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Underground > Comic Books >

New X-Men #144

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23:27 / 06.08.03

Soo....

Csyclopshasn't gotten his "stare" back... must be waiting for his moment.

Art is quite clear though sometimes claustophobic...

Fantomex becomes slightly more interesting... a bit more on E.V.A.

Weapon XV look pretty good... Vaguely "cosmic" in the post Kirby sence...

wondering if this is another fictionsuit download.

03:41 / 07.08.03

I couldn't help but notice that Weapon 15 is kinda like an Ultra Cyclops.

04:05 / 07.08.03

I actually liked this a lot -- I was pleasantly surprised. I thought both art and story were tighter than last issue, though I would have liked a few cut-back scenes to Xavier's Mansion and what's going on with the rest of the X-cast. I really liked the design for Weapon XV - as someone just said above, very Kirby. And now Weapon XV is almost a sympathetic character now, breaking the bonds of his fictional reality and discovering the world. Like a little child with the power to destroy the world. Or something like that.

15:58 / 07.08.03

Well he's already Destroyed The World and has basicly downloaded...(uploaded?) himself into a "higher" universe. One he believes to belong to him.

Yeah he's sort of an ultra-cyclops with a sort of electrical discharge, I wondering if there's a sort of connection. Do they both tap into the same powersource?
Is this why Cyclops has lost his stare?
Is this also why Weapon XV did not use his "power" on Cyclops and instead just slapped him aside?

Or is there some sort of learning curve at work here? XV views the X-folks as being from a sort of Higher(other)plane "are you real?" and seems interested in learning to function among them, learn their language. He's used force against force already.

My bet is that this will become another situation where Cyclops reasons the fight out of him.

or weapon XV follows the path of QQ, continueing to "upload" into higher dimensions.

18:03 / 07.08.03

Hrrh, I don't know. I liked part one of this arc & since then it hasn't held my interest. It's the school that's home to me, I think, as far as X-Men goes; that's one thing. But generally this comic is so ...attenuated. With Catwoman, for example, you get a little story (beginning, middle, end) in every issue, with the little stories connected in a larger arc. With X-Men I tend to feel like I'm just getting a piece of the arc, and sometimes the arcs just feel like pieces of whatever the big thing is. Whatever that is, I can't keep caring forever... hum, I feel a theory coming on...

19:49 / 07.08.03

Geeky speculation #1...

Weapon XV is Scott Summers of the future. The fate of the planet will be decided when Jean faces Scott in a knockdown, drag-out, tough love fest. En Sabah Nur will play a role. Xorn will be the third party deciding factor in the Jean/Scott battle.

Oooh. Reading that makes my extremities twitch. It's so disgusting, I love it.

20:36 / 07.08.03

Yeah, this story could have been compacted to 3 if not 2 issues...

03:39 / 08.08.03

I disagree, Mr. Tricks... The exposition and pacing all seems very natural and right on track from my perspective... I have to say, I just finished the issue and I was VERY impressed.... I'm trying to make sense of the negative reviews the issue has gotten....

07:51 / 08.08.03

Both this issue and the last failed to hold my interest.

Off the top of my head, I think it feels a little like a book for boys. I miss the female characters. Can't be any more constructive than that.

yawn - thing's buddy

09:31 / 08.08.03

The videogame influence is strong on this trippppy little diversion, young paduans.

The Dome - it's the perfick game environment fellers- I expect to see Morrison develop the concept further elsewhere. I love it.

The story has been paced just right for my tastes: and the art a big improvement on last months splurge.

Apart from that awful botch of the car-cop ging in for the kill - fucking shite.

Oh - and Weapon XV - another GM subconscious Moore knock-off: that scary cunt who WILL NOT STOP in Captain Britain.

Ethan Van Sciver

09:40 / 08.08.03

HunterWolf:

Thanks, fellow! Batman/Catwoman: Trail of a Gun, and then something else at DC entirely different. Please have them in your home.

Flux:

Simply being 'uncluttered' isn't the job of a cover. It's to FORCE a passerby to pick the book up and consider purchasing it. It should also represent the best of what's inside. It's the frontspiece. I think this one was done in a rush, and it shows.

Matthew Fluxington

12:24 / 08.08.03

But Ethan, it's one of the most dynamic and colorful covers of the series thus far! When I was looking through a cluttered shelf of new releases at a strange comic shop the other day, it really stood out. I'm very fond of the dirty-yellow/goldish color in the background, too. I think it represented the story well enough, or at least as much as the last two did - Cyclops is one of three central characters, and he's on the cover. Fair enough. Not to dig at you, but what about the cover that you drew from the Imperial arc with Beak on the cover? Was Beak really the most relevant character in that particular issue? And though I suspect that you had nothing to do with the decision, didn't you draw a cover with Jean Grey for an issue that she did not appear in?

