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Cover for Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: The Black Vortex Alpha #1

Hitting stores next month is Marvel’s latest cross-over between the X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy: “The Black Vortex”, just 12 months after 2014’s “Trial of Jean Grey” which brought together these two Brian Bendis written teams for the first time.  For this event, Bendis is following the lead of Sam Humphries, writer of The Legendary Star-Lord, who is the “showrunner” for this event which sees the two teams cross paths thanks to a powerful artifact (the entitled Black Vortex). This event, which begins in an Alpha issue written by Humphries, then spreads to titles like All New X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Legendary Star-Lord, Nova, Captain Marvel, Cyclops and other series. Both creators joined the comics press today on a call to discuss the upcoming event, how it impacts each team going forward, and to elaborate on just how central the new-found relationship between Peter Quill and Kitty Pryde is within the pages of the event.

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: Black Vortex Alpha #1 Interior Art by Ed McGuinness

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: Black Vortex Alpha #1 Variant, Art by Alexander Lozano

“The Black Vortex” was born out of the regular Marvel retreats that occur among its key writers and editors, says Humphries: “This grew bigger and more exciting as we shared it with our colleagues at retreats and in Editorial…It became clear that this was an event-caliber story.” The writer stated that it was his hope to challenge the Guardians, the current “it” property at Marvel, on a level on which they hadn’t yet been. The Black Vortex, as an object, has been appearing in Humphries’ run on The Legendary Star-Lord, but expressed that this escalation called for a number of great writers to work on the concept and that scribes like Bendis, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and Gerry Duggan all stated their desire to be involved in the project, and that they each had their own unique take on the concept for their given titles. Humphries also mentioned that there are big Captain Marvel and Nova moments in the story, the latter hitting a rather funny note for the character.

Bendis also made mention of the artistic talent involved, from Ed McGuinness (who is the artist on Black Vortex Alpha #1) to All-New X-Men artist Andrea Sorrentino, who is freshly joining Marvel after an incredible stint on Green Arrow. Bendis says the cosmic landscape is what really drew them in: “The artists are given the freedom within the story to express themselves. This gave us an opportunity to give quite a handful of artists who were itching for their chance to let go cosmically their chance.”

And speaking specifically about Sorrentino, Bendis shared:

You just write your ass off and then you just let him do what he’s going to do because it’s almost indescribable what he does. You just get out of his way and let it happen…it’s so exciting when the pages come in. Every artist in the group is like that. When you go into an event – even when it’s an artist you’ve worked with – there’s something about how an artist will take the opportunity to draw bigger. After an intimate storyline, they feel when they’re drawing an event.

On the subject on Sorrentino, Bendis also stated that he and the artist already have their next project lined up and compared working with the artist to his acclaimed runs with Alex Maleev, David Mack and Bill Sienkiewicz.

All New X-Men #38 Interior Art by Andrea Sorrentino

The concept behind The Black Vortex itself is that when characters come into contact with it, they become cosmically empowered, in much the same way that Jean Grey became empowered by the Phoenix Force, and Norrin Radd obtained the Power Cosmic. With certain characters obtaining this power, they also were given new designs by McGuinness, speaking on that topic, Humphries said:

I’m convinced that Ed McGuinness found the Black Vortex when he was a teenager, and that’s why he’s such an amazing artist…He didn’t just come back with new costumes. He came back with new character twists and new powers…what he delivered was so compelling and intriguing that I ended up rewriting part of the outline to give it more focus…you want to get more in their mindset and see what kind of havoc they’re going to wreak on the cosmic landscape.

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: Black Vortex Alpha #1 Interior Art by Ed McGuinness

The impetus of the story, according to Humphries, is that Peter Quill’s father (Mr. Knife aka J’Son of Spartax), has been amassing a number of cosmic forces, and seeing himself as an “empire builder”. As a consequence of that, Quill, and his new love interest Kitty Pryde, are drawn into the power of the mysterious title object and call upon the X-Men for help. On this note Bendis said:

I don’t know if it’s the Claremont influence…but the X-Men every so often have to take an adventure that goes beyond their typical scope. But for a return trip, I didn’t want to do a “Trial of Jean Grey” sequel. I wanted to do something new if we were going to go back out there

Bendis stated that he wanted to be part of a story that had a big impact on the characters and both he and Humphries assured that not all the players in this event would land back in the place they started. Bendis particularly singled out one X-Man:

Hank McCoy is one of these characters that struggles with being the smartest man in the room, and this is a perfect example of a character that will altered because of his experience with the Black Vortex, this is something that will change the character dramatically.

Bendis also added that McCoy would obtain knowledge of a cosmic and universal nature.

According to the writers, “The Black Vortex” also leads right into Secret Wars, indicating that perhaps even bigger changes are on the horizon for Marvel’s heroes.

At this point, press questions were asked, the first among them being how the relationship between Kitty Pryde and Peter Quill affected the story given the positive reaction from fans, to which Bendis responded:

It doesn’t alter what we do with it. We have to tell the stories that the characters dictate to us, but when there’s a response like this it makes me happy…when you write relationship stuff, you’re revealing things about yourself in there…and when you put your ass out there a little bit, you want people to respond favorably to it and not go ‘Eww!’ That inspires us to go forward, but I don’t think we’d stop if we weren’t getting this response.

