X-Factor 50 delivered on at least 85% of what was expected – and there was a lot riding on it, so I’ll call it good.  It may actually be closer to 100%, but the final sequence with Doom and what?whereishe? left me confused.  If this was intentional, then OK.  Layla’s “power” is quite interesting, and I have to wonder if it’s come into play at all thus far in the series.  I like the explanation for her prescience (although the several of the early scenes from X-Factor don’t make  a whole lot of sense under this umbrella at all – the one that ended with the bathroom collapsing seems downright farcically impossibly now).  The preview for issue 200 – the “relaunch” looked really, really promising.  I bought 2 copies.  Just because.

Oh, and the majority of the people on the cover above did nothing in the story.  This was allllll about Madrox and Layla.  And Ruby and Trevor Fitzory (I know, right?) a little too.  And crochety Doom (where the hell did he go?!).

Necrosha & New Mutants 6 were pleasant surprises.  Although, …battleCypher is kinda like what/huh/ok/no/yes?  … and I SERIOUSLY doubt that the implied ending is in anyway true, but who knows, people have been dying left and right lately.  OK, not X-people.  In fact, pretty much everyone who has ever died in an x-comic was resurrected in the current X-Force run.  Except for the people I wanted resurrected (Synch!)…ok, yeah, there is only one (Synch!). Everyone else can stay down.  Please.

Speaking of dying left and right.  WOW.  Guardians of the Galaxy 19.  Wow.  Can they even call that a win with half the team dead?  Just wow, balls of steel on those writers I tell you.  And I’m not even mad about it – even though one of my favorites is gone – ?for good?.  If you like comics, especially cosmic ones, you should be buying this book.

Astonishing X-Men 31 was underwhelming.  Mucho.  But, who knows, maybe once it gets into gear…

Thankfully Avengers Initiative 29 continued to whelm in all 7 gears.  Komodo (I’m still holding out on the hope that her and Hardball work it out…) the paraplegic kicking ass with brains, Tigra continuing to just kick ass, Speedpenance getting his cat back (!) and… meeting the New Warriors, finally.  Lots of peanuts riding on the grinder heading into the 30s.

New Avengers 58 on the other hand… this plotline is dragging on way too long.  We know Bendis isn’t going to kill Cage (in fact, I’m pretty sure that the recent issue of Thunderbolts with Cage & Iron Fist takes place after this entire arc).  The Hood/Osborn stuff is moderately interesting, and the Ms. Marvel/Osborn smackdown was somewhat rewarding.  But still.  Finish this up and move on please.

Did I mention that you should pick up X-Factor 50 & Guardians of the Galaxy 19 (although neither will make much sense at all without a substantial reading and time investment in the rest of the series…but it’s totally worth it!)?

Blackest Night 4 was decent, although I think Green Lantern 47 actually beat it.  These panels are awesome.  I guess I’m a sucker for shiny lights.

I really hope all the shiny colored rings stick around.  It would also be handy if some of the current (and future, since we know Guy Gardner goes Red) non-green colored lanterns stick around.  I rather wish Hal had stayed blue – it would certainly make him more interesting.  I guess they’d have to rename the book then :P.

One note:  The colorist seems to have drawn the indigo light as more of a blue, but we already have a blue… sooo… yeah.

The bad news is that I’m totally not going to finish the Gathering Storm tonight.

Guardians of the Galaxy 16: Still good.  Not an over the top awesome issue, but it does have a good cameo by the old Guardians, if you’re into that kind of thing.  Not much else to say.

Project Superpowers v? 1: Was kind of interesting.  They are sure throwing stuff out there fast and furious.  If I was young, and felt like getting involved in a new hero universe, this would be worth picking up.  But I’m not.

Power Girl x: She doesn’t need a comic book, really.  This is grasping.  Superman has like 4 already, and Supergirl has one, and she is already in Justice Society.  She’s just not that interesting.  Is it sad when a character’s defining characteristic is her cleavage?  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I actually find it very interesting that hey, here is a character who is actually supposed to have giant breasts, and it’s addressed frequently over the years – as opposed to every other comic female who is just drawn with giant breasts.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, pointless.

Outsiders 20: This book has gotten boring.  *yawn* Just don’t care anymore.

