New Comic Day! November 9th edition

Hey there X-Maniacs, it's time for another New Comic Day! Last week I had a pretty abysmal pull(by my standards anyway) with only 10 new comics, I'm sure that number will be way higher THIS week... I man it sure as hell can't possibly be lower! On the plus side, out of those 10 comics from last week, THREE(!!!) received perfect scores from me(which is flat out insane!), while the rest were all very solid, not a single issue scored lower than a 6. So last week was REALLY good, but what about THIS week??? Let's take a look at what old X brought home from the comic shop today... Batman and Robin #3, Deathstroke #3, Grifter #3, Suicide Squad #3, Superboy #3, Battle Scars #1, Fear Itself #7.2, Journey Into Mystery #631, Point One #1, Uncanny X-Force #17, Wolverine #18 and Magneto: Not A Hero #1. So 12 books... My shop still hasn't gotten Teen Titans #2 and I, Vampire #2 in stock for me, so the owner of the shop said he'd give me Teen Titans for free, and if issue #2 was as bad as the first one, that's probably about what it's worth! 12 comics is about the perfect number of new comics for me, so yay me. Let's see, out of all of the books I brought home, the one I am most looking forward to reading, and the comic that is therefore this week's Pick of the Litter is Point One #1. The price tag for this one was rather steep($6!?), but it promises to have 7 new stories as well as set the stage for Marvel in the year 2012, so I'm hoping this comic was worth that steep price. On the other end of the spectrum, this week's Runt of the Litter, the comic I least want to read is Superboy #3... Which is sad because I used to love the Superboy character, but DC decided to turn him into something unrecognizable with the reboot... If this issue is sub-par, there's a VERY good chance I'll do the unthinkable and drop Superboy from my pull list... And there you have it. I'm considering doing 3 new reviews tonight, 3 new reviews tomorrow, and then dropping down to 2 reviews a night which should leave me with a day or two of Retro-Reviews towards the end of the week. As for me, I've got some comics to read, and some reviews to prep for later on. Until next time, X out!

The Random Scan of the Week!Yeah, I know I just posted this recently as part of a larger page, but I liked it so much it's also getting the Random Scan treatment.

X-Man #36 (March 1998)

As for the last X-centric Retro-Review on tap for tonight? Come on, you MUST know what I'd pick, right? For better or worse, I'll be finishing off the night with an issue of X-Man!

X-Man #36:

Summary: Some background information first... Nate Grey ended up preventing some terrorists from detonating bombs during a Knicks game at MSG(that would be Madison Square Garden to those of you with ZERO sports knowledge). Unfortunately though, the terrorists had bombs implanted into their skin and ended up detonating themselves at the police station, killing a mess of people. The people of New York figure Nate must have been in cahoots with the terrorists(for some reason...) and now hate and fear him. Now onto THIS issue. Nate finds himself wandering around Manhattan trying to avoid detection from the angry New Yorkers all around him, and trust me, we New Yorkers can get MIGHTY angry! Nate heads back to his loft but finds an angry crowd chanting anti-Nate Grey slogans(REALLY! They were!). Nate telepathically scans the building and finds that his band of misfits were hanging out there, waiting for word from either Nate or another one of their missing friends. Nate decides to search for his missing friend and locates her at the mercy of the Purple Man!!! Well, not really “at the mercy of”, she was just kind of hanging out with him, but the way I put it sounded way more threatening. Anyway, Nate angrily confronts the Purple Man and demands that he lets his friend go, but soon finds himself under the Purple Man's control. The Purple Man reveals that he had orchestrated Nate's public failure with the terrorists(although I still don't get what Nate did wrong... How was he supposed to know the terrorists had bombs UNDER their skin?!), all so he could get Nate to help him get back together with his family and... I don't know, conquer a country or something... The Purple Man is really rambling here. While the Purple Man tells Nate his life story, Nate manages to erect a telekinetic shield that prevents the Purple Man's pheromones from effecting him, at which time he prepares to batter the Purple Man for all of the trouble he put Nate through. Before he can paste the Purple Man, Nate realizes that his earlier failed attempts to attack the Purple Man caused him to destroy an abandoned building, at which time the Purple Man escapes while Nate is distracted. Instead of telepathically picking up the Purple Man's trail, Nate heads to the top of a bridge and contemplates erasing himself from everybody's mind.

Thoughts: You know what? This was probably one of Terry Kavanagh's better issues of X-Man. Now, that's not exactly saying all that much, but still, this comic WAS readable! Granted, I have NO idea what was up with Nate's supporting cast here(why the hell was he living with a kid who looked and acted like a chimney sweep from 1850's New York?!?), and don't get why Nate didn't bother tracking down and reaping a righteous vengeance on the Purple Man, but I learned long ago not to try to think too deeply about these old X-Man comic books because doing so WILL cause utter madness. Instead, I'll simply say that the art was quite good(I've always liked Chriscross's art), and the story pretty much made sense. The dialogue was pretty bad, but what can ya do? Trust me, I could have picked out WAY worse X-Man comics than this one, so I'll take this issue as a win.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.If you listen closely you can hear the people chanting his name...

New Mutants #33

First review for tonight? None other than the comic book that stars the greatest comic book character of all... And I think the character I'd consider the greatest of all should be rather obvious, so instead of stating who it is, I'm just going to get right to the review!

New Mutants #33:

Summary: This issue basically deals with the New Mutants and what decisions they are going to make in regards to the whole Lord Summers/Wolverine Schism deal. Cannonball and Karma decide to go with Wolverine since living on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) wasn't the best thing for them. Magma and Sunspot are undecided, while Cypher and Warlock can't help but think there had to be more than just those two choices. As for the greatest comic book character of all, X-Man, Nate Grey(there, now you know who it is!), while he doesn't like the idea of staying in one place for too long, he's prefer to stay on Crazy Mutie Island in order to get to know Lord Summers better, seeing as that Lord Summers IS his father, in an alternate reality sort of way. Plus Nate doesn't see the sense in shielding children from the real world, which is a BRILLIANT nod to Nate's own past, so I tip my hat to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning for that. As for Moonstar, she can see both sides of the argument, but feels loyalty towards Lord Summers since he believed in her even after she lost her mutant powers. However, she doesn't think staying secluded on Crazy Mutie Island is the way forward for mutantkind. As such, she meets up with Lord Summers and gets him to agree to allow the six remaining New Mutants(Moonstar, Nate, Sunspot, Magma, Cypher and Warlock) to live in nearby San Fransisco where they'd still be close to Crazy Mutie Island, but be able to interact with humanity. This issue ends with Lord Summers giving Moonstar her next assignment, to find Blink(!).

Thoughts: So here's my dilemma... The last two comic books I reviewed I gave perfect scores to. After I put this comic book down, my first instinct was to give it a perfect score... I couldn't think of any faults in it, but I've always hated giving out too many perfect scores, because it dilutes the importance of them... So what to do... To solve this, I decided to go back through this issue to look for something, anything that I didn't like... And I couldn't find it. This comic was just SO well written, and the art was strong. I mean Abnett and Lanning wrote Nate here about as well as he's been written. Not only that, but everybody else was written strongly as well! Add the fact that the team is going to look for Blink, and I have to say, I loved this issue. And you know what that means...

Score: 10 out of 10. THREE straight perfect scores!!! Wow, this is shaping up to be a hell of a great week comic-wise for me!Huh, that's probably the best dialogue Nate's had in the longest time, and I'd know best seeing as that I own every single comic book he's ever appeared in!

Happy Halloween!

Hey X-Maniacs, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Halloween! I USUALLY try to post something Halloweeny for Halloween and this year is no exception. As such, here are a trio of... um, scary-ish pictures... Enjoy!


It's Batman! And a severed head! Oooo, spooky!!


Ah yes... Who could forget Nate Grey suddenly being a vampire! Good times...


When Nate wasn't randomly being a vampire, he was dealing with that beloved scourge of humanity, ZOMBIES!!!

Uncanny X-Men #544... Plus some bonus thoughts on Nate Grey!

