It’s a snow day for most here in Philadelphia, but comics still made it into readers’ hands and The X-Men’s Age of X started this week with Age of X: Alpha #1. The one-shot is an anthology book by series writer Mike Carey covering the history of five characters in this new timeline where the X-Men never existed and mutants are being hunted to extinction. The backstories are framed in the present with the mutants asking one another how they came to be at their refuge, Fortress X, as they wait for an imminent battle with their oppressors. Art for the framing scenes is by Micro Pierfrederici whose painted pages are full of lush colors and firelight throughout. As we transition through the campfire stories, we see that everyone seems to have lost everything they had in the world before coming together.

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X-Men #6 (Volume 3) arrived in late December concluding the Curse of the Mutants (X-Men versus Vampires) storyline, and this is a good point to discuss the new series by Victor Gischler and Paco Medina. I fell far behind in reading this series as it published and I had to catch up on nearly every issue today. Apparently, I didn’t even make it all the way through issue #2 when it first shipped! I’ve been a huge X-Men fan most of my life and have been reading for decades. Falling behind like that says a lot about this book and my feelings regarding it.

Spoilers ahead.

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A Marvel press release on Friday provided an advance preview of Marvel’s X-Men #7 from the new series by Victor Gischler. I’m not sure why the preview was released now since #6 hasn’t shipped yet, but I have a pretty good guess as Spider-Man joins the X-Men for this story arc. Many fans have been critical of the current X-Men vs. Vampires story currently featured in the title (and let’s face it they’ve been critical of Amazing Spider-Man lately as well), but this might be a way to showcase the change in focus that’s to come.

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Earlier this week Marvel released the artwork for two different cover images for Age of X: Alpha, the kick off to next year’s Age of X event by Mike Carey. The cover images were drawn by Oliver Coipel and Chris Bachalo respectively and give some new glimpses into what’s to come.

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Last August, Marvel celebrated its 70th Anniversary by combining their publication history as Timely, Atlas and Marvel Comics which dates back to 1939. As part of the celebration, the publisher returned to a fondly remembered variant cover gimmick they used during their 25th Anniversary (almost 25 years ago): every book with a matching cover featuring a character from the title framed by a collection of their fellow Marvel creations. While I have my own feelings on how these new variations on the theme match up, I have to admit I really like the idea. With 2010 being a celebration of the Women of Marvel, the frame covers have returned this month.

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