"New X-Men: New Worlds"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “New X-Men: New Worlds” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men are a team of mutant outreach workers who fight for the peaceful coexistence between the two species of both baseline human beings and those born with mutations that set them apart from normal human beings. Their base of operations is the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, located in Salem Center in New York’s Westchester County. There the X-Men teach young mutants both a regular education and how to use their gifts to protect themselves and benefit human and mutantkind. They were founded by Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X, and include Scott Summers/Cyclops, Jean Grey-Summers/Phoenix, Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast, James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, Emma Frost/White Queen, and Xorn.

            The presence of a “monster” from “Mutant Town” was sparking riots in New York City. Xorn, who grew up in China and had been jailed since his mutation emerged and had been considered a monster himself, went to Mutant Town to investigate. He found a woman and her son, the “monster,” a young mutant who was ten days away from reaching his genetic potential. After his mother died, the young mutant went on a rampage, and the cops stepped in, and during the confrontation, the young mutant was never able to transition to his true form.

            As part of his mutant outreach program, Charles Xavier opened the X-Corporation, a worldwide agency of X-Men teams. Professor X and Jean Grey-Summers went to visit one of the offices in Europe as part of Professor X’s lecture tour. This team consisted of Theresa Rourke/Siryn, Monet St. Croix/M, Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man, Julio Richter/Rictor, Sam Guthrie/Cannonball, and Leynia Petrovna/Darkstar. Jean informed the team of a gene-hazard involved in a trainwreck in the Channel Tunnel leaving one hundred and fifty-one people trapped in the wreckage. While the team was dispatched, Jean asked Professor X to talk to the Phoenix to learn if her new powers were a threat since the last time the X-Men dealt with the Phoenix, the force turned malevolent and caused destruction on a cosmic level. They were interrupted by the arrival of Fantomex, a European mutant criminal seeking sanctuary, and a military unit sent to apprehend him. He informed them the gene-hazard on the train was Weapon XII. Cyclops turned to Emma Frost for marriage counseling. Professor X and Jean helped Fantomex escape from the military and retreated to Fantomex’ home, where Fantomex tried to sell Professor X information on the Weapon Plus Program, the operation that created Weapon XII and gave the X-Men’s own Wolverine his adamantium skeleton and wiped Wolverine’s memories of his past, but Professor X refused to be bought. Fantomex had been on a quest to kill Weapon XII. He, Professor X, Jean, and the European X-Corporation team were able to end the threat of Weapon XII, but Darkstar did not survive. Afterwards, Jean allowed Fantomex to escape after learning Fantomex himself was actually Weapon XIII.

            Warren Worthington III/Archangel was teaching a flying lesson to several students at the Xavier Institute, including Barnell Bohusk/Beak and Angel Salvadore. Beak was unable to fly, and Angel offered him motivation by giving Beak a kiss. Although unable to fly, and although Angel had been put up to it, this caused Beak to develop feelings for Angel. Cyclops and Emma’s counseling sessions began to turn into more than just counseling.

            Professor X, Jean, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Ruth Bat-Seraph/Sabra, Neal Sharra/Thunderbird, and Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver went to the ruins of Genosha, the former mutant island homeland that had recently been destroyed by Cassanda Nova’s Sentinel attack. Unus, one of the refugees hiding out on Genosha, reported seeing ghosts and a green-haired woman, leading Professor X to believe Lorna Dane/Polaris, daughter of Erik Lensherr/Magneto, the President of Genosha, might be somewhere on the island. The group searched for Polaris and found she was going insane, causing magnetic fields, and replaying voice recordings of people’s last moments alive on the island before the destruction. Polaris was building a monument to her father and played the last words of Magneto as Professor X and Jean calmed Polaris down.

            Wolverine went to Afghanistan to find a newly discovered mutant named Sooraya Qadir. Professor X and Jean flew to Mumbai to meet up with them and the Mumbai office of X-Corporation. At the airport, Jean prevented Lilandra Nerimani, Professor X’s wife and Shi’ar Empress, from assassinating Professor X. Lilandra believed her husband to still be possessed by Cassandra Nova, who had recently corrupted the Shi’ar Imperium. Due to this, Imperial Sage Araki annulled Professor X and Lilandra’s marriage and cut all ties between the Shi’ar and the planet Earth.

            Mutant fashion designer Jumbo Carnation died in Mutant Town, apparently murdered by a group of human teenagers. Beast and Cyclops investigated the crime scene where Beast discovered a Kick inhaler, a drug that temporarily boosts a mutant’s powers. The Xavier Institute was getting ready for Open Day, where humans would be invited to tour the school grounds and interact with the mutant faculty and students. Promising student Quentin Quire learned he was adopted and began undergoing a secondary mutation, greatly impacting his sense of identity. He became extremely rebellious, began using Kick, and sporting a provocative new haircut and fashion statement. Xorn was assigned to teach the Special Class at the Xavier Institute, Angel, Basilisk, Beak, Martha Johansson, Ernst, and Dummy. He began by taking them on a walk in the woods around the Xavier Institute. Quentin assembled a gang of students, and they began dressing the same, using Kick, getting matching tattoos and attacking humans outside of Mutant Town. Xorn and the Special Class were attacked by the U-Men, a group of human fanatics who harvest mutant organs and then implant them into themselves in the hope of gaining mutant powers. They managed to win the fight. Cyclops and Emma’s relationship continued to intensify. Quentin and his gang knocked out Professor X the night before Open Day and used a helmet on him to inhibit his telepathic powers. They caused a riot at Xavier’s on Open Day, attacking the humans who had come to visit. The X-Men fought the gang Emma Frost’s prized students, the Stepford Cuckoos, joined the fight, using Kick to boost their telepathic powers, and stopped Quentin, but not all of them survived using the drug. Following the conclusion of the riot, the school year came close to wrapping up. Professor X announced he would be stepping down as headmaster of the Xavier Institute. On Prizegiving night, Angel revealed to Beak that she was pregnant and was afraid the two of them would be kicked out of the school. Jean discovered what her husband and Emma had been up to. She was not happy to say the least. Jean and Emma had a psychic argument, and Cyclops fled the Institute. Emma admitted to Wolverine that she had fallen in love with Cyclops. Beast came to check on Emma later, only to discover she had been shot while in her diamond form and shattered into millions of pieces. Professor X called in Lucas Bishop and Sage, mutant investigators, to try to solve the crime. Everyone in the school was a suspect. The outcome of the investigation led to the uncovering of an even deeper conspiracy going on within the Xavier Institute right under the X-Men’s noses.