As for this issue: Ah, whatever. It was boring, and I just want this story to be over with. I'm sure that I wouldn't have felt compelled by this story even if the art wasn't really cluttered and difficult. There were some cute lines of dialogue, but other than that, it barely registered with me. In fact, it made me feel kind of glad that NXM was going to be coming to an end soon.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

00:18 / 09.08.03

I agree with some of what that Fourth Rail interview has to say about this story and it's relationship to Grant's run so far, though all the stuff about how it's like his Doom Patrol stuff is quite clearly nonsense. Did I say last issue how irritated I was that The X-Men have become sidelined for 'the adventures of Fantomex guest-starring Cyclops and Wolverine'? This just reads like a completely different comic that's got wrapped in a New X-Men cover by accident. Fantomex= just not as interesting as Morrison seems to think he is. An albino Deadpool (and remember that my knowledge of X-Men characters is about 7 or 8 years out of date) without the jokes. The fact that Grant has ensured that it'd impossible to trust anything that comes out of his mouth as being true means I don't care whether his mission succeeds or not and I think Wolverine and Cyclops have come on this mission with them only because Morrison has told them to, not because it makes any sense for them to do so.

The art was an improvement this issue, although some of the fight scenes were a bit confused. Weapon XV looked rather like that big bruiser from 'Our Worlds at War' and was rather a let down from the creature described in last issue. The car-guard thing, a robot with a whale-brain, on first reading I thought he was ripping off his idea of those dolphins that drive those day-glo tanks in The Filth, though I decided this was probably me trying to find fault.

The bit where Weapon XV launches through the Dome and Fantomex announces that the HQ for the program is in space was laid out like a typical Morrison 'And this is where I go 'a-ha!' and turn the tables 180 degrees so the story goes off in a completely different direction to the way you were expecting!' moment, only it falls flat.

But ten issues to go, so time to hope for an upturn and a return of the Morrison of old, who could mix ideas with humanity and was able to show as well as tell. I don't know what Morrison's workload is like at the moment, but X-Men reads much like the Invisibles did in mid-season two when he had too much work and was having to restructure things to allow him to cope.

00:35 / 09.08.03

I agree - I can disgaree with Randy on not liking DOOM PATROL (I loved Grant's DOOM PATROL!!) but yet still agree with him about this issue being not as great as other Grant NXM issues, in my opinion. I really want to see the entire other cast of characters that Grant has developed and made us care about - at least a few pages of cutting back to them. Emma returning from death! And we don't see her for 3 issues after that? Dust, the new Muslim mutant, untouched since she was introduced.

I know it's a large cast and we must be patient, but I just don't find myself caring about the Weapon Plus program and The World (which also sounds like John Byrne's old series NEXT MEN, but of course many concepts are re-used and recycled in comics and sci-fi, and it's not like Byrne was the first to ever use that concept either).

I like the idea of Weapon XV being so dangerous yet childlike; we're not really sure whether he/it will be a serious threat or a friend at the conclusion of this issue.

Anyway, I still thought this issue was better than last issue. And Weapon Plus is about to end and we'll get back to the rest of the characters, and back to Jimenez' art.

Regrettable Juvenilia

17:23 / 09.08.03

Has no-one else noticed the similarity between Weapon XV and Xorn, specifically with regard to the way they exit their dome-like prisons in wide-angle two-page spreads, and their tone/diction when talking to themselves? Their interior monologues are *very* close, I'd argue. Connection or just a nice symmetry? And they both look like 'ultra' versions of Scott - like what would happen if his head *did* explode, which he feels it might... And this time, he let the insanely powerful mutant get away, and he's not coping well with it... All those pent-up 'wrong' feelings - anger and desire - what happens when the dam bursts? En Sabah Nnnnnggghhhhh?. Hmm.

Oh, and I really like Bachalo's covers so far, although the one for #145 looks a bit suss. Basically, the cover for #143 was far and away the best non-Quitely cover to date, even better than some of Frank's, I'd argue. This one's slightly less impressive, but still better than... Well, to be blunt, every Van Sciver cover apart from that shot of Emma in the limo from 'Some Angels Falling'. I'm sorry, I'm really not trying to be rude but I think it's a little ill-advised for a previous or present artist on a title to be dismissive of another artist's work here without expecting exactly that reply from anyone who genuinely prefers the other artist's work...

Ethan Van Sciver

06:20 / 11.08.03

Flux: Running with the Cheetah:

I guess it stands out, you're right.

