CSBG’s Top 100 Comic Book Storylines (2013), The Voting!

Posted by John Klein III on October 16, 2013
Posted in: Lists. Tagged: , . 5 Comments

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/10/07/comics-should-be-goods-top-100-comic-book-storylines-2/

Brian Cronin is back at it again!

I voted for:

1. Uncanny X-Men : Dancing in the Dark

2. Wolverine : Enemy of the State

3. Ultimate X-Men : Hellfire and Brimstone

4. Ultimate Spider-Man : Deadpool

5. New X-Men : Quest for Magik

6. Astonishing X-Men : Torn

7.  Uncanny X-Men : Dark Phoenix Saga

8. Fantastic Four 347 – 349 : The New Fantastic Four

9. Avengers : Ultron Unlmited

10. Spider-Man : Maximum Carnage

I can only guarantee two will be on the list for sure.

I wanted to make sure I didn’t include any miniseries, only stories that took place within the proper run of a proper ongoing series.

Ultimate Comics X-Men 32

Posted by John Klein III on October 15, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Brian Wood

Penciler Alvaro Martinez

Inker John Lucas

Colorist Chris Sotomayor

Lettering VC’s Joe Sabino

World War X Part Four of Five

Ultimate Comics X-Men 32 Shadowcat 1

Kitty is one bold character, sitting on grass while wearing a completely white outfit.

Ultimate Comics X-Men 32 Shadowcat 2

Who would thought a sabretooth tiger was at Utopia?

Ultimate Comics X-Men 32 Shadowcat 3

James is trying to escape Tian.

Storm fights Farbird, and kills him.  We see some real emotion from Jean.

Jean states that he killed James, I am not convinced.  Have to wait until next issue.  His “death” inspires Liz to fight Jean.

Husk introduces Kitty to Ultimate Pixie.

We get Kitty’s plan, but really, it is a delay attempt so Utopia can knock Tian out of the sky.

She has two hours but Colossus already knows that he is waiting for the two mark.

Kitty sees James, her face is in shadow, perhaps he really is dead.  Issue opened with her missing him, so storywise, makes sense that he is dead.

Next issue, Kitty v. Jean for the sake of mutant unity.  The concluding chapter and I want to say Wood’s final issue too, as Cataclysm starts in December.

Astonishing X-Men Volume Three Run

Posted by John Klein III on October 14, 2013
Posted in: Retrospective. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Now that Astonishing X-Men Volume Three has come to an end.

Of the 68 issues, I own these 39:

Josh Whedon / John Cassaday era

1 Team Cover, 1 Director’s Cut, 2, 3, 4 Marvel Legends version, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8 Sketch Variant, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 Emma Cover, 22, 23 Colossus Cover, 24 Kitty Cover

Christos Gage / Juan Bobillo era

38, 40, 42

Greg Pak / Mike McKone

47

Marjorie Liu / Mike Perkins era

51, 52, 54

Marjorie Liu / Gabriel Hernandez Walta era

62, 63, 64, 65

Marjorie Liu / Amilcar Pinna era

66

Plus these side issues:

Saga by Eric Moreels

Sketchbook Special by Warren Ellis as writer and Salvador Larroca and Simone Bianchi on art

Ghost Boxes Issue 2 by Warren Ellis and on art, Kaare Andrews and Clayton Crain

Giant Size by Whedon and Cassaday

X-Men Volume Three Issue 6

Posted by John Klein III on October 13, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Brian Wood

Penciler David Lopez

Inkers Cam Smith with Terry Pallot

Colorists Laura Martin with Matt Milla

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

Battle of the Atom Part Seven of Ten

That has to be initially unsettling to find Broo watching over your son.

Armor is apparently now great with gizmos.

Wolverine now apparently knows that the Future X-Men he has been paling around with are not quite right.  Even though he pretty much has been cool with going along with their plan.

Young Scott makes a weird comment / joke that falls pretty flat.

X-Men V3 6 Kate Pryde

Xavier turns evil fast and hard.

He dman near kills Bling!

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Kate Pryde turns out to be Mystique and Wolverine’s son.  Hopefully the previous scene where we see President Dazzler died, hopefully that Kate was the real Kate.

The claws look like metal.

Future Beast shuts down the mansion.

Jubilee goes all vampire.

X-Men V3 6 Kitty 1

Lady Xorn takes down Kitty, Storm and young Jean and Scott.

Rogue gets swatted away by Ice Hulk.

Psylocke gets super interesting and bad ass.

Also, Rachel’s psychic projection is her classic Excalibur look, horns and all.  That is pretty awesome.

Baby Shogo gets a hamster ball, and has a great time in it.  A safe time too.

