Jay's All New, All Different X-Men Team.

I haven't done this in a while. So, I thought it would be fun to take a Little time and come up with the teams I would use if I were writing the X-Men Books. First off I would use the idea from the 90s of a gold and blue team. I would also have them based out of the mansion again and have a support team of Forge, Moira, Cypher and, Cyclops leader of the entire group.
The Gold Team. For this team I thought I'd go with a more experienced group.

Havok - Team Leader. Like his brother. Havok is a natural leader and has led many of the members on this team before.

Polaris - Besides being Alex's on again/off again love interest. She's a flier with long range powers.

Rogue - Heavy hitter and a flier.

Cannonball - Though, a good leader in his own right. He is the only one of the New Mutants to make this team and like Rogue, he is a flier and heavy hitter.

Nightcrawler - He can be stealthy, is good with malee weapons and can get help out of a fit in a pinch, with his teleporting powers.

Wolverine - He had to be on at least one of these teams so, might as well be on the one with someone whom knows how to deal with him.

Gambit - Besides also having Rogue on this team. With all the time he's spent reigning in Logan. I figured Havok could control Gambit a lot better than the leader of the Blue Team and it's always good to have someone that can blow stuff up on at least one of the teams.

Psylocke - Again, she has experience working with Alex and, her powers are complimented by being on this team.

Colossus - The team's heavy hitter.

Kitty Pryde - With Piotr and Logan on this team you could've guessed she was going to be on this team. Plus, much like Nightcrawler she's good to have around in case the fight starts to go sour.

BLUE TEAM. Though, not as experienced as the Gold Team. They're not a team to be taken likely.

Multiple Man - Team Leader. Since, starting up X-Factor investigations. Madrox has been the type of leader a guy with his powers should be.

Siryn - With her and Jamie's personal history. She could be good at keeping him in line as well as her long range and flight powers.

M - Jamie knows how to deal with her and she is a powerhouse, no matter what time she's on.

Angel - I put him and a couple of the original X-Men on this team to work as mentors to the younger members. Plus, he's a flier and it's always good to have a few of those on your team.

Wolfsbane - The malee fighter of the team.

Husk - She was on a team with M and in a relationship with Angel. So, there will definitely make things interesting. Plus, the her powers she can be whatever supporting member the team needs.

Jubilee - With Husk and M on the team it's only natural to have Jubes on the team. Plus, I think it would be entertaining how she and MAdrox would butt heads.

Iceman - The main reason I put him on the team was because of this team's lack of long range attackers and him being a bit more immature than the folks on the other team. I thought he'd make a good fit on this team.

Sunspot - The team's powerhouse and a former teamate of Rahne's I felt this was the team for him.

Beast - A heavy hitter and able to find solutions for problems no one's thought exist. I feel he would make a good mentor to all the members including Madrox and I kind of think that if he had a choice he would pick to be on this team, for the entertainment of watching these personalities trying to work together.

Well, there you go. My Gold and Blue X-Men teams.

Fallen S.W.O.R.D. (A Review/Post Mortem)

So, this week I finally got the chance to read SWORD. For those whom didn't read it before it was cancelled SWORD follows Lockheed, Beast and, Abigail Brand after Astonishing X-Men. In the series Henry Gyrich has been selected by Norman Osborn as the co-head (along with Ms. Brand) of S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department)basically, the outer space version of S.H.I.E.L.D. and is head quartered on a space station above Earth named The Peak. Although, I did enjoy the series. I can also see why it was cancelled. For one the set up seems like it would have been better suited to a mini series rather than an ongoing series. there is a bit of a storytelling engine set up for the series. But, for the most part it's lacking a set up to continue for a long time. One of the first cracks in the armor of this series as an ongoing series is the machinations of Gyrich to have all aliens on Earth, deported back to their home worlds. While it is a good story had this plot been paced as more of a secondary plot than the main one (as it is in the issues I read). It could have added some interesting story arcs in the long run as Gyrich slowing turns the staff of The Peak against Brand and becomes more influential on Earth. Instead of doing this however, Gillen and Sanders make this the main story of the first arc. Had they used this plot point as a slow burner. I think they could have made the storytelling engine a bit richer. The final thing that I think set this series up to fail was that it didn't seem to have enough of a intro hook besides remember the last couple of pages in Whedon's Astonishing X-Men series. This is what happened to Beast and Brand. Though, another thing that could have helped the series was had they shown they were keeping take of that "bullet" Kitty was trapped in. Like I sadi at the beginning cool story but, easy to see why it didn't make it as an ongoing series (atleast in my humble opinion).

