I saw the new movie 'Push' last night and I really liked it.
After reading reviews for it, I was worried that it would be terrible, but I nevertheless got a group of friends together to go see the movie. Afterwards, all of us agreed that it was well done (particularly with how special effects were used tp portray different powers) with an intriguing plot.
Push is the story of people with special abilities and the government organization that's tasked with either keeping them in line (often by training them as agents) or locking them up if they are a potential threat. There are several different abilities shown in the movie: Pushers who can make people believe certain things (you really need to watch the movie to know just how effective this ability can be), Movers that move things telekinetically with their minds, Watchers who can see potential futures, and half a dozen others that are mentioned.
Comic book fans will recognize themes in Push similar to recent comics like 'Civil War' and television shows like 'Heroes' but it's a good story in it's own right. It doesn't try to copy or adapt a previous work, but create something new using elements of other popular fiction.
As far as acting goes, the movie lacks a huge star (unless you have an inflated opinion of Dakota Fanning or Chris Evans), but the cast does an excellent job with the characters they play. Even though most of the characters aren't elaborated on, the actors seem to have fun playing their parts, which is good for a minor movie like this.
So, if you like comic books or action movies or just want something to watch for two hours, go see Push. It might not be in theatres for very long.
Also, I watched the entire Star Wars Trilogy last weekend (the original, not the prequels) and they still hold up. I think everyone should watch the original Star Wars movies once every six months.
Lost is getting good. I had a problem with some of the episodes in season 3 and 4, but it's getting back into a nice groove.
That's about it. I'll try to write again soon.
Megacon next week and Watchmen the week after that.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Friday, November 7, 2008
Rage of the Red Lanterns, Fallout, Bender's Game
Okay, here's an update on some things that I've been really excited about the last couple of weeks.
1) Rage of the Red Lanterns
For anyone currently reading Green Lantern, 'Rage' is just the latest chapter in the GL epic that writer Geoff Johns has been crafting for over three years. It's amazing how much thought he must have put into this story. The idea of each color in the rainbow (green = willpower, yellow = fear) having a different ability associated with it may seem hokey, but each different 'corps' introduced so far is distinct enough that we can't really confuse one for the other (except for the inevitable problem when the blue and indigo lanterns start appearing side by side).
Green Lantern is the kind of big space saga that's only been mildly used in past Green lantern stories. Geoff Johns takes advantage of the diverse population of the universe and (with the help of others) crafts different and unique aliens to populate the different corps that are coming out the woodwork. I really like the different alien designs that appeared in the previous 'Sinestro Corps War', and if the little cat Red Lantern is any indication, there should be plenty of new and interesting aliens showing up in future issues.
If anyone wants to give Green lantern a try, I am more than willing to loan one of my collections out, so long as I can trust you to return it.
2) Fallout 3
For the last week and a half, I have spent FAR too much time playing Fallout 3. It is a very exhaustive game with a huge world to explore and hundreds (if not thousands) of things to do. Like in the first falout game (for the PC), you play a survivor of a 200-year old nuclear holocaust who has spent all of his (or her) life living in a 'vault', underground fallout shelters the size of a small town. You venture forth to find your father who mysteriously disappeared for some unknown reason.
Fortunately, this is just one possible story you can follow. Don't want to find the dad that left you back at the Vault without so much as a good-bye? Then take out your aggression on over-sized mole rats that populate the immediate area as soon as emerge from the Vault. After that, maybe you could pop into the nearest trader haven called Megaton and chat up some of the locals. Several offer you odd jobs that you can do for them, including defusing an undetonated nuclear warhead lying in the center of town. What's better, is that you could choose to detonate the warhead (from a safe distance) providing you find the recent visitor that would like to see Megaton wiped off the map.
After you've run a few errands for the Megaton citizenry (or celebrated the destruction of the small town with the wicked folk of Tenpenny Tower), feel free to explore the abandoned metro tunnels that run through most of the Capitol Wasteland (the ruins of Washington D.C. are the setting for the game). Of course, the tunnels aren't necessarilly abandoned. Many are populated by Ghouls (fast zombies), Raiders, Mole Rats, and Radroaches to name a few, and they all have gear that you can pick off their corpses and keep for yourself (or sell to a merchant for other goods).