Future Deadpool falls in love with Psylocke.

Futures Jean and Beast have the following X-Men depowered : Beast, Kitty, Iceman and Storm.

X-Men V3 6 Magik

Cyclops and his Future X-Men show up a safe distance away from the mansion.

Issue ends with Sentinel-X revealed to be Adult Shogo!

I imagine next issue is going to be All Out X-Men Action which ends with all future X-Men back to their timeline.

NYCC 2013 : X-Men Panel

Posted by John Klein III on October 12, 2013
Posted in: News. Tagged: . Leave a comment

http://www.newsarama.com/19176-nycc-2013-marvel-amazing-x-men-the-marvel-universe-live.html

M is joining the X-Men title.  I like whenever a member of the junior team joins the big leagues.

X23 is joining All New X-Men, and going to start making out with Young Cyclops.  That should prove something for those slash writers.

Uncanny is dealing with Inhumanity, hopefully we find out if Kitty is staying with this title.

Wolverine’s Killable arc ends in December.  Hopefully his healing factor stays gone or at least limited to 80s levels.  Hopefully, Kitty sticks around for the rest of the arc.

X-Men Legacy has big things coming.

Both X-Forces are meeting up, and I have no interest.

All New X-Men crossing over with Guardians of the Galaxy, almost like they both have movies coming out next year.  All the Original Five are sticking around too, which takes the sails out of Battle of the Atom.  If Kitty is still not with the cast, then I am done with that title.  The Original Five all get new uniforms, and they look super padded.  Which is good as we don’t want any time hiccups.

All New X-Factor, poor Peter David can’t escape that title.  Decent cast, Gambit with both Quicksilver and Polaris.  Which those two haven’t been on a team since Polaris has been full on officially Magneto’s daughter.  That should be interesting.  Plus three more unnamed characters, one red hooded, one blonde and a third person.

Wizard Top 100 Trades of All Time

Posted by John Klein III on October 11, 2013
Posted in: Lists, Reviews. Tagged: . 5 Comments

Wizard Issue 131, August 2002

I am tired of not being able to find this list without it being cluttered with a bunch of pictures or not cited correctly.  I had to break out my own issue and everything.  I own all 100 of these.  They take up five paperboxes.  One of these days, I would love to get a small bookself and display them again.  Hopefully soon.

