Category Archives: wolverine

The Marvel 52, Part Three: The X-Men

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One of the frustrating things about the X-Men titles has always been the over-abundance of them. This is a problem with superhero comics in general. If people really like one series, they’ll certainly buy three more series with the same character. And while that’s apparently true economically, it’s something I’d stay away from in my who-cares-if-they-make-money Marvel 52. There will be no Spider-Man line, no multiple titles for Thor or Captain America just because they have movies coming out this year. That’s one of the advantages of not having to worry about things like actual sales.

The X-Men are a little different though.There’s certainly enough going on in their corner of the Marvel Universe to warrant ten titles, but even so I tried to be sparing about the number of team books, giving the bulk of my spots to solo titles and a couple of two-character team-ups.

32. X-Statix by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred

I’m ashamed to say that I missed this the first time around, but I can blame that completely on the number of other X-Men series I was buying at the time. This weird, highly critically acclaimed series got lost in the madness for me, but it’s exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for now and I’d like another shot at it.

31. Namora and Marrina by Jeff Parker and Aaron Renier

I always loved team-up books as a kid. Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One; Brave and the Bold. What I don’t think I’ve ever seen though was an ongoing series featuring the same two characters teamed up every month. I’m not counting two-person teams that were created to go together like Hawk and Dove or Cloak and Dagger. I’m talking about characters who were created independently of each other, but could share a title for thematic reasons. There’ve been plenty of mini-series like The Vision and the Scarlet Witch or Hawkeye and Mockingbird, but no ongoings and I’m not sure why. I’d love to give it a try.

Namora and Marrina seem like a really cool pairing. Both are underwater characters and outsiders to the Marvel Universe. Namora was missing for 50 or 60 years and is still reacquainting herself with current events. Marrina’s been out of action for not quite that long, but her alien nature and tragic history makes her even more remote from other Marvel characters. I’d love to see a series in which these two women rely on each other, with Namora perhaps acting as a mentor for younger Marrina. And since they’ve both been romantically involved with Sub-Mariner at some point, there’s some built-in drama already waiting to be exploited.

Jeff Parker knows Namora better than anyone else and I can think of no one else outside of Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak whom I’d rather see write the modern version of Marrina. If you’ve read The Unsinkable Walker Bean, you know that Aaron Renier’s the perfect guy for an ocean adventure series.

I may need to defend why I’m calling this an X-Men book. Namora’s related (genetically and thematically) to Namor, who’s Marvel’s “first mutant” and whose most recent series was nominally an X-title; Marrina is a member of Alpha Flight, an X-Men spin-off. Which brings me to…

30. Sasquatch and Puck by John Rozum and Jason Copland


These two characters have worked well together since Alpha Flight #1. They’re bickering opposites (Sasquatch is the educated strongman; Puck is the rough-edged acrobat) so this would be a fantastic buddy-series. John Rozum (Midnight Mass, Xombi) knows a thing or eighteen about writing banter while keeping the action moving and I need to see Jason Copland (Kill All Monsters) draw some Alpha Flight characters on a regular basis.

29. Alpha Flight by Fred Van Lente, Greg Pak, and John Byrne

Absolutely no offense intended to Dale Eaglesham, who’s doing a fine job on the current Alpha Flight, but it was John Byrne and Alpha Flight that pushed me from casual comics reader to bona fide comics nerd. His representations of those characters are definitive and I’d love to see him draw them again.

28. Kitty Pryde by Jen Wang and Kate Beaton

This replaces all the New Mutants and Young X-Men Academy Whatnot books for me. It’s a YA series about a young Kitty Pryde in her early days at Xavier’s. Because it’s for younger readers, damn the continuity and fill Xavier’s with other classmates for her to interact with. But it doesn’t have to be just high school drama. She could also go on adventures with various X-Men (preferably one-on-one) to keep things interesting.

Jen Wang (Koko Be Good) and Kate Beaton would keep this light and fun.

27. Jean Grey by G Willow Wilson and Ryan Kelly

I’m not a huge fan of Jean Grey, but I could be. She’s got a rich history and interesting powers; she just gets killed off and sidelined so much that I’ve never had a chance to grow as fond of her as I think she probably deserves. So I’d love to bring her back from the dead again (she’s still dead, right?), get her away from Scott, and see what makes her tick. Since it’s a character study, I’d just turn Wilson (Air, Mystic) loose and see where she went. And Ryan Kelly‘s incredibly grounded, yet exciting art would be perfect for it.

26. Nightcrawler by Paul Tobin and Ted Naifeh

Total, genre-crossing swashbuckler. Let Paul Tobin go nuts. Why this hasn’t happened already, I don’t know. And Ted Naifeh‘s perfect for putting a demonic-looking hero into all sorts of thrilling settings.

