In 2019, Bleeding Cool reported what we called a "serious blow to Dark Horse's martial arts skilled anthropomorphic animal output" with the news that Dark
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Usagi is going back to Dark Horse where Stan Sakai is heading his own imprint. I'm not sure what the story is here. First he leaves DH for IDW, now he's going back to DH again. Not sure if different people are offering him tempting deals, if Stan's just indecisive, or if what looked like a great deal with IDW really wasn't that great.
Either way, this is another loss for IDW. They still have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Godzilla, My Little Pony, and Star Trek. So, they're still not too bad off. But, this is a worrying sign.
They've been putting out collections fairly steadily, I think. IDW has even gone back and recolored a few of his older stories (which might be part of the deal he made with IDW in the first place, maybe?). I think Stan's just...massively slowed down in recent years. Understandable, since age comes for us all.
The rabbit ronin’s newest adventures continue in this fifth volume that sees Usagi and Yukichi on a mission to deliver a valuable object! But first, in “A Ghost Story,” Usagi and Yukichi come upon a young woman, Shizuye, praying at a shrine to a girl murdered fifty years ago by her married...
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They've already put out: The Hidden, Homecoming, and Tengu War. And in October they'll put out Crossroads, and in February they'll put out Green Dragon. That'll probably be the end of it.
I've seen the first season/half. It...was fine. There are times you can tell the show has been in production in one form or another since the 90s, though. Some of the more toyetic moments stand out a bit. Honestly, it might have been more memorable if it went harder on that feeling.
And it doesn't go into Japanese culture as deeply as the comic does. Which is a same, because that's one of it's strengths. It's a okay show, but nothing it does really stands out. It's just okay on all fronts.
The different gangs being substitutes for the different ninja clans was a interesting workaround. They're not as cool as in the comics, being mostly comic relief, but it wasn't a bad idea on paper.
If you mean Gen's sister, then, no. Comic Gen doesn't have a sister. And, yeah, Comic Gen is more greedy and clever than Future Gen.
All three of the side characters are based on characters in the comics...VERY broadly.
Kitsune is a street performer by day, and master thief by night—or day as the case may be. An anthropomorphic fox (who is named after the same creature), she is as cunning, quick, and agile as her profession demands. She considers herself a noble thief and only steals from people who can afford...
Chizu is a character from the Usagi Yojimbo series; she is an anthropomorphic cat and former kashira (chief) of the Neko Ninja clan. Chizu is considered a possible love interest for Usagi, as evidenced by her kissing him goodbye most times they fight together, but she is an obvious longshot to...
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Kitsune in the comics is basically a happy go lucky thief and swindler with a child she's "adopted" and who she's training to also be a thief. They come and go in different arcs of the story.
And Chizu isn't quite so..."fluffy" in the comics. None of the cat-girls are. It was a cute gag when they first revealed it in the show, but I'll admit, they kind of look out of place.
They might have already shown up in the second season, but I'm waiting for Sasuke the Demon Queller and Inspector Ishida analogues to show up at some point in the show. Not to mention Jei.
Sasuké, the Demon Queller, is an anthropomorphic fox and an enigmatic ronin on a never-ending quest to hunt down Yokai (monsters) that threaten mortals. Sasuke is guided by a mysterious spirit entity called Lord Shoki, who tells him where he must go and what evils he must slay. Much of the Demon...
Inspector Ishida is a popular supporting character in the Usagi Yojimbo comic book series. The character is based on real-life Honolulu policeman Chang Apana, who was also the model for the fictional detective Charlie Chan. As Max Allan Collins points out in the introduction to Book 13: Grey...
Jei—a.k.a. Jei-san, The Blade of the Gods, The Black Soul, The Demon Spearman, and a number of other dark nicknames—is a character from the Usagi Yojimbo comics. Although Lord Hikiji is considered the main antagonist of the series, Jei is the closest thing to a true arch-nemesis of Miyamoto...
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Mind...I don't know how much life this show is going to have, but I'd like them to show up.
I forgot the names but, argh, Karasu! It means crow! (Right?). I should have realized, haha. Actually, that character was a surprise. Actually, the whole deal with the yokai was a surprise. That was a cool thing for the show.
The yoyo was kinda eh though.
Good that Kitsune is an actual canon character. I was only familiar with Gen and Chizu. I owned the Space Usagi mini and I thiiiiink they killed off Chizu there. Maybe.
The yo-yo is one of those things that makes it feel like a 90s cartoon. Can't have our main characters capable of TOO much violence.