Avengers Initiative 26: So glad the quality level of this book is holding on.  It’s worth the $3 or whatever it is these days (I try not to look, it just makes me sad ;) ).  Mostly because the New Warriors are in it, without them I would drop it like a rock.  I really just don’t care about ANYTHING Osborne is doing, can’t wait for him to die again.

Runaways 3 12: Speaking of how the mighty have fallen (see Hulk above)… ok it’s not that bad.  But what the hell is going on here?  Runaways 3 has been weaksauce in general, but this latest arc is weaksauce covered in stupidpepper.

Fantastic Four 569: Gorgeous art can’t save Millar’s horrible writing.  While he’s not on the low-level of someone like Loeb, he’s still a hack in the sense that most of what he writes seems to simply be:  “ooo look a shiny thing!” , where the shiny thing is anything shocking.  This issue was almost as poorly written as 600 in the sense of things just popping up out of nowhere.  I honestly couldn’t tell which FF was the main one at several points.  Oh – and if we are to believe those were really alternate FFs…wait, I don’t believe that for a second, unless they were like, the suckiest of the sucky FFs or something – hundreds of them couldn’t even take the 616 FF?  All this for, as someone said “an upgrade” for Doom?  Didn’t he just get one on Waid’s run, and then again later…?  Meh.

Skaar/Son of Hulk 13: So Hulk has TWO kids now?  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an out-of-ass popping moment, and fits with the flow of the series (I wondered how it was going to keep going with this title…I have a feeling it won’t last much longer if it keeps going in this direction though) – but I don’t get how it makes sense in terms of the pre-existing STORY.  Skaar was older because he aged super fast – this other kid did too?  And, you know, I’d think Caiera would have remembered having a second child, especially with her abilities.

Marvel Zombies 4 04: Not horrible, but not good.

War of Kings: Ascension 04: It certainly does leave Darkhawk in an interesting place … one kid, not guilty of a huge crime, on the run from the universe & the good guys… still not interesting enough for an ongoing, but he will make a good occasional guest star.  Cosmic Marvel has room for a “power armor guy” too, more than “Earthbound” Marvel, so moving him out was a smart play.

War of Kings 06:  A fittingly pyrrhic ending to such a series.  I’m not disappointed, and will be picking it up in trade.  Some interesting things came out of it,  one of them the (hopefully final) death of Vulcan, Marvel’s to DC’s Superboy Prime as far as petty annoyance goes.  Hopefully that sticks, nevermind that how he healed himself didn’t make any sens.  More important deaths include Lilandra’s from last ish – while always a support character, she filled a huge role and will be missed – and Black Bolt.  It will be interesting to see where the Inhumans go with a potentially reformed Maximus, Medusa will lead I guess?  Gladiator as the majestor will be interesting, and really is a logical and fitting choice: his life’s purpose is to serve the imperium, and how better to do that?  Looking forward to the fall out from this one.

Ultimatum 6 & the Requiem Books: The Spider-Man Requiem book was always going to be pointless, as he’s not dead (and revealed to be so at the end), but it was good just in the way JJJ FINALLY turned a new leaf.  Now there’s some “Ultimate” change for you :P.  Then again, maybe now he can rail against the “new” Spider-Man for not living up to the old one….

The X-Men one was just sad, as they took the brunt of the death toll.  So many characters with so much potential, dead.  I wasn’t a fan of Ult. Night Crawler, but the young kids – Cannonball & Sunspot, they died off camera, such a waste.  Frost & Xavier & Magneto all down – so nothing left of the “old guard” of mutants (not counting the weird Nick Fury/man-made mutants thing), and nowhere to go but…up?  I think they’ll be joining the Avengers now.  Cyclops dead instead of Jean is a switch, I guess, finally.  Too little too late though, imho.  At least Rogue has some permanent powers now, I’m not sure why.  I guess Juggernaut died off camera too.  Huh?  I’m guessing Sabretooth didn’t die here, but the might as well just wipe him too.

Ultimatum itself was just as poorly written in the finale as it was in every other issue.  Generally sub-par all around.  Perfect example of Jeph Loeb at his “best”.

