After many months of anticipation, the X-Men are finally holding their big super-power party Slash Diplomatic Summit Slash Fashion Showcase Event, and the Hellfire Gala is the hottest ticket out there.
From the Fantastic Four to Doctor Doom and Russian dignitaries to Shiari aliens, a comic book event has never been so perfectly calibrated to bring you the Monday Funnies promise of the “social side of superhero life” numerous celebrities from the real world
Except Deadpool.
What else happens on the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books our comics editor liked over the past week. It’s partly society pages about superhero life, partly reading recommendations, partly “Check out this cool art”. There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last issue, read this.)
Wade you are not dressed nearly Fashionable enough, at least put those life jackets back on.
The actual gala started in an edition of Marauders, with Emma Frost hosting the entire Marvel Universe, and it has lots of great little moments. Doctor Strange sighs in relief because he’s not the most dressed person in the room, Ben Grimm finds the more disreputable mutants in their play area and then also, these.
And then there was that pure Venture Bros. moment in Hellions.
Am I good to talk about the twist at the end of James Tynions? The beautiful house by the lake # 1 now? If not, keep scrolling.
A group of acquaintances, reunited by their only cute but weird buddy, are all invited to a lake house weekend to celebrate vaccine summer 2021, only for their buddy to reveal that he is the vanguard of an alien invasion, the just started the apocalypse but he liked it too much to let it die so he built this perfect house and if they all quarantined themselves there now and pretended everything was fine while the World burns around her he would love this and I swear this is literally a nightmare I had last week.
Marvel’s Star Wars comics started their own crossover this week with a shocking twist: it’s all about a main character Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Race portrayal can be tricky when it comes to alien characters who grew up on Earth, such as Crush, an abandoned alien baby raised in the United States by Latin American parents. But when a super strong girl stands around with her biceps bulging out of her T-shirt, she’s clearly ripping off her sleeves, brewing a mocha pot and grumbling about how her friend broke up with her, then all I can say is Crush is a Latinx representative and does she want my number too?
There are only three other issues of Immortal Hulk left and boy, hello, will I miss Joe Bennett’s page layout.
Props to Ram V for writing this exposure-filled gag, but extra props to Xermanico for rendering it in a way that made me laugh.