Wolverine vs. Captain America : Haven’t we seen this before?  Shouldn’t the archetypal pairing be Cyclops vs. Captain America?  I guess maybe the outcome of that match would be too apparent?  (Cap, unless Cyclops caught him full on with his guard down or something).  So, I guess this is the “main event”.  Even, I guess. Except that Wolverine will keep getting better, but I suppose Cap could get him down for a bit.

Storm vs. Thor :  I love Storm to death, but there’s no way she should win this fight.  It’s almost silly.  They probably should have done Collosonaut vs. Thor – that’s really the closest thing to an even match I can think of for Thor, and he’d probably still win that one.

Spider-Woman vs. Gambit : The match no one cares about!  No?  Well, OK.  This one is even enough then.

Spider-Man vs. Iceman : The money dictates that Spider-Man win (that and he always wins) but, realistically…Iceman could just freeze the whole room.  Done, end of story.

Captain Marvel vs. Rogue : This one at least has some history to not.  Not that I’m convinced any of this crap will make any sense – although Marvel swears it will – but there’s at least a back story here.  Still, unless Carol is an idiot and lets Rogue get close, this isn’t even a fight.  Seriously.

Psylocke vs. Black Widow : With prep time, the Widow would win.  But I can’t see how that would happen in an actual fight.

Luke Cage vs Beast : Sorry Beast, this would last as long as it takes for him to hit you.  I’m guessing there will be a lot of talking in this one.

Magneto vs. Iron Man : Except for the fact that Magneto is generally a villain, this should never be a fight.  (Unless either party gets prep-time, of course).

Hulk vs. White Queen : OK.  This is uh, interesting.  Hulk’s gonna win that fist fight, so this is going to have to move onto the psychic level, where she’s got a chance.  But, if that’s the case… I dunno, this is the only not like vs like match out of the covers.  I’m confused.  Then again, the Avengers have the Hulk + Thor (for this series at least) – what the hell do you do against THAT?  Namor, maybe.  Since he’s an X-person now?  Namor vs. Thing (see below) is another match that would actually make a lot of sense but that they miss.

Cyclops vs. Hawkeye : Should be Cyclops by a mile, but you know, ambushes and all so who knows.
.

Daredevil vs. Archangel : Umm.  What?  Are we out of continuity here?  I don’t even…

Colossus vs. Thing : I think this one has happened before, and the win went to the Thing.  But, you know, with Cytorrak’s powers on top of his own, this should be Colossus by a mile.

That being said, the premise for this series (or rather, for the main AvX series – this book is simply described as fleshing out the battles from that book, so it’s at least not even trying to be anything other than what it looks like) looks somewhat terrible, even with all the “work” they’ve done to make there be an actual reason for the two big cash co-err teams to do battle.  STILL.  There is something to be said for comics targeted at 7-14 year olds. I mean, we haven’t had anything like Marvel vs. DC in a while (Avengers vs. Justice League was the most recent that I can recall and they, of course, teamed up in the end – still, this could end that way : Everyone vs. Phoenix!).  And the books do seemed to have stirred up quite a bit of internet debate (old school!  x vs y!  Who is the strongest!?), that’s probably a good thing for Marvel.

[Note: All images from CBR article here.]

So.

Avengersland : Looks pretty similar to last year, aside from some changes to the Avengers Academy group:

• Luke Cage : Still doing his thing, running the New Avengers & the Thunderbolts.
• Baby Cage/Jones : Still not hyper-aged to a zombie death machine!
• Shang Chi pops up occasionally in Secret Avengers.
• Blackpantherdevil : Still doesn’t make any sense to me.   It exists – but I think it’s gotten canceled and is wrapping up soon.
• Storm : Is an Avenger now too!  I forgot she filled in for the FF for an arc, so it looks like now she’s been a part of all 3 of Marvel’s major franchise teams.
• Patriot, Wiccan, Hulkling : Young Avengers have been appearing in the super-sporadic Children’s Crusade series.  I think they are pretty much locked down until that is over.
• Avengers Academy continues to look more and more like the actual kids of today.
• A new White Tiger joined the team, bringing the Latino/a count up to a whopping 2.
• Striker recently came out to one of his new teammates, who also happens to be bi (I think it’s Katie Powers – whichever Powers daughter was in the Runaways arc.)
• Hazmat & Mettle are still around.
• Wizkid is in the supporting cast now.
• War Machine has his own book again – 11 or so issues so far.  He’s also in Secret Avengers sometimes.
• The new Goliath is in Wonder Man’s “Revengers” anti-avenger team.
• Centurius (I had to look him up too) is on the Thunderbolts B team.

Hulkland

• Amadeus Cho has been sadly absent for a while now, although he did appear in one of the Fear Itself minis alongside Spidergirl, the new Thunderstrike, X-23 & the new Power Man.

