Author Archives: Ethan Wilson

#3552: Starfire

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

STARFIRE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0031: The New Teen Titans’ Tamaranean powerhouse Koriand’r is not DC’s first character, or in fact even the first Teen Titan, to use the name “Starfire.”  The first was actually Leonid Kovar, better known as “Red Star,” and introduced 12 years before Koriand’r.

Like a lot of people of my age group, my first solid intro to the New Teen Titans line-up was through the Teen Titans cartoon.  I of course knew the original team well from the comics, but the cartoon really got me hooked on the likes of Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg.  Because of that, though, I’m more generally invested in the animated versions of the characters, which are a touch different from their comics counterparts.  I’ve grown to appreciate the comics Starfire over the years, though, and I especially liked her portion of 52, which saw her partnered up with Adam Strange and Animal Man for a cross-space-roadtrip.  How about a figure that’s sort of related to that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Starfire was released in 2009, as part of a Matty Collector-exclusive DC Universe Classics two-pack.  She was originally packed alongside Adam Strange, in a pack that was the first of the four exclusive DCUC sets that hit Matty Collector.  The pairing for this set is undoubtedly in reference to their 52 storyline and it’s follow-up Countdown to Adventure, further enforced by Animal Man’s presence in one of the other three Matty Collector sets.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 25 points of articulation.  Starfire’s based on the first standard female body for the line, notably used for Katma Tui.  It’s not a bad base on its own, but it’s not really a great match for Kori.  It’s a bit too small and scrawny, and also, it’s clearly sculpted to be wearing a full shirt, rather than the bikini-looking thing that she’s actually wearing.  As a result, she’s got what was affectionately referred to by the fanbase as a “uni-boob”.  She really should have gotten a different torso piece, or they should have perhaps chosen a different costume for the character.  As such, it looks a little weird.  She’s got unique parts for her head, collar, and forearms.  The new parts are okay; they match decently with the rest of the parts, but they don’t quite hit the mark for the character.  The hair in particular could use a bit more volume, and the face seems a bit too thin and pinched.  The paint work on Starfire is alright, but not without its issues.  The purple details are rather fuzzy around the edges, and it kind of muddies a bit with the shade of the orange on the skin.  Starfire was packed with no accessories, which, given the retail on these sets, was really light.  Not even an energy effect?

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

The two-packs were just too cost prohibitive for me when they dropped, so I didn’t get any of them new from Matty Collector.  I wound up getting Adam Strange on his own a few years back, but I’ve been waiting for my chance to snag the other half of the set.  I finally got the chance via a trade-in at All Time a few weeks back.  She’s not great.  Honestly, she’s not even really that good.  She’s there.  But now I have her?  Sure, let’s go with that.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3551: Marrok

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

MARROK

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0030: Marrok is our fourth Inquisitor in the Retro Collection line-up.  Sure, he may be lapsed, but it counts!

Can you be just a pretty face if no one’s actually seen your face?  Because I feel like that’s kind of what Marrok’s deal is.  Not that it’s a bad thing.  This is Star Wars, after all.  Looking cool is, like, thing number one!  I personally really like Marrok’s brand of cool, so, despite his more minor role in Ahsoka, I still am all about the Marrok figures.  I looked at his Black Series figure already, but here’s his representation on the smaller side!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Marrok is the second figure in the Ahsoka-tie-in assortment of Star Wars: Retro Collection.  The character had a lot of presence in early marketing for the show, so his inclusion is a pretty sensible one.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s sporting an all-new sculpt, and it’s honestly one of my favorites that this sub-line has put out.  It does a really good job of translating Marrok’s on-screen design into the vintage Kenner style.  It keeps all of the important elements, while also simplifying enough to make him fit in with the rest of the line.  It makes for a very sleek, really fun look, and plays into the whole “black knight” angle so nicely.  Like the larger figure, he’s topped off with a cloth cape piece.  Like the rest of the figure, this piece fits the vintage aesthetic very nicely, and it goes on and off very easily.  Marrok’s color work has been dialed back a bit, going for a more drastically contrasting shade between the undersuit and the armor, which is more of a gunmetal grey finish here.    Marrok is packed with an Inquisitor-style saber, which appears to be the same piece used for Reva in the Kenobi set.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I dug Marrok’s design a lot, and he was definitely nearer the top of my list.  He’s a ton of fun, and I very definitely dig him.  He’s a good design that makes for a very good figure, and he’s just a great example of when Retro Collection just really works.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3550: MJ

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

MJ

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0029: This marks the first time since the the tie-in assortment for Spider-Man 3 that an MJ figure has been released on her own and not as part of some sort of multi-pack.

