I remember the good old days.  The days when there was a single team.  A coherent team.  Though the members changed over the years, the book always focused on a team.  That has changed recently, with the House of M, which reduced the mutant population to 199.  Plus Hope.  And all of this had led to a more community-based approach to the X-men.  I’ll admit it.  I don’t like it very much.  But that is evolution of the core X-men book, and I don’t envision this direction will last forever.  I personally don’t like the San Fran setting.  let’s get that out of the way.  I loved Australia.  I loved the Xavier Institute.  But I don’t care for the current setting of the book.  I understand, logically, why the X-men set up base there from a social standpoint- San Fran tends to be a very liberal, very accepting city, and what better place for mutants.  But taken as a whole, the location, the community vibe, it doesn’t sit all that well with me.  At least the relocation to newly-risen Utopia sets them aside from the main human population.

All of that being said, this arc must be explored within the context its set in.

The previous story arcs by Fraction have left me wanting more, and in this regard, Utopia gave us something more exciting, more relevant.  It is not only a story, it is a pivotal point in the mythology of the X-Universe.  And in most ways, it was successful. We got a well written story, decent art, a lot of action, a lot of intrigue, and, most importantly, a new standard, a new starting point for the X-men.  And there was a lot of dram, and thankfully, none that was cheesy or forced

It was inevitable that Dark Reign would have to touch the X-men, a group of mutants who refused to take part in the Superhero registration act.  To this end, Osborne created his own group of X-men.  It was a motley crue, and I was a little surprised to see the team together for only a handful of books, several of the members defecting to the X-men at the end.  In this regard, the Dark X-men themselves could have been considered a waste, and even somewhat irrelevant.  Superfluous.  The Dark Avengers are the main bad guys in this story, and part of me feels that the story could have been as successful without the presence of the Dark X-men. 

When it comes to the major “surprise” well, anyone who pays any attention knew that Emma was still working for the X-men and not Osborne.  the whole inclusion of the White Queen in Osborne’s little cabal always struck me as a little off, and I always had the  feeling that she was a mole.  It almost seems out of character for Osborne to have trusted her.

The battles were excellent, if a little congested.  We had the Dark X-men.  And the Dark Avengers.  And what appeared to be all 199 mutants on the X-men side.  It was all a little on the busy side.  Fraction got creative creating logical solutions to deal with The Sentry and Ares, and nothing really seem forced.  We see the return of Dani as a Valkyrie to combat the God of War, and we see Emma deal with the Sentry on a psychic level.

The dialogue was excellent, eliciting shudders from the reader during pivotal scenes, like when Cyclops demands that Osborne surrenders, and when Osborne orders his guys to kill all of the mutants.  And at the end of the story, when Osborne and his army of homicidal lunatics face down the combined might of every X-man and X-student in front of the national media, he almost loses it, almost ordering his Avengers to kill everyone.  Osborne’s personality is captured very well in this story, his balanced insanity always teetering but never collapsing.  Osborne is ready to actually attack the X-men, currently standing on Utopia, when Ms Marvel tells him: “If we kill one of them we have to kill all of them.  Nobody comes back from committing genocide live on the nightly news.”  But still, Osborne seems close to cracking .  Of course, in the end, he and his Avengers and those remaining loyal Dark X-men, leave.

Of course, in the end, Osborne spins this to the media as a win, how he forced the evil, hate-mongering X-men to leave the United States.

There are several smaller stories within the greater scheme, most importantly Dark Beast’s attempt to create a machine that shuts down the X-gene, which he experiments with on the real Beast, with horrible results.  But in the end, this story was all about the eventual clash between the two sides, and the battles, while a little crazy, were excellent (though I am tired of Bullseye appearing to be mortally wounded every month yet coming back healthy and hale every month).

So all in all, this was an exciting, well written story setting the stage for the next chapter in the lives of our merry mutants.  I have no idea where they’ll go from here, but at least we finally got to see Fraction’s brilliance after almost a year of frankly mediocre stories.

PS:  does anyone really care about Cloak and Dagger enough for them to possibly become new X-men?

