Archive for June, 2013

Hyperion's Rogue TouchI was looking up the release date of the new novel Rogue Touch which is a Marvel issued, Hyperon published, full length novel centered around Rogue (comes out June 18th in the USA btw), and I came across some more information regarding the book.

Here is what Amazon has listed in its description:

“An interesting take on Rogue, as her powers take her down a path I never would have imagined.” –Chris Claremont, author of Dragon Moon and writer for seventeen years of Uncanny X-Men

Twenty-year-old Anna Marie was just fired for the third time–this time from a bakery. Why can’t she hold a job? Well, for starters, she dresses . . . differently. She looks like a Goth girl to the extreme, her shock of white hair contrasting with her head-to-toe black garb, her face the only skin she chooses to reveal. But Anna Marie doesn’t have a choice. Her skin, her touch, is a deadly weapon that must be concealed. She accidentally put her first boyfriend, Cody, in a coma when they kissed. Horrified, she ran away to Jackson, Mississippi, where she’s been living alone in a cramped apartment and scraping by on food stamps.

Then she meets otherworldly James and everything changes. He’s just like her–completely alone and also on the run. To elude James’s mysterious and dangerous family, the pair takes to the highway. As they cross the country, their simmering attraction intensifies and they both open up about their secretive pasts. James reveals that his true name is Touch and he christens Anna Marie Rogue. But with danger at their heels, they know they can’t run forever. Rogue must decide if she’ll unleash her devastating powers once again, which she swore never to do, in order to save the only person who seems truly to understand and accept her.

“A lost chapter from Rogue’s past, told with elegance and conviction and attention to detail. Really entertaining.” –Mike Carey, author of the Felix Castor novels and writer of X-Men: Legacy

Let’s start with the quote from Chris Claremont, Rogue’s creator. I’m not sure if he’s being genuine that this new take on Rogue is something fresh, or if that’s just thinly veiled sarcasm. I’m going with sarcasm.

Then we get to the first part of the blurb which is basically what we’ve already seen before but a few more details. We now know Rogue is 20 years old in the book, working at a bakery (which, I guess, is like a step up from a diner which is canon?), she has the style of Evo-Rogue and she’s living in a small apartment (which Chellerbelle did in her Thieves Guild fan fiction series).

The second part of the blurb just kinda pisses me off. I had hoped James was just Gambit using a pseudonym but apparently it’s some mutant who is PRETTY MUCH GAMBIT minus the red eyes, and apparently he’s called Touch. Seriously? Why is he called Touch? Does he touch things and they, dunno, explode (like Gambit, if I hadn’t made that any more obvious)? I could accept James being some other love interest as long as he was his own character, but to make him so blatantly like Gambit and not be Gambit? That’s just… I haven’t got the words.

Lastly, we get a quote from Mike Carey, who is one of Rogue’s better writers, and he seems to have a lot nicer things to say about the book, though it seems a little stiff to me. Especially as the publishers are quoting two names Rogue fans are going to instantly know and respect, as if they are trying really hard to sell the book.

Oh well, I’m still going to buy it anyway, I just hope I don’t end up breaking something when I throw it.

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Benicio Del ToroCasting news has been dropping fast regarding the newest franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Deadline reports that Benicio Del Toro has been signed on for multiple films, the first that I’ve really heard of this being specifically mentioned with GOTG which means it’s likely a deal for other non-GOTG films.

Could Del Toro be playing the villain? One who, like Loki, will be brought over into Avengers 2 as the big bad? Del Toro would definitely make the kind of villain that would cause the Avengers to step up their game. But we already have three villains in Lee Pace, Michael Rooker and Karen Gillan… though, minions do often come in threes…

I suppose Del Toro could be playing a good guy but we already have our Star-Lord and most of the Guardian gang which would leave Del Toro a voice-role only. I dunno, just can’t see him as Rocket Raccoon myself.

In any case, this movie is racking in some serious talent with all signs pointing to awesome.

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And here it is, the first full trailer for X-Men: The (fan fic) Series. This trailer encompasses the first episode (story) only. A larger trailer which will touch on the first half of the first season will be coming next month.

XMTFFS: Trailer #1

From the fan fiction writers who gave you X-Men: Among Thieves,
Squeaky and Stripes, and the Gym Class (Anti) Hero series,
comes an all new X-Men fan fic series unlike
anything you’ve seen before.

“Magneto will continue to escalate until he’s given the government no choice but to declare war on the Brotherhood,” Storm spoke with surety and sadness in her voice, “and that war will spill over into non-combatants both mutant and human alike.”

“We can’t sit idly by when we have a chance to do something to protect ourselves, our kind, and everyone caught in the middle,” Scott told the group gathered.

“I wish you’d let me deal with those trouble makers,” Logan emphasized his words with a snikt.

