The X-Axis – w/c 6 October 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #39. By Alex Paknadel, Tim Seeley, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. Well, someone didn’t get the memo about “Age of Revelation”. Astonishing X-Men ploughs gamely on as normal. Then again, it might not have a choice, because this looks a lot like it’s meant to be drawing the book’s storylines to a head – Morph goes on trial after the previous arc, and the X-Cutioner attacks the court with a greatest hits selection of all the weapons he’s used in the series to date. So that sounds a lot like we’re getting to the pay off, and it wouldn’t be the first Infinity Comic they’ve wrapped up recently. Now, there’s an inherent problem in a marginal book like this trying to play the “mutant trial of the century” card – quite aside from the fact that Magneto and Cyclops have both been put on trial before – and it means that my plot problems with the previous arc are rolled forward to this one, since I don’t really buy that the ground rules of the Marvel Universe allow people to waltz in to nuclear facilities and launch missiles just because they happened to have a high security clearance a decade ago. And this book’s take on X-Cutioner has always been a bit one-dimensional as well. So… it clunks a bit, this. But we’ll see if it can pull everything together.
AMAZING X-MEN #1. (Annotations here.) It’s the first full week of “Age of Revelation”, and this is obviously the core series – the whole thing grows entirely out of MacKay’s X-Men. In many ways I’m happy to see that there’s a clear and contained core to the thing, rather than inventing all manner of busywork sidequests to justify all the tie-ins. From all we’ve seen so far, the answer to the question “Which Age of Revelation books do you really have to read to follow the event” is… this one. Just this one. And… great! It can outsource a bit of the world building to the other titles and focus on its own story, which ultimately seems to be an episodic road trip around the AoR, coupled with a mystery about why the future X-Men are clearly lying to Cyclops about at least some of this. And a subsidiary mystery about what’s up with the Beast; I suspect the twist here may be that he is from the past, but not from the same point in the past. I’m not entirely sold on Wolverine being so unstoppable that he can just get out of a black hole, and the art feels a bit muted at times… but then again, the sequence of Revelation reprogramming Wolverine is very nicely done. It’s a solid chapter of a relatively tight core story, anyway.
BINARY #1. (Annotations here.) But there are five “Age of Revelation” tie-ins this week alone, and eighteen in total over the course of the month. Now, obviously Marvel have access to rather better sales data than we do, but I beg leave to doubt that an X-books event in late 2025 is in any state to support 18 books. True, some of them are visitors from the wider Marvel Universe – in particular, Iron Frost and Undeadpool are basically the Iron Man and Deadpool books for the duration. And World of Revelation was a one-shot rather than a mini. But it still seems heroically optimistic.
Binary is effectively a continuation of Phoenix, although since that book doesn’t seem to be returning after “Age of Revelation”, it feels a little bit lost. Jean is supposedly dead, and Carol Danvers is the new Phoenix, but she’s been spending the last few years simply preserving her hometown in a bubble to keep the virus out. (There’s some handwaving stuff about limited communication with the outside to explain why everyone didn’t starve long ago.) It’s an odd issue, since Carol seems to have no agenda to do anything other than that – she’s not searching for a way to fight back, she’s not trying to find a way to safely evacuate, she just seems to want to sit there indefinitely. I can’t make up my mind whether that’s a potentially interesting set-up about resignation and depression, or just a three-issue miniseries not getting around to the inciting event in the first issue. Frankly, Stephanie Phillips’ preceding run on Phoenix doesn’t inspire confidence that she’ll stick the landing on an interesting idea. Giada Beluiso’s art is okay, but struggles to convey what’s going on at times – the bit with the serpent and the dome is just hard to follow, and I’m genuinely unsure whether the cliffhanger is meant to be that Jean is alive after all, or that Madelyne is back, or what. Perhaps we’re meant to be confused, but if so, that’s not an effective ending.
