JeanSebastien
Sunday, February 13, 2011, 06:58 PM
Title: X-Men, Vol. 2 #7
Rating:
Publisher: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com/)
Writer: Victor Gischler
Artist: Chris Bachalo
Number of pages: 32
Price: $3.99
Color: Color
Safety Content Label: T+
Cover Variants:
What came before?: The whole Curse of the Mutant story arc
Plot Summary: It's a new age for the X-Men. Cyclops and company have declared it a time to be heroes. Wherever a citizen is in need, there's an X-Man on the job. But strange rumors have come to the attention of the X-Men, and Storm and her team are off to New York City to investigate. What do they find in the dank sewers beneath Manhattan? Only New York's favorite wall-crawler has the answers.
My Comments:
What did I enjoy?
The first thing that hit me right on when I cracking this issue open was, Chris Bachalo's Art, I'm loving it. This guy can really put some cool detail in a sewer. I have to say, his art is what saves this issue. I also have to give him props on his Coloring. That ladies and gents, is pretty much all I enjoyed about this issue.
What did I hate?
Ok So to name stuff that bugged me, and there where a couple let me tell you:
1- The unorthodox panels. I'm not a crack pot and I don't preach that you should NEVER ^#%$&* with the panel scheme but in this case, it feels like its cut too tight and that there is way too much movement. Fine, they are walking threw a sewer for most of the issue but I feel like I'm seeing nothing of the scenery and too much of our heroes. As mentioned, the art looks epic, but it feels like Chris Bachalo is trying to compensate for the lack of action by thugnning the Panels and cutting a bunch of them together.
Here's an example of what I mean:
We feel there is movement / action going on but... we literally don't see the rest of the picture (or should I say the big picture?)
2- The writing kind of falls flat. The story arc is really "cheap" and feels like its coming right out of something like the Curse of the Twilight... My bad, Curse of the Mutants story arc. So the curse story arc wasn't the best but at least they tried to make it epic. This new arc, if it actually is an arc and not just filler, is all about the X-men going back to their roots: Help people to better the X-mens image. This time though, there's a twist! They have a P.R Firm telling them that's what they need to do to get their ratings up! Falls flat in my opinion. Also bringing Emma Frost on for some funny banter about her bringing some style down to the sewers and her ranting 2 panels into the sewers is kinda dumb, what did you expect? It's a sewer and your half naked!
3 - I did not like the cover spoiler. Putting Spidey on the cover kind of ruined it for me as I knew who was going to show up! He only shows up on the last page but still, maybe don't put Spider-Man on your cover and let me go: "Oh cool Spidey!" over "Hey they are going to NYC and Spideys on the cover"; it made me look for Spider-Man every page I turned.
In the end?
Worth buying? Sure why not-it's a spring board for a new arc. The next issue will have a Spider-Man crossover and there might be some cool action going on in the sewers / NYC. Who knows, maybe the Story arc might become more clear in the upcoming issues. That being said, on its own, right now, this issue isn't that great.
I'm not sure why some other reviewers elsewhere gave this a higher grade, I might be missing something; however, in my honest opinion, what I said above is how I see this issue.
Rating:
Publisher: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com/)
Writer: Victor Gischler
Artist: Chris Bachalo
Number of pages: 32
Price: $3.99
Color: Color
Safety Content Label: T+
Cover Variants:
What came before?: The whole Curse of the Mutant story arc
Plot Summary: It's a new age for the X-Men. Cyclops and company have declared it a time to be heroes. Wherever a citizen is in need, there's an X-Man on the job. But strange rumors have come to the attention of the X-Men, and Storm and her team are off to New York City to investigate. What do they find in the dank sewers beneath Manhattan? Only New York's favorite wall-crawler has the answers.
My Comments:
What did I enjoy?
The first thing that hit me right on when I cracking this issue open was, Chris Bachalo's Art, I'm loving it. This guy can really put some cool detail in a sewer. I have to say, his art is what saves this issue. I also have to give him props on his Coloring. That ladies and gents, is pretty much all I enjoyed about this issue.
What did I hate?
Ok So to name stuff that bugged me, and there where a couple let me tell you:
1- The unorthodox panels. I'm not a crack pot and I don't preach that you should NEVER ^#%$&* with the panel scheme but in this case, it feels like its cut too tight and that there is way too much movement. Fine, they are walking threw a sewer for most of the issue but I feel like I'm seeing nothing of the scenery and too much of our heroes. As mentioned, the art looks epic, but it feels like Chris Bachalo is trying to compensate for the lack of action by thugnning the Panels and cutting a bunch of them together.
Here's an example of what I mean:
We feel there is movement / action going on but... we literally don't see the rest of the picture (or should I say the big picture?)
2- The writing kind of falls flat. The story arc is really "cheap" and feels like its coming right out of something like the Curse of the Twilight... My bad, Curse of the Mutants story arc. So the curse story arc wasn't the best but at least they tried to make it epic. This new arc, if it actually is an arc and not just filler, is all about the X-men going back to their roots: Help people to better the X-mens image. This time though, there's a twist! They have a P.R Firm telling them that's what they need to do to get their ratings up! Falls flat in my opinion. Also bringing Emma Frost on for some funny banter about her bringing some style down to the sewers and her ranting 2 panels into the sewers is kinda dumb, what did you expect? It's a sewer and your half naked!
3 - I did not like the cover spoiler. Putting Spidey on the cover kind of ruined it for me as I knew who was going to show up! He only shows up on the last page but still, maybe don't put Spider-Man on your cover and let me go: "Oh cool Spidey!" over "Hey they are going to NYC and Spideys on the cover"; it made me look for Spider-Man every page I turned.
In the end?
Worth buying? Sure why not-it's a spring board for a new arc. The next issue will have a Spider-Man crossover and there might be some cool action going on in the sewers / NYC. Who knows, maybe the Story arc might become more clear in the upcoming issues. That being said, on its own, right now, this issue isn't that great.
I'm not sure why some other reviewers elsewhere gave this a higher grade, I might be missing something; however, in my honest opinion, what I said above is how I see this issue.