Solid week here at the Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews. The conclusion to the Messiah Complex in X-Men was easily the best book I read this week and a spectacular finish to that event. A lot of books felt like filler or as if they were treading water as they set up things for future issues, which is how Astonishing X-Men and Countdown felt. However, nothing was overly bad this week, so I'm happy about that. Hit the jump for all the weekly reviews!Comic Book of the Week
X-MEN #207Written by Mike Carey
Art by Chris Bachalo
There have only been a few conclusions to an event that I have enjoyed as much as I did this one. Recent ones include Sinestro Corps War and Annihilation Wave and that's about it for the past decade of cash grab events from the Big Two. So, that puts Messiah Complex with some pretty exclusive company.
Getting right down to the nuts and bolts of this, the issue takes all the assorted storylines and throws them all into one big rugby-like scrum and let's them beat the crap out of each other for 22 pages.
Cyclops is actually Cyclops this issue, not that Skrull or whatever that was forming kill squads, ordering the death of his son with no questions asked and so on from earlier in the series. He's the leader of the X-Men and he takes charge the way he should here, even giving up the baby in the end to Cable.
However, everyone was represented here, not just Cyclops. The New X-Men are given the task of taking down the Marauders, despite them being a credible threat to the X-Men themselves, giving the NXM team their due. Pixie and Dust, specifically, get some serious moments with Dust teaming up with Emma to kill Exodus and Pixie making use of her Soul Blade to take out another Marauder.
Team Claw X-Force were also on display and Wolverine shows everyone why he's the best there is at what he does as he allows himself to be eaten by Predator X before ripping the monster apart from the inside in a grusome display.
The biggest shocker came at the end as Cyclops gives the baby back to Cable so he can take it to the future. As Cable prepares to jump to the future, the critically wounded Bishop, whom Pred X took a chunk out of earlier, opens fire on Cable in a last ditch effort to stop him and the baby. Cable fades out and the bullets strike Xavier in the head, killing him instantly, if Wolverine and Beast are to be believed. The new X-titles seem to suggest otherwise though. Back to Bishop where Cyclops immediately turned and blew him away with a huge Optic Blast. There was no kill confirmation on Bishop though, but I think it's safe to assume he's as dead as any other comic character. The issue ends with Cyke stating the X-Men are no more.
I loved the issue, but it still has the senseless death's. Does anyone expect Xavier to stay dead? Does anyone expect the numerous Marauders, Mr Sinister and Exodus to stay dead? What about Bishop? Well, maybe him. If you take all the death at face value, the crossover is the biggest event ever. With the fact none of them will be dead in a year or two, much of the impact and weight this crossover carries disappears. It's a small complaint, but something that still nags at me.
Finally, what's up with Xavier's "corpse" disappearing at the end? The last page where it fades out, the X-Men are all standing there crying over his body and then the final zoomed out image shows Xavier clearly missing from where he was lying. Is this artist error? Someone supposed to photoshop the same image into the shrunken box and messing up? It actually disappeared?
Verdict - Must Read. Very satistfying conclusion to a crossover. Most fizzle out after 6 issues. MC got better and better as it went on and finished incredibly strong. Even if you weren't following this event, I think you'd really enjoy this issue.
Getting right down to the nuts and bolts of this, the issue takes all the assorted storylines and throws them all into one big rugby-like scrum and let's them beat the crap out of each other for 22 pages.
Cyclops is actually Cyclops this issue, not that Skrull or whatever that was forming kill squads, ordering the death of his son with no questions asked and so on from earlier in the series. He's the leader of the X-Men and he takes charge the way he should here, even giving up the baby in the end to Cable.
However, everyone was represented here, not just Cyclops. The New X-Men are given the task of taking down the Marauders, despite them being a credible threat to the X-Men themselves, giving the NXM team their due. Pixie and Dust, specifically, get some serious moments with Dust teaming up with Emma to kill Exodus and Pixie making use of her Soul Blade to take out another Marauder.
