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This week on Creannotators, I talked with artist Joshua Cassara about X-Force in Marvel’s Dawn of X, creating Krakoa’s Green Lagoon Tiki Bar, and what’s to come in X of Swords! On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! X-Force Is: Writer: Benjamin Percy Artist: Joshua Cassara, Colors: Dean White Covers: Dustin Weaver ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #13: X-FORCE Interview With Artist Joshua Cassara! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1986 parts 1 & 2! Topics discussed include: ’86 poll results Listener questions! More MMY shared universe heroes & villains! Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Pt. 3 — Mutant Massacre See the reading order. You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ mymarvelousyear.com Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Variant Cover A appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

The word retcon gets thrown around – sometimes wildly, sometimes recklessly – a lot in comic book circles to describe an act of rewriting a character’s history, changing seemingly fundamental details long thought to be that character’s truth. Spelled out, it’s “retro continuity,” or a sort of revisionist history that upends a status quo. For me it effectively boils down to one question: Does this irrevocably change the way we read the character’s previous appearances in comics? In the world of writer Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men, a good example is the revelations of House of X #2, in which the longtime human ally of the X-Men, Moira MacTaggert, is revealed to not only be a mutant, but a mutant with the power to reincarnate across lifelines with all memories of her previous lives in tact. While retcon has negative connotations – comics fans don’t have a sterling history with adapting to change – the Moira retcon is the centerpiece of the Krakoa era of X-Men. Call it a retcon, call it evolution, call it “I don’t care, this story rocks,” either way it’s the engine that drives this ship. And you can’t read Moira’s appearances in Uncanny X-Men now without that in mind. Another possible character retcon in the works – one that fans have been questioning and debating since House of X / Powers of X – is Mister Sinister. Until recently, I hesitated really engaging with this question, but recent issues in the Dawn of X have increasingly added layers to the question whether or not Hickman’s working through a sizable Mister Sinister retcon as well. I’ll start from the earliest suspicions about the longtime X-Villain, and work forward through the Dawn of X to the most recent clues to determine what’s really happening with Mister Sinister here. (Snack) Bar Sinister Glam Rock Sinister In the first major appearance of Mister Sinister in Powers of X #4, our boy Nathaniel Essex takes the stage like a wrecking ball. He’s fabulous, motormouthed, and practically something out of an R-Rated Loony Tunes special. On this alone, plenty of readers were asserting that this wasn’t their Mister Sinister, the cold calculating genetics villain obsessed with Summers DNA but certainly not with epic capes. This, though, is far from a retcon. Instead it’s really just the natural progression of how modern creators prefer to write the character, most notably coalesced in the Kieron Gillen written Uncanny X-Men. In “Everything is Sinister,” Gillen struck a goldmine for the character, endlessly cloned, running his own Sinister society, and yes, finally funny. Crucially, Gillen’s Sinister is gloriously ludicrous (he uses clone Sinister cows as bombs against Emma Frost) and still ultimately threatening (he guns for the power of Celestials and the Phoenix over the course of the run). This is the template everyone since has followed to some degree or another, whether in shorter appearances like Spider-Man and the X-Men or Hickman’s own trial run in the 2015 Secret Wars event. If you’re less into this version of the character than the tired Summers and Grey obsessed geneticist of the 90’s, sure, but that doesn’t make it a retcon. On the surface it just means times have changed. Sinister’s Past The revelation that Professor X and Magneto are working with a mutant Mister Sinister is where we start getting into more interesting waters. Despite his presence as an X-Men villain since the late 80’s (cemented with his role in 1989’s Inferno), Mister Sinister was not actually known as a mutant until this moment. On the surface, it’s hard to argue against this measuring up to retcon status. Not only is this version of Mister Sinister actually a mutant, but he’s been working – at least theoretically – at the behest of Charles Xavier and Magneto for years before the launch of Krakoa. The initial meeting (from Powers of X #4) occurs during the nebulous timeframe of X^0 “The X-Men: Year One,” during a period where Magneto and Professor X were allied. It’s also (apparently) the first meeting between Sinister and these two, as Sinister wonders how they know about his work in genetics. In comics publication terms, this would most likely put the meeting between 1981’s Uncanny X-Men #150 (when Magneto first begins to really develop some potential allyship with the X-Men), and I’d argue 1986’s “Mutant Massacre” (while he doesn’t appear, Sinister is first named in this event, which he orchestrates). Crucially, during this meeting the first Sinister in charge is not actually that interested in prioritizing the study of mutant DNA. He denies “mutantdom” as a cause of his. For his grandstanding, this Sinister clone is promptly shot in the head by the Sinister with the mutant gene (or at least, one of them). Xavier then mentally convinces him to prioritize mutant DNA collection, giving us the Summers / Grey obsessed Sinister we know throughout X-Men history, telling him he’ll forget this is because of Professor X and Magneto until the day the Prof wants him to remember. The who

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Lonnie Nadler about Black Stars Above, writing the X-Men event Age of X-Man, and a whole lot more. On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Part of Vault’s “Nightfall” horror line of comics, Black Stars Above is set in Canada during the late 1800s, and focuses on a young woman’s escape from her furtrapper family into the snowy, dark, and occasionally wilds of the north. It’s “cosmic horror” but on a very insular level. Black Stars Above Is: Writer: Lonnie Nadler Artist: Jenna Cha Colors: Brad Simpson Letters: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Publisher: Vault Comics ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #12: “Black Stars Above” Interview With Writer Lonnie Nadler! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1986. Punisher in a “Circle of Blood”! X-Men Mega Special! A New Guest Host! The Fantastic Frankey is our guest this week. You can find Frankey: On Youtube On Instagram On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Punisher #1 to #5 New Mutants / Uncanny X-Men / X-Factor / New Mutants Annual / Uncanny X-Men Annual / New Mutants #35 / #205 / #1 / #2 / #10 / #41 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Pt. 3 Up Next: Mutant Massacre See the reading order. You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ mymarvelousyear.com Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Pt. 2 (With Fantastic Frankey!) appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Even during the promotional build to Jonathan Hickman’s takeover as the “Head of X,” there was theorizing that Charles Xavier – if that even was our once and future Professor X, adorned in his Maker-esque Cerebro helmet at all times – and the X-Men would be taking on a more sinister, antagonistic role in the Marvel Universe. Through House of X / Powers of X, the establishing of Krakoa as a sovereign mutant nation, and now one year into the Dawn of X the question has persisted: Are the X-Men villains now? I see this thinking and question pop up with virtually every new episode of Krakin’ Krakoa and given the persistence – and the degree to which this progression clearly bothers some readers – I think it’s worth laying out the case for why readers would think this, and why I ultimately wholeheartedly disagree with the assertion. Spoilers for comics in the Dawn of X may follow! The X-Men Are Behaving Differently – This Doesn’t Reflect Charles Xavier’s Dream! One of the core tenets of X-Men since Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created the franchise in Marvel’s 60’s Silver Age is Professor Charles Xavier’s dream that mutants and humans can co-exist peacefully together. Over the years, and coalesced across media like the X-Men Animated Series and the early 2000’s Patrick Stewart helmed film franchise, the message has become the ultimate amalgamation of “Turn the other cheek,” “Love thy neighbor,” and “I have a dream.” In Uncanny X-Men #1 (then just “X-Men,” although according to Kirby, he originally wanted to call the team “The Mutants” which is a book title I’m still waiting for in the Dawn of X), Professor X states his mission as follows: “When I was young, normal people feared me, distrusted me! I realized the human race is not yet ready to accept those with Extra powers! So I decided to build a haven… a school for X-Men!” “…We learn to use our powers for the benefit of mankind… to help those who would distrust us if they knew of our existence.” “Not all [mutants] want to help mankind! Some hate the human race, and wish to destroy it! Some feel that the mutants should be the real rulers of Earth! It is our job to protect mankind from those… from the Evil Mutants!” By the time Jonathan Hickman took over the franchise in 2019, this dream had evolved heavily. Krakoa is a nation exclusively for mutantkind – all of mutantkind regardless of their past actions, some of which are particularly heinous. In regards to the new drugs that Krakoa produces, and make life for all on the planet significantly better, Professor X says in a speech to all humans in House of X #6: “In the past they would have been a gift. Something freely given by me to you because I believed it would create harmony between our two peoples. That was my dream–harmony–but you have taught me a harsh lesson: That dream was a lie.” He goes on: “We wanted to save you–and we did, many times–but in return all you did was stand by while evil men killed our children. Over 16 million of them. So there will be no gift for you have not earned it.” I can see how this progression might seem like a jump to some, and clearly it spawned plenty of theories that this isn’t really Professor X. That this feels at odds with the X-Men of the past is no doubt intentional, and meant to represent the earnest assertion that this is something new (probably the thing I personally crave most in superhero storytelling today). Keep in mind, though, It’s not like we jumped from the Silver Age idealism of Professor X to the Krakoa era and Professor X admitting his dream was the wrong dream. Throughout the 2000’s in particular, the X-Men franchise have seen the following developments (among many, many others): 16 million mutants were murdered by Casandra Nova in “E is for Extinction” 1 million mutants were suddenly depowered in the aftermath of House of M, nearly finalizing mutant extinction and ensuring no new mutants until the appearance of Hope Summers in Messiah CompleX The X-Men – led by Cyclops – formed the island nation of Utopia in an effort to create a new safe haven for all mutants Cyclops and his Phoenix Five straight up took over the world imbued with the powers of the Phoenix in Avengers vs. X-Men Many mutants were driven to literal Limbo in an effort to escape a worldwide Inhumans virus that would decimate their numbers once again So again, when we get to House of X / Powers of X, and the revelations of Moira X convincing Professor X – over time, mind you – that his beautiful dream means mutants always lose, it’s also within the context of everything that’s come before, much of it tragic, traumatic, and terrible. Even through this modern legacy of near extinction, the inability to quote-on-quote solve mutant prejudice isn’t for lack of trying. From 2012 through 2017, Marvel’s Uncanny Avengers squad sought to improve human and mutant relations by combining an Avengers unit full of superpow

