Marvel Help

[Derek Bodner]

Alright guys, I'm really confused.  I'm sitting here trying to get back into comics, but everything's changed.  I've picked up a few books, but I'm trying to decide what to stick with.

Seems like Wolverine's series has been restarted, under Marvel Knights?  Is this still in normal continuity, just restarted as more "mature"?

Meaning the 125 or so issues of wolverine I read in the past aren't in vain?  Of course, I have a lot of back history to catch up on, as when I stopped reading he still had bone claws.

X-Men:
Alright, so we've still got X-Men and Uncanny.  What are the typical character lineups?  What's astonishing X-Men?  All in normal continuity?  (This "ultimate" thing has me questioning everything now).

What is with the "New" line of books?

Would New X-Men be kinda like Generation-X of the past?

Is the only current Avengers book the New Avengers?  And what's the lineup?  Spider-Man and Wolverine?

Marvel Knights Spiderman?  Same questions as Wolverine.  Same continuity?  Just added a book to go along with Amazing and...what other (current continuity, non ultimate) monthly spiderman books are there?

And what's this House of M storyline?

[Skandery]

I'll try and help you with what I can.  

Like I said before in the F4 thread, the Ultimate titles are all a different universe than the mainstream Marvel Universe.  In the Ultimate line, they restarted everything fresh, a new modern take on all your favorite characters.  When you first see a character introduced in an Ultimate comic, you are seeing them for the first time ever.  As far as telling which comics are in the Ultimate Universe, if it is, it will have the word Ultimate in the title.  So Astonishing X-Men for example is in the normal Universe.  

Ultimate X-Men - Vaughan and Immonen - This book is always cool to read, although there have been lapses in the artwork.  Latest story was the introduction of Longshot and Mojo.  The teammates would consist of Wolverine, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Kitty, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Dazzler, Storm.  In the Ultimate Universe, Rogue has run away with Gambit (who has never been on the X-Men).  And Beast is dead!!    

In the normal Marvel Universe, you've got:

X-Men and Uncanny X-Men

X-Men - Peter Milligan and Sal Larocca - Awesome book, really talented artwork.  A normal lineup would consist of Havok (leader), Iceman, Polaris, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, and Emma Frost.  The latest storyline (Milligan's first) was Golgotha, giant mushroom slugs driving people bonkers.  This has really brought the Gambit-Rogue relationship to the forefront, and the Havok-Polaris-Iceman love triangle to bear, you see Lorna Dane is now Iceman's woman.

Uncanny X-Men - Chris Claremont and Alan Davis - Okay book, Pretty good artwork.  Never been as high on Davis' work or Claremont's storytelling as others.  A normal team would be Storm, Bishop, Nightcrawler, X-23, Psylocke, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma Frost.  The latest storyline was the attempted takeover of the planet by a Savageland race evolved from Dinosaurs called the Hauk'ka.  

General Story Trends:  Professor X no longer lives in the mansion, he is presiding over Genosha in the capacity that Magneto had since Mags is supposedly dead again....  So Emma Frost, the White Queen fulfills the Prof's role.  She is the head mistress of the school and the person who helms Cerebra (a more State of the Art version of Cerebro).  Cyclops has taken responsibility of personnel decisions and is the highest in the chain of command, he doesn't really go out on missions much.  And by the way, his sweetie is the White Queen, Jean Grey (Phoenix) sacrificed her life in Uncanny #450.  So the Marvel girl you see on the Uncanny team is actually her daughter from a different reality, Rachel Summers.  Due to the popularity of Wolvie, he's in both titles pretty regularly.  Psylocke thought to be deceased in X-treme X-men (issue 2) has recently been resurrected in the Hauk'ka storyline.  Colossus has been dead for quite some time, now....Uncanny X-men (issue 390).  His sacrifice ended the threat posed by the Legacy Virus.

Those are the three issues I've collected continuously and religiously, these others I don't collect so I'll have less info.    