Sienkiewicz (un)covered

Lately, I've been re-reading my New Mutants: Classic collections and one of the things I have realized in re-reading these is that I really like Bill Sieniewicz covers. Now, I'm not a big fan of his work. In fact, the only stories I enjoyed his interior work in where the Demon Bear and Legion story lines. For those stories and the whole metaphysical angle of them, I think his art works really well in creating the vibe of these stories taking place in a bit of a dream scape. However, his work on the other New Mutant stories just really bugs me. I'm not quite sure why, but it does. The one place where I feel he was really good on all the issues he worked on were the covers. Something about that painted style of his really clicks on the covers of The New Mutant books. My personal favorite of his covers is issue #21, entitled Slumber Party! the cover of that issue was really what got me interested in reading The New Mutants again when I was working at the Mile High Comics warehouse. When I was a kid I read a few New Mutant comics but, that was around the time of the Fall of the Mutants crossovers. So, I hadn't read any of the early issues and then I was walking around the Mile high Comics warehouse one day and I see this table in the back corner near the area I worked in. This table was decorated in a collage of all kinds of covers and other pictures and stuff. The first one that caught my attention was the VHS cover of that movie Melissa Joan Hart did with the guy from Entourage (it stuck out in my mind because in Jr. High, when she did Clarrisa Explains It All I had a huge crush on her). Anyways the second image that I noticed on the table was the Slumber Party cover Mr. Sienkiewicz did for New Mutants #21 and after that I really wanted to check out those old stories and along the way became a huge fans of the team. All because of that cover and just to have everything come full circle at Comic Fest this year I bought that issue along with a ton of other X-Factor and New Mutants comics.

Everyone enjoys a little Rahne every now and again

Taking a brake from all the listy goodness for a little bit. I thought I would right about something that's been bouncing around my head for the last couple of weeks. A couple of weeks ago while I was at Comic Fest me and the friend I went with were chatting about this and that and it got me thinking about how (despite her low profile) Wolfsbane has been in more titles than almost any other New Mutant, heck she's even co-starred in a couple of mini-series with Wolverine (and weirdly enough both were also written by Peter David). Seriously, you never hear much in fandom about Ms. Rahne Sinclair (not even on any of the feminist type blogs), Even though, she was in New Mutants, two versions of X-Factor and is now one of the main characters in the new X-Force book as well as being in the New Mutant/New X-men book while she was dating Elixir. I'm not really sure why this is, though I do have a sinking suspicion that Peter David really digs the character. After all, he has written two series and to minis that she has co-starred in. Yet, she barely rates a mention on the internets and that is a real shame. Now granted,I really dig Wolfsbane, in all of her incarnations and was extremely happy when I found out that one of my quarter bin finds from Comic Fest was X-Factor #99 where Haven cures her of the mutate thing and she was able to revert back to her human form and was no longer mind linked to Havok. All in all it's not a bad issue at all. Anyways getting back to the subject I think one of the strength's and why she has been in, is that she is really good supporting character. For one her background and her faith makes for interesting exchanges between her and other characters (especially,when some kind of moral dilemma is being discussed). Plus, with her powers of lycanthropy it makes a good visual, even in the background of a fight scene. What's weird is still thinking about all of this the other day, I started thinking about whether or not she would be able to carry off her own mini series and even as a huge fan of the character I don't really think she could. Unless of course, a very talented write had a story they felt could only be told with her in the lead. Other than that though, I think she works best as a supporting character that occasionally has an issue or to that spotlight her. Lately, I started re-reading the latest version of X-Factor up until she left and joined X-Factor and I think what I really enjoy about her is how Peter David writes her as a girl with a fierce and tough exterior in a vain attempt to hide her caring and soft personality and the conflicts and hurt that stem from her upbringing as well as from the conflicted ways she feels about her powers and mutant abilities. I really feel that even as a supporting character she is really fleshed out well (especially when written by Peter David) into a character that you really care and hope for as she deals with the traumas of her childhood as well as her mutant powers while growing into a woman of deep faith and conviction and it's a shame she doesn't get more coverage on the blogs or in the comic press and hopefully here soon, more people will realise just how awesome she is. Plus, who doesn't love a gal with a Scottish accent.