Review: Uncanny X-Men #510

What movie is this from? It looks familiar, but I can't quite place it. Anyway, it's been filtered through the pencil magic of Greg Land for this week's "Uncanny X-Men" #510 which is a pretty kickass issue about the Red Queen's assault on the X-HQ.

Flipping back and forth between this week's "Uncanny" and the Jim Lee stuff reprinted in "X-Men Forever Alpha" shows the shocking difference between the more open, airy visuals of today vs. the overly packed panels of the early 1990s. Man is that Jim Lee X-Men stuff hideous! Say what you will about Greg Land -- and I'll be the first to admit that he's just doing collage at this point -- but it's a hell of a lot easier on the eyes than a billion random shading lines and those pouches and rippling muscles.

Plus, this comic has the Matt Fraction advantage. Read my review: Uncanny X-Men #510

And, just for kicks, here's a sample of that atrocious Jim Lee stuff that turned me off his work back then and is supposed to make us interested in picking up this new Claremont-penned series:


No thanks. (And is that really even Jim Lee? It looks like it was drawn by assistants.)

Playing Catch-Up: What I've Been Doing

So.

After my two-week break, I'm back to talk comics. Or to catch you up on the comics I've been talking about elsewhere at least.

Since I last posted, I reviewed a whole bunch of comics for CBR (with linkery for you to enjoy):

Daredevil Noir #1
Northlanders #16
Batman Confidential #28
Captain America #49
Punisher #4
Squadron Supreme #10
Green Lantern Corps #25
Astonishing X-Men #29
Skrull Kill Krew #1

And I tackled the career of the awesome Bernie Mireault in a two-part retrospective/interview in "When Words Collide":

Me on Mireault's Masterpieces
Me talking comics with Mireault

But you already knew that, I'm sure.

What do I have in store for the future of "Geniusboy Firemelon"? I don't know, but I'm back!

Ultimate X-Men #100 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Ultimate X-Men #100, about which I write the following sentences: "'Ultimate X-Men' doesn't go out with a whimper, but the bang inside its pages is caused by something from another comic, from another writer. And that's not the classiest way to wrap up a series that has lasted for nearly 10 years. Then again, with Iceman still sporting that do-rag well into the 21st century, classy isn't really what this series is all about."

Read the entire review HERE.

X-Men: Noir #4 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Men: Noir #4, about which I write the following sentences: "Ultimately, this series surprised me, not just because Calero's art worked better in the conclusion than it did in the opening. But it also surprised me because Fred Van Lente didn't take this series down the expected path. It didn't simply become about Xavier's team of mutants acting like themselves while wearing fedoras. It didn't just become a 'Star Trek' holodeck adventure."

Read the entire review HERE.

X-Men/Spider-Man #4 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Men/Spider-Man #4, about which I write the following sentences: "So what's missing from this issue is Christos Gage's witty perspective on the past, and Mario Alberti's enchanting images of nostalgia. Instead, we get Gage writing about Spider-Man teaming up with the X-Men yet again, and Alberti's take on the current look of most of the characters. And Alberti's work looks a bit rushed in this finale as well -- it's not as blindingly great as it was on the previous three issues."

Read the entire review HERE.

X-Men: Legacy #221 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Men: Legacy #221, about which I write the following sentences: "Mike Carey has found various ways to tell that kind of highlight-reel story, from bringing in Mr. Sinister to play with memories or, in this arc, showing physical manifestations of Rogue's fragmented psyche while simultaneously getting the now-sentient Danger Room to replay events from the past. No matter how he frames it, all Carey gets to do with this series is linger in the past. And that makes this series pretty useless."

Read the entire review HERE.

(Boy is that a hideous cover!)

X-Men: Kingbreaker #2 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Men: Kingbreaker #2, about which I write the following sentences: "Yost fills the book with inane dialogue like 'I am not here to surrender.' 'You should not have come here, Empress! You know what I must now do!' And it's endless. These characters prattle on and on about their desperate situations without the story ever rising to meet them. They are blank, space-hero mannequins given lines to recite, and none of it amounts to anything."

Read the entire review HERE.

Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Uncanny X-Men Annual #2, about which I write the following sentences: "Fraction uses all of that history to great effect here. This is Emma Frost, unleashed, but with a depth of character that we rarely see in her. And even though this comic is ostensibly a 'Dark Reign,' tie-in, it's more about how she handles the new status quo than the status quo itself. It's about her strangely affecting relationship with Namor, and her history with Sebastian Shaw. It's about who Emma Frost is now, and who she was as a member of the Hellfire Club. And it's surprising and alive and full of robot attacks and bedroom intrigue. It's very good."

Read the entire review HERE.

X-Men/Spider-Man #3 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Men/Spider-Man #3, about which I write the following sentences: "Describing it this way makes it sound ridiculous, sure, but it embraces its ridiculousness and blankets it in the luxuriant artistic stylings of Mario Alberti. And for all of the inherent absurdity of the Jim Lee-era X-Men trying their best to be tough and cool, and the clone of Spider-Man not really getting what he's supposed to be getting, Gage doesn't resort to cynical mockery. This is a loving tribute to these characters, maybe not as majestic as 'All-Star Superman,' but in the same vein. And if anyone is going to be spoken of in the same sentence as Frank Quitely, it should probably be Mario Alberti."

Read the entire review HERE.

X-Men/Spider-Man #2 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Men/Spider-Man #2, about which I write the following sentences: "If this comic was nothing more than Alberti pin-ups, I'd probably still enthusiastically recommend it, but the story (as purposely formulaic as it is) is pretty good too. Each issue jumps to a different moment in the lives of these characters, and Mr. Sinister -- working behind the scenes (since the 1960s, by the looks of things, although it's obviously not meant to be 40 years ago in comic book continuity) -- is the thread that weaves each issue together. Gage does a nice job with the characterizations here. He doesn't give himself much to work with, as it's mostly just a big fight scene, but since the plot allows Alberti a chance to show his stuff, it's difficult to fault the comic for having too much action."

Read the entire review HERE.

X-Infernus #1 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Infernus #1 about which I write the following sentences: "C. B. Cebulski has made 'X-Infernus' #1 accessible, dramatic, and fun. I've dipped in and out of some of the Illyana Rasputin in Hell (or Limbo, or whatever) stories over the past couple of decades, and they tend to be portentous and epically tragic. That's fine, but it often made the stories turgid and overly thick with Faustian drama. In 'X-Infernus,' Cebulski keeps the dramatic undertone, but there's a swift-moving quality to the pace of the comic that keeps it from getting bogged down in continuity quagmires or mythic-tragic solemnity."

Read the entire review HERE.

X-Men Noir #1 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: X-Men Noir #1 about which I write the following sentences: "This comic has David Niven playing a role, and Adrian Brody as the 'Gambit' character -- albeit one with a tuxedo instead of a pink costume and trenchcoat. I'm sure I'm leaving out some other notable faces, but it's really very similar to the style Greg Land has used so egregiously since the post-CrossGen days. And Calero sometimes repeats the same exact panel multiple times on a page, without variation. I understand that it's an artistic choice, and it may indicate a passivity within a scene, but body language is an important part of storytelling, and having both characters in a scene sit in the same pose for panel after panel is a poor way to tell this particular story."

Read the entire review HERE.

Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1, about which I write the following sentences: "The biggest problem with 'Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes' #1 isn't the content. It's the lack of content. At $3.99, you'd expect more than 16 pages of story, and rightfully so, but 16 pages is all you're going to get. To fill out the rest of the issue, Marvel provides Warren Ellis's script for this issue, but it's not particularly illuminating. It does little more than describe, briefly, the panels we've just read. Alan Moore, he is not (although at one point, Ellis writes, 'We're doing steampunk X-Men here. So everything is very lush with polished woods an leather and all, everything is extremely designed in that fin de siecle style. J#### C##### [sic], I'm turning into Alan Moore.' Hardly.)"

Read the entire review HERE.

