Movie Review: X-Men: First Class

After two weak entries in the X-Men film franchise (the juvenile X3, and the unimpressive X-Men Origins: Wolverine), I was pretty leery going into X-Men: First Class. Yellow uniforms? Magneto’s helmet? Eurgh. Has there ever been a 5th movie in a series that was actually decent? Now there’s at least one; X-Men: First Class is an intelligent, exciting, stylized addition to the X-Men film franchise, and almost supplants X2 as the best X-Men movie.

X-Men: First Class takes place in the swingin’, Commie hatin’ 60s and chronicles the friendship and conflict between Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a telepathic university professor and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), a metal-kinetic Nazi hunter. I could watch “Magneto vs Nazis” all day, but the real villain of the film is the enigmatic Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), mutant mastermind.

Back Issue Alphabet: Q is for Quasar #3 of 4 (2007)

Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar # 3 (Christos N. Gage, Mike Lilly)

The cover features the star of the book, Phyla-Vell, kneeling pensively while offering up a quantum energy sword. It isn’t very indicative of the events inside the book, but it does represent the character of Phyla; stoic and noble.

Back Issue Alphabet: P is for Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #74 (1983)

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #74 (Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall, Jim Mooney)

This is certainly an interesting cover. I was honestly hoping that the “mind-shattering conclusion to the Debra Whitman saga” would involve her being devoured by an army of tiny Spider-Mans. It’s a very eye-catching design, and it subtly follows the “Z” layout for eye movement.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that the entirety of my Spider-Man reading/watching consists of the 90s Fox cartoon, the Sam Raimi movies, and Ultimate Spider-Man. I couldn’t tell you what a “classic” Spidey story is supposed to be, but I can tell you this: the best Spider-Man stories always have a grounded human story going on alongside whatever scientific insanity is going on at the time. Case in point, in the cartoon, there was an episode where Curt Conners is abducted by a race of lizard people, turned into The Lizard, and then tries to hotwire the neogenic recombinator to turn all of New York into lizard people; the underlying message of the episode is that marriage is about working through the tough times together, as explained by Mrs Conners. Awe, how heart warming!

Back Issue Alphabet: O is for The Omega Men (1983)

The Omega Men #1 (Roger Slifer, Keith Giffen, Mike De Carlo)

The cover is fairly overblown, and it didn’t give me high hopes for the content. I went into this book ready to tear into another self-important space opera, but darned if The Omega Men didn’t pull me in. It’s a Green Lantern/Teen Titans spin-off, but it’s spun so far off that you don’t require any knowledge of the crossover event that birthed it to enjoy the story.

Back Issue Alphabet: N is for The New Teen Titans Vol 3 #20 (1983)

The New Teen Titans Vol 3 #20 (Marv Wolfman, George Pérez)

This is by far the most original cover that I’ve come across, not just in the line of writing “Back Issue Alphabet” but in my decade or so of reading comics. It’s eye catching, relevant to the events in the book, and made me curious as to what was inside.

IDW's Dungeons & Dragons #1

Dungeons & Dragons #1 (John Rogers, Andrea Di Vito)

I had skipped this book when it first came out because a lot of sword and sorcery fantasy is, to be frank, pretty terrible. Too many writers craft stories about dungeons and dragons and leave out what makes tabletop RPGs so great in the first place: character interaction. The best thing about tabletop games is the zany back-and-forth between players. The fact that this book is an officially licenced tie-in to Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons game system made me leery, but as I was browsing at my comic book store I decided to give this book a chance. I’m glad I did. Very few comics have that particular combination of action, wit, and insanity that immediately hooks me on page 1. IDW’s D&D #1 managed to hook me instantly with this splash page:

Back Issue Alphabet: M is for Marvel Premiere #41 (1978)

Marvel Premiere #41: Seeker 3000 (Doug Moench, Tom Sutton)

At an unspecified time in the future, mankind has colonized our neighboring planets but has failed to “attain a safe warp drive and escape the solar-system.” This is a bummer, because the sun is about to “go nova” and mankind’s hope lies in the ship Seeker 3000 and a telepath who can generate warp fields. There is so much non-science in this book that it will burn the retinas of anyone possessing anything more than a high-school level understanding of physics.

Star Wars Comics: Old Republic and Lost Command

Both of these titles have been out for a few months, but my curiosity finally got the better of me, and since I began hosting a Star Wars: Saga Edition game, I figured I may be able to find some inspiration in them. 

Star Wars: The Old Republic #1: The Threat of Peace (Rob Chestney, Alex Sanchez, Michael Atiyeh)

Taking place after the events of the Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 games, The Old Republic is the era in which Bioware’s upcoming MMORPG is set in. The book was released to expand on the back story of the game and it smacks of product tie-in.

Back-Issue Alphabet: L is for Legends of the DC Universe #41

Legends of the DC Universe #41 Lessons in Time Part Two of Two (Todd Dezargo, Rich Faber, Drew Johnson)

I love this cover. I have no idea what’s supposed to be going on, but I love it. I’m guessing that The Atom teams up with a temporally displaced World War 2 velociraptor battalion. The cover was so radical that I bent the rules of Back-Issue Alphabet and checked the box I randomly pulled #41 out of for #40. It was right next to it, so I picked it up. It takes a bit out of the randomness of the Back Issue Alphabet project, but the way I see it is if a reader randomly took this book of the self in 2001, he would be smart enough to see “part one of two” on the cover and check if part one was on the shelf beside it, which is what I did. Because I’m smart enough. 

