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X-Men: Days of Future Past Tries Really Hard, One Last Time, to Get Us to Like Quicksilver
The final trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past landed on the Internet today, and it include an extended sequence of Quicksilver in action. From everything I’ve heard about his limited role in this film, I’m fairly certain FOX is just playing up Quicksilver as much as possible to get ahead of Avengers 2. From Day One, FOX has really tried to stick it to Marvel using Quicksilver.
See for yourself.
From what I’ve read online, Quicksilver is only going to be used to help break Magneto out of prison, as you can see in that trailer. They’re not even going to reference the fact that, in the comics, Quicksilver is Magneto’s son. His parentage not going to come up in the movie. He has this one scene and then I believe he’s out of the film.
But as you can see, he’s the focal point of the final trailer.
Though something tells me that Avengers: Age of Ultron is going to win out in the end.
Personally, I think Days of Future Past could be a lot of fun, but it also looks like a lot of…everything. There’s so much stuff going on in this trailer. Dozens of new mutants, complicated time travel, Sentinels, Iceman, the joining of the two X-franchises; part of me fears this is all just going to be a hot mess.
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Review: All-New X-Factor #5
Well glue forks to my hands and call me Wolverine, I actually liked this issue of All-New X-Factor! I’ve been pretty hard on the series so far, but I really felt that Peter David’s writing and characters were finally starting to gel in this issue. Yes, he still has them rush off to face the next big, elaborate bad guy, but the first issue is all about slowing down the pace and letting us get to know who these characters are and why they’re doing what they’re doing. That is fundamental to appreciating fiction. You can’t just throw a bunch of superheroes onto a team together and have them fight bad guys.
X-Factor #5
Yet that’s exactly what PAD did for the start of All-New X-Factor, but he’s finally getting into the substance of why these characters are together and what motivates them to be a part of this series and this team. It’s a definite step in the right direction.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
The problem with All-New X-Factor is that it doesn’t have a soul. There doesn’t seem to be any greater purpose to the comic or any larger story that PAD is trying to tell. From issue #1, it’s felt like generic superhero mediocrity. It’s as if Marvel really wanted to relaunch X-Factor but didn’t have any good ideas, so PAD just grabbed a bunch of random X-characters and threw them together on a team. Not that any of this has really been fixed in the new issue. But at least with with All-New X-Factor #5, I’m finally starting to see what this endeavor means for these characters and why they’re putting up with it.
In a lot of ways, I definitely think PAD has a good idea on his hands; several, in fact. First there’s the idea of the first corporately-owned superhero team operating in the Marvel Universe. What does that mean for all involved and for the MU as a whole? Second, and more importantly, is the idea that these characters have all been down this road before, and they know this isn’t how such things are done. What do the superheroes themselves think when they’re randomly put together on a team? Unfortunately, five issues in, I don’t think PAD has really focused on either of those ideas very well. He really seems content to just tell random stories about his random X-heroes fighting random bad guys. That’s disappointing. I think PAD either needs to start focusing on the characters and their individual journeys or he needs to reveal the larger Serval Industries plot, because random fights against the Magus or whoever aren’t going to sell comics in this day and age.
All-New X-Factor finally delivers a worthwhile issue, but it’s not without the same faults that continue to plague this series. Join me after the jump for the full synopsis and more review.
Just When We Thought Quicksilver Might Look Normal
Listen, moviemakers of the world, Quicksilver’s white hair is not that important of a character trait! I know he has white/silver hair in the comics, but there’s nothing about his character, his powers or his potential stories that require the white/silver hair in live action adaptations. Especially when it looks ridiculous!
None of the above is intrinsic to a live action adaptation
We already know that Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past is going to look hideous.
But for a brief moment, we thought Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron would look pretty cool. Remember those concept art pieces that Marvel debuted next week?
Well some shutterbugs at the official filming in Italy have snapped some live action pictures of actors Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Forget the Quicksilver concept art, because he looks nothing like the image, and instead looks really, really bogus. Mostly. I guess I still prefer this Avengers look to the X-Men version, but man, it’s harsh.
Click after the jump to see the SPOILER images.
First Looks at Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch from Avengers: Age of Ultron!
Last night, ABC aired a special on upcoming Marvel movies, but I didn’t actually watch it because I had better things to do – namely finally catching up on that short-lived Green Lantern Animated Series. But the Internet is awash in all of the big news items revealed in that special, including the first looks at Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch from Avengers: Age of Ultron!
Otherwise known as Avengers 2: Superhero Boogaloo
I’ll save the pictures until after the jump in case you don’t want to get SPOILED. I think they look OK. I think they definitely look better than what FOX has planned for them in X-Men: Days of Future Past. So join me after the jump to check out the concept art for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch!
Review: All-New X-Factor #4
I consider myself a dedicated X-Factor fan…I guess. Or maybe I was just blinded by my love of Multiple Man. Was that it? Peter David wrote an amazing Multiple Man! He re-defined the character for the 21st century, and it was a thing of glorious beauty! And more than just Multiple Man, the whole previous volume X-Factor was a lot of fun. So what am I not seeing in the All-New X-Factor? Was PAD’s previous series this shallow, and I just really enjoyed seeing Multiple Man? I kind of get the feeling that if he switched out Gambit for Multiple Man, I’d probably be enjoying this comic a lot more.
X-Factor #4
As it stands, the newest issue of All-New X-Factor is more of the same, and I’ve still got to give the thing a big ole meh!
Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.
There’s not much to this new issue. All-New X-Factor #4 is all about recruiting Danger to the team by way of a big, explosive fight scene. PAD peppers the fight with some nice character moments, especially for Gambit and Polaris, but at the expense of a seemingly incompetent Danger. The angry robot spends the entire issue promising to kill everybody but never seems to focus enough to actually carry it out – though, of course, it’s not like she’s allowed to really kill any of the main characters. But you’ll see what I mean in the synopsis.
Like I said, Gambit and Polaris get some good moments. Gambit spends the issue trying to snap Danger out of her murderous rage, while Polaris has some murderous rage of her own. But I don’t really care one lick about Danger, her history with the X-Men or her potentially joining X-Factor. I’m fairly certain that nobody else in the X-Office cared enough to use Danger in their comic, so PAD snatched her up. Or maybe he really wanted to use her, I don’t know. What I do know is that we went through a lot of trouble to add her to the team, and I just didn’t care for any of it. We took an abridged tour of Gambit’s recent solo series, but I don’t feel as if the story affected Gambit at all or had any impact on the series. They might as well have gone to the Savage Land or Latveria to recruit Danger.
I don’t want to come off as overly harsh in my reviews of All-New X-Factor…not like with Teen Titans. That book is actively bad. But All-New X-Factor is just bland. It’s bland characters on bland missions with no real emphasis on the corporate angle, at least not yet. And I’m just not happy with bland.
Henchman-4-Hire 