The new direction of Marvel, "Marvel NOW", starts here.
The story starts off with an unseen villain taking out a person's brain and replacing it with a mechanical one. Cut to Professor X's funeral where Wolverine gives a heart-felt eulogy. The scene then switches to more of Cap giving Cyclops a guilt trip in his prison cell, before heading to find the OTHER Summers brother. In the aftermath of AvX, Captain America is restructuring the Avengers to be an example of Mutant Equality by adding more mutants to the roster. The first name on his list is none other than the brother of Cyclops, Havok. Havok is reluctant to be the torch-bearer for mutantkind, but Cap insists that he's the best choice. Wolverine will help, but his past is too checkered. While they're meeting, a mutant with a scar across his forehead shows up outside the coffee shop where they're talking. He puts on a helmet and starts tearing up the street. It's the old X-villain Avalanche, and he's the victim with the mechanic brain. He seems to be trashing the city to insight violence against mutants. Cap, Thor, and Havok move to take him out, but before they can do much, he just smiles at them and jumps to his death. Suddenly we're taken to Professor X's memorial where the Scarlet Witch is paying her respects. Rogue shows up and starts some crap with her. She blames the Witch for this outcome, after her "No More Mutants" debacle could be said to start this chain of events. As they bicker there's an explosion and they are attacked by some weird villains, possibly mutants. During the ensuing battle, Scarlet Witch is impaled with a big hand spike and Rogue is knocked unconscious. The final scene is in a shady laboratory where someone is doing some grisly work, talking about the world's most powerful weapon being unguarded. The final scene is a shocker, revealing the Red Skull as the villain, and holding up the brain of the recently deceased Charles Xavier.
This was a setup story of good things to come and was drawn by one of my all-time favorite artists, John Cassaday. Cassaday is the artistic force behind the incredible Astonishing X-Men series where he collaborated with Avengers Director, Joss Whedon, to create my favorite X-men run of all time. Now he's drawing the Avengers and I couldn't be much more excited. This issue wasn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good and promises good things to come. This could end up being a VERY good series.
Wolverine & the X-Men #18
The strongest X-book continues to shine even though it has to play along with the "meh" AvX storyline.
The first page shows Wolverine off battling the Phoenix with his senior X-men, while back at the school, Kitty does her best to keep things running smoothly. Some of the students and faculty are starting to act weird (even for mutants!) and spacing out during odd times. When Kitty tries to talk to one of her affected teachers, Husk, about it, she gets mad, quits, and storms out. Back in class, we see telepathic student, Idie, also spacing out and acting out of character. Her fellow classmate, Broo (the brainy alien mutant), is infatuated with Idie and is worrying about her. Later that evening, Broo catches Idie sneaking off school grounds, saying she has to go to church, where she's gone every day for weeks. Meanwhile, Kitty tries to lighten the mood by planing their first student dance. Before leaving the school, Idie promises Broo that she'll go to the dance with him. He shows up dressed in a suit talking about how he's spent hours on google learning about earth dances when he sees Edie dancing with jerky student, Quentin Quire. Roses fall to the floor as his little, alien heart breaks. The scene keeps cutting back to the battle with the Phoenix where Professor X asks Wolverine to promise him to keep the school going no matter what, just before he is killed. Back in Westchester, Broo takes off towards the mysterious church that has caused the change in his friend. At the Church of Everlasting Damnation, he finds a very creepy preacher who talks about his and Idie's sinfulness and punishment and judgement...until Broo leaps at him and rips his head off! He stares down at the decapitated robot on the floor as a voice from behind says, "You'd like to tell yourself that you knew he was a robot before you attacked him, but I believe we both know that's not true." Kade Kilgore, the pre-pubescent Black King of the Hellfire Club stands in the doorway. The church and the robot preacher are all part of his plan to destroy the X-men, though we don't know what the plan is yet. Next we see one of Broo's classmates, Glob Herman, helping the other members of the Hellfire Club, showing them what I can only assume are tunnels leading underneath the school. Back at the church, Broo realizes that the church is part of Kade's plans and that he's been manipulating Idie for some dark purpose. Broo leaps to attack but Kade is too quick and puts a bullet through his head. Back at the school, Cerebro is reporting that the Phoenix has been defeated and new mutants are appearing across the globe. We see Wolverine, Iceman, beast, Angel, and Rachel Grey mourning the loss of their mentor. We see Idie kissing Quentin Quire. And no one notices on Cerebro where the blip in town that dark as Broo dies. Our last page is a shows the little hero, laying in a pool of blood with his glasses broken.
