X-23 #10:
Summary: This issue gets underway with X-23 trying to kill herself by slitting her wrist in a bathroom... Well THAT'S a pleasant way to begin! Naturally, she heals, so I'm not sure what the point of that is, but whatever. X-23 emerges from that bathroom and sits at a restaurant table with Gambit, who tries to cheer her up by giving her a cupcake... This is getting pretty weird... Gambit notices the blood on X-23's hands and asks her about it, so she runs away. Gambit gets up to chase and overhears two waiters talking about all of the blood in the bathroom and puts two and two together. Eventually Gambit finds X-23 sitting down near a bridge and goes to comfort her, getting slashed in the arm for his trouble. X-23 is mortified by what she did, but Gambit blows it off(like I do whenever I'm stabbed) and they head back to their hotel room, where Gambit makes a phone call. A day passes and Wolverine and Vampire Jubilee arrive, which leads to X-23 trying to kill Vampire Jubes, since she was, you know, a vampire. Wolvie puts a quick stop to that and heads to the roof to talk to X-23 alone. X-23 reveals that she's disturbed by the information she received from Daken about her early years, which is why she's been so melancholy/suicidal as of late. Wolvie tells X-23 that things aren't that bad, and winds up talking about how much worse things have been for Vampire Jubes as of late, before he then sends Vampire Jubes and X-23 away to hang out... Um, okay... With the girls gone, Gambit scolds Wolvie for the fact that he treats X-23 and Vampire Jubes differently, telling Wolvie that X-23 was probably hurt by Wolvie's actions. From there, Vampire Jubes chases off a few drunks who were hitting on X-23 and X-23 responds by cutting herself in the neck, drawing blood, and drawing Vampire Jubes straight towards the wound.
Thoughts: You KNOW Marjorie Liu is a great writer by the fact that even though I didn't particularly like this comic, I never wound up being completely bored/annoyed by it. The story here really didn't do anything for me... X-23 was suicidal, AGAIN. Wolvie was inattentive to X-23's feelings, AGAIN. Gambit was X-23's dutiful sidekick, AGAIN... You get the point. With that said though, I feel I should have hated this comic more, but in the end, even with it's various flaws, I'd still consider it a perfectly acceptable comic.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Hey, it's Vampire Jubilee!Generation Hope #7:
Summary: Okay, this is going to be a painful review... An unborn baby is a mutant, and it's powers have activated INSIDE it's mother... The unborn child mind controls everybody in the hospital and the surrounding area(except for Our Savior Hope, and the other... ugh, “Lights”), leaving them as the only people with a chance to end the DIRE THREAT of the unborn baby... Of DOOM!!! Sorry, I have to find ways to amuse myself if I'm gonna get through this review. Kenij the Evil Light manages to link the team to the baby's mind through one of his tendrils, which he attached to the baby's mother. Each light tries to convince the baby to be born, and they all fail... At least until Teon the ANIMAL Light stares vapidly at the baby, somehow convincing it to want to be born... I swear, I just lost 50 IQ points typing that last line... Teon the Animal Light then DELIVERS the baby, hands it to Our Savior Hope, who raises it over her head “Lion King” style(!?!?!), “fixing” it or something. The Lights all parade away happily and this one ends with Shadowcat telling them that Teon the Animal Light's parents were suing Crazy Mutie Island to regain custody of their son or something.
Thoughts: Well... This was easily one of, if not THE worst Marvel comic I've read this year. Sure, DC has churned out comics worse than this one(I'm looking at YOU, Brightest Day!), but on the Marvel side of the fence? Yeah, this was horrible. Anybody wondering why this comic was selling so poorly, look no further then this issue. I mean really, what was Kieron Gillen thinking when he came up with this story?!? Needless to say, this is a title that I can't see myself sticking with for much longer. But you know what? I'm going to stop this post right here, because this is one of those times where I could just KEEP complaining...
Score: 2 out of 10.
I can't believe I wasted $3 on THIS!
i actually like this concept of the vampire Jubilee. it gives the character some much needed extra dimension. she got off a good wise crack once in a while but other then that she never did much for me back in the 90s.
ReplyDeletehey Nate did you ever get that X-Men parody cartoon with the Juggernaut?
Heeey X!! Sorry I been a little MIA on the commenting. Been busy working and sleeping in lol. But alas, Falisha Ann is here.
ReplyDeleteAnd *sigh* I'm sad to hear about this issue of X-23 being a bit on the meh side. From your reviews your series is doing soo good up until now. lol. And although I don't know much about X-23, I would think that being somewhat like Wolverine, she couldn't die that easily. So, as you stated, what was the point? It sounds like it was an okay issue as you also stated, but I'm also kind of glad to see something this stale didn't happen til a little bit into the series. Because had this been the first issue, I probably would've been turned off from the series.
But as always great reviewing X. ^_^
Ugh, I still don't like the idea of Jubilee as a vampire at all. I recently reread a bunch of Generation X comics (and posted a review of the trade on my blog!) and they made me remember just how much I enjoyed her character in the mid-'90s. I understand why no one has really been able to do much with her in the last decade, because really, she's a relic of the '90s...but turning her into a vampire to try to make people care about her again is tacky in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAlso, WTF at that Generation Hope scan. It looks like Teon wants to eat the baby!
