Brian Wilkinson
Mar 16, 2002, 05:31 pm
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xtxmen011.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xtxmen011t.jpg" align=left alt="X-Treme X-Men #11"></a>Reviewer: Brian E. Wilkinson, bewilkinson@yahoo.ca
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: Beachhead!
The X-Treme Team does their best to survive an Invasion from Dimension X!!
Written by: Chris Claremont
Art by: Salvador Larroca
Lettered by: Tom Orzechowski
Colored by: Liquid!
Assistant Editor: Lynne Yoshii
Editor: Andrew Lis
Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
Chris Claremont has long been one of my favorite writers. His characters are insightful and real, his stories rich and compelling, and his fan base is arguably one of the largest in the world. X-Treme X-Men, in only it’s handful of issues, has quickly become one of the most memorable x-titles in years and it’s all due to the incredible team of Claremont and artist Salvador Larroca.
All of that being said, it’s a shame that issue #11 kind of dropped the ball.
The reasons I take this view are largely due to a lot of minor mistakes or rough plot points that all add up to a rather disappointing issue. Nothing truly memorable takes place, the character development is next to non-existent, and the overall plot could have been summed up in an extra two pages at the end of the last issue or at the beginning of the next.
At the end of issue #10 we saw an imprisoned Gambit forced to act as the power source to a portal that allowed a group of alien invaders from Dimension X to come to our world. A brief scuffle between the invaders and the X-Men forced the team to abandon Gambit but at least they had a prisoner in their midst. What the team did not realize, however, was that the random soldier they captured was actually Khan, the leader of the invasion and ruler of the alien species. The X-Men, with the aid of Viper and newly ‘made’ mutant, Davis Cameron, manage to survive the encounter with Shaitan (one of the lead invaders) and wisely decide to retreat in order to plan a better strategy. Okay, sounds like a good set-up and gets the reader ready for more action and development in the next issue. Only none of this really happened.
What readers got instead was a well-drawn re-cap of the events of last issue coupled with a few action sequences of helicopters being blown up. This is, of course, an over-simplification of what actually transpired, but by and large nothing really happened. What DID happen was, to be honest, confusing and a bit sloppy. For one, Red Lotus (last seen in the previous arc) is suddenly with the team. Yet last issue, he was not transported with the rest of the team (nor was he present at all) to Madripoor, nor was his sudden appearance explained at any point during this issue. One could imagine that Davis (abruptly given the codename ‘Slipstream’) could have teleported him to the island, but that would take a panel to explain. At any rate, I am pleased to see Red Lotus return though it makes me wonder if he’s been made an official member of the team. Considering (as far as I know) that he lacks any mutant power, Red Lotus could be the long-rumoured non-mutant member of the team. I’m definitely curious to see what plans Claremont has in store for him.
I am glad to see Claremont using Viper in the pages of X-Treme X-Men, even if she is a psychopathic and bloodthirsty villain. The last time Claremont wrote her was during a quick arc for Wolverine a couple of years ago where the unfortunate hero had to marry her in order to fulfill a promise he made years ago to a woman he loved. Though Viper’s presence in these pages has nothing to do with Wolverine, it shows that Claremont is aware of what the x-canon of characters are up to and where they are currently located. In this case, Viper is one of the ruling caste of Madripoor who takes personally offence to the fact that her city is being used as a landing point for an invasion.
I was also pleased to see the Avengers pop up in the book. While their appearance was not wholly necessary and mainly served to inform the reader about the current situation our heroes find themselves in, it’s nice to see that other characters from the Marvel Universe making their presence known in other titles, even if it’s only a brief one. It’s too bad that both Iron Man and The Vision (two of my favorite Avengers) were kind of hidden in the picture due to either chairs or the downward angle that Larroca had used in this panel.
