Customer Reviews

X-Men: Second Coming

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

X-Men Second Coming is a great X-Men story. We've had to deal with a lot of half hearted X-Events lately from the terrible Utopia to the mediocre Nation X or Messiah War, but this one really shines. If you've read any of the recent events this is most similar to Messiah Complex not only in plot but in general feel, all of the X-Men play at least minor parts and it really has an epic scope. The only real problem with X-Men second coming is while it starts fantastic (with about the first 6 issues) it does start to lose a little steam, that being said you still get a great story and about half the plot lines are resolved, and really if you were expecting any more than half the answers you haven't been reading comics long.

On to the art, we've got primarily four artists at work here, Mike Choi, Greg Land, Terry Dodson, and Ibraim Robertson. Mike Choi is one of the best artists in the business today, he's got a great realistic style and his action sequences are visceral and engaging, there won't be many who can find anything to complain about on his X-Force issues. Terry Dodson's style is also solid, but a bit more cartoony which may push more people away especially when compared to the other artists who are all strictly realistic, this is some of his best work though recently. Greg Land is possibly the most dividing comic book artist of all time, if you're a comic fan you love him or you hate him and you already know which, if your new to comics his style is amazingly realistic, mostly because he uses photo referencing and you'll probably enjoy it but be aware repeated exposure to Land will wear on you as he tends to reference his own art over and over and suddenly you'll start realizing you've already seen this picture of Wolverine before. Ibraim Robertson is the newcomer here and it shows. Not that his style is bad by any means, but his work is the least standout and even though he does a great job with facial expressions his action sequences leave a little to be desired.

As for the story itself, like a said its done well though it does peter off a bit at the end, and we have a great crew of writers. Mike Carey and Zeb Wells issues are really the best here, both writers do action and dialogue perfectly, and Craig Kyle and Chris Yost aren't far enough behind in this department for you to really notice, however Matt Fraction's Uncanny issues do leave a little to be desired, because its only a small number of issues you wont notice it much but there are a few places where you might find yourself asking, does this really sound like something an X-Man would say.

There's not much in the way of extras in this collection, simply the previously free issue prepare which is little more than hype for the story itself, and a few spreads that were included in issue 1, but its still a great buy. Maybe we wont see Whedon on Astonishing X-Men again anytime soon, but until that happens this and X-Men Messiah Complex are the best X-Men stories your money could buy.

Recommended Reading prior to this volume, X-Men Messiah Complex, X-Force Volume 1

The stakes are always staggering now in the X-Men universe. For our merry band of mutants (who haven't been merry in a long while), it's gone beyond superheroing and now gone beyond merely shaking off humanity's prejudice. In the aftermath of the House of M, it's become a deadly struggle for survival, a case of impending genocide. But, hey, is that a flicker of hope way over yonder, at the end of the SECOND COMING arc? Maybe. Or maybe Chris Claremont, Patron Saint of Kicking Mutants to the Curb, is somewhere stabbing needles into tiny X-Men voodoo dolls.

SECOND COMING is the final arc in a trilogy begun with MESSIAH COMPLEX and MESSIAH WAR. The Messiah Complex arc a few years ago introduced Hope, the first mutant baby born since the House of M doomed mutantkind into extinction. Hope instantly became the focal point in a frantic race as the X-Men and other mutant groups try to be the first to reach her. Messiah Complex ended with Hope and her protector, Cable, time sliding to the future, and for a while the dust settled.

MESSIAH WAR, I think I won't go into that much. It's basically a time travel adventure as X-Force travels to the future and meets up with Cable and Hope, and they get into a fighty fight with Stryfe.

The Second Coming saga features the return of Cable and Hope to the present day world, with Hope now sixteen years old and veteran of countless narrow escapes. It doesn't take long for their presence to be noted not only by the X-Men but also by the opposition, which at this juncture is identified as Bastion, the mutant-hating robot sentinel from the future, and his resurrected cronies. And here we go again.

