A little Present, Past, Present and Future
All covers by Stuart Immonen
All New
All posts tagged All New
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.
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.
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.
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.
Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler Stuart Immonen
Inker Wade von Grawbadger
Colorist Rain Beredo
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Dated August 2013
We start reviewing the comics I got for Christmas 2014!
This issue is known for Kitty Pryde’s response to Havok’s speech in Uncanny Avengers Volume One Issue 5, but we’ll get that.
Issue opens with Jean Grey going full Phoenix in a room with Mystique, Wolverine and Scott.
Six hours ago. (Revenge style!) The team isn’t talking after running into the Uncanny Avengers and that Angel left the team for Cyclops’ side. Bobby is more upset about Angel leaving the team. Jean and Scott are not upset about it. Hank is sure that Warren will come back. He will take a while and a crossover but he will do it. They’ll lose Cyclops by then, but these things happen. Bobby is also confused as he didn’t know Scott even had a brother.
Scott is confused by what one has to do with the other. Bobby wants to know if he even knows any of his teammates. Wolverine admits that no one ever knows anyone, it makes life exciting.
Wolverine calls Jean, Jeannie, which confuses her. Wolverine wants her to try to cloak their presence, once they are on the ground. Jean asks Kitty if she can do that. Wolverine calls her, Professor Kitty, which she doesn’t care for. Wolverine, not that great with the ladies.
Kitty tells Jean how to do that. Bobby tries to help out by saying he can make everyone feel cold.
Resilient International, Seattle. Where Mystique stole a lot of Tony Stark’s money. Wolverine explains some of his powers to the Original Four. Wolverine smells Mystique and Sabretooth.
Kitty encourages Jean as she concentrates on keeping them invisible to the naked eye.
Wolverine keeps calling Scott, Slim, he doesn’t care for that either. Scott points out that Sabretooth should be able to know that Wolverine is coming for him. Jean loses concentration and the soldiers notice them. They think that the X-Men are back at the scene of the crime. They start firing on them.
Iceman creates an ice shield. The soldiers can’t decide if they should call Maria Hill or Pepper Potts. Kitty gives Bobby a compliment. Scott can’t believe that flatscans just open fire. The X-Men take off in their plane.
Mystique and Sabretooth are listening to Havok’s silly speech. This is the speech, which is referenced here and one more time before Kitty responds to it. The final page of this issue has the speech properly reprinted. Which is nice that Rick Remender and Oliver Coipel was able to put the entire speech on one page.
Essentially, Havok doesn’t want to be called, mutant (the M-Word) as it represents everything that he hates.
Mystique and Sabretooth don’t seem that impress. Lady Mastermind wants to know what the entire plan is. Mystique can’t believe that Xavier is dead. I wonder if Bendis knows that he has married the two of them, at this point. She can’t believe mutants are not farther along in life.
Mystique has gathered all of the cash into the middle of the room as her meeting starts. The first to arrive is the new Silver Samurai. He is the main henchman for the new Madame Hydra. I don’t recognize her. It isn’t Viper.
Mystique wants to buy Madripoor.
The X-Men are listening to Havok’s M-Word speech. Wolverine knew the speech occurred. Scott can’t believe that, in one day, that he held a press conference AND found the All New X-Men. Hank and Bobby don’t understand that M-Word is a bad word.
I really like when the X-Men are bathed in red light.
Scott tries to reassure Jean. Scott knows she will learn that trick. Jean retells that she knows her future, which is her own dumb fault.
Hank wants to know if, mutant, is a derogatory word. Bobby makes the point that any word can sound like a bad word if is said right. Hank wants to know what the professor thinks. I do like how earnest Hank calls Kitty, professor. He really needs that leader.
Kitty is so good at spur of the moment speeches.
Kitty tells the teenagers that she is Jewish. She doesn’t have a Jewish name, she doesn’t look or sound Jewish – whatever that means, she says. The same goes for her mutation, she can walk the Earth and no one would ever know she was a mutant, much less a Jewish mutant.
Kitty recounts a tale of when she was 13 (so a few months prior to Uncanny X-Men 129) and had a huge crush on a boy. The boy saw a rabbi and made the worst anti-Semitic comment ever, and she was devastated. While the boy was laughing, she told him she was Jewish and that shut him up. By the time she got home, she was super proud of being Jewish and standing up for her people. She is very open about being both Mutant and Jewish. If someone is going to be foolish enough to have a problem with either ‘category,’ she wants to know right up front.