If you haven't already, you might want to check out the Usagi Yojimbo Senso miniseries. That...kind of explains where a few inspirations for the end of the first season come from, I think. It also works as a non-canon hypothetical ending for Usagi.
‘Knight Terrors,’ middle-grade graphic novels and more get the free comic treatment this month.
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I'd probably recommend picking up:
Ranger Academy-A first look at a new Power Rangers comic. The solicit says it's a "preview" so, it might just end up being reprinted in the actual first issue, when it comes out. Kind of sounds like a cross between the Hexagon pitch and Hyperforce. (Also, there is a Hyperforce oneshot comic coming from Boom in the next few months.)
Avengers/X-Men-This has a preview of what Jonathan Hickman's been up to since leaving the X-Men comics...G.O.D.S.! No idea what it's actually going to be about, but it's Hickman, so it's bound to be interesting. (Also, Hickman's doing a new Ultimate universe event, Ultimate Invasion in the future.)
Spider-Man/Venom-This is more for the Venom side of things. If you haven't checked out Al Ewing's Venom, or dropped it because it was a little slow and about Eddie's son, I'd recommend picking up #18. If you like Ewing's cosmic stuff, I think you'll find it interesting. Let's just say Ewing's gone galaxy-brained on us again.
Dawn of DC We are Legends-DC's trying to do new Asian-inspired heroes, and I kind of liked what I saw in the Lazarus Planet specials. I think Spirit World and City Boy MIGHT end up being worth checking out. I think this is a reprint of the stories in those Lazarus Planet specials.
Street Fighter 6-Udon always does nice art for these books. They're a fun treat.
Star Wars/Avatar the Last Airbender-The Airbender comics are always a fun time.
2000 AD-These anthology stories are also pretty fun. With a bit of a satirical bite, usually.
And while I'm here, let's talk about some comics in general. Why not?
There was another Transformers cameo in a Image comic recently. You might remember me mentioning that a Optimus statue appeared in Crossover #12. Well, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and others popped up again in Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology #12. This was just a one-page cameo gag about Paramount+ fighting a war against Disney+. Still, I find it interesting that they're mentioned again, given rumors. Nothing to make a fuss about, but something to keep a note about.
Over at DC, a certain character from DC One Million is making a few appearances. I'll...keep it in spoilers for now.
The "DC One Million/Grant Morrison JLA" Hourman is popping up in Stargirl and in recent issues of the Flash. He's trying to save younger heroes and Hypertime is coming into play. I think they're setting up something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe the next Crisis will be all about Hypertime.
Also, this NEW Hypertime is a little different from the OLD Hypertime. The OLD Hypertime was...kind of a excuse to bring back the multiverse while also explaining away continuity errors. This NEW Hypertime seems to be all about what events even HAPPENED in the "main" timeline in the first place. Basically, "more important" stories remain while more forgotten or disliked stories get erased from the timeline. It's why, say "The Killing Joke" stays in continuity no matter how many reboots DC has, while "The Penny Plunderer" may or may not be in continuity, depending on who's writing.
So, we'll see where this is all going, if anyplace at all.
Batman 135 (or 900 depending on how you number) has..some interesting cameos. You might want to flip through the book. You might be surprised who shows up. It's a story about the multiverse, so...keep that in mind.
The biggest thing on my radar has been the X-Men books. Sins of Sinister just wrapped up. In my opinion, SoS was probably the best thing to come out of the X-Men books since House of X/Powers of X. I recommend picking it up. And we've just started the Fall of X prelude specials, which...will probably LEAD to the end of the Krakoa era...eventually...maybe. I'll admit, I'm still ready to get off this ride, but the X-Men books have improved a bit. Things are getting interesting. Especially with Wolverine. Let's just say....Beast has gone full-on supervillain.
