Week of June 3, 2015 –
In which one series ends better than another, Marguerite Bennett is your god now, and Secret Wars continues to be a suspiciously well-constructed summer event.
REVIEWED:
- Wolverines #20 (00:49)
- All-New X-Men #41 (6:37)
- Giant-Size Little Marvel AvX #1 (11:04)
- *Years of Future Past #1 (12:44)
- Secret Wars #3 (16:34)
- X-Tinction Agenda #1 (21:03)
*Pick of the Week (23:34)
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Not expecting you to start reviewing it but just in case you guys weren’t aware, the Morlocks, Kitty, Lockheed and Wolfsbane are main characters in the Secret Wars Master of Kung Fu series. You might enjoy checking that out, especially if you like the idea of seeing a feudal Chinese interpretation of any of those characters. Love the show(s).
Quick question: would the Secret Wars mini, Master of Kung Fu, count as an X-Men book since it has the Morlocks plus Kitty Pride and Lockheed in it as Shang-Chi’s new students?
Episode 36 of R&MRtX details the Secret Wars pull list that the X-perts will be reviewing. Since Master of Kung Fu doesn’t faull under the purview of the X-office, it wasn’t included in the pull list for reviews. No idea if the X-perts plan to change this, but they are reviewing a ton of books as it is.
I was a little surprised at the enthusiasm for Wolverines #20. The end felt anticlimactic to me, personally – but I’ve also kind of checked out of this book for a while due to my excitement and anticipation for Secret Wars. Maybe I will get more of that feeling as described by the X-perts in a re-read. Though to be fair, I don’t have nearly as much familiarity with more modern X-Men canon, as I only got back into reading new X-books again due to this podcast. So I didn’t read any of the lead up to the Death of Wolverine, and also didn’t read the other post DoW tie-ins outside of Wolverines and the issues of Storm and WatX that addressed Logan’s death.
AvX looks cute, I wish I could pick it up. But this event is killing me as it is, and I was very very pleased with my choice of Years of Future Past as one of the tie-ins on my pull list.
I will 100% always pull for stories where someone looks fate in the face, raises both middle fingers, and walks off. 200% if it’s Mystique.
For whatever reason, Mystique’s response to the whims of fate (or at least the whims of Irene) didn’t dawn on me as the reason for your enjoyment of the issue in the video review. Probably because I read the moment with a focus on the plot mechanics (You thought were saving me? That was bait, here’s the switch) for whatever reason.
But with your reply, it immediately clicks with me how Mystique’s reaction is right in your wheelhouse, based on enthusiasm you’ve expressed on that kind of choice (teenage Scott’s reaction to finding the wedding invitation in All-New, Jean not agreeing to marry Scott right away in X-Factor, and so on) in the past in the podcast.
Thanks for giving me a light bulb moment!! 🙂
To be honest, that was the part where I put the book down and raised my middle finger at it.This has been a really unsatisfying series. I do appreciate the pretty decent character work done to X-23, but this book has been more miss than hit.
Thanks, as always, for the reviews.
The part in Years of Future Past #1 when Christina is excited to get her mutant powers is just so sweet. It made me go “Awww.”
Very happy to hear about X-23 being the new Wolverine. I’ve really enjoyed her story in All-New X-Men and really want her to be a more central character in the main X-books.
Will be catching up on reading the comics I’ve left to the side for the past few weeks. Secret Wars is a surprisingly good event. I continue to be impressed.
The first X-Factor title I bought was the last issue of X-tinction Agenda. As you’ve said before, there’s something about picking up a title running and have the entire backstory take on mythological proportions by virtue of remaining unread. So I got Immortal Hodge, the mutate uniforms, Wolfsbane the Werewolf, bald Storm and probably a bunch of other stuff thrown at me in media res and it was pretty awesome and weird.
I haven’t read the issue in over a decade, but the first couple pages of Secret Wars: X-tinction Agenda brought me warm feelings. There must have been temptation to make things different, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the only things that changed were the art style and the perspectives. And even when it comes to style, there’s a very Whilce Portacio feel to the artwork sometimes. Which would define X-Factor for me just after (I am so sorry, Jon Bogdanove. You are a victim of circumstance).
Anyway, how do you feel about Wolverine’s shocking reveal in that issue? Actually, it probably casts a different light on so many X-Men issues. So very many.
It bothered me that Kate and Peter’s daughter was named Chrissie. Kate is Jewish and I can’t see her naming her daughter that even though Peter is not Jewish. Otherwise thought Years of Future Past was a hoot.
@Evan: Yeah, I noticed that as well. Kitty/Kate is Jewish and Peter (I believe) is an atheist. Still, I found it amusing and figured maybe they were intentionally trying to be funny and/or making reference her being the savior for mutants.
Kitty has on occasion been displayed being selectively permeable to aspects of Christianity. She never shies away from her Jewish heritage, but she doesn’t abhor Christianity either. Just off the top of my head, when she went up against Dracula, she had no qualms about wearing a crucifix and in the late 90s, there was an issue where we learned that she at least enjoys the secular aspects of Christmas (tree, gifts, nog, pretty much everything the early Christians borrowed from the pagan culture to help facilitate conversion).
Though I think more to the point, Chrissie has its roots in the word “christos,” which is a word that predates Jesus and means “messiah” or “savior.” And something that issue #1 hammers home is that the adults all view Chrissie and Wolverine’s son as the salvation of their kind. Either the name is prophetic or it implies an extreme amount of parental pressure.
Rachel, I know you’re very big on continuity and there has been something gnawing at me since the penultimate issue of All-New X-Men and I was wondering what headcannon you’ve come up with: why the hell is Shan among the Utopians? Doesn’t she have some huge corporation she was running when the Utopian half of the Schism collapsed?