LAURA KINNEY, SABRETOOTH #1. (Annotations here.) This is the only book from this week to feature a character who sided with Revelation. I think Erica Schultz does a pretty good job writing Laura as a mutant nationalist who’s convinced herself she’s with the good guys, even though her doubts show through in her actions. Schultz also seems to have picked up on the opportunities to use “Age of Revelation” to advance ongoing stories: since this is only ten years in the future, you can use it for a bit of foreshadowing. So this story indicates that in the not too distant future, Laura will pair up with Sabretooth’s previously unmentioned son (who must logically exist in the present), and if that’s the planned direction for the title then it’s a smart use of the three issues. Except… ah, hold on, Laura Kinney, Wolverine isn’t returning after “Age of Revelation”, so scratch that. Instead, Laura seems to be taking the trainer role in the new school book – Generation X-23 – but that’s going to be written by Jody Houser. Huh. So maybe this is a detour? Or a plot we’re never going to see? Or… I don’t know. The material with Revelation manipulating Laura makes good use of the event format (since it’s more obvious that he’s lying if you’ve read some of the other books, but if you don’t know that then it’s not really a problem). The scenes with Hellion don’t work at all, though, and Valentina Pinti draws him far too young for ten years in the future. Laura’s son Alex just looks weird, too, which is a problem when he’s so central to the plot – he doesn’t feel like a child so much as a character drawn in a different style.
WORLD OF REVELATION #1. This one-shot is an anthology of three short stories. The only one with obvious significance to the wider event is “The Message” by Al Ewing and Agustin Alessio, which shows Bei’s message to Apocalypse (from Age of Revelation Overture) being received. But the story itself is basically a tour of Arakko to bring us up to date on what’s happening there now. In that sense it’s a coda to Ewing’s X-Men Red, with some nice location work from Alessio. If you enjoyed Red, you’ll probably enjoy this. “Never Let Me Go” by Steve Foxe and Jesús Merino is a Wiccan and Hulkling story which really exists to sell us on the horror of Babels, with Wiccan having the misfortune to serve as a warning for the wider superhero community. It has a simple job and it does it pretty well. Finally, Ryan North and Adam Szalowski provide a Franklin Richards story – well, that’s how it’s billed, but it’s really more of a HERBIE story. North is an essentially optimistic writer, not particularly suited to dystopias, but squares that off rather well by doing a “this too shall pass” story. Anthologies are not generally Marvel’s strong suit, but this is actually pretty good.
LONGSHOTS #1. By Gerry Duggan, Jonathan Hickman, Alan Robinson, Yen Nitro & Ariana Maher. Oh god, it’s a comedy book. And not just a comedy book, but a wacky comedy book. This is very much not my thing. I drew the line at Wolverine and the X-Men, for god’s sake. I mean, if you’re going to do eighteen tie-ins, then sure, absolutely throw in something left field – I hope there are a few more that try to go nuts within the format – but I really have less than zero interest in this.
SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #6. By Marc Guggenheim, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Brian Reber & Travis Lanham. Because you demanded it – another issue of fill-in art on the book whose main selling point is Kaare Andrews! That said, Sandoval’s art in this issue is perfectly okay. And rather than start the second arc with guest art, this is a one-off story that would have made a perfectly serviceable Spider-Man fill-in. It’s nothing extraordinary but once it gets past talking about the previous arc, it’s an acceptable little story about the characters’ attitudes to mercy killing. And that’s a sound enough subject for a Spider-Man/Wolverine team-up story. The previous issues of this series were frankly bad if viewed as stories rather than as an art showcase; this one is fine, if unnecessary.
Having now seen the post-AoR January solicits, I’m no longer even convinced MacKay thought this was a good idea, and he was intending to do a straight DoFP-style story (with any results from Cyclops’ sojurn in the Bad Future being an initial mystery), but it got full-on hijacked for THIS.
Who – other than the hardest of hardcore X-Completionists and Tom Brevoort – wants all of this?
“Who – other than the hardest of hardcore X-Completionists and Tom Brevoort – wants all of this?”
People convinced that the Wendigo from Wolverine is the next great character find, and by god, the Wendigo -being- Wolverine is super awesome?
People who can’t get enough of future flashforwards where everything has gone to hell? (See also that DC event taking place what, five years later?)
People who figured the unholy lovechild of Days of Future Past and Age of Apocalypse was a great idea?
What sucks is how many -regular- books are being hijacked/dragged in/preempted for something which doesn’t affect them, being a purely future storyline. But… I guess Iron Man and Deadpool were between writers anyway, and someone really wanted to bring in Cloak and Dagger, and Marvel is inexplicably all-in on Stephanie Phillips and Murewa Ayodele and Benjamin Percy…
I think this event really spiraled out of control before it even began.
And now that I’ve seen the post-AoR plans, I’m still dubious about the line’s direction as a whole.
Re: World of Revelation- It’s interesting that Xavier considers Sugar Man more dangerous than Tarn.
