Tag Archives: Marvel

X-Men Crossovers Part 3

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Oh, boy. Inferno is one of those stories that you either unequivocally love or hate. There’s really not much in-between. After the success of Fall of the Mutants and the Mutant Massacre, the next X-Men crossover, Inferno, actually spilled out into the rest of the Marvel universe quite a bit. You can find all sorts of titles that tie into Inferno, even books like Daredevil and the Amazing Spider-Man.

Took Place In: New Mutants 71-73, X-Factor 36-39, Uncanny X-Men 240-243

Written By: Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men), Louise Simonson (New Mutants, X-Factor)

Art By: Marc Silvestri (Uncanny X-Men), Jon Bogdanove (New Mutants), Walt Simonson (X-Factor)

Characters Involved: Storm, Wolverine, Havok, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Rogue, Colossus (X-Men); Archangel, Beast, Cyclops, Nathan Summers (Cyclops’ son), Marvel Girl, Iceman (X-Factor); Cannonball, Mirage, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Magik, Warlock, Gosamyr (New Mutants) ; S’ym, N’astirh, Crotus (Limbo demons) ; Goblyn Queeen / Madelyne Pryor; Mr. Sinister; Arclight, Harpoon, Sabretooth, Prism, Scalphunter, Malice, Vertigo, Scrambler, Blockbuster, Riptide (Marauders)

 

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Favorite Stories vol 2- X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga

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My first exposure to X-Men comics was the Dark Phoenix saga, which many consider to be the greatest X-Men story ever told, even to this day. It was like saying, “Oh, you have a passing interest in trying some really light, social drug? Here, try this crack.” Before this story I would read comics occasionally. Really just whenever I would happen to get some. I never actively sought them out. After this story I wanted everything X-Men I could get my grubby little hands on.

I’m not going to get into too much detail on what came before, since a lot of that has been changed retroactively. But essentially Jean Grey aka Marvel Girl, one of the original X-Men, is imbued with the powers of the Phoenix, a cosmic entity capable of great and terrible things. For a while, Jean seemed ok. Her powers of telepathy and telekinesis were raised to an unprecedented degree, but other than that she was still just Jean.

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Favorite Stories- Avengers: Under Siege

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Long before they were New, Dark, or Disassembled, the Avengers were far from Marvel’s biggest characters. While people liked Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, etc., they weren’t as popular as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, or the Hulk. For whatever reason, the Avengers just weren’t striking any chords with the comic book audience as a whole. There were fans, sure, otherwise the title would have been cancelled, but it was never a top seller, and just didn’t garner all that much attention. So it was a bit of a surprise when Roger Stern and John Buscema started a story that has become known as “Avengers: Under Siege”, and all of a sudden everyone was talking about the Avengers.

The line-ups for the Avengers have always been in a constant state of change. Each era has its stand-by’s, though. In the 60’s it was mostly Captain America. In the 70’s it was the Vision and/or Hank Pym. By the 80’s it was more B-list characters that usually grabbed the spotlight, like Hercules, the Black Knight, Crystal, or Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau). The roster when this story opens is Wasp (team leader), Captain America, Black Knight, Hercules, Namor, and Captain Marvel. Also worth noting is the presence of the Avengers mansion’s butler, Edwin Jarvis. Before the Siege, Namor is forced to return to Atlantis to deal with some personal issues, and Hercules, pissed that the Wasp is in charge of him, goes off to get drunk.

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Underrated Creator Runs- Marvel part 2

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In the last part I looked at Geoff Johns’ Avengers, and this part is somewhat similar, in that the writer is also a big name for other projects, and the character is pretty popular.

In the early part of the 2000’s, Marvel launched their Marvel Knights line, which was headlined by Kevin Smith writing Daredevil, with art by Marvel Knights editor/comic artist/eventual Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, which saw Bullseye, Daredevil’s longtime enemy, kill Karen Page, Daredevil’s longtime girlfriend. Following their run was the hugely popular, highly acclaimed run by Brian Bendis and artist Alex Maleev, which saw Daredevil get married to a blind girl named Mila, Daredevil ‘dethroning’ the Kingpin and getting both Kingpin and Bullseye arrested. Oh, it also had Daredevil’s secret identity as blind attorney Matt Murdock revealed to the world. Following up their run would take something special, and maybe just as importantly, someone willing to pick up where Bendis left off, namely having Matt Murdock disbarred and placed in prison for being Daredevil.

