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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/26/21
Pretty average week for me, all things considered. Thankfully, we’ve got some good, solid, enjoyable comics! Mostly. The Hellfire Gala has some strong chapters, and that’s mostly about it.
Comic Book of the Week goes to S.W.O.R.D. #6 for the powerful, character-based, emotional Hellfire Gala issue I’ve been waiting for! This one finally shows what all the big moves have been about!
Meanwhile, at long last, several years in the waiting, I am finally playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. My favorite types of video games are the big, open world sandbox adventures, and this is supposedly the best of the all. But I didn’t own a Nintendo Switch. Now I do and the game is great. I might be playing this all summer!
Also, Heroes Reborn ended in a fun way. It all led to a big fight, as these things usually do. But this was definitely one of my favorite of the recent Big Events. I don’t read them all, but this one had some real charm and, as I’ve been saying all along, it had that sweet Amalgam Comics vibe that I love so much!
Comic Reviews: Detective Comics #1038, Power Rangers #8, Robin #3, Wolverine #13, S.W.O.R.D. #6 and Way of X #3.
Read the rest of this entryI’m Disappointed We Didn’t Get to See Stacy X’s Crucible
Stacy X has finally returned to X-Men comics! She’s a favorite character of mine because she debuted just as I was finally starting to read and collect X-Men comics on an ongoing basis. But for a variety of reasons, she was dropped from the team after a short while. I’ve kept up with her in whatever weird little appearances she’s made over the past 20 years, and I’m very pleased to say that she’s on Krakoa and she’s got her powers back!
Stacy X showed up in this week’s Way of X #3. I hope she becomes a reoccurring character!
While it’s great to have her back, I’m a little disappointed that we did not get to see her Crucible. I was very much looking forward to that. And it would have been a pretty big moment for her character, considering her loss of powers has been her defining character trait over the past 20ish years.
Allow me to explain, because I love talking about favorite obscure mutants of mine!
So Stacy X is a mutant with both snakeskin and the power to control the pheromones and other chemicals in a person’s body. The X-Men met her while she was working at a mutant brothel, where she used her powers to give customers some truly mind-melting sexual experiences. This backstory and general attitude did not sit well with some of the X-Men (and perhaps Marvel?) and she was dropped shortly thereafter.
Then Stacy was one of the more high profile mutants to lose their powers on M-Day. She was an X-Man, after all, and most of the team kept their powers. In their M-Day aftermath comic, Generation M, Marvel really twisted the knife by turning Stacy into a real hooker living and working the streets.
Stacy did eventually clean up her act and joined a random incarnation of the New Warriors a few years later. This version of the New Warriors was made up of ex-mutants using technology to become superheroes again. Stacy was known as Ripcord and she ended up getting killed. Such a thing happens a lot to New Mutants.
Stacy made a random and minor appearance in the comic Vengeance, which I think was supposed to be some kind of statement comic by Marvel? It didn’t go anywhere. Her rebirth was never explained.
Then she showed up in an issue of the recent Domino comic, attending a Mutants Anonymous meeting put together by Domino and Nightcrawler for mutants struggling to live with powers that make them look abnormal.
So as you can see, after a brief membership in the X-Men, Stacy X has been defined by the loss of her powers for nearly the past 20 years. It was a bigger deal for her character than pretty much anyone else in the X-Men franchise (if we don’t count Jubilee’s weird couple of years as a vampire).
When Marvel introduced the idea of the Crucible on Krakoa — depowered mutants fighting in an arena in order to earn their death/resurrection/repowering — I had hoped to see Stacy X go through it. I think it would have been a great way to cap off her major story arc.
But alas, it apparently happened off-panel. I’m just going to have to be happy with the fact that Stacy X is back, she’s got her powers and she’s doing good on Krakoa. I should be able to make my peace with that.
