X-Men: The Uncanny X-Periment

Uncanny X-Periment # 156: Original Sin

2010-07-26T07:37:00.001-07:00

Wolverine: Origins # 16 – 28, X-Men: Original Sin # 1, X-Men: Legacy # 217, Wolverine Origins # 29, X-Men: Legacy # 218, Wolverine Origins # 30-32 (Pages # 1-29)

Logan goes to visit Captain America’s exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum to drink to his friend’s memory. As he does, he recalls his first encounter with Cap in Madripoor, when he and Cap were assigned to keep the Hand out of Madripoor, away from Strucker, and to retrieve the young Black Widow. In that aftermath of that mission, Logan is ordered by Seraph (by way of Romulus) to determine is Cap is “one of them” and to either recruit him or kill him. Logan catches up with Cap in Africa and joined by Sergeant Fury. Cap’s mission to lead his unit against a Nazi force and take them down, thus solidifying himself as a leader and allowing rumor to spread about, well, how awesome he is. Bucky’s mission is kill Strucker, who is building his own power base and his own Nazi-like group called Hydra. Bucky’s orders are classified, though Logan believes that they came from Romulus as well.

Cap follows Bucky on his mission, who is then followed by Logan. Bucky kills Strucker, but after Fury and the unit arrive, it’s determined that Strucker was using a double. Logan and Bucky search the place, but Logan eventually stashes Bucky and confronts Strucker himself. Strucker and Seraph (and, by extension, Romulus) have apparently struck a deal. They want Strucker to go free and Logan to kill Cap. Logan agrees, gets Bucky and they escort Strucker out the Americans. Cap and Logan then fly towards south France, but are attacked on the way. The plane crashes and they are met by Baron Zemo. Logan had made arrangements via Strucker after getting his new orders – figuring that Cap would be able to escape someone like Zemo easier than he could escape actual Nazis. Logan reveals his betrayal to Cap, who thoroughly beats the shit out of. Bucky (after taking out Baron Zemo’s men – but still escaping) finally shoots him and Logan goes down. Logan wakes up and doesn’t remember anything that had happened.

Back in the present, Logan knows that Cap would want to let go of the guilt Logan now feels for betraying him. But Logan can’t, because that’s not how he is. After carving ‘Friend’ into the statue of Cap, Logan leaves.

Elsewhere, Deadpool is being hired to kill Logan. Wolverine goes through Deadpool’s over-the-top plan of death until eventually he has him in a position to actually kill Logan for good. Except, Daken shows up and proceeds to take down Deadpool and accidentally frees Wolverine. Daken is about battle his father when Bucky/Winter Soldier hits him a Carbonadium bullet. Logan takes his son away, revealing that he had set-up it all up to get Daken out in the open so he could do this.

Wolverine takes Daken to this lab inside an old lava tube. Back during World War Two, Logan took some Japanese men to this lab, where scientists basically turned them into cyborgs. Logan was given the order to kill them and the scientists, meaning that no one else knew where the lab was or that even still existed. However, Logan is ambushed by the cyborgs, who want to claim Daken as their families were killed by Logan to prevent them from asking questions. With no choice, Logan kills them, waking up Daken in process, who doesn’t remember anything about his past.

His past is revealed to us, however. He was found shortly after his mother was killed and was adopted by a kindly Japanese couple. While the father takes to him, his new mother rejects him. Nick-named Daken by the children of the village (which is Japanese for “mongrel”), he eventually learns that his mother is pregnant and doesn’t feel anything for Daken. Daken gets upset and a year later, kills the new baby. His mother goes after Daken, but he pops his claws for the first time and kills her. His father, unable to cope, kills himself. Romulus then arrives and offers Daken a place with him

Wolverine leaves Daken with an old monk friend in Chinatown. In the meantime, Wolverine goes off to find Emma Frost. At headquarters, he gets a whiff of Professor X, discovers he’s alive, and has it out with Scott and Emma, then goes after Charles. Meanwhile, the monk and his friends are killed by Hellfire Club and Daken is taken in by Mistress Sinister (Claudine Reniko – sounds familiar to me too). She takes him to Shaw’s house in Panama while Wolverine and Professor X go after the Hellfire Club. Wolverine wants Professor X to do to Daken what he did to Wolverine when joined the X-Men.

Years ago, Wolverine was ordered by Romulus to use his first mission against the Hulk as a way to draw the attention of Professor X. When he was recruited by Xavier, he was charged with killing him. Xavier struck back with a psi-blast and then broke down his memories and put them back together, causing Logan’s memory to be blocked out.

Back in the present, Wolverine attacks the Hellfire Club, leaving all but one dead. He and Xavier find out where Daken is and go after him. Wolverine battles Shaw and Xavier handles Mistress Sinister. Xavier the goes to Daken, springs a psychic trap (which his own scattered memories allows him to be spared from), which in turn allows Mistress Sinister to step in. Daken stabs her and then is confronted by Wolverine himself. Wolverine, Xavier and Daken are then joined in their minds to a critical moment – when Itsu was killed. Learning that it was in fact the Winter Soldier and not Wolverine, Daken let’s go of his revenge. He tosses Shaw out a window, and then decides to join Wolverine in a quest of vengeance against Romulus.

Daken and Wolverine head to Halwan while trying to track down Romulus. They instead meet up with Cyber, who is looking to join with them and then take Romulus’ place once they kill him. Wolverine doesn’t trust him and he and Daken plan to defeat Cyber. Wolverine pretends to fall for Cyber’s plan, and then Daken gains his confidence by faking to betray Wolverine. Cyber takes Daken to a lab where Cyber was created in exchange for the C-Synth synthesizer. Wolverine tracks them down, but only finds Cyber defeated and Daken gone – striking out on his own.

As a whole, this portion “Wolverine Origins” details his continuing quest for vengeance – but with the focus on being Daken. Each story arc (save for “Our War”) deals with Daken in some way or another. Right off that bat, I can that is a vast improvement. The previous installment we saw of this series here at the X-Periment, Daken was barely a character. He was Wolverine with a Mohawk and a big-ass tattoo.

Deadpool’s own comments regard Daken mirror ones I’ve seen elsewhere (and here, of course). I’m thankful we finally have a better understanding of this character. I don’t like him a whole lot, but I like him more than, say, X-23. His character has texture and a background and is more relatable than before. It’s the absolute key to selling this character off as Wolverine’s son.

On that same token, the fact that Romulus is still so mysterious is what kills that character for me. I can’t care about him. We still don’t know his agenda, what his motives are, why he’s such a mystery, why we haven’t heard anything about him before . . . I just can’t care. Revealing more about him can only help us out. My opinion of Romulus hasn’t changed. If Romulus shows up and is revealed to be Wolverine’s father or some bullshit like that, it’s over and whatever momentum this story had, it’s gone.

I want to see Romulus, at least. Get a better understanding of his character and his interests. I want explanations – that’s the whole reason why I’ve continued to buy this book.

Individually, each arc has its strengths. “Our War” was pretty good. Cap goes from super-dork to freakin’ awesome to super-dork a number of times, which really works for this time period. Bucky made for an interesting character, especially considering his connections to the future and his appearances throughout the next arc. I really wish we had been given a scene where we see Cap and Logan actually talk about his betrayal.

“The Deep End,” was ridiculous. It was just so over the top, but I guess it was on purpose. Logan’s planning seems to be really at the heart over this entire portion and is seems to pay off here as well as other places. Deadpool was funny . . . but not in the same way he’s been elsewhere.

“Son of X,” I pretty much covered. I’m happy to have seen it, as it did reveal more of Daken’s background and made him, again, into an actual character.

“Original Sin” in it of itself, was decent. More “Giant-Sized” revelations. Someday I’m going to sit down and read all through “Giant-Sized X-Men” flashbacks just to get a complete picture of this apparently dark day (!) in the X-Men’s history. It makes sense, I guess, and while this was one that moved Wolverine’s story forward, it didn’t do much for Professor X. I’m still trying to figure out what I think of Mistress Sinister. She-Sinister is a little weird, seeing as how she acts and dresses like my best friend Stephanie . . . except evil. I’d like to see her fleshed out a bit, because, uh, I actually like the character.

“Family Business” gives us a good stopping point (for now). While Daken and Wolverine have decided to go after Romulus, it does a good job of really showing Logan that he just can’t trust his son.

A better bout here – stronger and more interesting than “Origins and Endings” and light-years beyond “Evolution.” Honestly, I’d like to see a little more self-contained stories that only lightly tie in with the “Romulus” over-arc. We haven’t seen Lady Deathstrike in this book yet, nor have we seen much from the Silver Samurai. Maybe an annual or a one-shot? Please?

We're back!

2010-04-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

Finally FINALLY getting caught on comics!

I'm missing bits and pieces of "Necrosha" and "Utopia," but other than that, the X-Periment is back! That being said . . .

After "The Reckoning" (Wolverine Origins) and "Second Coming," I'm done. After 18 years of reading and collecting X-Men, I've just lost interest. "Second Coming" hasn't been too bad thus far, but I'm just not as interested as I used to be. A lot of it has to do with the current marathon of events in the X-Titles. A lot has to do with Matt Fraction's boring-ass writing. So, when "Second Coming" comes to an end in August (right?), I'll be doing a review. A final review.

I may, as time permits, go back and clean up some of these reviews and/or revisit some stories. But we'll see. I have a little Mutant on the way now and that takes priority over everything.

If you've stuck around this long, then I certainly appreciate it. See you soon!

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 155: Manifest Destiny - SFX

2010-04-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Uncanny X-Men # 500 (Epilogue Two) -503, X-Men: Legacy # 215-216

The X-Men are still settling into the San Francisco scene. We’re given a little more detail as to how things operate out there. Warren is apparently footing a lot of the bill. Despite the peace Marin offers the X-Men, a gang called the Hellfire Cult has struck and attacked Pixie following a Dazzler concert. The X-Men track down the Hellfire Cult to a warehouse, where they find that Empath is controlling them. Wolverine and Nightcrawler are unable to stop him, but Pixie shows up (after previously running away) and nails Empath with her soul-dagger. While this was happening, Scott was having mind-sex with who he thought was Emma . . . but when he sees Madelyn in a club later, he realize that he had mind-sex with her . . . and that she’s alive!

Shortly after this, Professor X stops by and tries to find out if Scott has anything Sinister-related stuff left in his head. Scott rejects his help and Emma stops by to deep scan Professor X’s mind for Sinister. She finds none, but forces Professor X to confront the past mistakes he made and the mind-altering things he did to the X-Men. After all this and Xavier comes out clean (and is given back the memory of Moira dying), he tells Scott just how much he respects him and how glad he is that he’s running the X-Men.

The Hellfire Cult story is the stronger out of the two, though it certainly has it’s weaknesses. It’s way over-sexed. I really wish I could delete knowing that Empath is into hard-core S&M from my memory. Granted, I did like that he was an actually threat now instead “oh, now you feel tired” or whatever. The X-Men themselves come off a little off their game to me – almost like they’re still trying to find their way around the San Francisco and haven’t exactly figured out where all the cool bad guy hang outs are. Other than that, the X-Men spend a lot of time strutting around, acting rich and awesome.

I’m really not sure how I feel about Pixie. There’s a feeling I’m getting from the core X-titles that they’re trying to make her into Kitty 2.0 (or Jubilee 2.0 or Angel 2.0 or Armor 2.0). I’m not exactly convinced this is the best move for Pixie, as I would rather her break out of that mold.

As for the Xavier/Scott/Emma meeting, there’s much to be desired. That Charles is happy for Cyclops and glad to see the X-Men in his good hands is one thing; it’s just that the story itself is dry and lacking any real sort of emotional meat to it is another.

Up-Date on Up-Date

2010-01-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

I honestly don't know who even reads this anymore. That being said, as we enter into 2010, you can expect about the same pace on up-dates as you did in 2009. I'm currently working on lining up the continunity for the past year or so (mainly post-Secret Invasion).

To be truthful, I'm going to be dropping most of X-Books after "Second Coming." I'm extremely disenchanted with the franchise and I'm tired of spending money on books that show my favorite characters being assholes -- not to mention the lack of depth in these stories. I'll be a little more clear when we get to the stories at hand, though.

Here's what I'm think for the read order:

Manifest Destiny: SFX
Uncanny X-Men # 500 (rest of issue), 501-503, X-Men: Legacy # 215-216

Original Sin
Wolverine: Origins # 16-28, X-Men: Original Sin, X-Men: Legacy # 217, Wolverine: Origins # 29, X-Men: Legacy # 218, Wolverine: Origins # 30-32

Secret Invasion

Dark Reign
Uncanny X-Men # 504-505, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign, Uncanny X-Men Annual: Emma Frost, Uncanny X-Men # 506-507, Dark Reign: The Cabal, Dark Avengers # 1, Wolverine: Origins # 33-40

War of Kings

X-Infernus

Sisterhood

Messiah War

Exogentic
Astonishing # 31-?

Legacy
X-Men: Legacy # 219-225

Utopia: X-Men/Avengers crossover

Dark X-Men

Nation X
X-Men: Legacy Annual 2009, # 228-230
Uncanny X-Men 515-520?

Necrosha

Wolverine Origins conclusion

Second Coming

Sound about right? A lot of these are "wait for the trade," so that's why it might take a while

Uncanny X-Periment # 154: Manifest Destiny – Ghostbox

2009-08-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

Astonishing X-Men # 25-31

The X-Men are joined by Storm and are swiftly asked to consult on a murder. A man if found floating and burning. After inspecting his DNA, Beast concludes that he’s an artificial Mutant – he has three strands of DNA, not two. And this artificial Mutant was chasing down someone by the name of Subject X. Subject X is found on an alien spaceship dumping ground, where he is charging something called a Ghostbox. The X-Men destroy the ship he’s on, steal the Ghostbox, and Subject X kills himself. Doing more research and consulting with Agent Brand, they discover that Ghostboxes are basically bridges between alternate worlds and that Subject X was a Mutant from another planet. The X-Men believe that the artificial Mutants and the alternate reality Mutants are waging a secret war.

Researching the artificial Mutant’s records, they journey to a dead zone in China called Tian, where they found half a floating palace and half a fallen palace. Within, they confront more artificial Mutants and learn they were created by Forge. They find Forge at Wundagore Mountain, where he has his own team of New Mutants (artificial ones), ready to invade the alternate reality. Forge claims that the alternate reality Mutants are planning on annexing this world – they’ve sent one scouting team, which Forge killed; the second one was wiped out by Forge again. The X-Men frown upon this, Forge opens the Ghostbox, demanding that the X-Men listen to him. The X-Men don’t and instead, blow the crap outta Wundagore Mountain with the help of SWORD mega-laser. The laser’s main beam journeys through the Ghostbox into the alternate reality. Forge and the fake New Mutants dead and the staging area for the invasion assumed destroyed, the X-Men head home.

So, the good. Well, marks for creativity. Though the story was way too confusing and sometimes I had to remind myself what exactly was going on, it was at least interesting and more creative than what we’ve seen from the X-Men in a good while. Character-wise, it’s a little all over the place. Armor got annoying after a while, what with her quips and Twitter and what-not. Wolverine was . . . well, Wolverine. Same with Emma. Cyclops was hardcore and Storm was shallow at times. Beast was pretty consistent. However, the interaction between these characters is one of the high points; especially when it came to death and killing.

Of course, after the moral debates, no one bothered to try and save Forge. Forge’s biggest issue was that no one really respected and everyone just kinda used him, then dismissed him. How is that not true? Granted, he’s done some crazy shit, but he’s dedicated so much to Xavier’s dream and rarely gets any love. By anyone.

Forge’s betrayal and descent into insanity layers a story that has one too many turns. And ultimately, I didn’t feel much at the end of this story other than that Forge kinda got screwed over by the X-Men. I should have, though. Forge – sure, he had a couple of break-downs – but he’s been such a loyal character over the years. He only “went insane” once and that was when he first appeared. He had his shaman powers, which helped defeat the Adversary. When the X-Men were ‘dead’ after that, he helped fill in for them. His death (?) was way over the top and the fact that the X-Men left him behind troubles me.

Uncanny X-Periment # 153: Manifest Destiny – San Francisco

2009-08-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

Uncanny X-Men # 500 (until “Epilogue Two”), Young X-Men # 6, X-Men: Free Comic Book Day, X-Men: Manifest Destiny # 1-5, Nightcrawler: Manifest Destiny one-shot

An art collector by the name of Guy buys some March One Sentinels for a “kitschy” Mutant pop art display. The X-Men learn of this while giving the Mayor of SF a tour of their new Graymalkin Facility. The X-Men attend the event in question, only to have it crashed by Magneto. He subsequently activates the Sentinels, which the X-Men must deal with while handling Magneto at the same time. Eventually, the Sentinels are taken down (the one by Archangel destroyed rather mysteriously) and the battle comes down to Magneto. Magneto is defeated, his powers being manufactured by an armor created by the High Evolutionary. Magneto escapes, declaring that the X-Men’s current drive will end up being the end of Mutantkind. Meanwhile, Storm witnesses the High Evolutionary doing something to the Dreaming Celestial. In the aftermath, Cyclops declares San Francisco open to the Mutant population. Also, Wolverine finds Guy dead.

The Young X-Men are brought to Graymalkin Facility and, under the tutelage of Cannonball, Moonstar, Sunspot, and Magma, are to be taught to become defenders and actual X-Men. Moonstar herself goes Anole and recruits him back.

Back in Wales, Pixie faces off against some N’Gari. The X-Men come and help her destroy the Carren that’s allowing the N’Gari to manifest, and then the gang heads home.

Mystique and Iceman play a game of cat and mouse, with Mystique pushing Bobby to use his powers in different ways. Mystique, torn over not being able to have someone in her life, leaps off Golden Gate Bridge, but really just escapes.

In San Francisco, Mutants begin to gather and deal with the recent shake-up in their lives. Shan struggles to control her powers. Meltdown faces down with a super-villain who has the power to put people to sleep. The Juggernaut wrestles with the decision to be good or bad – eventually deciding on bad. Emma Frost deals with the mistrust from the other X-Men. The other X-Men try and cheer up Colossus, to no effect. Graymalkin – being well over 100 years old – reveals to Anole that he was buried alive for being gay. Mercury deals with looking strange, fights the Hellfire Gang, and is cheered by X-23. Nightcrawler gets some aggression out while mourning the loss of Kitty and trying to figure out his place with the X-Men. Dazzler fights her manager on a plane back to the states, and then is invited to play in a club regularly in San Francisco. Avalanche, trying to make a new life for himself, is confronted the X-Men, who warn they’re watching him.

Nightcrawler, feeling out of place with the X-Men, leaves for Winzeldorf, Germany to check out the Nightcrawler museum. Once there, he learns that the town is being terrorized by some sort demon-monster thing. Nightcrawler fights it and eventually faces the monster in the woods, only to learn that he’s just a 16 year old boy cursed and transformed into that monster. A mob arrives and after the boy nearly kills an old man, Nightcrawler talks him down . . . only for the boy to kill himself. The mob departs and Mephisto arrives. Nightcrawler maintains his faith despite his heritage. Nightcrawler then returns to the X-Men.

Again, I’m torn. This is a really mixed bag here. Some of it is good. Uncanny X-Men # 500 gives us a clear message and an idea as to what the X-Men’s lives are going to be. The highlight of this issue is Magneto’s debate with Cyclops about the X-Men’s role in preserving Mutantkind. What I like about it is that it reminds me a lot of the old Xavier/Magneto debates – except now the subject is survival and Cyclops doesn’t have that familiar relationship that his mentor had. Cyclops has had Magneto trying to kill him since he was seventeen and will take that position against Magneto no matter what.

Some of the vignettes are pretty good. The Nightcrawler stories are particularly good – a nice blend of fun, sentiment and angst. The Pixie story is far from exciting. All the others are just so all over the place, but most of them are just so angst-filled, it makes reading them a chore. I cringed with every new story. What’s that? An X-Man having trouble adjusting to life? Using their powers to fight some sort of low-level baddie? Snooze.

I’m fairly certain this marks the end of Ed Brubaker’s run on Uncanny X-Men. Gotta be honest, I’m not sorry to see him go. I honestly believe Brubaker is one of the best writers in comics today. His work on Captain America alone has made for one of my favorite comic runs ever. But his run on Uncanny X-Men? It was boring, slow, and just didn’t seem to work. He had some nice ideas, but in execution, most of them just fell short. Deadly Genesis was interesting, but in retrospect, didn’t do much for me. Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire was inconclusive and predictable. The Morlock story was slow. Messiah CompleX was good, but that was mostly because he was working with other writers. Actually, the one arc I liked was his Divided We Stand story, and that was only mainly the first issue.

As for the X-Men’s move to San Francisco (which I swear, I’ll spell correctly someday) is a logical one and I’m pleased to see a change of venue for once in the Marvel Universe – having everything set in New York gets a little hard to believe.

Uncanny X-Periment # 152: "Divided We Stand"

2009-06-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

X-Men: Legacy # 208-214, Wolverine # 62-65, X-Men: Divided We Stand # 1-2, X-Force # 1-6, Young X-Men # 1-5, Uncanny X-Men # 495-499

Turns out Professor X’s body was stolen by the Acolytes right from under the X-Men’s nose – thanks to Tempo. They’ve spirited him away to their neat little hide-out, where Sentinel and Exodus seek to restore him. Unfortunately, even after his brain is repaired, his mind and memories are fractured. Exodus has no choice but to reach out to Magneto. Magneto and Sentinel are able to revive Professor X, but his memories are still fractured. Cargill seeks to kill Professor X, but Magneto steps in and takes her out. Shortly thereafter, Exodus goes to kill Magneto, only to be stopped by Professor X. After a psi-war, Exodus proclaims that the reason he wanted Professor X to live was to lead the Acolytes into a new future. Professor X refuses, speaks to Amelia (who he barely remembers), and he, Magneto, and Sentinel leave, opting to go their separate ways.

A few days later, Professor X decides to pay a visit to the now powerless and insane Carter Ryking (aka Hazard). Carter helps Professor X regain some memories of what their parents did at Amalgodo. At the same time, a machine Sebastion Shaw’s father created explodes and Juggernaut is assaulted by a strange and brief mental attack that his helmet repels. That night, Ryking comes up dead and Professor X is targeted by assassins. Saved by Gambit, the pair head back to Amalgodo. On their way, the assassins strike again – this time taking Xavier hostage. Shaw and Gambit then team up and track Xavier down. Turns out that Sinister did experiments on Shaw, Ryking, Juggernaut and Professor X as children – imprinting his own DNA onto theirs and upon his death, a machine called Cronus would transform them into Sinister, ensuring his immortality. However, this machine has fallen into the hands of Amanda Mueller. Sinister took control of Professor X and battled Amanda. As Gambit and Shaw appeared on the scene (then were captured, then freed), the pair proceeded to fight Sinister/Xavier and eventually destroyed Cronus. Mueller escaped and Xavier banished Sinister from his mind. In the aftermath, the trio parted, with Professor X desiring to talk to Cyclops urgently. Sinister returned, this time in the shape of a female clone and allying herself with Shaw.

Elsewhere . . .

Cyclops orders Wolverine to get Mystique since she slipped out during all the chaos. Wolverine tracks her to the middle-east, where she has killed innocents and risked the lives of children and soldiers setting up traps to stop him. As Wolverine tracks her, we are regaled with a flashback of their first meeting. Mystique and Logan met when they were to be executed. They escape, since they’re Mutants, and head to Kansas City. Once there, Logan joins Mystique’s little group of freaks. Eventually, this group goes to rob a bank. Mystique escapes with the money, but the freaks are all killed. Logan, who was working with the cops, set them up. Presently, the two of them have a confrontation in the Syrian Desert, where Mystique calls him out on being a hypocrite for going after her for betraying the X-Men when he betrayed her band of freaks decades earlier. Logan tells her that he works everyday to make up for his mistakes. After one last brutal assault, Mystique is left naked with a gun in the middle of the desert.

In the meantime, the X-Men are scattered to the four winds. Cannonball goes home and meets up with Paige. Once in town, however, he beats up a Cabot to make himself feel better, then takes off, unable to deal with the fact that he’s constantly going to be under threat. Former student Nehzno returns to Wakanda, with his condition worsening. Despite the Black Panther and (of course) Storm accepting him, his people does not. Even after his saving his brother, his mother rejects. Nehzno realizes then how much he misses his fellow students. Northstar checks up on Anole when no one has heard from him; Anole himself has trouble adjusting to life outside of the X-Men and runs away from both his home and the X-Men. Hellion, feeling abandoned by the X-Men, goes to Magneto; Erik sees this as Hellion wanting to use him as a weapon against the X-Men. It doesn’t work and Erik advises that Hellion relish and enjoy his powers before the inevitable war consumes him. Scalphunter, on the run, becomes a cook at a diner. Nightcrawler hunts his down and confronts him, only to forgive him for his sins.

Back at the devastated X-Mansion, Beast goes through various files and retrieves Maratha Johansson before taking off. In Limbo, Illyana struggles with trying to regain her humanity. She visits the remains of the mansion, finds it destroyed, and returns to Limbo, vowing to reclaim her soul by torturing those who wronged her. In deep space, the captured Havok is told by Vulcan about the baby’s birth and that the X-Men are all dead as a result. Havok finds hope in the baby’s birth and rises from a depressed stupor into a rage against his brother. Back on Earth, Forge is recovering from his injuries and obsessing over Cable’s time machine; after reverse engineering it, he’s attacked by Bishop. Seeking protection, Forge creates a massive security system and starts work on a new project. Surge goes to visit Dani since she’s feeling pretty bad about herself; Dani basically tells her to deal with it.

In the aftermath of recent events, Cyclops reactivates X-Force, this time with Wolfsbane wanting to join. X-23 is already investigating a Purifier break-in into a SHIELD facility, much to Wolverine’s chagrin. Wolverine tells Wolfsbane not to be involved. Then he, X-23, and Warpath search for what Matthew Risman and his new ally Eli Bard were retrieved from SHIELD. The trio fight the Purifiers, but it turns out they captured Wolfsane. Unable to fight back with Wolfsbane prisoner, X-23 blows up the base. Risman escapes and places the head of Bastian on Nimrod’s body, thus restoring Bastian. As X-Force re-groups at Worthington’s Aerie, Reverend Craig shots up Wolfsbane with drugs. And Bastian gets a hold of the remains of Magus and uses it to resurrect Boliver Trask, Stephen Lang, Graydon Creed, and Cameron Hodge – as well as gain control of the Leper Queen and Donald Pierce. This is affront to Risman and after X-Force rescue Wolfsbane (and she’s healed by Elixir), she sees Archangel and her brainwashing kicks in. She rips into Warren’s wings and takes them back to Risman. Risman in turn finds the Apocalypse strand within them and creates his on Archangel. Angry with Bastian, he sets them out to destroy the Purifiers under Bastian’s command. X-Force gets involved; Wolfsbane kills Reverend Craig when he stands in front of Warren’s amputated wings. Archangel, feeling the use of his wings on this other people, transforms into his former self and goes on a rampage. Once he’s finishes with his rampage, he returns to normal. Meanwhile, Eli Bard goes to the remains of Magus and steals part of him; Risman enters and Eli reveals himself to be some kind of servant of death and kills Risman. He then escapes. Wolverine fights Bastian, but Bastian escapes as well . . . just as Wolverine gets a look at who he has brought back. The gang once more regroups at the Aerie to lick their wounds.

Blindfold is having visions of the near future in which she, Dust, Rockslide, Wolf Cub, and two new people are involved in a battle with Donald Pierce – who then kills one of them. She goes to Rockslide and in turn, the two of them are recruited by Cyclops to join a new X-Men team. He also recruits a new Mutant whose has any tattoo on his body become a new ability. Cyclops then sends them after the leader of a new Brotherhood and the Hellfire Club, Sunspot – who he claims has been joined by fellow New Mutants Cannonball, Moonstar, and Magma. Ink and Blindfold are sent after Dani, who is taken down by Blindfold. Blindfold is then knocked out by Ink; he delivers them both to Pierce. Rockslide, Dust, and Wolf Cub grab Magma – as Sunspot and Cannonball watch on TV. Even though Magma is taken captive, Dust is stuck in a glass form due to Magma’s attack. Ink arrives and tells Cyclops that Dani beat them; not knowing that some creature is watching over them and plans to kill Cyclops. As the Young X-Men attack Cannonball and Sunspot at the Hellfire Club, Cyclops is in turn attacked by the mysterious gray-skinned guy – who discovers that Cyclops is none other than Donald Pierce. Magma is freed, Pierce escapes and everyone ends up at the Hellfire Club. They eventually track Pierce down into some of Mole Man’s old tunnels, where he engages the Young X-Men and the vision comes true. Wolf Cub dies and Pierce is defeated.

So in all this, where are the X-Men proper? Well, Wolverine (apparently after his bout with X-Force and hunting Mystique) is off with Colossus and Nightcrawler in Europe. After bopping around Germany, they head to Russia, where Peter tries to handle all of the tragedies in his life. They are of course captured by the Russia government and – surprise! – fight Omega Red. They of course defeat Omega Red.

Meanwhile, Cyclops and Emma Frost are on vacation in the Savage Land after Scott has some words with Iron Man. Of course, trouble brews as some of the other X-Men converge on San Francisco. The other city has become a hippie haven at the will of the “Goddess.” Cyclops and Emma battle some of their fellow X-Men before Emma uncovers that the Goddess is none other than Lady Mastermind (the brunette, not the blonde). She escapes, the X-Men converge and Archangel appears after having saved the Mayor of San Francisco. Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler then get a call to head on home . . .

So basically what we have here is a not-so-cohesive story centering around the theme of the X-Men being scattered to the four winds. While an interesting concept, the execution leaves something to be desired. In short: it’s a little much.

I can see how Marvel saw this as a chance to launch the X-Men into a new direction and get some new books out there. It’s mixed results.

The best of the best are most certainly X-Men: Legacy and Wolverine. X-Men: Legacy is like a candy-covered continuity treat. Revisiting old sites and characters, replaying old scenes and then placing it against a present-day story makes for a nice, grounded tale. It certainly feels like we’re seeing the slow redemption of Professor X, whose reputation has become very tarnished lately. And hey, he’s actually more action-y than ever before. The series thus far adds a lot of wrinkles to the long history of Professor X and really puts Xavier on the right road. The use of two different artists is a welcome sight, adding to the different layers of storytelling here.

