Customer Reviews

Utopia (Avengers / X-Men)

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

 

 

I wish I had known that this collection was not printed in chronological order. If you want the full effect of this story, read it in this order:

Dark Reign The Cabal
Dark Avengers/X-Men Utopia
X-Men Legacy #226 & #227
Dark X-Men The Beginning #1 (Mimic & Dark Beast)
Dark X-Men The Beginning #2 (All)
Dark X-Men The Beginning #3 (Mystique & Jeanne Marie)
Uncanny X-men #513
Dark X-Men The Beginning #3 (Emma/Namor)
Dark X-Men The Beginning #1 (Namor)
Dark Avnegers #7
Uncanny X-men #514
Dark Avengers #8
Dark X-Men The Confession
Dark Avengers/X-Men Exodus

With the "Dark Reign" status quo well underway at Marvel Comics, the spectre of Norman Osborn's rule falls across the pocket-universe of the X-Men, currently ensconced in San Francisco. With supervillain Simon Trask and his Humanity Now! coalition pushing 'Proposition X' to intrude on mutant reproduction rights, riots break out, and Norman, now the overlord of the Marvel United States, is called in to reestablish control of the streets. This collection covers "Uncanny X-Men" #513-514, "Dark Avengers" #7-8, and the event's prologue and epilogue one-shots ("Utopia" and "Exodus"). All of this is written by regular X-writer Matt Fraction, and drawn by an assortment of artists. Some spoilers follow.

Despite this being labelled as a crossover between the Uncanny X-Men and the Dark Avengers, and even involving the Dark Avengers' own title for two months, the actual Dark Avengers are a fairly minor presence in this story, apart from Norman Osborn. For the bulk of the story, the Dark Avengers sit on the sidelines while Osborn attempts to control the situation by using the "Dark X-Men" as a new public relations tool. The crux of this story is the plight of Emma Frost, who had for the previous six months been a member of Norman's Cabal (as a protective measure), and now has to pick a side as Norman comes into conflict with Cyclops and the X-Men. While the Dark Avengers play a small role until the final fight, Fraction is, per usual, playing with an absolutely giant cast of X-Men. Things often come across as a bit cluttered as a result of this, but many chracters get at least one moment. Dani Moonstar of the New Mutants, who has been making due without superpowers for the last few years, gets a particularly significant development.

Through the clutter, Fraction writes a very compelling set of characters in Emma, Norman, and fellow Cabal member Namor. His take on Cyclops is a bit more variable; all the attempts to build Cyclops up as an unquestioned badass leader since "Messiah Complex" haven't been wholly convincing. He also does a good Ares, in the few moments in which Ares does anything. The art credits for this are split four ways: the prologue is done by Marc Silvestri; the UXM issues by Terry Dodson, the regular artist; the Dark Avengers issues by "Captain America" artist Luke Ross, doing his best impression of Mike Deodato; and Deodato himself does the climactic "Exodus" in collaboration with Dodson. It's overall a good-looking collaboration, though the split between the cartoony and the realistic is pronounced.

Overall, this is a pretty good X-Men story, and leaves the characters in a potentially interesting place for future stories.

The X-Men story Utopia (nominally a crossover with Dark Avengers, but make no mistake, this is an X-Men story) is problematic both within the larger context of the X-Men books and on its own terms. In the bigger picture, this story was published all of a year after the X-Men relocated their headquarters to San Francisco -- an event that was marketed as a big deal, a major change in the status quo -- so to have another big change in the status quo arrive so quickly is somewhat disappointing. Further, the line-up of X-books as a whole is suffering from "event fatigue": Utopia follows hot on the heels of the X-crossover Messiah War, and is immediately followed by the X-Necrosha event, which itself is immediately succeeded by the "Second Coming" crossover. The Events are coming so quickly that the stories and characters barely have time to breathe, and even when they do it feels like it's just treading water between events. The line seriously needs to calm down and remember that not every story has to be a Major Event.

As for the Utopia story itself, all six issues are penned by Matt Fraction, one of Marvel's bright young stars. Fraction is at his best focusing on fewer characters. Even his earlier team book, The Order, was structured so that each issue focused on a specific team member. Here, however, he's playing with a cast of hundreds, including three teams, one of which is divided into multiple squads; all these characters are being twined through multiple plot threads, and the overall impression is that Fraction has bitten off a bit more than he can chew. The plot moves along rapidly, but there's so much going on that there's very little narrative momentum to keep the reader engaged, so it's just things happening in sequence instead of an exciting story. And with so many characters all crammed into so many conflicts, very few of them have much of a chance to shine. And Fraction doesn't seem to have a grasp of several of these characters, particularly Daken (Dark Wolverine). As for the art, the cartoony style of the Dodsons and Luke Ross doesn't work terribly well with the tone of the story, especially contrasted with the sharper pencils of Marc Silvestri and Mike Deodato in the bookend chapters. This is a story that would have benefited quite a bit from a more consistent, less cartoony artistic vision.

