X-Men #2 – Review

By: Victor Gischler (writer), Paco Medina (pencils), Jan Vlasco (inks), Marte Gracia (colors) & Joe Caramanga (letters)

The Story: The war between the vampires and the mutants is joined in full.

What’s Good: If you’re willing to suspend disbelief and logical thinking (more on this below), the plan that the X-Men come up with to combat the vampires is kinda cool in a teenage fanboy kind of way.  That may sound like a lot of qualifiers, but if you can’t suspend disbelief, go with the flow and enjoy the sheer spectacle, you probably are going to have a lot of problems with most superhero comics.  So, the concept is cool and kinda dumb all at the same time……and that’s okay.

I do like that the mutants seem hard pressed here.  When they reconfigure Cerebro (groan) to see vampiric DNA, they are pretty much surrounded.  It can get a little old seeing the X-Men about to be wiped out, so this was a bit of a wrinkle: The vampires want to incorporate the mutants to strengthen their ranks now that the vampires are united and out to rule the world.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

DS’ Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Brightest Day #7 – Brightest Day #7 was a lot of fun with a whole lot of reveal. If you’re into classic superhero stories, done right and modern, check out Brightest Day.

Most Anticipated: The Thanos Imperative #3 – Anything featuring the former champion of death makes it onto my short list pretty quickly. I’m looking forward to seeing him take apart these alternate Avengers…or be taken apart by them!

Other Top Picks: Batgirl #13, X-Men #2, Adventure Comics #517, Birds of Prey #4, Titans #26

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: SHIELD #3 – “Blah, blah, blah…..I don’t understand what is going on.  Blah. Blah. Blah.”  Sigh… This comic just showed us Galileo harvesting the life essence of his fellow SHIELD members to fight Galactus and the subsequent strickening of 10 days from history.  Very cool!

Most Anticipated: The Walking Dead #76 – It seems like this comic is coming out every few weeks recently and that is a very good thing.  Very eager to see how the survivors deal with Rick’s inevitable cracking up.

Other Top Picks: Daytripper #9, Dungeons & Dragons #0, Morning Glories #1, Invincible Iron Man #29, X-Men #2

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: SHIELD #3 – In a week of comics that actually ended up being somewhat underwhelming overall, SHIELD #3 was the best of the underachieving pack.  While there were solid reads, it was the only book to come close to “wowing” me.

Most Anticipated: Morning Glories #1 -I think I’ve just bough into Nick Spencer’s hype on this one.  The concept sounds cool, the creative team is solid, and I hope I’m not disappointed.  This looks like it could very well be the next big Image series to stand alongside the Walking Dead and Chew.

Other Picks: Birds of Prey #4, Daredevil #509, DMZ #56, Invincible Iron Man #29, Superman #702, The Unwritten #16, Zatanna #4

Joe’s Top Picks

Best of the Past Week: Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #2 – Talk about a dark horse!  I fully expected to not even have a best of the week, but this one snuck in at the end and gave me loads of entertainment.  Gage and Alberti knocked this out of the 1980’s lovin’ park!  Mr. Fantastic joined with the Venom symbiote?  80’s era FF blue and white costumes?  She-Hulk squeezed into clothes 2 sizes too small for her?  Franklin Richards zapping stuff? Spidey, well, being Spidey?  It’s like I found a forgotten back issue from my childhood!  Awesome.

Most Anticipated: X-Force: Sex and Violence #2 – That’s right, I am soaking up all the Kyle and Yost X-Force goodness that I can before it disappears for good.  The first issue was a wild ride filled with fun and, yes, sex (well, kissing) and violence.  Here’s hoping they up the ante for this issue and things get even crazier!

Other Picks: Birds of Prey #4, Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #1, The Walking Dead #76, Daredevil #509, Incredible Hulk #611, Steve Rogers Super Soldier #2, Thanos Imperative #3, Ultimate Comics Avengers 3 #1, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #13, X-Men #2, The Calling Cthulhu Chronicles #2