I wish Superherostuff.com would say who the artist is, as I don’t recognize it.
I’m not sure what “Proud 30” means. She turned 35 in 2014.
I like that Lockheed is present for this.
Lockheed
All posts tagged Lockheed
Writers Andy Lanning & Andy Schmidt
Artist Gustavo Duarte
Colorist Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artists Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado
The cover is the only place that Lockheed can be found!
The Pet Avengers are – Lockjaw, Zabu, Furball, Ms. Lion, Redwing and Throg! No mention of Lockheed, which is unbelievable! Now I have joked in the past about being one of those X-Men conspiracy theorists but now that Lockheed isn’t considered a member of the team, I think there is something going on with the X-Office!
The Pet Avengers don’t have the Mind Gem, any longer, so they don’t sync up their minds with Rocket or Cosmo, so we don’t hear anything from the non-English speaking members, so we don’t get any reference to them, not talking about Lockheed.
This is a real shame that Lockheed has been kicked off the team. All due to editorial.
Issue opens with Rocket and Cosmo, on monitor duty. Cosmo, to pass the time, starts talking about other animal heroes. Twooatu, the Cosmic Owl. Graavalian Wormatoid.
Starting the running subplot of the issue, Rocket just wants to drink his very illegal beer. Cosmo keeps it away from him. Rocket gives chase and sees that Cosmo teleported off the spaceship so Rocket does the same. I guess at some point, Cosmo joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, or at least, stays with them on their ship.
Cosmo speaks with this interesting accent but it is hard to read sometimes – essentially, anything that ends with -ing ends with -ink. Listenink / shiftink / snoozink – maybe not hard to read but it makes me notice the spelling, thus takes me out of the story.
Somewhere on Earth . . . Rocket catches Cosmo playing poker with the Pet Avengers! Lockjaw / Zabu / Ms. Lion / Throg / Redwing / Hairball. Rocket is mostly upset that Cosmo never told him that the dog knew how to play poker. They could have been playing poker this entire time!
All of a sudden, the wall busts down. We get the Vulture Von Doom and the Pets of Evil Masters! I imagine the name is a take off of the first two minis being titled “Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers” which I always thought was a silly title, just call it “Pet Avengers.”
Good thing we are given who their masters are, as I don’t recognize any of them.
- Vulture Von Doom – Doctor Doom
- Thori – Loki’s hellhound
- Falconia – Lady Falcona’s Familiar (who?)
- Mikhol – One of the Red Ghost’s Super Apes – who I totally called as being a member of the team
- Tiger Wild – Doctor Doom’s Attack Tiger
- Cuddles – Princess Python’s Killer Snake – of Circus of Crime fame – I haven’t heard anything with them in a while
- Bitey McSpidey-Bite – Mutant Radioactive Spider – the same spider that bit Peter Parker and Silk – who I also thought was dead.
The Pets of Evil Masters take out the Pet Avengers, rather easily and take off with Lockjaw. Rocket now has to go save them, begrudgingly.
Cosmo can read minds, including animal minds, so that explains how he can play poker with the Pet Avengers. I’m not sure why Cosmo doesn’t link all of their minds.
Latveria. Castle Doom. Vulture Von Doom is evil-monologueingm. eviloguing? He is a vulture who has been hiding in the shadows of the castle. So he isn’t like a secret pet that Doom has been keeping, this entire time.
Editor, Xander the Xandarian Historian, informs us that Vulture Von Doom’s plan references the original Pet Avengers miniseries. He is planning on absorbing the cosmic energy that the Pet Avengers were exposed to, when they had the Infinity Gems as he is planning to create his own cosmic cube.
Rocket and the Pet Avengers get to the castle, rather easily. Rocket still only wants his beer back. The beer has been shaken so Rocket just shoots it and the cans explode. Everything is covered in sticky beer. With this sequence of events, the Pet Avengers take out the Masters of Evil Pets, quickly. It was the element of surprised that was their undoing last time.
Rocket gives the Pet Avengers a back handed compliment. He takes off Vulture Von Doom’s helmet and he freaks out as he believes he is hideous. Rocket informs him that all vultures look that way.
You decide –
or 
I still say turkeys are the more unattractive bird!
Some off model Doombots – actually, Servo Guards – arrive to clean up and take the vulture away. Doom is aware of the vulture and apparently, he gets up to these silly schemes in the past.
Sector QXM78-67EMX. Pleiades Quadrant. Planet Klaatu. Grott, the Man-Slayer has come back to this universe, from somewhere where he didn’t have a body. He will have his revenge. Unfortunately, for him, Rocket, Cosmo and the Pet Avengers are ready for him.
I can only imagine these two pages were added so that Lanning & Schmidt could work in a “I am Grott” gag and Rocket says he already knows a guy with that shtick. I imagine “Grott” and “Groot” sound alike, right? It isn’t just the spelling of their names.
Issue ends with Lockjaw teleporting and giving Rocket a fresh case of his beer. So the Pet Avengers are not that bad, now.
Not a bad story, I just wish Lockheed was involved or at least, mentioned.
Writer Reginald Hudlin
Pencils Scot Eaton and Kaare Andrews, for pages 21 – 24
Inks Klaus Janson
Colors Dean White
Letters VC’s Randy Gentile
Cover Frank Cho
Cover Dated September 2006
From BET, Toure and Ananda are the wedding commentators. Black Panther and Storm are the ultimate power couple, and for good reason. Toure comments on how the Superhuman Registration Act is being hotly debated, back in America. By hotly debated, I mean that costumed folks are punching and kicking other costumed folks.
Luke Cage is surprised that Spider-Man is on Iron Man’s side so much. This is after issue two of Civil War. Spider-Man is in his Iron-Spider costume.
Susan is still standing with her husband, Reed. Thing is already showing signs of wanting to be neutral.
Kitty and Lockheed seem super excited, to the point where Emma feels the need to calm her down. Eaton draws one awesome Lockheed!
Cyclops wonders what the X-Men will be like without Storm, they will be okay and her absence will only really be noticeable by her hardcore fans. For the Maid of Honor, Kitty seems to be pretty relaxed.
Meanwhile, the psychic parasite known as the Cannibal prepares his trap. Cannibal is who I didn’t know from the previous two issues, who I referred to has Not-Malice. How many villains fall under this body-less category?
