Best Comics Ever

X-Men Dawn of X comics are back! Marauders #10 kicks off the return of post-Comics Shutdown X-Men, and it’s another great entry by Gerry Duggan, with art from Stefano Caselli and Edgar Delgado.

Today I’ll answer:

• What happens in Marauders #10 and what does it mean for the Dawn of X?
• Where’d the Marauders get a spaceship?
• Ok seriously, what’s the deal with Kate Pryde and resurrection?!

Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

Related Reading Orders:

Hickman X-Men

Modern X-Men

All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos

Marauders #10 focuses on Emma and the crew’s efforts to squash their many enemies, after the death at sea of Captain Kate Pryde. The proceedings begin with the Russian manufacture of mutant power dampening weapons, based on designs originally built by mutant and Krakoan ally Forge. This is a smart and much-needed focus, as it’s felt like mutant squelching tech has been available to every tom, dick and Igor throughout the Dawn of X.

I particularly like that it’s Storm who confronts Forge about the misuse of his designs, since it was Storm who was hit and depowered by this tech back in Uncanny X-Men #185 and explored in Uncanny X-Men #186 (“Lifedeath” by Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor Smith). This doesn’t come into play this issue, but having coincidentally just read Marvel Fanfare #40 last night, I do also like to point out that it was actually Mystique who set Storm up to get hit by that tech way back when, and that she cosplayed as Mohawk Storm during their nightclub meeting.

Emma kicks off the Hellfire Trading Company’s mission without consulting the Krakoan Quiet Council, standing them up and particularly leaving Sebastian Shaw out of the loop., It’s revealed that the prevalence of these new anti mutant weapons is the result of a kidnapped former Forge assistant, fortunately still somewhat loyal to Forge (despite working against his will for anti-mutant threats, he’s at least intentionally mitigating the weapon’s power so the effects are quite temporary).

Emma, Forge, Bishop and crew infiltrate an opposing vessel to destroy the technology and free the weapon designer. With Kate out of action, Emma steps into a more active role, taking out a variety of soldiers with Pyro and his “I know that’s a Marauders tattoo on his face but it suuuuuure looks like Blackface” look at her side.

One of the most memorable scenes involves Emma unbuttoning her top and confronting soldiers, before psychically ordering them to shoot each other in the kneecaps. With Emma weaponizing her sexuality, I didn’t find this as sleazy as it can often be throughout superhero comics history, and frankly it’s perfectly in character for Emma to own her sexiness as a weapon. That said, the strangest part is that she would need to? Emma’s a remarkably powerful telepath, and it seems odd to me that she would need to distract soldiers in this way.

Upon completion of the successful mission, Emma mindwipes the vessel’s opposing forces, not only so that they’ll forget the last month of their anti-mutant lives, but so that they will become accepting, tolerant, empathetic people towards mutants and all oppressed minority groups, specifically calling out gay, disabled and trans peoples. My first thought here was that I love Emma resolving threats with a dose of inclusivity, but I’ll admit this is also a bit of a Pandora’s box. Why not do something like this more broadly? Why not manipulate minds to remove hate and bigotry on larger scales? Surely with all the powerful telepaths at Krakoa’s disposal there are options here. I don’t think the intention is anything other than this confined gesture, but it begs the question about psychic control as a larger part of mutantkind’s plan.

The biggest development during the Marauders’ successful rescue mission is the reveal of the team’s dead ass spaceship.

The other biggest development is the reveal of the team’s dead ass spaceship. Bishop – looking absolutely dapper in his new Black Panther meets Red Bishop costume – asks Christian Frost about the ship and receives some relatively mysterious answers.

The ship is called “The Mercury,” which is the same name of the ship we’v...

This week on Creannotators, I talked with Tyler Boss about 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, his work on Lazarus, and the upcoming Dead Dog’s Bite!

On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!

Related Guides:

Black Mask Comics

Best Comics of All Time

4 Kids Walk Into a Bank is one of my favorite comics to recommend to comics curious readers, and the current #54 on my best comics of all time list. It’s promoted as the tongue-in-cheek “torrid tale of child crime,” and one of the funniest and most impressive works of the last 5 years.

The 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank team is:

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Art: Tyler Boss
Flatter: Claire Dezutti
Letters: Thomas Mauer
Wallpaper Design: Courtney Menard
Publisher: Black Mask Studios

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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.

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To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald

For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com

The post Creannotators #2: “4 Kids Walk Into a Bank” Deep Dive with artist Tyler Boss appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

The Jonathan Hickman led era of Marvel’s X-Men began in July 2019, and continued through the end of March 2020 prior to all of comics – and in many ways, all of the world – being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the return of X-Men comics imminent – Marauders #10 is scheduled for publication on May 27, 2020, followed by Excalibur and New Mutants #10 on June 10, 2020 – it’s a good time to look back on what’s happened in this new era of X-Men comics so far, and to refresh our memories on where the World of X stands heading into the hopefully glorious return of comics.

Today I’ll Answer:

• What’s the big picture in the X-Universe that you need to know heading back into X-Men comics?
• What’s the story so far in the ongoing comics?
• What are the biggest lingering threads in the Dawn of X?

Potential spoilers for ALL OF THE DAWN OF X may follow!

Related Reading Orders:

Hickman X-Men

Modern X-Men

All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos

THE BIG PICTURE

In the aftermath of House of X / Powers of X, Marvel’s mutants (nearly all of them!) now inhabit the independent, sovereign nation of Krakoa. While there have been plenty of threats to the nation including the infiltration and assassination of Professor X, and a full-scale Brood invasion, Krakoa and mutantkind still stand tall.

