Ok. So as we are all aware by now, Marvel has decided to kill a “major” character for each financial quarter of their operations. So far, the major deaths have been the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four (Which I totally called it) and Ultimate Spider-Man (essentially the “main character” of the Ultimate Universe). But what next? Who will Marvel kill next? Rather, what major character will die next. Apparently, Bucky Barnes wasn’t considered major enough to warrant the press for his death in Fear Itself #3. And I’d imagine that most of the other casualties to come from the series wont matter either… And from what I’ve been hearing, most folks don’t feel that Johnny Storm and Earth-1610 Peter Parker are big enough characters to be shocked about. I’d also imagine that Marvel execs have heard and read the grumblings of the masses as well. And maybe they just might have a “real” shocker waiting for us in the coming months. So here, I tell you about the conspiracy against Cyclops that makes me sick.

[Since his inception, Wolverine has always been a problem...]

Starting off, it’s no secret that most modern day X-Men fans prefer Wolverine over Cyclops (Which is a shame…). And for a lot of folks, I can understand the reasoning as to why they would be feel that way. But it’s not really their fault as to why they’d like Wolverine of Cyclops. It’s Marvel’s fault. Let’s go back. Starting with Uncanny X-Men, when a new team was assembled to rescue the First Class from Krakoa. Wolverine said that he’d never take orders from Cyclops. And for a while, that’s how it was. Then there’s the mess of a love triangle between Scott, Logan, and Jean Grey. Wolverine just couldn’t leave the woman alone. And when Cyclops and Jean married, Logan sure as hell wasn’t happy about it. But the tension remained. Writers over the years have loved to tell stories where Wolverine undermines Cyclops’ authority and his relationship with Jean Grey. In the “Age of Apocalypse” most folks got their wish, when it was revealed that Jean Grey and Wolverine were a couple in the absence of Cyclops. The 90’s X-Men Cartoon also made this clear… But that’s about when things started to shift for the worse.

[Why is Wolverine in front?]

There’s a load of promotional material for the 90’s cartoon that features Wolverine, front-and-center, over Cyclops in the team shots. Especially in the re-releasing of the series on DVD. I’d also argue that Wolverine had a larger focus than Cyclops in most of the episodes of the show. Although, that could just be me being spiteful here… But all my friends around that time, were always talking down about Cyclops because of that cartoon. And to be fair about it, he wasn’t all that different in the comics of that time period. He was kind of a “rules-nerd,” whereas Wolverine bled 90’s Extreme Juice. So following that cartoon, the next X-Men show featured the X-Men as teenagers trying to blend in with Humanity as they went to school. “X-Men: Evolution.” In this show, that majority of the major players of the comics were kids, however, Storm and Wolverine were adults. Why the hell is Wolverine a “teacher” over Cyclops? This is the when the trouble really started to kick up. Every so often, you’d get a Wolverine-Centric episode where Cyclops was nowhere to be seen or heard from. They even devoted time to showcase X-23 (Wolverine’s Clone). Come on guys. Also Cyke was a bit of a nerd in this show as well…. But that’s not nearly as bad as how they treated him in the Live-Action movies.

[Arguably, Angel had even less screen time than Cyclops and yet... Just about every movie poster for all the movies are like this... I only found one where Cyclops had equal presence as everyone else... And that was a combined character-face teaser...]

Starting off, Cyclops is established as kind of a spoiled adult-teacher’s pet to Professor Xavier and is belittled by Wolverine as soon as they meet. Also, Wolverine flirts with Jean as soon as he sees her, and she goes for it. And over the course of the movie, it just got out of hand. Whether it’s Wolverine stealing Scott’s motorcycle, or Jean and Logan giving eachother secret looks, or the focus of the trilogy movies being built around Wolverine… Cyclops just couldn’t catch a break. He was damn near a mute in all the movies as well. Most offensively was his off-screen death at the hands of Jean/Phoenix during the 20-or-so minutes of the 3rd movie. Cyclops is killed by the love of his life after letting out a giant emo-optic blast to the heavens. WTF Marvel? All they found was his glasses. Which is also stupid, when you consider what actually happened. Then she broke those too. And the only thing that could calm her down was who? Wolverine. And when it came to the climax, Wolverine saved the day. He was the only one who could get close. So he stabs her and she dies his arms. Looks like Wolverine came out on top of that situation. Around the same time, Jean also died in the comics (currently for the last time). Again, she died in Wolverine’s arms… In the same way. Just disgusting. Then when the Wolverine movie (which takes place in the 70s) came out, the film execs put Cyclops in that movie as a kind of throw-away cameo. So when “X-Men: First Class” came out and it took place in the 60s, Cyclops was now too young to appear in the movie with an appropriate age. So they replaced him with his YOUNGER brother, Havok, to take his place instead. But the same reasoning didn’t stop them from putting Emma Frost in the movie. An OLDER Emma Frost than the one that appeared in the Wolverine movie that takes place a decade after “First Class.”

