TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited December 2012
ANXM #3, it seemed like in the middle of the issue it just started going into the more generic character conflict stuff that really shouldn't exist at the moment, at least on Cyclops' team.
So existing mutants seem to have their powers changed by the Phoenix, which syncs up with Beast changing, and it seems to be on and off, like it seems Cyclops has extra power now in his blasts or something. But this is making Cyclops freak out and act like he's a kid who just got his powers, instead of the guy who had hundred of plans to fight a possessed Juggernaut, never freaked out when Emma went crazy in Whedon's run, and who generally always has a plan. I guess this is to mirror young Cyclops being here, maybe to show his young self beating up his old self and takin' it to the man but what's wrong with having a Cyclops fully convinced of his new role as protector of mutants who just can't deal with his youthful ideals at the present?
Magneto is now snapping at Scott and calling him a boy and saying he better give him his powers back and fix this or else, which as written seemed to go beyond frayed nerves and seems to be setting Magneto up not as Scott's adviser but possible usurper of Scott's revolution plan? Kick the boy to the side and show how a real villain starts a revolution? Maybe I'm jumping the gun there, but the extra bit about saying Scott wanted to kill Xavier, and that it wasn't the Phoenix Force that did it, it seems like things are being put in motion to shift Magneto back to bad guy as seen by him saying he did all those bad things, with no outside influence. He certainly wasn't trying to help Cyclops with his conversation piece, that's for sure.
Emma seemed to be out of character in how she spoke, she almost seemed like she was Spider-Woman, and seems to have lost her telepathy. And she blames Cyclops for everything, which still feels weird coming from the more crazy person during AVX until the last issue.
Illyana seems to be the only one not damaged by what happened, and apparently has more Limbo power.
I would like to see Cyclops and Peter talk, because while Illyana says Peter would kill Cyclops for what he did to Xavier, I would think he would just say "yeah, I've been there too when Illyana died." There's actually a bonding thing to going crazy for a moment that would kind of keep the Phoenix Five together outside of the Phoenix event.
That is a really interesting group of books to cross over.
What's happening with Astonishing right now? Is it getting a NOW refresh?
Astonishing has been mostly about the marriage between Northstar and Kyle Jinadu. Oh, and some of the X-Men were forced to take over Madripoor or be blown up.
Also, Phil Noto has been doing some amazing covers for the book.
ANXM #3, it seemed like in the middle of the issue it just started going into the more generic character conflict stuff that really shouldn't exist at the moment, at least on Cyclops' team.
So existing mutants seem to have their powers changed by the Phoenix, which syncs up with Beast changing, and it seems to be on and off, like it seems Cyclops has extra power now in his blasts or something. But this is making Cyclops freak out and act like he's a kid who just got his powers, instead of the guy who had hundred of plans to fight a possessed Juggernaut, never freaked out when Emma went crazy in Whedon's run, and who generally always has a plan. I guess this is to mirror young Cyclops being here, maybe to show his young self beating up his old self and takin' it to the man but what's wrong with having a Cyclops fully convinced of his new role as protector of mutants who just can't deal with his youthful ideals at the present?
Magneto is now snapping at Scott and calling him a boy and saying he better give him his powers back and fix this or else, which as written seemed to go beyond frayed nerves and seems to be setting Magneto up not as Scott's adviser but possible usurper of Scott's revolution plan? Kick the boy to the side and show how a real villain starts a revolution? Maybe I'm jumping the gun there, but the extra bit about saying Scott wanted to kill Xavier, and that it wasn't the Phoenix Force that did it, it seems like things are being put in motion to shift Magneto back to bad guy as seen by him saying he did all those bad things, with no outside influence. He certainly wasn't trying to help Cyclops with his conversation piece, that's for sure.
Emma seemed to be out of character in how she spoke, she almost seemed like she was Spider-Woman, and seems to have lost her telepathy. And she blames Cyclops for everything, which still feels weird coming from the more crazy person during AVX until the last issue.
Illyana seems to be the only one not damaged by what happened, and apparently has more Limbo power.