1. Maus : A Survivor’s Tale

2. Watchmen

3. Batman : The Dark Returns

4. Sandman Vol 4 : Season of Mists

5. Ultimate Spider-Man HC Vol. 1

6. Batman : Year One

7. Daredevil : Born Again

8. Marvels

9. Superman : Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

10. X-Men : The Dark Phoenix Saga

11. The Golden Age

12. X-Men : Days of Future Past

13. Swamp Thing Vol 1 : Saga of the Swamp Thing

14. Miracleman Vol 3 : Olympus

15. The New Teen Titans : The Judas Contract

16. Top 10 Book 1

17. Magnus, Robot Fighter : Steel Nation

18. Daredevil Visionaries : Frank Miller Vol. 2

19. Hawkworld

20. Preacher Vol. 3 : Proud Americans

21. The Books of Magic

22. Squadron Supreme

23. Superman For All Season

24. Death : The High Cost of Living

25. Fanastic Four : The Trial of Galactus

26. Solar, Man of the Atom : Alpha and Omega

27. Sin City : That Yellow Bastard

28. Spider-Man : Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut

29. Daredevil : Yellow

30. Astro City Vol 3 : Confessions

31. Torso

32. Bone Vol 2 : The Great Cow Race

33. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

34. 300

35. Pedro and Me

36. Sin City : A Dame to Kill For

37. Planetary Vol. 2 : The Fourth Man

38. Neil Gaiman’s Midnight Days

39. Banner

40. Kingdom Come

41. Akira Vol. 1

42. 100 Bullets Vol. 3 : Hang Up on the Down Low

43. Fantastic Four Visionaries : John Byrne Vol 1

44. Usagi Yojimbo Book 6

45. X-Men : E for Extinction

46. Hellblazer : Hard Time

47. Thor Visionaries : Walt Simonson Vol 1

48. Hellboy : The Chained Coffin and Others

49. Stormwatch Vol 4 : A Finer World

50. The Power of Iron Man

51. The Authority Vol 2 : Under New Management

52. Box Office Poison

53. Hellblazer : Dangerous Habits

54. Animal Man

55. Strangers in Paradise Vol 2 : I Dream of You

56. Legion of Super-Heroes : The Great Darkness Saga

57. Dr. Strange / Dr. Doom : Triumph and Torment

58. JLA : New World Order

59. Earth X

60. Infinity Gauntlet

61. Justice League : A New Beginning

62. X-Force : A New Beginning

63. Jinx : The Definitive Collection

64. X-Men : God Loves, Man Kills

65. Silver Surfer : The Rebirth of Thanos

66. Avengers : Under Siege

67. Daredevil : The Man Without Fear

68. Captain America : War and Remembrance

69. Wolverine

70. Fortune and Glory

71. Goldfish

72. Powers Vol.1 : Who killed Retro Girl?

73. Punisher : Circle of Blood

74. Whiteout

75. Doom Patrol : Crawling from the Wreckage

76. Batman : Then Long Halloween

77. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Collected Book Vol.1

78. JLA : Earth 2

79. Avengers : Ultron Unlimited

80. Crisis of the Infinite Earths

81. Obergeist : Director’s Cut

82. Green Lantern : Emerald Dawn

83. Batman / Huntress : Cry for Blood

84. The Coffin

85: Nightwing Vol 4

86. Batman : Dark Victory

87. Ultimate X-Men Vol 1 : The Tomorrow People

88. Incredible Hulk : Ground Zero

89. Batman : Arkham Asylum

90. American Flagg Vol 1 : Hard Times

91. Wolverine : Blood Debt

92. Cerebus Vol 2 : High Society

93. The Adventures of Tony Millionaire’s Sock Monkey

94. Batman : Haunted History

95. X-Men : From the Ashes

96. The Complete Concrete

97. Spider-Man vs Venom

98. Batman : Red Rain

99. The Red Star

100. Batman : Faces

. . .

17_232744_0_WizardTheMagazineofComicsEnter

I thought I might as well give this issue a review while I had it opened.

This is by far, my most read and cherished issue of Wizard.

This issue is now 11 years old.

From the cover, look Ben Affleck is Daredevil!  That turns out okay, once the Director’s Cut comes out.

There is an article for Marvel’s Truth, wherein we find out Steve Rogers was not the first Super Soldier.

In the Buzz Bin, Hasbro and Marvel were in talks to do a GI Joe / X-Men crossover.  That would have been cool.

Robert Kanigher passed away.

JLA : Obsidian Age was upcoming, Aquaman was coming back from the dead.

Y the Last Man was coming out soon.

Terry Moore’s run on Birds of Prey is going to be shorter than we thought.  Just three amazing issues.

Marvel Legends toy line first starts.

John Romita Jr. raises the most money for his two year old niece, Jordan Atherton, more than $25,000 the weekend after the first Spider-Man film came out.

http://www.heroesforjordan.org/

Hopefully she is still with us.

Romita Jr. broke a Guinness World Record for longest continuous cartooning, 51 hours, 26 minutes.

Wizard had Elektra fight Scarlet, Scarlet wins as she fights super ninjas all day.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen II was being promoted.

Phil Noto gets a sketchbook feature.

Axel Alonso was given a feature for best editor, and now he is one of Marvel’s top editors.

There is a top samurai titles to check out, Usagi Yojimbo made the list.

Andromeda was just coming to DVD, and VHS!  I have a hard time remembering how VHS was sold in stores, it must have taken up so much shelf space.

Then on page 62, the Top 100 Trade Paperbacks of All Time begins.

I think I had already own 40 of them, so I figured it would not be so hard to get the rest.

Hey, there is an ad for new writer, Chuck Austen coming to Uncanny X-Men.

Ultimate titles : Ultimates 8, Spider-Man 25, X-Men 21.  21 is Kitty’s first appearance.

Wizard casts the Wolverine Origins movie, the mini had came out.

None of the cast makes it.  Anthony Hopkins does make it to Thor, and Michael Chiklis gets Fantastic Four.

Men in Black 2 was gearing up.

Birds of Prey was set to premiere.

Guillermo del Toro annouces instead of Blade 3, he is going to make Hellboy.

CrossGen’s Sigil and Saurians art optioned for film and games, neither happens.

Basic Training with Tom Raney and Scott Hanna.

Comic Wars, a truly good book, was published.  Everything you want to know about the Marvel Bankruptcy.

I did buy that Art Asylum’s Carnage bust.

Video games, none looked good, and I am not sure how many actually came out on GameCube, PS2, and Xbox.  Aquaman, Batman : Dark Tomorrow, Blade 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Daredevil, Justice League : Injustice for All, two Superman games – Man of Steel and Shadow of Apokolips.  X-Men also had two games, Next Dimension and Wolverine’s Revenge.

All had demos at E3, along with Kingdom Hearts and Metroid Prime.