Below are spoilers for the end of Sins of Sinister and Wolverine and Marauders and...let's just say ALL the X-Men books to be safe, so, be warned:
So...okay...I guess I need to summarize Sins of Sinister a little. There's four different Sinisters, one for each suit on a playing card deck (diamonds, spades, clubs, and hearts)...which is dumb...but it's comic book dumb, so I kind of dig it. "Our" Sinister has a device that allowed him to create "save states" like in a video game...by using clones of Moira MacTaggart to reset the timeline at his will. And SoS was all about "our" Sinister inserting his own genes into all of the mutants via the resurrection protocol to take control. It backfires on him, and mutants become this evil galaxy spanning empire that lasts for a thousand years, even if they do start a civil war against each other and start launching exploding child-clones at each other. Basically, they became the mind-altered clones we were all afraid they MIGHT be at the start of the Krakoa era. And all the different Sinisters are trying to backstab and one up another the whole time, each one trying to find a way to become the "Dominion" of the multiverse, since I guess there can be only one. As a reminder, the Dominion is the highest form of the Phalanx, the robots who live inside black holes. And, yes, that DOES make it a multiversal singularity like the Thirteen used to be in Transformers. At the end of the story, "our main" Sinister tries to ascend to godhood...only to find someone from a earlier timeline beat him to it. And ANOTHER Sinister, the magic-based Mother Righteous has just gotten control of all the mutants' souls by getting Storm to "thank her" for her help exposing Sinister (...it's magic, if you thank her for anything she gets power over you).
Did you get all that? No? ....Well, go read Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, Legion of X, and Sins of Sinister. I tried.
But, I kind of have to wonder. Is it...AT ALL POSSIBLE that maybe they're hinting at a "Legends" style book for Hickman? After all, that "other timeline" Dominion MIGHT have come from how Hickman's original plan played out. It doesn't HAVE to be tied to this "main" universe, after all. We could still see Hickman's original plan...while still tying in to the main story, by giving this higher-dimensional Dominion a origin story. Basically, I wonder if OUR Dominion will end up being the Dominion from a world where Hickman actually got to finish his X-Men run properly.
It's a sidenote, but I'm still betting on the Dominion to turn out to be those Demons of Amenth who were constantly attacking Arakko in X of Swords. We never did get a explanation for what those guys actually where. Having the end-boss tie back into the origin of mutants kind of feels right to me.
Oh, and then there's Beast. He's been creating mindless clones of Wolverine behind the Council's back to create his ultimate black ops team. And he's just left Krakoa in a giant skull-faced secret base to attack the enemies of Krakoa on his own. He also stole the Cerebro Sword, which I think might be one of the longest background plot points in this entire saga. And...the Council doesn't want to try to stop him. *SIGH* Yeah, at this point, the mutants being hated and feared is kind of justified. And, NO, this doesn't seem to be because of Sinister's DNA. This is just the Council being jerks. Anyway, Wolverine's hunting him down.
And, interestingly, Beast wiped all backups of himself off Krakoa's servers. EXCEPT...for the version of himself circa him joining the Avengers. He's mentioned before that one of his WORST fears is the Council resetting him to his "goofy fuzzball" days (X-Force #23). So, either this is him DARING them to do just this to prove him right, or it's a trap. Or both.
So, yeah...This is "Beast's War". They aren't CALLING it that...but they SHOULD.
Over in Marauders, Kitty Pryde just sent the souls of the dead humans and mutants from Genosha's genocide (including her own father's soul) back in time to be reborn as a ancient civilization that predates all of mankind. And has already seen it fall, since she time travelled to the past when that ancient civilization fought another ancient civilization over how much oxygen there is in Earth's atmosphere, leading to the creation of the bacterial mutants Sublime (which caused ALL of Grant Morrison's X-Men run) and Arkea (who's Jubilee's baby's father) which go out of control and end up killing everyone. Yeah, Marauders got weird.
Bishop's War College might actually be fairly important, since it sees enemies of Krakoa trying to poison Krakoa itself...with power-dampening beer from fairyland.
Oh, and Colossus is still being mind controlled by his Russian brother. And no one notices. And they keep giving him more and more responsibilities.
Sabretooth and the Exiles ends with Sabrethooth leading a bunch of multiversal variants of himself to kill Wolverine.
Rogue and Gambit...seems to be hinting that they're going to break up the couple, soon. *BOO*
Same thing for Jean and Scott over in X-Men, since they're having a fight about whether or not they should just wipe out the entire Brood species. Again, BOO! Also, Broo the good little Brood is exiled in a time-dilated space station trying to get the Brood to "evolve" past being cosmic parasites.
Oh, and Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Deadpool are all honorary X-Men books. So you'll have to read those, too, since they'll probably tie in. *SIGH* There are WAY too many X-Men books.
So, yeah, everything's going great for the X-Men, no problems to worry about here...oh Hi Apocalypse! Yeah, he's coming back soon for Fall of X.
I'm not totally convinced we're going to be given a "clean break" for Krakoa. My guess is that the X-Men will eventually lose Krakoa, then they'll have to hide out under the old abandoned Xavier/Jean School, and THEN the cosmic space robots will attack when they're at their weakest. THEN we might see the reopening the old school again...just in time for the movie to roll around.