I would like to see Cyclops and Peter talk, because while Illyana says Peter would kill Cyclops for what he did to Xavier, I would think he would just say "yeah, I've been there too when Illyana died." There's actually a bonding thing to going crazy for a moment that would kind of keep the Phoenix Five together outside of the Phoenix event.
I read that whole Cyclops/Magneto scene completely differently than you.
Cyclops is in complete denial over what happened with the Phoenix. Magneto was making the point that it was clearly still Cyclops behind the wheel throughout the AvX debackle and he needs to fess up to that before he can move forward. He needs the old Cyclops back because he's likely the only one who can help him get his powers back to normal. He was essentially helping Scott.
ANXM #3, it seemed like in the middle of the issue it just started going into the more generic character conflict stuff that really shouldn't exist at the moment, at least on Cyclops' team.
So existing mutants seem to have their powers changed by the Phoenix, which syncs up with Beast changing, and it seems to be on and off, like it seems Cyclops has extra power now in his blasts or something. But this is making Cyclops freak out and act like he's a kid who just got his powers, instead of the guy who had hundred of plans to fight a possessed Juggernaut, never freaked out when Emma went crazy in Whedon's run, and who generally always has a plan. I guess this is to mirror young Cyclops being here, maybe to show his young self beating up his old self and takin' it to the man but what's wrong with having a Cyclops fully convinced of his new role as protector of mutants who just can't deal with his youthful ideals at the present?
Magneto is now snapping at Scott and calling him a boy and saying he better give him his powers back and fix this or else, which as written seemed to go beyond frayed nerves and seems to be setting Magneto up not as Scott's adviser but possible usurper of Scott's revolution plan? Kick the boy to the side and show how a real villain starts a revolution? Maybe I'm jumping the gun there, but the extra bit about saying Scott wanted to kill Xavier, and that it wasn't the Phoenix Force that did it, it seems like things are being put in motion to shift Magneto back to bad guy as seen by him saying he did all those bad things, with no outside influence. He certainly wasn't trying to help Cyclops with his conversation piece, that's for sure.
Emma seemed to be out of character in how she spoke, she almost seemed like she was Spider-Woman, and seems to have lost her telepathy. And she blames Cyclops for everything, which still feels weird coming from the more crazy person during AVX until the last issue.
Illyana seems to be the only one not damaged by what happened, and apparently has more Limbo power.
I would like to see Cyclops and Peter talk, because while Illyana says Peter would kill Cyclops for what he did to Xavier, I would think he would just say "yeah, I've been there too when Illyana died." There's actually a bonding thing to going crazy for a moment that would kind of keep the Phoenix Five together outside of the Phoenix event.
I read that whole Cyclops/Magneto scene completely differently than you.
Cyclops is in complete denial over what happened with the Phoenix. Magneto was making the point that it was clearly still Cyclops behind the wheel throughout the AvX debackle and he needs to fess up to that before he can move forward. He needs the old Cyclops back because he's likely the only one who can help him get his powers back to normal. He was essentially helping Scott.
"I need Juggernaut plan Cyclops, not 'Jean is dead' Cyclops!"
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
That's a fair take on the scene and I admit to jumping the gun a bit for what could be happening (since subplots are pretty much a thing of the past with yearly changes in the status quo), it just seemed regressive compared to where Consequences ended for the whole thing.
Cyclops said he would gladly switch places with Xavier, and never meant for him to die, but he would do all that stuff again because he had to save mutantkind. Depending on the time frame when Cyclops escaped in Consequences to when he frees Emma, it had to have only been a week at most. So at that point Cyclops freaking out, and it not having to do with hosting a cosmic force, just seems very backwards these days.
Basically, screw any reappearance of self doubt Cyclops, there's 400 back issues to deal with that.
I tend to chalk that up to a new writer taking on an established set of characters - those characters' voices are almost inevitably going to change, at least a bit. Take a look at Rogue over in Remender's Uncanny Avengers - as great as he's done with Uncanny X-Force these past few years, he's instantly regressed Rogue's character several years. Maybe how he's handling Rogue, and how Bendis is so far handling old Scott and Emma is all going to go towards the stories they're trying to tell - hopefully that's the case, because if it's not it'd be an awful big disappointment.
