Uncanny X-Men # 383, X-Men # 103, Uncanny X-Men # 384, X-Men # 104, Uncanny X-Men # 385, X-Men # 105, Uncanny X-Men # 386, X-Men # 106
I’ve read a lot of comics in my life. Not counting the comics my Dad used to be me when I was just a wee one, I’ve been reading hard-core for just over 15 years now. Mostly X-Men, mind you, but I’ve expanded my interests to include various other Marvel and DC offerings, as well as Image and independent comics.
That being said . . . I can honestly say that this is perhaps some of the worst comics I’ve ever read.
Now let me say a few things before hand. First of all, Chris Claremont is the writer of these here books. I daresay that Claremont is among – if not the – best X-Men writer. Think of all the most renowned X-Men stories and he wrote most of them. Let me further say and that the artists involved – Adam Kubert, Tom Raney, Michael Ryan, and Leinel Yu – all fine artists. I’ve seen some great work from them.
With all that also said . . . this is just bad.
I’ll give you the gist of what happens in these stories because even I have trouble figuring it all out.
Basically, Gambit gets the X-Men involved in a conflict with a Neo name Ransome, who is looking to sell the X-Men to either other Neo or this alternate reality guy named Vooge. The X-Men win the day, but back in Westchester, the rest of the team (having just decided Rogue is their new leader) gets into with some guys called the Goth. The Goth take Thunderbird, Colossus, Psylocke, Archangel and all of Salem Center captive to be sold as slaves to Vooge.
Meanwhile, Vooge is rescued by the Crimson Pirates and they take Cable and Gambit. As the rest of the team comes together and try and track down Vooge, Gambit manages a deal with Vooge. He arranges to capture the X-Men. Cliched X-Men vs. X-Men fight follows. In the end, they defeat the Vooge and Rogue now trusts Gambit again.
Shortly thereafter, Archangel gets attacked by some women called the Twisted Sisters (yeah, not the band). Psylocke and the X-Men save Archangel. Then, some of the X-Men help save Lee Forrester from a hurricane. Then, the X-Men fight the Neo again and finally get around the rescuing Cecelia Reyes and Charlotte Jones.
What is so bad about this?
Well first of all, the entire Goth/Slaver/Crimson Pirate story is full of cliches and quasi-bondage allusions. The story meanders from plot point to plot point, depending mainly on this character doing this and this character doing that. Save for some nice time with Storm and a step forward with Gambit/Rogue, there’s zero character development. Plus, Vooge? Really? Why have this guy? I mean, if we’re going to have an fat interdeminsional slave driver, why not go to one we know and trust – Mojo? I’m not the biggest Mojoverse/X-Men fan, but at least we can depend on Mojo for some cheap laughs.
Then, after dealing with this stupid-ass story, they hang around New Orleans and NYC until the X-Men finally realize “Oh yeah! We gotta go rescue that single mother and the former semi-X-Man that got trapped in that building with all those killers and hunters because they kinda got in our way!” Which isn’t just that strong of a story anyway.
There some small good nuggets here, but even these bother me. There’s a subplot about Senator Kelly running for President. Just like with Creed, there’s no mention of any other sort of politics as Kelly has apparently gone back from “Mutants should be monitored, but not controlled” to “Mutants are evil!”
What I did notice were some interesting lines here in there. For some reason, knowing what is coming in the up-coming Morrison run, when Jean says “This is not my day to die” in Phoenix-font while manifesting said Phoenix raptor, I can’t help get a sense foreshadowing. There’s also a few lines of dialogue about super-heroes that has an interesting spin in light of “Civil War.”
However . . .
Thus far (even though there’s worse to come), this is the worst the X-Men has ever been.
~W~
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