And there's still some threads I wish would get more focus. Like the multiversal Shadow King and more with Onslaught. And the universal common currency, Mysterium ACTUALLY being shards of the Phoenix's White Hot Room.
So, I'm still having fun with most of these books. But...we can stop any time. I'm good on X-Men for a while after Krakoa wraps up, I think.
Well, if you've been paying attention to Spider-Man comics recently, then you know they've been teasing...something for #26. And Bleeding Cool has just spoiled what it is.
BIG Spoilers below.
I'll give you this first...it's a death of a character. Not the one you might expect, though.
This is your final chance to turn back, if you want to be surprised.
If you want to avoid spoilers from next week's Amazing Spider-Man #26, stop reading now, as Bleeding Cool talks about the big, big death.
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....Yeah, that's probably going to sound random to most of you. Ms Marvel has been part of Spider-Man's supporting cast for this current run on the book. She's been a intern at Oscorp, under a reformed Norman Osborn aka the Green Gold Goblin.
Bleeding Cool is speculating that they're killing her off so that she can be resurrected by the Krakoan X-Men. They've recently promised to start bringing some non-mutant people back to life using their resurrection protocols. That way, they can get rid of her past of being a Inhuman in the comics. Maybe bring her more into line with her MCU version. This feels likely, to me.
So, I guess I have no strong feelings about this one way or another. Superhero deaths are so trivial at this point that they're meaningless to me. She's almost sure to come back before the end of the year, one way or another.
I hadn't really thought about that, myself. And I guess I don't really know if there is a problem there or not. But, all the major religions have a pretty low opinion on using something as "divine" as resurrection in a way that's as "mundane" as a plot point in a comic book. Hopefully, it's just shrugged off.
I guess most comic characters just aren't that religious. Daredevil's Catholic. Magneto and Kitty Pryde and Ben Grimm are Jewish. And Nightcrawler...is creating his own religion. But that's the most major examples I can think of, off the top of my head. But, you never see Spider-Man in a church unless he needs to punish a alien-goo creature. But, yeah, religion is kind of tied to this character more than most.
That is interesting. I'm not sure if there's much to it though. A lot of people really love those old Rom and Micronauts runs, and have wanted reprints for decades. And this might be a situation where ONLY Marvel can reprint the full run, since there's aspects that Marvel owns and parts Hasbro would own.
I like to think Chris Ryall had a hand in this, somehow. Probably didn't, but who knows.
I haven't been following any comics from DC or Marvel but I hear horrible stuff about what happened at the X-Men Gala issue this year. Now I want to know what the fuss is all about.
I didn't see any sexy fashion posts about their clothes before it, which was odd.
Yeah, they've actually been leading up to this in all of this in ALL the X-Men books. I...don't think we should take EVERYTHING at face value, though. There's probably a few twists coming.
They're kind of trying to have their cake and eat it too, with Ms Marvel. Turns out she's BOTH a mutant AND a Inhuman...and supposedly always was. Now, she thinks she has TWO powers, eventually, her original stretchy Inhuman power, and her possible new mutant power (which will probably be like the MCU version). I find it interesting that there WAS one other Mutant-Inhuman hybrid in Marvel's history...the Beyonder (circa the Illuminati mini-series). That was retconned, but it's still a odd thing, and I wonder if they'll end up playing with that.
(Her death lasted...two months. I don't think that's a record, but it kind of proves that death is pointless in comics)
Otherwise, yeah....a whole lotta mutants are definitely dead, including Jean Grey. And most are "lost" at the least. Professor X had everyone escape to Mars/Arakko in order to save humanity from being mind controlled into killing each other. But, it turned out the teleportation gateways weren't leading to where he THOUGHT they were leading. So Professor X thinks like 90% of mutant kind was just been killed and he helped do it. ...Yikes. I don't really buy them being dead though. I'm guessing they're out there somewhere. The Siege Perilous, or the White Hot Room, or the Mojoverse, or...somewhere. Maybe they'll end up being captured by Orbis Stellaris/Sinister of Spades. He's been oddly absent lately.
I feel bad for Talon/Future Laura/Old Lady Wolverine and Dazzler. They're probably not coming back anytime soon. Jubilee's dead too, so I guess her baby Shogo's a orphan, now.
Iceman's death was positively gruesome with him melting into bones like that. I guess he MUST be coming back somehow though. He's got a limited series coming!
