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X-Treme X-Men 19

Posted by John Klein III on November 27, 2014
Posted in: Review, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

X-Treme X-Men 19

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist Salvador Larroca

Colors Liquid!

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Cover Dated December 2002

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!  This is our second and final comic that helps us celebrate good ol’ Turkey day!

Actually this is a little embarrassing.  I’ve been saying for years (at least two!) how this has been a Thanksgiving Day comic.  Turns out, when I was reading this, that Jean and Beast make a cake and they, other guests and the X-Treme X-Men team, all sit at a long table and enjoy each others company and cake.  In my mind, I must have thought it was a turkey and not cake – oops!

But the philosophy here at S&FwM has always been – now – that if I touch a back issue, I might as well review that issue.  I just wish someone had pulled me aside and told me that Power Pack 19 was the only Thanksgiving Comic I own.  That would have been nice!

You can follow along thanks to this website :

http://amocat.net/kiotr/KIOTR-Gallery/X-Treme-X-Men-19

Onto the issue!

So in the previous issue, the X-Treme X-Men defeated Khan and his army, so this is a nice breather issue that Claremont and the X-Men are famous for – and I love.

I do own issue 18 so I will review that issue one of these days.

So the X-Treme X-Men are – Bishop, Gabmit, Lifeguard, Rogue, Sage, Storm and Thunderbird.

Their guests are – Beast, Jean, Kitty, Nightcrawler and Wolverine.

They are in New Orleans as Rogue’s foster mother (her original one, not Mystique) has left Rogue a very nice mansion.  I’m not sure what ever happens to this property, does she still have it?  Has it been destroyed?  I do like how her foster mother kept her in the will and before she died, amassed a nice fortune.  Rogue got lucky there!  As far as I know, once Rogue ran away and joined Mystique’s Brotherhood of Mutants, she stopped communicating with her original foster parents.  Like all good mutants who join the X-Men (and apparently evil mutant groups, as well!) do.

X-Treme X-Men 19 Kitty 1

Jean, wearing a tube top that she would never wear!  Of all of the appearances I’ve ever read of Jean, she is ultra conservative.  Larroca must be thinking of Phoenix, who was the more adventurous dresser.  Its okay by me though.  She’s away from Scott, so why not let the lady dress however she pleased.

Beast is wearing a chef’s outfit.

X-Treme X-Men 19 Kitty 2

They made a cake and everyone gathers around the table.  Beast brags that they made the cake and Jean brags about her telepathic abilities lets her know how big of a slice everyone wants and her telekensis powers make it so that she can serve the pieces of cake without making a mess.  Or touching the cake and leaving fingerprints in everyone’s slices.

Bishop sees Sage and invites her into the celebration.  She politely turns him down and keeps walking into the house.

Beast applauds Rogue for killing Vargas – the villain who killed Psylocke way back in issue 2.  Which was a bit of a controversy back in the day as Claremont was going to do one of those classic, kill the hero but bring her back a few issues later – but was told by Quesada that dead means dead (he was trying a new policy).  The controversy comes from how Claremont was told no but Joss Whedon was told yes, when he asked to bring back Colossus.  Claremont is the much bigger name in X-Men but Whedon was the fancy outsider and was being given what he wanted.

Rogue isn’t happy with Beast.  She may have killed him but the price was pretty high.  Gambit was seriously injured (he got better) but both Gambit and her were left powerless after the fight.

Then we get to one of my favorite moments, of many, where Kurt is bragging to Logan about how Kitty is in college now.  I like how Kurt is genuinely happy that his good and dear friend is making a better life for her.

It must be sort of like a Good Will Hunting type of moment – where they know that they have a world glass genius amongst them, who is also quite young – and she is wasting her life away with fighting mutant threats and threats to mutants (they are different!).  She should be out there, getting a degree in computer science and making a life for herself.  Which is what she is doing now but it doesn’t last.

Kitty doesn’t like this attention, as Wolverine is joking about how he thought he will never live to see the day.  Which is very nice foreshadowing on Claremont’s part as Kitty is going to blow up on Jean later in the issue but Claremont sets up Kitty’s thought process right now.  Her father died in the Sentinel attack on Genosha that Cassandra Nova (Xavier’s twin sister) orchestrated.  Not only did her father die in the attack, Kitty found the footage and we learn in Mekanix, that he was lucky (?) enough to find a camera, know his daughter will seek out the footage and was able to mouth that he loves her, then die on camera.  It is pretty heart breaking.

Logan also comments on the fact that Kitty is working in a saloon.  This is all a very clever way to build excitement for the upcoming Mekanix minseries that I can’t way to review one of these days.

Jean gives us a nice time stamp of where this is happening from Grant Morrison’s New X-Men’s perspective, which would be issue 122, if I’m getting that right.

Cassandra Nova, as Xavier, told the entire world that s/he is a mutant and that the school has always been a school for mutants and the doors are now wide open for all to enroll.

Then my second favorite scene happens :

X-Treme X-Men 19 Storm jokes

I like how years later, Claremont can joke about how often he had the villains be attracted to Storm.  It is a rule that all villains find Storm to be unbelievably attractive.  Even in Avenger Spider-Man 16, Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man’s body) felt himself drawn to Storm.

It is a running gag that I really like.

Before Kitty can reveal that she is just joking, there is an ad for Pac-Man Fever, which was suppose to be Namco’s answer to Mario Party – which I’m not a fan of either but I bought it for the PS2.

X-Treme X-Men 19 Kitty 3

It is odd how everyone was joking earlier about Storm but Kitty’s mind swap gag is taken serious.  But then they all crack up.

Lifeguard being new, asks if this happens a lot.  Beast tells her that it does actually.

