Mass Exodus - Review X-men:Legacy #261

So I'm finally getting the hang of the new status quo of Post-Schism X-life.  For the last few years Uncanny was the steadfast flagship title while a lot of interpersonal relationships were dealth with in X-men Legacy.  But how do you maintain that with those two titles occurring on opposite ends of the country?  EASY!  Make Wolverine and the X-men the new East Coast flagship and split up the personal relationship development between Generation Hope and X-men (Vol. 3)!  Well since Legacy's format hasn't really changed as far as that goes, how do we keep all these mutants cooped up on a school campus and STILL make interesting...by turning the teachers into children right along with the stuednts of course!  As I read through these, latest issues I realize that the supposed "teachers" of this "school" are no better then the kids in how they interact (in some cases they are even worse ::ahem:: Frenzy and Gambit).  You can safely say that this grouping of adult mutants is a completely new and innovative gathering that  years ago we would never have thought of.  Frenzy is an X-man?  Rogue and Rachel are becoming BFFs (considering during Rachel's original stint with the team, they two barely ever spoke)??  In fact the only people we can honestly say are doing exactly what we expected them to do are Kitty Pryde and Paige Guthrie, who, in my humble opinion, were always going to end up as teachers.  All this and I haven't even touched on the villain yet...just wait for it...

Still on the topic of the faculty...Frenzy and Gambit??  I'd like to say this is completely out there, but the truth is that out of all the current members of either X-men team, those two are the LEAST unlikely couple to spring from Schism.  The writers had us all set up after Age of X to watch some Emma-Cyclops-Frenzy triangle action but then they sent Joanna to the complete opposite side of the country, which made this impending storyline seem sort of unlikely.  However, now we are seeing that while she still has feelings for Scott, she's becoming more and more attracted to Remy (due in no small part, I am sure, to them sleeping together last issue but I digress...).  As of now of course Rogue doesn't know about this so she's still off in La-La land about her and Magneto, but I suspect that once she finds out (and she will...they always do), she's not gonna be too thrilled and possibly be more than a little bit jealous.  And speaking of Rogue, yeah when did she and Rachel become best buddies???  Back when they were both last on the team, they barely said two words to each other before Rachel stole part of the team's lifeforce to fight the Beyonder and then Wolverine stabbed Rachel before she disappeared.  During Rachel's second stint on the team, Rogue was off on her own and by the time she got back Rachel was off in space.  So where exactly did this burgeoning friendship come from exactly?  Seems slightly contrived to me, but it does make for fun reading and their gossipy conversation really nails down my theory that the teachers are no better then the students.  Except maybe one pair: The Guthries.  These siblings and their family have been through everything you can think of so it made sense for them both to come to the (theoretically) calmer environment of the new school.  It's also nice to see members of both the New Mutants and Generation X (yeah remember them??) made it to full time faculty at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

And then there's the villain of the story.  After quitting mutant politics and domination all together in the pages of this very books a few years ago, this classic X-villain returns and is none-to-happy with the recent split between Cyclops and Wolverine.  Exciting yes, he seems to return to th3 villain we first met back in the early 90's...then problem with that is that villains in the 90's were a bit cheesy, poorly written and way transparent.  Which is exactly how Exodus came off.  With the exception of his interaction with Frenzy, where he chastised her for giving up on their cause, the entire battle (colorful power displays aside) seem pointless and over too easily.  The idea that one peek inside one person's mind, even Rogue's, will send him running off in a completely different direction to kill someone else is weak to say the very least.  On the bright side it means we will get to see some interaction between Team Cyclops and Team Wolverine, cant wait!

Overall a good issue.  The art is slightly cartoony, but not so bad where it ruined the issue and it keeps with the lighter and more fun tone that the Wolverine's X-men books have been having.  The villain scripting and the battle were lame, but they weren't really the point of the issue I don't think.  The purpose of this issue seemed more like "ok the dust has settled, let's see what everyone is up to" which I can accept.  Not every issues needs to be sheer perfection of writing, storytelling and art.  As long as next issue handles Exodus a bit better and we see some Utopians, I'll be happy with it.

My Weekly Pull List - 2/1/12

Circle of Four kicked off this week (making this the first Venom comic I have picked up in about 10 years)!  Find out what more surprises are lurking in Tabala Rasa over in Uncanny X-men!   See how Havok and Polaris are settling back into their role as X-Factor leaders!  And the the Trial of Fantomex continues in Uncanny X-Force!

