Storm doesn’t blink, she wants Charles back. Husk is perfectly intent to rip out the X-Men’s heart so she’s going to keep Charles.
To make sure that nobody mistakes Husk for not being properly motivated, she retells her origins. Generation Next risked their very lives in order to get Illyana and no one could be bothered to regroup and come back to the Core and make sure their families had bodies to be buried.
Her team – Chamber, Skin and Vincente – are all dead. The goons in the Portland Core (I’m sure it switches back and forth from Portland to Seattle) didn’t know what to do with prisoners.
Once word came down that Apocalypse was defeated, everyone abandoned the Cores. The Gurthries apparently heard a rumor where Paige’s body could be found and they followed it. Her real family (who she turned her back on, so she could become an X-Man) found her when the X-Man abandoned her.
Storm tries to explain how Colossus (the worst) told the X-Men how only Illyana and Kate survived.
Husk doesn’t need excuses, the X-Men went to check on Bishop, they should have gone back for everyone. Weapon X sneaks up to Husk but doesn’t get Charles. In fact, everyone is standing pretty close to each other, not sure why no one just grabs Charles. Kurt should just teleport in and out. Dash and grab, as it were.
Silver Samurai tells Weapon X to stand down as help has finally arrived. Psylocke has arrived and somehow, has become Asian in this timeline! She hands Charles to Weapon X.
Weapon X tells Nightcrawler to teleport away with Charles, he takes offense to Weapon X giving out orders but he follows them.
The X-Men have a quick fight with the Guthries but then Magneto arrives. Magneto has Sunfire burn the Guthries. The two make short work of the youngsters.
Quicksilver is about to punch Husk but Rogue tells her son-in-law to stop. Stepson, right? Rogue tries to explain how, once Apocalypse was dead, the X-Men decided to start anew with the living and not worry about the dead. I guess that is harsh but that’s a decision winners can make.
Rogue won’t kill Husk, just lock her away in a cell. I guess for attempted child capture? After giving that threat Kirika kills Husk, so that was a waste of a page.
With Paige’s dying words she reveals that Charles was bait and Sinister has larger plans for Magneto. Rogue asks Magneto what he knows about Sinister being alive. Magneto reveals that he didn’t save the day, when the bombs were dropping. The issue ends with the reveal that Jean stopped the bombs, even though we saw her super die at the hands of Havok. Also, Sinister has Jean.
I imagine the X-Men free Jean and Sinister gets his butt kicked.
. . .
With this, we end our visit to the Age of Apocalypse.
Alan Davis and Mark Farmer left the series and now we have Lobdell back on board.
The opening narration reveals that, on the way back from the Days of Future . . . Future, Captain Britain got separated in the timestream. There is a handy editor note, from Suzanne Gaffney, that informs that we hadn’t missed an issue, we are merely jumping into the action. We are also heading towards trying to fold Excalibur into the X-World.
Meggan is catatonic, in the waterfall, her has morphed her body to match the water. The team is quite worried about her. Rachel can’t reach her, even with her telepathic powers.
Kitty gets out of a car, she’s in a foul mood. To make matters worst, microMAX is now in charge of the team. He is wearing a business suit. He believes that, with Captain Britain and Meggan gone – the team really needs to train more. Kitty is in no mood for this jerk’s dick attitude.
Overhearing this, Kylun leaps from a tree and microMAX grows in size and prepares for a fight. Kylun was merely testing his new friend’s wit. microMAX is in charge, by FI6, and he hints at previous storylines – exploding bathrooms, dinosaur doppelgangers and cross-time capers. Did Dan “Amazing Spider-Man” Slott really read these issues? Does he even remember writing this issue?
What has Kitty in such a foul mood? One of her closest friends, Illyana, is dying of the Legacy Virus; and she’s suffered too much death with Doug and now Brian’s disappearance. To make the tears continue to fall, she thinks about Kate Pryde and how she was all alone, with her friends and family dead.
Feron arrives, and like a giant douche, commands Kitty to stop crying.
This, of course, doesn’t work as it isn’t – at all – what one should do to someone who is crying. Feron’s intentions were to distract her and have her be able to direct her anger towards something else. She finds it sweet, and Lockheed is so relieved! Kitty hugs Feron, for his lame attempt as she really needs a friend right now.
Why she doesn’t go to Kurt and Rachel, is beyond me. Though we do see this pair, as they go back inside. I get that Rachel was always ‘edgy’ in her manner of dress but she just looks like a biker chick. Rachel apologizes to Kurt, for being so indifferent about losing Brian. Cerise comes flying into the room and grabs Kurt, they instantly start making out. She hasn’t see him in 15 days. Which I can’t recall if she didn’t go on the mission- or why she didn’t. Kurt is upset, as no one seems to be caring that Brian is gone.
There is an ad for Mortal Kombat, coming in September 1993! I was in the seventh grade and people were obsessed! Rayden / Sub-Zero / Liu Kang / Johnny Cage / Sonya Blade / Kano / Goro / Scorpion, the original eight! The franchise has gone so much over the past 16 years! It still can’t even play its own self!
A Grove Behind Braddock Manor. As microMAX and Kylun are sword fighting when they are ambushed by . . . THE STARJAMMERS!
Is Stridex even a company, any more? I recall these zit pads never working.
Rachel senses danger and summons the team otuside.
Kitty and Kurt don’t understand why their allies are harassing their new team. Corsair and his peeps are here for the worst war criminals in Shi’ar history. So the team thinks this is regarding Rachel, again.
microMAX gives the order to fight, which Kurt disagrees with but joins the fight.
The two teams haven’t seen each other since Spotlight on Starjammers 2, which had them fighting there, as well. Hepzibah fights Kurt, with Lockheed trying his best to assist. Feron binds Cosair, who has flashbacks to when the Shi’ar first captured him.
Feron is taken out. Lockheed has changed targets to, Raza. Who I had as an action figure in the 90s and totally didn’t play him correctly. Lockheed’s good buddy, Shadowcat, phases through Raza and he is down.
Rachel announces that this fight is useless, she isn’t going to go with the Starjammers. Chod states that they are not here for her, which surprises Nightcrawler.
Cosair says they are here for a grave murderer of the Shi’ar. Cerise arrives, in full battle garb. This storyline is the beginning of Cerise leaving the title and not appearing again until issue 125. I’m not sure why editorial thought they had to get rid of her. I believe, just from reading the rest of the series, that they wanted to get the team back down to the main five original members.
Cerise surrenders and Kurt kicks Raza in his dumb face, Chris Sims style!
Some titles that were on sale, that week –
Dark Angel 13
Deadpool, 1 of 4
Doom 2099 8
Excalibur 68 – Scott Lobdell is the new regular writer!
Marvel Age 127
Spider-Man 37
What If 52 – What if Wolverine Led Alpha Flight? Some how, everyone dies – I imagine
X-Men 23 – The Dark Riders spring a test on Cyclops, and he forgot to study!
Corsair instructs Hepzibah to open the stargate and the Starjammers and their new prisoner disappear.
Rachel is telekinetically keeping the stargate open, Kurt had this plan the entire time. Kitty reminds him that someone should stick behind for Meggan – which is odd as that is what Pre-Ahab and Moira are there for. Well, Moira lives here too.