Xland

• Storm is on two X-teams (Uncanny & adjective-less) and an Avenger, so she’s all over the place right now.
• Jubilee (Vampilee?) is still getting lots of panel time, and a current member of the adjectiveless book.  She also had a decent arc in the Wolverine & Jubilee 4-issue mini-series.
• Karma has been mostly sidelined taking care of that faceless dude for a while.  But – she’ll be back in the Astonishing X-Men next year under Marjorie Liu’s pen – so I’m *really* looking forward to that.
• Dani Moonstar is still kicking entirely too much ass for a non-mutant in a mutant book (;) ), and leading the New Mutants now (Sam is off in Wolverine’s X-Men book in semi-limbo).
• Sunspot is still around as well.  I think I even saw him flying once or twice, so that aspect of his powers may still be around.
• Northstar is (mostly) over/on loan to the Alpha Flight mini-series while it runs its course, but it looks like he’ll be in Liu’s X-team as well.
• Warpath was team-less most of the year, but recently moved over to Storm’s team in the adjectiveless book.
• Richtor is re-powered and still with X-Factor.  His relationship with Shatterstar continues to get page & plot time.
• Monet is also still with X-Factor.
• Darwin has been mostly awol, after one weird stand-alone story.
• Armor was in Astonishing for most of the year, I think.  At the moment she is team-less.
• Daken has had a solo book all year, but that is ending in the next couple months.  He’s still an asshole.
• Velocidad is still with the Generation Hope team
• but Idie is not.  She was the pivot point (?) for the major x-event this year (Schism), and then moved over to being a supporting character in the new Wolverine & the X-Men (which is much better than I expected) book.  She’s gotten a few lines in each issue so far.
• Prodigy is still around (and still powerless, yet I think the Cuckoos restored his memory of the abilities he had copied or something) on Utopia and turns up in a panel or two from time to time.
• Anole had an arc in a limited series this year with Rockslide, and turns up from time to time.  He moved over to Wolverine’s book/school.

Elsewhere

• Misty Knight headlined a new Heroes for Hire incarnation that has already gone under, but followed that up with a Villains for Hire mini in progress.  I’m still pissed/bummed about her child with Iron Fist being unwrote.
• Secret Warriors wound down, and only Quake (who I think is white??) is still around.  So there’s a couple of cool minority characters sitting around in limbo now.
• I want to say the Blue Marvel turned up in a one off issue somewhere fighting Hyperion or something…but that may have been last year.  Either way, I hope he winds up somewhere out of limbo in 2012.  Maybe he was in a panel or two of Fear Itself or something – you’d think something like that would be hard to avoid.
• There’s a new (Latina) Miss America in the Teen Brigade, featured in Joe Casey’s Vengeance series this year.
• Angel Salvadore (still powerless) also appeared in the Vengeance series.
• The new Power Man had a limited series with Iron Fist, as well as appearing in a Fear Itself tie-in mini with X-23, Thunderstrike, Amadeus Cho & Spidergirl.

That’s it for now.  I’ll add more as I remember/discover it.

Marvel has been introducing a decent number of new minority characters in its newer titles (Generation Hope, Avengers Academy, Vengeance, Secret Warriors).  Hopefully some of them stick around.  Also, next year needs more Cho.

Breakdowns:

Since Fantomex was the final reveal, the only surprise here is that Wolverine is not on the cover – I’d assume he’s still on the team?  If not, it might be a bit more interesting.  AoA Nightcrawler was the only real curveball, and I think he was the first reveal.  Looks like Arcangel is either dead or  permanently a villain now.  Well, by “permanently” … you know what I mean.  I doubt an original X-Man will be left dead or evil for long (Have Iceman and Beast died yet?  I forget).

The writing here has been solid enough, and the whole Psylocke as a double agent bit is interesting… but, we’ll see, I’ll probably get the first issue.

Idie!

Although why she is flying in the wacky energy-effect dealio is anyone’s guess.   Massive red herring, I suppose?  Her powers are temperature (fire/ice/etc.)… not wierdo plasma aura.

Beast here kind of looks like Dark Beast (I REALLY hope it’s not Dark Beast.  Ugh)… but I think that’s just an artist thing.

I’m happy to see Iceman in one of the headline books… but Quire… double ugh.  I suspect he might be enough to keep me away.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved what Grant did with him, but I’m just not convinced that anything done since then has been worthwhile.  Also, he’s an asshole.  At least currently… I thought he had repented and reformed at one point?

Kitty & Lockheed back together is always a good thing.  Not digging the costumes so much… sleeveless Wolverine?  Retro Kitty?  Utility strap Beast?

 Oh God. I forgot about Toad.  He’s hiding back there.   Fuck Toad.  Seriously.  Especially new, movie-fied, Toad.  Not that the old toad was anything special, but the whole huge tongue always hanging out bit is annoying.  I’ll take Quire over Toad any day.   Bleh.

