Doctor Voodoo 4

Posted by John Klein III on October 7, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Doctor Voodoo 4

Writer Rick Remender

Artists Jefte Palo & Alessandro Vitti

Colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu

Letterer Dave Lanphear

Cover Dated March 2010

If you are like me, you may not know much about Doctor Voodoo.  Here is what the caption states :

He has many names.  Lord of the Loa.  He-Who-Has-Died-Twice.  Houngan Supreme.  Now the Eye of Agamotto has chosen Jericho Drumm to protect the Earth from the forces of darkness, and given him his greatest title : Sorcerer Supreme.  He is … Doctor Voodoo, Avenger of the Supernatural.

I own this issue and issue five is on my wishlist.  I was going to scan the Magik appearances in the issue, but she’s on nearly every other page and I want to keep scans to when I bought a comic just for one page or two pages.  I’m also not sure what the rule is about just pasting pages upon pages from a comic, so I try to limit myself to two to three, max.  As a typical rule.  Though I see Bendis over at his Tumblr, posting half of comics before – but he’s Bendis, so I imagine its okay when he does it.

Inside front cover is an ad for Ultimate X, I own the first issue, that was pretty good.

In the previous issues, Nightmare is slowly taking over Earth.  The last place on Earth that is safe is Latveria.  Doctor Doom and Doctor Voodoo are trying to correct that.

I still wish that Bendis in the New Avengers arc that determined who would be Doctor Strange’s replacement (as he was hurt and needed to recover) had chosen Magik but Bendis does love him some 70s heroes so it makes sense he would go with Brother Voodoo.  Shame that only four years later, Voodoo is missing again from monthly titles.  This was in New Avengers 51 through 54, Search for the Sorcerer Supreme.  I don’t own issue 52 but the other three, Magik does show up in.  We will get around to reviewing those eventually.

So Nightmare has taken over most of the magic based heroes, including Magik.  They are searching for Doctor Voodoo, actually they are searching for the Orb of Agamotto and the Book of Vishanti, but Voodoo knows where they are.  If they knew it was with Doom, they would probably just let it go.

We get a nice flashback to Voodoo’s origins, his family didn’t like how he was more modern than they were with their beliefs.  We learn that his brother is a spirit and is trying to help Voodoo save the day, as well.

The Hounfour – Nightmare’s base.  Magik is telling Nightmare about what they have learn, they know they have to go to Doom.  Heroes are living their worst nightmares.  Punisher is being haunted by his family.  Hulk’s father is berating him.  Cyclops is being tormented by both Jean and Emma.

Doctor Voodoo’s plan is to get Nightmare to come to Loa, where the gods of Voodoo live (from what I can tell).  Once Nightmare gets there, he will be a physical opponent and can be defeated.

Nightmare and his army of heroes get to Latveria and Doctors Doom and Voodoo (though Voodoo is not a doctor, as far as I can tell) are ready for them!

For this issue and the previous three, they have been publishing the origin of Doctor Voodoo, I checked comicbookdb but it doesn’t state what section of a comic this is.  I can confirm it isn’t his first appearance, Strange Tales 169 as the creative team is all wrong.

 

New Exiles 11

Posted by John Klein III on October 6, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

New Exiles 11

Writer Chris Claremont

Penciler Paco Diaz Luque

Inker Norberto Fernandez

Colorist Wil Quintana

Letterer Simon Bowland

Cover Dated November 2008

I’m not sure if Claremont read all of the previous issues of Exiles when he started his run with issue 90 but in this issue he repeats a story concept that happened earlier.  So there is a team of heroes that are going around setting right with what once went wrong, called the Exiles.  There was another team called, Weapon X, (such a horrible name for that group, unoriginal too!) whose job it was to make things go from bad to worst.

So that similar concept is brought back here by the master that is Claremont.  Madame Hydra, an evil Sue Richards – I suppose she would be Sue Storm here (hopefully!) leading a team of Wolverine, Hulk and Slaymaster.  Hulk is called, Boy-Bob Banner, not a great name, try saying it aloud, it doesn’t sound good, at all.  They share the ability of the Exiles, in that they can travel the multi-verse.

This issue opens on a new Earth, this team – I wish they had a name, are killing everybody.  A Sabretooth shows up and gives Wolverine a fight for his money.  Since I was rereading this, I wasn’t sure if this was Exiles’ Sabretooth (from the Age of Apocalypse timeline) but that didn’t last long as they start talking about his wife Betsy (Psylocke) and their children.

Wolverine, in a running motif that Claremont clearly likes, slashes Sabretooth’s face, blinding him.  Claremont will later blind Sabretooth in X-Men Forever, as well.

This Slaymaster is going around killing all the Psylockes he can find.  He met our Psylocke, from the Proper Marvel Universe, and wasn’t able to kill her so now he is getting plenty of practice by successfully killing Psylockes.  Except from this Earth, Wolverine kills her after telling her that they have killed her husband and babies – which is horrible!  So now this Wolverine needs to be killed and horribly!

Of course, Sabretooth and Psylocke are married on this Earth, there could be no other pairings but those ones.

Slaymaster (the more I type this, the more I don’t care this name either) and Wolverine are about to fight when Madame Hydra shows up and stops them.  Wolverine and her are in a relationship.

Exiles’ Sabretooth shows up and sees the massacre. He learns that he was married to Psylocke and promises to get revenge on whoever did this, once he sees that he had children here and they were murdered as well.

Crystal Palace.  I’m not sure where the rest of the Exiles are, as only Cat and Sabretooth are at the base.  Cat is investigating something on her own on the outside the palace.  Sabretooth wonders where she is and the palace shows where she is via having monitors appear for him.

I don’t see the bugs anywhere from the previous volume, so I don’t quite remember if they are no longer in the series at this point or what the deal is.

Cat and Sabretooth can talk now via the monitors.  She doesn’t explain to him what she is doing.  He decides to wait until they can speak in person.  He thinks to himself that Cat has a temper to her and that he really doesn’t know much about her.  Or any of the team really.  The team at this point are those two, Sage (also from the proper Marvel Universe), Gambit (an Atlantean), Morph, Mystiq (a male version) and Rogue.

Cat has discovered, that the omniverse is dying!  She now knows why she is there, to prevent the destruction of all that is!  Showing some rare emotion (besides the temper that she isn’t afraid to show) she shouts out to anyone to hear that she is done with death and that the reaper is not taking anything more from her.

There is a house ad for Amazing Spider-Man 572, Bullseye v. Spider-Man.

Cat goes tot he observation room to talk to Sabretooth and finds that he is now the one that is missing.  She runs a scan and finds that he isn’t in the palace any longer.  What she does find is a recording Sabretooth created, letting her know that he is running an errand.

Cat isn’t happy with that as an answer and goes about trying to retrace his steps.  Apparently, he was able to create procedures that lock her from searching for him.  She is impress with how there is no finesse with his skills, the blocks are strong, just like him but she is better at this than he is.

