NYCC News and reactions...

[angelophile]

Paul Cornell joins the Dark Reign

During Dark Reign, much as the Young Avengers grabbed the names of the originals when they started up, a group of young villains does the same.

Any new book by Paul Cornell is good, but...

Marvel appear to be making their entire universe about villains. Villainous Avengers. Villainous Young Avengers. While I appreciate the appeal of a book like Secret Six, does that mean I wanna read a dozen books like Secret Six?

Not really. Call me picky but I want a bit of hero in my superhero comics. Civil War was all about superheroes doing horrible things to one another. House of M was a supervillain ruling the world. The X-men line is pretty much mutants doing horrible things to other mutants, or people doing horrible things to mutants and mutants doing horrible things back. Dark Reign is horrible people in charge. Remember the days when superheroes used to stop bank robberies? When the X-men used to save the world, not just their own asses?

Fulling the Marvel Universe with horrible people and putting them out there as the main books just depresses me.

X-men: Doing the time warp
I'm torn as to whether this is the best idea I've heard in years or an utter disaster waiting to happen. Back in 1991 Chris Claremont was forced off the X-men by editorial dispute after many years when he was shafted as editors bent over backwards to please superstar artist Jim Lee. Now Marvel have given Chris the chance to pick up where he left off. So, any continuity after issue 3 of X-men is wiped away, the blue and gold teams are back and Chris is able to carry on where he left off.

Could it be wonderful, old school fun with classic characters in classic appearances, a new continuity but an old one wrapped into one with the granddaddy of the X-men given a chance to tell those stories he always wanted to tell? Yes.

Could it also be a total disaster, a mess like X-men: The End or other Claremont stuff that people appear to hate?

Yeah...

So I'm torn on this. I LIKE Claremont when he's on his game and he has delivered some stories I've really enjoyed over recent years. He's also delivered some dross and, simply, he's not the same writer he was back in 1991. Can you go back? Is this like a new single from the Beatles?

I do know I'll give it a try. Damn them.

New Old Mutants

The New Mutants are back. Or is that the old mutants? As predicted, the original New Mutants return as a team. As you demanded! Well, for a change Marvel are probably right. It's a good idea, bringing back all the old team together in one book. The New Mutants now. Great idea. Less sure on the creative team. Zeb Wells wrote the brilliant Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock and the entertaining Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One and Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan. He also wrote Heroes for Hire, the New Warriors relaunch and Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways, which others might not consider a good thing. But I've liked plenty of his stuff, so definitely worth a try.

They're really hammering the old school.


One thing I'm surprised by: "Mike Carey talked about X-Men Legacy, saying that upcoming issues will see "profound changes" to Professor X, to Rogue and to the book." That book's not been canceled or relaunched yet? I supposed that could be the profound change. But I was expecting them to announce an actual relaunch.

"Big things are coming up for Nightcrawler after he quits the X-Men." - I'm pleased there are plans and this does seem to be leading onto something, not just taking Kurt into limbo for a while. Hopefully big things means going into space, becoming a space pirate along with the Starjammers, reuniting Rachel and then going off and rescuing Kitty.

"When is Iceman going to show up again? Fraction: I'm planning to play with him a little bit in Uncanny."

Bugger. Limbo's safer.

Comments

X-men: Doing the time warp

[jrh19782002.livejournal.com]

ive been reading xmen,uncanny xmen since 1992 and its just not the same as it was back in the day like it is now.but im gonna be here reading it till they stop makeing the comic if that ever happens.lol

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

I give Claremont 6 issues before evil alternate universe X-Men show up, somebody is mindcontrolled and assumes bondage-wear, or Storm or Rogue get suddenly ridiculously overpowered. ;) On the other hand, it's vaguely appealing to give him a universe where he could theoretically write characters dying for good. Unfortunately I just don't have faith in him anymore, so I'll probably be skipping it.

I'll be picking up New Mutants though. I didn't have too much of a problem with Wells on YA/Runaways except that he made a few many mistakes on the characters and how they worked that bugged me. For older characters he's probably more familiar with I'm hopeful that won't be too much of an issue.

I dunno about YA: Dark Reign. Probably will skip, despite Cornell. And I agree with you on villain overload. I'm hoping this is a relatively short term storyline and they don't drag it out too long. On the other hand, this is Marvel.

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I'll give Claremont a try because, while I disliked a lot of X-treme, I did enjoy his "back to roots" Uncanny run with a few exceptions. And some of New Excalibur was fun. Some less so. But I wonder if Claremont reunited with his classic cast instead of being given the dregs of whoever other people don't want to use at the time has potential. Enough to buy a few issues, I think.

[uncanny-rman.livejournal.com]

I find all these very intruiging, but mostly the latter two. I like me some old-school X-Men/New Mutants. Oh, yes!