Feron volunteers to stick behind. Kitty is actually going to stick behind too, as they need an adult. Though there are already two of them, but I guess they need an official member of Excalibur.
The rest of the team go through the portal, Kurt doesn’t have a plan at all, he’s playing it as it goes – as the issue ends.
The back cover ad is for Crunch n Munch, that had Marvel trading cards, which I feel like was on the back of so many covers during this year or era.
The next issue we are reviewing is issue 74 of Excalibur!
Inside front cover ad is for the film, Fire in the Sky, which I still need to watch. In November 5, 1975, there was an alien abduction, at 5:49pm, in the White Mountains of Northeastern Arizona.
Issue opens with an absolutely amazing three page sequence of what Rachel saw, right before dying. We see Jean and Scott giving her a bamf doll, Xavier dying, Ahab (pre-cyborg days), the gravesite of Days of Future Past. What I like, is that each panel is from Rachel’s viewpoint, so we are seeing what she is seeing. We are treated to Kate Pryde, in the classic blue Excalibur outfit, the time traveling to the present, her joining the Uncanny X-Men, watching Maddie and Scott with baby Nathan, her feud with Selene, Wolverine stabbing her. Which is pretty intense, as we get an extreme close up of Wolverine’s face with a SNIKT effect – which must be what so many people have seen, before dying. Rachel’s time with Spiral in Mojoworld gets a panel, her joining Excalibur, Ahab as even more of a cyborg and the conclusion of the previous storyline, her big fight with Necrom.
Rachel comes around, surprised she isn’t dead. She can’t locate Necrom, the Phoenix Force informs her that Necrom is dead.
On Earth. Captain Britain and Meggan are having a tough fight with the Warpies. They lose this fight and are brought to Cloud Nine. Snoop is informing Peter, the director of RCX.
To be honest with you, I’m not crazy for this RCX arc.
Meanwhile, a well intended doctor, Nicholas, is with Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. Kurt is training, so that Nicholas can learn more about mutants. RCX has been experimenting and they want Excalibur to cure the children’s illness. Except that they are tricking Excalibur, to be there. Kitty is super suspicious of the whole situation. Kitty fakes a reason to go off on her own, but the doctor insists that Static goes with her. All Static can say is, meep.
I really do miss this art team together. Kitty has a holographic version of herself, in a space opera – so this distracts Static. There is a great moment when Kitty sees her holographic self and thinks about how old her uniform is. She still won’t end up changing it for quite some time.
Now that Kitty is on her own, she can search around the complex.
Braddock Manor. Now we get to the good stuff. Davis’ Lockheed may be more cartoony than dragon but there is no denying the playfulness and expressiveness.
Poor Lockheed is stuck with Feron, so neither can understand each other. Feron starts complaining about Lockheed’s “mistress” Lockheed angrily shows Feron the list of chores Feron is suppose to complete.
Things to Do –
Clean West Wing (done)
Disinfect Lavatories (done)
Weed Rose Garden (done)
Unclog Foundation
Wax Hall Floor
Clean Attic Room
Paint Stable Door
Catalogue Library
Just then, Widget appears. It is trying to talk to Rachel, trying to get her to remember and trust it. Of course, Rachel is nowhere near the planet.
I guess Lockheed and Feron can communicate, as long as Lockheed can stick to one syllable words.
Such a fun scene!
Cloud Nine. Captain Britain has doctors poking him and he lashes out at him. Peter tires to calm Cap down, it doesn’t help that the Warpies arrive behind Peter – so now Cap knows that Peter is with the bad guys. Peter tries to explain that the Warpies would never have threw the first punch but since Captain Britain did, the fight escalated. Peter explains that they might be able to answer the question of why Captain Britain’s powers have been broken, as of late.
Peter explains that 64 percent of parahumans are effected with genetic destabilization. Cap has it, as does Meggan. These special children, are being created so that they can try to eliminate the disease. Kitty is watching from behind a vent, not being happy that Brian is falling for this. Ferret, another one of the Warpies, shocks Kitty. He isn’t happy that it appears to have hurt her. Luke, who looks like 90s Lex Luthor, with the big beard of red hair and the red hair mane on top of his head. I guess it would have been Lex’s “son” the “clone” but without the baldness gene.
Luke is going to put Kitty in a tube, next to Meggan, microMAX, Kylun and Alistaire.
Meanwhile, a fake Kitty Pryde tells Kurt that RCX can be trusted and there is nothing to worry about. Pretty sneaky, RCX!
Hypeline : On Sale This Week – Dark Angel 10, Doctor Who 196, Doom 2009 4, Excalibur 94, Marvel Age 123, What If 48, X-Factor 89 and X-Men 19.
Meanwhile, in deep space. Phoenix Force Jean is continuing to have a nice chat with its host, Rachel. The issue ends with Rachel adopting the Dark Phoenix red suit. Which I want to say, she keeps it for a while.
Next Issue – white lies and dark truths.
Sword Strokes, letters from – Mark Phillips of Knoxville, TN / Dan Woodward of Fresno, CA / Helen Moore of England, Dale Critchley of Madison, WI / Robin Bielefeld / Damien Cox of Beckley, WV and Kayla Griffin of Canada.
We’ve reviewed issues 66 & 67 already when we did our Days of Future Past Event Month. So the next issue we are going to cover is – Excalibur 68!
. . .
For Super Bowl 50, we’re rooting for the Denver Broncos – my mother-in-law’s favorite team.
We catch up with Rachel, who we haven’t seen in quite a while. The Phoenix Force has been healing her, it has also been learning so much about life, through her eyes. Rachel is on a different planet, one that is about to be consumed by Galactus! Rachel tries to tell Galactus to not feed on this planet, as it does contain life. Which has never stopped him before. Rachel blows up his machien and now he is angry.
Earth. Brian and Kurt are fighting, it is a fair fight as Cerise has given Kurt some armor. Kurt believes he has the advantage but Brian is still faster than him.
Meggan doesn’t like that they are fighting, but Kitty corrects her that they are merely training. Kurt knocks Brian out, which surprises everyone.
Brian comes to his senses, more embarrassed than anything. Brian hasn’t been sleeping, wanting to seek out Sat-yr-9 and punish her for killing Courtney Ross. This upsets Meggan, as he (foolishly) said that is the only thing that matters.
Kurt has yet another “how to love Meggan, properly” chat with Brian.
At a radio station, with DJ Scott Wright. A lady chauffeur arrives, to take him to a television station – his star is on the rise. The chauffeur is really part of the villain group, the Warpies, he tries to impress them than he is actually, microMAX. They are not that impress, as they already knew that. I didn’t know he was a DJ.
The issue, twice now, as cut to this beautiful full page splashes of Rachel fighting Galactus.
Beneath Braddock Manor. Kitty and Lockheed are trying to figure out what is wrong with the mastermind computer, its organic circuitry isn’t operational anymore. Feron is down there, as he won’t take a hint or become useful. He refuses to aid Kitty, yet doesn’t leave her side. I love this Kitty, super feisty! Feron is suppose to be learning social skills, but his base personality of being a jerk, is a huge obstacle.
Feron tries to compare himself to Kitty, both of them had elders that were guiding and protecting them. Feron had monks and Kitty had the X-Men, but the X-Men never sheltered her. Kitty is about to get loud with Feron when . . .
