By: Mike Carey Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 336 Publication Date: March 26, 2008 Reading Level: Young Adult
Product Description: As old threats are still having their effects, new, more deadly threats emerge from the unlikeliest of places. Threats that spell doom for the X-Men. Plus: What could possibly strike terror into the heart of...Sabretooth?! And who are the Children of the Vault? Mike Carey (Ultimate Fantastic Four) and Chris Bachalo (Uncanny X-Men) take over X-Men, or at least what's left of them! Collects X-Men #188-199, Annual.
The beginning of the end.... This a ten issue book, I couldn't put it down. This book starts the events that lead to the end of the X-Men. I don't want to spoil any of the cliff hangers in the book, but it details the actions of Rogue and her handpicked team and leads up to the Messiah Complex.
Return to form after the abomination that was blood of apocalypse. After several years of changing creative teams, changing line ups and poor quality, it finally seems something has gone right. Mike Carey and Ed brubaker came onto the X-titles around the same time and have both worked hard to fix the problems bogging down the series. This is Mike Carey's first story arc, drawn (mostly) by Chris Bachalo. The art is generally good, however Bachalo's art is stylish but sometimes hard to follow. The fill in issue by Clay Henry is solid but lacks flair. The story is fairly simple, a race of superhumans, but not mutants start attacking the x-men, for some reason or another. Okay they do have motive but you have to read it. Sure enough the x-men win out, shock horror. What seperates this from other recent x-books is the pace and Careys handle of the characters. Not only does Carey know his characters but he actually makes interesting use of thier powers. Carey has chosen an intersting line up, Rogue, Cable, Cannonball, Iceman, Mystique and Cannonball. He handles most of the characters pretty well, those that don't seem to be he soon gets a hold on them. Also some bits seem a little forced, but later stories make sense of them, Carey lays plot threads down for later arcs very early on.
Very good It's kind of filler story, only not really because there are consequences to what happens in the book.
New villains, new team. if you like the team, like Bachalo's art, buy it. Writing is good.
Cable and Mystique are X-men, Sabertooth is a prisoner throughout. 2 new recruits. There's There's 4 stories:
Supernovas: New villains, new species Children of the Vault, very cool
Covenant: Babysitting Northstar and Aurora. Exodus and his Marauders attack. One issue long, shorter than the others, skip it.
Primary Infection: Pandemic, new villain, doing some stuff. Rogue is kidnapped.
Red data: a mummudrai and a new alien weapon/threat
A-List Creators Work With a B-List Cast of Characters "Supernovas," collecting "X-Men" #188-199 and the 2007 Annual, marks the beginning of Mike Carey's run on "X-Men." He takes what's left of the X-Men after Ed Brubaker took half of them into space in "Uncanny X-Men" and Joss Whedon ran off with the other half in "Astonishing X-Men," and does the best that he can with the pieces. So that means that there's very little Cyclops, Wolverine, Emma Frost, Professor X, etc. here. Not that you'll miss them, as Carey gets to play with Sabretooth, Mastermind, Iceman, Mystique, and, most importantly, Cable, setting up the next big X-Men event, "Messiah CompleX."
Both the first and the second story arcs here are reminiscient of Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" from a few years back, even down to the inclusion of a Cassandra Nova-like psychic parasite. When Chris Bachalo's illustrating the title, the book is fun and stylish. While Humberto Ramos is a good artist in his own right, his cartoonish style contrasts unfavorably with Mike Carey's darker take on the X-Men mythos.
Quite Good This is, overall, a quite interesting TPB.I'm an X-Men fanatic, but I usually read the spin-offs, as the writing for the mainstream ones has gone down-hill since the New X-Men title was changed back. The drawing for this story was generally quite good (one guest artist who didn't do so well), but otherwise great. Th story launched a nicely constructed new team, lining up a balance of rogues (sorry, goodn't resist the pun)in Cable and Rogue, two straight laced heroes in Cannonball and Iceman, and three anti-heroes who might (in one case, abretooth, definetly) stab the team in the back. Featured several well done characterizations, and an intriguing new villain team in the Children of the Vault. Highly recommended for new and long time X-team readers.
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