Hey there X-Maniacs, Vampire X here with an unexpected post... Which is better than no post at all... Well, I guess that depends on the person, but I say it's better than no post at all. Although some people would vehemently disagree... Anyway, pointless rambling aside, I read almost all of the comics I picked up at the comic shop yesterday during my lunch break, and figured I'd just throw a quick post out with the score and what I thought of each book in two sentences or less... Yes, in two sentences or less... What?! I have to get to sleep soon! So yeah, I'll do this post today, and then I'll later on in the week I'll try to get a few proper reviews up and posted around here. So that's the plan, let's see how it works out!
American Vampire #27: There's really nothing to say except this comic was good as usual. The ending sets up some great stuff going forward, which is always a good sign!
Score: 8 out of 10.
Wolverine and the X-Men #11: This issue was way better than I expected it to be. Wolverine surprised me a bit here, but in a good way for a change.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
New Mutants #43: Boy am I glad this x-over with Journey Into Mystery is over... Who'd have expected two books that I really enjoy reading to put out such a crappy x-over...
Score: 5 out of 10.
X-Men Legacy #267: If you are a fan of Rogue then THIS was the comic book for you! I'm not much of a Rogue fan(she's alright, I guess...), so naturally this WASN'T the comic for me!
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #39: This comic was actually a pleasant surprise... The story was strong(if a bit predictable), and it was basically a good read.
Score: 8 out of 10.
Wolverine #307: Yep, this definitely should have been this week's Runt of the Litter... I can't think of a single good thing to say about this comic, so I think I'll just end things here...
Score: 3 out of 10.
I figured I'd do a post like this in case anybody really wants to talk about one(or more) of these books. Now there's a place to post comments about them, plus you basically know what I thought about each comic. In two sentences or less... And hey, look at that, this post only took me a whopping 10 minutes to do, which is great because now I can close my casket and sleep until the sun sets! Until later, Vampire X out.
Showing posts with label X-Men Legacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label X-Men Legacy. Show all posts
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
X-Men Legacy #266
It's AvX time! You had to know it was coming at some point during the week! Well, let's get to it.
X-Men Legacy #266(AvX x-over issue):
Story Points:
-Rachel and Iceman decide to join up with Lord Summers and his Brotherhood. The rest of the staff is either undecided or would rather watch the students.
-Falcon, She-Hulk and Moon Knight head to the school and complain about Iceman and Rachel assisting Lord Summers.
-Rogue basically tells the trio of Avengers that the two were their own people and could make whatever choices they wanted, at which point the Avengers decide they wanted to watch the school... What jerks!
-Rogue agrees, but tells the Avengers to stay 100 yards away so as to not instigate the kids or staff. The Avengers agree and go 101 yards away... Again, what jerks!
-Frenzy heads over to the Avengers and taunts Moon Knight, causing him to attack. Rogue spots this and heads out to play peacemaker.
-Hellion, Match and Glob Herman figure that Rogue and Frenzy had been attacked and rush over to assist their teachers.
-She-Hulk does the Hulk-clap at the kids, injuring Hellion and royally pissing Rogue off, causing her to attack the Avengers for real.
-Falcon calls in his secret weapon, and this issue ends with Iron Man(!) responding to Falcon's distress signal.
Thoughts: Wow, this was the first time the Avengers were written in a totally unlikable way! Kudos to Christos Gage for doing the impossible and getting me to look at the Avengers in a different(and negative) light. Who are they to decide to put a school in lockdown because TWO(and only two!) members of the staff headed off to help Lord Summers and his Brotherhood?! That seemed very heavy-handed of the Avengers and kind of unacceptable. It's not like the entire school joined the Brotherhood, it was only TWO people, and two people with very strong ties to Lord Summers(Iceman was an original X-Man with Lord Summers while Rachel is his alternate daughter). The Avengers showing up, and the fact that they were led by Falcon(which leads me to believe they were sent by Captain America himself), continues to show the cracks forming in Captain America's leadership and the way he's dealing with this event. All around good stuff here.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
X-Men Legacy #266(AvX x-over issue):
Story Points:
-Rachel and Iceman decide to join up with Lord Summers and his Brotherhood. The rest of the staff is either undecided or would rather watch the students.
-Falcon, She-Hulk and Moon Knight head to the school and complain about Iceman and Rachel assisting Lord Summers.
-Rogue basically tells the trio of Avengers that the two were their own people and could make whatever choices they wanted, at which point the Avengers decide they wanted to watch the school... What jerks!
-Rogue agrees, but tells the Avengers to stay 100 yards away so as to not instigate the kids or staff. The Avengers agree and go 101 yards away... Again, what jerks!
-Frenzy heads over to the Avengers and taunts Moon Knight, causing him to attack. Rogue spots this and heads out to play peacemaker.
-Hellion, Match and Glob Herman figure that Rogue and Frenzy had been attacked and rush over to assist their teachers.
-She-Hulk does the Hulk-clap at the kids, injuring Hellion and royally pissing Rogue off, causing her to attack the Avengers for real.
-Falcon calls in his secret weapon, and this issue ends with Iron Man(!) responding to Falcon's distress signal.
Thoughts: Wow, this was the first time the Avengers were written in a totally unlikable way! Kudos to Christos Gage for doing the impossible and getting me to look at the Avengers in a different(and negative) light. Who are they to decide to put a school in lockdown because TWO(and only two!) members of the staff headed off to help Lord Summers and his Brotherhood?! That seemed very heavy-handed of the Avengers and kind of unacceptable. It's not like the entire school joined the Brotherhood, it was only TWO people, and two people with very strong ties to Lord Summers(Iceman was an original X-Man with Lord Summers while Rachel is his alternate daughter). The Avengers showing up, and the fact that they were led by Falcon(which leads me to believe they were sent by Captain America himself), continues to show the cracks forming in Captain America's leadership and the way he's dealing with this event. All around good stuff here.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
X-Men Legacy #265
Last review of the night goes to X-Men Legacy. Um... That's all I've got.
X-Men Legacy #265:
Summary: So after the events of last issue, Rogue, Weapon Omega and Mimic are all walking bombs now. Beast tries several ways to get the three to lose the energy that was soon going to make them explode, but it's no use as Beast can't seem to fix the problem. He does tell Rachel that if worse comes to worse, she should use her telepathy to put the trio into a comatose state that would prevent them from exploding. Rachel doesn't like that idea, but realizing it was either that or let them blow up, taking the school with them, she had no real choice. Eventually Mimic recalls a fight he had against the Super-Adaptoid and how he defeated it(by absorbing it's powers as it tried to absorb his, causing it to short out), and figures that using the same strategy was worth a shot. With time running out and no other options, Beast gives the trio of bombs the go-ahead and the gamble seems to work as Rogue and Mimic lose the bomb energy... However, Omega still has it(as he expected). Omega seems resigned to his fate, but Mimic convinces him to not give up on his life and to allow Mimic to place Omega in a coma, that way Beast could keep looking for a cure/fix. Mimic and Omega say their good-byes to each other and Mimic shuts down Omega's mind. With that, Mimic asks Rogue is he could remain at the school since he didn't want to leave his friend behind, and seeing how heroically Mimic acted throughout this entire ordeal, Rogue tells Mimic he could stay.
Thoughts: Eh. This issue was okay, and all, but I never really felt anybody was in any real danger. We all knew Rogue and/or the school wasn't going to blow up, and we knew Rogue wasn't going to be placed in a coma, which meant that at the very least, she'd be cured, and by that logic, if she could be cured, so could the other two. In the end though, Omega WASN'T cured, but to be honest, I really don't care about Omega, so his plight didn't really touch me much. And for a story like this, one that's supposed to be emotional and all, not caring about one(or two) of the tragic characters kind of reduces the impact of the story. Or at least that's my feelings on things here.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
I'm glad SOMEBODY remembers that Mags is the scum of the Earth!
X-Men Legacy #265:
Summary: So after the events of last issue, Rogue, Weapon Omega and Mimic are all walking bombs now. Beast tries several ways to get the three to lose the energy that was soon going to make them explode, but it's no use as Beast can't seem to fix the problem. He does tell Rachel that if worse comes to worse, she should use her telepathy to put the trio into a comatose state that would prevent them from exploding. Rachel doesn't like that idea, but realizing it was either that or let them blow up, taking the school with them, she had no real choice. Eventually Mimic recalls a fight he had against the Super-Adaptoid and how he defeated it(by absorbing it's powers as it tried to absorb his, causing it to short out), and figures that using the same strategy was worth a shot. With time running out and no other options, Beast gives the trio of bombs the go-ahead and the gamble seems to work as Rogue and Mimic lose the bomb energy... However, Omega still has it(as he expected). Omega seems resigned to his fate, but Mimic convinces him to not give up on his life and to allow Mimic to place Omega in a coma, that way Beast could keep looking for a cure/fix. Mimic and Omega say their good-byes to each other and Mimic shuts down Omega's mind. With that, Mimic asks Rogue is he could remain at the school since he didn't want to leave his friend behind, and seeing how heroically Mimic acted throughout this entire ordeal, Rogue tells Mimic he could stay.