She finds some recordings of Sabretooth, playing the role of Slaymaster, and he is fighting with Psylocke, trying to prepare her for round two.

There is a house ad for the end of the Ultimate Universe, as Ultimatum is coming.

Cut to the new Earth where Madame Hydra’s team is located and where Sabretooth is tracking them.  While doing research, Sabretooth has discovered that none of the Exiles have a counterpart on this planet.  Eventually, Wolverine separates from the group, and Sabretooth makes his move.

There is a house ad for New Avengers 45, promising to reveal the secrets of the Skrull’s as Secret Invasion continues.

The two fight and then Sabretooth gets stabbed from behind by Slaymaster.  Now Sabretooth is distracted as he couldn’t tell that Slaymaster was even that close to him until the stabbing began.  Now it is Wolverine who is mad at Slaymaster for his interference.

While those two bicker, Sabretooth tackles Wolverine and the two fall off the floating city and into the rocky mountain side below.  It appears as if they fall for miles before hitting the mountain peaks.  They both land, eventually and Sabretooth is trying to shake off the fall.  He isn’t healing as fast, which is unfornuate as Wolverine is already back on his feet and ready for round three.

Sue wants to see Sabretooth die, as she knows it will take a great deal to end him.  Slaymaster wants Sabretooth to live so that he can lead Slaymaster to the Psylocke that he is obsessed with killing.  Wolverine is more loyal, naturally, to Sue and dives in to kill Sabretooth.  Lucky for Victor, he starts phasing into the ground.  The villains are left to look at each other in confusion.

Issue ends with Sue giving the order to kill Sabretooth and whoever is helping him.

I mostly wanted to review this issue as my letter is printed on the letters page.  I got lucky with Cat answering the page that month.

New Exiles 11 Letter Page

My fellow letter writers are – Adrian J. Watts of Melbourne, Austra and Penelope from Australia.

I really do miss reading letters page, even with being a pretty regular poster on four different forums.  The Uncanny X-Cast Facebook Group, Unstable Molecules (UncannyXMen.net’s forum), Comic Book Resources’ forum and xcrescence.jcink.net forum.  I was going to just call it the Comic Book Revolution forum but I did a Google search for it and that forum wasn’t on the first page so we have to work on that.

I will eventually get around to reviewing issue twelve.

 

Captain Britain and MI13 Annual 1

Posted by John Klein III on October 5, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Captain Britain MI13 Annual 1

Cover Dated 2009

This issue has two stories :

The Harrowing of Hell

Writer Paul Cornell

Penciler Mike Collins

Inker Livesay

Colorist Jay David Ramos

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

Inside Front Cover is an ad for Honda Insight.  So once people were done reading this issue, they went out and bought one of these.  Or maybe they open the cover and just threw the comic onto the ground.

After House of M, Meggan is stuck in Hell.  Her last name is Puceanu, apparently.

Cornell use to write for Doctor Who, so when Meggan – as a young lady – watched the show, she would shift into the creature.  Though I don’t recognize the one she becomes and the Internet is really letting me down on this too.  Like a greyish creature.

I like the glimpses of her origin via pages on the left.  A little jarring once the story picks up speed but I like them.  Especially the one with Excalibur!

Captain Britain MI13 Annual Lockheed

Lockheed looks so cute!

Meggan isn’t being burned and she feels like she should be punished but she doesn’t feel like she is.

She meets the rules of Hell – a green fellow, Dormammu, Mephisto, Hela and Blackheart.  If Dormammu is there then Magik should really be there too!

Dormammu tricks Meggan into tapping into Hell and seeing what it feels like and once she does, she looks like a mess up Swamp Thing.

She runs away and eventually gets an army around her and finds Pluto, who was also missing from the table.  He gives her the power to shift again and she is now back to looking like her regular self but in a nice white dress.

Now empowered, she really starts building an army.  Spreading hope wherever she goes.

The army starts calling her, Gloriana, and this becomes her superhero name, it only took her from 1988 to 2009 – almost 21 years!  That’s from Excalibur’s very first issue but she predates that but that’s when I met her.

There is another car ad, Kia’s Soul – oh brother!

At the end, Meggan finds the source of the moonlight that has been giving her hope and she walks into and … is saved by Doctor Doom!

This story will continue in issue 14 of the series.

There is an ad for Batman Arkham Asylum, and for the PS3 – you got to play as Joker – and it was awesome!  There is also an ad for Wolverine Origins Uncaged, another great video game!  2009 gave us two superb games!

British Magic

Writer Paul Cornell

Artist Adrian Alphona

Colorist Christina Strain

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

Brian is thinking of Meggan while the rest of the team (and him) are playing Cricket.

I really like seeing Meggan through Brian’s eyes.  He is always trying to make her stand up for herself and make her own decisions.

I forgot how sexual Meggan was!  She’s pretty aggressive sometimes!

There is an ad for Spider-Man 600!  An invite to a wedding that can only be Mary Jane and Peter but what could it mean.  We are suppose to RSVP to 1-888-266-4226 – which is the Comic Book Store locator number.

Eventually, Brian thinks back to his Excalibur days – so we get to see Kitty!  I imagine Rachel is the other pair of lady legs.

Captain Britain MI13 Annual Kitty

Pete Wisdom makes an awesome joke about how Brian’s hero name should be Swan.  It is due to how Brian is calm on the outside but working like hell underneath.  Also, he mates for life.

I like the flashback to Brian and Meggan when they first became the rulers of Otherworld.  I would follow that more but unless they mention Excalibur, I don’t really follow the characters.

Pretty great two stories here!

Avengers Volume Five Issue 24

Posted by John Klein III on October 3, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Avengers Vol 5 Issue 24 Allred Variant

Writer Jonathan Hickman

Artists Esad Ribic, Salvador Larroca, Mike Deodato and Butch Guice

Color Artists Dean White, Frank Martin, Paul Mounts and Laura Martin

Letter VC’s Cory Petit

Cover by Mike Allred and Laura Allred

Cover Dated February 2014

I only own this issue for the variant cover.  For whatever reason, Marvel released multiple variants for this issue, which back in the day, they would have waited for the big issue 25 but 24 isn’t bad in today’s market.  I still want to own the Anka variant.

I really miss the character square from the good ol’ days.

The theme with several of the variants was Avengers on famous X-Men covers and X-Men in famous Avengers covers.  Unfortunately, there was no homage cover to Uncanny X-Men 141.  Others are like the one above, where the artist just had fun doing a cover.  Its by Allred, so of course Doop is there.

Onto the issue, which good thing there was a recap page!

So in previous issues, there are events called, Incursions, which I only know from the Facebook : Avengers Alliance game.  A game I really enjoyed and was addicted to until they went crazy with the PvP Lockboxes.  I always said I will quit playing once I wasn’t able to get one of the limited characters and that is what happened with Elektra.  Now, they have gone crazy with the feature.

