Chronological X-Men - Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Part 2 Review

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7 – Berserker!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 – Invasion!

The next part of this story was actually the most entertaining so far. First Lizard goes crazy when he thinks the Wasp died, then Volcana goes crazy when she learns that Wolverine nearly gutted Molecule Man, then She-Hulk goes crazy when the Wrecking Crew throw Wasp’s corpse into the heroes camp. If that weren’t enough Titania really doesn’t take it well when Spider-Man gives her the smack down, Volcana makes a deal with Enchantress and Doom nearly gets himself killed when Galactus finally notices that he is on his homeworld. I don’t really understand the point of introducing the new Spider-Woman if they’re not going to use her, especially after She-Hulk goes to Doom’s base to avenge Wasp’s death only to nearly get killed herself. If the team is loosing powerhouses left and right, you’d want someone strong on your side, especially if they’re practically begging you to join them. I also didn’t really understand why Captain America was so willing to accept Magneto and the X-Men back into the fold just because Charles said he’d promise to help. I also have a hard time buying Volcana and Molecule Man’s feelings for each other – it’s too sudden. Of course the major things here are the heroes capturing most of the villains, Spider-Man gaining his black costume (considering how major of a thing that ends up being in the Spider-Man books it’s odd that they would have introduced it in this miniseries,) Wasp coming back to life and Galactus begins to devour the planet they’re all trapped on.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #9 – Assault on Galactus!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #10 – Death to the Beyonder!

The next two parts of this series are possibly the most interesting because of the types of questions they raise – but I’ll get to that in a second. The big thing here is obviously the fact that the Wasp isn’t dead but that’s one of those things that you knew was coming so it isn’t really that big of a deal. I was a little surprised by Doom dissecting Klaw in order to create a device that would allow all of the energy Galactus absorbed from destroying his own homeworld and channel it into Doom rather than the world devourer himself. It does raise an interesting question though, if creating that device was all it took to take the giant out and Klaw doesn’t die from the process why hasn’t anyone used it since to take down Galactus? Of course if it was common knowledge it would have taken away from the dramatic effect when Reed Richards and the rest of the superheroes were trying to decide if it would be best to let Galactus destroy this planet and kill all the heroes was the best thing to do. I understand the logic, if Galactus wins he’ll get his wish and the Beyonder will take away his hunger, if the Beyonder doesn’t make good on his deal than Galactus will attack the Beyonder and get killed as a result of that. I like the idea of how Doom went about fighting the Beyonder, but it felt like a little more of it should have been shownwe get some stuff, and then at the end of this issue Doom shows up and is pretty much all ‘hey, the Beyonder is dead.’

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11 – …And Dust To Dust!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12 – …Nothing to Fear

Now the finale here is where I kind of lost interest in the story. I would have much preferred that the story ended with issue 10, but obviously they couldn’t just leave everything with the entire cast trapped on Battleworld and Doom with the power of the Beyonder but for the most part this felt like filler. Now we do need to know how the villains got off of the world, but did we really need to see scenes with the Enchantress locking herself in the bathroom and conjuring up an Elemental? Did Enchantress even serve a real point aside from lounging around saying she wasn’t going to do anything, trying to kiss Thor and that funny scene where she was drunk? Did we need scenes of Spider-Man eating? Or everyone trying to sleep? Did we need at least two pages worth of dialogue from Doom where he was telling Klaw that he can’t ever let him fall asleep? On the other hand the issues do tie into major changes in the Marvel Universe – we get the return of Klaw, new villains in Titania and Volcana, a new hero with Spider-Woman. The Thing decides to stay on Battleworld for a while which moves She-Hulk from The Avengers to the Fantastic Four and of course we get Spider-Man in his black costume – which will lead to the introduction of Venom. There’s the friction between Charles and Ororo, we get a new costume for Rogue (which she debuts in the next issue of Uncanny X-Men) and Piotr falling in love with the alien healer Zasji – before she ultimately dies – leaves him in love and later in mourning long enough to keep him and Kitty from hooking up until she’s over eighteen. Oh and there’s that dragon that teleports back to Earth with the X-Men. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the ending of this story, and it was surprisingly well done considering the series was created specifically to promote a line of action figures but I feel like issue eleven and twelve could have been condensed to one double sized issue instead of there being the regular sized 11 and then a double sized 12 – but at the same time it would have been odd for it to end with number 11, and of course it wouldn’t have been a year long event.

The Uncanny X-Men #181 – Tokyo Story

The Uncanny X-Men #182 – Madness

Well the X-Men are now back on Earth, only instead of returning to New York they end up in Tokyo along with Lockheed’s dragon ‘friend.’ I do find it a little odd that the X-Men claim to have a relationship with the now much larger dragon. In the Secret Wars series Lockheed takes off pretty early on and doesn’t show up until just before the X-Men return to Earth with the dragon in tow. It appears that while the heroes have been gone for a very long time, on Earth only a week has passed. Scott returned with the X-Men but he ended up back at home where Madelyne was waiting for him so it leaves me to wonder did She-Hulk return to where the Avengers vanished from instead of reappearing with the Fantastic Four? And did Spider-Woman go back home, or did she return to the location the Avengers vanished from? Rogue ends up flying home to check on Kitty (I’ll talk about that in a second) while the remaining X-Men try to stop the giant dragon from destroying Tokyo. It was kind of a filler plot and after reading a year long event I’m actually alright with an issue that doesn’t give us a lot of revelations. The major thing is the passing of Senator Kelly’s Mutant Affairs Control Act bill. The other half of the story (which is actually the next issue since it takes place at the same time) is Rogue’s return to the mansion. She begins checking over phone messages, first from a scared Madelyne, and next she receives one from Colonel Rossi who tells Charles that their suspicions were right and then there’s the sound of him being abducted. Rogue ends up taking off to save him before she hears the phone message from Illyana. I do have a little problem with this because Illyana leaves a note saying that Kitty went with Doug to the Massachusetts Academy to check things out – it kind of implies that Charles knew nothing of Kitty going. It’s a problem because not only was it mentioned that all of the X-Men knew this in the last issue, but it was shown both in the New Mutants and Uncanny X-Men issues before the whole Secret Wars saga that Kitty and Charles came up with the plan. To make matters worse both books are written by the same person so you can’t even base it on lack of communication between the writers of the two books. I like the idea of Rogue struggling with what she had done to Carol and how her mind is now massively fractured but I would have liked more of a build up. Rogue suddenly appears on the mansion’s door step claiming that she’s having trouble dealing with the extra mind in her head, but beyond that issue it isn’t touched on again – and when Rogue was hanging out in the Dazzler book before she left the Brotherhood her fractured mind wasn’t an issue. So it was like they dropped the plot and then suddenly remembered that they needed to do something with it. There’s a little bit of an overlap with the scenes where Emma uses astral projection to appear to Sebastian to tell him she has the New Mutants, but if you think about it, and read this in publication order it wouldn’t have been an overlap. I like the idea of The Inner Circle spying on S.H.I.E.L.D. but I’m going to reserve any judgment on it until I know why they’re spying. Oh, I almost forgot – we got the first appearance of Amiko Kobayashi – Logan’s foster daughter.

