Comic Relief Podcast

So this year, I reached out to the San Diego Comic Fest folks and inquired if there was space for a table (either vendor or otherwise). There was some issues initially, but once Dennis of Southern California Comics (and now runs the SoCalComics blog) got me in touch with his good friend, Matt, who had just recently been elected into the San Diego Comic Fest as a new chairman, things began to roll in a positive direction! Matt was able to land us a fan table at San Diego Comic Fest.

It worked out beautifully, as droves of people walked by and engaged in conversation with us; landing us interview after interview after interview, with folks interested in everything from comics, kingdoms, movies, anime (and Godzilla), race car comics, other conventions, games, and included some comic book writers as well! It was so amazing how well received we were at San Diego Comic Fest, and how many people were so willing to speak with us.

Our good friend, and partner in crime, Colleen, owner of Wyng’d Lyon Creations was there – well, correction, as I write this – is there vending her incredible assortment of merchandise. Maico and I considered doing our table on Monday, when this all started, but as I said, we were so busy with so many people coming by our booth – I literally have six hours of audio to go through. We wanted to make our 25th Issue of the Comic Relief Podcast “double sized” as Marvel used to do back in the day with 25th issues, and we met and exceeded what our expectations were! So there was a few more people we were hoping to speak with on Monday, but we already have too much to work through as it is! (So if we didn’t get a chance to speak with you, contact us on the site, or Twitter, or Facebook page – all linked over on the right!) – and reach out to us, and we can schedule something for a future episode using Skype (if you’re not local, and maybe even if you are local, just might be easier!)

We met so many cool and interesting people, that, had it not been for our booth, we would have never gotten the chance to know them! For example, the wonderful ladies of the Sovereign Kingdom of Terre Neuve. They came by to talk about their kingdom and the events that they do (including activities that earn members a chance to enter the Knighthood). One of the fun things I did, during the interview they had explained how Knights will duel to earn roses to give to the maidens. So what I did was go over to Colleen’s booth (Wyng’d Lyon Creations, mentioned previously!), who had ironically just began creating and selling these flowers where the petals are made out of comic books. So I bought one for each of the fine maidens, and the Queen and presented it to them, saying, “The Lord gives the Fair Lady/Queen, a rose.” Was really fun to interact with them, they stopped by a few times to talk with us (just in general) because they were a few tables down from us. Really amazing people, and if you are interested, I highly recommend checking out their site that I linked just above, for their Kingdom.

Some other cool people we got to talk to, was Shawn Mullen and the Sci-Fi Coalition which is just starting up. They came by and sat with us during an interview. I highly recommend checking out their Facebook Group as well as checking them out on Twitter. They plan to do events on a regular basis, which includes dressing up in cosplay for specific movie releases! So if you’ve got a pirate costume (Who? Me?) and you have the urge to dress up for Pirates 5, or if you have a Harley Quinn costumes for that

next Suicide Squad movie, or whatever the case may be – check out their site, their Facebook page, and their Twitter for those schedules and see if you’re interested in becoming a part of the Sci-Fi Coalition, or at least do events with them from time to time!

It’s going to be virtually impossible to even go over everything in this blog without rambling too long (besides, there’s – as I said – 6 hours of podcasting audio to go through! So you can get the feel of everything – and all the excitement and fun when I finish doing that editing!)

But I want to thank everyone who stopped by our booth and gave us a little bit of their time, and their excitement about their hobbies and talked to us. The amount of people that came by – whether they interviewed with us, or just came by to talk, or ask us technical questions in regards to podcasting – it was a pleasure!

There is one big shout out I want to do, however. And that is to Julia & Eric Lewald, of the X-Men: Animated Series. I had reached out to them on Twitter about doing an interview with them, because both Maico and I were huge fans of the series (I own them all on DVD, and ripped them to my external USB that I take with me when I go on vacation, if that tells you anything!) And they were extremely receptive to doing the interview; and then I learned that they were going to be at San Diego Comic Fest, I knew this was going to be an incredible experience if we could do the interview there. Julia & Eric were very busy at San Diego Comic Fest, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the X-Men Animated Series (has it really been that long?!) – so I wasn’t sure, despite best efforts if they were going to have the time. But they made the time. And it is, without a doubt, my favorite interview we’ve ever done. Perhaps because I was so closely connected to what we were talking about; or just the connection of how easy everything flowed. I can not thank Eric & Julia for making this year’s event X-Tremely Memorable.