25. Rogue by Vera Brosgol and Chris Bachalo

Though I’m not at all current on what she’s been up to the last couple of years, Rogue’s been my favorite X-Man for a long, long time. She’s pretty angsty and melancholy, and Brosgol’s (Anya’s Ghost) good at balancing that with humor so that it doesn’t become depressing. And no one draws Rogue like Chris Bachalo.

24. Wolverine by Peter Milligan and Kody Chamberlain

Honestly, there are a few series that made my 52 just because it wouldn’t be Marvel Comics without them. I’m so over-exposed on Wolverine that it’s hard to think of an approach that would make me excited about him. I bet Milligan could though, if he was turned loose. He’s got a strange approach to comics and Wolverine can use something different. Kody‘s (Shang Chi, Sweets) got a great, loose style that’ll keep the comic interesting and exciting to look at.

23. The X-Men by Rich Koslowski and Art Adams

I always like the X-Men best when there’s a thick slather of serious melodrama over the trips into space and evil mutant fights. I’m not being sarcastic; that dark tone is right there in their charter: Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them. But it also needs to know when to have some fun and that’s where Rich Koslowski (Three Fingers, The King, BB Wolf and Three LPs) comes in. All of his work takes fun, goofy concepts (Mickey Mouse’s tell-all story about his early career at Disney, an Elvis impersonator who may not be impersonating, a jazz-age retelling of The Three Little Pigs) and throws a dark veil over them that makes you think without weighting the whole thing down. As for Art Adams…well, he’s Art Freaking Adams.

If I were really doing this, I’d have some long discussions with Rich about which characters we wanted to include, but since this is fantasy, my dream line-up would be Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Beast, and Emma Frost. With frequent appearances by Kitty, because she’s totally in love with Colossus.

I’m taking a break from this tomorrow and Thursday to focus on Westerns and cephalopods, but I’ll be back to in on Friday with Marvel Knights.

Quotes of the Week: Kelly Supersonic

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I think Marvel should open up the X-Men and encourage people to make stories like this and maybe even publish them concurrently while allowing the fans to do so with impunity; DC should do the same with the Legion of Super-Heroes. That would really open up a couple of moribund franchises with a lot of juice left to them, just not necessarily the kind of juice that gets squeezed into glasses solely at editorial meetings.
—Tom Spurgeon, talking about this Faith Erin Hicks comic.

Fraction, some of you may know, got his name as the result of a telemarketer mis-pronouncing “Fritchman.” Apparently, Phil Bond misheard “Kelly Sue DeConnick” as “Kelly Supersonic” while out at a pub with McKelvie last night. I’m now considering changing my name.
—Kelly Sue DeConnick, making it impossible for me to ever again call her by her real name.

Will people please stop buying the Chaos Comics library?
—Dirk Deppey, saying what we’re all thinking in reference to this.

Movie News: Small (and Hairy) in Japan

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Gilligan’s Island Movie

It was only a matter of time.

Fin Fang Foom in Iron Man 2

Sort of, but it’s still pretty cool. [Illustration ganked from Bleeding Cool. Hellboy, unfortunately, will not be in Iron Man 2 at all.]

Resident Evil 4 trailer

Wow, this movie’s a lot farther along than I realized. I totally have that same fan behind Milla, by the way.

War of the Gods

I wish it was a movie about Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, and Superman’s fighting the gods of all the major world pantheons. But no, it’s just an attempt to cash in on the Clash of the Titans remake. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m all for more, new Greek Mythology movies and maybe it’ll be really good.

Superman Plot

David Goyer’s apparently been hired to write the script for the next Superman movie, which – according to Latino Review – is being called Man of Steel and will feature Luthor and Braniac as the villains. LR also says that the script won’t go over the origin story again (thank you), but will also not be a sequel to Superman Returns.

If any of this is true, it’s pretty cool. I mean, I’m tired of Lex Luthor, but teaming him up with someone like Brainiac could be fun. I especially dig the parts where Mark Millar was always full of crap and The Daily Planet is struggling to stay afloat in the Internet Age.

Wolverine 2

The sequel is set to go into production early next year and it sounds like it has a decent chance of being a lot better than the first one. As expected, it’ll be set in Japan and have a heavy romantic element to it. If they can sell the romance and make the danger all about threatening that relationship – while avoiding the silliness and nonsense of the first movie – I can imagine its being really good.

Elsewhere on the Internets…

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What Are You Reading?

