Uncanny X-Men Volume Three Issue 8

Posted by John Klein III on July 17, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

277282_20130710213327_large

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils / Colors by Chris Bachalo

Inks by Tim Townsend

Now, I missed issue 7, but from the recap page, sounds like all that happened was that they all escaped Limbo and Fabio wanted off the team.

You wouldn’t be able to do that with this issue.  Bendis packs so much into this issue.

Fabio makes it back home,apparently, he isn’t cut out to be fighting demons and Avengers.  I read Scott’s response of “Hey, it’s not for everybody” so deadpan and casual.  Since Scott was 15, he has been fighting weird things.  Well, mostly evil mutants but he fought Avengers around issue 9 of the original series.  Not sure when he would have fought demons for the first time.  Maybe around 160, when Illyana becomes Magik?

I like how young Warren wanted to point out that he hasn’t been doing this for that long.  I wonder if Bendis wrote that as this is his eighth issue of Uncanny, and the original X-Men were brought to the present from the original series eighth issue?  I bet he did, as he is very clever like that.

Lived Illyana teaming with the Cuckoos to rescue David Bond.  The way Karen sold out David and how fast was funny.

Really like how Bachalo uses specific colors for each scene, really makes each section have its own feel.  David gets red, Magneto gets white, and Fabio gets gold.

Really adored the Magneto and Cyclops scene.  Especially how it starts with Magneto doing a five minute monologue, and Scott responses to it, but after a quick exchange, Scott states, that wasn’t why he wanted to speak with him.

I sort of dug Fabio’s family, they are all over the place, but they are excited and relief and it all makes sense.  We are clearly not done with Fabio.

Issue ends on Dazzler, in a new costume which I really like.  I’m completely fascinated with what she keeps in that little pouch.  The big pouch looks to be for a gun, which has never been her style, but now she is an agent of SHIELD, so it might be mandatory.  Pretty sure they had Kitty running around with a gun during her brief stint with SHIELD.

Really excited about the next issue, I thought Dazzler was going to infiltrate the team, but maybe she is, and just needs to find them first.

Also, this cover, completely misleading in every way.

Astonishing X-Men 64

Posted by John Klein III on July 16, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

3161016-64

Written by Marjorie Liu

Art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Color Artist is Cris Peter

As serious as this comic is, there is a fun kinetic energy about it.

I like the idea of Iceman going evil.  He has one of those powers, where if he ever went bad, he would be unstoppable.

This creative team really brings it this issue.

Walta’s facial expressions are spot on.

Peter’s colorings really give the book atmosphere, especially difficult when everything is covered in ice and snow.

Astonishing X-Men 64 Kitty 1

Astonishing X-Men 64 Kitty 2

Astonishing X-Men 64 Kitty 3

Astonishing X-Men 64 Kitty 4

I love how Liu has Bobby shout Colossus’ name out to Kitty.  He clearly doesn’t know her well enough to truly hurt her.  Just going for the easy strikes.

How funny and great is that Dark Beast page?  So surreal

I like how Thor was taken down.

I felt really bad about Bobby’s father, that is definitely going to be something he regrets once he’s normal again.  Like when they don’t acknowledge that New York City was blanketed in snow, they will always still remember his father.

I am loving Mystique in this as well.  She is one of those characters that can show up in three different title, be doing three different things, but still be the same character.

Next issue holds a lot of promise.

X-Books Forum’s Top 50 X-Men Stories

Posted by John Klein III on July 15, 2013
Posted in: Lists. 2 Comments

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?354642-Countdown-to-the-Best-X-Event-Storyline!

A while ago, a poster over at Comic Book Resources compiled a list from the posters there, that poster goes by NewMutant.  Who I can only determine, spent a long time counting these.  Once Brain Cronin’s list is out, I thought it would be fun to compare the two lists.  I didn’t get to vote in this one.

53.  World’s Apart, a Storm mini, Kitty’s entrapment in a giant bullet in space, is referenced in the first issue.

53.  Life Death, Storm solo

53.  Schism, the story that would split the X-Men between Cyclops and Wolverine, Magik goes with Cyclops, Kitty & Lockheed go with Wolverine

52.  Nation X, Magik had a two stories in the actual mini.

50.  Manifest Destiny, takes place while Kitty is in space, the actual mini had a nice story with Nightcrawler missing Kitty.  Shame she came back right after he died.