Here’s some other cool photos:

All of these, and more can be found on our Comic Relief Podcast San Diego Comic Fest 2017 album!

And a bonus – Thanks to Tammy Stevens for sending this to us! Maico made it into the news (see him sitting down just at the end of the clip!) – I was unfortunately, being blocked by the guy standing at our booth (you can see me arm, wow!) as I was speaking to the Queen of Terre Neuve. Check it out on our Facebook page! Or just click it below:

• Tawmis

 

It wasn’t too long ago, I had just wished Carrie Fisher a happy birthday on here. And today, I am mourning the loss of one of my first “crushes” ever. In Empire Strikes Back, I had always wanted to be Han Solo, to have the best friend, the ship, the looks, the humor, and to have the princess that loved him. Carrie Fisher possessed a smile that radiated sheer joy. I admit, when Return of the Jedi came out, I was obviously even more attracted to this beautiful mysterious woman, who was suddenly showing a lot more skin.

2016 has been a year of many iconic people passing. But the loss of Carrie Fisher hits a lot closer to my heart. Star Wars awakened my imagination when A New Hope came out. And I vividly remember going to see Empire Strikes Back with my sister, and then Return of the Jedi (my older sister, falling asleep during the movie, and me being embarrassed). Carrie Fisher, Mark Hammill, Harrison Ford, and the rest of the Star Wars crew were my childhood icons. They were supposed to live forever.

When the news broke that Carrie Fisher had had a massive heart attack on her flight back to Los Angeles from London, and my wife had texted me, I was literally scouring the internet for updates, hoping to see an update that she had recovered, because 2016 had already brutally taken so many away from us. There was reports from her brother, that eventually surfaced, that she was no longer in critical condition and now in stable condition, but still hospitalized. I thought to myself – or perhaps hoped – that she would escape the cold clutch that had claimed so many already.

Tragically, a few days after the news of her initial heart attack broke, she would eventually leave this world to whatever awaits beyond.

Carrie Fisher has endured so much throughout her life, including being very open about the mental illness she would eventually come to suffer from (being bipolar). She, much like the character in Star Wars that she portrayed, was a beautiful, strong woman, and very open about her mental illness. There was no shame. Nothing to hide. She was a symbol of hope for those that suffered the same mental disorder. Much like, in the Star Wars movies, she was a beacon of hope.

My childhood crush may be gone.

But there’s nothing that’s ever going to take away her shining smile from my memory, or my heart. Where ever you might be, Carrie Fisher, May the Force Be With You – Always.
– Tawmis

The Force is Strong with this One.

In a galaxy, not so far away, last year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had a record setting $248 million opening a year ago, and it seems that the Force continues to flow through the Star Wars franchise as Star Wars: Rogue One opens with a shattering $155 million opening. This would make it the second best opening in December (only behind Captain America: Civil War which earned 179.1 million and Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, which cracked in $166 million).

According to reports, no movie had even cracked $100 million for a December opening; the only one close was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opened with $84.6 million back in 2012.

The surprising factor, perhaps, of Rogue One‘s success, is that none of the “heroes” in the movie are from any of the Star Wars movies; so there is no Han Solo, no Luke Skywalker, no Lando Calrissian. While, the movie does make references to characters who appear in Star Wars: A New Hope (no spoilers here!) – this ragtag team of heroes that make up Rogue One are unique to the movie.

This gave the creative team behind Rogue One free reign to do what they wanted with these characters, and I believe that helped this movie greatly, because they weren’t confined into being boxed in, with what they wanted to do.

Rogue One gives us familiar figures (as we’ve already seen, Darth Vader), as well as familiar vehicles (like the AT-ST and the AT-AT, although it’s called the AT-ACT in Rogue One, which means there’s probably something slightly different about it).

If you’ve not yet made the time to go see Rogue One, please do so. You will not regret it.

And remember… May the Force be with You. Always.

• Tawmis

 

No, this isn’t a Retro Review about the crash movie. Rather, this is a Retro Review on Marvel’s 12 issue limited series of Team America. (I believe it was slated to go longer, but something happened that brought this series to an end by issue 12 – and, it might have been because of low sales!) So why did Marvel make a series called Team America back in 1982? Well, back in the 1980’s – Marvel was in the habit of making several comics that were based off toys; for example Rom and Micronauts. (They also did GI Joe, but to be fair, at the time GI Joe also had an insanely successful cartoon backing it up). So if you’re not familiar with Team America, let me present this video for you, before I got into my Retro Review of the comic.

