Over at Twitter, I’m reviewing X-Men Gold in 280 Characters, and to make them easier to serve, I figure I’ll collect them here.
Below is my coverage of the first ten issues.
Enjoy!
X-Men Gold 1 Pretty solid line up Kitty phased an entire building, that's pretty cool there's some funny moments in this, and lots of nods to continuity I completely missed out on this series except for issue 30 am I going to like Old Man Logan?! pic.twitter.com/9YOdtTwoEC
I like Cap talking to Kitty, further showing that everyone is taking her serious as the new leader of the X-Men We learn who Lydia Nance is, and her goals of deporting mutants. pic.twitter.com/rVHkyBinL8
X-Men Gold 3 Kitty recruits Armor and Rockslide to the team Kitty's X-Men take down the new Brotherhood Kitty rescues Magma The mayor is rescued The X-Men confront Lydia Nance, tensions are high
X-Men Gold 5 I'm really enjoying this series We get Gambit & Storm together They're really setting up Colossus & Kitty 🤮 but it is fun, Kitty fastball special! Kitty and Rachel almost touched hands! Pryde & Trask repeating lines is fun Sentinel going after all mutations is scary pic.twitter.com/ANoOY7Iakt
X-Men Gold 6 Rachel gets stronger So many guest stars – Daredevil, Squirrel Girl, Deadpool, Ms. Marvel, Cap Marvel, Cho Hulk plus more Fun commenting that the new Sentinel needs a better name Gross Storm kissing Gambit I like the reminder this is all Gambit's fault Day is saved? pic.twitter.com/7Qj3L03daD
X-Men Gold 7 Ken Lashley! This series really likes its baseball & interesting ships Colossus can't power up Rachel kissing Kurt is a choice The senior staff includes Iceman & Jubilee & two others X-Cutioner is in the mansion! Eye-Boy! Storm & OML team up Colossus gets head shot! pic.twitter.com/KgWM3FWacQ
X-Men Gold 8 Best issue of the series so far! Rachel saved Piotr The bomb has no electric pieces, so Kitty can't disable it that way Kurt can't die as Heaven doesn't want him back Hand may be bringing back Omega Red Awesome fight with Kitty & X-Cutioner MsPryde Goes to Washington pic.twitter.com/deAioOU2kY
X-Men Gold 9 Omega Red is back Piotr took Kitty's old room, gross Fun contrast between Kurt/Rachel & Kitty/Piotr's dinners Stevie Hunter! No way Kitty should be taller than her Piotr wants to marry Kitty one day, double gross Whiplash fight The Deportation Bill is going to pass?! pic.twitter.com/VIdc9Xe1jf
X-Men Gold 10 We get Illyana & Kitty together! Dani is part of the senior staff, I like that Illyana has a long lost uncle I miss Logan & Kitty together too I don't buy Illyana being taken prisoner that easy
Here is where I think we are go to be playing with the New Ultimate Universe 2024.
(taken from my Twitter thread) but this will be easier to search.
also, big spoilers for Secret Invasion 4.
okay, so after reading #UltimateInvasion 1-4, and avoiding the Maker and who he fought, this is my understanding of what makes up the new #UlimateUniverse I do have to say, I had a better handle of it once I avoided the Maker/City plot 😀#UltimateSpoilers (1/7)
Loki is in charge of Asgard, Thor is his prisoner, & Bifrost is broken.
Hulk is in charge of the Children of the Light.
Sunfire/Silver Samurai/Viper control the Pacific.
Magik/Colossus/Omega Red, Russia.
Emmanuel Da Costa controls something, it isn’t directly mentioned.
Ra and Khonshu, the Lords of Upper and Lower Kingdoms.
Henri Dugarry, holding both the Sword of Might AND the Amulet of Right, controls the European Union.
Others:
Peter Parker wasn’t bitten by the spider (yet).
Stane is dead.
Tony is Iron Lad.
Howard & Doom grabbed Captain America before the Maker could find him.
Fantastic Four were delayed so they are depowered, & Maker thinks they are dead, besides Reed.
Wasp and Pymn are inactive.
so lots to work with with this new Ultimate Universe we have world leaders, minus who oversees America now that Howard is off the board. Could Peter still be bit by a different spider to launch Spider-Man? Or is it Miles? a cool guy named Ben? We’ll find out in November.
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I also created this :
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This is the post I reference in Episode 67 of the podcast : Realm of X
Nova is STILL searching for his father! I mean, a storyline like that really should be wrapped up before the third year, right? I haven’t read a Nova comic since his tie-in to Original Sin and his tie-in to Black Vortex. Original Sin came out in 2014, which seems like forever ago. Lately, Nova has been feeling out of touch with his fellow superhero group. That does seem weird that he’s a member of the All New All Different Avengers, so he’s pretty ingrain with the whole superhero community.
