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Marvel just announced that The Fantastic Four will be returning to Marvel’s publishing schedule. With the writing duties falling on Dan Slott who has historically done Spider-Man books quite a bit, and artist Sara Pichelli (who, I am not familiar with by name), but by the looks of it, has also done quite a bit of Spider-Man related books. Our latest podcast had a Fantastic Four theme to it, because it focused on Black Panther who made his debut in Fantastic Four. The additionally irony to this is, new books have not really been doing much for me, so I dug up my Fantastic Four collection recently, which is chalk full of holes in the collection and have been reading them and posting about them. This new book has a good writer, and by the looks of it, a solid artist on it – so I am willing to pick this up and see how this goes.
– Tawmis
Needless to say, I grew up on the Uncanny X-Men. If you don’t know that, you’ve clearly not listened to our podcast or read any of the posts I’ve made here. An interesting conversation which quickly escalated into a debate formed on Twitter (which I wasn’t a part of, because really, I can’t convey my thoughts in 140 characters, when it comes to the X-Men). So I thought I’d take to the blog to share my thoughts.
This is to say, I am clearly very invested in the X-Men. So when the first X-Men movie came out, I liked it for what it was – but was still disappointed that they were in black leather. People countered that “it had to be that way because superhero costumes wouldn’t convey well on the big screen.”
Skip a few years, and we get X2, which tries to follow God Loves, Man Kills … very, very, very loosely. But still, they’re in the leathers. X-Men 3 comes out, and it’s the worse of the bunch. Then there’s a blur of First Class, Days of Future Past, Wolverine, and probably more that were, over all, less than memorable (Logan is the exception).
It’s like when I saw the 1990 (was it?) Captain America movie. I thought the movie was great, because, really, I had nothing to compare it to. (There was a 1979 Captain America special – I don’t recall much of it… I just remember a motorcycle with his shield on the front). So when I saw the 1990 Captain America – I thought it was pretty good, because there was nothing else to say “Do you like Option A or Option B?” To me, it had Captain America in costume and… well, a very disturbing looking Red Skull (who is one of Captain America’s main foes).
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I’ve not watched wrestling since the days of Triple H, Heart Break Kid, and X-Pac made up Degeneration X. So when 
top – and have their great slogans (“Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your @$$!” for example, for you WWF – er, WWE – fans). Our hero is no different – he has his own, over the top slogan that had me chuckling.
So Marvel’s been leaking out news about this new “Fresh Take” on their comics (a fancy way of saying, they’re relaunching some books with #1 – again). One of their newest ones to be mentioned is Black Panther, which is no surprise, considering the block buster success of the movie (and Marvel was pushing Black Panther pretty hard before the movie came out; even having him get married to Storm, to probably draw in some of the X-Men fans into checking out what’s up with Storm). The writer will be Ta-Nehisi Coates and the pencils will be by Daniel Acuña.
Donny Cates will be writing, with pencils by Ryan Stegman, the newly launched Venom book. The cover looks absolutely incredible – and might be enough to at least give this book a shot (though I admit, while I’ve liked Venom; I never cared for him as his own book; I loved him as a villain or anti-hero). Marvel has tried so many things with Venom lately – the Anti-Venom thing, the Space Venom thing, and on and on. But this looks to be more like the “down to basics” version of Venom. With a (anti) hero/villain like Venom, I suspect we will see quite a few Spider-Man appearances; but I am hoping they’re able to branch beyond that and include the vast roster of other characters that exist in the Marvel Universe. I think with a book like Venom, it’d be fun to bring in some obscure villains/heroes that have run into Spider-Man (Puma? Quicksand? Swarm? I say bring them on!)