The biggest shocker came at the end as Cyclops gives the baby back to Cable so he can take it to the future. As Cable prepares to jump to the future, the critically wounded Bishop, whom Pred X took a chunk out of earlier, opens fire on Cable in a last ditch effort to stop him and the baby. Cable fades out and the bullets strike Xavier in the head, killing him instantly, if Wolverine and Beast are to be believed. The new X-titles seem to suggest otherwise though. Back to Bishop where Cyclops immediately turned and blew him away with a huge Optic Blast. There was no kill confirmation on Bishop though, but I think it's safe to assume he's as dead as any other comic character. The issue ends with Cyke stating the X-Men are no more.
I loved the issue, but it still has the senseless death's. Does anyone expect Xavier to stay dead? Does anyone expect the numerous Marauders, Mr Sinister and Exodus to stay dead? What about Bishop? Well, maybe him. If you take all the death at face value, the crossover is the biggest event ever. With the fact none of them will be dead in a year or two, much of the impact and weight this crossover carries disappears. It's a small complaint, but something that still nags at me.
Finally, what's up with Xavier's "corpse" disappearing at the end? The last page where it fades out, the X-Men are all standing there crying over his body and then the final zoomed out image shows Xavier clearly missing from where he was lying. Is this artist error? Someone supposed to photoshop the same image into the shrunken box and messing up? It actually disappeared?
Verdict - Must Read. Very satistfying conclusion to a crossover. Most fizzle out after 6 issues. MC got better and better as it went on and finished incredibly strong. Even if you weren't following this event, I think you'd really enjoy this issue.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #548Written by Dan Slott
Art by Steve McNiven
I've been threatening to do it since OMD and this issue sealed the deal - I'll be dropping Spider-Man and his "Brand New Day" as of this issue. I don't blame it on Slott or McNiven. Both did as much as well as anyone could have expected. It's the fault of the new status quo. It feels like they are just retreading old ground in a bad way. This isn't hitting the crux of what Spider-Man is or why people love the character. It's a regression of character and history and the stories and characters are ringing hollow to me. I tried to like it. It had some of my favourite creators, but even that can't undo the damage OMD and editorial mandates inflicted on the character. I'll check back in on him later this year and see if things have improved, but I won't be holding my breath.
With that whole spiel out of the way, the actual issue continued the Mr Negative storyline. The 'blood gas' from last issue only affects the people with the same genetic code as the blood, meaning only mobsters die and normal people just pass out momentarily. Spidey woke up and an adopted mobster, who didn't die as he wasn't a true blood, tells him to go save the children and wives. Spidey takes off to a circus show and battles some more masked thugs as he tried to reach the blood bomb. He defeats them and tosses the bomb to the other side of the tent as he escorted the mob family out of the tent, saving them from the bomb. He then has a brief encounter with Mr Negative, who makes his escape as Spidey saves a child Mr Neg threw into the harbour.
Nothing here is new or exciting. It's everything we've seen before. I really have nothing else to say about this issue as it was just bland. It's not bad and it's not good. It just a generic tale about a character I can't find it in my heart to care about anymore.
Verdict - Check It. You might enjoy it more than me. I don't know. I'm disenfranchised with the character and I'm not sure if I'm ever going to care about him the way I used to.
With that whole spiel out of the way, the actual issue continued the Mr Negative storyline. The 'blood gas' from last issue only affects the people with the same genetic code as the blood, meaning only mobsters die and normal people just pass out momentarily. Spidey woke up and an adopted mobster, who didn't die as he wasn't a true blood, tells him to go save the children and wives. Spidey takes off to a circus show and battles some more masked thugs as he tried to reach the blood bomb. He defeats them and tosses the bomb to the other side of the tent as he escorted the mob family out of the tent, saving them from the bomb. He then has a brief encounter with Mr Negative, who makes his escape as Spidey saves a child Mr Neg threw into the harbour.
Nothing here is new or exciting. It's everything we've seen before. I really have nothing else to say about this issue as it was just bland. It's not bad and it's not good. It just a generic tale about a character I can't find it in my heart to care about anymore.
