UNCANNY X-MEN #493 REVIEW

[Ovid]

<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/uxmen493.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/uxmen493.tjpg" alt="Uncanny X-Men #493" hspace=10 align=left></a>Reviewer: T. Martin, khpa3665@yahoo.co.uk
Story Title: Messiah Complex: Chapter Six

“Well, at least now it’s just like the good old days…”

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Penciler: Billy Tan
Inks: Danny Miki w/Allen Martinez
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover A by: Finch, Miki, Keith
Cover B by: Cheung, Dell, Ponsor
Assistant Editor: Will Panzo
Editor: Nick Lowe
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published By: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)

Warning: There are spoilers throughout this review.

So far Messiah Complex has been a success. Admittedly, the plot hasn’t been moving very quickly but we have had a lot of action to make up for it. And the reveal at the end of the last issue was a corker that promised to send the event into some really exciting places.

Unfortunately this issue doesn’t move things along. We get more action with the X-Men at the school fighting the ‘possessed’ Sentinels and brief glimpses of Storm’s team coming back from Antarctica, of Sinister’s reaction to the X-Men’s attack and of Cable and the baby. But I honestly couldn’t tell you what developments there have been since the last issue. Instead of this issue using last week’s revelation as a launching pad to a new phase in the overall story, the event just treads water. We’re almost halfway through the event and all that’s happened is that a baby has been born and some people have fought each other.

<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/details.php?image_id=11532" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/uxmen493vt.jpg" alt="Uncanny X-Men #493 Cheung Variant Cover" hspace=10 align=right></a>What’s more, this issue seems to be missing some pretty crucial information – by the end of the last instalment, it wasn’t entirely clear that Storm, Angel or Colossus would get out of Sinister’s fortress at all and Nightcrawler was badly wounded in the middle of nowhere. That was a pretty good cliffhanger – for the first time in a long time I genuinely thought some of these characters might not make it out. But right at the start of this issue, the whole team is in a Blackbird on their way back to the school with just a token nod towards Nightcrawler’s injury. By the end, Cyclops is launching a deadly new X-Force team against Cable with little but conjecture that he was the one responsible for the Sentinel attack. I haven’t been reading Cable & Deadpool so I’m not completely up-to-date on the character, but it strikes me as a rather large leap in logic for Cyclops to accuse him of trying to murder his former teammates. In short, it feels like important stuff happened off-panel while we’re being shown an extended Sentinel fight scene that does little or nothing to advance the plot.

Billy Tan provides the pencils this week and while he has a facility for facial expression, his figures are sometimes weirdly distorted (check out Cable climbing down a slope). The actions scenes which dominate the issue are sometimes confusing, although that’s more to do with Frank D’Armata’s restricted colour palette of browns, pinks and purples. D’Armata also gives every panel the strange sheen he put on Silvestri’s work in the Messiah Complex One-Shot.

This review has been admittedly a bit of a rant. This isn’t, in fact, a bad comic. I found some of the dialogue cheesy, but complaining about cheesy dialogue in an X-Men comic is a bit like complaining about fairy lights in December: valid but pointless. I’m not enamoured of the new X-Force, especially with Rahne in it, but I suppose it does demonstrate leadership qualities on the part of Cyclops (albeit of a violent kind that I’m no fan of). The fight with the Sentinels has an old-school vibe with some fun teamwork and powers use, and Iceman gets a particularly cool entrance. But this isn’t just any old issue of Uncanny X-Men. It’s part of a crossover that’s been holding back its big revelations for over a month. However good the writing, there comes a point where the plot needs to develop lest the momentum sag. That point arrived for me this week.

OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg

Buy Uncanny X-Men #493 online now from X-WORLD and save! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1373&cat=UNCANNY+X%2DMEN+444%2DCURRENT)

[Jason Grasso]

What’s more, this issue seems to be missing some pretty crucial information – by the end of the last instalment, it wasn’t entirely clear that Storm, Angel or Colossus would get out of Sinister’s fortress at all and Nightcrawler was badly wounded in the middle of nowhere. That was a pretty good cliffhanger – for the first time in a long time I genuinely thought some of these characters might not make it out. But right at the start of this issue, the whole team is in a Blackbird on their way back to the school with just a token nod towards Nightcrawler’s injury. By the end, Cyclops is launching a deadly new X-Force team against Cable with little but conjecture that he was the one responsible for the Sentinel attack. I haven’t been reading Cable & Deadpool so I’m not completely up-to-date on the character, but it strikes me as a rather large leap in logic for Cyclops to accuse him of trying to murder his former teammates. In short, it feels like important stuff happened off-panel while we’re being shown an extended Sentinel fight scene that does little or nothing to advance the plot.

