The Time has Arrived: Revolutionary War starts This Week!

Well, 'Hello' everyone. I hope you had a suitably enjoyable Christmas and New Year break. I have been giving myself a little time away from the internet during December. Recharging for all that 2014 has to offer.

And boy, DOES it offer!

This week brings us the start of the Marvel UK mini event 'Revolutionary War'. Marvel UK stalwarts Andy Lanning and Alan Cowsill are bringing back the largely forgotten characters of the Marvel UK 90s imprint, for a multipart story played out over three months.

This all begins this coming Wednesday (8th January, 2014), with Revolutionary War: Alpha, by Lanning and Cowsill, with art by Richard Elson.

 

 

 

The solicit for the issue itself reads as follows:

 

 

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: ALPHA #1

ANDY LANNING AND ALAN COWSILL (W) • RICH ELSON (A)

Cover by MARK BROOKS
Variant Cover by BARRY KITSON
Part 1 of “Revolutionary War”
• Marvel UK’s greatest heroes come together for the first time in 20 years to face a threat that could destroy the world.
• Featuring Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, Death’s Head II, Motormouth and Killpower, the Warheads and a host of British heroes.
32 PGS./ ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99

 

 

I cannot overemphasize both how excited I am about this and just how important this issue is to all fans of Marvel UK. Marvel probably doesn't have huge expectations for this series, so please join in me in surprising them by exceeding those expectations in a definite way.

 

Ask your comic store to put a copy aside for you, do not miss this issue. That's the cover you are looking for, or this Barry Kitson variant:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for those who are curious a 4 Page Preview is now up over at Comic Book Resources.

 

Want more? Well, now we have a much clearer picture of what is coming via Marvel's own solicitations and via Alan Cowsill himself over on the Make Mine Marvel UK Facebook page.

 

So, Revolutionary War: Alpha is effectively Chapter 1 of this story. Here is how the rest of Revolutionary War will break down.

 

 

Wednesday January 15th 2014:

 

 

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: DARK ANGEL #1

KIERON GILLEN (W) • DIETRICH SMITH (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
Variant Cover by SALVADOR LARROCA
Part 2 of “Revolutionary War”
• When Shevaun Haldane experiences a troubling vision in Darkmoor Castle, she realizes danger may be coming for the heroes of Marvel UK.
• With time running out, Shevaun has no choice but to suit up as Dark Angel once again.
• An adventure that will take fans through the past, present, and future of Marvel UK!
32 PGS./ ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99

 

 

 

Wednesday 29th January 2014:

 



REVOLUTIONARY WAR: KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON #1

ROB WILLIAMS (W) • SIMON COLEBY (A)

Cover by MARK BROOKS
Variant Cover by TBD
Part 3 of “Revolutionary War”
• A corporate deep-mining setup unearths an old MYS-TECH base, where magical cloning experiments have been taking place.
• What mysteries or monsters are waiting in Britain’s subterranean bones?
• Featuring fan-favorite Marvel UK characters Dai Thomas, Pete Wisdom, and Union Jack!
32 PGS./ ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99

 

 

 

Wednesday 12th February 2014:

 

 

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: DEATH'S HEAD II #1

ANDY LANNING & ALAN COWSILL (W) • NICK ROCHE (A)

Cover by MARK BROOKS
Variant Cover by LIAM SHARP
Part 4 of "Revolutionary War"
• The long-awaited return of DEATH'S HEAD -- one of the biggest hits of the original Marvel UK!
• Death's Head! Death's Head II! On an adventure together for the first time EVER!
• What threat could be grave enough to bring these two heroes together from across time? How about the villainous Mys-Tech organization resurfacing with an army?!
32 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ ...$3.99

 

 

 

Wednesday 19th February 2014:

 

 

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: SUPERSOLDIERS #1

ROB WILLIAMS (W) • BRENT ANDERSON (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
Variant Cover by DAVE GIBBONS
Part 5 of "Revolutionary War"
• Some of the most popular heroes of Marvel UK return for SUPERSOLDIERS – and where the Supersoldiers go, trouble isn't far behind!
• It's the Supersoldiers versus Mys-Tech in all-out war!
• When a vast army of Mys-Tech Psycho Wraiths come calling on a small Scottish town, it's up to the Supersoldiers to put them down for good!
32 PGS./ ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ ...$3.99

 

 

 

Wednesday 12th March 2014:

 

 

