Category Archives: X-Men
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/10/18
I’ve decided to give Gwenpool a try. I had very little use for that weird Gwen Stacy fetish that popped up a couple years ago, but all of the clippings I’ve seen of the Gwenpool comic have seemed pretty amazing. So the first tpb is on order! I’ll let you all know how it goes.
Meanwhile, in regular comic land, it’s a pretty sad week. We must say goodbye to two of my favorites, Hawkeye and Iceman, the latter of which earns Comic Book of the Week! I’ll miss them both!
Ice solves everything
Marvel’s Countdown to Infinity kicked off this week and I couldn’t care even a single iota. I didn’t read the issue and I keep skipping all these single page “Where is Wolverine” bits that show up at the end of comics. Just like Civil War II, this reeks of being a slapped-together event to tie into the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War movie. I don’t care.
I do care about Kelly Thompson’s Rogue & Gambit mini-series, which remains awesome! I hope they keep her around the X-Men franchise!
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #797, Batman #42, Hawkeye #16, Iceman #11 and X-Men Red #2.
My 6 Pitches for X-Men Solo Comics
Today marks the final issue of the Iceman solo comic, one that I greatly enjoyed and am sad to see leave. It was a fun little comic that, I think, could have had some legs going forward. But today’s comic book market is not too keen on keeping smaller comics alive. Which is why, going forward, it looks like Marvel is going to stick to putting out smaller mini-series instead of cutting full series short. The new Multiple Man solo comic has already been announced as a 5-issue mini.
Gone too soon
There’s nothing wrong with this business model, I don’t think. Personally, I would just let the comics be full series and make sure the writer knows they’ll only maybe get one or two volumes out before a likely cancellation. But short, one-story mini-series are fine, too. Marvel has tried countless times over the years to churn out solo series starring the X-Men, and I’m pretty sure it has only ever worked with Wolverine, but that’s not going to stop Marvel from trying. Nor should it.
Nor will it stop me from being the creative sort of guy with pitches of his own! So if you’re reading my blog, Marvel editors, I’ve got a couple of solo X-Men mini-series to pitch your way! Join me after the jump!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/3/18
I’m still over the moon that we’re getting a new Multiple Man comic book. I don’t know much about this Matthew Rosenberg fella, and I’m slightly disappointed that it isn’t me writing the new Multiple Man comic, but you’re can be darn sure I’m going to read it all! And review it right here!
Some pretty solid comics this week, from Detective Comics to Batgirl to a couple more of DC’s new titles. I’d been waiting to check out The Terrifics and it did not disappoint. But Comic Book of the Week goes to All-New Wolverine for a delightfully funny done-in-one issue.
Comics are awesome
Speaking of new comics, Marvel has officially announced Nick Spencer as taking over Amazing Spider-Man. I don’t have anything to do with the guy’s Twitter feed or whatever brouhaha erupted during Secret Empire, but I really liked his Ant-Man and Superior Foes comics, so I’m definitely on board for his Amazing Spider-Man.
Comic Reviews: All-New Wolverine #31, Batgirl #20, Detective Comics #975, The Silencer #2 and The Terrifics #1.
Good News, Everybody! New Multiple Man Comic!
We all kind of hoped it was inevitable, and the big reveal is here: Multiple Man is coming back with his own solo comic book series! Multiple Man #1 will debut in July, the first of five issues. It will be written by Matthew Rosenberg (who is also using Strong Guy and Wolfsbane in New Mutants), with art by Andy MacDonald.
I love wildly inventive/minimalist covers!
Welp, I’m thrilled! This is exactly what I want! I’m not too familiar with Rosenberg’s work, or MacDonald’s, for that matter, but this interview with ComicBook.com paints Rosenberg as a pretty awesome fellow.
“If I were smarter I’d probably say some nonsense about how this was all about the duality of man and the Jungian archetypes that exist within us, how they are often oppositional, and how the ideas of who we are existed before us and continue beyond us. Maybe the book is about what we leave behind in the world for the people who love us and the people who don’t, and how that story is never a complete picture. But, honestly, I just like Jamie Madrox a lot and I raised my hand in a meeting at the Marvel office and said, ‘What if he wasn’t dead?’ and then they asked me to make up how that would work. And so… here we are. Dude’s not dead.”
Sounds good to me!
Some basics about the book: Jamie Madrox isn’t dead yet from the Terrigen Mists, and why he’s not dead is going to drive some of the book. Rosenberg isn’t going to use Layla Miller, at least not right away, but he is going to use Jamie’s friends from Rosenberg’s New Mutants comic. So a bit of boo with all the yay, but I can live with that as long as we get proper Multiple Man back!
This is thrilling news!
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Strong Guy Watch: Through the Looking Glass
Once upon a time, I noticed an odd trend in the pages of Inhumans vs. X-Men, wherein the superhero Strong Guy seemed randomly added to background scenes. As a fourth-tier, supporting X-Men character, Strong Guy has never really mattered much in the larger X-Men scheme of things. He was barely ever acknowledged outside of his home book of X-Factor.
Can’t resurrect your Jean Greys without Strong Guy
But ever since Death of X, Strong Guy has been popping up as a member of the larger X-Men cast. And I found this rather weird. Out of all mutant characters, why was Strong Guy all of a sudden getting background supporting character slots? He was never a member of the X-Men before this, but now he’s clearly involved? Even if only in the background?
At first, my theory was that some editor passed a decree to start adding Strong Guy to X-Men scenes. I don’t know why or how, it just seemed like it had to have been a legitimate plan. There’s no way it was random coincidence. I started the Strong Guy Watch to keep track. But I backed off once it became clear that Strong Guy was definitely a member of the larger X-Men cast, as shown from his recent appearances in Phoenix Resurrection. The dude clearly belonged.
But a new Strong Guy appearance this week has reopened my original theory! What the heck is going on with Strong Guy that he would appear in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl?!
Beardless!
We’re through the looking glass here people.
In the panel in question, Strong Guy is among a wide variety of colorful characters summoned by Loki to help Squirrel Girl fight the Silver Surfer (it’s complicated, I know, but read the issue, because it’s great). The collected characters are immediately dispatched and sent back where they came from. So it was, at most, a two-page gag where artist Erica Henderson got to draw a bunch of wacky Marvel characters. They included Sleepwalker, for crying out loud!
But why use Strong Guy?
Out of all the characters that could have been chosen, why Strong Guy? Yes, he looks weird, and would therefore be perfect for the comic and Henderson’s art style. But she could have picked anybody. Was it even her choice? Did writer Ryan North tell her to include Strong Guy?
Or does my original theory hold: Was there some sort of editorial decision recently that Strong Guy would be used a lot more in the background of comics?!
It’s a mystery I will stay with all night, if I have to! But I will also take no steps to legitimately solve it. Just letting it simmer in my brain is good enough for me!
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Henchman-4-Hire 