Now that most of the uproar regarding Zendaya’s casting in the role of MJ for Homecoming has pretty much disappeared, we can sit back and recognized that she actually did a pretty good job in the role.  Her MJ was certainly different from the comics one in terms of general characterization, but honestly, so was Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane in the Raimi films.  Changing up MJ is just something the movies like to do.  With her even further expanded role in No Way Home, MJ’s gotten her second Legends figure for the MCU, and I’m looking at that today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MJ is part of the retro-card-sporting No Way Home tie-in assortment for Marvel Legends.  She’s specifically based on her appearance in the third film, narrowing in on the attire she wears for most of the movie, but most specifically, it’s the outfit she has in the big final battle.  It’s a little more in line with her character, I feel, than the jacketed look we got on the two-pack release.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Articulation is rather restricted here, especially on the torso, but given MJ’s generally more non-action set-up, it’s not as limiting for her.  She’s using the same legs as her last figure, but everything else is new.  The sculpt’s a pretty good one.  I definitely feel that they’ve gotten a better likeness for Zendaya this time around (not that the last two were *bad*) and I like that the sweater look manages to be the right amount of loose, without winding up looking too bulky.  The color work here is a nice set-up.  There’s printing for the face, which looks fairly realistic, and is an improvement on the last figure.  I also quite like the striping on the sweater, and its general color is just a bit more exciting than the more muted palette of the last figure.  MJ is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and relaxed), as well as the box containing Strange’s original spell.  In a rather amusing turn of events, after the two-pack figure had a gripping hand and nothing to hold, this one has something to hold and no actual gripping hand.  You can fudge it with one of the relaxed hands, but it’s not quite there.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

The last MJ figure served me fine for my collection, but she looked a little out of place once we got the updated Peter and Ned last year.  Now I feel like I have an MJ that fits in better, and she’s wearing a slightly more in-character outfit as well.  She’s a basic figure of a rather average look, but she does most of what she needs to well.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3549: General Clayton “Hawk” Abernathy

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

GENERAL CLAYTON “HAWK” ABERNATHY

G.I. JOE: CLASSIFIED SERIES (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0028: Since his introduction at the start of A Real American Hero, Clayton Abernathy has been called Hawk, General Hawk, General Tomahawk, General Clayton Abernathy, and G.I. Joe Hawk, all leading up to his seemingly finalized General Clayton “Hawk” Abernathy.

I have a weird thing about main characters, and in ensemble settings, I have a thing about leaders.  I just tend to find myself not liking them as much.  I do, however, tend to really like alternative leader type characters.  Captain Pike, for instance, is my favorite Star Trek captain, Ultra Magnus is my preferred field leader for the Autobots, and my go-to guy in charge for the Joes?  Very definitely General Hawk.  I mean, he’s the one with a bomber jacket.  How can you not, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

