Customer Reviews

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1: Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ed Brubaker's (Captain America, Daredevil, Sleeper) run on Uncanny X-Men begins here in this deluxe sized hardcover space opera. Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire picks up where the pieces of Brubaker's X-Men: Deadly Genesis mini-series left off, as forgotten Summers brother Vulcan is back and out for revenge, and has hopes of using the Shi'ar to his advantage to do so. Before you can say intergalactic, the X-Men are out in space and up to their necks in trouble as well; all of which culminates in one quite underwhelming finale. That's what the most disappointing thing about Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire is; it appears that Brubaker is setting things up for a massive payoff that never quite comes to fruition. The end comes, and when it does, there's nothing really set in stone and are left feeling as if there's more to the story, which of course, there always is. The artwork from Billy Tan and Clayton Henry is pretty good though, and there's enough action and mayhem to satisfy many a X-Men fan, so the book isn't a total loss. All in all, Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire is worth a look for longtime X-Men readers, but the end result is pretty underwhelming.

Ed Brubaker is perhaps the best writer in comics, principally because of his brilliant run on "Captain America" that began in 2005. He arrived on "Uncanny X-Men" in 2006 as part of a simultaneous relaunch that also had Mike Carey taking over "X-Men (v.2)". I had high expectations for my favourite writer taking over my all-time favourite franchise; the result is somewhat hard to judge; ultimately, I would say it is middling.

To start, this story does not have a full beginning; it spins out of the events of Brubaker's good "X-Men: Deadly Genesis" miniseries, although the events therein are explained satisfactorily here, and Brubaker fairly quickly gets things moving. However, the story does not have an end either; it continues into the "X-Men: Emperor Vulcan" miniseries by Chris Yost (and will go further, based on the end of that miniseries). The main achievement of this story is a major shift in status quo for the Shi'ar Empire, before Brubaker headed back to Earth with around half the cast he took out in the first place; the rest of his run since has been focussed on more Earth-bound matters. That said, I enjoyed the story arc; Brubaker is a superb craftsman, and he does good work with a couple of characters whose status quos had been rather poor when he took them up.

The core story here sees Professor X take a team of X-Men in pursuit of Vulcan, the younger brother of the X-Men Cyclops and Havok, who has gone to seek his revenge on the Shi'ar Empire. All the standard pieces of the X-Men space operas that have played out since Claremont introduced the Shi'ar are here: Xavier's love interest and former wife Lilandra, Empress of the Shi'ar; her traitorous sister Deathbird; the Imperial Guard, most notably Superman-analogue Gladiator (Brubaker wins big points for respecting his power levels); and the Starjammers, including Vulcan's (and Cyclops and Havok's) father Corsair, and Corsair's lover Hepzibah. Brubaker shakes things up a bit by bringing a new piece into play, one that hadn't been seen in decades, which I won't spoil (sufficed to say that it's actually rather remarkable it took this long for someone to revive it).

The team consists of Xavier, Havok, Nightcrawler, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers), Polaris, Darwin (a new character introduced by Brubaker in "Deadly Genesis"), and Warpath. Brubaker's handling of these characters is mixed. By far his biggest success is with Warpath, a character who had been around for two decades, and was tangentially a "New Mutant" in the 80s and then a notable member of "X-Force" in the 1990s, and finally gets to join the X-Men in this story; Brubaker brought Warpath centre-stage, equipping him with a couple of deadly Vibranium knives, and plays him as the team's brawler; he's the kind of physical fighter Brubaker writes well. Havok and Polaris arrived in this run after some rather terrible stories from Chuck Austen and Peter Milligan (and Howard Mackie, years earlier), and Brubaker dedicates some time to mending their decades-long relationship. Darwin, a character Brubaker created, gets some good moments too. Rachel gets a strong introduction, tying into the events of Claremont's "End of Greys" story, but this peters out, and she soon is involved in a rather unconvincing relationship with another character. Nightcrawler (nominally the leader) is a nonentity here.

The art duties here are divided between two artists: Billy Tan (issues 475-476, 478-479, 481-482, 484-486), who does the main story, and Clayton Henry (issues 477, 480, 483), who does three installments focussed on Vulcan. I actually prefer Henry's work to Tan's, whose facial expressions can sometimes be lacking; however, both are fine, although not extraordinary.

So, in the end, this is a good story, and it reads better collected than stretched over twelve months, but it is not a complete story, so that should be kept in mind when contemplating a purchase. I consider it worthwhile for fans of Brubaker and the X-Men (and the characters involved). It is certainly a significant story as concerns the Shi'ar.

I was super excited to hear that Brubaker would be writing Uncanny X-Men. He's easily one of my favorite writers and I am a fan of everything that he writes. However, it just didn't live up to what he's capable of.
For one, the plotting and pacing were far too slack for a story this size. An epic arc needs to be EPIC, and it just didn't have the scope. There were a good portion of the arc that just didn't move, or moved at the last page, and even then the payoff wasn't very good. This whole arc could have been resolved in half as many issues.
The other thing was how shallow Vulcan is as a character. Deadly Genesis was rather bland at his characterization, but he's given no motivation for his actions or his personality. It's just a stew of cliches mashed together for the purpose of the story.
But, before I say that I hated this entire arc, I will say that the characterizations of the rest of the cast are well thought out, and that Billy Tan turns in very good work, bolstered by the amazing coloring work of Frank D'Armata.
It's a very mixed bag, and, to be honest, if you like Brubaker, pick it up if you want, but overall, it's a serviceable X-Men story that delivers on its premise and succeeds in setting up an interesting new status quo.

