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Uncanny X-Men #1 – Review

Posted on February 15, 2013 by paladinking

UNCANNY X-MEN #1

By: Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Chris Bachalo (pencils & colors), Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza & Al Vey (inks), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story:  An inside man approaches Maria Hill with an offer to help take down Scott Summers.

The Review:  One of the concerns I had about this book going in was the way it would differentiate itself from All-New X-Men.  Yes, I realize it wouldn’t feature the time traveling teens, but Cyclops and his gang have appeared quite a bit in that book such that having them star in this one seemed to be some serious overlap.  Thankfully, Bendis quickly dispels this concern.  It’s not so much that Cyclops team are front and center, which they are, but rather that the tone of the book has been subtly altered.  While part of it may be due to Bachalo’s artwork, with its muddy colors and its lack of distinct, clean lines (as opposed to Immonen and Marquez on All-New), the big reason for this is the subtle change in tone.  The book feels more shadowy, more “underground,” and a touch more edgy.  The humour isn’t there and the soap opera of All-New is shifted into something that’s a little closer to twisty, spy-thriller dramatics.  All-New is the above-ground, flagship story.  Uncanny is what happens beneath and on the revolutionary fringes that Cyclops and his team currently occupy.
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All New X-Men #3 Review

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Matt Sargeson

ALL-NEW X-MEN #3By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Stuart Immonen (Artist), Wade Von Grawbadger (Inker), Marte Gracia (Colorist), Cory Petit (Letterer)

The Review: All New X-Men is enjoying a well-deserved reputation as one of the best Marvel NOW titles at the moment. This success is largely down to the fact that it’s not really traded on the gimmicks which first made the title a talking point – Jean Grey coming back, the original X-Men coming face-to-face with their future selves – so much as it has strong character work from Bendis (and some top flight artwork from Stuart Immonen). This issue’s focus is restricted solely to Cyclops’ new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, revealing a little of the workings of the team and more of the turmoil present within it. I haven’t found it quite as compelling as the previous instalments, but it’s still some better than average comic booking and an important step forward for the overall story.
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Avengers Vs X-Men: Consequences #5

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Roman Colombo

By: Kieron Gillen (wrirer), Gabriel Hernandez Walta (art), Jim Charalampidis (Colors)

The Story: Sigh…there’s a Prison break.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The Review: Well, so much for “consequences.”  What were the consequences of Avengers vs X-Men exactly, as defined by this series? We got a lot of Cyclops in prison…which is now a moot point. Hope looking for Cable (he finds her, and leaves).  And…what? The only person to have any real consequences as a result of AvX is the Black Panther, and we only saw him for one panel in issue one. Hell, he didn’t even get any dialogue. Cyclops facing the consequences and changing? That would have been nice. Instead he just wants to be the new Wolverine. Logan has the school? Fine, Scott will be the one to do what is necessary. The bottom line from all of this is that Scott Summers DIDN’T LEARN A !@#$%^& THING!!! Wolverine telling him that he tries to emulate Scott when running the school? Not enough. Tony Stark revealing that he figured out how to use Wanda and Hope to restart the mutant race? Whatever. The little matter of Scott killing them man he saw as a father–NOTHING! It takes someone nearly sociopathic  to be able to go through so much and not change in the slightest. Which are basically the people he aligns himself with: Magneto, Magik, and Danger. So, on one side we have Captain America having this epiphany that he’s treated the mutant race in a hypocritical way (he’d do anything to save humans, or Americans, but ignored the struggles of mutants). And Scott, having kept his species alive long enough to become stable again, goes back to being the same person. Is he so jaded that he can’t acknowledge the miracle that happened for his people to come back from the brink? What happened to being a political prisoner?
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Avengers vs. X-Men #9 – Review

Posted on August 2, 2012 by paladinking

by Jason Aaron (writer), Adam Kubert (pencils), John Dell (inks), Laura Martin & Larry Molinar (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story:  With their backs against the wall, the Avengers attempt a daring jailbreak.

The Review:  I’ve actually found the last few issues of Avengers vs. X-Men to be relatively enjoyable.  It’s something of a disappointment then that this latest installment felt a tad underwhelming.

