X-MEN #170 REVIEW

[Michael Clarke]

Reviewer: Michael Clarke, micha3lc@gmail.com
Story Title: “Golgotha Conclusion: Fallout”

Journey to space with the Average X-Men

Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciller: Salvador Larocca
Inker: Danny Miki with Allen Martinez
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Colorist: Liquid!
Assistant Editors: Sean Ryan and Nick Lowe
Editor: Mike Marts
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley

With issue #170, X-Men staggers to the conclusion of the bewilderingly average first arc from writer Peter Milligan. With the final part, the tone changes dramatically from a tongue-in-cheek horror story to space combat, with the X-Men battling a large number of the Golgotha beings.

The main problem with this issue I thought was the setting: space. Now, I know this is a comic book, and all laws of reality have to go out of the window but space? Really? Now, I wouldn’t have such a problem with the setting if the X-Men had just gone up there in their Blackbird jet (which has been shown to go to space before) instead of forcing the reader’s disbelief that the X-Men could commandeer an actual NASA space shuttle and pilot it into space. Personally, I just don’t buy it. Especially since the man who handed over the keys of the space shuttle only did so because he thought that the X-Men would die mid-battle. That just doesn’t make sense to me – why would he want to destroy a multi-million dollar piece of equipment because of his hatred of mutants?

Another thing that’s unclear is Emma Frost’s role in the book, acting as a leader, and holding what little plot there is together and from next issue’s cover, it looks like she’ll be staying around for some time. This doesn’t bother me, as she is one of the only good things in this issue, but it seems like Emma’s becoming the new Wolverine, with regular roles in Astonishing X-Men and New X-Men already.

The art doesn’t help the story along, either, to be honest. While it’s quite pretty to look at, it’s very hard to tell what’s going on and who’s who, especially in the space suits. The colouring mistake between Emma and Lorna at the beginning only creates more confusion, as does the soap-opera plot where it’s hard to tell who likes who and who doesn’t like who.

One point that I did have a large problem with was that the X-Men only kill when there is no other option but, in this issue, they appear to be rather trigger-happy killing all of the Golgotha with no (shown) attempt at communication.

Now, this issue wasn’t all bad, I liked the introduction of the mutant living on the space station and some of the characterisation seems strong, which means that there’s a possibility things might start to improve on this title but, I’ll wait and see if that’s the case.

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[The Tyrant Virus]

The main problem with this issue I thought was the setting: space. Now, I know this is a comic book, and all laws of reality have to go out of the window but space? Really? Now, I wouldn’t have such a problem with the setting if the X-Men had just gone up there in their Blackbird jet (which has been shown to go to space before) instead of forcing the reader’s disbelief that the X-Men could commandeer an actual NASA space shuttle and pilot it into space. Personally, I just don’t buy it. Especially since the man who handed over the keys of the space shuttle only did so because he thought that the X-Men would die mid-battle. That just doesn’t make sense to me – why would he want to destroy a multi-million dollar piece of equipment because of his hatred of mutants?

These are really the main problems I had with this issue too. I honestly didn't like this arc overall. I really hope the next one is better because I've been looking for comics to drop and I DON'T want to drop this one.

And as far as the art is concerned, I just wish they'd either get a new inker/colorist for Larocca, or stop giving him so many comics at once. His work has seemed really rushed lately, and I'm sure that his House of M Spider-Man assignment isn't going to help. Don't get me wrong, he's one of my absolute favorite artists. They should just let him work on one book and have it look amazing instead of stretching him so thin that he does a rushed job that is average. (And the coloring of this comic really, really sucks. Especially when they try to use a texture as a fill. It just looks really crappy.)

[emesem]

This was an improvment and I still think Miligan will pull it together.

Also like the setup that no matter how "mainstream" the xmen try to be, they'll never get the respect of say the Avengers.

[PhoenixFactor]

I think the end of this arc was a good thing. It got alot of stuff out into the open and may be will help the team move on to new thoughts and ideas with all the old feelings exposed. The end of the arc leads me to believe that Milligan's X-book may get a bit more political than the others involving government/mutant relations that will probably only get worse post House of M. Emma is interesting here because she essentially is pushing Alex to the side when it is supposed to be his squad. It often seems like her or Lorna would be better leaders (despite Lorna's crazyness). The thing that bothered me in this arc most was the plot around Boy form issues 2 and 3. It just kind of stopped, is this the end of it or will it be picked up again? He was in the mansion the last time we saw him, it seems they spent a lot of space on him to just drop the plot line. Loved the radiation mutant space man. But not a big fan of the x-men in space at all. Not bad but not great. Look forward to the next arc. Hopefully Mystique can give this book some edge change up the character dynamics enough so Emma won't be neccessary.

