Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I miss the old days, October 31, 2004
Chris Clairmont returns to the Uncanny X-en in an arc featuring a stellar line-up and a first rate villain, but follows with a tedious arc that brings back Murderworld and convinced me to drop the title. In "The end of History", the newest team of Uncanny mutants (consisting of Storm, Rachael Gray, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Bishop, Cannonball, and Sage) go up against the Fury, a nigh-indestructible being that has seemingly killed Brian Braddock, Captain Britain. This arc is full of action and great character moments, but introduces plot threads Clairmont leaves dangling for far to long. The second tale, focusing on Murderworld, is uninspired and utterly pointless, feeling more like a filler arc than anything else. It does feature Oliver Coipel art though, so it isn't a complete bust. Alan Davis handles duties (wonderfully) in the first story.
Should you buy this? I couldn't say one way or another. The first four issues of this six-issue trade are a lot of fun, but its flaws do show the more you look at it. If you're a die hard X-Men fan Clairmont's return is probably something you don't want to pass up.
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20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The End of His Story, December 31, 2004
Just when I thought Chris Claremont's work on X-treme X-Men was the absolute lowest he would be permitted to fall, Marvel editors decide to place him on a creatively struggling book (my opinion) he once made great, with one of the great comic artists alive, Alan Davis. It sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?
It's not good.
Davis is an excellent artist - his character designs are smooth, sexy, powerful, fun (with the notable exception of Storm's hideous outfit). His work flows from page to page, ably taking us to new locations, threats and conflicts both external and internal to the X-teams. (I will say I am already tired of the new generic middle-eastern terrorist villain.)
The failure in the partnership is Claremont's. His plotting is all over the place - character's utilizing their powers in bizarrely cosmic ways; character's changing their perspectives, language, concerns, abilities, desires for no discernible reasons; character's who apparently no longer have their established histories. In short, Claremont has a large enough ego that he throws out all other creators' work (including his own) and refashions these Uncanny X-Men as if he created them today. I guess that's what the title of this arc means: The End of History. There is, literally, no other explanation in the book (unless Mr. Claremont is petty enough to refer to Grant Morrison's exit from the X-Men, and Marvel's decision to forget the run ever happened). The threats are NOT world-shaking, cosmic or even worth worrying about: a lost foe of the Captain Britain book from Marvel UK (the once-terrifying Fury now reduced to a bumbling sentinel), Wolverine's ex-wife with an E-bay purchased slightly-used Murderworld, nanites (the inhibitor fields of the 21st century -- does anyone believe how apparently easy and available nano-technology is?), and of course mind-controlled X-Men. The baseball game that opens the book is perhaps the most exhilirating conflict in the book; Nightcrawler's waltz with Storm above the mansion perhaps the most fun segment; Marvel Girl's powers perhaps the best realized visually (though her new capacity to create localized black holes seems a bit much).
This is not good X-Men. This is why I dropped the book awhile back.
And I'm still looking for reasons to pick it up.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Yes claremont returns, but is this really a good thing?, December 29, 2006
Over the past 30 years the X-men have grown to be one of marvels most induring and lasting icons in the comic medium. Chris Claremont was the writer for the series from 1970 something (whenever the giant sized issue revamped the entire cast) to about 1992-or 1993ish. Between that time the X-men went from obscure comic geek fandom to a well established franchise. They have become just as famous as Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, or any other superhero or superhero group you can think of. And for 20 years or so Chris Claremont was the man behind the rise. They have 3 major movies under their belt (spin-offs planned), a fiercely loyal fan base that includes adults who grew up reading the old comics and new fans of the movies.
When it was announced the beloved Chris Claremont would return to Uncanny X-men for the first time in more then 10 years hopes were high. Maybe he would be the grounding force that the X-titles so badly need these days. Sadly this run has been haphazard at best. What the X-men franchise need is a strong central core. With all the other X-titles, spin-offs, ultimatizing, one-shots, movies, and such then X-men have lost what made Chris Claremont's first run so magical- continuity. Sadly this second run did not return Uncanny to being the center of the X-universe. Rather, it made this team seem less relevant. It is completely at odds with every other X-title that came out at the time (one major character in this run is a character who died/disappeared over 10 years ago and shows up in the first issue of the new run without context as to why she is even alive). While continuity can be seen as an elitist game (you only know it doesn't work if you buy every title, or have read every issue ever- but wait most of the past 20 years of the x-men are available in essential format so you too can read all the expensive back issues for under 20$ and compare), it still holds one truth: the people creating X-titles aren't really talking to each other so each title sees it's team or story as the only important one.
Chris Claremont's "new age" feels more like a step back to the 90's. that wouldn't be bad if the world hadn't moved on. He seems to want to take the characters back to the point they were when he left the title originally. This just doesn't work. They have grown and readers have grown since then.
Chris Claremont's work on the X-treme X-men title has been criticized by many (myself included, full disclosure). The writing in this volume (and the rest of the run) fall victim to the same weakness of that title. He (Claremont) is repeating himself in many of the stories. He takes the group to the savage land again for no particular reason except to go to the savage land. The shi'ar show back up again only to well show back up again (the chasing the pheonix thing is old....). Sometimes he is just verbatim retelling some aspect of the old stories, or at worst reworking them into a new time period with poorer context.
We have seen the baseball/sports team/off day open introduction to a new team of X-men at least in 7 different X-titles all written by Claremont since the 70's. What make this time unique? Nothing. This is the cruelest and most true critique of the "new age" of chris claremont- it isn't new. Every single arc is deriviative of an old story arc which (opinion) was once written better (read the essentials line then see if you disagree with me!).
Claremont's return to the X-men will be only a blip in the long run at best. Read it only if you want to read every X-men comic ever written or if you feel the need to read every issue of uncanny ever written (but then you'd have to read the X-babies too...yechh!).
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