X-Poundations Episode 0

X-Men Status Chart

So I made a neat graphic to show everyone where everybody is a little bit more easily.

X-Men checklist

New reviews and hopefully other blog posts are coming soon, but for now, let's see if we can nail down exactly where everyone is post Schism.

Original X-Men characters

Professor X - Seen in WatXM but unknown as to where he is settling.

Cyclops - Utopia, Leader, X-tinction team

Jean Grey - White Hot Room

Beast - Jean Grey Institute

Ice Man - Jean Grey Institute

Archangel - Unknown pending the end of the Dark Angel Saga in X-Force.

Havok - X-Factor Investigations

Magneto - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Toad - Jean Grey Institute

Polaris - X-Factor Investigations

Sunfire - Unknown

Banshee - Dead

Mimic - Unknown



All New All Different X-Men

Storm - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Wolverine - Jean Grey Institute, Head Master

Colossus - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Nightcrawler - Dead but replaced with an alternate reality counterpart, and...some gremlins called Bamfs

Kitty Pryde - Jean Grey Institute, Head Mistress

Lockheed - Jean Grey Institute

Rogue - Jean Grey Institute

Emma Frost - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Sebastian Shaw - Utopia



Other X-Men and X-Team characters

Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) - Jean Grey Institute

Psylocke - Utopia, also serving with X-Force

Dazzler - Utopia

Longshot - X-Factor Investigations

Gambit - Jean Grey Institute

Jubilee - Utopia, circumstances unknown

Joseph - appearing in Magneto Not a Hero

Marrow - X-Cell

Hepzibah - Unknown

Stacy X - Unknown recently seen in contact with Teen Brigade

Cecilia Reyes - seen on Utopia during Fear Itself, believed to be based in New York City

Sage - last seen fused with the Exiles Crystal palace

Boom Boom - Utopia

Warpath - Utopia

Domino - Utopia

Northstar - Utopia, Alpha Flight

Namor - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Dr. Nemesis - Utopia, Club X

Kavita Rao - Utopia, Club X

Madison Jeffries - Utopia, Club X

Chamber - Jean Grey Institute

Husk - Jean Grey Institute

Omega Sentinel - Formerly in coma on Utopia, now unknown

Thunderbird (Neal Shara) - Unknown

Cable - seen active in attacking the Avengers

Hope Summers - Utopia X-Tinction Team, Lights

Doop - Jean Grey Institute

Frenzy - Jean Grey Institute

Fantomex - X-Force

Deadpool - X-Force

M - X-Factor Investigations

Siryn - X-Factor Investigations using name Banshee

Quicksilver - Avengers Academy

Multiple Man - X-Factor Investigations

Shatterstar - X-Factor Investigations

Pete Wisdom - MI - 13

Captain Britain - formerly MI - 13, soon Secret Avengers

Meggan - In company of Captain Britain

Kylun - Unknown

Mondo - Unknown

Cerise - Unknown last scene in deep space

Ferron - Unknown

Widget - Unknown

Pip the Troll - X-Factor Investigations

Skids - unknown, last seen working with Shield

Abigail Brand - S.W.O.R.D.

Strong Guy - X-Factor Investigations

Mystique - dead, body given to Hand for revival

Callisto - X-Cell

Dark Beast - recently in company of Archangel, unknown

Layla Miller - X-Factor Investigations

Richtor - X-Factor Investigations

Darwin - formerly with X-Factor, currently unknown

Random - Unknown, last scene on Utopia

Sunder - Unknown, presumed de-powered

Juggernaut - left powerless post Fear Itself

Deathlok - X-Force

Blink - recently revived and joining with New Mutants

X-Man - Working for Cyclops with the New Mutants

Exiles - currently Unknown

Forge - Unknown

New Mutants

Cannonball - Jean Grey Institute

Mirage - working for Cyclops with other New Mutants

Karma - Jean Grey Institute

Wolfsbane - X-Factor Investigations

Cypher - working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Warlock - working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Magma - Working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Sunspot - Working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Magik - Utopia, X-Tinction team

Legion - Unknown, last scene in company of Professor X

Lila Cheney - Intergalactic Rock Star

Students

Surge - Utopia

Wind Dancer - depowered unknown

Prodigy - Utopia

Elixir - Unknown

Pixie - Utopia, Lights

Beak - Teen Brigade

Angel - Teen Brigade

No Girl - Utopia, Lights

Ernst - Jean Grey Institute

Cuckoos - Utopia

Kid Omega - Jean Grey Institute

Glob Herman - Jean Grey Institute

Loa - Utopia, Atlantis

Crosta - Utopia, Atlantis

Dust - Utopia

Trance - Jean Grey Institute

Mercury - Jean Grey Institute

Ink - Utopia

Rockslide - Jean Grey Institute

Anole - Jean Grey Institute

Greymalkin - Jean Grey Institute

Armor - Jean Grey Institute

Blindfold - Jean Grey Institute

Gentle - Jean Grey Institute

Bling! - Jean Grey Institute

Match - Jean Grey Institute

X-23 - Avengers Academy, traveling with Gambit

Penance/Hollow - Avengers Academy, Loners

Hellion - Jean Grey Institute

Warbird - Jean Grey Institute

Indra - Jean Grey Institute

Kid Gladiator - Jean Grey Institute

Broo - Jean Grey Institute

Cipher - Jean Grey Institute

Velocidad - Utopia, Lights

Transonic - Utopia, Lights

Primal - Utopia, Lights

Zero - Utopia, Lights



Other mutants and related characters

Outlaw - Unknown was scene recently both on Utopia and in the company of Deadpool

Dragoness - Unknown, seen recently on Utopia

Avalanche - running bar in San Francisco

Litterbug - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Bliss - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Lorelai Travis - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Rhapsody - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Timeslip - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Vange Whedon - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Mortis - Unknown, formerly in coma on Utopia

Stinger - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Amelia Voight - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Ariel - thought dead during second coming, since then believed to have survived

Erg - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Empath - in Utopia jail

Firestar - Young Allies

Daken - Building criminal empire in Los Angeles

Weapon Omega - unknown, last seen with Osborn's Dark X-Men

Exodus - due to show up soon in X-Men Legacy








Thats most everyone, if I missed anyone you think is relevant at all, or if you see any mistakes, please let me know.

Views of the Atom: X-23 15, X-Men Legacy 256-257, X-Men 19, X-Men Regenesis, Gen Hope 12, Uncanny X-Force 16, and Jason Aaron's Wolverine.

