X-Men: Second Coming Chapter ø4 is in stores now, and the book did not disappoint. Spoilers below.

The New Mutants’ victory over The Right comes at a price, though not the one I expected. While Karma is seriously wounded, the real sacrifice is that Warlock is forced to make an impossible choice and take several lives to save his friends. This is dangerous territory for any character, but given the warlike nature of his species, it could be enough to send him spiraling out of control. The fact that the decision came at the urging of his most trusted friend, Doug Ramsey, might not help their relationship going forward.

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Death in comics has become an annoyance. Both for the characters and the readers. There used to be this unwritten rule that death in comics was permanent in only three cases: Jason Todd (Robin II), Captain America’s sidekick Bucky, and Barry Allen (the Flash II). These were characters that were dead 20 years ago and that everyone generally agreed would stay dead indefinitely.

DC and Marvel have brought them all back to life in recent years. The end result being when a major character is killed at the end of one of the big two companies’ major events, readers at this point just shrug. Death has no weight in comics today. I’m not sure why we even bother pretending otherwise.

Which brings us to last week’s launch of the Flash #1, which was the debut of recently-back-from-the-dead Barry Allen’s new ongoing series. Barry has been back for awhile now having starred in two mini-series and playing a prominent role in the Blackest Night mega-event. Here’s a secret I’ve learned about him over the last year: he has NO character. He’s a bland guy who used to wear a bow-tie and was always late for everything. That’s it.

The recent Flash: Rebirth miniseries, which was plagued by delays, did nothing to establish his character, nor did the Blackest Night tie-in Flash mini-series. Writer Geoff Johns has done nothing to show us why Barry is so great that DC NEEDED to resurrect him. He had a great death and it should have been left alone.

On top of all of that, I should disclose that I harbor some resentment against this series based on the fact that it stole the creative team behind Adventure Comics after only six issues; a book that was really establishing itself as one of DC’s stronger offerings.

You may ask why I even bothered reading a book that I’m so clearly biased against…? Well DC promised me a little plastic toy Flash ring if I did.

And guess what! My store didn’t even have any. Jerks.

What’s that you ask? No, I’m not six years old.

So what did I think about Flash #1?

It kind of rocked. This book was pitched as superheroes meets CSI. It’s an interesting concept that is barely touched on in issue 1, but you can see the groundwork being laid out.

The real hero behind this book though is artist Francis Manapul. The sequence featuring Barry disassembling a car at super speed to keep it from killing some construction workers and a child is STUNNING. There’s also a page featuring the Rogues that looks like something out of a recent issue of J.H. Williams’ Detective Comics. Really strong stuff.

And the twist at the end, is a nice change of pace from the typical comic book death.

Unfortunately Barry Allen still has no personality, but I’ll give Johns a few more months to try to find it.

I’m reading Siege and enjoying it. I like the art, I like the story, and I especially like the pace. At four issues, things are moving along nicely. With the Heroic Age set to begin in May, I was a little surprised that Siege #4 was not on the schedule for April (it’s been pushed back to May 12). Instead, Marvel is giving us a series of 5 Siege one-shots focusing on Captain America, Spider-Man, Loki, the Young Avengers and Secret Warriors. The first of these shipped last week and I really wanted to give them a chance, but I’m sorry Marvel, I’m not buying into this. I didn’t read any of these books but it’s pretty clear that at least the Captain America and Spider-Man issues are extended fight scenes and essentially filler. The Loki issue might be great since he’s the mastermind behind what’s happening in Siege and this should give some insight. I didn’t buy it on principle alone. This is not Marvel’s fault, but I know myself. If I buy one of these, I’m going to want them all. They even have interlocking covers. No, I’m out for this.

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, C2E2, went down this weekend in the Windy City. There was a lot of news from all over, but below are the things that stood out to me.

We Are the X-Men

The teaser images released last week were to showcase a new ongoing series simply titled X-Men coming in July. An interview with writer Victor Gischler and artist Paco Medina reveals that the book is intended to show the X-Men integrated in the Marvel Universe via guest stars team ups (possibly explaining the inclusion of Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Blade and Elektra in the promos). The first arc involves mutants vs. vampires.

Accompanying this announcement was another great Adi Granov image featuring a number of X-Men mainstays and word that Uncanny X-Men and X-Men: Legacy aren’t changing anything other than art teams. Of course, this could be to avoid spoiling anything in Second Coming.

New X-Force

An X-Force relaunch titled New X-Force is coming in September from writer Rick Remender and artist Jerome Opeña. It seems the current series will end at the close of Second Coming, which actually makes a lot of sense given the way this series and Cable launched out of Messiah Complex. The new book features a team led by Wolverine whose membership is currently a mystery, though the silhouettes look like Angel, Psylocke, Nightcrawler and Fanomex. Not sure how I feel about this one…

Secret Avengers

Speaking of mysteries, the full line-up of Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato’s upcoming Secret Avengers series was revealed. I managed to guess some correctly, others not so much. Featuring an espionage theme and characters spanning the Marvel Universe (Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter, Black Widow, War Machine, Ant Man, Beast, Nova, Moon Knight, and Valkyrie), I think I’m definitely in for this one.  Plus I’m a huge fan of Beast.

Avengers: Children’s Crusade

This new project announced from Young Avengers creators Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung probably has piqued my interest the most. Avengers: Children’s Crusade involves the Scarlet Witch, her children and the Young Avengers, House of M and at least Magneto if not the rest of the X-Men. The book is slated to begin in July.

I’m loving the current X-Men: Second Coming storyline as you may have read about here. Rather than just ride that wave, Marvel has released a series of images for May’s X-Men books reading “We Are The X-Men” to tease the status quo post Second Coming. The images (posted below) show what is presumably the new team tearing through an image from the cover of 1991’s X-Men #1 by Jim Lee. The first was intriguing in that it featured Spider-Man, but then it got weird as they revealed Blade, Elektra, and the new She-Hulk from an alternate future were part of the team. I don’t know where this is going. Could be great, could be awful. I’ll give it a chance, but only because I always do. I am looking forward to seeing how Nate Grey is involved and the interactions between him, Hope and Magneto. The vampire Jubilee could be intriguing as well.

Along with the images, Marvel.com did provide some information to go along with each reveal, but they don’t really speak to the details of why these particular characters might be together (or associated with the X-Men at all for that matter). Considering each of the non-X-Men characters in the context of recent X-events:

• Blade may be around as a result of X-Force’s recent battle with Selene during Necrosha as she was a vampire of sorts. Although it makes more sense that he may be after the vampire Jubilee.
• The new She-Hulk is from the future and may be connected to Hope in some way as she is also a key figure in things that haven’t happened yet.
• Elektra was associated with the X-Men in the Mutant X universe, so there could be an unrevealed connection that brings her into the fold in this story.
• Spider-Man has interacted with the X-Men in the past and was even invited to join the team in the X-Men/Spider-Man mini-series that saw print in 2009. On a side note, this was a great story for any long time X-fan.

More information is scheduled to be available at today’s X-Men Panel at C2E2.