Wolverine is what I wish Wolverine Origins was. A present day story tying back into a previously unknown story. The characterization of Wolverine and Mystique are well done. Ron Garney’s art adds a great energy to the arc. This segment is fun and engaging.

Divided We Stand was decent, though a lot of the stories were very much the same. Sad, angst, rejection, anger . . . it’s made very clear that all these characters don’t like being without the X-Men. Some of them are better than others, but not many.

I maintain my opinion that X-Force is just a step too dark and gory for my tastes. Granted, it’s great to see Bastian again – but not so much some of the other characters. Don’t get me wrong. I love some of the stuff being done here (Archangel, Bastian, and Magus), but I hate a lot of the rest (I’m sick of the Purifiers . . . and did Rhane eat Reverend Craig?).

Wish I could say I’m a fan of Young X-Men. Honestly, I thought it was uninteresting, predictable, and slow. The art wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing really in there to keep me hooked. Which is really shocking, as Guggenheim is a great writer.

Uncanny X-Men kinda fits in that same category. Outside of some of the smaller moments, it’s a very lackluster book. There’s a threat and the X-Men instantly overcome it. Brubaker is a brilliant writer, but his run on Uncanny has yet to excite me. The art by Choi has been gorgeous – better than Greg Land and Billy Tan. Seriously.

Overall (and I know I’m skimmed over the reviews), this is very much a sort of “holding pattern” time for the X-Men. While there are some interesting nuggets in here, a lot of comes off as boring, uninteresting, and more of the same. A lot of it seems just like “we’re putting something here to get back to later,” which is never a good choice when it comes to X-Men.

Coming in May . . .

2009-04-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Reviews will resume next month. Promise!

Divided We Stand
Manifest Destiny
Original Sin
Secret Invasion

and in June (tenatively):
X-Infernus
Ghostbox
Sisterhood

And in eventuality:
Dark Reign: Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men
War of Kings
Messiah War

In terms of Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men, it's really a matter of how that ties into Dark Reign and if it looks like it'll all fit together. I've got a lot of factors to work with here. One is money, but I just got a new job and that should help matters quite a bit. The other is just seeing where things are. I haven't been able to pick up comics in a while, so we'll play things out this weekend when I can finally afford comics again (yay!).

I'm also toying around with the idea of doing a pre-X-Men series of reviews. Stuff like "Magneto: Testament," those X-Men origin stories from the Silver Age, a re-review of "Children of the Atom," and maybe a few others. This might mean some money on my part, but that's not a problem. Thoughts?

Also, if I get really bored and end up with more cash in the near future, I might do other X-Men series. I have a full run of Generation X and I'd like to try re-reading all those. I may (at some point in the next whatever) try and get some more issues of New Mutants, X-Force, Cable, etc. for review. I can normally find some of those in $1.00 bins. So we'll see where things end up.

Stay tuned . . . please . . .

Uncanny 2009

2009-01-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

My apologies on a lack of up-date. It has simply been a time factor that has kept me from up-dating. Obviously, I'm trying to get everything organized in terms of continunity. And, also, I just haven't had the time -- I got married in September and being married takes a surprisingly large amount of time.

You'll hopefully see an up-date in the next few weeks. I'm waiting for "X-Force: Angels and Demons" to get out in trade paperback, as I don't want to spend extra bucks on a damn hardcover. But we'll see.

I plan on doing some re-reading of recent events, because I've found that with so much time passing between X-Periments, I tend to lose perspective in the overall X-Men timeline.

Anyways, as I'm figuring out the continunity, here's what I'm seeing the run-down is. I'm not including "Ghost Box" because that story isn't done. You'll probably see it (and I'm not kidding) in 2010. Eek.

Red Data
Evolution
Endangered Species
Unstoppable
Messiah CompleX
Divided We Stand
Manifest Destiny
Original Sin
Secret Invasion
Kingbreaker?
X-Infernus?
Messiah War?

So, just stop back here every now and then, if you will. Feel free to peruse the archieves, though they kinda suck grammer/spelling wise. Hopefully, as time goes on, I'll get a clearer idea as to how to organize these crazy titles.

Uncanny X-Periment # 151: "Messiah CompleX"

2008-07-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

I’m going to lay out the “Reader’s Digest” version of Messiah Complex, because, honestly, most people that are reading this have read it all ready.

The X-Men learn that the first Mutant child has just been born in Alaska. They get there too late, as the Marauders and the Purifiers showed up before hand and clashed. The X-Men press on the Acolytes into revealing where Sinister is. The New X-Men take on the Purifiers, jeopardizing an undercover mission by Richter – they soon find out that the baby is not in the hands of the Purifiers.

Meanwhile, Forge discovers that two new timelines have appeared with Mutants in it after the baby’s birth. Two Maddrox’s are sent into these timelines, and Layla jumps into one of them. They are beaten up and captured and tossed into a Mutant internment camp . . . where they meet Bishop and learn what has happened.

Back in the present, the X-Men collide with the Acolytes in Antarctica, only to learn that they don’t have the baby either. At the school, the ONE Sentinels suddenly go hay-wire and the bodies of their pilots are taken over by the nannites and are unleashed against the school. The X-Men destroy them and the strike team returns, having found out that none other than Cable has the child. To bring Cable in, Cyclops assembles a new X-Force squad consisting of Wolverine, Caliban, Wolfsbane, X-23, and Hephzibah. They meet up with Cable . . . and the Purifier’s new allies, Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers. X-23 takes down Deathstrike and Cable escapes. Caliban is eventually killed during the battle.

Cable makes it to Forge’s lab, where he hopes to spirit the baby and himself into the future. He arrives, only to be ambushed by Bishop, who believes the child is responsible for creating his own dark future. Before Bishop can kill the baby, the Marauders show up and kidnap her. Cable makes it to ousted Xavier and Bishop lies his ass off to the X-Men.

As this is all happening, Predator X is hunting down more Mutants, heading back to the school and killing Peepers along the way.

The X-Men get Cerebra back on-line and use it track the child to Muir Island. There, Mystique uses Rogue’s comatose body to kill Sinister and takes his place, hoping the baby will save Rogue. Gambit is unsure and feels that Rogue would protest to a baby being possibly killed to save her life. The X-Men show up to take the baby back. The New X-Men, injured X-Men, and Predator X are all suddenly accidentally teleported there as well.

The baby saves Rogue, then is given to Professor X, who then gives it to Cable. Bishop goes after Cable, but is attacked by Predator X. Emma Frost takes down Exodus and Wolverine rips Predator X in half from the gut out. Cable in finally confronted by Cyclops, who takes the baby himself, and then decides to trust his son and gives it back. Cable teleports into the future just as Bishop leaps up and fires . . . accidentally killing Professor X. With Professor X dead, Cyclops declares the X-Men are no more.

I’ve been trying my best to figure out just how to judge a story like “Messiah Complex.” It’s a hard story to judge, to be honest. I mean, a lot happened and things got changed, but when it comes to X-Men, things change a lot.

Let’s start with the story first, I guess.

Overall, we have a number of threads being born (no pun intended) out of the birth of a Mutant girl who is so powerful, it actually caused a psychic backlash that fried Cerebra. We’ve got a Maddrox dupe and Layla in the future (Bishop’s future). We’ve got the Purifiers, who unleashed Predator X – both of whom are after the baby. They also recruit in Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers. We’ve got Sinister and the Marauders, who have teamed up with Mystique and the Acolytes in an effort to take the child for themselves. Then, there’s the X-Men themselves, who have to face down ONE and eventually create a new X-Force.

In addition to this, there’s Cable, who has the child and hopes to take it into the future; and there’s Bishop, who wants to prevent the future he grew up in (as seen by Jamie and Layla). There’s also Rogue, who is in the clutches of Sinister and the Marauders.

On top of and along with this are all these character arcs and history from not only Endangered Species, but also Decimation, House of M and even as far back as Endgame.

That’s a lot of material. And while there is some fight scene padding, I’d have to say that in this case, the story is executed nicely. The pacing moves rapidly enough for the reader to hold and the threads all get the right amount of attention. Each character gets a moment in the spotlight (except for Guido), though some more than others.

If there is a flaw in the story, it’s that there’s too much going on. Our attention is too divided. We’re caring about all these different characters – so much so that it’s hard to focus on just the heart of the story. Which is something that can be dealt with, but if there’s one problem, that’s it.

In addition to the whole ‘the future’ story thread that remains the grounding for this crossover, there is also a great “let’s kick some ass” feel to it. The X-Men have had their ass handed to them for a good while now. They’ve been on the defensive as opposed to the offensive. But seeing them take on the Purifiers (even if it is the New X-Men going at it) was a blessing (again, no pun intended). The X-Men have been the Marauders bitches for years and I loved to see them get the jump on Sinister’s assassins. The Acolytes have always kinda been push-overs, but again, it’s nice to them kicked their asses kicked. While I am very uncertain about this New X-Force, I liked the idea of the most violent X-Men being unleashed against the most violent of their allies and their most violent of enemies.

The effectiveness of these fight scenes in their many incarnations is the glue that holds “Messiah Complex” together. The meaning of the crossover is very evident in that everyone has a different agenda and a different ideal goal for the baby, but it’s the clash of these ideals and goals and agendas that pulls it all together.

This story deals with the fundamental shake-up of the X-Men’s corner in the Marvel Universe. We witness the destruction of the mansion/institute (again), as well as the end of the ONE Sentinels. Then there are a number of deaths here – including those of Professor X, Sinister, Lady Deathstrike, Predator X, Caliban, and Peepers. While Caliban and Peepers are more than likely to rot in the ground for a long while, one has to wonder just how long it will take for Professor X to pop out of the grave or for Sinister to be revived or Deathstrike to be rebuild. I mean, this is X-Men, right? These things happen. Professor X has either been dead or in a coma about five times all ready.

The scripts are effective. Even the death of Professor X is rather effective. It’s just that I can’t help but question its ramifications. In fact, I was a little bothered by Cyclops’ statement that the X-Men should end with the death of Professor X. Why should it? Just because Charles is dead, doesn’t mean the X-Men shouldn’t exist.

This also really rattled me because one of the major themes of this story is that Cyclops is breaking out on his own and is becoming the leader we all want him to be. He’s grown out of Professor X’s shadow. Part of this builds from what we’ve seen in Astonishing, though don’t get me started on the continuity there. It also steems out of House of M, where he was pretty much in command, as well as during Decimation and all the revelations and ramifications of that story. Cyclops is fully realized here. Doubtless, certain, but also very human. The flashbacks, the memories, the dialogue . . . this is Cyclops in his element and perhaps at his best. We’re even allowed to see some of his angst and anger over the death of Corsair – finally.

Then there’s Wolverine. The dynamic between Scott and Logan has really changed and it’s very evident here. I think there will always be that sense of uneasiness around each other, but the relationship between the two is stronger than it’s ever been. Scott trusts Logan now more than ever – hence why he gave Wolverine his own team to do “what he does best.” Logan certainly gets some awesome moments – his going after Gambit was pretty neat, as it immediately reminded me of the old “Bang, you’re dead!” moment from Crossroads. I also very much like when he took down Predator X. It screamed summer blockbuster, but damn it, if I wasn’t excited to see it happen.

On Cable’s end of things, given the direction Cable has been moving towards over the past few years, this is exactly what I’d expect him to do. I thought that Cable came through quite well throughout and the dynamic he had with Cyclops was especially enjoyable. The fact that Cyclops, in the end, entrusted Cable with the baby spoke volumes of their relationship.

Man, did I feel bad for Professor X. I think that both the reader and the X-Men themselves have learned that it’s time for Professor X to turn the reigns of the X-Men over to Cyclops. The scene where Professor X is effectively kicked out of the mansion’s ruins is pretty depressing. The Professor just comes across as lost most of the time. His death? Well, I can deal with it.

Bishop was one character that I felt needed fleshed out. We saw young Bishop’s whole POV on these events, but the POV of adult Bishop was missing big-time. In the end, he came off like an evil, crazy person. Despite the fact that Bishop has been a good guy for as long as we’ve known him and has played pivotal roles in key stories in past, it’s a little jarring to see him in such a terrible light. A little more fleshing out would have been appreciated here and remains the biggest flaw in Messiah Complex.

As far as the real bad guys are considered, there’s not a whole lot to say. Predator X wants to eat the baby. Lady Deathstrike is honoring a promise. The Purifiers hate Mutants because they think they’re from Hell and the baby is the Mutant Antichrist. Sinister wants the baby because . . . uh, well, with a name like “Mr. Sinister,” I’m sure it’s simply because of evil reasons. Though giving us reasons why would have been really nice. Ditto with as to why exactly Exodus and the Acolytes were there.

Mystique and Gambit are both there out of pure hope for Rogue, which played to their strengths. Actually, I thought Gambit was great here. You know he’s a good guy, he knows he’s a good guy, but he’s doing what he has to. And falling in with Sinister – plus his reaction to Sinister’s death – are both good signs of his character. Mystique’s pure desperation to save Rogue was well handled, as was Rogue’s reaction.

On the art front, it’s all pretty much on par, though Billy Tan still needs to work on his anatomy/perspective. It’s just awful sometimes. Most of his work is pretty good, but at times, I just shake my head and go “No!” His work blends well with Scot Eaton’s and Marc Silverstri, just as Chris Bachelo’s blends with Humbert Ramos’. We’ve got two very different art styles – more realistic and more cartoony – but they do come together nicely. It works out that the bigger action scenes are dealt with more by Ramos and Bachelo, who are well-equipped for this.

I mentioned how it’s hard to judge Messiah Complex, and in an overall sense, that remains true. A story this large, this complex, and with so many shake-ups is very hard to judge. In some ways, it works out better. In that changes the status quo of the X-Men, it rules on high. But is it perfect? No. Motivations aren’t explored and the story is a little too chaotic at times. It does have a number of high points. Characterization and character development, for one. Great battle scenes, for another.

By crossover standards, it’s perfect. It goes seamlessly from comic to comic, the only differences being in the art style. As an event, it stands tall, though it’s a little too early to see the immediate outcome. With “Divided We Stand” coming, I’m a little uncertain and it makes the long-term effects next to impossible to weigh in on. It shakes things up, as I said, but for how long it’ll all be like this, I have no clue.

It’s a focal point story. We see old plot threads pulled together and new ones begun. It reminded me a lot of the crossovers of old. However, much like the futures seen in Messiah Complex, the aftermath could be rather great . . . or pretty bad.

Uncanny X-Periment # 150: "Unstoppable"

2008-05-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

Astonishing X-Men # 13-24, Giant-Sized Astonishing X-Men # 1

Well, we're here at last. Obviously, I'm lacking the "Uncanny X-Periment" title -- mainly because this whole thing is in need of some cleaning up. Hopefully in the next week or so, I'll be able to skim through the recent entries and re-arrange some things, as well as add in the "Emperor Vulcan" review I've been pussy-footing around.

At the moment, it appears (according to my various sources) that this story takes place between Endangered Species and Messiah CompleX. Considering how this story ends, that seems to be the most logical placement.

But anyways, like I said, here we are. At long last, Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men has come to a close. I took the time today, before getting to the issues listed above, to read Astonishing X-Men # 1-12. In retrospect, this is a great way to take in the full strength of Whedon's run. There are some little things here and there that tie strongly into his overall story.

Let's do it like we used to and give you all the spoilers.

We open up with the X-Men pretty much where we'd expect them to be. Kitty and Peter grow closer, Logan's training the few remaining students hard-core style, Hank's in his lab, and Scott's paying his bills. Oh, wait. Where's Emma? Why, she's meeting with the Hellfire Club! Remember? This one led by Shaw? With Cassandra Nova, that girl from Genosha, and the Mysteriously Cloaked Person? Anyways, they determine that now is the time to strike.

While Kitty comes clean with her feelings for Peter and they have sex, Emma sits down Scott and basically tears him down, stripping him of all his confidence -- as well as his powers. He goes unconscious and Emma runs to get the other X-Men. Kitty checks on the students, only to start phasing uncontrollably and goes down into the Earth. Colossus has the snot beaten out of him by Shaw in front of Scott's comatose body. Hank is devolved into an animal and Logan begins a young James Howellet.

Kitty eventually pulls it together as Hisako (Armor, as we'll call her from here on out) joins with Blindfold and Logan. She pulls Emma down into a small little space deep underground, then goes back up . . . where the cloaked person reveals herself to be none other than the White Queen!

Meanwhile, Agent Brand of SWORD learns that the prophets of Breakworld have determined which X-Man it will be that will destroy their world -- Colossus. Danger finds out and she goes to the captured Ord and tells him of this. They manage to escape and head down to the mansion.

Back at said mansion, the White Queen has shoved three years worth of fake memories into Kitty's mind, convincing her that she and Peter had son named Michael and that he's being held in a metal box in the sub-basement. She heads down there just as Logan regains his identity (thanks to a beer can) and Ord and Danger show up.

Kitty pulls the baby out . . . only it's not the baby. It's Cassandra Nova in that alien booger form. Scott then shows up and shoots the White Queen, then Shaw, Cassandra Nova (human form), and the other Hellfire Club members. Armor gives Beast a ball of string that reminds him of his true self and he arrives just in time to help against Ord and Danger. Scott then explains to Peter and Kitty that this manifestation of the Hellfire Club only existed as a result of a mental implant from Cassandra Nova and from Emma's own post-Genosha survivor's guilt. Emma suspected and feared something like this would happen, hence why she brought Kitty on board.

The X-Men are all then teleported up on a SWORD vessel, along with Ord and Danger. What happened to Cassandra's booger-body? Don't know. Never revealed.

Ord and Danger are swiftly imprisoned. The X-Men are briefed on the situation -- the SWORD ship is drawing the Breakworld armada away from Earth and they are all headed for Breakworld. They're going to Breakworld because they have a missile pointed at the Earth.

Now let's pause for just a moment so I can get everything understood about Breakworld. It's a world of pure violence, where the highest and mightiest of warriors are deemed the leaders. The current leader is Kruun. Now, ruling a place that's basically a hospital, is a woman named Aghanne (and her little friend Dafi -- "Like the duck.") Compassion is a sin, apparently.

The X-Men and the SWORD ship are (of course) attacked in Breakworld orbit. Danger, Ord, and some soldiers manage to land on the surface, where they are captured. Some others also make it onto the surface. The X-Men head down in two teams -- Cyclops, Emma, Agent Brand, and Beast in one pod; Shadowcat, Colossus, Armor, and Wolverine in another. The latter's breaks up during descent. Kitty and Colossus make it down separate from Wolverine and Armor and are immediately spotted throughout the capital. The other team makes it to the temple where Colossus in stone is depicted shoving a sun at Breakworld. Wolverine and Armor meet up with them shortly. Again, the team plans and breaks apart.

Colossus and Kitty are taken in by Aghanne, who believes that Colossus is not the literal death of the world; simply a way of changing it. Danger, striking a deal with Kruun, goes after Cyclops and Emma. Emma convinces her that she in unable to kill them and makes a deal. Beast and Agent Brand pick up a ship and proceed to grab everyone.

Meanwhile, Kruun second-in-command is believed to be in the pocket of SWORD -- when really, he's not. The X-Men head for the launchbase of the missile, a moon basically. However, they can't get to it; a fleet is in the way. A still powerless Cyclops buys them time by launching himself into a one-man vessel and taking on the fleet. He apparently "dies."

The X-Men, Danger, and Brand go back to the captial. Wolverine and Armor are captured as Cyclops is tortured by Kruun regarding something he said about "Leviathan" while on the ship. Cyclops then reveals to Kruun that Leviathan is meaningless, that they knew they were being watched, and it was all basically a ploy to get to Kruun and the reactor that draws power from the core of Breakworld. Wolverine and Armor were captured to give Emma a detailed image of the Palace. The X-Men arrive with their reinforcements, Lockheed is revealed to be a mole in the X-Men for SWORD, and Cyclops starts planning again -- his powers restored and under his control.

Colossus, Aghanne, Cyclops, and Emma go to the reactor, which is an energy that only Colossus can withstand. They show this to Kruun and demand he shut down the missile. He tells them he can't. Colossus enters the reactor just as Ord arrives, pissed as hell.

At the missile, Kitty, Beast, Armor, and Danger try and figure out how to stop. Kitty enters the missile, but the metal is actually causing her pain and she finds it harder and harder to travel through. At that point, the missile is launched. Expect, it's not a missile. It's really a gigantic bullet - with Kitty stuck inside it. It speeds to Earth.

Emma and Cyclops do their best to hold off Ord as Aghanne enters the reactor to force Colossus to destroy it. Reactor looks like the sun, you see? Ord pops in and kills her, only to die himself.

The super-heroes of Earth gather at SWORD's Peak headquarters, but are somehow telepathically rendered unable to stop the bullet. Even the rogue Sentinel that left Earth to deal with his guilt is there.

Colossus defeats Kruun and declares himself master, forcing Kruun to reveal a way to destroy it. He tells that maybe if it something else, it might work. The rogue Sentinels jumps to it . . . and goes smashy. And to no avail.

The bullet heads right towards Earth, with Kitty unable to phase through it. She then decides and is able to phase the actual bullet, though it quite possibly kills or killed her. The bullet slides through Earth and Kitty goes with it.

The X-Men re-group. Scott's control over his optic blasts are gone and he goes back to the visor. Agent Brand has the hots for Hank and, it turns out, is half-alien. Colossus then beings to mourn her.

Now, as usual, this is simply the reader's digest version of the events. There's a lot more to it.

Let's start the review off proper by going over the major flaws of this story.

First and foremost is the fate of Kitty Pryde. It heart-wrenching and actually makes me a little sick to my stomach. That's not exactly a bad thing, either. But what I don't like is how up in the air it is. Is she dead? Did phasing the bullet do her in? Or is she alive, forced to starve to death or something? Will she die when the bullet fall into black hole or hit a planet?

There's more I have to say about this and I'll get to that in a little bit. Right now I want to concentrate on the fundamental problem I have with that. Is it responsible for the X-Men (or the Avengers or Fantastic Four) to let this thing just fly off into space? Are the X-Men really willing to allow Kitty to die like that? Or to let her body, at least, just rocket through space? (I should note, it's not the first time it's happened) Why don't they just hop into a space ship (they should have them sitting around -- or at least someone does, right? SWORD?), warp after it, and have Nightcrawler teleport in with Hank, Forge or maybe even Reed Richards?

A little more closure would have been appreciated. I mean, I know the current thing right now is to make sure that X-Men space stories have downer endings (Emperor Vulcan, anyone?), but this just hurts.

Why does it hurt? Because Whedon made Kitty lovable all over again. At least for me. We've seen Kitty go through all these different phases (no pun intended) and we finally see her as a mature, sweet adult . . . only to have her maybe-kinda die. Again, I'll go into this a little more.

There are a few other problems I've found with this story. After the Kitty issue, there's also the question as to how Aghanne found out that Colossus even existed. Did the prophets actually speak the truth and she just decided to fill in the blanks? Did she find out from SWORD somehow? It doesn't make a whole of sense.

There's also the matter of Danger. What happened to her? She was promised Professor X . . . only nothing came of it. And I mean nothing. What the heck?

And what happened to Cassandra's booger body? Do we just assume that someone saw her laying around and tossed her back into the box or something? I can just picture Iceman and Rogue walking down the hall, seeing it, and tossing it in the garbage. Her existence wasn't even mentioned in the recent "Divided We Stand" 2-parter, a perfect place to sweep something like that under the rug.

So that's the bad right there. All of it. I mean, I guess I could talk about the delays, but . . . meh . . . they've been talked to death, right?

Well, since I've covered all the problems I had with this story, I suppose I should tackle the good stuff.

Really despite the logical holes I covered, it's a great run. Whedon really nails down the theme of sacrifice and redemption. Colossus return from sacrificing himself to cure the Legacy Virus, Professor X sacrificing Danger's freedom for the good of the X-Men, and obviously, Kitty's sacrifice to save the Earth. It's nicely peppered in and even the references to Jean seem to reinforce this idea without over-stating it.

There's some great symmetry here as well. Both the first and last arcs of the run deal with hope, but not exactly in a positive way. Hope is the name of the Mutant cure; it's also what Aghanne said children were . . . only to have the child die not long after she said that.

There's also some nice symmetry done in the last page with Peter's actions mimicking those of when Kitty found him.

Characterization is spot on. Cyclops really breaks out here and leaps forward as the brilliant leader we've seen him become. His relationship with Emma continues to be fleshed out; better here than with any other post-Morrison writer.

Emma comes across nicely, sympathetic enough. She gets knocked down a notch.

Wolverine, of course, is Wolverine. Clever, funny, violent, and occasionally insightful. His playing-off with Armor is fun. She effectively becomes the new Kitty Pryde.

Beast is as enjoyable as always. Whedon does a great job of continuing to show his struggle with his most recent Beast-ness. It was played around with a little in the first half, but it's really very prominent here and dealt with maturity. It's not just "hey, you're not an animal, Hank!" "Oh, you're right! Thanks!" It's more than that. He shoves himself so far away from his beast mentality that you can see that he just wants to be somewhat human again. So to speak.

Colossus himself is, of course, a key figure. Unlike the second arc, he's more developed here. More internal, definitely. He smiles, he loves, he jokes, he agonizes . . . he's alive again. It's wonderful. His scenes with Kitty are heart-warming. I guess we're supposed to interpret Colossus "destruction of Breakworld" as how Aghanne did - merely a destruction of the old ways. Or something.

Kitty herself is probably the biggest star of the book. While there's a spotlight on everyone, she's our eyes on the team again. She walks into the team with Whedon's first issue and leaves it with him. I hate to see her gone. I really do. It kills me a little. But having a writer be able to evoke that kind of emotion is a good thing.

Other characters are hit and miss. Agent Brand is great. Lockheed's revelation is shocking and I have to wonder where he got to at the end. Part of me wonders if he's not attached to the bullet, trying to burn his way into it. Kruun is lackluster and a little cliched. Aghanne is about the same.

Besides the fates of Kitty, Danger, and (really) Breakworld itself, Whedon does his best to handle some of the other strands left hanging. The rogue Sentinal was a pleasant surprise and it was nice to see its final fate. Cyclops powers, Armor's relationship with Wolverine, and even a nod at Professor X . . . all handled well.

Ultimately, I think Whedon was going for something different with Astonishing X-Men. He was definitely looking to make them into super-heroes. Not just Mutant freedom fighters like we've seen since, oh, Uncanny X-Men # 1 -- but genuine super-heroes. That would have been a great thing back in 2004 when this story began. But now? Not so much. Astonishing X-Men became a victim of it's own delays. The effects of this comics were forced to be felt about six months ago. That's when Kitty disappeared. That's the problem when an entire franchise hinches on a singular comic.

I have to applaud Whedon. Despite the flaws that these two story arcs suffered (as well as those of the original pair), he managed to crank out a great comic. The script was fantastic; great pacing and dialogue. He knows what he's doing.

Cassady's art is fantastic, but is there really a need to say that?

Overall, I'm still not sure how rate it all. It's a rather good book, even with it's problems and its lack of closure. But I think, now that's all done, it's time to move on.

~W~

Up-Dates Coming

2008-03-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of up-dates lately. Things have gotten pretty busy here. I meant to review X-Men: Emperor Vulcan for weeks now, I was so disappointed in the ending of this series that I just didn't feel like it. You'll see an X-Periment entry by the end of the week, though.

The future of this blog has been decided, by the way.

Like I mentioned, Emperor Vulcan will show up by the end of the week. When Giant-Sized Astonishing X-Men comes out, you'll see that post made (and moved, I think) within the week of that. For the most part, that'll put us pretty much up-to-date.

As far as "Divided We Stand" goes, I'm a little uncertain. At the moment, I'm only buying three X-Books - Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy, and Wolverine Origins. Y'all might just have to wait for the trades to show up before I tackle X-Force, Wolverine, and Young X-Men.

If I get really bored, I'll post an X-Periment for "X-Men: Die by the Sword."

Not sure about "Secret Invasion." If an X-Men tie-in is released (other than X-Factor), I'll pick it up. Not doing what I did with Civil War though (which is all messed up for some reason -- it's missing a large chunk of its review).

As things calm down around here, expect some other entries. I plan on going back and doing reviews of other X-Books including X-Force/X-Statix, Exiles, X-Factor, etc. as soon as I pick them up. Which might be a while, but I have a lot of comics. It'll be fine.

I have some other things cooked up, but it will most definetly have to wait a few months.

The reason why things are slowing down here (other than the fact that we're pretty much in the present) is because on top of school and work, I'm also getting married in September. It's expensive and time-consuming. So, pretty much after mid-October (post-honeymoon), this blog will be up-dated more often.

In the meantime, stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 149: "Endangered Species"

2008-03-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

X-Men: Endangers Species, X-Men # 200, Cable/Deadpool # 42, X-Men # 201-204, Uncanny X-Men # 587-591, New X-Men # 42-43, Endangered Species back-ups

There’s a new threat against the Mutants and it’s unlike any they’ve had to face before. They are now faced with the possibility of extinction – of becoming an Endangered Species. It’s under these themes that the X-Men must react to the conflicts around them.

Members from the X-Men, X-Factor, and New X-Men head to the funeral for a Mutant teenager who rejected an offer to go to Xavier’s in pursuit of a “normal” life, only to get hit by a bus. The funeral causes the X-Men to come to terms with the idea of being an endangered species, as well as what role they play in a post-Decimation world. This includes a run-in between Xavier and Sebastian Shaw.

Afterwards, Rogue’s team heads to Mystique’s old home because she wants to (probably because she’s slowly going crazy). Once there, Iceman contacts Scott and asks them to come on down and look into Rogue’s mental state. Meanwhile, on Providence, Cable is targeted by Gambit and Sunfire. As Cable retreats to the power core of the island, Deadpool fights off Senyaka (how is this guy still alive?!) and is eventually tricked by Cable into teleporting away. Cable blows up Providence along with himself.

Back at Mystique’s house, Wolverine, Beast, Emma, and Cyclops arrive. They look into helping Rogue, but are swiftly ambushed by the Marauders – with the opening strike coming from a Malice-possessed Sentinel and Lady Mastermind. Mystique then reveals herself a traitor as well when she shoots Rogue. Emma gets taken down, but mentally takes control of Cannonball and Iceman and makes them flee. The two do battle over the Appalachian Mountains (I’m assuming) with Sunfire, whom they eventually take down.