So bummed that this will be Carey’s last arc on Legacy.  It’s been such a solid run.  Hell, he managed to make Rogue interesting again!  And even a super-strengthless, groundbound rogue.  Although there were threads about her having access to old powers that haven’t been picked back up yet.  Bummer. I like that Frenzy is sticking around, she has a nice potential arc based on the whole memory of Age of X thing.  She seems to be the only one getting any mileage out of that.

Welcome back Rachel!  A cast of 4?  Going to be one of the 2 or 3 books I actually look forward to.

The only surprises here were Havok & Polaris coming “back”, as it were, but Havok was the first reveal so Polaris was kind of a given.  Looks like.. Darwin’s missing?  Anyone else?  Normally a cast this big might be overkill, but Peter David has been doing really well with the large cast stuff so far, so I’m not worried.

I’m very, very curious how Havok is going to play into the whole “investigations” thing.  I like him as a leader, but I like Jamie way more as the leader for this incarnation of X-Factor… dunno what will happen there, but I’d bet that’s one of the initial plot points.

Looks like soulless Guido is still kicking around… curious where that is going.

I hate to say it, but I kind of hope David takes a swing at the Longshot/Shatterstar parenthood thing.  He’s made some cracks about it on panel, but nothing serious yet.  Just because I’m curious how he’d work that into the whole tapestry he’s got going on.

Still looks to be my #1 X-Book.

Final thoughts on the reboot?

I’ll probably pick up the first issues of each, but currently only Legacy & X-Factor are on my actual pull list.  I may get Wolverine’s book if Quire & Toad are not too obnoxious.  Maybe Jubilee’s X-Men team.   Most likely no: X-Force & Generation Hope.  Everything in between is up in the air.

Here’s the full cover-merge spread:

And the breakdown/zooms:

I have to say that I’m really not feeling Shaw anywhere in an X-Book.  I never found him to have *any* redeeming characteristics (unlike Magneto, who’s had them for a long time, or the White Queen & Sage who were convincingly (to me) retconned (in the case of Sage) or had a pretty solid turnaround).  That’s not to say we couldn’t be seeing another White Queen turnaround here BUT.  Do we need it?  Is anything about Shirtless Shaw interesting enough to make it worthwhile?

Idie was my favorite cast member, so I’m pretty bummed to see her as the trade for Shaw.  Hopefully she’ll wind up in Wolverine’s team (as one might expect, given Schism so far) and not dead or in Limbo.

Still trying to wrap my head around how sticking Shaw with the mutant messiah is a good idea, from anyone’s perspective….

Well.

Psylocke (and possible Domino??) is pulling a Wolverin— er, double duty (as she’s also been revealed as being in X-Force, one of the team Wolverine/gold teams).  That’s interesting.  Especially if you’re a Psylocke fan.  I’m not a huge one, but I don’t dislike her (I have to admit, I do miss the ~1988 armored look though).

Mostly I’m happy to see Warpath back somewhere and Jubilee & Storm on a team.  This is pretty female heavy team too.  As in, extremely.  Probably top heavy too, knowing comic artists.  As others on the net  have pointed out, having Jubilee not on Wolverine’s side seems very strange, especially given the amount of effort he’s expended to help her lately (donating his blood to keep her sated, the stuff they just went through in the Wolverine & Jubilee mini-series, etc.).  I assume this will be a major plot point …

Having Domino out of X-Force, with Psylocke and potentially not pulling double duty could also set up some really interesting trust & subterfuge situations.  I wonder if Psylocke is here to take care of Jubilee for Wolverine?

I’m not understanding why Storm is not featured more prominently – other than that all the fliers in these promo posters are really tiny hovering figures.

Lose Domino (sorry, I don’t think she works here) and I’d be much more interested.

 Tell me that doesn’t look like a Brotherhood of Evil (Misunderstood?  Reformed?) Mutants in the making.  Magneto, Danger, Juggernaut & the White Queen.. oh and Cyclops and semi-amoral Illyana as afterthoughts.

And this is the flagship title?

I’m… “confused” would be an understatement.  I have to admit I’m surprised & impressed that they are letting the Juggernaut transfer stick.  It’s interesting to me in that normal dude + Juggernaut = fucking nuts.  So what happens when you have crazy tough mutant + Juggernaut?  I mean, does he even need a team?  Maybe the whole team is just to keep him in line?  He doesn’t have a rage face on so maybe he’s in control?  Why would Cytorrak leave him with the powers if he wasn’t a crazy rage-facer?  I guess I’ll have to read and see …

Still, I cancelled Uncanny from my pull with the relaunch – I’ll pick up the first issue at least (mostly because 1sts are a bitch to get back issues for if I ever decide to pick it back up), but nothing here reaches out and says “buy me!”.  Juggerlossus + Illyana comes close… but Danger says “nope!”.

Oh, Nate, you sure know how to ruin a cover with your shirtless self.

