Mutant X Mondays: Mutant X #3

     So everybody now knows that Havok thinks he is from another universe and traded places with the Havok that was killed by a Sentinel as he arrived.  So they all think he is nuts.  His wife Maddie wants him to see a shrink and everybody else is giving him funny looks.  Again we are thrown into the middle of an adventure and don't really know what is happening.  Havok spends a lot of time explaining how not ridiculous his story sounds by running down the back stories of The Six.

     Soon he just nose doves the plane into Canadian airspace and they are immediately shot down.  Seems Canada is a superpower and not on friendly terms with the USA.  It does give us a look at three of Marvels wild boys.  They are called The Pack and consist of Wolverine, Sabertooth, and Wild Child.  All three are demented experiments by Canada that has left the three mutants in a feral and primal state.  Wolverine and Sabretooth still wear pants.  Always wondered about that in some weird way.

The Six are taken, The Six are found.  Havok goes on instinct and helps the Pack find the old Weapon X lab.  We see an awesome showing of Havok's power as he melts an adamantium door.  Alpha Flight shows up and suggest The Six leave.  Havok become happy as part of the team.  We never know what happens to The Pack.  Odd issue.

BDS

Flashback Friday: Kitty Pryde and Wolverine Limited Series

     I opened a short box and began reading random comics this week as I felt bad.  One series in this box was Chris Claremont's great tale of Kitty Pryde and Wolverine.  This is an old series and many would say hard to find.  I found all Six Issues in a back issue sale some years ago.  Since then I have seen all six at Conventions and other places lots of comics are for sale.  I would say that they are more available than one might think.  It is a pivotal series as it takes Kitty and evolves her from Ariel or Sprite and being just a genius who can phase into a master Ninja that takes the Shadowcat.  Granted, one must suspend disbelief to accept this transformation, but this story does it in excellent fashion.

     Kitty has been dumped by Colossus after the Secret War and his falling for an alien hottie who could heal others.  It shows her as a carefree teen with a few problems to work through.  She is skating and decides to go see her Banker father.  When she arrives he has some strange associates from Japan and Kitty soon is afraid that harm will come to him.  They all leave for Japan and the adventure begins.  It is cool seeing her use her powers to sneak in places and get herself across an ocean and continent.  She leaves the X-Men out of it and is on her own.
 
     Things just go from bad to worse for Kitty as Japan is not a hospitable place and she refuses to seek aid from Wolverine's love Lady Mariko.  So she is sick and ill dressed as the bad guy Ogun takes her and manipulates her mind.  Later in the series Wolverine tells her Ogun had her for a week.  When I first read this it was never really something I thought about, but the implications can become very dark if you open you mind to run wild.  Needless to say, Kitty becomes a mind controlled ninja that takes on Wolverine.  The fight is vicious and in the end she impales Wolverine in his heart.

     Yukio, another woman who is smitten with Wolverine is apart of the story.  She is an assassin that is known as "The Wild One."  Without her much of the story cannot be as good.  Kitty's Dad interacts a bunch with her and she is the reason he lives through many encounters.  She also has a great fight with a big sumo bodyguard of the bad guys.  The recovery of both Wolverine and Kitty's mind is a great two issue part of the story.  Kitty must become able to help herself and Wolverine is pushing her hard.  This is an awesome bit of story on its own.

     Ogun is the man that trained Wolverine.  He could be an immortal swordsman from legend.  He does have demonic powers now and is a person of pure evil.  The fight to the end starts with Kitty protecting Lady Mariko and her adopted daughter, Wolverine's family.  Once that happens we get the last issue where it is Wolverine against Ogun.  You should know the outcome.  It is a great fight on so many levels.  It is just one of the best things ever printed in the X-Men mythology.  

     Seek it out and you will not be disappointed.  You will read this book however.  It is full of dialogue and narration boxes.

BDS

Mutant X Mondays: Mutant X #2

     Howard Mackie does something in the beginning of the Mutant X Series that I found a really great writing trick.  We never really have a clear chance to settle into the time that is occurring.  We read about Havok entering this strange new world and come to the close of that moment and when we rejoin Havok in the next issue we are smack dab in the middle of the next adventure with no setup.  It helps to simulate for the reader the same emotions Havok himself is feeling.