The Uncanny X-Men #183 – He’ll Never Make Me Cry

When I read this I wasn’t sure what to think about it – I didn’t really care about the main plot at all, but the little sub-plots helped to carry things on a bit. I have decided that when Chris Claremont isn’t writing epic end of the world battles he must be convinced he’s writing a soap opera. The largest chunk of this story revolves around the break up of Piotr and Kitty from a relationship they weren’t even really in to begin with. Kitty needs time on her own so she leaves to spend time with her father, and then Logan and Kurt take Piotr out to teach him what it means to be a member of the team. The side plots are what I really enjoyed here, Rogue still dealing with the fall out of her encounter with Michael Rossi, Valerie Cooper traveling with Raven Darkholme to meet someone named Forge; and it’s revealed that Selene is still alive and now she’s in New York to begin her plan to rule the world. We do get some new info on her, she claims that she is over 2,000 years old, and implies that she was imprisoned (I’m assuming in Nova Roma) and now she is finally free. We also get to see a new way of how she ‘feeds’ which is much more visually disturbing than simply throwing her sacrifices into a volcano. Now there were a lot of mistakes here and that doesn’t help with the overtly soap-y plot. In the issue it states that Kitty has spent almost 2 years at Charles’ school, so she joined when she was 13 ½, so that makes her almost 16 now, yet later on in the issue they specifically state that she is only 14. Now Piotr who started off as over 21 (because the new X-Men were older than the original team) was then de-aged to 18 to take away some of the creepy factor of Piotr/Kitty has now been aged to 19. Make up your mind on their ages already!! Sheesh. The drinking thing isn’t a mistake because it turns out that when this story was written the drinking age was 18 in New York. What happened to Amiko? There’s absolutely no mention of her whatsoever. Also what’s up with Kitty’s hair? It’s suddenly short, yet for an upcoming storyline Kitty’s hair getting cut is a plot point, so to explain this away they claim that Kitty is wearing a wig in Uncanny X-Men 183…umm okay, except Kitty hasn’t ever done anything like that ever before so it seems odd that she would do it suddenly and that no one would mention either the wig or her hacking off her hair assuming that she’s doing it because Piotr broke her heart.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7 – Berserker!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 – Invasion!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #9 – Assault on Galactus!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #10 – Death to the Beyonder!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11 – …And Dust To Dust!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12 – …Nothing to Fear: B

The Uncanny X-Men #181 – Tokyo Story: B

The Uncanny X-Men #182 – Madness: A

The Uncanny X-Men #183 – He’ll Never Make Me Cry: C

Chronological X-Men - Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Part 1 Review

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars!

The New Mutants #15 – Scaredy Cat!

The New Mutants #16 – Away Game!

The New Mutants #17 – Getaway!

Well this particular story takes place right after the X-Men vanish. Kitty is being held captive by Emma Frost – who has woken up from her coma with no real explanation as to why, and Doug is now at Emma’s Massachusetts Academy and being telepathically controlled by Emma.  Wet get several new characters thanks to Emma’s own team of teenaged mutants The Hellions: Catseye, Empath, Jetstream, Roulette, Tarot and Thunderbird (II) – who is really James Proudstar who has joined Emma’s team to take down the X-Men and Charles Xavier whom he blames for his older brother’s death. Some of the team’s powers act as direct opposition to the New Mutants- Catseye can switch from cat form to human, but she performs her feline form, so she’s their version of Rahne. Jetstream’s abilities are similar to Cannonball’s only Sam is stronger, but Jeatstream has better control over his abilities. Thunderbird is the powerhouse, much like Sunspot is for the New Mutants. Tarot who can create psychic visions based off of her tarot cards is Dani’s counterpart. Empath and Roulette are kind of just extras, and since Emma didn’t know about Amara or Illyana she never recruited counterparts for them. The plot revolves around the New Mutants (which now includes Magik) going after Kitty and Doug to rescue them from Emma Frost once Illyana spies on the Massachusetts Academy while in her astral form and sees what is really going on. There are some interesting things here: Illyana’s ability to use astral projection (so far only a few characters could do this, and with the exception of Magneto they all had telepathic powers,) Dani’s growing ease with using her powers yet they’re taking a toll on her soul – it would be really nice to do some bonding with Illyana and Dani, I always wished the two of them were closer and this would have been the perfect opportunity to do it. I really love Tarot’s powers and I wish she would have had a more visible role over the years. There are a few things though that I wished they cleared up, or explained. Illyana wants to keep her sorceress side hidden from everyone, then maybe she shouldn’t have chosen the codename Magik (the secrets out now though), another odd thing was the fact that Kitty could see Illyana’s astral form, yet Kitty has no psionic powers. How did Emma wake up? Why did she want Doug so badly, when even Charles Xavier didn’t consider him ‘worth’ recruiting? Why did Emma go through all this trouble of taking Doug just to let him go? Why does the team have such a hard time even being in the same room as Magik because they’re afraid of her and what she is and can do, yet the team watched Roberto kill Selene and bury her in her temple? The plot was good, it got us some good new characters and it will provide future material for people to pull from – but there were a lot of unanswered questions that created too many loose ends. One thing I’m really excited for though is to see where they’re going with the whole Demon Bear. It was rather surprising to see him suddenly appear in front of Dani and tell her that he’s coming to claim her soon.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 – War Begins

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2 – Prisoners of War!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3 – Tempest Without, Crisis Within!

Okay let me get one thing out of the way first: this is a huge massive event that was created back in the 80s in order for Kenner Toys to have a publishing event to help promote the sale of their Marvel properties toys. That being said, the cast is HUGE: Captain America, Captain Marvel II (not the original guy, but a new lady taking the name), Hawkeye, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Thro, Wasp, Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine, Lockeed, The Hulk, Spider-Man, Magneto, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Enchantress, Galactus, Kang, Lizard, Molecule Man, Ultron, Absorbing Man, Bulldozer, Piledriver, Thunderball, and Wrecker. That being said we get (so far) three new characters introduced: The Beyonder, Titania and Volcana. All this and I’m only on issue three. It turns out that The Beyonder has been responsible for the recent disappearances on Earth and he has also been the one who was behind the psychic probing of various characters over recent months. There’s a lot going on here which at times makes the series a bit hard to follow, but I don’t know if it would be easier if I was up to date on the books of the non X-characters. I’m going to try to be more objective about this story until I read all of it. I mean the storyline is pretty popular, but at the same time it was created just to sell toys so it’s either going to be awesome or awful.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #4 – Situation: Hopeless!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #5 – The Battle of Four Armies!