Behind the secret plotting of Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggart, with a leadership council that includes Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, Apocalypse & Mister Sinister among others, mutant pharmaceuticals have established global financial dominance, and mutant resurrection protocols have ensured at least the appearance of immortality for mutantkind. There are still many threats, but there’s also more reason to celebrate than mutants have seen in their lives.

Crucially, while mutants have had sanctuary before – they’ve even had islands before – they’ve never been quite so tentatively unified. Traditional “hero” and “villain” archetypes have largely fallen to the wayside on Krakoa, as frequently embodied by the central role Apocalypse plays in the nation’s government and course. The same can undoubtedly be said for Mister Sinister and Exodus.

Likewise, mutantkind is led from the shadows by the lifetimes of experience the artist formerly known as human ally Moira MacTaggert brings to the nation. In House of X #2 it’s revealed that Moira’s secret mutant ability is reincarnating across lifelines with all memories of previous lifelines in tact, giving her unprecedented tactical advantages preparing mutantkind for man-machine dangers that threaten to wipe them out. So yes, there are enough significant differences to Krakoa that it doesn’t feel exactly like a return to Genosha, Utopia, or Xanadu for the X-Men.

The Dawn of X Titles

• X-Men
• New Mutants
• Marauders
• X-Force
• Excalibur
• Fallen Angels

• X-Men/Fantastic Four (Miniseries)
• Wolverine
• Cable
• Hellions
• Giant-Size

• Children of the Atom
• X-Factor
• Empyre: X-Men
• X of Swords

The Story So Far – X-Force

The single biggest “death” in the Dawn of X came in X-Force #1, by Ben Percy and Joshua Cassarra, when human terrorists tortured Domino and used her mutant DNA as skin grafts to infiltrate Krakoa and assassinate Professor X. Predictably, he got better, but the impact led to the re-formation of the black ops X-Force unit of Wolverine, Domino, Quentin Quire, Beast, Jean Grey, Sage, Black Tom Cassidy, a...

I’m very excited to launch a new series, “Creannotators,” exploring the Image Comics comic Ice Cream Man in depth with book writer W. Maxwell Prince.

On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!

Related Guides:

Best Comics of 2020 (So Far)

Best Image Comics

Best Comics of All Time

You can find the Quarantine Comix project we discuss at: https://www.quarantinecomix.com/

The Ice Cream Man team is:

W. Maxwell Prince
Art: Martin Morazzo
Colors: Chris O’Halloran
Letters: Good Old Neon
Designs: Ashley Walker

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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.

Subscribe on iTunes

Subscribe on Android

To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald

For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com

The post Creannotators #1: “Ice Cream Man” Deep Dive with writer W. Maxwell Prince appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

What happens when mutantkind runs into their erratic god? Welcome to Krakin’ Krakoa #59 where today I’ll be exploring a Milestone in Marvel mutant history, the infamous Secret Wars II and the X-Men’s relationship to the event and to the all-powerful Beyonder.

Today I’ll answer:

• What happened when the X-Men met the Beyonder in Secret Wars II?
• What do these encounters have to do with the Hickman era of X-Men and the ongoing Dawn of X?

Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

Related Reading Orders:

Hickman X-Men

Modern X-Men

All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos

Secret Wars 2

In 1984, Marvel launched a 12 issue standalone event series called Secret Wars, by Jim Shooter and primarily Mike Zeck, bringing a huge collection of Marvel heroes and villains together to fight on the mysterious, alien Battleworld.

While there the Marvel characters are told they’ve been brought to Battleworld by a being of immense power, the mysterious Beyonder, able to stand up to the likes of Galactus with easy, at least until Doctor Doom suckers him into losing his immense power (for a time).

It’s not my focus today, but there are some notable themes for the X-Men including:

1. Continued allied relationships with Magneto, stemming from the conclusion of Uncanny X-Men #150
2. X-Men vs. Avengers hostilities and feelings that the “human” heroes aren’t really doing all they can to support mutantkind
3. Colossus being the biggest dweeb, and Wolverine and Nightcrawler taking issue with him falling head over heels for Zsaji, the mysterious healer, at the expense of “wait, isn’t she still way too young for him?” Kitty Pryde.

Enter Secret Wars II, the sequel event launching later in 1985 and running through early 1986, written again by Jim Shooter this time with art by Al Milgrom. As a whole, I dislike Secret Wars II almost exactly as much as I love the original Secret Wars, which is to say Secret Wars II currently sits among my 10 least favorite comics of all time (but no, it could not unseat Marville for the worst ever).

Secret Wars II is all about The Beyonder journeying to Earth to discover his purpose, and it’s a bloated monstrosity with tie-ins to nearly every Marvel book at the time to boot! The only things I really like about the main event are the time Spider-Man taught the Beyonder how to poop, the time the Beyonder built a machine so he could be his own Mom/Dad and birthed himself, and the sheer number of “Dave” panels I get to use for any occasion because the Beyonder made a friend named Dave.

Amazingly, Head of X Chris Claremont takes this premise, and the mandate for tie-ins across his X-Men and New Mutants and manages to salvage some pretty good comics and interesting ideas. A few notes upfront about this era of New Mutants – since New Mutants #18 kicked off the incredible “Demon Bear” saga the book’s in the hands of Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, in what is inarguably my favorite stretch of New Mutants ever. Issue #30 is mostly focused on Sunspot and Magma’s starring turns as Russell Crowe in Gladiator, as well as Dazzler’s apparent literal addiction to fame. The Sienkiewicz Gladiator monsters are worth the price of admission alone.

More interestingly, things kick off with the New Mutants, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers sent to Limbo at the Beyonder’s behest following Secret Wars #1.

There are a couple really important developments here. 1) The New Mutants are becoming fully aware of Illyana’s Darkchilde ...