Tag Archives: nightcrawler

Marvel Select Nightcrawler Bamfs into New Packaging Photos!

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With the Marvel Select line delivering hit figure after hit figure, Marvel toy collectors have eagerly awaited the next comic-style Select to come out from Diamond Select Toys. And it’s almost here!

The offspring of a mutant and a demon, blue-furred acrobat Kurt Wagner has shown the signs of his mixed heritage since he was born, and sculptor Jean St. Jean has brought out the scarier aspects of the X-Men’s resident teleporter in this new figure. Nightcrawler stands approximately 7 inches tall with 16 points of articulation, and he comes with a “bamf” cloud base, representing the purple cloud he leaves behind when he teleports.

Check out the new packaging below! Shipping in April!

Nightcrawler1 NightcrawlerSelect-BoxFront1 NightcrawlerSelect-BoxBack1 NightcrawlerSelect-BoxSide1

Catching Up on Reviews, Part 12 — Wolverine & Family

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Sorry about the delays, but I’m still trying to get caught up on reviews for the last few months…

Daken – Dark Wolverine #6 (Marvel) – This is a consistently well-made comic. Daken isn’t my favorite character, but he is always interesting and there is a lot of room for good writers to explore him. Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu tell a good tale here.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Daken – Dark Wolverine #7 (Marvel) – I’m not a big fan of Madripoor stories and have never really liked them, but if a character more fits into the setting than Daken, I’m not sure who it is.

Story: 8 Art: 7 Overall: 7.5

Daken – Dark Wolverine #8 (Marvel) – For me the jury is still out on whether or not X-23 is a good character, but I definitely do not like Gambit. It makes sense to have Daken and X-23 interact, though, so this storyline isn’t without merit.

Story: 7 Art: 8.5 Overall: 7.75

Daken – Dark Wolverine #9 (Marvel) – Not sure I’m fully on board with this Daken-X-23 crossover, but there is a lot of great art in this issue from Marco Checchetto.

Story: 7 Art: 9 Overall: 8

Daken – Dark Wolverine #9.1 (Marvel) – There is still a lot of room to explore the relationship between Daken and Wolverine and this is a good entry into the ongoing story.

Story: 9 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

Daken – Dark Wolverine #10 (Marvel) – The execution here isn’t perfect, but there are a lot of things to like in this issue. Rob Williams introduces Daken to a drug addiction that is brilliantly shown by artists Matteo Buffagni and Riley Rossmo. The issue also introduces a great new female character, Donna Kiel, an FBI agent on Daken’s trail. I’d like to see her used a lot more.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Daken – Dark Wolverine #11 (Marvel) – Basically following up on all the elements of the previous issue, this one executes them a bit better and adds Taskmaster, one of my favorite Marvel characters of late, to the mix. I’m a fan.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.25

Daken – Dark Wolverine #12 (Marvel) – Buffagni and Rossmo’s art is adequate during the regular story, but stellar during the scenes where Daken is on heat. Williams story continues to get even better, with Daken setting up a complex heist plan that is very original and then has Donna Kiel figure it out.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Daken – Dark Wolverine #13 (Marvel) – Adding Moon Night and the questionable portrayal of his mental illness to the mix doesn’t really help, but it doesn’t really hurt, either.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.25

Daken – Dark Wolverine #14 (Marvel) – This is a complex and entertaining story and I can’t wait until the next issue comes out so I can figure out what the hell is happening.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Wolverine – Deadpool: The Decoy #1 (Marvel) – I’m trying to figure out a reason this story was published and I’m drawing a blank. The main story, meant, I guess, to reinforce all the same qualities of Wolverine and Deadpool we’ve seen a million times. The back-up story with the Great Lakes Initiative is designed, I think, to make you feel less crappy about wasting money on this comic. It doesn’t work.

Story: 6 Art: 6.5 Overall: 6.25

Wolverine: Debt of Death #1 (Marvel) – This isn’t a bad story, but it doesn’t really add anything new to the long tale of Wolverine and it seems overly familiar, as if we’ve read this story before. David Aja’s art is very nice, though, and it’s worth a look.

Story: 7 Art: 9 Overall: 8

Wolverine: The Best There Is # (Marvel) – I’m not sure why they don’t just call this Wolverine MAX, since that’s what it is. Which means pointless and excessive violence, sexual references and bad jokes. Juan Jose Ryp’s art is way too busy and cartoonish for me and it seems out of sync with the story.

Story: 6 Art: 5 Overall: 5.5

Wolverine: The Best There Is #5 (Marvel) – This one is a little better than the previous Contagion chapters, but not by much.

Story: 7 Art: 5 Overall: 6

Wolverine: The Best There Is #6 (Marvel) – If this series didn’t star Wolverine, one of my all-time favorite characters, I would’ve stopped reading it long ago, since the quality is poor and the intent behind that low quality isn’t that great in the first place.

Story: 6 Art: 5 Overall: 5.5

Wolverine: The Best There Is #7 (Marvel) – This is probably Ryp’s best art in the series to date and now that the story is moving away from Contagion, it’s much better. Wolverine’s recovery from his full range of diseases is the best the series has been to date.