Widget crashes into the room! It isn’t in its cute ball form but in its humanoid form. It warns Sentinels are coming, and it disappears again. This story, will be what Davis & Farmer are leading up to.
Kitty is going to inform Kurt but she wants Feron to keep hooking up the computers. If he doesn’t, Lockheed has permission to scorch Feron!
Another beautiful Rachel v Galactus page.
Brian has taken Meggan to the Braddock Summer Cottage, on England’s South coast. Those Braddocks, sure had money! The young couple are having fun, playing in the ocean and enjoying each other’s company. They have decided to take a week off, and enjoy a brief vacation. Brain has decided to fully accept his position as Captain Britain, both on Earth and in the Captain Britain Corps. Brian finally musters up the courage, after two days, of finally proposing to Meggan! So great! It will still take twice as many issues (64 of them!) to get to issue 125, where they finally get married! Sadly, the scene ends with them in the target of some goon.
Since Rachel stopped Galactus from feeding, he isn’t nearly as strong as he should be – so she has a chance. He gets real with her, that he and the Phoenix Force stink of death and destruction. Galactus, coldly, draws her attention to how she was trying to save this foreign planet but in their duel, she has destroyed it.
Excalibur has come together for a debriefing. Kurt mentions how this is Widget’s ninth cryptic message. Their phone rings, Kitty answers to discover Alistaire on the other end. He has been searching for those who killed his sister, but he has gotten too close. The issue ends with him being knocked out!
Sword Strokes, letters are from – Dietmar Dath of Germany / Daniel Hazard Jr of Milwaukee, WI / Jeff Maccubbin of Baltimore, MD / Dor Rumsower of Forestville, CA wrote a nice poem. Matthew Pearson of the United Kingdom, Derek E. Wright of Sale Creek, TN, Jason P. Arnold of Canada and Richard Olney of Syracuse, NY – all wrote letters, as well.
Next issue has Excalibur v RCX, while Phoenix faces her future.
Inside back cover ad is for Wayne’s World VCR Board Game! So silly
. . .
Lockheed next appears in Excalibur 64, so that will be the next issue we review.
The famous Kitty Pryde and Colossus have sex issue! Before that, this stuff happens!
Issue opens with Scott’s memory of Uncanny X-Men 132, where Phoenix holds back Scott’s optic blasts and then they make sweet sweet love, like one does with a cosmic entity, in New Mexico.
This entire flashback sequence is Emma’s attempt to take Scott off the board. To make matters, more hurtful, she turns Scott into Logan and we are treated to Logan and Emma kissing.
“Logan” pushes Emma away and claw punches her but silly Scott, he no have claws! Which he will throw back in her fact, in issue 17. Well, not her face but Perfection’s face – but he doesn’t know that then.
Meanwhile, Piotr and Kitty are up to no good and we see Kitty phase through the floor.
We learn that she was receiving oral sex (good job Piotr!) whens he phased through the floor. Either Wisdom never did that or she kept herself in control.
Over with Scott and Emma. Emma is taking Scott apart, piece by piece. She is now attacking his leadership skills and his original leadership position. Jean was Xavier’s favorite, Beast was a genius and good with people, Angel was so good looking and Bobby was funny, I guess. Emma claims that Scott had nothing else, so that is why Xavier picked him for leader.
Does Emma and Scott ever talk about these scenes, once they are on the other side of it?
Scott tries to shut it down. Emma tries to claim that she is trying to get to the root of who Scott is.
Emma points out that the one time Scott had to fight for leadership, in the legendary Uncanny X-Men 201, he lost to a powerless Storm.
Emma segues this into the topic of Scott not having any control.
SWORD Peak Station. Brand, Sydren and the other dude are discussing the result of which X-Man is going to destroy Breakworld. They know who it is but we are not shown which X-Man it is, yet.
Back to Emma and Scott. She has taken Scott to his “Bug Room” a concept that Grant Morrison / Cassandra Nova came up with, where you see your essential. Scott’s is three giant cockroaches. She goes over Scott’s brief origin, that he hit his head once he landed from the burning plane, along with his brother, Alex.
Daily Bugle news page. Adventure Starts Here – Civil War 1 of 7, MC2 Last Planet Standing 1 of 4, X-Men Fairy Tales 1 of 4 (not very good). New Beginnings – Wolverine 42 / She-Hulk 8, both tie-ins to Civil War. Ultimate Fantastic Four 30, return of Doctor Van Damme, Ultimate Spider-Man 95, introducing Ultimate Morbius and Exiles 81, visiting Heroes Reborn slash Counter-Earth. What Are You Doing Here, guest appearances – Incredible Hulk 95 – Silver Surfer / Ms. Marvel 3 – Fantastic Four and Cable / Deadpool 28 – Domino. Can’t Miss Moments, anniversaries and climatic battles! – Fantastic Four : Death in the Family one-shot – death of Invisible Woman? Yes but not our Susan. Sensational Spider-Man 26 – guest artist, Clayton Crain. Spider-Girl 97, the return of the original Hobgoblin!
We get a never before scene, that I know of, of a young Scott sitting in a bed. Young Scott is deciding that he will forever be in control of his power, so he made sure that he wouldn’t be. I guess?
In the morning. Logan is eating cereal and he split a little milk.
Kitty and Piotr come into the room and Logan instantly knows that they have boned. Which is super awkward that he even addresses it. The two of them don’t really play it off well. Was Logan always sniffing her, in the mornings?
Beast, in his lab, is confronted by Cassandra Nova.
Issue ends with Scott, with his brown eyes open, but no optic blasts.
Mails to Astonish – Letters from – John Cribbs / Adrian J. Watts of Melbourne, Australia and Brent Hand of Fort Worth, TX.
There is a blurb for all of the X-Titles that shipped in April 2006 – Astonishing X-Men 14 / Uncanny X-Men 472 / Sentinel Squad O*N*E 4 / X-Men 198 4 / X-Men Deadly Genesis 6 / Cable/Deadpool 27 / New Excalibur 6 / Wolverine Origins 1 / X-Men The End Book Three 4, As the Shi’Ar burn, Kitty awaits the election results in Chicago! (Man, Kitty just sounds lazy). Storm 3 / New X-Men 25 / X-Men Unlimited 4 / X-Men Apocalypse/Dracula 3 / Exiles 79 / Wolverine 41 / X-Factor 6 / Nextwave 4 (since when is that considered an X-Title?) and X-Men 185.
With this, we end our short revisit to Astonishing X-Men. We’ll get to the rest of the issues, eventually.
I like how the first two pages are laid out. The panels on the first page go – Wing dead in the Danger Room, two dudes looking down at something and Emma, the Cuckoos and Blindfold hearing something.
Second page – The telepaths are taken out, the two dudes are bathed in red light and the Danger Room’s door is electrified. So it goes down one page and the opposite panels on the next page.
Scott looks over Emma. Wolverine confirms that all of the psychics are taken out. Kitty goes to check on the rest of the students.
I sort of like the nice touch that Scott and Logan don’t know the kids names but Armor is there to name check Wing.
Some ink kid, comicbookdb nor Marvel Database names him, tells Kitty that the non-ink kid passed out.
