I’m trying to be better about calling out references (both positive and negative) to LGBT characters and issues as I come across them in mainstream comics. There have been a number if significant sightings recently. Hot on the heels of Captain America’s thoughtful support of Wiccan and Hulkling’s relationship and The Rawhide Kid swishing and shooting his was across the old west we have a major development in the fan favorite romantic relationship between Rictor and Shatterstar…
Now I don’t want to give the end of the argument away because i LOVE Peter David’s work, so I’ve just included part of it, and will keep this focused on what happens in these 2 pages. This is the first time I’ve ever seen 2 men discuss their relationship on this level in a comic book. And I’d put money on it being the first time 2 men have talked about having an “open relationship” in a comic book that didn’t come from Class Comics. While on some level, I’d have preferred a traditional monogamous relationship for the pair (as an example to readers both gay and straight), I think Peter David’s choice here is the right one. It fits the character and history of Shatterstar perfectly.
Shatterstar is a very athletic fighter bred for a single purpose that didn’t include knowledge of or preparation for sex or emotional relationships. Once he became aware of the physical act, a warrior such as him might embrace it and excel at it but not understand the feelings that may come along with it. Peter David as always has done an excellent job of logically expanding upon what has gone before while still managing to break new ground and keep his audience surprised. I’ve said it before, Peter David Rocks!!!
A SECOND COMING – REVELATIONS TIE-IN! You’re Bolivar Trask, the reanimated leader of the Mutant Response Division. Your mission: Kill every member of X-Factor. How to accomplish that without collateral damage?
Easy: hire the team for what seems to be a routine case that will send them into a certain death trap. Problem solved.
Um, that is unless you hand a gifted psychometric the cash. Madrox is smart. Longshot would know Absorbing Man was sending them into a trap. By the way why the fuck is Creel on the streets of New York anyway? He was taken down in Mighty Avengers.
Posted in Comics, SFW on 03/21/2010 02:44 pm by fanboi
It looks like there is a lot in store for X-Factor, but first Monet and Strong Guy are taking a detour deep into an unknown South American jungle in a desperate gambit to rescue Cartier St. Croix from a terrorist group.
And what exactly do the terrorists want? They want Monet, as it turns out. And you’ll never guess who’s behind it all.
After that it looks like we have some sort of government group in 204 and BASTION in 205!
Posted in Comics, SFW on 02/17/2010 01:48 am by fanboi
All the X-blogs are abuzz with talk of the the big X-Men Event to follow on the heels of Necrosha… Second Coming crosses over into X-Men (Uncanny & Legacy), X-Factor, X-Force and New Mutants. The X-Men have their hands full with the technarch-infected mutant-hating/hunting AI entity known as Bastion back yet again to bedevil them. PLUS it looks now that A Girl Named Hope is over and she and Cable are back from the future, the Phoenix is back too. but is Hope Summers really Jean? If so, what, reincarnated? Hope WAS born in Alaska… could she be Madelyne Pryor’s or some Summers/Grey genetic experiment of Mister Sinister’s – he DID come after her before Rogue killed him (and his seemingly short-lived return as Miss Sinister). And if the girl known as Hope Summers IS the Phoenix, does that mean Bishop was right to want her dead? Is she fated to save or damn mutankind? Only time and these stories will tell.
All will unite. One will rise. One will die. One will lead. One will sacrifice. Your thoughts? Mine after the Marvel teaser images…
All will unite – the disparate x-teams will come together. One will rise – will Hope be the return of Phoenix or Dark Phoenix (was Bishop right)? One will die – I’m guessing Cable. One will lead – not sure if it is Emma or Mags – I think Scott may be too broken by his son Nathan’s death (if I’m right) and need some time. One will sacrifice… hmmm Not sure what the sacrifice will be… Maybe Nathan gives his life to save Hope’s… any other theories?