Incursions is when two different Earths come together and one of them is going to be destroyed by the other.  From what I can gather, our Earth in the Proper Marvel Universe, is always being one of these planets and the Illuminati has to destroy the other Earth.

I guess at one point, Captain America was a temporary member of the Illuminati and he didn’t like the idea of destroying complete Earths so they, via Doctor Strange, mindwipe him.  Just like Zantanna did to Batman in Identity Crisis.

Also, on the recap page, is a conversation Captain America had with Iron Man about how Cap realizes that their enemies are getting to be more dangerous, attack more often and there is just plain too many of them.  Iron Man’s solution?  To make the Avengers a bigger force to be dealt with.

So the Avengers are –

Captain America, Hulk, Falcon, Thor, Manifold, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Iron Man (in the big circle)
Spider-Woman, Hyperion, Smasher, Nightmask, Captain Universe, Cannonball, Sunspot, Starbrand, Shangi Chi (on the bottom)

18 Heroes!  That is quite an army!

Avengers V5 24 Cast

I don’t recognize : Manifold, Nightmask, this current Captain Universe and Starbrand sounds familiar.

Issue opens in the future, 3030, and Tony’s whatever number-great grandchild, Rhodey Stark (will they really be still naming their children after Tony’s friends at that long of a line?) and Franklin Richards are talking about time travel.  Franklin is cool with Rhody going back in time.  The captions imply that the Richards Foundation owns the Stark company – which I like.

In the present, Thor is barbequing and makes a joke about not recognizing what hot dogs are, or what meat they are.  I sort of like a Thor who can crack a joke – he’s been on Earth and with this time, for a decade – at least, so he can feel comfortable and it shows that they are rubbing off on him.

He admits that he tried to barbeque a lobster but the creature defeated him.  Good stuff!

Hulk brings out plates of pies : mead, beer and fimbulvinter.

I like the conversation with Spider-Woman, Black Widow and Captain Marvel.

Captain America and Iron Man talk about membership.  Cap has let go of Wolverine, as he is too busy.  Spider-Man has also been let go because he has been acting erratic.  Due to him being Doctor Octopus.

They explain the cast sheet above.  The circle is the main team, the others are reserved.

Then Iron Man 3030 shows up.  Tony states it is December 2013, so there is still time to change the Future.

Future Iron Man gives the Avengers an additional monh to prepare for the Rogue Planet, the name of the issue, that is heading to Earth.  A rogue planet is a planet that leaves its orbit and now is a giant marble heading towards anything that will stop it.

The Avengers set up a base on Mars and create a device that simply merges the rogue planet to Earth, creating a new source of energy.

Iron Man 3030 takes off her helmet and calls Tony, grandfather.  Which, I am not sure if only one child of Tony’s grown up and had a child gets us from 2013 to 3030.

She reveals that in the original timeline, the Avengers destroyed the rogue planet and saved the Earth.

Because they saved the day, the way they did, now the Illuminati (who are also now the New Avengers) can use this new energy source for those pesky Incursions.  That is the type of tight writing one can do when you write two titles.

Decent issue, glad it all worked out.

Astonishing X-Men 7

Posted by John Klein III on October 2, 2016
Posted in: Lists, Review. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Astonishing X-Men 7

Writer Joss Whedon

Artist John Cassaday

Colorist Laura Martin

Letterer Chris Eliopoulos

Dangerous Part One of Six

Cover Dated January 2005

Shame Lockheed only appears on the cover.  Due to solicitations, the original cover that they promoted didn’t have Colossus on it so there was a giant gap there which people clearly called that the final member of the team as why show a cave with that much empty space?

Astonishing X-Men 7 good cover

I like how you can see Lockheed so much clearer on the original cover!

So we wrapped up Gifted and this starts the Dangerous arc, their second on the title.  Also, originally, going to be their last one before they renewed a contract for thirteen more issues (including Giant Size).  Which is crazy as Gifted and Dangerous are both good but to be the only stories from this creative team?  That would have been a waste.

I wonder if they really did renew or were they always signed for 25 but with an out at 12 in case it was a major flop?

There is an ad for Dodgeball, coming to DVD on the inside front cover.  I still haven’t seen the film but my gal pal Candice tells me it is funny and that I would enjoy it.  There are several ‘coming to DVD’ ads in this issue.

Onto the issue :

The opening page starts with a narration captions of a new character that sensing a new beginning.  This will be Danger that we meet next issue.

The second page we see that Wing, the mutant who use to be able to fly until Ord forced the cure onto him in the previous arc.  Imagine being able to fly and then having that ability taken from you?  That has to be pretty devastating, and we see that Wing is pretty depress about it.

Wing isn’t sure what is next for him.  The X-Men have agreed to let him stay at the school.  Beast wants to run some tests to see if the cure was only temporary.  Everyone looks at him with such pity – including his friend Hisako (Armor) and Miss Pryde.  I like how he mentions that she has a ‘big new muscle boyfriend.’  I suspect he has a bit of a crush on Miss Pryde.  Who wouldn’t?  I wonder if most of the students do have crushes on the senior staff?  I imagine Kitty seems more approachable than Emma, so she probably gets more crushes.  Plus, Emma can read your thoughts and if you think of her, I’m sure that triggers something for her to shut you down.  That’s my Emma anyway.  Plus, she was dating Cyclops and who can compete with that guy!?!

Wing walks up to a cliff on the Xavier Estate.

Meanwhile, the X-Men are on their way to New York City via the Blackbird.  Colossus is riding on the very top of the plane.  I wonder how he asked Cyclops for permission to do that?  As they had to build a special handlebar for him to do it.

I get that he has been locked in a room for months and wants to feel as free as possible, the team gets that too.  But they had to build that handlebar and they had to make sure it was strong enough to not break while he was in his metal form.  That couldn’t have taken ten minutes.

Inside, Beast is trying his best to keep the plane steady as he doesn’t want to lose Colossus as they just got him back.

I like how Whedon writes it as ‘months’ as Colossus died in Uncanny X-Men 390 – also titled, The Cure – cover dated March 2001 and now he came back at the end of 2004 – that’s three years so in comic time, probably is only barely six months.

Also, while they are in the Blackbird, the body of the jet is bathed in red light – which apparently, I am a huge fan of the X-Men in red lit rooms.  Laura Martin knows what I like!

Cyclops comments that Colossus has seemed quiet lately.  Wolverine jokes that Colossus use to be such a prankster.  I do like Whedon’s Wolverine, he doesn’t use him too much but when he does, he gets some stellar lines.

Emma asks Kitty, since they are bosom buddies, if he has open to her at all.  Kitty tells her that they have reached their destination.

Outside, is a giant not-Godzilla creature tearing up New York City.  It is on a rampage.  If only there was a giant werewolf and gorilla to accompany him.