Longshots is horrible. Most of the characters are out of character, and it doesn’t really seem to fit into continuity.
Re: Spider-Man & Wolverine- One quibble. NYX made it seem like the Morlocks were still in the tunnels but Logan claims in this issue that the Morlocks are long gone from the tunnels.
Bleeding Cool’s Bestseller list is out. Amazing X-Men 1 came in 6th, Spider-Man & Wolverine 6 came in 7th, Laura Kinney: Sabretooth 1 came in 9th and World of Revelation came in 10th.
It’s not surprising that Binary and Longshots didn’t make the list.
I wonder if sales for this crossover should be considered a disappointment. Even Amazing X-Men only did almost as well as Marvel Knights Punisher. And it probably isn’t a good sign that Laura Kinney: Sabretooth didn’t even do as well as Spider-Man & Wolverine 6.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Astonishing ended considering both Seeley and Paknadel are getting books in Shadows of Tomorrow.
Okay. so we found out about the Shadows of Tomorrow relaunch yesterday. Some highlights:
As Paul mentioned, Laura and Gabby will be starring in a new Generation X-23 book written by Jody Houser.
There will be a new Inglorious X-Force book featuring Cable, Archangel, Boom-Boom and Hellverine written by Tim Seeley.
As previously mentioned, Storm’s series will be relaunched as Storm: Earth’s Mightiest Mutant.
There will be a Deadpool series written by Ben Percy.
There will be a Magik & Colossus 5-issue series starting in February featuring the same creative team as her solo.
Cyclops and Rogue will get their own limited series.
There was a promo image featuring a lot of X-characters for a yet-to-be announced book. Tom Breevort hinted Ewing will be writing this book and said a clue is that this image was a homage to Avengers initiative. Avengers Initiative was about training the heroes who would be sent to different states. Since Emma is prominent in this book, I guess it’s the school book. And it will feature many, many X-characters, like Avengers:Initiative featured many heroes.
BTW, Blob was in the image, so it looks like he’s finally getting out of Graymalkin.
No word on Psylocke: Ninja.
Erica Schultz is moving from Laura Kinney to Rogue.
Alex Paknadel is on Cyclops.
Psylocke: Ninja’s writer was announced earlier. Justina Ireland is on that book.
The promo image is notable due to it looking like Emma is sticking her finger up Rogue’s bottom. Not one of Marvel’s more proud moments. Why is Rogue showing off her butt while every other character us facing straight ahead? Emma’s hand just happens to be hanging down at that angle. There’s no way to convince me the artist didn’t do that on purpose.
Some thoughts on Shadows of Tomorrow:
It’s not a good sign that of all the books Breevort launched, only X-Men, Uncanny, Wolverine, Storm and Magik survived with their original creative teams.
I’m not sure why Breevort decided to reward Percy with a new Deadpool series after his Deadpool & Wolverine series flopped spectacularly.
Breevort seems unable to attract quality new writers to the X-Books.
It’s been speculated that Magik’s new limited series is similar to the constant relaunches of the Scarlet Witch’s title. She might have an ongoing Scarlet Witch series, then a Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver series, then another Scarlet Witch series, then a Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver series. This seems plausible. Still, it seems like a downgrade, especially since Magik’s series was the highest selling except for X-Men, Uncanny and Wolverine. She probably should have gotten a relaunch like Storm, who sold much less.
Finally, a question- who is the redhead with the tiara near Laura in the promo? I’ve seen various people suggest Jean, Maddie, Angelica and Calico-with-miscolored-hair.
That may be that Cyclops and Rogue will both get their own limited series, but I would like to believe that there will be a Cyclops and Rogue limited series, preferably set in the Savage Land so Cyclops can rock a yellow speedo and have a flex off with Ka-zar.
Magik’s series was in effect “Magik and Dani Moonstar”, so I don’t know that switching the main co-star is necessarily a downgrade. It has been a while since the Rasputin siblings were together in the same book.
So many recent Marvel books have had 10-issue runs that I wonder if that is the current policy: commit for ten issues, avoid clarifying whether the new book is meant to be a limited series or instead an ongoing, wait for reception to build a clear message before announcing the decided status quo going forward. Have the characters participate in events that give lots of opportunity to shake their situations between monthly series. Announce new one-shots and monthlies in the aftermath of each event. Rinse, repeat.
