UNCANNY X-MEN #500 ADVANCE REVIEW

[Blake Petit]

Review by: Blake M. Petit Blake@comixtreme.com
Quick Rating: Average
Title: SFX Part One
Rating: T+

The X-Men set up shop in San Francisco!

Writers: Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction
Pencils: Greg Land & Terry Dodson
Inks: Jay Leisten & Rachel Dodson
Colors: Justin Ponsor
Letters: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Nick Lowe
Cover Art: Alex Ross (Covers A & Classic Variant), Greg Land (Cover B), Michael Turner (Variant A), Terry Dodson (Variant B)
Publisher: Marvel Comics

When a comic book has two big honkin’ zeroes at the end of the issue number, you expect something big. It’s something worth celebrating – how many comic books these days make it even 100 issues, let alone 500? Something big should happen here, and I suppose it does… but it does it in a pretty small way.

The X-Men are building their new headquarters in San Francisco, but not everyone is happy about this. An artist decides to use their past as a political statement, and an old foe makes his own feelings known.

This issue just didn’t work very well. The relocation, while unnecessary, doesn’t really bother me too much, but the way the writers beat us over the head with how “green” the new headquarters is just got preachy. The characterizations here are wildly inconsistent with other X-titles, too. This Cyclops is light-years away from the way he’s portrayed in X-Force (at least Young X-Men had an excuse), and the villain is not only totally unlike his most recent appearances, but he’s kinda… well… pathetic. Which is something this character should never be. The end of the issue isn’t bad, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen several times before. The only difference is that this time, it’s Cyclops doing it instead of Xavier or Magneto.

Then there’s the art. The more I see of Greg Land the less impressed I am. He uses the same stock poses and facial expressions over and over and over again. One panel with Angel in this issue looks like the head was pasted (badly) onto an entirely different body. I breathed an audible sigh of relief when I got to the far superior Dodson pages, which are as clean and crisp as anything else they’ve done together. Their style looks really good on the X-Men, and I’ll be far happier with their issues than Land’s.

This would only be okay even as a regular issue of Uncanny X-Men. As the big 5-0-0, it’s a big letdown.

Rating:


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[DocOrlando]

I'd go a step lower than that. I'd say it's pathetic, frankly. As the flagship X-title, there should have been more to it than this. UXM 500 should be amazing; instead this felt like any given issue, and a crappy one at that.

Additionally, where this fits into continuity is all crazy. I don't even want to think about it. But readers of X-Men: Legacy and X-Force will probably be left scratching their heads.

I have a feeling that what I just read is setting the X-titles up for an invariable reboot, as this story brings in -- entirely out of the blue -- the character with the most obvious potential (and interest) in changing the mutant status quo. Unfortunately, that introduction was entirely wasted. This isn't plot-induced stupidity, but it's certainly a stupidity-induced plot.

Chris Claremont may be a shadow of his past self, but that doesn't negate the outstanding work he did on UXM in the 70s/80s. I think back about some of the set-up work he did for UXM 150...starting it pretty much as soon as the Phoenix storyline wrapped. Just a panel here or there over more a year and a half set the framework for an unforgettable confrontation.

By comparison, this just spilled everything out like hot coffee in the crotch at the Starbucks drive-thru. No finesse, no suspense, just a kind of "Here's our thing, deal with it." Is it any wonder I feel burned?

Meh. I have no interest in #501.

(But I will say the Ross cover was SWEET.)

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by DocOrlando

I'd go a step lower than that. I'd say it's pathetic, frankly. As the flagship X-title, there should have been more to it than this. UXM 500 should be amazing; instead this felt like any given issue, and a crappy one at that.

Additionally, where this fits into continuity is all crazy. I don't even want to think about it. But readers of X-Men: Legacy and X-Force will probably be left scratching their heads.

I have a feeling that what I just read is setting the X-titles up for an invariable reboot, as this story brings in -- entirely out of the blue -- the character with the most obvious potential (and interest) in changing the mutant status quo. Unfortunately, that introduction was entirely wasted. This isn't plot-induced stupidity, but it's certainly a stupidity-induced plot.

