Uncanny X-Men # 19 - Where is Dazzler?

Dazzler's been missing in action for quite some time now being replaced by Mystique to further her agenda against the human race. But the pressing concern most X-Fans are asking is "Where is Dazzler". The preview for Uncanny X-Men # 19 gives us an idea.

SOLICIT:   The next stage in humankind is here, and the Uncanny X-Men are leading the way! With original X-Man Cyclops at the revolution's helm, Emma Frost, Magik and a new generation of mutants defend and educate all homo-superior as warriors of the atom!

But after relentless persecution from a society that fears and hates them, the Uncanny X-Men are going on the offensive! Their target? The international spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D! However, as Cyclops' team fights to save their species, are they only digging themselves into a deeper and more dangerous hole?

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

 

And we all have to thank Comicvine.com for sharing this first. 

So there we go, apparently, Mystique's gotten hold of poor Alison Blaire and is masquerading as the former in order to do whatever the hell she wants. Additional comment here, I kinda hate the way Chris Bachalo does Sabretooth. The guy's a killer and yet he looks like a good guy. 

The book comes out March 19, 2014.

Historical Look at the X-Men Part 2

Hey kids, here's part 2 of our historical look at the different X-Men teams that came out. Click HERE if you have to read Part 1.This one starts from after the Onslaught saga (where Xavier becomes the bad guy) all the way the Grant Morrison and his New X-Men team.

Operation Zero Tolerance-era

Ah pretty good times. Since Xavier surrendered to US authorities after the Oslaught incident, the X-Men had become adrift. Some members left the others stayed. Cannonball officially makes it as an X-Man and had some beef with Storm for awhile.

Shiar versus Phalanx

Another group of X-Men with Rogue, Gambit and the mysterious Joseph were recruited to space to help the Shiar fight the invading Phalanx.

Search for Xavier and Magneto Rex

I still have this issue (Uncanny X-Men # 360 and X-Men # 80 to be exact), actually, this was when I really got hooked into collecting comic books. Good times, and they had Chris Bachalo and Brandon Peterson in each book so they had a strong pretty strong line up both creatively and in the books. A couple of additions here and there as this era hit a fever pitch. They later added in Cyclops, Gambit, Jean, Angel, Iceman and Beast in the mix. The start of the era had the original five building their own lives too. This era ended with The Twelve storyline which 'killed' Cyclops for awhile.

Chris Claremont's Return

It's the return to the two teams for the X-Men. Uncanny had Jean Grey, Cable, Storm, Gambit and Beast. Rogue assumes leadership for 'X-Men' with Thunderbird II (Neal Shaara, former boyfriend of Karima Shapandar aka Omega Sentinel), Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Archangel, Wolverine, and Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde). Oh and there was a plot that 'shipped' Colossus with Rogue too. X-Men of course had Leinil Yu and focused on the X-Men battling the Neo.

Jean Grey's Emergency X-Men

As a response to the Magneto's rise to power (again) the newly returned Cyclops (he had bonded with Apocalypse for awhile) and Wolverine infiltrated Genosha. They get into a pinch and they get rescued by Jean Grey and her quick response team of mutants including Northstar.

New X-Men

Marvel decided to go a different route for the X-Men by the early parts of 2000. Grant Morrison ascends and converts adjectiveless to 'New X-Men'. He picks a tiny cast which includes Professor X, a cat-like Beast, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Wolverine and Emma Frost. Later additions to the team included Xorn who also becomes a faculty member. Of course Xorn turns out to be a traitor (Magneto in disguise and kills Jean after holding New York as hostage). It was also this time that Wolverine discovers that Weapon X is just part of the mysterious Weapon Plus program and it's also the first appearance of Fantomex.

Creators: Frank Quitely, Ethan Van Sciver, Marc Silvestri and Igor Kordey

Uncanny X-Men aka X-Corps

Nightcrawler also leads his own team of X-Men with Wolverine, Stacy X, Iceman, Angel, Chamber. Later additions include Juggernaut and Northstar. The team fought the Church of Humanity which crucified Generation X members Skin and Jubilee. This was also the time that Nightcrawler had thought he had become a priest.

Key Creators: Ian Churchill, Sean Phillips

X-Treme X-Men

So what happened to the other X-Men that didn't go well with the revamp? Chris Claremont again writes them in a new ongoing and calls it X-Treme X-Men. Their mission is to collect Destiny's diaries to be able to tell what happens to the world or at least stop them from ever occurring. Sage officially joins the team together with some newblood. Still the book didn't keep too long. In fact, they even did something foolish, come up with a sequel to 'God Loves, Man Kills'. I mean yeah, provided you've got Claremont writing but c'mon....

