Nation X #1Writer #1: Simon Spurrier
Artist #1: Leonard Kirk
To begin I have to mention my love for the cover especially the inclusion of No-Girl on it. Seriously go check it out if you can find an image of it that isn't blurry as shit (Thanks CBR, makes you look super professional to have blurry previews).
Anywhoodaloo, the first story centers around Magneto and the students. It's a blend of awkward and cheesy and it does nothing for Magneto but make him look more like a creeper and just a boring threat that the X-Men will have to take care of.....as they always do. Boredom. Kirk's art is a lot more bearable than it has previously been, but that's due to it being more colorful this time. To finish, this story is the weakest out of the bunch.
Writer #2: James Asmus
Artist #2: Mike Allred
Remember my constant bitching about how art and story need to come together to make a comic great? Well, sometimes one of them outshines the other in such a way that it doesn't matterhow mediocre one element is, you love the other element too much. This can be seen with Grant Morrison's run when crappy Igor Kordey kept subbing in for Quitely. Writing won over art. Well, this story is good, but the art by Allred totally outshines everything. As a new fan of Milligan's X-Force/X-Statix, I have to say I adore the man and I wish he was doing Uncanny. Why? Because in X-Statix he drew a satirical take on the super hero whereas Fraction right now is unknowingly serving up a campy take on the X-Men. The fact that he expects it to be taken seriously is absurd, it's like taking a B-Level horror movie seriously. Allred could definitely enhance that campy feel.
I adore this! Choose Brit Betsy!
Kurt's now in on the ongoing love affair!
Finally, I love Allred's take on Kurt and the man in general since this story would've been dull under any other artist.
Writer #3: Chris Yost
Artist #3: Michele Bertilorenzi
Artist #3: Michele Bertilorenzi
Bobby also mentions something that I've thought about recently, here's the update on the fab five:
Writer #4: Scott Snyder
Artist #4: David Lopez
This issue spotlights Colossus, which can be a dangerous thing considering the character's meant to be background. He's like my grandfather, he is content to be out of the spotlight and when you pull these sort of people out of the background they tend to seem awkward. Fraction proved this when he spotlighted Colossus awhile ago and the focus very clearly screwed his character up. Not only that, but Fraction can't write characters in the first place so... ya know. Anyway, the focus of this issue is Colossus' frustration with his little sister Illyana not returning his joy that they're reunited. Which is sad because as an introverted character, Colossus finally opening up for someone he loves so much makes for very raw emotion, and you almost feel the raw pain as Illyana ignores him. Anyway, this story is pretty good, bit of a downer, but a better take on Colossus than we've seen in awhile.
Summary about the entire book is that it is a lot better than the anthology books we've seen lately, infinitely better than that crap Dark X-Men book. I would say if you like X-Men you should definitely considering buying it.
And prep for next issue since it's totally fag edition: Gambit, Northstar, Jubilee, and No-Girl. It's going to be goddamned delicious and you can imagine how excited I am for it to come out.
New Avengers Annual #3
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mike Mayhew
First off, you may recognize the artist, Mike Mayhew, from such books as X-Men Origins: Jean Grey and covers for Women of Marvel and Phoenix Warsong. Basically, this artist has generally "soft", "feminine" pencils, so he's called in more often for female-centered stories. Don't get me wrong, beautiful work, but I dislike that women stories get their own "feminine" art despite the fact that gory X-Force gets Mike Choi, the king of pretty pencils. While this doesn't always happen, I'm ticked that it happened this time.
Anyway, this issue centers around the fact that Clint Barton has been taken hostage. Luckily for all of us, Mayhew appeases the female and gay audiences by having Hawkeye in nothing but boxers the entire issue and sometimes it appears to be less. Oh and Mayhew draws a pretty fucking sexy naked man, so naked Hawkeye is definitely a good day. Oh and look at this contextless image:
Just ponderin' about what he's got.
Artist #4: David Lopez
This issue spotlights Colossus, which can be a dangerous thing considering the character's meant to be background. He's like my grandfather, he is content to be out of the spotlight and when you pull these sort of people out of the background they tend to seem awkward. Fraction proved this when he spotlighted Colossus awhile ago and the focus very clearly screwed his character up. Not only that, but Fraction can't write characters in the first place so... ya know. Anyway, the focus of this issue is Colossus' frustration with his little sister Illyana not returning his joy that they're reunited. Which is sad because as an introverted character, Colossus finally opening up for someone he loves so much makes for very raw emotion, and you almost feel the raw pain as Illyana ignores him. Anyway, this story is pretty good, bit of a downer, but a better take on Colossus than we've seen in awhile.
Summary about the entire book is that it is a lot better than the anthology books we've seen lately, infinitely better than that crap Dark X-Men book. I would say if you like X-Men you should definitely considering buying it.
And prep for next issue since it's totally fag edition: Gambit, Northstar, Jubilee, and No-Girl. It's going to be goddamned delicious and you can imagine how excited I am for it to come out.
New Avengers Annual #3Artist: Mike Mayhew
First off, you may recognize the artist, Mike Mayhew, from such books as X-Men Origins: Jean Grey and covers for Women of Marvel and Phoenix Warsong. Basically, this artist has generally "soft", "feminine" pencils, so he's called in more often for female-centered stories. Don't get me wrong, beautiful work, but I dislike that women stories get their own "feminine" art despite the fact that gory X-Force gets Mike Choi, the king of pretty pencils. While this doesn't always happen, I'm ticked that it happened this time.