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6 – A Little Death…

As the first half of this story closes out we get two apparent deaths – Doom kills Kang for questioning his orders and in the process of trying to bring Lizard back into the villain’s fold it appears that the Wasp was killed trying to save him. We get the introduction of new characters in the form of Spider-Woman II aka Julia Carpenter – but it’s just a cameo, and we meet Zsaji – a healer who fixes Johnny’s broken arm, heals up Spider-Man and saves Colossus. I did find it a little odd that Johnny and Peter have apparently fallen in love with her after she healed them. It’s not odd, but it would make more sense if Spider-Man was also affected by this weird love obsession – especially if it is caused by Zsaji’s healing abilities. Speaking of odd, Piotr’s love for Kitty comes off a little like he’s obsessed with her. It definitely amps up the creepy factor that was always there because of their age differences. We also get the resurrection of Klaw (who had been killed by Dazzler) – honestly I don’t mind this one at all. I know that over the years quite a few of the X-Men have had to kill people but still. I mean out of all the ‘active’ mutants pretty much the only ones who hasn’t killed someone are Sam and Rahne. I do find it a little odd that Charles is so upset that he manipulated Spider-Man’s mind only because over the years he has done that to quite a few people. His guilt over it starts to ring a little hollow when he keeps doing it. So the story has really picked up: why does the Thing keep changing from human to ‘thing,’ is Wasp really dead, is Kang really dead, who is in the shadows watching everyone, is Galactus really about to eat the planet?

The New Mutants #15 – Scaredy Cat!: A

The New Mutants #16 – Away Game!: A

The New Mutants #17 – Getaway!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 – War Begins: C

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2 – Prisoners of War!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3 – Tempest Without, Crisis Within!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #4 – Situation: Hopeless!: A

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #5 – The Battle of Four Armies!: B

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6 – A Little Death…: A

Chronological X-Men - The Brood Part 4 Review

The Brood.

Dazzler #18 – The Absorbing Man Wants You!

Dazzler #19 – Creel… and Inhuman Treatment!

Like with almost every Dazzler issue we have a bunch of guest stars, in present time as well as flashbacks. Alison visits the Fantastic Four for an impromptu jam session with Ben and Johnny, while Reed works on a device that Alison can use to augment her powers into a better defensive weapon and Sue and Reed lecture Alison on why she should become a fulltime hero and stop running from it. Warren continues to dig into Alison’s past and tries to find out what happened to her mother by questioning Alison’s grandmother Bella. Meanwhile Carter begins to have a nervous breakdown, Vanessa rants and raves about her vocal coach and The Absorbing man tries to capture Dazzler and use her as a hostage to call out the Avengers and get his revenge on them. Alison tries to get away and uses Reed’s weapon which augments her powers too much and actually causes The Absorbing Man to turn into a giant being of light. Alison breaks into the Baxter Building to try to get the Fantastic Four’s help in saving the Avengers, after learning that they aren’t there she ends up contacting Black Bolt, Lockjaw and Medusa of the Inhumans for help. Carter continues his descent into madness and is focusing on Alison and his wife Katherine’s ‘betrayal;’ and Vanessa stumbles onto a room that holds something shocking at her vocal coach’s home. We get the first appearance of Barbara London – the vocal coach; and we see Medusa, Black Bolt and Lockjaw for the first time in an X-book. This story was alright I guess, it was better than usual but I can’t help but think that Carter’s nervous breakdown was rather sudden and could have benefited with a more drawn out build-up. I do hope that they bring Black Bolt back into Alison’s life, they do make for an interesting duo and their powers play well off of each other. There was actually very little to complain about with this storyline so that’s always a plus.

Dazzler #20 – Out of the Past!

Carter is now completely delusional – living in his mind where he is attacked and killed by Alison who does it for her mother. Warren and Bella go against the psychiatrist’s wishes and refuse to put him in a hospital and agree that they need to find Alison because they both believe that she can help bring Carter out of his current state. We get new characters Johnny Guitar and Doctor Sax who have an old score to settle with Alison’s band, and now that they’re both out of prison and have received special weapons from Techmaster they’re more than ready to get their revenge. We also meet Hunch’s wife Dora and their son Justin for the first time. The secret of Barbara London’s room is that it’s sort of a shrine to Dazzler’s career. She claims that it’s her daughter’s room and she is a huge Dazzler fan but soon Barbara breaks down and admits to Vanessa that the clippings are hers and that she’s Alison’s mother and that the girl in the picture is her other daughter (which would make her Alison’s half sister.)

Dazzler #21 – Alison Blaire, This Is Your Life!

There’s a whole lot going on here – almost too much to talk about. There are tons of guest stars this issue: Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Daredevil (first time in an X-book – I’m pretty sure, it’s been a while since I did reading other issues because I was sick for a while;) Spider-Man, Beast, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Thor, Wasp, Wonder-Man, Iron Fist, Power Man, Misty Knight, Quasar and Harmony Young. Angel has become a staple of this book now so he doesn’t really count as ‘guest star’ anymore – on top of that all the usual suspects are back. In a series of flashbacks we meet Nick Brown and Lois London for the first time. So the big secret of Alison’s mother is that she was a singer, she had an affair with Nick while she was married to Carter, she ended up leaving Carter for Nick who ‘let’ her continue her music career but he basically turned Katherine into an alcoholic and a drug addict in addition to beating her on a regular basis. She got pregnant by Nick and had another girl (Lois) and one day simply had enough of Nick and left him – this time taking her child with her instead of leaving her behind (like she did with Alison and Carter.) Alison is able to reach her father and pull him out of his catatonic state and the duo fight more. Alison holds a charity concert for a local hospital – which is why all of the guest stars (the X-Men didn’t show up because they’re still making their way back to Earth) and Vanessa blackmails Barbara/Katherine into going. Alison decides to quit showbiz after being offered drugs – but she quickly changes her mind and decides to continue her career. Alison, her mother and her father all reconnect and all seems well by the end of the issue. Oh this issue also features another first… this time we have a photographed cover instead of a drawn one, the photograph was taken by Eliot. R. Brown and is of a Canadian model named June MacDonald. The story was good, a little over packed and there were a few clichés I could have lived without them using. I like what the did with Alison’s mother because it makes sense for the character and fits the storyline but I would rather have had her been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or some criminal or a spy or something instead. The leaving her husband for another man and getting pregnant by both of them is a little bit too soap opera-y for my tastes.

