Tag: Salvador Larroca

X-Treme X-Men Reunion

 

X-treme X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel.com

  This new X-Treme X-Men #1 variant revealed on Marvel.com inspires great X-memories for me. Salvador Larroca is one of my favorite artists and this marks a homecoming of sorts for the Spanish creator. The new X-Treme X-Men debuting in July is a team of mutants from various dimensions by Greg Pak and Stephen Segovia. Dazzler, Kid Nightcrawler, Emmiline Frost and Captain Howlett (an alternate version of Wolverine) will venture through time and space to save the multiverse. This series is a spinoff of Pak’s Astonishing X-Men run.

X-Treme X-Men #1 Vol 1 courtesy Marvel

 Larroca teamed with legendary Chris Claremont on the first incarnation of X-Treme X-Men featuring Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Psylocke, Sage, Bishop as globetrotting team in search of Destiny’s Diaries. I have this #1 issue in a frame on my mantle. Larroca later joined Peter Milligan on X-Men with weird tales like Golgotha, The Blood of Apocalypse and Bizarre Love Triangle: Mystique’s “foxxy” infiltration of the team. Larroca even worked on Chuck Austen’s X-Men’s run.

Uncanny X-Men #174 courtesy Marvel

Ed Brubaker welcomes Larroca back on Uncanny X-Men for his Morlock storyline. Larroca always seems to be evolving his style. His interpretation of Storm in particular.

Since 2008 Larroca has worked with Matt Fraction on Invincible Iron Man. I highly recommend newuniversal by Warren Ellis. With the rumored creative changes coming to Marvel’s main books perhaps Larroca will return to an X-Men book but until then let’s Marvel at this gorgeous cover.

By Editor

Uncanny X-Men Writer on AvX and Vs.

  War comes to Utopia. Scott’s Extinction team faces the Avengers for custody of Hope as the Phoenix Force speeds towards Earth. How will Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen weave his title into the Avengers Vs. X-Men epic. I wanted to share part of a new interview from Marvel.com.

  “The Marvel events are enormous landmarks in the topography of the Marvel Universe. With my Uncanny X-Men run, I’ve been building towards [Avengers Vs. X-Men] for as long as I’ve been doing the book. I’ve been making a situation where a confrontation between Avengers and X-men isn’t just logic, it’s kinda necessary. So, when I’m taking part of the event, this is basically lighting all the fuses to the fireworks I’ve been laying down, and sitting back and hoping everyone goes “cool!” at the explosions in the sky.”

AvX Vs. #2 courtesy Marvel

  Fights in AvX will spill into a second “all fights” book: AvX:VS. Gillen tells why and how we will chronicle Spider-Man vs. Colossus in AvX:Vs #2.

“The twist is really the opposite of that. There’s not an enormous amount of personal history between the pair. The history is between Spider-Man and Juggernaut, whose powers Colossus has borrowed. So the story’s emotional aspects are really about playing with that resonance. And “playing” is probably the word. I do a Colossus/Red Hulk brawl in Uncanny X-Men #11, which is dark, serious, character-motivated stuff. The VS [book is], as the preview art perhaps [tells], all about the spectacle of super beings going for each other.

  Why did I pick it? Well, editor Nick Lowe called me up and asked if I’d be interested in writing it. And because I never wrote Spider-Man, I figured it could be fun to do. And it was. I immediately descended to walking around the house, improvising really bad Parker-esque wise-cracks.

AvX Vs #2 preview courtesy Marvel.com

  During the Uncanny X-Men tie-in to Fear Itself Colossus became the Juggernaut and this will play into the showdown with Spidey.

“Peter actually talks about this mid-fight, in terms of the traditional axis. It’s a “What happens is I tire myself out punching you eight million of times, you get angry trying to hit me eight million times and never connecting and then I drop you into a concrete vat” situation. That’s how Juggernaut fights go. The difference is Piotr. He’s not exactly a superbrain, but he’s a damn sight smarter than Cain Marko. That nudges a traditional Spider-Man advantage away.”

Uncanny X-Men #11 courtesy Marvel

  How will AvX affect his Uncanny title and change the status quo of Utopia:

“Basically, Uncanny focuses in hard on the mutant-centric Utopia-focused side. While the core book will be about both Avengers and X-Men, mine is primarily interested in what this means to mutantkind, both now, and looking towards whatever comes next. The Avengers are antagonists in my book. I’m interested in them as enemies. I shamelessly don’t give them a fair shake. I get inside my characters’ heads. I write some secret history. I look at how the events of AvX shake up the already volatile internal politics of the Extinction Team.