[Jack O'Lantern]

The Gambit/Iceman exploding ice balls plan was badly done for 2 reasons, 1: the plan is explained but never shown clearly on panel. 2: I'm pretty sure Gambit can only charge things through skin contact, pretty hard to do in a space suit.

[Rory]

I don't know why but this was a big step up for Milligan in my book. Then again this is turning into a real soap opera what with the "acute love triangle"

[Will Carper]

i thought this whole story arc was awful. after reading this and milligan's punisher/wolverine limited series, i can't understand why hes so popular. this issue was supposed to be the climatic battle between the x-men and golgatha, but it just turned out to be an oppurtunity to have alex and bobby bicker. why did the x-men have to use the NASA ship anyways? they've gone into space dozens of times in the X-jet. i thought this last issue was just plain bad storytelling.

[Supremus]

I'm more and more convinced that this book isn't written by Peter Miligan. This arc was average at best, but the ending was just awful. This is the guy who gave us X-Statix? Please...

[DianaK]

Originally Posted by solofire6

i thought this whole story arc was awful. after reading this and milligan's punisher/wolverine limited series, i can't understand why hes so popular. this issue was supposed to be the climatic battle between the x-men and golgatha, but it just turned out to be an oppurtunity to have alex and bobby bicker. why did the x-men have to use the NASA ship anyways? they've gone into space dozens of times in the X-jet. i thought this last issue was just plain bad storytelling.

Judging Peter Milligan by X-Men and Wolverine/Punisher is like judging Frank Miller by "The Dark Knight Strikes Again". If you want to know why he's so popular, read "Enigma" or his run of X-Force/X-Statix.

It's no surprise, though. Milligan has a history of stumbling when it comes to mainstream properties like Spidey symbiotes. His talent shines brightest with "fringe" work.

[Will Carper]

i was always interested in enigma. shade the changing man sounded good, too.

[Rashenal]

Personally, I hated this issue, and pretty much the entire series. Reason being, by the time I got to the end of this issue, I was like "what in the world did they just do"? In a matter of 30 pages, they destroyed thousands of the Golgotha beings. Sorry, but I don't buy it. This entire series was poorly written. It had no potential of being anything interesting from the start. I seriously hope that X-Men & Uncanny can get better after the previous 2 series, because at this moment in time, I feel like they are the worst 2 X books, which is sad considering they are the two oldest titles.

[M-Angel]

Personally, I think the story should be the least of your worries.
the point of milligan in this first arc was not to tell a story of legendary proportions it was to take a "political stand" and it was about giving the x-men a more complex personallity and a complete psyque you might say.

Look at the scenes with gambit and rogue, he changed the face of the relationship and made it look stale because of the obvious fact that they cant touch, something similar to what morrison did with scott and jean.

Look at logan, finally adressing the fact that he is indeed old.

Things like that are what make this kinda story special

Also, Larroca did a great job on the little details, I dont know if you noticed but in space, none of the x-women are wearing makeup..things like that make it worth while

[Ann Nichols]

I liked this issue. It was a horror movie-type story and classic Trek's "The Naked Time" story. Your basic horror movie has the good guys take care of the overwhelming menace in short order at the end.

Tip if you're having trouble telling them apart in Space (works for most panels) -- check the panels where they're putting their numbered space suits on and note who has which number. Worked for me, anyway.

[ScottyM]

I really wanted to like this book. It has some of my favorite characters and I heard good things about Milligan. Unfortuneally, I hate how Iceman has been protrayed by Milligan and Austen before him. Havoks protrayal has been weak as well. I am willing to give Milligan the benefit of the doubt tho, I'll go one more arc

[f4faith]

Originally Posted by Jack O'Lantern

I'm pretty sure Gambit can only charge things through skin contact, pretty hard to do in a space suit.

Gambit has charged things through full gloves and even with one object touching another since inception. It has nothing to do with skin contact but just physical contact.

Originally Posted by M-Angel

Look at the scenes with gambit and rogue, he changed the face of the relationship and made it look stale because of the obvious fact that they cant touch, something similar to what morrison did with scott and jean.