Thoughts: Eh. This issue was okay, and all, but I never really felt anybody was in any real danger. We all knew Rogue and/or the school wasn't going to blow up, and we knew Rogue wasn't going to be placed in a coma, which meant that at the very least, she'd be cured, and by that logic, if she could be cured, so could the other two. In the end though, Omega WASN'T cured, but to be honest, I really don't care about Omega, so his plight didn't really touch me much. And for a story like this, one that's supposed to be emotional and all, not caring about one(or two) of the tragic characters kind of reduces the impact of the story. Or at least that's my feelings on things here.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
I'm glad SOMEBODY remembers that Mags is the scum of the Earth!
Friday, March 30, 2012
X-Men Legacy #264
First up tonight is X-Men Legacy, which I was originally going to review on Wednesday... And then Thursday... But hey, better late than never, right?
X-Men Legacy #264:
Summary: Mimic brings his friend and former Dark X-Men teammate Weapon Omega to the school, hoping Beast could help stabilize Omega's rapidly deteriorating condition. It seems that Omega has become addicted to siphoning mutant powers, so Mimic was allowing Omega to feed off of his powers. The only problem there is that Mimic isn't really a mutant and siphoning from Mimic actually messed Omega up even more. Beast brings Mimic and Omega into his lab and after some examinations realizes that Omega's body was so messed up that he was going to explode, resulting in a massive release of energy. Rogue and Mimic offer to take some of Omega's powers away, figuring that would help stabilize Omega, but unfortunately, duping Omega's powers turns Rogue and Mimic into bombs as well.
Thoughts: I have to admit, I wasn't really that into this comic during the early stages. But the cliffhanger? The cliffhanger definitely saved this one for me. See, my thing is that I've NEVER cared for Weapon Omega. He's never interested me in the least. And Mimic? The only Mimic I ever cared about was the Exiles one, and this Mimic is definitely not that Mimic. So seeing those two characters pop up here just did nothing for me. But the ending, with Mimic and Rogue also becoming ticking timebombs of mutant energy was a great way to leave this issue off, and has me really interested to see how Beast, Rogue and the rest of the team wiggle their way out of this mess.
Score: 7 out of 10.
......
X-Men Legacy #264:
Summary: Mimic brings his friend and former Dark X-Men teammate Weapon Omega to the school, hoping Beast could help stabilize Omega's rapidly deteriorating condition. It seems that Omega has become addicted to siphoning mutant powers, so Mimic was allowing Omega to feed off of his powers. The only problem there is that Mimic isn't really a mutant and siphoning from Mimic actually messed Omega up even more. Beast brings Mimic and Omega into his lab and after some examinations realizes that Omega's body was so messed up that he was going to explode, resulting in a massive release of energy. Rogue and Mimic offer to take some of Omega's powers away, figuring that would help stabilize Omega, but unfortunately, duping Omega's powers turns Rogue and Mimic into bombs as well.
Thoughts: I have to admit, I wasn't really that into this comic during the early stages. But the cliffhanger? The cliffhanger definitely saved this one for me. See, my thing is that I've NEVER cared for Weapon Omega. He's never interested me in the least. And Mimic? The only Mimic I ever cared about was the Exiles one, and this Mimic is definitely not that Mimic. So seeing those two characters pop up here just did nothing for me. But the ending, with Mimic and Rogue also becoming ticking timebombs of mutant energy was a great way to leave this issue off, and has me really interested to see how Beast, Rogue and the rest of the team wiggle their way out of this mess.
Score: 7 out of 10.
......
Friday, March 16, 2012
X-Men Legacy #263
Last review of the night is the series that is probably my favorite X-title(not named X-Factor), X-Men Legacy. Man, what a difference a writing change can make on a comic series...
X-Men Legacy #263:
Summary: Wolvie's team and Our Lord and Savior Hope's band of brainwashed lackeys team-up to take Exodus down. Even though he is defeated Exodus is kind of smug about it, since he claims that he wasn't defeated until Lord Summers mutants and Wolvie's mutants worked together, thus proving what he had been saying all along, mutantkind needed to be reunited for it's own good. Our Lord and Savior Hope takes Exodus back to Crazy Mutie Island with her, since she claims that Wolvie wouldn't be able to adequately hold a villain of Exodus's power. From there Wolvie's team heads back to the school and Wolvie tells Rogue that after she went behind his back and called Crazy Mutie Island, he wouldn't be able to trust her anymore. Later on, Rachel Grey and Rogue have a heart-to-heart and Rachel tells Rogue that most of the faculty felt Rogue did the right thing... When pressed by Rogue though, Rachel tells Rogue that she felt the only reason Rogue called Crazy Mutie Island was so she could see Magneto again. Rachel basically tells Rogue to figure her feelings regarding Magneto out, before it led to trouble for the school. With that, Rachel takes her leave and Wolvie's team finds itself a pretty splintered group.
Thoughts: Eh, not bad. Naturally, my enjoyment of this issue was hurt, a lot, by the arrival of Our Lord and Savior Hope... Man, you don't know how badly I'm hoping the events of AvX leads to Hope going away... Forever! Regardless, Christos Gage did a great job of fracturing the members of Wolverine's faculty here, which will undoubtedly lead to some good storytelling down the road.
Score: 7 out of 10.
I also hate stabbing people who agree with me... But sometimes I just have no choice...
X-Men Legacy #263:
Summary: Wolvie's team and Our Lord and Savior Hope's band of brainwashed lackeys team-up to take Exodus down. Even though he is defeated Exodus is kind of smug about it, since he claims that he wasn't defeated until Lord Summers mutants and Wolvie's mutants worked together, thus proving what he had been saying all along, mutantkind needed to be reunited for it's own good. Our Lord and Savior Hope takes Exodus back to Crazy Mutie Island with her, since she claims that Wolvie wouldn't be able to adequately hold a villain of Exodus's power. From there Wolvie's team heads back to the school and Wolvie tells Rogue that after she went behind his back and called Crazy Mutie Island, he wouldn't be able to trust her anymore. Later on, Rachel Grey and Rogue have a heart-to-heart and Rachel tells Rogue that most of the faculty felt Rogue did the right thing... When pressed by Rogue though, Rachel tells Rogue that she felt the only reason Rogue called Crazy Mutie Island was so she could see Magneto again. Rachel basically tells Rogue to figure her feelings regarding Magneto out, before it led to trouble for the school. With that, Rachel takes her leave and Wolvie's team finds itself a pretty splintered group.
Thoughts: Eh, not bad. Naturally, my enjoyment of this issue was hurt, a lot, by the arrival of Our Lord and Savior Hope... Man, you don't know how badly I'm hoping the events of AvX leads to Hope going away... Forever! Regardless, Christos Gage did a great job of fracturing the members of Wolverine's faculty here, which will undoubtedly lead to some good storytelling down the road.
Score: 7 out of 10.
I also hate stabbing people who agree with me... But sometimes I just have no choice...
Friday, February 24, 2012
X-Men Legacy #262
Last speed review of the night, and it's the most recent issue of X-Men Legacy. Christos Gage writing Exodus SHOULD make for a good comic book... Here's hoping that's what we get here.
X-Men Legacy #262:
Summary: With Exodus now on his way to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) to kill Lord Summers, Wolverine takes Rogue, Cannonball, Frenzy, Gambit, Iceman and Rachel Grey to try to halt Exodus before he can attempt his grim act. Rogue wants to warn Crazy Mutie Island, but Wolverine tells her not to since Exodus was their responsibility to stop. The team heads after Exodus, but not before Rogue secretly sends a message to Crazy Mutie Island on a time delay, just in case Exodus can't be defeated. From there Wolvie's squad manages to ground Exodus, but prove unable to stop him... At all. Exodus spends most of this issue beating up on Wolvie's team, and this one ends with Our Lord and Savior Hope(REALLY?!?) and her band of brainwashed misfits arriving to assist Wolvie after intercepting the message Rogue sent to Crazy Mutie Island.