Jason Aaron returns to writing Thor Odinson (as it seems Jane Foster/Thor ends up passing away) with pencils by Mike Del Mundo. For reasons I don’t know, because I couldn’t follow Thor: God of Thunder by Jason Aaron or anything that came after that… I don’t know why Thor has a golden arm? (Maybe he thought Winter Soldier looked cool? Or Cable?) And not entirely sure why his hammer also appears to be made of gold (Midas Touch anyone?), but apparently he goes through several of them during a fight with Juggernaut. I suspect from the things I have read this is going to be a very different Thor, which means, for myself, this is going to be an easy pass. Jason Aaron is a talented writer – millions of folks love his writing – but it’s a style I am not a fan of personally (but that obviously doesn’t make him a bad writer, just to be clear). The main story will be about the artifacts of Asgard being scattered all over, and Thor has to go reclaim them.
Next on the line is The Immortal Hulk, being written by Al Weing and penciles by Joe Bennett. This takes place after the second Civil War in Marvel Comics, where Hawkeye simply put an arrow through Bruce Banner’s brain, to stop him from becoming Hulk, and killing Bruce Banner in the process. Hawkeye explained that Bruce told him to do it at some point. (Bad story telling, anyone?) Anyway – the Immortal Hulk is about Bruce Banner’s corpse arising as The Hulk (at night is what the preview says; but I imagine that’s just for the horror effect, and I doubt said Hulk is restricted to only rising at night). So now, Bruce Banner will be back as The Immortal Hulk while Jennifer Walters will be in the Avenges, simply as Hulk as I understand it. That’s not going to cause any confusion.
Another one coming up is a five issue limited series about Jamie Maddrox returning as Multiple Man – this, I guess, after coming back (or somehow surviving) his death with the Inhumans Terrigan Mist. This will be written by Matthew Rosenberg and art y Andy MacDonald. Ideally this means, we might be seeing an X-Factor book in the near future again? I can hope anyway…
Good news! Tony Stark is back to being Iron Man! Steve Rogers is back to being Captain America! Thor Odinson is back to being just Thor! What could make this better? All three of them are back in the Avengers! Yes, it’s true! As a part of the Marvel “Let’s Try To Keep Things Fresh” movement – they’ve brought the big three back together, as their original selves, and as a part of the Avengers – which will launch with a new #1 issue! But who else is in the Avengers? Let’s take a look shall we?
that stuck out – Thor seems to be back – well, not Thor – well, it is Thor – but Thor has not gone by the name Thor for … well, a very long time now. We see he has a shiny golden arm and… a shiny… golden hammer… that looks exactly like his old hammer. (Apparently Thor hit up someone from Pimp My Ride). I’ve not been reading whatever book “Thor Odinson” has been in for a very long time, since he stopped being a character I recognized; and I only ever got the first issue of Jane Foster as Thor so I am not sure what’s going on there; but from what I gather, apparently Jane Foster has (or had?) cancer – and this is somehow leading to Thor (Odinson’s) return? I don’t know. Sounds like a train wreck, still.
And we also see Iron Man and Captain America, and Tony Stark seems to be returning to the suit. So Riri Williams will be out of the suit (I am guessing) and resume her roe as Ironheart and be a part of the Champions – and apparently at sometime, Doctor Doom was also in the Iron Man suit (What the actual…?) Anyway – both Captain America and Iron Man have big “legacy” issues coming up (#600 and #700 respectively), so I am sure that’s where all the big, bangs, and whistles will happen.
I am personally glad to see that other writers will be given a chance to (ideally) shine, rather than it being the “Bendis Show” at Marvel. It’s also good to know that some of the characters Bendis created (Miles Morales and Jessica Jones) will continue to see some spotlight. With all of this going on, I suspect we will also be seeing the return of 
Marvel’s first family (team) – the Fantastic Four. There was an image floating around of the Fantastic Four, where it looks like the original four members – but they’re cut out, so you can’t see who it is. (I wish I could find it again – so for now, you’re just going to have to put up with a standard Fantastic Four image).
First, let me get it out there – Wolverine was one of my favorite, all time characters, ever when I first got into comics, which was Uncanny X-Men #121. (If you’ve got any doubt, just search the site for “Uncanny X-Men #121” and you will see I bring it up – quite a bit).