There are only 181 people with the X-gene now left on the planet, and so things are even more desperate, the scale even more epic. How has Scott Summers changed? Cyclops, over the past few years, has become a darker and more militant leader, and there's no time anymore to see things only in white or black. Ethics have been compromised. His faith and his pragmatism will cost him and his X-Men and will alienate some of his teammates. The secret of Cyclops' covert kill team comes out, and Nightcrawler and Storm are only two of those who aren't happy campers. I love the frenzied, all-out action, I love the all-inclusiveness as Cyclops pretty much calls for the entire mutant population on Utopia to help fight for their own lives, to defend Utopia and the besieged city of San Francisco. Bastion is such a formidable adversary, man, and has access to minions numbering in the thousands. And he commands other even more frightening resources. He's even got an infiltrator in Utopia. Step by calculating step, Bastion strips away the X-Men's best tactical assets. For the mutants, reeling at the precipice, that sense of desperation rises and rises.

Bastion will stop at nothing to kill Hope. The battle-hardened, grown callous Cyclops will sacrifice everyone to keep her safe. So, yes, there are fatalities. One longtime, beloved character buys it. There are many occasions for various X-Men to step up, and they do. I, for one, appreciate that Doug Ramsay has a pivotal role to play here. I love all the high stakes drama. In the end, was it all worth it? I won't say.

I love trades, man. It so simplifies the keeping track of these crossover comics, makes for better, non-stop reading, too, and you're better able to absorb the writers' juggling of the huge assembly of characters and the handling of the sprawling plot threads. Accordingly, X-MEN SECOND COMING collects SECOND COMING: PREPARE, X-MEN: SECOND COMING #1-2, UNCANNY X-MEN #523-525, NEW MUTANTS #12-14, X-MEN LEGACY #235-237, and X-FORCE #26-28. All these issues combine to shape an epic story arc, and I am very curious now to see where Marvel is going with Hope.

I'll keep it brief. The reviews by Ant and H.Bala pretty much say it all, but I want to heap my praise on this book. This is absolutely the greatest. I've pretty much followed almost all the X-Men titles since 1985 or so. This series was utterly modern Marvel, while it also paid direct homage to the entire X-Men history in a way that made all that history meaningful and poignant. I actually shed tears reading this. Yes, it is a little melodramatic-- but once you accept that...

And Matt Fraction finally stopped using those stupid little boxes that identify the characters! In fact, you would hardly know it was Matt Fraction writing it-- all his little tics and imbecilities were gone.

I quite simply cannot wait to see what comes next!

I have to say that I'm a fan of the X-men since a long time and it is cool to see again a great moment of the X-History been written. I'm one of those that says "there is nothing as good in the X-Men since Age of Apocalypse and Onslaugt" well... There is something as good as those two stories now thanks to Second Coming and the Messiah trilogy.

Messiah Complex is amazing, and Messiah War is cool, a lot of action and a good use of old nemesis of the X-family, but Second Coming is Epic. This closing is awesome, it puts everything that makes x-stories so good. It has sacrifice, it has the roller coaster feeling that in any moment everything is going to hell and has an epic climax that saves the future of the whole mutankind... what else can you ask for?

It is great to see at last why Bastion is worthy to be an X-Villain, here he demonstrates all the raw power that being the amalgam of Master Mold and Nimrod delivers, Zero Tolerance should have shown this a decade ago, and on top of that The Dream is reborn! the dark path that was taken by Cyclops on need comes to an end and Wolverine decides to keep it alive with nobody knowing... Second Coming just put the mutankind in an opportunity to regrowth but also opens a myriad of doors for new things on the X-men, from the possibility of legal actions against the True Leader of the X-Men to create an internal conflict to stop X-Force...

That it has a lot of the same things of always, like mutant martyrs that probably will resucitate in a few years, the insane plan that goes through and saves the day and the reapparition of a well known universal force... well yes. But that is the X-men and that is why so many of us love them!

This is a MUST book for a X-Fan

The book, X-Men Second Coming, pretty much contains the entire story and is presented in the proper reading order, unlike the last few previous X-Men event books (Nation X and Utopia.) The additional book, X-Men Second Coming Revelations, contains stories that act as an addendum to the main event and are not necessary to read in order to appreciate or understand the main story. If, however, you are a completist and would like to read both books in a chronological order without spoilers, here is the best way to read them.

