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Wolverine and the X-Men Promo Image

I had heard about this cartoon and think I posted the teaser image before, but this is the first footage I’ve seen. Looks like another alternative take on the X-Men. While it’s cool there’s another X-Men cartoon in the works, this one doesn’t look different enough to stand out. Why make another? What’s it going to show that the other two incarnations didn’t. Yes, there’s no Professor X and Wolverine looks to be the focus, but other than that, it looks to visually similar to the X-Men Evolution cartoon.

I’ll still watch it.

The preview is gone, hope you saw it when it was there. Seems like the company got into a little trouble over using some unauthorized Foo Fighters music in the video. Oops.

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Just a few interesting notes from the weekend.

IronManWork

A large batch of new photos were posted at the Iron Man movie site. Several great shots in there, including different versions of the armor. The one above is a favorite. Seems to explain the movie all by itself. Still can’t get over how cool this is looking. If you didn’t like the Super Bowl commercial for Iron Man, there is not hope for you.

Next up, Marvel has posted a list of the 10 Greatest X-Men. the whole list seems kind of redundant. One, since it’s from Marvel, what kind of perspective do they have. As I was reading it, There were one or two entries where I thought “oh, look at my, I’ve got a new series coming out.” Most of the list I do agree with and I’d expect any longtime fan to as well.

Finally, my favorite question/article I’ve read in a while… Can a Lightsaber Cut Through Superman? If the lightsaber were made with a piece of green kyptonite as its crystal – of course it could. How big of a geek am I when I read it and I think, “of course, that makes perfect sense.”

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Thanks to Michael for showing me this Japanese Batman cartoon intro. It’s the intro for the 1977 New Adventures of Batman animated series (with a few additional clips and edits) set to a crazy Batman theme. Can’t believe I’d never heard of this before.

After watching it, I saw the Japanese opening for the X-Men animated series from Fox in the 1990’s. It’s much more intense than the original opening. Very different from the Batman opening. Interesting how much styles and tastes have changed in 20 years.

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X-Treme - The Best of the X-Men and the 90’s

Backwards ball-cap: check! Long Hair and Braids: check! Unnecessary Spikes/Blades: check!

It's an extreme 1990's character, so much so, his name is X-Treme.

What a fitting name it is. Not only does this character convey the "extreme" feeling of comics in the 1990's, he also serves as an example of the trend that killed (thematically, anyway) Marvel's line of X-men comics in the same decade.

If one of something is good, then two must be even better (continue ad nauseam). With the success of Uncanny X-Men in the late 80's and Wolverine becoming the star of the line, more and more X-men related titles were introduced. There were 2-3 books featuring the X-Men (Classic X-Men, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men), one book featuring the original five X-Men (X-Factor), student X-Men (New Mutants – later X-Force), X-Men in England (Excalibur), a solo Wolverine title and more limited series and specials than I can remember. If you wanted a new "X" title, just take a word and add "X-" in front to make it work.

Sadly, almost 20 years later, the majority of the X-books are still a mess and not worth reading. The one bright spot in the line is Astonishing X-Men (yes, it's another book) written by Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame.

Go ahead, you know you want to read more about X-Treme.

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Cable - son of Cyclops and Jean Grey

Comic book heroes were "extreme" in the 90's. Superman had long hair, Batman was replaced, Spider-Man was a clone, but the easiest way to make a standard hero "extreme" was to accessorize.

Cable (created by Rob Liefeld) from the New Mutants started this trend with his big shoulder pads, many pockets, and numerous ammo belts. Almost every hero in the 1990's received some sort of extreme makeover which usually involved adding pouches, pockets and belts to their costume. Many people also stopped reading comics at this time and the huge audience that had built up dwindled to almost nothing. Only in the past 2-3 years have comics returned to 1/3 of the number of readers as they had before the 1990's.

Thanks Rob.

Powers and Abilities

Intelligence: Superhuman
Strength: Superhuman Class 10
Speed: Enhanced human
Stamina: Enhanced human
Durability: Enhanced human
Agility: Enhanced human
Reflexes: Enhanced human
Fighting skills: Extensive training in military combat techniques and the martial arts
Special skills and abilities: Highly skilled in devising weaponry and cyborg body parts. He is also an extraordinary combat strategist.
Superhuman physical powers: Cable is believed to be a mutant whose physical abilities and intelligence are enhanced
above the normal human levels. His cyborg left arm and shoulder possess even greater strength than his organic ones. Cable's bionic right eye can see into the infrared portion of the spectrum.
Superhuman mental powers: The psionic ability to control his cyborg body parts
Special limitations: None
Source of superhuman powers: Presumably mutation, cyborg body parts