General Clayton “Hawk” Abernathy is figure 103 in Hasbro’s G.I. Joe: Classified Series line.  At this point, assortments appear to be no more, but Hawk hit with a big batch of figures that hit just before the end of the year last year, though they were originally slated for the spring of this year.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  He’s mostly using the basic articulation set-up from the rest of the line, with the only change-up being the mid-torso joint, which is a ball-joint, not a crunch.  It’s not quite as mobile, but for the most part he moves okay.  Hawk is sporting an all-new sculpt, courtesy of Paul Harding.  It’s based on Hawk’s v2 design, which is by far his most distinctive.  It’s a pretty strong sculpt; it manages to capture the core elements of the v2 Hawk, while also tweaking things a little bit to actually give him a little bit of an update.  In particular, I quite like the head sculpt, as it feels pretty appropriate for Hawk.  On the flip side, I’m not so much a fan of the shoulder holster set-up; it just doesn’t sit quite right, no matter what pose you put him in.  It’s better than what we saw on Tunnel Rat, but I do still prefer the figure without the holster.  Hawk’s paint work is all pretty nicely handled.  The head gets some nice detailing, and the grey streaks in his hair are a new element, but a nifty character element.  His jacket gets some cool smaller details as well, which is certainly fun.  Hawk is packed with his helmet, two sets of goggles (sized for his helmet and his head), three handguns, a shotgun, and a grenade launcher.  In a perfect world, he’d also have an alternate head with blonde hair, for his comics/early toy look, but Hasbro’s never done anything of the sort before, so I guess it’s not a shock they’re not doing it now.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Hawk is a character I’ve been waiting to see added to Classified since it launched.  His sculptor posted about him a ways before he was actually solicited, so I’ve been patiently waiting.  After a few figures in a row that didn’t really do much for me, Tunnel Rat wound up being the figure that kind of killed the line for me.  But, I love Hawk and I couldn’t not get him, so he got slotted as my last Classified figure.  It was my intent to get him from All Time, but a mix-up meant they didn’t get their cases of him, so it was off to Hasbro Pulse for me.  He’s an okay figure.  Not a great figure, and not enough to change my mind of going forward on the line, but he’s at least an okay send-off, and a fitting character to wrap things up.  And with that, my Classified collection is done.

#3548: Amazing Spider-Man

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0027: The Marvel Legends assortment that contained tie-in figures for Amazing Spider–Man 2 was one of two that launched Hasbro’s modern era of Legends 10 years ago.

I was pretty staunchly anti the Amazing Spider-Man series when it first hit theaters. Raimi’s films had defined my love of the character, and I was bitter about him being ousted, so I avoided them both in theaters. I did eventually see them both, and I could see some of the potential behind them, but never the full payoff. So, when I say that Andrew Garfield’s return as Peter Parker in No Way Home was one of my favorite parts, I want you to understand the weight behind that. And hey, it got me to review something Amazing Spider-Man related!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Amazing Spider-Man is part of the retro-card style No Way Home tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends. Or is he? Despite shipping in a case with five other figures all on No Way Home cards, Andrew is on an Amazing Spider-Man 2 card. Why? Well, the exact reason hasn’t been stated officially, but we know that the Figuarts NWH Andrew, which had an unmasked Garfield head when solicited, had to have said unmasked head removed at the last minute, with contract issues being cited. Hot Toys’ Andrew Spidey, despite being shown off with other NWH figures was ultimately marked Amazing Spider-Man 2 upon release as well, and Hasbro’s original three-pack release for him under the NWH banner was sold without an unmasked head, suggesting that there’s some sort of hang-up with specifically Andrew’s likeness from NWH. Thankfully, he’s not all that different looking between the two films, so it’s easy enough to just mark him as being the other version without any real change-ups. Much like the Tobey figure, Andrew’s core figure is identical to his three-pack release, with only accessory change-ups. The figure stands a little over 6 1/4 inches tall (making him, accurately, the tallest of the three Spideys) and he has 34 points of articulation. His articulation set-up is the same as Tobey and Tom’s, but I personally found Andrew had the best range of motion. It’s still a little restricted, but not terribly so. His sculpt is all-new, and wow is it an overhaul to the one from 2014. That one was a good basic Spidey, but this one is more specifically tailored to the actual movie costume design. Say what you will about the films, this suit design is one of the best Spidey looks out there and it translates well to this figure. While I felt rather let-down by the paint on Tobey, the paint on this guy is particularly good. I dig the darker tones and the slight metallic finish, which really capture his on-screen look well. The three pack have this guy three sets of hands (thwipping, open gesture, and fists) and a webline. The single drops one gesture and one fist, as well as the webline, and gives him an unmasked head. The extra head is a pretty solid likeness, and feels more on point than the Tobey sculpt, but maybe not as nice as the Tom sculpt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As sort of the dark horse performance in the movie for me, I was definitely down for a new Andrew Spidey. While Tobey’s my favorite of the three for sentimental reasons, I think Andrew is the best Spidey figure in this particular set. It’s nice to see him get his due both in toy and movie form.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3547: Batman Beyond

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BATMAN BEYOND

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

FiQ Fun Fact #0026:  While he started as a purely animated character, Batman Beyond has had 12 different non-animation based figures.