This week on Creannotators, I talked with cartoonist Tom Scioli about his Marvel work on Fantastic Four: Grand Design, the recent biography, Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics, and the Stan Lee vs Jack Kirby credit debate! On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Fantastic Four: Grand Design follows in the tradition of the recent X-Men: Grand Design, and it’s focused on telling the history of this team in the Marvel Comics universe. We also talk Scioli’s new Jack Kirby gio. I read Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics in a single sitting. I think it’s a fantastic work, and will definitely be among my favorites on my 2020 best of lists. ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #11: “Fantastic Four: Grand Design / Jack Kirby: King of Comics” Interview With Tom Scioli! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

I had a unique opportunity this week to talk to Zack Quaintance, head of Comics Bookcase and writer at The Beat, about the upcoming Kickstarter launch of his comic book one-shot, NEXT DOOR. I ask Zack about what it’s like Kickstarting a comic book, how comic book journalism has paved the way for this launch, and finding time for creativity in a packed life. Next Door is a one shot from the following creative team: Writer: Zack Quaintance Artist: Pat Skott Colors: Ellie Wright Letters: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou The comic is a neo-noir crime book focused on issues of privelage and gentrification, or as Zack puts it, “A story of paranoia, privilege, and walking the dog gone wrong.” If it sounds interesting, check out the Next Door Kickstarter! ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Kickstarter Comics, Comic Book Journalism & Creativity W/ Zack Quaintance! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1986. Frog Thor! End of John Byrne on Fantastic Four! The Return of the Phoenix! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Thor #364 to #366 Avengers / Fantastic Four #263 / #286 Fantastic Four #293 to #295 Marvel Fanfare #29 Avengers #267 to #269 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Pt. 2 Up Next: Punisher #1 to #5 New Mutants / Uncanny X-Men / X-Factor / New Mutants Annual / Uncanny X-Men Annual / New Mutants #35 / #205 / #1 / #2 / #10 / #41 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ mymarvelousyear.com Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Pt. 1 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel’s Ultimate Universe continues its origins. Bendis Spider-Man! Millar X-Men! Team-Ups! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Ultimate Spider-Man #8-13 Ultimate X-Men #7-14 Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #10-16 Up Next: Ultimate Spider-Man #14-21 Ultimate X-Men #15-20 Ultimates #1-6 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com Ultimate Marvel Universe Reading Order Music for My Ultimate Year is credited to By Divine Right. Support for My Ultimate Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. If you like the show, please subscribe to My Ultimate Year and consider leaving a rating and review! The post My Ultimate Year #3: Spider-Man & X-Men Settling Into the Ultimate Universe appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer and artist Rob Guillory about Farmhand, adapting comics for TV, lessons from Chew, and plans for adapting to the future of comics! On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Farmhand is one of my favorite ongoing comics since 2018. Farmhand invites us into a world of literal human body parts farming, where nearly all ailments can seemingly be cured by miracle transplants. In this world where new limbs grow on trees, there’s all sorts of family and town drama, not to mention some excellent comedy, and a supernatural mystery at the heart of the emerging science. Farmhand Is: Writer / Artist: Rob Guillory Colors: Taylor Wells, Rico Renzi Letters: Kody Chamberlain Publisher: Image Comics ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #10: “Farmhand” Interview With Writer Rob Guillory! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1985 parts 3 & 4! Topics discussed include: ’85 poll results Listener questions! More MMY shared universe heroes & villains! Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Pt. 1 — Thor #364 to #366 Avengers / Fantastic Four #263 / #286 Fantastic Four #293 to #295 Marvel Fanfare #29 Avengers #267 to #269 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ mymarvelousyear.com Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Variant Cover B appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Ram V about These Savage Shores, Big 2 work like Justice League Dark, and a whole lot more. On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! These Savage Shores, a 5 issue series from Vault Comics, is set in mid 1700’s England, and primarily India, looking at the impact of colonialism on the region, and adding in elements of vampire and demon mythology to a gorgeously constructed work. These Savage Shores Is: Writer: Ram V Artist: Sumit Kumar Colors: Vittorio Astone Letters: Aditya Bidikar Marketing: Tara Ferguson Publisher: Vault Comics ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #9: “These Savage Shores” Interview With Writer Ram V! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1985. EVERYTHING IS SECRET WARS II! BUT WHY THO! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Secret Wars II SW II #1 to #9 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Five: 1986 Pt. 1 Up Next: Thor #364 to #366 Avengers / Fantastic Four #263 / #286 Fantastic Four #293 to #295 Marvel Fanfare #29 Avengers #267 to #269 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ mymarvelousyear.com Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 4 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Stephanie Phillips about The Butcher of Paris, and the complexities of writing both historical fiction and true crime. On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! The Butcher of Paris is based on the true story of Marcel Petoit, a serial killer active during World War II in German occupied France, masquerading as a member of the resistance and targeting Jewish citizens seeking refuge. It’s a harrowing account of one of history’s greatest monsters, and the historical context that allowed for his reign of terror. The Butcher of Paris team is: Writer: Stephanie Phillips Artist: Dean Kotz Colors: Jason Wordie Letters: Troy Peteri Cover: Dave Johnson Publisher: Dark Horse ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #8: “The Butcher of Paris” Deep Dive With Writer Stephanie Phillips! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1985. Legion & the New Mutants! Nimrod debuts! Trial of Magneto! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Uncanny X-Men #193 to #194, #198 New Mutants #26 to #28 New Mutants Special Edition / X-Men Annual / Uncanny X-Men #1 / #9 / #200 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 4 Up Next: Secret Wars II SW II #1 to #9 mymarvelousyear.comYou can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 3 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Rodney Barnes about Killadelphia, the influence of “Hamilton,” bringing horror to vampire comics, and a lot more. On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Killadelphia is an exciting new series from Image Comics. In Killadelphia, a second-generation police officer reads his recently deceased father’s journal and uncovers a Vampire conspiracy through Philadelphia that runs all the way back to 2nd President of the United States, John Adams. Alongside artist Jason Shawn Alexander and team, it’s a vampire horror story woven into the fabric of America’s founding fathers and the modern state of cities like Philly. The Killadelphia Team Is: Writer: Rodney Barnes Artist: Jason Shawn Alexander Colors: Luis NCT Letters: Marshall Dillon Editor: Greg Tumbarello Logo and Design: Brent Ashe Publisher: Image Comics ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #7: “Killadelphia” With Writer Rodney Barnes! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1985 parts 1 & 2! Topics discussed include: ’85 poll results Listener questions! More MMY shared universe heroes & villains! Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 3 — Uncanny X-Men #193 to #194, #198 New Mutants #26 to #28 New Mutants Special Edition / X-Men Annual / Uncanny X-Men #1 / #9 / #200 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ mymarvelousyear.com Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Variant Cover A appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