Thoughts: Oh, well thank the gods, Our Lord and Savior is on the case!! Why the hell should I even bother reading the next issue of this series since we ALL know what's gonna happen! Here's a hint, it involves Our Lord and Savior Hope defeating Exodus, probably with ease, while every other character in the comic book(as well as probably Exodus himself) stands around kissing her ass. So yeah, basically I HATED the ending of this one... This issue was moving along fine and good until the appearance of that damned Hope... I mean come on, I drop every series where she may pop up and what happens? She pops up in this series! I just have no luck sometimes...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Oh Wolverine... How many times have we seen this happen to you...
X-Men Legacy #262:
Summary: With Exodus now on his way to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) to kill Lord Summers, Wolverine takes Rogue, Cannonball, Frenzy, Gambit, Iceman and Rachel Grey to try to halt Exodus before he can attempt his grim act. Rogue wants to warn Crazy Mutie Island, but Wolverine tells her not to since Exodus was their responsibility to stop. The team heads after Exodus, but not before Rogue secretly sends a message to Crazy Mutie Island on a time delay, just in case Exodus can't be defeated. From there Wolvie's squad manages to ground Exodus, but prove unable to stop him... At all. Exodus spends most of this issue beating up on Wolvie's team, and this one ends with Our Lord and Savior Hope(REALLY?!?) and her band of brainwashed misfits arriving to assist Wolvie after intercepting the message Rogue sent to Crazy Mutie Island.
Thoughts: Oh, well thank the gods, Our Lord and Savior is on the case!! Why the hell should I even bother reading the next issue of this series since we ALL know what's gonna happen! Here's a hint, it involves Our Lord and Savior Hope defeating Exodus, probably with ease, while every other character in the comic book(as well as probably Exodus himself) stands around kissing her ass. So yeah, basically I HATED the ending of this one... This issue was moving along fine and good until the appearance of that damned Hope... I mean come on, I drop every series where she may pop up and what happens? She pops up in this series! I just have no luck sometimes...
Score: 6 out of 10.
Oh Wolverine... How many times have we seen this happen to you...
Friday, January 27, 2012
X-Men Legacy #261
Next comic up for reviewing? That would be X-Men Legacy #261. This is only the second issue of Legacy that I've read in the past 3 years or so, and that's thanks to Christos Gage taking over the series. Let's see what Gage has in store for us here.
X-Men Legacy #261:
Summary: Blindfold(one of the X-Kids) gets a prognosticative(how's THAT for a ten dollar word!) vision and warns Wolverine and the rest of the faculty that destruction was coming to the school. Wolvie sends the kids to the school's safe room(which actually shunts the kids to a neutral dimension) and spots the trouble outside... Exodus(!!!). Wolvie and the faculty head outside to see what Exodus wanted, and he demands that they head back to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) since splitting the world's remaining mutants was harmful(or something). Wolvie says nuts to that, so Exodus attacks. Realizing that the best they could hope for was a stalemate, Rogue tells Exodus to look into her mind to see why her and the rest of the non-crazy X-Men left Crazy Mutie Island. Wolvie also agrees to be probed(ugh) so Exodus looks into their minds and apologizes, since he now realizes that Rogue and Wolvie left Crazy Mutie Island because that's what they believed was best for mutantkind. Exodus tells the X-Men that now that he knew who the REAL problem to mutantkind was, he'd eliminate them. With that, Exodus leaves, and Wolvie and Rogue realize that Exodus intended on killing Lord Summers(GOOD!!). Being the good guys, the faculty rush after Exodus to stop him.
Thoughts: This was a very good, very solid comic book. As a huge fan of Exodus, I was happy to see him pop up here, as crazy as ever. And yes, I loved the twist at the end with the X-Men realizing that they accidentally sent Exodus off to murder Lord Summers. So yeah, this was a good comic. It wasn't great or anything, but it was a fine way to pass a few minutes.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Yep, I am indeed a fan of Exodus!
X-Men Legacy #261:
Summary: Blindfold(one of the X-Kids) gets a prognosticative(how's THAT for a ten dollar word!) vision and warns Wolverine and the rest of the faculty that destruction was coming to the school. Wolvie sends the kids to the school's safe room(which actually shunts the kids to a neutral dimension) and spots the trouble outside... Exodus(!!!). Wolvie and the faculty head outside to see what Exodus wanted, and he demands that they head back to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) since splitting the world's remaining mutants was harmful(or something). Wolvie says nuts to that, so Exodus attacks. Realizing that the best they could hope for was a stalemate, Rogue tells Exodus to look into her mind to see why her and the rest of the non-crazy X-Men left Crazy Mutie Island. Wolvie also agrees to be probed(ugh) so Exodus looks into their minds and apologizes, since he now realizes that Rogue and Wolvie left Crazy Mutie Island because that's what they believed was best for mutantkind. Exodus tells the X-Men that now that he knew who the REAL problem to mutantkind was, he'd eliminate them. With that, Exodus leaves, and Wolvie and Rogue realize that Exodus intended on killing Lord Summers(GOOD!!). Being the good guys, the faculty rush after Exodus to stop him.
Thoughts: This was a very good, very solid comic book. As a huge fan of Exodus, I was happy to see him pop up here, as crazy as ever. And yes, I loved the twist at the end with the X-Men realizing that they accidentally sent Exodus off to murder Lord Summers. So yeah, this was a good comic. It wasn't great or anything, but it was a fine way to pass a few minutes.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Yep, I am indeed a fan of Exodus!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
X-Men Legacy #260.1
Ah, here's an interesting one... I have the entire X-Men → X-Men Legacy run through like issue 230-something, when I just couldn't take Mike Carey's writing anymore. I know people like to rag on Chuck Austen as one of, if not the worst X-writer ever(and for good reason!), but personally? Mike Carey gets the nod as my least favorite X-writer ever. Back when I was buying EVERYTHING Marvel was publishing, X-Men Legacy was so bad I dropped it. It was one of the very first comic books I actually hated so much I just couldn't stomach reading it anymore. So I've actually been waiting years now to put this series back on my pull list, because I knew whoever ended up taking the reins here would be better than Carey by default. As luck would have it, Christos Gage ended up getting this series, which is awesome since he was my favorite writer of 2011. Now, I KNOW Gage will do a good job on this series, the question is, will he be able to do AS good a job here as he does on Avengers Academy?
X-Men Legacy #260.1:
What Happened: This issue opens with the N'Garai portal near X-Mansion cracking open and a mess of N'Garai slipping out, intent on world domination or other evil, demonic plans. Rachel Grey and Rogue(who had borrowed Rachel's powers) telepathically sense the demons as they approach, and send the students inside to have class as normal, since the job of Rogue's team was to allow the students to have the most normal lives possible. Gambit, Rogue, Frenzy and Rachel(Cannonball offers his assistance but Rogue sends him back inside so as to not alarm the students) wind up defeating the N'Garai, and Rachel and Frenzy do their best to block the portal up until Dr. Strange or some other magic type could come by to seal the portal off for good. With that taken care of, Gambit and Frenzy head out to get some drinks, and after some flirting, the two embrace in a passionate kiss.
Thoughts: Ooo, there was A LOT of good in this one!! First off, Cannonball and Husk actually mentioned poor, dead Jay! Jay's death, probably more than any of the Academy X kids bugged me the most for two reasons... The first was because of how asinine his death was explained... His healing factor was in his wings... GTFO!! Secondly, Jay had major connections in the X-books being a Guthrie and all. Sam and Paige have BOTH served on the X-Men, as well as being members of the New Mutants, X-Force, X-Corp, Generation X, and probably others. In other words, fairly or unfairly, Jay's death should have been WAY bigger than it ended up being. Basically everybody, including Sam and Paige, just shrugged their shoulders and continued on with whatever X-business they had on their plates at the time. So it's nice to FINALLY see SOMEBODY show that Jay's death DID hurt the Guthrie clan, as we saw in the scene between Sam and Paige here. Leave it to Christos Gage to, in his first issue on an X-book, bring up something that should have been brought up years ago! Besides my obvious love for the Guthrie clan, this entire issues was well done! I've never been a big fan of Rogue, and never brought her as a leader, but here? Her leadership abilities just seemed right. She had an air of leadership around her that I'd never picked up on before. Another character I've always been down on was Rachel Grey/Summers, mainly due to Chris Claremont and his bizarre fixation on her. But even SHE was written well here! She wasn't at the center of every page(as she often was when Claremont used her), and she wasn't as whiny/annoying as I've seen her written before. It's not all roses and sunshine though, as I don't get why Frenzy is in this book. She's one character I've never liked, from her early days as an X-Factor villain through her time as an Acolyte. She's a villain. If anything she belongs with Lord Summers and the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Her addition here is perplexing. I guess Gage is going to use her as a love interest for Gambit, but I don't know, if he wanted to keep Rogue and Gambit apart, I'd have preferred using any number of other mutants. Whew, I sure had lots to say about this one, but I couldn't help it, I'm excited! I mean THIS comic pretty much gave me everything that I complained Wolverine and the X-Men WASN'T giving me! This was a great first issue for Gage, and if he can keep it up, I'd expect this to become my favorite X-title in a few month's time.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
It's about time SOMEBODY explored the Cannonball/Husk/Guthrie aspect of the X-books since Jay's idiotic death...
X-Men Legacy #260.1:
What Happened: This issue opens with the N'Garai portal near X-Mansion cracking open and a mess of N'Garai slipping out, intent on world domination or other evil, demonic plans. Rachel Grey and Rogue(who had borrowed Rachel's powers) telepathically sense the demons as they approach, and send the students inside to have class as normal, since the job of Rogue's team was to allow the students to have the most normal lives possible. Gambit, Rogue, Frenzy and Rachel(Cannonball offers his assistance but Rogue sends him back inside so as to not alarm the students) wind up defeating the N'Garai, and Rachel and Frenzy do their best to block the portal up until Dr. Strange or some other magic type could come by to seal the portal off for good. With that taken care of, Gambit and Frenzy head out to get some drinks, and after some flirting, the two embrace in a passionate kiss.
Thoughts: Ooo, there was A LOT of good in this one!! First off, Cannonball and Husk actually mentioned poor, dead Jay! Jay's death, probably more than any of the Academy X kids bugged me the most for two reasons... The first was because of how asinine his death was explained... His healing factor was in his wings... GTFO!! Secondly, Jay had major connections in the X-books being a Guthrie and all. Sam and Paige have BOTH served on the X-Men, as well as being members of the New Mutants, X-Force, X-Corp, Generation X, and probably others. In other words, fairly or unfairly, Jay's death should have been WAY bigger than it ended up being. Basically everybody, including Sam and Paige, just shrugged their shoulders and continued on with whatever X-business they had on their plates at the time. So it's nice to FINALLY see SOMEBODY show that Jay's death DID hurt the Guthrie clan, as we saw in the scene between Sam and Paige here. Leave it to Christos Gage to, in his first issue on an X-book, bring up something that should have been brought up years ago! Besides my obvious love for the Guthrie clan, this entire issues was well done! I've never been a big fan of Rogue, and never brought her as a leader, but here? Her leadership abilities just seemed right. She had an air of leadership around her that I'd never picked up on before. Another character I've always been down on was Rachel Grey/Summers, mainly due to Chris Claremont and his bizarre fixation on her. But even SHE was written well here! She wasn't at the center of every page(as she often was when Claremont used her), and she wasn't as whiny/annoying as I've seen her written before. It's not all roses and sunshine though, as I don't get why Frenzy is in this book. She's one character I've never liked, from her early days as an X-Factor villain through her time as an Acolyte. She's a villain. If anything she belongs with Lord Summers and the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Her addition here is perplexing. I guess Gage is going to use her as a love interest for Gambit, but I don't know, if he wanted to keep Rogue and Gambit apart, I'd have preferred using any number of other mutants. Whew, I sure had lots to say about this one, but I couldn't help it, I'm excited! I mean THIS comic pretty much gave me everything that I complained Wolverine and the X-Men WASN'T giving me! This was a great first issue for Gage, and if he can keep it up, I'd expect this to become my favorite X-title in a few month's time.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
It's about time SOMEBODY explored the Cannonball/Husk/Guthrie aspect of the X-books since Jay's idiotic death...
Friday, July 24, 2009
X-Men Legacy #226
This here issue of Legacy is a Utopia x-over. This comic isn't integral to the main Utopia story, it's just here to enhance the overall Utopia experience. Is it a good read? Does it suck? Does anybody care? I'll answer two of those three questions here in my review. This issue is written by Mike Carey(who hates me).
-This issue picks up during the nighttime riots that occurred during the first chapter of Utopia. Gambit, Rogue and Danger fly into San Fran airspace and are immediately teleported to Cyclops. Scott bitches at Rogue for a while(that's what he does best!), before Gambit informs him that they're all there to help. How sad is it when Gambit is the voice of reason?!? Cyclops then sends the three heroes(?)out to locate some missing mutants.
-Danger saves a little boy(who thinks he was saved by a transformer... HA!), while Gambit runs into some HAMMER agents beating up Trance. Remy KO's the HAMMER goons and Ariel teleports Trance away.
-While trying to find a lost student, Rogue runs into Moonstone(who's dressed like Ms. Marvel). Rogue realizes this Ms. Marvel isn't Carol Danvers(they have a LONG history), and after a brief battle, Rogue manages to escape.
-Gambit runs into Avalanche and some other angry muties who want to attack the HAMMER agents who are trying to restore a modicum of order to the lawless streets. Gambit warns them against their current actions, and before the muties decide to either attack or disperse, Ares attacks them. After tearing through Avalanche and his allies, Ares turns his sights to Gambit. Gambit realizes this is a battle he can't possibly win, so he detonates a wall, which falls on the angry God of War.
-The falling wall doesn't even knock Ares down, and Ares grabs a hold of the Cajun and sends him hurtling towards a wall. Before Gambit hits the wall, Danger rushes over and makes the save. Rogue also arrives on the scene and grabs Ares, which causes her to begin to absorb his powers. However, Rogue is a mortal and Ares is a god, so Rogue's body can't contain all the energy it is absorbing. Before Rogue explodes, Danger knocks Ares away from her, and the three heroes steal a HAMMER tank and drive it away, continuing their search for missing mutants in the riot ravaged city.
Hey, you know what? This was one of the best issues of this series in recent memory. Everything was just so smooth here. Rogue and Gambit still work well together and Danger is a strange, but welcome addition to this comic. It all just really worked for me this month. The story was fast-paced and simple, the fight scenes were well done and Gambit told Cyclops off(which earned Gambit a ton of respect from me). It was all good!
I really can't think of any complaints, which is rare for me when reading this series. For a score I'll go with a 9 out of 10. Hopefully Mike can keep up the great work.
-This issue picks up during the nighttime riots that occurred during the first chapter of Utopia. Gambit, Rogue and Danger fly into San Fran airspace and are immediately teleported to Cyclops. Scott bitches at Rogue for a while(that's what he does best!), before Gambit informs him that they're all there to help. How sad is it when Gambit is the voice of reason?!? Cyclops then sends the three heroes(?)out to locate some missing mutants.
-Danger saves a little boy(who thinks he was saved by a transformer... HA!), while Gambit runs into some HAMMER agents beating up Trance. Remy KO's the HAMMER goons and Ariel teleports Trance away.
-While trying to find a lost student, Rogue runs into Moonstone(who's dressed like Ms. Marvel). Rogue realizes this Ms. Marvel isn't Carol Danvers(they have a LONG history), and after a brief battle, Rogue manages to escape.
-Gambit runs into Avalanche and some other angry muties who want to attack the HAMMER agents who are trying to restore a modicum of order to the lawless streets. Gambit warns them against their current actions, and before the muties decide to either attack or disperse, Ares attacks them. After tearing through Avalanche and his allies, Ares turns his sights to Gambit. Gambit realizes this is a battle he can't possibly win, so he detonates a wall, which falls on the angry God of War.
-The falling wall doesn't even knock Ares down, and Ares grabs a hold of the Cajun and sends him hurtling towards a wall. Before Gambit hits the wall, Danger rushes over and makes the save. Rogue also arrives on the scene and grabs Ares, which causes her to begin to absorb his powers. However, Rogue is a mortal and Ares is a god, so Rogue's body can't contain all the energy it is absorbing. Before Rogue explodes, Danger knocks Ares away from her, and the three heroes steal a HAMMER tank and drive it away, continuing their search for missing mutants in the riot ravaged city.
Hey, you know what? This was one of the best issues of this series in recent memory. Everything was just so smooth here. Rogue and Gambit still work well together and Danger is a strange, but welcome addition to this comic. It all just really worked for me this month. The story was fast-paced and simple, the fight scenes were well done and Gambit told Cyclops off(which earned Gambit a ton of respect from me). It was all good!
I really can't think of any complaints, which is rare for me when reading this series. For a score I'll go with a 9 out of 10. Hopefully Mike can keep up the great work.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
X-Men Legacy #225
To be honest, I wasn't planning on reviewing anything tonight. However, I've made sure to post something here for 7 or 8 months straight now, so I figured I'd read something I really don't care about, that way I can half-ass a review while still providing a post! Hey, if nothing else at least I'm honest right? This comic is STILL written by Mike Carey... I really don't know why! I like some of Mike's pre-X-Men Legacy work, but his run on this book has been forgettable, and that's the nicest thing I can say! Well, without further ado, here's my half-assed review of X-Men Legacy #225.
