Another year another Marvel Unlimited Plus membership kit and this year the theme is House of X. As an X-Men fan I was pleasantly surprised with the them as I actually really wanted to read the new House of X event but hadn’t gotten any issues yet.
Here is everything that is included in this years box:
House of X Issue 1: Shalvey Connecting Variant
House of X Issue 2: Shalvey Connecting Variant
Marvel Legends Exclusive Purple Deadpool Figure
X-Men Patch
X-Men Cyclopes Enamel Pin
The box is X-men themed and looked really good. The bright yellow and red colors really popped and it had a wrap around picture across the front. (added a bonus cat in the pictures.
First up is the yearly letter which is in the X-men theme. I don’t know why but I do like these letters and they are printed on very nice paper stock.
The comics are the first two issues of House of X. The variants look great and I really like that they are connecting variants.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it, I’m disappointed in the Marvel Legends figure. This is clearly a just a old figure they already had with a new paint job and being called an “exclusive”. Marvel Unlimited Plus is a 30 dollar premium over the normal Marvel Unlimited subscription and while that isn’t a huge amount its enough that I expect better than this. Right now the Deadpool figure goes for 19 to 60 on ebay (which my figure will be joining them for sale soon…).
Last is the patch and pin. The enamel pin is similar quality to years past and while it’s not terrible it’s also only ok. I like the Scottie Young design on it but still feel mostly meh on it. I like the patch a lot, this is the new X-Men logo for House of X so there isn’t a lot of mech for it. It’s a cool design and fits in to the theme well.
What else do you get in a Marvel Unlimited Plus subscription? There are invites to members only events at SDCC, NYCC, and C2E2. They actually seem like cool events that if you go to them you get additional free variant covers of comics and some insider information at the panel. However, I don’t live anywhere near these events and will likely never go to them so it’s not much a benefit. You also get 15% off digital comics from comixology / Marvel Comics Digital store. However, Marvel has just recently announced the Marvel Comics shop is closing so this benefit is ending. Lastly you can get 10% off all things from marvelshop.com. I’ve never used this benefit before and forget that it is a benefit entirely, but hey, 10% isn’t much but it’s something.
Overall outside of the disappointment in the Marvel Legends figure it’s a really great box and I’m pleased with what I got in it.
As if my weekly television didn’t consist of enough comic book properties on February 8th FX is premiering a new show called Legion which centers around David Haller, aka Legion, aka Professor Xavier’s son. I am pretty excited, the previews so far have been pretty awesome (check out the trailer here) and I’ve always been a big fan of the X-Men. Which brings us to the matter at hand! Legion is considered the first live action adaptation of X-Men to come to television but that is wrong. Back in the dark times before the internet (1996) the X-Men appeared on TV in one of the most epic trainwrecks of all time, Generation X.
Generation X the movie is based on Generation X the comic which was first published in 1994. Generation X (Comic) was a spin off of the main X-Men series created by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Chris Bachalo. It centers around the teenage students of the Xavier School, Chamber (Jonothon “Jono” Starsmore), Husk (Paige Guthrie), Jubilee (Jubilation Lee), M (Monet St. Croix), Mondo, Gaia, Penance, Skin (Angelo Espinosa), and Synch (Everett Thomas). Some of which were mutants from other series and a handful of new mutants created for the series. They are mentored by teachers at the Xavier School Banshee (Sean Cassidy) and Emma Frost (The White Queen).
In casting aspect Generation X (movie) was actually kind of faithful to the comics. Banshee and Emma Frost are the teachers at the school in the comics as they were in the movie. Jubilee, M, Skin, and Mondo are also in both the movie and comics, while they added two new mutants Kurt Pastorius and Arlee Hicks. Kurt doesn’t appear in any comics, he seems to have powers simlar to cyclops but it is fairly unclear what they really are. Alree has super strength powers which cause her to be really buff.
Movie Summary
The movie starts off with our villain Russel Tresh moments away from cutting the brain out of an unsuspecting mutant. At the last minute steps in Emma Frost with some cops to shut him down. However, after saving the mutant, he is immediately apprehended by the cops for being unregistered and Tresh goes away free. Smash cut to an arcade. A young Jubilee is playing Virtual Fighter which is also laced with subliminal messaging to keep the teenages playing. In a trance Jubliee accidentally uses her powers which destroy the machine and cause her to be arrested. Cut to Emma Stone waking up in a four post bed being all super sexy. She Banshee go to pick up another mutant (Skin) and stop off to get Jubilee on the way. They convince Jubliee’s parents to let her go to the Xavier school where she will learn to control her powers. They then get Skin who we learn has stretchy limbs powers similar to Mr. Fantastic (except they seem to hurt him).
