Ultimate X-Men #5:
What Happened: Quicksilver manages to smooth talk the president of the United States into sending a fleet of Nimrod Sentinels after William Stryker in exchange for Cerebra, which would allow the president to know where all of the mutants in the US were. Valerie Cooper is fully against making a deal with Quicksilver, but the president feels the public support for collecting the free mutants would outweigh everything else, and as such makes the deal with Quicksilver. As for Valerie, she begins to dig deep into William Stryker's files to see what his issues were. Speaking of Stryker, he's in Times Square(you know, this is the FORTH time in two nights a comic I've read has had major action taking place in Times Square) curing mutants of their powers and then murdering them for not repenting their sins. Iceman, the Human Torch, Jimmy Hudson and Rogue arrive on the scene, and before they can attack Stryker, Rogue betrays the rest of the team since she had a preexisting deal with Stryker, where she would betray several mutants to Stryker in exchange for being expunged of the “sin” of being a mutant. Shroud arrives on the scene and attacks Stryker before he can kill anybody else, at which time Valerie makes the shocking discovery that Stryker himself was a mutant, and that his power was to control machines. With that, all of the Nimrod Sentinels the president sent to Times Square to take Stryker out fall under Stryker's sway.
The Good: The Stryker revelation was a nice little twist that I didn't see coming. The cliffhanger was good. If this team of X-Men were to stay like this(maybe minus Rogue), I'd be fine with that. I enjoyed the parts with Quicksilver.
The Bad: I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating... I am sick of Stryker!!! Okay, so now he's a mutant... Fine, that's something different, but he's STILL the same boring-ass character he's always been! Now he just has some powers... With Rogue betraying the team to Stryker, there's NO reason she should be allowed to stay on this team. Forgiving her would be, to me, unforgivable. While the cliffhanger was good, it means we're stuck with yet ANOTHER Marvel comic in which Stryker appears next issue...
The Verdict: This comic was okay, even with Stryker in it. I'm pretty certain that Nick Spencer should be able to have himself a nice little run on this series... Once he gets away from Stryker!!!
Score: 6 out of 10.
I have to admit, I'm not usually for killing characters off, but when Stryker gets whacked I'll be doing my happy dance!
William Stryker? it never occurred to me that he wasn't just in the movies but was an actual character in the books. two other questions Nate, can you give me a brief run down of how Jubilee became a vampire which i think is a really interesting twist for the character and also when you might get to a Annihilators #4 review?
ReplyDeleteAh yes. William Stryker was from the comics before the movie(I think he first appeared in that "God Loves, Man Kills" graphic novel, could be wrong though), and the Stryker from the regular 616 universe, the Ultimate universe and the movies are different characters. He's a bigot in each universe, but he's slightly different in each.
ReplyDeleteLet's see... I don't remember exactly how Jubes became a vampire, but I do know it was Dracula's evil son who did it(Xarus?), and that one of the main reasons it was done was because Xarus wanted to unite the vampire hordes and the mutants together to attack humanity(under the rule of vampires naturally). It all took place in the first few issues of the X-Men series that started up last year. I'm a bit foggy on the exacts though... I think Jubilee was bitten in order to turn Wolvie. And I completely agree with you about Jubes becoming a vampire being good for her character. I know a lot of Jubes fans were pissed when it happened, but after they stripped her of her powers, making her into a vampire a) gave her something to do again, and b) added an extra wrinkle to her character.
That Annihilators review should be up by Monday. I don't think it'll be one of the books I post tomorrow(I'd have to actually get around to typing up the review for it!), but it should be ready to go come Monday.
dude i used to have that "God Loves Man Kills" graphic novel years ago! but in that Stryker was a reverend no? unless i miss my guess that's why i didn't make the connection all these years plus i was never that crazy about that book or the X-Men films. i mean they weren't bad like the FF movies but there was a lot of room for improvement. thanks for the Jube vampire summery.
ReplyDeleteby the way my latest cheap book find was a graphic novel that reprinted all the first Marvel Zombie ("Dead Days") stories. the portion that deals with the FF zombies was so disturbing especially but such a good read and the art was insanely good. the book was a bit beat up but it was half off which brought it down to only $12.50.
Yea, Jubes was found and transformed by Dracula's son to bait Wolverine into coming after them, and then Jubes turned Wolverine into a vampire because, well, he is Wolverine. The whole "how Wolverine is not a vampire anymore" kind of eludes me because it sounded like a bunch of weird crap that is more Deus ex Machina than logical explanation.
ReplyDeleteYup, Stryker was indeed a reverend in GL,MK. I don't know if it a part of his back story then, or if it was added later, but he supposedly was in the army before leaving to become a reverend. In the comics he kills his infant son, who was an obvious mutant. In the movies, he's an army scientist(?) not a reverend who was involved in the Weapon X Project(I guess...). He also had a mutant son, but didn't kill him as an infant. Finally, Ultimate Stryker's father was in the army and Ultimate Stryker IS a mutant. Whew, I think that takes care of all the Stryker's I can think of! :D That Dead Days stuff, was that from the Ultimate FF series, or the Marvel Zombies mini? Or was it something else altogether? I only ask because I wonder if it's something I have or if it's a hole in my collection.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification, Jermox. I kind of thought Jubes was turned with the express purpose being to turn Wolvie into a vampire, but couldn't remember the exact scene... Although, you'd think it would have made more sense to keep him captive since he was an endless supply of blood for the vampires... But what do I know?