Hello all! Yes, I’m deeply aware that this post is five, yes five days late. Mea culpa! Regardless, there’s a lot of stuff worth talking about this week, so let’s get right into it!
On the “new” side of things, from the week of May 1st, 2019: In crossover land, things are a bit slow this week. War of the Realms hits #3 in the main title, and two crossover books: Champions #5 and Strikeforce: The Dark Elf Realm. This is an interesting team-up of Hulk (Jen Walters, having dropped the “She-” of late), the Punisher, Blade, and Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes,) They’re being led by a very young-looking Freyja. Age of X-Man meanwhile only has one book this week, Prisoner X.
Star Wars has three books this week, including a facsimile edition of Star Wars #50 from the original Marvel run forty-odd years ago. Amusingly enough, the description of the issue on MU is a complete mistake. The description/synopsis is taken from Donny Cates’ Silver Surfer: Black #1, which won’t be added to MU until January.
Elsewhere Dead Man Logan continues with issue #7 of 12. The purpose of the story is to bring to a close the surprisingly popular “Old Man” version of the berserker mutant which first appeared back in 2008 and was brought into the main Marvel universe in 2015’s Secret Wars crossover. We also have issues of Deadpool, Domino: Hotshots and Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider. Rob Liefeld’s Major X hits #3 and Meet the Skrulls is in with #4.
The second issue of the short-lived Marvel Team-Up revival is in this week, as is Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #20.1. I’ve never understood why Marvel does .1 issues. Anyways, I don’t want to bore my readership by talking about all the issues on here. I’m just going to mention two more. Warning: Here be spoilers!!! (For a six month old comic, but still…)
Uncanny X-Men (2018) #17 features the funeral of Rahne (Wolvesbane) Sinclair and shows how she died in a mind-reading flashback. Easily the stupidest hero death I’ve ever come across. Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Thankfully, reversed by Age of X / Power of X.
And the final “new” issue I want to mention: Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History #3. Cosmic Ghost Rider is a classic case of “you never know what’s going to be popular.” CGR is Frank “The Punisher” Castle, bonded with a Spirit of Vengeance and granted the Power Cosmic by Galactus. I have no idea how Thanos scribe Donny Cates came up with this idea but it’s pretty nuts… in a good way. CGR has gone from those Thanos appearances to star in two limited series so far, and a role in the most recent Guardians of the Galaxy series.
On to the back catalogue! There’s an interesting mix of old and new here. First, did you know that Marvel outsources? It’s true! Marvel has had smaller publisher IDW put out all-ages material under the “Marvel Adventures” banner for the past year or so. A bunch of the Marvel Adventures stuff has been added to MU this week. I’m not sure if I’ll read any of these ones, but I’ll probably check out Sam Maggs’ Captain Marvel book if/when Marvel Unlimited adds it.
The other part of the back catalogue this week is eight issues of the original run of X-Factor. Specifically, #s 93 to 100. Now, that era of X-Factor had two distinct incarnations. The first, introduced by Bob Layton and Louise Simonson, dealt with the original X-Men complete with a back-from-the-dead (kinda) Jean Grey. (Long story, blame Kurt Busiek. 🙂 ) Then, after the Muir Island Saga X-Men crossover, the book was re-imagined as a group of government sponsored mutant heroes led by Alex “Havoc” Summers.
This run (93-100) is from the second incarnation, and follows Peter David’s excellent run. It was David who shepherded the Havoc X-Factor to great success after Muir Island, and set the tone for the book until it finally ended in 1998. These issues are by J.M DeMatteis, who’s been hit or miss with me in the past. Still, I’ll probably find time to read them at some point.
That’s it for this week! Tune in next week to see if I’ll get the blog out on a more timely basis! (Oh, and to hear more about what’s available on Marvel Unlimited. 😀 )