“As I have said many times, Logan,” Charles replied sternly, “I will not let you be party to murder on my account.”

“Truth of the matter is, Professor,” Scott spoke with a released fervor, “we’re out-gunned. Magneto’s Acolytes, this is what they do.”

“Well, at least you’re learning,” Rogue frowned as she took in the high collar leather biker jacket Logan wore, with matching full gloves, leaving only the skin of his head vulnerable to her touch. “What we at now, 12-8?”

“I don’t keep track,” he said with a growl, releasing the adamantium claws in his other hand.

“Sure ya do,” she winked, then made her move. 

 

Part of the floor gave way under Cyclops who dropped with it onto the level below. 

 “So, what, you’re creating ice out of the air moisture?”

“Yeah,” Bobby furrowed his brow in confusion at Pyro’s polite conversation, his eyes darting side to side as if he was expecting to be attacked, “pretty much.”

Pyro sighed and shook his head lightly, “That’s so not fair.”

Clicking at his control pad, the Australian grinned as a streak of green flame shot out from the nozzle of his flamethrower and he kept pumping fuel into a menagerie of mythical beasts of at least two sphinx, a Cerberus, a dragon, a couple of centaurs, and one drop bear…

 

Frustrated at her inability to land a strike on exposed flesh, Rogue let out an involuntary growl as she turned to face him.

“Same ol’ moves there, skunk,” Wolverine brought his claws up.

She raised her fists, “Bring it, short stack.”

Charles regarded the young man for a long moment, “What are you suggesting, Scott?”

“That we have a dedicated team as well,” he was expecting the Professor to say something. When he didn’t, Scott continued. “That we train together, learn how to work in-synch with each other, and how best to contain the Acolytes. Otherwise, we might as well stay home next time something happens.”

Again, the older gentleman was quiet before finally asking, “And who would be on this team?”

“I don’t think you quite understand what Scott’s asking,” of the three, John-Paul was the most reserved about the situation, “he’s wanting you to fight,” his eyes flicked over to Scott’s, “to be a soldier.”

 

“They’re watching their teachers train for what is essentially a war,” Wolverine gruffed, “and you’re worried about a little Canadian brew?” 

“I’m not sure about this,” Scott frowned as he stood fifty feet from Jean Grey out on the lawn.

“I’ve been successful in testing this.”

“I understand that, but,” he really didn’t like the idea of shooting his optic beam directly at the woman, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re not going to hurt me, Scott,” she smiled at him, one full of faith, “you could never hurt me, trust me.”

“Just ‘cause I’m a cryokinetic,” Bobby was standing in front of a row of Roman Candle fireworks, each one lit at a different time and shooting out the little balls of fire at random intervals, “why do I have to deal with the crazy pyrokinetic?”

Scott winced at the word ‘soldier’, “More like a policeman, or a fireman.”

“Ain’t much of a difference from where I stand,” John-Paul would be the one to know.

“I have no interest in creating an army,” Scott assured him, “but Magneto needs to be stopped, for everyone’s sake.”

 

“Excuse me,” a voice said behind them and they turned around to see the thin wisp of a figure that was Katherine Pryde standing with her hands on her hips. “I want in.”

 

“Logan isn’t a team player and John-Paul is a soldier. Both know you have more experience with dealing with Magneto and the Brotherhood, they’ll follow your lead as long as you don’t screw up,” Jean gave Scott a wink, “no pressure.”

 

“You might want to remind Charles that the Brotherhood is stepping up their game, the government is a tension line ready to snap in all directions.”

 

“This processor,” Kitty paused as she formed her words, knowing that at least one of them would yell at her to speak English if she said what she really wanted to, “it’s the core of a prototype lattice system to hold a unique A.I. software program. It takes the concept of the terrorist tracker and expands on it, like, a thousand fold. It’s an auto hacking, real time tracking, A.I. that will break into anything, private security, phone lines, hospital and doctor computers, you name it. Then it looks for patterns and specific tell-tale signs of mutations.” 

“Men like Magneto are exactly why Department H decided to go the way of the Weapon X program.”

 

“It feels like an arms race,” the regal looking Storm said bluntly, “but Magneto will continue his proliferation regardless of what we, or the government, do. I do not like it, but if we are to have any hope of protecting ourselves and maintaining some kind of peace, we have to be able to meet him head on.” 

 

“We all know what’s coming,” Kitty looked past Storm to the rest of the team, “Magneto intends to start a war and it’s my generation who are going to be the ones fighting it.”

“Not if we can help it,” Scott assured her.

“But you don’t know if you can, do you.”

  

“You think we’re doing the right thing?”

“I wouldn’t have joined your team if I thought otherwise,” Jean’s normally dazzling smile fell a few notches, “are you having second thoughts?”