By the end of the story arc 'HERE COMES TOMORROW' the X-Men pick up the pieces from Jean's death.

Astonishing X-Men

Post New X-Men, the team goes back to wearing 'super hero' costumes ditching the leather. Emma Frost and Scott Summers re-opens the school. Kitty Pryde returns to the fold. New enemies like Ord of the Breakworld and Danger also expand the mythos. New member in the form of Armor and some issues are opened in this title while Colossus returns from the dead. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday as creative team! This was also the team that was the face of the X-Men for awhile including during House of M.

Havok's Second Field Team

Chuck Austen's run on the X-Men made changes to the team. Havok is the leader, renews his relationship with a slightly crazy Polaris. Juggernaut defects to a new Brotherhood. Peter Milligan continues the crazy Polaris thread and turns Gambit into the new Horseman of Death. Oh and there's also that insane plot that 'shipped' Angel and Cannonball's sister Husk.

X.S.E.

More exploits for the fallen remnants of X-Treme X-Men, Storm leads a new team which includes Bishop, Marvel Girl, Cannonball, and Wolverine. We got Alan Davis for a fight with Captain Britain baddie The Fury. X-23 also makes frequent appearances in this book teaming up with Psylocke and Marvel Girl.

Rogue's Rogue Team

Mike Carey picks up the slack from Milligan in 'adjectiveless' X-Men and creates a new team including Rogue, Cannonball, Iceman, Cable, Omega Sentinel with baddies Mystique, Sabretooth and Lady Mastermind. Lots of explosions and creative use of Rogue's powers. Hints of Messiah Complex start to drop in bits and pieces here in this book.

Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire

After the events of X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Charles Xavier leads a team to space to follow Gabriel Summers in his path of revenge against Shi'ar emperor D'Ken. Havok and Polaris joins as well as Vulcan's classmate Darwin and Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler and Warpath. This is where Corsair dies (of course, that's not the case anymore)

Messiah Complex X-Force

The 198 are suddenly rocked with the appearance of a mutant baby in Alaska. The X-Men respond and are shocked to find that the entire town has been attacked and burned with every local killed including babies... save for one. The X-Men, Mr. Sinister's Marauders (led by former teammates Gambit and Mystique) and the Purifiers try to outwit each other to get the baby. Cable 'betrays' the team only to be revealed that Bishop has that intention. During the hunt for Cable, Cyclops sanctions a new X-Force led by Wolverine and including some of the 'sharpest' members of the mutant community.

Hold on tight as we'll be diving into part 3 soon enough including the Nation-X era X-Men, Wolverine's Jean Grey School team, Cyclops' Utopia team, the All New X-Men and the new 'Charles Xavier School' team from Bendis' Uncanny X-Men.

Historical Look at the Different X-Men Teams from 60s to the 90s

So how many different versions of team rosters did the X-Men have in the past 50 or so years that they have been in publication? Here's a quick reference to help you piece out the convoluted team history of Marvel Comics' merry mutants.

So without further delays, here's a trip back memory lane featuring the X-Men. Also do bear in mind that there are gaps in the source material and before you point it out yes, the second X-Men team consisted of Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine and Thunderbird with a very traumatized Cyclops.

First Team

Do we even need to discuss this???

Second Secret Team

This is the team that 'debuted' in Ed Brubaker penned X-Men: Deadly Genesis. It's also the same team that got instantly killed in the original Krakoa. Later, Darwin and Vulcan aka Gabriel Summers were discovered to be alive. Darwin was last seen in X-Factor while Vulcan seemingly died in War of Kings.

Fourth Team

This was around the time of the Mutant Massacre and later Magneto joins the team while Xavier leaves for space. One of the missing members here is Dazzler and Psylocke. I dunno what happened. Oh and yeah, this was the first version of AVX or Avengers vs X-Men.

Muir Island X-Men

During the Muir Island saga this was the team. It's nice to see Legion and Polaris in his team.

Outback X-Men

While the Muir Island Saga was happening, the real X-Men were recuperating and living in the Australian Outback. They got a new leash on life thanks to passing through the Siege Perilous and now being undetectable by camera and such. This was also the time that Jubilee officially joins the team.

Space Opera Jim Lee X-Men

OK the official team is referred to as Post-Genosha team but c'mon, it's a lot better to call them the 'Space Opera Jim Lee' team. This is my Golden, golden age of comics when X-Men had Lee plus Andy Kubert on art duties.