Well, after decades of all the crap they go through plus the Phoenix thing and then you top it off with messed up powers, I think it's reasonable to have a bad day moment.
Now if they stretch it out as an on-going thing, yeah that kind of is a big step back. But dude losing his cool in a high-stress situation isn't that out of the ordinary.
I truthfully didn't read Rogue any differently in Uncanny Avengers than in any other recent books. She's still very confident yet wears her heart on her sleeve a bit.
I'm still interested in it, yet at the same time Bendis says a few things that make pause. In bullet points:
- He references Claremont's run about it's themes, and looking to interpret that in more modern times (this is probably the biggest concern, Claremont's overtones were with the franchise for years and a dead horse until Morrison, and even then kind of backtracked with M-Day, just move forward)
- A Doctor Doom level villain which has never appeared in X-Men books before is going to show up (if this is Bendis bringing back The Hood, no)
- Someone from Wolverine & the X-Men will be an antagonist for the series at the end of the first issue, maybe it's Beast or it's the Hellfire Kids or Mystique's school.
- Cyclops and Wolverine have interactions in ANXM #9 and Uncanny #3, and Wolverine is angrier at Cyclops more than Cyclops is angry at Wolverine.
- No mention of any other existing members joining outside of Scott, Emma, Magneto, Magik and the new recruits. It would be cool to see Madison Jeffries and Danger back, if Bendis wanted to carry over X-Club plots, plus you need a tech person to rebuild Weapon X and make it all snazzy.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited December 2012
Cable & X-Force #1, pretty decent. Every character gets a moment to shine, although it comes with a little too much Hope being super amazing and awesome, which, you know, eh. I like how Cable is written, and there's a sense that Hopeless actually has an idea to make this X-Force be maybe quasi UXF, a little bit X-Club. Larocca's art doesn't look as referenced as it has been, but maybe he's just more shrewd about it. Not a lot of action in the book but that's fine, the building of the team works well and you get a lot of words for the issue, so it's on the buy list for now.
About that nice scene of Havok telling Cap to stand down though....
Cable just blasts Havok with a gun and tells everyone to escape, and then Havok has to tell Cap he was right, it was a bad call to stand down. So even in throwaway lines Cap can never be wrong. Blegh.
I feel like Scott freaking out about what's going on with his powers felt right. Even though he did seem like he was feeling remorse/denial for the things he did as a Phoenix, his breakdown in the woods seemed like it was more about his inability to control his blasts. He basically even says as much, and you have to consider that for many years now he has been able to control his beams (albeit with the aid of his visor) to the point that he could not only alter the width of the beam, but was able to perform bank shots off of multiple surfaces before striking an intended target. He's gone from that level of precision to basically shooting out in every direction, almost like Havok's out of control rings of destruction in X-Men: First Class.
Since a big part of Cyclops' character has always been his fear of unintentionally hurting others with his powers, having them behave more wildly and unpredictably than they have since he put on his first pair of ruby-quartz glasses makes sense as a reason for him to lose his cool.
I'm really enjoying All-new X-men right now. I haven't really been into x-books for awhile (and I know I unfortunately ended up skipping some of the better titles in the last year or so), but I find the concept of a reverse time travel/dystopia story so intriguing. After everything that's happened in the 616 universe, it really does feel like one of those dystopian futures the X-men from comics 20 years ago would have visited.
I know there are a lot of "huhu Claremont" feelings about his various returns to the X-books after he left in the 90's, but I'm looking for honest opinions about X-Treme X-Men. The idea of a team of X-Men road trippin' with ensuing hijinks sounds pretty rad, especially with that team roster, and I didn't hate Claremont's return after The Twelve. Okay, pretty much all of it before Dream's End was meh, but Dream's End and the downtime issues he wrote before Lobdell took over were great. Did the momentum carry into X-Treme X-Men, and is it worth looking into?