Hey look, it's the FINAL issue of Uncanny X-Men!! I mean wow, can you believe that Marvel would actually cancel UNCANNY X-MEN! I never thought I'd see the day! Wait, what do you mean Marvel isn't actually canceling the book they're only renumbering it?! Wait, why am I surprised by this? We ARE talking about Marvel Comics here...

Uncanny X-Men #544: The(not so) Final Issue!:

Summary: The story here is twofold, with half the comic featuring Lord Summers on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) watching the last of Wolverine's mutants heading off(Iceman), while the other half of this comic features the return of... MR. Sinister(!!!!!!). First off we'll deal with the Sinister story. It seems that Sinister is trying to recreate himself by using the story of the Uncanny X-Men as his guide. Sinister has thus far been able to recite the story of the X-Men up until the most recent event... Schism. Sinister figures that Schism ended with Lord Summers and Wolverine putting aside their differences for the sake of mutantkind... Which is NOT true, and leads to a red light going off in Sinister's laboratory. Having predicted wrong, Sinister enters an oven filled with skeletal remains and burns himself to death(!). Sometime later, a new Sinister emerges from a cloning tank and reads through the story of the X-Men, crossing out the wrong information the prior Sinister had added and perfectly predicting the way Schism ended, right down to the name Wolvie chose for the new school. Having successfully completed his predictions, and having the proper temperament, personality and attitude, this Sinister heads off to begin his plans anew. As for the mutants? Lord Summers is bitchy towards Iceman for leaving, Beast makes sure to pick up the last few leaving mutants just to put the screws to Lord Summers one final time(because Beast IS awesome) and Lord Summers responds to all of this by taking down all of the photos of the older X-Men teams and sealing them away, since they were a reminder of the past, and looking to the past is defeatist behavior to Lord Summers.

Thoughts: What the hell do you think I thought of this issue!? It returned the real, true, legitimate MR. SINISTER!!! Possibly my favorite X-Men villain, and one of my favorite villains in ALL of comic books. Whenever I think back on this issue I find myself adding an extra 1/2 to the score over and over again because the stuff with Sinister was THAT awesome. I loved that Sinister kept recreating himself until he had become the character he used to be, one who knew the X-Men inside and out, possibly better than they knew themselves! And upon finally becoming complete again? Naturally he sets out to get back to work making the X-Men's lives a living hell. And why does he do that? Because he's awesome. That's why. But it's not only the stuff with Mr. Sinister that was great, the parts of this comic that dealt with Iceman leaving Crazy Mutie Island, as well as Beast's GREAT cameo appearance made this the best issue of Uncanny X-Men I've read in YEARS! All I can hope for is that Kieron Gillen keeps THIS sort of work up and doesn't slide back to his pre-Fear Itself stories. Regardless, with a Mr. Sinister storyline on the horizon, I have a pretty good feeling Uncanny X-Men #1 will be one hell of a good comic.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.It looks like I have a new Windows desktop picture already!


What's in a name? Everything!

As a totally nerdy aside, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this issue gave us one of the FEW times I've seen somebody put Nate Grey's name properly... You see, in an issue of X-Man(X-Man #-1 I believe) Mr. Sinister gave Nate his name. His last name, Grey, came from his mother, but his first name? Sinister named Nate after the one who did the most work in actually creating Nate, and that would be Sinister himself. And what is Sinister's real name? Nathaniel Essex. However, in the comic I'm referencing, Sinister called Nate “Nathan” as opposed to “Nathaniel”... To me though, if Nate WAS named after Mr. Sinister(as Sinister himself said), then his proper name would be Nathaniel Grey, NOT Nathan Grey. Now, why the hell did I just go off on a spiel about Nate's name? Because in this issue of Uncanny X-Men, Mr. Sinister was looking at a chart of the Summers and Grey family trees and Nate was named “Nathaniel” on the board, FINALLY correcting something that's bothered me for a good 6/7 years now, back when I first read that X-Man #-1 back issue. So thank you Kieron Gillen and Greg Land for righting that wrong when it comes to my favorite fictional character.Yes, it IS Nathaniel Grey! Finally! Thank you!

X-Man #20 (Oct. 1996)

The next Retro-Review was a no-brainer for me... I mean if I was going to review random back issues I own, I HAD to review an issue of X-Man! I mean how couldn't I?! He's my all-time favorite comic book character, and I think I only have one other X-Man comic book reviewed on this blog. So yeah, this was an easy choice. Unfortunately, as much as I love Nate Grey, I have to admit, his comic usually sucked... I haven't read the X-Man series in over 5 years so I actually don't recall a thing about this particular issue, so here's hoping this was one of the rare good X-Men comics!

X-Man #20:

Summary: Nate's occasional partner/love interest, Threnody, has gotten herself captured(kind of) by the Abomination and it's up to Nate to rescue her. It seems that the Abomination is living in the sewers of Manhattan where he protects a group of downtrodden individuals(The Forgotten), one of whom was Thren when her mutant powers first manifested. This time though, Thren isn't interested in staying with the Abomination and his ilk and intends to leave, which is fine by the Abomination, since the last time Thren stayed with the Forgotten she accidentally killed two of their number with her powers. Nate manages to telepathically track Thren to the Forgotten's lair, which infuriates the Abomination since he figures Thren had led Nate there to defeat him... Even though the Abomination brought Thren to his base practically against her will... Nate manages to knock the Forgotten out of his way and pins the Abomination to the wall with his telekinesis. Nate is basically ready to leave when the Abomination breaks free and attacks Nate, beating him into a bloody pulp... Or so it seems... In actuality, Nate, not wanting to fight Abomination if he didn't have to, simply made Abomination believe that he had battered Nate. Abomination and his lackeys leave, smug by what they thought had happened, and Nate takes Thren back to the surface.

Thoughts: Ugh... This was truly a terrible comic. First things first, Terry Kavanagh's dialogue is brutally bad. Secondly, the story didn't make ANY sense! Basically Thren is taken into the sewers by the Abomination, who tells her she can take what she needs and then can leave. Nate arrives and the Abomination and his Forgotten attack, but are easily brushed aside. Instead of simply leaving with Thren(which was what ALL parties wanted in the first place!), Nate goes into Abomination's mind to learn about Thren's initial stay with the Forgotten. Abomination then gets free, and instead of leaving(AGAIN!), Nate lets Abomination believe that he defeated Nate and that Thren had run away... Um, why bother with the duplicity when Nate could have easily flown away with Thren? This entire issue just didn't make sense and really didn't lead to anything, which pretty much sums up Kavanagh's entire run on this series. To this day I still wonder what could have been if a talented writer had been given a shot writing this series as opposed to YEARS of Kavanagh's listless storytelling...

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.The best thing about this issue was how easily Nate took care of the Abomination, thus proving that yes, Nate DOES rule!

Some of my favorite comic characters!

Here's a post that needs no introduction, some random comic scans of some of my favorite comic book characters! Ten of my favorite characters to be exact, five from DC and five from Marvel. And no, this isn't the definitive list of favorite characters for me, these are just 10 characters who came to mind for me the fastest. There are a few big omissions, but what do you want from me, I only spent like 20 minutes on this post! So without further ado, here they are in no particular order.

Arsenal.Now that DC has despicably eliminated Lian from even existing, I'll have to rely on back issues to see what an awesome father Roy was.


Captain America.Cap's not above bitch-smacking a teammate who isn't listening.


Batman(Dick Grayson).You tell him, Dick!


Ultron.Not many villains would take the time to ignore THOR to insult somebody. That's what makes Ultron extra special!


Jason Todd.Yep, Jason rules.


Hawkeye.That's right, Hawkeye once defeated a cosmic being and saved the universe by cheating at a game of chance!


Impulse.That is the most badass Impulse picture ever!


Bucky Barnes.Bucky took down IRON MAN! Think about THAT!


Robin(Tim Drake).And people think Jason was the high-strung Robin!


Nate Grey.X-Man: 1, Professor Xavier: 0.


