Customer Reviews

Uncanny X-Men - The New Age Vol. 1: The End of History

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

 

 

Chris Clairmont returns to the Uncanny X-en in an arc featuring a stellar line-up and a first rate villain, but follows with a tedious arc that brings back Murderworld and convinced me to drop the title. In "The end of History", the newest team of Uncanny mutants (consisting of Storm, Rachael Gray, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Bishop, Cannonball, and Sage) go up against the Fury, a nigh-indestructible being that has seemingly killed Brian Braddock, Captain Britain. This arc is full of action and great character moments, but introduces plot threads Clairmont leaves dangling for far to long. The second tale, focusing on Murderworld, is uninspired and utterly pointless, feeling more like a filler arc than anything else. It does feature Oliver Coipel art though, so it isn't a complete bust. Alan Davis handles duties (wonderfully) in the first story.

Should you buy this? I couldn't say one way or another. The first four issues of this six-issue trade are a lot of fun, but its flaws do show the more you look at it. If you're a die hard X-Men fan Clairmont's return is probably something you don't want to pass up.

Just when I thought Chris Claremont's work on X-treme X-Men was the absolute lowest he would be permitted to fall, Marvel editors decide to place him on a creatively struggling book (my opinion) he once made great, with one of the great comic artists alive, Alan Davis. It sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?
It's not good.
Davis is an excellent artist - his character designs are smooth, sexy, powerful, fun (with the notable exception of Storm's hideous outfit). His work flows from page to page, ably taking us to new locations, threats and conflicts both external and internal to the X-teams. (I will say I am already tired of the new generic middle-eastern terrorist villain.)
The failure in the partnership is Claremont's. His plotting is all over the place - character's utilizing their powers in bizarrely cosmic ways; character's changing their perspectives, language, concerns, abilities, desires for no discernible reasons; character's who apparently no longer have their established histories. In short, Claremont has a large enough ego that he throws out all other creators' work (including his own) and refashions these Uncanny X-Men as if he created them today. I guess that's what the title of this arc means: The End of History. There is, literally, no other explanation in the book (unless Mr. Claremont is petty enough to refer to Grant Morrison's exit from the X-Men, and Marvel's decision to forget the run ever happened). The threats are NOT world-shaking, cosmic or even worth worrying about: a lost foe of the Captain Britain book from Marvel UK (the once-terrifying Fury now reduced to a bumbling sentinel), Wolverine's ex-wife with an E-bay purchased slightly-used Murderworld, nanites (the inhibitor fields of the 21st century -- does anyone believe how apparently easy and available nano-technology is?), and of course mind-controlled X-Men. The baseball game that opens the book is perhaps the most exhilirating conflict in the book; Nightcrawler's waltz with Storm above the mansion perhaps the most fun segment; Marvel Girl's powers perhaps the best realized visually (though her new capacity to create localized black holes seems a bit much).
This is not good X-Men. This is why I dropped the book awhile back.
And I'm still looking for reasons to pick it up.

Over the past 30 years the X-men have grown to be one of marvels most induring and lasting icons in the comic medium. Chris Claremont was the writer for the series from 1970 something (whenever the giant sized issue revamped the entire cast) to about 1992-or 1993ish. Between that time the X-men went from obscure comic geek fandom to a well established franchise. They have become just as famous as Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, or any other superhero or superhero group you can think of. And for 20 years or so Chris Claremont was the man behind the rise. They have 3 major movies under their belt (spin-offs planned), a fiercely loyal fan base that includes adults who grew up reading the old comics and new fans of the movies.

When it was announced the beloved Chris Claremont would return to Uncanny X-men for the first time in more then 10 years hopes were high. Maybe he would be the grounding force that the X-titles so badly need these days. Sadly this run has been haphazard at best. What the X-men franchise need is a strong central core. With all the other X-titles, spin-offs, ultimatizing, one-shots, movies, and such then X-men have lost what made Chris Claremont's first run so magical- continuity. Sadly this second run did not return Uncanny to being the center of the X-universe. Rather, it made this team seem less relevant. It is completely at odds with every other X-title that came out at the time (one major character in this run is a character who died/disappeared over 10 years ago and shows up in the first issue of the new run without context as to why she is even alive). While continuity can be seen as an elitist game (you only know it doesn't work if you buy every title, or have read every issue ever- but wait most of the past 20 years of the x-men are available in essential format so you too can read all the expensive back issues for under 20$ and compare), it still holds one truth: the people creating X-titles aren't really talking to each other so each title sees it's team or story as the only important one.

Chris Claremont's "new age" feels more like a step back to the 90's. that wouldn't be bad if the world hadn't moved on. He seems to want to take the characters back to the point they were when he left the title originally. This just doesn't work. They have grown and readers have grown since then.

Chris Claremont's work on the X-treme X-men title has been criticized by many (myself included, full disclosure). The writing in this volume (and the rest of the run) fall victim to the same weakness of that title. He (Claremont) is repeating himself in many of the stories. He takes the group to the savage land again for no particular reason except to go to the savage land. The shi'ar show back up again only to well show back up again (the chasing the pheonix thing is old....). Sometimes he is just verbatim retelling some aspect of the old stories, or at worst reworking them into a new time period with poorer context.

We have seen the baseball/sports team/off day open introduction to a new team of X-men at least in 7 different X-titles all written by Claremont since the 70's. What make this time unique? Nothing. This is the cruelest and most true critique of the "new age" of chris claremont- it isn't new. Every single arc is deriviative of an old story arc which (opinion) was once written better (read the essentials line then see if you disagree with me!).