The scene ends on the perfect note of Bobby being surprised that she is Jewish. Bobby Drake, is a real listener.
Over at the meeting. Madame Hydra doesn’t own Madripoor but she is the ruling class. Mystique wants to be the de facto leader of the island nation.
Outside and to the right, the X-Men are planning their next move. Wolverine smells Hydra, Bobby notices they look like green Nazis, which is what they essentially are.
Kitty asks Jean to read the room’s thoughts. Jean reveals that Mystique wants to buy Madripoor, Bobby doesn’t know what that is. A bit much on the Bobby side of things but that is okay, he dials way back later.
Wolverine wants to go in with only Kitty, Jean tells him that Sabretooth knows they are here.
The teenagers do not listen and come with. Wolverine fights Sabretooth. Bobby goes after Silver Samurai. Madame Hydra is upset with Mystique for the apparent betrayal. Kitty undoes Madame Hydra.
The fun thing is that Lady Mastermind sees Jean Grey. She creates an illusion of her father, the original Mastermind, and Jean freaks out.
Issue ends the way it started, with Jean going full Phoenix.
This was such a great issue. I can’t believe, in this modern era of comics, that Bendis went after a fellow writer, for something the writer wrote.
The Avengers titles, as Uncanny Avengers falls under that franchise, had this to say about Kitty’s speech.
Which is pretty irritating. Does Kitty get a rebuttal? No.
Writer Dennis Hopeless
Penciler Mark Bagley
Inker Andrew Hennessy
Color Nolan Woodard
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
I got this, just for Magik being on the cover.
We start All New X-Men’s second era. Secret Wars 2015 fixed alternate universes (except for Spider-Gwen’s) but not the time travel nonsense – so the Original Five X-Men, are still with us. The four boys, are in this title. They upgraded from Jean to All New Wolverine, X23. Idie and Kid Apocalypse are also on this team. The team, at this moment, are separated, having their own fun.
Vail, Colorado. Wolverine (I’m just going to call her that) and Angel are enjoying skiing. A sport, living here in Helena, Montana – I have no interest in. Angel keeps saving her, even though she can take care of herself. She annoys her but he’s trying to be a good boyfriend. Not a respectful boyfriend but a good one.
Eastpoint, Florida. Beast calls Angel. Hank is watching Genesis (I really don’t like calling him – Kid Apocalypse – it is clunky and such a long name) rassle with an alligator. There is going to be an upcoming Apocalypse crossover, so Genesis (real name, Evan) is most likely going to be important and soon. Hank and Genesis are on there way to Austen, to pick up Bobby – then they will be heading to Warren and X23 in Veil. Neither group has heard what Scott has been up too.
Of course, in eight months – they haven’t heard from him but now that we have caught up with them, they are going to hear from him. Funny how that works.
Hank has set up a Cerebro, so that it isn’t dependent on a telepath to operate. Once Scott blasts a dude, they should be able to find him.
Chicago, Illinois. Scott has become quite the researcher. There is a group of punk teenagers, known as – Ghosts of Cyclops – that are running around, making fools of themselves. They arrive on scene, distract people and steal whatever they can carry – while wearing Cyclops’ mask – the one with the big red X where eyes should be. Scott has track their movements and they should be arriving to the cafe that Scott is eating lunch at.
A cute blonde gal, Marla, starts talking to Scott. She needs a picture with him, as her mother will freak out that she is in the city, by herself. Everyone at the cafe gets hit by a truckload of water. The six ghosts are all teenage mutants. They are sloppy and untrained, which makes it easy for Scott to toss a few of them around. He is so used to working within a group, that he leaves his blind side open and they press an attack. While Scott is down, they run off. The Ghosts of Cyclops, don’t have much experience with anyone standing up to them.
Scott picks up one of their wallets. Marla runs over, super impressed with him. She makes the fatal mistake of besmirching Cyclops’ name – going as far as to say why anyone would want to have Cyclops’ face (she means his mask) but this offends Scott. He walks away like a sad sack.