Abnett & Lanning have a huge stockpile of cred with me for the Marvel Cosmic stuff… but selling me on X-Man as a team member (especially this time) is going to take a lot of work.  Enough that I doubt even the awesome A&L.  That and a) there’s no Cannonball (WTF!?) and b) Magma is flying?  So she can fly now but we forgot that Sunspot can?  *confuzzled*

No Karma also makes me sad.  She’s one of those characters where I don’t find her powers particularly interesting (uber-limited, focused, telepathy) but I love her character.  She just has a … “presence” to me as a reader I guess, always has.

This is kind of a douchey cover in general.  Why do Warlock & Sunspot have those idiot-semi-villanous grins?  Why is Nate the central character?  Why is Magma flying?  I mean, she’s “Magma” not “Firestar” or “flying fire girl”.  Magma is heavy.  Rocks are heavy.  Please, please don’t make her some generic fire girl.

New Cypher is pretty interesting, Sunspot has always been one of my top 5 characters, and Dani is generally interesting.  Warlock really varies by writer.  Eh.  I’m in the middle on this one.  We’ll see how it goes.

Or this one:

Or even Wolverine Origins #14 or Wolverine: Weapon X V1 #14 OR Wolverine: Weapon X V2 #14!  None of those.  I’m talking about the most recent one (V3 I think… maybe V4 depending on how you count), this bad boy:

OK, now that that is clear.  On to the drama.  Just when you think a comic book character’s life absolutely could not get any more fucked up well – you were wrong!  OF COURSE.  Not that that was me, nope.  I was like, “totally, his life is always going to get worse.”

<.<

Anyway.  So.  SPOILERS SPOILER SPOILERS BLAAAALERS.  You have been warned.

Where was I?  Oh, right, at “so.”  SO, in this latest volume of the adventures of our favorite Canadian with claws (as opposed to Sasquatch, Wild Child (Is he Canadian?), or maybe Puck with some mean press-ons) – well, for the first half (issue 1-6 or 1-7ish), Wolverine gets sent to Hell (with caps, although where it falls in the Marvel pantheon of underverses wasn’t quite clear to me, or maybe it was and I’ve forgotten) and some demon takes over his body and tries to do horrible things to people he cares about.  Typical, right?  Pretty much.  Of course he escapes eventually (right before the X-Men are about to put him down!  Because Cyclops has a Backup Plan – not at all like the Xavier Protocols from a decade or two ago that caused so much drama) but – dun dun – that was the plan all along!  Send him to Hell (just because), then let him escape, then the real revenge starts!

Because the second arc is the “dun dun” part.   In which we learn that the crazy villains plot against him are just a bunch of normal people (well, as normal as you can be in the Marvel Universe) with a pretty understandable axe to grind: Wolverine killed someone dear to them.  Maybe it was intentional, maybe it was accidental, maybe they didn’t understand that the person he killed deserved it, or maybe they didn’t (lot’s of periods where Wolverine is brain washed…) – the point is just that they have all had their lives horribly impacted by Wolverine doing what he does best (aside from multi-tasking).

So, that’s… mildly interesting, right?  It’s been done before, I’m certain, I just can’t remember the specifics.  So, all this happens and Wolverine fights through a bunch of random hired goons to get to the “evil masterminds” only to discover that they have all committed suicide to deny him the revenge he craves (or so they think).  He doesn’t seem to mind so much that they did so, he’s just happy they are dead.  He wants them dead so badly, of course, because of the terrible things the demon running around with his skin on did in his absence, ostensibly at their beck (but not call, demon’s don’t do phones).   Which was part of their plan!  Enrage him!  Then deny him his revenge!

Oh, but there’s one other thing… they also let him know (via a movie playing when he finds their bodies) that all the cannon fodderfolks  he had to fight through to get to them were…. wait for it…

His children!

DUN DUN.

[Note: This is actually a pretty decent explanation as to why we've only ever seen one Wolverine-spawn - this little group has been snapping them all up, at least for the last 40 years or so.]

[Note2: What makes zero sense is how none of them had a healing factor or claws of any sort.]

Yeah, so that’s why he looks so sad on the cover.  I mean, that would seriously fuck someone up, right?  Especially someone who won’t let people kill Daken – who so obviously needs to be put down, right?  So one would expect him to be even more protective of a bunch of regular human kids.

My question is: Will any of this actually matter?  Will this change the way Wolverine goes about his business?

My guess: Of course not, silly!

The coming solicits make it sound like it will but, realistically… they ain’t kidding no one.   X-Force is solicited as continuing… as are his other 2 or 3 titles, which I’m sure will have pleennnnty of killing.  What’s he gonna do, research the people he kills before and after?   That seems like the easiest solution (and maybe the intended lesson here:  “Your killings have consequences – even fodder kills!”)… send some money (I’m sure he’s got a ton) & condolences to the families at least… maybe try and keep track of all the women you sleep with (since he prrrrrobably won’t stay fixed) to try and keep the kid thing from happening again.  Or kill yourself.

