Since there's Gail Simone fans about, I figured I should mention that yesterday's PVP strip was co-written by her.

I'm not sure, ita. As Astonishing is the only non-Ultimate-verse Marvel comic I read, so I don't know what's going on in other titles. My recent old-school X-Men reading stopped while Emma was still a villain so I can't make that judgement. All I know is we have mysterious person/voice talking to her and those conversations seem to put her in the bad-guy camp.

She's being pretty firmly pushed as a worthy replacement for Jean in Scott's affections, Kalshane. Also, she's in just about every title, calling shots across the board. So to make her a villain would rip right through them all.

Speaking of ripping -- I saw in scans_daily on LJ that Northstar bought it in Wolverine at Wolverine's hand.

Later I read that there are two Northstars in the Alpha Flight title. Anyone have an idea what's going on?

I tried to read Robin in the store and got pains.

I didn't even glance at Robin. Breaks my heart. Teen Titans pleased me, as per usual. Though I really only know the barest of backstory about Mia, so I don't know how accurately the character is being written by Johns.

I don't know why you're white-fonting Mia, Steph. I mean, she is on the cover of the issue, and her becoming Speedy has been the main feature of the Green Arrow title for the last couple of issues. As for her backstory, there really isn't much backstory at the moment, as her character has only been around since 2001. FWIW, I think Johns has her down pretty good.

In Robin, I think there might have been a kernel of an interesting story in there, but the art was so horrible that it was almost impossible to tell what the hell was going on. The basic gist of what happened was a new villain with a bow shot up Robin, but his suit prevented the arrows from penetrating. In the ensuing chase and battle, Robin was able to pin a tracking device and followed the villain to Little Tokyo, but lost her when another new villain on a black horse arrived to attack him. The script was Tim's interior monologue of his battle tactics during the fight. Also, we saw Alfred reading poetry to Tim's stepmother, saw one page of lawyers trying to track down Tim's uncle, and a scene with the Penguin in a secure communications room talking to a bunch of hidden villains and discussing weapons transfers (including a shipment from Apokalips).

Birds of Prey had a great scene with Black Canary and Batman, and a solid story, but the art (especially the cover) was too cheesecake IMHO. The strong characterization of the story can get lost in the T&A factor.

Has anyone seen this? About the latest issue of Wolverine: [link]

It's a big spoiler, but I don't think anyone on the board would mind knowing: Northstar is killed off, Marvel's only openly gay superhero.

Tom, I mentioned that upthread. But I read elsewhere that there are two Northstars in the Alpha Flight title, so maybe it's not as final (yeah, these are comics) as it looks. Still waiting for confirmation on that, though.

The Alpha Flight plot apparently involved time travel to a pre-Alpha Flight #12 moment, with James Hudson still alive, and the whole original crew present. So theoretically both Northstars were the same person, just at different ages .

Which one is dead, though? Are they both around? Can there still be a Northstar in current continuity?

This just in...

Whedon and Cassaday on X-Men for 24 more issues.

Details to follow. Marvel must have made an offer they couldn't refuse.

Sweet!