X-Men VS Inhumans

Sigh.... and yes I know I have the title backwards

I mean- if you are a reader of this blog or listen to us podcast on our Thursday Night Comic Book Chat- you know that we are not fans of what has happened to the X-Men.  This dispute between the Mouse and Fox, has taken our favorite book and characters and turned them into tertiary characters to the InHumans as the InHumans steal and live out their gimmick.  Its sad, its frustrating, and often time vomit inducing to see what has happened to our Merry Mutants.

But alas, the unnecessary push for the InHumans continues at the Mutants expense.  Prior to this Marvel Event between our two combatants, the groundwork was laid by another event- Death of X which pushes the conflict between the two groups to the boiling over point.

To recap.... The InHumans have released the Terrigen Mist, the source of their powers, onto the general population creating new, and unnecessary Inhumans to pop up all over the world.  This is seen as a celebration by the InHumans, but the mist appears to be killing and/or making mutants sterile and the mutant population has dropped significantly.

Enter the mutant who everyone loves to hate and who hates everyone- Cyclops.  Cyclops sees the threat and wants the X-Men to respond.  A trip to Muir Island has disastrous results and without spoiling too much, Cyclops is dead and now Emma Frost is leader of the X-Men.

Xmen VS InHumans picks up at the conclusion of Death of X, as Beast, who had been working on finding a cure for the Terrigen Mist problem is speaking at the grave of his now dead, former friend and leader, Cyclops.  Beast, being ever pragmatic, believes there is no time left and there is no cure to be found for the mist and when he goes to speak to the other X-Men about this,  he finds himself in the middle of a debate on how the X-Men need to respond.

On the kick the InHumans ass side- Magneto, Wolverine, and Emma Frost( duh). On the lets be rational side, Beast, Rogue, and Forge.  Storm is the toss up vote and I'll let this picture explain where Storm stands.

So the plan to defeat the InHumans is in place to take out the Royal Family before they know what hits them.  We get a special appearance from a mutant we have not seen in a long while and the book is the set up for the six issue limited series.

How we get to the end of this is not really important.  We all know that the X-books are not getting cancelled as many( including myself) hypothesized.  X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold will launch shortly after this mini-series ends.

The InHumans are still going to be around after this as well.  We are basically reading to see what happens to the cloud.  I mean basically that's it, right?  I am sure some relationships will be damaged, but overall, what long lasting effect is this series going to have on either group?

As we talked on the Year in Comics review last night, Marvel has married themselves to these event books and its hurting their product for certain long time readers.  Even if you are telling a competent story, it often gets lost in the numerous side off books to get all the extra details and significant moments and which of us has the extra cash to be buying all these side books?

I am sticking with this series only because we have to talk about it on our podcast.  Overall, this was an ok jump on book to the series.  It set up the future books pretty well, but overall, its hard to get too excited about this.

The Producer

Reggie and Me #1

As a long time Archie reader and follower, my relationship with Riverdale's resident brat and prankster has always been complicated.  As a youth, I could not stand Reggie because he constantly was dragging Archie down with his schemes and even tho he always got his comeuppance at the end, I hated the character for what he represented!

As I became a teenager, I began to appreciate the character more because, like Reggie, I had developed a dark side.  I recognized and saw through the bullshit that was/is high school, cliques, and social status and did whatever I could ( legally) to reject and bring down any and all things and people who were more popular than me.  Call it being a rebel, call it embracing your dark side, call it whatever you want, but high school me was way more Reggie than Archie.

With the launch of the New Archie books this past year, our first Reggie appearance was of course in the middle of a scheme to break up Archie and Veronica.  But they also began to flesh out his character in a way that years of comics and digest never had.  Reggie's mom is a mom who is on PTA and every other committee to help children- except her own.  You see the complicated relationship he has with his father and his constant search for approval from a man who refuses to give it to him.  Reggie's Daddy Issues are not uncommon in a society where men often refuse to acknowledge or reciprocate their sons feelings for fear that it will make them soft, weak, or gay.  Its total bullshit, but it exists and Reggie has created a world for himself where to make himself feel better, he needs to put others down! I think we all know THAT kid from middle school and high school and Reggie fits the bill perfectly.

