Uncanny X-Force #9 Preview

Uncanny X-Force #9
Written by: Rick Remender
Pencils by: Billy Tan
Cover by: Esad Ribic

The Story: Magneto uncovers the existence of X-Force and the only way he'll keep the team's secret is if they assassinate a mysterious figure from his past! Who is so important that Magneto would employ such methodology? Why can't he do the deed himself? The answer is buried in a terrible secret from the ashes of World War II. No man can outrun his past forever...

In Stores: May 4, 2011

        

New Mutants #24 Spoilers

Spoilers: Cannonball asks the Force Warriors if it's too late to reform the TK walls, Lady Braddock tells him it's too late as enemy forces have arrived. Cannonball tells her and the Force Warriors they're on the battlefield, he leads them all with everything they have as they all know it's the end of their world anyway. Legion meanwhile deals with realizing one of his twisted personalities posing as Moira is responsible for recreating their world. Moira throws the box containing the universe into a burning fireplace, before it hits the flames Kitty appears through the wall to catch it just in time. As Kitty attempts to escape Moira tells her that she created this world and that it is pointless to try and stop her as she can recreate or destroy anything with her mind. Magneto and Xavier appear and protect Kitty from Moira's attacks. On the battlefield Cannonball is brutally wounded and he has Legacy take his powers/memories. Elsewhere Moira attempts to convince Legion that the 616 memories are lies planted by Xavier. Legion doesn't believe Moira and he embraces her as he does he tricks her and absorbs her back into his psyche where she screams and pleads to live. Legion flies out to the battlefield and quickly makes all the enemies disappear. Now that Legion has Moira reabsorbed he is able to warp reality back to it's true self. The ruins of Fortress X are transformed back into Utopia and everyone appears as they normally would. The X-Men all struggle to deal with the rush of their lives and memories coming back to them while still dealing with their Age of X memories. Chamber appears in his original appearance (before he was transformed by M-Day) and he says it isn't right. Revenent tells him that they are pieces that don't fit in that reality and that there are others who don't as well. Frenzy sees Cyclops and immediately embraces and kisses him in front of Emma Frost. Emma Frost assumes there is an explanation for their embrace and quickly dismisses Frenzy. We see Psylocke and Angel reunite while Storm and Namor appear to be somewhat awkward of each other. Xavier finds Blindfold alone and asks what she's doing, she says she's mourning the dead of Age of X. Xavier tells her they weren't real, but Blindfold compares them to real people saying God wanted us to live so we live, the same was said for the people Moira created. Finally we see Legion alone, holding the remains of Fortress X in the palm in his hand, Legion can hear Moira telling him if he ever wants this world to return it can and that it will be better next time. Legion makes a fist and as he opens his hand Fortress X is gone.

New Mutants #24 Preview

New Mutants #24
Written by: Mike Carey
Pencils by: Steve Kurth
Cover by: Mico Suayan

The Story: “Age of X” Conclusion! This is it. As the psychic barricades protecting Fortress X crumble and the human militias flock to exterminate all the mutants within, mutantkind makes its last stand…against the anti-mutant forces who would see them wiped out, but also against the one responsible for their plight in the first place. And when the dust settles? No one will be left unscathed.

In Stores: April 27, 2011

        

Uncanny X-Force #8 Art

        

Uncanny X-Force #8 Spoilers

Spoilers: Deadpool snoops around a military base because Betsy had said there were weird physic emanations coming from it. Meanwhile at Cavern-X, Betsy and Warren are having another psychic therapy, where Betsy ends up trapping the "Archangel" persona in one of Warren's first moments of rage. X-Force then decides to head to the military base because they have lost contact with Deadpool. Psylocke tells the others there is a powerful telepath working in that base, and asks them to guard her while she's out to find who is it: she then sees The Shadow King on the astral plane. The Shadow King finds a crack in Betsy's psy shields and starts filling her head with images of her brothers telling her how shocked they are that she's a killer and that their father would be disappointed. Shadow Kings manages to break Psylocke down, but ultimately she escapes. While all of that was happening in the Astral Plane, the Shadow King had taken control over Angel, Wolverine and Deadpool. Fantomex was left alone to protect Betsy's body by misdirecting them. The mind-controlled Archangel tries to launch the missiles at Utopia. Psylocke tries to stop him, but she gets locked out of the missiles launch room, where only Warren and one other mind-controlled employee were. The Shadow King finds the Archangel persona trapped inside Warren's mind, and ends up freeing him. Archangel takes full control of Warren, and cuts Shadow King's in half, to Betsy's surprise. Warren then snaps out of it, and kills the employee who was about to launch the missiles. Warren just kills him, without any mercy. Wolverine says he hadn't any other option, even thought it's clear for the reader that he had another option...

