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The 6 Characters on My X-Men Team
Welcome to Comic-Con Week! The party is rocking down in San Diego, but here I am still shuffling around Central New York. Such is my lot and life, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have some comic book fun! In what’s becoming an annual tradition for Henchman-4-Hire, I’ve decided to spend Comic-Con Week playing one of my favorite games: superhero dream team!
If I was hired to write the X-Men, which characters would I choose for my team? Last year, I did the Justice League, and the year before that it was the Avengers. I’ve also done X-Force, the Fearless Defenders, the Teen Titans and the Sinister Six. But this year, it’s the X-Men!
Maybe you’ve heard of them (and if so, remind Marvel that they exist)
This is a very open-ended proposition, considering how many X-Men teams and squads there have been over the years. Once upon a time, team membership was sacred, but now every single change in writer brings on a new lineup, not to mention all the different X-titles available. There are already dozens of lineups in continuity, so what difference would mine make? Good question! Just trust me when I say it would be an awesome, super fun comic!
Join me after the jump to check out my roster. And please join me in the comments to pick your own! I’d love to hear your ideas.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/25/15
By this time next week, I will have seen Avengers: Age of Ultron. I can’t wait! The anticipation is nearly overwhelming! What am I supposed to do until then? Read comics?! Are you mad? Well, there were some pretty great comics this week.
Not only do we have the headline-making issue of All-New X-Men where Iceman comes out as gay, but we’ve also got the unlikely buddy comedy of Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt in the latest issue of Star Wars! This week also brings us, hands down, the funniest comic book I may have ever read in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #4.
This comic is pure spun gold.
I have no way to explain why I find Squirrel Girl hilarious but Deadpool flat. I guess that’s just the way my brain is wired. But from the cover to the final page, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is a laugh riot! And it’s Comic Book of the Week!
This week also brings us a double dip of Valiant Comics! That’s always a hoot.
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #40, Divinity #3, Ninjak #2, Star Wars #4 and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #4.
Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past
I need to stop worrying about new X-Men movies. FOX knows what they’re doing. Ahead of X-Men: First Class, I thought it was going to just be a terrible, desperate attempt to hold on to the franchise – but it is now my favorite X-Movie. And I thought X-Men: Days of Future Past was going to be a mess of time travel and too many characters. Boy was I wrong about that one. X-Men: Days of Future Past is an enjoyable X-Flick, with a solid cast, an important plot and some quality, unique mutant action.
I wasn’t as blown away as some critics have been, but consider me a firm believer that the X-Men are in good hands.
Movie Rating: 7/10 – Good.
I think what Days of Future Past lacked, at least for me, was a uniquely X-Men story element to grab onto. There were some great super-powers on display, especially Quicksilver and Blink, but they were minor elements of the much larger, less captivating film. Instead of starring the actual X-Men, Days of Future Past was about the trio of Wolverine, Xavier and young Hank McCoy running around trying to catch up to the rest of the movie. The really compelling characters, the ones who drive the plot, are Mystique and maybe Magneto, but both of them are relegated to side character status.
Mystique may do something evil, and Magneto will definitely do something evil, and it’s up to Wolverine and his Amazing Friends to try and get there in time to stop it. Compare that to X-Men: First Class, which had the recruitment and training of the new students, the formation of the X-Men, and the evil Hellfire Club, all while really focusing on the Xavier/Magneto friendship. First Class had a lot going for it in terms of mutants and the X-Men, but Days of Future Past is just a movie about the heroes racing to save the day. Fortunately, it has some fun on the way there.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is not a disappointment, by any means. It’s a solid, entertaining entry into the X-Men franchise. But for me, I would have liked a bit more Adamantium on the claws – though not literally.
Join me after the jump for the full review!
Iceman Rocks in New X-Men: Days of Future Past Trailer!
Check out Iceman, you guys!
Did you see it? How cool was that brief, half-second clip of Iceman going full ice-slide? Badass!
What’s that? The movie is about much more than just Iceman, and he probably won’t appear much at all? Yeah, I guess…but seriously, that looked awesome! As did the rest of the trailer, I suppose. I’m a little lukewarm about X-Men: Days of Future Past right now. Everything about it looks cool, but I’m a little afraid that there’s going to be too much going on. There are dozens of characters, both new and returning, and the plot involves some complicated time travel. I’m worried that the film is just going to be too convoluted!
That trailer doesn’t necessarily assuage my fears. That trailer is filled to the brim with all sorts of insanity, one second after another. That they managed to squeeze in a few seconds of Iceman doing his thing is a perfect example that X-Men: Days of Future Past might just have eyes bigger than its stomach.
The film is out on May 23.
Movie Quicksilver Looks Like a Huge Dork
I’m not the first person on the Internet to say this, and I won’t be the last, but Quicksilver from this year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past movie looks like a huuuuge dork!
They took his name way too literally
He looks like the kind of guy who whines to Magneto whenever he calls him ‘Pietro’.
“But DaaaaAAAAaaad, my name is Quicksilver! Why don’t you ever take me seriously!?”
And I can just picture actor Evan Peters whining like that. This movie just took a big hit in credibility. I like the theory floating around the web that director Bryan Singer is purposefully trying to tank the character so that nobody takes him seriously when he shows up in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he’s probably going to be treated with much, much more respect. That sounds to me like exactly the sort of jerk move FOX would pull. They’re the ones who quickly found a way to squeeze Quicksilver into their X-Men movie after Joss Whedon announced he was using him for the Avengers sequel.
At least most of the other characters look good. Join me after the jump to see some of my favorites.
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