Reggie and Me #1- like the Adam Hughes Betty and Veronica book is told in a narrative style by a dog- yes a dog.  In Betty and Veronica, Jughead's long time canine companion, Hot Dog drives the story.  In Reggie, his dog Vader( yes after Darth) is our narrator.

Vader gives us insight as his pet into what motivates Reggie, his love for Midge, and the catalyst for issue #1- a perceived slight from Archie after everyone receives a text from Archie and leaves his party to attend a party at Veronica's mansion.

The issue focuses on Reggie not acknowledging his feelings about everyone leaving him and his party and focuses on his revenge for those who have slighted him.  Reggie gets to act and live out all our high school revenge fantasies and he does with a wink and a smile without a perceived care in the world.

And even when Archie attempts to right the wrong of submarining his party, Reggie is having none of it- more offended that Archie would pity him than anything else.

If you are a reader of this blog or follow us on Twitter and Facebook, you know I am quite protective of Archie and characters in the Riverdale universe.  But much like the Archie and Betty and Veronica relaunch, this book is so well written and so true to the core of the characters, its truly one of the best debuts I have read this year.

So Reggie and Me will make it into my monthly pull box permanently.  I would encourage you to embrace your dark side and pick it up, too.


The Producer

Ice-Mans coming out party

http://nerdist.com/iceman-creative-team-talks-the-x-men-heros-first-ongoing-series-and-coming-out/

Our friends over at the Nerditst have an interview with the creators of Iceman's solo book.  Remember this version of Bobby Drake is Gay and marks a big step for Marvel as it embraces an openly Gay Character with his own monthly title.  I dig the progress and there should be more diverse characters. I guess my issue is that Iceman being gay was given a gay writer to handle his book- probably because, obviously a Gay man would have a great handle of the what its like to be a Gay man.  That makes sense to me. I am sure that writer, Sina Gray will have a unique and authentic voice to what its like to be a gay, white male.

Marvel has been doing ok with diversity in their writing teams.... that's me grading on the curve, tho  David Walker has given us great work on Power Man and Iron Fist and the criminally underrated Nighthawk.  Ta-Neisha Coates Black Panther run has been lauded as one of the finest takes on the character.  And friend of the show, Geoffrey Thorne just launched Mosaic a few months ago.  Just this past month, Roxanne Gay became Marvel's first African American female writer working on the World of Wakanda. And early next year, Gabby Rivera, a gay, Hispanic female writer will be writing America Chavez- a gay, Hispanic female. So yes, there has been some progress.  But to paraphrase James Baldwin, "How much time do you need for progress?"

Sam Wilson: Captain America- written by a white guy.  Spider-Man/Miles Morales and RiRi Williams/Ironheart- written by the same white guy.  X-Men- a book rooted in discrimination has never been written by a person of color.  It seems that Marvel is very slow to turn over their flagship characters to people of color to write.

This is never more evident in the handling of the Storm solo series.  Storm, one of the most popular X-men of all time, finally got a solo title. Marvel has a chance to make a statement and hire a Black, female to write this book.  Her take would be fresh, different, and come from a personal space and place.  What does Marvel do... they hire Greg Pak- an Asian male to write the book. A person of color- YES.  But is he really the best person to be writing the voice of a Black Female?

See Marvel was never going to give Iceman's coming out party to a straight white male or even a gay, black male.  The recognized that the writers take on the character would be more authentic in the voice of a gay, white male.  I get that!  So why not extend that to the other characters in your universe?  I'd love for a Black, female to write Ironheart.  I'd die to see an Hispanic male get a chance to write Miles Morales. It really is long overdue for this to happen.

Someone will inevitably read this and ask or say" so only Black people can write for Black people. That's racist!" No that is not what I am saying! There is a void of people of color writing comics( drawing them and inking them as well) and Marvel and DC and Image need to recognize that and allow for diverse creators to write for diverse characters.

So good for Bobby Drake! We are proud of you Marvel for taking this leap forward with the character. Don't be afraid to keep it going!