            Okay, I feel that wraps up our overview of the synopsis. I tried to include as minimal spoilers as I could for this review as I don’t want to make it superfluous for you to read the book if I tell the entire story including the ending in this review, so I’m giving you a teasing reason to want to read this book so you can find out some of the bigger surprises, like who shot Emma. Anyway, you’re probably wondering now what I’m going to say next. I know some of you have read my reviews before, I’ve done over four dozen of them at this point, so there’s a good chance that some of you reading right now aren’t new to this blog. Anyway, at this point, I’m going to tell you my thoughts on this book. Okay, so I’ll start by saying I’ve been reading Marvel Comic Books regularly for almost twenty-five years now, and I read these issues when they first came out back in 2002-2003. Let me say, Grant Morrison’s run on “New X-Men” is actually up there as one of my all-time favorites. So last year, when the first volume of “New X-Men” as a Modern Era Epic Collection was announced, of course I was thrilled. Unfortunately, I had to wait a full year for volume two, and I have a feeling Marvel intends to do another full year wait for volume three, which is a pain because this book does leave the reader hanging, not everything is resolved at the end, there’s still the conspiracy that isn’t solved, Cyclops has fled, there are a few other loose ends, so a year long wait will be torture to get the conclusion of Morrison’s run on the series, and I remember thinking back then that waiting a month for the next issue was torture every time I finished. But hey, there are plenty more Modern Era Epic Collections coming out between that time, so at least I’ll have other series to read. Anyway, I thought Morrison was a brilliant writer. That first story about the “monster” in Mutant Town was just devastating, my heart broke while reading that issue. The X-Corporation story was great, too. I loved the scene where Professor X met with Phoenix. Fantomex is a character I have always enjoyed. I loved the X-Men team Morrison put together that looking back was basically the team Peter David took and used for his “X-Factor” series a few years later, which is another one of my all-time favorite comic book runs, and with David’s passing, I hope Marvel decides to use his run on the series as a Modern Era Epic Collection series, I would totally love that. I liked how Morrison decided that when Wolverine was called “Weapon X” he was actually Weapon Ten, and that there were more Weapons in the Weapon Plus program, I loved that whole development and it led to a lot of great stories in the time after that. I loved the story with Polaris, especially how she replayed Magneto’s last words, I thought they were immensely powerful. I loved how Morrison shipped Cyclops and Emma Frost, I actually liked them together better than I did Cyclops and Jean Grey. The confrontation scene between Jean and Emma was fantastic, in my opinion, by the way, the way Jean totally tore Emma apart, and I loved Emma’s reveal that she had plastic surgery to make herself pretty. I loved Xorn’s Special Class of misfits, Dummy was funny, but I honestly don’t feel like it’s appropriate to discuss him on this blog, you’ll have to read the book if you want to find out about him. I loved the “No-Girl” jokes, especially since eventually she actually really did exist. Quentin Quire has always been a character I’ve enjoyed over the years, he’s gone on to have some really great storylines and has been a very entertaining character and Morrison did an excellent job creating him the way he did. I always loved the Stepford Cuckoos, they’ve also had great stories throughout the past two decades. I loved the story of Emma Frost’s demise, that really kept me going for months when it first came out, I remember waiting for so long for the truth to finally come out, and when it did, I was blown away, but the big reveal doesn’t actually happen in this book, so if you’ve never read it before and you read this book right around the time of me writing this review, you’re going to have a long wait to find out. I loved Angel and Beak’s storyline, their bizarre relationship was entertaining, especially at the end of this book. Beast had an unusual storyline that I don’t feel is appropriate to discuss, but it made for a few good laughs. There was so much I loved about this book. But there is a major problem with this book for me, that being the artists. This book had six artists, and I did not like a single one of them. This book for me was a visual disaster. I wanted to love this, the story was so good but looking at this was just absolutely awful. This just ruined the book for me. Also, I caught a mistake in #135 with the art. In the teachers’ meeting scene on one page, Jean Grey-Summers is sitting in a chair wearing a skirt with bare legs, and on the next page, she is wearing pants. This is one of those minor details that they probably later thought no one would notice, but it did not escape me. Also, Emma’s outfit changed many times over the course of this book, none of them honestly being appropriate to wear in a school for teenagers. Some of the artists also did a terrible job drawing Beak, one in particular made him look even more unnatural than he already should. If this book had different artists, this book could have potentially been more appealing. But as far as Morrison’s work went, the book was great, I loved that, but the art just ruined something great.

            Anyway, I’ve gone on for quite a while, let’s move on to some other topics. Next up on our agenda is the accessibility segment. I’ve said this over four dozen times now, but I have to say it once again because I know some of you are newbies to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin and have no idea what I mean by this. Anyway, accessibility simply means if a reader who knows nothing about X-Men can pick up this book and comprehend all the details they are reading. So, this is Vol. 2, and I will tell you that if you haven’t read Vol. 1 “E is for Extinction” you will be very lost. This is a direct continuation from there, picking up on many threads from the previous volume, so not reading that is very harmful to accessibility. I will tell you if you haven’t read “E is for Extinction,” don’t even try to read this book. However, if you have read the previous volume, this book is fine to read, this has no direct ties to any other series or events from the time and is completely self-contained, so continuing from there is no problem at all, and Vol. 1 is highly accessible, it’s where I started reading twenty-five years ago, so feel free to follow in my footsteps. If you want to start reading Marvel Comics or X-Men after reading this review, start with “New X-Men: E is for Extinction” then move on to “New Worlds,” it’s a good jump on point.

            This has been pretty lengthy at this point, so I’m going to move on to our next segment, which is my numeric score. Now, everything that goes with a numeric score has a specific scale. My system is extremely simple. I score on exact numbers between one to ten. One is the worst score I give and means this book is completely unreadable and I hated every second I spend consuming it. Ten is a score of perfection and is not a score I give very often. My roommate often says “Tim, why don’t you give books a ten?” and I reply “I can’t give out a score of a ten to a book with flaws, it has to be perfect to get a ten,” to which he replies “but there’s no such thing as perfection,” to which I say “that’s why I don’t give out many tens.” To get a ten, a book has to have a story that I find no problems with, and the art has to be consistently visually pleasing. As far as the story goes with this book, I would really love to give this book a nine. I don’t quite feel the story was complete perfection, but it was absolutely amazing. But we have the art, which was consistently displeasing, so for that, I have to deduct points. And unfortunately, in this case, that really hurts this book. I found very few panels in this book that I actually enjoyed artistically looking at, even though I loved reading the story. So, I’m just going to move on to giving this book a score since I’ve been rambling on for a while now and you’re probably getting tired of me. So, taking everything into account, the fantastic story but the horrible art, we put it all together and I throw out to you… a six. I really wanted to like this book, and for the most part, I enjoyed reading the story, but the art was just so horrendous that reading this was slightly unpleasant.

            Next, we’re moving on the my recommendation section. In this segment, I tell you, my reader, if I personally recommend this book to you, and if I do or don’t, who I think should be reading this. So, as far as if this book gets the Tim Cubbin personal recommendation, that is a resounding yes. Story wise, this book is fantastic and a delightful read, if you can get past the art. If you are a fan of X-Men, I totally recommend reading the “New X-Men” Modern Era Epic Collections. I feel like Morrison did a fantastic job and any X-Men fan should read this amazing run. If you’re a fan of Grant Morrison, definitely read this, his work on this series was stellar. I’ve never read anything else by Grant Morrison personally, so I can’t speak for him as an author, but I feel like if you’ve read his work on anything else before and enjoyed it, you should definitely read “New X-Men,” I feel like it’s a fantastic series and deserves a read. If you’re a Marvel Comics reader, I think this should definitely be on your queue of things to read.

            Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time, this has certainly taken up a lot of my time, so how about we all move on with our lives in just a wee bit. First, I do have a few more things of note before I sign off. Okay, I’ve been doing this blog for five years at this point, and as I’ve said, I’ve done over four dozen other book reviews just like this one, so if you enjoyed reading this, check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more book reviews. I’ve posted on this site over 160 times, I’m sure you’ll find something else you’ll like. I’ve done a review of “New X-Men: E is for Extinction” so if you liked this review, please check that one out if you haven’t already. I will tell you I post of a very frequent basis, Marvel puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection a month, and I buy every single one of them and try to throw up a review as soon as I possibly can. I have a few I haven’t reviewed yet, I might remedy that someday, I’m not totally sure. One book I didn’t review since I spent too much time after reading it before attempting to write a review, it centered around multiple Marvel events which I never read so I didn’t fully understand it, and the details just left my mind before I could review it, but if another volume of that series comes out, you can expect that review to come out. There are a couple of other series that might not get other volumes and I didn’t have this laptop at the time I read them, so I couldn’t write reviews at those exact moments, so I’m not sure if those will get reviews, but who knows, I might decide to go back and fix that. I also collect Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections, and I review those. So, every month, there’s probably going to be something to read. I’m expecting another delivery today, but it’s running late, so I’m not sure when I’ll be getting it, but you can expect to see a review of that one sometime in the next three weeks. If you’re into other styles of reading, I’ve also written a few short stories and poems, plus I’ve done editorials, essays, and articles, so you can check those out as well, if you’re so inclined and have some time to kill and want to continue hanging out with me. If you think this review seems pretty professional, I have a degree in journalism, but due to cruddy life circumstances, I can’t get a job in the field and am relegated to working as an Instacart shopper at a local grocery store instead of getting paid for blogging as was my dream job, but you have to go with what life gives you, so I do these reviews for free to feel like I’m somehow using my degree. I will continue to post for as long as I can, so that’s likely to be a long time coming. So, expect me to keep coming back and I hope you become a fan of me and keep coming back too. So, I’ll say goodbye for now, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            In response to the anti-human terrorist attacks committed by the mutant terrorist Erik Lensherr/Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants on New York and Washington, the United States government launched the Sentinel Initiative, giant robots to hunt and kill anyone possessing the mutant gene. Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X gathered a group of young mutants to counter Magneto and prevent him from starting a war that could lead to the extinction of both mutants and regular humans: Scott Summers/Cyclops, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Henry McCoy/Beast, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, and Robert Drake/Iceman. At the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children, Professor X gave these young mutants a safe haven, an education, and the training to use their powers to benefit mankind. Magneto and Professor X had once been the best of friends but had had a bitter falling out, leading Magneto to believing Professor X dead. After seeing the young mutants called the X-Men in action on the news, Magneto came to the conclusion that his old friend was behind the scenes and called in Logan/Wolverine to find Xavier, infiltrate his camp, and end this potential opposition to Magneto’s plans. Magneto tipped off the government organization Weapon X of Wolverine’s location. Weapon X was a program that had abducted Wolverine, erased his memories, given him an adamantium skeleton, and used him as a killing machine, an organization that only Wolverine had ever managed to escape from. Weapon X recaptured Wolverine. Professor X discovered Wolverine using his Cerebro machine, a device that amplified his telepathic powers and allowed him to locate other mutants and sent the X-Men to rescue him. The X-Men were successful in their mission, and Wolverine returned to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children along with the X-Men, but he made the youngsters uneasy. Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants, made up of his children Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, along with Blob, Toad, and Mastermind, kidnapped the daughter of the President of the United States of America and brought her to Croatia. The X-Men went on a rescue mission, and while they were able to successfully rescue the President’s daughter, the Brotherhood escaped, and Beast was gravely wounded. Professor X and Marvel Girl performed experimental surgery on Beast to save his life, but this procedure turned his hair blue. Much to Cyclops’ dismay, Wolverine and Marvel Girl began a romance. Cyclops had romantic feelings for Marvel Girl but never actually acted upon them. Feeling neglected by his crush, scared for Beast’s near death, and anger for Professor X’s willingness to put the X-Men at such great risk just to save one human, Cyclops left the X-Men and went to the Savage Land, Magneto’s mutant paradise hidden in a tropical jungle in Antarctica. Cyclops began going on missions with the Brotherhood but refused to cross the mortality line. Meanwhile, the X-Men got an invite to the White House to discuss the suspension of the Sentinel Initiative. The talk was successful, but the Sentinels would be sent on one final mission: to eliminate Magneto’s camp in the Savage Land, which the United States government had been able to locate by tracking the X-Men’s Blackbird Jet landing when Cyclops abandoned the X-Men. After the decimation of the Savage Land, Magneto reprogrammed the Sentinels to hunt and kill anyone without the mutant gene and led them on an assault on Washington, D.C. The X-Men had to fight the Sentinels while Professor X and Wolverine fought Magneto to prevent his war from threatening the extinction of both humans and mutants. Following the fight with Magneto, the X-Men had an encounter with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch as they tried to make their escape from Washington, D.C.