Meanwhile, the mansion is attacked by Exodus and the Acolytes, who are looking for Destiny’s Diaries. The New X-Men, Colossus, and Shadowcat fight them off and the Acolytes leave, having discovered that the diaries at the mansion are all blank and the real ones are hidden somewhere. Back at the house, the remaining are trapped and the Marauders leave them there, with Rogue in tow. Emma reveals that Kitty knows where they are, but the location is hidden within her own mind, locked up with a hypnotic key. Kitty figures it out and Cannonball and Iceman are on the case. In the meantime, it’s revealed the Marauders targeted the Witness, the alive-but-now-dead-again Vargas, Cable, Gateway, and Blindfold to keep information about the future away from the X-Men – hence why they’re after the diaries. The duo confront the Marauders and Sinister himself at where the diaries were buried. They get destroyed during the battle and Sinister leaves Cannonball’s mind hollow before they storm out.

Cannonball recovers (as does Blindfold, who kinda killed herself to keep safe earlier) and it turns that the only reason Gambit and Mystique teamed with Sinister was to save Rogue, who is now comatose.

Over in the Uncanny and taking place within the same general timeframe (I imagine it being a day or two later), Caliban turns up at the mansion, back in his skinny form. Storm, Warpath, Hephzibah, and Caliban head into the Morlock tunnels to find out why the Morlocks did this to him. They find some strange prophecy written on a wall in the Alley (as a continuity nut, I should point out the Alley is flooded [LINK]).

Professor X and Nightcrawler go searching for Magneto while this is happening.

Masque, it turns out, is back in charge of the remaining Morlocks – Skids being among them. Masque launches an attack on a subway train that mutates the appearance of all those on board. Skids disagrees with this, feeling that he misinterpreted the words of someone. Storm uses her resources at the Baxter Building to pinpoint the Morlocks headquarters. ONE also tracked them down and were slaughtered. When these four show up, a Sentinel arrives to arrest them, but Skids awakes from where she was left unconscious during the battle and reveals herself to be a SHIELD undercover agent. She tells Storm and Caliban that Morlock named Delphi wrote a book off prophecy that tells of a great change and conflict to come and that Masque’s Morlocks are misreading the book.

Masque arrives with the captured Warpath and Hephzibah and takes them all under a cathedral he’s going to blow up with the X-Men in it so it looks like they did it. Storm uses her lightning to free herself and eventually Nightcrawler and Professor X show up and all are able to defeat Masque. Skids steals the book of prophecy and delievers it to Magneto, telling him that it says that he’s still a Mutant.

The New X-Men come to terms with all the death and destruction in their lives, as well as their current place in live in terms of them possibly being the last generation of Mutants. Meanwhile, the Purifer-released Predator X turns from his quest to kill Sand.

During and around all of this, Beast goes searching for a way to save Mutantkind. After long and dead-ending consultations with Mr. Fantastic, Yellowjacket, and even Iron Man, Beast has no choice but to turn to villains: Pandemic, Mr. Sinister (pre-Blinded by Light, I’m assuming), Arnim Zola, Sugar Man, Spiral, Kavita Rao, and the High Evolutionary. Everyone turns him down but Rao and Spiral, who make half-empty promises. The High Evolutionary seems to waver and gives Beast enough of a reason to make him confront him. He heads up Wundagore Mountain, bumps into the Knights, and then finally sees the High Evolutionary. Wyndham tries to convince Hank that this is natural way of things and that was done was done and that since magic created this mess, science would not fix it. He told that to Hank’s colleague. Colleague?! What?!

Hank then goes to Rao, who offers him Mutant samples that have now gone inert. Rao leaves Benetech for India. Hank hits another dead-end, but gets a file folder from her marked ‘Neverland.’ Hank gets the information about Neverland from Wolverine, and then heads their himself. Turns out that when Neverland closed, they killed all of the Mutants there (probably around the time of War of the Programs [LINK]). It’s there that none other than the Dark Beast shows up, the so-called ‘colleague’ the High Evolutionary referred to. Hank decides to team-up with Dark Beast in the hopes of figuring this out. They head on out and as they fly, Dark Beast gives Hank a sample of his memories of the Age of Apocalypse. Dark Beast suggests grave-robbing Nate Grey’s body, but it’s not an option. They go to Alamagordo, New Mexico (former home of the Black Womb). Turns out they killed Mutant babies and Hank immediately rejects the research. They also encounter a SHIELD robot that was supposed to kill them, but they destroy it and get out, believing the Sinister had been there all ready. The duo head to Genosha next and dig up bodies to recover samples, but find that most of them don’t have viable X-Genes anymore. They go in search of MGH, hoping that it might be enough to inject viable X-Genes into Mutants. This takes Hank to Bishop and District X, where a dealer in MGH tells them that all their samples are (shocker!) inert. The dealer pisses Hank off. Bishop talks to Hank about the future and Beast realizes that perhaps alternate reality Mutants might hold the key.

Hank goes to Forge, who found a way using Nimrod technology to scan alternate timelines and alternate futures for Mutants. Each one of them has flat lined, meaning Wanda’s power has affected more than just 616. He rejects Forge’s help and goes back to Dark Beast, who believes that perhaps the best option would be going to human parents of Mutants. This idea takes them to the Guthrie’s. She refuses to give them a sample because of all the pain and hurt having Mutants in her family has caused and is unwilling to bring that to anyone else. As Hank tries to change her mind, Dark Beast goes and meets up with young Lewis Guthrie, who is a Mutant wanna-be. He offers him an injection that might give him powers, but it causes a terrible reaction. Hank takes on Dark Beast, but is beaten. Luckily, Lucinda shows up with a gun and shoots Dark Beast and allowing Hank to save Lewis and declare that he is finished with Dark Beast.

Spiral shows up shortly thereafter, telling Hank that magic might be the key. This sends Hank to Doctor Strange, who shows him that Wanda’s declaration is now a permanent part of reality. Strange sends Hank to sees various other realities, where his quest has gone ever with failure. Finally, Hank has a dream of Wanda which sends him on a mission to find her. He does and she tells him a “be careful what you wish for” story before sending him on his way. Hank stops back at Neverland and buries the dead, trying to make peace with everything he has to do and with the failure he has been met with.

As whole, these stories pull together very well. “Blinded by the Light” is the strongest of all the offerings. Mike Carey really makes me a fan of his writing with this story. Not only does it tie heavily into the whole “Endangered Species” theme, but it also serves as Carey’s first real knock-out home run of a story. He handles all of the characters with great appreciation and depth, and serves them up in a state of chaos. It’s great to see Gambit again and Carey does a fantastic job on tackling the relationships between these various characters. The sheer chaotic sense that comes from this story is played brilliantly. By diving into the mythos and history of the X-Men, Carey solidifies himself as someone who knows something about the book he’s writing. Add into the mix Sinister, Exodus, the Marauders, and the Acolytes and we’ve got a presentation of a threat that is great once again after so long of being on the bottom rung. More than anything, though, there’s an energy in “Blinded by the Light” that’s been missing from the X-Men for too long.

The “Cable/Deadpool” part is as usually expected. Enjoyable, funny, but a little sad too.

I wish I could say the same about Brubaker’s “Uncanny X-Men,” but if there’s one thing lacking from “The

Extremists,” its energy. That’s not to say it’s not a vast improvement of the otherwise bland “Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire.” In fact, “The Extremists” is a great bounce back. It puts these small group of X-Men in a similar style position as their adjectiveless counterparts, where they’re being told about this harsh and conflicted future. Except where Sinister and Exodus are out to wipe out the knowledge of the future, the Morlocks are acting in extreme ways about the future. It’s a great parallel, though it might have worked better had the ‘book’ written by Qwerty been revealed to be one of the diaries of Destiny. But that’s okay. There’s still the same sense of history that was presented in “Blinded,” though this one in terms of the characters themselves. I do have to chide Brubaker for not giving us a proper scene of Scott grieving over Corsair. Indeed, I would have played this up a lot more – with Scott dealing with the death of his estranged son and estranged father. Man, what great angst was wasted . . .

“Children of X-Men” presents a story with the students dealing with the possibility of being the last Mutants. Played along with the angst and drama baggage that this group has been carrying around for months and months, it’s well-presented and handled excellently. Plus, the looming threat of Predator X plays out well.

“Endangers Species” does an awesome job of pulling the aftermath of “Decimation” back into the spotlight and focusing in on the mechanics of the event. It’s honestly exactly what the X-Men line needed and though we’ve waited for so long post-Decimation, it works pretty okay with the long span of time. Putting Beast and Dark Beast together and then on a tour of the X-Men’s corner of the Marvel Universe was a brilliant idea and it’s probably some of the best character development Hank has received since he almost took ‘Hope.’

As an overall whole, these stories connect well and play off each other with strong results. The threat of “Endangered Species” propels the X-Men into a direction with a full tank of gas. And it’s about freakin’ time.

Uncanny X-Periment # 148: "Evolution"

2008-02-28T08:54:00.001-08:00

Wolverine # 50-56

Wolverine is haunted by dreams in which he and Sabretooth appear throughout history, along with some phrase that means "What I am, you will be" (or some such). He goes and confronts Sabretooth about it (who is hanging out at the mansion) and the two tussel. Creed drags Logan to Wakanda, where Storm and T'Challa show Logan a recent find that has two animal anthros skeletons. Logan is then told about the Lupin, apparently animal-type Mutants evolving from anthros instead of humans. This apparently includes the mysteriously repowered Feral and Thornn, as well as Wolfsbane and Sasquatch. Shortly afterwards, Wild Child captures Sabretooth. Wolverine and the aforemention animal-Mutants chase after Wild Child and Creed, finding them at the old Weapon X site. Sabretooth has completely lost it and eats Feral before he runs off.

The rest of the group gets taken out by Wild Child and they all head back to the mansion, where Logan gets the Muramasa sword back from Cyclops so he can kill Creed. He confronts Creed at the cabin where he killed Silver Fox. Logan lops off Creed's head, killing him. It's then revealed by a freshly arrived Wild Child that Romulus has had Creed kill Logan's past loves to control him. It all goes back into the mythology of Romulus - blonde versus black, the whole Lupin thing. Wolverine then swears he'll kill Romulus.

I’m a bit of a Jeph Loeb fan and having read his work over the past few years, I’ve found he mainly deals with either one of two different types of stories. Stories that are romantic or sentimental, such as Fallen Son, Spider-Man: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow, and Superman For All Season. These are usually of a slower pace and deal with the characters emotions to a larger extent than his other type of stories – which would be the more blockbuster-esque, action/adventure type of stories. This would mainly include Superman/Batman, Onslaught Reborn, Hush, and the like. The only time I think he’s actually done a good job at combining the two would be with Batman: The Long Halloween and its squeal, Batman: Dark Victory.

While I re-read Evolution, I was trying to figure out what kind of story he was trying to tell here. It was obviously something he thought would be profound and interesting and offer insight into Wolverine and build upon his mythology in a creative/innovative way. Eh . . . sorry, Jeph, not quite.

The dialogue is good, the pacing is steady, and the characterization is nicely handled. The art is fantastic, but we’ll get to that soon enough. The big problem, unfortunately, is the plot itself. It’s not very good.

I talked about Romulus here and went on about all of the questions regarding Romulus that need to be answered. Even though this was originally released parallel to the later arcs of “Wolverine Origin,” it does very little to explore Romulus. Which, at the heart of the story, is the biggest flaw here. I can look past the Silver Age-like coincidences, but Romulus is one of those concepts that absolutely needs to be explored.

Romulus just doesn’t seem real to me. I mean, in addition to all the “oh yeah, he arranged the deaths of all these important women in Logan’s life,” he just seems too out of this world for me to take seriously. All that nonsense about the Lupine evolving into human-like Mutants that are fairly anthropomorphic? What? I can’t take that seriously! It’s over-complicating things. Not to mention the whole blonde-fur/dark-fur idea.

With all that tied to Romulus, I already am not fond of this character and these new developments. There’s nothing personal to make me care about Romulus. Oh, what’s that? He had ties to the Weapon X project? Well, hell, for a while it was implied that Apocalypse did. Then it was hinted that Sinister was involved. Finally, it was John Sublime. And now Romulus? Gasp!

Don’t get me wrong – I think Romulus has the potential to be a great villain. In fact, I’m hoping he does. I want to understand him more and I need to see more of his personality and motivations, but until then, he’s practically not a character. If he continues on this track, he’ll become a one-note villain the likes of Onslaught, Bastian, the Adversary, and Factor Three. All hype and no bite.

As far as Sabretooth’s death is concerned, I’m fine with it. I’m not overly-excited about it and it won’t surprise me to see him pop up again, but it’s cool. I’m fine with Feral’s death, too.

On the art-side, I have to give it up for Bianchi. This is one of those artists that you can just tell are going to be the next John Romita Jr’s or John Cassady. Everything is rendered absolutely beautifully and with a graceful style that only lends to the storytelling.

Again, there’s potential here for this story to really be something. But until it achieves that potential, it’s just nothing but flash in the pan.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 147: "Red Data"

2008-02-21T07:26:00.000-08:00

X-Men Annual 2006, X-Men # 194-198, Cable and Deadpool # 40, X-Men # 199, Cable and Deadpool # 41

Rogue, Mystique, and Cable take the comatose Northstar and Aurora to the SHIELD Helicarrier in an attempt to fix their minds. When they do, Exodus, Frenzy, Tempo, and Random show up and use Cable’s knowledge to create an advanced Cerebra that allows him to look for Mutant babies or even potential Mutant babies. Exodus finds nothing and with help from the restored Beauber twins, takes off with his gang . . . and meets with Sinister.

The X-Men finally get a lead on Pan and it turns out to be a doctor that Rogue went to see when she first joined the X-Men. An old colleague for Professor X’s. The X-Men track him down, when Rogue is captured and has her powers changed. Turns out Pan has given himself her powers, except with the ability to steal someone’s entire life and in the process, killing them. An X-Men rumble follows and Rogue emerges with this new addition added to her power, but also dying and feverish. With Pan defeated thanks to quick thinking from Sabretooth and Cable, the X-Men head to Providence Island (Cable’s island paradise) to deal with Rogue.

It’s then that it’s revealed that the old man that appeared at the X-Men’s doorstep was a Mummudrai. It hitched a ride with Lady Mastermind after the old man collapsed and in due time, it reveals to the X-Men that it was captured by Shi’ar scientists and was copied and mimicked to create the Hentacomb, a weapon that rips minds out of bodies and captures them. Cable and Mummudrai mind-meld while Providence titters on the edge of being destroyed. He tries to tackle the Hentacomb, but then Rogue steps in, absorbs the 8 billion minds inside the Hentacomb, and the Conquisdor smashes into it. After the X-Men leave, Sabretooth escapes and fights Deadpool before Cable tosses him into the ocean.

While I’m not overly impressed with both Pan and Hentacomb, I do have to credit Carey (and Nicieza) for their character work. The stories are noting to write home about, but the characterization and character development is on high. Rogue gets some great new additions to her increasingly unstable personality. Mystique’s apparent love of her foster daughter is a nice layer – as well as her flirting with Iceman. The Cable/Cannonball relationship is an enjoyable feature. The instability and distrust when it comes to Sabretooth and Mastermind adds some chemistry.

Even the guest-stars are enjoyable here. Exodus is actually cool in this story as we continue to learn the ever-increasing damage done by M-Day. Domino, Deadpool, Irene, and the other X-Men are used well here.

The art is hit and miss, but I enjoy the way in which the Mummudrai and the Hentacomb are presented. Very neat.

I guess we’re supposed to assume the X-Men picked up Creed or something, because he’s back at the mansion for our next story.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 146: "Emperor Vulcan"

2008-02-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

X-Men: Emperor Vulcan # 1-5

Up in space, the Starjammers are still leading a resistance against the Shi'ar and Vulcan. During a battle, the Shi'ar are suddenly attacked by Scy'Tal, a race whose homeworld was taken by Shi'ar because it possessed the M'Kraan Crystal. The Shi'ar fleet is destroyed by a sun-teleporting weapon called Finality. Both the Starjammers and the Imperial Guard team up to defeat the Scy'Tal. Lilandria and the gang hang out above the World (the home of the M'Kraan) to protect it while the Starjammers and Imperial Guard go to the solar nest where the Finality is teleporting suns from. Vulcan and Havok battle the Scy'Tal Eldest and eventually defeat him. Vulcan then tosses Havok into a sun and launches the Imperial Guard at the Starjammers. Meanwhile, he also fires a Finality probe (which opens the gate for the sun to come through) at the World. Rachel and Korvus go off to stop it; Ka'adrum allows the probe to blow up, destroying the entire Scy'Tal fleet as well as the M'Kraan. He then tells Lilandria to leave as he is joining Vulcan. Havok returns, more powerful than ever, and nearly kills Vulcan . . . right when Deathbird and the Imperial Guard show up with the defeated Starjammers in tow. Havok is forced to surrender. Lilandria, Rachel and Korvus are still out there, somewhere, and Vulcan now has the love of the Shi'ar people.

As much as I enjoyed the look into the Shi'ar's past, the heavy anti-religious sentiments were just so over the top. Add to it the fact that it adds zero closure to this story and I just . . . ugh, I just don't like it.

Havok gets some nice moments, but everyone else is just kinda there. Vulcan just needs to stop being so whiney. I want him to start hanging out with Dakken.

Can this story end soon?

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 145: "World War Hulk"

2008-02-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

World War Hulk # 1 (1st half), X-Men: World War Hulk # 1-3, World War Hulk # 1 (2nd half) - World War Hulk # 5

After being jettisoned to the planet Sakaar by the Illuminati (sans Professor X, who was missing at the time; and Namor, who disagreed with the decision), the Hulk has returned to the Earth uber-pissed. He believes that the shuttle that took him to Sakaar exploded on purpose, wiping out the world and his wife and unborn child. Now, with his gang called Warbound, he’s ready to unleash his rage upon the Earth.

He arrives on the moon first and takes down Black Bolt. He then heads to New York City and demand that it be evacuated and that Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Strange present themselves for punishment. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic go to see the Sentry, who they believe is the only person who can defeat the Hulk. But he’s too crazy to be of any help. As the New and Mighty Avengers evacuate the city (with help from some guys in tie-in issues that I didn’t read), the Hulk decides to check in on our favorite Mutants to see what Professor X would have said.

Hulk tears through the New X-Men team, who are then joined by the Astonishing team. Professor X steps out and Hulk confronts him. Xavier reads his mind and Hulk wants to know how he would have answered. Xavier tells Hulk that he would have shot him into space, but only for a limited amount of time – ie. when they have developed a cure for him. Hulk tells Professor X to get his ass in gear, but the X-Men refuse it and step in between them. Emma reaches out to the other X-Men teams – Uncanny, Excalibur, and X-Factor. Hulk manages to beat the crap outta Wolverine when the Juggernaut shows up, having teleported over by Cytorrak. Hulk punches him out, bends Colossus’ arms outta shape, and is then confronted by the Uncanny team and X-Factor. Guido puts up a good fight against Hulk, but his heart is still in bad shape from about a million and half years ago. He goes down, but that’s about when Hephzibah crashed the Blackbird into Hulk. Hulk shrugs that off, but now has to deal with the Juggernaut in full-Cytorrak power mode. He battles with the Hulk again, but goes down. Hulk chases after Professor X and catches up with him and Mercury at the graveyard. It’s there Mercury yells at the Hulk about how their lives are already a mess. Hulk sees that Professor X is already living in hell. He then heads on out. So does Juggernaut.

The Hulk returns to New York City and not long after the city is evacuated, he confronts the heroes. Iron Man steps up in his new Hulkbuster armor and the two beat the crap out of each other. Eventually, they crash into Avengers Tower. Hulk emerges victorious and goes to beat up the rest of the heroes with his Warbound. In addition to the Mighty Avengers and half the New Avengers (Luke Cage, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman), there’s also Samson and She-Hulk to battle it out. They eventually fall to the Hulk – even after She-Hulk tries to talk some sense into him. Hulk then launches himself at the Baxter Building to face down the Fantastic Four. Black Panther fights the Warbound whilst Storm and the Human Torch launch themselves at the Hulk. The trio fails and Thing tussels with the Hulk before himself going down. Mr. Fantastic tries to pretend he’s the Sentry, but to no avail. He goes down, along with Sue.

With the super-heroes finished, the Warbound goes in search of Dr. Strange and Rick Jones confronts the Hulk. Hulk merely brushes him aside. The Warbound make short work of Ronin, Echo, and Iron Fist and Hiorim the Fallen remains behind to seek out Doctor Strange in his Sanctum Sanctorum. As he’s being assaulted by the military and General Ross, Doctor Strange reaches Banner within Hulk and tries to calm him. The Hulk fights back and breaks Strange’s hands. Ross and his military eventually lose to the Hulk. Strange lets the demon called Zom into his body and uses its power to battle the Hulk. The battle takes them through New York and even endangers civilians – but Hulk saves them and is victorious over Strange.

Hulk then puts the Illuminati through the same trials he had to face on Sakaar – concluding with a fight between the four of them. As the Hulk watches on, the Sentry is at last unleashed. The Hulk declares the fighting at an end, making it clear that the world sees them now as traitors and liars and that he will destroy New York now as punishment. The Sentry collides with him and two war it out, with the Sentry continuing to lose control. The Hulk beats him down and in it, he is finally calmed and exhausted, becoming Banner again. Rick Jones reaches out to him . . . only to be stabbed by the Hulk’s best friend, Miek. Banner Hulks out and beats the crap outta Miek, when it’s revealed that it was Miek that watched/allowed the followers of Sakaar’s fallen ruler the Red King to load the bomb onto the ship that destroyed Sakaar. The Hulk goes crazy with rage, radiation and energy rippling from him. He tells them to stop him and Tony puts him down with a gigantic laser beam. The Hulk crumbles, the Warbound goes into hiding, and Hulk – as Banner – is taken into government custody and rendered comatose.

And thus, yet another Marvel crossover ends.

My opinion of the Hulk is a little strange. To me, the Hulk is only as good as the stories he’s featured in. For me to really enjoy Hulk, it has be a story that is going to interest me or, otherwise, I’m fairly “meh” when it comes to him. Luckily, both Planet Hulk and World War Hulk are just those kinds of stories. Having loved Planet Hulk, I found World War Hulk to be a great compliment to that epic. World War Hulk is full of all those battles I always wanted to see – Hulk versus She-Hulk, Thing, Juggernaut, Strong Guy, and Colossus with the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four tagging along. Plus, considering everything the Hulk has gone through, it’s hard not to understand his rage at these characters. We get plenty of insight into the Hulk and the characters of the Warbound are well-rounded and interesting.

The X-Men aspect (which is really the only other book I can justify being part of this crossover other than Hulk and Frontline, which I decided not to read with this entry), plays out nicely. It’s a nice story with surprising character development. Juggernaut gets some development. The relationship between Professor X and Cyclops – while tense – is played off well here. There are plenty of continuity nuggets dropped here and there as well. From Guido’s heart problems to Juggernaut’s previous battle with the Hulk and even the long-standing Hulk/Wolverine battles.

As an overall, World War Hulk is a great read and is probably among my top three favorite Hulk stories. But I do have offer a complaint against Marvel. “Avengers Disassembled” was about the Scarlet Witch destroying the Avengers. “House of M” was about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch destroying Mutantkind. “Civil War” was about Captain America fighting Iron Man. And now we have “World War Hulk” that pits the Hulk against the elite of Marvel heroes. Got a question – when is this super-hero on super-hero violence going to end? Please let “Secret Invasion” be a departure from this.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 144: "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire"

2008-02-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

Uncanny X-Men # 475 - 486

Vulcan has decided to kick some Shi'ar ass and the Professor, unable to reach his ex-wife, decides to head on out and stop him. He recruits Rachel, Polaris, Darwin, Nightcrawler, Warpath, and Havok takes off. Eventually, they come across an outpost and rescue two Shi'ar's that have been attacked by stranded Warskrulls (who were themselves stranded by the Annhilliation wave). The Shi'ar catchs wind of Vulcan's attack and his subsequent taking of a warship and they launch the Imperial Guard at him. He gets taken captive. Meanwhile, a Shi'ar named Korvus (who has a sword with a piece of the Phoenix in it) goes off to take down the X-Men. After a brief battle, the piece of the Phoenix and Rachel bonds her with Korvus and the two fall in love.

The exiled Shi'ar take Professor X away, but luckily, Darwin stashes himself in their ship and follows. The X-Men join up with the Starjammers and rescue Lilandria, then some General that was like an uncle to her.

Vulcan is rescued by a cult that follows D'Ken and Deathbird. Vulcan and Deathbird team up and the two fall in love. Sooner or later, they end up waking up D'Ken and in an attempt to draw out Lilandria and the X-Men, Deathbird and Vulcan decide to get married in front of the M'Kraan Crystal and execute Professor X there too (probably after the toast, but before the cutting of the cake).

Of course, everyone shows up and the party gets started. Vulcan marries Deathbird, kills D'Ken, and declares himself Emperor. He then goes to kill Lilandria, but she is rescued by Corsair - who is killed in her place. Professor X is tossed into the M'Kraan Crystal and returns with his powers thanks to Darwin.

In an effort to save Xavier, Lilandria teleports him, Warpath, Nightcrawler, Darwin, and Hepzibah up to their ship and has it launched back to Earth. The rest of the X-Men, Starjammers, and rebellion then withdraw.

One of the advantages of the Uncanny X-Periment is the gift of hindsight. Seeing this story in the context of history (even recent history) allows me to understand that this is simply the second part of a trilogy. It began in "Deadly Genesis" and continues into "Emperor Vulcan."

I'll be honest when I say that this continuation hurts the story. It lacks a solid conclusion. We spend basically ten issues of build-up for very little pay-off. It's a non-ending.

For the most part, it's a rapid paced story with enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. But there's something lacking and I'm not sure what it is.

There's not a ton of originality here. It's a lot like many other Shi'ar space operas that we've seen. The idea of a Shi'ar civil war was explored years ago. This is pretty much the same, just with Vulcan added

While the story itself is a little more than dull, the characterization is on high. Vulcan is nicely shaped as the "punk teen in a super-powerful adult body." Professor X's angst rings quite true here. Kurt, Alex, Lorna, and Rachel all get some much needed development. Warpath enters into the spotlight and is probably among the highlights of this story. The Nermani's are about as driven as ever, but nothing really incredible.

Corsair's death was not unexpected and was heroic, if not quick. The lack of mourning on the part of Scott really bothers me.

The show-stealer for me is Darwin. He's brillant. Both power and personality-wise, he's an interesting and dynamic character.

As for the art . . . eh, I've got issues with Billy Tan. His action sequences are almost always great, but every other scene seems . . . off. People's heads and shoulders look out of proportion. Everyone's body looks generall the same with just small changes. Clayton Henry's work is good, but it doesn't mesh well with Tan's.

As an overall whole, it's not that great. The characterization is good, but in it of itself, the story just doesn't live up.

~W~

UXP # 143g: "Civil War: Epilogue"

2008-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

Amazing Spider-Man # 538 (rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 10 (Pages # 6-17), Civil War # 7 (Rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 11 (rest of issue), Ghost Rider # 8 - 12, Fantastic Four # 543, Captain America # 25, Civil War: The Initiative, Civil War: The Confession (Rest of issue)

Peter Parker returns to the sleazy hotel room after being counted among the missing. He embraces his wife and aunt, then the snipers shoots. He shoves MJ out of the way . . . and Aunt May gets the shot straight in the gut. The story continues off in Back in Black and One More Day.

Ben and Sally go off and interview Captain America and Iron Man to get a perspective on the registration act now that the Civil War is pretty much over. The interview with Cap quickly devolves into Sally yelling at Cap for not knowing what America is all about. She and Ben then leave and open their own news website – frontlines.com. Then they go off to interview Iron Man and tell that they know that he’s the traitor. He pushed for a war between Atlantis and the US to up the amount of heroes registering. He then manipulated his stock to create a pension fund for firemen, police officers, and super-heroes. With the fear of a terrible prison out there, he hoped more people would register. It’s diabolical and people died, but it was for the greater good. Tony gets pissed, but Ben assures them they won’t run the story. They leave and Tony cries.

Not long after this, a heartfelt letter from Reed gets to Sue. She returns to him. Tony meets with Miriam Sharpe aboard the SHIELD Hellicarrier, as he is now Director of SHIELD. He tells her of the new future they’re building and that 42 was named such as it was 42^nd of a list of 100 ideas.

In Sleepy Hollow, Illinois, the Devil has taken control of Jack O’Lantern’s Punisher-killed body. Ghost Rider goes and helps a Sheriff deal with him. There’s zombies too.

During an anniversary television special, the Fantastic Four reunite. However, Reed and Sue decide to take some time off to deal with their recent problems – effectively replacing them with Black Panther and Storm.

Captain America is marched into an NYC courthouse. As he is, Sharon Carter and Winter Soldier both are present in the hopes of either rescuing him or just wanting to witness. However, as he’s walking before a crowd, a sniper shoots him down. In the chaos that ensues, Sharon goes to him. He orders the crowd to depart for their own safety, and then is shot again.

Winter Soldier goes to the window where the sniper was located and with the help of the Falcon, they quickly track down Crossbones. Winter Soldier beats him up, then Falcon orders him away as Capekillers arrive. They take Crossbones into custody.

On the way to hospital, Steve Rogers tells Sharon how beautiful she is . . . then dies.

At the hospital, Red Skull’s daughter gives Sharon a trigger word that forces her to remember what exactly happened when she ran up to Steve’s body. She killed Captain America.

Despite Cap’s death, the Initiative is still in full swing. 50 super-hero teams for 50 states, plus Omega Flight in Canada. Iron Man also peeks in at footage of the new Thunderbolts team. Afterwards, he speaks to Ms. Marvel regarding an encounter she had with Spider-Woman. Turns out she told Spider-Woman that Cap was alive in the hopes of bringing her and the rest of the group (read: New Avengers) back into the system. Tony disagrees with this tactic, the two part ways, and Iron Man decides to form a new team of Avengers.

Shortly thereafter, Cap’s body is brought to the SHIELD Hellicarrier. Tony locks himself into a room with it and confesses to Steve’s fallen body. He tells him that he feared a war would come between those with super-powers that despite how much he knew it was coming, it wasn’t worth the price he had to pay.