On whether the younger “All-New X-Men” will have a different reaction to the Black Vortex than their older counterparts, Bendis replied:

Jean Grey damn well knows what happens to her when she grows up. She knows EVERYTHING. But others are on a path – like Beast – of desperately looking for knowledge and power. And just because this power is offered, it doesn’t mean every character will have a horrible price to pay. Some will get a power up. So the X-Men are coming at it young and raw…there are also other characters, like Angel, who has his own experience with a dark power.

Guardians of the Galaxy 24 Interior Art by Valerio Schiti

The heavy Jim Starlin influence of McGuinness’ redesigns was brought up, to which Humphries responded that the artist was great fit for the task from the get-go and that McGuinness “knows the history of the cosmic stuff, and while that wasn’t something they specifically through at him (the Starlin-like look)…you could see the electricity jumping off those designs”.

Bendis also drew a very strong connection between both teams when asked about the challenges of bringing the two teams together:

There’s a connection of spirit there. They’re oddballs. Even the Guardians are the oddballs of the universe…these characters see themselves as outsiders looking in and unique. Sometimes it’s great to be unique, and sometimes it’s f***ing depressing to be unique.

He also admitted that getting the X-Men into space and on the same playground as the Guardians was the toughest task by far.

Finally the topic of possible mainstream response to their work was broached, particularly given the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy film this past year. Humphries said that he’s encountered readers who came to his work via the film, as well as the Rocket Raccoon and Guardians title, and that they liked “what they saw in the movie and they were ecstatic to find more that they could read without having to wait for the sequel.”

And Bendis was quick to mention that fans realize that the only place you’ll currently see the Guardians and X-Men cross-over is in the comics, and that adds an exciting element to what “The Black Vortex” offers, particularly for new readers and that it’s “exciting and an honor to be delivering that to readers who want it”.

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: The Black Vortex Alpha #1 releases on February 4th.

The below designs are all created by Ed McGuinness

Cosmically Enhanced Drax Design

Cosmically Enhanced Ronan Design

Cosmically Enhanced Beast Design

Cosmically Enhanced Gamora Design

Cosmically Enhanced Drax Design Close-Up

Cosmically Enhanced Nova Design

Let me see, we kind of left off last week’s parade of Marvel event teasers, as it was beginning to get a little same-old, same-old, but here’s one that  got hearts pounding on a Monday morning,  a call back to the 1992 animated show that—along with Batman: The Animated Seris—helped start the whole  of the comics industry. Or as Comicbook.com wrote:

Marvel has released their latest teaser image exclusively to Comicbook.com, offering the possible return of the early 90’s-era X-Men team. Anchored by Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jubilee, Beast, Jean Grey, and lots (and lots) of pouches, the X-Men of the early 90s were one of the franchise’s most prevalent in pop culture. X-Men #1, published in 1991, still holds the world record for the highest-selling comic with almost four million copies sold, and X-Men the animated series, which ran from 1992 to 1997, still remains a fan-favorite take on the characters.

I’m sure you can hear the theme music now¯ esp. that”Whoop whoop whoop” at the end.

Last week MArvel released several other past event teasers, calling back to One More Day, Age of Apocalypse, Future IMperfect and even AvX, which is barely dry in our minds eye.

As you may recall, all of this is believed to be a teaser for next summer’s Secret Wars event which will bring back various Marvel universes to battle one another, just as DC’s newly announced Convergence event is expected to present THEIR multiverses in the arena.

Secret Wars vs Convergence — which side are YOU on?

It’s happening, hurrah! Marvel have today announced the news that Greg Pak and Victor Ibanez will be the creative team for a Storm ongoing series. Starting this July, the series will see the character take off around the world on a one-woman peacekeeping mission. She’ll be toppling corrupt governments, stopping natural disasters – it sounds like she’ll be literally the greatest hero on the planet.

The series is set around the idea that the character – who has never had an ongoing series before, can you believe it – will be going proactive. Whereas for Cyclops and Wolverine this meant forming murder-teams and messing everything up, Storm’s mission is to help the planet in every way she can. By reaching her fullest potential and helping mankind, she’ll provide herself as a sort of mutant icon for everybody to look up to. And, when your idol is a mutant, it becomes a lot harder to be, y’know, anti-mutant.

Fox pictures have a number of exciting movies coming out this year, spanning a number of different audiences.

Guest moderator Ralph Garman introduced the first movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2. Director Dean DeBlois and surprisingly Jay Baruchel (voice of Hiccup) took to the stage. After showing a completed first five minutes of the movie (which looked fantastic by the way) DeBlois elaborated that this second film of what is to be a trilogy takes place five years after the first movie, showing how our characters and the village have both grown and learned to make living with dragons part of their daily lives. “We also see that Stoick (Hiccup’s father) has changed from seeing his son as an embarrassment, to becoming an overly proud dad that has high hopes for his son. Hiccup can’t deal with these aspirations.” And we’ll be introduced to a new villain, Drago Bludvist, and how he plans to put a permanent wedge between the humans and dragons. How to Train your Dragon is coming to theatres June 13th.

