Jim Lemoine
Jan 31, 2002, 01:02 am
{Originally posted at X-Fan v3.0 on December 1, 2001}
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xxmsl3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xxmsl3t.jpg" align=left alt="XXM: Savage Land #3"></a>Reviewer: Jim Lemoine, darkkelf@earthlink.net
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: False Haven!
Separated in the Savage Land, the X-Treme X-Men protect the unified tribes as Storm remains a captive of Brainchild.
Written by: Chris Claremont
Pencilled by: Kevin Sharpe
Inked by: Danny Miki
Lettered by: Tom Orzechowski
Colored by: Avalon Studios' Arsia Rozegar
Assistant Editor: Andrew Lis
Editors: Matt Hicks & Mark Powers
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the theme and direction of the X-Treme X-Men: Savage Land limited series, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing...
In the first issue of this four-part series, Rogue got the team started on a quest to Argentina to discover the truth behind her power fluctuations, periodic seizures, and odd visions. There, the X-Men found a race of saurids attempting to reach the Savage Land, and Storm decided the team should help them.
In the second issue, there was absolutely no mention of Rogue's quest, and very little of Rogue herself. Instead we saw the eventful conclusion to many of the saurids' journey, although other saurids remained stranded in Antarctica proper with Bishop and Sage, and still others went mysteriously missing off-panel near the end of the book.
Now the penultimate chapter of this saga has arrived, and I'm finding myself more confused than ever. I originally thought that this mini's theme would be Rogue's quest for knowledge and control (indeed, that's how Marvel promoted the series), but again, there's absolutely none of that in the third issue. I also once thought that the series direction might be the saurids' quest for a homeland, but most of them have already found it this issue, and we don't really see anything here about their integration into the Savage Land. Instead of any of this, we have a kidnapped Storm, a small crew still trapped in the Savage Land, and Beast, Rogue, and Thunderbird fighting a war for the unified tribes against an army of wonderfully-drawn dinosaurs.
It could be a great thing that this book keeps me guessing. It might be that it's wonderful that there are so many deep subplots running throughout the book that I can't be sure which is the main one. A story of that nature could even resemble a modern epic, where a new degree of realism can be found.
On the flip-side, Chris Claremont has for years displayed a penchant for putting his eggs in too many baskets, so to speak. He is famous for leaving dangling plot-lines (that sometimes contradict one another) hanging indefinitely without resolution. With only one issue left until this series reaches its conclusion, the reader is left with the impression that Claremont wanted this to be a six-issue series, or even a twelve-issue series, but is being forced to cram it all into four parts. The risk there, other than a very hurried and messy script, is that several subplots may be left unresolved.
Brainchild is unquestionably the villain of the series, along with a group of Savage Land Mutates sporting quite a few new faces (one wonders where all of the new Mutates came from, but that has thus far been left unaddressed). One of these new villains, Leash, finds herself unable to take over Rogue's mind, who is apparently there as a prisoner. Since Rogue shows up later with no memory of being a prisoner, we must assume that Leash can somehow erase Rogue's memories, even though there's no mention of her being capable of doing this.
Storm and Brainchild then share some extremely stereotypical dialogue that is frankly very disappointing:
"I've long dreamt of this moment -- at last you are mine. Be my Queen."
"Never."
The whole sequence between the two enemies only lasts a page, but is very, very typical comic book fare. It's also the only time we see Storm in the entire issue, other than the last panel of the very last page, which is odd since she's featured on the cover.
Back at the village, we find Thunderbird watching a soccer game between the humans and the saurids. Neal seems disappointed in the chances of peace between the two species after one of the saurids hits the ball with his tail instead of his foot (I wasn't sure why - maybe tails, like hands, are against the rules?). Then he feels more confident in success when the Beast and Rogue start playing. Very warm and fuzzy, but does it make any sense?
The X-Men bounce the ball for a while as Rogue (with no memory of her confinement) argues that they should go and find the missing X-Men. Somehow, as they argue, the soccer game turns into a huge gathering of the village army, a "formal ceremony", where Delage and C'Rel apparently convince the oddly appeasing Rogue to help their village instead. Why does Rogue change her mind so quickly? Where did all of those warriors come from? What happened to their game? No clue.
We get a glimpse of Sage, Bishop, and their group of saurids, still stranded in a crashed Blackbird in the normal (frigid) part of Antarctica. Sage is written exceedingly well here, as we finally get a relevant look at what it's like to be the team's "living computer". I believe that Bishop's speech in this scene is very out of character for him, but it seems to be the direction Claremont is taking him, judging from the last few issues.
The inevitable war between the enlightened folk of the village and those that hold to the "old ways of conflict" at last comes to pass, beginning with an unfeasibly strong pterasaur knocking Rogue out of the conflict. The men of the village attack a squad of rampaging velociraptors as, according to the captions, C'rel stands "in the heart of the chaos... crying out to the combatants of both sides to set aside their differences and weapons and find a peaceful resolution to their dispute." I can only assume that she doesn't realize that velociraptors are not sentient beasts, just as I can only assume that all of the velociraptors miraculously don't attack her if she truly is standing in the middle of the battle. Of course, I can also only assume that the artist meant to draw her in the middle of the battle, instead of far away from the combat where she looks to be standing.