Chris Claremont may be a shadow of his past self, but that doesn't negate the outstanding work he did on UXM in the 70s/80s. I think back about some of the set-up work he did for UXM 150...starting it pretty much as soon as the Phoenix storyline wrapped. Just a panel here or there over more a year and a half set the framework for an unforgettable confrontation.

By comparison, this just spilled everything out like hot coffee in the crotch at the Starbucks drive-thru. No finesse, no suspense, just a kind of "Here's our thing, deal with it." Is it any wonder I feel burned?

Meh. I have no interest in #501.

(But I will say the Ross cover was SWEET.)

Yeah, there's nothing in this post I can disagree with.

[Cybercat]

I had to check out the #500th issue of Uncanny. Was this it? Sentinels and a poorly written Magneto?
It was a chore to read, completely boring and unexciting. The art was static and lifeless in my option, not at all my taste. Uncanny is a shadow of its forever self. Like Astonishing, this is certainly not for me.
It's ironic how Astonishing and Uncanny are supposed to be the best, but it's actually Legacy that delivers the goods.

[Ammar Al Subahi]

This read more like an annual to me rather than a #500 landmark issue.

[Jason Kanno]

Yeah, it wasn't great. It hurt the chances of me picking up this book on a regular basis. However, I love me some Dodson, and I liked the Eternals connection.

[Ryan Read]

I decided to read this too and it wasn't bad. However, I was expecting more, a lot better than Uncanny #400 a while back. However, I felt like the villain throw in at the end didn't make much sense. Especially when he shined in another book series just a few months ago.

[=Renquist=]

Yeah so this was pretty lame. I can't believe this is the big 500th issue of Uncanny. I haven't been liking Uncanny since Brubaker came on board. I thought that maybe, just maybe adding Fraction to the mix would breathe some life into this, the main X-Men book, but I was wrong. This issue has a number of problems both on the art side, Land's pencils, and the writing side too be enjoyable at all. When is this taking place again? Why's Angel here? Shouldn't he be Archangel? When did Mags become such a cookie-cutter version of himself? How did Angel defeat that Sentinel? Why is it that when this issue isn't frustrating, it's utterly boring? Yuck. I think I'm done with UXM. There is just a lot of wasted potential considering how good these titles were during Messiah Complex. Hell even before MC I was digging all the X-Men titles except UXM. Now there are just too many stinkers out there.

Young X-Men
UXM
Astonishing X-Men

The only X title I'm reading right now is X-Force. I understand that Legacy is supposed to be pretty good right now too but I haven't been keeping up with it.

[Symphony of Six]

I'm not one to complain normally but I thought this issue was ok. I picked up the title for the first time in quite some time since Fraction is coming aboard. I don't think there was any fault in the writing of this issue. It was a good setup issue for what's to come. Dodson's art was good as usual. But I think the problem here is that the other artist who I will not name doesn't know how to use his imagination in this creatively graphic medium that keeps his checks coming. I also think it's pretty obvious that he was too busy going through his people stock photos that he completely disregarded trying to find any pictures of the San Francisco bay area cause twice in one issue a character mentioned the amazing view and were left with nothing but the characters looking at the view...this issue was like reading the community section of the morning paper while looking through the hole of an outhouse wall at something good that may be on the outside...atleast it's a view.

[jimfred82]

it felt like a 1st issue of a new series to me. one that i wouldn't get #2 of. which totally SUCKS because i was really looking forward to it, and have issues 118 and up, so i have to keep getting it until it gets good again. ugh.

[Blade X]

Originally Posted by DocOrlando

I'd go a step lower than that. I'd say it's pathetic, frankly. As the flagship X-title, there should have been more to it than this. UXM 500 should be amazing; instead this felt like any given issue, and a crappy one at that.

Not to defend this issue (I haven't read it, nor do I intend to read it), but where is it written that just because a comic reaches issue 500 that said comic book has to be "amazing"? Maybe I'm just weird, but I don't expect ANY issue of ANY superhero comic book to be "amazing". This stuff (superhero comics) were NEVER meant to be high art (which is NOT to say that they can't be high art). I just feel that today's comic fans expect way too much from superhero comics.

That being said, the negative reviews (at least on the internet) that I have read about UXM #500 proves what I have been saying for a long time on these boards (and other message boards), that just because a comic is written by a critically acclaimed and popular writer (or in this case, writers) DOES NOT mean said book will be good.