Cannibal wants to take advantage of the situation and take any number of heroes but keeps his non-eyes on his prize, Black Panther.
Black Goliath (a horrible name) is impress when he sees Falcon wheel Isaiah Bradley. Triathlon (who I know from Buisek’s legendary Avengers run) and Captain Marvel (Monica) come over to greet Isaiah. We get an editor note to check out – Truth : Red, White & Black, for the full story. Hudlin must have really liked that series, as he didn’t write it, Robert Morales did.
Elsewhere in the Place. T’Challa and Ororo are talking. He tells her that the Panther God will judge Ororo to see if she is worthy of marrying him. Ororo isn’t thrilled with this and wonders what happens if she isn’t worthy of the test. I would imagine that, this portion of the ceremony, probably should have done prior to the wedding invites. T’Challa would give up his kingdom to stay married to Ororo, so the wedding will continue, no matter what.
Daily Bugle (what they used to call, Bullpen Bulletin – I like the in-comic universe name change). I like them promoting New Adventures and New Number Ones. New Number Ones – Annihilation / Heroes for Hire / Agents of Atlas / Claws. New Adventures – Sensational Spider-Man 29 / Runaways 19 / X-Factor 10, a team member betrays the team. I own issues nine and eleven, so that’s funny (and issue 23) / Black Panther 19, attacked by DOOM!
Xavier shows up as he will be walking her down the aisle. This comes as a surprised to her, also a surprise to her, is that he is able to walk. I like that he waves this off, like this happens from time to time – as it does.
Elsewhere in the Palace. Black Panther stages a meeting between Captain America and Iron Man, neither of whom, are impressed with each other. They both leave the wedding, both of them making sure that Black Panther apologizes for each of them, to Storm.
Meanwhile. Doctor Strange, Brother Voodoo and Blade stop their conversation to take note that Uatu, the Watcher has arrived. I like that a guidebook has been handed out. Would it have been more awesome, if it was called – a handbook? Perhaps
Back to the party guests. President Bush 43 arrives, along with Fidel Castro and the late Nelson Mandela. A huge wave of applause erupts as Oprah arrives. Ororo’s grandparents arrive, the idiot that is her grandfather, tries to start saying that Bush doesn’t care about black people, which is still a ridiculous statement. Luckily, his wife stops him before he can say those words.
Her grandparents get to sit with Ororo’s mother’s family.
Meanwhile. Kitty really wants to see Storm’s dress, which wasn’t she there when Storm bought it? I guess we didn’t see her buy it. Lockheed is flying about.
The whole “Storm loved Black Panther for years” doesn’t quite worked for me, as we had decades of those two not having any panel time together but I get that he was her first crush (and her, his – maybe?) back in her African days, but that seems like an odd thing a carry well into someone’s thirties. Am I still crushing on Katie O’Connor and Jennifer Fuller? No, as when I think about to them, my mind stops at them being first and second graders, respectfully, so I don’t romanticism them, at all. Though I do wonder if they are on Facebook but I don’t believe they are. To be fair, if they grew up to be female versions of a handsome, rich and heroic King, I guess they would still be on the top of my mind.
Kitty finally gets to see the dress and instantly wants to wear it. I wish we got to see Kitty visit Storm, even just once, while she was a Queen.
See that second to last panel, on the bottom? Lockheed wants to eat those birds! Nice touch, Eaton!
Black Panther, now in costume, wonders why Uatu is present. He’s not going to be interfering, I know that much. His uncle is excited about the children that will come from this union.
Black Panther gets to the alter, wondering where his wife-to-be is. If he is anything like me, and we do have so much in common, he is going to have to wait for an intense fifteen minutes.
Storm arrives in the dress, that gets its own back up feature. The credits page thanks the following folks for the design of the dress – Procter & Gamble, CBS Daytime (the two parent companies of), Guiding Light, Alan Locher, Ellen Wheeler, Maria Aguero, Alyson Hui and Shawn Dudley.
Poor Kitty, doesn’t do anything for the ceremony.
Once the ceremony begins, the Karee Andrews pages kick in. They both are in the spirit world, they first see the Ape God. They run from that one, right into the Panther God. Panther God and Ororo have a stare off. The Panther God roars and Ororo is deemed worthy.
They bounce back and Eaton takes over. That must have been very exciting to those in attendance. Did the invitations state to not be surprised when the bride and groom just stood around, starring into nothing. Oh, it only lasted five seconds, so it wasn’t as awkward as I thought. Reading is important.
The two are officially married!
Later, a huge party is had by all. Prince is proving the music! Cannibal’s essence is spotted by Doctor Strange, so the host body sneaks closer to Storm. Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo catch up to the host, who is laying on the floor. Cannibal could be in anybody.
Cage asks Jessica if she would want to stay in Wakanda, T’Challa gave them an open invitation. He goes on to say that Falcon and Photon (Monica’s codename – poor gal, that’s why you never want to be a legacy character!). Jessica laughs at him, as he has been wanting to create a Black Avengers team, for years.
Spider-Man is enjoying a drink and introduces himself to, Man-Ape. Man-Ape came to ruin the wedding but it turns out, he was on the invite list, so he is happy. So issue 16’s cliffhanger, was for not. Man-Ape has been drinking Scotch, as he should! Spider-Man tries to be helpful, about how he can get more respect if he didn’t dress so silly. Of course, this offends Man-Ape, as that is his royal garb. Spider-Man keeps burying himself, as he named himself after an unpopular creature – people do seem to hate spiders – for some reason. Man-Ape attacks Spider-Man, who wishes these gatherings didn’t always involve a fight of some sort.
A Few Hours Later. We see some gifts that the newlyweds were given. Kitty gave Storm a holographic representation of the X-Men, which would be cool and I want one.
Ororo hands T’Challa a package with the Latveria seal on it. T’Challa opens it, revealing a visual message from Doctor Doom. Doom was not invited to the wedding, which does not seem right, from a political viewpoint. Doom chalks it up to Black Panther believing that Doom was still in Hell. Doom provides a warning, regarding Civil War, his friends may not be who he use to think of them as. So Doom offers that Black Panther’s enemies, may also need to be reconsider. He would like to have a conversation, once the newlyweds are settled.
Issue ends with some kissing!