Wolverine isn’t impress, it looked bigger on TV.

Cyclops gives out the orders.  This turns on Emma, and Kitty wishes she didn’t have to sit next to her on these flights.  Cyclops asks Emma to relay the directions to Colossus, he agrees to them.

Colossus jumps from the plane onto the lizard’s nose.  He is commenting to himself, and I do like these next three pages – I sort of miss caption boxes.  He notices the difference between Scott in his head and Xavier’s voice in his head from years ago.  Scott seems more free than the professor.  The word, free, has so much more meaning than it use to.  He ends his thought with that he really should concentrate on the situation at hand or nose, as it were.

Kitty continues our second page of inner monologues.  She is phasing people out of danger.  She believes it means something that it was her who found Colossus, and not someone else.  Though during that mission, it could have only been her.  Which means, it has to mean something as no one else would have found him.  Kitty phases a woman out of the way as a car comes crashing at them.  She thinks to herself that she probably should start concentrating.

Wrapping this three page sequence, Wolverine is stabbing the giant lizard and his only thought at the time is – that he really likes beer.  A running motif with Whedon’s Wolverine.

We cut to Emma, as she is evaculating an entire building.  The civilians’ inner thoughts are – I want to leave in a swift and orderly fashion – in a cycle.  She is standing next to Cyclops, who is optic blasting the monster.

Beast is blasting away at the creature while in the Blackbird.  Then he gets a call on his phone as the Fantastic Four in their Fantasicar has arrived!

Getting to see Cassaday draw the Fantastic Four is a real treat.  If I was Whedon, and just for myself too, I would have tried to cram as many cameos as possible so that I could say I wrote those characters but also to see Cassaday’s version of them.  Whedon got to write the Runaways, people don’t seem to talk about that run so I’m not sure how well he did.  I suppose the absense of comments is something.  But the Runaways are no X-Men, so it could have been the size of the fanbase.  Proving that X-Men fans and not just Whedon fans made Astonishing the success it was as I’m sure his Runaways run didn’t do amazing numbers.  Or dare I type – astonishing numbers.

I really like Whedon’s Fantastic Four, or mostly, I like how humorous Thing is.  He gets some classic lines here.  He is first mad that the X-Men are infringing on their giant monster business.  Next, he makes a comment about how he thought they made a cure for you people, to which Wolverine thinks he means mutants but he really mans Canadians.

There is an ad for Elektra coming to theaters on January 14th.  I actually saw this film in theaters and was highly disappointed by it.  I mean, you take an urban character and put her in the woods?  How does that even get out of the approval setting?  And there is a guy with tattoos that come to life and off of his body?  Ooof!  The DVD at least as a deleted scene with Ben Affleck portraying Matt Murdock in a dream sequence.

Right after that is an ad for an EyeToy game for the PS2, such a horrible device and failure that was!

Back at the ‘mansion,’ which is the mansion but really a Danger Room sequence.  Armor meets up with her old friend.  He is thinking of sucide and she does everything short of pushing him off the cliff.  She keeps calling him, Eddie, that isn’t his name but since he doesn’t have his gift, he shouldn’t be at the school for the gifted nor have a cool mutant name.  His parents are super excited to have their son back as he is no longer a mutant.  All of this is too much for poor Wing.

Back in New York City, this happens :

Astonishing X-Men 7 Fantastic Four Monster

How awesome does that look?  Way!

After a quick game of Whack-A-Mole by Thing and Colossus, the monster is back into the ground.  Reed is sure that it was one of Mole Man’s creatures, as it was heading towards the Baxter Building.

Reed asks Cyclops why they were there.  Cyclops tells him that they are trying to do more superhero stuff.  Reed knows that the X-Men have saved the world numerous times but the stinky flatscans don’t know about that.

Sue is happy to have saved the day with the X-Men, as it should do wonders for the mutant community, to be seen working with Marvel’s First Family.

Human Torch wonders what happens if this back fires and they start getting the heat that the mutants gets.  Wolverine tells them that he will get a more interesting type of fangirls.  Johnny asks his brother in law if they can turn evil.  Reed tells him that maybe they can after dinner.  Such a fun couple pages!

The X-Men are back in the Blackbird, heading home.  Colossus is in his seat.  Kitty and Colossus are lost in their own thoughts.

Cut to Agent Brand as she is having to defend herself to the SHIELD committee.  They are upset as she made a deal with Ord that really blew up and endangered Earth.

Brand makes a reference to Breakworld having a bullet pointed at Earth’s head – which is amazing foreshadowing that I haven’t picked up on until this reading!  And I’ve read these issues a bunch, thanks to my not-so-handy omnibus plus all four motion comics so I’ve had these issues read back to me as well!

An X-Man is slated to destroy Breakworld and all they wanted was that X-Man’s head.  That is the price that Brand is happy to pay.  She will make any ally, sleep with any foe as long as it protects Earth.  There are no lines that she won’t cross as there are no lines to hold her back.

Also, the committee knows about the bullet too, she implies.  Once we get to Astonishing X-Men 24, I have to see if she is shock to see the actual bullet or is she pretty unimpressed with it.  She may have been wearing her sunglasses too so that might have blocked her feelings from us the readers.

She clearly isn’t demoted and is still the head of SWORD.  Good thing too, as she isn’t the leader that we deserve but who we need.

There are back to back ads for DVDS – I, Robot and Napoleon Dynamite.  I bought the second one and I keep meaning to own the first one as I would like to use that as my thesis statement for why we should never go into the building robot business.  It has never turn out well for us human types.  That’s why I can’t believe that Carnegie Mellon University is allowed to exist – especially after one of their robots drew first blood!  That whole branch should have been shut down!

Back at home, the X-Men are disappointed that their rescue mission only was given 30 seconds of news time.  Which goes back to my thoughts about the reality of the Marvel Universe and especially the state of New York.  I imagine the news channels all have like a ‘super hero minute’ as they can’t be spending all day talking about superheroes.

Wolverine comments that he doubts the footage will go nationally.  Which, I doubt X-Men and Fantastic Four fighting a giant lizard and all that resulted was some damaged buildings, would be of any interest in Montana.  Maybe, just maybe, the entire country does a superhero minute, if there was an infrastructure for it, so they just replay the same footage.  I can imagine that being the case.

Emma is more upset that there was three minutes of coverage for Paris Hilton.  Colossus doesn’t know who that is, and Beast tells him it doesn’t matter, on a lot of levels.  It is a dated reference, in back in 2004 but now, I’ll be surprised if new readers will remember who Paris Hilton is as she isn’t in the limelight anymore.  Unless she is and I’m no longer paying attention to celebrity news.  I don’t even have time to watch Joel McHale on the Soup!

Though, would celebrities and movies still get the attention they do with superheroes?  I wonder if Avatar would still be the highest grossing movie as clearly there will be no Avengers movie in the Marvel Universe.

