WatXM #5, that was an issue that really showed how 20 pages can hurt a book, as it cuts off the interesting Kitty story for a connecting four page new villain reveal that just stopped all the momentum of the book. It was something I expected out of a DCnU book, to be honest.
but
the new villain was part of the Kitty story
like
he sent the Brood to go infect Kitty or is at least somehow involved in all of it because he detected her infection
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited February 2012
That's why I put connecting there. It was four pages that just put a damper on both the A-plot with Kitty and the B-plot with Wolverine and Quentin. Make that just the last page with a different panel layout, and you have three more pages to show the school. Or give us two more pages.
I'm reading along, liking the issue, and then the last thing I get is this 90's looking villain who looks a bit like a Dragon Age 2 space Orc. It just kills the momentum of the story flat.
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AriviaI Like A ChallengeEarth-1Registered Userregular
edited February 2012
Hey so Alpha and Omega still seems like it could have been a one-and-done not five fucking issues. Decompression my ass.
make sure you pick Arivia vs Solar #1, coming this April!
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AriviaI Like A ChallengeEarth-1Registered Userregular
Variant covers provided by Greg Land, Whilce Portacio, J. Scott Campbell, and Rob Liefeld - collect all four to put them together and reveal a secret message!
I was just remarking on how those are artists whose covers will probably sell like hot cakes. Maybe replace Portacio with Jim Lee and Campbell with Finch if you want to truly art criminal it up, while making all the cash.
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AriviaI Like A ChallengeEarth-1Registered Userregular
I was just remarking on how those are artists whose covers will probably sell like hot cakes. Maybe replace Portacio with Jim Lee and Campbell with Finch if you want to truly art criminal it up, while making all the cash.
In WATXM 5, did it bug anyone else that the artist drew someone who looked absolutely nothing like Bobby Drake, and then the colorist couldn't even give him the right hair color? I mean, the guy's been drawn relatively consistently for how many years now? I'm all for artists putting their own personal style into their work, and putting a bit of a spin on characters, but when they're completely unrecognizable until someone addresses them by name, it's a little jarring.
Sonofagun... For some reason, I had it in my head that he was more blonde.
But hair color aside, a _little_ consistency with Bachalo's version of Bobby (from just 2 issues ago in this same series) might've been nice. The height was completely different. The scruffiness was completely different - though granted, if you're going into a board room you might be forgiven for, ya know, shaving. And he looked all of 12.
Maybe that's my real problem here - Bobby is one of the original 5 X-Men, yet he's drawn like someone who couldn't possibly be old enough. It might be splitting hairs, but drawing him so young feels like a subtle undermining of the maturity that Aaron's tried to bring to the character each time he's handled him...
WatXM #5, that was an issue that really showed how 20 pages can hurt a book, as it cuts off the interesting Kitty story for a connecting four page new villain reveal that just stopped all the momentum of the book. It was something I expected out of a DCnU book, to be honest.
The whole Schism thing is what got me buying a few floppies a month again, and I was thinking the same thing - this is going to be really good as a trade.
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AriviaI Like A ChallengeEarth-1Registered Userregular
Honestly I am really impressed by how Aaron is picking up giant piles of plates in WatXM and never stopping or never dropping any of them; yeah, #5 pretty obviously set up a new arc, but it did so very well and really organically
with the exception of that last page, it was quite jam-packed
Maybe I am kind of excited for WatXM to double ship.
But maaan, I am really starting to get burnt out on Uncanny. It's like there's a curse on that book. It's just.... really... mediocre. The first arc was really good, but it didn't seem to have any actual consequences, and now this tabula rasa arc is just kind of meh, and we'll be revisiting it during AvX according to the newest solicits.
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AriviaI Like A ChallengeEarth-1Registered Userregular
Yeah
I was picking up Uncanny because it's a flagship book, and because of Hope and Magik, and they have just been sidelined beyond the first arc.
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AriviaI Like A ChallengeEarth-1Registered Userregular
So this got skipped over, but it may be the coolest AvX cover that isn't Phoenix Danny Rand:
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
Land actually does good art when he isn't tracing, though. There's some pictures i've seen from him that look really damn good.
Problem is, he tends to take the lazy route to art. IE: Tracing stuff from Maxim or Playboy.