Technorati Tags: comic book, Dark Averngers, Dark Reign, Dark X-men, Marvel, reviews, Utopia, X-men

Anyway, my favorite single issue graphic novel is We3.  It is a story by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.  it is the story of three pets, a dog, cata nd rabbit, enhanced with cybernetics and turned into killing machines.  It- is- AWESOME.  if you haven’t read it, go get it.  Now.  i’ll wait.

And the best comics series of all time?  Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.  The story of a fallen Preacher with the Voice of God, his girlfriend Tulip and alcholic Irish vampire Cassidy.  it has everything you could want out of a comicbook: great story, great art, sex, violence, and awesome characters.  There are 9 trade paperbacks collecting the entire 66 issue run as well as a handful of one shots.  It is worth the time and worth the money.  They are talking about turning it into an HBO series.  i hope they don’t-you cna not improve on perfection

Technorati Tags: Comic Books, Drannor, Feist, Frank Quitely, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Graphic novels, Legacy of the Force, Preacher, Steve Dillon, We3

The Infinity Gauntlet was one of the best comic book stories EVER.  I loved Annihilation, and I enjoyed Annihilation Conquest, and I enjoyed most of the limited series that accompanied these events.

And I love the Inhumans.  The Inhuman Maxi-series from several years ago by Jenkins and Lee was as good as Infinity Gauntlet (though for different reasons)

So there should be no surprise that I loved War of Kings.

This series continues the Emperor Vulcan story from a year ago, as the legendary third Summers brother assumes Emperorship of the Shiar empire.  Now, Vulcan is powerful, but he is also one of the more hot-headed characters in the Marvel Universe, and we see how his impulsiveness causes events to unfold and eventually unwind.  I am not going to give a lengthy recap of the series.  If you are reading this, you know what War of Kings is about.

And I’ll say with little equivocation, it is worth the read.

For many, many years the cosmic arm of the Marvel Universe has been just a second child, seldom explored, and oftentimes the associated stories were horrible.  Infinity Gauntlet was great, but the sequels were awful.  But Annihilation put the epic cosmic story back on the map for Marvel.

War of Kings is epic, and was probably rushed through.  It could easily have been ten issues without seeming too long.  So much was crammed in, and I felt myself being pulled like a whirlwind through the pages.  The story, while simple, was entertaining, and all of the characters were there: The Shi’ar, the Imperial Guard, the Kree, the Inhumans, and what is left of the Starjammers and the cosmic X-mean team (Polaris, Havok, Rachel Summers).  We also see Darkhawk and Guardians of the Galaxy, both of which have accompanying stories in their own books.

Part of what made this story great was Gladiator, and watching the evolution of a rather dull, powerful character into the complex creation he truly is.  His role at the end of the story will shock you.  

I don’t want to ruin the ending for you, so I won’t, but I will say that there was no real ending, and that is a good thing.  The story is far from over, and another series can’t be far.  For every conflict that was resolved, another was started, and I look forward to reading the next chapter.

As many mini-series have accompanying mini-series, as both Annihilation stories did, so did War of Kings.  Sort of.  The Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova crossed over, but not in a way that required you read either of those books.  The one true mini-series was War of Kings: Ascension, which featured Darkhawk.  I used to love Darkhawk, and I love what they did with him in the limited series.  While Darkhawk’s role in the main War of King series is important, though brief, you do not have to read Ascension, or really any of the other books, to get the full impact of War of Kings.  Why?  Here’s the trick:  All of the W of K books are written by the same people, Abnett and Lanning.  So they can coordinate everything, which allows everything to flow very nicely.  They’ve plotted it so the main book can exist and be enjoyed without reading the Nova or Guardians or Darkhawk books, but they also make it so you can read those books and feel like it was worth the time and money involved.  Too often the spin-offs and limited series are written by other people, and things get lost along the way.  Not so here.

I look forward to the next chapter in this massive story.  I look forward to see how the civilizations respond, how the Inhumans cope, where the Cosmic X-men team go (though I would love to see them return to earth), what Gladiator does with his new responsibilities.  I look forward to seeing Darkhawk again.   Abnett and Lanning not only know how to do Cosmic right, they know how to do epic right.   The fact that I look to the future is a testament to the power of their story. 

I enjoyed the ride immensely, and I can’t wait to get onboard again

Technorati Tags: cosmic, Darkhawk, Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel, Nova, War of Kings

Both chacaretrs were great when first introduced in the 90′s, and both should have been killed off long ago because they are simply annoying and useless.  Cable has some depth, but Bishop… I miss the early Bishop, the kick-ass Bishop, not this bald, whiny, poor excuse for Bishop.

