I liked it. Not an award winner nor one for the books, it had it's pro's and con's though
and I don't feel like I wasted the five to seven minutes with reading it. But long term investment feels threatened.
Pro's
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* Fairly refreshing story, and moreso not what I expecting. I was really expecting something
unoriginal and predicatble before even opening it (which is coincedentally why I waited
until now to read it), and found myself standing corrected
* Lots of character appearances and friendly faces appear. (Bamfs!!!)
* Love the dialogue and scene set-ups. Reads like good script. The characters were alive
and breathing in this.
* The new mansion is great. In fact on a sidenote I have to remind myself to see if there's a
page for it, or if it was added to the old mansions page. If the latter I think they should be proposed as seperate entities. But I digress, great, and unexpected.
* I liked the characters I was introduced to in this issue, the Shiar teens, and whatever the cute little Brood fellow is (were thes in Astonishing? I don't read that series). In fact Aaron
you have my little Brood pal hurt or turn evil or anything I will track you down and remove
your enitre epidermis from you inch by inch with a potato peeler. Also I want a plush.
A talking plush! And a plush Bamf!
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Con's
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* Kade Killgore. I'm actually jumping the bandwagon, though not in full. I try and give anything a chance in a comic, no matter how stupid or boring it may seem in light of the fact that comics tell themselves in unravelling series and something may be brewing. Also I try
not to hold unsavory parts of a book with me past their due date. I didn't really have an issue
with this character nor his buddies during Schism per say for that reason, and the only thing
that picked in my brain a little was how ludicrious it was that a kid is so priveledged and intelligent that he pretty much storms the world, get's a hold of advanced weapons of war,
builds some more adavnced weapons, walks in and takes over the Hellfire Club in about the time it takes to say hello, and for some reason decides to stomp on the X-Men. Aside from how improbable that a child just get's away with all this is, added to this is the fact that, so what, since when has some intelligent bussiness person for all intents been able to be this large of a threat to the X-Men, without paying the price? I get the whole he's deadly because
he's a kid so everyone has to hold back and try and outmanuver him mentally thing and apparently Beast, X-Club, any of the other mutant geniuses and strategists, and all their superhero friends also have the same complication with outwitting a kid and putting him
in a juvenile detention center as they do hurting one physically (?), much less X-Force only kills one doombringer child a year I guess, but it's still not a fresh idea at all, and it's just not an exciting character. I keep hoping this is a shapeshifter or a past villian reborn in that body.
That would make sense. But I really wouldn't mind then if they let the cat out of the bag sooner than later so I won't have to endure Krud Killbuzz anymore. Key to note when I say
boring with this one to. If they make me despise or hate the character, for example how Marvel did with Norman Osborn during Dark Reign, to the point I really want to see the heroes win, then they did their job right. I don't that with Kade, more of a " Yeah, yeah...
whats on the next page? " laxative effect. And if I as a reader don't care what's going
on, then theres a large issue. This could have been resolved easily by using or making
a less silly and complex, interesting villian. The again Wolverines prior arch was a cranky
old man with liverspots so maybe I don't speak the majority of readers?
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Certain things
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* Not a real violent action orientated issue, but who said it was going to be? No one.
This issue had a lot to establish in one shot, and did what it needed to do there. Sure, they could have made it a dark Micheal Bay film, but then wheres the foundation, the point of conflict, and the pacing? Nowhere, and with it then the stroy structure and we're left with
a book full of pretty action shots and a series with no definition nor depth in the long run.
* I didn't feel the kid book thing most are getting here, just pacing and setting. It's hard to
introduce something bad happening into a composition without having set it as good first,
or light to define dark and vice versa. What it was I think is the art. I personally like Bachelo's
art a lot, but whenever he's tapped it makes the story no matter how serious, dark, gritty,
or anything look overly cartoony and fun. I think this made Kade stand out even more as
well as the art in Schism helped to make him a little less subtle.
* " Never cared for kids either. Not even my own " - Wolverine. Not a big thing but Jason?
Did you just forget your run on Wolverine right before this book or something? I highly
doubt he would think this, especially this soon given what he just went through and how
he felt about that. (withheld out of spoiler interests, but those of you that read the Wolverine Goes To Hell and Wolverine's Revenge arcs will understand the significance)
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~ Final census = I like and am open to vast spectrum of genre's, anything you can name I'm probably down for it depending on my mood and cravings at the time. My motivation weighs pretty heavily in what I decided to consume at the time, as does anyone's. Relevant then is that I get the actual fix I'm looking for, instead of buying a box of chocolates (pauses for thought of choco happiness) and finding wheat grass inside. I want to watch a Pixar film, and I do and I get what a Pixar film entails and I'm satisfied and feel the time was well spent. I watch a horror movie I want it to be one and themed as such. I read a Batman comic because I want noirish crime drama with high tech adventure, a dark and moody back drop and a psychological and colorful villain. I read an X-Men comic I expect something fairly serious of itself staring my favorite mutant characters, front and center acting as they normally do. I read a Wolverine comic for it's grittiness and mature hard life nature, and to see Wolverine battle cool villains that put James Bonds rogues to shame. What I got from this was not what I want from and Wolverine centric X-Men book. What I got was an off the wall and extremely spoofy account, and while it has a small handful of mainstays, Wolverine, Kitty and Beast mainly highlighted, their screen time is divided with characters who should really be in short stories in collab minis when focused on, and characters while I respect really have no business occupying as much front panel time as they do in this. Wolverine is somewhat like a goofy uncle, or a stoned Jack Nicholson here, as opposed to anything he usually is and anything Jason just wrote him as. Beast was, well I can't tell what he was supposed to be on, coffee I think but apparently it reacts with him as Jim Carey juice? And Kid Omega..well.
Overall the team composition is weak for an X-Team, and mostly lacking in captivation.
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Jason is a good writer but he's taken these characters and the title teams cliche really far out of it's element here, which is really sad because I know he can do otherwise and greatly.
I think of Way's Deadpool here. I had to drop that a long time ago. I can pick up an issue here or there if I need a laugh, but really I have a hard time taking something seriously that doesn't take itself that way to begin with. Same motion applies from me to this. It was fun, and if this is the running theme of the book, I'm not staying even the short course. There's plenty of other spoofy colorful books with a partially logic bound plot involved for me to read that I already am and get that fix, the difference being they are supposed to be that and in turn they fit and feel natural, instead of concocted. Sorry Jason, I love your writing but this is off by a lot.
To anyone that likes it, I'm extremely flexible, but to each their own here.
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