Birds of YAAAAAAY!

Cover art by Olivier Coipel

Another joyous Wednesday is upon us as Siege comes to its explosive conclusion! It’s a double-sized issue and with the SUPERHYPE (almost completely deserved) surrounding the event we’re sure to have our collective hive mind blown to smithereens. Deaths, defeats, explosions & re-births all leading to the wondrous new Heroic Age! I, for one, welcome our new vengeful overlords.

Cover art by Ed Benes

My eyes are bleeding happiness rainbows, right now! The Birds are back in town and every DC fan should be beating down doors to pick up the first new issue. It looks like the team is getting an injection of manly musk with Hawk joining the team, which could be interesting. My feeling is that Hawk & Dove are there for their Brightest Day connection but time will tell! Looks like Penguin and a mysterious new foe will be harrying our happy harpies for this wonderful new startup!

Cover art by Adi Granov

Chapter 7 of Second Coming continues this week with the fallout from the funeral pulling the mutant nation further and further apart, all while Bastion’s inside-baddie wreaks havoc on the inner lifelines of Utopia. The X-people have to get it together to survive the onslaught Bastion has in store but Hope continues to add to the tension. Will we see any of her powers manifest or is she truly a token monarch (butterfly)? We might just find out this week!

Then of course we have The Flash continue in his new Geoff Johns series. The future death of a Rogue has Flash in trouble with a time-traveling troupe of Rogue-lookalikes. Claiming to be a force of good, The Renegades could be anything but the Fastest Man Alive is sure to delve deeper into the mystery this week!

We have the Brightest Day tie-ins Justice League: Generation Lost #1 and Titans: Villains for Hire this week as well. With Generation Lost, the members of the old JLI are being targeted as part of a larger scheme to eradicate superheroes! With so much tragedy in their past, I’m curious to see what the group is put through now that the universe is in a brand new day. The Atom is in trouble this week with Slade’s Angry Team of Villainy putting him in their sights in Villains for Hire. Do they have an ulterior motive or are they just playing the usual deathgame for money? I wouldn’t be surprised if this Brightest Day tie-in hides more than the solicit is letting on.

And finally, the astonishing X-Men are getting some Heroic Age love with Xenogenesis #1! Mutant babies are popping out all over an east African village and the X-Men are on the case! Since we’ve only ever seen mutant genes activate at puberty, the implications could be immense. It could be a case of science gone wrong or another leap in the mutant evolutionary tale. In any case, the art is gorgeous and the solicits intriguing. That’s all it takes for me!

-windiebird

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

May5 by windiebird

(image from DC, Brightest Day #1)

Man, Hal Jordan must be passing one hell of a shiny kidney stone! I jest, of course, for we are truly & megaman excited for the events of Brightest Day today! While the zero issue was tantalizing in its exposition, finally getting into the meat(substitute) of the story will be much appreciated. Now that we’re all set up with our main players, we can finally discover what this new white light means for the DCU now that it seems to have mostly coalesced on earth. With a story title of “Second Chances”, anything could and would (and wood) happen. Here’s the Brightest Day checklist if you’ve been missing it.

(image from Marvel, Uncanny X-Men #524)

It’s too early for me to spoil the major death that occurred in the last chapter of Second Coming but HOLY COW! If the preview is any judge, this issue will mostly be the fallout from the loss and how the team handles the death as well as Hope’s bloody entrance to Utopia. Emotions will be tipped past the boiling point and let’s just hope the mutants can hold it together long enough to fend off Bastion’s baddies! Follow along with our Second Coming checklist if you haven’t been!

(image from Marvel, X-Men: Second Coming – Revelations: Hellbound #1)

Sorry for the picspam here but come on, how can you say no to Magik’s magickal vibrator getting some cover play? It looks like the cracks in Utopia are deepening and widening (X-moisturizer is nowhere in sight!) as Bastion continues his assault on mutantkind. How can a brother let his sister to the deadly forces of Limbo alone? The answer is, of course, that he can’t. Piotr and a few willing compatriots will make their way to Illyana’s hidey-hellhole to save the day or die trying.

