Blog Archives
Review: Mimic and the X-Men #5
Mimic successfully beat his record for appearing in issues as a member of the X-Men, then promptly quit. Oh sorry, SPOILERS. No wait, I’m not sorry! I’m angry! I’m angry that writer Christos Gage would make all my dreams come true by putting Mimic back on the X-Men after nearly 50 years, then went ahead and spent a bajillion stupid, boring issues on Rogue being transported to another planet to join a war between stupid, boring aliens who don’t have anything to do with anything! And I’m angry at Marvel NOW!’s stupid decision to take Gage off of X-Men: Legacy and completely change the title, forcing him to wrap up his personal storylines and take Mimic out of the series before his time!
And yet Mimic isn’t on the cover
And what I’m angry at the most is that Gage did this by giving us the greatest Mimic adventure of all time!
Comic rating: The square root of sadness/5: Terrifisad.
Do you want deep Mimic introspection and character development? BAM! You got it! Do you want Mimic mimicking all the powers in the world and then single-handedly holding off a super-villain prison riot? BAM! You got it! Do you want hot Mimic on Rogue action? BAM! You got that too – sort of! This is the Mimic we have always wanted! He’s handsome, he’d badass and, most importantly, he’s a hero. I would even go so far as to say he’s the greatest hero the Marvel Universe has ever seen! Not only that, but he’s hip, as you’ll see in the synopsis. This is one awesome guy. I mean, I suppose there is a large portion of this issue dedicated to Rogue. But nobody cares about that, right? That would be like watching The Matrix and caring more about Neo than Switch. And Switch was awesome.
If Mimic had to go out – though I think he would have been awesome as new leader of the X-Men – he probably couldn’t have gone out any better way. Rest well, gentle soldier. This review will sing you to your sleep.
October is Going to Be A Big Month for Me and Marvel Comics
The solicitations for the first month of Marvel NOW have hit the web – and things look pretty damn cool! Marvel plans on launching a new #1 issue every week, and the first one will be Uncanny Avengers #1, which I already told you guys about. So there aren’t any more fancy new comics to tell you about. But there are still dozens of other post-Avengers vs. X-Men comics coming out in October, and apparently Marvel has geared a lot of them towards some of my favorite characters. Weird! But awesome!
You can read all of the solicitations here, but I’m going to be going through a few of my favorite titles.
X-Factor #245
X-Factor #245: Starring Multiple Man, my all-time favorite comic book character, it seems that the book is getting a pretty big shake-up. We already know that Havok is leaving the team to join the Uncanny Avengers, but who else?
“BREAKING POINTS” Conclusion!
• In the last of five issues that will change the face of X-FACTOR forever, two characters find their lives irrevocably altered.
• When the smoke clears, the team’s roster will be nearly halved…
Finally! I’ve been complaining about the size of X-Factor’s cast for a long time now. It’s about time writer Peter David trimmed the fat and made the team more manageable. It’ll make for a much better series. I hope he keeps Multiple Man, Strong Guy and Wolfsbane for sure. The rest can come or go as he sees fit. Based on an interview I read about Marvel NOW, one of the Marvel head honchos said that X-Factor is going to be largely unaffected by the relaunch. On the one hand, that’s too bad. But on the other hand, I’m glad it will be sticking around in a version that’s similar to what I’ve been enjoying for years. X-Factor doesn’t sell very well, but it has a very loyal fanbase, myself included. So I’m glad it’s not going to have its feathers ruffled too much by this relaunch.
———————————–
Secret Avengers #33
Secret Avengers #33: I’ve written a bit before about Eric O’Grady, the Irredeemable Ant-Man! He’s been a member of the Secret Avengers for awhile now, but most recently, he was ‘killed’ and somehow brought back to life by the bad guys. Well in October, it looks like he’s going to become a full-on villain!
THE RISE OF THE DESCENDANTS part 1
• THE RISE OF THE DESCENDANTS BEGINS HERE! The event that will devastate the lives of the Secret Avengers!
• Descendants siege on Avengers Lighthouse station!
• Father launches his invasion. Can the Marvel Universe survive the plague of contagious robotic evolution?
• A terrible new Avenger’s foe is born: Beware the bite of The Black Ant!
I can’t say as how I really like this change, because I was a big fan of O’Grady’s perverted, jerkass version of a superhero. He had a lot of potential as a member of the Avengers. But I suppose he could make an interesting villain, maybe. Though aren’t red ants far more evil and dangerous than black ants? But then the superhero Ant-Mans usually dress in red, so I guess he needed to dress differently. We’ll see where this goes.
———————————–
Hobgoblin Fight!
Amazing Spider-Man #695 & 696: Writer Dan Slott is finally getting around to doing something awesome with Phil Urich, the new Hobgoblin! Though it looks like Phil might be in the crosshairs, because the solicitation sounds like a former Hobgoblin is going to be coming back and gunning for Phil. That makes sense, considering Phil had to kill the previous Hobgoblin to take over. And nobody stays dead in comics.