This has been brought to you by the entity that monitors the random comic things that eat up my brain space.

We seem to have a relatively diverse cast – 7 people, three women, three from ethnic minorities. Is this kind of mix important to you and what kind of stories does it suggest?

I’ll say this: if the comic industry never created another young white male super hero, we’d be okay.   Not that I have anything against them, but I don’t think the over abundance of them reflect the world we live in.

So yes, the three characters who are not the Core Four are “diverse” — even the villain in the second issue is Samoan, and the forth member of the Outlaws is a young black man.

What kind of stories does that suggest?  It almost sounds like a trick question, LOL.   I think it suggests stories that take place in a “real world” where not every president or pop star or neighbor is a young white male.  But I don’t think there are inherently different types of stories that are told because there are black or Japanese or Mexican super heroes fight alongside Robin and Wondergirl.

Over the years I’ve shared in the creation of a handful of super heroes that have been “diverse”… Skin, Mondo, Cecilia Reyes, Synch, the unfortunately named Maggot, Noir over in Wildcats, Puck’s daughter, Centennial and M to name a few.   Do I do it on purpose?  Honestly, yes… because I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to pick up a comic book and not see “yourself” reflected on the pages.

At Marvel I used to argue you can’t have a team sub-titled “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and then have no people of color represented.  “Really?   Seven billion people on the planet and you can’t find one of them that isn’t white to put on a team of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?  On Earth.  On all of earth?”  One editor even told me “Vision is red!”*  Seriously.

 

Old hotness

Of course, none of this can/will change the fact that the DC (and Marvel, of course) mainstays are all white.  They have been trying a couple things lately: not killing off John Stewart*, not killing of Jason Rusch (really surprised about that one), making Cyborg the “Superman of the Flashback universe” and bumping him up to the JLA.  And they are giving Mr. Terrific his own series… but he looks pretty horrible on the cover.  I mean, seriously, compare old and new versions.

.

I was never a huge fan of the black-T face thing but… it looks better than red clown mouth!  Red clown mouth? Wow.  What is this I don’t even

New notness

Plus.  The tattoo.  Really?  And for a hero all about brain power to jump to wearing sleeveless tights just seems… I don’t know… DUMB.

Anyway, I don’t think the book will last past the 12th issue, maybe not even the 6th, but whatever.

Mr. Terrific is a pretty solid character, and one of the more interesting characters in the JSA.  Character-wise, he could carry a solo title.  Something like Batman-meets-Iron Man.  I could totally see that.

But not dressed up in sleeveless tights and clown mouth.

*Whoever said that should be punched.  Until they are red.

*I seriously JUST NOW noticed that he has the same name as the Daily Show host.  Talk about delayed amusement.

Emma Frost &…is that X-23 on the right?  One of the dead Hellions  (Catseye?)?  Whoever they are that’s a solid cover (although Emma’s face looks like that of an actress I can’t place… Scarlett Johanson (sp), maybe?).  Interior art has a lot of Colossus too.

FYI: Abnett & Lanning have been doublehandedly leaving a swath of pure awesome behind them as they worked their way around Marvel’s cosmic stuff for the last couple of years.  Recently they’ve moved over into some mainstream titles (Heroes for Hire, and now New Mutants).  We’ll see how that goes, but they can definitely handle an ensemble cast, so I’m excited about New Mutants at least.

First up on my list is the Milestone stuff.  Yeah, all of it.  I’m starting with Icon, but planning to work my way through the entire line eventually.  I’m about a year and a half into Icon and it holds up pretty well.  Yes, I was motivated to do so by McDuffie’s death and the realization that, beyond the first few issues, and I hadn’t read most of the Milestone stuff.

Next up, was the random Druid (ie Doctor Druid…one of the dorkiest avengers ever) limited series (*not* intended to be a limited, it looks like they found out around the time issue 2 came out that it would be hacked with issue 4) which I saw mentioned somewhere… I mean, it’s Warren Ellis, so it has to be good right?  It was pretty good.  Bizarre for a Marvel book – seriously, it had Vertigo written all over it (check out the page below!) – but good.  It turned Doctor Druid into basically a kindasortavillain, then killed him.  I’m not sure if this was retconned or not, but I *think* it kind of was, at least by the time that Chaos War: Dead Avengers came out, I’ll have to double check.  Not necessarily his death, but the fact that he turned into a murdering douche.  (And YES, before you ask, that murdering douche was more interesting than previous Doctor Druid – who was also a douche -  as I recalled him).

Weird stuff.  Anyway, now I have to track down Ellis’ Hellstrom, which predates this and was (I think) done with the same artist.

