Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 01:42:35 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Search:     Advanced search
we're back, baby
*
Home Help Search Login Register
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  General Discussion  |  Comics  |  Topic: X-men: Endangered Species/Messiah Complex 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Pages: 1 2 [3] Go Down Print
Author Topic: X-men: Endangered Species/Messiah Complex  (Read 45450 times)
Cim
Terracotta Army
Posts: 119


WWW
Reply #70 on: December 21, 2007, 10:55:46 PM

That is awesome in so many different ways.

I read this alternate world X-Men comic years ago.  Xavier dies and Magneto takes up the X-Men leader mantel and it made cable all sorts of bad ass.
They should bring HIM in to remove the cable that sucks.

Theres a place on your face that can save the human race, its called a smile, the positivity that it creates takes awhile, but the grin will turn an inch into a mile.
SnakeCharmer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3807


Reply #71 on: December 26, 2007, 09:18:29 PM

I *really* don't need to read these threads.  All they're doing is stomping all over the dreams of my childhood.

I actually went to the local B&N to check out some of the new stuff.  After about reading about 8-10 of them in the store, I put them back and vowed never to read another comic again.

Fuck you, Marvel/DC....
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #72 on: December 27, 2007, 03:15:49 AM

I *really* don't need to read these threads.  All they're doing is stomping all over the dreams of my childhood.

I actually went to the local B&N to check out some of the new stuff.  After about reading about 8-10 of them in the store, I put them back and vowed never to read another comic again.

Fuck you, Marvel/DC....


You're reading the wrong stuff.
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #73 on: December 27, 2007, 08:36:25 AM

Amen. You want good X-Men? Find Grant Morrison's X-Men run, then don't read anything after that until they package up the Mike Carey stuff (and the Brubaker before this Messiah Complex thing).

Cim
Terracotta Army
Posts: 119


WWW
Reply #74 on: December 27, 2007, 06:09:47 PM

I want good stuff!

Theres a place on your face that can save the human race, its called a smile, the positivity that it creates takes awhile, but the grin will turn an inch into a mile.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #75 on: January 11, 2008, 02:58:33 AM

It's a strange world when one of the only things I'm enjoying from Marvel right now happens to be an X-men crossover.  I haven't really said anything about the two most recent parts of the story and... well, that's not really going to change here either.  Marvel has managed to keep the weekly pace up on this series, so I'm content to wait for the last two issues before saying anything else here.

I will mention though that New X-men seems to be in an unenviable position of trying to wrap up the book during a crossover.  The result is that a final showdown with Predator X next issue seems shoehorned into the MC story.  It has nothing to do with the story of the Mutant Messiah either plotwise or thematically, but in aside from the Purifiers, whom the New X-men just faced off against,  Predator X is the closest thing the team has to a nemesis.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #76 on: January 24, 2008, 11:35:11 AM

Ok, Messiah Complex finally wrapped up yesterday.  Overall I think it's a pretty successful crossover, especially compared to Marvel's recent output.  Sure, I've got some nitpicks about that last issue.  Bachalo's art flat out sucks at times here, especially in the opening face off between Cable and Bishop (and since when has Bishop carried around a gun that requires ammunition?).  Also, one of the characters gets drastically injured at the end.  From the way the book is written, and the fact that the characters are all just standing around the "body" rather than rushing him to a hospital, it really does look like the character is dead.  Reading the solicits for the next few months though (some of which are actually provided at the end of this issue), shows that the character is actually in a coma, making the last few pages of this book not make a lot of sense when you look at them.  I'm also not sure what they're doing with Bishop's character.  This new background they've given him doesn't seem to match up at all with the X.S.E. stuff, unless there's something I've missed in the past that reveals how Bishop's timeline goes from having all mutants locked up in an internment camp, to the formation of the X.S.E..

On the plus side, the kids get to see a play a somewhat important role, and their replacement book, Young X-men, is now solicited for April.  Marc Guggenheim is writing, which I'm looking forward too.  I didn't think his work on the last Blade comic was all that great (but then the last time anyone knew what to do with that character was in Nightstalkers), but his short run on the Flash (the arc where Bart dies) I thought was really good.  Uncanny seems to have a bizarre story arc coming up, involving an alternate version of San Francisco in 1968.  Crime novelist Duane Swierczynski, who has only written 3 or 4 individual comics for Marvel in the past has been put on the new Cable book.


HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #77 on: January 25, 2008, 09:53:11 AM

So that's what they were building to?

Blearg. You were right about the art, it was some of Bacahlo's worst. The solicits for the next X-Men issues don't make any sense.

Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848


Reply #78 on: January 25, 2008, 10:43:11 AM

Was anything resolved, or was it just to cripple/coma/kill this one character?

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #79 on: January 25, 2008, 11:07:43 AM

Spoilers in black:







X-Men disbanded, X-ForceFurry created, X-Men kill a bunch of minor villain characters, Bishop turns into a turd, Layla Miller banished in the future, Madrox has an M-tattoo, New X-Men get yet another new book, Xavier in a coma, Rogue kills Mystique, loses all 8 billion personas except Mystiques and her own, fucks off somewhere else.


Lot of little nothings. Cyclops turning into a "Just kill everyone between us and the baby" kind of guy was retarded.

Llava
Contributor
Posts: 4602

Rrava roves you rong time


Reply #80 on: January 25, 2008, 11:23:31 AM


Rogue kills Mystique


Mystique isn't dead. They're pretty clear on that.

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #81 on: January 25, 2008, 12:19:43 PM

Oh well, even bigger waste of time then.

Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #82 on: January 26, 2008, 09:00:09 AM

Amen. You want good X-Men? Find Grant Morrison's X-Men run, then don't read anything after that until they package up the Mike Carey stuff (and the Brubaker before this Messiah Complex thing).

Mike Carey is still writing comics?  I thought he had moved on to churning out urban fantasy novels.
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #83 on: January 26, 2008, 02:19:57 PM

Carey's run is pretty good.

Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #84 on: January 26, 2008, 02:55:31 PM

Oh well, even bigger waste of time then.

I wouldn't exactly call it a waste (aside from the damage done to Bishop's character), but I would say that this story didn't require a 13 part crossover, and there's somewhat of a large plot hole as to why Cable couldn't have just gone to Cyclops for help in the first place.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #85 on: February 07, 2008, 01:40:05 AM

Uncanny 495 reinforces my idea that the end of MC would have worked a lot better without all the empty drama at the end in regards to Prof. X "dying" and the X-men disbanding.  From the start of this issue Cyclops pretty much admits that the X-men aren't disbanding, they're all just more or less on vacation trying to sort things out.  So in this issue we get Cyclops and Emma getting some downtime in the Savage Land, and Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler traveling around in Germany and then heading off to Russia.  Some beautiful art from Mike Choi helps sell the issue, and there's also always been something about issues where we get to see the X-men getting some time to relax, particularly after big storylines that I've always found intriguing.  The post-Onslaught issue of Uncanny which consists entirely of them all getting together for breakfast for instance, I found to be better than anything in the actually Onslaught crossover itself.

More issues like this please.
Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848


Reply #86 on: February 07, 2008, 12:17:46 PM

... Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler traveling around in Germany and then heading off to Russia.
Just like the ol' days.

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #87 on: February 16, 2008, 03:21:08 PM

Continuing on with the post-MC X-books, this last week saw the release of X-Factor #28, and thanks to a one week delay, X-Force #1.

Starting off with X-Factor, Peter David once again seems to be doing his best to get some milage out of a recent crossover.  This shouldn't come as much of a surprise really.  X-Factor after all is the book that managed to turn Layla Miller from a House of M plot device into a character, did the best it could with damaged goods character Quicksilver, and put a focus on M-day and the decimation when other X-books were going off into space or doing whatever else they could just to avoid the situation.

In this issue, the team is falling apart after loosing Layla Miller in a possible future, and with Wolfsbane jumping ship to go join X-Force.  While there's a couple obligatory fight scenes, the main focus of this issue is some of the best character interaction you'll see in a Marvel comic (or just about any comic really).  Jamie and Rictor get hit the hardest by MC, and while hopefully this doesn't drag the book too far and too long into being dark and depressing, this issue leaves me wanting to see how the team continues to try to cope with everything they just lost.

I'm not really sure what to think of X-Force.  The biggest problem I think I have with it is the characterization of Cyclops, and in particular him enlisting X-23.  I'm also still not particularly moved by the death of Caliban and it falls a bit flat as any sort of motivation for Warpath.  In fact, with Wolfsbane only getting about two lines of dialogue in this issue, Logan is the only one that really makes sense in this book so far (and to be fair I think the writers did a good job getting Logan right).  There is some clunky fucking dialogue in this book though with the worst offender being Warpath's "He was going to kill you so I -  I killed him" rationalization for what I would presume to be the first time he's killed somebody.