            Following their battle with Magneto, Professor X attempted to help Wolverine find Weapon X, but every location they were able to find was abandoned. Meanwhile, the X-Men gained popularity the world over. While on a press tour in Japan, a Weapon X asset called Rogue was able to obtain the X-Men’s location for the organization. Weapon X assets attacked the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children and abducted Professor X and the X-Men. Nick Fury, a high-ranking Agent of the government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. went of a mission to India to uncover an illegal genetic experimentation facility but was captured during his mission. While in Weapon X captivity, the X-Men were trained and experimented on, causing Beast to become completely blue and furry. The X-Men also formed a bond with Weapon X asset Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, a teleporting mutant. The X-Men were split up into two teams, one to rescue Nick Fury, one to finish the mission Nick Fury had started. Weapon X forced Marvel Girl the kill the head scientist behind the illegal genetic experiment to spare Cyclops’ life. Wolverine allowed himself to be captured by Weapon X, but he had been implanted with a tracking device that he had arranged with the Brotherhood so they could find the location of Weapon X and come to the X-Men’s rescue. The United States government was planning to shut down Weapon X, but Colonel Wraith did every underhanded trick he could to ensure this did not happen, including trying to use Professor X’s telepathic abilities to the gain of Weapon X and eliminating high ranking members of the United States government. The Brotherhood arrived at Weapon X, and the Brotherhood, the X-Men, and the Weapon X mutants fought back to escape their captors and end the corrupt agency’s activities towards abusing mutants once and for all.

            Okay, so now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s get to the personal Tim Cubbin part of a Tim Cubbin review. The first thing I always do is tell you, my readers, my thoughts on the book. These thoughts on graphic novels pertain to my enjoyment of both the stories contained within the pages of the book and the artwork. This can often be a very mixed bag. Sometimes a graphic novel will have a wonderful story but have terrible art, as some of my regular readers may know, and I am very fussy about art. But we’re not going to start on the art, of course, we’re going to start on the stories. So, I will say that I found these stories highly enjoyable. These actually go back to 2001-2002 when I first started reading Marvel Comics regularly and this was actually one of my entry points into X-Men, so this series has some very treasured memories. I am rather partial to the series. It was perfect for me back then because this was a brand-new universe where all of Marvel history had been discarded, and this was a fresh start, and I didn’t know all the history of the X-Men comics. I really had only been watching “X-Men: Evolution” and the first “X-Men” film, not even the original cartoon at this point, so my X-Men knowledge was very limited, so a new origin series was great for me to jump on with and opened the door for more of my foray into the mainstream X-Men comics. I was also comfortable getting into this at the time because the writer, Mark Millar, made the decision to set the main cast as teenagers, close to my actual age at the time, so I found I could relate to the characters better, more so than to the mainstream X-Men, who were mainly aged as adults. I liked the choices of the cast of characters, as well, I thought both the teams of the X-Men and the Brotherhood were extremely well-rounded and complimented each other perfectly. I also enjoyed how they chose other well-known characters but made them assets of Weapon X instead of placing them on either team, I found that to be quite interesting, including Rogue, Nightcrawler, Sabretooth and Juggernaut. And I liked Mark Millar’s decision to make Nick Fury African American, I thought that was an interesting choice back then, and it was a decision that carried through into the future of much Marvel lore, including film and animation, and as all Marvel Cinematic Universe fans know, this decision eventually led to the casting of the great Samuel L. Jackson as the role of Nick Fury in the MCU. I will say that I disliked the actual shipping of Marvel Girl and Wolverine happening, which was always played on in several of the other X-Men multiverses, I thought it was wrong of Millar to do, especially considering the massive age gap of Wolverine being a full-on adult and Marvel Girl being nineteen. I did, however, enjoy the shipping of Beast and Storm, I thought that was actually a good pairing in this universe. I also liked Millar’s decision to give the Scarlet Witch a crush on Cyclops, even though it never actually went anywhere. I did find his writing of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s relationship to be a little creepy, however, their brother/sister relationship can practically come to relate to a comparison to Jaime/Cersei in “A Song of Ice and Fire,” which is something that I never could get behind. Granted in this book it was just hinted at, and I am getting a little ahead of myself here and should be containing myself just to this book in particular as this is what I am reviewing, and I am sorry, but I cannot help myself, so I’m going to shift back to this Volume in particular. I also loved Millar’s decision for Wolverine’s conversion, having him going from working for Magneto, then going to infiltrate the X-Men for the purpose of eliminating Charles Xavier, then going on to actually believing in Professor X’s dream, ultimately leading him to turn on Magneto in the fight in Washington, D.C. And I also loved the artwork provided by Adam Kubert, I thought their work was brilliant, and it was consistently pleasing to view while going through the story. I will say I disliked the decision to give Jean Grey short hair, it made her look like something I’m not going to say in this blog, but I thought the design was awful. However, I honestly have no further complaints about the artwork. All-in-all, I will say that I was highly satisfied with this graphic novel. I will also say that it has been many years since I last read this, so rediscovering these stories was a true delight and I’m pleased with Marvel’s decision to make Ultimate Epic Collections and will continue to purchase and review them if and when Marvel feels like releasing them. At the moment, there are no further plans for second volumes of any series in the Ultimate Epic Collection line, but hopefully that changes soon because this was a period I highly enjoyed and would love revisiting this age of Marvel Comics.

            Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Now, I know all my regular readers know this by now, I know I have a few fans who love reading my work, but I also know that some of you have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and need me to explain the word as I use it. Simply put, “accessibility” means how easy it is for a person to pick up and read this book and completely understand what they are reading, no matter how much previous knowledge they have on the subject matter. Basically, what I’m saying is, can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Marvel Comics or X-Men in particular buy this book, read it, and fully comprehend the entire story as it is written. I will say that this book is completely accessible to any reader. If you are a person who had heard of the X-Men or are looking into getting into X-Men comics and don’t know where to start, this book is absolute perfection for this purpose. I will say any reader can just pick up this book, having no prior knowledge about Marvel and be able to understand the story as it is written. This was the launch of a brand-new universe with all-new history where there was no backstory, and this was a full-on origin story, so if you’re looking for a place to start reading Marvel with an interest in the X-Men in particular, this book is a perfect jump-on point and accessible to any new reader.