With the X-Men helping the villagers they manage to defeat the dinosaur army, and its leader Khadar quickly offers peace with the village. The book ends with a view of Brainchild with his new queen, a drastically different Storm. Apparently, in the short time that has passed since the beginning of the book, Storm has acquired dreadlocks, several new piercings, claws, and pointed ears. I'm curious to see how Brainchild managed to convert her to his side (and work the physical changes), since I'm not aware of any of the old Mutates who could control minds. Worm could control a subject by controlling their movements but not their minds, but he apparently isn't involved here since we don't see his trademark residue covering Storm.
So supposedly next issue we'll see all of Brainchild's machinations explained, a resolution for the saurids, the reuniting of the X-Men, and the redemption of Storm and the Beast. Not to mention what Marvel originally promoted as the overriding theme of the book: Rogue's quest for control and sanity. Will it be possible to fit all of that into one issue? I'd be surprised, but we'll see...
In my own opinion, that's been a problem with the whole limited series. While the new look at the Savage Land has been refreshing to say the least, Claremont's writing comes across as sloppy. There are numerous events thoughout all three issues that don't make any sense at all. Several of our heroes are speaking and acting out of character, and the original premise of the book is being ignored. One gets the impression that Claremont wants this to be a truly epic, but isn't taking (or isn't being allowed) sufficient time to work it through.
The art has also been a bit inconsistent. I wasn't all that impressed with the art in the initial chapter, but the second issue was much better. Here, I find myself disliking the art again. Brainchild seems to be getting plastic surgery between all the pages, since his face looks completely different from one page to the next. Most of the other characters' faces also look poor except when drawn at a close-up. While the dinosaur illustrations in the war sequence are extremely well done, the visual storytelling is somewhat substandard, in my own opinion. But then, maybe I've just gotten used to Salvador Larocca's beautiful images over in the main X-Treme X-Men book.
I feel like my reviews of this series have mirrored the book itself: swinging from good to bad, often and violently, usually without warning. Naturally, X-Treme X-Men fans aren't going to want to miss this series, and may be able to forgive most of the problems with the story. However, the fact that the series has such great characters, in a locale filled with storytelling promise, should make it easier to tell a great story, not harder. I'm holding out for the last issue, which I hope will bring some closure and explain some of the things that don't make sense. It's not too late to fix this mess.
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.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/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xxmsl3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xxmsl3t.jpg" align=left alt="XXM: Savage Land #3"></a>Reviewer: Jim Lemoine, darkkelf@earthlink.net
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: False Haven!
Separated in the Savage Land, the X-Treme X-Men protect the unified tribes as Storm remains a captive of Brainchild.
Written by: Chris Claremont
Pencilled by: Kevin Sharpe
Inked by: Danny Miki
Lettered by: Tom Orzechowski
Colored by: Avalon Studios' Arsia Rozegar
Assistant Editor: Andrew Lis
Editors: Matt Hicks & Mark Powers
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the theme and direction of the X-Treme X-Men: Savage Land limited series, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing...
In the first issue of this four-part series, Rogue got the team started on a quest to Argentina to discover the truth behind her power fluctuations, periodic seizures, and odd visions. There, the X-Men found a race of saurids attempting to reach the Savage Land, and Storm decided the team should help them.
In the second issue, there was absolutely no mention of Rogue's quest, and very little of Rogue herself. Instead we saw the eventful conclusion to many of the saurids' journey, although other saurids remained stranded in Antarctica proper with Bishop and Sage, and still others went mysteriously missing off-panel near the end of the book.
Now the penultimate chapter of this saga has arrived, and I'm finding myself more confused than ever. I originally thought that this mini's theme would be Rogue's quest for knowledge and control (indeed, that's how Marvel promoted the series), but again, there's absolutely none of that in the third issue. I also once thought that the series direction might be the saurids' quest for a homeland, but most of them have already found it this issue, and we don't really see anything here about their integration into the Savage Land. Instead of any of this, we have a kidnapped Storm, a small crew still trapped in the Savage Land, and Beast, Rogue, and Thunderbird fighting a war for the unified tribes against an army of wonderfully-drawn dinosaurs.
It could be a great thing that this book keeps me guessing. It might be that it's wonderful that there are so many deep subplots running throughout the book that I can't be sure which is the main one. A story of that nature could even resemble a modern epic, where a new degree of realism can be found.
On the flip-side, Chris Claremont has for years displayed a penchant for putting his eggs in too many baskets, so to speak. He is famous for leaving dangling plot-lines (that sometimes contradict one another) hanging indefinitely without resolution. With only one issue left until this series reaches its conclusion, the reader is left with the impression that Claremont wanted this to be a six-issue series, or even a twelve-issue series, but is being forced to cram it all into four parts. The risk there, other than a very hurried and messy script, is that several subplots may be left unresolved.