It’s pretty amazing, right? I remember having one of these… I can’t recall which one, but I remember this vividly as a kid. (Of course, I didn’t have the super cool backyard with these big dirt hills, so I had to make do with what I had!) But this isn’t about my memory down that – it’s about the comics based off these toys.

Much like ROM and Micronauts, Marvel was essentially taking these toys and developing character backgrounds and stories for them. They played it smart, and had the first couple of issues introduce and kind of give you a background to each of the characters. I don’t think the toys ever had names for the different motorcyclists, they just had different colors (pretty much of the same paint job, with swapped pallets). So if I am not mistaken, Marvel had free reign to do what they needed to do to help sell these toys for Ideal Toys Corp.

Marvel also wasn’t afraid to directly tie these characters into the Marvel Universe, and not hang them out to dry as just stand alone type characters. In the very first issue of Team America, it opens with the mysterious dark rider, Marauder, getting into a facility to erase some data files. And in the very next panel, after all of that happens, we see an immediate reference to Hydra.

As a matter of fact, they very first issue, has Team America pretty much in a big battle against Hydra, by the end of the issue. So I thought it was pretty cool that Marvel was at least trying to weave these characters into the Marvel Universe. In later issues, we even get an appearance from Iron Man and Ghost Rider. (These were probably attempts to save the series from cancellation is my guess).

By the second issue, we’re introduced to two new members of Team America; Cowboy and Wrench. It’s the first time that I also noticed that Bill Mantlo was attached as one of the writers. Bill had also done ROM and Micronauts, so I wonder if he was just who they tapped to handle these “toys to comics” type comic book scripting jobs.

Bill has a pretty extensive history with Marvel Comics. Most of what he’s done, I’ve enjoyed (including ROM and Micronauts… though I had my issues with what he did during his run in Alpha Flight), there’s no denying that Bill was extremely talented. Unfortunately, if you’re not aware, while rollerblading, Bill was struck by a car, who zoomed away, and to this day, has never been identified. Bill suffered greatly, being in a coma for some time, before awakening with extensive brain damage that has left him in a home care situation. A paypal has been set up in order to accept donations to help with Bill Mantlo’s care by comic book artist Greg Pak. In this issue, something mysterious begins to happen, as a fight with some local motorcycle gangs breaks out between them and Team America, and Wrench and Cowboy show up; and oddly, despite having never met one another, they each knew their names, as if psychically connected.

The next issue is a little corny; it introduces four new villains that belong to the Mayhem Organization; with members being Master Mayhem, Mister Magic, Mister Muscle and Mister Mind. (I couldn’t make this up, if I tried). Master Mayhem looks even worse that the Captain America foe, Madcap (who, okay, I admit I liked his costume), but Master Mayhem is something else entirely. Mister Magic just looks like an 1800 Male Magician, Mister Muscle looks like your typical circus muscle man, and Mister Mind looks like a flesh colored (as in non green) version of the Hulk foe, The Leader. Their assignment is to capture or kill, The Marauder. And they almost manage to do so, except, when the Marauder is in trouble, he suddenly has the ability to control his bike independently, which helps turn the tide of battle. It eventually boils down to all of Team America showing up and help defeat Master Mayhem. One very cool thing about this issue, is at the end; they do those cool “one page, pin ups” – but within those pin ups, they have it as a Hydra file, that has some information about the character featured in the pin up. (And if you know me, I love me some Marvel Universe Handbook type stuff!)

The stories continue to get odd, when the next issue focuses on one of their members, Wolf. Essentially, there’s an arcade / amusement park, where – now follow me here – they put kids into the arcade unit itself, and use their mental capacity to “power” the arcade games. Now… I don’t know why these guys couldn’t just use electricity like everyone else; but that’s where this story goes. Wolf gets involved, and ends up in a fight, but overwhelmed, he’s beaten. He, along with the rest of the kids, are placed on a roller-coaster doomed as a one way ride, when suddenly Marauder shows up. Wolf breaks free, and like a good episode of Scooby-Doo, the evil amusement park owners are defeated and captured and turned over to the local authorities by Team America.

The next issue gets a little more normal. This one focuses on Honcho, who is pretty much the “leader” of Team America (even as his nick name indicates, funny how that works out). It hearkens back to his days, before Team America when he was a top government spy/agent. He stumbles onto something, and begins to get himself in a bit of trouble. Just when things look bad (he’s been tied up and drowning!), the Marauder shows up, and helps turn the tide of the battle.