With this crossover running through all the major X-Titles: Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy, New Mutants, X-Force and even the usually somewhat unplugged X-Factor, it is a MAJOR event. And with longtime x-foe Bastion as the big bad and specials showcasing the X-Men’s resident supergeniuses (X-MEN: SECOND COMING – REVELATIONS: BLIND SCIENCE #1) and a 3-issue miniseries chronicling an ill-timed side-battle in Limbo (X-MEN: SECOND COMING – REVELATIONS: BLIND SCIENCE #1), we may just have to wait awhile to find out if Hope Summer will we absolutely corrupted by her newfound power or not. See Shades of X to Come – May 2010 for more on those specials!
Posted in Comics, SFW on 02/17/2010 01:04 am by fanboi
Some fascinating hints of whats in store for the x-universe… BEWARE: Thar be spoilers below if you click the images and read the captions (including Pixie’s daddy – and he was one of my listed possible baby batter doners) Lots going on in the XU this spring. We have the return of mutant Hope in the X-Event known as Second Coming running through X-Men (Uncanny & Legacy), X-Factor, X-Force, and New Mutants (more on that in just a sec). Dazzler (new tale with half-sis Lois London as the big bad) and Emma Frost (another origin) specials, cryptic hints on an upcoming X-death, Daken vs Wolverine vs Romulus in Dark Wolverine! and Wolverine #900? wait a sec, I’ll need some help on that math cause that plain seems wrong. Maybe if you add up every issue of every comic that Logan EVER appeared in?
I have to admit that being a HUGE fan of DC’s recent zombies, I was unimpressed by Necrosha (still awaiting the final chapter but, meh) The BL characters in DC were by definition NOT really the characters but former Black Queen and wanna-be-goddess Selene’s unexplained magic/tech and the stories of the Necrosha arc just weren’t that scary or as horrific. Sure I’m happy to have Doug Ramsey back but with this new interpretation of Cypher’s abilities he’s not the same cannon-fodder mutant he once was.
Posted in Comics, SFW on 02/08/2010 03:04 am by fanboi
In case you didn’t know, there was an X-Factor before Peter David and Madrox turned it into a Mutant Detective Agency… So Louise Simonson and Dan Panosian are here to remind us with a 5 issue mini-series.
If you were first introduced to the 5 original X-Men by X-Men: First Class, then you most likely weren’t even a gleam in yo daddy’s eye when Jean Grey was discovered in a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay in 1986 and it was revealed she wasn’t actually the cosmic entity who died as the Phoenix. If so, you missed out on the original X-Factor, which reunited the 5 founding X-Men as a group of professional mutant-busters the public could call if they had a mutant problem. This era added many elements to the x-mythos, including the birth of Nathan Summers a.k.a. Cable and the sequence of events that sent him to the future.
Original X-Factor scribe Louise Simonson has teamed with artist Dan Panosian to bring us new adventures of the original dream-team as they return to fight the one threat that’s haunted them since the day they took on the X-Factor name. Join legendary X-scribe Louise Simonson as she reunites with the title and characters she made famous for an epic in the FOREVER tradition!
As with Chris Claremonts’ X-Men: Forever (a recent revisiting of his run on X-Men that might have been more interesting if confined to a mini), X-Factor: Forever picks up where the Simonson’s 5 year run on the title run left off. Evidently this is one of Marvel’s new traditions… Add a Forever to the title and let a former writer go wild.
Utopia. The sanctuary for mutants to escape a world that wants them extinct. So is it the ideal home for X-Factor? That’s what Cyclops believes when he invites the world’s only mutant detective agency to relocate to their floating island retreat and take up residence there. But will Madrox and his team believe that it’s the best place for them?
What old faces will pop up, and what old acquaintances will be renewed? And will there even be a Utopia left when the mysterious Crone shows up and threatens to bring the entire place crashing down into the Pacific?
Strange thing are afoot. Sue Storm is missing! Mister Fantastic is behaving like a cold calculating killer! Guido is making gladiator jokes! Shatterstar can kick the Thing’s ass? Siryn is banging Deadpool? Lalya Miller is in Latveria?
