One Down

This had <i>moments</i> of shining brilliance (read: fun stuff), but for the most part it was just another trip down Time-Travel Lane.<br>I can't fully express how much I truly <i> <b>hate</b> </i> it when they do that never ending loop of go-back-in-time-warn-yourself-not-to-do-the-same-shit-and-then go-back-again-and-stop-this-or-that-and-then-go-back-again-because-you-found-a-note-your-future-self-wrote-to-your-past-self-and-had-it-delivered-by-a-pizza-guy-and-this-cycle-never-ends-because-some-else-also-wrote-themselves-a-note-but-they-put-it-under-the-fake-hide-a-key-rock thing.<br><b>STOP IT!</b><br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1435511650ra/15354975.gif" width="350" height="250" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>And that's the majority of the plot. Beast has a talk with <b>{spoiler}</b> about how badly he's screwed up by bringing the original X-men from the past into the <s>future</s> present. <br><b>Begin rambling monologue...</b><br>Well, Beast, it appears that you've screwed the pooch! Maybe. Or maybe everything will be ok. Not sure. I mean, everyone <i>could</i> have had a happy ending. Well, not <i>everyone</i> <b>{insert chuckle}</b>, but <i>most</i> everyone. Or not. Everything <i>could</i> turn out ok anyway. But it <i>could</i> all go to hell because of you interference! But that part isn't certain. Nothing is certain. Time is broken! Or maybe not. Fix it! Fix it quickly! Or just take your time? I mean what the hell can you <i>really</i> do at this point?! The damage is done. Or is it? Yeah, no. <br>Go ahead and try to fix it. <br><b>BTW, you disgust me, Furball!</b><br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1435512747i/15355142.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Then the X-men fight all the crazy dudes from the future. AGAIN. Didn't I just read about these Future X-Men? Yes, I'm pretty sure I did. And I'm pretty sure they were beaten already! <br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1435517601i/15355651._SX540_.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Oh. Wait. <br><b>They wrote themselves a note?!</b><br>Well, then <i>it all makes sense</i> now! <br><br>Great. Moving on...<br><br>Like I said, there were a few shining moments in this that made it worth reading. <br>X-23 and Warren flying off into the sunset was pretty cool. I never in a million years would have pictured them together, but it worked. I'm adding Angel to my hottie list, so back off ladies!<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1435515717i/15355476._SX540_.jpg" width="400" height="270" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>The Jean vs Emma SmackDown was <i>awesome</i>! Emma totally hits below the belt, and shows Jean the <b>one memory</b> guaranteed to simultaneously piss her off <i>and</i> totally gross her out.<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1435516669i/15355587._SX540_.jpg" width="400" height="250" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>It was great to see Little Miss Crazypants taken down a notch, especially after spending 5 volumes watching all the poor X-boys get their hearts trampled on by the lunatic redhead.<br>Then again, it was also great to see Jeanie blow Emma through a snowdrift!<br>But the best part was what happened after...<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1435517409i/15355647._SY540_.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>I didn't like this one as much as I did the previous volumes, but it was still worth the read.

If much of the story weren't basically a rehash of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/18295931.X_Men_Battle_of_the_Atom" title="X-Men Battle of the Atom by Brian Michael Bendis" rel="noopener">X-Men: Battle of the Atom</a>, I would have liked this a lot better. Because seriously, that just happened. I didn't need to read another story that was so incredibly similar. Yes, there were some scenes mixed in there that clarified the evil future X-Men more than in Battle of the Atom, but come on, Bendis. That just happened. And I'm ready to move on.<br /><br />But hey, it isn't all bad. There's Laura and Warren having a thing, and I can't even tell you how nice it is to see one of those boys get the hell over Jean. There's Emma and Jean finally having it out, with a somewhat unexpected end result. And there's the first issue, adult Hank being made to face the new futures he's created and the futures he's destroyed by bringing the original X-Men to the present. Of course, the ending is weak, almost cringe inducing: <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="c83d2d46-0e25-4383-a357-776eb240931f" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="c83d2d46-0e25-4383-a357-776eb240931f">The Watcher scolding Hank is just so, so over the top</label>. But until the last few pages, it's a really interesting issue. <br /><br />As a whole, this is kind of a weak volume. It kind of feels like treading water, waiting for something real to happen, while almost replaying a very recent story because- I don't even know why. Bendis really liked he concept and wanted to make sure even readers who skipped Battle of the Atom was familiar with it? I don't know, but I'm ready for something a little different.