Story: 9 Art: 7 Overall: 8

Wolverine: The Best There Is #8 (Marvel) – Ryp’s art continues to improve and there are a lot of good panels in this comic, despite much of it still being too cluttered and busy. The story isn’t bad, but I’m not sure it’s holding my interest.

Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75

Wolverine: The Best There Is #9 (Marvel) – Whatever momentum the series had been gaining in recent issues, this is a setback for it. It looks bad and the story is dull and offensive

Story: 5 Art: 6 Overall: 5.5

Wolverine #5.1 (Marvel) – Pretty creative tale here, as you have all of Wolverine’s friends getting together for a suprise birthday party that Logan, of course, can’t make it to because he’s caught up in a Wrong Turn-style story. Very entertaining tale from Jason Aaron.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 17

Wolverine #6 (Marvel) – The aftermath of the “Logan Goes to Hell” story is interesting, particularly with the look into Scott Summers’ brain and the heavy load he carries in terms of having to plan to take out all of the members of his race if they were to get too powerful and go down the wrong track. The “Wolverine Protocols” is an idea that is traceable back to the Dark Phoenix saga and is good writing again from Aaron.

Story: 9 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.75

Wolverine #7 (Marvel) – Daniel Acuna’s art is at its best here and Aaron continues to show he’s a name that should be quickly rising up the ranks of comic book writers. Logan’s internal battle here is as well-done as the external combat against his teammates.

Story: 9.5 Art: 9 Overall: 9.25

Wolverine #8 (Marvel) – Another great issue, this one has some of the funniest moments in Wolverine history and it’s great to see characters like Nightcrawler and Phoenix back, even if they are only in Logan’s head. The ending is also a pretty chilling moment.

Story: 10 Art: 9 Overall: 9.5

Wolverine #9 (Marvel) – Wolverine vs. Mystique seems a story we’ve seen enough times already that we don’t need to really see it again. That being said, the creative team on this comic is good enough to make any tale, even one retold this often, fresh enough.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5

Wolverine #10 (Marvel) – The art isn’t as good this time around, but this is an intriguing opening chapter to a good Wolverine story.

Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25

Wolverine #11 (Marvel) – Some of the characters here are not my favorites, but the story structure is good and gets you a lot of information that will pay off later.

Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25

Wolverine #12 (Marvel) – This series is very consistent at this point, with great writing, art that is good enough and beautiful covers by Jae Lee et al.

Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25

Wolverine #13 (Marvel) – This story keeps getting better and better. It’s a revenge tale aimed at Wolverine for his past sins. The mystery is that there is something bigger going on here than what we know at this point and the cliffhanger ending here leaves you very intrigued.

Story: 9.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.5

Wolverine #14 (Marvel) – If the art was a bit better here, I’d consider this a perfect comic. That being said it’s still one of the most shocking endings to a Wolverine story ever, and that’s saying a lot. No one could’ve predicted where this tale was headed.

Story: 10 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.75

Wolverine #15 (Marvel) – It’s hard to follow up a shocking story like the previous issue and not have a let down, but Aaron manages to pull it off. The art doesn’t measure up, though. Kevin Smith and John Romita Jr.’s 9/11 back-up story is amazing.

Story: 9.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.5

X-23 #6 (Marvel) – X-23, Gambit, Mr./Miss Sinister, art that is pretty good, story that isn’t groundbreaking. Meh.

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7

X-23 #7 (Marvel) – The art here is a bit better, even if it is too anime for my tastes. The story has Gambit and pirates, so, in other words, not much going for it.

Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75

X-23 #8 (Marvel) – This one looks a lot better and bringing in Daken is a good idea, but it still seems like the series isn’t really exploring the character the way it should and could.

Story: 7 Art: 8 Overall: 7.5

X-23 #9 (Marvel) – Marjorie Liu’s best writing in this series to date is matched up with continually improving art. Now if they’d just get rid of Gambit.

Story: 8 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.25

X-23 #10 (Marvel) – Back to Sana Takeda’s anime-style art and an appearance by Wolverine and vampire Jubilee make this issue passable, but not great.

Story: 7 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.25

X-23 #11 (Marvel) – Takeda’s art is a bit better here and the vampire-themed tale is mildly interesting.

Story: 7.5 Art: 8 Overall: 7.75

X-23 #12 (Marvel) – This is Takeda’s best art on the series and the vampire story really kicks it up a notch here. This is the best issue of the series to date.

Story: 9 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

X-23 #13 (Marvel) – Phil Noto brings a pretty different style to the issue’s look and Liu brings in more guest stars, this time Spider-Man and the FF. I’d like to see some of these issues get rid of the crossovers and focus on developing X-23 on her own.