Dazzler #22 – The Sisterhood

Mystique, Destiny and Rogue have managed to escape from prison (Mystique was taken away at the Pentagon the last time we saw her) and are now after the X-Men for revenge. Since the trio doesn’t know how to get to the X-Men on their own they target Angel (who is still hanging out in Dazzler’s book) so Rogue can absorb his memories and they can learn the location of the X-Men. The girl that Alison saves from being hit in traffic ends up being Lois London – her half sister that she hasn’t met yet – so that’s kind of interesting; actually it’s the most interesting thing to happen the entire issue. There are two mistakes one very odd and noticeable – on page three two of the panels are printed out of order – which is weird, the other mistake is that it seems that Angel and Rogue have encountered each other before, but this is actually the first time they’ve ever met. The story wasn’t bad per-say but it would have made more sense if the female members of the Brotherhood went after Dazzler since she has times to the X-Men and the Avengers instead of just going after Angel.

Dazzler #23 – Fire in the Night!

Alison is now living scared that the ‘sisterhood’ will target her since she stopped their plan to learn the location of the X-Men. So naturally when Alison’s apartment building catches fire and then later her recording studio  she begins to panic, meanwhile Angel is on the run and has no one to turn to (Charles is still too depressed after the X-Men were kidnapped by Deathbird and ‘killed,’) so he just sits and mopes for no real reason - he could go to the Avengers or anyone really for help but he chooses not to. Barbara (formerly Katherine) tells her daughter Lois all about her older half sister Alison and Lois decides it’s time she get to know her new sister. We get the first appearance of Flame – an arsonist hired by the owner of Alison’s building. He’s the one that has been setting the fires, not Rogue, Mystique or Destiny- because he wants to force the renters into buying their units and converting them to condos. This is kind of an odd issue, we’ve never been given the impression that Alison’s landlord is really a slumlord, if anything he’s been portrayed as freakishly nice because Alison has almost always been more than one month behind on rent and he’s never kicked her out. Speaking of money, I know Alison’s career is taking off but less than twenty issues ago this girl was eating ketchup for dinner because she couldn’t even afford a can of soup and now she can afford to pay for superhero body guards that are costing her a hundred dollars a day?

Dazzler #24 – A Rogue in the House

Well, the title pretty much says it all; Rogue finds out where Alison lives and then trashes her apartment and waits to attack her to get revenge on Alison for stopping the Sisterhood’s most recent quest for vengeance. Alison is still using Power Man and Iron First for protection; Angel is still running around scared – only he’s not too scared anymore because he’s renting out entire gyms just so he can fly around indoors; and Lois is still trying to get to know her sister. This issue was a little odd, mostly because while it serves as the end of the current storyline it feels like it’s mostly filler. We didn’t need shots of Warren flying around or really need any of Alison and Ken’s date but its there. There’s a little mistake, Alison asks her neighbor Frank if the woman in her apartment had red hair with white streaks and he says yes. I never really considered Rogue to have red hair… so that’s kind of odd. I didn’t really care for this issue but I do like that they’re starting to build this headache/passing out thing with Lois hopefully that will have a better and less soapy (– translation Lois better not have a tumor or be pregnant) payoff than the secret of Alison’s mother.

Marvel Graphic Novel #4 – The New Mutants - Renewal

Okay this story obviously takes place before Uncanny X-Men #167 so this fits in around 165-166. We get many new characters – Roberto DaCosta, and his father Emmanuel DaCosta (who is a member of the Hellfire Club;) Samuel Guthrie (Cannonball,) Danielle Moonstar and her grandfather Black Eagle; we get the first published appearances of Rahne Sinclar and her guardian Reverend Craig (they were both retconned later to have been introduced at earlier points of their lives but this is Rahne’s first actual appearance. Xi’an “Shan” Coy Manh/Karma also appears and it is revealed that she’s actually the oldest of this new group coming in at 19; we also see the return of Moira MacTaggert, Donald Pierce and Tessa. Donald has taken Tessa captive and is planning on taking out all of the mutants on Earth. So it’s a race of sorts between Charles, Moira and Pierce to make contact with the mutants before the others can. Sam ends up joining the Hellfire Club, Roberto is almost taken captive but escapes unfortunately not before his girlfriend Juliana is murdered, Moira saves Rahne from angry townspeople who believe that she is possessed by the devil, Xi’an meets with Charles willingly and Danielle ends up teaming up with Charles so she can avenge her grandfather’s murder by Donald Pierce’s crew. Honestly I’ve got nothing bad to say about this story at all – I’ve always thought Dani’s powers were cool, Sam’s been one of my favorite characters for years, and I’ve always been partial to Tessa even if I haven’t liked certain things that they’ve done with her character My only wish is that this story were longer because I wasn’t ready for the story to end when it did.

The New Mutants #1 – Initiation!

The New Mutants #2 – Sentinels

This story takes place roughly two weeks after the end of Marvel Graphic Novel #4. Danielle has taken on the codename ‘Psyche,’ Roberto now goes by ‘Sunspot,’ Rahne has chosen ‘Wolfsbane,’ Sam and Xi’an have chosen to go by their previous names: Cannonball and Karma. Stevie Hunter – Kitty’s friend and dance instructor has apparently gotten a teaching job at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, serving mostly as their gym coach Charles is of course teaching these new students how to use their powers and the basic school stuff. Moira has been called away to London (and has taken Illyana with her) to meet with an Israeli Ambassador who turns out to be Gabrielle Haller who needs Moira’s help dealing with her autistic son who has telepathic and telekinetic powers. The big shocker here is of course the reveal that her son’s father is none other than Charles himself. Back in the states Dani is having trouble being around so many people and controlling her powers which leads to her accidentally using her abilities on Xi’an. Stevie decides to take everyone out to see a movie but Charles and Dani decline. Dani crashes the Danger Room and tried to complete a session on her own since she feels like she failed when she became scared during the earlier training session – unfortunately something goes horribly wrong and she ends up trapped in one of the X-Men’s training sessions and ends up encountering one of the Brood’s Queens. The Brood Queen deems Dani to big of a threat to be allowed to continue to live, or to risk implanting her with a Brood egg so the Brood Queen throws Dani off of a cliff. At the mall Sam, Xi’an, Rahne, Roberto are attacked by Sentinels and Stevie is taken by Colonel Mike Rossi – who it turns out didn’t die back in Uncanny X-Men #99 he simply used his presumed death to his advantage. Sebastian Shaw continues to plot to turn against Henry Peter Gyrich so there’s some progress there with the whole Project Widewake plot. A shot of the screen shows the ages of most of the New Mutants – Rahne -14 years old (though later retconned into her being only 13,) Roberto 13, Sam 16, and Xi’an is 19. Oh and there’s an official statement about Roberto’s father being a member of the Hellfire Club although not so involved in it to be part of the Inner Circle. The team returns to the school to find Dani unconscious on the floor of the Danger Room. Much like before I don’t really have anything negative to say at all about this story. The only weird thing for me was it didn’t really make sense why Illyana was with Moira – but given all that’s going on that’s not that big of a deal. My only real complaint is the art, I know it’s the style of the book and all but Sam looks goofy and Xi’an… uhh yeah half the time she looks older than Charles – just saying.

