X-Mutants ( The "all -things- X" topic)

[jjreason]

Wolverine and the X-Men. Perfect. I'm not going to bother picking up countdown to Schism, nor am I going to seek out X-Men 12 & 13 to finish off that Giant Size #1 my comic guy tricked me into buying by offering it for $1. I MAY or may not pick up Schism... but I'm 50/50 at best on picking it up. I'm feeling X-ed out. And hey, if I miss them I could easily spend the next few months of my life reading X-Men comics I already own but haven't read thanks to that little WoW situation.

[anarky]

Slightly off-subject, but X-Men Forever has to be the ballsiest mainstream superhero comic.

I'm not saying it's the best, but it's certainly the ballsiest. Did Wolverine ever return from the dead? I don't believe he did. Is Tony Stark still a villain? I believe he is.

Seriously, it's downright ballsy. You can't convince me Claremont would've done this twenty years ago. No one would have allowed it. I've only read one paperback (and it was a while ago), but, in revising my "to get" list, I've added the whole series. It's too ballsy to pass up.

[jjreason]

I don't even recall X-men Forever ><

Just googled it & it actually sounds kinda interesting - almost like them giving Larry Hama a fresh start with GI Joe after all the non-Marvel shenanigans.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Both of you seem to be forgetting one VERY IMPORTANT thing. It's written by Claremont. Which is to say, at this point in his career, they put a clean white sheet of paper under his ass and his mucusy greenish brown incontinence dribbles out and then its dutifully shipped off to Marvel where they publish it no questions assed..er..asked.

[jjreason]

X-Men Prelude to Schism - 4 issue mini-series about Cyclops getting ready to lead the "united" Mutant front against something large & dangerous. They don't stand a chance apparently. Over the course of 4 issues Cyclops collects advice from Prof X, Magneto & Wolverine before making the decision to stay & fight (as opposed to evacuate - I should have mentioned all the Mutants are on Utopia - err I mean Genosha.... no wait, it's Utopia, a small island off the west coast of the US that is going to be a mutant nation).

My problem: I hadn't been reading & have no idea what led the Mutants to Utopia. I also have no idea what the pending threat is.

Marvel's problem: Nowhere in the books do they touch on either of these things. Nowhere in the books do they offer you an editor's cookie advising you where to learn more.

My next problem: It seemed like Cyke was jerking off for 3 issues (okay I'll admit it - I don't have issue 4, but I read the synopsis online before I came here to shit all over the series), humming and hawing over what to do. The way it was written however, made it seem like he really had no choice but to stay and fight (it was mentioned that if they were going to evacuate, the time had come and gone in more than one spot).

If this story needed to be published for any other reason than getting Marvel some money (really honestly it's a VERY spartan look at the history of the X-Men with brief focuses on Cyke, Prof X, Magneto & Wolverine), it SHOULD have been done in one issue - hell blow it out & make it a 48 page special if you like, but one issue.

Final judgement: NOT worth the money (but watch me go spend $3.99 on issue 4 as soon as I can find a copy - because leaving a missing issue in my collection anywhere just wouldn't be acceptable).

Next up: Schism itself. I hope it rocks, and I hope it fills in the story a little bit so I can at least have an idea as to what the hell is going on.

[jjreason]

Schism. For what it's worth, this story starts with the unnamed threat I was previously talking about having been apparently dealt with. Thank goodness! (I still don't know what it was, but thank goodness anyhow.)

Let me start by saying this is a pretty darned good read. A new Hellfire Club is introduced, and though I don't know any of the backstory of the new Black King (I'm assuming there must be more background provided on his family somewhere, based on how the characters are handled), I bought into it after a bit of initial resistance. The basic premise is that the countries of the world are sparked into activating their mutant defenses (Sentinels) after Quentin Quire (sprung by the aforementioned new Black King as it turns out) sabotages a meeting of world leaders at which Scott is presenting his desire to see all Sentinels deactivated. The first 3 issues are good & meaty, the last 2 are quite a bit more decompressed.

The art is different in each issue, but almost thoroughly excellent. The first two issues (by Carlos Pacheco and Frank Cho) are fine, but it really picks up after that. Daniel Armata (sp?) provides a very "shiny" look to issue 3, almost reminiscent of something Bill Sienkewicz would have pulled off in the old days with his paints... but different. Neat to look at. Alan Davis in issue 4 is just, well, Alan Davis. One of the best X-Men artists ever. The last few pages of issue 4 (the beginnings of Cyke fighting with Wolverine as a huge Sentinel approaches to destroy them) are amazing. Adam Kubert (exclusivity to DC contract must be over with) on issue 5 is a bit of a letdown following Davis, but that was a seriously tough act to follow so I won't admonish him too sternly.

Final verdict: Not "New" or "Astonishing" by any means, but well worth the money.

[Diabolical]

Even after reading that, I have no idea what the fuck is going on.

[anarky]

I don't think Marvel is in need of a reboot, but maybe the X-titles are. They're confusing as fuck.

Maybe that's why I enjoyed X-Men Forever, despite Claremont's massively weakened writing skills.

[jjreason]

After reading my post or after reading Schism? I was trying to stay away from the main plot points, but I'll give a bit more below:





SPOILERS (yes, I'm still too challenged to figure out the purple spoiler-hider font):






















So it's basically a divergence of intentions between Scott & Logan, which I'm sure has been apparent with the advertising.

The story puts all the seasoned X-Men away from Utopia, leaving Scott & a bunch of Mutie kids there alone to defend it against the most nefarious Sentinel of all time, created by the newly minted Black King (a 12-yr old billionaire weapons designer's son who kills his dad to assume control of the family fortune and business in the first issue).