Avengers Academy #25

Avengers: X-Sanction #3

Defenders #3

Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 FI

Uncanny X-Force #21

Uncanny X-Men #6

Venom #13 C4

X-Club #3

X-Factor #231

FI = Fear Itself

C4 = Circle of Four

Marvel Comics On-sale 2/1/12

Circle of Four begin in Venom #13 this week!  Cable's rampage against the Avengers continues! Intrigue abounds over in Defenders!And yet more of Valkyrie's adventuring in Hammer collecting!

Avengers Academy #25

Avengers Academy #25 (Yu Variant)

Avengers: X-Sanction #3

Avengers: X-Sanction #3 (Churchill Variant)

Carnage USA #1 (2nd Printing)

Defenders #3

Defenders #3 (I am a Defender Variant)

Defenders #3 (Kubert Variant)

Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 FI

Hulk #48

The Punisher #8

Thor: The Deviants Saga

The Twelve #9

Uncanny X-Force #21

Uncanny X-Men #6

Venom #13 C4

Venom #13 (Moore Variant) C4

Venom #13 (Simonson Variant) C4

Venom #13 (Simonson Sketch Variant) C4

Villains for Hire #3

Winter Soldier #1

Winter Soldier #1 (Bermejo Variant)

X-Club #3

X-Factor #231

C4 = Circle of Four

FI = Fear Itself

Flash Review - 1/18/12

Fear Itself: The Fearless #7 – Finally something worth my $2.99.  This pointless series continues to drone on but at the very least something in it has caught my interest.  I’m still bored to tears by the entire quest for the hammers, but I love Brunnhilde’s backstory more and more with every issue.  She’s been around for years and always depicted as a hardened warrior, but now we are seeing another side of her more and more.  This other side of her has grown more than a bit weary of her long life and yearns to find her way to Valhalla, where she has led so many other brave warrior souls. Watching her give away her apple of Idunn was both powerful and sad and I am curious as to the fate of this character following this series (especially in light of her appearing in ads for upcoming Secret Avengers issues).

Generation Hope #15 – I’ll say it again folks…Hope Summers is SUCH a brat!  It truly sucks that she is going to be so integrally tied to the Phoenix Force because that girl seriously needs her ass good and kicked.  She chose to stay with Cyclops following the Schism so that should afford him a modicum of respect.  At least as far as giving him a second to explain when he says that someone is a homicidal lunatic!  Then again, why would she worry what anyone says when she can just…you know… control all the lights and make then do whatever she wants!  Uh uh…not ok people.  So now she is flat out controlling the poor kids instead of just influencing them and insisting on former murderer be allowed to pal around with them.  I hope that during Avengers vs. X-men, Wanda kicked her square in the teeth at least once.  Oh and Kenji is creepy as hell.

Ghost Rider #8 – OK they bought themselves a few more months!  The Hawkeye cameo was kinda cheap but they made it work and more importantly they brought Johnny Blaze back in (after he was missing for a while) and gave him a purpose.  I don’t think we needed 8 issues to figure out that Alejandra was insane and Blaze needed to train her but whatever we got there!  Here’s to not seeing Steel Wind and Steel Vengeance anymore…those chicks bugged me out a bit.

New Mutants #36 – Great ending to a good story.  It lagged in the middle a bit but finished up strong.  I was a little iffy on the entire Diskhord storyline for a while but the whole alien angle and chaos energy was actually pretty cool.  I’m a bit disappointed that Blink didn’t stay with the New Mutants but at least at the new school she’ll be with Husk (probably the only X-man she ever had any positive contact with that’s still alive).  I just hope they actually feature her in the school’s titles and don’t let her fade to the background.

Secret Avengers #21 – I know I’ve complained about the weirdness and pointlessness of these Secret Avengers stories before…but this one really takes it!  I’m barely even sure what happened in this issue but I DO know it included some giant disgusting slime monster that grew larger by vomiting up more of itself, if that even makes any sense.  The only good thing that I can say about this issue is that it seems like the end of a bad era of storytelling and that next issue (where it seems like Hawkeye joins) brings promise of better issues.

Uncanny X-Force #20 – I mean really, what’s to say…this title is just back to back hits every issue.  Yeah the Dark Angel Saga went on a little too long but not one issue was what you would call “bad”.  This current installment was no different.  With no British based book currently running, Captain Britain and his Corp. have been left hanging out in comic limbo so it’s nice to see him.  That being said, what a douche!  I mean I get where he’s coming from, Fantomex may have crossed a moral boundary when he killed Apocalypse Jr. but still, they should account for who the boy was.  Additionally, Jaime’s sane??  I know he resurrected Betsy in the past and seemed a bunch more together but this version of sane Jaime was so put together it was just flat out weird.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it was all an act and he planning some craziness in the next issue or two.  Some complaints though…  They need to stop teasing us about Betsy getting her original body back.  We all know that Marvel is never going to switch her back and even if they did it would never last forever.  And does AOA Nightcrawler HAVE to be such an ass all the time?  You’re a guest in OUR dimension buddy so let’s try to be a little more polite and grateful.

