Alana's Weekend Spec: Calling all Bushmasters

Aloha CHUniverse, Welcome back to another edition of Weekend Specs!!! A busy couple of weeks in the comic spec world, lots of coming movie and TV news and the return to TV of many comic book shows. This week big news concerning the villain for Luke Cage’s second season and the next mutant film X-men: Dark Phoenix title was revealed. Also going to spend a little time on some Inhuman key books it’s time to stop putting off adding to your collection. Lastly some random rumors and New Warriors recent television casting, maybe even a little Teen Titans action as well. I’m glad I’m back to collecting more has happened in the way of comic specs these past weeks then I missed the whole time I was taking a break. So let’s jump in!!!

 
X-men #101 1st Phoenix , X-men #134 1st Dark Phoenix, No surprise here long ago it was leaked Sophie Turner would be doing a Dark Phoenix movie. The creative people at Fox studios decided to name the movie Dark Phoenix, this is an ominous sign that this could be another sub par mutant flick. Here’s the problem with doing a Dark Phoenix movie, ITS ALREADY BEEN DONE! X3 is consider a pretty bad X-men film by many but I enjoy a few parts of it Wolverine charging Jean while losing his flesh and healing as he moves forward is an epic scene. Besides re-telling a story that was already, badly, told in its first film incarnation, there are a few other glaring flaws already presenting itself to the next coming Xmen film. Jean first turns into Phoenix at the end of Age of Apocalypse, which is kinda dumb since AOA just introduced a new young Jean and comic canon Jean is very battled hardened before any hint at Phoenix powers. So we start with a young Jean that becomes Phoenix the first time she ever gets to unleash her powers as a teen, not a comic combat veteran. Next problem Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost being a part of X-men first class flick. So we know we’re not getting the comic story of Dark Phoenix, but another fantastic made up Phoenix story by the very creative people at Fox studios who amply named the coming movie. The biggest and hardest problem to fix with a coming Phoenix movie is the first time Jean was allowed to use her powers in AOA she killed the strongest, oldest, toughest mutant know to exist in a matter of seconds!! So what villain can you give Phoenix to actually have a struggle with in a standalone film? The only answer to this question that will make the power of teen Jean seem like a believable battle is Galactus. Phoenix defeats Galactus on multiple occasions in the comics. With New Mutants, Dark Phoenix, and Deadpool 2 all filming at the same time maybe they will cross them all over to make a Galactus movie that works. To me there’s very little chance that Fox can revive the Fantastic Four franchise but that doesn’t mean they can’t fit Galactus and a herald in a X-men flick to further lock up future movie rights to Galactus and his different heralds. Any villain less than Galactus will be a letdown to the power level of the new teen Jean they introduced. X-men #134 is moving well and steadily pushing up in price so get it now it may become on par with X-men #101.

Iron Fist #15 1st Bushmaster, Captain America #310 1st Bushmaster 2, 1st Cottonmouth 2, 1st Diamondback 2, 1st Asp, 1st Serpent Society, Cage #1 1990’s Series 1st Grandson of Bushmaster. Recent casting calls for the second season of Luke Cage went out. One of the roles being cast is most likely Bushmaster due to the specifics of the casting call. Bushmaster has similar powers to Luke. The first Bushmaster (John McIver) first appeared in Iron Fist #15. Iron Fist #15 already has a little prominence as being the last issue in the series and a lower print run. The story from Iron Fist #15is then continued in Powerman #48, #49, #50 the first three issues Iron Fist joins the book meets Luke Cage and joins the title of the series, so makes sense this is our villain. John McIver, known as John Bushmaster, became a Maggie crime boss in Europe and later expanded into the US. In the United States he was confronted by Luke, Misty, and Iron Fist. Due to an accident during a fight with Luke, Bushmaster was transformed into unliving metal which later killed him. Bushmaster 2 is the brother of John. Bushmaster 2 has no limbs and is given robot arms and a robot snake tail. So most likely we are getting Bushmaster 1 but strangely Luke Cage show will have a past character named Cottonmouth, another named Diamondback, and now a Bushmaster, Captain America #310 contains the 1st appearances for the second coming of these three characters. All three characters have Snake like costumes and prosthetics and look kinda wonky, But I could see them maybe down the line bringing the dead villains of Luke Cage back as Cyborg Snake people and introducing the Serpent Society. This is worth a dollar bin search for sure. Finally Cage #1   introduces the Grandson of Bushmaster who takes his Grandfathers bones to infuse himself with his power. This is another dollar binner worth picking up in case they go with this storyline over the original Bushmaster or use this story at a latter time as a continuation of the Bushmaster story.