The Beak cover was an odd thing; Mark Powers called me and asked for a Beak cover. It wasn't scheduled, he just figured it would come in handy at some point. Joe Quesada was supposed to have the cover for NXM #125, but he couldn't manage it in time, and since the Beak cover was sitting there, bang, there you have it. That's the way it worked all the time. I was asked to draw whatever I wanted, they paid me, and used the art when they needed it. One of the Jean Grey covers wasn't even meant for NXM, it was meant for a Phoenix miniseries.

Human Fly:

I'm not dismissive of Chris Bachalo's work at all. I'm a big fan. This piece was a letdown, probably due to the strain of deadlines. But it's New X-Men, and it deserves strong covers.
Your opinion of my work is appreciated.

But wrong.
Just kidding.
-Ethan V.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:38 / 11.08.03

Oh, if only we could have kept Ethan on NXM, it was that other guy that kept messing things up...

Tha parallels between Weapon XV and Xorn have been noticeable since last issue at least. Both trapped somewhere, manipulated through science, lashing out at a world they believe to be deliberately cruel. And having Cyclops on hand to deal with it. I also have no interest in the weapon plus program and don't believe that Grant has got anything useful to say about it, beyond this super sci-fi set up which is a long way from the Professor and his weird mindgames of Barry Windsor-Smith's excellent 'Experiment X'.

I can't see why Grant would have two Xorn-level creatures running around, so I think Cyclops might talk Weapon XV to death in the next issue, unless Grant intends for Xorn and Weapon XV to clash before the end of his run. But I'm not sure whether Grant now intends to tie up all his ideas in a neat bow or just leave everything flapping loose for the next person to take over.

13:27 / 11.08.03

Bad news, kids, they said on comixfan that Apocalypse is making a comeback in Uncanny, so we can suppose he wont be tha big bad guy in new xmen

14:11 / 11.08.03

Thank god, they need to keep him far away from NXM.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:14 / 11.08.03

Yeah, one of the best things about Morrison's run, on the five occasions over the last two and a half years when they've actually done anything it's been new baddies.

01:48 / 12.08.03

I never thought I'd say this but...

Thank God for Uncanny.

05:59 / 12.08.03

my thought reading it, especially with scott's head not working and complaining all through morrison's run that apocalypse's thoughts are still in his head, that weapon xv is going to get hijacked by apocalypse escaping out of scott's head, and then scott gets free therapy (no more monsters in his head!) and a reason to rejoin the x-men (it's time to kick apocalypse's butt again!).

08:50 / 12.08.03

I never thought I'd say this but...

Thank God for Uncanny.

Why do you say that?!

08:51 / 12.08.03

For keeping Apocalypse away?

I suppose.

09:36 / 12.08.03

Um, don’t mean to be rude or anything, but why do people seem obsessed with Apocalypse being involved in Grant’s storylines ? Apart from the odd reference to the character, there seems to be precious little reason to believe he’s any more likely to appear in the series than, say, Fin Fang Foom or Kang.

As for this issue, I’m still finding Bachalo’s art very offputting; the panels work moderately well as self-contained entities, but I don’t get a sense of flow, and that really fragments the story for me.

10:49 / 12.08.03

Apart from the odd reference to the character, there seems to be precious little reason to believe he’s any more likely to appear in the series than, say, Fin Fang Foom or Kang.

Those odd references, and the fact it's an X-Men comic and, you know, Magneto, Toad, Quicksilver, Bishop, etc., etc. have appeared would probably cover precious little reason and beyond.

And some of us here are franchisepigs, and have read X-Men before, and kind-of want to mention Apocalypse but kind-of don't because most of the comics he appeared in were awful.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:01 / 12.08.03

It's not so much that I think Apocalypse will be back as thinking that the En Sabah Nur 'spirit' that possessed Scott may not have been completely exorcised. The most persuasive argument I've encountered for this is the question of why Morrison would keep making reference to Scott's possession: it's not like it's needed to explain the issues Scott has, as they've pretty much always been there and the catalyst could easily have come in the form of his affair with Emma.

But I'll speculate more about this in the thread about NXM ending...

15:29 / 12.08.03

Duncan: Yeah I hate Apocalypse and am not too thrilled about Grant using a stupid character like him.

En Sabah Nur is a very retarded name.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

15:57 / 12.08.03

Is it over yet?

Can I start reading it again?

The Weapon Plus storyline is just soooooo... depressing. The latest bit showed promise as it moved things forward a bit, but... ach. It's just annoyingly jarring.

Weapon Plus breaks from the previous story and tries to justify it with a forced intro.

The last story I really really enjoyed was the Xorn standalone. If it weren't for the odd ten issues remaining of his run, I'd drop the title completely.

16:00 / 12.08.03

If you've not enjoyed a comic for 16 issues or something, you should probably stop buying it, Sixy.

21:40 / 12.08.03

The last two issues could easily have been condensed into one satisfying story. Badly padded stuff.

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