Customer Reviews

Uncanny X-Men Volume 4: The Draco TPB

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This volume covers "Uncanny X-Men" 428-434. Philip Tan did the art except for the prologue, which was drawn by Sean Phillips, and the conclusion,which was drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa. I'm willing to give the writing a star because there were scenes I liked, but as for Mr. Tan's art... Aside from Mr. Tan's cross-hatching making characters look as if they fought some cats and the cats won, the rough look of many panels, and what appear to be a lot of little ink splatters, there are too many panels where I couldn't quite make out what I was supposed to be seeing. Mr. Miyazawa's nice, clear art comes as a relief.

The prologue is about Mystique and how she came to be Kurt's mother. It's not a happy story. Then we return to the Xavier Institute in the present. The main story involves Nightcrawler and the secret of La Isle des Demonas. Yes, that's the island that Alex, Lorna, and Kurt visited in UNCANNY X-MEN: HOLY WAR. I'm not going to bother to complain about possible continuity problems with Mystique, because if you don't read her comic, you won't notice. The main story is almost as idiotic as the "Holy War" storyline. Given what our guest villain, Azazel, claims, he and his people should have been from Mesopotamia, not off the coast of Florida. They're evil nasty types who enjoy murder and torture. Cringe for the X-Men who face them, for they mostly act as if they were the idiots who run into Lovecraft's Evil Old Recluses instead of sensible superheroes. (On the other hand, it's fitting that Iceman gets the cover of this book because of the interesting way he turns the tables on one of Azazel's minions.)

There are no good fathers in this book if you don't count Professor Xavier, father figure to the X-Men. Azazel has no right to expect any Father's Day cards from his sons. If what Lorna tells us about Magneto is true, shame on him. Remember young Sammy Pare from UXM: HOPE, UXM: DOMINANT SPECIES, and UXM: HOLY WAR? His dad has no hope of winning Father of the Year, either. Unfortunately, the plot thread about the father of young Carter, son to school nurse Annie Ghazikhanian, gets dropped.

Archangel, Havok, Husk, Iceman, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine are the X-Men who handle the Azazel plot. Fans of Abyss will get to meet him again. Xavier and Annie are present as we learn why Polaris has been so nasty lately. Mr. Xorn gets a cameo in that subplot. Juggernaut and Northstar get the Sammy subplot, which includes a few members of Alpha Flight. We even get to briefly meet the kitchen staff at Xavier's. I liked their scene. I also liked Juggernaut and Northstar's verbal sparring on their way to Vancouver. There's a scene between Kurt and Xavier that's rather sweet. For me, the book's highlight has nothing to do with the very ineptly written "Draco" storyline. It's a big argument between Xavier and Juggernaut where they actually talk [shout] about the roots of their former enmity. There's a revelation or two that fans of the stepbrothers will not want to miss.

Fans of really bad stories or atrocious art will want to add DRACO to their collection. For the rest, the only reason to buy this book is its resolution of several subplots. Be prepared to grit your teeth a lot.

I will keep this short and simple. As a reader of countless X-Men stories, I have never run up against such a horrible writer as Chuck Austen. I don't know if he has naked pictures of the Marvel brass or what, but I just can't imagine why he would get the chance to destroy one of thier best comics. Stories that go nowhere. Character development that ignores the past. AWFUL plot lines... I could go on and on.

Save your money. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING WITH CHUCK AUSTEN ON IT!

The main flaw with this story--and it's a big one-- is that the plot, fundamentally, is impossible. Bear with me.

Azazel is trapped in a dimension other than the 616 universe. So he goes to the 616 universe, mates with human women, goes back to his dimension, bides his time, and finally brings them all to his dimension using some convoluted teleportation spell.

And therein lies the gaping plot hole. If he can't leave the dimension, then his plan to get back to Earth can't involve travelling to Earth or the whole thing is unnecessary.

And even worse is the dialogue.

And even worse is Philip Tan's bizarre fusion of realism and manga. Watch him deform nearly everybody. Really, this guy draws like a twelve-year old.

Worst of all, this one has lasting effects on the X-books.

Popular opinion says that Draco is Chuck Austens worst Uncanny XMen arc, which is saying alot since his whole run has been terrible. But the truth of the matter, according to me at least, is Dominant Species is his worst.

Draco tries to explore the character of Nightcrawler, but it ends up marring the character and never really going anywhere. Turns out Nightcrawler is the son of Mystique and what we are led to believe is Satan, but who actually is an ancient mutant (yet another prehistoric mutant) who the "character" of Satan was based on. Ok, if you can get past the trappings of judeo-christian mythology, which never translates well when used in popular fiction in the first place, the story degenerates to the Satan character trapping the X-Men in his dimension (again another skewed take on the concept of Hell) and forcing them to sit at his dinning room table for, what, 3 or 4 issues worth of bad dialogue?

