A New Era part Deux

Hey all! I'm back with another installment of my gigantic X-men review. Last time we barely scratched the surface with Astonishing and Uncanny, so today we will really be getting to it. Without further ado, which I do so well, here are some more:

X-Men: Two issues in and I just don't know. Mike Carey is one of my favorite writers (LUCIFER), and I always like Chris Bachalo's art. But it just hasn't grabbed me yet. Again, I like how they are using Cannonball, and using him well, he's not the newbie hick in this. But equally I don't like the recent inclusion of Sabretooth and Mystique. I'm not sure where the story is going as it seems to be tying up lots of lose ends from the previous story arcs. Which could be a good thing, close those off so you can move ahead with out the readers wondering "what ever happened to....", or some similar thoughts.

Exiles: The only X book currently out that I have read every issue as it came out. I really like the early Judd Winick stories, and the original idea was aces! The best part? All the characters are from alternate universes, so any one can be killed at any time! Tony Bedard has kept up the high quality of the book, but in doing so has killed my two favorite characters, Morph and Mimic. Now I know nobody is safe in this book, but dammit, along with Blink they are the core of this book. I would like to see Nocturnal back, the alternate universe daughter of Nightcrawler makes much more sense in a book filled with alternate reality characters. Not a lot to say really, one the consistently good books on the market. Be sure to pick up the early Winick trades if nothing else.

Cable / Deadpool: I like seeing Fabian write these two characters again, it's like Abbot and Costello for comics. Realizing that they don't get a lot of attention from the general comic reading populace they really try and build up the absurdity factor. Even when they are dealing with big cultural issues, the relationship between Cable and Deadpool, analogous to the kindly monk and the idiot student, makes for some of the funniest reading this side of Marvel Team-Up. Again, I do recommend picking up the first couple of trades, the fourth, Bosom Buddies, being my favorite.

X-Factor: The original Peter David X-Factor is one of my all time favorite comics. It was the first time I had read irreverent, funny, and insane super-heroes. Oh I know they were around before that, but I was locked into X comics and nothing else at the time. I like the stories and the art very much, but it seems the whole concept is based around X-Factor trying to find out what happened to all the mutants on M Day. What happens then? I am also a little worried that David seems to just recreating the team that he wrote in the original X-Factor. I heard they had to write Wolfsbane out of Academy X so that David could have her for this, which is a shame really. So, lots of potential in this book, but it just might be too hard to live up to. The first hardcover is coming out this Wednesday, and they have also started collecting David's original run under the Visionaries cap.


Whew! Okay, enough of that! Check back next time for the big finish!

-Dan