What happens when mutantkind runs into their erratic god? Welcome to Krakin’ Krakoa #59 where today I’ll be exploring a Milestone in Marvel mutant history, the infamous Secret Wars II and the X-Men’s relationship to the event and to the all-powerful Beyonder. Today I’ll answer: What happened when the X-Men met the Beyonder in Secret Wars II? What do these encounters have to do with the Hickman era of X-Men and the ongoing Dawn of X? Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos Secret Wars 2 In 1984, Marvel launched a 12 issue standalone event series called Secret Wars, by Jim Shooter and primarily Mike Zeck, bringing a huge collection of Marvel heroes and villains together to fight on the mysterious, alien Battleworld. While there the Marvel characters are told they’ve been brought to Battleworld by a being of immense power, the mysterious Beyonder, able to stand up to the likes of Galactus with easy, at least until Doctor Doom suckers him into losing his immense power (for a time). It’s not my focus today, but there are some notable themes for the X-Men including: Continued allied relationships with Magneto, stemming from the conclusion of Uncanny X-Men #150 X-Men vs. Avengers hostilities and feelings that the “human” heroes aren’t really doing all they can to support mutantkind Colossus being the biggest dweeb, and Wolverine and Nightcrawler taking issue with him falling head over heels for Zsaji, the mysterious healer, at the expense of “wait, isn’t she still way too young for him?” Kitty Pryde. Enter Secret Wars II, the sequel event launching later in 1985 and running through early 1986, written again by Jim Shooter this time with art by Al Milgrom. As a whole, I dislike Secret Wars II almost exactly as much as I love the original Secret Wars, which is to say Secret Wars II currently sits among my 10 least favorite comics of all time (but no, it could not unseat Marville for the worst ever). Secret Wars II is all about The Beyonder journeying to Earth to discover his purpose, and it’s a bloated monstrosity with tie-ins to nearly every Marvel book at the time to boot! The only things I really like about the main event are the time Spider-Man taught the Beyonder how to poop, the time the Beyonder built a machine so he could be his own Mom/Dad and birthed himself, and the sheer number of “Dave” panels I get to use for any occasion because the Beyonder made a friend named Dave. Amazingly, Head of X Chris Claremont takes this premise, and the mandate for tie-ins across his X-Men and New Mutants and manages to salvage some pretty good comics and interesting ideas. A few notes upfront about this era of New Mutants – since New Mutants #18 kicked off the incredible “Demon Bear” saga the book’s in the hands of Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, in what is inarguably my favorite stretch of New Mutants ever. Issue #30 is mostly focused on Sunspot and Magma’s starring turns as Russell Crowe in Gladiator, as well as Dazzler’s apparent literal addiction to fame. The Sienkiewicz Gladiator monsters are worth the price of admission alone. More interestingly, things kick off with the New Mutants, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers sent to Limbo at the Beyonder’s behest following Secret Wars #1. There are a couple really important developments here. 1) The New Mutants are becoming fully aware of Illyana’s Darkchilde persona, and the demonic part of herself she’s been keeping at bay until the Beyonder set it off. 2) We learn of the connection between Illyana and Kitty Pryde that allows Kitty to wiled the Soulsword and take on Illyana’s Eldritch armor (Eldritch being the endlessly overused way to say “magical” in Marvel sorcery). Why does this matter? Well the threat of Illyana’s Darkchild persona and the demonic threats of Limbo will come into play in a big way in 1989’s Inferno, and have been teased heavily as very relevant historical details in the Dawn of X, from everything from “Sinister Secrets” allusions to “inferno” to the return of Madylene Pryor in the pages of Hellions. If you’ve watched my X of Swords theories, you know I think there’s a strong chance elements of Inferno will play a role in the upcoming crossover. I’ll also admit at this point, I’m unclear if the Darkchilde is still a part of Illyana in 2020, or actually if she even has her soulsword. This could easily just be something I’ve overlooked, but if not, there’s more to that story. Uncanny X-Men #196 is another early, loose tie-in, setting the stage for Rachel Summers major role as a core protagonist against the Beyonder’s all powerful whims. While she technically debuts in Uncanny #141 & #142 (Days of Future Past), Rachel is relatively new to the X-Men at this point in their history, the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from what has now been revealed as an alternate past. Emotionally, Rachel’s dealing with a lot, from the traumatic life experi

Marvel’s Ultimate Universe continues its origins. Ultimate X-Men! Ultimate Elektra (and Daredevil)! Ultimate… Iron Man??? On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Ultimate Elektra #1-5 Ultimate Iron Man #1-5 Ultimate Iron Man II #1-5 Ultimate X-Men #1-6 + 1/2 Up Next: Ultimate Spider-Man #8-13 Ultimate X-Men #7-14 Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #10-16 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com Ultimate Marvel Universe Reading Order Music for My Ultimate Year is credited to By Divine Right. Support for My Ultimate Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. If you like the show, please subscribe to My Ultimate Year and consider leaving a rating and review! The post My Ultimate Year #2: Strange Origins & Ultimate X-Men! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Steve Orlando about his upcoming MMA graphic novel Kill A Man, as well as his comics career and what comes next for Wonder Woman and creator-owned work. On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Kill a Man, a new 2020 graphic novel out from Aftershock comics, is the story of an MMA fighter on the road to a championship belt when he’s outed by a competitor during a press conference – ultimately, this leads the fighter to turn to the former fighter who killed his father in the ring, a queer black man himself, for help on his road to return and conquer the sport. As Steve said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter: “We want to give the Rocky-type narrative to the LGBTQ+ community and say, loudly and unflinching, that we to deserve a hero that overcomes, goes the distance, and finds victory on their own terms.” The graphic novel will be released October 2020, and as Orlando mentions in the interview, alongside National Coming Out Day, which is October 11th. The Kill A Man Team Is: Writer: Steve Orlando Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Artist: Alec Morgan Letters: Jim Campbell Publisher: Aftershock ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #6: “Kill A Man” Deep Dive With Writer Steve Orlando appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1985. Symbiotes! Peter David! Malice! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Amazing Spider-Man #260 to #261, #266 Web of Spider-Man / Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 / #107 to #110 Fantastic Four #275 to #277, #280 to #281 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 3 Up Next: Uncanny X-Men #193 to #194, #198 New Mutants #26 to #28 New Mutants Special Edition / X-Men Annual / Uncanny X-Men #1 / #9 / #200 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 2 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with artist Sanford Greene about the Eisner nominated Bitter Root! On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Related Guides: Best Comics of 2019 Best Comics of All Time Bitter Root is one of my favorite ongoing comics of the last couple years, and a current Eisner nominated work for best continuing series of 2020. Greene, Walker, Brown and team are telling the story of a black family of monster hunters in 1920’s Harlem, quite literally fighting racism and the depths of man’s hate, while trying to carve out hope for a future. I talked with Greene about how work on Marvel’s Power Man & Iron Fist with David F. Walker led to Bitter Root, and a wide variety of topics including the complicated process of how the artist designs hate and fear manifesting in literal monsters, firstly seen via out-and-out racism, and later in the text through a more complicated legacy of generational trauma. Bitter Root Is: Writers: David F Walker, Chuck Brown Artist: Sanford Greene Colors: Sanford Greene & Rico Renzi, Sofie Dodgson Letters: Clayton Cowles Editor: Heather Antos Backmatter: John Jennings Publisher: Image Comics ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #5: “Bitter Root” Deep Dive With Artist Sanford Greene appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1985. Ragnarok n Roll! Iron Monger! Absolute Vision! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Doctor Strange #68, #70 to #73 Thor #350 to #353, #361 to #362 Avengers / Iron Man #253 to #254 / #192, 198 to #200 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 2 Up Next: Amazing Spider-Man #260 to #261, #266 Web of Spider-Man / Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 / #107 to #110 Fantastic Four #275 to #277, #280 to #281 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 1 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Darcy Van Poelgeest about Little Bird and the upcoming sequel Precious Metal. On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Related Guides: Best Comics of 2019 Best Comics of All Time Little Bird: The Fight For Elder’s Hope, one of my favorite comics of the last few years, explores a dystopic but parallel earth where the United Nations of America rules via theocracy, in a world rampant with “dark science” and genetic modifications including a resurrection gene. It’s a gory, visceral, poetic exploration of resistance against theocratic fascist regimes. Little Bird Is: Writer: Darcy Van Poelgeest Artist: Ian Bertram Colors: Matt Hollingsworth Letters: Aditya Bidikar Design: Ben Didier ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #4: “Little Bird” Deep Dive With Writer Darcy Van Poelgeest appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1984 parts 3 through 5! We were made aware that one of the MMY character names in this episode is a potentially offensive, improper term. I (Dave) apologizes for the oversight, and won’t make the same mistake again. For awareness, I’m including the following article which explains the issue: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/24/475129558/why-you-probably-shouldnt-say-eskimo?t=1592243990281 Topics discussed include: ’84 poll results Listener questions! More MMY shared universe heroes & villains! Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 1 — Doctor Strange #68, #70 to #73 Thor #350 to #353, #361 to #362 Avengers / Iron Man #253 to #254 / #192, 198 to #200 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ mymarvelousyear.com Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Variant Cover B appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Ryan O’Sullivan about Fearscape and the upcoming not-sequel A Dark Interlude! On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Related Guides: Best Comics of 2019 Best Comics of All Time As much as I enjoy the work, I find Fearscape difficult to summarize. The actual plot points – impossibly arrogant literary plagiarist uncovers the mystical realm of fiction’s greatest Fears – don’t really do the style and voice justice. From the book’s opening epigraph – “To open with an epigraph is to declare oneself an echo” – straight into a text-only 9 panel grid decrying the overuse of that structure in comics, and the over reliance on the lessons of Watchmen, Fearscape’s self-aware ability to undercut potential criticism is extraordinary. The book’s main character, Henry Henry, is an aspiring novelist, who works as a translator to make ends meet, yet early on we see even in translations, Henry can’t stop from “making improvements”. He professionally takes things that aren’t his, and attempts to make them his own, leading ultimately to a direct plagiarism (and of course, never taking accountability for his own actions – his hand is always “forced”). It’s a riveting literary saga, and my conversation with Ryan O’Sullivan was a delight. I hope you’ll enjoy listening! The Fearscape team is: Writer: Ryan O’Sullivan Illustrator: Andrea Mutti Colorist: Vladimir Popov Lettering: Andworld Design Publisher: Vault Comics ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #3: “Fearscape” Deep Dive with writer Ryan O’Sullivan! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1984. Demon Bear Saga! Magick! West Coast Avengers, I guess?! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): West Coast Avengers #1 to #4 Incredible Hulk #300 Magik / New Mutants #1 to #4 / #14, #18 to #21 Uncanny X-men 183 to #184, #186 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Four: 1985 Pt. 1 Up Next: Doctor Strange #68, #70 to #73 Thor #350 to #353, #361 to #362 Avengers / Iron Man #253 to #254 / #192, 198 to #200 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 5 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Since the launch of House of X and the Hickman era of X-Men, and certainly throughout my Krakin’ Krakoa exploration of X-Comics, the possibility of Krakoa as an alternate reality is a popular and potentially exciting theory. The ambition and vision of Professor X, Magneto, Moira MacTaggert and mutantkind is grand enough that it begs the question whether all this change is really happening in Marvel’s core Earth-616 timeline. Today I’ll answer: Is the Krakoa Era an Alternate Reality? Who are the Omega Level mutants most likely to play a role in a Hickman era alt universe? If there is an alternate reality in play, what should it look like? Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos It won’t surprise me in the slightest if an alternate reality is in the works for a future state of the X-Men line, or even a future event. Truly, I look forward to it! That said, I don’t think what we’re reading right now – House of X on into 2020’s “Dawn of X” comics – is an alternate universe. My reasoning is more practical than narrative. If this is all a part of an alternate reality, it would imply the entire Marvel Universe is also locked within this reality. After all, we have already seen the Krakoa era referenced in non X-Men comics, such as Valkyrie or Black Cat (I’m cataloging all these significant references in the Dawn of X reading order, so let me know if you see something missing!). While that would be cool as all get out, I just don’t think that level of linewide coordination is likely. Let’s take one example – Empyre. The upcoming (apparently now weekly!) Marvel event includes X-Men tie-ins, which means the series very much occur in the same universe. There’s no denying it. If Empyre occurs in the alternate reality of Krakoa era X-Men, that means two unlikely scenarios: Somehow the comics “history” of this alt reality is identical to the past of the known Earth-616 and 2) The major Universe-wide event happenings of Empyre will be in a presumably tentative reality set to be changed at a future time! I’m here for it if it happens, but that’s a whole lot of coordination that would definitely shock me! Otherwise, I can at least see the reasons people might think Hickman’s X-Men is already an alternate reality. For starters, House of X is a callback to the 2005 Marvel event House of M in which Scarlet Witch (at the urging of brother Quicksilver) created an alternate reality in which Magneto ruled the world, mutantkind was generally dominant, and Wanda tried to give literally everybody what they wanted (for example, Peter Parker is happily married to Gwen Stacy, and Uncle Ben’s doing great). Likewise, Hickman makes considerable callbacks to Wanda’s famous “No More Mutants,” which led to the Decimation of mutants, and Wanda’s newfound status as “The Great Pretender.” Similarly, there remains broad skepticism that the X-Men’s behavior is aligned with the heroes we’ve known them to be in the Marvel Universe. I don’t necessarily prescribe to this theory – as Cyclops says in House of X #1 “Did you think we were just going to take it?” – but an alternate reality would offer an easy out here, and allow for the “return” of the real X-Men by run’s end (again, I highly doubt this outcome). A mild alteration on this theme that I prefer would be the revelation that this Charles Xavier is actually one of the evil Charlie X’s from the Greg Pak written X-Treme X-Men during the Marvel NOW! Era, but again, I think it’s more likely that Moira just, in her words, broke him. So no, due to the integration of Krakoa into the broader Marvel Universe, and the fact that the skillful execution of the status quo shift simply fits in Marvel Comics, I don’t think Krakoa is an alternate reality – not a hoax, not a dream! Again, mutantkind reacting in this specific way to decades of fear, hate, and abuse does not feel to me in any way unbelievable. I do think an alternate reality is in the X-Men’s future, though, and I also think we’ve already been given many clues about how it will take shape. That’s what I’m interested in exploring for the remainder of this episode looking at Marvel’s omega level reality warpers, and a handful of other players who could get us there. Before digging into the players, it’s worth taking a step back to reconsider what it even means to be an omega level mutant. Prior to the Hickman era of X-Men, “Omega Level” was tossed around somewhat liberally, and generally just taken to mean “really really good-looking” … no, really really powerful. In House of X #1 Hickman writes an omega level mutant is “A mutant whose dominant power is deemed to register – or reach – an undefinable upper limit of that power’s specific classification.” The known list of omega level mutants is reduced to 14, and omega level mutants are defined as the greatest na