Wizard World Chicago 2002 July 5, 6 & 7 somehow got the trinity : Stan Lee, Michael Rosenbaum and Al Snow.

Comic Picks : Bendis’ Alias, JMS’ Amazing Spider-Man, Bendis’ Daredevil, Johns’ Flash, Morrison’s New X-Men, Smith’s Spider-Man / Black Cat 2 of 4.

Throughout the Price Guide, there are great items to bring with you to Conventions.  Bottled Water, Sketchbook and Supplies, Empty Suitcase, Medicine, Poster Tubes, Deodorant, Footpads, Pillow and Playing Cards, Checklist and Snacks.

Peter David and Wizard, those two got along wonderfully.

Checklist for Kevin Smith’s comics and DVDs, Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back came out the year prior.

Checklist also for JMS.

Interview with Yancy Butler, TV’s Witchblade.

I saw the back cover so much, promoting Escaflowne the movie, I had to watch it.  One will wake it, One will destroy it.  Sounded so cool, but I could barely make it past twenty minutes.  Should try again, there was a TV series too.

What I Bought 2013.10.10

Posted by John Klein III on October 10, 2013
Posted in: Purchases. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Ultimate Comics X-Men 32

X-Men Volume Three Issue 6

Back Issues

Marvel Age 72

X-Men Classic 62

X-Men Classic 75

X-Men Classic 80

X-Men Classic 82

X-Men Classic 89

X-Men Classic 90

X-Men Classic 91

X-Men Classic 92

X-Men Classic 93

X-Men Classic 94

X-Men Classic 96

Wishlist

Wolverine Volume Four Issue 10

Gambit Volume Five Issue 17

All New X-Men 17

Posted by John Klein III on October 9, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Pebciler Stuart Immonen

Inker Wade Von Grawbadger

Colorist Marte Gracia

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Battle of the Atom Part Six of Ten

I had to add Immonen’s variant cover with Magik and Hank to my wishlist.

The art team, once again, knocks the layouts out of the park!

The issue opens with a committee trying to convince Dazzler to run for President of the United States.

Which, of course, I take issue with as we all know that Kitty is the first mutant president from Claremont’s The End epic.

They hint that she was an Agent of SHIELD and an Agent of . . ., I wonder what other agencies there are in the future?  Probably SWORD.

So much detail in that first double page.  We see Future Rogue for the first time.  I notice Future Beast has a tail, for the first time.  Apparently Jean was already wearing the Lady Xorn outfit.  They also already made posters too.

All New X-Men 17 Kate Pryde 1

We get treated to a wide panel with a giant cast of characters:

Maria Hill (with eye patch – which I hate, we get it, we get it, all directors need an eye patch, except, they don’t), Captain America, Vision, Storm, Colossus, Kate Pryde (also already in that tacky jumpsuit), Xavier’s grandson, Iceman, Jean, Beast, President Dazzler, Guy wearing jacket with no shirt (bold!), Molly Hayes, Quitin Quire, Some other guy, Cloak and Dagger’s son, Tempus, Not-Iron Man, Jubilee, Kid Gladiator (Man Gladiator?)

From the cover, I see that the son who I want to be Cloak and Dagger’s is wearing Dr. Strange’s Eye of Agamotto, so that explains the red cape too.  Shame as I like the idea of Cloak and Dagger being together in the end.  Though they have never been a romantic couple.

All New X-Men 17 Kate Pryde 2

Dazzler is straight up killed, and she was only the President-Elect!  Which means her Vice President-Elect is now the President.  Who, I suspect, is responsible – always suspect the VP in fictional worlds.

Though if it was Mystique as Dazzler, who is killed, and they find real Dazzler, would she still be president?  Publicly, it will be super easy.  Just tell people it was a security issue, and Mystique wad posing as her for the public speech in case something like this happened.  Which it did, so good thing!  I suspect that isn’t what happens next.  I also suspect her running mate was not a mutant, but another old white guy in a suit.  I also suspect this is the last we get of the political world of this future, which is a shame.

I like that Madrox was on security, that makes sense.  Also, it makes sense that he will completely screw it up.  Whoever placed him on that duty, also a suspect!  Looks like he was poisoned and not killed by an army of dragons.

That dragon double page spread is beautiful, don’t just “get” that there is a bunch of dragons and turn the page.  Look at that page for at least half a minute.

I didn’t see a cute purple space dragon, so I don’t suspect The Flock is behind this?

I read someone online thought it could be Animax, the dame from part one of this story, that would be very clever as we are starting the second half of the story.

Now, we see Magik, Hank and Bobby even more in the future, the Future X-Men’s present.