ISSUE #695 – DANGER ZONE Part 1
• Dark times are coming for Peter Parker and change is closer than you even fear.
• As we aim headlong to ASM #700, The Kingpin ‘s latest plan turns one of Spider-Man’s greatest strengths against him.
• Hobgoblin is back…but his days may be numbered as the past sharpens its blades.
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99
ISSUE #696 – DANGER ZONE Part 2
• GOBLINS GO TO WAR…and Peter Parker is caught dead-center!
So I’m worried that Phil would make for an easy death. He’s not as established as the previous Hobgoblin, and hasn’t exactly proven himself to be all that great. Since he became Hobgoblin, Phil became a total jobber, thrown into books like Venom and Spider-Girl just to be beaten, to make the heroes look good. Not to mention the fact that he hasn’t beaten Spider-Man. Though of course I hope Phil’s days aren’t numbered. Maybe he’ll become a good guy again! That would make my life.
———————————–
But the October solicitations are not all good news! The solicitation for Uncanny Avengers #1 mentions “the funeral of one of Marvel’s greatest heroes!” So it looks like Cyclops is going to bite the big one after all at the end of Avengers vs. X-Men. And it appears that X-Men: Legacy is getting cancelled only a handful of issues after writer Christos Gage made the Mimic an X-Man again. Mimic barely got to do anything! So I guess from now on I just have to hope that he shows up somewhere else…I must hold on to hope!
And finally…where’s the Scarlet Spider comic?
Review: Mimic and the X-Men #4
What the hell is this supposed to be? Where’s my Mimic? If I’m going to buy a comic starring the Mimic, one of the greatest and coolest X-Men of all time, I expect him to be in more than 5 panels, and I expect him to get more than one line. But nooooOOOoooo! Apparently someone else has a better idea. Someone named Christos Gage seems to want to focus on Rogue for some reason. As if anybody cares about Rogue when they could be reading about the spectacular and handsome Mimic!
Mimic and the X-Men #4
Instead, Mimic seems to have something of a glass jaw when it comes to Avengers vs. X-Men.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
For those of you coming in late, the Mimic is one of my favorite comic book characters of all time. And recently in the pages of X-Men Legacy, writer Christos Gage has plucked Mimic out of the mothballs, dusted him off and put him in the regular cast of the comic. For the first time in 40 years, he’s a member of the X-Men again. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I’ve added X-Men: Legacy to my review list – only I prefer to refer to it as Mimic and the X-Men. Because I really only care about Mimic’s role in the comic.
And based on this issue, he doesn’t have much of a roll at all. It’s a tragedy.
Review: Mimic and the X-Men #3
How freakin’ awesome is it that the Mimic is now a regular character in an ongoing comic book series? We haven’t enjoyed this since back in the 1960s for about three issues of X-Men – that is if you don’t count Exiles, which I don’t, since it was a very different Mimic. We’re truly living in a Golden Age of being a fan of the obscure comic book character the Mimic! But sadly, as awesome as this is, it’s also a double-edged sword. Because in the first issue following Mimic’s grand return to the X-Men, he’s reduced to just a side character with very little panel-time.
One very Mimic-less issue
This is Rogue’s comic, after all. But I may keep up these reviews since I know I’m not the only Mimic fan in the world.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
As a Mimic comic, this issue sucks. He barely appears. It’s great that he’s in the cast now, but it’s sad to see him doing nothing. As a tie-in to Avengers vs. X-Men, the comic isn’t any good either. It’s been less than a year since Regenesis, when Wolverine split the X-Men in half in order to go off and re-open the school in Westchester. Yet one giant crossover later and everything he set up is being thrown under the bus, all in the name of yet another punch-fest between superheroes.
This issue pushes the whole school idea just a little too far, revealing it to be the sham that it is. The students don’t want to learn, they want to join in the fight against the Avengers. If they wanted to fight so badly, why didn’t they stay on Utopia? And the ‘teachers’ spend all their time worrying about making sure they stick to the class schedule – yet they all still dress in superhero costumes.
But who cares about all of that? Bring on the Mimic!
Good News: Mimic to be Punched in Face!
By the Falcon, I believe. The important thing is that Mimic will not only continue to appear in X-Men: Legacy, but he’ll also take part in their Avengers vs. X-Men tie-in issues! That’s pretty exciting news.
The only Avengers vs. X-Men fight that matters
You may recall my epic coverage of the last two issues of X-Men: Legacy, both of which featured a guest appearance by Mimic. Seeing as how the Mimic is one of my all-time favorite comic book characters, I was tickled pink when the guest appearance ended with Mimic actually joining the cast of the series! But pessimist that I am, I was worried that he’d just be shuffled off into background status. X-Men: Legacy isn’t exactly one of the marquee X-books, and he’s joining a very crowded population of characters at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.
I was afraid he’d get lost in the shuffle.
But apparently that’s not the case! Based on this interview with writer Christos Gage, Mimic is going to be a main cast member and is going to join the fight against the Avengers! That is some pretty cool news for us few, proud Mimic fans.
If only the main AvX series was this much fun
Henchman-4-Hire 