I enjoy Clayton Crane's art in general, although I think maybe he isn't the greatest sequential storyteller.  His action scenes feel a bit muddied, and there's some blur effects he uses at times that bring Bourne style shakycam stuff to mind when I see it.  I'm not really fond of the glowing red eyes on all the members of X-Force either.  I assume they're supposed to be special lenses or something in their masks, but it just looks silly.

There have also been a number of ads and previews for Young X-men.  I suppose my biggest problem so far is that Dust and Rockslide are the only members returning to the team, with Wolfcub (who has only ever really been a background character) and Blindfold also joining them (and the promo art for her makes her look slightly more active than we've seen her in the past).  No Surge, Elixer, Prodigy, Mercury, Hellion, etc...?  I don't have a problem with writers wanting to introduce a new character or two, but I just don't want to see some of Marvel's more interesting characters get shuffled off to the void like with what happened with a lot of the Generation X characters.
TenaciousMike
Terracotta Army
Posts: 30


Reply #88 on: February 18, 2008, 08:33:05 PM

with what happened with a lot of the Generation X characters.

Actually, they're still around.  Jubilee and Chamber are New Warriors.  M is in X-Factor.  Penance/Hallow is the only once not really in an active book, he was in Loners last year, though.

The rest are dead.  (I think Husk was depowered in DeciMation and killed in New X-men, but I can't find confirmation of it...)

So, they're still around (or dead).

___

Tenacious Mike
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #89 on: February 18, 2008, 11:59:30 PM

with what happened with a lot of the Generation X characters.

Actually, they're still around.  Jubilee and Chamber are New Warriors.  M is in X-Factor.  Penance/Hallow is the only once not really in an active book, he was in Loners last year, though.

The rest are dead.  (I think Husk was depowered in DeciMation and killed in New X-men, but I can't find confirmation of it...)

Husk is still around.  It was a different Guthrie sibling that died in New X-men.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #90 on: March 06, 2008, 10:50:32 AM

People who don't want to read spoilers for the end of Astonishing X-men might want to avoid reading Uncanny for a bit.
TenaciousMike
Terracotta Army
Posts: 30


Reply #91 on: March 09, 2008, 07:47:04 PM

People who don't want to read spoilers for the end of Astonishing X-men might want to avoid reading Uncanny for a bit.

Yeah, wish I'd been warned ahead of time. ><

___

Tenacious Mike
Cim
Terracotta Army
Posts: 119


WWW
Reply #92 on: March 13, 2008, 01:00:20 PM

I was happy with Astonishing when it first started, why do good things have to end so horribly.

Theres a place on your face that can save the human race, its called a smile, the positivity that it creates takes awhile, but the grin will turn an inch into a mile.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #93 on: March 16, 2008, 12:48:00 PM

Various bits of X-men related information have come out of Wizard World LA:

- In addition to the already announced Quicksilver one-shot, Peter David will also be writing a Layla Miller one-shot continuing the plot thread of her being stuck in Bishop's future.

- Longshot and Darwin will be joining the X-Factor cast at some point.

- Ellis and Bianchi's Astonishing run will be 24 issues long.  When asked about how they'll keep on track with the scheduling, editor Axel Alonso gave the stock (and not particularly comforting) explanation of using the lead time to get sizable head start.

- Cyclops will again be the team leader of the Astonishing team.  If they keep getting great writers to write Cyclops, things may reach the point where I don't wish death on the character any more.  Of course Ellis was unable to make Dr. Druid intersting many years, but made up for it by having Hellstrom burn him to a crisp.  I'd settle for something similar here.  Beast, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Storm and Armor appear to round out the cast.

- Matt Fraction, will be joining his Iron Fist co-writer Ed Brubaker on Uncanny X-men as well staring with issue #500 along with artists Greg Land and Terry Dodson.  Faction and Brubaker will alternate on writing, with Faction writing issues #501-503.  From the promotional art, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Wolverine appear to be in both this book in addition to being in Astonishing.  Here they are joined by Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Pixie (from New X-men).  The team will apparently be relocating to San Francisco, even beyond the current story arc.

- The Wither plot thread from New X-men will be continued at some point in X-Force.
Llava
Contributor
Posts: 4602

Rrava roves you rong time


Reply #94 on: March 16, 2008, 11:51:13 PM

Beast, Emma Frost,  awesome, for real Wolverine awesome, for real, Storm and Armor appear to round out the cast.

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #95 on: March 17, 2008, 12:46:17 AM

Beast, Emma Frost,  awesome, for real Wolverine awesome, for real, Storm and Armor appear to round out the cast.