I'm actually in the "Vampire Jubilee is good!" category. It really DOES give Jubes some extra depth, and with the whole vampire craze, hopefully it'll get her some attention. I mean before the vampire thing she didn't even have her powers, and to be honest, even when she did have powers they weren't much! I didn't, Dave... What's that all about?
ReplyDeleteNo problemo, Lisha! While this issue of X-23 wasn't my fav or anything, I'd still recommend the series. This one though... It was weird...
sigh . .alright i sent it again tonight. by the way, i just read Hero for Hire #7. it was hella good! Spiderman made some Star Wars references that cracked me up. there was also a great sequence in a cab where this driver describes Paladin as being a C-list hero. it was some really good stuff. man i wish you would have stuck with it.
ReplyDeleteHmm...... You know Dave, I'm a VERY easy man to sway... And I do love me some DnA writing... You know what, I think when I hit the comic store om Wednesday I'll see if I can grab issues #2-7. Sure the Puppet Master reveal chased me away after issue #1, but what the hell, I'll give it another shot!
ReplyDeleteI've got to be honest with you, I hardly ever check that gmail account, since it's usually PACKED with comments from the blogs. I did check it just now, and didn't see anything new from you... But then I had over 4,000 e-mails there, so I just spent like 20 mins deleting about 2000 of them. So if you want to try to send that cartoon parody out to me again, I'd def appreciate it... Your best bet is to say, "Hey X, you idiot, CHECK you e-mail!!!" That usually gets my attention!
oh shit Nate your killn me here! i'll just paste the url right here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSuvOVH0aSQ
i only started reading that series at issue#4. if you hate the Puppet Master that much you might as well just start at #6. that's when it started getting really good although #5 had an interesting exchange between Iron Fist and Paladin that suggests Pal's feeling toward Misty are more then just professional. and with Spiderman in the mix things are getting even more interesting. Pal's dealing with all sorts of personal and professional issues now. should be interesting how this plays out.
here, if you want to check out the first 5 pages of H4H #7 go here:
ReplyDeletehttp://flipgeeks.com/preview-heroes-for-hire-7/
Oddly enough, your e-mail STILL didn't come through, Dave...
ReplyDelete"Got my pimp cane, bitch!" That was hilarious stuff!!! I'll never be able to look at that cartoon the same way ever again. :D
Meh, I don't need no steenking previews! When I pop into the comic shop on Wednesday, I'll just snag which ever issues of H4H I see... 'Cause I'm THE JUGGERNAUT, bitch!
"what the %$#@ is this shit!? are you some kind of ass? don't you know who the @#$% i am? you must not know who i am i'm the Juggernaut bitch i'm gonna hit you with your own pimp!"
ReplyDeletethat's my favorite part. Nate, shoot me an email in the next day or two let's see if that gets through: daywalkr@aol.com
There were A LOT of times while I was watching that where I was literally laughing out loud. Juggernaut may have been awesome, but Black Tom(and his pimp cane of course!) stole the show for me. Man, I've got to watch that again later!
ReplyDeleteCan do. I'll send it out right after this comment.
it's 7:15 at night PT and i got nothin. don't you know who i am!? i'm the Juggernaut bitch!
ReplyDeleteand i've emailed back and forth with other people all day. you should check with other people who have tried emailing you or vice versa. i guess in the mean time we'll just have to "conversate" through our respective blogs. i just re-read H4H #7 on my lunch break today it was great
For the record, I told ya to watch that video like two months ago X! :P So kudos to David for getting you to watch it. "Who the **** is this mustard looking muthaf**ka?" "Ain't that a bitch... I'm Ketchup, Muthaf**ka!"
ReplyDeleteWait, you did, JT!? Dude, you should have been more forceful about it! That was all kinds of awesome!
ReplyDeleteLol yes, I did. but you know how you are with videos. Meh, at least ya finally watched it, you're now officially five or six years late! :P
ReplyDeleteThe important thing is that I'm catching up! :D You know how behind the times I am...
ReplyDeleteoh man that's too funny someone else bustin your balls about that video! i'm glad to see Jason Todd isn't dead after all. and he's from Detroit Mich. where i was born cause i'm the goddamn Juggernaut bitch!
ReplyDeleteI didn't like Generation Hope either. The story was flat and I already had a problem with these "Lights". I can get that they are special because being the first new mutants for months but why do their powers make them special? They had active X-Genes at unusual ages before, just as rampant powers.
ReplyDeleteIn addition I had hoped that they would at least trey to depict another country truthfully. But this was ... crap, I have no nicer word for it. Of course the pregnant woman was blond and all the people where white and of light hair-color. This is so lame, if you would use a power like the baby's you would get a much more colourful crowd in Berlin these days and most of them would have brown or black hair.
"the pregnant woman was blond and all the people where white and of light hair-color." That's actually a great point that I completely missed. But yeah, you're completely right, the woman, the crowd, it was all totally stereotypical.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that bugs me about Gen Hope is that I REALLY want to like this series, I've always had an affinity for the various teenage X-books, but I just haven't warmed to Hope or any of the "Lights". Maybe I will eventually, but for now? No deal.