Monday Night Murals: Xecret Message

Okay, so you're at your local comic book store, shop, emporium or dungeon, and you're hanging around the X-section, which takes up roughly two and a half aisles of the store. You're looking at the new comics, and in between Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy, X-Factor, X-Force, Xew Mutants, Xolverine, Xylophone-Men, The Uncanny Xerxes and Kitty Pryde: Rated X, you might see Hope Summers's sad, sad face pouting out at you:


X-Men: Second Coming #1, third printing variant (May 2010), art by Matt Banning, David Finch, and Peter Steigerwald

Huh! Now that's an intriguing message. SHE. Could this first issue of a new X-storyline mean the return of the Super Heroes of Europe?!?



Or maybe an X-Men tie-in with the all-new, all-viridian, mint-flavored She-Hulk!



Or it just might be a beautiful love song by Elvis Costello (reserve member of X-Men UK):



Actually, it's the ever-popular none of the above. Wouldja believe...it's just another mural?

1. X-Men: Second Coming #1, third printing variant (May 2010), art by Matt Banning, David Finch, and Peter Steigerwald
2. Uncanny X-Men #523, third printing variant (June 2010), art by Rachel Dodson, Terry Dodson, and Justin Ponsor
3. New Mutants v.2 #2, third printing variant (June 2010), art by Brian Reber and Ibraim Roberson
4. X-Men Legacy #235, third printing variant (June 2010), art by Greg Land, Jay Leisten, and Justin Ponsor
5. X-Force v.2 #26, third printing variant (June 2010), art by Michael Choi and Sonia Oback
Click image to third-printing-size



Hey! What the Sam Scratch is goin' on here!?! That's a cheat of a mural! The pictures don't link together! Well, technically it's a mural, because the bottom third gives you a secret message that you probably figured out around about page two of UXM #523. But still, hey, if it worked for Old Man Logan, why not do it again?

Doing it again is really the watchword of the X-Men, now, isn't it? So maybe there's a secret secret message hidden in these covers, huh? Hmmm, let me put my jigsaw puzzle skills to work here, combined with my love of cryptographs and my subscription to Games magazine. Put this one here...and that cover there...let's see, move that one on the right...huh, what do ya know...there is a special message that tells you just what this storyline is:

So there ya go: the true nature of the Second Coming storyline is that it's just like every other X-Men storyline. And we like it that way, don't we?

I'll be back next week with another mural...oh wait, it's the doorbell. Hang on a minute. Hey, look, it's Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, and Mike Carey! Golly, what are you guys doin' at my place! Hey, what's up with the baseball bats and billy clubs?

Okay, I might not be back next week with another mural. Hey, X-Guys, are you sure you don't wanna talk about this first...?