Uncanny X-Men - Uncanny Once More?

It would be an understatement to say that I was a little behind on reading Marvel Comics' mighty mutants. So I sat down and read eight issues of Uncanny X-Men starting with issue 481 and going to the most recent issue, 488. Finally someone freaking expanded the X-Men universe brought back some of the cool elements that Claremont did on X-Men before trying to ruin them. Burbaker and Tan brought back all that cool crap from the Phoenix Saga, and Shi'ar empire and made you go wow this shit is really cool! Now Vulcan may be the worst excuse for a character ever, but he's really the only reason to have as dope of a story as they did. I just wish everything he did wasn't predictable and boring.When he started off it was cool because you didn't know what his deranged mind was going to do, but then his mind kinda kept doing the same thing over and over... Kill, kill, kill some more and strangely fall in love... with Deathbird. Another thing that felt tagged on was the relationship between Vulcan and Deathbird, really it was just there because it needed to be there in order for parts of the story to happen.

I loved the fact that Burbaker brought back D'Ken... then he killed him, I should say Vulcan did but you probably were able to guess that already. What was extremely lame about D'Ken's death was that Vulcan brought him back from his coma, and he was about to become one of the best villains in the Universe again... oh well right? It was cool that they brought Major-General Ka'ardum back and the whole rich history of the Shi'ar, and their history with the X-Men. I do wish there was more with the M'kraan crystal. Darwin wins the award for cheesiest mutant powers beating out Wolverine. Nothing could stop him, nothing! At first it was cool but then it was just like, "Come on, what can't this Macgyver of mutant powers not do?" Something that was also total bullshit, was Cosair dying... now I was bummed when Cap died, even though I know there will be a conspiracy where he'll show up later and tell the world he's been working with Stark the whole time, but whatever. But Cosair was a total waste and of course guess who killed him? Yup, his bullshit third son Vulcan't, Vulcan't stop killing everyone that's not a major character in the book! The only redeeming factor was Cosair's lover getting super pissed and wanting blood, but Brubaker was already writing the next love story between her and Warpath. It was cool where they buried him too, but that was about it. Speaking of Warpath, he's pretty cool now. I was going to say very cool, but then I remembered all his shitty dialog and was like nah, he needs to be less whiney!

Nightcrawler is just boring, he doesn't date, he doesn'tSo are the Uncanny X-Men, uncanny once more? I'd have to say a little bit. The quality of the art is there again and hopefully it won't become the revolving door it's been in the past. Good comic book story-telling comes from a team. A writer that knows their artist, and an artist that can keep pushing themselves to impresses the writer, thus constantly putting out the best work of their life. Brubaker does a lot for the Mighty Mutants, but there was too much Fanboy cheese for my liking. Darwin's powers, Xavier getting his powers back, anything Storm said, Rachael's character in general, Vulcan killing everything not screwed down and the waste of characters that could have been. It was almost as if the idea was bigger than the amount of she mind-wiped Batman, I just view her as a wolf in sheep's clothing. The "cool factor" of Xavier is gone and I'm tired of him talking all the time and saying nothing. issues allotted for it. Two character's that I think have been over used and that I've just gotten tired of in general, is Nightcrawler and Xavier. Xavier didn't have one thing to say that was worth a damn and now that he's pretty much shown his true color's it's not really cool to watch him do any of his mind stuff anymore. It's like Zatanna in DC Comics, ever since lead, he doesn't do much of anything other than freak out and pray. Really only time will tell if Brubaker can restore greatness to the X-Franchise again, but Marvel has already started the revolving door artist policy for the book. For now at least Tan isn't doing the book and Larroca is on for at least another 2 issue before he starts working on Amazing Spider-Man, so who knows who they'll throw on it next.