Last Fall, Marvel Comics released a set of 50th Anniversary variant covers on a number of their titles shipping between October and December. As expected, the 50th comes just two years after the publisher’s 2009 “70th Anniversary” as they combined their history as Marvel, Atlas and Timely Comics. The variant covers associated with that celebration featured individual characters from across their publishing line and can be found in some of our earliest posts (in parts one, two, and three). The theme for the 50th Anniversary covers pays homage to iconic covers from the publisher’s history by putting characters from other franchises into the place of the originals.

Look inside and we’ll line up the new take along with its inspiration for what amounts to a fun set of covers even if they’re not particularly visible on shelves. A complete gallery and list of issues can be found below.

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Even though I dislike all the renumbering Marvel does, I’m a sucker for their manufactured milestone issues. While I’m not a huge fan of the title character, last Wednesday’s Wolverine #300 was another fun read from another aggregated landmark. Jason Aaron and a team of artists bring a big story that includes the return of a major Wolverine villain, a new path for another, and a new Silver Samurai along with most of Logan’s Japan-based supporting cast. Aaron has said this will be his last arc on Wolverine (though he’ll still write the character in the pages of Wolverine and the X-Men) and he’s clearly planning to go big before going home.

Spoilers for Wolverine #300 will follow.

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The final series in Marvel’s X-Men line to reach the Regenesis rebranding might be the most difficult one for me to review. I’m an unapologetic fan of Peter David, X-Factor, and Havok so  I had high expectations going in. I can honestly say that X-Factor #230 took me a bit by surprise with its approach and I should never have doubted how David would handle his book being a little more connected to the rest of the X-titles after several years of making its own way.

Spoilers for X-Factor #230 will follow.

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That t-shirt was asking the same question we were last Monday as Zach Ryder and Eve attempted to flee from Kane.

Last week’s Monday Night Raw from Corpus Christi, Texas had more Kane and John Cena than you could ask for and tonight is likely to be more of the same. Last week also featured a lot of Smackdown promotion to the point where it was arguably half of the show. It’s nice to see some unfamiliar faces on Monday nights, but it seemed to come at the expense of some of the Superstars that have been carrying the show from week to week. Promotion also seemed to begin in earnest for the 25th annual Royal Rumble last week, and I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of bodies going over the top rope tonight in Anaheim, California.

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It’s a special day here at My Latest Distraction as we celebrate our third anniversary. Thank you again to everyone that stops by. You are a big part of what keeps us going. Whether you’re a regular reader or a just here for a fleeting moment every visit something we find thrilling.

A few weeks ago we discussed MLD’s most popular posts from the past year, and today we decided to spotlight some of our favorite posts from throughout our history. Despite the X-Men reference in the title and comic books being the dominant topic on the site most weeks, you won’t find much spandex among our selections this time around.

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