X-men Supreme Issue 6: Rogue Recruit is LIVE!

All you Rogue fans can finally exhale. The new issue of X-men Supreme is ready! Issue 6: Rogue Recruit should help satisfy your fan cravings for the untouchable southern belle the X-men know and love. Always a favorite of fanfiction writers and readers, Rogue will make some major contributions to the X-men Supreme series. Her sassy personality and rebellious attitude will take center stage in a big way. Also, I'll be posting her bios page soon so be prepared. She will have a different story compared to the comics. But don't expect to see every detail. There's a reason she's called Rogue after all.

Issue 6: Rogue Recruit

Enjoy the issue! And don't forget to review!

Jack

Cable 24: The End and the Beginning

Every so often a comic comes along that you don't really appreciate until it's over. I admit that after Messiah Complex, the Cable series wasn't on my pull list. I only started getting interested after Messiah War. Then my interest waned again only to re-emerge with the last few issues. Now issue 24 has come full circle and I have to say, it finally comes together at a level that is worthy of the title AWESOME.

Issue 24 follows Cable and Hope Summers to the end of their time-hopping which takes them everywhere from the 1920s to 1978 to 1990. Nearly every step of the way, Bishop keeps chasing them. It makes for action and destruction that has more depth than previous issues and it really comes together in a way that leaves the door open for more developments. In the end it's not clear how much Bishop succeeds or fails. In the end Cable is able to trick him by re-working his time machine and sending him thousands of years into the future. Yet despite this, Bishop seems certain that he has done the right thing. He seems to know what Hope is and what she's in for. He also feels he's going to be proven right, something that should be settled with Second Coming.

One of the reasons I was turned off early on in this series is how Bishop was portrayed as having gone completely off the deep end. He was no longer the hero. He was the destroyer, trying to doom the mutant race by killing the messiah baby. But at the end of Cable 24 you get the sense that there was a method to this madness. He truly believed that this girl was going to destroy everything and that the life he sought so desperately to escape would be created. The way he fights and the way he muses over his mission helps redeem some of his credibility, but not all. He still has a LONG way to go and if he ever comes back into the fold (which he probably will since time travel is easier than ordering a pizza in Marvel comics), he's going to have to do a hell of a lot to make up for what he did. Even if Second Coming further vindicates him, Bishop has a taint that isn't easy to recover from. I tend to think the writers were a little unfair with him and a lot of what they did in Messiah Complex felt forced. But so long as he's still in the picture, he can be redeemed. It just may take a while.

But what was probably the best and most telling part of the issue was near the end when Cable and Hope prepared to head back to the present to meet up with the X-men. Along the way, Hope nearly ran over a familiar looking redhead. One that Cable seemed to be serious about not hitting. Could that be another Jean hint? Or possibly a reference to Annie, who was part of Jean's history? Then there was the part where Hope actually called Cable her father. It felt very satisfying because Cable really has gone above and beyond to raise her, protect her, and train her in a way that makes him her father in pretty much every meaningful way. If Hope ends up being Jean Grey (which is still possible albeit remotely), it would be ironic yet fitting because Jean did the same for Cable with Scott when they raised him. Could anything be more appropriate? That is, of course, if the writers have more than a three dollar fart for a brain.

Overall, the Cable series has come full circle. The ending has officially made the 23 issues before it more awesome. That's not easy to do and I take my hat off to Duane Swiercyznski for pulling it off! Definitely a five out of five and a nice prelude to Second Coming!

New Sexy Pics of Storm on X-men Supreme

In the spirit of celebrating the sexiness of Jean Grey recently on X-men Supreme, I feel it's only fair that other X-women get their share as well. So today I have added a new section celebrating the exotic sexiness of Storm. As an exotic and charismatic emblem of the spirit of the X-men, she deserves her fair share. Look for her to play an increasing role in the coming issues of X-men Supreme!

Check out the new shrine to Ororo Munroe here at X-men Supreme!

While Storm is a fine addition to the sexy ladies of X-men, she will not be the last! In this week's issue of X-men Supreme, Rogue will make her debut so all you Rogue fans looking forward to seeing her tribute need only stay tuned. Her time is coming! If you have any pictures you would like to donate, please contact me and I will be happy to add them.

Jack

X-men Supreme Issue 6: Rogue Recruit Preview

Another week has come and another preview is upon us. The next issue of X-men Supreme is well on it's way and is set to be live by March 12th. I'm hoping for more feedback as this series goes along. I understand that fanfiction sometimes takes time to develop, but I've got so many ideas for this series and so many stories to tell down the line that feedback is even more important. So for all you readers of X-men Supreme, please remember to take the time to review or post feedback so I can make this series the best it can be!