            Next up, we’re going to get to the most important part (in my opinion) of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. My scoring system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give, and it means that this book should be avoided at all costs. Ten is the best score, and that means that it should be bought by anyone who has the money to afford this book because it is one of the best things I have ever read. Now, it takes a lot to get a ten from me. That has to be sheer perfection, and I very rarely feel that that is possible, so basically when I review anything, it starts sitting at a score of a nine with very little possibility of going higher and a most like possibility to go lower, and even giving a book a nine is something that I very rarely do. That said, this book was extremely good, well-written and well-illustrated, but I still did have my gripes. Automatically, this book wasn’t getting a ten, and with my complaints, I do have to deduct from the score. Again, though, these gripes don’t seriously harm my opinion of this graphic novel. So, taking everything into account, the well-written story and the illustrations that I thought were sheerly brilliant, throwing them all in my figurative blender, then turning it on to the highest setting and leaving it on until everything is fully blended, then pouring out this score into my figurative cup, we are looking at… an eight! I just don’t feel like I can give a score higher than that, but at the same time, I feel no reason to give it anything lower, so an eight is, in my opinion, the perfect score I can give.

            Next up, we’re going to go to my recommendation section. This comes with two components. The first is: do I actually personally recommend this book to you? The second is: regardless of the fact that I like it or not, for whom do I think this book is best? To the first matter, as you can probably guess, the answer is yes, I recommend this book personally. As to the second, like I mentioned previously, if you are looking into getting into Marvel or X-Men and don’t know where to start, I’m telling you that you should get your hands on this book, it is the perfect place to start. And if you are an X-Men fan from just the movies or cartoons or video games and are interested in starting to read comics, again, read this book as soon as you can, particularly if you liked games like the “X-Men Legends” or “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” series, these are a great compliment to those. If you’re already a fan of X-Men and have never read this series or the first twelve issues of the original “Ultimate X-Men” series, I highly recommend this book to you. And finally, even if you’ve already read it, if you liked it, I recommend you read the series in this format, I found it to be highly enjoyable reading it in this presentation, especially with the bonus features included at the end, especially Millar’s original pitch for the series. In general, I’d just recommend this to anyone who reads Marvel Comics with a particular interest in X-Men.

            Well, we’re finally at the point where we’re going to wrap things up because I’ve been going on for quite some time now and we all need to get on with our lives. I will start by saying that this blog site has over 150 posts, with over three dozen of them being of reviews just like this one, so if you enjoyed this post, check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. Particularly check out “Ultimate Spider-Man: Learning Curve,” that is my best companion piece at the moment. I’ve also written other things, like short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s still plenty more other kinds of things you can read on this website if you want to see more of my work. I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, so if these posts seem highly professional, that’s why, and while they are written in a professional style, I don’t actually currently write these posts professionally, but I have been considering rectifying that. Right now, I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my life, I’m getting things together, I work in a grocery store, but writing is my passion and I hope I’ll actually be able to use my degree for something someday. I post on this blog very frequently; I currently collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection as they are released and review them as soon as I possibly can. I do have a few in my collection I have not reviewed due to conditions such as not having a device to blog with or in one case because I spent too much time between reading a graphic novel I had difficulty comprehending and actually sitting down to draft a review that I just couldn’t actually get a coherent review due to lack of understanding and memory loss because of the time passed between those periods, but someday that might be rectified. You can probably expect another review coming up within the next three weeks as there is another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in less than a week from the point of me drafting this post, so I need to purchase it, read it, then find a free day to draft a review, but it should come up within the specified time period. Keep checking back regularly, there’s always going to be more content unless I suddenly drop dead, which is not likely to happen anytime soon, so expect more to keep coming. If you made it all the way to this point of my review, you are THE BEST and I really appreciate you taking the time to read this as I worked really long and hard on this particular post, and I hope you come back for more. So, all I have to say until next time is, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men had been going through some highs and lows. Emma Frost/White Queen had been secretly meeting with the Hellfire Club (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Perfection) while serving as co-leader of the X-Men and headmistress of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. The X-Men’s training gym, the Danger Room, had recently broken its programming and become the Artificial Intelligent being Danger. Peter Rasputin/Colossus, who had been thought dead, had been discovered alive and rejoined the team and began to rekindle his romantic relationship with fellow teammate Kitty Pryde. The organization S.W.O.R.D. had been revealed and taken the alien Ord, who had been a nemesis to the X-Men, into their custody. Emma Frost had fallen in love with co-leader of the X-Men and headmaster of the Xavier Institute Scott Summers/Cyclops. Emma began to act erratically and psychically broke Scott down, causing him to lose his connection with his optic blasts, his constant curse which he had no control over. Meanwhile, S.W.O.R.D. discovered the identity of the mutant who was prophesied to destroy Ord’s homeworld, the Breakworld, the reason he had come to Earth in the first place: Colossus. Cassandra Nova used her psychic powers on both Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast, causing him to lose touch with his humanity and truly become a beast, and James “Logan” Howlett /Wolverine, causing him to revert to childlike mentality. Sebastian Shaw tricked Colossus into attacking him so that Shaw could take Colossus down. Negasonic Teenage Warhead caused Kitty to lose control of her phasing powers. Just like that, the X-Men were all taken out of the picture. Meanwhile, Danger broke Ord out of S.W.O.R.D. custody. Kitty managed to regain control of her powers and returned to the Institute. The Hellfire Club tried to break into a locked box in the Xavier Institute but found themselves unable to, needing Kitty to break into it for them. Kitty confronted Emma, and was psychically manipulated into breaking into the box, which contained Cassandra Nova’s consciousness, which she planned on implanting into Kitty’s body. Ord and Danger returned to Earth and arrived at the Xavier Institute, where they fought student Hisako Ichiki. The X-Men all managed to regroup and learned the truth about the Hellfire Club’s assault on them. They were then attacked by Ord and Danger, but then the X-Men, Ord, Danger, and Hisako were all teleported onto the S.W.O.R.D. spaceship.

            S.W.O.R.D. was heading for the Breakworld, which had a weapon pointed at Earth. The Breakworld armada intercepted S.W.O.R.D. and shot them out of space. Abigail Brand (Director of S.W.O.R.D., Cyclops, Beast, and Emma Frost landed in one location, Kitty Pryde and Colossus in another, and Wolverine and Hisako (now called Armor) in yet another and the other S.W.O.R.D. agents also in another. Brand, Cyclops, Beast, Emma, Wolverine and Armor were able to reunite, while Kitty and Colossus were found by Aghanne, a Breakworld Auger, who believed the prophesy of Colossus destroying the Breakworld may have been misinterpreted and wished for it to occur. Brand and Beast went looking for a way to stop the weapon, Wolverine and Armor went to look for Kitty and Colossus, and Cyclops and Emma went out to look for the other S.W.O.R.D. agents. Cyclops and Emma were shot down by Danger, but Emma managed to break Danger’s programming and make Danger subservient. The X-Men and Brand were able to reunite, but to cover their escape, Cyclops had to be captured by Powerlord Kruun, ruler of the Breakworld. Wolverine and Armor were also defeated and captured. Brand and Beast were able to decipher how the Breakworld could be destroyed. Colossus and Kitty found Aghanne. During torture, Cyclops’ powers returned, and he was able to free himself, Wolverine and Armor. Once all united, the X-Men had to decide just how far they were willing to go to stop the threat the Breakworld posed to Earth and stop the Breakworld weapon from destroying Earth.

