Update 1/30/08.

It's been a pretty busy week for me so I'm a little behind on things. There was a whole bunch of stuff I was going to write about, but then I got busy. Anyways, there was a pretty interesting article on the Post Messiah Complex state of affairs on Marvel's site.

Tonight I am planning on buying Fantastic Four#553, House of M: Avengers #4, and Mighty Avengers #8. I have to go to Vegas for work tomorrow and won't be able to write until next week, so maybe my partner-in-crime, Chris, will post something. That's about all I've got.

January 2008 Reads Part V.

New Warriors #7-8 I have always liked the New Warriors, but this series is not like any of the previous incarnations of the team. It's really wordy and most of the team doesn't have any powers. And Night Thrasher is dead, and his brother is taking his place. It also features a de-powered Jubilee, and I'm going to say that she's even more annoying without her powers. Some of the story focused on each individual deciding on what technology they would choose to give them powers. And then there's a whole lot of in-fighting between the team. Kind of annoying. I'm probably not going to keep buying this one, I thought I'd check it out because I used to collect it. But it's not the same, there are only a very few characters that are hold-overs from the original run, and the rest of them don't have any powers, so it's kind of hard to keep my interest up. And there wasn't a whole lot of action. So I guess I'll flip through next month's ish, but I probably won't be buying.

X-Men #207: This issue concluded The Messiah Complex and it was a little disappointing. I think all of the stuff that was pre-released about changes to all of the titles hurt the ending, because I really wasn't surprised with the ending. ::SPOILER ALERT:: Cable leaves to take care of the child in the future. Professor X is shot and could be dying. Cyclops announces that the dream is over and that the X-Men are no more (he's supposed to reform them in a couple of months according to his vision of what the X-Men should be). I guess the most shocking thing was that Rogue almost killed her mother, Mystique, after Mystique tried to sacrifice the baby to cure her (you've gotta be up on the story-line involving the Strain 88 virus that Rogue has for that to make any sense). I guess she didn't kill Mystique, but now the only voices that are in Rogue's head are her own and her Mom's, and she's not too happy about having Mystique's memories. She basically just walked out on Gambit and the X-Men after that happened. I think that part of the story will be interesting just to see what happens with her character. Apparently in the next issue of Wolverine, he's supposed to go after Mystique for revenge. Mr. Sinister was not shown to be 100% dead in my opinion. Also, no one really died, except for Caliban, which I'm still a little mad about. I can't wait for the first issue of X-Force though, I've been waiting for that series to start as soon as I heard about it. So, I guess in the end, the status quo is slightly out of whack, but at some point I'm sure it will be business as usual.

X-Men: Declassified.

Here is a very good run-down of what is going to happen to all of the X-Titles now the The Messiah Complex is over with. I haven't read X-Men #207 yet (I am going to read it very soon tonight), but I am pretty excited to see where things go from here. One note, apparently I am retarded because Thunderbolts didn't come out today, so I bought some New Warriors issues instead. Scroll down for another post from today.

Update 1/23/08.

Even though January is almost done with, Marvel keeps rolling out the Best Of 2007 lists. The other day they posted a Top Teams of 2007 List, which was kind of interesting.

Another interesting article was their Alternate Realities article some of their writers and artists talked about their favorite alternate reality storylines. Of course "Days of Future Past" was the most popular. That's my #1. Way back in the day at a comic con, I bought X-Men #142 and my friend Andy bought #141 and we figured that we'd just read the one the other had when we were over hanging out. I think I only got to read his copy of #141 once, and that was later in the day when I was over at his house and I was taking a break from playing Mega Man. Shortly after that, his family moved away and I never heard from him again. I recently bought a copy at another comic con and it's just as good as I remember it. The only flaw in the story is that I think we're coming up on the year in which it's supposed to take place. I think they learned their lesson because now, whenever they refer to Bishop's future, it's always "eighty years in the future".

January Reads Part IV.