After the subways get a little boring (or you run out of ammo or things to kill), pop on over to Rivet City, an abandoned aircraft carrier that's been converted into a bustling township for a clue to your father's whereabouts.
Almost everyone you encounter has some kind of background that makes the world a little bit more interesting. The entire wasteland is filled with interesting folk to talk, trade with, or help. Several people have a job or two you could do for them to make your way in the world, whether their intentions are good or bad. Don't like running errands for people you just met? Whip out a shotgun and put a load of buckshot between their eyes, but be prepared for any 'witnesses' in the immediate area.
Suffice it to say, there is a ton to do in this game. I can get enough of it and I'm worried I might have a bit of a problem. This game is too good. Don't buy it unless you are prepared to be entranced by this masterpiece of post-apocalyptic storytelling. You control everything you do, so have fun
3) Bender's Game
Bender's Game is the latest direct-to-dvd movie for the hilarious sci-fi animated comedy Futurama. Futurama was much better than the Simpsons because it went with a different setting and actually allowed it's characters to grow with each year. Bender's Game brings the classic game Dungeons and Dragons into the Futurama world by having the drunk robot Bender Bending Rodrigeuz learn the game. I don't want to say any more than that because it might ruin some of the surprises in store for you.
I'll try to update this again soon.
I'm going to write a blog about some of the books (real books, not comics) that I've been reading recently.
1) Rage of the Red Lanterns
For anyone currently reading Green Lantern, 'Rage' is just the latest chapter in the GL epic that writer Geoff Johns has been crafting for over three years. It's amazing how much thought he must have put into this story. The idea of each color in the rainbow (green = willpower, yellow = fear) having a different ability associated with it may seem hokey, but each different 'corps' introduced so far is distinct enough that we can't really confuse one for the other (except for the inevitable problem when the blue and indigo lanterns start appearing side by side).
Green Lantern is the kind of big space saga that's only been mildly used in past Green lantern stories. Geoff Johns takes advantage of the diverse population of the universe and (with the help of others) crafts different and unique aliens to populate the different corps that are coming out the woodwork. I really like the different alien designs that appeared in the previous 'Sinestro Corps War', and if the little cat Red Lantern is any indication, there should be plenty of new and interesting aliens showing up in future issues.
If anyone wants to give Green lantern a try, I am more than willing to loan one of my collections out, so long as I can trust you to return it.
2) Fallout 3
For the last week and a half, I have spent FAR too much time playing Fallout 3. It is a very exhaustive game with a huge world to explore and hundreds (if not thousands) of things to do. Like in the first falout game (for the PC), you play a survivor of a 200-year old nuclear holocaust who has spent all of his (or her) life living in a 'vault', underground fallout shelters the size of a small town. You venture forth to find your father who mysteriously disappeared for some unknown reason.
Fortunately, this is just one possible story you can follow. Don't want to find the dad that left you back at the Vault without so much as a good-bye? Then take out your aggression on over-sized mole rats that populate the immediate area as soon as emerge from the Vault. After that, maybe you could pop into the nearest trader haven called Megaton and chat up some of the locals. Several offer you odd jobs that you can do for them, including defusing an undetonated nuclear warhead lying in the center of town. What's better, is that you could choose to detonate the warhead (from a safe distance) providing you find the recent visitor that would like to see Megaton wiped off the map.
After you've run a few errands for the Megaton citizenry (or celebrated the destruction of the small town with the wicked folk of Tenpenny Tower), feel free to explore the abandoned metro tunnels that run through most of the Capitol Wasteland (the ruins of Washington D.C. are the setting for the game). Of course, the tunnels aren't necessarilly abandoned. Many are populated by Ghouls (fast zombies), Raiders, Mole Rats, and Radroaches to name a few, and they all have gear that you can pick off their corpses and keep for yourself (or sell to a merchant for other goods).
After the subways get a little boring (or you run out of ammo or things to kill), pop on over to Rivet City, an abandoned aircraft carrier that's been converted into a bustling township for a clue to your father's whereabouts.