Following next, Ralph Garman introduced the cast of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to the stage. Director Matt Reeves, Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, and Andy Serkis. “This movie follows years after the virus is released from the first movie and humans are extinct, or that they are thought to be,” says Matt. “We see that Caesar now is the leader of his tribe, and he has a family; a wife, one teenage son and a new baby.”

As it later introduced into the film that humans are still alive, it creates a conflict between the two species and inside Caesar himself. “Caesar is an ape, but he also had a human dad,” explained the director. “And he knows how it is to lose someone you love, so he’s empathetic to the survivors. He has to walk a fine line between his feelings and keeping his tribe together. And we see how there was a possibility that two could have lived together, but of course we all know what happens. That’s not a surprise.”

After watching the short movie clip they show us and listening to the discussion of the internal struggles on both the important parties of the movie, it’s difficult to decide who you want to root for. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will be seeing theatres this July 11th.
Based off the widely popular young adult book by the same name, Maze Runner is what I see as a futuristic Lord of the Flies. This movie adapted by James Dashner’s book has all the makings of the next Hunger Games, by which I mean futuristic technology set in a forest setting, and the murder of teenagers. The movie does have some exciting action shots for those who like to run and fight, thrown in with a lot of CGI.

Presenting the movie were the director Wes Ball, author James Dashner, actor Will Poulter, and actor Dylan O’Brien (made famous by the series Teen Wolf). The author confessed that for his book a number of influences were the book Ender’s Game, the book Lord of the Flies, the show Lost, and his fear of mazes. “Remember in the Shining with the maze scene? Mazes creep me out. If you’ve ever been in a corn maze then you know.” The anticipated Maze Runner will be out September 19th of this year.

Moderator Ralph Garman introduced a last minute addition into the screening lineup. Coming out this fall is a spy movie called Secret Service. Its notable actors are Colin Firth (famous for many things including his portrayal of Mister Darcy in a BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) and Samuel L. Jackson who will be playing the villain in this movie. Its setting is somewhere in the U.K., and the premise is that it deals with an organization that is funded by private investors as to not be hampered by politics and bureaucracy. The action sequences appear to be a faster paced Avengers, and technology stolen by Spykids. Still a work in progress.

And finally, what the Arena seemed to be waiting the most for, Ralph Garman introduced X-Men: Days of Future Past. The extended trailer and snippet of the movie looked beautiful and action packed. Unfortunately as a last minute change up, director Bryan Singer didn’t show (for reasons I’m sure we all know), but in his stead we had writer Simon Kinberg. He elaborated on things in the movie spanning from the politics in the 70’s, art styles of the bleak future and bright past, and as well as the convoluted concept of time travel. “Even though in the original comic that the movie is based off of they had Kitty go back in time, we decided that Wolverine worked better. James Cameron really helped us with the idea of time travel and how it scientifically would work, so you’ll see a lot of that in the film.”

In part of his final words, Simon Kinberg also added that he hopes this movie will make up for the failures of the 3rd X-Men movie, which was based off of the Dark Phoenix comic arc. X-Men: Days of Future Past will be out May 23rd; Not soon enough.

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Marvel have released their solicitations for December, including a lot of odd decimal placements, an apparent return for Peter Parker, the finale of Scarlet Spider, and a whole load of other stuff. Here’s a few bulletpoints about what you can look out for over Christmas:

If you want the full set of solicitations rather than this cherry-picking of the bigger details, head to CBR.

It looks as though Peter Parker is returning, as is the Amazing Spider-Man brand as a whole. Five issues will be out this month, lavvelled 700.1, 700.2, and so on. A number of creators are involved on this book: David Morrell and Klaus Janson on the first two issues, followed by Joe Casey, Kevin Grevioux, Jen Van Meter, Tim Green, Tim Seeley, Emma Rios, Clay Chapman, Javier Rodriguez, Brian Reed, Lee Weeks and Sean Chen. Phew!

Kathryn Immonen is returning to comics once more, and reuniting with her Hellcat collaborator David LaFuente for a new one-off story. They’re in charge of Avengers Assemble Annual – one of three annuals out this month – which promises the debut of

Zamira! She’s Meryl Streep with a vengeance!

There is also a Hulk annual, as well as a Thunderbolts annual.

Brian Michael Bendis is bringing X-23 into the cast of All-New X-Men, which basically spoils one element of Avengers Arena. It looks like she has a new costume. Elsewhere in the Bendis World, Kevin Maguire’s issue of Guardians of the Galaxy comes out this month.

Wolverine Origins II starts, with Kieron Gillen and Adam Kubert handling the five-issue miniseries. The first cover will have an acetate cover variant.

After 25 issues Scarlet Spider is ending in December, with Chris Yost and David Baldeon the team for this final issue. Ryan Stegman provides a cover for the issue.

