Wednesday, October 10, 2012

NB of the Week

SPOILERS AHEAD. ESPECIALLY FOR THE ENDING OF AVENGERS VS X-MEN!!!!!

Cool Concept of the Week:
Gold and Blue X-Teams
While not the best issue of the week, Ultimate X-Men was still pretty damn good. I've said how awesome it's been since Brian Wood took over and this just adds to that. Any fan of the X-Men in the 90s knows about the Gold and Blue teams (almost meaningless titles that essentially "separated" the X-Men further than the different titles did). As we join Kitty in her fight to liberate mutants from their death camps and fight for the life they deserve, she has James (Wolverine's son, if ya don't remember) and Iceman leading separate operations in order to clear all fronts. The code names for their teams? Yup. Welcome back Gold and Blue.

-One Last Warning for Spoils-
Book of the Week:
Uncanny Avengers #1 - New Union
Written By - Rick Remender
Drawn By - John Cassaday
Yeah Cyclops became the dominant host for the Phoenix (even if he meant well). Yeah he ostracized mutants even further by trying to control the whole planet (even if he meant well). Yeah he killed Professor X for trying to stop him (...even if he meant well?). Yeah he's in custody and proud of what he did (alright, the dude completely lost it). But Captain America feels he did one thing right:
He made Cap see that they hadn't done enough to help the mutant population.
As Marvel "changed" the landscape of the Marvel-U, they figured it was a perfect time to show DC how a relaunch is supposed to go. They aren't reinventing their history or changing major stories. No, they're just changing teams around, including writers and artists. To kick things off, they sent out their newest flagship book, Uncanny Avengers where mutants and Avengers alike work together to try and repair the shitstorm Cyclops started and to make a more cohesive team.
Book starts with a shadowy figure removing some body's brain and spouting out some cool, old-school diatribe about killing all mutants. They said that Red Skull from the 40s was the first villain so we assume it's him. Later, after visiting his brother, Havok is met by Captain America and Thor, asking him to lead their new team. They feel he's the perfect candidate and the only one who should. After the three of them stop an attack by old x-villain Avalanche, who appears to have had some sorta head surgery... (though he killed himself so they didn't really stop him, per se), Alex joins. We next see Scarlett Witch putting flowers at the grave of Xavier as Rogue pops in to tell her off. None of this would have happened had she not gone crazy and killed most the mutants. However, before too much arguing can happen, they're attacked by some weirdo people things that blow shit up. We see them walk away carrying Rogue and Wanda as well as a third body. We know both ladies are on the UA team so it's safe to assume they live. End of the book, we cut back to the shadowy figure going on again. As we turn to the last page, we do indeed see that it is Red Skull but it also comes with a good kicker. Strapped down in front of him is the body of Charles Xavier. In his hand, Xavier's brain.
"With the brain of Charles Xavier, the Red Skull will eradicate the mutant menace!"
Yeah. That happened.

What the hell, man?! Great albeit a bit plain first issue and then a Nazi skull-face dude holding the brain of Professor X and claiming he's gonna kill all mutants?! Makes perfect sense and is amazing! Most of all was how "plain" this book actually was. Nothing big happened other than that last page and yet I loved every page. Remender is perfect. Cassaday is perfect. This book is a great start to a "new" Marvel-U and I couldn't be more excited to see what the other new books bring.

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