Top 5: Favorite X-Teams of all-time

TGIT!!!!!!


Another day, another post.

Well today I wanted to bring the Top 5 list on this last post of February, and I figured what the hell, might as well go with my Top 5 favorite X-Teams of all time.

So, here we go.....



5). 
The Original X-Men( Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel, and Beast)

It all had to start somewhere, and it all started with the original five. Consider them the Beatles of the X-Men teams, but they were the first, and arguably the best. Every other incarnation of the X-Men comes directly from them. No wonder they're still heavily featured in big storylines and crossovers. They're just that damn important. Maybe not the most powerful, or most recognizable, but definitely the fore-bearers of everything else that came after them.

4). 
Age Of Apocalypse X-Men( Magneto, Rogue, Blink, Sabertooth, Morph, Storm, Nightcrawler, Quicksilver, Dazzler, Iceman, and Wild Child)

 I just had to include the Age of Apocalypse X-Men in here. That event was the hottest thing going in '95, and the roster was definitely the total opposite of what you'd expect.

Cyclops and Havok were evil....well Havok was.
Wolverine and Jean Grey were doing their own thing.
The Beast was evil, while Angel was content to work as a bar owner.

So that left you these guys, and what team they were, especially with the firepower they were packing with Magneto included in the mix.

Of course what sold it for me, was the Joe Maduriera Astonishing X-Men book with Rogue, Morph, Sabertooth, and especially Blink. She's still as cute as ever to me, and another selling point of the book for me. Plus with her unfortunate death during the Phalanx Covenant, it was nice to finally see her on an X-Team. Even if it wasn't the main universe version.

3).

 X-Men Cartoon Team( Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Beast, Gambit, Jubilee, Jean Grey, and Prof. X)

How could not love this roster, if nothing else for the sheer nostalgia factor. It combined the best of both teams at the time(minus Colossus, Archangel and Iceman) and no doubt influenced millions of kids to pick up some X-Men comics if they hadn't already to see the print version of the X-men.
While it did rely on mostly adapting old storylines from said comics(The Dark Phoenix Saga), they were handled in the best possible way at the time, as well as to spark interest in where these events originated from.
Alone with Spider-Man, it was the best cartoon show in Fox not named Batman, and for that I and countless others will always be grateful.


2).

 X-Men: Blue Team (Cyclops, Wolverine, Psylocke, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, and Jubilee)

My favorite team during the early and mid-90's, the Blue team, at least to me, had the best roster of the 90's, but also the better stories and storylines compared to the Gold team. Omega Red, the returns of Longshot and Dazzler and Mojoworld, and everything else that followed. For my money, they were the best team of X-Men during the 90's. They just simply that damn good.

1). 

The Classic New X-Men (Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Banshee, and Phoenix)

To me, this is my favorite and quintessential X-Men team of all-time(especially when you throw in Shadowcat)

Just look at that roster and the sheer, raw power of them. If Wolverine doesn't shred you to pieces, Colossus will crush you; If Nightcrawler doesn't bamf around, punching the shit out of you, Banshee will make you go deaf and dumb;  If Storm doesn't fry or freeze you, Cyclops will blast the fuck out of you with his ruby red beams of force.  And Phoenix......well, I highly recommend you don't ever piss her off, unless you want to end up like Mastermind.

Simply put, one of the most powerful line-ups of X-Men ever. Not to mention iconic.
There's a reason every so many years, they all wind up in some form as this, death aside.

So, whatta' think?
Tell me who your favorite X-Men teams were. I'm curious.

Have a good weekend folks.
I know I will. Saturday's the big local Fan Con, and yours truly will be a featured guest, courtesy of my comic group brothers, Grindhorse.

100% less gay than a "Live Strong" Lance Armstrong bracelet mothertruckers!

All Hail The Horse!!!!!!!

Back-Issue Spotlight: Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill One-Shot

Happy Hump Day people!

Before going into this week's edition of Back-Issue Spotlight, I wanted  show off yesterday's swag.
Again, you can't beat 10 comics for a dollar out of the 10 cent bin. You just really can't.

Here they are:

Nice huh?
Just in case you can't make out the titles, they are:
Spider-Man#15, Uncanny Avengers#3, Secret Avengers#37(Vol.1), Dial H#15(Criminally underrated btw)
Harbinger Wars#1(Valiant comics represent, right Dan?) Astro City: Dark Ages Book One#'s 1 and 2; Book Two#4, Saga#12(Just now getting to these series, which is another critically acclaimed title I've been hearing about), and finally the Before Watchemen: Dollar Bill one-shot.

Speaking of Dollar Bill, judging from today's title, I don't have to ask you who's being spotlighted today, do I?

Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill One-Shot (Mar 2013) "I Want To Be In Pictures" by Len Wein and Steve Rude.