They don’t get their own cover in the post this week but I love me some JSA All-Stars! We’re finally getting the shocking conclusion to Constellations with the promise of much pain and anguish dished out by Johnny Sorrow. The Subtle Realms are sure to be dispelled by Fate Girl (Fate Lass? Fatea? Doctora Labia? The possibilities are lame and endless) but what will it mean for the team? I’m all atwitter for where the youngest Society members go from here.

And of course, let us know what you think of War of the Supermen!

Quite a week for comics (when isn’t it, really?) and another glorious Wednesday! Get out there and support the comics biz (who lives in Oz)!

-windiebird

WHAM!sday

Apr28 by windiebird

Good morning, sexy people! Are you ready for some new comics? I know eye yam!

(image from Marvel, X-Force #26)

Second Coming is full-steam ahead into chapter 5, focusing once more on the X-Force portion of the mutant population. Hope should be just a hop, skip & dimensional jump away from Utopia but one mutant is slated to die on the way. And mutants have certainly been dropping like flies during this ordeal.

Tough times for the genetically activated!

(image from DC, Rise of Arsenal #2)

Speaking of amputees (???), Roy Harper’s world only looks to be getting darker as his life after the Cry for Justice events continues to spiral out of control. With one seriously angry Cheshire showing up to confront him, I imagine we’ll continue to see the dark side of the once Red Arrow.

Then of course we have the conclusion to the Darkness Engine business in JSA (which has been a great read), some more tales of the Green Lantern Corps as they lick their wounds and regroup in the Brightest Day & a new issue of Detective Comics without Batwoman (booooo) but with the Question & Huntress (yaaaaay?).

New comics lists for the big three! DC, Marvel & Dark Horse!

-windiebird

Earthy Wednesday

Apr21 by windiebird

Image from DC, cover of Green Lantern #53

Another week has come and gone and Wednesday is upon us once more! While we certainly enjoy and celebrate our planet every chance we are able, we’re even more excited about the happenings of our two favorite, fictitious earths from DC & Marvel!

It’s new comics day, of course, and the Brightest Day & Second Coming (newly released July links included!) events are in full swing! Titles on sale can be found here for DC and here for Marvel.

After the positively bizarre collection of scenes Boston Brand is dragged through in Brightest Day #0 I’ve decided to stop eating and just buy comics. Geoff Johns and the legion of DC creatives is going all out on their respective titles to make Brightest Day a success. And we all know Sinestro is giving Hal a handy on the cover pictured above. Seriously, I’m buying titles and tie-ins I never thought I would just because I need to know what happens. That’s the best review I can give a story, I think.

Image from Marvel, cover of X-Factor #204

Speaking of things I never thought I’d be this excited for, Second Coming has me torn between publishers. Teams and characters I hadn’t heard of three weeks ago have suddenly become prime on my list for characters to read up on. So much drama, tension, action & struggle has gone into Second Coming that I’m quickly becoming a rabid X-fan. The future at stake for mutantkind, the hope that Hope might bring & what irreparable evils the X-Men might commit to protect their species have me taking out a second mortgage to buy every book involved. I don’t even pay a mortgage, if that tells you anything.

It is such an exciting time to be a fan you’d have to have a Class Alpha Mutant Cynicism Factor not to be bursting at the seams with anticipatory glee for what might be on the horizon! So happy comics-ing and may the earth be earthful for you tomorrow!

-windiebird

The X-List

Mar12 by windiebird

(Image from Marvel)

With about half of the catalog IDs out for what could be one of the most exciting x-events ever, I thought I’d share with you the checklist and the links to each month’s issues & tie-ins. The tie-ins that aren’t officially listed as a chapter are in double parentheses. We’ll be updating the links as the solicits are released. X-celsior!

March 2010
Chapter 1
X-Men: Second Coming #1

April 2010
Chapter 2
Uncanny X-Men #523

Chapter 3
New Mutants #12

Chapter 4
X-Men: Legacy #235

Chapter 5
X-Force #26

((X-Men: Second Coming Revelations: X-Factor #204))

May 2010
Chapter 6
Uncanny X-Men #524

Chapter 7
New Mutants #13

Chapter 8
X-Men: Legacy #236

Chapter 9
X-Force #27

((X-Men: Second Coming Revelations: X-Factor #205

X-Men: Second Coming Revelations: Hellbound #1