Value to whom, exactly?

I have always been a follower of the belief that something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. So while watching a video about the San Diego Comic Con, I was puzzled by an old Flash comic, graded (and therefore sealed) of course, going for $65,000. Why in the world would anyone pay that much for a comic they can't even read? Just to sell it to someone else?

I will never buy a graded comic, and will never send my out for the treatment. I just don't get it - like people who won't take Transformers out of the box.

Millar to launch Ultimate Avengers, making Ultimates as useless as it is bad

Next year, Marvel will be launching a new title - Ultimate Avengers - written by Mark Millar who is credited by many to be pretty much the co-father of the Ultimate universe, with Brian Bendis (think My Two Dads). According to Millar in a CBR interview, the new title will be six issue stories in which Nick Fury gathers heroes to fight threats to the Ultimate universe.

Now I know what you're thinking - isn't there already an Ultimate Avengers of sorts in The Ultimates? Why yes, yes there is. But don't worry about that book - it's terrible and it looks to remain terrible for the near future.

I find it...intriguing that Marvel would bring back Millar and put him on a book whose concept is so much like an existing title...when that book seems to be losing the direction that originally made it such a hit. I, for one, am excited. After all, I dropped Ultimates 3 after three issues. I would love to get Millar back to the Ultimate U.

Watchmen Movie Troubles

Here is a good article from the New York times about the legal battle between Fox and Warner Bros. over the rights Watchmen.

From the Box: The X-Cutioner's Song

After great effort (and a lot of help from the Marvel Chronology Project) I put together a reading order of my archive of X-Men back issues and got to reading, starting at the 1991 launch of the second X-Men book (now called X-Men: Legacy). Not too far in, I came upon the 12-part, 4-title crossover, the X-Cutioner's Song. I've had the trade paperback of this for a while, but it always seemed to convoluted to really get into - but as I didn't want to read only half of the story, I dusted it off and got to it.


It was a laborious read, I'll have you know. To get into, you need to have some knowledge about past X-Force/New Mutants history as well as X-Factor knowledge. The basics are thus:

• Stryfe, who leads a bunch of generic villains known as the Mutant Liberation Front, looks exactly like X-Force leader Cable when not wearing his helmet.
• Apocalypse has two (rather redundant) groups of followers: the Four Horsemen and the Dark Riders. Neither should be in action without Apocalypse, who has been MIA since a battle with the original X-Factor.
• Mr. Sinister has a thing for Scott Summers and his juicy DNA (ewwww).
• The New Mutants left the X-Mansion to become X-Force, and none of the X-Teams particularly enjoy that.
• No one has much love for Cable.
• Cyclops was forced to send his son into the future after the baby was infected (by Apocalypse) with the techno-organic virus.

Once you have that down, we can get underway. Apparently, Cable shoots Professor X at a Lila Cheney concert, the Dark Riders (not working for Mr. Sinister instead of Apocalypse) kidnap Cyclops and Jean Grey, who are then traded to Stryfe for Summers DNA, which is a ruse - the container actually unleashes the Legacy Virus. The X-Men and X-Factor go after X-Force to get Cable, jail them, go around fighting for a while, then end up on the moon when Stryfe and Cable duke it out until Cyclops detonates a time portal. Ending comes, la la la. Oh yeah, Stryfe is apparently Cyclops' son who happens to be a little bitter about what happened to him. You can understand that, right?

The story, while about four parts too long, wasn't anything terrible. It got all the teams together, tied up a couple loose plot threads (for a while) and put a lot of focus on Wolverine, Cable and Bishop - the overly popular characters in the huge muscles, huge guns era of the early 90s. Looking back, with over 15 years having passed between then and now, the story doesn't really hold up too well.

• Down the line, someone decided the son should be the good guy, so it was revealed that Cable was actually Cyclops' son, not Stryfe.
• The crossover was a prominent reason that Peter David left X-Factor. The book would continue on with sub-par storylines for years, then sink into drivel before being retooled into the even worse Mutant X.
• Shortly therafter, a character was introduced actually called the X-Cutioner (a name so ridiculous, you'd think they went back in time to the Silver Age to make it) that had absolutely nothing to do with this story. Later readers would be confused by the two.
• Apocalypse had yet another death scene, this time in front of Archangel. That would have meant something had he not been revived when someone else needed a benevolent villain to stand around and holler nonsense.
• The story's epilogue released the Legacy Virus, which was a really big deal at first with characters worrying about the quickly-spreading disease infecting "hundreds" of mutants, and killing off big names like Magik, Mastermind and...uh...Revanche. Eventually, the Legacy Virus hit the background when (I suppose) creators didn't want to kill off major characters for the hell of it and the "hundreds" turned out to mostly be Genoshan mutates. No one seemed to notice when Moira MacTaggert and Pyro held on for years with the disease when everyone else died in like five days. Eventually, the virus was done away with at the cost of Colossus.

