Such a great anniversary issue! We get two stories, one with the Uncanny X-Men, and the back up, an Outlier story.
Writer Gail Simone
Artists David Marquez & Luciano Vecchio
Color Artist Matthew Wilson
Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles
This is Part 3 of 3 of the Where Monsters Dwell arc. Marcus St. Junior is wrapping up his bed time story.
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I love so much how Becca loves Ember. Her character in the story has a horse, and now she’s very excited.
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Such a cool page of the Outliers as Western characters.
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Seriously, I would buy an ongoing adventure of the Outliers as Western characters series.
We finally get the name reveal of our mystery villain. Agatha Timly, so it was Agatha All Along. It is very odd that we have two Agathas and two Lunas running around the Marvel Universe right now. But we also have multiple Spiders-Man, so these things happen.
Marcus is very brave trying to hold her off with a shotgun.
With the X-Men, Nightcrawler is being attacked by Frankenstein’s Monster, but he’s no longer taking the hits, he’s fighting back.
Morbius is trying to turn Jubilee, but she blasts his serum away.
Gambit is fighting off the Manphibian, until Sadurang eats Manphibian. Gambit willfully gives back the Left Eye of Agamotto. We’re getting close to a years worth of time since the first issue. Comics are very complicated when it comes to time passing.
Rogue fights off Wereverine.
Meanwhile, Waffles is fighting Salem, Agatha’s big wolf. We learn she is from Marvel Spotlight on Werewolf by Night 3, thanks Tom, from 1972. Fandom states her name is Andrea, but she must have changed it to Agatha when she become quasi-immortal.
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I have missed actual Ember so much!
I also really love that Becca has (hopefully) made peace with the fact that she isn’t a monster, she’s a mutant, and proud. And a hero.
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Calico & Ember attack Agatha.
I like Jitter has incorporated calling out her attack move from her Age of Revelation self. I’m not sure if she was given those memories.
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Such an awesome call back to their Western counterparts from mere pages ago (or seen above).
I thought we had lost a few pages, but we’re shown the next page how we got everybody back to Haven House.
Apparently, Agatha had every mesmerized. Logan’s healing factor cured him, and the “monsters” are back to their proper characterization.
Issue ends with Gambit keeping the left Eye of Agamotto, for some reason.
. . .
They Dwell Too in the Human Heart
Writer Gail Simone
David Messina
Color Artist Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham
Nice title hold over from the main story.
Willow is missing, and the police department was hoping the X-Men would help. They are unfortunately in either Alaska, Latveria, or who knows where. The Outliers are here, and they’ll help.
Jitter uses the skills of a French detective to become a human lie detector. Jordy Dukes’ cousin has Willow. The two of them have been killing young ladies for years now.
Deathdream scares the rest of the information out of Jordy.
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Calico, Ember, and Ransom immediately take off to the rescue.
I love Calitter so much! Them referring to each other as girlfriends is such a delight.
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They arrive at the cousin’s trailer, and see they have been buried their victims under slabs of concrete. Poor Becca, she’s not ready for the true horrors of the world.
Ransom goes full hero mode, and takes out the cousin, and save Willow.
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“Even Ember seems glad.” This struck me. Is he not usually a glad horse shaped spirit boy? I don’t like the idea that he’s usually down. I much prefer a mood neutral horse, if he’s going to be anything. Poor guy.
I think I liked this more than I did the Deadpool / Batman crossovers, though I do wish we got more variety in the bonus stories.
Trust, Justice, and Great Responsibility
Mark Waid / Jorge Jimenez (A) / Tomeu Morey (C) / Tom Napolitano (L)
Brianiac needs Doctor Octopus to purge a virus. Clark Kent and Peter Parker have cheekbones for days. Fast Neurons are being worked on, and most companies are using Californium, but this lab is, of course, using, Kryptonite. Because of the purge, traces of Kryptonite are in the air, knocking Superman back a bit I like how the heroes assume the space villain is Brianiac, and the in the lab is Doctor Octopus, so they make the natural assumption. So, the page reveal that the Kryptonite empowered Doctor Octopus is in space, is very fun, plus, always great to see heroes trade villains. Also fun is Spider-Man getting trapped under so much rubble, harkening back to another classic Doctor Octopus story.
Lois Lane & Mary Jane “The World’s Finest”
Tom King / Jim Lee (P) / Scott Williams (I) /Alex Sinalir (C) / Pat Brosseau (L)
One of my three favorites! I really like how Lois Lane and Mary Jane discuss how they rescued a bunch of people, leaving them no time to save themselves.
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I can only imagine Tom King asked Jim Lee what or who he wanted to draw, and he said “Sentinels.”
