Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes A Game Of Shadows

Went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie today and I liked it a lot. Sherlock Holmes is trying to take down Prof. James Moriarty, his nemesis from the stories. I was surprised to see Moriarty in the second movie as he's Holmes' greatest opponent and by all accounts a third movie is probably in the works. I liked the movie a lot, the plot was good, the effects fun and the actors amazing. My only compliant is that Rachel McAdams wasn't in it more but I don't think anyone can blame me.

McSweeny's 39

McSweeney's 39

I absolutely love getting my subscription to McSweeney's in the mail and can't wait to see who's in the edition, how it's formatted, etc. This issue is another traditional book and it was an enjoyable installment. Not my favorite but there were a few amazing pieces in it and a lot of good ones. The problem with McSweeney's putting out a really good issue is that they've set the standard for greatness. I can't say a thing bad about the issue and I enjoyed it a lot. My favorites pieces in this issue are;

Carlos the Impossible by J. T. K. Belle about a star matador's longtime battle with an indestructible bull Carlos. This one was absolutely amazing and my personal favorite.

50 Ways To Eat Your Lover by Amelia Gray that I thought was going to be funny but ended up being awesomely sad. By far my second favorite, I had 2 people read it right away.

Benjamin Bucks by Jennie Erin Smith, a non fiction piece about a reptile smuggler. It takes a special person to smuggle reptiles in their underpants.

The Neochileans by Roberto Bolano. I have a soft spot in my heart for his work. I can't say I understand all of it but I like it.

Politics and Conscience a speech by Vaclav Havel that was politically and interesting.

Chick Killer by Elmore Leonard an awesome little story about a woman of the law telling her dad about taking down a bad man by being in the right place at the right time.

Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk

Another good but not great book by Palahniuk. This short novel is about an ageing movie starlet from the golden age of Hollywood with her assistant as together they fend off plots to kill her by her new boyfriend so he can publish a scandalous tell all book after her death. Not quite as shocking as some of his other work and could have been a novella as it was so short. I probably would have liked the book more if I knew more of the minor starts of that period in Hollywood history as a lot of the fun was name dropping. Some of my favorite parts were from the fictitious tell all where there was some hilarious writings about sex that had some ridiculous metaphors. Overall I'm not sure I'd recommend it but it wasn't a waste of time.

Homeland - Season 1

My big TV run continues with season 1 of Homeland on Showtime and here's my take. Slow set up in the first 4 episodes, kick ass episodes 5 through 11 and big old bag of disappointing in the finale that was full of anticlimactic moments, too much given away in the preview where you knew certain people were still going to be not dead and lots and lots and lots of season 2 set up.

I almost bailed after episode 4 as it was dragging but then episode 5 was amazing and completely hooked me. The basic pretense is about an American Marine POW Nicholas Brody played by Damian Lewis is freed from Al-Qaeda after 8 years in captivity and he may or may not be turned. CIA agent Carrie Mathison played by Claire Danes works for her boss Saul Berenson played by Mandy Patinkin to stop the impending terrorist threat. The whole rest of the cast was really good but Body's wife Jessica played by Morena Baccarin was pretty until she chopped off her hair and great. As one might imagine the plot is fairly complicated and in the awesome episodes 5-11 there are tons of twists and they show did a great job of making you guess who was good and who was bad. They did a great job with the dynamics, Brody was captured for 8 years and his wife had formed a romantic relationship with his best friend after I think 6 years so there's a lot of stuff going on there. I don't want to spoil too much but at one point Claire Danes has to act her way through a couple sex scenes and they were gross. I'm not sure if she was trying to look like a nasty huge nosed frog like transsexual in her scenes but if so, job well done. Overall she did both a good and bad job acting in the series, I thought she was terrible for a long time with poor line deliveries, constant disgusting looks, a weird arm swinging pant suit wearing walk, the gross sex scenes but then there were some episodes where her bi polar got out of control and I thought she was great. So when she's trying to act crazy she's fantastic, when she's not it comes off as visually unappealing and high school drama clubish.

I'm waiting on final judgement until after the beginning of next season but would have loved it if they hadn't jacked up the finale so bad. We'll see, hopefully the set up to season 2 is worth it.