I am not sure if it was intended, but even the art in this issue, the way Honcho and the others are drawn, also seems to hearken back to that 1950’s look.

As I had mentioned before, they began focusing on each character per issue (Wolf, then Honcho) and then the next issue focuses on R. U. Reddy. (Are you ready?) This issue has R. U. Reddy fighting off some men who try to shoot him, but end off veering off the road into some green liquid that devours them. R. U. Reddy ends up going to a small motel, where the green liquid seems to be following him. It devours the owners dog, so R. U. Reddy grabs the beautiful, female owner, Evelyn, and rides away; but the green liquid continues to grow and follow, even attempting to grab them, as if it were also alive. Reddy discovers that a man, looking for a way to deal with oil spills created the slime to devour. However, the slime devoured anything but oil. The Marauder shows up and battles the man who created the slime; and the man ends up falling and being devoured by the very slime he created. But it doesn’t end there! Reddy and Evelyn try to escape and find that they’ve been cut off by the slime. So they do one of those cool jumps that the toy is known for an land on the freeway, where Reddy carjacks a man driving a flammable truck and drives it into the slime, jumping out last minute. The slime ignites and apparently dies a burning death.

I’ll stop there, rather than doing a synopsis of all 12 issues. As you see, some of the stories were good, some were unusual, and some were just really out there. Over all, I’d give this entire series a “C.” Because it is entertaining here and there, the art is really clean (if you don’t mind just seeing motocycles zipping around), I thought they did a good job, trying to make Team America a part of the Marvel Universe, even so far as giving them all powers that links them together. I will probably read this again, every few years, because it’s not horrible; but it’s not exactly good either.

• Tawmis

Below are the other covers, in the event you were interested:

Sometimes, our minds play tricks on us. That “favorite” book, movie, and yes, even comic book, doesn’t turn out to stand the test of time when you go back, with excited, trembling hands to revisit it and take that walk down memory lane.

I’ve done my Retro Reviews for: Secret Defenders, Nomad, and even the entire New Universe line. With each of these, I had memories of fondly remembering how good most of these were; or at least, how good most of it was. For example, I remember pretty much enjoying all of Secret Defenders, but after giving it a re-read with more mature eyes, I was struggling to get through it. When I did the Nomad limited series and full series, it all started off totally great, but by the end, it did get pretty unusual, to the point it was a struggle to get through (some of that, however, I do blame on the artist who they had come aboard towards the end of the series). And New Universe… man, I remembered pretty much enjoying that whole thing, with the exception of Merc Hazard, which I didn’t recall enjoying… and that whole thing, except for DP7 and Psi-Force (but even Psi-Force good off the rails), were a definite struggle to read. I almost couldn’t make it through Justice.

So, all of that said, I am very happy to report, that when I went back and re-read The Falcon (limited series from 1983), I actually enjoyed the entire 4 issue limited series. There were some points in the story where you had to let go of reality, more so than you would for a comic book about super heroes (for example, a gang in Harlem managing to abduct the President of the United States).

The first issue is pretty standard fare; things are bad in the ghetto and there’s a white “buddy” cop who ends up partnering with Falcon throughout the series, named Sargent Tork. Amidst the increasing tensions, a new villain by the name of The Nemesis shows up, tearing down a building. After Nemesis is forced to flee, the owner of the construction site (of Kane Construction) shows up, scolding The Falcon for letting the villain go, and rants about how much money this will cost his construction company. (You can almost see where this is going, if you ever watched any episode of Scooby-Doo). Sure enough, Nemesis shows up again; this time gets defeated by The Falcon and is revealed to be none other than Kane himself, looking to collect insurance money!

It was the second issue of The Falcon that had initially captured my attention. I was already a fan of the Falcon from Captain America & The Falcon issues, from back in the day; but the second issue featured Falcon being held up by a Sentinel. A Sentinel! If you’ve listened to any of our podcasts, you probably already know what a big X-Men freak I was! So to have a Sentinel in The Falcon series! I had to know why! As it turns out, a damaged Sentinel detects that the Falcon is actually a mutant, and pursues him. There was an uproar about this (apparently), that Marvel had made it a mutant ability that allowed him to speak to Redwing, his falcon bird. This was later undone, and explained away, as the Sentinel was malfunctioning (which makes sense as well, since it was a damaged Sentinel that had put itself together). Still, I loved the story back then. It didn’t bother me one way or another whether Sam was a mutant or not. (I was also about 13 years old, so I didn’t really have a lot of strong opinions about much).

