Take a photo of a barcode or cover
69 reviews for:
X-Men: Messiah CompleX
Craig Kyle, Marc Silvestri, Cory Petit, Ed Brubaker, Edgar Delgado, Tim Townsend, Jon Sibal, Brian Reber, Christopher Yost, Billy Tan, Mike Carey, Chris Bachalo, Al Vey, Humberto Ramos, Morry Hollowell, Victor Olazaba, David Finch
3.78 AVERAGE
69 reviews for:
X-Men: Messiah CompleX
Craig Kyle, Marc Silvestri, Cory Petit, Ed Brubaker, Edgar Delgado, Tim Townsend, Jon Sibal, Brian Reber, Christopher Yost, Billy Tan, Mike Carey, Chris Bachalo, Al Vey, Humberto Ramos, Morry Hollowell, Victor Olazaba, David Finch
3.78 AVERAGE
Really interesting story. I think part of my problem with it was that there are r or 5 distinct teams of mutants in this story, and there's really only one team (the A-list X-Men) that I can identify. There's a few team members that I know from later series, but most of the Mauraders and New X-Men and X-Factor and even X-Force members are mysteries to me. This made the large battles hard to get invested in, and caused confusion when slightly similar looking characters were on opposing sides and I wasn't sure what either persons abilities were. That being said, I really enjoyed the story, and I'm looking forward to jumping into the sequel.
I started reading this back when it was coming out, getting it on the story's weekly schedule. Unfortunately, I had to stop in order to pay for things like college. I finally picked the trade up and have to say I still greatly enjoy this, even if the flaws are more apparent than before.
I love the moments this story had, the little beats. Warpath lunging from his window, the big fight in issue five, the reveal of Cable, Rogue's frustration with Mystique, all good stuff.
The big issue I for me is that Bishop's decision and actions don't come off as genuine. This might be disagreed by some, and the writers do a good job of explaining his stance, but Bishop has never struck me as the kind that would do what he does in this story. I don't like where they took him and that taints this crossover for me.
The art is great though, my personal preference being Chris Bachalo, one of my favorite X-Artist. Overall, one of the best X-Men crossovers.
I love the moments this story had, the little beats. Warpath lunging from his window, the big fight in issue five, the reveal of Cable, Rogue's frustration with Mystique, all good stuff.
The big issue I for me is that Bishop's decision and actions don't come off as genuine. This might be disagreed by some, and the writers do a good job of explaining his stance, but Bishop has never struck me as the kind that would do what he does in this story. I don't like where they took him and that taints this crossover for me.
The art is great though, my personal preference being Chris Bachalo, one of my favorite X-Artist. Overall, one of the best X-Men crossovers.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'll be honest, this was a decent read, but I was never overly impressed by it. I originally thought it might have been because of the sheer number of characters I didn't know, but after reading 52 with that same deficiency but having no problem there, I suspect that was only a very minor thing. Really, the story just didn't grab me. It was neat enough and worth the read, but frankly if I had never read it I wouldn't feel at very much of a loss, ultimately.
Only given this a lower rating than the others because I haven't read the rest of Messiah Complex. Totally not my thing. So in places this was really confusing. But I still like all the stuff with the X-Factor lot actually interacting with each other.
This is, perhaps, the most successful X-Men crossover event ever. Combining the stories of Carey's X-Men, Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men, Kyle & Yost's Academy X, and David's X-Factor is no mean feat. Brubaker's run had been fairly dull, Carey's run felt hollow, Kyle & Yost's run was intense and complicated, and David's run had been flawless except when it involved crossovers, so this seemed designed to fall completely flat. And it nearly does.
What makes this book work is the pacing, and how tightly the writers must have worked together. This mostly feels like one story. And unlike previous crossovers where the X-Men issue focused on the X-Men's storyline, and X-Factor's focused on their characters, etc; in this collection every issue gives you glimpses of pretty much everyone so that you don't ever have to play catch-up or get bogged down in the friggen Saveage Land for an issue.
The premise, that after the Decimation there has finally been a new mutant birth, is a good one. And the way the Marauders (who were mostly boring in Carey's run) are folded in amongst the Purifiers (from the excellent Academy X storyline) and the O*N*E* Sentinels who've been in the background of every X-book except for X-Factor, oh, and X-Factor, is near flawless. The flaw? Preadtor X. It's one element too much. It makes no sense in this story. It doesn't add any tension. It doesn't really have a purpose other than to randomly show up and have people shout about how scary it is until Wolverine destroys it.
