Jacob returns to Mutatis Mutandis

Have you ever been to Mutatis Mutandis? It's one of the greatest X-Men sites out there. It's been mentioned by an editor in the letter pages of Uncanny X-Men and it's database on character information helped get me back into the X-World back in 2003.

I was for a long time a reviewer (until the reviews became too time consuming for me), a columnist and a random jobs doer until I slowed down a bit to work on this thing (amongst other things). Well, I've returned to my neglected Column With No Name with an entry on mega event promises.

You should go check it out, and while you're there, check out the rest of the site.

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds announced

Geoff Johns 3 Legion story has been something that he's been talking about vaguely for quite a while. Since the current Action Comics Legion story was first being talked about. I had always just assumed that it would be an Action Comics story, but that assumption was destroyed yesterday when Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds was announced.

I can hear the groans from here. Why is DC having one mini-series tie-in to another? Honestly, that is just the way things are. A company has an event, there are going to be extra books that tie-in to it. This is not something unique to DC. If it was, then you would not have had Civil War: Frontline, World War Hulk: X-Men, etc. Tie-ins are not necessarily a bad thing, so long as they remain only tie-ins. It is when a tie-in becomes an essential part of the story that there is trouble.

A tie-in should be supplemental to the main st experience, Marvel has done a decent job with this. DC, not so much. In the lead up to Infinite Crisis, DC had 4 mini-series going on. ory. From myOnce Infinite Crisis started, each of the minis had one special. These specials turned out to be necessary parts to fully understand Infinite Crisis, especially the Villains United special. DC appeared to have learned their lesson with the 52 tie-in, World War 3. While this event was a tie-in, and represented in 52, you did not need to read one in order to read the other. Unfortunately, DC showed they had not learned anything with the Countdown family of titles. But that is for another entry.

Too make a long story short, (too late) there is a way to write a successful tie-in, even if it is going to be a big event on its own. From interviews that I have read with Grant Morrison about Final Crisis, and Geoff Johns about Legion of 3 Worlds, it seems that they understand how to be successful. Grant has said that you do not need to read anything else, to understand Final Crisis. Geoff has said that while there is a launching point within Final Crisis, you do not need to read it to read his Legion story, and vice versa. So long as they stick to this plan, then things should go well.

Young X-Men, a retrospective

Come along, Sherman, we're taking the Wayback Machine to learn about some history in honor of this week's launch of Young X-Men.

What, you don't get that reference? Way to make me feel old.

The "next generation of X-Men" has been (more often than not) a staple of the X-Franchise since Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod introduced the New Mutants in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 back in 1982. That team consisted of Cannonball, Mirage, Karma, Sunspot and Wolfsbane - who, along with other well-known members Magik, Cypher, Warlock and Magma - are the usual guide to the genre. If a "young team" debuts, usually it will at some point reference this group - and if the solicitations are a guide, Young X-Men will be no different.

The X-Men was launched as five teenagers learning at a school for mutants, though as produced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (no offense intended) they hardly acted like students or even teenagers, save for needing Professor X to bail them out of situations. It wasn't long before the group "graduated" and later writers used them specifically as a super-hero team. When Len Wein and Dave Cockrum relaunched the team in 1975, the new X-Men were all adults, several of them heroes in their own right. Chris Claremont's run focused on the team's interactions with one another rather than learning in the school environment.

So it was no real surprise when the second book was launched, in part carried by the mass popularity of Uncanny X-Men. But the New Mutants weren't just different faces going through the motions - the stories were more light hearted (in some cases) and the characters were likable in their own respect - not simply because they wore an X on their belts.

But through the late 80s and into the start of the 90s, the New Mutants got swept up by the grittier times, signalled by creator Rob Liefeld's introduction of Cable to the book. Before long, most of the core cast was gone (save for Cannonball and latecomer Boom Boom) and in their places were a team of the era - X-Force. With that, the younger class book was gone, though X-Force would never quite be able to shake that label.

Three years later, in 1994, the Phalanx Covenant kicked off leading directly to the launching of Generation X - the next "next generation of X-Men". This title moved the official Xavier school out of the X-Mansion to Emma Frost's Massachusetts Academy, formerly the school of her Hellions (arch-nemeses of the original New Mutants). The title took X-Men mainstays Jubilee, Banshee and the no-longer-evil Emma Frost and added a sprinkle of new characters such as Skin, M, Chamber, Synch and Husk (sister of Cannonball) as well as some others. The title never really caught on and changed its identity several times as it floundered in the X-World before being quietly put down just before Grant Morrison started his heralded New X-Men run.