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: MOTORMOUTH #1

GLENN DAKIN (W) • RONAN CLIQUET (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
Variant Cover By DECLAN SHALVEY
• When Mys-Tech returns and threatens the safety of Great Britain, MI:13 need to try to convince MOTORMOUTH to come out of retirement.
• Harley Davis’ days of being a hero are over, though.  Now, her day job is being the mother of  her two children. Until an explosive Mys-Tech attack calls her out of retirement!
• Be there as Motormouth gets her mojo back!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

 

 

 

Wednesday 19th March 2014:

 

 

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: WARHEADS #1

ANDY LANNING & ALAN COWSILL (W)
GARY ERSKINE (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
VARIANT COVER BY GARY ERSKINE
• Colonel Liger, formerly of the evil organization Mys-Tech, has started working as an agent of MI:13, Mys-Tech’s rival agency.
• Not everything is as it appears, though – because Liger has just discovered that his old team, The Warheads, are still alive – and nothing’s going to stop him from finding them.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

 

 

 

And finally...

 

Wednesday 26th March 2014:

 

 

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: OMEGA #1

ANDY LANNING & ALAN COWSILL (W) • RICHARD ELSON (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
Variant Cover by JAMIE McKELVIE
THE FINAL ISSUE IN AN 8-PART EPIC
• Marvel UK’s triumphant return reaches its epic conclusion!
• Will the agents of MI:13 be able to stop whatever Mys-Tech has been planning?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

 

 

And there you have it. A list of issues, dates, variant covers and creators. And with this again may I reiterate what is fast becoming somewhat of a mantra for me, right now. Make sure you Order (or Pre-order) your copy.

 

I'm sure that most of you, much like myself, are eager to read these books. They're kind of a big deal to us, we want to read more Marvel UK character stories, and we know that the only way that is going to happen is if this series succeeds. The best way to ensure that is for you to go to your local comic book store, speak to the guy who orders them in, and ask them to pre-order you a copy of each book. You have the issue names. You have the dates they come out. They can do this for you.

Why? Well, it's no secret that the characters involved here are not as high profile as, say, the Spider-man, Avengers or Wolverines of this world. Those Mark Brooks covers are gobsmacking. Really standout covers. But the Marvel UK characters have been away for a while, and some store owners out there might not even be completely aware of Revolutionary War as a series or event.

So go and spread the word to them. :)

Pre-ordering the book, asking the owner to put an issue aside, guarantees that you'll get your copy, but it also lets the owner know that people are interested in the series. So hopefully they'll order enough copies in for others too.

If championing Marvel UK appearances over recent years (Such as Captain Britain & MI13, for example) has taught me anything it's that there's nothing more frustrating than wanting to support a series only to find that you cannot get hold of a copy - either because the store owner didn't order enough copies in, or didn't order it in at all. I've received a number of emails over the years from guys telling me just that. So let's make sure this does not happen this around.

Avoid disappointment, get your Revolutionary War order in today, and pick up Revolutionary War: Alpha this Wednesday. I have a really good feeling about this.

 

Speak soon.

 

Mark (Sword)

Panel Beatings: Union Jack, he thrives on the Sarcasm.

From: Knights of Pendragon (vol 1) #14 (August 1991)

Words: Dan Abnett & John Tomlinson
Art: Gary Erskine

Issue-by-Issue: The Knights of Pendragon, Volume One - A Prologue.

Welcome to this, the First part in a series of issue by issue summaries of Marvel UK titles. In this first article I shall be discussing some of the background to the series, and the aesthetic choices which were made for this series.

I've actually been wanting to do this for a while, but with commitments elsewhere online I never quite found the time. Knowing that I now had more of a window available to me I decided to Poll regular readers of this site, back in April, for the series which they might want to see as the starting point to this feature. With a 34% state of the vote, ahead by a fair margin, was Knights of Pendragon.

And if I had been choosing the title myself, well that's probably where I would have started too. The launch of Knights of Pendragon in July 1990 was very much a watershed moment for Marvel UK. Marvel UK had tried doing US format books before Knights of Pendragon. In 1988 we had the first Death's Head series and also Dragon's Claws. But both of these books were primarily self-contained in future timelines, separate from the rest of Marvel US's output. They weren't the easiest sell to the US market, and were also not taken up well by British newsagents, who complained about these tiny US sized books not fitting anywhere on their shelves.

Knights of Pendragon in some ways followed on spiritually from what the final issues of Death's Head had been doing; trying to prove that it was possible for the UK Office to produce a monthly title which could be set within the continuity of the mainstream Marvel Universe, telling stories with established characters as a part of that Universe, but without treading on anybody's toes as they did. Knights of Pendragon proved that was possible, and it gained a fair bit of acclaim in the process. What started off its life as a planned short run series of six issues actually made it far beyond that remit, to an unplanned eighteen.

That's not to say that it was plain sailing though... I do understand, that there were some close calls during its run. It has to be said that the US office did monitor the use of certain British characters, which they did after all consider to be theirs, very closely. There were certain scenes and character actions which made Marvel US a little nervous. The rather graphic cliffhanger at the end of #5 for example.

But we'll get to that later.

Back in 1990, I can remember there being a really strong vibe of something significant coming, attached to this title's launch. Remember that at the time Marvel UK's output was principally based around Licensed properties (Transformers, Action Force, Thundercats). So when adverts for this new title started turning up in those weekly books they really did stand out, as being very different.

This is the cover to issue one (Artwork by the brilliant Alan Davis) and in middle of 1990 this image seemed to be everywhere. From forming full-page adverts in Marvel UK books, to big posters in UK Comic Book stores. I actually still own one of those posters, myself.

The cover worked at grabbing attention on several levels. Firstly it's a piece of Alan Davis art, and at this point in time that alone was a big deal. And secondly, it grabbed the attention of readers of the late, cancelled, Captain Britain series, through the recognition of Cap and of Dai Thomas of Scotland Yard. But it also brought in recognition from readers of the newer Excalibur series. Alistair and Alysande Stuart had made their débuts in Excalibur, and they were recognisable supporting characters.

So, basically, a winning combination, taking several fronts into account.

The house style of the book itself also certainly marked out a statement of intent. Right from the choice of type font - not only used as the Header for the book's title, but carried on throughout the book.

This was somewhat of a departure from the two previous US format titles. Both Dragon's Claws and Death's Head's Title Logos had very much been hand drawn for the cover, and the choice of internal type font used was effectively the same as had been used throughout Marvel UK's licensed products at the time, in particular on Transformers. While that brought a certain familiarity, with it for long-standing readers of those licensed titles, it didn't really give the titles a great amount of individuality. In using a very deliberate type font, which echoed the concepts of Knights and Legend, to both Title the book and follow through into the overall house style, it did make a very individual statement. A style very much of its own.

The book itself wasn't the only part of the publicity machine for this one. As advertised in the back of the very first issue there was also a well publicised Signing Tour.

(Pictured above Writers Dan Abnett and John Tomlinson, 

Penciller Gary Erskine, Inker Andy Lanning, 

Colourist Helen Stone and Editor Steve White.)

As a guy buying into the whole experience of Knights of Pendragon it all seemed incredibly well-crafted and thought through. But perhaps one of the most impressive details of this series actually falls down to artist Gary Erskine. The art in Knights of Pendragon is really very strong. But amazingly this book was Gary's first paid work. I kid you not. Up until this point Gary Erskine had been working in a branch of Forbidden Planet, and putting together examples of his work in his own time.

Marvel UK just so happened to have been arranged a Sleeze Brothers signing with Andy Lanning, John Carnell, and (I believe) Dan Abnett, at the store one week, and Gary persuaded his manager to let him show them some of his artwork. And the rest is history...

But that was the way things were back then. It's hard to imagine now. In the modern Comics Industry trying get your Artist's Portfolio reviewed at a convention, or heaven forbid EVER trying to get somebody from the Big Two to look at script for prospective work as a writer, without having been already published in several other places or mediums is virtually impossible.

Back in the days of Marvel UK you could still apply to the offices in London, or show them your work at a convention, and if they liked it they'd actually run with it. I think that the biggest loss from Marvel UK's closure was that it really was an incredible training ground for talent, with a level of opportunities which no other publisher has really offered since.

But what of Knights of Pendragon itself?

What Knights of Pendragon achieved was actually very clever. Here we have a book which was very much set in the Marvel Universe, with familiar places, familiar characters and conventions, and which definitely dealt with special, otherworldly, 'super' powers.

But for the larger part it actually avoided using capes and costumes, and the other sillier elements of traditional superhero comics.

