Last week I posted my favorite book of the week as well as why I enjoyed it, this week I planned on doing the same until I realized…a lot of fantastic books came out this week. As a result I will share a few of my favorites and provide some insight as to why you should buy them.

My first pick of the week is Batman # 8

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The beauty of comic books is that everything manages to build on previous stories which can greatly enhance the reading experience and raise the stakes for the reader. This is something I find very rewarding. To that end, I will be doing segments like this for crossovers which detail story arcs greatly improveing the reading experience. Today, I will be discussing storylines that follow the Avengers Vs. X-men Crossover from the perspective of the X-men.

To begin we will go to the beginning of the year when Grant Morrison was handed the reigns to the X-Franchise in an attempt to revitalize interest in franchise and set them up for the 21st century, thus began the era of the New X-men

During this time many changes came to the X-men such as new sleeker and modern costumes, the introduction of Emma F rost as a member to the X-men, the villain Known as Cassandra Cain was introduced, as was the concept of secondary mutations which led to mutants discovering latent powers that did not know they could access such as Emma Frost being able to assume a diamond form which mad her invulnerable. It also introduced characters such as Xorn and Fantomex who remain popular and controversial to this day, Xavier was also able to walk again after A struggle in which Cassandra Nova possessed his body. This arc also led to changes to Cyclops’s characterization who had previously been seen as very stiff and almost boy scout like to a darker more self centered individual which culminated in him having a pyschic affair with Emma Frost. this would culminate in the famous scene in which Jean Grey discovered the affair and proceeded to force Emma Frost to relive her memories. The final key point  in this run was the death of Jean Grey at the hands of “Xorneto.” I say Xorneto because this was originally Magneto which was then retconned out to not be him which led to a mess in continuity; however, the main takeaway from this is that Jean Grey died and she encouraged Cyclops to move on which would lead to  him beginning a relationship with Emma Frost.

While Phoenix Endsong, and Phoenix Warsong provided insights into The phoenix force the next major development to the X-Franchise would be Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-men run which I consider in many ways to be the spiritual successor to New X-Men.

Whedon’s run saw the return of Shadowcat as a major character as well as the return of Colossus who seemingly died in 2001. It also reinforced Cyclops and Emma Frost’s relationship, saw a return to more traditional superhero costumes. This arc also introduced the idea of the danger room being a sentient robot known as Danger whom would become an important character in future storylines. Whedon’s run culminated with Shadowcat seemingly sacrificing herself by phasing a massive projectile through the earth which would have destroyed it.

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