Ahhh, the 90s. A time of screaming mouths, big hair left over from the 80s, more feral mutants than you could shake a stick at, and of course, big guns and bigger shoulder pads.

Skottie Young brought up the 90s over the weekend on his Twitter account, focusing on how people look down at the era and disparage everything about it. I couldn’t help but not only agree, but also look back on the era of comics I grew up with.

I love Cable, I love X-Cutioner’s Song, which was going on when I got into comics, I flipped out when the X-books were “canceled” bringing about the Age of Apocalypse. There were Spider-men, who seemed to double more than Multiple Man. An AIDS analogue struck mutants across the globe. Batman was broken, Superman died, and of course, Hal Jordan went insane with evil power.

Man, I loved 90s comics, especially early 90s. That’s when I first really got into the books that have now become a major part of my life. For me, it started with a crossover issue featuring both Spider-man and the X-Men, which my mom bought at a grocery store, knowing I loved the brand new X-Men: The Animated Series. I was amazed by the range of stories that could be told in these little magazines. Plus, it was easier to enjoy over and over again.

I didn’t become a real “collector.” I kept my comics, but I wasn’t obsessed with bags and boards or any of that. I wanted them easy to access and easy to read. My ultimate favorite storyline was definitely Age of Apocalypse. I was already a fan of the idea of alternate worlds in all forms of media, and here was one with my favorite characters of the time. The re-inventions of these characters were so cool, from new costumes to new alliances, and even some that were almost completely different, like Nate Grey, Cable’s double from this reality. I read the story in its entirety about 6 times as a kid. I’ve since gone back and re-read it at least 4 or 5 more. A lot of it was over-the-top, and even downright silly, but even now (I last read the story last year) it still strikes me as one of the most fun experiences I’ve had reading comics.

Are these the best-written or best-drawn stories ever? No, and some of them are downright goofy. But there’s no need to look back on them with anything less than fond remembrance. It was a time of decadence in ways different than the decadence of today, but not necessarily in worse or better ways. There’s no need to say “90s superhero comics suck,” even if they weren’t exploring the same range of emotion or realism as some books today do. But hey, I’m just a non-jaded comics fan.

It’s time to be super self-referential here; my instant reaction after reading Ex Machina #42 has to be re-said here:

The problem with Ex Machina from @WildStorm is when it’s on my pile, it ruins every other book in its wake of awesomeness. So. Damn. Good.about 8 hours ago from TwitterFon

TheGeek616

Lucas Siegel

I think that’s the best 140 character sum up of the experience of reading this book I could come up with. The true measure of greatness that Vaughan, Harris, Clark, and Mettler have achieved is that this story is perfect as a comic book. It could be told through another medium, but it wouldn’t be told as well.

The art in #42 has to be mentioned first. I’ve always been a fan of Harris’s art, but the way he has grown in his storytelling over the course of 42 issues has been incredible. In this issue, there are 8 pages of conversation with no real action. The story, thanks to both the great flow of the actual words and primarily the story telling in the art. The first half takes place in a dark underground room, and most of the conversation features the two characters’ hands and their shadows. It’s such a brilliant device and it made the whole thing that much more exciting. There is some action in this story, however, and while it is a little more static that some artists’ work, that is actually the preferred style here. The snapshot style of his art serves the building tension beautifully. The last three pages were especially gloriously creepy, and while the reveal at the end was expected, it was still exciting to see. Clark and Mettler know exactly how to bring out the best in Harris, and these three should work together for the rest of time.

Brian K. Vaughan continues to top my favorite writer on a regular basis: himself. While Y: The Last Man has been my favorite comic for quite some time, the final year of Ex Machina may change my mind. This issue is remarkable in that it tells a solid story on its own, it fits into the current story arc nicely, revealing just enough about the past and present to keep it going, and fits in the overall 42 issue so far story, building on what has come before and setting up the future. This is comic book writing at its absolute finest. It proves that characterization is just as important as high action, and the balance between the two that should be reached in any story. Vaughan definitely rewards longtime readers, showing that he’s had an overall story in mind for Mitchell Hundred since the very beginning.

