World Famous Comics: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2: The Extremists
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2: The Extremists
By: Ed Brubaker Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 120 Publication Date: January 23, 2008
Product Description: The X-Men are back from space! Well, half of them, anyway. The team is shattered, broken and separated. The group that has returned to earth is finding it much worse than how they left it? especially underground. Attacks in the Morlock Tunnels immediately grab the X-Men's attention. What do these attacks have to do with the future of the mutant race? Maybe special guest-star Storm can get to the bottom of all this! Collects Uncanny X-Men #487-491.
Awful art! Awful AWFUL art by Larroca. I hated it. More terrible than this only Igor Kordey's art from X-MEN # 119, 120, 124, 125 and 128-130! I bought this in comic book format and I felt robbed. I can't understand how can Marvel publish art like this! It's the X-MEN!!!
Brubaker Returns to Earth After a year in outerspace, Ed Brubaker brings the Uncanny X-Men back to Earth. Warpath, Nightcrawler, Xavier, and Storm don't get to spend much time on the surface, however, as Morlock extremists draw their attention to the tunnels beneath New York City. The change of scenery benefits Brubaker, who hits one out of the park here in a story that echoes some of the classic Claremont stories of the 1980s.
pretty good, actually does something half decent with the morlocks. Set after the rise and fall of the shi'ar empire, the x-men are back on earth and dealing with the death of Corsiar. The morlocks re appear, and have seperated into splinter groups based around a mutant religion (well almost), anyway you get the idea. It has obvious real world parrallels, which is something the x-men comics have always done well. The Morlock extremists start making terrorist attacks against normal folk in ways only mutants can. Also Professor X begins the search for magneto, something the extremists are also doing. The Art is excellent, possibly Sal Larrocca's best ever, and Brubaker as always is an excellent writer, the relationships between characters are well handles. Perhaps the Hepzibah/warpath thing is a little heavy handed at times but this is a smill gripe. That and the complete no show of Darwin who was so prominant in the previous story, it seems odd he doesn't show up at all.
I love Morlocks. In response to previous reviews, I thought this was an excellent story. Yes, it might just be a short story for the build up to "Messiah Complex", however it does two things for me that just blow me away. The first would be the return of Storm actually working with the X-Men, rather than her current escapades with the Fantastic Four and the Black Panther. I have always thought that Storm was one of the coolest characters ever amongst the ranks of X-Men, and it's awesome to get her back where she belongs, even if it's only for a little while (let's hope not). The second would have to be the reemergence of the Morlocks after M-Day. I love the Morlocks, always have, and always will. Maybe it's due to the attachment I made with them a long time ago during the mutant massacre. I love Caliban and Leech, but when did Masque become evil? It's strange how one earth shattering event like M-Day can change anyone's philosophies. The one major thing that this story made me ponder was how and when Skids became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Oh well. A great story all around. Bring on the "Messiah Complex". Peace and Love, Jake
A decent arc, not up to Brubaker's normal standards. Ed Brubaker is perhaps the best writer currently working in comics, so his arrival on "Uncanny X-Men" in 2006 was highly anticipated. The initial result, a twelve-issue story arc set in space called 'The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire', had a mixed reception (I enjoyed it, personally, although it wasn't up there with his best work). He had initially planned to depart afterward to make room for Mark Millar, but after Millar's linewide project fell apart in the planning stages, he stayed on, resulting in this story arc, leading into the excellent "Messiah CompleX" crossover.
The end of the previous arc left Havok, Polaris, and Marvel Girl in space with the Starjammers, and another castmember, Darwin, does not appear here; carrying over from the previous team are Professor X, Nightcrawler, stranded Starjammer Hepzibah, and Warpath, the character Brubaker pulled from obscurity and made a fan-favourite (his greatest success with the X-Men to date). They are joined by the former Morlock Caliban and longtime stalwart Storm, who had been absent from the team for a year or so after the ludicrous marriage with the Black Panther designed to boost that book's sales. The mission in question is twofold: Storm leads most the team to investigate the actions of a band of Morlocks led by the evil Masque, while Professor X and Nightcrawler set out in search of Magneto, missing since the confusing events of "New Avengers #20". The second story is rather abortive, featuring only a brief appearance by big M that serves to set up his post-"Messiah CompleX" status quo. The first story is more interesting, delving into the fallout of M-Day (when all but a handful of mutants lost their powers) among the Morlock community; religious cults have developed around a series of prophecies by a deceased Morlock, and Masque knows how to read them, and believes he sees a future where mutants still rule the world. He's willing to go to extreme lengths to bring it about. The story is a bit slow, but it's interesting, and it sets up future stories for the X-Men.
On art, Salvador Larocca returns to the X-Men yet again, brings the hyper-real style he's been working with on "Newuniversal", and it looks pretty good, although it's maybe not the best kind of stuff for a superhero title (I did enjoy his Patrick Stewart-style Professor X).
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