that even if she did, new threats don’t mean old solutions work.

X-Men Micronauts 1 Kitty Karza 2

Karza and Kitty both scream in pain.  Karza’s armor is reacting negatively to her phase, and they are both stuck mid-phase.  What happens is that Kitty is knocked out, but now, her consciousness is stuck in Karza’s armor and Karza’s mind is stuck in Kitty’s body.  He is not thrilled to be in a teenage girl’s body.  Who would be?  You don’t want to be stuck in a teenage girl’s body during puberty or a pregnant lady’s body, ever.

Bioship finally makes its way to Earth, what they call the Macroverse.  He finally explains what is happening, Kurt references the issue above where he met the Micronauts.

X-Men Micronauts 1 Kitty Karza 3

Karza has been attempted to reenter his armor, but has control over it so that’s a small victory.  Now he is forced to act as Kitty but he has nothing to go off of except that she is young and she can phase thus ruining a warlord’s day.

Storm notes that Kitty seems to be acting differently.  Xavier can’t read Karza’s mind as his armor creates a psychic interference, which also causes him to not be able to read anyone’s minds in the room, so he can’t confirm why Kitty is acting strangely.  They assume she is still hurting from the bad phase attempt.

Xavier must be the source of the problem, or at the very least, is connected to the source, so the X-Men know they are now involved and have to help.

Illyana shows up with Lockheed, as the X-Men are getting ready to leave.  She asks if Kitty was going to say goodbye first, or if she wanted Lockheed to come along with her.  Lockheed sees Kitty and instantly attacks her.  Kitty is frighten of the dragon, more so of his nature than his attack, which Storm also notes.

I do like how Guice draws Lockheed with some muscle, he has pecs.  Cassaday did that as well, I like the idea of him working out or staying in shape as he’s surrounded by all of these other humans who do.

X-Men Micronauts 1 Kitty Karza 4

Bioship shrinks the X-Men so that they can board it.  For some reason, Bioship can’t shrink Xavier so he has to stay behind.  Once that is done, Bioship shrinks itself and promises Xavier that it will bring the team back as it found them.

Issue ends with Xavier on his own, left with his thoughts, as he is confused with what the source could.

Lockheed doesn’t show up again until issue four so we will be skipping the next two parts and heading straight to the conclusion!  But don’t worry, friends, this is co-written by Claremont so I’m sure we will get a perfect recap of what happened, in at least issue three but I imagine this being a miniseries, the entire three issues will be recapped.

One of these days, I will come back and do parts two and three but not during Lockheed Month.  I will have this problem with Secret Wars as well, as he is in parts one, two and twelve.  Kitty is thought about in various issues, by name, so I own a few of them.  Pretty sure I own all but issue ten, which I should buy one day so I can have a complete set as besides the first issue and issue eight, the rest of the series is pretty affordable.

. . .

http://amocat.net/kiotr/KIOTR-Gallery/The-X-Men-and-The-Micronauts-1-First-Encounter

You can read along thanks to this website!

. . .

Happy Presidents’ Day, Everyone!  Be safe out there!

Marvel Knights X-Men 4

Posted by John Klein III on February 16, 2014
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Marvel Knights X-Men 4

Story and Art Brahm Revel

Color Artist Christiane Peter

Letterer & Production VC’s Joe Sabino

Haunted Part Four of Five

Issue opens with the Cooks, fully armed coming to the town.  They are going around killing humans in the name of their mutant overlords.

Rogue and Wolverine are still fighting.  Rogue is not holding back any of her punches.  Wolverine takes advantage of Darla’s mutant power that is still in full swing.  He remembers Carol Danvers, Pre-Rogue, and then Rogue has to fight Carol now.  I don’t quite recognize this Ms. Marvel costume Revel chose to draw but it feels right.

Rogue counters by remembering Sabretooth (the handsome first appearance, Iron Fist style), the original Silver Samurai and Lady Deathstrike.  Once again, how awesome that Revel found a way to draw all of the X-Men related characters that he wants.

We cut to Kitty and Krystal, Krystal as used her powers of suggestion to make the bikers take care of them instead of hurting them.

