Uncanny X-Men #417

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Uncanny X-Men #417

Post by Cliffjumper »

I really like Asamiya's art... I realise it won't be to all tastes, but it really seems to fit the book... only thing I'm not too keen on are the use of blank faces for background characters... The first part of "Dominant Species" is quite interesting, I just hope Austen can keep themomentum up better than with "Hope"... good character work, Stacy's actually goring on me, though it might be a cancer thing... And Jean-Paul went a whole issue without rating any of his male team-mates sexually. Good, I was quite afraid he'd be a gay gimmick - not that I'm against gay characters but there's so much more to Jean-Paul than his sexuality, and it seemed to be the only reason he was put in the book for a while... Oh, and a reference to Betsy and an appearance by Charlotte Jones? I hope Joe Quesada hasn't read this... references to 2 things before the relaunch could cost Chuck his job...
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Post by BigMaki »

I kind of liked where the story was going in 417, but I really don't like Asamiya's art. It seems odd to throw so much detail into scenes and yet put no faces on characters in the background. And what is up with everyone's noses? If they wanted it to have that generic manga look, I guess they succeeded.

How many issues is this arc set up to run? Remember when they didn't have numbered arcs and the story just continued from wherever the last issue left off? ;)
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Ah, those were the days... when the order was always Uncanny #x then X-Men #[x Uncanny + 280].... now you have to sit down and really think which order they happen in... I was less impressed, though, with New X-Men #135... It's nice to have Quietly back on board [though he's probably been drawing it for all the 9 months since his last one...] but the story really hasn't engaged me. Quentin's not remotely interesting, and he's the best of the bunch...
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Post by BigMaki »

I used to know the release order, but not anymore. Of course, I could look at something like X-Cutioner's song and find out... Not that it would matter.

I think the problem with NXM right now is that Morrisson just has too damn many characters running around. We don't get to know any of them, but we kind of recognize them from earlier issues. And then the main one makes his first appearance the issue before he makes his big move? Weak. I like the idea of it feeling like a school, but he really needs to whittle down the cast.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Originally posted by BigMaki
I used to know the release order, but not anymore. Of course, I could look at something like X-Cutioner's song and find out... Not that it would matter.
Up to the New X-Men relaunch, the titles go ROUGHLY:

X-Men is 280 minus Uncanny X-Men # [e.g. X-Men #25 corresponds to Uncanny #305]
X-Factor is 210 minus Uncanny X-Men, and 70 earlier than X-Men
Wolverine is 229 minus Uncanny X-Men
X-Force is 277 minus Uncanny X-Men
Excalibur is 235 minus Uncanny X-Men for the regular series, with the first bookshelf happening somewhere around UCX #228.

EDIT: The Excalibur one is based on Onslaught-era stuff... both went bi-monthly for varying periods, throwing it way out of whack... thankfully, alleged Inferno crossover aside, Excalibur doesn't have any particular links to the main X-books until Psylocke's guest spot...

Obviously this is all only approximate, as, for example, all of X-Men 1-3 seems to happen before Uncanny X-Men 281, but it gives a good rough guide...

Since the relaunch, this is how I make it, probably with some niggles, and keeping to publishing order whenever possible...

Gambit & Bishop 1-6
X-Treme X-Men 1-3 & Savage Land [appearance of Beast]
Uncanny X-Men 394
New X-Men 114-116
Uncanny X-Men 395-398
New X-Men Annual 2001
Uncanny X-Men Annual 2001
Wolverine Annual 2001
Uncanny X-Men 399-400
New X-Men 117-126
Wolverine 170-172
Uncanny X-Men 201-406
New X-Men 127
X-Men Unlimited 38
Uncanny X-Men 407
New X-Men 128-130
Uncanny X-Men 408-409
New X-Men 131 [Warren's blue]
Uncanny X-Men 410-412
Icons: Chamber [although I suppose this could happen anywhere between his last sighting in Uncanny, and whenever he reappears]
New X-Men 132
Uncanny X-Men 413-414
New X-Men 133
Uncanny X-Men 415

They read okay to me that way... anything that's omitted, it's because I don't own it... Oh, aside from Icons: Cyclops, which probably slots in between UCX 394 and NXM 114... Oh, and I do realise that most of what happens in the three main X-Men books [New, Uncanny & X-Treme], and most likely Wolverine, is happening more or less concurrently, but have you ever bothered reading 3 or 4 comics a page at a time...? ;)

I think the problem with NXM right now is that Morrisson just has too damn many characters running around. We don't get to know any of them, but we kind of recognize them from earlier issues. And then the main one makes his first appearance the issue before he makes his big move? Weak. I like the idea of it feeling like a school, but he really needs to whittle down the cast.