Best American Short Stories 2011

The Best American Short Stories 2011. Guest editor Geraldine Brooks and series editor Heidi Pitlor

I can't believe I only found out about this series a few years ago, I feel genuinely cheated. The Best American series has quickly become one of my favorite annual traditions one that I hope continues till I'm done walking this earth. Geraldine Brooks was a great guest editor choosing fantastic stories from those presented by Heidi Pitlor and writing a hilarious introduction. This years edition includes the following 20 stories;

CHIMAMANDA MGOZI ADICHIE. Ceiling
This story is about a successful married man in Latos who gets a letter from his college girlfriend who is clearly his one true love that got away.

MEGAN MAYHEW BERGMAN. Housewifely Arts
Fantastic story about a single mom who is trying to deal with the grief of losing her mom by driving cross country to a zoo where her mom's parrot is now in the hopes that she'll hear her mom's voice through the parrot. Sad & great.

TOM BISSELL. A Bridge Under Water
Funny & powerful story about a honeymooning couple and faith. The dude may or may not get kicked out of a temple in Rome for pitching a fit about wearing the hat.

JENNIFER EGAN. Out of Body
The first of many stories in this edition I've already read. I actually really enjoyed rereading all of them including this one as it's fantastic. This one was included in A Visit From the Goon Squad and involves one of the main character's college years. One of her friends had tried to commit suicide and the challenges that creates among their circle of friends.

NATHAN ENGLANDER. Free Fruit for Young Widows
He's a genius. This is a story about a fruit vendor, his son and a complex relationship with someone he knew from the war.

ALLEGRA GOODMAN. La Vita Nuova
Amazing story about a very complex woman going through some stuff. I know that sounds insanely vague but this one's a hard one to summarize without giving away too much.

EHUD HAVAZELET. Gurov in Manhattan
Powerful, really short story about a Russian cancer survivor and his dog in the winter in NY. Loved the dog.

CAITLIN HORROCKS. The Sleep
A small town hibernated the winters away. Going into winter, it sounds kind of awesome, curl up and sleep all cozy and warm until spring.

BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON. Soldier of Fortune
Great story about a 14 year old boy with a crush on a girl who's family is dealing with a crisis when her baby brother is badly hurt in an accident.

CLAIRE KEEGAN. Foster
The story of a young girl who comes from a poor & not so good family sent to live with relatives on her mom's side who are amazing people dealing with the loss of a son.

SAM LIPSYTE. The Dungeon Master
Dungeons and Dragons kids are weird and messed up? That's odd.

REBECCA MAKKAI. Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart
Holy crap is Rebecca Makkai an amazing author. 4th year in a row she's in here and it's another standout story. This one's about an actor who's lost the ability to act. One of the things I most admire is that she is so versatile with each story I've read from her being completely different and yet all fantastic.

ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN. Property
Man loses wife, man moves to shit hole in Maine. Man makes shit hole home and woman who owns home upset man thinks place is shit hole as she is also dealing with loss. Lot's of loss in this issue and I'm missing telling that this is another good story.

STEVEN MILLHAUSER. Phantoms
This is another one I've read before and he's another one of my favorite authors. So creative and awesome. This one's about a small town that has regular ghost sightings.

RICARDO NUILA. Dog Bites
Read it. Reread it here and it was ok, not my favorite despite being from McSweeney's. Kid's messed up, dad's mess up. Kid does some messing up at a party and dad gets concussed.

JOYCE CAROL OATES. ID
Christ on Toast was this one great. This tackled a bunch of issues centering around a 13 year old girl and her single mom. I don't want to give away the plot of the story but this was one of my absolute favorites of the issue.

RICHARD POWERS. To the Measures Fall
This story is a story for authors. It's about a book. Seriously. A physical book. Book is found, book might be autographed by someone famous, sometimes book gets good reviews, sometimes bad, main character tells friends book is awesome, friends disagree.

JESS ROW. The Call of Blood
I liked this one about a private male nurse taking care of an elderly Korean woman who has Alzheimer. Sad & great social commentary about race issues in NY/America. Left me thinking after I finished the story.

