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I strongly dislike Bendis's Uncanny X-Men, and issue #18 contained a lot of my problems with the series as a whole. Characterization is absolutely terrible, and there is simply no plot driving the book. There's no rhyme or reason to the focus of the book on an issue-to-issue basis, and most events that occur seem like an excuse for teenage squabbling and little more. All-New X-Men doesn't seem as meandering - perhaps it truly is, but the basic premise (The original teenage X-Men are now in the present! How will they handle it?) is more suited to just reacting to things as they come up. Plus, they actually are all teenagers, and the characterization of the original X-Men when they were originally being written in the 60's is so limited compared to modern comic writing, so I'm much more willing to forgive the fact that every character sounds like the proto-typical Bendis wise-rear end. Uncanny X-Men is supposed to be about Scott's mutant revolution, yet that book is following the exact same pattern of simply reacting to things. Sometimes they go places and sentinels show up, and they have to deal with said sentinels, but no progress forward or backward is being made on that front. Sometimes they train a recruit. Sometimes they squabble amongst themselves. They have no apparent objectives beyond simple abstract concepts like "give mutants a fighting chance." It's like every issue is what would normally be a filler in-between more focused arcs, save for the decent Dormamu story in the very first couple issues and the BotA tie-ins (and ugh to those). I feel like there should be some structure after 18 issues. Uncanny X-Force was almost done the Dark Angel Saga by then! Old Cyclops talking to Young Cyclops was admittedly a nice moment, but that was the only bit I really liked. Magik's characterization is lame compared to the dark places Gillen was taking her towards the end of his run, and Emma is so far off character that I can't even process it. Even in her current powerless state, she would compose herself much better and learn new ways to still have the upper hand. None of this throwing a hissy fit at Kitty bullshit.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:50
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Did we ever find out who the random Asian-looking guy in the background of the All-New X-Men #1 variant cover was? I saw the three covers stitched together in a panorama the other day, and couldn't for the life of me remember if anything ever came of that.
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Mar 25, 2014 16:26
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I really liked Gillen's UXM run. - The concept of the Extinction Team was great - the opening arc with Sinister was the freshest he's been in years and I look forward to his reappearance - the Fear Itself tie in was arguably the best part of that whole event - the AvX tie-in was a great use of the Phoenix Five before the end of the event inevitably un-Phoenixed them - the ongoing plot with Unit was interesting and I wish that could have continued - the moral decay of Magik, and her corruption of Colossus was dark as hell but also clever and fresh, and far superior to Bendis's take on Magik where she simply acts like a goth teenager - and Cyclops' rationalization of the events of AvX and his stance on the future and the possibility of redemption, as told in 5 issues of AvX: Consequences, far outshines anything Bendis has done in 20 issues of UXM and 25 of ANXM. Magneto's role in mentoring Cyclops, and their tense but necessary relationship after AvX was also much better realized. So yeah, more Gillen please.
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Apr 18, 2014 19:49
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I liked the No More Humans OGN. I have not been a big fan of Bendis's run at all (nor Wood's), so it felt like "finally, a real X-Men story again!" Though, yeah, Beast is such a sanctimonious prick that it's just absurd. I'm willing to entertain that he's specifically being written like that, i.e., the audience is supposed to think he's a prick. And it's getting a bit old having the Phoenix pop its head up every couple months or so. Each appearance is written like its such a huge deal, but its totally not because it happens constantly now. Clearly, everyone (characters and creators alike) are obsessed with the real Jean, so they should just bring her back already.
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May 10, 2014 05:00
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I know "No More Humans" was supposed to be a peripheral event, i.e., not necessarily relevant to anything going on in the ongoing X-books. But didn't it end with Raze in a Phoenix-sanctioned "time-out"? And didn't Magneto significantly villian-ify himself, much moreso than anything in UXM or his solo book?. It just didn't jive reading that last week, and then picking up with Raze's latest shenanigans the very next week.
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May 16, 2014 00:02
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Cerepol posted:So Uncanny X-Men, worth the read or not? (The new one of course). I'm fairly weary because it is Bendis and I dropped ANXM due to his antics. Uncanny X-Men is way more Bendis-y than All New X-Men. So if you dropped that one due to Bendis...
