Customer Reviews

Uncanny X-Men Volume 1: Hope TPB

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

 

 

The above review is about a different story. This story centers around an x-men story told partly from the point of view of a fish boy looking mutant recruited to Xavier's school(issues 410-412). He gets to ride along as the X-men investigate a distress call only to take on Juggernaut. Meanwhile we see a nurse who has fallen in love with one of her patient who is in a vegetable state, but a news report shows her that her patient might be a missing X-man. Back at the island a weakened Jugernaut explains that he called the X-men to help his best friend, Black Tom, who is undergoing a freakish secondary mutation. This is a touching story about friendship, love, and hope. I think Morrison's run on The New x-men is cool, but it makes everything sordid and icky. Morrison does this well, but too many comic writers try to do this and aren't as good. Austen just lets the good guys be good.

I read this TPB once, kind of shook my head over the bizarre direction that Austen took the merry mutants, and then...actually read it again.

"Hope" is an interesting arc of Uncanny because of all the new characters that are introduced into the mansion and to the team. Unlike most X-Fans, I actually kind of like Annie Ghazikanian, Havok's nurse after he becomes vegetative. Yes, her relationship with him (i.e., a nurse that becomes emotionally attached to him while she is taking care of all of his needs) is a little creepy, but she herself isn't a bad character. Annie doesn't like mutants (which we don't see justification for until "Dominant Species"), yet she is willing to take on the duties of seeing to the medical needs of Xavier Institutes entire gene-advanced population, no matter how bizarre they all are. She is a vulnerable character, and a nice foil to Northstar. She also had some excellent dialogue written for her right off the bat.

Even though Austen made the X-Men more angst-ridden than they were before, and definitely more potty-mouthed, he also gave some of the characters more depth than they had before.

The addition of Juggernaut to the book was something I never saw coming. But as we saw from previous X-books, Cain Marko is hysterically funny when he wants to be. (Note: Best book on Austen's run in regard to the development of Juggernaut's character is "Day of the Atom." Especially his ongoing fights with Iceman.)

Other standout characters in this book are Sammy (Squidboy) and Northstar. I like Northstar much better on this title than I ever did on Alpha Flight. I wasn't crazy about Annie's son Carter, since his age was indeterminate from how he was written, I couldn't tell how old he was supposed to be. Stacy X is a little too over the top for me, I didn't think the team needed a quasi-porn star with pheromone powers who literally (and figuratively) sheds her skin on the roster.

Some of the other things about this book that grabbed me were the narrative blurbs here and there, and an unexpected change in Nightcrawler's character. He's darker and more sarcastic. He actually has something meaningful to say in most frames instead of just exclaiming "Unglaublich!" when anyone gets attacked. I love the character descriptions of the team as they were flying in the Blackbird to answer Cain's distress call: "Iceman: Used to being the team's comic relief."

Villains like Black Tom were revamped and made much, much more psychotic. This is a good thing. I never really had much of an opinion about Black Tom before, but he's amazing in this issue.

There were some throwaway bits in this book. Iceman has a fling with a Genoshan refugee in the mansion, who is both vapid and airheaded, not to mention ridiculously drawn. Warren and Husk start to ackowledge each other's feelings, but they're just not an interesting couple. Logan doesn't have much time in the spotlight in this book, so if he is your favorite character, you will be disappointed by his reduced status.

Again, Chuck Austen is not my favorite author, at least not for this title, but this was not boring reading. My general thinking is that he is good with dialogue, but perhaps not plot development. It just seems like he hates anyone to have a happy ending, in any of the issues that comprise this novel. Bring on the angst, Chuck! Time to make the mutants suffer!

this collection includes UXM#410-415. the first three (and also the fourth) form a story arc involving juggernaut soliciting the help of the x-men and a nurse named annie caring for the catatonic havok and joining the staff at the institute to care for him. the fifth issue focuses on northstar, who joins the the institute also. the issue w/ northstar is extremely well-done and makes the whole book worth reading, in my opinion. the last issue focuses on iceman and northstar.

This is the first x-men book I've ever read besides the comic adaptions of X-men the movie and the X2 adaption. I think its pretty entertaining. My favorite part is the first section where a young aquatic mutant gets a ride on the X-jet and then realizes his true potencial when rescuing Juggernaut from drowning. Jean-Paul's attempt to save a young boy reminds me of Captain America dealing with the death of his sidekick Bucky.

Chuck Austen's run on the book starts off looking like a classic, fun superhero story. Sure there are a few kinks, but they can be ironed out as time goes on. Unfortunately, that's not what happens. These kinks grow to be major problems and start to overshadow any good that there is in the writing. The characters start to act less and less like themselves, the dialogue gets worse and worse, and sexula themes are just clumsily thrown on en masse in unnecessary and uncreative ways, in hopes that just their presence will be enough to entertain.

I was scrolling through and alot of you were very negative. I'm not a "hard core" fan or anything, but I do enjoy reading x-men novels and comics. I like this particular series for 2 reasons, and the first is the graphics. I grew up watching the x-men cartoon, and if the characters look really funny, it's hard for me to get into it. I mean it's a comic book, the graphics should be important right? Second, I enjoyed the plot, and thought there was a nice bit of humor in it. Since I'm not a die hard x-fan, there was some confusing stuff, but other than that I really got into them, and can't wait for the next one. I have read many of the other series, and really found them boring (plus there graphic interpertations of the characters were a little....different) but don't take my word for it, take a chance and check it out! ^_^

What i love about Hope is that you can just pick it up and get sucked into the X-men universe. You don't have to read all the previous volumes to get what's going on. And to me that makes Hope a easy 5 stars.

Also i love the team which consist of side character that sadly don't get enough time unless there in this collection of comics. Like Nightcrawler, angel, and so on. So go pick up this great volume of uncanny x-men and get ready to travel into one of the coolest universes out there.

If you're an X-Men fan, there are hundreds of other stories that you should read before this one. Not because this story depends on the others, but because the others are all better. This story is weak. Really weak. Contrived plot devices and poor charactorization. Some of the reviews of this comic are better reads than the comic itself. If you want a real story, check out Grant Morrison's New X-Men. While he uses stock stories (evil twins, anti-mutant groups, secret government agencies, and other cliches), he manages to make them interesting again.

By no stretch of imagination is this a good story. But even so, this is Chuck Austen at his finest. Sammy's story is somewhat interesting, and there's something to be said for the actual plot. It makes sense, at least, although absurd coincidences nd other contrivances are immediately apparent. The artwork is also decent. Not recommended, but it's bearable

I would absolutely advise against buying this, unless if you can find it at a very, very low price. It isn't worth more than four dollars.

I liked this story. There's a good tension that runs through it as well as a thread of hope (which explains the title). It's got some interesting twists in it. And the art is good.