Almost everyone you encounter has some kind of background that makes the world a little bit more interesting. The entire wasteland is filled with interesting folk to talk, trade with, or help. Several people have a job or two you could do for them to make your way in the world, whether their intentions are good or bad. Don't like running errands for people you just met? Whip out a shotgun and put a load of buckshot between their eyes, but be prepared for any 'witnesses' in the immediate area.
Suffice it to say, there is a ton to do in this game. I can get enough of it and I'm worried I might have a bit of a problem. This game is too good. Don't buy it unless you are prepared to be entranced by this masterpiece of post-apocalyptic storytelling. You control everything you do, so have fun
3) Bender's Game
Bender's Game is the latest direct-to-dvd movie for the hilarious sci-fi animated comedy Futurama. Futurama was much better than the Simpsons because it went with a different setting and actually allowed it's characters to grow with each year. Bender's Game brings the classic game Dungeons and Dragons into the Futurama world by having the drunk robot Bender Bending Rodrigeuz learn the game. I don't want to say any more than that because it might ruin some of the surprises in store for you.
I'll try to update this again soon.
I'm going to write a blog about some of the books (real books, not comics) that I've been reading recently.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
In Space, No One Can Hear You Die
In the last two days, I have become both fascinated and terrified by a new video game called 'Dead Space'.
This story actually begins several months ago when I read about Dead Space in an issue of game Informer. I've been a fan of survival horror games for a long time, and I like it even more when game developers mess with the genre.
Rather than find yourself in the remains of a top secret lab, island infested with dinosaurs, or even a city swarming with the living dead, you are transported to a derelict space ship which has sent off a distress call for aid. The hero isn't your typical paramilitary action hero, but an engineer simply sent to repair a disabled ship.
The story caught my interest, so I was enthusiastic when I read that there were be a comic book released as a prequel to the game. The 6-issue mini-series with the same name as the game was published by Image Comics with art by unique artist Ben Templesmith, a man that's captured a loyal audience with books like the original 30 Days of Night, Wormwood Gentlemen Corpse, and Fell.
The mini-series and Templesmith's art captured the dark look expected for a story of survival horror, but the story felt a little flat. The comic tells the tale of a colony that discovers an unknown obelisk, which results in numerous violent acts occurring at the hands of either the excavation team or religious fanatics. The main protagonists do little more than react to the problems caused by the obelisk before meeting the same fate that befalls many secondary characters in horror stories. The main information we gain from the comic is that the captain of the Ishimura (the ship the player goes to in Dead Space) brought aboard the corpses of some of the colonists and followed the same faith as a Church that worships 'Markers' similar to the obelisk which was discovered. This is reason why the Ishimura was left derelit and required emergency assistance by a team of engineers led by the player character in the main game.
The comic honestly didn't do much for me, but when I finally got the game this past Thursday, I was enthralled. It plays with light and shadows to heighten your gaming experience, along with the terror you feel from being left in the dark surrounded by undead humalien life-forms. Sound is another big factor in capturing the atomosphere. Creatures skuttle about everywhere, so you need to be on your guard whenever you hear something unusual.
Similar to another game I love, Bioshock, you have a few limited 'special powers' that are effects created by the suit you wear. You don't have a lot of variability, but you do have the power to slow down enemies (where you still get to move normally, so it's not like Max Payne's bullet-time) and move objects out of the way with telekinesis.
The weapons are unique, because most are actual tools rather than the assortment of pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles that you find in other genre games. Fortunately, there is one, a Plasma Rifle which I make good use of when confronted by a swarm of 'necromorphs'. There's nothing like being able to unload a clip of plasma rounds into an undead baddie to make you feel safe and sound. Unfortunately, you can run out of ammo due to the rifle's autofire, which is not a problem with the other weapons.
I know this sounds like a review, but I am just really enjoying the game and wanted to let anyone who reads this to know. Check out Dead Space. It's on PS3 and Xbox 360, so if you're a fan of survival horror or just sci-fi action games, you need to give it a try.
I recommend it for fans of Bioshock and Resident Evil.
