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 - Reprinted in Black and WhiteI missed the reviews of some of the other books in the Essential X-Men series and was very disappointed when this book arrived to find that it was a reprint in black and white. I'm a fan of these stories but for me they fall flat w/ out the color. Rating:  - Graphic SF ReaderNasty alien monsters, Storm and the Morlocks, Cyclops solo, Wolverine in Japan. The legend continues. Some of the best X-Men stories are set in space, and you could I suppose view the whole thing as a form of space opera. That being said, when Wolverine and/or one or two of the others venture into Japan those are usually very good, as well. No different here. Rating:  - Graphic Novel junkieOk, ok, I should say comic book junkie, because that's what they were called when I first started reading them some decades ago. This whole series of Essential X-men books are a fun read unless you get bogged down in details. I never did, I just enjoyed reading them. This is a great book. Enjoy Rating: - Essential X-Men Volume 4This tome contains Uncanny X-Men #s 162-179, plus the Annual #6--which means this collection represents when I joined the X-Men for regular thrills. Which means I missed some key stories, yes, wouldn't you say? Don't worry, though...I backtracked too, like crazy. Having acknowledged the greatness of what came before, I must say that these, here, are some of my favourite X-Stories ever. Let's face it--the Phoenix Saga was a big event in this series, but look at all the high-impact series-shaping plotlines that unfold in Essential X-Men Volume Four. It's quite stunning, really--and quite a masterful balancing act by author Chris Claremont. Not perfect, alas. Claremont simply writes too many words, at times. Most of these mutants fall into a routine of analyzing the good and bad of their situations, their choices, their teammates' choices, the pros of the various cons, the cons of the various pros. This leads to a sameness in the way most X-Men ponder things, sorting and itemizing their angst, either in dialogue, or bloated thought-balloons ("If I choose this, I am no better than so-and-so, but if I fail to do this, I am guilty of such-and-such."; "I must do this to feel whole, but I cannot do it, or I betray whatsisname...oh dear, what shall I do? I'll mull it over for five issues...") Maybe when they were writing the Sphinx's dialogue for the superhero movie satire called Mystery Men, they were actually mocking the X-Men. I would believe it. Because almost all the X-Men come off as great philosophers, tireless ponderers of what is going on around them; it reveals the Claremont Overmind, the author resorting to one technique, too much. The refreshing exception to this is Rogue. She's been rather a wicked villainess up til she arrives at Professor X's doorstep, pleading to be allowed a shot as a heroine--and the X-Men don't want her around. They don't trust her. And to maintain the readers' suspicions that Rogue may be pulling a trick, planning a betrayal as some kind of Brotherhood of Evil Mutants mole, Claremont is forced to keep us out of her head. We have to judge her by her actions, by her choices as they are made. This makes Rogue a delightful anomaly amongst all the chatty-mutant-Cathies infesting this team; she's an instant hit, as far as I'm concerned, precisely because of this subtle distinction; we don't see her mulling her morality too much. She just...does. She just...springs in to action. Slowly proving that she is there to stay, with the quiet determination to battle the distrust and cruel comments of her new teammates, as well as their foes, as they come charging over the horizon. And, incidentally, Rogue never looked sexier than when she was drawn by Paul Smith (Rogue, you had me at "Hello. Anybody home. Please don't kill me, Wolverine.".) I guess, to be fair, there's a lot for the X-Men to ponder in these stories. Will Cyclops fly into space with his father, or stay and marry a woman who may be the greatest threat to the universe, reborn? Will Storm handle recent trauma, in space and in the series, well enough to retain her gentle essence? How does Wolverine cope with rejection by the love of his life? Is Kitty Pryde really to be demoted from X-Man down to the wimpy New Mutants? Why won't Charles Xavier's mind allow his legs to walk again? Okay, all this does require some deep thought while battling The Brood, Dracula, The Brotherhood of Evil You-Knows, the Morlocks (a couple times), Viper and Silver Samurai, a hidden villain who doesn't quite pull the grand-illusionist fake-out that Mysterio pulled on Spidey in his Amazing Comic (#'s 193-200) (but as master manipulator villain-types go, this guy is still pretty good), and a giant squid (the weakest villain of the bunch, this squid, and probably killed off by Scourge not long after, alongside the Grinder, the Pickler, and Mister Fish. But I digress.) Final decision, after pondering and mulling like a Claremont character: I love these stories. I love Paul Smith drawing Rogue, even just for a little while. And if the X-Men think too much, well, at least they distinguish themselves, collectively as a team with a conscience. Thankfully, there are also a lot of terrific fights. Rating: - A LOT of different stuff, of different quality, by different peopleMost of the stories/art in this book were pretty good, but not wonderful. The Brood story (actually, the end of the Brood story arc, which began in Essential X-Men 3 evidently) was pretty good. The artist, or artists, were talented, the story was pretty intelligent. THe only real problem was that it stated that Carol Danvers was implanted with a Broodqueen embryo, when there was no point in the story when that could have happened. But other than that, the story was good, and it hung together okay. Most of the stories were at about this level. Some had better art than others, and soem had fairly lame plots while others were pretty clever, and one of them was obviosuly the latest in a VERY long storyline which tended more to tragic romance than good sense on the parts of hte lovers, Mariko Yashida and Wolverine. As I said, fun, but not super. There were two exceptions. First, the X-Men Annual 7 was well and truly abysmal. It was a crazy story revovling around the antics of someone called the Impossible Man, who presumably had been introduced before. It is full of cross-referances to Avengers, someone called Nick Fury who you are evidently supposed to know pretty well. This may have been nice for old hands, but it left me confused. Also, and this is the worst part, the artist had a nasty habit of making people's heads look like potatoes. I am serious. Lumpy potatoes. The other exception was the graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills." That one was stellar. The art suffered a LOT from being in greyscale rather than color, but it was still gorgeous. It had one of hte smartest plots, too. THe story- involving a televangelist who believes mutants are demonic- is intelligent and, though the good-and-evil is pretty clear-cut, the moral dilemnas the heroes face are real, and so is the realization taht they have to face this foe differently tahn they can face physical attack. Cyclops' confrontation speech could have been way better, but Ariel's (Kitty Pryde's) verbal defence of Nightcrawler was wonderful. So, although there are several dubious story arcs in here, I'd say it's worht reading. Better yet, just get "God Loves, Man Kills" in color, and read the rest of it in a library if you're interested. In association with Amazon.com | |