In the mid-1990’s, Marvel Comics was struggling. The Image exodus had seen their seven top-selling artists gone, and not on good terms. Todd MacFarlane (Spider-Man), Erik Larsen (Amazing Spider-Man), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Jim Lee (X-Men), Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), and Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy) were achieving very public success at…
Art by the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Team Name: Elizabeth Braddock Code Names: Psylocke, Captain Britain First Appearance: Captain Britain #8 (1978) Powers: Telepathy, Telekinesis, the ability to teleport though shadows on occasion Teams Affiliation: STRIKE, RCX, X-Men, Exiles, X-Force About The X-Men have always been closely related to the adolescent experience and few things are more crucial to…
Art by Marc Silvestri and Josef Rubinstein Name: Sally Blevins Code Names: Skids First Appearance: X-Factor #7 (Aug 1986) Powers: Personal Force Field Teams Affiliation: Morlocks, X-Terminators, New Mutants, Mutant Liberation Front, Acolytes, SHIELD About Community is one of the most important things in a person’s life, and I am not talking about the Dan Harmon show. That sense of belonging,…
Art by Billy Tan, Danny Miki, Roy Allan Martinez, and Frank D’Armata Name: Gabriel Summers Code Names: Kid Vulcan, Vulcan First Appearance: X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1 (Jan 2006) Powers: Energy Manipulation Teams Affiliation: X-Men About The Summers’ family tree is a mess. Centered around poor Cyclops, we have a long lost brother, a space pirate father, an…
Art by Valerio Schiti and Richard Isanove Name: Fabio Medina Code Names: Goldballs First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1 (Feb 2013) Powers: Shoots Gold Balls out of his body Teams Affiliation: X-Men About I was sitting at my computer getting ready to write this article and my dad asked “who are you doing this week?” I started chuckling to myself and…
Art by Phil Noto Name: Jean-Paul Beaubier Code Names: Northstar First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #12 (April 1979) Powers: Superspeed, Weird Twin Powers Teams Affiliation: Alpha Flight, X-Men Since their inception the X-Men have constantly been an allegory for the disenfranchised. From their red scare origins in the 60’s, to the civil rights allusions of the 70’s and 80’s, Marvels mutants have…
Art by Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend Name: Jean-Phillipe Code Names: Fantomex, Weapon XIII, Charlie Cluster-7 First Appearance: New X-Men #128 (Aug 2002) Powers: Misdirection, External Nervous System/Flying Saucer, Nanoactive Blood, 3 Brains Teams Affiliation: Weapon Plus, X-Force About When I was young, my friends and I used to play Power Rangers. Each of us would chose a character…
Fan is short for fanatic, excessive, single-minded, zeal. There isn’t a great reason to love something but you do anyway. I am an X-Men fan and I honestly can’t be reasonable about X-Men: Apocalypse, because they made a film for a fan like me. Bryan Singer and his team have crafted a movie that stays…
It’s hard to make a game adaptation that really feels like that really feels like the source material. Licensed games have often carried the stigma of being subpar and something that exists so Grandma has something safe to get little Johnny, so it is utterly surprising to find a game that just nails everything you…
Art by Jim Cheung Name: En Sabah Nur Code Names: Apocalypse First Appearance: X-Factor #5 (June 1986) Powers: Total Molecular Control Teams Affiliation: The Clan Akkaba, The Horsemen, The Dark Riders About In his Principals of Biology Herbert Spencer wrote, “This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which…
So this is a thing I’m doing now, new strips every Monday and Wednesday