Anyway… this crossover returns Stryfe (Cable’s clone) to the X-Universe.  he was one of the four big baddies from the nineties (also including Apocalypse, Sinister and Magneto).  He was the main bad guy in the Xecutioner Song crossover (which rocked), but he has been pretty much silent since then.

This story finds the X-force Strike team, made up of Wolverine, X-23, Domino, Angel and The Vanisher going into the future to look for Cable and Hope.  They find a dead world and Stryfe, and Angel finds a future, dying version of Apocalypse.

The story wasn’t much of a story.  I liked the current X-force a lot, and I have liked this new, darker series.  But this whole thing seemed like a crossover for the sake of a crossover with no future ramifications except for the cable series.  This is more a continuation of the current cable storyline, with him and Hope jumping further and further into the future, but doesn’t seem like X-force even had to be involved.  it was as if they were included simply to give Stryfe more heroes to fight, making for more battles, and to give Cabal a means to win in the end.

Just as with the Great Fable Crossover, which could have been limited to the Jack of fables book only, this story could probably have been limited to the Cable book alone.

The worst part about this story was the ending.  Again, how it phased Cable and Hope back into their own book was simple.  But how they ended it wit the X-force members… i went back to the first issue to see what they were doing before they were teleported to the future, and then re-read the end of the last book, and I was utterly confused.  And I consider myself an intelligent guy.  It was just too much.  I would rather have seen X-force spend the three months  with their own story and mission, which I loved, instead of being sucked into this.  We’re back to their own story now, but has been time wasted.

The art was good.  In times past, during a crossover like this, the regular artists would take time off, handing it off to lesser artists.  Marvel would hope that the giant crossover and the story itself would keep the readers interested despite poor art.  But the art was good, though the two books have distinctively different styles.

Would i recommend the book?  If you are considering getting the trade paperback for less cash than the individual books, and if you are a fan of X-books, then pick it up when it comes out.  The most important thing is that, for now, it is a self-contained story and you can read it and understand what is happening even if you didn’t follow X-force or Cabal religiously.  Everything is explained and recapped well.

Is it a great story?  No?  But, if you are like me and enjoy seeing X-men out for blood and kicking ass, then give it a whirl.

I can only hope that the events of this book will send out shockwaves that affect the whole X-Universe and not just Cable’s solo book.

[rating=2.5]

Technorati Tags: Cable, Comic Books, Marvel, Messiah War, Review, X-force, X-men

Now, this is not your ordinary crossover because it is not focused on a single event, as World War Hulk or Civil War or Secret Invasion.  While these events did have ramifications on the Marvel Universe, they were singel events set within the framework of the Marvel Universe.

Dark Reign IS the Marvel Universe.  It is the status quo for the Marvel Universe for right now, and you can not avoid it.   There is no main book to read, as with the previous crossover examples I gave.  Every book in the Marvel universe is touched and affected by the Dark Reign.

For those of you who are not aware of what Dark Reign is, here is a really quick synopsis: After secret Invasion, Norman Osbourne was hailed as a hero and given the task of protecting the United states from both internal and external threats.  He disbanded SHIELD and set up HAMMER.  Much like with his first team the Thunderbolts, he has set up his own Avengers team, but behind the masks are murders and psychopaths.  And he is doing whatever he can to increase his control over the United States under his iron fist.

Just thing of Norman Osbourne as Barak Obama.  He doesn’t really care about the welfare of the common citizen, he just cares about controlling them to further increase his power.

Cheap shot aside… that’s DR in a nut shell. Now, while discussing DR, you have to separate it into two distinct aspects: the story itself, and the limited series crossover books, such as Sinister Spiderman and Hawkeye and The Hood and Zodiac, etc.

First off, the story:  Its fun.  The main story is mostly experienced through the Avengers books, Thunderbolts, and Iron Man, and now the X-books, with the beginning of the Dark X-men and Utopia storyline, but the threads can be felt through even the smaller books that tend to sit at the periphery, such as Punisher and Daredevil and the Hulk and the Fantastic Four

So, if you are a reader of most Marvel Comics, you will feel and see the effects of Dark reign.  And for right now, it’s okay.  Its something different.  It’s bleak.  It keeps you on your toes.  And it ties all of the main marvel books together in a single cohesive world.

