Friday, April 30, 2010

Uncanny X-Men #524 Preview

Cover by: Adi Granov
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Terry Dodson
Inks: Rachel Dodson
Colored by: Justin Ponsor
Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna
Variant Cover by: David Finch

The Story: SECOND COMING, Chapter 6
A beloved X-Man died defending Hope, the returned mutant “messiah.” As they lay their comrade to rest, the remaining X-Men are left to question: Is she worth it?

In Stores: May 5, 2010

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

X-Force #26 Spoilers



Spoilers: The New Mutants warn Cyclops of Bastion's towers, and he orders them to come home. Shortly after, Cyclops loses contact with the Alpha and Beta teams. Meanwhile Alpha Team is being attacked by armored soldiers and a jet. Psylocke then uses her TK to send X-23 to the jet so she can take it out. Nightcrawler, Rogue and Hope arrive in Nevada. Kurt is exhausted, but he won't let Rogue borrow his powers as he believes Rogue needs to save her strenght to protect Hope in case something goes wrong. And it goes. Bastion himself suddenly shows up right in front of them. Rogue uses all of her teammates' powers and engages Bastion in a deadly battle. It's brutal! She puts up a good fight, but Bastions gains the upper hand and knocks her out. Bastion comes in Hope's direction. He says he's seen what the world will become because of her and that he can't allow her to live. Bastion stretches his arm in order to kill Hope, but Nightcrawler teleports right in front of her. Kurt ends up with Bastion's arm through his chest. Rogue witnesses everything in despair. Kurt asks God to strengthen him for one last jump. He lands on the rocks in Utopia and tells Hope that he believes in her. He dies. Later, the Alpha Team returns to Utopia. Colossus wants to get Pixie to rescue Illyana. Betsy notices the look on Emma's and Scott's faces. She just asks them "Who?", but Wolverine already knows the answer: "Elf". In Nevada, Bastion repairs himself and tells his followers to prepare for Plan B.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

X-Men Forever Annual #1 Spoilers & Art




Spoilers:
Jean and Logan are captured by The Hand. Psylocke, Jubilee, Kitty and Nightcrawler come to their rescue.

Friday, April 23, 2010

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #3 Spoilers & Art


Spoilers: Emma, Psylocke, Nightcrawler, Rockslide and Anole are still looking for Pixie and her missing friends. Pixie's mom and the Mastermind Sisters are also looking for her. In the end, the two groups face each other.

X-Men: Legacy #235 Art


X-Force #26 Preview

Cover by: Adi Granov
Writer: Craig Kyle & Chris Yost
Pencils: Mike Choi
Colored by: Sonia Oback
Lettered by: VC's Cory Petit
Variant Cover by: David Finch

The Story: SECOND COMING, Chapter 5
As the X-Men make their desperate attempt to get Hope to Utopia, the battle will cost them one of their own. Nothing will ever be the same.

In Stores: April 28, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

X-Men: Legacy #235 Spoilers

Spoilers: At the headquarters of the Right, Hodge rips Karma's leg. Cypher realizes they're all going to die and convinces Warlock to hold up his end. Meanwhile, Cyclops sends Rogue to help Alpha Team track Hope, even though Emma can't detect any psychic or empathic link between them. Wolverine tells Nightcrawler to teleport Rogue in Hope's direction, while the rest of the team will be following them: Angel flying; Logan, X-23 and Ariel in one car; and Colossus and Psylocke in another car. Back at Utopia, Pierce shuts down Cerebra. At the Right's HQ, Warlocke takes the life-force of Hodge and all his soldiers, killing all of them. The New Mutants then tells Emma how Bastion is tracking Cable and Hope. A fighter jet is sent to deal with the Alpha Team. It fires a missile, which hits their first car. Logan and X-23 will heal, Ariel won't. She dies. In Nebraska, the Alpha Team finally reaches Cable and Hope and warns him about how they are tracking them. Cable realizes Hope will only be safe away from him. Rogue (with all their powers) and Kurt set off to escort Hope back to Utopia while Cable and Alpha Team stay behind as a distraction to Bastion.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

X-Solicits for July 2010

X-Men: Second Coming #2
Written by: Matt Fraction, Chris Yost, Mike Carey & Zeb Wells
Penciled by: TBA
Cover by: Adi Granov
The end is here. Sacrifices have been made. The most dangerous and successful attempt at the extermination of mutants is upon us. Who will walk away?






X-Men #1
Written by: Victor Gischler
Penciled by: Paco Medina
Cover by: Adi Granov
Blank Cover Variant
Variant Cover by: John Romita Jr.
Variant Cover by: Olivier Coipel
Variant Cover by: Paco Medina
Variant Cover by: Marko Djurdjevic
The Heroic Age is here! “Mutants versus Vampires,” Part 1
When a suicide bomber strikes in downtown San Francisco, it gets the immediate attention of the X-Men. But this is not your garden variety terrorist – and he’s not acting alone. Vampires from around the globe are descending en masse on the City by the Bay, staking a brutal claim for the patch of land the X-Men call their home. What is their agenda? Who is their mysterious leader? The X-Men are about to find out, as they brace themselves for a war of the species that will wrack the Marvel Universe.