Verdict - Check It. You might enjoy it more than me. I don't know. I'm disenfranchised with the character and I'm not sure if I'm ever going to care about him the way I used to.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #24Written by Joss Whedon
Art by John Cassaday
As many of you pointed out in the comments for my previews, this is not the actual conclusion to the Breakworld storyline. As it turns out, I must have missed the memo where Giant Sized Astonishing was turned into the concluding part. I could have sworn that was originally a sort of afterthought "if we have time, we'll do it" type of issue that would be an epilogue and bridging issue. I was wrong and finding that out as I read this issue really put a downer on my enjoyment of this. I really thought I'd get the conclusion and now I'll be lucky to have it by the end of the year with the typical delays this book gets.
After how incredible the last couple issues have been, it was inevitable this issue would fall short of the bar. It felt more like Whedon was waiting for the Giant Sized to finish the story and this issue reads a bit like filler or "decompression". Fear not though, it's still a very solid issue, but below standard for this title's typical level of quality.
The X-Men start by splitting up into two teams, one to take out the rocket and the other to negotiate with the Breakworld leader. Cyclops team, which includes Colossus, heads to the Breakworld leader. As Cyclops attempts to negotiate with Arghanne, Ord busts in and kills Arg, prompting Cyclops to tell Colossus to enter the light and destroy the Breakworld.
Meanwhile, the other team sets up the big conclusion on the missile. As Kitty tries to stop it, she realizes the missile is more like a bullet and has no circutry that she can phase through and destroy. During this time, the missile launches, taking Kitty with it to destroy Earth.
Verdict - Check It. Like I said, Whedon just moves some pieces around the board despite having set up his big conclusion set up last issue, making this just a bunch of redundant fluff as we wait for the actual main event to start whenever he decides to write the final script.
After how incredible the last couple issues have been, it was inevitable this issue would fall short of the bar. It felt more like Whedon was waiting for the Giant Sized to finish the story and this issue reads a bit like filler or "decompression". Fear not though, it's still a very solid issue, but below standard for this title's typical level of quality.
The X-Men start by splitting up into two teams, one to take out the rocket and the other to negotiate with the Breakworld leader. Cyclops team, which includes Colossus, heads to the Breakworld leader. As Cyclops attempts to negotiate with Arghanne, Ord busts in and kills Arg, prompting Cyclops to tell Colossus to enter the light and destroy the Breakworld.
Meanwhile, the other team sets up the big conclusion on the missile. As Kitty tries to stop it, she realizes the missile is more like a bullet and has no circutry that she can phase through and destroy. During this time, the missile launches, taking Kitty with it to destroy Earth.
Verdict - Check It. Like I said, Whedon just moves some pieces around the board despite having set up his big conclusion set up last issue, making this just a bunch of redundant fluff as we wait for the actual main event to start whenever he decides to write the final script.
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #14Story by Paul Dini
Story consultant Keith Giffen
Scripts by Tony Bedard
Art by Pete Woods and Tom Derenick
I've said it over and over again this past month that I've really enjoyed Countdown. This issue does its best to keep the momentum going, but it seems to suffer from the weekly series syndrom of not being able to move the story along too much.
In that regard, this issue reads incredibly fast and feels like nothing happened. Like Astonishing X-Men, Countdown felt like it was treading water, essentially being a waste of money for this week.
Now that doesn't mean it was bad or even remotely close to what Countdown was like in the first half. It's just that, despite the improved art and better pacing, this was all a set up issue. First up was getting Jason Todd in the Red Robin suit and back in the action with the Earth-51 Batman. Next was the evening of the odds in the Monitor battle by having Donna Troy take command of the Myrmadon army after killing Queen Belthara. Finally, Solomon convinces Superman Prime that Earth-51 is his Earth and shows him the destruction, setting up a showdown with him and Monarch.
Does stuff happen this issue? Yeah, there's some nice table setting, but a comic fan's got to eat and this book was nothing but skin and bones. Next issue promises to be the main course with the Prime vs. Monarch battle. Hopefully we don't get bits and pieces of these fights for the next half a dozen issues.
Verdict - Check It. Can't all be slugfests and world destroying war issues. Grab it if you're reading Countdown. It's a good addition, but you won't miss anything if you skip it either.