Inhumanity starts, followed by a number of ridiculous tie-in issues like Mighty Avengers 4.INH and so on. This issue will be by Matt Fraction and Oliver Coipel, seemingly leading us towards Inhuman the ongoing series in 2014.

Avengers Assemble brings in co-writer Warren Ellis for a new story arc, working alongside Kelly Sue DeConnick. Art will be by Matteo Buffagni. And yes, it’ll be Avengers Assemble 22.INH.

No sign of an X-Factor relaunch this month, although it turns out that Brian Wood is the creator who’ll be trying to fix the almost conclusively broken Monet, following a dreadful last few months of X-Factor for the character. Monet will be joining the team in X-Men, with Terry Dodson on art.

If anyone CAN sort her out, it’s Brian Wood! Fingers crossed.

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Battle of the Atom, the 2013 X-Men event crossover, will see All-New X-Men, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & the X-Men tell a story in which the current X-Men have to deal with past versions of themselves – and, uh, also future versions of themselves.

Over the next few months, I’ll be tracking the story with each issue and keeping score on how well the storyline is going.

There will be spoilers below! Although, really, you’re not going to understand what I’m talking about unless you’ve read the issue first.

All New X-Men #16 is by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Marte Gracia, and Cory Petit

Boy oh boy, telekinesis was just MADE for Brian Michael Bendis, wasn’t it? This second chapter of the crossover features a bounty of telekinetic double-talk, allowing the writer to offer second and third takes on each situation as they occur in the story.

It’s also a step up from the first chapter, which was designed mainly to get people up to speed on the All-New and Uncanny X-Men teams. Here we finally get to see a wider section of the X-Men in action, as more and more teams start to pile up on each other. But, if there’s any artist able to handle twenty-thirty people in a scene, it’s Stuart Immonen. Immonen steals the issue with his work, giving each character a ‘pop’ from their background, assisted by some careful and bold inking from Wade Von Grawbadger.

Von Grawbadger’s work with Immonen doesn’t get talked enough as much as it should, really – although Immonen’s pencilling is fantastic, it’s Von Grawbadger who gives the characters that feeling of satisfying chunkiness – they feel solid and bounce off each page. He gives them chunky outlines when he needs them to take the foreground and thins down the aspect for characters like Iceman – establishing the different body types and mannerisms of the characters. He’s a perfect fit for the X-Men.

And what a lot of X-Men there are in this issue! This time we have a brief check-in with Cyclops and his Uncanny team, whilst most of the issue focuses in on a three-team drama in which several characters pick an individual side. The main set-piece here is a telekinetic sequence taken fairly shamelessly straight from the pages of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run, as a lengthy discussion and fight are then replayed from a telepathic aspect.

At first it seems like there’s a single discussion going on until Bendis rewinds and replays the scene from Jean Grey’s perspective – revealing that the whole time she’s been telepathically talking to other people in the room, changing the context of the sequence entirely. Whedon held onto this surprise for a few issues, but Bendis establishes and switches the sequence almost immediately. It’s a faster-pace and allows to create a quick, useful conflict between the characters without having to resort to a one-dimensional fight sequence.

It’s pretty obvious that Bendis has been hankering to do this sort of thing for a while, as his All-New X-Men prior to this issue has been full of telepathic tics and quirks. When writing quickfire dialogue, Bendis is hampered by the fact his characters can only say so many words on a panel, within their one motion. Removing that obstacle by writing out thoughts means he can fill each page with as much text as he likes, coating each sequence with side-commentary and exposition.

This is a dream come true for him, you can tell. Luckily the creative team also have the advantage of a few well-planned surprises. The future X-Men team contains one of them, although it’s not quite the surprise you might think it to be. If I can go into an extended analysis of aging, you can see that the Future X-Men team are all around 40 years older than the present day team. With that in mind, the reveal of Jean is not one which returns the version last seen in the hands of Morrison/Pak. Rather, this is the teenage version of Jean, if she stays in the present and ages normally.

Jean’s unveiling is a clever twist for the story, but it also serves to hide what is possibly a more important thing – there’s no future version of Cyclops or Angel amongst the Future X-Men team. Jean is just a distraction from the fact that Bendis has something in mind for his Uncanny X-Men team, and it’s the biggest hook of the issue.

We do check in on that team here, as they recover from Cyclops’ death-experience in the prologue.  Interestingly, the story hasn’t bothered to identify any of these characters aside from Cyclops himself. The book relies on readers already knowing who all the new characters are, and that Emma Frost is now wearing the generic suit which Chris Bachalo gives every female character.  After finally nailing down one trailing part of time travel – Marvel have by now changed the rules of time travel every year for the past fifty years – that team gets a motivation for their next few issues.

That’s a canny trick, isn’t it? Last issue defined the motivation for the team, but Bendis cut away from the scene before actually telling that to the reader. Instead he pops the aftermath scene into this new issue, therefore quickly giving readers a one-issue wait before confirming that, yes, they are all now worried about the new development from before.

