Chris Claremont and X-Treme X-Men part 3
Ah ladies and gents, I’m through issue #18 and that mean another update on my X-Treme X-Men reading.
As a reminder, I’m spoiling this series as I talk about my reaction, so watch out (even though the series is about 8 years old).
So far I’m having a lot of fun with this series in a sense that Chris Claremont seems to be batshit crazy when it comes to story arcs. Moving from Vargas killing Psylocke to Gambit becoming some tool of inter-dimensional imperialists (with some minor arcs in there — I’m not following the wikipedia page I’m reading in order of the comics I have #1-46) this series has been pretty good. I really do like Chris Claremont’s plots, but, as I’ve said, he just goes on and on with the narration.
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, and let me just say it right now: Warren Ellis pretty much summed up exactly how I feel about writers like Chris Claremont at Wizard World Chicago when he had his late night panel on Friday. He was explaining that sometimes writers don’t know when to shut the hell up and let the art tell the story. And it’s funny because someone in the crowd actually called out and said “Could you tell Chris Claremont?” I wish I could have been there.
Astonishing X-Men #25 — a reaction/sum-up
So yesterday I went and bought Astonishing X-Men #25 at my local comic shop. I bought it on my lunch break and didn’t have any time to read it yesterday, but this morning on the bus ride to work I managed to squeeze it in. Let me just say (before the jump) that Warren Ellis is amazing and he beats Joss Whedon any fucking day on Astonishing X-Men.
On the right here is a clip from the first page… we see Armor using Twitter. Hell yes Warren Ellis.
**spoilers after the break**
Astonishing X-Men #25 – This week is gonna be awesome
Guess what guys? Guess effing what? Astonishing X-Men #25 is coming out this week (7/2/2008), and guess who’s excited?
ME!
Seriously. And you want to know why I’m so excited? Well, let me answer just one more question for you: Because Joss Whedon is no long writing this series. Hell yes! Yea! Yea! Yea! I’m beyond excited and it’s because without Joss Whedon, this comic book will (probably) come out on a regular basis and with some sweet storylines because the one and only Warren Ellis taking over meaning that Armor, Beast, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Storm, and Wolverine (the line-up according to cover for this issue) are in for a friggin’ show for sure.
The amazing Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan, Newuniversal/Newuniversal: Shockfront, and the Extremis arc of Iron Man, is going to be writing Astonishing X-Men and I can only hope for nothing less than an outstanding series with him backing it. The new series titled Astonishing X-Men: Second Stage. It’s supposed to be back in the continuity and I couldn’t be happier.
**spoilers after the break**
Chris Claremont and X-Treme X-Men part 2
It’s been a while and strangely I didn’t get through as many X-Treme X-Men comics as I wanted to since my last blog about this series, but nevertheless, I got to issue #12 and, again, I’m not really impressed. Effing Chris Claremont again turned the series from partially good to bad to pretty awesome to terrible within 6 issues.
Really, for a while I was digging the series (say issues #4-7) when all of a sudden, things started to just get blotchy with the story and I was constantly going back a page or two to see what the hell was going on. But what was different than from issues #1-6 than #7-12 is that starting with issue #8 the art was almost as confusing as the dialogue (which Claremont began to use to tell a portion of the story). Although stunning at times, a lot of the art had the characters in very weird angles and positions during fight scenes. A lot I could deal with, but for some parts I was just baffled as to where a character started and began.
As for the storytelling, Chris Claremont did exactly as I thought: started a great story and told it poorly. A lot of the plot points in these last 6 issues were mainly jumped right into with no warning. It was kind of confusing, given that I’m used to stories leading up to a plot point rather than just throwing one in.
In one issue, the X-team are walking along in a house when on the next page a monster breaks through the floor and Rogue and Gambit are being held up in the air… it’s way random and utterly confusing for a new reader. It really makes me wonder how this series kept selling…
Even still, Chris Claremont knows how to write an effing good storyline as a whole and I have to give it up to him for that… No spoilers this entry, sorry kids.
I’ll check back with my next 6 issues or so and let you know what’s what…
This weeks comics I’m looking forward to — 6/25/08
This week, we lucky kids who read in the Marvel universe are going to graced with some sweet comics. I’m talking über awesome.
First, we have a bunch of X-titles (and some related) coming our way: Angel: Revelations #2, Uncanny X-Men #499, Wolverine: First Class #4, Wolverine: Origins #26, and X-Men Legacy #213. Really, I’m most excited for Uncanny X-Men #499 and X-Men Legacy #213.
Second, my new love of a comic mini-series, Marvel 1985 #2 is coming out and I can do nothing but be extremely excited. This series is what any little kid dreams about and it simply came out of nowhere.. but of course, it’s another title by the ever-so-awesome Mark Millar, so it’s nothing short of pure gold.
**Spoilers of last week’s issues after the break**