I also picked up the hardcovers for McDuffie’s Justice League of America run since a) It was one of only two JLA runs I’ve ever liked (Morrison’s being the other one), b) they are pretty affordable – at least until (if) they go out of print.  So far I’ve re-read the first volume – the Injustice League arc -  and it held up very well.  Great art by Benes and a tight story by McDuffie.  The sad thing is that I already know that the over-plot that he started off here got killed by editorial….. BLAH.  Anyway, it’s really pretty amazing what he did with all the restrictions DC laid on him – I remember noticing little oddities at the time… we’ll see if I notice more with hindsight.

I remember when these were running and all the drama about him getting pulled from the book for being too open with commenters (jump down the page about half way to “Lead on McDuffie”) on the DC forums about what actually goes into making a comic.  What a load of detritus.  Seriously.  A writer goes out of his way to interact with the fans and they shitcanned him.  Not to mention … nevermind, I won’t mention it.  People are lame and petty.  Thankfully, not all of them, and some of those folks produce some pretty entertaining products for the rest of us to enjoy.

I’ve been mulling over canceling some of my long running comic subs for a while now… I haven’t come to any final decisions yet, but the interview with Gillen (of Phonogram & S.W.O.R.D. fame) has somehow made me feel a little more comfortable about continuing to shell out my $4 a month for it.  I think it’s $4… maybe $3… Marvel has mixed pricing these days.  Either way it’s high enough that you have to ask “Is this worth it?”  Even on a title like Uncanny, which I’ve read for more than 20 years (CHRIST!).  Wow, let me ponder that a bit.  Wow.  OK.  Moving on.  Even on a title like Uncanny, which is the flagship X-title… I need something more from it than just average these days.

It’s also worth noting that Gillen had another series announced earlier this week, a revival of the classic title Journey into Mystery (where Thor got his start ages ago) and goddammit if it didn’t actually sound interesting.  I’m trying to keep my pull list small, but I think I’m going to pick up the first arc.

So, that will be 3 ongoings for him – the other being Generation Hope, which is decent so far but hurt by irregular art (IMHO).

Simple, but effective.

Back to Uncanny – Fraction’s run has been a pretty strong “average” IMHO.  It might have been stronger without Greg Land, porn tracer extraordinaire, loitering around and drawing moaning cloned sluts everywhere.  But he was there, so it is what it is.  The Gillen interview doesn’t go right out and say that Land is gone, but it does at least say that the opening arc is all Dodson (&Dodson I assume, his wife does his inking IIRC)!  Terry Dodson’s stuff is quality and has a classic and timeless feel to it.  I can see re-reading his issues in a decade and them still looking vibrant.  Check out his DeviantArt page to see what I mean.  He draws his women busty (no way around that in mainstream comics, I guess) BUT he also seems to draw them a little “thicker” in general, which I think is a nice change.  It gives the faces some real depth and humanity, I think and lends itself well to re-reading with its clean lines and clear figures.  It doesn’t hurt that he actually takes the time and effort to do facial expressions and body positions (see page above) that are actually relevant to the scene.

Facial expressions that convey information!

It *should* go without saying that he can also do great action shots, but plenty of artists can’t.

His faces have a “sameness” that identifies his style, yet doesn’t render them all looking like exactly the same person (see: Greg Land).  See the image below where each woman enough distinct facial features that, with this page as a reference, you could pick each face out later on.   I love the youthfulness of Kitty’s face here, although I think that Hope does look a little too old – it’s almost like their ages have been swapped (see: the size of Kitty’s chest compared to the others – chest size is usually a good indicator of how old the artist thinks the character is, as pretty much all “adult” females get “ample” breasts in mainstream books.  Although… see Kitty in the first image above.).  However, I suspect the image below is more of a pin-up than supposed to represent any existing point in the comic – Jean (I assume the figure in the background is Jean?) and Hope haven’t yet lived at the same time), so I guess the ages can work.

Oops!  I found a colored image and the bottom right figure is Dazzler and Jean is a painting (which I should have picked up on… duh!), so it all works in a relative way.  Also, you can see how the coloring here really helps cement the face as Jean for me, as the pencils didn’t quite get there for me.

OK, so this basically turned into a Dodson lovefest, but that’s OK.  I’d like to see what his work looks like with a different inker (I’ll go looking later, maybe there’s some out there), but I don’t need any extra confirmation to confirm that Rachel Dodson is an excellent inker. It looks like this page may have some before/after inking pages.

Conclusion: I’m looking forward to the Gillen/Dodson era.

Also: Note to self: Go to a Con and get a commissioned sketch from the Dodsons!

Marvel is down to zero ongoing series with black writers as far as I know. Reginald Hudlin was involved with the Black Panther ongoing to various degrees (writing & scripting) until mid 2009, IIRC.
Greg Pak is still there.
Marjorie Liu (of Taiwanese descent, according to wiki) was hired recently (2009?) and has racked up some decent comic credits since then.  She was a fiction writer first (and still is), focusing on urban fantasy/romance – I’ve examined her books in the stores and I just couldn’t bring myself to read one. I may still… eventually, just because she shows such serious chops as a comic writer.

