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Press release:  

Congers, NY (August 26, 2008) – When it comes to cinematic storytelling and masterfully rendered characters, no other artist comes close to comic icon John Cassaday. Now, the Lone Ranger, Planetary and Astonishing X-Men artist is coming to his first Wizard World convention in over a year, and his first ever as Guest of Honor!
 
With his current work on Dynamite Entertainments ongoing series, The Lone Ranger, Cassaday is bringing his trademark realistic style to the hero, who celebrates his 75th anniversary this year. His covers and artistic direction have breathed new life into the Lone Ranger and provided the series with a look that grabs readers’ attention every month. Cassaday will also be tackling the equally legendary Buck Rogers on the upcoming series with Dynamite Entertainment.
 
Prior to his involvement with The Lone Ranger, Cassaday collaborated with hotshot television guru Joss Whedon on Marvel’s critically-acclaimed and award-winning series Astonishing X-Men. During his 24 issues and one giant-size special, Cassaday did everything from resurrect Colossus to pit the X-Men against the combined might of an entire race of aliens bent on putting a bullet through the earth. Because of Cassaday’s epic artwork, Marvel’s mutants looked more compelling than they had in decades.
 
Through his work with Warren Ellis on WildStorm’s Planetary, Cassaday showed the comic buying population his wide range. Chilling horror, campy sci-fi, thrilling espionage and daring super-heroics were all depicted and conquered by Cassaday’s pencil-clutching hand. His work on Planetary has earned him numerous awards and unparalleled respect from his peers.
 
During Wizard World Texas, Cassaday will be meeting and greeting his devoted fans and will be involved in various signings and programming events throughout the weekend. Be sure to go to www.wizardworld.com for updates about guests and programming and to save 20 percent off the price of tickets by ordering now. Wizard World, the largest family-friendly comics and pop culture convention in the United States, returns to Texas November 7-9 at the Arlington Convention Center. More Information and exclusives to be announced!
 

In February, 1986, the original five X-Men again teamed up in “X-Factor,” one of the earlier “X-Men” spinoffs and one not handled by regular “X-Men” writer Chris Claremont.

Bob Layton handled the writing for “X-Factor” #1, which was drawn by Jackson “Butch” Guice. Jean Grey had recently returned from the dead, in the pages of “Fantastic Four” and “The Avengers.” She had been Marvel Girl, one of the original five X-Men, along with Angel, Cyclops, Beast and Iceman.

In the classic “Dark Phoenix Saga,” she had given up her life — but, as revealed in this issue, the Phoenix wasn’t actually Jean Grey. A mystical “phoenix force” had replaced Jean, and was the entity that perished. Jean was found, still alive, preserved in a cocoon, only the worse for wear by the diminishing of her telepathic abilities. (Her telekinetic abilities, however, increased.)

That’s a lot to take, but, given that the editorial idea at the time was to reunite the original X-Men, I suppose the way they brought Jean back wasn’t the worst. (I believe writer Kurt Busiek came up with the idea.) Still, it does somewhat undermine the “Dark Phoenix Saga,” and, as I’ll get into later, sets Cyclops up to look like a real jerk.

Jean’s revival happened at a fortuitous time for three of her former teammates — Angel, Beast and Iceman were returning to civilian life after the dissolution of their previous super-hero team, the Defenders. But because of discrimination against mutants, Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, wasn’t having any luck finding a position in the world of academia.

The less-obviously mutated Iceman, Bobby Drake, became an accountant, but missed the adventuring life. And Angel, aka millionaire Warren Worthington III, sought direction.

Jean’s return spurred all of them to again work together, along with Cyclops, Scott Summers, the original leader of the X-Men. Scott and Jean had been in love, and her return affected him the most. His marriage — to Jean’s lookalike Madelyne Pryor — was seemingly on the rocks. Despite the birth of a son, Scott couldn’t shake his feelings for Jean. Now, that she’s again alive, he’s along for the ride, whether or not he agrees with the mission.

The mission, developed by Angel with college roommate Cameron Hodge, now a marketing expert, is to work with the anti-mutant hysteria to help mutants. The five original X-Men will position themselves as “X-Factor,” a mutant-hunting organization that would secretly take in and train the mutants they hunted.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to take a moment and say, what?

It’s kind of a ridiculous premise. And it seems likely to incite even more of the problems the team members want to eliminate. I remember, from reading the book at the time, that this was eventually dealt with — but here, it’s just presented as the new status quo. The X-Factor guys take a job, sneak into X-Men like costumes and subdue the mutants, explain what they’re doing, then switch back into their Ghostbuster-like gear and present a bill.

As mentioned earlier, another problem with this issue is that Cyclops, who I generally like, comes off horribly. He’s mopey, he’s jerky, and he leaves his wife and baby with nary a word. Now, Maddy doesn’t come off well in this story, either, but there’s almost no way to finish reading this issue and root for Cyclops.