Part of that, I think, is that this issue is another testament to the fact that AvX could easily have run the standard 8 issues instead of twelve.  The first two-thirds of the issue felt like a lot of wheel-spinning.  Perhaps that’s a little strong, as things DO happen, but it feels like little more than the pieces being shuffled around on the board.  It’s almost as though the book is on a holding pattern – minor consolidations of characters’ alignment are made, it’s hammered home repeatedly that the Avengers are stuck in neutral, and the end result is that, for all the action scenes, the book is surprisingly dull.

Moreover, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the portrayal of Magik and Colossus.  The strongest element of the “Phoenix Five” has been the way that the Phoenix hasn’t just corrupted them, but done so in a manner that accentuates each of their unique and inherent character flaws.  Magik and Colossus, however, just come across as evil, straight-up villains.  Well, with Colossus trying to resist his villainous side, anyway, while Magik is completely malevolent.  But the problem is there’s nothing unique in their corrupted behaviour – they’re just violent and nasty.  I wish it was a little more nuanced in the delivery.  It’s particularly strange given that Jason Aaron was also the guy behind last week’s issue of Wolverine & the X-Men, which did such a great job in its depiction of corrupted Colossus.

Thankfully, this isn’t the case with Aaron’s takes on the empowered Emma and Scott.  These two characters thankfully maintain that interesting element of the Phoenix’s corruption – they aren’t just evil, but rather, the corruption emphasizes certain character flaws.  The vengeful Emma Frost and her inner struggles were a great example of that and a major highlight of the book.  Aaron manages to make her perfectly monstrous, the Phoenix corrupting her in a manner that fits perfectly with her nature, but also a sympathetic figure, all in the space of two pages.
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Avengers vs. X-Men #8 – Review

Posted on July 19, 2012 by paladinking

By: Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Adam Kubert (penciler), John Dell (inker), Laura Martin & Larry Molinar (colorists), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

The Story:  The Avengers try to stop Namor from burning Wakanda to the ground.

The Review:  One word describes this issue:  fun.

I’ll admit, I’m not one easily wowed by superhero punch-ups, but somehow, seeing Namor battle heavyhitters like Red Hulk, Thing, and Thor was pure, gleeful, comics bliss.  There was just something magical about seeing these heavy-hitters throw down (with one particularly brutal panel that particularly sticks out – that’s a pun that’ll make sense when you read the issue).  The fight was wonderful fun that had me really enjoying myself and flipping the pages, with the issue never dragging or boring me one bit.
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The New Avengers #28 – Review

Posted on July 13, 2012 by paladinking

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato (artist), Rain Beredo (colorist), and Joe Caramagna (letterer)

The Story: Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, and Luke Cage try to break out of the X-Brig.

The Review: This is a tough review to write, as I imagine that opinions will really vary on this comic.  The entire issue builds up to a big twist near the end and your enjoyment of it overall is thus largely contingent upon your reaction to that twist.

For me, I literally said, out loud, “oh, come on!” when I turned that page.  Bendis does a good job in tricking you, sure, but it doesn’t change the fact that the twist ending here is the oldest trick in the book.   That said, to his credit, Bendis almost, almost manages to sell it by making the scenario particularly hellish and twisted.  It’s actually surprisingly dark, and a little disturbing, for an Avengers comic.  Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the core concept of the twist is incredibly old, tired, and cheap.

The dialogue is also a mixed bag.  On the one hand, I liked the characterization Bendis does in showing the very different ways that Cage, Hawkeye, and Spider-Woman interact with their guards.  It showcased their unique personalities, and tactics, very well and was a really nice touch.

On the other hand, I could have done without the banter between Jessica and Clint.  Bendis and Deodato have established that this is a very dark issue they’re giving us and Hawkeye and Spider-Woman are in the middle of a desperate escape off of an island guarded by pissed-off gods and….Hawkeye is telling Spider-Woman that she smells nice, while Spider-Woman makes a joke about a birthmark/scar/something on Hawkeye’s butt?  It’s bad enough that the Hawkeye/Spider-Woman relationship still feels forced and underdeveloped, but this banter is really, really inappropriate and out of place.  This is only further evidenced by the fact that it’s really the only spot of humour in what is really a very grim issue, particularly given that dire twist.
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Avengers vs. X-Men #6 – Review

Posted on June 20, 2012 by paladinking

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Olivier Coipel (penciler), Mark Morales (inks), Laura Martin (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

The Story:  The Phoenix Five begin to reshape Earth; the Avengers make a daring raid on Utopia to snatch Hope.