In that regard, this issue reads incredibly fast and feels like nothing happened. Like Astonishing X-Men, Countdown felt like it was treading water, essentially being a waste of money for this week.
Now that doesn't mean it was bad or even remotely close to what Countdown was like in the first half. It's just that, despite the improved art and better pacing, this was all a set up issue. First up was getting Jason Todd in the Red Robin suit and back in the action with the Earth-51 Batman. Next was the evening of the odds in the Monitor battle by having Donna Troy take command of the Myrmadon army after killing Queen Belthara. Finally, Solomon convinces Superman Prime that Earth-51 is his Earth and shows him the destruction, setting up a showdown with him and Monarch.
Does stuff happen this issue? Yeah, there's some nice table setting, but a comic fan's got to eat and this book was nothing but skin and bones. Next issue promises to be the main course with the Prime vs. Monarch battle. Hopefully we don't get bits and pieces of these fights for the next half a dozen issues.
Verdict - Check It. Can't all be slugfests and world destroying war issues. Grab it if you're reading Countdown. It's a good addition, but you won't miss anything if you skip it either.
YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #1Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Paco Medina
I was really disappointed with this issue. I think I just built it up too much. Young Avengers, Ed Brubaker, Bucky and the Cap-like Patriot all in one issue? How awesome would that be? Well, turns out, not so much.
The book, itself, is not bad in the general sense of the word. This isn't something written by Daniel Way or anything, but Brubaker chose to go in a direction that I just can't understand. The entire issue was about racism and how a character, like Patriot, who is a victim of it can possibly be patriotic towards the country that discriminates against them.
Sounds good on paper, right? Well, the opening pages feature a classroom setting where Patriot is giving a speech on racism and black civil rights as an entire room full of hillbilly hicks make racist comments and mock his paper, tell him to go live in Iraq if he hates America and generally act like they came out of the early days of the black civil rights movements. The teacher is even sitting there with them listening to the paper and just laughs off the kids comments. I'm not from America, but I seriously hope this isn't the typical classroom environment. I see this in a comic and I can't honestly see how this is a realistic or even a characature of modern times.
Thankfully, that was only a brief scene in the book and I can actually forgive and forget that. However, the rest of the book consists of Patriot and Hawkeye seeking out Bucky. They catch up with him once, lose him and Patriot follows a tracking device they placed on his bike. Once he catches up to Bucky, they just have a chat about patriotism and what it means. I like how they discredit that Sally Floyd article with the America needing to find Cap line, but overall, nothing was gained from this issue.
A story typically wants to tell us something. It could advance a plot or develop a character, give them new incites or exploit a character flaw and so on. This story does nothing from start to finish. Patriot experiences racism, he goes home, he tracks down Bucky, The End. It was nice seeing these Young Avengers again, but I at least expect something to happen. The Runaways/YA Civil War mini wasn't great and probably not written as well as this is, but the story had a purpose and through character interactions, it felt like we got to know each character and their personalities better. This issue, while technically sound, goes no where and I don't feel like I gained anything by having read it.
Verdict - Check It. I'd seriously recommend flipping through it and seeing what you think first. I don't think it's so bad that you should never read this, but I don't wholeheartedly recommend this either. Of course, your mileage may vary.
The book, itself, is not bad in the general sense of the word. This isn't something written by Daniel Way or anything, but Brubaker chose to go in a direction that I just can't understand. The entire issue was about racism and how a character, like Patriot, who is a victim of it can possibly be patriotic towards the country that discriminates against them.
Sounds good on paper, right? Well, the opening pages feature a classroom setting where Patriot is giving a speech on racism and black civil rights as an entire room full of hillbilly hicks make racist comments and mock his paper, tell him to go live in Iraq if he hates America and generally act like they came out of the early days of the black civil rights movements. The teacher is even sitting there with them listening to the paper and just laughs off the kids comments. I'm not from America, but I seriously hope this isn't the typical classroom environment. I see this in a comic and I can't honestly see how this is a realistic or even a characature of modern times.