            Okay, we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, now it’s time for my personal opinion on this book. I apologize if my synopsis doesn’t seem quite thorough, I tried to avoid spoilers and not give points in the story that seemed too irrelevant. Anyway, I will say that I thoroughly loved this book. I know that Joss Whedon caused problems with Disney/Marvel when he did the movies, but his work on the comics was undeniably brilliant. His run on “Astonishing X-Men (2004)” is actually one of my all-time favorite comic book runs, along with Grant Morrison’s run on “New X-Men (2001),” Joe Casey’s run on “Uncanny X-Men (1963),” Peter David’s run on “X-Factor (2005)” and Brian Michael Bendis’ run on “Ultimate Spider-Man (2000).” His stories just absolutely blew me away. Emma Frost is a character I have always loved, whether she’s a villain or a hero, so seeing her doing both roles in one book was just fantastic. I loved the whole reasoning behind her schism, but I just can’t go into it here without giving you spoilers, and it really stinks that I can’t, because I really do want to. But the truth behind the Hellfire Club’s attack and the identity of Perfection were just such surprises I didn’t see coming, and I honestly think that Whedon did a fantastic job with that. And I loved the irony of the Breakworld prophesy; Ord came to Earth to prevent a mutant from destroying his planet and inadvertently saved the life of the mutant who was predestined to destroy his planet. I just thought that was dramatic irony to the highest extent. There was one moment I thought was hysterical where Brand asked Colossus if he was as mystified as everyone else that he was destined to destroy the Breakworld and he replied “No. I’m not. I have been planning to destroy the Breakworld since I was a child.” And everyone looked at him, and he shrugged and said “This is why I don’t make so many jokes. I never know when is good.” I laughed out loud at that part. There were also a few other funny moments, but they’re not appropriate for my all-ages blog, so I can’t talk about them, but some of them really made me laugh. And there was a moment that I didn’t talk about in the synopsis that I would like to bring up because I thought it was so well-written; at one point, the X-Men talked about their secret weapon “Leviathan.” This was actually just a ploy to trick Powerlord Kruun’s spies to spare Cyclops’ life during torture and interrogation. I know that plot devices like this have been used before, but I thought Whedon did this so perfectly. The scene where Emma broke Cyclops by using Jean Grey/Phoenix and preying on his insecurities was so brilliantly done as well. And I enjoyed the scenes between feral Beast and childish James Howlett, I thought they were hysterical, especially the ways they were able to revert back to their normal selves, but I don’t want to give the details, I’ll leave that up to you to find out if you decide to read this book. And next, let’s talk about the art. John Cassaday (R.I.P.) was a brilliant artist. I loved his work, and it is such a shame he passed at such a young age. I just thought his artwork in this book was exceptional, top class comic book art. I just thought this was an all-around amazing book.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve said this over thirty times by now, but I know I have to say it again for you new readers to my blog because I know some of you have never read a Tim Cubbin review before. When I use the word “accessibility,” what I mean is, can you read this book and understand it, even if you know nothing about X-Men or Marvel Comics prior to picking up this graphic novel? This book is a direct continuation of two previous story arcs, and I do feel it is imperative to read those stories prior to reading this graphic novel if you truly hope to fully understand the content of this graphic novel. Now, as far as the question of can you read this book, which is marketed as Vol. 2 without reading Vol. 1? I would definitely not recommend that course of action since so much of what happened in Vol.1 is continued in Vol. 2 and missing Vol. 1 is a lot of content missed, and it will be extremely hard to follow. Now, I won’t say it’s impossible, but I would not recommend that. That said, there are no crossovers, events, or other series contained in this book, so if you have read the previous two story arcs before this book, then you will have no problem with reading this book at all.

            Okay, I’ve prattled on for a while, I think it’s time we went on to the main reason why we’re here: my numeric score. I mean, let’s face it, you read a book review, you want to know how good a book is. So, my scoring system is extremely basic: one to ten. One means that this book is absolute trash and should never be read. Ten means that this book is sheer perfection and should be read by everyone. I think that you’re probably figuring that this is going to get a really good score. Now, I’m not in the business of giving out tens very often, a book has to be absolutely perfect to get a ten. But the question is, was this a perfect book? Well, let’s throw in everything into a big old blender, the amazing story, the exceptional art, turn it on, and pour out a score, then look into the cup and it’s… a nine! I’m sorry, but there’s just something holding me back from giving this book a perfect score. It was an excellent book, but I just don’t quite believe it to be perfection.

            Finally, I’m going to tell you if this book gets my personal recommendation, and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book? So, of course, this book gets my personal recommendation. As for to whom I recommend this book to, I’d recommend it to any X-Men comics fan from any point after 2004. If you’re a fan of X-Men from other media like the Fox “X-Men” movies of animated series like “X-Men ’97,” I would recommend reading “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” Modern Era Epic Collection first, then reading this book and I think you will find this book highly enjoyable.

            Okay, so we’re at the point where we’re going to wrap things up. I do have just a few more things to say before I go, though. First, this blog has over 150 posts, including “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” in both prose and graphic novel formats, so feel free to check those out if you found this post interesting. Second, I do a lot of reviews and have literally done dozens of them and have another one which should be upcoming in the next three weeks. Third, I have also written short stories, poetry, editorials, essays, and articles, so there’s more than just book reviews on this blog, so there’s plenty more to like. Fourth, I post very frequently, so you can always expect plenty more content, and I buy every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection when I can and review them when I can, so you can expect plenty of reviews of those upcoming. Well, I guess I’ve said all that really needs to be said at the moment, I honestly can’t think of much more. If you’ve read up to this point, you are THE BEST, and I really appreciate your support. Feel free to like, comment, retweet, do whatever you can on the site you’re on, that would be great. And so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"New X-Men: E is for Extinction"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “New X-Men: E is for Extinction” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men were born with genetic mutations that give them powers and abilities that normal humans do not and fight for peaceful coexistence between the two species.

            Charles Xavier/Professor X is the founder of the X-Men. He was crippled and confined to a wheelchair. He is one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet.

            Scott Summers/Cyclops is the field leader of the X-Men. He possesses optic blasts that are uncontrollable and can only be contained by glasses or a visor made of ruby quartz.

            Jean Grey-Summers/Phoenix is Cyclops’ wife. She is a powerful telepath and telekinetic and may be possessed by a cosmic entity.

            Emma Frost/White Queen is a reformed villain turned hero. She is also a telepath.

            Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast is a brilliant scientist. His mutation has given him a leonine form, and he possesses enhanced speed, strength, agility, and heightened senses.

            James Howlett, A.K.A. Logan/Wolverine had his skeleton bonded with the nigh unbreakable metal adamantium. He possesses a healing factor that heals almost any wound and has heightened senses. His memories were wiped, and he does not remember his past.

            The X-Men are based at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, located in Salem Center, New York.

            Evolutionary biologist Cassandra Nova brought dentist Donald Trask to Ecuador, where an abandoned Sentinel Master Mold was located. Donald’s uncle Bolivar created the Sentinels to exterminate mutants, but the program was shut down. Beast upgraded the X-Men’s mutant detection device, Cerebra. While running a test, Beast noticed a spike in Ecuador, and Professor X sent Cyclops and Wolverine to investigate. While using Cerebra, Professor X encountered another telepathic presence. Cyclops and Wolverine were attacked by Wild Sentinels which had been built from spare parts. They were defeated and abducted by Cassandra Nova, who disposed of Trask and took control of the Sentinels. Cyclops and Wolverine were able to escape, defeat, and capture Cassandra Nova, but were unable to prevent her from launching a Sentinel attack on the mutant nation of Genosha, ending the lives of sixteen million mutants. Emma Frost was situated in Genosha, but survived due to a newly emerged secondary mutation that granted her diamond hard skin, but in this form, her telepathy was negated. The X-Men returned to the Xavier Institute, where Cassandra Nova escaped confinement and breached Cerebra. The X-Men were again able to defeat her, but not before she was able to access the device. Professor X, believed to simply be a mutant sympathizer, went on television for an interview and announced that he himself was a mutant.

            Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine and Emma Frost went on a mission to China to assist the newly formed X-Corporation’s Domino in her investigation of author and activist John Sublime and his U-Man army. The U-Men were baseline humans who grafted parts and organs from mutants to obtain their powers. They discovered a mutant healer named Xorn, who had a prison built around him. Xorn had developed a black hole in his brain and needed a helmet to contain it. They were able to free him, Cyclops was able to communicate with him and offered him a position with the X-Men, which Xorn accepted.

            The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning opened as a school for young mutants to receive an education and learn the proper use of their powers. The Xavier Institute was picketed by anti-mutant protestors. One young mutant, Barnell Bohusk/Beak, formed a bond with Beast. Professor X decided to take a leave of absence from the X-Men and travel to space with his wife Lilandra, Empress of the Shi’ar Imperium, and left Jean Grey in charge of the Xavier Institute. Before he left, Beast confronted Professor X to ask why his DNA showed an almost exact match with that of Cassandra Nova’s. Cassandra Nova then revealed that she had swapped bodies with Professor X and had Beak attack Beast into a coma. Cassandra Nova then went into space in Professor X’s body.

            The influence of the U-Men army continued to spread. They targeted the newly emerged mutant Angel Salvadore. Wolverine was sent to rescue her. Cyclops and Emma Frost went to interrogate John Sublime but were defeated and captured. The U-Men staged an assault on the Xavier Institute. Jean Grey manifested the powers of the Phoenix and was able to fight off the invasion, and Emma Frost was able to end the threat of John Sublime. Beast emerged from his coma and revealed that Professor X and Cassandra Nova had swapped bodies.

            Jean Grey and Emma Frost psychically reawakened Professor X’s consciousness in Cassandra Nova’s dying body and discovered that they were twins.

            Cassandra Nova used Professor X’s telepathic powers to influence Lilandra to launch an assault on earth’s mutant population. The staff at the Xavier Institute were suffering from the flu. Cyclops turned to Xorn for his assistance, hoping for a way to heal the X-Men’s dying leader. Jean Grey decided that the way to end the harassment at the gates of the Xavier Institute was to invite the press and show that the X-Men had nothing to hide. The Shi’ar captured Cyclops and Xorn, and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard launched an assault on the Xavier Institute, hoping to give Cassandra Nova access to Cerebra so she could shut down the minds of every remaining mutant on earth. The X-Men then had to protect the press and their students, try to save the life of Professor X, defeat Cassandra Nova and prevent the extinction of all mutantkind.