Carol confronts Rogue about all of the memories she stole from her, including how Carol lost her virginity to Bobby Carlisle at the senor prom.  Look at Revel adding to Carol’s mythos.  At this point, Rogue’s costume is all torn to shreds.  There is a great page of Rogue and Carol’s memories merging.  Carol’s happy memories start becoming Rogue’s who are much sadder and involve Mystique.

Darla is in a bar, drinking her woes away.  She conjures her dog, Buster and starts really taking control of her powers.  Some of Cooks’ men come into the bar, ready to kill her as she isn’t wearing a costume and all mutants wear costumes.  Turns out, Darla can use the memories of locations as well to assist her and we get Daniel Bowie types, old miners and even Native Americans.  These memories can even kill, so Darla is getting stronger.

Krystal starts explaining to Kitty about her uncle.  It isn’t until this page that I notice Kitty’s costume and how it doesn’t look like a spandex outfit but more of a street version of the outfit.  It is very stylish.

Wolverine has fought so many people over the years that we get to see so many more villains, including Ogun!  Which I keep wishing we would be getting Kitty’s memories of past foes but at least we now get Ogun and he is glorious.   Mariko shows up to attack his mental state.  The scene of these villains turns into Kitty and a bunch of wolves.  I don’t think this scene ever happened, at least not with the wolves, but you can only imagine it happening.  Kitty having to tell Wolverine that he can’t be around the students anymore as he is too prone to killing and stabbing.  Wolverine’s clothes are all but shattered remnants.  Kitty disappears and Wolverine has to fight all of these wolves.  A bear shows up, Wolverine slays that bear and wears him like a second skin.

Krystal explains to Kitty how her uncle forced her to control the Cooks and the local drug dealers to become critical to that operation.  To the point where he doesn’t even need her anymore.  We also are shown that the green mutant is from her own memory.  Krystal reveals that the Cooks didn’t know how mutant DNA works.  They were using the green fella’s toxin for drugs but they thought all mutants’ blood did the same thing and started capturing them and killing them once they didn’t produce the same results.

Rogue, walking around, still confused, comes across a Malt Shop window and she sees Darla in the reflection and knows that she has to confront Darla and get her to turn off her powers.

Meanwhile, Darla is walking to the heart of the town, riding a tiger like a bad arse with an army of old timey people, also Buster is with her.  Darla sees the Cooks’ caravan and tells her army to kill them.  Old Man Cook tells her that he wants to kill humans for all of the injustice that they have done to mutants.  This surprises her.

Krystal tells Kitty about how she put the suggestion into Old Man Cook’s mind that mutants are the future and that they are his master.  Which is what he is currently living his life under.

Darla and Old Man Cook are forming an alliance.

Wolverine is fighting a nude version of himself.  Rogue shows up, knocks out that that one and kisses Wolverine to calm him down.  Now Rogue is seeing all of the wolves, which is great that Revel remembers that she absorbs powers and memories so his memories are hers now.

We find out that Krystal must have told Darla to completely unload her powers onto everyone which Krystal is trying to confess to Kitty but we get the information from Rogue telling Wolverine.  Rogue and Wolverine come across the new alliance of Darla and the Cooks, and we see now that Juggernaut and Mojo along with Spiral have join the fun.

Issue ends with Krystal asking if that is Kitty’s uncle behind her as Kitty turns to see Xavier.

Next issue concludes the miniseries, which I’m still very enjoying.

. . .

I have to say, that a whole week of no new X-Men comics worth buying, felt like a very long time!  Glad to have bought three titles so that I can think about other things but without my weekly fix of X-Men, it captures my thoughts.

Also, my son, Walker Dennis, is two months old today!  So proud of you, mijo!

