Best Comics of 2021 (So Far): Marvel Comics
This list looks at the best comics of 2021 so far from Marvel, including the entire X-Men line, Iron Man, Daredevil, the best recent trade paperback collections, and more.
Read MoreComics Anatomy: Shifting Contexts in House of X
In this anniversary installment of Comics Anatomy, features editor Harry Kassen digs into House of X and takes a look at the ways in which Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larraz contextualize and recontextualize X-Men history and elements from their own series to create new stories and meanings.
Read MoreREVIEW: New Mutants #1 is a space romp brimming with cosmic adventure and one-liners
By Zack Quaintance — In some ways, New Mutants #1 might be the most surprising debut issue within the Dawn of X, which is the six-comic line-wide X-Men relaunch that’s now one book away from complete. Sure, some of the other comics have bigger plot twists (see X-Force) or wilder concepts (see Excalibur), but New Mutants is a rarer thing — it’s a comic that’s being co-written by Jonathan Hickman, that deals more in individual moments than it does high-concept sci-fi ideas.
Read MoreREVIEW: X-Men #1 has some fun in the House of X that Hickman built
By Zack Quaintance — Since Jonathan Hickman launched a new era of X-Men comics back in late July with House of X #1, there have been quite a few surprises in store for fans of Marvel’s mutants. Chief among these surprises is the entire concept of the new era, wherein guided by the lessons learned through Moira McTaggert’s reincarnations (she too is a mutant), Professor X, Magneto, Apocalypse and everyone else (pretty much) have unified, creating a separate mutant state on the living island of Krakoa, where they have also figured out how to revive any mutants that are killed….there is some tension between the newly-empowered mutants and humanity, however, and it is played out through the ongoing development of AI and robots. Phew.
Read MoreTop Comics to Buy for October 16, 2019: Superman Smashes the Klan, X-Men, and more!
By Zack Quaintance — This is somewhat of a lighter week for my individual tastes, although if I look to the New #1s and One Shots section of our Top Comics to Buy for October 16, 2019, I do find some capital B Big books dropping. In fact, while this column generally doesn’t put #1s in our Top 5, there were so many strong debuts this week that we had to make some exceptions.
Read MoreWhy are HOUSE OF X and POWERS OF X two series?
By Garrett Rooney — House of X and Powers of X, the recently-concluded series that launched a new era of X-Men comics, are a complicated pair of interconnected stories. While they are clearly telling one larger story, Jonathan Hickman has chosen to tell us that story by breaking it into two separate six-issue mini-series that are mostly released on alternating weeks. This is somewhat unusual, because you really can’t appreciate either of these series alone. In fact, in the back of each issue of HoXPoX (for brevity I will be referring to the overall work as HoXPoX going forward, and the individual books as HoX or PoX), you’ll find a reading order that makes it very clear that you are intended to read the issues in a particular intertwined order, “two series that are one” as it says.
Read MoreREVIEW: Powers of X #1 casts an intriguing shadow upon House of X
By Zack Quaintance — I absolutely loved House of X #1 last week, giving it a perfect 10 out of 10 score and describing it as ‘a landmark comic.’ Keep that in mind as I tell you now that this week’s companion comic, Powers of X #1, makes House of X #1 look safe by comparison. I don’t mean this as praise or criticism. In a story as dense and assured as the big one being told now in the X-Men comics by Jonathan Hickman, good or bad doesn’t quite factor in. It’s all good, it’s all fascinating and ambitious. Still, Powers of X #1 is the almost-objectively more experimental and less predictable of the two books.
Read MoreTRADE RATING: Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s SECRET WARS (Spoilers!)
Secret Wars is epic and subversive, but not in the way that you might think. Instead of paying off Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four and Avengers runs in a traditional way that could involve swathes of characters from the 616 and the Ultimate universe going at it, quipping with each other and generally having a ball, Hickman went in another direction.
Read MoreREVIEW: House of X #1 is a landmark comic
By Zack Quaintance — Last July at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski announced the company was bringing back its beloved Uncanny X-Men title. The news was vague, with just a glimpse of a familiar Uncanny X-Men logo on a projector screen (eliciting ravenous howls). Cebulski, however, was announcing more than just a comic revival. To me, what happened in that room was an announcement that after roughly a decade-plus of corporate isolation, the company was bringing the X-Men back into the creative fold.
Read MoreGetting Ready for the Hickman X-Era: A Roundtable Discussion
Jonathan Hickman’s multi-year three-segment plan to return the X-Men to the top of prominence at Marvel Comics starts today with House of X #1. For the next 12 weeks, House of X and Powers of X will alternate chapters, leading to the re-launch of the entire X-Line in October…
Read MoreGET HYPED: Jonathan Hickman’s House of X & Powers of X
By Allison Senecal — Jonathan Hickman is making his return to Marvel Comics this July, and when he arrives, he will be taking over the—gasp—X-Men. This news hit a few months back, and yes, when it did, I was a Hickman doubter…
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