Embrace change: Why All-New, All-Different isn’t just a Marvel thing

My wife bought me the first volume of Essential Avengers for my birthday, featuring the first 24 issues of the series from the 1960s. Among the book’s supporting cast then was a club of ham radio enthusiasts called the Teen Brigade, led by Rick Jones, who would warn the Avengers of trouble and occasionally get kidnapped.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m reading these issues in black and white, but these kids all look exactly alike: all male, all white, all clean-cut. There wasn’t even a fat kid or a beard guy or a dude who wore a remarkable hat. Hell, I don’t even think any of them had names apart from Rick Jones, and Stan Lee couldn’t even get his name right – every couple issues a narration box or word balloon would refer to him as Rick Brown.

Flash forward to 2015. Promos for what Marvel will look like after Secret Wars wraps later this year show a Muslim Ms. Marvel, a mixed-race Spider-Man, a female Thor, a black Captain America, Old Man Steve Rogers AND Old Man Logan, a female Wolverine, and a native American character with whom I am unfamiliar. On top of that, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso has promised us a “controversial” new Hulk who is not Bruce Banner.

Granted, many of these were pre-existing characters and character-role changes. But it shows the company is wholly uninterested in snapping back to a status quo in which all its major characters are the same ones from the early 1960s.

Thank God. Most of those early Avengers and X-Men stories were terrible.

A few years ago, during its promotional push for Secret Invasion, Marvel told us to “embrace change.” While the campaign went away with the crossover, the message never really did. There are no new readers without change. There are also no new readers if Marvel spends all its efforts appealing to the old ones.

Frankly, I’m all about comics working to expand the market. In the days before the Internet, when I was 13 and had just started spending my allowance on X-Men books every week, I had one other person I could talk to about this thing I was really into (you may recognize him as the proprietor of this blog/godfather of my child). I would have loved to have been able to talk to other people about that kind of stuff, especially, you know, GIRLS.

Heck, my wife didn’t start reading comics until last year, after 12 years of being with me, and her first book was Ms. Marvel. Kamala, not Carol. She didn’t think it was pandering to women or a minority. She didn’t care about “that name already exists, why don’t they make their own superheroes?” She just genuinely enjoyed the book, and it led her to seek out collections of the old Ms. Marvel (Carol, not Kamala), She-Hulk, and Spider-Woman stories. That, dear reader, is what comics are supposed to do: Let more people in da club.

Marvel’s not the only company embracing change this year. Look at the Distinguished Competition’s DCYou campaign, in which the company abandons the New 52 thinking of the past four years to focus on creating a wider range of titles. Characters like Cyborg, Starfire and Black Canary are getting their own books. There’s new all-ages series like Bat-Mite and Bizarro, for the kids who may have been introduced to those characters through the most recent Lego Batman specials. Even Batman’s changing: The new Dark Knight is Jim Gordon in a mostly badass (I’m not crazy about those antennae) Bat-battlesuit!

God, even Archie’s got a new look, starting from scratch this summer in a brand-new series by Mark Waid (Daredevil, Flash) and Fiona Staples (Saga). And lemme tell ya, if you don’t want to see the gang from Riverdale as drawn by Fiona Staples, as opposed to that collection of mayonnaise jars that have been haunting supermarket checkout racks for decades, then I just feel sorry for you.

Not everything’s becoming All-New, All-Different, though. On Saturday, Marvel announced a new Invincible Iron Man series written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez. Not only is Iron Man, who has been front and center in the latest Marvel promos, back in the red-and-gold armor, but Bendis is returning to a character he’s already quite familiar with, having written him in various and sundry Avengers series over the past decade.

And Peter Parker’s still Spider-Man. He’s just got a coterie of similarly spider-powered amazing friends to pal around with, such as Miles Morales, Silk and an alternate-reality version of his long-dead ex-girlfriend.

So go ahead, make Cap black. Make Thor a woman. Make the Hulk controversial, whatever the hell that means. Put Hank Pym in a wheelchair … no, really, do that, because another thing I’ve learned reading old Avengers comics is that Hank Pym was never not the worst.

I just have one question based on these All-New, All-Different promos: WHERE’S DEADPOOL?! Come on Marvel, you know he ain’t gonna stay dead with a movie coming out next year!

In addition to writing for The Matt Signal, Dan Grote is now the official comics blogger for The Press of Atlantic City. New posts appear Wednesday mornings at PressofAC.com/Life. His new novel, Magic Pier, is available however you get your books online. He and Matt have been friends since the days when Onslaught was just a glimmer in Charles Xavier's eye. Follow @danielpgrote on Twitter.

Fit to Be Tied In: A History of Marvel Crossovers and Events- Part 4: X-Cutioner’s Song to Age of Apocalypse: More X-overs

For more than a year from the debut of X-Men #1 in fall 1991, the X-books remained crossover-free. The interim saw some creative upheaval, with Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld and John Byrne all leaving, and Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza becoming the main architects of the X-verse, with new names like Andy Kubert and Greg Capullo coming up on art.

The new crew got their first big story in 1992’s “X-Cutioner’s Song,” a 12-part event that spanned Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Force, and X-Factor. The main antagonist of the Song was Stryfe, the pointy, silver-suited supervillain who had shown up about the same time as Cable, the paramilitary leader who turned the New Mutants into X-Force. Stryfe is out for revenge on a number of important X-characters, including Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Cable and Apocalypse. Late in the story, he appears to reveal himself as the baby Cyclops sent to the future in X-Factor #68, all grown up. This is later debunked, with Cable proven to be the child and Stryfe the clone. Stryfe is defeated, but in a last act of villainy tricks Mister Sinister into releasing the Legacy Virus, a disease that will go on to kill a number of mutants. He also unleashes Stryfe’s Strike File upon the world, so that’s two posthumous F-Yous.

In 1993, after 30 years of existing, Magneto gets to be the main bad guy of a crossover. “Fatal Attractions” sees Big M build a new orbiting space base, regain control of the Acolytes from Fabian Cortez and invite along any X-Men who would like to completely isolate themselves from civilization. Colossus bites, getting up in the middle of his sister’s funeral (she died of the Legacy Virus) to join the X-Men’s sworn enemy. Professor X launches an attack on Magneto’s new digs, which results in Magneto ripping the adamantium from Wolverine’s body, which remains one of the most badass things I’ve seen in a comic. Xavier responds by turning Magneto into a vegetable. Wolverine – whose claws are revealed to have been part of his skeleton all along – leaves the team to go find himself.

