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Monday, November 26, 2012

X-aminations in December

We round out the year in X-aminations with a pair of issues from each series, a pair of limited series intended to capitalize on the X-Men's growing sales success, and, appropriately enough for the day after Christmas, a twelve issue series involving most of the Marvel Universe's biggest characters created to support a toy line.

December 5th: Uncanny X-Men #179
December 6th: Magik #1-4

December 12th: X-Men and the Micronauts #1-4
December 13th: New Mutants #14

December 19th: Uncanny X-Men #180

December 20th: New Mutants #15

December 26th: Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #1-12
(depending on how my schedule shakes out, this may get pushed to the 27th, or split into two posts, with the second half on the 27th. We'll just have to play that by ear).

Also, in the interest of continuing to share cool new (to me) X-Men related blogs with you, I've added a few new sites to the blog roll.

Both Abigail Brady's X-Marathon and SpaceSquid's Year X blogs are in the midst of performing a similar issue-by-issue analysis of the X-Men universe (with SpaceSquid in particular tossing out Marvel time and attempting to attach a specific day and date to the events of each issue), something I learned when they both popped up in the comments of my post on New Mutants #9, the point at which our three blogs coincidentally coalesced to cover the same issue at the same time. Their coverage of issues has since moved past my X-aminations, thanks in part to a wider range of titles covered and Abigail's darn-near-draconian daily posting schedule, but I'm currently working through their archives and enjoying their takes on the material.

If you only have time for one X-Men-related blog, I'd certainly prefer you stick around here, but if you have the time and inclination for more, I recommend giving both X-Marathon and Year X a look.

I was also recently directed, thanks to a post on Comics Should Be Good, to the Chris Claremont: Mindcontrol Central blog, an examination of one of Claremont's seemingly favorite and most prevalent Claremontisms, the use of mind control in his stories. I haven't had a chance to plumb the archives much yet, but it's definitely worth a look.

Finally, in non-X-Men related blogs, for anyone out there who is, like me and Dr. Bitz, fans of Billy Superstar's enormously funny reviews of every episode of Full House, the delightfully-monikered Rambo Homer McFly is in the midst of a similarly-snarky episode-by episode review of Family Matters, another one-time TGIF staple and the show which "gifted" Steve Urkel to pop culture. Check it out!

10 comments:

  1. Woohoo! Secret Wars on the horizon!

    I checked out both Abigail's and Space Squid's blogs after they posted in your comments last week. It amazes me that these issues can be examined (or X-amined) so many times by so many people and I can still find them interesting.

    Also, please let me know when someone starts a review series of Perfect Strangers, the best of the TGIF sitcoms.

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  2. Thanks for the linkage and the kind words! It's nice to feel part of a community of X-Bloggers; I wasn't quite expecting that when I started. Well, I'm not sure what I expected when I started. (I may as recount the story here: I had been to the London Super Comic Con, had got quite excited, in part from chatting to Kieron about various things (including the eternal question of what happens if you cut Wolverine in half lengthwise), went to the pub, drank too much whisky and came home and made a blog. What can I say, clearly I have a strange reaction...)

    It's a funny confluence - especially as we all started at different times - SpaceSquid last summer, me in the spring, and you three year ago. And as far as I can make out we're the only people to have systematically gone through as much X-Men and blogged about it; although Chris Fluit claims to have read all of the core titles now and has written some of that up.

    I've also recently become aware of Children of the Atom podcast, which is tackling X-Men in order from #1 approx monthly (along with general news and reviews in a magazine format); they go to my LCS although I've yet to meet them. Small world.

    I don't know if I'll be able to keep up the daily schedule past January. We'll see.

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  3. @Matt: Woohoo! Secret Wars on the horizon!

    I'm looking forward to it, even though it dares suggest that Spider-Man could singlehandedly defeat the X-Men. ;)

    Also, please let me know when someone starts a review series of Perfect Strangers, the best of the TGIF sitcoms.

    Perfect Strangers had, arguably, one of the greatest theme songs of the 80s. It had nothing to do with the show, but was so delightfully over the top in that 80s way. I love it.

    @Abigail: Thanks for the linkage and the kind words!

    My pleasure! I just wish I had more time to stop and comment as I go along. Hopefully once I get caught up...

