X-Men

Marvel Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, October 2011 Edition

November 15, 2011 by krisis

I’m here with my weekly peek at Marvel’s collected editions, packing recent and classic comic storylines into handy hardcovers and trade paperbacks.

Since I’m still at a bit of a lag, this week we’re taking a lot at all of October – and there were a slew of great collections that month! Read on for capsule reviews of the X-Men books out in October, plus the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions from last month.

If you’re looking for more X-Men books, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, some X-background, read my Intro to X-Men (on a budget). Trying to decide where to jump in? Check out Where to Start Reading X-Men.

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Marvel X-Men Collection of the Month:
Daken: Dark Wolverine – Big Break Hardcover
Collects issues #10-14 and 9.1

Note: This is not the cover of the collection, though the issue does appear inside of it.

CK Says: Buy it! This isn’t the first time I’ve featured Daken as my top pick, and it won’t be the last. There’s something about the dastardly, amoral, bisexual, pheromone-exuding, tattooed, illegitimate son of Wolverine that I find delightfully subversive when written well, and a year into his solo outing Rob Williams has him down pat.

This collection finds Daken trying to take control of LA the only way he knows how – putting the screws to the existing bad-guys a la Joker in Dark Knight, and sleeping his way into secrets of the scene with a young up-and-coming actor.

The twist? Daken samples the street drug du jour and is both terrified and thrilled to find it shuts off his healing factor! The result are some bloodier-than-usual fights as Daken enjoys handicapping himself while tripping out in Ralph Steadman-esque illustrations. (PS: The interiors are not quite so froggy as the front cover.) Available for pre-order as a TPB.

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Marvel Non-X Collection of the Month:
Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 4 TPB
Collects Fantastic Four #583-588

CK Says: Buy it. Writer Jonathan Hickman has re-made a Fantastic Four fan out of me with his operatic two-year run leading up to the issues in this collection. He divides comics’ first family with a war on multiple fronts against traditional foes like Galactus, Namor, and Annihilus as well as by their hard feelings at home, but this story is anything but old school.

Though the big build-up was for the death of a team-member, what’s really worth witnessing here is the rebirth of the FF franchise as one of Marvel’s hottest titles. Interior artist Steve Epting draws such stately, beautiful characters you’ll swear you’re reading Superman.

You may want to pick up Volumes 1, 2, and 3 as well – you can score the entire four-volume run for under $50! Also available in hardcover.

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What X-title do I hate with such a passion that I have to abstain from giving it a rating at all? Keep reading to find out, plus get capsule reviews of books from X-Men: Legacy, X-Factor, and X-23 and summaries of the rest of the Marvel Universe. [Read more…] about Marvel Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, October 2011 Edition

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, Late September Edition

November 8, 2011 by krisis

Back after a while in mothballs, it’s my X-collections recap!

Marvel hardly lets a single comic book issue go uncollected in book form, which means every week brings new hardcovers and trade paperbacks packed with their most major heroes – including The X-Men.

Read on for capsule reviews of the X-books out in the second half of September, which were unusually focused on past stories. Plus, get the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions from the latter half of the month.

If you’re looking for more X-info, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, for a more basic approach, my Intro to X-Men (on a budget). New to the X-Men? Try my Where to Start Reading X-Men to pick a place to jump in.

X-Men Collection of the (latter half of the) Month:
New Mutants: Fall of the New Mutants TPB

CK Says: Buy it! When I first picked up the hardcover version of this collection earlier this year it was out of habit, but I quickly discovered the book was impossible to put down. Writer Zeb Wells capitalizes on a dangling plot thread from 80s blockbuster Inferno anda year of slow-boil character development to deliver a complex saga worthy of the X-Men’s rich dramatic history.

It’s hard to imagine a story more harrowing or epic than what the team had just endured in Second Coming, but Well’s pulls it off with art from Leonard Kirk, an efficient, unflashy penciler I’ve grown to love. I don’t want to spoil the story – if you enjoy this team of characters you’ll love it, particularly developments for Cannonball, Moonstar, Karma, and Magik.

Where to Start Reading X-Men Comic Books (Right Now!)

