Marvel tells us that there is a new generation of heroes arriving in stores this month with Uncanny X-Men #526.
UNCANNY X-MEN #526 (MAY100634)
“THE FIVE LIGHTS” PART 1
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by WHILCE PORTACIO
Cover by TERRY DODSON
Backup Story by ALLAN HEINBERG & OLIVIER COIPEL
The $3.99 iss arrives July 28, 2010.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
27 Comments
Is Apocalypse a chick now? ;p
I kinda like the artwork.
Is that the same face colored two different ways?
They sure do love PhotoShop!
no there are definitely two different faces
The more I look at it, I see you are right. The chin is quite different.
For some reason the lips and nose looked a lot alike to me. But I’m terrible at recognizing people…especially that strange face that looks back at me every time I look into the mirror. I always wondered who that guy was and why he was wearing glasses just like mine.
It’s drawn by Greg Land so we’ve seen the same look 1000 times before.
Yet another major villain rewritten as a woman in an attempt to boost female readership.
But it also tells us there’s a new generation of heroes. What about all the heroes already standing around? We have more than enough characters for one of the lesser-used to get some attention.
We already have a new generation of mutant heroes. They are the New Mutants.
We already have a new generation of mutant heroes. They are the New Mutants.
The New Mutants were created 26 years ago our time. I don’t know that this would count as “new.”
Sort of my point. They are treated like they have barely graduated. They’ve moved to some teaching roles and then along came Pixie and Rockslide and all of them.
But the focus is always on Scott, Wolverine, Emma, and that group. So instead of giving us more heroes why don’t they take the characters from the New Mutants up to the current newest members and develop them some more?
I 100% agree. They have plenty of characters waiting to be developed. In fact, one good thing from the “No More Mutants” deal was that it narrowed the pool, removed some clutter and focused things. It’s a great opportunity to flesh out some lesser know characters, but it looks like they might be ramping back the character list.
But the focus is always on Scott, Wolverine, Emma, and that group. So instead of giving us more heroes why don’t they take the characters from the New Mutants up to the current newest members and develop them some more?
Because whatever the justification, they’re not NEW. They’re 25 year old characters who have had some seriously fallow periods, most of whom have been back and forth in terms of power, backstory, motivation and even characterization, and from a publisher’s perspective, they’ve proven that that don’t have what it takes to be first-tier characters. Whether or not there’s any merit to that argument (and I’d say that there isn’t) The New Mutants are percieved as Old Hat.
Remember when Cannonball graduated to the big leagues in X-Factor? Remember when he did it again in X-Men? And again and again and again? I can see why they’d be going for something new and different, even as I like the characters.
Is that Marrow and Cecelia Reyes?
Now that you mention it, Apocalypse girl does look a little like Marrow if done pretty. Though I don’t remember her having lines on her face.
kinda looks like blink too
Blink was my first thought as well.
No one notices the old GENERATION X font?
Sure I do… (now that you mention it). :-/
Although I understand that the New Mutants aren’t “new”, I don’t agree that they don’t have what it takes to be more central. There haven’t been that many story lines focusing on, say, Sunspot or Magma. It’s more that the stories they do have are quietly contained in their own title while the main X-Men are off pursuing their own major adventure.
I don’t know that Angel has done anything very interesting lately. We just don’t blink when he’s included because he’s been in the main team so long.
Hisako is getting panel time in the big stories. Again, I ask, what has she done to deserve it?
She has virtually no back story or anything that even makes her interesting, especially when compared to a long-standing character like Cannonball or Dani Moonstar. Instead, she is getting the focus because of her association with the main team.
Some writer decided that and the editors are going with it. It’s not a reflection of the readers enjoying that character.
If Matt Fraction or some good writer had Hisako disappear and brought in Sam Guthrie, Dani Moonstar, and Illyana Rasputin as new main team members I believe they would be popular. It’s not the characters at fault, only those who decide whether they matter, imo.
We don’t need new characters. That’s just some of the creative types wanting to be creative. Too many cook, writers, and characters spoil the comic broth.
