Talking about comic books, TV shows, movies, sports, and the numerous other pastimes that make us Gentlemen of Leisure.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

X-aminations in May 2015


A relatively quiet week month as we chug ahead through the non-team era of Uncanny X-Men, the Cable-fication of New Mutants and, of course, the story that never ends, "Cross-Time Caper", in Excalibur.

I am calling another audible, however, and slotting in Marvel Comics Presents #51-53 at the end of the month. It's another Wolverine story (of course) but it's drawn by Liefeld, and aside from giving us another opportunity to make fun of his art, that's the week of Memorial Day (and my birthday), so I'm using it to give myself a little break without taking the week off entirely.

On Sale March 1990
May 6th: Incredible Hulk #369
May 7th: Excalibur #22
May 8th: Wolverine #24

On Sale April 1990
May 13th: Uncanny X-Men #262
May 14th: New Mutants #90
May 15th: X-Factor #55

May 20th: Spotlight on the Starjammers #1-2
May 21st: Excalibur #23
May 22nd: Wolverine #25

May 27th: Marvel Comics Presents #51-53

11 comments:

  1. When are you doing Alpha Flight 87-90?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are you going to cover the two Punisher issues that have the Reavers in them?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Also do you listen to Rachel and Miles explain the X-Men, they are just now getting into X-Factor, I'm guessing by the end of the year, you guys will be almost at the exact same spots.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Whoever worked on the New Mutants card didn't quite have the correct info, since Skids and Rusty are there...in their Liefeld designed uniforms, apparently!

    The X-men team card is also rather wonky,weird mix of people as well.

    http://i.stack.imgur.com/eOj9m.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  5. Apparently, whoever drew that card forgot that Rahne's head should still be attached to her body for some reason. Another reminder that out of all the bad art from this era, at least Liefeld's bad art is fun.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sam looks like he s 35 and Roberto like à girl. Couldnt the banner be put elsewhere than on skids’ face ?

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Anonymous: When are you doing Alpha Flight 87-90?

    Soon - I'd have to double check, but next month, I believe.

    I pushed it back a bit, closer to when the issues were on sale, even though the story takes place earlier in the chronology.

    @Scott: Are you going to cover the two Punisher issues that have the Reavers in them?

    I wasn't planning on it. I've never read them - is there anything notable that would make them worth covering, aside from the Reavers popping up?

    Also do you listen to Rachel and Miles explain the X-Men,

    I haven't. I listed to the Uncanny X-Cast and the Danger Room podcast, but not that one. I think I listened to an early episode and wasn't too impressed, but it must have gotten better, since someone at Entertainment Weekly was plugging it.

    Are they more recap orientated, or is there a review/criticism element to their show as well? If the latter, I might have to check it out.

    @wwk5d: The X-men team card is also rather wonky,weird mix of people as well.

    Yeah, both those cards' artists must have been working off weird reference documents, since the New Mutants one is outdated, while the X-Men one is future dated, given that the series was out in the summer of 1990 (when Gambit had either not yet appeared or had just appeared and hadn't really joined the team yet).

    ReplyDelete
  8. The X-Men trading card referenced above has always been one of my favorite pieces of X-Men effluvia. I remember being totally baffled by it as a kid. It seems clear that this must have been a team Claremont had planned at some point, and while it's pretty close to the short-lived lineup that made it into space to rescue Professor X, it's still not quite right. Guido -- listed as Sunder on the back -- is by far the weirdest inclusion.

    It's kind of understandable that they would have screwed up the lineup on this card series considering how much the team was in flux at the time it would have been produced, but it's extra bizarre that they STILL didn't get it right in the second series of Marvel trading cards, which yet again features an X-Men lineup that never existed:

    http://i.stack.imgur.com/FdUox.jpg

    Both of these never-was teams seem related to the team featured in this Jim Lee poster.

    http://www.mylatestdistraction.com/mylatestdistraction/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/X-Men-JimLee-Poster-Tribute08.jpg

    (Frankly I sometimes wonder if Claremont was ousted in part because he was dead set on making random-ass characters like Forge and Banshee mainstays of the team.)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey...! Banshee is Second Genesis and Forge is awesome and worthy replacement for Dani as the Native American representation in the X-books, much more so than Thunderbird's brother, the ethno-questionable Warpath! Who isn't even Cheyenne. Now what if the Adversary was to do another ruckus, what with ethnically perfect specimen Betsy having just premiered and all? Are we gonna be like "Hit him again, James, so that he really feels it!", especially now that Magik's gone and Daystripper has left to chase another career?

    After Claremont's departure Liefeld got Warpath and PAD got Forge... now remind me which one again is greeted as the one bright point in early 90's Marvel?

    ReplyDelete
  10. "PAD got Forge"

    Forge didn't join X-factor till after PAD left the title.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Rats. I most humbly stand rebuked. What happened here was that I got confused in my mind the final panel in HULK #390 with Val and the gang in a plane with the UNCANNY where Val, Forge and Freedom Force are on a plane. The Hulk story is the only one I ever caught of PAD X-Factor, and I faultily remembered Forge was a rank&file member from the beginning rather than the government liaison after Val.

    Ye-es, that was that. I'm most certainly not seeing moustached men in short-shorts everywhere, that's the other "T-m-something of Finland" fellow.

    ReplyDelete

Comment. Please. Love it? Hate it? Are mildly indifferent to it? Let us know!