Magneto’s goons weren’t done playing with the X-Men, though. “Fatal Attractions” was quickly followed by “Bloodties,” an X-Men/Avengers story in which Fabian Cortez, the former leader of the Acolytes, kidnaps Luna, Magneto’s granddaughter by Quicksilver and the Inhuman Crystal, and foments civil unrest in Genosha, which can’t get its act together in a post "X-tinction Agenda" world. Things go from bad to worse when Exodus, Magneto’s current capo di mutie, shows up and drops and big-ol’ psionic dome over the Genoshan capital. The good guys win, but the Avengers lose their U.N. charter for interfering in Genoshan political stuff.

As the crossovers continue through the years, the number of X-books expands, and writers and editors struggle to spread the events to all the books in the line, as opposed to three or four books. “The Phalanx Covenant,” for example, is spread out over Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur, Cable, and Wolverine (By today’s standards, that’s a downright reasonable number of X-books. Scary). The Phalanx are a techno-organic alien race that crept on the scene immediately after Fatal Attractions (and who would many years later team up with Ultron to menace the Kree Emprie in Annihilation: Conquest), assimilating thought-dead characters such as Stephen Lang, Cameron Hodge, Doug Ramsey and Candy Southern. At the opening of the covenant, the Phalanx have taken the X-Men, and it’s up to a B-team made up of Banshee, Emma Frost, Jubilee and Sabretooth to gather more mutants, specifically the team that would become Generation X. Elsewhere, Cyclops and Jean Grey, fresh from their honeymoon in the future raising Baby Cable, team up with long-rogue Wolverine and Adult Cable to shoot, snikt, teke-blast, and eyeball-laser their way to the rest of the X-Men. The ancillary teams, meanwhile (Factor, Force and Calibur), are charged with figuring out a way to stop the Phalanx on Earth from contacting reinforcements from their home planet.

Just a few short months later, Xavier’s son, Legion, goes back in time and accidentally kills his father (he was gunning for Magneto), forking the timestream and creating everyone’s favorite Age, “The Age of Apocalypse.” For 30 years, Bishop is trapped in a world where Apocalypse rules all of North America, Magneto leads the X-Men, Cyclops has one eye, Wolverine has one hand, Colossus has one red do-rag and so-on. All the X-books, right down to the just-started Generation X, were put on hold for four months to create an alternate reality that Marvel’s revisited a couple times since and is making part of the Secret Wars’ Battleworld. Uncanny and adjectiveless X-Men became Astonishing and Amazing X-Men and were about Magento’s core team. X-Force became Gambit & the Xternals, in which the thief is hired to swipe the Shi’ar M’Kraan Crystal. X-Factor became Factor X, about the Summers Brothers working for Mr. Sinister. Excalibur became X-Calibre, about Nightcrawler’s adventures in the Savage Land. Generation X became Generation Next, about a team of young mutants overseen by Colossus and Kitty Pryde. Wolverine became Weapon X, about Wolverine and Jean Grey running covert ops. And Cable became X-Man, about the genetically engineered child of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. In the end, Magneto (quite awesomely) kills Apocalypse, and four characters – Nate Grey, Holocaust, the Sugar Man and the AoA version of the Beast – escape to the restored 616 reality. As a result, the X-Man series became an ongoing. For those of you keeping score at home, that means we’re up to nine ongoing X-titles, plus the quarterly X-Men Unlimited.

In our next installment, we’ll traipse through yet more X-overs, from Onslaught as far as my self-imposed word counts will allow. Expect Bastion to show up a lot.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 10/29

Archer & Armstrong #25
Story: Fred Van Lente & others
Art: Clayton Henry & others

Credit where credit is due, Valiant does up a heck of an anniversary issue. The (for now, anyway) final issue of Archer & Armstrong is chock full of different stories that sum up the relationship between our two leads perfectly. The lead story, "Back to the Beginning," reunites the series original creative team of Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry, to tell a story that ties up many of the series loose ends, including the identity of Archer's parents, Archer's relationship to The Sect, and the origin of the Archer cult from earlier in the series. More important is the scene where Archer asks Armstrong to show him more of the world, and Armstrong sets him straight about exactly what that will mean. It's a thesis on judgement and what it means to really live, from someone who has lived longer than pretty much anybody, and if we never hear another word from these character by Van Lente, it is a perfect send off. The second long form story in the issue, "Immortal Combat,"by John Layman and Ramon Villalobos, is much lighter. An immortal returns to fight Armstrong, and thanks to Armstrong's... pickled brain, he has little recollection of someone who has spent hundreds of years planning his demise. This story is just pure fun, which has been something that this book does and gets right every time. Also included is a short that leads into the upcoming one shot that features A&A enemies the 1%, and three time hopping stories that show Armstrong at different points in his immortal life. This is exactly what I feel an anniversary issue should be, one that celebrates all the aspects of a title, and gives long time readers a reward for picking it up. Van Lente and Henry will soon be starting a new Valiant series about Armstrong's time travelling brother, Ivar, Timewalker, so they'll be hanging around the Valiant Universe some more, but I'm glad they got the band back together to tell one more story from what has been my favorite Valiant series from the new line.

Marvel Comics 75th Anniversary Special
Story: Various
Art: Various

And here's another anniversary issue. I have to give Marvel credit, while I'm a DC guy, Marvel has done more with this 75th Anniversary one shot than DC has done with most of its big 75th anniversaries. A series of short stories, taking place throughout Marvel history, all the pieces have some feeling of history. The Spider-Man and Wolverine stories are fine and interesting, but it's the other three that really grabbed me. The opening story is a meditation on when the world changed, when the Fantastic Four got their powers and created the new heroic age. Narrated by Ben Urich, this story, written by James Robinson and drawn by Chris Samnee, is just so beautifully drawn, showing where many of the great heroes were when the FF took their space ride. Bruce Timm then adapts the Captain America prose story from Captain America Comics #3 that was the first Marvel work by The Man himself, Stan Lee. Any new work from Bruce Timm is worth celebrating, and this classic Stan Lee story is a fun throwback that's 40s setting works really well with Timm's style. Finally, Alias creative team Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos tell a story of Jessica Jones helping a little old lady find the fireman who saved her the day the original Human Torch debuted. It's a sweet little story, and feels like it's setting up a new Jessica Jones series, which makes sense with her Netflix TV series on the horizon. Along with all of this, we have a series of pin-ups with concepts by Bendis and art by various A-List artists, my favorites being a 90s X-Men one, featuring such luminaries as Marrow, Stacy X, and Adam X the X-Treme, with art by Joe Quinones, and a Groot Attorney-At-Law with art by Francesco Francavilla. The whole issue is a fun tribute to Marvel's past, with some great creators doing some top notch work. I know issues like this often seem a shameless cash grab, but this one is well worth your time.