The major moment from FF Requiem wasn’t even in the book..I think it was in Ultimatum 6??  That would be Ben’s crushing of Doom’s skull (and what happened to Namor?).  Was it that easy, really?  The rest of the book, meh, whatever.  They’re all still alive, so they will be back.  Nothing new to see here.

So, in the end it took the Ultimate universe what, 10 years to get to a place as different from 616 as it should have been to start, and they had to resort to Jeph Loeb to get there.   I don’t think he’s writing anything else there for a while, so I’m hoping it can only go up.

Young X-Men 10 – I figured I’d pick up the last 3 issues…just because I’ve got every other damn issue of the various New Mutant incarnations.  It’s nice that the cover remembers that Sunspot can fly – I don’t think any other part of the series does.  Then again, maybe he flew in that stupid fight against the tattoodorks, I wasn’t paying that much attention.

Young X-Men 11 – What the hell happened here?  The phoenix tattoo thing only gets more retarded, the new characters continue to have no character and the random-ass future sideplot has me curious how they are going to wrap up this trainwreck of a series in a single issue

…certainly better than New Exiles 18 right?  What the hell.  We already know Psylocke is coming back, and none of the current crop of Exiles are in the next series.   So.  Uh?  Shouldn’t there be some kind of a set up starting?

Uncanny X-Men 506 – All around average.  The refugee thing is an interesting angle (were the whores really ex-mutants or did Colossus just make that up – I can’t remember the last issue set up for this arc), and the X-Science squad is at least an interesting thought (complete with two random/mostly made up brand new probably pointless characters!) – although every issue that Warren doesn’t have some kind of Arcangel incident just makes it less and less interesting/believeable.

X-Force 11 – Villain background.  Meh. These issues should be half price.  To some degree necessary but still tedious.  I don’t get why he had to dig the up apaches though – that’s fucktarded!

New Avengers 49 – Interesting to see Cage just fucking with Norman.  Glad.

What was the error in Mighty Avengers 21? I got a free copy with the error repaired, whatever that means.  Not feeling it yet. I adored Slott’s Initiative, but I’m just not feeling this and

I’m sorely missing him on Avengers Initiative 21.  Decent, but not the awesomeness it was.

Captain Britain & MI13 10 – A “downtime issue” with Dracula cranking up the heat in the background.  Definitely a slow down, but somewhat necessary.  Still good.  Hoping Blade ditches the head tattoos (I guess his hand grew back??) and I really, really hope that what they imply happened at the end didn’t happen.  Because that is just harsh.

X-Men Legacy 221 – Too slow!  Stuff is happening but it’s SLOW.  Why are the Shi’ar here?  Dumb.  Sorry Mike, I love your stuff but this is weak.

Yes I only pick up comics once a month or so…so there’s a big stack.

Obviously he’ll be back in some form or another – the cube ring is doing something.  Didn’t he get his ring rather unscrupuluously?  Still, he “learned what it means to be a hero”, so I have to feel bad for the guy.

Great writing.  Consistently one of the top books Marvel puts out every month.  I suggest checking it out if you’ve been holding out.

Avengers: Initiative 15:  I love this title.  We get a solidifying of Crusader’s status (although he royally fucked up by driving 3D off…) and some Gauntlet action.  Please don’t cancel this book Marvel.  I think I forgot what happened to Rhodey though…need to go back and read a few issues.

New Avengers 43: Another Skrull over-brainwashed a la Captain Marvel, but this one doesn’t end so well.  Or perhaps he wasn’t over-brainwashed, just over-killed before his un-programming kicked in.  Either way it was an interesting read that occupied all of 4 minutes of “Marvel Time” in between SI 3 & 4 or 4 & 5 (forgot to check).

Mighty Avengers 16: How I Became a Skrull, by Electra.  Moderately interesting, not horrible or great.  Even badasses can be taken out by multiple shapeshifters…although frankly it probably shouldn’t have taken that many.

Thunderbolts 122: I totally forgot what happened last month…I think it was the end of that whole mental jailbreak thing and Ellis’ arc.  This one picks up where the Captain Marvel mini ends, and starts off a new writer’s run.   It’s off to a good start, I guess.  If you like this new, super-bitchy version of the T-Bolts.  Which I don’t.  But I’m a zombie I know…just hoping for them to somehow get Fabian or Buseik back on it someday and remove the suckometer from its ass.