Mary Jane makes a fun comment about how every alternate version of herself is quick to say “Face it Tiger, you hit the Jackpot.” She was 19, she’s said some other cool things.
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Sentinel punching Superman is just something I wasn’t expecting to see.
Mary Jane shares that Spider-Man has a sad thing for bridges.
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We get a Superman Spider-Man fastball special! This short is just giving us everything.
We get an Uncanny X-Men 142 with Superman substituting for Logan.
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The ladies meet Gambit, who has been looking for his deck of cards. One would think there was plenty of debris for him to use, but he’s committed to the bit.
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A very nice moment of the ladies sharing how lonely this life can be.
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Gambit looking cool, but the Sentinel is super destroyed. Pun intended.
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So cool getting Superman to say, Gambit. Lois Lane’s “He’s pretty nice,” with Mary Jane’s “and nicely pretty.” That’s just fun comics, ya’ll.
Somehow Gambit got Aces with both Superman S insignia and Spider-Man Spider insignia. Sure.
Superboy-Prime & Amazing Spider-Man “Pages”
Christopher Priest / Daniel Sampere (A) / Alejandro Sanchez (C) / Willie Schubert (L)
This one, I didn’t connect with. Superboy-Prime is breaking the fourth wall, but not in a fun way. This story’s main villain is the High Evolutionary. Superboy-Prime was going to trade his freedom for the Spider-Man’s black suit symbiote. We get Uncle Ben’s other favorite line, “stop feeding your veggies to the dog,” which I can only imagine he said more often.
Superboy & Spider-Man 2099 “Beyond the Cobwebs of Tomorrow”
Sean Murphy (A) / Simon Gough (C) / Andworld Design (L)
Legion of Superheroes’ Superboy & Spider-Man 2099 team up for a story that I wish got half the pages of the previous story got. This sets up a very fun story, and the “Beyond” of the title is because . . . we also got Batman Beyond! The potential here is sensational.
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen & Carnage “Jimmy Con Carnage”
Matt Fraction / Steve Lieber (A) / Nathan Fairbairn (C) / Clayton Cowles (L)
Jimmy Olsen needs to get pictures of Spider-Man for J. Jonah Jameson. Peter Parker can tell Jimmy isn’t saying Spider-Man with the hyphen, and warns him that signals he is a tourist around here. Jimmy notices a red suit, and goes down a dark alley. He runs into Carnage! AND doesn’t put the hyphen in, and Carnage doesn’t take to tourists. J. Jonah Jameson memorializes Jimmy Olsen, who died taking a real menacing picture of Spiderman. Jimmy tried to use his Superman watch, but it needed a firmware update. This was perfectly paced.
This was the perfect length for this story. Superman & Spider-Man are having a chat, through narration boxes, as what we are seeing is Jonathan Kent and Ben Parker rescuing some kids. The heroes are not that different.
Lois Jane and J. Jonah Jameson are “In the Crosshairs with Jack Ryder,” who I know from the Arkham games. Ryder is putting Jameson on the spot for his ridiculous take on Spider-Man. Jameson doesn’t like Spider-Man’s mask, and in the “respectable heroes” page, we get the Fantastic Four, Wonder Woman, Captain America (who is wearing a mask), and Superman. I guess Cap gets a pass as everyone knows his name. Probably could have been shorter, but then we wouldn’t have gotten Nicola Scott drawing those heroes, and I like as many characters as possible to show up in these crossovers.
Simone is wild for setting up Power Girl on a blind date with . . . Paul Rabin. That’s right, Mary Jane’s infamous ex-boyfriend that EVERYONE loves! Punisher is working protection for The Bar with No Name. It is raining, and he doesn’t have an umbrella, so Power Girl lends him her very pink and cute umbrella. The villains think Paul is Vandal Savage, who has a contract out on him. Not sure how Firefly, Ghost Nicely Suited Man, Chameleon, Taskmaster, Pink Haired Gal, and Catman (in a very nice tuxedo?) were going to kill Vandal Savage, but sure. Story ends with Punisher and Power Girl off to spend some more of the night together. I really wish we got more of this type of fun feature in this crossover.
I’m really looking forward to Spider-Man Superman next month.
Such a great issue! I was surprised that we got Marcus continuing the bedtime story, but it makes sense that he is, as last issue wasn’t a done in one story.
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I’m so happy that Marcus knows enough about Calico to make her in-story horse, Ember.
I also like how he may not know Jitter enough that, to him, it makes sense that she announces the character’s name that she is going to mimic. In case this case, that’ll be Hawkeye.
