Jean Grey

Extraordinary X-Men #1 will probably be seen as energetically drawn and colored sacrilege by both long time X-Men fans and ones, who jumped on with Bendis’ work. And for new fans, it’s darkness for darkness’ sake as the X-Men’s outsider metaphor is drowned out by the Inhumans and turned into yet another post-apocalyptic story. Lemire also makes a few stumbles in his plotting, like having characters tell about an upcoming mystery involving Cyclops and a cure for mutant disease instead of seeding compelling visual clues or starting to build arcs for characters. And his final page cliffhanger, which was probably meant to be the triumphant return of a “dead” X-Men, falls flat because it already happened in a Secret Wars tie-in. This is one is probably on editorial though. Even though Humberto Ramos’ manga influenced, yet wide-screen art adds some pep to the X-Men’s powers and fight scenes to go along with Edgar Delgado’s bold color palette, Extraordinary X-Men #1 is a misstep for the franchise in plotting, themes, and characterization.

Ultimate X-Men #7-9 goes for a more political look at the well-worn “mutant as a metaphor for oppressed minorities” story by making the formerly shady Weapon X folks completely aligned with the US government even if members of the government and military want to shut them down.

With a dose of political satire, some soaring team-up action grounded in character moments (Storm struggling with her power; Quicksilver’s daddy issues; Wolverine the reformed assassin), and a robust arc for Cyclops, Ultimate X-Men #4-6 is definitely an improvement over the preceding three issues. The “death” of Beast is a cheap storytelling ploy, and I am still skeezed out from Wolverine’s sexual liaison with Jean Grey, but Millar and the Kuberts end this first arc on a triumphant, if dark note albeit with some skeletons in the closet waiting to be brought out for the following “Return to Weapon X” storyline.

Mark Millar and Adam Kubert’s work on Ultimate X-Men #1-3 really is the blockbuster action take on the X-Men, but there is enough flashes of characterization, pretty layouts (Not so much those ugly leather costumes.), and clever twists like Wolverine being a bona fide villain and Colossus’ old crime boss supplying Magneto with a nuke. It’s not a particularly deep comic and scratches the surface of the idea of “post-humanism”, but Ultimate X-Men #1-3 is adequate popcorn entertainment, which led to it selling like hotcakes. (Ultimate X-Men #1 was the number one book in December 2000 with 117,085 copies, and issues 2 and 3 stayed in the top 3 with numbers around the 90,000 range.)

All-New X-Men #31 Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by Mahmud Asrar Colored by Marte Gracia and Jason Keith Published by Marvel One of Brian Michael Bendis’ unique gifts as a writer is crafting believable teenage dialogue. This can mostly be seen in his 14 year run on Ultimate Spider-Man, but he also uses it to great effect in All-New X-Men. …

First Appearance X-Men #1, September 1963 Nicknames and Aliases Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, Red, Redd Dayspring Powers and Abilities Jean is a mutant born with tremendous telepathic and telekinetic abilities, enabling her to read and control minds, project her thoughts, enter the Astral Plane, mentally lift and move objects, and fly by levitating herself, …

All New X-Men #23 Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by Stuart Immonen & Wade Von Grawbadger Colors by Marte Garcia, Letters by VC’s Cory Petit Standard Cover by Immonen, Grawbadger & Garcia Published by Marvel Comics After what amounted to essentially two “part ones”, it’s a relief to finally get a chapter of this …

“Once upon a time, there was a woman named Jean Grey, a man named Scott Summers. They were young. They were in love. They were heroes.” – Narration from Uncanny X-Men #137 by Chris Claremont & John Byrne For over thirty years, Scott Summers and Jean Grey, Cyclops and Jean Grey nee Phoenix nee Marvel …

Guardians of the Galaxy #11.NOW Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by Sara Pichelli Colors by Justin Ponsor Letters by VC’s Cory Petit Cover By Sara Pichelli & Justin Ponsor Published by Marvel Comics All New X-Men #22 ended with the X-Men, shortly after Jean Grey was captured by the Shi’ar, approaching a spaceship from …

All New X-Men #22.NOW Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by Stuart Immonen & Wade Von Grawbadger Colors by Marte Gracia Cover by Immonen, Grawbadger & Gracia Published by Marvel Comics The premise of All New X-Men is one of the all time great “bad on paper, good in execution” premises: the original teenaged X-Men …

New X-Men #114-116 Writer: Grant Morrison Penciller: Frank Quitely Inker: Tim Townsend (114-115), Mark Morales (115-116), Dan Green (116) Colorist: Brian Haberlin (114-115), Hi-Fi (115-116) Publisher: Marvel Comics In 2001, the X-Men were both everywhere and nowhere. Bryan Singer’s X-Men film had been released the previous year and was a commercial and critical success. It showed that superhero films …

  Uncanny X-Men 108-109, 111-143 (1977-1981) Writer: Chris Claremont Penciller/Co-plotter: John Byrne Inker: Terry Austin, Colorist: Glynis Wein Publisher: Marvel Along with Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil, Chris Claremont’ work on Uncanny X-Men during the late 1970s and 1980s was the most innovative and creative Marvel Comics title. But the comic was at its peak of brilliance when …

X-Men Battle of the Atom #2 Writer: Jason Aaron Pencillers: Esad Ribic and Giuseppe Camuncoli Finishes: Andrew Currie and Tom Palmer Colorists: Ive Svorcina, Andres Mossa, and Guru eFX Publisher: Marvel There are lots of cooks in the Battle of the Atom kitchen which has four epilogues and a total of ten pencillers/inkers/finishers working on the …

Wolverine and the X-Men #36 Writer: Jason Aaron Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli and Andrew Currie Colorist: Matt Milla with Edgar Delgado Publisher: Marvel Comics The brilliant thing that Brian Michael Bendis did with All New X-Men is to make our presenttime the dystopian “Days of Future Past” for the original X-Men. Today is the future that young …