Enter: Ed Brubaker. His first arc, ‘The Devil in Cell Block D’, is as good a Daredevil story as you can find.

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X-Men Crossovers Part 2

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In part 1 I briefly looked at the X-Men’s first foray into the crossover: the Mutant Massacre, which saw Angel get his wings destroyed, Wolverine fight Sabretooth, Psylocke join the X-Men, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat leave the X-Men. Not normally known for resting on their laurels when they find something that resonates with the fans, Marvel got with the X-office and told them to do another big summer crossover. They ended up giving us…

 

The Fall of the Mutants

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Took Place In: Uncanny X-Men 225-227, X-Factor 24-26, New Mutants 59-61

Written By: Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men), Louise Simonson (New Mutants, X-Factor)

Art By: Marc Silvestri (Uncanny X-Men), Walt Simonson (X-Factor), Brett Blevins (New Mutants)

Featured Characters: Colossus, Dazzler, Havok, Longshot, Psylocke, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine, Forge (the X-Men), Cyclops, Beast, Phoenix, Iceman, Caliban, Archangel (X-Factor), Cannonball, Cypher, Magik, Warlock, Sunspot, Mirage, Wolfsbane, Magneto (New Mutants), Avalanche, Blob, Crimson Commando, Destiny, Mystique, Pyro, Spiral, Stonewall, Super Sabre (Freedom Force), Apocalypse and his four Horsemen, Cameron Hodge, the Adversary

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X-Men Crossovers Part 1

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Ever since Marvel published Secret Wars back in the early 80’s both Marvel and DC comics have made a habit, for better or for worse, of crafting giant stories that involve multiple titles and characters. The kings of this trend for a long time were the X-Men. Nearly every year all of the X-Men titles would cross over with each other, and most of the time there were more than a few titles. A lot of really big developments have happened in these events/crossovers, which I will discuss as I get to them. First up, I will be looking at the X-Men and their crossovers, starting with….

X-Men: The Mutant Massacre

Took Place In: Uncanny X-Men 210-213, New Mutants 46, X-Factor 9-11, Thor 373-374, Power Pack 27

Written By: Chris Claremont (X-Men, New Mutants), Louis Simonson (X-Factor, Power Pack), Walter Simonson (Thor)

Art By: John Romita Jr, Brett Blevins, Rick Leonardi, Alan Davis (X-Men), Jackson Guice (New Mutants), John Bogdanove (Power Pack), Walter Simonson (X-Factor), Sal Buscema (Thor)

Featuring: Thor, Power Pack, X-Factor (Cyclops, Phoenix, Iceman, Beast, Angel), X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Dazzler, Longshot, Psylocke, Rogue), New Mutants (Magneto, Cannonball, Moonstar, Karma, Magik, Cypher, Warlock, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Magma), the Marauders (Sabretooth, Arclight, Scalphunter, Vertigo, Riptide, Blockbuster, Scrambler, Prism, Harpoon), Freedom Force (Mystique, the Blob, Pyro, Destiny, Avalanche, Spider-Woman), the Morlocks

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Underrated Creator Runs- Marvel

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A lot of creator runs on Marvel characters are highly celebrated, and rightfully so, but a lot of times someone will come along and tell a great story or stories, and for whatever reason they simply fall through the cracks, so to speak, and don’t seem to get the recognition they deserve.

I want to point out a few of them here in the hopes that anyone that reads this might be encouraged to give them a try. Each ‘volume’, if you will, will focus on one particular run, in order to give each one the room I need to do them justice.

So, first up:

-Geoff Johns on Avengers-

Not long before he was as well known as he is today, Geoff Johns spent some time at Marvel while he was doing freelance work for DC. His Marvel works largely were solid, but unspectacular, including a Vision mini-series and a Thing mini-series. But it was his work on Avengers that really showed what he was capable of. Featuring a variety of artists, his run including work by Kieron Dwyer, Steve Sadowski, Scott Kollins (who he would work with on Flash quite a lot over the years), Gary Frank, and Olivier Coipel, on the story that really launched Coipel into the position he is at today, which essentially allows him to pick and choose whatever projects he wants.

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