You had to know I was going to close out this post with an X-Man scan! So yeah, there were a lot of omissions(Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Stephanie Brown, Daken, Hardball, Marvel Boy, and the list goes on and on), but like I said, this was just a quickie post. Given more time to think, I'm sure I'd have come up with a few different choices. But hey, that means I can do another post like this down the road! Anyway, that'll do it for me tonight, until next time, X out.

New Mutants #26 & Deadpool #39

We'll be kicking this off with this week's Pick of the Litter, New Mutants #26. If I score it anything under a 9, it would have disappointed me. That's how excited I am about that comic. Along with New Mutants, I'll be checking out Deadpool, which if it's like last issue, should be good. Let's get started!

New Mutants #26:

Summary: We get underway with a young man who lost his mutant powers during the HORRIBLE M-Day idea discovering Sugar Man's base. He runs into some former mutants Sugar Man gave powers to(using a variation of the mutate bonding process! Awesome!!), and they take him to meet Sugar Man himself. Sugar Man promises to help the young man provided he did Sugar Man a favor, the favor being to help Sugar Man find his way home. With the possibility of being “special” again in his head, the young man agrees to undergo Sugar Man's procedure. While that's going down, the New Mutants are snooping around an old HAMMER run warehouse looking for Nate Grey. They run into Commander Rogers, who tells them there was nothing in the warehouse except for some old HAMMER machinery. The New Mutants are about to leave until Doug Ramsay is able to “read” one of the rooms in the warehouse and realizes that reality was being subtly warped in the warehouse, which was something Nate could do, leading the team to believe that Nate very well could be there. Back with Sugar Man, he's managed to gift the young man from earlier with a power(acid vomit), and takes him into the room Nate was being held in the Omega Machine. Nate warns the young man to leave while he could, but Sugar Man explains that while hooked up to the Omega Machine, Nate could open extra-dimensional portals, with Sugar Man hoping one of the portals would lead back to his home dimension, the Age of Apocalypse. Sugar Man ties a rope to the young man and tells him to enter the portal created by Nate and the Omega Machine. Upon entering the portal, the young man runs into a giant creature, which promptly eats him... Oh well... Sugar Man pulls out the severed rope and realizes that he'd once again hit a dead end. Before Sugar Man could do anything else though, the New Mutants manage to pinpoint his laboratory's location, at which point Sugar Man sics a few of his loyal mutates on them.

Thoughts: This was very, very good. Now, Nate didn't really do much here except warn that guy Sugar Man turned into a mutate not to trust Sugar Man, but this was more of a set-up story leading to the battle next issue, so I was pretty pleased with it overall. There was a lot to like here, and a lot of nice nods to the past, such as Sugar Man's knowledge of the Genoshan mutate process(which he created from a bastardized version of AOA Mr. Sinister's work), as well as mention of Nate's reality warping and dimensional powers. Now Nate can't warp reality to the degree of the Scarlet Witch circa Avengers Disassembled, but he has shown some degree of reality warping. On top of that, during his mutant shaman days, Nate was able to open dimensional portals to other worlds. So a BIG kudos to Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett for actually doing their research on these characters before writing this story. On the negative side, nothing all THAT interesting happened here... But for me? Nate Grey, Sugar Man, Steve Rogers, AND a story that's been researched and makes sense is more than enough for a very high score!

Score: 9 out of 10.I LOVE this comic!!!!!


Deadpool #39:

Summary: Stuck between an angry Hulk and a preschool full of kids, Deadpool tells the kids and their teacher to hide inside their school, figuring the Hulk would simply pulp DP like he wanted. As the Hulk approached though, Pool realized that there was a great chance that the Hulk's attack on him would collapse the school, killing the kids inside. Not wanting to be responsible for the deaths of a bunch of little kids, Pool forces the kids and their teacher to get on a school bus which Pool starts to drive away from the area. The army has mobilized to the area as well, and realizing that Pool was responsible for Hulk's rampage, decide to kill him, figuring that would calm Hulk back down. Spotting Pool in the school bus, and not seeing the kids(since Pool told them to put their heads down), the army shoots at the bus with a tank, which Pool swerves to avoid, letting it hit the now even angrier Hulk. Fearing for her kids safety, the teacher goes to the front of the bus, small talks Pool for a moment, and swipes one of his handguns, shooting Pool in the head. With Pool down, the teacher rushes her charges off the bus and to the army. When Pool wakes up, the Hulk, who has calmed down considerably, pulls Pool out of the wreckage of the bus and demands to know why Pool would do something this stupid, endangering the lives of dozens of people, including the preschoolers. Pool comes out with it and tells Hulk that he has a death wish, and figured the Hulk was the only thing alive capable of beating him so badly that he'd be unable to heal from it. Realizing Pool was utterly insane, and not wanting to see him endanger anybody else on his mad quest for suicide, Hulk punches Pool so hard that his entire upper-body literally explodes... Damn! Unfortunately for Deadpool, he actually heals from that a few weeks later, and this issue ends with Steve Rogers telling a doctor that Deadpool had been tried while he was still knitting together, that he'd been found insane, and would be heading to a mental institution in England.

Thoughts: What can I say? I really liked this issue! It was good, stupid, Pool-a-riffic fun! As a matter of fact, Daniel Way did what nobody has ever been able to do, make me like the Hulk just a little bit. As this issue moved towards it's climax, I figured Pool would tell Hulk his plan, and Hulk would simply be a good hero and walk away from the crazy Deadpool. When Hulk told Pool he was dangerously crazy and then pounded him, I was impressed. Seriously, after Pool put Hulk into one of his rages and endangered the lives of all those kids? Hulk did the responsible thing by trying to put Pool down like a rabid dog. So from here, Pool will be placed in a prison that was being converted into a mental institution... That should be a hilarious blast.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.And that my friends, is going to leave a mark!

X-Men #11 & New Mutants #25(!).

Last two reviews for today. The first one is the last issue of X-Men I'll be picking up for the foreseeable future since my least favorite writer(that would be Christopher Yost) will be taking up the writing duties beginning with the next issue. The second comic I'm reviewing? All I have to say about it is this... X-Man returns!!!!!


X-Men #11:

Summary: This issue begins with a few of the Crazy Muties throwing a birthday party for Vampire Jubilee to make her feel normal. The fact that the Crazy Muties(What? They live on Crazy Mutie Island, want am I supposed to call them?) are trying to make Jubilee feel “normal” actually has the opposite effect, causing her to feel like even more of an outsider. After yelling at the poor, confused Crazy Muties, Jubes storms off to brood on a rooftop. Prof. Xavier follows her and rather then try to convince her that she was normal and everything would be all right, Prof. X tells Jubes that she was different now and that she'd have to learn how to cope with these differences. From there Prof. X relates the story of his first encounter with a vampire in Africa back in the 1950's. It seems the young Prof. X saw a photo of an elephant strung up in an issue of National Geographic, and thought it may have been the work of a fellow mutant. After a search and a run-in with some mercenaries who were also trying to figure out who strung up the elephant, Prof. X is saved by a member of a peaceful tribe of vampires. It seems these vampires didn't want to victimize humans anymore and had begun drinking animal blood(hence the strung up, bleeding elephant). After telling Prof. X this story, the vampire vanishes, never to be seen by Prof. X again. In other words, Jubilee didn't have to live the way the vampires she'd met lived(Dracula and Xarus), she could live her life her own way. Now feeling better, Jubes decides to head back inside with the Prof so he could have a piece of cake.

Thoughts: I've always been a big fan of Prof. X, so it should go without saying that I really enjoyed this one. He's always had a great relationship with Jubes(there was an issue of Uncanny right after the X-Cutioner's Song that really hammered that home), so it was great to see these two characters who kind of fell off the map in the 2000's having a nice little heart to heart. If you're not a fan of Xavier, you probably wouldn't care to read about his youthful adventures. But for me? This was a breath of fresh air.

Score: 8 out of 10.How is calling somebody abnormal supposed to make them feel better?!


