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Underground > Comic Books >

The frustration of Casey

15:30 / 18.03.02

Am I the only one who's just frustrated with Uncanny? I know people have gone off about him being a hack writter, but I'm talking specifically about the frustration of reading the book.

In each one of the storylines so far, there's been one idea that gives me a glimmer of hope. That may be Casey is hitting his stride with the book, and is finally going to do something interesting. Then he blows it.

Specifically I'm talking about the pop angle in the first story line. The drug angle in the second story line. And the X-Corps in the current story line. All could have been cool ideas if nutured, and fleshed out in just the right way. All have been reduced to cliches though.

So, am I alone here? Or is anyone else as frustrated by this book?

Matthew Fluxington

15:42 / 18.03.02

You forgot about the religion angle...

I have a perverse fascination with the Joe Casey run - I've been following it, mostly out of that 'car wreck' quality it has. It's got a lot of good intentions, but it does not work. The best thing about the run is that I like how they've had a flexable cover design, so every cover looks different. That's a good idea, though it's not fully realized...

One major flaw is the line-up of characters Casey is working with - most of them are the dull reject characters that no one else wants (Archangel, Iceman, Chamber, Banshee) or characters who've strayed very far from what was originally appealing about them (Nightcrawler). He has nothing to work with. The one new character he brings in has all the personality of a cardboard box. I find it a bit off-putting that the only female character in his comic is a prostitute, and the rest are macho men who speak in action film dialogue...

The other major problem is that Casey makes all of his stories way too long. Poptopia would've been passable at two issues, but it's torture at four. This X-Corps thing is his best story thus far, but it's draaaaaaging along sooooooooo sloooooowllllly. Given the stories in his run (which is over once the X-Corps story concludes), he could've had 7 mediocre issues rather than 14 dull issues which linger in this weird limbo of quality...

Casey's Uncanny X-Men has that weird feeling about it, doesn't it? It really has no identity, and it's flailing around trying to figure out what it wants to be, very aimlessly...

I wonder what Austen will do. I don't really like him, but I'm curious to see if he'll do the same thing given the same crappy circumstances... Why there even needs to be a third X-Men comic is beyond me. New X-Men is for the smarter readers, X-Treme is for the fanboys. I'm not quite sure who the middle-ground fans Uncanny is supposed to be for are...

16:01 / 18.03.02

I've followed the uncanny storylines and while their execution sucks the ideas are pretty damn interesting.

While the characters aren't first tier characters, its not their fault that Uncanny isn't more interesting. Casey is the problem, if he'd give the characters...oh I don't know, personality, motivation...you know all the stuff that makes a character interesting, it just may make the storylines more bearable.

I mean take a look at the Iceman mini-series. Sure, Iceman isn't the most popular x-man but in the mini-series I thought he was written quite nicely.

Another X-men series? Weren't they canceling a bunch of X-men titles awhile back? Mutant X? X-man? Ring any bells. I really wish they hadn't killed off X-man because the whole mutant shaman thing was pretty interesting.

18:43 / 18.03.02

Ok, now I feel better that I'm not alone in this frustration.

quote:Originally posted by Trijhaos:
I really wish they hadn't killed off X-man because the whole mutant shaman thing was pretty interesting.

Has Marvel ever collected this?

Matthew Fluxington

18:59 / 18.03.02

Well, I'll give Casey credit for at least trying to make Archangel more interesting, but he's still the same dull character he always was.

Iceman was a pretty good character back when Scott Lobdell made him his pet X-Man, rebuilt the character from scratch. But Joe Casey makes the character flat and annoying.

There's no good excuse for any writer to make Nightcrawler so dull, even in spite of previous writers transforming him from being a comic refief character to a brooding, selfrighteous, overly-serious bore.

Casey's characters are waaaaay too solemn and serious - they act too much like soldiers. You never see the characters having personal moments either --- they are always in soldier mode.

19:05 / 18.03.02

Nope, Marvel hasn't collect X-Man as far as I know which is a shame.

Soldiers? Yes, they act like soldiers but isn't that what they are?

What about that little moment between Chamber, Paige, M, and Jubilee?

It does depress me that Nightcrawler has gotten screwed over so bad. He's was really cool back in Excalibur. He was this modern day swashbuckler type and suddenly he returns to the X-men and he's all angst-ridden and wants to join the priesthood. That is seriously not cool.

19:26 / 18.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Trijhaos:
Nope, Marvel hasn't collect X-Man as far as I know which is a shame.

milehigh seems to have the whole series in backorder. May be I'll pick some up once the money situation gets sorted out. Is there a reccomended place to start?

quote:Soldiers? Yes, they act like soldiers but isn't that what they are?

Add another notch to the count of ideas Casey fucked up. I can see where you're going with this, but Casey never plays into it. Again, it could have been a nice little plot device, esspecially with Chamber and X being the "new recruits" But, he completly drops the ball.

Oh, and Flux, as far as possible audiences for Uncanny, how about people who know way to damn much about the X-Man universe for their own good. There have been way to many inside jokes and unexplained connections for a book that's supposed to be a jumping on point for new readers.

19:33 / 18.03.02

quote:milehigh seems to have the whole series in backorder. May be I'll pick some up once the money situation gets sorted out. Is there a reccomended place to start?

Up until Ellis took over for a few months, X-man basically had no real point. Nate would just get tossed into different situations. Ellis is the one who introduced the mutant shaman bit and I thought it was really cool. So I figure that'd be the best place to jump on. From that issue to the end, X-man has nothing to do with what went before.

Patrick Neighly

23:42 / 18.03.02

Maybe if all future X-Men writers were forced to read Vignettes until they understoond the core characters, runs like Casey's wouldn't happen...