New X-Men (esp. #136)

[Hand of Vecna]

Anyone else been keeping up with this title? It was known simply as X-Men, but got the new title about a year and a half ago.

The latest storyline centers on a new group of Xavier's students, who've banded together as "The Omega Gang" under the leadereship of Quentin Quire, aka Kid Omega, an "Omega-level" Telepath (which I'm guessing means he rivals Xavier in power, though certainly not in experience). This lil' punk seems to have taken up Magneto's banner of Mutant superiority, driven over the brink by (a) the murder of mutant fashion designer Jumbo Carnation and (b) Kick, a new drug that enhances a user's mutant powers five-fold but has the nasty side effect of inducing megalomania and rotting the user's X-gene, killing them. Kid Omega's crew -- Glob Herman (big guy with transparent skin & organs and a "jelly grip"), Radian (projects light blasts), Redneck (a good ol' boy with radiant hands), and Tattoo (a woman with chameleonic skin) -- have already killed the gang of human punks who murdered Carnation, but don't intend to stop there.

The Omega Gang's "colors" consist of sturdy black boots, blue jeans, a long-sleeved button-up white shirt with a red-and-black striped sweater-vest over it, and a quasi-mohawk hairdo.

The X-Men -- consisting of Professor X, Best, Emma Frost (with her new diamond skin power), Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Xorn (a Chinese mutant with healing powers and a star in his head) -- are dealing with both the Omega Gang and the PR problems of being "outed" Mutants. Oh, and Cyclops is having an affair with Emma, though thus far they've kept it solely 'in their minds.' Anyway, in an attempt to ease human/mutant relations, Xavier plans to open his school to humans during an even called Open Day.

Oh, there's also a "remedial class" of Mutants at Xavier's, consisting of Angel (a bitchy black moth-girl), Basilisk (big lug with one eye that can fire paralyzing rays), Beak (a scrawny bird boy lacking in self-confidence), Dummy (a girl with a body of gas kept in a modified SCUBA suit), Ernst (a young girl with super-strength, who looks like a lil' old lady), and Martha Johansson (a mutant brain-in-a-jar that has some anti-grav generators hooked to it allowing her to fly). They're currently out in the woods with Xorn on a camping trip, but are found by the U-Men.

The U-Men, one of the few interesting things in the last few issues, are a group or Mutant organ hunters (i.e. they hunt & collect the organs of Mutants for the purpose of implanting them into themselves and gaining Mutant powers, thus making themselves 'purer' than either Homo sapiens or Homo sapiens superior). They also all wear SCUBA-like gear and breathe only purified air, believing the soil & air of the world to be too "tainted" for them.

Anyway, on to the point of this ramblin' re-cap -- it seems the Omega Gang is planning a riot at Xavier's school, to be held during Open Day, where they plan to kill all the humans. Not only were they able to hide this from Xavier, but they were also able to take out Xavier right before the riot started... BY WAITING FOR HIM BEHIND A DOOR AND HITTING HIM IN THE HEAD WITH A BASEBALL BAT!!! (They then plopped a helmet on his head, based on Magneto's telepathy-proof technology he'd incorporated into his own helm, preventing Xavier from "thinking out of" the helmet.)

Thoughts? Comments? More rants?

 

[Samnell]

Thoughts? Comments? More rants? [/B]

I hate Frank Quetly's artwork. The scenery is fine, but all of his people look like constipated potato people. I've read that he's insanely popular, but I'm totally at a loss to see the appeal.

The good thing is that Quietly gets by doing about four issues a year, so except for covers (I think he does around six or seven of those per annum) I can get by dealing with his imitators as fill-ins. They manage to resemble him without delving into his wonderland of constipated X-genes.

Morrison's writing I could take or leave. I'm aware that he's some kind of god of comics, but he's not very good at giving the characters distinct personalities. If one can separate the plots from that, they're ok.

Of the three core X-Books, New is IMO the least appealing. I miss the spandex too. I never got how having people with superpowers running around beating up other people with superpowers was somehow less believeable because they dressed in brightly colored spandex.

 

[Chauzu]

Man... it's been so LONG since I've last read X-Men comics.

 

[Alzrius]

This recap nicely sums up the reason I stopped reading almost all Marvel comics.

Marvel (as well as other giants in the comic industry) had characters that were incredibly dynamic, and that means that they were ever-changing, even more so for groups than just for individuals. Miss even one issue (and they release several titles about the same characters per month), and you can be missing out on some pivotal change. Miss several months or even years, and there are going to be huge gaps in what you knew and what its like now.

I haven't read an X-Men comic in a while, and getting back into it now seems like a daunting and intimidating task, since I'd have to rely on backstory to figure out what's been going on, as well as making sure to collect avidly all of their titles every month to stay on top of whats going on.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

True, but sites like the Unofficial Handbook to the Marvel Universe help alot...