    And as far as I can make out we're the only people to have systematically gone through as much X-Men and blogged about it

    The only other one I'm aware of is Jason Powell, who did an issue-by-issue analysis of the Claremont-penned issues a few years ago. I link to his posts quite frequently, as they're usually very well written and thought-provoking.

    I've also recently become aware of Children of the Atom podcast, which is tackling X-Men in order from #1 approx monthly

    Thanks, I'll have to check them out. I'm a big fan of the Uncanny X-Cast podcast, which does reviews of the new stuff as well as retro reviews of the old stuff, starting with issue #1 (they're up to the post-Dissolution and Rebirth stuff, including some of the spinoffs).

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  4. If you only have time for one X-Men-related blog, I'd certainly prefer you stick around here

    Sorry. 'Bye! 8^)

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  5. Man, I keep falling "behind" on Jason Powell's posts. I'm not sure I've ever quite caught up to our present since you first linked to them; whenever you mention them again I read a batch and then forget to keep current.

    Perfect Strangers was my only TGIF indulgence, and that was purely out of love for Bronson Pinchot's Serge in Beverly Hills Cop. (He had a role on a short-lived Geena Davis sitcom in the interim.) I was in college 1988-1992, doing precious little TV watching — basically SNL, ST:TNG, and the news — and I didn't keep up with it. As for the rest, well, I wasn't quite the target age for broad family sitcoms the way you guys a half-generation down were. Urkel and Uncle Jesse have zero nostalgic hold on me; Fonzie, Horshack, Mork, and the Big Ragu on the other hand...

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  6. Thanks very much for the link and the kind words! I shall have to check out Jason Powell' site, now, which may officially tip my waking hour ratio to over 50% X-Men. Doubtless both boss and girlfriend will be delighted.

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  7. @Blam: Sorry. 'Bye! 8^)

    Now I know how Professor X felt. :)

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  8. @Blam: Urkel and Uncle Jesse have zero nostalgic hold on me; Fonzie, Horshack, Mork, and the Big Ragu on the other hand...

    I'm going to make you feel old by admitting this (and reveal myself as something of a TV philistine) but I had to google Big Ragu to learn what show he was on. The others I know, and have seen in action, but not Big Ragu.

    Maybe I was just never enough of a Laverne & Shirley fan ((or, more accurately, my parents never were, since it's from them that I gained most of my knowledge, at least in the pre-Internet age, about TV which predated the then-current and/or kids stuff I was watching on my own, simply through the kind of stuff they were watching as reruns or on Nick at Nite, which is also how my abiding affection for both I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show came about).

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  9. What really makes me feel old is you watching those sitcoms on Nick at Nite — a programming option that didn't exist until I was in high school. It was all syndication in the '70s and early '80s, baby. Older shows like I Love Lucy and McHale's Navy tended to be on in the early afternoon, opposite game shows, so you didn't see them unless you were home sick (or, I guess, in the summer, but they really weren't more appealing than playing). More recent shows tended to be on the independent UHF stations in the evening, and if they were repeats of shows that were still on the air they sometimes had emended names — Happy Days Again and Laverne & Shirley and Company stick out in my mind.

    I won't argue that Laverne & Shirley was nothing special for the most part, but TV was TV. My dad was a pretty nondiscriminating and omnivorous viewer, so whatever he was watching we were watching. Later, after my parents split up, my sister and I were "latchkey kids" (or so said Phil Donohue) who let ourselves into the apartment after school and tended to do our homework in front of the TV. We were pretty good students and pretty good kids overall, fortunately, so it wasn't an issue — I'm sure that my mom would've taken action if it was. If I sound preemptively defensive, I'm not, exactly; frankly, I just marvel that I was ever able to operate that way, because now I can't even read E-mail while the television's on.

    How off-topic are we?

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  10. @Blam: My dad was a pretty nondiscriminating and omnivorous viewer, so whatever he was watching we were watching.

    I too have my dad to thank/blame for getting me to watch a lot of really good and really awful shows through the years.

    We were pretty good students and pretty good kids overall, fortunately, so it wasn't an issue

    I was like this too - TV time was never really an issue for me as a kid. I'd watch some afternoon cartoons when I got home, do my homework, then depending on the season, watch some older, sitcom-y fare with my parents before bed.

    How off-topic are we?

    Very. But that's okay. :)

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