Comic Books!

Two posts in two days? What's going on here?! Well, on my way home from work today, I was sitting on the train (forever) thinking about the comics that came out this week, and realized that I felt like talking about them. By that, I mean the comics that I actually picked up. Tons of comics came out, but I am pretty biased in my Marvel love, so there won't be any DC, Darkhorse, or whatever else here.

Let's go alphabetical. All-New X-Factor #9 came out this week, and while I love Peter David, and loved the previous run of X-Factor, I'm finding it hard to keep interested in this book. I just don't really get it. The draw to the previous book was that it was a detective agency investigating the mysteries of the Marvel universe. It all started with Decimation and grew into this crazy awesome book full of mystery and adventure and fun. This book, I just don't know where it's going. I'm still on board 'cause I want to know where it's going, but I'm starting to worry that it's just not as good as the previous book. It's not bad. I just don't get it.

Up next is Amazing X-Men. There were actually two issues of Amazing X-Men this week. And they were very different. I started with Amazing X-Men Annual #1. This one was bad. Monty Nero is new to Marvel, and it shows. The story was pretty lame. I got about halfway through and realized I just didn't care, so I just flipped through the rest looking at the pretty pictures. Salvador Larroca generally does a good job on the art, but I find his iteration of Storm pretty ugly.

On the other hand, Amazing X-Men #8 was pretty great. Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost generally make me pretty nervous when they show up in my X-Men comics. The last time they took over one of the books I loved, they killed off a bunch of my favourite characters and I was furious for months. But then they went and made me love the book even more. I'm pretty excited for this "World War Wendigo!" story they've started. It takes place in Canada, and it features members of Alpha Flight! That's the start to a great story! But after the first issue I'm worried they're up to their old tricks again.

Next was Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #2. If you're not reading this, do yourself a favour and get on it! This is only the second issue of this new series, but there's a lot to catch up on if you so choose with 200 Ultimate Spider-Man issues in several different series. Bendis is great in general, but this new story has me really excited to see what's going to happen next.

New Warriors #5, also written by Christopher Yost (minus Craig Kyle) is another fairly new book that I'm enjoying. Most of the characters are new to me, but I love team books, and especially teams of young heroes. We've got classic New Warriors team members Justice and Speedball, the new Nova, a brand new Inhuman named Haechi, a technology user named Sun Girl, an Atlantian named Water Snake (who may be related to Namorita?), the spider-clone Scarlet Spider (Kaine, not Ben Reilly), and someone named Hummingbird. I'm not sure where this book is going, but I'm very much drawn in by it.

Now, the last book I picked up this week was a doozie. The end was just... Wow... there's a picture of the tweet that explains it perfectly (please excuse the misspelling of the letter "W", I was trying for effect and I realized too late that I dunno how to properly spell it). Original Sin #3. Marvel's latest big event series. Like I said: crazy pants. If you haven't been keeping up, the gist of it is that someone killed the Watcher (the giant bald dude that watches over all of the big events of the Marvel universe, hangs out on the moon), and the heroes are trying to figure out who did it. In the mean time, a villain, or maybe a group of villains, ended up with one of the Watcher's eyes and has unleashed a bunch of secrets, and that's gonna cause some problems. But seriously. The end. Crazy pants. Go read it.

So yeah, there was some good, some great, and a bit of mediocre. But it was a memorable week for comics!

Why yes, I AM a nerd, thanks!

I am a huge comic books fan.

You're totally shocked, right? Hah, yeah right. There's no surprise there. I'm a huge nerd! Anyway, I love comic books. To be specific, Marvel comics. I have over a thousand, probably around 1200 by now actually, boxed up or spread around my apartment. Which would be fine if I lived alone. Sorry Darcy! (no I'm not.) In the 7-8 years I've been collecting comics, my "pull list" has grown pretty much out of control. Originally I started with only a couple of titles (Exiles and New Mutants), but since then I've expanded to 12-15 titles every month, not to mention special one-shots and limited series. It's crazy.

But what I wanted to talk about, 'cause I really have no one around to listen to me drone on about comics (locally), is a couple that I'm really excited about right now. First up:

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man

The Ultimate Marvel line of comics was launched as a separate continuity from regular Marvel comics to make it easier for new readers to enjoy comics without having to be bogged down by decades of backstory. My favourite title in the Ultimate line is Spider-Man. It's a version of Peter Parker very similar to the original, but still back in high school, not all grown up like the Spider-Man we all know and love.

This title has actually come to an end with the Death of Spider-Man story that recently came out. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty bummed by this. Not only is it one of my favourite comic books, but the title of that final story should be a pretty obvious clue. They killed Spider-Man. Peter Parker is dead.

They did such an amazing job with the story, it was really epic how it all happened, and I really advise you to go read it if you haven't already because even though I'm sad, I can't help but be at awe of the story. It was so tragic, but in the end, Peter Parker dies a real hero (not that there was any denying it before anyway).

The title is relaunching in a few months with a new man behind the mask, and I'm actually really interested to see what's going to happen. The new costume design is really interesting, but there really hasn't been any info revealed about the new Spider-Man. The only info I've heard is of what his motivation is; that Peter's death is to him what Uncle Ben's death was to Peter. Very intriguing... Also of note is that Ultimate Comics: X-Men is finally getting a new start after the dust settles here, and it looks like Johnny Storm, Bobby Drake, and Kitty Pride will all be featured there, so that's pretty awesome.

The second title I'm excited about right now hasn't actually come out yet, but I just read the "Prelude" miniseries today so it's got me pretty much on the edge of my seat wondering what's going on:

X-Men: Schism

The next big X-Men event. X-Men: Schism is a limited series starting in a couple weeks. What I know so far is that there is something bad coming. It's a threat beyond anything the X-Men have ever faced. And in dealing with this threat, Cyclops and Wolverine come to a conflict of opinions that can't be resolved, and the X-Men are all forced to choose a side, dividing the X-Men "forever" (gotta throw the forever in there for dramatic effect).

Part of what has me excited about this event is to see what the heck it is that will cause the split of the X-Men. They are a family, and now a nation, united against all threats to the mutant race. But what could cause them all to turn on each other? It's gotta be something big! And I haven't been disappointed by an X-event yet!

The other part is that it means we'll have separate teams again! I liked the good old days where each book had it's own set of X-Men, with the occasional crossover and/or cameo. The last few years have had the same core characters appearing in every. single. book. I didn't mind when it was Wolverine appearing in every comics 'cause he's awesome, but I'm getting really tired of seeing Emma Frost, Colossus, Kitty Pride, Wolverine, and Cyclops in ALL of the X-Men books, leaving so many characters out in comic book limbo. I'd love to see a unique set of characters in each of the X-books.

After Schism comes to an end, Uncanny X-Men will relaunch with a new #1 issue, and that is where you will find Cyclops and those who choose his side. Those that take the other side will appear in Wolverine and the X-Men. So that is at least two teams that will be totally different. X-Men: Legacy will hopefully continue to focus on it's own team as well. That leaves X-Men and Astonishing X-Men to establish where they will fall after the Schism, plus titles like New Mutants, Uncanny X-Force and X-Factor that could see some shake-ups as well. Oh, and Generation Hope. But I don't really care about that one. At all.

Woo! So that's just SOME of what's going on in comics right now that's got me excited! If I continued, this post would never end, so I'll leave it here, but expect follow-ups to this, 'cause you know, I'm a comic book nerd, so what else am I gonna blog about? Leave a comment below if you've got anything to say about these comic events! I'd like to hear what you've got to say! (and good on you if you actually made it through this whole post!)