The New Mutants #3 – Nightmare

The Uncanny X-Men #167 – The Goldilocks Syndrome! (or: Who’s Been Sleeping in My Head?)

This story obviously takes place roughly at the same time as Uncanny X-Men #166 since Illyana is honoring the memory of her best friend on her birthday (Sean reveals that it is currently Kitty’s birthday.) Dani is trapped in what amounts to a living hell for her, she is constantly tormented by ‘The Demon Bear’ that killed her parents and Charles believes that she is going mad. It turns out though that Dani isn’t insane – she’s actually being tormented by the Brood Queen who alternates between trying to get Dani to kill herself, die, leave the team and access her powers to the extent where she pretty much creates an alternate reality. There are a few things here that seemed a bit off Charles behavior for one – but that’s because he’s been taken over by a Brood Queen. I wish they would explain why Illyana was with Moira first in London and now she’s on Muir Island…. For the love of God why hasn’t anyone taken the girl home? Or at least mention that she had been home at some point – it’s just odd. The story concludes in the Uncanny X-Men with the team arriving back home right after the New Mutants have fought the Brood Queen and are watching TV. The X-Men try to stop the Brood Queen Egg from hatching but it’s too late and Charles transforms – that’s when we learn that Charles while possessed specifically gathered the New Mutants to implant them with Brood Queen Eggs as well. There are a few things here that just felt odd – Kitty can suddenly phase objects with her. Piotr states that Sam looks to be the same age Piotr was when he joined the X-Men but recently he said that he’s 18 – so that means that he’s been with the team for 2 years which doesn’t really track since Kitty joined the team when she was 13 ½ but is now 15. I’m assuming that Illyana was sent with Moira because the Brood Queen didn’t want to risk implanting someone who has been touched by magic. Lilandra’s threatening the Fantastic Four seemed out of place and not really required – given how quickly the whole idea of cloning Charles’ body and transferring his mind into the new body so his old one can be killed/destroyed now that the Brood Queen has hatched within him literally came out of nowhere and so late in the game you almost couldn’t even call it the eleventh hour anymore and everything just gets this big old happy ending – except for Kitty who has now been kicked off the X-Men and is a part of the New Mutants. It seemed like a really cheap payoff to a story that had been going on for some time now it was like the writer just got bored with it too. I could have done without the SORASING (it’s a term used mostly with soap operas or TV shows ‘soap opera rapid aging syndrome’ where a character literally ages years over night) of Kitty (Illyana makes sense) and the de-aging of Piotr just so they can legally pair them up and there needed to be a stronger payoff.

Dazzler #18 – The Absorbing Man Wants You!: B

Dazzler #19 – Creel… and Inhuman Treatment!: A

Dazzler #20 – Out of the Past!: B

Dazzler #21 – Alison Blaire, This Is Your Life!: B

Dazzler #22 – The Sisterhood: C

Dazzler #23 – Fire in the Night!: B

Dazzler #24 – A Rogue in the House: C

Marvel Graphic Novel #4 – The New Mutants – Renewal: A

The New Mutants #1 – Initiation!:A

The New Mutants #2 – Sentinels: A

The New Mutants #3 – Nightmare: A

The Uncanny X-Men #167 – The Goldilocks Syndrome! (or: Who’s Been Sleeping in My Head?): C

Chronological X-Men - The Brood Part 3 Review

The Brood.

The Uncanny X-Men #160 – Chutes and Ladders!

Despite the fact that Illyana is in my top five favorite Marvel comic book characters (and possibly just top 5 favorite comic book characters ever) I’ve never actually read this issue before. I had always known the basics though Belasco abducts Illyana and corrupts her and steals her soul piece by piece to form bloodstones so he can rule Limbo and through all the various Magik and Limbo-centric issues I’ve read I’ve fleshed out most of the story on my own, but it was interesting to read it. We see for the first time in an x book (in publication order) Limbo, Belasco makes his first appearance here (but he’d been in other books) and we see S’ym for the first time. Kitty gets tortured by Belasco and in a sort of alternate timeline with in the dimension Storm learns magic to save Illyana, Piotr and Logan die and Kurt becomes corrupted by Belasco and becomes a creature of pure evil. All that being said though the X-Men with the older Ororo’s help manage to free Kitty and rescue Illyana but they lose track of the little girl and once Kitty finds her again and pulls her through the closing portal that the older Ororo created Illyana is no longer a young child but a 13 year old girl. The story is very good – don’t get me wrong but it does have two things going against it for me. First of all, I think I’ve built it up so much in my head that I thought it would be better than it was. Secondly, the book feels very disjointed, in general – I’ve spoken of this before but the plots hop around a lot recently and it can be a bit confusing because it feels like there are things that have been left out. But in the end, even if I didn’t love the character so much, this issue will always bring a smile to my heart because it’s the August 1982 issue, and that’s when I was born.

Marvel Team-Up #100 – Karma!/Cry - Vengeance!

Okay this next story doesn’t really fit here because in the backup feature with Ororo Charles is up and about (but currently he’s in a coma) but I couldn’t really think of where else to fit it in. Starting with the first story we have Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four we see Xi’an “Shan” Coy Manh (Karma) for the very first time and we meet her family: her uncle General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, Xi’an’s twin brother Tran and their younger siblings Leong and Nga. Xi’an uses her mutant ability to possess Spider-Man and uses him to attack her uncle and twin brother in an attempt to take her younger siblings back from them.  After much confusion and a huge battle Xi’an ends up teaming up with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to battle her uncle the crime lord. Xi’an goes toe to toe with Tran and ends up absorbing his essence forever bonding the two (she then takes on the name Karma) and rescuing her younger siblings from being ‘tested’ for mutant abilities and then have to suffer either growing up like Tran or a fate much worse if they were normal. The backup feature has Ororo being attacked by a sniper who was hired by Andreas deRuyter who has harbored a grudge for years after he lost a battle between himself and Ororo and T’challa when they were only twelve years old. Honestly I don’t have much to say about this story because it was kind of a weak follow up to Karma. Plus it was a little too much of the same thing: both stories involved war torn countries, attempted stealing of children and in both stories the bad guy ends up dying. It almost would have been a better plot if they swapped out Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four with Black Panther and Storm and just made it one massive story.

The Uncanny X-Men #161 – Gold Rush!