-This issue opens with Prof. X visiting Exodus' Acolytes telepathically while they slept and telling them he was there to destroy the Acolytes. The Acolytes wake up to alarms and rush to the security cameras to see Prof. X strolling through their security measures. It seems that Prof. X planted telepathic suggestions in the heads of many of the Acolytes while they slept allowing him free passage through their security systems.
-Exodus sends some of his cannon fodder after Prof. X, and he makes quick work of them. After making his way through the team, Prof. X confronts Exodus, and the two have a telepathic tete-a-tete.
-During the conversation, Prof. X convinces Exodus that the old ways of mutants battling mutants wouldn't work anymore and that he should allow his Acolytes to head to San Fran to stand with the X-Men for when the humans inevitably try to wipe out mutantkind once and for all.
-Some of the Acolytes aren't exactly pleased by this turn of events, but after Exodus destroys their headquarters, he leaves them with little choice but to head to San Fransisco. This issue closes with Norman Osborn(he's in THIS comic TOO!!!)strolling over to Prof. X and Exodus, telling Prof. X that he needs to talk to him.
So, Prof X wants the Acolytes to hang out with the X-Men in San Fran so they can battle humankind together? Wouldn't it be smarter to keep the few remaining mutants away from each other so they can't all be wiped out by a tactical nuclear strike or something along those lines? Eh, what the hell I guess, send all of the muties to San Fran!
I've always been a fan of Prof. X, but I have to say, I'm not overly fond of the new Bruce Willis from "Die Hard" Prof. X... I've always liked the Professor as the brains behind the X-Men, not as the dude on the front lines of the fight. Yeah, Prof. X has those kick-ass powers and all, but I liked him best when he would provide the X-teams with sage advice while riding around in his pimped out Shi'ar wheelchair.
I liked this issue of Legacy more than any other issue in recent memory, but with my dislike of the direction this comic has moved during the past 25 issues or so that's not exactly saying much. I wish Exodus would have come across a bit stronger(he's another character I like), but what can you do? For a score, I'll give this comic a 7 out of 10 along with a mild recommendation.
-This issue opens with Prof. X visiting Exodus' Acolytes telepathically while they slept and telling them he was there to destroy the Acolytes. The Acolytes wake up to alarms and rush to the security cameras to see Prof. X strolling through their security measures. It seems that Prof. X planted telepathic suggestions in the heads of many of the Acolytes while they slept allowing him free passage through their security systems.
-Exodus sends some of his cannon fodder after Prof. X, and he makes quick work of them. After making his way through the team, Prof. X confronts Exodus, and the two have a telepathic tete-a-tete.
-During the conversation, Prof. X convinces Exodus that the old ways of mutants battling mutants wouldn't work anymore and that he should allow his Acolytes to head to San Fran to stand with the X-Men for when the humans inevitably try to wipe out mutantkind once and for all.
-Some of the Acolytes aren't exactly pleased by this turn of events, but after Exodus destroys their headquarters, he leaves them with little choice but to head to San Fransisco. This issue closes with Norman Osborn(he's in THIS comic TOO!!!)strolling over to Prof. X and Exodus, telling Prof. X that he needs to talk to him.
So, Prof X wants the Acolytes to hang out with the X-Men in San Fran so they can battle humankind together? Wouldn't it be smarter to keep the few remaining mutants away from each other so they can't all be wiped out by a tactical nuclear strike or something along those lines? Eh, what the hell I guess, send all of the muties to San Fran!
I've always been a fan of Prof. X, but I have to say, I'm not overly fond of the new Bruce Willis from "Die Hard" Prof. X... I've always liked the Professor as the brains behind the X-Men, not as the dude on the front lines of the fight. Yeah, Prof. X has those kick-ass powers and all, but I liked him best when he would provide the X-teams with sage advice while riding around in his pimped out Shi'ar wheelchair.
I liked this issue of Legacy more than any other issue in recent memory, but with my dislike of the direction this comic has moved during the past 25 issues or so that's not exactly saying much. I wish Exodus would have come across a bit stronger(he's another character I like), but what can you do? For a score, I'll give this comic a 7 out of 10 along with a mild recommendation.
Friday, June 12, 2009
X-Men Legacy #220-224
I figured that since I really haven't been enjoying this series all that much that I'd just review these 5 comics all at once. These comics were all written by Mike Carey.
-We begin with Rogue hiding out in the Australian Outback where the X-Men used to live, as she attempts to get her powers under control after the whole Messiah CompleX mess.
-Prof. X decides he wants to help Rogue with her powers and enlists Rogue's one-time lover Gambit to assist.
-Rogue's silence is broken by Danger, the X-Men's Danger Room come to life(thanks for that idiotic idea Joss Whedon...), who wants to use Rogue as a weapon against some Shi'ar scavengers. The scavengers attack and Danger traps them, as well as Prof X and Gambit in a hologram.
-Eventually Prof X, Gambit and the scavengers reach the core of the holograms, Danger itself and Prof X manages to deactivate Danger. The scavengers double-cross Prof X and Gambit and attempt to make off with Danger, but are stopped by Rogue. The scavengers defeat Rogue, but Prof X reactivates a kinder, gentler Danger who beats the scavengers up until they high-tail it off of Earth.
-Danger(who is now a good guy I guess)explains to Prof X how to fix Rogue's powers, and Prof X goes into Rogue's head and does just that. This storyline ends with Gambit and Rogue sharing a kiss which doesn't put Gambit in a coma.
This storyline wasn't all that bad, but with the exception of Prof X, I really don't give a hoot about any of these characters. I've never really liked the concept of Danger, and Gambit and Rogue have been stale for the better part of 15 years now.
After finishing these comics off, I was initially kind of pissed off about the turn of events for Rogue. One of the main things most people like about Rogue is the fact that she isn't able to safely touch anybody. Chris Claremont did a brilliant job crafting Rogue into the ultimate sympathetic character. For me, Rogue's character was at its peak during the early 90's when her relationship with Gambit first began. Their whole relationship was based on the fact that Gambit REALLY wanted to get his hands on Rogue, but they both knew they couldn't go through with it. That all changed with the Legion's Quest storyline, which saw Rogue and Gambit kiss because they thought the world was ending(and in all fairness, it was!). Things then went rapidly downhill from there.
After the kiss(and the quick roll in the hay the two had in the Savage Land)there wasn't anywhere else for Rogue and Gambit's relationship to go. Gambit became a villain(sort of), reformed and eventually became a bad guy again(this time for real)before reforming once again. As for Rogue, she kicked Gambit to the curb and kind of floated around before she became the leader of the X-Men, which was just totally ridiculous. Suddenly Rogue went from an almost dim-witted southern belle to the super competent leader of the X-Men. No way! From there she kind of fell off the map until these comics.
Like I said earlier, I was initially annoyed about Rogue now having full control of her powers, but you know what? Maybe this will be the thing that will make Gambit and Rogue relevant again. Rogue had become boring as hell, and Gambit a mess of a character. Maybe Mike can actually bring these characters back to the levels of popularity they enjoyed back in the 90's. Remember, there was a time when Gambit rivaled Wolverine himself as the most popular X-Man. When I was kid, I was a HUGE Gambit fan. I'll always remember how mad I used to make my Wolverine worshiping friends by whipping out the issue of Uncanny X-Men where Gambit kicks Wolvie's ass! Ah memories... For a score, I'll give this storyline a hopeful 7 out of 10. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mike Carey can make something out of this latest installment of the Gambit/Rogue relationship.
-We begin with Rogue hiding out in the Australian Outback where the X-Men used to live, as she attempts to get her powers under control after the whole Messiah CompleX mess.
-Prof. X decides he wants to help Rogue with her powers and enlists Rogue's one-time lover Gambit to assist.
-Rogue's silence is broken by Danger, the X-Men's Danger Room come to life(thanks for that idiotic idea Joss Whedon...), who wants to use Rogue as a weapon against some Shi'ar scavengers. The scavengers attack and Danger traps them, as well as Prof X and Gambit in a hologram.
-Eventually Prof X, Gambit and the scavengers reach the core of the holograms, Danger itself and Prof X manages to deactivate Danger. The scavengers double-cross Prof X and Gambit and attempt to make off with Danger, but are stopped by Rogue. The scavengers defeat Rogue, but Prof X reactivates a kinder, gentler Danger who beats the scavengers up until they high-tail it off of Earth.
-Danger(who is now a good guy I guess)explains to Prof X how to fix Rogue's powers, and Prof X goes into Rogue's head and does just that. This storyline ends with Gambit and Rogue sharing a kiss which doesn't put Gambit in a coma.
This storyline wasn't all that bad, but with the exception of Prof X, I really don't give a hoot about any of these characters. I've never really liked the concept of Danger, and Gambit and Rogue have been stale for the better part of 15 years now.