50.  God Loves, Man Kills 2, X-Treme X-Men gets the sequel and Kitty plays a major part with Striker’s super villain turn.

48.  From the Ashes, Paul Smith’s awesome run, the trade starts with 168, so right after the Brood Saga but these stories are simply the best!

48.  Living Monolith / Enter Havok

45.  Magneto War, during the 35th Anniversary team, Magneto goes political with amazing work by Alan Davis.

45.  Phoenix Saga

45.  The End, Claremont’s epic three part saga, each saga has six issues each.  Kitty starts out as the mayor of Chicago and has three children, an older daughter and a set of twins, boy and girl.  Lockheed is there, Magik is not there.  Ends with Kitty going for President of the United States.

41.  Crossroads

41.  Bloodties

41.  Proteus, the storyline that takes place right before Dark Phoenix Saga

41.  Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire, one of the reasons why I’m not crazy about collecting every appearance of Rachel Grey and Nightcrawler, once they get on other teams without Kitty, their stories don’t hold much interest to me.  I love those two characters, and probably own like 60 percent of their appearances, but once they go off to space, I have no interest.

38.  Imperial

38.  Utopia, Magik plays a bigger part there, once Kitty gets back, they are pretty much leading up to Schism.

38.  Return of the Brood

36.  Endsong, nice story about Scott and Emma being a real couple over Jean and Scott.  Kitty has a nice moment or two.

36.  Assault on Weapon Plus

34.  Blinded by the Light, Ramos draws Kitty a little tiny compared to how giant he drew Colossus, that’s pretty much my main memory of this.  That and David Finch’s covers are beautiful.

34.  Days of Future Present, I wish Future Kate Pryde showed up in this but I do own all the parts to it, they keep making a bunch of references to the Days of Future Past timeline so I counted it for the collection.

33.  Welcome to Genosha

30.  Eve of Destruction

30.  Unstoppable, Whedon’s final arc, Kitty stuck in a bullet.  For like three years, I had such a disdain for Whedon.

30.  Muir Island Saga

29.  Necrosha, the world gets Doug Ramsey back!  Shame he and Kitty never get a moment together again.  Not quite sure where Doug is in current continuity.  Another character wherein I have like 75 percent of their appearances due to how much he showed up with Magik.

27.  Deadly Genesis, Xavier had a second team between the Original and the All New.  Kitty shows up, but mostly in background.

26.  Torn, my favorite of the four Whedon arcs.

25.  Second Coming, Magik gets to play a larger part in one of her first big crossovers.  This is the story that Kurt died in.

24.  Legion Quest, leads up to Age of Apocalypse.

23.  Mutant Genesis

23.  Fatal Attraction

21.  Brood Saga, ends with the legend Paul Smith on art, for issues 165-167.

21.  Gifted, Whedon’s first arc and puts Kitty back on a main X-Title, Lockheed shows up in one of the best moments of the series, drawn by Cassaday, in issue three.

20.  Here Comes Tomorrow, Grant Morrison’s take on a Days of Future Past type of story.

18.  Planet X

18.  Onslaught, Kitty missed out on a lot of this due to being in England at the time but as a young man, I adored this crossover.  One of the few and first times where an X-story exploded onto the rest of the Marvel Universe.

16.  Operation Zero Tolerance

16.  Asgardian Wars, Paul Smith art again, fun little mini.  This is where the example of Wolverine’s god like level of healing comes from when he came back from a drop of his own blood.  Actually, that was the bonus feature in the trade, the actual Asgardian Wars has outstanding art by Arthur Adams, Magik has some great moments in it with Enchantress.

14.  Phalanx Covenant

14.  House of M, Kitty’s involvement isn’t huge but she’s part of the Astonishing team and her moments are pretty cool.  I like it that she is standing next to Captain America on the Quesada drawn cover to issue one.  Within the House of M timeline, she becomes a teacher in Chicago, so I loved that as well.  On the assault of M, she teams up with Kurt, which of course, I dug.

13.  Riot at Xaviers

12.  Supernovas, Mike Carey’s opening arc, and couldn’t ask for a better one.

11.  X-Cutioner’s Song

10.  God Loves, Man Kills, this story is simply amazing and I wish X2 had a more down to earth approach to this instead of making it more of a military story but the original is truly a work of art.