This story actually begins several months ago when I read about Dead Space in an issue of game Informer. I've been a fan of survival horror games for a long time, and I like it even more when game developers mess with the genre.
Rather than find yourself in the remains of a top secret lab, island infested with dinosaurs, or even a city swarming with the living dead, you are transported to a derelict space ship which has sent off a distress call for aid. The hero isn't your typical paramilitary action hero, but an engineer simply sent to repair a disabled ship.
The story caught my interest, so I was enthusiastic when I read that there were be a comic book released as a prequel to the game. The 6-issue mini-series with the same name as the game was published by Image Comics with art by unique artist Ben Templesmith, a man that's captured a loyal audience with books like the original 30 Days of Night, Wormwood Gentlemen Corpse, and Fell.
The mini-series and Templesmith's art captured the dark look expected for a story of survival horror, but the story felt a little flat. The comic tells the tale of a colony that discovers an unknown obelisk, which results in numerous violent acts occurring at the hands of either the excavation team or religious fanatics. The main protagonists do little more than react to the problems caused by the obelisk before meeting the same fate that befalls many secondary characters in horror stories. The main information we gain from the comic is that the captain of the Ishimura (the ship the player goes to in Dead Space) brought aboard the corpses of some of the colonists and followed the same faith as a Church that worships 'Markers' similar to the obelisk which was discovered. This is reason why the Ishimura was left derelit and required emergency assistance by a team of engineers led by the player character in the main game.
The comic honestly didn't do much for me, but when I finally got the game this past Thursday, I was enthralled. It plays with light and shadows to heighten your gaming experience, along with the terror you feel from being left in the dark surrounded by undead humalien life-forms. Sound is another big factor in capturing the atomosphere. Creatures skuttle about everywhere, so you need to be on your guard whenever you hear something unusual.
Similar to another game I love, Bioshock, you have a few limited 'special powers' that are effects created by the suit you wear. You don't have a lot of variability, but you do have the power to slow down enemies (where you still get to move normally, so it's not like Max Payne's bullet-time) and move objects out of the way with telekinesis.
The weapons are unique, because most are actual tools rather than the assortment of pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles that you find in other genre games. Fortunately, there is one, a Plasma Rifle which I make good use of when confronted by a swarm of 'necromorphs'. There's nothing like being able to unload a clip of plasma rounds into an undead baddie to make you feel safe and sound. Unfortunately, you can run out of ammo due to the rifle's autofire, which is not a problem with the other weapons.
I know this sounds like a review, but I am just really enjoying the game and wanted to let anyone who reads this to know. Check out Dead Space. It's on PS3 and Xbox 360, so if you're a fan of survival horror or just sci-fi action games, you need to give it a try.
I recommend it for fans of Bioshock and Resident Evil.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Matt Hardy - New ECW Champion
I know that I normally write about comic book stuff, but I just can't resist celebrating the win by one of my favorite wrestlers of the current decade.
Matt Hardy has been wrestling for the WWE since the late 1990s. He and his brother Jeff introduced a unique style of tag team wrestling to mainstream audiences. You might say they were just ripping off ECW's style, but in the WWF, the Hardys were on a larger stage with a much larger audience who clamored for their high risk moves and the near-suicidal lengths they would go to destroy their bodies.
Thankfully, despite a few brief periods of injury(or drug)-caused inactivity, the hardys have maintained a certain athletic ability. Jeff still goes for high-risk maneuvers and gets a bigger pop, but Matt has become a more accomplished mat-based wrestler, merging his fast-paced style with the 'WWE style' that myself and the internet wrestling community like to shit on.
Since the official break-up of the Hardys back in 2002, Matt changed himself from a hugely-popular tag team grappler to a singles wrestler with an unknown future. Matt crafted the 'Matt Hardy Version1' gimmick that made him a heel and allowed him to play off the 'I'm better than you' personality that many fans hate about the 'bad guys' of professional wrestling. Fortunately, with the way Matt played the character, fans started to get behind him. Unfortunately, the V.1 gimmick was moved to Raw (so Matt could be with his girlfriend Lita) where it was almost immediately buried, forcing him to lose to all manner of wrestlers whose glory days were long since bheind them.