Wolverine, off Utopia at the opening of a Mutant Museum in San Franciso with Emma Frost & a number of other "high profile" members, makes it back to the Island after battling the huge Sentinel in time tell Scott to get the kids & evacuate. Scott wants them to stay and fight. In a last ditch, Wolvie grabs a handheld explosive and tells them all to leave, he's going to stay and blow himself, the island and the sentinel to smithereens. Scott blasts him in the face with his eye-beams (no kidding) and the fight is on. Cyclops basically melts Wolvie's face off, but can't finish him. The Sentinel arrives just before a slew of other X-Men, returning from their across the globe battles with older, shittier Sentinels. The battle is joined & they defeat the Sentinel, Scott & Wolvie patching it up for a few moments to take down the common foe.

After it's all said & done, Wolvie takes a Lockheed & heads back to Greymalkin lane with a few X-Men who choose to follow him instead of staying with Cyke on Utopia. Included in this batch was Quentin Quire, who is locked up as a prisoner after his actions in the first couple of issues.

As a result, Cyke's team will be in the new Uncanny, Wolvie's team will be in Wolverine & the X-Men, both #1's hitting next month.

[anarky]

The easiest way to get spoiler text is to highlight whatever should be a spoiler and click the "spoiler" button above the text editor. I'm not trying to be a smartass, but vyn makes it much easier than a lot of forums.

Nice to know that the current batch of editors don't realize that Cyclops shoots force beams from his eyes, not heat or laser beams, unless they've changed that at some point (which is entirely possible), or it's supposed to be Cyke essentially tearing Wolvie's face off and it was drawn as if it was burnt.

[jjreason]

Thanks, Chuxikins. That WAS easy. And you're right, they are force beams to the best of my knowledge as well. I guess I just always assumed there would be a quota of heat involved, to go along with the concussive force - it IS energy being dispersed and, in my mind, visible energy being dispersed usually contains an element of heat.... but I digress.....

Torn/Melted - either way at one point he was holding an eyeball in his hand.

[Diabolical]

After reading my post or after reading Schism?

Yes.
I'm just so far removed what has happened in the X-books.

I think the last real X-titles I read were Whedon's Astonishing and the first 24-ish issues of Wolvergins.

[jjreason]

If you ended off with Whedon's Astonishing, you're good. Nothing that I've read has touched it since - everything is so convoluted & hard to jump into.

[Rollo Tomassi]

X-Men Prelude to Schism - 4 issue mini-series about Cyclops getting ready to lead the "united" Mutant front against something large & dangerous. They don't stand a chance apparently. Over the course of 4 issues Cyclops collects advice from Prof X, Magneto & Wolverine before making the decision to stay & fight (as opposed to evacuate - I should have mentioned all the Mutants are on Utopia - err I mean Genosha.... no wait, it's Utopia, a small island off the west coast of the US that is going to be a mutant nation).

My problem: I hadn't been reading & have no idea what led the Mutants to Utopia. I also have no idea what the pending threat is.

Marvel's problem: Nowhere in the books do they touch on either of these things. Nowhere in the books do they offer you an editor's cookie advising you where to learn more.

My next problem: It seemed like Cyke was jerking off for 3 issues (okay I'll admit it - I don't have issue 4, but I read the synopsis online before I came here to shit all over the series), humming and hawing over what to do. The way it was written however, made it seem like he really had no choice but to stay and fight (it was mentioned that if they were going to evacuate, the time had come and gone in more than one spot).

If this story needed to be published for any other reason than getting Marvel some money (really honestly it's a VERY spartan look at the history of the X-Men with brief focuses on Cyke, Prof X, Magneto & Wolverine), it SHOULD have been done in one issue - hell blow it out & make it a 48 page special if you like, but one issue.

Final judgement: NOT worth the money (but watch me go spend $3.99 on issue 4 as soon as I can find a copy - because leaving a missing issue in my collection anywhere just wouldn't be acceptable).

Next up: Schism itself. I hope it rocks, and I hope it fills in the story a little bit so I can at least have an idea as to what the hell is going on.

I was supremely dissappointed in Prelude to Schism. Both Jason Aaron and Tom Brevoort have gone on record and said that the "pending threat" has nothing to do with Schism, and that they just added the Schism subtitle onto Paul Jenkins previously scripted mini to bump sales. Dirty pool. I guess the whole thing was more of a character study of the four main characters (Cyke, Xavier, Logan, and Magneto) but the Schism thing just confused the entire thing. So, seriously, the threat they faced is STILL a mystery. The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. Especially since I paid full price for it.

By the way, the reason they're on Utopia is because they moved to San Fran around issue 500 and opened up a huge facility (sort of a modern west coast version of the school combined with a software firm). But then Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers attacked (in the Utopia/Exodus crossover) and the X-Men left their brand new facility after about six weeks (seriously, in Marvel Universe time, they couldn't have been there but barely a month if that) they raised what was left of Magneto's Asteroid M which was on the bottom of the Pacific, and Namor had the Atlantean's shore it up and built New Atlantis at its base. So Utopia is Asteroid M.

[jjreason]

Thanks EP - nice of you to have to do the fucking editors' work for them.

That is some bullshit for sure - if they were going to fabricate the threat, at least go through the process of having Cyke wake up beside (a scantily clad) Emma a la Anakin in EPII and have a one page discussion about some threat he can't identify. 3 or 4 more panels of softcore would have reduced the pain significantly.