Immortal Iron Fist #12: I had heard good things about this one, but was a little disappointed. I guess it was from trying to pick up the story from this point. I expected a lot more fighting and a lot less words. A little more Luke Cage would have been nice. It was really hard trying to follow all of the characters because some of them looked the same and some of them wore masks. Not really the type of thing that doesn't confuse new readers. I'm just sayin'. I may or may not continue with this one. It is a pretty popular title though, I've noticed that it sells out most of the time, so I guess a lot of people think it's good. I think I'm going to flip through it next time and if it's got enough action/Luke Cage, then I'm in.

Invincible #45-47: I don't even know if my partner-in-crime Chris even reads this thing anymore but I emailed him to tell him that I bought some back issues of Invincible and that I thought he would like it because I loved it. I've heard great things about the series, it just took me awhile to get around to buying it. It's really smart and well-written; the dialogue sounds like what actual kids would say. It's a really fun book and it really reminded me of reading comics when I was a kid. I will definitely be putting this on my list, the only problem is, I missed #48 and #49 and the comic shop was sold out of both. It's also almost impossible to find sold-out back-issues. Basically, your only option is to hit the trades, and fortunately, Image keeps the pricing down on those. You can find them for $11-$13. Go out and buy this one. Image calls it "Probably the best superhero comic book in the universe" and I think they might be right.

I almost forgot that tomorrow is Wednesday. I'll most likely be buying Thunderbolts #119 (if it isn't sold out) and X-Men #207 (the finale to the Messiah Complex).

January Reads Part III.

New Exiles #1: Ok, is there ever going to be any action in this series? The last three issues, including this one, have been full of talk, talk, talk and more talk. The team has been lampin' at home, getting used to the new team and new leadership and absolutely nothing has been going on. Finally at the end of this one they get a mission, but they leave half of the team because Sabertooth (the new team leader) doesn't trust a couple of them and leaves another behind to watch the other two. Then, in the weakest cliffhanger in the history of the written word, Rogue inexplicable falls off of a cliff. That's it. That's how it ends. I expected more from you Chris Claremont.


New X-Men #46 Ok, so this is the last issue before the Messiah Complex finale (in X-Men #207) and basically it ended up exactly how I thought it would; everyone somehow makes it to the same place for an epic battle at the end. So, I'm waiting for Wednesday to roll around so I can pick that up and see what happens. This issue was kind of interesting, the first part was told as a flashback focusing on Mystique and her ulterior motives. She actually wanted to save Rogue the whole time and tries to use the baby to heal Rogue. Gambit stops her and Cable arrives and takes the baby and is looking for a time machine (I love that the series just happens to have several time machines just laying around). As I said, it ends with the New X-Men battling Predator X and they teleport the entire team and Predator X to the final battle between the X-Men and the Marauders, so in X-Men #207, it's all gonna go down. According to wikipedia and other things I've read on the web, there will be a lot of changes to the X-Titles after this is over. I guess they're going to do an X-Men: Disassembled crossover entitled; Divided We Stand. I guess they're going to be disassembled and the reformed by Cyke into his vision of what the X-Men should be. X-Men will be renamed X-Men: Legacy, and I'm not sure what supposed to happen with the title, because the preview for the first issue (#208) features the original team in old costumes. So I don't know what's going on there. Cable is getting his own series, where he is traveling through time with the mutant baby (yeah, that kind of spoils things, doesn't it?). New X-Men is getting replaced by X-Force (I am stoked about this). Then they're going to launch a Young X-Men title, which I really don't get because couldn't they just use New X-Men for that? I guess we'll see.

Update 1/15/08.

In Marvel's newest edition of The Pulse, and continuing their "Best of 2007" stories, they linked to an article on their website about The Greatest Fights of 2007. Personally, I read #9: The Mighty Avengers Vs. Ultron and #3: The X-Men Vs. The Marauders, and that sounds about right. The Avengers fight was just ok, but the X-Men fight was pretty good.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I will be buying: Cable & Deadpool #49, New Exiles #1, and New X-Men #46. I have been trying to get a run of Cable & Deadpool off of eBay, but it is pretty expensive. Stupid Civil War jacking up prices. I think #49 is the last or next to last issue of C&D as Cable is getting his own series again at the end of The Messiah Complex. I don't know if I've heard about any plans for how Deadpool will be used after this series is over, which is interesting, because I think he's starred or co-starred in a series for about the last fifteen years, so to not have him in an ongoing series all of the sudden seems a little strange. But what do I know, I'm not an executive over at Marvel, I just read their comics.

