Last week’s installment was a pretty zany one-off featuring Arcade and Dr. Doom that nevertheless managed to serve a purpose in the overall 80s X-Men story–namely, the rekindling of Colossus’ and Shadowcat’s kinda-relationship, which Piotr dumped water on by hooking up with an alien chick during the Secret Wars. This week, we get the sequel to Barry Windsor-Smith’s epic LifeDeath collaboration with Claremont. The original, which appeared in Uncanny #186, dealt with the repercussions of Ororo being de-powered by a device created by the tech-wizard mutant Forge (at this time, still a new character known only for creating this weapon). Subsequent repercussions include her leaving the X-Men, returning to Africa, running afoul of the Strucker Twins (Fenris, to long-term Marvel fans, and also brand-new creations in 1985) and being gunned down by them a few issues later. [Read more…] about Old-School X-Men with Lincoln Crisler: Uncanny X-Men #198
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Suggested Reading: The History of Marvel Comics Dramatically Transforming Key Characters
This past July, Marvel announced that they’ll be launching “Avengers NOW” in the fall, another revamp of their comic book universe. More dramatically, Marvel has unveiled key details of this initiative, including the reveal of Thor becoming a woman (but not Lady Thor), Sam Wilson upgrading from Falcon to Captain America, and Iron Man donning a new suit in a series titled “Superior Iron Man.” It’s a continued, largely successful effort on Marvel’s end to inject new life into their comics since Marvel NOW!, but as you’d expect the major character transformations are met with both praise and abject hate, cheering and cries of political correctness gone wrong. Personally, I’m a big fan of new stories and Marvel taking chances with their characters. Don’t buy it? Here’s a whole bunch of suggested reading from the past where Marvel dramatically changed established heroes along with the end result: [Read more…] about Suggested Reading: The History of Marvel Comics Dramatically Transforming Key Characters
Arrow Season 3: Five Villains and How They Can Be Used!
Arrow has kicked off with two great seasons. Season 1 gave us Ollie’s origins and his experiences on the island. It recreated the “Dark Archer” as the vengeful Malcolm Meryln and actually gave him a purpose (unlike the comics). Season 2 was amazing with Manu Bennet’s Slade Wilson/Deathstroke upping the stakes for the Arrow and his team. Clearly The CW knows how to use its villains for this show. After all they’ve included Bronze Tiger, China White, The Clock King, Deadshot and many other DC favorites. Given Queen’s small roster of iconic villains, what new villains are going to challenge the Arrow this season? Here’s a list of some baddies who could give Ollie a run for his money. [Read more…] about Arrow Season 3: Five Villains and How They Can Be Used!
Wolverine vol 6 Annual #1 Review! “Wolf and Cub”
On the eve of Wolverine’s death, this annual gives a small respite to the events that are careening out of control in the final issues of WOLVERINE, leading up to the DEATH OF WOLVERINE mini series. Still tagged with the ‘1 Month To Die” at the top of the cover, the impending doom for the title character is not lost, but rather heightened and accented in a beautiful way with this stand alone story. [Read more…] about Wolverine vol 6 Annual #1 Review! “Wolf and Cub”
Savage Wolverine #22 Review! “The Great War Part Two”
We pick up this story where we left off last issue, right in the middle. A great tale about Wolverine’s time serving for the Canadian Army in World War I, we see Wolverine deal with his immortality and usefulness in killing in a very classic sense. [Read more…] about Savage Wolverine #22 Review! “The Great War Part Two”