I haven’t been linking to my contributions to Robot 6’s What Are You Reading? feature. I don’t know if anyone cares about it, but for the sake of completeness I think I’ll start including it. Last weekend I talked a little about Wolverine: Prodigal Son and BPRD, Volume 1: Hollow Earth and Other Stories. These aren’t real reviews; just general impressions based on partial readings of the books. Sort of the comics version of a 100-Page Check-In.

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs

This week’s Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs was about the second volume in Checker’s reprints of the original Flash Gordon newspaper strip:

First, wow.

I said when I talked about Volume 1 of this series that Alex Raymond’s art was gorgeous and convincing. Compared to the material collected in Volume 2, it’s xkcd.

Some of that may have something to do with the manner in which it’s collected. The first couple of months of strips follow the formatting from the last part of Volume 1. Each week’s strip is split over two pages to allow each half to be printed at a huge size. Purists might not appreciate the separation, but no story is lost and – since each strip is divided across a single, double-page spread – the pacing doesn’t even really change. It’s the next best thing to something like Sunday Press’ oversized Little Nemo in Slumberland volumes, and when you figure in that Flash Gordon is almost a tenth of the Little Nemo price – it’s a change I can live with.

After the first two months, the format changes and we’re back to one page for one strip. The art’s not much smaller though and it’s obvious that there was some kind of format change to the strip itself in June 1935. What bothers me is that there’s no title on these strips in the collection. I’ve unsuccessfully tried to find a scan of a Flash Gordon strip from this period because I’m a little concerned that we’re missing the drop panels from these strips. I’ve got no way of knowing for sure, and the story still flows nicely from strip to strip without a lot of cumbersome catch-up exposition, but I guess there’s a little purist in me after all and he’s a bit nervous. Still… love the huge, detailed art. Raymond’s linework is a lot more sumptuous and delicate in this volume than the last and it’s a joy to be able to lose yourself in it.

The rest is here.

Plump Sister

I keep forgetting to plug Plump Sister, my Christmas Carol blog that I’ve only just found out is the singular version of a very different kind of website. That’s… really unfortunate. You’ll have to Google the plural to see what I’m talking about. I ain’t linking to it.

Anyway, I’m still plugging along at it and would love for more people to join the discussion. Right now we’re looking at the various depictions of Scrooge in film and literature. He’s always mean and miserly, but should he be tall and powerful or stooped and pitiful? How is Scrooge’s misery best portrayed?

We’re also looking at the Christmas setting and its relationship to Scrooge. Should Christmas in A Christmas Carol be a bleak, gloomy time to match Scrooge’s mood? Or should it be happy and joyful as a contrast to him? Hope you’ll stop by and let me know.

Alpha Flight on Free Comic Book Day?

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I missed this before, but speaking of Fred Van Lente, he teases in this chat that we’ll get to see at least one member of Alpha Flight in the Free Comic Book Day origin issue of Wolverine.

taimur: So, with the FCBD Wolverine title officially released, safe to assume Alpha Flight will be in it.
Fred Van Lente: You KNOW there will be Alpha Flight on FCBD.
Fred Van Lente: The story takes place before Incredible Hulk #181.
Fred Van Lente: In fact, it’s about how James MacDonald Hudson arranges for Wolvie to get the anti-Wendigo mission in the first place.
Fred Van Lente: But is that the only Flight reference?
Fred Van Lente: Canucks and fellow travelers will have to wait ’til May to find out…

Wolverine and the X-Men trailer

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I missed this trailer when it first came out. It still doesn’t make me exactly excited to watch the cartoon, but it also doesn’t suggest that the show will suck either.

In other words, I think it’ll be a pretty good take on the X-Men (and it seems to feature Rogue pretty prominently); I’m just tired enough of the X-Men that it’ll take a lot right now to get me pumped for them. I’m even pretty lackadaisical about Wolverine: Origin and I love Hugh Jackman in that role.

Namora meets Wolverine

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Namora and the rest of the Agents of Atlas are headed to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited for a special, digital-only (or at least digital-first) adventure. CBR has the details.

Wolverine: Agent of Atlas

The jungles of Cuba, 1958: revolutionary forces work their way to overthrowing the government, while even stranger forces are at large. The FBI has sent Jimmy Woo’s secret team of paranormals, the Agents of Atlas, to investigate. The crack team gets more than they bargained for when they cross paths with the mysterious operative known only as “Logan!” This three part series debuts with a FREE first issue—available to subscribers and non-subscribers to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!

Written by: Jeff Parker
Art by: Benton Jew
Debuts: Wednesday, December 31 (Issue #1: FREE for all!)

I’m hoping it’s eventually collected in book form ’cause it’s one I’m going to want to keep.