Sadly, some of the confusion in either the writing or printing of this issue has extended to artist Salvador Larroca. Though we get Larroca’s brilliant artwork, a few of the panels (in particular the panel showing Red Lotus’ failed attempt to divert the massive Shaitan) fail to properly convey what is going on. Usually the dialogue/narration would clear up any confusion, but the description given by Claremont is as vague as Larroca’s art. At least Larroca makes up for the few moments of confusion by providing strong character images, emotions, and his beautifully rendered backgrounds.
There are a lot of things that this issue could have used to explore in the few moments of ‘down-time’ that it had. The main one I wanted to see was the continued debate over making Davis into a mutant. I’d really like to see the X-Men bring to light the moral and philosophical questions that this raises over what it means to be a mutant, and in particular a member of the X-Men. Is Davis only valuable to the team as a mutant? Did Sage have the right to do what she did? Should Davis have been given the option in the first place? All of these are very interesting questions and I’d like to see the team, divided or not, discuss these issues. Maybe once they get a bit of a breather, I suppose.
The next major part of the story included the X-Men fighting both the Dimension X aliens and Viper’s brutality in dealing with their captors. What followed was almost a repeat of the encounter between Shaitan and the X-Men in the previous issue, followed by Khan (remember him? The alien leader) declaring that because of her courage, strength, and the way that she saved his life, that Storm is to become his queen.
So really, this issue boils down to the X-Men kind of fighting the alien invaders, Gambit is still imprisoned, Davis is given a codename, Red Lotus can appear out of thin air, and Storm is about to have problems with yet another stalker. No disrespect meant to Mr. Claremont, as I’ve said time and again that this is the best of the X-Men series currently being produced, but this issue could have been wrapped up in less than four pages. This isn’t to say that it isn’t without its good points or that it is lacking in art quality, but rather that it feels like an unnecessary use of space.
Have no fears, though, loyal readers, as Claremont has been writing some of the best comics for over thirty years (and the X-Men themselves for more than twenty) so I’m sure next issue will clear up any confusion and continue to impress fans and critics alike. Not everything that comes from a garden is a rose.
{I may be nitpicking, but how else would you waste five minutes reading this review?}
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://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!
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: Beachhead!
The X-Treme Team does their best to survive an Invasion from Dimension X!!
Written by: Chris Claremont
Art by: Salvador Larroca
Lettered by: Tom Orzechowski
Colored by: Liquid!
Assistant Editor: Lynne Yoshii
Editor: Andrew Lis
Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
Chris Claremont has long been one of my favorite writers. His characters are insightful and real, his stories rich and compelling, and his fan base is arguably one of the largest in the world. X-Treme X-Men, in only it’s handful of issues, has quickly become one of the most memorable x-titles in years and it’s all due to the incredible team of Claremont and artist Salvador Larroca.
All of that being said, it’s a shame that issue #11 kind of dropped the ball.
The reasons I take this view are largely due to a lot of minor mistakes or rough plot points that all add up to a rather disappointing issue. Nothing truly memorable takes place, the character development is next to non-existent, and the overall plot could have been summed up in an extra two pages at the end of the last issue or at the beginning of the next.
At the end of issue #10 we saw an imprisoned Gambit forced to act as the power source to a portal that allowed a group of alien invaders from Dimension X to come to our world. A brief scuffle between the invaders and the X-Men forced the team to abandon Gambit but at least they had a prisoner in their midst. What the team did not realize, however, was that the random soldier they captured was actually Khan, the leader of the invasion and ruler of the alien species. The X-Men, with the aid of Viper and newly ‘made’ mutant, Davis Cameron, manage to survive the encounter with Shaitan (one of the lead invaders) and wisely decide to retreat in order to plan a better strategy. Okay, sounds like a good set-up and gets the reader ready for more action and development in the next issue. Only none of this really happened.
