X-Men #26 Art

X-Men #26 Spoilers

Spoilers: Rachel, Pylocke and Monet manage to reach the surface, where they reunite with Storm. The rock monster wakes up and heads to the emergency response center. Gambit stops it from injuring the civilians nearby. Rachel tries to reason with the rock monster telepathically, but fails. Jubilee arrives aboard the X-jet in time to catch Rachel from falling. Psylocke uses her telekinesis to bring the X-jet to the ground safely. While Rachel links herself with the rock giant’s consciousness, Monet goes through it and Storm summons lightning to destroy it once and for all. Jubilee brings one piece of rock back to the school. Back at the school, Beast deduces Krakoa was sick because it was created in the same manner as the rock giant. Storm tells Jubilee she saw Wolverine down the caves and hugs her. Afterwards, Jubilee brings the piece of rock to Krakoa as a gift – an imprint of memory, life after death.

*This is the last issue featuring Earth 616 Psylocke for the time being.

Masters of Kung Fu & More

Marvel.com: Before you pack your bags to tag along to Battleworld, review this list of some of the deadliest, most skilled fighters in the Marvel Universe to help you hone your body and mind for combat.

Psylocke

Once a psychic with very little by way of martial arts skills, Elisabeth Braddock survived being kidnapped, brainwashed, and trained by the Hand, to re-emerge as formidable physical force. Although talented with swords and open-handed, Braddock’s most dangerous hand-to-hand ability remains the merger of her two abilities giving rise to a psychic knife that she wields without peer.

X-Men #26 Preview

X-Men #26

Writer: G. Willow Wilson

Art by: Roland Boschi

Cover by: Terry Dodson

The Story:

Investigating mysterious natural phenomena in the Blackrock Desert, the X-Men have discovered something monstrous that has ties to their own past. Reliving history, can the X-Men find a way to win the day this time around or are they doomed to make the same painful mistakes?

In Stores: April 29, 2015

#tbt: Uncanny X-Men #324

#tbt: Uncanny X-Men Annual #324 – Psylocke takes a clandestine tour through Gambit’s mind, but Remy spots her and warns her to keep out. He doesn’t want his secrets revealed just yet. Written by Scott Lobdell and art by Roger Cruz. Read full summary here.

X-Men: Apocalypse: Is Olivia Munn Teasing Her Psylocke Costume?

ComicBook.com: It was one of the biggest casting announcements yet for Brian Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse, Olivia Munn as Betsy “Psylocke” Braddock, and it looks like The Newsroom actress might be teasing fans on her own.

Following the announcement, Munn posted the below photo on her Instagram account earlier tonight that seemingly flew under the radar.

It looks like Olivia might be having some fun with her fans by acknowledging the announcement but who knows if this kind of spandex is what we’ll see in the movie.

The film is due in theaters on May 27, 2016.

If the latex fits...

Uma foto publicada por Olivia Munn (@oliviamunn) em Abr 15, 2015 às 6:48 PDT

X-Position: G. Willow Wilson Illuminates "The Burning World" in "X-Men"

CBR: With "X-Men" #26 scheduled for release on April 29, G. Willow Wilson returns to X-POSITION to answer your questions on her problems with Psylocke's body-switching, the X-Men franchise's track record of depicting female superheroes, who she'd like to write in a solo series and what Dazzler will bring to "A-Force," set to debut in May and co-written by Wilson and Marguerite Bennett.

You've expressed in social media your desire to put Psylocke back in her original body. I've always felt uncomfortable watching a white woman wearing an Asian body and I'm glad a writer acknowledges it. Can you share your opinions on it and why do you feel it is important minority characters are represented accurately?

I think it's important to acknowledge that people's experiences are not interchangeable, especially when it comes to race and ethnicity. If you're going to drop a white character into an Asian body, I think it behooves you to explore how that character's life would change -- how she would be treated socially, how she would deal with microaggression, how this might alter her perceptions about the world. If you take a story in that direction, you've gotta do the work. Otherwise it's just tokenism. However, since I'm just here for four issues, I didn't feel I had the space or the prerogative to move things around significantly, so I didn't really touch on the Psylocke race issue. If I was the ongoing series writer, however, I would seriously consider making a change.