9.  X-Tinction Agenda

8.  Messiah Complex

7.  Fall of the Mutants, we lose Doug in this one.

6.  Days of Future Past, the world, in two issues, is given a franchise and so much material in two issues of Uncanny.  They have gone back to this story time and time again, but it is amazing!

5.  E is for Extinction

4.  Inferno, we lose Magik in this one.

3.  Age of Apocalypse , we are given one of the best alternate Kitty Pryde’s of all time.  Truly tragic what happens to her at the end.  Kitty with a major attitude and an edge we will rarely see.  One of the first examples of why I don’t like Colossus comes from this.

2.  Mutant Massacre, we lose Kitty and Kurt for a while but are given Excalibur from it so its a bitter pill but a happy result.  We also get the terrific X-Men vs. Fantastic Four mini from this.

and with 183 Points:

1.  Dark Phoenix Saga, still a classic so many years later.

I’m sure when the Comics Should Be Good tallies come out, these final three will be in the final five in some order.

Marvel Knights: X-Men

Posted by John Klein III on July 14, 2013
Posted in: News. Leave a comment

http://www.newsarama.com/18331-marvel-knights-returns-with-indie-influenced-take-on-x-men.html

I’m not familiar at all with Brahm Revel or his series “Guerillas” but I like his idea for the X-Men.  I like his roster of Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, and Rogue.  Logan and Kitty have a great relationship.  Kitty and Rogue really don’t have much experience with each other outside Claremont’s original run up til Uncanny X-Men 213, with Mutant Massacre.  They worked together during certain arcs on X-Treme X-Men, such as God Loves, Man Kills II, and that title’s final arc.  Of course, they are together on Brain Wood’s excellent X-Men title.

Wolverine and Rogue, of course, have very long runs on X-Men together and X-Treme.

Now, that I think of it, all three were on a team of X-Men during the 35th Anniversary era (circa Uncanny 360/X-Men 80).  Which I felt was a resurgence to the title.

I like from the interview from Newsarama above, that Revel read the X-Men back in the 80s and is currently up to date with the X-Men now.  So we shouldn’t have to worry about Kitty being written like she’s still 15.

I am looking forward to this five part miniseries, out this November.

What I Bought 2013.7.12

Posted by John Klein III on July 13, 2013
Posted in: Purchases. Leave a comment

Last night I was able to buy:

Astonishing X-Men 64

Uncanny X-Men Volume Three 8

Will have reviews up in a day or two

Marvel October 2013 Solicitations

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

http://www.newsarama.com/18333-marvel-comics-october-2013-solicitations.html

Definitely Buying:

ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #32-33
BRIAN WOOD (W) • ALVARO MARTINEZ (A)
Cover by GABRIEL HARDMAN
Issue #32 – “WORLD WAR X” CONTINUES!
• UTOPIA’s insane plan to end the war
• WORLD WAR X claims its first casualties
• Will the war finally unite, or divide forever?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Issue #33 – “WORLD WAR X” CONCLUDES!
• WORLD WAR X’s unbelievable conclusion!
• KITTY PRYDE takes extraordinary steps, shocks the planet!
• In the aftermath, who remains to pick up the pieces?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Definitely set on getting the last half of Battle of the Atom:

ALL-NEW X-MEN #17
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • STUART IMMONEN (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by STUART IMMONEN
LEGO VARIANT BY Leonel Castellani
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 6!
• Magik and Young Beast have a special mission!
• The X-Men and Future X-Men have Jean Grey and Cyclops and are going to send them back in time with the rest of the Original X-Men.
• But who is opposing them and why?
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

X-MEN #6
BRIAN WOOD (W) • DAVID LOPEZ (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by TERRY DODSON
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 7!
• CHAOS AT THE JEAN GREY SCHOOL as the X-Men and Future X-Men are attacked!
• Rachel Grey is the only X-Man qualified to defeat the mystery opponents!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

UNCANNY X-MEN #13
BHAEL BENDIS (W) • CHRISTOPHER BACHALO (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by CHRIS BACHALO
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 8!
• Wolverine, who just lost his healing factor, takes a mortal hit!
• And a surprise ending that changes everything in the X-Men Event of 2013!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #37
JASON AARON (W) • GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by KRIS ANKA
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 9!
• All of the X-Men (present & future) and their adversaries are reeling from the events of Part 8!
• With the adversaries’ Plan A squashed, they turn to their far more sinister Plan B on the grounds of the X-Men’s first adventure!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM #2 (of 2)
JASON AARON (W) • ESAD RIBIC (A)
Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Variant Cover by ESAD RIBIC
X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM, PART 10!
• The biggest battle in X-Men history will melt your face off.
• All of the X-Men find their footing in the world much changed.
• The X-Men event of 2013 concludes and sets up the major X-Men stories for 2014!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

      This will be probably my last big crossover I get to follow for quite some time, which I’ll be revealing why in a future post.

