Stephanie Kay
Oct 13, 2007, 11:08 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/details.php?image_id=10301" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/uxmen481t.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="Uncanny X-Men #481"></a>Reviewer: Robin Lewis, lucillerobin@aol.com
Story Title: The Rise And Fall Of The Shi'ar Empire: Crossing the Rubicon (part seven of twelve)
Professor Xavier has a very bad day and Rachel has a good one.
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Pencils: Billy Tan
Inkers: Danny Miki with Allen Martinez
Colours: Frank D'Armata
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Assistant Editor: Sean Ryan
Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel (http://www.marvel.com)
While Civil War rages back on Earth, the Uncanny X-Men continue their galactic gap year into the heart of Shi'ar space. After last issue's battle between Vulcan and the Imperial Guard (including what must be the first time in ages that Gladiator has actually won a fight) we're back with the team as they make plans for catching up with the captured Professor X and the trailing Darwin. So far the X-Men portions of this story have been more enjoyable than the Vulcan ones, if only because neither Vulcan nor his history is quite interesting enough to carry an issue on its own, and there's no change of that situation with this issue.
As the team has neared Shi'ar space Brubaker has introduced the cut-throat politics that passes for government in the Empire. For the most powerful race in space, the Shi'ar do love to do things the old-fashioned way. When you want to enact a coup, you don't mess around: simply walk up to the present ruler, gun down her bodyguards and pistol-whip her into unconsciousness. Hey presto, instant regime change. When will emperors stop hiring the shifty guy in the beard as their right-hand man? Do they never learn? Aside from this, a worryingly brutal torture session for Professor X and a demonstration of what happens when a Shi'ar receives blunt force trauma to the face it's mainly a downtime issue for the team, taking stock of their situation and building up the character interaction. Polaris is still being rebuilt from years of misuse by other writers, and Brubaker is understandably working on her relationship with the team-member closest to her. Havok is angsting over his failure to stop the Professor from being Kidnapped, and Rachel is wearing hipster pants and doing her level best to get lucky. It might be the team's isolation from the rest of the Marvel universe, but this sort of character work feels like it hasn't been done properly for ages. Getting the team away from the mansion and its cast of thousands has done wonders for the team dynamic. Brubaker isn't doing anything revolutionary here, but he's getting the basics right, and in recent years (with one or two exceptions) that's enough to put him head and shoulders above most of what's been carrying the X-Men name.
Barring the occasional lapse Tan's art continues to impress. If at one point Warpath's body looks alarmingly out of proportion and possessing the 'insert gun here' hands of an action figure, it's the exception rather than the rule. The enormous sword Korvus is wielding still looks very silly, however, especially when it's large enough to serve as the projection screen for a film showing the Phoenix's greatest hits. It makes Korvus look like a character left over from a Japanese computer game, which probably isn't the effect Tan was hoping for. Even his haircut looks cartoonish. His action sequences are still his strongest point, but he's making decent progress with his somewhat limited array of facial expressions.
A twelve-part story is inevitably going to test the patience of it's readers, but Brubaker is doing a decent job of making each part count, packing enough incidental events into each issue alongside the progression the overall arc to keep things interesting. Even so, this is a slower issue of exposition and character development, bookended by a couple of pieces of plot progression. Next issue, following the appearances of the Guard and Deathbird, we'll have the inevitable appearance of the Starjammers, rounding out the full cast list of all the X-Men's Shi'ar adventures and giving Havok the chance for a touching father-son reunion and an 'oh, by the way you have another son and he's a psychotic murderer' conversation.
OVERALL:
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‘Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save.’ (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=21590)
Story Title: The Rise And Fall Of The Shi'ar Empire: Crossing the Rubicon (part seven of twelve)
Professor Xavier has a very bad day and Rachel has a good one.
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Pencils: Billy Tan
Inkers: Danny Miki with Allen Martinez
Colours: Frank D'Armata
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Assistant Editor: Sean Ryan
Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel (http://www.marvel.com)
While Civil War rages back on Earth, the Uncanny X-Men continue their galactic gap year into the heart of Shi'ar space. After last issue's battle between Vulcan and the Imperial Guard (including what must be the first time in ages that Gladiator has actually won a fight) we're back with the team as they make plans for catching up with the captured Professor X and the trailing Darwin. So far the X-Men portions of this story have been more enjoyable than the Vulcan ones, if only because neither Vulcan nor his history is quite interesting enough to carry an issue on its own, and there's no change of that situation with this issue.
As the team has neared Shi'ar space Brubaker has introduced the cut-throat politics that passes for government in the Empire. For the most powerful race in space, the Shi'ar do love to do things the old-fashioned way. When you want to enact a coup, you don't mess around: simply walk up to the present ruler, gun down her bodyguards and pistol-whip her into unconsciousness. Hey presto, instant regime change. When will emperors stop hiring the shifty guy in the beard as their right-hand man? Do they never learn? Aside from this, a worryingly brutal torture session for Professor X and a demonstration of what happens when a Shi'ar receives blunt force trauma to the face it's mainly a downtime issue for the team, taking stock of their situation and building up the character interaction. Polaris is still being rebuilt from years of misuse by other writers, and Brubaker is understandably working on her relationship with the team-member closest to her. Havok is angsting over his failure to stop the Professor from being Kidnapped, and Rachel is wearing hipster pants and doing her level best to get lucky. It might be the team's isolation from the rest of the Marvel universe, but this sort of character work feels like it hasn't been done properly for ages. Getting the team away from the mansion and its cast of thousands has done wonders for the team dynamic. Brubaker isn't doing anything revolutionary here, but he's getting the basics right, and in recent years (with one or two exceptions) that's enough to put him head and shoulders above most of what's been carrying the X-Men name.
Barring the occasional lapse Tan's art continues to impress. If at one point Warpath's body looks alarmingly out of proportion and possessing the 'insert gun here' hands of an action figure, it's the exception rather than the rule. The enormous sword Korvus is wielding still looks very silly, however, especially when it's large enough to serve as the projection screen for a film showing the Phoenix's greatest hits. It makes Korvus look like a character left over from a Japanese computer game, which probably isn't the effect Tan was hoping for. Even his haircut looks cartoonish. His action sequences are still his strongest point, but he's making decent progress with his somewhat limited array of facial expressions.
A twelve-part story is inevitably going to test the patience of it's readers, but Brubaker is doing a decent job of making each part count, packing enough incidental events into each issue alongside the progression the overall arc to keep things interesting. Even so, this is a slower issue of exposition and character development, bookended by a couple of pieces of plot progression. Next issue, following the appearances of the Guard and Deathbird, we'll have the inevitable appearance of the Starjammers, rounding out the full cast list of all the X-Men's Shi'ar adventures and giving Havok the chance for a touching father-son reunion and an 'oh, by the way you have another son and he's a psychotic murderer' conversation.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/uxfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/uxfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/uxfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/uxhalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/uxnone.jpg
‘Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save.’ (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=21590)