I can’t understand how any president could appoint the ex-Green Goblin, a man with a known psychopathic and sociopathic history, as director of Security for the whole country, with no oversight, but you just have to accept it and suspend your disbelief

And now for teh limited-series tie ins.  I will admit it.  I haven’t bought any.  Why?  several reasons:

1. There are just too many, possibly up to a dozen.  Too many choices makes me not want to ready any
2. I’ve been burned before.  Marvel does this with every large crossover or event, and most of the time, the bulk of the tie-ins suck.  I’m willing to miss the rare gem if it means not wasting my time on a large handful of books that suck
3. Cost.  Guess what, true believers.  marvel has slowly been increasing the price of their books to $3.99.  Now there are only  a handful of books still $2.99.  And most, if not all of these limited-series tie ins, are $3.99.  That means… 12 series, an average of 4 books a series, at $4 apiece… that’s almost $200 for a lot of crap and a couple of good reads.  not worth it, in my estimation

So that’s my two cents.  Fun story, but the price of the limited series are not worth it.

I imagine DR will continue on for another 6 months to a year before Osborne is exposed, and then things settle down to somewhat normal again.

give me your thoughts

Technorati Tags: Comic Books, Dark Reign, Marvel

It’s hard to call any book published by Vertigo as poor. 

In fact, a mediocre Vertigo story is better than 95% of the other stuff out there.  Ever read Preacher?  I am a die-hard X-men fan, but Preacher is the best book ever published, and even the worst story in this 60-something book run was better than most stuff I have ever read.

That being said, while not poor, the Great Fables Crossover was nothing special.  Still a good read, still entertaining, still a necessary read if you are a Fables junkie, but not great.  I don’t dislike it as much as the guys over at IGN.com, who consistency gave the issues ratings between 4-6, but  it wasn’t what it could have been.  let’s take a look

1.  First off, this was really a Jack of Fables story.  Let’s be honest here.  Let’s call a spade a spade.   Bigby and Snow White played a role, and there were several cut scenes to the farm, but the biggest problem with this whole concept was that it could have been contained in a separate 6-issue Jack of Fables-only story arc.  The main characters are the ones we were introduced to in J of F: the Literals, Revise, Thorn, the Sisters, Jack, Pathetic Fallacy, etc.  Fable characters were thrown in to give the story the sense of a crossover event, but as any true comic book fan knows, you can cross characters between books without calling it a crossover.

 2.  While called “Great”, the story did not have the epic feel you expect from a story with the word “Great” in the title.  Yes, the world was at stake; Kevin Thorn was threatening to write the universe out of existence, but you know, because the series are not ending, that he would not succeed.  So while the story had far-reaching ramifications, the reader never really felt that there was anything at stake.  When I think of “Great”, I think of stories that have a huge impact on the universe.  But really, once this story ended, it doesn’t feel as if the events will have any real ramifications on the Universe.  Of course I could be wrong, and there may be earth shattering consequences, but it doesn’t feel like it.  The story just didn’t feel epic and worth the 9 books.

3.  Of course, the largest problem is that the event put the progress of the real story, the story of the Dark Man, on hold.  he appeared briefly at the end of teh first issue, but that was it.  For the past several months, Fables has been leading up to the real “next big story” with the Dark Man.  Come on, the Fables home in NYC was blown up and everyone was forced to the farm.  But this whole storyline was suspended so Fables issues could be part of the Crossover.  Yes, we do see the Farm every issue, but the only real Farm storyline involves the small animal fables believing  Jack is Boy Blue re-incarnated.  And yes, in the first issue we see some of the Fables overwhelmed by dark thoughts.  But that’s it

Now, some small interesting things did happen in the story. 

1. Jack Frost was the hero, written into the story specifically to be the hero.  Will he play a larger role in the future of Fables. 

2.  Rose Red is breaking down badly, and now both she and jack are staying at Bigby’s.  Will Rose’s continual descent play a role in the future?

