red snow

I guess the 80s nostalgia bubble will eventually burst or will at least flatline in terms of growth as i guess it's a niche market that after a certain time won't grow (it's not like more people who grew up in the 80s will appear). Creator owned is tricky when image currently provides the most lucrative gains. However, IDW could overcome that by offering more editorial help. Creator owned image titles require the creative team to form on their own and produce an entire comic as the pitch. I could see new talent giving up a cut of profits if IDW helped with putting the creative team and book together - moreso if they were active in promoting the comic.

I'm also looking forward to Hickman introducing the original horsemen teased throughout the series. I'm guessing they may not agree with apocalypse and the happy mutant collective he's now a part of

Moral compass works more than leadership i guess. Which are the four in the middle? Exodus was an acolyte of magneto and apocalypse - unless he's been retconned significantly I'd put him in the evil camp. Is X-man nate grey still around? I know he was the focus of the pre Hickman run but not sure what the outcome was for him.

HOX #6 really has established a new status quo not just for the X-Men but the marvel universe as a whole. I'm interested to see how other books will reflect these developments. I also wonder who the antagonists will be going forward when all mutants appear to be on one side now? I can envision political antagonists in apocalypse and sinister but in terms of actual fighting I'm guessing it will have to be aliens and human villains. Guess we'll have the silly "marvel characters instinctively know whether someone is a mutant vs getting their powers via accident/meddling". The council reveal seemed solid besides the good guy choices. Storm, i see as a leader (especially with her weird lion king rebirth role) but jean and nightcrawler not so much. Maybe the Beast has been so badly handled over the last decade that they won't touch him but he would seem a good choice and counter balance to sinister. Unless there's a lot of Catholic mutants i just don't get the inclusion of nightcrawler. Hopefully the new series going forward will justify all the council positions. At first i was angry that Cyclops had been side-lined until i realised he is captain/commander for military action and will be defacto leader of the krakoan nation in times of war. Can't wait to see that one unfold down the line. Cyclops was badass when he had the "heroic/good" mutant nation - imagine what he could do with all mutants and krakoa.

It's the rub with image titles. Seven to eternity was crippled out the door by delays and an artist change. I wonder if remender has some new things cooking or might be tempted back to marvel/dc? I'm not sure which characters he'd be a good fit for at DC but I'd be curious what he'd do with anyone there. Maybe a bat family character where there's more room to play with the character than say batman. Maybe titans/outsiders. POX felt a bit thin this week. More about filling out some elements from last week's HOX. I found the infographic about the mutant council annoying to be honest as the redacted elements made it feel like speculation bait instead of being informative or useful to the story. While the phalanx stuff is interesting SF I'm not entirely sure what it's bringing to the world of x-men and how it will inform the new series. Feels like Hickman is just setting up how his run will end it what seems to be a mutant based blackhole phalanx empire which is fine and all. I miss Nimrod - something i never thought I'd type.

I'll have to come back to it. Think i read the first 24 then switched to trade waiting (think it went into an every other month schedule?) And then forgot. I think i got to the point where McKay went on some sort of soul quest and had just reunited with his daughter? It was definitely getting hard to follow at the time. How many books does remender still have as ongoings? Is "low" still on the go? Then there was the fantasy one. I really like his books and the artists but found them hard to keep into on a monthly basis. The Harley book was ok. The artwork was nice but it felt not a lot happened over a lot of pages. The origin of the harley name is a bit odd unless she only appropriates the name later in the story it seems odd that's the name she takes on.

But i think marvel and DC have about 90% (especially with walking dead finished and saga on hiatus by image) so being fourth is still a tiny share. Which books are being cancelled? I know they do a lot of licensed books which reduces the profit margin but may still be their best sellers meaning less money/support for non licensed books.

Looking at the solicits new mutants appears to be alternating issues between him and another writer. One is focusing on a space element and the other on an earth bases team. Given Hickman is heavily setting up space as a thread in the current series and the fact he seems to like cannonball and sunspot i think he's handling the space story. It'll be good if his second book follows a different aspect like POX and new avengers did. X-MEN sounds like it'll be weekly adventures so the other title will hopefully be more epic in scope.