Jubilee and Skin are brought to the Xavier school where they are processed and meet the other students. They join in a pick up game of football where they are hazed a little but seem to fall in with the rest of the kids. There is a montage of the kids living together and all of them standing in line for the one bathroom in the school (seriously? just one?) where we learn that there is something weird with Arlee’s body and she wears baggy clothes to hide it. We then see the kids at class where they learn to hone their telepathic powers which apparently all mutants have in this world. Skin finds out that there is a machine locked away that lets you enter people’s dreams and shows Jubilee (this will come in to play later). The kids then convince Banshee to let them take the car and go to town where Skin meets a pretty blonde but her jock friends pour food on him.
While all this is happening our villain is creating the same dream machine that Emma has for a super shady corporation. He tells them it will be to sell products to kids while they sleep subliminally but he is really just wants revenge on Emma Frost. After a disastrous presentation to the companies board of directors he is fired. Tresh however is plugged in to the dream machine when they come to get him, pulling the plug and locking him in the dreamworld. Tresh gets revenge killing his boss by making him jump out of a building while he is asleep.
Skin and Jubilee use Emma’s dream machine which Tresh is able to find them and freak them out. Tresh then blackmails Skin in to helping him by threatening to harm his little sister. Once Tresh is saved from the dream world by Skin, he turns on Skin and wants to cut out his brain so he can have mutant powers as well. Jubliee discovers Skin is missing and alerts Emma. The school goes to Tresh’s lab and defeat him. The movie ends with the students getting suits.
Stray Observations
While this movie actually films at the same mansion that is used in the 2000’s X-Men movie there are literally no other mutants in the mansion. Besides the 6 students and 2 teachers the school is empty.
Even though there are X’s everywhere and the school is the Xaiver school there is no mention of the X-Men or Charles Xavier outside the name of the school.
I’m still uncertain what was wrong with Arlee’s body. There is a scene where Jubilee accidentally walks in on her in a dressing room and you see a sort of buff back for a half a second but it is still unclear.
Tresh is super annoying. He has a Jim Carey Riddler vibe going on and his motivations are super unclear. He focuses most of the movie around getting this technology built to go into the dreamworld but really seems to want to cut open a mutants brain to get telepathic powers.
If you thought you’d see a badass fight with mutants using their powers, too bad! Almost all the action takes place in the dream world which is super murky and unclear what it is. For a movie about mutants they spend a ton of time dealing with this weird dream world.
The version of the movie I watched happened to be the UK version which has a few differences.
Jubilee has to talk her clothes off when she gets to the mansion for a full body scan. There isn’t actual nudity but it was weird and doesn’t play out to anything (see the 18:45 mark).
Jubliee goes on a weird F-bomb run after they first go into the dream world. This is when I realized this version was different. It’s only at this part of the movie that there is any swearing and its really weird (see the 52:13 mark).
When Tresh threatens Skin he says he will rape Skin’s sister. It’s really creepy and dark (see the 1:11:12 mark).
Final Thoughts
Generation X was better than I thought while still being weird and a disaster. I was surprised they actually had a decent amount of big name mutants from the Generation X comics. However they managed to barely have them use their mutant powers at all. I get it. The technology wasn’t there and on a TV budget they just couldn’t afford to have them use their powers and make it look good. But still they had to no it was an issue going in to it and using this weird dream world was a huge mistake. Anyways you don’t have to take my word for it, the entire movie is posted on YouTube for free! God bless you internets.
With DC launching their new DC You titles and Marvel finally announcing their plans for after Secret Wars I decided to do a little Spring Summer Cleaning of the old Pull List. To start off, here is what my current Pull List looks like:
Physical Books
Wytches
Angela: Asgard’s Assassin
All-New X-Men
Spider-Gwen
Jupiter’s Circle
Fight Club 2 (LS)
Wonder Woman
Batman
Batgirl
Gotham Academy
Superman/Wonder Woman
Jupiter’s Legacy (LS)
Digital Books
Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman
Catwoman
*LS indicates it is a limited series and not ongoing
My ultimate goal is to bring this list down to a lean mean 10. Fight Club 2 is a limited series but is coming out monthly so I consider it a number in my list. Jupiter’s Legacy is so infrequent that while it is on the list I don’t really consider it a “monthly cost”.
Here are the books I dropped:
Wytches
Angela: Asgard’s Assassin
Jupiter’s Circle
Gotham Academy
Superman / Wonder Woman
These books aren’t bad but I find my self letting them stack up 3-4 months at a time with no desire to read them. I may pick them up as a trade later but as for now they are just costing me money. I never really enjoyed Jupiter’s Circle so it was the easiest book to drop. Jupiter’s Legacy has come out once so far this year so I feel pretty safe keeping it on my list. Wytches was ok but I’d rather read it collected 6 issues at a time in a trade rather than go monthly. Angela: Asgard’s Assassin and Gotham Academy were both pretty good for the first arc but I still lost interest. Superman / Wonder Woman has been good but it lost a lot of what I liked when they switched artists and it was no longer Tony S. Daniel.
