Books for Prep | |
 - A rare of example of the perfect graphic novelThere are items in the media that everyone should read/see/listen experience in their lifetime. Listening to U2's Joshua Tree, reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, watching Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, or read Art Spiegelman's Maus. These items, are, in my opinion, essential to opening ones mind to a richer life and experiences. If you want to drill down in one particular category, go ahead, be my guest. Not everyone enjoys music or films or even (heaven forbid) graphic novels. If someone liked Maus and they wanted to read more, the next graphic novel I would suggest you pick up the classic and highly influential X-Men story God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Eric Anderson. The graphic novel is a stand alone in the X-Men universe and really doesn't have anything that happens before it or after it that you need to know going into reading it. The story follows the beginning of a genocide of mutants, lead by fanatical religious leader William Stryker. Stryker is leading a fanatical group of people who kill without sympathy anyone, man, woman and child, for being a mutant. After we see a brutal killing in the opening panels, Magneto, leader of a mutant resistance group in the regular comic series, decides it is best to join forces with his nemesis, Charles Xavier and his X-Men, in order to stop this burgeoning holocaust. After Stryker kidnaps the two of the X-Men and Xavier, the rest of the team follows Magneto to stop this bandwagon's momentum in its tracks by any means necessary. Many people will probably recognize this story line and characters from the movie X2. This story has been admitted favorite of Director Bryan Singer who directed the first two X-men films. This story is a classic tale of one group trying to enforce its will on another group of people and the consequences of that action. Really to read this story, you can easily substitute any real group of people the role of the mutants in this graphic novel and see similarities in their struggles. In fact, Magnetos driving force for being who he is and what he stands for is the Nazi atrocities the holocaust, and this new holocaust, is something that Magneto will not stand by and let happen again. The graphic novel by itself is powerful without the lighting rod story by Chris Claremont. The art in this graphic are some of the most surprising of a graphic novel containing popular characters in a while. The one series of images that could easily shake anyone is the pictures of Xavier being crucified on the roof of one of the World Trade Center towers by his own students, or the murder of and lynching of two young black children who are supposedly mutants. As I mentioned before, this graphic novel is the basis of X2, which is easily one of the top comic book and/or action movie in the past 8 years. The story telling is tight and well done and it only borrows loosely from the Claremont story. Singer, an openly gay director in Hollywood, has succeeded in the mutant saga by associating their persecution with the ones done by the homosexual community here in America. To anyone who knows about the X-Men and their trials and tribulations, know that mutants are heavily persecuted and targets in the Marvel Universe. Their trials extended to near extinction on several occasions and massacres on truly unprecedented scales, are all set up by the story in God Loves, Man Kills. This graphic novel is not only a read, but a 100% buy and to treasure it often. Once you read this graphic, you will never look at comics the same way again. Rating:  - Graphic SF ReaderOne of the original batch of Marvel graphic novels, and well done. Some of this was of course adapted for the X-Men 2 movie in a somewhat different format. Graphic novels of this type were new and innovative then. A somewhat more adult and tragic look at racism and the tensions and violence between humans and mutants. Rating: - X-Men: God Loves, Man KillsTHere are reviews for two books on this page. One is apparently a low-quality collection of stories from different X-Men titles. THe other one is one of the three best stories about the X-Men, alone wiht the Dark Phoenix arc and "Days of Future Past". This later, I have read, albeit in a greyscale, low-quality edition. The art suffered from not being colored. Even so, it was really, really good. IT looked painted more than drawn, and I would describe it as art, not just "illustrations". It was really gorgeous. The characters are all believable. As believable as anything is within the Marvel continuum, anyway... whcih is to say they are real people with or without superpowers. Some of them are truly evil people, but they still come across as real. The X-Men, their closeness, adn their personalities come across. The only character-bit that was wrong, so far as I could tell, was that when someone was shot, Kitty/Ariel tended to him, rather htan Nightcrawler, who was the one with medical training. But that was the only thing. Their personalities and actiosn were right, although Magneto showed a different, positive side, as events force him to become the ally of the X-Men. He comes across as a hard, harsh man wiht hte same take-over-the world intentions, but more or less believable reasons to be hostile. You get the idea that he is hard and evil because he was hurt too badly to heal, and didnt' have Xavier's courage to reach out to his enemies. His parting line, "I have wept over too many graves, X-Men. I will not weep over yours" drove home both that hardness and that pain. I didn't like him, exactly, but I understood him better. The villains- Reverend Stryker, the evil preacher, and Anne, one of his Purifier assassins, are really evil without realising that htey are. Both of them believe that htey are serving God. They are the definition of "fanatic". The end- when Cyclops realizes that this foe must be confronted in a different manner than the others- is quite good. Cyclops's speach left soemthign to be desired, but Ariel's verbal defence of Nightcrawler was wonderful. All around, this was a really good story. Most comic books and msot graphic novels are just fun, no substance, but some of them are really good. This is one of hte best. It's fun, but it has something to think about,too. Rating: - The inspiration for the first X-Men movieI just watched the first X-Men movie last night and while it was fun enough, I was quite annoyed that Claremont and Anderson got ZERO credit for the fact that their graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills" is undeniably the inspiration for the movie. Well, no one ever said Hollywood was fair. Rating:  - Not for meBeing a fan of the x-men and comics in general (but not a fanatic) I realize the importance of these issues but at the same time walk away somewhat puzzled and dissapointed. As a younger fan of the X-Men I don't understand where these stories lead in terms of the current situations in the series. Especially the New X-Men. Who were they, where did they go? Magneto ran a or the school? Also compared to todays artwork this stuff is chickenscratch. Also the preachiness that runs in the first part is a little over the top and serves against the purpose rather than for it. Good for a history lesson if nothing else but I wouldn't recommend purchasing this. In association with Amazon.com | |