All New X-men #27 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Stuart Immonen (Artist), Wade Von Grawbadger (Inker), Marte Gracia (Colorist).

The Story: The Children of Mystique from the future cause havoc for the X-men in the present.

The Review: There is a lot of misdirection occurring in this current arc of All-New X-men as the Brotherhood of the future return to plague the X-men, including the members who apparently died during the Battle of the Atom storyline. With telepathic trickery and a shape-shifter loose in the New Xavier school its hard to tell exactly if what is presented is what is actually happening at any given time. This creates a lot of uncertainty, keeping the reader on their back foot and achieving a sense of claustrophobic chaos and suspense which I must commend the creative team for.

With the Brotherhood returning, Bendis begins to peel back the curtain on a few of the all new creations, specifically Xavier, who we discover in this issue is not in fact the grandson of Xavier as he had been claiming. Half of his parentage is revealed explicitly while the other half is suggested strongly, however with all of the uncertainty and trickery afoot its hard to tell if what is strongly implied is indeed fact. I’m sure readers will be desperate to see the events that led up to Xavier’s conception as it is a pairing that seems both obvious but also impossible at the same time, How and when this coupling happened is of great significance not just to Xavier but to readers and the X-men as a whole.

The marriage of the casts of All-New X-men and Uncanny X-men has been working really well in this book lately, it’s nice to see the events from both books reflected and referenced in both as its reminiscent of the Claremont era when New Mutants and Uncanny would interact closely. It’s a small thing but it really does help to make this universe feel a little more real and special. Something incredibly important occurs with Triage in this issue that will no doubt come back into play down the line in Uncanny as his power set is expanded and explored.

All New X-men #26 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Stuart Immonen (Penciller), Wade Von Grawbadger (Inker), Marte Gracia (Colourist) 

The Story: Things get downright creepy in Jean Grey’s room.

The Review: I feel like readers have been denied a key scene in Bendis’ X-men books since Battle of the Atom, we’ve gone from Young Scott and Jean’s utter disgust at old Scott to warming up to him relatively quickly. Now, I understand that the general consensus is that Hank McCoy is a dirtbag of the highest order for screwing with the time-stream and feeding the kids a line of bull about old Scott causing mutant genocide, I understand how the kids have got from point A to point C but it is a little disappointing that we never got to actually see point B along the way. At this point Bendis could have written 26 issues of various characters reacting to the blood on old Scott’s hands so I can understand why he wouldn’t want to belabour the point, but still it is very odd to see Jean saying the things she says to old Scott in this issue. I take my hat off to Bendis for addressing the downright weirdness of having a teenage version of your dead wife around and for doing it in a way that doesn’t tip toe around the creepy or uncomfortable nature of it, however it would be nice to have context for Jean’s change of heart towards him though.

Kitty is really maturing into her role as Professor K, continuing her protective streak of the kids from Battle of the Atom, Her new dynamic with old Scott is fascinating to watch unfold, Kitty is one of the few X-men who remains uncorrupted and it is evident in the writing how desperately Scott wants to win back her approval and respect. Warren also gets a good showing this issue as he attempts to bond with the departing X-23, It seems clear that Warren may be stepping out of young Scott’s shadow now that he is gone, with Hank in his Science cave and Bobby make snow angels, somebody needs to.

The Brotherhood from the aforementioned Battle of the Atom make their triumphant return this issue, there is a bit of a mystery involved in what they want as they can’t send the kids back which creates excitement for the next issue. The infiltration of the New Xavier school by Raze should also serve to build tension over the coming issues as the Brotherhood attack.

Stuart Immonen is an absolute craftsman, the storytelling is clear and concise, the body language and faces are all so expressive that he does a lot of the heavy lifting in making the characters emote. The more of his collaboration I see with Bendis on this book the more I feel that he may be the perfect artistic partner for Bendis’ writing, perhaps even more-so than Bagley or Maleev.

Grade: B

-Liam Kelleher

Stray Thoughts: I do wonder who it is that old Scott is worried about finding out what Beast has done bringing the kids to the present. Very Ominous.