“No, I…” Scott adjusted his ruby specs as he tried to put a voice to what he was feeling, “I still believe we need to do this, be pro-active, and I know it was my idea, but… when did this become my team?”

 

Bobby was running for his life, literally, making it out to the middle of the street as he was chased by a green fire-breathing dragon, amongst other things. He turned just in time to throw up an ice wall which the dragon slammed into, losing most of its substance, so it reformed into two smaller eagles.

Spotting Avalanche, Scott’s hand went to his visor and this time he led the target as the man attempted to dodge and struck Avalanche with his optic beam sending the Greek mutant against a nearby lamp post which buckled and fell over.  

 

Scott listened to Jean’s words but he couldn’t help thinking, “So I get to be the leader by default?”

“No,” she said softly, “you get it because you’re the right man for the job.” 

 

“Sentinel?” Scott asked.

“That’s the A.I.,” Kitty explained, “they named it Sentinel, and once it’s online… there’s nowhere we can hide where it can’t find us.”

 

“We’ll carry on with our plans,” Magneto told his gathered Acolytes, “you’ll simply have to be better prepared for the… Boy Scout troop.”

“X-Men,” Rogue blurted out as the name rang loudly in her head, “they call themselves the X-Men.” 

Tune in to X-Men: The (fan fic) Series, Friday, September 20th, 8e/7c,
for an all new fan fiction event, an ongoing fan fiction series
made in a faux-television style.

Follow the X-Men: The (fan fic) Series blog for information, updates,
sneak peaks, and behind the scenes looks at
www.xmenthefanficseries.com.

 “Ah, come on,” Kitty frowned, “I thought Canadians were supposed to be all nice and personable… and nice.”

“How many Canadians do you actually know?” John-Paul asked dryly.

“Well, you…” she had to think for a second, “and Logan.”

The Wolverine was standing off to the side with his arms crossed, an annoyed look on his face, and a growl rumbling through his chest.

Kitty sighed, “Stereotypes suck.”

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Astonishing X-Men #62Gambit has kittens!

Okay, so that wasn’t everything I took away from this issue but it was a really great moment. I heart Mystique some days, I really do.

Let’s start with the fact that Bobby is seeing a therapist of some sort, how awesome is that. Mutants in general have always been seen as analogues for groups of people who have difficulty fitting in so seeing that Bobby is accepting that he has issues and is doing something about it is great. Really, I think a lot of the crap that has gone down in the Marvel ‘verse could have easily been avoided if therapy was standard for super heroes. I just hope the fact that they didn’t show us the therapist was just artistic license and not a hint that they will turn out to be, dunno, Mr Sinister or something.

Of course, Bobby is having a time of it. During the X-Termination incident, Alt-Beast put that Death Seed into him and I don’t think it’s been taken out. His personality has gone haywire, he’s been talking to all his ex’s, and he’s causing massive cold snaps everywhere… and he realizes none of this.

Then he gets set off by over-hearing Kitty admitting that she still feels something for Peter. Bobby is basically at his lowest now, emotionally, due to the fact he just can’t seem to hold on to any girlfriend for every long. I’m actually feeling sympathy for the guy for once.

Liu’s always been a very good writer but she really knocked it out of the park on this issue, especially with the side stuff, like the kittens and the small Avengers scene. I can’t wait to see how things are going to go down and how the team is going to deal with this very vulnerable yet super-powered Iceman.

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Courtesy of LaynieGossip via Newsarama, we now have a picture of Peter Dinklage from the set of Days of Future Past.

Peter Dinklage in Days of Future Past

He is totally rocking the ’70s style with the hair and mustache. He kinda looks like a cop who is ready to just ruin your day. This is a good thing as he’s playing the villain.

But what villain?

Villains can start out in ‘regular clothes’ before developing into a costume or physical changes, so we can’t rule out plenty of options, but really, if he’s not playing Bolivar Trask then Singer better have something really clever up his sleeve because, come on, having Trask be the villain in DOFP is perfect! A man who saw mutants as an evasive exotic (to steal a phrase from the current X-Men Legacy run) and felt the need to build massive robots as guardians? Only to have the whole thing go sideways and sacrificing himself to destroy that which he created?

He is a perfect counter balance to both Xavier and Magneto, three points of the same star. If they play this right the audience won’t know who to root for and who to be sympathetic towards.

Dinklage is going to have to fight for ‘top villain’ against Michael Fassbender who really brought his A-game to the Magneto role in First Class and this is a fight I just can’t wait to see.

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Well, been telling myself I would do it and I finally did. I upgraded the blog to Premium which means I have more space to work with, can load videos, do some more custom work on the theme, but most important for the time being… I get myself a domain.

www.xmenthefanficseries.com

It’s all coming together.

I should also have a new trailer for you guys tomorrow as well.

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