Craig KyleReviews

967

1479

Horrible collection editing. Mark Beazley should be shot for the ridiculously stupid order this collection is in. That said, I enjoyed the story a lot. Just, don't read it in the order it appears in the book, google a reading order. There are some good ones in Amazon reviews and elsewhere.

Got this at a flee market for 50 cents, the backstory about the X-men is slightly intriguing, however since the artwork isn’t the greatest, and religion is thrown in, I won’t be trying to buy the rest of the series.

Couple of my favorite artists on these (Bachalo, Ramos, Silvestri), some great covers. I don't have all of them, I'd love to have the set, but I think one is a key that I'm not going to want to pay for, so have to get lucky and find it in a $1 bin.

This was so cool that I didn't even get upset about the time travel (they avoided paradoxes as far as I could tell). Also I haven't read a lot of Cable comics so I found out that Scott Summers is actually his dad (not sure how his mom is). Loved that the different X-teams were all involved in this event and I liked the interactions between Scott and Xavier.

Having read the second book in this series first, I was interested to see how X-23 came to be. This is a quality story, with good drama and lots of action. Scientists devoted to building the ultimate weapon and then a blatant disregard for corporate authority. Nice to see a strong woman warrior, but at a dear price. if you like graphic novels, try this one. Note: I liked this better than the sequel.

Thanks to Anne for recommending. Despite a recap of the first book in this series, I felt adrift without a good feel for the characters. The central character is a female (hot) version of X-Men's Wolverine. Excellent artwork.

I thought it was good story, but not great. Lot of different characters, which means it is difficult to establish much depth.

A blockbuster collection and story with major ramifications for the mutant family - of course this is based on comic book reality, which if full of dying and returning characters. If you can suspend disbelief on that front, this book will be entertaining.

That was amazing. Wow. I don't even like Wolverine or works related to him, but I am truly intrigued and excited by X-23. I can't wait to read more of her series (and it will be hilarious if this of all things gets me reading X-Men, since I've been resisting it for so long). The last chapter in this book just broke my heart, gd.

Everything except the X-23 Women of Marvel One shot are awesome. The one shot is horrendous. The writing is terrible and the art is worse. I’m a little confused about where to find the stories that were mentioned in the page after the Captain Universe section. Probably the X-Force series?

Wow. This was a lot better than I expected. I started to get a feeling about where the whole thing with Hope was going, but I’m curious to know what the connection is between her power and the x-gene.

The story itself isn’t bad, but the way it’s arranged in this compilation is absurd. The last issue in the volume tells the story of how Selene put together her crew. The first set of issues tells you the end of the story arc. In the middle, you have some stuff about Rogue training newbies, which doesn’t really fit in with what the overall compilation is supposed to be about. Whoever put this together was a tool who couldn’t even grasp basic chronology. Oh, and the art in most of it is sketchy AF or just bad.

I've been a fan of the X-Men related stories since some time in the 1980s. They offered some of the best themes, best-handled stories, and best characterizations that mainstream comic books had to offer. It's easier (and more tempting) to pick apart the failings of X-books now than many other books I read, as a result. Go into this review knowing that I enjoyed reading this, and find the negative aspects of it stand out more because they're flaws in what is, overall, a better story than most other things, which I generally don't like enough to critique like this.

There's some very good stuff in this, but it's not quite as tightly woven storytelling as [b:X-Men: Messiah CompleX|2350837|X-Men Messiah CompleX|Ed Brubaker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472487787l/2350837._SY75_.jpg|2357548]. Its art tends to be a bit better, overall, though still with some weak points along the way. I get to enjoy some of my more-favorite characters a bit more, but that's offset by some more wooden bits of characterization, too. The central character is far from being developed as a protagonist, the way this was all written, and as a result the fact the climax hinges on her moment of truth doesn't have the same impact it should. Cable still doesn't get the kind of development he needs for his key moments to be as deeply felt as would be ideal; he comes across as somewhat two-dimensional, even with a couple moments of displayed emotion. Some of the coolest moments in this thing belong to Cypher, but he doesn't get much of the necessary development attention to really make them stand out. Many of the more impactful moments throughout the whole volume don't get the kind of aftermath they need, either, including Cypher's part in Warlock's trauma.

