Northstar in X-Men: Hellbound #2

[rplass]

The June solicits are out. Look for Northstar on the cover in the lower left corner.

X-Men: Hellbound #2 (http://comicbookresources.com/images/solicits/marvelcomics/201006-advance/150_X_MEN__HELLBOUND_2.jpg)

Love,
rplass

[suzene]

Beat me to it. I admit, the fact that this is being written by Chris "Bodycounts Sell Books" Yost makes me a bit nervous. And the return of drow Gambit is very meh. But I'll at least flip through it on the racks to see what the art's like.

[-K-M-]

Good eye guys.

It's funny he has been on a few covers now, but didn't actually appear inside of the comic haha.

[rplass]

Good eye guys.

It's funny he has been on a few covers now, but didn't actually appear inside of the comic haha.

I can think of:
Nation X #1
Uncanny X-Men #421
Uncanny X-Men #437
X-Men #140
X-Men #188 (and sketch variant)
X-Men #200 (two of the four covers)

Any others?

Love,
rplass

[-K-M-]

I can't recall but did he appear inside of Uncany X-Men/Dark Avengers: Utopia#1?

[rplass]

See for yourself (http://alphaflightcollector.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/dark-avengersuncanny-x-men-utopia-1/)

(answer is yes, click on link to see two images)

What you might be thinking of is the fact that he's on that cover lying on the ground, defeated, while that never happened in the book.

Love,
rplass

[-K-M-]

Yeah I remember now, he was just a stand-in and didn't do much but still was in it at least.

Thanks

[Phil]

Interview and preview art of the series; http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.12129.x-men~colon~_a_new_kind_of_hell

[suzene]

The scenery and demons and such look fine, but I'm not a fan of the artist's facial expressions at all, especially on the men -- Sam and Jean-Paul look like department store mannequins.

[rplass]

I love what Harvey Tolibao did on the Snowbird one-shot so I'm really up on this one. Except for the rounded ears. Northstar has pointy ears, folks. Not an elf, just pointy ears!

Love,
rplass

[suzene]

Northstar has pointy ears, folks. Not an elf, just pointy ears!

Amen!

[Le Messor]

The scenery and demons and such look fine, but I'm not a fan of the artist's facial expressions at all, especially on the men -- Sam and Jean-Paul look like department store mannequins.

I respectfully disagree.
It's Gambit who looks the most like a mannequin to me. The way he's leaning stiffly, with his neck straight.
I'm now looking for Whitman Knapp somewhere in the issue...

Jean-Paul just looks like a caricature of Superman.
(I'm judging just by the banner image, not the actual pages here.)

- Le Messor
"Gosseyn's intestinal fortitude strove to climb into his throat, and settled into position again only reluctantly ..."
~ A.E.van Vogt, The World of Null-A

[suzene]

Hellbound #1 was out today. Still not liking the art (though it suited Pixie surprisingly well). Northstar also mentions how many teammates he's lost recently, and is not impressed by Cannonball's leadership. I really can't say that I blame him.

[MistressMerr]

I really dug this one! I have a lot of issues with Yost as a writer, but I think the biggest reason those things bug me is because, aside from them, I really like the stuff he (and Kyle) puts out and this is a good example of why. Just the start of a good story, leagues better than the other lackluster Second Coming issue to come out today. I love that, for such a seemingly random team of mutants, every single character had believable, compelling reasons to be there. Looking forward to issue 2!

[-K-M-]

Whoops I forgot to get this, kind of nervous with Norhtstar finally getting all this face time and Marvel said there will be more deaths coming.

[suzene]

Whoops I forgot to get this, kind of nervous with Norhtstar finally getting all this face time and Marvel said there will be more deaths coming.