GEORGE SAUNDERS. Escape from Spiderhead
I'd read this early last year when I had a subscription to the New Yorker on my Kindle. It's a strange story about human experimentation on inmates through chemicals. I loved it.

MARK SLOUKA. The Hare's Mask
I liked this one but it wasn't my favorite in the issue. It's about a family told from the son's point of view telling the story about how his dad's family hid a jew in the rabbit pen when he was a young boy.

Game of Thrones

In we're currently 6 month behind the times news Heather and I just finished watching the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones. It was so #$%& amazing I just peed a little. I don't know what anyone would every want more in a series, it had everything! Action, power struggles, hot eye candy, cool wolfs, sword fights, dragon references, beautiful locations, fighting corpses, a dwarf and the creepiest bit of insest in a show. Oh and a 12 year old breast feeds on a fake tete in one episode bringing Heather to perform a mad web search to confirm the breast was in fact fake and if they could do that on HBO. Much to her chagrin they can and did! I don't want to ruin anything but there were tons and tons of twists with the end of one episode near the end literally dropping my jaw. Highly recommended and can't wait for season 2!

Journals by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Years ago I read a glowing review of this book in the NY Times book review. It talked about how amazingly insightful the book was, how charming the author and about how rare a look into this period into American history. My dumb ass decided that I should branch out as a reader and use this opportunity to read and learn. $40 later, the book sits on shelf for years making me feel guilty. Finally I resign myself to read it and began in September, early September. Last night I finally gave up at page 723 of 849. I would sit down to read as if punished giving off a sigh that would reinforce my girlfriends opinion that I'm not right in the head. Now that being said, Schlisinger was an extremely interesting man, an excellent writer, insightful and involved heavily in the democratic party since the 40's. I loved reading his notes about JFK & RFK learning a lot. After RFK was assassinated I should have stopped reading as that's where the literary journey turned laborious. Not really sure what I was thinking here, I don't read a lot of non fiction, I'm not political and I have absolutely no idea who 90% of the people he talked about were. For anyone who is into politics and don't mind reading someone's notes about stuff for an insanely long time this book is for you!

I would after reading it pick up his book 1000 Days about JFK someday. Just not for a while until I discover the joy of reading again...

Zoetrope: All-Story Winter Vol. 15 No. 4

Zoetrope: All-Story Winter Vol. 15 No.4.

I hate to say this because I'm such a huge fan but this issue wasn't great. While the stories were all good, none of them blew me away. The guest designer Ryan McGinley did all nude photos and here are a couple examples;




Pretty cool art but again nothing that was truly amazing or iconic. The other issue with the issue is that the paper was completely different making it feel way more flimsy in the hand.

As I said the stories were all good and included the following;

PEOPLE THAT DON'T EXIST by Shani Boianjiu
This was an interesting story about a couple women involved in people from Sudan escaping their country to go to Israel.

THE REDEEMERS by Ethan Coen
An extremely short play about a couple good old boys who have just killed their pa when the law comes a callin.

I'LL BUY YOU A SHOVEL by Jon McGregor
I'm not really sure what this one was about. I know what the surface story was about but no idea what the author was really trying to say. Meh

ONE AFTERNOON AT THE BAKERY by Yoko Ogawa translated by Stephen Snyder
I really want to like this one but was disappointed. I think it was just a preference thing as it was a very near miss for me as it reminded me of Murikami.

ATE/MENOS OR THE MIRACLE by James Lasdun
This is another one I'm surprised I didn't like. Lot's of potential here for things I like including mistaken identity, then assumed identity, then bedding of hot woman, then busted. Sounds awesome right? Right. But again it was just ok not great.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011

This years addition was amazing, per usual. As always, the book is sectioned off into 2 sections with a shorter quirkier one to start and then the longer pieces later. There were 2 introductions that were pretty funny too by David Eggers and Guillermo Del Toro. Apparently no one reads them per Eggers so I thought I'd point out that they're there. I'm super jealous of Guillermo as he reads a book a day. Crazy fast reading has always been a dream especially when I'm reading word up magazine.