Well its been a while, but now that I have all the xbooks coming in regularly (save Wolverine, Daken, and arguably Deadpool)  I feel more confident in getting this thing updated regularly.

X-23 15


Picking up on surprising cliff hanger from last issue, Marjorie Liu's X-23 continues to impress me as strong and idiosyncratic book that's absolutely imperative for Marvel to be publishing right now.

The plot itself revolves around Laura, who has come to New York on personal business regarding her past, falling into an adventure with the Future Foundation.  The series makes use of some old school continuity (namely that Sue Richards, Spiderman, and X-23 have all at one time or another become Captain Universe) to spin a cool sci-fantasy tale that spins right out of the ol' Micronauts books.

This is kind of a huge departure in tone for X-23, and its incredibly welcome.  The series up til now has been quite good, but its scope up until this point has seemed quite narrow.  Involving Laura in a new kind of adventure, surrounding her with characters whose points of view are so different from those of the X-Men, its a welcome change of pace.  The story is a tad bit out of left field, but thats hardly any real kind of draw back.

I'm especially enjoying Valeria Richards, Sue and Richards ultra-precocious super genius daughter interacting with X, these are both dangerous young women with some problems figuring out where exactly they belong in the world, and I think X-23 using that as a kind of motif in its stories has been a great sort of touchstone.  The book is always full of very strong, but also very troubled female characters, and watching them emphasized AS characters is a joy.

Phil Noto does the art for this arc, and its always gorgeous, though he draws perhaps the most inactive looking Spider Man I've ever seen.  He's not in anyway bad at action, but he may not yet have picked up on how to portray really constantly dynamic characters like Spidey.


X-Men Legacy 256 and 257


Parts three and four of the Five Miles South of the Universe story line bring us some interesting stuff.

Before I really go into this, I want to stress how much this feels like a classic Claremont styled X-story.  Multiple factions, tons of different elements, and high stakes, not just (as it so often is these days) just for the X-men or Mutant race, but for all the regular people around them.  If you miss that feel of adventure and action in your x-books this is really for you.

This story has been setup as a big rescue mission, Rogue, Frenzy, Gambit and Magneto using some power taken from Legion to teleport deep into space and rescue Rachel Summers, Havok and Polaris.  Initially separated they found themselves on a city sized space station falling into a sun and in the middle of a war between the Shi'ar and an insect like species.

In 256 we find that all the trouble is actually the work of an incredibly sadistic and disenfranchised alien mutant named Friendless.  He hates his own people, he hates the Shi'ar, and he's telepathically manipulating the leaders of the two races to wipe each other out.  Rachel battles Friendless, and the X-Men all re-unite, along with a group of Shi'ar space pirates from a much earlier arc of Legacy.  The mission objective seems concluded, and the conflict between the aliens has even stopped, but the station is still falling into the sun, and Rogue sacrifices her borrowed teleportational ability to gain the knowledge to fix it and save the thousands of people on board.

257 sees the X-Men splitting up one group lead by Magneto trying to find a ship to get them off the station, while Rogue and Frenzy gamble their lives to stop the station from falling farther into the sun.  The issue is filled with a lot of high intensity drama as Friendless returns and manipulates both alien factions into targeting the X-men.

This has been a great story, really surging with unexpected developments and great action.  Theres some time made for some decent character development with Rogue, Magneto and Frenzy, and its nice to see the Shi'ar side characters getting some time to really flesh out their personalities.  Havok and Polaris are left with fairly little to do, they are less of characters in this story and more plot objects...a position those particular too have occupied time and time again throughout X-Men history.

I really can't stress enough how much Mike Carey gets the X-Men.  Gets what it is, and what kind of stories it needs to tell.  So many other books try to make the X-Men about humans vs mutants or saving the mutant race, but those aren't really things you can ever get a satisfying conclusion to.  They are the situation that gives the X-Men tension, and are better left as a kind of background.  Carey instead tells a mix of super personal stories mixed with extremely large scope adventure that has always made for the best kind of X-Men stories. He also introduces, and makes you care about new characters.  From Frenzy, who has quickly become one of my favorite X-Men, to the way he handles Magneto AS an X-Man, but without ever losing what makes him a terrifying antagonist, to characters like his alien ruffians.  Carey blends old and new in a way few of even Marvel's so called Architects can.

Art is still Koi Pham, decent but muddy, and without a lot of the visual flare that I prefer in my comics, but his work is very expressive, and thats a huge postive in an x-story.

X-Men 19


Conclusion to the Victor Gischler penned Betrayal in the Bermuda Triangle, X-Men 19 is a fast paced conclusion to nifty pulp adventure team up between the X-Men and the Future Foundation.

On a mission to rescue Lee Forrester an ex of both Magneto's and Cyclops' the X-Men and FF have gone to another dimension, and found themselves embroiled in a war between the humans lead by Skull the Slayer and aliens from the planet Skorpius.

I have to say, I don't really know anything about Skull the Slayer or this dimension that the two teams hae landed in.  I don't know if this place is an already established location, and these are all previously introduced races of peoples, or if this is all new.  It feels like the former,  but it could be the latter.  Either way, we aren't really given a lot of time to learn about these people.  That isn't so much a problem to me if these are a bunch of old comic ideas that have been given a chance to cameo here, that kind of thing is always nice, even if a tad rushed, but if these things are new, its a tad more disappointing, still, all the unique races and elements add a nice sense of window dressing to the thing, so under no circumstances are they a complete waste.

The story is a bit muddied or maybe just rushed, with Doom pretending to switch sides so he can learn about the enemies, and Cyclops Emma and Sue captured. Most of the heavy work is done by Pixie in this issue as she takes down the macguffin stopping psychic powers from working thats been holding off the Skorpius' rival race, and then frees the capture Cyclops and co.

The big villain in this, the Skorpius Emperor has a vaguely defined ability to manipulate the earth around him becoming a sort of plant ground based shape changer, and you get a really fun sequence at the end of the book where the X-men and FF combine their powers to stop him

This is a fun book, but its fairly obvious that the story was less about itself, and more an excuse to team up the FF and the X-Men, and to play guys like Magneto and Doom off of each other, and that would be great, EXCEPT, Victor Gischler still doesn't have the best grasp of all these characters yet.  There's some he's definitely got a hold of like Emma, and he actually writes an excellent Pixie which is really nice.  He has some good Dr. Nemesis and Reed interactions too.  The whole book would just have played out a little bit better if he maybe had some more time under his belt finding voices for guys like Magneto and Wolverine.

Still, it was a lot of fun, and I'd probably recommend the trade to someone who was just looking for something fun and irreverant.

