Age of Apocalypse 11, First X-Men 5, Ultimate X-Men 21, Wolverine and the X-Men 23, X-Men Legacy 4

Age of Apocalypse 11
Lapham (w) and De La Torre and Arlem (a)

I kind of tune in and out of this series. Not that it's bad or uninteresting, just because I tend to have some trouble grasping it. I think I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people involved that I didn't know. OKAY, that might make me a bad comic reader (it's weird how often I catch myself saying that on this blog. Maybe I AM a bad comic reader. Boy, let's all work under the assumption that I'm not), but being introduced cold to a whole new group of characters who are different than their 616 counterparts threw me for a bit of a loop. The other part of this that probably makes me a bad comic reader (but remember, I'm NOT) is that this book is good.

There is a real plot with a real weight to it and some real questions that arise from it. Is Weapon X's genocide simply Apocalypse's Death Seed doing its work or is he really protecting the world from the Celestials, who we know have a real tendency to do this? Is it the only way for the world to survive the Celestials? Was the Shadow King really turning into dinosaurs to attack Quentin Quire/Donald Pierce? Plenty of good questions, plenty of interesting characters and it is, despite what I said above, cool to see characters who are just bigots and anti-mutants in the 616 actually fighting for a reason in this book. Does still kind of stop you from liking them.

Maybe that's my problem with the book. I'm asked to like characters I know I hate. It's not like Nightcrawler coming from the AoA into the 616 and being a character I already loved but with a different history that fundamentally changes him. Now it's the same situation but with characters I don't like. I don't know. That sounds like a good reason. But don't misunderstand: this book is a good book. It's worth reading, especially if you like other timeline stuff. The good thing about this blog is that I will make sure to read every issue of everything going forth and, more importantly (since I largely did that anyway), I'll have a record of what I've said about the last issue. Books I don't invest in tend to get treated as a series of one-shots in my mind. All disjointed, with me just figuring I'll remember nuances of the plot that I don't. NOW I WILL.

First X-Men 5
Adams and Gage (w) and Adams (a)

Did anyone else feel like everyone was going to die in this book? Because starting it, I knew two members of this team, Wolverine and Sabretooth, and NO ONE ELSE. The problem with books set in the past is that you kind of know who will live. In this case, odds weren't great on EVERYONE BUT WOLVERINE AND SABRETOOTH. It diminishes the scale a bit, along with some of the other aspects of this book. I know I didn't get attached to any of these characters because there was like, a 9/10 chance that they died. Like, that they ALL died. Guess what's paying off for me right now? That. That's paying off for me right now.

Anyway, the book was kind of unimpressive? I cut it a lot of slack because it's Neal Adams, a living legend, and Christos Gage, who I like very much, but I imagine it's Adams carrying a lot of this slack. Modern comics are very different than the comics of the past, in layout and in art and in story and in everything. So I try not to relate it to modern comics. Plus it's hard to write a book set in the past over what would appear to be a huge issue, the discovery of mutantkind and introduction of the Sentinels, because Marvel has mined the past so often. There are allowances to be made for this book and I'm willing to make them. That said, I didn't love this series. It was somewhat slow, I couldn't really care for the characters, and this final issue was a little step-by-step predictable. Not that it all was, but we all kind of knew the full ending, didn't we? Department of Mutant Affairs, Wolverine and Sabretooth, Magneto comes out of nowhere to form the Brotherhood of Mutants, Professor X forms the Xavier School. It's hard to throw surprise into a book from the past of stuff anyone reading it probably already knows. Look guys, maybe I'm just too good of a comic book reader. That's what I'm going to say from now on, regardless of context, okay?

Ultimate X-Men 21
Wood and Edmonson (w) and Barberi and Vlasco (a)

We're building to some big things, which is fun, but I do feel like we've been building for some time now. I do think there is a sense of some sort of realism here to the speed at which Mach Two is plotting, as opposed to going "I hate Kitty, I'm going to kill her by the end of this issue." Still, it lends itself to a lot of jumping to the rogue group within their numbers that is constantly whining and that is not endearing for a book. I like where this book is and where it's going and the different ways in which they can proceed, but having to split time between the mutants who are trying to do something and the mutants who are complaining the whole time is a little tiring.

I am still curious as to the main story of this arc, the sentient seed creation and distribution. The mutants in Utopia have found/created a seed that can grow in any climate, thereby granting the potential to end world hunger and, under Kitty's direction, have offered it to the world as a sort of peace treaty. The hope is that it will put human-mutant relations in a calmer and more amicable place. I'm not sure totally where that hope comes from because Kitty seems to think that it will move straight to peace without any sort of repercussions. Though that might be the logical outcome, the world isn't logical and still wants to attack over it, obviously.

At this point, I like where the series can go and where it's been, that's why I listed it on my favorite 2012 books list. Right now, though, where we're at? There's a lot of infighting and characters acting crazily naive. I don't mind infighting, I think it's real. I do mind crazy naivety because these kids, though they're still just kids, just fought a war. There's less room for naivety after that. Also, as I've said, it makes for less interesting reading when everyone is just whining about how something needs to be done. Also, when Tony Stark is the adult in the room.

Wolverine and the X-Men 23
Aaron (w) and Bradshaw (a)

The folks at Marvel have been absolutely head over heels in love with the idea of Wolverine magicked into being Revolto the Clown over the last three or so Wolverine and the X-Men issues. I'm...I'm not sure why? I guess it's a thing but BOY did this plan of Frankenstein's monster seem convoluted. There must have been an easier way to lure lil Frankenstein to him than hoping for a circus to work. Look, I'm no supervillain, but it seems like they went to great lengths to even get the X-Men involved. Why would you even want to do that?

Look, anyway, Idie Okonkwo is changing a whole lot and Quentin Quire seems to be changing just a bit and lil Frankenstein is pretty evil. That's what I got from this arc and it feels like that could have been done a lot faster. Oh, and Eye Boy can see magic and he is covered in eyes and that's grody. I don't have a whole lot more to say because it feels like everything we could say is kind of already covered. The X-Men break out of the magic, beat the bad guys, and go home. Just a normal day, I suppose.

OH, and Azazel's going to come back into play. That could be fun.

X-Men Legacy 4
Spurrier (w) and Molina (a)

This is one of the stronger books in Marvel NOW!'s arsenal right now. Each book has been entertaining and interesting, exploring many ideas and many thoughts on power and what it means. It's a strong book in its ideologies and in its action. David Haller, Legion, is a compelling character doing exactly what good compelling characters do: he's making us read on and come back every new issue. He frets, he fights, he considers his past, he bluffs, he makes rash decisions. All these things fit his personality without sacrificing plot. So far, just a really strong book.

In this issue, the X-Men have descended on David, fresh off saving the psychic twin children of bad guy Ogun, and quickly determine that he has kidnapped the children and that's he unbalanced and sick. Instead, he aims to help the children and keep them from the world of fighting that being an X-Man opens. He's not sure how that's going to happen and he still cares about the dream of his father, Professor X, but he thinks there might have been fundamental flaws in the X-Men example. It's been interesting because, in thinking about his father's dream and having his psyche torn apart by his father's death, he's forced to reconsider his relationship with his father and exactly who his father was to him. He's going through a lot right now, is what I'm saying, and it's always interesting to watch an omega level mutant going through a lot.

If this book keeps up this way, it'll be something to watch. I'm already regretting not putting it on my top ten anticipated books of 2013 list but I go back and still can't figure out what I'd knock off. It's going to be a good year for comics, if all goes as well as it can. I'm very excited.


TOP PICKS, coming tomorrow.