I was reading some conspiracy theories that Xavier himself might be a resurrected body (he's had several through other means already) and that it may not be his mind in the body. Some suggested Moira Mactaggert? Marauders also sounds a bit iffy. It all depends on what mission statement each book will have. I'm hoping Hickman has a planned role and function for each book so that none of them are generic but we'll have to see. It looks like New mutants will have a split narrative where Hickman and the other writer handles the storylines separately. So it's only a semi-Hickman book. Is the X-men title monthly or 18 issues a year? It seems like 1.5 books is less than Hickman can usually do. I guess he might be building a buffer to a bigger X-men event and hopefully getting his Image books in line.

In the UK the BBC is a slightly different case though as you have to pay for a TV license. There's no "well i don't watch BBC" out - you have to say you don't watch live TV ever. I don't know how American networks operate but the BBC/Britbox situation would be akin to everyone in the USA having to pay for HBO and then being told they need to pay extra on top of that in order to see all the new HBO shows. Britbox makes more sense as an international entity but in the UK it seems incredibly unfair as people can't protest with their wallet beyond not buying britbox but still having to pay the TV license.

Britbox pisses me off as i foresee BBC taking content off iplayer in order to up subscription. Well, they can f**k right off if they think I'm paying a tv license and then paying again to watch content I've already paid for. The only good thing that can come of britbox (in the UK) is the tv licence becoming optional as I can't see how the bbc can get away with it otherwise.

Yeah i may re-evaluate my intentions if it's going to cost a fortune. Maybe trade wait for some of them

House of X #5 was excellent. A really cool way of playing with resurrection in mutants and comics. Those 5 (and Xavier/cerebro) are bound to be a target from all the pro-humanity groups now and possibly be the event that concludes the series - otherwise immortal X-men seems a tricky thing to keep going forward. From the notes I'm guessing there's going to be one character who isn't the "soul" of the body that's being inhabited. I also thought the characterisation of Apcalypse worked in that his conversion to the cause makes sense. Still, it looks like Sinister will screw it all up. At this rate I'm willing to give all of the Dawn of X books a shot. Initially I was only going to read the ones Hickman was writing but the world he's set up is interesting enough that I'm curious to see how all of the books play in his sandpit. It's been 20 years since I've read the majority of X-books. Hickman and his editor should be getting a bonus and they should be trying to keep Hickman on the X-men for as long as he's interested. I also read "how to get your son in comics" Spider-man. It's "ok" - the fact it's out of continuity makes it easier to get into to and also means I don't need to invest in the Spdier-franchise to continue.

You've just reminded me that a friend might have those x-files comics too. He lives in the area so might be interested if he still has them. That's a cool signature to aim for that you mention - hopefully you will get the chance. I imagine creators would be more than happy to sign for those reasons.

Framed signed editions look great. I've got a frank quietly all star superman and a spidey sketch that i need to get framed. Next month there's a comic festival where I'm hoping to get some books signed by charlie Adlard and sean Philips.

In the 90s they were only monthly so that's about 8 years worth. I've just moved and realised how many i have. Keep meaning to have a ruthless sort out, selling ones of worth and ditching/donating ones that aren't. The nostalgia is strong though.

POX was a little bit "fill in the blanks" and I guess the enjoyment of the issue depends on your preference of Mr Sinister. I'm not a huge fan of multi-sinister and super camp Sinister but that's probably because the animated series and John Paul Leon mini-series defined the character for me. The Krakoa stuff was interesting and the Phalanx material is intriguing/epic. The artwork is good throughout too. Speaking of good artwork, Tradd Moore's work on Silver Surfer Black is mindblowing. Very Kirbyesque and some excellent panel layouts. The colorist also deserves a lot of credit. The story/narration is so-so but the plot is largely allowing Tradd to do a marvel cosmic greatest hits so can be forgiven. Sounds a nightmare and a very close call. Might be worth drying all the plastic and then looking for replacements. I've never used custom plastic long boxes. Maybe standard plastic boxes that are much cheaper could suffice? That or wrap cardboard long boxes in a plastic bag?

