Kieron Gillen’s X-Men gets an omnibus. The first-ever San Diego Comic-Con Malaga was reportedly a “total disaster.” What does Absolute Evil mean for Absolute Green Arrow?
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Episode Transcript:
Kieron Gillen’s X-Men gets an omnibus.
Comic-Con Malaga a “total disaster.”
What Does Absolute Evil mean for Absolute Green Arrow?
This is Comic Book Club News for October 1, 2025.
Kieron Gillen’s X-Men Gets An Omnibus:
Kieron Gillen’s run on X-Men is getting an omnibus. Well, one of his runs.
Per ICv2, the massive 1,000-page hardcover will collect not just 30 issues of the writer’s run on Uncanny X-Men, but also five issues of the S.W.O.R.D. miniseries, five issues of AVX: Consequences, and the X-Men: Regenesis one-shot.
In case you couldn’t figure it out from the inclusion of the AVX — aka Avengers vs. X-Men — miniseries, this is not the X-Men’s Krakoa era, which would find Gillen returning to the franchise. Instead, this is the period well before that, around 2009 to 2012.
The $125 book will feature two covers, one by Terry Dodson and the other by Carlos Pacheco, and hit stores on April 14, 2026.
First-Ever San Diego Comic-Con Malaga Reportedly A “Total Disaster”:
The first-ever San Diego Comic-Con Malaga, held this past weekend in Spain, was reportedly a “total disaster” — and not just because of the bizarrely awkward name for the convention.
Per The Beat, there were a number of major issues with the convention, which aimed to bring the Comic-Con vibe to Spain… Not least of which is that the organizers planned for 60,000 attendees, and instead got 120,000. Due to that, the panel rooms were too small, the lines too long, and convention-goers were frequently standing for hours in the hot sun.
To make matters worse, no outside food or drink was allowed, meaning line-goers were parched unless they purchased water from the con. And the food was also knocked for being generic American fare, from terrible hot dogs to terrible hamburgers.
And in terms of the programming, it sounds like that underdelivered as well, including a tiny Artist’s Alley, with only four rows.
You can — and should — read The Beat’s report for much more, but with fans calling the show a “total disaster,” hundreds of complaints, and an inquiry launched into the con by Spain’s largest consumer union, the three-year contract Comic-Con signed to appear in Malaga may be in doubt.
What Does Absolute Evil Mean For Absolute Green Arrow?
The beginning of DC Comics’ Absolute Evil, which hits stores today, seems to be a back-door pilot for Absolute Green Arrow, which is coming next year from writer Pornsak Pitcheshote and artist Rafael Albuquerque. But — and massive spoiler warning here, seriously, I’ll wait for you to hit stop on that podcast if you don’t want to know — that book is not going to be about Oliver Queen, unless it’s in flashback. That’s because the shocker mid-issue is that Green Arrow is dead, killed by none other than Hawkman.
Before that, though, we see the classic Oliver Queen, a billionaire fed up with other billionaires. Oliver is pretty much straight up the Green Arrow we know from the mainline universe, down to an Arrow Cave, the classic uniform, the beard, etc, etc, which makes the reader wonder: what is the Absolute Universe-style twist on this concept?
Well, the twist is he’s beaten to death by Hawkman, with his body thrown on a conference room table to show that the billionaire villains of this universe don’t give an inch to traitors. Given that Absolute Green Arrow likely isn’t Hawkman doing Weekend at Bernie’s with Oliver Queen’s dead body, what will the title actually be about?
The easy answer is that it’s going to be about Roy Harper, usually known as Speedy and/or Arsenal — not Oliver Queen. The reason is that Oliver is on the phone with Roy at the top of the issue. Roy is trying to talk him down from going all one-man-army on Jubal Slade, and in a certain sense, Roy is right. But it stands to reason that Roy will feel regret about letting Oliver go it alone, and take on the Green Arrow mantle to go after Jubal and others.
Another note that backs this up, though it’s not in the issue? At WonderCon back in March, Pichetshote effused on a panel about being obsessed with one-man army stories. Seems like he was, perhaps, getting some early research in.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. But honestly, has anyone ever had a good convention hot dog?
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
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