But it's Ellis writing Wolverine.  There has to be some potential in that.  Hell, I like Wolverine as written by Whedon or Brubaker.  It's the other five or six guys writing him each month that need to fuck off.
Llava
Contributor
Posts: 4602

Rrava roves you rong time


Reply #96 on: March 17, 2008, 02:27:23 AM

He's leading another X-team at the moment, isn't he?

And he's in the Avengers?

And solo books?

Do we really need him in this book on top of all that?

I know, I know.  Beating a Dead Horse

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848


Reply #97 on: March 17, 2008, 06:21:18 AM

Being multiple Skrulls was a little far out.  Maybe he has been infected with the Maddrox virus?

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #98 on: March 17, 2008, 02:36:11 PM

He's leading another X-team at the moment, isn't he?

And he's in the Avengers?

And solo books?

Do we really need him in this book on top of all that?

Yes, I need to see Ellis' take on the character.  It Wolverine's other books we don't need.  X-Force is shaping up to be crap, he doesn't need to be in the Avengers, nor does he need three solo books (Wolverine, Origins, and the new Wolverine: First Class book) and various one-shots like "Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man And Other Bloody Tales" (no I'm not making that title up).
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #99 on: March 18, 2008, 08:22:07 AM

various one-shots like "Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man And Other Bloody Tales" (no I'm not making that title up).

Oh for fuck's sake.

HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #100 on: March 20, 2008, 01:45:08 PM

People who don't want to read spoilers for the end of Astonishing X-men might want to avoid reading Uncanny for a bit.

Yeah, no shit. I read it having completely forgotten about this statement. That just plain fucking sucks it. Just when we had a writer who knew how to write taht character.

As for X-Force, yeah that book is shit. The artwork reminds me way too much of the muddy, grim tone of all the Marvel books now. It's like all the light has been drained from the Marvel Universe, and all that's left is shit-covered shit. Cyclops has now gone from one of my faves to a complete fucking douchebag. He's essentially telling Wolverine that killing is not only acceptable, but do it as much as possible plzkthx. X-Force isn't even about doing "what's necessary" it's about slaughtering the fuck out of whoever gets in the way. Wolverine actually had better characterization than Cyclops with his valid concern about X-23. I will be surprised if this book makes it 24 issues.

X-Factor I'm not sure about anymore, with the removal of Rahne and all the angsty depression lately. But the addition of Arcade was a welcome one. He's just not used enough these days.

Khaldun
Terracotta Army
Posts: 15157


Reply #101 on: March 28, 2008, 09:47:46 AM

Brubaker and Fraction, hooray.

Greg "trace with my lightbox" Land? Puke.

What a horrible combination. That's like getting a beautifully cooked steak with shit sauce on top.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #102 on: March 29, 2008, 01:46:47 AM

X-Men Legacy #209 shipped a few days ago, and remains a difficult book to judge.  This is the second issue since the book was re-branded and given a change of focus.  At first it seemed like the book's premise was going to be "Xavier has flashbacks of the past while in a coma", but since he regains consciousness partway into the issue, I'm not sure exactly where Carey is going with all this.

What I do know is that in this issue Carey manages to do the umpteenth rehash of the debate between Magneto and Xavier's philosophies, but for all the feeling that we've been there and done that several times before, the characterization is spot on, and it's always intersting seeing these two reconnect every so often.  Magneto is (supposedly) depowered, and Xavier just had half his brain blasted away, and they've both seen that after all this time neither of their dreams have amounted to shit, so it is good to see Carey playing with how that effects their always fluctuating friendship/rivalry.

Exodus is a character I remain skeptical about.  He started off as very much a product of the 90's when he was created.  He was one of those characters that the writers made to be mysterious, just because they thought that was what made Wolverine popular.  Like a lot of 90's characters he dropped out of sight for a while, but now he's back and being used as a replacement Magneto.  I guess the positive side of that is that it fills that niche for now, allowing Magneto to go do something else and be a more interesting character for however long this lasts.  It also allows for moments like the one near the end of the issue between Magneto and Exodus, where it's almost like Magneto is talking to a younger version of himself and realizing how stupid he was back then.  I still can't say I like Exodus in his own right, but Carey is setting up an interesting conflict for the next issue.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #103 on: April 05, 2008, 03:10:38 AM

So, Young X-Men #1 then...

Having enjoyed the previous iterations of this book, I'd have to say I'm pretty disappointed with how this relaunch turned out.  Look, I like Blindfold, but she only works in small doses, especially due to her speech pattern (which Guggenheim must have noticed since it gets dropped for a sentence or two here and there).  Rockslide feels incredibly flat here compared to the humorously tactless character he was in the previous volumes, while Dust is lacking any characterization here whatsoever, and don't even get me started on trying to figure out why Wolfcub is part of the main cast.