SECTION I

My favorites this year from the front of the book were;

Best American WikiLeaks Revelations
Who knew that world dictators can get personal concerts while on vacation in St. Bart's by Beyonce, Usher and other musicians? Figure they need some r&r after committing atrocities against there people.

Best American Lawsuits
I love hearing about frivolous lawsuits.

Best American Call Of Duty Handles
personal favorite- Your mom

Best American WiFi Network Names
personal favorites;
reciprocate-BringPiestoApt5 (New York)
Icanhearyouhavingsex (Seattle)
Idonthearyouhavingsexatall (Seattle)

Best American Mark Twain Quotes
Who knew he was so funny?

Best American Poems Written in Response to Arizona Senate Bill 1070
My favorite was The Border by Jose Hernandez Diaz


SECTION II

Daniel Alarcon. SECOND LIVES
This story was also chosen for 20 Under 40: Stories From The New Yorker so it was the second time I read it. Good little story about a family from Latin America who send their oldest of 2 sons to the US.

Adama Bah. AN ORAL HISTORY OF ADAMA BAH
Interesting story about injustice after 911. Adama was a 16 year old Muslim girl when she was arrested under unfounded suspicions of being a potential suicide bomber. Fairly predictable once it got going but good example of the US cutting legal corners and doing whatever they want in trying to catch terrorists.

Tom Barbash. THE WOMEN
Amazing story about a man in his early 20's from a rich family in NY right after losing his mom to cancer while his dad deals with the pain by aggressively womanizing. Moving and extremely well written.

Clare Beams. WE SHOW WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED
Bizarre story about a 5th grade teacher literally falling apart. Quirky and metaphory in a really good way.

Joshuah Bearman. ART OF THE STEAL
Possibly the best true story in the book. This is about an international thief, his story about his crimes and being caught. I'm surprised his life hasn't been made into a big budget movie yet.

Sloane Crosley. LE PARIS!
Sloane is an extremely endearing woman traveling to Paris dealing with some funny trials and tribulations.

Tim Crothers. GAME OF HER LIFE
This story is about Phiona Mutesi, a young, poor girl from Ugandan who is a chess virtuoso. Anyone who isn't rooting for her after reading this article is pure evil or possibly a cartoon villain.

William Deresiewicz. SOLITUDE AND LEADERSHIP
Great speech given to cadets at West Point about how the current culture deters innovation and thinking.

Anthony Doerr. THE DEEP
Second time I've read this one as well and it's amazing. About a young terminal man being overly protected by his mother struggling to live his life. Just stupid good.

Neil Gaiman. ORANGE
First off, I wasn't aware that Southwest Airlines put out a magazine. Secondly, they can certainly pick talent to write a story. Neil told this story as just the answers to investigators written questionnaire. Reminds me of a great Daniel Bartholome story about a body guard that was also all answers without the questions. This one's about an alien abduction and was #$%@ awesome!

Mohammed Hanif. BUTT AND BHATTI
Another great story. This one is about a gangster in love with a nurse who accidentally causes a riot. Have to read to get the dets.

Chris Jones. ROGER EBERT: THE ESSENTIAL MAN
I'm not usually a big biography guy but this was well written and interesting.

Charlie LeDuff. WHAT KILLED AIYANA STANLEY-JONES?
True story about Detroit and the police killing a little girl through negligence. Mostly it was about how shitty Detroit is.

J. Robert Lennon. WEBER'S HEAD
This one was ok. It's about 2 weird roommates living in a remote town.

Mac McClelland. FOR US SURRENDER IS OUT OF THE QUESTION
True story about a girl teaching English to refugees from Burma. So I'm glad I don't live in Burma.

Joyce Carol Oates. A HOLE IN THE HEAD
She is a ridiculously talented author. This story was about a cosmetic surgeon who is unraveling and his patients are trying to talk him into performing dangerous unnecessary surgeries that involve drilling holes into the skulls of his patients.

Michael Paterniti. THE SUICIDE CATCHER
True story about Mr. Chen, a guy in China who stands on a bridge to stop people from committing suicide by jumping off of said bridge.

Henrietta Rose-Innes. HOMING
This story is about an elderly couple where a hotel is built right across the street from them. Well written, kind of sad. Not my favorite but worth reading.