What readers got instead was a well-drawn re-cap of the events of last issue coupled with a few action sequences of helicopters being blown up. This is, of course, an over-simplification of what actually transpired, but by and large nothing really happened. What DID happen was, to be honest, confusing and a bit sloppy. For one, Red Lotus (last seen in the previous arc) is suddenly with the team. Yet last issue, he was not transported with the rest of the team (nor was he present at all) to Madripoor, nor was his sudden appearance explained at any point during this issue. One could imagine that Davis (abruptly given the codename ‘Slipstream’) could have teleported him to the island, but that would take a panel to explain. At any rate, I am pleased to see Red Lotus return though it makes me wonder if he’s been made an official member of the team. Considering (as far as I know) that he lacks any mutant power, Red Lotus could be the long-rumoured non-mutant member of the team. I’m definitely curious to see what plans Claremont has in store for him.
I am glad to see Claremont using Viper in the pages of X-Treme X-Men, even if she is a psychopathic and bloodthirsty villain. The last time Claremont wrote her was during a quick arc for Wolverine a couple of years ago where the unfortunate hero had to marry her in order to fulfill a promise he made years ago to a woman he loved. Though Viper’s presence in these pages has nothing to do with Wolverine, it shows that Claremont is aware of what the x-canon of characters are up to and where they are currently located. In this case, Viper is one of the ruling caste of Madripoor who takes personally offence to the fact that her city is being used as a landing point for an invasion.
I was also pleased to see the Avengers pop up in the book. While their appearance was not wholly necessary and mainly served to inform the reader about the current situation our heroes find themselves in, it’s nice to see that other characters from the Marvel Universe making their presence known in other titles, even if it’s only a brief one. It’s too bad that both Iron Man and The Vision (two of my favorite Avengers) were kind of hidden in the picture due to either chairs or the downward angle that Larroca had used in this panel.
Sadly, some of the confusion in either the writing or printing of this issue has extended to artist Salvador Larroca. Though we get Larroca’s brilliant artwork, a few of the panels (in particular the panel showing Red Lotus’ failed attempt to divert the massive Shaitan) fail to properly convey what is going on. Usually the dialogue/narration would clear up any confusion, but the description given by Claremont is as vague as Larroca’s art. At least Larroca makes up for the few moments of confusion by providing strong character images, emotions, and his beautifully rendered backgrounds.
There are a lot of things that this issue could have used to explore in the few moments of ‘down-time’ that it had. The main one I wanted to see was the continued debate over making Davis into a mutant. I’d really like to see the X-Men bring to light the moral and philosophical questions that this raises over what it means to be a mutant, and in particular a member of the X-Men. Is Davis only valuable to the team as a mutant? Did Sage have the right to do what she did? Should Davis have been given the option in the first place? All of these are very interesting questions and I’d like to see the team, divided or not, discuss these issues. Maybe once they get a bit of a breather, I suppose.
The next major part of the story included the X-Men fighting both the Dimension X aliens and Viper’s brutality in dealing with their captors. What followed was almost a repeat of the encounter between Shaitan and the X-Men in the previous issue, followed by Khan (remember him? The alien leader) declaring that because of her courage, strength, and the way that she saved his life, that Storm is to become his queen.
So really, this issue boils down to the X-Men kind of fighting the alien invaders, Gambit is still imprisoned, Davis is given a codename, Red Lotus can appear out of thin air, and Storm is about to have problems with yet another stalker. No disrespect meant to Mr. Claremont, as I’ve said time and again that this is the best of the X-Men series currently being produced, but this issue could have been wrapped up in less than four pages. This isn’t to say that it isn’t without its good points or that it is lacking in art quality, but rather that it feels like an unnecessary use of space.
Have no fears, though, loyal readers, as Claremont has been writing some of the best comics for over thirty years (and the X-Men themselves for more than twenty) so I’m sure next issue will clear up any confusion and continue to impress fans and critics alike. Not everything that comes from a garden is a rose.
{I may be nitpicking, but how else would you waste five minutes reading this review?}
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://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!