Talking about comic books, TV shows, movies, sports, and the numerous other pastimes that make us Gentlemen of Leisure.

Monday, October 28, 2019

X-aminations in November 2019 & April 1995 Power Rankings


I'm calling a bit of an audible on the rest of the reviews for the year. My bill-paying day job is exceptionally crazy right now (which is why posts have been so late), and I've got some longer-than-usual work-related travel scheduled in both November & December. Thankfully, I'd already set a relatively lighter load of reviews for those months on account of the holidays, so now I'm mostly just moving some stuff around (and dropping in one new review - the Age of Apocalypse-centric What If?If, to add a little wiggle room), but the plan is a little different now relative to the schedule I wrote up back in June.

Anyway, the end result is that X-Men #43 will be the lone regular X-aminations review this week, as I punt Knight of Terra into November. Otherwise, we wrap up June '95, take a look at that aforementioned What If?, and spend Thanksgiving with the moody Jack the Ripper-inspired Wolverine/Gambit miniseries.

On Sale June 1995
November 6: Generation X #6
November 7: Excalibur #88
November 8: Cable #22

November 13: Wolverine: Knight of Terra

On Sale July 1995
November 20: What If? (vol. 2) #77

November 27: Wolverine/Gambit: Victims #1-4

April 1995 Power Rankings

1. Generation Next #4   
2. X-Man #4

In the final month of "Age of Apocalypse", Generation Next #4, an emotional gut-punch of an issue, does something difficult to do, even in the alternate-reality setting: surprise us. The final issue of X-Man, meanwhile, while not as strong as the previous one, continues the series' hot streak (and marks possibly the last time X-Man will be spoken of favorably).

3. Astonishing X-Men #4 
4. Factor X #4
5Amazing X-Men #4

All three issues are basically doing different levels of setup heading into X-Men Omega. Joe Mad puts Astonishing on top of the bunch.

6. X-Men: Omega #1

Plot-heavy with dodgy art, Omega feels overstuff at times, with many characters under-served or largely forgotten. But it gets points for, you know, wrapping the whole thing up (and doing so in a pretty moving way).

7. Gambit and the X-Ternals #4

Strong on emotion, weak on making sense.

8. Weapon X #4
9. X-Calibre #4
10. X-Universe #2

Here's the "average" line: none of these are bad, at least a couple have good art, but none rise to the level of the other issues this month.

11. X-Men Chronicles #2

Really the only bad issue of the bunch (and even then, it's more pointless than outright bad), continuing Chronicles' weak overall showing.

8 comments:

  1. I don't know how you felt about it, but I'd definitely have favourable things to say about X-Man once it gets to the Warren Ellis "Counter-X" revamp.
    Of course, there are about sixty issues to go before that point, and it only lasts for about eight issues.
    Still, X-Man does eventually get promising.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't read it since it was originally published, but I do remember enjoying the Counter-X revamp - honestly, I think X-MAN was my favorite of all the Counter-X revamps. So at the very least, there's a light at the end of a (very long) tunnel. :)

      Delete
  2. I don't think X-Man is an entirely terrible series. There were good nuggets in their. Personally, I really like around #15 through the 30s/early 40s. It does get fairly pointless after that until Counter X. There was some good writing and art from time to time though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve Skroce sticks around for a bit, and he definitely carries the series while he's around. There's some interesting bits after that - I remember liking the somewhat random X-Man/Spider-Man friendship - but the series really just bounces all over from the 40s on.

      Delete
  3. I really enjoyed Skroce at the time, looking at it now, I'm not a big fan, it just feel sloppy. I like some of the villains and supporting cast, just not X-Man himself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What about x-force #45 and wolverine #92?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For whatever reason, those two books fell behind almost immediately after AoA, so those two issues weren't on sale until July 1995 (meaning there were no issues of either book on sale in June 1995). They'll be reviewed along with X-Men (vol. 2) #44 (the issue of that series on sale in 7/95).

      Then they catch up in August '95 and double ship two issues apiece. So when I get to the August '95 books, we'll look at X-MEN #45, X-FORCE #46 and WOLVERINE #93 one week, then X-FORCE #47 and WOLVERINE #94 another week.

      Delete
  5. I somehow missed when this post went up. Looking forward to WOLVERINE/GAMBIT in a couple weeks! I remember it blew me away when I read it as a teen.

    ReplyDelete

Comment. Please. Love it? Hate it? Are mildly indifferent to it? Let us know!