X-Women #1
Written by: Chris Claremont
Pencils and Cover by: Milo Manara
International superstar Milo Manara joins X-Legend Chris Claremont for X-WOMEN! Go on a high-flying, death-defying, globetrotting adventure with your favorite X-Ladies. Storm, Psylocke, Shadowcat, Marvel Girl and Rogue save the world and look great doing it. Don’t miss this prestige event!





Uncanny X-Men #526
Written by: Matt Fraction
Penciled by: Whilce Portacio
Cover by: Terry Dodson
“The Five Lights”
After the events of Second Coming, the X-Men’s world has changed. We can’t tell you much without spoiling the crossover, but here are some words to whet your appetite: Hope, Emma, Namor, Sebastian Shaw. Classic X-Men artist Whilce Portacio is back again for this story-arc of epic proportions!



Uncanny X-Men: The Heroic Age #1
Written by: Matt Fraction
Penciled by: Whilce Portacio, Jamie Mckelvie & Steven Sanders
Cover by: Mark Brooks
Hot on the heels of Second Coming, see how the X-Men fit into the Marvel Universe as a whole. Three stories by Matt
 Fraction and artists Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men), Jamie McKelvie (Siege: Loki) and Steven Sanders (S.W.O.R.D.) taking you all around the Marvel Universe!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Interviews: "X-Men" and "New X-Force"

Gischler: My desire is that the cast of characters will be a combination of both big name and lesser known characters. I think we'll see a wider cast of characters for the first arc, while we're getting situated. Then the following arcs will kind of narrow things down to a core cast. I don't want to say that we're holding auditions for the first arc, but it almost is like that. We've got the whole team and everybody is available for that first arc. Then in following stories we kind of whittle things down to the people we see every issue.

Plus, since the book is a part of the X-Men line, there's a good chance that we'll see characters rotate in and out from story to story. So new faces might come and go, but that will be along side the core cast that we see every month.

Axel Alonso: "Our story will pick up with a suicide bombing in San Francisco’s Union Square. But this is not Al Qaeda—this is the opening shot of a war," he writes. "Vampires are descending on the Bay Area, commanded by their, let’s just say, enigmatic leader, and mutants appear to be their target. What follows is a war on several fronts, as the X-Men defend their home from a threat unlike anything they’ve ever faced. There will be twists and turns you can’t see coming, and there will be some permanent status quo changes."

Gischler: Vampires are the adversaries in the first arc, and the way we're approaching the bloodsuckers is going to be pretty cool. But that's just the first arc. Vampires don't define this new X-men team. The X-men have been fighiting for survival for a long tim, but this is the X-Men team the represents a new era. This team engages the Marvel U more in a proactive, mission-oriented way. Since the X-Men will be engaging the Marvel U more fully in this title, yes you're going to see the guest stars. The particular situation or villains they face will help dictate which guest star is most appropriate for a particular arc.

Remender: The new X-Force team has a network of people looking out for Apocalypse's rise and could be faced with the moral quandary of being able to execute the immortal villain as an infant. "One of the members of the team has had operatives hunting for signs of the return of En Sabah Nur for years. We open as the operative discovers what he's been seeking. Turns out when the rest of the world is celebrating the defeat of a tyrant, humanity entering a new 'Heroic Age' is the first big signpost of the Age of Apocalypse. X-Force is reformed with one objective: kill Apocalypse."

Remender: X-Force will now be Wolverine and a team of the toughest X characters ever assembled. Logan will be a co-captain, serving with one of the other members, for reasons readers will soon discover. This adds a wonderful internal conflict and drama in this new band of X-Men. These are the hardcores of the X-family; these are the heroes who have most frequently walked the line, made the distasteful yet necessary choices. They’ve stained their souls for the greater good and just as it seems they’ll be able to heal from the work, they are tasked with their most critical assassination ever. Meet the all-new all-different X-Force this July.

Remender: I think people will be excited about who it's going to be. It's all A-list characters. Because of the initial threat and because of what they're dealing with in the first arc with the imminent, looming Age of Apocalypse, it appears the Heroic Age is a lamppost for the Akkaba Society to start building up their plans to begin the Age of Apocalypse. This is preordained business and blah blah blah. The idea is that the team is necessary and that the team is also of a caliber to deal with Apocalypse – a mega-level threat. Not that the last team wasn't, but they're all heavy hitters on this team.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

C2E2: X-Men Panel

As the inaugural Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo began to wind down Sunday afternoon, Marvel's X-Men panel was in full swing.