The future Brotherhood is back to cause some trouble and Beast is having sleepless nights over what he's done and can't undo.<br><br>One Down is the epitome of what I expected All-New X-Men to be, time travel slop. Surprisingly All-New X-Men has been better than that so far, but the time traveling Brotherhood built by Xavier's son (who looks like a freaking clone and has the exact same powers) using the envelope system to be more efficient is pure annoying as hell time travel slop.<br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1449536374i/17299079._SX540_.jpg" width="400" height="250" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br>Some additional information is revealed that I won't mention makes this volume one pigs would thoroughly enjoy.<br><br>There were some good parts though. Seeing Beast anguish over the ramifications of what he's done is absolutely one of them. The hard part with that is it seems like someone reminded Bendis that time travel has consequences and he loaded them all up in one issue.<br><br>One Down didn't do anything for me and left me groaning, hopefully the next volume is better.

this is time traveling confusion with understandably no plot unless if i was just dozing off the whole time. it would be one star if it weren’t for the final issue. i mean that issue alone is 5 stars. it has warren and laura liking each other, jean and emma becoming friends and kitty and peter beginning a holographic relationship!

In case you were wondering about the expansive credit list, included in this collection was an anniversary issue that had a ton of guest artists, some are familiar names to franchise and others are less so.<br /><br />This was a lot of fun to read. The art is always a strong point but the story is a sequel to the the crossover event Battle of the Atom, or at least, the part that introduced a future Brotherhood of Evil Mutants led by Mystique's two sons. <br /><br />This story expands on the origins of the aforementioned two sons and their novel way of abusing the time-stream. It was bound to happen, they had a Hank McCoy on their team.<br /><br />The reader truly enjoyed himself because it is well-illustrated story.