Issue opens with the battle against the Celestial from Civil War II 1. Iron Man asks Doctor Strange to do his thing.
The Celestial disappears, Nova and Captain America (the Steve Rogers one) are starting the cleaning process. I guess Damage Control isn’t a thing right now. I could have sworn that I read that Chris Sims was bringing back Damage Control along with his X-Men ’92 co-writer.
Tony Stark’s New York City Penthouse. Later that Night. This creative team is the first to show Magik being at the party. Trust me, I’ve checked every panel of these comics, looking for her.
Magik is hanging out with her brother, which I completely get as I usually stick with the one person I know. Now that Walker Dennis is around, I usually just hang out with him at any parties we are foolishly invited to.
Nova is just walking around, probably looking for a friend.
Nova runs into Rogue, who I didn’t recognize as she doesn’t have any white streaks in her hair. She is a full brunette here. She doesn’t recognize Nova, at all. She thinks he is Richard Rider, the Nova I really liked (and a New Warrior) but I’ve come around with Sam. Is Rogue a full brunette now? I don’t read Uncanny Avengers.
Nova tries to relate to her by telling her that he is an Avenger. They are not on the same squad. She also thinks that his team must be a new Young Avengers. He’s on the proper Avengers team.
Nova runs into Miles Morales, his fellow Avenger teammate. Miles introduces Nova to teen Jean Grey. I like how Silva draws Nova being shorter than both Rogue and teen Jean Grey. Nova tries to start up a conversation teen Jean Grey but she wants to catch up with Miles about his friend, Ganke. Nova feels like yet another third wheel.
In the background of that bottom panel, we can see the back of Illyana’s head, with those hair dagger things.
Nova tries his best to get them to tell more of the story but they wave it off. Nova tries to really get into the conversation. Captain America, still the Steve Rogers one, has come over to rescue teen Jean Grey, they need her in the kitchen.
We’re still seeing the back of Illyana’s head in that third panel.
Nova tries to make a joke about what is happening in the kitchen but Rogers shuts it down. Miles tries to invite himself and Nova to the scene in the kitchen, as it seems like an important moment is coming. Rogers tells them that they only need Teen Jean Grey – she won’t be that useful though.
Thank you everyone who has ever come to the blog, returned to the blog, followed me to YouTube, and hopefully, listening to me wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Of all of the characters to pair with Kate Pryde, why did I go with Magik?
That’s a great question.
Shadow and Flame was such a great miniseries, perfectly drawn by Paul Smith.
The title has a fun, if you know you know, element – before that was a thing.
Illyana Rasputina, Magik, has some competition with who is Kate Pryde’s best friend. The only real competition is Rachel Summers, but Kurt Wagner has an argument to be made.
At the time I was creating the blog, June 2013, Magik was back in a big way, but when I started really taking my back issue buying serious, she was dead from, well, that gets complicated.
Magik, as we knew her from the original run of New Mutants, ‘dies’ at the end of Inferno, and is reverted back to her six year old self. The six year old dies from the Legacy Virus so Uncanny X-Men 303 in 1993.
So after 1993, it is super easy to be a Magik completionist. Just have to track whenever the New Mutants are having memories, or when Pryde is having a flashback. I was already tracking all of Pryde and Lockheed’s appearances, so I had that covered, but every so often, Sam or Dani (when she was in a title), would think about their lost friends, so play Truth or Dare.
Rachel, I have most of her appearances, until Claremont returns again and puts her on Uncanny and she becomes a dinosaur, it gets complicated.
When I had the thought of maybe actually committing the dollars to getting all of Rachel’s appearances, Ed Brubaker had her in SPACE! for the Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire storyline and that was enough for me to not want those comics. Rachel doesn’t think about Pryde at all, or Lockheed for that matter, so I was safe from buying those comics.
Kurt was never really in the running for this thought experiment as he is part of the Giant Size X-Men 1, All New All Different era, so all of those early issues are expensive, and predates Pryde, so that was an easy one to write off. Then again, Illyana is in Giant Size X-Men 1, so I did commit to getting a beaten up version of that, but then I was done as she doesn’t show up again until Arcade takes her prisoner along with other friends of the X-Men. Heck, Colossus doesn’t even think about her during any of those comics, continuing why he is the worst.
(in my mind, this was Illyana on the cover, but what a cover by Carl Potts!)
Also, Lockheed is much closer friends with Illyana than he ever was with Rachel, that’s just a fact. I can picture Lockheed, who essentially becomes pals with the New Mutants with how often he’s in that title, but he doesn’t hang with Rachel nearly that much unless Kate is with Rachel in the scene.
