Stephanie Kay
Oct 14, 2007, 11:05 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/details.php?image_id=10469"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/newexc15t.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="New Excalibur 15"></a>Reviewer: Andrew Jastrzembski, adjastrzem@msn.com
Story Title: Unredeemed: Part Three
Let’s help others by helping ourselves first
Writer: Frank Tieri
Penciler: Jim Calafiore
Inkers: Mark McKenna
Colorist: Tom Chu
Letters: Tom Orzechowski
Assistant Editors: Sean Ryan
Editor: Nick Lowe & Mike Marts
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
One of my biggest problems is that I agonize over dropping a comic book once I start reading it. I keep thinking that if I stop reading a particular series then something interesting will happen in it and I will have missed something very important. My only hope is that the publisher will cancel the book allowing me to sit back and wait it out.
New Excalibur is becoming one of those books that I think about dropping all the time. It is not necessarily a bad book. Guest writer and artsist, Frank Tieri and Jim Calafiore, put together an interesting plotline, if you like the Juggernaut, with some good writing and art. The Juggernaut is having some power issues that are making him feel small and useless. He then races half way around the way to try to restore his potency. Of course the rest of the team follows him. In the process, everyone manages to annoy each other.
I have also come to the same conclusion. These characters are kind of annoying and I don’t think I like them very much. There are a few characters, such as Sage, Pete Wisdom, and Dazzler, that I have had some interest in but the novelty has worn off. Not that it is Tiere fault. He is just a guest writer who gets to address the long lingering question that I never really needed answered: the reason why the Juggernauts power is waning. The beginning of this issue gives readers a quick history lesson. Way back when, Onslaught ripped Cyttorak gem from Juggernaut in X-Men in 1996 during the Onslaught hoopla. I have never cared for the Juggernaut and have been rather indifferent to his appearances in various X-books over the years. As a bad guy, he was a complete nitwit on the same level as Wrecking Crew. As a good guy, Juggernaut is still a nitwit but his stupidity and selfish behavior becomes more obvious. Under Tiere’s pen, Cain has not changed as Tieri tries to pull on our heart strings a little, but the Juggernaut is still selfish and stupid regardless. In this issue, he knows that he should have not taken the Cyttorak gem but he did anyway. What Juggernaut really needs to do is quit Excalibur, get his G.E.D., and go to college. After that, maybe he can do something more than do the heavy lifting.
On the other hand, I really liked Tieri’s depiction of Pete Wisdom. Usually we get to see Wisdom used as the English jerk. This time around we get to see both good and bad sides to him. Tieri had Sage sum up Wisdom's bad side perfectly when she said Pete Wisdom can be a very dangerous man as we see the extremes he is willing to go to get the job done. At the end of the issue, we get to see a more human and insightful side of Wisdom as he talks to the Juggernaut. Unfortunately, Tieri highlighted one of the other problems I have with New Excalibur. Pete Wisdom says that this “team” is trying to help mutants post M-Day. That is a nice sentiment, but they haven’t even lifted a finger to help them out yet. They have spent the last 15 issues wrapped up in their own personal problems. This series epitomizes the disaster that Decimation has been. Let’s have a massive reorganization of the Marvel Universe and then ignore that it ever happened. If you are going to have a mission statement, shouldn't you at least try to help a few people out?
Now I feel bad for Jim Calafiore. He is always the fill in artist and never the regular artist. He has been doing fill in artist work as long as I have been reading comics. I have always been able to identify his angular and somewhat flat style out amongst the bevy of other artists out there. It is a shame that he doesn’t get a series considering some of the other artists who get that status. His work has been consistent and unique and this issue serves up the same kind of work he has done in the variety of other books he has worked on.
