David Hine (1) (1956–)

Early in Civil War, Tony Stark approaches Cyclops to see where the X-Men would fall with registration. Once they decided to remain neutral because “they had their own problems,” I didn't expect them to be a player in the event. So, I didn't expect much from the X-Men collection. I was wrong. This collection turned out to be one of the best connected to Civil War.

The first third of the (hardcover) book is committed to Wolverine (who also figures prominently in additional stories included show more herein) as he decided to track down Nitro – the villain who actually caused the Stamford tragedy. I've never read any of Wolverine’s solo series, but after this I am very tempted to do so. He is fascinating! His hunt for Nitro takes some unexpected twists and turn that kept me completely engrossed in the story. He alone is worth the price of this collection.

Wolverine is followed by a short section on X-Factor. This section was interesting because of Layla, the mutant who revealed that reality was altered to the heroes in House of M. Few mutants know the actual cause of the Decimation was Wanda’s power. When X-Factor learns the truth, and that Cyclops kept it from them, it causes internal tension among the few mutants left.

The next section was surprisingly insightful being that Deadpool takes center stage. First off, this section was incredibly entertaining as the Merc with the Mouth breaks the forth wall frequently, and his views on registration are not what I expected. The action is also top notch. This section is critical because it shows how Cable, who is from the future, views registration. I was left wondering why Reed and Tony aren’t more interested in knowing what Cable thinks seeing as how, unlike their probabilities & statistical analyses, he knows what the future actually holds.

The next large section covers the actual X-Men and how they and the government react when the 198 (remaining mutants) decide to break out of the Xavier Institute where the government has been holding them “for their protection.” Much like a concentration camp. Though not directly impacting on Civil War, the X-Men’s actions are important since public perception of registration is logically linked with mutant registration. The last small section follows Blade as he’s tasked by SHIELD with bringing Wolverine in dead or alive. A quick inconsequential story that serves only to show one further hero tied into the crossover.

Overall, this was a fantastic collection that truly expanded on the event while also being very engaging and action-packed at times. Highly recommended! show less

DNF 53%

The artwork drew me in and the potential of the worldbuilding had me intrigued, but, oofa duffa, this baby's first time playing with tropes and no Dinotopia-esque aesthetics can save this writing.

You've got your 'good' human colonists from another planet who have a matriarch and are cool with the indigenous people. You've got the 'bad' human colonists from a different planet who have an entirely racist war culture and are not cool with the native people. The main dudes, despite the show more 'goodies' having a matriarch, it's still a dude that is their representative, have teenage kids who are uniquely different and rebellious to anyone else in their entire cultures. You've got the indigenous people who have classic 'tribal' coding and look like a mix of D&D's Slaad and Warhammer's Lizardmen, who have the 'noble savage' thing going on. They are also keeping a big secret of ancient technology and dangerous knowledge, being charged with keeping this from the colonists, killing them of they find out.

Tensions reach a head between the colonist groups who are ready to go to war, but an act of light eco-terrorism from the 'goodies' causes massive damage revealing the secret ruins and the Romeo and Juliette teens end up bungling through a portal with one of the indigenous guys who just couldn't bring themselves to murder their friend. They are now stuck in the dangerous, uncharted South, while their parents have to settle their differences to try and find them, while the indigenous leader plans to kill everyone because secrets.

This is the setup of the first few issues and it's just bad and lazy and boring and offensive.

There is some interesting looking tech, animals, and monsters with some hinted at potentially interesting lore and abilities of the titanic psychic monstsrs that might be gods? But it's too little under this embarrassing paint by numbers narrative.

The fact that this was published by Image in 2020 is fucking mind-boggling and embarrassing. Seriously, I would absolutely believe this was written by Chat GPT with the prompt: 'Comic based on Dinotopia, Stargate and Avatar (the blue one) set in Pandora with bigger monsters'.

The art is great, but it really isn't enough to save this powerfully mediocre and derivative nonsense. show less

I have a Marvel Unlimited trial and for some reason, the first thing I wanted to read was the entire Spider-Verse saga. This collection of five issues are a lead-in of sorts to the Spider-verse, each introducing a new Spider character. I really enjoyed seeing how different writers took the basic Spider-man theme and story and ran with it.

Two fugitives, a disfigured man and a woman who turns out to be some kind of ancient Babylonian sex demon, take refuge in a benighted English village whose sole employer is an industrial insect-breeding facility.

This lives up to its subtitle "a tale of rural unease" with a hotchpotchy mix of witchcraft (black and white), pea-souper fogs, inbred yokels and other normal rural stuff. There's feminism, class struggle, and the military-industrial complex thrown in for good measure. The art is show more good at atmospherics but the people are drawn with a hint of manga which felt off to me. It's really too short a book to contain so many characters and such an elaborate plot and back-story. We never find out exactly what the duo are on the run from, for example, and it all feels kind of rushed.

My wife has been to the real Liphook, in Hampshire. She didn't mention witches or an insect factory but there may have been fog and yokels. show less