Selected-X Reviews May 5th, 2004 (SPOILERS)

63rd edition, and Reload begins! It is, however, a very light week.
Two books, both X-books. I also purchased, but won't be reading for a
little while, the 8th Ultimate Spider-Man TPB, and the Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2004, which won't get a review.

This week we've got...

Exiles #46 - 3 Stars
Uncanny X-Men #444 - 3.75 Stars

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Exiles #46 - "Earn Your Wings Part One of Three" (Writer: Tony Bedard,
Art & Cover: Mizuki Sakakibara)

For a series like Exiles, if there was a 'Jump The Shark' moment, I
wouldn't say it would be visiting the Marvel Universe. I would,
however, say it is _returning_ to the Marvel Universe. Even if the
first story there wasn't any good, you've done it, and you should
move on to something else. If you _are_ going to come back to it,
you'd better come up with a damn good reason for it (I personally
favor the 'this timeline seems to be particularly screwed up, thanks
to too much time travel and rewriting history' idea). There doesn't
seem to be one here, but one could be forthcoming in the next issue.

At any rate, the story here seems to be that the Exiles arrive and
are given a extremely vague mission. Meanwhile, their new team
member, a female version of Namor, is acting much like Hyperion and
wants to resist the Timebroker (although in her case, for much nobler
reasons), and so goes looking for help.

I wanted to like this issue, because it was the new creative team,
but it all just feels off. There are little things, like the Exiles
arguing about whether it's the Baxter Building, the Four Freedoms
Plaza, or a warehouse on the waterfront. They're not arguing which
one they think it might be on this world, it seems like they're
arguing over which one it _is_, as though it's obviously only going
to be one. (Morph in particular says 'I heard they were operating
out of a warehouse'. Well, yeah, in several realities they probably
are, but you know nothing about this one). We get Namor and Reed
apparently horrified by the thought that these Exiles might be here
to do _something_, without any indication that this something might
be at all harmful.

I'm also a little annoyed at the way they decided this was the same
world they visited before. 'Those look like the X-Men we saw before'.
Well, yeah, but there are lots of X-Men that look similar to other
groups of X-Men. Now, if they saw Havok, maybe that would be a good
reason to sway them. But we don't get that. We get Nocturne observing
that Nightcrawler is the same.

It's not all bad certainly. If it were not for it coming right on the
heels of the Hyperion plot, Namora's introduction and point of view
might have been a fascinating way to go, and may still give us a
good story, especially since she seems to be a fairly good, if a bit
haughty, person, rather than a megalomaniacal villain. I also
enjoyed the 'slice of life' with Beak that started off the issue.

It's just that, on the whole, the issue was disappointing. I was
hoping to be wowed, and instead I find myself wondering if Exiles
is going to go on my 'drop' list in a few months.

Review: 3 stars

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Uncanny X-Men #444 - "The End of History: 1 of 4" (By: Chris Claremont
& Alan Davis)

Off to a better start post reload is Uncanny. Chris Claremont returns
home, with art provided by Alan Davis, to focus mostly on refugees of
the X-Treme team. It seems that Storm's X.S.E. has formed a loose
affiliation with the mansion, and are going on missions based out of
it. But first, there's some time for good old fashioned X-Men fun.
We get a Baseball game, a Danger Room session, and two missions, all
in one issue.

For the most part, it works remarkably well, giving us time to relax
and enjoy character interactions that we haven't seen in a while, if
ever. There's a nice little subplot apparently brewing between Emma
and Rachel, with the latter angry at the former on behalf of her
mother. The new villains, unlike many of Claremont's recent efforts,
actually seem like they might be interesting at first glance.

If there is a problem with the issue, it's that some of the dialog
rings false. It's not Claremont's traditional purple prose either.
It's worse... it's Claremont trying to be hip. We get Sam's brother
saying 'You're not the boss of me!' after he says he and another
mutant is 'so totally grounded', Rachel says 'Dude!'.

The art seems to be somewhere between Kordey and Larroca. It's got
a more real, grounded look than Larocca had on X-Treme, but the
people all look generally more attractive and the action is
clearer. I'm still not too fond of all the spandex (some is okay,
but not all the costumes work), but I can live with it. Overall, I'm
quite pleased at the direction of the issue.

Review: 3.75 stars.

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X-Books not being reviewed (and why):
None, unless you count Alpha Flight, and there's no reason you should.

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That's it for this week folks. Next week, X-Men Reload continues
with the debut of District X, and the new creative team on Mystique.
We also get Bendis' last issue on Ultimate X-Men and, from DC, Gotham
Central.

See you then...

Peter Dimitriadis