Meanwhile, the Uncanny X-Men are facing off against Elsa Bloodstone, Manphiban, The Living Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, Morbius, and Werewolf by Night. I always appreciate narration boxes naming characters.
In classic X-Men fashion, AND horror trope, the team splits up, and we get some fun combinations.
Nightcrawler teleports himself and Logan to Sweet Water Park. We get a reminder that Hurricane Katrina devastated the park, and they still haven’t recovered fully. We should remember that Louisiana still carries the scar of that disaster.
Logan fights Werewolf by Night, who bites Logan.
We are introduced to Elsa’s boss, a charming lady, who has a white wolf for a pet, Salem.
Nightcrawler has to confront German literary hero (?), Frankenstein’s Monster. He rather just talk it out.
Jubilee is confronted by Dr. Morbius, they have a nice chat about how freeing it is to be a vampire, but Jubilee rather not go back.
Gambit fights Manphiban.
I like Logan having such medical knowledge that makes sense. I start having the thought that it is nice that Logan is healing from the bite, and not turning into a were-wolverine. That would be troublesome.
I also like that we see a young Rogue, pre adoption, who really enjoyed horror movies. Scared out of her wits, but enjoys the thrill. Rogue has to deal with both Living Mummy, and Elsa Bloodstone. Elsa informs Rogue that her boss is on her way to Haven House. At least the Outliers are there.
Issue ends with Rogue having to deal with a new threat – Wereverine! So, turns out, not as nice as I thought. Ruh oh.
We’re back! Issue opens with MacKenzie and Kurt, who I really like together. In a lot of relationships, that first kiss is something to really anticipate. But imagine waiting to be bamfed? And four times?! She wasn’t ready for that.
Kurt wasn’t ready for his surprise birthday! I have to remember this issue come November 11, Kurt and Dave Cockrum’s birthday. That splash page is perfect for that post.
I like all of the love Kurt gets this issue.
Logan notices someone at the door, it is Mutina, who wants to join the X-Men. Logan isn’t having it, and they fight. He thinks she is all talk, that she hasn’t killed anyone, but even if that is true, she’s getting closer to finally killing. She has definitely cut some fools, as she gets two clean hits on Logan. Does she have a Nightcrawler like shadow power? She keeps fading into the darkness. Was she born in the darkness, molded by it? Or has she merely adopted the dark? Do the shadows belong to her?
Mutina has done her homework on the Uncanny X-Men.
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As Logan is confronting her, nearly the full cast of The X-Pets comes out. Ember, the dog shaped Sentinel, all of Gambit’s cats. Mutina tries to feed good boy, Ember, but he doesn’t want her food. The cats literally eat up the cat food she brought for them.
Mutina discloses information about The Outliers. She implies Calico burned her family home down, but I feel like that was heavily implied before.
Ransom threw four kidnappers out a window, which we also knew.
Jitter hurt a girl so badly, she can barely walk. I feel like this may have been a bully, which you shouldn’t beat a bully until they can’t walk, but you have to stand up to bullies. Or tell someone at your school, as there should be zero tolerance for that. Or she hurt someone who shouldn’t have been hurt, and there’s a story there.
Where there is a story is Deathdream. He apparently has a brother, and the story is awful. We do know that he is almost on the verge of tears whenever Ransom calls him, brother, so there’s a story there that I want to be told about.
What was in her box? Cupcake or thumbs? It was cupcake!
So, I’m liking Mutina, until I don’t. Logan goes inside, and we see she has a knife up to MacKenzie’s throat. Poor MacKenzie is in tears. Kurt talks Mutina into a duel. Mutina gets a cut on Kurt. He tells her she’ll never be an X-Man, but there is a path, which is odd. So, she could be an X-Man?
I said earlier in the day, whoever has content from the panel, will get a follow from me, and that’s what I did.
So the big BIG announcement was that the Post-Krakoan Era is going to be called “From the Ashes” – which I still don’t love, as that’s a sacred title associated with my all time favorite fun of X-Men, the Paul Smith/Bob Wiacek era, but here we are.
We are getting three main teams –
Gail Simone & David Marquez on Uncanny X-Men, the clear main team
The Roster is going to be – Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Logan, and Jubilee.
So a pretty classic lineup, and if any fans of the new X-Men 97 cartoon, want a comic, this is the comic for them.
This team’s adventures will be set in Louisiana, so we can expect some Thieves Guild, but what I’m really excited about is the family dynamics of Rogue and Nightcrawler together.
plus, Gail Simone is clearly the head writer of this new era, and I love fun in my comics, so I’m hoping this is a fun new era. I’m sure there will be dark and dreary moments, but I’m hoping there’s at least an element of fun.