After finishing these comics off, I was initially kind of pissed off about the turn of events for Rogue. One of the main things most people like about Rogue is the fact that she isn't able to safely touch anybody. Chris Claremont did a brilliant job crafting Rogue into the ultimate sympathetic character. For me, Rogue's character was at its peak during the early 90's when her relationship with Gambit first began. Their whole relationship was based on the fact that Gambit REALLY wanted to get his hands on Rogue, but they both knew they couldn't go through with it. That all changed with the Legion's Quest storyline, which saw Rogue and Gambit kiss because they thought the world was ending(and in all fairness, it was!). Things then went rapidly downhill from there.
After the kiss(and the quick roll in the hay the two had in the Savage Land)there wasn't anywhere else for Rogue and Gambit's relationship to go. Gambit became a villain(sort of), reformed and eventually became a bad guy again(this time for real)before reforming once again. As for Rogue, she kicked Gambit to the curb and kind of floated around before she became the leader of the X-Men, which was just totally ridiculous. Suddenly Rogue went from an almost dim-witted southern belle to the super competent leader of the X-Men. No way! From there she kind of fell off the map until these comics.
Like I said earlier, I was initially annoyed about Rogue now having full control of her powers, but you know what? Maybe this will be the thing that will make Gambit and Rogue relevant again. Rogue had become boring as hell, and Gambit a mess of a character. Maybe Mike can actually bring these characters back to the levels of popularity they enjoyed back in the 90's. Remember, there was a time when Gambit rivaled Wolverine himself as the most popular X-Man. When I was kid, I was a HUGE Gambit fan. I'll always remember how mad I used to make my Wolverine worshiping friends by whipping out the issue of Uncanny X-Men where Gambit kicks Wolvie's ass! Ah memories... For a score, I'll give this storyline a hopeful 7 out of 10. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mike Carey can make something out of this latest installment of the Gambit/Rogue relationship.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
X-Men Legacy #219
OK, one more of these X-Men Legacy comics then I'm calling it a night. Once again, this is written by Mike Carey.
-So, the Juggernaut, Charles Xavier and 6 hostages walk into a bar... Wait, you've heard that one already? Oh, well then I guess I'll just head straight to the review. Juggy seems to have taken a bar and some of its patrons hostage. Prof X arrives and the two step-brothers have a conversation.
-Juggy is all, "Oh, I'ms bes evil again!". X is all, "Why ain't youse be good now?". Juggy says, "I's hates youse again cueball! I's ain't reforms wit youse no more!". X retorts, "So is youse finally gonna hearse me?". Juggy says, "Yep, now I's is drop bar on youse head and kills yo ass ded."
-Before Juggy kills X though, X gives Juggy an little empty box and tells Juggy that whenever he's ready, he should open the box up.
-Juggy then kills X and goes on a rampage of epic proportions, killing the X-Men, robbing banks and getting hot women.
-Huh, I guess that's the end of the X-titles... Oh wait, there's a few more pages in this comic. I'd better read them.
-Oh, it was all a dream! Ha ha ha! It turns out that X went into Juggy's head while the Big J was asleep just to see what would happen if the two met. X explains to Juggy that apparently Juggy won't/can't reform, and that X FINALLY understands that. X then warns Juggy that if the two ever do meet again, Juggy won't like the consequences. Juggy then wakes up screaming.
Ugh. The only way I could possibly review that monstrosity was with a lot of humor... Or with my brand of not-so-funny humor... OK, it wasn't that funny... You don't have to rub it in! Let me state for the record that I was one of the FEW people who actually liked Chuck Austen's run on "Uncanny X-Men". OK, I was the ONLY person who enjoyed reading those comics! I'll admit that. It was during Chuck's run that Juggy reformed and joined the X-Men, so I'll always have a soft spot for the good, reformed Juggernaut. As a villain, Juggernaut... Well, he sucks. He really, really sucks! He's been defeated by the X-Men, the Avengers, X-Force, the Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, and probably Aunt May. The point is he's not really a very good/interesting villain. However, Juggy makes a way more compelling hero since he always has to carry his evil past deeds with him. Heroic Juggy is trying to bury his villainous past, bad Juggy is just another rampaging bruiser who never wins.
It seems that bad Juggy is back for good, which honestly is no real surprise with the awful direction(most)of Marvel's X-titles have been heading. Decimate the mutant population, check. Throw Prof X off of the X-Men, check. Replace Jean Grey with Emma Frost, check. Blow up X-Mansion and move the team to San Francisco, check. Turn Mr. Sinister, one of the top X-Villains, into a woman, check. Suddenly add this Romulus character to Wolverine's already WAY too complicated past, check. Have Storm suddenly leave the X-Men to marry Black Panther(who she hardly even knew!), check. Turn Juggy back into a boring, one-dimensional villain, check. I swear, someone at the X-Offices must really hate my guts, because it seems that for the last 3 years or so everything that happens in the X-titles is done specifically to piss me off. Now, what was this post originally about? Oh yeah, X-Men Legacy #219! For a score I'll give this comic a 4 out of 10, and say once again that I'm very disappointed in the direction of the X-titles.
-So, the Juggernaut, Charles Xavier and 6 hostages walk into a bar... Wait, you've heard that one already? Oh, well then I guess I'll just head straight to the review. Juggy seems to have taken a bar and some of its patrons hostage. Prof X arrives and the two step-brothers have a conversation.
-Juggy is all, "Oh, I'ms bes evil again!". X is all, "Why ain't youse be good now?". Juggy says, "I's hates youse again cueball! I's ain't reforms wit youse no more!". X retorts, "So is youse finally gonna hearse me?". Juggy says, "Yep, now I's is drop bar on youse head and kills yo ass ded."
-Before Juggy kills X though, X gives Juggy an little empty box and tells Juggy that whenever he's ready, he should open the box up.
-Juggy then kills X and goes on a rampage of epic proportions, killing the X-Men, robbing banks and getting hot women.
-Huh, I guess that's the end of the X-titles... Oh wait, there's a few more pages in this comic. I'd better read them.
-Oh, it was all a dream! Ha ha ha! It turns out that X went into Juggy's head while the Big J was asleep just to see what would happen if the two met. X explains to Juggy that apparently Juggy won't/can't reform, and that X FINALLY understands that. X then warns Juggy that if the two ever do meet again, Juggy won't like the consequences. Juggy then wakes up screaming.
Ugh. The only way I could possibly review that monstrosity was with a lot of humor... Or with my brand of not-so-funny humor... OK, it wasn't that funny... You don't have to rub it in! Let me state for the record that I was one of the FEW people who actually liked Chuck Austen's run on "Uncanny X-Men". OK, I was the ONLY person who enjoyed reading those comics! I'll admit that. It was during Chuck's run that Juggy reformed and joined the X-Men, so I'll always have a soft spot for the good, reformed Juggernaut. As a villain, Juggernaut... Well, he sucks. He really, really sucks! He's been defeated by the X-Men, the Avengers, X-Force, the Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, and probably Aunt May. The point is he's not really a very good/interesting villain. However, Juggy makes a way more compelling hero since he always has to carry his evil past deeds with him. Heroic Juggy is trying to bury his villainous past, bad Juggy is just another rampaging bruiser who never wins.
It seems that bad Juggy is back for good, which honestly is no real surprise with the awful direction(most)of Marvel's X-titles have been heading. Decimate the mutant population, check. Throw Prof X off of the X-Men, check. Replace Jean Grey with Emma Frost, check. Blow up X-Mansion and move the team to San Francisco, check. Turn Mr. Sinister, one of the top X-Villains, into a woman, check. Suddenly add this Romulus character to Wolverine's already WAY too complicated past, check. Have Storm suddenly leave the X-Men to marry Black Panther(who she hardly even knew!), check. Turn Juggy back into a boring, one-dimensional villain, check. I swear, someone at the X-Offices must really hate my guts, because it seems that for the last 3 years or so everything that happens in the X-titles is done specifically to piss me off. Now, what was this post originally about? Oh yeah, X-Men Legacy #219! For a score I'll give this comic a 4 out of 10, and say once again that I'm very disappointed in the direction of the X-titles.
X-Men Legacy #218
This is part 4 of the "Original Sin" storyline and is written by Mike Carey. Once again, here is an abbreviated review.
-Wolvie and Xavier launch their attack on Shaw and Miss. Sinister's island in an attempt to rescue/find/? Wolvie's son, Daken.
-Sinister knocks Daken out and brings him to a lab in order to do something insidious to him. Since he/she is evil, I'm sure whatever he/she is planning, it's bad news... With the way Marvel is going lately, I'm guessing he/she is planning to give Daken a sex change.
