All-New X-men #6: Nuff Said!

What is it about teen drama that makes it so appealing? Is it because we all still have nightmares about how much our teenage lives suck? Or is it more like the zoo where we just watch on in amazement at how such creatures could ever have functioned in the while? It might be a mix of both, but some definitely handle it better than others. And in terms of handling it, O5 Angel might as well be the Cleveland Browns.

There has been plenty of teen drama in Dennis Hopeless’ All-New X-men since it began, but not all of it is the good kind. Most of that not-good-kind comes from O5 Angel, who seems to think that dating X-23 won’t come with a certain amount of violent bloodshed. Apparently, his stomach and his dick just don’t agree anymore and he says he wants to break up. All-New X-men #6 is supposed to determine whether this is just more teen whining or something legitimate. With teenagers, it’s never wise to assume anything, especially when it involves who’s getting into whose pants.

Not all teen drama involves the inside of other peoples’ pants, believe it or not. During this battle, Idie was having a real crisis of faith. Early in her history, she was deeply religious who just loved telling people that they were going to Hell. She was basically a much cuter version of Pat Robertson. But unlike Pat Robertson, she’s shown actual personal and emotional growth since becoming a mutant. She’s still way cuter, both physically and spiritually.

Armed with that spirit, she joins the fight against Blob and unlike Pat Robertson, she doesn’t rely on prayers or donations from gullible people to solve the problem. That alone makes her better than any Christian that claims to support Ted Cruz. Her inner thoughts along with her actions help make the battle feel intense in a way that Mark Bagley’s art can only help.

O5 Iceman gets a chance to do some musing too as he’s helping Idie. Given that he recently came out as gay, it’s probably a good thing that Idie is having a crisis of faith. Anyone who has tried to argue with someone who thinks forcing men to be celibate and listen to people’s raunchy confessions is a good idea understands what I mean.

His thoughts are perfectly appropriate for a teenage kid looking to simplify his life beyond dealing with which body part he finds more attractive. Like X-men fans in general, he just wishes that things could be as simple as blasting ice chunks in Blob’s face. That’s not nearly as dirty or as it sounds. Considering the complications in his life, I can’t say I blame him for feeling like a fight against Blob is easier somehow.

The fight continues to escalate. The X-men’s strategy, as well as Mark Bagley’s artwork, continues to shine. Blob ends up getting his giant ass thrown across town before he can stop on anybody else’s face. It’s an overdue turn in this battle. However, he’s not the only one who starts to get fucked over.

Stop me if this sounds too familiar, but O5 Cyclops gets badly fucked in this part of the fight and not in a way that involves Emma Frost covered in chocolate syrup. He just gets run over by a car while everyone else is going after Blob. In this case, I’m glad that’s not a metaphor. Compared to some of the shit that has been happening to him, and off-panel no less, this might as well be a fucking hangnail.

That hangnail, however, turns into a shit-stained tumor when Toad turns out to be the one driving the car. He hit O5 Cyclops, effectively taking him out of the fight, and he even tossed aside Kid Apocalypse in the process. Yes, Toad beat Apocalypse…a de-aged, underpowered, and immature version of Apocalypse. It’s not saying much, but it’s still way fucking more than Toad has accomplished in the past five decades.

While O5 Cyclops is getting fucked over in a whole new way, the battle against Blob continues and it continues to find new ways of being entertaining. How could any fight where O5 Beast gets his ass kicked not be entertaining? I know I’m not always fair to Beast on this blog, but let’s be honest. He’s lost his right to fairness the moment he ditched the X-men and joined the Inhumans. So damn it, I’m going to enjoy watching O5 Beast get his ass kicked while he muses about how antiquated he feels in the future.

While O5 Beast is getting his ass kicked, X-23 finally heals enough from the beating she took earlier to join the fight. This is where she finally starts to muse on the annoying teen drama that has been built around O5 Angel’s whining. It’s not as eye-rolling as it sounds. It’s hardly the kind of shit that would show up on a 90120 rerun. She’s not exactly bawling that her boyfriend broke up with her. She’s fucking X-23. She doesn’t whine about her problems. She stabs them.

Her musings highlight the biggest problem with her relationship with O5 Angel. It was never really that deep or meaningful. These two never had the kind of chemistry that would make readers feel like baby kittens are nestling in their souls. It was a hormonal teenage fling. That’s all it ever managed to be and every effort to make it more than that failed miserably, thanks to O5 Angel’s whining. In terms of comic book romances, this deserves to be forgotten quicker than that time She-Hulk banged Juggernaut.