Jean is here, the entire party really is for, to recruit the X-Treme X-Men back to the school to be teachers.  Jean shows an image of the team in the school uniform looks.  For some reason, Storm’s outfit has, instead of pants, a very short miniskirt.  Whose idea is that?  Jean’s?  Xavier’s?  Poor Storm.

A while back, poor Storm, got injured by Viper, and is slowly recovering but on her way to getting back to full health, is stuck in a wheelchair.

Bishop isn’t sure he wants to go teach at the school.  Jean really pushes that they have a responsibility to mutants and humans.

X-Treme X-Men 19 Kitty 4

This sets off Kitty, as she thought mutants were humans, that was the whole point of Xavier’s dream, that they were one and the same.  Now Jean is sounding like Magneto and others, that mutants are different and thus, should be treated differently.

I sort of love seeing Kitty getting heated with Jean, as these two really don’t have any experience with each other.  Kitty knew Madelyne Pryor and knew the Phoenix, but Jean proper, her exposure is pretty limited.

Kitty walks away from the foolish Jean, after stating that they don’t want to see another Genosha happen.  Jean is pretty dumbfounded, she’s not sure what triggered Kitty’s outburst. Which is odd, as she reads people’s minds for how much cake they want but doesn’t get a sense feeling of what is angering Kitty?  Oh the lines that Jean has that she doesn’t cross.

Kurt goes after Kitty, like a good friend.

Storm tells Jean that Kitty’s father was in Genosha.  Jean had no idea.  Bishop reveals that Kitty wrote Storm a letter (which then she clearly let everyone else read!).

Logan also wasn’t told about Kitty’s father.  Bishop tells him that Kitty has started being more like Logan, keeping things close to the vest.  Bishop also tells the team that Kitty has been having problems at college.

Beast offers Storm to come back to the school, if for anything else, for Xorn to help heal her back like how he did to Xavier.  I wonder if Morrison read this issue and laughed and poor Claremont as who knows how much Claremont knew when he wrote the script that Xorn was Magneto (and then have Marvel much later make it so that Xorn wasn’t Magneto and mess even that up!).

Later, Thunderbird and Lifeguard are chatting it up.  She wants to go look for her brother and Neal wants to go with her, she accepts his offer.

Gambit is off by himself in the gardens of the mansion.  Beast comes to find him.  Gambit tells him that Beast’s nanobot technology is healing Gambit at a quick rate and that the scar is going away.  The X-Men can’t be having scars, as that damages their intellectual property and artists will have to be reminded that the scar is there.  So it will be gone by the next time we see Gambit in a future issue.  Just like when Colossus got that tattoo in Kitty’s memory.  Good thing he became part of the Phoenix Five and that vanished.  As I’m sure it isn’t there and it was never shown to be taken off but that must have been what made it go away.

Speaking of quick, Beast then jumps at Gambit to test his reflexes.  Gambit jokes that Beast is as slow as they come.  He takes out his playing cards and Beast surrounds.  I like how Liquid! doesn’t color the cards lighting up as they can’t.

We get to my final favorite scene, and this one from the other side of the emotional line.  Kurt tells Storm that Kitty is upset.

X-Treme X-Men 19 Kitty 6

Storm goes into Kitty’s guestroom.  Kitty has her bags already packed, she is heading back to school – which is the University of Chicago.

Now that Kitty is with a good friend, she unloads on Storm.  Kitty is tired of seeing all of her friends die or being wounded as Storm being in a wheelchair is a brutal reminder of.

X-Treme X-Men 19 Kitty 7

If Kitty doesn’t think of the X-Men, then she can’t be hurt when she finds out that one of them got hurt.

Kitty hugs Storm, she misses her friends so much!

There is a house ad that lets us know where the Ultimate books were at this time – Ultimate X-Men 23, Ultimate Spider-Man 28 & 29 and Ultimates 9.

Bishop checks on Sage, even bringing her a piece of cake!  That is a good friend!  Sage started out as being a member of the Hellfire Club, then it was revealed that she was really Xavier’s mole from the very beginning.  Some people go out of their way to say she was Original 6 but I don’t buy into that but it is nice that Sage has hardcore fans.

Sage doesn’t want to go to Xavier’s school.  He already is surrounded by some great teachers, what the world needs is a team of X-Men who are out there looking out for non-students, essentially, everybody else.

We then are treated to a very nice scene with Rogue and Gambit.  For the first time, Rogue and him are both powerless.  For Rogue, this is quite the opportunity.  I like how vulnerable she makes herself in this scene.  She asks Gambit if he wants to go away with her.  She would understand that since her power kept him at bay, if now that she doesn’t have it, that he doesn’t want her, that it is okay for him to say so.  The reasoning being that it was always easy for him to not make a commitment to her as she would never let him commit if it was never going to be a physical relationship.  Gambit puts her worries aside and they dance the night away.  Since they can actually have a relationship, Gambit wants to take it one day at a time, for both of their sakes.  Which seems to be the smart play.

The next morning, Jean and Storm are surprised they stayed up all night, chatting away and doing the dishes.  I like seeing the X-Men has being friends, it seems like we don’t get enough of these scenes anymore.

There is a very awkward joke about Storm saying nature has to run its course, in regards to her healing.

X-Treme X-Men 19 Kitty 8

Kitty comes into the room, hearing that last line, and says that Storm is the poster child for Mother Nature.  Which I guess is how it works in RL, someone hears half of a conversation and tries to get involved with a lame joke.  I do it all the time.

Kitty’s ride is finally here and she is ready to back to college.

Jean comments to Storm, that she tried leaving the X-Men but always came back, and she hopes Kitty has better luck.  There was this one time that Jean left but then came back, then the X-Men went into outer space and on their return, the ship they were in started falling apart and Jean had to sacrifice herself.  That would make for a good What If.

Once outside, they see that Gambit and Rogue are leaving too.  I start getting a series finale feel with all of these departures.

Thunderbird and Lifeguard tell the gathered mutants that they are leaving too.

