X-Men #14

Part 2/6 of Bloodline. 

Rachel and Monet are chasing down the shooter that seriously injured two students at the Jean Grey school. Monet shows no mercy after the culprit tries to take out bystanders in a trainstation and then suicide, Monet and Rachel go full force at him with disregard to who is watching. 

Back at the school Storm tries to get answers from her future daughter Kymera while Jubilee does what ever she can to teach her infant son to protect himself. “Come on Shogo, push the beep beep.” And Psylocke locks the school down. “Anyone breaches this school. I’ll hear it in my brains.” 

Storm officially made them a team and chooses that they will take a silent vote for leader, no judgements (half of them can read minds… that’s not really going to work). Suddenly there is an explosion in the east wing. The shooter is escaping (because it was a really bad time for a team meeting) the room is burning and the fire suppression has been disabled. Monet and Rachel decide that they’re going to take the guy apart. He’s about to say “You can’t stop the Future” when Kymera comes out of nowhere with her panther and lays the smack down. But she sees a timer on his head counting down. She retreats, a hawk delivers Shogo to her, she calls for her mom then the man explodes and Kymera is sent tumbling (Shogo pushes the beep-beep). 

Outside: Menacing characters plan to attack them again at dawn.

BromoSuperior

with art by Phil Briones. Hellion and co are stuck in Psylocke’s danger room program. This side story isn’t really grabbing me. But Briones’s version of Psylocke is perfect.

X-Men #12

So after my MANY COMPLAINTS about last issue… my hangs ups have almost all seemed to be addressed this time around.

Selene Gallio’s name was spelled right, Monet and Karima looked like two separate people, they addressed who was where (with a role call, which seemed like a response to complaints that I -and seemingly others- had last time).

The “Meanwhile” was still a “Before” (Quentin Quire was on the plane telepathically combating the Sentinels..

at no point “Meanwhile” could QQ have been at the school with John Sublime last issue ..anyway…

In Japan, Ana Cortes bites the dust (at the close of #11 she stabbed herself through the gut with a sword). And there’s a slightly baffling scene of Madelyne Pryor’s resurrection. And then they introduce who’s on the inbound X-Jet.. which Rachel groans at. And it comes off as BWood being annoyed at readers being annoyed last issue -but I’m so vain, I think this issue is in direct response to me. Anyway; Storm, Rachel, Psylocke, Money, Karima got a tip about Lady Deathstrike’s whereabouts …from Ana. 

Arkea’s the queen bee of the hive mind so they decide to shut her down. They know she’s still recruiting and know it is likely that both the Black Queen and Red Queen have joined up.Monet crashes through the building (again) but instead of heading right for Arkea she goes to get some revenge on Amora while Psylocke has a rematch against Typhoid Mary. Rachel doesn’t get a rematch against Selene (long ago, Rachel faced off with her but Wolverine injured Rachel to take her out of the fight so that she wouldn’t be a murderer) but instead gets attacked by her mother’s genetic clone. 

But Storm negotiates. She tells Madelyne and Selene to just walk away and go elsewhere, just let the X-Men take care of Arkea. 

You don’t span decades with X-Men wanting you dead- or in Selene’s case; centuries- and survive without being a little self serving. They just got their lives back… so they walk away. 

Monet grabs Arkea’s host Reiko (after Arkea goes batshit and makes a run at Storm) and Karima shoots her with a weapon specially engineered by John Sublime. Then Karima says she’s taking a gig with Sabra and Gabriel. 

Okay… This time I liked Anka’s art fine. Maybe the last issue was just rushed, I don’t know. It looked better. The characters were distinct, the lines were clean. The backgrounds were stylishly sparse. 

Then we get to this dubious “Meanwhile”

Cessily and Roxy finally get their issues worked through…

Mann’s art is so good! Paul Mounts colors are so good! This picture that I took with my smartphone in my crappily lit den does it o service. It’s really just gorgeous. This little side mission was certainly fun albeit somewhat convoluted. Look at the ripples! Look at the facial expressions. It’s so good!

Jubilee makes some comments to Julian that aren’t quite suitable for work. Anyway, Sentinels handled. 

I actually kinda dig Quentin Quire, he reminds me of my high school friends. He can come around if he wants.

Is Jubilee actually gonna do vampire-y stuff. I feel like they’ve been teasing me with this for 8 months. 

This is one of my fave series, I’m glad to see it was back on track this month. I did think it was weird that Selene and Madelyne just walked off, now there are two big bads on the loose, I’m sure they will be popping up somewhere soon. This was a much better issue, I’m still a little baffled about the way the story is being split up.. but I’m okay with it as long as there is consistency and cohesion between the two plots. 

X-Men 10.NOW or X-Men GHOSTS #1

Marvel, srsly why are we numbering things like this? STOP.That small gripe aside, I was so pumped for this issue! 

Art by both Kris Anka and Clay Mann.

A mobbed up rich girl from Columbia and a deadly assassin from Osaka are Lady Deathstrike. She’s teamed up with the re-empowered Amora the Enchantress and Typhoid Mary to wage war as the New Sisterhood against the X-Men. They need recruits, they need powerhouses, they need to resurrect the dead.