New Mutants #25:

Summary: This issue begins with the remnants of the New Mutants(minus Cannonball, Karma, and Illyana) along with Wolverine, Shadowcat and Colossus attacking a Nimrod-possessed automotive assembly plant. The team battles robots for a while before Doug Ramsay(who's not dead for some inconceivable reason) figures out that everybody Lord Summers sent on the mission had a personal connection to Illyana... It seems that Illyana had recently killed some Elder Gods and manipulated the X-Men in the process. Because of this, Lord Summers has decided to imprison Illyana permanently on Crazy Mutie Island, which Illyana understands completely. After the New Mutants(and company) take care of the robots, they return to Crazy Mutie Island, where Colossus immediately makes a beeline for Lord Summers' throne room. While Colossus is bitching Lord Summers out over his actions towards Illyana(his sister), Moonstar visits with Cannonball, who was recuperating due to Limbo and/or Legion(I didn't read the past several issues, what do you want from me?!). After the Illyana business and with Cannonball hurt, Moonstar figures that Lord Summers would be breaking up the New Mutants. Cannonball comforts her and they share a kiss(??!) before Moonstar heads in to see Lord Summers. It seems that Lord Summers wasn't breaking up the New Mutants, but instead wanted them to begin tracking down any loose ends the X-Men had dangling out there. The first loose end Lord Summers wanted tied up? X-Man, Nate Grey. Back when Norman Osborn controlled HAMMER, Osborn and his Dark X-Men managed to defeat and capture Nate(back in the Dark X-Men mini-series). Since Osborn's fall from power, Nate hasn't been seen, which is something Lord Summers was disturbed about, since he seems to have suddenly remembered that Nate was his alternate dimensional son... Better late than never, right? And what of young Nate? It seems he's been imprisoned and was strapped to a machine that was forcing him to believe he was being hunted by the Avengers. The man controlling the machine? None other than Nate's Age of Apocalypse enemy, Sugar Man(!!!!!)!

Thoughts: Before I get to what I thought about this one, I have something I want to say first. I have not now, nor have I ever claimed to be impartial. I'm not one of those delusional bloggers who thinks that they are real journalists, and as such holds some warped notion of journalistic integrity. I know better. I'm not a journalist, I'm just a guy who loves reading and talking about comics. So yes, I'm a VERY biased reviewer... So there. Why did I just go on that spiel? Because Nate Grey is my favorite comic book character ever, hands down. There's nobody else that's even in the same league as Nate in my mind. Sure, I like other characters(Bart Allen, Jason Todd, Hawkeye, Steve Rogers, Mr. Sinister, etc), but my feelings for Nate are on a whole other level. That's why I decided to start picking up this series again. Well, that and the fact that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were taking over the writing chores, although to be totally honest, I'd have picked up this comic regardless of WHO was writing it... It was just a HUGE bonus for me that DnA happened to be the guys writing this one. Was the story perfect? I don't know... All I know is that my all-time favorite comic book character was in this one, battling against Thor(in his mind), being tortured by one of his old villains, and I couldn't be happier! So I'm going to smile, I'm going to be happy, and yes, I'm going to give this comic a score way higher than it probably should get... But hey, at least I'm honest about it!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Nate vs Thor?!? Yes please!!!!!!

Life is good.

Wait, this CAN'T be true, can it?! One of my favorite X-teams, written by my favorite writing team, ABOUT my favorite comic book character of all-time?!? I've gone on and on about how awesome Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are as writers, if you don't believe me just check out pretty much ANY of the Nova or Guardians of the Galaxy review I've posted. I've always liked the New Mutants, I have the full run of the original series, the 90's mini-series and the 2000's rebirth that went on to become the unfortunate Academy X. I started collecting this current New Mutants series but I had to drop it after reading how horribly miswritten Cannonball was under Zeb Wells. And seeing as that my screen name is X-Man, I don't think I need to explain my undying love of Nate Grey. Yep, as I continue dropping DC books, you can be SURE this will be one of the Marvel books that will be replacing them!

Let's Talk About: Your all-time favorite comic book character.

Hey all, quick confession time... I've been EXTREMELY lazy since my last day of summer school last Thursday. Sure, I did put up a few posts on Sunday, but since I'm off from school(for another 6 days at least), I feel I should be putting a bit more work into this blog. Now, I could have finished the Robin post that's been sitting half done in my files for like two weeks now, but nuts to that, that's too much work! Instead, I'm going to do the easiest post imaginable, a post talking about my favorite comic book character. And in order to keep this post from becoming a rambling mess, I'm going to state who my favorite character is and why in one paragraph. Trust me, it's better like that... Early on in this blog I did a post about this character and it wound up being 3 pages and 1600+ words long, and I don't think ANYBODY wants to sift through a post like that! As always with these “Let's Talk About:” type posts, any and all comments are appreciated. If you're taking the time to read this post, why not take a few seconds to let me know who your favorite comic book character is and why. Trust me, I'd love to know.

So who is my all-time favorite comic book character? Well, it's pretty obvious, but allow me to state it anyway. Out of the thousands upon thousands of comic book characters I've read about, none of them grabbed my attention the way Nate Grey/X-Man did. Nate was the ultimate outsider. Even amongst his fellow outsiders(mutants), Nate stood alone. He is temperamental, irrational, impulsive and short-tempered, but still able to come across in a sympathetic manner. Nate came from a hellish environment, had to deal with the failings of his own body, and yet continued to soldier on. Sure, for the most part, the stories from the X-Man series ranged from okay to horrific, but it wasn't the stories that caused me to collect that entire series, it was Nate himself. For me, he's that rare breed of character that you can see some of yourself in. That's why Nate is my favorite character. I can relate to him. It's really as simple as that.

Now I figure I'll throw a few pictures into this post to show just what I like most about Nate...


He's got an awesome sense of fashion. I mean, check out that blue leather jacket with the yellow trim! Sweet!


He's a jerk!


And much like me, Nate has a way with words.


So there you have it, that's why Nate Grey is my favorite character. But what about you guys? Which character is your favorite? Drop me a comment, because I'd love to read which characters tickle the fancy of you guys. Until next time, X out.


Pfft, you all wish! I'M an X-Man!

Flashback Friday: June 11th

Get ready for a blast from the past, it's time for Flashback Friday! This week's Flashback is way better then last week's, since I've actually had the time to lay around reading comics! We're still pretty Robin-centric, but I've also thrown in a few Marvel books, a Wildstorm trade and some DC comics other then Robin, so this week is a bit more varied then last week was. Alright, let's get to it!

Robin #1(Nov. 1993): Hey, it's finally the beginning of Robin's ongoing series! Once I'm done going over this one, I only have 183(plus annuals) to go! Some car thieves calling themselves the Speedboyz are stealing fancy cars in the suburbs of Gotham. Tim decides to try to catch them since he was banished from the Batcave by the crazy Batman(Jean Paul Valley). Tim also winds up running afoul a cop from the suburbs who doesn't like the idea of city-folks(like Tim)getting involved on his turf. Score: 8 out of 10.

Detective Comics #650(Sept. 1992): Tim and Alfred save a Geraldo type of news reporter after he tries to open up the booby-trapped vault of a dead mob boss. Perfectly acceptable solo type story. Score: 7 out of 10.

Wolverine: Weapon X: Insane in the Brain TPB(Collects Wolverine Weapon X issues #6-10): Wolvie wakes up in an insane asylum with no memory of who he is or why he's there. And to make matters worse, the doctor in charge seems 51 cards short of a deck... This is definitely not a conventional Wolvie story, it's at times laugh out loud funny, and VERY over the top. If you're looking for good, gory fun, I'd definitely recommend this. Score: 9 out of 10.

Robin #2(Dec. 1993): Tim manages to take down the Speedboyz, and the Cluemaster escapes from Blackgate prison. Score: 7 out of 10.