Captain Britain & MI13 3: You knew Cap B was coming back…so this is just the obvious, but it’s still good reading.  I can’t figure out what the hell the new girl’s powers are…some kind of wonky tk?  The new costume doesn’t look nearly as cool as it should with all those flags flying around either.  Storywise, good read and worth your money.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3: I’m really enjoying this series and dying to know what the deal with Vance & Starhawk is. I love the Vance-Cap/Guardians-Avengers parallel they set up with the whole ice bit.  Awesomesauce.  I really wish it wouldn’t get dragged into the Skrull thing, but we’ll just see how that goes, maybe it won’t suck.

Secret Invasion 4: Good stuff.  I forgot to buy 3 though.  Doh.

New Warriors 14: The inevitable, arbirtary Nu Warriors vs. New Warriors brawl begins.  Still, the Skrull going ons do make for a nice backdrop & excuse.

Astonishing X-Men 25: Much better story than the last book I read involving Wolverine & Bianchi.

Cable 5: I guess this arc’s over.  I still don’t care.  Don’t get me wrong, I actually like the premise of the story, but the whole Bishop-as-a-badguy thing still comes off as stupid to me.  I mean, it’s sort of believable in the sense of his backstory, but still stupid in the sense that he never once mentioned this child/person before?  I’m guessing it’s because that was retroactively inserted into his history when history was changed by the prof not dying?  Whatever, don’t care.  Although it has been a while since a good “hero gone bad” story so MAYBE this whole thread has wings.

New eXiles 8:  Stuff happens here I guess. I’ve been bored with Exiles lately; the new characters just aren’t interesting enough, and that last issue (or the one before??) had ABOMINABLE art. fug fug fugly.  This one looks nice at least, and the expected Psylocke plot is chugging along.   I hope we get some actual info on Mystiq…he’s moderately interesting.  New Gambit?  With Sue’s force bubbles?…almost interesting but nah.

Uncanny X-Men 500: God I hate Greg Land’s “art”.  If I wanted my comics to look like goddam cheesecake-Maxim-softcoreporn-bullshit I’d buy something else.  Storywise it’s…well, it’s a hell of a throwback with Mags retconning himself again and hanging out with the High Evolutionary.  Which may actually make a lot of sense considering what’s happened but STILL…we get a revamped Hellfire Cult, “SIster”hood of Evil Mutants AND you bring in a High Evolutionary + Magneto team up in the same issue that you claim is all about “moving forward”?  OK…the last time the title actually tried to move forward was, believe it or not, Claremont’s relaunch after that whole stupid 1 year later thing.  Which could have actually been cool if they let him run with it….but whatever.  Anyway, it’s not a bad story at all, just not what they are claiming.  Yet.

Also, I really hope ArcAngel isn’t back to Angel already. So. Lame.

X-Factor 33 & She Hulk 31: The art in X-F is fucking horrible and makes the issue hard to like.  It mucks with everything.  I don’t think I can make an unbiased judegement.  Although I will say that Darwin is being written like a talky moron…which doesn’t seem like how I remember him from Brubaker’s writing.  Surprisingly I prefer the old version.

X-Force 5: Kinda silly…and evidently Angel’s changes are somehow undone by Uncanny 500 (I’m guessing that’s what his sidebar reference was to???), so I really don’t care – that was the only thing I was really looking forward to from this arc was Arcangel’s return.  Pun intended.  Sort of.

X-Men Legacy 214: Evidently this is getting another title change after the next arc? Hmmmm.  Still, a good story and another old X-villain gets a very modern update this month.  I’m curious about the Wolverine crossover…not going to make me buy Origins again though.  Curious how they’ll package that trade.  Trade’s don’t always play well with crossovers.

Young X-Men 4:  Something about Cypher in issue 5? Umm…ok?  But seriously, FINISH THIS SHIT ALREADY. This arc is tired and stupid.  So is the tattoo guy.  Dumb dumb and probably too powerful by far.  Imagine if he hung out with that chic that popped up in X-Treme who could make tattoos….