Previously in <i>All-New X-Men...</i><br><br>Composed of issues #25-30, the sixth volume of this series is officially my LEAST FAVORED collection because of the unbelievably irritating bullshit that occupied its wasteful space. I was just coming around from that equally unsatisfying crossover story with <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> entitled <i>The Trial of Jean Grey</i>, which is also an obvious rip-off from Claremont's stellar Magneto issue in the eighties that has the same concept, but Bendis simply just failed to deliver something just as memorable and purposeful as the former. It's heartbreaking in a sense.<br><br>But whatever, let bygones be bygones. And yet this volume was just...subpar. Clearly, I have a lot of respect and talent for Bendis and I've instantly fallen in love with <i>All-New X-Men </i>from the start. But, like most whirlwind romances, I'm just not content with the cheap thrills and mercurial pace and direction of the narrative at this point. It was captivating in the beginning but now that it's time settle down, I would like something more substantial than what I was served with this volume. It was downright insulting, actually, for a reader like me who only expected all the best from Bendis' solid line-up concerning the original X-Men. Somewhere along the way in the aftermath of <i>Battle of the Atom</i>, this series started losing some of its magic touch. With the exception of the special issue #25, the remaining issues were just...<i>stale.</i><br><br>Yes, that's the best adjective to describe everything about the sixth volume. I think the failure stems from the fact that after several issues of focusing too much on Jean Grey (<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eZz0FiR7KJ0/VfhFmf-spBI/AAAAAAAAGbI/DZk9Mnt1M1I/s1600/pei.png" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">SEE PIE CHART FOR EVIDENCE</a>), Bendis neglected other characters in the OCF like Warren, Bobby and Hank who became supporting background characters, depressingly fiddling their sad violins while Jean relentlessly takes the center-stage with a few moments of Scott actually having some important scenes here and there. But now Bendis dropped Scott, opting to make him travel with his space dad instead, and I can only hope this will allow other OCF members to step forward and start having more assertive roles in the story than just passive spectators or occasional pawns during fight scenes and whatnot. From what I've seen in this volume, it looks like Bendis is re-calibrating his priorities so what we got instead is a rehash about the fucking Brotherhood from the future which was a really drawn out arc that I can't count how many times I rolled my eyes as I pushed through finishing it.<br><br>It made me uncomfortably upset that I had to pour all my frustrations <a href="http://xmen-comics-geek.blogspot.com/2015/09/all-new-x-men-by-brian-michael-bendis-27.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">in this scintillating piece of review</a> which unearthed negative feelings I never thought I've been suppressing since issue #26 began.Is it possible to love something you're also beginning to hate just a teensy bit because the relationship you have with is is stuck in a certain place you don't want to be in? Well, <i>All-New X-Men</i> has answered that question with a resounding, "Fuck, yes, bub" since it made me endure that useless crossover story of <i>The Trial of Jean Grey</i>. Once I've opened my eyes to its weaknesses, I can never close them again, not when it hasn't improved with its current arc about the Brotherhood from the future making yet another strenuous comeback....<b>TO KILL JEAN GREY.</b><br><br>Honestly, I never thought I'd say this but...<b> <u>AGAIN WITH JEAN GREY</u> </b>? Anyway, I've stated before that we need to focus on Bobby, Warren and Hank next time and just put Jean in a corner somewhere, preferably in a self-imposed comatose, if that's the only way we can have access to the other OCF members who should have their own character-centered issues by this point in this series. This is, after all, <i>All-New X-Men</i> and <b> <u>not </u> </b><i>All-New Jean Grey</i>. It's bad enough teen Scott left and we will never find out the adventures he's having with his dad Corsair. Other than Jean, he gets some character time at least and I'm really going to miss him. He hasn't interacted meaningfully with his older self yet which defeated the purpose of putting him in the same timeline as radically changed adult Cyclops. I was expecting some great moments between these two dorks and I got nothing in the end.<br><br>Instead, we got that creepy moment with adult Cyke and teen Jean which was uncomfortably AND NO ONE ASKED FOR since it was almost crossed that line. Thankfully, adult Scott didn't let his lust get the better of him or he may have just ended up making out with a sixteen-year-old version of his dead wife. Thank god this isn't<i> Ultimate X-Men </i>or anything because we all know that shit would probably happen in <i>Ultimate</i>. I mean, in <i>Ultimate</i>, the Maximoff twins got their incest on as their bio-dad Wolverine watched in the shadows...so it won't be a leap if that title got a thirty-something Scott hooking up with sixteen-year old Jean. So, basically, what I'm saying is FUCK ULTIMATE X-MEN.<br><br>No, wait. That's not my point. Jesus fuck, I'm too irritated to type a review logically at this point. All you need to know is that ''baby Xavier" is an asshole who wanted to avenge his father's death and...I don't know. I'm not really sure I understood his character motivation and twisted intentions. I cared little about his internal struggle because it was barely nuanced. All I really know about him is that he looks exactly like Charles Xavier, he's a powerful telepath too, he has daddy issues, he hates the X-Men and he wants to kill Jean Grey. That's as one-dimensional and cliché as you can get from a villain. In <i>Battle of the Atom</i>, Jean Grey and Xorn Jean from the future where zeroed in amidst the chaotic battles around them, and it was great. Now we have Charles Xavier II as the lead villain of the story arc, with events told from his perspectives and flashbacks, and he is everything that was wrong about Professor X in those off moments that X is an asshole himself. So far, Charlie II possessed grand posturing and self-entitlement that are only rivaled by his half-brother, the shape-shifting, and Wolverine-clawed Raze who is the love child of Logan and Raven, understandably. That was weird but not entirely impossible. I can totes see them having angry, cathartic sex, then never speaking about it.<br><br>What did shake me to my core is how this arc opened with a pregnant Moira MacTaggert about to give birth. Only it wasn't Moira. It was Mystique disguised as Moira. And she was impregnated by Xavier himself. I had to stop reading for a couple of minutes just to wrap my head around that revelation. In an earlier issue, Mystique told teen Scott that she respected and admired Charles and that in his death, she felt there was no purpose to fight for mutantkind. So I know she has developed fond feelings for Chuck somewhere along a comic book I have never read. Besides, I like the movie-canon version of the two of them being stepsiblings and growing up together. I really thought Bendis was going for that angle too. But nooooo. Apparently, Mystique became Moira and fucked Charles, and now she had his baby but she has to give away because it hurt too much to see the kid because Charles is dead and she was in love with him all this time. Whut? Whut? Really, WHUT?<br><br>Worst of all, I DON'T EVEN SEE MAGNETO AROUND FOR THIS STORY ARC to react to the fact that his late best friend had a son who looked exactly like him and is now in murder rampage. Goddamn you, Marvel and Bendis. Wasn't there a memo since Claremont days that specifically dictates that Professor X and Magneto and anything related to their relationship must have some page time allotted to their piles and piles of angst and unrequited "friendship"? It's a crime not to sprinkle some Cherik when it's a necessary ingredient.<br><br>It just doesn't make sense why Magneto is not a part of this arc! He's the only member missing from Cyke's Dream Team. Where the hell is he? What X-title did you conveniently put him in while this attack on the secret bunker is happening? It would have been so interesting to see him react to the second-rated version of Xavier. The more I type out my opinion in this review regarding what I just read, the more annoyed I getting by now. Look, the issue wrapped up some glaring plotholes from Battle of the Atom by revealing that Xavier II was behind all this. Jean (<b>OF COURSE IT HAD TO BE JEA</b>N) managed to knock him out long enough for them to send him to S.H.I.E.L.D (but oh no, that wouldn't be the end of it yet because his version from the future will time travel again and again and again and again....). And then they sent back the rest of the future X-Men to their own timeline. Wait...how are they able to do that AND NOT SEND BACK OCF to their own timeline as well? Why is the time-space continuum suddenly showing favoritism over which group of mutants get to go home and which ones can stay? IT DOESN'T MAKE FUCKING SENSE!!! How come they're not stuck in the present timeline like the OCF either? They time-traveled multiple times already and that should leave not just a tear but a gaping wound in the continuum--<br><br>--fuck this! I'm done trying to analyze crap. At least <i>Doctor Who</i> tries to come up with a creative explanation for their time paradoxes! I have nothing more to say. Read this with caution.<br><br><b>PASSABLY RECOMMENDED: 5/10<br><br>DO READ MY REVIEWS AT:<br><br><a href="http://xmen-comics-geek.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow noopener"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1420204572i/13189119.png" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"></a></b>

