A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans
On my weekly livestream, Casual Krakoa Live, I review the week’s X-Men comics, and answer big questions about what’s going on with Marvel’s merry mutants! You can listen or watch below:
* Spoilers Follow *
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[Read more…] about Immortal X-Men #3, New Mutants #26, X-Men #12 | Comic Book Herald Live!
[cover by Kael Ngu]
Three issues, Steve Orlando and Eleonora Carlini’s new Marauders title still promises to be fun, colorful and breathlessly action-packed. Much mystery remains, though how much that mysteriousness proves relevant beyond the pages of Marauders isn’t clear. Orlando delights in the obscurest pulls and references from X-Men lore, and that’s catnip to deep Marvel heads—but could this also be distracting us from the lack of gravity to the story so far, or maybe detracting from the story’s broader potential relevance? Regardless, this series feels like it’s shaping up to be a fresh take on Krakoan era adventure, a freshness that is otherwise sorely lacking elsewhere in the franchise. So far, this is quite a good comic, though it doesn’t have the heft and epic scope of Immortal X-Men and X-Men: Red, nor does it involve and provoke like Sabretooth, and it doesn’t promise the earnestly thoughtful and long overdue character reconstruction of beloved characters that New Mutants is doing for longtime fan faves who’ve been dealt too many bad hands.
All the same, Marauders is far ahead of the other books—all of them, notably, by writers who have been with Krakoa since the beginning. I’m not going to argue that all would be better if Hickman hadn’t left, because that’s a counterfactual we’ll just never know the answer to, except that he wanted to leave, so he did. Where we are now, it’s just a telling observation that following Hickman’s departure, the Krakoan narrative has drastically loosened, is maybe in a transitional period of restructuring, and the storytellers who appear most ready to strongly define the franchise and carry it forward are all taking their first swings.
It could be that in a few months, as this newest stage of this new era—the Destiny of X—takes clearer shape, we’ll find all the X books equally fresh and exciting. This is probably magical thinking. Still, it will at least be interesting to see how the various creative teams grapple with Hickman’s legacy and the perennial dilemmas of this wonderful but ridiculously unwieldy franchise. One big question is: Exactly what kind of X-Men story do these writers want to tell? Hickman undid the franchise’s evermore embarrassing narrative disarray with the hardest reset possible without a complete reboot. A move so radical wouldn’t seem to be an option for the current writers. Chris Claremont, Grant Morrison and a few others remain clear inspirations, but those earlier creators had so much more runway, it’s hard to see how the status quo won’t soon fall back into a too-familiar pattern of hectic muddling through—now with Disney gatekeeping.
[Read more…] about Marauders #2-3 in Review! Uncertain Dynasty
After decades of struggle, the Mutant race has achieved utopia, and built an empire that spans the galaxy. Together, they have transcended scarcity, disease, and death itself. But what is the true cost of this paradise? And what becomes of it when the many secrets, compromises, and hidden agendas that built it are finally brought into the light?
Brought to life by Valerio Schiti, Stefano Caselli, David Curiel, RB Silva, and Tom Muller, 2022’s Inferno is so much more than a crossover. It’s the ending to a saga that writer Jonathan Hickman began in the pages of House of X and Powers of X, transforming the X-Men, their world, and the Mutant metaphor behind it all. While the “Krakoan era” would encompass every title and creative team on the x-line of comics it would all be in service of Hickman’s vision for the title, uniting Mutants, both good and evil, in a desperate mission to stave off extinction and build a sanctuary for the species.
“I think what happened after Grant and Frank did their thing is that you got that version of the X-Men and then there’s been this nostalgic version of the X-Men…Playing the old hits kind of stuff,” muses the writer. “And those two things have been fighting with each other, probably since that run. You don’t want to do archaeology or nostalgia tropes. My job is to do new stuff with it, and launch us into a newer age of X-Men.”
As each new corner of this sanctuary is explored, Hickman and his collaborators craft a larger picture across the line, putting the nation of Krakoa on a path that would end in its ultimate reckoning. While a number of factors influenced the event’s production, including top-down editorial decisions from Marvel Comics and input from the other creatives on the line, Inferno is the definitive end of Hickman’s vision for the X-Men, as countless threats spark back into being, threatening to burn down everything the Mutants have built. After years of storytelling, Inferno delivers what would become Hickman’s legacy for X-Men: one last trial by fire for the Mutant race.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
The dream team of writer Al Ewing and penciler Stefano Caselli, previously working together on S.W.O.R.D., continues to make X-Men: Red the Destiny of X title I’m most excited about (alongside Immortal X-Men, of course). Issue #2 is a killer follow-up, building Brand’s new “X-Men” threat and overall nefarious schemes, as well as underlining Vulcan’s explosive instability, with clues as to how this happened being revealed a little at a time in what feels like an inevitable build toward this omega timebomb going into full meltdown on Arakko—just what the bigoted and secretly anti-Arakkii extremist Abigail Brand wants, as she burrows deeper into her role as director of Orchis’ “Infrastructure and Influence.”
What hasn’t been stated outright yet in this new series is that as all her experience with interstellar threats and Machiavellian politicking, she’s bringing her own far-reaching network of mercenary contacts and alliances to the otherwise astronomically provincial Orchis. In other words, Abigail Brand is just about Orchis’ single most important asset (and anyway, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel don’t really count as assets any longer😉).
Ewing also continues a story that fans have been wanting, in some form, for many years now: not just something where Storm is the central protagonist but a narrative that delves into her character, advancing her into 21st-century superstar status among mutantkind. This is the promise of X-Men: Red at its core.
The thematic tension between (just two of) Storm’s identities (perhaps the most ambiguous ones), being queen of both Wakanda (starting with Black Panther vol. 4 #18, 2006) and, much earlier, the Morlocks (from Uncanny #170, 1983)—has clearly been one of Ewing’s central interests in Storm since he recast her as Regent of Sol in S.W.O.R.D. #6 (the “Hellfire Gala” issue). I believe that was the first time he really had, as a storyteller, to write her character, but right off, he seemed to have clear direction for her trajectory.
No doubt, Ewing is revitalizing Storm with an energy and clarity that we haven’t seen since Claremont, and who knows—but I’m hopeful he takes the evolution of Claremont’s most cherished character even further.
So, obviously Sinister, despite the shocking Immortal X-Men #1 reveal of his Moira clone farm, did not foresee Selene’s devastating attack against Krakoa for not being voted onto the Quiet Council. I guess from a certain angle, it was surprising since this petty, knee-jerk response not only guaranteed her forfeiture of all such future bids for power but possibly made her persona non grata, as well—either through non-resurrection or by being sent to the Pit after she returns to life. Then again, this ancient mother is 17,000 years old, so this whole Krakoan era will likely prove less than a blip in her lifespan. Still, she was getting a lot of love from fans lately, and while maybe we mayflies don’t rate much to her, you would think she might’ve enjoyed a brief period of adoration from young mutant nationalists. Of course, when framed that way, she still might!
After all, fervent nationalists have an astonishing capacity for the sort of glaring cognitive dissonance that induces debilitating migraines and panic attacks among rational beings. Still, what did Selene hope to gain from the Coven Akkaba? Tasty life-energy treats to eat? Aren’t there much more powerful magic wielders she could’ve allied with to continue proving her point against Krakoa? (Ah, well, she probably wouldn’t appreciate the potential competition!) [Read more…] about Immortal X-Men #2 Review! – One Must Save the Day