His bad boy attitude, his costume (his yellow and black is still my favorite) all made him very iconic looking – and as a result, he also got a bunch of very cool looking panels. But, despite his slice and dice attitude and appearance, what made Wolverine especially appealing is – he was more than just that. His relationship and friendship with Nightcrawler, despite their night and day differences in attitude, felt genuine and sincere. While he showed kindness to others back then, such as Storm, and Jean Grey – that friendship with Nightcrawler really stuck 
with me. Why? Because we all look for something in these characters that is a reflection of ourselves – or at least, something we can relate to. That dynamic between Nightcrawler and Wolverine, to me, was very symbolic of my own relationship with my best friend (way back in the 4th grade, who is still, to this day – eons later – my closest friend). He was tall (unlike Wolverine), but a scrapper. He stepped in once, when someone was threatening me, back in the… 7th grade? I am the far more reserved, kinder, gentler soul that you see in Nightcrawler. (And people do change; these days I am more inclined to be the scrapper, and my best friend is the more peaceful one).
I feel like things changed forever, for Wolverine in X-Men #25, when Magneto ripped the Adamantium out of Wolverine. Now, I admit, when it happened, I thought it was a very cool scene. However, the change that would come, because of it, I didn’t care for. If I could have only glimpsed the future to see what would become of Wolverine.
I am not even kidding. His entire appearance changed – drastically. He basically looked like a furry version of Beast, if Beast still had his furry look, but decided to shave everything except parts of his beard, eye brows, and made a Mohawk out of his hair, along with some big patches of fur on his arms. He suddenly developed talons on his fingertips (Sabretooth called, he wants his talons back!) and toes. It’s as if, suddenly, all those years of saying that he was going to go feral, all caught up to him at one time.
far as even pretty much losing his nose. (That’s got to be a bit of a bitch, for someone who has heightened senses and suddenly can’t smell anything).
of his traditional costume in Wolverine #110.
The X-Men would eventually spin into New X-Men, where Grant Morrison was the main writer, and Frank Quitley was the primary artist. I am not sure if the attempt was to make the X-Men more relate-able by taking them out of their “ridiculous spandex costumes” – but I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t enjoy the story, in many regards, probably because I wasn’t enjoying the art. (And this isn’t a knock against Frank Quitley – to be clear – he can draw better than I can, probably using his toes, than I can with my hands – but his artistic styles was one that I didn’t feel fit the “superhero medium” – it was, however, something that reminded me of art that you would find in the comic, Saga, which is an enjoyable comic, because that art style lends to the weird stories found in Saga). And remember the feral Beast, I mentioned? There he is, smack on the cover too. By this point, I was collecting X-Men, solely because I had from Uncanny X-Men #60 and up, without any gaps, so the completionist in me was agonizing. I did this until around Uncanny X-Men #540, where I drew the line and cut the chord.
Since then, they’ve made Wolverine a teacher, running his own school, which included a mutant Brood (remember the aliens that planted eggs inside the X-Men and tried to turn them into Brood Queens?) named Broo, an alien named Doop, Kid Gladiator (a young version of Gladiator of the Shi’ar Empire race, the 
count that Wolverine was in World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, he was a part of SHIELD, and was also a part of Department H, all before becoming an X-Men, apparently)…
climb to a rooftop, covered in this metal, where it dries and hardens, leaving him forever a several thousand pound statue on this roof (which thankfully, apparently never buckled under the strain of this weight).
First there’s Daken, deemed “Wolverine’s Son.” Now he’s different, because rather than three claws from the fist, he has two – oh, but look – one comes out of his wrist (because, that’s useful… how?) So what’s his story? Get this… In 1946 as Wolverine is living in Jasmine Falls, Japan with his pregnant wife Itsu, Romulus sends the Winter Soldier to kill Itsu. After Itsu’s death (remember when I said he had only killed Nomad – well, guess whose killing record goes even deeper – killing an innocent pregnant woman), a mysterious man cuts baby Daken from his mother’s womb leaving her body lying on the floor. Daken survives this incident due to his mutant healing factor. Hold up. Mutant abilities typically do not manifest until a mutant’s teen years; and I am to understand, that – a baby – not even completely born yet – has already developed a healing factor?
