After writing my earlier post, it occurred to me that I’m not even that big of an Avengers fan and Marvel has been releasing teasers for weeks for an event that I’m far more interested in. The third chapter in the X-Men: Messiah Trilogy hits this April with Second Coming.
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DC Comics officially announced yesterday that a new series called Brightest Day will follow up their best-selling Blackest Night series in April. While Blackest Night is a more conventional 8-issue miniseries, Brightest Day will be a bi-weekly 26-issue maxi-series beginning with an issue zero. This is similar to DC’s weekly series 52, which launched out of Infinite Crisis, and its follow up Countdown, which led into Final Crisis.  I remember hearing a lot of mixed reactions to 52 and Countdown, so hopefully nothing will spoil or needlessly complicate this series.

Twenty-six issues is a big commitment for me, especially considering I don’t normally read DC’s books. However, given how great Blackest Night has been, I’ll certainly give this a try since Green Lantern/Blackest Night writer Geoff Johns will be writing this as well.

It was also announced that David Finch will be providing covers for the series. Kevin and I were just discussing him over the weekend regarding his new exclusive contract with DC. This is a high profile job and he deserves it as he’s incredibly talented. He’s done some of my favorite covers in recent years, particularly for the X-Men: Messiah Complex crossover and Moon Knight. I’m even planning to purchase a print of his cover art from X-Men #200.

More on Brightest Day can be found at our Brightest Day hub.

In a week, some of this mop of hair you see to your right might be going away.  Until then, I can enjoy moments like right now, where in an effort to control the uncontrollable, Angie goes with any hair configuration that works.  I’d say it looks like Chronomancer-era Bishop‘s hairstyle, but no one will get that reference. So I’ll just say that I love my wife, Predator-head and all.

Images courtesy of Mile High Comics and Unreality Magazine.

It’s Wednesday and that’s big day for comic book fans everywhere.  This particular Wednesday, I can’t wait to get my hands on the next chapter of Marvel‘s X-Men/Dark Avengers Utopia crossover.  To explain why, here’s some recent history.

Some yahoo “super heroes” filming a reality television show blew up 600 people in Stamford, Connecticut.  The government responded by requiring all costumed heroes to be registered and licensed in order to operate.  Some heroes agree (Iron Man) and some do not (Captain America) and a super-human Civil War breaks out.  The pro-registration side wins out and Iron Man becomes the director of SHIELD and all things related to registration.  His 50 State Initiative to put a team of heroes in every state is the perfect opportunity for a group of shape-shifting alien religious zealots to infiltrate and take over.  They believe the Earth is theirs by divine right and Stark is unable to stop their Secret Invasion.  In the heat of the battle  to drive back the alien hordes, Norman Osborn (the once and future Green Goblin) delivers the killing shot to the invaders’ leader and is elevated from his position leading a team of super villains seeking rehabilitation (right…) in the Thunderbolts program, to Stark’s replacement as master of all things super human.  In order to solidify his Dark Reign over the Marvel Universe, Orborn creates his own team of Avengers to back him up and forms a cabal with some heavy hitters (Doctor Doom, Namor, Loki, The Hood, and Emma Frost) to control the world under his watchful eye.  In the meantime, the Scarlet Witch went crazy and used her magic to reduce the powered mutant community to about 200 individuals after altering the world during the House of M.  The remaining mutants became in that moment an endangered species and Cyclops gathered all the willing in San Francisco to create a safe haven under the protection of the X-Men.

Emma Frost and Norman Osborn had an agreement.  She keeps the mutants quiet and he’ll leave them be in their new home.  Only they didn’t stay quiet, and now Norman is bringing in his Dark Avengers to regulate.  Chapter One of Utopia shipped last Wednesday and was a wild start to this confrontation and Chapter Two is available today in Uncanny X-Men #513.  I highly recommend it.

Long before we had this outlet to discuss the distractions in our lives, I spent four months consumed with a Marvel Comics crossover event called Messiah Complex (also check out this).  Drawing together four different titles and running weekly, I couldn’t wait for each installment to arrive.  I even started going to the nearest campus comic shop I could find on lunch breaks to get each week’s issue.

In April, Marvel launched the sequel to this event called Messiah War running through X-Force and Cable (which began (actually were relaunched) in the aftermath of Messiah Complex).  While smaller in scope and published less often, Messiah War has been satisfying so far (we’re currently at part five of seven) and I can’t wait to see where it’s all heading.

While continuing the story of the mutant child/possibly savior/possibly destroyer Hope, Messiah War has also managed to incorporate classic X-Men characters and concepts including: Archangel, Apocalypse, Stryfe, Deadpool, The Vanisher and of course time-travel.  Well worth checking out the issues currently in print (or reading once it’s collected) if you’ve ever enjoyed epic X-Men action.