With the end of Generation X, Morrison moved the proper school back to Professor Xavier's mansion and made the mutant student body substantially larger than had ever been attempted in an X-Men title (Generation X had opened the school to human students at one point). With this came an opportunity to focus on some of the students, so Nunzio DeFillipis and Christina Weir launched New Mutants under Marvel's ill-fated Tsunami line. In this new title, the students learned from the faculty of X-Men characters - focused mainly on original New Mutant Mirage. However, the book seemed to be pushed awkwardly away from its original aim (Magma and Wolfsbane were originally hinted to be important members of the cast, but never really joined) and the book was retitled after 13 issues to New X-Men: Academy X.

It was here that DeFillipis and Weir hit their stride. In an effort to take the X-Men back into the superhero realm, New X-Men split the students into squads, each advised by a member of the faculty. The title focused on two teams - the New Mutants (Wind Dancer, Wallflower, Prodigy, Elixir, Surge and Icarus) and the Hellions (Hellion, Dust, Wither, Rockslide, Mercury and Tag) with background characters filling out a part of the student body. Like New Mutants, though, this book was more into the interactions of the characters rather than fighting bad guys. But that was fine. The book had a lot of strong characters, and when the Hellions got their own mini-series, it was a great read.

During Decimation in which the X-Line was shaken up, New X-Men was pulled from DeFillipis and Weir and given to the duo of Chris Yost and Craig Kyle. As evidenced by my thoughts on X-Force, these two are hit and miss with me. They took the happiness completely out of the book, and made it a sludge through pure misery. Five members of the two main teams were written out, with three of them getting killed. Almost the entire supporting cast was killed off in a single issue. The book literally became about the characters wondering when they were going to get killed. With that in mind, you can see why X-Force is a much better device for them. To their credit, I did like their characterization of some of these kids, and they made X-23 into an enjoyable character, which is something I never would have imagined when she was a personality-lacking wild child in Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men.

After Messiah CompleX, New X-Men stopped being solicited, with no explanation as to why the book was seemingly getting the axe. Like me, many fans greatly loved the characters (they seemed to have more of a following than the Generation X kids at the time) and wanted more of them. So we get a new issue #1 with Young X-Men and a title that, according to solicitations, looks to be a child army of mutants. I'm not quite sure about that, but I'll look into that on Friday after people have had a chance to look over the book.

To me, the younger team has not really worked too well lately. It's possible - it was none with New Mutants in the 80s - but no one has really managed to recapture the magic and hit the balance between teenage interaction and superhero stories. As of late, it's been specifically one or the other, and it doesn't look like Young X-Men will change this. But of course, in four years they'll revamp the theme and try again.

Going down the Skrull memory lane

After all the build-up and the hype, Secret Invasion finally kicks off next week and the Marvel scene is ablaze with Skrull fever. The Skrulls, to me, have always been a "Let's invade and take over!" group to soundly be defeated by the heroes and be on their ways. Of course, I just recently (within the past five or so years) began reading Fantastic Four and Avengers, so I still have a ways through my Essential volume trudging before I get to some of the more classic Skrull stories. The 60s versions didn't exactly have me cowering in fear.

But I'm an X-Men fan, and one of the (mainly forgotten) stories that I hold near and dear to my heart - the story that was taking place when I first became a fan - is my favorite Skrull story to date, and it's really what I think about when I think Skrulls. The story was an effort by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee running briefly in Uncanny X-Men #273 and 274, before taking up all of 275 through 278.

The setup was classic Claremont. Back in the 160s of Uncanny, Deathbird has usurped the throne of the Shi'ar with the help of the Brood. In issue #200, Professor X had been taken aboard the Starjammer to heal his body, and was unable to return to Earth. Nothing had been done with either character since. With the to-be launched X-Men #1 approaching, I guess it was decided that Professor X needed to be back on Earth, so this quickly wrapped up both storylines in a somewhat unfulfilling manner, in the scope of the big picture. Lila Cheney teleports the X-Men to Deathbird for no real reason, they break free of her trap, beat her and the Imperial Guard up, and Lilandra's got her throne back. It took less than half an issue. But ignore that and follow the story afterwards.

At the party celebrating the victory, Psylocke gets attacked from her chambers and dragged off. Jubilee and Gambit stumble upon Professor X ordering Gladiator to rip Deathbird's wings off. When they attack, Jubilee gets caught and Gambit escapes. As the X-Men investigate, Wolverine cuts down Professor X, and is attacked by Psylocke and also taken prisoner. Now with just Storm, Banshee and Forge (with Gambit working in the shadows) the X-Men have to decide whether they can trust Deathbird and go against Lilandra, who has apparently been doing horrors to Shi'ar worlds under the control of Professor X, who may not be dead after all.