            Okay, it’s me again. And may I just say, I LOVED this book. This graphic novel has a lot of sentimental value for me. The issues in this book were originally published between 2001-2002, right when I started regularly reading Marvel comic books, and these issues were in my collection. Grant Morrison’s tenure as the writer of New X-Men between 2001-2004 remains one of my all-time favorite runs of Marvel comics ever, so when I read that Marvel was publishing New X-Men as a Modern Era Epic Collection, I was thrilled. Honestly, I thought his work was brilliant and I hope Marvel continues the series as Modern Era Epic Collections because I would love to read the rest again. I thought that Morrison picked the perfect team for his stories. I felt that adding Emma Frost was just a stroke of genius. I liked Beast’s redesign. The feline look was so awesome compared to his previous look. And I loved the new leather costumes. They looked so cool. Emma Frost had a very… attention grabbing design, to say the least. I loved the new students. The Stepford Cuckoos have been favorites of mine. The concept of finally making the Xavier Institute into a proper school was perfect, it created so many new opportunities in the years to come and gave me characters to identify with, being a teenager myself at the time. I felt like Cassandra Nova was a great villain, and the U-Men were a great threat. I loved how Jean Grey manifested the Phoenix. BUT! The art was not my favorite. It just didn’t quite do it for me. The style wasn’t to my liking.

            Now, let’s talk about accessibility. I know some of you already know what I mean by this, I know I do have regulars, but I also know that many of you may be new to a Tim Cubbin review, so I feel like I must explain it to you, so bear with me, my loyalists. By accessibility, I mean how easy this graphic novel will be to just pick up and read for people who are new to the world of the X-Men. I have to say that I feel like this book is the perfect jump on point for new readers. I say this from experience. Granted I had some knowledge before I started reading this, I had seen some episodes of the “X-Men” animated series from the 1990s, had been a regular viewer of “X-Men: Evolution” and had seen the first 20^th Century Fox “X-Men” movie (which was the only one that had been released at the time). But I still feel like it’s self-explanatory enough for a new reader to pick up on. This graphic novel doesn’t directly pick up from any previous storylines, nor does it cross over into other series. This is rare for a Modern Era Epic Collection to be so standalone like this, I honestly don’t think I’ve seen that very much. There are no other events from the time that this ties into, so it’s not like the reader is missing any pieces while reading this book. I think that makes this one of the best Modern Era Epic Collections for a new reader to pick. Granted having some knowledge of the X-Men before reading this would help, but I picked up on this series quickly enough back in 2001 with a lot less opportunities for experience of the X-Men than we do now in 2024 as I write this review, and I’d only read a few issues of “Uncanny X-Men” from 2001 before starting with this series. Of course, after reading this series for a few months, I got heavy into X-Men and bought a bunch of old graphic novels to fill in some blanks, but this series is what ignited my passion for Marvel Comics. Honestly, I don’t think I’d have gotten as full on into Marvel without Grant Morrison, so I thank him for that. But if you’re looking to start with X-Men and have never read it, this is a perfect place to start.

            Now we come to the single most important part of my review: the score! I score on a basic system. I work on a scale of one to ten. One means this is a piece of trash, toss it and light it on fire, ten means this is sheer perfection. I would honestly LOVE to give this book a ten. Morrison told a story that would get a ten from me, but the artists sadly prevented me from handing out that ten. This IS a GRAPHIC novel, so I can’t discount the artwork when I give this book a score. Still, the designs of the new costumes and the new look of Beast were endearing to me, so I can’t be TOO harsh on the artists. So, put it all in the blender, mix it up, and toss out the score and it is… nine! This book was SO close to perfection, if there had been some different artists, this book could have gotten a ten easy, I’m so sad that I must deduct a point for the art.

            Next up is the recommendation. Obviously, you can figure that I recommend this book. And as to who I recommend this book to, I would say anyone. This series is the series that ignited my passion for Marvel Comics. I’d tell you that even if you’ve never heard of the X-Men before reading this review and have even the slightest bit of interest in reading this book based solely on this review alone, make every effort to read this book. I’ve told you about the characters and the whole point of the X-Men, I think it shouldn’t be all that hard to follow now. This is Vol. 1. And if you’re a fan of the X-Men from any capacity, whether from any comics, or from the movies or cartoons, you honestly should make every effort to read this book, I feel like you will find this book worth your time. I mean, I practically gave this book a ten, so if I’m being this generous to a graphic novel, chances are it’s good. I’m not an easy scorer, I don’t just go around giving out tens to everything I read. If you’re a fan of “X-Men ’97,” you will notice that the episode “Remember It” takes inspiration from this graphic novel, you’re at the top of my recommendation list.

            Well, I think we can start to wrap this up at this point. I will tell you that there are dozens of other book reviews on this blog, I post very frequently. I specialize in Marvel reviews, so if you’re a Marvel fan, keep checking this site out, there are tons of others, I think you might find something else you’ll like. You can expect another review sometime in the next two weeks, so keep checking for that. I’ve written a few short stories, some poetry, articles, essays, editorials, and the like, so there’s plenty of other content to see here, so you can keep looking. I think that’ll do it for now, so I’ll say just a few more words: Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Astonishing X-Men: Gifted"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” by Joss Whedon as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Mutants are humans born with a genetic quirk that give them abilities that ordinary humans do not. Because of this, regular humans fear and even hate mutants. Charles Xavier formed the X-Men on the hope that one day, humans and mutants will one day live together in peace and harmony. He founded the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning as a home for the X-Men and as a school to teach mutants how to use their gifts properly. However, he left the school to reside on the devastated mutant island nation of Genosha to help rebuild and left the Xavier Institute and the X-Men in the hands of Scott Summers/Cyclops and Emma Frost.

Cyclops assembled a team of X-Men consisting of himself, his lover Emma Frost, James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, Henry “Hank” McCoy, and Katherine “Kitty” Pryde as a public face for mutants aiding humanity. However, the team had not been gelling right away. Kitty met Emma Frost the day she first met the X-Men, Emma having formerly been the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, an organization that the X-Men clashed with for many years, and Kitty was apprehensive about a former villain now leading the X-Men. Logan had been unaccepting of Scott and Emma’s new relationship, Scott having just lost his wife Jean Grey, the woman both Scott and Logan loved.

The day for the X-Men to go public arrived when an alien named Ord led a team of mercenaries to an art preservation gala. They came wielding stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. technology. (S.H.I.E.L.D. is a world peacekeeping organization led by Colonel Nick Fury.) Scott led the team against Ord and the mercenaries. Though the X-Men were able to safely evacuate all the hostages and take out the mercenaries, they were unable to defeat Ord. It took Kitty’s alien dragon companion Lockheed to drive Ord away. While the X-Men were on their first mission, a scientist named Doctor Kavita Rao dropped a major bombshell at a press conference. She had been working with a young mutant subject named Tildie Soames, who was able to physically manifest her nightmares. She announced to the world that the laboratory Benetech had developed a “cure” for mutation, a vaccine that would permanently turn a mutant into a normal human being.

The students at the Xavier Institute were highly divided. Some wanted the cure, wanted normal lives. The X-Men were tasked with holding the students together. Wanting to know if this cure was legitimate, Hank broke into the main Benetech laboratory in New York in an attempt to steal the cure. He was caught by Doctor Rao, who agreed that Hank should, in fact, test the cure and gave him a sample. This led to a conflict between him and Logan that Emma had to resolve telepathically. While testing the cure, Hank noticed that the cure had traces of DNA from a mutant in the Xavier Institute files, and he went to Scott, who gathered the X-Men to break into the Benetech laboratory to investigate. Scott and Hank were under the assumption that the was being done on a corpse, as the mutant on file was believed deceased. While investigating, Kitty used her phasing powers to pass through a metal that gave her difficulty. Upon arriving in a subbasement, Kitty discovered Piotr “Peter” Rasputin/Colossus, the mutant who was the test subject, who was believed to be deceased, and was Kitty’s former lover.

While the X-Men were investigating Benetech, Ord went to the Xavier Institute, looking for the X-Men. Upon learning that the X-Men were not at home, he decided to “leave a message” by using the cure on a student who called himself Wing, a young mutant whose wish upon graduating the Xavier Institute was to join the X-Men.