Story: 8 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.75

X-23 #14 (Marvel) – This really much more of an FF issue than an X-23 issue and taken that way, it’s not bad. The final panel is awe-inspiring. I’m still disappointed that we aren’t getting enough X-23 in her own comic.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Friday Five: Favorite X-Men Characters

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Sorry I missed the Friday Five last week, I was out of town. This week I’m going to take a look at the characters I like the most from my favorite family of comics ever, the X-Men. The first comic I bought was an X-Men comic and I was hooked ever since, particularly because of the great stories in the 1980s of Chris Claremont and the art of Dave Cockrum and John Byrne. As the X-universe expanded, I continued to like a lot of the work that was added to the canon over the years and it has remained my favorite. Without further ado, here are the characters that made it my favorite.

Honorable Mentions: Magneto, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Angel, Beast, Rogue

5. Professor X: Early on, Professor X was my favorite (Heck my rap name is, to this day, Professor Rex. Yes, I said my rap name. I’m a rapper in my free time). I liked the fact that, despite the fact that he was in a wheelchair, he was the most powerful mutant on Earth. I liked that he was a teacher and a leader and often taught the X-Men by letting them alone and letting them succeed or fail on their own without really ever letting them be in much real danger (except in the early days with characters like Thunderbird and Jean Gray). I didn’t like the 1990s and 2000s turn where it was revealed that he had been manipulating his students’ minds all these year. It fit and I buy it in the context of the story, but I guess I felt the same betrayal the X-Men felt.

4. Emma Frost: One of the few female superhero characters whose ridiculously inappropriate sexualized costume actually fit with her personality, I love the growth in Emma’s character over the years, going from what seemed to be one of the baddest of the bad villains to one of the key good guys. And not in the flippant, seemingly patternless way that Magneto or Quicksilver flipped back and forth, Emma’s change was the growing of her character as a human being. Her personality is a great one and seems to be quite at odds with the rest of the X-Men, which makes for reading her stories much more interesting.

3. Kitty Pryde: With the last three characters, we have the three that I identified with the most. While I always looked up to Professor X the most, I always felt the most like Kitty, the awkward young person who was good with computers and not really good yet in social situations. The person who was frequently underestimated, but still managed to somehow saved the day more often than not. I also thought that her relationship with Colossus, another of my favorites, was always the best-written of the relationships in the X-universe and, really, in most of comics. It hasn’t lived up to that in recent years, but the way it was written by Claremont back in the day was, to me, perfect.

2. Wolverine: My father is Canadian, so Wolverine was the first thing that ever connected me to my Canadian heritage. I didn’t know much about Canada growing up (other than what I saw in the movie Strange Brew), but Wolverine was from there and he was a badass, so I figured it must be pretty badass to be part Canadian. Wolverine always had the power set I most wanted in the X-universe and, for a long time, he was my favorite. But his growth was somewhat stunted over the years and he became awfully over-exposed. There may not be a Marvel character that is involved in more great stories than Wolverine, but part of that is because there are so many of those stories. Last year’s Old Man Logan and a number of other stories show there’s still a lot of good stuff being written about Wolverine, but those seem to be simple explorations of the same territory, unlike…

1. Cyclops: There are few characters in the history of comics, particularly characters who have existed for a long time (Cyclops first appeared in the early 1960s) who have grown as much as Cyclops. And few of those growth stories over time, especially over decades, make sense and are realistic and ring true. Cyclops started out as “Slim” Summers an awkward teenager with a tragic power that prevents him from experiencing life as a normal teenager and promises to prevent him from ever being part of normal society. As he masters his powers and grows to become the leader of the X-Men, he fails as often as he succeeds, but he never, well almost never (see: the start of the Madelyne Pryor storyline) gives up and he’s not particularly good at being a leader and eventually cedes his leadership position to maybe the greatest African-American female comics character ever written, Storm (shows you how great the X-Men comics have been over the years that she just misses the top 5 character list). But he fails to be dissuaded and continues to learn and grow despite going through one of the most disturbing character histories of anyone in the entire Marvel universe. But along the way, he does learn. Go back and read the X-Men issues of the mid-1980s and compare the Wolverine of then to the Wolverine of now. Very little difference. Now compare the Cyclops of then, an awkward young man searching for his place in life and trying to deal with tragedies that few could survive, to the Cyclops of now, the badass leader of the X-Men, and all of mutantkind, who can handle any problem, can make decisions none of us could ever make and who will do anything he has to do to ensure the survival of his species. And he’s winning. And he’s dating Emma Frost. As much as I always felt like Kitty Pryde and thought it would be awesome to be Wolverine, I really always aspired to be Scott Summers and be the person who could save everyone, the person who would make the hard decisions that affect the fate of an entire race, an entire planet. Cyclops is to Marvel what Jack is to Lost. These are the characters that I look up to an would most want to be — flawed leaders who learn from their mistakes and don’t always do the right thing or accept their positions of leadership with ease or calm, but do them anyway because they know no one else will do what needs to be done.

Man, that’s good writing. The fact that I can draw all of that information about Cyclops off the top of my head without having to look up a single detail shows you why he’s my favorite X-Men character and my second-favorite comic book character of all time. Behind…well, that’s a different post altogether.

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