All New X-men #19 Preview - Thy Will Be Awesome

Talk is supposed to be cheap, but if that were the case, then my phone bill with AT&T wouldn’t be so fucking expensive. When an unlettered preview of a comic book comes out, it tends to leave a lot to the imagination. And for guys like me whose imagination is more unhinged than Gary Busey on a crack binge, that can be dangerous. But it can also be dangerous when the lettered preview finally comes out and an unhinged imagination proves to be more interesting. That or some previews just shouldn’t be read sober.

Not long ago, I posted the unlettered preview for All New X-men #19. It was the first preview that showed the O5 in their brand spakin’ new uniforms. It didn’t reveal much other than they popped in to help out a mutant that the Purifiers decided to target. It’s basic, it had no words, but it conveyed the necessary levels of awesome. Now Newsarama has released a fully lettered preview for All New X-men #19, which is set to come out next week.

While I’ve already got a semi-boner in anticipation for this book, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a lettered preview. Sometimes they’re presented in a way that’s akin to walking into the middle of a conversation and pretending to know what the fuck everyone is talking about. That may work for some politicians, but it doesn’t work for comics quite as well. It can still convey plenty of awesome though.

Newsarama: All New X-men #19 Lettered Preview

The post-Battle of the Atom X-verse continues to take shape as the original mutants battle a militia group who believe mutants are the work of the devil in this Newsarama-exclusive preview of next week's All-New X-Men #19.

It really doesn’t say much. We have no idea who that poor mutant girl is. We only know who the George Zimmerman wannabes are. They’re the Purifiers. They’re basically the people who vote for Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz with a straight face. And for some reason, they feel like they have to always talk like Billy Graham. I know it’s for dramatic effect, but at a time when too many religious zealots have too much power, it’s uncomfortably real.

And while the O5 approach the battle with the same indifference as Elton John at a Victoria’s Secret, it does present an interesting and potentially difficult concept for them to process. In the early days of Uncanny X-men, they never encountered people like this. They never dealt with an anti-mutant version of the KKK. They’re still hopelessly optimistic on some levels, thinking that the government isn’t inept and that there aren’t too many assholes in this world. But these are the kinds of people that do exist and in a world where new mutants are manifesting again, they’re not going to listen to Charles Xavier’s message of peace and understanding.

The O5 have already had their innocence shattered quicker than a five-year-old girl who just walked in on her mother banging the mail man. Now they’re going to have to deal with genuinely hateful motherfuckers who hate mutants just because they breathe. Like arguing with creationists, there’s no reasoning with that kind of stupid. And on Cyclops’s team, their mission is to confront assholes like this and expose them for the assholes they are. It could very well add to the kind of emotional upheaval that has O5 Jean kissing every boy she crosses paths with or O5 Cyclops hooking up with Wolverine’s clone daughter. And that could only make All New X-men more awesome.