X-Men Regenesis and Generation Hope 12


I've decided to review these together as they cover quite literally some of the same material, are written in teh same time frame and by the same person.

Kieron Gillen has quickly become one of my favorite X-Men wordsmiths.  His take on characters, and his ability to express subtleties and motivations under the surface are almost without peer, and because of that his X-Men Regenesis is masterly.

The plot is fairly minimal, X-Men choose who to follow, while Cyclops and Wolverine campaign for a few of their favorites.  Nearly everyone's reasons are very clear, and make good sense following the last few years of X stories.  Theres a couple of more suspect choices, Bling! for instance is not someone I saw wanting to go back to the school, but even in those circumstances I can see the logic.

The dialog throughout the story is well wrought.  In particular scenes between Cyclops and Storm, Rogue and Magneto, and probably most importantly in my mind the scene with the young X-Men.

I can't stress how important it is that Gillen addressed them, and addressed them well.  They are the crux of this, they are what the Schism was about, and its interesting, because while these X-Men are concerned about their future, so are the fans of the younger gen of X kids, it mirrors our concerns in a lot of ways.

Billy Tan's art works, and he does a great job illustrating the tribal framing device which Gillen uses to weave  the story together, but his visuals are a bit blurry sometimes, and theres some very odd coloring going on in the book.

Several pages of Regenesis also deal with Hope, Transonic, and their conflicts and concern over 14 year old Oya, the mutant who killed to defend the X-men during Schism.  These pages also appear in Gillen's Gen Hope 12.

Gen Hope has been my favorite Marvel book since about issue 4, and while this is sadly Gillens last on the book its a wonderful exit.  Besides dealing with the elephant in the room of Oya, it sets up the ability for the next writer James Asmus to take the various Lights in a lot of different directions rather than necessarily strictly following whatever Gillen would have done.

Like Regenesis its fairly light on plot, mostly being vignettes of character interactions.  Transonic confronts Hope about Idie only to be almost instantly cowed by Hope showing honest to god vulnerability and pain.  A fun scene involving a beach cook out leads to some enjoyable antics, and theres an honest to god revalation about Velocidad that elevates the character above the kinda second rate Johnny Storm role he's been in since the beginning.

Also as a plus the team gets a new member in the form of Pixie, which adds some romantic akwardness into the mix.  I'd personally seen this particular addition coming since before Schism when they failed to rescue the last Light before he committed suicide, and it was nice to see my suspicions play out as well as see Pixie find herself a more fixed position in the x-books.  Shes been a fairly major character for a while but has gotten fairly little actual recognition.

As always though, Gillen leaves the book on a note that doesn't really allow you to trust much of what you've seen, because as always the subtle control and influence Hope has on her Lights always ends up showing, and you once again have to look at everything you've witnessed, and wonder just exactly how much was the Lights, and how much was Hope, and moreover, how much of it was Hope subconsciously affecting them and how much was it her actively controlling them.  Even as Gillen leaves these questions remain, and because of that there is no Marvel book more intriguing.  I hope Asmus is up to the challenge of writing characters with so may layers and so much subtlety.

Art is as always on Gen Hope very good, Steve Sanders picking up pencils this week and doing some really wonderful stuff with Zero's powers, sadly I'm not looking forward to the incoming Roberson, he drew the Gen Hope characters back in Uncanny 439 and gave them all nearly identical body types and similar faces, not a bad artist, but not a great pick for drawing young women.



Uncanny X-Force 16


Arguably the best book Marvel is publishing, X-Force continues to deliver high stakes sci-fi action and suspense with great writing and incredible art.

The climax to the Dark Angel Saga is coming, the Apocalypse possessed Warren Worthington III working on a plan to start evolution on earth over again from the beginning, Psylocke captured, every member of X-Force battered by Apocalypse's Horsemen and the Age of Apocalypse reinforcements Dark Beast has gathered.

Dialog is as always great, and while I dont necessarily worry for the lives of our characters, I do worry for their souls, and even for the fate of the great villains.

Remender continues to write the best Deadpool we've seen in years, and makes Fantomex shine maybe even more so than Morrison.  His Archangel is chilling, his Psylocke a real presence, and all of his new villains are immediately arresting individuals.  he's even made me love Deathlock, this is the very best of comics here.

The setting still revolves around The World, and we still have yet to see exactly what will come out of the experiments that Fantomex has kept there.

No book in Marvel keeps me on the edge of my seat as much as this one.  Buy it now.


On a seperate note I recently read though Jason Aaron's run on Wolverine, I won't review it in depth here, but I'll say its a very mixed bag of interesting elements and plodding plots.  It has a lot to recommend it, but it is slow and drawn out far longer than it needed to be.  I mostly bring it up though, because it very much sets up Wolverines state of mind going into Schism, and honestly Schism prolly would have read a lot better coming directly out of it.

Well that's it for Views of the Atom this week.  See you soon for another Mutant Watch, and hopefully coming soon a regular podcast

My first video, watch me ramble about X-Men Schism in black and white.

Lets see how many time I said ummh or called Schism a really smart story.  Also can you tell that I closed my eyes a lot...  That I definitely have to work on.

Mutant Watch

Vange Whedon

Evangelyne Whedon is a fairly minor character to come out of Chris Claremonts X-Treme X-Men.  A mutant lawyer who fought in the court room for mutant rights, the character play a significant role in one, maybe two arcs of the book, and then was basically ignored until a recent issue of Gen Hope made use of her.

Why have I deemed her worthy of talking about today?  Well, mostly because given the way that the X-books are constantly escalating into the grounds of political/action drama, and given the demands of the world when working on those things, the X-Men are probably going to need a lawyer representing them more often in the future.

Gillen's new run on Uncanny promises a more pro-active team working under some Machiavellian principles, and manipulation of the legal system will probably be necessary for them to accomplish their goals.  Gillen has already used Whedon once in this role, and I wouldn't be surprised if she continued to be a recurring supporting characters as time goes on.

I wouldn't, however, expect to see her on the field of battle, as her mutant power is to turn into a raging giant red dragon whenever blood touches her...kinda impractical.

Dr. Nemesis

If you have read any x-book post Second Coming you've almost certainly noticed Dr. James Bradley.  Dr. Nemesis is an honest to goodness Golden Age super hero who Matt Fraction retconned into a scifi mutant nazi hunter.  He was very much a pet character of Fractions, brought in by Beast to help for the X Club, the X-mens scientific cabal for getting mutant kind back on track.  His powers are basically that hes smart and athletic  but hes also enhanced his own eyes to allow him to see through things, and detect genetic anomalies.