Jean tells the remaining members of X-Treme – Storm, Bishop and Sage – that they can always come to Xavier’s if they want.

Wolverine is going to stick behind and make sure Storm heals properly.

Now that Jean is heading back to the mansion, she is wearing a conservative outfit again.  I see what you are up to, Ms. Grey!

Since they broke the destiny circle that they discovered from Destiny’s Diaries, this does wrap up the intial run on the title.  There is a two part miniseries and then the title comes back with issue 20 properly.  I don’t buy another issue until 25 with the sequel to God Loves, Man Kills.  We’ll review those issues one of these days.

There is an ad for Mekanix, and claiming not to miss it.  Which I did as in Previews, I saw the name and shook my head at it and turned the page.  Now I read those Marvel ones super close.  Though if I still got the book, I could at least see the covers better but still.  The first issue came out on October 19, 2002.

The back cover is for Oreo Os, the breakfast cereal.  Which is how I like to eat Oreos.  I like to put three or four on the bottom of a bowl and then wait a minute and eat them that way with a spoon.  Dunking is for fools!

. . .

So that’s X-Treme X-Men 19, not a Thanksgiving Day comic but a comic with friends and cake.  Not sure what we will do going forward but I’m sure any comic can show thanks for something but that’s on me to figure out.  Please enjoy whoever you get to be with this day and hope you enjoy the food you get to eat!  The food is the reason this is my favorite holiday of them all!

Wolverine Volume Six Issue 12

Posted by John Klein III on October 26, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Wolverine Volume 6 Issue 12

Writer Paul Cornell

Pencils & Inks Pete Woods

Colors David Curiel

Letters VC’s Cory Petit

Last Wolverine Story Conclusion

So this is Cornell’s final issue of Wolverine, his second twelfth issue in two years.  This leads into Death of Wolverine, which I’m still only committed to issue three of as it has Kitty and recently been confirmed she is actually in the issue as well.  I suspect that she is on the last page of issue two but I’m hoping Hastings has plenty of copies of each issue of the series as I only got the middle one.

Not sure if I committed on this before but I will make it official.  How odd is it that Cornell, who is the writer who initially took away Wolverine’s healing factor back in Volume Five, and has spent two years leading up to killing Wolverine, to just have that opportunity taken from him?  For Death of Wolverine, Marvel has selected Charles Soule.  Was Cornell’s run not that well received?  I liked the few issues I’ve read but for a moment there, it was practically a Kitty Pryde and Wolverine series.  Which I would totally buy, heck, just leave Wolverine out of it and I will keep buying it.   Just seems completely bizarre to me.

Previously, the gang Wolverine was leading has figured out he has been playing them the entire time.  That hurt his girlfriend, Pinch’s feelings.  She has a daughter who Sabretooth currently has captive.  Also, Sabretooth is in a mall, which is where he utterly defeated Wolverine at the end of the last volume.

Also, at some point between issue five and twelve, Sabretooth’s plan has gone pretty well and now has an orb that has godlike powers.  That’ll be important later.

Sabretooth’s Underground Base, Bushwick, Brooklyn.  Pitch and Lost Boy are trying to make their way to the surface.

Above ground, SHIELD is trying to get through the force field that surrounds the mall.  Wolverine is in there all by himself.  Well, there are civilians in there, plus Sabretooth and his thugs.

A lady SHIELD officer tells Nick Fury Jr. that there are alternate reality duplicates all around.  That’s who makes up the bulk of Sabretooth’s army.  We don’t see any recognizable alternate reality duplicates, so what’s the point of that line?

Wolverine shouts at people that he is both an Avenger and an X-Man, so they should listen to him.  I wonder why he adds, X-Man, once you say, Avenger, people should just listen.

Wolverine’s armor is more yellow and tan now, instead of yellow and black/blue-ish.  So it looks even more like Shocker’s costume.

I like how Sabretooth is standing around in a suit.  It makes a nice visual with Wolverine in his armor and later just a pair of black boxers.

Sabretooth is talking to Pinch’s daughter and he is getting tired of talking to a twelve year old.  He turns his attention to the orb that has all of this power but Sabretooth seems to be wasting it on small stuff.

Annie, is the name of Pinch’s daughter.  She wants a magical pony who sings.  That at least seems like a worthy request of such an orb.

Sabretooth has decided to just kill her when Wolverine shows up.  He’s using his armor’s claws to get pass everyone.

Underground, Lost Boy is fighting his good duplicates (as he’s a bad guy), each one has a different expression tattooed on their chest.  Simple way of showing off that there are multiple version of him.

Wolverine and Sabretooth get to have one of their heart to hearts.  Just talking to him, convinces Sabretooth to put the orb down and fight each other like how they always do.  Wolverine breaks down who Sabretooth’s character really is.  Just a selfish guy who wants to fight.  Wolverine takes off his armor and pops his actual claws.

Meanwhile, outside.  Thor is fighting Nazi Thor.  I wonder if he’s from the same universe that Nazi Excalibur is from?

Pinch and Lost Boy make it to the surface.

Nazi Thor is the only duplicate that matters.

There is a page dedicated to the Wolverine / Sabretooth fight.  I feel like I’ve seen the give and take of this so many times and especially in the past few years (which may always be a true statement).  Wolverine starts having a mental monologue.  His strategy is to just rope a dope and it works.  Seems like he breaks Sabretooth’s neck.  He is about to dunk his head in the water and finish this nonsense but Annie is watching the fight.

The orb gets to speak to Wolverine and it seems very emotional.  Too emotional.  Wolverine picks it up and undoes the duplicates and the dome.  Death, but not wearing a purple cloak, appears (to us, I believe) stating she wished Wolverine gave her Sabretooth but she will have Wolverine soon.  This whole thing has to burn Cornell’s butt!