Austin Texas. Hank has caught up to Bobby, who is making a giant ice sculpture of the Thing. Bobby hasn’t been laying low, he met a guy the other day and made an armadillo statue – the city loves Bobby. How long can an ice sculpture last in Texas? Austin is super mutant friendly, which more cities should be.
Hank and crew have been driving around in a trailer but it is bigger on the inside.
Algar University, Outside Chicago. The ghosts recognize Scott, one doesn’t forget the dude who elbowed you in the face! They follow him to the library. Scott googles the kid’s name and the Internet provides him with everything. Scott still can’t believe how far the world has come from the 60s (or 90s – whenever).
Mark Bagley, I should type, is amazing and I’m glad I’m able to read another issue of his again.
The guy, Austin Deprez, has found Scott. Could we not get the city of Austin and a new character named, Austin, in the same issue? Come on, Hopeless! Deprez has the power to eject water from his throat – so that’s disgusting. Deprez’s mutant name is, Thirst – it isn’t horrible. The Ghosts have Scott on the ropes. This old librarian tries to hit one of them with a chair. Thirst is about to wail on him when Scott takes off his sweet red sunglasses. With that, Scott blasts him some dudes!
This sets off the alarm for Hank’s Cerebro. Hank opens the mini-fridge and the rumors are true – Hopeless has introduced a bamf, named Pickles – the team’s teleporter.
All of this blasting, and tired Scott and he collapses on the ground. Sadly, he didn’t take out any of the ghosts, so they pick him up and leave.
Before they can get out of the library, the All New X-Men arrive! Including Wolverine and Angel – who still has his Black Vortex upgraded powers.
Not really sure if I’ll be getting additional issues but this one was pretty good.
Idie did nothing this issue and I barely recognized her when she did talk.
– 
41 issues, all written by Brian Michael Bendis! It should be stated that Cory Petit lettered every issue as well, which is pretty impressive to keep the same letterer for an entire series.
The series ran from, cover dated, January 2013 to August 2015
Since this was the main flagship title, sharing the honor with Uncanny – a lot took place in this series. This is the series where the time misplaced Original Five X-Men starred. Crossover overs storylines were – Battle of the Atom / Trial of Jean Grey / Black Vortex. Other storylines include the much demanded sequel to Battle of the Atom, the Ultimate Adventure and the Utopians arc.
Art Teams were –
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 – Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Colorist Marte Gracia and VC’s Cory Petit
Issue five, Inker Von Grawbadger had help from Craig Yeung and Gracia had help from Jason Keith. Issues nine & ten, Gracia had help from Rain Beredo. Issue twenty-nine, Gracia had help from Jason Keith.
6, 7, 8 – David Marquez on both pencils and inks, Gracia and Petit
12, 13 – Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Colorist Rain Beredo and VC’s Cory Petit
15 – David Lafuente on both pencils and inks, Colorist Jim Campbell and VC’s Cory Petit
19 – Brandon Peterson on both pencils and inks, Colorist Israel Silva and VC’s Cory Petit
20 – Brandon Peterson and Mahmud Asrar shared art duties, Colorist Gracia returned and helped Silva and VC’s Cory Petit stuck around as well
21 – Brandon Peterson and legend Brent Anderson (did a few pages on his own) Silva colored Petersn’s pages and Campbell did the Anderson pages, VC’s Cory Petit did all of his own lettering
25 – The All Star Jam Issue! Artists David Marquez with Justin Ponsor on colors for the Framing Device, VC’s Cory Petit on lettering duties – the other artistic talents of :
Bruce Timm & Laura Martin, Arthur Adams & Justin Ponsor, David Mack, Skottie Young & Jason Keith, Robbi Rodriquez & Justin Ponsor, Lee Bermejo & Marte Gracia, Kent Williams, JG Jones, Ronnie Del Carmen, J. Scott Campbell & Nei Ruffino, Maris Wicks, Jason Shiga, Dan Hipp, Max Wittert, Jake Parker & Matthew Wilson, Jill Thompson and Paul Smith & Bob Wiacek & Jordie Bellaire
30 – Sara Pichelli, Colorist Marte Gracia and VC’s Cory Petit
31, 32, 33, 34, 36 – Mahmud Asrar on both pencils and inks, Colorist Marte Gracia and Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Issue 31 Gracia had helped from Jason Keith. Issue 34, Gracia received some support from Marcelo Maiolo.