There are some upsides to this framework. The events provide fine opportunity for characters to be presented to new audiences; to make their sidelining, returns and origins feel meaningful; and even to have them switch franchises on occasion.
Then there is the breathing room. When a book is interrupted so that its protagonists can take part in an event, a window of opportunity for decisions going forward opens. No need for having issues going late, nor for fill-ins. Even the sting of the cancellation itself is lessened by the superficial appearance of conforming to a higher-order event.
Laura and Gabby will be starring in a new Generation X-23 book written by Jody Houser.
— Hmmm, okay. I am dubious. Sounds like a justification to use that title. But Gabby!
There will be a new Inglorious X-Force book featuring Cable, Archangel, Boom-Boom and Hellverine written by Tim Seeley.
— Meh. I’m iffy on Seely and this roster.
As previously mentioned, Storm’s series will be relaunched as Storm: Earth’s Mightiest Mutant.
— Double meh. The first run really felt like some weird nonsense. Not excited.
There will be a Deadpool series written by
Ben Percy.
–First time in ages I’ve been tempted to skip out on an ongoing Deadpool. Does Percy have blackmail on someone?
There will be a Magik & Colossus 5-issue series starting in February featuring the same creative team as her solo.
–Okay, could be fun. Or interesting at least.
Cyclops and Rogue will get their own limited series. Schultz oh Rogue, Paknadel on Cyclops, and both minis sound like they will be competent but skippable.
All told, this is not a lineup which excites me. Especially since it seems fairly certain that Extraordinary isn’t coming back, though at least we’re getting Gail and Jed back on their respective titles.
If Ewing is doing a school book with a wide cast, that could be good, but I hope the cast isn’t so big that individuals get lost in the shuffle, and the title doesn’t get cancelled before it even gets truly underway.
Amazing was fine, but not as good as Mackay’s usual adjectiveless work or the proceeding one shots. I’m planning to sample some AoR, they have somw great creative teams. But so far Longshots left me meh and haven’t tried the rest.
In regards to today’s announcements, I think it is too soon for another line refresh. Part of why I was excited for From the Ashes is that the end of Krakoa meant Mutants were displaced. I don’t know how AoR will end, but I feel like it is just a diversion before the next reshuffle.
“so I don’t know that switching the main co-star is necessarily a downgrade.”
Yes. Yes this is very much a downgrade.
Still, I hope Piotr gets some much needed rehab treatment. This is the only announced title that I am truly looking forward to.
Please, I’ll pray to Yog-Sothoth, Yug-Sluggoth or even the unspeakable VoldeBrevoort who is the one below all… to any of the Marvel ancient powers for there to be a new book by Ewing.
Longshots was okay as a tongue in cheek book. I enjoyed some of the lines that were obviously written by Hickman. I can’t think of it as mainline X-Men though. It is as much it’s own thing as Ultimate X-Men. I love Peach Momoko’s work but it similarly feels like it would be a waste of Paul’s talent and interest to cover. I guess this is a tepid endorsement while suggesting that Paul not bother with this title.
It is a bad sign when the reaction to the new line’s roll-out is already ‘nope, but what will the reset after this be?’
There will, for sure, be a new title for Eve Ewing. No reason to call upon the Outer Gods. The only question is if it will be this X-Men Initiative title or not. Brevoort has announced that Eve Ewing would be writing a X-comic which would be announced at a later date.
Percy’s going to be writing Deadpool? Yeah, that’s a definite pass for me. Might as well say they’re bringing back Daniel Way to write the book.
I might give the Laura and Gabby book a spin. I think the only thing by Houser I’ve read was the Spider-Girls mini-series she did as part of one of those Spiderverse events. It didn’t sell me on Houser as a writer, but it didn’t completely put me off.
So, it’s finally happened. Marvel is going to do to Storm what they did to Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and apparently, Psylocke, where they created volume after volume of comic books with diminishing returns for her 5 fans, no matter how poorly the book sales. They are doing this because she is a STRONG BLACK WOMAN™, and if you don’t like it, then you must be a bigot (sarcasm).
I mean, if Marvel’s determined to have their own equivalent to Wonder Woman (which they probably should; it’s been 60+ years since Lee/Kirby kicked off this shared universe, it is rather embarrassing that they’re still lacking a flagship superheroine capable of carrying a longterm solo series), Storm’s probably the best candidate. She’s been around for decades, she’s been in movies, she’s already associated with one of their top franchises.