Dr. Nemesis has become more or less omni-present in the x-books of late, probably because the Xmen these days no longer have Beast or Forge, as such someone has had to step up and become the head of the X-Men's science division, and that man happens to be the ever cranky Dr. Nemesis.

The crankiness is probably also what lends himself to being used.  As a more or less constantly surly and cynical character, hes fun to contrast against a lot of the more idealistic X-Men.

While Beast is returning to Wolverine's X-Men, expect Dr. Nemesis and the X-Club to continue to play a large roll in Uncanny for the foreseeable future.

Kid Omega

Quentin Quire was the main character and main antagonist of Grant Morrison's Riot at Xavier's story several years back.  Arguably the best X-Men story of the last decade, Riot presented a new view of rebellious mutant youth culture.  An introverted, too sensitive, too intelligent too POWERFUL young mutant suffering a personal trauma and awakened to the exhilaration of narcotics tries to find a way to make himself feel important, and so he starts his own tiny revolution.

Quentin is a massively powerful telepath, but at the heart of things he mostly wants to feel accepted and like he belongs.  For a while Quentin had ascended beyond humanity and dwelt in the White Hot Room, the plane where Phoenixes live.  We don't know why he's come back to this level of reality, but it seems that it has to do with the fact that he feels unfulfilled.

While Quentin played the anarchical terrorist in Schism his actual goals and intents are probably not nearly as diabolical as he'd like people to believe.

Thats it for this weeks Mutant Watch, come back next week and we'll talk about Transonic, Zero and Husk.

Astonishing X-Men 42, Uncanny 543, X-Men 17 - 18, X-Factor 225 and X-Men Legacy 255.

Quite a backlog to talk about.

First, a quick shout out to Vengeance 3.  Not an X book, but it features X alums Angel and Beak in significant roles, Beak being badass as ever, really cant stress enough how good it is to see those two again.

So starting with Astonishing.  I don't know if its because of the rotating nature of Astonishing, or if its because this story so obviously happened forever ago given Kitty's status, but I've had a hard time investing in this story.

Its not poorly written, the kernel of the idea is a good one, if one I've seen before in other forms, and its always nice to see Abigail Brand, the fact that S.W.O.R.D. was as short lived as it was is truly a comic tragedy.

The art is interesting to look at, if perhaps a bit messy, maybe its just Juan Bobillo's take on the Brood, they always look just a tiny bit off.  I will say that even as a Brood, he draws a really dynamic and powerful Colossus thats made me appreciate the characters power for the first time in a while, and his Storm rocks a costume which I normally find to be the worst the character has ever worn.  Really Bobillo excels at drawing beautiful girls, and neat scifi stuff, if not non human characters, but being able to draw less human looking stuff should be a requirement for working on an Xbook.

I mostly picked this up to learn a bit more about the Brood kid who is joining Wolverine and the X-Men next month.  We get a fairly good bead on his mindset, which is about what you'd expect, as one of the only good Brood, he's an outcast, a mutant among his own kind.  I like the Brood kid, but I really wish that his head was a bit more Brood shaped, instead of the rounded look he possess.

Overall its not a bad issue, but maybe a tad rushed, or maybe just a tad stretched for something that should feel like an immediate action story.


Moving on to Uncanny 543, this is a book I really thoroughly enjoyed.  Gillen shows a deft hand at maneuvering mutants through tricky situations, both those involving super hero action and those involving personal or political drama.

This issue concludes the Fear Itself tie in that saw Juggernaut under the control of the Serpent marching on Utopia, issuing and Ultimatum to destroy either it or San Francisco.  This particular caveat really works for both the Fear Itself story and for the X-Men, really capitalizing on the already present fear of mutants in a way few of the other Worthy really have.

Juggernaut showing himself more unstoppable than usual, Scott, having gone this route so often now it must feel natural, has decided to make a deal with a devil, this particular devil, Cytorrak is the source of Juggernauts normal powers.  Cyclops sent Magik, who had recently endangered and betrayed all of the X-men in a gambit to get revenge on the demons who have abused her for years, to deal with Cyttorak and become the new Juggernaut in order to fight him.  Colossus of course, unwilling to see his already black stained sister tainted any further steps in and becomes the Juggernaut in her place, and so is able to stop the Worthy's march on San Fran.

Colossus like a lot of the 70s X-Men had in many ways run his course as a character.  No one was doing much with him, and he'd basically been boiled down to a couple of tropes, as people dont seem to like seeing their characters trying something new in these uncertain times, thats why, despite not caring much for the visual, I really approve of Pete as Juggernaut, the juxtaposition of his artists soul against the incredibly destructive nature of the Juggernaut promises for some really interesting and insightful situations going down the road.

If I'm to complain about anything in the issue, it would be Greg Lands art.  It told the story competently enough, but, as is usual for Land, the man draws basically one or two girls over and over, its completely impossible to tell Magik from Emma by a face shot.

Oh and speaking of Emma, theres a subplot in this going on with her and Hope, thats really really fun to see.


Next I'll speak quickly about X-Men 17 and 18.

The issues involve the FF and the X-Men going to another dimension to rescue some old acquaintances.  The main rescue-ey in question is a woman who has a past with both Cyclops and Magneto, so it works rather well from that angle.  Even more fun is seeing this particular mix of characters.  Having teams that include Dr. Doom and Magneto on them make for some of the most interesting dynamics in a super hero book in years. Also letting some of the newer but prominent X-characters like Dr. Nemesis and Pixie have some time to interact with Marvel classics is always a good idea.

The dimension they are in gives us a lot of great aliens, and weird races of people to play with, its all a lot of fun, if a bit rushed.  I can mostly forgive this, as its obvious this is meant to be a quick romp, but the one thing I can't forgive is the fact that the writer Victor Gischler just doesn't seem to have the knack for writing character interaction that well.

Its not terrible, but a lot of his dialog comes off as awkward, like when he has a guy introduce the Future Foundation as the FF, or just some of the more mundane things he has Magneto say.  Gischler I think could polish this stuff, but given the schedule he's on, and the rotating cast of characters he has to deal with, I dont think he's really had enough time and experience with these characters to find their voices.

Its a shame too, because this is a story so rife with potential for interesting character discussions.

 All in all X-Men 17 and 18 were a fun enough rollick through a kind of pulp atmosphere with some of my favorite Marvel characters.  The art is good enough, and the plotting is quite fun.  Gischler just really needs to get a better handle on some of these characters voices.