With this overdrawn fling behind him, O5 Angel finally lets his balls descend once more and goes to fucking town on Blob. This involves him finally showing off that cosmic power that he hasn’t been doing jack shit with since Black Vortex. He attacks Blob in a colorful, explosive spectacle. Mark Bagley’s artwork makes it beautiful. Dennis Hopeless’ inner dialog makes it meaningful. It’s by far the best moment O5 Angel has had with his pants on to date.

It gets downright brutal. At one point, O5 Angel jams a piece of metal in Blob’s eye. So fling or no fling, X-23 definitely rubbed off on him and not just in ways that gave him a boner. His musings hint that he understands more than X-23 gives him credit for. She thinks he can’t possibly relate to the darkness she feels and the risks she takes. He claims he does and if he knows anything about his future self, then she can’t bust his balls for that. Then again, it’s not like she didn’t have enough unrelated reasons before.

This time, however, nobody can question the solidity of O5 Angel’s balls. He effectively takes out Blob in the middle of downtown Paris with a cosmic show that France has never had outside shitty History Channel documentaries on World War II. It’s a beautiful culmination to a battle that could’ve been overly simplified. But Hopeless and Bagley drew it out in the best possible way. They made sure we had plenty of reasons to root against Blob when he stomped all over X-23’s face. Then, they had O5 Angel of all people kick his ass. It couldn’t be more appropriate without Eric Cartman showing up to call Blob a total fat ass.

The end of the battle leads to a brief, but telling moment between X-23 and O5 Angel. No, they don’t start making out on top of Blob’s unconscious body. Even teenage hormones have their limits. They don’t get back together either. There’s some awkwardness, but it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll become the kind of jealous ex-lovers that drive pickup trucks into their bedroom. I’d still sleep in a pair of adamantium boxers if I were O5 Angel, just in case.

There’s one more, less dramatic moment between O5 Iceman and Idie. Whereas Mark Bagley has shined for the most part in this series, it’s Dennis Hopeless who really shines here. He has them share a nice conversation about Idie’s faith and the conflicts she’s feeling. She claims she’s still very Catholic, but only to the extent that Lady Gaga is still Catholic. It’s an ongoing inner struggle and one that promises future intrigue, especially as more apocalyptic plots unfold. The fact she’s gone this long without telling O5 Iceman that he’s going to Hell counts as progress.

So Blob is defeated, X-23 and O5 Angel broke up, and everyone’s soul is still intact for the most part. That alone makes for a productive day by X-men standards. However, there’s still the matter of O5 Cyclops still getting screwed over. Kid Apocalypse catches up with the others just in time to tell them that Toad abducted him. That shows he’s a long ways away from being worthy of Oscar Isaac’s voice. But for O5 Cyclops, his day is now totally fucked because Toad now has him tied up in ways that even Emma Frost never tried. However, at this point I imagine he and everyone else in the multiverse is done being shocked whenever any version of Cyclops gets screwed over.

So...is it awesome?

Well it finally ditched most of the teen drama and opted for kicking Blob’s oversized ass. So yeah, it’s awesome in a way that you’ll never get on the CW, that’s for sure. This issue had a lot of inner musings and meaningful chats, but it was all built around a simple battle between the X-men and Blob. At a time when every X-men story has been horribly corrupted by massive Inhuman farts and agendas dictated by Disney’s legal team, this was like a breath of fresh air and a cold beer.

On top of that, O5 Angel finally stopped being a pussy! All-New X-men #6 definitely deserves bonus points for that. He actually got to show off some of that cosmic power he took on in Black Vortex. It took way too fucking long, but he finally showed he can be more than the guy who keeps X-23’s panties warm. Considering what often happens to anyone involved with anyone who has adamantium claws in the Marvel universe, that’s probably a good thing for everyone.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Extraordinary X-men #8: Nuff Said!

Don’t lie. There are times in your life where you wish you had a time machine, a fast-forward button, or even a mute button. Who among us doesn’t wish they could’ve skipped through most of high school with their soul intact? Well, it’s not a longing fantasy for the X-men. They’ve been involved in so much time travel bullshit that they probably have their own support group, complete with PSA announcements.

Time Travel has almost never worked out for the X-men, but it was vital in undoing X3 from the movies so it’s not without merit. Now, with Apocalypse Wars starting in Extraordinary X-men #8, the X-men are willing to gamble that fucking with the time stream will help them unfuck themselves. Short of going back in time and mind-fucking every lawyer Fox ever employed, the chances are slim at best.