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The 6 Characters I Would Use in Secret X-Men (My Dawn of X Comic)
It’s that time of year again: San Diego Comic-Con! Except the world sucks and those of us in America are going to die from a horrible virus that’s ravaging our dumbest states! Comic-Con, like everything else, was cancelled this year. They’re going to make a lot of big announcements virtually, and I’ll still report on them on this blog if they’re fun enough. But really, the main thing I care about is my annual tradition of fan-casting a superhero team!
And since San Diego Comic-Con is not real this year, then neither is my superhero team! Meet the Secret X-Men!
So basically, ever since Dawn of X revived and relaunched the X-Men franchise, we have seen all manner of new X-Men comics come and go. We’ve got X-Men, New Mutants, X-Force; we had Fallen Angels for a bit, and we’ve got Marauders and maybe the Hellions; a new X-Factor is supposed to be coming out. There’s a ton of freestyle X-Men books, is what I’m saying. Me being the creative chap that I am came up with one of my own: Secret X-Men. And since it’s probably far too late for me to get my foot in the door of Krakoa to pitch this idea to Marvel, I’m just going to make a fan-casting blog post about it!
I’ve done a bunch of these over the years. They’re basically just a fantasy game where I get to write some major team comics and pick my own roster. Last year was Guardians of the Galaxy. I’ve done the core X-Men team. I’ve done my version of X-Force. I’ve done the Avengers, the Justice League, the Fantastic Four, the Teen Titans, the Defenders and the Exiles. So enjoy those old lists and join me after the jump for my idea and the team roster of the Secret X-Men!
And feel free to share your own dream Dawn of X comics, real or imagined, in the comments below! This is just going to be a creativity free-for-all.
Read the rest of this entryA Personal Reminder That Some of My Favorite Obscure X-Men Are Alive and Being Treated Well
I’ve been in a sour comic-reading mood for a couple weeks now because I’m pretty sure the Mimic is going to die. He’s one of my all-time favorite comic book characters and I don’t want him to die. The very minor hope that maybe, when he’s alive, he’ll show up in the background somewhere and have a nice scene or two is a strong hope.
Right now, he’s showing up in Extermination, which continues to tease his potentially imminent demise.
Likewise, my all-time favorite comic book character — Multiple Man — is in some weird revival limbo, and might end up being some kind of villain in the new Uncanny X-Men? That is also up in the air, enhancing my sour feelings.
I’m sure we’ve all been there, that we all have a favorite obscure X-character or two. Characters like Wolverine, Storm and Nightcrawler are great, but we all love us a Mimic or Multiple Man or two.
Fortunately, another comic this week had a short story that let me know that some of my other favorite obscure X-Men are alive and well, and if they’re not well, at least they’re getting solid character treatment.
That issue is Domino Annual #1, written by Gail Simone and a bunch of others in an anthology of short stories. One of the stories, written by Leah Williams, with art by Michael Shelfer, features Nightcrawler and Domino starting up a support group for odd-looking mutants. That is a wonderful idea, and I hope Gail Simone keeps the idea going in the regular series.
Among the dozen or so obscure X-characters featured in the support group, we find out that Maggott is not only alive again, but he’s been turned into a hipster.
I love Maggott! He’s great! Maggott is a perfect example that your mutant isn’t always going to be something as wonderful as a healing factor or all-powerful telepathy. Sometimes your digestive system is turned into a pair of slugs that can eat anything, then transfer the power to you.
It’s good to know Maggott is currently alive in continuity.
We also get a great scene featuring Stacy X, another favorite of mine. She still doesn’t have her powers following M-Day (even though most mutants have gotten their powers back), and that is really torturing Stacy.
It sucks that she’s feeling suicidal, but that is still some great character growth. And Gail Simone, if you want me to start really loving your Domino comic, which I already kind of enjoy? Feature more Stacy X struggling with depression, caused by the loss of her powers! And maybe give her her powers back? Beak is featured in this issue too, and he lost his powers the same way as Stacy X, but he has them back.
Basically, what I’m saying is: bring back Stacy X!
And don’t kill the Mimic!
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Henchman-4-Hire 