  I mean, you want some examples? For the former, you ever wondered why Namor’s on the mutants’ side? I do that in issue #11. For the middle aspect, the mystery of the Lights has been a bubbling plot for the mutants’ corner of the universe. I deal with it in #13. And for the latter…well, for that you’ll have to wait. Thinking about it, there is an exception to the “X-Men over Avengers” focus I mentioned above. That’s issue #12, where I go to Tabula Rasa. It’s ended up as something tonally separate to the vast majority of my X-Men run. Its primary focus is on Namor and The Thing, and it’s something of a diversion from my relatively serious approach. I mean, it’s still high stakes, but I think people will laugh a lot. It’s a return to the scene of Namor/Tapeworm Queen intimacy, after all.

Oh, I also throw some villains into the mix. Sinister returns in an enormous way. And, from his perspective, AvX is basically called “Mister Sinister presents…Avengers Vs. X-Men.” In fact, from Sinister’s perspective, it’s “Mister Sinister presents…the whole Marvel Universe, ever.” He’s nothing if not an egotist, as issue #14 will make clear.

And there’s more there too. I don’t want to say anything, but I manage to throw another curve ball into the whole mess with my last issue before AvX. It’s sneaksie, to say the least.”

 For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.

 AvX Vs #2 will be Gillen’s first time working with Invincible Iron Man artist Salvador Larroca. 

 

X-Treme X-Men

 

courtesy Marvel.com

 

    An extreme tease from Marvel today! This X-Treme X-Men logo was revealed with the note to tune in the Talk to the Hat panel at Wondercon this weekend.

X-Treme X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel.com

  X-Treme X-Men was a Chris Claremont penned team from 2001-2004 during the Grant Morrison era. Salvador Larroca was the artist for the title’s first 24 issues. Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Bishop, Sage, Psylocke, Thunderbird (Neal Shaara) and Beast (until Morrison claimed him for New X-Men)were a globe-trotting team searching for Destiny’s Diaries.

X-Treme X-Men #10 courtesy Marvel.com

  The series introduced an Australian brother and sister that would become mutant heroes Slipstream and Lifeguard. Cannonball and Kitty Pryde would later make appearances. Emma Frost guest starred in an arc that delved into Sage’s past with the Hellfire Club.Claremont knows how to write Storm. I love Sage and Bishop as the mutant Law & Order SVU detective team. Larroca’s art was magnificent. I loved the series first adventure set in Valencia, Spain and starring the new villain, Vargas.

 

  Could a new X-Treme X-Men book mark the return of Claremont to the mutants or is this a new title in the aftermath of Avengers Vs X-Men?

 

Iron Man No More?

 

Invincible Iron Man #516 courtesy Marvel

  What will make Tony Stark give up being Iron Man? Writer Matt Fraction previews his next arc Long Way Down on Marvel.com. Salvador Larroca’s art sure looks like Tony will no longer be the Armored Avenger.

  “As we’ll see at the end of Demon, General Babbage, [Tony’s] primary antagonist at the Pentagon, and Justine Hammer of Hammer Industries, present Tony with an ultimatum,” says Fraction. “Accepting it is the only way he can remain in control of the Iron Man without losing everything. And Tony very quickly finds that arrangement to be unacceptable. The ramifications of that are what ‘Long Way Down’ is all about.

“So basically…Tony quits.”

  A mole inside Stark Resilient will be exposed. Fraction says expect dire repercussions:

“People start dying. Bethany Cabe starts earning her paycheck.”

Invincible Iron Man #517 courtesy Marvel.com

 “All the pots from the very beginning of Invincible Iron Man are coming to a boil,” he says. “Mandarin and Stane’s alliance, the revamped and upgraded rogues gallery, the Hammer girls, Spymaster’s infiltration—‘Long Way Down’ deals with all of it.”

Fraction says there will be a new Iron Man. Who will wear the armor? For Fraction’s entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.  Long Way Down begins in Invincible Iron Man #516 this May.

  Fraction and Larroca have been on the title four years – sounds like they’re ramping up to a swan song on the title. How cool would it be for this team to take on the Avengers after Bendis wraps up his run on the franchise!

AVX Vs. #2 Slugfest

Vs. #2 courtesy Marvel

  Salvador Larroca is one of my favorite creators. The Spanish artist’s style has evolved over several X-Men titles, Invincible Iron Man and does any recall the short lived but beautiful New Universal?

 Marvel gave Comic Book Resources several AVX preview covers. This is one of my favorites. Spidey faced a Cyttorak powered foe before in the classic Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut. Looks like Peter Parker will have to fight Colossal Juggernaut now that the X-Man can summon the power of the Cyttorak.

  Captain America and Gambit are clashing on the cover too. It’s tough to root for one over the other: the boy scout against the bad boy. Gambit’s luck may have run out on this fight.

 AVX: VS. #2 is by Kieron Gillen with art by Larroca and Steve McNiven.