Robin #3(Feb. 1994): Tim has difficulty managing his Tim Drake time and his Robin time, which leads to lots of trouble between him and his Russian girlfriend. While investigating Cluemaster's jail break, Tim runs into Spoiler, who was also hunting for Cluemaster(who happens to be her father). Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Flash 80 page giant #2(April 1999): You know, I read this only a few days ago, and I honestly don't remember WHAT went on here! I guess I'll just type the score I wrote down after reading this comic and move on... Score: 6 out of 10.

Robin #4(March 1994): Tim and Spoiler decide to work together to find Cluemaster. Cluemaster and his lackeys steal a van full of money, but are spotted by Tim, who winds up getting trapped with Cluemaster in the back of the van, while Cluemaster's lackey's bury the van in concrete to hide it from the cops. Score: 7 out of 10.

Robin #5(April 1994): Tim and Cluemaster are trapped in the back of the buried van and begin to rapidly run out of air, which leads to a few funny moments like Tim contemplating killing Cluemaster to double his air supply, and then thinking about how disappointed Batman would be to learn of Timmy's impure thoughts. Ultimately Spoiler beats up her father's lackeys and rescues her dad and the Boy Wonder, getting a kiss from Robin in return. Score: 8 out of 10.

Robin Annual #1(1992): This was a part of the Eclipso: Darkness Within storyline. Tim tries to prevent Anarchy from using several Eclipso black diamonds Anarchy had gotten a hold of. In the end, Tim manages to stop Anarchy and save the day. Score: 8 out of 10.

Adventures of Superman Annual #5(1993): This was a part of the Bloodlines storyline. Superboy(back when he was still calling himself Superman)and Sparx wind up facing some of those Bloodline Parasite things. I didn't understand a SINGLE thing about this storyline, but ultra-cocky Superboy did make me laugh. Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Robin #6(May 1994): This was actually the second part of a three part x-over with the Showcase series. Unfortunately I couldn't find the first and last part of this x-over, so I really didn't get a good feel for the story. It had to do with Huntress and Tim teaming up to deal with some mobsters from Huntress's past. Score: 6 out of 10.

Robin #7(June 1994): This comic was another crossover, this time to the Knightquest storyline. Bruce Wayne and Tim's father return to Gotham, and Tim reveals to Bruce that his hand-picked Batman(Jean Paul Valley)was losing his mind and killing Gotham criminals. Bruce and Tim head to the Batcave to confront Jean Paul, which leads to Bruce getting thrown into the Bat-computer before JP takes the Batmobile and leaves. Tim tries to follow Jean Paul in his Redbird car, but can't keep up with the crazed Jean Paul. In the end, Bruce realizes that he'll have to reclaim the Batman mantle from Jean Paul. Score: 8 out of 10.

Gen13: Road Trip(Collects Gen13 Vol. 4 #7-13) This is the second Gen13 trade written by Gail Simone, and unfortunately, the last. This trade fixes a lot of what I was complaining about with the last trade, and focuses on the 5 kids, instead of the villains. We get 5 issues that highlight each of the Gen13 members, as well as a pretty good battle between Gen13, their evil clones, and the Authoriteens... Don't ask! There were some hit or miss moments, but overall, this was a pretty satisfying trade. Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Amazing Spider-Man #420(Feb. 1997): I've already read this comic years ago, but I figured it was due for a re-read. This is a Christmas story where Spidey meets up with Nate Grey(X-Man)for the first time. Naturally the two start off at odds, but by the end of this one they wind up celebrating Christmas Eve together. Score: 8 out of 10.

X-Man #24(Feb. 1997): This is another comic I'm re-reading. Nate is attacked by Morbius on his way home from Spidey's house, and for some unexplained reason begins to turn into a vampire(even though Morbius can't create other vampires...). Spidey finds vampire Nate and the two decide that if Nate found his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Threnody, he'd revert back to normal... for some reason... The two heroes locate Thren in a cemetery, but find Morbius there as well, which leads to Morbius coercing Thren into helping him fight Nate and Spidey. Ultimately Morbius runs away, which leads to Spidey chasing after him, and Nate scolds Thren and leaves her... Ahhh, NOW I remember why I hated this series! Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

And there we go, another Flashback completed. Just so you all know, I won't be looking at Robin #8 or 9 because I just recently read those comics in the Knightfall vol. 3 TPB. Hope you enjoyed this week, and see you tomorrow for the horrible Best of the Rest.

The Random Scan of the Week!

It's about time I posted an X-Man pic! From Amazing Spider-Man #420(Feb. 1997).

Dark X-Men #5, Green Lantern Corps #46 & REBELS #14

I've got a few comics here tonight that I've been looking forward to for quite a while! The final part of the mini-series which returned my namesake, X-Man, in Dark X-Men #5, the final Blackest Night x-over issue of the always good Green Lantern Corps, and the final part of the Starro the Conqueror storyline in REBELS. Well, let's skip the rest of this introduction and get to the comics, because I can't wait any longer!

Dark X-Men #5(of 5): Writer: Paul Cornell. Artist: Leonard Kirk.
Last Issue: 8 1/2 out of 10.

This issue gets started with the Dark X-Men trying to defeat the Green Goblin persona in Norman Osborn's mind, while Osborn himself has a mental war against Nate Grey for control of Norman's body. Nate's plan was for the Green Goblin persona to keep Osborn and the Dark X-Men preoccupied, however, Nate made a severe miscalculation and Osborn and the Goblin team-up to rid Nate from Osborn's mind. With Nate weakened and back in the physical world, Osborn has him quickly captured and tortured. Before sending Nate into the Omega Machine where his powers would be siphoned off for various nefarious effects, Nate tells the Dark X-Men that they let themselves down by not assisting him against Osborn, since he, unlike Osborn, would have been willing to help them overcome their various problems. This issue ends with Osborn having Nate wheeled away while the Dark X-Men realize that they probably screwed up their best chance to get out from under Osborn's thumb.

I totally expected this to happen. There were only two ways this mini could have ended, considering how INSANELY powerful Nate is, Nate either gets captured by Osborn and put in the Omega Machine, or he “dies” again and returns to the astral plane as discorporated energy, because with Nate's power level, he wasn't going to be allowed to roam around the Marvel U. For me, being THE biggest Nate Grey fan anywhere, I'm OK with this ending. Importantly, Nate ISN'T dead, he's just imprisoned, which means there is always a chance he'll be back again someday(kind of like Frosty the Snowman...). With Osborn almost certain to lose his power at the conclusion of the Siege x-over, I'm cautiously optimistic that no more Osborn means that Nate will be freed and allowed to do stuff in the Marvel U again. By the way, I'd be ALL for Paul Cornell taking over the writing duties from either Matt Fraction(Uncanny X-Men)or Mike Carey(X-Men Legacy), because in just five issues he managed to put together a better storyline then either of those other two writers have been able to string together in YEARS!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.I couldn't help but laugh when even the Green Goblin himself called Norman Osborn's hair bad!

Green Lantern Corps #46: Writer: Peter Tomasi. Pencils: Patrick Gleason.
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

We open this one up with several members from all of the Color Corps combining forces above the Earth in an attempt to halt the thousands of Black Lanterns trying to descend upon the planet. While the Lanterns have some success, there proves to be too many BL's, and the Color Corps begins to lose ground. To make matters worse, Black Lantern Ice and Black Lantern Alex Dewitt(Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner's girlfriends)attack their respective boyfriends. Guy manages to freeze and destroy BL Ice, while Kyle, with some assistance from Indigo Lantern Munk, destroys BL Alex. From there, all of the members of the Color Corps arrive in Coast City just as the Anti-Monitor(!)is attempting to free himself from the Black Power Battery, where Nekron had imprisoned him. The Color Corps members try to pool their powers against the Anti-Monitor, but since he isn't a full Black Lantern yet, they can't effect him. Instead, the Lanterns devise a plan which consists of putting Dove in a Green Lantern bullet construction(since she is full of the White Light of life)and fire her at the Anti-Monitor's head. While Dove's bullet passes by, all of the Color Corps members add some extra power to it, and it winds up striking the Anti-Monitor, knocking him over and out. Unfortunately for the members of the Color Corps, the Black Power Battery is STILL draining the power of the downed Anti-Monitor, and when the Corps members try to pull the Anti-Monitor away from the Battery, the Battery cuts their lines and sucks the Anti-Monitor back in. This issue ends with the Color Corps members re-newing their attack on the Black Power battery, since they realize removing the Anti-Monitor from it would de-power all of the black rings.