-Wolvie and X approach the mansion hideout and are met by Shaw. Wolvie takes on Shaw and X heads inside to find Sinister and Daken.
-X defeats Sinister with relative ease and finds Daken(who is surprisingly still a guy!). X enters Daken's head and frees his buried memories, but gets knocked unconscious when Daken wakes up with a start.
-Sinister walks in and tries to screw with Daken's mind(probably to convince Daken he's actually a woman)but gets a bunch of claws to the gut for his/her troubles.
-Meanwhile, Wolverine defeats Shaw by shutting off the lights... Apparently Shaw is deathly afraid of the dark or something... Who knew?
-Daken heads over to X and prepares to give him a lobotomy, but is halted by the timely arrival of Papa Wolvie.
Since I have already read the next(and final)part of this storyline in an issue of Wolverine Origins, I can tell you with confidence that Daken DOESN'T stab X in the head and that Wolvie and Daken leave together and become a happy family... For about 1 issue. Hey, 1 issue is something at least. Daken then turns on Wolvie, joins up with Cyber, reveals that he was secretly working with Wolvie the whole time, double-crosses BOTH Cyber and Wolvie, kills Cyber, joins the Dark Avengers AS Wolvie, hires the Tinkerer, steals a shard of the samurai sword that killed Sabretooth a while back, and prepares to undergo the same process that gave Wolvie his Adamantium coating back in the Weapon X program. How's that for a quick synopsis of the past several issues of Wolverine Origins! As for this comic, I'll give it a score of 4 1/2 out of 10. Wolverine defeats Shaw by shutting off the lights??? Wha-huh??? On the plus side, hopefully this is the last we'll see of Miss Sinister... BRING BACK MR. SINISTER DAMMIT!!!
-Wolvie and Xavier launch their attack on Shaw and Miss. Sinister's island in an attempt to rescue/find/? Wolvie's son, Daken.
-Sinister knocks Daken out and brings him to a lab in order to do something insidious to him. Since he/she is evil, I'm sure whatever he/she is planning, it's bad news... With the way Marvel is going lately, I'm guessing he/she is planning to give Daken a sex change.
-Wolvie and X approach the mansion hideout and are met by Shaw. Wolvie takes on Shaw and X heads inside to find Sinister and Daken.
-X defeats Sinister with relative ease and finds Daken(who is surprisingly still a guy!). X enters Daken's head and frees his buried memories, but gets knocked unconscious when Daken wakes up with a start.
-Sinister walks in and tries to screw with Daken's mind(probably to convince Daken he's actually a woman)but gets a bunch of claws to the gut for his/her troubles.
-Meanwhile, Wolverine defeats Shaw by shutting off the lights... Apparently Shaw is deathly afraid of the dark or something... Who knew?
-Daken heads over to X and prepares to give him a lobotomy, but is halted by the timely arrival of Papa Wolvie.
Since I have already read the next(and final)part of this storyline in an issue of Wolverine Origins, I can tell you with confidence that Daken DOESN'T stab X in the head and that Wolvie and Daken leave together and become a happy family... For about 1 issue. Hey, 1 issue is something at least. Daken then turns on Wolvie, joins up with Cyber, reveals that he was secretly working with Wolvie the whole time, double-crosses BOTH Cyber and Wolvie, kills Cyber, joins the Dark Avengers AS Wolvie, hires the Tinkerer, steals a shard of the samurai sword that killed Sabretooth a while back, and prepares to undergo the same process that gave Wolvie his Adamantium coating back in the Weapon X program. How's that for a quick synopsis of the past several issues of Wolverine Origins! As for this comic, I'll give it a score of 4 1/2 out of 10. Wolverine defeats Shaw by shutting off the lights??? Wha-huh??? On the plus side, hopefully this is the last we'll see of Miss Sinister... BRING BACK MR. SINISTER DAMMIT!!!
X-Men Legacy #217
This is written by Mike Carey, and is the second part of the "Original Sin" storyline. Since I'm not really overly fond of this series, this is going to be very quick.
-Shaw and Mr. Sinister... Oops, I mean MISS Sinister... Have taken Wolverine's son Daken in, and are trying to unearth some of his buried memories. Oh, and Daken and Sinister make out, which makes me want to retch my lungs up...
-Wolvie and Xavier are hunting for Daken in order to save him from Shaw or some such drivel. To that end, Wolvie sneaks into the Hellfire Club and runs into the Inner Circle. One of the IC members looks curiously like the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz, telling me that the Inner Circle is REALLY hurting for new members. Besides that, Xavier fainted... A lot.
WHY OH WHY IS SINISTER A WOMAN NOW!!! WHY!?! Ugh. First Loki now this! That's actually why I stopped reading this series. Because of Sinister's sudden(and wholly unnecessary)sex change. If Mike Carey wanted a female telepath who was a villain why the hell didn't he just CREATE one??? Would that have been too hard or something??? Jeez, with the way EVERYBODY has been rewriting X-Men history lately, Mike could have just brought in a "mysterious" villain from Xaivier's past to fill Girl Sinister's role. THIS is exactly why Marvel never should have did the whole idiotic "No More Mutants" crap at the end of the House of M. Thanks to that absurd idea, it's WAY harder to introduce new mutant characters to either join or battle the X-Men. Great idea there Joe Quesada... Idiot... Well, now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I'll give this comic a score of 5 out of 10 and move on to the next comic.
-Shaw and Mr. Sinister... Oops, I mean MISS Sinister... Have taken Wolverine's son Daken in, and are trying to unearth some of his buried memories. Oh, and Daken and Sinister make out, which makes me want to retch my lungs up...
-Wolvie and Xavier are hunting for Daken in order to save him from Shaw or some such drivel. To that end, Wolvie sneaks into the Hellfire Club and runs into the Inner Circle. One of the IC members looks curiously like the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz, telling me that the Inner Circle is REALLY hurting for new members. Besides that, Xavier fainted... A lot.
WHY OH WHY IS SINISTER A WOMAN NOW!!! WHY!?! Ugh. First Loki now this! That's actually why I stopped reading this series. Because of Sinister's sudden(and wholly unnecessary)sex change. If Mike Carey wanted a female telepath who was a villain why the hell didn't he just CREATE one??? Would that have been too hard or something??? Jeez, with the way EVERYBODY has been rewriting X-Men history lately, Mike could have just brought in a "mysterious" villain from Xaivier's past to fill Girl Sinister's role. THIS is exactly why Marvel never should have did the whole idiotic "No More Mutants" crap at the end of the House of M. Thanks to that absurd idea, it's WAY harder to introduce new mutant characters to either join or battle the X-Men. Great idea there Joe Quesada... Idiot... Well, now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I'll give this comic a score of 5 out of 10 and move on to the next comic.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
X-Men Legacy #216
Overall- Once again I find it difficult to put the anger I have at this comic book into words. I guess I've always been wrong. Let me explain something right now. Amongst my collection of comic books, I would estimate that I have about almost 90% of all the Uncanny X-Men, X-Men and Astonishing X-Men titles that have ever come out. I have everyone of these comics, with no holes, dating back to 1990. I've spent a lot of time and money, acquiring and reading these comics. I also have, and have read every one of the Essential X-Men comics that have ever come out. So, I think I would be a pretty good expert on a lot of the occurrences that have occurred in the X-Universe.
Prof. Charles Xavier always did what was necessary for the good of the X-Men. Did he screw up sometimes? Of course he did, that's life. Did he engage in some questionable behavior? Once again, of course he did. Now for the kicker. Prof. X was NEVER a villain. You can argue Onslaught to me if you want, but that was.....complicated.
Emma Frost was a villain to the highest degree. She used her powers to gain a fortune, then to gain a place in the Hellfire Club. Emma would constantly destroy the minds of any underling that she felt failed her, as well as attempting to kill the X-Men on numerous occasions. Emma Frost was an evil, cold hearted VILLAIN.
For this comic book to have the audacity to act as if Prof. X was the one playing God, while nothing is mentioned about Emma's sorted past is ludicrous! I don't even know what else to say here... There really isn't anything left I guess... I don't know why Prof. X is being dragged through the mud, while the real villain is living free and clear with the X-Men...
I'm telling you, if only Jean Grey would return and just slaughter Emma Frost, I would die a happy man. As for this particular comic, I can't in good conscience give it any better then a 2 out of 10, and that's even a stretch. Imagine, Emma Frost being judgemental towards Charles Xavier!!! Unbelievable...
Prof. Charles Xavier always did what was necessary for the good of the X-Men. Did he screw up sometimes? Of course he did, that's life. Did he engage in some questionable behavior? Once again, of course he did. Now for the kicker. Prof. X was NEVER a villain. You can argue Onslaught to me if you want, but that was.....complicated.