Ah Poor Dollar Bill. Alan Moore decided this particular hero should go out in an extremely embarrassing fashion, and that's exactly what happened, when poor Bill gets his cape stuck in a revolving door. Caught and unable to free himself, he gets straight up capped right in the fuck. Poor guy.

Well here's his story, and how he came into that unfortunate circumstance that day.

Ol' Bill wasn't much of a stand out in life, until his high school and college years as a star athlete in a lot of sports, particularly football, where he'd earn an athletic scholarship.

With all that skill, he was planning on going pro. And then this happened, as can sometimes be the case for aspiring pros:

With that dream effectively dead, Bill sets out to find his place in the world anyways.....

Poor guy just cannot catch a fucking break can he?

Wondering what to do next, he finally sees an ad in the newspaper that'll change his life forever.

The National Bank wants in the growing hero business with a hero of their very own protecting the bank.

Enter our man Bill:

Understandably like all the others who showed up, Bill's hesitant to go through with this idea. He thinks he'll look like a fool too, but he needs the job, and desperately needs the money. So Bill's fate is changed that very day as he indeed becomes Dollar Bill.

Bill does the Dollar Bill things, and does it pretty well. Enough to remain gainfully employed and become famous through it all. So popular and famous, that his bosses, Misters Abie, Howe, Cheatem, and Dewey(Gotta' love those names right?) decide he should try out for the Minutemen.

He reluctantly agrees, and despite the whole team knowing he's a fake, he's accepted into the team.

Things go good at first, especially since the Minutemen seem to be just about as fake as Bill with staged fights and all. Until a disastrous fight with Italian 5th Columnists turns out to be a major mistake. This event's covered in the other Before Watchmen books, but yeah, it's a royal fuck up that the Minutemen cover up.

Then awhile later, a real bank robbery forces Bill to step it up, and earn his costume the hard way.

Much like Stella before him, Dollar Bill's finally got his groove back, and kicking ass.

But such as is life sometimes, that's when things suddenly go to shit, and sometimes you die.

Dollar Bill goes out trying to protect the same bank responsible for getting him in this situation in the first place.

 Not a bad ending I think. Definitely a big difference than the original material, with Wein choosing to end on a high note.

Overall it's not a bad story. I know initially I shit on the whole Before Watchmen project Dildo and Co. rolled out. I, like most, considered it a poor attempt on DC's part to cash in on Moore's work, especially considering the long years of bad blood between the two. Well mostly on Moore's part, but who can blame him really?

That being said, I regret joining the hysteria generated by the internet mob, and not giving creators like the legendary Len Wein, Amanda Conner, and Darwyn Cooke the benefit of a doubt. Trust me, I own all but the Moloch mini, and they're all really respectful of the original Watchmen maxi-series. They really are, and are well worth picking up on the cheap by now.

"Inferior"

Ok, so this was long overdue in coming I know, but I only just recently bought the Superior Spider-Man figure. So here's his debut skit.

Hope he survives it.......

The End

Yes folks, that really is how you get shoved back up your own ass head first. Tell a friend.

"Go Ninja, Go Ninja Go!"

What's up people?

Oh shit, It's Monday. Noooooooo!
Ha ha, it'll be alright guys. It'll be Friday again in no time.

So I had a pretty damn good weekend myself.

Yep, my local comic store owner Barry and some employees and I all went to an out of town toy convention, and damn was there a lot of stuff!

Brah, I'm telling you that place was stacked to the brim with all the toys from my childhood.
I'm talking about vintage He-Man, GI Joes, TNMT's, Star Wars and Transformers. Not to mention all the other names and brands in-between.

Priceless vehicles and old gaming consoles too! It was a time-warp experience for sure.

But it gets better. Barry proceeds to tell me(before the con starts) that he just bought a big box full of DCUC signature figures from this dealer.

I'm like "Go on......"

Turns out he bought 'em for 20$ a piece. Yes, 20$ a piece.
Anyone in the know, knows they usually cost around 40$, so yeah, he got 'em for a song and steal.

Well after some quick wheeling and dealing, this is what I got for 55$:

Yep, the Red Hood, Ocean Master, and Monsieur Mallah and the Brain!!!!!

Oh the fun we're gonna' have these latest additions!

Plus being the super generous guy he is, he even tossed a free action figure for helping him out:

The new Marvel NOW Captain America figure.

As Googum would say(but hasn't in awhile for some strange reason)BOY HOWDY!!!!

You'll see all of these guys relatively soon. In fact I already have a Brain and Mallah skit written out. All I need to do is take pics, so that'll be one of next week's skits.

Okay, onto today's fun-filled skit with a very familiar title I should think to those who loved the TNMT movies back in the early 90's.

Yeah that. Of  course that song's back in our collective consciousness because of this recent commercial:

Yeah, that really happened.

So with that in mind, here's the probably the weirdest and most kinda' loosely American Black History Month skit evah!

Take it away boys.......

The End.

We've all been there at one point or another I'm sure.

Extras:

Tiger's either going to love this or hate it;)