More jumbled stories here. Scott, Corsair and Carol are all around – Carol just seems to come and go, she would have done well to be in the last issue since she has had previous ties with Limbo but they left her out, yet she’s around for this issue and just a background character. Scott and Corsair have returned from visiting Alex, but there’s no mention of why Alex didn’t come back with them to see their father off. Last issue there were only mentions of Charles and the focus was on the horrible things happening to Illyana, and now this issue it’s the other way around – a brief mention of Illyana and the focus is on Charles. The ‘flashbacks’ show us Gabrielle Haller for the first time and we see what Charles did directly after his battle with Amahl Farouk and meeting Ororo as a little girl. Now there is something that bugs me we learn that Charles does indeed known Magneto (going by Magnus) and that he was in a concentration camp yet during the previous issues Charles states that he doesn’t know Magneto’s origin and even then it fluctuates between that and not knowing Magneto exists and then founding the X-Men for the soul purpose of fighting Magneto. Another thing but this is just a pet peeve of mine, I’ve gone into it before with Scott’s mother; is the name changes: Magneto, Eric, Magnus… PICK ONE! It’s different with Kitty because they are all variations of the same name and only specific characters call her specific things… Anyway, that’s not really the point. I guess the issue was good I mean the whole point of the flashbacks were to tie in to how Charles wakes up from his coma and it’s all just justification to have a big party to get the bulk of the characters together so Deathbird and the Brood can crash the party and attack everyone.

The Uncanny X-Men #162 – Beyond the Farthest Star

 

Okay this issue itself is pretty trippy, but given what’s going on it’s supposed to be. This is the first time we see just how powerful Logan’s healing factor can be when his body starts fighting off an egg the Brood Queen implanted within him. The issue switches between what is currently going on and a sort of drug induced haze while the egg tries to take control of Logan’s mind. One thing I find odd is why in Logan’s mind he saw Kitty figure out that ‘Lilandra’ was really the Brood Queen – maybe his brain worked it out that since Kitty is the smartest member of the team that naturally she would figure it out on her own also. We see that Deathbird also gave the Brood (at least) one of her faction of the Imperial Guard that turned against Lilandra. Fang was also implanted with a Brood egg and when it hatches we see what happens. You know, I’ve always been freaked out by the Brood but I’ve never considering the fact that when an egg hatches the hosts’ body transforms into the Brood as part of the reason why they bug me. The issue was fine but with things switching from reality to fantasy would have been easy to follow if I hadn’t been taking cold medicine for the past week.

The Uncanny X-Men #163 – Rescue Mission

Logan continues his search for his friends and stumbles on Carol who is being ‘examined’ by the Brood. I’ve always known that wasn’t entirely human but she’s not a character I’ve ever been invested in so finding out the full extent of it – but it would have been nice for a little more of a build up to why she can’t be implanted with a Brood egg. The bulk of the issue is devoted to the X-Men waking up one by one on their own with Storm clearly taking the recent events the hardest. That is until Kitty wakes up and is forced into a life or death standoff and is put in a situation where one of the Brood dies. I find it kind of interesting that now essentially every member of the current team has taken a life; it’s not surprising because the tone of the book has changed quite a bit since the series first began but it will be interesting to see if this knowledge bothers Warren as much as it did when he found out Logan ‘killed’ a robot.

The Uncanny X-Men #164 – Binary Star

The ‘testing’ that Carol underwent by the Brood activates a latent aspect of the results of her genetic code being combined with that of the member of the Kree race. Kitty almost dies in the middle of a space shootout but is saved by the Brood egg she’s carrying and Storm begins to lose control of her powers. At first she thinks it’s because she’s in space and away from the Earth but she quickly discoverers that she is carrying a Brood egg and that pretty much cases her to go crazy and in a panic Storm takes off in one of the ship’s rescue pods. Back on Earth Charles and Illyana have dinner together and it’s… odd. Charles tries to read Illyana’s mind buy he can’t – he even goes as far to question why he can’t but then decides that he just doesn’t have the time or energy to care about finding out why he can’t read her mind. There’s one scene where she asks Charles if she could be a mutant and Illyana hints that she ‘can do neat things too.’ One thing that I didn’t really care for with this issue was the fact that suddenly Carol’s new powers (and new codename ‘Binary’) just appear exactly when the team needs more firepower.

The Uncanny X-Men #165 – Transfigurations!

Well a lot happens this issue, and at the same time nothing happens too. Storm decides to commit suicide in space and technically she ‘dies’ for the first time in this issue so that’s important. But the Acanti find her and ‘join’ the two of them together. I wouldn’t really mind this and the sudden (temporary) shift in a character in space if only it hadn’t been done the issue before this with Carol and then many issues ago with Jean. It seems all the X-Men do is go into space and die, be brought back from the dead and get their powers magnified beyond their control. Back on Earth be see that Mr. Fantastic has reached out to Charles about Karma and at first Charles wants nothing to do with her until Moira suggests that they allow Magneto to train her or enroll her in Emma’s Massachusetts Academy. It turns out I must have been right in figuring out Moira’s timeline – she was indeed pregnant with her son when she and Charles were dating and when she found out she was carrying the child she left him. Kitty makes her move on Piotr, which I knew was coming. It’s not as creepy as it was a few issues ago because now they state that she’s fifteen; so 15 and 18 aren’t that far apart but it is funny how Piotr is getting younger each year and Kitty is getting older. They never should have made such a big deal about Kitty being thirteen and a half and Piotr being ‘older than the original team’ as much as they did.

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Live Free or Die!

Yet another giant sized issue brings us yet another giant sized space battle. There are a few contradictions here that I don’t really understand. Lilandra was all ‘Phoenix must die!’ when she fed off of a star and destroyed people to live yet now that it personally effects Lilandra she’s all for killing an entire planet. This time it’s Kitty’s turn to be ‘altered’ by a space being – this time by the soul of the Acanti Prophet-Singer, although her change is the most temporary change of all (only like 2 pages maximum) by this point 4 ‘X-Men’ over the course of roughly 60 issues have experienced similar circumstances. It’s averaging out to be one every fifteen issues…. They really need to give this particular plot point a rest for a while. Broodworld is destroyed and along with it the Brood Queen, but we are far from over with this story.. she states that her death will not be ‘her true death’ and that there is someone else implanted with a Brood Queen Egg and that will hatch soon. Of course it turns out to be none other than Charles Xavier, and now It’s up to the X-Men to return to Earth in time to save him. Oh yeah, and we see Kitty's pet dragon Lockheed for the first time - although at this point he has no name and isn't Kitty's 'pet' but he does save her life.

Dazzler #17 – The Angel and the Octopus!