There's nothing approaching a character moment in this book.  Cyclops forms this team because they're the last generation of mutants.  Why he feels that's a good reason for them to put on costumes and fight supervillains isn't made clear, nor is any case made for why he chose these mutants in particular, or why they would want to join for that matter.  If anything, you'd think the X-Men would want to avoid actively putting the youngest generation the nearly extinct mutant species in harms way, especially with the rest of the X-Men teams laying low for the time being.  In fact, the entire premise of Cyclops putting this team together feels like a complete conflict with what's going on in the main X-men books, where the characters are still trying to sort out exactly what direction they're going to take in putting the X-men back together.

All in all the book is a mess with no characterization, and a direction that doesn't fit in with the line as a whole right now.

Meanwhile Cable #2 continues to drag out the Cable vs. Bishop conflict essentially making it feel like Messiah Complex never actually ended.  Really, this is a bad way to launch a new book.  Instead of getting an idea of this title's direction, we're getting a seemingly unending epilogue to MC.  Remember back when the first couple issues of a new book set up the direction of the book, and introduced you to the supporting cast?  Instead I feel like I'm reading a reworked proposal for Nomad 2099 or something.

If Cable's job is to keep the baby safe, why the fuck is he teleporting to "random point in the future where a lot of people seem to be wandering the streets with guns" to get into gunfights with said baby strapped to his chest?  I like the new directions both X-Men books and X-Factor are taking post-MC, but every launch/relaunch that has come out of the crossover has been total crap.
Velorath
Contributor
Posts: 8980


Reply #104 on: July 03, 2008, 12:56:46 AM

The final issue of Whedon's run on Astonishing shipped a few weeks back, and now Ellis' first issue has hit stores.  I'd like to hope that this isn't the last time we see two issues of Astonishing X-Men ship in close proximity, but I'd be fooling myself.

Whedon's run ends in a manner consistent with his entire run.  The story itself isn't great.  Hell, this issue could be summed up as "the X-men try to stop a giant bullet from hitting the Earth".  His strength has been in how well he writes the characters, and this issue is no different.  It was lessened somewhat by the spoilers that appeared over in Uncanny, but there's nothing to be done about that now I supposed.  Also, it has to be said that I am really going to miss Cassaday's art on this book.  Sure most, if not all the delays were probably on his end (though largely Mavel's fault for assigning him more work and prioritizing it over his X-Men stuff, but some things are worth the wait.

Briefly want to mention Uncanny #499 here, which is part four of Brubaker's five part time killing exercise before he can firmly establish the X-Men's new status quo in issue #500, even though other writers are already leapfrogging ahead of him and running with the new setup.  This has been a rather clunky storyline.  The Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus storyline has been fun, although I could have done without it being dragged down into an Omega Red fight.  The San Francisco "hippie" storyline on the other hand had several issues of build up only to be quickly resolved with a couple panels of Emma breaking Martinique Wyngarde's control.  It's anticlimactic, and it doesn't help that in the middle of it, Angel rescues someone from getting hit by a car and she just happens to be the mayor, and that's how they end up getting invited to relocate to S.F..  I love Brubaker's work on Cap.  I want to love his work here, but I'm starting to get the feeling he doesn't have complete control here.

Onto Astonishing X-Men #25 and Warren Ellis... well, I don't really have much to say here yet.  As one of the aforementioned writers who is skipping ahead of Brubaker's current arc and just getting right into the S.F. set up, he seems to be stealing a bit of Brubaker's thunder here.  While other books like X-Factor have merely mentioned the X-Men's move to the West Coast in passing, Ellis actually spends a lot of time here showing us the team's new base and transportation, as well as their working relationship with the local authorities.  In fact, it's hard to judge this issue, since it's largely set-up.  I don't think Ellis writes the characters as well as Whedon, but he comes close enough that the transition isn't as jarring as it could have been.  All in all, not a lot happens, although we do get a very basic setup for what the villains here are, as well as some talk of a junkyard where all the crashed space ships on Earth get taken to (which feels very out of place here since it seems like something that would have been mentioned in the Marvel Universe before now).

Pages: 1 2 [3] Go Up Print 
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  General Discussion  |  Comics  |  Topic: X-men: Endangered Species/Messiah Complex  
Jump to:  

Powered by SMF 1.1.10 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC