On Sale This Week (03/28)

ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL 5 TP NEW PRINTING
The Story: NOW INCLUDES THE EPIC X-MEN/ALPHA FLIGHT LIMITED SERIES! The X-Men face off with some of their greatest foes in this all-new edition – including the Juggernaut, Doctor Doom and the Hellfire Club’s newest recruits, the Hellions – and team up with the Avengers, Spider-Man, Power Pack and more! Featuring the first appearances of Forge and Nimrod, and a chapter from the legendary SECRET WARS II crossover! Plus: Parts I and II of Claremont and Windsor-Smith’s unforgettable epic, "Lifedeath." Collects UNCANNY X-MEN #180-198, X-MEN ANNUAL #8 and X-MEN/ALPHA FLIGHT #1-2.
632 PGS./ Rated T+…$16.99

Last printing pictured

Okay, this is an interesting book since it collects a bunch of X-Men comics AND the X-Men/Alpha Flight mini, but what I really want to know is WHERE THE HECK IS VOL.3's NEW PRINTING ? We got Volumes 2 and 4 a while back and now we get the fifth one, but Volume 3 is nowhere to be seen. For those of you who didn't know it yet, Marvel started putting out new printings of the first five Essential X-Men books. The main "raison d'être" of these new printings was to move the Annual issues from one volume to the other so that they are placed in chronological order of publication between the regular issues. They also added new content when they had enough space. If I remember correctly, the whole thing went something like this :

OP : Old Printing NP: New Printing
Volume 2 OP collects #120-145
Volume 2 NP collects #120-144 and Annuals #3-4

Volume 3 OP collects #145-161 and Annuals #3-5
Volume 3 NP IS NOT OUT YET

Volume 4 OP collects #162-179 and Annual #6
Volume 4 NP collects #162-179, Annual #7 and God Loves, Man Kills GN

Volume 5 OP collects #180-198 and Annual #7-8
Volume 5 NP collects #180-198, Annual #8 and X-Men/Alpha Flight

So if everything goes according to plan, the new printing of Volume 3 should collect issues #145-161, Annuals #5-6 (#6 being currently unavailable) and maybe a mini-series. I've been waiting for it ever since Volume 2 was reprinted a couple of years ago and sadly, it doesn't seem to be in Marvel's upcoming publishing schedule. As far as I know, they'll wait until they sell out of the book before going on with the new printing. Anyway, let's get back to this week's book.

The issues collected in Essential X-Men Vol.5 are not classics and are far from being the best the series has had. These are no "Dark Phoenix Saga" or "Days of Future Past", but they should please the X-Men's fans and appeal to anyone who's interested in Marvel's mutants, or in Canada's own super-hero team, Alpha Flight.