Back Issue Alphabet: K is for Ka-Zar #3 (1974)

Ka-Zar #3 (Mike Friedrich, Don Heck, Mike Royer)

For anyone not in the know, Ka-Zar is Marvel’s version of Tarzan, but instead of an ape named Cheeta, Ka-Zar has a sabre-toothed cat name Zabu. And instead of Africa, Ka-Zar lives in the Savage Land, Marvel’s version of The Lost World.

The cover is... vibrant. A giant bald guy wearing Renaissance fair boots is punching a tree and shouting while Ka-Zar and Zabu leap at him. Also, there is a woman with a ripped blouse staring directly at Ka-Zar’s loincloth with a horrified expression. Who ripped her blouse? Who messed up her face? Will she actually appear in the comic (spoiler alert: not really)?

Done in One: Marvel Vault Doctor Strange

Marvel Vault: Doctor Strange, script by Roger Stern, pencils by Neil Vokes

In comics biz there are a lot of projects that almost make it to publication, but for one reason or another are shelved indefinitely. The Marvel Vault is a series of one-shots that have been pulled from editorial limbo and into the light of publication.

Back Issue Alphabet: J is for Justice League America #51 (1991)

Justice League America #51 (J.M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, Adam Hughes) (1991)

Out of all the books I’ve reviewed for Back Issue Alphabet, this is the first issue from a series that I’ve previously read. I’ve enjoyed volumes one through four of J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen’s Justice league International, which encompasses issues #1 through #30 of the series. It changed it’s name to "Justice League America" to differentiate itself from its spin-off, Justice League Europe.

Back Issue Alphabet: I is for Iron Man: Director of Shield #31

Iron Man: Director of Shield #31 With Iron Hands Part 3 of 4 (Stuart Moore, Carlo Pagulayan, Steve Kurth)


The cover is a very nice drawing of Tony in armour, which is lost in a sea of hundreds of very nice drawings of Tony in armour just sort of standing around or flying. I really wish comic book covers were more like they were in the 80s and earlier, where the cover was relevant to what was actually going on in the book itself.

I’ve been following Iron Man comics since Matt Fraction took over in 2009, so it was interesting to see this issue come up in my random selections. In “With Iron Hands,” Tony has to deal with the consequences of being brilliant and rich. Well, that sounds quite sarcastic, but when people rise above the masses they become easy targets for the disgruntled and the jealous.

Advertising Action Hour: The Crossover That Wasn't

Going through the old comics for my Back Issue Alphabet articles, I occasionally run across some fascinating old adverts. Mostly they serve as time capsules, either promoting soon-to-fail game systems or movies that have faded into obscurity, but sometimes I find some that blow my mind. Like this gem:

The Guardian Project: NHL Super Heroes

Comic book legend Stan Lee (no relation to the phonetically similar hockey trophy) has teamed up with the NHL to create a superhero mascot and accompanying short comic book (written by Chuck Dixon) for each of the 30 NHL teams. It’s called The Guardian Project, and the results are about as bizarre as you would expect. Seeing as 30 characters would make an unwieldy super group, let’s take a look at the six Canadian Guardians in order of least to most ridiculous. 

Back Issue Alphabet: G is for Groo the Wanderer #47 (1989)

Groo the Wanderer #47 (Sergio Aragonés, Stan Sakai, Tom Luth, Mark Evanier)

Back-Issue Alphabet: F is for Fantastic Four #251

Fantastic Four #251 (1983) John Byrne, Jim Novak, Glynis Wein

Tired of me featuring DC comics? You’re in luck! This week we’re looking at John Byrne’s Fantastic Four #251. Not only is it the first “Back Issue Alphabet” book that’s older than I am, it’s a great microcosm of what the Fantastic Four are all about. 

Back Issue Alphabet: E is for Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1 (1992)

Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1 (Kieth Giffen, Robert Loren Fleming, Bart Sears)

If the cover scan looks a little bit askew, that’s because the diamond that Eclipso is holding over his eye is actually a little plastic thingy that’s attached to the comic book. It’s like one of those treasure troll tummy gems, and despite my initial optimism, it doesn’t actually grant wishes. 

Back-Issue Alphabet: D is for Detective Comics #665 (1993)

Detective Comics #665 (Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan, Dick Giordano)

First off, the cover: Wow. This is precisely what I was hoping for when I was yanking random books out of the bin. Completely screw-ball covers like this. The central focus of the cover is Batman’s cackling visage. He is just so totally pumped to be beating these thugs senseless with a board with nails in it. And this is Batman; He has a jet shaped like a bat, boomerangs shaped like bats, and a robot dinosaur back in the Batcave. When he’s beating a guy with a board with nails in it, it’s simply to inflict indignity. And look at his ears. They’re twice as tall as the rest of his head.He can’t even close the roof of the Batmobile with these things up. So he either has to detach them when he drives or just drive with the top down and have the ears covered with bugs by the time he gets home.

Comic Review: Fused: Canned Heat

 Fused: Canned Heat (Steve Niles, Paul Lee, Brad Rader, Ben Templesmith)

Steve Niles is a comic book writer with a tenacity that I find infinitely admirable. His most popular work to date is 30 Days of Night, which was a movie pitch that failed, then a comic book pitch that failed, then a comic that he and artist Ben Templesmith made for IDW for free in 2002. The book was a critical and commercial success, and then movie studios took notice. In 2007 the 30 Days of Night film debuted, and Niles has continued to be a successful writer.

However, you won’t find Fused: Canned Heat on Niles’ list of writing achievements (or on his website). Finding this trade for $1 should have been a good warning sign, but I picked it from the bargain bin hoping to find a hidden gem. Unfortunately, Fused was more like finding gum under a bus seat.