Uncanny X-Force #7 Art

        

X-Men Legacy #247 Art

Rob Williams Leads the Uncanny X-Force Team Into "Fear Itself"

Newsarama: X-Force is joining Marvel’s massive Fear Itself conflict this coming July with a three-issue Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force miniseries, written by the increasingly busy Rob Williams (Skaar: King of the Savage Land, Daken: Dark Wolverine and the upcoming The Iron Age and Ghost Rider, just to name a few) and illustrated by Simone Bianchi, who most recently worked on Thor: For Asgard.

In Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force, the team faces off against a particularly extreme branch of the Purifiers — the anti-mutant group first seen in 1982’s revered X-Men tale God Loves, Man Kills — and are forced to ask some heavy questions about their own existence. Newsarama talked with Williams via email to find out more.

Newsarama: Rob, the work Rick Remender, Jerome Opeña, Esad Ribic and Rafael Albuquerque have been doing on the ongoing Uncanny X-Force series has definitely made it one of the most buzzed-about Marvel titles in the past six months. Essentially, you're the first writer to be running with these concepts other than Remender since the series started — what kind of responsibility is that?

Rob Williams: An intimidating one. It's not just the fact that X-Force has been a big hit, it's the quality of work that Rick Remender and his artists have been producing in the book. I genuinely think Uncanny X-Force is one of the best books on the market at the moment. It's really admirable how Rick paces the book with a ton of ideas, a high action pace and some great, intimate character moments. Also, the whole moral conundrum setup of a “Kill Crew” offers so many storytelling opportunities. And the end of the book's initial arc certainly didn't shirk that. It's a great comic. So, obviously, that's a lot for us to live up to. I'm aware of that. The standard's very high. It's a little scary.

Nrama: I think a big part of the appeal of Uncanny X-Force is the different dynamics between the five main characters — it's small enough of a team that everyone gets worthwhile moments, and it looks like the lineup will remain constant for a while. What appeals to you about this team?

Williams: It's a great cast. And yes, I agree that the fact that there's five very strong characters there means that nothing is getting dilated. Everyone gets their screentime. I love writing Deadpool. I've done it a few times now and that's a comic voice that comes very easily to me. He really adds something to what could easily be a po-faced navel-gazing exercise. What I found when I was writing the miniseries was how much I enjoyed writing Fantomex. These characters are fun, which the concept of a kill crew really needs as a balance. They lift the book. But Wolverine, Psylocke and Archangel are great characters in their own right. And visually, somehow they really click together. It's a great looking team.

Nrama: You've got a good amount of experience writing Deadpool and Wolverine, but you haven’t really gotten a chance to write Archangel, Psylocke or Fantomex before. Were you eager to tackle those characters?

Williams: I was. You're always a little nervous coming to characters who are new to you. Trying to get inside their head. I've read Angel and Psylocke forever so I figure I had a fairly decent idea about them and where they're coming from. Fantomex is an esoteric character to write. Rick gets his unusual speech patterns, that bonkersness that Grant Morrison originally gave him. I like his inherent sarcastic tone. I enjoy writing sarcastic characters. I can't imagine why. (That may be sarcasm.)

Nrama: In any tie-in to an event series like Fear Itself, there are comics that relate very closely to the main story, and ones that deal with the fallout and larger impact of the main book's events — often taking the story in some unexpected directions. This one sounds like the latter. Is that an accurate assessment?

Williams: Kind of. It's a thematic exploration of the ideas behind Fear Itself. It seems to the people of Earth, from the actions of the main Fear Itself storyline, that this may well be the end of the world. That type of climate can lead people to extreme actions. We concentrate on a rogue cell of Purifiers who believe that the superhumans have brought about the actions of the Book of Revelations. That the devil will soon come and take the souls of everyone unless they can send their souls to Heaven first. So off on a major random killing spree they go. And this desperate action is born of fear, of course, even if they won't admit that to themselves.

The idea was to ask, "What is a superhuman kill crew afraid of?" And X-Force will find themselves considering that maybe the Purifiers, as askew as they are, have a point. Maybe the superhumans, and their lapsing moral centre, are responsible for bring about the end of the world. Should superheroes be in a kill crew in the first place?