There’s a lot of good aftermath material here. The Ghost Rider story was particularly fun. The Fantastic Four was light-hearted and yet, meaningful. I like the idea of Reed and Sue taking a vacation and T’Challa and Ororo taking their place.

The Spider-Man snippet was effectively powerful. I have to comment and say that it’s nice to see the fallout from Peter’s revelation coming out now in the aftermath of the chaos of Civil War. It’s too bad none of it matters since “One More Day” – which was the laziest, sloppiest amount of storytelling I’ve seen in years. I mean, come on . . . (rants)

Ben and Sally completely lost me. The sheer amount of unprofessional actions just killed that book for me. It stopped being interesting and became, well, stupid and lame.

With these various books, we see a very interesting Tony Stark. On the one hand, when dealing with Sharpe and setting up the Initiative, Tony is smart and smooth and just all together with it. On the other hand, we also see full of guilt and shame. When confessing to Cap, there’s a bit of relief to see him come to terms that he’s done a lot of bad things that – despite being for the good – just aren’t worth it in the end. It’s well done and makes a very balanced Tony Stark.

Captain America’s death is wonderfully brutal. It hits hard and while getting shot in the back may not be the best death for Captain America, it serves its purpose. Plus, did Sharon really kill Cap? We don’t know yet – that’s besides the point. His death is like the last explosion in this story. It’s the final thought. He’s dead, the Marvel Universe has changed, and the future is uncertain. And everyone is charging right in.

~W~

UXP # 143f: "Civil War: Final Battle"

2008-01-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Amazing Spider-Man # 537 (Pages # 1 - 21), Punisher War Journal # 2 (Up until page # 27, 29), Civil War # 6 (until page 9), Civil War: Frontline # 8, Civil War: Frontline # 9, Civil War: Frontline # 10 - "The Accused", Amazing Spider-Man # 537 (Rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 10 (until page 11), Civil War # 6 (until page 16), Punisher War Journal # 3 (until page 20), Amazing Spider-Man # 538 (pages 1-2), Civil War # 6 (rest of issue), Civil War # 7 (pages # 1 - 7), Black Panther # 25 (Page # 6-7), Civil War: Frontline # 10 (rest of issue), Civil War: The Return - "Captain Courageous", Civil War # 7 (Pages # 8-14), Captain Marvel # 1 (Pages 2-3), Black Panther # 25 (Pages # 8-27), Amazing Spider-Man # 538 (pages # 3-11), Civil War # 7 (page # 15 - 28, Panel Three) (Reed's dialogue panel pushed back), Amazing Spider-Man # 538 (Pages # 12-15), Civil War: Frontline # 10 (Pages # 1-5), Black Panther # 25 (rest of issue), Civil War: The Confession (Pages 20 - 31)

Captain America goes out to find Spider-Man and does. He talks about what America really is and then gets him over on his side. Yay for Spider-Man! However, the Kingpin puts a hit out on Peter and “anyone” who might be near him. An assassin heads over to the abandoned building across the street from the sleazy hotel that the Parkers are hanging out at.

The Punisher and Captain America continue on their escapades, dealing with criminals and villains. Frank then retrieves the tech he needs to infiltrate the Baxter Building.

While Reed puts the final touches on “Thor,” Punisher slips in and gets the needed information on 42. Sue goes to Namor for help, but he refuses her.

Danny, an NYPD cop and one of Ben Urich’s sources, tips Ben off – Stark is making a killing in the stock markets. In fact, the day before Stamford, he cashed in. Plus, Osborne was given nanites from Iron Man and the Pro-Reg. forces. In exchange for this info, Danny sets him up for a date with Sally. Before hand, Sally has the chance to interview Captain America, only to find that Cap doesn’t have much of a story to tell because his idea of America is very different – or perhaps (she muses) she’s just a changed woman. Whatever the case maybe, the mind-controlled Osborne kills some visiting Atlanteans when they show up to recover the bodies of the sleeper cell (which they claim was peaceful). During questioning, he’s taken away by SHIELD.

Speedball has insane pain in his back now from the bullet fragments and now that his power has returned and changed, he decides to Register and gets out of jail. Now free, he confronts the man who shot him, then goes off and puts on a costume that will increase his pain as well as channel his new power. He then becomes the new Penance.

The Secrets Avengers convene to go over their plans when two villains – Goldbug and Plunderer – offer their services. The Punisher kills them because they’re bad guys and Captain America beats him up. As he does, we see flashbacks that show why the Punisher is working with Cap and the Secret Avengers and why he respects him. Cap then has Castle thrown out.

Ms. Marvel delivers the name of the man who arranged for Osborne’s control and the assassination of the Atlanteans to Sally. Sally is shocked and arranges to meet Ben Urich at Time’s Square at 6:15. Shortly thereafter, Ben comes to Jameson with a story that he knows the Bugle can’t publish and thus, quits.

Doctor Strange continues his fast in the hopes of a peaceful end to the conflict.

After a phone call to May and MJ, Peter joins the Secret Avengers in their final assault. They sneak into Ryker’s Island, then through the portal and into the Negative Zone. Once there, Iron Man, the Pro-Reg Forces and the Thunderbolts all arrive – with Tony telling Cap he’s had a spy in the Secret Avengers. Cap reveals that he’s known about Tigra being a spy and then has Pym change back into Hulkling, having taking Yellowjacket’s place earlier. With Hulkling having taken Pym’s place, the cells of 42 are opened and the captured heroes arrive and join with the Secret Avengers.

The battle kicks off.

Captain America wants the battle taken out of 42 and into the Baxter Building, but they’re unable to do that. Cloak teleports everyone into New York City, dropping them onto Time’s Square below.

Sally and Ben meet just as the battle is renewed in Time’s Square. Typeface is killed as the pair rush into a subway tunnel to hide from the conflict.

Meanwhile, 42 is drifting due to the damage it received in the battle. Turns out Captain Marvel in this warden due to an accident that brought him forward in the timestream. He’s uncertain as whether or not to take action, but finally does.

The battle in Time’s Square gets rather pitched. Spider-Man punches and kicks – among others – Mr. Fantastic. As Lady Deathstrike, Venom, Bullseye, and Taskmaster beat the crap outta Cap, Namor arrives with a strike force of Atlanteans. However, Thor, Sentry, Captain Marvel, and the California Champions arrive as well.

In the midst of the battle, the Wakandian Embassy tries to evacuate. Storm is asked by T’Challa to protect while he battles the Pro-Regs. This eventually leads to a confrontation with Thor. The two battle; getting rather harsh while Storm protects the evacuating Wakandians. Sue steps in at one point and helps protect Storm from an onslaught of lightning. Storm manages to disrupt Thor’s circuitry using an EMP, but he reactives . . . but this time, it’s Hercules that wants to tackle the faux god.

Spider-Man muses about the war while Jameson and various others bare witness. He begins to understand that at the end of the day, they’re not fighting over rules and regulations – they’re fighting over the people, the citizens, and the way things used to be. Spider-Man then spots Captain Marvel and goes off to accuse Tony of disgracing Mar-Vell’s memory just he like he did with Thor. Iron Man blasts Spider-Man away, and then is confronted by Cap.

The Vision helps disrupt the armor and Cap leaps right into battle.

The Thing then returns, looking to help the people by keeping the battle away from the citizens. Sue is overjoyed by his actions, but the Taskmaster lines up to shoot her. Reed leaps into the way and takes the bullets. Enraged, Sue smashes Taskmaster.

Thor and Hercules continue their battle, with Hercules eventually smashing Thor’s head in with his own hammer. Thor is destroyed.

Captain America and Iron Man continue to duke it out, with Iron Man now on the ropes. With his helmet shattered and his armor down, Iron Man looks to Cap (with his shield raised) and tells him to do it. Cap hesitates . . . and is tackled by cops, firemen, and paramedics. Cap insists that he’s helping them, but they make him look around at the damage that he and this battle have caused. Because he resisted, the Civil War began and eventually destroyed Times Square.

Cap surrenders and orders his troops to stand down.

In the aftermath of the battle, Sally and Ben emerge to find the destruction appalling and Ben wonders if perhaps this was why things had to change. Black Panther and Storm now have nowhere to go with the embassy destroyed. Plus, Spider-Man is among the missing and the assassin is still targeting their room.

The Punisher managed to pick-up Steve’s mask.

Brought to Ryker’s, Steve and Tony get into it, with Steve blaming Tony for making this happen in the first place and asking if his new position as SHIELD director is worth it. Tony just basically calls Steve a sore loser and walks off.

Wow. Okay.

First of all, my hat’s off to Marvel. The way this all read right here – this final portion – it’s perfect. If one reads this in the order I did, they’ll see the major subplots converge in the final battle. Even little things, like Ms. Marvel’s doubts, manifest when she gives Sally the information about the traitor. It fits so well together and, in fact, adding the extra scenes and elements from other books only makes it all the more effective. It gives the final battle more intensity and makes Cap’s surrender not only more dramatic, but also make more sense.

On the character’s side of things, I think this was a great work right here. Punisher, Black Panther, Speedball, Storm, Hercules, Reed, Ben, Sue, Tony, Steve, and Peter all are very well played here. The more I read that scene where Cap surrenders, the more I understand why he did it and why it makes perfect sense.

I talked about in another review about what “Civil War” war really about in terms of the larger MU. Things needed to change and this was the change. There was resistance to change, as there always is, but at the end of the day, this change was for the better.

There are still emotional issues to figure out and there’s the whole Osborne/Atlantis conspiracy, but this is pretty much the big end of Civil War. Next up, the epilogue.

~W~

UXP # 143e: "Civil War: War Crimes"

2008-01-27T07:16:00.000-08:00

Amazing Spider-Man # 535 (Rest of issue), Civil War # 5 (pages 1-13), Amazing Spider-Man # 536 (pages 1-8), Civil War # 5 (Pages 14-28), Punisher War Journal # 1, Punisher War Journal # 2 (pages 1-10), Amazing Spider-Man # 536 (rest of issue), Civil War # 5 (rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 6 (rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 7, Fantastic Four # 541, Black Panther # 24, Black Panther # 25 (1-4), Civil War: War Crimes, Iron Man # 13 (rest of issue),Iron Man # 14, Fantastic Four # 542, Captain America/Iron Man, New Avengers # 24, Captain America # 23, New Avengers # 25, Captain America # 24, Winter Soldier: Winter Kills, Civil War: The Return - "The Decision", Moon Knight # 7-8

Spider-Man decides he’s had enough of Tony’s shenanigans. He gets May and Mary-Jane out of Stark Tower, then confront Tony himself. They smash through a wall, and then Tony tries to talk Peter down. SHIELD agents show up, blast the window open for Spider-Man to escape, and Peter goes for it.

Iron Man follows him out and deactivates the Iron Spider-Man Armor. It shuts down, but it turns out that Spider-Man had an override installed in it. He takes down Iron Man and makes a run for it. SHIELD then unleashes Jack O’Lantern and Toy Man (new Thunderbolts) to follow Spider-Man into the sewers. Jack O’Lantern’s gas makes Spider-Man crazy and is about to be captured, when the Punisher shows ups and kills them both – then rushes Spider-Man to Captain America’s Secret Avengers headquarters. Turns out that he’s been keeping an eye on it, making sure it remains secure. We flashback and learn that Punisher discovered that Stark has building the Thunderbolts and it turns that offering criminals a “second chance” just doesn’t jive with Frank Castle. Captain America decides to take Castle in and make him part of the group.

After recovering, Peter goes to May and MJ for confirmation that he did the right thing.

Meanwhile, Daredevil has been captured (so has Cloak and Dagger) and hands over a piece of silver to Stark for being a traitor.

Speedball decides to present his case in front of Congress, but on his way in, he’s shot by the father of one of the Stamford kids. He’s rushed into an ambulance, which crashes on the way to the hospital when his powers go completely insane. Meanwhile, Congressman Sykes bails out Sally Floyd because he fought in ‘Nam for her right to say whatever the heck she wants. How nice of him!

Wonder Man spies on Joe the Sleeper Agent when he goes to a warehouse full of Atlanteans. The warehouse is then destroyed by the Green Goblin, with Simon knocked out as well.

The Thing heads off to Paris as he promised, where he teams up with the Heroes of Paris – basically JLA rip-offs – and battles some lame super-villain. It’s funny.

Things with the Wakandaian royal family aren’t that great. The white guys in Washington are continuing their smear campaign; the US is performing war games near Wakanda; and the tribal council is getting restless. T’Challa makes sure that everyone is loyal and getting along with the Secret Avengers while Ororo chats it up with Reed, and then joins her husband.

The imprisoned Kingpin gives some information to Iron Man, which eventually turns out leading Tony right to Hammerhead and his group of super-villains that he planned on using against the Pro-Reg forces and Secret Avengers.

On his wedding anniversary, Spymaster goes to kill Iron Man – but ends up in fisticuffs with Happy Hogan instead. Happy manages to take out Spymaster, but ends up in a coma. Pepper and Tony meet at the hospital, and Pepper asks Tony to uses the Extremists Virus to shut down Happy’s life-support. Unable to do so, Iron Man meets with various other associates. Eventually, he talks to Cap and finds out that Steve had nothing to do with Spymaster. After an argument with Invisible Woman, Tony cuts the life-support.

Johnny reaches out to Reed and Ben, but to no avail. Sue and the Mad Thinker meet with Reed regarding his equations, but Sue runs off again.

Captain America and Iron Man finally meet again at the decimated remains of Avengers Mansion, where they discuss the registration act and better times. Of course, it ends with them battling it out, then walking away, their friendship destroyed.

The Sentry heads to the moon for some peace and quiet, but ends up getting ambushed the Inhumans. They bid him welcome as a guest and when he’s about to do something naughty with Crystal, Iron Man shows up and wants Sentry to return home and to Register. Black Bolt kicks Iron Man out and the Sentry is still left undecided.

As the Red Skull continues his plotting and planning, the Winter Soldier does some work for Nick Fury – which mainly includes infiltrating SHIELD’s mainframe and getting the stats on the Capekiller armors.

An angry employee of Stark Tech sneaks into the Avengers Tower and shuts down Tony in his armor. Maria Hill rescues Tony then and hints that Tony could take her position at SHIELD.

Captain America infiltrates an AIM facility being raided by Hydra. After he busts through some agents, SHIELD shows up with Capekillers. He’s then rescued by Sharon Carter, who has joined his side.

Shortly thereafter, Winter Soldier is asked by Nick Fury to make sure that the Young Avengers don’t accidentally break-down a Hydra cell he’s been watching. Winter Soldier is not exactly happy about this, as this is his first Christmas free, but he does what he has to. However, after meeting the Young Avengers, they’re discovered by Hydra and the cell is destroyed anywho. The Young Avengers then traces Winter Soldier back to a cemetery, where they come to understand who he really is as Bucky makes peace with Jack Munroe. Finally, at the grave of Toro, Namor appears and the two chat.

The Sentry finally decides to register after fighting Absorbing Man. Captain America confronts Moon Knight regarding his use of too much force against criminals, touting that there was one person he could apply the Registration Act to, it would be him.

Breaking it down now . . .

The Spider-Man betrayal/Punisher joining Secret Avengers/Thunderbolts first unleashed is perhaps among the best sequences in all of Civil War. Flowing across three titles (each one adding just a little more to the various scenes without making it unrecognizable), it’s a well-executed affair. Each characters comes across honestly. Peter, just finally done with it all. Tony, trying to stop Peter from going too far. Punisher, deciding that the Civil War has just gone too far. The whole thing plays off so great.

The Speedball stuff continues to be rather intriguing, and really conveys a strong character piece. You really feel sorry for the guy.

The whole Sleeper Cell storyline is just as intriguing, though knowing where it’s heading . . . uh . . . well, it’s still pretty good and appropriately murky at this point.

Ben and Sally continue on their little quests for the truth, though to be honest, it’s getting a little old and has stopped having that “ground-up” POV that made this book so good in the first place.

Ben’s adventure in the City of Lights is fun, but not really worth much in a broader sense.

T’Challa comes across as a great character in Hudlin’s “Black Panther,” but let’s be honest here. This is really where Storm starts to take off again until Hudlin’s pen. In addition to be the most in character since he stared writing her, Storm also gets some great development and really comes across as the character we all know and love.

The Kingpin story is a nice little piece, really offering up some insight into the Kingpin’s jailbird adventures. It sometimes pushes a little too far here and there, but it’s a good look at the criminal element and what they’re up to while the heroes are fighting it out.

The Happy Hogan story is done rather well, though to be honest, it’s overshadowed by other elements of Civil War.

The various wartime reunions of the Fantastic Four are relatively pointless.

The Iron Man/Captain America story is really a fine tale, and one that should have come far earlier. It’s a nice character piece and despite the brief fight sequence, it’s a good floating heads book. Flashbacks are utilized well here as well.

The Sentry/Inhumans story does a good job of bringing in the Inhumans to at least the outer circle of this crossover. However, I need to harp on the sheer inconsistency between the portrayals of the Sentry. In New Avengers and The Return, his character goes from insecure to cocky. It’s whiplash – even with the “he’s crazy” explanation.

The disgruntled employee story from New Avengers is rather flat, too, to be honest.

The Captain America titles continue to do a good job of building the Red Skull’s “master plan” while also allowing the ripples of Civil War to affect Sharon, Nick Fury, and Bucky.

The Captain America/Iron Man special and the Winter Soldier: Winter Kills one-shot both do a good job of building on what an issue of Black Panther did as well and that’s offer flashbacks. Placing flashbacks to the days of the Invaders and the various adventures of the Avengers adds a broader context and aspect to Civil War, giving it even more meaning and evoking thoughts of changes and transformation done to the operational standards of the Marvel Universe’s super-heroes.

The Moon Knight/Captain America thing is about a strong as a fart in a stiff wind.

UXP # 143d: "Civil War: Choosing Sides"

2008-01-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Eternals # 2, Pages 13-24; Eternals # 3, Pages 1-8, 12-13; New Avengers # 23, Civil War # 3 (Pages # 2 - 3), X-Factor # 8-9, Wolverine # 42 (rest of issue), Fantastic Four # 538, Wolverine # 43-48, Blade # 5, Civil War: Frontline # 3, Civil War: Frontline # 4: “Sleeper Cell, Part Two”, Civil War: Choosing Sides - The Immortal Iron Fist, Young Avengers and Runaways # 1-4, Ms. Marvel # 6-8, Civil War: Choosing Sides - Switching Sides, Civil War: Choosing Sides – USAgent, Black Panther # 21, Heroes for Hire # 1, Iron Man # 13 (Pages # 1-22), Black Panther # 22, Civil War: Frontline # 4 (rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 5

The Eternal Sersi is throwing fancy party for a foreign country when it’s crashed by terrorists working for the Deviants. Even with the memories of him being an Eternal suppressed, Makkari leaps into action and saves a lot of people. Iron Man then shows up and helps clean up. He then confronts Sersi about registration, to which she confesses as having no memory of ever being an Avenger or having powers.

Spider-Woman is then brought into SHIELD custody for being a triple-agent. She is then rescued by Hydra, but manages to escape to Captain America, having no where else to go.

Members from Iron Man’s Pro-Reg forces meet up with various heroes. Doctor Strange is gone, having retreated to the North Pole to fast until it’s all over. T’Challa rejects Reed’s offer to come over to his side.

X-Factor is then notified that Quicksilver might be heading to Mutant Town. The X-Men arrive after Pietro meets with Jaime and his team and X-Factor decides to take a stand against Registration – mainly because X-Factor learns the truth about Decimation and Jaime helps Aegis escape Capekillers.

Wolverine, against the X-Men’s orders, goes after Nitro. He picks up his scent in Stamford and goes on the hunt.

With Sue and Reed arguing, Ben goes to talk at Johnny while he’s in a comma. Ben then goes out, sees Ms. Marvel fighting Silver Claw, and decides to stand up for the people. Meanwhile, the mysteries “DB” gets a hold of Thor’s hammer.

Wolverine tracks Nitro down to Big Sur, California. He’s joined by SHIELD agents who get completely wiped out. As Wolverine starts to take Nitro down, Atlantian sleeper agents leap in to take Nitro themselves. Nitro dangles some juicy information in front of Wolverine, which causes Logan to vow to keep Nitro alive. Namor shows up, takes Logan down, then hauls Nitro to Atlantis for killing Namorita. Wolverine heads down and confronts Namor and takes off one of Nitro’s hand . . . and learns that Damage Control, Inc. gave Nitro MGH. MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone) gave Nitro more power, in the hopes that he would cause greater damage and therefore, give Damage Control Inc. more business. While destroying various arms of Damage Control, Inc., Logan is taken in by SHIELD . . . only to escape and confront the new CEO of Damage Control, Inc. He and Wolverine fight until they crash over the side of the building. Logan then tells one of the sleeper agents (pillow talk) about where his soul goes when he’s really damaged.

SHIELD drags in Blade after he battles a registered Morbius and Blade is charged with reeling Wolverine. He and Logan battle it out, until Blade realizes that he knows Wolverine from years ago and was actually saved by him. He then tells SHIELD that Logan is off limits.

Sally Floyd is brought into a gathering of super-heroes in hiding, including Network, Battlestar, Solo, Typeface, and others. Afterwards, Sally witnesses a battle between Pro-Reg Bantam and Anti-Reg Thunderclap. Thunderclap, unfortunately, accidentally knocks Bantam into a gas tanker and BOOM! She-Hulk continues to try and convince Speedball into Registering, but he again declines.

Meanwhile, an Aquarium blows up and the owner – Joe – turns out to be an Atlantian deep sleeper agent who is activated by whale calls and goes to Atlantis.

We then revisit Daredevil as he asks Iron Fist to take his place for a while. Iron Fist does, but decides that Iron Fist would/will be needed soon.

The Young Avengers get word of the Runaways in Los Angeles and decide to go against Cap’s orders and go to confront them. After a scuffle, the teams discuss registration before they are attacked by Marvel Boy and half the teams are captured. The rest go after them and eventually succeed in releasing Marvel Boy from his brainwashing and rescue their friends. The teams then part ways, with the Runaways deciding not to side with anyone and instead, “run away” from the situation.

Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, and Arachne are given new missions after Prowler is captured. Arachne is asked to bring in Shroud, with whom she is having a love affair with. The two go on the run while Wonder Man and Ms. Marvel ask Arana to register (she does). The trio follow Shroud and Arachne and after bringing in Shroud, they battle it out with Arachne at her parents house in front her daughter.

Venom takes out some SHIELD agents, but then is approached by Radioactive Man and Songbirds about joining the Thunderbolts. He accepts.

USAgent is approached by Iron Man about heading up to Canada to go after Purple Man and to head up the new Alpha Flight team. After some complaining, he goes.

Storm and Black Panther go to Atlantis at the invitation of Namor. Namor wants to build up a global resistance against the Registration Act and wants T’Challa and Ororo to lead it. After some debate and some flashbacks regarding the Invaders, T’Challa decides to do it.

The Heroes for Hire (Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Humbug, Shang-Chi, Tarantula, Black Cat, Paladin, and Orca) are asked by Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and Spider-Man to hunt down super-villains. After helping to fight the Mandarin’s Avatars, they manage to bring in some super-villains seeking to flee New York.

Iron Man, on the west coast, is filming PSAs, being threatened by the Secretary of Defense, and helps to find comfort in his friends . . . only to not get any.

Black Panther and Storm meet with Captain Britain, who turns them down. After that, they head to Washington DC to meet with the President – which goes wrong when they’re asked to Register. On the way out, Black Panther goes to help a child who is in danger of being trampled by a crowd. Nearby ONE forces register this as an attack. War Machine gets involved and nearly killed if not for T’Challa. Iron Man then shows up and the two fight, with Black Panther declaring that his business in America is not finished.

Sally Floyd once more goes to the underground super-hero meeting, only to discover she was followed by SHIELD. She barely escapes. Meanwhile, Ben Urich is attacked by Green Goblin, but when Osborne is about to actually kill him, he flips out and runs off. Ben goes to Jameson and the two tie into it . . . with Ben getting fired. Sally is contacted by someone mysterious who tells her she’s looking in the wrong in the place. When she brings her story to the Alternative, she and her editor are arrested by SHIELD.

After being shunned and rejected by his mother, Speedball is sent to “Fantasy Island,” the Negative Zone prison created to hold super-heroes and super-villains.

Okay, well, let’s start at the top . . .

“The Eternals” is a great story. Honestly, I could have put the entire mini-series in here. Putting it up against the back-drop of a “Civil War”-ridden Marvel Universe is a great choice.

The Spider-Woman story is nice, though it does feel a little detached from the major event.

X-Factor is a great story that pulls together threads from Decimation and Civil War and links them nicely. Jamie’s ultimate decision to defy the X-Men, protect Quicksilver and Mutant Town, and stand proudly against Registration is well reasoned and I liked that we saw him move emotionally towards this decision.

Wolverine’s tale is quite excellent. Wolverine comes across as honorable, savage, complex, emotional, deep, and bad-ass all in one. It’s great to see him chafe under Scott and Emma’s command and break out on his own. He’s smart here, he’s using his head. It’s probably among the very best Wolverine stories I have ever read – and that’s saying something. His interaction with Namor is also particularly enjoyable as the two seem to be more similar than one would think. Further, the battle with Blade, while mostly fan-service, is fun to watch. As an aside – there’s an interesting connection Logan has with the New Warriors. Way back in “Mutants No More,” the New Warriors managed to save Logan’s ass when his powers were gone.

Fantastic Four, personally, feels like little more than a blip on the RADAR. It’s fun to see Ben entertain the comatose Johnny and I like the position he gets stuck in at the end. But the fight between Reed and Sue just doesn’t jive well with me.

Frontline continues to do a good job at offering a street-level, down-to-Earth look at the Civil War. There are some highlights, including mainly the Bantam/Thunderclap fight and the gathering of C and D-listers. However, even though it’s well-written, the veering towards the Sleeper Cell/conspiracy storyline takes away from the position these characters were so perfectly in.

Speedball’s tale continues to be more and more tragic.

The meeting between the Young Avengers and the Runaways is a fun one and it’s about damn time these two teams meet. It’s a pretty good story, even though its connection with Civil War is a little subtle. But it’s great to see these characters interact and it works well against the back-drop of Civil War.

Ms. Marvel is another strong book, really focusing in on the friendly face of the Pro-Reg forces. Ms. Marvel’s character really shines as she is gentle to bring in Arana, but harsh when separating Arachne from Rachel. It’s a well-paced, well-written story with top-notch character development for Ms. Marvel.

Black Panther’s role in Civil War works well and suits both him and Storm to a tee. Hudlin is finally getting the hang of Storm. The “white media versus black media” is played a little too hard, but there are some strong highlights that outshine that. The meeting with Namor, Captain Britain and Iron Man are well-handled and all the characters come across nicely. Iron Man is a little harsh, but not as bad as with other writers.

Heroes For Hire is a fun book with great characters and a nice premise.

The “behind the mask” look at Iron Man is appreciated as we see just how insecure he is about all of this despite the “I’m a great super-hero, go register!” attitude.

The various “Choosing Sides” are all just mainly snippets, but they’re good snippets and offer insight to the characters dealt with in said story. They vary in terms of quality, but for the most part, it’s pretty good.

~W~

A Minor Milestone

2008-01-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hello all you guys and gals!

Though you won't notice it until next week (or perhaps even the week after that), the Uncanny X-Periment is completely up-to-date. Yes, that's right. I just read all of Messiah Complex, which now only leaves us with whatever comics are coming out on a week-by-week basis.

I'm not sure as to what this means for the Uncanny X-Periment. On the one hand, it's kinda nice to not have about ten stacks of comics sitting next to my bed, waiting for me to crack 'em open, and then write about them. But on the other hand, I want to keep this blog somewhat active.

I'm reluctant to go on an issue-by-issue up-date. I think it kinda harms the intention of this blog, as my goal was to take specific eras of the X-Men and offer overviews/reviews of said eras. This worked quite while with Wolverine: Origins, as the quality of this series actually improved when all of the so-called "first act" is put together.

I'm pretty sure you'll see activity here for at least the next month. I'm going to be posting the "Civil War" entries daily after I get my computer back up and running (and thus having access to my back-dated entries). After that, there will be a spot reserved for Astonishing X-Men, and then Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire. Which is then followed by Red Data and Endangered Species. That will ultimately get us to Messiah Complex.

I'm fairly certain that by the time we get to Messiah Complex, X-Men: Emperor Vulcan will be completed. I may even toss in X-Men: Die by the Sword for kicks and giggles. So that's some material right there.

As for the future of this blog, I haven't quite decided. As strange as it sounds, February is big X-Men month for me. It was the month that, in 1992, I picked up my first issue of Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor. So I may do something to celebrate that event. I may also do a few articles and observations and the like.

We'll cross that bridge when we get there, though. I figure, by the time I get the "last" entry up, I'll have a clear answer as to what the future holds of this blog.

~W~

Intermission: Technical Difficulties - Part Two: Electric Boogaloo

2008-01-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

Yet again, I'm faced with computer problems. They always seem to compound on each other. A few months back, it was some very nasty spyware/adware that got to me. This past month, my adapter went bad. Upon getting a replacement, this new one barely works with it. Even when man-handled!

So . . . I'm using my Dad's computer. When I head back to school, I'll probably be up-dating from there. With my fingers crossed that I saved my back-dated entries onto my flash drive that is. If not? Well, sorry. It'll be a while.

I kinda feel like I'm talking to myself with this thing, anyways.

~W~

UXP # 143c: "Civil War: Registration Becomes Law"

2008-01-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

Civil War: Choosing Sides – “Non-Human Americans,” New Avengers # 22 (until page 13), Civil War # 2 (until page 14), New Avengers # 22 (rest of issue), Amazing Spider-Man # 532 (pages 23-25), Civil War # 2 (rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 2 – “The Program,” Civil War # 3 (page 1), Thunderbolts # 103 (until page 10, panel 3), Amazing Spider-Man # 533, Thunderbolts # 103 (rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 2 (rest of issue)

It’s about here where things get a little more complicated continuity-wise. I messed up the placement of Amazing Spider-Man # 532, pages 23-25; it should really take place before Civil War # 2, while New Avengers (until page 13) should be moved into Civil War # 2, probably between pages 11 and 12. Oh well.

Kicking things off, Howard the Duck and his girlfriend Bev (making their second appearance here at the Uncanny X-Periment) make their way to the Cleveland Registration Office. After some mix-up with the DMV (whoops! Ohio has a BMV!), they end up in the right office, where Howard learns that he’s been classified as non-existent . . . which makes him very happy.

