Ugh. That what I have to say about the recent X-Men core titles. I used to look so forward to the X-Men in general. The good ‘ole days when X-Men launched a new #1 with a Jim Lee jam cover. These were the days where X-Force was on fire (by Rob Liefield) and we had great arcs like X-Tinction Agenda and Age of Apocalypse.
Sure, I understand that the X-Men universe is in constant change. It really started to take a nosedive in my opinion just after M-Day. I still don’t understand who at Marvel was keeping track of the 198. There sure seemed like more than 198 still running around to me, and all the other concurrent crap like Calypso and her tentacle arms and and how they were destroying Cable.
Then enter Joss Whedons Astonishing X-Men story and I can’t figure out who is where anymore and is Beast (aka Dr. Henry McCoy) a cat or not a cat? Depends who was on pencil duties that month. And don’t get me started on the whole Kitty phasing the bullet through the whole planet thing. Booo.
Suffice to say I won’t get into a huge diatribe right now, but this is whats wrong with X-verse right now: Too many titles and characters spread so thin that stories just seem uninspired or rehashed or just plain confusing….i.e. no longer fun. This whole “Divided We Stand” arc between all the X titles is just crap. I say it’s crap because none of the editors have made it clear what is actually happening, what the deep ramifications are, and where are we headed. It just seems everything (except Peter David on X-Factor) is just rushed just to say we got a comic out the door.
Case in point: the two core titles Uncanny and Legacy.
Legacy: What the hell is going on with Gambit and Xavier and Shaw? Gambit is all of a sudden better after his not too distant jaunt with Apocalypse and his dialogue is just so stupid as of late. What even gets me more is that Xavier just spent a few issues comatose on a lab slab (thought to be dead) with his brain being repaired by the new Acolytes, just to be telepathically invaded by Mr. Sinister, just to be shot by some goon and bleeding to death….again. Sorry, but this is just so un-original anymore, and this whole arc with Sebastian Shaw teaming with ‘happy days are hear again’ Remy just seems to be dragging on and on….which seems like an oxymoron seeing that writer Mike Carey insists on every page having a fight panel of some sort. And also sorry but I seriously dislike Scot Eatons pencils. Not one of my favorite artists by a long shot, so I have sadly have two very strong marks against this flagship title.
Uncanny 499: Yeah, we all expected a big lead up to issue #500, but splitting the teams into two and sending one to Russia (Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus) and the others (Emma, Scott, Angel, and the others) to a psychedelic induced San Fransisco of the 1960’s is equally just filler material until someone figures out where they may be going with #500 and beyond. However, I do like the art style, especially Mike Choi’s work on Emma Frost (hubba hubba) and the interpretation of Cyclops was very nice. But again, they took a sleeper story and stretched it over four issues. I can’t even tell you why or Colossus, Wolverine and Nightcrawler were even in the Soviet Union right now…because it was forgettable and again just seemed like filler material. It was a nice surprise to see Omega Red, but the cleanup and resolution was too quick….Here ya go SHIELD. When the sub plots of both teams wrapped up, the issue just made an abrupt cut like everything is back to normal again and just seemed to…well,…end.
Needless to say, all the X-titles are suffering right now, except maybe X-Factor….but that’s because you have a great writer and a much smaller sandbox he’s playing in right now.
Filed under: Comics - Marvel, X-Verse | Tagged: Collosus, Comics - Marvel, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Gambit, Mr. Sinister, Nightcrawler, Peter David, Wolverine, X-Factor, X-Men, Xavier | Leave a comment »