Rasputin #1
Story: Alex Grecian
Art: Riley Rossmo

One of my favorite Image series of all time is Proof, the story of a Sasquatch who knew Thomas Jefferson and now works with a government organization investigating cryptids, things like Sasquatch and chupacabras. The creative team of Proof is back at Image this month, with the debut issue of Rasputin, a historical fiction based around Russia's mad monk, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. This opening issue is a solid done in one of sorts, starting as Rasputin sits down to dine at the dinner that, for anyone who knows his story. will end in his seeming murder, and flashes back to his youngest days. Rasputin is already being fleshed out as a full character, not the mad, licentious figure he is often portrayed as in fiction, but someone with a backstory. The issue specifically show the conditions Rasputin grew up in, with a father who had little trouble savagely beating his wife and son. By issue's end, we have seen that this is a world where the supernatural will play heavily, and one where violence is going to be as central, and not in a graphic way, but in the sense that life started with pain, and will probably not get any easier. As good as Alex Grecian's story is, and it is very good, Riley Rossmo's art adds something to it that makes is all the better. In pure text, a first person narrator is only as trustworthy as your impression of him or her, and if you know anything about Rasputin, he isn't someone you should trust. However, the graphic element of art in flashback adds a dimension. You see Rasputin use his power to heal (or resurrect?) his mother after a beating, and you see the expression on his face. You see him make the cold hard choice after his father is attacked by a bear. Rossmo is one of my favorite artists in comics, his work on series life Proof, Cowboy/Ninja/Viking, and Bedlam showing the breadth of his talent, drawing character moments with the same strength he draws monsters. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Image is producing the widest variety of interesting new comics on the racks right now, and a supernatural historical fiction is a great addition to that. If you like history, magic, and bears, you should check out Rasputin. Oh, and Riley Rossmo, in case you read this, I read you bit in the backmatter, and yes, there is still an audience waiting for more Proof. Give it to us and I'll preach it to the mountains.

Saga #24
Story: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Fiona Staples

Ah, the pre-hiatus issue of Saga. The last issue of an arc on Saga usually steps away from the family who are our main protagonists and instead spends some time with one of the other characters, be it The Will, Prince Robot IV, or Gwendolyn. This time, the issue's driving force is The Brand, freelancer (bounty hunter) and the sister of bounty hunter The Will, who is looking for the person responsible for her brother being in a coma, and her partner, Pretty Boy, who's a big dog. The Brand crosses paths quickly with Gwendolyn and Sophie, as well as series favorite Lying Cat, who are seeking a cure for The Will. The first scene, where they retrieve the scroll with the cure's ingredients on it, has the best Lying Cat moment since the heartwarming scene between the cat and Sophie. Vaughan develops these characters further, giving us a bit more of The Brand, exploring Gwendolyn's roll, showing more than a force hunting Marko, but as the honorable warrior she is, and starting to see Sophie come more out of the shell she was forced into by her horrible past. Aside from the A-story, we also get a great flashback to The Will's time with his ex-lover, The Stalk, and see more of the complexity of their relationship, as we learn we will soon be visiting The Stalk's home planet. And that final page cliffhanger, the thing that Vaughan does better than anyone in comics, has me ready to tear my hair out in the best kind of frustration from the wait until early 2015 to see where it goes.

Southern Bastards #5
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Jason Latour

No one is the villain of their own story. And even the villain usually has his reasons and his backstory. Sometimes, I feel this is unnecessary, like with The Joker or Hannibal Lecter, but in most cases, that backstory makes for a much better character. Jason Aaron proved to be a master of the well rounded villain with Lincoln Red Crow, Agent Nitz, and so many others in Scalped, and this issue of Southern Bastards begins an arc focusing on the background of series villain, Coach Boss. The story flashes back and forth, from the present, where Coach Boss is heading to the funeral of Earl Tubbs, the protagonist of the first arc and the man Coach Boss killed at the end of the previous issue, and a young Boss working to make the football team. The Boss of now is a cold, calculating bastard, the kind of guy who goes to that funeral knowing full well everyone knows he killed the man, and who by issue's end shows that he wants the town to remember that. The young Boss, while not a tough guy physically, still shows the will that will make him Coach Boss one day, although here he comes to a bad end by not knowing when it's best to let a bully mouth off. We get to see Craw County from Boss's point of view, an insider's view, versus the outsider that Tubbs was. I'm a northerner, and can count the number of football games I've watched on one hand, but it's a credit to Aaron's writing that I can see where the mania for the game in these southern town comes from. This arc will continue to fill out Boss's history, and while I don't think he's ever going to be a character we like, it's going to be an interesting journey to see if he's a character that I can understand.

A Halloween Visit to the Darker Corners of the Marvel Universe

Happy Halloween, everybody! Instead of a normal recommended reading, or a post of the kind you normally see, I thought I'd do something different. After thinking about Doctor Strange, I realized that while most corners of the Marvel Universe have been reawakened and retooled in recent years, the supernatural corner remains dormant. So, Dan and I sat down and came up with some ideas for ways for Marvel to do some new supernatural titles! It's a fun little trip into our brains, so don't get too scared!

Doctor Strange

As I stated when I talked about Doctor Strange earlier this week, Strange has had any number of reboots and new series, so coming at him from a new angle was tricky. But I got to thinking about the Ancient One, Strange's master, and the numerous apprentices Strange has taken over the years. So, what happened if Strange learned that, through some magical confluence, thirteen children were born, each with a different magical gift, and the balance of all magic would rest on whether or not they chose light or dark magic? With the kids now teenagers, Strange must race across the globe, gathering these kids and then training them, all the while competing with someone else, let's say Baron Mordo, to keep them on the side of the light. It's got a similar vibe to classic X-Men stories, only told from Xavier's point of view instead of the students, or Harry Potter from Dumbledore's perspective, clearly with Strange in the Xavier or Dumbledore role. It would introduce a group of new magical characters, characters who could be from any country, of any race, religion, or sexual orientation, meaning it works with so much of what Marvel has been doing to diversify their line. And Strange can team up with various other magical characters, like Doctor Voodoo, to help teach the kids different disciplines. Extra points for a convenient crossover with Uncanny X-Men, when one of Strange's team turns out to not only be magically gifted but a mutant, and Strange must work with his ex-apprentice, Magik, and team his kids up with the kids from the New Xavier School.

