Category Archives: X-Men
Review: Avengers vs. X-Men #12
Cyclops was right. About everything. With the final issue of this mega crossover now upon us, I can say with clarity and confidence that Cyclops is the true hero of Avengers vs. X-Men. Oh sure, they want you to believe that Captain America is the real hero. And that Cyclops’ supposed ‘crimes’ are beyond redemption. But I’ve been saying it for a long time now: Marvel was unwilling to just make Cyclops a mustache-twirling bad guy. And this issue finally reveals why. Everything Cyclops set out to do in Avengers vs. X-Men was for good reason, and everything he fought for and people died for, will have been worth it thanks to the surprise ending of this series.
Avengers vs. X-Men #12
Avengers vs. X-Men #12 was a fantastic and exciting finale! It’s a little muddied with an over reliance on flashbacks, but the story is straightforward and the victory well deserved.
Comic rating: 5/5: Great!
In hindsight, I haven’t really liked most of the big crossovers at Marvel. I didn’t particularly care for Fear Itself last year. Secret Invasion was a dud. Civil War was alright, but Seige was quite dull. Avengers vs. X-Men, however, is one damn fine comic. Hero vs. hero, the fate of the world at stake! And even though the writers never really explored the deeper questions of faith and hope prevalent in the series, it’s still an exciting superhero comic. There were times I was annoyed with the series, and very frustrated at what Marvel was seemingly trying to say. But this issue alleviated all of my worries and frustrations with some solid follow through on Cyclops’ story arc.
Forget Hope, forget the Scarlet Witch, forget Captain America or Wolverine. Cyclops is the true star of this comic. He’s the only character who really grew or changed, who learned something from all of this. He’s the only character man enough to accept responsibility, while Captain America sticks with his petty bravado and arrogance.
This was a marvelous comic, settling all of my disputes in a big, bombastic climax. Although I’m not sure why Iron Man is featured so prominently on the cover. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
Review: X-Factor #244
It’s Banshee’s turn at the plate in Breaking Points, and she knocks it out of the park with a touching, personal look at her character. The mysterious ‘guest’ she’s been hiding the past few issues is revealed, and by the end of the issue, her status quo is changed in a very significant way. It’s a sad change, but still cool in its way. Part of me thinks it’s a little too easy, and a little too apropos of nothing, but it definitely works. Throw in some good art and some strong appearances by the rest of the cast and you’ve got yourself a very nice issue of X-Factor.
X-Factor #244
Who could ask for anything more?
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
For the most part, writer Peter David has been doing an acceptable job of cleaning house in X-Factor. I know that X-Factor is going to remain relatively untouched in Marvel NOW!, but that doesn’t mean he might not give it a fresh coat of paint or something. Ditching a few members of the bloated cast is a great idea, in my opinion, and he’s been doing a fine job in figuring out what to do with these guys. PAD takes a strong, hard look at Banshee in this issue, and the emotions that drive her, but he does so with a character he created only a few issues ago, a character that doesn’t have the history or the impact to be such a big deal in Banshee’s life, in my opinion. But it works. PAD shakes things up, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
PAD also manages to work his magic with Havok and Polaris, two characters who have definitely suffered from being suddenly, unceremoniously dropped into this comic. There are some continuity conflicts with Avengers vs. X-Men, but who cares? I’m curious to see if PAD will play any part in preparing Havok for his upcoming leadership position in Uncanny Avengers. He seems to be doing a nice job of preparing Polaris for her stay in X-Factor.
But more on that later. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Two X-Force Series? Why the Hell?
The other day I told you guys about the new Cable and X-Force title coming up in Marvel NOW! It was a new take on the X-Force franchise, and actually looked and sounded kind of cool. Plus it fit with the idea of Marvel NOW! being a relaunch of titles and trying some new ideas.
Well apparently Marvel isn’t yet ready to let go of the old ideas. They’re still going to publish Uncanny X-Force, giving us competing X-Force titles for some godforsaken reason.
The adjective makes the team
Right now, Uncanny X-Force is a popular series by writer Rick Remender about Wolverine leading a team of black ops X-Men on kill missions. It’s a very good series, starring characters like Deadpool, Fantomex, Psylocke, Dark Nightcrawler and, at one point, Archangel. But Remender is moving on to bigger comics, and with last week’s Cable-related announcement, I thought for sure that Marvel was hanging up this series as a job well done.
Nope! They’re going to hand it off to a relatively untested writer, who is going to get rid of most of those characters and instead write about a black ops team starring Psylocke, Storm, Spiral and Puck!
He’s Puck!
I’m as much of a Puck fan as the next geek, but really, Marvel? This is what you’re doing for Marvel NOW!? This relaunch is your chance to clear out some of the clutter and cut away some of the excess comics that the world doesn’t need. And nobody in the world needs a series about these characters trying to be a black ops team. Did you learn nothing from Regenesis? Over the past year, Marvel has been publishing several dozen different X-Men books, including X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, X-Men: Legacy, and Astonishing X-Men, among other extra titles like New Mutants and X-Factor. In order to populate these books, Marvel was just throwing mutants at them. Astonishing X-Men starred Wolverine, Iceman, Gambit, Karma, Cecilia Reyes, and Northstar. What kind of team is that?