Speaking of how efficiently the issue manages to bring in the other books – Rachel Grey has a very brief, but massively substantial, appearance. She runs in after the fight and does EXACTLY what the reader wants her to, and rounds on the new Xorn. Brian Wood’s X-Men have still not appeared as a team, but they are now set up through Rachel’s one-panel outburst and a single dialogue-free reaction panel from Storm. Two words from Jean, and suddenly the next issue has a purpose as well. That’s a remarkably effective use of a page!

That’s what comes across most strongly in the issue. It’s quick and economical. We still haven’t had much beyond Brian Michael Bendis setting up the pieces of the story… but it FEELS like a lot more than that. There’s an effective use of panel-time here which Avengers readers will look upon enviously. Having telepaths present in each issue means Bendis can write overextended thought bubbles for characters – but it also means he can no longer waste the characters’ time. He can’t have character lie to each other, because there are now four or five telepaths around who will call that out.

With the story so far stuck in a room filled with X-Men (there’s still no sign of a villain, unless you count the DJ who makes a TOTALLY UNCALLED FOR dig at Dazzler’s career), the narrative finally has had to force itself forwards, creating some dramatic momentum for Brian Wood to dig into as we head to chapter 3 of the crossover.

More to come…

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Battle of the Atom, the 2013 X-Men event crossover, will see All-New X-Men, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & the X-Men tell a story in which the current X-Men have to deal with past versions of themselves – and, uh, also future versions of themselves.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be reading each new issue of the storyline and offering a running commentary on them. Not reviews, particularly – these are more like a series of thoughts which are brought up by each issue.

There will be spoilers below! Although, really, you’re not going to understand what I’m talking about unless you’ve read the issue first.

Battle of the Atom #1 is by Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Cho, Marte Gracia, and Joe Caramagna.

Cover by Art Adams

Additional pages by Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger

X-Men Crossovers are a staple of the franchise. Since the books split into multiple teams and characters way back when, crossovers have made for some of the more inspired and entertaining X-Men stories Marvel have put out. From Inferno to X-Cutioner’s Song and modern crossovers like Messiah Complex, events have served to define the X-Men franchise over the years. Unlike, say, the Avengers, who have mostly been defined by the creator tackling them, the X-Men are more defined by a clear history of ‘big’ storylines.

(Mainly because most X-Men stories are written by the same creator - Chris Claremont)

This has meant that every year Marvel attempt to continue their winning streak with some new ‘big’ storylines for readers. But unusually, we’re currently riding in from a recent string of smaller scale, less successful event stories – Necrosha, Second Coming and Schism all struggled to work on their own merits, and had to be supported by superior tie-in books. Battle of the Atom doesn’t have that luxury, and instead has to bring an entire storyline together – featuring some disparate groups of characters – within the central storyline.

That’s a big ask, especially when you look at just how terrible a job Infinity is doing at making sense without having 2-3 tie-in books assisting the main storyline. On the basis of the first issue, it looks like the X-Office have decided to pare things right down to the basic points. Battle of the Atom #1 doesn’t even bother with Brian Wood’s team of X-Men – this is an introduction purely to Brian Michael Bendis’ X-Men teams, with Kitty Pryde and the All-New X-Men taking the main focus.

Cyclops’ Uncanny X-Men show up too, although strangely there’s almost no conflict whatsoever between the two teams. They get along just fine, are friendly and playful with one another, and nobody calls anybody a jerk. It’s almost disappointing how little real conflict we’ve gotten since Schism ended and the X-Men split into different groups, especially when it means Kitty Pryde hasn’t been able to rant at anybody for months now.

When the final page brings in the Future X-Men, thus putting three generations of X-Men into play… again, there’s no conflict! It’s all very cordial indeed. Very friendly. No tension or sense that this might be epic.

Yet whilst it’s fun for long-term fans to read an X-Men event and see everybody fighting and angry, Bendis’ X-Men run has really been about returning ‘friendliness’ to the mutants. The characters have all dialled back a notch, settled back into themselves, and been allowed to show off just why they were popular to begin with. No more screaming and shouting and melodrama for the time being – Bendis has focused on the basic traits of the characters and reassumed them to fit 2013.

For new readers, this has made for an excellent inroduction to the characters and world of the X-Men, because we get to see their appeal right there on the page… rather than have to remember what the characters once were. That’s the success and failure of this opening issue – the characters are revived and upbeat… but at the same time, they’re also disengaged from a sense of danger. There’s no threat.

The last page revealing the Future X-Men doesn’t feel ominous either, although maybe that’s because it’s been talked about so endlessly in interviews and solicitations. Really, the main shock comes when you see what the Future X-Men team are WEARING, because lordy if that isn’t some of the worst costume designing since Polaris. The team are in beige, for the most part, with shawls and hoods and bland designs dominating them as a group.

They look absolutely terrible. It’s also worth noting that, in keeping with the goal of making everything simple for new readers, not one of the characters is new. These are all existing characters. There’s no Cable or Bishop or Shard appearing for the first time here. These are established characters, or the children of established characters, aged and changed very slightly.

For all that this is billed as a major event, there’s no sign that the writers want to shock or stun readers with revelations. It instead feels very low-key, simple, and one-note in the opening issue. So really, it’s an issue which completely introduces the key idea of Bendis’ X-Men – that the characters are enjoying themselves for the first time in years, despite everything else that’s happening to them. They’re individuals again rather than a minority group working together on their cause.