Doctor Octopus and the Absorbing man make their first appearances in an X-book which is okay – I guess. There are a few things here that just don’t really make any sense. First Warren just randomly shows up and wants to date Alison because her being a mutant can give him a better sense of adventure that he hasn’t gotten from dating Candy. This is weird mostly because I didn’t know that Candy and Warren had broken up to begin with, but for Warren to show up and act the way that he acted in this issue seems very out of character for him. He comes off very smarmy and forceful. The other odd thing is that Alison doesn’t recognize Warren at first, but she should know who he is. Not only is his identity public, he’s a public figure and on top of that he was an X-Man and Alison knows their real identities.There really isn't much to say about this issue, the whole plot of it involved Alison in a love triangle and I really don't want to read a 'romantic' comic but it was a decent break from the Brood saga (this story takes place while the X-Men are in space) and Warren finding the note from Jessica Drew and his desire to win Alison over by finding her mother will move that plot along so I'm thankful for that.

 

The Uncanny X-Men #160 – Chutes and Ladders!: A

Marvel Team-Up #100 – Karma!/Cry - Vengeance!: B

The Uncanny X-Men #161 – Gold Rush!: C

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Beyond the Farthest Star: B

The Uncanny X-Men #163 – Rescue Mission: B

The Uncanny X-Men #164 – Binary Star: B

The Uncanny X-Men #166 – Live Free or Die!: B

Dazzler #17 – The Angel and the Octopus!: D

Chronological X-Men - Days of Future Past Part 4 Review

Days of Future Past.

Dazzler #6 – The Hulk May Be Hazardous To Your Health

Dazzler #7 – Fort Apache, The Hulk!

Okay this next storyline for Dazzler has a lot going against it for me: the Hulk, country music, the woe is me I’m a starving artist thing, and Nurse Collins – who is still acting like she’s time traveled from 1940 and thinks Alison is a bad seed and how she has to save Paul (the man that she secretly loves) from Alison. All that said the issue is kind of passable, I don’t think I’ll ever read these issues again, but I don’t feel bad that I’ve spent the time to read them. Sure there are some weird things like the fact that the cover of issue 7 is very similar to issue 3 and there’s the whole ‘Hall of Science’ thing – this is a college, shouldn’t at the very least it just be ‘the science building? – and the previously mentioned cliché and far too campy storyline that Nurse Collins is sporting; but at the same time the disco singer is performing country music and fighting The Hulk. I know I complained in previous issues that Dazzler is feeling more like a Marvel Team-Up spinoff instead of an additional X-book, but this is one time where they could have afforded to throw in some Avengers, or Spider-Man or X-Men simply given the fact that Alison and Hulk are on such drastically different power levels that it’s not even funny. We get more of the whole Alison/Paul plot which I can take or leave, and we see Alison experience some anti-mutant bashing of her own which I know this is going to sound weird is nice. I don’t like that she’s so far been exempt of the anti-mutant hysteria and everyone who knows that Alison is a mutant just loves her and accepts her. We meet ‘The Enforcers’ (Montana, Ox and Fancy Dan) who are working for some shadowed figure that believes Alison’s agent Harry S. Osgood a murder who in his own right deserves to die. On top of that Alison’s also being followed around by the Techmaster – in his first appearance. Technically he’s a Dazzler character because outside of his appearances in her book he’s only ever popped up one time and that was in an issues of an Avengers book over 20 years later. The one thing that really stuck out for me in these two issues was the story pacing – there was actually a build up and a seamless progression to the storyline instead of rapid mid-page gear shifting that has been going on for a few issues now in Uncanny X-Men.

Marvel Team-Up #109 – Critical Mass!

Spider-Man and Paladin are in a heated battle with the new villain Thermo when Dazzler runs into them while she’s on her way home from a recent performance. She jumps into the fight when Thermo is about to kill Spider-Man and distracts him long enough so the three of them can escape. Alison and Paladin take the critically injured Spider-Man back to Alison’s apartment to recover while everyone tries to figure out their next move. Thermo runs into some cultists who quickly turn into his lackeys when they are promised similar powers to his. After another rather large battle Thermo eventually falls and everyone else goes on their own separate ways. This was actually interesting, I want to know more about Paladin (so much like Spider-Woman this might be something I look into after I’m all caught up on the X-books) and I’m honestly surprised by how much I enjoy the interaction between Alison and Peter; I wish that they would team up a lot more than they do.

Marvel Super-Heroes #10 – Sabertooth Stalks The Subway

Marvel Super-Heroes #11 – Cry Vengeance

This next stop isn’t so much a retcon as it is fleshing out of history. Ms. Marvel originally had her own comic book series, but it was canceled on the 23^rd issue, and these next two stories were supposed to be issues 24 and 25. The Sabertooth issue was obviously closer to being finished because this one actually had a cover done for it. I would have skipped this one but it does tie in to Department H going back on their word to leave Logan alone by recruiting Sabertooth and extraditing him to Canada to begin his training to return Weapon X to them. Carol has to deal with his escape when her friends almost get killed when the transport crashes in to the café they are in, and Carol begins to be haunted by visions of her own death thanks to her 7^th sense. The second issue takes place directly before Avengers Annual #10- Mystique and Destiny are trying to keep Ms. Marvel and Rogue separated because of all of the potential futures that Destiny has seen will lead to Rogue’s death. The teenage Rogue doesn’t take this well and looks at it like she’s being excluded and she goes off to fight Ms. Marvel on her own. They do add some additional information when they talk about Rogue joining the X-Men after needing their help and how Carol eventually transitions into Binary – but those are stories soon to be told….

Avengers Annual #11 – By Friends – Betrayed!

Speaking of stories soon to be told… here we have the first appearance of Rogue. Spider-Woman finds a woman floating  in the river and takes her to the hospital to be examined. A little funny nod there’s a young girl named Maddie Pryor running around the hospital. Jessica brings in Charles Xavier to mindscan the woman after finding out that she is Carol Danvers a former Avenger. Carol’s memories have been removed and Charles begins to work on helping her regain who she is. Jessica goes the Avengers for help only to find out that Rogue has been there and absorbed Captain America and Thor’s powers as well and is using them to break out the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants who have been in prison for some time now. Rogue and Mystique do manage to free the Brotherhood but when Rogue’s powers start to decrease they are forced to flee which leaves Blob, Avalanche, Destiny and Pyro back in prison after the lost battle with the Avengers and Spider-Woman. Jessica takes the Avengers back to the X-Men’s mansion to come face to face with Carol. There’s a few things that they talk about that I really had no clue what was going on because I don’t follow The Avengers but the gist of it seems to be that Carol met a man from Limbo (oh I can’t wait until we get to some Limbo stuff in the main X-books) who used his powers to make her believe that she was in love with them – he gook her with him and basically got her pregnant with… himself and she returned to earth to give birth to him only it didn’t happen, or it did and then the Avengers sent him back to Limbo or something. Like I said I didn’t really follow what was going on. I know this is an Avengers book, but I would rather have had the book focus more on Rogue and Carol as opposed to Jessica and the Avengers fight the Brotherhood. Since this was essentially Rogue and Carol’s story it feels like they spent more time on other characters than they did the two of them.