Its anticlimactic, nonsensical and holds the title as the second worst arc (so far) in Chuck Austen's offensively bad run on Uncanny X-Men.

If you want to read good X-Men stories go read some of Grant Morrison's New X-men books, or go read Essential X-Men 1 and 2. This crap by Chuck Austen gives the X-Men brand a bad name.

I've never known the X-men to be in such horrificly boring, not to mention incredibly stupid stories as The Draco. In fact, the same can be said for just about any Chuck Austen penned story arc to date. In this story, Chuck Austen easily throws out Nightcrawler's true character and replaces it with his own nonsensical swill and prooves once again that he is the one man capable of sullying the legend of the X-Men, over, and over, and over again. Perhaps if the artists had something good to work with, the pages might actually look good for a change, as opposed to the continuously uninspired artwork of the two manga-heavy pencilers currently on the book. Don't let the one star fool you. If I had my way, this book would get zero stars.

I hated this story arc. Unfortunately, this was my first foray back into X-Men comics since about 1996. Yiiiiccch.

First, the artwork. What were they thinking? The penciler had no clue of aspect and perspective. The only body part he was capable of drawing were Lorna's breasts.

Sammy went from being a little fishboy with a puckery mouth who was so homely he was cute to just being...ugly. And kind of serpentine looking. The scene where he beats the boy up whose been taunting him (see "Hope") was brutal and unnecessary.

This story arc featured an interesting conversation between Northstar and Juggernaut. Northstar is so underused since he joined this team, which is a crying shame. Even though Austen is not that talented in terms of plot, some of his dialogue isn't too bad, and Northstar always had some good lines during Austen's run.

This arc was supposed to be about Nightcrawler, but everyone else kind of got in the way. Azazel wasn't an interesting villain. Usually demons are supposed to want to break down the barriers of the earth and let loose the hordes, etc. (see "Inferno," the first Magik series, or anything featuring Belasco in the Savage Land). All Azazel wanted to do was populate the earth with half-mutant love children and spring himself from his Brimstone Dimension. Austen was sloppy here; in the Marvel Universe handbook, Kurt's powers were supposed to take him through the Darkforce Dimension, like Cloak's cape. Sloppy.

And if Kurt travels through the Brimstone Dimension when he 'ports, why didn't he run into his dad sooner?

This book was poorly drawn, badly inked and hard to understand. I didn't root for one hero in it. Annie Ghazikhanian proved herself to be, yet again, the worst mother on the planet. How didn't she notice that her son went missing and boarded the Blackbird to The Island of the Demons? And why would she accompany Professor X into Lorna's mind, if the women hate each other? Is it just me???

The only thing I liked about "Draco" is that we finally got to see Kurt's birth and the story surrounding his conception in the Prelude. FINALLY. Now if only this story wasn't so lame. Austen completely ignored an opportunity to have Kurt lash out at Mystique for trying to kill him at birth, which many X-Fans have probably wished for from the first moment that he met her and wondered about their physical resemblance. Missed the mark, Chuck.

I would have to say this is one of the biggest low points in X-Men history.....The Draco story should never have been done....bad writing....bad storyline...bad art....avoid this story

I have all the issues and its not worth buying the trade paperback, the art is inconsistant and the storyline is horrific. Don't support Chuck Austen and this atrocity!

If you think this is the worst....you are sorely mistaken. Nightcrawler's origin is revisited and revised. It was acceptable to me, I think there must have been a wave of haters in 2k4 reviewing this. Its a pretty fun read, in my opinion. Art is not by Jim Lee, true. Art doesnt take away from the story, which is pretty sweet, I think. Pick this up....also...."Here comes Tomorrow" story arc was killer, with pencils by Marc Silvestri... check that out too.

..really horrible writing, the only reason his x-men is traded, is because the x-men movies helped the book sales surge, they traded anything with an X on it, good bad or just plain ugly like this.

what can you expect from a book with a plot hole where the villain is trapped, and to get free leaves his prison, has babies with women and returns to wait for the babies to free him..can you spot the problem? well anyone could, but the wirter can not.

the characters act nothing like they should, austen loves to write characters as jerks, people who fly off the handle for no reason, he admits that he can't wait or build up to moments, he just writes them in, if he likes the idea of an angry character 99 percent of the time he will not give a reason, he just does it, he can't wait, well for most people the journey is the joy, how chgaracter A turns into character B, how a good hearted man turns heard, or a hard tuff as nails man finds his soft side.