OK, so to recap: young Cyclops has gone off with the Starjammers, young Jean Grey has manifested an entirely new power (the power of MAGENTA!), and we're about to embark on the discovery of who Jean falls in love with next (because what would be a progressive storyline without a nice regressive moistening of the featured girl, even though every other character in the book is just as likely to want some cuddlin'. Just my prediction.)<br><br>Ohferfucksake, here Bendis goes with another indulgent, pointless art-jam issue that doesn't advance the storyline any further than without it, but gives him a chance to commission a bunch of splash pages by fave artists, all on Marvel's dime. At least he had some amusing anecdotes along the way:<br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1467745587i/19625759._SY540_.png" width="400" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Beyond that there's more messy fun with time travel, alternate-reality mutants and some screwy psychic politics that makes your head hurt if you think too hard...so make the choice to just don't.<br><br>Fun is fun. I get distracted a little wondering if these future reality threads are canon or not, and which of them will come back to haunt us later. Protip: none of the time-travel shenanigans in comics are ever canon, and almost none of them will ever haunt us later.<br><br>Older Jean Grey meets younger Jean Grey and didn't know how it would turn out? Fine by me. Wolverine meets his kids who turn out to be his grandparents? Cool. Hulk fights an amoeba who will one day become the All-Father? Bring on the one-eyed bugger.<br><br>It's all good fun, lots of tales of swash and merriment and blood spilt and great machines built. If we didn't get a chance to play god (or watch through her eyes) once in a while, this planet would make a helluva lot less sense.<br><br>And holy shit I called it but didn't call it. Turns out X-23 (Wolverine's sociopathic female "clone") is the hidden features female in this book, so of course it's her who we get to see embark on a journey of discovery of the power of her loins to make boys do their things.<br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1467745588i/19625760._SY540_.png" width="400" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Or wait, is it Kitty Pride?<br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1467745588i/19625761._SY540_.png" width="400" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Dunno, don't care that much. It's a filler issue, nice character moments, but ultimately a placeholder to let Bendis' other X-book catch up.

Started out pretty fun with a bunch of different art types. Just fun. Finally fell back into the meh of the rest of this series.

X-men, X-Men, X-Men. I was on a roll awhile back reading the whole Bendis run of X-men. To my surprise I enjoyed quite a bit. Especially volume 2-3. Sure 4 was a miss, but then months and months later I decided to jump back on to finish it. Volume 5! Here we go. <br /><br />So you thought it was confusing bringing the old x-men back with the kids version huh? Let's add in future x-men coming to current time to kill the current time (though wouldn't that have a chance of killing their future self?) SO yeah, confusion 101. We have the son of Xavier and I believe Mystique/wolverine? And they hunt the X-men! <br /><br />What I liked: Loved the fights. Cyclops has a perticular badass moment even. The dialog between some characters, especially Jean, Kitty, Scott, and Iceman are all solid. The quiet moment with Angel/Laura was sweet and really played to both characters in positive ways. The art is still solid and a lot of great moments in action. <br /><br />What I didn't like: Why is cyclops suddenly good? Not reading a cross event to find out. Also, holy hell, what in the fuck was that design for Xavier? Why was he bald like his father? That was dumb. Also some of the dialog, while fun, can drag and some characters talk more than they should, doesn't fit their characters. <br /><br />Overall, All-New X-men has been fun throughout. I didn't really hate any. Sure, some of it is wonky and confusing, and writing can be iffy, but it's atleast never BORING. That's a plus for me. Well on to Uncanny volume 4!

That was a clusterfuck.<br /><br />This starts with a Watcher showing Beast possible futures for what seems like thirty pages, both the good and the bad. You know those television episodes where they A. Just show flashbacks the whole time to a theme and B. Have those fuzzy edged theoretical flash forwards? A huge chunk in the beginning is like this and in random art styles and it's inconsequential. I was reading this thinking, what the hell is the point here? By the time the actual story came in it was so confusing with its jumping around the present, flashbacks, and flashforwards I had no idea when or where I was. What began as a unique and fun time travel story devolved into a messy and predictable series of battle royales. One group of mutants fighting another group of mutants because group B did something group A didn't like? Shocker. And in three time periods no less. Well, that series quickly spiraled out of control and burst into flames.