WOLVERINE #10
PAUL CORNELL (W) • ALAN DAVIS (A/C)
PART 3 OF KILLABLE!
• Who says you can’t go home?
• Logan and Kitty’s road trip heads north – to the grounds of the former Howlett estate!
• But more than bittersweet memories are waiting for Logan in the place he once called home.
• The ghosts of Logan’s Canadian childhood meet the demons of his adulthood as he continues to grapple with his new reality!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

      Alan Davis drawing Kitty again, awesome!

Maybe Buying:

INFINITY #5 (of 6)
JONATHAN HICKMAN (W) • JEROME OPEñA & DUSTIN WEAVER (A)
COVER BY ADAM KUBERT
Design Variant by JEROME OPENA
Generals Variant by IN-HYUK LEE
Hero Variant by SARA PICHELLI
Young Variant by SKOTTIE YOUNG
• The Avengers Universe.
• The Heroes of Earth rally to defeat Thanos.
• The war for Earth begins.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I know Kitty was shown in the five pages of the Free Comic Book Day issue of Infinity, so I’m going to buy that first issue and at least reading the rest, if she shows up, then I will buy that issue.  She usually doesn’t in these wide crossovers.

INFINITY: THE HUNT #2 & 3 (of 4)
MATT KINDT (W)
STEVEN SANDERS (A)
Cover by SLAVA PASARIN
INFINITY TIE-IN!
• Thanos’ forces have attacked the Earth, but what part of his plan involves the super youth of the world?
• See the attacks on the Avengers Academy, Jean Grey School, Future Foundation, Braddock Academy, Wakandan School of Alternative Studies, the Pan-Asian School for the Unusually Gifted and the Latverian School of Sciences!
• The students at all of the world’s super schools try to put into play everything they’ve learned as they fight side-by-side with their super teachers!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Pending on who shows up from the Jean Grey School, I will pick it up.

HUNGER #4 (of 4)
JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV (W)
LEONARD KIRK (A)
Cover by ADI GRANOV
THE BEGINNING OF THE END???
• Has RICK JONES failed to stop Earth from destruction?
• The death throes of a universe!
• A hero reborn? The road to CATACLYSM starts here!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

The Ultimate X-Men did not show up during the last crossover, so not sure if I will get this.  Usually I thumb through most of the comics, looking for certain characters and if I don’t see them, I put the comic back.

Same will go for Cataclysm.

MARVEL: NOW WHAT?! #1
SKOTTIE YOUNG, SCOTT ADSIT, WYATT CENAC, GERRY DUGGAN, BRIAN POSEHN, SARA SCHAEFER & MORE (W)
SKOTTIE YOUNG, ERIC CANETE, COLLEEN COOVER, STEVE LIEBER, PATRICK OLLIFFE & MORE (A)
Cover by SKOTTIE YOUNG
• Get ready for the NOWest book in Marvel NOW History – Marvel NOW WHAT?!
• SEE NOW! Captain America get Cat Fished! SEE NOW! The Intervention of the Watcher! SEE NOW! The Wedding of Thor and Storm!
• All that and more as a cast of comedy’s shining stars and Marvel’s most exciting artists bring you the stories of Marvel NOW that you never thought you’d ever want to see – but you do want ot see it, and you want it NOW!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Be curious who shows up at Storm’s wedding, her last one didn’t go that well.  Well, the wedding was beautiful, the marriage just didn’t last.