Obviously, it couldn't always. When Captain Britain appears he is very much in costume. And likewise Union Jack and Black Panther, later into the run. But through using established characters like Dai Thomas and the Stuart Twins (None of whom are 'costumed' per se) and through the use of new characters like Kate McClellen, Ben Gallagher and Adam Crown, characters who joined the story AS civilians it allowed the title to tell some quite complex 'super' stories, but without them descending into the standard superhero fare. It struck a rather unique balance in that regard, able to be familiar to the long term Marvel reader when necessary, but ultimately able to tell its own story and to be it's own animal.

The central story of Knights of Pendragon, whilst still grounded in an age old battle between Good and Evil, was also far less two-dimensional than the average superhero yarn. The story establishes a rather clever concept that, throughout history, at times of great threat to the Land, an age old force creates 'Champions'; exceptional men and women which it empowers to fight, on its behalf, for the common good. Be that Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, a costumed Hero in the trenches of World War One, or even a seventeen-year-old Car Wash attendant from East London. The Green Knight, avatar for this force sees the potential in individuals to do great things, that they themselves may not be aware of. It provides them with 'powers' to compliment their own natural instincts and abilities. And that was a deliberate distinction in this first incarnation. These weren't characters who were being given ridiculous, solve-all, God-like powers; as is the trapping of so many traditional Superhero tales. At their roots these were still just ordinary people, thrust into incredibly difficult situations, acting primarily on their own instincts. The power given to them was less of what defined them, and more of an assist in their ongoing calling as protectors of the Land.

I guess, in a certain mindset, you could think of the the whole Pendragon concept as being a little bit like some ancient, mystical, early warning system for the Planet, which detects a threat and applies a solution. But a natural one. Knights of Pendragon presents us with a tales where the bad guy is often Mankind, shepherded by the hand of an age old enemy. It was set in the present, but had very strong themes of returning to simpler times, to a more natural order, and with a strong sense of renewal. It's easy to see why so many people picked up on its more environmental themes. Because there certainly are a good many eco/environmental elements within some of these stories, and quite intentionally so.

Heck, the comic itself was even printed on SCANGLOSS paper, which the inside cover told us used 'half as many trees as normal paper and a minimum amount of chlorine bleach'. A gimmick some might have claimed, and certainly a very 'eco-friendly' concept for 1990. But, as a side note, if I'm honest it's not the gesture itself which impressed me about using that paper stock. It more the fact that coming back to these issues 20 years later, I'm actually very impressed with just how well the SCANGLOSS pages have stood the test of time. A few yellowed edges on the pages of my old copies, but the actual colours on page have remained pretty bold. And certainly far richer than the US market books in my collection, from this period. Call it a gimmick if you like, but maybe it wouldn't have harmed a few other titles to have followed their example?

So anyway, there you have it. Knights of Pendragon. Or as Dan Abnett described the book, on his own Blog, the "eco-superhero-Arthurian comic".

In the next article I shall be starting with issue #1 of the first Volume "Brands and Ashes" discussing the story in more detail.

Should you also wish to read along yourself, I am informed that the long delayed Panini collection of Knights of Pendragon, or at least the first volume thereof, will finally be released shortly. I have heard from others who have now received preview copies, so this time around it actually looks quite promising. Keep an eye out for it in Comic Book stores abd Booksellers here in the UK.

Until the next time.

Mark

Missed Marvel UK creators at Cons this year? This may help.

Two things that I have regretted this year, whilst moving house and working ridiculous hours, is that I haven't been able to get out to as many Cons as I'd initially planned. Especially this year, when I knew that in at least two instances there was going to be appearances made by certain Marvel UK creators whom I have not yet had a chance to meet. Firstly, I'd seen fliers stating that Captain Britain creator Chris Claremont was going to be at Bristol Comics Expo. Now even in this day and age, that was a pretty big deal. How often does he come to the UK, these days? I had to make that. It was in May. I could do that...

Yeah. I failed to make Bristol...

I'd also been hearing really good things about Sci-Fi London. I'd been hearing names like Gary Erskine (Artist on Knights of Pendragon and Warheads), Dez Skinn (Former Head Editor of Marvel UK, in the 70s), John Freeman (Former Group Editor of Marvel UK, editor on Doctor Who Weekly, and writer on the Real Ghostbusters comic), Simon Furman (Creator of Death's Head and UK Transformers legend),  and Dan Abnett (Death's Head II and Knights of Pendragon). There was word of a proper Marvel UK Panel! How could I miss that?

Yeah. That was in May, too. Didn't make that either...