Marvel comics of 1984. Spider-Man’s Black Suit! Simonson Thor! The House of Skull! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Fantastic Four #267, #268 Amazing Spider-Man #258 Thor #345 to #349 Captain America #296 to #301 My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 5 Up Next: West Coast Avengers #1 to #4 Incredible Hulk #300 Magik / New Mutants #1 to #4 / #14, #18 to #21 Uncanny X-men 183 to #184, #186 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 4 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel’s Ultimate Universe is born! Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Team-Up, and Daredevil & Elektra! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Ultimate Spider-Man #1-7 Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #1-8 Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra #1-4 Up Next: Ultimate Elektra #1-5 Ultimate Iron Man #1-5 Ultimate Iron Man II #1-5 Ultimate X-Men #1-6 + 1/2 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com Ultimate Marvel Universe Reading Order Music for My Ultimate Year is credited to By Divine Right. Support for My Ultimate Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. If you like the show, please subscribe to My Ultimate Year and consider leaving a rating and review! The post My Ultimate Year #1: Ultimate Origins! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

X-Men Dawn of X comics are back! Marauders #10 kicks off the return of post-Comics Shutdown X-Men, and it’s another great entry by Gerry Duggan, with art from Stefano Caselli and Edgar Delgado. Today I’ll answer: What happens in Marauders #10 and what does it mean for the Dawn of X? Where’d the Marauders get a spaceship? Ok seriously, what’s the deal with Kate Pryde and resurrection?! Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos Marauders #10 focuses on Emma and the crew’s efforts to squash their many enemies, after the death at sea of Captain Kate Pryde. The proceedings begin with the Russian manufacture of mutant power dampening weapons, based on designs originally built by mutant and Krakoan ally Forge. This is a smart and much-needed focus, as it’s felt like mutant squelching tech has been available to every tom, dick and Igor throughout the Dawn of X. I particularly like that it’s Storm who confronts Forge about the misuse of his designs, since it was Storm who was hit and depowered by this tech back in Uncanny X-Men #185 and explored in Uncanny X-Men #186 (“Lifedeath” by Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor Smith). This doesn’t come into play this issue, but having coincidentally just read Marvel Fanfare #40 last night, I do also like to point out that it was actually Mystique who set Storm up to get hit by that tech way back when, and that she cosplayed as Mohawk Storm during their nightclub meeting. Emma kicks off the Hellfire Trading Company’s mission without consulting the Krakoan Quiet Council, standing them up and particularly leaving Sebastian Shaw out of the loop., It’s revealed that the prevalence of these new anti mutant weapons is the result of a kidnapped former Forge assistant, fortunately still somewhat loyal to Forge (despite working against his will for anti-mutant threats, he’s at least intentionally mitigating the weapon’s power so the effects are quite temporary). Emma, Forge, Bishop and crew infiltrate an opposing vessel to destroy the technology and free the weapon designer. With Kate out of action, Emma steps into a more active role, taking out a variety of soldiers with Pyro and his “I know that’s a Marauders tattoo on his face but it suuuuuure looks like Blackface” look at her side. One of the most memorable scenes involves Emma unbuttoning her top and confronting soldiers, before psychically ordering them to shoot each other in the kneecaps. With Emma weaponizing her sexuality, I didn’t find this as sleazy as it can often be throughout superhero comics history, and frankly it’s perfectly in character for Emma to own her sexiness as a weapon. That said, the strangest part is that she would need to? Emma’s a remarkably powerful telepath, and it seems odd to me that she would need to distract soldiers in this way. Upon completion of the successful mission, Emma mindwipes the vessel’s opposing forces, not only so that they’ll forget the last month of their anti-mutant lives, but so that they will become accepting, tolerant, empathetic people towards mutants and all oppressed minority groups, specifically calling out gay, disabled and trans peoples. My first thought here was that I love Emma resolving threats with a dose of inclusivity, but I’ll admit this is also a bit of a Pandora’s box. Why not do something like this more broadly? Why not manipulate minds to remove hate and bigotry on larger scales? Surely with all the powerful telepaths at Krakoa’s disposal there are options here. I don’t think the intention is anything other than this confined gesture, but it begs the question about psychic control as a larger part of mutantkind’s plan. The biggest development during the Marauders’ successful rescue mission is the reveal of the team’s dead ass spaceship. The other biggest development is the reveal of the team’s dead ass spaceship. Bishop – looking absolutely dapper in his new Black Panther meets Red Bishop costume – asks Christian Frost about the ship and receives some relatively mysterious answers. The ship is called “The Mercury,” which is the same name of the ship we’ve previously seen in Submarine form, piloted by Christian Frost, in Marauders #5. I take the name to allude to the shape-shifting, liquid state of the vehicle. There is of course one of the younger, newer mutants Cessily Kincaid, Mercury, but the idea that this young mutant was turned into a ship seems quite unlikely! Otherwise, my first thought was a repurposed EVA, Fantomex’s ship/mutation. Not entirely sure how this would work sans Fantomex, and given his mysterious status presumably until Giant-Size Fantomex we may just have to wait and see. Still, I quite like the idea of EVA playing a role in the Marauders work. Which brings us back to the mystery Marauders has been teasing since issue one – what’s the deal with Kate Pryde and Krakoa? Issue #10 once again confirms that Sebastian Shaw was correct in

