I debated with myself whether to post this, but given that it's all in the spirit of raising money for a good cause then I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a little more exposure.

The Hero Initiative has nothing to do with the Initiative that was introduced after Marvel's Civil War.  It is a charitable organisation that raises money for comic book creators, who have to work in a financially unstable market.  Their work provides a 'safety net for comic creators who may ened emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work'.

Marvel has kindly given the Hero Initiative 100 copies of Wolverine Weapon X #1 with a pure white cover.  Those comic-sized blank canvases were then passed to various comic book artists with one instruction: to produce a new & unique image of Wolverine.  They were allowed to draw what they want, in whatever medium they wanted, which has resulted in a few cameos including X-Force, the X-Men, Spider-Man and quite a lot of the Hulk too.  Those 100 comic books were then collected, and will be sold at auction for charity.  
 

To drum up interest in this project, the Hero Intiative & Marvel distributed an equal amount of different scanned covers to various comic book websites (why ComicVine wasn't on that list, I'll never know). So I felt reticent about showing off the covers that were given to those other websites. I just hope that in the interest of raising more awareness and interest for the Hero Initative's Wolverine Weapon X #1 project, that they wont object to them being shown in ComicVine's handy smaller tabular presentation format.

So can we, the fans, help?? 
 
The original drawn on comics will be sold on the Hero Initiative's shop on eBay at the end of this month. If your pockets aren't deep enough (or you've already maxed out your credit card), then don't worry! There is a more humble collection of those covers that will be on sale for a more wallet-friend price, and will of course help raise more funds for the Hero Intiative.

 
Here are just a couple of visual appetisers to wet your wallet's taste-buds.  You can find more in Wolverine's Gallery (or in each artists' galleries). 
 

Ever since I saw Terry Dodson's new cover for Uncanny X-Men #520 something has been bugging me.  I was so sure I'd seen it before.   
 
Turns out, I wasn't 100% wrong.  Think I'll refer to Dodson as 'Adam Hughes Lite' from now on. 
 

Is it possible to just pick one series for the rest of your life?  I mean, I refuse to get any band logos tattooed on me in case they start to downhill fast...   
 
For instance, I stuck with New Mutants all the way through to the end of X-Force.   I stuck with New Mutants even when it wasn't about the New Mutants!   I stuck with New X-Men through to the end of Young X-Men...  It all started with the New Mutants, so it should end with it.  I can't give it up now.   
 
But, I wouldn't want to give up X-Force either!  So I'll steal your copy!! 
 

I'd completely forgotten that X-Men: The Animated Series did a 'Phalanx Covenant' episode till I stumbled across this screencap.  Now I can't wait for the next two DVD sets to come out for more cheesy nostalgic fun!  Although I do remember being disappointed that the story wasn't closer to that of the actual Phalanx Covenant.
  
Poor Warlock!  He looks dreadful!  But at least he did have a proper episode to himself, unlike most of the New Mutants.

And soon he'll return to the New Mutants along with dear dead ol' Doug.  Bless his electronic socks.

Should a character return to normal after being a Black Lantern?   
 
Not really.  For the sake of continuity and dramatic impact, then they should stay the same. 
 
However, pure sentimentality over-rules common sense.  That's always been the problem with comics; fans always want things to be the way they used to be.  I'll admit that I'm no exception to the rule (it's hard to please someone who wants the same as before, but advanced...). 
 
So I want Blue Beetle to be restored to a happy healthy human being... but at the same time (over at Marvel) I don't want Cypher to return to normal.  Dear dead ol' Dougie has been dead for far too long to turn around and pretend that there was nothing wrong with him.  So in a strange way, I hope they keep the transmode-infected zombie corpse look.  Le freak unique. 
   



But to be honest... I'm just happy to see them back.  Even if it is in the most horrid & horrific way.  I'm not sure what that says about me :p