X-Lapsed, Episode 066 – X-Men #8 (2020)
X-Lapsed, Episode Sixty-Six
X-Men (vol.5) #8 (May, 2020)
“Swarm”
Writer – Jonathan Hickman
Art – Mahmud Asrar
Colors – Sunny Gho
Letters – VC’s Clayton Cowles
Design – Tom Muller
Edits – Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $3.99
On-Sale: March 11, 2020
You ever have… a dream of falling? Well, Gabriel Summers does… just about every night, so how about we try and catch up with him for a minute (and only a minute)? The main focus of today’s issue and episode will be, for lack of a better term – brood banging. Hope you’re wearing gloves.
Also: Great listener mail, where we discuss the inorganic nature of the relationships among the Amalgamated Young Mutants of Krakoa, LLC – and the utter madness that is Major X!
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Check out Danger Room – The X-Men Commentary Podcast:
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@acecomics / @cosmictmill / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
One of my weird little habits is that when I go on holiday to a foreign country I like to try and pick up a local comic. About 15 years ago I went on holiday to Turkey and picked up an anthology title called Strip which was entirely in Turkish but there were two stories in it that I could understand because of how clear the art was. One was drawn by Yildiray Cinar and the other was drawn by Mahmud Asrar. Because of this I have always considered Asrar to be one of my artists and I have been delighted to see his progression through the industry. I was so glad to see him appear on X-Men. From the first issue I have felt that Lienil Yu is the wrong artist for this book and I am so glad that Asrar is sticking around on X-Men. Because I'm ahead of you continuity wise I have already seen some of his work on Ecchs of Tens which is phenomenal. The Stasis book that is drawn by Asrar and Pepe Larraz is possibly the best drawn issue of the whole HOXPOX/DOX/SOX era. And that's including work by Rod Reis, Alan Davis and Russell Dauterman that has blown my HOXPOX/DOX/SOX off.
This issue is a perfect example of the Dawn of X era. It is quite good but it doesn't feel extraordinary. Following on the heels of 6 & 7 it feels hollow. There's so much to be explored but instead let's have a space adventure. In many runs this would be a stand-out story but we've been primed for the extraordinary so we walk away disappointed.
This is the kind of issue that made me decide I could wait 6 months to read it on Marvel Unlimited (although since I made that decision they seem to have reduced my wait to 3 months) with the knowledge that I'll hear about the special issues online so I'll know which ones are worth buying.