AARON GLAZER:
Welcome to two guys previewing the X-Men relaunch. We’ll be looking at the creative teams and shadowy pictures from each previewed image and discussing how these books look to be shaping up starting with Uncanny X-Men #1 by Kieron Gillen, and Carlos Pacheco.
GREY SCHERL:
I gotta say, I love the creative team here. Gillen has been doing wonders on Uncanny so far, and I’ve been a Pacheco fan since he was drawing X-Men back in the 90’s.
Greg Land will probably still be doing every other arc though, important to keep in mind.
AARON GLAZER:
Gillen is, thus far, the first A+ X-Writer since Grant Morrison. Pacheco is fantastic and Land is dissapointing. Still, this easily lines up as one of the must-reads of the line.
AARON GLAZER:
Let’s start with the seeming leader of this team, Emma Frost…
GREY SCHERL:
It’s an interesting choice, though it’s less of a shocker now that we know that Cyclops is just not on the cover.
GREY SCHERL:
Emma has been a field leader for a while now, and it’s been a natural fit for her.
AARON GLAZER:
Right, that makes sense. Though it’s hard to see Ema leading one of the obvious characters on the cover, that being Magneto
GREY SCHERL:
Magneto is one of the two very obvious shadowed out characters, but I can see it. Magneto is willing to follow Scott, and despite Emma apparently being in charge in the field, this will remain Scott’s show.
AARON GLAZER:
I’m not a giant fan of how Magneto’s being so docile, but I do like that he’s understanding of the mutants situation. Also, I guess it would be hard to trust him as leader.
GREY SCHERL:
There’s also that any team visibly led by Magneto is going to draw the wrong conclusions.
Emma at least can handle a crowd, Magneto is Magneto.
AARON GLAZER:
The other easy to see character is Juggernaut, but that’s a bit of a trick, right?
GREY SCHERL:
Not at all, in last weeks issue of Uncanny we saw Colossus become the new avatar of Cyytorak, thus making him the new Juggernaut, something Kieron Gillen has confirmed will be a long term effect, and not just something wrapped up with Fear Itself.
AARON GLAZER:
I like the idea, as it’s the first interesting thing done with Colossus since he returned.
He’s always been so whiney; now he really is tragic.
GREY SCHERL:
He’s always been a good secondary character.
But even unable to speak Kitty kept stealing all of their scenes for the last year.
AARON GLAZER:
Coming along with Colossus, and we weren’t sure at first, but now I’m pretty certain, is Magik!
You can really almost make out the sword
GREY SCHERL:
You mean on the left or the right of Emma?
Because I would agree that Illyana is on the right side of the teaser.
AARON GLAZER:
The one with the energy trail coming out of what seems to be a sword to Emma’s right.
GREY SCHERL:
Yeah, the one we thought was Gambit at first. I definitely see it being Magik now.
AARON GLAZER:
Magik, by the way, makes this a team of entirely villains, or former villains.
Which leaves us, of course, witht he left of Emma, and I have no idea who that is.
GREY SCHERL:
Danger.
Fit the theme?
AARON GLAZER:
That makes perfect sense. Another former villain.
GREY SCHERL:
And look at the shadow with Danger in mind, the chin is definitely hers, and it explains all the crap coming off of her body.
AARON GLAZER:
It does indeed. I’m not sure how I feel about this being Scott’s team though. They really are pushing him into a new Magneto-esque role.
And honestly, thank goodness this is Gillen’s book, not Aaron’s. Jason would go too over the top with this many bad-guys.
GREY SCHERL:
It makes things more interesting.
I also think that Namor is somewhere in this image that we can’t see.
AARON GLAZER:
I don’t really love Namor in the X-Men. Yes, he’s a mutant, but, well, he really should be busy doing his own thing. And is he in the new Defenders?
GREY SCHERL:
You’re right, he is, no Namor here.
I actually have liked him on the X-Men if not just for the fact that he’s relavent again for the first time in ages.
AARON GLAZER:
Well, not neccessarily – Wolverine and Spider-Man are on 5-teams apiece. Namor could do two.
GREY SCHERL:
This is true, but I won’t argue with not over exposing the use of “IMPERIUS REX!”
AARON GLAZER:
Ha, fair. So this book is a definite read, yes? Great characters and a cool premise.
GREY SCHERL:
This is a must read if you’re an X-Fan, but then again, it’s the franchise book.
AARON GLAZER:
Whatever – Chuck Austen got it dropped, and I’m an X-Fan. Honestly, so did Brubaker before Fraction joined him.
GREY SCHERL:
Alright, point, but Gillen has turned in a few good arcs in a row, and Generation Hope has been a sleeper hit if I’ve ever seen one, so this one should be gold.
Brubaker never really fit the mold of an X writer, his pacing for the group dynamic was all over the place.
AARON GLAZER:
Speaking of which, Generation Hope #13 with the new creative team of James Asmus and Ibraim Roberson is up next.
GREY SCHERL:
James Asmus has been around Marvel for a bit now, and while I can’t tell you anything of note that he’s written, I do know I’ve read and not been offended by his work.
If anything, I find the book to be worth a shot due to the characters and premise, and if it’s not good, it gets dropped.
AARON GLAZER:
I’ll give this a shot, but not because of Asmus. Gillen has made me care about and be curious about these characters.
It doesn’t have a long leash, but it gets a chance.
GREY SCHERL:
Ibraim Roberson is awesome, I have to say this.
