Please note, this is total conjecture. I have no evidence of any of this. I’m just reading the tea leaves as I see them.
Amazing X-Men #1
Written by Jason Aaron
Illustrated by Ed McGuinnessAn AMAZING new era for the X-Men starts here! Ever since his Nightcrawler’s death in X-MEN MESSIAH COMPLEX, the X-Men have been without their heart and soul. After learning that their friend may not be gone after all, it’s up to WOLVERINE, STORM, BEAST, ICEMAN, NORTHSTAR and FIRESTAR to find and bring back the fan favorite fuzzy blue elf! Super star artist ED MCGUINNESS (HULK) joins master X-Writer JASON AARON (WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN, X-MEN: SCHISM) to bring you the most exciting comic on the stands!
That solicitation makes the thesis of “Amazing X-Men” very clear – Nightcrawler, though “dead,” might be savable, and his friends are going on a mission to get him back.
But that just doesn’t seem right to me.
Titles are a funny thing in comics – “Detective Comics” tells stories about one detective, and doesn’t always shine a spotlight on his detective skills. “Action Comics” has almost always been about Superman, and not all the issues are all that action packed. Are the X-Men really, at all times, astonishing, uncanny, and adjective-less?
But when a new series is launched, the title truly does matter. Certain insinuations are made based on what the name of the book is, and certain expectations are set by the block letters on the top 1/4 of the cover. Adding “Dark” to a title lets the reader know that this won’t be the sunniest tale the Avengers or the Justice League ever had. By calling Spider-Man “superior,” we knew that it wasn’t the Spidey we’ve come to love.
And so, “Amazing” as the adjective on a new X-Men title got me thinking long and hard about what exactly to expect from this book. With the exception of a brief “Age of Apocalypse” series of the same title, “Amazing” is an adjective that isn’t typically associated with the X-Men – it is one, however, that is frequently associated with another Marvel hero: Spider-Man. Specifically, the Peter Parker incarnation.
Interesting.
Spidey debuted in 1962 in “Amazing Fantasy” #15, before launching “The Amazing Spider-Man” the next year, a series that just wrapped up in 2012. Folks of my generation will remember the cartoon “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,” which debuted a character known as Firestar to the Marvel universe.
The same Firestar which happens to be a member of this X-Men team, along with Iceman, Spidey’s other “amazing” friend.
Interesting.
While Firestar and Iceman are both mutants, and therefore fit into the X-Men team naturally, teaming them up cannot be done without winking back to that cartoon. Hell, for many comics fans, I’m sure the revelation that Firestar exists in comics continuity at all is a bit of a shock. It is rare for a character to have been created in animation and migrate over to comics (Hi, Harley Quinn!), especially when the character wasn’t exactly a hugely popular fan favorite.
The rest of the team, sans Northstar, all has some history with Spidey, too. Wolverine, Beast and Storm have all been Avengers alongside Spidey, and Wolvie and Spidey even had a team-up miniseries a few years ago, written by Jason Aaron, who happens to be writing this series.
Interesting.
I do think that this issue, and potentially the first arc, are about Nightcrawler. However, I think there are just too many clues tying Spidey to this story. If Dan Slott is really winding down his Spider-tale, someone else would have to take over that character – who better than Aaron, a proven storyteller who would be treading new ground by working on the webhead. With the media blitz that will be surrounding The Amazing Spider-Man 2 next summer, I can’t believe that we won’t see Peter Parker back in a comic titled “The Amazing Spider-Man” at some point near the May release date for that film. One of Spidey’s most iconic villains is Mephisto, literally a hell demon. Perhaps Otto made a deal with Mephisto before he pulled his switcheroo to keep Parker under his control, safe and far away from Earth. So, when the X-Men wind up in Hell, doesn’t it seem likely that they could run into Mephisto – perhaps with Parker in tow?
I don’t know if this will happen in tomorrow’s debut issue, but I can’t help but feel that this is a back-door way to bring Peter Parker back, bring Jason Aaron onboard as the new Spider-scribe, and explain why, or all mutants, Firestar is on this team. Time will tell, I suppose.
Tell me how nuts I am in the comments.