Third issue, as I said before, was where you had to suspend belief a little more than usual, and accept that a street gang in the ghetto would have rocket launchers and the like, and manage to successfully abduct the President of the United States, without the entire US Government coming down and getting involved. This issue also brings in one of my all time favorite (at the time) Spider-Man villains, Electro, who believes that Falcon is after him.

The final issue has Electro defeating Captain America, just as he’s trying to save the President; and it’s Falcon who swoops in (literally!) and saves the day, having a well written, well drawn, well executed battle against Electro, and eventually smooths things over (the best one can) with the gang that abducted the President of the United States, and sets everything straight.

All in all, this entire series is well written, well drawn, perfectly paced; and other than the one thing about the President’s abduction (and the lack of government response, really), the entire series is still as great as I remember it, and I’d have no problem repeatedly reading this. Through and through, The Falcon Limited Series (1983) delivers time and time again, in each issue. If you’ve never read it, you can probably pick up each issue very cheap; you can even purchase them through MyComicShop.com using our Affiliate ID and helping us out! I’d highly recommend giving this one a read!

• Tawmis

 

Had I waited a day, I could have included the Cable discussion in my previous post. So it looks like James Robinson (who has written Cable in the past, no pun intended) is returning to the title, along with Carlos Pacheco for the artist.

Seems the general concept of the book is right along the lines I was thinking for Bishop appearing in the upcoming ResurreXion X-Men: Blue book.

Robinson had said, “This series will be Cable on a race against time to fix time. The reason Cable must take on this quest will reveal itself as the story and mystery unfolds, but he’s doing it for the sake of the Marvel Universe, which will fall apart if he doesn’t take action. And in the course of Cable’s mission, we’ll see him in a lot of great time periods like 15th century Japan, WWI, the Stone Age, Victorian England, and on and on, all with those time periods made more crazy and sci-fi by time being fractured by the villain of our series.”

Well, I can see how this might all impact Cable (because, technically, shouldn’t he cease to exist?) – because if Cyclops (Scott Summers) is pulled out of the past from the “616” time stream, that would impact that he may never meet Madelyne Pryor. Okay, let’s just leave the time paradox stuff alone and accept “this is comics” (just like any other soap opera!)…

That said, with him time sliding, and trying to save the time line, I am hoping that Robinson brings in another time slider; this time, restored as a hero, rather than the villain he was eventually made out to be, when he tried to kill Hope Summers – none other than Bishop. Seems like it could be redundant, but I could totally see them doing the “buddy cop” thing – essentially be like Lethal Weapon (s?) – Cable, like Riggs and Bishop, like Murtaugh. It’s probably too much to hope for…

Anyway, while I’ve not traditionally been a fan of “time displaced” characters, this line up of a creative team and concept, sounds good enough that I am willing to give it a few issues to grab my attention.

• Tawmis

 

Taking a look at several of the ResurreXion titles, I thought I’d share some thoughts. I already covered X-Men: Blue and X-Men: Gold.

WEAPON X

Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Greg Land

First, let’s take a look at Weapon X. Though the book is called “Weapon X” the team that the book revolves around is not actually the team “Weapon X.” As it turns out, they’re just a band of mutants fighting the newly revamped organization called “Weapon X” which no longer seeks to use mutants, but rather sets out to exterminate them. So Old Man Logan and Sabretooth apparently pull a team together that consists of them, as well as Lady Deathstrike, Domino and Warpath. Now the main thing that concerns me is this Weapon X program going out of their way to exterminate mutants… I can’t help but feel, in order to legitimize the “threat” that Weapon X poses, some potentially unused, low level mutants may meet their demise. But the book has Sabretooth and Warpath, and the art looks pretty clean. So I will pick up the first issue and see where that takes me.