AARON GLAZER:
What’s he drawn?
GREY SCHERL:
He did a few issues of New Mutants, but most of note is he drew the Frankenstein mini for Flashpoint, and it looked really good.
Just looked it up, he did the Second Coming issues of New Mutants.
AARON GLAZER:
Ah, well, I’m fine with that then. Onto the team? The blacked out ones are the usual team, so it’s the shown figure that’s interesting… Sebastian Shaw!?
GREY SCHERL:
Shaw is an interesting choice, but given the pitch I’ve read about mental manipulation, it makes sense given recent Emma stuff involving him.
She needs to put him somewhere that she can control, so why not leading the kids not unlike how she led Generation X?
AARON GLAZER:
Look, how many times has mental manipulation backfired for the X-Men? This is supposed to hearken to Magneto getting the New Mutants, but that was a huge failure and the dude is a sociopath they’re putting with the most important mutant ever.
GREY SCHERL:
The anticipation of the backfire is what makes it so interesting though, not to mention that even with his mind whammied, how much of his traditional influence will he shine on these kids?
AARON GLAZER:
That, not the Schism event, would cause me to walk away if I were a classic X-Men character.
GREY SCHERL:
I can’t argue with you, but at the same time, Generation X.
AARON GLAZER:
Had Banshee as well.
GREY SCHERL:
The shadows for this are pretty obvious; Velocidad, Transonic, Zero, Primal, and Hope.
Idie stands out as missing though, which leads to two trains of thought.
AARON GLAZER:
Right – the main cast, who are great. Who’s your favorite?
They’re going to keep Idie off the field… or Logan’s taking her.
GREY SCHERL:
This is going to remain Hope’s book, but out of the remaining cast….Kenji is awesome.
I was going to say she dies or Logan takes her.
AARON GLAZER:
I wouldn’t think she dies, but we shall see.
GREY SCHERL:
I hope she doesn’t, but it could easily be the cause of the split. Jason Aaron has been thrusting the Logan/Idie dynamic that doesn’t exist down our throats.
AARON GLAZER:
Speaking of Logan’s teen sidekicks, apparently another gets to front X-Men #20 by Victor Gischler and Will Conrad….
GREY SCHERL:
I’ll be generous and give it an issue, but I’m not excited about this one.
AARON GLAZER:
This is the Marvel Team Up – X-Men and damnit, they’re already a team. I’m not interested.
GREY SCHERL:
I think that’s Warpath.
AARON GLAZER:
That’s certainly Warpath, and Archangel appears to be in the background.
GREY SCHERL:
I wouldn’t bet on it being Warren, my gut tells me he’s going villain.
AARON GLAZER:
Domino appears there, as well. What do Archangel, warpath and Domino have in common?
Because that’s why I think it’s Warren.
GREY SCHERL:
I don’t see why Jubilee would have that team though.
AARON GLAZER:
Jubilee is Wolverine’s protege. These are original X-Force characters. Jubes has also been hanging out with that last female character… X-23.
GREY SCHERL:
I think that’s X-23, not Domino.
AARON GLAZER:
I think it’s both, standing next to one another.
GREY SCHERL:
It could be.
AARON GLAZER:
It’s original X-Force really with Jubilee instead of Logan. It would fit the theme, no?
GREY SCHERL:
It kinda would now that I think of it.
AARON GLAZER:
The Blue teams seem to have that kind of violent bent.
GREY SCHERL:
Scott’s military X-Men.
AARON GLAZER:
Right. And you know what? If they keep that team and we’re right about the spoilers, I’ll give that an arc.
GREY SCHERL:
Agreed.
AARON GLAZER:
And finally, we wrap up the Blue with Dan Abnett, Anndy Lanning and Dave Lopez’s New Mutants #33.
This book has been very good, but, duh, it’s a DnA book. I’m reading it.
GREY SCHERL:
Me too, it’s great.
AARON GLAZER:
So, we know every character here, right?
GREY SCHERL:
Nate is the one we get to see, and Nate Grey sells books to me.
GREY SCHERL:
I can see Cypher, Warlock, Sunspot, and Dani clearly.
AARON GLAZER:
I see Amora flying in the back as well. I mean, it could be Cannonball, but I don’t think so.
I really like Cypher, Nate and Dani. I’m not at all a fan of Amora or Sunspot, but they’re fine supporting pieces. And I’ll miss Cannonball.
GREY SCHERL:
Sunspot can be great, but he’s a good supporting character at best.
Sam needs to be a focus somewhere, but I don’t see it being here.
The flying person is the only one i can’t put my finger on, but I would like for it to be some random New X-Men character.
AARON GLAZER:
Nate is a long-missed character. Sam would fit on Logan’s team and maybe Rogue’s. His best use would be in Sebastian Shaw’s spot, but oh well.
I think the flier is Amora. Magma is a good character if you ignore her insane backstory.
GREY SCHERL:
I didn’t know she could fly.
AARON GLAZER:
Hm, I think she can.
GREY SCHERL:
I know her powers used to be about connection to the ground.
AARON GLAZER:
According to Wiki one of her abilities is flight, so there we are. I think we nailed every character on a Blue team.
GREY SCHERL:
Jubilee’s team is the only one I don’t feel very good about, but it’s also the one with the most confusing shadows.
But yeah, I think we nailed the majority of them.
AARON GLAZER:
I’m more sure of them than Amora.
And join us Thursday when we go over the Gold Teams!
GREY SCHERL:
Hope you enjoyed it!