MI-13

OK, I know, I know. I'm a sucker for Pete Wisdom, and I would probably try to pitch a new book featuring Wisdom to Marvel in any way I could. But bear with me. Nearly all stories of MI-13 and Wisdom have had some magical angle, so we give the British spooky intel agency a new specific mission. With S.H.I.E.L.D. overwhelmed with all the supercriminals and terrorists, international magical items trafficking has skyrocketed, and Maria Hill goes to the experts: Pete Wisdom and MI-13. Now MI-13's goal is to shut down an international cartel that is selling, and in some cases handing out, magical items of incredible dark power. What exactly is their angle? And exactly who is the mastermind behind it? With a core team of Pete Wisdom, Spitfire, Black Knight, Union Jack, and Excalibur, there could be any number of supernatural heroes who could guest star. Blade's a little busy over in Mighty Avengers, but he could come back, as could Captain Britain and Megann, but I think Elsa Bloodstone, who is free since the end of Fearless Defenders, would make a good replacement for Blade as monster hunter extraordinaire. I'd also like to keep Alistair Stuart around, and reintroduce the original version of Romany Wisdom, the hippy magic user version, as she is both Pete's sister and Union Jack's ex, as the support team for the unit.

Dracula and the Legion of Monsters

When Mark Waid brought the Legion of Monsters back in Daredevil, he gave them a mission: track down and contain the dispersed pages of the Darkhold, the most evil books of magic in existence; picture the Marvel Universe version of the Necronomicon and you get the idea. So, when team leader Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night, discovers a page of the book that allows the possessor to control vampires, Jack and team hunt down the vampire of vampires, Dracula. And this is the Dracula of Tomb of Dracula, Doctor Strange, classic X-Men, and Captain Britiain and MI-13, the one designed by Gene Colan. He's no longer wearing red armor and wearing his hair all long and white; nope this Dracula has style. Russell uses the page, and Drac is now under his control. Well, sort of. Dracula can't turn on Russell and his team, but whatever they ask him to do, he can do in whatever way he sees fit, so it's a classic monkey's paw situation: use Dracula to track down more pages, but say one false word and he'll massacre everyone between him and the page. And Dracula is always scheming to come up with a way to get the page from Russell so he can be free and exact his revenge, giving a constant sense of tension to every issue.

Midnight Sons of Anarchy (working title only) 

Marvel relaunched Ghost Rider earlier this year with a new host for the Spirit of Vengeance, Robbie Reyes, who drives a black muscle car instead of a motorcycle. Frankly, I see a missed opportunity here. Because you know what’s cooler than one Ghost Rider? A gang of them. A Spirits of Vengeance series ran from 1992 to 1994, teaming up original-recipe Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze with Crystal Pepsi Ghost Rider Danny Ketch. I say revisit the series, uniting Blaze, Ketch, Reyes and the Alejandra and Vengeance characters, along with some new recruits, as a team of demon-possessed hotheads riding together, righting wrongs and whipping people with hellfire-covered chains. Yes, it would be a blatant rip-off of the popular FX series Sons of Anarchy, but that fruit’s hanging low for a reason.

Resurrect Gail Simone’s Night Nurse MAX series 

Years ago, Simone and artist Jill Thompson were developing a mature-readers series featuring the Night Nurse, a superhero health care worker and the sometimes girlfriend of Dr. Strange. The series was shelved in early 2002, and Simone went on to write Deadpool/Agent X. Brian Michael Bendis made the Night Nurse one of his pet quasi-Avengers in the 2000s, patching up anti-registration heroes in the pages of New Avengers as well as Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker’s Immortal Iron Fist. If nothing else, should a new Dr. Strange book comes out in time for the movie in 2016, I’d love for the Nurse to be a part of it.

House of Z 

Pretty sure this one hasn’t been leaked along with the kajillion other crossover redux teasers for next summer’s Secret Wars. Zombie Wanda Maximoff grunts “No more zombies” to avoid having her brains eaten by her brother, Zombie Pietro, and magically undoes the zombie virus for all but 198 of them. A restored humanity led by some of the company’s best supporting characters – Thunderbolt Ross, Pepper Potts, J. Jonah Jameson, Dum Dum Dugan, Foggy Nelson, etc. – must figure out how to live in a world destroyed by zombies. In so doing, humans become the hunters, and the zombies are chased across the country onto an island in the San Francisco Bay that the humans nuke without a second thought, because, as Ross tells Nelson, “Can’t destroy a world that’s already been destroyed.” In promotional materials, Marvel will act like they’re finally getting rid of all the zombies, as a red herring to distract those who’ve said Marvel’s done too many zombie stories. But the blast actually radiates the zombie virus and makes it airborne, creating a whole new batch. This sets up House of Z 2, in which the remaining humans scour the globe searching for Zombie Wanda, whom they failed to round up the first time around. 


Now, go out and enjoy Halloween!

May All Your Wars Be Secret

Marvel loves Secrets. It also loves Wars. Put the two words together, and, as Carl Weathers told Tobias Funke, you’ve got a stew going.

Yes, one of Marvel’s biggest New York ComicCon announcements was a new Secret Wars event by Avengers writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribic, due to start in May 2015. A teaser poster shows various versions of Cap, Thor, Iron Man and other characters whose movie rights are still in-house battling it out.

And, of course, because it’s called Secret Wars, a tidal wave of B-holes took to the comment threads to post in all caps about how Marvel has no original ideas but still clearly takes all their money.

But this isn’t the first time Marvel has published a Secret Wars title since the original Secret Wars in 1984. And it’s certainly not the first time Marvel’s published a title or event with either Secret or War in it. In fact, over the past decade, those two words have joined Amazing, Astonishing, Infinity, X-, Spider-Man, Ultimate, etc. in the pantheon of words that show up far too often in Marvel titles.

Herewith, a sampling of Marvel’s Secret Wars, Secret other things and other-thing Wars:

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: The original 12-issue maxiseries by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck and Bob Layton that ran from 1984 to 1985, in which Earth’s mightiest heroes and villains were pitted against each other on Battleworld by a guy who hadn’t been told disco was dead. Oh, and it was a crass attempt to sell toys. Besides the Mattel line, however, the series also gave us Spider-Man’s black costume, the second Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter, and She-Hulk as the fourth member of the Fantastic Four, taking the place of the Thing (for more on alternate versions of the FF, click here).

Secret Wars II: In the 9-issue sequel by Shooter and Al Milgrom that ran from 1985 to 1986, the Beyonder comes to Earth in an attempt to understand the humans, pisses off Mephisto and hits on Dazzler and Boom-Boom, the latter of which is supposed to be a teenager, so gross.

