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Underground > Comic Books >

Peter Milligan's X-Men run starts!!!

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12:47 / 21.10.04

X-MEN #166
Written by PETER MILLIGAN
Pencils & Cover by SALVADOR LARROCA
"GOLGOTHA" Part 1 (of 5)
A great big Marvel welcome to new writer Peter Milligan! The X-Men travel to
Antarctica to respond to an S.O.S. from a colony of mutants…and what they find is far
more shocking than they expected! Will the X-Men share the colony’s gruesome fate?
32 PGS./MARVEL PSR …$2.25

Looks like from the picture his team will be Havok, Polaris, Iceman, Wolverine, Gambit and Rogue (half pictured), and presumably faux Xorn. If any writer could get us to give a crap about Havok and Polaris, and pretty much the whole team, Milligan's the one to do it. Plus besides Logan, totally different team than the NXM one, so hopefully one for us to all grow to love. And if we must have faux Xorn, I'd rather it be here than in Claremont's hands.

I'm really looking forward to this. Loved Morrison's run, loving what Peter's doing on Human Target now and recently on X-Statix, and see no reason not to expect a similar level of quality here. Joss has been decent, but pretty slow (especially when compared to Grant's first few issues) and doesn't have the real thrill that NXM had.

Hopefully we'll get to see a bit of X-Corps and stuff, plus I really think Mr Sensitive would fit in on this team, ever since he came to the realisation he was really a hero. Very unlikely given the last issue of X-Statix, but hey it's comics.

Larocca on art I'm satisfied with. He's consistent and pretty fast, so no fill-ins hopefully, and he seems to be really developing a Carlos Pachecho influence in his art, which I think is great. I think him and Peter should gel pretty well. Still missing the NXM uniforms but.

13:24 / 21.10.04

Salvador's art is good, but the designs are awful. may give it a look for Miligan, even though he's never been let run wild in X-books. apart from X-STATIX [most of the time].

14:19 / 21.10.04

i like having wolverine and havok together - always had a good chemistry i thought - all the things logan hates about cyclops, alex doesn't have. he's got a temper as nasty as logan's and can level continents just by having a good old stretch, which makes him arrogant. swaggering is usually left to wolverine, alex knows it and hates it, so they're always facing off against each other in this cool 'i'm more bad ass' way.

rogue and me are dead chuffed to have pete pulling our strings, looking forward to having an element of articulate realism and domestic tragedy introduced into our slightly flat and uninspiring romantic history.

iceman, good comedy potential for milligan, that's fine.

polaris - tricky one really. i don't think i've got a single comic that she's in where she doesn't spend at least half of it unconscious. then she wakes up, says 'i'm not as powerrful as magneto y'know' and goes back to sleep again. other than the fact that for ages she's been going out with alex, who i've always liked, I don't really know anything about her.

17:00 / 21.10.04

Havok's costume is teh arse.

17:24 / 21.10.04

Polaris is so sexy.

Look, she's wearing stockings. It is erotic.

18:13 / 21.10.04

Polaris has only been interesting in Peter David's X-Factor run... Same goes for Alex if you ask me.
The costumes are left over from Phillip Tan and Kia Asiyama's designs in Uncanny. There's been a tiny bit of tweaking but they're still rubbish.
I can't say I'm enamoured with Larocca's work of late, the recent previews up at popcultureshock have been really bad (Nurse Annie's face looks abysmally proportioned).
I'm wondering if Milligan can pull this dire team out of the dumper and inject something, anything, interesting into their staid dynamics.
And can we PLEASE drop Wolverine already?

18:43 / 21.10.04

1. Polaris and Havok were indeed best when being written by Peter David on X-Factor.

2. Stop arsing around and put Havok back into his classic black costume. You know you want to.

3. Iceman's new look is awful. He looks like he'd break if he fell. That much ice wouldn't be see-thorugh.

4. Polaris looks shite now and has looked shite for years. Get her back into her X-Factor uniform or maybe a NXM-type outfit.

5. Stop saying "teh". Nothing personal, I'm sure you're a groovy guy and good to your mother but I fucking hate that non-word. Stop using it or I'll break your legs.