Avengers: The Initiative 14: Unlike Hannibal Tabu,  I really enjoyed this issue.  In fact, I may actually read it again (pssst, that’s really high praise from me, I rarely read something more than once inside 5 years).  While I agree that Triathlon’s (sp?) sudden moniker change to “3-D Man” seemed to come out of nowhere…I have to wonder if it didn’t.  The way he was talking about it it sounds like they got their powers from the same place.  Time for some research…

SNAP!  Triathlon is actually directly related/tied to the original 3-D Man!  Dan Slott, you continuity whore, you haven’t let me down yet!  I love that guy.  And not just because he actually commented on my blog once.  So yes, this actually makes pretty good sense and ties in wonderfully (in the magical comic book coincidence way) with the Skrull invasion bit.

Uncanny X-Men 499 – Nothing too surprising here, but still a nice X-read.  Colossus gets angry…so we’re seeing some of that death rage leaking out maybe?  /eh I dunno.  But yeah, all it all it was decent, and we get a brief connector “sort of” showing us how/why they wind up in San Fran.  Oh, and a new *hood of Evil Mutants is forming….

X-Men Legacy 213 – OK, we know Charlie is going to survive, but I have to admit the end of issue cliffhanger really left me wanting 214!  Mike Carey is also doing a great job (taking lessons from Slott? :) ) on using continuity to create new and wonderful storylines.  Continuity is in no way an encumbrance (in my opinion) to a writer who really loves what he’s working with.  Such a difference between something by a writer of this caliber and something by…I don’t know…Jeff Loeb?

PS. Jeff, isn’t it a bit weird to have the Ultimate universe being secretly invaded by ROBOTS at the same time 616 is being secretly invaded by ALIENS?  Now if the Squadron Supreme universe gets secretly invaded by AMAZONS (from the moon!?) we’ll have a sweet little triumphrate of stupidity.  Hint: It’s cool the first time, and hey maybe even the second time…but don’t do it at the SAME TIME!

In case you hadn’t guessed, I’m finding volume 3 of the Ultimates horrid and trite.  Even Joe Mad’s revered pencils look like…well, shit.  Dark, muddied shit.  Blame is laid at the feet of the colorist, whom I understand will be allowed to finish the series, but will not ever be working for Marvel again.  This is a pretty high priority gig to blow in such a way.  I wonder if they’ll get the pages re-colored for the trades?  That would be sweet, then at least I can enjoy looking at them.

Oh, Sabretooth gets mauled by 2 tigers.  That’s…kinda amusing.

The previews for Ellis & Bianchi’s Astonishing X-men run, on the other hand, look beautiful!  So much of a better use for him than that horrible abomination of a Wolverine story Loeb did.

Runaways 30 – Aww, a somewhat-overused-but-still-touching sci-fi/time travel ending and a new Runaways addition AND gorgeous art means this issue is great.  I think I missed 29 though, going to have to look that up.  Definitely picking up the trades for this.

(OK, I didn’t buy this one yet, but I’m grabbing that hardcover as soon as it’s out!)

It’s been a while since a crossover title was actually somewhat required reading for a mini – and I don’t mind it once in a while. As long as they don’t overuse the gimmick, it’s cool. But then again, if you didn’t read Nova 12 you’ll still be OK – all you need to know is that he brought some help back.

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X-Men: Divided We Stand 1

UGH.

The writing is not horrible, but I can’t stand where they are going with ANY of the characters in this mini. OK, that’s not quite true, the Nezhno story is ok because it doesn’t really go anywhere. Well, he pines, but that doesn’t count. Although understandable, I hate what they did with Anole mostly because it was just stupid and mean on Cyclops’ part. Now we know he has some kind of master plan and the X-Men are getting back together, but what they have done to the students is just stupid and cruel. Same with Hellion – abandoning him in a hotel – REALLY??? A kid with that kind of power and you want him running around bitter at you? Ohhhhhhhhh Kaaaayyyyyy. Cannonball is acting like a stupid war-brat or something, which I can’t recall him ever being before. I could possibly see this being in line with his characterization in the Warren Ellis (or whoever) revamp that ended out the X-Force series, but it stinks to high hell against everything else. I guess it’s a set up to why he’s a “bad guy” in the so far insipid Young X-Men series.

