What's Really Going on With the X-Men??

And also an update on my own comic!

Author

John Garrett
November 05, 2023

The Bill Collectors

I know everybody hates bill collectors… unless it’s my upcoming comic about a group of worldwide, anarchic troublemakers The Bill Collectors: Someone Must Pay One-Shot!

My artist, Leonardo Romanelli, got the artwork done and the past few weeks have had me dropping in the lettering and making Photoshop adjustments here and there as needed. It doesn’t go anywhere near as fast as I would like, unfortunately.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to attempt to get this published traditionally or go the Kickstarter route, so that fateful decision is looming over me like the sword of Damocles.

Either way, for now check out this awesome art in the first 2 pages of the comic!

Pretty cool, eh?? EH???

For now, I’m still finishing up the lettering and some of the layouts, plus there’s still the cover to be dealt with, but overall the lion’s share of the work has been done.

I can’t wait for the whole thing to come out. Very exciting times, guys!

X-MEN #28 | COMIC RECAP

Boy, check out that cover!

Not only do we have the Juggernaut (possibly best known for his early-2000’s meme that I won’t repeat here), but also Firestar (possibly best known from her introduction way back in the 80’s in the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon - love that opening!).

Anyway, what the heck is going on here???

[there are going to be some spoilers here, so if you want to read this for yourself first go check it out here:

this is not an affiliate link in case that matters to anyone.]

The Backstory:

Mutants formed their own nation on the sentient island of Krakoa (the island first appeared as enemy to the X-Men in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 - the comic that introduced the “New” more popular X-Men).

After coming to an agreement with the Krakoa, they used the island’s unique plant life to create miracle drugs which they used to essentially barter their way into the United Nations.

All mutants were welcomed, even Apocalypse and the Juggernaut, former enemies of the X-Men.

Things were good for a couple of years, in which mutants enjoyed safety in their new homeland, discovered a long-lost nation of mutants, and even colonized Mars.

However, the enemies of mutantkind - the Orchis organization and their allies - were constantly at work, plotting to bring down the Krakoan nation.

As you can see, the cover text states “Fall of X”, so this has unfortunately come to pass.

After a sneak attack, almost everything accomplished by the mutants nation was undone.

The miracle drugs were poisoned, making it look like an attack on Humanity.

Most mutants were sent off the Earth, when Charles Xavier, in an attempt to save lives, mentally forced all mutants to leave the planet (through teleportation portals that mutants themselves had created).

Only a handful of mutants (ones trained by Xavier himself or those just strong enough to resist) were able to remain on the planet, where they are hunted by the giant Sentinel robots, which have been created with Stark technology, as Tony Stark has lost control of his company.

The present:

Back to this issue. Firestar worked with Orchis to bring down Krakoa, and is still working with them, one of the only mutants allowed to roam free.

Wait, what??

Let’s back up again. During the sneak attack on Krakoa, Jean Grey managed a last-minute, desperate strategy before she herself, was killed (again). She telepathically placed the knowledge in the minds of key Orchis players that Firestar had been working for them the whole time.

While it’s a great strategy, you don’t want to actually be that double-agent.

She’s working for people who despise her, and she’s already only barely managed to survive a couple of assassination attempts from X-Men who see her as a traitor.

So back to this issue, Juggernaut was defeated during the attack by an advanced Sentinel from the future called Nimrod.

I know you’re asking how?? How can the Juggernaut be beaten?

But this is historically accurate, as seen in one of Nimrod’s earliest appearances waaaaay back in X-Men #194 from 1985.

Awesome cover, huh??

So anyway, both Juggernaut and Cyclops have been “guests” of Orchis since their defeat, and Firestar managed to get Juggernaut out.

The problem: he still thought she was a traitor, so much violence ensued after his release.

Seriously though, Firestar has been beaten up and threatened more in the past few months than I can remember in her entire comics career.

Other tidbits:

Someone let Ms. Marvel into this party. Who’s responsible for this outrage??Oh, wait. Turns out she’s a secret mutant. Ok, then. Carry on.

Ms. Marvel is a character that I never liked. She was one of those teenagers that seemed to act older than she really was, always telling the other characters to grow up or something to that effect.

I used to groan audibly when I would read her in the pages of Avengers or the Champions (an all teen group in which a young, time-displaced Cyclops was also a member).

To be fair, it seems like they’re trying to lighten her up a bit these days, so hopefully this personality sticks.

Finally, almost as an apology for including Ms. Marvel, in the set-up for next issue we get to see one of my favorite characters… DR. DOOM.

I can’t rest easy, though. Whenever Doom appears, much like the old Forrest Gump chocolate box analogy, you can never be sure what you’re gonna get.

Sometimes he’s the most dangerous, most complex adversary ever, and sometimes he’s written as a complete buffoon.

I’d prefer to see him written as the former, but these days it looks like I can usually expect the latter.

Offhand I can’t remember if I’ve ever read Dr. Doom as written by Gerry Duggan (the writer of this issue), so I’m going to keep hope alive that X-Men #29 features an actually competent Doom and not a Bwah-ha-haaaa fist-clencher.

The Wrap-Up

The bottom line is I not only recommend X-Men #28, but if you haven’t caught up with the X-Men in a while, check out the start of the “Krakoan Era” with the collected trade paperback “House of X/Powers of X”:

[again, not an affiliate link]

Be warned: this is some really dense reading.

If you read it let me know what you thought, and for those of you who haven’t got into X-Men in awhile then I envy you the great reading ahead of you.

Take care everyone, and I’ll see you next time!

-John G