Sunday, September 10, 2006

Uncanny X-Periment # 57: "Guests"

X-Force # 29-30, X-Men # 27, X-Men Annual # 2, X-Men Unlimited # 3, X-Men # 28, X-Men Unlimited # 4, X-Men # 29, X-Force # 32, New Warriors # 45, X-Force # 33, and New Warriors # 46


Let's run through it . . .

X-Force # 29-30 has Shatterstar captured by Arcade and he faces the mysterious Adam-X, the X-Treme. They then team up and fight their way out of Murderworld. You know, other than his name, I always kinda liked Adam-X. I thought he was a fairly interesting character with a lot of potential.

X-Men Annual # 2 and X-Men # 27 both continue to deal with the Legacy Virus. Apparently, an island has been established by a Mutant named Empyrean to serve as a sort of Leaper Colony for Mutants dying from the disease. Apparently, Empyrean gets off on this or somethin'. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Anywhoo, it's revealed that Revanche is dying of the Legacy Virus as well. So . . . there's some development for her after all this time. The X-Men then find out that Mr. Sinister is searching for a cure to the Legacy Virus and he has recruited a woman named Threondy (whose power is to feel the pain and death of others) into helping him.

X-Men Unlimited # 3 and X-Men # 28 feature the best out of the bunch when the X-Men hunt down Sabretooth. There's all this silliness regarding Clan Yoshinda and whatnot, but eventually Xavier decides to help Creed deal with his problems rather than just beat him up. This means taking him into the mansion. Not all of the X-Men are happy with this decision, but they roll with it.

X-Men Unlimited # 4 reveals that Mystique is Nightcrawler's mother.

X-Men # 29, X-Force # 32, New Warriors # 45, X-Force # 33, and New Warriors # 46 finally take down the Upstarts. Gamemaster challenges all of them (including wannabes like Fernis) to hunt down the former members of the New Mutants and the old Hellions. Since there are characters spreading across both X-Force and the New Warriors, both teams are joined together and face off against the Upstarts. In the end, the game is called off and the Upstarts kinda scatter.

My response to most of these books: "meh."

And I blame Fabian Nicieza, who wrote all of these books. The stories are overly complicated, leading to a mostly boring read. When we do get in touch with the characters, they come off as cliches. There are exceptions to this rule, but we'll get to that in a moment. I'll credit him for using old characters like Arcade and bringing them up to snuff, but Arcade is still as crappy a character as he was when Claremont was writing him.

However, amongst the complicated storylines and the less than stellar super-villians, there are some diamonds in the rough. Despite my loathing of the whole Psylocke/Revanche subplot, I find that suddenly having Revanche contract the Legacy Virus a bold move and one that I was not expecting them to take. It also has put a spin on the relationship between the two. I'll also give kudos to Nicieza for making what could have been a ridiculas character in Adam-X and make him interesting.

I'll also credit him for shaking things up within the team by bringing Sabretooth on board. I know how it gets resolved, but it's cool to see Xavier attempt to almost seek redemption for what he has done with Magneto and his failure with Logan. Archangel's time in the spotlight is very much due. There's also a great scene with some of the X-Men when they go to Harry's Hideaway are 2:00 AM to discuss Sabretooth's incarceration at the mansion.

Where's Storm, by the way? She was Claremont's pride and joy, and despite not being among my favorite characters, I don't think she's had barely any development since pre-Fatal Attractions.

Despite the shining points, the stories fail to excite and interesting, leaving me feel bored and disappointed.

~W~

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