SPOILERS: Wolverine and the X-Men # 40

Here's the most important part that happened over at Marvel Comics' Wolverine and the X-Men book this month WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN # 40 by Jason Aaron and Pepe Laraz.

So, Wolverine and Cyclops successfully dismantle a S.H.I.E.L.D. base contain mutant-killing sentinels. They get banged up pretty bad and Wolverine scouts for medical supplies while Scott Summers looks on. Fortunately for these two X-Men leaders, Logan also spots a hidden cache of beer. Boxes and boxes full of beer. Which leads to this lengthy conversation between the two.

Taken out of context, this could be fanfic material for Scott and Logan shippers

I like the fact that Wolverine knows how things were and there's an implication that he want things to go back to what they used to be pre-Schism. Logan however is still a sanctimonious dick as a character because he refuses to admit that Cyclops was taken over and influenced by the Dark Phoenix force back in AVX when he kills Charles Xavier.

Wolverine is right however that Cyclops is not seeing it all throughout and Cyke's right about a lot of things about Logan too. There's an old saying that the first road to a full recovery, especially in alcoholics and depressed people is accepting the fact that they are broken or f*cked up. This issue has the two dealing with it and though we're still not seeing a full Scott-Logan bromance here, we can definitely say that we are on the road to a unified X-Men soon.

Oh and there's also a subplot in this issue between the SHIELD spies sent to infiltrate JGH and Aaron's students. But that's not really important for this writer.

Wolverine and the X-Men # 40 is out now.

Wolverine and the X-Men Relaunched with Latour and Asrar

It's official. Wolverine and the X-Men will be ending and then get relaunched (yeah, I know right?!) with a new creative team. Filling in Jason Aaron's shoe is Jason Latour who will be relaunching the title with Mahmud Asrar.

The new volume remains the same with the previous volume with a couple of new addition such as new professor Fantomex (who's practically Genesis' dad).

IGN has a longer interview with Latour on what on plans for this new volume. Oh and for fans of Quintin Quire, you'll be happy to know that he'll be playing a bigger role in this book. Check out the covers below:

Latour's a pretty nifty writer so I'm definitely onboard this new volume under the All New Marvel Now imprint.

SPOILERS - Who Defects After X-Men: Battle of the Atom

Just like that X-Men: Battle of the Atom is done, we got a lot of good moments from this book but for me I still feel it's lacking. Still, the best treats are the ones at the end, the sweet payoff here for X-Men: Battle of the Atom # 2 comes in a defector.

So what happens is the two X-Men teams band together as they protect themselves from SHIELD, including SHIELD sentinels.

Old Future Xorn Jean tries to fight but goes 'boom'. The evil Xavier and the rest of the Brotherhood have scattered. Back in the Jean Grey School, we get two prologues. One written by Jason Aaron and the other done by Brian Michael Bendis. 

NOOOOOO! Don't leave us!!!



Double NOOOOOOOOO! Even the O5 X-Men!!! What's going to happen to All New X-Men now???

Let's scratch that as a big win for Team Summers. Although, this particular page gave X-Men fans a glimmer of hope.

Well, at least it really did shake the status quo...

Also, I wonder what's going to happen to the time displaced Brotherhood of Evil Mutants members like Beast and Xavier's grandson??

ALL NEW X-MEN # 16 Spoilers

Part 2 for X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM by Bendis and Immonen. 

This post has a doozie of a spoiler. Thread carefully. Oh and here's the link to Part 1 (LINK) 

One of the biggest shockers here in this issue comes in the form of WHO'S UNDER THE XORN MASK.

And then BOOM!



This part of the issue made me want to go all Wolverine and shout "JEANNNNNNNN!"

So yeah, it looks like the whole weirdness happened due to that brief moment in the field where Cyclops died. In their future, with Cyclops dead, mutants did not stand a chance because they didn't have an able leader who made all the tough choices. Basically, the merry mutants world got royally screwed.

X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM # 1 Spoiler

So what's the main gist of this new X-Over "X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM"? Apparently it has something to do with Cyclops. Both of them.

Peel off the high concept battles of multiple X-Men teams, this is basically an in-continuity AGE OF APOCALYPSE but where AOA was a world without Charles Xavier, this crossover ells the story of a world without Cyclops leading the X-Men.

That would mean there's no Cyclops during stuff like Messiah Complex and Second Coming or even Schism and AVX. 

The whole thing starts with O5 Cyclops getting critically injured during a supposed recon mission with the remaining members of the team plus Kitty Pryde. That's of course after old Cyclops' Uncanny team appears out of nowhere for a well meaning assist against Sentinels.