Over at the two dudes, we see that whatever they were looking at, is gigantic. I do enjoy Laura Martin bathing their scenes in red. The item breaks out of the roof and we see that it is a damaged Sentinel, that states “I hear you, Lord.”
The team is outside. Wolverine isn’t smelling anything. Kitty wonders if Logan can track Wing, but he doesn’t know him. Like a jerk, though, he promises to kill him, when he finds him – which seems like quite the overreaction. Of course, Wing is dead at this moment, so that isn’t great.
Scott is with Emma, he doesn’t know how she is still knocked out. Beast told him that there is nothing physically wrong with the telepaths. While Emma is passed out, we get a very narration captions, of a second voice in her head.
The Sentinel is slowing making its way towards the mansion.
In space, Abigail Brand is doing some push ups. We see that on her arms, she has tattoos – “Anna” and “Grace.” An agent comes in and tells her that the mansion has gone silent, including their mole.
Look at those amazing backgrounds!
I like that the school only has nine telepaths, that really shouldn’t be a power that too many have. Wolverine confirms that they are isolated in the county.
Lockheed arrives! He must have been attempting to contact Brand. Kitty requested him to do some long-range recon, and he is back. Look at the muscles that Cassaday gives Lockheed! That dragon is a star!
Wolverine asks how Kitty and Lockheed are able to communicate with each other, if all of the telepaths were shut down. Kitty explains that their connection is intuitive, more instinct than thought.
Scott wants some lights.
So Lockheed lights up the sky, revealing the Sentinel. Sentinel eye beams the team, Colossus proves useful by blocking Wolverine, Kitty phases through the beam and Scott jumps aside.
The Sentinel goes on stating, destroy the oppressors! It flings a gate and both Lockheed and Scott dodge it. That Sentinel has gone too far! Scott makes a poor field decision and instructs Kitty to take the students into the Danger Room.
Scott optic blasts the Sentinel and gets back handed, which is impressive that he can take that hit and get back up.
Kitty is getting the students into the Danger Room and avoiding eye beams.
Scott tells the boys to get behind him, as he wants the Sentinel off his lawn. He takes off his visor and leaves a small crater.
Colossus notes that he heard the Sentinel say, oppressors.
Kitty and Lockheed finally lock the students into the Danger Room.
Cassaday straight up reuses the bottom panel of the previous page for the middle one of this page.
Kitty and the students (not sure where Lockheed is) see Wing’s dead body. Kitty calls Armor by her real name, Hisako. She asks Armor for help but Armor is too busy reeling from the sight of her dead friend.
Some kid notices that the exit door is missing.
Outside, the Sentinel is going on and on about father’s sins, as Wolverine slices into it.
Kitty attempts to phase through the wall but she can’t leave the room. Just then, Wing stands up – which is quite the sight!
Outside of the room, Colosus is putting his entire body to try to open the door. He fails as he sucks at everything. Scott feels pretty silly for doing exactly what was expected of him.
Emma has woken up and ends the issue stating that the enemy is not in the Danger Room. THE THREAT IS THE DANGER ROOM!!! WHAT!?! The Danger Room is angry!
Mails to Astonish, letters from – Luis of Bridgeport, CT / Glen Wadleight of Austin, Texas / Ian Rothe / Mark of Springfield, NJ / A Happy Fan / David Bolung of Melbourne, Australia and Joel Padre of Glendale, Ca.
My son turns two, today, so we are celebrating with one of Pryde’s Pride!
Emma is taking out each member of the team, this is how she handles Kitty.
Colossus and Kitty welcome their new baby boy, Michael. I’m not sure why these two would name their son, Michael. Besides it being an English version of Mikhail, Colossus’ older brother. But that is a horrible person to name your son after, and I’m pretty sure Kitty and Mikhail has never had any panel time together. Which may explain why she would be cool with it, as she doesn’t have any negative implications with the namesake.
Is Logan’s reference to wanting to finally smoke a cigar, a reference to Joe Quesada’s No Smoking policy?
Xavier comes in and Kitty is very proud to to show off her son. Xavier makes a face, like something is wrong.
Years later, maybe only one, Michael is saying “Arigato” which is Japanese for “thank you.” Kitty isn’t sure where he is picking up this language, she figured Russian. She wonders if he has a power like Doug. Colossus quickly shoots that down, which I like that jealousy angle.
Xavier, in a new style hover chair – which doesn’t seem save, if someone pushed him off of it, as his legs are not protected at all. Xavier tells Kitty to get away from Michael.
Kitty, rightfully so, takes offense that Xavier refers to Michael as an, it. The whole team is here, to take away Michael. Including Colossus, who hits Kitty, as Xavier shut down her powers.
Michael, apparently, has some great and terrible power, no one is being specific. Kitty, as a great mother, refuses to allow them to take her child away from her, based off of vague details. Kitty whispers to Colossus to distract them as she makes a run for it. Proving that he is the worst, he hits her.
Kitty has Colossus dead to rights, with an axe currently phased through his head. If he doesn’t tell her where her son is, he is dead. She calls him a, big stupid metal robot – which is is how I feel about robots too.
Apparently, while being force-ably kept from her son, she sung him to sleep every night. This went on for eighteen months, which is forever, in terms of having a baby! Poor Kitty counted the days – five hundred and forty-seven times. For anyone interested, 1.5 years is 13,118 hours.
This is sort of breaking my heart, poor baby Michael went to sleep, 547 times without his mother, at his side.
Colossus reveals that Michael is in the basement and “Emma’s” mind tricks are lifted. Kitty, still in the illusion, heads off to the basement.
SWORD Peak station. Brand is discussing the situation with Sydren. Brand isn’t surprised that it was Emma, who was the traitor, Fury stated that would most likely happen. Sydren states that it feels like Cassandra Nova but not quite like her – which is super helpful.
Agent Deems comes in, and says the mole has a visual. Ord and Danger have teamed up. Brand hates that the Shi’ar are still screwing things up, as Danger is Shi’ar tech, giving life. I’m right there with Brand, Shi’ar have done more harm than good.
The mole checks in, wanting to stop Ord but Brand wants to see this play out. Brand talks directly to the mole, who is . . .
I sort of like how there is a two page spread about NBC’s Heroes, which that first season was so good, especially once Sylar shows up. What I like about the ad is how it builds suspense to the big reveal.
The big mystery since issue eight, who is the mole?, is finally revealed. It is Lockheed! What!?!
Look how boss Cassaday draws Lockheed, that little fella is built like a shithouse!
James wakes up Armor and catches her up. The Pryde girl walked away. Howlett saw Emma’s undercruve silhouette. Armor wants to know about Ms. Pryde, me too!
Kitty starts narrating how family always fails you. I love the phase, the only person you can trust is the one you make.
Kitty gets to the box that her son is in.
Blindfold wakes up Colossus. He is knocked out from when Shaw boxed his stupid ears. She gives him his orders.
Beast, still acting like a mindless animal, has killed a deer and is eating it raw dog.
We get a scene of the New Hellfire Club. Cassandra Nova is getting inpatient.
Kitty thinks to herself, that this is going to be difficult. The box has been made, Kitty-proof. She has 18 months of practicing for this one moment.
Kitty gets her hand into the box, and it is quite painful.