They've been killing off several characters, lately, to -- Apocalypse, Colossus, Darkstar, Magneto, Mr. Sinister, and Psylocke. They way the killed them wasn't the "vague and ambiguous" kind, so it is possible their deaths are final, though I doubt it. Then again, Marvel does seem to be 'revamping' itself lately, so ya never know...

 

[Viking Bastard]

I love a lot of Frank Quitly's work, but his star ain't shinining in the New X-Men. What makes him so good is his dynamic widescreen panels, where he's able to make a practically empty panel feel like it's exploding with tension.

That said, it's not getting through in his work in the New X-Men, there he's just another artist with a quirky art style. Now his work on the Authority... whoah!

This recap nicely sums up the reason I stopped reading almost all Marvel comics.

Well, I must admit that Marvel has changed for the better recently after Joe Quesade took over (and I'm a fanatical DC guy).

Now most titles are self contained which means that although you still have some continuity questions, they will at least you won't have to dig up info on other titles as well.

 

[Chun-tzu]

I read X-Men for years, but gave up on it a while ago (a few years after Jim Lee and several of the other great X-Men artists left to form Image) because it had gotten stale and there were just too many mutant books diluting the franchise (there still are).

I started picking up New X-Men after it was getting good reviews, under the pen of Grant Morrison. Morrison's done some great stuff, and I love his early JLA. He's certainly brought an edgier feel to the characters (Cyclops fooling around, Beast playing mind games with Trish to the point of publicly declaring he's gay), and the X-world feels much more sci-fi than super-hero. That's a good thing. The X-Men aren't just a band of super-heroes, just like every other, flying around in their X-jet, hanging out in their X-mansion, and beating up super-villains. But half the time it feels more like I'm reading the Doom Patrol than the X-Men.

So, I give Morrison credit for making this book new and interesting, an extremely difficult task given the decades of history of the team. It's one of the relatively few comics I'm willing to shell out $2 (after discount) a month to read (I get about a dozen or so books these days, not as many as I used to buy). But this doesn't really compare to the X-Men's glory days, for me. I'm also not a fan of Quitely art (not even in The Authority). These days, I just don't very much like any of the characters. Cyclops, Archangel (with the razor sharp wings), and Nightcrawler used to be 3 of my all-time favorite super-heroes. But now... meh.

Xorn's kind of an interesting fellow, though. A star for a brain... huh.

 

[Jamdin]

I thought it was titled The Uncanny X-Men

"Emma Frost (with her new diamond skin power)"...I liked the White Witch when she was bad & before she became very, very skinny...

I haven't read many Marvel Comics lately since I'm more of a DC Comics fan. I'm just now getting back into Batman comics after about 10 years.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I thought it was titled The Uncanny X-Men

That's another title.

The current X-titles are:

New X-Men - The Xavier institute, the students and the core X-Men team, as decribed above, written by Grant Morrison (JLA, the Invisibles, Doom Patrol). Pretty good, but not for anyone.

The Uncanny X-Men - The tales of a reconniance team sent by Xavier here and there to help out mutants in trouble, written by Chuck Austen. Pretty dull book.

X-Treme X-Men - A team of X-Men run by Storm that have gotten bored with Xaviers pacifism and goes around policing criminal mutants (FBI sponsered or something, don't read it regurarly), written by Chris Claremont (from 80s X-Men fame). What I've read wasn't spectacular. Good art though.

Exiles - Outside-of-continuity, a bunch of mutants hop from a parallel reality to a parallel reality, not really a X-title in anything other than the main characters are mutants (could've been any kind of metahumans really), written by Judd Winnick (Pedro and Me, Barry Ween Boy Genius, Green Lantern). Very good.

Soldier X - Cable vs. the government or something, never read it.

Weapon X - A series about the Canadian mutant strike team that gave Wolverine his metal skeleton, never read it.

Agent X - A series about a group of mutant mercenaries known as the Agency-X. Never read it.

Wolverine - About ole' knucklehead. Haven't read anything from the current run.

X-Statix - A team of mutants that act and are potrayed more like popstars than superheroes, written by Peter Milligan (a bunch of crime stories mostly). Has it's ups and downs but overall a good read.

Ultimate X-Men - The reboot of the X-Men in modern day in the Ultimate universe, written by Mark Millar (The Authority, The Ultimates). Feels rather flat like Millar doesn't get to do what he wants to do. Millar works well when he has free-reign, but as much in more traditional titles like these.

.

Yup, way too many titles.

 

[Wolf72]

eek, I remember when it was just X-Men and the New Mutants ... and it was $.75 an issue ...