With the registration deadline approaching, Iron Man and Ms. Marvel go and see Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and their baby daughter. Luke and Jess refuse to sign up and Luke has Jess flee to Canada while he remains in Harlem.

Meanwhile, both Cap America’s so-called “Secret Avengers” and Iron Man’s Pro-Reg forces tackle various threats; the former being Reaper and Vulture, the latter being a giant-ass Doombot. At the Baxter Building, the battling of their former friends is wearing on Sue, but Reed is really excited about it and is building something called ’42.’ J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie muse over the Registration Act as it is about to go through; when it does, Tony Stark expresses to Happy Hogan his doubts.

Immediately following midnight, when the act is passed, Luke Cage is attacked by SHIELD and their Capekillers. As capture seems to be within reach, he is rescued by Captain America, Daredevil, and Falcon. They then high-jack a tank and make it out alive.

Twenty-four hours after the Act is signed, SHIELD and the Capekillers capture the Young Avengers, who are then rescued by Cap and Falcon and taken back to their secret HQ (one of Fury’s old underground bases). They are joined by Cloak, Dagger, Cable, Hercules, and a few others.

Peter arrives in Washington DC and is introduced as Spider-Man before peeling off his mask on live television, revealing himself. The point of this was to show that the Registration Act is the responsible thing to follow.

Norman Osborne watches as Peter/Spider-Man answers questions and grows furious. He is then offered a chance to change the game by the government.

The Thunderbolts catch the news during a battle with Quicksand, who they defeat and wonder about how Spider-Man’s revelation will effect their status quo.

With the press conference completed, Peter heads home. Once there, he learns that the Bugle is suing him for damages. Furthermore, Peter catches a news conference that states that he and many others will hunting down those that did not Register.

Back in DC, Yellowjacket, Mr. Fantastic, and Iron Man meet up with Baron Zemo and Songbird, who recruit them into capturing super-villains. This leads to a battle with various college kids that stole old Beetle armors. After the kids are defeated, Baron Zemo relishes in the fact that that villain hunt was going for two weeks before he was even asked to (part of another plan).

Ben Urich manages an interview with Peter while Sally goes after Firestar (who says simply she’s giving up the super-hero lifestyle to get a college education and job). The pair then witnesses the first major engagement of Civil War – Iron Man taking down the former Slinger Prodigy.

Finally, Speedball refuses Registration and ends up in jail.

Lots to cover here. Let’s break it down into the small stuff first.

Howard the Duck’s story was simple and funny and offers an enjoyable angle on the current situation.

Luke’s struggle against SHIELD and his determination to stay both speak greatly of his character. Jess shines through as well. The art is bad, but the writing is well-done.

Civil War itself provides brief, but brilliant spurts of insight. Reed and Sue’s rising tension (and Reed’s apparent denial/blindness of it) really speaks of the way the war is affecting their marriage. Tony’s “I hope we’re doing the right thing” line is one of my favorites. It really humanizes him. The rescue of the Young Avengers is delightfully dynamic.

Frontline continues to be smartly written and provides a ground-level look at the war as it unfolds. Speedball’s story is not as strong, but still remains interesting. Less so than Osborne’s, which was a good fit for the character; it also ensures that the bad guys aren’t just the good guys.

Thunderbolts . . . while I love the role they go onto play in Civil War, I still find their characters to be lacking accessibility and come off as clichéd.

There is a chink in the armor here, though, and that’s with the Registration Act. All of these books deal with it being passed, but there are still some questions that need to be asked. Just because one registers, do they have to be called up into active duty? Is it like the Marines? What kind of training? What if they’ve been at it for years? Are there certain levels and requirements they have to match? And what if they don’t want to be a super-hero? Who takes care of their personal information?

One issue of She-Hulk would have answered all this. Marvel dropped the ball here and had they gone over all the details in canon, then I don’t think that readers would have opposed the Registration Act so much.

Now, as for Spider-Man’s unmasking . . .

I like it, generally. It shakes things up, gets things around. It has a great impact on Spidey’s supporting cast – Aunt May, MJ, Flash, Osborne, Jameson, Urich, etc. It’s a bold step and one that makes Spider-Man’s involvement in Civil War a more emotional thing. It fits his character. There’s a strong case made for it.

There are some other things about Spider-Man that I’d like to go into, but we’ll cover that a few entries later.

~W~

UXP # 143b: "Civil War: Opening Shot"

2008-01-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

Civil War # 1, Wolverine # 42 (until page 27), Civil War: Frontline # 1, Amazing Spider-Man # 532 (until page 21), New Avengers # 21, She-Hulk # 8, Black Panther # 18, Captain America # 22

The New Warriors head to Stamford, Connecticut to film the second season of their reality TV show. They track down Coldheart, Cobalt Man, Speedfreak, and Nitro to a suburban house across the street from an elementary school and battle with them during, well, recess. Nitro then explodes, killing the New Warriors and some 600 people at Stamford, including school children.

The heroes respond, but there is a backlash. Rallied by Miriam Sharpe – mother of one of those killed in the blast – thousands are demanding super-hero registration. What would registration mean? Revealing your secret identity to the government, getting training in use of your powers, and licensed. During an informal meeting at the Baxter Building, the rift between those who agree and disagree begins to grow. When SHIELD Commander Maria Hill tells Captain America he’ll have to hunt down those that don’t comply, Cap refuses and is attacked. Captain America then goes underground and Iron Man – who is in support of registration – tell the President he’ll hunt Cap down.

During this, we’ve got Wolverine, who feels as though everyone is getting too cluttered in the post-Stamford event and instead should be concentrating on finding Nitro, who managed to escape.

Sally Floyd and Ben Urich are asked to take a side by their respective publishers, which eventually leads Sally into an interview with Spider-Man and Ben arguing with Jameson. Spider-Man gives Sally a tip – to see Iron Man’s Washington Press Conference, where Tony reveals that he’s not only Iron Man, but also an alcoholic as a way to of “coming clean.” Oh, and it turns out Speedball survived and is secretly arrested, his powers having saved him and burned out from the explosion.

As this is all occurring Tony allies himself with the government and asks Peter to fully disclose himself to the government and the public as a rallying symbol. Peter is left uncertain of this.

SHIELD manages to track down Cap, who confronts an alive Dum-Dum Dugan before escaping and meeting up with the Falcon. The pair then goes to recruit Yellowjacket, who holds them until a unit of the newly-instated Capekiller soldiers arrive to take them down. The pair escape, of course, to bring more to their cause.

The New Warriors not involved in the Stamford incident go to She-Hulk for help in their legal battle with a website that is making their names known so that angry lynch mobs can attack their friends and families. After a brief court battle, Iron Man gives She-Hulk the name of who is behind it – former New Warrior Hindsight Lad. The New Warriors take him down. Meanwhile, John Jameson (Man-Wolf) is confronted by Cap, but turns him down and instead proposes to Pro-Reg She-Hulk.

In Wakanda, there is a cease-fire issued when Black Panther and Storm marry. Iron Man and Captain America have harsh words, but it doesn’t take too much away from the wedding. Storm’s very spirit is tested before she is deemed strong enough to marry T’Challa. Man-Ape turns out to have been invited, Doom sends wedding gifts, and despite the tension, everyone seems to have had a good time.

Finally, Sharon Carter gets a psychological evaluation after messing things up. SHIELD tried to use her feelings for Cap to bring him in, but she sent the Capekillers to another location while she tried to convince Steve to change his mind. She’s okay to return to duty, but it turns out that the evil Doctor Lukin is working with the Red Skull and is messing with her mind.

Whew! And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Civil War itself brings the problem right up in front and is among Millar’s best single issues. Everything is really well done, from the opening scenes to Cap’s leaving of the Hellicarrier. The best moment, however, is the meeting at the Baxter Building. It really brings the large Marvel Universe together in such a strangely informal way. The Avengers, Young Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and a number of B and C-listers are all there, discussing what’s going on. And when the Watcher arrives, you can just feel the already tense situation take a grave turn. It’s a great scene that pulls the issue together.

Wolverine is a good start. I like to see someone actually making an effort to track down the real killer. I’ll cover more Wolverine ground later.

Frontline presents a nice start and it’s good to see a more ground-level, human-eye look at the events taking place. The scene with Sally and Spider-Man is fantastically awkward and Iron Man’s “coming out” would have been far more dull if not the “and I’m an alcoholic” part. Good beginning.

Amazing Spider-Man is pretty straight-forward. Not sure why Tony is pushing Peter to reveal his identity to the public, but I can see why Tony needs Peter to at least register. The Tony/Peter dynamic is a great aspect of this book and really comes through nicely.

New Avengers gives us a decent look at the inside of Cap’s head as he’s dealing with recent events. The art is a strange match, but I loved seeing Cap and Falcon working together, as well as Cap starting up the rebellion.

She-Hulk is a treat. It’s good to see an issue dedicated to dealing with the New Warriors not involved in Stamford. I wish there had been more Civil War tie-ins, including one dealing with the details of the Registration Act.

Black Panther is good. I like the blend of realism and Marvel fiction in terms of the guest list. Needed more X-Men. We saw Nightcrawler, Professor X, and the Astonishing team, but where was Rogue, Cannonball, Warren, Bobby, and the others? Even New Excalibur were shown! A better spotlight on the X-Men would have been great here, but Kitty and Professor X both get nice little moments (unlike Cyclops, who gets the dull line “I wonder what kind of impact this will have on her responsibilities as an X-Man?” BLARGH!). Cyclops has a personality. Hudlin finally starts to get the hang of Storm, which is about time. The spirit world/Panther God scene is nicely done and overall, the issue is pretty good. I placed it here instead of later mainly because I put it later, it would have hurt the Luke/Jess separation. Furthermore, it serves as the only other time that Cap and Iron Man are somewhat non-violent with each other.

Finally, we have Captain America. It was cool seeing this story from Sharon’s POV and seeing her struggle with everything going is a nice and needed touch. Cap’s determination really shines through. Brubaker has Cap nailed here. And the scheming by the Red Skull is an excellent scene.

~W~

UXP # 143a: "Civil War: Road to Civil War"

2008-01-06T07:28:00.000-08:00

New Avengers: The Illuminati, Fantastic Four 436-437, Amazing Spider-Man # 529-531

Okay, okay, I know, I know. What in the world is Civil War doing here? Well, I figured we’ve got some time to kill since we’re looking to get this completely up-to-date by the time “Messiah Complex” is over, so let’s do it like this. I’ve broken down every single portion of Civil War into a gigantic chronological read order. You can check it out over here. I figured, since we’ve got this time to kill, why not focus on that? I mean, while the X-Men aren’t the stars, they do have a role to play and there are repercussions in their little corner of the Marvel Universe. Plus, I'm a big fan of "Civil War." It's actually among my favorite Marvel stories, so . . . yeah. You'll get an up-date today, then some in the middle of the week (I'm thinking Wednesday-ish), then next week. Ready? Good. Here we go!

After the Kree/Skrull War, Iron Man called together Mr. Fantastic, Black Panther, Professor X, Namor, Black Bolt, and Doctor Strange in the hopes of forming an uber-team. Everyone turned it down. So, it was decided by everyone but Black Panther that this group would meet every now in secret to share information and to tackle “secret” issues. Recently, with Professor X missing, this group decided to launch the Hulk into space. This created a rift in the group as Namor greatly disagreed. He rushed off. Now, Iron Man has called them together again in regards to some legislation he was secretly handed. Turns out that the government is nearing it’s wit’s end as far as super-human recklessness is concerned and wants to propose an act that will force super-heroes to register with the government. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic want to get behind it, Strange and Black Bolt disagree, and Namor laughs and leaves.

When Reed gets home, he and the rest of the Fantastic Four are called to Okalahoma, where Doombots are attacking a research facility that’s been built around the fallen hammer of Thor. Doctor Doom himself arrives, as it was the hammer than freed him from Hell and he thinks he’s worthy of it. Well, duh, he’s not, but he did “activate” and a mysterious ‘DB’ is on his way to retrieve it.

Meanwhile, Iron Man gives Spider-Man an Iron Spider-Man Armor and makes Peter his right-hand man. They head to Washington to argue the registration legislation. Conveniently, Titanium Man shows up. Spider-Man fights him, they continue to debate, and then they leave. It then turns out that Titanium Man was hired by Stark to show lawmakers that heroes are needed.

Okay, so let’s get to it, shall we?

First of all, the Fantastic Four story is great. It’s short, it’s fun, it’s exciting and energetic. Between JMS script and Mike McKone’s art, it’s rather good.

Illuminati is pretty good too, but this is where I start to have a problem. Now, let me state that I like the idea of the Illuminati. It’s one of those “I thought of this idea ten years ago!” things. It just makes sense to me, y’know? Overall, the script works and Alex Maleev’s art really fleshes it out nicely.

Amazing Spider-Man is good too, but it gets a little long-winded. It’s funny, don’t get me wrong, and both Tyler Kirkham and Ron Garney do good work here, but the dialogue is very, shall we say, Claremontian? But I can look past that, I suppose.

Here’s my beef though – why introduce the legislation now? It doesn’t make any sense. What’s the point? Because a bad thing is going to happen? Gah, the wheels are showing. Even a line saying that “it’s been in the works for years, sometimes getting shelved and sometimes getting dusted off when crazy things are happening” would have worked. The scene that kills me is when Iron Man talks about exactly what happens. I know, I know, futurist. But still . . . it stretches even my suspension of belief.

Seriously, if this portion was toned down, it would have been better.

You know, if you couple this with the first few pages of the Civil War Sketchbook, it actually really feels like you’re about to get swept into something huge gigantic. Which really works for this story.

~W~

Intermission: Technical Difficulties

2007-12-21T14:47:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, we've run into some problems here. My laptop has decided it hated it's adapter and thus, made it go "BOOM!" Er, kinda. More like "SPARK!"

Anyways, up-dates won't resume until after the new year. Get ready, though, because I am going ape-shit crazy with "Civil War." Just you wait!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 142: "Bride of the Panther"

2007-12-16T05:12:00.000-08:00

Black Panther # 14-17

So, T’Challa needs a queen. Who does he want? His first love, Storm. He proposes, she’s uncertain, they fight the Arabian Knight, she talks to T’Challa’s Mom, and then says yes. Then they track down Ororo’s grandparents and T’Challa goes to a Luke Cage thrown bachelor party.

And that’s pretty much that.

(Yes, I know I’m not including the actual wedding, but just wait; it’ll be here next week)

I’m a little uncertain about this. I’m a huge fan of Priest’s run on Black Panther and while Hudlin is a full competent writer, he just doesn’t bring into the story as much as Priest did back it the day. The whole wedding idea seems forced, despite the winks and nods we’ve had over the years (okay, like, twice). It’s not the world’s worst idea, I suppose, but it just doesn’t . . . I dunno . . . sit right. It’s too fast, too soon.

In addition to this, his Storm just isn’t clicking with me. She just doesn’t seem like herself. Storm is a complex character. She’s hard and tough, stern – yet calm and gentle when she needs to be. She takes her responsibilities with the X-Men seriously. You just can’t go up to her and say “Hey, let’s be girlfriend and boyfriend!” or “Hey, let’s get married!” Hudlin writes Storm as being far more passive and emotional than she has been. I’m not impressed by his Storm.

Now don’t get me wrong, because I do like the idea of T’Challa and Storm getting together. I rooted for them back during Priest’s run. I just feel as though it all has gone too fast. And maybe I’m wrong on Storm. We’ve seen – over the past couple of years – a growing schism between her and the others. It started with the X-Treme X-Men and even after they moved back in with the X-Men, she decided to stay in Africa. Maybe she feels as though the X-Men have limited themselves. Maybe she feels that it’s time she sought after her own lot in life and being with T’Challa (her first love) can help her make a difference.

See? It’s not hard to justify her being with T’Challa, it’s just hard to justify her marrying him right off the bat.

Well, anyways, they’re getting married. Whether or not I disagree, it still happened.

And let’s face facts, other than Storm’s characterization, this is a pretty good book. The reactions from the X-Men, the Avengers, SHIELD (oh yeah, Dugan’s alive), the Fantastic Four, and even the citizens of Wakanda are all very well handled. There are a lot of fun moments in this book. Seeing Ross again is a treat and was that a cameo appearance of Queen Divine Justice? Man-Ape, Zandra, and the Arabian Knight are all worth smirks.

It is a smart book. It was during Priest’s run and is now. It’s just a different kind of smart, I suppose.

If Hudlin can nail down Storm and maybe play off the whole “rushing into things” aspect, he could really pull this off. And he kinda does.

~W~

Next up: the big "Civil War" special! One experiment, eight entires. Stay tuned later today for details.

Uncanny X-Periment # 141: "Children of the Sun"

2007-12-09T14:04:00.001-08:00

X-Men # 188-193

The X-Men manage rescue Lady Mastermind and Omega Sentinel (remember her? From Excalibur?) from an “evil clinic” where they were being experimented on. Rogue excels during this mission, so Cyclops (against the suggestion of Professor X) puts her in charge of a new rapid response team which includes Mystique, Iceman, and Cannonball. Before they can continue their investigation, Sabretooth arrives demanding sanctuary. On his tail are the Children of the Vault, who turn out to be the product of humans placed in a temporal acceleration chamber and are so advanced in terms of genetics and technology, they have to be classified as something other than human and Mutant. Bent on protecting themselves, they go after Creed because he discovered them on board their ship, the Conquistador; and they use Northstar and Arura to attack the school. Cable intervenes and the X-Men win the day. With the help of Cable, they track down the Conquistador (which can fly now) and go off to confront the Children of the Vault. The battle leads them back to the mansion, where the Children see that Mutants must be destroyed so that they can live on. The X-Men work together to stop them and Rogue decides to take the Conquistador and head on out on their way.

It’s the kick-off of a new run on X-Men, this one by Mike Carey. I kinda like his “bad-ass” team of X-Men, with all its variables and unknowns. It’s makes for pretty cool dynamic and I really enjoy seeing these characters grow and evolve and bounce off each other. From Logan’s comments to Rogue regarding Creed’s presence, to the friendship between Sam and Bobby, the characters really are the best part of this book.

The Children of the Vault, on the other hand, are a little generic. I can’t say that I really care about them too much. They’re a little gimmicky and beyond that, bland. Better than the Neo, I suppose. The art by Bachelo is cleaner than a lot of his previous offerings. He draws a good mess.

So far, not so bad.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 140: "Origins and Endings"

2007-12-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Two fer one day!

Wolverine # 36-40, Wolverine: Origins # 1-15, Wolverine: Origins Annual # 1

It’s kinda funny. As we move closer and closer to present day, I’m reading books that I read on an individual basis just a few short months ago. It’s interesting to see how my opinion has changed and how they read differently after I’ve learned and seen the outcome – as well as how well some issues are when placed in the context of a larger story. The previous entry was a good example of that. So is Wolverine: Origins.

Now, we’re going to be doing this a little different this time. I’m not doing an overall, huge uber-overview. Instead, I’m just going to touch on the basics of the story thus far. Which would be . . .

Wolverine, having his memories back, is after a conspiracy that has haunted him his entire life. “They” and “Them,” basically. Which makes sense. How long have we known that someone is behind his Memory Implants and Weapon X? During this quest, Logan comes into conflict with agents of this conspiracy such as Nuke and his own son, Daken. People such as Black Widow, Captain America (kinda), Winter Soldier, Maverick, and the X-Men come in and lend Logan a hand. Cyber, Silver Samurai, and Omega Red get dragged into this as well. Also, Dum-Dum Dugan and SHIELD is all over his ass.

Now, tracking all this down, Wolverine gains a mystical sword called Muramasa, which is the only thing that can kill him and negate his healing factor – his gives this to Cyclops in case Logan goes too far. As he continues on this path, Wolverine learns that Sabretooth has also been a part of this conspiracy and that the death of women in his life has been used to either control or unleash him. Finally, on Madripoor, Logan has a name for the one that is pulling the strings: Romulus.

Let’s talk about all this.

I have to give Marvel kudos for taking such a dangerous step to reveal Wolverine’s entire history. Indeed, I like it. As an overall, I like this book and this story. I like the flashbacks. They don’t exactly connect all the dots, but you can see connections between each one. They do a good job of fleshing out the mysterious places in Logan’s past.

And I have to say that it’s about damn time we learn who is behind the curtain. There have been too many people in shadows in Logan’s past. There has always seemed to be someone pulling the strings. It’s nice to have a name. And yet, there are a few problems involved in this that call upon the reader to take a leap of faith that’s just too far.

We are basically asked to believe that Romulus has made sure that every woman Logan has cared for is dead . . . which kinda cheapens things. I mean, it’s asking a lot. Was Rose the first? Did Romulus point Dog to Canada and tell him to make sure Logan accidentally kills Rose? Or was he supposed to kill Rose and Logan accidentally killed her first? See, problems like that arise.

Another thing is, okay, I understand that Romulus is all about burning away the human part of Logan and Creed and unleashing the animal . . . but to what end? Why? To be bastards? The only reasons we’ve seen is to “protect the project” . . . the project being the aforementioned stripping of humanity.

Plus, why haven’t we seen this conspiracy in action when Logan was with the X-Men? Was it because Logan was just too busy? What was Romulus thinking when the X-Men were believed to be dead and were hanging out in Australia? Did the other threats to the X-Men (Sinister, Apocalypse, Magneto, Sentinels, etc.) scare Romulus away?

And what about the Weapon Plus Program? And John Sublime? And the Director? How about the whole “Weapon X” series that Frank Teri had going? How do elements from that tie into the whole Romulus conspiracy? What about X-23? I’m sure Romulus would find her to be a curious little thing. There’s also the group that created her. What about those guys?

These are questions that demand answers. I understand, of course, that the story is only 1/3 of the way through . . . but we need answers here or the whole Romulus concept falls completely apart. Seriously. It’s tittering.

Now, as for Daken . . . give this guy an issue or two, pull back that second-hand, Euro-trash Wolverine image and let’s understand him. Let’s get inside his head. So far, it’s been “I’m Wolverine Junior, Official Bad-Ass. Look at my Punk-Ass Hair and Awesome Tattoos. Please take me Seriously.”

Really, those two are my biggest complaints of this series. The flashbacks are good, as I said. Wolverine himself is well-realized and it’s enjoyable to see him developing nicely.

(Continuity note: You gotta love how he says he’s wanted by a frillion people, but he’s perfectly accepted at Stamford – whoops!)

Ultimately, this series is going somewhere. It’s moving along, sometimes at a snail’s pace, but when read together, it works about 100 times better than as a single issue. Despite the good things going for it, it’s tittering. It’s right on the edge of “going too far” and “being awesome.” Daniel Way has to keep things moving together to maintain my enjoyment of this series – and he has a lot of logical questions to answer to make this Romulus concept work.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 139: "Decimation Aftermath"

2007-12-02T13:22:00.001-08:00

Decimation Aftermath

X-Factor # 7, New Avengers # 16-20, New Excalibur # 9, Onslaught Reborn # 1-5, Uncanny X-Men # 472-474, New X-Men # 20-31

We’re going to do the run-down pretty fast as this is a freakin’ lot of comics.

X-Factor

Scott arrives at X-Factor investigations to deliver the bad news to Terry about Sean. She (like any X-Fan) immediately slips into denial mood – even after watching his video will and getting his pipe.

New Avengers

SHIELD tracks a being created by the orbiting energy field as it smashes its way through Alpha Flight. Eventually, it head-butts the Avengers and Ms. Marvel in Cleveland (yay!). Then Sentry comes and takes it into space. Meanwhile, Spider-Man and the Vision are taken into SHIELD custody, who figure out the cause of Decimation. The being returns and rushes down to Genosha, where it grabs Magneto, maybe gives him his powers back, and . . . yeah . . . it turns out its Xorn. The Avengers intercept. Ms. Marvel abosorbs and releases the energy away and Xorn is tossed into the sun. The host for Xorn and the power was a guy named Michael. Magneto – maybe brain-dead – shipped away on a helicopter that conveniently blows up. Gasp! Mystery!

New Excalibur

Ozymadias and the Clan Akkaba snag Chamber, use Poccy’s blood to restore him completely, and then Chamber runs away from both the clan and Excalibur.

Onslaught Reborn

The energy field combines and releases Onslaught for reasons that don’t make a whole lot of sense. Onslaught goes after Franklin, who escapes into the Heroes Reborn (2.0) universe. Do me a favor? Come back to this entry in a few weeks and we’ll have it all nice and up-dated for you cuz the last issue isn’t out yet.

Uncanny X-Men

Turns out Jamie Braddock brought Psylocke back so that she could fight the Foursaken. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

New X-Men

Stryker is back and has encountered Nimrod. Nimrod gave him visions of the future. Using these, Stryker has eliminated some X-Kids. Jay, Laurie, and a bunch non-Mutant students are all wiped out pretty cleanly. He then attacks the school, only to be killed by Josh, who goes black. The Nimrod then wakes up and heads down to Forge’s house to get some repairs done. He blackmails Forge and the New X-Men show up and whip his ass. Josh saves X-23 and goes black/gold.

X-Factor is a particularly enjoyable comic. I love Terry’s reactions. It’s an issue I certainly appreciated because it brought a lot of meaning to Sean’s death.

New Avengers was pretty good. Very old school. The SHIELD issue was weak, but I thought the rest of the story was strong. Great use of the character dynamics. Art was good too.

Nice to see Chamber and nice to see the fate Weapon X. But . . . meh. What was the point other than to make Chamber look like Apocalypse Jr.?

Onslaught Reborn

See comment above.

I thought Uncanny X-Men was both boring and confusing. Maybe it was because the build-up was gone. Maybe it was because Claremont was in bad health when he co-wrote this. Maybe it was just . . . bad. I don’t know. I didn’t care for it.

New X-Men is . . . complicated. When I first read this story when the issues came out, I was so appalled I ended up dropping the book. However, in hindsight, I may have acted too quickly. Yes, the slaughter fest is too much. Yes, the time travel portions are insane. Yes, Emma Frost is the biggest bitch in the universe, and Scott is pretty boring. But let me be honest here – it’s really not that bad. There are some things to like here. At the characters are reacting in a realistic manner as to what’s happening to them. And it made the death of Stryker and the destruction of Nimrod all the better. But ultimately, the characters are what make the story interesting. I won’t lie. As much as I respect and enjoyed the previous writers run, this one is far more exciting and entertaining. An endless, needless slaughter fest, but still . . .

~W~

UXP # 138: "Decimation # 5: Deadly Genesis"

2007-11-24T20:48:00.000-08:00

X-Men: Deadly Genesis # 1-5

I’m stuffed of turkey and pumpkin pie; therefore I’m too fat to do a proper overview. Here’s the scoop:

The energy field now in place above the Earth has energized a Mutant trapped in the big ol’ corpse of Krakoa. He comes back to Earth, proceeds to lure Cyclops and Rachel into a trap and captures them. Meanwhile, those X-Men guys are all reliving past troubles. Eventually, Scott and Rachel break out. Rachel’s rushes off to get the rest of the X-Men while the Mutant – Vulcan – takes Scott to Muir Island. It was on Muir Island that Banshee discovered just who and what Vulcan is. He takes the information back to the mansion, but gets squished between the Blackbird and a jumbo jet. The evidence makes it! The X-Men discover just what is going on.

Turns out that a loooong time ago when the original X-Men were captured by Krakoa, Professor X needed to throw some Mutants at the living island. Turns out before he snagged those loveable “All-New All-Different X-Men,” he got some rascals from Moira to train (with his brain!) and launched them at Krakoa. Then, they’re completely wiped out except for Vulcan. Turns out that Vulcan is Scott and Alex’s brother! Oh noez!

The X-Men confront Vulcan on Muir Island, along with Professor X (he’s walking [again] and is human). Vulcan flips out, learns that the adaptive Mutant Darwin is hiding on him, and then flies into space to beat the livin’ crap outta some Shi’ar. Cyclops then kicks Professor X out of the house.

Oh, and Briggs dies. NOOOOOOO!

Well, let’s get started off. Off the top of my head, I do like this story. I think it’s well-executed. Nice and creepy with plenty of good excitement and characterization all around. The art is moody and gloomy; but at the same, vibrant when it needs to be. Trevor Hairsine's line work is pretty good, but I think it wouldn't have been as effective if not the colors. Kudos to Val Staples for a good job on the coloring.

I guess my major beef with this is just why it’s necessary. I like these new characters – Petra, Sway, Darwin, and Vulcan – which it makes it harder to see wiped out so easily. There’s a lack of logic there too. What makes the “Giant-Sized” team so kick-ass to make it through Krakoa? I mean, they had Wolverine. Banshee was part of Interpol and former super-villain. Sunfire was a bad guy too. Storm was a criminal/goddess. But what about the others? Colossus was a farmer. Nightcrawler was in the circus.

And yet, the stand-ins had a telepathic super-cram session and still failed? Meh. Not impressed. Why push this stuff into such a great story? It kinda ruins it, you know? It’s unnecessary. It’s good, but it’s unnecessary.

And it is good. This was pretty enjoyable story, really. Just a little nuts.

Oh well. “Decimation” is over. Next? The aftermath!

~W~

UXP # 137: "Decimation # 4: Son of M"

2007-11-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

Son of M # 1-6

Quicksilver is feelin’ pretty crappy after what he did. After rescuing a pre-198 Johnny D from some thugs, Pietro is the rescued by Spider-Man – who proceeds to yell at him for messing up Peter’s life. This itself concludes with Quicksilver leaping off the side of a building, only to be rescued by Crystal and Lockjaw. She takes him to New Attilan on the moon, where Pietro is reunited with his daughter, Luna. Pietro then decides to use the Terrigen Mists on himself. He does, and with some crazy-ass time travel techniques, steals some of the Terrigen Crystals and he and Luna head to the Earth, shunning the Inhumans.

On Earth, Pietro gives Luna some of the mists, which grants her powers. They then travel to Genosha, where the former Excalibur crew is juiced back up. The Inhumans and General Lazer and ONE track Pietro down to Genosha. Pietro, after an emotional confrontation and rejection with Magneto, realizes that the mists actually cause former Mutant’s powers to go extreme. The Inhumans show up battle with the former Excalibur guys (resulting the death of Unus) and then turn to find that Lazer has taken the crystals and is unwilling to return them. Black Bolt declares a state of war, Pietro sends Luna home where her powers diminish, and Pietro finds that he himself has merged with some of the crystals. He then goes the Mutant Town to help former Mutants get their powers back.

