X-Termination : Q&A with David Lapham, Marjorie Liu and Greg Pak

By Jim Beard (originally posted here at Marvel.com)

Age of Apocalypse #13
 cover by Greg Land
(click to enlarge)

Sometimes X-Men events get so big it takes more than just multiple titles to contain them; it requires more than one reality.

The universe-jumping X-Termination will spill out not only from its own Alpha and Omega bookend issues, but also into Astonishing X-Men, X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse beginning this March. We contacted Marjorie Liu, Greg Pak and David Lapham—the respective authors of the aforementioned X-titles—and posed a few questions to them about alternate realities, alternate points of view, and lots and lots of alternate X-Men.

Tribute - Peter David and company

Hello and welcome to another.....what shall I call it?
It's not a DC column, for sure. It wasn't scheduled, but then, nothing in life generally is.
I don't think any of this has been collected so far, but from experience, I can say that's how the best stories are. You find something, somewhere you never thought you would, ever and sometimes, your life is the better for it.
Circa the early nineties, Annuals at DC and Marvel were an unruly bunch - DC had their crossover events and all the annuals of that year had to confirm to the main storyline. Before that, Annuals were merely collections of stories, in the sixties, and later on, full length one shots. But this new breed of storytelling was all the rage for a few years - at least, until the Annuals existed. DC usually went all out, with all the Annuals dedicated to one event, while at Marvel, different families of titles had different events, most of the times. These annuals contained a main story, as well as a few smaller stories, pin ups and all. The main stories would get collected in trades, if released, covering that particular event, but the smaller ones are questionable.

REVIEW: Avengers vs. X-Men #1

It’s that time of the year, folks!

After the more character focussed issue #0, all the AvX action begins this week with the launch of the much awaited Avengers vs X-Men #1 – and legions of fanboys could not be more excited!

Also, before I get going, you are hereby warned of some Spoilers ahead.

John Romita Jr. handling art might be part of the reason, but the opening of the issue does seem to feel a lot like the opening of your generic Bendis-penned Avengers arc, which makes me wish the build-up on the Avengers camp had been more at par with the that of the X-Men.

While the dialogue is expectedly well done, Nova’s arrival serves the purpose of giving us some action before the main conflict is set to begin in later issues. 

Click image to enlarge

New X-News: Brian Wood gets 2 X-titles!

Greetings O ye geeks a-gathering!

I've got big news and even bigger laughs in store for you today!

As many of you know, it was recently announced that Marvel superstar writer and unquestionable (Trivial Trivia: thats the only word in english that has every single vowel in it!) master of the Avengers line of comics, Brian Michael Bendis, would be wrapping up his time with Marvels main superhero team franchise and be taking on some X-Men. Well I'll just say that on hearing it I was both elated and scared because I like the guy but Marvel has a tendency to give him EVERYTHING to write and that kills it because he's stretched too thin.

BUT now more news has come and given me a big sigh of relief for starters and a big whoop of joy to follow!

 You see at the recent WonderCon that was held, It was announced by the House Of Ideas (as Marvel like to call themselves) at their Next Big Thing panel that star scribe Brian Wood would (ok, can't help that, sorry) be taking the reins on

Week-In-Review : Action Comics #7 / Age Of Apocalypse #1 / Avengers : The Children’s Crusade #9 / The Manhattan Projects #1

Another day, another lot of reviews people!

This has been a big week and so we had not only a bunch of review yesterday, we've got some more today too – and today we stick to some fan-favourites for you as well as a promising new-comer. So dive in and enjoy folks!

Action Comics #7 (DC)

Story: Grant Morrison / Sholly Fisch (backup)

Art: Rags Morales / Brad Walker (backup)

(Review by Akshay Dhar)

This series started off with a bang and really made me care about reading a purely Superman story again, for the first time in years – seven issues in and that joy and simple pleasure when reading this latest instalment remain just as strong. Morales continues his streak of excellent artwork on pretty much every single page here, his faces, the layouts and the flow through the comic is very beautifully put together and really makes it all the more enjoyable – plus the colouring choice adds to the slightly more retro feel of it all which works great.

Quick recap – Superman has been shoving back and forth with the law, the army (and a predictably anti-alien and super-egotistical Lex Luthor) and pushing to be a hero of the people. He's had good days, bad days and some in between, but so far so good. Ok, now on to this issue.

The last issue ended with a manhattan-like island part of Metropolis called 'New Troy' being simply vanishing in front of everyone's eyes as Superman, General Lane (Lois' father and somewhat a DC version of 'Thunderbolt' Ross, the Hulk's one-time nemesis), Steel (a.k.a John Henry Irons) and the whole of Metropolis.

AvX in Waiting : 10 X-Men To Watch

Welcome back everyone!
We hope you're all looking forward to some happy weekend relaxing and revitalising after an enjoyable Holi holiday!

To give you some food for thought and some more insight as the week comes to a close, we bring you this second installment of our series of articles to lay some groundwork before AvX (a.k.a. Avengers versus X-Men) kicks off in a few weeks - we figured you don't have to do any needless homework on all this if we do it for you!