The X-Men encountered the government organization Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department, led by Special Agent Abigail Brand, who informed the X-Men that Ord’s people were actually the ones behind the cure and not Benetech. A mutant, probably an X-Man, was destined to destroy the Breakworld, Ord’s home, sometime within the following three years, and the cure was a preventative measure to avoid a war between Earth and the Breakworld. Ord returned to Benetech and attempted to escape with the cure and Tildie, and it was up to the X-Men to prevent Ord’s escape and rescue Tildie.

The X-Men then teamed up with the Fantastic Four to drive a giant monster out of Manhattan. The Xavier Institute had a training facility called the Danger Room. It was equipped with alien Shi’ar technology that could replicate enemies and environments. It also had sentience. Its artificial intelligence tricked the depowered Wing into helping it break its programming. It then used a frequency pulse that incapacitated all the psychics in the Xavier Institute and took over all the electronics in the school. It also brought a Sentinel (a robot programmed to hunt and destroy mutants) to the school to attack the X-Men. The X-Men herded all the students into the Danger Room where they thought the students would be safe, but Kitty discovered that the Danger Room was now attempting to gain form. She was unable to prevent the other X-Men from destroying the Danger Room’s power core, which inadvertently freed the Danger Room’s programming and created a new threat: Danger. The X-Men then confronted Danger but were all taken down quickly. Danger knew all the X-Men’s moves, powers, and strategies, having trained with them for years. But defeating the X-Men wasn’t enough for her. She decided that to attain fulfillment, she had to take out her “father” and captor: Charles Xavier. She then set off for Genosha to complete her mission. Scott revealed to the other X-Men Xavier’s location, which had been kept secret from them, and the X-Men then set off for Genosha to save their mentor.

Okay, so some of you may remember from way back when that I did a review of the prose novelization version of “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted,” right when I started this blog. The book in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format just came out last week. So some of you may already know some of this story if you’ve read that review, and this current review does have spoilers to the previous review, having a second story arc contained in it, so sorry if you’ve been with me an still haven’t read either version of this story. Anyway, you probably want to know my thoughts. I opted not to go into detail about all of the individual X-Men’s powers and histories, I thought that might take too long and really would have no true impact on this particular review, so if you couldn’t follow this review because you had no idea who the heck I was talking about, I apologize. If this were just an individual character, I would have gone into more detail, but seeing as how this is a team, I felt that just explaining the point of the team itself should suffice as background information. Besides, it gets boring when I yammer on forever, which I am doing right now, so let’s just move on. Now, the issues in this book were released between 2004-2005. I remember it from back then. I remember getting “Astonishing X-Men” #1 in 2004 and reading “And now, at last… we have found a cure.” And thinking “HOLY (word I’m not using; this blog is G-rated)!” It was a HUGE shocker. Joss Whedon handled this series so well. He had so many good twists and turns in his narratives. Bringing Colossus back wasn’t my favorite choice at the time. Colossus died curing the Legacy Virus, which was basically Marvel’s allegory for superhuman AIDS, and I did feel like it was an affront to both the character and the writer who made the choice to kill him off to bring him back this way, but I did eventually get over it as he proved useful in future storylines. Grant Morrison was the one who decided to ship Scott Summers and Emma Frost, which, at the time, I thought was bizarre, but Joss Whedon made it work. “Dangerous,” the second story arc, also had its surprises. The Danger Room becoming sentient was actually an interesting concept, especially making this a villain who knew everything the X-Men were going to do before they did it, having studied them for years, the only one she didn’t know was Charles Xavier. I know some AI stories can come across as rather cheesy, but I have to say I didn’t feel like this was one of those. I also have to give great praise to the artist, John Cassaday. His artwork, to me at least, was BRILLIANT! I know a lot of my regular readers hear me moan about the artwork a lot in my reviews, especially my reviews from this year, 2024. I don’t think I’ve yet been able to say I consistently liked the artwork in any of the Modern Era Epic Collections I’ve reviewed, so me saying that is a big deal. Also, this has been the only one with only one artist, so that’s another reason, but kudos to Cassaday, both to his talent and to his dedication to the series, ultimately penciling twenty-five consecutive issues of the series, so if Marvel releases a second consecutive Modern Era Epic Collection of “Astonishing X-Men,” you can expect to see my praise for him again. I just thought he had such amazing talent, I loved his style, his details, it was just so appealing to me, and I really appreciated it. Hopefully Marvel does release a second Modern Era Epic Collection of the series, I would love to review it.

Anyway, if you know my reviews, you always see me write about accessibility. For those of you who are new and have no idea what I mean, let me explain. My use of accessibility means how easy it is for casual or new readers to be able to pick up this book and understand it. I have to say, if you’ve never even HEARD of the X-Men but saw this book on the shelf in a bookstore or found it browsing online or if someone told you about it and you still want to read it, I wouldn’t say it’s a PERFECT jumping on point, but it’s a GOOD one. What I mean by that is, to me, it feels like I think you should have SOME background knowledge of the X-Men, but I don’t 100% feel like it’s a necessity. It helps to know about it, sure, especially since this follows the works of forty years, but this book is very self-contained and doesn’t crossover with any other series or storylines from the time period like many other Epic Collections and Modern Era Epic Collections do. I felt like the main characters were all adequately explained, their names and powers established. There are also a bunch of characters that debut in this volume, so they have no prior backstories. I feel like if you want to start reading X-Men comics, this is a good place to start. Again, not perfect, but good. There are other points you could start at that would be better for sure, but this is also the first X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection published, so if you’re planning on starting there, you really have no other choice at the moment of my posting this review.

Okay, I’ve probably bored you long enough, you just want to know my numeric score. It’s very simple, all my prior readers know it, but I have to say it again for the newbs, so bear with me. I score on a scale of one to ten. One means it’s such a failure it didn’t even deserve to be published; ten means sheer perfection. Now, since this is a graphic novel, I have to take EVERYTHING into consideration, story AND art. Some of my prior readers know that artwork has actually knocked points off some of my reviews and added points to others. John Cassaday’s artwork deserves a ten, but there was just something about “Dangerous” that detracts from me calling Joss Whedon’s story perfection. So, you can probably guess that that means that this book is receiving a… NINE! Hey, that’s still pretty darn good! I’m a hard scorer, I don’t just go around handing out perfect scores.

Now, I’m obligated to tell you if I recommend this book to you or not. If you’re reading this review and have ANY interest in reading this book whatsoever, then I TOTALLY feel like you should go for it! I’ve always thought this was stellar work for twenty years now and still holds up to this day. If you’re an X-Men fan, this is, in my opinion, a must-read, and I honestly DO NOT say that often, so if I say it, then there must be SOME meaning to it.

Well, I feel like I’ve rambled on long enough. There’s plenty of other content on this blog, I’ve posted literally dozens of other book reviews, I’ve posted short stories, poetry, editorials, articles, all kinds of content, so please, feel free to continue browsing. And you can expect another post from me within the next couple of weeks, so be sure to be back for that if you liked this review. And I leave you now and say until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"X-Force: Zero Tolerance” by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber

 

            The following is a review of “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” graphic novel by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            X-Force is a mutant strike team, organized by Nathan Summers/Cable, to fight for mutant rights in a world that hates and fears them. Recently, the United States government has instated Operation: Zero Tolerance to arrest mutants to be held in a detainment facility. It is headed by Bastion. The Sentinels are giant mutant hunting robots, but Bastion has become deceptive and created the Prime Sentinels, robots that either look like or are partially ordinary human beings, so effective that telling a human being or Prime Sentinel apart by looks alone is almost impossible. X-Force has now found themselves in the crosshairs of Operation: Zero Tolerance.

            Gloria Munoz/Risque finds herself on the run from the mutant Caliban, who is able to locate other mutants. Risque had been romantically involved in the past with X-Force member James Proudstar/Warpath, but the relationship ended after Risque’s betrayal to X-Force, and since Warpath’s romantic feeling for X-Force deputy leader Theresa Rourke/Siryn, who only thinks of Warpath as a best friend. Risque escapes, but X-Force is able to subdue Caliban and bring him to their base, the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, where Cable takes care of Caliban’s fractured, childlike psyche. Meanwhile, Risque has forced Warpath into working for the mutant Sledge, whose friend the teleporting mutant the Vanisher has been stuck between dimensions. X-Force associate Domino, who goes by many different aliases, has been taken in by the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistic Directorate (S.H.I.E.L.D.), where she finds out that former New Mutants member Danielle “Dani” Moonstar is actually an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

            Dani has infiltrated the Mutant Liberation Front (M.L.F.), a mutant terrorist organization founded by evil mutant Stryfe, a clone of Cable, believed to now be vanquished. Zero Tolerance has found the location of the M.L.F. and sent in a task force to apprehend the extremist mutants.