Nrama: It seems that when writing protagonists that are willing to kill, the challenge is always to present opponents that are loathsome enough that the audience feels that death is what they deserve. Is that what you're looking to do with this group of Purifiers? (It certainly sounds like they're engaging in some upsetting behavior.)

And since it looks like Fear Itself will include some crises of confidence in Thor and Steve Rogers, can we expect Fear Itself to raise some doubt within the Uncanny X-Force team about the way they handle things? (They already had some disagreements over Fantomex's actions in the end of the first arc, after all.)

Williams: I don't think readers will have any doubt from our storyline that The Purifiers deserve X-Force's line in brutal justice. But the question of whether or not X-Force should exist in the first place is central to our storyline. There's a good writing edict that goes: It's not enough to put the protagonist's life on the line. You have to put their soul on the line too. That's at the heart of this story.

Nrama: Simone Bianchi's interior work at Marvel has been limited to rather high-profile projects, like Astonishing X-Men with Warren Ellis and Jeph Loeb's run on Wolverine. How excited are you to be working with him on this series?

Williams: Hugely excited. You just have to take a look at Simone's cover for #1 to see what he brings to a project. Absolutely stunning visuals. When I asked on the phone who was drawing this and they told me it was Simone it felt like the whole nature of the project lifted. This is going to be a great looking story with some killer action sequences. I can't wait for people to see it.

Uncanny X-Force #7 Spoilers

Spoilers: X-Force and Deathlok enter The World. Deathlok explains that Deathloks perpetually travel in time to protect the events that ensure a future where all super beings are controlled, and that if they fail to kill Father, this will be almost impossible to stop. X-Force then decide to split up. Fantomex and Deadpool end up arguing with each other over their behaviour and attitude. Meanwhile, Logan and Deathlok happen to face Deathlok-Wolverine. Elsewhere, Psylocke argues a little bit with Angel. He seems to think of her "mothering" him too much, whereas Betsy is concerned because he hasn't come to her for their psychic exercises. Both are chased by Deathlocks versions of Psylocke/Warren. They fly at high speeds and Psylocke turns around throwing her katana which stabs Deathlok-Psylocke in the head and kills her. Psylocke then tells Warren to go back for her sword. He tells her she has more of those, however she insists that she wants that one (lol). Anyway, after all of X-Force members defeat their respective Deathlok versions, Deadpool kills the Father by chopping off his head. On the very last page we see that Fantomex brought baby Apocalypse to the World and has him incubating in a tube back in the Weapon X program. It says that he is 847 days old...

X-Men Legacy #247 Spoilers

Spoilers: Gambit and Rogue confront "X", who's actually Moira MacTaggart. The showdown between the Force Warriors and Moonstar's Cadre never comes to pass, as Professor X uses his powers to sway Legion, and then leaves with his son to go and inform the entire population of Fortress X, face to face, with what's happening. Charles explains that Moira isn't Moira. The process of erasing personas inside Legion by Dr. Nemesis did not go as planned. Xavier realized there would be a side-effect. While studying inside Legion's mind, he discovered what that was. Some of the isolated personalities were "killed" and left behind "remains", which apparently created a whole new personality, "X", which is like the antibody response to what was being done to Legion's mind, and it began to "eat" personalities, to gain their strength. Xavier was going to take it on in psychic combat on the Psychic Plane, but X pulled something from Legion's mind that it knew Xavier wouldn't just attack: the image of Moira. X then managed to knock out Xavier and create the pocket reality that is "Age of X". But upon the truth being revealed, X has decided to refocus its efforts on an Exonim Sentinel attack, creating the enemy forces right inside Fortress X, on the mutants' side of the realm.

Uncanny X-Force #8 Lettered Preview

Uncanny X-Force #8
Written by: Rick Remender
Pencils by: Billy Tan
Cover by: Esad Ribic

The Story: “Before The Fall” Part 1. A nuclear facility has been infiltrated and taken over by the Shadow King! With nuclear missiles now aimed at both Utopia and New York, the lives of Earth's heroes hang in the balance. X-Force heads into action, but to save the world, they must make a terrible choice. In order to prevent a nuclear holocaust, Wolverine and his team must kill every last person working in the facility. X-Force can save the day, but at what cost?