35 – Mahmud Asrar on both pencils and inks, Colorist Marcelo Maiolo and Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
37 – Mike Del Mundo on pencils, inks and colors, though Marco D’Alfonso helped with the coloring and VC’s Cory Petit on lettering
38, 39 – Andrea Sorrentino on pencils and inks, Colorist Marcelo Maiolo and Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
40 – Mahmud Asrar on both pencils and inks, Colorist Rain Beredo and Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
41 – Mahmud Asrar on both pencils and inks, Colorist Marte Gracia and Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
There was a whole host of variant covers with this series so I’m not listing cover artists – not that I do but in case you were wondering.
Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Artist Mahmud Asrar
Colorist Marte Gracia
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Bendis’ final issue of All New X-Men and he doesn’t send them back in time. Also, this doesn’t feel like a final issue to an almost three year run.
The New Xavier School. Location : Secret. Today. The team, minus X23 and Angel, are just relaxing on the grass as Maria Hill’s SHIELD Hellcarrier approaches.
Magik teleports inf ront of the teenagers. She gets to say the classic, “To Me, My X-Men” which is awesome!
Maria Hill stops Magik before Magik can teleport everyone away. Hill wants the team to help her with a situation.
I like how Hill explains how she knew where to find them. It is the reason why cloaking never really works. Wouldn’t all you ever need to do is look for the absence inside an area? Sonar would be the anti-cloaking device.
Hill tells the team that there is an issue with the X-Men’s former home, Utopia.
A group of SHIELD agents went to Utopia and were confronted by a band of mutants. The agents have not been heard from since. Hill wants mutants to solve or investigate a mutant problem.
X23 and Angel fly back down and get a quick recap. Magik teleports the team.
Utopia Island. Former Home of the X-Men. San Francisco. Has Magik been back since losing her Phoenix portion, back in AvX? Has anyone?
I’m surprised Magik isn’t placing all of the blame on the Avengers, if they hadn’t gotten involved, the Phoenix Force’s return to Earth would have ended without much conflict.
The All New X-Men meet the Utopians – Random, Masque, Elixir, Boom, Karma and Madison Jeffries. I like how Karma is the leader of this group and she chooses to speak directly to Magik, who has to be the leader of this group. I would have loved a New Mutants reference between the two of them.
I do like Bobby and Hank enjoying saying, Boom Boom. Such a silly name, that’s what I always like to call Tabitha, Meltdown.
I like how Random is a realist and knew that they needed to have a policy about fools who would bother them.
Tensions are getting high so Jean shuts the Utopians down.
How great is that page above, great composition!
Jean really is tired of fighting mutants. Just then, Cyclops starts blasting dudes, Jean is taken down first. Magik dodges, for the most part. Cyclops starts shouting for someone to take him out and Beast is super glad to do so.
Then the worst case happens, X23 turns on the team.
The teenagers don’t really know to take down one of their own. Magik has to tell them that this is Karma who is up to no good.
Jean confronts Karma. I do like how X23 is willing to kill any and all who have tried to control her.
Meltdown starts throwing bombs.
Jean causes Karma to wake up in a mindscape. This is the first page that I notice that Asrar is still drawing boobs weirdly. Up to this point, Magik and the Utopians ladies’ costumes are more supportive to the gals so it isn’t noticeable at all but Jean’s costume is skin tight (or some nonsense) and her boobs just seem, I don’t know, artificially placed, isn’t the right word. Like he has to draw them and draws them to do it but they seem fake or some such thing.
Jean really wants to see life through Karma’s eyes.
We get that awesome effect seen in both All New X-Men issues 5 & 32, but with Karma!
We wish some of these panels were more specific. I like her origin and being part of the original line up of the New Mutants, the two Shadow King. Then we get four panels that are essentially pretty generic. Karma as a teacher, makes sense. Her training with Emma, did that happen? Is it crucial to her story? It is one of three panels featuring her robotic leg. One would think that one of these three panels would be during Second Coming but I don’t think that is represented. I was going to say her time on Astonishing X-Men isn’t but that’s what the panel with her hand is showing. Those are ice walls. Could that be Kitty Pryde in the dark shirt? I’m surprised there isn’t a panel showing her with a special lady friend. The bottom two are the formation of the Utopians.