19:05 / 21.10.04

I see nothing redeemable about this cast of middle-X-Men. I know he won't be able to, but I think Milligan should kill them all. Imagine a world with only one Summers brother, no Gambogue, and a dead Bobby.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:09 / 21.10.04

Do both Rogambits wear teh trenchcoats now?

19:25 / 21.10.04

Trenchcoats = teh suXX0R

19:26 / 21.10.04

Ah yes, Robit wears a black one, and Gamogue wears a brown one. They're very kewl, i must say.

My bad -it appears they both wear brown ones while attending X-Men missions. Apparently Robit's black is only suitable for adventuring in "gothic" Mississippi.

Matthew Fluxington

19:31 / 21.10.04

This is a promising cast. If you stick to the basic concept, Rogue is by far one of the most interesting X-Men characters. To get back to that would involve reversing a lot of what Claremont and other writers have done with her in the past ten years or so. The movie version Rogue and Gwen Raiden (the Rogue stand-in on Angel) are great, they just have to play it like that.

Iceman is a good character too, especially in light of recent developments. He's always been able to pass as a human being, but now that's he's solid ice and can't go back, he has to come to terms with being a freak. I'm sure Milligan can do some great stuff with that, since it deals with ideas he's already interested in.

They really do need to give Havok his classic costume back.

Matthew Fluxington

19:33 / 21.10.04

And I've gone on at length about the incredible potential of the Gambit character in the past, so no need to get on that again...

19:41 / 21.10.04

Actually, I'd love to hear your interpretations on this cast, and hopes for Milligan. Now granted, I've seen potential in all these characters, but I'm feeling forlorn from exposure to the Danger Room's "pirate sequence". Flux always has interesting insights that both irritate and inspire. (Whaoh, "I" word much?)

20:41 / 21.10.04

So what's the style for this run? Straight-up super-heroics? X-Statix-style media satire? Covert ops? XSE/mutant police? Weirdness/head-fuckery?

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

20:59 / 21.10.04

they need to get a different artist on this one, stat.

I reckon they'll kill off Xxorn off in the current arc. Just to be cunts and fuck things up for no good reason.

21:52 / 21.10.04

I've not read much of Milligan, but heard others describe that he prefers to explore the dynamics of identity. That makes sense, given thse characters begin with a leader who's lived in an alternate reality's version of himself and deals with being a little brother, followed by a woman who's been possessed and brainwashed more times than CNN, an angry little person with memory implants, a dude who's now made of ice, a girl that steals other people's identities, and boy that just steals.

08:39 / 22.10.04

To be honest, I've been very excited about Milligan on X-Men and Whedon didn't grow on me till Issue 4, but the costumes have really killed my interest.

Gambit and Rogue are stupid characters and they should've let Morrison kill them when he wanted to.

Havok? Polaris?

They're rather pointless second stringers aren't they? Is he going to do a Morrison and make them bigger stars than the likes of Wolverine? I hope so.

Human Target is fun and X-statix overstayed it's welcome but from little Shade I've read by Milligan, I think Milligan hasn't done anything quite that brilliant since and I'm hoping I see something of similar quality. Any recommendations?

Team looks like shit, Larrocca's art leaves me kinda meh.

Still, won't ignore Milligan.

09:51 / 22.10.04

Milligan did a great little one-shot called 'the face' through vertigo which was pretty fab - and if you haven't seen it Hewligan's Haircut must be experienced (artwork by Jamie Hewlett - the guy behind the look of Gorillaz and Tank Girl).

Scarily enough I'm having a hard time seeing beyond the awful costume designs that invoke that memories of the awful X-comics that prompted me to stop reading most X-comics.

10:10 / 22.10.04

*Bobossboy slaps forehead and looks on in disbelief*

Sleaze, you're not supposed to read them.

Look, go into the toilet, lock the door (so your Mum can't get in), open the comic on an exciting page - preferably one involving Polaris - put your hands down your pants, and work the trooper 'til you spaff. Wipe down with toilet paper, and leave the room furtively.

Good times.

Matthew Fluxington

11:12 / 22.10.04

Chad is exactly right - it's a crew of misfits who all have weird identity issues, which makes them the most ideal group of X-Men characters to be written by Peter Milligan. Milligan wouldn't have much as much sense with the Grant/Joss team, and it's time for other characters to have their day in the sun.