I know there are a lot of "huhu Claremont" feelings about his various returns to the X-books after he left in the 90's, but I'm looking for honest opinions about X-Treme X-Men. The idea of a team of X-Men road trippin' with ensuing hijinks sounds pretty rad, especially with that team roster, and I didn't hate Claremont's return after The Twelve. Okay, pretty much all of it before Dream's End was meh, but Dream's End and the downtime issues he wrote before Lobdell took over were great. Did the momentum carry into X-Treme X-Men, and is it worth looking into?
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
There's one X-Treme X-Men arc that is worth a look, and that's God Loves Man Kills II. Although I think a lot of it is ruined by what they did with Stryker afterwards, if you've read Kyle & Yost's New X-Men or any of the Messiah Stuff it's almost a moot story because all tension is lost.
I am trying really hard to wrap my head around what X-books I should be checking out.
My plan as it is, is to read through AvX and start up All New X-Men, followed by Uncanny X-Men when it starts up. I really know nothing about anything that isn't NOW branded. Could anyone make some recommendations for starting points? All I can think to do at the moment is sit around and see if some existing series start getting a NOW label and hopping on.
I am trying really hard to wrap my head around what X-books I should be checking out.
My plan as it is, is to read through AvX and start up All New X-Men, followed by Uncanny X-Men when it starts up. I really know nothing about anything that isn't NOW branded. Could anyone make some recommendations for starting points? All I can think to do at the moment is sit around and see if some existing series start getting a NOW label and hopping on.
NOW is supposed to be new reader friendly for the most part, so just picking up the NOW titles isn't a bad plan. But there are a lot of great past X-books worth looking into. Starting points depend on how far back you want to start. If you want to start with the original books by Kirby and Lee, well...I don't recommend it. They're not really all that interesting save for a couple exceptions, and your enjoyment of them will depend entirely on your preference for Silver Age books.
The earliest starting point I recommend is the Marvel Masterworks UXM books, with volume 1 starting with Giant-Sized #1. UXM #94, which picks up right after GSXM #1, is the start of Chris Claremont's 17 year run that defined the franchise. The first five volumes (the only ones available at affordable softcover prices) take you all the way up through the Dark Phoenix Saga, which is pretty widely regarded as the definitive X-Men story, and up to the issue before Days of Future Past (another key X-Men story).
Claremont's run ended with X-Men #3, and transitioned to Jim Lee as the writer and artist for about a year (the first seven issues of the self-titled series are collected here). A lot of people shit on 90's X-Men. It has its high and low points, and I consider Lee's X-Men to be among the highest, but in general I don't hate the decade nearly as much as many appear to. But as a starting point for someone just getting into the franchise, it's not really the ideal place to start. Though if you were going to, the aformentioned trade would be the place to do so.
Next best after Claremont's original run is Grant Morrison's New X-Men (also collected in omnibus format). It reignited the franchise and is a really great read that Marvel seemed keen on dismantling as soon as it ended.
Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (first 4 volumes, also available in omnibus) picks up after Morrison's New X-Men, and was the only X-book that didn't shit on New X-Men. Another highly recommended run that runs in tandem with New X-Men as a starting point. My personal recommendation? Don't skip New X-Men, and read it before Astonishing.
House of M set the direction for the X-Men franchise all the way through AvX. HoM, Messiah Complex, Second Coming, and Schism will get you caught up on the main points of the events that lead up to AvX, and then AvX gives way to NOW!
Also, it's not really related to NOW or even the main X-books, but Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force series is amazing and is going to have its own crossover with a couple other satellite X-books pretty soon.
I am trying really hard to wrap my head around what X-books I should be checking out.
My plan as it is, is to read through AvX and start up All New X-Men, followed by Uncanny X-Men when it starts up. I really know nothing about anything that isn't NOW branded. Could anyone make some recommendations for starting points? All I can think to do at the moment is sit around and see if some existing series start getting a NOW label and hopping on.
Wolverine and the X-Men is a great book and it's only about a year and a half old, but if you don't want to go back to the start of that, Aaron's been teasing that the next big storyline will be starting in issue 25, so that might be a good place to jump on.
