Friday, March 22, 2013

All New X-Men #1-4 & Uncanny X-Men #1-2 Review

All New X-Men #1-4
I have been an X-Men fan since I was six years old, and have been following Marvel's Merry Mutants almost non-stop for the past twenty-three years, my entire comic book collection is mostly composed of X-Men, and nearly all other X-teams and X-related spin-offs, in short I love the X-Men. I've been a fan of writer Brian Michael Bendis ever since New Avengers, and he does not disappoint here, straight out of the events of Avengers Vs. X-Men, Professor X is dead and Cyclops is a fugitive starting a revolution while gathering new mutants as they appear around the world which makes Beast have the crazy idea to bring the original five X-Men from the past to the present to shock and try and convince Cyclops in to stopping his dangerous crusade. Over two decades of reading X-Men comics has made these characters like family to me cause I been with them through all their ups and downs, and Bendis perfectly portrays them in his writing and wording of exactly how each x-man is dealing with the new status quo and with Beast's unique response.

Stuart Immonen is now one of my Top Ten favorite comic book artist, not only are his covers the very definition of "attention getting" but also his interior work is gorgeous, anything from action-packed fighting to dramatic conversations are highly energetic and cinematic that really conveys emotional and physical struggle. To me All New X-Men is the best comic coming out from Marvel right now, and if you read any one X-Men book then this is the one pick up. I am not kidding or over-exaggerating about Immonen's artwork, this page from issue #4 is one the most mind-blowing pages I have ever seen in a comic:

   
Uncanny X-Men #1-2
Dammit Marvel! You just renumbered Uncanny X-Men twenty issues ago, this new #1 should be Uncanny X-Men #565, you can see my original rant about the renumbering here, I'm still betting in three years it'll be renumbered again when it's reaches #600. Uncanny is the sister book to All New X-Men also written by Brian Michael Bendis showing Cyclops group as they recruit emerging young mutants and continue to evade S.H.I.E.L.D. and other heroes of the world, but what Cyclops doesn't know is that S.H.I.E.L.D. has an informant within his ranks who wants him to pay for his crimes. So just like All New the writing is great, I was thoroughly surprised to find out who the informant was, but I have to say I am not a huge fan of Chris Bachalo's art, never have been, I just find his artwork too free-hand, undisciplined, and unproportionate, and I don't think his style ever fitted the X-Men, but it is an X-Men book and Bendis's writing is top notch, so it looks like I have to grudgingly sit through his run on the book and pray he gets moved to some other title soon.