What passes for the supposed consummate soldier's sense of military tactics is risible in the complete lack of, well, meaningful tactics. Throwing in use of clock positions and off-hand remarks about having pre-identified escape routes doesn't make up for those moments when armed fighters break cover, stand backed against a wall, and stay put like stationary silhouette targets at the shooting range.

Despite all the above, and more minor issues, it leaves a good, cohesive impression overall. The characters largely hold up well in the storytelling, and there's a large contingent of great characters in this story arc. The whole thing provides some important context for later stories (such as [b:New Mutants, Volume 3: Fall of the New Mutants|9571607|New Mutants, Volume 3 Fall of the New Mutants|Zeb Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486034085l/9571607._SY75_.jpg|14458433]), too. As a whole, I really enjoyed it.

I wouldn't call Messiah Complex the best X-Men related storyline. Some of these characters are pretty far from my favorite X-Men related characters. Some of the relationships, motivations, and even art art fall short of my favorite examples of such things in X-Men related stories of the past. Some of the art was even semi-incomprehensible, in terms of figuring out what's supposed to be happening, and I'd expect Marc Silvestri to be better at body proportions after all these years.

Despite all of that, Messiah Complex is good enough to reinforce my long-standing, strong appreciation for X-Men stories. It addresses the major themes that have made X-Men stories so interesting, dives head-first into issues that make other mainstream comics creative teams flinch, and consistently leans on writers who can weave some serious, interesting tension into a tale, just like I came to expect from X-books in the '80s and early '90s. It kept me wanting to read all the way through like I was being led by the nose. It draws heavily on a lot of X-Men related in-world history, but still makes sense for me despite the fact I've been a very infrequent visitor to that world for most of thirty years.

The last pages set excellent tone to end the thing. I'm looking forward to reading [b:X-Men: Second Coming|8651048|X-Men Second Coming|Mike Carey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409504479l/8651048._SY75_.jpg|13522259] next.

Great art and a very solid intro into this character. I've never read any of X-23 before. I never even heard of her before. But now that I have, I'm sure I'm going to tear through quite a bit more and really catch up because she's kinda psycho cool.

There's less unjustified family angst in her story than most Marvel heroines, too. It's a great selling point.

A remarkably dense amount of information followed these six comics that even managed to jam in a nice character quest at the last minute. We'll see how it goes!

This is a decent follow-up to the events of Messiah Complex, as various mutants travel to the future to try to rescue or kill Hope. I hadn't read any of the earlier X-Force or Cable stories, so I had less attachment to many of the X Force characters. It makes for a good read, although not nearly enough changes by the end.

A good, complex story about the birth of the mutant "messiah" and the fight by everyone to keep here. Sometimes it gets a little too complex, as it cuts across all the mutant comics, and seems to involve everyone. And if you're not up on all the characters involved, the fight scenes get a chaotic and hard to follow. The art is hit-or-miss, and varied in style, but generally well-detailed.

I had not read any of the more recent X-Men comics and so found this a bit confusing at time due to my lack of knowledge regarding the background for this narrative arc. Found the plotting weak and not the biggest fan of many of the illustrators.½

NEW FAVE CHARcter???

NEW FAVE CHARcter???

This book is the reason why I fell in love with X. She's one of the best characters ever. Not only 'cause she's got some of Logan's traits but she's so much more... A real solid new character for mature hearts. Here it's where her story starts, from her conception until her escape from Weapon X facilities and I know this will sound corny but yeah I cried reading this... All time favorite!

Sort of feels like playing magic cards, in the way where you wish you didn't stay up till three eating chips.½

The premise--"mutant messiah" returns and mutant babies start being born again and the extinction storyline is out the window, just in time for Marvel's new lighterhearted direction--doesn't do much for me, but the execution is a symphony of violence and beauty.

While the oversized hardcover looks great on a shelf, the reading order is completely messed up inside. For some reason, the editors of this book decided to group all of the titles together instead of putting the issues in reading order. This leads to a very disjointed story that is nearly impossible to follow.

From what I could piece together from the story - which wasn't much - Selene is some sort of immortal mutant who wants to become a goddess by consuming souls. And that's really all I took away from the book, because if you aren't firmly entrenched in all of the X titles, this is going to breeze way over your head (or at least it did in my case).

At least some of the art is pretty.½