At the same time the character-driven writing means that the storyline feels a little linear, and a little too easy. Nothing in the opening issue suggests any reason why the entire crossover couldn’t just see various X-Men sitting in their breakfast room, discussing their differences over coffee.

And that’s probably why Marvel decided, after reading the issue, to release both Battle of the Atom AND All New X-Men #16 on the same day. There’s only one scene in this opening issue, midway through the story, which has any real sense of drama to it – and then the story skips ahead in time so it doesn’t have to resolve or address that drama quite yet.

But! All-New X-Men #16 DOES address it. And picks the story up considerably, in fact. So on that note – more to come..

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Brian Wood and Oliver Coipel’s relaunch of X-Men with Jubilee, Storm, Rogue, Rachel Grey, Kitty Pryde and the other one has been moved back slightly, from April to May. The new publication date will be May 29th. This is due to a bereavement, and Brian Wood has posted regarding the decision to hold off on the first issue’s release:

Obviously this is a very personal matter. Pushing the launch back is the best option out of all that was discussed. An uninterrupted creative run is better than random fill-ins, and in a couple months when we’re past it no one will remember the delays and the work will be forever.

TweetInterviewing Neal Adams over at the New Statesman in the run up to this month’s London Super Comic Con, we chatted about his legendary role in providing greater creator rights for all within the comics industry, his own start in comics, and pushing comics in a more “relevant” direction. So while I recommend going ahead [...]

TweetFriday is art day! Friday is also the harbinger of the weekend, but who cares about that? Instead, take a look at all the pretty pictures I gathered for you from the shady, cob-webby corners of the Internet you dare not venture… (I can’t say more) FF by Mike Allred (you HAVE to click on this to [...]

TweetHello and welcome! We are starting a weekly art thingy and have -rather thoughtfully- set it for Friday, that interminable day where the weekend is within touching distance and yet you still have to be at work. Hence, pretty and cool stuff that will help tide you over- forget words, just feast your eyes. This [...]

TweetMarvel’s solicitations for May are sneaking out, but the first thing that caught my attention – Amanda Conner providing art for Marvel, in the form of this variant cover for issue #2 of Brian Wood and Oliver Coipel‘s adjectiveless X-Men series. Whew! Long sentence. We get a look at all the team being all classy [...]

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Here are a few of my favourite things…. Marvel, aware that I demand delight at least once a month, have started releasing ‘X-Men 50th Anniversary’ variant covers for several of their books. The X-Men have – yes – been around for 50 years as of 2013, with Stan Lee’s original vision now old enough to start having a midlife crisis and buy a new car. X-Men fans: prepare to explode in glee!

First up is Chris Bachalo reuniting with Generation X (gleee!!) for the cover to All-New X-Men #6:

Skin! Synch! Oh, the memories. Shame Husk isn’t wearing her glasses, but WOW how much does this remind that Banshee was The Greatest? Right? Faith and begorrah, come back soon!

The second released cover is Clay Mann’s variant for X-Factor #250, which features every member of the team there has ever been. Founders Jean and Cyclops rub shoulders with Rusty, Skids and Boom Boom (gleeee!!), while newcomers like Monet and Layla Miller somehow manage to cram themselves in there too.

Who will appear next? I am literally stamping my feet with anticipation. Gleee!!

By Steve Morris

Stuart Immonen’s artwork is one of the key selling points to, well, anything he is involved with, and All-New X-Men #1 is no exception. The premise of the book is that the original five members of the X-Men – Angel, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman and Beast – have come to the present for some reason (no, there’s no sign of other founding X-Men Shortpack and Sage at this point in time). They are in the present, and they are… in the present. And Stuart Immonen is drawing it! So now you know the premise of the series in its entirety.

The regardless point being, Marvel have released some of Immonen’s pencils for the first issue of the series, written by Brian Michael Bendis. And unsurprisingly, they’re spiffing, corking, and several other 1960s adjectives.

The first page shows us the Jean Grey school, Wolverine’s semi-creepy tribute to his friend’s dead wife, who is now 16 and about to stare him right back in the face. But before he has time to sleep with her and freak us all out, it looks like the team are going to first endure some face-time with Beast. Which is probably going to be especially weird for Beast. You can also see a few students running round in the background, which reveals that Pixie has moved to Westchester along with the others. Yep, Utopia is doomed. Toad is also busy, uh, washing a tree. Cyclops Jr will probably blast him in the face in a moment or two.

The third page revealed shows Beast talking to the younger X-Men, who look like the Famous Five. Look at Jean’s adorable haircut! Shame she’s about a year away from murdering billions of people, isn’t it? If young Beast is scared now, just wait till he hears about the repeated genocides his older self has been enjoying over the past few years. And let’s not even get started on Trish Trilby! Ominous times are ahead for you, McCoy. This appears to be page 20 of the first issue, so lord only knows what the first 17 pages are going to be made up of.

And as a final note, here’s the interconnected cover for the first two issues, which sees all your favourite X-Men scowling at you.