Here are the new books I’m adding:
Physical Books
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Extraordinary X-Men
Uncanny X-Men
Old Man Logan
Digital Books
Justice League: Gods and Monsters
Justice League of America
This will have me pulling all of the main X-Men team books with the addition of the Old Man Logan solo book. I’ve been pulling All-New X-Men for a while now and while I’ve really enjoyed it, have missed out on crucial information by not pulling the other main X-Men Books. So with all of the Marvel books getting rebooted to number 1 it’s a good time to get in on the ground floor of all three main X-Men books at once.
The only ongoing new DC comic book that I’ll be adding is the new Justice League of America from Bryan Hitch. I’ve gone through the whole list of new DC books and this new JLA is really the only one that I’m interested in. I’ll be getting Justice League: Gods and Monsters but it is a limited series and will be ending on July 18th.
I know that I only posted about this a couple of days ago but in reality it’s been close to two weeks for the comics to get here. Now I know this is just me being spoiled from using amazon prime but seriously two weeks to ship something is ridiculous. I love me some woot and have gotten some great deals from it in the past but don’t ever order anything from them you might need quickly. So up top are scans of all the covers that I took last night. I was actually pretty surprised by the quality of the comics that I got. They were pretty diverse selection some going back to 1990 and some from as recent as 2012. Also there was a lot more number 1 issues that I could have hoped for. This will certainly make reading these a little easier and prevent me from being completely lost.
One minor gripe was that included in these comics was the following issue of Batman. It is was a free preview version of the graphic novel Batman: Earth One that was released last year to coincide with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. It’s not really a comic book and it was a free give away so it’s a bit of a cop out from original description of the order I made. I was pretty annoyed initially but the quality of the other comics is better than I expected so I’m going to let it slide. However as far as this project goes I am going to switch it out with another book. I had picked up a bunch of random comics while I was at the local comic book convention and am going to a random issue of Detective Comics from 1999 (Detective Comics 734) instead. Since I was promised a Batman comic if feels like a solid replacement.
So here is the complete list of the comics that I got.
Detective Comics: Batman – 734
July 1999 – DC Comics
$1.99
Fantastic Four – 383 December 1993 – Marvel
$1.25
War Heroes – 1 of 6 July 2008 – Image
$2.99
Wonder Woman – 178 March 2002 – DC Comics
$2.25
Catwoman – 1 August 1993 – DC Comics
$1.95
Hammer of God – 2 of 2 1991 – First Publishing
$4.95
Squalor – 4 of 4 August 1990 – First Publishing
$2.75
Blackest Night R.E.B.E.L.S. – 10 January 2010 – DC Comics
$3.99
Day of Vengeance – 1 June 2005 – DC Comics
$2.50
Wolverine – 27 June 2005 – Marvel Comics
$2.25
Secret Avengers – 1 July 2010 – Marvel
$3.99
House of M – 1 of 8 August 2005 – Marvel
$2.99
Exiles – 48 August 2004 – Marvel
$2.99
X-Men – 27 June 2012 – Marvel
$3.99
Ultimate Spider-man – 78 August 2005 – Marvel
$2.50
X-Patrol – 1 April 1996 – Amalgam
$1.95
Zorro – 6 October 2005 – Papercut
$2.95
Hercules: The Knives of Kush – 3 of 5 October 2009 – Radical Comics
$2.99
Bullets and Bracelets – 1 April 1996 – Amalgam
$1.95
Adventure Comics – 504 October 2009 – DC Comics
$3.99
Wrath – 1 January 1994 – Malibu Comics
$1.95
Wrath – 6 June 1994 – Malibu Comics
$1.95
Deadman – 6 July 2002 – DC Comics
$2.50
Negation – 9 September 2002 – Crossgen Comics
$2.95
Transformers: Generations – 1 March 2006 – IDW
$1.99
Along with these comics I also got 10 packs of random non-sports cards. Five unopened packs of Pukeymon Cards and 5 unopened packs of Johnny Quest Cards. I also got random assortment of opened Desert Storm cards as well.
They are pretty fantastic as well and don’t worry I’ll make a special blog post just about them.
The total retail cost of the comics would have been $68.50 and the retail cost of the cards would have been $19.90 bringing the total value of the package at $88.40 retail. I paid 14.99 which is 17% of retail value. The most valuable comic of the bunch is Catwoman 1 which goes for $5.00 today which is 2.56 times its original cost.
