It seems like yesterday I was writing the review for the first issue of the new X-Men series written by Victor Gischler, and here we are, one arc down and already on issue number seven.
The series just wrapped up its six issue Curse of the Mutants arc, and now the X-Men are starting to gain popularity in the San Francisco area, beginning to be commonly referred to as San Francisco’s X-Men; kind of like how New York has the Avengers. Many of the X-Men are enjoying helping the people of San Francisco with their day-to-day problems, whether it be a house burning down, a robbery, or even a cat stuck in a tree, while others feel as though their powers and abilities could be put to better use.
In this issue a handful of the X-Men are sent to New York City to investigate an issue that is “too small for the Avengers, but too big for local law enforcement”. This group of X-Men find themselves in the NYC sewer system searching for the source of the problem.
When it comes to tie-ins for comic book series I always want to read every single additional book I can so I can get the full story, but the majority of the time I cannot justify doing so because most of the stories aren’t anything crucial or even good for that matter, and it just costs too much.But, I decided to pick up Storm and Gambit because of three reasons.1. The art is done by Chris Bachalo, 2. Its only a one-shot so even if its not great at least I got the full story, and 3. both Storm and Gambit are both great characters.
When I opened the book I was even happier that I picked it up because I quickly learned that this issue was incredibly important to the main storyline and I knew it would be worth the money it cost.
The story centers around Storm and Gambit and a mission they undertake into a secret Vampire lair in order to recover the body of Dracula.Little do they know is that everything is against them and not only are their mutant abilities going haywire, but there is no way they can get back-up from the other X-Men.The story goes on to have many interesting plot twists, and is action packed with exciting and gruesome battles where you get to see Storm in a form you never imagined.On top of it all, its One-Shot length is prefect and really goes from start to finish without a bump in the road.
On top of a great story, the art of Chris Bachalo (Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy) is spectacular in this issue.He really has a style that perfectly fits the dark and dreary atmosphere of Vampires.He also does a great job illustrating the fight scenes, even when there is an overwhelming amount going on in the panels, he never makes them hard to follow or allows them to be jumbled.His art is pure beauty.
Overall this was a great book, and the story really fit perfectly into its One-Shot packaging.I had never read anything by Chuck Kim, but his writing was great and I think that he allowed for great chemistry between Storm and Gambit that really made the issue pop.When it comes to One-Shots and mini-series, comic companies usually slack on whom they have writing and drawing the issues, but with this One-Shot they did the complete opposite and I was very glad to see that.If you are reading Victor Gischler’s X-Men series and any of the other Curse of the Mutants tie-ins then this issue is a must.Don’t miss out.
9 out of 10
*Originally Posted on the Chris' Comics Official Website
Adaptations of TV shows and movies are often hit or miss, but with the True Blood comic from IDW, it is very mixed. The writing is very close to the TV show, which is because the creator of True Blood, Alan Ball writes the book. Even though it is similar, it just feels foreign in the comic and it shows that some things aren’t meant to be in other forms of media.
As for the art, Messina does an alright job, making some characters look really good, almost identical to the show, while other characters look awful. The major flaw with the art is that it is not consistent at all. Many of the characters look completely different from panel to panel.
The story line that Ball is pursuing is sub-par compared to the ones that are used in the show, which makes me think that maybe these were the stories that were rejected from the network or something. Although the story isn’t great, it weirdly worked for this issue.
The story takes place after season two, which means that if someone who is foreign to the show tried to read the comic they would be horribly lost, which in my opinion can be negative to people who are interested in the series enough to try out the comic, but not to commit to buying HBO. It would also make it more appealing to fans if they gave a specific time period in which the story takes place, giving it more of a place in the timeline of the series.
Overall, the book wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The art wasn’t great, and the story line was mediocre, but it still had that True Blood feeling to it. It will be interesting as to how Ball will tie the comic into the main series, and to how the next few issues will be compared to this one. If you aren’t a hardcore fan, this book can be passed on, but for those people who are literally obsessed, this is a must read.
On X-Men day 2010, Marvel Comics released the much-anticipated X-Men series, the first X-men #1 in 20 years!The creative team behind the book is Victor Gischler (Deadpool Corps) and Paco Medina (Deadpool), using the storyline “Curse of the Mutants” as their first story arc.I have been excited for this issue to come out for quite some time now because I am a huge Victor Gischler fan.
One of the main concerns I had about this issue was the fact that it was coming out prior to the conclusion of X-Men Second Coming, fearing that the issue would release spoilers for the cross-over X-fans have been enjoying for the last few months.And to my surprise, there were no spoilers, no mention to Second Coming at all, and did well standing alone as a new X-book without any support of the many other X-titles.
The arc starts off focusing around a character that has been absent from the X-Men universe for some time, Jubilee; which is an exciting surprise to many X-Fans.After an incident involving a frightening character in a San Francisco park, the X-Men find themselves facing a new terrorist threat and what follows after said incident lays out an interesting premise for the next several issues of this series.
Without spoiling any more of the story, the main idea of this first arc stems out of Victor
Gischler’s one-shot “The Death of Dracula” and the X-Men discover that they have a Vampire problem on their hands.The one problem that I have is that I feel that Marvel released a little too much information about this new series, which kind of dulled down the surprises that occurred in this first issue.Also, I think that being able to read ‘The Death of Dracula” prior to this issue also spoiled a number of surprises and allowed me to kinda figure out all the secrets and twists that the book insinuates.
Overall, this was a great starting issue.It kept my interest the entire duration of the story, had great writing and great art, and met all the expectations I had, except for one.The one thing that I was very disappointed about was that, there were a ton of promo pin-ups that were released in many of Marvel’s issues the past few months that were awesome.I was hoping that they would be the variant covers for this first issue, but they were not.But aside from that, everything was great and I am eagerly awaiting the next issue.Welcome to the X-Universe X-Men.