Well look, news is flying out the internet like four and twenty blackbirds from a regal pie. Following USA Today’s teaser images showing Matt Fraction on Fantastic Four come two more images, this time teasing what look to be Captain America NOW and X-Men NOW.

iFanboy have the Captain America teaser image, which places Rick Remender and John Romita Jr on the title this November. This is, of course, coming as Ed Brubaker starts to cycle away from Marvel and towards more creator-owned work, as his long run on Cap ends later this year. Some sites are suggesting this teaser is actually for Winter Soldier, but it’s unlikely that Brubaker would leave Marvel completely, and so suddenly. This will be the Captain America relaunch.

Spurrier’s image on MTV Geek, meanwhile, looks to be playing off X-Men Legacy, the Mike Carey/Christos Gage book which has a terrible title. If Marvel were looking to calm down their X-Output, then it’d be an excellent idea for them to replace the cancelled Legacy with something else. Rumours still abound that Brian Wood’s excellent run on the current adjectiveless X-Men may be coming to an end already, which would seem to be the best place for this creative team – if true.

Spurrier will be joined on this book, whatever it is, by artist Tan Eng Huat, and will likely string together some incredible adjectives before we even make it past the first panel. Very exciting news for X-Men fans, because Spurrier’s X-Club miniseries was brilliant.

Any minute now, Heidi is going to post a teaser image with ‘TIDY’ on it. I can feel it in my bones. Stay steady, Pixie-fans!

Marvel Now! was always going to claim some victims before relaunching, and now it’s made revealed (through that most sneaky of revealers, the solicitations listing) that nine of their current books will die in order for Marvel Now! to live.

Those nine titles are: Captain America, Fantastic Four, FF, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, New Mutants, The Mighty Thor, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men Legacy.

This isn’t completely surprising in every case, because Brian Michael Bendis already said that Uncanny would end and several of the other books were winding up long-standing runs with big name creators. Matt Fraction was already set to leave Invincible Iron Man, while Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brubaker were both already known to be leaving the Fantastic Four titles and Captain America, respectively.

What does this mean for the characters? Well, Captain America, Thor and X-Men Legacy’s Rogue are all in a team together anyway, while Iron Man will surely find a place in one of the Avengers titles. But what of the Fantastic Four? They’ve completely dropped off the map, apparently, and the World’s Greatest Superhero Family look set to pack up their bags for a one-way trip to the one place they’ve never been before: comic-book limbo.

It’s interesting to note that most of these books were handled by the ‘Architects’ of Marvel, and that some low-selling titles like the beloved Journey Into Mystery have survived this new purge. Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man also escapes the destruction, so that much-teased ‘big change’ in issue #700 isn’t going to see the book cancelled, thankfully.

Three X-Men books are chopped, including flagship Uncanny X-Men. Which is a massive surprise, because most were predicting that the pointless titles – adjectiveless X-Men and Astonishing X-Men – would be the two to go. New Mutants was expected to go, and does. But it’s still surprising to see just how big a change Marvel seem to be making. What new books are going to replace these ones, which surely were the backbone of the Marvel Universe?

The variant cover for issue #8 of Avengers Vs X-Men has been unveiled today by Marvel. One of the seventeen, anyway. Drawn by Adam Kubert, the cover shows those most heroic of characters, the Phoenix Five, standing around doing nothing much of any import. In a heroic manner! As you can see, Namor’s trousers have been lowered even further than before, while Cyclops holds onto the broken weaponry of the evil Avengers. The burning city behind them is that of Wakanda, the consistently-dubious home of Black Panther, where the Avengers are currently hiding out.

In a villainous manner.

How can we tell that they’re heroic and the Avengers are evil? Firstly, because the X-Men are super-duper and the Avengers are totes rubbish. But also, it’s because Cyclops has got his hands on Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, which can only be held by somebody who is worthy and noble. Presumably Thor lost the right to wield the thing after he used his God Powers to villainously punch a young boy in the stomach this week.

What a jerk!!

…it might look like these incredible designs by Matthew Humphreys, an artist currently at Hasbro Studios. Click on image above to seen the full line up. Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d be developing at least one Marvel property as a Disney hand drawn film… Dr. Strange, Sub Mariner, The Silver Surfer…

(Thanks Red Pill Junkie, via io9)

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Marvel, Matthew Humphreys, X-Men

Marvel seem to be on another one of their ‘every day a new tease’ stints that they periodically enjoy throwing at the internet. This time, their intention seems to be to convince the world that they’re going to chuck the X-Men into a parallel world and reboot them.

The new teaser image, which we’ll get to in just a second, could be related to this idea. After yesterday suggesting a parallel world might be introduced to the X-Men during Act 2 of ‘Avengers Vs X-Men’, things have escalated with this second teaser, which is so enigmatic as to be hair-rippingly infuriating. Like someone from a Matrix film – worse, like someone from one of the sequels. Right, second’s up, so let’s take a look at the teaser.