Mail to the King! Letters from – Tony K of Sydney, Australia / Paco Taylor / Regis Zoula and Christopher Smitho f Jacksonville, Florida.
Next issue, DOOM!
. . .
With this, we end our celebration of my wife and my seventh anniversary of our wedding! Time sure does fly!
Writer Sam Humphries
Pencils Ed McGuinness and Javier Garron
Inkers Mark Farmer, Javier Garron and Ed McGuinness
Colors Marte Garcia
Letterer Travis Lanham (without VC?)
Black Vortex, Chapter Thirteen
The Final Chapter!
Shadowcat narrates the entire issue, for us. Kitty has been given a cosmic upgrade but has also disappeared in front of everybody.
The combined heroes are fighting off the Slaughter Lords.
We get our first look at, Cosmic Shadowcat! I like Humphries’ reveal of what Kitty likes to do on a Saturday night. She likes to drink tea, under a blanket and watching Katherine Hepburn films. My favorites are – Philadelphia Story, Adam’s Rib, African Queen, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and On Golden Pond.
I’m glad I looked her up, as my mind read it as “Audrey Hepburn” instead of Katherine.
Cosmic Shadowcat has a different outlook on space now, all the things she hated before, seem to have disappeared.
She sees the remains of Hala, Breakworld and Earth. She reaches out and touches alternate realities of Kitty Prydes. The two famous ones are Kate Pryde and Shadowcat of Lighting Force. With Humphries writing “Star Lord and Kitty Pryde” starring the Shadowcat of Age of Apocalypse, I’m surprised that Shadowcat wasn’t on the list. Especially as the other three are just Kitty Prydes over the eyar, from her Original X-Men Uniform, to her Blue Excalibur Costume to Current one, plus the even more current Cosmic Kitty Pryde. I would have included Age of Apocalypse and Ultimate Kitty Pryde, but I can see them not wanting to include Ultimate Shadowcat this close to Secret Wars 2015. If the X-Men Forever Shadowcat had a distinctive look (or was more popular) she could have been included. Cat from Exiles is dead, so that one wouldn’t work.
The Mutant X slash Black Queen Kitty could have been fun. This may be the biggest problem, if you choose two, do you not go with a fuller page with additional ones? With Spider-Verse behind us, I imagine Marvel also wants to avoid that too. Shadowkitty would also have been a cute choice.
Cosmic Shadowcat becomes one with the entire universe. Thus, she is far better than Mastermind, when he had this same experience. I suppose that his was forced on him, and he didn’t have the cosmic power to support it.
Ronan the Accuser, still cosmically powered, has entered the fray. He is seeking revenge for Hala, which he should just be mad at everybody present. Cosmic Gamora, Beast and Warren for destroying so much of Hala and Slaughter Lords as they work for J’Son and he gave the order to rip Hala in half. Which Ronan is clearly mad at them all.
Before more fighting can happen, the astonishing happens.
Spartax and its amber coated top layer, are phased apart. Add Spartax to the list of planets that Kitty Pryde has single handedly saved by herself – the other planet, Earth. Look at that image on the bottom, how awesome that Kitty just straight up phases on a planetary scale.
We will just have to overlook or plain forget that Kitty just killed an entire species of Brood babies.
So great how the people of Spartax will know, forever, the name “Kitty Pryde.”
Look at the . . . how proud, Quill is over his lady love.
Kitty just holds Spartax like it is a basketball.
The Slaughter Lords decide now that is the time to be getting out of there.
Cosmic Kitty is now human size.
I like the possible friendship between Magik and Nova, she could use a friend that isn’t related to the X-Men.
Gara prepares to destroy the Black Vortex, she gives those who were enhanced to undo the procedure. There is a risk though, the repercussions are unpredictable.
Gamora and Warren are going to keep their power upgrades. Scott, Bobby, Groot and Beast – all agree to risk the changes and get depowered. Beast reverts back to his latest blue ape form. Bobby, instead of having his default ice form being mostly snow, is now ice. Groot seems to be bulkier.
Scott doesn’t feel any differences. Jean, being the nosy bitch that she is, reads his mind and sees that it his heart that is different.
Kitty offers Gara to join them. Kitty feels pretty comfortable offering positions in the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Look! Someone remembered to include Lockheed! This is already a great issue! He looks pretty soft there. This appears to be a Garron drawn page, I would reckon.
Corsair remains the only member of the Starjammers to be seen. In that Black Vortex trailer, they make a point of naming the Starjammers as being involved but they were barely on four pages. They may be tied with Lockheed for involvement.
Nova and Magik are still chatting about. Is Drax and Storm dancing? Rocket explains that the X-Men are taking the Hot Rod back to Earth, as he doesn’t want to get anywhere near that planet. Corsair is talking to the younger version of his former daughter-in-law. What could Lockheed, Scott and Carol be talking about? Lockheed seems to be very interested in the conversation.
Two people are clearly missing.
Pryde and Quill are floating about space, he is attempting to serenade her. The song he is singing, is “Once Upon a Dream” – which is famously from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
Thanks to YouTuber CurlySVT for hosting the video!
Kitty, even after all of her comments and thoughts about hating space and how it isn’t her jam, she has decided to maintain her cosmic powers. Which seems crazy to me! Then again, I wouldn’t have wanted to risk what would have happened if she gave it up. Especially as she was one with the universe. Kitty does have doubts about not giving it up.
Quill doesn’t care about any of that, as he plain loves her.
Quill starts explaining how much he loves Pryde. Pryde loves the dumb lug.
Bobby, who is the worst, shouts that everyone should come to the window and watch.
Quill straight up proposes to Pryde!
The Collector . . . collects J’Son. Ronan arrives on some Kree planet, I figure, and swears his vengeance!
Thane and the Ebony Maw, plan on tracking down the Black Vortex. Which Secret Wars 2015 coming around the way, I doubt we will actually get any of these unresolved threads will be tied up.
Pryde and Quill are crying. Look at that weird middle panel with all of the headshots, those look so odd.
They see the couple hugging and take that as a ‘yes’!
Look how big Lockheed is there!
Storm asks Rocket if he will be her date for the wedding. Are we going to get a wedding issue prior to Secret Wars 2015?
StarKat make out as the issue ends.
This was such a fantastic crossover! Such a nice ending and it seems like it will have major ramifications for the two series.