Marquez is quite the artist as well, so we’re in good hands.
The only problem is that . . . besides Nightcrawler and the creative team, its a team I don’t have any stakes in.
Also, how great that Uncanny is back! Especially now that we have issue 700.
. . .
The second team is my second favorite.
X-Men, written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Ryan Stegman.
The roster is Cyclops, Magik, NuOld Beast, Psylocke, Magneto, Juggernaut, Oya, and Kid Omega.
I really wish we got Magik on the third title, but then this title would be missable for me as well, but I do love it when Cyclops and Magik are together, those two are great together.
MacKay is on a career high with his Avengers run, a beloved Black Cat run, and an upcoming giant vampire theme company wide crossover, Blood Hunt. Which Magik has a one shot involved, but that is being brought to us by Ashley Allen and Jesús Hervás. But I had the thought it would be a good place to see MacKay handle Magik, but we’ll get there.
I find it interesting that Magneto is in a chair, we’re to make the connection to Xavier in a chair. Cyclops and Magneto are also a great pair, we are only missing Emma or this would be a reunion of the Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men team.
Juggernaut with a giant X on his helmet, I guess so you know where he’s hitting you when he’s charging at you?
Oya being on a main team feels like this is long overdue. Changing her name to, Temper, seems like a horrible back step, for multiple reasons. One obvious one, is that she went from a very unique name to a very copyright unfriendly name, but there’s plenty Marvel’s Temper like characters, so that’s an easy fix.
Quentin Quire is my least favorite character in all of these lineups, but I do like him when paired with Oya, so I guess they already figured that out.
This team will take place in Alaska, so that’s great for Scott, maybe he’ll visit his grandparents more often now?
. . .
Then we finally get to my absolute favorite title of the relaunch :
Exceptional X-Men!
Written by Eve L. Ewing, who I’m not familiar with, but have been recommended her Champions run, and Black Panther runs. As well as her poetry is supposed to very good.
Drawn by Carmen Carnero, who I’m also not familiar with, but from what I’ve seen, is very talented.
I also adore that this is a female creative team writing a mostly female lead roster, so that feels great too.
The Roster is – Shadowkate, Emma Frost, and three new mutants, but not New Mutants – Bronze, Axo, and Melee.
two of those names the copyright office must have really loved – but its hard to come up with original names.
took a new twitter friend to point out that this new design for Kate Pryde is very X-Men Evolution coded.
I kept saying its her original basic yellow suit, but blue, as a homage to her Excalibur coloring . . . but just writing X-Men Evolution is so much faster. That, and I never thought about her Evolution costume being her trainee uniform, but blue.
but it totally is, and just being blue, makes me not even think of it as a trainee uniform, but instead, her own unique uniform.
We’ve seen it before in the Women of Marvel V5 1 comic as well :
and it looks great every time I see it.
When Emma Frost comes to Fortnite, I hope they use that hoverboard of hers as her glider. Seems so silly to include, that there’s only one explanation for it, she’s coming to Fortnite.
There was a fan survey sent out recently that asked which X-Men people would be interested in, and the options were Cyclops, Magneto, and Colossus. Two of those makes sense to me, and I’ll probably play Fortnite again for a season if they even brought one new mutant to the game, or even one New Mutant. I love this joke.
If I had to get Colossus, I’ll probably make a series of videos, using each one of my emotes, and have him land somewhere, and emote until he was eliminated. Maybe that’ll make for a better live stream?
Issue starts with Kate becoming a barista (really putting that Mekanix bartending skills to good use), trying to get away from the mutant nonsense (that will only last for the first few pages of the title), then has to protect these three new mutants, and then gets assistance from Emma Frost.
So it is nature’s best friends, Kate and Emma, teaching, which I’m already sold on.
I really wish Lockheed had made it to the promo art, or any of the promo art. It is the only thing giving me pause, but also, I’m fully committed to Exceptional X-Men.
Also, a very fun new adjective for the X-Men to have.
Their stories will take place in Chicago, so I love how the X-Men are scattered, and I imagine that is because the X-Office wants to make it so you don’t feel compelled to get every single title, you can get what you want, and there’s no pressure to get everything.
. . .
Which is great, as we’re not just getting three titles, we’re getting all of the titles!
Phoenix, Storm, and Wolverine are all getting solos. From the Women in Marvel oneshot, it appears Storm will be going on a press tour, so no more Queen of Arakko – which really, anything would be a step down from Queen of Mars so a press tour is at least something.
I really love the return of those classic logos.