            In the past, Warpath and his now deceased older brother John Proudstar (the mutant who would go on the be called Thunderbird) along with fellow Apache Native American Michael Whitecloud had encountered twisted geneticist Doctor Edwin Martynec, who has purposely mutated himself into a monstrous being in his illegal genetics laboratory where he was attempting to create a race of warped super beings.

            Back in the present, X-Force is assaulted by Zero Tolerance commander Ekaterina Gryaznova, a Prime Sentinel with a grudge against Domino. X-Force members Tabitha Smith/Meltdown, Julio Richter/Rictor, and Shatterstar are all apprehended, and Zero Tolerance launches an assault upon the Xavier Institute, forcing Cable and Caliban to escape. Domino is apprehended as well, and Gryaznova placed in implant into Domino, which negates Domino’s probability powers and slows down her movements. Once all the members of X-Force are reunited, Cable sets up the members with false identities, but this causes a schism, and X-Force decides to cut their ties with Cable and hit the road on their own.

            Roberto DaCosta/Sunspot, finds his trust fund blocked and X-Force realize they are broke, and between stops they must stay at cheap, seedy motels. At one stop, X-Force rescue Richie Alegria, a young man from a rich family, who offers to hire X-Force to be his bodyguards. Dani, Sunspot, and Meltdown agree, but they discover Richie to be less than savory, and the team again leaves.

            Meanwhile, Siryn and Warpath hunt down Michael Whitecloud, who has information about the massacre of Warpath’s tribe. Also, Reignfire starts his evil machinations to torment Sunspot, who are believed to be the same entity, but Reignfire was actually an escaped lab experiment. On the trail of information, Siryn and Warpath have an encounter with Edwin Martynec, who is also searching for the same information that Warpath is. Martynec then sends Warpath to the underworld where he has an encounter with Stryfe. Dani, who has had a connection with the Valkyries, is able to lead the rest of X-Force to rescue Warpath.

            The team then travels to Texas during the Exploding Colossal Man Shindig and Hullaballoo, an eclectic yearly festival. Unbeknownst to X-Force, this is also during a convergence, which evil mutant Selene wishes to take advantage of the event to gain incredible, godlike powers. Warpath is able to intercept this, but accidentally gives powers to the Exploding Colossal Man effigy. At the festival, Sunspot and Meltdown start to feel a mutual attraction, but exploration to these feelings is interrupted by the arrival of Samuel Guthrie/Cannonball, former member of X-Force, current member of the X-Men, Sunspot’s best friend, and Meltdown’s current long-distance boyfriend.

            Villains Mojo and Arcade attempt to defeat Domino by setting up a trap, forcing her to enter into gladiatorial battles to save the life of Rictor.

            Cannonball accidentally discovers Meltdown and Sunspot kissing and leaves X-Force, which he was considering rejoining, but leaves after the betrayal of his best friend and girlfriend.

            X-Force stop at the town of Almost Reno, New Mexico and investigate a series of mysterious deaths.

            X-Force stops at the home of old friend, Sally Blevins/Skids, who wishes to stay out of the super hero gig and goes to college.

            Reignfire then takes Siryn, Dani, Sally, Meltdown, and Sunspot hostage in Las Vegas, but doesn’t take into account the absence of Warpath, who comes to his friends’ and teammates’ aid, forcing a major confrontation between X-Force and Reignfire. Sunspot, whose trust funds had been frozen due to the belief that Sunspot and Reignfire were the same person, gets his fortune back and purchases a warehouse in San Francisco to serve as X-Force’s new base, but first, the team takes a vacation to Hawaii, where the find themselves in conflict with Risque, Sledge, and Vanisher to prevent the species known as the Deviants from setting off every volcano in Hawaii and destroying the islands, teaming up with Hawaiian goddess Pele.

            Upon returning to their base, they find that a mutant named Jesse Aaronson has found his way in. Jesse is looking for his missing brother. Jesse had been aiding Domino to get her revenge on Gryaznova in exchange for her aid in finding his brother. Gryaznova now goes by the name Gryphon. X-Force reluctantly agree to accept Jesse as a probationary member of the team.

            Cannonball returns to his hometown of Cumberland, Kentucky to visit his family, reconsidering his membership in the X-Men and ends up aiding Deviants to escape from the Sword. Arcadia, a Deviant, accidentally teleports X-Force into the heat of the battle, and after the successful rescue mission, Cannonball asks to rejoin X-Force.

 

            If you’ve never read a review of mine, I will inform you that this was a synopsis of a Marvel Epic Collection, a graphic novel which contains a rather large amount of content. As you can tell by my more than 1,000 words that a lot happened in this book.

            I have to say that I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I’d never really read much of the original run of X-Force, so I thought upon purchase that I may have some difficulties reading something I know nothing about, especially since this book was only one side of a comic event called “Operation: Zero Tolerance” which I have never read before, but I picked up on the story right from the beginning. I will say, don’t confuse this graphic novel with the graphic novel “Operation: Zero Tolerance” because the content of that graphic novel has very little connection with this graphic novel I am reviewing, pretty much aside from the title. Also, the entire graphic novel was not reserved to “Operation: Zero Tolerance,” there was a lot of other content as well, as you could probably tell if you’re still actually reading this (and if you’re still here and plan to keep reading this, you are THE BEST!). It’s somewhat rare for me to enjoy every story in an Epic Collection, but I will say I enjoyed pretty much the entire graphic novel’s stories. And, of course, this is a GRAPHIC novel, which means that the stories are accompanied with art. I’ve talked about that with almost every Epic Collection I’ve reviewed. I always think of a graphic novel as half-and-half: half of the book is the story, half is the art. You could have a graphic novel with the most amazing story you’ve ever read, but the artwork was a complete eyesore, or one with a horrendous story, but the artwork just makes up for it slightly. I found the artwork in this graphic novel to be amazing. I’ve said before that comic book art has standards depending on the time period of the penciling. I’ve also said I love comic book art from the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s, and the content of this book were published between 1997-1998, which was basically why I picked this Epic Collection to purchase. Let me tell you, this book did not disappoint with the artwork. I’ve also said that because of comic book art changing over the years that it is good artwork for the time or just good art. I have to say in my opinion that the artwork in this graphic novel still holds true today. I feel that this was just good art, period. My eyes were very pleased to look at the artwork in this graphic novel. So, I loved the stories, I loved the art, I just loved the graphic novel, one of my better purchases, I have to say. Some of my reviews have talked about how dismal I found the graphic novel to be, whether story, art, or both. Nothing in this book disappointed me.

            I will say that if you are considering reading this book, I feel like you should have some background knowledge about the characters before you read this, whether you’ve read Marvel X-Teams graphic novels either before this was published or from more recent years, but otherwise, I feel that this is easy enough to pick up with little knowledge. To me, the book felt pretty much self-contained and doesn’t require you to have read the entire series before this, but I still feel you might need a little background knowledge if you’re considering reading this book based on just this review, this might not be the perfect jump-in point or to start reading this even if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, but I still think first timers should be able to pick it up easily enough.

            Next up is, in my opinion, the most important part of the review, but feel free to disagree with that statement: my numeric score. It’s simple enough to explain. It’s based on a scale of one to ten, one being the worst score, ten being the best score. In this case, I have to take everything about this graphic novel into consideration, the story and the art. Now, you can expect a great score based on how I ranted and raved for so long. BUT! I just can’t quite call this perfect. Sadly, I have to give this a nine. There’s just something, I don’t know what, but there’s something preventing me from giving this graphic novel a ten. I felt this was a great graphic novel, but it’s just not perfect. There must have been a little flaw in one of the stories, I can’t quite place its exact location.

            Anyway, you probably want to know if I recommend reading this graphic novel? Now, if you’ve read this entire review and are now curious about if you should read this or not, then just read it. I wasn’t disappointed, and if you read the actual graphic novel, I have a hunch that you’ll probably like it. I hope that I didn’t give too many spoilers in this review, there’s possibly a chance of it, but I hope I didn’t ruin too many surprises, I tried to be as vague as I could. Still, if you liked this review and are interested in reading this graphic novel, I say go for it.

            Now, before I let you go after 2,000 words, I will tell you that this blog has dozens of reviews, mostly Marvel prose novels, Marvel comic events, and Marvel Epic Collections, but you might find some other things here and there. I am an unsuccessful journalist, so I do this blog to feel like I’m doing something in the field I have a bachelors’ degree in, and I do this for free, so I hope you appreciate it, but I also write editorials, essays, short fiction, short nonfiction and poetry on this blog as well, so please feel free to keep browsing, I’ve done over 100 posts, you might find something else you like. Please feel free to like, comment, or share this or whatever you do on these websites, and I leave you with the words: Tim Cubbin… out!