This week on Creannotators, I talked with Tyler Boss about 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, his work on Lazarus, and the upcoming Dead Dog’s Bite! On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Related Guides: Black Mask Comics Best Comics of All Time 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank is one of my favorite comics to recommend to comics curious readers, and the current #54 on my best comics of all time list. It’s promoted as the tongue-in-cheek “torrid tale of child crime,” and one of the funniest and most impressive works of the last 5 years. The 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank team is: Writer: Matthew Rosenberg Art: Tyler Boss Flatter: Claire Dezutti Letters: Thomas Mauer Wallpaper Design: Courtney Menard Publisher: Black Mask Studios ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #2: “4 Kids Walk Into a Bank” Deep Dive with artist Tyler Boss appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1984. Deane’s List! Cap, Hulk, Rick Jones, Ben & Johnny, Alpha Flight, and Power Pack! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Captain America #289-291 Incredible Hulk #291 What If? #45 Marvel Fanfare #15 Alpha Flight #6 Power Pack #1-2 Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 4 Fantastic Four #267, #268 Amazing Spider-Man #258 Thor #345 to #349 Captain America #296 to #301 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 3 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

The Jonathan Hickman led era of Marvel’s X-Men began in July 2019, and continued through the end of March 2020 prior to all of comics – and in many ways, all of the world – being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the return of X-Men comics imminent – Marauders #10 is scheduled for publication on May 27, 2020, followed by Excalibur and New Mutants #10 on June 10, 2020 – it’s a good time to look back on what’s happened in this new era of X-Men comics so far, and to refresh our memories on where the World of X stands heading into the hopefully glorious return of comics. Today I’ll Answer: What’s the big picture in the X-Universe that you need to know heading back into X-Men comics? What’s the story so far in the ongoing comics? What are the biggest lingering threads in the Dawn of X? Potential spoilers for ALL OF THE DAWN OF X may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos THE BIG PICTURE In the aftermath of House of X / Powers of X, Marvel’s mutants (nearly all of them!) now inhabit the independent, sovereign nation of Krakoa. While there have been plenty of threats to the nation including the infiltration and assassination of Professor X, and a full-scale Brood invasion, Krakoa and mutantkind still stand tall. Behind the secret plotting of Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggart, with a leadership council that includes Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, Apocalypse & Mister Sinister among others, mutant pharmaceuticals have established global financial dominance, and mutant resurrection protocols have ensured at least the appearance of immortality for mutantkind. There are still many threats, but there’s also more reason to celebrate than mutants have seen in their lives. Crucially, while mutants have had sanctuary before – they’ve even had islands before – they’ve never been quite so tentatively unified. Traditional “hero” and “villain” archetypes have largely fallen to the wayside on Krakoa, as frequently embodied by the central role Apocalypse plays in the nation’s government and course. The same can undoubtedly be said for Mister Sinister and Exodus. Likewise, mutantkind is led from the shadows by the lifetimes of experience the artist formerly known as human ally Moira MacTaggert brings to the nation. In House of X #2 it’s revealed that Moira’s secret mutant ability is reincarnating across lifelines with all memories of previous lifelines in tact, giving her unprecedented tactical advantages preparing mutantkind for man-machine dangers that threaten to wipe them out. So yes, there are enough significant differences to Krakoa that it doesn’t feel exactly like a return to Genosha, Utopia, or Xanadu for the X-Men. The Dawn of X Titles Launch Titles X-Men New Mutants Marauders X-Force Excalibur Fallen Angels Additions: X-Men/Fantastic Four (Miniseries) Wolverine Cable Hellions Giant-Size Coming Soon: Children of the Atom X-Factor Empyre: X-Men X of Swords The Story So Far – X-Force The single biggest “death” in the Dawn of X came in X-Force #1, by Ben Percy and Joshua Cassarra, when human terrorists tortured Domino and used her mutant DNA as skin grafts to infiltrate Krakoa and assassinate Professor X. Predictably, he got better, but the impact led to the re-formation of the black ops X-Force unit of Wolverine, Domino, Quentin Quire, Beast, Jean Grey, Sage, Black Tom Cassidy, and in a clutch cameo role, Forge. The Hanging Thread: While the team has had their hands full with the rise of mutant-hating group XENO, and the expanding moral vacuum inside an increasingly arrogant Hank McCoy, the biggest lingering thread to look for when the series comes back is who’s the mysterious traitor on Krakoa? It’s been some time, but way back in X-Force #3, a shadowy hand snuffed the life out of the remaining XENO terrorist mutants had taken prisoner in the hopes of obtaining information about the organization. There’s a traitorous presence on Krakoa waiting in the wings, and it remains a huge threat to mutantkind. The Story So Far – Marauders While I was skeptical of the title at launch, Gerry Duggan and Matteo Lolli’s work on Marauders (with gorgeous series covers by Russell Dautermann and Matt Wilson), is a pitch perfect blend of high-octane pirating and Hellfire Trading Company power plays. The White Queen, Emma Frost, Black King, Sebastian Shaw, and all-new Red King, Kate Pryde, form alliances and internal competition throughout the work, all plotting to their ends, and all threatened by the rise of the former Kid Hellfire Club from the pages of Jason Aaron’s Wolverine & The X-Men, now calling themselves Hominus Verendi. The Hanging Thread: All this in-fighting escalates when Sebastian Shaw stages the assassination of Kate Pryde at sea. The mystery of Kate’s inability to use Krakoan gates has been one of Marauders greatest mysteries, and this is now coupled with the Five’s strange struggle to resur

I’m very excited to launch a new series, “Creannotators,” exploring the Image Comics comic Ice Cream Man in depth with book writer W. Maxwell Prince. On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics! Related Guides: Best Comics of 2020 (So Far) Best Image Comics Best Comics of All Time You can find the Quarantine Comix project we discuss at: https://www.quarantinecomix.com/ The Ice Cream Man team is: W. Maxwell Prince Art: Martin Morazzo Colors: Chris O’Halloran Letters: Good Old Neon Designs: Ashley Walker ——————————————————————————————————- Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com. Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com The post Creannotators #1: “Ice Cream Man” Deep Dive with writer W. Maxwell Prince appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1984 parts 1 and 2! Topics discussed include: Upcoming bad comic special episode! Listener questions and listener reading lists (swoon)! More MMY shared universe heroes & villains! Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 3 — Captain America #289-291 Incredible Hulk #291 What If? #45 Marvel Fanfare #15 Alpha Flight #6 Power Pack #1-2 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Variant Cover A appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

