Star writer Jed MacKay (AVENGERS, MOON KNIGHT, BLOOD HUNT) continues his biggest blockbuster series yet! A deadly cadre of warriors pursue their target to Earth - a target making a beeline to the X-Men's home territory of Alaska! But who is this fugitive, and what grim portents do they carry for the X-Men? As a horde of the galaxy's most fearsome killers descend upon the X-Men, help comes from an unexpected across the border! Alpha Flight flies into action again, though at what price? And can even Canada's hardiest heroes turn the tide? A simple search-and-rescue mission escalates out of control - placing not just the X-Men, but also the entire town of Merle in danger! And as 3K steps out from the shadows for the first time to further their twisted program, will the Means - their anointed headsman - slake his bloodthirst on our mutant heroes? Meet the all-new, all-different X-Men-staking their own claim for possession of mutantkind's future!
Decent fun, if a little muddled at times, MacKay continues to do his best to make this team feel special despite the lack of big names and established dynamics. It veers away from the simple premise of volume one, and adds an overarching villain mystery that doesn't really excite or intrigue. The X-Manhunt tie-in is also weirdly placed, completely breaking flow and immersion. Given all that it's trying to juggle, this is not a bad attempt, however, there's a fair way to go before this can be considered 'great'.
Empieza cuando los X-Men encuentran a Corsair, a quien Magik le tira un puñetazo como vuelto de su anterior aventura. En este volumen se vio mucho mejor a Magik y sus bromas. Aparece Alpha Flight que ayudaránb a los X-Men. Luego del evento Manhunt sigue la pelea con 3K donde aparece Wyre Piper Cobb. Él es líder de una nueva agrupación de "X-Men" liderados por Schwarzchild, que en realidad son los 6 de Santo Marco. La batalla final, al menos por el momento, de Cyclops y el grupo de "X-Men" es entretenida.
I was going for 1* but the last 2 episodes with a very well-written Cyclops made me reconsider. Otherwise, I'm not criticising the plot but the writing, with dialogue and punchlines that I thought had been banned for at least 10 years. I stand corrected. That said, I don't understand how MacKay, who was so good on Moon Knight, can be so bad on X- Men. Apart from Cyclops and Quentin Quire, the characters are calamitous, with a special mention for Illyana, now a stupid blonde who only thinks about kicking asses.
Finally, I hate Stegman and Diaz's drawing, which is decidedly unsuited to the story.
Following the fall of Krakoa, many teams have stepped in to pick up the pieces, including the X-Men. Cyclops is at the helm, with Beast, Magneto, Psylocke, Kid Omega, Temper, Magik, and Juggernaut acting as backup.
Scott knows better than most how humanity will react to what the mutants have just gone through (and lost). His team is hoping to find new mutants before they become targets, all while dealing with new threats on the horizon.
Review:
The world of mutants is still rocky at best, following the fall of Krakoa. That brings us to X-Men Vol. 2, which still portrays one of several teams trying to make things work, possibly against all odds?
So, a lot happens in X-Men Vol. 2, and I’d be lying if I said I loved every minute of it. There are some interesting twists, such as the new mutant caught in the crosshairs between the X-Men and Cassandra. That’s a pretty interesting twist, even with all the strange steps it has always taken.
Conversely, I’m already over the fight between the X-Men and Alpha Flight. Sorry, I like the team as a whole (mostly), but I don’t love their forced need to battle it out against other mutants for the sake of a title. Like, they really don’t have enough going on right now?
Overall, X-Men Vol. 2 has some compelling twists and even more intriguing setups. I don’t know where all the threads are going to lead (such as the Magneto or Beast potential twists), but I’m looking forward to finding out.
Highlights: From the Ashes Different Mix of X-Men Jed MacKay’s X-Men
This was such a good volume like one of the best that I have read and it had so many good stories I am surprised its not rated highly like we get a team up story with Alpha flight as they as they face alien invaders who try to kidnap Cyclops and like we find out why but also see what happened to Alpha flight after the krakoan era and who their new leader is and it was really well done, loved the focus on them!