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7

Posted by John Klein III on February 15, 2014
Posted in: Paul Smith, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

14865_20051204001929_large

Writer Chris Claremont

Pencils Michael Golden, pages 1-27, 33-39 and Bret Blevins, pages 28-32

Inks Michael Golden, pages 1 & 2; Tom Mandrake, pages 3-7, 20-23; Bob Wiaceck, pages 8-11; Terry Austin, pages 12-13, 16, 38-39; Brett Breeding, pages 14-15, 17-19; Bill Anderson, page 24; Joe Rubinstein, pages 25-27, 30-31; Steve Leialoha, page 28; Sam de la Rosa, page 29; Al Milgrom, page 32 and Bret Blevins, pages 33-37

Colors Glynis Wein

Letters Tom Orzechowski, pages 1-31, 33-39 and Michael Higgins, page 32

Cover Dated 1983, and continuity wise, at least after Uncanny X-Men 175 for sure.

This annual is titled, Scavenger Hunt, and it stars Impossible Man and the X-Men chasing him all over the place as he finds and locates items.  I miss these old school annuals, this also happen during Assistant Editor month, which I also miss, where they use that excuse to have goofy fun comics for an issue.  This is one of those few annuals where the entire 39 pages are dedicated to one storyline.  Typically, you will get 30 pages of story, then maybe a pinup or two and a second quicker story, sometimes a third.

The very first panel, I really like the way Golden draws Lockheed, seems very majestic.  Being the second artist to draw the character, he could have gone any direction but he stays on model.  Kitty seems older in some panels, but I like how Marvel gradually aged her over time.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Shadowcat a

Issue opens with a baseball game, classic Claremont, and we haven’t had a baseball came in years, not since Uncanny X-Men 444, unless I missed one and that was way back in 2004.  The current titles are almost perfect for another baseball game with the sides being so divided.

The match up is Kurt, Wolverine and Rogue versus Kitty, Colossus and Storm plus Xavier, Lilandra, Illyana and Lockheed.  The captions hint that the it may seem like a disadvantage but appearances can be wrong.  This is never brought up again why it was three versus seven.

Colossus is up to bat.  Lilandra tells Xavier that she is going to miss this, he tells her that there is a simple solution, which she is quick to state, that he and his X-Men can come with her to the Shi’ar Empire, which silences him.  I know the X-Men were only fighting the Brood five issues ago, but I wonder why they didn’t decide to go with Lilandra, help her get her empire back and then come back to Earth?  It would not have taken that long, as I believe it doesn’t take that long in the proper history.  I see that they probably didn’t want to end up in a civil war or a political mess, but still, Xavier’s girlfriend needs help and no one even offers to assist.

Wolverine pitches to Colossus and without armoring up, hits the baseball out of orbit.  Which is silly, he isn’t that strong without his armor, he relies on that state for everything, even knocking a tree over.   They see a ball coming back down but Kitty states it can’t be the ball, the trajectory is wrong.  Turns out it is a ship!

It isn’t any ol’ ship, it is Galactus’ ship.  But he exists the ship and he is purple and green, instead of blue and purple.  By this time, I had been exposed to the Impossible Man before I had read this.  The X-Men have no or little to no experience with Galactus, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t pick up on the purple and green combination.

‘Galactus’ tells them that he has come in peace, he only wants their home.  Xavier attempts a mental scan, and this panel is pretty narly, with his face being bent.  He passes out.  Storm puts up a fight, shoots lightning and he is impressed with her attempt and tells them to back away from the mansion.  He then straight up steals the mansion, leaving a grater with a pool of water in its place.

Chapter 2

The team is on its way to New York City, via the Blackbird.  Rogue doesn’t want to be on the mission once Lilandra has briefed them on who Galactus is.  Wolverine asks if she is scared, which is pretty insensitive of him, but she tells him that she is.  Xavier defends Rogue, as they have good reason, they have never fought an opponent such as Galactus.  Except they have, Dark Phoenix but I guess one forgets these types of things.

The trace Galactus to the SHIELD heli-carrier, which confuses them as how can someone so gigantic but in that size of a ship.

Storm tells Kurt and Kitty to head over there and figure out what is happening.  These two need a duo name as well.  Once they teleport over, Kitty tells them they are not alone. In a very cute panel, Lockheed has attached himself to Kurt’s tail and has tagged along for the ride.  Kurt tries to shake him loose.  Very funny and cute.  I have no idea how people can not like Lockheed.  He’s adorable!