We don’t need new characters. That’s just some of the creative types wanting to be creative. Too many cook, writers, and characters spoil the comic broth.
I don’t agree at all. New characters are the life’s blood of comics, and new characters are a way to get people interested in our little niche hobby. Remember that Kitty Pryde was a late edition to the classic X-Men team? There’s also the fact that the New Mutants HAVE a comic right now, which kind of lessens your argument as well.
We all have our own pet characters, but it’s also necessary to take a reality check about comic publishers and what they actually DO. New characters, new costume stunts, new situations and new teams drive interest in moribund universes and add new blood to old titles… As a twenty-year-fan of the characters now known as Agents of Atlas, I can tell you it all comes around again eventually, but I don’t see the upside in hating a debuting character because your favorite isn’t getting as much spotlight as you want. That way goes madness, and it’s exactly how we’ve gotten the lukewarm titles featuring Barry Allen, Hal Jordan and other Silver Age characters.
Just as an aside, it’s also the main reason Ryan Choi is dead.
But Kitty was given focus when she joined the team. The team was also much smaller then and still only comprised of the original members and the 1974 additions.
I am not saying that the spotlight shouldn’t shift onto something and someone new. In fact, that is exactly what I am saying.
I am saying that there are already characters who are little more than random background filler. If a writer is going to create a character, why not focus on them instead of leaving them behind the next time there’s a chance to create someone new?
It isn’t just that I think Illyana deserves to be in the main team and not the weaker New Mutants comics. It seems to defeat the editorial purpose of the No More Mutants story line to follow the course they are on.
Repeating the same mistake and expecting a better result is the definition of insanity as well.
Repeating the same mistake and expecting a better result is the definition of insanity as well.
Yep. But from a publisher mindset, giving another chance to a character who has been around for nearly 3 decades and never caught on could be considered “the same mistake.”
“It seems to defeat the editorial purpose of the No More Mutants story line to follow the course they are on.”
There was an editorial purpose to the No More Mutants storyline? My recollection was that it was an editorial whim on the part of Joe Quesada based solely on his personal (and bizarre, IMO) belief that while superpowers should be relatively common, mutants should be rare in the extreme.
Actually, “No More Mutants” was just an excuse to go back to when mutant were a minoraty.
I gues we can call her (and this is really bad folks, brace yourselves) Apocat*ts.
Wasn’t there a character Chamber, who upon loosing his powers on M-Day gained new sonic powers through technological means and was on the New Warriors and didn’t he look like this? His given name was Jonothon Starsmore, or Decibel as he’s now known, so maybe she’s related to him, he was supposedly a decendant of Apocalypse. Maybe it’s his ex-girlfriend Gayle Edgerton. She was crippled by him when his original powers manifested and she went to Emplate who gave her the ability to feed on mutant energy just like he does, granted she lost those powers later, but she and Jono had had relations so maybe it’s like an Apocalypsian STD; you turn blue skinned with lines on your face.
I’ve seen all FIVE of these promotional coverart for A New Generation of Hope and honestly when it comes to new mutants it seems marvel has run out of ideas and have become less creative and what the need for new Young Mutants when u still have members of the New & Young X-men lying aroung with no stories being told of the aftermath of the recent Colossal events that have rocked the x-men storylines. And to add on what about the adult X-men Who have no back story or isnt given any recognition.
Like I said I’ve seen all five of these promotionla images and each seem to display some cliche’ power thats already been used. So 1styou have the young speedster, 2nd the african-american girl displaying a blue eye surrounded by frost and a yellowish-red eye (most obviously heat seeing how the left side of her clothes of what we can see has a fire pattern), 3rd then you have ur classic feral mutant who looks old and angry…like we dont already have enough of those *hintWolverinehint*. 4th Some technological Abomination and 5th some chick woh seems like a cross between Apocalypse and Blink which you may think its creative…..until you realize Blink herself has been ressurected.
Yeah Im 17 and If a can realize the lost of creativeness with these “new” mutants who hasn’t.