The Review:  I’ll admit that after last issue, I thought AvX had jumped the shark.  As a result, I was pretty worried when I started reading this issue.  Instead, against all odds, I had a reason to be excited.

Hickman has done some great work here with the Phoenix Five.  What we get is a story of gods among men and the resulting intersection and conflict between the two.  The result is a story that is much smarter, more meditative, and more global and nuanced in nature.  AvX has suddenly become a whole lot more than Avengers and X-Men punching each other.  Better still, Hickman muddies the waters at just how godly the Phoenix Five really are and the extent to which they are merely mortals gifted with godly powers.  The result is that the intersection/conflict isn’t just between gods and men, but also between the godly powers of the Phoenix Five and their human/mutant cores.

The result is a strange sort of antagonist: their acts are amazing and philanthropic, and yet they feel so alien that you can’t help but find them somewhat sinister.  Scott only continues to be more disturbing; while he acts and talks like a god, he still carries that vengeful chip on his shoulder.  This leads to scenes where he’ll drop his godly guise and seem like…Scott, with powers he shouldn’t have.  There’s also an especially strong scene where Scott plays the nasty, biblical God: teasing and tempting Hope only so he can chide and reject her for her lack of blind faith in some form of sadistic “test.”  For all the good the Phoenix Five do, it’s the hints like these that Hickman uses to suggest that men cannot and should not be gods.

Olivier Coipel’s art refreshes AvX just as much as Hickman’s script does, if not moreso.  While Romita Jr. truly was doing his best, Coipel blows him out of the water.  Coipel is everything you expect out of a “big event” type book, with an incredible sense of scale and drama and a polished, “big budget” feel to his work.  His art goes a long way to rejuvenating AvX and making the book an exciting one.
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Avengers vs. X-Men #5 – Review

Posted on June 6, 2012 by paladinking

by Matt Fraction (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciller), Scott Hanna (inker), Laura Martin (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

The Story: The Phoenix arrives.

The Review:  I really, really was starting to think that AvX was going to be a good, fun story, but after last month’s shaky issue, I’m getting the sinking feeling that this month’s issue could very well be the moment that this series truly jumped the shark.

Overall, the general problem is that this entire issue is devoted to the big, gigantic twist near the end of the issue.  This leads to around 15 or so pages of treading water, as Fraction basically kills time before dropping the bombshell on us, which is the sole notable thing to happen here.  This leads to more pages of Avengers and X-Men punching each other with very little emotional significance to their particular struggles.  Everyone is paired off and Hope makes it clear that they’re trying to kill each other.  So yeah, lots of hollow panels of action with heroes punching, grappling, and blasting each other.  Perhaps if I were 8 years old again, I’d find it awesome, but at this point, it just feels shallow and a bit meaningless, particularly given that we’ve already had so much of these characters punching each other.  Fraction tries to make these action scenes different by having Hope basically emphasize, through narration, how desperate everything is, but it feels like a case of telling rather than showing; the action doesn’t LOOK any different from what we’ve gotten before, regardless of what Hope tells us.  It doesn’t help that Hope’s narration is built around an extended metaphor on her part that, while a decent idea and well-intentioned, ends up being clunky and more awkward that it’s worth.

But really, this may all be forgivable if the big bombshell Fraction was building up towards was actually a good one.  Unfortunately, it’s not.  I can’t really go into WHY it isn’t without spoiling it, but this really feels like the one, singular moment where things really went wrong with this series.  I really, truly hope I’m proven wrong.  As such, I can guarantee that it’s a twist that you will NOT see coming.  However, upon turning the page, I literally said out loud “are you @$!@ing kidding me?”  It’s a real “facepalm” moment here.  It just feels really, really stupid.  There’s no other way to describe it.  It’s just…dumb.
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Uncanny X-Men #9 – Review

Posted on March 24, 2012 by paladinking

by Kieron Gillen (writer), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Cam Smith (inks), Guru eFx (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The X-Men team up with the Avengers to round up escaped prisoners from the Peak.