She hasn’t had a good story since the ’80s, but there’s no reason somebody shouldn’t be able to theoretically write good Storm stories again.
Storm also had amongst the stronger sales of the FtA books until within the past five months (only Uncanny, X-Men, Wolverine, and Magik were selling better; you know, the only titles which wouldn’t have been cancelled if Brevoort didn’t relaunch the line). It was only within the past five months that the sales on Storm tanked. Marvel would have had to plan out the Shadows of Tomorrow line longer ago than five months. It made sense that Brevoort would greenlight Storm continuing at that point. It’ll last ten issues before it gets cancelled, I’m sure.
As a character, there’s no reason why Storm can’t be a top-tier hero and a top-tier female lead. She’s got history, experience, public recognition factor, cool powers, interesting visuals…
It’s just a matter of finding the right story for her and maybe ignoring a little of the excess baggage. Does Storm -need- to have a magical lineage (thanks, Claremont…) Does she need to be cosmic? Does she need to be a thief (again, thanks, Claremont). Nah, but a lot of little things do make up her general nature at this point.
The big question is, what does Storm do when she’s not hanging out with the X-Men or Avengers? What are her personal interests and goals? What aspects of her character come to the forefront when she’s alone and has some time to kill? I really think the most recent take on her has missed ALL of that in favor of welding on all sorts of excess baggage…
That’s the problem with giving solo series to characters designed to be part of a team, as opposed to solo characters who later join a team. You gotta figure out what they’re doing on their own, and why. And this, of course, is why so many X-Men solo titles fall flat without a good grounding theme.
Of the Ultimate books, I think I’d consider Ultimate Wolverine to be the X-Men book, not Ultimate X-Men. The latter is sorta just another “Let Peach Momoko do whatever she wants because people go nuts for her cover art.”
I’m sure the book has its fans, and the ultimate universe is a place to do weird things (the “real time” format, for example), but I’m glad they gave us Wolverine so X-Men fans had a book (I’ve found it a lot more interesting than 616 Wolverine books, and I’ve been loving Ultimate Spider-Man despite not being a fan of any other spider books).
The re-reboot feels like a total pass from me. Maybe I’ll stick with the core X-Men titles but ugh, Tony Daniel art is a good reason to skip it.
I’m the closest to just stopping reading X-Men that I’ve been in years. I have no real interest in the grimdark aspects of AoR and most of the spinoffs seem pointless.
Somehow they took whatever momentum HoXPoX gave the line and eventually siphoned the goodwill until the line is in as bad or worse shape then when they were intentionally trying to find a group to replace them as weird Marvel team of choice.
@yrzhe, the Other Michael- Wonder Woman had horrible sales for much of the period between Marston’s death and Perez’s revamp. The only reason it wasn’t cancelled was because DC had a contract with the Marston family that stated that the rights would revert to Marston’s heirs unless DC published a certain number of issues per year. So Wonder Woman became the longest running female superhero through a unique circumstance.
The conventional wisdom in the superhero industry was that female superheroes don’t sell. And Marvel and DC both had a number of failures trying to produce female superhero series. It wasn’t until Catwoman’s series succeeded in the 90s that it was accepted that it was possible to produce female superheroes series that sold. And Marvel was unable to replicate DC’s success. Its longest running female series was the 80s and 90s She-Hulk run, which only lasted 60 issues. (Later on, Spider-Girl lasted 100 issues but (a) it took place in an alternate reality and (b) it was almost cancelled numerous times.)
The other problem is that most of Marvel’s consistent solo series (Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man,Hulk, etc.) were launched no later than 1968. Wolverine is the exception which proves the rule. So it’s extremely difficult for a new series to become a mainstay of Marvel’s line.
The second volumn of Wonder Woman still lasted 226 issues before it was relaunched. That’s not bad for a series launched in 1987.
The second volumn of Catwoman with Ed Brubaker as the writer was really excellent (although, I know that’s not the Catwoman series being referenced).
Even for a comic series featuring a female lead, Wonder Woman volume one sold poorly. Amethyst outsold Wonder Woman.
@Moo- And Dazzler and Spider-Woman also outsold Wonder Woman volume 1 at various points.
“People who can’t get enough of future flashforwards where everything has gone to hell?”