NYX is a confusing title to bring back, as I only remember it as Joe Quesada’s comic he wrote himself, that was Laura Kinney’s first official comic book appearance, and he made the ‘brilliant’ choice to make her a sex worker who cut herself.
So instead of bringing those memories back, a more friendly District X title could have been nice, but maybe it is a copyright issue? That’s why we got so many New Mutants miniseries and such, as Marvel has to keep that title published x amount of years or lose the rights to it.
I’m going to guess that this is going to be the New York team of X-Men, with maybe Laura as the lead, and maybe Ms. Marvel too? Or is her time with the X-Office over?
I made the comparison to the Avengers Initiative, where they have an official Avengers team in every state, and this launch is like that, but with the X-Men, they could actually make 50 titles (most of them one shots), and I wonder which X-Men will be on the Arizona and Montana teams.
Arizona – Rachel Summers and Betsy
Montana – Outlaw
were the first ones to come to mind
I had to look it up :
Avengers Initiative Arizona was the Desert Stars – Two-Gun Kid, Komodo, Blacksmith, Johnny Cool, and Supermax.
Avengers Initiative Montana was Freedom Force (heck yeah!) – Challenger, Cloud 9, Equinox, Think Tank, and Spinner.
Then we have X-Factor and X-Force, and a slew of all star X-Men that are still unaccounted for, so at least 16 to 20 mutants will make up those two rosters.
July 2024 is when the three flagship titles come out, then maybe the rest in August?
Free Comic Book Day 2024 is May 4, 2024, and will be the second look at this new era, after the epilogue in X-Men V6 35, which is also Uncanny X-Men 700 (for some reason – should have just called it Uncanny X-Men 700)
So I’ll be taking the family up to Kelly’s Comics in Great Falls, ideally early, and devouring the comic.
which of course, ends the Krakoan Age, and hopefully, not the last we see of Lockheed.
. . .
From the trailer, Jubilee starts a hand gesture with what looks like Mercury, who does a response gesture :
I cannot get my middle fingers to want to do the Jubilee M, and I can barely do the response one, so I have to get better at that as I want to be a mutant ally.
I also like how we have co-opted the Spider-Man web fingers. He’s had it uncontested for too long.
Also from the trailer, the Xavier Mansion is rebuilt, and this time, is a prison for someone in the basement, Inmate X. Who has to be Xavier, right?
. . .
What are you, dear reader, most excited about?
I’ll be curious to see how long we get these titles before there is a crossover, issue six? issue twelve?
The first run of Krakoan Age comics all had great lengths, so I’m hoping we get to at least issue 25 before we get new number ones.
Brian Cronin and Kelly Thompson really outdid themselves with this list!
Here is who I voted for :
Ten Writers
Louise Simonson
2. Ann Nocenti
3. Marjorie Liu
4. Devin Grayson
5. Kathryn Immonen 6. Kim Yale 7. Gail Simone
8. G. Willow Wilson 9. Kelly Thompson 10. Marguerite Bennett
Ten Artists
Sara Pichelli 2. Rachel Dodson 3. Jill Thompson 4. June Brigman 5. Colleen Coover 6. Ariela Kristantina
7. Altri Firmansyah
8. Yasmine Putri
9. Alisson Borges
10. Sonia Oback
How did I forget Jo Duffy!?!
Not too many people who made both lists, I thought with all of the comments, that there would be more creators on the same lists.
Rumiko Takahashi (A24 W18)
Emily Carroll (A22 W13)
Kate Beaton (A14 W5)
Colleen Doran (A7 W21)
Four is still pretty impressive!
I’m pretty impress with myself for getting so many writers on my list, making it to the big list. I had Kelly Sue DeConnick but replaced her with Marguerite Bennett. I should have taken Kelly Thompson off the list and kept both of the other two but since Kelly worked on the list, I thought that wouldn’t be proper. PLUS, if Kelly did make the list, I wanted to be within the number that did vote for her but that clearly didn’t work out. I wonder if she got any votes or was I the main one.
I am still pretty embarrass that I left off Jo Duffy, she is such a great writer! She could have been ranked 19 if I had done it right!
Really surprised that DeConnick beat out Simone but I’m also surprised that Louise Simonson didn’t make it to the Top Three.
I thought that I would have had more lady artists make the big list but I also don’t really know any of them either, in terms of all popular they are and such. I believe that Sonia Oback may be like Rachel Dodson and doesn’t do pencils but mainly inks. I could be wrong on that.
Looking over the list, I’m not sure if any of these pairings have worked together. Some would make pretty good creative teams, that’s for sure!
/ Jorge Jimenez (A) / Tomeu Morey (C) / Tom Napolitano (L)
Shadow and Flame with Magik 