Thankfully, that was only a brief scene in the book and I can actually forgive and forget that. However, the rest of the book consists of Patriot and Hawkeye seeking out Bucky. They catch up with him once, lose him and Patriot follows a tracking device they placed on his bike. Once he catches up to Bucky, they just have a chat about patriotism and what it means. I like how they discredit that Sally Floyd article with the America needing to find Cap line, but overall, nothing was gained from this issue.
A story typically wants to tell us something. It could advance a plot or develop a character, give them new incites or exploit a character flaw and so on. This story does nothing from start to finish. Patriot experiences racism, he goes home, he tracks down Bucky, The End. It was nice seeing these Young Avengers again, but I at least expect something to happen. The Runaways/YA Civil War mini wasn't great and probably not written as well as this is, but the story had a purpose and through character interactions, it felt like we got to know each character and their personalities better. This issue, while technically sound, goes no where and I don't feel like I gained anything by having read it.
Verdict - Check It. I'd seriously recommend flipping through it and seeing what you think first. I don't think it's so bad that you should never read this, but I don't wholeheartedly recommend this either. Of course, your mileage may vary.
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7 comments:
Exodus isn't dead, just incapacitated; neither is Professor X, apparently, comatose; they're both going to be in Carey's X-Men: Legacy.
I liked the Patriot story; it's not groundbreaking or a classic, but it's well-written, and I really liked the quiet ending, and the connection made to the Golden Age Patriot.
I agree with you about spider-man. I had read the original volume one of amazing while my buddy hadn't and he couldn't understand why I disliked brand new day. You are completely on point about how this spider-man feels forced. Honestly I think its the fact they took away any chance of him being able to progress as a character and one more day gave that message. But to sum it up, I agree with you when you say that they are retreading old ground in a bad way.
Bishop will be in the new Cable ongoing. I'll be picking it up in the trade format, my first actual 'wait for the trade' series. I'm so proud of myself. I'll be doing the same with Young X-Men.
Question...is the girl baby Jean Grey...she has a way of coming back, alot.
Bishop is mentioned as following Cable through time in the solicit for Cable #2.
Concerning the X-Men replies:
I could have sworn Exodus was dead islandliberal. Billions of tiny shards of sand tearing apart his insides (as described by Emma) doesn't seem like something he, or anyone, could survive. But, it's a comic book, so I don't doubt he did survive.
I read the Legacy solicit and I agree Xavier is "alive" somehow, but I was basing my thoughts on the issue where it is stated by both Wolverine and Beast that he's dead and the general tone from everyone is that no one could survive that.
I'm not sure how they are going to do this Legacy book. Xavier's disembodied pyschic mind? Xavier doing the X-Men movie style new body transfer? The dozen or more people on scene being wrong about him being dead somehow? A Skrull (=p)? Solicit says he's comatose, but it just doesn't seem possible right now.
As everyone said, the new solicits that went up on Newsarama show Bishop survived having half his body eaten by Predator X and then obliterated by Cyclops. I'll wait and see how he survived that, but if he just happened to have time travel tech on his person and teleported away before dying, then that's a little hard to swallow. He would have went home long ago if it was that easy. Cable has prescedent with his tech.
There's also got to be someone behind Bishop pulling his strings, maybe the person that saved him from dying. He shouldnt be able to time travel. Someone gave hima new metal arm that looks like Cable's (if that's Bishop on #2 cover). He shouldn't have been able to find Cable in the time stream. Bishop is from before Cable's time period and wouldn't have knowledge of his era or the locations and so on.
So, is Apocalypse or Stryfe behind this? Apocalypse was involved in a horrible, horrible story before Carey and Brubaker took over and seemed to disappear or get taken by the Celestials or something (the story was painful enough, I"m not going back to double check). Maybe he's time travelling or gained new powers after that storyline.
@parallax207 - It's possible, but I'm more inclined to believe the baby's the 616 version of Rachel. The one with Alex and the Starjammers is from an alternate universe. I think Cable would say something if it was Jean and Marvel seems to be actually letting Jean stay dead for the time being.
If time travel is so easy for Cable, couldn't he go back and save Xavier? Or go back to the beginning of this story and whisk the baby off to the future? The possibilities are endless...
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