Rogue and Gambit are not bad characters when it comes down to the core concept. It sucks that both of them have been written so badly for the longest time, but that's not necessarily a problem with the character so much as the writers.

As I've said before, Gambit could be great if they stopped trying to prove that he is a heroic good guy. He should be a monumentally self-absorbed guy who tricks and decieves everyone around him - he's a charming lowlife. He might not be evil, but he is not even a little bit ethical. His relationship with Rogue is very fucked up - it shouldn't be romantic and sweet, that's a big mistake. Ideally, he should have his own agenda, and he hijacks the X-Men to get them to help him along.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:19 / 22.10.04

He's very romantic though. He has that accent. And he's not just some thief: he's in a guild. Aaah.

Matthew Fluxington

13:43 / 22.10.04

Another good way to play Gambit might be to make him a bit like Spike in Buffy season 4 and 5.

14:09 / 22.10.04

Flux, I hear ya, mate, but I'm concerned that I'm never going to see past the fucking accent.

IT. IS. SO. ANNOYING...

...CHER.

Matthew Fluxington

15:10 / 22.10.04

I've got a feeling that Milligan will get some good jokes out of that terrible accent.

15:16 / 22.10.04

I hope so. It's begging for it.

15:31 / 22.10.04

Another good way to play Gambit might be to make him a bit like Spike in Buffy season 4 and 5.

Dude, I’m sorry, but what does this mean? Surely I can’t be the only one here who didn’t watch Buffy.

uncle retrospective

15:52 / 22.10.04

Yes you can and it makes you a bad man.

16:45 / 22.10.04

I cannot wait for this run to start. I loved Havok and Polaris in Peter David's X-Factor run (anybody else checking out the Madrox the Multiple Man miniseries? Strong Guy and Rahne Sinclair are in it too, its great), and I couldn't be happier that Milligan is going to be writing Xorn now. As far as I'm concerned what Xorn is or isn't is still completely up for interpretation, no matter what kind of bullshit chuck austen has puked up about it so far. Xorn just had too much weirdness around him to be as boring as they're trying to make him now. I think Beak running around in different worlds wearing Xorn's helmet is a lot closer to the spirit of the character than the faux xorn they have going in X-Men.

I'm looking foreward to Milligan doing some cool new stuff with him.

17:23 / 22.10.04

Yes, I'm hoping for some writer and editor to team-up and balls-out retcon Mutant X and most of Austen's run as the ramifications of Carter Ghazikanian's "weird psychic powers" . I hate Polaris being crazy and pissed. She was so sharp and on point in David's X-Factor.

Also, I'll be drawing a version of the X-Men cast in NXM uniforms this weekend, so that everyone can have something else to imagine.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

01:48 / 23.10.04

Lo and behold, there's no Xorn II on that cover. Fuckers. I bet when Sabretooth gutted him in the recent arc he died. And Claremont's being allowed to bring back Dark Beast. Marvel really are nasty fuckers when it comes to how they deal with continuity.

Yes, Spike from Buffy season 4 + 5 was such a great character! He should be in everything. I'm already "retconing" him into my Politics textbooks with the aid of some tippex and a biro!

10:16 / 23.10.04

Talking about Peter David's X-Factor run always makes me nostalgic. It was the best X-book ever, IMHO. Of course i also loved his Hulk run and collected religiously. X-Factor had a sense of humour and the characterization especially on Alex and Lorna was spot on, and because they were all second string he could do anything he felt like. "Rahne's World!! Excellent!!"
I havent read much milligan, but i liked his Batman stuff and the Human Target rocks so I'm expecting good things.

12:07 / 23.10.04

Also, I'll be drawing a version of the X-Men cast in NXM uniforms this weekend, so that everyone can have something else to imagine.

Great! Looking forward to seeing that!

Rahne's World!! Excellent!!"

Ahh, memories! I loved that scene!

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:26 / 23.10.04

If there's any justice someone will scan it and bung it up on the interweb for us this weekend...

How much longer did that X-Factor team last after issue 100 anyway? I vaguelly remember Strong Guy had a heart attack, half the team got posessed and then the Age of Apocalypse happened. What happened after that?

21:29 / 23.10.04

I hate that Wolverine is in every fucking X-book... but still can't wait for this!

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