James isn’t use to all of this funny business, like women walking through walls. He knows she went downwards and westerly. Armor swears at him, in Japanese, that he calls “heathen funny talk.” He reminds her that he has claws.
Danger crashes into the room and James and Armor fall backwards. Ord is right behind her.
We get the page that this issue is mostly known for –
James Howlett disappears and Wolverine is back, thanks to beer!
Ord wants Danger to take him to Colossus.
Kitty has saved Michael. Colossus enters the basement but sees Michael.
Instead of a human baby, that we knew wasn’t going to be an actual baby – instead it is a giant green slug. And it is so disgusting that Colossus passes out. This is a hold over from the Morrison run, wherein Cassandra Nova’s essence is trapped in the slug. Which I thought she was stuck in the form of, Ernst, but I could be wrong.
Kitty passes out, from the strain.
Cassandra Nova can’t wait to transfer from the slug form to Kitty – which is a great idea!
So much fun that Cassandra Nova has plans to treat Kitty’s hair better than Kitty already does. She’s wasting it!
Before the Hellfire Club can make a move, Perfection (the fake Emma) is shot by . . . Cyclops! Which ends the issue.
Cyclops makes a reference to issue 14, when Emma told him that he doesn’t have claws, after she dressed him as Wolverine and he attempted to stab her. Instead, it was like a weak punch, I imagine.
. . .
Today is Walker Dennis’ second birthday! I’m so proud of you, son, and everything that you have accomplished!
(So I typed this on May 26, 2015 – so I’m seven months behind on my reviews – I have lots of comics! I didn’t realize I had that many but I really don’t want to just do reviews every single day but I recognize that the event is nearly over and I’m just now reviewing the issues.)
I went with this variant, as I’m sure that is Kitty Pryde playfully punching Peter Quill’s arm. I posed the question to the Uncanny X-Cast Facebook group and I’m being told there that those two are Clint Barton and Kate Bishop, the Hawkeyes, which would explain the target on his shirt. Still, I had to buy this issue for one character in specific, so I took a shot with this variant.
Issue opens with Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange and Molecule Man are trying to plead with the Beyonders but Doom has a plan. This is the only pages, I feel, that one needed to read the entire Hickman Avengers opus to fully grasp. Instead, to me, it just reads like Doom is speaking to a mysterious force, which sort of still works.
The Multiverse is dying. Only two universes remain. Today, Earths collide.
Manhattan. Earth-1610. Incursion Event Imminent. Just for anyone who doesn’t know and may be reading this, for the first time – 1610 is the Ultimate Universe and 616 is the Proper Marvel Universe.
The Triskelion. Headquarters of this Earth’s SHIELD. Ultimate Fury wants Reed to explain how much time is left.
The City. Home of the Cabal and the Children of Tomorrow. Currently residing in Manhattan. Ultimate Reed has a weird helmet on his head. Reed gives Fury some hope, there is still time to fight this out. Once Reed ends the call, we see that Reed has been working with the Proper Marvel’s Cabal (the villain version of the Illuminati) – Thanos, Black Swan and Terrax. Reed reveals that the two Earths should have no hope, he lied to Fury so that Fury could feel decent about his last hours.
Once I saw that Ultimate Shadowcat was actually in this title, I knew I was in a for a good time. As I suspect that I will be jumping in and out of this series.
Another crossover and looking over the list, I feel pretty good for knowing all but a few characters.
I still don’t know who the Avengers Manifold & Pod are. I’m not sure about the X-Men’s Nation X Sentinels, I know Hickman’s Avengers 38 dealt with Cyclops and Nation X but that didn’t have Kitty at all. So I didn’t read that issue.
I’m disappointed that proper Kitty isn’t counted amongst the Guardians of the Galaxy.
I’m not sure who Inferno is of the Inhumans, but I’m sure he’s just a new Inhuman that won’t be around in a year.
Ultimate Universe, I just assume that The City and Children of Tomorrow are both related to Reed, I know that is true of the City but it sounds right with the Children of Tomorrow, as well.
The only members of the Cabal, that I don’t know are Proxima Midnight & Corvus Glaive. This is a more cosmic Cabal than Norman Osborn’s Cabal. I do like the note that they are on the Ultimate Earth but they are from the Proper Marvel Universe.
Manhattan. Earth-616. The Incursion Point between both Worlds.Though the narrative, we are informed that the this world’s populace knows that their end is soon. Unless the heroes can help.
Baxter Building. Near it, an explosion occurs. We see that the Fantastic Four have been making a Life Raft, with a bunch of brains being invited. I like Reed growing a beard. Black Panther is also on board. We get the first check in with Black Widow and Spider-Woman, who are bringing in the majority of the scientists. A few didn’t want to come, opting to spend their last hours with their families. That is an impossible choice but I can only imagine I choose to stay on Earth. Unless I can pull an Elijah Wood in Deep Impact and marry Leelee Sobieski and bring her along with me.
Manifold is trying to save the day, by following Black Panther’s instructions but it really isn’t explained how he is going to do it or what his powerset is. He isn’t successful, like, not even a tad.
Ultimate Iron Man is leading the Ultimate army (of SHIELD soldiers) against a main heroes listed on the character list, so the Ultimate side of things have no chance.
Spider-Man is about, saving civilians as is Iron Fist and Luke Cage. Representing the Guardians of the Galaxy are – Star Lord, Drax and Rocket. No mention of where the other members are. Not sure why they didn’t bring their cosmically enhanced members such as Gamora and Shadowcat. Thor (who is really Jane Foster) is fighting along with Storm.
FalCap and Iceman witness Sentinels coming to assist as Cyclops is leading them, as he is a leader of Nation X. Captain Marvel is directly fighting Ultimate Iron Man. Groot is on the scene, as well. Ultimate Iron Man inappropriately hits on Captain Marvel.
She-Hulk fights a weak spot in the Ultimate Hellicarrier and Colossus fastball specials Doc Green, in that direction. The Ultimate Universe is not putting up a decent fight, at all. Ultimate Hawkeye is on board, aiding Ultimate Nick Fury, they know they are not putting up a fight. Fury tells Reed to begin to use his doomsday worldkiller weapon.
Giant explosions star occurring. We get a panel with Ultimate Jean, Wolverine, Cloak & Dagger and Shadowcat! Hence, why I own this issue. I’m hoping, since they are included here, that they are crucial (or at least, involved) in Ultimate End. Which I can only imagine takes place right before this issue. So the final issue has to recreate some of this.
There are these, practically, city wide domes on Earth now. They slowly open, revealing a slew of smaller ships. Seems like Ultimate City is just the Proper version of The World, of the Weapon X facility.
Ultimate Spider-Man was standing on one of the globes. Now the Ultimate Universe has brought its big guns.
Kingpin sent a massive e-mail to his fellow villains. I like their e-mails
I wish they were more imaginative e-mail handles, Fisk’s is pretty great. Punisher arrives at the party, he can’t bring his bullets to the afterlife, and so he kills all that are present. I imagine, the villains, didn’t put up much of a fight.
Natasha calls Susan, they are not going to make it to the Baxter Building. Black Widow is the first hero (and Spider-Woman) that we see die, on panel.