I can’t wait for more Ex Machina, and oddly, thought it is one of my favorite reads, I can’t wait for it to end. All that means is I’ll get to enjoy it all over again, and more easily share the whole story with others.

So if you’re not reading this, I’d like to know why. The book has something for political fans, superhero fans, fans of deep characterization, fans of conversation, fans of writing taking the forefront, fans of art driving the story. This. Is. Comics.

Last year, WildStorm did something bold: the heroes full-on lost, the world was destroyed, the population decimated, and every book set in that universe had to drastically change. The pro-active teams and heroes of this slightly more “extreme” world suddenly had to fall back and play the protection game. Some of them were killed, and worse, some were simply taken out of commission (How can you be a King of Cities if there are no Cities left?).

There were a couple of stumbles and missteps with the relaunches of the core books, but now that things are running smoothly, the folks at WildStorm have created a story that runs seamlessly between Gen 13, Stormwatch: PHD, Authority, and Wildcats.

That’s not to say the story is constantly moving back and forth between every issue of every book. The fine line between a cohesive universe and annoyingly disjointed stories has been walked nearly perfectly here. You can read any one of the four books and have a full story. You’ll be lucky, as well, because DnA, Chris Gage, Edgington, Beatty, and Utley are telling some very cool post-apocalyptic stories individually. The way they weave together is sometimes subtle, like a single location or character being mentioned in two or more books, and sometimes elaborate, with entire scenes replaying across more than one book. This is done sparingly, so it doesn’t induce any rip-off feelings, just a sense of cool.

The world hasn’t magically snapped back into place, the internal conflicts amongst each team are much more dire (if they can’t trust/rely on each other, they’re screwed), and it’s making for a truly new world, new dynamics, and new stories.

The other nice way they’re tying the stories together is through four part backups that run in each of the four books. Now for this, yes, you need to get all four for the complete story, but its not essential stuff. It does, however, further grow the universe and the other characters that live in it, and set up stories for later. A nice bonus to include, and while they’re at varying levels of excitement, they still make the whole post-apocalyptic world feel much larger and more devastating.

In an industry where continuity between characters (or even between a single character and himself) can get quite confusing, what WildStorm has done here isn’t just a successful experiment or a breath of fresh air, it’s a truly cool project that excites this Non-Jaded Comic Fan. Stories that stand-alone, issues that provide large looks at the characters involved while also adding to a larger tapestry, and the strongest inter-book continuity out there makes for some great reading.

With the flurry of NYCC announcements about to rain down upon us all, I thought we might take a look back at the tenures of current industry leaders.  For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll begin with Marvel EIC Joe Quesada.  What, in your estimation, is the BEST move made by Quesada since he’s been in the big chair?

For my money, I would say the aggressive proliferation of Marvel’s trade paperback program.  Before Quesada got in there, the release and distribution of Marvel trades was spotty at best.  Since he arrived, there has been a huge full-court press in regard to trades, hardcover, and their frequency and speed of release.  This has made Marvel a significant bookstore presence beyond the direct market.

What say you?  For this one, let’s focus on BEST moves.  We can debate not-so-great moves among the various leaders after we run through the first cycle.

This column is intended to celebrate comics of all shapes and sizes. I just plain love comics of nearly every type, genre; writers and artists that others hate, I often find the good in. Last time, I intended to talk about the Summers family from the X-Men, but wound up focusing just on Cable. This time, I’d like to talk about the best superhero comics of the year. There are a lot of great stories being told in the land of tights and flights, and they sometimes get…overlooked. So, for your perusal, here are the ten best (plus some honorable mentions, sorry Sarah!) superhero books of the year, as determined by myself and Troy Brownfield, your crack panel of experts.
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Now, I know I said I’m going to primarily be the video games guy, and whenever there’s genre, specifically comic-related video games, I’ll be the one posting about them, I assure you. However, I came to this site originally as a comic journalist/critic, and they are still a major love of mine. To that end, I’m going to do a

light side and dark side column here at Blog@. My first “dark side” edition, My Opinion is Right, has already seen an issue, and now it’s time to be positive with Non-Jaded Comics Fan. Yes, this column will absolutely seem familiar to fans of Blog@, as my friends there used to run a column called I <3 Comics. This is absolutely a hat tip to that column, one of my favorites (Thanks, JK!).