Luckily for me (And if you missed them, for you also) there is some consolation here. Alex Fitch presents a weekly radio show about comics, on London's Resonance 104.4 FM, by the name of Panel Borders. Not being a London resident I can't pick it up live, but Alex does also put out his shows as Podcasts. And in recent times there have actually been several of those which will probably be of quite a bit of interest to regular readers.

For one, Alex managed to get an interview with Chris Claremont at Bristol. You can find that one HERE.
It's quite an interesting interview. A little guarded from Claremont, but it does touch on his British roots, Captain Britain, and also his continuing want to work with Alan Davis. Well worth a listen. Many of you might have read interviews with Claremont before, but hearing him actually speaking, certainly for me, adds a different dimension to some of his past interview comments. Take a listen.

Alex also chaired the Marvel UK panel at Sci-Fi London! And therefore the whole panel has been recorded, split into two Podcasts, available HERE and HERE. It's a really good panel, which discusses Marvel UK right across the three decades of its existence. One very interesting dimension discussed here though, and which I don't tend to cover as much on this Blog, is Marvel UK's licensed titles from the 1980s. I don't tend to cover those as much, because their characters are not so transferable into the present, and aren't strictly speaking the property of Marvel UK. But it cannot be denied that titles like Transformers, Thundercats and even The Real Ghostbusters, were huge sellers. Certainly larger sellers than the vast majority of titles in the modern American market, that's for sure. I cannot recommend listening to this panel enough.

Other Podcasts available from the Archive, which you might be interested in from a Marvel UK standpoint, include, a great spotlight on Captain Britain, from last year, which includes interviews with both Paul Cornell and Alan Davis, interviews with David Lloyd (Artist on V for Vendetta, ad Night Raven),  Mark Buckingham (Mortigan Goth: Immortalis, Marvelman and Fables) and another interview with Paul Cornell and David Hine which technicaly is rooted in their work for DC, but is also worth a listen.

So, that's three days and four Blogs. I'm getting there guys, but please bear with me... :)

And the Winner Is...

Well, the Poll ended last Knight. Er... night. With 34% of the vote our first Issue-by-Issue series for summary will be:



Knights of Pendragon.

That, by the way, is Garey Erskine's cover for the upcoming Panini trade collection of Knights of Pendragon. For more information on that, from the man himself, and a few process sketches of how the cover got there you might want to take a look over HERE.

I'm actually very happy that this title won. In terms of significance to Marvel UK as a whole Knights of Pendragon represented a huge step towards the imprint years. It proved to Marvel US, and to comic readers around the world, that there really was plenty of British talent working at Marvel UK who deserved to be seen on a larger stage.

It also happens to be a pretty bloody good book, so i look forward to covering it. I shall get cracking on my first summary, and will try to have this one out within the next week, now that the house move chaos has died down and I'm a bit more settled.

In other news, following on from last week's appearance in Deadpool Team-Up this week is yet another CAP WEDNESDAY - as the team make that much hyped appearance in Age of Heroes #1...

I know what the unlettered pages seemed to suggest. But let's not get too carried away. Will Brian become an Avenger?

Well, I honestly don't dare to get my hopes up at this point.

However, Comic Book Resources have a lettered preview for one of the other stories in this anthology book HERE, which bears the Variant 'Heroic Age' Cover for this issue (Art by Mike Perkins). And it's pretty clear that only one guy is appearing on that cover...




And the solicit does say:

Eisner-winner & fan-favorite KURT BUSIEK RETURNS TO MARVEL! THE HEROIC AGE IS HERE! The Heroes are restored to their rightful place in this new era, and the world is safer for them. They defeated Osborn & his Siege on Asgard, now they have one last foe to face: the Mayor of New York -- J. Jonah Jameson!

Also, MI13 come to the US, but one of them isn't leaving--they are defecting to the AVENGERS?!

Plus Dr. Voodoo's Sorcerer Supreme duties infringe on “date night” and how much trouble can Spider-Man get into in one day? The answer: A LOT!

Just sayin'...

In other Marvel UK related news, it has also been revealed in Marvel's August solicits that Marvel UK's First Lady, Lady Jacqueline Falsworth, will be getting a Spitfire one-shot.



And it's Paul Cornell writing it.

Here's the solicit:

SPITFIRE #1

Written by PAUL CORNELL
Penciled by ELENA CASAGRANDE
Cover by JENNY FRISON

The British Invasion hits New York! While her MI13 compatriots make nice with the Yankee super sorts, Lady Jacqueline Falsworth is on the hunt for an old acquaintance...with bloody consequences for the Big Apple. With bad boy Blade at her side, the immortal speedstress must conquer her past in order to save her future!
32 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T+ ...$3.99

So i guess this was what Paul Cornell meant when he said Spitfire and Blade were going to be busy elsewhere during Age of Heroes #1...?