3.  Where does jack go now?  Will he be integrated into the main Fables story on a more permanent basis?

4.  Though thron was defeated, will any of the changes he made affect the world in the future?  If not, it could be said that the whole story was kind of a waste, from an evolutionary context.  If Thorn did not affect the Universe, did this story even need tio be written?

But this all comes back to the main point I made.  These things are Jack of Fables related, and I wonder if they will have any affect on the main Fables storyline.  We can only hope.

So overall… I enjoyed the read.  I enjoyed it because it was written by Buckingham and was a Fables story.  I enjoyed it because it was well written, and when everything is said and done, it was interesting.  I think that the problem people have with the story is the expectations that were raised by the title of the crossover; and because the crossover was not epic, and because it seemed to have little relevance to the main Fables story, readers were disappointed.

Part of the reason i was not disappointed, though, is because I enjoy Jack of Fables.  Though not as good as Fables, I read it every month and rarely find myself disappointed.  Over thecourse of the 30 or so issues, there have only been a handful I haven’t liked.  Many people don’t like the Jack series, but I find it very entertaining

But all that being said, it wasn’t a waste of time.   But you have to get past your expectations of what the book should have been.

And, quite honestly, if you don’t read Jack of Fables, you will not like the story, and probably not understand it, and definitely not appreciate what is going on

Any questions, or if you want to discuss this, drop a comment or an e-mail

Technorati Tags: Comic Books, Fables, Great Fables Crossover, Jack of Fables, The Literals

Its hard living up to the standard of Garth Ennis when it comes to writing ultra-violent comics, like Preacher (best comic ever published) and his 50 or so issues of Punisher.

I’ll admit, when the story first started, I though it had potential.  Don’t get me wrong, it was an enjoyable read.  Quick, like I like when it comes to Punisher, not bogged down by too much dialogue, though in this situation, a little more dialogue may have helped to flesh out the story a little bit.  I won’t say that i was confused, but the entire story was just glossed over a little too much.  Several times I had to go back a couple of pages to figure out what exactly what was happening and with which characters. And the characters themselves weren’t three dimensional.  The bad guys simply did not have enough meat on them.  So much more could have been done, especially with the sociopathic bodyguard who was a POW in ’Nam.  And sometimes, the characters did things that I felt were out if character, even considering how little we knew about them.  A lot of potential was wasted.  The story was called 6 hours to kill.  Couldn’t it have been at least 6 six issues, like most story arcs, giving the writer a little more time to expand on characters and events?

The art… the art was okay, nothing special but not poor.  Some of the male characters were hard to tell apart, but I won’t fault the artist for that.  The return of the last artist, I believe, coems next month with the Bayou arc.

I liked the last arc better- its always easier when the story doesn’t try to take a half a dozen convoluted turns and twists.

But, despite it all, it wasn’t a horrible read, as long as your expectations aren’t too high

Technorati Tags: Comic Books, Comics, MAX, Punisher, Review

I generally don’t like alternate reality stories or future stories because I enjoy continuity.  That’s one reason I never really enjoyed DC books- it seems like the editors there are blowing up and re-creating their universe every couple of years to undo damage they did.

That being said, Old Man Logan is one of the best Wolverine stories I have read in a while (not including the Mystique story, which I enjoyed immensely).  The story is excellent, as is the pacing of the plot, and the art is wonderful.  It’s Logan as you’ve never seen him before, crossing a futuristic America  filled with intriguing new friends and villains to save his family back in California. 

The concept behind the story is quite simple: It’s fifty years in the future and the bad guys of the Marvel Universe have forged an alliance with each other allowing them to wipeout allm of the heroes, then splintered the country among the lieutenants.  Of course, this idea in any universe, including our real world, is ludicrous, because it is the nature of evil to self destruct because, quite frankly, evil always turns on itself.  Can you imagine China, Russia, North Korea and Iran ever engaging into a pact that would actually be sustainable?  Of course not.  Just like Dr. Doom, the Kingpin, and Magneto could never work together towards a common goal because the lack of trust and general suspicion among them would cause any such pact to quickly dissolve.

That being said, if you are a Wolverine fan, or simply a fan of good stories who picks up trade paperbacks every once in a while, read Old Man Logan when it is released in several months.  or start picking up the back issues- they’ve all been through multiple printings and shouldn’t be hard to find.

Technorati Tags: Comics, Marvel, Old Man Logan, Wolverine