Blog Archives

Strong Guy Watch: Didn’t See This Coming!

There was a super surprise Strong Guy appearance this week and I need to tell somebody! I’ve been following random Strong Guy appearances for years now, just because it’s fun. He’s a great character and doesn’t appear very often. And now he’s had one of his greatest appearances of all time.

Some awesome fan artwork

But I won’t spoil it here. You’re going to have to join me after the jump for the big Strong Guy reveal! I warn you, only click this link if your love of Strong Guy outweighs your concerns about spoilers, and if you’re fully up to speed on X-Men projects.

There will only be light spoilers.

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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!

Some of the characters are in this group shot!

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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Ladies and Gentlemen, Mimic is on Krakoa

It has been nearly four long years since the start of the Krakoa Era in X-Men comics, but I can finally, excitedly share that one of my all-time favorite X-characters, the Mimic, has finally appeared on the page. This might not be big news to most people, but this is my blog, it’s a random Thursday, and I’m pretty giddy about the whole thing.

Mimic showed up in this week’s issue of Immortal X-Men. It’s not a great appearance, because he chickens out of helping with an important task, but the important thing is that he has finally appeared on the island.

C’mon, dude! This was your big chance!

So this is great. And I will gladly take this time to explain to everybody still reading why this is great.

The Mimic is a character who harkens all the way back to the original X-Men. In fact, he was the first new member of the team after the original five. That’s some neat trivia. I’ve liked the character since I was a kid, since the Mimic was essentially the Green Power Ranger of the X-Men. He’s come and gone over the decades, both a good guy and a troubled bad guy. And I’ve enjoyed keeping up with him through that time.

Most recently, in late 2018, he was killed off. Such is the fate of most obscure, unimportant comic book characters. I was pretty bummed.

But then 2019 saw the launch of the new Krakoa era, where all dead characters were brought back to live on a special mutant island. And in one of the very first issues of the new era, Mimic got name-dropped as living on Krakoa. I was pretty excited!

Because not only was he alive again, but now Mimic is being established as a mutant. When he first debuted, and through most of his existence, Mimic has always been portrayed as a human who was given powers in a science experiment. But only mutants are allowed on Krakoa (with few exceptions), and only mutants are resurrected (with few exceptions).

This week’s issue confirms in writing, again, that Mimic is around to supplement the Five in the resurrection process.

That’s the thing he’s chickening out of doing, which isn’t a good look for him, but I’ll take what I can get.

Anyway, I know the Mimic isn’t a very important dude, but I’m glad to see, even all these years later, that that initial mention of him in House of X has been followed through on. And while I don’t know if this means Mimic is for sure retconned into being a mutant, it would be cool if he was.

Also, just to note, I kinda wish he’d been given a new, retro costume, like a lot of characters on Krakoa. But, again, I’ll take what I can get. Hooray Mimic!

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6 Marvel Legends Action Figures I’m Still Waiting For

Marvel Legends are the be-all, end-all of superhero action figures. I wish I had figures this awesome when I was a kid — though, to be fair, I’m making fine use of them as an adult. There have been more than 1,000 Marvel Legends figures over the past few decades, highlighting some of Marvel’s greatest characters and a lot of their very obscure characters.

So why haven’t there been any Marvel Legends figures of my personal favorite obscure characters?!

What If…? is getting its own line!

I’ve been a comic book fan for my entire life, and while I like Spider-Man and the X-Men as much as the next person, most of my favorite characters are B, C and D-list guys and gals who don’t get the respect they deserve. Heck, Marvel Legends only got around to a Multiple Man figure a couple of years ago. They’ve made guys like Skullbuster, Living Laser, Darkhawk, the female Beetle and a bunch of members of the Serpent Society. These are some deep cuts…and yet a ton of my favorite Marvel characters have yet to receive a Marvel Legends figure!

Join me after the jump for six(ish) characters I hope to see as Marvel Legends some day. And feel free to share your own character hopes and drams in the comments!

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6 Other Super-Power Mimics (Not From Comics)

I love a good power mimic. One of my all-time favorite comic book characters is the Mimic from the X-Men. His original comic appearances from the 1960s X-Men were some of the first comics I read growing up, just some old, beat-up issues from my dad’s collection. I’ve loved the Mimic ever since!

That’s him, that’s the guy

I also love his super-power, the ability to mimic and/or copy the super-powers of others. And wouldn’t you know it? That power shows up in a lot of other places, causing me to instantly like these other characters simply because they match my boy Mimic. Maybe it’s not the best way to pick a favorite character in a super-powered TV show or cartoon, but it works for me! And this week, I feel like celebrating all of these other power-mimics. I thought of including other power mimics in comics, but there are a bunch, same with video games. So I looked far and wide to see where the power was used on television. Super-power shows are much rarer.

Join me after the jump for for a handful of nifty neat power mimics from some pretty interesting shows! Warning, there are SPOILERS for the show Umbrella Academy, in case you’re not caught up.

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