Anjali Sachdeva. PLEIADES
One of my favorite stories in the book. It's about a group of genetically engineered septuplets who are dying off one by one. Such a great story!

Olivier Schrauwen. THE IMAGINIST

One of 2 comics in the issue. This one is about a disabled man's imagination creating a great dream world. Touching and fantastic.

James Spring. MID-LIFE COWBOY
Another true story, this one is about a former meth peddler who goes to Mexico as a response to a mid life crisis to try to track down 2 murders who are on the run. Guy's got some balls and in the end is really conflicted about what he did. Great story about how complicated life truly is.

James Sturm. MARKET DAY

Another great comic. Really good story and art in this comic about a rug maker going to the market to sell his rugs.

Joan Wickersham. THE BOYS' SCHOOL, OR THE NEWS FROM SPAIN
This story is about 1 of 2 girls going to an all boys school and a couple of teachers who run into scandal when the woman teacher is accused of sleeping with the students. Interesting way to tell the story, telling it from this girls point of view.

McSweeney's Issue 38

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern Issue 38

Another fantastic issue. This quarter they go back to a basic book with the cover art designed by Jessica Hische that has a great retro look & texture. My only complaint is that they included the Jungle as an insert between pages 192 & 193 which created this awkward gap while the book was open. I would have preferred the cartoon just be part of the book instead of being a distraction as I read. The return of the letters section these last few issues has been a nice lighthearted way to start things off. After that the issue included;

Where He Fell by Ariel Dorfman
Great story about an artist in Paris doing an art instillation on the anniversary of a family tragedy. There is a lot going on in story and the author does a great job weaving it all into a compact space.

The Special Populations Unit by Chanan Tigay
This quarters obligatory anti war peace/minorities are treated like shit is about Arabs fighting for Israel while at the same time being discriminated against by the Israeli people. Hipsters everywhere are gleefully weeping at the irony. Seriously shitty situation though and I feel for them.

The Northeast Kingdom by Nathaniel Rich
Loved this story about a man who is in great health as he ages into his 100's. Everyone is trying to get his secret of longevity including shady family members. One of the best short stories in this issue.

The Hens by Roddy Doyle
Who but Roddy Doyle could write about a Polish immigrant working in Dublin for a crazy woman feuding with her neighbors over chickens. There were other stuff being feuded over but mostly it was over chickens chickens. Hilarious story & spoiler alert, there's an awesome housewife knife fight!

Rapunzel by Steven Millhauser
Millhouser's take on Rapunzel. He's definitely one of my favorite short story authors. Despite this one being relatively tame his imagination is ridiculous. So fun to read.

The Jungle by Jack Teagle
This is the previously mentioned comic insert about a man and a cat living in the "wild" Good addition to the issue despite being the annoying insert as the comic was funny and well written. Not my favorite style of art but works telling the story.

Cred by Adam Levin
Hilarious 2 page short story about a man obsessing about the fact that his girlfriend looks like she has a bulge above her groin in pants but does not in fact have a bulge sans pants.

Of Women and Frogs by Bisi Adjapon
Another strong story. This is great little story about about a young African girl of 9 then 11 trying to figure life out in a bad home life. Her dad is a womanizer, her mom left when she was really young and her so called aunts are abusive even though she doesn't understand that. Sad in a really good way and speaks eloquently about the challenges in growing up as a girl.

The JPEG by Rachel B. Glaser
I loved this story as well. Glaser's style reminds me of a slightly restrained Miranda July. The story is about a recent art graduate who is lost in the real world trying to connect to life through attempts at reconnecting with an ex boyfriend. I never though a passage about deleting contacts in your phone could be as powerful as it is in this story.

Talat Hamdani by Alia Malek
This oral history of a woman who lost a son on 9/11 only to see his name slandered as a potential terrorist when he was completely innocent. Even though the agenda pieces aren't my favorite reads it was interesting and my heart goes out to this family.

Chapter One by David Eggers
This is the first chapter of an upcoming book by Eggers and from what I can tell it will be about a lonely divorced man down on his luck with one last chance to salvage his life, prove to his daughter & himself that he still has value & maybe get some while he's in the middle east trying to land a big deal as a salesman and make lots of money so he can avoid foreclosure but he'll probably just fail and hipsters will rejoice along with the 99%.