Claremont's return to the X-men will be only a blip in the long run at best. Read it only if you want to read every X-men comic ever written or if you feel the need to read every issue of uncanny ever written (but then you'd have to read the X-babies too...yechh!).

I'm not that old. I am 23, and still remember my teens reading about the Dazzler, Psylocke and Storm as well as the New Mutants. There was magic in those days. On recent trips to the comic book store, I feel as if the magic has started to leave the X-titles.

I love the artwork, and the lineup has star quality potential, but almost immediately, we lose Cannonball and it looks like we are gearing up to lose Sage, too.

I love Storm, and I love Nightcrawler; but I am honestly really sick of this 'romance' that seems to be growing around them. Both of their personalities seem 'off' for some reason; it feels like Claremont is manufacturing romantic tension around them, and forcing them into somewhat contrived romantic scenes for the dialogue. It's actually depressing that Storm, a very attractive black woman, is continually without a real relationship; am I the only one a little bothered that Rogue, Jean and Lorna have had eligible bachelors (Scott, Alex and Remy are hardly perfect, but Jesus!) chasing after them, Ororo has had a lesbian romance, a twisted relationship with Forge and a lot of identity issues?

As for Rachel as Marvel Girl - kudos for her costume, but we are going a bit too far in Uncanny towards painting her as a rookie telepath. Maybe I'm slightly behind in all the alternate realities the last few years of X-Men has been lost in, but wasn't she in X-Men and then Excalibur? She is hardly a Stepford Cuckoo in regards to experience, yet she is handled as if she's just graduated from the New Mutants. It makes it seem as if it would be better if they left Rachel in limbo and placed Karma in her place instead...

I'm REALLY trying to like this arc, especially since Mr. Davis is such a talented artist...but after arc 1, the series seems confused. The X-Men very badly need some new blood.

I haven't read the X-Men in a long time. Happened to see this issue on the discount shelf at a bookstore and I figured "Why Not"
I was surprised to see Chris Claremont had returned and probably expected something of the old stories. I was kind of right. This read like one of the old stories but I am not sure it is as good or needed anymore; might have been inspired by the effort to "reboot" storylines which seem to be going on these days. An old introduction happens again; the baseball game.

I was surprised to see Marvel Girl has returned and has "issues" with Cyclops' girlfriend Emma Frost. It probably could be handled better as it feels like the typical evil step mother. I must add that I like Marvel Girls new look.

I am not sure I liked the Fury. The fight wasn't that exciting and the end was not that interesting.

Viper and murderworld felt out of place here. More like filler then a story. Interesting as it was I liked it better than the Fury.

Overall, the artwork was alright and the story was ok. I will probably pick up the rest of the issues.

This book is really only mediocre at best however for diehard fans it is a must to read if you are someone who is only interested in the X-men for the movies or an animated series than you would be much better off reading Astonishing X-men.

Having read the X-Men sporadically since Claremont left in '92, I thought I'd give this a shot with his return. In only a few pages the magic was already back in the X-Men. His style of gearing each issue as if someone is picking up X-Men for the first time was a welcome style since its been so long for me. I picked up Grant Morrison's first few issues and was appalled to say the least. I can't describe how exactly, but nobody, I mean NOBODY writes the X-Men's words like Claremont. It's as if he has a direct connection into their brains. Although he had to work with all the other changes writers made over the years, he "made it his own" and "worked it". Reading this I felt like all was right in the comics universe.

As a fan of the X-Men and all the other X-titles, I was sorely disappointed in this graphic novel.

The beginning, which featured a baseball game with the residents of X-Mansion, was perhaps the only best thing of the entire novel. After that, it just went downhill!

The battle with the Fury just simply bored me. The Fury, to me, was simply a repackaged version of the Sentinels or Nimrod. Except this time, it's...well, computer vs. computer (Sage).

Murderworld...should have stayed buried in the past.

Blah!

The artistry, as always, is top of the line. The story lines are familiar insofar as they don't have charecters with different powers than you grew up with them having. Also the story keeps the pace up to keep you interested.

The X-Men: ReLoad event may have been highlighted by Joss Whedon writing the new Astonishing X-Men book, but one of Marvel's biggest announcements was the return of legendary X-scribe Chris Claremont on the title that he made famous. Collecting the first six issues of Claremont's return to Uncanny X-Men, this TPB opens with a baseball game at the school featuring every X-Man on the roster. It's something Claremont has used plenty of times before, but this is a homecoming for the much criticized scribe of X-Treme X-Men (which has been scrapped and replaced with a new Excalibur series also written by Claremont and worth checking out as well). Wolverine, Storm, Bishop, Sage, Nightcrawler, Marvel Girl, and Cannonball find themselves taking on an enemy called the Fury which may have killed Captain Britain in the first arc, and the second arc focuses on Murderworld. The first arc is undoubtadly the better of the two, featuring gorgeous art by Alan Davis (his rendering of Rachel "Marvel Girl" Summers is luscious to say the least), while the second arc is average at best, but the art by Oliver Coipel is solid. While dialogue has never been Claremont's strong point, his storytelling is still great, and it's fantastic to have him back on Uncanny X-Men. All in all, old time X-fans who tuned out in the mid-90's and felt burned by X-Treme X-Men will want to give this a chance.