There was a whole lot of action here, and for the most part, it was all good. I enjoyed Kyle's interaction with poor dead BL Alex, and I'm glad Peter decided to put that in there, because Alex's death was probably one of the key moments which turned Kyle into the hero he is today. Other then that, there's really not much more to say... This comic was a welcome addition to the Blackest Night story, and didn't disappoint.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Aww, seeing all of those Lanterns working together makes me want to break into a chorus of Kumbaya.

REBELS #14: Writer: Tony Bedard. Pencils: Claude St. Aubin.
Last Issue: 10 out of 10

This issue begins with the Omega Men(who had managed to procure the anti-Starro venom they went in search of)arriving at the Psimon's space station, but not getting any response from inside. Why is that? Because Starro himself was inside and ready to wage an all-out war against Dox and his REBELS. Adam Strange blasts Starro with a gun designed by Dox that was supposed to break Starro's hold over his slaves, but unfortunately, the gun doesn't work... With the gun a failure, the REBELS attack Starro, but even their combined efforts have little to no effect on Starro, as he easily brushes everybody and everything aside. During the battle, Starro falls into the Psimon's laboratory, and discovers all of his starfish that the Psimons had been experimenting on. This infuriates Starro, and he goes on a rampage, trouncing everybody and then using the starfish to latch onto everybody except for Dox(who was behind his impregnable force-field), Wildstar and Elu(who are both made entirely of energy). Before Starro can finish off Dox and his last two REBELS, the Omega Men arrive on the scene and shoot everybody full of quills containing the anti-Starro venom. However, the poison seems to have no effect, and Starro simply sends a few starfish at the Omega Men and enslave them as well. With his forces completely under Starro's control, Dox offers himself in exchange for Starro allowing Wildstar and Elu to go free. Dox puts his force-field down, and Starro grabs him by the throat in order to gloat a bit, because that's what any good super-villain would do! Before Starro can pop Dox's head off, Dox tells Starro that he happened to notice that when the Omega Men fired their quills, they only hit one starfish(the rest of the shots hit arms and legs of people), and that that starfish had died from the poison. With that, Dox pulls one of the quills out of Starro's arm and jabs it into the giant starfish on Starro's chest, which breaks Starro's hold over all of his slaves in all 9 galaxies he was under control of, as well as greatly diminishing his power. Before Starro can continue the fight, Despero grabs a hold of Starro, and restrains him, ending his threat. With Starro and his starfish army FINALLY defeated, Dox sends a transmission out to all of the planets which were taken over by Starro and tells them that he was responsible for saving them, and that he'd be organizing ways to assist them with getting back on their feet after their time as Starro's slaves. He ends the transmission by announcing that he would be reestablishing his LEGION peacekeeping force, and that he'd be getting in contact with the leaders of the worlds he assisted in order to discuss reparation... HA! This issue ends with Adam Strange deciding to stick around the REBELS for the time being in order to make sure Dox didn't take advantage of any of the newly freed planets.

Of course I liked this one! After 15 parts, the whole Starro story is over... While the end came kind of... easy I guess, I was still pleased with the overall story here. These past 14 issues(plus the 1 annual)have really led me to become a huge fan of the characters in this book, to the point where I've been collecting all of the past LEGION/REBELS comic series. The next few issues should deal with Dox and his now bigger then ever ego after ending the threat of Starro, and the more Dox we get in this series, the better this series will become which is a GREAT thing! I'm eagerly looking forward to the next few issues to see where things go from here. Long Live The REBELS!

Score: 9 out of 10.Hmm, I've heard people talk about poking their eye out, but I've never actually seen it happen...

Captain America #603, Dark Wolverine #83 & Dark X-Men #4

Wow, it's already the first day of March... Nothing too exciting going on with me, I ordered a bunch of comics I didn't need earlier today, comics I probably won't get around to reading for months, but what else is new? Oh yeah, in other comic book related news, it seems Superman has already been dethroned... Who took his place? Why Batman of course! Since I'm going to bet most of you have NO idea what I'm babbling about, click here and all will be revealed to you. I'll be checking out a couple of my favorite Marvel comics tonight, but fear not DC faithful, over at my other blog(which you can conveniently find here)I'll be starting Wonder Woman week up. All right, enough talk, let's get to the reviews! Now with extra X-Man!

Captain America #603: Writer: Ed Brubaker. Pencils: Luke Ross.

We open by reliving some of the life of Bad Cap, and get into what's bothering him about America(it's not the 1950's anymore!). Bad Cap gets updated by some of his Watchdogs as to how Bucky's training is progressing, and the Watchdogs tell Bad Cap that it seems Bucky is deliberately trying to downplay his skills, which just confirms Bucky's identity to Bad Cap. We get a quick scene showing Bucky and Falcon attacking a few of the Watchdogs(I guess so we know Falcon is still hanging around)before we head back to Bucky's Watchdog training sessions. Bucky decides to make his move late one night, and he sneaks into Bad Cap's command tent in order to try to figure out what Bad Cap's plan was, but he is surprised to find Bad Cap standing there waiting for him. Bucky attacks and trounces Bad Cap, which causes Bucky to realize that he wasn't fighting the real Bad Cap, just a lookalike. Bucky figures out that Bad Cap must be after Falcon, and rushes out of the tent, only to be met by at least 50 Watchdogs training their guns on him. Falcon is returning to his hotel room, when he is confronted by several Watchdogs, which causes him to try to take the fight outside. Before getting outside, Falcon runs into Bad Cap, who pretty much beats the living hell out of Falcon, leaving him lying in the street. This issue ends with one of the Watchdogs, a scientist, telling Bad Cap that they should return Falcon to their base so they could remove the Vibranium from Falcon's wing systems, which they could then use to create a devastatingly powerful bomb.

This was a pretty good comic. The story is moving along at a brisk pace, and we now know what Bad Cap's plan is(creating a mega-powerful Vibranium bomb). This was definitely a set-up issue, but it does a good job of making Bad Cap and his Watchdogs look very strong, setting up for what should be an explosive confrontation between Bad Cap and Bucky down the road.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.How can't you like a character whose idea of a battle plan is, "Rush in and get captured."?

Dark Wolverine #83: Writers: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu. Pencils: Giuseppe Camuncoli.

This issue picks up directly where last issue left off, with Daken killing Norman Osborn during the Siege of Asgard. Daken taunts Osborn's corpse for a while, before he is interrupted by three strange women who claim to be Asgardian Fates. The Fates tell Daken that he really hadn't killed Osborn, he had only imagined it, which is what drew them to him. They then talk cryptically and disappear, leaving Daken standing next to the alive and well Osborn feeling pretty confused... Oh boy, it's going to be one of THOSE comics... Osborn gets annoyed by Daken's inattention and sends him to hunt down Thor as a punishment. Daken finds Thor, and before anything can happen, he is pulled out of reality by the Fates, who explain that they want to create Ragnarok, and that they feel Daken is the human who would be able to cause that event to occur. Daken gets pissed that the Fates are trying to use him to do their bidding, and he warns them that if he was to bring about Ragnarok, it would be on his terms, not theirs. Upset by Daken, the Fates disappear, and Daken gets sent back to his body, which had been charbroiled by Thor's lightning. As Daken regains consciousness, he spots Osborn flying around in the sky above him, which angers Daken. This issue ends with the Fates, who are still miffed about Daken's actions towards them, deciding to punish Daken by forcing him to live through his greatest fear.

Well, the streak is over! The last two issues of Dark Wolverine had gotten 10 out of 10's from me, and although this issue was good, it certainly wasn't a perfect comic book. I'm obviously not surprised that Daken imagined killing Osborn, because like I said last issue, there is NO way Marvel was going to kill Osborn off in an issue of Dark Wolverine. When and if Osborn goes, it will be in the main Siege mini-series, not an x-over issue. Although not perfect anymore, I'd still consider this series among Marvel's best titles, hands down.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yeah, I've said it before, but I think I should say it again, Daken is one hell of a great character.

