For months, fans have known that one would rise to lead mutants, one might be their savior and another would betray them—and the traitor’s true identity will leave you speechless! In X-Men #206, featuring Chapter 9 of Messiah CompleX, the X-Men, Cable, The Purifiers and Reavers must all pick up the pieces from their recent conflicts. Who lives? Who dies? And just what does this all mean for the mutant child at the heart of this hunt?

Then in Uncanny X-Men #494, featuring Messiah CompleX Chapter 10, still reeling from the shocking revelations of Chapter 9, the all new X-Force does battle the Marauders. ‘Nuff Said, True Believer!

“This is quintessential X-Men; only these characters could be involved in this event. And that’s a testament to the guys working on it,” gushed Matt Powell of WizardUniverse.Com

Daniel Crown of IGN.Com called Messiah CompleX “easily the best X-Men crossover in over a decade.”

Marvel urges retailers to check their orders on all issues of Messiah CompleX, as all five chapters released thus far, including X-Men #205, have sold out at Diamond (though copies may be available at the retail level). Please note that Marvel currently has no plans to go back to press on X-Men #205.

As one betrays the X-Men, X-Force must find a way to defeat the Marauders, while Layla & Madrox continue their crucial journey. Who walks away alive? Find out in X-Men #206 and Uncanny X-Men #494!

Don’t miss a single chapter of Messiah CompleX!

“Beetle” grew partly out of its creators’ desire to write “a different kind of hero,” one whose adventures would appeal to kids, without being too dark and violent, says writer John Rogers. As a result, Jaime isn’t an orphan like Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent, but a high school kid who lives at home with his working-class family in El Paso, Texas (just as Manny lives with his dad and grandfather in the fictional Miracle City).

Jaime doesn’t hide his predicament from his parents. Instead, he talks to them about his confusing new responsibilities. “When Jaime has to ask his parents to break curfew to fight crime, that’s a lot more interesting to me than a 35-year-old angry white millionaire who fights samurai villains and killer clowns,” says Rogers, a TV and film scribe who recently moved to Canada. (“Beetle” is truly a modern-day collaboration: 25-year-old artist Rafael Albuquerque lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil; he got the job last summer after meeting his New York-based editors at a comic book convention in Chicago.)

“As people do with any fictional entertainment, [kids] look for points of identification,” says Seattle-based Greg Hatcher, who teaches comic book writing and drawing to middle school kids. He recalls two students becoming “absolutely mesmerized” a few years ago by an old comic he brought to class featuring Marvel’s Luke Cage, an African-American hero for hire.

“They read it together,” Hatcher says. “One boy was black and one boy was Latino. But what grabbed them about Luke wasn’t his ethnicity; it was his poverty.”

When Dr. Doom stiffs Luke out of his fee, the hero borrows the Fantastic Four’s jet “and flies to Doom’s home country to beat [the money] out of him. To this day I remember [the student] saying, ‘Five hundred bucks is a lot of money! He better go after that guy!’ “

(That Cage line is a classic: “Where’s my money, honey?”)

Towards the end of the article, Rogers notes that his “fondest wish is that, 10, 15 years from now, a Hispanic kid is going to take over writing ‘Blue Beetle’ — or start writing his own comics — because he feels that the medium is accessible to him.” 10-15 years?!?! Screw that, I say! I want to see that happening right now. And, no, I don’t mean me!

Rich Watson does a great job with Glyphs, monitoring black comics creators and characters, and has put me on to a number of comics I’d probably not have easily come across on my own — particularly Lance Tooks’ and Paul Sizer’s work, and to a lesser degree, Stagger Lee — but my knowledge of Latino comics creators (writers and writer/artists) is limited to Los Bros. Hernandez, Javier Hernandez, Frank Espinosa, Phil Jimenez and…um…yeah. :-(

Where’s my Latinos and Latinas at? Seriously. Hit me up with names and links.

It doesn’t outright suck, either, which might have been better, giving it some MSTK 3000 appeal. Instead, it’s just another dumb, loud and obnoxious Saturday morning cartoon, with a handful of solid character moments and a couple of good fight scenes that are buried underneath a thick layer of been-there, done-that mediocrity. Had Kevin Munroe focused a bit more attention to the primary relationships and a bit less on the overwrought plot involving extra-dimensional portals and world domination, the whole thing might have been a less messy affair.

Like so many failed comic book translations, there’s a potentially good movie in there somewhere, though I suspect the next installment will be direct-to-video, if it happens at all. My son mostly enjoyed it, and my 4-year old daughter tolerated it for about an hour before turning to her LeapPad. One of the more effective scenes, the fight between Leonardo and Raphael, did have her anxiously hiding her face, sensing the emotional tension therein, and I wish there had been a bit more of that throughout the movie.

TMNT perfectly illustrates the difference between a cynical marketing promotion made “for kids” and a legitimate movie made for “all ages”, best evidenced by Pixar’s slate of excellent movies, each of which I can watch multiple times, with or without my kids, and enjoy. Pixar movies have an underlying reason for exisiting that goes beyond market share and licensing potential, featuring three-dimensional characters, appealing storylines and top-notch animation and voicework.

A couple of other studios have lucked into similarly strong efforts — ie: Ice Age, Robots, Shrek and Happy Feet — but for the most part, computer-animated movies still have an “easy cash-grab” feel to them, a misguided notion the box office has hopefully started to disabuse Hollywood of.

Selected with input from savvy graphic-novel reviewers Tina Coleman, Francisca Goldsmith, Kat Kan, and Jesse Karp, this Top 10 list of titles reviewed during the past 12 months shows the extraordinary breadth of high-quality graphic novels being produced—not only for teens but also for young children.

Two other First Second books were recognized — Lat’s Kampung Boy and Leland Myrick’s Missouri Boy — both of which are on my to-read list. Kudos to all!

Starting [Friday], classic TV episodes from the 1950s and 60s, including the pilot “Gumby on the Moon,” are launching on Google and AOL/In2TV, as well as a dedicated Gumby area on YouTube at the DMGI channel http://www.youtube.com/dmgivideo.

Over the next few months all 200+ Gumby episodes will roll out to the digital channels. For his anniversary close-up, the original Clayboy has had a makeover. Joe Clokey, son of Gumby creator, Art Clokey, has digitally remastered each episode from the classic TV series. The original soundtrack has also been restored. Gumby’s digital debut will be the first time the beloved series has been seen in its original format in over twenty years. After more than 40 years, the 50s episodes have also been restored to their original eleven minute format (from previously re-edited two six minute shorts).

This comes on the heels of Gumby’s recent foray into comics, thanks to writer Bob Burden, artist Rick Geary, and new publishers Wildcard Ink. Only two issues have been published so far, though — possibly due to Burden’s taking ill last summer — and the combination of less-than-impressive direct market sales for both, their web site seemingly not having been updated recently, and their year-to-year licensing deal suggests further new adventures may not be forthcoming any time soon.

Of course, for true nostalgists — or, cultural necrophiliacs, if you prefer — there’s nothing like the real thing, unless it’s the real thing lovingly restored by the son of its original creator and made available for free!