Wolverine wakes up and Doctor Lady Frankenstein has brought him back to life.  Nick Fury Jr. tells him that Sabretooth is in a SHIELD prison cell.  Which shouldn’t comfort Wolverine at all as Mystique just broke Sabretooth out of a SHIELD prison the last time he was locked in there.

Later, Pinch shows up and is taking herself and her daughter away and out of the evil business.  Lost Boy is going legit as well.

A Week Later.  The reason why I bought the issue.

Thanks to marvelfriendships over at Tumblr for these images!  (Since I’m just using one person’s its easier to cite!)  Except that I did the first image, which is pretty obvious.

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty one week later

Kitty Pryde is at the Jean Grey School.  She’s following up on Logan.  I like that he’s walking around with a cane.  Wolverine wants to apologize to Kitty for drooling all over her like a rabid dog the last time he saw her.  She plays it off as he was just trying to establish his cover identity.  Which is weird as I’m sure Kitty just told Cyclops how rabid Wolverine was, it wasn’t like Cyclops would then tell a third person and eventually that would work itself to Offer.  But Kitty is a nice gal and just leaves it at that.

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty 1

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty 2

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty 3

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty 4

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty 5

For some reason, peeps on Tumblr like to break panels out instead of just having a proper page.  What is that about?

Wolverine likes being mortal, he’s never really thought about having to make every day matter before.  Logan wants to just heal, he will get to other things eventually.  Kitty asked him about taking responsibility.  Oh, if only Proper Kitty knew Peter Parker.

Kitty asks about Storm and his relationship, Logan tells her that they will be okay.  They just like to bone and are not an official couple.  I read recently about a fun game called, Canadian Bacon.  Pretty much like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with Wolverine and you have to figure out how to get from the first character to Wolverine but only through Wolverine’s romantic or sexual conquests (and each character’s relationships until you get to Wolverine).  The hint is to try to see how Character A is connected to Mystique as she has kissed a lot of fellas out there.

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty 6

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty 7

Kitty informs Logan that he has a lot of friends who wouldn’t mind seeing him on a nice basis.  Shame we can’t get this Kitty in Nightcrawler’s ongoing.  Maybe for his final issue?

Kitty reveals that Logan only ever pretends to want to be alone, he naturally just finds someone else to hang out with.

This story ends with Logan asking Kitty to call him, James.  Which I use to refer to him as only James Howlett (or just James) on the Joe Quesada Message Boards back in they but that use to annoy people.  So I stopped.

. . .

There was also a second story (there is actually three but Kitty isn’t in the third one) that Kitty appears in for one panel of the short story.  Now that Utau the Watcher is dead, this is how we do What If Stories, I suppose.

That Which Didn’t Happened

Writer Paul Cornell

Pencils and Inks Salvador Larroca

Colors Rachelle Rosenberg

Wolverine V6 12 Kitty That Which Didn't Happen Larroca

Larroca got to draw Kitty’s butt, which seems to be a popular thing to do these days as seen in Cyclops’ first issue.

 So the guy who is narrating it is a Vampire, for some reason, and the one page that was dedicated to what if Wolverine accepted the healing factor via aliens back in issue 12 of volume five, gets five total pages here.  It just needs the one I scanned above, in my opinion.

The third story is about the bar from the fifth volume that is friendly to superheroes.  The only remarkable thing about the third story, coupled with the second, that it goes to my theory about how Salvador Larroca’s art really depends on who is coloring it.  A moody colorist can just ruin his art and a bright colorist can make it pop off the page.

X-Men : No More Humans

Posted by John Klein III on July 2, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

X-Men No More Humans

Writer Mike Carey

Artist Salvador Larroca

Color Artists Justin Ponsor with Matt Milla, Jeromy Cox and Guru-eFX

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

This is billed as the first Original Graphic Novel since X-Men Gods Love Man Kills – but is that accurate?  Wouldn’t Dazzler the Movie be the last one?

I know I’ve stated this with Larroca before but his work, with the right colorists, is amazing and he got four of the best right here!

Issue opens with Autolycus Corporation being invaded by a little girl.  She gets locked up and starts taunting the security staff.  They claim their building can’t get breached, to which she makes the awesome comment that she breached it and super easy as they just let her in.  The locked door makes her laugh.

We learn that this day is March 8, and that the girl has future knowledge.  Which makes sense as she shifts into … Raze!  Mystique and Wolverine’s son from Battle of the Atom!

Over at the Jean Grey School.  An empty 747 begins to fall towards the school.  The X-Men faculty go out and try to stop the plane’s descent.  Once they get it to land safely, they discover that the plane is empty.

Rachel turns on Cerebra and confirms that there are No More Humans.

Wolverine takes the faculty to New York City’s Times Square.  They confirm that there is No More Humans.

X-Men No More Mutants Kitty Splash dialogue

Just then, Cyclops’ Uncanny X-Men and Kitty’s All New X-Men teleport feet away.  It is an awesome splash page.  I wish there was a third Cyclops side, Blue Team, title so we can get more of this combined team.

In what I can only imagine is a perfect metaphor to the differences between Blue and Gold – Cyclops reveals that they have already been to several world capitals and confirm that there are No More Humans.

The metaphor being that Cyclops works on a global scale, whereas Wolverine deals with, largely, threats at home – a very narrow scale.

Now is as decent as any time to comment on the time period of this Original Graphic Novel.  Nightcrawler is alive and at the school.  Also alive, are Rogue and Scarlet Witch.  So this takes place, at least, after Amazing X-Men 6 and whenever Rick Remender’s current Uncanny Avengers storyline ends.   As clearly it ends with a major time reset, leaving both Rogue and Scarlet Witch alive and most likely Wonder Man being the only dead Avenger – again.

Kitty being part of the splash page is the extent of her contribution to this hardcover.

Magik, though, is featured throughout.