X-Factor 225 picks up from a plot point left from the recent 224.1 issue, as Madrox and co are called upon to investigate a murder which took place in Madrox's previously abandoned family home.  As its X-Factor crazy shit abounds.  Madrox had just visited the woman who was murdered and spent several hours talking with her and her apparent son, when the police call to have him investigate her body, they find they know nothing about any child at all, then the womans body gets up and starts talking, and THEN it starts to get weird.

X-Factor is always  throwing mysteries at us, which keeps it engaging, but sometimes I wish it could just relax a little bit, clear the decks, and let us enjoy the character drama.  Oh and is there ever character drama.  Richtor has just gotten his powers back, and his actions are now causing boyfriend Shatterstar some jealousy, and Wolfsbane, depressed over her rejection of her mystical wolf baby has taken to binge eating.  Horrible as this might be to say, I hope this plot point continues for a while as I'm all for actually having a character with a weight problem in a Marvel book.

X-Factor is exciting, interesting, and somewhat exhausting, a great book, but a bit of an undertaking.


Last up for the night we have X-Men Legacy 255.

This is a book I'm a tad conflicted about.  Its very much of a classic X-men style, but the whole thing is a bit...convenient.

This comes out of a plot point left of from Age of X, where Rachel Grey's psychic manifestation called out for help from the X-men.  Rogue temporarily gifted with an amazing teleporting power she stole from one of Legions rogue personalities has taken a small group of Xmen to the rescue, and has of course landed in a heck of a mess, and of course ran into the one group of Shi'ar that shes managed to piss off in recent history.

Despite all the story conveniences, the really classic feel of this piece is a lot of fun, and as usual its fun to see Rogue kicking ass.  The Xmen have landed in the middle of a conflict between the Shiar and an insect like alien people that the Shiar had enslaved.  The insectoid aliens have somehow mind whammied Havok and Polaris into their service (man thats REALLY classic X-Men there) and the Xmen have to get them back, and stop the entire space station they are on from falling into the sun.

As a side note I'm really enjoying Frenzy.  Mike Carey, as he usually does, has take a character I couldn't give a care about, and made her into someone I'm really enjoying seeing as an X-Man each month.

I guess any of the slight dissatisfaction with this issue I have could be layed on Steve Kurth's art, which though competent, doesnt exactly set the atmosphere that well, though he draws some great looking horrific aliens.

Thats it for a while.  Next week I'll come back with the final Schism discussion, but before then look forward to a post about some more obscure but neat mutants that I hope to become prominent going forward into the regenesis.

Schism 4 and Gen Hope 11

Okay Jason Aaron, you and me need to talk.  You are like that super amazing gymnast or ice skater who just can't stick the landing.

Spoiler warning here.

So X-Men Schism is about a huge philosophical divide between Cyclops and Wolverine.  Its a great thing to create a Schism over, its perfectly in character.  It basically boils down to Cyclops thinking that using teenage mutants as soldiers is okay, and Wolverine thinking its not.

Cyclops who was basically forged into a teenage soldier himself by Professor X, who has lived his entire life based on the ideas of a man who made him and his peers into student soldiers is totally in character to have his students fight....or he would be under most circumstances.

Heres the problem.  The issue has a giant Sentinel attacking Utopia, and all of the adult X-Men are off the island.  The students stand beside Cyclops to fight the Sentinel, and Wolvie comes out and says no, no more kids fighting.

Cyclops has made tough decisions that have put these kids in danger before, but only when its been to make sure these kids had a better chance of surviving.  This isn't about them surviving, this isnt about anything but defending Utopia.  Why is this a problem?  It's a problem because Utopia was just a measure Scott took to help the mutant race survive.  It was never the END, it was just a means to an end of keeping mutants safe.

Cyclops putting mutant lives in danger just to save this piece of rock, it makes no sense.  They've rebuilt the mansion after a million attacks, they have other places they can go, if the Sentinel is just attack Utopia, Scott putting mutant lives in danger just to defend it doesn't in anyway go with the man who has spent every waking moment trying to insure the survival of mutant kind.

Now you could tell this story if you told it in Uncanny, if you took some time to develop Scott becoming invested in the idea of Utopia as a nation,  but that hasn't happened here.  Instead Aaron has put the cart before the horse, and totally missed what it is Cyclops has been fighting for since M-Day.  This is a huge problem, its really sad, because the philosophical point that the Schism is happening over is really valid, its just sad that it had to happen in such a big stupid forced way.

It gets worse though.  Wolverine tells Scott he's going to blow up the island rather than let Cyclops have the kids fight.  This is odd.  Its odd from a logistics standpoint of how he did it, and its kinda odd from the perspective of "Why would Logan have prepared this?"  So Scott and Logan then having a shouting match over whether or not to blow up Utopia, and Scott, out of NOWHERE tells Wolverine that Jean never loved him, and then its on.

So yeah, Schism has a great kernel of an idea, a lot of neat shit going on it, and some really valid points.  It also has Scott Summers  being totally off mission for no good reason.

The real problem is Jason Aaron is coming out of this writing Wolverine not X-Men.  Thats no knock on the man, he does a lot of god work here, but there's obviously a lot of nuances of the way the X-Men work these days that he either missed or just glossed over.  If they would have had him write some actual X-men for a while, let him find the voice for these characters before he had to write an EVENT with them, I think this would have come out better, but as it is, its a lot of clumsy flailing, with a couple solid hits in there.


Generation Hope 11 however, is amazing.

This issue takes place just a little bit before the climax of Schism 4.  It starts off dealing with the fallout from last issue.  Idie has just killed a bunch of Hellfire club goons to save the lives of many of the X-Men, and Transonic has some serious issues with robbing the innocence of a 14 year old girl, and this causes some serious confrontation between her an Hope.

The issue marks two really big moments that I personally enjoyed.  First Hope actively using her ability to control her "Lights" and second the Gen Hope kids finally interacting with the Academy X kids.  The latter is a really long time in coming.

The whole issue is incredibly character driven, and in a book like this with really layered characters, putting them through their paces, and facing them with some serious conflict really brings who they are to the surface.

X-Force 15. Glory to the Archangel Warren

X-Force is a bit of a wild ride for me.  I mean that in two ways.  The book itself is a wild ride, unexpected and shocking things happening in it all the time, its also a book that goes rapidly from pretty good to OMG AMAZING very rapidly.

X-Force 14 and now 15 have gone into this OMG territory, elevating the book up to Grant Morrison levels of creativity.

The premise behind X-Force is simple, the reality not so much.  Logan thought what he was doing was creating a team to deal permanently with threats to mutankind, one without any direct involvement of the governing body of Utopia.