Kitty can’t believe they can’t get better press than that.  Cyclops reveals his thoughts on the news.  They have the stories already prepared, they just wait for the right pieces to fall into place or they bend them until they do.  The story will never not be about, the Mutant Menace.

Emma then says another line that Kitty wishes she never heard – that J. Jonah Jameson will be tongue kissing Spider-Man before the X-Men can catch a break.  I wonder why she says ‘tongue kissing’ instead of ‘french kissing’ is it because she isn’t twelve?

Then Armor comes in, she hasn’t seen her friend Wing in a while.  So we know the Armor from earlier wasn’t the real one.

The Cuckoos follow her, stating that Wing doesn’t have much more time.  Emma is surprised she didn’t pick up on it but she has had a bit of a day.  The Cuckoos point to Blindfold, making her first appearance!  She is mentioned in issue four but seven is when we see her.

Blindfold gives a cryptic message that once he dies, a new being will exist.

Cut to Wing, in a puddle of his own blood.  He flew one last time, but it only lasted three seconds.  Once he dies, the mansion and the cliff disappear, revealing it to have been a Danger Room simulation the entire time.  Odd how the message on the screen is, Exercise Complete.  It is a bit of a haunting final splash page, a young boy is dead in a giant room.

Wing’s death breaks Danger out of her room and takes on a new shape.  It is a decent arc, I would just rank it as the fourth good one as it is just beaten by more enjoyable arcs.

Torn

Gifted

Unstoppable

Dangerous

Unstoppable, loses points for the abandoning Kitty in deep space but once she came back, I could enjoy it more.  Thanks to Matt Fraction!

Kitty does get some great moments in this arc but it is the only one where she isn’t the real star of the book.

Wolverine First Class 1

Posted by John Klein III on October 1, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Wolverine First Class 1

Writer Fred van Lente

Artist Andrea di Vito

Colorist Laura Villari

Letterer Simon Bowland

Cover Salvador Espin and Brad Anderson

Cover Dated May 2008

When this title was first announced, I was so excited!  This was during the time that proper Kitty or present day Kitty – was stuck in deep space, riding a bullet due to Whedon / Cassaday.

So this was the only place to get proper Kitty Pryde, be it a past version of her.  At the time, we had Ultimate Kitty and X-Men Forever Kitty – so we were back up to three Kittys once this series started.  It was a good time to be a Shadowcat fan.

So this title was in line with the X-Men First Class that dealt with Untold Tales of the Original Five X-Men.  I didn’t read that series besides the X-Men First Class Special.

So what I liken this series to is the amazing 25 issue run of Untold Tales of Spider-Man by Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe.  Which worked the way same way – stories that were meant to take place inbetween the issues.

The mission that Kitty and Wolverine go on, they meet a young mutant girl and she shows up in this issue and the sixth issue, Michelle.  She lives at the mansion but outside of these two issues – she is never heard or seen from again.  Untold Tales of Spider-Man did the same thing with Batwing, a character who was important to that series but we never saw him again outside of the series.  Also, Sally Avril who was also Bluebird – but that was a great story that I won’t ruin here.  She was one of the original students but Busiek / Olliffe wanted to explain why she quit showing up after a certain point.

The inside front cover ad is for Professor Layton and the Curious Village – a game franchise that my wife just loves.  I can’t ever seem to get into them.  She is much smarter than me.

Onto the issue :

I really like this issue, there are so many fun moments in it and some great characterization!

Today is August 20 – Kitty has finally gotten her dorm room the way she likes it.  She has a crush on the boy next door, and he really is in the room next door, that of course, is Colossus.  What is Xavier thinking putting the two youngest students of opposite gender right next to each other?  Where was Jean’s room located?  Right in the middle, across from the shower?  So she was surrounded by the boys?

B S B

B J B

Yeah, I can see that. Oh Xavier, I suspect you don’t have an actual teaching degree!

Today is also Kitty’s first day of classes.  We learn all of this by Kitty writing in her journal – something I joke about that I had growing up but never did it.  Until now, I suppose.

Colossus shouts from the ground floor to get Kitty’s attention, he wants her to come out and play volleyball with the rest of the team.  The rest of the team, minus Logan – as he isn’t much of a team player at this point.

The rest of the team is – Angel, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm.  Since they have uneven sides, Nightcrawler is playing for both.  We get a run down of Kitty’s opinions on each team member.  She thinks Kurt is weird, which lines up with where this falls in her timeline.

The volleyball goes out of bounds, they ask Logan to get it for them and he pops his claws into the ball.  So that is going to cost Xavier like twenty dollars!

Xavier mentally summons Kitty, she is mad as she didn’t response immediately.  That is because he was calling her, Katherine, a name she hasn’t responded to since she was three.  He has summoned her to Cerebro – which looks just like it does in the films.  Which, has it ever looked like that?  Typically, it is just the helmet attached to a desk in front of a bunch of monitors – but in a regular room.

We get Kitty’s opinion about Xavier, she is grateful to him for finding her when he did.  We get a very brief recap of Uncanny X-Men 129 – that she was phasing through floors and freaking out.  She didn’t know if she could have a career or a family because of her powers.  I wish someone would tell her that she won’t have much of a career because of her dedication to the X-Men.  Even Angel, who has his own multi-billion dollar company – barely spends any time there.  Even when he is out of the books for a while, once we meet back up with him, he was doing other adventures and not in his office.

Xavier tells her that today, will be her first lesson.  Kitty makes a joke to Xavier about how she is looking forward to learning how to change into her costume in a phone booth – she has been practicing in her closet and is getting better at it.  Xavier only recognizes it as a joke but tells her that the X-Men are like no other superhero team she may be use to.  Which is a very valid point – the X-Men never stop being X-Men, they don’t have connections to their families and any vacations they go on – are mission based.

Wolverine enters the conversation, as he was also summoned.  He calls Xavier, Charlie and gets corrected.  Wolverine doesn’t care, he keeps calling him, Charlie.

Xavier tells Wolverine that he has a mission for him and one other X-Man.  Wolverine isn’t too excited as a Penguins game is coming on soon.  Which will be a running gag throughout Wolverine First Class, Wolverine is really into hockey here and is constantly interrupted from watching the games.

Both Kitty and Logan are surprised when Xavier states that the two of them are going on the mission together!  Logan isn’t pleased but if he wants to keep having memory therapy with Xavier, he better do it – so he does.

Once in the Blackbird, Kitty tries to make small talk with Logan.  There is this great moment when she asks Wolverine, for a friend, to learn more about Colossus – as this friend of hers, thinks he is pretty cute.  Which friend could this possibly be!?!  Storm?  Of course, Logan knows what is going on.  He sums Colossus with – Russian and turns his body into steel.  Then shuts down her request to listen to music.