X-Men No More Humans Kitty story

Wolverine believes Cyclops is responsible for the missing human race.  They start bickering like the exes that we have seen them to be portrayed as for the past couple years.

X-Men No More Humans Magneto minus one daughter

Magneto shows up and tells them to stop.  He brought with him, the twins – Wanda and Quicksilver.  Quicksilver is wearing his All New X-Factor uniform, which is awkward.  So Magneto approached All New X-Factor, grabbed his son but left his other daughter, Polaris, behind?  Ooof, she isn’t going to like that.

Her name is Polaris and she is bipolar, get it?  Seems to obvious to me.

Magneto, his children, and all of the X-Men go back to the Jean Grey School to figure their next step.  Magneto believes that they are done, the human problem has finally been solved and now Earth is ready for the mutants to inherit.

Old Beast makes a fun comment regarding Cerebra being a machine that is built to locate needles in haystacks.  He sets Cerebra to locate humans, and finds only one – in Texas.

The mutants pick a squad to represent the X-Men this day, consisting of – Wolverine, Beast, Jean, Stoem, Emma, Cyclops and Magneto.

Once there, they discover a dying Mr. Sale, tied to a stake.  Emma, with Jean’s help, pulls the image of Raza from Sale’s mind.  Then a machine appears and a fup later, this field team is gone.

Over at the Jean Grey School.  For some reason, the students (of both schools) are dressd like Grant Morrison era X-Men.  Which isn’t uncommon for the New Xavier School students.

The students want to play a game of baseball, which I would be all for another game of baseball.  Just then, odd looking muants show up at the door.  They don’t want a fight.  Instead, they want sanctuary.

Somwhere else entirely.  The field team are in a sort of other-universe.  Beast aids Magneto to reverse the machine to get them back home.  They get back and Sale is dead.  Rachel beckons them back home.

Turns out that these new mutants are from alternate timelines and such.  Since this planet is nearly empty, this is the perfect time.

Nightcrawler is chosen to go investigate in Elliot Bay, Seattle.  Once there, he meets his half brother, Raze, and it is actually pretty cool.

Kurt is taken hostage.  Magik teleports a group of X-Men there to rescue him.

Raze takes this opportunity to reveal his master plan.

The X-Men take Kurt back, and Raze takes this as a victory.  The X-Men can’t do anything at this moment.

There is a scene with Raze and Mystique.  It isn’t until now that I notice their mutual character designs.  Both wear mainly white, both wear white belts with skulls, they have red hair and blue skin.

There is a moment when Mystique wonders if Raze really is her son.  Is he just using his shape shifting abilities to appear like Mystique.

Tempus overhears Raze tell his mother that the humans may not be dead.  He isn’t that familiar with the technology that he used to send the humans away.

The X-Men retrieve Tempus and learn there is a chance the human race can be saved.  Magneto doesn’t like that idea and leaves.

Cyclops convinces Triage to heal the dead Mr. Sale.  He is hesitant at first but agrees.  Doing so makes Sale a zombie.

Back in Seattle.  Mystique and Magneto are talking.  This feels like a special scene to me as I’m not sure if these two have ever spoken to each other before.  It feels unique.

The X-Men show up.  They fight Raze’s Brotherhood.  They do so, so that they can get inside and make the machine bring back the humans.

The two Doctor McCoys are working on the machine.

Mystique and Iceman go a round together.

There are pages of pages of the Phoenix from an alternate timeline and young Jean that goes on.  I guess that Carey and Larocca really wanted to use the Phoenix Force.

The Hanks reverse the machine so all mutants are teleported to that empty quasi-universe.  They left the zombie Sale behind.  It is up to the zombie to bring everyone back.

Once humans and mutants are returned, the Alter-Phoenix makes it so that all the other alternate timeline mutants can live in that weird purple universe.

Story ends with Cyclops telling Jean she did good.  The final page is Beast being an idiot and being worried about dumb things.

. . .

Also, anyone keeping track – today is July 2, so if you are going to watch the film, Independence Day, today is the first of the three days to do so.  I’m going to try my best to squeeze it in but my parents are in town for the next few days and if they don’t want to do the marathon, then I may have to miss it this year.

But don’t worry, I have some posts prepared so feel free to come on coming back.

A+X

Posted by John Klein III on April 10, 2014
Posted in: Retrospective. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Of the 18 issues, I only own five issues – 1, 2, 8, 11 and 18

On my Wishlist are – the Del Mundo variant of issue 2, McGuinness Variants for both issues 2 and 4. Yes, I only want the fourth issue one because Lockheed and Kitty’s feet are dangling on the top of it. But it would make an awesome connecting cover once I get both of them.

Issue One, I only own for the Skottie Young Baby Variant that had Kitty and Lockheed on the cover.

The Team Ups and Creative Teams in the issues I own are :

1A – Captain America & Bucky + Cable by Dan Slott and Ron Garney

1B – Incredible Hulk + Wolverine by Jeph Loeb and Dale Keown

2A – Black Widow + Rogue by Chris Bachalo

2B – Iron Man + Kitty Pryde with Lockheed by Peter David and Mike Del Mundo

8A – Spider-Woman + Kitty Pryde with Lockheed by Gerry Duggan and Salvador Larroca

8B – Hawkeye + Deadpool by Christopher Hastings and Reilly Brown

11A – Thor + Magik by Mike Benson and Mark Texeira

11B – Superior Spider-Man + Cyclops by Jim Krueger and Ron Lim

18A – Vision + Kitty Pryde by Jim Krueger and Will Sliney

18B – Captain America + Cyclops by Gerry Duggan and Matteo Lolli and David Yardin

Once I own issue four it would be

4A – Beast + Amazing Spider-Man by Kaare Andrews

4B – Captain America + Quentin Quire by Jason Latour and David Lopez

Overall, I like the concept of the title as I was always a fan of Marvel Team-Up, especially once the second and third volumes got away with the mandatory Spider-Man starring role.