The only other real drawback to the crossover is the penultimate issue where much of the action takes place. It's not paced well, Ramos's art isn't suited for multi-character fight scenes, and the inclusion of the aforementioned Predator X turns the issue into mostly a clusterfight. But the final issue recovers nicely and resets the tone for both X-Factor and Uncanny X-Men, it leads into X-Men changing into X-Men Legacy, and Academy X becoming Young X-Men, and reignites the X-Force title, as well as wiping the somewhat silly Cable/Deadpool title off the map, to make room for a new solo Cable story. So it's an interesting reset for the whole universe.\
I recommend it for all X-fans except new ones (there is seriously a lot of continuity in here...it's not incomprehensible, but it's a way better story if you're already very famliar with the characters), but especially X-fans who tapped out at some point between 1991 and 2005 who were looking for a new entry point other than the Grant Morrison run.
What makes this book work is the pacing, and how tightly the writers must have worked together. This mostly feels like one story. And unlike previous crossovers where the X-Men issue focused on the X-Men's storyline, and X-Factor's focused on their characters, etc; in this collection every issue gives you glimpses of pretty much everyone so that you don't ever have to play catch-up or get bogged down in the friggen Saveage Land for an issue.
The premise, that after the Decimation there has finally been a new mutant birth, is a good one. And the way the Marauders (who were mostly boring in Carey's run) are folded in amongst the Purifiers (from the excellent Academy X storyline) and the O*N*E* Sentinels who've been in the background of every X-book except for X-Factor, oh, and X-Factor, is near flawless. The flaw? Preadtor X. It's one element too much. It makes no sense in this story. It doesn't add any tension. It doesn't really have a purpose other than to randomly show up and have people shout about how scary it is until Wolverine destroys it.
The only other real drawback to the crossover is the penultimate issue where much of the action takes place. It's not paced well, Ramos's art isn't suited for multi-character fight scenes, and the inclusion of the aforementioned Predator X turns the issue into mostly a clusterfight. But the final issue recovers nicely and resets the tone for both X-Factor and Uncanny X-Men, it leads into X-Men changing into X-Men Legacy, and Academy X becoming Young X-Men, and reignites the X-Force title, as well as wiping the somewhat silly Cable/Deadpool title off the map, to make room for a new solo Cable story. So it's an interesting reset for the whole universe.\
I recommend it for all X-fans except new ones (there is seriously a lot of continuity in here...it's not incomprehensible, but it's a way better story if you're already very famliar with the characters), but especially X-fans who tapped out at some point between 1991 and 2005 who were looking for a new entry point other than the Grant Morrison run.
Couple of my favorite artists on these (Bachalo, Ramos, Silvestri), some great covers. I don't have all of them, I'd love to have the set, but I think one is a key that I'm not going to want to pay for, so have to get lucky and find it in a $1 bin.
This was so cool that I didn't even get upset about the time travel (they avoided paradoxes as far as I could tell). Also I haven't read a lot of Cable comics so I found out that Scott Summers is actually his dad (not sure how his mom is). Loved that the different X-teams were all involved in this event and I liked the interactions between Scott and Xavier.
This was so cool that I didn't even get upset about the time travel (they avoided paradoxes as far as I could tell). Also I haven't read a lot of Cable comics so I found out that Scott Summers is actually his dad (not sure how his mom is). Loved that the different X-teams were all involved in this event and I liked the interactions between Scott and Xavier.
The first bit of “hope” since the decimation of mutants in House of M! Fast paced with an awesome start, some great plot twists scattered throughout but a bit of a lackluster end in my opinion! At times, it was a bit jarring to jump from different art styles depending on the issue, but overall it was a well compiled story throughout.
Really 3.5 stars.
The plot is pretty solid on the most part and things stay interesting throughout. Be prepared to have your knowledge of every single X-men character and event ever mentioned tested to the limit. I had to Wiki things a couple of times.
I would have skipped the inclusion of one predator (things were jumbled enough as it was), but I guess they were going for an everything that can go wrong will go wrong kind of vibe.
My beef with it is that there are way too many characters and artists drawing them. This volume is a mess of art styles that clash with each other and end up with characters that look nothing like the version you just saw of them just a couple of pages before. I understand that it's a result of the book being a compendium of issues from several issues, but a little continuity work would have been awesome.
The plot is pretty solid on the most part and things stay interesting throughout. Be prepared to have your knowledge of every single X-men character and event ever mentioned tested to the limit. I had to Wiki things a couple of times.
I would have skipped the inclusion of one predator (things were jumbled enough as it was), but I guess they were going for an everything that can go wrong will go wrong kind of vibe.
My beef with it is that there are way too many characters and artists drawing them. This volume is a mess of art styles that clash with each other and end up with characters that look nothing like the version you just saw of them just a couple of pages before. I understand that it's a result of the book being a compendium of issues from several issues, but a little continuity work would have been awesome.