Customer Reviews

NYX X-23: Innocence Lost (X-Men)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Coming from someone with extensive knowledge of the Marvel Universe but knowing nothing about "X-23", let me tell you I was pleasantly blown away by this compendium.

The book is divided into two sections: one corresponds to the X-23 mini-series, the second has the first half-dozen or so "NYX" issues. The two stories are separate and have distinct personalities, written and drawn by separate teams. The common link is the X-23 character. The first part is her "origin", the second part would be something like, "chapter two", I guess.

Anyways, "X-23" is an absolutely stunning story about this waif with retractable claws, created by some clandestine quasi-government operation.
So immediately, there are a few things that come to mind. Obviously, the character Wolverine MUST be involved somehow, no? I mean, come on...look at the cover.

Well, he is, but not in the way you might think. And even if it IS in the way you might think, the story plays out in ways NO one could have foreseen. I read these issues in one white-hot, desperate sitting.
Written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, with outstanding art by Billy Tan and Jon Sibal (and sublime color by Brian Haberlin), this is about as good as modern comics get. I'm dying to tell you more, but that would spoil so much of the experience...

Before I go on...no kiddies should be reading this stuff. Lots of violence, blood and gore here...with "adult" themes more prevalent in the book's second half. It's pretty intense.

The book's second half doesn't burn as brightly as the first. The story, by Joe Quesada, and the art by Joshua Middleton, Robert Teranishi and company, aren't as jaw-droppingly good.
Let me get this straight: they're still pretty freakin' awesome. It's just that they happen to follow a particularly mind-blowing set of comics.
This tale introduces us to several young teens, having a bit of trouble in and around the seedy areas of Alphabet City.
By "a bit of trouble", I mean drugs, guns, prostitution, extortion, homelessness, abuse, and of course, those pubertal hormones that cause havoc on young mutants.

Again, it's real tough to avoid spoilers here...there are so many good plot twists and visual sequences in both stories...

...if you are at all curious about these titles...this is an excellent buy.

If you own them already, I have to say you still might want this. The book itself is on par with the other excellent Marvel hardcovers of the past few years...nice binding, great paper, excellent reproduction...and it's a bit bigger than the original comic, so it's, in a tactile sense, a pleasure to read.

I love it when comics are THIS good...

I agree with the other reviewers that the first half of this book, collecting the X-23 miniseries, is superb. The writing and storytelling are top-notch, featuring characters that you care about and can sympathize with, and it's also a gripping action/adventure tale. I would compare it to watching episodes of 24 back to back, it's like one long two hour action movie with great characters. The art, also, is superb. It's pretty appealing, with great colors, and very crisp and delightful. Moreover, the action was always clear, and you could always tell what was going on. I would give the story and art both A+.

However, the second half of the story is a mixed bag. It collects NYX, issues 1-7, which was a pretty problematic series. First of all, the writing isn't as good as the first half. It's paced abysmally slow, with new characters being introduced all the time whose purposes are not really clear. Moreover, I found the majority of the characters to be incredible unlikeable. Whereas I could read the first half in one continuous setting, the second half I was often bored and had to put it down to go back to it.

The writer, Joe Quesada, is a great artist in his own right, and did some great things for Marvel as the Editor-in-Chief. However, he's just not that good of a writer. The plot is decent enough, but the dialogue could have used a polish. Honestly, there were many points where the characters were unintentionally hilarious. I applaud him for trying an edgy story, but the way the characters acted and the way they were written made them somewhat comical and laughable. Fortunately, Joshua Middleton's art in issues 1 to 4 more than made up for the story's inadequacies. Not only is his line work gorgeous, but his layouts made up for the writing's problematic pacing. The story and dialogue might have been lame, but the art sure was pretty to look at. However, when this book came out, it was perpetually late, as Joe Quesada could not get the script in on time, and as a result Joshua Middleton left the series to pursue more reliable work to be replaced by Rob Teranishi, who didn't quite live up to the preceding brilliance. Rob Teranishi is no Joshua Middleton, and the characters looked drastically different. Additionally, whereas Middleton told the action very clearly, Teranishi's storytelling was a bit muddled, and I had difficulty understanding some of the action at the end. It was quite a drop from Middleton's excellent artwork to Teranishi's rather average art. On top of that, you could definitely sense that the story was meant to go on much longer, but had to wrap up quickly because Quesada couldn't maintain a monthly schedule. For the previous seven issues, subplot after subplot is laid out, and then... 90% of them were forgotten. So all in all, a mixed bag. Writing: C+. Middleton's Art: A+. Teranishi's Art: C.

So all in all, I would say, the first half is one of the best reads I've had in a while, while the second half was rather disappointing. I would still recommend this though, if you're a big visual art fan. Billy Tan's excellent art from the first half and Joshua Middleton's beautiful art deserve the oversized treatment. Otherwise this volume might be a bit too pricey.

But in this case I doubt it neccessary. The X-23 character is, in my opinion, one of the better creations of Marvel to date. Her start on the Saturday morning cartoon X-men Evolution was unlikely but to then be continued into the comics is serindipity. And now the two largest and most focused of those comics are in this trade paperback.

The initial story of X-23 is a better read really. Its a focused story of how she came into being and why she later ends up in New York. The art is clear, well colored and detailed. Added to all that there is a short section about the origin of X-23 as a character in the front with cool little easter eggs in the comic.

The NYX stories are also a good read but the focus on X-23 shifts totally and she is really only a side character. No big deal, its still a good read and while, again in my opinion, the art isn't as crisp and the pastels are less evocitive, its still high class work.

This is my first "X-Men" title, and was a great way into the X-Men Universe. "X" doesn't have as deep a history as a lot of the other characters(by deep I mean, decades worth of information). "X" has a deep history-really deep for a character that's only been around since 2004. This fact made the stories easy to grasp, you have the major info in X-23: Innocence Lost-where she's form/And in Nyx-what happened to her afterwards. As well as a second mini available in tpb(trade paper back)called, X-23:Target X-which links the two stories in "X-23 & NYX" All three titles: X-23/Target X/NYX-are a must to grasp the "life" that is X-23. Innocence Lost is the most vital and actually focuses on 2 "lost" characters-X and the other-(read the story).The story "X-23" is very detailed & dark story wise, not as much as Nyx-but still the tones are there.I highly recommend this hard cover-though it's hard to give a "review" to a title like this with out spoiling it.

The first story was interesting but predictible. The second story could have been amazing, but kind of ended up being an after school special. Love the art though. enjoyable but not great.

if you're a fan of great artwork and a decent storyline, i would definitely recommend the nyx/x-23 collection.

the x23 origin story was very well done. on a few of her early missions she plays up to the 'cute little girl' decoy while ensuing to kill everyone in sight! hehe. good story, good artwork, and alot of action! well done!

the nyx storyline, however, sucked. flat out sucked. it sucked so bad, this will be the last line of my review for it!