In Stores: April 20, 2011

        

Uncanny X-Force #8 Advance Preview

        
        

Uncanny X-Force #8
Art by: Billy Tan
X-Force vs. The Shadow King
On Sale: Next Week

Psylocke in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online

Psylocke is included in this pic of heroes in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online which means she will eventually be included. Thanks JeanGreyForever at the CBR Forums for the info. :)

X-Solicits for July 2011

	Uncanny X-Force #12 Written by: Rick Remender Penciled by: Mark Brooks Cover by: Esad Ribic Variant Cover by: Adam Kubert I am Captain America Variant Cover by: TBA “The Dark Angel Saga: part 2” Trapped in the Age of Apocalypse! To acquire their salvation Fantomex must lead a team of X-Men to a distant galaxy and steal the origins of life itself from the god race known as The Celestials! On Earth, within the mysterious floating city know as The Sky, the rest of X-Force fight through an army of twisted versions of Earth’s mightiest beings as they seek a route home. If they do not succeed, and soon, Archangel will become the new Apocalypse!
	Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #1 (of 3) Written by: Rob Williams Pencils & Cover by: Simone Bianchi “Fear Itself Tie-In” As Armageddon hits the Marvel world in the events of Fear Itself, terror grips the planet. An extreme faction of the mutant hate group The Purifiers believes that the end of the world has come, that the devil is here for humanity and it is up to them to “save” as many human souls as they can before he strikes. Can X-Force stop their drive for worldwide suicide? And what, exactly, is a mutant kill crew afraid of?
	X-Men: Schism #1 & #2 (of 5) Written by: Jason Aaron Pencils and Covers by: Carlos Pacheco (#1) & Frank Cho (#2) Issue #1 Variant Cover by: Frank Cho Issue #1 Variant Cover by: Nick Bradshaw Issue #1 Blank Variant Cover also available The X-Men event of the decade starts here! It’s never been a more dangerous time to be a mutant. Even with their numbers at a record low, the world refuses to trust mutantkind…and after a mutant-triggered international incident, anti-mutant hatred hits new heights. Of course, it’s at this moment, when the mutant race needs most to stand together, that a split begins that will tear apart the very foundation of the X-Men. From superstar writer and Marvel Architect Jason Aaron and a full roster of comics’ top artists, this is an X-tale that will reverberate for years to come! Come October, the X-Men landscape will be irreparably changed.
	X-Men #14 & 15 Written by: Christopher Yost Penciled by: Paco Medina & Dalibor Talijic Covers by: Ed McGuiness Issue #14 & 15 Variant Covers by: Paco Medina Issue #14 I am Captain America Variant Cover by: TBA “First to Last” The battle fought in two time-periods comes to a climactic conclusion! The X-Men are the only thing that stand between the Evolutionaries and the complete annihilation of the human race. On top of that, learn secrets of Emma Frost’s past and what she had to do with the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force

This July, writer Rob Williams and artist Simone Bianchi dispatch Marvel’s breakout mutant black-ops team right into the heart of the year’s biggest comics event in Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #1 (of 3)! The end is nigh and a group of hate-mongering extremists know just who to blame: super humans! But as fear rains down upon the Marvel Universe, Uncanny X-Force will be the only thing that stands between this band of frenzied zealots and mass murder on a global scale.

"What exactly is a mutant super hero kill crew afraid of? That's the question we had to ask,” said Williams. “A rogue cult of Purifiers believe that the actions of Fear Itself are the early stages of Armageddon and that they must kill many people as possible so their souls can ascend ‘before the devil knows they're dead.’ You can't question X-Force for wanting these crazies dead. But was it the actions of 'heroes' like X-Force that actually brought about the potential Armageddon of Fear Itself?”

Can X-Force cut down the Purifiers before they touch off a worldwide genocide? Or, with the God of Fear ascendant, will the team’s own trail of slaughter prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy? In their darkest hour, Wolverine, Deadpool, Psylocke and the rest of Marvel’s most cutthroat strike force will discover that nightmares really can come true, only in Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #1(of 3) – on sale this July!

X-Men #15 cover for July

Psylocke by Kenneth Rocafort

Uncanny X-Force #7 Preview

Uncanny X-Force #7
Written by: Rick Remender
Cover & Pencils by: Esad Ribic
Thor Goes Hollywood Variant by: Mike Del Mundo

The Story: “Deathlok Nation” Part 3. The hordes of the Deathlok Nation continue to flood into our world, intent on killing Fantomex and protecting the super soldier production facility known as The World…but why? With The World now infected by the Deathlok virus, and X-Force locked in heated battle with the most powerful warriors in the Marvel Universe, humanity’s hopes rest in the hands of one man, but who is Weapon Infinity?!

In Stores: April 13, 2011