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Jun 4, 2014 02:32
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Aphrodite posted:Just by writing it he guaranteed it makes it because it already did. Time travel! Um, no? When they show him receiving the note in the future, that implies that they'll have to go back in time, lose, write that note, and have that note somehow reach them. It is "guaranteed it makes it" because we are seeing it "make it." Just seeing him write the note in the past does not have the same guaranteed time-travel logic to it - anything could happen between the present/past and the future. And even with the future scene of them again receiving the note, the onus is still on the writer of this fictional work to show how this closed loop works and how, in the past, the note does indeed make it - or at least leave it ambiguous enough that we think "ok, sometime in this span of 50 years or whatever, a note is somehow produced and set up for delivery." Bendis is so ham-handed about it that he opts for the silly scene of Xavier Jr. asking his maximum security watchers for paper for this note, instead of taking advantage of the vast ambiguity offered by the span of years between "the present" and the future that Xavier Jr. travels from (i.e., there could be a power-outage and a break-out at some point further down the line, a different supervillain could intervene, etc.). Nope, he's gotta have his cutesy moment where he just asks for paper to write a note, and SHIELD security just lets him both write it and then either gets it out into the world for him or doesn't question where that paper goes if he tries to hide it.
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Jul 11, 2014 13:41
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Aphrodite posted:You don't apply rules to time travel. It works however I/you/anyone says it works until something directly contradicts it. Sure, for fundamentally unknowable paradox-related issues like "Will going back in time alter what has already happened in my timeline, or will it create a new tangent universe?" I also give Bendis a total pass on a) the whole issue of the Brotherhood always making their next attempt at a past date that is later than the past date of their prior attempt and b) the various paradoxes of warning yourself about prior time travel events and whether causality ever comes into play there. But for basic basic basic cause-effect stuff, like writing a note in the past to get a message to the future? I stand by my "Ummm no." Bendis wasn't inventing some new concept of time travel when he had the Brotherhood use the note system to warn their future self - that's probably the most straightforward time-travel mechanism used by any Marvel writer in years. The note begins its physical life in 2014, travels through time linearly along with everything else, and is eventually seen by Xavier Jr. and co. in the future - no time travel, just A leads to B. If A is written by a prisoner in a superjail who is supposed to be under intense scrutiny, it doesn't make sense how it makes it to B without being laughed at and then burned/shredded by Maria Hill. edit: And even this, something I feel is blatantly lacking in logic and could have been easily sidestepped if he didn't try to be so cute about everything, wouldn't bug me as much if there were anything of substance going on in the book. But no, there's certainly no characterization or thematic work going on, so nitpicky plot details are all there really is to discuss besides just saying "Well that sucked." Neo_Reloaded fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Jul 11, 2014 20:33
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Sentinel Red posted:He can just write the note to himself in coded paragraphs or any kind of made up moonspeak that only he/his brother knows about, so that any jailer who looks at it thinks nothing of it, eventually sneaks it out and does a Back To The Future II for it to be delivered to Room 589, Bumblefuck Hotel, Madripoor on date whatever. Job done. No notes should be allowed from psychic supergeniuses from the future. I'm fine with some set of circumstances in the vast number of years available to him resulting in a note making its way out of the jail, but for him to, on day 1, just ask for a piece of paper to write a note is asinine. But whatever, derail done - I've made my point as far as I wish to argue it.
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Jul 11, 2014 20:46
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HorseRenoir posted:Why does he need a note in the first place? Unless Xavier was somehow mindwiped in between the present and the future, he should still be able to recognize what went wrong, escape prison at some point, and then use the time travel machine to go back. The note can't be for someone else in case he dies, either. His whole plan hinges on him being alive in the future to mind-control everyone into working for him; Xavier's abilities were the only reason he and Raze were even able to get access to Hank's time machine. The only thing writing the note achieves is to make SHIELD look dumber than usual. He has to be alive in the future just means that the baby him in 2014 cannot die and must survive to 2055 or whatever. However, that version will make the same mistake and end up defeated if the future him (relative to his consciousness) is unable to send a note from the past (relative to the timeline) explaining what he did wrong. Presumably, successfully getting this note to whatever channel results in it arriving intact in 2055 closes some time loop and causes the jailed version of him to vanish - or perhaps not depending on how loose you want to get with time travel rules, he could stay jailed and a different copy of him (warned by the note) will arrive in the past at a different time, resulting in multiple Xavier Jr.'s. The time travel logic gets very sticky if you want to continue down that path of reasoning, but the important part is that, yes, the note (or a surviving memberhood of the Brotherhood who shares his goals, i.e. just him and Raze) must survive long enough to impart information of the failed time travel event to Xavier Jr. / Raze before they themselves attempt their time travel plan. Rereading your post, it seems you expect the time traveling Xavier to go back in time again, i.e. the same body and consciousness - I suppose that's possible, but that isn't what they were planning on, and their age and casualties would stack through each iteration and they'd eventually end up old, damaged, and lacking in numbers. By just imparting information to their past-selves (relative to their consciousnesses) before they time-traveled, they get to start off completely fresh again - same age, same health, same numbers. Like hitting the reset switch on a video game, but obviously still remembering where you went wrong last time. quote:Like most things in Bendis' run, the note is just something that sounds cool until you think about it for five seconds and realize how stupid it is. I agree with you here.