In between the end of Marvel’s 2019 Uncanny X-Men #22 and the start of the Jonathan Hickman led era with House of X #1, there’s an in-universe time jump forward of 6 months. Over the course of House of X and the Dawn of X we’ve seen a smattering of flashbacks filling in details from this time period, but many questions remain, the biggest of course being: Just what exactly happened during these 6 months that we haven’t seen yet? Today I’ll Answer: What’s the Age of X-Man mystery that still matters for Hickman’s X-Men? How did Professor X get from Astonishing X-Men to House of X? What’s the Legacy and relevance of the Matthew Rosenberg written Uncanny X-Men? Spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men While House of X and Powers of X do sparingly reveal essential details – examples include Emma Frost’s recruitment and Hellfire Company, Professor X’s financial portfolio and pharmaceutical reach, and that time Professor X and Magneto took a vacay to Bar Sinister – there’s still plenty we haven’t seen, and a fair amount of mystery generated by that fact. Certainly, I don’t have secret answers to the exact details, but what I can do is lay out the questions and hanging threads that exist, examine what we do know to be true, and then engage in reckless and unsound speculation about what’s to come in the world of X-Men! Age of X-Man General consensus around Age of X-Man is that it’s a stopgap event in the X-line holding down the publication calendar until Hickman, Larraz, and Silva kicked off House and Powers. Whereas Marvel comics payoff to read in sequence as part of this neverending shared universe story, most readers would pretty confidently say you don’t need to read Age of X-Man to get to House of X. I’d mostly agree, save the potential and implications of the event’s conclusion. Spilling out of the pages of the comically short-lived 2018 Uncanny X-Men relaunch, Age of X-Man is the story of an attempted mutant utopia created by Nate Grey, codename X-Man, the alternate reality Cable from the Age of Apocalypse timeline. Nate warps like 99% of mutants to this world where mutants have ascended to generally peaceful power – the Marvelous X-Men function more or less as the world’s Avengers – although inevitably it all comes undone when the X-Men’s memories start returning and its revealed that Nate’s using secret police to enforce his rule (classic, alternate Marvel reality shenanigans really). If you really want to experience this event, I’d recommend checking out the alpha and omega issues, and the Leah Williams written X-Tremists. There are a few interesting components to the world’s collapse. The first is in the semantics of Nate’s creation, as he tells the X-Men his world isn’t merely some alternate reality, but instead another plane of existence. You could argue this is just comic book mumbo-jumbo (the best side of Mumbo-Jumbo this side of Banjo-Kazooie), but it’s exactly the sort of thing that takes on new meaning in the wake of House of X #2 and the lifelines of Moira X. One question I’ve wondered is how to define the lifelines of Moira. Are they alternate realities? Are they futures that may yet come to pass? Nate’s Age of X-Man offers another alternative, “planes of existence,” perhaps more in line with Doctor Strange’s “separate realities” than the X-Men customarily deal with. The most ominous teaser from Age of X-Man comes in the Omega issue’s final pages, with Magneto and Nate coming to a secret agreement to keep the plane of existence alive, and to somehow separate Magneto into two versions (he returns to Earth-616 in time for House of X monologs, but also retains an Age of X-Man version). Nate asks Magneto “what are you willing to sacrifice?” and the scene ends: Everything is House of X. Admittedly, this could do down as one of the many forgotten teases in Marvel history, but it actually seems a bit unlikely to me. The arrival of Hickman’s X-Men aws well known within Marvel editorial for years, and writers Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler would have had at least some awareness. So the question of course, is what are they planning? Some CBH commenters have posited that this ties Nate and AoX Magneto to the rise of Krakoa. To me, though, the question of Magneto’s sacrifice would mean either the death of his dream of mutant superiority, or removing the gifts that make him special. On the surface, Krakoa kind of requires some sacrifice from Magneto – he has to play along with Charles and Moira rather than build to his Magneto War and violent mutant supremacy – but dig deeper and it’s really just the methods that have changed, not the means. In X-Men #4, we see Magneto admitting exactly this. So if Krakoa is a sacrifice for Magneto, there has to be another shoe to drop. I have two theories here: Moira’s dark scheme to blend all mutants together to rival post-human developments. Would Magneto sacrifice his “Self

Marvel comics of 1984. EVERYTHING IS SECRET WARS!!! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Secret Wars (1984-1985) #1 to #12 Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 3 Captain America #289-291 Incredible Hulk #291 What If? #45 Marvel Fanfare #15 Alpha Flight #6 Power Pack #1-2 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 2 – SECRET WARS appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

The Zeb Wells written run on New Mutants (the 2009 to 2011 volume) is definitely an underrated gem of the era, bringing the Xavier School students of the 1980’s Chris Claremont X-Men into the 2010’s as fully formed young adults, graduating to X-Men status. Through connections to X-Men history and lore, Wells and company weave in developments for Legion, Inferno, and the realm of Limbo, all concepts and characters that have plenty of resonance in the X-Men comics of 2020. Today I’ll Answer: What makes Wells run on New Mutants special How do the comics tie into the Dawn of X, especially the Wells written Hellions How the conclusion of the run ties into a wild theory I have about the threat of a demonic cosmic Hell facing mutantkind! Spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men Covering issues #1 to #11, #13 to #21, with a gamut of artists including Leonard Kirk, Paul Davidson, Diogensis Neves, and some excellent Adam Kubert covers, the 2009 New Mutants launches at the tail end of Marvel’s “Dark Reign” and the X-Men’s “Utopia” era, tying into Necrosha and Second Coming throughout the run. Importantly, New Mutants by Wells returns to the classic roster established during the Claremont, Louise Simonson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Bob McLeod, and Art Adams heyday (among many other creators!). The players are: Cannonball, Sunspot, Mirage, Karma, Wolfsbane, Magick, Warlock, and Cypher. Overall, Wells’ run is about the team growing up, finally making that true transition from New Mutants to X-Men. For my money, it’s not quite as strong as the Mike Carey X-Men run I just covered on Krakin’ Krakoa, but it’s well worth a read, especially if you’re familiar with the original volume of New Mutants and the 1989 “Inferno” event crossover. Likewise, given Wells’ continued interest in “Inferno” era threads in the Dawn of X’s Hellions #1, it’s fun to connect the dots. The run opens with an engrossing “Return of Legion” story, although even here it’s important to note seeds are building to the “Fall and Rise of the New Mutants” story arc which concludes the run. Legion re-emerges with Shan trapped in his mind with rampaging personalities who don’t want the New Mutant “fixers” to bottle them up again. The use of Legion’s “Jack Wayne’ personality – the gruff, dirtbag man’s man – and his fixation on Warlock, Doug, Rahne and Dani is a nice callback to Claremont and Sienkiewicz’s debut of Legion in New Mutants #26 to #28. Essentially, the number of personalities vying for dominance in David Haller’s psyche has now increased legionfold, a development that would continue into the pages of X-Men Legacy under both the pen of Mike Carey and Si Spurrier. Nonetheless, the seasoned New Mutants do find a way to defeat the omega level Legion – a fact Bobby is all to happy to announce to Rogue, repeatedly, in the hopes of impressing her – with Illyana Rasputin’s soulsword dealing decapitating desecration to David Haller’s mind, and the team ultimately subduing him enough to bring him back to Utopia. It’s a little detail with surprising significance in the Dawn of X, but I’ll also note that the doll in Legion’s mind that allows personalities access to the “real world” is named “Moira.” Legion’s connection to Moira X will of course resurface in the upcoming Age of X crossover as discussed in the recent Mike Carey X-Men dive, and I continue to think it will be meaningful in the Krakoa era of X-Men. Again, at this point, if I met someone named Moira in real life, I’d assume they knew what was to come in the Dawn of X, and restraining orders would assuredly follow. Although the core cast all mostly get their time in the sun (Warlock is probably the most underserved, but isn’t that always the case?), Wells centers his run on Illyana Rasputin, Sam Guthrie, and perhaps most surprisingly, a depowered via Decimation Dani Moonstar. Mirage is cool as hell throughout this run, tough as nails and chomping at the bit for action among her teammates even without her mutant abilities. Of course, her lack of mutant powers leads her to turn to Hela – yes, Thor’s Hela – to restore a version of her Valkyrie abilities, leading to a really great Siege tie-in written by Kieron Gillen where Dani is the Valkyrie of Death In addition to a good comic, New Mutants #11 has some nice X of Swords tie-in potential, with Dani wielding a magic Death-Valkyrie blade. If for no other reason, I hope Dani has a major role so I can utter the phrase “Death Valkyrie Blade” again and again. And no, Hela residing in Las Vegas’ “Club Inferno” did not escape my notice. Much like X-Men: Legacy, Wells own vision for New Mutants is notably interrupted during Second Coming, when the title simply functions as the next chapter in that (quite good) mega crossover event. Wells has an easier time making the Necrosha tie-in issues his own, employing some truly exciting interpretations of the resurrected Doug Ramsey’s powerset, such as Do

Marvel comics of 1984. Search for Reed Richards! Hobgoblin! DAZZLER THE MOVIE!!! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Fantastic Four #261 to #262 Amazing Spider-Man #248 to #251 Dazzler: The Movie Dammit Zack Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 2 SECRET WARS— Secret Wars #1 to #12 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 1 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Counting down our top 5 favorite comics of the year so far with the head of Comics Bookcase and writer at The Beat, Zack Quaintance! You can also find our full lists via the links below. Otherwise we chat about our very favorites (including plenty of overlapping picks!) on this episode. Stick around to the end to hear our picks for favorite books that aren’t quite getting the attention we think they should. Comic Book Herald’s best comics of 2020 (so far) Comics Bookcase’s best comics of 2020 (so far) Since we did have technical difficulties that lost some of our top 10 picks (the initial plan!), I’ve shared my list below, as well as Zack’s top 5. Enjoy the comics! My Top 10 10 – Money Shot — New 9 – Jimmy Olsen – Holdover 8 – Bog Bodies – New 7 – Farmhand – Holdover 6 – Immortal Hulk – Holdover 5 – Machine Gun Wizards – New 4 – X-Men – Holdover 3 – Ice Cream Man – Holdover 2 – Superman Smashes the Klan – New 1 – Dragon Hoops – New Zack’s Top 5 5) Superman Smashes the Klan 4) Immortal Hulk 3) Monstress 2) Ice Cream Man 1) Dragon Hoops The post Best Comics of 2020 (W/ Zack Quaintance) appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Mike Carey’s time writing the X-Men from 2006 to 2012 is the second longest consecutive run by any creator in Marvel history (trailing Chris Claremont), and despite a goldmine of concepts and character studies, the run is frequently overlooked in broader discussion of the best X-Men comics. Certainly, Carey’s work is referenced nowhere near as often as Grant Morrison’s time on New X-Men, or even the later run by Brian Michael Bendis. Today I’ll answer: What’s the legacy of Carey’s work on X-Men What concepts and ideas influence Hickman’s X-Men and the Dawn of X Theories and predictions for Hickman’s X-Men Spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men Following well regarded comics runs on Lucifer and Hellblazer (among plenty of other work), Carey took on adjectiveless X-Men in 2006 with issue #188. The title takes place post House of M, post Scarlet Witch’s declaration of “No More Mutants,” during the Decimation era. Carey’s entire run on X-Men and the X-Men: Legacy title it would evolve into is very much integrated into the X-Men continuity of the time, progressing from “Decimation” to “Messiah CompleX” to “Dark Reign” to Necrosha to Second Coming to Age of X to “Regenesis.” Considering only one of those event is Mike Carey’s own event, it’s an impressive feat collaborating and rolling with broader storylines and shifts in status quo for mutantkind. Carey’s work is also very much a “fan favorite” and according to current X-Men mastermind Jonathan Hickman in interview with AIPT “criminally underrated.” The underrated nature of the run can probably be attributed to operating in the shadows of larger X-Men franchises (for example, Carey’s “X-Men” launched alongside Ed Brubaker taking over “Uncanny X-Men” after his work on Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and the absence of a central, go-to story highlight that stands out individually (the “Age of X” event was likely the greatest opportunity here, and although it’s fascinating for our purposes, I wouldn’t call it a great, highly recommended read for all X-Fans). In many ways, the run’s greatest strengths – complex integration of long-running and developing X-Men continuity, deep slow builds of the characters Professor X, Rogue, Gambit, and occasionally Magneto – are what keep it a mild secret for casual comics readers. Nonetheless aside from Claremont’s 16 years with the X-verse from 1975 to 1991, and arguably the Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo era of Generation X, no X-Men comics have a greater influence on the 2019 and 2020 Dawn of X. Regular artistic contributions from Chris Bachalo, Clay Mann, Scot Eaton, and Steve Kurth should be highlighted as well. Era 1: X-Men and the Children The clearest influence, and the one I’ve already discussed the most, is right there in Carey’s first story arc with artist Chris Bachalo, with the introduction of the Children of the Vault in the “Supernovas” story. The Children of the Vault are a post-human species that spent an estimated centuries in accelerated, sealed time developing beyond advanced technologies that more or less manifest as superpowers. As I’ve identified in Krakin’ Krakoa previously, the Children are very much in line with the human threats of Moira’s 6th life, “human adaptation along technological lines.” In X-Men #5, Professor X goes so far as to say “the Children of the Vault represent the single greatest existential threat to mutantdom… and we know nothing about them. Not really.” The Children consider themselves Earth’s superior inheritors, and plan to wipe the planet clean so their enhanced kind can ascend. As written by Carey, the Children are consistently more powerful than mutantkind, and it’s generally through some sort of Deus Ex Machina and unexpected turn of events (in “Supernovas” it’s the X-Men more or less encouraging Mystique and Lady Mastermind to trick and kill a number of the Children) that the X-Men survive. With the Children emerging as early as Hickman and Leinil Francis Yu’s X-Men #1, they remain the most direct connection from Mike Carey’s X-Men to the Krakoa era. It’s a story well worth reading, and not at all difficult to see why Hickman drew inspiration from it. It’s the influences beyond what’s already been heavily utilized that strike me the most in 2020 though, such as Carey’s clear interest in Exodus, Bennett Du Paris, as this tremendously powerful mutant follower of Magneto now branching out on his own path of mutant dominance. In X-Men, Exodus and his new acolytes also have a genuinely intriguing plan, seeking to combine Cable’s knowledge of the future and the Destiny Diaries in order to predict when mutants will begin repopulating the planet. N

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1983 parts 3 and 4! Topics discussed include: ’83 poll results – A “Bad Comic” reading goal Listener questions! More MMY shared universe heroes & villains! Not one bit erotic fan fiction from a My Marvelous Year patron! Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 1 — Fantastic Four #261 to #262 Amazing Spider-Man #248 to #251 Dazzler: The Movie Dammit Zack You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Variant Cover B appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

For my 32nd Birthday week, I decided to explore some of my favorite 32nd issues in comics, and that led me back to the Jonathan Hickman written Avengers #32. I wasn’t planning on the next episode of Krakin’ Krakoa centered around Hickman’s Avengers, but this issue, and the “Infinite Avengers” storyline is particularly compelling in connection with Hickman’s X-Men and the structure and approach to future timelines. Hickman’s Marvel Universe, dating back to 2008, is uniquely interconnected, and it’s useful to consider lessons from his previous work that will carry forward into X-Men. Today I’ll answer: How an Avengers Future is both different and nearly identical to a Mutant Future How time travel works in the Marvel Universe of writer Jonathan Hickman Some theories about the way time travel will play a role in X-Men! Spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men Since this all started from my review of Avengers #32, you can check out the full review if you like! Otherwise I’ll post here the parts of the script that I didn’t include in the issue review. Avengers #32 in particular also offers a very important glimpse into how Hickman views the nature of time in his Marvel Universe – Cap functions as a stand-in for a pretty common viewing on visions of the future. Cap sees Franklin thousands of years into the future and presumes that this means that future is an outcome that will happen (or at least that there will be a future). Franklin (clearly banging his head against a wall) explains that Cap’s understanding of time is, frankly, all wrong. Here’s the full quote, which made approximately no sense to me in the moment, and still generally flies way over my head, but at least clearly connects to X-Men comics! “Much like society is an organism composed of humans, and the universe is one composed of societies, space-time is an organism made up of universes. It exists and evolves just like we do – like any living thing does – in response to our environment.” “Space-time is an organism made up of universes” – this sci-fi theory comes to fruition in Hickman’s exploration of Dominions and the types of galactic societies in Powers of X. In fact, the “Universal” types of societies explanation is basically the annotated guide to exactly what Franklin’s trying to explain to Captain America in Avengers (he should have just handed him copies of Powers). Universal societies make up space-time, and in fact beginning with societal intelligence on the scale of a Titan, the intelligence has collapsed space-time into a singularity. While a lot of this is a real head-scratcher, the big takeaway is that the X-Men and Avengers futures are playing by the same governing principles. This reading on the nature of time also marks an advance – or at least a modification – on Hickman’s own explanations via Nathaniel Richards in FF. Through Hickman’s Fantastic Four, Nathaniel is careful to remind Valeria that certain universal constants are a given, even in fluid evolving space-time, and that some events are unavoidable – all they can do is change circumstances around the event. If this holds true, it really makes me wonder what events in this Avengers future will hold true for the impending Mutant future, and how might the factions react to them differently. The subsequent time jump connects heavily to Powers of X’s futures as well. Right off the bat, the tower of the Worldcore Captain America visits in the most distant future also brings to mind the recurring tower in X-Men. Likewise the evolved AI of this distant future is deeply similar to the Phalanx-ascending post-humans in Moira MacTaggert’s 6th life. They voice what in many ways appears to be the deepest desire of the humans in X-Men: Year 1,000 “Now we are free from long gone human restrictions… now we exist as a perfect idea. You understand such a thing? Ideology made action.” In two separate distant futures, humanity’s quest for perfection results in a hivemind collective absorption into something akin to a broader intelligence. Because we’ve only ever seen the human’s ascend, a question this leaves me with is what is the mutant version of “ideology made action?” We’ve never really seen this because, as Moira famously puts it, “We always lose.” Perhaps this is the secret that has Moira so scared of precognitive mutants like Destiny – her vision for mutant survival may mean the dissolution of everything that mutants evolved so wholly individually. A few interesting developments come from the Worldcore’s brief history shared with Cap. The first is Hickman’s general obsession with various singularity. They grew from “the rotting husk of the Ultron singularity.” Again in the worldcore’s explanation of time-travel to the past: “Traveling to the past requires a super-massive singularity strong enough to bend space-time.” This brings to mind Xorn, Rasputin and Omega Sentinels black hole. I’ve theor

Marvel comics of 1983. Limited series galore including Vision & Scarlet Witch! Plus, freakin’ Alpha Flight! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Vision & The Scarlet Witch #1 to #4 Alpha Flight #1 to #5 Cloak and Dagger #1 to #4 Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Three: 1984 Pt. 1 — Fantastic Four #261 to #262 Amazing Spider-Man #248 to #251 Dazzler: The Movie Dammit Zack You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 4 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