Note: I can’t keep track of all the pencillers, letterers and inkers, so I won’t go into that unless they are a big name draw or something.
Note: I also can’t keep up on every miniseries that comes out, so please let me know if you find anything that you think should be on the list, for better or worse.

Avengersland

• Luke Cage is still running a team of Avengers, and his daughter (with Jessica Jones) has miraculously not been killed, retconned or hyper-aged! Truly a miracle (I think there’s a storyline coming up with Danielle getting kidnapped though… so, fingers crossed that nothing weir happens to her). Not to mention that Luke & Jessica (one of the few black male/white female pairings that I can think of in mainstream comics right now) are still together!
• Luke Cage is also running a second team & book (so he gets a second bullet point!): Thunderbolts. This new version is something like a cross between the original and Ellis/Diggle incarnations, and looks decent so far.
• Shang-Chi is popping up in a few issues of Secret Avengers.
• War Machine & Falcon still pop-up regularly in Iron Man & Captain America, respectively.
• War Machine is also a member of the Secret Avengers
• Black Panther had a couple of really strong arcs, ending in the Doomwar limited. But that left the whole mini-Pantherverse in limbo… so I’m not going to call it a win. Plus, they just killed the Panther God (who is evidently female?) over in Chaos War… (but we know it won’t stick. STILL!)
• Also, the mantle of the Black Panther was passed to T’Challa’s rarely mentioned (before the current series, was she mentioned at all? You got me… the internet says it looks like she was created in 2005.) sister, Shuri.
• Blackpantherdevil: Look, I get what they’re trying to do, I really do. They want to graft some of Daredevil’s audience on to Black Panther like they did with Hulk->Hercules, and while I love the BP character and think he is totally deserving of that audience… THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO IT. Hercules made sense, given recent continuity in the Hulk line & the tie to Amadeus Cho. This makes no sense in any possible world. BP abandoning his wife and country in their hour of greatest need to watch over some goddam tiny corner of New York which already has a metric ton of superheroes? No. No. No in any possible world. Bad play Marvel. [Note: This is in reference to Black Panther taking over the Daredevil title & number and running around Hell's Bathroom or whatever DD's suburb is called.]

• 

  The Young Avengers

• Patriot is still with the Young Avengers, whenever they appear. Still kind of (?) with the new/young Hawkeye.
• After making him the Sorcerer Supreme, and a failed solo book, Doctor Voodoo just got offed a month or two ago. Instead of Doctor Strange…. and now his brother is a bad guy? Ugh.
• Hazmat, a new Japanese-American over in Avengers Academy
• Mettle, a new black (black father, white mother – from Hawaii!… wonder where they got that idea?) character, also in Avengers Academy. Unfortunately, his entire body was turned to… metal. So you really have no idea what his ethnicity is from the visuals. I think there’s a TV-trope style name for when this happens.
• Reptil has moved over to Avengers Academy.
• Wiccan and Hulkling, Marvel’s one of Marvel’s few named gay couples (Richtor/Shatterstar have a more dubious status these days), continue to appear whenever the Young Avengers do. Wiccan has a major arc in the current mini.
• Victoria Hand (whom I totally forgot was gay because she hasn’t had any kind of romantic involvements on panel since she was introduced… is a regular in the New Avengers supporting cast.

Spidermanland

• Arana is now Spidergirl, and I think she’s getting her own book again soon.

Hulkland

• Amadeus Cho has co-headlined with Hercules for a while, had a limited series or two, and is currently in the Chaos War limited. I have no idea where he is off to after that – but it better not be limbo! Also, he still has one of my favorite comic book girlfriends.

Xland

• Karma got her leg cut off and got an ugly cyborg leg. In the world of Marvel-tech…she got an ugly ass cyborg leg. She even comments on how ugly it is, yet it’s what she’s stuck with. And she still has no love interest. I think she had one several years ago who got killed? Or something.
  

  Seriously.