X-Factor has relocated back to New York, and their first client is a keeper: Franklin Richards, whose mom has disappeared and who figures that the premiere detective agency in the Marvel Universe has the best chance of finding her. Except Reed Richards doesn’t seem especially cooperative in helping them locate his missing wife. What is he hiding, and does it have anything to do with the coming Darkness?
Meanwhile, Val Cooper has some bad news for Monet: Her ambassador father has been taken prisoner by terrorists, and she has less than 24 hours to find him before he winds up getting his head cut off on video.
One thing that I thought was odd was the profile on Layla Miller doesn’t include any of the info we learned in X-Factor #50. She does NOT in fact have precognitive abilities. She went back in time after the Summers Rebellion and gave her younger self her accumulated memories. Her read super power is to raise the dead (sans soul – hence Trevor Fitzroy ends up the evil asshole Bishop eventually hunts to the past). But the profile says she “sees portions of possible futures.” Who wrote this and why didn’t an editor tell them about the big reveal last issue?
I love Peter David’s writing and with his milestone issue #50 he did an excellent job of tying up not only ALL the loose threads he’s been dangling not just for the past 8 issues or so (Summers Rebellion, unevil Fitzroy, Cortex, incontinent Doctor Doom), but also the ones that have been out there since the beginning of the series (finally the definitive answer to what IS the story with Layla Miller?). I don’t want to spoil anything, but I do wonder if that’s what happens to Layla, where does she go from there (or then)? I have to admit it felt a bit rushed and tidy to have it all dropped in our laps with a lovely anniversary bow on it, but I’m eagerly anticipating what happens next!
Worlds and times collide in this double-sized conclusion to the year long storyline that has revitalized X-Factor. Will the Summers Rebellion triumph as is supposed to happen…or will it be derailed? Will Madrox make it back to his own time? Will Siryn, Monet and the rest of the team have their final showdown with Cortex? Will we actually learn just how it is that Layla Miller knows stuff? Will someone die?
You probably remember the uproar the RicShatty kiss caused from character creator Rob Liefeld. At the time X-Factor writer Peter David handled Liefeld’s reaction with grace and aplomb. Peter David made a number of humorous comments aimed at Liefeld and he’s stuck to his guns on at least one of them.
In a discussion over at Robot6 (which by the way mentioned QueerSUPE yesterday!!!), Peter David decided that he would have Guido ask “Tell me Shatterstar… do you like gladiator movies?” as a reference to the classic film Airplane in which Captain Oveur makes similar suggestive remarks to the young boy visiting the cockpit. I suppose you should expect that when entering anyplace called “The Cockpit.”
In a preview of X-Factor #200 (due in December) which relocates X-Factor Investigations to NYC to find out why “the Invisible Woman has Vanished, he did just that.
Some fascinating hints of whats in store for the x-universe… The XU (X-Men Legacy, X-Force, New Mutants) is apoppin with zombies doing the bidding of wanna-be-goddess Selene in the first real X-Event of 2010… Necrosha. But its far from the last as Hope is still on her way back from the future and Nate Grey is back so there are all kinds of possibilities for mutants in 2010!
Stay tuned to the various X-Titles for further development…
I still have to stick my my assertion that at this moment Peter Davis can do no wrong. I love what’s been going on in X-Factor with the story, characters and especially the writers online comments and letter’s page responses. He rocks!
Cortex stands revealed! Or does he? The plan of the president’s science team threatens Madrox and Layla! Or does it? Shatterstar gets a milkshake! Or does he? It’s all going according to the plan of Doctor Doom! Or is it?
We found out last issue that Cortex is a Madrox dupe, right? Not to mention Trevor Fitzroy is on the side of the angels (for now). What more is in store for us as we approach the milestone issue #50? Oops, better make that #200 since the issue that follows #49 will be renumbered to #200 (the number the title would have been on if the current series had picked up where the oriinal series left off… at 151 instead of rebooting at 0).