DC Universe Classics launched with a lot of weirdness when it came to distribution, and not helping things early on was the closure of KB Toys, one of the few stores consistently carrying the line’s earliest assortments.  Their closure coincided with the fourth series of the line, a fact I vividly recall because they were actually amongst the very last things I bought from KB.  Well, most of them, anyway.  There was one figure I missed, largely because he was far and away the most popular figure in the set.  And that figure?  Batman Beyond.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman Beyond is part of the aforementioned Series 4 line-up of DC Universe Classics.  There were actually two different versions of the figure available, a standard and a KB Toys-exclusive unmasked release.  The standard was also meant to get a re-release under the planned DC Universe All-Stars line, but that was scrapped when All-Stars was rejected by retailers.  So, just the one release on this guy.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  He’s based on the medium-sided male body, which honestly seems a bit too large for Terry, who was just a teenager most of the times we saw him.  At this point in the line, however, the only smaller body was the one used for Sinestro, which would have made him really short as well, so they just did the best they could, I suppose.  Admittedly, the whole line seemed a little bulked up relative to their usual looks, so it wound up being more a stylistic change-up than anything.  Terry got a new head, forearms, and belt piece.  They all match-up well enough with the base body pieces, and make for pretty decent “real world” takes on the Batman Beyond design.  It keeps the design fairly clean, which I definitely like, especially compared to other realistic updates to the look.  The color work on this figure is pretty cool.  They opted to make the black a glossy finish, which is a different choice, but one that very definitely works for the figure.  It makes him really pop out from the rest of the series, when he could otherwise get lost in the crowd.  Batman Beyond was packed with a single batarang, and the arm to the Despero Collect-N-Connect.  The batarang is an okay sculpt, but is for some reason silver.  I get not having the budget to do multi-colors, but either red or black would have made more sense, I feel.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Back when KB was going out of business, I got the full set of these minus Terry.  I tried and tried, but one never made its way to me, so I just made due with my DC Direct Superman/Batman figure for a while.  In the mean time, I’ve been constantly searching for the perfect Batman Beyond for my collection, and I’ve just kept coming up shy on every figure.  Sometimes, you just have to go back to the beginning, I guess.  I finally got ahold of a loose one recently, and, well, here he is.  He’s a pretty by the numbers DCUC figure, but I honestly really like by the numbers DCUC figures.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Matty’s Corner #0007: The Flash

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Matty's Corner

THE FLASH

DC MULTIVERSE (MCFARLANE)

Hi, Ethan here!  Welcome to Matthew’s Corner, where I’m collecting the mad ramblings of my 7 year old Matthew, who also likes to talk about action figures.  What can I say, I’m sympathetic to his need to ramble about action figures.  So, I’m just gonna let him take it away…

Hello this is Matthew.  I haven’t been working on my reviews lately.  But I introduce the Flash the fastest man alive.  I was wanting to practice writing and I wanted to write and I did not want people to be bored of me.  So here is the Flash.  I hope you like it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Flash is from the DC Multiverse toy line by Mcfarlane. He is based on the live action show.  The Color scheme is mostly red and a glimpse of yellow and skin tone for the face.  The sculpt is pretty nice. The people who made the figure did good.  There are 37 points of articulation.  He is about 7 inches tall.  The figure has 4 accessories. The stand and 3 accessories that are lightning things.  The lightning things clip to him to show him going the speed of light.  Also because it matches the lightning symbol  on his uniform.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The story of how I got the figure goes like this. One day I asked my dad if he could buy me a Flash.  When he got home he gave me a Flash.  I was lucky because that was my first Flash.

#3546: Ahsoka Tano

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

AHSOKA TANO

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0029:  This is the fourth time an Ahsoka figure has been justified as a separate release due to the addition of a poncho.