The Review:  I remember during Matt Fraction’s run on Uncanny that whenever Greg Land’s arc ended and the Dodsons returned, I always let out a big sigh of relief.  While Land’s last outing actually wasn’t too bad, I expected to get that similar feeling of comfort and relief with the return of Carlos Pacheco and yet….that didn’t happen.

Pacheco delivers a completely mediocre, forgettable, and unremarkable performance.  There aren’t any major errors to hang onto, it’s just so utterly and completely average with no one moment that truly impresses.  Also, while there are no major problems, there are minor quibbles:  Pacheco’s illustration of Emma’s face seemed off throughout the issue, Agent Brand’s breasts were conspicuously ginormous, and Pacheco struggled a bit to capture the specificities of some of the scenes Gillen narrates in the issue’s montages.

While Pacheco’s art may be underwhelming, this is a solid enough outing by Gillen.  He introduces a new villain, Unit, who really lets Gillen play to his strengths in writing dialogue.  Unit is arrogant, smarmy, and well-spoken, yet also cold and calculated.  Gillen gives him a voice that is full of personality and character yet also chilling and, despite that arrogant quality, slightly inhuman.  Suffice it to say, with his ear for dialogue, Gillen writes great villains and Unit gives him a stage to really show that.

The opening few pages are also very strong, focusing on Colossus’ complicated relationship and emotions towards his sister Magik and her somewhat odd position.  It’s easy to write Colossus very blandly, but Gillen succeeds with having Colossus narrate these scenes with true sincerity that really pulls you to empathize with the character.  It feels meaningful and actually made me care for the predicament of a character I’m usually a bit ambivalent towards.
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Uncanny X-Men #8 – Review

Posted on March 12, 2012 by jmiddle3

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Greg Land (penciler), Jay Leisten (inker), Guru eFX (colors)

The Story: Namor proves that even he has limits.

The Review: It’s hard to come up with a reason that this issue was necessary. Sure, there are some dangling plot threads left over from the Tabula Rasa arc, but the main conflict was resolved in issue #7, and had the pacing been just a bit tighter, everything else could have been wrapped up there too. Instead, this issue becomes just a long dénouement. That’s pretty out of fashion in comics today, but it’s not always a terrible idea; sometimes this can allow the consequences of the plot to play out, giving the main story a greater sense of depth. But there just hasn’t been enough meat on the bones of this arc to merit the extra attention paid in this issue.

At the end of the last issue, Apex Charles leaves the reader with the ominous warning: “Unless we do something swiftly, every living thing in Tabula Rasa will be dead.” This isn’t the most engaging hook in the world, since we haven’t exactly been endeared to anything in the Land that Time Over-Worked. The inhabitants of Tabula Rasa so far have either been monstrous and aggressive (i.e. bat-bees and giant leeches), passive and boring (the Night People), or snooty and prone to trying to destroy the world (the Apex).  Even the pretty butterfly things that had Colossus all misty-eyed are revealed in this issue to be subterranean xenomorphs in disguise. Together, they’re not exactly the poster children for conservation.

Fortunately, the immanent threat isn’t all that bothersome. It’s just that the sun, foreign to a world which evolved in darkness, might give everything cancer, so Storm has to keep up the cloud cover until the exposition can magic that problem away in one panel. While it’s nice to see Gillen make an effort to follow through on the sci-fi principles he set up, the fact that this problem gets dealt with so quickly undercuts the already weak cliff-hanger the last issue ended with.
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Uncanny X-Men #8 – Review

Posted on March 10, 2012 by paladinking

by Kieron Gillen (writer), Greg Land (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Guru eFX (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The Immortal Man may be dealt with, but Tabula Rasa isn’t safe yet.

The Review:  If there’s one thing Uncanny X-Men has been hammering home since the relaunch, it’s that Kieron Gillen truly is a master of dialogue.  It’s always quick witted, intelligent, sincere, and, when it wants to be, legitimately and very naturally funny.  Gillen has the rare but valuable ability to make you laugh through dialogue whenever he wishes; much as in Journey into Mystery, his jokes seem to always work.