Secret War: Leave off the last S for savings! Brian Michael Bendis wrote and Gabrielle Del’Otto drew this five-issue mini that started in April 2004 but didn’t wrap till December 2005 in which Nick Fury gathers Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Daredevil, Black Widow and Luke Cage for a top-secret mission in Latveria that goes pear-shaped. The story’s plot was incorporated into the second Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video game. And Lucia Von Bardas, the Latverian head of state created for the story, was referenced in a low-budget Fantastic Four musical that was part of the fourth season of Arrested Development on Netflix.

Spider-Man and the Secret Wars: A three-issue mini by Paul Tobin and Patrick Scherberger from 2009 retelling the 1984 Secret Wars from Spidey’s perspective. CBR said the all-ages series poked fun at its namesake as a ridiculous, contrived excuse to sell toys.

Secret Invasion: The Skrulls’ long-simmering plot to colonize Earth carried our heroes from being divided by Civil War to being united in their hatred of Norman Osborn, the Spider-Man villain and Gwen Stacy killer who became head of the replacement agency for S.H.I.E.L.D. after he killed the Skrull queen at the end of the event and formed his own Illuminati of A-holes, including Dr. Doom, Namor, the Hood and the Noid, er, Void.

Secret Warriors: Nick Fury spent most of the first decade of the new millennium underground as a result of the Secret War, popping up only for certain people, including Spider-Woman, the Winter Soldier and his own personal strike team made up of the offspring of supervillains. These Thunderbolt Muppet Babies had their own series from 2009 to 2011, co-written by Bendis and Jonathan Hickman with art by Stefano Caselli.

Secret Avengers: Starting in post-Siege 2010, the Avengers formed their own X-Force in Secret Avengers, a black-ops team run by Commander Steve Rogers, who had just recently come back from the dead but hadn’t taken back the mantle of Captain America yet. Writers included Ed Brubaker (Captain America), Nick Spencer (Superior Foes of Spider-Man), Warren Ellis (Excalibur), Rick Remender (Captain America) and Ales Kot.

Secret Six: Just kidding. Secret Six is a critically and fan-beloved DC book by Gail Simone, whose work gets praised here on the reggy-reg.

Civil War: I feel like writing a synopsis of one of Marvel’s most popular crossovers ever, even snarkily and pumped full of gag hyperlinks, is like writing about the real Civil War as if people didn’t know what it was. Hey, have they brought back Bill Foster yet?

Revolutionary War: Unlike in U.S. history, Marvel’s Revolutionary War came after the Civil War. But it’s not a sequel, nor is it even a prequel, nor is there a Marvel’s War of 1812, which technically should have come between the two. Also the name is misleading, as it stars Marvel’s U.K. heroes as the good guys. But, hey, it’s got Pete Wisdom!

U.S. War Machine: A post-9/11 MAX maxiseries by Chuck Austen. One of the covers features an Iron Man suit wearing a Dum Dum Dugan-style bowler hat, because comics love uniforms that don’t make sense.

Dan Grote has been a Matt Signal contributor since 2014 and friends with Matt since there were four Supermen and two Psylockes. His two novels, My Evil Twin and I and Of Robots, God and Government, are available on Amazon.

Page 616: The Dated History of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Update ’89

A few years ago - I can't remember specifically when or where - a comic shop gave me a free copy of the Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update ’89. I don't know if this was a case of one particular store trying to unload surplus books or a more widespread promotion a la Free Comic Book Day.

Anyway, it sat on my shelf unread for a long time, passed over for many a novel, graphic or otherwise. As happens though, eventually I ran out of things I genuinely wanted to read and grabbed any old printed material I could find. So, the handbook.

The ’89 Update served as an appendix to the Deluxe Edition printed from 1985 to ’88. It included new-at-the-time characters and all the nonpowered characters ignored by the Deluxe Edition. Finally, all my questions about Willie Lumpkin and Dr. Valerie Cooper answered!

Seriously though, reading the ’89 handbook in 2014 is like reading a history textbook that pats the U.S. on the back for funding Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War in the ’80s. Here a few of my favorite observations about the book:

EVERY ENTRY INVOLVED INFERNO: OK, not every entry, but a fair number reference that year's major X-event, which affected New York City as a whole and therefore drew in many non-X characters, such as Spider-Man, Power Pack, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil and the Avengers. So the handbook was filled with entries for involved characters such as S’ym, N’astirh (all the cool demons had apostrophes back then), Magik, Madelyne Pryor, Nanny and Orphan-Maker, Wiz Kid, Cameron Hodge, Hobgoblin (who was possessed by a demon somewhere in all this), Mr. Sinister, etc. Many of these characters, of course, ceased to be relevant not long after this crossover. I hadn't read Inferno until it was printed in Essential Uncanny X-Men Vol. 8 in 2007, and I just remember thinking it had more endings than Return of the King. “Now, let’s tie up the Limbo demons thread. Now, let’s tie up the stolen children thread. Now, let’s tie up the Mr. Sinister thread. Now, let’s tie up the Madelyne Pryor thread. Now, let’s tie up the this-is-the-first-time-the-X-Men-and-X-Factor-have-seen-each-other-since-the-X-Men-were-presumed-dead thread.”

EVEN IN THE 80s THERE WERE TOO MANY X-BOOKS: My comics-reading career having started in the ’90s, I thought my generation cornered the market on market saturation. After all, the speculator bubble burst on our watch. We were the reason you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a copy of New Mutants 98. But we had to learn that behavior somewhere. The mid-to-late ’80s gave us X-Factor, which in turn gave us X-Terminators and Fallen Angels, both of which were breeding grounds for new mutants not quite good enough for the New Mutants, until some of them actually joined the New Mutants. Relevant characters include Ariel, Boom-Boom, Chance II, Rusty Collins, Devil Dinosaur, Gomi (and his cybernetic lobsters, Don and Bill (no, seriously)), Leech, Artie Maddicks, Moon Boy, Rictor, Skids and Wiz Kid.

NO POWERS? NO PROBLEM! One of the big holes in the preceding deluxe edition was the lack of nonpowered characters: the Aunt Mays and Mary-Jane Watson Parkers of the world. Now, I'm not saying these characters aren't important. I'll go to bat for Dum-Dum Dugan or Moira MacTaggert any day. But I still have to laugh at information such as "Willie Lumpkin possesses the normal human strength level of a man his age, height and build who engages in moderate exercise." Besides carting around a mailbag that looks like a prop from the courtroom scene in Miracle on 34th Street, I don't quite picture the Fantastic Four's mailman hitting the gym. I mean, bro, do you even lift?

