X-MEN WAR REDUX PART 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO?
I’m going to keep this one a bit shorter, as we’ve already seen behind this curtain, but I did still think we needed a summary post of our last results. But if you want to see the detailed stats for each match up, just head on back to the original post where everything exists permanently:
Overall our second shuffle produced better matches overall. There are a few notable exceptions and we still had several blow outs, but in general, a better shuffle I’d say.
Biggest blow outs were Storm vs Captain Britain (Brian) and Rogue vs Sunspot. It’s hard for me to argue against either of those as I voted for both Storm and Rogue…but I’m not sure Brian and Roberto deserved SUCH beatings.
The closest match up was Domino vs Deadpool and I think that’s right on.
But I say again, I wanna see that fight!
Fun Kelly X-Fact: Deadpool and Domino were in the SECOND comic book (other than countless Archie and Archie-adjacent digests) that I ever read:
Although, technically (30 year old spoiler alert!), the Domino I read here eventually turned out to be the shapeshifter Copycat. Wooo! Anyway, yes, this is famously my second ever “floppy/monthly comic” — it was actually purchased by my brother David at a comic book store in the mall. My brother Scott and I (and Dave, but he wasn’t as obsessed as Scott and I were) had recently discovered and fallen in love with the X-Men Animated Series and Scott came home from a trip to the mall one day jumping up and down and with UNCANNY X-MEN #290 in his hands going “It’s the girl from the show!” Dave had gone with the X-FORCE #3 based on…I’m actually not sure what? Since he wasn’t aware of any of those characters (except maybe Spider-Man) I gotta assume he just like the cover…or maybe something he saw inside while flipping through?
Either way, those became my first two comics. And while they technically belong to my brothers — I currently have them both — possession is 9/10ths of the law, right? ;D
I’d say the match up that surprised me the most is maybe Polaris beating Havok pretty badly? I do think she should win, but I it’d be closer - more like 60/40 maybe?
Also, apologies forever for misspelling your name in the poll Havok. I feel terrible, especially since you also got beat. I love you Alex!
Someone in the comments was asking about stories where Jubilee was tough/good/badass and I recommended the WOLVERINE AND JUBILEE mini-series by Kathryn Immonen and Phil Noto, which I really like. And then we got talking about the brilliant Olivier Coipel cover to issue 1 of the mini-series:
I’m not sure Coipel has ever drawn something poorly, he’s one of my favorites and one of the best in the business and I love this cover for so many things. First of all, Wolverine and Jubilee are about the same height and holy hell do I wish we got to see that more often! But it’s also such a perfect execution of Jubilee’s new look. Sleek and serious, but still with her signature sunglasses (they’re practical - she has bright powers!) and still with her iconic yellow trench. Literally a perfect updated design. I’m not sure if Coipel did the redesign or not, but this is peak execution of it either way.
Last things last, I figured I’d answer a few of the questions I posed to you all:
Who’s the most surprising winner? I’m a little surprised Phoenix (Rachel) beat Xavier, but given how badly Jean beat him last round, not completely surprised.
Who’s going to be the most upsetting loser? I think for me it’s gotta be Cerise. Although this is a much better showing for her (and match up) I really do think she could take Tabitha.
And since some of you asked about Excalibur characters/expressed some lack of knowledge there, I thought I’d recommend the Alan Davis EXCALIBUR stuff — you can get most of it (not ALL drawn by Davis, but mostly drawn by him) via two Marvel Visionaries volumes - EXCALIBUR Vol 1 and EXCALIBUR Vol 2. You can get lots of Meggan, Kylun, Cerise, and even Technet in these volumes if you’re interested in learning more about them (along with Cap, Nightcrawler, Kitty, and Rachel of course). Cerise debuts in Volume 1, but most of her content is in Volume 2. Here’s a super fun excerpt from issue #55 in Volume 2:
Three pages for essentially… a kissing joke?! I LOVE IT.
And I’m sure we can all see why this run of Excalibur appealed to a young Kelly. Not only was the art absolutely sublime, but while I was very interested in superheroes fighting stuff, I was ALSO VERY INTERESTED IN KISSING. And very few books provided it. So, hats off to EXCALIBUR for excelling in both ways.
Seriously though, it’s pretty dense (text/content-wise) by today’s standards, but the stories are charmingly wacky and weird and it blends action and comedy in a way I wish far more books (then and now!) could manage.
What match up would you most LIKE to see? Hmmm. I think Gambit vs Deadpool would be very fun. When I got to write them they were on the same side (sorta) and that was VERY fun.
Which match up would you like to see the LEAST? I hated seeing that Magik vs Jean Grey match up. I voted for Magik and I still think she takes it, but I think she probably has to play real dirty to get there and I don’t love that for anyone involved.
Same for a Storm vs Jean Grey match up. Although when I thought of that one, I DID get to flashback to the very first crossover I ever read — X-Tinction Agenda! Event Crossovers are such a strange thing when you’re a kid discovering comics and I’m pretty sure that X-Tinction Agenda WAS the first one we managed to find all the back-issues for. And boy-oh-boy. I loved it. I have different feels about crossover events today, but back then it did EXACTLY what it was supposed to do — i.e. it introduced me to SO MANY NEW CHARACTERS THAT I TOTALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH! Anyway, blah blah blah - Jean versus “Kid Storm” in the Danger Room a scene I still love to this day from Uncanny X-Men #270 - part one of X-Tinction agenda. I would have posted the pages but the digital re-color on my Comixology issues is too depressing. : /
Who is your favorite character from this group of 46? I do have to say Rogue is my favorite. Been that way since I read this back issue when I was 15/16:
But there are a LOT of runners up nipping at her heels in this group!
Least favorite of the 46? This will probably be unpopular, but it’s probably Rachel for me. Doesn’t mean I hate the character or have no interest in her, but I’ve just never managed to connect to her. And she features pretty heavily in that EXCALIBUR stuff I just promoted, so it sort of feels like if I was going to become a fan it would have been back then? But maybe not — it only takes one story to make you a fan — and sometimes it takes even less than that — sometimes just seeing an artist draw a character makes me want to play with and explore that character. So I try to keep an open mind.
Today’s question for the comments: What’s the ONE story (single issue - not an OGN or TPB) that made you a fan of a character — doesn’t even have to be a favorite character, just so long as it’s a story that made you change your mind. I posted this the other day when we were talking about defining moments, but one of my big ones was that my brother Scott and I WANTED to love Cyclops, but from the cartoon we just…couldn’t get there. And most of the time the comics didn’t offer much to change on our mind on that. But then we read X-MEN #44 by Fabian Nicieza and Adam Kubert and we both did immediate 180s on Cyclops. A great character defining issue.
Okay. Enough of this fun, I gotta get back to the writing salt mines (even though I’m sorta already in them? Maybe I’m just in adjacent writing salt mines to the one I’m headed to? IDK). I hope you all had a great weekend…or better yet are still having one. <3
~Kelly
X-factor #87 ("X-Animations") was masterful. Peter David, Joe Quesada, Marie Javens. In ~22 pages, the creative team presents seven (!) insightful character moments. I never understood Quicksilver before this issue, and I still think about his monologue a couple of times a year, three decades later.
Uncanny X-men 259 made me love Colossus. that whole post-Inferno chunk is excellent, where everyone is scattered and some of them don't know who they are, but I'd never connected to the character until he was painting in his loft naked, having difficulty connecting with others.