All right, let’s move on. Next we have X-23. You might think you know her from the Logan movie, but X-23 in the comics is slightly different. She’s a little older, for beginners. Now, aside from the fact that she appeared, she was we
aring a Fang costume (which, maybe I am missing a piece of her backstory, but that doesn’t make any sense, since that costume originates from the Shi’ar Imperial Guard member, Fang – who is a race of known as Lupak). Wolverine once wore the same costume, briefly long before X-23, when they were – you know, fighting the Imperial Guard and he took it from Fang, to impersonate him and get the drop on the Shi’ar – so it at least made sense. I digress (I’ve done that a lot in this long rant, haven’t I?) The story behind X-23 is that she’s a clone of Wolverine – after 22 failed attempts (due to a damaged chromosome), X-23 is successfully made, and carried to term by one of the doctors. Now she’s different because she has two claws that pop out of her first (also laced with Adamantium – they just hand that stuff out on the corner these days!) – but hold on there’s a third claw that pops out from her foot also.
Still not convinced, huh, bub? How about this? Now that you know that X-23 was the 23rd attempt at cloning Wolverine… did you know that they made a clone of X-23? A clone… of a clone. And not just one. They made something like 10 of them. One of them just happens to be named Gabrielle. And sure enough, just like X-23, she can pop claws too – oh, but she’s different than Wolverine and X-23, in that she can only pop out one claw (I guess each time they clone they lose one claw in the process – so a clone of Gabby, would logically not be able to pop any claws right?) Gabby, as she is so affectionately called will also be featured as a part of the roster of X-Men: Red (led by the previously dead/alive again too many times to count Jean Grey), along side with her sister, X-23 (because having one claw member on the team – literally – wasn’t enough, that they needed to add X-23 to the team too).
We’re not done yet. Next, he first appeared in the Ultimates line, before he too was dragged into the “main time stream” of the Marvel Universe, and became a regular member of the current X-Men: Blue team – none other than Jimmy Hudson, Jr. In this Ultimates timeline Wolverine has a son with Magda, and gives the son to James Hudson, who takes and raises him. During a car accident, James is nearly fatally killed, when his mutant healing powers – just like dear old dad – kicks in. Kitty shows up and tells him he has claws too probably – and sure enough, he pops claws, and eventually develops a metal coating (how again?) over the claws. Now, as a part of X-Men: Blue he and (Teen) Jean Grey have feelings for one another, recycling the old story and conflict of Scott Loves Jean, but Jean is torn between Scott and Logan. Yawn. Been there. Was way better the first time, thanks.
You’d think, by now, we would have reached the end, right? Now. There’s still one more “Wolverine” to go. And it’s Wolverine himself. Except. Not himself. It’s him from a alternate future. (Remember when I said the X-Men and their alternate realities?) In the mid-2000’s, in Wolverine #66-72, there was a story that featured this futurist Wolverine. Well, because Marvel didn’t have enough Wolverines in the “main time line” – sure enough, they also dragged Old Man Logan into the regular Marvel Universe, where he’s been a staple member of the Weapon X and X-Men: Gold series.
Speaking of Fabian, he’s technically the reason all of this started, so many years ago. You see, way back in the day – on a warm, summer day in 1993, X-Men #23 came out. What could possibly be significant about X-Men #23 – it’s not a #1, or even a land mark 25th, 50th, or 75th issue! Well, in this issue, Cyclops runs into Mister Sinister in Alaska, and Sinister says:
he means by that, and he brushes it off as a mistake, and that he had only meant Scott’s brother, Alex Summers (Havok). Now, in 1993, Marvel was doing a thing where they were introducing new characters in the Annuals (in the event you’re interested, the list is provided at the very end of this article). Now, Fabian was also writing the X-Force books, including X-Force Annual #2, where Adam-X was introduced. Now, Fabian has gone on record as saying, his intended plan was to make Adam the “3rd Summers Brother”…
While Fabian was indeed laying down the groundwork for this to come true (X-Force #29 and #30, Captain Marvel #2 and 3, and X-Men #39). Through those issues, we do get confirmation that Adam is not from Earth, and that he is the son of D’Ken and the rightful heir to the Shi’ar Throne; as well as Cyclop’s grandfather noting that Adam seems unusually familiar (and reminds him of his grandsons).
