Not all comic events are created equal. Most are cash grabs to force readers devoted to one series to pick up the rest to keep up. X-Termination #1 was released last week and I wasn’t too happy with it. In combining three different X-Men teams from three different universes, you have one overly complicated event. We can only hope Marvel put more time into this series than it appears on face value. Will the second issue in this series divulge the quality remaining in this event and more importantly, is it good?
Astonishing X-Men #60 (Marvel Comics)
To recap the last issue read my review here. This issue opens with the heroes facing an unknown enemy that has some kind of Celestial connection. The explanation for where they came from is lame at best. Oh yeah, we’re these villains that were trapped by the Celestials and you fools freed us. Silly idiots! Also, doesn’t this series’ premise—at least so far—sound very familiar to Rise of the Third Army over in Green Lantern? A new enemy rears its head due to meddling so unlikely heroes must team up and defeat them! Okay…maybe that’s nearly every comic book plot, but you get my point.
I’m sure Marketing agrees with Sabertooth here.
A major issue I took with this issue was the art by Renato Arlem and Matteo Buffagni. It’s not terrible but it’s also not very good. It’s mostly messy, as if they were rushed to complete it on time. Aside from the featured image at the top of this review, nothing strikes me as impressive or interesting. Instead of a summer blockbuster then, we’re delivered art that looks like it belongs in a TV sitcom. It serves its purpose so the characters can speak but you’ll be bored to death while they do it.
What exactly is happening here? Confusing.
You’ll ask yourself this same question as you read this comic.
And that doesn’t help the writing at all. Marjorie Liu may have gotten the short straw when it came to events in each issue, as this serves as a point A to point B no nonsense issue. There’s literally pages of the characters standing around going, “what now?” It might be due to the sheer number of characters Liu had to fit into each page, as the issue seems more focused on giving every character a moment to say something. About the strongest thing to come out of this issue is the Nightcrawler meeting kid Nightcrawler panel and how they react to one another. It’s compelling for about three seconds, then it switches to the other characters as they awkwardly say and do nothing of importance.
This is how gangbangs start.
3.0
- One touching moment
- Boring art
- Pointless narrative
Hey Marvel, how about you give the writers and artists a little more time to write out their event books, eh? Either that or don’t ever put out an event series that is this pointless. There are tiny seeds to be found in this issue that might mean something later, but by then you’ll be refreshed on them anyway. That makes this issue very much a pointless affair. Anyone who has subscribed to this series is going to feel very cheated. Also, this is nitpicking but still, the first page says Part 2, then the following page says “chapter 3.” Symbolic of the disarray this story is in.
Is It Good?
No! Get it away! It burns my eyes!
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