Anyway, this issue centers around the fact that Clint Barton has been taken hostage. Luckily for all of us, Mayhew appeases the female and gay audiences by having Hawkeye in nothing but boxers the entire issue and sometimes it appears to be less. Oh and Mayhew draws a pretty fucking sexy naked man, so naked Hawkeye is definitely a good day. Oh and look at this contextless image:
Just ponderin' about what he's got.
Also, Normy Norm and the Dark Avengers are all up in Barton's grill, asking him where the Avenger's headquarters is and threatening to sic Venom on him. Which gives birth to another fabulous panel --->
Then the focus goes from this to the other stars of this issue, Jessica Jones, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, and Mockingbird, who are definitely the reasons why I reviewed this issue in the first place. The unfortunate part of this issue though is that despite the ladies being on the cover and being toted around as the stars of the issue, it's really more about Hawkeye. Which is fucking lame because some of us here would like to read other characters besides the fucking hegemonic males. Like Spider-Woman I love, Ms. Marvel I like, Mockingbird I don't know and don't know if I want to, and Jessica Jones I'm probs going to start to discover since I've read some pages of Alias and am totally interested. So I'd like to see them more in the spotlight.
Anyway, Mockingbird discovers Clint left to kill Osborn and she freaks and runs outside to cry. Randomly, Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel are just chillin' outside, flying around. They decide to go find Clint since he probably got caught and Jessica decides to return to
superheroing. If this is a permanent thing, she should definitely consider a new costume or at least changing her hair to fit the costume better. Oh and this is a pretty panel of Ms. Marvel flying --->
Most of the issue is Clint getting interrogated by some psychic guy and he thinks of the Avengers headquarters and it shows them in the kitchen. Ok, question, are the scenes with Avengers in the kitchen sort of like an overused setting similar to Emma and Scott's constant bedroom scenes?
OH and for those of my readers who watch ANTM like I do, doesn't this panel of Ms. Marvel:
Look like Lauren Brie from Cycle 12?
If you say Lauren Brie's too pretty, then realize this girl looked a lot more attractive in pictures then in real life and should you watch the episodes with her in it I think you'll see the resemblance.
Oh and I have to say I adore Mockingbird's costume, it's absolutely gorgeous. Not only that, but she totally wears the same kind of boots that I do. So definitely am considering liking her just based on the fact that we probably both shop at the same place.
The issue ends with Clint getting rescued, the Avenger's changing their headquarters place, and Captain America is back. I'd say it'd be a good idea to consider this issue, but it's definitely not a must-have.
Then the focus goes from this to the other stars of this issue, Jessica Jones, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, and Mockingbird, who are definitely the reasons why I reviewed this issue in the first place. The unfortunate part of this issue though is that despite the ladies being on the cover and being toted around as the stars of the issue, it's really more about Hawkeye. Which is fucking lame because some of us here would like to read other characters besides the fucking hegemonic males. Like Spider-Woman I love, Ms. Marvel I like, Mockingbird I don't know and don't know if I want to, and Jessica Jones I'm probs going to start to discover since I've read some pages of Alias and am totally interested. So I'd like to see them more in the spotlight.
Anyway, Mockingbird discovers Clint left to kill Osborn and she freaks and runs outside to cry. Randomly, Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel are just chillin' outside, flying around. They decide to go find Clint since he probably got caught and Jessica decides to return to
superheroing. If this is a permanent thing, she should definitely consider a new costume or at least changing her hair to fit the costume better. Oh and this is a pretty panel of Ms. Marvel flying --->Most of the issue is Clint getting interrogated by some psychic guy and he thinks of the Avengers headquarters and it shows them in the kitchen. Ok, question, are the scenes with Avengers in the kitchen sort of like an overused setting similar to Emma and Scott's constant bedroom scenes?
OH and for those of my readers who watch ANTM like I do, doesn't this panel of Ms. Marvel:
Look like Lauren Brie from Cycle 12?
If you say Lauren Brie's too pretty, then realize this girl looked a lot more attractive in pictures then in real life and should you watch the episodes with her in it I think you'll see the resemblance.
Oh and I have to say I adore Mockingbird's costume, it's absolutely gorgeous. Not only that, but she totally wears the same kind of boots that I do. So definitely am considering liking her just based on the fact that we probably both shop at the same place.The issue ends with Clint getting rescued, the Avenger's changing their headquarters place, and Captain America is back. I'd say it'd be a good idea to consider this issue, but it's definitely not a must-have.
3 comments:
Hey!
I loved your review, especially the thing with Iceman. I never thought that he could be gay, but now that Dazzler rejected him, well... I have a lot to think lol!
About the cover, it's really hard to find a hi-res version, so far this is the biggest picture that I could find:
http://pics.livejournal.com/dustinweaver/pic/0008k5hz
Not so bad, you can see Emma, who by the way looks gorgeous in the cover.
About the New Avengers Annual, I liked it mostly because a naked Hawkeye. It's a shame that the fight of the girls was reduced to a one page, that's all.
Oh and you definately must give an oportunity to Mockingbird, she's one of the most interesting characters of the New Avengers, especially since her return from the Skrull world.
Anyway, great review as always.
I was surprised that I liked Nation X as much as I did. That may have had something to do with my low expectations for the book before reading it though.
Ah, so Clint is wearing boxers? I didn't read this issue yet, but the preview pages shown at CBR gave the impression that he was completely nude.
Good for him, then; it seems Osborn isn't as mean as we think... at least he kept a little bit of Clint's dignity.
As for Nation X, I agree: Logan should definitely choose British Betsy; that body made her a supermodel, dammit! But he probably chose Japanese Betsy, considering how Logan loves Japan...
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