Mystique's "dead"...but she's definitely coming back from this with a vengeance.
And the Five went through the gates, so they're "lost" too. So, no resurrections for at least a little while for anyone. Although, Beast WAS able to replicate their resurrection powers on himself with the aid of the Cerebro Sword. I wonder if that's going to be a plot point at all?
As much as the villains threatened to kill a bunch of humans if they found ANY mutants...a LOT of mutants are staying on Earth. Nightcrawler (as ANOTHER Spider-Man), Cyclops, Wolverine, and Emma Frost's team...with Wilson Fisk the Kingpin tagging along.
Professor X is left in Moira's hands. So...there's probably a twist coming with that. I don't know if she's going to change sides again, or maybe this was ALL a part of her plans all along? Maybe she's just going to torture him. We'll see.
Kate Pryde is now the only mutant that can use the teleportation gates created by Krakoa, now that the villains messed with them.
Firestar being a mole within the villains is...a choice. They JUST altered the mind of Dr Stasis/Sinister of Clubs, though. I get the feeling she's going to get found out.
Mother Righteous/Sinister of Hearts stealing a part of Krakoa in a magic bottle was NOT expected. That's going to lead to something interesting. I don't know if she's trying to make her own little utopia or what.
So, yeah, a lot happened in one special! And we're not really done with the Krakoa era yet. There's still the Dominion to face after they finish up with Orchis.
The X-Men books ARE good...but there's just so MANY of them!
Orchis. Which is a anti-mutant organization that teams up...a bunch of mostly newer characters. They're trying to overthrow and undermind Krakoa by controlling various corporate, broadcast, and criminal agencies. They kind of filled the hole that was left by SHIELD collapsing.
Nimrod does most of the actual killing. But, a LOT was only possible by Orchis sabotaging the medicine that mutants have been handing out for free to humanity. In other books, they've explained that they basically changed the medicine so that they could make the humans that took the medicine try to kill each other in a mindless frenzy. That's how they blackmail Professor X to mind control ALL the mutants in the entire world and get them to march through the Krakoan gates at the same time to their unknowing doom. With only a few resisting due to training they got from Professor X himself in the past.
Nimrod, the killer robot from the alternate "Days of Futures Past" future, is probably the most important of the bunch (named after the legendary HUNTER, not the Bugs Bunny insult).
Doctor Stasis, one of the clones of Mr Sinister, wants to basically keep humans as the dominate species on the planet.
The Omega Sentinel, aka Karima Shapandar, who actually has a long history with the X-Men, who was infected with Sentinel nanobots in the past, and recently had her mind overwritten by a evil version of herself from the future.
MODOK is here. He just likes killing people so he's just having fun. Also, parts of AIM and Hydra got absorbed into this group, as well.
Henry Gyrich, who you probably know, is a mutant hating government agent.
Feilong, who is now more of a Iron Man villain, is a billionaire industrialist angry at humanity for leaving Mars in the hands of the mutants, since humans WERE on Mars circa Hickman's Avengers.
Marianna Stern, who is the leader of the magical division of Orchis. She's mostly been dealing with the new Captain Britain (who is currently Betsy Braddock who USED to be Psylocke, but she's back in her original body again...*SIGH*) and is also helping Apocalypse's wife Genesis.
Abigail Brand, who is TRYING to be a double agent, and to subvert Orchis from within, but it isn't going very well for her.
Judas Traveller. Yes, they really brought back a 90s Spider-Man villain from the Clone Saga to be a minor general in Orchis' army.
Moira MacTaggart, who is now a villain, who USED to be a mutant and the secret mastermind behind Krakoa's creation in the first place due to her time travel power, but is now a cyborg...it's complicated.
Mother Righteous is also a ally of Orchis, but has her own schemes. She's actually the clone of the wife of the ORIGINAL version of Mr Sinister, and is more involved in the magical side of things. But...she's also magically bonded with Doctor Stasis, who is a clone of her husband. She "promised" to love, honor, and OBEY him back when they were married...and I guess the implication is that oath is now magically binding due to her magical powers.
You'll notice that most of these people have ties to the Sentinels, and there's a reason for that. This is ALL probably setting up the eventual coming of the Dominion, who are higher dimensional robots and the "evolution" of the Phalanx.
There are other agents, but those are the most important ones. And some people, like Sebastian Shaw and Selene who are both a part of Krakoa's government, have deals with Mother Righteous but don't know they're indirectly helping Orchis. It's all very cloak and dagger in parts.
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