Star Trek vs. Star Wars, Apple vs. Android, Vampires vs. Werewolves, no matter how arbitrary it seems like we are all ways picking a side. Generally when I met fellow comic book nerds this is one of the first things that comes up is which do you like DC or Marvel? For the sake of argument I generally just say DC but the truth is I like both and the argument that one if better than the other is dumb. I say thing because I’ve written a lot about DC in past posts and I don’t want this to seem like I’m just an exclusive DC fanboy. I have Marvel and DC books on my pull list and go see every comic book movie that comes out regardless of which company puts them out. The rest of this post is going to be talking a lot of shit about Marvel but before I want to say some good things. I really do like All-New X-Men and it’s one of my favorite books to come out each month. I also regularly Read X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, Guardians of the Galaxy, and will start reading the monthly Spider-Gwen when it comes out. I think Marvel has been really smart to release digital copies of books with their books. I really appreciate it and it actually is a big selling point for me. I wind up picking up a lot of Marvel books I might not have just because I know I get a digital copy with it.
Ok niceties over. So as I said above All-New X-Men is on my pull list for my local comic book shop. It had been coming out pretty consistently bi-monthly but took a bit of a break in November so I was pretty happy when it came back in December. I was even more excited when I saw there was an Annual come out only a week later! I start immediately reading the book and am completely lost and confused. I do not know who Eva Bell is, she is not a part of the All-New X-Men team, hasn’t showed up in a single issue, and is lost in time and space for some unexplained reason. If you were only subscribed to All-New X-Men you would have just wasted 5 bucks on a book that is utter non-sense.
Here was my process of figuring out what was going on.
I read Uncanny X-Men through the Marvel Unlimited app so I have an idea about what is going on in that book but I’m 6 months behind. So I at least am ahead of the curve in that I know who Eva Bell is, but I don’t know why she stuck in time or what is going on. My first clue was when I redeemed my digital copy of the book on Comixology and happen to see the description say “the secret life of Eva Bell Part 2”. Ah, there is a part 1. I searched Comixology and found that part 1 was in Uncanny X-Men Annual.
Ok so I picked up that issue as well. It still starts off in the middle of the action again so I figure I missed something in Uncanny X-men that explains why Eva Bell is stuck out of time. So I read the front matter of the book (which I never do) and this is the explanation.
Ok so I did miss something. I go back in my marvel unlimited app and can’t find an incident where Eva disappeared and came back aged 7 years. It is either in one of the recent six issues or I missed it. I google what issue it is and figure out they are talking about Uncanny X-Men issue 17. Here is Eva Bell from Uncanny X-Men 17.
This is good, it is in the Marvel Unlimited app so I can read it for free. I re-read the issue and it does take place in the Danger Room but said incident of Eva Disappearing does not occur. I even skim through the next couple of issues and Eva Bell is in them but no mention of her aging 7 years. I did find this from Uncanny X-Men issue 19, which is vague but the best I think we’ll get for an explanation.
At this point I just accept that this is the best I’m going to get and move on and read both the Uncanny X-Men and All-New X-men Annual.
So just to recap here is what I needed to do to understand the All-New X-Men Annual:
Read issues 1-2 of Uncanny X-Men for the introduction of Eva Bell
Read issue 17 of Uncanny X-Men to see when the Danger Room incident occurred
Ready Uncanny X-Men Annual 1
This is what frustrates me about Marvel comics. It’s a complete God Damn mess. You cannot just read one series and get a cohesive story. You really need to read All-New X-men, X-Men, and Uncanny X-men to get a coherent story. This isn’t just an X-Men problem. Angela joined the Guardians of the Galaxy but left for Asgard in a Thor comic with no explanation back in Guardians. One day she just wasn’t there anymore. Venom then joined the Guardians of the Galaxy but not in the series but in the Free Comic Book Day issue which came out after he was walking around with them in Guardians Issue 14.
This isn’t even to mention the constant barrage of even tie in issues.
Tie in issues aren’t exclusive to Marvel. As a reader of Batman there have been tie ins across most of the bat family books for every major event. The difference is that they are done in a way where they have been one shot stories and they give you all the information you need within the series to understand what is going on. When Batgirl had a Court of the Owls tie I didn’t need to read any of the court of the owls books to know what was going on. Vice versa, I could only read the Batman main series with no tie ins and get the complete Court of the Owls story.
The worst part about this the story “secret life of Eva Bell” story is actually pretty good. Once I actually read both parts and had the context of the story I actually really enjoyed it. I felt the same way about the Battle of the Atom event that spanned across 4 different X-Men books. It was a great story but just done in a batshit insane fashion. Had I not wanted to read the whole Battle of the Atom event I would have been shit out of luck for two months in whatever X-men monthly series I was reading.
Most fans might look at all this craziness and say “because comic books”. Yes Comic books be crazy but this is the exact reason that there are lot of people who would like to get into comics but find it so confusing and frustrating that they give up.
Comic Books and Cats 