Astonishing X-Men - Joss Whedon and Cassaday - Don't collect this but I've heard great things about this book and some of you may know Whedon as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series (Sarah Michelle Gellar).  

New X-Men - Forget who does this book but it is re-hashing the New Mutants idea.  Remember that comic in the 80s that brought kids (Cannonball, Moonstar, etc.) and it was like the X-Men minor leagues, this is like the new version of that.  

Now about your question as to whether any of the Wolverine continuity is still intact because they restarted the series, the answer is Yes.  Around 2002, they decided to restart a bunch of the series from #1 on.  They also came out with new ones, Cable became Soldier X.  Bishop became District X.  Now while the numbers were reset, none of the backstory has changed on these characters so I doubt they erased all of Wolverine's past.  And No, he doesn't have bone claws anymore, somebody kidnapped him in his ongoing series and did the same thing to him again.  

I would think the Marvel Knights Spiderman would be the same, but I'm not a 100%.  Marvel Knights is the adult imprint of Marvel but still in the normal Marvel Universe (same continuity), sort of like Vertigo with DC.    

The New Avengers title is the only Avengers title I'm aware of (in the normal Universe) and yes Spiderman and Wolverine are now on that team.  Remember "The Ultimates" is the Avengers in the Ultimate universe.

House of M, haven't started reading it yet, but its one those stories that'll cross-over quite a few titles (Astonishing, New X-Men, Uncanny, Avengers).

That's all I got.

[Derek Bodner]

Great!  Thanks.

I actually think Colossus came back.  At least that's the impression I got when reading Astonishing.

can't believe they killed off Phoenix  :eek2:
I'll have to go pick up that story line.

Thanks for the rundown, that helps a lot.  I'm gonna have to decide on 3-4 titles/month and stick with that.

[Guest_Randy]

I'm a HUGE Marvel (well, comic book but more so Marvel) fan here.  

However, while Jean Grey did sacrifice her life as the Dark Phoenix, there was a great deal left "open" for the Phoenix to rise again -- as if her spirit wasn't totally gone.  

 

[SPURSX3]

I'm a HUGE Marvel (well, comic book but more so Marvel) fan here.  

However, while Jean Grey did sacrifice her life as the Dark Phoenix, there was a great deal left "open" for the Phoenix to rise again -- as if her spirit wasn't totally gone.

wait wait wait, they killed off phoenix after the phoenix saga?  or is this a remake of the phoenix story line?  after jean grey dies isn't Mr. Sinister suppossed to create Madylin Pryor to replace jean grey and eventually bear a child from scott summers?   did they change the whole story behind that?

[Skandery]

wait wait wait, they killed off phoenix after the phoenix saga? or is this a remake of the phoenix story line? after jean grey dies isn't Mr. Sinister suppossed to create Madylin Pryor to replace jean grey and eventually bear a child from scott summers? did they change the whole story behind that?

The new storyline doesn't mess with any of that.  

A long LONG time ago (Uncanny 101) I think Jean Grey did supposedly died in the first Phoenix saga.  Mr. Sinister fashioned Madylin Pryor to look like Jean Grey.  Cyclops fell in love with her (thinking it was Jean) and they had a kid name Nathan Summers.  The infant was infected with a techno-virus by Apocalypse and had to be whisked to the far future (by Rachel Summers - Askani Mother) to have a chance at survival.  That infant grew up to be the leader known as Cable and as an older man traveled back to the present.  The real Jean was later found in stasis at the bottom of the Hudson and the whole lie about Pryor and Sinister came out.  Pryor eventually turned evil and became the Goblin Queen.  

The recent storyline that runs 448-450 or thereabouts doesn't involve Pryor, Cable, Dark Phoenix, at all.  It is simply Jean sacrificing herself to save all her teammates from certain death.  I'm not going into details, otherwise Derek won't enjoy the issues as much.  Now of course they leave a little window for her comeback like they always do.  Most obvious is that at the time of her death, Jean had grown so comfortable with the Phoenix entity that resided within her that she was for all purposes the most powerful mutant on Earth.  Meaning in a duel between Professor X and Jean Grey, my bet would have gone with Jean Grey at that point in time.  