Case in point is the extended scene with Hope and Namor, a demonstration of Gillen’s skills when it comes to character-work.  The sequence is humorous throughout, highlighting Namor’s arrogant eccentricity and the fact that yeah, despite his humanoid appearance, he isn’t human.  Better still, it creates a bond between Hope and Namor, which given how utterly opposite the two are, is a really fun and rewarding dynamic.

Gillen also continues to explore the concept of the Apex, which remains interesting.  The unintentionally arrogant dialogue by the Apex remains enjoyable and I greatly enjoyed Gillen’s playing with gender as he adds further definition to the Apex’s “unwife” social relationship.  All told, the concept of the Apex has been a solid one that’s played a big role in carrying this arc.

Great dialogue, character-work, and sci-fi high concepts aside, however, this issue falls prey to something that’s become a recurring problem in Gillen’s otherwise strong run thus far:  the story itself isn’t that compelling.  Really, there isn’t really a whole lot of narrative meat on the bones here.  It simply amounts to Tabula Rasa still being in trouble due to the Sun.  But Gillen then spends the entirety of the issue doing character work with Namor/Hope and Colossus/Magik, while giving us more cool new info on the Apex.  Then, seemingly realizing that he’d forgotten to resolve the plot, he wraps it all up in a one page, heavily narrated montage where everything is neatly wrapped up.  It’s completely random and brings the issue to a screeching halt and is, quite frankly, poor storytelling.  It literally feels as though Gillen realized he’d written an issue having entirely forgotten the central plot, and then rushed to throw it all together on a single page.  It’s pretty head-spinning.
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Uncanny X-Men #4 – Review

Posted on January 9, 2012 by paladinking

by Kieron Gillen (writing), Brandon Peterson (art), Justin Ponsor (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The Phalanx returns and the X-Men race to stop its rapid consumption.

The Review:  What a strange issue… I really don’t mean that in a bad way at all.  In fact, I wish more ongoing series did this.  Uncanny X-Men #4 is something a one-shot, and Gillen really makes the most of the opportunity, using the done-in-one format to tell a rather different kind of story with a very different focus.  It’s told from the perspective of a member of the Phalanx, marooned on Earth, and the result is a surprisingly intimate comic.

Gillen’s goal with this comic is to make the unrelatable relatable and to make something utterly alien, and generally construed as evil, into something sympathetic.  That’s no easy feat, yet Gillen does accomplish it.  The Phalanx becomes comprehensible.  It’s logic is still completely at odds with humanity, but that there is a logic operating is clear.  More than that though, while Gillen never shies away from just how different, and thus how opposed, the Phalanx is to humanity, he does a great job of giving it legitimate emotions, feelings of loneliness and affection that are surprising.

Really, Gillen boils the Phalanx down into something that is simply incompatible with humanity.  It feels and it loves, but simply put, what it sees as good and affectionate, humanity sees as murderously destructive. The result is something of a bizarre story that ends up being somewhat chilling.  At the heart of Gillen’s script is an entity that simply doesn’t want to be alone, while also wanting to express its affection, but its means are repugnant.  What you end up with then, is an isolated freak, killing out of love and loneliness, wracked by his conscious, but flailing about lost.  It’s thoroughly unsettling, but Gillen crafts a comic where you actually understand the incomprehensible and feel legitimate sympathy for a creature that commits mass murder while garnering that sympathy.  It’s a morally challenging comic, to be sure.

Of course, the downside to all of this is that in delving into these complexities, Gillen does end up being guilty of overwriting the book a bit.  There is a LOT of narration, so much so that it does slow the book down at some points.  At times, that’s acceptable – it gives the book an ominous tone – but that pace is constant, irrespective of when that ominous tone should be at the forefront or not.  I think Gillen’s biggest crime with all this narration is that he does fall prey on a few occasions of telling rather than showing.  I realize a great deal of characterization was necessary in an issue like this to establish the required intimacy, but Gillen should’ve allowed the art to do a little more of the talking.  I don’t think the reader needed quite so much hand-holding.
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