For now, I offer fans of X-men Supreme a brief taste of what is to come with the new issue. If you're a fan of Rogue, I think you'll like it!

Rogue felt the man rub up against her. He looked at her and she looked right back at him, showing she was every bit the rebel her name implied. He leaned in to touch her, trailing his hand up her waist and onto her exposed mid-drift. Rogue leaned into it, matching him move for move. Then something unexpected happened. Suddenly, the man’s expression shifted to one of great discomfort.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

His cries were barely audible over the music and crowd, but Rogue heard him loud and clear. When she saw the look on his face, she realized something was wrong. Then she felt it too.

“What the…aaaaaarghhhhhhhhh!”

The man’s body went limp and he collapsed lifelessly onto the floor. Rogue fell back in confusion, grasping her head. It was like someone had just injected fire into her veins. A rush of images surged through her mind. Only these images weren’t from her.

‘My name is Cody Hawkins. I am 18. I’m a poor student. I played football. I got kicked off the team because they found needles in my locker. My dad’s a jerk. My mom’s overbearing. I sneak out at night to go to punk concerts. I dress differently during the day. I become someone else at night. I am…’

It was happened so fast. Along with these thoughts came this strange surge of energy. It felt weird. It left her disoriented and confused. She tried to keep her balance. Then she stumbled onto a girl who was dancing next to her. She felt her arm make contact with her shoulder. Another surge followed, only this time the thoughts were different.

‘My name is Risty Wilde. My other name is Moonlight. My parents are nice. My family is wealthy. I don’t fit in. I want to be different. I skip church to hang out with friends. I hide drugs under my mattress in a hallowed out bible. I want to get out of this town. I want to start my own band. My parents don’t understand. Nobody understands.’

The girl went limp and Rogue tripped over onto another girl. More strange sensations followed and like the previous two, she went limp. At this point, people were starting to notice. Even as the music kept playing, onlookers began to panic. Three people were out cold and one girl was freaking out. Something was seriously wrong with her. She couldn’t stop screaming.

“MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT-AHHHHHHH!” cried Rogue as she clutched her head.

“Take it easy, missy! You on a bad trip or something?” asked a middle aged man.

He reached down to help her up, but when she grabbed her hand he joined the three other victims lying on the floor. And once again, Rogue was bombarded with a wave of images and sensations. Her reaction drew more attention as onlookers began piecing it together.

“What’s happening to her?”

“She some sort of succubus or something?”

“She knocked them out cold just by touching her? She must be cursed or something!”

“Should we get help or something?”

More closed in on Rogue and the four bodies of her victims. But this time, she wouldn’t let them.

“DON’T TOUCH MEH! GET AWAY!”

With strength that defied her stature, Rogue plowed through the crowd and rushed for the nearest exit. Some tried to stop her, but they were overwhelmed. It was like she had the strength of several men. By the time she reached the back, nobody dared stand in her way. She could barely coordinate herself. Her mind was going so fast she could barely keep up with her body. Once she reached the back door, she stormed aimlessly into the night.

“What’s going on?! Why is this happening to me?! Somebody? Anybody! HELP MEH!”

Second Coming Q&A - Thoughts From The Adherents

Second Coming is in full swing at Marvel. It appears the writers and editors simply cannot contain their excitement as they have been giving out interviews in the way McDonalds gives out heart attacks. On the hype alone it may be just as dangerous for all fanboys with heart conditions, but nobody is complaining yet. So far nothing has been revealed to completely destroy interest in this crossover so Marvel is doing all the right things thus far.

X-men Second Coming: Q&A

On the whole there's nothing too shocking here, just an overall reinforcing of what is already known about this crossover. It's the final chapter to Messiah Complex, it will bring Hope and Cable back into the present, and it will have Bastion as the main enemy. In earlier interviews it was revealed by Matt Fraction that someone big was going to die. There weren't any further hints here, but it appears the sentiment seems to be leaning towards someone like Nightcrawler, Beast, Pixie, or potentially Angel. There were some notable quotes.

Matt Fraction: Yeah. This is the bookend to [Messiah Complex]. But it's the X-Men. Nothing is ever wrapped up in a tidy little package. But you will know who Hope is. You will know what she is capable of. You will have a sense of what she is going to be capable of. This is the end of all the questions that have been asked since [Messiah Complex]. Well...almost. [Laughs] It answers the questions, but asks new ones that propel us into the future.