The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball...

The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, The Art of Writing, and Everything Else In The World Since 1953.


Now this is an anthology! Weighing in at 890 pages it included stories from absolute legends in the literary world covering all the topics listed in the insanely long title. I've been reading this off and on since the beginning of September as I was mixing it in between other things. I started to write my favorite stories but there were way too many of them and I started to bore myself. So what I'll say instead is that literally every piece is fantastic, some I didn't connect with as much as other but there's not a single mediocre piece. Lot's of authors in there I've wanted to read but hadn't gotten around to yet which is always fun. I was kind of surprised that I liked the art of writing pieces in here as much as I did. As someone who is just a reader with no ambition to write I figured there wouldn't be much that I'd get out of them but they were all insightful and interesting.

Movie review- Captain America: The First Avenger

This was the second movie I watched yesterday in the Oct 29th nor eastern. Actually Boston was fine but a ton of places got between 8-12" of snow. Nuts. Anyways I digress, Captain America was a fun movie. Chris Evans was great as Steve Rogers, the movie looked fantastic and it had the right amount of ridiculous comicy action. I would have liked to see the love interest character Peggy Carter played by Hayley Atwell take a more active role in kicking Nazi & Hydra booty but other than that I thought they did a good job. They actually set it up that she was going to be bad ass with her knocking down a soldier with a strong right cross in her first scene but then she wasn't used that way again. Hopefully if they do a sequel that'll happen as I think it would be a lot more interesting. I also forgot Stanley Tucci played a small role as Dr. Eskine the inventor of the super serum that gives Cap his power and he was awesome in the role. Stole almost ever scene he was in.

Movie review- Salt

Had a lazy day yesterday and this was one of two movies I watched. The action sequences were really good, Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber were both pretty good in their roles but overall it was frustrating. Ok honestly, the movie was good up until the end. I don't want to give too much away because it's a CIA movie about spies and moles and stuff but here's the big issue. The end of the movie someone is thought to be a big fat traitor but isn't. The investigator says that he believes they are not a traitor but no one else will. Except the real bad guy knocked out the president right after they killed a ton of people right in front of him. So unless the president gets amnesia from the punch there is a @#$% %$#@ witness to the whole #$%&@ thing! So frustrating and way to ruin the movie for me stupid writers!

Plus how do you turn this


And this


And this


Into mom jeans magee


And the weirdest looking dude around? How was it secret service didn't pick up on the fact that this is a drag king? Serious?

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Lamb By Christopher Moore

Good god is this book hilarious. It's the story of Jesus or Josh and his best friend Biff starting in their childhood and going right up to the end. Biff meets Josh as a little kid when he first killing then reviving a lizard over and over again by sticking the lizard in his mouth. They end up traveling to find the 3 wise men who came to the manger when Jesus was born so he can learn how to be the Messiah. Throughout their travels they meet two demons, become masters in kung fu, Josh learns enlightenment, meet a yeti, shave a yak, unclog backed up camels, heal a lot of sick, Josh becomes a yoga master, break up a crazy blood sacrifice in India, mess with people constantly and Biff has a lot of sex so Josh can learn about sin second hand. Oh and Biff buys an Elephant. Lamb had me literally laughing so hard all throughout the book I'll be recommending it to anyone that doesn't mind a shit ton of blasphemy in their fiction.

If I were choosing the X-Men & Brotherhood of Mutants

So between X-Men: First Class and X-Men Destiny I've been pretty engrossed in the choice between the X-Men and Brotherhood. If I were going go chose the teams I would go with 10 on each side so that if there were 2 missions at the same time you could break them up into 2 teams of 5 for maximum butt whoopin. In order to qualify for the team they have to either be mutants or part of X-Men lore so no Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, etc. As of right now here's who I would have in no particular order;

X-MEN
In putting together the team I tried to think team first. So I needed some bruisers, some energy powers, some smart folks and good overall teammates with a propensity towards good. We're doing good here so it's more defense than offense.