Oh, and Northstar’s characterization was so far out of anything I’ve seen before…I’m sure they can just chalk it up to post-resurrection stupidity but man, he was just a blank slate here. He could have been anyone who decided to show up and deliver random statements.

I decided it was not worth buying and left it at the store. I’m trying to limit my crap intake and limited series are a great place to start cutting.

Avengers: Initiative 11

Does she really have a kiss of death – where’d that come from? Or was it just general vamping to distract him.

More gratuitous violence as the government Avengers get their butts handed to them by the tactigon too. I was pleased to see that 2 of the Scarlet Spiders made it out, I was thinking Slott would wipe the slate on them with this. Clones can be really interesting when done well, and not just used as mindless fodder. I hope he keeps this in mind.

Next issue is the graduation issue and after that is another class of newbies – I’m curious how long they’ll follow this model of swapping out the classes every 13 issues (and hopefully keeping up with previous class members) – and of course if they’ll even last until the 3rd class. So far I think I like it, it definitely invests more of a sense of importance when you know that not everyone will make it through the year, and the ones that do might wind up seeing actual page time in another comic (as I’m hoping some of the members will).

Man is that an UGLY cover. And Slapstick is one creeeepy mofo.

PS. Are we going to get the Hardball->spy plot resolved or what?

New Exiles 4

So this wraps up the first “New” Exiles arc. It’s not a particularly interesting wrap up. We get a new recruit who’s half black Atlantean (which could have been an interesting thread in itself, I’m guessing Namor’s father was African?) and…some stuff happened in the world they grabbed him from. The Black Panther seals the planet and Namor is on the moon and the moon and Earth shall war and blah blah. Sorry, not really that into it. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything special. I’m still enjoying seeing all the alternates – so please stick to that CC and no more making new characters with really dumb names like that stupid guy with the guns.

How does the Tallus work these days anyway? I forget what the logic behind it still knowing what’s up with a quadrillion realities is without the bugs to drive it.

Oh, and Amara’s queen of the moon. The moooooon I tell you!

Young X-Men 1

Urgh.

The plot here is twelve kinds of stupid, but I’ll try and reserve my judgment until the end of the arc, because there’s obvious a twist coming. If the (old) New Mutants really are going to be “bad guys” in this brave new x-world then I may finally be done with the X-books. That just makes no sense, and would trash my two of my three favorite x-characters (Sunspot & Cannonball…only Iceman would be left), not to mention my comic book childhood. The New Mutants were the x-characters my gen of readers grew up with and we make up most of the comic readership these days, so I really hope they get more respect than this.

I won’t even bother wondering where all the cool “Young” X-Men went, or what the shit is up with this dumbfuck tattoo character. But, like I said, I’m giving it an arc.

Cable 2

This was ok I guess. Certainly better than a number of the original Cable issues. Not better than the Weinberg stuff or than C&DP though. I’m not liking Bishop as a villain at all, although I can buy the rationale for it – I mean, it’s at least not TOTALLY out of left field (only deep center field). The whole gun thing was really annoying anyway, and CC was the only one that ever wrote him decently (especially in the defunct and horribly titled X-Treme X-Men) – so I suppose it’s not really a loss. We’ll get a (maybe even temporary) great villain whom we sort of understand and we are pained to watch…which makes for more drama I admit.

All in all though, I really like Cable better with a supporting cast. His shit gets tired when it’s just him. No, the baby doesn’t count, it’s just a bjornament at the moment.

The pencils look good of course, and the cover is kind of cute with its whole bionic-arm-western-pistol-duel thing.

X-Factor 30

I saved the best for last of course. Well, the best that I bought seeing as how I’m not picking up Conquest until the hardcover.

Of course Arcade was always a “gimmick” villain, but now even moreso – rarely does it take the various X-teams long to wrap him up – and I think this is a good thing. This was a nice done-in-two-or-three arc (oh wait – there’s still one issue to go! I have a feeling that will just be aftermath though. Funny, aftermath of the aftermath! I like it!) that not only directly picked up plot threads of the previous “big event”, but used those plot threads to move itself forward in a new and interesting (but not gimmicky way!). Not to mention working in some Arcade silliness. And a REALLY ugly cover. Well, just ugly in the sense that his face is ugly, but it fits. I’ve always assumed he was sort of modeled after that Mad Magazine guy, and this is a nice, modern spin on his classy goofy face.