My sentiments exactly. Austen was going the same way, but seems to have settled down... Paige seems to be the only X-Corper still chilling around, and I doubt Havok will awaken for a few issues... it'd be a bit against character if he just woke up and rejoined the X-Men - just before Mutant X, wasn't he still a member of the Brotherhood? And is it me, or is X-Corps a bit of a lazy concept, at least since Casey's original story? Going to Abusadufa, need some extra muscle? Don't worry, there'll be an X-Corps squad there, with Magneto, Storm, Mimic, Sabretooth and Apocalypse, who'll just hit a few bad guys but not impose on the storyline...
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Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

I like Asamiya's art too but I fine that reading any of the X-Men comics aren't fun for me anymore and to me buying a book that I don't find fun to read is a waste of money and time.
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Post by Hound »

Originally posted by Cyberstrike nTo
I like Asamiya's art too but I fine that reading any of the X-Men comics aren't fun for me anymore and to me buying a book that I don't find fun to read is a waste of money and time.

There is a sentiment that I can get behind. While I do find the Xmen comics fun, I've recently cut down the amount of comics I collect because I found reading them wasn't fun anymore. It's that reason that I stopped collecting the X-titles back in '97.

I buy a lot of comics. I usually pick up about 7-10 comics a week. When I sit down to read them I usually stack them by ranking which ones I'm most excitied about reading. Recently I've found myself looking at my new comics and being equally excited about all of them. Gotta love that:D
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Post by Cliffjumper »

If you're a Spidey fan, you simply must add Amazing Spiderman to that list... for consistency over the past year, it's the best book out there...
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Post by Hound »

I'm not really a Spidey fan though. I was thinking about jumping on to the two titles when Smith starts his run but I'll read the comics before buying them.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Es al col by me Sabata!

You'll be glad to know, though, that both Amazing... and Peter Parker... are both decluttered - there'll be zero mention of Ben Reilly in either!
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Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

Originally posted by Hound
There is a sentiment that I can get behind. While I do find the Xmen comics fun, I've recently cut down the amount of comics I collect because I found reading them wasn't fun anymore. It's that reason that I stopped collecting the X-titles back in '97.

I buy a lot of comics. I usually pick up about 7-10 comics a week. When I sit down to read them I usually stack them by ranking which ones I'm most excitied about reading. Recently I've found myself looking at my new comics and being equally excited about all of them. Gotta love that:D



The thing is yesterday my new comics (there were 3 weeks worth)
was over $200 I finally knocked it down $167 and still got over $50 still on hold.


Originally posted by Quicksilver
If you're a Spidey fan, you simply must add Amazing Spiderman to that list... for consistency over the past year, it's the best book out there...



True it is a great book.
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Post by Hound »

$200 in 3 weeks? Damn, is there any comics you don't read?

Anyway, The majority of my Spidey collection is, sadly, the clone saga stuff. I wouldn't mind reading some Spider-Man stuff that's good. Is there any past Spidey comics that are really good?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Well, I'm not really a massive Spidey fan, and it's probably a testament to Strasynski's writing skill that I find Amazing Spiderman so enthralling... that said, the death of gewn stayc [Amazing 121-22... I think] is awesome... The Amazing Spiderman TPB "Revelations" is highly recommended, and as it's only 4 issues worth, should be quite cheap... Tangled Web tends to be a bit hit & miss, but Ennis' The Thousand [#1-3], Rucka' Severance Package [#4] and Zimmerman's Double Shots [#13] are all must reads. Especially Double Shots, in which the Vulture, Kraven and a mysterious 3rd villain sit ina super-villain bar and discuss the state of things... though the ending proabbly has more impact if you've read Amazing 121-122... both should be avaliable in the "100 Greatest Marvels" TPBs, and 122 is in the same one as Trial of Gambit, Avengers #1 and a moderately decent Cap story...
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Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

Originally posted by Hound
$200 in 3 weeks? Damn, is there any comics you don't read?