First of all, the story is top-notch. David Hine does a fantastic job of layering different parts of Pietro’s history upon him. The reintroduction of Luna and the time spent with not only the Inhumans, but Spider-Man and the former Excalibur guys all make for nicely-done highlights. The characterization for everyone is spot-on. About the only thing I was unsatisfied with was the question as to why Luna was not in the House of M reality; as in, it wasn’t asked.

The art is beautiful and simple, with a nice beat and pace to it. What really drew my eye were the designs applied to the Inhumans. They all look bizarre and exotic. Human, but yet not. Martinez really hits the nail on the head with this one.

As an overall, “Son of M” is the highlight of “Decimation.” It’s the best Quicksilver story since probably “Magneto Rex,” if not his former on-going.

~W~

UXP # 136: "Decimation # 3: Blood of Apocalypse"

2007-11-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

First of all, my apologies on the lateness of this entry. Real life has been insane lately. Second, my apologies on the short overview. Again . . . real life.

Cable and Deadpool # 26-27, Apocalypse versus Dracula # 1-4, X-Men # 180-187

Deadpool goes on the hunt for Cable after Cable goes missing. Turns out Cable has discovered Apocalypse is returning and goes to confront his ancient nemesis. He allows Apocalypse to live because Mutantkind must rally around ‘Poccy in order to survive.

As Apocalypse is restored, Ozymadias recalls a battle between Apocalypse and Dracula. These had met on an ancient battleground when Dracula was Vlad the Impaler. During the 1800s, Dracula finally sought revenge on Apocalypse by attacking Apocalypse’s descendants in the Clan Akkaba. It comes down to two final members – a teleporter and a fire-breather. They save Apocalypse from Dracula and that’s the end there.

In the present day, in Costa Rica, Lorna and Alex encounter both the Leper Queen and a Doop-like being called Daap. Daap takes Lorna and the Leper Queen to Apocalypse. At the same time, a Mutant called Gazer is challenged and becomes War. Sunfire is then recruited in as Famine and becomes his AOA self.

About this time, Apocalypse shows up at the mansion and offers his healing and power-restoring blood to the 198 and X-Men. With Mystique back and causing a rift between Remy and Rogue with the introduction of the Mutant power-disabling Pulse, Gambit joins with Apocalypse as Death. The Sentinels are wiped out in the meantime and then Apocalypse heads off to the UN.

The X-Men (and the New Avengers) manage to take down Apocalypse in his Sphinix-ship, with Apocalypse escaping . . . only to be recovered by the Celestials. Lorna, who was Pestilence this time, leaves the X-Men. As does Pulse. Sunfire and Gambit as manage to escape, joining with Sinister in the end.

First of all, I need to applaud Frank Tieri for not making “Apocalypse vs. Dracula” suck as badly as it could. In fact, the Clan Akkaba is a nice concept and pops up again. It’s a little whacky, but it works with both the Marvel version of Dracula and Apocalypse. So . . . not bad.

Cable and Deadpool is fun, but I would have liked to have seen more Cable’s thoughts and reactions about Apocalypse’s return. It just doesn’t feel right, to be honest. It was well executed, but just wasn’t quite on the button.

The main event isn’t too bad. The story itself is nicely delivered and has a strong direction. There are flaws. It’s jarring and sometimes it seems like the X-Men just aren’t acting like themselves. They should be dog-piling on Apocalypse. Cyclops needed a stronger emotional reaction to Apocalypse’s return. Even though the focus was more on Alex, Scott needed more development here.

Apocalypse himself isn’t acting like himself either. He’s off character, carrying so much about his image. It reminds a little of Morrison’s Magneto/Xorn from “Planet X.”

Furthermore, the Sentinels from ONE seem to become more and more pointless.

But the character development and art are all on high. And for the faults of the story, it was an interesting and fun ride.

Milligan’s run comes to an end. It was a curious little batch of issues. He handled the team well, even if he dropped the ball with the bad guys. His best work was with Rogue and Gambit; his worst was with Lorna, Bobby, and Alex. There was a fundamental organic/natural theme through just about his entire run. Giant fungus spore alien monsters in “Golgotha;” sex and lust in “Bizarre Love Triangle;” monkeys and apes in “Wild Kingdom;” and blood in “Blood of Apocalypse.” It was a interesting theme and it certainly made for intriguing – if not flawed – stories.

~W~

UXP # 135: "Decimation # 2: Human and Mutant"

2007-11-07T07:50:00.001-08:00

X-Men: 198 # 1-5, Generation M # 1-5, X-Factor # 1-6, Sentinel Squad ONE # 1-5

Quite suddenly, the X-Men have 198 Mutants living on their grounds. With the damage done to the dorms, they all have to live in tents outside. Poor Muties. This includes the emotional distraught Magma and her former lover/manipulator Empath; the mysterious Mr. M; Toad; and various others such as Leech, Caliban, Erg, Jazz, Outlaw, Peepers, Sack, Johnny D, and loads more. The group is having some serious trouble with Sentinel Squad ONE hanging around. This includes them being tagged when they want to leave to visit Salem Center. Thanks to rising tension from Johnny D (who killed Jazz using his Mutant voodoo-doll powers), there's a riot on the X-Men's hands. Mr. M leads the 198 off the estate, where Johnny D (now joined with General Lazer) manages to kill Mr. M. The 198 returns to the estate then.

Sally Floyd, journalist for the very liberal newspaper “The Alternative,” struggles with depression and alcoholism while interviewing ex-Mutants. We see what’s happened to Stacey (a full-blown prostitute); Marrow (living with Morlocks, protecting them); Chamber (comatose with a hole in his chest and face); Jubilee (a political activist); Blob (a thug with diseases); and Dani (taking some time away). As she is doing this, she is being stalked by a crazy Mutant named the Ghoul. This leads to the X-Men using Sally as bait, then managing to take down the Ghoul.

X-Factor investigations is now completely active in Mutant Town (aka District X) and now consists of Maddrox, Wolfsbane, Guido (man, I just want to call him Strong Guy!), Syrin, and M – with Richter then joining after a failed suicide attempt. X-Factor gets involved with a human whose sister was killed by an actor who was being protected by Singularity Investigations. Layla Millar eventually joins the gang, telling everyone that “She knows stuff” and manages to save Richter from an SI agent. After solving the case, Syrin is kidnapped by a former Mutant, and then rescued by Richter. Finally, Layla is taken away, only to have run away and rejoins the team.

Six months ago, Sentinel Squad ONE was a bunch of cadets consisting of (mainly) Alexander “Lex” Lexington, Briggs, Rajani, a Mutant named Melt, and a guy named Skylark. They and a bunch of others go through some exercises – including stopping a Hydra assassination plot, cyber-dinosaurs in the Savage Land, and Wild Sentinels in South America.

Overall, this is a nice and much-needed catch-up with the various Mutant characters we’ve seen over the years. The 198 and Generation M, especially, serve as strong points here with a nice look at all sorts of crazy Mutants. I’m not exactly satisfied with where Stacey has ended up, but I’m pleased with the fates of many of the others. As a Generation X fan, it’s nice to see that M has ended up with the “big boys” in X-Factor.

The 198 made for a good read. The art was touch and go. Sometimes, it was perfect; others, it was an odd fit. I don’t understand why the X-Men have had so much trouble rebuilding the dorms and why the poor masses had to sleep in tents. Surely, the X-Men could have cleared out the cafeteria and set up some cots. And some of those Mutants just surprised me in terms of how “evil” they are. I mean, Toad and Mammomax, I can understand as they’re pretty low on the list and I don’t think they’ve actually killed anyone. But, some of the Marauders are there, as well as Gene Nation. These aren’t good guys. They’ve killed innocents.

The government-is-evil is a pretty overused concept, if you ask me, and it’s done so again here. However, it’s mainly because GENERAL LAZER IS EVIL. Val Cooper and Colonel Reyes aren’t, but GENERAL LAZER IS PURE EVIL. What? You didn’t know that?

Over in Generation M . . . I like Sally Floyd. I don’t anymore since she became stupid in “Civil War: Frontline,” but I like her here. She makes for a nice character and I liked looking through her eyes at the post-Decimation events. Sally been a little retconed into the X-Men’s history, but I can deal with that.

X-Factor is another good book here. It’s far more internal than the original Peter David run and that’s the major highlight. Taking a firm look at Decimation and dealing with its major aftermath and impact on Mutant Town was a wise decision. Nice flow, very moody, and some great characterization are what holds this comic together

Finally, we have Sentinel Squad ONE, which is, for the most part, a little on the bland side. I thought their various adventures weren’t all that strong. That being said, it’s nice to have a face to the names and each character was certainly well-realized. What I really liked about this book, though, is what is said in the beginning of issue one in regards to Sentinel Squad ONE’s existence. It’s there in case everything else falls apart and there are no super-heroes. Say . . . if there was a ban on super-heroes or something, right?

Again, it’s nice to see the fall-out of “House of M” and M-Day dealt with in a way that works. These all made for some good and interesting stories, though some were a little boring at times. A definite improvement.

~W~

UXP # 134: "Decimation # 1: X-Men"

2007-10-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

House of M: The Day After, X-Men # 177-179, New Excalibur # 1-3, Uncanny X-Men # 466-468, New Excalibur # 4-5, (parts of) New X-Men # 20-22, Uncanny X-Men # 469-471, X-Men # 180 (1st half)

The X-Men are in response and recovery mode in the aftermath of House of M. As Bishop works in District X with Charlotte Jones, Cyclops rallies the X-Men around him. He opens the doors to any Mutants seeking refuge; Storm decides to stick it out in Africa; and Nightcrawler, Rachel, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Nocturne, and Shadowcat head off to England to check in on an energy spike there and Captain Britain.

It’s then that huge Sentinels arrive at the mansion just moments after an attack by the Leper Queen and her Sapien League. The X-Men contend with them before discovering they’ve arrived by order of the President with Val Cooper. Turns out these Sentinels are manned by humans and are ordered to protect the X-Men and the Institute. They help the X-Men fight off the Sapien League.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, Sage, and the visiting X-Men get involved in a situation where the original X-Men and an evil Professor X “kill” Dazzler. Rachel and Kitty end up stuck in someone’s mind, nearly under evil Professor X’s control while Psylocke and Nightcrawler deal some of the others. Ultimately, Captain Britain, Sage, Juggernaut, Pete Wisdom, and Nocturne save the day. Pete Wisdom wants a new Excalibur then and there, but everyone turns him down. All but Juggs and TJ take off, dropping Rachel off at the Grey’s.

While Rachel spends time with the grandparents she never knew, Scott and Emma learn more about the deal with the Office of National Emergency. General Lazer is heading it up, with Colonel Reyes and Val Cooper working at the mansion with the Sentinels.

Unfortunately, at a Grey family reunion, a team of Shi’ar mercenaries called the Death Commandos show up and manage to wipe out the entire Grey family. Even Joey and Gaylin. The X-Men and Sentinels move in, but it’s all rather moot at that point.

Back over in England, She-Hulk manages to get Juggernaut free and the team comes together after encounters with the Warwolves and a dude named Albion and former Avenger Lionheart. Excalibur is then officially formed! Yay!

In Westchester, the school goes under some significant changes. Dani is fired, most of the human students are booted out, and Wolverine insists on X-23 returning to the school. Also, the kids all hang around a little something David whipped up called the Danger Cave.

Rachel sneaks out and over to Chicago, where she meets with Kitty’s old psychologist. The Death Commandos break out of jail and go to hunt her down, but the X-Men again step in and defeat them with the help of a Sentinel or two.

Finally, Lorna leaves the school as she no longer has powers. Alex decides to go with her. Oh, and Bobby turns out has his powers too.

Okay, so to be fair, it’s not the best summary in the world, but we’re talking about a lot of books here.

Individually, these stories (taken self-contained) are all rather good. “The Day After” is one of Claremont 2.0’s best works, as he manages to catch up with all the characters emotionally and deals in-depth with everything that’s been going on. There all sorts of small scenes that really shine out – Storm’s meeting with Cyclops (I think their first in a frillion years) and the conversation between Logan and Peter are nicely done.

“House Arrest” (X-Men) is a good story. It introduces the concept of the Sentinels monitoring the school, which was pretty neat at this point. The Bobby/Lorna/Alex triangle finally falls apart with some decent characterization on Lorna’s part. Bobby turning out to have powers is a bit of a misfire, I think, but oh well . . . he would have gotten them back eventually anyways. Scott and Alex get some much-needed interaction, tense as it may be.

“New Excalibur” is . . . okay. This book always felt to me like a dumping ground for left-over X-Men characters like Juggernaut, Sage, and Nocturne. I suppose it’s not terrible, but it’s a little hard to fit in with everything else.

“End of Greys” (Uncanny) is probably the strongest of the bunch. Brutal, intense, but straight forward and emotional. It’s a great story and again, probably among the strongest we’ve seen from Claremont 2.0 in a while. Seeing Scott’s emotional reaction to what has happened to his former in-laws is pretty nice. My biggest complaint is why now? Did the Shi’ar decide to kill them all in the aftermath of what happened in “Endsong?” I mean, that makes the most sense, but why now, right after the House of M? Gah, it bothers me. It’s good, mind you, but it still bothers me.

“New X-Men” is okay. I just stuck with the flashback sequences here to add context to the overall story. I’ll get to the meat of these stories in a few weeks.

“Wanderin’ Star” is decent, but not nearly as strong as showing as “End of Greys.” The Death Commandos crumble like a house of cards, which is silly considering they were a pretty huge threat just a few issues before hand. Rachel gets some good development, which is nice . . . but I’m just not happy with this story as a whole.

Overall, there’s a nice linear feel to all this. The Sentinels arrive at the end of “The Day After,” are dealt with in “House Arrest,” the team handles Europe in “New Excalibur,” return in “End of Greys,” where we see fall-out from “House Arrest.” It pulls together nicely, but . . . the stories themselves are all awkward and don’t fit in terms of tone – especially “New Excalibur.”

Furthermore, there’s very little done with “Decimation” here. We see Sentinels, alternate realities, and the Shi’ar – but there’s not much else dealing with the fall-out of House of M. That fact alone hurts all these. It’s disappointing.

As a whole, the individual stories are greater than the sum of their parts. There’s a lot of good character development found here, which is great . . . but it ignores the core aspect of Decimation, which is, in fact “No more Mutants.”

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 133: "House of M"

2007-10-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

Excalibur # 13-14; House of M # 1; Uncanny X-Men # 462; Mutopia X # 1 (up until page 3); The Pulse # 10 (page one only); House of M # 2 (up until page 19); Mutopia # 1 (rest of issue); Iron Man: House of M # 1-3; Black Panther # 7; Spider-Man: House of M # 1-5; Mutopia # 2-3; Fantastic Four: House of M # 1-3; Thunderbolts # 11; Incredible Hulk # 83-86; Uncanny X-Men # 463-465; Exiles # 69; House of M # 2 (rest of issue); House of M # 3 (up until page 15); Wolverine # 33-35; New X-Men # 16; House of M # 3 (rest of issue); House of M # 4; The Pulse # 10 (up until page 12); House of M # 5 (up until page 19, panel 5); Captain America # 10; House of M # 5 (rest of issue); The Pulse # 10 (rest of issue); New X-Men # 1-19; Exiles # 70; House of M # 6; House of M # 7; Exiles # 71; Cable and Deadpool # 17; Mutopia # 4; House of M # 8

As you can see from my read order, I got pretty particular in regards to how I read it. As this is a rather large and complex story, I found myself weaving in and out of various House of M stories and subplots. This read order allowed me to soak up all of House of M in one fell swoop, with a nice, world-view of the recreated Marvel Universe.

It’s difficult to define House of M, in some ways. Basically, it’s the story of the Scarlet Witch recreating the Marvel Universe into a place where she and her family and friends and even enemies could be happy. Unfortunately, it all comes tumbling down when Wolverine remembers what’s going on and with the help of a girl named Layla Millar, assembles various X-Men, Avengers, and other heroes to put an end to it. And what an end – turns out that everyone suspected Magneto telling Wanda how to create this new world, when it was really Pietro. And on top of that, a disgusted and unstable Wanda sets the world right . . . only with 98% of the Mutant population now reduced to humans.

I’m going to go through all of the satellite books and just kinda touch on them real quick:

Excalibur # 14-15

Mainly, this is all just set-up. I’ve pretty much ignored the whole Zanzibar story, concentrating on the parts that were the most important – the House of M prelude work. Doctor Strange is approached by Professor X in the hopes of getting help with Wanda. They go through a series of obstacles set-up by Wanda in Professor X’s mind, but get no further with helping her.

The art is decent. I’ve been a fan of Lopresti and I’m eagerly awaiting the day when he can really blow us away. The cover to issue 15 is probably my favorite out of all House of M. The story is not bad, but gets a little slow. We get nice insights to Xavier and Magneto, though, which really was the best that the second series of Excalibur had to offer overall.

Uncanny X-Men # 462-465

When Wanda remade the world, it created a trans-temporal tsunami that spilt all of the cross-time worlds into each other. It was all going to impact our world, and come smashing in due to a breach in England. Captain Britain and Meggan were dispatched to take care of it, but when they arrived, they were swept into the new reality. Likewise, Marvel Girl and Psylocke were spared from the change-over for some reason and were swept into it. While Brian deals with this unknown mission that he seems to not really remember, the gang is brought in to track down a rogue Mutant that has Magneto’s genetic signature. Turns out it’s Nocturne, who conveniently leads them to the breach. The mission now known to Brian, he attempts to seal the breach, but can’t. Meggan does and “dies.”

The story kinda goes on and on until it rushes itself to conclusion. It’s not that great. The art shift from Alan Davis to Chris Bachelo is harsh. The sacrifice of Meggan was nicely done, though. Everything was just kinda blah.

Spider-Man: House of M

Here we have Peter Parker living his dream life. Married to Gwen Stacy, with a little boy named Richie. Ben, May, and George are all alive. He’s making movies with MJ and is super-popular. J. Jonah Jameson is his bitch. Rhino is his bodyguard. But Peter begins to screw over his whole life by giving Jameson his old journal that contains his old life. Everything comes tumbling down for Peter until he eventually pretends to kill himself to save human/Mutant relations.

Bah, that’s a terrible description, but basically, this is nicely done, emotionally complex story by Mark Waid. It’s a highlight of House of M, despite it being a hard fit with the rest of the over House of M crossover. The art is good, but the coloring is rather spotty.

Iron Man: House of M

Hank Pym has found a way to kill Mutants with a biologically bomb. While Tony straddles the line of Mutant/human relations and dresses up in an Iron Man costume with Johnny Storm, Howard Stark is a jerk to him, trying to target Magneto. It ends with a bunch of people in robot suits saving Mutants.

This is not good. The art is decent . . . except for anyone not a robot. The writing is hackneyed and lacks any sort of insight or energy. It’s basically about Iron Man in House of M, drinking, being jerked around by his Dad, and flying around as Iron Man. There are two or three shining moments, but nothing great.

Fantastic Four: House of M

Doctor Doom, ruler of Latveria, is sick of being at Magneto’s beck and call – and so is his mother. So, with his Fearsome Four, Doom uses an opportunity given to him by Magneto to create an extra-dimensional prison to stop his rival. He succeeds, but Ben “It” Grimm rebels, releases Magneto and the gang, who promptly kill all but Doom – and makes his Mom beg to take her away from Doom.

This is another House of M highlight. Doom’s role in the House of M is great. He’s like his 616 counter-part, expect pissed at Magneto instead of Richards. It’s great. The Fearsome Four are a nice evil compliment to their goody-goody two-shows counter-parts. The art is nice and simple, too, offering nothing but support for such a fine read.

Hulk # 83-86

The Hulk and AIM overthrow Exodus and his anti-human government on Australia. Then, AIM starts to build an anti-Mutant army of cyborgs. Hulk smashes, Banner rules.

This was a fun one; yet another great story from House of M. The scenes with Gateway added nice introspection and insight into the Hulk/Banner. The battles were nice and action-packed. The pacing was good, the art was fantastic and there was just enough drama and comedy to keep it all popping. Kudos on this one.

Black Panther # 7

Black Panther and Magneto aren’t seeing eye-to-eye. After an attempted alliance fails with the other kingdoms for T’Challa and Sabretooth is sent back to Magneto, head only, Apocalypse is brought in . . . only to be defeated by Black Bolt.

It’s an interesting premise, but generally fails to take itself seriously. By the time Namor shouts “You’ve grown gills!” and Shanna and Monica start fighting, the whole story just falls apart. The art is too flaky and sketchy. And Apocalypse does say “old-school.”

Cable and Deadpool # 17

Deadpool returns to 616 thinking it’s an alternate reality in the hopes of retrieving Cable – who is now a baby under the care of Mr. Sinister. Eventually, Cable – because he is so powerful – defeats Sinister and Deadpool takes him back “home” . . . which is really . . . yeah.

Okay, see this is funny because it’s supposed to be funny. Deadpool is a funny character. I can take this seriously even though it is tongue-in-cheek. The story in it of itself isn’t much to offer either the characters or the overall House of M storyline, but it’s enjoyable all the same.

Thunderbolts # 11

I don’t quite understand this story. Some stuff happens. Captain Marvel kinda half-shows everyone what’s happening. Yeah. That’s it.

Captain America # 10

At a party honoring his first moon walk, an aged Captain America looks back upon his life and career, which eventually completely fell apart.

Another great book here. It’s adds a nice sense of texture and history of the recreated Marvel Universe. I like Caps’ POV of the entire rise of Magneto and whatnot. Very well done

The Pulse # 10

Kat Farrell tries to find a story in a SHIELD operation, only to come across Hawkeye – who is dazed and confused because he was dead and now is quite alive. He confronts Kat, talks to her about whatnot, then blows the crap outta this Sentinel monument.

This is a nice piece, working well to compliment the main series, while at the same time telling a decent character piece. Hawkeye’s irrational behavior and emotional confusion fits in very realistically to him being up and alive after a trusted and loved friend/teammate killed him.

New X-Men # 16-19

There seems to be some competition between the New Mutants Institute and the SHIELDS’ Hellions training units. Despite this, the blah blah blah.

I’m not impressed with this story at all. Again, it suffers from the same problems that has plagued it since it’s inception. There are too many characters and too much going on for me to invest my time and energy. The characters are lacking here, just basically carbon-copies of their 616 counter-parts – except for the ones that are the clichéd “We’re best friends really, but in this reality, we hate each other” characterization.

Exiles # 69-71

The Exiles seek to return Beak to his home-Earth (616, which is currently the House of M), only to find, well . . . duh. Here, Angel is a hawt model and Beak pines for her. However, when Proteus goes after Angel, Beak and the Exiles are drawn in. Eventually, Proteus and the Exiles manage to leave the reality while Beak and Angel face a re-shaping reality.

This was a pretty decent story. The Exiles questioning whether or not they should change the House of M is nicely handled, as well as Blink’s comparison with it and the Age of Apocalypse. Proteus is a neat villain and seeing Moira again is pleasant. Overall, a good comic.

Wolverine # 33-35

Wolverine has gone nuts and Shaw brings his girlfriend Mystique in for questioning. We’re quickly showed a flashback to a botched mission a few weeks ago that allowed Wolverine to have fuel to continue on – a feud with Nick Fury.

I found this story confusing, boring, and overall inconsequential. The journey down memory lane is nice in an alternate reality, but in this case, it’s just a big misfire. No thanks.

Mutopia # 1-4

What we have is police officer Izzy Ortega, who during a gig protecting mogul Daniel Kaufman, ends up hooking up with Kaufman’s wife, Laura. Meanwhile, Ortega’s home life sucks as his daughter hasn’t turned into a Mutant yet and his wife comes off as having a problem with that. Izzy is offended and when the affair comes to life . . . well, yeah, the shit hits the fan. Plus, there’s this terrorist after Izzy. It all culminates at this place called Mutopia, where Izzy and his wife hope that Mr. M will activate his daughter’s powers. The terrorist – now working for Kaufman – goes in to shoot Izzy, misses, and hits the newly transformed daughter. Then the House of M ends.

At some point, I plan on picking up all of “District X” and thus appreciate this story a little more. Overall, it’s good. It adds a lot of ground-level texture to House of M. The characters are all very well-realized. A good book.

House of M

Ah, and here we are.

The X-Men and the Avengers gather at Avengers Tower to discuss the fate of Wanda Maximoff. Killing her is even brought up. Quicksilver goes to Genosha to talk to his father about Wanda, only to find him unable and unwilling to do anything. The X-Men and the Avengers go to Genosha themselves to deal with the problem. Shortly after arriving, the world gets turned upside down with everyone living out their dreams. And there is the flaw in the world. Wolverine, who gets all his memories back, ends up with the memories of what really happened. He abandons the SHIELD helicarrier and eventually hooks up with Luke Cage and his gang, who have been told by Layla Millar about the real world. With them is Hawkeye. This group then goes after Emma Frost and Cyclops, then collects She-Hulk, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Sentry, Doctor Strange, and a bunch of others and again goes to Genosha to crash Magneto’s birthday bash. Once there, everyone takes care of the guests (many of them friends) while Doctor Strange confronts Wanda. After it’s discovered that it was Quicksilver that told Wanda to make this world and not Magneto, Magneto goes after Quicksilver. Wanda stops him and turns the world right – except for that key phrase “No more Mutants.” The world goes back to normal with 98% less Mutants.

I remember reading this the first time and finding it to be good, if not far too drawn out. However, now that the story is done and the issues have been sitting around waiting for me, I’ve found it’s a much stronger as a whole. Bendis delivers a strong story here, one that really reaches out and impacts the overall Marvel Universe – but still has strong characterization. I found the House of M reality very interesting and nicely detailed. For all the criticism Bendis gets about characterization, he really nails a lot of the characters well here. Spider-Man’s angst over what this new world/new life means to him. Cyclops stepping up and taking command, with Emma Frost by his side. Even characters like Doctor Strange are very well portrayed.

Quicksilver, Magneto, and Wanda are all very good here. Wanda especially comes off as very sympathetic and much more interesting a character than she did in “Disassembled.” In an overall sense, the Maximoff family is constantly self-destructing. We consistently see these three characters crash into each other. Scarlet Witch is almost as always the victim, Quicksilver is the trouble maker with all the father issues, and Magneto is the one looking to take advantage of it and often times lashing out at his son. It’s no different here. In fact, the best scene in this crossover is the emotional confrontation between Pietro and his father. It’s raw and emotional and quite effective.

There are few other nuggets out there. I really liked Spider-Woman’s comments that this may just be how Mutantkind is supposed to rise to power and take its place at the top of the evolutionary food chain. Layla Millar is a fun character, though a little convenient.

For all the Bendis love, though, there are some problems here. First of all, wouldn’t it have been simpler to take the sample of the Mutant cure and give it Wanda, effectively shutting down her Mutant powers? Sure, Magneto might have a problem with that, but it’s the X-Men and the Avengers. They can handle him while someone pokes her with it real quick. Unfortunately, it’s not even mentioned.

Secondly, this is billed as Avengers/X-Men crossover, when really, it’s more like “The X-Men guest-starring the New Avengers.” The Avengers have a role, but in a way, it’s kinda like they’re passing the Wanda problem off the X-Men and then just sticking around and hanging out. In fact, there’s more impact in this story for the X-Men then the Avengers, which I know irks Avengers fans as it made the ending seem rather flat to them.

Finally, I liked Hawkeye role in the “you killed me, brought me back yadda yadda yadda” character position, but it was rendered ineffective. We don’t see him fully return for what, a year? It’s pointless. I would have rather seen Hawkeye pop back up at the end, say “I need a vacation” and run off. It would have made the tie to Avengers a lot stronger and would have been better in the long run.

Now, as for the art, this book is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. The designs, the facial expressions, the lay-out, the colors . . . everything.

As an overall, House of M is a little mixed. There are some nice golden stories, but some stinkers too. It had a nice, strong impact on the Marvel Universe – which is odd, as it is basically an alternate reality tale.

Next up: Decimation!

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 132: "Another Year Ends"

2007-10-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Uncanny X-Men # 460 (2^nd half) – 461, X-Men # 175, Black Panther # 8, X-Men # 176, Black Panther # 9, New X-Men # 14-15, New X-Men: Yearbook Special

Well, it’s the end of Xavier’s second school year with an entire Mutant student body. And what drama is abound!

Firstly, Juggernaut and Nocturne show back up after being deposited in the Mojoverse. Mojo and Spiral follow, turn the X-Men into the X-Babies and chase them around with lawyer versions of the Exiles. Juggernaut gets weepy over fish-boy and eventually, they all win out. Yay.

After this, the X-Men head to Niganda, which boarders Wakanda. There, the X-Men and Storm are confronted by Mutant animals created by the vile Doctor Paine. The Red Ghost gets involved and Paine teams up with the X-Men and Black Panther to take down the Red Ghost and his evil monkeys that nearly kill everyone. In the end, all is defeated and Storm decides to remain in Africa.

Finally, back at the school, the year is winding down and the New Mutants squad is fracturing. Turns out that Josh’s relationship with Rahne came out and Rahne has gone running off to X-Factor. Josh’s love interest in Laurie has run off, using her powers on David as revenge. Meanwhile, David is staying away from Nori because he’s afraid of her going BOOM due to a quasi-vision he had of the future. And Jay is just kinda there, with Sophia and Julian having the hots for each other and Kevin just watching from afar. Oh, what teenage angst webs we weave! The drama reaches its high point at the Prom, and then both the Hellions and the New Mutants must team-up to save Prize Giving Day from the Blob. Afterwards, the New Mutants head to the lake for a campfire, where they reconcile their differences. It’s a wonderful ending.

It’s all pretty poor. The X-Babies were funny twice, and have been a worn-out joke since. And I don’t like Mojo. He’s not even very funny here.

As for “Wild Kingdom,” it was just too silly to be taken seriously. Really, the Red Ghost? Doctor Paine? I mean, kudos on bringing Storm to Africa and giving her some well-deserved development, but seriously, did we need a mini-crossover to do that?

