Customer Reviews

X-Men 2099 - Volume 1

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I came to this book with a great deal of nostalgia. I think I had a subscription as a teenager, and I have many fond memories of afternoons spent following the futuristic adventures of Skullfire, Cerebra, Krystalin, and the rest of the team as they roamed the deserts and high-rises of Marvel 2099. This volume is a great gift for nostalgic fans, with well-preserved images, straightforward presentations of the first nine issues in order (with two pages of text to describe the other chapters of the Fall of the Hammer crossover - not the best way to collect the crossover, but understandable), and a few images of the characters from trading card artwork. Ron Lim's clean lines and expressive faces are still my favorite straightforward superhero style (as an adult, I prefer other styles, but this is my favorite example of the simple but effective style of the 1990s), and some of the themes explored seem remarkably prescient (I don't know exactly what the Theatre of Pain was meant to represent before reality television came along to fulfill its prophecy). However, I am wary of sharing this book with new readers who didn't first encounter its content in 1993. The clothing/hair/etc. are a mildly embarrassing set of 80s updates (mullets abound), and Moore's dialogue is heavy on exposition and light on individual personality. The ideas are still good, and I eagerly anticipate more volumes of 2099 titles, but for a book about the future, the artistic sensibilities with which this volume was constructed became dated awfully quickly.