But so do the X-Men. Monet, who got thrashed by Amora last issue quips about another take and then joins Psylocke and Storm. 

Ana Cortes is fighting herself, it’s not as fun as she thought it would be to be a super villain. 

Pixie and Rockslide are collecting the Arkea bomb that she was sent into space after the attack on the school in the earlier issues. And Rachel and Beast are running tests on Sublime, Rachel and Sublime squash their romance while Monet and Psylocke follow a bad lead and end up on an empty yacht. 

Arkea finds new recruits. Lady Deathstrike/Ana/Yuriko protests.. Arkea drops the hammer, Lady Deathstrike is an inferior specimen. Arkea is using her for resources and she threatens her. She requests even more female firepower;

Madelyne Pryor

Genetic clone of Jean Grey created by Mister Sinister who once married Scott Summers. AKA Red Queen, AKA Goblin Queen. Mother of Cable.

Selene Gallio

AKA Black Queen. Oldest mutant. Rachel Grey once tried to kill Selene (Wolverine stopped her by critically injuring Rachel so she wouldn’t be a murderer.. oh, jeez. I think Rachel is getting a re-match). Heavy duty telepath, sorceress and psychic vampire. 

So the S-Class Supreme mutants are coming out!

Oh yeah, and there are still Mark 1 Sentinels rising out of the ocean. Jubilee, Bling!, Hellion and Pixie are on the beach of Catalina Island to handle it while Karima, Quentin Quire and Mercury track from the plane… but the plan changes on the fly when Sentinels start repairing themselves.

Cliff hanger!

Great art, great set up. Glad to see Jubes back out in the field! But Vampires vs. Giant Robots?? hmmm… 

This book continues to fascinate and Ana’s about to realize that she bit off more than she can chew once Madelyne Pryor and Selene Gallio get up in this.

X-Men #8

X-Men #8

The eighth issue of “Brian Wood’s X-Men”/”The All-Girl X-Men” keeps it low on the Y chromosomes with All-Girl enemies! Post- BoTA the in-fighting hits a low for this team as they unite to stop Lady Deathstrike!

(My HBD tweet from Brian Wood, so huge.)

An intruder alert goes off at the Jean Grey School, the first to respond is Psylocke. It’s Typhoid Mary. She’s grabbed all the medical info on Karima, Shogo and Arkea. 

Mary escapes but Psylocke is on her trail (after getting dressed in the yard, much to Quentin Quire’s pervy amusement). Rachel (who sleeps in her full X-Men uniform) calls John Sublime to tell him the bad news. Except he’s already at the Cortes Compound, home of the new incarnation of Lady Deathstrike. 

Ms. Cortes, ahem… Yuriko is excited about the prospect of injecting Arkea. Treating alien bacteria hellbent on taking over the world/his sister as a body modification just not amuse John Sublime. 

But he believes that the X-Men will stop her (after all, they have stopped him and Arkea before).

Typhoid Mary shows up, believing she’s lost her tail. She’s psyched to learn that the Arkea live sample is a contagion. Lady Deathstrike cracks open the biohazard bag. John Sublime struggles to get the sample from her. When he does, he finds that the sample is inert. He shows off his big brain, telling the villainesses how he would find other samples that could potentially be alive. But he says he won’t. And they can’t kill him because they need the information! Ha ha ha, John Sublime will have the last laugh.

Or not. Typhoid Mary scrambles his brains and gets the info. She takes off with Lady Deathstrike and leaves John drooling on the carpet. Betsy steps in, scoops John up off the floor and they head back to the Jean Grey School. 

The bad girls land in Norway. Enchantress fights them with a stick and gives Typhoid Mary a thrashing. Enchantress has been stuck there 2 months. Thor exiled her and stripped her of her powers. Enchantress saw the meteorite strike nearby, Lady Deathstrike says that if she shows her the meteor that she can make Enchantress more powerful than Odin himself. 

Bling! and Jubilee are having their Degrassi Junior High moment. Bling! points out the hypocrisy of the “inclusive” X-Men before planting a kiss on a somehow surprised Jubilee. 

But Monet struts by and tells Jubilee that they’ve got a mission.

 

…That’s not from this issue, it’s a #throwbackthursday to their Generation X days. 

The THREE villainesses find the meteorite and make a pact, a sisterhood, to stand against the X-Men!

This issue was really enjoyable. A ton going on. Jubes is getting all the afterschool special plotlines… isn’t she a vampire?! Jubes, do vampire stuff! On the art front: I’m enjoying Terry Dodson’s take on the girls and since he and Wood go back with Monet, Jubilee and the crew to Generation X I have high hopes for the rest of this story arc!

+ You know we’ve discussed KP Vampire Slayer before- Including how the now Professor K was the inspiration for Buffy Summers. But did you know:

Circa 2000- Monet St. Croix faces off against Vampire DeLaCorte …completely unrelated to Jubilee being covered in vampire blood in a terrorist attack/being bitten by Xarus, son of Dracula in 2010.

interestingly enough Dodson drew this comic up to this issue and Wood started writing the one right after. 

