Category Archives: X-Men
Jumbo Carnation is Everything I Love About X-Men Comics
Jumbo Carnation is alive again! This is a great day for X-Men comics and mutants in general. And it’s a good representation of everything I want to see in Dawn of X and X-Men comics. The four-armed mutant made a proper return as Emma Frost’s personal fashion designer on Krakoa in this week’s issue of Marauders.
There’s this thing called style
For those of you who don’t know, Jumbo Carnation debuted at the start of Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men back in the day, as part of Morrison’s whole revitalization agenda. Morrison did a lot of things for the X-Men, but my personal favorite was making mutants normal. Morrison created Mutant Town, a whole district of New York City where ordinary and average mutants lived and worked.
And among its residents was this four-armed mutant fashion designer, who designed clothes specifically for the weird bodies of mutants.
Some fashion maven. He’s wearing the same outfit he had on when he died nearly 20 years ago.
Then he died from a drug overdose in the exact same pages where he first appeared, and his death kicked off a whole storyline for the X-Men. But I never forgot Jumbo Carnation — how could I, with a name like that.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t a big fan of Morrison’s X-Men comics right away. But over time I matured and understood it all better. And one thing I have come to truly love about X-Men comics — and possibly Dawn of X going forward — is that mutants don’t have to be superheroes. The whole point of mutants is that they’re people. They are ordinary people. It’s just that Professor X and Magneto and whoever else decided to recruit some and put them into costumes to fight crime and/or each other.
But when the mutants as minority metaphor really gets going, especially when Morrison was the writer, the best look for the species is to see them as normal people.
A mutant doesn’t have to be a superhero. A mutant can be a fashion designer.
A mutant can be anything they want to be
So I am rather thrilled that Dawn of X has seen fit to reach into that one weird, random appearance back in the day and bring back Jumbo Carnation to the land of the living. The world needs mutant fashion designers now more than ever.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/1/20
Man, what a stinker of a week. Last week was amazing, with some of my favorite comics! But this week is a bit of a let down, I’m afraid. New issues of X-Men, New Mutants and Blackstars failed to impressed.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Thor #2 for a pretty cool issue, though I had some personal nitpicks against it. Simply put, Galactus is cooler than Thor, in my opinion.
Devourer
Meanwhile, the new issue of Go Go Power Rangers is a stand alone that, honestly, didn’t really say much about the ongoing series or the characters. Seemed like a bit of filler. It told an OK story of Rita Repulsa, but not one that really fleshed her out in any way or added to the overall narrative. But we did get the introduction of Goldar’s warrior brother, Silverback. I immediately want more about the two of them together!
Comic Reviews: Green Lantern: Blackstars #3, New Mutants #6, Scream: Curse of Carnage #3, Thor #2 and X-Men #5.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/25/20
Oh man, what a great week for comics! Some of my current favorites came out this week, including phenomenal new issues of Far Sector and Wonder Twins! Those are probably my two favorite DC comics right now.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Mighty Moprhin Power Rangers #47 for a great issue that features a moment of real poignancy.
Poor Goldar
Meanwhile, BOOM! Studios has decided to cancel Go Go Power Rangers. This is a damn shame, because it’s a great comic. But after the shakeup a couple issues ago, both Go Go and Mighty Morphin are a bit redundant, so this move makes sense.
Comic Reviews: Batman #87, Far Sector #3, Marauders #6, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #47 and Wonder Twins #11.
Leah Williams is Bringing Back the Blob (Sort of) For a New X-Factor!
Look, I’m a friendly guy. I like people. I like getting along with people. I write this blog for fun and don’t have a mean bone in my body when it comes to comics. But apparently I’ve done something to anger the comic book gods, because now it seems that Dawn of X is going out of its way to target me and everything I specifically love about the X-Men.
A new X-Factor comic has been announced for April, written by Leah Williams, with art by David Baldeon.
You’ll notice that lineup on the front cover…and you’ll notice there’s no Multiple Man. The one character who is most closely connected to the X-Factor brand and he doesn’t get to be involved. Sigh. I can’t help but take that personally.
Instead of Multiple Man, this series will focus on this new team — Northstar, Polaris, Daken, Eye-Boy, Prodigy and Prestige — assisting The Five, the resurrection mutants. This new X-Factor will investigate and confirm mutant deaths and all the various rules around the resurrection protocols…which sounds good. I am fully in favor of comics that actually explore the new Krakoan status quo.
There is one really hopeful thing that I didn’t see at first until I finally read through the actual announcement article on Polygon. I was worried that Leah Williams’ arrival in Dawn of X wasn’t going to feature the Blob after her stellar turn with the character in Age of X-Man.
Williams told Polygon that the Blob will indeed be a part of this new X-Factor!
“His new role (thanks to Ben Percy and Josh Cassara!) is perfect,” Williams said, “and gives Freddy a bigger path threading through all our books.”
OK, I can accept that. I will gladly trade a Multiple Man appearance for Williams continuing her work on rehabilitating the Blob.
Williams also mentioned that her series will focus a lot on Northstar and his human husband Kyle, and what life is like for Kyle on Krakoa. She said they’re going to explore more about humans on Krakoa. That could include the Mimic! I’ll get my hopes up about that.
But for now, I’m just excited that Leah Williams is indeed returning to the Blob! Even if just as a subplot!
X-Factor #1 arrives in April.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/11/20
Short week for me this week in terms of comic reviews. I was blind-sided by stuff both at work and at home, so I didn’t have much time to read too many comics. Such is life! But we’ve got a new era of Batman to look into and my return to Magnificent Ms. Marvel, as requested by you henchies!
Comic Book of the Week goes to New Mutants #5 for a charming and fun space story. Charming and fun are two of my favorite things in comics.
There have been worse X-Men plots
Meanwhile, I’ve fallen behind on Excalibur and X-Force. I considered getting caught up this week, but like I said, I was pretty busy, and I just couldn’t muster much interest in these comics anymore. I think that’s an overall sign of my thoughts on Dawn of X as a whole…
Comic Reviews: Batman #86, Magnificent Ms. Marvel #11 and New Mutants #5.
Henchman-4-Hire 