After an injury at the hands of WWE wrestler Kane, Matt sat at home for a few months while his girlfriend started secretly banging one of his closest friends eventually leading to WWE firing him.
Fortunately, the Internet Wrestling COmmunity got behind Matt and he was soon back in the ring, even though is career was effectively at a stand-still for the next two years, as he entered off-and-on feuds with other mid-carders.
Recently, this changed. Last year, Matt started a feud with United States champion MVP, which saw the two competing in various contests to see who was better. The feud was so good that they eventually won the tag team titles and reluctantly defended them against the few teams Smackdown had to offer, until inevitably losing them last November. Still, Hardy had the last laugh and won the US title from MVP just a few months ago.
As US champ, Matt was later drafted to ECW, where he defended the title on two different channels and two different shows, sometimes in the same week. His lackluster reign ended when he lost the title to Shelton Benjamin just two short months ago.
Thankfully, this freed Matt from a secondary title and allowed him to focus on the ECW World title. If you couldn't tell by the title of this blog, he was successful, but not without his share of speedbumps.
One of the speed bumps was then-ECW champ Marc Henry, a former olympian whose wrestling career up until now was largely a joke, until a racial remark by a WWE writer led to a title reign as a way fo making it up to him. Nicknamed the 'Silverback', Marc Henry could probably swallow Hardy whole if he wanted to.
The other speedbump was Marc Henry's manager, Tony Atlas, a former strongman whose ability to talk is the only thing worse than his ability to foul up the matches he attempts to interfere in. During Hardy's two matches with Henry, Tony Atlas blocked attempts by Matt to make a winning pin while looking confused and completely out of place.
Thankfully, at last night's ECW Scramble match, Atlas was not a factor, as Matt Hardy beat four others (FIt Finlay, Chavo Guerrerro, the Miz, and Marc Henry) to win one of the best matches of the Pay-Per-View.
Now, Matt's the top dog in the ECW yard. The sky is the limit to how far Matt can go as ECW champion. He keeps himself in good shape and does not take advantage of the performance enhancing drugs that other wrestlers use. The last ECW champ to have those qualifications was former World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk.
Could Matt Hardy one day hold the World Heavyweight or WWE title? I think it's only a 'MATT'er of time.
Matt Hardy has been wrestling for the WWE since the late 1990s. He and his brother Jeff introduced a unique style of tag team wrestling to mainstream audiences. You might say they were just ripping off ECW's style, but in the WWF, the Hardys were on a larger stage with a much larger audience who clamored for their high risk moves and the near-suicidal lengths they would go to destroy their bodies.
Thankfully, despite a few brief periods of injury(or drug)-caused inactivity, the hardys have maintained a certain athletic ability. Jeff still goes for high-risk maneuvers and gets a bigger pop, but Matt has become a more accomplished mat-based wrestler, merging his fast-paced style with the 'WWE style' that myself and the internet wrestling community like to shit on.
Since the official break-up of the Hardys back in 2002, Matt changed himself from a hugely-popular tag team grappler to a singles wrestler with an unknown future. Matt crafted the 'Matt Hardy Version1' gimmick that made him a heel and allowed him to play off the 'I'm better than you' personality that many fans hate about the 'bad guys' of professional wrestling. Fortunately, with the way Matt played the character, fans started to get behind him. Unfortunately, the V.1 gimmick was moved to Raw (so Matt could be with his girlfriend Lita) where it was almost immediately buried, forcing him to lose to all manner of wrestlers whose glory days were long since bheind them.
After an injury at the hands of WWE wrestler Kane, Matt sat at home for a few months while his girlfriend started secretly banging one of his closest friends eventually leading to WWE firing him.
Fortunately, the Internet Wrestling COmmunity got behind Matt and he was soon back in the ring, even though is career was effectively at a stand-still for the next two years, as he entered off-and-on feuds with other mid-carders.
Recently, this changed. Last year, Matt started a feud with United States champion MVP, which saw the two competing in various contests to see who was better. The feud was so good that they eventually won the tag team titles and reluctantly defended them against the few teams Smackdown had to offer, until inevitably losing them last November. Still, Hardy had the last laugh and won the US title from MVP just a few months ago.