Still, the art by Guice is good, and Layton had a good handle on what was expected in the Jim Shooter-era Marvel Comics. Despite the mounds of exposition and backstory needed to get issue 1 off the ground, it’s readable, if wordy. Layton only did a handful of issues of “X-Factor” before handing the title over to Louise Simonson. It seems like there’s probably quite a behind-the-scenes story to be told about the genesis and early years of “X-Factor,” and it could be one more entertaining than the book itself. I still found “X-Factor” #1 to be an interesting time capsule of a highly anticipated launch in the mid-1980s.

– Matt Price

A very realistic-looking Wolverine on the convention floor at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Matt Fraction, who joins the writing team on “Uncanny X-Men” with the recent issue No. 500, said mutantkind as a whole would be packing up and moving to San Franscisco, in the X-Men panel at Comic-Con International.  Fraction indicated the team would have a rotating cast of characters.

It’s “the biggest seismic change in X-Men history,” editor Nick Lowe said, as reported by Comic Book Resources.

– Matt Price 

Matt Fraction joins Ed Brubaker as a co-writer on “Uncanny X-Men,” and I may not have been this potentially excited about the X-Men since Grant Morrison left.  (Well, I liked “Astonishing” an awful lot, too.)  Greg Land begins his run as the artist on “Uncanny,” and Marvel sent out four preview pages from “Uncanny X-Men” #500.  Also included — the Alex Ross, Greg Land and Michael Turner covers for “Uncanny X-Men” #500.   “Uncanny X-Men” #500 goes on sale July 23.

– Matt Price

Check out the second trailer for the 2009 cartoon “Wolverine and the X-Men.”

Supervising producer Craig Kyle, head writer Greg Johnson and others involved with the new X-Men cartoon will speak about the series at Comic-Con International on Saturday, July 26 at 8:30PM PT in Room 6CDEF, where fans can be the first to see the three-part pilot.  The series will air on Nicktoons in 2009.

Marvel.com has more information:

“When an explosive event shatters the lives of the X-Men and takes away their mentor, the beaten heroes walk away from it all.
But then they’re given a rare glimpse into the future, and see a world in utter ruin, ruled by mutant hunting Sentinels. A world that spiraled out of control because the X-Men had given up.
So now the most legendary of all X-Men takes the lead - Wolverine! Reuniting these broken heroes, Wolverine embarks on the ultimate mission - to prevent the world’s destruction.
To rescue us from ourselves. To save the future.”

– Matt Price

From Marvel:

Marvel is proud to unveil superstar artist Lee Bermejo’s cover, premiering at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 23^rd, to the hotly-anticipated Astonishing X-Men #25, as the red-hot team of legendary scribe Warren Ellis (Thunderbolts) and acclaimed artist Simone Bianchi (Wolverine) begin the second stage of the top-selling X-series! With a new home and a new mission, the Astonishing X-Men welcome a familiar face to the team—Storm—as they enter uncharted territory in a story that’ll shake them to their cores as part of X-Men: Manifest Destiny!

Freshly redesigned Newsarama has an eight-page preview of “Wolverine” #66, which kicks off the “Old Man Logan” storyline by the “Civil War” creative team of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.

–  Matt Price 

In news that’s sure to thrill my podcast partner Kyle Roberts, the crafty Cajun X-Man Gambit returns in “X-Men Legacy” #213.

From Marvel:

Following the explosive events of last issue, X-Men: Legacy #213 (a Divided We Stand tie-in) picks up right where the action-packed firefight left off! With the surprising return of the Ragin Cajun, Gambit, Charles must resume putting the pieces of his memory back together while continuing to ward off opposition. X-Men: Legacy #213, written by superstar writer Mike Carey, will shed some light on a particular sinister x-villain that may have had something to do with Xavier’s childhood. Combined with the rich pencils of Scot Eaton, the return of everyone’s favorite New Orleans’s native has this issue packed with so much kinetic energy it will be exploding off store shelves. …

How far can Remy LeBeau take Charles along his quest to trace his past? To find out what role Gambit’s former love has in Xavier’s quest and what the shocking revelations are surrounding Sebastian Shaw, be sure to pick X-Men: Legacy #213!

“X-Men: Legacy” #213 is set for a June 25 release.

Greg Elwell, Kyle Roberts and I discuss some of this week’s new comics on the weekly comics podcast.  Grant Morrison X2 this week, with “Batman” #677, the second part of “Batman RIP,” along with the kickoff of DC’s big crossover “Final Crisis” #1.  Mark Millar starts a new series, tied into the 1980s series “Secret Wars,” with “Marvel 1985″ #1, and Joss Whedon and John Cassaday wrap up their X-Men run with “Giant Size Astonishing X-Men” #1.

– Matt Price