Anyway, that's it for now. Hopefully the schedule should be getting back to normal very soon, so keep on checking back, or checking the Twitter feed.

Speak soon

Mark
(Sword)

Knights of Pendragon and X-Men Forever speculation.

You may remember a short while back (March to be precise) I mentioned that Panini Comics would be putting out a first trade volume of the Abnett/Tomlinson/Erskine new age-eco-Arthurian epic, Knights of Pendragon. This is a particular favourite series of mine, and one which I feel was long overdue a collection. It was, I believe, in part the quality output of books such as KoP which actually resulted in Marvel UK being given an imprint of its own.

I have now found the ISBN for the volume itself and it is now available to pre-order from Amazon, with the provisional release date of 8th of October 2009 ( ISBN-10: 1846534313 ). Of course, please remember that this date IS only provisional (Let us not forget the delays over Panini's Captain Britain Vol 3) but anybody who might wish to reserve their copy - and it would be well worth your while - now you can.

While we're still on the subject of Panini during the process of my reserving a copy of the aforementioned volume I also noticed that there is a pre-order page for a 4th Panini Captain Britain volume, subtitled "The Siege of Camelot" ( ISBN-10: 184653433X ). This volume appears to continue directly from vol 3, completing reprints of the Black Knight and Captain Britain stories from the UK Hulk Comicand onwards into the Dave Thorpe, Alan Moore and Alan Davis stories - debuting The Fury. It certainly appears that, and the rumours I have been hearing so far this year seem to support this, that regardless of Marvel's own Captain Britain Omnibus Panini intend to continue printing all of Cap's pre-Excalibur appearances, up until completion. Great respect to them, if this is the case.

Still on a Captain Britain related theme several regular readers have mailed me over the last few weeks with regards to the poster on the right here (Click to Enlarge). It was released by Marvel to coincide with the start of Chris Claremont and Tom Grummett's X-Men Forever.

For those unaware of the series, X-Men Forever is basically a fortnightly (That Bi-Weekly for our American readers) ongoing What If...? series, allowing Claremont to write an alternate history of the X-Men, and X-Men titles, as he would have written them had he not left the the X-Men books in 1991, after the release of (Adjectiveless) X-Men #3. At that point Claremont had been writing Uncanny X-Men, and steering the creative direction of X-Men spin-off titles foe 17 years (Utterly unthinkable in modern comics) and nobody can debate that his leaving had a heck of an effect on X-Men comics through the 1990s.

Several of you have rightly pointed out the notable presence, on this poster, of two very distinctive Marvel UK properties, namely Captain Britain & Meggan. And drawn by Jim Lee they look very impressive too - Meggan in particular:


And upon seeing their presence on this poster immediately jumped for joy at the prospect of their turning up in X-Men Forever.

Please folks, hold your horses.

I don't mean to disappoint anybody (And indeed I may be premature in doing so) but this poster is not new work. It's a re-issue of a poster Jim Lee and Scott Williams did in 1990 or 1991 of every X-Man who was on an X-Men title at that time, accompanied with the phrase "... and the BEST is yet to COME!"


Cap and Meggan appear here because at the time, in continuity, they were both part of Excalibur. As were Rachel Summers, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde and Lockheed, who are also pictured.

This is a re-issued poster with modern colouring. It looks damned good, and as it dates from the rough point that Claremont left the X-Books, making it a good fit. At the point X-Men Forever begins these are the teams in play. But I don't think we can take it as read that this will have any indication over whether or not Cap and Meggan will appear.

I mean sure, Chris Claremont has always loved to feature Captain Britain (The character he has always gone back to since creating him in in 1976) and Meggan, wherever he logically can in his X-Writing. Something I've always been kind of grateful for. But this vision of the X-Men is a bit different. In X-Men Forever #1 we already have Kitty and Nightcrawler debating leaving Excalibur to rejoin the X-Men, having returned to New York for Magneto's funeral.

So this one may well play out very differently. I always have my fingers crossed, but you never know.

Anyway, enough of my talk.

If you wish to contact me you can mail me or Tweet me at the usual places (Listed on the right) and feel free to drop your own comments on any of the Blog threads I start.

Until the next time...

Mark
(Sword)