Wednesday, July 13, 2011

New Mutants #27 & X-Men: Schism #1

First reviews for the new week, and I'll be taking care of the book I'm most looking forward to(New Mutants #27), as well as the first part of Schism, which should give the X-books the shake-up they desperately need. Okay, let's get started!

New Mutants #27:

Summary: Basically you have the New Mutants facing off against Sugar Man and his mutates. The prize? Nate Grey, who is still strapped to the Omega Machine, which was using his vast mutant powers as fuel. Moonstar decides to pair off against Sugar Man and take him on in one-on-one combat, but anybody who's ever played X-Men Legends 2 knows that's a risky strategy. The rest of the New Mutants try to keep the mutates occupied, while Cypher and Warlock try to figure out a way to disconnect Nate from the Omega Machine without killing him. Eventually Nate decides to push his powers past the breaking point in order to give Sugar Man what he wanted, a gateway back to the Age of Apocalypse, so that Sugar Man wouldn't kill/maim the New Mutants who came to help him. Upon spotting the portal, Sugar Man dashes in and is overjoyed to see that it was indeed his homeworld. Moonstar follows him though, refusing to allow Sugar Man to get away from his various crimes scot-free. Since Sugar Man is now distracted by being home, Moonstar pulls out all the stops and manages to bring Sugar Man down, dragging him back through the portal to the 616 Marvel Universe. With Sugar Man and his mutates taken care of, Moonstar calls in Steve Rogers to clean up the mess. Steve's assistant, Victoria Hand, wants the damaged Nate taken into custody too, since he was such a powerful mutant, but Moonstar tells Steve that Nate was a family member of Lord Summers, and as such Lord Summers wanted him brought back to Crazy Mutie Island. Steve decides to do the right thing and allows the New Mutants to take Nate to Crazy Mutie Island. Once there, after a medical check-up, we learn that Nate's powers had been greatly diminished, basically leaving him with some telekinesis and little else. Lord Summers welcomes Nate to Crazy Mutie Island, apologizes for being a sucky alternate father, and offers Nate the one thing he'd never really had, a home.

Thoughts: Okay, first things first, Nate survived the whole Dark X-Men/Omega Machine stuff, which means he's STILL in the Marvel Universe!!! Awesome!! I was a bit annoyed that everybody kept referring to Nate as a reality manipulator, he's more of the supreme telepath/telekinetic. He could also open dimensional portals(during his shaman days), and has shown some limited reality warping(I can distinctly remember him freezing snowflakes in midair after a temper tantrum), but I've always thought of Nate as a telepath first, everything else second. There was a lot of good that came out of this comic, the first thing being, obviously, Nate being on Crazy Mutie Island. Maybe he'll FINALLY get the opportunity to become a mainstream X-character, something he's never had the chance to do outside of a single 3-part mini-series from the 90's. Downgrading Nate's powers? While it irks me that he's not the most powerful mutant on the planet anymore, I'm actually okay with that. I mean if he does join the New Mutants(fingers crossed), full-powered Nate would make everybody else on the team unnecessary. I mean just send him loose and let him deal with ANY threat. So simply giving Nate some TK, with the chance that his full powers could return or even just some telepathy, was probably the right decision to make. The fight between Sugar Man and Moonstar was fun, the dialogue was good, I liked Steve Rogers allowing the New Mutants to take Nate back to Crazy Mutie Island as a show of good will, because Steve is awesome, really, I had no complaints here. Now I'll wait and see how Nate is used from this point forward. So far I have no serious concerns or complaints, he's in good hands with Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, so this comic left me feeling very happy. Will the next few issues leave me feeling the same? Only time will tell...

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Hey, Nate's still alive! Huzzah!!!


X-Men: Schism #1(of 5):

Summary: This issue kicks off with Lord Summers the First and Wolverine heading to Switzerland to attend an international arms conference. Lord Summers takes the podium and asks the gathered crowd to stop the proliferation of Sentinels. Many nations act as if they don't know what a Sentinel is, or question their very existence, while others accuse Lord Summers of fear-mongering. While Lord Summers is trying to calm nerves, Kid Omega(Quintin Quire) strolls in the room and blasts all of the dignitaries with a mental attack that forces them to spill their guts on whatever dirty little secrets they were hiding. By the time Lord Summers and Wolvie get back to their feet(they were unaffected due to their psi-shields), the room has descended into pandemonium, with Kid Omega long gone. Lord Summers and Wolvie decide to leave, catching Kid Omega on the TV spouting anti-human rhetoric. While the police are escorting the mentally damaged dignitaries from the room, an order is given and several Sentinels enter the building looking for a male mutant(Quire), but instead finding Wolvie and Lord Summers. The two make short work of the Sentinels and return to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia). While there, the mutants watch as several nations around the world respond to Kid Omega's attack on their dignitaries by bringing several Sentinels out of mothballs and having them do maneuvers. A leading arms manufacturer, Carlton Kilgore, enters his limo, pleased with the days events, since the increased fear would bring many government contracts his way. Unfortunately for him, his 12 year old son kills him and takes over the company. From there, the kid, Kade, heads to a secret meeting, where he tells the hooded members that he had done everything asked, secretly freed Kid Omega, taken over his father's business, set into motion what looked to be the world vs the mutants. Pleased with Kade's actions, the hooded individuals raise their glasses and declare Kade the new Black King of the Hellfire Club(!).

Thoughts: Well, this showed a lot of promise. I mean there were a few things that felt kind of rushed(Kade's entire story for example), but overall, I enjoyed this issue. Sure, it would have been nice if some of the events here would have been set up in Uncanny X-Men, so they'd mean more(the rebirth of the Hellfire Club, Carlton Kilgore, that many Sentinels hanging around the world), but like I said, for a set-up issue for future events, this one hit all the right buttons. I still don't see exactly where the Schism between Lord Summers and Wolverine is going to come in, especially with them on the same page for this entire issue, but like I said, this was the first issue, a set-up issue, and all in all, it was good.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Always with the Sentinels...