• Storm still pops up whenever in X-Men/Uncanny and is a lead in Astonishing, but no plot arcs for her lately.
• Gabriel Cohuelo, a Mexican with speedster powers is one of the new mutants highlighted in Generation Hope
• Idie Okonkwo, a Nigerian with fire/ice powers is another new mutant highlighted in Generation Hope
• There may also be a new Japanese mutant in Generation Hope, but it has yet to be revealed if he is a hero or villain
• Jubilee is in the middle of a major new plot arc (and getting a limited with Wolverine next year to continue it) about becoming a vampire. Cheesy as that is, it will keep her on the page as it gives her powers again and (except for Peter David writing X-Factor with Rictor & Dani Moonstar over in New Mutants) the x-writers tend to ignore the depowered.
• Blade popped up in the X-Men for an arc.
• Armor is still one of the leads in Astonishing, and turns up elsewhere as well.
• Indra was recently featured in an arc in Legacy.
• Northstar is still technically an X-Man, but hasn’t been around much. He’ll be featured in a 4-5 issue arc starting this month in a mini-team of Dazzler, Storm, Pixie, Him & … someone else, I forget. There was a backup story in one of the compilations about his relationship with his boyfriend as well.
• Anole appears frequently on panel, if rarely in a main role, and was on a mini-team in a recent Legacy arc with Rogue, Magneto, Indra & Loa.
• Graymalkin, a relatively new (2009) gay character, was in a few panels… Which is a shame, as I see a lot of possible meat on his story bones.
• Cipher, a new black character (2009), was absent from all but a handful of panels. Also a shame, because she came with some kind of mystery that was never addressed before Young X-Men was cancelled.
• Dani Moonstar still co-leads the New Mutants, and still has no powers. They are definitely going for the depowered-80s-Storm-badass thing with her, and it’s getting there as far as the working thing goes, but I wish she had SOME kind of powers.
• Rictor continues to be a lead in X-Factor, and his relationships with Shatterstar & Wolfsbane are central to the plot of the series. Which you should be buying because it’s the best X-Book out right now.
  

  Countdown to defenestration: 3...2....

• Daken, half Japanese son of Wolverine, and of the few Marvel characters shown on panel being intimate with males and females (Mystique & Rictor being the others?) and who is written so well by Marjorie Liu & Daniel Way that he’s almost interesting, still headlines a series. I just can’t get excited about a “son of Wolverine”, but I have to admit that Marvel is doing some interesting things with the character. For one, I think he’s technically a villain (he doesn’t save anyone, and everything he does is for his own gain) – so his series (which has been running a few years now) is about a villain using everyone he comes across. He has no redeeming moral values or likable character traits typical of a hero. The way he uses his sexuality as a weapon is definitely some new-ish stuff for Marvel – and he’s being (co) written by a minority woman. Lots of stuff going on there.
• Bling! had an arc in X-Men Legacy.
• Darwin has continued to be a regular in X-Factor for the last couple of years, but it looks like he is out next issue. He is one of the few characters that I feel Peter David never quite got a handle on what to do with him. He was basically a blank state to start with, so there was lots of room to work, and I do think David did a good job with what he had but just… never quite got there. He needs an central arc or two.
• Monet, she of the ever shifting skin color, is still with X-Factor.
• Dr. Kavita Rao continues to be a strong supporting character in Uncanny as a member of the “science team”. She just injected herself with a virus though so hey… what happened last time someone did that?

Other places in the Marvelverse

• Misty Knight was in the last Daredevil event, and headlining a new Heroes for Hire series as well. UNFORTUNATELY, her baby with Iron Fist was revealed to be some kind of bizarre “ghost pregnancy” as a result of his crazy chi powers WHICH IS THE LAMEST THING EVER. Because how awesome would it have been for Power-Man/Iron-Fist to both be fathers of biracial children? COME ON MARVEL! I was so looking forward to my kids having a DaughterofPowerman/SonofIronFist buddy book! Seriously Marvel, I call fucking shenanigans! Please fix this with some kind of magical chi-baby or something.
• Black Tarantula & White Tiger (who should receive some kind of award for having those names and being neither white nor black!) were featured pretty heavily in Daredevil over the last few years. Tarantula in particular has had a nice character arc running. Tiger just got possessed and evil so who knows.
• Over in the Ultimate universe, Ultimate Black Panther (who is mute?) was around for a bit, Ultimate Blade is in the current avengers arc and there’s a new black hawk-like dude named Derek Morgan in the nascent Ultimate X-Men in the new Ultimate X book…which I think hasn’t had an issue since Derek was introduced in June or so.
  

  Yo Yo, punching Ares & co.

• Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors introduced several new characters to Marveldom, most of them the children of older villains or heroes. Among them:
  • Eden Fesi : An Australian Aborigine associated with Gateway with similar teleportation abilities. Last I saw, he got shot in the chest and passed out… hopefully he’s not dead (already! :( ).
  • Yo-Yo Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican super-speeder who has already lost bot her arms (ouch!) but had them recently replaced with bionics (and not ugly ones like Karma’s).
• The Blue Marvel, after having what I thought was a nice introduction mini-series, has turned up in a few of the compilation comics. I like this guy and his story. I hope he continues to pop up and someone works him into an ongoing somewhere. Working him into the yearly mega-crossovers would have been nice, but I haven’t seen that happen yet.

…..and there’s other stuff I missed or forgot. At least I hope there is. This are just the ones I could remember.

It’s also worth noting that DC finally gave the new Batwoman an ongoing (after some really great stuff in Detective), so they now have a comic being headlined by a gay woman.

Also, DC put out Milestone Forever this year, which was a return to the Milestone Universe (and actually brought most of the characters over into the DCU proper, but only Static has had a reoccuring role since – he was/is in the Teen Titans) from many of the original creators.

Wow! This took a lot longer to put together than I was expecting, I was hoping to have it up two weeks ago.