ALL-NEW X-MEN SPECIAL #1
MICHAEL COSTA (W) • KRIS ANKA (A)
Cover by ALEXANDER LOZANO
Interlocking Variant Cover by J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
PART ONE OF “THE ARMS OF THE OCTOPUS!”
• The All-New X-Men cross over with the Indestructible Hulk and Superior Spider-Man!
• What does Doctor Octopus want with the All-New X-Men and HOW IS HE ALIVE?!
• This gets the immediate attention of Superior Spider-Man, but what does it have to do with the Hulk?
40 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T …$4.99

If Kitty doesn’t show up in any of these, I’m passing.  At least they are not shoe horning Warren into this crossover.  Odd to include Spider-Man and Hulk, but could be decent.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #68
MARJORIE LIU (W)
GABRIEL HERNANDEZ WALTA (A)
Cover by PHIL NOTO
FINAL ISSUE!
• Through thick and thin, from marriage to apocalypse, the X-Men have always stood together as a family.
• Is there anything in this world – or any other – that could break them up?
• It all ends here as Marjorie Liu bids a fond farewell to the Astonishing team!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

     Might get this as Kitty has been showing up during these past couple issues.

X-MEN LEGACY #18
SIMON SPURRIER (W)
TBA (A)
Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO
• The final showdown between Legion and the Uncanny X-Men!
• David faces off against his father’s murderer – but Cyclops and the telepathic Emma Frost still have some tricks up their sleeves!
• With two of David’s most formidable recent adversaries added to this volatile mix, is victory beyond his grasp?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

      States the Uncanny team, so hopefully Magik shows up.
…
8 for sure, so that’s $24
8 maybes for another $24
$48!
So let’s just hope my favorite characters only show up in only a few of these and let’s keep this hobby of mine under $30, and of course, I can always space it out but I like to imagine what my budget is going to be and try to save up that much.  And of course, like always, no one is holding a gun to my head and making me buy these.  I’ll always maintain that the side titles are nice but I would just follow the main titles anyways as that’s what really matters to the line.
Pretty exciting time though, to be an X-Fan!

Uncanny X-Men Volume Three Issue 4

Posted by John Klein III on July 11, 2013
Posted in: Podcasts, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

270512_20130413115310_large

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Penciled and colored by Chris Bachalo

Inked by Tim Townsend, Jamie Mendoza, Al Vey & Victor Olazara

I have to be honest, I only wanted to review this issue because I just heard 3 Chicks Review Comics episode 54, their review starts at the 18 minute mark.

http://1979semifinalist.podomatic.com/entry/2013-04-15T00_41_55-07_00

I can only vouch for episodes 8, 22, 29, 31, and 56 as those ones deal with the X-Men.  I got hipped to it has Kelly Thompson is one if the writers for Comics Should Be Good.

Back to the issue at hand

I wished we were back in the day of those useful Editor’s Captions, as this issue needs it.  Should state “Go read All New X-Men issues 9, 10, 11”  as it made sense when the issues first published as they all came out at the same time, but now, months later, I had to go back and figure it out.

All New X-Men 9, final page has Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Magik showing up at the Jean Grey School.

All New X-Men 10 has Cyclops’ initial offer for students to come and join his school, the New Xavier School.

All New X-Men 11 deals with Warren making the choice to join Future Scott’s school.

None of all that is mentioned in this comic, also, I miss the Letters Page for that reason too.  Back in the 90s, that is how I learned about Marvel History with uber editor, Tom Breevoort.

I got the cover shown above, not the variant.  I did not add it to my wishlist, as it only has Emma and the Cuckoos on it.

When asked who my favorite artists are, I’m quick to name Paul Smith as my favorite with Bachalo as a close second.  Their styles could not be more different.  There is just something about the way Bachalo draws boots and gloves, that I always liked, and then I started to notice his layouts and such.  He really is working on a whole different level.

Uncanny X-Men V3 4 Magik Shadowcat 1

I still am not loving Illyana’s new costume, but I’m getting more use to it.  I like Cyclops’ new look, Emma’s doesn’t do anything for me one way or another, and I still can’t believe Magneto is running around bald and completely in white.

I’m glad Bachalo got to draw Kitty in this issue.

Uncanny X-Men V3 4 Magik Shadowcat 2

Uncanny X-Men V3 4 Magik Shadowcat 3a Uncanny X-Men V3 4 Magik Shadowcat 3b

I loved every scene with the Stepford Sisters and Emma, as Bendis’ dialogue is spot on and the layouts are stunning.  The page that is done in black and white, amazing use of the page.

Scott’s students back at his school: Tempus, Triage, Benjamin Deeds, and Fabio Medina, all get fun character moments when they pick out their dorm rooms and experience their first accidental Danger Room session.

End of the day. New Xavier School gets four more students.  I loved Scott’s introduction for Past Warren, sirt of wish we can hear Scott’s opinion on the rest of the Original Five X-Men.