Brainchild is unquestionably the villain of the series, along with a group of Savage Land Mutates sporting quite a few new faces (one wonders where all of the new Mutates came from, but that has thus far been left unaddressed). One of these new villains, Leash, finds herself unable to take over Rogue's mind, who is apparently there as a prisoner. Since Rogue shows up later with no memory of being a prisoner, we must assume that Leash can somehow erase Rogue's memories, even though there's no mention of her being capable of doing this.
Storm and Brainchild then share some extremely stereotypical dialogue that is frankly very disappointing:
"I've long dreamt of this moment -- at last you are mine. Be my Queen."
"Never."
The whole sequence between the two enemies only lasts a page, but is very, very typical comic book fare. It's also the only time we see Storm in the entire issue, other than the last panel of the very last page, which is odd since she's featured on the cover.
Back at the village, we find Thunderbird watching a soccer game between the humans and the saurids. Neal seems disappointed in the chances of peace between the two species after one of the saurids hits the ball with his tail instead of his foot (I wasn't sure why - maybe tails, like hands, are against the rules?). Then he feels more confident in success when the Beast and Rogue start playing. Very warm and fuzzy, but does it make any sense?
The X-Men bounce the ball for a while as Rogue (with no memory of her confinement) argues that they should go and find the missing X-Men. Somehow, as they argue, the soccer game turns into a huge gathering of the village army, a "formal ceremony", where Delage and C'Rel apparently convince the oddly appeasing Rogue to help their village instead. Why does Rogue change her mind so quickly? Where did all of those warriors come from? What happened to their game? No clue.
We get a glimpse of Sage, Bishop, and their group of saurids, still stranded in a crashed Blackbird in the normal (frigid) part of Antarctica. Sage is written exceedingly well here, as we finally get a relevant look at what it's like to be the team's "living computer". I believe that Bishop's speech in this scene is very out of character for him, but it seems to be the direction Claremont is taking him, judging from the last few issues.
The inevitable war between the enlightened folk of the village and those that hold to the "old ways of conflict" at last comes to pass, beginning with an unfeasibly strong pterasaur knocking Rogue out of the conflict. The men of the village attack a squad of rampaging velociraptors as, according to the captions, C'rel stands "in the heart of the chaos... crying out to the combatants of both sides to set aside their differences and weapons and find a peaceful resolution to their dispute." I can only assume that she doesn't realize that velociraptors are not sentient beasts, just as I can only assume that all of the velociraptors miraculously don't attack her if she truly is standing in the middle of the battle. Of course, I can also only assume that the artist meant to draw her in the middle of the battle, instead of far away from the combat where she looks to be standing.
With the X-Men helping the villagers they manage to defeat the dinosaur army, and its leader Khadar quickly offers peace with the village. The book ends with a view of Brainchild with his new queen, a drastically different Storm. Apparently, in the short time that has passed since the beginning of the book, Storm has acquired dreadlocks, several new piercings, claws, and pointed ears. I'm curious to see how Brainchild managed to convert her to his side (and work the physical changes), since I'm not aware of any of the old Mutates who could control minds. Worm could control a subject by controlling their movements but not their minds, but he apparently isn't involved here since we don't see his trademark residue covering Storm.
So supposedly next issue we'll see all of Brainchild's machinations explained, a resolution for the saurids, the reuniting of the X-Men, and the redemption of Storm and the Beast. Not to mention what Marvel originally promoted as the overriding theme of the book: Rogue's quest for control and sanity. Will it be possible to fit all of that into one issue? I'd be surprised, but we'll see...
In my own opinion, that's been a problem with the whole limited series. While the new look at the Savage Land has been refreshing to say the least, Claremont's writing comes across as sloppy. There are numerous events thoughout all three issues that don't make any sense at all. Several of our heroes are speaking and acting out of character, and the original premise of the book is being ignored. One gets the impression that Claremont wants this to be a truly epic, but isn't taking (or isn't being allowed) sufficient time to work it through.
The art has also been a bit inconsistent. I wasn't all that impressed with the art in the initial chapter, but the second issue was much better. Here, I find myself disliking the art again. Brainchild seems to be getting plastic surgery between all the pages, since his face looks completely different from one page to the next. Most of the other characters' faces also look poor except when drawn at a close-up. While the dinosaur illustrations in the war sequence are extremely well done, the visual storytelling is somewhat substandard, in my own opinion. But then, maybe I've just gotten used to Salvador Larocca's beautiful images over in the main X-Treme X-Men book.
I feel like my reviews of this series have mirrored the book itself: swinging from good to bad, often and violently, usually without warning. Naturally, X-Treme X-Men fans aren't going to want to miss this series, and may be able to forgive most of the problems with the story. However, the fact that the series has such great characters, in a locale filled with storytelling promise, should make it easier to tell a great story, not harder. I'm holding out for the last issue, which I hope will bring some closure and explain some of the things that don't make sense. It's not too late to fix this mess.
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.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/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!