Uncanny X-Men #475

WRITER: ED BRUBAKER
COVER & PENCILS: BILLY TAN
INKS: DANNY MIKI
COLORED BY: FRANK D'ARMATA
LETTERED BY: CHRIS ELIOPOULOS
PUBLISHED BY: MARVEL COMICS

THE STORY:
“THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SHI’AR EMPIRE” Part 1!
A brand new era for the Uncanny X-Men begins here! Fresh off X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS, Ed Brubaker takes the helm of Marvel’s mighty mutants. Billy Tan joins Ed for a story that won’t just affect earth, but will rock the foundations of the entire galaxy! Vulcan is out for revenge and has his sites set on the Shi’Ar Empire! Get ready for the ride of your life! A perfect starting point for any new reader!

Ed Brubaker has quickly become one of my favorite writers, I first saw his talents on his short AN ACCIDENTAL DEATH which was pure genius but didn’t realize it when I read it in Dark Horse presents like a trillion years ago but was lucky enough to find the Fantagraphics collected version for a buck! (Yay dollar bins!!!) Recently however, Brubaker won me over with his CAPTAIN AMERICA run and of course X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS, which was one of the best X-men stories to come out in recent years, it was something that Grant Morrison would have written if he had the cajones to do it! As I read DEADLY GENESIS, I was for the first time in many years excited about the Uncanny X-Men. I’m a loyal X-fan, but no one has been able to get me interested in those merry mutants like I was in the Claremont/Lee days as much as Brubaker and that says a lot. Actually I was thinking of stopping my Uncanny X-Men run with Claremont’s final issue, but then found out that Brubaker would be taking over and bringing one of my most favorite characters back from oblivion…WARPATH!!! I saw the potential in Warpath as a kick ass character many years ago when he debuted in NEW MUTANTS, and then returned in X-FORCE. The angry Apache youth could have been a beacon for my teenage angst at the time, with all the betrayals he had suffered and sacrifices he had endured with the loss of his brother THUNDERBIRD, one of the original NEW X-Men, back in the hey-day of X-MEN. Just like the strong black characters that lacked in comics or rather that were downplayed, which is slowly being rectified i.e. BLADE, BLACK PANTHER, JOHN STEWART, the Native American heroes are all but non-existent! What did we get? Friggin RED WOLF and APACHE CHIEF!!!
WARPATH could be different; like all the young Native Americans growing up on the reservation, watching the world just pass them by, their people slowly being eradicated by time, along with their traditions and how it was time to stand up and do something about it. These were the things that could have been addressed by a strong Native character in comics, but instead, WARPATH ended up wearing giant shoulder pads, salad bowl kneepads, and feathers to symbolize, “Hey everyone, look! I’ve got feathers in my hair, I must be an Indian!!!”
Well Brubaker is bringing WARPATH into the X-fold and making him a full fledged X-Man, and hopefully make him the kick ass character I thought he could be all those years ago! This issue, #475 is where it begins, and as long as ICEMAN and/or ANGEL aren’t on the team, I know I’m going to enjoy the run! Not only that but it takes the events that happened in DEADLY GENESIS and elaborates them even more, with the return of VULCAN, the lost Summers brother who was introduced in the mini! If you haven’t read DEADLY GENESIS, then rush out and hunt down the copies, or the trade, I think it is already in trade, if you are an X-FAN, you MUST read this story!
Well UNCANNY X-MEN is exciting again and I am looking forward to this run, sadly though I am going to quit my regular X-MEN run, I don’t really dig much for the team that’s going to be featured in that book, especially with ICEMAN being in it,( as you’ve probably guessed by now…I HATE ICEMAN!!!)
I guess I’ll drop X-MEN and pick up DETECTIVE COMICS instead…I heard some guy named DINI is going to be writing it…I wonder if he’s any good?