  I actually think Colossus came back. At least that's the impression I got when reading Astonishing.

First I've heard of that.  Good for Colossus, I've always thought he was taken for granted.

Thanks for the rundown, that helps a lot. I'm gonna have to decide on 3-4 titles/month and stick with that.

If you want some advice I'd go with X-Men, Amazing Spiderman (JMS-creator of B5 writes this one), Astonishing X-Men, and depending on which you favor (Ultimate X-Men or Ultimate Spiderman).  Supreme Power is such a great series (published by MAX and also written by JMS), but finding the early issues is going to be tough.    
     

[Skandery]

wait wait wait, they killed off phoenix after the phoenix saga? or is this a remake of the phoenix story line? after jean grey dies isn't Mr. Sinister suppossed to create Madylin Pryor to replace jean grey and eventually bear a child from scott summers? did they change the whole story behind that?

The new storyline doesn't mess with any of that.  

A long LONG time ago (Uncanny 101) I think Jean Grey did supposedly died in the first Phoenix saga.  Mr. Sinister fashioned Madylin Pryor to look like Jean Grey.  Cyclops fell in love with her (thinking it was Jean) and they had a kid name Nathan Summers.  The infant was infected with a techno-virus by Apocalypse and had to be whisked to the far future (by Rachel Summers - Askani Mother) to have a chance at survival.  That infant grew up to be the leader known as Cable and as an older man traveled back to the present.  The real Jean was later found in stasis at the bottom of the Hudson and the whole lie about Pryor and Sinister came out.  Pryor eventually turned evil and became the Goblin Queen.  

The recent storyline that runs 448-450 or thereabouts doesn't involve Pryor, Cable, Dark Phoenix, at all.  It is simply Jean sacrificing herself to save all her teammates from certain death.  I'm not going into details, otherwise Derek won't enjoy the issues as much.  Now of course they leave a little window for her comeback like they always do.  Most obvious is that at the time of her death, Jean had grown so comfortable with the Phoenix entity that resided within her that she was for all purposes the most powerful mutant on Earth.  Meaning in a duel between Professor X and Jean Grey, my bet would have gone with Jean Grey at that point in time.  

  I actually think Colossus came back. At least that's the impression I got when reading Astonishing.

First I've heard of that.  Good for Colossus, I've always thought he was taken for granted.

Thanks for the rundown, that helps a lot. I'm gonna have to decide on 3-4 titles/month and stick with that.

If you want some advice I'd go with X-Men, Amazing Spiderman (JMS-creator of B5 writes this one), Astonishing X-Men, and depending on which you favor (Ultimate X-Men or Ultimate Spiderman).  Supreme Power is such a great series (published by MAX and also written by JMS), but finding the early issues is going to be tough.    
     

[Guest_Randy]

Colossus was always my favorite in the original XMen -- one of my best friends in college had 15 of the original XMen 1st series comic books -- all in mint condition.  He literally had thousands and thousands of comics.  I gave him a #50 Superman I had been given years ago and a #8 Conan the Barbarian (not a great comic).  One was worth some money -- the other was not.  When he got engaged, he sold his entire collection for $20,000 and bought engagement rings and put down $10,000 for a down payment on his house.  He used to bring me my favorites -- had almost the entire series of Avengers (they later separated to make two series), XMen, Thor, Iron Man, and Spiderman.  He had other series I read -- F4, Daredevil, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Batman, several others that I will have to stop an dremember.  Obviously, I tried to keep up on my favorites but I have lost touch to some degree.

He came back to the XMen for a little while but they brought out his own series for a little while -- something to do with his Russian homeland, if memory serves me correctly.

[Guest_Randy]

Wow, how could I forget the SILVER SURFER!!!  Wow, what a great series!  He also had Ghost Rider (the entire series) which isn't really one of my favorites at all and Moon Knight (also not a favorite).

Silver Surfer, herald for Galactus, was an incredible series -- LOVED it!