Aaron Thall
Feb 19, 2002, 12:02 pm
Quick Rating: Excellent!
Xavier and Psylocke must end a world where the Dream is a reality, in order to save the multiverse! Too bad Doctor Doom and a pair of mystery villains are waiting in the wings...
Written by : Steven A. Roman
Art by: Mark Buckingham
Cover by: Bob Larkin and Mike Rivilis
Edited by: Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Published by: BP Books and iBooks
As you might recall from Book 1, Doctor Doom created a new Cosmic Cube with a nasty side effect... it ages the user rapidly. Only a handful of X-Men, plus Saturnyne and Roma, remained to do do something about it. They failed and the Cube fell into the hands of Magneto, leaving only Xavier, Roma, Saturnyne, and a rescued Psylocke to stave off disaster.
Well, Book 2 picks up the pace quite a bit, and forces Xavier into the uncomfortable role of having to go and end a world where his dream became a reality. Magneto rules the world, but all is not as it seems, for the Cube's true nature is soon revealed, leading Doctor Doom to recruit an unexpected ally... and another villain is merely waiting for the opportunity to strike and take the Cube for his own... someone immune to it's powers.
Book 2 also has the wonderful distinction of being a vast improvement upon Book 1 of this trilogy, which I found, well, bad in the extreme. Now that the initial bad taste is gone, what we have here is a story where the villains are the biggest focus. Doom is, of course, the greatest villain EVER, so seeing him categorically coming back from near total defeat was simply glorious. Magneto's discovery that he could not make the world he truly wanted was teriffic foreshadowing of the Cube's nature, and a hint that humans may not have as much to worry about as they think when it comes to mutants ruling over all. The mystery villains, one whom should be NO surprise, and the other whom I have never read before but immediately comes across as a surprisingly effective antagonist, are both used well, although, frankly, in the case of the former, it's painfully obvious who it is, not just from the dialogue, but from advance solicitations.
Psylocke gets to shine in this section of the tale, as she struggles with the death of Archangel, only to discover that he's alive again... a discovery that could lead to tragedy. I'm confused as to why she's risking using her telepathic abilities, mind you, since there's always the Shadow King barrier to maintain, but I'm willing to write it off as a "problem eliminated by presence in alternate reality" for now.
Xavier's confrontation with Magneto is simply heartbreaking. Instead of the usual slugfests, these two have always warred with words, but this is one time where both want Xavier to win... and the one thing Magneto wants Xavier to concede is the one thing he wishes he could, but can't. It's absolutely one of the best moments these two have ever had, and I honestly felt sorry for both of them... One sacrificing "The Dream" for the Multiverse, the other being forced to sacrifice... well, that would be telling. Suffice to say, neither get what they want when "Mystery Villain 1" makes his move.
Naturally, this ends in the already annoying cliffhanger of the universe changing again because of the Cube, but it's different this time, since all the X-Men are on Earth, Roma's being attacked by Doom, Psylocke may well be DEAD, Gambit is missing from this reality and is likely dead permanently, and Saturnyne... well... she's NOT in a position to be helping anybody. The Multiverse Cancer is spreading, and there may be no one left to stop it...
The artwork is, unfortunately, few and far between. While Book 1 had many illustrations, there are, at most, four in this book. Of course one is an awesome shot of Doom and another an amazing image of the final villain of the piece, so I'm not complaining. The cover shot is misleading, since Wolverine and Rogue have precious little to do with this installment, aside from the opening chapter where Wolverine... well... again, that's telling too much. Still, very pretty overall.
And one VERY nice touch on this book was the chronology note at the beginning, along with what seems to be a muted apology for the more than a year long delay.
Overall, an impressive middle to the story, and one that gives me hope for the final chapter... assuming there's someone left to save reality.
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg
Xavier and Psylocke must end a world where the Dream is a reality, in order to save the multiverse! Too bad Doctor Doom and a pair of mystery villains are waiting in the wings...
Written by : Steven A. Roman
Art by: Mark Buckingham
Cover by: Bob Larkin and Mike Rivilis
Edited by: Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Published by: BP Books and iBooks
As you might recall from Book 1, Doctor Doom created a new Cosmic Cube with a nasty side effect... it ages the user rapidly. Only a handful of X-Men, plus Saturnyne and Roma, remained to do do something about it. They failed and the Cube fell into the hands of Magneto, leaving only Xavier, Roma, Saturnyne, and a rescued Psylocke to stave off disaster.
Well, Book 2 picks up the pace quite a bit, and forces Xavier into the uncomfortable role of having to go and end a world where his dream became a reality. Magneto rules the world, but all is not as it seems, for the Cube's true nature is soon revealed, leading Doctor Doom to recruit an unexpected ally... and another villain is merely waiting for the opportunity to strike and take the Cube for his own... someone immune to it's powers.
Book 2 also has the wonderful distinction of being a vast improvement upon Book 1 of this trilogy, which I found, well, bad in the extreme. Now that the initial bad taste is gone, what we have here is a story where the villains are the biggest focus. Doom is, of course, the greatest villain EVER, so seeing him categorically coming back from near total defeat was simply glorious. Magneto's discovery that he could not make the world he truly wanted was teriffic foreshadowing of the Cube's nature, and a hint that humans may not have as much to worry about as they think when it comes to mutants ruling over all. The mystery villains, one whom should be NO surprise, and the other whom I have never read before but immediately comes across as a surprisingly effective antagonist, are both used well, although, frankly, in the case of the former, it's painfully obvious who it is, not just from the dialogue, but from advance solicitations.
Psylocke gets to shine in this section of the tale, as she struggles with the death of Archangel, only to discover that he's alive again... a discovery that could lead to tragedy. I'm confused as to why she's risking using her telepathic abilities, mind you, since there's always the Shadow King barrier to maintain, but I'm willing to write it off as a "problem eliminated by presence in alternate reality" for now.
Xavier's confrontation with Magneto is simply heartbreaking. Instead of the usual slugfests, these two have always warred with words, but this is one time where both want Xavier to win... and the one thing Magneto wants Xavier to concede is the one thing he wishes he could, but can't. It's absolutely one of the best moments these two have ever had, and I honestly felt sorry for both of them... One sacrificing "The Dream" for the Multiverse, the other being forced to sacrifice... well, that would be telling. Suffice to say, neither get what they want when "Mystery Villain 1" makes his move.
Naturally, this ends in the already annoying cliffhanger of the universe changing again because of the Cube, but it's different this time, since all the X-Men are on Earth, Roma's being attacked by Doom, Psylocke may well be DEAD, Gambit is missing from this reality and is likely dead permanently, and Saturnyne... well... she's NOT in a position to be helping anybody. The Multiverse Cancer is spreading, and there may be no one left to stop it...
The artwork is, unfortunately, few and far between. While Book 1 had many illustrations, there are, at most, four in this book. Of course one is an awesome shot of Doom and another an amazing image of the final villain of the piece, so I'm not complaining. The cover shot is misleading, since Wolverine and Rogue have precious little to do with this installment, aside from the opening chapter where Wolverine... well... again, that's telling too much. Still, very pretty overall.
And one VERY nice touch on this book was the chronology note at the beginning, along with what seems to be a muted apology for the more than a year long delay.
Overall, an impressive middle to the story, and one that gives me hope for the final chapter... assuming there's someone left to save reality.
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg