Uncanny X-Men #544: The(not so) Final Issue!:
Summary: The story here is twofold, with half the comic featuring Lord Summers on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) watching the last of Wolverine's mutants heading off(Iceman), while the other half of this comic features the return of... MR. Sinister(!!!!!!). First off we'll deal with the Sinister story. It seems that Sinister is trying to recreate himself by using the story of the Uncanny X-Men as his guide. Sinister has thus far been able to recite the story of the X-Men up until the most recent event... Schism. Sinister figures that Schism ended with Lord Summers and Wolverine putting aside their differences for the sake of mutantkind... Which is NOT true, and leads to a red light going off in Sinister's laboratory. Having predicted wrong, Sinister enters an oven filled with skeletal remains and burns himself to death(!). Sometime later, a new Sinister emerges from a cloning tank and reads through the story of the X-Men, crossing out the wrong information the prior Sinister had added and perfectly predicting the way Schism ended, right down to the name Wolvie chose for the new school. Having successfully completed his predictions, and having the proper temperament, personality and attitude, this Sinister heads off to begin his plans anew. As for the mutants? Lord Summers is bitchy towards Iceman for leaving, Beast makes sure to pick up the last few leaving mutants just to put the screws to Lord Summers one final time(because Beast IS awesome) and Lord Summers responds to all of this by taking down all of the photos of the older X-Men teams and sealing them away, since they were a reminder of the past, and looking to the past is defeatist behavior to Lord Summers.
Thoughts: What the hell do you think I thought of this issue!? It returned the real, true, legitimate MR. SINISTER!!! Possibly my favorite X-Men villain, and one of my favorite villains in ALL of comic books. Whenever I think back on this issue I find myself adding an extra 1/2 to the score over and over again because the stuff with Sinister was THAT awesome. I loved that Sinister kept recreating himself until he had become the character he used to be, one who knew the X-Men inside and out, possibly better than they knew themselves! And upon finally becoming complete again? Naturally he sets out to get back to work making the X-Men's lives a living hell. And why does he do that? Because he's awesome. That's why. But it's not only the stuff with Mr. Sinister that was great, the parts of this comic that dealt with Iceman leaving Crazy Mutie Island, as well as Beast's GREAT cameo appearance made this the best issue of Uncanny X-Men I've read in YEARS! All I can hope for is that Kieron Gillen keeps THIS sort of work up and doesn't slide back to his pre-Fear Itself stories. Regardless, with a Mr. Sinister storyline on the horizon, I have a pretty good feeling Uncanny X-Men #1 will be one hell of a good comic.
Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.
It looks like I have a new Windows desktop picture already!What's in a name? Everything!
As a totally nerdy aside, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this issue gave us one of the FEW times I've seen somebody put Nate Grey's name properly... You see, in an issue of X-Man(X-Man #-1 I believe) Mr. Sinister gave Nate his name. His last name, Grey, came from his mother, but his first name? Sinister named Nate after the one who did the most work in actually creating Nate, and that would be Sinister himself. And what is Sinister's real name? Nathaniel Essex. However, in the comic I'm referencing, Sinister called Nate “Nathan” as opposed to “Nathaniel”... To me though, if Nate WAS named after Mr. Sinister(as Sinister himself said), then his proper name would be Nathaniel Grey, NOT Nathan Grey. Now, why the hell did I just go off on a spiel about Nate's name? Because in this issue of Uncanny X-Men, Mr. Sinister was looking at a chart of the Summers and Grey family trees and Nate was named “Nathaniel” on the board, FINALLY correcting something that's bothered me for a good 6/7 years now, back when I first read that X-Man #-1 back issue. So thank you Kieron Gillen and Greg Land for righting that wrong when it comes to my favorite fictional character.
Yes, it IS Nathaniel Grey! Finally! Thank you!
AH! Even though I don't give a shit about what they the hell they wanna do with Douchelops & Whoreverine, I have finally someone to root for! Finally a superhero is back (yes yes , he's supposed to be the villain but seeing how shitty the " heroes" Morrison saddled us with are , the Villains are at least honest enough to be admired) Now if Badass Apocalypse can come back & oust Archangel with a " Your father is back, & you young man are grounded! Besides I've ordered you to off Joe Quesada, Why isn't it done yet Warren! & remember this I MADE YOU, not the other way around, you are but a pawn to me."
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Sinister 's costume was Grafted in to his skin? Since his enhancement , his body doesn't need any sustenance , so drinking for him is just for style.
Oh & Nate , after much thinking doesn't really have a mother since he is an artificial creature. If you know DBZ , you're maybe familiar with Cell. Cell was a bio-cyborg synthesised through the genes of powerful beings such as Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo & freeza. Nate is a synthesis of Scott & Jean, not really a kid. This is why the guy works perfectly as a phantom stranger like character.(& don't compare the Shaman Nate to a morrison story because a) it was coherent & b) Nate was likable & heroic therefore worthy to root for, something Morrison never did in his run, & be thankful he never got his hands on Nate, or X-man would be written as a cocain addict that paints weird signs with mud while living in the bowels of a sheep. See makes as much sense as Cassandra...GAH, the 50 year old fetus that came from the toilet because Charles did not flush & makes the flaws in Onslaught look like gold in comparison)
ReplyDeleteBTW about this issue, Douchelops still makes me pukje, Catbeast I wanna just shoot in the head to end the misery of looking at the pathetic & the last sentence" Ive finally graduated" I take as an insult to the X-men I actually love & respect. I 've got enough of people saying that this pro murder douche is a good thing for Cyclops & that Jean was the bane of his life because shge restraiçns him or that Morrison & Whedon wrote him best. BULLSHIT!If this what they think, that adultery sets you free & mature , what does it say about the writers themselves?
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take a guess about which team I'm with...
I'll be honest with you, the only thing that swayed me to pick up the renumbered Uncanny X-Men was Sinister. I was thisclose to dropping the series, so yeah, I'll also be rooting for Sinister to sink Crazy Mutie Island and everyone on it! I didn't know that about Sinister... Maybe I did know and forgot?
ReplyDeleteI love your rants, Saidi! They're epic... Bottom line, I don't see the Morrison/Whedon/everybody since Lord Summers as the best written Cyclops. He's just an unlikable scumbag now, not "more mature"... The best Cyclops, to me, was the early-mid 90's version, who led the Blue Team. THAT is the Cyclops I still think back to. That Cyclops MUST have died to Apocalypse...