Lastly, the New Mutants just kinda shot itself in the leg. It suffers from the same problems it always had – too broad a net; too many characters, too many relationships, and just generally too much. Thanks, but no thanks. I like that it all ended on a high note and considering what happens to them all next, it’s pretty bittersweet.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 131: "Golgotha"

2007-10-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

X-Men # 166-174

Note: Just putting this out there. From here on out, expect up-dates to come weekly, usually Sundays or Mondays. I'm as of now back-logging, so there will certainly be up-dates every week. This is done so that current storylines are caught up by the time we get to them. Thanks!

Well, first off, the X-Men are confronted by strange, fungus-like aliens who feed off people's inner demons, sparking 24 hours of craziness before the alien break out of their shell and head somewhere else. After messing around in the Antartic, Calvary, and LA, the X-Men face down the alien at the mansion. Emma faces aging; Gambit and Rogue struggle with their lack of touch - culminating with a shared kiss between Rogue and Wolverine; and Alex, Lorna, and Bobby act like high schoolers. In the end, the team heads into space and destroys a whole fleet of them. During this, Lorna claims to have 'seen something.'

After this, the X-Men get a new student in the form of the sexual Foxx, who joins Gambit's group. She flirts with Gambit, hitting on him and wanting him, which furthers the wedge between he and Rogue and causing all sorts of problem with his group. It's then revealed that it's really Mystique, who is making sure Gambit is right for her and not just another floozy to him. She even offers herself up to Gambit, looking like Rogue. When everyone else finds out, Rogue asks to join the team. As the senior X-Men vote, Nightcrawler confronts his mother and asks her to leave so he can "wrap his head" around the idea of her being an X-Man. Mystique takes off even after the X-Men are prepared to offer her a probationary place with the team.

We've entered into Milligan's run here and it's definetly a strange one in comparison to other X-Men runs. The threat of Golgotha and Foxx are almost non-existent compared to the drama that has overcome the characters. Milligan has taken to treating the Lorna/Bobby/Alex love triangle like it's something straight out of the 10th grade. The dialogue is pretty immature. Granted, none of these characters are in the best place, but still . . .

Rogue and Gambit get a better treatment, with their relationship going from cute (the space-suit kiss was adorable) to pure self-destruction. The touching thing was not as much of an issue during the "will-they/won't-they" part of their relationship, as the issue back then was if they can trust each other. However, now that they've gotten together and Rogue's powers are back in full, where does this leave their future? Milligan does a good job here, and we see the little things about Rogue and Gambit's relationship come out. Sleeping in the same room, telepathic attempts at being intimate. It doesn't compeletely work out, but it's far more than just "I can't touch you! Wahhh!"

And of course, there's always the trust issue, which comes back here with the temptations of Foxx/Mystique. Rogue is a little firery and quick to blame considering that she had just locked lips with Wolverine. Milligan seems to forget that pretty quickly.

And she also has new fire powers.

It's not a bad start and certainly a lot better than Austen's work . . . even if it does feel shallow at times.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 130: "Phoenix Endsong"

2007-10-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

X-Men: Phoenix Endsong # 1-5

Basically, what we have here, is a bunch of Shi'ar decide to bring back the Phoenix so they can destroy it. The Phoenix survives the Shi'ar's attack and heads to Earth, where it accidently wakes up Kid Omega, then tries to get to Scott to feed off his optic blasts -- and to love him like it did when it was Jean.

The Phoenix eventually revives Jean's body. The X-Men chase after her while Kid Omega emerges, pulls up Sophie's corpse, and wants the Phoenix to bring her back to life. Jean "kills" herself and the Phoenix joins with Emma Frost. Phoenix revives Sophie, who promptly rejects Kid Omega. Jean emeges then and pulls the Phoenix out of Emma and into her. She then has a chance to say good bye to all of her loved ones and dies again.

There's something odd about this story. It comes off very much like a swansong for Morrison's run. I'm a little surprised to see it, to be honest. The Phoenix was pretty much dealt with. Kid Omega was done. The Shi'ar hate the Earth. There wasn't much point to this story other than to run around with Morrison's toys.

However, despite the lack of necessity for this story, it's enjoyable. It's sentimental. Jean/Phoenix are both very well-written. Scott really shines through as someone who has control over his actions, despite the fact that he's struggling between his wife and his girlfriend. He's probably the best portrayed here; very well-rounded and aware. His relationship with Emma is shone is a great light, making it seem more than just simply "we're having sex" -- which is what it came across as for a while.

I have to question just why the Shi'ar brought the Phoenix back when it was already dead? It's a confusing point. Wouldn't that be like resurrecting Hitler just to kill him again? Whatever.

The art is quite beautiful, though from what I've heard about Greg Land, I'm not sure if I can trust it. The Phoenix effect - while tired at this point - is really quite awesome-looking in here. And he does do great facial expressions.

Ultimately, it's an enjoyable book. I wish there was more of a point to it, but it's a good farewell to Jean. Again.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 129: "Enemy of the State"

2007-09-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

Wolverine # 20-32

The son of Mariko's cousin Ichiro is kidnapped by mobsters supposedly, leading Logan to step in and make the drop-off. However, Wolverine is attacked by the Hand, "killed" by the Mutant cult leader Gorgon, and brainwashed by Hydra into becoming a super-agent.

Wolverine then goes on a rampage, tearing through the Hellicarrier, busting through the Baxter Building and eventually faces off with Daredevil . . . leading to the capture of Elektra, who was tracking him. Eventually, Wolverine breaks into the heavily secured Xavier Insitute, grabs Marvel Girl and forces her to use Cerebra to kill the President. Rachel manages to disarm Wolverine and the X-Men, SHIELD, Iron Man, and Captain America chase him into the woods. Wolverine goes off to kill Kitty, but she phases and Northstar gets the kill. The rest of the group intercept him, with Captain America giving the final blow.

SHIELD cleans Wolverine out while Hydra/the Hand/Dawn of the White Light (Mutant cult) go after super-people. They bring down the Hellicarrier and afterwards, Wolverine promises Ichiro's family that he'll find their son's body. Wolverine confronts the now-ressurected and brainwashed Northstar, is captured, then rescued by Sentinels. He takes Northstar in, then goes after the Hand, where he finds out that Elektra was working deep undercover when she returned to the Hand. Eventually, Gorgon goes after Nick Fury, but Wolverine takes him. Gorgon accidently uses his own power on himself, gets turned into stone/sand/whathaveyou and is defeated. Wolverine then tracks down the body of the boy.

The summary I've just given is pretty poor when compared to the actual story. I've obviously read a a lot of Wolverine stories, but this one . . . is probably among the best, if not the best. Wolverine is perfect here - feral, honorable, funny. He's brillantly written, captured so perfectly. The internal dialogue is very well done, really showing the struggle he's going through.

The plot itself is rather simple, but I like it. Really, with so many super-people out there, why wouldn't the Hand and Hydra want to bring them over to their side?

In terms of pacing and action, it's all rather great.

John Romita Jr.'s art is pretty good, though at times, his background characters just don't look that great. For example, all of the students at Xavier's school look like they're preteens, when in fact, most of them are teenagers. It's distracting. However, Romita is spot on when it comes to catching the action and the suspense of the whole adventure.

Millar's a genius.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 128: "Disassembled"

2007-09-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

X-Men # 165, Excalibur # 5-7, Avengers # 500-504, Excalibur # 8-11 (first half)

The X-Men celebrate Christmas by rescuing a family in a insane car wreck, teaching X-23 to not be crazy, and giving Gambit his eyesight back.

Over on Genosha, the target and Professor X/Magneto’s groupies are ambushed by pirates looking to take what they can from the island. Hired by Unus and his thugs, they are all then attacked by none other than Dark Beast. Eventually, Dark Beast is overwhelmed and taken into custody.

In NYC, the Avengers are attacked by insane threats. An exploding Jack O’Hearts; a hidden Ultron command within the Vision; Iron Man getting drunk for no reason; She-Hulk, er, Hulks out; the Kree attack. It’s a very devastating attack and brings about the deaths of Hawkeye, the Vision, and Ant-Man. Eventually, with a full load of Avengers and with the help of Doctor Strange, the Avengers discover that it’s the Scarlet Witch behind all this. Turns out she remembered she had kids and went crazy. There’s a confrontation, in which the Scarlet Witch is left comatose afterwards.

Magneto then comes to her rescue and uses a wormhole to take her back to Genosha. As he does this, Callisto, Dark Beast, and Omega Sentinel contend with the Sugar Man over a hidden vault of supplies. Magneto brings the Scarlet Witch to Xavier and practically begs him to help her.

There’s a lot of controversy in regards to “Disassembled,” and despite it being an Avengers story, the ramifications it has in the X-Universe are quite important to the mythos. So, saying that, we’re going to take a good look at the good and the bad of this story, then move on to the Excalibur issues.

First of all, the positive. In terms of style, it’s usual Bendis, which people generally love or hate. Beyond that, the script is pretty strong. There’s great work in terms of pacing and structure. Nice and subtle reliance on facial expressions here, which adds to the unfolding drama. I like that the Scarlet Witch was the culprit. I like that she was the one responsible – but not because she’s evil, but because she’s unwell.

Now, that being said . . .

Wanda here is presented as nothing more than a plot point. She basically goes crazy and blows up the Avengers because she feels like it. It’s silly. There’s no subtly, no real reason. From what I understand (though I’m not 100% sure because I don’t have the issue), the whole “babies are a secret” thing is a continuity problem because apparently, she already knew about them. And just a few choice words from Jan unravels her completely? It just doesn’t work. It’s like going from Point A to Point E in one leap. Sure, you get there, but you skip a lot of points on the way.

The Avengers themselves are portrayed as fairly unprofessional. This really comes across during a scene in front of the hospital. No one talks like that and it’s all really far fetched, even for a Bendis book. Now, certain characters shine through, like Cap and even Hawkeye, but for the most part, the book fails itself in regards to characterization.

I have to really ask this of Marvel: was this story necessary? Now, I like “New Avengers” and “Mighty Avengers” and a lot of what came after this, but was “Disassembled” really a story that had to be told like this? The Avengers betrayed? Not original. The betrayal tearing the team apart? Doesn’t seem likely. Never had before. Tony Stark out of money? Ugh.

See, the whole story just kinda sucks. It’s depressing. And overly so. I can certainly handle the death of Ant-Man. The “death” of the Vision feels . . . wrong. And Hawkeye’s was laughable. The whole Ant-Man/Jack Of Harts thing was enough to drive home the emotional point. The others were too much.

Finch’s art is mediocre with spurts of good and bad. I’m actually a big fan of Finch, as he can really churn out great works of detail and scope. There’s one particular shot of Doctor Strange during his battle with Scarlet Witch that is just awesome. That being said, the scene where all of the Avengers are assembled is very generic, with everyone looking like everyone else.

Overall, “Disassembled” gets more things wrong than it gets right. It should have been developed more and there should have been a stronger effort to not alienate older fans, who are rightly pissed off by this story. Bendis tore down the house so he could rebuild it; but he did so in a way that just wasn’t quite right.

Now, over in “Excalibur” . . .

It’s nothing out of the ordinary, really. I wish we had more time spent on the actual rebuilding of Genosha and getting things down rather than regular ol’ super-heroics. The addition of Dark Beast is an interesting move, but certainly not unwelcome. Same goes for dealing with the Sugar Man (at long last). The pirates and the Trolls were pretty stupid, though.

Strong moments from Xavier and Magneto, I must note. Great characterization . . . however, I find myself shaking my head at certain moments. Half the time, Magneto just doesn’t like Magneto. He’s so limp and blah. I don’t want him batshit crazy, like the Xorn imposter, but let’s make him a little more imposing.

And why not just having Magneto reveal himself to Unus’ gang? Wouldn’t that solve the “we hate each other” problem?

There’s the usual Claremont clichés, but there are some nice moments of insight that are appreciated. Art isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s far from bad.

The X-Men Christmas story is just waaaaay too happy for it’s own good.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 127: "Danger"

2007-09-18T06:17:00.000-07:00

Astonishing X-Men # 7-12

The X-Men, out to continue to make their reputation a positive one, team up with the Fantastic Four to tackle a huge monster in NYC. Meanwhile, a cured Mutant by the name of Wing commits suicide in the Danger Room. When a defunct Sentinel attacks the school, Kitty herds the kids into the Danger Room . . . where they find Wing's dead body. Trapped within the Danger Room, Kitty learns that the Danger Room has come alive.

Eventually, the Danger Room (now calling itself Danger) takes a humanoid form and pretty much massacres the X-Men, then heads to Genosha to confront the Professor. The Professor manages to take her down, but it activates one of the dormant Sentinels and it attacks the restored (by Elixer) X-Men. Kitty shows the Sentinel what exactly it did on Genosha. The Sentinel, now having an AI, can't deal with it and leaves the Earth. Danger is defeated, but it's revealed that the Professor knew that Danger existed, and yet "ignored" her and continued to use her in the Danger Room.

And in the end - we learn that Emma Frost is reporting to a new Hellfire Club consisting of Shaw, Cassandra Nova, a hooded figure, and one of her students on Genosha.

Again, this story isn't very original. Danger reminds me a lot of a more emotional Cerebro. We have Emma reporting to the Hellfire Club. We have word of a mole within the team. The X-Men have lost a little more faith in Professor X. It's nothing new, I'm sorry to say.

Now, again, that's not to say it isn't told well. Incredibly well, really. Pacing, art, dialogue . . . it's all really great. I just wish there was more to the substance than there was to the flash.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 126: "Choosing Sides"

2007-09-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

New X-Men # 1-6

It’s a new semester and the kids are getting back in the game. First up, after some fretting, the school is divided into teams with advisors: Alpha Squad (Northstar), Corsairs (Cyclops), Hellions (Emma Frost), New Mutants (Dani Moonstar), Paragones (Wolfsbane), and a pair of unnamed squads – one under Gambit and one under Rogue. There might be more and I’ll point you over Uncanny X-Men.net for more info.

Anyways, there’s still a rivalry between the New Mutants and the Hellions. This overflows into the Field Day exercise, which brings about more tension between the team because the Hellions manage to win it. After that, there’s the returned Kevin Ford. At first, he’s all about the New Mutants, but when the FBI come calling and Dani thinks it’s best if he goes with them, the Hellions are the ones that step up. Eventually, the FBI let him go and because he’s pissed at Dani and the New Mutants, he joins the Hellions, allowing Jay Guthrie to take his place.

I’ve had, for the longest time, an issue with “New X-Men” and really wasn’t until this reading that I realized just what it was that bothered me so much. Now I know. I don’t really like this book. Don’t yell at me, yet, please.

First of all, let’s address what I generally do like about this book. I like the characters. I like David, Josh, Laurie, Sophia, and Kevin. I even like Julian and Santo. Dani and Shan do well with me here. Scott comes across nicely, breaking from the stern and stiff mold and being supportive and reasonable. I appreciate the scope of the series too, but that’s where the problem lies . . .

There’s simply too much going on here. And beyond that, the focus isn’t in the right place. Concepts and goings on in this series thus far? Okay, well . . .

Laurie is crushing hard on Josh, who is making out with Rhane (who is a teacher) in his spare time. Meanwhile, David and Nori might have a crush on each other. Nori doesn’t like her roommate, Dust, because Dust thinks that Nori dresses like a slut (basically). Nori works at the Grindhouse coffee shop, whose boss has a thing for Shan. Julian has a thing for Sophia, even though they are on separate teams. There’s also Cessily, who has a thing for Kevin, despite being on separate teams (though Kevin heads over there soon). Then there’s Jay, who has post-Austen angst. So there are two teams – the New Mutants and the Hellions – whose rivalry stretches even to the team advisors, Dani and Emma.

And on top of all this, there’s also the fact that these characters are in school and have to do school things and training with powers things.

It’s just too much. What I want out of this series is for it to be about a group of teenagers attending – basically – X-Men school. “Mutant High,” y’know? We don’t get that. We get Drama City, which makes things messy and ugly. The characters are not very unique and we don’t spend much time understanding them. They’re good characters, but they simply don’t fulfill their potential. There’s no depth given to them and in the rare moments there is, it’s brief and we get into mediocre relationship stories.

Had the writers focused more on one tight group of characters as they made their way through “Mutant High,” this would have been a stronger book. Even bringing the rival characters in the Hellions would have worked better. Rivals in class, rivals outside. Instead, it’s a messy, tangled web of characters and crushes that are just too complicated for me to care about . . .

And the art is pretty bland too.

~W~

Intermission: Just a Few Things

2007-09-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hello Interweb land! It's me, thew40!

I'm pausing in my reading/reviewing for just a moment to put a few things out there.

First of all . . . how many people read this thing? I'm aware of three (a fellow blogger, a guy who commented, and someone from the Avengers Assemble! boards), but who else is out there? I'm not begging of course, but I'm just curious and wouldn't mind some feedback.

Secondly, I need to make mention of a couple of issues/problems this blog could be facing down the line. The biggest one of all is the fact that we are slowly but surely catching up the regular MU. By my calculations, I'll be up to speed by the time the current "Endangered Species" story concludes at the end of November. Now, that being said, here's the issue we have . . .

The "Onslaught Reborn" mini-series suffered a major delay. Even though there is one more issue to come out, I have no idea when it'll be. This may mess us up a bit.

Then there's the current story in "Astonishing X-Men," which is hard to place continunity-wise, as well as needing 2-3 more issues until it wraps up. This is major problem. What I may end up doing is reserving a number for it and then, when the last of it comes out, go back and retroactively post the review. What does everyone think of that?

As far as the frequency of up-dates go, I can't promise anything. I'm working, I'm going to school, and I'm planning my wedding. Life is busy and sometimes comics need to take a back seat. But I'll do my best, dang it!

Okay, well, back to the show . . .

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 125: "Gifted"

2007-09-04T05:51:00.000-07:00

Astonishing X-Men # 1-6

Kitty rejoins the X-Men just as the new year starts. Scott has decided that his team (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Kitty, Wolverine, and Beast) are coming to be the more public/super-hero face of the X-Men. This becomes quite true when an alien named Ord leads a group of mercenaries and takes hostages. As the X-Men intervine (and are rescued by Lockheed), Dr. Kavita Rao of Benetech announces a "cure" for Mutants.

The X-Men regroup at home as Hank gets a sample of the cure. He cross-references it and discovers that it matches up with someone in their database. The X-Men head back to Benetech, where the team handles security; meanwhile, Ord (who is an ally of Dr. Rao and provided her with the research to create the cure) heads to the school and encounters students Wing and Armor. He "cures" Wing as a warning to the X-Men, then heads back to Benetech.

Kitty, in the meantime, explores beneath Benetech and discovers a starship below . . . and an alive and well Colossus. She takes him back up to the surface, where he beats down on Ord before SHIELD and Agent Brand of SWORD (an organization that keeps an eye on other planets) shows up and tells the X-Men Ord has diplomatic immunity. Turns out Ord's planet of Breakworld is destined to be destroyed by one of the X-Men. Instead of wiping out the Earth, Ord made a deal with SWORD and gave Rao the means to create a cure to use against Mutants. Colossus was taken as a test.

Ord decides to take off and wage war against the Earth, but Wolverine and Colossus manage to stop him by using the old "Fastball Special." Ord is then taken into custody.

Joss Whedon is the new writer (obviously) and does a pretty good job at handling the team. The characters are well-realized, the dialogue is smart, the story has a good pace to it, and he does a good job at capturing nostalgia.

The story itself isn't anything new, though. An X-Man is destined to do something terrible isn't anything new, as we saw something similar with the whole "traitor" subplot back in the 90s. The idea of Mutant cure isn't exactly a new one either, as we've had two cases of it (that I know of). The return of a dead X-Man (Colossus) is far from new.

But it's the style in which all this comes back that makes it fresh and crisp. Honestly, if you had told me that basics of this story a year before I actually read it (the first time), I would have rolled my eyes. Yet, reading it, the story jumps out with a great energy and pace that just draws me right in.

The art is what really helps make the difference. John Cassaday's work here is amazing. His action scenes leave a little to desired, but other than that, he really captures the heart of the characters and produces a damn fine product.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 124: "The New Age"

2007-08-31T21:24:00.001-07:00

X-Men Unlimited # 11, Uncanny X-Men # 444-459

A gaggle of books. We'll break down by arcs.

X-Men Unlimited # 11
Alex and Rachel have dinner together, where they try and figure out Emma and Scott's relationship.

The End of History
The X-Men (this team comprised of Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Bishop, Sage, Cannonbal, and Marvel Girl) launch the XSE initiative. Wolverine and Nightcrawler have trouble in Washington while some of the others fight off a group called the Weaponeers of Al-Khalad. Meanwhile, Marvel Girl, Cannonball, and Bishop end up fighting a creature from the Captain Britain comics called the Fury. The rest of the team joins in and they are eventually able to destroy the creature.

Guess Who's Back in Town
After their last little adventure, the X-Men reunite with Captain Britian and Meggan. After this, they all go off to meet with the Queen of England (because Logan, Kitty, and Rachel saved her in the past or something). Turns out, though, the Viper has kidnapped the Queen and is threatening to blow up London. However, she comes across Courtney Ross, who is interested in rising into a high level position with the Hellfire Club. She and Viper join forces and England is spared.

X-23
Back in New York, the X-Men encounter a female, teenaged Wolverine named simply X-23. She's a hothead like Logan and is brought in from District X to the X-Men.

Chasing Hellfire
The X-Men investigate the recent return of Sage to the Hellfire Club and bring Emma Frost along for the ride. While Rachel and Emma face off in a high-stakes game with Ross and Viper (with Selene tagging along - and ultimately defeated Rachel), the rest of the X-Men get caught up with Sebastian Shaw and the newly-reinstated Hellfire Club leader Sunspot. Pierce joins in and attacks, wounding Shaw. Sage - who defected to the Hellfire Club to help manuever Sunspot into a better position to change the group - remains to guide Sunspot's now commanding hand.

World's End
Psylocke, out of nowhere, reappears alive in Spain. The X-Men respond, trying to unravel the mystery, but are called down the Savage Land by Wolverine and X-23. Once there, the gang is drawn into a class conflict that brings in the Mutates and the Ka-Zar. You know. The usual Savage Land stuff.

First off, great art all the way around. Alan Davis, Coipel, and Park all do a great job of projecting some incredible scenes. Well done.

However . . .

The stories aren't that great. There are moments. Whenever Claremont focuses on the Mutant/human conflict, he does a solid job. We luckily get plenty of these - even inside the Institute.

The Hellfire Club stories feel like they're just set-ups for set-ups. There's not a whole lot to them. It feels like classic Claremont with the building of stories early, but with just being unable to wrap up the subplot. It also feels like Kelly/Seagle - stories that start, but don't see an ending.

The Fury story is pretty good for a straight-up super-hero adventure. I don't quite understand the characters, but I can live with it. X-23 is merely the entrance of a character of some questionable interest for me. It's enough to wonder a bit about her, but not enough for me to completely care.

The Savage Land story is pretty typical Savage Land. There's trouble. The Mutates are involved somehow. Ka-Zar gets involved. A fight ensues.

Psylocke's return . . . again, this is Claremont. He's thinking ten steps ahead. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work here. Esspecially in terms of the Hellfire Club. While things do eventually get resolved with Psylocke, the Hellfire Club just kinda peters out. Which sucks, because I actually felt like there was going to be a great story there.

I'll say this, though. The characterizations are just fantastic. Storm is very well defined - emotional, but in control. Nightcrawler is loveable again. Bringing Rachel back was probably among Claremont's best ideas since his return to the X-Universe in 200x.

There's a great moment with Wolverine and Nightcrawler, where they're sitting in a cafe in France, drinking coffee. It's one of those great character moments Claremont nailed back in the day and had left out in recent years. It's one of those moments that miss the most.

It's a mixed here, to be honest. Good art and fine characterization try and make up for lackluster and, at times, unfortutely pointless stories.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 123: "Day of the Atom"

2007-08-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

X-Men # 157-164

(Side-Note: There's - again - a continunity problem here. So, therefore, I'm declaring that the adventures in this entry as well the next one both occur during the summer break. The students present at the rebuild Insitute are staying over the summer)

The X-Men are rebuilding after all the recent losses. The teams are reassigned and reorganized. Havok's team now consists of Polaris, Iceman, Juggernaut, Rogue, and Gambit. When trouble arises in China, the team heads over to see what the issue is. Turns out Xorn is there. Another Xorn. Xorn Jr. Or something. Anyways, he's killed a bunch of people with his black hole head. The X-Men try and retrieve him, only to be intercepted by a team called the Eight Immortals. A tussel follows, in which Gambit is blinded. Then, the whole gang is attacked by a Madrox-like group named the Collective. Well, in the end, the X-Men take Xorn Jr. back home.

Then, the X-Men fight with a new Brotherhood, this one consisting of Exodus, Sabretooth, Nocturne, Black Tom, Avalanche, and an elephant named Mammomax. With a fear of this new team attacking the mansion, Alex advises Annie that she should get somewhere safe. Annie, upset about something stupid, decides to just up and leave. Even a chat with Northstar doesn't stop her. Meanwhile, Sammy Pare discovers Juggernaut is working with the Brotherhood as their mole. Jugg's even proves this when he "attacks" Nocturne (though he really let's her get away). Sammy is pissed at Juggernaut, prompting Black Tom to kill squidboy. The X-Men and the Brotherhood then fight at the school. The battle ends with Xorn Jr. opening his mask and pulling Exodus, Avalanche, and Mammox into his black hole head - along with Juggernaut and Nocturne, who ended up helping the X-Men. Xorn Jr. then leaves and it turns out that Carter has an evil invisible friend.

Exit stage left, Mr. Austen.

Well, okay, I'll grant him this. These stories aren't too terrible. They're far from great, but they're spared the usual lack of Austen illogic, which helps. It's pretty much straight forward super-hero action.

Definetly didn't like the take on Rogue and Gambit. Rogue gets upset with Gambit because he's angsty? Yeah, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Overall, Rogue is underused. I appreciate the parallel to Rogue being blinded back in the day by Strobe (post X-Cutioner's Song, remember?), but it doesn't quite work with Gambit. Hate the whole vision thing, too.

Polaris is characterized better, thank God. Iceman's a total jerk. Wolverine's fight with Sabretooth apparently happened all off panel. Mmmmmno. Havok and Annie were pretty much the same as always.

Juggernaut - which has been the shining light of Austen otherwise disasterous run - had a decent amount of characterization in the end, but I question why he was even a member of the Brotherhood at all. He's not a Mutant and never gave a rat's ass about Mutant rights and authority. Sorry, not buying it.

In the end, Austen took just about all of his toys with him when he left. Annie, Carter, Juggernaut, Sammy, Xorn Jr. and even Nocturne (which he dumped in 616 during his "Exiles" run) all left the series with Austen. Nocturne and Juggernaut would return later. Now, if he had only taken away the memories of Azazel and the Church of Humanity too . . .

Austen's run one of controversy. It's actually not bad in the beginning, gets a little worse, then gets really bad, then gets just stupid, then goes to an "above avegerage" status. He shook things up, that's for sure. Not all for the good. Definetly. But hey, Juggernaut had a lot of great moments. So . . . thanks for that.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 122: "War of the Programs"

2007-08-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Weapon X # 19-28

So, the new Weapon X project is kinda reformatting. Sabretooth's gone, Jackson is the new Director, and Marrow has left to form a new Gene Nation bent on destroying Weapon X. As Chamber discovers Neverland, Marrow is confronted by Agent Zero, who wipes all of Gene Nation. Agent Zero then fights Maverick and we discover the "new" Maverick is some kid from a while ago (issues I don't have) that's buds with Mav and that Agent Zero is Maverick himself.

Also, Director Colcord and Box are building an army of Sentinels.

Wolverine goes off to track down Chamber and he ends up at Neverland . . . which has been abandoned. The only clue is the word "Roanoke." Ditto goes for Maverick at the Weapon X base and Fantomex with John Sublime's empty grave. The three converge on a field, where it's revealed that Wolverine wiped out an entire town that had been sitting there as part of his intense testing.

Then, we're treated to a nice explaination regarding Weapon X and Weapon Plus. Turns out that the Weapon X Professor broke off Weapon X from the Weapon Plus Project (which was being run by John Sublime), thus all the other Weapon X creations over the years. When Director Colcord took over, he made a deal with John Sublime that they would stay out of each others way - except they would share Neverland.

Now, however, Jackson has a change of thought. The Weapon X program has gone underground and Sublime is out to find them. Or something like that. Wolverine, Fantomex, and Agent Zero fight off U-Men. Fantomex gets shot down.

Then Sabretooth is hired by a front for Weapon Plus to bring in Mr. Sinister. Eventually, there's some putzing around, but Sinister is brought in and meets Sublime. Sabretooth then joins the Brotherhood.

THE END!

Yeah.

Talk about unresolved. I know that Tieri tried to wrap things up in a mini-series, but it actually isn't very good. Really. It's not. So I'm not including that. And if I did, there would still be about ten questions left in the air.

Where is Weapon X? What happened to Chamber? Is Fantomex dead? Where is Agent Zero? What about Colcord's Sentinel army? What about Reyes?

It's frustrating because - despite the sometimes terrible dialogue - this was a pretty enjoyable book. I certainly liked it. But no sense of closure. I kinda blame Tieri for that, but in the end, it's Marvel's fault. This was a book that was still telling it's story. They can't pump out five more issues to finish that story? Really? They could have even had the X-Men proper show up.

Which they should have.

Now, in this post-Decimation and mid-Endangered Species world, we've seen the ulimate fate of Weapon X. I'll cover that when we get closer to it. Now, however, I'm just left disappointed.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 121: "Picking Up the Pieces"

2007-08-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

X-Treme X-Men # 46 (first half), New X-Men # 155-156, New Mutants # 13, X-Treme X-Men # 46 (second half), Uncanny X-Men # 442-443, Excalibur # 1-4

In Valle Soleada, the X-Treme X-Men and their pals (Kitty, Rachel, Amara, Lila, Callisto, and Roberto) learn of Magneto/Xorn's attack on New York City. Sage reactives Rogue and Gambit's powers, they grab as many willing Mutants as they can and head on out.

Back at the mansion, Scott is still unsure of how to handle things with Emma. He pretty much tells her this and she runs off to Salem Center. Scott and Beast then head down into the remains of the mansion to make sure that Cassandra Nova is still secure. A Danger Room robot then goes crazy and attacks them, but they are able to repel it. They are then summoned to the temporary X-Corporation branch in Slame Center, which is under attack by humans. Scott and Hank get there too late, as one Mutant student is killed.