Dark X-Men #4(of 5): Writer: Paul Cornell. Pencils: Leonard Kirk.

This issue begins with Nate Grey(who is currently in possession of Norman Osborn's body)telling Mystique that he wouldn't be bowing down to her demands. Nate tells Mystique that he'd consider helping her remove the bomb Osborn implanted in her head only if she proved herself to him by redeeming herself. While the two are talking, Osborn momentarily regains control of his body, but is swiftly replaced by Nate. Nate explains that he has a lot of work ahead of him as he decides that he is going to try to right all of Osborn's wrongs, and as such, he tells Mystique that if she were to run away, he wouldn't try to stop her. Instead of running away, Mystique decides to alert her fellow Dark X-Men as to what has transpired, and they all begin to panic at the prospect of Nate controlling things. Ultimately, Mystique calms them down long enough for her to reveal her plan to them. What is that plan? I'll get back to that in a bit. We next go inside the mind of Norman Osborn, where he and Nate are having an arm wrestling contest to determine who would take control of Osborn's body... Yeah, really! Osborn explains to Nate that he doesn't need to defeat him, only stalemate him long enough for somebody to figure out what had happened, so that one of Osborn's many colleagues could eject Nate from his brain. While that is going on, Mystique and the Dark X-Men head to the Psi-division of HAMMER and with the help of one of HAMMER's telepaths, the Dark X-Men enter the astral plane in search of Osborn's mind. Back in Osborn's mind, Osborn begins to get the upper-hand on Nate, but surprisingly, Nate doesn't seem at all bothered by that, in fact, he informs Osborn that everything was going exactly as he had planned... The Dark X-Men find Osborn's mind, and arrive in a large dungeon, which is where they assume Nate had trapped Osborn's consciousness. Osborn begins to panic, as he realizes where the Dark X-Men were, and Nate takes advantage of Osborn's panic by pressing his attack. This issue ends with the Dark X-Men breaking open a large locked door in Osborn's mind revealing his Green Goblin persona!

Yet another very good comic book! I've been pretty lucky with the books I've been reading as of late! This issue was a little bit more comedic then the last three issues(Nate and Osborn arm wrestling to see who would have control of Osborn's body?!?), but that didn't take away from the story at all. All of the important characters(Nate, Osborn, Mystique and Dark Beast)were all acting perfectly in character, which is always a major plus, and the art and story blended together nicely. All in all, I have no major complaints. Now, with only one more issue left, I have to wonder what will become of my favorite character upon the end of this mini-series... As of right now, I'm going to guess that Nate gets ejected from Osborn's mind, and ends up returning to the astral plane as dissipated energy again. If that were to happen, I can't say I'd be overly disappointed, because if Nate was able to return to life once from that state, there's no reason to believe he wouldn't be able to do it again. In a perfect world, this mini would end with Nate leaving Osborn's body, creating a new body for himself and leaving with the Dark X-Men, although with Mystique's actions this issue, I think that would be a bit of a stretch. Regardless of what happens here, I can at least be happy with the fact that for at least 5 issues, Nate Grey was alive and kicking ass again, which is all I ever really wanted...

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.You know, I'm really going to miss this mini-series when it ends... Where else can I read about Norman Osborn and Nate Grey having an arm wrestling contest?

Dark X-Men #3 & Blackest Night Starman #81!

Thankfully my package of comic books arrived in the mail today, giving me something to review tonight. First off, I have to say, this was one hell of a good haul! Besides the two books I'm checking out tonight, I also have REBELS #12, Streets of Gotham #8, Batgirl #6, Blackest Night Catwoman #83 and several other really good books waiting in the wings! This should be a really good week of comic book reading for me. But before I get to those books, I have Dark X-Men #3 and Starman #81 to get to first... My all-time favorite comic book character appears in Dark X-Men and my all-time favorite comic book series gets resurrected in Starman... I literally feel like a kid on Christmas morning looking at the covers of these two comic books! I'm giddy with anticipation! Alright, enough hype, it's time to dig in!

Dark X-Men #3(of 5): Writer: Paul Cornell. Pencils: Leonard Kirk.

This issue begins with X-Man(Nate Grey)breaking into Avengers Tower to confront Norman "Marvel" Osborn about the way he's been running the Marvel Universe since Nate's "death". Upon entering the building, Nate runs into Venom, and makes quick work of him. The Dark X-Men arrive on the scene and are surprised to learn that Nate's attack coincided with their arrival at Avengers Tower. Mystique is ready to go rushing into the fight, but the other members of the team aren't exactly chomping at the bit. Omega is afraid that he may begin to absorb Nate's powers, which wouldn't be a good thing for Omega's mind, Mimic wants to get close enough to Nate to take his powers so he can sample Nate's precognitive abilities, while Dark Beast would rather just observe the fight from the sidelines, which is exactly what the team decides to do. With Venom down and out, Osborn and the entire Dark Avengers team confronts Nate. Right off the bat, Nate tricks Sentry into leaving the battle, thus removing Osborn's most powerful weapon from the battlefield. Nate then offers the Dark Avengers the opportunity to join with him to oppose Osborn, but Ares and the rest of the Dark Avengers decide to take the battle to Nate. While Nate battles the Dark Avengers, the Dark X-Men watch the battle unfold from the sidelines and debate what course of action they should take. Unfortunately for Omega, he gets too close to the fight and begins to absorb Nate's massive powers, going temporarily insane in the process. Omega crashes into Nate and Ares, which gives Bullseye enough time to pull a knife with the intention of killing Nate off, once and for all. Mimic, still wanting to use Nate's powers, knocks the knife away from Bullseye and grabs a hold of Nate, duplicating his powers. Before Nate's powers can overwhelm Mimic, Nate steps outside of time with Mimic and the two discuss whether or not the future that Mimic saw when he first used Nate's powers(back in Dark X-Men #1)could be changed. Before Nate could fully answer the question, they are interrupted by Ares, who as a god is able to follow them outside the time stream. Ares gains the upper hand, and Nate returns the three of them to the present. Nate collapses to the floor upon returning to the proper time period, which upsets Mimic since he never received the answer to his question about the future. Osborn walks over to investigate Nate's body, but it explodes in a fireball of psionic energy, leaving nothing but charred bones, and leaving Mystique quite upset. This issue ends with Osborn happily sitting in his office, pondering his next move. He is interrupted by Mystique, who reveals that she knows that Nate is currently occupying Osborn's body!

So far, so good! One of my greatest fears upon hearing that Nate was getting brought back to life in this series was that the writer would completely butcher his character and that the Nate Grey I loved reading about a few years ago would be totally and irreparably different. Three issues in, I've got to say, Paul's portrayal of Nate has been right on the money! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Nate hold his own against the Dark Avengers, and I was also impressed with the way this issue ended. As this mini heads towards its climax, there are a lot of interesting ways Paul can end things. I know I'll be eagerly anticipating the penultimate issue of this mini when it drops next month.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Take those losers apart Nate!

Blackest Night: Starman #81(!!!): Writer: James Robinson. Pencils: Fernando Dagnino.

This issue starts off with David Knight(the Starman immediately preceding Jack Knight)rising from his grave as a Black Lantern. BL Starman heads to the Starman museum and steals his old Cosmic Staff, transforming it into a Black Lantern Cosmic Staff(I guess). From there we head to the home of Opal City police officer Hope O'Dare and discover that she's been shacking up with the Shade(!). Shade wants to move their relationship from a sex thing to something deeper, but instead of answering the Shade, Hope realizes that the sky had turned pitch black. In the meantime, BL Starman is running rampant in the streets of Opal City, killing several police officers and citizens before running into Mason O'Dare, another member of the O'Dare police clan. Before BL Starman can kill Mason, he is saved by the timely arrival of his sister Hope and the Shade. Upon observing BL Starman, Shade realizes that whatever it is, it isn't the real David Knight, and that it is immensely powerful. Shade tells all of the cops and Opal citizens who were watching the battle to take refuge in the shadow realm which the Shade can access, but by taking his eyes off BL Starman, Shade's heart winds up getting torn out(!). A black lantern ring heads to the Shade, but before it affixes itself to him, he wakes up and throws BL Starman into the shadow realm, thus ridding Opal City of its menace. This issue concludes with Hope telling Shade that she thinks she loves him, but that she needs time to sort her feelings out, which Shade is willing to give her, since time is something he has plenty of.