Writer Gerry Duggan
Penciler David Baldeon
Inker Terry Pallot
Color Artist David Curiel
Letterer Comicraft’s Albert Deschesne
I really only bought this for the last page of the main comic (there is a cute one page comic strip, in the back). In classic Annual goodness, Duggan has taken the opportunity to pair up his two ongoings – so fans of one can try out the other. That’s pretty smart! Surprised he didn’t try to work Deadpool into it! I’m glad he didn’t as that would have made this something else entirely.
Once again, the Previously page is pretty essential reading. I forget that Sam (Nova) is only 15 years old. I thought Sam’s father was dead but apparently he is stranded in space. That could have came out of Original Sin. I read Duggan’s Hulk 9 (and really enjoyed it) but I barely remember Hulk in AXIS, besides when he turned into Kulh, the Hulk’s Hulk. Poor Duggan, hopefully that series of his didn’t have to get sidelined too much due to that silly crossover. During the Kulh situation, he goes to Carefree, Arizona and Nova fights him. As a reward, he is made an Avenger but his helmet is beyond repair.
Nova has gone to see if Reed Richards could fix his helmet. Reed is out but Doc Green (as I have to remember to refer to him) is there – for some reason. He apologizes for his actions in Carefree. Doc Green offers to fix Nova’s helmet, he is afraid of his secret identity becoming known.
Doc Green gives Nova a brown paper back (just like Spider-Man had to do in Amazing 258, for the same reasons. As he didn’t want the Fantastic Four to learn his identity, once he lost the black symbiotic costume). In both circumstances, the extra step feels silly. What are the chances, even in New York City, that they would even recognize Nova or Spider-Man in their civilian identities? The chances are pretty low, plus the characters would be more careful once they see the Fantastic Four and Doc Green, the next time they come across them.
Doc Green reveals that nothing on Earth can fix the helmet. Nova believes he knows a location that has the spare parts. Doc Green states that he isn’t going to space, as nothing good happens up there (the same with Shadowcat!).
Doc Green offers to loan Nova a spaceship but Nova is only use to propelling himself through space, he doesn’t know how to fly an actual ship. Nova (playfully) threatens to have She-Hulk sue Doc Green, as he does owe Nova for the helmet breaking in the first place.
In one of the many great pages in this comic, Doc Green agrees to go with Nova. Sam takes off the bag over his head and Doc Green, in a truly funny scene – grabs the sides of his face, in shock that he now knows Nova’s secret identity. Sam is confused as he shouldn’t know him, and Doc Green states that he doesn’t. Proving how silly a brown paper bag, over one’s head, is.
Nova makes some small talk by telling Doc Green some of his accomplishments. He met a cool girl, he beat up a space pirate, blew away a Chitauri fleet. His father has been captured, somewhere in space – so that wasn’t good.
Light years from Earth. Nova’s helmet picks up a distress signal, but only that it registers one. Sam believes it could be his father but we will learn more about that later. For anyone who reads this blog, on a regular basis, and knows the timing of this issue, it may be obvious but we will get there.
In a handy editor note, we learn that the bunker these two heroes are going to, was discovered back in Nova 20, he found it with Rocket. They get to the bunker, and none of the three helmets have the missing parts. Nova puts on one of the broken helmets and asks it to locate another Black Nova helmet. Which I’ve noticed that he doesn’t wear a yellow one like Richard Rider did, but I thought maybe the change was only cosmetic.
The helmet quickly shows a location but Nova wanted more time with the map but Doc Green knows where they are going. Which is, Xandar, the home of the Nova Corps – which has seen better days.
Nova and Doc Green come across a salvager, Zarihs Didisiqui, and his family. They tell the duo that the current overlord, Gron, has a black helmet – and that he is horrible. Nova offers their space ship for the location of Gron – which doesn’t make Doc Green happy, as it is his ship.
We see Gron, who is electric whipping Xandarians. Gron is excited about the prospect of getting a second black Nova helmet. Doc Green recognizes Gron as being of the race, Darkamite. After confirming a Darkamite’s power set, Doc Green uppercuts Gron across
Nova asks if that is how hard Doc Green punched him but Doc Green doesn’t keep track of how hard he punches fools. It would be fun, if he did. Doc Green examines the helmet and it has the missing part that Nova has. Doc Green doesn’t want to tell the family about the helmet but as he says that, Nova sees their spaceship fly away. Another great page and excellent pacing!
Doc Green gets to fixing the helmet, Sam takes a nap. He wakes up and tries out the helmet. It works perfectly, as he flies into space and blasts rocks. As thanks, and after he asks how long Doc Green can hold his breath, Nova grabs his new buddy and they fly into space. Doc Green loves the experience.
Knowhere, Cosmo’s Crib. Cosmo, the astronaut dog (seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy film), wakes up to two new guests. Nova wants to use Cosmo’s teleporter to get Doc Green back to Earth. Cosmo is more than happy to help, as nothing good happens when the Hulk is in space.
Nova gets back into space and hears that the distress call came from Lydia, Star Lord’s computer system on his new ship.
The Haunted Moon. We get Nova coming into Black Vortex Alpha. Look at Baldeon’s Lockheed, not too bad, as is his Shadowcat!
Nova 28 handles his own issue that we’ve already reviewed already, at this point.
This has been a great use of the Annual issue.
I had originally meant to post this first, before my review of X-Men Unlimited 43, but these things happen.
As I commented over there :
Aw, the solo Lockheed issue that was meant to explain where Lockheed was during his absence from Excalibur 125 and Kitty’s return to the X-Men in Uncanny 360. There is a hint that Lockheed believes Kitty is dead (or missing) and Kitty never mentions Lockheed – like, at all! – so we are suppose to assume that she believes he is missing and / or dead from this unexplained story.
Yet, this story – at most – can only take place over a few weeks and not the months she spends with the X-Men.
That little detail has always ruin this solo Lockheed story for me. But the story itself, I really like. Lockheed, being drawn by his co-creator, Paul Smith, in a cute done in one (half) fashion.
I would be cool if we were treated to more adventures of Lockheed as what is he up to when he isn’t with the X-Men all of those times?
I just find issue with the placement of continuity but that isn’t the creative team’s fault so I try to still enjoy the story on its own.