Dani, Rahne, and Shan are then reunited with Sam, Bobby, and Amara. They check in on the kids, but there's trouble afoot. Pierce is back, looking to attack Josh Foley. The old New Mutants intercept him and take him down.

The reconstruction efforts still continue in New York, with the city being repaired in a quick fashion. Archangel talks with Storm and they head to Harry's Hideaway, where Storm announces the X-Men's newest status as the XSE and asks who will help shoulder it.

In Genosha, Wolverine and Professor X drop off Magneto/Xorn's body. The two bicker and ride each other about Magneto. Polaris, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver then show up and join in. It goes on and on, but ends with Polaris re-shaping the Magneto/Sentinel statue with Xavier's head on it too.

Everyone then leaves Professor X there alone with the corpse. Professor X gets some supplies out from where he had hidden them in the coffin and goes on his merry way. He encounters Unus, but is rescued by a I-can-make-ghosts mutant named Wicked and a dragon-type called Freakshow. They help him to a house near the shoreline, where Magneto shows up, alive and well.

Eventually, Callisto shows up and decides to join in on the fun. Not long after this, Magistrates attack, carrying with them two "living weapons" in the form of Shola and a Omega Sentinel (kinda like a Prime Sentinel). Professor X and Magneto save Omega Sentinel and the whole Genoshan gang fights off the Mangistrates.

It's a nice step back from the norm and makes for an interesting aftermath-like non-crossover reaction to "Planet X." It's good to see the various factions of the X-Men come back together. That being said . . . it's not very good. All of it. The continunity if funky in places. The X-Corp building is torched in one issue, but is fine in the next. It's . . . messy. There is a nice continunity moment, though, when Sam asks Dani a question off-handedly in "New Mutants" and it gets answered in "X-Treme X-Men."

The whole Magneto-is-alive thing rips a whole in "Planet X," but . . . meh. I'm glad he's back, though he and Professor X playing "The Odd Couple" on Genosha gets old.

Don't even get me started on the Chuck Austen issues . . .

And the art ranges from "okay" to "pretty bad." Even the Larocca stuff looks phoned in.

Oh well. Moving on.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 120: "Planet X"

2007-08-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

New X-Men # 134-154

Again, much like the last entry, we'll be doing various stories in one fell swoop. The reasoning is the same - these basically all form one large story.

Riot at Xavier's
The X-Men find that young Omega-level Mutant Quentin Quire is not only on the verge of a major mutation, but also that he's starting to revolt and completely question Xavier's practices and ideals. In due time and with use of the drug Kick, Quire forms his own following - the Omega Gang. On Open Day, when humans are invited to come to the school and check it out, the Omega Gang captures Professor X and launches a full-scale riot. Some die in the riot and the Stepford Cuckoo's end up stopping Quire, but at the cost of Sophie, one of their own. Quire then begins to mutate into energy while the rest of the gang are dealt with. At Prizegiving, which is the end of semiester, Professor X decides to step down after the gripping events. In addition to this, Angel is pregnant by Beak; and Emma and Scott once more begin their telepathic affair . . . only to have Jean find out.

Murder at the Mansion
After discovering the affair, Jean puts Emma through the emotional ringer by using her own memories against her. Jean eventually finds out that Scott and Emma didn't actually sleep together (neither recently nor in Hong Kong), but have been having a telepathic relationship. Scott then leaves the team and Jean storms off. Later, Emma is found shot and shattered in her diamond form. Bishop and Sage affair on the scene and begin a full investigation. As they close in on the shooter, Jean and Beast put Emma back together. Clues involving Angel's children, the supplier of the Kick drug, and Beak's "confession" eventually leads to the pair to incriminate Esme Stepford, who manages to slip and meet her "contact." However, the question remains - where is Scott Summers?

Assualt on Weapon Plus
Scott goes off to drown his sorrows at the Hellfire Club, which is a sort of neutral ground for Mutants with money. Wolverine tracks him down and the two bump into Shaw and Sabretooth while drinking and discussing why exactly Scott turned to Emma. Eventually, the pair team up with Fantomex and barge into the surreal living lab of the Weapon Plus Program, called the World, to stop both them and Weapon Fifteen. AIM gets in the way and it all goes to hell. The trio chase Weapon Fifteen to a Weapon Plus sattelite, where it's revealed that Fifteen was to be part of a public-loved, reality televised super-hero team that goes after Mutants. John Sublime is involved. As Wolverine opens files on himself and is confronted by what he finds AND Weapon Fifteen, he blows up the station.

Planet X
Professor X monitors the situation. Phoenix goes up to rescue Wolverine, only to have her ship blown up after she and Wolverine end up on an Asteroid M - which is being shot into the sun. Beast and Emma go off to save Scott and Fantomex as they crash to the surface in EVA, but crash as well. Professor X then discovers that - this whole time - Xorn has been Magneto. Magneto cripples Professor X again (as he had fused his spine using Nanosentinels) and ravages New York. He's on Kick, which is making him loopy, and Esme and the Special Class make up his new Brotherhood. As Magneto wrestles for control of the city and prepares to flip the electro-magnetic field upside down, Logan and Jean are stuck in space and headed for disaster. Logan, hoping to release the Phoenix, kills Jean. Beak finds Cyclops, Fantomex and various students in Mutant Town after being kicked out of the Brotherhood. Phoenix then emerges, rescues Hank and Emma and they join in on the attack against Magneto. Everyone questions Magneto/Xorn. In the end, he gives Jean a planetary-scale stroke, then demands to be killed so that his legacy will live on after his death. Logan gives Magneto this as Jean dies in Scott's arms.

Here Comes Tomorrow
150 years in the future, Beast is evil and is after the Phoenix Egg, which houses the slowly regenerating Jean Grey-Summers. The current X-Men (being EVA; Tom Skylar and his Sentinel named Rover; Tito, Beak's grandson; Wolverine; Cassandra Nova and Martha; and Three-in-One) go off to rescue her from him. Turns out Beast is really being possessed by John Sublime, a force of living extinction and wants to use Phoenix as a force of extermination. Jean eventually figures things out when Wolverine dies. Turns out that after she died, Scott lost all hope, rejected Emma's love, and went off on his own. Beast just couldn't carry on, gave in to Kick, and was taken over by John Sublime. To save everything, Jean gives Scott a push towards Emma, which will hopefully lead him to re-opening the school.

Whew.

Okay.

“Riot” is the best of the bunch and, really, the best of Morrison’s entire run. It’s smart and incredibly well-written. You can feel for Quire and understand all of his problems and issues. The arguments he brings up are exactly what a teenager would say. The characters are handled perfectly. There’s a fantastic amount of tension as it leads into the big event – the riot itself - and its aftermath is handled very nicely. The dialogue snaps, the pace is nice and suspenseful, and the whole story is just well-done. Combined with great art from Frank Quietly, and it’s a winner.

“Murder” is good, juts not as. It’s nicely complicated, but not overly so. It really concentrates on the character who isn’t there – the traitor, the man behind the Kick and meeting Esme. It’s almost tragic with Emma falling in love with Scott. The art is rather good here, too.

“Weapon Plus” is . . . not as good. The opening issue is fine, though. We start to understand what is wrong with Scott. After everything Apocalypse put him through, he just can’t talk to Jean about it because he feels like it would ruin her image of her. Plus, all these great things are happening and he just doesn’t want to hold her back. Hence, Emma Frost, who has no expectations and just accepts him for him. It’s sad and tragic, but there’s a great deal of realism there. Now, the whole thing afterwards with Weapon Plus is rather blah and nutty, but has some good points here and there. Bachelo’s art is, unfortunately, not one of them.

“Planet X” is pretty good. I found Logan/Jean “we’re about to die” parts better than the whole, as well as Jean’s death. My issue is Magneto. I know it’s been firmly established that this isn’t Magneto, but I want it to be. Kinda. Magneto is out-of-his-mind whacky on drugs and probably Post-Stress-Disorder. The problem is that Xorn was such a well-done character that even with all the various clues planted throughout Morrison’s run, Xorn just doesn’t seem like Magneto. Magneto seems like Magneto, just on drugs. But Xorn doesn’t. Does that make sense? Whatever the case maybe, the central idea of this story is not “Xorn is Magneto,” but that in death, ones legacy can do more than his entire life. In “Planet X,” Magneto’s cause falls apart when he reveals he’s alive. But when he was dead, it lived on nicely – even in the form of Quentin Quire.

In “Here Comes Tomorrow,” it’s Jean’s death that carries on a legacy. Alive, Scott was unhappy. Dead and with a push from Jean, Scott finds happiness in the end, and ultimately, renewal. Just like a Phoenix, huh?

“Here Comes Tomorrow” is not a great story from Morrison, but it’s far from bad. I would rather have had a story about the X-Men picking up the pieces than this, but I can live with it. The characters are hard to relate to, but I loved Tom and Rover. In the end, there’s a certain feeling of love – though it’s hard to describe. I really liked what Jean did to Scott to help him move on. It was so self-sacrificing, helping her husband live and move on. Granted, it helped save the world, but there’s a deep emotional impact behind it. It reminds me of the original “Dark Phoenix Saga,” when Jean sacrifices herself to save the world and it impacts Scott so deeply. It’s similar, but it’s the emotional impact from Jean’s telling Scott to move on that saves the world.

Oh, and Marc Silverstri still draws the best damn Sentinels.

In the end, we’re faced with the last from Morrison. I’m disappointed we didn’t see more from him. I’d have loved to see his tackle the Savage Land or take us back to the Age of Apocalypse. But, in the end, it’s perfectly all right. We got great stories that changed the X-Men, breaking them from a super-hero mold they’ve been stuck in since the early 1990s. The X-Men became teachers, the mansion became a school, and all hell broke loose with new villains and new ideas. Morrison had a great impact on the X-Men and his legacy still continues. It was great to have him on board.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 119: "Intifada"

2007-08-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

X-Treme X-Men # 31-45

Here we have the final three arcs of X-Treme X-Men. I've decided to have them combined like this because, simply enough, they're one big basic story. Let's roll . . .

Intifada
The X-Men reunite with Rogue in a California town called Valle Soleada, near Hollywood. For some reason, this town is exactly what the X-Men have been fighting for. Mutants and humans co-exist happily with each other here. However, a gang of young Mutants wrecked a van, killing the family of a teenager by the name of Marie D'Ancanto. This sends Marie into a fit of terrorism and she tries to blow up X-Corp LA's leader, Sunspot, at a concert. The X-Men intervine and subsequently dig a little deeper. Turns out that a lawyer as been pushing human families out of the town and gives them terrible nightmares if they don't comply. They track the lawyer down to the X-Corp with Magma's help. The tension existing between the two major X-Men factions seems to have spread between the X-Men and the X-Corps. However, in the end, all signs point to Bogan.

Meanwhile, Storm and Gambit crash the President's range when he invites world leaders to come and have a meeting regarding Mutants. The two X-Men talk the world leaders into allowing her X-Men to have a global peace-keeping status as the X-Treme Sanctions Executive. The XSE.

The Arena
As the X-Men continue their search for Bogan, Storm jets over to Japan to investigate some arena battles. Guido shows up, she hangs out with a suddenly healed Yuriko, she fights Callisto, Masque is involved. Yadda yadda yadda. It's not good.

Prisoner of Fire
The X-Men continue their hunt for Bogan. Bishop purposely gets himself captured while the rest of the team - joined by Shadowcat, Skids, and Sunspot - go on the hunt. Bishop is taken under Bogan's control and faces off with Cannonball, Skids, Gambit, and Sunspot - they all lose. Rogue, Sage, Magma, and Shadowcat go searching underground for Bogan and discover some catacombs beneath the X-Corps office. They are then confronted by Bogan's telepath and the captured, mind-controlled X-Men. BUT! It turns out that Gambit and Bishop were faking it and they all help take on Bogan's little dork-faced minions. The X-Men free Bogan's telepathic pet and it's discovered to be none other than Rachel Summers! They take her back to the house and then they all finally deal with Bogan - who was hanging out in a glass egg the whole time. He's killed, destroyed, whathaveyou and the X-Men head on home.

"Intifada" is the strongest of these three stories. It's intriguing, it's got a strong mystery feel to it, it has a lot of energy and action. I absolutely loved it. Claremont does a great job making Valle Soleada into a place that I can actually care about. Claremont handling Mutant culture is a good thing, and it tends to bring out his best work. Marie is a character I can sympatheize with. Seeing old friendly faces like Sunspot, Skids, and Magma brings me into this story even more. Storm and Gambit's playing around in Bush's woods gets old but it adds a great sense of realism.

Then . . . it's time for the "Arena." Which is terrible. There's so many BDSM allusions and out of character moments that it just turned me off. Plus, it's such a terrible break from the more intersting story - that of the X-Men versus Bogan.

"Prisoner of Fire" isn't as good as "Intifada," but it's far better than how I remembered it. There are some rather stupid moments, such as when various characters cover themselves in lava, but there are great moments too - like when we are reunited with Rachel Summers. It's a decent story, one that wraps up the X-Men's story for the past few months rather. I wish that Bogan had been a developed beyond "I'm Shadow King lite" and actually had a reason to be evil. I also wish it hadn't been six parts. This could have been done easily in five.

We got some nice moments with Sage, which helped me enjoy her character a lot more. Rogue and Gambit also had some good scenes, even if they were a little corny. Good development all the way around.

I honestly have to say that Igor Kordey's art here is pretty bad. Don't get me wrong. I think he's a fine artist. Really. He has great talent. But he's not suited for X-Men. It's just not something he should be working on. He did great work on Cable and Soldier X, but X-Men . . . meh.

Overall, decent quality. There are parts of this trio that outshine other parts, but in an overall way, it seems to represent Claremont's second run on X-Men. Good ("Intifada"), generally fine ("Prisoner of Fire"), and awful ("The Arena").

If for some reason I decide to re-read this, I'm cutting out "The Arena" and am just concentrating on the good stuff.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 118: "The Ties That Bind"

2007-08-07T23:27:00.001-07:00

Exiles # 28-30, Uncanny X-Men # 437-441, Weapon X # 15-18, New Mutants # 7-12

We've got four different stories here, but they all generally take place around this time, so here they are.

Unnatural Selection (Exiles)
The Exiles arrive in the Marvel Universe proper (616) to help stop Mutant X Alex from emerging in good Alex's body, thus preventing him from killing a Wolf-Mutant named Nick and our buddy Carter. While the X-Men and the Exiles deal with that, Maximus Lobo and the Werewolves return. Of course, both teams manage to take down the enemies thanks to some smart thinking on Nocturne's part (Scarlet Witch and Nightcrawler's daughter from an alternate timeline).

She Lies With Angels (Uncanny X-Men)
The X-Men play a bad version of Romeo and Juliet with the Guthries (save Sam) and a whos-who of a small town in Kentucky. Robots show up and Jay Guthries' girlfriend dies.

The Defection (Weapon X)
Chamber has a falling out with the X-Men (though it's all staged) and becomes a member of Weapon X, which is now under the control of Brent Jackson. His first order of business is killing John Sublime, who has a connection to Weapon X.

The Ties That Bind (New Mutants)
As the students continue to struggle with bringing Josh into their midst, Rhane returns to the mansion. There's sadness and drama at Parent's Week. Then, Laurie, Josh, David, and Sofia bring in a homeless Mutant girl named Nori (who can generate electricity). Even though Laurie is crushing on Josh, Josh is drooling over Rhane. He makes a move on her, reactives her powers, and she hurts him. Laurie saves Josh, who then heals himself and turns himself gold.

With the exception of "She Lies With Angels," all these stories are quite good. "She Lies with Angels" is really bad, but it's very beautiful.

It's great to see evil Alex and the Werewolves show back up, and the X-Men/Exiles team-up was very much appreciated. The senior X-Men were a little too accepting of the Exiles, but considering everything they've been through, it's understandable.

"The Defection" is pretty good as well. Jono is such a great character and Tieri captures him perfectly. Great to see some advancement for Jono.

"The Ties That Bind" makes some nice reading, being far less nostalgic than the first arc. There's more focus on the kids than the old New Mutants, which works much better. Nice development for all the characters, I must say. The art is terrible . . . just awful.

Overall, this is decent stack. One thing I've noticed about all these is that it really deals with the whole "next generation" X-characters. Werewolf student Nick and Carter are the focus of "Unnatural Selection," with hotheaded alternate reality Illyana and the lovely Nocturne appearing. Former Generation Xer's Chamber and Husk play big roles in Uncanny and Weapon X. Dani, Shan, and Rhane all play staring roles in New Mutants, along with the new students themselves. It really makes for interesting reading, seeing these older students integrated so well into the X-Men mythos, now training and teaching for new students.

Good stuff.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 117: "The Draco"

2007-08-07T10:58:00.001-07:00

Uncanny X-Men # 427-435

I knew this moment would come. The “Draco.”

Here’s the brief. We have three stories, all running parallel, and each one dealing father issues.

In one subplot, we have Professor X and Annie (along for the ride) getting a tour of Lorna’ loony-tunes mind. We discover she’s crazy because she’s A) Magneto’s daughter, for real; and B) she survived Genosha. Okay, we’re okay here. It’s not great, but it’s okay.

In another subplot, we have the Juggernaut heading up to visit Sammy, then finds out that Sammy’s father beat him. Juggernaut beats up Sammy’s father, then battles with Alpha Flight, before being arrested. A little later (though included), he does She-Hulk and finds the kid from a while ago who was abusing animals and somehow gained Juggernaut’s powers.

In the main plot, it’s revealed that Nightcrawler is the son of a Mutant/Devil guy named Azazel. It turns out that Mystique and Azazel did the nasty years ago on Earth so that she would have a Mutant baby that could one day free Azazel from his prison – even though he escaped before to whore himself out so that he could lay the seeds to escape. Yeah. That’s right.

So, Nightcrawler has brothers in Abyss and a new character that we never see again named Kiwi Black. The X-Men get pulled to Azazel dimension, it’s revealed that angels and demons are really Mutants (making Christianity moot, I guess), and of course an obligatory battle scene plays out.

Azazel falls down, goes boom. Nightcrawler comes home with his new brothers (love that anime smile on Abyss’ face!) and they all live happily ever after. The end.

I hate this fucking story. I’m sorry. It’s the worst X-Men story ever. I mean that completely. I’ve read some whoppers here, too. Crimson Pirates? The Neo? Candra? Revanche? Secret War 2? All of it is better than this.

The art is horrendous. Even Ron Garney’s work is subpar here. It’s like someone drew some form of pose and action on the pages, toss some ink on it and said it was done. The fill-in on the last issue is such a drastic style change, my eyes actually had whiplash (okay, well maybe not, but you get what I mean).

The pacing is quite all over the place. The story in it of itself is absurd. Other than the MASSIVE FREAKING PLOTHOLE I listed above, it’s just stupid. Why make Nightcrawler the son of the Mutant Devil? What is the point of that? We’ve already had his faith shaken and the priesthood cast away. Why go the next step? There doesn’t even appear to be any ramifications from this, either. He just kinda accepts it.

The biblical Mutants concept is like an insult to Christians. What’s the point of that too other than for me to say “No, that’s stupid?”

And Mystique is not a crazy person. I’d rather just take that Mystique as the one that stabbed Banshee’s throat and not the one doing secret missions for Professor X (which I unfortunately couldn’t include as I don’t have those issues).

Furthermore, Lorna being Magneto’s father is just lame. It was lame in the 60s and it’s lame now. Plus, wasn’t it proven in the Age of Apocalypse that it wasn’t true?

The only redeeming point is the Juggernaut story, only because Austen has done a fairly good job with Cain Marko. It could have all been done in one issue, mind you, but whatever.

This is as bad as it gets.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 116: "God Loves, Man Kills"

2007-08-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills OGN, X-Treme X-Men # 25-30

Here we go. Religion in X-Men. It's a bit of hot topic in this little era of X-Men, as was covered by Joe Casey (kinda) and Chuck Austen (overly). Time for ol' Chris Claremont to handle it, but first we need to flashback to a comic that is just about impossible to fit into the continuity.

The original tale takes place probably somewhere between the Brood Saga and From the Ashes, though the lack of New Mutants is questionable. Maybe they're off on a field trip to Muir Island or something. Anywho, the X-Men find themselves trapped in a conflict with one Reverend Stryker, who is preaching the Mutants are pure evil and should be wiped out. Professor X is kidnapped and his telepathy is used to strike out at Mutants, revealing them to the world.

Magneto and the X-Men team-up and take Stryker down. Xavier suffers a crisis of his own faith when Magneto tempts him to leave the X-Men, but he comes around.

YEARS later, Stryker's plane goes down while traveling to a new prison, but it turns out he was rescued by his associate, Lady Deathstrike. The two then become involved in a tug of war with a town full of Mutant children run by a Christian AI named Paul who sees only Mutants. With Kitty kidnapped the X-Men stuck in the middle, a conflict builds between Paul and Stryker until - in the end - Stryker joins Paul in a link-up to teach him the error of his ways.

God Loves, Man Kills is perhaps among the best X-Men comics ever. It's brilliant. It's X-Men for adults with really bad cuss words like bastard, hell, shit, damn, and even the n-word! Neat! There's guns, not lasers.

But ultimately, it's a great story because it's so honest to its self. Stryker, as nutty as he was, was relateable and interesting. One could understand his position, even if it was very extreme. I also very much enjoyed the fact that it wasn't Christianity that was the source of the problem - it was the use of it to do ones selfish bidding. And it blows up on him.

There's a great theme of faith throughout this story. Not only the faith in God and Christ, but also in Xavier's and Magneto's dream. Magneto and the X-Men are fighting together because they both want the survival of Mutantkind and their friends back - but also because they have faith in their dreams. In the end, Xavier even falters in his faith, but is brought back to it by his friends and family.

It's beautifully rendered story and with amazing art and a great story.

The sequel isn't nearly as strong, but it's not too bad. It lacks the religious and spiritual deepness that the original had, but it's not too bad. Drags on and has some golden moments, though it's not Claremont's best. Still, when he handles Mutants, Claremont does quite well.

NEXT UP: We had the good, now comes an example of how religion can be terribly portrayed in X-Men.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 115: "Schisms and New Mutants"

2007-07-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

X-Treme X-Men: X-Pose # 1-2, X-Treme X-Men # 20-24, New Mutants (volume 2) # 1-6

Note: My apologies on the lateness of this blog entry. School had to take the priority for the past few weeks, meaning that this all got pushed back. So, without further ado . . .

In the first of three stories, we have the news magazine program "Spotlight" wanting to do a piece of Mutants and the X-Men. Manoli and Conan (from "Fall of the Mutants," remember?) are there to cover it all. However, as they explore Mutant culture and talk with various X-Men members, they find their producer is looking to create the most negative image of the X-Men. Eventually, Archangel's company has the production shut down.

After that, we're served with a rather complex story. Basically, a kid named Jeffery Garret accidently kills his family when they and their guests are threatened by the mind-controlling telepathic Bogan. Except, nobody knows that. While the X-Men grant Garret amnesty and allow him to come to the school, the X-Treme X-Men are trying to bring him to justice. In the end, they discover it's Bogan that did it, but it forms a rift between the two teams.

Then Cannonball - after helping to clean up the Chunnel - joins the X-Treme X-Men team.

I'm going to breeze (heh) through this last one. Dani Moonstar brings a young wind-manipulator named Sofia out of her poor family situation and to the school. While Professor X tries to talk Dani into staying, Sofia becomes friends with Laurie, a phermone controler - and meets with resident jerk, Julian Keller. In due time, Karma and her siblings join, along with a boy named David who pulls information from anyone standing around him. There's also Kevin Ford - who can't touch anything that's not synthetic without it decaying.

Eventually, the whole group ends up facing off against Donald Pierce and the new Reavers (a street gang), and bringing in a new recruit, a healer named Josh. Pierce goes off to fight another day while Kevin leaves.

The X-Treme X-Men stories are the best and are probably among the best that Claremont has written since his return to the X-Men in 2000. He does a great job tackling Mutant culture and putting the X-Men in a place where they've never been. You see, the X-Men have always been Mutants and always stood for Mutant rights, but when was the last time we just saw them interacting with other Mutant groups without fighting them. It's great spotlight and it's about time it's been shined.

The Garret story is overly-complicated, but it's still pretty good. I like seeing the two teams at odds with each other. Adds a nice sense of tension and drama to the overall X-Men dynamic.

The New New Mutants (not a typo) is . . . okay. Simplistic, and the characters are a little bland at first. The art is terrible and just doesn't fit the book. But it's not bad. I've certainly read worse.

~W~

Uncanny X-Periment # 114: "Holy War"

2007-07-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

Uncanny X-Men # 417-427

The X-Men investigate a subsidary of Worthington Industries run by Maximus Lobo. Wolveirne, Northstar, Archangel and Husk confront Lobo, and it turns out he's a Mutant Werewolf thingy. As Northstar rushes Logan back to the mansion, Husk and Archangel are hunted by Lobo and his fellow Werewolves. Eventually, they're gravely injured and left in a field . . . however, Archangel's blood heals the both of them. A new theory is presented to them - what if Mutants of the same type begin to battle it out for supremacy?

Lobo eventually runs off when the rest of the X-Men show up. The X-Men return to the mansion, where (in the meantime) one crazy-ass Polaris has assualted Annie because she's banged on Havok's head after Carter kinda got locked in a telepathic hold with him. Professor X shows up, saves the day, and Alex is awake! Yay! And now Husk and Archangel kinda like each other. Yay . . . uh . . . huh? Okay, more on that later.

So, Alex is awake and Lorna immediately proposes. Annie is devastated because she has a crush on Alex, which started when he was in a coma. Nightcrawler (who is experiencing a crisis of faith), Alex, and Lorna head off to the Bermuda Triangle and are attacked by the Church of Humanity (who are subtley wiped out by Polaris). Back at the mansion, Alpha Flight shows up, tussels with the team, and takes away Sammy Pare - much to his buddy's Juggernaut's dismay.

The X-Men then wake up to a bunch of their friends crucified on the front lawn - including Magma, Jubilee, Bedlam, and Skin. In due time, it's revealed that Skin is dead, but everyone else pretty much survived. The X-Men hunt down the Church of Humanity - again. The Church of Humanity's plot is then revealed. There's something about the Pope and Kurt and Revelations and a part of the Christian faith that Catholics don't believe in. Again, more on that later. In the end, it turns out the Supreme Pontiff is a woman who was sexually abused, then punished for it by the Catholic Church. She dies.

Well, after all that, the wedding day comes. There's some zany times at the Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties, but when the big day comes, Alex realizes he loves Annie and not Lorna. He dumps Lorna at the alter. Lorna goes UBERCRAZY and chases them all around the estate until Juggernaut jumps in and takes care of things. Annie and Alex then hook, having telepathically dated during his time in the coma thanks to Carter.

Then, there's a poorly research but decently enjoyable story about Skin's funeral and Archangel at a hospital.

I think the best way to tackle this little era is to take a look at the characters who are the most promenient (well, except for Iceman and Northstar) (Northstar's gay, by the way. Did you know that? He's gay. He's gay, just so you know. That means he likes men. Dudes. Not chicks. Men. He likes men because he's gay).

Anyways . . .

Alex-Lorna-Annie-Carter
Where do we start? Let's go alphabetical.
I like that Alex is back, but the whole "all I remember is that the plane exploded, then I was in darkness" comments bothers me. So Mutant X never happened? Everyone who bought that comic and watched as Alex's character developed was pretty much swindled? Plus, the whole handling of Lorna was just wrong on Alex's part. Alex isn't as emotionally reserved as Scott. He would have put the breaks on the marriage bus before it got out of control and given his history with Lorna, he most certainly shouldn't have broken things off at the alter and then sprinted off to Paris to make out with Annie.

As for Annie . . . well, I'm all for human characters joining the cast, but Annie just doesn't fit. She comes in, shows everyone up, is played up like a saint next to Loony Lorna. I understand that Lonra is nutty, but she watched an entire country get ripped apart right in front of her very eyes and then had the thoughts and memories of all those dead people transmitted through her. Yet, instead of making her sympathetic, Lorna is a super-huge jealous crazy-ass quasi-Magneto bitch. Annie, who had a obsessive crush on a comatose man is portrayed as Mary freaking Poppins whose only major flaw is that she struggles with being around mutants.

Lorna is getting the short end of the stick. Throughout every issue, Lorna is portrayed as either a snotty bitch or a total crazy. It's just not Lorna. It looks like her, they have the same power, but it's not Lorna Dane. Despite what she went through, she's acting more like Malice than Polaris. Heck, if Malice had shown up at some point down the line and said something like "Haha! Ever since the X-Men snagged me from Genosha, I was taken over by Malice! Haha!" then the story would have actually been fifty frillion times better.

Juggernaut
I actually very much like what Austen has done with the Juggernaut. He's actually developing quite nicely, moving away from the thug of old and into an enjoyable, relatible character.

Nightcrawler
I don't completely understand why there was a need to completely destroy Kurt's priesthood. The Church of Humanity didn't really shake his faith at all. Exploding wafers? Gimme a break. All Kurt would do is laugh at that.

Husk-Archangel
I still don't understand this pairing. It just doesn't work. I mean, hey, Paige has a crush on Warren . . . but it doesn't make any sense. She's young, but she's also not mature enough for Warren. Warren has always gone out with women who were mature and strong. Candy Southern was rich and super-confident, Charlotte Jones was a cop, and Betsy was a pyschic British Ninja thing. Paige? She's confident and in a hurry to grow up, but is still so young and lacks the maturity we've seen in Warren's previous suitors. It's just a very confusing pairing.

Maximus Lobo
I really wish we had seen more of these nutty guys. The concept was neat and worth exploring.

Church of Humanity
I . . . I can't even bring myself to comment.

Little things:
I hated the way Stacey-X was just kinda dismissed. Y'know, Casey may have written her to be a prostitute, but he at least gave her class and development. Austen was just kinda like "she's a whore, so let's have her be the dirtiest person EVER!"

Chamber was well-handled, but left far too open.

And please tell me soomeone wrote a fanfic about why Angelo's name was spelled wrong and please tell me it had to do with his faking his own death years ago. Please. Because I'll immediately accept that as canon.

The art wasn't too bad, even though Garney and Tan both kinda fell apart towards the end there. But to be honest, the whole Austen run is like that. It starts off okay, and with every couple of issues, it just goes down and down . . .

~W~