With that in mind, we did a rundown on The Avengers last week and this week that's continued with everyone's favourite Mutants:

10) Magneto

If you haven’t been following the X-Men books over the past few years, what you need to know is that not only is the allegedly former mutant terrorist a part of the X-Men, but a very important factor in the merry mutants’ leadership equation. Expect Magneto to take the offensive against the Avengers in a big way.

9) Angel

After his fall during The Dark Angel Saga in the pages of Uncanny X-Force, Warren Worthington III is now a clean slate with no memories of his past. Also, he appears to have gained the ability to bring people (and puppies!) back to life. Does that remind you of a cosmic force famous for corrupting a founding X-(Wo)man? Cause it should.

Week In Review - 6th Feb 2012! Action Comics #6 + Fatale #2 + The Boys #63 + X-Club #3+Dark Horse Presents#8

Hey there all you Comic-addicts out there - young, old, thin, fat and anything and everything in between!
Come, grab a seat, settle back and relax as we bring you another edition of Week-In-Review as we review 4 of our teams picks from the past week.

ACTION COMICS #6

Writer:Grant Morrison

Artist:Andy Kubert
Reviewer: Anupam Sarkar

Take genius and flawless writing, awesome art and an iconic character and mix 'em up.

What you get is Action Comics #6!

Back in Issue 5, readers were introduced to the “Anti-Superman Army” who - for unknown reasons - travel back to the past to steal the power source of the rocket that sent Supes to Earth, a.k.a. Kryptonite, which they intend to use to put an end to Superman!

Issue 6 starts with a meet between the Anti-Superman Army and a scientist who extracted the Kryptonite from the rocket's engine.

He also explains that the Kryptonite can be used to create different colors of Kryptonite , which will have different effects on Superman.

The last issue introduced us to Superman from five years into the future from the Action Comics's time-period as well as the Legion of Super-Heroes' founding members (Cosmic Man, Lightning Man and Saturn Woman).

In this issue, we see the Legion trying to to get the Kryptonite back from the Anti-Superman Army and the scientist who are in a hollow lead pellet inside Superman's brain! (Now that sounds insane)

Readers also get a look at some of Superman's childhood memories which are unlocked when Saturn Woman accesses his memory in order to search for the hollow lead pellet.

The issue introduces some crazy yet awesome sci-fi stuff and all the genius stuff that Morrison is known for, while the art by Andy Kubert is just stunning.

SCORE: 10/10 

Marvel New Galore : The Phoenix Returns as Bendis quits Avengers

This week Marvel announced their next big summer event in the form of ‘Avengers vs. X-Men’ a 12-part crossover being written by the Marvel Architects (Bendis, Hickman, Brubaker, Aaron and Fraction) with Art duties being handled by John Romita jr., Oliver Coipel and Adam Kubert. 

Click to enlarge!

X-Men: The Animated Series - IN REVIEW!!

I found myself bereft of the world of Marvel’s cartoons as they did not feature anywhere on Cartoon Network, my premier portal to the world of cartoons. Then, one fine day, "Voila!" Channel surfing on a lazy Saturday Morning, I chanced upon episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series on the Fox Kids segment of Star Plus. And an hour later, I found myself watching X-Men: The Animated series on Star World, its companion channel. To be honest, I was never into X-Men in the comics – the three teams I was never able to wrap my mind around were Teen Titans, X-Men and the Legion of Super Heroes – mainly due to the team roster changing frequently and due to the large number of magazines featuring each.
Of course, it was the late nineties, but comics available in India were still stuck in the eighties – we had Marv Wolfman on Teen Titans, Paul Levitz on the Legion and Chris Claremont on the X-Men – which, in retrospect, were the best runs on the titles to date. No matter, the seventh or eighth grade kid in me couldn’t figure them out, so they were trash. More than Spider-Man though, X-Men changed my mindset completely.

Taking a Look at the X-Men Movies

With X-Men: First Class having hit theaters this weekend we thought it appropriate to take a closer look at the X-Men movies. The movies have become a continuum all unto themselves. Still we have to ask: where exactly does X-Men: First Class fit into the other movies? Does it follow the timelines and stories set up in the original trilogy? Does it have the core essentials from the comics? That is what we are going to explore.

There are currently five X-men movies out and one that’s a bit stalled. The movies are: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, Wolverine Origins, and X-Men: First Class. There is a sequel to Wolverine, but the director has walked off due to a divorce. So far the X-Men movie franchise has made $786,495,030. Granted this doesn’t include the latest installment X-Men: First Class. So far the numbers for X-Men: First Class is $56,000,000. The interesting aspect of the franchise is that the latest installments have been prequels. Wolverine Origins specifically follows Wolverine on his journeys before joining up with the X-Men. First Class is the formation of the X-Men and how Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr formed their friendship before becoming frenemies.

2011: Superheroes on the Screen!

We, at Comic Addicts don't only review, interview etc. but also keep you abreast with the latest happenings in the comic world and 2011 is the year of superheroes on screen, when comic comes to cinema!

2011 started with Green Hornet which released on January 14. The movie was nice, but sadly not awesome. The next big thing came today, Thor and IT IS AWESOME.

Coming to future releases now, the nearest next release is Priest, based on the Korean comic. The comic's good, the trailer's nice and now we have to wait for May 13 to know whether the movie is good or not.