Good thing for the fledgling teen team, their Uncanny counterparts brought along a healer...



Though no direct consequences appeared, the whole death and rebirth of Cyclops once again injured the timeline causing ripple effects plus it creeped out both versions of Scott Summers. Oh and can somebody give these guys a copy of BACK TO THE FUTURE.

Also does this mean that it's back to the Scott and Jean pairing and not that Hank-Jean pairing that was previously revealed a few weeks back.



The issue also ends with the appearance of a group of X-Men from the future:

which includes Deadpool, Beast, Molly from the Runaways, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Xorn and Charles Xavier's grandson. 

X-Men: Battle of the Atom # 1 is already out in stores now. It's written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Frank Cho.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN # 35 Spoilers - Nightcrawler Teaser

Jason Aaron's latest arc in WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN entitled "The Hellfire Saga" has ended and it brings some interesting twists and status quo changes.

Some of the things that happened in the final chapter of WAXM's "Hellfire Saga" arc.

Idie and Quintin Quire are finally a couple:



You may or may not like the pairing (I'm for the for the former) but you can't help but think that this was already revealed in an early issue of WATXM. It's only now that things have started to move towards that direction. Which could also mean that Evan/ Genesis becomes Apocalypse is getting closer.

Mystique and Sabretooth's Plan



We'll probably see more of the new Hellions when X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM officially begins next week. It'll also be cool to finally see what Creed and Raven are up to ever since ALL NEW X-MEN officially began.

BROO returns



Thanks to a familiar yet mysterious figure, we get Broo back. If you're unsure what happened to the little feller, he was shot in a makeshift Church by Max Frankenstein point blank. The X-Men stitched him back up but at the cost of Broo's intellect. An encounter with a blue Bamf however has made it certain that the returning Nightcrawler gets a good tease.

Amazing X-Men is definitely coming



One of the best things about this issue is the revelation that Kurt Wagner will be needing his fellow X-Men's help in the near future. Most probably when they deal with Kurt's resurrection as well as the fight with Kurt's daddy Azazel.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN # 35 is now out.

Marvel's Next Event Book will Focus on Apocalypse and Archangel

Bleedingcool reports that what's coming next year for Marvel Comics for their event book will revolve around the Celestials, Archangel, Apocalypse and more importantly, Magneto.

Obviously the writers for this project will be Jason Aaron (Wolverine and the X-Men) and Rick Remender (who did a lot for these characters back in the first volume of Uncanny X-Force; including "The Dark Angel Saga").

So it's probably time to start re-reading Remender's Uncanny run as well as the earlier issues of WATXM (you know, the one where Warren's gone off his rocker and believes that he's a real angel). Oh and the rumor site cited current Captain America and Kick-Ass artist John Romita Jr. as the book's main art guy.

Wolverine and the X-Men # 29 Spoilers - So Many Future Story Arc Teasers

This week's WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN # 29 just gave X-Fans hints of what's to come while at the same time nullifying (or cementing) certain events shown in the series. Onwards with the spoilers then.

Oh and spoiler alert.

Marvel Reveals X-Men: Battle of the Atom Crossover

With so many X-Men teams running around these days, it's bound to happen that they clash once more and it looks like we don't have to wait too long as Marvel Comics has revealed some details about the upcoming X-book crossover entitled "X-Men: Battle of the Atom".

The new book will begin with an # 1 book entitled "X-Men: Battle of the Atom # 1 which will feature art by Frank Cho. The story then travels to the existing X-books starting with Uncanny X-Men # 12 and # 13. The story then moves to All New X-Men # 16 - 17 followed by Wolverine and the X-Men # 36 - 37 climaxes with Brian Wood's X-Men # 5 -6 before ending with Battle of the Atom # 2.

So we've basically got all bases covered and just to make things interesting (or complicated) Marvel also revealed new characters from the future including:

Wolverine and the X-Men # 25 Spoilers

Here's a quick spoiler for you from this week's Wolverine and the X-Men # 25 by Jason Aaron and Ramon Perez.

In this issue, we get to see the students of the JGSHL trying to survive in the Savage Land. There's also a sideplot about Dog Logan now making a move against his brother Wolverine. 

Wood and Coipel Reel in the Beauties in X-Men # 1

The adjectiveless X-Men book pretty much became Brian Wood's baby once he took over the writing duties from former writer Victor Gischler and come April, he'll be weaving this same magic for X-Men together with artist Olivier Coipel.