Uncanny X-Men #503 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Uncanny X-Men #503, about which I write the following sentences: "Yet it's certainly not the art that makes this issue worth reading, no. It's the clarity of the characterizations and the swift pace that make this story work. Fraction gives us a nice scene with Cannoball, Karma, and Mirage at a San Francisco bar which serves two purposes: it reminds us how stupid Sam Guthrie can be at times, and how much these young men and women have been through as New Mutants. After that, the whole issue basically alternates between an exploration of the Hellfire Cult's sub-basement and the chase scene with Empath. What Fraction does particularly well is to hinge the story on the character of Pixie. Pixie, a Kitty Pryde-type who offers a fresh perspective on complex X-insanity, becomes the unlikely hero here, coming to the rescue on her Vespa scooter. If this brief story arc has been about anything beyond setting up future stories, it's been about introducing the reader to Pixie and showing why she's such an important part of the team. She's a Joss Whedon dream character, a sweetheart who can kick some ass. And she's a great addition to 'Uncanny X-Men.'"

Read the entire review HERE.

Uncanny X-Men #500 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Uncanny X-Men #500, about which I write the following sentences: "This issue also helps clarify what was missing from Brubaker's previous issues (other than Fraction, who is a more-than-welcome-addition to the series): a grand threat. When Magneto appears, blending in, at first, with the costumed visitors to the 'Mutant Kitsch,' he not only recalls the best of the classic X-Men stories, but his threatening presence reminds us of how long this series has run without a great villain. And the lack of such a strong antagonist has softened the team over the past couple of years, leading them on adventures into space, and in the sewers, and around the world, like a bunch of directionless little rodents. The X-Men have been scurrying around the borders of the Marvel Universe for too long, this issue seems to say, and now that Magneto has returned, they have something to stand and fight against besides some kind of vague mutant loathing."

Is the return of Magneto a spoiler? It might be, I guess, but wait until you see how he returns. This issue goes on sale tomorrow, and it's the one you've been waiting for. Although, I'm not a big fan of that Alex Ross cover--it looks like he spilled his Kool-Aid all over his painting. Anyway, issue #500 is good, even if the cover is sticky and reeks of fruit punch.

Read the entire review HERE.

Young X-Men #4 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Young X-Men #4, about which I write the following sentences: "I'm going to boldly state that 'Young X-Men' is the best of the recent X-Men comics. While Mike Carey spins his wheels with the nostalgic 'X-Men: Legacy,' and Ed Brubaker stumbles toward Matt Fraction for help with 'Uncanny X-Men,' this series presents intriguing characters who are trying to make sense of the new, Post-Messiah Complex scenario. It's more streamlined than the two main X-Titles and more graceful than either the new 'X-Force' or the new 'Cable' series. Plenty of problems still exist with 'Young X-Men' -- problems I'll articulate in a bit -- but it's been a solid launch with some really nice art by Yanick Paquette. Part of the reason why I'd rank this book slightly higher than the other X-Titles is that Yanick's work reminds me of Paul Smith and Kevin Nowlan -- his pencils are nothing if not a combination of the Smith/Nowlan aesthetic -- and that combination works well for a series such as this. A series where a young team heads toward an uncertain future. A series where Cyclops acts as a father figure and a taskmaster. A series where the old New Mutants (oxymoron?) have become the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Or have they? Things are not what they seem, and while that makes for some intrigue, it also makes for a bit of confusion in this first story arc."

Read the entire review HERE.

Astonishing X-Men #25 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Astonishing X-Men #25, about which I write the following sentences: "'Astonishing X-Men' #25 is a great superhero comic, and it's the best X-Men comic in ages, precisely because it feels like something new. It feels like a fresh take on the characters, and it doesn't really bear any similarity to the first twenty-five issues of this series. The cast is a bit different, the characters behave a bit differently, and they are interested in different things. This isn't another ode to Chris Claremont. This is Warren Ellis's X-Men, and it's Simone Bianchi's X-Men, and it's quite a joy to read."

This comic comes out today, and I suspect it might be the best book of the week.

Read the entire review HERE.

Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1, about which I write the following sentence: "Although 'Astonishing X-Men' might have a long shelf life as a collected edition -- and it probably will -- as a serialized story it was a failure."

Read the entire review HERE.