     It is nice to say good things about Howard Mackie after watching him saddled with the convoluted Spider-Man Clone Saga.  Here he gets to take the Marvel toys and really shake up the sandbox.  In Issue #2 we are introduced to the Mutant X version of the Fantastic Four.  The story opens with The Six flying to answer a distress call from the FF concerning an invasion from a so called alien dimension.  Havok is not only unsettled as he is now leading a team that is the world's best super heroic team, so he will be facing the misdeeds of his counter-part of this alternate Earth.  See, apparently He and Sue Richards had an affair.  It is an implied thing as we meet the FF and watch the two teams battle.

     Break down on this Fantastic Four is as follows; Reed is still a genius and wears an armored suit with detachable extra arms, Sue wears a Stealth suit, Johnny is in a suit that lets him fly and throw fire, and Ben is still human and wears a big hulking armor with a terrible face.  Reed is very off putting and later in the series we will see why.  Sue seems glad to see Havok, while Maddie is not happy to see them together.

     The rest of the story is a set up to get us to the nature of Havok as a traveller from another Earth.  The resolution of that end of the story has a shock.  As for the villain, he was strange.  A small mentally powerful bug named Moot.  Thing is he almost took over the FF and then Havok.  So this starts the fun adventures of The Six and our alternate reality displaced Havok.

BDS

Bad Week

Sorry about not getting a Flashback Friday up.  I have been reading many back issues, it happens when I am feeling sick.  Monday I found that the cap had been met on my Insulin cost.  It went from $70 to $831.  I can't afford insulin anymore.  I have tried to not eat any carbs at all this week.  I also have just felt bad and am trying to adjust.  So it has been a bad week.  I will try and do better.

BDS

Mutant X Mondays: Mutant X #1

Welcome to the new Monday posts called Mutant X Mondays.  Because of the natural break and the desire to finish out some Mantra Issues she will be taking a hiatus for a bit.  I do plan on collecting the issue post in one area soon.  I am cheating a little this Monday in the hopes of getting ahead with some timed posts by using the Flashback Friday post to kickoff our look at Mutant X.  It is a bit timely as Howard Mackie is doing work on the Second Wave DC book, The Ravagers.  So click the big bold Mutant X and read what I said about issue one.

MUTANT X #1

BDS

Flashback Friday: Tales of the Witchblade #6

I really have struggled with my collecting of Top Cow books.  It was reviews of Top Cow that opened me up to attacks when someone wanted my job.  The thing is that to be honest and do what I wish to do in letting this Blog be a place for information as well as loving comics I must discuss so things that are not kids books.

Tales of the Witchblade is not for younger readers.

I offer this book as my first Top Cow offering.  During Free Comic Book Day Randy Green as at the Ssalefish store event.  I bought this book, one I did not have, and have a now autographed issue.  Randy Green is an awesome artist and very approachable.  It was great to see him last Saturday.

As for the story, Tales delves into the history of the former Bearers of the Witchblade.  This one is from the Roman Era of the world.  She has a very tradgeic story that ends with a great deal of bloodshed.  She even scores some retribution for her parents in the end against weak-spined villagers.  It really has a great twist and resolution as a story.

Now it is not for the faint of heart.  Strong themes of sexual abuse and bloodied battles.  People die.  They die in brutal ways.  Witchblade is a book and character best taken in terms of the creative talent.  Read any of the Ron Marz run.  Those are the most recent and are the best.  The Tales are hit and miss in terms of greatness.  Some are really good, others are just so-so.

Hey, a Flashback Friday return.  I hope to make it again next week.  Still wondering about the Monday edition of the Blog.  Have a great weekend.

BDS

THE AVENGERS Movie

THIS

MOVIE

IS

AWESOME!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Funny....Great story.....Each Character gets a portion......Hulk is GREAT......
Hawkeye is wonderful......JUST AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!