The Producer

The X-men Okey Doke

News about the X-men in comics the last few years has not really been that great.  We all know the edict put forth by the Marvel powers that be about not creating new mutants and how the X-men have been pushed to the back of the line to make way for the InHumans.  There had even been rumors that the X-Titles themselves would be phased out after the X-Men VS InHumans miniseries because of Marvel not wanting to bump for characters that their cinematic universe does not own. There is precedent for this because the Fantastic Four are still on a milk carton.

Marvel shot down those rumors when they came out and announced the X-books and certain characters would be getting their own solo titles.  There was to be a Jean Grey solo title, along with Ice-Man and Cable also getting books.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement for me loosening my change purse to buy these books but it was a sign that Marvel was not going to kill the X-Men titles.  Then Marvel did something they knew would get X-Fans hyped by announcing that the two new X-titles being launched would be X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold.  Now if you are a long time reader of the X-Men, you know the craziness surrounding the early 90's relaunch of the X-Men.  At the time, Marvel split the X-Men into two books and two teams- Blue and Gold.  Each book also had top creators for their relaunch.  Jim Lee and Chris Claremont on one book and Whilce Potacio and John Byrne on the other.  When modern comic fans tell you they "Love the X-men, its probably because of these books!
These books were fire and sold out like crazy with people having to get 4th and 5th prints of the books.  It was a great time for comics and comic book fans!

So when Marvel put out in the universe they were going to do X-Men Blue and X-men Gold again, people( including this blogger) got hyped.  I was thinking they were finally going to bring some semblance back to the books and cast off these mutants that no one cares about( looking at you Gold Balls) and focus on the characters that so many of us grew up with and care about.  Not only that, I convinced myself that the books would get top creative teams. I did not think Jim Lee was coming back or anything, but a hot new artist and a great writer and we could relive the good ol' days.  Man Marvel slapped me in the face.

First off the Gold Team looked to have potential as it had classic characters from the X-Men with Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler. I could never see Old Man Logan again and it would be too soon but whatever.  Then, they added Rachel Grey a character that NO ONE cares about or has ever cared about.  And then they top this shit burger by telling us Kitty Pryde is leading the team. Say what now?  The team that has both Nightcrawler and Storm is being led by Kitty Pryde? Man, get the fuck out of here with that mess! And then they top the shit burger with a creative team that no one has heard of.  Look these guys may do fine and great but there is no sizzle with the team or the creators so why would I spend my money on this?  On top of that, Kitty comes to lead the X-Men because Storm gives up her leadership.... What now? She gives up her leadership to Kitty?  Kitty Pryde? Man get the fuck out of here!  Kitty Pryde has never made anything better with the X-Men. And I mean never. She is quite possibly the worst X-Man ever and even tho they have given the character a much better middle than the beginning, she is still awful.

Then the Blue team.... man listen... They already did this.  The classic 60's era X-men team just recently had stories running through All New X-Men and it was fine.. I guess.  But who was asking for this?  They could've done the book with the current version of the originals minus Cyclops or add the young Cyclops.. I don't know?!  Who was asking for a book with Beast, Ice-Man, and Angel tho? They suck! They have always sucked!  Its just such a disappointment and the creative team is also uninspiring.

This messed me up yesterday when this dropped! I thought Marvel was fully behind the X-Men again and were going to do their best to reset and restore the team as one of their flagship titles.  They did not.  This looks to be another curve ball by Marvel at Fox to not fully back X-Men until those movie rights are shared or turned over outright.

So I wont be buying either of these X-Titles and none of the relaunched books because.. why the hell would I?  We love supplying you guys with reviews of new and current books but I cannot get behind this at all.  Sorry, Marvel- you lost an X-Fan with this one!

The Producer

Invincible Iron Man Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Stefano Casseli

I am a little late to this party but I wanted to get a review in before issue 2 comes out.  As Marvel moves into their Marvel NOW era, we get a relaunch of Iron Man.  But its really not Iron Man- its Iron Heart as RiRi Williams takes over the Iron Man armor... well sort of.  If you are a reader of this blog and follow us on Twitter @brothascomics, you will know that we have called out Marvel for essentially making a Plessy V Ferguson roster of heroes.  We have the Black Iron Man, Black Captain America, Black Spider-Man, etc.  Again, this would not be an issue if their white counterparts were not around.  But they are, which in my opinion, diminishes from the Black heroes.

