“Hear me, X-Men! No longer am I the woman you knew! I am Fire and Life incarnate! Now and forever – I am PHOENIX!”
This week, Chris and Erik are talking about the Chris Claremont / John Byrne era of X-Men comics history, delving into two of the most iconic storylines of all time: “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past”!
(Episode edited by Chris Carroll)
Check out our blog at ComicZombie.net for more!
There are oh-SO many X-Men stories, and a lot of them are really good to great, so it’s very difficult to provide a recommended reading list that isn’t very, very long, but we’ve narrowed it down to some favorites. Keep in mind that these don’t include stories only found in books like New Mutants, Wolverine, X-Factor or X-Force, as they honestly deserve their own lists.
Now that mutants are officially being introduced into the MCU (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ms. Marvel, Wakanda Forever, Deadpool and Wolverine, etc), I figured it might be a good time to revisit Fox’s X-Men series, before it’s inevitably rebooted by Disney.
Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with 2008’s “Iron Man”, before Sam Raimi’s Spider-man trilogy, and following the success of 1999’s “Blade”, Bryan Singer gave us one of the most serious takes on a comic book franchise to date, with 2000’s “X-Men”!
Continue reading“All Those Years Wasted Fighting Each Other, Charles… To Have a Precious Few of Them Back.” – Magneto to Professor X
Chris and Erik try and rank all the X-Men movies (so far!)
*Note: when this episode was recorded (several months ago), we hadn’t yet seen “New Mutants”, but we reviewed it on the previous episode (Issue #8). We also discuss Tom King’s “Mister Miracle”, Chip Zdarsky’s “Spider-man: Life Story”, our initial thoughts on “The Three Jokers”, and speculate about the Snyder Cut (see Issue #7 for our review on that one).
(Episode edited by Erik Slader)
For more random shenanigans, check out our blog at ComicZombie.net – including our X-Men Movie articles!
*Also listen to us on Podcasters Assemble!
Continue readingThe Comic Zombie Podcast – Issue 2: “Spock with a goatee and other Tales from the Multiverse!”
Chris and Erik go quantum leaping through the multiverse as they discuss their favorite alternate reality/timeline stories from comics, such as ‘Flashpoint’, ‘Days of Future Past’, ‘Old Man Logan’, ‘Dark Knight Returns’ and others…
*Correction: Apologies to Mark Millar; we’re aware he wrote “Superman: Red Son”, not Mark Waid.
Last time in Part 2 we tackled all three Wolverine movies and Deadpool, this time we’re taking a look at the new (and far better) X-Men trilogy – First Class, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse!
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Michael Fassbender (Magneto / Erik Lensherr), James McAvoy (Charles Xavier / Prof X), Jennifer Lawrence (Raven / Mystique), Kevin Bacon (Sebastian Shaw), Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy / Beast), January Jones (Emma Frost), Lucas Till (Alex Summers / Havok), Oliver Platt (CIA agent), Zoë Kravitz (Angel Salvadore), Caleb Landry Jones (Banshee), Jason Flemyng (Azazel), Edi Gathegi (‘Darwin’), Rade Serbedzija (Soviet General), Michael Ironside (US Navy Captain), Don Creech (Stryker Sr.), and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine cameo).
Plot: Realizing that they should have hired Matthew Vaughn for X-Men 3 like he wanted, and that there was nowhere to go with the franchise after Brett “that smell on my thumbs is my ass!” Ratner ‘Batman-and-Robin’d-it’, Fox reboots the franchise with re-casted characters. Magneto hunts for Sebastian Shaw, a mutant that was in charge of the concentration camp he grew up in, while Charles Xavier works with agent Moira Mactaggert and the CIA to gather a team of young mutants. They must team up to stop Shaw from starting World War 3 while learning how to use their powers and accept themselves.
Erik Smash: Following the unbelievably terrible X-Men: The Last Stand and even worse X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fox finally gets it right with director Matthew Vaughn! “X-Men: First Class” is a back-to-basics prequel / reboot that tells the story of how the X-Men were first formed by a young Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto!
One thing super hero comics seem to do very well is to depict alternate realities and alternate versions of their characters. Wonder what would happen if the X-Men failed to stop the advancement of Sentinel technology, or if Apocalypse succeeded in taking over the world? There are stories you can read for that. Want to know one of the possible futures for the Hulk, or Superman? There’s stories for that, too. Dating back to X-Men: Days of Future Past (which even predates the Terminator films!), comics have continuously used the possible future outcomes as a way of depicting the stakes for our heroes if they lose, and as a way to show how one change in the timeline, no matter how seemingly small, can cause massive ripples in what we think of as reality.
They are also used as a way to show your favorite characters in new situations and surroundings without messing with the core character and material, a la the Age of Apocalypse.
Here are my picks for the 15 best alternate realities/timelines from Marvel and DC comics:
15. Teen Titans: The Future Is Now
Geoff Johns is the most accomplished, and probably most popular, writer for DC Comics. He is well known for titles like Action Comics, the Flash, Green Lantern, JLA, JSA, 52, Infinite Crisis, Forever Evil, and Flashpoint. But the title that typically slips between the cracks is his awesome run on Teen Titans, and the best arc was “The Future is Now”.
After teaming up with the Legion of Super Heroes, the Titans are trying to get back to their own time, but arrive a few years later than they would have liked. They try to go back to their HQ, but are surprised to find that it is occupied by the Justice League, which is made up of adult versions of themselves!
Comic Zombie 