ROBERT REDFORD HAD A MULLET IN THE 80s: Redford's character in the most recent, most excellent Cap movie was Alexander Pierce, a SHIELD higher-up who (eye-muffs, spoiler-phobes) leads an insurrection within the organization. In the 1987 series Nick Fury vs. SHIELD, a brunette-mulleted Pierce is a member of a very small, Fury-led SHIELD team that takes down a robot insurrection from within. Think of it as a reverse Victoria Hand, if you've been watching Agents of SHIELD. Seriously though, look at this dude's picture. It's like GI Joe's Duke starred in Roadhouse.

SPEAKING OF CAP, I FOUND SOME STUFF BRUBAKER LEFT OUT! In my March 18 post on Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run, I praised Bru for thoroughly mining the hero’s past to weave his overarching plot about Bucky’s return, Cap’s death, Bucky taking Cap’s place, Cap’s return and the two Caps working together. With all that history, some stuff had to get left out, though, and in this case, it was the era of John Walker, the man who would become U.S. Agent, and his trio of sidekicks, the Bold Urban Commandos, or BUCkies, all of whom got their powers from the Power Broker and came up through the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, because watcha gonna do, brother, when fervent patriotism runs wild on you?! This Mark Gruenwald-helmed era wasn’t all washed over, however. The homegrown terrorist outfit Walker fought at the time, the Watchdogs, feature prominently in Brubaker’s “Two Americas” storyline, starring the crazy 1950s Cap, William Burnside.

JOE ROBBIE ROBERTSON HAS AN ARCHNEMESIS! While Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson has long thought Spider-Man a menace, it’s editor-in-chief, Joe Robbie Robertson, has a history of being menaced by an actual bad guy, the Spidey villain Tombstone. The handbook tells us the two first crossed paths when Robertson was editor of Harlem High School’s newspaper and was trying to uncover the criminal activities of Tombstone, then an albino fellow student named Lonnie Lincoln. To repeat, a high school student was intelligent enough to write hard-hitting crime exposes about another high school student, who was intelligent enough to organize an extortion racket without being sent to detention, let alone the police. Tombstone assaulted the young Robertson and got him to pull the article (and, I guess, the newspaper’s faculty adviser didn’t bother to pursue the matter? What a great school!). The two would go on to have run-ins in Philadelphia, where Robertson worked for the Inquirer and Tombstone was the Kingpin’s regional crime manager, and then again in New York, because high school never ends, really.

Recommended Reading for 4/5: The Infinity Gauntlet

The power of a god is something that many comic book villains have attempted to attain, but usually the heroes stop them just in time to keep them from attaining this goal. But what happens when the villain does become a god? That's the basic premise for The Infinity Gauntlet, a six issue event mini-series written by Jim Starlin and with art from George Perez and Ron Lim from the early 90s. It is definitely my favorite Marvel Comics event story, and is still possibly my favorite Marvel story of all time.

When Jim Starlin, legendary already for his runs on Captain Marvel and Warlock in the 70s, returned to Marvel, he started writing Silver Surfer and immediately returned his greatest creation, Thanos of Titan, to life. Thanos was a mutant alien from Saturn's moon, Titan, and was obsessed with Death. Not death, the end of an existence, but Death, specifically Mistress Death, the Marvel Universe personification of death, and wanted to win her heart. To do so, during those Silver Surfer issues and in a mini-series called Thanos Quest, Thanos obtained the six Infinity Gems, which when combined grant the bearer supreme power over the galaxy. So by the time The Infinity Gauntlet begins, the heroes of the Marvel Universe are already painted into a corner and they don't know it.

The opening pages of The Infinity Gauntlet should be comic book event opening 101. Even if you don't know the players, you know exactly what is going on. Purple guy (Thanos) is clearly some sort of major cosmic badass, as a guy who looks like the Devil (Mephisto) is sucking up to him, having created one word out of stone in 50 foot tall letters to impress him: GOD. Thanos brushes this off and smashes all of Mephisto's hard work, already establishing the dynamic between the two characters. Coupled with a quick recap of the events from Silver Surfer as recounted by the title's main character as he crashes into Doctor Strange's sanctum right after those initial Thanos pages, you're off to the metaphorical races.

One of the great things about The Infinity Gauntlet, especially in relation to so many event comics today, is how much happens in a single issue. This was long before the idea of decompression became the central tenet of major comic book storytelling, so every issue was chock full of stuff. By the end of the first issue the Earth has been alerted to Thanos's coming, mysterious souls have taken over the bodies of some dead humans, various heroes have been seen unawares, and Thanos has talked to Mephisto and Mistress Death. Oh, and Thanos has wiped out half the universe's population with nothing more than a snap of his fingers.

The Infinity Gauntlet had a very precise structure: The first issue established the premise and gave us the inciting incident. Issues two and three dealt with the ramifications and gathered the heroes. Issues four and five were the battle with Thanos. And issue six was the denouement, the resolution of the story. Starlin paced the story perfectly so it didn't feel like there was a wasted page.

Starlin used this series to also bring another of his major characters back from the dead: Adam Warlock. Starlin evolved Warlock from his previous incarnation as the cosmic answer to Hamlet, and made him both a leader and a manipulator. Warlock plans the entire battle against Thanos with a cold reasoning and has no problem sacrificing his allies to triumph. It's an interesting change to the character, and continues his evolution from everything Starlin did before and sets him on the road to where Starlin planned to go with him.

Starlin uses a ragtag selection of heroes who survived Thanos's wiping out of the galactic population as the squad that Warlock, Silver Surfer, and Doctor Strange gather to confront Thanos. I think Starlin had a lot of fun in selecting whatever heroes he really wanted to write. There's an excellent scene where the Hulk and Wolverine, old enemies, sit on a roof and have a conversation. Doctor Doom, the only villain who joins in, is perfectly played as the character with an agenda of his own, hoping to claim the power of the Gauntlet for himself.

The central character of the piece is clearly Thanos. Thanos could easily be presented (and has often been by lesser writers) as a two dimensional maniac, loving death and blood and pain. But Starlin has a fuller view of the character, one that does not paint him in a light that is heroic, but gives him dimension. Thanos so desperately seeks the approval of Mistress Death that he does any- and everything to garner that favor. Throughout the series, while he has the power of a god, he doesn't use it for anything other than trying to get Death to look upon him. There is the clear analogy of a man with a deathwish, someone who seeks the end to his suffering, courting death, and Thanos takes that to the extreme. He also only exacts perverse suffering upon Eros, his brother, and Nebula, the woman who purports to be his granddaughter. He hates life and his own family is the greatest reminder of that.