Issue ends with Illyana’s powers going crazy!

…

I should be able to buy this week’s comics on Friday night, but I’ve been already told that my previous two week’s woth of comics may never come in and I have to give them a list of what I should have received.  Which is annoying, but hopefully the latest Astonishing and Uncanny are there and that they can back order the other ones for me.

A+X Issue 8

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

273115_20130522142052_large

Written by Gerry Duggan

Penciled by Salvador Larroca

Colored by David Ocampo

Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles

Now, this is a fun comic!

So glad that the interior art is not as cheesecake as the cover would imply.

I would love to buy a SWORD mini starring Spider-Woman and Lockheed.

That homeless guy is both funny and oddly placed.

A+X 8 Lockheed 1

Kitty making a Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, from Game of Thrones, was a matter of time, but so spot on.

A+X 8 Lockheed 2

Kitty vs. Absorbing Man, such a good battle and this is the first of two fights where Kitty puts her hand into someone’s skull, the other happening in Scarlet Spider 17.

AIM and Hydra falling in line was awesome too!

I would like to see Duggan get some more work based off of this, he writes women well.

One of my goals here is to eventually scan all of Lockheed’s appearances per panel, but without a computer, that’s going to be difficult.  Hopefully within a year, I can get one.

There is a Deadpool/Hawkeye story that is decent.

Comics Should Be Good: Top X-Men Stories

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

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/07/05/vote-for-the-50-greatest-x-men-stories/comment-page-2/#comment-3838619

Brian Cronin, who is pretty awesome as I can only imagine that these events take like ten hours to complete, is requesting people sumbit their Top Ten X-Men stories.

What I like to do with Brian’s Lists is to imagine what the top ten are, and even if I agree with them, I like to make those the bottom of my list as I know for a fact the people are going to be giving those the top spots so I can play with my suggestions a little more.

Brian states that you can’t just consider collections as the full “story” such as Paul Smith’s run (Uncanny X-Men 165 through 175) as they are several stories and not one whole story.  Which I’m fine with as it made my creating a list easier.  What made it not easier was me deciding to only do issues from Uncanny as (I’ve already submitted my list like a fool) I thought it would be more of a challenge and it wasn’t until later that I thought about throwing a mini series or an Ultimate storyline into the mix.  I also kept it to just issues that I actually own as well.

My Submitted List is:

1.  The Mastermind/Phoenix story from Uncanny X-Men 175, I’m hoping Brian comes up with a better name for this, its officially titled “Phoenix!” but I wanted to be clear on which one it is.  That is one of the fun things about these is that you find out what other people refer to these titles as.  For me, Paul Smith’s nine issues (171 is drawn by Walt Simonson) is the be all of X-Men runs.

2.  Wolverine’s Failed Wedding, Uncanny 172-173, whenever you see Rogue/Wolverine as friends, its all based on these two issues where their friendship began.  It also gave us 80s Mohawk Storm.

3.  The First Appearance of the Morlocks, Uncanny 169-170, gave us the awesome Callisto/Storm battle and the Kitty/Caliban … let’s call it friendship, begins here.

4.  The Brood Saga, Uncanny 165-167, the ending of it, I guess, the beginning has the incredible Dave Cockrum pencils but I don’t recall those as well.  167 has the X-Men meeting the New Mutants for the very first time, and 166 gave us Lockheed!

5.  Days of Future Past, Uncanny 141 & 142, a story so amazing its going to be the basis of a feature film next year and a lousy two part episode back for the 90s X-Men cartoon.  Kate Pryde goes back in time and switches bodies with a young Kitty Pryde, who just successfully completed her first Danger Room session.  What I love about this story is that the characters in the past are so quick to go along with Kate Pryde’s story, they don’t waste a bunch of time making her prove herself.  A quick mind read and they are off to Washington DC.  Kate Pryde is going to be part of the Future X-Men in the upcoming 50th Anniversary story, Battle of the Atom, so I’m very excited about that.  This is also why Brian is doing the Top 50 X-Men Stories as CSBG is celebrating the 50th anniversary of both X-Men and Avengers this year.

6.  Dark Phoenix Saga, I noted Uncanny issues 129 through 131, though they really are just the Hellfire issues of the story, its mostly Hellfire Club then the Space Opera from Uncanny 132 to 137.  Kitty only shows up in the first half of the story and then at the end of 138 but people don’t usually include 138, which is odd as that’s the funeral issue and Cyclops leaving.