For the 50th episode of Krakin’ Krakoa, I felt it was time to return to the source that inspired this X-Men deep dive project, and now that House of X and Powers of X are fully available to read on Marvel Unlimited, it’s the perfect time to explore what made the event so special, search for clues that take on new light in the wake of X-Men’s Dawn of X, and craft all-new theories I didn’t see the first time around. Today I’ll answer: + How the theme of “Breaking All The Rules” dominates House of X, specifying which rules are broken and what that means for future comics. + How Moira X’s 10th life holds the secrets for mutant survival + Predictions for the trick Jonathan Hickman has up his sleeve to blow this whole era up and take X-Men comics to the next level Spoilers for discussed comics may follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men The quote “we have to break all the rules” becomes the apparent theme throughout House and Powers, but it helps to elucidate why that’s necessary. What are these rules that need to be broken, and how were they identified? In other words, who here is the rulemaker? This is where Moira MacTaggert and the revelation of Moira X’s 10 (or eleven!) lifelines changes everything. Through the preceding 9 lifelines Moira has experienced, she has accumulated the knowledge of all the rules that mutantkind has to break in order to *finally* survive and thrive on the longest term plan imaginable. One of the angles I find most intriguing re-reading House of X and Powers of X is what separates Moira’s life 10 plan from the previous 9 (or really previous 6, since those are the lives she spent trying to preserve mutants). I’d theorize that all the changes in this lifeline, however apparently minor, are with great purpose, or at least they should be if mutants are to find success. This is a big reason why I find Powers of X so utterly compelling on re-reads, as visions of future lifelines in “Year 100” or “Year 1000” are full of attempts at mutant triumph, only to be met with defeat after defeat. It’s essential to remember throughout the Dawn of X that Moira’s 10th life – what may be her final chance at all of this – isn’t a stab in the dark, it’s based on literal lifetimes of failure. Radical shifts are necessary to succeed! Otherwise, as Emma Frost puts it: “What’s going to make it different this time?” Rule 1): Extermination Mutants are exterminated, regularly, over and over, and they (mostly) stay dead. As Professor X says at the end of House of X #4 “Every victory… ash. Every triumph… defeat. They’ve murdered so many of us the world has grown used to it.” Culminating in the dramatic resolution, “No more,” also a deliberate inversion of Scarlet Witch’s decimating “No More Mutants.” So, in life 10, how do Moira, Magneto, and Professor X plan to break this rule? The first significant measure is taken in House of X #5, when the recently deceased X-Men lineup that blew up Project Orchis’ Mother Mold and apparently stopped their plans to eventually activate a Nimrod are all resurrected in an emotional ceremony in front of Krakoa. Resurrection protocols are promptly explained, and long story short a combination of Cerebra’s “essence” backups of all mutantkind, Mister Sinister’s genetic base, and the mutant Five combining their powers create an all-new scenario wherein all mutants can be brought back from confirmed deaths. We’ve also seen in X-Men #7 how “The Crucible” will restore depowered mutants. Hickman’s vision for X-Men pulls no punches with “The Great Pretender,” Wanda Maximoff, longtime Avenger and more recent “fake” mutant, responsible for depowering nearly 1 million mutants in the post House of M M-Day Decimation. In order to rectify this injustice, and restore mutants to their powered abilities, mutantkind avoids suicide or euthanasia in favor of a Roman Gladiator arena swordfight with Apocalypse (at least in the initial example we’ve seen in Dawn of X). Mutants have to fight for their birthright, and in so doing earn the gifts of death and resurrection on Krakoa. Digging into the details of resurrection, it’s not just the fact that resurrection is an option on Krakoa, it’s the specifics of the 5 that perform these resurrections, in particular the inclusion of Proteus, the son of Moira MacTaggert. I’m going to come back to this for the final rule breaking as well because I’m pretty fixated on the details here, but for now let’s just consider the following. I’m positing that Proteus is new to lifeline 10 (from Moira’s journals in Powers of X #6). If he wasn’t present in life 9, this would confirm (in theory) that the Krakoan nation state existed in Moira’s ninth life, but without resurrection protocols – they would have lacked the proper reality warping abilities, plus Moira’s journal indicates this idea stems from Charles Xavier specifically in life 10. Likewise, Moira’s 5th life – in which she embraces Xavier’s d

Marvel comics of 1983. Simonson Thor! Perez Black Widow! Fantastic Four classics! On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited): Marvel Fanfare #10 to #13 Iron Man / Thor #169 to #170 / #337 to #339 Fantastic Four #257 to #260 Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 4 — Vision & The Scarlet Witch #1 to #4 Alpha Flight #1 to #5 Cloak and Dagger #1 to #4 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 3 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

While there are many fascinating aspects of the Jonathan Hickman era of Marvel’s X-Men, no one word sums up the shift in status quo quite like the following: Krakoa! One time little more than the mutant monster island that brought the All-New All-Different X-Men together, Krakoa is now the home to all of mutantkind, providing everything from sustenance to shelter to language and beyond. Today I’ll answer: + What’s the history of Krakoa in Marvel Comics, and how many different versions have we seen? + Whether or not Krakoa’s origins match up with Apocalypse’s stated origin of Krakoa in Powers of X. + What secrets the island may hold, and predictions for what they’ll mean in the Krakoa era of X-Men. Spoilers For Discussed Comics May Follow! Related Reading Orders: Hickman X-Men Modern X-Men Krakoa debuted in the pages of 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, appearing as the most powerful mutant Cerebro had yet detected on the island known as Krakoa in the South Pacific. The original X-Men unit of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Havok, and Polaris flew to investigate, and their subsequent disappearance leads Professor X to assemble the All-New All-Different lineup of mutants Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Sunfire, Banshee, and Colossus. Upon investigation, the new X-Men are able to find the original X-Men trapped on the strange island, and upon freeing the team, quickly learn that the mutant they’re searching for is in fact the entire island itself. Krakoa’s origins telepathically flood the mutants minds, telling the tale of an early atomic bomb test on the island that mutated all living things into a hivemind island intelligence. Krakoa is also able to feed on the mutant energies of the original X-Men (in this case without actually killing them – they’re kept catatonic in his vines), which does raise the question what Krakoa’d been feeding on until the X-Men showed up. At this point in time, Krakoa is not terribly different from the Jack Kirby and Stan Lee creation Ego the Living Planet, first introduced as a Thor villain. Frankly, the monster is even more traditional, lacking the cosmic scope and magnitude of Ego (p.s. art here by the incredible Tradd Moore). At the conclusion of Giant-Size X-Men, Polaris is able to fling the entire island of Krakoa into space – Silver and Bronze Age understanding of magnets is a beautiful thing – effectively leaving the threat concluded for the X-Men’s future. Or so it seemed! In later years, Marvel Comics would update the X-Men’s connections to Krakoa’s origins, most notably in the pages of X-Men: Deadly Genesis by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine. In this six issue miniseries, it’s revealed that the All-New All-Different X-Men weren’t the first team of mutants Charles sent to Krakoa, and that there was another failed squad – led by the third Summers brother, Gabriel Summers, aka Vulcan – that marched to their deaths (well, some of them) at the behest of Charlie X. One of the more interesting aspects of this secret history, at least as far as it concerns Krakoa, is that Professor X manipulated the X-Men’s perceptions of Krakoa so they’d believe the island was speaking to them and had to be stopped. There are a few elements that connect to the broader post House of X Krakoa era of X-Men here: The first is that Brubaker and Hairsine’s reveal here effectively “fixes” the oddity of Krakoa speaking English to the X-Men, setting the stage for Hickman and company’s mutant language, and a Krakoan dialect only Cypher can translate. The other intriguing piece to me is whether this is a part of Charlie and Moira MacTaggert’s plan? How does this tie in to Moira’s goals for her tenth life, and a last stand effort to see mutants prevail into the distant future? This is one of the bigger questions I’m considering reflecting on the entirety of Krakoa’s history, as I remind myself that Moira – through nine lifelines – has tried everything from siding with Magneto to siding with Apocalypse to assassinating the Trask bloodline, but now in her tenth life, she picked Krakoa. Why? How does this fit? Admittedly, it’s very possible the Professor’s actions and Krakoan plot here don’t fit. I’ve already done a deep dive on tying Moira’s redacted journal entries to X-Men history, but it’s highly likely Deadly Genesis fits into at least one of these redacted pieces. As you can see from Krakoa’s presence in House of X / Powers of X, the journey through space was not the end of the island, although from here it’s comic history is way muddier. In the pages of 1990’s Quasar, written by Mark Gruenwald, Quasar finds himself trapped among the cosmic Stranger’s prize collection, which proves to actually contain Krakoa. It’s a brief cameo, but it alludes to the survival of Krakoa after being launched into space. Aside from this, though, Krakoa’s appearances in Marvel Comics generally become tied to pieces of Krakoa or “offspring,” really leaving a lot of room for inter

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1983 parts 1 and 2! Topics discussed include: March Madness results Dave’s hot takes on dogs, Zack’s hot takes on Sherlocks Listener questions! A very special round of more MMY shared universe heroes & villains! Up Next: My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 3 — Marvel Fanfare #10 to #13 Iron Man / Thor #169 to #170 / #337 to #339 Fantastic Four #257 to #260 You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at: mymarvelousyear.com https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/ Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month. Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners! The post Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Variant Cover A appeared first on Comic Book Herald.