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Uncanny X-Men By Kieron Gillen, Volume 1 (2012)

by Kieron Gillen(Favorite Author)

3.43 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

Marvel

series

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2

review 1: I hope you are ready to read a lot about me along with this review, because that is what you are going to get. I was first exposed to the X-Men via the early 90's cartoon on Fox. I immediately fell in love with that show, and have been a huge fan of the team ever since. Or, at least, I thought I was. I've been thinking about this lately, and I realized that, while I've loved comics my whole life, I haven't actually read very many. I'll bet that since my introduction to the characters around 20 years ago, I've read maybe 100 issues. And that's only because I've read through two Essential Collections. When you are talking about a team that has been around for almost 50 years,100 issues is nothing. That isn't even a drop in the bucket. Recently I started using the Marvel Unli... moremited App, and at first I was overwhelmed with it. If you don't know what it is, it's a subscription based service that allows you to read digital versions of Marvel Comics. Only it isn't the comics from, say the last year or two, it's comics from nearly the companies entire publishing catalog. The regular on-goings, the mini-series, and the event based books. It really was like looking into the ocean and trying to see the whole thing at once. I was total lost.Now that I've gotten more use to having it, and have thought about it, I've settled into the idea of using it as a way to read book collections, rather than individual issues. So when I looked this book up online, and saw that it contained the first four issues, I read the issues all back to back, as if I had the book. I'm really hoping that this will help not feel like I'm trying to read comics in a quicksand pit, and it will allow me a chance to really get to know this characters I've "loved" for so long. Now to actually talk about this book. I wasn't sure where to start with the X-men. I suppose issue one from the 60's seems like a smart choice, and I do want to go back and read those early issues, but I also want to read what is going on now. It's a classic case of having your cake and eating it to. I want to know where the character's ended up, but I also want to know how they got there.I choose to read this book because it's the number one of a new on-going that takes place after an event. It's hard not to go back and see what happened, and I think I will be doing that anyway, but I had to start somewhere. The story is that Cyclops has started his own X-Men team, because he and Wolverine had a fight that divided the Xavier school. Now Cyclops' team is set up in Utopia, which I think was off the coast of San Francisco? (Oh man, I just read this and already I don't remember. Hope you're not counting on my review to be the tie-breaker for if you should read this or not!) He calls his team the Extinction team. It's a "big picture" team. It was surprising to see Magneto and Namor on the team. Is Namor a mutant? I guess he must be. And I know they have flirted with Magneto being on the X-Men's side before, but I guess he's a full on member now. I'd be interested to know how that happen. That was one of the weaker points of the book actually. Since it's a collection of the first four issues of a title, you would think they would do a better job of telling you who's who, and how they got there. It doesn't need to be a full on recap, but give me something!The story line is pretty basic. Mister Sinister has finally finished all the experiments he has done over the years, and the result's of his research is that he can now build the perfect city. One that is entirely made up of him and him alone. He takes over the bodies of everyone in town and turns them into hive-mind clones of himself. Of course the X-men show up to stop him, and you get three issues of them slugging it out. Somewhat of a let down actually. Some cool stuff does happen though. I liked how they tried to make Sinister's actions over the years have a real purpose, other than just making him a evil mutant scientist. And they way they keep Emma from using her telepathy was interesting. I also really dug the art. Very clear storytelling and strong coloring. This might not have been the best choice for starting me down my road of getting to know more about the X-Men. If I didn't already have an interest in the characters, and this was my first exposer to them, I don't think I'd want to continue reading about them.
review 2: It had potential, but it fell short. Interesting variables but it could have been much better. Mr Sinister seemed Joker-ish (sorry crossing DC genre) Art seemed basic. Perhaps if there was John Romita Jr type it would have filled it out more. There was Celestials and Cyclops getting media sun tzu-ish it had potential. Back story of Mr Sinister and Phalanx was saving for the graphic novel. Artwork worked. That's all. less

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