X-Men (2021) #25 Cover by Joshua Cassara

This has to be my best pick-up at OAX 2024; the first Shadowkat cover and appearance. Kind of a monumental issue for her character; killing people, new costume, and a new code name. Tho I fully expect that with the current winding down of the Hickman era of X-Men, that there will be another reset of the timeline and much of the last five years of continuity will be selectively wiped out to bring back as many dead characters as possible and to give readers another easy jump on point. But I'm actually ok with this as long as it's not Marvel just ignoring everything that happened in favor of a totally new direction.

The backstory on this acquisition is that my boyfriend and I ended up sitting next to Josh and his wife Martha during the Friday reception dinner. We mostly talked about non-comic stuff and it was great. Fast forward to Sunday when the open sketching was going on and I thought to myself: I really want a Kitty Pryde sketch from him. So while he's drawing me a Shadowkat in my sketchbook I'm paging through his portfolios thinking that I'll probably buy an X-Force page because I really liked his run on that book. Then I saw a portfolio marked "Covers" and I'm thinking about how I really haven't bought anything really amazing the whole weekend, maybe I'll find something I really like here? Then I saw this cover and I think I reenacted the Fry shut up and take my money meme.

UPDATE: OMG, this piece was featured on CAF Update #182

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJxr8SEHuFo

Fast forward to about three hours in to hear Bill and Chris talk about it.