And who has the unenviable task of playing these shitty odds? It’s Storm. At the very least, if the odds kick her ass, she’s able to lose with grace and sex appeal. Ask Hallie Berry about how important that is. She’s still musing over how fucked the mutant race is and how she’s trying to keep the school going, despite being stuck in Limbo. She worries that mutants will go down in history as a rectal wart on humanity while the Inhumans will go down as an extra breast. It’s not an unreasonable concern.

Old Man Logan shows up to help share those concerns. It leads to a moment with all sorts of wonderful feels, and not just the kind you feel in your pants. It’s the first time Old Man Logan dares to get a little closer to his new teammates, which is saying something since he fucking killed these same teammates in his world. But the moment has with Storm is so sweet and not just because it’s dripping with romantic and sexual tension. Yeah, Old Man Logan is an old fart, but he’s an old fart with a functioning dick.

It’s one of the few times this series actually makes a relevant connection to the X-men comics that came before the entire mutant race was fucked over off-panel. Storm and Wolverine were romantically involved before Wolverine’s death. Now here she is, facing a non-clone version of the man she loved. It’s a powerful moment, at least until Forge comes in to cock-block Old Man Logan. I’m pretty sure he can expect to be missing a nut if this becomes a trend.

Cock blocking aside, Forge does have important news to share. He reveals that Cerebra detected about 600 fresh mutant signatures. In a world where the giant Inhuman fart known as the Terrigen Mist is killing their kind, this is pretty fucking important. They don’t know how it’s happening. They don’t know if it’s some Inhuman prank done in obscenely poor taste, but it’s something they need to investigate. And since the odds are already shitty enough, Storm decides to send some of the younger mutants with the team.

Now on the surface, this sounds like one of those moves that Peter Parker would make when a clone of Gwen Stacy is flashing him her tits. But keep in mind, the X-men are stretched thin and low on manpower. They can’t exactly have students wasting time learning advanced math and 18^th century French poetry. They need to get off their asses and fucking contribute, which will already put them above 90 percent of the college students I’ve known.

The team that ends up investigating consists of Colossus, Glob Herman, Anole, Ernst, and No Girl. They’re basically a scout team with a first stringer whose only role is to stop them from fucking up too bad. It’s not as good a role as being Domino’s personal gigolo, but I’m sure Colossus will take it.

They arrive in Tokyo where mutants and giant robots aren’t even the 10^th weirdest thing people see on a daily basis, nor is it the most inconvenient. Anyone who has been on a Tokyo subway can confirm this. So there are no riots or pitchforks to worry about. They can just focus on finding the source of the new mutants.

So what will they find? Will it be a warehouse of 600 mutant underwear models whose powers force them to stay naked? Sorry, but like I said, the odds the X-men are dealing with are totally fucked. They end up finding Sugar Man hiding out in some Japanese wharf. And anyone who knows Sugar Man, also known as butt-ugly version of Pac Man, knows that he’s usually the first warning that Apocalypse is about to fuck shit up.

It’s not exactly a meth-fueled Magneto so I’d say he’s still a reasonable threat for the young X-men to take on. It leads to some decent action that involves Sugar Man getting attacked by Colossus and a Sentinel. It’s not exactly an epic brawl that will teach these young X-men valuable lessons in ass-kicking. Remember, Sugar Man is the preseason. Apocalypse is the fucking Super Bowl.

Even if he is a nightmare version of Pac Man, Sugar Man does reveal he’s fighting for something important. He managed to isolate 600 mutant embryos in isolation from the big Inhuman farts plaguing the world. So that explains the mutant signatures and why he’s being uglier than usual in protecting them. It’s probably the best thing he could’ve done for mutant kind without making Emma Frost’s tits bigger.

The problem is the attack by the X-men triggered a failsafe for the embryos. He might be ugly and evil as fuck, but he understands the value of having a backup. So he set a machine to send his embryos somewhere safer than even Rick Santroum could ever imagine. Assuming, of course, his concept for safety is every bit as fucked as Rick Santorum’s, Colossus and the young X-men try to stop it. Again, the X-men’s shitty luck and shittier odds work against them.

Cerebra manages to get out a distress call to the rest of the X-men. In short order, this brings in Magik, Storm, Iceman, O5 Jean, Old Man Logan, Forge, and Nightcrawler. Now it’s a bunch of pro bowlers playing against a bunch of pre-season waiver pickups. That means Sugar Man is fucked and he doesn’t realize it in time to stop Old Man Logan from chopping his tongue off. Is it gross? Yes. Is it satisfying as hell to see someone like Sugar Man silenced so violently? Hell yes.