You like the X-Men, but when you walk into a comic book store or log into your favorite comics app you have no idea what to pick up. Or, you picked something up and were hopelessly lost. Maybe you don’t even know where to begin!

Uncanny X-Men #534.1 unlettered promo cover

Don’t worry – I’m here to help!

While you can always jump in with any issue or collected edition, there are some jumping-on points in X-Men comics that are better than others – and this page lists them all! If you’re looking for a more chronological review of potential starting points, check out my Instant X-Pert article.

Pick a current title that sounds interesting and then pick up the most current starting point, or start from a past point if you’d like to dig a little deeper. [Read more…] about Where to Start Reading X-Men Comic Books (Right Now!)

x-rated opinions (or, it’s offensive no matter how nicely you say it)

October 14, 2011 by krisis

An over-sized hard-cover collecting every single issue of X-Statix, including all of the same sex kissing, is out next month – and Amazon has it available to pre-order for 40% off!

I readily admit that I completely take for granted living within a gossamer soap bubble of acceptance floating in the midst of a hugely liberal city. In any given week I never once interact with a person who is any less than totally accepting of people of all races, beliefs, and sexual identities.

Unfortunately, the internet is a little less accepting, despite my attempts to maintain my bubble of open-mindedness.

For example: I regularly visit a number of X-Men and Marvel forums to answers questions and promote my Guide to Collecting X-Men. Last night, someone asked if a particular upcoming omnibus of X-Statix comics would be appropriate for his children.

Totally fair question, right?

Except, that’s not exactly the question he actually asked. What he asked was this:

I was trying to get some info on what it’s about and read there are some overtly homosexual characters and themes, is this true? I just want to make sure if the themes are adult in nature that my young children don’t pick up the book off my shelves expecting simple heroics and see two same sex individuals kissing.

My intention is not to offend anyone but to educate myself.

There are so many things wrong with that message board post that for about five minutes I simply could not compute. My brain locked up like a computer aimed at a website full of animated gifs of from Maury Povich.

I cannot possibly cosign this statement any more.

First, and most obvious – why does it matter? To play off a recent image doing the rounds on social networks, how is gay kissing any different than straight kissing? Or, since we’re talking about a comic book, the potentially confusing shapeshifter kissing or alien kissing, and the occasional robot kissing?

Answer: It’s not. It’s just kissing. Either kissing is appropriate for your kids, or it isn’t. Either it’s appropriate in public or it isn’t. Either it’s appropriate on a plane or it’s not. “Gay” shouldn’t enter into the equation.

Second, there is the careful defusal at the end of the question. You see, it’s not offensive because they are using very polite terms about their bigotry. They simply want to educate themselves on how to promote bigotry.

That’s totally inoffensive, right? And bullying doesn’t hurt anyone unless they choose to feel hurt, right?

What if he had said “two Mexicans kissing” or “two people of different races kissing”? Or “a woman in a leadership position over men”? Or “a person with a disability doing simple heroics next to a able-bodied superhero”?

It’s all bigotry, no matter how nicely you phrase it.

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/13 Edition

September 13, 2011 by krisis

Marvel has just a handful of X-Men books out in this week’s collected editions, but only one you might want to pick up. Read on for a capsule review, plus the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions out this week.

If you’re looking for more X-info, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, for a more basic approach, my Intro to X-Men (on a budget).

Uncanny X-Men: Breaking Point TPB
Collects Uncanny X-Men #534.1& 535-539.

CK Says: Consider it. Kieron Gillen takes over Uncanny full-time and quickly solidifies his A-team as Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magneto, Namor, Kitty, and Colossus and uses them to delightful effect. The .1 issue is a one-off anti-terrorist adventure intercut with Magneto’s meeting with a public relations expert trying to downplay his own terrorist history.

The Breaking Point storyline plays out a dangling plot from Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, but it gets a little tiresome. #539 is a Wolverine and Hope one-shot, which maybe features the first likeable take on Hope we’ve seen so far. On the whole this collection is good-not-great, but it’s as enjoyable as Uncanny has been in a long while.

(Uncanny X-Men always releases direct-to-TPB except for events and crossovers.)

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Keep reading for the list of other collection editions out from Marvel this week, plus a few of their later add to last week’s list that missed the cut for my recap. [Read more…] about X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/13 Edition