What he has ended up doing is creating a situation in which Archangel has become the new Apocalypse, and with that, we have entered easily the best Marvel story of this decade.

Archangel has ascended to become Apocalypse, not En Sabah Nur, but the position he held, that of the Celestials aid in evolution.  Fearing what House of M has done to the course of evolution on the planet, he seeks to restart life on earth at the beginning to get things back on track.

This book is full of great SF style concepts.  Its cast is sublime, and its villains, for the first time in a Marvel book in YEARS, are literally bone chilling.

Archangel is surrounded by a sort of cult, consisting of the Dark Beast, the previous Apocalypse's ultimate Horsemen, and Apocalypse's son Genocide.  All that stands between them and restarting life on this planet are Deadpool, Fantomex and Deathlock.  The is a book that has made me love Deathlock, a feat I thought impossible.

Two other things I love about this book are how aware it is of the rest of the Marvel Universe.  That there are places and things in the Marvel Earth that are relevant to what they are doing, and so they go there or reference them.  Too many books these days ignore that sort of thing if its not convenient, making a much poorer shared world.  The other thing, would be Remenders treatment of Deadpool, as a character, a tragic character in fact, that wants to be a hero, but has trouble, and who is often incredibly insecure.  Its wonderful that the Wade can once again be handled by someone who actually cares about making him a person instead of a joke with legs.

X-Sanction: Hope will never die!

Marvel has announced a new limited series called Avengers X-Sanction.  It's written by Jeph Loeb, who's writing I've never found particularly good, and drawn by Ed McGuiness, whose art I love.

Let me tell you this book fills me with utter dread.  It's not that I think it will be bad (though I do think it will be mediocre at best) its that anything that pulls the X-Men closer into the rest of the Marvel Universe is BAD for the X-Men.

I like the Marvel Universe, but House of M was the worst thing to ever happen to the Xbooks.  Civil War literally didn't work if the X-Men were involved in it, Secret Invasion, Siege, and Fear Itself have just been plain bad.  The X-Men getting caught up in the string of bad event books is really only gonna hurt them.  Look at how screwed up Captain America has gotten just from Fear Itself.

The actual concept of Sanction X is one that is intriguing.  Cable, somehow alive again, fighting the Avengers for some reason that relates to Hope.  Why would the Avengers be a danger to Hope, what is going on here, its very strange, and it continues to play on the ambiguous nature of what Hope is.  This is neat stuff, and capitalizing on Cable doing secret dirty work for Hope, unbeknownst even to her is a good concept.

That said, I'm incredibly afraid the nuances of Cable as a character will be lost under Loeb's bludgeoning pen.  The BFG wielding Cable portrayed in the teaser art does little to assuage those fears.

As with most things X, I'm cautiously optimistic, Alonso and Loeb have given me several years of consistently good XBooks.  Even Loeb can write okay things sometimes, so I'm going to continue to hope for good things, and continue to hope as well, that once tied more into the wretched Avengers franchise, the X-Men cant continue to deliver the high quality, high drama SF styled goodness that I love.

X-23 14 also known as Marjorie Liu I love you.

This will probably be fairly short.

Just read X-23 #14.  Great little issue.  This is the second part of a story involving X-23 running around New York searching for a young man she was once sent to assassinate.  However in the course of this, incredibly strange events have occurred that have caused her to run into the Future Foundation (the guys we used to call the Fantastic Four before the Human Torch died.)

Its incredibly thrilling to see X-23 juxtaposed against the kinds of fantastic elements the FF constantly run into, and X-23's personal reactions to the team itself, and its members feel incredibly natural.  So often when characters meet each other for the first time in comics, its so wrote, so by the numbers, this however is the kind of interaction that only these particular characters could have.

Finally there's the twist, the force behind these strange events, and how it ties the FF and X-23 together.  Its a great little bit of continuity that unites them, something potentially really fun.  If you've seen the most recent Marvel solicits you probably already know what it is, but if not its a wonderful surprise.

Art is by Phil Noto and its absolutely gorgeous, and I MEAN gorgeous.  Some of its a tad stiff, but the expressions and figures are beautiful, and when the man has to draw a huge sprawling alien landscape, he draws the heck out of it.

Things you might want to know about if you are just now getting back into X-Men.

Whether you are starting totally fresh with Regenesis, are a lapsed fan, or even if you are a current fan that just doesn't read all the books, or keep up on the news, there are probably a few things you should know about when looking at these covers.

1.  Utopia

Currently the X-Men live on Utopia, the remains of Magneto's Asteroid M, turned into an island, under which New Atlantis is built.

There are around 80 mutants living on Utopia right now, and about 60 or so of them are X-Men.  What does that mean going forward?  Well for one thing, its said that every mutant will take a side on this, that means that on one side or the other, all those mutants that aren't on these covers are gonna be around.

2. These are not your final teams, probably not even close.

Jason Aaron said that Wolverine and the X-Men has about 14 characters in and 3 of them are new.  Its possible that there is some spill over from Legacy, but you should definitely expect more people on that team.
Kieron Gillen said his Uncanny will have a team of 10 plus support cast, now once again, Gillen could be dipping into some of the members over on the adjectiveless X-Men book (most likely Storm) but even then, there are gonna be some other characters on that team.

Legacy is probably not going to continue with this specific team after Mike Carey's run is over either, and the Gischler X-Men book has always had a rotating cast of X-Men, and I doubt thats going to change anytime soon.  Those two are definitely the places I'd look to see some of your other X-men, like Dazzler, Pixie, Husk or the other Academy X kids showing up.

I don't want to say Marvel is lying with these covers, but they are probably giving a lot of people who aren't up on X-Men some false impressions.

3.  No more "No more mutants".

So back at the end of Marvel's first big crossover of the 2000s House of M, the Scarlet Witch, driven insane by loss, decided, more or less randomly, to de-power most of the mutant population.  The de-powered mutants were basically just the not popular or unknown ones that had nothing to do with any of her problems with mutants, but hey, that's a rant for another time and place (though its a VERY LONG one).

Anyway, this resulted in the mutant race almost going extinct, but eventually a new mutant was born, and she was taken to the future (because that is what you do with babies in X-Men) and raised there, and returned as a teenager.  Her name is Hope, and she has the ability to stabilize the very small number of newly emerging mutants.  All the characters in Generation Hope (save Sebastian Shirtless there) are new mutants that have shown up in the last year or so.  Meanwhile, over in a book called Avengers Children's Crusade, Wanda has finally shown back up, and has re-powered her first mutant.