And then the big story with that girl Rose ellen cobb and turns out she is a mutant or rather her twin is whose inside her body and now escapes by biomass manipulation something and you just read the story and its insane how good it is! I love how Mackay delves into it and even brings another twin whose had similar experience aka Cassandra nova and whose manipulating this little girl and wow the way it happens and the X-Men fighting that and Temper aka Idie emotional stake here, the reveal of 3K and who they are and their plans.. one of their members WYRE and whatever he is doing.. the reveal of their own X-Men team aka SANTO MARCO SIX who the team faced off in like issue 1 and its an interesting battle the team has with them and Cyclops gets some good panels and shows why he is their leader, Magik and Psylocke going full ham on them and its like the teams first face off against 3k proper and its really well done here vs in Avengers where he was setting up Myrrdin as the big threat but it doesn't read that well and here its really good.
You can see pretty much every member involved here and they get some good moments and heck even Magnet man gets his shine here and I loved how he was controlling the sentinel to fight the giant monster like Transformer vs Kaiju monster lol, that was cool and the thing with beast and how even he was attacked. That one was really well done and more focus on Ben and Jennifer like the new mutants and their powers coming into proper focus and us learning more about them.
I loved this volume it had so many stories and stakes and what not! Truly one of the best I have read in X-Men for a while now and JED continues to build one of the best X-Men runs in quite a while and the art was decent too, some issues definitely better than the other! I liked the tie in to an event and it was alright but onto vol 3!
Another chunky X-Men trade, seven issues and a crossover one too, and well worth it.
MacKay's X-Men run continues to impress. The character work is well done while keeping the action flowing, and the little seeds he's planted earlier in the run start sprouting as we move forward. 3K's threat is only growing, and across these two major storylines, a hell of a lot happens.
Alpha Flight's reintroduction builds nicely off their Fall Of X book, then we get the crossover issue, before 3K's own X-Men attack, while the subplot surrounding Piper Cobb boils over into a big, literally big problem. It's all done with MacKay's usual respect for continuity and care to ensure that we're not just bouncing from big fight scene to big fight scene without dealing with the more personal moments in the middle. Cyclops gets some fun stuff with his dad, Beast has a whole thing, and Idie and Quentin Quire continue their tumultuous relationship even as things explode.
The art team's firing on all cylinders as well. Netho Diaz and Ryan Stegman are almost indistinguishable at this point, while Emilio Laiso's single issue fits nicely at the end, even if it stands out a little for the difference in style.
While all the other From The Ashes books seem to be dropping like flies, X-Men (and Uncanny) continue at full speed, and they're easily the best of the bunch.
You can tell how much the X-Manhunt-X crossover was an editorial intrusion because of how much it interfered with the plotlines of pretty much every X-title. Here, MacKay had to put together a relatively inconsequential two-issue story about aliens AGAIN trying to get some leverage over the Phoenix. Corsair was a nice addition, but otherwise this two-issue storyline was so forgettable that I had to look it up to right this review.
The Manhunt-X story continues to be absolute crap, so that's a wasted issue. [But also omitted from this volume, even though it fits right in the middle]
But the Nova/3k story at the end was strong. Some very human (mutant) interactions with the new mutant. At least some character work, as light as it is in the fighting-focused comic. (I especially like the reminder that the Beast became a monster.) And the X-Men's foes are intriguing. We might even be getting some good use of Cassandra Nova. (We'll see how it resolves.)
So, that last (major) storyline saves a volume that otherwise runs between mediocre (the Corsair story) and bad (the X-Manhunt issue).
There are really two visions for the X-Men. In the first the X-Men represent diversity and a struggle against oppression and the struggle to find your true self. Those stories gave me a sense of place and when I was growing up and showed me a future where anyone, from any background could be amazing and important. Jed MacKay isn't writing that kind of X-Men story. This series is action forward and feels like probably the most heterosexual X-Men I've read in a long time. It's even set in Alaska for crying out loud. After the Krakoa era this series is an incredibly hard reset to something closer to Brian Michael Bendis' X-Men but as much as I love and miss the Krakoa era that doesn't mean these stories don't also work. The Alaska setting gives this a post apocalyptic vibe and there's a sexless nature to this team that really has everyone focused on the work of saving mutants. I'll never love this book but I do respect it.
