TNIAAM Comic Shop, No. 6: House of X-haustion

Welp, it’s been over 40 days since sports, and there’s no Syracuse Orange sports in sight. There are still no sports at all this weekend or any other in the near future, so we need other things to pass the time. If this sounds like the plot of Keeley’s post-apocalyptic fiction, it’s not — yet, anyway.

Despite no substantive Syracuse sports news, we’ve been talking plenty about Orange sports in recent weeks. However, we’re also forced to expand our coverage area a bit. Since it ends up we have interests beyond SU athletics, welcome to issue No. 6 of the TNIAAM Comic Shop: House of X-haustion.

Each week, we’ll each be highlighting a worthwhile comic book to read. And for the most part, we’ll be making sure these are all selections you can read on Marvel Unlimited (not a sponsor — but they could be!) or Comixology.

Andy

Black Widow: S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Most Wanted #1 — 2016 (by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee)

If you’re like me, you’re starting to get a little bummed that the Black Widow Movie is now pushed until at least November. So, I highly rec the Marc Waid/Chris Samnee Black Widow arc. Any time these two team up, it’s a must read (Daredevil, Captain America), but I think their style works best with Widow, as the art feels like a retro spy thriller, while the story itself weaves in and out of Natasha’s past as she unravels a current mystery. (Sound familiar?) The 6 issue series is free if you download Marvel Unlimited for the month of April, and you should keep reading into the No More Secrets story, which wraps up the whole story and the Waid/Samnee run.

John

Old Man Quill #7 — 2019 (by Ethan Sacks)

Peter Quill’s future appears bleak in the earlier issues of the series, but it somehow gets bleaker here in issue No. 7. Without getting into spoilers, the turn is an exciting one and really plunges the character (now a depressed, damaged old man) as far as he can seemingly go. The nods to the present Marvel timeline are fun enough, and it also gets into some of the mental issues the character struggles with on screen in the MCU, albeit in a different capacity. These books actually helped me appreciate Quill a bit more than I had previously.

Steve

Wolverine and the X-Men #3 — 2011 (by Jason Aaron)

Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Beast, Iceman and Rachel Grey head off to reestablish the “Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.” What could possibly go wrong? Seems like everything. This is a bit of an off-kilter X-Men run and Jason Aaron does his best to characterize this eclectic group in a fun and unique light. If a matured, but still field-ready Logan as the headmaster of the Xavier School is something that seems interesting to you. Hell, if the thought of Deathlok as a guest lecturer, the Brood, the New Mutants class as junior staff and students, and Kid Omega being Kid Omega, give it a read.