To start, i was almost turned off to this by the negative reviews on this site. But when it comes down to it the X-men in space written by Ed Brubaker was enough to draw my dollars in. And i'm glad i went with my gut because this is what the x-men is all about. Professor X, feeling guilt over the Vulcan situation he created gathers a team of X-men to take into space to try to make right the situation and stop Vulcan from destroying the Sh'iar and his ex wife Lilandra. This team consists of Havok, Polaris, Warpath, Rachel Summers and Nightcrawler. Its a strange teaming of x-men, but all the originals (cyclops, and the rest) are as warpath puts it "pissed at you right now".
But the team works, Warpath has never been my favorite, but after this run hes one of them now. And i've always kinda liked Havok. The rest are pretty well written also. New characters are introduced, theres a lot of political intrigue on the shi'ar end. The art is amazing. Its the same artist who did "deadly genesis", so if you enjoyed that he just gets better in this volume.
No, vulcan is not the most realized villain and i always thought maybe he was just poorly written, but there is an explanation in this story why he often acts though hes a 15 year old. And it kinda makes sense. But his supporting cast of villains in this story really flesh him out a bit.
The end isn't really an ending, and yes the follow up is the 'Emperor Vulcan' trade which can also be bought cheap at amazon. But the end of this does change the status quo of the x-men and to the shi'ar empire.
Bottom line is, that if you enjoy the x-men "space opera" type of stories you will love this. What i really like about this story is that i really feel like the x-men are underdogs, and since they aren't the MAIN characters anything could happen to them. Its epic in scope, the art is top notch and i really feel like i'm reading a throwback story but with better art and writing. If you hate the x-men space stories then save your money.
BUT if you do enjoy the x-men stories in space (phoenix sage, the brood, and so on) then your money couldn't be better spent than right here.

i wont give to much of the plot away, but this is one of the greatest Xmen storys i've ever read. the way Brubaker bought together such a different x team (warpath, rachael summers, polaris, havok, darwin and the professor) created a strong platform, from which brilliant characterisation could grow. Warpath and Darwin are just amazing. throughout the collection, we see darwin really come into his own right as potentially the one of the greatest x men. i cant rate this book highly enough. It's so huge and cinematic in it's scope i found myself totally absorbed.
Art? un-believable. Billy tan was given his chance to really shine in a mainstream series, and he absolutely kills it! i've never seen such impressive action, subtle expression through dialogue scenes and attenion to detail.

buy this book. and smile cause you know it wont let you down, no matter how many times you re-read it!

The X-Men have had epic space adventures in their past, mostly during the Claremont/Byrne days. This venture into space by Ed Brubaker, Billy Tan, & Clayton Henry is a big step below but still a solid story. Too much however revolves around the character of Vulcan who I really don't like but almost any book with the Shi'ar and Starjammers pulls me in. The art at times wasn't up to par especially the design of a new character named Korvus who looked way way too much like Wolverine and his sword was ridiculous. I enjoyed that this collection did have actual events that will have ramifications for the future. Just a solid X-Men space opera with decent art. Solid but not spectacular.

Uncanny X-Men: Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire collects issues #475-486 of Uncanny X-Men, originally published between 2006 and 2007. The hardcover version is over-sized (taller and wider than a typical Marvel graphic novel) and has finished boards with gold foil-stamping. Extras include character designs, cover pencils and sketches, and two interesting interviews, one with Ed Brubaker and the other with Billy Tan.

Brubaker's story here is a direct follow-up from X-Men: Deadly Genesis, but where that book fiddled around with X-Men history, this one sets its sights on the future, laying the groundwork for War of Kings and Realm of Kings. Considered on its own, however, Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire makes for a slightly underwhelming cosmic epic. Partly this is because Brubaker doesn't clearly layout the stakes of the book, but a bigger problem has to do with the villain of the story, Vulcan, who is probably the most one-dimensional bad guy to appear in a Marvel comic since Adolf Hitler. As for the art, Billy Tan's work is good and will likely please many fans, but this reviewer found his panels too figure-centered and too light on background detail for a cosmic story. Where's the majesty of alien cultures?

If you're a fan of the X-Men or Marvel's cosmic books, this is definitely worth picking up. And, since the hardcover sells for only a few dollars more than the trade paperback (at least, at the time of this review), you might as well pick up the hardcover.

Love the space stories! Especially now that the Shi ar are the enemies of the X-Men again! A classic story in the making!

This is a pretty solid story line seeing the x-men chase after one of their own bent on revenge against the Shi-ar empire. The pacing of the story and the art work are solid four star fare. Not quite sure how much I like the loose ends at both the beginning and conclusion of this story -- point being there are at least two other series you need to read to get the full picture. I have read neither X-men deadly genesis (the precursor to this story) or X-men Emperor Vulcan (the next installment after this story). One might want to consider the quality of these two series before buying Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar empire because if those other series' are not up to snuff, you'd want to consider investing your cash elsewhere.

After the "Deadly Genesis" mini-series, I was highly skeptical when Ed Brubaker was announced as the new ongoing writer for the "Uncanny X-Men." It turns out that I didn't have anything to fear: "Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" is a fun, rollicking space epic in the vein of Chris Claremont's "The Phoenix Saga." Brubaker expertly balances character development with action. With Billy Tan's pencils, it's almost a 5-star book...except for the villain. The villain--the third Summers brother, Vulcan--is an "omega-level" mutant with vaguely-defined energy powers. As such, it sometimes feels like his mutant "powers" change as the story calls for.