Category Archives: Marvel
No Sign of My Favorite Mutants in X-Force, NYX or Phoenix
The X-Men series of comics is going through one of their routine status quo changes — called From the Ashes — and we’re in the period of discovery where Marvel slowly reveals the rosters of the new team books. This is always an anxious time for me, personally, because while I will try all the new comics, my interest in them will depend largely on whether or not any of my favorite mutants appear as a character.
Marvel revealed the details of X-Force, NYX and Phoenix this week, and I’m still plum out of luck.
First up will be X-Force, written by Geoffrey Thorne and drawn by Marcus To.
In this comic, Forge is going to put together the next X-Force squad, comprised of Rachel Summers, Betsy Braddock, Sage, Surge and Tank, who may or may not be a new character. There will also be rotating guest stars, with Deadpool kicking things off. They’re gonna go on all sorts of X-Force-style missions, which is always fun.
Next up is Phoenix, a new Jean Grey comic, written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Alessandro Miracolo.
In this comic, Jean Grey has the Phoenix again, and she’s summoned into outer space from an emergency S.O.S. from Nova. That could be fun! Jean Grey and Nova team up to save some lives in outer space? Yeah, alright. No other characters were announced, so I suppose Mimic could be a quiet guest star, but probably not. Jean Grey is just gonna rock out in space for a while.
Lastly we have NYX, the teen hero comic, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with art by Francesco Mortarino.
Taping into the original NYX, but not exactly, this comic will be about some young mutants making their way in the world of New York City. They’ve started with Ms. Marvel and teamed her up with Wolverine, Anole, Prodigy and, randomly, Sophie Cuckoo. I have not come around on Ms. Marvel as a mutant, but she does thrive living in the New York City metro area. So maybe it’ll work? She’s also lead small squads of teen heroes before. So we’ll see.
All of these comics are coming out in July, I think. We’ve still got Storm, Wolverine and X-Factor comics to reveal, but probably until next month. I’m holding out hope that X-Factor is my best shot at some Multiple Man action, but we’ll see.
Hope springs eternal.
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Random Tidbit Tuesday
Man, I got nothing this week. No good movie trailers are coming out. No new casting news. Nothing random going on. I was worried I wouldn’t have anything to even post for three days in a row! But I’ve gathered some random stuff I found from the past few days to share, just so I can appear alive. If I’m not posting on this blog, do I even exist?
Anyway, Marvel shared this new artwork of the Human Torch back on 4/4 day, April 4. I think it looks great!
Everybody clued in quickly to the futuristic city in the background, lending further credence to the idea that Fantastic Four takes place in an alternate reality. That’s disappointing to me. But I have loved everything we’ve seen so far about this retro-futuristic concept, so perhaps I’ll get over it. I just don’t like the idea of the F4 existing in an alternate reality and coming into the MCU proper universe. Why not just figure out a way to have them exist in the right reality from the beginning? Ah well.
Also, in case it needs to be stated again, I’m totally fine with Julia Garner as Silver Surfer. I think the movie is just going to do a Silver Surfer origin where Shalla-Bal saves Zenn-La instead of Norrin Radd, and that’s fine by me. I’ve loved Silver Surfer since I was a kid, and I have no problem with this gender swapped take on the character. Bring it on!
The other tidbit I randomly found is that the Fallout TV show is coming two days early. All 8 episodes will debut on Amazon Prime on Wednesday evening, April 10. So tomorrow!
Looks like those are my end-of-week/weekend plans! That show looks great and I have high hopes! But then, of course, I’m also a guy who liked the Halo TV show, so what do I know?
Anyway, I’m gonna go try to find more content to post…
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/6/24
It’s April already. Life moves forward unceasingly. We are merely caught up in its wake. But at least we can always count on new comics, like Batman and She-Hulk!
Comic Book of the Week goes to Birds of Prey #8 for another delightful team book issue.
Meanwhile, I’ve started playing Evil Genius 2 on the PC, a charming base-builder. It’s got a fun aesthetic, and I do love a good real time strategy-style game like this. Easy to get addicted to as I play along and balance all the things to balance. I’m having fun. And on Monday, I will be in the totality zone of this solar eclipse! So that should be fun!
Comic Reviews: Batman #146, Birds of Prey #8, Sensational She-Hulk #7 and Void Rivals #8.
Read the rest of this entrySilver Surfer Cast in New Fantastic Four Movie!
According to Deadline, actor Julia Garner has been cast as the Silver Surfer in the upcoming MCU Fantastic Four movie. They believe she will play a Shalla-Bal variant, which is neat! Shalla-Bal is the normal Surfer’s home planet girlfriend, who he saved by sacrificing himself to Galactus. Interesting choice instead of just gender-flipping Norrin Radd.
As a lifelong Silver Surfer fan, I am perfectly OK with the movie switching the Surfer to Shalla-Bal and making the character female. A girl can be as introspective and as awesome as a dude, and the same can be said about Silver Surfer! I don’t know Garner as an actor, but all I’m hearing online are great things. So this should be pretty awesome.
Since we have so few details, a lot of people online are grasping at straws. They think she’ll be based on a Shalla-Bal version of the Surfer from a single issue of Earth X, or that this will be the Silver Surfer of an alternate reality. Personally, I think it’ll just be a story where Shalla-Bal instead of Norrin Radd sacrificed themselves to Galactus to save Zenn-La. Norrin Radd and Shalla-Bal are very similar characters, and I wouldn’t expect any great difference between the two.
But I could be very wrong. What do I know?
This movie just gets more and more interesting! Marvel, of course, hasn’t confirmed or denied anything.
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My 6 Favorite X-Men Characters
Man oh man, the X-Men are everywhere these days! The new cartoon revival — X-Men ’97 — is going off like gangbusters! Everyone is loving it, myself included! And now the big Krakoa Era is coming to an end, with a From the Ashes relaunch ready to go for the summer! I’m also saving up money for the hopefully soon-to-be-announced X-Mansion LEGO set, but I suppose that’s more niche.
Anyway, to celebrate the X-Men, I thought I’d do a list of my all-time favorite X-Men characters!
I’ve done plenty of such lists over the years because it’s super fun to talk about the X-Men, especially obscure ones. I thought about doing a list of characters I’d like to see show up on the new cartoon, or a list of who I would include in my own imagined From the Ashes team lineup. When I realized both of those lists would be pretty similar, I decided to just make it easy on myself and throw together a list of my favorite mutants and X-Men-related characters in comics! This is a list borne from decades of reading X-Men and adjacent comics, and it cane get pretty niche and obscure. That’s on me.
Join me after the jump for my all-time favorite X-Men characters, and feel free to share your own in the comments below!
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