Since I typed all of this on my own, I feel okay with just copying and pasting it here.
I’m sure at the time I read this, which would have been when it was originally printed – which it is cover dated April 2003 – I wouldn’t have recognize it as being THE Paul Smith, Lockheed’s co-creator, on art duties.
Stephen Grant wrote the story.
The issue itself also has a New Mutants story in it. Magik is there in a flashback sequence, so I will be reviewing both stories when I do the review for the issue proper.
That story is done by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Cover Dated April 2003
I will be reviewing both stories so I’ll be breaking this up over the two. One point of interest is that both stories have sentences in the very beginning that annoyed me and sort of tainted the rest of the story. I’ll get to those when we get there.
Keepsake
Writer Chris Claremont
Artist Bill Sienkiewicz
Colors Jose Villarubia
Letters Randy Gentile
A New Mutants tale brought to us by one of the best creative teams from that title!
This story opens with Sunspot watching a news story about a mugging that two young ladies were injured during. Roberto recognizes one of them as his dear friend, Rahne.
Then in typical ABC’s Revenge fashion, we cut back to hours ago. My problem with this story is that it appears that this is suppose to take place sometime in the pass, as Rahne is in a school girl uniform, on a class trip to a museum. How old is she suppose to be here? By the end of the first New Mutants volume, the members of the team would have been well done and out of high school age.
Do colleges require uniforms? I doubt it but later in the story, the team talks about how it has been a while since they all got together as they disbanded a while ago.
Both of these stories have weird continuity quirks that sort of take me out of the story and I’m not able to enjoy them as much. That was at the time, now it just seems annoying but if this was the first time I read it, I may have the problem but move on quickly as it is an eleven year old comic.
So Rahne is telling her school friend about her necklace. How it was given to her by the first king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, as the team time traveled to that era in New Mutants Volume Issue 47.
The mugger overhears how the necklace is important and attacks the ladies and runs off with the necklace.
Dani, as a good friend, is watching over Rahne in the hospital. The doctor doesn’t want Rahne to leave but Rahne has the man’s scent and so the two soulmates are on a hunt.
There is an awkward moment when Rahne asks if Dani can still sense all of her thoughts, which seems to be straight out of a fan fic.
There was a police officer in the room as well, I suppose taking Rahne’s statement. He knows they were both students of the ‘mutie school’ which seems racist to me.
Rahne tracks the man down to a club. He runs out of the club and Dani shoots him with one her physic arrows. He tries to stumble to his car and Cannonball demolishes it. Besides Karma, we have the original New Mutants all present and accounted for.
The man confesses to have already gone to a pawnshop. Once again, Rahne hugs Sam, as it has been a while.
Karma does show up, so now everyone is accounted for. She gets the name of the dealer that the pawnshop owner dealt with.
The team goes to Long Island and they see that Roberto is already in negotiations with Trigorin for the necklace. Trigorin is the head of the Odessa mafia.
Later at Harry’s Hideaway, the five New Mutants are able to finally hang out together. Rahne shows that in the back of her necklace, she has a picture of the entire team (minus Doug – for some reason). So Magik shows up on the cover and in this picture. Then again on the next page as the team remembers how awesome it was being a New Mutant.
Sam asks Roberto about how comfortable he was with the head of a mafia. Roberto throws it back at Sam and Dani that they haven’t been angels their entire lives either. As Sam and his X-Force were practically terrorists at one point and Dani was undercover in the MLF on behalf of SHIELD.
Roberto also confesses to some daddy issues, everyone nods their heads as that is pretty obvious.
Dani tries to change the subject.
Rahne proposes a toast, in honor of her late foster mother, Moira MacTaggert, who died in the Dreams End crossover at the hands of Mystique.
Pretty decent story, and if this wasn’t during Sienkiewicz’ heavy ink phase, I may enjoy it more but it just harkens back to when he was inking Sal Buscema’s pencils in Spectacular Spider-Man. I would enjoy it more with a lighter brush.
For instance, in Spectacular Spider-Man 220, Web of Death Part 2, wherein Mary Jane tells Peter that she is pregnant. A pretty key milestone issue and yet, it is as dark and hard to read as it gets!
Lockheed, the Dragon
Story Stephen Grant
Artist Paul Smith
Colors Jeromy Cox
Lettering Randy Gentile
A Lockheed story brought to us by one of his co-creators!
This one, I really enjoy but Grant (or one of the editors, perhaps? which would have been CB Cebulski) tries to give it some place in history. But that place in history is beyond me.
Story opens, months ago, north of England. Poor Lockheed is being chased by some jerks and their dumb dogs. Lockheed, sort of narrates the issue, or at least, the captions are from his point of view but the captions refer to him as Lockheed so it isn’t his inner thoughts.
We get the caption that pretty much states that its been months since he has been alone. Some time ago, there was a battle and Lockheed and Kitty got separated and now he suspects she is dead.
One imagines that Kitty suspects he is dead too but when the heck would this ‘battle’ have taken place?
The very last horrah for Excalibur, maybe? As Kitty goes from Excalibur 125 (when that team disbands) to Uncanny X-Men 360 / X-Men 80 in the very same publishing month of – October 1998.
So this comic came out in April 2003. Prior to this, Lockheed appeared in the backup story – along with Kitty – when she is attending the University of Chicago – and about to kick off the Mekanix miniseries.
I’m getting all of these dates from the Lockheed chronological listing of appearances from comicbookdb.com –
http://comicbookdb.com/character_chron.php?ID=1762
X-Men Unlimited 35 doesn’t count as it is an untold X-Men story.
X-Men Unlimited 38, November 2002, Kitty is celebrating the anniversary of Colossus’ death. Lockheed is there and Nightcrawler checks in with her. It is awesome! The story takes place in Chicago, as well. Which I like that she had some ‘real time’ at that university.
Now we have come to this issue, so poor Lockheed is getting an appearance once a year. Which is horrible!
He shows up in the final issue of X-Treme X-Men, 46, in June 2004, the team disbands.
Then he and Kitty make an appearance in both Uncanny X-Men 444 / X-Men 157 the next month – July 2004.
So when does this short story take place? Between the seven years of Excalibur 125 and this issue? It has to take place before 2001’s X-Treme X-Men annual (retroactively) as at the end of this issue (spoilers!) Lockheed is told that Kitty is alive and in Chicago.