Since Morrison did no such thing for me about Scott and Jean but prove Scott's a scummy idiot and has the social skills of a fool that Emma somehow fell in love with for no reason that makes sense but that Morrison loves her. Milligan hasn't shown me much of anything yet. What he did do was prove that they can't touch again and it's an issue (an old one to be sure but it can be dealt with in a new way if he'll do so). Now if he can actually remember that they could at one point and improve on that fine - if he's just doing a poor Morrison idea all over again, then he's wasting my time.

Look at logan, finally adressing the fact that he is indeed old.

He hasn't addressed anything. He's just remembered it.

I think there are some things that can be used effectively here but the story is a bit of a mess. And Milligan can't seem to allow anyone but Emma to actually do much and what she's done is be a pest and get them into much of this mess in the first place. We'll see if Milligan can actually write Havok to tell Emma to step down and show these characters as individuals that has positive points too as things progress given that this was suppose to be their worse fears here.

[Ken Boehm]

Wouldn't it be great if a writer could focus on trying to tell a coherent story instead of giving us his political beliefs? The ending to this book was laughable, and was almost as bad as all the Claremont "muties!" speech that has popped up again in his work. I thought writers could be able to move beyond this line of though, into something more original with the mutant concept.

There was also no real explanation for those Golgothans to really come to earth. Add to it space suits seem to protect against a vacuum yet still allow some mutants to use their powers seems like a weak stretch. And it seemed "Boy" just fell off the radar.

And being a Houstonian, that building looked nothing like the Johnson Space Center. All you have to do is just google it for a reference.

[Ryan Day]

Originally Posted by solofire6

i was always interested in enigma. shade the changing man sounded good, too.

Shade is excellent, as is X-Force (X-Statix kind of petered out for me). Human Target is very good, too - one upside to that book is that many of the storylines only run one or two issues, so you can pick up a couple without worrying what's going on.

His mainstream Marvel work seems pretty generic, though.

[I,Spyder]

Glad this arc is finally over.

[Vasilios]

Definelty not a good arc for me. Its a shame that great characters like Polaris, Rogue and Iceman have to suffer in this book. Hopefully things will get better, but until then I'll just be skimming through this book at the shop.

Arrrghh! How frustrating it must be for Polaris fans. The poor girl has not been written well for years.

[RedHotRyan]

How very true...this arc was awful. It's shame that the X-Men books have to have fallen into such a state. Poor Polaris...she is making less and less sense. I am liking her new attitude less and less, or at least how the writers are working with it.

[D4773T]

Originally Posted by Supremus

I'm more and more convinced that this book isn't written by Peter Miligan. This arc was average at best, but the ending was just awful. This is the guy who gave us X-Statix? Please...

This is the guy who wrote venom vs carnage too. Everything he writes isnt gold.

[ArchangelX]

Originally Posted by Jack O'Lantern

The Gambit/Iceman exploding ice balls plan was badly done for 2 reasons, 1: the plan is explained but never shown clearly on panel. 2: I'm pretty sure Gambit can only charge things through skin contact, pretty hard to do in a space suit.

My justification for Milligan missing that is the X-Men brough their OWN space suits, which are all custom made to allow each member to use their powers (and claws) in space without ripping a hole through them.

I'm not a big Milligan fan the next arc lets me down. ANOTHER villain joining the cast? Who now? Why can't Milligan do a crossover with the Exiles and go to a another dimension that is actually in Xorn's head and rescue Juggernaut and Nocturne and return!!! Two heroes for the price of one good story! Nocturne stays with Exiles (where she belongs) and Juggy kicks it with the X-Clan!
Naw, let's bring a another villain to the book to join and let them leave six issues later so they could do a trade on it.

[Mad Titan]

Iceman reeeeeeaaaallly needs to be able to turn back into human form. It's pretty lame that they turned him into a being of pure ice and haven't addressed or explored how the change is effecting him. I'd think someone with such a long history of low self esteem like Bobby Drake would be a little bit more concerned that he's suddenly a freak that can't pass for normal in public. The change is completely pointless if they're not going to do anything with it. Follow through!

[W. Molstad]

I'm starting to suspect that the real suspect for the problems here isn't Milligan, but the editors. Maybe. I don't know. I hope that the next arc turns out better. The last issue was pretty good, and there are highlights here.. but Golgotha didn't work very well. The next few arcs look promising though.

There was no need for the X-men to commandeer a shuttle. And the way they did it didn't make any sense either. Easily avoidable plot holes annoy me.