Still, I do like the technique being used again.
The team goes to Maria Hill and they have brought the missing SHIELD agents. They do not sell out the Utopians. They call Hill on her nonsense about how she’s cool with the Avengers setting up base anywhere but apparently the X-Men need to be accounted for.
The team have brought the Utopians to the old New Xavier School, as no one is using it.
The Utopians are not thrilled about staying at a former Weapon X facility but it is abandoned and there some attempt to make it more of a home.
Issue ends setting up Teen Jean Grey’s portion of Uncanny X-Men 600 – Jean is going to try to figure out why the X-Men are always being persecuted and hated. I guess we will learn in twenty weeks.
Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils Stuart Immonen
Inker Wade von Grawbadger
Colorist Marte Gracia
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Dated January 2013
Lockheed only appears on the cover. Eva is wearing the outfit she wore to the club last issue. She also only appears on the cover.
The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Now. Kitty is outside of Beast’s lab. He isn’t answering her summons, which he isn’t even listening as he is back in time.
The very first panel shows Kitty outside of the lab, with no one around. Three panels later, Iceman is right next to her. Where did he come from?
Kitty enters the lab and looks around. She is confused by some of the readouts that are displayed. Iceman knows she is a genius so this is way out of his league.
I like how Beast uses his classic 80s Beast ape man face as the warning screen.
Then. Beast is trying to convince the Original X-Men to come with him. Bobby can’t believe that the guy he knows, Scott, can be responsible for any deaths or destruction.
Beast asks Jean to read his mind, so that she knows he is telling the truth. This is shocking to her, as she didn’t know she could read minds. She was just a basic telekinesis type at this point.
Warren starts asking why Beast can’t talk to his time era Xavier. Beast takes a beat and then tells them that Cyclops killed Xavier. I really like the panel where they hear this with the broken glass effect before their heads.
Scott is just shock by all of this news.
Beast talks to his younger self, trying to convince him of the stakes involved. He even swears on their mother, which poor Hank doesn’t even know that an alternate timeline version of himself will later masquerade as him and kill his entire living family. I would leave that out too, if it was me.
Warren wants to know why Beast doesn’t just kill Cyclops, as he killed Xavier. Beast tells him that he refuses to take anymore lives.
Beast goes outside and has another attack. The Original Five are in costume now and agree to go to the present, just to investigate the claims.
Once there, they are amazed by the size and appearance of the school. Jean wants to know why the school is named after her now.
There is a double page house ad for Amazing Spider-Man 700. Don’t worry, Spider-Man comes back it takes a year and a half, but still.
Wolverine is teaching a class about what to do when fighting a ninja master. He then gets a whiff of a scent and leaves the room. Wolverine jumps at the Original Five X-Men, and Jean holds him in the sky and Scott optic blasts him. Bobby freezes him.
Storm, Kitty and Iceman all come out and are not pleased with what they see.
Then the Two Robert Drakes meet :
Pretty fun. Bendis knows, even at the start, to limit Bobby to just two great moments per issue.
Beast has another attack, this one freaks out Hank.
Kitty is the only one, besides Hank, who knows her way around the lab.
Storm tells them that Reed Richards and Tony Stark have messages for them to respond quickly. She mentions Horizon Labs, which I’m not familiar with. It is the place that Peter Parker works at that where Doctor Octopus once he is ‘Peter Parker’ excels at.
Iceman looks at the Original X-Men, wanting to know what they were told. Scott says that he is there to speak to his older self. Something that even in the present day, hasn’t really happened outside of a few lines.
Wolverine takes the ‘little X-Men’ to the study. Jean makes him fall asleep and it looks just like how our son, Walker Dennis, sleeps now :
Jean reveals that Wolverine’s thoughts are that he wants to send them back immediately but also that Beast is his new hero.
Scott still can’t believe he killed his mentor. They see Cyclops on the news. Bobby can’t believe televisions are not better in the future.
She also reveals that Wolverine runs the school. Bobby can’t believe a guy like that, with claws, will run a school.
Hank knows that his present day self is dying. That’s why he risked time itself to bring them forward.