And thus you have the legacy of the X-Cutioner's Song. If you're aching to dive in, check out the trade. Actually, I managed to find all twelve individual issues for 50 cents each in a bargain bin, some even in the original bag complete with card! How X-Citing!

Origins can be good

Back in April, .I complained about the solicitation of an X-Men: Origins one-shot starring Colossus. I felt there was simply no reason to expand a character like Colossus' origin to anything that would warrant it's own one-shot. I didn't buy the book, but reviews I read (such as this one from Paul O'Brien's X-Axis) pretty much summed up my thoughts on it: nothing unreadable, but pretty much unnecessary.

However, when I saw a solicitation for another X-Men: Origins book starring Jean Grey, I was more intrigued. Jean Grey was (as she's still dead) a character with a pretty interesting back story before she got to the X-Men. For those of you not in the know, when Jean Grey debuted in X-Men #1 back in 1963, her lone power was telekinesis. Over time, she was given telepathy and a back story was provided to explain why she had not used them the whole time: while still a child, her best friend was hit by a car. Jean telepathically connected with her as she died, which mentally scarred her. Professor X was called in to help heal the damage, and he blocked off her telepathic powers until she was ready for them.

The Origins issue is a retelling of that story with a heavier focus on what Xavier actually did, and it's excellent work. The writing works and the painted art is gorgeous. It shows that you don't have to add new events to an origin for an issue like this. Just expand on what's already been established to allow readers to get a better grip on the character.

There's another one coming out soon for Beast, so let's hope that quality too.

Happy Friday

From Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin (which you should be reading):

Some people might wonder just how the Dark Knight managed to end up with his upper body in the mouth of a mechanical sea monster whilst wearing a kilt...but I think I'll just go with it without asking questions.

New Comic Day points

This week's titles: X-Factor, X-Force, Mighty Avengers

• I finally have my compromise on X-Force. Take it for exactly what it is and don't worry about the bigger picture and it's actually not that bad.
• Larry Strohman's return on X-Factor after over 15 years since his last run has left me uninspired. Of course, I wasn't huge on him back then either.
• I couldn't tell you which of the Secret Invasion stories happened in Mighty or New Avengers. The books are once again on hold while the big story goes on.
• The majority of the opening arc of X-Force doesn't really need the team in it. Take them out and just toss in someone else hacking off Angel's wings, and you arrive at the same point. Just saying.
• Have to give it to the X-Teams to going back to basics with most of the books. Focus the entire line and reestablish things like "villains" so 3/4 of the titles aren't running around aimlessly.

Fall Out Boy comic looks to be done - thank god

Back in February, a press release came out saying that there would be a comic released based on Fall Out Boy. You know, the band. As if the world needed yet another comic book based on real life people stinking up the new comics rack (remember the old WWF and WCW comics?), it seemed that the Dabel Bros. Publishing was gung-ho about showing the band adventuring their way through comicdom (probably in an emo-tional way).

Leave it to the Simpsons to set things right with the world.

Turns out that the name Fall Out Boy has been owned for some time by those wonderful makers of the Simpsons. It also turns out that they don't think highly of a comic being released with a name they own by another publisher. So when the Simpsons lawyers called, the band backed away from the situation. The publisher is apparently still fighting to get it to go, but no one is really psyched about it anymore. They won't even be able to use the name Fall Out Boy for the cover - much like DC can't use the name Captain Marvel as a comic title (despite it being the name of one of their bigger heroes).

So everyone should be content to let this thing fade quickly and quietly from memory...until the band's drummer Andy Hurley apparently made a douche bag out of himself by giving an interview to Comic Book Resources saying that the project was never approved and sounded lame to him, even though he had apparently been all for it until the Simpsons thing started. So the publisher turns around and gets in a tizzy about that and now it looks like we really won't be getting a Fall Out Boy comic.

Believe me, my heart bleeds.