So it could have only been in a four year time frame but the story itself can barely take place over a few months – so even that doesn’t explain what he does in all that time. I guess it would take him a while to get his little self over the Atlantic Ocean and to Chicago from England but it wouldn’t take years!
Plus, this entire time – Kitty isn’t even talking about her dear friend, Lockheed. It never comes up. Which is heartbreaking as a Lockheed fan.
I’m pretty sure I first became a Lockheed fan, next a Kitty Pryde fan and finally, a Paul Smith fan – once I got those origin issues and first appearances of the purple cat-sized space alien that resembles a dragon.
So, that was the very first page of this story and I’m already trying to make sense of the entire thing.
But let’s move on like I have to do when I take a breath. It really is a shame that Lockheed is barely in comics – that’s what I’m getting at.
Lockheed is on the run, he doesn’t want to hurt the humans as that isn’t what Kitty would want. He spits hot fire at them, just to scare them off.
Two young girls come to his rescue, Martina and Regina Wolcroft. They pick him up and we see how hurt he really is. One of his wings has a clear hole in it! No wonder he hasn’t gotten to America yet!?! I imagine he could get there, and the X-Men would welcome him home. If Kitty was alive (which she is) they would call her and she would pick him up. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a phone or connections with SWORD – just yet.
I do like how the story is presented from here on. The sisters are clearly terrors to this small town. We only get a hint of that here when they turn the hunters’ bullets into butterflies and hint at doing more. But here, as a reader, I like them as they are about to take care of a wounded Lockheed.
They take him home and start caring for him, as if he is a cat. Their mother comes in, not sure if she wants a dragon in the house. Here, they threaten her with a storm cloud and she hurries away. So clearly they torment her all the time. Also, they are witches. Also, something that rhymes with witch.
The sisters decide what they should feed him. It can’t be water, he is a dragon. They go and search for petrol and charcoal. Lockheed doesn’t make a face of disgust so hopefully he is able to digest petrol and charcoal!
The sisters take him to school, and he is sitting as comfortably as he can in there.
From his hiding place, he can tell that people seem to be kind around them and not rude to each other. Of course, if he could see the looks on people’s faces – he would know there was fear as well.
He does sense tension around him but once the sisters are by themselves, that tension is gone.
Then we meet Thorne, the girls’ arch nemesis. By now, that should tell us the reader that she is in fact, a good person. Lockheed doesn’t get to see that, through the bag.
One day, in the grocery store, the girls come across this boy that they don’t care for. They decide to pull a prank on him, and put an apple into his pocket. They start shouting that he is stealing and he protests – naturally.
Lockheed doesn’t like the idea of thieves and cuts a slight hole in the bag and spits a flame at the boy. The boy falls over and the store owner comes to see what the commotion is all about.
The store owner finds the apple, the boy keeps protesting that he wasn’t trying to steal it. The girls tire of this and turn the apple into a rat. Then all the apples turn into rats. Which is bad, but then the worst happens – all the rats become a giant rat! Even worst … they still have tiny rat hands! It is gross.
Turns out, it is Thorne who turn the rats into a giant rat. Apparently, she has the ability to undo any spell that the sisters can cast. Which is a good thing.
Regina challenges Thorne to a duel as she wants to use Lockheed as a weapon and since he isn’t one of their creations, Thorne will be powerless against him.
Once outside, Martina throws some flowers up in the air, casts a spell and out of the smoke, Lockheed comes at Thorne. Thorne is impress that they were able to create a dragon out of smoke and then is a tad scared when her go-to-undo spell doesn’t work.
Lockheed spits hot fire at Thorne, instead of running away, she tells him he doesn’t want to hurt her.
The girls start yelling at him to keep up the attack. Thorne just wants to know his name.
Lockheed sees similarities with Thorne and Kitty and while he is debating who is friendly, the sisters start throwing rocks at him. Which, one really shouldn’t do to anyone but especially not to Lockheed.
Thorne learns his name is Lockheed, while he finds the rock throwing to be an unforgivable act of betrayal.
He turns his flame onto the sisters and they run away.
Thorne tells him that Kitty is now living in Chicago and she is under the impression that he was dead as well.
Thorne, with one touch, heals Lockheed’s broken wing.
Story ends with Lockheed flying towards America.
I would really like to know and see the story that lead to these two great friends thinking the other one is dead. It has to be a story that ends with an explosion that sets them off in different courses. Maybe they both are unconscious and people come to their aid and thus, the one can’t inquire about the other.
The story would also have to take place in Northern England, so it might be an untold tale of Excalibur. Thus, Kurt nor Colossus ask Kitty about where Lockheed is, as they already know that they lost him. Then Kurt told Storm, Rogue and Wolverine and now those two know not to ask Kitty about it.
If Marrow knew about it, she would harp on it all the time to make Kitty feel sad.
Writer Gerry Duggan
Artist David Baldeon
Inker Terry Pallot
Colorist David Curiel
Letterer Comicraft’s Albert Deschesne
Black Vortex, Chapter 8
Deep Space, One Week Ago. Gara senses that the Black Vortex is back in play and seeks to destroy the item.
Elsewhere in Deep Space. Today. Nova is flying home. He is remembering when he held the Ultimate Nullifier and actually fired it. That caused a black hole that destroyed a Chitauri fleet. I wish there was an editor note that stated which issue that happened in.
http://marvel.wikia.com/Ultimate_Nullifier_%28Weapon%29
According to that website, it was either issue four or five – though it doesn’t state that he fired it.
Nova looks into the Black Vortex and sees a more confident and bigger version of himself, rich with power.
I really like this issue and it reminds me of how much I enjoyed issue 18 of this series, from the Original Sin crossover. I wanted to try another issue of this series and I’m glad it became part of this crossover.
Nova asks why he should submit to the mirror and is shown – he can save his father, defeat Thanos and be as legendary as Richard Rider
Meanwhile on Mister Knife’s Flying Fortress. Somehow J-Son is able to convince Thane that the heroes slaughtered his flock. Even though J-Son, literally, has a crew named, The Slaughter Lords. Piece it together, man!
Carefree, Arizona, at the apartment of Eva Alexander and her two children. Which is apparently three hours and eleven minutes outside of Yuma, Arizona – according to Google, but I’ve never heard of it. It is north of Phoenix, so that would explain that.
