This week marks the return of Rodrigo on the Major Spoilers Podcast, and he’s requested that The Major Spoilers Crew take a look at X-Men: Supernovas.
As old threats are still having their effects, new, more deadly threats emerge from the unlikeliest of places. Threats that spell doom for the X-Men. Plus: What could possibly strike terror into the heart of…Sabretooth?! And who are the Children of the Vault? Mike Carey (Ultimate Fantastic Four) and Chris Bachalo (Uncanny X-Men) take over X-Men, or at least what’s left of them! Collects X-Men #188-199, Annual.
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4 Comments
Another dark mirror storyline for the X-men, but with a twist! Instead of fighting enemy mutant team x (as in whatever their name is), they are fighting humans which have been rapidly evolved, have access to superior tech and can manipulate their DNA into giving themselves powers (doesn’t that make them mutants?). They have DNA different from humans and mutants, but seen how they evolved from normal humans wouldn’t that make them mutants again? Anyway…
The story is interesting in that the children of the vault are all latinos, and while the fact they are bad guys (or rather amoral kids with a relatively well deserved superiority complexe) hurts this fact I don’t know of another latino faction in Marvel or DCU with this much power.
This has one of the creepiest relationship in X-Men history, to me at least, Mystique and Iceman.
Mystique is at least 110 years old, Iceman is the same age as her adoptive daughter Rogue (which I’m sure he dated at some point, everyone has dated Rogue at one point or another) and is younger then Nightcrawler who is Mystique’s real son. Add the fact she has been trying to kill him and the other X-Men since he was a teenager and creepy factor goes to 11… but she can shapeshift so it’ll all good for Iceman ;-)
I don’t know if it’s me but I think Mystique is drawn younger looking then usual in this series, probably for the Mystique/Iceman relationship.
I dropped the X-men at the beginning of Necrosha, so I don’t know if it was ever picked up but the last time I checked no continuation to this story exist, which is a shame and frankly odd seen how much power this group has.
For people looking to pick up this run without trying to find the trades or original issues on back-order, you can get it via the comixology site online or the marvel comics app on the iphone / ipod / ipad. The first issue of the series was offered free a little bit ago (may still be!) if people want a taste of it.
I concur with Ricco about the last part, the oddity of having a group with such power explode onto the scene and then vanish… but then again, back in the day, the X-men faced similar awesomely powerful one-shots all the time. I think what makes this one surprising is the current ‘mini-series’ story-arc numbering branding that every story seems to receive – even though on one hand, comic writers have screwed continuity in the post-modern age, on the other hand, the meta-arc storytelling around today which links every event directly to the last and next seems to make us blink whenever a story doesn’t have uber-lasting consequences. As I recall, the only lasting consequence of this story was stealing their ship (which Cable and Rogue destroyed fighting some weird super-ghost-thing, right?) and rehashing two of the three X-villans who can be good guys once every ten years.
This was one of the first X-Men arcs I really followed from beginning to end. I did not buy the original issues so no need to take a drink.
From what I remember, I heard of this story arc from Iceman’s wikipedia page ; him being one of my favorite X-Men, I was instantly interested when the page mentioned this arc as a power surge for him, as he develops the power to reform from water even after being blown up.
And that is pretty much the gist of Supernovas for me : an action-packed funfest full of weird superpowers and characters. Chris Bachalo’s art seems to go in that direction, being dynamic and anime-like, with weird shapes and cool poses. Everything about the Children of the Vault has that strange science-fictiony charm, and the whole run has that same quality of over-the-top, cheesy action, with just enough unusual concepts and art to make it intriguing. A real roller-coaster ride. So I liked it^^.
Thanks for reviewing it guys, that was a cool surprise for me. I did not expect this, although Rodrigo did mention Bachalo a few times on the podcast.