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AriviaI Like A ChallengeEarth-1Registered Userregular
He is meant to be around Peter Parker's age, which is mid-to-early 20s, I think he looked just fine.
Really? So how old is Cyclops supposed to be? I read him as mid-to-early 30's... Working backwards, if we assumed he was 16 at the very start of X-Men, that'd make Bobby 6 at that time?
Comicbook aging makes me dizzy.
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HawkstoneDon't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things. Somewhere outside of BarstowRegistered Userregular
Pretty sure Scott is supposed to be like 35ish now. Bobby is the youngest of the originals, but that would still make him like 32. Granted he is supposed to be a tad immature so drawing him to be in his late 20's should be fair game.
“X-23 will be in the spotlight,” asserts Gage. “She has a foot in each camp, so the war between the Avengers and the X-Men is naturally going to affect her more than anyone. She joined Avengers Academy in part because she wanted [nothing] of the Wolverine/Cyclops schism. Now she’s caught directly in the middle of another war, and there is no avoiding making the choice this time around.
Sounds like X-23 and Wolverine are in similar places during AvX. There's something about that parallel that I kind of like.
I'm rereading Grant Morrison's New X-Men, since it seems to be having a big influence on Wolverine and the X-Men. Also because it's the best X-Men run ever, and I probably re-read it once a year. And that panel in the last trade where Cassandra Nova breaks the 4th Wall creeps the holy crap out of me. Every damn time.
Anyways... are Phoenix Endsong and Warsong worth picking up? I know Pak wrote them, and not Morrison, but I don't think I've read the whole stories ever. And with Phoenix coming back and all, I thought I might.
I myself am reading through New X-Men at the moment and so I will take this excuse to share my reflections on it.
I still think the concept/origin of Cassandra Nova is one of the most ridiculous, contrived supervillain backstories I've ever heard. Setting that aside, she's a good villain, at least in the sense of being truly evil and repulsive and terrifying and presenting a credible threat to the heroes. And I've never for a moment been bored while reading, there is truly some exciting, dramatic, edge-of-your-seat, page-turning stuff in here.
But it's just not any fun.
Don't get me wrong, there's some clever dialog, some genuinely amusing moments, a couple I've actually laughed out loud at in fact. And I'm not one who needs his comics to be bright and shiny and full of light-hearted adventuring all the time (though those are qualities I have begun to appreciate more and more recently). I have stuff like 100 Bullets and The Death of Captain America on my shelf.
It's just...well, let's put it this way - the hype text on the back of the New X-Men Ultimate Collection trades bears the headline:
SIXTEEN MILLION MUTANTS DEAD - AND THAT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING!
And that's more insightful than I think they perhaps meant it to be. It sounds like a joke to say, "Yeah, the run starts with a near-genocide...and then later comes the heavy stuff," but it seems like a pretty accurate summary. It's intelligent (beef with Cassandra Nova's origin aside), it's well-written, it's exciting, and I'm always entertained reading it. I'm just almost never happy reading it. I can set down the book and walk away shocked or impressed, but I don't walk away smiling.
I guess I'll probably finish reading the three Ultimate Collection trades I have (which I guess is the whole run, or almost?). But I'm really not sure whether I'll keep them. I should mention that I don't entirely mean to single out New X-Men in what I'm saying, because this basically describes how I've feel about almost every X-Men book I've ever read (which granted is not many) with the exception of First Class, to a greater or lesser extent. I want to like the X-Men, I want to badly, and I felt deficient because I had read so relatively little X-material, which is why I picked up the Morrison trades to begin with. But maybe it's just not for me.
Posts
the new villain was part of the Kitty story
like
I'm reading along, liking the issue, and then the last thing I get is this 90's looking villain who looks a bit like a Dragon Age 2 space Orc. It just kills the momentum of the story flat.
Well I'm sure there is a doctor somewhere who can do it, if you have the cash.
this is the end
I WILL BE THE DEATH OF YOU
(next issue)
(in this summer's crossover)
(you'll come back in September)
(but we're totally going to sell the death of solar for all it's worth)
make sure you pick Arivia vs Solar #1, coming this April!
also holy shit you like bad art.
I was just remarking on how those are artists whose covers will probably sell like hot cakes. Maybe replace Portacio with Jim Lee and Campbell with Finch if you want to truly art criminal it up, while making all the cash.