So what happens aside from the Arcade trouncing? A random civilian gets killed. Monet acts really weird – we’ll assume it’s just electro shock for now – but it will be interesting to see if any of that carries forward. We get some teases at where the team might be headed for the future in the way of the statements made by the broke and suicidal mutant-hater. Rictor almost loses his nuts. And Madrox gets shot a lot. See? It sounds silly when I tell it, so just pick up the book.

Other thoughts for the week:

The Skrull special covers are ugly. I pretty much hate them all. The hidden variants are amusing (there is one for Young X-Men and even Exiles (???) evidently), but I wish all the main books (Avengers primarily) were variants so I could get a non-Skrull cover.

All images linked from CBR this week. Head over to that link for the rest of April’s Marvel solicitations.

that is. What should have been the final issue of Whedon’s run (and this volume apparently) has been stretched out into Giant Size #1 due out in what, June? Meh. Since they are restarting the numbering, they should have just called the giant size #25 and been done with it. Meh.

As for the comic itself, it was pretty good – it’s hard to even care with the time intervals between issues though. Planetary it is not. Plus, we’ve already moved way, way past this in the current X-books, so whatever happens in the eventual finale can’t “matter” for anything, at least continuity wise. I’m sure it will still be a good read though, and flow quite well in a shiny hardcover trade. But yes, I’m a continuity whore. Sorry. Not the kind that can’t overlook little things, but the kind that at least sees stuff like this and wonders what the point is. It’s supposed to be the flagship X-title, and to have a flagship title that has no bearing on any other series well, that’s not really a flagship is it. The Avengers books are doing this right, with effects that trail over into the other related titles, so I know it can be done.

Uncanny X-Men 495

Cyclops has a secret plan!

Cyclops & Emma make out in the Savage Land!

Emma shows lots of skin!

Wolverine looks like a fireman!

Cyclops grows a goatee!

Angel gets hippy hair!

The art (by Mike Choi, who I don’t think I’ve heard of before) in this issue was weird. Not bad, but weird somehow.

There was nothing at all about Bishop, which really digs at me. Hopefully it will be covered elsewhere – I know he’s in Cable #2, but I mean hopefully someone in one of the main x-books actually VERBALIZES and talks about WTF just happened with him.

Obviously a downtime issue, not much going on, but it was a good change from the frantic pace of the last 13 weeks I guess. I’m not impressed, nor was I distressed, so we’ll call it a pass.

Avengers Initiative 9

Yes, I know this came out last week, but I didn’t pick up all my books, so I’m just now getting to it. Wow, horrors man, those kids and crew got f$%ed. In the face. I hope things aren’t as they seem, and people survived (which they usually do in comics). Besides, the one person who actually deserves to die (Gyrich) is still going…hopefully he at least gets shot in the last half of the arc.

I love that the Freedom Ring has turned up on panel again, and am curious where that will go.

Not much else I would say without spoilers. For some reason I don’t feel like spoiling anything.

What else?

The Twelve 2

I enjoyed this issue more than the previous one, which was pretty good in its own right. If things keep up at this pace, I’m definitely picking up the inevitable hardcover. I’m very curious if JMS will leave any of these new toys floating around at the end of the series, or if they’ll all return to the land of the dodo. Rockman is the most interesting, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I want him to be sane?

Ms. Marvel 24

I have no idea what they’re doing with the last panel “dramatic dangler” in this issue. It strikes me as silly and annoying and obviously false. Especially as it would invalidate the entire previous 23 issues (in the sense that you weren’t actually getting what you were paying for…).

So…yeah, whatever.

Avengers: Initiative #8

This title hasn’t failed to impress yet. More madcap happenings both above and below ground at super-hero-u. Clone more MVPs you say? That sounds like a brilliant idea! And yet, nothing ever works out quite that well does it?

The new Ant-Man shows up….and somehow Hank doesn’t recognize his design that went awol from shield. Really?? That would be the one spot of really poor writing in an otherwise awesome series. Slott is very attentive to continuity normally, so I have a feeling he has a fix worked out for this one. Hopefully it will be spelled out on paper somewhere.