Do you ever feel like you’re seeing double?  Well, okay, like, double, but with a poncho?  Is that a normal thing?  No.  Ah, well.  The point is, hey, here’s this additional Ahsoka figure.  She’s real similar to another one I already looked at.  Wanna read a review of it?  I mean, you’re here, so I assume you probably do.  But, you know what they say about assumptions….they make an Ahsoka out of you and mption?  No, that’s not right.  Ah, well.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ahsoka Tano is the first figure in the Ahsoka-tie-in assortment of Star Wars: Retro Collection.  I mean, I suppose that tracks.  Gotta have the title character.  She’s based on her poncho-wearing look, which debuted over in The Mandalorian, and made a return for her own show.  The figure is just under 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  This figure’s sculpt is the exact same one as the last Retro Collection Ahsoka because she’s just that one with a poncho as noted before.  It looks as good here as it did the first time around.  The paint work is the same basic layout as the prior release as well.  It seems a touch sharper on my copy than the prior figure, but that could just be a case by case thing.  Ahsoka is packed with the same two lightsabers as the last figure, as well as the poncho, noted many times previously here in this review of the poncho-wearing Ahsoka.  It’s a nice piece, and definitely feels in the style of vintage Kenner figures.  It also does change-up the look pretty sufficiently.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I was pretty content with the first Ahsoka, so I wasn’t sure I needed this one at first, but I wanted the rest of the set, and it didn’t make much sense to skip just one figure.  I wasn’t expecting much, but I actually really like the figure’s general look, and the poncho is a fun extra.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3545: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0024: Delays in the production of the original Spider-Man movie meant its tie-in line had to be shelved, leading Toy Biz to create Spider-Man Classics to fill the gap, ultimately leading to the creation of Marvel Legends.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was a pretty big deal for superhero movies, and proved perhaps the most influential film since Superman The Movie it terms of how the industry treated comic book movies. Though certainly a product of its time, without Spider-Man, there’s not really an MCU. So, it was certainly appropriate for Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker to show up in No Way Home, officially crossing over into the very universe he indirectly helped create. It was also really cool for me, because, much as I love Tom Holland in the role, Tobey Maguire is *my* Spider-Man. I saw all of his movies in the theater, and I loved them all (yes, even Spider-Man 3). A lot of my attachment to Spider-Man at all comes from those movies. And getting new toys based on the characters from them, especially Tobey as Spidey? Just kind of the best.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is part of the retro-card backed No Way Home tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends. Previously, he was available in a Pulse-exclusive three-pack with Tom and Andrew. The two releases are identical core figures, with different accessories, which I’ll touch on in that section.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the same as the Finale Tom figure, so it’s a slightly more restricted version of the Amazing Fantasy set-up.  It’s still a little stiff, but generally not bad.  Tobey’s sculpt is an all-new one (shared with the three-pack, of course), courtesy of sculptor Dennis Chan.  While he’s billed as specifically No Way Home Tobey, the sculpt goes for a little more middle of the road for all of his movie looks.  The masked head isn’t quite a spot-on recreation of his mask from the movies; the shaping of the eyes and the layout of the webs looks right, but the underlying shape of the head is off.  It’s not terrible, but it’s not quite right.  Admittedly, it was an issue on his figures from during his movie run too, with the super poseable figure from Spider-Man 2 being another prominent offender.  The head also seems maybe a bit large relative to the body.  The body sculpt’s pretty nice, though, and has a nice set of proportions, far more balanced than prior figures.  The paint work on this guy is another area that doesn’t quite hit the mark.  It’s not bad, but the colors seem a little too bright and saturated to properly convey Tobey’s suit.  It results in the weblines in particular getting a little lost.  The application’s still clean, though, so it’s less a technical issue, and more a design choice one.  The three-pack version of Tobey got three sets of hands (in fists, open gesture, and thwipping) and a webline.  For this release, he gains an unmasked head sculpt (handled by Daniel Salas), but loses the webline, the right open gesture hand, and the left fist.  It’s a bummer that we lost one each of the non-thwipping hands, since they were already sculpted and all.  The unmasked head is okay; something seems off about it.  It’s hard to tell which Tobey it’s supposed to be, and it looks more like Tyler Hochlin than Tobey Maguire to me.  Still, it’s not the worst likeness I’ve seen in this line.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Tobey’s return was the thing I was most excited about in No Way Home, and I definitely wanted a figure of some sort.  I actually managed to get a good deal on the three-pack version *right* before the singles got announced, so I’ve have the figure for a bit and opted to upgrade to the single when he finally hit.  This figure’s not perfect.  In fact, I’d say he’s the weakest of the three Spideys in this line-up.  But, I can’t help but love him, and I’m happy to have gotten him.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Mutant X Re-Read #25: Annual 2000

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Mutant X Re-Read

A SINISTER THREAD

MUTANT X 2000 ANNUAL (MARVEL COMICS)

“In another place–in another life–Alex Summers led a team of mutants in a battle against oppression. His methods were extreme, his tactics questionable, but–in his soul–he knew that he was fighting for the greater good.

