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Underground > Comic Books >

Uncanny, Unshmammy.....

Jamieon

14:09 / 10.09.01

I really don't like this book. Somehow Casey snuck in, riding the wave of hype that surrounded Millar's 'Ultimate X Men', Grant's 'New X Men' and Milligan's 'X Force', and managed to convince the world that his book was gonna be as exciting and new feeling as the rest of them.

And is it?

My arse.

So, we've got a new gang of baddies that don't like mutants, but with no special motivations/gadgets/ideas etc, just the same old race card... We've got some shite old marvel-in-the-nineties looking artwork (it's good to hear Churchill's fucking off). We've got some appalling dialogue (esp all that goddamn awful britspeak - after all this time writers still go there?!? Sheesh!), some tedious ruminating on the impact of fame and mutantdom (oh, go and read X Force Caseytosser), a teen popstar named after a Sonic Youth song and a prick with a flame thrower.

And what's all this

"The X Men? Do you think they're real?"

"I don't know, I heard about them once..."

(or whatever those sewer rat mutants said)?

They're not fucking Batman, for God's sake.

This is the pits.

14:41 / 10.09.01

Because I'm buying New X-Men and X-Force, the guy at the comic shop now assumes that I want everything X-Men and keeps trying to sell me on Uncanny and X-Treme.

Had a flip through both to humour him and was truly appalled. It seems that for every right move Marvel makes recently, there's a wrong move to match...

Jamieon

15:02 / 10.09.01

Yes, Flux made reference to comicshop twats doing the same to him. It's happened to me to...

Stop now, comic twats!

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:05 / 10.09.01

It's really disappointing, because not only does Uncanny compare really badly with what Grant's doing with New X-Men, it also compares badly with Casey's work on Wildcats, which I've really been enjoying... although I have to say I'm worried what it'll be like when it relaunches without Sean Phillips doing the art.

You can see what Casey's trying to do with Poptopia - Britney Spears analogue gets mutant boyfriend because she thinks it's cool, meanwhile poor mutants live in squalor and fear in the Underground, etc etc - it's just he's doing it in a completely ham-fisted, manner that gives you the impression he's trying really hard to be trendy, down with the kids, of the moment... and failing miserably.

His next couple of stories look no better, sadly: a mutant brothel is a potentially good idea, but a character called X-Stacy does not, and nor do villains called the Church of Humanity - organised religion has its downsides, kids. And then after that, we have Banshee's X-Corps (not to be confused with the X-Corporation as seen in the New X-Men Annual, except this is really confusing...) - a European, extremist mutant faction. Take a look at this costume sketch (which admittedly could be an early version) and see if you can figure out the subtle analogy Casey might be trying to make...

Jamieon

15:14 / 10.09.01

The new artist's much better, at least you've gotta give it that.....

Wildcats has been fun, but I think I'm with you: When Phillips fucks off I might too.

It was nice to see the character sketches for The Ultimates. I'm looking forward to that.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:43 / 10.09.01

The artworks nice. But the fact that Wolverine seems to be in both books (though admittedly I was only looking at part 2 (I think) of Poptopia) yet there's an absense of Storm, Bishop, Gambit, Kitty Pryde, have all these ones been killed or something?

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:05 / 10.09.01

No, they're all in or will be in Claremont's shit-tastic X-Treme X-Men.

Jamieon

16:22 / 10.09.01

What artwork? Churchill's stuff, of the character deisgns by the new artist?

I contend that Churchill's stuff stinks.

Wolverine's only in Casey's book for the duration of Poptopia.

17:13 / 10.09.01

I guess the comic shop assistants who assume that one x-title is as good as another- its either a sad comment on the fact that for the past 10 years x-fans have been willing to put up with any old shit and would still come back for more of the same or a sad comment on how out of touch the average retailler is with the books they are selling.

Either way its not good news for the industry.

22:54 / 10.09.01

oooh oooh banshee as hitler i get it... wait NO I DON'T! damn banshee he's a good guy, like a GOOD GOOD PERSON type good guy... bah fine make him hitler i don't care... fakkin' marvel

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:36 / 11.09.01

Hang on, is X-Treme X-Men set in the current timeframe, I thought it was a 'Greatest Hits' kind of deal. And is there any co-ordination going on between the disparate X-Books, or if you asked Churchill about Xavier coming out as a mutant and the whole going public thing he'd go "what?!"

Jamieon

17:56 / 11.09.01

It's set in the current timeframe.

Ronald Thomas Clontle

18:09 / 11.09.01

I read a review of Uncanny the other day that points out something that I for whatever reason didn't notice..that NOTHING happens in Casey's issues...every issue of Poptopia has the same ideas reiterated over and over...the last issue contained NOTHING of note, it was totally pointless...the whole story could have been a 32 page affair. His writing is cheesy and ham-fisted, I swear, he has got to be one of the worst people to ever write the comic, and that's saying a LOT! I keep thinking "well, maybe this story sucks, and the next will be alright" but I doubt it now. I'll stick it out for a bit longer, but it's just shlock so far. This is the first thing I've ever read by Casey, and I can't shake the feeling that he is a horrible hack. How does he and Morrison get along? They are such opposites...

and fuck it, I LIKE Britney Spears.

"I'm a slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave for you"!

04:16 / 14.09.01

It's funny: wild cats was originally the wannabe Xmen, right? Right now, the only really great thing I have to say about Uncanny is that Joe is choosing to take a back seat to Grant, each issue has a line that basically says, hey, you read the other book, right?

Something though, something about Casey still says "okay" with me, I still like something about him, his stories, something. I'm not quite sure, because, admittedly, I do nothing but give him shit to all of my comic-guy friends, like, I'm sorry, but Ice Man was like, the second X-Man for crying out loud, and he's quit adventuring plenty of times too because of all sorts of like, in depth reasons. Sure, maybe Bobby's been my favorite since Spidey and his amazing friends, but really, he wouldn't be that ig'nant.

However, the underground, "hey, aren't you one of the avengers or something," feel of X-Men has always been key. Sure, we're totally familliar with them (even though I feel a little weird buying X-Men books after a ten year hiatus) because we're reading their story, but most people just hear explosions and run, and to people in England, who've probably never seen them, and didn't seem to watch TV much, I could imagine disbelief. There, whew, I feel a little better defending my man Joe after all that heartless bashing. And I must say, Sean Phillips' layouts on issue 397 changed the way I look at that steroid rob leifieldesque style, it was great.

Also, who has a problem with Wolverine showing up in every fucking X book there is? Not me. The man is James Bond, leave him alone. I can't wait 'til his guest shot in 'Force.

mbz
Instant Graemlins

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

17:29 / 20.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Lozt Bookz:
Hang on, is X-Treme X-Men set in the current timeframe, I thought it was a 'Greatest Hits' kind of deal.

Okay, since my Shoppe gives me X-Treme X-Men for free, I'll give you the brief skinny:

Shortly before the X-Men relaunch, a big group of X-Men up and buggered off to parts unknown. They had gotten their hands on part of a series of books written by dead mutant Destiny, that predict pretty much everything having to do with mutants. They decided that Xavier couldn't be trusted with this power and stole the books from Xavier and went questing for the lost books.

It is set in current continuity and every issue displays a few things:
a) Fetishwear Fetishwear Fetishwear!
b) Pointless retcons. Bishop has been revealed to be Gateway's grandchild and thusly part Aboriginie. Tessa of the Hellfire Club was a Good Guy all along.
c) Claremont's trademarked hopelessly muddled prose, although it is getting better. Sort of down to early 90's unreadable instead of 2k unreadable.