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Post by String on Feb 17, 2018 17:25:14 GMT -5
I'm mostly enjoying this arc. But Matt has been REALLY STUPID a couple of times. In this issue, Vice Mayor Matt goes to Mayor Fisk to warn him about Muse and it seems to be just minutes after Fisk briefed a few intimates on his plans. Matt! Wait a few hours, or Fisk will begin to get suspicious that you're eavesdropping with your highly developed senses because you're Daredevil! A few too many writing lapses like that will ruin an alleged classic for me. For example, The Long Halloween. It's just not that good. That's OK. I guess we disagree. For example I read reviews other places that rave about Tom King's Batman & I don't get it. I think his Batman is the worst Batman I have read in a while. I thought this was a solid installment. I liked Soule's focus of Matt being able to isolate voices in order to better spy on Fisk. We learn some more of his nefarious plan, which on the surface seems crazy brilliant but I do wonder on the likelihood of some of Fisk's candidates taking those positions. Muse is still a credible dangerous threat although I wonder what his end game is really about here considering the subject matter of his latest murals. Plus, Matt is walking a razor thin line here with Fisk by admitting to him about still 'maintaining' a relationship with DD. Garney's art was good but really, we're back to the black suit already? It's a nice rationale by Matt for why he don it again now and I still like the design of it. I just wish we knew why he started wearing it in the first place when he first got back to NYC. 8/10 |
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Post by String on Feb 17, 2018 17:44:02 GMT -5
X-Men Red #1 Written by Tom Taylor, art by Mahmud Asrar, colourist Ive Scorcina, cover by Travis Charest. Plot: Jean Grey is back and assembles her own team of X-Men. With the support of Namor of Atlantis and T'Challa of Wakanda, Jean speaks to the United Nations in order to get her recognized as the voice of the mutant population. Of course, things don't go as planned. Writing: The story starts off with a short scene with the full team saving a young mutant and bringing her to the team's new undersea base. The scene then shifts to two months earlier, Jean and some of her future team saving another young mutant. The flash forward seemed unnecessary to me, but I guess showing the full team in the first issue might draw some readers that want to know which direction the team is heading. The basic premise, I like. I always like X-Men trying do actually work on their dream instead of just running after the villain of the day or hiding in Australia. Art: The whole comic is sadly not completely illustrated by Charest, but Asrar is a good enough artist. Not much chance for really special things in this first issue, which is mostly Jean talking to people. Overall, interesting enough with enough talent behind so I'll keep following it. So now we have an X-Men Blue, X-Men Gold, X-Men Red and an Astonishing X-Men. Methinks one book should change its name. Other than the characters used, is their anything that really sets these books apart? Not really. Gold focuses more on the public Xavier school lead by Kitty and her team. Blue focuses on the Original five X-Men (the O5) as they continue to work with Magneto, and Astonishing features a hastily assembled squad that answered a psychic call for assistance by Psylocke in #1. As for Red, this was an interesting start. Jean has been out of the loop for awhile and she's disturbed by the current state of affairs in the world. She formulates a plan to heal things but her goals become threatened by the appearance of a very powerful X-foe. Taylor does a good job in showing how Jean is adopting to the new world. How she develops her plan, how she first enacts it (and with whose help), it all shows a confidence by her in trying to reassert Xavier's dream of co-existence in a more straightforward manner. The dialogue in the UN scenes could have been more clearer though. On first reading, it gives the impression that Jean is trying to create some form of mutant nation. However, upon reading some more about the UN's methods, it may be more likely that she is trying to get mutantkind some form of Observers status from the UN which would allow them a seat at their table. A noble goal indeed but needed a little more clarification for those not too familiar with how all of that functions. Some disturbing scenes here as well. The mother who is helping the lynch mob find her own mutant daughter and who then actually fires at her along with the others in an attempt to kill her. The baby with the killer new form of sonic scream that, because the art is unclear in this matter, may have inadvertently killed two criminals. For me though, the best scenes were her with Kurt as she lets him in on her plan. Kurt may well be 'the soul of the X-Men', but some excellent emotional scenes here. 8/10 |
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