X-Treme X-Men Vol. 5: God Loves, Man Kills [Paperback]

Chris Claremont (Author), Igor Kordey (Illustrator), Brent Anderson (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (October 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785112545
• ISBN-13: 978-0785112549
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,235,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the better X-Treme X-Men books, February 10, 2004

By 

N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: X-Treme X-Men Vol. 5: God Loves, Man Kills (Paperback)

Many comic fans have been disappointed with legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont's run on X-Treme X-Men, but this sequel/remake of his classic X-Men storyline is definitely one of the better story-arcs he's thought of of late. William Stryker, the televangilist who almost wiped out mutantkind years ago, has escaped his confines with the help of his new ally Lady Deathstrike, and he has bigger plans for mutantkind this time around, and he is manipulating Shadowcat as well. On his trail are Storm, Wolverine, Bishop, Sage, and Cannonball as the plot thickens and twists are revealed. The story, even though it is nowhere as profound as the original, is solid Claremont style storytelling. Shadowcat has always been one of the best characters that Claremont has ever written, and in this story we get inside her head as Stryker tries to use her to his advantage. The art by Igor Kordey (New X-Men, Cable) is solid as well, even if he tries to hard to draw Wolverine like Hugh Jackman. The real attraction of this book however, is that the original, and now out of print, God Loves, Man Kills story is included here as well as we see Stryker make his first strike at Professor X and his X-Men (which then included Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler). This story is the story that inspired the superb X2: X-Men United film, and this book is worth picking up for the original story alone.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, and the artwork is even worse., September 17, 2004

By 

Bingo Pajama (Miami, FL; USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: X-Treme X-Men Vol. 5: God Loves, Man Kills (Paperback)

Having reaches his creative peak in 1983, Claremont's second run on UNCANNY was very dissapointing, after his inspired initial run. His first two or three arcs on X-TREME were all right, and Salvador Larroca's artwork was beatiful.

"GOD LOVES MAN KILLS 2" is where X-TREME "jumps the shark," so to speak. This is a very poorly written story. I had high expentations fo this one, considering that Reverend Stryker had been absent since his debut in "GOD LOVES MAN KILLS," which was inspired.

This story serves as little more than a movie tie-in. In it, we encounter Stryker, who's suddenly very close with Lady Deathstrike's family; meanwhile (this part may give away something of its incredibly contrived plot) a robot by the name of Reverend Paul who's doing something fairly devious that ultimately comes to nothing.

Meanwhile, the team runs around accomplishing very little.

Not worth reading.

Not worth looking at, either. Salvador Larroca'scovers are beatiful, but the only purpose they serve is to cover up the crap inside. Kordey claims that they love him in Europe, but I haven't seen any evidence of that. As it is, he regards himself as a visionary because he's made the characters ugly. I'm not convinced that this was intentional.

Really, don't touch this.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ugly art (again), and rehashes one of the darkest stories ever, December 29, 2005

By 

C. Reeves "television and romance addict" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: X-Treme X-Men Vol. 5: God Loves, Man Kills (Paperback)

I guess one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy this book is because it just revamped and retold one of my least favorite Uncanny X-Men stories that I ever read, but in more horrifying detail.

William Stryker is effective as an X-villain. He's a televangelist. He's creepy. He killed his only son at birth because he was a mutant, and supposedly "deformed." Oh yeah, and he killed his wife too, for giving birth to him. Sheesh. The original story gave me creeps, particularly the "crucifixion" scene when Stryker manipulates Xavier to turn against his students. Just to add insult to injury, this TPB reprints the original in the back of the book, and offers a behind-the-scenes look into the original story by the Marvel staff.

So with that in mind, I didn't have high hopes for this book going in. I bought it because Shadowcat returned to the team (albeit briefly) from college. I also enjoyed the building relationship between Logan and Ororo, and previously didn't realize Claremont was taking these characters in this direction as early as these issues in this title, I previously thought they weren't interested in each other until Uncanny "The End of History." Nice to be educated...

Anyway, in a nutshell, if you haven't read the individual issues, the X-Men end up in a backwoods mountain town called Mt. Haven. They find, to their consternation, that the town is inhabited by mutant children...no baseline humans, and no adults. This already makes it feel like Children of the Corn. To make matters worse, Lady Deathstrike springs Stryker from his prison transport jet before her body's cybernetic grid is overtaken by an entity who urges to kill Stryker and any who threaten Mt. Haven.

There's a predictable battle between Deathstrike and Logan (yawn). There's more touchy-feely artwork by Kordey (he tends to make the characters look like they are groping each other a lot, especially Sage and Storm in this one, eeew). This book's ending is both grisly and vague, but I won't offer any spoilers. I will, however, recommend only buying this one used, if you are a completist. I will also mention that Magneto played a significant role in the original, namely offering one of the first glimpses of his desire to have Xavier as an ally rather than an enemy. He was nowhere to be seen in this story, and probably should have been. Oh well.