Kitty is thinking of new superhero names for herself.  She throws out Phantom Girl, which is the name of a Legion of Superheroes member with similiar powers to Kitty.  To the point when they did Amalgam, in Spider-Boy Team-Up – these two characters were combined to create both Phantom Cat and then a different version of the same character when the timeline changed.  Such a fun issue that one was!  We’ll review it eventually.

There was a moment in time when I wanted to collect all of Phantom Girl’s appearances (to be my DC Kitty) but she is a mainstray of the Legion of Superheroes so I would be buying every issue and that got expensive fast!  Plus, the constant reboots, I didn’t do it.

There is an ad for Wolverine crashing in on Spider-Man’s Brand New Day in Amazing Spider-Man 555.  Which they reached issue 700 two years ago, so that should put it in perspective, of how long ago that was.  By Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo, I bet I would have enjoyed that run.

Once they land in West Virgina, Wolverine tells her to stay in the plane.  Kitty puts up a fight but we get this terrific moment from Wolverine.  He tells her that she is a nice kid and nice kids have no business being around him, or him around them.  The stuff that is in his head, shouldn’t be taught or put into anyone else’s head.  We see that he really likes her (or the concept of her) and is really looking out for her.

Xavier only wanted to send these two as if the entire team went, then that might peak Magneto’s interest.

Kitty phases through the plane and tells him that she is suppose to be on this mission and will be going with him.

They get to town and see that it is completely deserted.  Logan senses fear, and lots of it.  He reveals that they are surrounded, and Kitty asks why they are still in the middle of the street.  Logan teaches her, her first lesson – when you don’t know what you are up against, make yourself an easy target to lore out the enemy.  Seems like good advice from a guy with a healing factor and metal stabbing claws that come out of his hands.

The towns folk come out but start talking crazily!  One guy suspects they are with his stealing neighbor.  Another one notices they are wearing masks and thinks they are robbers.  Finally, the town settles on them being muties.  Kitty hasn’t heard the word before but knows it isn’t positive.

There is the first of many ads for Iron Man’s first movie, the first one is for cakes.com and you can get a cake or cupcakes with Iron Man on it!  Not sure how good a cake from a website can be, how does that thing get packed and how does the frosting and such stay in place?  Too many questions!

The two X-Men run to the supermarket, just like in Fallout 3 or more like Dead Rising.  Once in there, Logan succumbs to his fear and starts lashing out at the town folk.  Kitty has gets struck by massive fear and runs away.

Kitty comes across a house with mutie spray painted on it.  She feels a kinship with the building and goes inside.  Once there, she sees a picture of the mutant girl they are here to help.  The nice thing is that the girl, Melissa, has a normal looking boyfriend and was part of the soccer team.  The town accepted her, even though she has reptile scales.

Kitty, proving that she is a genius, grabs a jacket and runs back to the supermarket – she has figured out what has happened.

We see that, luckily, Logan hasn’t killed everyone, they look like they have just been punched hard.  He turns his attention to Kitty, she tries to reason with him.  Finally, she tells him her plan – she wants him to get Melissa’s scent off the jacket and track her down.  This makes him start thinking with his human mind instead of his animal instincts and he snaps out of it.  Kitty writes in her diary – that she suspects his inner hero tamed the beast.

They find Melissa, she was stranded in the woods. Her mutant power is to broadcast emotion.  She was hoping to broadcast a distress signal but all she did was broadcast her distress.

I really like di Vito’s attention to detail here.  When Wolverine an Kitty come to Melissa’s shelter that she created, we can see in Wolverine’s hands that he is carrying a blanket, a first aid kit and a thermos.  We learn later that it has chicken soup in it.

As they are leaving the woods, Kitty tries to get Logan to compliment her.  He tells her that is very unlady like but for her first rodeo, it could have gone worst.  She takes it for what it is.

Back at the Mansion.  Kitty overhears Logan and Xavier talking.  Logan can’t believe Xavier sent Kitty along on the mission knowing that an emotion manipulator was the target.  He could have hurt her.  Xavier reveals that the threat of Wolverine’s berserker rages is nothing compared to his fear of those rages.  He knew that Kitty could reach him.

Logan makes a comment about how this is like when you give a stray a puppy to tame it, which is something I’ve never heard of before.  I guess it makes sense, do people actually do that, though?  Seems like a lot of work to adopt a dog and then to buy a puppy but if it helps the stray, then that is a good thing.  Just expensive!

We see that Kitty is ease-dropping via phasing her ear through the wall.  She’s so good with her powers!

Kitty runs from the office as Logan leaves the room, thinking that Charlies may not be as dumb as he appears.  Everyone is getting respect for everyone!

Back in Kitty’s room, she is finishing her journal entry.  I also like what di Vito does here, the final page matches the very first page – Kitty at her desk, gets called from outside.  Instead of Colossus in the middle panel, it is Wolverine.  He just bought a used motorcycle and wants to see if Kitty wants to learn how to ride it.  She runs out of the room the way she did on the first page.  Such a nice way to show the bookends of the issue.

Really is a great series, I wish it went on for more than 21 issues but I was also buying the trades as they came out.  I was donating them to my wife’s classroom as they are great for early readers, plus, plenty of Wolverine, and expose them secretly to Kitty Pryde.

All New X-Men 1

Posted by John Klein III on September 30, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

All New X-Men 1 backAll New X-Men 1

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils Stuart Immonen

Inker Wade von Grawbadger

Colorist Marte Gracia

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Cover Dated January 2013

When this issue was first being promoted, there was a lot of theories involving the man between the two teams.

This issue is the first appearance of both Triage and Tempus, but before they got those X-Men names.

This was also Bendis’ first issue of his still current X-Men run.  What a way to start!

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two ended, so his start to its third volume hadn’t started yet so Cyclops’ side haven’t donned their revolution outfits yet.  Feels like forever since they’ve been in their current outfits.  Two years, but hundreds of appearances by now.  Well, close to a hundred.  This takes place right after AvX : Consequences.

Issue opens with Cat Beast crashing to the ground.  He is narrating that he is dying.

Gold Coast.  Australia.  Eva, later Tempus (not this issue), is out on the town with her lady friend.  They are there so Eva can finally flirt with David – a guy she has been crushing on for a while.  Apparently, he has only seen her in a tracksuit up to this point.

Eva’s brother, Steven, shows up and punches David.  His five friends start beating up Steven.

We have not learn more about this past life of Eva’s in the next 27 issues of All New or 21 issues of Uncanny X-Men.  Like all good mutant soldiers, they have to completely abandon their previous life.  That’s how dad did it and that is how Cyclops does it now.

Eva creates a time bubble around the block, it lasts 20 hours.  Cyclops, Emma and Magneto show up – I sort of miss these old costumes, even though I saw them for years, it is nice to revisit them.  Cyclops calming explains the situation to Eva.  Emma finds a way to calm Eva calm and to close the time bubble.