I’m REALLY looking forward to this issue. From the solicit it looks like we’ll get more than 1 panel of Ric-n-Shatty snogging. I can’t wait to see what Peter David has in store for us on the bumpy road to issue #50. I’m eagerly anticipating Shatterstar’s story.
Time is beginning to bleed. Sentinels are starting to pop up in the darnedest places, the Summers Rebellion is spilling over into modern day, Rictor and Shatterstar have a lot to sort out, and X-Factor finally finds itself face to face with Cortex.
I’m also looking forward to seeing what the story is with Ruby Summers‘ good buddy and trusted ally – Trevor Fitzroy!?!?!
Simultaneously telling 3 intertwined stories (RicShatty, Cortex and Madrox in the future) should draw the whole thing out to #50. I wonder what Peter David has planned to follow it up? I hope he sticks it our for at least a few dozen more issues.
Now I know Peter David said he wasn’t writing the story to piss off Rob Liefeld. But this cover does seem like Peter David and Marvel giving him a visual Fuck You Rob I Don’t Give Two Shots What You Think! And I personally approve. How often do we see posed shots of super powered hetero couples? Most of the time, the woman is a scantily clad accessory draped over the guy so I don’t see anything wrong with this kind of affection, especially considering they’ve just been reunited. They would have posed like this back when we were just supposed to think they were “good friends.”
I’m sure it will stir up more controversy. In fact it already has. There was an interesting comment to my article about Rob Liefeld wanting to undo the outing. It is a bit of a rant about marvel and DC outing old characters for “shock value” but then says “(Rictor and Shatterstar aside because they have BEEN gay).”
If not them, then I’m not sure which characters he’s talking about specifically… Daken? Batwoman maybe? Who else has been outed for “shock value?” But, I actually don’t think you can count any comic book lesbians on the shock value list – writers turn female characters lesbian because it’s titillating to the a perceived adolescent male audience. So it’s meant to be sexy not shocking, so lets stick to the boys… because THEY are more likely to shock even today’s jaded readership…
The only example I can REALLY come up with of a longtime straight character turned gay for “shock value” is Ultimate Colossus. Only other possible exception I have is Ramsey Spencer (Manhunter’s preteen son who was revealed to grow up to be gay in a story set in the future – but since he is a child – he wasn’t established as straight and in this case I think it was the writer trying to tell a planned story quickly because his book was canceled. Other characters revealed as gay: Anole (was fairly new and revealed as gay pretty quick), Graymalkin (new and revealed as gay pretty quick), Northstar (took awhile to out, but he’s been out so long he’s the now gay mutant poster boy). Wiccan and Hulkling (new and revealed as gay pretty quick), Apollo and Midnighter (kind of a shock value thing with the Superman/Batman similarities – but old news) and Obsidian (he existed for awhile before being outed – but again that was long ago) have I left off anyone recent?
It honestly isn’t every week that I anticipate Wednesday and my comics as much as I am this week. Pretty much completely due to the arrival of X-Factor #46.
It’s Siryn in the fight of her life against the absolute last person that she would have expected to be battling. And Madrox, Layla and Ruby find themselves under assault by the Sentinels just when they’re on the verge of discovering the mystery behind Cortex!
As much as i love a good catfight, let’s hope we get a few pages of the unfolding homodrama going on in the present as well! As hooked as I ALREADY was on the Summers Rebellion future arc I’m now much more eagerly anticipating what happens AFTER Ric ‘n Shatty’s very warm greeting.
GayComicGeek was so livid about Rob Liefeld’s recent comments, that he resurrected his belligerent alter ego the AngryComicBookNerd and really says it best with this posts title.
And thanks for another Shout-out! Love your reviews! In case you folks hadn’t heard, apparently Rob Liefeld has locked down the threads on this topic at his own forum. I guess he was not getting the usual verbal handjob he has come to expect from his adoring fans. Anyone who runs a forum that way is just interested in hearing his own opinion echoed back.