[If anyone should be killing Jean in an heartfelt emotional moment, it probably should be Cyclops...]

Then lets look at the recent X-Men cartoon, “Wolverine and the X-Men.” Strike one is in the title. In this series, Cyclops is about the biggest sad-sack that you’d ever did see. He can’t lead for crap, and Wolverine is the glue that brings the X-Men back together. Cyclops is just worthless in this series. But let’s look over to the video game side of things. Capcom, mostly known for it’s fighting game franchises of the 1990s, put out a series of games featuring Marvel characters. Cyclops had always been a staple in the majority of these. Wolverine had been in all of them. In Marvel Vs Capcom 2, they included 2 different versions of Wolverine… But with the announcement of Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Wolverine was around for Day 1, but where was Cyclops? In an interview before the release of the game, one of the producers of the game was asked about which characters that Marvel would not allow them to use in the game. The producer motioned to his eyes in a “visor” motion and crossed his hands into an “X”. It was kind of weird that he wouldn’t use his name, when all the other characters he spoke about not making it in had been named. So I thought to myself, “That’s kinda weird.” But there was still hope. There would be downloadable characters. If Shuma-Gorath made it into the game, surely Cyclops could too. Then the earthquake in Japan happened and all Downloadable Content was put on hold. So fast-forward to Comic Con San Diego 2012, and a new version of MvC3 is announced. Shortly afterwards, the entire new roster is leaked and later confirmed by a producer. Guess who isn’t on that list? Cyclops. Why? No explanation given.

[I hope he embraces this instead of death...]

Now look at the state of Cyclops currently. He’s gone from being that “Boy Scout” that only plays by the rules, to the King of the Mutants who will do anything for his people, even if it means killing any and all threats. He commissioned a Black Ops team of mutants, lead by Wolverine, to kill. Kill everyone that would threaten the lives of Mutantkind in anyway. He’s declared independence from the United States of America. He’s put Professor X in a corner. His actions made Beast quit the team. Nightcrawler’s faith in Cyclops lead to his death. A lot of fictional folks in the Marvel Universe are no fan of the current Cyclops, and the way it’s been feeling lately? It would appear that there is also an editorial agenda against him. Marvel has building Cyclops up so high that when he finally falls, he’s going to burn so bright that he’ll blind all the readers who see it. “X-Men: Schism #5″ and “Fear Itself #7″ are final issues of the two major Marvel events. And they both are set to come out on in the same month. Interviews from and around Comic Con suggest that it’s no coincidence that both of the books are finishing at the same time. And as far as Fear Itself goes, you’ll remember a certain promo that featured Cyclops in Magneto’s costume while he questioned what he had become. As of typing this, Cyclops hasn’t been featured in the primary story. What’s the deal with that? Well… I think I know.

[Even when he leaves, Cyclops still doesn't receive the center focus...]