Unfortunately, cutting Sugar Man’s tongue off doesn’t stop the machine. The X-men are a long ways away from ever being that lucky. So instead, the machine goes off and Colossus’ team disappears, along with the 600 mutant embryos. They disappear, but since they’re not Cyclops, they’re not going to just get fucked over off-panel. I’m sure Marvel is saving that for some other bullshit retcon.

A quick scan of Sugar Man’s disgusting mind reveals that he sent the embryos to the future because I guess they don’t have Dr. Who reruns in Age of Apocalypse. It is dystopian, after all. Since being stuck in the future tends to suck elephant balls, as the O5 X-men can attest, they decide to go to the future to get him. Forge hot wires the machine while Magik is forced to stay behind. They need someone to watch over the Jean Grey Institute, which is still stuck in Limbo. It might as well be someone who is disturbingly comfortable around demons.

Some LSD-inspired artwork gives us a decent time travel sequence. When it passes and everyone’s brain’s stop melting, the X-men find themselves approximately 1,000 years in the future. They’re in an I Am Legends version of New York City, minus the vampire creatures. Since there are no flying cars or mutant/Inhuman love fests in the streets, it’s safe to assume this future is dystopian on some level.

They do catch up with Glob, Anole, and No Girl. However, it turns out that they fucked the timeline a little too hard and they ended up being stuck in the future for years. So now they’re grown up, older, and a lot less cute. But they don’t exactly show that they’ve matured much in however much time has passed. That might be too jarring, even in a series built on a foundation of bullshit retcons.

There is one notable absence though. Colossus is missing. So what the fuck happened to him? Well, since the X-men’s luck is so fucked, they find out the hard way. He shows up, blasts Cerebra, and reveals that he’s become a horseman of Apocalypse. Having been a vessel for the Phoenix Force just a few years ago, I think it’s safe to say that Colossus is getting around more than a joint at Tommy Chong’s house.

And he’s got other horseman too. This includes Moon Knight, Venom, and Deadpool. Because why not? Deadpool has a $700 million movie. To not include him in a big Apocalypse event would just be irresponsible from a business perspective. Beyond that though, there’s nothing all that shocking about these horsemen other than they promise to fuck the X-men up even more. Like Jenna Jameson after a gangbang, are they even going to feel it at this point?

So...is it awesome?

In terms of busting Forge’s balls and showing the inherent power of white hair? Sure, I’ll grant Extraordinary X-men #8 that. But in terms of overall story? Sorry, but busting balls only goes so far for me. It’s not like the story isn’t coherent and concise. It just doesn’t do anything that would make me want to pay closer attention to it. Maybe if it was printed on Emma Frost’s tits, I would be more intrigued. Since it’s not, I can only neither condemn nor praise it.

It does have plenty of moments. Bringing Sugar Man back into the mix was a nice touch. Seeing him get his tongue cut off certainly helps make my day. Beyond that though, I can’t say this story did anything to make time travel, the dystopian futures, or shitting all over the entire mutant race feel less overdone. The extra story with Magik was a nice bonus, but Extraordinary X-men #8 doesn’t exactly need a warning for heart patients or those with bladder issues. And at a time when Oscar Isaac can basically name his own price, I think Apocalypse deserves better.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Broken Legacy: A New Superman/Wonder Woman Story

It's an uncertain time for DC Comics. The New 52 reboot has run its course. Now, DC is gearing up for yet another major relaunch, which they're calling Rebirth. It's not being billed as a reboot on the same scale as the New 52, but it promises to bring major changes to DC Comics once more. For some, that's going to be a good thing. For others, it'll be a bad thing. As always, everyone will find something to bitch about.

But of all the developments from the New 52 that have been most memorable, I'd say the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship is definitely near the top. For the first time, DC actually put some serious effort into developing this relationship in a meaningful way and they did it without denigrating Lois Lane or resorting to Elseworlds. The result has led to some pretty damn awesome stories, which have become one of the greatest sources of romance in superhero comics. Then again, this is an era where both Marvel and DC just love fucking up iconic romances so it's not like the bar is that high. Just ask Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.

There's no sign yet that the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship will continue after rebirth. Whatever the case, the New 52 helped establish that this relationship can work and be awesome. It helped inspire me to write my first ever Justice League story, Strangers In Paradise. Now, I feel like I'm ready to write another one.