Turns out, Xavier (as well as the Starjammers) have been captured by War Skrulls, who have created a nexus that allows them to duplicate powers. The Psylocke that struck down Wolverine was a Skrull, as was the Professor X that was killed (who in turn was replaced by another Skrull). As Wolverine and Jubilee are copied, the remaining X-Men prepare to fight against their own (of course - it's a Claremont story) and the ending works out, everyone's happy and Professor X returns to Earth to wrap up the longtime Shadow King build up.

There were a lot of things I loved about this story. For one, it was the first story with an actual X-Men team since the Australian based group disbanded back in the 250s, and it was such a mish-mosh of characters (Storm, Wolverine, Banshee, Forge, Psylocke, Gambit, Jubilee), it was an interesting set of interactions between them - though they for some reason had chosen to wear matching uniforms for the first time since the late 60s.

But mainly it was just how bad-ass the Skrulls were. I had no clue what was going on until the big reveal at the end of 276, and by that point (long before, actually) I was intrigued. This group seemed like a viable threat that could in fact conquer a galaxy-spanning empire and do horrors in somebody else's name. Of course, the good guys would win - the good guys always win. But this one is a story I can repeatedly go back and read, happily, whenever I want a decent story.

And also 275 had what is still on my favorite covers list:

So while this may not be a story that goes down in many memory books, if Secret Invasion pulls off Skrulls like this one did (and as of right now, it's already made them a loooot cooler), I'll be happy. I just wish they'd drop the "I've been discovered, I have to attack like a savage! Grrrraaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!" bit.

Yeah, fat chance.

I Hate You, Too

Remember last summer when you guys weren't reading The Irredeemable Ant-Man? Well, because you didn't it got canceled after twelve issues.

I hate you for that. Still.

J.R. hates you

You should have bought The Circle and because you didn't, it looks like it's done at 5 issues.

J.R. is in mourning now. I hope you're happy.

It's time to kill it off, so to say.

You may recall my rant after the first issue of the new X-Force came out. After expressing concerns for the first issue and the premise as a whole, I finished up with the line, "[O]nly one issue’s come out thus far. I’ll keep getting it to see where it goes ..."

Turns out I was lying. Two issues into X-Force and I'm getting out.

The more I look at it, the more I think that I stuck with Kyle and Yost through New X-Men for so long because I enjoyed the characters (created by Nunzio DeFillipis and Christina Weir) and the premise. Yeah, it started off dark after M-Day - and for all sense and purpose, it should have - but surely the youth book would get lighter and happier like it used to be. Nope - instead we got death after death after death to the point where you really stopped caring anymore. In their first six issues, the writers' death count hit double digits. They didn't get through a single arc without at some point leaving a character dead/dying at the end of a cliffhanger. It was the drawing point of the book.

So now that the 'youth' aspect is gone, Kyle and Yost get to keep the 'death' part, and use less-than-appropriate characters to crank it up to 11. Three of the book's cast (thus far) of four have claws, the other has twin knives. They're good for stabbing. Stab, stab, stabby stab, stab. After two issues of stabbing and killing with a very weak plot basis (Cyclops is all for this against Emma Frost's wishes?) I've had enough. Turns out that if I don't enjoy a title enough, I will actually drop it. Hell, New Excalibur lasted four issues before I realized I wasn't going to keep paying for it.

To pull off an extreme-violence book, you need to back it up with well-done storytelling. Garth Ennis has been doing this forever with his Punisher series. Sure, there's a lot of gruesome violence, but it's a compelling read as well. X-Force lacks the latter. It's violence for violence sake - that's the premise of the title, and for me, that's rubbish - and finally I've decided to put my money where my mouth is - or more like back in my pocket and quit buying stuff I don't like.

So X-Force's spot will go to Captain Britain and MI: 13, which I am very interested in. After all, it can't be as bad as New Excalibur, right?

Spider-man Blue

I just finished reading Spider-man: Blue for the first time today. I liked it. I came in without having heard any opinions on the book, and was able to enjoy it. It goes on the list of Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale works that I like. Sure, maybe not as much as The Long Halloween, but I do like the Spider-man that Loeb portrayed in this story.

For the record, I have not read a current Spider-man book in quite some time, but this is the characterization that I think of when I think of Spider-man. To me, Peter Parker/Spider-man is a character should always be on the verge of getting what he wants, but is never able attain and hold onto what he wants. That lovable loser type of character. A happy Spider-man is not interesting to me.

I will admit that the underlying story of Spider-man being stalked and hunted down by Kraven, only to end it in a short fight was a bit contrite. This was nothing more than plot device to setup the plot of Peter/Spider-man always getting pulled away from what he wants. Sure, Peter gets Gwen at the end, but we all know how the Gwen Stacy story ends. So, him getting her at then end of this story leaves a bittersweet feeling, and ends up strengthening that he can't have what he truly wanted.