X-Statix, Vol. 3: Back from the Dead

X-Statix (Collected Editions) #5

by Peter Milligan (Writer)

Deceased Europan Pop sensation Henrietta Hunter is back from the dead and on her comeback tour – and it's up to the celebrity mutant super-team X-Statix to keep her alive … again! Can the fame-hungry team of super-mutants take a backseat to the white-hot celebrity – especially when she becomes team leader? And where does a certain wall-crawling Spider-Man fit into all of this? Celebrated writer Peter Milligan constructs a poignant and intelligent allegory for life as a celebrity in the 21st century! Plus: Dead-Girl is spotlighted; and the debut of the team’s newest member, the Latino heartthrob El Guapo! Ay papi!

Collecting: X-Statix 11-18

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.

He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.

His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.

Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).

Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix

Reviews

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 3 out of 5]

One's bound to generate controversy when one's planning to write satire, specially if it involves sensitive topics.

Back from the Dead might be the most controversial volume from X-Statix, but it does its job well, satiring American politics, warfare, racism and so on. The dialogue is top-notch and the were more than a couple of instances when it made me laugh.

One of the problems of this book is how it wastes it characters in the name of humor and shock value, when it could have been executed some other and better way.

[C. Varn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a frustrating volume: the price of fame is Milligan's primary theme. First in the El Guapo arc as he softly corrupted by his fame, alienating his girlfriend and getting in over his head, and then with Deadgirl's arc as being protested as role-model. An arc that ends with revenge against necrophilac mortician, which then bleeds into the resurrection of sensation Henrietta Hunter. Hunter is clearly a veiled reference to Princess Diana, but making her a pop star fits with the themes of the book at current. However, here the killings become deceptively edgier in ways that don't play off with enough weight and characters who have more clear motivations act flippantly. Milligan also seems to be satirizing things more relevant to the mid-to-late 90s than the early aughts when this was actually released and felt dated at the time. The shock has seemingly lost its purpose, partially from editorial meddling but partly because it was becoming dated even when it was released.

[Brian Stillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surrender Monkey.

A song that kills.

And oh poor El Guapo.

X-Statix. The Vertigo title masked as a Marvel book.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing the x-statically x-hilerating x-read of 2017 (and I think I am running out of bad x-puns already)…

Hmmm. Where to begin with this one? Since starting my x-read, the X-force relaunch that became X-statix has been probably the biggest positive surprise for me. Each volume is an excellent send-up of modern life while also carrying an entertaining and intriguing plot and often managing an emotional resonance that can sometimes be hard in genre work like this.

I would say that this volume still continues that trend, but… Well, it feels a little off from the others. Especially at first – while the story really comes together for a satisfying conclusion, it feels a little lost and meandering for the first half. Also, there are some odd character things going on. El Guapo in particular seems like he never filled any role – either in the team or in the plot.

I don’t know. Every complaint that I have feels more like a small nitpick than a real grievance. And the story is still better than at least 80% of the books that I have read in this undertaking. It just feels a tiny bit paint by the numbers, particularly for the first half.

(That said, some of the most funny parts of the series in terms of a bitter sort of critique of our media-fueled lives happen in this volume so that is another plus.)

Most definitely worth the read but not the strongest volume of the series so far.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A step up from the previous volume, "Back from the Dead" covers a few different arcs for the ever-changing X-Statix team. New faces are added and chief amongst them is Henrietta Hunter (basically a not so subtle nod to Princess Diana), who like every other new mutant to join the squad, faces a lot of backlash from the teammates. Deadgirl takes the spotlight with this volume, taking on a case of defeating a necrophiliac mortician which culminates in a horrifying fate for the villain. Other new member, El Guapo, is caught in a massive cheating scandal and he begins to resent the spotlights afixed on the team. The major arc in this volume involves the villain Mister Code, a self-made millionaire who has a robust group of diehard followers, but may also have secret ties with X-Statix financial backer, Spike Freeman.

Overall, another great entry to the series with some of my personal favorite moments in the entire run. Milligan and Allred continue to flex their endless creativity here.

[Lillian Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite volume. One of the characters was based closely on Princess Diana and her death. And there was a lot of death of innocents with a random killer on the loose. And a child blown up by a landmine. All serious subjects but the treatment, in keeping with the rest of the series, felt glib and disrespectful.
And we lost two members of the team, both of whom I'd grown fond of. One death felt like a wasted opportunity to focus on the treatment of disabled people in the media and public perception.

All in all, a disappointment.

[Colm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really didn’t like this. Wasn’t at all comfortable with the way it played suicide or school shootings irreverently almost as if “for laughs”. Just seemed like trying to be edgy for the sake of it. Didn’t feel it made any grander point by including them and the stories were weak enough to begin with.

[Omar · Rating 2 out of 5]

4.7 bad
A terrible book which has no story nor action. The X statistic feels like un irrelevant grip within the X men franchise. This book deals like a filler issue which is made just to fill in a dat on the schedule. Really bleing and nothing is going on, a waste of time.

[William Hawthorne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slightly weaker run here, not bad but feels a little distracted and less focused in its commentary.

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 2 out of 5]

Real diminishing returns with this series. It’s a bummer.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peter Milligan returns to the X-Statix in the third trade of the celebrity mutant team. he opening half of the volume deals with the price of fame, as seen through a variety of team members. New recruit El Guapo uses his mutant skateboard to vault into the limelight, only to lose his one solid relationship after joining the squad; Dead Girl faces off against her role model status, determining if she is here to help the living or the dead. The latter half of the trade deals with resurrected pop star Henrietta Hunter, a thinly-veiled stand-in for Princess Diana. As her altruism catapults her into the starring role on the team, the rest of the squad decide that Henrietta needs to go in order to salvage their personal Q ratings. The price of fame is an interesting angle for the mutant struggle, but the volume loses much of its gravitas due to the editorial mandate to swap Diana with Henrietta. This book may be Back from the Dead, but the concept remains on life support.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects issues #11–18 of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's oddball superhero series X-Statix, which started out as an offbeat run on X-Force (which fairly swiftly changed its name to X-Statix, quite possibly on account of having fairly little to do with the original X-Force concept at all).

This is superheroes gone reality TV and playing the fame game full on, and as such a somewhat biting satire on contemporary society, and one that hardly seems to have lost its relevance or edge today either.

In this volume, the team has to deal with pop sensation Henrietta Hunter who is back from the dead and joins their ranks.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The shorts (11-12) that lead off this volume are quite good. El Guapo's story is a funny one [7+/10] while the focus on Dead Girl is a weirder and crazier one of the sort you'd expect from Milligan [8/10].

The main story, Back from the Dead (13-18) runs a little longer than it should and has its highs and lows. Some of the events are quite shocking, and the horror at the end of is good, but it also feels like Milligan is increasingly using shock for pure shock value, not for innovation. Still, this is an enjoyable read [7+/10].

[Joey Heflich · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite part of X-Statix. The Allreds still rock, but Milligan needed to edit this one down and tighten it up instead of going on with some pretty lame pop culture commentary (especially since it falls flat when compared to the rest of the series' typical Doop-making-a-silly-face commentary, but maybe that's just me being hard on it because it's not the early 2000s anymore).

[Mark CC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah yes, the legendary supposed-to-be Diana. This is probably the best X-Statix yet, as the metatextual stuff and celebrity commentary just hits the nail on the head. Maybe it's because the publishing date is closer and closer to the time when I was aware of celebrity culture?

[Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still a fun read, but I'm mostly on the ride for the Allred beautiful art.

[Matt Shaqfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

More perfectly weird super-hero/pop-culture-commentary goodness.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.75