As US champ, Matt was later drafted to ECW, where he defended the title on two different channels and two different shows, sometimes in the same week. His lackluster reign ended when he lost the title to Shelton Benjamin just two short months ago.
Thankfully, this freed Matt from a secondary title and allowed him to focus on the ECW World title. If you couldn't tell by the title of this blog, he was successful, but not without his share of speedbumps.
One of the speed bumps was then-ECW champ Marc Henry, a former olympian whose wrestling career up until now was largely a joke, until a racial remark by a WWE writer led to a title reign as a way fo making it up to him. Nicknamed the 'Silverback', Marc Henry could probably swallow Hardy whole if he wanted to.
The other speedbump was Marc Henry's manager, Tony Atlas, a former strongman whose ability to talk is the only thing worse than his ability to foul up the matches he attempts to interfere in. During Hardy's two matches with Henry, Tony Atlas blocked attempts by Matt to make a winning pin while looking confused and completely out of place.
Thankfully, at last night's ECW Scramble match, Atlas was not a factor, as Matt Hardy beat four others (FIt Finlay, Chavo Guerrerro, the Miz, and Marc Henry) to win one of the best matches of the Pay-Per-View.
Now, Matt's the top dog in the ECW yard. The sky is the limit to how far Matt can go as ECW champion. He keeps himself in good shape and does not take advantage of the performance enhancing drugs that other wrestlers use. The last ECW champ to have those qualifications was former World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk.
Could Matt Hardy one day hold the World Heavyweight or WWE title? I think it's only a 'MATT'er of time.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Stories of Comics Past: Peter David’s Visit to the X-Men’s Future
Days of Future Past holds the title of the most well known dystopic X-men future. Sentinels hunt the last free mutants while the remaining mutants hatch a plot to halt their present from occurring. The epic story has set the basis for much of the alternate future X-Men stories and parallels other post-apocalyptic futures.
A second less-popular future that awaits the X-Men is somewhat brighter, a world where humanity and mutants living in relative peace, despite the shadow of hatred and violence lurking everywhere. This is the future of Bishop, an X-man who first appeared thanks to Whilce Portacio in 1991.
Bishop arrived while hunting temporal fugitives from his own time and for one reason or another never returned to his own time and joined the X-men’s Gold Team. Bishop remained a mysterious mutant whose back-story was fleshed out in a series of excellent comics by John Ostrander.
Bishop’s future represented a return to Charles Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence. Humans and mutants worked together to rebuild society after a dark age of Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreting out their fellows and imprisoning them in camps. After the end of the internment camps, humans and mutants held a fragile peace that could be destroyed at any second. Violent fringe groups, such as the Exhumes (a future Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) and the Emplates (mutant vampires based on the Generation X villain Emplate), preyed on the populace, and there was even an incarnation of the Hellfire Club led by a man named Shaw. The truce seemed destined to end with so many forces working against it.
Fortunately, even in this dangerous time, there were those who upheld justice and worked hard to maintain the peace between the two races of man. There were the XSE, Xavier’s Security Forces. Bishop was just one of these future law enforcers and did what he could to hunt down those that would reignite the war between sapien and superior.
Of course, this future wouldn’t have been possible if not for a key event, which up until this week had yet to be told. Back during the time of the prison camps, when Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreted out their fellows in service to a brutal human/Sentinel government and all mutants were branded with an M so that there heritage could not be hidden, a single voice cried out for it to end and bring freedom to the imprisoned mutant populace. This jarring act would become known as the Summers Rebellion and unite the humans and mutants against the Sentinel threat. The Rebellion would later be the basis for the fragile truce maintained by the mutant-human leadership of Bishop’s time.
This future has been mostly ignored for the last decade until Jamie Madrox and Layla Miller took a trip there during the recent line-wide Messiah Complex storyline. Jamie’s duplicate was killed, but Layla Miller remained, a branded prisoner of a mutant internment camp. Her story continued in the new X-Factor Layla Miller one-shot, which came out this week. I had the pleasure of reading it last week, but waited until it released to comment on the book.