By the end of the series, Starlin breaks down Thanos. Having lost the Gauntlet, he is confronted by Warlock, and the two have an intense discussion about Thanos's tragic flaw: subconsciously, he doesn't feel like he really deserves all this power. This is the third time in his history Thanos has gained nigh-omnipotence, and each time it has slipped out of his hands. Thanos denies Warlock initially, but he comes around. Looking back on the whole series, the point is perfectly illustrated. Starlin sets up numerous instances where Thanos could have simply squashed his enemies, but instead plays with them in a way that could easily allow him to be defeated. Not banishing Mephisto from his presence, a being who is surely planning against him, is another perfect example.

While the early issues are brilliant set-up, with great character pieces, issues four and five are truly some of the greatest action comics ever written. It's basically a two issue battle between Thanos and first Earth's heroes, and second the avatars of the cosmic forces. The initial battle is not something you got in comics as much at the time: a complete defeat of the heroes, where Thanos takes them apart. Thanos must have become the god of ironic punishments, as he quickly defeats the heroes in ways that fit their powers or demeanor: Wolverine's skeleton is turned to rubber; Quasar has his hands blown off right after recovering from a similar injury, the Hulk is shrunk down to a few inches tall, Thor is transformed to clash and smashed. But Thanos's arrogance is countered in what might be one of the great Captain America scenes of all time. Compared to the heavy hitters, Cap doesn't stand a chance against Thanos. But when confronted, Cap stands his ground, telling Thanos he can't win. Of course, Thanos kills him, but in the end Cap is proven right.

The issues that were crossovers to the main series, while not integral to the story, integrated well with the changed universe. Getting a better idea of all that was going on with Silver Surfer, who had been dealing with Thanos for some time, in his own title, for instance. Or the issue of The Incredible Hulk, where the shrunken Hulk rests on the shoulder of his nemesis, the Abomination, talking in his ear and using his diminutive stature to be the "voice of God" and get the Abomination to do the right thing and wrap up threads in that title's ongoing stories.

In the end, nothing really changes in the Marvel Universe because of The Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos and Warlock are back, along with supporting characters Gamora and Pip the Troll, and the Infinity Gems were now central to the Marvel cosmos, but aside from that, all the deaths are undone, and the universe returns to the status quo. I don't think that this was a story meant to change the Marvel Universe. I feel like most event books today promise to change the Universe forever, but wind up being decompressed or muddled stories that wind up having minimal effect as it is.  The Infinty Gauntlet is simply a great story, one of immense scope, that wouldn't fit in any one comic.

Now, with Thanos's profile increased by his cameo at the end of The Avengers, he is popping up regularly. After being the main villain of the initial arc of Avengers Assemble, he is now featuring in his own origin mini-series, Thanos Rising. The Infinity Gems were also featured prominently in the first arc of the new volume of New Avengers. Thanos one Marvel's great villains, and this is a story that really presents him in all his glory.

The first three issues, and the first few pages of issue four, are drawn by legendary artist George Perez, who brings his usual hyper-detailed style to the art. He craws the crowd scenes brilliantly, and his Thanos is perfectly creepy. The remainder of the series is drawn by Ron Lim, the artist now most associated with the Marvel cosmic line in the 90s. Lim's style is clean, with a dynamism that makes the massive fight scenes easy to follow. I have a great fondness for Lim, especially when he's working on these characters.

The Infinity Gauntlet is available in trade, as well as its two sequels, Infinity War and Infinity Crusade. Many of the Silver Surfer issues that led into the series are available as the trade: Silver Surfer: the Rebirth of Thanos, and many classic Thanos appearances were recently collected as Avengers Vs. Thanos.

Recommended Reading for 1/18: X-Factor by Peter David

Comic creators don't stay with books like they did in the old days. With very few exceptions (Brian Michael Bendis on the Avengers franchise, Geoff Johns on Green Lantern. Ed Brubaker on Captain America, and Grant Morrison on the Batman titles), writers are usually on a title for one, maybe two years and then are off to different pastures. And most of those runs are big, high profile runs. But flying under the radar, in comparison anyway, is the longest run on any Marvel title right now, and possibly one of the longest in mainstream comics: Peter David's 100+ issues on X-Factor. I'll be discussing just the current run on X-Factor, by the by, not the early 90s run, not to say that wasn't a good run, but I want to stay focused, or as focused as I can be on such a sprawling series.

Peter David is one of the first comic book writers I remember recognizing by name. His over ten year run on the Incredible Hulk is one of the seminal runs of the 90s, and still the defining run on that character. His Supergirl and Young Justice were great runs, and his creator owned Fallen Angel is a title I miss. I've read most of his novels, and despite not being a huge Star Trek person, I really enjoy his New Frontier series. This is a way of saying I have a predisposition to Peter David as a writer. I will say that, with the exception of the Hulk run, X-Factor is my favorite comic series Peter David has written.

X-Factor is a team of mutants that people who aren't big X-Men fans might not know. You're not getting Wolverine, Cyclops, and Storm on the team. What this means is that these are characters who aren't necessarily safe, characters who can change, and who can die (or die as much as anyone in comics can). One of the themes I realize I touch on often is character, and how comics I really love are ones that are character driven. X-Factor is the poster child for the character driven superhero book.

While many other characters have come and gone over the course of the series, the constant has been Jaime Madrox, the Multiple Man, who mutant power is to create doubles of himself. A character Peter David wrote in his original run on X-Factor, the series that served as a prequel to this volume of X-Factor was a Madrox mini-series. In that miniseries, we see that Madrox has set himself up as a private detective, and has also sent out his dupes to learn skills and return to him, where he absorbs them and picks up these new skills and the knowledge these dupes have picked up. As a man who can create countless duplicates of himself, Madrox is a person who can be in more than one place at a time and see things from multiple points of view, both literally and figuratively. And there's where Madrox's problem is: he is so torn by all those points of view that he is often moved to complete inaction. Madrox's journey to become a bit more decisive is one of the key themes that is explored in X-Factor.

The roster of X-Factor Investigations has fluctuated between as few as six and as many as twelve members over the course of the series. The initial cast included Strong Guy and Wolfsbane, Madrox's old friends and teammates from the original X-Factor team; M, Monet St. Croix, the beautiful and conceited young mutant; Siryn, one of Madrox's exes and former member of X-Force; and Rictor, who lost his powers on M-Day, the day most mutants were depowered by Scarlet Witch,, and who starts the series off preparing to jump off a roof and kill himself. Over the years, additional people have come and gone, including Longshot, the extradimensional freedom fighter from Mojoworld; Shatterstar, another native of Mojoworld, warrior, and Rictor's lover; Darwin, the mutant who can evolve to protect himself from any situation; and briefly Havok and Polaris, two classic X-Men and members of the old X-Factor who returned from a long trip in space to be asked to ride herd on the team by Wolverine. And one other member...