Next, we have…

ICEMAN
Writer: Sina Grace
Artist: Alessandro Vitti

CBR calls him one of Marvel’s most prominent gay characters, but I don’t think he’s more prominent than Northstar. Because Northstar coming out was a big deal. He’s also had a full on wedding to his then boyfriend. But – that’s neither here nor there. (Well, I suppose it is here).So while this series will focus on the “616” Bobby Drake, I am more than sure it’s probably going to center on the fact that the “time displaced” Bobby Drake came out as being gay in All New X-Men #40… which will have the “616” Bobby Drake probably questioning his own sexuality (since the time displaced one is supposed to be the same exact Bobby Drake from the past… Don’t worry, if you have a headache trying to understand this, you’re not alone). I can’t imagine the entire series will be spun around his sexuality (though, no doubt will be the “hook” to the book to capture the extended audience), although reading the interviews I’ve seen with Sina Grace – it does seem like this is pretty much going to be a book about Bobby discovering himself…  She did mention the fact that Bobby is an Omega Level Mutant would be explored… (to what context, I have no idea, since she made no mention of villains or anything during any of the interviews I’ve read). If it’s going to be a touchy feely book with no fights tossed in there for good measure (I mean, does Iceman even have a rogue’s gallery?), this will no doubt be a book that I personally skip.

GENERATION X

Writer: Christina Strain
Artist: Amilcar Pinna

The book will center on young mutants who don’t really fit in the reopened Xavier Institute, pretty much being led by Jubilee (is she still a vampire? With a kid strapped to her back? Or is that being tossed out the window? Or was it resolved? I don’t even know anymore, because mutant books and characters have been such a train wreck these last few many years!) So anyway, the new school is broken up into three segments: Next Generation of X-Men, which is those mutants who are being trained and fit for the role of potentially becoming X-Men; Next Generation Ambassadors, which is those mutants who are sent to speak on behalf of the mutants; and finally, the… Next Generation Of…? Well, there’s mutants who just aren’t fit for battle, and have mutant abilities that may be physically uncomfortable for humans to see… and that’s what Generation X is about. So Jubilee will be leading them, and on the team will be Quentin Quire (well, at least the writer knows how to pick out the useless mutants), Eye-Boy (who has an eye on his tongue…? That is his mutant power? Isn’t that just a deformity?), Benjamin Deeds (I don’t even know who this is?), Nature Girl (Really? Really?), Bling! (I can’t even make this up… I mean, I could, but I’d need to reduce my intelligence to near non-existent), and Nathaniel Carver (who is newly created, and the writer admits; is half Korean, because she is also half Korean, and said that she wouldn’t be doing her or Greg Pak any justice if she didn’t – and I quote – “create a hapa hero”), who has the ability to see someone’s past via touch (which is just like Longshot, and several others who have already existed). I think it’s pretty clear, this will be an easy pass for me.

JEAN GREY

Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Artist:  Victor Ibanez

My main problem with this? Even before it’s launched? How long until she gets the Phoenix Force? How long before she gets it, then “dies” and comes back a hundred times, becoming the same joke that the original Jean Grey eventually became? This Jean Grey comic will focus on the time displaced Jean Grey, who knows what happens to the original Jean Grey, and all the things she’s done. My other problem is, long before Jean Grey (the original) became the joke that she became with her dying and coming back so much; she was one of my favorite all time female characters; especially during the Hellfire Club story that eventually led to the Dark Phoenix story. And I’m afraid that the book is going to try to “recapture” that type of Jean with this young, time, displaced Jean… and I don’t know. Hopeless is even quoted as saying, “… given that Grey is preparing for the return of the Phoenix Force to Earth, other previous and storyline-futre hosts of that cosmic entity could also factor into this ongoing title…” I am just entirely too skeptical, and my dislike of these time displaced versions of the original X-Men make me even less inclined. Another worrying fact is, that Hopeless was quoted as saying, “The first thing I re-read was Brain Michael Bendis’ All New X-Men, because Teen Jean was born there.” I’m sorry. What? If these time displaced X-Men are indeed versions of the original X-Men, then Teen Jean was not born there – so was born in the X-Men book when it originally came out. That’s almost … insulting.

I don’t believe the details for the Cable series have been released yet, so that should be coming up soon…

• Tawmis

Are you looking for these issues? (Or any comics?) – Consider using our Affiliate Link to help keep the site ad free: Shop Here.

Issue #24 of The Comic Relief Podcast is finally out, entitled: Something Strange Is Going On. Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock (and this is no offense to those of you who might actually live in a cave or something!), but the Doctor Strange movie came out and it was simply remarkable. But don’t take my word for it. If you have about 48 minutes to kill, listen to Tawmis & Maico discuss the Doctor Strange movie, and then continue going down the “List of their X’s.”

Trust me, you’ll be glad that you did. And I can say that because I am not the least bit biased. Not. One. Single. Bit.