Sam throws a blanket over the Black Vortex, which is on Earth now. He calls the Avengers on his Avengers ID card. He is an honorary member (I imagine from Infinity) but he will be an Avenger in the Post-Secret Wars 2015 All-New All-Different Avengers.
The Free Comic Book Day issue is actually titled that, but who knows if that will be the official name of the title. Could that be the new brand name for the Post-Secret Wars 2015 titles? Instead of “All New” the titles are labeled with the even longer, All New All Different, title? At least, alphabetically, they would follow the previous series -so there is that. I’m scheduled to get the above issue through DCBS, but that lineup is sort of okay. FalCap, Lady Thor, an Iron Man, Vision 3.0 (I believe is the number we are on), Ms. Marvel and I’m excited about Miles Morales joining the Avengers. People are pretty sure that the only thing different with the Marvel Universe after Secret Wars 2015, is that Miles is a Spider-Man webslinging around New York City. Which seems to be a lot of work, to make something that seemed pretty easy to do in both Spider-Men and Cataclysm.
Jarvis answers the call, confirms that the Avengers ID has no cash capabilities (which seems lame of Tony Stark) and tells Sam that Vision is not available. Also, not to refer to Vision as a Droid.
Sam’s mother calls him for dinner. I like how his mother and sister both know that he is Nova, it never made any sense to me for teenagers to constantly lie to their guardians about being superheroes. To try to protect her daughter, she spells out o-u-t-e-r s-p-a-c-e, which, if anyone starts spelling aloud around him, my brain does this thing that it registers every letter and I have the hardest time figuring out the word that is being spelled. Like my brain overly concentrates on the spelling. Even if it is a three letter word like d-o-g.
Someone rings their doorbell. It is the Collector and his associate, Legron, who wants exclusive negotiation rights to the mirror. Meanwhile, his sister is almost accidentally submits to the Black Vortex. Nova grabs it and flies back into space, and the Collector and Legron, give chase.
Spartax. Gara senses the Black Vortex is near and takes off. Look, Kitty and Lockheed made it to this issue, too! So far, we haven’t had to miss an issue due to lack of Kitty or Magik. Kitty still wants to have the mirror destroyed.
In Orbit Above Spartax. Nova runs straight into the Flying Fortress, which isn’t Quill’s ship but his father’s. So that was a huge mistake. Thane punches Nova to his foolish face. It takes very little convincing to get Thane to submit to the Black Vortex.
Thane now looks pretty royal, which is pretty good.
Issue continues in Legendary Star Lord 10 for Part Nine. .
Writer Sam Humphries
Artist Mike Mayhew
Colorist Rain Beredo
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Black Vortex, Part Six
The first two issues of this series feature the team-up with the Avengers. The official Team-Up character for this issue is, Ronan the Accuser.
Issue opens with Ronan is chronicling his thoughts into a giant book. He is on Hala, and I guess he is writing the last days of the city. In space – Gamora, Beast and Angel – are fighting off the Kree along with Captain Marvel, Drax and Nova. Ronan narrates throughout the issue, via the transcription.
Ronan introduces – Storm, Jean and Quill – to the Supreme Intelligence. I haven’t read Ronan and Supreme Intelligence since Hickman’s Fantastic Four 600, so that was three and a half years ago. I imagine, they are still, essentially, the same character. Apparently, there is a Accuser Corps now. Everyone has a Corps, these days.
Quill hints that the Black Vortex is a deadly item. Ronan wants to pull back the Corps so that they can submit to the Black Vortex. Supreme Intelligence denies this requests. Maybe I have forgotten who has the Black Vortex, at this point, I thought it was somewhere on the Spartax moon. Quill calls the Supreme Intelligence, Slimer. Supreme Intelligence states that he knows about the Black Vortex. If the Kree continue their fight, they have a 32.2 percent chance of surviving. With the Black Vortex, the Kree’s chances drop to 2.01 percent. The Supreme Intelligence is waiting out for the Kree Armada to act as the cavalry.
Spartax. Ma Savage is fending off trespassers. Team Pryde – Kitty, Lockheed, Agent Venom, Corsair, X23 and Beast – arrive to be Ma Savage’s cavalry. Count, cavalry, as a word that I can’t spell without looking it up the first time.
When Lockheed wasn’t on the ship, at the end of All New 39, I was worried that the writers had forgotten him. So glad he showed up here. I’m a tad worried that we may lose Lockheed during this crossover, which I will admit, I worry whenever they make a point of showing him, more than once.
Agent Venom fires at someone, who is shocked that they are the holders of the Black Vortex. We see that the person is none other than, Gara – Last of the Viscardi, an Elder of the Universe. We met her way back in Black Vortex Alpha, the first part of this crossover. She is here to destroy the Black Vortex. I imagine Pryde would be cool with this, if she isn’t under the impression that the cosmic mirror can revert back, her three allies.
Thus ends, my three (well, two) favorite pages of the issue.
Ronan is disappointed that the Supreme Intelligence isn’t take his advice. Quill likes to call Ronan, Big Guy.
Apparently I missed this, but the Black Vortex was wheeled in front of the Supreme Intelligence, so Quill has it. Quill reasks if Ronan would really submit to the mirror. Quill pretends that he is about to submit to the Black Vortex. This causes the distraction that Ronan needed, to submit to the mirror. His new costume design, isn’t that impressive or off model.
Is he just wider?
Brennan 7. Thane gets back to his flock, but they are all dead. Ebony Maw, who is the white face imaginary friend, taunts Thane. Ebony Maw, which is just ‘Man” but with a ‘w.’ Very clever. Ebony Maw (it is nice to finally know his name) convinces Thane that he needs to go back to J-Son and seek revenge. Thane is all for it.
Hala. Ronan goes after Gamora, Beast and Warren. Beast is distracted as he is trying to create a replica of Space-Time.
Nova makes a comment about how Ronan looks cool, for a guy wearing a bucket. Which is funny, as Nova, himself, wearing a bucket on his head. That Sam Humphries, funny guy.
Beast, the colossal failure and ruiner of things, that he is, sees the replica of Space-Time. It has a massive Beast-caused rip in it. Oh Beast, you are the worst!