Colossus
Colossus is my favorite mutant and I'm not sure why because there are so many to chose from. He can turn into organic steel and has super strength which would be really nice to have in a scrap or if you needed to lift a bus over your head. I think I read somewhere that he is the strongest mutant but I could be wrong about that. Either way, if you need to throw some punches in a battle I want this guy on my team.

I like how someone said, hey let's give him shoulder pads but can we make them have holes in them?


Ping, ping, ping...


Why is he glowing? I don't get it but I like the way Jim Lee draws.



Storm
Storm has to be on any X-Men team I"m putting together. She controls weather & flies. With the heavy hitters throwing punches she can strike down foes with lightning, provide cover with fog or rain and if shit really gets out of hand it's tornado time.

This would be a cool poster or wine label


I like the look of this one and would be a cool poster too


The 14 year old boy in me loves the way Michael Turner draws Storm here. He was such an amazing artist, sucks that he's gone. Obviously he draws a sexy lady but I also consistently love the way he draws faces as everyone is really strong.



Beast
I flip floped a little between Beast and Forge as lets face it, any super hero team held back by morality & conscious needs to have the very best equipment. Hank not only brings that but he's also awesome in a fight with extra strength & agility. His hangup about looking like a big blue animal isn't too too annoying so he's in. I also like how he's developed over the years from looking mostly human to looking like a big cat, nice to mix it up.

Early Beast looks like a few mechanic friends of mine.


You can tell he's smart by the lab coat


The costume is funny here. The only thing missing from his sweet stripper outfit is the x shaped bow tie.


Iceman
Every team needs a little comic relief and Bobby provides that right along with having some of the strongest powers around. He's a good locker room guy who can also tear shit up, perfect!

Loved the ice slide as a kid and makes me think about pretending I was Iceman standing up on my sled bombing down the hill in my back yard.


I think he just blew out a shoulder.


I like this style, not sure who the artist is.



Phoenix
Can anyone say, holy shit I think that smoking hot chick just ripped apart that universe on a molecular level? Well that's what Jean Grey can do as Phoenix. I want her on the good side as it's kind of nice to have a home/lair to go back to once the party ends.

This is the drawing I think of first when I think of Phoenix.


Ultimate Jean Grey here. You can tell she means business by the glowing eyes


80's hair!



Kitty Pryde
Kitty can phase through anything so she's nice to have if you need to get in or out of a vault or something like that. She also has a pet dragon Lockheed who would be kind of fun to have around the mansion. She's good in just about any situation and Colossus would be happy to have someone to flirt with.

She seems pretty laid back for someone who's busting up that computer


Terry Dodson is just stupid talented


Why's she screaming? No air?



Surge
Surge can absorb electrical energy turn it into speed and fire it back through her hands kind of like the Emperor in Star Wars except nothing like that as his was through his finger tips, from the force and rage. I don't see how any team couldn't be helped by someone who can run insanely fast and electrocute your face when she's pissed.

She must sound crackly


At first I didn't see Colossus. Seems a little odd where he is


That is some shiny hair



Ms. Marvel
I really got behind Carol Danvers aka Ms. Marvel from playing the Marvel Alliance games on the PS3 as she was absolutely dominant in those. She flies, has super strength and can shoot concussive energy from her hands. What's not to love? It was debatable if she qualified for the X-Men but according to Marvel.com she was almost added at one point but lost out to Rogue so she's in on my team.

I had a hard time coming up with pics here for Ms. Marvel that didn't make me look too much like a perv.


Love this drawing


Someone's about to hurt someone with those glowing hands



Psylocke
Psylocke is another one of my favorite mutants. She can create a telekinetic sword or blades out of her fists or just telekinetic power blasts. She can also create illusions, has some mind control powers albeit a little limited and can shoot mental bolts from her brain and stuff. Shit goes down, I want her in the fight.

Sweet kick flip


Love this pic, the style is friggin awesome


Ed Benes is one of my favorite artists and does a good drawing here. On a related note, I had a hard time finding 3 cool pics of Psylocke that didn't show her thong. She's proof that comics are made for the 14 year old boy in all of us.