You're not the only one. Of the crew going to Limbo, Pixie and Anole have arcs post-Second Coming, Dazzler has a one-shot coming out, Gambit and Sam are leading characters in other books, and Magik just got back from Limbo, so I doubt they're ditching her again so soon. Northstar and Trance, however, haven't shown up in any preview art or covers for the post-crossover Heroic Age (which isn't damning, as they're both generally minor characters anyway, but it's not putting me at ease either). That and...well, Yost has a reputation for mistaking "killing off little-used characters" for "dramatic storytelling". I think the only thing Northstar has in his corner is the fact that he was killed and resurrected within recent memory, so it'd be a bit soon to go back to that well. Poor Trance doesn't even have that, Yost loves to pick on the X-Kids, the fact that she doesn't even have a physical body in Limbo would make hers the most curve-ball (and thus "shocking") of possible deaths, and she shares a given name with the new mutant messiah, so I'd be most concerned for her. Considering, though, that this is a team made up of characters who had nothing else to do during this cross-over, could be grim either way. I'm just hoping that I'm giving Yost too little credit here.

[-K-M-]

Got it, but who is the big bad? Almost looks like Mephisto in his true demonic form.

[suzene]

Looks more like Magik's old baddie N'astirh to me.

[-K-M-]

Yeah your right, I completly forgot about him.

[suzene]

Yeah your right, I completly forgot about him.

I had to look him up -- recognized the design, but not the name. Belasco and Sym tend to be the only ones I know by name. ;)

[-K-M-]

Either way good on ya, I completly forgot about him.

[rplass]

Some preview pages (http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?pid=5390&pg=5) are out today.

Looks alive to me, so far.

Love,
rplass

[suzene]

Some preview pages (http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?pid=5390&pg=5) are out today.

Looks alive to me, so far.

Actually, starting to have second thoughts about who might be wearing the crosshairs, given how hard Dazzler seems to be to actually kill these days. I don't recall if Yost was working on those Excalibur issues or not, tho'.

Still not a fan of that art.

[DelBubs]

I think the art is going to stop me taking a look at this. To my mind it seems pretty haphazard.

[Le Messor]

*shrug* the art isn't great, but I've seen worse. Much worse.

- Le Messor
"Hawaii is as American as apple poi."

[suzene]

Well, Northstar got a couple of good lines in but, seriously -- mind controlled again? Between Northstar and Wolverine, I'm beginning to wonder if Canadians in the MU are just particularly susceptible to mental domination.

[-K-M-]

Well at least he is consistent, but seriously thought getting rocked by Gambit? albet a cheap shot but still.

One issue to go, he's still not out of the hot water yet :(

[rplass]

I'm loving his mind-controlled look, actually. Looks so bad-ass!

[suzene]

I'm loving his mind-controlled look, actually. Looks so bad-ass!

Except now he looks like a drow elf. XD

[-K-M-]

Well I can enjoy this series more knowing that Northstar wont be killed in it. PHEW!

[-K-M-]

SPOILER


Cannonball defeats Northstar with a single punch, he out reacted the speedster. Dumb. However, who knows if he was at full power being possessed.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Well...

SPOILER:

If Jean Paul was possessed, perhaps the evil spirit possessing him doesn't actually know his powers yet. Although, I thought the heroes being affected by Limbo (Northstar, Gambit and Dazzler?) were being corrupted by Limbo, not really possessed?

Dana

[suzene]

SPOILER


Cannonball defeats Northstar with a single punch, he out reacted the speedster. Dumb. However, who knows if he was at full power being possessed.

My fanwank of choice is that Jean-Paul was fighting against the corrupting influence/mental domination of Death!Gambit. That's why he was fast enough and strong enough to sucker-punch the hell out of N'astirh, who was threatening his teammates and former students, but wasn't in top form going against Sam, and also why didn't fly after Sam to rip off Anole's arms and legs earlier in the book. There's precedent for him being able to hold out against that sort of thing back when he didn't kill Anole while under control of the Children of the Vault, so I'm going with Jean-Paul's stubborness being enough to keep him back from doing anything he'd really regret later.

[-K-M-]

Well...

SPOILER:

If Jean Paul was possessed, perhaps the evil spirit possessing him doesn't actually know his powers yet. Although, I thought the heroes being affected by Limbo (Northstar, Gambit and Dazzler?) were being corrupted by Limbo, not really possessed?

Dana

Yeah poor choice of words, he was just corrupted not possessed.