I'm going to be starting by reviewing a great bunch of comics, a lot of number one's worth checking out, the first two are Marvel titles that have just barely started.
The first of the two is X-Treme X-Men by Greg Pak and Stephen Segovia.
This series actually spins off from Astonishing X-Men's Exalted storyline. For those of you that missed that story line Cyclops get kidnapped into an alternate dimension where mutant powers are used to power a machine that keeps the earth from falling apart. In this dimension Cyclops meets some more mutants in the same scenario, with them being other versions of Emma Frost, Wolverine and Nightcrawler. Cyclops escapes leaving his new buds to find a way out. That's where X-Treme X-Men picks up.
You follow the group of inter-dimensional travelers as they fight some new baddies and recruit our universe's Dazzler.
Not just content with visiting other dimensions, these X-Men actually have a goal in mind, they're hunting down different, and dangerous, versions of Xavier's head from other realities. The first incarnation is a squid monster. Just to let you get a taste.
I'm actually quite fond of this formula and I like having a small team of X-Men, with most of them being new to me due to their new renditions, as opposed to the much-too-similar-to-be-coincidence Exiles comic from years back.
Apart from the formula, the action is great and pacing is fantastic with not too much getting thrown at you all at once. Character introductions are brief, but they let you get the basic gist of whose who, specially if you didn't read the Exalted story.
Art and writing is solid, but not groundbreaking or revolutionary. Very average, but it's really not a complaint.
The second review is Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy.
This is a new chapter in Carol Danver's super hero career with her deciding whether or not to take up the mantle as the next Captain Marvel after the last one's death. (I think his name was spelled Mar-Vell?)
The writing feels solid, I'm not too familiar with DeConnick's writing style but it feels good.
The element that stood out for me was Soy's art; beautiful and stylized, it kept me hooked from the very beginning, so don't let the (very, very horrible) McGuiness cover fool you.
A very good starting point for readers who want to jump into a new hero, everything you need to know is told to you in the story line without feeling too much like exposition.
Definitely worth checking out.
After two brief descriptions and vague opinions, here's what I really think.
Both titles have solid writing, I had no complaints on either one.
Art is also solid for both, but Captain Marvel stood out with Soy's painted art.
I'm definitely going to keep reading X-Treme X-Men, but not Captain Marvel, I feel more invested in the X-Men characters than I do with Carol Danvers.
1 comment:
The alternate X-Men comic sounds pretty interesting. I'm a little biased against Captain Marvel because I associate that name with the original hero by that name (Shazam). =)
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