With Avengers Vs. X-Men now (barely) in the rearview mirror, the Marvel Universe is a very different place than it was when the whole event started.
For one—SUPER SPOILER ALERT!!—the mutant gene has been restored. That’s right. Scarlet Witch’s whole “no more mutants” magic trick from the end of House of M has been reversed after nearly seven years.
Mutants in the Marvel U are no longer an endangered species and while we don’t know just how many newbies have popped up since Hope and Scarlet Witch reignited the flames at the end of Avengers Vs. X-Men #12, we do know that, for all its flaws, Cyclops’ gamble with the Phoenix Force ultimately paid off.
For one—SUPER SPOILER ALERT!!—the mutant gene has been restored. That’s right. Scarlet Witch’s whole “no more mutants” magic trick from the end of House of M has been reversed after nearly seven years.
Mutants in the Marvel U are no longer an endangered species and while we don’t know just how many newbies have popped up since Hope and Scarlet Witch reignited the flames at the end of Avengers Vs. X-Men #12, we do know that, for all its flaws, Cyclops’ gamble with the Phoenix Force ultimately paid off.
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Told ya’ so!
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Whereas DC followed Flashpoint up with a complete linewide reboot of all of its books, complete with 52 number one issues, the Marvel NOW! Initiative doesn’t reboot everything.
But it does relaunch a great many titles as books like the Incredible Hulk and Mighty Thor get new number ones as Unstoppable Hulk and Thor: God of Thunder, among numerous others.
This is a brand new direction with creative teams shifting, most notably the New Avengers and Avengers being written by someone other than Brian Michael Bendis for the first time in nearly a decade, and an era where the X-Men and Avengers franchises are more integrated than ever, as highlighted by the flagship Uncanny Avengers comprised of mutant and human heroes alike.
But it does relaunch a great many titles as books like the Incredible Hulk and Mighty Thor get new number ones as Unstoppable Hulk and Thor: God of Thunder, among numerous others.
This is a brand new direction with creative teams shifting, most notably the New Avengers and Avengers being written by someone other than Brian Michael Bendis for the first time in nearly a decade, and an era where the X-Men and Avengers franchises are more integrated than ever, as highlighted by the flagship Uncanny Avengers comprised of mutant and human heroes alike.
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Why they look so pissed off about it, I have no idea…
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But while the Avengers and New Avengers will still continue, albeit with a new start, one book is conspicuously absent—Uncanny X-Men. For the first time since 1978, with the brief exception of the hiatus during the Age of Apocalypse, there will be no monthly Uncanny X-Men title on the shelves.
Its replacement? All New X-Men, written by Bendis, will feature the original five X-Men time traveling from the past to arrive in our time, completely confused at what’s going on. So, good. Maybe they’ll get a little bit of what it’s like to be me on a regular basis. About time.
Its replacement? All New X-Men, written by Bendis, will feature the original five X-Men time traveling from the past to arrive in our time, completely confused at what’s going on. So, good. Maybe they’ll get a little bit of what it’s like to be me on a regular basis. About time.
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This is all so very confusing for me.
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The full details on how and why it’s all happening haven’t been revealed yet, only to say that it’s Beast who is responsible for letting them do the time warp again, but Bendis has assured fans that for as much as this sounds like a series that has a very limited shelf life—due mostly to the time paradoxes it’s sure to cause—there’s a long term plan for it and it will become the centerpiece of the X-Books for the foreseeable future.
Back in 1991, Jim Lee and Chris Claremont launched X-Men #1 and this month the book that became X-Men: Legacy with issue #208 will close its doors as well, but will keep its name with the relaunch.
Once Mike Carey rebranded it as X-Men: Legacy, it focused on Xavier before basically becoming a Rogue book with her as the central point, but this new version penned by Spurrier will turn the spotlight on Xavier’s schizophrenic son, Legion, a fitting turn given Xavier’s death and Legion being his actual legacy.
Back in 1991, Jim Lee and Chris Claremont launched X-Men #1 and this month the book that became X-Men: Legacy with issue #208 will close its doors as well, but will keep its name with the relaunch.
Once Mike Carey rebranded it as X-Men: Legacy, it focused on Xavier before basically becoming a Rogue book with her as the central point, but this new version penned by Spurrier will turn the spotlight on Xavier’s schizophrenic son, Legion, a fitting turn given Xavier’s death and Legion being his actual legacy.
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Thanks for that, Chuck. Real swell legacy you left us…
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Books like New Mutants are gone, with some members like Cannonball and Sunspot joining the ranks of the Avengers, and Wolverine and the X-Men and X-Factor will continue unchanged in number or direction.
Uncanny X-Force has been one of Marvel’s big hits since but it’s ending in December only to see a new volume led by Psylocke hit the stands in January, along with Cable and X-Force, a new book with Cable and his cohorts in the familiar position of being wanted fugitives.
Uncanny X-Force has been one of Marvel’s big hits since but it’s ending in December only to see a new volume led by Psylocke hit the stands in January, along with Cable and X-Force, a new book with Cable and his cohorts in the familiar position of being wanted fugitives.
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Wanted by the Fashion Police apparently.
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The Marvel NOW! Initiative looks to be big for the mutants in general, with many of them moving onto different Avengers teams, but as someone who has every issue of Uncanny X-Men since it was just simply called X-Men, there seems to be something missing without that title. Despite Bendis’ reassurances, I can’t help but shake the notion that the premise of All New X-Men is too limited to sustain a multiyear series without smacking continuity around like it’s the New York Knicks, and X-Men: Legacy seems like a cool hook with Legion as the star…only he’s never been a star, so in a crowded market with bigger characters and creative teams elsewhere, I’m already cautious about its longevity.
A big part of me feels that the success of the Avengers, on screen and in print, has led to something of a marginalization of the X-Men, sucking them into the greater Marvel Universe to an extent where there’s no longer a real X-Men corner of it but rather one huge melting pot that will be sans the mutant crossovers of yesteryear like Muir Island Saga and X-Cutioner’s Song and Messiah CompleX.
But I guess that’s been the goal of the X-Men all along, hasn’t it? To be integrated and a part of the community as a whole? So maybe it won’t be so bad, after all.
Welcome to the Marvel NOW! Initiative, X-Men. Hope you survive the experience…
A big part of me feels that the success of the Avengers, on screen and in print, has led to something of a marginalization of the X-Men, sucking them into the greater Marvel Universe to an extent where there’s no longer a real X-Men corner of it but rather one huge melting pot that will be sans the mutant crossovers of yesteryear like Muir Island Saga and X-Cutioner’s Song and Messiah CompleX.
But I guess that’s been the goal of the X-Men all along, hasn’t it? To be integrated and a part of the community as a whole? So maybe it won’t be so bad, after all.
Welcome to the Marvel NOW! Initiative, X-Men. Hope you survive the experience…
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Ah! I see what you did there!
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1 comment:
I've wanted the end of the X-Ghetto for years so in theory this sounds great. 'Course, Rememnder saying he writes horror in all his books lessens the chances of me reading Uncanny Avengers but you can't have everything...
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