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #5 – Oh, La La… Badoon!

The next story brings us the return of Arkon and his homeworld as the X-Men and Sue Storm team up to save the Fantastic Four and Arkon from the evil Brother Royal and his Baddon warriors who have not only taken over Arkon’s world, but have now apparently been killing Shi-ar scouts and preparing to move on to Earth next. Ororo has been suffereing bouts of nightmares thanks to Sashia who has been using them to reach out to her friend in an attempt to show her that her people need help. All in all the story was good, I liked this visit to Arkon’s world a lot more than the first annual that featured him. This is what an annual should be; it’s a little bonus reward for everyone who has stuck through the book the entire year. Big events or revelations (like Amanda or introducing her mother and Kurt’s foster mother Margali, or the introduction of Rogue) or a chapter of a major over all story arch that forces you to read it. It should be a fun little outing that has little to nothing to do with the current plots of it’s main book.

Dazzler #6 – The Hulk May Be Hazardous To Your Health: B

Dazzler #7 – Fort Apache, The Hulk!: B

Marvel Team-Up #109 – Critical Mass!: A

Marvel Super-Heroes #10 – Sabertooth Stalks The Subway: B

Marvel Super-Heroes #11 – Cry Vengeance: B

Avengers Annual #11 – By Friends – Betrayed!: C

The Uncanny X-Men Annual #5 – Oh, La La… Badoon!: A

Chronological X-Men - Part 18 Review

The road trip ends… for now.

The Incredible Hulk # 172 And Canst Thou Slay… The Juggernaut?

I’m going to be honest folks; I’m really biased here. It’s common knowledge that I hate The Hulk with a passion so it’s hard to be objective here, especially when I know I’ll have a few more issues of his title to read over the course of several storylines yet to come. Just like always I can’t comment on any of the cast of characters because I don’t know enough about them to know who is important and who I can just ignore. Basically the story is Hulk gets captured and the government uses a ray to try to banish him to another dimension and in the process this brings Juggernaut back to Earth and quite a few pages are devoted to catching everyone up on what Cain Marko’s been up to over the years. The issue ends with the X-Men (Charles, Scott and Jean) trying to find out what happened to Warren. I wish I could give this a better rating system because an alphabet grade doesn’t really work for me this time. I’d rank this one some where between ‘meh’ and ‘ehh.’

Captain America #172 Believe It or Not: The Banshee

Captain America #173 The Sins of the Secret Empire

Captain America #174 Its Always Darkest….

Captain America #175 Before the Dawn!

The next pit stop brings us a whole lot of things going on. We learn that while mutants are being hunted down and captured by a mysterious force it turns out that Falcon and Captain America are actually the most wanted men on the block. Banshee shows up for an issue and runs into Cap and Falcon, after a misunderstanding they end up fighting but when Cyclops shows up Banshee takes off. The remaining X-Men and Cap and Falcon team up to go after The Secret Empir who had not only managed to frame Captain America for murder but also kidnap several mutants (Iceman, Havok, Lorna, Beast, Unus, Mastermind, the Blob, Angel and Mesmero and is using them to power a machine that they will end up using to force the United States into either surrendering their power to The Secret Empire or just destroy them outright. We learn that Hank, Bobby, Alex and Lorna were all captured as well which really just serves as an explanation as to why none of them appeared in any of the X-Men’s off book adventures recently. One thing that I couldn’t help but laugh at was the fact that the leader of The secret Empire who calls himself Number One looks an awful lot like Cobra Commander, in reality he’s a ‘high ranking government official’ while his true identity wasn’t revealed it had been later stated that it was intended that his alter ego would end up being Richard Nixon. This whole thing is a big thing in and of itself because of the fact that after Captain learns the true identity of Number One and witnesses his suicide Cap decides to leave the superhero business behind 3for now.

Marvel Team-Up #23 The Night of the Frozen

Bobby and Johnny Storm both get framed for a robbery by the villain Equinox who has both ice and fire based powers. Naturally there is some confusion where Bobby thinks Johnny did the break in and Johnny things Bobby is responsible for it. They end up fighting each other before they figure out who really did it and then team up to go after him. I don’t know what to think of this one, I mean it was a fun little read and I’ve always liked the way Johnny and Bobby play off of each other but I’m not entirely sure that I wanted to read this story. However I think the reason for that is simply a case of bad timing because if I think about it, I would honestly read this story again, and there have been quite a few issues that I’ve reviewed since I started this journey that I will never pick up and read again even if my life depended on it. It was still a pretty good story. I think that I might have read this one a bit out of order because it feels like the X-Men are off looking for the missing mutants and if that's the case this would have had to have happened a lot sooner than the Captain America issues, but at the same time it feels like it could also have taken place after because Hank isn't anywhere to be seen and it's around this time that he joins the Avengers, and that happens after the whole Secret Empire thing.

The Incredible Hulk #180 And the Wind Howls… Wendigo!

The Incredible Hulk #181 And Now… the Wolverine!

The Incredible Hulk #182 Between Hammer and Anvil

Speaking of things I’ll never read again even if my life depended on it this story has to be one of them. I’ll be honest here, I only read this because it’s the first appearance of Wolverine and almost all of the X-Men related stories that I’ll be reading from this point on will heavily feature him so it’s pretty hard to ignore. Maybe I would have enjoyed this story more if I had any idea what the hell was going on half of the time but there isn’t anything that I can do about that. Well there is, but I’m choosing not to. The debut of Wolverine was kind of lackluster but considering he just shows up and fights Hulk and then goes back into Weapon X’s custody there isn’t that much that can be said about it- the story is supposed to be just a violent battle and that’s what it delivers so I guess ultimately it lives up to that promise, but still…. I guess for me the worst part of this is that Logan only appears in the last page of the first issue and the first page of the last issue so it makes me feel like I had to sit through two extra stories that I didn’t have to read just so the middle issue would make sense to me. Not that it made it any better because while I liked the whole plot with the Weendigo, Georges and Marie I had absolutely no investment in what happened to them at all so it didn’t end up being as important as I’m sure it was meant to be.

The Incredible Hulk # 172 And Canst Thou Slay… The Juggernaut?: D

Captain America #172 Believe It or Not: The Banshee: B

Captain America #173 The Sins of the Secret Empire: B

Captain America #174 Its Always Darkest….: A

Captain America #175 Before the Dawn!: A

Marvel Team-Up #23 The Night of the Frozen: C

The Incredible Hulk #180 And the Wind Howls… Wendigo!: D

The Incredible Hulk #181 And Now… the Wolverine!: C

The Incredible Hulk #182 Between Hammer and Anvil: D