Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

David Bowen

Wolverine #20-23 in Review—Danger! Deadpool! Danger! Maverick! Danger!

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Credits: Ben Percy writes; Adam Kuberts draws covers & interiors; Frank Martin colors; Cory Petit letters

How Many Ways Can Percy Play the Faux Grimdark?

So, what did Wolvie get up to after, um, saving the time-stream or whatever in X Lives and X Deaths of Wolverine (Jan-Mar 2022)? His busy scribe Ben Percy took a backseat and called old Wade Wilson to phone in the lines for several issues. But in fact the notorious Merc with the Mouth mouthed nothing but pure Percy-isms throughout this four-month arc, never quite sounding like his mordantly buoyant self, cratered and a-boil as it is with those unsightly, indefatigable cankers. It’s Percy’s characteristic mordancy that wins through, the deep bass gravel having long since popped and shredded any sense of buoyancy; however cartoonishly irritating or genuinely leavening the generic loaf of two-dimensional slapstick violence, Deadpool’s trademark levity is inevitably missing from his run-on patter here.

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Sins of Sinister #1 Review—The World Magneto Didn’t Live to See

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Just take a moment to think about what might’ve been now if Magneto hadn’t given his pledge Arakko. With things as they are, Storm, ever uncompromised, has a real chance of helping right reality again.

“Everything Is Sinister”

Credits: Kieron Gillen writes; Lucas Werneck draws, along with guests Geoffrey Shaw, Marco Checchetto, Juan José Ryp, David Baldéon, Federico Vincentini, David Lopez, Joshua Cassara and Stefano Caselli; Bryan Valenza colors; Clayton Cowles letters; cover by Leinil Francis Yu

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Legion of X #1-5 in Review: A Canticle for Liebenden

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Credits: Si Spurrier writes; Jan Bazaldua draws; Federico Blee colors; Clayton Cowles letters; covers by Dike Ruan and Matthew Wilson

Despite series writer Si Spurrier’s smorgasbord of ideas for Legion of X, little of which comes into focus until the last issue of the first arc (likely to happen again with the conclusion of the second, issue #10), Spurrier has one simple message throughout, which may or may not help readers appreciate it more:

Love, or Liebenden (German for “Lovers”), defeats (Ever)war.

(“A Canticle for Liebenden,” a riff off the sci-fi classic A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller, Jr. is the title of issue #5; “Everwar” is what the Arakkii call the centuries of conflict with Amenth.)

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Knights of X #1-5 in Review

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Credits: Tini Howard writes; Bob Quinn draws; Erick Arciniega colors; Ariana Maher letters; stunningly gorgeous covers, the real highlight here, from Yanick Paquette and Alejandra Sanchez Rodriguez.

To whatever degree you do or don’t enjoy the foundational Claremont-and-Davis Excalibur run (1988-90), as a mash-up of various genre settings and modes, it was unusual in the mainstream comics landscape. For readers who grokked to it, Claremont and Davis were playfully subverting the superhero genre while allowing in outside genre elements and, of course, a playful but earnest exploration of sexuality—apparently too subtle for some fans to pick up on, while that apparent subtlety dazzled others with its colorful boldness. Excalibur has even inspired a fun reread podcast, Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow!, hosted by a trio of academics enthused by the iconic title’s sexually coded antics.

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