Uncanny X-men #5 – The cover with Psylocke fighting some bat creature left me a bit skeptical but this actually turned out to be a really good issue.  I really liked seeing storylines carrying over from the “Wolverine group” to the “Cyclops group” and watch Psylocke navigate the tricky waters of playing both sides of the fence.  And how it must have hurt to have to listen to Magneto take the moral high ground over her.  When a world class terrorist is looking down on your extra-curricular activities you really need to start re-examining your life.  One minor details that bothered me though was Scott’s comment to Ororo “I didn’t make you my second so you could guilt trip me”.  No you idiot, you made her your second because who else deserves it more than her?  She is the only person besides Scott who has run the X-men on her own and he acts like it’s a privilege to be his second in command.  HE should be slapped.

X-Club #2 – I still maintain that this series is pointless and didn’t need to happen.  I could have been a cute little story arc in one of the regular titles as a way to feature the X-club in a way that didn’t cost an extra $2.99.  However, listening to the inner monologue of Dr. Nemesis for the entire issue was frigging hilarious!  I am not entirely clear on exactly what is going on with those weird time slips we were seeing but I do know whoever thought up the creature feature at the end of the issue should be lined up along with Secret Avengers’ writers and shot.  Why is it slime monster week at Marvel??

A Storm's Not Coming - Review Avengers #21

I don’t often write negative reviews.  Usually if I am willing to take the time to write something, it’s mostly positive with perhaps a few specific criticisms.  Not this time.  I was so wholeheartedly disappointed by this issue that it spurred me to write a full review on it.  

First, let’s start with something general.  The general sloppiness of the writing and the handling of the team’s character itself.  Like, Hawkeye and Spider-woman’s “relationship” for example.  This couple got together hot and heavy during the Fear Itself crisis and we wondered “Where is this going?” and “How will Mockingbird respond to this?”  Well, to be honest, I still have no idea where this is going because they never show us anything!  But yet we are lead to believe (mostly through the snarky comments of other team members) that they are still going strong and have a somewhat serious relationship.  As for Mockingbird’s reaction, well aside from the fact that she’s in a whole other book entirely most of the time, again, we only get a sense of how she feels when her team member jab at her about it.  Not a great way to start a relationship, even in comic books.  I’m also still somewhat irked by the way the entire roster change went down.  All of a sudden, without warning or even being informed, Spider-man and Wolverine were just dismissed from the team while Storm, Vision and Quake are brought on to replace them.  And as if that wasn’t bad enough, these newly recruited Avengers are dragged into a too-long battle against Norman Osborn’s forces that so far has resulted with most of the team getting their butts handed to them.  If it weren’t so sad, I am sure Spider-man and Wolverine would be laughing right now.  These are just two examples of the mismanagement and sloppiness plaguing this book right now.

Another problem I had with this issue was the very cover of the book.  As a die-hard X-men fan, despite not liking how it was done, I was really excited to see that Storm was joining the Avengers.  Now I feel like they solved Wolverine’s bi-coastal problem only to foolishly put Storm in the same position, but still I was excited.  I was even more excited that two issues after joining she seems to be getting an entire issue centered around her, this one.  Unfortunately, this turned out to not be the case.  After plugging the cover of this issue, with the tag line “Storm joins the Avengers”, Ororo appeared in exactly 4 panels of this entire issue…and she was unconscious for all of them!  I’m so disappointed in Marvel for so blatantly misleading the reader this way, and if I was someone who ONLY collected X-men and picked this issue up expecting some big Storm issue, I’d be pretty angry about it. With all the attention they’ve given Red Hulk since joining and the way that they are over doing the Norman Osborn storyline in both main Avengers book I feel like they easily could have squeezed in a Storm-centric issue to give Avengers readers a great introduction to this classic X-character.

There’s not really too much else to say about this issue.  As I said, Osborn’s storyline has gotten too big too quickly and is going on for much too long already.  Dark Reign is an entire year of Marvel Comic books that we will never be able to get back and now they are dragging us back in the madness.  Add a few lame Hulk knock-offs and some co-opted Starktech (again…), not to mention the shoddy writing and bad publicity stunt, and this issue really was such a letdown.  Here’s a clue for the writers, if the same battle from last issue still doesn’t end by the end of this one, and no storyline progression has occurred…then you haven’t really written anything.  Luckily for Marvel, this title been pretty good lately otherwise because that means they can bury one bad issue.  But get it together!