More character reveals (I like lizard girl more now), Hardball continues to be an ass, although the ass-ness pays off here, and he has a nice not-ass moment. When did “Thor-girl” join? Did I miss that? I remember reading the Thors with her, but I have no idea what her deal is…will have to look it up.

Starjammers 4, err I mean X-Men: Emperor Vulcan 4

I’m still enjoying this series and curious how it is going to wrap up. I don’t like the “reveal” that the MKraan just found the crystal too, this cheapens their initial position somewhat – although it was their homeworld, at least at that point in time.

How is Havok going to deal with his brother is beyond me, but I’m sure they’ve got something in mind. Because, really, leaving him alive at this point is stupid.

Lilandra’s continued ignorance of actual Shi’ar behavior seems a bit out of character though, she was never naive before, why should she be about this? I guess that’s what happens when you mix religion into politics.

X-Men 206

Small cover shot because it’s so fucking ugly. But, that was the intent afterall. 9 issues in and the “future” plot thread is still shaping up to be a waste of time. I mean, I’m sure it matures at some point, but WTF?

We get a “traitor” reveal, but I’m sure it’s not what it looks like, telepathy or something I’m sure. If it is what it looks like, well, shucks. There goes 30% of the minority X-Men ;p.

Oh, and Warpath gets more bloodthirsty. Dude, you haven’t talked to Caliban in years…you just have to admit to yourself that you really weren’t that close. And he was really stupid, trying to take a bullet for a bullet-proof friend.

Giant-Size Avengers 1

Pretty much a fluff piece here, in retrospect I shouldn’t have picked it up. The “Spider-Man learns respect” thing was stupid, and the Emperor None or whatever thing was moderately funny, but I’m pretty sure the punchline there (hint: Wolverine) has been done before, or at least done in a spoof.

Some good cheesecake shots of the “Ladies of Avenging” lounging by the pool if you’re into that kind of thing though.

Serious continuity flaw on one of the first pages though. Pretty sure I saw Diamondback in there with the Serpent Society ladies…and she joined the Initiative over in #8…that and isn’t she an LMD or something? I seem to recall something happening with her not too distantly in Captain America, not sure what though.

I haven’t gone through the reprint material yet, it might be worth it, I just don’t care enough.

New Warriors 7

I’m really enjoying this incarnation, and hope it lasts a while, the writer is doing a great job of going in a different direction than other series and giving it a distinct role. There are also some nice reveals and moments for old school New Warriors fans here (although it just happened to concern a period during which I wasn’t reading – second volume maybe? I’ll have to check).

One thing I’m not sold on is the art, I really don’t like the way some of the characters look…and I’m still not sold on Angel looking totally different (PS who is watching their 15 kids?). I have to look up Stacy and see what she looked like de-powered, but she also looks pretty different here.

I also picked up the final available volume of Y trade (v. 9) and got the Planet Hulk trade from Amazon. Both are great reads.

Oh, I almost forgot, grabbed X-Men Messiah Complex: Mutant Files

Bunch of retread source material for the most part, but I was curious what clues might be in here for the coming year.

Sure enough, I think there were some – or some of the stupidest red herrings ever.

So it would have all the standard stuff you would expect of a current-related sourcebook (ie stuff that’s been featured recently): Marauders, Illyana, Predator X, Kimura, the Deadly Genesis stuff, 198 stuff, new Starjammers, etc.

What it also had was: Savage Land Mutates (W T F?), Phoenix (please sweet comic deity don’t rez her yet, wait for everyone else to finish their corpse runs!), Lifeguard & Slipstream, Trish Tilby. So, I suspect those 4 will be chewing some scenery this year, because otherwise there was less than zero reason to update their info. Unless, of course, maybe it’s totally accounting style and LG & SS never had an entry before? I suppose that is possible. I would like to see LG again though, but SS was stupid. I’m thinking LG/SS would fit right in with the Exiles and they are Claremont creations…./shrug. Mutates…ok, so someone is going to the Savage Land. Trish? Moving into one of the books supporting casts I guess.

The back cover also mentioned “Ghoul”, but I couldn’t find him/her/it inside. Hmmm?