X-Men 165

Posted by John Klein III on December 18, 2013
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X-Men 165

Writer Chris Claremont

Pencils Salvador Larroca

Inker Danny Miki

Colorist Alalon’s Rob Ro

Letterer VC’s Chris Eliopoulos

Cover dated February 2005, look how fun that cover is!  And the issue delivers!

There is a giant vehicle crash in Salem Center, right at the X-Men’s door.

X-23 is wearing this horrible costume that Fang use to wear, and Wolverine wore once.  She tries to save this one guy, and he straight up punches her in the face.  She isn’t savage but she doesn’t want, or deserve, to be punched.  Before she can strike back, Wolverine pulls her back.

January 14, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra is coming!  Not very good.

Storm shows up to douse any flames from the oil tanker.  Nightcrawler is on site to save civilians.  Rachel Grey is there to telekinesis the heavier vehicles, as does Polaris.

Elixir does some on site healing.  Iceman creates some ice slides to evacuate others.

Later, Wolverine tells Kitty, Lockheed and Rachel that they are getting a fourth roommate, X-23!  Once Logan leaves, Kitty goes to introduce herself.  X-23 flips the heck out.  Kitty allows her to phase through her and both of them get some sort of bio-feedback.  The reason for the backlash is that Kitty gets sick whenever someone with adamantium passes through her, or her them.  The three of them realize that she is only a kid and has been through the Weapon Plus program.

We cut to a diner in Salem Center.  We see Elixir, Hellion and Surge at the diner.  Hellion is being a jerk as usual.  Nightcrawler teleports in, grabs Hellion, and teleports the two of them into a fan with Bishop, Dusk and a few others.  They are heading to Lambda Hospice.  Apparently, Beast, some time ago, created a charity called, Mutants Without Borders.  Which I really like that idea, as that is what Xavier’s dream is all about.

Hellion calls Kurt, elf, and Kurt is quick to tell him that only his friends can call him by nicknames.  The X-Men are volunteering at the hospice.  Dani Moonstar is there, Warren and Husk show up.  This is during that time when Warren is dating her, a gal who is half his age, and maybe even a fourth of his age.

We cut to The Grind Stone, which is a cafe in Salem Center.  Kitty and Rachel take Laura there to try to get her to open up.  I guess Surge works there, which is odd to see any of these New X-Men having to work, I wonder what the story is / was there?

The ladies get a table, commenting on how much shopping they have done.  I imagine Laura just stood around and was super confused by everything.  Gambit and Iceman show up and sit with them.  This might be the first time Kitty and Bobby are seen together, I doubt it, but the times are few.

Also, at this time, Gambit is blind.  I am not sure how that happen but he wears this sunglasses that Sage is always wearing.  Bobby has a pair and he gives Rachel and Kitty a pair.  Also, he makes this grand statement about how the X-Men are great at saving the world, but off duty, they are a bunch of stiffs.  And it is so true!  It is probably the secret reason why we don’t get more issues like this, as off duty, what do the X-Men do?

Rachel and Kitty give Laura a pair of the Sage-glasses.

We get to the super fun part of the issue.

Back at the mansion, an alarm goes off.  The entire courtyard has been frozen.  Emma comes out, and gets a giant snowball to the face.

For the video game fans out there, the very first Kill Zone is being promoted.

Emma is shown, on the next page, on her butt and we see that Gambit, Iceman and Laura have made a snow fort.

Cyclops optic blasts a snowball out of Bobby’s hands.  Bobby shouts, “no powers” and the battle is on!  I do enjoy seeing Scott and Bobby in the same panel, the Original Five, as adults, seem to rarely ever be together.

X-Men 165 Santa Beast Kitty Lockheed Rachel

Someone points to the sky, something is coming down.  Something in the red and white suit and a blue face.

It is Santa-Beast!  With his two elves, Kitty and Rachel with Lockheed along!

Santa-Beast has presents, the first two are for Scott and Emma.  They both get clown noses.  This makes Scott laugh so hard.  Emma lets out a polite laugh.  I really like how everyone is still in character.  Also, that Claremont was given the entire cast of mutants to tell this story.

Lila Cheney’s band starts playing as Santa-Beast hands out presents.

We discover that Storm is making sure that there is snow on the ground but it is barely jacket weather.

Who is the bartender at this party?  None other than Lockheed.  He knows who is legal and he breathes fire.  I wonder if Kieron Gillen read this issue for his SWORD mini?  I must have missed this the first time around.  So fun.

Magma is on cooking duty.  We overhear Elixir speaking to somebody on his phone, the plan is all set.  Hellion makes a stupid joke / comment about old wings and new wings and Warren challenges him.  Hellion makes a reference to Icarus having better moves.  Icarus is Husk’s younger brother.  Speaking of which, her older brother, Cannonball, flies out to save a recently dropped Hellion.

We find Bobby with some mistletoe and he is trying to coax Laura out of a tree.  Polaris shows up, sees the mistletoe, and kisses him on the cheek and flies off.

We transition to Gambit looking for Rogue, stumbling around in the woods.  He finds a lady and kisses her.  Turns out, he kissed Sage!  He jolts away from her and turns out, he can see again!  So, worth it?

Scott and Emma are discussing the Gambit turn of events and Scott is about to kiss her when Rachel shows up to give Emma a costume.  Emma’s gift?  A wear of silk white pants, with the word, X-Men, on the rear.  Emma counters with introducing her to her grandparents, John and Elaine Grey.  Which, one would think she met them once, but the one time I am thinking of, I believe she sneaked into the house and grabbed the Jean essence that the Phoenix left behind before the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga.  Also, it does not end well, much later for the Greys but we will get to that one of these days.