You haven't missed this crucial information in Cable & Deadpool, which hasn't really focused on Cable in quite a long time. The cover art cleverly crosses out Cable's name and inserts that of guest stars (i.e. Dr. Strange, Cap). Nothing going on over there has related to Messiah Complex.

I totally agree with you about the lack of reasoning behind Cyclops sending a savage attack force after Cable. What did we miss? I mean it's not like he's sending recon. This is Cyclops. He finally becomes a violent aggressor after years of far more dire threats....to hunt down his son?! Huh?

Did you catch Tan's awful depiction of Cable's silly baby-carryer? Ugh. I won't even bother with the impossibility of the physics of that situation. I probably liked the issue more than T but I have to agree with a lot of this review.

[StoryOfABoy]

Excellent review--it really sums up my concerns and complaints with both this issue and Messiah Complex over all. While CompleX has been successful in getting me excited about reading these books, I often walk away disappointed as the pacing seems horribly slow. To a large extent, we've gotten only set-up thus far. At this point in the game, I feel we should be getting a little more development on just where this story intends to go and what it plans to do.

I too find the opening of this issue jarring given the lack of explanation; how is it the team managed to escape? Part of what made last issue effective for me was the sense of danger... the sense that the team was potentially stranded. And the resolution to that takes not only off panel, but with no discussion whatsoever. And while last issue's revelation was one of this crossover's strongest points to date, Brubaker failed to follow up on with any significance. We get one scene with Cable which serves essentially no function but to show us he's still alive and still has the baby. Finally, I'm glad I wasn't the only person to feel that Cyclops made quite a leap in logic by going after Cable hard and heavy without much evidence. While the stakes are high, it seems this choice should have required some evidence or at least some more consideration. In my mind, Cable--both as an X-Man and as Cyclops' son--should not be declared public enemy number one quite so lightly.

Oh yeah, what's up with Predator X? I was initially a little annoyed that Predator X would show up in approximately one page per issue--with no clear indication of where they were going with this. But lately, we're not even getting that. Perhaps my biggest complaint with Messiah Complex is that it's all action and glam--without dedicating proper time to developing the plot and drawing all of the parts into an intelligible whole.

[Ovid]

Did you catch Tan's awful depiction of Cable's silly baby-carryer? Ugh. I won't even bother with the impossibility of the physics of that situation.Yeah, that was pretty dreadful. But it was one of a number of niggling things in the issue that I skipped over because I was already getting a bit ranty. Another one was Cyclops mentioning in passing that their only healer had inconveniently had a wall dropped on him. And Julian ought to be dead.

At this point in the game, I feel we should be getting a little more development on just where this story intends to go and what it plans to do. ...

And while last issue's revelation was one of this crossover's strongest points to date, Brubaker failed to follow up on with any significance.Which is precisely how I expected Bru to show us where the story was going - by telling us a bit more of what was up with Cable. Instead we just got more of the same - fighting and being kept in the dark. That was fine in chapter 1, or even chapter 5, but at some point I expect the story to advance. :sigh:

I too find the opening of this issue jarring given the lack of explanation; how is it the team managed to escape? Part of what made last issue effective for me was the sense of danger... the sense that the team was potentially stranded. And the resolution to that takes not only off panel, but with no discussion whatsoever.I actually went back and checked the cover to the last issue to make sure I hadn't missed a chapter. Then I reread it in case I'd missed some pages somewhere!

[BoomBot]

I haven't been reading any of this event, but can someone explain to me where Cable became one of the bad guys? I thought his reveal at the end of the issue of X-Men was supposed to be a sign of him bringing the baby to the X-Men (or something). Thanks.

[DungeonMasterJim]

I hope we can post here without spoiler tags.

I was just able to read X-Men and Uncanny last night. While I loved X-Men, Uncanny left me lukewarm at best. There seemed to be a lot of stupidity in Uncanny that may or may not have been Brubaker's fault.