X-Men: Hope (SC Revelations)
Second Coming: Prepare (SC)
X-Men Second Coming #1 (SC)
Uncanny X-Men #523 (SC)
New Mutants #12 (SC)
X-Men Legacy #525 (SC)
X-Factor #204-#206 (SC Revelations)
X-Force #26 (SC)
Uncanny X-Men #524 (SC)
X-Men Hellbound #1 (SC Revelations)
New Mutants #13 (SC)
X-Men Blind Science #1 (SC Revelations)
X-Men Legacy #236 (SC)
X-Force #27 (SC)
X-Men Hellbound #2-#3 (SC Revelations)
New Mutants #14 (SC)
X-Men Legacy #237 (SC)
X-Force #28 (SC)
X-Men Second Coming #2 (SC)

I'll try and keep this short and sweet. I love the X-Men. I am by no means an expert on them, but I find the X-Men titles much more interesting than most other comics with big teams of super heroes. I rarely love crossovers, but I thought this one was fantastic. I've read Messiah Complex and Messiah War (the two crossovers leading up to this one), but Second Coming is definitely the most satisfying.

In recent years, mutants have stopped being born. On top of that, there are less that two hundred mutants left on Earth, and radical human groups are invested in the extinction of the mutant race. A new mutant baby is finally born, and now she is the X-Men's only possibility of a future with humans and mutants. Second Coming chronicles Hope's return to the X-Men as a teenager and their struggle to prevent the end of their race.

The highlights: An enjoyable and easy to follow story. Doesn't require a great deal of prior knowledge, but it still has lots of character appearances and details for fans. Some longtime X-characters die, which isn't a good thing, but something you won't want to miss. The art is fantastic! This crossover includes several artists from various X-titles. My favorite is David Finch, but almost every issue has fantastic art. All of the covers and variant covers are included in this collection, and they are beautiful! Finally, it's one of the few crossovers I've read that has good pacing, a mixture of art that isn't distracting, and a story that is worth reading and will affect X-Men comics for years to come.

Things to consider: Most of the plot is well explained, but there are a few characters and plot points that may not make sense without prior knowledge. This didn't bother me, but if you're picky about such things, beware! There is a bit of graphic violence. This is pretty limited, but there were two or three images I found disturbing. This may not bother you, but you should know that this book is definitely not for young children (surprise, surprise).

This wasn't as short as I planned, but I hope it was sweet! If you're looking for a fun story-arc to get you updated on recent happenings in the X-universe, this is definitely the book for you!

I'm not one for multi-paragraph reviews, like I've seen most ppl write here. I recieved this book today, opened it up & read it in one sitting. ALOT better then I thought it would be & got me wanting to read more.

X-MEN second coming is a very good book even though it was very rushed. I am a huge fan of DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. This story is about as close to a continuation of that story as you will get in this lifetime from Marvel. You get to see ROGUE finally cut loose even though it was too short in my opinion. My one gripe was that my favorite character WARPATH was left out of the story except for one panel in the end. I don't want to say to much and ruin it for anyone that actually hasn't read this. My gripes are small because I bought this even after I read the original comics, so that says how good this is. I sold the originals to buy this story in Hard Cover.

X-Men Second Coming finishes what started with House of M, Messiah Complex, and Messiah War. With the future trying to kill the "Mutant Messiah" The X-Men band together to make sure she survives. The twists and turns in these 14 chapters are insane. You have deaths of a few X-Men to the emergence of new one. Five stars is well worth it.

I read X-Men Second Coming and I simply can't believe it. This is one of the best comic series I've ever read in a very long time. This ranks with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Strikes Back, Man Machine Interface (Ghost In the Shell) and Superman Judgment Day.

But what's really incredible about Second Coming is even if you start out from here it can still work as a standalone movie. Speaking of which a movie based on Second Coming would flat out dominate the box office. But filming something like this may be impossible. Which is why I'm loving this comic book. This is without a doubt a keeper for the library. Getting this in hardcover is a must. So get it and don't look back. I had no regrets.