It does my heart good to know I can recognize good writing.
I picked up the Chaos War books thinking that just about all of them were written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente. Imagine my surprise when the X-Men tie-in was chock full of characters talking about how brave each other are, along with everyone calling each other "dear heart." That's right, this was written by Chris Claremont.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVED old school X-Men, but seeing the dialogue so disconnected from the pencils; the repeated arrivals of a villain who did very little; the immediate domination of a female telepath; this thing checked all the boxes.
It's fun seeing James Proudstar again, Thunderbird is awesome. I never figured he'd be channeling the power of some ancient god and showing off what a pure guy he was, though. Thunderbird was cool because he was angry and tough!
The next chapter of the trade holds up a hell of a lot better, with Jim McCann bringing back Alpha Flight. Clearly McCann read the same comics as a kid I did, because he uses the Canadian Great Beasts to nice effect in facing down the Chaos King. Even if it was bad, I'd forgive it because McCann brings back Alpha Flight, but fortunately, there is nothing to forgive.
The final two chapters are Chaos War: God Squad and Chaos War: Chaos King. They are both filler-type stories and pretty unnecessary to the overall plot. I sort of wish I had skipped this trade.
The Alpha story brings it up to
Average
3 comments:
Huh, I didn't even realize there was an X-Men tie-in for Chaos War; I guess there's a reason why it escaped my notice. (Great reviews and great blog, by the way!)
I picked up the first issue of the X-Men Chaos War comic despite not reading Chaos War because I heard how some deceased Madrox duplicates were in it and thought it might touch upon the complexities of his character and that aspect. Instead, I read and hated the first issue with a passion. I just found it insipid with all these characters standing around whining how they should be dead then fighting magic crows. Yeah, I didn't bother with the second issue.
Yeah, this trade (and a couple others recently) convinced me that maybe waiting for the trade isn't always the best bet...
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