Once down, the military and police come rushing at Eva.  Totally apeing for the cameras, Cyclops, Emma and Magneto come to Eva’s rescue.

All New X-Men 1 Kitty 1

Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.  Storm, Kitty and Iceman are not happy with the latest news coverage.

This is during Kitty’s pink outfit phase.

Iceman makes a reference to how young Scott would not be happy with his older self.

Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Police Station.  Bendis must like Ann Arbor, as he had Ultimate Spider-Man go there as well.  Which was in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 7, the start of the Crossroads arc.

Christopher, later Triage – who is younger and skinnier than he appears on the back cover.  Which is the direction you want to go in.

He has been arrested for healing his lady friend.  Apparently, she was reported dead, and he brought her back.

All New X-Men 1 Magik 1

Cyclops and Magik, in her New Mutants uniform, bust Christopher out of the police station.  Cyclops finds the camera in the room and makes an announcement.  Why they released it to the media, to help him spread his message – is beyond me.

All New X-Men 1 Kitty 2

Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.  Iceman wants to take Cyclops down.  Storm doesn’t has she doesn’t want a Mutant Civil War.

Kitty, now in the uniform she has worn for a decade, at least – doesn’t like that Cyclops is going to undo all the hard work her and the X-Men have done over the years.

Iceman makes the mistake of repeating his comment about past Scott hating his current self, so Beast hears this and gets a lightbulb over his head.

Cut to page five of Uncanny X-Men 8, which came out in November 1964.  Scott is writing Jeab a letter, confessing his love to her – which you should never do.  Hank is going to quit the team.  He is tired of the anti-mutant hysteria.

They go out in the hallway where they see present day Beast.  Hank recognizes him.

Bobby makes a joke about if that is what Hank looks like if he doesn’t shave.  Then he makes a great Back to the Future reference – is it our kids?

Beast wants to take the Original Five to the present to prevent a mutant genocide caused by Cyclops.  This is clearly a lie but he needed to convince them to go quickly, before Xavier mindwiped them all.

To give a sense of the time frame – Wolverine and the X-Men 20, had just come out.

 

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe 12

Posted by John Klein III on September 29, 2016
Posted in: Paul Smith, Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Official Handbook 1983 12

Editor / Head Writer / Designer Mark Gruenwald

Cover Dated December 1983

V – Z

Valkyrie to Zzzax

Kitty and Lockheed are shown for the X-Men profile.  Paul Smith draws all of the faces.  Including Magik’s for the New Mutants headshots.  Technically, Lockheed is counted as an Ally but that most have been just an oversight.

Paul Smith also draws Vision and Wasp.

Paul Smith Handbook X-Men

paul smith vision

Marvel Handbook 1983 Wasp Paul Smith

New Mutants Volume Three Issue 32

Posted by John Klein III on September 28, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

236511_20111028054116_large

Writers Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Artists Dave Lafuente & Robbi Rodriquez

Colorists Val Staples & SotoColor

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

By this point in the title, I have dropped the title and missed this issue originally.  I also skipped Fear Itself, except for the Uncanny X-Men tie in issues.

I had bought this issue before my birthday and meant to include it in that event but it was too close to the 31 of January so I threw it in the back of my back issues and now here we are.

The New Mutants finally make it to Hel, after a detour in actual Hell, which was Doug’s fault due to his bad translation.  So now Magma owes Mephisto a date.

The New Mutants are at this point – Dani, Cypher, Warlock, Magma, Sunspot and X-Man Nate Grey, in an unofficial capacity.

The team gets to Helheim, Hela’s palace.  Fear Itself was about ancient Norse evils coming to Earth, so it makes sense that the New Mutants’ tie in would involve Hela as she made Dani a Valkyrie back during the Dark Avengers vs. Uncanny X-Men event that lead to the Utopia era.  Now Dani owes Hela a favor.

Before this issue, I own issue 30 and after this issue is 45 so I’m piecing things together as my memory of the then current comics and what this issue provides.

Hela is dead, being run through and place on a spike on the roof.

Lafuente and Rodriguez trade off on different pages and scenes for the issue.  The colorists also trade off on pages but they don’t sync up with the particular artists.  Makes for a kinetic issue.

The New Mutants and X-Man are getting ready to stand their ground, as this might be it.  The oncoming storm of dead Norse characters are on their way to finish the job.

Doug tells Magma that he can translate weather now, as it is all sound and that’s his gig.  The storm is angry and reveals names to Doug.  Threadcutter, Breathraker, Hearthbreaker, Bloodletter, Bonegrinder these make up the Dramaur, who will kill the team if they have their way.

Like the main threat in Fear Itself, Odin has dealt with them previously and have erased them from myth.  Which really plays into the legends aspect of memory, if you are a legend but no one remembers you, are you really a legend?

Doug had one shot to send them to Hel correctly and with time, but do to his mistake, they lost time and he is upset with himself.  Magma tries to sooth him.  From what I recall, the date is pretty funny and Mephisto shows her a good time.  I’m sure it has also been forgotten about as I can’t imagine the X-Office would want Magma to keep a relationship going with the devil himself.  Though he is a better match for her than Empath will ever be.

This issue does have some nice matchups with characters that wouldn’t normally be paired together.

Sunspot and Nate are at a different section of the palace, on lookout.  Sunspot wonders if Nate regrets coming along with them. Nate states that he didn’t hesitate at all, he just jumped in.  He isn’t even part of the team.  Which I like how that works out.  Their first mission under Abnett & Lanning’s tenure was to rescue X-Man and so they did, from Sugar Man.  Nate is nowhere near as powerful as he use to be, he barely has his telekinesis powers.  Just because you get rescued and then the team starts another adventure, doesn’t necessarily mean that you are part of the team.  They just haven’t shaken you off yet.

After editorial wouldn’t pull the trigger on a Dani / Cannonball relationship, they did try with Nate and Dani but I don’t believe that lasted outside of a kiss here and there, if that.  Not every female character needs to be weighted down by a dude.

Nate is bemoaning the fact that his powers are at an all time low.  Bobby picks up a piece of hail (it is snowing in Hel, that’s not good) and tells him a piece of advice that Xavier gave him.  Concentrate on a small spot, really focus on it and grow your powers from there.  Bobby refers to this time as when he was a New Mutant, which still bugs me, they don’t refer to their team as New Mutants do they?  It doesn’t make any sense.  But do any of the actual teams call themselves by the name on their comic cover?  I believe Wolverine’s X-Force did and X-Factor did but Wolverine and the X-Men are called the Jean Grey School.  Cyclops’ doesn’t call his team the Uncanny X-Men nor does Kitty call her team the All New X-Men, they only refer to themselves as X-Men, which isn’t really marketable.

Before Nate and ask all of these questions, how neat would that had been?  Warlock shouts at them that the Draumar are coming!