Now that your run on "X-Men" is coming to an end, why do you think the X-Men's female characters stand out in comic books as opposed to female characters in other franchises who just end up being female derivatives of their male counterparts?

The X Men have always led the field when it comes to the depiction of female superheroes. Maybe because it's a book about dealing with difference, and also breaking down difference -- the characters are united because they are all mutants in a world that hates them, but as individuals, they are profoundly different. That's fertile ground for great character work. Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, Jean Grey, Rachel Grey -- they've all historically had both very close friendships and very believable tension. I think that's why they resonate with so many people in a way that spin-off characters might not.

Was it difficult to write Psylocke, Rachel, and Monet due to their similar power sets? Was it a personal decision to show how different telepathy and telekinesis is based upon the user?

Yes, it was difficult. I really struggled with ways to make them all remain distinctive, power-wise. In the end, though, those similarities are going to help them out significantly -- I won't say how!

Herb Trimpe Passes Away at Age 75

CBR: Herb Trimpe, a prolific veteran comic book artist whose illustration credits include the first appearance of Marvel's massively popular Wolverine, has passed away at age 75 as first reported by a Facebook post from a family member.

Trimpe is survived by his wife, Patricia, and four children.

With a career that spanned more than 45 years, Trimpe worked on a wide variety of the comic industry's most recognizable characters, notably an era-defining seven-year run on "The Incredible Hulk" in the 1970s. That run included "The Incredible Hulk" #181, which marked the debut of Wolverine; plus the first appearances of Hulk supporting characters including Jim Wilson and Doc Samson, both of whom Trimpe co-created with writer Roy Thomas.

Trimpe's other Marvel credits include the first issues of "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero," one of the most successful and long-running licensed comics, along with spinoff "G.I. Joe Special Missions." His Marvel work dates back to Silver Age westerns like "The Rawhide Kid," and includes stints on "Godzilla," "The Defenders," "Iron Man" and "Marvel Team-Up." With Chris Claremont, he co-created both Captain Britain and the character's sister, X-Men mainstay Psylocke.

In lieu of flowers, Trimpe's family has asked for donations to be made to the Hero Initiative, which provides financial support to comics creators in need, or the Kerhonkson Accord First Aid Squad.

Breaking News: Olivia Munn Joins ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Cast as Psylocke

Olivia Munn has joined the cast of “X-Men: Apocalypse,” signing on as Betsy Braddock, a.k.a. Psylocke.

Director Bryan Singer posted the news on Instagram on Monday.

The X-Men comics once proclaimed itself as "All-New, All-Different," and that seems to be going for the movies as well.

Munn recently completed a role in Aaron Sorkin's Newsroom series for HBO, and also appeared opposite Johnny Depp in Mortdecai. The role of Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse won't be Munn's first role in a comics-to-film project, as she played a minor role in Iron Man 2.

Singer has already begun principal photography for X-Men: Apocalypse in Montreal, Canada, and screenwriter Simon Kinberg states the movie will take place in the year 1983.

X-Men: Apocalypse is scheduled for releae May 27, 2016.

#tbt: Uncanny X-Men #217

#tbt: Uncanny X-Men Annual #217 – Muir Island, where the X-Men are running a training exercise. It's a night-op and it's Psylocke versus the rest of the team. Rogue and Dazzler hit her hard, but Psylocke manages to best them. It's not until Longshot's crazy luck enters the equation that Psylocke is beaten. Written by Chris Claremont and art by Jackson Guice. Read full summary here.

How Far Disney is Going to Bury the X-Men

The beginning of the end for the X-Men.

Business Insider: At first it seemed coincidental that the X-Men were fading in popularity, while the Avengers were rising.

Then there was a conspiracy theory that Marvel, which was bought by Disney in 2009, was downplaying the mutant superheroes because their film rights were owned by 20th Century Fox.