So without further adieu (look at me getting fancy with words!) here’s Issue #24:

[audio:http://comicreliefpodcast.com/podcasts/Comic%20Relief%20Podcast%20-%20Issue%20%2324%20-%20Something%20Strange%20Is%20Going%20On.mp3]

And if for whatever reason, you can’t stream the episode, or you want to download it, so you can listen to our voices over and over, you can also download the episode.

Now on iTunes!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

X-CITING NEWS

I’m torn. Literally, torn. After releasing hype about the X-Men would be “returning” to the Marvel Universe, and they teased an X-Men: Blue and X-Men: Gold team, much like the days of the 90’s when the X-Men were frequently broken up into both teams. There was a lot of mystery as to who would be on which team, and who would be the creative team behind each book.

So let’s begin with X-Men: Blue. The team will essentially consist of the “Original X-Men” – but their teen versions that were brought into the “616” Marvel Universe (or whatever the main continuity is called, since the events of the most recent Secret Wars) from the All New X-Men title several years ago.

I have hated the All New X-Men concept from the start; well, let me be more clear. I thought the idea of yanking the original X-Men into the present time to show them what they had become was an interesting idea. I thought this would have ramifications on the current X-Men. But instead, what they did was keep these teenage X-Men in the present. Time paradoxes aside (since this is supposed to be the very same X-Men in the current time line, and not an alternate reality) – the consequences of what these X-Men should dramatically impact everything the current X-Men are doing. But that wasn’t the case. So what we have now is the regular Angel, Beast, Jean, Scott and Iceman as well as the teenage versions of them running around in the same universe. Got a headache yet? I had hoped – perhaps believed that All New X-Men would be a reset for the current X-Men. That their teenage selves would see what they’ve become and suddenly the current original X-Men “reset” because of the changes that their teen versions make in the past. That would have been an interesting read. Not having both of them running around in the same universe.

Someone might ask, “Why get so bent out of shape? It’s comics!” Well, the X-Men were something I have always been passionate about (we’re talking the 4th grade, and without going into too much detail – let me tell you, that was a long time ago). So the X-Men are my passion; the way some people love race cars, some people love football teams, and all of that other stuff.

Now… all of that said… the reason I am torn is because Cullen Bunn is writing the X-Men: Blue book… and let me tell you, Cullen Bunn has never done me wrong when it comes to writing fantastic stories. He’s made me care about characters I’ve known little about (Sinestro, for example) and restored my faith in Uncanny X-Men recently, when I had felt that all hope was lost. So if there’s anyone who can make me care about these time displaced teenage mutants, it’s going to be Cullen Bunn. Art will be by Jorge Molina.

The X-Men: Gold team roster looks to be more up my alley of what I would expect to see in a X-Men book. Marc Guggenheim will be the writer on that book (and I recognize his name from Young X-Men (so there’s a weird sense of irony that he isn’t writing X-Men: Blue since the team is composed of the young versions of the original X-Men). Art will be by Ardian Syaf.

The cast of X-Men: Gold will be: Old Man Logan, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm, Kitty Pryde, and Rachel Summers (as a new name Prestige).

That is a line up that seems more in line with what I’d expect to see in an X-Men book. I was almost certain that “ResurreXion” was hailing the return of the original Wolverine to come back from his (apparent) death.

Both of these books will feature female leaders; X-Men Blue will have Jean Grey as the team leader for the first time, while X-Men Gold will feature Kitty Pryde as the leader of the X-Men.

This cast leaves in question where several other “active” X-Men will end up. Where is Emma? Where is Magik? Where is M? Could they be heading to the ResurreXion title Generation X? That’s my speculation. But there’s others that were popular in the 90’s, that are currently active and in neither book – and don’t seem like a good fit for Generation X, for example Psylocke. She’s currently pretty busy in Uncanny X-Men. And where will all of this put Sabretooth, who is also pretty busy in Uncanny X-Men?

DETAILS X-PLAINED

Both of these books will begin releasing in April 2017, and ship twice per month. (Remember when the X-Men did that a long time ago?)

X-Men Gold writer, Guggenheim, is best known for his work on The CW’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, while Syaf worked on The New 52 Batgirl series with writer Gail Simone (and if you have listened to our podcast, you know how much I loved Gail Simone & Syaf’s Batgirl, so this makes me very excited!) Guggenheim has teased that one of the first threats the X-Men: Gold will face is a team of Brotherhood of Evil Mutants that should surprise readers.