Beast 'they're taking out all the telepaths, why?!'

Um,... duh! Why wouldn't an opponent want to take out mind reading, long distance attack team members that also provide easy team communication over thousands of miles?

James leaps out of a window in just some pants. Hepzibah is apparently nude but maybe has some sort of underwear on covering her privates

In the next Hepzibah scene she is fully dressed including her headband and high heeled boots. Never let helping your lover in a fight get in the way of looking good for a fight. And then she uses what looks like a shotgun. I suppose it's better than her claws but a shotgun against giant armored robots? Hepzibah is just totally stupid. And I use to really like the character before this Uncanny run.

I'm not sure what the heck Tan was drawing when James and Hep drop a sentinel early in the fight. It looks like James cuts up one sentinel which then tries to shoot him. In the third panel it looks like the same sentenil is shooting then at Hep but that doesn't really make sense. So it only makes sense that it's really the old, cliche and unoriginal crossfire take each other out ploy. Hep gets her sentinel to take out James's sentinel. That's what I'm guessing anyways. But with the action and coloring of the sentinel blasts it looks like James's injured sentinel suddenly fires at Hep and takes her's out.

A similar ploy is used by Wolverine in Carey's title but it was much cooler. He beats the hell out of Scalphunter and then uses Scalp's broken arm to fire Scalp's own gun at another Marauder. I enjoyed that scene much more.

Not Brubaker's fault since this has been around awhile but the sentinels audibly explaining everything they do has gotten really old. Yeah, I know it's for the sake of the reader but I think I prefer as just plain old narration now.

What was with Cyke being essentially exhausted after one shot? Did I miss something along the way?



I'm totally underwhelmed by the new X-Force. I wouldn't even be afraid of them. They may be great at tracking but all an opponent has to do is use a gun on them from a few yards away and that team's toast.

I don't mind characters dying in stories except for when it's all about body count to make a story have an impact. It feels like the death toll is being upped in this cross-over just so Marvel can say 'see! we kill characters!' or something. I much prefer it when characters die in non huge crossovers because it has more impact for me then and doesn't feel as forced.

Bru's Uncanny just doesn't do it for me.

DM Jim

[Nick Costanzo]

So far I've picked up some issues, but i haven't bothered to read any yet... judging by this review, I'm wondering if I should wait until the whole series is over before bothering to complete it...

[MadroxXx]

Weakest issue of the cross-over so far; the art was ok, but things like the team already safe in the Blackbird without any explanations to how they escaped, and Iceman returning with the new x-kids, when he was still in the mansion when the sentinels attacked last issue really bothered me.
And i really have no idea what's cyclops reasoning for the decisions he's making: Cable has the baby, the sentinels attacks us at our home. Ok team, we have to kill Cable??? It doesn't make any sense.
And what about Wolverine line: "Chuck never would've come with a plan like this" Of course not, because it doesn't make any sense.

[Filthy Mutie]

The only thing I guess I am not understanding is why a comic that "isn’t, in fact, a bad comic" gets scored 2/5.

[gothix]

So far I've enjoyed this crossover. The interviews had given away most of the start of this story. The last part had started to pick up for me. However I'm not into the intro of X-Force. The decision from Cyclops about forming X-Force to hunt down Cable makes no sense. Cable may have a different plan for the baby but I doubt he'd try and kill the X-Men.

[Ann Nichols]

And what about Wolverine line: "Chuck never would've come with a plan like this" Of course not, because it doesn't make any sense.


:yeah: THANK YOU! If this crossover was supposed to show how good a leader Scott is, I'd have to say it's doing the opposite for me.

[Ovid]

I hope we can post here without spoiler tags.Yup.

James leaps out of a window in just some pants. Hepzibah is apparently nude but maybe has some sort of underwear on covering her privates

In the next Hepzibah scene she is fully dressed including her headband and high heeled boots. Never let helping your lover in a fight get in the way of looking good for a fight.Yeah, that was another one of the niggling bits. But I'm not familiar with Hep. I just assumed she had mutant instant dressing powers. I think the shotgun is just supposed to be a distraction, though, to take the heat off James.