I finished the final volume of Walking Dead. By the time I got to Rick's death I was actually pleased it was ending. The final arc was very poor in my opinion and it felt a lot like Kirkman simply threw in a pre-planned ending on a whim. There was no real resolution to the commonwealth story and I'm not sure Rick's death would have helped. Instead they just jump ahead X amount of years and we have to accept that "things just worked out". That said, I did enjoy the epilogue as it did provide a somewhat optimistic ending although it was a bit heavy handed in kissing Rick's ass (although I guess Kirkman was trying to do a bit of myth making). Kirkman, Adlard and Image deserve a lot of credit for sticking with the title though. I'm pretty sure Marvel or DC would have cancelled the series before it hit issue 12 and it makes for a David vs Goliath story how the series went from surviving on trade sales and positive word-of-mouth to becoming the multimedia sensation it now is (or was?). It definitely helped transform Image into a writer focused instead of artist focused publisher and gave rise to many an excellent comic in its wake. Will take a little bit of getting used to not collecting a trade every 6 months which I've been doing since the first one was released 16 years ago. It's pretty much followed me through my adult life.

It does seem a bit odd. Hickman could have easily had some kind of power dampener or something. I read the legion dc book. It does make me wonder whether Hickman morphed his legion of superheroes plan into house of x. Or if he pitched to marvel the X-Men idea a few years bay, then altered it for DC, then brought it back to marvel. It does appear that the legion story involves a character who is immortal and can remember all the rebooted continuities. And the legion of superheroes in the 31st century are sort of how powers of X are going.

turns out I had just read Powers of X #3 and forgotten about House #3. Caught up now. #4 was pretty epic and hats off to Hickman and the artist for making me care about character deaths even when I know they can't be permanent. It does raise the question of whether new dawn is actually going to be the potential 11th life of Moira though as unless Krakoa can respawn mutants there's quite a few essential characters now missing. I'm also wondering regarding the genocides why Moira didn't try and prevent them? I can only assume they were "surprises" in this incarnation only, or Scarlett Witch is essential to their plans (but that doesn't really justify genosha being exterminated).

Kindle unlimited (uk) is worth checking for folk looking for some oldish trades digitally. I'm catching up with wildstorm and some batbooks that way.

I'd definitely read his new/avengers leading up as they are a bit like x-men in the sense they are very interlinked but with a different focus/storytelling approach. Let me know how you find secret wars in trade as that's where i got lost. He had some great "apocalyptic" quotes. I love the one about him being the waves upon the eternal shores. My current illness/medication must be affecting my memory as i was convinced I'd read hox 3 but don't recall any of it. Think i maybe forgot when i had two issues to read.

Yeah it's impressive how he can weave all these threads into something resembling sense which is exactly what the X-Men comics needs. Cartoon version was the best as he was like a force of nature there. Besides age of apocalypse he's always seemed a bit crap in the comics. I'm still a bit thrown by a character whose usuay portrayed as evil incarnate being somewhat heroic but i guess he's the kind of character who thrives in such selective stress. I'm definitely intrigued as to how he'll be handled on a team in one of the x-books coming out in November. So it looks like i was partially correct in thinking the future elements are from a different life. I was just incorrect with thinking it was life 6 when it was actually life 9. I guess there's a chance that 1000 years ahead may also be a different timeline. The fun thing with the series might be trying to read it in a chronological order from Moira's POV once we know which scenes belong to which lives. Fables maybe? It's got talking animals, deaths and an epic feel to it and is complete. Other books by Saga author are also worth a look eg Y the last man and pride of Baghdad. If it's there the vision series by Tom King. Immortal Hulk is good. Not sure on recent runs. Depends if you are bothered about continuity being current or not? Anything by Jonathan Hickman at marvel is worth a go (although i found it hard to navigate secret wars once it reached that stage). There are quite a lot of strong daredevil runs. From the classic miller to Bendis and maleevs run. Mark waid had a good run a few years ago too. Hawkeye by matt fraction is worth a read too

There seems to have been less outrage online than sense8 but might still be worth requesting season 3 in the suggestions section (if they still have that). What bugs me most about the cancellations is that we don't really know why they are cancelled. Obviously it's "not enough people watch" but i think they also factor "when a show is watched", "how long do people take to watch", "is there an uptick in subscriptions when launched" etc. And without knowing the rules and their respective weighting it makes it really hard to play an active role in supporting shows. I'm not going to binge watch everything that is released because it's impossible but I'd maybe make the effort for a second season of a niche show i enjoy. Obviously it's not just ratings but contractual shit too as i doubt daredevil was low ratings.

It will be interesting to see whether the prices stay high when Disney launches at a more competitive rate. I could see Netflix trying annual discounted membership if they find people are dipping in and out according to releases. Seems crazy you can't get prime originals on prime! I'm hoping WOT, expanse and LOTR don't wind up on some sly SFF prime channel we have to separately pay for.