Captain Britain
I'm not going to lie, he won out on the team as he's Psylocke's brother and I liked the idea of them both being on the team. Probably some bickering and live saving when the chips are on the table. Plus the outfits are hilarious, probably make the rest of the team chuckle and make British jokes. From a power perspective he's also jacked. He is super strong, can fly, has enhance reflexes and stamina. I wanted yet another powerhouse on the team. He almost lost out to Cyclops or Cable but I couldn't pull the trigger on Cyclops and I think he's slightly cooler despite the uni than Cable.

Do you think he's pissed because is raining again in London?


Classic pose here


Maybe it's the only pose he knows besides arm cross. Sweet hair bro



BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS
With the Brotherhood unlike the X-Men I was thinking of who would be the biggest bad assess to put on the team. These guys are all about destroying stuff and I was less concerned with how well they would play together than who wouldn't you want to see coming at you in a fight.

Juggernaut
Great cornerstone of the team. Give him a running start and the rest of the team can go into mop up mode. He's an absolute beast in a fight and immune to Prof X's powers.

That grin is straight out of The Shinning


Good lord is he huge


Classic dance pose


Mystique
Pure bad ass. Can shift into anyone and is handy with a weapons cashe. Can't form an evil team without her.

This drawing is ridiculously cool.


She seems really happy to have that gun, sword and to be standing ankle deep in human skulls


Those are big guns



Wolverine
While I understand the internal battle within Wolverine to between his rage and doing good I think it's dumb. He should be bad, pure and simple. He is an absolute killing machine who heals from anything. How're you going to turn the ability to take razor sharp claws that can slash people in 2 and make him into a good guy, ridiculous. He should be chopping people up and taking names. Plus forget Colossus throwing him through enemies, can you imagine Magneto launching him? It would be just stupid powerful

He looks constipated


Still constipated


If he was constipated that should help loosen stuff up



X-23
Female clone of Wolverine with 2 claws in each fist and 1 in each foot. Done and done. Good guys getting disemboweled left and right.

Pretty cool drawing, she seems like she's just about to cut someone in half


She missed a bunch of bullets. Plus she heals from bullets, seems silly to cut them for nothing


Now that's a wake of destruction



Pyro
Controlling fire is a bad guy thing. Iceman meet Pyro, now go. Ice slide? How about melt that water slide? Def a strong addition to any team looking to destroy shit.

There were oddly very few drawing of Pyro out there on the web. I did the best with what I could find. Oddly enough this was the best solo one I could find even though I'm not that happy with it. Seems short sighted, where's he going to land?


What's the rest? How to avoid getting set on fire with a wedgie?


Why is Pyro ducking from fire?



Emma Frost
Emma should just be bad, no going around it. She's the biggest bitch out there and has amazingly cool powers. Telepath check, now lets have that same icy byotch turn into the hardest element on the planet. Done and watch out.

What's on her finger?


Now that's how to make an entrance


What giant robot? Oh that? NBD



Rogue
Who would like to have a member of the team who can absorb powers and use them against you. Again I think she should be bad so she can take those powers to the next level and really dominate with them.

Ed Benes again


This just screams late 80's early 90's and I love it


Wouldn't a scarf be bad in a fight? Just inviting people to try to choke you out.



Gambit
Master thief who can charge up anything he touches and can fight with a bo staff. Get him in the lineup. No way a master thief should be a good guy unless he's Robin Hood which would be stupid. Plus he can flirt with Rogue.

Ed Benes draws Gambit for the ladies.


Great concentration here, no smirk for Gambit during a fight


Not sure if you know this but Gambit says "Dat" more than anyone not wraslin a gator has any right to.



Cloak and Dagger
Cloak is one dark guy. He feeds off of souls or light from Daggers powers. Dagger keeps him in control but I think it would be awesome if they just decided to let go and kick some ass. Cloak can send people into a darkness dimension he can be intangible and teleport through the dimension of darkness. Dagger has the cool light daggers that can damage, cure drug additions & previously mentioned stop Dagger from feasting on human souls.

Adam Hughes has a great drawing style. I like this one a lot even if it doesn't make sense what Dagger is doing


Is that a leggo guy in the stained glass?


It's hard to get good distance on a light dagger throw without a side leg kick. Also, why are they standing in a puddle?