Hmm, I'm not really sure what to say here... I loved returning to Opal City with James, but there was something that kept me from really loving this comic. I smiled with every little tidbit of information James revealed about what had been occurring in Opal since the end of the Starman series, but I have to say, there was a part of me that was absolutely disappointed by the fact that Jack Knight himself didn't actually show up. Not only that, but we really didn't find out any pertinent information about Jack... Sure, James gave a glimpse as to what the Shade, Bobo Bennetti, the O'Dare's and others had been up to, but there was precious little news about Jack. While the lack of Jack did hurt this comic a bit, I was quite pleased to see the Shade(probably my favorite Starman character besides Jack)get the starring role in this one. While I'm not quite sure what I think of Shade's relationship with Hope(I've still got to sort THAT out in my head!), it was nice to see the Shade continue his trend of helping Opal City out whenever it was in crisis. Reading this comic was kind of bittersweet, for me anyway. Like I said in the intro(oh so long ago it seems!), Starman isn't one of my favorite series, it IS my favorite series. Ever. While it was nice getting to reminisce a bit about the awesomeness that was the Starman series, it was a bit of a letdown as well. In the end this was a good comic, but it was never able to recapture the magic that the Starman series had. At least that's what I thought.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.THAT'S not a good sign!

Dark X-Men #2(of 5)

Writer: Paul Cornell. Pencils: Leonard Kirk.

What Happened: Picking up from last issue, X-Man(Nate Grey)manages to pull himself together long enough to realize he's standing in a room with his arch-foe, Dark Beast, and Mystique, who has taken the form of his mother, Jean Grey. Nate immediately attacks Dark Beast, and Mystique(as Jean)tries to reason with Nate. While Mystique is talking with Nate, he ends up dissipating into energy again and disappearing. Dark Beast and Mystique collect the other members of the team and report back to their leader, Norman "Marvel" Osborn. Osborn decides that if left free Nate is too great a threat to his plans, so he decides to send the Dark X-Men to capture Nate. Once captured, Osborn can then place Nate inside the Omega Machine, where he will permanently power Omega. Upon leaving the meeting with Osborn, Mystique tries to convince first Omega, and then Mimic that they should help Nate as opposed to capturing him. Mystique figures Nate would be able to remove the implant Osborn had placed in her head in order to keep her under his thumb. However, neither man is receptive to Mystique's plan. Osborn gathers a whole slew of non-mutant humans with psionic abilities and tells the Dark X-Men to use them to discover where Nate will next strike, so they can lay a trap. The leader of the psionics reaches onto the astral plane in an attempt to locate Nate's consciousness, but winds up getting himself and all of his followers drained of their mental abilities. This issue ends with Dark Beast using the brain of one of the psionics to get a glimpse of Nate. The Dark X-Men discover, much to their chagrin, that Nate is now fully aware of what happened in the Marvel Universe during his absence, and he is none to happy about it!

What I Thought: First off, before I go any further, I have to laugh, because Nate's reaction to the current direction the Marvel Universe has taken mirrors my own feelings! See, there IS a reason I selected X-Man75 as my blogging name! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this issue, as I'm sure most people who know me knew I would. Nate was his regular impulsive, anger prone self, and Paul mentioned that Nate's powers rivaled that of the Sentry, which definitely put a huge smile on my face. I'm glad Paul did his homework on Nate before deciding to bring him back. Although many Marvel fans probably don't realize it, Nate is one of the most powerful beings in all of the Marvel Universe. Fanboy gushing aside, this was a very well done comic book, with a few different storylines now getting underway. Will the Dark X-Men manage to capture Nate? Will Mystique betray the team and join up with Nate? What part(if any)will the X-Men play in this mini-series? Considering this is only the second part of this mini, I'm VERY happy with the way things have gone thus far. Thank you Paul, keep up the good work!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Hey, most of the time I scream the exact same thing after reading a Marvel comic book!

I Love Dark X-Men #1(of 5)!!!

Writer: Paul Cornell. Pencils: Leonard Kirk.

What Happened: We begin this issue with a bunch of Californians wandering around in a trance repeating "I'm an X-Man". Before the seemingly hypnotised people wander off a cliff, they all wind up regaining their senses, with little memory as to what they were doing. Needless to say, Norman "Marvel" Osborn isn't exactly overjoyed to hear this news, since he feels his Dark X-Men are the only true X-Men, not a bunch of whacked out Californians. In order to both calm the public and discover what was going on, Osborn orders his Dark X-Men to head out to Cali and get to the bottom of this weirdness. The Dark X-Men, who consist of Dark Beast, Omega, Mimic and Mystique(who has morphed herself into Jean Grey!), fly out to California and head to the hospital where these formerly entranced people were being held for observation. The Dark X-Men visit one of the wanderers, and he claims to have no memory of what he was doing. Neither Mimic nor Omega believe the guy is a mutant, or their own powers would have activated. Before Mystique can begin to question the man, Dark Beast sprays him with a drug that puts the man in a trace and guarantees he'll answer any questions he's asked truthfully. Once the man is drugged, he suddenly recognizes the Dark X-Men and Omega begins to absorb vast powers from the guy. The amount of power Omega takes in is too much for him to contain, so he flies through the roof of the hospital and starts to run amok. Mimic begins to copy the ability of precognition from the formerly powerless man, and upon seeing a bleak vision of his own future, Mimic falls into a funk. Mystique orders Mimic to stop Omega before he kills anybody outside, but Mimic, now despondent refuses to go, so Dark Beast sprays Mimic with a drug cocktail that makes him extremely aggressive. The now half crazed Mimic chases after the drunk with power Omega and the two begin to tear into each other, as well as the area around the hospital. While Dark Beast and Mystique argue over what to do about the other two members of the team, as well as the guy in the bed who caused the mess, massive amounts of energy begins to seep out of the man, taking a humanoid form. The energy figure immediately recognizes Dark Beast from "home", as well as Mystique, who it refers to as "mother". Mystique is clueless as to what's going on, but Dark Beast slowly begins to figure out the identity of the energy being, and he is none too pleased. This issue ends with the energy being managing to pull itself together, turning out to be the greatest character in the history of comic books, Nate Grey!!!

What I Thought: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh... That is the sound of me being completely and totally satisfied. Where do I even begin? I guess with the obvious. I am THE biggest X-Man(Nate Grey)fan on the face of this(or any other)planet. It's true. I proudly own every single comic book, trading card, action figure and video game that has ever featured Nate. Going in to this comic, I knew Nate was going to return, it wasn't exactly a state secret, but actually getting to see/read Nate's return with my own two eyes was an almost indescribable experience. I can honestly say that I am now at peace. Now, with my fanboy gushing over with(for now), I should probably say something about the actual story in this comic. The story was very good. It made sense, Paul took some time to give the readers a quick overview of who these Dark X-Men are, and there wasn't anything here that I can point at and say, "I didn't like that". Likewise, the art was very well done. I still don't care for Mimic and Omega, but I have always been a fan of Mystique, and a very big fan of Dark Beast, so for me, the team balances out nicely. Now, this is usually the part of the review where I post my score. Being purely impartial, I'd probably score this comic around an 8. However, I'm not an impartial person. And since I'm NOT impartial, and this is my blog, to do with what I please, I'm going to score this comic a tad bit higher then an 8...

Score: 10 out of 10! Come on, that score really shouldn't surprise anyone!No, I'm an X-Man!