Fast forward to 13 years later, in 2006 – Ed Brubaker took it upon himself to – once and for all – resolve the whole “3rd Summers Brother” mystery in a way – that he, and Marvel, promised would shake the X-Men to their foundation.
Let me take a step back. Let’s talk about how Vulcan even came to be. So back in Uncanny X-Men #156 (1982), Christopher Summers & Katherine Summers (Scott/Cyclops & Alex/Havok’s parents) while they were flying. They’re abducted by the alien race, the Shi’ar. Katherine is kept as a concubine, while Christopher is thrown into the slave mines. When Christopher tries to escape, D’Ken brings Katherine and guts her with a blade, killing her in front of Corsair (Christopher Summers).
However, X-Men: Deadly Genesis also retcons that, and explains that Katherine was pregnant at the time of the abduction, and the infant was cut out and thrown into an incubator and aged to adulthood, to be used as a slave. That adult turns out to be Gabriel Summers, who manages to break free of Erik the Red, a Shi’ar agent on Earth, and is found by Moira MacTaggert. Moira takes him to Charles Xavier, who makes him the leader of a branch of the X-Men, which composes of Gabriel (under the name of Vulcan), Petra, Sway and Darwin.
It’s explained in X-Men: Genesis that Professor Xavier feels so guilty about the death of Vulcan, Sway, Petra, and Darwin – that he finds and erases any memory of those who had contact with the four. (This is because, it’s the only way to even hope to explain why no one had heard of these mutants before; making the retcon larger and larger). Not only that, it puts Charles Xavier in a bad light, that he’s so willing to alter people’s memories because of his own, selfish shame.
alive). But, what’s odd is – if X-Men: Deadly Genesis is to be believed; why wouldn’t Professor Xavier have also wiped the minds of those who knew John Proudstar, the later 
Thunderbird? Because, as luck would have it, James Proudstar (John’s younger brother) would not only take up the Thunderbird mantle, join the Hellions; he would also eventually go after, and try to initially kill Professor Xavier (blaming him for his brother’s death); he eventually backs down. So, there’s more inconsistency, if you try to accept X-Men: Deadly Genesis as cannon.
Adam was intended to be the son of D’Ken and Katherine Summers. While I’ve talked to Fabian about it, he’s never fully confirmed his intended plan to me other than “It would have shaken up the space aspect of the X-Men universe.” I suspect, especially after Captain Marvel #3 where we learn he is the son of D’Ken (and with the long blond hair; a trait not found in Shi’ar, but clearly meant to be inherited from Katherine Summers), that Adam would have taken the seat at the throne. To believe Adam’s origin is much, much easier than the train wreck that Vulcan required.
Most comic book people don’t even really know Adam-X, other than “he’s so X-TREME” and “optimizes the 90s.” The later, I can see; he is pretty over the top with the blades. I would have cut down on the blades on the shoulder and the side of the legs. But most people probably have not read a single appearance to know anything more about him, then to use him as a joke. (Yes, believe it or not, Adam-X still comes up). He did appear not too long ago in Uncanny X-Men #513 and Dark Avengers #7, but he was written so poorly, that the writers were intentionally using him to parody himself (his dialogue is way, way, way over the top and written like a “typical surfer” – which, of course, is supposed to be a reference to the 90s). On the flip side, I will give it to Yost, who took over the X-Men books after Brubaker left and wrote Emperor Vulcan, Kingbreaker and War of Kings, all of which featured Vulcan, and was, at least an interesting story (though the death of Corsair was completely uncalled for).
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