Onslaught saga, Star Trek/X-Men

Let’s see if I can knock this post out before the end of the year…

X-Men Prime 1

This might be the first time I bought one of those “extra-length issues that devotes a few pages to each title in the universe.”  Here, each of the X-books shows a glimpse of what’s in store post-AoA.  Meh.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Uncanny X-Men 322-326, 328-331

I did not realize until this readthrough just now much I like Joe Madureira’s run on Uncanny.  His art makes the experience an absolutely joyous breeze.  It’s a shame that he’s so slow; four of these issues needed fill-in artists.  The stories themselves are fine; Onslaught gets teased, Marrow shows up for the first time, and the consequences of Sabretooth’s stay at the X-Mansion are dealt with.  

A nice homage to Storm's first battle for Morlock leadership...

...way back when.

Heh, Joe Mad is well aware of Roger Cruz's tendencies...

Nice M pinup pose.

Such a clean, simple page, what a joy to look at.

Psychic knife 13.

Psychic knife 14.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes (No for 331)

Would read again: Yes 

Rating: Pretty good (Nice for 322-324, 331)

Sabretooth Special 1

Surprisingly meh art from Gary Frank, who’s capable of wonderous things.  Wraps up the stupid “let’s try to rehabilitate Creed” plotline.

An encyclopedia of lame Jean poses.

Also, no way Jean is having trouble lifting Sabretooth.  Lame.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

X-Men 46-52

One of the better X-Baby appearances, and a nifty fight against Post (what a stupid name and generic baddie).  The rest of it’s kind of lame, with a bunch of fill in artists.  (Andy Kubert taking a break with Joe Mad?)

Luke Ross ripping off Jim Lee...

...from X-Men 1

No way Wolvie's bone claws don't snap.  

Why bother to cover your eyes?  It's not like cloth stops the blasts.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice (Didn’t suck for 48, 49, 51, 52)

Uncanny X-Men 333-336

X-Men 53-56

Cable 34-35

Fantastic Four 415-416

Onslaught: X-Men

Onslaught: Marvel Universe

Such a great build up to such a meh climax.  I’m all for Professor X being the X-Traitor that was set up all the way back when Bishop was first introduced in Uncanny 281.  Seeing the full, ungarbled message from Jean was chill inducing.  But then the writers wussed out by making Onslaught an entity separate from both Xavier and Magneto.  If you’re going to pull a heel turn, have the guts to commit to it.  

On top of that, the conflict itself is a muddled mess.  Onslaught suffers from Undefined Power Syndrome, alternately as strong or weak as the particular issue calls for.  The final fight is a total mess, with the Avengers and Fantastic Four running into some glowing energy, followed by the X-Men attacking that energy.  Somehow, that leads to Heroes Reborn.  Okaaayyy…

Joe Bennett ripping off Jim Lee...

...coincidentally from the same page as before.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice, deteriorates to Fine.

Uncanny X-Men 337

X-Men Unlimited 14

Scott Lobdell really knows how to do post-event epilogue issues.  This one’s centered around a breakfast, which I found charming.

Love Joe Mad's Cyclops.

Family feelings reinforced.

The Unlimited issue dealing with the trauma inflicted on Franklin Richards with the ‘death’ of his parents and friends is well done too.  Bonus is the art by Jim Cheung, who does children really nicely.

So cute.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Star Trek/X-Men 1

An amusing crossover with Top Cow art.  Perfectly fine for what it’s trying to do, with some nice character moments.

Of course Kirk would hit on Jean.

Hee.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wild Storm

Wild Storm 4-12

I liked the first three issues well enough on the re-read to pick up the first two trades used.  The first two trades are good enough that I’ve purchased the next (and last) two.  This is basically the Ultimate version of the original Wildstorm universe; Everyone is just far enough from their original incarnations to be uncanny and fun to figure out.  Pretty art by Jon Davis-Hunt:

Nice body language here.

Sublime colors by Steve Buccalleto

Stunning.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 308-311

The last John Romita Jr issues on Uncanny.  These are flat out good, mostly eschewing action to focus on the interpersonal relationships within the team.  Scott Lobdell does a wonderful job of making the characters feel like family with a long, storied history.  (And he throws in a great fight between Bishop and Sabretooth in 311.)  Lobdell is underrated at writing humor, by the way.  Tons of moments in these issues made me smile:

Bishop's brand of fish out of water works for me.

He's right about the football...

I've added "It's the same answer" to my own lexicon.

Heh, Jubilee.

This feels real.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

X-Men 30

Scott and Jean get married.  For some reasons, this issue plus Uncanny 308 and 310 were missing from my collection, and I’m positive I owned them at some point.  I tracked down the back issues last week because I remembered them as good enough to merit rebuying.  I wasn’t wrong.  This isn’t as good as the Uncanny issues, but it’s still a milestone that I enjoy reading.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

X-Men 31-35

On re-read, this is where I’m starting to realize that writer Fabian Nicieza isn’t that good.  X-Men just isn’t as fun to read as Uncanny, and it’s not close.  Nicieza tries to imitate Claremont with his catchphrases and florid prose, but his stories fail to stand out in any way.  (The Psylocke/Revanche disaster continues to bore and confuse.  At least he cleans it up.)

