Back With A Vengeance
So I took about three weeks off from this. Fortunately, I had no comics out then (although there were comics I could have promoted - mea culpa) so I could be burned out (and have a birthday) without too much consequence. But now there ARE books out! And big ones! And it's already Wednesday!
So let's dive right in and ask...
WHAT'S OUT TODAY?
X-Men Red #14, that's what!
The FALL OF X has begun - and we're dealing with some of the fallout. To wit, why Arakko - the mutant planet that once was Mars - doesn't leap to the defence of their cousins on Earth. Well, it's because they're dealing with a civil war sparked by ORCHIS and their collection of assorted fascists. Apocalypse's wife Genesis has returned from Amenth, the Annihilation Staff in her hand - and as we'll see, she's brought a carrot or two to go with that stick. On the other side - the Brotherhood, shell-shocked, battered, damaged... and pissed. The incomparable Yildiray Cenar brings it to artistic life and Federico Blee provides the colors.
Also out this week - Marvel's Voices: X-Men!
My contribution to this - with awesome art courtesy of Gustaffo Vargas and Manuel Ananda Puppo on colors - is a story focusing on Solem and Kobak, with Iceman there to offer the Earth perspective and, let's be honest, a little A-list glamour. Also, he's the most closeted character at Marvel, in that he has been textually closeted for the longest time - I get into this in the backmatter, but for fictional cape characters, "the closet" is a Schroedinger-like space where even if they're depicted as in it, they're already out to a vast population, i.e the readers. Though leaving the closet is often an ongoing process, perhaps a better equivalent would be those characters secretly laboring under the weight of decades of subtext, never destined - or permitted - to step into the light of text.
But though Iceman spent a long time in the closet, it was a different closet to mine -- and since superfolks don't age, the pool of other characters suitable for a "coming out bi late in life" story was quite small, which meant coming at the story from another angle. But what? Luckily, I realized there was a bi X-type with a juicy untold story in their past that I was eager to get the facts on - someone who could also say a little about respectability politics and the need to live unashamed. Thank you, Solem, for showing me the way! I enjoyed writing him so much I immediately put him in X-Men Red #15, so watch out for that. He sings a song.
And that's that!
It's a short one - but we are technically back in action, so, once again, this is the place to find me. Love and strength to all who need it, and I'll play us out with "Moments Of Pleasure" by Kate Bush.