For X-Men Blue, with Professor Xavier (still?) dead, the team will be “mentored” by none other than the greatest enemy they knew – Magneto. Bunn also promises that the concept that these time displaced X-Men are potentially causing massive, damaging ripples in the time line. Bunn would not reveal who the X-Men Blue will face off; but he hinted it’s one of the best “villain duos ever.” (If I were to make a guess, given the X-Men history, I am going to say it’s Black Tom Cassidy and Juggernaut).

Now the question is – Where is Rogue? Where is Gambit?

Thoughts? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook.

• Tawmis

So, as I have said in my previous Retro Reviews; what I have been doing is going back through the lesser known books that I recall enjoying “back in the day” and see if they still hold up today, or if my young, impressionable mind was being side swiped by something. This Retro Review will center on Marvel’s Strange Tales (Volume 2) that focused on one half of the book being about Doctor Strange and the second half of the book focused on Cloak & Dagger.

So what I “remember” liking about this book is the fact that it had Doctor Strange in it and it had Cloak & Dagger. Now, I was never a fan of Doctor Strange and his solo books (even back when I had a young, impressionable mind!), but I absolutely loved him in the original Defenders run, which I was an avid fan of. And I always enjoyed the Cloak & Dagger mini series (and I think at the time this launched, they had a short lived series before this, which is why they were in this – to essentially continue their adventures, because their own solo book didn’t have the sales).

Well, apparently whatever it was that I enjoyed in this series as a kid, did not hold up. Now the first issue was pretty good; set things up nicely. As a matter of fact, the first few issues are actually pretty solid. For example, Nightmare begins tapping into Cloak through his, well, Cloak powers and causing all kinds of issues. But it didn’t last long; by the 5th issue, Cloak & Dagger were fighting a new villain by the name of the Rodent; who was essentially a humanoid rodent… and where things should have gotten better, got even worse in the Doctor Strange story line. So over in the Doctor Strange side, he comes into contact (for lack of a better word) spirit forms of the New Defenders who sacrificed themselves (Valkyrie, Manslaughter, Andromeda, and Interloper) – but these characters are written so horribly out of character, it’s literally inexcusable. And as someone who enjoyed The New Defenders immensely, it was difficult to even try and enjoy the story.

These horribly written version of the New Defenders continues for quite a few issues (and apparently the artist thinks Manslaughter only knows how to slink around with a knife in his mouth, as seen in these two covers). There’s also clearly a disconnect between artist for the cover and the interior artist, because Andromeda keeps being drawn with “pink” flesh on the covers; but the interior pages have her in her traditional Atlantian “blue” skin. This story concludes Bill’s run on the title.

So what happens next when a new writer comes on board to any title?

They all want to leave their mark. They want to immediately shake things up, rather than transitioning their stories smoothly. So with the new writer, the first thing they do is have Dagger leave Cloak. So this begins a series of issues where Cloak is pairing up with other characters, and doing the whole play on “Cloak & Dagger” (with the first one being “Cloak & Dazzler”). Then later, they do a “Black Cat & Dagger” when they want to bring the focus back to Dagger. While I get that they were trying to do something different, I don’t feel like it worked. These stories didn’t feel natural; they felt very, very, very forced as in “Shake things up, forsake the story, let’s see if we can get some reader reactions!”

Eventually, Cloak & Dagger are reunited, and Power Pack begins to guest star in a few issues (which is no surprise, since Power Pack was pushed pretty hard in the 90’s – appearing in Spider-Man, X-Men, X-Factor, Thor, etc). But I didn’t mind that, because I actually enjoyed the original Power Pack series (none of the ones that followed, however). I feel like the writer(s) were trying to bring the focus back to the story for Cloak & Dagger, and make them feel like teen runaways again.

The Doctor Strange story, by this point, is so far gone, that I am literally reading it with so very little interest.

By the time the series had finally come to an end with issue #19, it felt more like a chore to finish it, rather than an enjoyable read. After the 11th issue of this series, with the Doctor Strange side, it was so oddly paced, the story seemed to be bouncing around everywhere.

Whether you’re a Doctor Strange fan or a Cloak & Dagger fan, my suggestion is; unless you’re a completionist or someone who enjoys subjecting their brain to torture, I would otherwise, avoid this series. It’s nowhere near as glorious as I remember it being.

• Tawmis