Amazing X-men 2 (Age of Apocalypse part 12)

Amazing X-men 2

Written by Fabian Nicieza

Art by Andy Kubert

Inks by Matt Ryan

Lettering by Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Colors by Kevin Somers/Digital Chameleon

Continuing from Issue 1 we are introduced to a new mutant character called Abyss.  An evil mutant composed of some black ribbony substance. He has found a lonely human child that was hiding and was part of the evacuation group heading to Eurasia. Abyss grabs the child and absorbs him into the center of his ribbons.

We then cut to the main group of the story where we find that the cloaked figures from the previous issue are in fact this world's Brotherhood of Mutants and are a religious group of mutants that see Apocalypse as a god. 

They had managed to take over the sentinels and set them on our Heros. A short battle ensues until the weather goddess, Storm shows up and uses her lightning to short out the sentinels electronics.  Of course his causes the Brotherhood to hightail it out of the battle zone.  As the group recovers from the attack we see Banshee flying over the area looking for where the Brotherhood ran off to.

He spots the transport that the Brotherhood used to arrive at the scene and discovers their lead the Madri dead and hanging upside down in the doorway. Curious as to what happen Banshee discovers Abyss the newest Horseman of the Apocalypse. Instead of fighting Banshee, Abyss tells him; I want Quicksilver and I have a human child here and will kill him if he doesn’t show up.  Of course Banshee takes off to relay the message.

Upon his return to the X-men, Banshee discovers that all the humans are suffering from a psionic attack from Abyss. He quickly tells Quiksilver about Abyss and his demand to face him.  Of course Quicksilver and Storm take off to face the monster.

Once at the transport they see that it is a trap for them and they spring the trap and fight Abyss.  Quicksilver manages to defeat the Horseman and send him to some dimensional void that was part of Abyss’ power set.

The two X-men get the human child back to his parents and we see that the other x-men have fixed the Sentinels and are starting to load up the transports to get the rest of the humans out of America. Yeah happy ending.

That is until we cut to Apocalypse in downtown Manhattan where we see Karma being interrogated by two of Apocalypses cronies to learn the exact location of Magneto and his X-men.  Apocalypse then enters the scene.

He reveals that he knows where the X-men are hiding and plans to attack them at the former home of Charles Xavier.  Next issue Magneto vs Apocalypse.

The art. What can I say about it. Andy Kubert is part of a dynasty of comic Artists and I really cannot nit pick his style as he is one of the top artist ‘s I think of when it comes to x-men artists. He pretty much picked up the pencil for the X-men from Jim (Slow mo) Lee left Marvel.  

The story was a little lacking and felt rushed with a resolution with Quicksilver and Abyss. We didn’t get much in the way of backstory between these characters as it was hinted that Abyss knew Quicksilver. Plus Fabian tacked on hint at a possible romance with Storm, just seemed a little forced.  I did like how the end of the story sets up the next chapter in this run of comics.  

Score 7.5 out of 10

mystery box comics for sale

In An attempt to make room for my other stuff and kids, and wife, and cat's . I am selling of sections of my comic collection. I've been putting stuff up on ebay but have little results that I am happy with therefore, I've decided to create the mystery box offers. 

It is rather simple I have take some random titles from different publishers and packed them into a medium flat rate box. The issues will at least be worth a total of 20.00 dollars.  I have the first mystery box created. 

classic valiant, and Image

because I can't list a mystery box on ebay the link is slightly spoiled as i list a few titles, but not what issues so it's still a little bit of a surprise.  

If you are interested in a mystery box please contact me through this site or google plus.  

Other mystery boxes to come will be posted below: 

Marvel/DC Mystery box                                   22.00 plus 13 dollars s/h  total  35.00 

90's throwback mystery box                     22.00 plus 13 dollars s/h total is 35.00 

Astonishing X-men #2 Age of Apocalypse (Part 11)

 Astonishing X-MEN #1 (Age of Apocalypse Part 11)

Written by Scott Lobdell. 

Art by Joe Madureira. 

Inks Dan Green and Tim Townsend. 

Colors by Steve Buccellato.

Picking up from issue 1; Rogue and the rest of the X-men are in Chicago to prevent the cullings from occurring. The X-men arrive a little too late as the mutant named Holocaust has already released his killer drones or probes to see where the humans are located in the city once known as chicago.  Upon seeing the death probes, Sunfire freaks out and reveals himself to the humans around him as he screams that he has had enough death and rushes off to takeout as many probes as possible.

Rogue sees this and with a great sigh takes off after him, leaving Blink in charge of evacuating any and all humans.  Sunfire takes out several; as Rogue attempts to talk him down so that they can focus on the evac. Rogue discovers what Apocalypse and Holocaust did to Sunfire prior to him joining the x-men when Apocalypse marched his legions across the world.  She manages to stop Sunfire and continue to help the humans.  

 

We then cut to Westchester as we again see Bishop interact with Magneto. Bishop as a lot of animosity towards Magneto. He starts to act like a jerk when Magneto reminds Bishop at he is attempting to put young Charles down for nap.  Bishop quick changes his tone and begins to act like a human.

 



We are then shifted back to Manhattan where we see Apocalypse is angry over the evenings in Amazing x-men 1 and calls for his crony Rex. He demands to know if Rex has found the x-men base yet. Coincedently he just gets the search results as Apocalypse is ready to rip his head off. Rex then shows him the Xavier mansion and Apocalypse does one of his maniacal laughs.

