EARTH X part 5: THE MERCHANDISE

On this final part of the Earth X saga we’ll check the merchandise that surrounded this series, it’s not as much as I’d hoped, I would’ve loved some action figures like the Kingdom Come or Justice ones, but, one can only hope...

First up, The Busts, there were many of these, the key here is that only 3 were actually designed, painted AND sculpted by Alex Ross: The Wolverine bust is the “Days of Future Past” version, which has gray hair on his sides, this bust came in 2 other versions, a battle damaged one and a bronze one, they all had the same sculpt but repainted or bronzed. Next is the Spider-Girl/Venom bust, it’s the same sculpt but with 2 different paint jobs, and finally the Earth X Daredevil, which looks awesome in his normal version, let alone the bronze version.

I only have IN MY COLLECTION the first 2,Logan and Venom, I’m still looking for the Daredevil bust.

The next set of busts were designed and painted by Ross but NOT sculpted by him, so for the sake of completion and because these busts just look cool I’ll get them eventually but I’m in no hurry. We have, Hulk and Banner, Deathlok, (Blood)Storm, Thor, Officer Parker, Belasco, Spiders Man, Iron-Man 2099 and Black Bolt. There is also a Captain America full-bodied statue which looks awesome. Now you can find these busts on ebay at fair prices (between US$ 10 and US$ 30) for the first 4 on the list but be warned that rest were very limited and can go up to US$200 or more. Not pictured is the Iron Man bust.

Two t-shirts were also manufactured for this series with new art by Ross a Prince Namor one in red and one for The Thing in orange. And finally, the weirdest of the items is the only action figure of this series made not by Marvel, but by Wizard’s sister magazine ToyFare, it’s a figure of Earth X’s Venom.

EARTH X part 4: PARADISE X

Immediately after the conclusion of Universe X, came the final installment in the Earth X saga. Named Paradise X, this story is as confusing as the previous one from what I can gather from the sketchbook because I haven’t read it. Apparently the heroes killed Death and now nobody can die so they are looking for a new embodiment of said figure. The story is again written by Jim Krueger and penciled by Doug Braithwaite, with Alex Ross co-writing the story, doing character designs and painting the covers, which are awesome altogether and they are sort of interlocking, yet there wasn’t a poster of the image ever produced because the final image would be too long and narrow, I guess. It all started right after Universe X ended with a 3-issue prelude called Heralds. And, there was also the Wizard special sketchbook.
For those of you completists out there, here’s the order in which this series and its specials were published. After Heralds, came issues #0 - 2, the Xen special, issues #3 - 5, the Devils special, issues #6 - 8, the 2-part Ragnarok special, issues #9 - 12, and ending in a special issue #A followed by the classic #X.
This series was later reprinted in 2 trade paperbacks, with new covers by Ross. IN MY COLLECTION I only have the sketchbok and a few scattered issues here and there, I haven’t got around to completing this story.

EARTH X part 3: UNIVERSE X

This series was a direct sequel to Earth X. The world was saved from the Celestials, there is a cure for the mutations and Captain Mar-Vell is now reborn on this planet while still "alive" in the world of the dead. Sounds confusing? well, it is, this story continues tweaking the origins of Marvel characters but they are now using some obscure references that the casual reader and even a serious Marvel fan could find strange and hard to swallow. They talk about the microverse and subatomica and stuff that's really weird and in my opinion completely alienates readers who aren't hardcore marvel zombies from the 70's and such. Still the art is amazing, not only Alex Ross' covers are superior to the Earth X ones but Doug Braithwaite's interior art is very clean and crisp and much better than John Paul Leon's. This is also the first colabration between Ross, Krueger and Braithwaite, who'll later work on DC's Justice.

This series contains, again 14 numbers, 0 - 12 and # X in interlocking covers that produce the image you see on the left plus there are 5 specials that concentrate on certain characters such as Cap and Spidey in between the regular numbers.
It all started, again with a Wizard special sketchbook, as seen on the picture below (top row), there was also a variant cover of issue #0, The Fantastic Four special and its variant cover. Middle Row: The variant cover to issue #1, the Spidey special and its variant cover (which have the collaboration of comic book legend John Romita), and the marvel sketchbook they called Universe X:Omnibus. Bottom Row: The Captain America special only called Cap and its variant cover, the Beasts and Iron Men special.
For those who want to read this series, do it in this order and you won't get lost: #0, Fantastic Four special, #1-3, Spidey special, #4, Cap special, #5-8, Beasts special, #9-11, Iron Men special and finally #12 and #X. This series was later collected into 2 trades which you can see below. IN MY COLLECTION: I have all the books #0-#X and the specials with their regular covers only and I also have the variant to issue #0.

EARTH X part 2

After this series ended, an Oversized Special Edition Hardcover came out, full of earth x goodness. This edition included:
- An oversized version of the Earth X miniseries in black & white including #0 - X, #1/2, an epilogue penciled by John Paul Leon and painted by Alex Ross, the sketchbook, all covers forming the poster in a foldout, aditional art for variant covers and merchandise such as t-shirts, all the creators' autographs and an introduction by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer)
-Two CDs with theme songs for the characters of Earth X composed by Scott Vladimir Licina. One of the CDs is also a CD-ROM that includes interviews and a short film/music video directed by Ross featuring live action and computer animation. You can watch the videos on the links below
-A poster of the Celestials
-All this comes inside a translucent acrylic box, in the shape of X-51, the series' narrator.
I have to admit this is one of my most prized possesions in my collection. More details on the following links:

Click here for complete details on this edition including a song from the soundtrack.

The Earth X trailer.

The Earth X music video.

An interview with the creators.

The creators signing autographs.

EARTH X part 1

Alex Ross doesn't just participates in projects as a painter, he was also able to be the co-plotter (with his long-time partner in crime Jim Krueger), character designer and cover artist in 1997-1998's Earth X, a project that was born as a joke. When Wizard Magazine asked him for his ideas of a "Kingdom Come" for the Marvel Universe he immediately thought of a fat Spider-Man with his gut hanging out. But when he got serious, ideas came to his head and with the help of Krueger, they conceived this tale. The premise is very simple, due to a mysterious event, everyone on the planet has superpowers and this redefines the concept of what is a superhero or villain. What comes next is the unfolding of the biggest secret nobody in the Marvel Universe knew about and it involves everything from the beginning of time to Earth's apparent final days. The first sketches and ideas came as a special comic-book insert in Wizard #77, which you can see on the left.

Now, this series was made of 14 issues, #0 - 12 and a final #X, all the cover art was painted by Ross with the intention of putting it next to each other to form a giant collage image of the characters, as seen below in its poster form.
There were also Dynamic Forces' variant covers to issues #0, 1 & X, which were painted by Ross over pencils by series' artist John Paul Leon. Also out there is a special #1/2 by Wizard magazine with a new cover by Ross and the interior art by series' inker Bill Reinhold. The Wizard sketchbook was expanded by Marvel and sold with a new cover by Ross.
IN MY COLLECTION: All issues except for #1/2 and the variant cover to #X