I’m excited to report that Matt Fraction is returning to Emerald City Comicon. I loved Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men era which included the X-Men/Dark Avengers: Utopia. Matt is known for his long run on Invincible Iron Man, The Mighty Thor and 2011’s big event Fear Itself.
Matt recently relaunched The Defenders and is co-plotting The Fearless, both spinning out of event from Fear Itself. Matt is part of the team creating Avengers Versus X-Men debuting this April.
Fraction’s creator owned book Casanova continues to push the boundaries of storytelling and your mind!
Casanova Luxuria #1 courtesy Marvel.com
I’m very lucky to have several autographed issues and graphic novels by him. Time to start choosing what I hope to have signed this year!
Emerald City Comicon is March 30th-April 1st in Seattle.
The fallout from The Dark Angel Saga is bleeding into the main X-Men titles. This week’s Uncanny X-Men #5 and last week’s Wolverine and the X-Men #5 take the aftermath of Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force epic to create new characters and threats for Logan and Scott’s teams.
Psylocke is becoming the female version of Wolverine. Scott and Betsy have a clever exchange that plays on the fact that suddenly Psylocke is in every X-book and a crucial part of every key storyline now.
Someone on the Extinction Team knows about Logan and Betsy’s dark secret from Uncanny X-Force and that could lead to some intense future plot threads for Cyke’s team – if they survive their trip to Tabula Rasa.
Kieron Gillen has resurrected old villains on the new Uncanny X-Men title featuring Cyclops and his Utopia based Extinction Team.
In a new interview by Comic Book Resources featuring fan questions – the British writer tackled classic villains and upcoming events.
Why did Gillen kick off the relaunched title with Mister Sinister?
“I wanted a classic heavyweight X-Men villain and Sinister was simply the only one with the appropriate level of gravitas who wasn’t already elsewhere in play. Magneto is with the team. Apocalypse is busy over in “X-Force.” Sabretooth was already involved in plans you’ll be aware of now (and would be annihilated in a millisecond if he went up against the Extinction team, to be honest). Who else but Sinister? No one, that’s who. So I tried to work how I could do something that was entirely new yet true to what I sawa as the core of the character (mutants as research material, Victoriana, scheming and manipulating, upgrading of self, sinister-ness), and ended up with Sinister is a System — Sinister is a species and someone whose idea of an escape route is to blow off his own head.”
On Cyclops becoming the Magneto of the 21st century?
“I think his current position is that he’s willing to pretend to be more like Magneto to get what he wants — which is no one to fight and kill each other. It’s a specific tactic for a specific situation for a specific timeframe. From Cyclops’ position, it’s a case of keeping mutants alive until Hope does whatever Messiah-y things she’s born to do — if embracing the fact they are feared is a short-term compromise he thinks is the best solution. Cyclops is synthesizing various philosophies. There may be more Magneto in there than previous, but it’s not the dominant strand by any means.”
This is an excellent question: Would Cyclops recruit Daken to replace Wolverine?
“It’s certainly something that could happen — but I don’t think Scott would trust Daken. He’s got a lot of reformed villains on his team, but he’s more convinced by their reasons for being there than the ever-sociopathically manipulative Daken.”
Uncanny X-Men preview art courtesy Marvel.com
Gillen says Storm and Namor will play big roles in the Avengers Versus X-Men tie-in issues and Magic “comes under hard focus in my AvX issues.”
Humanity may encounter Space Gods on the big screen in Prometheus next year. Cyclops and his Extinction Team face Marvel’s Space Gods in Uncanny X-Men #3 out today.
Kieron Gillen and Carlos Pacheco’s first Regenesis arc reaches a cosmic climax when the Celestials arrive on Earth because of Mister Sinister’s manipulation of their cosmic brother.
The arc kicked off with Cyclops laying out his game plan to protect mutantkind with a show of force. You could say Scott was giving the Avengers a run for the money as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Mister Sinister returned with a plot similar to The Master’s in the The End of Time episode of Doctor Who. I wasn’t sure if I liked this latest incarnation of Sinister who seemed more like a hybrid of Loki and Liberace but I’m sold now.
I loved the dynamic of the Extinction team with tactical brilliance by Cyclops, clever chemistry between Emma Frost and Namor and an absolutely killer moment from Danger.
After taking on an army of Sinister clones – the X-Men stand ready to face the Celestials – with the world watching as Earth’s Mightiest Mutants show why there’s power in fear.
Wolverine may have an adamantium skeleton but Cyclops has nerves and b—- of steel!