This is usually me, but I can’t even get started with this AoR stuff. Maybe I’ll pick up an issue or two, but 18 minis just to advance the ongoing stories in Mackay’s X-Men by a little bit? Hard pass. I’m more intrigued by the other AoA anniversary book coming out. At least it’s self-contained.
And for the record, I’m also the target audience for a solo Storm book if it a) made a lick of sense and b) did any of the things The Other Michael mentioned.
How is it that Marvel and Brevoort are aiming for a nostalgic X-line and getting it so spectacularly wrong? X-Men comics are all about characterization and relationships. Sometimes that’s the focus, like in Magik, but that seems almost like an accident.
Punisher and Ghost Rider became successful solo titles well after the silver age.
The problem I see with Storm is that she does not exist in any meaningful sense anymore, and has not existed for decades now. She has been published and given various solo books and other forms of spotlight during that time, but to a very large extent the appeal comes from her very lack of existence as a fictional character.
In that sense, she resembles what Marvel’s symbiotes have become since the 200s. They are empty spaces whose very refusal to mean anything coherent grants lots of creative freedom and ability to go wild, ignoring the dual petty concerns of characterization and continuity.
That is why she can fill various roles in a wide variety of books and then happily forget about them entirely in both the immediate and long term without any comment without any real comment. She went beyond being “complex” or even all-out contradictory to being completely empty, just a vessel for tales of imagined relevance, dreams of manifest destiny and just plain unfiltered ego to make their way into a helpless world. It was very bad in Al Ewing’s series, and it went entirely nuts in Murewa Ayodele’s. This series could not actually work if it had a real character as a protagonist.
At this point, Storm is just as likely to die as she is to marry Wolverine and retire alongside him. Or she can found a new X-Force team and lead it (why not? Everyone does). Or defeat Revelation and Apocalypse by herself and decide that Arrakko needs her wisdom and leadership for the foreseeable future, obviously without any dissenting voices being heard. Or she may usurp Eternity, why not? Or, if you want a quiet tale with a slow burn, just reveal that she is destined to travel to the distant past and become her own ancestor, as well as Tchalla’s, Logan’s, Ayesha’s, both Ashake’s, and _of course_ Scott’s, Charle’s, Reed Richard’s, Peter Parker’s and Victor Von Doom’s. And Knull’s, how could I ever forget.
Not even the sky is the limit when one has no surviving history or character traits.
I’m liking Amazing X-Men so far. I’m excited to see where this goes. I tried the other titles except Laura Kinney Sabretooth. Wasn’t a fan of Longshots so I’m not picking up the remaining issues. Sticking with Binary out of curiosity. I do feel like this was going to be an arc in X-Men and they decided to expand it, but the world-building is well done so I’m all for it.
@Dave- I meant consistently successful. Marvel usually has a Spider-Man book. a Hulk book, an Iron Man book , a Thor book, a Wolverine book, etc. Ghost Rider often goes years without being published. There was no Ghost Rider book between 1983-1990, 1998-2001, etc.Similarly there was no Punisher book between 2012 and 2014,.2019 and 2022. 2023 and now.
@LuisDantas, well , most apropros , Storm’s own personal powerset is literally control of the weather , and in this era of global manmade climate change , the weather is all over the place 24-7-52 LOL
@Luis: I mean, sure, but you can say that for almost any character that’s been published continuously for decades. Storm’s a mess, but so are Scott and Charles and Logan.
The beautiful thing about being fictional characters is that they can be rehabbed by the right creators.
Jettison the excess baggage, emphasize the traits that strengthen the character, place them in a setting and situation that make sense, and they have a shot at working again.
And yes, another set of creators is probably going to come along and make Storm the queen of lollipops or whatever, but that’s the chance you take with corporate-owned properties.
It was bittersweet getting an Al Ewing Arakko story again. I wish there was a way to have X-Men Red continue as the Storm series, with Sunspot, the Arakki, etc. Realistically, I doubt sales would have been enough to keep it going. Maybe if it had been called “Storm” and had Werneck as the artist? I miss how well Ewing wrote Storm, keeping her regality and power but having her learn to be a part of a new society. She’d have a supporting cast separate from the X-Men, especially if they kept her boyfriend and his family around for grounded scenes.
Instead, we got cosmic gobbledygook. Oh well.
Let’s not forget that there’s more often than not a Deadpool series of some sort, though he’s been subjected to increasingly frequent relaunches just like everything else. But that just suggests that if lucky, every decade spawns maybe one new tentpole character or team.