So this whole Hope thing...might have been a bit of a waste of time.  We don't know yet.  Marvel has teased that Schism and Children's Crusade are ending at around the same time for a reason, and Axel Alonso EIC of Marvel has said that Hope will be a very big character this year, but there are a lot of signs that lead to the idea that Wanda is gonna be bringing back mutants in a big way (I mean Logan has to get new characters from somewhere.)

Given that the last several years, and all of Cyclops' more questionable decisions have been caused by the decimation of the mutant population, a re-emergence of mutants, even on a smaller level could be a major game changer.

4.  Psylocke

Another thing that might not be immediately clear, because Marvel marketing doesn't actually seem to have anything do with what's actually going on in comics when it comes to the x-books, is that despite Cyclops and Wolverine having a knock down drag out fight for some reason (I think Cyclops wants to sacrifice some hostages from the looks of the Schism 5 preview, and Wolvie is against it) these teams are not fighitng each other.  They aren't opposed, and while there maybe be some emotional bruising between them, I doubt theres gonna be much hate.

This is why Psylocke can be on two teams.

If you aren't following X-Men right now, you should probably know that Psylocke is already on two teams with conflicting agendas.  Cyclops had decided that a hit squad like X-Force was a mistake, and disbanded it, but Wolverine formed it back up without out telling Cyke.  Psylocke is already secretly on that team under Cyclops' nose, and its more to protect Cyclops' credibility than as some kind of betrayal.

Given the events in X-Force, I doubt Betsy will be in a position to leave that team, but that doesn't mean that she's necessarily going to agree with Logan's tactics for the rest of the X-Men.  Especially since it seems what he wants for the X-Men as a whole is a very different from how he handles things with X-Force.

5.  Who is missing.

There are a number of important characters missing from these covers.  They are mostly characters who have become more important in the last 5 or so years, so they don't necessarily spring to the casual X-fans mind.  Here is a quick list of characters who probably should have been on these covers somewhere.

A. Dr. Nemesis and the rest of Club X - When Beast was trying to save the mutant race from extinction, he created a new science division of the X-Men.  When Beast left, they became the go too characters for the X-Men's science needs and have been a huge part of the books.  Dr. Nemesis is a WWII era hero with X-Ray eyes and syringe guns.  Kavita Rao from Whedon's Astonishing is a human geneticist who created a cure to being a mutant, and Maddison Jeffries, formerly Alpha Flight's box, is an eratic savant who can literally talk to machines.  These guys will probably be in Gillens Uncanny.

B. Namor the Sub Mariner - One of the major plot points of the last several years of X-men has been the alliance of the X-Men with the King of Atlantis and his people.  Given they live right above him, I doubt the X-Men are going to sever ties with him soon, though his involvement in the coming Defenders series may scale back his involvement in x-affairs.  This is also definitely someone who will show up in Uncanny, or at least on the blue side.

C. Professor Xavier and Legion - How can you put Xavier so far down this list you say?  Well, believe it or not, despite basically heading a solo title for a while, in the eyes of the X-Men Professor Xavier has lost a lot of stock.  Most of the X-Men realize he's manipulated and abused them at some point in their lives, and while they still love the guy, and think that he is incredibly intelligent and skilled, they are no longer necessarily in a position where they think he should be guiding the mutant race.

Also Xavier's son Legion has returned, a god mutant with every mutant ability imaginable, but he's incredibly unstable.  It's fairly like that Xavier will be trying to help his son for some time to come.

D.  Pixie - laugh if you want, but Academy X alum Megan Gwynn has been a fairly large part of just about every X-story in the last several years.  A lot of that is because the X-Men use her as a substitute for having to fly everywhere, but regardless, she's been a constant presence in the X-books for years now, and not seeing her on these covers is a bit odd.

E. Dazzler and Northstar - two other fairly consistent presences in Uncanny X-men the last several years have been Northstar and Dazzler.  While not the most invested in X things ever, these guys have been through a lot with the X-men recently, and its strange to see them just gone.

F. Cannoball and Karma - these two had been with the New Mutants, and both have been through a lot recently, Karma losing a leg, and Cannonball going through some serious post traumatic stress.  The two of them will probably end up in the background on the blue side with the rest of the New Mutants, but its especially strange to see Cannonball minimalized

G. Armor - Hisako Ichika, mutant force armor projector, and Wolverine sidekick.  Armor has mostly shown up in Astonishing X-Men, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's where she is now, but given she's close with Logan... well we'll see.

H. Anole, Rockslide and all the other Academy X kids.  Seriously?  I mean this is a huge group of characters that are just in total limbo.  They might be splitting  them all up, but for absolutely none of these kids to have shown up on either set of covers is upsetting, disconcerting, and honestly a little insulting to their fans.  These guys haven't played the biggest part since there book ended, but they've kept a presence in mini-series, anthologies, and just by being generally around in books like Legacy.  Having all of them on the covers woudl be silly, not having any is far sillier.

I. Chamber - Chamber was recently re-powered in a little crossover called Age of X, but that meant he once again had a gaping hole in his chest.  This really hasn't been touched upon since, and I find it odd he isn't on any of these covers.


6. The covers.  So now that I've said everything about what's not on these covers, I guess I should cover the covers themselves.

Starting on the left and with the blue team we have Generation Hope.  As I said before Hope is a mutant messiah, raised in the future by Cable to come back and save the mutant race... in some vague way...that has to do with faith...that doesn't make a lot of sense.  It's fairly emotionally and conceptually compelling if you don't think about the logistics though, so we can go with that.

Hope's team is comprised of Sebastian Shaw (for some reason we don't know yet) and then four of her Five Lights, the first 5 mutants who have manifested since Hope appeared.  There's Velocidad from Mexico who speeds up his personal time, letting him work like a speedster, Primal, who is basically a human being who processes information on a hyper instinctual level.  Zero a Japanese artist whose canvas is his own bio-mechanical flesh, and Transonic who has a body of shape changing crystal adapted for high speed flight.  They used to have Oya, an African girl who can move heat, but she's sided with Wolvie.

The interesting thing about Gen Hope, is that all the mutants Hope activates are bound to her emotionally, and this has some really sinister undertones to it.  Transonic and Zero are particularly vexed by their bond to Hope, to the point of looking for ways to betray her, while Primal and Velocidad are almost literally in love with her.

Next is X-Men.  Up til now, and most likely going forward, this book is less about X-Men, and more about X-Men team up.  Dracula, Spider Man, the Future Foundation, and as far as I'm aware, that's still the mandate going forward.