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Jul 11, 2014 21:29
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radlum posted:Also, Bendis is truly a jerk and a tease, just tell them your last will you bald jerk! Stop delaying it! But then it wouldn't be a 5-issue long story.
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Sep 3, 2014 19:38
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The first issue I remember is the What If where Jubilee is being stalked by Sabretooth. He cuts a bloody path through the rest of the X-Men, and the artwork itself is really creepy. I'd watched the cartoon religiously, but hadn't read the comics - I don't know what made me decide to start with that particular issue.
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Sep 24, 2014 22:01
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Both Bendis X-books are so far off the rails right now, I don't even know what to say. We're like 5 issues into each of the current arcs, and its still just different conversations about the instigating issue ("OMG we're in a different universe!" and "OMG there's a mutant who can control time, space, life, and death!"). I get that the end of the recent UXM isn't going to stick due to time-travel fuckery, but it's just so laughably transparent and they aren't even trying to make it otherwise.
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Dec 26, 2014 01:49
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Dacap posted:Yeah, the stakes are significantly lowered for major character deaths now in comics. Fans know that if a death is going to last for more than one issue it'll be announced in a press release a couple months ahead of time. Otherwise we know it'll be immediately walked back, faked out, LMD'd or Doombotted next issue That is true, but that's kind of a given at this point. I was annoyed because it wasn't even a credible situation for their deaths. They're with the most powerful mutant ever, who can manipulate time and space and is a psychic, plus Magik who can teleport them away, and a helicarrier or whatever just sneaks up on them and blows them up? I know that arguing about power levels and abilities is pretty pointless because they always fluctuate to serve whatever story they're in, but this was just so transparently bullshit.
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Dec 26, 2014 05:09
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I also disagree that the Eva story told in the two annuals was good. The basic idea is solid enough, but Bendis seems past the point of knowing how to tell any story effectively. Hey, let's spend multiple 2-page spreads to continue wanking on time travel tropes, but then spend the absolute minimum amount of time developing the husband and daughter that are supposed to be the emotional crux of this story. Literally "X Years Later - 'Hello husband! Hello daughter! Wow, crazy how I now have a family in this time, making this more my home than my previous home! I hope nothing happens in the next panel to upend this happi- Oh no a time traveling dinosaur!' " I got very little from the story that I wouldn't have also gotten from someone giving me a 2-sentence explanation of it. And I haven't even touched on how even more hosed up Bendis has made time travel. Did her family disappear because she wasn't there to anchor them, since it "wasn't her natural time era" or whatever? Or did her 2 millisecond blips through the past undo the family via the butterfly effect? Both are given lip service, but those seem incompatible, and they seem like bullshit even on their own. Some change in the past that would have to have been at the literal butterfly level (since nothing significant was shown to have been changed by her) led to 2099 being entirely different, but that same change did absolutely nothing to 2014 which is exactly as she left it? And if the anchor theory is correct, 2014 will eventually revert to whatever its state would have been in if Beast hadn't brought the original 5 into the future once they go home? Like, I don't care about the actual mechanics of time travel, but Bendis's take has been different from the standard Marvel take for this entire run, and he created a third standard in this stupid annual. Even if one were to argue that it is specific to Eva's powerset, her ability to time travel and have the results of her time travel "stick" is the crux of the current UXM storyline! Neo_Reloaded fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Dec 27, 2014 |
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Dec 27, 2014 21:50
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Blockhouse posted:the "grand" "finale" of the uncanny x-men story arc about the will that never gets read is some next level stupid Is it over over?
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Feb 18, 2015 17:34
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Aphrodite posted:They read the will like 8 issues ago. But the implication was that they'd find out the rest of the will after they dealt with Malloy. While time-travel nonsense was the only way out of what he'd written himself into, it still was not satisfying, especially after the amount of time sunken into it. And what the hell was with the changes to the will? Whatever happened as a result of Eva's meddling made Xavier not marry Mystique? Is there still a baby Xavier Jr. out there, or did this also conveniently get rid of the future brotherhood problem? Everything just comes off as so arbitrary and meaningless.
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Feb 18, 2015 19:46
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The story was clearly intended to end multiple issues ago, given the solicitations for totally different plots for these past 3 issues. Was it just dragged out, or was there a different, none-time-travel ending? And if the ending was significantly changed, are the various Mystique / Future Brotherhood wrap-ups (or rather, sidesteps) also part of the changes, possibly because he's leaving early than expected and can't hope to make good on half the stuff he's teased but left woefully unfulfilled?