Preacher #1. Preacher is coming back to television soon for its second season. Seems like many have forgot about this show as this comic is selling for half to one third of what it was going for at the end of the first season. What does this mean for you? If you don’t have this copper key it might be a good time for you to track one down before Preacher becomes fresh in people’s minds again.

Guardians of Knowhere #1 1st Gwenom cover appearance only. Lots of people are betting on Gwenom showing up in the next couple issues of Spidergwen. I’ve read the previews for the next 3 issues and don’t think that’s the case I do however think Edge of Venomverse #2 would be a fitting place for Gwenom to show up. Thanks Marvel just what comic book collectors needed another type of first appearance “First Cover” to argue what is a first appearance. Guardians of Knowhere #1 will double when Gwenom hits. Bleeding Cool had ran an article claiming that Spider-Gwen #19 would be the issue in which we would see Gwenom however, word is that issue 23 in August will have the first appearance. Amazon is already pre-selling the trade. Want to take bets on who is correct?

Fantastic Four #36 1st Medusa, #45 1st Inhumans and 1st Blackbolt, #46 1st full Blackbolt. Time to hunt down your Inhuman keys! 1st Medusa is an old book and old F4 books are hard to come by. This book has room to grow and like Blind Adam says get this in whatever grade you can afford! To me #45 is way more important then #46 I’ll take all the Inhuman 1st appearances with a full last panel Blackbolt over a first full Blackbolt any day. But regardless these three books will be on people’s minds soon.

Tales of Suspense #82 1st Adaptoid, #84 1st Super Adaptoid. A silver age villain with many appearances that flies under most people’s radar. Created with a piece of the Cosmic Cube, Adaptoid is a formidable foe of Cap and the Avengers with many appearances from the silver age up and who knows maybe a MCU appearance down the road.

New Warriors 3rd series #1, 1st Microbe, #4 1st Debrii. New Warriors casting news shows two of Scottie Young’s created New Warriors characters making the jump to television. Scottie is a very popular artist with a unique style wether you like his art or not these dollar bin books have plenty of room and reason to tick upwards.

In other news, Teen Titans is also joining TV. Lots of lesser known dollar bin character 1st appearances to speculate for this future show. Some suggestions from fellow CHU’ers OC_Guy and Jason Shaw, New Teen Titans #22, #23 1st cameo and 1st full Blackfire, Tales of the Tales of the New Teen Titans #4 “also” 1st Blackfire apparently have to research it a bit further and see why CGC has Blackfire’s 1st appearance on two different labels and Jason’s pick New Teen Titans #261st Terra.

Marvel Future Fight released its two year anniversary update this week adding Venom Space Knight as a playable character and a amazing looking Captain Sharon Rogers futuristic uniform to go along with a bunch GOTG 2 content. So with a million or so world wide players there might be some people looking for Venom Space Knight #1 in the near future.
DC Comics Presents #47 – A late addition to the list. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe will be making their return to the big screen. Word out says the film will hit theaters in 2019. Not a bad time to start looking for the first appearance.
So there you have it CHU another edition of Weekend Specs for your back issue hunting, and dollar bin searching habits. Gotham, Flash, Supergirl, and Arrow have all returned to TV this week. Lucifer will be back shortly, Powerless was canceled which probably means Damage Control from Marvel will never see the light of day, but still comic book related film and television is dominating the medias. Some shows have to fail every so often to make way for new and exciting comic related shows. Until next week, Thanks for reading and happy hunting!!!