Beast runs off, as he is a monster. Gamora stabs Ronan through the chest and flies after Beats.
Issue ends with Ronan writing in that book. The Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men will be remembered for saving Hala, as heroes. Ronan will be a disgraced Accuser. He was right, in submitting to the Black Vortex, as it saved the day but the Supreme Intelligence told him not to do it, so he betrayed his overlord.
Not a bad issue. I probably won’t buy another issue of the series until issue five, which has Rocket teaming up with . . . The Pet Avengers! I’m so pumped for that!
Writer Chris Claremont
Penciler Alan Davis
Inker Paul Neary
Colorist Glynis Oliver
Letterer Tom Orzechowski
Cover Dated November 1988
Look at that cover. At first, I wasn’t sure what Meggan was doing or where she was going but then I see Nightcrawler looking down a pipe, so that is what Meggan must be doing – searching for Kitty.
Issue opens with a young boy, Colin McKay – who will one day become . . . Kylun – which sounds like Colin; which is on purpose. Spoilers for Excalibur 43, I guess.
Colin and Widget are goofy around in Loch Daemon, in the Highlands of Scotland, a haunted place. Vixen’s goons (who seem to buy second rate Hydra uniforms) are chasing Colin. Either they killed his parents or his parents are dead under different circumstances. The goons hear Colin and Widget swifts to his portal form and sends Colin away. This doesn’t please Vixen at all and some of these goons are going to end up dead.
Hob’s End Station of the London Underground. The Warwolves are escaping with their “skins.” One of them is Kitty, dressed like rachel, and she is partially phased with the Warwolf. Warwolf, looks weird, I’m so use to thinking of them in the plural.
As they run down a tunnel, a train comes out and almost strikes someone who fell onto the tracks but Captain Britain saves her. Rachel slows down the train. I like how everyone likes seeing Captain Britain, Brian is a rock star in his home country. Some citizens start running away, as they know it is now on. Nightcrawler enters the way they are leaving, and some of them are scared of seeing him. I like how one lady thinks he is a cutie.
Rachel is losing her mind, she wants to find Kitty but a police officer stops her. He dares put his arm on Rachel. Kurt can tell that she is one second away from pulling her arm away from the cop’s grip and tells her that they have to keep the police as an ally.
A ways away. The Warwolves get back to their home and ditch their skins, including Kitty. One of them wants them to respect their skins, even though the other argue that they can get more. Poor Kitty, she’s in some sort of near-death phase. The Warwolves turn their attention to her, as they are pretty sure that she isn’t Phoenix. The one that nabbed her, they don’t have individual names – from what I can tell – does the process of tearing her soul from her body. Rachel feels this and burns through the ceiling of the subway and seeks out Kitty.
The Warwolf sees Rachel’s costume but can’t find Kitty’s skin. The other two Warwolves laugh at him.
Fraser’s Bank, Thameside. Nigel is being a sleaze and is kissing a fellow co-worker, at work. For shame! Though I can’t complain as that’s where I found my wife but we never stayed until after-hours for any on premises shenanigans. Nigel sees Rachel’s Phoenix Force in the sky and is mesmerized. Courtney Ross sees it and thinks about how her life has turn upside down now that Captain Britain is back in her life. She also comments, to herself, that she is never done with work. The market closes in England, next opens in New York, closes there then opens in the East and the day starts over again.
Rachel comes back to Excalibur, she has a faint trace of where Kitty can be.
Kurt notices a police officer who is grinning, menacingly and decides to track him. Kurt follows the police sergeant down a tunnel. A train passes and Kurt loses trace of the sergeant but he hasn’t lost Kurt. The Warwolf is waiting in shadow for Nightcrawler to walk by.
Rachel warns Captain Britain and Meggan that Kurt is in trouble. Meggan shifts to a more wolf form and starts tracking Kurt’s scent.
Over with the Warwolves. The one that tore Kitty, is now suffering a stomach ache. Next, starts taking a more human female form. She puts on Rachel’s outfit, to cover up her now womanly body. The other Warwolf comes back now holding the sergeant’s skin and Nightcrawler’s unconscious body. This Warwolf offers Kurt’s body to the Kitty-Wolf (WarKat?). ShadowWolf is about to take cover Kurt’s body when Kitty’s essence backhands the other three Warwolves. I want to say there is suppose to be five of them, right?
WarKat is growing Kitty’s hair now, still silver like their skin but the more it resembles Kitty, the more she is in charge of the body. Kurt comes around and tries to escape but is nabbed. Just then, Captain Britain and Meggan bust through a wall and a fight starts.
The three Excalibur members knock out the three Warwolves. They turn to the fourth one but Kitty states that she’s running the ship.
Bullpen Bulletins. Hypebox. Punisher War Journal 1. Submariner 1. Avengers Annual 17. Spectacular Spider-Man Annual 8. The cool one is Wolvrine’s ongoing gets its first issue by Chris Claremont, John Buscema and Al Williamson. Doctor Strange also got a new number one.
Rachel joins the team and Kitty has to tell them how cruel-some the Warwolves really are. Rachel wants to kill the Warwolves but Kurt tells her that it isn’t justice but murder. All of a sudden, human hands are pushing out of ShadowWolf’s mouth.
The first panel was used as a flashback from Nightcrawler Volume Two Issue 12, that I reviewed the other day.
Kitty pushes her way through the Warwolf’s mouth. There are some websites that track X-Men in-canon nude appearances, that I stumbled on during my younger days, and this use to be Kitty’s only nude appearance. I imagine she still doesn’t have any additional ones until Astonishing X-Men 21.
Kitty references how Technet’s Bodybag swallowed her in Excalibur Special Edition, so she hopes that that stops soon.
Kitty comes up with a fair punishment for the Warwolves.
The London Zoo gets a new attraction! Which is pretty keen, in their cage, they have a television set and newspapers.
Kurt mentions how there was six Warwolves but two died, so I must be remembering that.
This comic has thirty pages, that’s pretty awesome.
Sword Strokes. Letters are from – J.D. Naylor of Phoenix, Arizona / Hampus Pettersson of Cupertine, CA and Malcolm Bourne of Cricklewood, London, England.
Great back cover by Alan Davis and Paul Neary! Sadly, this is the only appearance Lockheed gets with the issue.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 