The character who has proven absolutely fascinating to me is Layla Miller. Created as a sort of Mcguffin during the House of M crossover, Peter David has taken a mysterious little girl with no personality and made her an interesting woman with real pathos. Layla starts out as the girl who, "knows stuff," seemingly a precognitive ability. but when Layla is displaced into the future, and eventually calls Madrox there to help her, we learn what the nature of her knowledge and what her real power is: she knows stuff because future Layla has told past Layla all of the things that she has learned. And her power is that she can raise the dead. However, in monkey's paw fashion, there is a catch: those resurrected are brought back with no souls. Layla knows what this means, knows that people she resurrects aren't who they were before their resurrection, and must struggle with the decision of what to do with this ability when someone she cares about is lost. Her stories also play with the idea of the butterfly effect (hence her eventual codename of Butterfly), that every time she changes something she knows was destined to happen it changes the flow of events. Issue #240, "Run, Layla, Run," is a phenomenal issue that shows Layla trying to make sure the future flows as she knows it should, despite the changes that have occurred, and gives great insight into the way Layla sees every day.

While Madrox and Layla are the two characters who I find the most compelling, it's the sign of a great comic that I enjoy issues that focus on the others as well. Since this is a long term series, where these characters have had plenty of time to grow, plot threads are laid down that take long periods of time to bear fruit. And with those kind of long, character based arcs, you get a lot of time to build on the interplay between characters and see how they come together and break apart. The relationship between Rictor and Shatterstar is hilarious, as Shatterstar does not always get the way things work on Earth, but is also very real; they're not a "gay couple," they're a couple period; they go through what a lot of couples do and interact is a true manner.

Wolfsbane left the group briefly to be a member of X-Force, and came back broken by the deeds she had done and pregnant. She is shown going through a whole cycle of grief and acceptance, in a heartbreaking series of stories. When Siryn also gets pregnant after a drunken night with Madrox, well I don't want to give away the twist if you've not read the issues, and I know Peter David wouldn't want me to either, but the result is something that leaves you with your jaw on the floor and your heart broken for this fictional character.

I mention those two story arcs together not just because of the obvious similar pregnancy content, but because their resolutions involved a favorite occasional X-Factor supporting character: the Reverend John Maddox. Maddox is one of Madrox's wayward dupes, one who was sent to learn about faith and religion. But Maddox met a woman, fell in love with her and with his role as an Episcopal minister, and decided to not return. When Madrox went to reclaim him, the two fought and eventually Madrox let him go to live his life. He meets with both Siryn and Wolfsbane at their darkest hours, as well as Madrox when he is near the end of his own rope, and serves as the voice of a higher power, a voice of reason and compassion. Peter David never preaches through Maddox, but he speaks with a faith and a belief in the good of humanity, and a worldwise knowledge that makes him both confessor and confidant.

X-Factor is also a great example of a series that makes lemonade out of the lemons of major crossovers. The series was originally pitched as a crime/detective story set in the New York neighborhood of Mutant Town, where the city's mutant population was moving, but right before the series was supposed to launch, those mutants lost their powers. OK, instead the team will work to help depowered mutants in Mutant Town. "Civil War" comes along and the series uses it to make Madrox a hero of the people. "Messiah Complex" tosses all the mutant teams together and Layla Miller disappears for a while into the future to come back as an adult. "Secret Invasion" introduces Longshot and Darwin to the team. While many comics take those crossovers and does the crossover as a story removed from the daily flow of the book, Peter David uses them to help forward his own plans and get some more exposure for the comic, all while not losing the fact that this is an X-Factor story.

While X-Factor has moved through various arcs and eras, it always seems like Peter David is moving towards something that he has had planned all along. Characters who haven't appeared in dozens of issues pop back up and it seems perfectly logical. Damian Tryp, a time traveling mutant with a variety of powers, was the team's initial nemesis; he returns and it fits the story perfectly. Agamemnon, a supporting character from the Hulk, enters into the hunt for Wolsbane's baby and it doesn't seem out of left field. Pip the Troll, a cosmic character, former member of the Infinity Watch and supporting character to Adam Warlock, becomes the team's receptionist and you don't blink. Peter David is a writer who knows what he's doing, knows how to craft a story, and that craftsmanship shows. Not every arc is world shattering, and there are plenty of simple fun one off stories, but every issue counts and advances a plot. The new story that just began, "Hell on Earth War," is something that all these disparate elements have seemingly been building towards for years, and it all fits together like a perfect jigsaw puzzle.

I usually spend a little time at the end of these recommendations talking about art, which is not my strong suit I admit, and it's much harder to do with this title. X-Factor has had a lot of artists over the course of the years, and few have stuck around for a long time. Currently, Leonard Kirk, Peter David's collaborator from Supergirl, is the mostly regular penciler, and I'm a big fan of his work. Other artists have included Ryan Sook, Larry Stroman, Pablo Raimondi, Valentine de Landro, and Paul Davidson. All are good artists, some are great, and you'll be happy to see any of those names on the artist's credits.

Now two final notes. First, the thing I think I haven't really mentioned is just how funny X-Factor is. Peter David is a master of the pun that's so bad it's good, the pop culture zinger in the same style as Joss Whedon, and the situation comedy joke in the superhero world.There's always a bit of tongue planted in cheek, and the tension is often broken by one member or another of the team cracking wise.

On a far more serious not, I mentioned once earlier that Peter David recently suffered a stroke. He is recovering well, according to updates on his website from his wife, Kathleen, but as I'm sure any American knows, health care ain't cheap. If you want to help him out, check out this post on peterdavid.net to see what you can do. As I said, I've read a lot of Peter David's novels, both Star Trek and his fantasy and sci-fi ones, and they're great. I bought the whole slew of e-books available to help out. It only cost me about seventeen bucks, and having skimmed the first one that grabbed my eye, trust me it was money well spent, and it's for a good cause. Let's help out a writer who has brought a lot of great comics and books out by doing what we'd do anyway: reading More of his work.

There are a whopping seventeen X-Factor trades out there now, with two more already solicited. There are also issues collected in the trade of the X-title crossover Messiah Complex. The Madrox mini-series is also available in trade. The issues from Peter David's original run on X-Factor were collected in four trades under the banner X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David, but are currently out of print. Issue #250, the first part of The Hell on Earth War, was released this past Wednesday.