This new story actually takes place within the New 52 continuity, specifically before Justice League #12, the now-iconic issue where Superman and Wonder Woman came together. The premise of this story is built around bring them together in a different way. It takes place at a time when Wonder Woman is learning about the dirty secrets of the Amazons and Superman's identity is still intact. That's not to say I won't take a few liberties here and there, but I'll try not to take as much as I did before.

This story won't be quite as long or as elaborate as Strangers In Paradise. It'll also be a bit more mature in terms of content, but not overly graphic. It deals with themes that are difficult even for superheroes to deal with, but in a way I hope will bring out the right kind of drama. Given the response to my previous story, I hope this one helps raise the bar.

Broke Legacy

Chapter 1: The Arrival

As always, I ask that readers take the time to leave feedback for this and all my other stories. Feedback, be it constructive or otherwise, helps inspire me to keep improving and that's exactly what I want. For Superman fans, Wonder Woman fans, and every fan in between, I want this story to be as awesome as it can be. Anything less is unacceptable. Nuff said!

Morphing Into A New Era: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1

The following is my review of Mighty Morphin power Rangers #1, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

It seems so long ago that Power Rangers and its annoyingly catchy opening theme song were stuck in the minds of kids and parents alike. It’s easy to forget that there’s an entire generation of kids who structured their afternoons around when Power Rangers came on TV, when they would put on their Power Rangers pajamas, and when they would beg mom and dad for the latest toys. That generation might now base their afternoons on second jobs, yoga classes, and overpriced lattes, but they haven’t forgotten the craze that was Power Rangers.

Kyle Higgins and Boom Studios are now looking to remind this generation of that craze while creating a new generation that will beg their parents for toys, games, apps, and whatever Haim Saban can slap a logo on. This not as easy as it sounds though. This is an era where stories about superheroes, giant robots, and monsters cannot be substituted with reused stock footage from Japanese TV shows. Kids and adults today demand a more refined approach to the superhero/giant robot mythos and, as Michael Bay has proven with Transformers, it’s not enough to build that approach around successive explosions.

In many respects, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 is behind the curve because it’s late to the party. It’s arriving long after the Avengers, the X-men, the Justice League, and every other superhero franchise in between has been rebooted, retconned, or re-launched at least once. However, Higgins doesn’t try to put the Power Rangers on a similar path. There’s no Batman Begins type origin or Avengers type build-up. The story begins mid-season in a sense, taking place right after the iconic Green Ranger saga. It’s a story with many unexplored themes and unlike the TV show, it isn’t bound by how many commercials for Happy Meals it can fit in.

Being a comic book in an era where comics aren’t bound by newsstands or the postal service, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 has every opportunity to succeed and it seizes on those opportunities with the force of an army of Megazords.

It dares to be a little more mature than a typical episode built around destroying a monster and 90s-era anti-drug messages. It also dares to make the characters more serious now that they’re no longer bound by the heavily-censored scripts of late-afternoon kids shows. Most importantly, it does all of this while retaining the spirit of the Power Rangers. Those hoping for a gritty reboot will be disappointed, but they’ll be the only ones disappointed.

Beyond the daring new dimensions that Higgins explores, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 builds a story that feels entirely appropriate within the timeline of the show. The Power Rangers just helped the Green Ranger break free of Rita Repulsa’s control. They’ve willingly accepted him into the team. However, this is not as smooth a transition as a kids show would have anyone believe.

Tommy Oliver just endured being mind-controlled and manipulated by an evil, witch-like woman whose voice sounds like the screech of every vindictive math teacher who ever lived. He also happens to be new to Angel Grove, a town that acts as ground zero for every monster attack and zord battle. Can anyone reasonably expect a teenage boy to just shrug that off? High school is almost as stressful as any monster attack. Such expectations are simply not reasonable.

Higgins doesn’t place those kinds of expectations on Tommy. He allows him to struggle somewhat with the aftermath of this transition. That struggle includes hearing voices and crippling self-doubt, which are already outstanding symptoms for some teenage boys. It doesn’t completely overwhelm him, but he does struggle with it and that struggle helps make the story engaging. Kids might still skip to the parts that involve putty attacks, but there’s plenty to like for all ages.

Tommy isn’t the only one who struggles somewhat with being a Power Ranger in addition to being a teenager. Zach and Jason also take part in another side-plot that. Granted, that plot is vague and lacking in detail, but it’s enough to establish that the plot revolves around more than just Tommy, despite what a sizable segment of Power Rangers fans might prefer. This team has six teenagers in it. There are bound to be more than a few personal issues outside the Zord battles.