Oh, Manifold’s ability is to get the second life raft (you know, the one that contains named characters), and they take off. So we have Reed, Black Panther and Susan that are safe and the other Fantastic Four family members and fellow Foundation students.
Black Panther puts out the call to get the survivors that they need.
Cyclops grabs his Phoenix Egg, which I’m still not sure about.
Apparently, it just contains the Phoenix Force. Cyclops gets the Phoenix Force aura around him but not the red thong.
We get Drax, Groot and Rocket’s deaths – and Rocket did not want to be on Earth. We see Drax and an uncosmically enhanced Gamora, so that is odd. I imagine that Hickman was told everything before he wrote this issue, so he should have been told about the end of a very well promoted crossover, Black Vortex.
Star Lord disappears, as does Thor, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man. Manifold decides not to take off in the life raft, he wants to stay and keep gathering the needed heroes. The life raft launches from the Baxter Building. Phoenix Force empowered Cyclops is also on the life raft. Instead of a black mask with red cross, Cyclops’ mask is now yellow.
Reed if flying the life raft into the heart of the Incursion, as that is their best chance at survival. A lightning blast strikes the side of their round life raft. The carrier section breaks away, Black Panther tells Reed (and us) that Susan and their children are located there. Which is odd, as two pages earlier – Susan, Franklin and Val, are strapping in right behind Reed. What happened in the ensuing page (which was the full page of the lightning blast)?
Susan places a force field around the carrier section. Reed tells T’Challa to drop the shields, he is going to reach out and grab them. T’Challa tells him he only has seconds to make the attempt. Reed has five seconds and they go by so quickly and . . . this is so heartbreaking, fails. We see the carrier burn up – so Susan, Franklin, Val and Thing are all dead.
On Reed’s section – for sure – are, Star Lord, Thor, Captain Marvel and Black Panther.
How great is that narration? I full agree with it. You find your life partner, and you can’t believe you can love anyone as much and then you go ahead and have a child. You still love your life partner, but – somehow – you love this child more than you love anything you ever loved before. Reed has lost his family and, with that middle panel, has lost an entire planet and worst, a universe. Such a devastating page!
We end the issue with Doom, who use to believe in tomorrow but now he believes in nothing. Issue two will be defining Doom’s role and the new (temporary) Marvel Earth – Battleworld.
Such a great way to end the issue with the tombstone of the two great Marvel lines. The proper one, 1961 – 2015 and the Ultimate one, 2000 – 2015. I can’t believe the Ultimate Universe was 15 years old. Marvel was a very young, 54 year old.
Other famous 53 year olds? Michael J. Fox, Melissa Etheridge, Ralph Macchio, Eddie Murphy, Boy George, Richard Hatch, Scott Baio, KD Lang, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jane Leeves, Meg Ryan, Thomas Hayden Church, Enya, George Clooney and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky. All born in 1961 – how crazy how much they al accomplished for being born the same year and how different each of their careers are, no two have the same path. All with various levels of success.
While working at Hastings, I was trying to sell slash hype this issue and this one guy started flipping through the pages. I asked him to slow down as with each quick page turn, he was quickly killing the Marvel Universe. We had a good laugh after that.
Sadly, this fantastic issue is ruined with a six page preview of Uncanny Inhumans. Which is unwanted and unnecessary.
This handy website has a more detailed commentary of the issue :
Which is a pretty interesting read, as I read none of Hickman’s Avengers and two issues of his Fantastic Four run.
YouTuber ComicsIsland had this pretty awesome hour long episode –
Which is pretty great as I rather just watched this than buy the eventful Hickman Avengers Omnibus. There were parts that almost lost my interest but then the reveal with Doom and how everything starts paying off, sounds pretty great.
ComicsIsland has plenty of similar theme episodes, which is pretty great as well as review episodes and fun top ten lists and such.
. . .
Since I bought the variant cover at Hastings, I was awarded with a giant poster of the Battleworld Map!
I do enjoy being able to hold the entire map and seeing everything larger than I can on a computer screen.
I’ve tried my hand at scanning the one I have :
That isn’t any better but maybe someone with sweet skills can make that work.
I’m trying to find an image with all of the covers revealed, as at this point, only three portions of the map are still CLASSIFIED and no further information is available on those.
Apparently, Marvel released a trailer for this event and had started connecting with portions are which titles.
Thanks to Marvel Entertainment for hosting their own video, also this next video!
This was the first video of The Watcher’s that I have seen. I’ve seen previous videos of Lorraine Cink’s advertised before but I may have to check more of them out.
I was surprised that Wikipedia had the full list and the corresponding titles, that is pretty handy!
Battleworld map
Following numerous incursions across the multiverse, the remains of various realities have been fused together to create a new Battleworld. All of these realities are known as domains and have the ability to interact with each other, except for three (consisting of the Deadlands, Perfection and New Xandar) which are separated from the rest by the Wall for the simple fact that these domains contains threats that if set loose, would destroy all the others.
The following is a list of the domains and the Marvel Comics event titles that are their basis or reimagining as revealed on Marvel Comics’ Interactive Battleworld map. Secret Wars #2 will publish a complete guide to each domain:
43. Timely (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – The town of Timely where all the Marvel characters exist in an 1872 Wild West setting.
44. Genosha (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – The island that became the Mutant homeland and where the E is For Extinction mini-series will be set.
45. Holy Wood and Forest Hills (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – Though mentioned in the solicitation for the Korvac Saga, they are not shown on the Battleworld map.
Special thanks and shoutout to whomever typed all of that up and figuring it out!
I was looking for this Marvel Interaction Secret Wars 2015 Battlemap page but unfortunately it is only a hotlink on their main page for the event, so I’m not sure if it will still be an active website but it should work for a while, I imagine.
A nice brief summary of what each portion of Battleworld and which comic series that it correspondences with.
The titles and sections of the map that I’m mostly interested in, and at the very least, tracking are –
Number – Region Title – Comic Title
3 – Domain of Apocalypse – Age of Apocalypse
Which is above Limbo (which I’m also tracking) to the left of both Egyptia and Technopolis (which I’m not tracking). To the left of it is – Mutopia to the top left, Westchester (the FOX X-Men Animated series by Chris Sims) shares a small border and The Wastelands makes up the bulk of it.
11 – K’un-Lun – Master of Kung Fu
Which is to the right of Regency (the world if Peter never made a deal with THE DEVIL to undo his marriage to Mary Jane, so that his elderly aunt can live a few more years) / below King James’ England (the 1602 world) / to the right of Utopolis and above Weirdworld
17 – Marville – Giant Size Little Marvel
Which is surrounded by Utopolis above it, Arachnia to the right and New Quack City – where Howard the Duck is from, below it.
20 – Manhattan – a) Attilan (Inhumans) b) Proper Marvel New York City c) Ultimate Marvel New York City d ) Monster Metropolis
Don’t care about the Inhumans, but I’m sure b & c are going to crucial to the main series and whichever titles are not associated with a certain portion (such as Star Lord and Age of Apocalypse Kitty Pryde) and Ultimate should be where Ultimate End takes place in. Monster Metropolis is where Shiklah‘s kingdom is.
They are surrounded by several locations too! High Avalon to the left / CLASSIFIED above / CLASSIFIED to the left / The City (but not the City from The Tick, unfortunately) below. I imagine those CLASSIFIED locations are important only because of how close they are to the most important locations.