That being said, even tho Tony Stark is not around, Iron Heart is not the only Iron Man.  DR. Doom is also Iron Man in a separate Marvel Now title so we really have the same separate but equal heroes living and existing in the same space.

When news dropped that RiRi Williams was going to be Iron Man, I was excited, but also a bit scared.  Marvel wants to diversify their books, but not their writing rooms and when I heard Bendis was going to be writing this book, along with the Miles Morales Spider-Man, I kinda just rolled my eyes.  Marvel missed the chance to hire a Black, female writer to give the book a voice that is so underrepresented in mainstream comics.  And to me, this plays out in IronHeart.  This is not including the contrversey over the cover by J. Scott Campbell and the white boy fan backlash of having Iron Man now be a Black teenager.

The book opens with RiRi Willliams being diagnosed as a child hood prodigy and her parents hearing this and dealing with how they will need to parent her.  Its a great opening scene and got the book off to a fascinating start. But the book time jumps between the past and the present over the course of the issue and we see IronHeart fighting a D-level villain and we see her as a 10 year old where she meets her best friend Natalie.  Then back to fighting awful villain and then here is where I kind wanted to jump off.

The book is set in Chicago and you would have to live under a rock to not know the situation there in the city is bleak.  Joblessness leads to crime which often leads to violence.  Bendis decides to tackles this in the history and world building of RiRi and its unnecessary.  An act of violence( a drive by shooting) kills RiRi best friend and her dad(step dad).  Yes, tragedy as a call to action for heroes is a long time comic book trope- I get it!  But it also does not have to be. Why use a real life city and its tragedy to build the hero?  Why use the loss of innocent Black lives as the spark to becoming a superhero?  In light of the James Rhodes tragedy from Civil War 2, I think we all came to the conclusion that killing Black folks for white tears is wrong.  And this is wrong here. Iron-Man/Ironheart is not a street level hero like Spider-Man or Luke Cage who deal with regular people in their attempts to do hero work. Iron Man/IronHeart is an Avenger of the highest order.  She will fight powerful villains and along side powerful heroes.  Iron-Man/Ironheart is not going to be on the streets of the southside of Chicago looking for hooligans who killed her family.  It makes no sense.  I didn't like that part and it spoiled the rest of the book for me.

The ending of the book is a time jump to present day.  RiRi's mom knows about her superhero work and is ok- well as ok as a mom could be with it.  RiRi's armor is still in its developmental stage and she needs new AI to work better.  Out of the blue of course there is a delivery and of course Tony Stark makes an appearance...as AI.

Overall the book is ok.  The art work is great and the story is recoverable, but to me its not a great start for such a groundbreaking hero and book.  Hopefully there is a payoff to her family being killed, but I am not holding my breath that it will make more sense later.

The Producer

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Mosaic #1 Review

When news dropped of Mosaic this past year, I was immediately intrigued by the idea and excited about a new, Black superhero being added to the Marvel Universe.  I had even scheduled an interview with the writer, Geoffrey Thorne that fell through at the last minute.  Marvel starting a new book with a Black lead and both writing and pencils being done by African Americans.  This is a big moment.  I was not thrilled with the idea of Mosaic being an Inhuman, but I could look past that.

Issue 1 of Mosaic does not disappoint long time comic book fans and is a great jumping on point for new readers who wont be burdened by years of continuity to understand the character.








Morris Sackett is a tier 1, basketball superstar in the MBA( Marvel Basketball Association?).  His team, the New York Stride are about to clinch their 5th MBA title, along with a 5th MVP award for Sackett.  Like most basketball superstars, Sackett has tons of talent and an ego to match which does not make him beloved by his teammates.   As I read the book, Sackett read like a modern day, in his prime Kobe Bryant.

Now even tho Sackett is a star, he does have his Pops and his girlfriend T-Fleek by his side to keep him grounded.  I loved how the writer here gave Morris a white, pop star girlfriend.  It felt very much like a nod to the Nick Yong and Iggy Azalea coupling.

