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Finally, the miniseries, along
with various ongoing titles which don't merit a full entry.
Oh, and even I draw the line when it comes to counting
Starjammers as an X-book, before somebody e-mails me to
complain that I've missed it out.
Caution: there's a lot of
crap in here.
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 Initially
listed as an X-book, but quickly shunted off to the Marvel
Heroes section of the catalogue where it belongs, ALPHA
FLIGHT returned with a new ongoing series based around
an almost completely different set of characters, and
played largely for comedy. It bombed, and it's being
cancelled with issue #12. Instead, She-Hulk
is (deservedly) getting a push next year as Marvel try to
turn its exceptional word of mouth into actual sales.
Reviews: Alpha Flight
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4
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|
 GAMBIT
returns for his second ongoing series. This book
turned up along with Nightcrawler, Jubilee
and Rogue in a fairly shameless attempt to milk the
franchise for all it's worth. With the exception of
Jubilee, they show no sign of having any direction
or purpose to their existence; they read as though Marvel
decided to create a book, invited pitches, and ran with
the best ones they had. Gambit is doing an
unduly slow caper story, and while it's been improving,
it's still eminently missable.
The poor sales on these books suggest
that the readers know a pointless title when they see one
- or, even worse, they just aren't interested in
second-tier X-books any more. To be fair, none of
the books are outright horrible. But they don't
justify their existence, either in terms of content or
sales. They're just taking up space on the shelves,
diluting the brand, and jading the fans. They
shouldn't have been commissioned in the first place, and
they should be got rid of in the new year.
Reviews: Gambit
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4 |
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 Continuing
the theme, JUBILEE. In fairness to Robert
Kirkman, this book at least seems to have a clear idea of
why it exists. The problem is that it's ended up as
a generic high school title which hasn't made the most of
the character's potential. Sales have been
absolutely diabolical, and the book has been retroactively
announced as a six-issue miniseries. Will Marvel
take the hint?
Reviews: Jubilee
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4 |
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|
 MADROX
has the dubious honour of being this year's fantastic
X-Men miniseries that nobody bought. Peter David
reunited some of his X-Factor cast from the early
nineties, based around an inspired take on Jamie Madrox's
powers. Pablo Raimondi's fantastic artwork completed
a top quality package which - I'll just reiterate this
again - nobody is bloody buying. I realise nobody's
buying any of the new X-books, but this one deserves
better. It's still one of the highlights of the
year, anyway, and if you haven't been buying it, look out
for the trade paperback.
Reviews: Madrox #1 |
#2 | #3 |
#4 |
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|
 MUTANT
2099 was a one-shot forming part of the inexplicable
"Marvel Knights 2099" fifth-week event. While the
rest of the books involved future versions of Marvel
Knights characters, this one just seemed to have been
thrown in to get the X-Men audience.
It's completely bland and totally
forgettable; projects like Marvel Knights 2099 are not the
best way for writer Robert Kirkman to capitalise on the
immense goodwill he currently has.
Reviews:
Mutant 2099 |
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|
 Back
to the new titles, and NIGHTCRAWLER finally gets
his own ongoing series. Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
promptly realises that this character is a natural team
player and ends up filling the book with X-Men. It's
very readable, and artist Darick Robertson raises it above
the pack, but it still never quite answers the question:
what's the point? Mind you, it does have a certain
charm; my head says this book shouldn't exist, but my
heart wants to give it a chance.
Reviews: Nightcrawler
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
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|
 NYX.
Oh dear. Whatever goodwill this book had has been
completely squandered in increasingly ludicrous delays.
This supposedly monthly title has shipped precisely two
issues in 2004 (in May and October). It's being axed
with issue #7. At this rate, we might just about see
that happen in 2005, but I wouldn't put money on it.
The delays on this book - and Quesada's other title,
Daredevil: Father - are nothing short of embarrassing.
How can anything be this late? Is this really the
example that the EIC should be sending to the troops?
Regardless, it's a write-off at this stage, and
cancellation is the only sensible way to go.
Reviews: NYX
#4 |
#5 |
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 Returning
to the new ongoing titles, ROGUE finally gets her
own book, some twenty years after the moment passed.
Again, there were good reasons for not doing it at the
time; she's just not a solo protagonist by nature.
With this week's issue #6, Rob Rodi wraps up an
interesting six-issue arc about Rogue's parents, but it's
hard to avoid noticing that it's really a storyline that
could have been bolted onto any number of characters.
Marvel are changing tack in 2005, giving Tony Bedard a
chance to try something different. Perhaps it'll
work, but I'm not holding my breath. Like
Nightcrawler and Gambit, the sales don't look
too promising.
Reviews: Rogue
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4 |
#5 |
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 SABRETOOTH
got another miniseries for no discernible reason.
Based around a lame plot twist where it turns out that
Sabretooth wasn't the killer after all - which was surely
obvious to everyone from the very start - this book took
four rather ugly issues to tell a shaggy dog story that
might just about have merited 11 pages in X-Men
Unlimited. Pointless.
Reviews: Sabretooth
#1 |
#2 | #3 |
#4 |
back | continue |
