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Monday, February 23, 2015

X-aminations in March 2015


Simpsons Retro Reviews will return next Monday. In the meantime, here's a a look at what's coming up in X-aminations in March, featuring the last stories of the 80s, including more "Acts of Vengeance", the end of two long-running storylines (but not "Cross Time Caper", because it will never end), and, at last, the official arrival of Rob Liefeld on New Mutants.

As always, let me know if you think something is missing!

On Sale November 1989
March 4th: Uncanny X-Men #257
March 5th: New Mutants #85
March 6th: X-Factor #50

March 11th: "Acts of Vengeance" Part 3: Amazing Spider-Man #328, Avengers #313, Avengers Spotlight #28 (Second Story), Avengers West Coast #54, Captain America #366
March 12th: Excalibur #18
March 13th: Wolverine #20

On Sale December 1989
March 18th: Uncanny X-Men #258
March 19th: New Mutants #86
March 20th: X-Factor #51

March 25th: "Acts of Vengeance" Part 4: Amazing Spider-Man #329, Avengers Spotlight #29 (Second Story), Avengers West Coast #55, Captain America #367, Avengers Annual #19 (Second Story)
March 26th: Excalibur #19
March 27th: Wolverine #21

16 comments:

  1. I'm not sure if that cover (and Couger) would have been better or worse than what we ended up getting. Still fun to laugh at, though!

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  2. @wwk5d: Yeah, for as generic as Cable (in name and function) was when he was first introduced, "Cougar" sure looks he wouldn't have been any better.

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  3. I never knew there was a member, or prospective member, of New Mutants named Cougar. That was the name of one of my favorite and most-fully-realized childhood creations and it led to the reason why I have such tremendously mixed feelings about Jim Shooter: I brought some of my homemade comics to a convention in Philadelphia at eight years old, stood in line to meet Shooter, and handed him the goods. He told me he wanted to give them the attention they deserved and if I let him hold onto them he'd mail them back to me. Weeks later I got the package with a thoughtful, entirely personal letter from him on Marvel Comics Group stationery encouraging me to keep making comics. Of course it remained on my wall for years and I think of it often.

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  4. Ah, yes...I remember that unused Cougar cover. I believe I first saw it in an article in MARVEL AGE that announced Liefeld as the new artist on NEW MUTANTS. And, yeah, apparently Cougar was going to be a new member of the team. At the end of the day, he didn't make the cut. Rob, never one to let a half-assed idea fall by the wayside, kept the character around and, eventually, used him in YOUNGBLOOD.

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  5. Is that a traffic cone in Gougar's pants, or is he just happy to join the team and really looking forward to his joint title with Deadpool?

    Was it supposed to be an Acts of Vengeance tie-in perhaps, with the team facing Puma, ending with an UXM #205esque blood&claws action? (god I feel I'm channeling Liefeld!)

    Ah, Gougar. Brought to you by Scott Summers and Rahne Sinclair of alternative timeline future, where Rahne is an X-man and has switched her psychic rapport to be to her current leader, and can't fight any better that which overwhelms every telepath of the team with him.

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  6. But, tell me, where have I seen that belt buckle before? Was the 80's Selina Kyle wearing similar on his costume at some point? Black Panther? I've seen that somewhere I tell ya.

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  7. "Selina Kyle", "his". Now that was a honest mistake by someone who poorly proof-reads, and not anyone giving you ideas, DC.

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  8. The belt buckle reminds me of the logo for Timber Wolf from the Legion of Super-Heroes. As in, it's the exact same thing. Oh, Liefeld.

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  9. Dammit Mela. That's exactly where, or rather, did our universe counterpart Fang have it on his costume too, because that would be the more likely place for me?

    Like, where did Liefeld get the idea that lifting something from the LoSH would be in anyway acceptable to an X-artist?

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  10. ... or everyone's favorite slimy pervert, Eros of Titan aka Starfox.

    Though, I still feel there's someone else, a feline kind of guy/gal, who wears exactly this sort of emblem, maybe as the cape-holders. Timber Wolf and Starfox are a bit too wolfy/foxy by form yet. Why do I keep thinking about Cat Woman with some sort of hip buckle on a fabric belt of airy ribbon kind?

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  11. @Blam: I never knew there was a member, or prospective member, of New Mutants named Cougar.

    Yeah, spoiler alert (?) that unused cover (and maybe a design sketch or two) is the only place Cougar ever shows up in conjunction with the New Mutants.

    Weeks later I got the package with a thoughtful, entirely personal letter from him on Marvel Comics Group stationery encouraging me to keep making comics.

    That's...really fantastic. Credit to Jim Shooter, that's a hell of a thing to do for a kid.

    @Cerebro: I believe I first saw it in an article in MARVEL AGE that announced Liefeld as the new artist on NEW MUTANTS.

    That image is actually taken from that issue of Marvel Age. That's the only place I've ever seen it as well.

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  12. Ah, got it: Catwoman sports such emblem on her collar and hips for example on the cover of DETECTIVE COMICS #570, which belongs to the extremely short list of stuff I have of DC stuff.

    Plus all the other guys. They must have a works somewhere where they press those things for the superhero use.

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  13. @Teemu: // Catwoman sports such emblem on her collar and hips //

    Vixen's totem is similar to the emblem too, although there we're back in fox territory. I do feel like there's a more exact match on the periphery of mind's eye that I can't quite place, nearly as exact as the Lone Wolf / Timber Wolf match, except in this one the eyes glow slightly (which is a weird mental image for comics, vs. animation). The closest example I can point to is the hood emblem on the Batmobile in the '70s when it was a sleek sedan with a bat-head painted on, rather than affixed to it like in the old days, whose slitted eyes were the headlights.

    @Teebore: // that's a hell of a thing to do for a kid //

    It really was.

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  14. Cougar also appeared in one panel of a fill-in issue of AVENGERS WEST COAST, believe it or not.
    http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/10/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-102/

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  15. I love the Image guys telling how they "saved from" or "lost to" Marvel some of their more horrid creations like Cougar of latter YOUNGBLOOD fame here or some of Larsen's Band of Baddies who got mentioned here in the comments a while back. It's a fascination like listening to someone who is operating on completely different level of reality. "You mean that... all-looks-zero-content 90's cool character?"

    Kind of makes you wonder if Claremont sending Nathan Christopher to future as the third last thing he did was supposed to safe haven the kiddo from these 90's creators and how horribly it then went awry in the end.

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  16. @G. Kendall: Cougar also appeared in one panel of a fill-in issue of AVENGERS WEST COAST, believe it or not.

    That's fantastic! I remember reading that column but I'd completely forgotten about Cougar.

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