The other thing about this book so far, is that its lineup has been flexible, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's still the case.  The lineup right now is Storm, Jubilee Domino, Warpath, Psylocke.  This is interesting on a lot of levels.  First off, Storm wasn't on this cover when first shown, not even her silhouette.  I wouldn't be surprised if she's not actually that much a part of the first story this book tells.  Warpath and Domino were both on the previous X-Force, and Psylocke, well no one currently knows it, but shes on the more recent incarnation.  I doubt that this is any kind of permanent hit squad, but I bet this first mission in this book is pretty black ops-ey.

Overall, I'd take this book with a grain of salt, its probably pretty dis-ingenuous in giving the impression that this is a permanent roster.  The one thing we SHOULD take away though, is that Jubilee isn't with Wolverine, and that is just WEIRD.  Oh and if you don't know Jubilee doesn't have mutant powers anymore and is in fact a Vampire.  Though maybe she'll get her powers back and be a sparkly vampire.  You should probably know that if you didn't already.

Uncanny X-Men features Emma and Cyclops naturally, these two have been the driving force of X-Men for half a decade or more now.  Danger, which is literally the Danger Room from the old mansion having gained sentience and joined the X-Men (after trying to kill them of course).  Colossus (or maybe he's the Juggernaut now), who has made a deal with the demon Cytorrak in order to stop the Worthy possessed Cain Marko during Fear Itself, his younger sister Magik, or more technically a demon who looks like his younger sister, and possesses her soul, but lets not get complicated, she has a magic sword and she teleports, finally there is Magneto.  Magneto came to Scott a while back, claiming to respect what Scott has done in uniting mutant kind, he seems pretty earnest about it, but even a Magneto who is on your side is a Magneto you have to watch.  These guys goal is to basically be the Avengers, well be even BETTER than the Avengers actually, but at the same time they save humanity, they want to remind people what the X-Men could be doing to any part of humanity that threatens mutant kind.

I love this team, and I love this concept, but I worry Uncanny lacks star power roster wise.  A lot of people want there 90s X-Men, or there classic 70's X-Men, and this is not a grouping that feels like either of those, I can't wait though.

Blue team ends with New Mutants who are...well the New Mutants plus X-Man.  If you are familiar with the New Mutants at all, you know who these guys are.  South American power house Sunspot, techno organic alien Warlock, super hot neo Roman princess Magma, their badass Native American leader Dani Moonstar who will mess you up with a bow and arrow, or a rifle if it comes to it.  Major changes here are the inclusion of Age of Apocalypses version of Cable, Nate Grey the X-Man, and the resurrection of Cypher whose language powers have been redefined as pattern reading of all kinds, and is now himself an utter badass as well.  These guys have been tasked with wrapping up mutant kinds loose ends.  Bringing mutants they've lost track of into the fold, taking out old threats or leftover evil bases.


We move onto the gold team with X-Force.  Started by Archangel and Wolverine, to deal with threats like the ressurected Apocalypse, the team also included evolved mutant thief Fantomex (who pretends to be French and has partner named E.V.A. who is a UFO that came out of his mouth), pseudo-Asian ninja telepath Psylocke, and Deadpool, who you should know.  Archangel has gone a little bit evil post them killing Apocalypse though, and they recently had to travel to the Age of Apocalypse to try and stop him which is here they picked up this Nightcrawler, because ours has been dead for a while.  Warren's absence on that cover probably means he'll be evil for a while, and that's what they'll be dealing with.  Fantomex has really been the driving force in this book though, and you might want to go read Grant Morrison's New X-Men to get a better bead on him if you want to read it.

Wolverine and the X-Men. What is this book doing, I don't even know, but I'm excited to find out.  I'll go over who is on this cover, but with others joining, including new characters, I'm not sure there's much I can say.

We got Oya up top from Gen Hope, Beast, Kitty Pryde intangible mutant prodigy along with her dragon Lockheed, Kid Omega A.K.A. Quentin Quire incredibly intelligent and with tremendous telepathic power, also kind of a wannabe punk rebel, his schemes never get very far though, and Iceman, who hopefully will be more interesting out of Cyclops' and Storm's shadows.

Next is X-Men Legacy.  This is Mike Carey's last arc on the book and I wouldnt expect this roster to last past that, in fact given its history, I could easily see it becoming the young X-men book for Wolvie's side, but right now at least we have Rogue who can finally totally control her powers, and touch people as much as she wants, and she has been, specifically Magneto, much to Gambit's chagrin.  Gambit of course is there, he fell victim to becoming a horseman of Apocalypse a while back, and sometimes changes colors and is really powerful, but that hasn't been touched on lately.  Rachel Summers, Marvel Girl, just got back from space, and it's odd to see her away from her daddy, and then there's Frenzy.  She used to be an Acolyte, and is a bit of a psychopath, but a recent reality altering event has made her want to belong to something better, so now like so many before her, she is a former evil mutant trying to be an X-Man.  She's strong and invulnerable, like a mutant Luke Cage, but she is SO invulnerable, that she literally can't feel anything through her skin.

That brings us to our very last book, X-Factor.  X-Factor is not the team you knew from the 80's and 90's.  Its a detective agency now, its run by Jamie Madrox, and they basically go through as much drama as any three other comics.  There's Madrox who has become an expert at many things by sending his duplicates out to learn them, but his duplicates have become unreliable as they don't all share the same philosophy as him.  There's Siryn Banshee's daughter with the same sonic scream, she and Madrox used to date, and theres a very good reason they don't know.  There is Layla Miller also recently known as Butterfly, who "know's stuff" and brings people back to life, just not with their souls.  She was a kid when she joined the team, but as is often the case in X-Men, she went to the future to grow up.  She also hangs out with Doctor Doom.  There's Mojo World adventurer Longshot who has goodl uck powers, and sleeps around, and Mojo World warrior Shatterstar who has swords, and teleports, and is now gay.  Richtor his boyfriend used to be a mutant with earthquake powers, and now is again, Wolfsbane, who just had a baby, that is some kind of Asgardian wolf god, but when she showed up she claimed it was Richtor's, oh also she did some real bad things with X-Force and blocked it out.  There's former Gen X member M, who is perfect, and a telepath, and super strong, and can fly, but mostly she's PERFECT.  There's Strong Guy, the heart of the team, whose heart recently failed, and he was brought back to life, with a good heart, but no soul, and then there are Havok and Polaris, too more or less normal superhero mutants being dumped into the middles of this wonderful mess.



Well, I think that wraps it up for right now.  Let me know if you have any questions.