The Kree and Skrulls think they can use him as a bargaining chip. 3k wants him because he's the quickest way to the retro Hank McCoy. Even the U.S. government wants him....to shut up.
As with most things X-Men lately, it's a slow reveal of anything. We've only had some of 3k revealed. We're barely even connected to what the lead characters did in Krakoa. You'd think it'd be a stronger plot point that Kid Omega was killed and resurrected more than almost all the mutants, with this new mutant ALS disease connected to resurrections.
Guess we're playing the long game (even longer if we have 'Age of Revelation' coming)
=== Bonus: We get another cameo by Corsair WITHOUT the Starjammers?! Nobody wants to touch that mess of a team? 3K has their own X-Men, which were
Bonus Bonus: One of the new X-Men is codenamed, 'Juice'? *forehead slap*
I honestly thought this was pretty good. The bit with Storm and Prof X that intruded from another line was a tad confusing, but otherwise that opening sequence was sufficiently exciting and in the back six issues, running a story for that length while also getting some little bit of characters building for Beast, Temper, and Scott all felt pretty compelling. I love that they snuck in a mecha/kaiju fight? I honestly don’t remember Wyre and only vaguely remember the 3K X-Men already, so there’s still some inconsistency in how well the storytelling is landing for me but this felt like classic pre/post House of M with threads of Morrison’s New X-Men too. Honestly just grateful to get through an eight-issue volume and not feel meh about it.
Fun, super-action-y and inventive. This is X-Men at their most important - new vulnerable baby mutants just birthed on the world stage, this team racing to protect them from all the nefarious forces working to weaponise the “evil” mutants against fodder humans.
Stegman is a blast on pencils when you’re looking for fast-paced foolishness without a lot of those dirty-over two-harder scenes. Camera zoom-out? No problem. Whacky angle? Got chu bro.
This is alright but nothing special. Alpha Flight shows up. This new menace 3K rears its head and there's lots of fighting. But MacKay's other comics I've loved instead of just thought was OK. Maybe he's having problems juggling this large of a cast? The art is fine too. That's the best description in every way for this comic so far. It's fine.
This was really good, in spite of all the moving parts and different threads that MacKay had to pay attention to (reintroduction of Alpha Flight, Corsair and Scott having a moment, some X-Manhunt, and then the emergence of 3K as a threat). About the only thing I could hope for would be a more unified artistic experience--I hate this constant turnover of artists on these books.
La historia da vueltas en círculos. Cada número es lo mismo que el anterior y, por ende, la historia no avanza en lo absoluto. Además, la historia es muy boba y está mal pensada pues, en cada evento que sucede, se nota que no hubo un esfuerzo considerable detrás. Muy poco disfrutable.
2.5 The stories range from very bad to ok. The characterization is way waaay off. Things just happen. And often don't make sense (even for a comic book).
Inconsistent art, minimal character development with a sluggish plot. In the middle of this, the crossover "Manhunt" seems to change absolutely nothing for the team. Why 2 stars then ? It still is somewhat entertaining.
It was always going to be hard coming off Krakoa, but this book is reminding of the bad old days of the early 2000s. 1/2 a star extra for Dr Starblood though.
I wanted to rate this book 3.5 stars, but ot deserved a round up. It does actually show how interconnected the X books are.
The first two issues/chapters have the return of Corsair, and trouble is following him, but is it him these aliens are after?
Then we jump to X-Manhunt chapter 4.
The final five issues/chapters start with the X-MEN on a rescue mission, but they are being hunted. 3K makes their return and they are on a recruit or destroy mission.
There are a lot of moving parts in this book. It is difficult for all the characters to have a place but I think they managed it even if it is only a page each. Good artwork, lots of action and repercussions for later. The book finishes with a thumbnail and a couple of full-page variant covers.