Life is going very well for Morris Sackett... until the Terrigen Mist which had been unleashed by the Inhumans, finds Morris and transforms him into one of those Inhuman cocoons.  Of course, every one is worried. From Pops, to T-Fleek, and to his millions of fans across the globe.   Most who are affected by the Terrigen Mist do not have the resources that Morris Sackett has and Pops uses them to help find a solution for his son.  Stark, Parker, and Wakandan technology are all being used to figure out what happened to Morris.  Pops care of Morris is evident and even tho some may see the coupling of him and T-Fleek as a publicity stunt, she is very concerned as well.

I am getting into spoiler territory.... proceed with caution.  Mosaic's birth leads to massive confusion on Morris' part and those who love and care for him and he eventually finds himself on the streets of New York confused and with new powers.  Mosaic has the ability to mind jump from person to person and even when he leaves one person, he still carries with him some of their memories and skills.

As he begins to learn his new powers, moving from random New Yorker to New Yorker, he eventually winds up with two kids with criminal intentions which leads to our conclusion and lead in for issue 2.

In the realm of Black Superheroes, Mosaic has been given a chance to catch the Inhuman wave that is sweeping over Marvel Comics right now.  In this book, Thorne and artist Khary Randolph have given us a new hero, with an interesting power set and I am curious as to how Mosaic fits in the Marvel Universe moving forward.  As always, with any Black hero comic, the concern will be if people will support the book and the character.  Mosaic, to me, is a great starting point for new readers, as well as old school readers looking for a new character to follow. I am looking forward to issue two and how they handle Morris' coming to grips with his lack of self, loss of relationships, on top of the development of his power set. Again, great start, many different possibilities for the book and the character moving forward.  Color me intrigued.

The Producer

Death of X Review

If rumors are to be believed, Death of X as the lead in to Xmen Vs InHumans is going to leave our mighty mutant friends in a version of comic book limbo.  Word on the streets for months has been that Marvel comics and their Disney overlords are going to drop the Fantastic Four bomb on the X-Men.  This bomb would essentially cancel many X-books and spread out the X-Men into other Marvel titles.  Disney/Marvel's goal is to regain control of the X-property for their cinematic purposes.  Again, its just a rumor.  But the rise of the InHumans and the dwindling mutant population in the comics gives it some credibility.

Death of X picks up in the year missing between the present and post Secret Wars.  Cyclops is dead in our current continuity and this story is to fill in the gaps as to how that happened.  The book looks at the current state of both teams from their different perspectives.

The InHumans are riding high.  The Terrigen mist has been released and new InHumans are popping up everywhere.  The fact that a smog is sweeping the world is not scaring people- they are craving it and wanting it hoping that it will unleash the power within them. Crystal and the other InHumans are in Japan overseeing the coming of the mist.

The X-Men however, are looking into the mist as well as it was swept through Muir Island and they received a distress call from the island.  The Island is in shambles as well the science facility and the workers there are all dead.  The team, led by Cyclops and Emma Frost, are exploring to see what happens.  They see the mist and it seems to be effecting Cyclops more than any of the others.

In Japan, the mist has found 1 person that is transformed into an InHuman.  Of course, this is a comic and Hydra shows up to battle the InHumans and we get pages of battle between the two groups.  Its typical comic book stuff and really adds nothing to the story other than the reveal of the new InHuman.

Back on Muir Island, there is a death to a long time mutant that I wont reveal and the discovery of the research into the mist.  That info is quickly sent to Beast who is very concerned about the initial findings.  Short thereafter, Cyclops collapses and you are not sure if he is alive or dead.

But as the book comes to a close, Hydra is defeated and Cyclops is not dead.... Again this is spoiler free but the groundwork gets laid for the battle to come.

Overall, I thought the book was lacking and seemed to be more of a place holder for the X-Men VS InHuman books.  I am just not sure where they are headed with this.  My prediction is whatever version of Cyclops that has turned crazy over the last 5 years will be eliminated somehow.  They took the character way off base and turned him into Magneto and ruined him.  Its no coincidence that teenage Cyclops from an alternate reality is here and in the Champions.  Additionally, it seems these two groups of characters, who are very similar now, cannot co-exist so one of them has to lose and sadly I think it will be the X-Men.  Of course its comics and this could be a temporary leave of absence until the next relaunch of X-books but how we get there and when it happens- I wont be around for it. So thumbs down to Death of X #1.  I will check out the X-Men VS InHuman books instead.

The Producer