29 – Monarchy of M – House of M
I highly doubt SHIELD agent Illyana Rasputin or school teacher, Kitty Pryde, are going to be in this at all. Killville (where MODOK is important) to the top right and 2099 to the bottom right. 2099 is suppose to be a title that survives this event, somehow.
30 – Sentinel Territories – Years of Future Past
Killville to the left / 2099 to the bottom left / The Wastelands (Old Man Logan) to the bottom right / Mutopia (Morrison’s E is for Extinction) to the right
37 – Limbo – Inferno
Limbo, being so vast, covers quite some ground on Battleworld. Well, until I realize it was suppose to be a globe, so now I want a gif of the map spinning so I can get a better grasp on it. To the top of it is Domains of Apocalypse, along with 36 and 31 and below it (but separated by the SHIELD) is both The Deadlands (Marvel Zombies) & Perfection (Age of Ultron). Which makes sense as there is a comic, Age of Ultron v Marvel Zombies, which seems highly missable to me now. New Xandar (where Thanos is kept) is also separated by THE SHIELD. The SHIELD is there to prevent the horrors from escaping into the rest of Battleworld.
So this is all pretty exciting!
I was looking at the map, to make this post an my wife had a few things to add. First, that the Battleworld doesn’t look like Earth. Which brought her to ask if America was even represented. Which sort of blew my mind, as Battleworld is now like 90 percent American. There is an England, Egypt, Howard the Duck world, and maybe Mars? but the other 30 sections are American. New Xandar is Xandrian. Limbo is a different dimension. K’un -Lun is also another dimension.
Inkers Butch Guice with Andrew Currie & Karl Story
Colorists Paul Mounts with Justin Ponsor & Rain Beredo
Letterer Chris Eliopoulos
Flashback Artists – David Finch, Danny Miki, Frank d’Armata, Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines, Morry Hollowell, Olivier Coipel, John Dell, Mike Deodato Jr., Joe Pimental, Dave Stewart, Leinil Yu, Mark Morales, Laura Martin, Bryan Hitch, Rain Beredo, Billy Tan, Matt Banning, Justin Ponsor
Cover Dated June 2010
Jessica got the cover treatment! Looking at the credits, I’m not sure which other pages Immonen and his team did, besides the very last page. I suspect he may did any pages with Jessica (as she isn’t part of the action) but those pages still look like Hitch. Maybe it is the inkers throwing me off but I’m not sure. The final two page splash are the only pages that look like Immonen.
This issue starts with a warning, to read Siege 4, prior to this issue. This issue ends the, Dark Reign of Norman Osborn. Well, Siege 4 did that, but this has the aftermath.
Issue opens with everyone’s favorite villainous father daughter pair, Count Nefaria (of Uncanny X-Cast fame) and his lovely daughter, Whitney, Madame Masque. She is seeking help from her father as her boyfriend, The Hood, and her are on the run. This is one of the few appearances of the Count’s that I’ve actually read and it is hard not to read his voice in the classic vampire fashion.
I do like how, under the Iron Patriot helmet, Norman would still paint his face green to represent his Goblin side. So kooky! Siege took place on the Asgard portion of Oklahoma.
Poor Jessica Jones is watching the news, looking for any sign of her husband, Luke Cage. Danielle is happy, sucking down some milk or formula.
Jessica gets a call from the US Army, Luke borrowed a phone. Which is nice as my wife would not answer her phone from a number she didn’t recognize. Luke is telling her that he is okay but there is a mess.
Cut to an awesome and what Hitch does best, double page splash. The pages are full of debris and so much detailed destruction.
Jessica wants him to come home but he can’t as the New Avengers are still fugitives of the law – due to the Superhero Registration Act. Their phones get disconnected.
The team make sure that they are all okay. Ronin wants to take a moment to appreciate their win. After that moment, the team wants to leave as, if they help the police, they will get arrested. Most likely, after the damage has been cleaned up. Captain America, the real one, is summoned by the President. Most likely, Obama, but Bendis doesn’t like dating his comics, like that.
Spider-Woman looks over and sees the fallen villains that Norman had en massed, including the Wrecking Crew. Ronin wants to know where the Hood is, but none of the thugs know. So this whole issue is about finding the Hood. Someone gives up the name of Hood’s cousin, John King. They find him, he calls Hood and arranges a meeting.
The team gets to where Hood, Madame Masque and Count Nefaria are. Cage is told about who Nefaria is. Carol explains his powerset. He has the combined power of Living Laser, Atlas of the Thunderbolts and either Whirlwind or Whizzer (it is Whirlwind)’s speed. So energy projection from Living Laser and strength from Atlas. Also, he is essentially immortal. Cage makes a phone call, they need some additional power.
Inside, Nefaria is willing to help Hood but only for all of his money. With the power upgrade that Nefaria promises, the Hood can make up all of that money, rather quickly. He is not impressed with the Hood,at all.
The Avengers crash through the window and the fight begins. Carol is the first to confront Nefaria, she’s going by Ms. Marvel at this point. She starts taking a beating from him, but only so she can absorb his energy – a powerset people forget that she has. I didn’t even know she had it! Is that a left over from her Binary days?
So she hits him with his own power which weakens him to merely “not so powerful” but still. He takes down Carol and shouts that he is immortal. Just then, Wolverine shows up to start ripping into Nefaria. This is who Cage called. Carol starts back into Nefaria, taking more of his energy. He is immortal but a tad less so, so Wolverine’s attacks are mostly weakening him.
Wolverine was on the West Coast, as the X-Men are on Utopia.
Asgard, Oklahoma. The Avengers drop – Hood, Madame Masque, Count Nefaria and John King.
Cage asks Hill what the Avengers are, and she tells him that they need to watch the news.
New York. The Next Day. Superhuman Registration Act Thrown Out. Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, replaces Norman Osborn as America’s Top Cop. So this issue sets up the Heroic Age, a more back to basics approach Marvel branded the titles with.
Rogers, out of his star spangled suit, informs the team that the President has appointed him, The Director of SHIELD. Which lasts a decent amount of time. Rogers reveals that Count Nefaria was one of the responsible parties from the original first issue of New Avengers, volume one.
Mockingbird brings up the question of what they do now. This, somehow, sets up Cage to provide a giant monologue, which is mostly an excuse to reprint art from previous storylines.
We get a glimpse from the original Ronin storyline, that had Echo under the hood.
Yes, I own this just because of this page, that I already own once, during the original Sentry storyline.
Cage has been honored to be counted among these New Avengers.
Which is taken directly from New Avengers 8 with art by David Finch.
I guess the House of M counts as it was a Bendis penned crossover and this title would have had tie-in issues.
We get the storyline reminder, and the mess that it was, with the essence of the lost mutant powers, reappearing on Earth and killing Alpha Flight and eventually ending up with Weapon Omega. It also was Bendis doing what Marvel needed so that they can use Magneto again after Morrison’s attempted to shelf the character with the Xorn business.
Double splash page (they all have been, thus far) of Secret Invasion, another Bendis written crossover.
Double splash from when Doctor Strange was looking for the new Sorcerer Supreme.
New Avengers v Dark Avengers!