I'm really sad. I'm so sad. Broo was really nice and smart and nerdy and I just though he was a great new character. I did NOT see this coming. I can only hope for a comic book-style resurrection or maybe his alien DNA will somehow allow him to survive. This is really tragic. I love this book. Whether is funny, action-packed, or heart-rending, it's always of the highest quality. Jason Aaron is doing a phenomenal job writing this book. I never dreamed a Wolverine-led team could have so much character and heart.
The story of Conan tracking down a man who is killing in his name continues.
Conan and his lover, the pirate Queen Belit, have been separated. Belit was slowing him down, so in the last issue she told Conan to run ahead and catch the murderer. Without him, she wanders around helpless, blinded by the sun reflecting of the snow. Even still, she manages to kill a pack of wolves who think her easy prey. In the meantime, Conan catches up to HIS prey, but is held back by archers protecting his quarry. By this time, Belit does catch up and simply yells at the men, asking who is impersonating her lover. The man yells back, "Maeldun". Conan then remembers his childhood best friend and rival, who he always seemed to best, from fighting to girls. His friend grew to hate Conan and after he had left his homeland began laying siege to the people of the north, destroying his name while he did it. We see their rivalry grow in a series of flashback scenes. Conan draws him out by insulting him. The enraged Maeldun attacks and the battle doesn't last long before Conan is forced to gut his friend. With regret over how he treated his friend as children and even more that he was forced to end his life, Conan returns back home to his mother. With his name now cleared, and his land once again safe (as safe as Cimmeria ever gets, at least), Belit and Conan head back south where they now both belong.
This was a very average Conan story. The art in the first issue was very unique for Conan and intriguing, but the last two issues have had a different artist and I just can't get into it. It a very "indie" artistic approach and Conan looks more like a woman than a fierce warrior. If they switch artists on the next issue, I'll try the next storyline, but I won't buy anymore Conan stories drawn by Vasilis Lolos.
While I love the tv show, The Walking Dead, I got interested in it late into the comic book's run and didn't feel like jumping on mid-story. This week, Image released this one-shot reprint detailing the origin and first-appearance of fan-fav character, Michonne. TV SHOW SPOILER...Michonne shows up in the end of the season 2 finale, and is primed to be a major player in Season 3. I'm keeping up with the show, so I though I should learn about her while I had the chance.
The book starts off with a lawyer, Michonne, running from zombies. She finds her boyfriend and his best friend at their home, but her boyfriend has been bitten. Early on they didn't know the bites caused the turn. While she's out scavaging, her boyfriend dies, turns, and kills his friend. By the time she gets back home, they're both zombies and she's forced to lock them away. Once she runs out of food, she tries a desperate gamble. She hacks off their arms and lower jaws, puts collars on them and walks out among the zombie hoard. As she hoped, they don't attack her because they smell her "pets" and don't notice her. In her wanderings she comes across a man about to be over taken by zombies and saves him. This man turns out to be Otis, a member of Sheriff Rick Grimes' group. At this point they are sheltering in a prison, and she joins the group at this point.
This was a good issue and I wish I had been reading this series all along. I may try to catch up with graphic novels. From what I've read so far though, I think I prefer the show to the comics. I haven't read enough comics to know for sure though.
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