 

 

X-Men: Noir #1 – Review

By Fred Van Lente (Writer) and Dennis Calero (Artist)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I am not exactly sure what to expect from X-Men: Noir. The teaser images grabbed my attention and the premise is filled with promise, but it all comes down to execution. I believe Fred Van Lente and Dennis Calero can pull the series off successfully from a creative standpoint. The real question is whether or not they can make each individual issue feel satisfying enough to overcome the negatives associated with a $3.99 price tag.

The Story: X-Men: Noir #1 is all about setting up the tone and direction of a new version of the Marvel Universe. Noir begins, like many noir tales do, with the rather grisly death of a young woman. Her name is Jean Grey and she was a member of the X-Men, a group of sociopaths operating throughout the town without the guidance of their mentor, Charles Xavier. The case leads the detectives working on it to encounter a number of the colorful characters living and operating in the city.

What’s Good: The creative team does a good job of crafting a world that fans of both the X-Men and the genre should enjoy spending time in. The snappy dialogue and moody artwork goes a long way toward capturing what it is that makes the noir genre so appealing. Also, it is a lot of fun seeing the card dealer Remy Le Beau, the Brotherhood operating under the chief of police, and many familiar faces throughout the book.

What’s Not So Good: It is never a good sign when the debut of a new series makes me instantly think about trade-waiting. While the Noir #1 handles the world quite well, the story lacks any sort of punch or urgency that would keep me interested in picking the series up. I understand that is a key component of noir in general, but it doesn’t change the fact it makes for a frustrating and unsatisfying way to spend almost four bucks. The various pieces used in the story are interesting, as mentioned above; but they aren’t really doing anything of particular interest. In other words, there are a few of good ideas but I need more then that to justify the price it costs to follow the series.

On top of the story complaint, I also want to mention how frustrating Dennis Calero’s Greg Land-styled artwork is. The obvious use of certain celebrities I can deal with. What I can’t deal with is how he constantly reuses certain images over and over. Also, it is sometimes difficult to tell characters apart– the dark colors do little to help anything in that regard. While it captures the mood well enough, it doesn’t do the reader any favors whatsoever.

Conclusion: X-Men: Noir #1 is ultimately a frustrating and unsatisfying start to a series that is saddled with an unfortunate cover price. While I hate to come down so hard on something that feels quite fresh, it didn’t succeed in selling me a story or visuals that I can feel comfortable investing in. Give it a shot if you must, but don’t expect to get too much out of it.

Grade: C-

-Kyle Posluszny

Ultimates 3 #4 – Capsule Review

Jeph Loeb, (Writer) Joe Madureira, (Artwork) and Christian Lichtner (Digital Paints)

To be honest, this one doesn’t deserve any more space than it is getting. If it wasn’t for the awesome (its a love or hate thing I know) artwork by Joe Mad and Christian Lichtner I would have dropped this one after the first issue. The storyline is a mess featuring too many characters, Jeph Loeb’s dialogue is hilariously cliché, campy, and one-note, and I am fairly certain characters are acting wildly out of character. This is easily one of the worst things I have read since getting back into comics. If the artwork wasn’t so fun to look at, I would have to consider this a complete and utter failure at every level. (Grade: D)

-Kyle Posluszny

A Second Opinion

I have no idea where this book is going anymore. And to think it’s going to wrap up next issue is just unthinkable. The only thing I can make a wager on is that it’s going to say, “To be continued in Ultimatum” at the end of issue #5. There’s just too many subplots and dangling threads (that have been randomly conjured up, no less) to be wrapped up in another 22 pages of story. This series has done nothing but sullen The Ultimates brand and lower the integrity of the creative team. Joe Mad’s art is the only reason why people are buying this turd, because the story is a convoluted mess and the coloring is still too dark. Why he would want to be associated with a piece of garbage like this is beyond me. At least with Hulk, I know that Jeph Loeb is purposely writing a bad story for the hell of it. Here, there’s just no excuse. Even the cover sucks. (Grade: F+)

– J. Montes