X-Treme X-Men is really good and since it's alternate universe, it doesn't really require any background. It's only up to like issue 7, too, so it's easy to catch up on.
@Bullio Remender's UXF is amazing but it's not crossing over with anything. The next issue is Remender's last before it gets relaunched in January with NOW branding and Sam Humphries taking over with a new roster.
I thought it was going to be part of X-Termination? Seems I was misinformed. In that case, it's actually easier to recommend since it's so self-contained.
I am trying really hard to wrap my head around what X-books I should be checking out.
My plan as it is, is to read through AvX and start up All New X-Men, followed by Uncanny X-Men when it starts up. I really know nothing about anything that isn't NOW branded. Could anyone make some recommendations for starting points? All I can think to do at the moment is sit around and see if some existing series start getting a NOW label and hopping on.
Wolverine and the X-Men is very fun, pretty much an all-ages type of book I definitely recommend reading. Try out issue #17. It's a fairly continuity-free story that's pretty great.
X-Treme X-Men is a crazy series where a team of X-Men from alternate realities, led by Dazzler, jump across dimensions to kill crazy alternate dimension versions of Professor X. Like Invisible said, it's only 7 issues in and easy to catch up on.
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AoA Nightcrawler meeting Young Nightcrawler should be interesting, I guess?
What's happening with Astonishing right now? Is it getting a NOW refresh?
Magneto is now snapping at Scott and calling him a boy and saying he better give him his powers back and fix this or else, which as written seemed to go beyond frayed nerves and seems to be setting Magneto up not as Scott's adviser but possible usurper of Scott's revolution plan? Kick the boy to the side and show how a real villain starts a revolution? Maybe I'm jumping the gun there, but the extra bit about saying Scott wanted to kill Xavier, and that it wasn't the Phoenix Force that did it, it seems like things are being put in motion to shift Magneto back to bad guy as seen by him saying he did all those bad things, with no outside influence. He certainly wasn't trying to help Cyclops with his conversation piece, that's for sure.
Emma seemed to be out of character in how she spoke, she almost seemed like she was Spider-Woman, and seems to have lost her telepathy. And she blames Cyclops for everything, which still feels weird coming from the more crazy person during AVX until the last issue.
Illyana seems to be the only one not damaged by what happened, and apparently has more Limbo power.
I would like to see Cyclops and Peter talk, because while Illyana says Peter would kill Cyclops for what he did to Xavier, I would think he would just say "yeah, I've been there too when Illyana died." There's actually a bonding thing to going crazy for a moment that would kind of keep the Phoenix Five together outside of the Phoenix event.
I approve of the other additions to the team though! Howlett x Herc OTP
...what.
I hope there's at least 4 issues dedicated to a sex scene between Howlett and Herc
Astonishing has been mostly about the marriage between Northstar and Kyle Jinadu. Oh, and some of the X-Men were forced to take over Madripoor or be blown up.
Also, Phil Noto has been doing some amazing covers for the book.
No NOW! branding for the book either.
I read that whole Cyclops/Magneto scene completely differently than you.
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Basically, screw any reappearance of self doubt Cyclops, there's 400 back issues to deal with that.
Now if they stretch it out as an on-going thing, yeah that kind of is a big step back. But dude losing his cool in a high-stress situation isn't that out of the ordinary.
Looks like the team's going to have fun handling a supremely powerful, death-dealing, brood-possessed acanti skywhale Xavier.
No, I'm not making that up. I don't smoke whatever hallucinogens Greg Pak does to come up with these things.
I'm still interested in it, yet at the same time Bendis says a few things that make pause. In bullet points:
- He references Claremont's run about it's themes, and looking to interpret that in more modern times (this is probably the biggest concern, Claremont's overtones were with the franchise for years and a dead horse until Morrison, and even then kind of backtracked with M-Day, just move forward)
- A Doctor Doom level villain which has never appeared in X-Men books before is going to show up (if this is Bendis bringing back The Hood, no)
- Someone from Wolverine & the X-Men will be an antagonist for the series at the end of the first issue, maybe it's Beast or it's the Hellfire Kids or Mystique's school.