We then cut back to Chicago where we see Sabretooth and Blink share a moment; and  Sabertooth asks Blink to send him to where Holocaust is to slow him down long enough so the X-men can finish their mission. Reluctantly Blink acquiesces and sends Sabertooth and an unconscious Wild Child to Holocaust's location. Indianapolis, Indiana.  

 



Sabretooth and Holocaust fight and then fight some more and then Sabertooth eventually beats Holocaust by fracturing his containment suit and then Sabertooth passes out as his healing factor tries to repair all the damage. Holocaust being composed of energy, manages to reassemble himself back into his containment suit.  Then we get the; to be continued.



As a followup issue to the story I thought it was pretty solid. However, the whole idea that Blink can now exactly where a person is at in order to transport some one there is a little sketchy. Had it been partially explained then I wouldn't have questioned it. We do get some more back story through a dream sequence as well as expositional storytelling.

The art was great Joe Madureira's art is pretty tight with his line work. The sharpness of Sabertooths features really shows his more feral side.  His women are draw a little over proportional as most nineties super hero books.  

All in all I would give this an:  

8.5 out of 10

 

 

 

X-Universe Issue #1 Age of Apocalypse part 10

X-Universe Issue #1 Age of Apocalypse

Written by Scott Lobdell and Terry Kavanagh

Penciler Carlos Pacheco

Inker Cam Smith

Colorist Kevin Somers

During the Age of Apocalypse the question of where are the non-mutant hero's.  Where is the Fantastic Four? What happen to the Avengers? Or Where is Spider-man? 

Well those questions are answered with X-universe.  This book takes a look at the human side of a World ruled by Apocalypse.  

And without futher Ado.... here is the story.

We open in Wakanda, the home of Black Panther and one on the most Technologically advanced civilizations know to man.  Of course in this world it isn't so.  Black Panther is dead, Wakanda is a nation of destroyed and downtroddened humans.  We see a human releif worker named Gwen Stacy. Yep, Peter Parkers first girlfriend in our universe. She is assisting the many downtroddened humans left in Wakanda.  We see that she has been torn down in this world. She can barely remember a time when this city was a marvel to rival all cities. Now it is ash and ruins a childeren run around half naked, people are dying of disease and starvation. 

 

As she helps pass out the last of her food and medical supplies they are attacked by four lone figures; a group of human terroists called the Mauraders. These humans are Wilson Fisk, Norman Osborne, Arcade, and The Owl.   They are scavengers and former business men that have sided with Apocalypse. They are tolerated by the great and powerful, because they attack and kill humans as all terroists and sadists do. 

These Mauraders have come to Wakanda to pick at the bones of the city and kill any remaining humans in the country. Of course they didn't count on a resistance fighter and survivalist by the name of Gwen Stacy. Using her one and only weapon to defend the remaining humans she taks a shot at Wilson Fisk. Her weapon is a really really big gun.  With one shot she manages to vaporize the rotund villan before he can make any really attempt to hurt Gwen.  

Shortly after that she is set upon by Arcade. Of course he attempts some banter and before he can pounce onto our young heroine, he is stopped by falling medical supplies from a GIANT ROBOT SPIDER.  

After turning Arcade into goo, the Giant Robot Spider uses it's two cannons to take out Owl and Norman Osborn. Thus eliminating the Mauraders.  We also find out that the Robot Spider is being pilotted by Clint Barton and Tony Stark.  They have come to Wakanda in search of there friend and fellow resistance fighter Donald Blake.  

As usual Tony Stark attempts to flirt with Gwen, but being a no nonsense tough as nails survivor she doesn't take to kindly to it and threats the former billionare.  Thus brings us into a nice entery point for Donald Blake.  

Tony tells Donald about the situation in England and that he is needed in the resistance headquarters. Donald reluctenly accepts  and we cut to England.

In London we see a fleet of airships that have arrived from the United States with a Mutant envoy to herald peace between the resistance and the mutants. Or so we think.

We are then introduced to this worlds Ben Grimm and Sue Storm both pilots for the resistance as well as survivors of Apocalypses slaughter of the human hero's . While on patrol and escort duty for the coming ambassador an explosion occurs at one of the resistance bases and the former fantastic four head off to investigate.  They come across a grey Hulking monster and learn that he was the cause of the explosion.  The now Terrific two battle the grey creature and manage to shoot an ear off, there by frighting of the grey monster.  While looking through the wreakage they come accross the scientist Bruce Banner and discover that he too has lost an ear. Coincedence?


The two take Dr. Banner back to the resistance main base where Victor von Doom is meeting with the  Mutant Ambassador Mikhail.  Mikhail invites the resistance on his ship to discuss peace talks, but in actualitiy has brought them on board to be his prisoners.  Plus like a maniacal despots he reveals his plans to destory the humans in England with his weapon.  the Mutant known as Empath.


Art in this book is Fantastic. Drawn by Carlos Pacheco  who has a very organic look to his style.

I give this story an 8 out of 10.  Great story, it's nice to see that the human hero's are still in the game.

X-man Issue #1 (Age of Apocalypse Part 9)

X-man  issue #1 Age of Apocalypse.

Written by Jeff Loeb

Art by Steve Skorce

Colors by Mike Thomas

During the Age of Apocalypse alternate timeline  Cable’s title became X-man. In the original timeline, Cable was a time displaced mutant. His past was shrouded in mystery and was claimed to be the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor. Now in this timeline he is the creation of Mr. Sinister to be the downfall of Apocalypse. His genetic makeup is from Scott Summers and  Jean Grey.  This makes us ask the question who are his parents? Scott and Jean, or Mr. Sinister? What fate is in store for our young X-man.