Anyway, the topic for today will be the other major family of Marvel Comics (with a nod to the Richards clan), the Summers Family. A lot of people have a problem with the Summers Family, whether its over exposure, near-constant death and resurrection, or the clones and alternate timelines. These things are, funny enough, some of the reasons I love these crazy characters.

I initially came to comics via the 90s X-Men Animated Series. One day I was sick, and my mom bought me some X-Men comics from the local grocery store, and I was hooked. This was in the midst of X-Cutioner’s Song, one of the first 90s X-overs, and brought me headfirst into the lives of these characters, all centered

around Cable. Since that time, Cable has been a favorite character of mine, now having collected every (!) appearance of his. Through Cable, I became quickly intrigued by this family of his, including his father, Scott, his uncle, Alex, and his…kinda-mother Jean? Wait, what?

Thanks to my natural love for history, over the years I decided to get into the full story of the Summers clan. Cyclops and Jean Grey, being founding members of the X-Men, are the clear center of the family, but they’ve had many branch-offs. Cable remains my favorite, history wise, because of how utterly ridiculous his story really is. Here’s the very abridged version for those uninitiated:

Jean Grey is cloned by Mr. Sinister, who had guided the Summers and Grey family trees to result in the ultimate mutant. Madelyne Pryor and Scott Summers had a kid, named Nathan Christopher Charles Summers; Nathan after Scott’s orphanage administrator (ironically, Mr. Sinister in disguise), Christopher after Scott and Alex’s father, Charles after Xavier. He notably manifested his abilities as a mere infant, able to use telekinesis instinctively to protect himself.

Lots of drama (resurrection, separation, deals with various devils, etc) eventually leads to baby Nathan being infected with a techno-organic virus (see: Phalanx, Technarcy, Warlock for more) and needing a cure that can only be found in the far future. Mother Askani, Nathan’s genetic sister from an alternate timeline who was flung into the far future of this one as an old lady and the guide of the remainder of humanity, takes him into her care a couple millenia from now via one of her followers. Here’s where it gets complicated.

Rachel had Nathan cloned in order to preserve his destiny of taking down Apocalypse, the despot of the far future. The clone would grow to be Stryfe, raised by Apocalypse himself. That’s a story for another day.

Scott and Jean, now finally married, are taken into the far future (well, their minds into gentically accurate grown bodies, all arranged by Mother “yup, I’m Rachel your alternate daughter” Askani), where they spend more than a decade raising Nathan as their own. When they come back to the past, they’re brought back to nearly the exact moment they left, but with the memories and connection to Nathan intact.

That’s most of the fun stuff. Nathan grew into the man called Cable, led the resistance in the future, came back in time, led a couple teams, lost his powers, gained his powers, lost his powers, gained his powers, greatly reduced his powers, and is now back in the future, caring for the unnamed red-haired female mutant savior baby. For awhile, he had a genetic twin from an alternate timeline named Nate Grey (X-Man) that ran around (and was enamored for awhile with Madelyne Pryor, his genetic mother twice removed, gross), through whom he found out that the TO virus actually saved him; without it, Nathan’s ridiculously high power level would have eaten him alive.

Well, this started as a love letter to the Summers, but became one to Cable specifically. That’s ok, though, just means there’s more fodder for future columns. This ridiculous soldier from the future/past with ties to many characters in the X-Universe (and outside it, like Captain America), is a testament to the fun outlandishness that comics can provide. He couldn’t have been conceived of or lasted as long in any other medium. I could hate the complications, but instead I love them, cause I’m a non-jaded comics fan.

The Summers Family, and Cable in particular, do you love ‘em or hate ‘em? How come? Sound off!

Thanks to uncannyxmen.net for the easy-to-find images!

Next time: Continuity