Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Why don't the X-Men have a rogues gallery?

Every good super hero or team has a good rogues gallery. Batman has in my opinion the most interesting of all with Joker, Ra's Al Ghul, Clayface, etc. The Justice League has a wide and powerful rogues gallery that is composed mostly of other-worldly beings like Darkseid. Although I am not an expert I can say that from my fairly brief experience with the X-Men that they have little to no rogues gallery.
There is always some conflict in the X-Men, and that's what keeps them interesting. Mostly the conflict is that mutants aren't accepted by humanity. This dilemma is quite compelling: society isn't willing to accept that others are more powerful and therefore hate and hunt them. This also gives us Sentinels which I guess could count as rogues but are too numerous and all the same.
The X-Men can also never get along. The team is very diverse and very good at holding grudges. They aren't exactly leaping to each others aid either. They all like to talk about what just happened and blame others for it. I think that is interesting because the X-Men usually have a decent writer so the arguments and discussions are sharp and good points are made.
People rag on Cyclops a lot but his is the same situation that Jack Shepherd was in on Lost. He is a natural born leader who is a little too stuck up for his own good. That does provide some conflict though. Cyclops is a good character in the time between battles, making amends and keeping people calm.
The merry mutants don't need a rogues gallery as long as they keep bickering. The stories are interesting and suspenseful even with just themselves as bad guys.


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

3/20/13

Three from DC two from Marvel. I think that I am moving more towards being a marvel fan as I headed straight into my Marvel books this week. As you will see in the reviews to come there wasn't a whole lot of quality in the comics on my Pull-List this week. Nonetheless, here are the weekly reviews my faithful readers...

  • All-New X-Men #009
This is one of the best series going, there is no denying that. I think having a switch in art was a bad move for the near-perfect creative team of Bendis and Immonen. To my surprise and excitement Immonen was back on the book with a crazy new story. It starts off with a drill in the danger room that was reminiscent of old Claremont and Lee X-Men. From there the issue was exciting, surprising and nicely paced. I was worried that the whole idea of the O5 coming to the future wouldn't last much longer than five issues, but boy was I wrong. I feel as though the X-Men have a weaker rogues gallery than say, Captain America. My experience is that the X-Men are a flawed team and their issues are internal, this also strengthens them as a single issue will not solely focus on one character but flip back and forth through characters like and episode of Lost. Bendis captures both as this team faces the challenge of themselves and a couple rogues shown on the cover.


  • Nightwing #18
This new"I am sulking" Nightwing is boring and non-productive. "I'm so sad about the circus, I miss you so much Damian." I mean, get over yourself, everyone else in the Bat-Family has. Besides being boring when he thinks about his life there is not much action to make up for it in this book. The one kicker was, Dick's response to Damian's death was the most meaningful thus far in the "Requiem" books. I continue to dislike the art in this book, the facial features are a complete mess, but who am I to judge? I also find it really strange that Dick would be going out with the girl whose dad killed his parents. He splits up a crime auction that was actually the most compelling part of the book (probably because all of the characters wore gas masks so the artist didn't have a chance to give them giant eyes). I really want the old "happy go lucky" Nightwing that was so awesome in the beginning of the New 52. Why can't we have him back?



  • Red Hood and the Outlaws #18
I think that Scott Lobdell should be band from ever even attempting to write a comic again. I thought he could redeem himself with last month's mildly promising issue, boy was I wrong. His ability to write dialogue is none and he is so very repetitive. He is really repetitive. And he repeats himself all the time. And says the same thing more than once. And repeats the same cheesy lines.

That little tirade was completely nesscesary. I am fairly certain that Lobdell has a basic script that he has on command-v "My name is             I used to be                    Then I was                      After that I was        
                (Sentimental Garbage, Sentimental Garbage, Sentimental Garbage.) It's awful writing. And I coud've sworn he said the exact same thing about Alfred in two issues in a row. The art was pretty good but I will never forgive this kind of writing. Thank god this was Lobdell's last issue on the series.



  • Indestructible Hulk #005
I am usually really annoyed with how this creative team creates an action team but I have to say: this issue was an exception. It seems that Hulk is always getting himself involved with the supernatural, this time he picks a fight with a bad ass ex-Atlantean named: Attuma. Attuma is an awesome character design whose back-story is interesting and makes perfect sense. I think that the whole rebel resistance was a pleasant touch that I didn't see coming, and all of the characters within it were compelling. What also felt strange was Hulk kissing a woman twice who Hulk knew was betrothed.


  • Catwoman #18
Even though Catwoman is usually a pretty bad series and crossover titles are pretty bad this issue proved to be a fascinatingly heartfelt issue. Catwoman helps Bruce work out some of his pain and anger and Bruce helps Catwoman learn to do the right thing. This is a rare and beautiful occourance. The artists depiction of Batman was great and all of the Bat-Family was drawn well as well. The plot was in and out and all over the place but that's what I have come to expect from this series. I think that Ann Nocenti has a very good interpretation of what goes on inside Catwoman's crazy head which makes for an interesting view as the reader.