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Wow. Who would think that its been exactly three years
(Almost to the day, of my writing this) that Ive been sitting here
mostly moaning about the X-Books? Weve come quite a
ways, and seen many changes in such a short time.
Id like to start off this anniversary edition by thanking
everyone whos read this column, all those whove e-mailed,
and all my friends that actually find this witty!
Now, how about them X-Books?
This month sees many changes come around: Generation X
is ending, X-Man has already ended, X-Force may as well be
ending, and the two core books are receiving a major facelift.
Hopefully for the better.
Three years ago, I made comments on how bad Generation
X had become, and here we are, awaiting the final issue. The
last year, and some months, of the title, under Warren Ellis,
Brian Wood, and Steve Pugh was a definite bright spot, and
simply the best the book had been since the early days of
Lobdell. It seems only right that for the beginning of my third
year that I have a chance to get in a few last comments.
Wood and Pugh brought this book to a whole other level.
Yes, their first arc ended with a bit of a whimper, but the art was
pretty good, and got better once they found Pugh a single inker,
giving an issue a sense of consistency. The writing also got
better with each issue, and the characterization was spot on from
the start. Except for Emma, she seemed a bit off in the first
issue, but by the time we saw her again, another definite
improvement.
I understand, and wholly support Joe Quesadas decision to
cancel, and the reasoning behind the cancellations, but it is
definitely a shame that so many books that were just getting
good (Ok, a whole two of them, Gen X and X-Man) were cut
short. This could easily slip into another rant about what Marvel
is doing to Cable, but I tormented folks with that for two months
in a row.
Next month, Lobdell will be gone (His last issue came out a
few days ago), which means Ill be picking up the core books
again. Im sure Ill have lots of praise, and lots of complaints to
dish around. I was contemplating a good ol Lobdell rant, but I
refused to touch his X-Work, since I was sure it would suck. I
was backed up in my suspicion by many online reviewers, but
since I never actually read them myself, I decided to play fair,
for a change. However, since weve just started doing weekly
online chats, you can almost certainly catch me there, and easily
whip me into an anti-Lobdellian frenzy!
This has been my public service announcement of our new
online chats, see you next month, everyone! Keep reading those
X-Books! No, really.
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