Peter David has a good grasp of X-Men history as well as the various mutant characters he is responsible for. He took a reviled one-note character from the House of M mini-series and turned her into a vital member of X-Factor Investigations, despite her only power of ‘knowing stuff’. His X-factor run is a diamond in the rough of the inconsistent X-titles that come out each month. Even though he has characters that most of the other x-writers don’t want to use (likely due to the lack of ‘prestige’ of characters like Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, M, and Rictor), he has created a well-defined cast and doesn’t avoid the long history each of them brings to the table.
David’s dedication to history (whether in marvel comics or the novels he writes) makes him an ideal writer for the telling the history of the Summers Rebellion. He takes elements first introduced in Morrison’s run and adapts them to the future of the Summers clan. An interesting new character is introduced and the first shot in mutant liberation is fired. I really hope that Peter David or another qualified writer returns to this future to continue the story. The rest of the tale of the Summers Rebellion needs to be told after an exciting first chapter.
A second less-popular future that awaits the X-Men is somewhat brighter, a world where humanity and mutants living in relative peace, despite the shadow of hatred and violence lurking everywhere. This is the future of Bishop, an X-man who first appeared thanks to Whilce Portacio in 1991.
Bishop arrived while hunting temporal fugitives from his own time and for one reason or another never returned to his own time and joined the X-men’s Gold Team. Bishop remained a mysterious mutant whose back-story was fleshed out in a series of excellent comics by John Ostrander.
Bishop’s future represented a return to Charles Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence. Humans and mutants worked together to rebuild society after a dark age of Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreting out their fellows and imprisoning them in camps. After the end of the internment camps, humans and mutants held a fragile peace that could be destroyed at any second. Violent fringe groups, such as the Exhumes (a future Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) and the Emplates (mutant vampires based on the Generation X villain Emplate), preyed on the populace, and there was even an incarnation of the Hellfire Club led by a man named Shaw. The truce seemed destined to end with so many forces working against it.
Fortunately, even in this dangerous time, there were those who upheld justice and worked hard to maintain the peace between the two races of man. There were the XSE, Xavier’s Security Forces. Bishop was just one of these future law enforcers and did what he could to hunt down those that would reignite the war between sapien and superior.
Of course, this future wouldn’t have been possible if not for a key event, which up until this week had yet to be told. Back during the time of the prison camps, when Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreted out their fellows in service to a brutal human/Sentinel government and all mutants were branded with an M so that there heritage could not be hidden, a single voice cried out for it to end and bring freedom to the imprisoned mutant populace. This jarring act would become known as the Summers Rebellion and unite the humans and mutants against the Sentinel threat. The Rebellion would later be the basis for the fragile truce maintained by the mutant-human leadership of Bishop’s time.
This future has been mostly ignored for the last decade until Jamie Madrox and Layla Miller took a trip there during the recent line-wide Messiah Complex storyline. Jamie’s duplicate was killed, but Layla Miller remained, a branded prisoner of a mutant internment camp. Her story continued in the new X-Factor Layla Miller one-shot, which came out this week. I had the pleasure of reading it last week, but waited until it released to comment on the book.
Peter David has a good grasp of X-Men history as well as the various mutant characters he is responsible for. He took a reviled one-note character from the House of M mini-series and turned her into a vital member of X-Factor Investigations, despite her only power of ‘knowing stuff’. His X-factor run is a diamond in the rough of the inconsistent X-titles that come out each month. Even though he has characters that most of the other x-writers don’t want to use (likely due to the lack of ‘prestige’ of characters like Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, M, and Rictor), he has created a well-defined cast and doesn’t avoid the long history each of them brings to the table.
David’s dedication to history (whether in marvel comics or the novels he writes) makes him an ideal writer for the telling the history of the Summers Rebellion. He takes elements first introduced in Morrison’s run and adapts them to the future of the Summers clan. An interesting new character is introduced and the first shot in mutant liberation is fired. I really hope that Peter David or another qualified writer returns to this future to continue the story. The rest of the tale of the Summers Rebellion needs to be told after an exciting first chapter.
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