I don’t have the exact numbers, but I think it’s safe to say all those extra X-books didn’t do nearly as well as the main series.
Yet it looks like Marvel is doing it again. Just throw a random group of characters together, give it an already familiar name, and just hope people buy it. How long until we see the likes of Uncanny X-Factor? Mimic and the X-Men? Superfluous X-Men? X-Men: Regency? Probably a year from now after Marvel goes through it’s next Big Event/Relaunch…
This interview with new writer Sam Humphries doesn’t really explain why Marvel wants competing X-Force titles. But at least he seems happy to be writing comics, lucky bastard.
New X-Force, Because Why Not?
I thought about complaining how team comics never last long enough for their membership to really gel, to really come together as a solid cast of characters with relationships and friendships and drama. But then I realized that my favorite comic, X-Factor, has done just that over the past 5+ years. So moot point.
The real point is that there’s going to be a new X-Force in Marvel NOW! Marvel is ditching the Wolverine-led black ops team angle and going with Cable and friends on the run as some kind of fugitives. And now we know Colossus comes out OK from Avengers vs. X-Men.
Which one is Keyser Soze?
So we’ve got Cable, Domino, Colossus, Forge and Doctor Nemesis…who is looking a little worse for wear. What the hell have they done to Nemesis? They do know he’s supposed to be this 100+-year-old scientist/curmudgeon, right? Now he looks like an anime character. Still, it’s nice to see Forge back in action, and I like the orange/silver/gray look they’e got going on.
The premise sounds cool too: they’re going to be wanted fugitives for a reason we don’t yet know, on the run from more prominent heroes. That could be a pretty cool storyline. It’s also going to be drawn by Salvador Larocca, a favorite artist of mine.
But then we come to the big problem: It’s going to be written by Dennis Hopeless. He gave an interview about the series here.
Now I have never read anything that Hopeless has done. I don’t know what kind of writer he is, or how good his comics might be. But I do know that he is also the writer behind Avengers Arena, the comic that’s going to be about killing fan favorite characters as wantonly and as indiscriminately as possible. And any writer who brags about how his comic is going to feature deaths already gets a black mark in my book.
But we’ll see. I think I might check out this new Cable and X-Force series.
Review: Avengers vs. X-Men #11
Now that was a pretty damn awesome issue. I’m happy to say that the big finale to Avengers vs. X-Men looks like it’s going to be both epic and cool, with this penultimate issue really setting up what should be a bombastic showdown. This issue has got great action, some wonderful character moments, awe-inspiring art and a brilliant cliffhanger that I’m kind of ashamed I did not see coming. But that just means it took me by one hell of a surprise! However, despite all this well-deserved praise, anyone who has been reading my reviews knows that I have one really big BUT when it comes to Avengers vs. X-Men…and this issue continues to emphasis that same glaring flaw.
Avengers vs. X-Men #11
The story is incredibly wishy-washy on just how much of a villain it wants Cyclops to be. At a time when it needs him to be a mustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash, this comic still goes to great lengths to make Cyclops sympathetic.
Comic rating: 5/5: Great.
My major gripe with Avengers vs. X-Men is that it does not have a solid answer to two important questions: What has Cyclops done wrong? And was it Cyclops who did it, or was it the Phoenix acting through Cyclops? Unfortunately, this issue continues to flip back and forth on the issue. And from someone who sympathizes with Cyclops, it just makes all the so-called heroes out to be huge assholes. One moment they are talking about having to stop Cyclops because he cannot control this evil power, and the next they are blaming Cyclops for everything. The comic has made it very clear that the Phoenix is the reason the PhoeniX-Men started turning evil, that these people were possessed by an evil force and it eventually took over. Yet never do any of the Avengers or X-Men say that they need to save Cyclops from the Phoenix. They all act like it’s Cyclops himself who is behind all of this, and not that their friend has been possessed by this evil force.
To me, that kind of makes them jerks. They don’t want to help Cyclops and stop the Phoenix. They just want to kill Cyclops and be done with it.
Despite that glaring issue, this is still a great comic. The action is fantastic, with a lot of high-stakes superheroics. But rather than just boring action, all of it is spliced with some really meaty character moments as everyone tries to reason with Cyclops while simultaneously trying to kill him. The art by Olivier Coipel is also phenomenal, giving these moments the epic feel that really makes them stand out.
Also, a very important character dies this issue, but it does not have the impact that Marvel probably hoped it would. I’ll spoil the death when we get to it in my synopsis, so if you want to know right now, just click the jump and scroll down. Otherwise, how about we get on with the fully synopsis and more review!
Henchman-4-Hire 