Free Comic Book Day has always been dedicated to celebrating everything we love about comic books and the collectables industry. Various publishers will put out comics that are free, to share the love of all things comics. Often times these are quickly slapped together to tell non-consequential story, but I was more than pleasantly surprised to find out that Free Comic Book Day’s X-Men broke that pattern.
The first story of this comic involves a beautiful tarot spread being told about the X-Men. This is influenced by the current run of Excalibur, written by a fantastic team up of two incredible writers Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard. While nothing earth-shattering necessarily happens in this comic book, it tells a foreboding story of things to come in Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men. It’s a reminder that he has a plan for this world he is building. It hints that not everyone can be trusted and ends with another of premonition of the X of Swords coming storyline. It’s beautifully done and I now I want this X-Men tarot spread to be a real collectible I can I own.
The second story is about Tony Stark, who is flying in his Iron Man suit. It is a short but very emotional story that reminds us that while Tony plays superhero, he is still just a man in a suit. During an earthquake, Tony’s suit malfunctions and eventually he goes blind. He cannot see anything because his suit has shut down. As he accidentally tears through an airplane and flies out of control, Pepper Potts screams on his intercom to come home. Moments later, his leg is sliced off clean by the same crashing plane. He crash lands on his tower’s balcony, decimated by the earthquake. Peeling away what Pepper can of Tony’s mask, he says “Dark… It’s all gone dark… Forever…”
This was a very chilling story to read, especially in light of Free Comic Book Day. I am interested to see where things go in Iron Man.
This year’s Free Comic Book Day book is not for the faint of heart, but these are some really good and emotionally powerful stories. Make sure you pick up a copy with this week’s comic book haul.
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