The writing on the wall… When Schism concludes, The X-Men will split into two teams to be reflected in two separate books. Uncanny X-Men will be renumbered to #1 and a new book will be launched, Wolverine and the X-Men (Just like the show). Clearly, Wolverine is the leader of his X-Men, but what about Uncanny? It has been strongly suggested to not expect Cyclops to lead the Uncanny team. The cover to the new Uncanny X-Men #1 is loaded with silhouettes… As of writing this, the only character revealed to be on the cover is Emma Frost, however it looks like Magneto and Juggernaut (most likely Colossus) are also on the team. And unless Marvel tries to swerve us and suggest that Cyclops joins Wolverine’s team, there are only 2 realistic options here. The first being that Cyclops leaves the X-Men behind, whether that means he becomes a villain or he or quits like Spider-Man always does is to be seen. The other option is that Cyclops is the next major Marvel death. But unlike the other deaths, I’d imagine that announcing a polybag issue for the death of him would be a marketing mistake. I don’t know about you, but if they announced his death months in advance, I’d have stopped reading Uncanny X-Men the moment they announced it. I know I wasn’t happy about it when Cyclops “died” in 1998. I think I stopped reading X-Men for at least 8 years after that. And it wasn’t even like he was gone for that long either. So just imagine what I’d do if this really comes to pass. For certain, I’m gonna flip a fucking table. So apologies in advance, if I happen to do that in your company. Typically, I pride myself in correctly guessing the outcome of stories, but this is one time where I hope I’m wrong. Dead wrong. A world without Cyclops would be like a world without cheeseburgers. Just a really sad place.

[No Cyclops here... ;( ]

I’d imagine that you’re probably tired of reading this by now. So… If you made it to the end. Good Job! No. Great Job! And thanks for hearing me out. There’s an anti-Cyclops initiative out there. And it’s looking like the “Powers-That-Be” are about to cash in on their hard work. And if you think that I’m overreacting to the mistreatment of Cyclops, take a look for yourself, then let me know if I’m wrong about this. But we’ll see… This October, may be the last time we see Cyclops in a long time. But I hope not.

-Fleet

I love the X-Men Animated series from the early 90s. I’ve mentioned on the blog before that this was my main introduction to X-Men. Since the show’s heyday I’ve read a lot more X-Men, catching up on plots I didn’t totally understand from the cartoon when I was a kid. In a way, I’ve come to appreciate the X-Men Animated Series more now that I’ve read classic runs of X-Men by Stan Lee and Chris Claremont. A lot of those episodes are almost exact adaptations of many of the most famous X-Men comic stories, including the introduction of Magneto, the Proteus Saga, and The Dark Phoenix Saga. Yet there’s one point in the X-Men Animated Series that I think departs from any X- Men comic I’ve ever read. Apparently, according to the cartoon, Wolverine hates ducks.

I caught Wolverine’s anti-duck rant when I was re-watching The Dark Phoenix Saga on DVD with my friend Adam. During episode 3 we both found ourselves on the floor laughing. Now if you remember The Dark Phoenix Saga it’s one of the more serious X-Men story-lines and explores the corruption of absolute power through the Phoenix’s interplanetary genocide. That’s not really a laughing matter. However, by the one minute mark of the episode wolverine finds himself being thrown into a duck pond and curses the pedestrian mallards for his misfortunate. This might not seem that funny on the onset, but I argue you have to ask yourself why the anti-duck sentiment is there in the first place.

I can only assume that someone on the X-Men writing staff had a bad experience with a duck once. Maybe, while calmly feeding the ducks at the park, one of the writers was viciously mauled by a raft of ducks leaving them horribly deformed and their hatred manifested itself in this one-off line for Wolverine. Better yet, maybe the writer intended to influence thousand of kids who looked up to Wolverine by using the old canuklehead as his podium for duck hatred. Or, maybe I’m reading to much into this line, but I don’t believe it. I refuse to accept that the production company would have taken the time to animate Wolverine falling into a duck pond and paying the voice actor to scream, “Ducks! I HATE Ducks!” if there wasn’t some horrific duck experience from the past. And why is Wolverine the vehicle for this duck rant? The intrigue of Wolverine mysterious origin thickens.

If you want to hear the line in question it starts at the one minute mark of the attached video.

-Jon

The half-shelled heroes are back! How long has it been since we mention the Ninja Turtles? Before you think about it, the answer is TOO LONG! But you might be thinking, “Yeah, I like the Turtles… But why should I read this new series? Isn’t going to be like all the others?” Maybe. Maybe not. Here’s what I do know.

[Kevin Eastman Cover]

First off, Kevin Eastman (co-creator of the TMNT) is back on board with the series. Which is very interesting news when you consider that this is the guy who sold his rights to the franchise to Peter Liard (co-creator) because he was he was burned out on the series. But even so, it can’t hurt to have one of the minds of the original gritty Turtles on the writing team. Then we have Tom Waltz (Silent Hill: Past Life) coming in as a co-writer as well. And while I can’t speak for any of his work, I didn’t hear any complaints on his recent Silent Hill outing, and his upcoming Duke Nukem comic can’t possibly be as bad as that franchise’s reputation. Plus, new blood can’t possibly hurt the Turtles. Then there’s the art…

We’ve got a newcomer by the name of Dan Duncan. Look at this guy’s art. It makes me feel good inside when I know that this guy is drawing the Turtles. I also like that they’ve decided to drop the color schemes that were set up by the first cartoon. I’ve always been a fan of the red bandanna-mask things in the original comics over the red/blue/orange/purple set-up that they have in the cartoons and movies. But forget about that. The point is, these Turtles mean business, and they all probably sound like an extreme Rorschach (Watchmen), which isn’t that far off from how the “Mirage” Turtles sounded like in the TMNT cartoon crossover special, “Turtles Forever.” This makes me feel like this is a return to the more mature TMNT of the early comics. Plus, IDW (publisher) doesn’t shy away from violence. So there’s a bonus.

[Dan Duncan Gatefold Cover]

So, this new series is set to come out on August 24 (08/24) and is going to ship with 4 interlocking covers, each featuring a different turtle. And that’s not including the variants by Sam Keith and Kevin Eastman. But I didn’t even tell you about the story… It’s a fresh origin story. Done. Honestly, you really don’t need me to tell you what the plot is. You know who the TMNT are. I know that I’ll be there day one, and maybe… Just maybe, you’ll join me.

-Fleet

[AAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH.]

OK. That’s out of my system. No, wait –

YOU SUCK, DC/VERTIGO!

[HOISTS AX]
Stands menacingly in front of huge bonfire, swinging an axe while Falkenbach blares out of Stonehenge-sized speakers.

All right. I’m good now.

I’ve been dreading this moment since issue 1. Honestly. That could be attributable to my natural pessimism, but as series creator Brian Wood noted on his blog brianwood.tumblr.com/post/6305121342/the-unfuture-of-northlanders, it’s kind of amazing that DC/Vertigo permitted the series to run for 50 issues. That’s four years worth of comics about vikings; in a market that’s dominated by open-ended super hero comics, 50 issues for an episodic comic set in the Dark Ages is a towering achievement.

In the same blogpost, Wood cites the low sales numbers for the trades as the reason given for the axe finally dropping. I know comics are a business — and a business that’s not particularly profitable for anyone involved these past few years — so I can understand that this is a dollars-and-sense decision. Of course, that means most of the blame is to be shouldered by all you people out there who didn’t buy the series.

But I don’t blame any of you. I wish I had been able to convince even 20 percent of this blog’s audience to give Northlanders a shot. Odin knows I certainly devoted enough words to the cause every month, but if well-written, unpredictable, historically-accurate and historically-bleak stories about bloodthirsty raiders, desperate women who refuse to be intimidated or outsmarted by the men, mentally ill Irish guerillas and a giant blacksmith who cuts a one-man swath of devastation through Norway weren’t enough to tempt you away from one of the 14 Batman soap operas, then it just wasn’t meant to be. And the counter to that argument is that I certainly wasn’t going to read any of those Batbooks (except Brave & the Bold, naturally); If I’m not going to succumb to the peer pressure of seeing an entire rack devoted to Batman, why should you give in to my hectoring to read what I like? I wanted to read something different, and for a brief four years, something different existed.

Of course, since Northlanders is creator-owned there’s a chance Wood will shop it around to another publisher. But if DC/Vertigo couldn’t absorb the series’ financial losses, who else is going to take a chance on it? And that’s the troubling issue here. Every time a publisher takes a chance on something different and it doesn’t pan out, publishers are less likely to take a chance on the next book that’s not Bat-something or X-people. The death of every non-superhero book is a bad sign for every other non-traditional comic on the market.

[ALL THE OTHER NON-SUPERHEROES ON THE RUN]

Anyway, Wood seems committed to the idea of wrapping up the series with a suitably epic bang, so at least I have eight more issues to savor. That’s more courtesy than most cancelled books receive. And you better believe I’m going to enjoy the series as it plays out its string, and recommend it to everyone all the time. It’s the least I can do for my favorite ever — EVER — comic.

It’s not often that I read all-ages comics. It’s even more rare for me to pick up anything published from Archie Comics. In fact, the last ongoing comic series I read from Archie Comics was the kid-friendly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the early 90s. I had pretty much written off the company, but then 20 years later they go and release the first “Mega Man” ongoing comic ever. Being a huge fan of the blue bomber, I had to at least check it out and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint.

With Mega Man, the first issue’s greatest strength is that it appeals to long-time gamers as well as new readers to the Mega Man franchise. The plot is pretty standard Mega Man fare. Dr. Light and the sinister Dr. Wily create six Robot Masters to assist humans with different production task and research (The Robot Masters are the six from the original Mega Man from 1987, including Cut Man, Elec Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, Bomb Man, and my personal favorite Guts Man). Of course, Dr. Wily secretly reprograms the robot masters and they begin to terrorize the city. Against Dr. Lights best wishes, he reprograms his android assistant Rock (Named after Rock music!) and turns him into the warrior Mega Man to combat the renegade robot masters. Equipped with his newly installed Megabuster, Rock must defeat the robot master and gain their powers to defeat Dr. Wily. The story is streamlined from pretty much every Mega Man installment from the original NES series. It’s easy for kids to follow, and artist Patrick ‘Spaz’ Spaziante’s (worked on the Dreamwave Mega Man comic series that was canceled) hyperkinetic illustrations should be able to keep the attention of a new generation of readers raised on modern video games.

[Who is this guy? Oh... It's Mega Man.]

What’s more, “Mega Man” will also appeal to long time fans of the popular video games, in large part to writer Ian Flynn’s understanding of the series. There are all kinds of in-reference that will catch the eyes of dedicated fans. From 8-Bit images of Dr. Light hidden in panels, to obscure characters like Neige from “Mega Man Zero 4″ making cameo appearances, “Mega Man” #1 is definitely fan service. My favorite part of the issue is the final joke strip on the last page that references the atrocious, non-representative box cover art from the first Mega Man game. That’s been a long running joke about the series and gives me faith that the creative team knows what they’re doing with the comic adaptation.

I’m excited for the next issue and can’t wait to see what little in-jokes might pop up (I’m hoping for a reference to Proto Man aka Blues). It’s also exciting to think this comic might introduce new fans to the blue bomber. Great job, Archie Comics!

-Jon

The 1994 Roger Corman “Fantastic Four” film is the stuff of legends. For years comic fans have attempted to get their hands on the elusive, unreleased film, scouring comic conventions for rare bootleg copies. It’s a valiant search, but the film was never meant to be seen and even the most dedicated convention nerd usually rummaged in vain. Producer Roger Corman financed the low-budget spectacle only to secure movie rights for future films. Unbeknownst to the cast and director, Corman never had any intention to let the film see the light of day. Consequently, Roger Corman’s “Fantastic Four” has sat on the shelf for the last 17 years. Until now, sorta…

On June 24-26, Con-Tamination 2011 will reunite the original cast of Roger Corman’s “Fantastic Four” for the first time ever! Meet Alex Hyde-White as Mister Fantastic, Rebecca Staab as Sue Storm, Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm, Carl Ciarfalio as The Thing, Jay Underwood as Human Torch, and Joseph Culp as Doctor Doom. Whether or not anyone has actually seen the film to make this appearance worthwhile is debatable, but it’s still cool it’s happening right here in St. Louis. I’ve actually been fortunate enough to borrow a VHS bootleg copy from Cinema St. Louis operation supervisor Brian Spath, but I might save my viewing experience until after I meet the cast.

Also, if you were interested in meeting the quirky producer responsible for making the legendary B-movie and maybe even asking him a few questions about Fantastic Four, Roger Corman will be in St. Louis on May 21-22 at the Hi-Pointe Theatre as part of the Vincentennial celebration. Of course, you can see the Vincent Price Present gallery exhibit at Star Clipper right now until June 29.