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Feb 18, 2015 20:40
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I kept expecting things to go bad (because Inverted Havok was a terrible bastard who kidnapped his wife), and nothing happened. Is there supposed to be dramatic tension, where we know Havok is evil and Cyclops doesn't yet? Or is Bendis's characterization once again not in step with the character's previous characterization, and this is just how Inverted Havok is going to be in this story? Hooray for quality writing!
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Mar 26, 2015 20:31
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SirDan3k posted:No he's still evil, it's part of Bendis's "Cyclops is a gently caress up that has lost his way and is wrong about pretty much everything" narrative which people are just seem to willfully ignore exists. He's rooming with his evil brother who now supports him completely, subtle this theme has not been. Well he's also written SHIELD as interfering assholes and the Jean Grey school teachers as hypocrites and bad friends/family, so I don't know that the text truly supports Cyclops as being in the wrong here. Cyclops having a nervous breakdown, definitely. Cyclops having lost his way, sure. But wrong in comparison to the other factions of the story, so wrong that Evil Havok agreeing with him is an indication that Cyclops is the villain of this story? I don't agree with that.
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Mar 26, 2015 21:10
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Deadpool posted:The thing is that the inversion doesn't simply just make good guys bad and bad guys good as was better explained in the many tie-in books than it ever was in the actual event book. It takes a core part of that person's personality and switched it the opposite way. What it seemed to do with Alex was make him forsake the whole unity idea between mutants and humans which makes him more in line with Scott's way of thinking. He still clearly cared about Janet as he begged to let her survive and tried to secretly save her when they were going to set off the big bomb in Axis. Him using Janet to escape at the end of Axis was actually completely out of character with how he acted at the beginning of the very same issue and was probably just a ruse to get away. And she's not with him when he shows up at Scott's in the prologue anyway. He acted cowardly and evil in equal measure in the AXIS event.
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Mar 26, 2015 21:31
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Gizmoduck_5000 posted:Axel Alonso just tweeted that the X-men would remain an integral part of the marvel universe, which is a big disappointment for me, because I think the X-men severely need a complete reboot and a continuity enema. As it stands now it's completely unapproachable for new and returning fans. Reboots don't fix anything. You are not forced to know the 500+ backissue history for every character. DC keeps rebooting over and over again and their continuities immediately become dogshit again because editorial is terrible. Good editorial + good writing is all that is needed.
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Mar 28, 2015 22:18
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Codependent Poster posted:He's got one big issue left to tie things up. I thought that might be the case too since it says "Continues in Uncanny X-Men #600" but there's still a #34 and #35 solicited before #600... Issue 600 won't come out until loving June according to comiclist.
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Apr 16, 2015 04:33
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Grant Morrison's New X-Men run was the last great mainline X-Men run (Gillen's was the last above average mainline X-Men run). Remender's Uncanny X-Force run is great as well, just a bit towards the outside edge of the X-Men universe.
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May 10, 2015 23:38
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hope and vaseline posted:Everyone forgets Carey's short lived X-Men run Eh I didn't love it. Too much Rogue. I kinda liked Joe Casey's X-Men stint, but now that was a short run, and everything he was building to got cut off when editorial swerved directions.
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May 10, 2015 23:43
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I really believed that Cyclops and Mystique had an affair there for those two panels because that's stupid enough for Bendis to have done it. I still can't believe he had Xavier marry, have a kid with, and leave the school to Mystique - and then time travel it away so he doesn't ever have to explain how such a ridiculous thing would be.
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May 21, 2015 00:05
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The important question that no one is asking: which team is Goldballs on? edit: Also, can Maggot come back yet?
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Jul 1, 2015 03:23
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Yeah Bendis's entire run was such a waste. Nothing went anywhere. Just... wow. Extraordinary didn't exactly inspire faith either. It feels like dark days for x-fandom. The only series I have any hope left for is Uncanny.
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Nov 6, 2015 23:25
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No way did they permanently kill Cyclops off off-panel in the months-long timegap between a non-X-Men event and a universal reboot. It's a red herring to build drama and anticipation for whenever he returns or something that will be undone by some plot-point in the near-ish future.
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Nov 18, 2015 20:25
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Rhyno posted:He went out in a big way in Secret Wars which many people will clearly remember. That was not remotely a Cyclops-based story. He existed solely to get killed by Doom and establish what the heroes were up against. And given the fact that everyone in the universe save a handful has died one, two, or multiple times during the end of Hickman's Avengers run through Secret Wars, it would be pretty lame to select a handful of characters and be like "Nope, that person who died in Secret Wars actually stayed dead. Oh well."
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Nov 18, 2015 22:17
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There's just no way a character as big as Cyclops is killed in a time-slip. It's a fakeout or something that will be undone.
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Dec 7, 2015 05:38
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