The final one of these is when Rogers, as Captain America, got to throw his mighty shield into Iron Patriot, Norman Osborn’s face.
I really like this final page, clearly done by Immonen – with all of the characters, out of costume. My only problem, with it? Shouldn’t Bucky’s arm be metallic? It is definitely flesh colored.
The next issue is Bendis’ first Avengers 1, with a very complicated time adventure.
We conclude the mini-Mike Carey event with this issue!
So great that Ultimate Shadowcat was already becoming one of the main X-characters at this point.
She makes her appearance last issue but she is the main threat to both issues here so I finally looked Rhonda Burcill, who is the Ultimate version of Thinker – hence why she has Awesome Andy – who she calls, Robby, which is obviously a nickname off of Robot. One would think a super genius would have a bigger name for such things. She originally appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four 19 and 20, which were also written by Mike Carey. So now that we know that, we should be able to enjoy the issue properly.
I’m not sure what happened to me when I first read these issues but I remember not liking them and feeling like I was missing so much or that the issues were confusing. I probably just read them too quickly, or something. Maybe even alphabetical order? That could have been the case.
Issue opens with Yu art, as we see the X-Men realizing they have been had.
Baxter Building, New York. Reed is being mentally teased by Miss Rhona Burchill. She starts mentally taking down guards.
Wolverine gets back on his feet and fights Thing.
Wolverine gets a bit of an advantage over Thing. Then embarrassingly takes taken out by his own flu. I like having some fun with Wolverine, he’s a character that can easily kill everyone in the next room, so you can put him in silly situations like this as it won’t damage him at all.
That is a great look between Ben and Reed.
Reed, smartly, wants to make a truce and goes directly to Shadowcat, the only brain the X-Men have.
Rhona starts going a tad insane with having so much mental powers so quickly. She’s smart, so she has a decent grasp on her new powers.
Reed is impress with what Xavier and Magneto was able to build, which they really don’t get enough create for all of their gadget creations. Sure, Cerebro gets mention but they had to build fancy planes and uniforms. Heck, even the Danger Room had to be designed and programmed.
We learn that the X-Men uniforms block themselves from Sentinel scanners, which is handy.
Shadowcat asks if Reed ever had a girlfriend, she probably just feels like it is nice to talk to a guy who doesn’t try to make fart noises with his own mouth after the first three minutes of meeting him.
I still prefer Shadowcat with Spider-Man but I wouldn’t have minded Shadowcat dating Reed, though he turn out to be a horrible person later – from what I’ve read about and seen in Cataclysm. Plus, there would be no way for Proper Kitty and Reed to date, so it is fun to wish for Proper Kitty and Spider-Man to date as that is an option.
Reed is stun and doesn’t know how to talk to a woman, romantically, who isn’t Sue. Why would anyone else want to talk to him about such matters? He has no time for that, he only has eyes for Sue.
Reed was able to make Wolverine better but he won’t be at full strength in a while. Shadowcat recognizing him as their heaviest hitter is accurate. Thing might take offense to that but Wolverine has a killer instinct that Grimm doesn’t have.
Johnny can’t figure out why Kitty isn’t talking to him but talks to Reed. Sue isn’t impressed. Their father wants the Ultimates to deal with Rhona.
I was just thinking if this series was to tie into one of the Fantastic Four films but the first one came out in 2005 and the sequel was 2007, so that doesn’t time out.
Reed created refractions shields, so they have a better chance of not succumbing to Rhona’s mental powers. He mentions that Human Torch’s shield only works up to a certain degree, so now we can expect him to get at least as hot as four hundred decrees. Don’t worry, it never becomes an issue. It is only an example of Reed having to tell Johnny what is up.
Since Rhona can control machines, they have to part the Fantasti-car a distance away and walk the rest.
We get the Rivalry of Iceman and Human Torch, which is as natural as sharks and bears being nature’s best friends.
Thanks to YouTuber zombiefeast for hosting the video. I really do miss Space Ghost Coast to Coast. This is from the Kentucky Nightmare episode, Season 7 Episode 1.
Not a fan of Reed calling the team of Shadowcat and Invisible Woman, girls, but that’s Ultimate Reed for you.
Sue and Kitty would be my ultimate heroes turn villains duo, as they could kill people so fast and easily!
Instead, Sue tries to undermine Kitty, probably due to Kitty’s slight interest in Reed.
Shadowcat’s plan is to phase her hands through the electronics and disable them. Sue has a faster plan, to set off miniature force fields, have them expand and take out an entire wall in a few actions.
Which I sort of like a Sue Storm with attitude, something the 60s version wasn’t really allowed to have. She isn’t defined by her gender or who she is with or who she has birthed. I’m sure she is considered the strongest member of the team like her proper version is. She would have to.
There is a two page Daily Bugle styled Bullpen Bulletin. Storm 1 of 6, learn the full story of Ororo’s past. Astonishing X-Men 13, he wait is over and it’s time to rock! Ultimate Fantastic Four 27, featuring Ultimates, and President Thor? X-Men 182, the return of Apocalypse! New Excalibur 4, the team is formed and they’re not happy about it. Uncanny X-Men 469, An X-Man takes teh law into their own tank. Wolverine 39, a deadly showdown with the Winter Soldier! X-Men Deadly Genesis 4 of 6, Professor X’s darkest secret stands revealed before all! New X-Men 23, X-23 must make a difficult choice!
Iceman saves a boy, the boy is under Rhona’s control. Ben and Reed get into the cargo bay. Thing fights Robbie.
Rhona takes control of the two boys and have them fight each other.
Shadowcat tries to sneak attack but is too close to Rhona.
If Shadowcat could have phased her hand, the story would be done.
Rhona takes control of the ladies’ minds. Before she can do anything though, Reed comes busting through the wall.
Thing is under Rhona’s control and starts fighting Reed. Reed takes a page out of Rhona’s book and gives her a adapting virus.
Rhona is escaping while the heroes are regathering their thoughts.
Wolverine has a plan to ensure that they never have to worry about Rhona again. He cut her secondary fuel line, which causes her flying car to explode.
Wolverine tries his best at a lame hero line but I can’t believe everyone just stands around, wiping their hands clean of the situation. Wolverine just straight murdered someone and they just shrug their shoulders. So bizarre!
Baxter Building. The Next Day.
Reed has cleaned up the Cerebro components. Yu has taken over for the issue. Which I wonder why he even did that for? He got to draw only three pages. Was the script not long enough and Carey had to add a few pages? Was Yu just looking for work? The pages are nice but I’m not sure why they switched artists.
He drew the X-Men Away Team page, so maybe Ferry only wanted to do the Fantastic Four pages after having to do all of the X-Men pages in the previous chapter. Is that even a reason?
Lieutenant Lumpkin, that is quite the upgrade from postal carrier, but it could be his son too as he is quite young here. Or it is a familiar last name.
Human Torch tries to hit on Shadowcat, she’s seeing Spider-Man, so why downgrade? As far as I know, he never tries to hit on her again once he is living with Aunt May. We’ll have to pay attention to that once we review those issues.
Wolverine is going to dry the Rolls Royce back to Salem. Jean Grey and the X-Plane fly above them, offering to pick them up but Wolverine wants the drive. Would that plane be able to load the car into it? It seems too sleek for that.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 