-Jon

Many people involved in the comic book industry will analyze how Free Comic Book Day went this year and determine if it was a success using various metrics. Most of those metrics are based on number of issues moved, news coverage, or sales figures, and those are all valid measurements — those are industry measurements, though, and they don’t take into account what FCBD was like from the point of view of the general public.

[RALPH SPEAKS FOR ALL CHILDREN AFTER FCBD 2011]

Let me tell you as a customer, a long-time comic buyer and an uncle who brought four nephews with him, FCBD 2011 was a monumental, earth-shattering success. We attended FCBD last year as a gang, and I got the feeling the boys liked it just fine, but they weren’t quite sure what it was all about. With one under their belts, they couldn’t wait for this year’s version; two of ‘em skipped playing hockey to attend, that’s how serious they were (much credit to my sister and brother-in-law for being cool with that, by the way).

We arrived about ten minutes before Star Clipper opened, and they were thrilled there was a line of people waiting to get in. It felt like an event to them, and they were dancing around on the sidewalk with excitement. When they door opened, the 12-year old whooped “Free comics!” — I couldn’t have been prouder of him. Or so I thought; the line snaking around the tables was pretty slow moving, and they were extremely patient and didn’t jostle or grab anything until it was right in front of ‘em. Incidentally, all of the kids — and there were quite a few — were well-behaved, while several people old enough to know better reached over kids’ heads to grab issues and skip the line (adults, you can’t take them anywhere).

[HERE COMES THE JUDGE]

There were a lot more comics this year that were aimed at a young audience, which was also a welcome change. If there’s going to be a next generation of comic buyers out there, the majority of the freebies on FCBD should be kid-friendly. The four-year old went home with seven comics, everything from the Simpsons to Sonic the Hedgehog, while the six-year old and the eight-year old had five each. Although I did have to talk the six-year old out of grabbing a copy of 2000 A.D. — something about Judge Dredd on the cover captivated him, but I thought it was a little too mature for him. We also bought some comics and milled around for a bit watching the crowd. The 12-year old saw Mike Harvey’s See You Next Wednesday Comics on the counter display and had a lot of questions about what it was and how it got there; I pointed out Mike to him and explained that that was the guy who wrote it, drew it, printed it and distributed it. (His shyness kept me from introducing Mike to him — and Mike was pretty busy anyway.) But seeing a b&w, photocopied comic that was made by a real person he could see went a long way towards demystifying the process for him. You don’t need a printing press, full color interiors or glossy covers for it to be a comic book — that’s a valuable lesson to learn, and I’m glad Mike’s comic taught him that. I could see the moment when the light bulb went off over his head, and I have no doubt he’s going to try his hand at his own minicomic — that’s one of the big reasons why FCBD should exist. Kids should leave the shop inspired to make their own books, and I’m positive that all the excitement of the day helped fire his imagination and his desire to make his own comic.

[SO GREAT IT MADE AN ANTI-READER READ]

The ultimate measure of FCBD’s success happened on the car ride back to their house. I had four brothers who squabble and pick at each essentially non-stop in my car, and we made the 30 minute drive back to Affton in silence. All of them were engrossed in their new comics, even the four-year old, who can’t read anything except his name. The eight-year old has told me countless times how much he hates to read, and there he was happily reading the Captain America/Thor freebie. (If I were vindictive, I would point out again how stupid it was for Marvel to cancel Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee’s Thor the Mighty Avenger book what with the Thor movie and a bunch of kids out there looking for a Thor comic, but I’m better than that. Instead I will compliment Marvel on getting Langridge and Samnee together again on the freebie, and merely mention that it’s not too late to undo their boneheaded decision — which is a rarely-seen example of short-sightedness and utter stupidity — and get them going on a revived Thor all-ages title.) You can’t have a more successful FCBD than one that gets brothers to stop fighting and lose themselves in a comic book.

As great as this year’s was, I would offer one suggestion for improving Free Comic Book Day on behalf of my 12-year old nephew. He thinks, and I quote, “They should do this more than once a year. Maybe near Christmas.” See? Once you get ‘em hooked, they’ll keep coming back for more. Massive success. And huge thanks and credit to AJ and Ben and the hard-working Star Clipper team for making FCBD such a big deal that was welcoming to all ages of comic lovers.