To update my post from last week, The Twelve was actually very, very good. I enjoyed it a lot. There's some interesting stuff going on with the story that I liked and I thought it would just be a rehashing of Captain America's story where he was frozen for awhile and had to adjust to his new surroundings. There is a fair amount of that in the first issue, but there's also a lot of other things going on. I liked the characters, one of them is called "The Phantom Reporter" and he has an interesting detective style. Unlike most books, they show what he sees and thinks while it's going on, it's not mysteriously revealed at the end of the book. So I thought he was an interesting character. Speaking of the end of the book, cliffhanger alert! I imagine there will be a cliffhanger at the end of each issue as it's a 12-issue Limited Series and they've got a story to tell and the easiest way to end a short-run series is with cliffhangers, which is fine by me. The first issue was a little wordy, but that's kind of to be expected, there was a lot going on and they had twelve characters to introduce. I actually didn't mind the amount of words, it's really well written, my only mistake was trying to read it when it was late and I was tired. I am very much looking forward to next month's issue. A really well-done, kind of quirky, off the beaten path book. So if you're into that kind of stuff, check it out or pick up the trade when that's released, I think it's worth the money.

January Reads Part II.

Exiles: Days of Then and Now: One-Shot: In contrast to the Exiles #100 issue I bought a few weeks ago, this one was pretty good. It set up the new Exiles series and the new team is a pretty interesting mix. The new team is; Quentin Quire (aka Kid Omega), Luke Cage, Nighthawk, Spitfire and Wild Child. These are all alternate versions of the characters, of course. It is a little hard to keep up with because I am so new to the series and there so many alternate universes that sometimes, having a flowchart of everything would be really handy. I'd like to see where this one goes because I think it's a good place to start with the series because the series itself is kind of starting over. So I'll be hanging around for this one for awhile.

I was disappointed because the comic shop that I go to was sold out of Thunderbolts #118. They said they were shorted last week and would have more this week, but that was not the case. I guess it's a pretty good seller, because they don't have any back issues and they go for a lot of money on eBay. So I'm not really sure what to do here. I guess I'll have to wait until next month.

Hulk #1: For a comic book that stars the Hulk, this one didn't have a whole lot of the Hulk in it. He's basically just in the beginning of the book, which is told in a flashback, where he succeeds in finally killing The Abomination (I'm sure this will be retconned sometime soon or they will introduce a New Abomination at some point). Investigating the scene is She-Hulk, Doc Samson and Iron Man. Great, three of my least favorite characters. And I know that the Iron Man movie is coming out soon and that Iron Man is a pretty big player in the Marvel Universe because he's the head of S.H.I.E.L.D and all, but does he have to be in every comic that Marvel puts out? I'm just sayin'. Also, even though the new red Hulk is featured on the cover, he does not make an appearance in the first issue. WTF, Marvel? It ends with a cliffhanger involving Bruce Banner AND Rick Jones. I am interested to see who is the red Hulk, so I will hang out for another couple of issues to see where it goes.

Mighty Avengers #7: I continue to like a lot of things about this series, and I am going to keep buying it. This was the first issue after the first major story arc so of course they had to add a new team-member (which would always happen in the Avengers, back in the good old days). This time the new/old member is: Spider-Woman? I think the next major crossover in the Marvel Universe is going to involve a Skrull invasion, and I guess that starts here. They are finding out that certain people are actually Skrulls and it is suspected that there is a Skrull on Iron Man's Avenger squad. Interesting. The story ends with a Venom-like creature being released upon the public, which converts people into multiple Venoms. You can see this if you click on the cover to the left. The last panel is an Avengers Assemble! pinup, so I'll have to wait until next month to see what happens. As I've said before, the writing is a little different than the normal stuff Marvel is cranking out right now and there's a lot of humor thrown in, which makes for a good read.