After all, X-Men comics of the past decade have featured the decimation of the mutant population, a negative portrayal of the team in a big crossover in which they battled the Avengers, the death of star hero Wolverine, and the retconning of two popular characters to cut their ties to the X-Men. Meanwhile, the number of X-Men series seemed to be gradually declining, while there were fewer and fewer licensed X-Men products.

The theory was all but confirmed last summer, with reports that Disney forbade the creation of new X-Men characters and with senior vice president of publishing Tom Brevoort telling a fan: "If you had two things, and on one you earned 100% of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you'd be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn't you?"

It's understandable that Disney would do this. As Alex Abad-Santos pointed out at Vox, "The Avengers" earned about twice as much in the box office ($1.5 billion) as the entire North American comic market in 2013 ($870 million). In other words, movies matter a lot more than comic books. Still, it's a shame to see the company squelch such a rich creative property — one that has millions of fans and thousands of official or unofficial cocreators — for cold, commercial reasons.

The more you look, the more you'll see just how much Disney is burying the mutants, even while continuing to publish several X-titles to keep fans from freaking out.

For instance, go to marvel.com and you'll find few prominent mentions of the X-Men. The top stories on the site right now feature Daredevil, the Avengers, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, and the Agents of Shield. Marvel owns the exclusive film rights to most of those characters, along with rights to its own versions of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and a profit-sharing deal for Spider-Man with Sony, which holds the film rights.

Marvel's shop page includes only three X-Men items in a list of 60 featured-product popular picks.

Marvel's subscriptions page features more than 50 titles, and only four of them star characters from the X-Men.

Marvel's movies page prominently features the Disney movies, and only by clicking the "All" tab and scrolling to the bottom can you find Fox's movies.

Games like Marvel's "Mighty Heroes" apparently don't have any X-Men:

Where are the X-Men?

The disappearance of the X-Men is astonishing given how big they used to be.

Wolverine, Professor X, Storm, Gambit, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Magneto, and company were popular going into the '90s and blew up after the launch of a Fox Kids cartoon in 1992. This was followed by wave after wave of X-Men action figures, X-Men lunchboxes, and everything else, more video game appearances than any character but Spider-Man, hundreds of characters, a bunch of spinoff teams, and many, many comics.

The group represented something inspiring as genetic outsiders who rise above bigotry, and they were edgy and exciting, with wildly complex and imaginative storylines.

Even "Avengers" director Joss Whedon has acknowledged that the X-Men are Marvel's best characters (and he's written a great X-Men series himself). As he told "In Focus" in 2005 — with comments that would later seem ironic — "The thing about the X-Men is they have a coherent core. The Avengers to me is tough. I wouldn't approach the Avengers, I wouldn't approach the Fantastic Four. The X-Men are all born of pain, and pain is where I hang my hat."

To see how popular the mutants used to be, look at the top comics in 1991, per Comichron, when an X-title topped the charts in six months:

X dominance grew over the next decade, with the mutants winning seven months in 1994, nine months in 1998, and a stunning 11 months in 1999:

The mutants won 11 months again in 2001:

But things started going downhill after that. X-titles won only two or three months in 2002. They won only one month in 2003, three in 2004. In 2005, they didn't win any months, except for a universe-wide "House of M" crossover issue that featured the X-Men prominently and an issue of the newly launched "New Avengers" that featured Wolverine on the cover.

In 2007, Marvel beat DC for the top comic in every month, but none of the comics were X-titles (though two had Wolverine on the cover):

And that has been the status quo ever since, with universe-wide crossovers starring the Avengers sharing top billing with Spider-Man, while the X-Men languish on the bottom shelf.

What's next for the mutants?

Disney recently sidestepped its standoff with Sony, which was widely thought to be bungling the Spider-Man movies; however, it may have a harder time winning concessions from Fox, which has been building a promising movie universe of its own, even without much comics and merchandising support.

Disney is supposedly promoting the Inhumans — humanoid alien characters whose film rights it owns — as replacements for the X-Men, with an Inhumans movie scheduled for 2019. But it will take a lot more than that to get fans to forget some of the best characters Marvel ever created.

Nightcrawler #12 Art