Customer Reviews

X-Treme X-Men Volume 7: Storm - The Arena TPB

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Truly, I was shocked by this story. I didn't have especially high expectations for it, but it was worse than I possibly could've imagined. This may be the worst story that Claremont ever wrote; and that's saying a lot, considering that since his inspired original run on Uncanny, he's written some horrible (really, HORRIBLE) stories.

In this arc, Claremont rehashes a story he's already done over and over again; only this time, it's much worse. Essentially, Storm infiltrates a mutant fighting arena, is beaten physically and mentally by Masque, and then wins control of the arena.

As it is, Masque was a horribly deformed man whose mutant ability allowed him to alter anyone's appearance but his own (the catch-22). Plus, he was killed, around ten years ago. Currently, Masque is a woman, very much alive, and able to do whatever he/she pleases.

And is if it isn't bad enough, Claremont reintroduces Tullamore Voge, a character from possibly his terrible second run on UNCANNY, who had very little potential to begin with.

And the frosting on the cake: it's illustrated by Igor Kordey (don't let Salvador Larroca's covers fool you), who, while slightly better than usual, still does a terrible job on the artwork. The fight scenes, contrived as they are, are made worse by his awkward drawings.

This story is entirely unreadable. I was barely able to skim them. As it is, after the first issue, I let them pile up, and then forced myself to skim them in one sitting. Agonizing, at best.

I ask that you not buy this. Note that Claremont himself admits that this was a poor story.

I never realized that Claremont could drop to this level, though.

I enjoy Claremont's writing in the rest of the X-Treme X-Men series, but it got sketchy and confusing here. Coupling the half-baked, ill-conceived story with the atrocious artwork by Kordey didn't help matters. I'm glad I bought this volume used (and it came to me in excellent condition, by the way).

This graphic novel was all about Storm, so it didn't feature any "extras" like annuals or reprinted story arcs that follow the same theme (i.e., Volume 5, God Loves, Man Kills or the stupid reprint of the Uncanny X-Men annual in the end of Volume 8; the art was good in that annual, but the story was STOOPID). Storm is a complex character. Here we get to see her "wild side," which has been rearing its head more often in current continuity of Uncanny. Storm visits Japan to investigate "the Arena," which may be a cover for a mutant slaver named Tullamore Voge. She does this as a favor for Colonel Vazhin, whose history with Storm is never well fleshed-out in "Intifada," but obviously it is significant...or something. The good part about Storm going to Japan is that we get to see her up to some mischief with Yukio again (yay). The bad thing is, well, everything else. Here are some points worth noting:

1) The costumes look like something out of a Thunderdome movie, complete with butt-baring chaps and mesh in weird places. Kordey draws some of the ugliest mutants conceived to wear them, too. The owner of the Arena is some dude named Koga Masato, who seems strangely androgynous and power-free for an arena manager.

2) Masque is female. It is never explained if she is Masque from the original Morlocks (i.e., Mutant Massacre, Gene Nation, etc.) or if this is someone that just so happens to have identical powers and similar history of hating the X-Men (especially Storm). The original Masque was a gnomish, homely, and gender-questionable guy in a cape. Someone tell me when he made himself female? Or when Claremont and Kordey decided to?

3) Once again, too many mutants spoil the broth. The villains have stupid powers and dumb codenames again (Purge and Paradise, Silkworm, etc.) If you have read Volume 8 yet (with lame villains like Rolling Thunder and Cudgel), then you know what I am talking about. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

4) Callisto is back. But we see nothing of her previous, justified hatred of Storm. And Kordey is getting touchy-feely with the womenfolk again, Cal spends most of the issue with her tentacles wrapped around Storm in, well, suggestive positions. Cal's powers were never well defined in the Marvel Universe, anyway, but her tentacles make her super-strong. Whoop-de-doo. I miss the more vengeful, devious Cal of the "Storm" miniseries 1-4.

5) Yukio is stifled. She only has about two seconds of meaningful dialogue in the whole book, then spends the rest of the book getting her tookus handed to her. Isn't she supposed to be a masterless samurai in the same class as Wolverine and Viper in terms of fighting ability? As well as a master thief? How did she end up in this predicament?

6) Guido's back. But Guido's a whining wuss. He helps Storm and Yukio navigate through the Arena and explains its grim purpose, but that's it. You'll ask yourself what he's even doing in this book.

Storm's personality has developed interestingly. I like that she is more Americanized in her speech, finally. Although I still doubt she would say anything as mall princess-sounding as "I hope he likes his prezzie." (see third to last page. DUMB.)

I liked this series, but this arc is the least cohesive and the most poorly drawn, which is really too bad, since you think of Storm as such a gorgeous character. The only improvement in the art is the "dynamics" of each frame, since there are some good close-ups. Unfortunately, a lot of them are of the characters' butts. In chaps. Skip this one.

I bought this book because I follow all the X titles and I have been very impressed by the direction the others are taking. I thought that X-treme X-men was pretty solid given the involvement of Chris Claremont, who I grew up reading, and the good first two collections.
However the fifth, sixth, and seventh books have been a big disappointment. This book was definitely the worst so far. It is half lame Bloodsport rip-off and half badly developed torture and revenge story. It doesn't help that they chose Storm as the protagonist, in my opinion one of the least interesting members of the X-men. She suffers from the same problem Cyclops does, that being the leader she has to make the right choices rather than the ones with any character or personality. This book seems like some kind of attempt to remedy that lack of depth, but it fails miserably. We are supposed to believe that Storm would go in without the rest of her team initially and then never call them to help once she gets into trouble. Or are we supposed to buy into the concept that she gets off on all the gladiatorial combat. I didn't really understand Storm's motivation in allowing herself to become a part of the Arena. It also didn't help that it was mostly supporting players that got most of the dialog. I also thought it was ridiculous that Storm allowed the Arena to continue at the end of the book. They had setup that the X-treme X-men are becoming mutant police in the previous book, but Storm allows this brutal practice with elements of slavery and torture to continue. This could have been a much better book as a Wolverine or Bishop mini-series, where they are actually investigating the arena.
But by far the worst part of this book was the art. Igor Kordey is by far the worst artist on an X-book. I cant understand why marvel has given him a title from one of its premiere franchises. His work has an unfinished, amateur quality that makes me wonder why I bought the book. I will not be buying anymore. What really annoys me is that Marvel pulls the typical bait and switch of having flashier if not great artist Salvador Larroca do the covers while the pages are full of junk.

this book collects x-treme x-men #36-39. this story arc was orig going to be a limited series, but they made it part of the core series, prob. to increase sales b/c the story is so mediocre and full of holes. claremont gets bogged down in set-up and doesn't develop the actual story nearly enough. the story is so quick and shallow the only reaction you'll get is "huh? so what?"

it's another arena story which claremont has already done in other series, this time featuring storm. storm is a great character, but she doesn't do anything new here. at least we get to see some old favs, like callisto (w/ some great new upgrades), strong guy, and yukio. masque is the main villain. kordey's art isn't his best and his average art is really unremarkable. he does have some nice costume designs, though, and as a bonus this TPB includes some of k's design sketches of costumes and his floorplan for rogue's house (although rogue is barely in this series).

I have to say that I am developing a love for alternatives to the X-Men in the Marvel universe.

I don't really know how to explain it, but this TPB is one reason I've started appreciating the tight characterization of the 'Marvel Knights: Fantastic Four' line in contrast to 'X-Treme X-Men'.

This book is boring, ugly and it is one of the X-Men stories that illustrates how underappreciated Ororo is in many X stories. I know that her personality has suffered since becoming one of the X-Men's leaders; she quickly fell from intriguing Mother Earth figure to strong, angry, black woman.

Storm is becoming very depressing to read about; she's rarely happy with the X-Men and she is fast losing her original appeal. Claremont completely loses her here. It makes me wish for the rather clear, concise personality she had in 'All New, All Different'. She has so much baggage and this storyline shows exactly what happens when a character is maintained simply because of the dramatic effect of their powers when they really should be killed or streamlined.

Storm lets go of her stiffness and things she's holding back for a little bit of a savage experience

It's new, it's fun, it's laid back