The Twelve #1: I was a little tired and only made it through half this one, but I liked what I was reading. Marvel ran a full-page promo for this series in a couple of comics last month to reintroduce the characters, and it sounded like an interesting idea.. Here's a brief synopsis and character breakdown. Basically, Marvel is revisiting some of their old Timely Comics characters. Like I said, it sounded like an interesting idea and the characters sound like they could be cool. I do see this as kind of being an updated Captain America story only involving twelve people instead of just one (they are cryogenically frozen and then found in the present day). I don't even know how many issues it's limited to, but I'm in. I think one of the reasons I didn't get all the way through was that I was tired and it was a little wordy. There was a lot to set up, so they had to explain a lot and they kind of did a brief explanation of each character. I will read the other half tonight and update this tomorrow. As I said, I like what I've read so far.

Wolverine #61: Yeah, I don't know about this one. I was kind of disappointed by this whole, "Logan Dies" story-arc. Basically the only reason I'm going to keep collecting this series is because I thought I read somewhere that David Finch is going to be part of the next creative team and I am a David Finch fan. There were a lot of panels in Wolverine #61 that looked rushed and to be honest, the story wasn't that great. I am kind of relieved that the "Logan Dies" story is over with so they can get on to the next story. I'll hang out for a couple of issues, but I might pull the plug at some point because I really didn't like the last two or three story arcs. We'll see what happens.

Uncanny X-Men #494: This Messiah Complex story just keeps getting better and better. They're trying to involve every single past and present X-Man too, so that's also why it's pretty cool. Bishop is now fully involved in the story and Cable and Professor X are working together outside of the X-Men, which is very interesting. I am very excited to see how it all shakes out. Apparently Caliban is dead. I was mistaken that he was in the ads for the new X-Force title that debuts in February, unless they took him out of the ads, he's not in them. I liked Caliban a lot. I didn't really agree with everything they had done to him or how he was used and then forgotten so many times, but he definitely was one of my favorite lesser character. Every time he showed up in a story-line, I'd say, "Oh cool, Caliban". I hope his death is retconned at some point, even though I really hate it when they bring someone back after they've died.

X-Factor #27: Again, this one continues the Messiah Complex story and it is very good. They talk to Bishop as a little boy in the future. Layla Miller is trapped in the future because they found out some information about events in the past and she killed the Madrox Multiple she was with so the original Jamie Madrox in the past (I guess they refer to him as Madrox-Prime) would absorb his knowledge. And his tattoo. They realize that Bishop is trying to kill the baby, but he is with X-Force and his ship is shielded. It ends with X-Force searching for the baby and the Marauders ambushing them again, while Gambit and Mystique are apparently in cahoots and have killed Mr. Sinister. I am having a hard time believing that Sinister is truly dead, mainly because I've seen him "die" way too many times in the past. And the teaser for the next issue in the crossover said it would reveal Sinister's fate. So, he's not dead yet. I can't wait for next Wednesday.

January Reads Part I.

These are two issues I got in the mail. Technically, they should be December reads, but since I got them and read them in January, they're January reads. Anyways, here's the scoop.

Moon Knight #14: This one was kind of a disappointment, but I can see where it's going and why this was such a slow issue. It's setting up a lot story lines that will hopefully converge or at least be somewhat related to each other at some point. This was a real character and story driven issue, I just hope it pays off in the next couple of issues because I really liked the first story arc of this series, and it's kind of taken a downward turn lately. I guess I'll see what happens, I've got about six months left on these subscriptions, and I am pretty sure I'm going to let them all run out because they arrive pretty beat up. My X-Men #206 came really beat up and I was not too happy about that. Speaking of X-Men #206...

X-Men #206: Wow. That's pretty much all I can say about this one. Wow. If I had read this before the end of the year, I would have called it Best Comic of 2007. Hands down. This book was awesome. It had an interweaving story line that flow really well. One story is in the current timeline, featuring the X-Men. That other story is 80 years in the future, featuring one of Jamie Madrox's multiples and Layla Miller. The future timeline story has been frustrating because it hasn't revealed a whole lot until this issue's surprise twist cliffhanger ending (there's still a whole lot that needs to be revealed in the future story line, but at least this was a start). Both stories were related to each other nicely and both worked into the surprise ending. I'm really excited to see what happens in Uncanny X-Men #494. I was lukewarm about this crossover to start, but this issue and a couple of the previous issues have been A+. Check it this one out. Five stars, A+, whatever else you give top quality work. Nicely done.