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And right into the crapper.
The recent X-Men: Phoenix miniseries from Marvel had such great potential. And they totally botched it.
I'm sitting here with one of the worst miniseries I've ever read in my hands, listening to a Diablo-themed parody of "What is Love", forever driven into our brains by that insipid Night at the Roxbury movie, tired, and about to watch Doctor Who. Let me tell you, it's an odd feeling. Anyways, on with the review.
Written by John Francis Moore, who used to be a great up and coming writer on X-Force, his writing has recently not been up to snuff. X-Force has been sub par and wandering almost aimlessly for months, and now Phoenix. The story was boring, plain, nothing new or that we didn't already know, and continuity errors abound. Granted, this is status quo for a lot of x-titles these days, but this is Phoenix, darnit! This could have been SO much better.
The plot covers the first few years of Rachel's appearance in the far distant future, and her forming of the Clan Askani. Which is done off panel. This actually ends up centering around her battle against an enemy who takes the powers of the people she kills. Yawn.
Then there is the art. The story was at least serviceable, even if it was bland. But the art, my Gods, the ART!! It hurt to look it. Reminded me of a cross between Jim Lee's detailing, and Liefeld's general all around crap. Then we have the dreaded multiple inkers syndrome. Finally, with the third and final issue, they had to get a fill-in/assist from another penciled. How sad is it when the same artist can't complete the 3 issues of a miniseries?
Now, the fill in artist, I saw a sampling of his pencils online a few months before the book came out, and his stuff was GOOD. Then the inkers got a hold of it and totally butchered it.
All in all, a totally missable series. It adds nothing else to continuity, and doesn't tell a story we needed to be told to fill in some knowledge, has poor writing, and even worse art. Run. Very far away. No, farther.
Ugh. I need to wash the bad taste out of my mouth after just thinking about this series. Take care, read up on the latest Ellis comics, and I'm off until next month!
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