Professor Xavier is a Jerk

Collectible X-Men cards by Jim Lee, as photographed by heyjennlam.

Such a fun ride. This was my favorite run of the title. Surprisingly enough, it also had the least amount of Cable, and Cannonball.

Polina’s take on the characters was fresh, and captured the energy of the time. It synced up with my life pretty well then as well. I was not a kid anymore, but also not a real adult. I was stepping out into the world for the first time, truly responsible for myself.

X-Force would do this too. Cannonball graduated to the X-Men. Boom-Boom, Sunspot, Warpath, Dani, and Siryn  would all leave X-kid status on this run. They would grow out of needing Cable, or any other mentor figure as the leader, and do things on their own terms.

It was perfect for me at the time, and I will always have fond memories of it.

And Adam Pollina became a monster artist over the course of this time. Watching him grow during those years was a treat.

I never read this run, but I always wanted to because of a Wizard article about the run when it was just about to start. I read a little bit after when Wisdom came around. Those stories were fun. 

X-Force!

X-Force by Mike Mignola

X-Factor by Kevin Maguire

Anyone know what issue this is from? I'd like to own it. 

I almost shut this entire thing down. 

Of all the trials and tribulations of running this site (and here I’m mostly talking about the brain-space I’ve had to dedicate to wastes of time like The New Warriors) THIS bullshit was almost too much to bear. 

I’d killed the entire box of packs and after sorting and stacking and putting everything in place because there’s a place for everything I was ONE. CARD. SHORT! of the full Danger Room picture. 

Unacceptable. 

I swear to Mojo II I was about to start trawling eBay for single X-Men Series II cards and if that’s not rock bottom I don’t know what is (writing this much about The Danger Room isn’t too far away now that I think about it). 

But then I saw it. Hiding there under a pile of discarded pack wrappers like one last onion ring hiding under the side salad that came with your burger that you KNEW you weren’t going to eat I spotted one last unopened pack. 

Could it be? Could I BE that lucky? Could The Phoenix Force smile down and bestow its splendiferousness upon me in the form of the one all important missing card? 

Believe in miracles, friends. Because as improbable as it sounds that’s EXACTLY what happened. 

Boom! Done. 

So now I can die happy… Or at least moderately less sad I guess. 

And yes, bury me with my Marvel Cards. ALL of them (especially the holograms… You can keep the Gambits). 

X-Men has always been about the struggle. Not just between humans and mutants, but between the philosophies held within the mutant community. There is the usual Magneto/Professor X, the recent Cyclops/Wolverine split, but for a time, Cable’s approach drifted between the Professor and the Master of Magnetism.

Cannonball took over leadership of the original X-Force after Cable was presumed dead. Having been taught by Cable, Magneto, and Professor X, as well as exposure to the likes of Cyclops and Wolverine, he made his own conclusion about the changing state of the world, the approach mutants should take, and how his mentorship guided him to become the man he grew to be.

The page highlights that conclusion.

X-Factor Investigations