Emma Frost was a villain to the highest degree. She used her powers to gain a fortune, then to gain a place in the Hellfire Club. Emma would constantly destroy the minds of any underling that she felt failed her, as well as attempting to kill the X-Men on numerous occasions. Emma Frost was an evil, cold hearted VILLAIN.
For this comic book to have the audacity to act as if Prof. X was the one playing God, while nothing is mentioned about Emma's sorted past is ludicrous! I don't even know what else to say here... There really isn't anything left I guess... I don't know why Prof. X is being dragged through the mud, while the real villain is living free and clear with the X-Men...
I'm telling you, if only Jean Grey would return and just slaughter Emma Frost, I would die a happy man. As for this particular comic, I can't in good conscience give it any better then a 2 out of 10, and that's even a stretch. Imagine, Emma Frost being judgemental towards Charles Xavier!!! Unbelievable...
X-Men Legacy #215...
Overall- Because I'm must be a masochist, I've decided to give this comic another try... It can't POSSIBLY be any worse than the last one can it?????
Ehh... Prof. X sets up a meeting with Scott, and they talk about what a jerk X was all these years. Yeah. I get it already. Prof. X altered peoples thoughts. OK. He's one of the highest level of telepath out there, what does everyone expect, a saint?
Throughout this issue, Scott was still being the anti-Scott Summers, you know, the guy who acts nothing like the Scott Summers I've been reading about for these past several years. He hates Prof. X now. Well boo hoo. If Chuck wanted to, he could have just mindwiped the entire world several times over, to achieve the completion of his goals. But he didn't. Everything X has done, he's always had reason for. I don't know where all of Scott's holier than thou crap is coming from, but you'd think he'd have a little more respect for the man who practically raised him from his adolescent years.
What do I expect though? 3 out of 10 is what I'll give this one. Hey, I was right, it wasn't as bad as the last retched issue!
Ehh... Prof. X sets up a meeting with Scott, and they talk about what a jerk X was all these years. Yeah. I get it already. Prof. X altered peoples thoughts. OK. He's one of the highest level of telepath out there, what does everyone expect, a saint?
Throughout this issue, Scott was still being the anti-Scott Summers, you know, the guy who acts nothing like the Scott Summers I've been reading about for these past several years. He hates Prof. X now. Well boo hoo. If Chuck wanted to, he could have just mindwiped the entire world several times over, to achieve the completion of his goals. But he didn't. Everything X has done, he's always had reason for. I don't know where all of Scott's holier than thou crap is coming from, but you'd think he'd have a little more respect for the man who practically raised him from his adolescent years.
What do I expect though? 3 out of 10 is what I'll give this one. Hey, I was right, it wasn't as bad as the last retched issue!
My rant against X-Men Legacy #214
Overall- What the hey I thought, why not start to catch up on this comic series, since I think I'm about 4 months behind. Now, to see if I remember what was going on in this comic...
MOTHER####ING SON OF A #####!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to form words that make any sense right now... That's how incredibly pissed off I'm feeling....... I actually was enjoying the story told in this comic book, because Mr. Sinister has always been one of my favorite villains in all of comics...
His backstage manipulations have always intrigued me. He was always there, and conceivably always will be there. Even after his defeat at the hands of Xavier, Gambit and Shaw, I just sat back and shrugged, content in my knowledge that Mr. Sinister would inevitably be back. You can't keep a good bad guy down... UNLESS YOU TURN HIM INTO A WOMAN!!!!! The last page of this book angered me more than almost any single page I have ever read.
Why the #### is Sinister a female now????? Can ANYBODY explain what ####ing purpose this revelation serves?????? I'm at an absolute loss for words here. Well not really, I sure have a lot more profanity I feel like hurling around... Why does Marvel have this BIZARRE obsession with taking established characters and changing their sex? What the #### does "Miss" Sinister bring to the table that "Mr" Sinister didn't? I'll answer that one myself, NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!
I stopped reading the new Thor series when they decided that for some reason Loki needed to become a woman. WHY??? You know what, I know why, because about 85% of the writers and editors at Marvel Comics absolutely SUCK right now, that's why. They're too damn lazy to actually create a new, strong, female character. So, since most of these hacks have no creativity, they just take established characters and drastically change them. A female Loki... You've got to be ####ing kidding me...
Now I don't want to come across as some kind of crazed sexist, because that's not the point I'm trying to make. If Marvel took the Invisible Woman and changed her into the Invisible Man, or took Jean Grey and turned her into Jean-Paul Grey, I think I would go bat#### crazy!!!!! Here's some free advise to the lazy bastards at Marvel. Instead of changing your male characters into females or vice versa, why the #### don't you go out and create some NEW female characters!!!! I'm sure it can't be that difficult! You're predecessors have been able to do it for years.
Or better yet, if they just NEEDED a Miss Sinister, why not have her working WITH Mr. Sinister??? That's the thing that I appreciate about DC Comics. Batgirl can coexist with Batman. Batgirl isn't Bruce Wayne, suddenly in female form! The same goes for Supergirl. She is her OWN person! She isn't Clark Kent, suddenly transformed into a teenaged girl. She is Kara Zor-El. Why the #### can't Marvel figure this formula out? You want a female Loki, fine, but leave the original Loki the #### alone!!!!!! I hear that Marvel has a new female version of Bullseye called Lady Bullseye out there now. I'm totally fine with that, as long as the original Bullseye remains.
If there is a God up there, PLEASE FIRE JOE QUESADA! I can't take his jack### ideas anymore... This comic will officially go down as one of the few comic books that actually offended me after I read it... Needless to say X-Men #214, you get the distinction of being the first comic I've ever read that gets a 0 out of 10. You know what the worst thing is? I still have another 3 X-Men Legacy comics sitting here that I haven't read yet...............
MOTHER####ING SON OF A #####!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to form words that make any sense right now... That's how incredibly pissed off I'm feeling....... I actually was enjoying the story told in this comic book, because Mr. Sinister has always been one of my favorite villains in all of comics...
His backstage manipulations have always intrigued me. He was always there, and conceivably always will be there. Even after his defeat at the hands of Xavier, Gambit and Shaw, I just sat back and shrugged, content in my knowledge that Mr. Sinister would inevitably be back. You can't keep a good bad guy down... UNLESS YOU TURN HIM INTO A WOMAN!!!!! The last page of this book angered me more than almost any single page I have ever read.
Why the #### is Sinister a female now????? Can ANYBODY explain what ####ing purpose this revelation serves?????? I'm at an absolute loss for words here. Well not really, I sure have a lot more profanity I feel like hurling around... Why does Marvel have this BIZARRE obsession with taking established characters and changing their sex? What the #### does "Miss" Sinister bring to the table that "Mr" Sinister didn't? I'll answer that one myself, NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!
I stopped reading the new Thor series when they decided that for some reason Loki needed to become a woman. WHY??? You know what, I know why, because about 85% of the writers and editors at Marvel Comics absolutely SUCK right now, that's why. They're too damn lazy to actually create a new, strong, female character. So, since most of these hacks have no creativity, they just take established characters and drastically change them. A female Loki... You've got to be ####ing kidding me...
Now I don't want to come across as some kind of crazed sexist, because that's not the point I'm trying to make. If Marvel took the Invisible Woman and changed her into the Invisible Man, or took Jean Grey and turned her into Jean-Paul Grey, I think I would go bat#### crazy!!!!! Here's some free advise to the lazy bastards at Marvel. Instead of changing your male characters into females or vice versa, why the #### don't you go out and create some NEW female characters!!!! I'm sure it can't be that difficult! You're predecessors have been able to do it for years.
Or better yet, if they just NEEDED a Miss Sinister, why not have her working WITH Mr. Sinister??? That's the thing that I appreciate about DC Comics. Batgirl can coexist with Batman. Batgirl isn't Bruce Wayne, suddenly in female form! The same goes for Supergirl. She is her OWN person! She isn't Clark Kent, suddenly transformed into a teenaged girl. She is Kara Zor-El. Why the #### can't Marvel figure this formula out? You want a female Loki, fine, but leave the original Loki the #### alone!!!!!! I hear that Marvel has a new female version of Bullseye called Lady Bullseye out there now. I'm totally fine with that, as long as the original Bullseye remains.
If there is a God up there, PLEASE FIRE JOE QUESADA! I can't take his jack### ideas anymore... This comic will officially go down as one of the few comic books that actually offended me after I read it... Needless to say X-Men #214, you get the distinction of being the first comic I've ever read that gets a 0 out of 10. You know what the worst thing is? I still have another 3 X-Men Legacy comics sitting here that I haven't read yet...............
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