We see Nick Fury and La Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine in a classic Agent of SHIELD style page.  But now we are in the 80s so the last panel doesn’t have to be a gun, we can see them kissing.

We see a shadow of a hand about to interfere, when Kitty phases through the wall.  The hand turns into a green snake.  Lockheed blasts a hole in the wall and Impossible Man turns into a wooden Indian and flies out the hole.

Fury is not happy with the interruption.  Kitty gets Kurt to teleport the three of them away.  Fury’s eye patch has been taken, he thinks this must be a panty raid.

Chapter 3

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Lockheed Savage Land

We are in the Savage Land.  Kitty is super excited, as she has never been before.  We know Colossus has been there as he has a son there, that he still doesn’t know about.

Ka-Zar and Shanna show up, and they informed the X-Men that Zabu has gone missing.  Rogue figures out that they are witnessing a Scavenger Hunt.  I’ve never been in one, but they look like fun.

Chapter Four

Avengers Mansion, we see Jarvis and She-Hulk watching a monitor.  They see the Fantasi-car filled with the costumes of the Wasp.  They also see that Rogue and Colossus are by the gate.  She-Hulk sees them as villains even though Jarvis tells her that Colossus is an X-Man.  It doesn’t matter, Jennifer is already outside.

Rogue starts to fly after the Impossible Man, but She-Hulk throws her into the ground.  Colossus knocks her out, but Iron Man takes him out.

Meanwhile, Dr. Strange’s fancy roof window is stolen, releasing a slew of demons.

Rogue absorbs She-Hulk’s powers, turning green and Hulking out.  Colossus throws Iron Man onto the ground.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Kitty Pryde beats Iron Man

Then comes the moment that I remember about this annual.  We get proof that Kitty can defeat Iron Man.  Grant it, it is Rhondy in the suit – but still.  Kitty disrupts his armor, leaving him defenseless.  She blows him a kiss and they take off.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Shadowcat b

At the Hellfire Club, Emma is still in the coma that Mastermind put her in.  Storm is happy she is in a coma.  Xavier offered to help, but he was turned away.  We see Lockheed is perched on Kitty’s head.  Emma has a green and purple boutique in her hands.

Sebastian Shaw enters the room, Rogue rushes over to him and punches him.  Shaw absorbs the rest of She-Hulk’s powers.  If Rogue knew Shaw and his power set, she would never have hit him – she’s still new at this.

The boutique turns into a balloon.  Impossible Man is there to steal Jean Grey’s Black Queen outfit.

Storm creates a tornado, which the team uses to follow the alien.

Chapter Five

At the Marvel Comic’s offices, we see a who’s who of the Marvel Bullpen.

We see Impossible Man riding Zabu.  The X-Men are chasing him.  Kitty is apologizing for the mess.

Impossible Man asks Larry Hama and Michael Golden where Stan Lee is.  Hama tells him that Stan is in Hollywood.

We see Michael Hobson and Jim Shooter.

Rogue takes off a glove and grabs Impossible Man.  He sees his life force being drained as an attack.  They all start chatting and he confirms that he is doing a scavenger hunt.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Kitty Pryde Paul Smith

We see Chris Claremont and Paul Smith in the office.  Claremont apologizes.  Smith states he is off the book.

Chapter Six

The Gobi Desert, where Impossible Man is keeping all of his found items.  He has also found Batman’s giant penny, Superman’s space ship and the Millennium Falcon.

Kitty wishes she can keep some of Wasp’s suits.  Rogue thinks she has no taste.

He explains why the hunt is happening, the winner becomes the leader of his people.  He chose Earth, others got other planets.  All of these aliens show up, wanting his head.  Lilandra offers to be the judge of the hunt.  Impossible Man doesn’t win.

Epilogue

He is still crying.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Lockheed on Towel

I like the bathing suit options the ladies are wearing.  It makes sense that Kitty is in a one piece while Illyana is in a bikini.

Uncanny X-Men Annual 7 Lockheed

They are eating ice cream.  Impossible Man shifts into Magnum PI and they give him their ice cream.  Lockheed is confused.

Issue ends with Impossible Man as Garfield and Lockheed ashamed.