They start attacking the palace en mass.  Magma blocks some debris from hitting Doug.  Warlock doesn’t like their chances as they are not prepared prepared for this, to which Bobby swears at him.  I like seeing Warlock with any other character besides Doug, as we know their relationship but not really how he gets along with the other members.

Dani is watching over Hela’s body.  A crow keeps trying to peck at Hela’s body, which disgusts Dani.  Dani is complaining to Hela that they have no defenses here and could really use some help, as she keeps swatting the bird away.  The crow eventually works its way into Hela’s mouth, which really disgusts Dani.

Hela starts coughing and explains the situation.  She put her mind into the crow as she knew this was the best course for her survival.  Hela makes a joke about it being “foul tasting.”  Dani is shock that Hela wasn’t dead.  Hela is the queen of the dead, how can she be forced to live by mortal-realm concepts?  Hela, once she put her soul into the bird, brought the New Mutants here to safeguard her until the time was right.  Dani can’t believe Hela trusted her with her soul.  By bringing them there, I mean, she sent a message and Doug, whose power is to translate, didn’t translate it correctly.  If he knew it was from Hela, that would have been a nice shortcut.

Hela explains who the Draumar are, they are the spirits killed by Odin, and now have been merged into these giant monsters, and what is keeping them together is the energy of serpent.  If successful, they will break out of Hel and then go to Midgard (Earth).

Hela doesn’t know how to defeat them, Dani asks if she can do anything and Hela states she can slow them down, with a smirk.  I like this fun Hela, there is no reason why she shouldn’t be.  She’s the mother of Loki, and that guy has a bunch of fun.

The New Mutants are then cloaked with Asgardian armor.  Which makes Magma look like Magik.

The team closes ranks.  Warlock makes a Conan reference, crush your enemy and hear the lamentation of his women, which is a great line.  Maybe the best line.  Dani catches up to the team, and they are united for the first time this issue.

Bobby jokes that Magma has a date with the devil and she comments that the date will be light compared to this fight.  Doug likes having Asgardian vigor.  Doug also comments on that this is only a delay tactic.  Dani calls him a pessimist and he counters with that he is a realist.  Nice to see those two interacting as well, for the same reasons.

Nate has taken Bobby’s advice and is blasting the warrior monsters with energy.

Warlock starts smacking some of the warriors with his limbs.  This frightens the Draumar, as they don’t understand his advance technology.  Seizing on this new found weakness of fear, Nate has Hela reveal his memories to the warriors.  Before she does it, Nate confirms that she is the Goddess of Death.  Which her response is awesome “Depending on your belief system I am a specific cultural aspect of” and Nate is okay with that being an affirmative.

So Hela does open his memories to the warriors and we get a pretty nice page of the X-Men of the Age of Apocalypse.  Except that the dirt-bag-killing-his-wife-Kitty-Pryde Colossus is there (an action figure never coming to you) so that ruins it, even if he is a very tiny part on the page, he’s still there.

Now this really frightens them.  Doug explains that the Draumar are ancient and have not kept up with modern times so they have no frame of reference for any of the images they are seeing.  Now they fear these new visions and that starts unbinding them.  Thus, the day is finally saved.

Hela is quick to point out that this encounter is over but the bigger fight is still raging on on the surface.  But its a decent tie in, a problem that was unique to this title and I’m sure didn’t play any role in the larger Fear Itself crossover.

Hela tells them to go home, as their role is done.  Hela needs to go be on Asgard’s side in the conflict.  Magma states “don’t mention it” and Hela is quick to state, I won’t.

Danni states, and she didn’t as they are back on Utopia in the X-Brig as they have been telling this story for a third party.

That third party?  Is Magik, and the issue ends with her asking, how was Hell?  I bought this issue for this one page.

I could have wrote, New Mutants go to Hel, come back and tell Magik what was up.  But would that have counted as a post?  Maybe not a good one.

So Schism happens after this issue as issue 33 has the Regenesis branding and Magik isn’t shown being told that story.

X-Men Legacy 9

Posted by John Klein III on September 27, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

271088_20130505222129_large

Writer Simon Spurrier

Penciler Tan Eng Huat

Inker Craig Yeung

Colorist Jose Villarrubia

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

David and Ruth are on their third date.  He has taken her to a diner.  For once, she is out of her X-Men uniform.  She is wearing a pretty cool brown jacket.

Ruth asks if he has any other Ms in mind, as he already has done – mysterious midnight meeting, movie and milkshakes.

Ruth also is still speaking in that broken speech pattern, as her powers are still broken.

They rehash the Evil Yellow Xavier personality that lives in David’s mindscape.

They kiss and David has found another M, the moon.  I like how throughout the rest of the issue, Ruth keeps ending sentences with m- but gets cut off.

David asks if she is okay on the moon.  She is as long as he doesn’t forget her oxygen, build a clock tower, turn blue or become naked.  All references to Doctor Manhattan and Laurie in the Watchmen, issue nine – one of the better stand alone issues of that series.

David has no idea what she is talking about.  She tells him it is from a comic book.  Also interplanetary teleportation and how he has so much power he forgets how to be human.  She draws a happy face on the moon to finish the homage.

There is an ad for Iron Man Rise of Technovore, which I haven’t seen.  Imagined if Marvel could do more pure adaptions instead of these anime inspired true stories.  Instead they do these, they don’t sell and so they don’t make any other DVDs.  This one has Black Widow, War Machine, Hawkeye and Punisher.

David explains the motivations of Aakus the Aetheric, the villain of the issue, or would be villain.

Apparently, he reads a bunch of books and believes what he reads.  So he reads about the mutant threat and goes off murdering mutants.  First, no named mutants.

Secondly, Cyclops’ team, including Tempus, Emma, Triage, Magneto and Magik, hence me buying this issue.

Then nameless mutants again.

Ruth wants David to get the X-Men from the Jean Grey School.

David then tells her how hours have already pass and tells her how the X-Men have already failed.  The X-Men shown are – Chamber, Storm, Beast, Wolverine, Pixie, Frenzy, Iceman and Armor.

They fail miserably.  Ruth sees them all die.  She is torn over this.  David tries to sooth her by telling her it was only a story.  The Yellow Xavier lets him see the future, so he already dealt with the problem.

An ad for Iron Man 3, so great.

Ruth is upset that he tricked her.  Made her experience her teachers and friends’ deaths.

David then shows her what really happened.  They have their date.  While Aarkus is formulating his plan, David forces him to sleep.  Forever.

Ruth doesn’t want him to do this course of action.  In Watchmen fashion, he tells her he did it five hours ago.

Aarkus is essentially in a coma, and David drops him and Ruth back at the school.

David can’t live his father’s dream as the X-Men do, all passive and reactionary.  No, he will be progressive and aggressive.

Issue ends with David and a few more m-words, madness, mutantkind and finally, monster.

Don’t worry about Aarkus, he wakes up and delivers some space justice in later issues.