- Cyclops and Wolverine have interactions in ANXM #9 and Uncanny #3, and Wolverine is angrier at Cyclops more than Cyclops is angry at Wolverine.
- No mention of any other existing members joining outside of Scott, Emma, Magneto, Magik and the new recruits. It would be cool to see Madison Jeffries and Danger back, if Bendis wanted to carry over X-Club plots, plus you need a tech person to rebuild Weapon X and make it all snazzy.
About that nice scene of Havok telling Cap to stand down though....
Since a big part of Cyclops' character has always been his fear of unintentionally hurting others with his powers, having them behave more wildly and unpredictably than they have since he put on his first pair of ruby-quartz glasses makes sense as a reason for him to lose his cool.
Plus the art is just so damn pretty.
NOPE
ABORT ABORT
DO NOT READ HIS X-TREME X-MEN
DANGER DANGER
My plan as it is, is to read through AvX and start up All New X-Men, followed by Uncanny X-Men when it starts up. I really know nothing about anything that isn't NOW branded. Could anyone make some recommendations for starting points? All I can think to do at the moment is sit around and see if some existing series start getting a NOW label and hopping on.
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NOW is supposed to be new reader friendly for the most part, so just picking up the NOW titles isn't a bad plan. But there are a lot of great past X-books worth looking into. Starting points depend on how far back you want to start. If you want to start with the original books by Kirby and Lee, well...I don't recommend it. They're not really all that interesting save for a couple exceptions, and your enjoyment of them will depend entirely on your preference for Silver Age books.
The earliest starting point I recommend is the Marvel Masterworks UXM books, with volume 1 starting with Giant-Sized #1. UXM #94, which picks up right after GSXM #1, is the start of Chris Claremont's 17 year run that defined the franchise. The first five volumes (the only ones available at affordable softcover prices) take you all the way up through the Dark Phoenix Saga, which is pretty widely regarded as the definitive X-Men story, and up to the issue before Days of Future Past (another key X-Men story).
Claremont's run ended with X-Men #3, and transitioned to Jim Lee as the writer and artist for about a year (the first seven issues of the self-titled series are collected here). A lot of people shit on 90's X-Men. It has its high and low points, and I consider Lee's X-Men to be among the highest, but in general I don't hate the decade nearly as much as many appear to. But as a starting point for someone just getting into the franchise, it's not really the ideal place to start. Though if you were going to, the aformentioned trade would be the place to do so.
Next best after Claremont's original run is Grant Morrison's New X-Men (also collected in omnibus format). It reignited the franchise and is a really great read that Marvel seemed keen on dismantling as soon as it ended.
Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (first 4 volumes, also available in omnibus) picks up after Morrison's New X-Men, and was the only X-book that didn't shit on New X-Men. Another highly recommended run that runs in tandem with New X-Men as a starting point. My personal recommendation? Don't skip New X-Men, and read it before Astonishing.
House of M set the direction for the X-Men franchise all the way through AvX. HoM, Messiah Complex, Second Coming, and Schism will get you caught up on the main points of the events that lead up to AvX, and then AvX gives way to NOW!
Also, it's not really related to NOW or even the main X-books, but Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force series is amazing and is going to have its own crossover with a couple other satellite X-books pretty soon.
Wolverine and the X-Men is a great book and it's only about a year and a half old, but if you don't want to go back to the start of that, Aaron's been teasing that the next big storyline will be starting in issue 25, so that might be a good place to jump on.
In addition to the ones listed, Cable and the X-Force also just started in the NOW line, so that's another possibility to look into.
Wolverine and the X-Men is very fun, pretty much an all-ages type of book I definitely recommend reading. Try out issue #17. It's a fairly continuity-free story that's pretty great.
X-Treme X-Men is a crazy series where a team of X-Men from alternate realities, led by Dazzler, jump across dimensions to kill crazy alternate dimension versions of Professor X. Like Invisible said, it's only 7 issues in and easy to catch up on.