tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post1471354918332093620..comments2024-03-28T10:18:00.370-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining X-Men (vol. 2) #31Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-89219630360929485442018-07-09T14:13:59.072-05:002018-07-09T14:13:59.072-05:00"(though, admittedly, I'm in the minority..."<b>(though, admittedly, I'm in the minority of fans who dug the facial tattoo and the shadow powers)</b>"<br /><br />Th-there are two of us?<br /><br />(I'm less enamored with the shadow powers, but I always thought the Mark of the Crimson Dawn looked really cool, especially when Joe Madureira drew it. Heck, it was probably his idea!)Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-16825164195462550272018-07-05T19:47:09.625-05:002018-07-05T19:47:09.625-05:00Oh, Revanche.
I consider her to be the second of ...Oh, Revanche.<br /><br />I consider her to be the second of three "Palette Swap" characters who really deserved/deserve better. The other two are Madelyne Pryor and Joseph (who I'm pretty sure has a fan base of about 3 people, myself included).<br /><br />Kwannon in particular died just as her story was getting interesting. We finally had a solid backstory and a reasonable explanation for the whole 'two Psylockes' thing, and now she could proceed on her own trajectory, be it continuing as an X-Man, working solo as an anti-hero, or maybe even going full-on Bad Girl(tm) and being a villainous foil for Betsy...And then she dies unceremoniously, with a magic telepathic Reset Wave purging everything Kwannon-y from Psylocke's mind. <br /><br />It should be noted this didn't change anything about Betsy's post-Body Swap persona; she still stayed a corny pseudo-Asian "action junkie" ninja stereotype, and they doubled down on it with the Crimson Dawn business (though, admittedly, I'm in the minority of fans who dug the facial tattoo and the shadow powers)<br /><br />One of the things that bothers me about clone characters (who aren't Wolverine clones, anyway) is their propensity for dying just as their stories get interesting. We'll get to [s]Sephiroth[s] Joseph in due time, and I'll discuss my Madelyne feels in an Inferno issue somewhere (probably the one that Claremont used to properly send her off), but Revanche got less respect than even the two of them, and that always bugged me.Ingonyamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17767964255684263275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-27761017907170913052018-06-19T12:35:55.274-05:002018-06-19T12:35:55.274-05:00Yeah, my recollection seems to be that his miniser...Yeah, my recollection seems to be that his miniseries stuff was vastly better than his EXCALIBUR stuff as well. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-46501793282444198122018-06-19T12:34:43.342-05:002018-06-19T12:34:43.342-05:00Thank you, Scott, for the kind words. I'm glad...Thank you, Scott, for the kind words. I'm glad you've enjoyed these reviews and flattered that they've had such an impact on you. Hopefully you'll still follow along and/or check in periodically, even as we move further away from "your" X-Men. <br /><br />Also, kudos on the run; I'm in the process of assembling a full UNCANNY run from the beginning, and while I've got everything from #95 to present (along with a fair number of Silver Age books), the vast majority of the older, classic stuff are Good, at best (reading copies, really), far from VF. Your run is quite an achievement. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-6953676759727312232018-06-19T12:30:58.065-05:002018-06-19T12:30:58.065-05:00Yeah, I totally dropped the ball in failing to men...Yeah, I totally dropped the ball in failing to mention the computer coloring in this one (chalk it up to my continued ignorance of artistic developments), as its definitely an important development for the franchise (and comics as a whole). Like Matt, this is pretty much the point where I fully warmed to Kubert's artwork, finding it really scratchy in the early goings, and and I really do think the sudden onset of these lush colors had a lot to do with that. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-83586494728028617602018-06-12T11:06:42.503-05:002018-06-12T11:06:42.503-05:00As noted in my prior comments above, I liked this ...As noted in my prior comments above, I liked this issue. This was close to the point where Andy Kubert's style finally won me over, but that actually happened for real in the next issue, with the giant two-page spread of Psylocke and Spiral fighting. But we'll get there soon enough.<br /><br />"...<b>the hiring of Ben Raab (now this book's assistant editor), who will go on to write (not terribly well) Excalibur and a bunch of random mid-90s limited series</b>..."<br /><br />I think I mentioned this here before, but while I agree Raab's EXCALIBUR wasn't so great -- even I, not exactly the arbitor of great taste at the time, dropped it -- I generally loved almost all those minis he wrote, in particular UNION JACK and HELLFIRE CLUB.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-62719906103851349082018-06-12T11:05:36.309-05:002018-06-12T11:05:36.309-05:00I'm with you; the whole Revanche saga was what...I'm with you; the whole Revanche saga was what made me a regular X-reader starting with issue 20, and I was enthralled by it. It never even occurred to me for several years that Nicieza was fixing his own mistakes with these two issues; I always just figured he had planned the misinformation and later revelation from the start.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-89207079981313370262018-06-12T11:04:08.661-05:002018-06-12T11:04:08.661-05:00Glad other people are talking about this! I was to...Glad other people are talking about this! I was totally blown away by this issue too; it looked so different from any comic I'd ever seen before. Prior to this, everything mostly had plain flat colors and no special effects. Now, suddenly we had these cool, lush gradiants, the whole opening sequence depicted on video looking "softer" than normal, and the shot Teebore posted above where Beast is in the foreground with a blurred Xavier in the background to create a camera effect.<br /><br />Between these colors and Comicraft coming aboard to provide letters very soon, I remember thinking that the X-books of this era set the (extremely high) bar for what all comics should have looked like.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-41513030199463093212018-06-11T19:57:16.067-05:002018-06-11T19:57:16.067-05:00I didn’t care much about the rest of it but it sur...<br>I didn’t care much about the rest of it but it sure was nice to see a (likeness of the) normal Warren back in that old Angel uniform.<br /><br />Xavier uses the phrase “<i>ad infinitum</i>” on Pg. 10 when he really just means “<i>et cetera</i>” — “With Jean and Scott on an extended leave of absence, Logan gone, <i>ad infinitum</i>, I need your support, Hank.” Reading it again now I wonder if maybe the “<i>ad infinitum</i>” referred to Logan’s absence being indefinite, instead of meaning that there were other issues beyond the ones mentioned, but that’s not really a proper usage either.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-65619513766797449602018-06-10T06:25:26.195-05:002018-06-10T06:25:26.195-05:00Man oh man did I hate the revanche story. After 7 ...Man oh man did I hate the revanche story. After 7 years, this is pretty much my ultimate terminus as a monthly X-Book reader. As stated in my comments in the Wolvie #75 discussion, bone claws just didn't jibe with me. And in the main books, they seem to start throwing a lot of stuff at the wall fairly haphazardly. With that said, they were coming out of the Image guy's era, which consisted almost entirely of character regression, or in Cable's case, no characterisation at all. I applaud Mr. Lobdell and Nicieza for breaking out of that funk and setting templates for folks like Psylocke, Cable, and even Deadpool to become interesting individuals beyond just looking kwel. They allowed the rest of the cast to mature, both physically and emotionally, and the quite issues post-Image Xodus were easily on par (some maybe better) than Clairmont. The wedding acted as more or less my swan song, although I did buy the first few issues of Generation X, as I was a big Jubilee fan and was really into Bachalo coming off the Death Mini. I'd have friends keep me abreast of goings on, and would read an occasional issue, but with the exception Age of Apocolypse, I only observed from afar. I know that a great deal of you look back on this time fondly, and I compleatly understand. I loved the outback era and Inferno, and that was a point where many older readers I knew where feeling like "thier X-Men were over". I've really loved these X-Aminations Austin, and I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart. It inspired me to get back into collecting, and I now own a compleat run of Giant Size all the way through #143, all in VF or higher. That was a dream of mine in my youth, and a reality for me in adulthood, and none of it would have happened without you and your wonderful analysis of a 55 year old children's story. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00347023924872659184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-51512718170333809452018-06-07T10:00:49.491-05:002018-06-07T10:00:49.491-05:00Agreed. Lovern Kindzierski (and his studio Digital...Agreed. Lovern Kindzierski (and his studio Digital Chameleon) did the coloring for the title moving forward. His work took Kubert's art to an entirely different level.<br /><br />I was incredibly impressed with the coloring used in the flashback/memory scenes: the colors were muted perfectly to convey to the reader that those sequences didn't occur in the present.<br /><br />I'd always been previously aware of how colorists helped (or hindered) a story - but this issue was the first time I was aware of the coloring *before* anything else.Notorious J.O.E.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16981069985099562942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-11230119597889467632018-06-06T12:54:22.962-05:002018-06-06T12:54:22.962-05:00I'm sorry, but.. I always loved the twin Psyl...I'm sorry, but.. I always loved the twin Psylocke saga! I came into XmenX because of the cartoon. Got a couple of back issues and latched onto the non cartoon characters... Who were Nightcrawler, Shadow at and Psylocke? I needed to know more! <br /><br />And in the UK, the comic that accompanied the cartoon also contained 'real' X-Men comics at the back. The issue where wolverine has Psylocke in his claws, accusing her of not being the genuine Betsy... what madness was this? I was hooked :)<br /><br />It's only later that I realised what a godawful mess it was, but still. I'm glad Psylocke mostly sat out the late 90s... Her recent appearances have all been great and seem to carry on the trajectory her personality took in the Australian outback stories. Feels like a natural evolution to me. If only the other female characters, like Storm, were getting the same attention.Evikgushttp://www.evikgus.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-26836685094631608432018-06-05T20:29:35.006-05:002018-06-05T20:29:35.006-05:00I was blown away too. I could eat this issue becau...I was blown away too. I could eat this issue because of its computer coloring.Cesar R. Pontualhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06375109987794647615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-24598720031624881672018-06-05T15:05:15.684-05:002018-06-05T15:05:15.684-05:00I also remember that this was the first X-issue(an...I also remember that this was the first X-issue(and first Marvel) issue that I read with computer coloring in it. I was blown away at that time lol.Dangerous Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07277060619219945450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-88905737721426170052018-06-04T22:19:13.346-05:002018-06-04T22:19:13.346-05:00"Remember the Siege Perilous? The mystical po..."Remember the Siege Perilous? The mystical portal given to them by Roma through which the traveled in "Fall of the Mutants" and again, later, which spit them out with no memory of their past lives (for awhile) Well, Fabian Nicieza does, and he references it in this issue."<br />Except that he didn't reference it correctly, since they DIDN'T go through the Siege Perilous in Fall of the Mutants.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-59769858583632261122018-06-04T14:42:44.102-05:002018-06-04T14:42:44.102-05:00"the villainous Matsuo is sad" :D"the villainous Matsuo is sad" :DTeemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-65407082840874086972018-06-04T08:33:08.870-05:002018-06-04T08:33:08.870-05:00Heh. This is why commas are important. Heh. This is why commas are important. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-83233428433990015372018-06-01T22:55:46.311-05:002018-06-01T22:55:46.311-05:00Xavier discusses his intentions to re-open Emma Fr...<b>Xavier discusses his intentions to re-open Emma Frost's school with Beast and Gambit</b><br /><br />My brain broke on this line, unable to finish the sentence for a moment. I thought there was some aborted plan of which I'd never heard to launch Generation X with Beast and Gambit as headmasters and that would have been ... goodness, that'd have been amazingly bad.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03665503542091489778noreply@blogger.com