Blue Team

This was one of the most famous iteration of the X-Men with Chris Claremont and Jim Lee 

Gold Team

Whilce Portacio straight up!

Combined Blue & Gold team



This was the team that took out Onslaught where the Avengers and Fantastic Four failed... well OK that's not entirely right. It was the bye-bye time for some of the creative team and the X-Men slowly drifted towards a unified team system up until Operation Zero Tolerance, then back again by Uncanny X-Men # 360.

I suddenly have the inspiration to go and create the teams for the succeeding years. I might do that. Yeah, sounds like a plan. That'll start from Uncanny 360 all the way to the present.

SPOILERS: Storm and Nightcrawler's Near Romance in Amazing X-Men # 3

It's actually not a surprise that X-Men members Storm and Nightcrawler were supposed to be a couple before the former's untimely death during Second Coming but with his apparent return to the world of the living in Amazing X-Men, readers find out more about the never-happened couple. This is all thanks to Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness.

So basically, Storm was about to get some major hurt but was rescued by Nightcrawler and his bamfs at the last minute.

It's during this that we learn that Kurt and Ororo had a thing years back when they were still 'freshmen' at Charles Xavier's school.

Oh and they also kick ass...

So what do you think? Should we ship them once again? Problem is, Ororo is currently Logan's girl. Here's the cover lest I forget.

I love the cover, the action was great and we get to see just how surly and how dangerous The Beast can be when his hand is forced.

Amazing X-Men # 3 everybody. Get yours from your favorite local comic stores including Druid's Keep, Filbars, Comic Odyssey, Dragon's Keep, Planet X and Comic Quest.

Is Chris Claremont Writing a Nightcrawler Solo Book?

Marvel Comics has released a new one-word teaser connoting the famous SFX that Nightcrawler's makes whenever he teleports. 

Nobody's talking yet but I'm really hoping that this would be the case since the creative team attached to this project is big bad X-Daddy himself Chris Claremont together with Todd Nauck. 

Bout time they did something with both Claremont (who apparently is in Marvel's payroll as an exclusive for the longest time) and Nightcrawler who is set to return at the end of the first story arc for Jason Aaron's AMAZING X-MEN. 

Some of Marvel's Cute Animal Variant Covers

All New Marvel Now is upon us and I really just want to share these cool animal covers of the different titles coming out this January including Avengers World # 1.

Avengers World # 1

Thunderbolts

Uncanny X-Force

X-Men

Fantastic Four

Wolverine # 1

Avengers # 24

Silver Surfer

Coming to your favorite comic shops this January. Personally I pre-ordered Avengers # 24.

The Entire 60 Plus Years of X-Men Continuity in One Panel

History lesson time! The X-Men has been around for 50 years or so but in their continuity it must've been like 10 to 15 years have passed (this is only a rough estimate).

Credits: Marvel Comics

So all of the things that have happened to the original five as well as the rest of the team gets propped into a chalkboard and you don't expect this fanboy to go bananas over it? And seeing how the Dark Phoenix saga was just relegated to a box and a probably sarcastic comment, it's fairly easy to see why it even fit in a board in the first place. 

Now let me just say goodbye to all the stuff I have planned for today while I go over this panel piece by piece (and neglecting all 'em mathematical formulas and equations). 

X-Men # 8 Spoilers - I Kissed a Girl

Cue Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" while reading this week's X-Men # 8 by Brian Woods and Terry & Rachel Dodson from Marvel Comics.

In a nutshell, Typhoid Mary steals Arkea from the Jean Grey School. Psylocke follows Mary, rescues John Sublime who spilled info on other places on Earth where Arkea might still be alive (because she's apparently dead already). The new Ladystrike and Typhoid Mary encounter Amora the Enchantress who also joins the party after being promised that she'll become more powerful than Odin himself.

Back at the school, Jubilee helps out Bling who apparently (a) has a crush on Jubilee (b) asked Mercury out on date. The whole conversation ends up with a kiss.



Let's do a double take.

Totally love Shogo's reaction to that kiss. As well as Mercury's 'turned on' look.



And next issue, we're promised a fight between the new Sisterhood and Psylocke which is pretty interesting. Brownie points since it's also drawn by Terry Dodson.



Grab your copy of X-Men # 8 from the local comic stores here in the PH like Comic Odyssey, Comic Quest, Druid's Keep and Dragon's Keep in Greenhills.