All New X-Men 17 Magik 1

That splash page of Future Colossus hugging Illyana?  My favorite page of the issue.  Look how happy they are!  Also, don’t forget Present Colossus hates her so much.

Future Colossus also has her soulsword, which he had during the night music died.  Did Illyana die not too long ago?  Or did she get a happy ending, and not want or need her sword anymore?

Jubilee is going by Wolverine now, I hate that, so stupid.  She also has a cut and can’t open her left eye much.  But it means Logan is dead, which I like that idea.

Can’t tell if Stange’s child is a son or girl now.

These Proper Future X-Men want their three guest to go back so quickly.  The other Future X-Men?  Rogue X-Men, they don’t have the right to the name.

 Future Iceman is Sir Robert, I like that.  He makes a comment about no wonder he couldn’t keep a girlfriend.  So I imagine that this is not the future Carmen Drake is from either.

Ice Hulk is an extension of Sir Robert, so is he a double agent?  We saw Iceman split himself a bunch in the opening arc of Wolverine and the X-Men, as well as the last good arc of Astonishing X-Men.

Who is in the Not-Iron Man  suit?  Looks more like Sentinel Man, to me.

All New X-Men 17 Magik 2

When Hank repeats “we are not leaving until you help us” I wish Petit had bold the second time or did something with it, but I added my own tone to it.  Changing it from we’re to we are does it too.

Back to present day, Cyclops’ team is back at their base.  Angel is not with them, so all three of the original X-Men are with Wolverine’s team.

I like Triage and either Ben or Hijack’s conversation.  Must be crazy to be on the sidelines to all if this, and not having the “grown ups” responding to the craziness like it is just another thing to deal with.

All New X-Men 17 Magik 3

Magik has brought the proper Future X-Men to Cyclops.

If it wasn’t for Hank and Bobby at the last quarter of the issue, is would almost not count as an All New X-Men issue (besides the title of the comic, of course).

 So Wolverine’s side wanted Hank and Bobby to stay at the school, so when the field team came back, all Original Five will be together again.  They are in for a treat once they see they are not there.

The proper Future X-Men have to agree the Original Five have to go back to have the adventures that we know they have.  Or at least send back clones to the original timeline to secure those events.

Teams : X-Men

Posted by John Klein III on October 8, 2013
Posted in: Teams. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Volume One Issues 80 – 100

Colossus, Gambit, Kitty Pryde, Marrow, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine

Shared the same team as Uncanny at the time

Volume Three Issues 1 to Present

Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, Rachel Grey, Rogue and Storm

Wolverine and the X-Men 36

Posted by John Klein III on October 7, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Jason Aaron

Penciler Giuseppe Camuncoli

Finisher Andrew Currie

Colorists Matt Milla with Edgar Delgado

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

Battle of the Atom Part Five of Ten

Lockheed made the cover!  But once again, not the issue proper.

There is also a variant cover by Kris Anka with Magik and young Beast, that I added to my wishlist.

How disappointing is the Emma v. Jean fight?  I get the way why they went the direction they did to show it, but also, when they do show it?  Also disappointing.

I do like seeing the two Cyclops together.

Young-Old Jean, old boy

Poor Scott keeps referring to Jean as his girlfriend.  I suspect that she has not told him of her make out session with Hank.

I do really like the Kitty, Rachel and Kate scene.  It is official, that is not Days of Future Past Kate Pryde.  Probably why there is now a Kate Pryde (Battle of the Atom) character profile at comicbookdb.  Of course I added her to my favorite characters list.

Future Deadpool sees Goldballs and states he is a legend.

Meanwhile, back at the Jean Grey School.  Bobby is holding Shogo, but he is all iced up.  That can’t be good for the baby, right?

Hank is doing research on the future when Magik shows up.

I like the concept of someone going to the future, then coming back and writing a report of everything they saw.

Bobby hands Shogo over to Broo, who looks way off model here.  Not sure of the relationship between this Penciler / Finishet team and how they together, so that is as far as I go.

Bobby makes another Back to the Future reference, which was on over the weekend.  It is still instantly watchable.

During the whole Telepath Battle, Wolverine’s team has been fighting Cyclops’ team.

Future Deadpool makes this awesome speech.

Young Jean wins her fight.

She now knows that they need to go back to the past.

Deapool mutters to himself that his speech was a lie.  Which is the perfect segue to Magik, Hank and Bobby into the future.

Wherein we see the Future X-Men, floating.

See a Gandalf inspired Iceman (Ice Wizard), Colossus, child of Storm and Black Panther, Jubilee with aspects of Wolverine, Iron Man inspired Sentinel, and a male Phoenix.  Oh, and someone I can only hope is the son of Cloak and Dagger!