The folks the X-Men saved earlier have shown up to thank the X-Men in person.  Laura comes out to apologize to one of the guys she scared earlier.  She even offers to have them join the celebration.  The humans join the celebration and everyoen has a good time.

We see Xavier and Magneto, on loan from Claremont’s Excalibur title.

We get an awesome splash page with as many mutants as Larroca can squeeze in.

Next issue, new year, new writer, new stories!  As we begin, the Peter Milligan era!

X-Men Gold 1

Posted by John Klein III on November 24, 2013
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Now this is how you celebrate the X-Men’s 50th Anniversary.

Look at that gorgeous cover by Olivier Coipel.  That would be a pretty good lineup as well – Kitty, Lockheed, Gambit, Angel, Jean, Bishop, Cyclops, Jubilee, Wolverine and Storm. Someone for everyone.

This issue has five stories, but only one of them has Kitty and Lockheed, and that is the main attraction.

First Story

Writer Chris Claremont

Art Bob McLeod

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Colorist Israel Silva

This story takes place between Uncanny X-Men 173 and 174.  Bob McLeod is a legend – he gave us The New Mutants, after all.  But how much better would this story have been with Paul Smith on art?  After all, he was that era’s original artist.

This story also proves that if you give an older artist a modern colorist, their style still holds up.

X-Men Gold Lockheed 1

Lockheed is sleeping on Kitty’s shoulders while she is doing homework.  She is also feeling bad about Logan’s failed wedding.  She starts talking aloud about it and this is when Logan sneaks up on her.

X-Men Gold Lockheed 2a X-Men Gold Lockheed 2b

A warning alert happens, Sentinels in China and they wake the team.  The two spread where she informs the team, looks as if Steve Dillon drew it.

Since this is takes place after the wedding, the Starjammers were in attendance and are giving the team a lift to China.  Scott still is deciding if he wants to join his father in space.

Kitty is wearing that blue and white unitard, with that exta white cloth around her shoulders, not sure what you call that item.  She is talking to Rogue and was about to touch her, when Rogue warns her not too.  Kitty isn’t wearing gloves, but Rogue is fully covered besides her head, nothing to worry about.

In China, there is a giant Sentinel.  So giant, that it is capable of manufacturing proper size Sentinels – which are giants themselves.  It is like an action Master Mold.  The Sentinels it creates, can adapt to the situation.

Colossus and Wolverine are too small, so their punches have hardly no effect.  Rogue flies in and tears off an arm.  That arm targets the Starjammers.  The Starjammers are now busy defending themselves against a group of Sentinels, in space.  Lilandra is quick to don her battle armor.  Even Madelyne gets into the action and starts firing a turret.

Kitty remembers her power ruins machines, as Cyclops put her on civilian duty, he doesn’t have much experience with her at this point.  I can see her not speaking up.  She starts fighting Sentinels, as does Lockheed.  His flames look amazing!

Kitty comes up with a plan – daring but also odd.  She is going to phase into Wolverine, Colossus is going to twirl the combination, Lockheed is  going to burn all three of them.

It looks cool, all three are in extreme pain, but it works.

Storm sets off a massive lightning storm and this fries all of the Sentinels.  The team heads back to the Starjammers for drinks.

Second Story

Script Stan Lee

Plot Louise Simonson

Pencils Walter Simonson

Inks Bob Wiacek

Colors Andres Mossa

Letters Tom Orzechowski

Cute story about Beast, Iceman and Angel making fools of themselves to try to win a date with Jean.  Cyclops, at Xavier’s demand, shuts that party down.

Third Story

Writer Roy Thomas

Penciler Pat Olliffe

Digital Inks / Colors Chris Sotomayor

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Story about Banshee and Sunfire in Memphis.  The story would be better if it didn’t imply it took place two days before Giant Size X-Men 1.  That seems silly, but it leads into the next story.

Fourth Story

Writer Len Wein

Artist Jorge Molina

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

This takes place right after Cyclops is introduced to the All New All Different X-Men team, during Giant Size X-Men 1.  The story is essentially, how would Wolverine kill all of these characters.  The answer is, with his claws.  You also get his first impressions of the team members.  Funny caption about how Thunderbird is Wolverine without the cool powers.

Fifth Story

Writer Fabian Nicieza

Artist Salvador Larroca

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Colorist David Ocampo

This story takes place within Magneto’s mind as Xavier shuts it down in X-Men 25.  Pretty cool how Xavier wants to give him one last happy thought, even after Magneto has ripped out all of Wolverine’s adamantium.  Reed Richards is there for some reason.  Bastion is in the audience, hinting at Onslaught is coming.

Tom Orzechowski was very busy putting the words into this issue.

Issue ends with short reprints from both Amazing X-Men 1 and All New X-Men 18.  How anyone who reads that snippet from 18 and not buys that issue is insane.

Astonishing X-Men Volume Three Run

Posted by John Klein III on October 14, 2013
Posted in: Retrospective. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Now that Astonishing X-Men Volume Three has come to an end.

Of the 68 issues, I own these 39:

Josh Whedon / John Cassaday era

1 Team Cover, 1 Director’s Cut, 2, 3, 4 Marvel Legends version, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8 Sketch Variant, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 Emma Cover, 22, 23 Colossus Cover, 24 Kitty Cover

Christos Gage / Juan Bobillo era

38, 40, 42

Greg Pak / Mike McKone

47

Marjorie Liu / Mike Perkins era

51, 52, 54

Marjorie Liu / Gabriel Hernandez Walta era

62, 63, 64, 65

Marjorie Liu / Amilcar Pinna era

66

Plus these side issues:

Saga by Eric Moreels

Sketchbook Special by Warren Ellis as writer and Salvador Larroca and Simone Bianchi on art

Ghost Boxes Issue 2 by Warren Ellis and on art, Kaare Andrews and Clayton Crain

Giant Size by Whedon and Cassaday

Uncanny Avengers 12

Posted by John Klein III on October 4, 2013
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Rick Remender

Artist Salvador Larroca

Color Art Frank Martin

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

What is Kang sitting on?  A future bean bag chair?  Hate ti say this, but a future bean bag chair, is still a bean bag chair.