These issues don’t necessarily lead to any major Zord battles, but it does give dramatic weight to any future battles that unfold. It’s a weight that can’t often be fit into a half-hour time slot on a Saturday morning. Kyle Higgins does not try to structure this story around the same formula that made Power Rangers a successful TV show. He works within the added flexibility that the medium has given him and makes good use of it. If there was any temptation to go overboard, he managed to resist and for a brand that’s best known for giant monster battles, that’s saying something.

Overall, the most important accomplishment of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 is that it establishes the Power Rangers within a modern context. It doesn’t try to create the same world that defined the 90s almost as much as grunge rock and boy bands. It puts the Power Rangers in a world of the internet, podcasts, and social media without feeling forced. It’s not a reboot, nor is it a Star Trek style re-launch. It’s just Power Rangers in a more updated form.

While it might be updated, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 does lack detail in certain areas and not just because there aren’t any giant monsters that show up. There are a lot of new dynamics in this story and get a chance to be fleshed out, but the potential is definitely there. For a generation of fans who may have outgrown their Power Rangers costumes, it’s still more than enough to make this issue a satisfying start to a new era. It might mean getting that annoyingly catchy theme song stuck in your head again, but it’s worth it.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

X-men Supreme Issue 132: Natural Disorder Part 1 is LIVE!

Every major conflict the X-men face is a culmination between the circumstances that led to it and the fateful decisions that created those circumstances in the first place. Throughout the X-men Supreme fanfiction series, there have been many fateful decisions and dire circumstances. Some involved decisions that were completely out of the hands of the X-men and even their enemies. There was no decision that could’ve averted the crash of a Shi’ar ship under Genosha, as revealed in X-men Supreme Issue 46: Paradise Mystery. Other decisions, such as Magneto’s fateful decision not to save Toad when he got captured in X-men Supreme Issue 83: Test Subject Part 2, had a direct influence on the current conflict the X-men now face.

This fanfiction series is set to enter another major clash. It’s a clash that has been building since X-men Supreme Volume 6: Liberation Decimation began. The Mutant Liberation Front is making waves all over the world. The human/mutant conflict hasn’t been this tense since Magneto took over Genosha in the Overlord arc back in X-men Supreme Volume 2: War Powers. Under the leadership of Toad, as in the same Toad that Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants left behind, the Mutant Liberation Front is in a position to succeed where Magneto and Sinister have failed.

The Mutant Liberation Front has many reasons to be confident. They already fought the X-men once in X-men Supreme Issue 127: Terror Sell and they won that battle decisively. On top of that, the X-men are currently operating without the aid of their mentor, Professor Charles Xavier. As he recovers from the effects of an addiction to pain killers, the X-men try to function. Cyclops is the Operations Commander. Storm and Beast are co-headmasters. While they would prefer to wait for their mentor’s return, the Mutant Liberation Front isn’t willing to wait.

They’ve already preparing to make their move. They battled both Wolverine and the newly created GRSO unit in X-men Supreme Issue 131: Double Threat to abduct Madison Jefferies. This luckless mutant literally has the key to ensuring the success of Toad’s plan. He’s already a target of the authorities. As part of another set of fateful decisions, President Kelly is now trusting Henry Peter Gyrich over General Grimshaw in handling mutant affairs. That trust is about to be tested, among other things, and the margin for error couldn’t be smaller.

It’s still somewhat early in X-men Supreme Volume 6: Liberation Decimation, but make no mistake. This is a critical moment for this fanfiction series. The decisions made leading up to this arc, as well as the decisions that will be made during it, will have far-reaching implications for the X-men moving forward. They won’t involve clones, time travel, or sterilization, but they will have a major impact on the X-men, their allies, and their enemies. So get ready and prepare for an arc promises to shake the X-men to their core once again.

X-men Supreme Issue 132: Natural Disorder Part 1

There are a lot more conflicts and upheavals to come in X-men Supreme. I try to make sure that each successive conflict builds off the one that came before it. The world I’ve created in this fanfiction series has grown large and diverse. Given the scale of the X-men mythos, I’d say that’s befitting. As such, I’m committed to ensuring that I honor this mythos as much as possible. That means every bit of feedback I get on X-men Supreme helps a great deal. Please, if you can, take the time to provide some feedback. Either post your comments directly in the issue or contact me directly. Either way is fine. Until next time, take care and best wishes. Excelsior!

Jack