Next month, Chris Claremont returns back to this book after a leave of absence with a new regular artist Scot Eaton. Maybe New Excalibur will find a voice and purpose that differentiates itself from the rest of the X-books out there. I have been getting the feeling that this book has been imitating one of the core X-books from the 1990s. This past arc was no different which gave me a familiar feeling of déjà vu. I know I haven’t read this issue before but I knew how it was going to pan out in the end.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xhalf.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg
‘Buy this New Excalibur online now from X-WORLD and save!’ ( httphttp://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2054&cat=NEW+EXCALIBUR)
Story Title: Unredeemed: Part Three
Let’s help others by helping ourselves first
Writer: Frank Tieri
Penciler: Jim Calafiore
Inkers: Mark McKenna
Colorist: Tom Chu
Letters: Tom Orzechowski
Assistant Editors: Sean Ryan
Editor: Nick Lowe & Mike Marts
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
One of my biggest problems is that I agonize over dropping a comic book once I start reading it. I keep thinking that if I stop reading a particular series then something interesting will happen in it and I will have missed something very important. My only hope is that the publisher will cancel the book allowing me to sit back and wait it out.
New Excalibur is becoming one of those books that I think about dropping all the time. It is not necessarily a bad book. Guest writer and artsist, Frank Tieri and Jim Calafiore, put together an interesting plotline, if you like the Juggernaut, with some good writing and art. The Juggernaut is having some power issues that are making him feel small and useless. He then races half way around the way to try to restore his potency. Of course the rest of the team follows him. In the process, everyone manages to annoy each other.
I have also come to the same conclusion. These characters are kind of annoying and I don’t think I like them very much. There are a few characters, such as Sage, Pete Wisdom, and Dazzler, that I have had some interest in but the novelty has worn off. Not that it is Tiere fault. He is just a guest writer who gets to address the long lingering question that I never really needed answered: the reason why the Juggernauts power is waning. The beginning of this issue gives readers a quick history lesson. Way back when, Onslaught ripped Cyttorak gem from Juggernaut in X-Men in 1996 during the Onslaught hoopla. I have never cared for the Juggernaut and have been rather indifferent to his appearances in various X-books over the years. As a bad guy, he was a complete nitwit on the same level as Wrecking Crew. As a good guy, Juggernaut is still a nitwit but his stupidity and selfish behavior becomes more obvious. Under Tiere’s pen, Cain has not changed as Tieri tries to pull on our heart strings a little, but the Juggernaut is still selfish and stupid regardless. In this issue, he knows that he should have not taken the Cyttorak gem but he did anyway. What Juggernaut really needs to do is quit Excalibur, get his G.E.D., and go to college. After that, maybe he can do something more than do the heavy lifting.
On the other hand, I really liked Tieri’s depiction of Pete Wisdom. Usually we get to see Wisdom used as the English jerk. This time around we get to see both good and bad sides to him. Tieri had Sage sum up Wisdom's bad side perfectly when she said Pete Wisdom can be a very dangerous man as we see the extremes he is willing to go to get the job done. At the end of the issue, we get to see a more human and insightful side of Wisdom as he talks to the Juggernaut. Unfortunately, Tieri highlighted one of the other problems I have with New Excalibur. Pete Wisdom says that this “team” is trying to help mutants post M-Day. That is a nice sentiment, but they haven’t even lifted a finger to help them out yet. They have spent the last 15 issues wrapped up in their own personal problems. This series epitomizes the disaster that Decimation has been. Let’s have a massive reorganization of the Marvel Universe and then ignore that it ever happened. If you are going to have a mission statement, shouldn't you at least try to help a few people out?
Now I feel bad for Jim Calafiore. He is always the fill in artist and never the regular artist. He has been doing fill in artist work as long as I have been reading comics. I have always been able to identify his angular and somewhat flat style out amongst the bevy of other artists out there. It is a shame that he doesn’t get a series considering some of the other artists who get that status. His work has been consistent and unique and this issue serves up the same kind of work he has done in the variety of other books he has worked on.
Next month, Chris Claremont returns back to this book after a leave of absence with a new regular artist Scot Eaton. Maybe New Excalibur will find a voice and purpose that differentiates itself from the rest of the X-books out there. I have been getting the feeling that this book has been imitating one of the core X-books from the 1990s. This past arc was no different which gave me a familiar feeling of déjà vu. I know I haven’t read this issue before but I knew how it was going to pan out in the end.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xhalf.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg
‘Buy this New Excalibur online now from X-WORLD and save!’ ( httphttp://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2054&cat=NEW+EXCALIBUR)