14 comments:

  1. a home..... A HOME!!!!!! fuck u summers
    the humane thing steve should have done is to have killed x-man on the spot so he would not have to be subjected to summers misrable dictatorship
    lol joking aside mabye nate will join wolverines x-men when schism is over
    and im kinda glad nate got a little depowered if he hadnt im affraid he would have become the next sentry (NOOO!!!!!)
    and those bastards at marvel didnt release the preview with schism with the others last thursday so i had no idea its out so now i gotta go back to the comics shop towmorrow lol

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  2. "the humane thing steve should have done is to have killed x-man on the spot so he would not have to be subjected to summers misrable dictatorship" Movieartman, that line literally made me crack up laughing! Awesome! I've got my fingers crossed that Nate does end up with Wolvie(I'm actually hoping most of my favorites do, that way I can drop Gillen's Uncanny). Maybe one day this summer I'll put together a list of who I'd like to see go on each team. Oh, and I agree about depowering Nate. I mean, he is and always will be my favorite character, but before this storyline he was WAAAAAY more powerful than like everybody else on Utopia. Now he would fit nicely on any of the X-teams.

    Oh man, I hope you can still pick up a copy! I was at my comic shop at 11:30 and it looked like there were only like 1 or 2 copies left at my shop.

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  3. i believe that uncanny and legacy are ending and just x-men and the upcoming wolverine and the x-men will be left...... worried about the fate of uncanny x-force :(

    im hoping rogue will be with wolverine as she and summers have been at odds alot and she and logan have aways been close of course

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  4. Honestly, I'm glad Legacy is ending, because that series has been brutally bad since like issue #195 onward. That series desperately needed a writer change years ago. I think I read somewhere that Uncanny X-Force wouldn't be touched by the changes, but I wouldn't quote me on that!

    As long as Shadowcat stays with lord SUmmers, I'd be happy!

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  5. hahahaha i new ud say that

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  6. That scan of X-Men: Schism is awesome. Also sounds like pretty good read too. I mean can't go too wrong with Wolverine in my opinion, lol. Looks like I'll be snatching up JT's copy and giving it a ready. Nice reviewing X.

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  7. Well there should be plenty of Wolvie in this series, Lisha, so that should work out well for you.

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  8. I was a bit underwhelemd by this issue of new mutants. I think it was because i read that it was part 3 of 3 and that I was expecting Nate grey to come back and whoop on sugarman. I think too that with sugarman trying to make it back to apocalypse, that when he did finally make it... He should have been MUCH more dissapointed when they ripped it away from him ya know? Like he had been searching and searching for so long then he got basically a taste of it and then he didn't seem upset when it was taken away from him.. just a quip is all haha. -I too am excited for the "family therapy" arc because i think it will showcase great character development and possibly some interesting background stuff between the summers bros. Looking forward to it!

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  9. Well, if they ever get nate grey back to his old power levels I don't see why they can't have him in a cosmic team instead, something like the guardians of the galaxy or the annihilators and periodically just returning earthside to fix problems. Which is probably what Marvel should've done with the sentry as well.

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  10. I hear you, Cap. There were somethings that COULD have been better with that issue of New Mutants, but with me being like THE biggest Nate fan you'll find, the fact that he managed to survive this storyline left me feeling quite happy! As for Sugar Man, that's a great point. I mean he had FINALLY gotten back to his home world, and then had it torn away! All I can think is that Moonstar beat him so thoroughly while he was distracted, it was easy for her to drag him back. As long as DnA are writing this series, and Nate is there, you KNOW I'll be looking forward to it!

    TOTALLY agreed about the Sentry, Noelz! He'd have been a perfect fit on the Annihilators... I don't know if Nate would have wanted to go traveling through space, especially after his mutant shaman phase, but him going to other planets and battling against various forms of alien aggression? I'd buy it!

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  11. oh god i hope Nate atomises Douchelops for all the rotten things he's done! & FUCK THE SENTINELS! the only robots worth a damn are the unit Zero Stryfe created , these guys were genuinely frightening

    anyway here are some of my favourite comics pairings

    http://devilkais.deviantart.com/#/d3qszb7

    BTW X, what did you of my x-men villains revamp & line up?

    Saidi

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  12. Those Zero units were pretty awesome... I wouldn't mind seeing one pop up again. Then again, I wouldn't mind seeing Stryfe pop up again either...

    I was fine with all of the X-villains you had there except for Arcade... I just can't ever take him seriously...

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  13. I really liked X-Men: Schism. Great start to an event, and even though I stopped reading the X-books during Messiah Complex (blegh!) I felt like I had all the information I needed to enjoy the story. The characterizations of Scott and Logan were great, and I liked the way that Pacheco drew Wolverine in that stocky, broad-shouldered way that's characteristic of his first appearances and of the '90s cartoon too.

    One other thing I have to say in favor of it is that I normally HATE anything involving the Hellfire Club, but Jason Aaron found a way to make it interesting to me. That alone is a pretty huge accomplishment!

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  14. I can't blame you for jumping off the X-books with Messiah CompleX, Marc... That was probably around the time my interest in all things X was at it's lowest. I mean if I was ever going to stop reading the X-books, it would have been at that time, because that storyline was abysmal... But yeah, this book started off really well. I mean it laid the groundwork for the upcoming story, while we still aren't sure what the big event that's gonna fracture the X-Men will be. If only Jason Aaron was writing BOTH x-books!

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