(And his DC counterpart Harley Quinn seems about as persistent…)
Even Marvel’s mainstays often go through periods of dormancy: Thor, FF, Daredevil, Iron Man, Doctor Strange… it’s a rare character or franchise which is genuinely uninterrupted over this length of time.
“But that just suggests that if lucky, every decade spawns maybe one new tentpole character or team.”
Hmm. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a Marvel character or team created since Deadpool (thirty-four years ago) that could be accurately described as a tentpole franchise.
They’ve certainly tried with Kamala.
Guardians of the Galaxy might sort of count; the name’s been in use off and on since the ’70s, but the roster people remember that made it into the movies started in the 21st century.
@Moo- Maybe Miles Morales- but the problem is that he’s basically another Spider-Man.
@The Other Michael- There’s never been a gap between Iron Man series longer than 5 months, right?
And Fantastic Four’s main absence was a weird case. Brevoort claimed that it was due to sales, then Hickman admitted that it was due to the clash with Fox and Brevoort was lying through his teeth.
@sagatwarrior
I mean, if you’re only going to list the female superheroes in a “why does Marvel keep giving out these lame miniseries” under a post that specifically mentions Spider-Man/Wolverine, then yeah, I do think you are a bigot.
@yrzhe – I wouldn’t count GotG. Yeah, it felt like something new after the revamp, but it was still a preexisting IP featuring a cast of characters that had already been around for some time.
Remember that temporary FF team that had Spider-Man, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Wolverine in it? If that actually went on to become permanent, it would be principally the same idea as the GotG makeover.
@Devon
Clearly, you don’t understand sarcasm, so let me explain it to you. You see, sarcasm is the use of irony to mock or convey contempt. At no point do I hate Storm or the other female superheroes that I listed. You see, at this point in time, the industry holds characters such as Storm as a sacred cow that cannot be deconstructed or criticized, lest you be painted as a bigot, as seen evident by Devon’s comment.
The whole point of my comment was to mock Marvel’s “strategy” (and I use the term loosely) in creating volume after volume of comic books based upon female superheroes who, at best, have a niche audience and only
serve to damage the X-Men and, by wholesale, Marvel’s brand. What Marvel is doing to the X-Men is worse than when they thought that they could replace them with the Inhumans.
Just because I decided to break the chain about Spider-man/Wolverine does not mean that I harbor any hatred toward Storm, because I have been a fan of hers for years. But when you start making her into a walking deus ex machina, then you have lost the plot. Storm works best when she is grounded, made to utilize her non-power skills, and when she is providing guidance to others. I don’t see Marvel doing anything of any significance to the character or to the wider X-Men brand until they connect with the MCU synergy, whenever that happens.
I would totally watch a New Fantastic Four movie with Hulk, Spidey, wolverine and Ghost Rider, now that I think about it
“I’ve been a fan of hers for years.”
You said Storm only had five fans. And you’re one of them? Wow. What are the odds?
I guess Boom Boom will play the role of ‘member of X-Force with a conscience’ this go-round. Have there been any stories where Cable dealt with the loss of Hope?
In other news, Psylocke Ninja is a flashback mini to Betsy when she was newly bodyswapped.
Which is an “interesting” choice.
One potential problem with the mini is that it features Elektra as Betsy’s adversary and Elektra had her dark side removed in the early 90s and didn’t get it back until 1993- and at that point Betsy had already been Asian for 4 years. We’ll have to see if the mini acknowledges this.
As a couple of people have pointed out, Tim Seeley, who’s writing the mini, seems to get flashback minis depicting the X-Ladies in their skimpiest costumes. Next, we’ll see Emma Frost: the Frank Quitely Years and Storm: the Naked Years.
Between this and Kwannon’s costume of Age of Revelation (which resembles the bathing suit), it seems like they’re trying to see whether fans want Psylocke bank in the bathing suit.
This mini might also have something to do with X-Men ’97. There’s a promo of Psylocke in a bathing suit in X-Men ’97 standi9ng next to Warren and some have speculated that it’s Betsy. (Of course, X-Men ’97 can just depict Betsy’s mother as Asian.)
The main problem is that while Kwannon has prospered since Betsy got her original body back, Betsy has been reduced to a third-stringer. Kwannon is in the flagship X-Men book. Betsy is nowhere. Brevoort seemed to acknowedlge that Captain Britain wasn’t the right role for her but wasn’t sure what the path forward was.