I'm not sure what the heck Tan was drawing when James and Hep drop a sentinel early in the fight. It looks like James cuts up one sentinel which then tries to shoot him. In the third panel it looks like the same sentenil is shooting then at Hep but that doesn't really make sense. So it only makes sense that it's really the old, cliche and unoriginal crossfire take each other out ploy. Hep gets her sentinel to take out James's sentinel. That's what I'm guessing anyways. But with the action and coloring of the sentinel blasts it looks like James's injured sentinel suddenly fires at Hep and takes her's out.

A similar ploy is used by Wolverine in Carey's title but it was much cooler. He beats the hell out of Scalphunter and then uses Scalp's broken arm to fire Scalp's own gun at another Marauder. I enjoyed that scene much more.It is the 'crossfire' tactic, but I read it as James's Sentinel taking out Hep's! It says a lot when your action storytelling is worse than Chris Bachalo's...

What was with Cyke being essentially exhausted after one shot? Did I miss something along the way?Not unless we both did...

It feels like the death toll is being upped in this cross-over just so Marvel can say 'see! we kill characters!' or something.Except that the characters who by rights should be dying (Julian, Nightcrawler) apparently aren't.

So far I've picked up some issues, but i haven't bothered to read any yet... judging by this review, I'm wondering if I should wait until the whole series is over before bothering to complete it...Tough to say. Last issue was very promising and up to now I've enjoyed the weekly cliffhanger. But this didn't deliver.

Iceman returning with the new x-kids, when he was still in the mansion when the sentinels attacked last issue really bothered me.Good catch. I missed that bit.

I'm beginning to think Marvel might have accidentally published the books out of order and we've actually got chapter 7 here!

And what about Wolverine line: "Chuck never would've come with a plan like this" Of course not, because it doesn't make any sense.:giggle:

The only thing I guess I am not understanding is why a comic that "isn’t, in fact, a bad comic" gets scored 2/5.2 = 'below average'. 'Bad' would be 1.5 or 1.

[Jos1988]

im "so" gonna love this issue... :depress:

[thewrite1]

Doesn't Angel have healing blood, or has that changed in the last few months?

I thought it was an okay issue, attacking a sentinel with a plane is brilliant, but the threat has diminished since last issue.

I would have thought if you were going to send Wolverine on a kill and retrieve mission he would be much better going solo.

[ArchangelX]

Doesn't Angel have healing blood, or has that changed in the last few months?

I thought it was an okay issue, attacking a sentinel with a plane is brilliant, but the threat has diminished since last issue.

I would have thought if you were going to send Wolverine on a kill and retrieve mission he would be much better going solo.

That's what I thought about Angel when they were crying about not having a healer near by.
This issue was confusing. If you were to read all the chapters ina complete run, this chapter would make anyone go "who, whu, how, when did they get free? Oh, Bishop's back, wait, he's gone again."

[iceman06]

Speaking of leaps, why is everyone saying X-Force's mission is to kill Cable? The mission is actually to bring the baby to the X-Men by any means necessary. That just means that killing Cable is now an option.

[Ann Nichols]

Probably because the idea that killing Cable is an option even though the "evidence" against him is so flimsy it couldn't stop a sneeze is so horrifying that it's what sticks in the mind.

[Cerberus_Rex]

X-Force again? :rolleyes: Let me guess, it's going to get its own book too?

[SpongeBob]

X-Force again? :rolleyes: Let me guess, it's going to get its own book too?

Kinda like Extinction Agenda....they went after Cable then for shooting Prof X....I wouldn't put it past them that it ends up being Stryfe acting like he's Cable and the "Summers rebellion" storyline CC talked about pitching years back ends up happening....

[Filthy Mutie]

X-Force again? :rolleyes: Let me guess, it's going to get its own book too?
...yes.

[ursabearX]

I think bru was trying to keep the momentum from last chapter, but I was wondering to how Hepzibah managed to dress so fast and when did Bobby leave for the kids, unless there was a time gap and Scott and the team had been fighting the Sentinals for like 30min or so. I also must say tha art was so-so, some of the characters looked funky Gentle had like waaay long arms.

Nate Grey is Cable, Cable is Nate Gray :shhh:

[Marty P]

Kinda like Extinction Agenda....they went after Cable then for shooting Prof X....
That would be X-cutioner's Song. ;)

[anothercablefan]

well we can be assured the new x-force fail to kill cable no matter how good at tracking they are as he gets a new ongoing series as of march (check the new solicitations).

:shhh: good job....

what's going to happen to deadpool!