Scott wants to really meet himself and have a nice chat. Bobby knows that Cyclops is seeking new mutants, so maybe they should. Just then a news reporter states a new mutant has been found at the University of Dallas, so they take the Blackbird and away they go.
Kitty enters the room and sees only Wolverine sleeping away.
Issue ends with the X-Men watching the Blackbird fly away. He can’t believe Jeannie is around again.
Not sure when I will review the third issue but it has been great to go back to these early issues of All New X-Men.
From All New X-Men 2, with Lockheed! That makes three shirts that I know of that has Lockheed on it!
Cover Faith Erin Hicks
Thanks to the great comic book store, Kelly’s Komix, in Great Falls – I was able to get this variant for cover price! Pretty awesome, thanks!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kellys-Komix/101867169919242
Such a great store! I liked that store more than Bozeman’s Rook’s Comics and Games, which is largely games at this point.
My review for the issue proper, can be found here –
https://shadowandflamewithmagik.com/2015/09/18/all-new-x-men-39/
. . .
Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!
Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Artist Mahmud Asrar
Colorist Rain Beredo
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
This issue will go down in history for a particular moment but we will get to that.
Utopia Island. Former Home of the X-Men, San Francisco Bay. A group of salvagers have arrived on the island. They suspect that the X-Men left behind a slew of valuables when they left the island nation. They suspect that the Avengers nor SHIELD has had the time to go back and pick up those islands. Which is odd, as SHIELD clearly has enough soldiers employed that can go to locations like Utopia and start grabbing important pieces of equipment.
There is a noise from a cave and someone or some group, knock out all of the
The New Xavier School. Location Secret. Today. The All New X-Men are finally back to their school, after a little visit to the Ultimate Universe and then their adventures in outer space during Black Vortex. They all have been missing their world, Scott has been gone longer than them, though.
Magik arrives, with some brown lunch bags.
Magik brought some burgers, which Scott has disparately been missing Earth food.
Hank and Magik get the dialogue exchange of the year.
Hank : And they don’t freak out when you magically appear in line at a fast food establishment dressed like that?
Magik : I usually get everything for free magically appearing dressed like this.
So great and it answers a very long never before asked question. How does Magik get so much stuff, so easily and so fast? Dressed that way, dudes are constantly willing to do anything for her. Rightfully so. Magik is so great and she really needs an ongoing series, I could make one last for fifty issues, easily.
Magik informs the team, now that Shadowcat (getting her first of two references, in this issue) is staying in space – Magik will be their instructor.
Scott calls Illyana “ma’am” and Magik, in turn, calls him “Baby Tyke-lops” which is a name that should really stick. Bendis has a great handle on Magik.
Jean picks up on the fact that something is going wrong inside the school, because she’s a nosy bitch.
Magik is going inside to figure it out, she tells the team to stay outside. So this issue takes place during Uncanny X-Men Volume Three 32, so Black Vortex takes place between 31 and 32. So Last Will and Testament of Xavier, Black Vortex, Issue 32, next is this issue and then Uncanny X-Men, so Kitty Pryde must come back to Earth in the next hour to make issue 33 set up.
Bobby, like a jerk, salutes Magik’s unbelievable hotness. But he isn’t being, like a real jerk about it. More like a 14 year old boy who is standing in front of an unbelievable hot lady. Jean, for no good reason, decides to pull Bobby aside. Bobby stands behind his comment, Magik is hot and he feels the need to address it. Jean knows Illyana is hot and there is no doubt that Illyana knows it too and makes it work for her.
Then the page that set the world on fire, one April 21, 2015 day. Jean tells Bobby that he is gay. Not him, under his own control, comes out to a dear friend. No, Jean, goes into his head, and decides to dictate what Bobby is. Jean, the worst person around.
Jean mind rapes the information from Bobby. Mind you, she and Bobby have never been close. They are not complete strangers but they are not close at all. Jean may be a tad closer to Warren. She’s always been close to Hank and Scott. I do like how All New Bobby and Scott were getting close. If someone was going to tell this story, I would have had Bobby come out to Scott. Like a scene where Bobby is updating Scott on everything that they did, and then end it with how he is preparing to come out as a homosexual. Bendis choose to go this route, as Jean is the star of this title and she needs to get all the big moments.
Bobby puts up an ice wall. We cut to the other members of the team, and they are pretty uninterested. Back to Bobby and Jean. Bobby points out that his older proper self is not gay.