Battle of the Atom Chapter 7

Or X-Men #6

My fave X-Men book. I have been enjoying the crossover, but this series in particular is the reason I’m reading about all these mutants! Exciting!

 

This cover is not incredibly exciting. The issue was good, though.

Jubilee wakes up to a screaming Shogo and Bling! who made Shogo a device that corresponds to Jubilee’s telemetrics tries to talk to Jubes about her feud with Mercury. But she gets interrupted… again. This time by Rachel, Rogue and Wolverine returning to the Jean Grey school. Wolverine asks Rachel to spy on the future X-Men. Which seems too late since Jean/Xorn is ready to throw young Jean, young Scott and young Angel in the time cube.

But young Beast and young Iceman are gone! (Last issue they bugged out with Magik to the distant future and then met up with present day Cyclops)  This is not new that Xavier’s grandson takes well and he directs his intense rage at Bling! WTF! Wolverine steps in. During the commotion Rachel is able to interlope and finds that the future X-Men are all freaking wrong… and future Kitty Pryde proves to be… Wolverine’s son…

WOW

All Hell breaks loose. 

And Jubilee throws her baby at Rogue and Psylocke (who says “Eep!”) and screams “I hate when telepaths fight ‘cuz I have no idea what’s going on! But I’m blaming you, ‘cuz I don’t like you anyway!” She bares her fangs and lunges at Xavier’s grandson! YES! 

Ice Hulk fling Jubilee into the ceiling.

Psylocke (still holding Shogo) swings a 90 pound mace at Ice Hulk.

Rachel psychically fights Xavier and is successful until Molly cracks her over the head.

Side note- Wolverine is missing his healing factor? WHAAAAAAT?

Jubilee, from the roof yells “Shogo! Push the beep-beep!” and Shogo gets put in a bubble so that Psylocke can fight Deadpool, then Jubes, her baby and Bling! run off. 3 of the 5 original are being held by Xorn/Jean and future Beast, Kitty, Storm, Beast and Bobby are also captive after Xorn/Jean’s psychic attack. The school gets locked down so that the real future X-Men can’t show up. 

And they do …obviously, along with Cyclops and Emma Frost. 

Pretty much all of these issues have had a huge WTF moment at the end… this one is no exception.

We’re getting towards the end. 3 more left in the cross over. Things that made no sense: Everyone stood around and watched while “Xavier’s grandson” (who is actually young Charles Xavier from the future… ummmm) beat up on Bling!? What? Rachel, Rogue, Psylocke and Jubilee (who made Bling the #2 in charge of Shogo) watched?! Umm… no, that doesn’t sound likely. 

Thanks to Rogue’s interaction with IceHulk we know that no one is driving that bus.

Why is Wolverine’s son blue? Did Wolverine and Mystique have a child? I have no idea what’s going on here. Please help me out… 

Marvel Now! X-MEN #1 & #2

 

 

So I just picked these up today, #1 is about a month old, and #2 just came out today.

The covers!

Look at these lovely ladies. 

 

And everyone’s looking all bad ass. Storm’s looking FIERCE with her mohawk and cleavage and impeccable posture. Psylocke is looking deadly serious. Kitty looks ready to play or pounce. & Rogue and Rachel are calm, composed and ready for anything. Which is good, because Jubilee up there is about to make some questionable decisions.

And then I saw Issue #2 and said…

Freaking Seriously? There’s a baby?! 

Because even though I know that babies are the superheros of tomorrow, they don’t exactly scream “Hey! Mainstream Readership!” 

And the rest of the team is in the background at war with some machines. Which is a very accurate depiction of what is really going on here.

See, I’m not even mad about the baby. Jubilee adopted/stole him. She carries him in a backpack. He’s carrying an alien bacteria that can possess machines and is out for revenge/hellbent on taking over the Earth. 

Maternal instincts turn troublesome when Jubilee tries to bring baby Viggo to The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Along the way she is followed by X-foe John Sublime, and his sibling is inhabiting this baby. 

Jubilee calls her girls, and they come to her:

awww look a baby! (Storm is not as enthused) 

Rogue averts a train crash, Psylocke works some fabulous telekinetic awesomeness on John Sublime. However, Arkea (the sister/alien bacteria) gets loose and inhabits a comatose Karima, sending the whole school into lockdown! Which is where issue #2 picks up. 

The first X-Man Arkea fights is Beast. The second is Rogue, there’s this one point where Arkea says ” You are stronger than the blue one yet your outward physiology presents as inferior.” And then Rogue punches her through the floor. Hooray!

Arkea/Karima gets away, Jubilee, (a now bacteria free) Viggo, Storm, Rachel and Psylocke fly out after her! Kitty Pryde and the X-Kids are left behind to clean up the destruction… however, one of them digs up a cliffhanger!

So pumped on this. Great story so far, action galore, distinct personalities that translate really well. The art is beautiful and intense. Everyone kicks ass in their own unique way. It’s the X-Men you already love just with less hairy chests. Only 2 issues out so far, so there’s still time to get in on the ground floor… I recommend you do!

“SECURE THE INFANT IT’LL KILL US ALL” 

Legit.

5 Mohawks!