Now that soul has been transferred to another world, and Summers, also known as Havok, has found himself living a lie, allied with a team of mutants who are sinister, parallel versions of his friends and family. It is to this dark, new place that Havok has come, where he stands as a man alone… a mutant alone. Alex Summers is Mutant X.

Fear him. Fear for him.”

25 years ago, Marvel Comics launched Mutant X, a Havok led X-spinoff. I recently came into a complete run of the series, and so now I’m going to re-read the series once a week, and you guys get to come along for the ride!

And we’re back, this week with an issue that I totally didn’t just miss when I was supposed to read…look, guys, the Annuals don’t actually have the cover date printed on them, and they’re not worked into the actual narrative, so it’s easy to miss them and not realize it. So, I’m gonna fix it now, and take a look at a Gambit and Bloodstorm-centric story. Oh goody. My favorites.

THE ISSUE ITSELF

The 2000 annual of Mutant X was “cover dated” April 2000. It has story and art by Howard Mackie, Colleen Doran, Scott Elmer, Andrew Pepoy, Rod Ramos, and John Czop.

Bloodstorm and Gambit break into a facility, as the captions set the timeline as shortly after Ororo left the X-Men. The two banter as they make their way through traps. They open a large door and discover The Fallen behind it. The Fallen reveals to Gambit that Ororo is a vampire, and introduces the pair to War. They do battle, and Gambit and Ororo get away, moving further into the facility. As they move forward, Ororo recalls her transformation into a vampire. They arrive at their goal, a room where two young children are kept in stasis. The Horsemen catch-up, and Gambit is fatally wounded. Ororo turns him into a vampire to save his life, and they escape with the children, ending the first “part.” In the second part, Gambit wrestles with his new vampirism, and runs off, after wishing Ororo had let him die. In the French Quarter, a pair of thieves attacks a young woman, who reveals herself to be a member of the assassins. It was a set up, and the other Assassins attack. The Assassins are taken out by Gambit, who then attacks the woman. Gambit reconvenes with Ororo and the children. Ororo departs, and Gambit meets with the man who hired him: Sinister. Sinister takes the boy, and orders Gambit to dispose of the girl. Gambit refuses, and takes her himself, while Sinister addresses the boy as “X-Man.”

The last annual focused on building out the universe a little further, and built up a handful of new characters. This one is a lot more retread. We get another look at Ororo in her early days of being a vampire, who seems to be pretty much the same as her present counterpart. There’s also some things that don’t seem to line up with her last flashback issue, since this one portrays her as being on good terms with the X-Men when she departed. What she and Gambit are doing is ill-defined, as is their relationship to each other. We get another appearance of the Fallen, who, like Bloodstorm, seems to be in about the same spot as presently. The story’s two-part structure is odd, because part two just picks up moments from where part one ended, making it feel like the whole separation was unnecessary. At the end, we get a clearer explanation of why Gambit is a vampire, and where X-Man and Raven came from…sort of. The coolest part of the whole thing are the “alternate history” covers we get at the end, showing off some events from prior to Havok’s arrival, but they seem jarringly placed at the end of a book that is otherwise very focused on one thing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

 I had a lot of trouble getting through this one. It was equal parts boring and confusing for me. It certainly doesn’t help that Bloodstorm remains a character I just don’t get the hype behind, and that this is the second time in a year she’s gotten a flashback issue. The information provided by this story is minimal, since it’s dealing with stuff that we largely already knew, which makes me feel like it wants to be a character study, but there’s very little actual character growth or interaction. So, it’s ultimately an extra length story about how Gambit got turned into a vampire, and did we really need that?

I snagged this whole run from my usual comics stop, Cosmic Comix, so I want to give them a shout out here, because it was a pretty great find.