Bobby isn’t sure why people like her so much, and I don’t get it ever.
Bobby isn’t sure how his older self cannot be gay, as well. Some of the forty pages of Uncanny X-Men 600, will be dedicated to the two Icemen talking about this.
Jean points out that Iceman never had any lasting relationships. Bobby points out his relationship to Kitty Pryde, BobKat. This reminds me of the issue of All New where Bobby saw his older self and Professor K making out, and he was disgusted by it. There also was the issue where Scott and he went on a double date and he was displeased with the lady he was stuck with. Then there was the issue where Bobby felt like a Disney princess. Which I like how Bendis has been dropping hints about this.
We get to the main panels that turn me off from this idea. Bobby tries to say that he could be bisexual. Jean pretty much, both, insults all bisexuals everywhere – with the comment that most people are bisexual. Then she identifies Bobby as being more . . . full gay. As if, full gay, was a term. But if Bobby wants to self identify as bisexual, let the boy self identify as bisexual. I mean, really, did Jean spend all of her time, since coming to the present, studying up on modern day sexuality, instead of looking into the ethics of being a telepath? That sounds about right.
We get to the page that makes this whole nonsense okay. Bobby appreciates that he finally got to voice some of the thoughts that are in his head.
Jean promises to keep his secret, but you know, she could have done that and never talk to Bobby about any of this.
What redeems this, is that Bobby calls Jean by my new favorite name for her – nosy bitch. I usually don’t like to refer to women as bitches but that’s pretty much what Jean is now, so I’m going with it.
Bobby tries to make the situation light and asks if Jean suspects that Warren could be gay. Jean shuts that idea down. Then they laugh about how Tyke-lops is a great nickname.
SHIELD Hellicarrier. Floating World Headquarters of the UN Peacekeeping Task Force. Present Location : 1,000 Feet Over London, England. Some SHIELD soldiers (are all of them called, agents?) tell Commander Maria Hill that there has been a situation. She instantly wishes that it isn’t mutant related and when they tell her it is, she starts slamming her head on the desk.
We get to the actual good part of the issue, Warren flies in and swoops X23 into his arms. They have a very nice chat and get some things said. He explains why he accepted the cosmic power upgrade. Once he came to the present, he learn how horrible his future was. He knew, the first chance he got, if he could make a permanent change, he wouldn’t have hesitated to take the opportunity. Now that he has this new sense of confidence, he can tell X23 that he loves her. They kiss, which is probably better than how he thought this conversation was going to go.
Utopia Island. Former home of the X-Men. San Francisco Bay. A SHIELD jet begins to land, when like their Hellicarrier, it crashes down onto the surface.
We finally meet The Utopians! They are not the Ultimate X-Men in the Proper Marvel Universe.
They are – The Morlock’s Masque / Elixir / Meltdown / Random / Madison Jeffries / Karma
Pretty decent line up there, I like how they have a color scheme. How did they get Masque from the New York City tunnels to across the nation? I also like how Meltdown is the leader of the group. I guess Elixir survived being nearly killed in Logan Legacy. Madison Jeffries, I suppose, never left the island. Random, maybe they are paying him to be there? Random hasn’t been seen in three years, since his short stint in Generation Hope, issues 15, 16 and 17. Surprisingly,
http://comicbookdb.com/character_chron.php?ID=4926
Random has been in at least one comic, every year from 2005 to today. He took 2004 off, had one appearance in 2003, took off 2002 – pretty decent.
Karma, was just not doing much after Astonishing ended.
. . .
As this is obviously months later, I wanted to cite some websites so that people can remember how much conversation was sparked with this issue.
Here are the two threads I was most active on :
Brian Cronin’s “Thoughts on All New X-Men 40 and Whether Flawed Characters Are a Sign of Flawed Writing
Uncanny X-Cast’s Facebook Group’s Issue Discussion
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4045322485/permalink/10153236850637486/
I post some links in there that made me think I should add them to this post.
Bryan Singer’s Reaction to All New Iceman’s coming out
Brian Michael Bendis’ “In Portland, no one cares about this type of stuff”
I’m sure there were hundreds of website reviews about the news item, itself, but these were the ones I stuck with or referenced.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 