So I wanted to own every appearance of Kate Pryde and Lockheed, that was the initial mission. So I started buying all of these New Mutants titles that don’t have Pryde referenced at all. As I’m buying these comics, I’m getting to see what Illyana is like without Pryde around, and I’m just loving Magik, and all that she brings to the table.
So I start having these holes in my New Mutants collection, which makes sense, but if I commit to buying Magik appearances, I can fill in those stories and find out more about my third favorite X-Men character. Plus, New Mutants comics were not expensive, so that helped the decision.
I was working for NAU-Yuma at the time, living with my parents, so I had very little overhead, so I was essentially dedicating one paycheck to back issues. The two checks I committed to buying Uncanny X-Men 141 and 142 were pretty exciting. Those definitely cost more than 129 did or 166. I was all in at that point.
also, one of the rare Magik toys came with a Lockheed! So even someone in the toy department knew how they were besties!
I started life out as a major Spider-Man fan. My very first comic ever, was Amazing Spider-Man 370.
released October 27, 1992
so comics have been in my life for 31 years. I’ll save you some math and just say I was 10.
and I’m addicted to Spider-Man, buying whatever I can, monthly titles, limited series, guest appearances, back issues.
I quickly become a giant fan of J.M. DeMatteis and fall in love with Spectacular Spider-Man and Sal Buscema. If Marvel ever wants to make a quick $50, put that run into an omnibus, and I’ll preorder it immediately. By far, my favorite Spider-Creative team.
So I’m existing, having a great time, then Spider-Man 25 came out.
cover dated August 1992.
which, dear reader, I’m now just looking at these dates and clearly my Old Dad memory is failing me here.
This is like when I learned Masters of the Universe aired from September 26, 1983 to November 21, 1985, so I was one and it ended when I was three, but I love that cartoon, but it broke my mind. I definitely watched it in syndication but it felt brand new.
Shoot, I have to admit, I thought this was going to go in a different direction and I was going to have this whole solid year I discovered Kitty Pryde, and my love for Excalibur, but now I can’t quite place when I would have bought the comic.
It would have been a year or so later, as I don’t go to a comic con until 1998, San Diego 1998, to be precise.
That seems way late though.
Originally, I thought I had bought Spider-Man 25 off the rack, then Excalibur 53
as that came out at the same time, June 16, 1992.
So, in my mind, I buy a Spider-Man comic, then I want more Excalibur, and lookie lookie, Spider-Man is guesting in Excalibur for that sweet sweet corporate synergy.
I know I bought Excalibur as it was ending at 125
which was released on August 26, 1998 (thanks to marvel.fandom.com for all of these dates!)
Which feels right, as I was definitely on board by the time Pryde and Kurt join X-Men again for the 35th Anniversary era of the X-Men
which these are cover dated October 1998.
which is when I became a major X-Men fan, buying so many comics and maintaining a Spider-Collection as well, but I’m pretty sure I was cherry picking which titles I was continuing with.
I would have sworn I was knee deep into discovering what I like about the X-Men by the time October 31, 1992 came along and we were treated to the FOX X-Men cartoon premiering.
I distinctly recall waiting with each new episode would surely have Kitty Pryde show up, maybe with, but most likely, without Lockheed. Then we got Nightcrawler and I was like, any day now! Which that aired on May 13, 1995, so a very long three years. Which ended on September 20, 1997, so two more years of eager anticipation.
Then I finally get a DVD of Pryde of the X-Men, fall in love with that, and the X-Men Arcade game, based on the pilot, but also, no reference to Kitty Pryde nor Lockheed in it, so that remains disappointing.
Before that, I had definitely played X-Men II: The Fall of the Mutants, a PC game that came out in 1990
which had a terrific selection of characters that I probably didn’t recognize any of these folks, at the time.
Thanks to YouTuber Squakenet for hosting some gameplay of the game.
I remember fondly using Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and maybe not understanding how to use Rachel correctly. I definitely preferred the characters that were more melee. There might be a reason as I may not have understood all of the controls at the ripe age of eight.
It’ll be great to be able to play it again.
This is my memory of how I became a Kate Pryde and Lockheed fan. Of course, having these two be my favorite characters ever, made me giant fans of Magik, Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers, Storm, Cyclops, Rogue (though I lose her along the way), and other characters of course, such as Stevie Hunter.
so I thought I would try my luck at “Number One Lockheed Blog” and again, had to be reminded of Lockheed Martin.
There are two weights you have to carry if you want to be a Lockheed fan.
The first is that, he’s not in as many comics as he should be, and the second, any search result that doesn’t include “dragon” in it, you are going to get a lot of Lockheed Martin search results.
Then you have to say to yourself, “oh right, that company is a thing.” Which makes sense as that’s where his name comes from, but in my heart, I always think “dragon,” and not “aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests.” Thank you, Wikipedia
Shadow and Flame with Magik 