Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Rachel and Miles Review the X-Men – Episode 2

Week of 8/14/14 – In which famine turns to feast, and we’re still getting the hang of this whole iMovie situation.

Reviewed:

  • All-New X-Men #30
  • Amazing X-Men #10
  • Nightcrawler #5
  • Wolverine #11
  • Wolverine and the X-Men #7
  • X-Force #8
  • X-Men #18

Pick of the week:

  • X-Force #8

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14 comments

  1. Seven hells, that’s a ton of books in just one week. Seven in a *month* would make my head spin.

    Thanks as always for the enthusiasm. The “Sidrian hunters in my heart” quip was genuinely hilarious. I’m left wondering…what could possibly be the story behind singing “Take On Me”?

  2. It’s truly cruel that you guys teased us about the Cyclops visor that Rachel acquired and haven’t allowed us to see it in either of your video reviews. 🙂

      1. Aha! Thanks! I think I missed it because I’ve been checking the podcast out on ComicsAlliance sometimes, so I must have missed that visual companion. That is a SWEET visor. Having seen it, I can’t believe you DID ever take it off. I just assume that your shades are also made of ruby quartz, and so you’re fine.

  3. I’m going to need to pick up more weekly comics.

    At the moment I’ve only picked up a few X-Men books like Cyclops, but I’m hesitant on jumping in on issue 18, 30, ect.

  4. I actually really liked All-New X-Men #30. What Bendis is doing with young Warren is really interesting, because it’s very much a return to the pre-Apocalypse “carefree playboy” Warren, but done in a modern way that comes off as less dated and unintentionally negative. If that makes sense. I can’t really speak to X-23’s portrayal, because I’m just getting to know her. But I also really like the rest of the team sitting on a picnic blanket watching Jean and Emma stare at each other, and Baby Bobby making friends with Cuckoos. Filler issues might be my favorite kind of X-book stories, now that I think about it.

    Also, I clearly need to be buying X-Force. I didn’t pick it up initially because I was resentful that it was replacing Hopeless’ Cable and X-Force (which in my heart was called Boom Boom and X-Force), but since then I’ve read the X-Club mini and come to the conclusion that I need to be reading any book written by Spurrier and featuring Dr. Nemesis.

  5. I’m on board with a lot of the opinions expressed here, but I’m a bit boggled by the idea that Chris Yost and Craig Kyle “do universally good work.” Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I find their work to be lazy and unpleasant.

    These dudes maim c-list characters almost as frequently as Geoff Johns, and they dropped bombs on a couple school bus loads of depowered teenagers to raise the stakes for a story arc that would be completely forgettable if not for the fact that they dropped bombs on school buses full of teenagers.

    I picked up the first issue of their AMAZING X-MEN run, because Alpha Flight, and all the characters were unnecessarily bitchy to one another, and it ended with Wolverine watching as Vindicator gets ripped apart by Wendigos. Hell, the book begins with a dude murdering another dude and turning him into ground beef, boots and all. I’m sure that was supposed to be funny, but it made me instantly regret getting the book.

    Too each their own obviously, and I’m happy for anyone reading the book and liking it, but I really don’t understand the appeal.

    1. I think Yost and Kyle are pretty good writers, I just wish they’d tone down the violence and sadism. In addition to blowing up half of the New X-Men, they also stole a portion of Pixie’s soul from her. Plus, just everything in their entire run of Incredibly Dreary X-Force.

      They understand the character voices well though, and I’ll forgive anyone that contributed to anything new New X-Men. Their backup issue story of Anole and Rockslide being late night superheroes in San Francisco is one of my all-time favorite X-Men tales.

  6. C&P’ing my comment on X-Men:

    So the Wood era of adjectiveless has come to an end. I thought it started off fairly strong, with Arkea as a new and interesting villain, and Jubilee’s new family situation. Issue four felt like a classic X-men downtime issue, with most of the team helping a crashing plane, and Jubilee reconnecting with Wolverine. I though Wood did a fairly good job getting us up to speed, although some bits still left me confused(Has Rogue lost the powers she stole from Ms Marvel?)

    Part of the problem I did see is contained in that phrase, “The team.” It really did seem less like a well-defined team and just “whatever X-Women are hanging around the school that day”. Which wasn’t all bad – I liked the interactions with the students and I hope Guggenheim includes that in later arcs. And it means they’re kind of at the mercy of the main-arc books. We lost Kitty(and I think Rogue?) when she went over to Cyclops’ team.

    And really it seemed like everything was being thrown in at once towards the end. The second Arkea arc got so big it had subplots being resolved in backup stories. And the last one with Shogo’s father seemed to bring stuff up only to resolve it with almost no conflict.

    SPEAKING of the littlest X-Man, can I just say how much I liked the handling of future-Shogo in Battle of the Atom? We’ve seen so many future kids come back in time messed up, or villainous, or angry, that having Shogo come in and tell Jubilee, “It’s me, I turned out OK, you were a great Mom, I love you,” felt like a real breath of fresh air.

    Hopefully Guggenheim will keep what’s working and fix what’s not. His first issue made me think of a comment over on Tardis Eruditorum about “continuity Swedish art-film”. We’ve got Deathbird, references to End Of Grays and Vulcan, and in a surprise return engagement, the Sidrian Hunters! I’m not thrilled about the first arc revolving around a pregnancy, but since Deathbird is part of the Shi’ar royal family, there’s the possibility of juicy political consequences.

    Oh, and one other thing – has anyone told Scott and Cable that Madelyne’s alive again?

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