How incredible was the opening of this issue?

We get Eimin and Uriel’s origins.  I have to still look for their names, does anyone have them memorized yet?  Probably Remender and Cowles.

How great is it that Remender gets to continue his Apocalypse / Archangel saga into this title.  He runs the risk of burning out an audience that way, also of being known as that guy with the hard on for Warren Worthington III.

So Warren’s kids appear to be from the Days of Future Past timeline, just during the era when Rachel was a hound, and Arab was her master.  How awesome is that!?!  Someone straight up remembered Arab and put him in a modern comic.

That is some tight continuity!

I remember as a kid when Rod Campbell joined the cast of Excalibur, and he was a humnan wanting to help mutants.   Then horrible events started to happen to him, like replacing human limbs with robotic limbs.

You can tell that Kang wanted to toughen his adopted twins.

But once Uriel has to blind Eimin, that’s to much.  Did we know that Eimin is blind?  Not sure I picked up on that previously.

Uncanny Avengers 12 Kitty

We cut to the Jean Grey School, we get to see Storm, Beast and Kitty, they have moved Evan and Warren into a secret bunker.

Uncanny Avengers 12 Magik

Then we cut to the New Xavier School, with Cyclops, Emma and Magik.  They are discussing how a mutant rapture can even occur.  I like the inclusion of Illyana in this scene, shows that Scott is still using a coucil and now that they have broken up, there is no reason to not add a third.  Glad it was Magik and not Magneto.

Up to this point, Larroca and Martin have been doing an amazing job in art.  Then Wanda shows up and I don’t know what happened.

I think it is that weird glow from the hallway, that casts a strange hue in the rooms.  Wanda looks very ill in all of her scenes.

She should be holding a bucket or have one at the ready.  Luckily, that weird head thing (what do people call that – a head band, maybe?)

Then we cut to Wasp, Captain America and Havok.  The comic instantly looks a lot better too.  It just was an odd coloring choice, is all.

Wasp does that classic cartoon thing of getting two guys with guns to shoot each other.  Which, would that actually work, I wonder?

There’s some nice flirting between Wasp and Havok, but Cap keeps interrupting the chemistry.  I know it is harmless flirting but I thought we were building to a Alex / Wanda relationship, or has that time passed already?  Once Wonder Man shows up, your chances with Wanda decrease dramatically, just ask Vision.  Oh how I can’t stand Wonder Man, at least he has the good sense to die every now and then.

I wonder how eye contact works with Jan, when she is wasp size.

Banshee v. Captain America.  Sean kick yo arse!

Meanwhile, remember that caption?  Back with Wanda and Simon, it is now the blue from the stream that makes Wanda look sickly.

Now that I see Eimin’s current design, she was  obviously blind or something, as she has that weird U thing over her eyes.

Cut to Kang at the end.  So that quake happens, and the panel with GRRUMMBLLE, I had to stare at that strange brown thing for a solid minute, to try to figure out what that was.

You can tell in the larger panel, that he is on a bean chair, which is odd for a conqueror.  He isn’t in college nor in his first apartment.

Daddy, your babies are coming for you!

Maybe Remender can work in Original Warren into the story, that kid needs something to do and should fear his own future.

Cable and X-Force 6

Posted by John Klein III on July 26, 2013
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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Written by Dennis Hopeless

Art by Salvador Larroca

Colored by Frank D’ Armata

I bought this issue just for the two pages Kitty shows up for.

Cable and X-Force 6 Kitty 1

Cable and X-Force 6 Kitty 2

She brings Colossus some art supplies and a letter while he is in prison.  It is done very well, Hopeless captures her character nicely, Larroca draws her nicely and D’ Armata’s coloring gives the entire book a nice realistic feel.

Other things happen in this issue like it starts with Wolverine escorting Colossus to prison.  Colossus is there for what X-Force did in previous issues, but he really is there due to him wanting to repent for what he did during AvX.

Because of losing the Phoenix force, his powers are broken.  I really like how the art team displays how his powers are in flux.  Not sure if it is all D’ Armata, like I had first thought, but it could be a combination of him and Larroca as I’m not sure who draws the metal stripes that make up the actual power aspect of Colossus.  The flux power, from panel to panel, really gives these sections a nice kinetic feel.  I really get the impression that his armor form is appearing and disappearing on its own.  It is very interesting how it is done.

There is also a whole section of the comic wherein Meltdown is running around in what can only be described as barely a bikini.  Which I feel bad as I don’t view Larroca as one of those cheesecake artists.  I’m sure he will have no problem selling those pages in the Original Art sector.

It makes story sense, in that, she is trying to trick young dumb soldiers to let her into the prison, but I just don’t read comics for T&A.  It is one of those times, when I’m rereading the issue for this post, that I was hoping my wife wasn’t going to walk in on me reading those pages.

Meltdown is breaking into the same prison that Colossus is it.  She and Domino are trying to break out an alien under Cable’s orders as he got a new vision.

Issue ends with Cyclops wanting to speak to Cable, which sounds like a cool cliffhanger.

I did not buy the next issue, mostly just been skimming the issues to see  toif Kitty or Magik appear or are mentioned.

A+X Issue 8

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

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Written by Gerry Duggan

Penciled by Salvador Larroca

Colored by David Ocampo

Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles

Now, this is a fun comic!

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

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

That homeless guy is both funny and oddly placed.

A+X 8 Lockheed 1

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

A+X 8 Lockheed 2

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

AIM and Hydra falling in line was awesome too!

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

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

There is a Deadpool/Hawkeye story that is decent.