Other than that, another really fun issue.
Bobby has brown hair, dude.
and I don't think he looks totally off or anything. Looked like a young guy in a suit!
But hair color aside, a _little_ consistency with Bachalo's version of Bobby (from just 2 issues ago in this same series) might've been nice. The height was completely different. The scruffiness was completely different - though granted, if you're going into a board room you might be forgiven for, ya know, shaving. And he looked all of 12.
Maybe that's my real problem here - Bobby is one of the original 5 X-Men, yet he's drawn like someone who couldn't possibly be old enough. It might be splitting hairs, but drawing him so young feels like a subtle undermining of the maturity that Aaron's tried to bring to the character each time he's handled him...
and I mean Bachalo and Bradshaw have completely different styles. Their interpretations of characters are not going to look identical.
So maybe you were thinking of that
The whole Schism thing is what got me buying a few floppies a month again, and I was thinking the same thing - this is going to be really good as a trade.
with the exception of that last page, it was quite jam-packed
But maaan, I am really starting to get burnt out on Uncanny. It's like there's a curse on that book. It's just.... really... mediocre. The first arc was really good, but it didn't seem to have any actual consequences, and now this tabula rasa arc is just kind of meh, and we'll be revisiting it during AvX according to the newest solicits.
I was picking up Uncanny because it's a flagship book, and because of Hope and Magik, and they have just been sidelined beyond the first arc.
Problem is, he tends to take the lazy route to art. IE: Tracing stuff from Maxim or Playboy.
Really? So how old is Cyclops supposed to be? I read him as mid-to-early 30's... Working backwards, if we assumed he was 16 at the very start of X-Men, that'd make Bobby 6 at that time?
Comicbook aging makes me dizzy.
Like Grant Morrison said, Batman is 75. But he's not real, so he's as old as Batman.
So, are Batman years like Dog years? X number of Batman years = 1 real year?
Oh boy?
I think I'll wait till the issues actually come out before I fully judge this but the cover isn't helping things at all.
that is
huh
I sincerely hope that is just a dramatized cover
Sounds like X-23 and Wolverine are in similar places during AvX. There's something about that parallel that I kind of like.
Anyways... are Phoenix Endsong and Warsong worth picking up? I know Pak wrote them, and not Morrison, but I don't think I've read the whole stories ever. And with Phoenix coming back and all, I thought I might.
warsong is bad
I still think the concept/origin of Cassandra Nova is one of the most ridiculous, contrived supervillain backstories I've ever heard. Setting that aside, she's a good villain, at least in the sense of being truly evil and repulsive and terrifying and presenting a credible threat to the heroes. And I've never for a moment been bored while reading, there is truly some exciting, dramatic, edge-of-your-seat, page-turning stuff in here.
But it's just not any fun.
Don't get me wrong, there's some clever dialog, some genuinely amusing moments, a couple I've actually laughed out loud at in fact. And I'm not one who needs his comics to be bright and shiny and full of light-hearted adventuring all the time (though those are qualities I have begun to appreciate more and more recently). I have stuff like 100 Bullets and The Death of Captain America on my shelf.
It's just...well, let's put it this way - the hype text on the back of the New X-Men Ultimate Collection trades bears the headline:
SIXTEEN MILLION MUTANTS DEAD - AND THAT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING!
And that's more insightful than I think they perhaps meant it to be. It sounds like a joke to say, "Yeah, the run starts with a near-genocide...and then later comes the heavy stuff," but it seems like a pretty accurate summary. It's intelligent (beef with Cassandra Nova's origin aside), it's well-written, it's exciting, and I'm always entertained reading it. I'm just almost never happy reading it. I can set down the book and walk away shocked or impressed, but I don't walk away smiling.
I guess I'll probably finish reading the three Ultimate Collection trades I have (which I guess is the whole run, or almost?). But I'm really not sure whether I'll keep them. I should mention that I don't entirely mean to single out New X-Men in what I'm saying, because this basically describes how I've feel about almost every X-Men book I've ever read (which granted is not many) with the exception of First Class, to a greater or lesser extent. I want to like the X-Men, I want to badly, and I felt deficient because I had read so relatively little X-material, which is why I picked up the Morrison trades to begin with. But maybe it's just not for me.