Whilce Portacio will be the new artist on "Uncanny X-Men" beginning in July, Singh announced. Leonard Kirk will be the new artist on "New Mutants," while Chris Claremont and Milo Manara's "X-Women" one shot will also ship in July and Claremont's "New Mutants Forever" begins in August. "X-Men Legacy" will continue with Mike Carey despite other changes to the line

"Wolverine: Weapon X" will be ending, with a new "Wolverine" #1 by Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes, with covers by Jae Lee shipping in September. In it, Wolverine goes to Hell. "His soul goes to hell, andwWe're going to see what happens when he's not around to be in control of his own body," Schaefer said.

"Dark Wolverine" will become "Daken: Dark Wolverine" in September, with Liu, Daniel Way, and Giuseppe Camuncoli returning. "The key words are intrigue, violence, exploitation, sex—more of the same."

An X-23 series begins in September, written by Liu with an artist to be named later. "She's basically on a journey of self discovery. It's going to be very dark, intense book, but hopefully along the way there will be a ray of light that she'll be able to find her place in the world," Liu said.



As the Children of the Atom step into the Heroic Age, they'll have writer Victor Gischler and artist Paco Medina leading the way with a new X-Men #1 this July launching a new ongoing series spinning out of the events of Second Coming.

"[Readers] can expect a lot of good action and a lot of good storytelling [for] the characters they know as the X-Men," says Gischler. "They're going to be going on some high-profile, high-energy missions. We're going to see the characters develop but with more focus on missions. Each arc will be an event or a mission. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be pretty entertaining I think."

The opening salvo of the new series pits the newly re-formed team against the bloodsucking undead of the Marvel Universe, a group the X-Men has some dark history with. "It's going to be a nice fresh look at vampires," promises Gischler. "I think people are going to be pretty impressed."

"There are going to be some characters that are going to be some lynchpin, popular characters," says the writer. "But we also want to bring in some faces we haven't seen. Who have we seen plenty of? Who do we want to see more of? And who do we always want to see because they're popular?"

Although some characters will almost certainly appear-don't be surprised to see some claws in the mix-many less familiar names have been thrown in for consideration.

"We got a lot of mutants auditioning for the part," teases Gischler. "But for the first arc, it's going to be kind of wide open. It's going to be a big event. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's sort of come one, come all X-Men. After the first arc, we're going to narrow it to a core four or five characters that are in the cast month-to-month. And also maybe rotate in some surprise faces that people don't normally see in an X-Men book."


New X-Force #1
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Jerome Opeña
CBR: Remender Unleashes "New X-Force"

A secret society is putting a plan into motion that would turn this age of heroes into the Age of Apocalypse! The only thing standing in their way is the cast of “New X-Force”, which begins in October.

The titular team is brought together because one of their number uncovers a shocking revelation. “One of the cast learns that Apocalypse has returned and that his followers, Clan Akkaba, have good reason to believe that the Age of Apocalypse -- the time their master takes total control of Earth -- will begin when everybody's guard is down. So it's starting to look like the Heroic Age is indicator that the Age of Apocalypse is about to begin,” Remender explained.

“With the exception of Wolverine this is an almost entirely new team,” Remender remarked. “Only one other has any previous connection to X-Force, but they're all A-list characters. They're big, heavy hitting characters and as the story progresses we're going to see more and more of them. It's a dream team. I wish I could talk about more about them. It's exciting as hell.”

“One of the themes of 'New X-Force' will be that duality of character. We have a lot of characters on the team who are the same in that sense. They have an inherent duality, people who very much want to do good and make the world a better place, but at the same time there is blood on their hands and they find themselves at cross purposes,” Remender continued. “These aren't characters who are going to go out and happily do murder.”

Friday, April 16, 2010

X-Men: Legacy #235 Preview

Cover by: Adi Granov
Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Greg Land
Inks: Jay Leisten
Colored by: Justin Ponsor
Lettered by: VC's Cory Petit
Variant Cover by: David Finch

The Story: SECOND COMING, Chapter 4
Fall of a New Mutant?! The X-Men are hot on the trail of Cable and Hope and meet Bastion's forces head-on, in the form of Bastion's capo William Stryker and his Purifier army. Stryker's forces score one casualty early, but who wins the battle? At the same time the New Mutants are hitting Bastion's second-in-command, Cameron Hodge. But going up against Hodge and 100 of his soldiers is way out of their league and one of them won't walk away from it.

In Stores: April 21, 2010

Thursday, April 15, 2010

New Mutants #12 Art

We Are The X-Men: Vampiric Jubilee & Nate Grey

Marvel.com. X-Men editor Nick Lowe: "Nate Grey was the hope for the future, but he's been torn apart by the present. Can he get himself together and fulfill his destiny?"

"When The Scarlet Witch said 'No more mutants,' bubblegum-chewing X-gal Jubilee found out just how bad life can get. She's de-powered and depressed. But is the world done with Ms. Jubilation Lee?"

Find out more during Marvel's X-Men panel at the inaugural C2E2 expo on Sunday, April 18.at 2:45pm.