I’ll keep covering the developing relationship between Rictor and Shatterstar (#46 is out NEXT WEEK!!!), but I’ve given homophobic hack Rob Liefeld too much press already. So feel free to pester him if you like, but barring further developments, I’m going to move on. There is just no sense arguing with a waste of human flesh.
Posted in Comics, SFW on 05/19/2009 08:44 pm by fanboi
It looks to me like the Black Queen is back. Selene graces the cover of X-Factor #44. But then again, I’ve been wrong before. Has Monet ever been known to wear a cape?
I’m loving Peter David’s writing and really looking forward to seeing what Selene is up to – so I hope it IS her.
UPDATE: Comments suggest that this isn’t Selene but Monet. It would be easier to tell if we had the dialog too. But I just don’t see any reason that Monet would come on to Darwin – ick. I COULD see Selene attempting to seduce him for her own purposes, but I also don’t see Selene in a tube top and mini-skirt either (for that manner I don’t see a total snob like Monet in that outfit either – if it’s her, maybe she’s being controlled?). I find this preview confusing.
As usual Peter David is delivering an amazing arc. After the brief glimpse we saw of the Summers Rebellion era in Layla Miller’s summer special last year, we are finally getting let in on the real story of Ruby Summers. With the exception of the Larry Stroman debacle, this title is really hitting its stride. Definitely one of my most anticipated books each month.
X-Factor draws one step closer to determining who is targeting former mutants for death…but the answer may wind up hitting too close to home. Meanwhile, Cyclops has a very particular mission that could spell the end for Madrox and his new partner. And Rictor finds himself in a battle to the death with…nah. Why ruin the surprise?
We first saw Ruby Summers, the well preserved (she has held her ruby form for at least 70 years) daughter of Scott and Emma in the Layla Miller Special, in which we also saw an extremely aged Cyclops and a world that was about to be embroiled in something called the Summers Rebellion.
Last issue cemented Ruby Summers’ place in x-continuity as she saved Jamie Madrox and Layla’s bacon after he arrived in the future only to be targeted by killer mutant-hunting Sentinels.
After the shocking events of the past few issues, MADROX has learned that in X-FACTOR, anything can happen. And in this issue—everything does! Separated from his teammates and involved in a war he never expected to see, he can only look back on the days when the team stood together. Now—the rebellion has begun!
I’m a big fan of Layla Miller and really liked her one-shot, so I’m as happy to see her as Madrox. I was hoping Ruby Summers wasn’t going to be a throwaway character – she is as viable a character as half sister Rachel Summers. I hope she makes it to the present. Who else want to see more of Ruby?
Posted in Comics, Preview on 03/14/2009 01:11 pm by fanboi
A lot has happened to change the immediate future of multiple man Jamie Madrox. In issue 39 we found out that the baby he and Siryn had been expecting was actually fathered by a dupe when Madrox accidentally and irrevocablly absorbed it. Madrox then visited John Maddox, the dupe he didn’t absorb – who has gone on to have a son and a life as a pastor. After they talk who should show up but LAYLA MILLER!!!! And looking all grown up. With her back in his life as an adult, that marriage might not be a sick and twisted as previously thought.
So she’s not really in the past – but it looks like she’s bringing Jamie to her for an adventure in the future. I’ve long been a fan of Peter David’s work and I was beginning to worry a bit during the lame and atrociously dawn arcs about SkrullLongshot and rescuing Darwin, but this series has jumped to the top of my pile based on the events of the last two issues. And from the looks of this preview it is just going to get better!
There have been a lot of spoilerific events going on in comics lately so I thought I would start up a new feature covering major news from recent titles. If you are the sort of person who desn’t want to know what is happening before you read something, then do not click on the images below until you read all your comics.
Lots of stuff happening! I will add some comments going over my thoughts on some of there events and what they may mean for their respective titles… So please speak up and add your own and make it a conversation!