Psychic knife 11

Early Andy Kubert art doesn’t help - it looks muddy and messy, and that feeling doesn’t help Nicieza’s scripts.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Doesn’t suck

Uncanny X-Men 312-314

Woots, Joe Madureira shows up to start his epic run (with a ton of fill-in help; this guy was never the fastest of pencillers…).  Plus, Emma Frost possesses Iceman’s body for an issue, starting the process of a major level up for his powers.  Pretty cool. 

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 315 

Horrible fill in issue that tries to justify Colossus ditching the X-Men for Magneto.  A trainwreck with depressing Jim Lee-clone art by Roger Cruz.  Only keeping to maintain the run.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Boring

Uncanny X-Men 316-317

X-Men 36-37

The Phalanx Covenant crossover, setting up the launch of Generation X.  The Phalanx are a blatantly obvious rip off of the Borg from Star Trek, and completely uninteresting as villains.  This arc is notable for the introductions of Skin, Monet, Synch, and best of all, Blink.  She dies in this story, but will come back better than ever (this version was a sad sack anyway) when Age of Apocalypse comes around in a few issues.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good.  (Fine for X-Men, the difference between Joe Mad and Kubert’s art is that stark.)

Wolverine 85

Cable 16

The Phalanx Covenant issues that actually detail their defeat.  While the bad guys are fairly generic, Larry Hama writes a great adventure for Wolverine, Cable, Cyclops, and Jean Grey.  Their teamwork, interpersonal conflicts, and methods of overcoming obstacles is really fun to read.  The art by Adam Kubert and Steve Skroce is great as well.  Super fun.

Yes, that's really a shoulder mounted gun.

That swivels up when not in use.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Uncanny X-Men 318-321

X-Men 38-41

Cable 20

Legion Quest and the issues leading up to it.  Adam X shows up again, and I still wish the original plans to make him the third Summers brother came through.  Something about his 90’s-ness reminds me of Gambit; I just think he’s really cool.  I may have to get his original appearance in X-Force Annual 2, I no longer have it in my collection.  

Legion Quest is a fine setup to Age of Apocalypse.  Surprisingly, it’s Cable that does the best job of selling the finality of it all, that the universe for these X-Men is really ending.  I don’t think, even as a high schooler, that I ever thought this was a permanent thing, but the writers did a good job of making me second guess myself.

A sweet moment as Jubilee leaves to join Gen X.

Psychic knife 12.

Another cool Storm costume.

I'd forgotten...

...about the "time travel to rape your mother before you were conceived" part.

Nice illustration of despondency.

Finally.

A sentimental but nice bit of writing by Jeph Loeb these last three pages.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice.  (Pretty good for Cable)

Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen 1

One of those Who’s Who comics, for AoA.  It’s fine for what it’s trying to be.  Some nice pinup art by Ian Churchill, Tim Sale, and some others.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Cable, X-Man

Cable 15, 17-19, 22, 25, 27, 29-32, 44, 45

X-Man 14

This could be a bloodbath.  Along with early Image, the X-books formed a huge part of my initial comic collecting predilections.  My tastes, now geared more towards specific creators than characters, cared less about quality. As I read these now, I understand both why I liked these books back then and why I have no problems saying goodbye to them today.  Nostalgia and legit quality will still save a bunch of them, but I expect the cuts to come often with the contents of my X-boxes of comics.

This is a total smattering of comics, with seemingly random gaps.  From what I can tell, some of the missing issues will show up later as parts of X-crossovers (Phalanx Covenant, Legion Quest).  The common thread across the others seem to be fill-in artists. It looks as though past me already culled out the issues not drawn by Ian Churchill.  Present me fully approves. Those would undoubtedly have been cut today anyway.

Getting it out of the way, here are the reasons I’m cutting the issues I am:

Cable 31, 32, X-Man 14 - A boring crossover that pits Cable against his younger alternate reality self.  Cable’s never been interesting on his own merits, and a headstrong version of himself is completely annoying, which is even worse.  Art by Ian Churchill and Steve Skroce isn’t enough for me to want to read these ever again.

Cable 45, 46 - I bought this as part of the Zero Tolerance crossover.  Randy Green’s art sucks and Cable breaks into the X-Mansion for some reason that I couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to.

Cable 27 - I was going to cut this, because Sugar Man is a horrible character.  (Of all the awesome Age of Apocalypse reimaginings that they could have brought over, the writers selected Sugar Man, Dark Beast, and X-Man.  A wretched 0-3 on people I’m interested in reading about.) But it’s got Ian Churchill drawing Domino, and reading all these issues made me realize that this might be my favorite interpretation of her.  There’s something about the way he draws her face, I think. There’s a maturity to it that I like. Also, she’s a total badass.

That's an outfit Death would wear.

Watch Sports Night.  It explains women in dress shirts.

Less a fan of Domino in Churchill's new style.  She looks like a teenager.

Her relationship with Cable is also the most interesting thing about these issues.  They have to build their relationship back up after Cable unknowingly spent a year hooking up with Vanessa-impersonating-Domino.  They’re both clearly attracted to each other, but things keep getting in the way - time-travelling to when Cable’s dead wife is still alive, saving Morlocks, the appearance of Cable’s brainwashed son, etc.  They’re both adults, and treat the relationship as such (more or less). It makes for a fun read.

I’m keeping some of the Steve Skroce and Ian Churchill issues.  Quality art, and the stories don’t suck.

Regret buying: No (Yes for 44, 45)

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes (No for 30, 31, 44, 45, X-Man 14.  Cutting.)

Rating: Fine (Nice for 22, Boring for the ones I’m cutting.)