Anyway, The majority of my Spidey collection is, sadly, the clone saga stuff. I wouldn't mind reading some Spider-Man stuff that's good. Is there any past Spidey comics that are really good?



Yeah there are a few that I don't read.

Read Amazing Spider-man (Strasynski's run) and Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil Men Do.
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Post by Hound »

Actually I remember when I lived at home and could spend $100 a week on comics. Man those were the days. That's how I got all the X-Men comics that I've got. Unfortunately, that's also why I have so many Image comics too.

What I'd really like to know is, besides Stracynski's run, is there any other memorable runs of Spider-Man worth reading? Didn't Byrne do Spidey for a while? Was there anything worth reading there?

Y'know, now that I think of it, most comics that have been around for a really long time have had a really memorable run that most people like. For example Byrne and Claremont on X-Men, Byrne on Superman, Perez on the Teen Titans, Waid on Flash, Peter David on Aquaman, John Byrne on Fantastic Four or Avengers, etc etc. But I've never heard of Spider-Man having a run of it that was really good. Well, I've heard that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko is good but I'm not a really big fan of Stan Lee as a writer so much as I am of him as a creator.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Originally posted by Hound
What I'd really like to know is, besides Stracynski's run, is there any other memorable runs of Spider-Man worth reading? Didn't Byrne do Spidey for a while? Was there anything worth reading there?


Well, I'm not big on Spidey's history [the only Byrne stuff I've read was Chapter One, which was ****ing excreble - the same kind of needless meddling and smartarsery that ruined X-Men - The Hidden Years], but Gerry Conway wrote the Gwen Stacy issues and I think his run gets a fair bit of respect... plus I think Todd McFarlane's stuff was rather acclaimed... steer clear of Maximum Clonage and the Indentity Crisis... and The Final Chapter...
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Post by Hound »

I have McFarlane's "Spider-Man" run and it didn't offer a whole lot more than some nice art.

Spider-Man seems to get a lot of acclaim where the artists are concerned (Ditko, Romita/Jr., McFarlane, Larsen, Bagley, etc.) but no one ever talks about any really great stories besides Gwen Stacy dying. For a character that's supposed to account for as much influence as he gets credit for I'm not seeing why. Sure the costume looks great and the original concept is fantastic but where's the follow through?
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Post by Ozz »

I've read some Spiderman issues when it was published in Poland and there were few stories which I liked very much, i.e.
anything with Puma, some parts of clone story (those with Puma, Daredevil and the death of Octopus), Spectacular S-M #200 (death of Harry).

There were some I didn't read but they should also be good - Kraven's Last Hunt, Masks (I think that's the title, it's where Hobgoblin looses his infernal power, and I like Hobgoblin, I'd like to read it very much), Torment.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

M'eh, Spidey always suffered from being as successful as the X-Men but not as versatile... if you have 6 monthly Spidey titles, Ben Reilly aside, Spidey's pretty much got to turn up in every one... but with the X-titles you can have myriad teams [2 sets of X-Men, X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, Generation X...] and still have room for a few solo series, as it's a team book... Spiderman also has [generally speaking] a much smaller environment, and more foten than not is NYC based, while the X-Men can go fight out in space, do more worldwide things [again, by character Peter Parker can't have a Blackbird or whatever]. So really ideas to do with Spidey tend to get exhausted quite quickly - Strasynscki works on the title so well because he concentrates on Peter, Mary-Jane and Aunt May, with the plots often devices to fuel this interaction...

EDIT: One thing that's always bothered me about Spidey is how his name never gets cleared... it seems so damn unrealistic, unlike with the X-Men who always had plot-based things condemning them [e.g. the end of Onslaught, where they appear to decimate Earth's heroes]... Spidey has close links with both the F4 and the Avengers [even a reserve membership, for crissakes!] nad yet neither group, who both have a mssive amount of public respect, has ever just gone "Hey Spidey, he's okay, ay?", which seemed incredibly daft to me...
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Originally posted by Ozz
Masks (I think that's the title, it's where Hobgoblin looses his infernal power, and I like Hobgoblin, I'd like to read it very much),


If it's Masques, I've got the disintegrating Boxtree [HATE KILL STAB] TPB [Charity shop 20p w00t!]... good news is once my scanner's up and running, the fact it's falling apart will mean I can scan it quite easily... bad news is there are at least 2 pages missing...
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