Chris Yost: Bastion is a very committed villain. He's got a goal and he's never going to stop. He will never stop no matter what. He is the kind of guy who crosses his t's and dots his i's. Anything he does is going to be very extreme and very well thought out and thorough. The X-Men have no idea what's coming for them.

Mike Carey: I would see [Hope] as being ambivalent about a lot of things. She's met a number of the mutants from our time now in the events of Messiah War and she's curious about that. She's curious about the time that she's come from and she knows that it's assumed by everybody around her that she'll go back there. I think she wants to do that, but she's also afraid. The burden she carries is an enormous one and she's a bit uncertain of her ability to carry it. Particularly since there is still this question mark about what she can do.

Zeb Wells: Well, Cyclops honestly believes that Hope is the future of mutantkind, where her living makes the difference between mutantkind surviving and mutantkind dying. So, as soon as Hope shows up, any danger that she finds herself in is going to be met with a huge reaction from Cyclops. Basically, an attack on Hope would be considered an attack on mutantkind. So, he is going to throw everything he possibly can to making sure Hope is safe and that she is in a place where she can be protected.

Nick Lowe: Our big instruction when Axel Alonso came in as our group editor was to simplify the line in a lot of ways and make it that each book has a pretty distinctive identity and each one has a mission statement you can identity. That's still going to be it-maintaining these "simple mission statement books"-but on the other end of it, what we're pushing back is to the core X-Men "hated and feared" and the differences between people and what makes you special. But we've been in a really dark tunnel in a way ever since "no more mutants." It's been a really dark time with no real hope for the future. Like Cyclops, in editorial we'd like to go beyond that dread of extinction.

Axel Alonso: Everything hinges on Hope. Back in Messiah Complex, Cyclops, acting on nothing more than faith, allowed Cable to jump with this girl into the time stream with no plan other than "bring her back when she's ready and when it's safe." Since that time, he has had to live with that decision and ponder everything, from the mortality of the mutant species to choices he had to make to ensure survival. Understand that he's been operating on nothing more than faith. There's no proof that Hope means anything to mutants. And as any reader of the books knows, there's more than a faint flicker of danger. Red hair, green eyes. Say no more. Really, the overarching theme of the X-Men for the last couple of years has been faith. What do they believe in? What do they stand for? And at the center of that storm has been Cyclops. If you've been reading CABLE, you know that two heroes, Bishop and Cable, have two very different ideas of who Hope is and what she means for the mutant race. For Cable, she's salvation. For Bishop, she's destruction. Maybe both are true. That's what Cyclops has to ponder and what readers have to ponder when we bring her back. By the end of Second Coming, readers will fully understand who Hope is and what she means for mutants.

So what can we draw from this? First off, it looks as though they'll finally revisit the early scenes in Messiah Complex where Hope was born. There has been a lot of mystery surrounding the birth, but there haven't been any answers. As for Hope herself, it seems they're playing up the overall uncertainty in her character. She is being billed as either a savior or destroyer (sound familiar?). Who and what she is appears to be more complex than just some Deus Ex Machina that's going to undo M-Day. Also, the red hair and green eyes comment once again finds is way with Alonso, which again hints at Jean Grey. However, there has been next to no mention of her. But considering the Phoenix hints, the appearance, and having a destructive/creative nature it's pretty damn hard to ignore. All indications are that Hope is going to be yet another Jean-lite, one who looks and acts like Jean Grey but isn't Jean Grey. Like Rachel Summers without the alternate universe mess. This once again feels like Marvel trying to have their cake and eat it too, wanting to bring Jean's star power back without disrupting their precious new version of Cyclops and Emma Frost. It would be a great story if it wasn't so damn blatant. If Hope looked nothing like Jean Grey, this would not be an issue. There are any number of ways they could have drawn her, but they gave her a look that was just like Jean. Could the subtext be any clearer?

In addition it appears that the end of Second Coming will mark yet another transition period for the X-men. The team may once again get reshuffled like they did after Messiah Complex and House of M. And for once it may actually end without so much doom and gloom, which seems to be a major theme of every crossover since 2000. It seems all events either have to end with a funeral or a massive demoralizing. It's as if the only way the stories can be interesting is if they are downers. Like people want to read a book that makes them depressed? If Second Coming ends in a way that doesn't require a fresh prescription of Prozac, I'll be content. You have a character in this story named Hope. Shouldn't it at least be hopeful?

March 31st is set to be the beginning. The aftermath begins in July. From the looks of it, Second Coming will set the stage for the next decade of X-comics. The question remains will the decade erupt with awesomeness or fizzle with all that which is lame?