7.  Hunt for Xavier, Uncanny 362 to 364, to celebrate the X-Men’s 35th Anniversary, Marvel cancelled Excalibur and brought Kitty, Kurt and Colossus over to the main title.  Hunt for Xavier was the first storyline of that era.  The other members of the team were Storm, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue and Marrow.  Which is not a bad classic team.  Seven to eight members makes for a good cast.  I would prefer one of the original five X-Men being on it  as well but that’s okay.

This is where I was just looking at what multi-part stories did I own from Uncanny X-Men.

8.  Quarantine, Uncanny X-Men 530-534, humans are trying to give themselves the X-Gene.  The mutants on Utopia are getting sick and must pull it together to attack the humans.  Not my strongest moment adding it.  If I was going to add it, should have made it number 10 and given it one vote.

9.  Breaking Point, Uncanny X-Men 535-538, now this story is the direct sequel to Unstoppable, Kitty becomes tangible again (which was silly in the first place as they already did that to her during the 80s) and The Dodsons did the artwork, which is never bad.

10.  Mutant Massacre, Uncanny X-Men 210 to 213, the original story where Kitty becomes intangible, Colossus kills for the second time (he killed Proteus much earlier) and falls into a coma, Kurt can’t teleport due to injuries, X-Men are beaten, the Morlocks are practically killed off, some intense moments here.

That was my submitted list, I should have swapped out Quarantine with Ultimate X-Men: Hellfire Club arc that gave us Ultimate Kitty Pryde.  That’s what I should have done.

Be curious to see which Paul Smith stories make the cut, hopefully at least two.

Astonishing X-Men: Torn

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

astonising-x-men-torn-motion-comic

Over the weekend, I was trying to locate a copy of Peter David’s prose adaption of Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, Whedon/Cassaday’s first arc on the title.  When asked which is my favorite of the Whedon arcs, it will have to be Torn.  Gifted is nice as it brings the team together, Dangerous has a decent battle sequence and Unstoppable has powerful moments but I couldn’t fully enjoy it until Matt Fraction brought Kitty back, like three years later.

Torn has the best character moments, and as most people know, Whedon is all about character moments.  The story is essentially Emma versus the X-Men with Kitty mounting the comeback.  Emma takes down Cyclops mentally, Kitty and Colossus have sex for the first time (though, did she do it with Pete Wisdom, something about Warren Ellis tells me that she probably did as that was a mature relationship) Emma turns Wolverine into an adult James Howlett (a proper Canadian gentleman), Emma turns Hank McCoy further down towards a beast.  And all that is by part two!

These issues take place in Astonishing X-Men 13-18.

Part Three has that awesome moment where Kitty relives Wolverine’s famous turn during Dark Phoenix Saga.  We find out that SWORD has a traitor in the midst of the X-Men, turns out its Lockheed, which I wish they had dealt with more.  We got some interaction with the “Meanwhile” storyline in Astonishing later (like in the 30s/40s) and just recently in A+X with Spider-Woman/Kitty/Lockheed.

Part Four, Kitty gets to live through a fake future where she has a son named Michael, which I’m not sure where that name comes from.  I doubt its in honor of Colossus’ older crazy brother.

Part Five, Beast and Wolverine have an awesome chase sequence.

Part Six, Beast and Wolverine both get their memories back, McCoy with science and Logan with a beer, which has to be seen to fully enjoy.

I also want to give a special shout out as Cassaday’s artwork looks amazing and a huge part of that is due to Laura Martin’s coloring, makes the book look like a classic read and these issues still look great seven years later.

Its nice to see Cyclops’ eyes for the first time in a long time.

I own this storyline as the proper individual issues, the original trade, the beautiful hardcover Omnibus, and now the Motion Comic.

I really enjoyed the motion comics (I own the entire Astonishing four disc set), I just wish they had some additional features on it but for ten dollars, its a pretty good deal as I’ve seen them all repeatedly.

There is a lot of action in Torn, a lot of great character interactions and some good suspense, that really makes this one stand out.  Part Six leads directly into the final arc, Unstoppable.

Lockheed shows up, mostly in the background but that’s pretty much what he did during this era.  It hasn’t really changed since then but at least Cassaday got to draw him like every four issues or so.