This actually spells awesome as they've got a 'crossover' team for it's roster. We have Storm and Psylocke from "Uncanny X-Force" together with "Wolverine and the X-Men" cast Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey aka Marvel Girl and Rogue (who also happens to be part of Uncanny Avengers). And then there's Jubilee who's been visibly absent for awhile (ever since she decided to run for a bit with the Forgiven). 

There's also the story...

Wolverine and the X-Men # 23 - the Hellfire School Begins

I'm interested in what Jason Aaron has in store for Wolverine and the X-Men. His current story arc featuring Frankenstein's monster and his murderous circus squaring off against the X-Men in Wolverine and the X-Men # 23.

More spoilers after the cut and a surprise villain returns.

Why Are the Avengers Hanging Around the Jean Grey School?

A new preview for an upcoming issue of Wolverine and the X-Men post- AVX (Avengers vs X-Men) shows the Avengers hanging around the JGHSL.

Now only that but we also get to see Broo and our favorite mutant students for the Jean Grey School.

Adam Kubert Variant for AVX # 8 and Preview for Wolverine and the X-Men # 12

Official Press Release

Marvel is proud to present your first look at legendary artist Adam Kubert’s variant cover to Avengers Vs. X-Men #8 – featuring the Phoenix Five! Now that the Cyclops has declared “No More Avengers”, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are on the run! The chase comes to a head in Wakanda, as the sovereign nation becomes the target of an out-of-control Namor! Will the onslaught of the powered-up Sub-Mariner overwhelm the Avengers? The answer – and a shocking truth about the X-Men – are revealed this July courtesy of Brian Bendis and Adam Kubert in Avengers Vs. X-Men #8, exploding into comic shops everywhere, the Marvel Comics app and the Marvel Digital Comics Shop this July.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #8 (MAY120643)
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #8 KUBERT VARIANT (APR128210)
Written by BRIAN BENDIS
Penciled by ADAM KUBERT
Cover by JIM CHEUNG
Variant Cover by ADAM KUBERT
FOC – 6/25/2012, On-Sale – 7/18/2012

Oh that is awful. Of course they won't be killing off Captain America but it does show how much power these guys have. In fact he's got so much power that he actually poses with Captain America's shield on one hand and Mjolnir on the other.

Before this week ended we also got treated to a preview for Wolverine and the X-Men # 12

Wolverine and the X-Men # 13 Preview

Here's a preview for the Wolverine and the X-Men # 13 by Jason Aaron and Nick Bradshaw

Marvel is pleased to present your first look at Wolverine & the X-Men #13! They've helped fight the Phoenix before, and this July – the Imperial Guard brings the might of the Shi'Ar army to Earth to take on the Phoenix Five! With his son caught in the crossfire, Gladiator must take matters into his own hands to save him. The blockbuster creative team of writer Jason Aaron and artist Nick Bradshaw bring you high-stakes action AND the secret history of Warbird in Wolverine & the X-Men #13, coming to comic shops everywhere, the Marvel Comics app and the Marvel Digital Comics Shop this July.

WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #13 (MAY120655)
Written by JASON AARON
Pencils and Cover by NICK BRADSHAW
FOC – 6/18/2012, On Sale – 7/11/2012

Red Sonja Makes a Cameo in Wolverine and the X-Men

Leave it to Chris Bachalo and Jason Aaron to insert a random but cool cameo in the opening page of their hit book Wolverine and the X-Men in the form of Red Sonja.

I discovered this little tidbit while backreading my old comic book stash so yeah...

Here's the cover for Wolverine and the X-Men # 9 if you've already forgotten...

In the scene where Red Sonja appeared, a bunch of aliens are seen betting on the planets which will be destroyed by The Phoenix force and we get to see a bit of the She-Devil.

Kid Apocalypse aka Genesis and his Superman Allusions

Wolverine and the X-Men # 10 had a lot of book changing moments [do check out my Wolverine and the X-Men # 10 Spoilers] but there was certainly something on that comic book that I felt needed to be discussed on a separate blog post.

This has got to do with Kid Apocalypse aka Genesis who is now a student at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

In issue # 10 we get to see the burgeonign relationship of Evan and Archangel who is still convinced that he is an angel and not a mutant. This issue also yet again showed allusions to Superman thanks to the Evan's rescue of Warren.

Oh Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo must have had a good time doing this particular page. Rick Remender might have been even laughing at this segment. Still, its a particularly great looking imagery. Hopefully Marvel doesn't misuse or abuse this character. He'll make a lot of interesting stories in the future if the House of Ideas plays their cards right.

More images after the cut...