Category Archives: X-Men
Review: X-Factor #250
As many of you may have heard, X-Factor writer Peter David suffered a stroke while on vacation with his family in the end of December. From what I understand, he’s been recovering, but I don’t think there has been any word yet on what will happen to X-Factor. I’m sure he’s already got several scripts in the can ready to publish. Peter David is a fantastic guy. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the New York Comic-Con a few years ago, where he politely entertained by stumbling declarations that I loved his work on X-Factor. I’m glad I brought my brother along because he had far more substantial questions to ask. To help support PAD’s hospital bills, everyone is being encouraged to buy some of his ebooks and comics online, which you can do at his website. His wife Kathleen also gave an update on his condition this week.
X-Factor #250
Considering Peter David is almost single-handedly responsible for turning Multiple Man into my favorite comic book character, you better believe we here at Henchman-4-Hire wish him a speedy recovery.
Especially since he’s kicking total ass with the Hell on Earth War so far!
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
The second issue in and this story is pretty awesome. PAD is hitting the heroes hard and fast with the action, trying up a lot of his ongoing stories as he launches this brand new one. There are a lot of questions still about what has caused all of his hellfire and brimstone, but PAD is definitely keeping the story exciting. X-Factor is thrust right into the heart of the conflict with this issue, and all of it seems to be focused around Tier, the son of Wolfsbane. I’ve never been all that interested in this certain story, but really it’s just a reason for X-Factor to be awesome and face off against villains from Earth and Hell alike. Leonard Kirk’s art remains just as strong as it’s always been, making this story a definite winner so far.
If I had one complaint it would be that none of the action really seems to affect the characters on any sort of personal level. They’re all just kind of there, reacting as the adventure unfolds. Even when a certain character makes his dramatic return, nobody seems all that affected. Hopefully PAD can add to the oomph level in coming issues.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
My 6 Favorite X-Women
A new, all-girl cast of X-Men was announced earlier this week, but for some odd reason, Marvel has decided to focus on their most famous and popular X-Women. What’s up with that? Storm, Rogue, Psylocke, Shadowcat? Big names, sure, but do people really like those characters? You know what, they probably do. A lot. I guess that just makes me the odd man out, because almost none of those characters are among my favorite X-Women.
The best reason to read X-Men
Longtime readers of my blog will know that I have pretty obscure tastes when it comes to comic book heroes. I think Batman and Spider-Man are awesome, sure, as much as the next person, but my real favorite superheroes are guys like Multiple Man and Mimic, so obscure that they barely appear in the movies and cartoons. This comes from reading a random assortment of comics during my formative years, picking up a few issues or a few series here and there and really narrowing in on the characters in those books. So while characters like Storm and Rogue may get top billing, I am far more interested in these 6 X-heroines.
I Read X-Men for the Babes
In a pretty awesome movie in terms of reaching out to female comic fans, Marvel is going to relaunch their adjectiveless X-Men series in April with an all-female cast. This is pretty awesome news because I am definitely in favor of more female-led comics. Some of my best friends are lady comic book geeks.
I bet someone really, really wanted to call it ‘X-Women’
The series will be written by Brian Wood, with whom I have very little reading experience, and drawn by Olivier Copiel, one of the greatest comic book artists working today. Copiel is an amazing talent, and to see him put on this book is truly awesome. Marvel is clealry taking this book seriously. Copiel’s issues of Avengers vs. X-Men were some of the best drawn of that whole series.
As you can tell from that cover, the book will star Storm, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, Marvel Girl and Jubilee. My only concern is that almost all of those characters, with the exception of Jubilee, are already starring in some of the other X-Men comics. If you don’t know, the X-Men franchise these days is filled to the brim with comics. And a lot of the characters are appearing in multiple books. It’s a huge hodge podge of characters and teams. So on the one hand, it’s a great idea for a book like X-Men to have such a unique premise. On the other hand, it’ll be a huge continuity headache to figure out why all of these heroines suddenly hang out together in their own separate comic, as opposed to the various comics in which they already appear.
But that’s only a headache if you let it be a headache. I’m sure I can get over it if the comic is awesome.
“I feel like as far as the X-Men go, the women are the X-Men,” Wood explains. “Cyclops and Wolverine are big names, but taken as a whole, the women kind of rule the franchise. If you look at the entire world as a whole, it’s the females that really dominate and are the most interesting and cool to look at. When you have a great artist drawing them, they look so amazing and always have.”
According to Wood, the star of the series will be Jubilee, which is cool with me. I’ve always been a Jubilee fan, at least since I was introduced to her in the animated series in the 90s. I can only hope he’ll work to fix some of her crazier continuity in the past few years. Jubilee went from losing her powers on M-Day to becoming a technology-powered hero in New Warriors to then becoming a vampire when Marvel tried unsuccessfully to tap into the Twilight craze. Yeah, that was ill-planned.
As for stories, Wood says Jubilee will be a big focus when she finds a baby who may be the key to the future of mutants. He also says the villain Sublime (from the Grant Morrison days) will come to the X-Men seeking help. There will also be Sentinels, aliens and a return to the X-Men’s soap opera roots, all of which sounds pretty awesome to me.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/12/13
This week’s reviews include possibly the worst comic I have reviewed to date. It’s deplorable, it’s terrible and it makes me fear for the quality of a new DC series soon to arrive. If Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #1 is any indication of the quality of writer Keith Giffen’s upcoming Threshold series then count me out. I could not believe how terrible this Annual issue was. It lacks any redeeming qualities. It is the antithesis of entertainment.
So it’s a good thing Jason Aaron comes along to deliver the next issue of Thor: God of Thunder, which picks up another Comic Book of the Week win!
Typical Thor
But then, considering the character that Aaron brings back in this week’s Wolverine and the X-Men, I’m tempted to take away all of his previous awards. How could you do this to us, Aaron? What sick game are you playing at?
Comic Reviews: Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #1, Thor: God of Thunder #4, Wolverine and the X-Men #23.
My 6 Most Anticipated Comic Book Movies of 2013
Every year, it seems like more and more superhero movies are coming out. Can anyone even remember the cold, bitter years of the 90s, when we didn’t have this glorious glut of comic book films? Those were dark days indeed. But are we reaching some kind of superhero movie zenith? When are we going to reach the peak and then start coming down again? It’s going to happen someday, could it be 2013? Because there are enough superhero and comic book movies coming out this year that I was able to make a list! And can any of them even possibly live up to The Avengers or The Dark Knight trilogy?
Especially considering at least three of the films are almost direct sequels or pseudo-continuations?
Avengers vs. JLA? Maybe someday…
When researching this list, I didn’t even know or remember that half of these films are even coming out this year. I try to stay abreast of such developments, but there are so many superhero movies being made or expected to be made that I just lose track. I can still remember when we marked our calendars to expect the next big comic book movie. Now I’m just going to relax and let them come as they will. I mean, we’re pretty set for new films and sequels for the next two to three years at least. For good or ill. But this year looks like it might have more winners than losers.
Henchman-4-Hire 