The story is packaged nicely in an attractive hardcover edition with plenty of material supplementing the disappointing main story. Also included is the "Dark X-Men: The Confession" one-shot by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, in which Cyclops and Emma Frost let each other in on their secrets, providing some vital background information for the main story; the superior two-issue X-Men Legacy tie-in "Suppressing Fire" in which Mike Carey, the best X-writer these days, takes his little team of Rogue, Gambit and Danger through the beginning of the conflict in the main story; the Emma Frost and Namor stories from the "Dark Reign: The Cabal" one-shot, which provide some insight into these characters; and the three-issue anthology title "Dark X-Men: The Beginning", which is basically a bunch of gathering the team stories showing how Norman Osborn assembled his Dark X-Men. These stories are not bad but are largely forgettable, serving to introduce the members of a team that got virtually no introduction in the main event; the best stories of the bunch are, unsurprisingly, those penned by Paul Cornell and Jason Aaron.

To sum up, Marvel has done a very nice job of packaging a disappointing event story with all the supplemental stories that help to flesh it out a bit. If you follow the X-Men comics, this is one you probably shouldn't skip, but don't expect to be blown away, either; the pretty cover and the hype promise much more intensity than the story actually delivers.

Continuity note: The main story in this book follows Uncanny X-Men: Sisterhood and is followed by X-Men: Nation X.

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Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia"
(Marvel Comics, 2011)
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If, by any chance, you got bored with or zoned out on the Marvelous multitude of X-books published over the last few decades, this collection is a good chance to get caught up. It's also a good way to see how the mutant saga ties into the rest of the Civil War/Dark Reign crossover epic. Cyclops leads the remnants of mutantkind in a highly public showdown with government-sanctioned Big Bad Norman Osborn, They make their stand in San Francisco's Castro District, making thumpingly overly-obvious how Marvel's mutant-gay analogy has replaced the previous mutant-racism paradigm. Anyway, I sort of enjoyed the first half of the book, where Osborn's pseudo-Avengers get their butts handed to them multiple times by the wily X-folks; less interesting was the books' second half which features a sloppily-crafted "Dark X-Men" backstory, which ploddingly tells how each member of Osborn's new fake-team was recruited. Still, some good fights, a few moderately interesting plot twists, along with heaping helpings of standard-issue X-tedium and story twists that don't make much sense. Pretty much business as usual, with the advantage that this relatively self-contained story arc brings anyone like me (who grew disenchanted with the "new X-Men" decades ago...) back up to date. An okay story - 3.5 stars would be about right, four is charitable. (Axton)

This hardcover contains: [Dark Avengers/ Uncanny X-Men: Utopia, Dark Avengers/ Uncanny X-Men: Exodus, Uncanny X-Men #513-514, Dark Avengers #7-8, Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1-3; X-Men Legacy #226-227, Dark X-Men: the Confession, and parts of The Cabal]

Overall enjoyed reading this graphic novel. Storyline's percise with a couple of twists and turns. Artwork absolutely wonderful ( Marc Silvestri and Mike Deodato).

Would recommend those who are an X-Men fan or a Dark Avengers fan. Also, this is not recommended for those who are starting to read the X-Men franchise though. Lastly, skip reading "Dark x-Men: The Beginning", because it's redundant and seems like a thirteen year old wrote those.

The formation of the Dark Avengers by Norman Osborn is, in my opinion, genius. In this book, Osborn forms the Dark X-men, and a war ensues between Cyclops and his X-men vs. Dark X-Men and the Dark Avengers. This is very interesting and action packed book, however slightly strange, and about half of the book is unnecessary(second half) as it just provides more insight into the first half. Definitely worth a read, but not sure about the money.

Very good tie into second coming and cool to see dark reign effect o the x-men, since Bendis's dark avengers are so interesting

This compilation represents--almost--every reason I quit being a comicbook collector some time ago. At least they didn't have to cross over into every single Marvel title ever published. So, not quite every reason I quit the game. But close enough. I could tick off my entire list, but I won't. Just a few of the highlights (or lowlights if you prefer): Marginal story telling with mediocre and/or rare character development; endless, "epic" super-team clashes with no real resolution ... ever; a tendency to shoe-horn way to much into too little plot; and, of course, barely passable artwork.

The sad part is, overall, it's not a bad idea ... it's just poorly executed. And I really do have to give Marvel credit for keeping this "event" fairly self-contained for a change. There are parts of this story I do like, the most significant of which is getting to see Scott Summers (Cyclops) really step up in his role as the nominal leader of the X-Men. Plus--without giving too much away just in case you bother to read this thing--a few other marginal characters get a shot at the bigtime for a change. And let's just add that any time you get to see Ares (gah!) get his butt kicked ... that's a bonus.

Bottom line is this: I read it and I didn't hate every moment of it. I actually felt motivated to push my way through. There are worst ways to waste a couple of hours ... any given episode of American Idol, for example. But mostly, by the time I finished it, I felt relieved I hadn't spent an entire year wading through this mess. That would have just ticked me off.

The X-Men vs. the Dark Avengers and Norman Osborne, and the X-Men establishing Utopia, a place where all mutants can live in freedom without prejudice. All of this make this a great X-Men read.

This book presents the fight for the survival of the mutant race, you will see Cyclops at his best, as the leader the x-men needs.