The thing is… Betsy as Captain Britain could have worked really well if Marvel had just committed to the part without all that weird nationalistic anti-mutant prejudice, and embraced the full-on weirdness of the Captain Britain mythos and history.
Like, Betsy was already CB for all of five minutes before she was blinded by Slaymaster, so it could have been her shot at redemption in a role she barely got to enjoy first time around. But as a telepath, trained spy, and martial artist, she’d have brought a new approach to the role as opposed to Brian’s flying brick routine.
Take it a step further: have her form a new version of Excalibur made up of characters representing the United Kingdom and Ireland (a cross between MI:13 and The Union, perhaps, maybe even incorporating some of those characters). And since everyone remembers Excalibur’s best days were the early ones under Claremont with an element of comedy, lean into that.
Because hey, Betsy and Rachel as the new battle couple leading Excalibur alongside a handful of familiar or underused weirdoes would have been just the right balance between nostalgic and new.
Of course I’d like to see the companion book focusing upon Brian and Meggan running the Braddock Academy, now home to various students (as seen in Avengers Academy and Infinity: The Hunt) including leftover Warpies and so forth. With the right creative teams, both of these books could have been really fun.
Though after the mess that was the most recent round of X-Force, I’d also settle for Betsy and Rachel: telepathic private detectives, solving crimes in the fringes of consciousness.
Luis said: “The problem I see with Storm is that she does not exist in any meaningful sense anymore, and has not existed for decades now. ”
I’m not sure if this is true – I think she had a defined personality and arc in X-Men Red at least.
However, to the extent that this IS true, I wonder how much stems from the how Claremont wrapped up the Outback X-Men arc. I’ve been thinking about this particularly because of the recent Rogue: Savage Land and upcoming Psylocke: Ninja minis, which are each based on how the characters were rebooted by going through Siege Perilous. A couple of issues before that, Storm dies and is later shows up turned into a child by Nanny.
We get the introduction of Gambit as child-Storm’s protector, and a couple of years of that subplot before Storm is inexplicably returned to her adult form right in time for the Blue/Gold reboot.
The way the Uncanny team is deconstructed at the end of the Outback era in nonsensical ways is fascinating to me. I think by the end it left almost every character in worse shape for future writers. Psylocke and Rogue at least got ‘sexy’ new looks that are currently being mined for nostalgia, but the cost was being saddled with new continuity headaches that took decades to unravel, particularly Psylocke.
Colossus and Havok got stock, Claremont-brand memory loss/mind control plotlines that doubled down on the worst aspects of their characterization (Colossus: bored and confused, Havok: mind-controlled pawn). Dazzler and Longshot were giving disorienting exits that wrote the characters out of the books more permanently than if they had been killed.
But Storm, who once seemed like Claremont’s pet character, really suffered here. Her “child thief” arc has mostly been forgotten, and is entirely inexplicable (I think Claremont did return to this era in a Gambit miniseries?). She is ‘restored’ in time to join the Whilce Portacio-drawn Blue team, which I find unreadable.
I haven’t read the new Storm series, but it has to be better than what she went through at the end of the 80s and early 90s, right?
@Aro , actually Whilce Portacio’s team with Storm and the other 60’s/70’s veterans was the Gold Team , the Blue Team was Jim Lee’s team with the 80’s/90’s rookies
I@The Other Michael- I don’t think that anyone is defending Tini Howard’s writing of Betsy/
But I think the problem was that nobody at Marvel really knew what to do with Brian-as-Captain-Britain since Paul Cornell’s Captain Britain and MI13 series ended in 2009. (And even that only lasted 15 issues and an Annual.) So instead of Brian-as-Captain-Britain that no one knew what to do with, we got Betsy-as-Captain-Britain that no one knew what to do with. Captain Britain isn’t a role like Thor, Iron Man, Captain America or Wolverine that basically guarantees the holder the spot on a major team, so putting Betsy in it felt like a demotion.
Cebluski likened Betsy becoming Captain Britain while Kwannon became Psylocke to Carol Danvers becoming Captain Marvel while Kamala became Ms. Marvel. But the difference is that Carol just got a new code name and costume and kept her role in the Avengers while Kamala took over Carol’s old identity with different powers. Kwannon took over Betsy’s name,. butterfly imagery, etc. and eventually her role in the flagship X-Men title leaving Betsy with nothing.