This could be a mere retelling of the origin for the X-Men – but Marvel just did that, with an excellent Dennis Hopeless/Jamie McKelvie ‘Season One’ graphic novel earlier this year. And why would Marvel release a teaser suggesting the X-Men are going to be rebooted into a parallel universe so soon into the start of AvX? That would seem to give away their big event storyline before it’s halfway through. This teaser couldn’t be more annoying if it had sunglasses and a trenchcoat on it and kept going on and on about The One, you guys.

If this is neither a reboot nor a retelling, what else could be going on here? Well, um, maybe it’s a story where Brian Michael Bendis finally leaps onto the X-Men franchise and writes a story where it’s revealed that Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel et al weren’t really the first X-Men Xavier tried to recruit. He actually started off by creating a black ops team who fought nazis!

… wait and see.

Hi all,

It's The Wandering Library Ninja Bill. I 've been walking in the waste lands and dry and dark places. Fighting evil wherever it rears it's ugly head. It's mighty strange living in the shadow lands, but good reads always pull me through. So let's see what's on this dish today?

Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole - Imagine if in the real world people started to exhibit strange powers and magical abilities. This is what I hope is the start of a great series about how things would play out. In this world created by Myke Cole some of humanity has started to develop magical powers. Some people are born and exhibit these abilities early in life while others are well into their adulthood when they exhibit magical powers. In this world, very much like ours, when this starts to happen governments around the globe try to control these individuals for their own agendas. In the United States people who manifest magical gifts are either incorporated into the military or kept under constant supervision. Those who try to run, termed Selfers, are hunted down by the military and "handled." Some powers are considered okay by the government, while other are not. Some of the "good" powers are: Physiomancer (the power to heal) but if used to harm it is called Rending and prohibited, Pyromancer (the ability to generate fire and control in many ways), Aeromancer (ability to control storms and lightning, also can use wind currents to fly), Hydromancer (ability to generate and control water) and others I will leave you to find out about. Those that are prohibited and individuals exhibiting them "supposedly" helped  or taken down are: Elementist (the ability to make fire, water, earth, etc. self aware and act on the person's behalf without taking away from the user's focus), Necromancy (the ability to control the dead), Portamancy (the ability to open and close gates to different locations and dimension), Whispering (the ability to control animal life) and also many others that you can find out about if you read the book.

This story focuses on Lieutenant Oscar Britton part of the SOC (Supernatural Operations Corps). The SOC is made up of servicemen without magical powers and those with to serve The United States Government. One of there duties is to hunt done Selfers and capture users of outlawed magics. It is during one of these missions that Britton manifest the ability of Portamancy. He runs because he does not understand what has happened to him and is just plain scared. He is pursued by the SOC under the command of the mysterious Aeromancer known only as Harlequin.

He is caught and taken to an Operations Area in another dimension known as "The Source" (it seems to be the place where magic originates and has broken through to our dimension to endow certain individuals with different powers). This is all top secret and all knowledge of it kept under raps by the military and government. The Operations Area is used for multiple purposes. One is to wage a war in The Source with the indigenous populat

0 Comments on Shadow Ops, X-Men and Combat Oh My!!!!!! as of 4/24/2012 7:40:00 PM

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By: Little Willow, on 4/4/2012
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  x-men, Women's Health, the hunger games, eat right, jennifer lawrence, the seventeenth minute, healthy body, healthy mind, health, Add a tag

In a recent interview with Seventeen, Jennifer Lawrence had this to say about being healthy in mind and body:

Seventeen: You've said girls should embrace their curves. Why did you think it important to make that statement?

Jennifer Lawrence: When I was playing Mystique in X-Men, I remember thinking, If I'm going to be naked in paint in front of the entire world, I'm going to look like a woman. I'm going to have curves and have boobs and have a butt. Because girls are going to look at that, and if I look like a scarecrow, they are going to think, Oh, that's normal. It's not normal. I'm just so sick of these young girls with diets. I remember when I was 13 and it was cool to pretend to have an eating disorder because there were rumors that Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie were anorexic. I thought it was crazy. I went home and told my mom, "Nobody's eating bread--I just had to finish everyone's burgers." I think it's really important for girls to have people to look up to and feel good about themselves.

I agree with Jennifer: It is very important for kids and teens to have good role models, and to have healthy eating habits. Encourage your friends and family members to eat right, and lead by example. Try to eat fresh food in every color of the rainbow, every day. It's easy and fun to do. Hint: Incorporate fruits and veggies into your meals and snacks!

I'm typing this as I eat my dinner -- farfalle (bowtie) pasta and brown rice mixed with tomato sauce and green peas. Yum!

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By: Heidi MacDonald, on 12/7/2011
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  History, Comics, Marvel, X-Men, Avengers, HYPE!, Add a tag

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By: Betsy Bird, on 9/26/2011
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  badass embroidery, boxing monkeys, Doctor Doolittle, new band name: Surreptitious Grapes, typewriters with skillz, Uncategorized, superheroes, collection development, baby names, Where the Wild Things Are, X-Men, Kidlitosphere Conference, Richard Dawkins, apps, The Secret Garden, adult authors up to no good, Jonathan Auxier, Tom Angleburger, Penderwicks, Add a tag