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aceinit's review against another edition
2.0
Since it was originally supposed to be a conclusion of source to Marvel's main universe, there's a lot of good primer info in the opening issues for folks like me who may not be familiar with all the key players. I don't know a lot about the Inhumans, or the Fantastic Four, and this book did help enchance that understanding.
But as for the story itself, it's a lot of talk and setup that drags and drags and drags. Yes, it's shocking to see Cap and Tony and Reed as their older selves, and to see who has made it to this new future and in what form, but after a few issues the shock value wears off, and we're still in infodump overload.
Given that we're told pretty much right off the bat that mankind is doomed, and in pretty short order, it is hard to get into the storyline unfolding on earth regadrding Cap's fight against a newer, younger, Red Skull, or anything else going on (since, you know, us Earthlings don't realize we're doomed). The Inhumans are a side note at best until around Issue 9, when they are suddenly catapulted to center stage. And everyone else is pretty much "oh, hey, that's nifty" without it doing much to further the plot.
Once the big reveal is dropped around issue 10 or so, things kick into high gear. But it feels like too little too late.
Couple that with art that's blocky in a lot of places and coloring that's mostly pretty drab, and it was hard to find a reason to keep reading. Given Alex Ross's fantastic covers and internal sketches, I expected so much more in terms of quality artwork.
But as for the story itself, it's a lot of talk and setup that drags and drags and drags. Yes, it's shocking to see Cap and Tony and Reed as their older selves, and to see who has made it to this new future and in what form, but after a few issues the shock value wears off, and we're still in infodump overload.
Given that we're told pretty much right off the bat that mankind is doomed, and in pretty short order, it is hard to get into the storyline unfolding on earth regadrding Cap's fight against a newer, younger, Red Skull, or anything else going on (since, you know, us Earthlings don't realize we're doomed). The Inhumans are a side note at best until around Issue 9, when they are suddenly catapulted to center stage. And everyone else is pretty much "oh, hey, that's nifty" without it doing much to further the plot.
Once the big reveal is dropped around issue 10 or so, things kick into high gear. But it feels like too little too late.
Couple that with art that's blocky in a lot of places and coloring that's mostly pretty drab, and it was hard to find a reason to keep reading. Given Alex Ross's fantastic covers and internal sketches, I expected so much more in terms of quality artwork.
songwind's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this TPB.
Ross' art is incredible as usual. The storyline is internally cohesive and entertaining.
The title reads like an attempt to make various early Kirby/Lee creations work together without contradicting each other. That's a tall order, but I believe the creators of Earth X have managed it very well.
The end product is complicated, Machiavellian, and wholly engaging.
Ross' art is incredible as usual. The storyline is internally cohesive and entertaining.
The title reads like an attempt to make various early Kirby/Lee creations work together without contradicting each other. That's a tall order, but I believe the creators of Earth X have managed it very well.
The end product is complicated, Machiavellian, and wholly engaging.
unladylike's review against another edition
3.0
So dense. Much exposition.
It was nearly impossible for me to ever get through more than two chapters of this book in a day. A lot like reading Watchmen, Earth X is full of appendices between chapters, playing out a repetitive, slow-moving Socratic dialogue between the blinded Watcher Uatu of the future and his newly chosen replacement, the Machine Man X-51.
At its best, Earth X reminded me of the Grand Inquisitor chapter of Dostoevsky's [b:The Brothers Karamozov|2805260|The Brothers Karamozov|Fyodor Dostoyevsky|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1313349948s/2805260.jpg|3393910]. The character designs by Alex Ross and the mystery that unfolds are very interesting, but as a story, the book felt tedious overall.
It was nearly impossible for me to ever get through more than two chapters of this book in a day. A lot like reading Watchmen, Earth X is full of appendices between chapters, playing out a repetitive, slow-moving Socratic dialogue between the blinded Watcher Uatu of the future and his newly chosen replacement, the Machine Man X-51.
At its best, Earth X reminded me of the Grand Inquisitor chapter of Dostoevsky's [b:The Brothers Karamozov|2805260|The Brothers Karamozov|Fyodor Dostoyevsky|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1313349948s/2805260.jpg|3393910]. The character designs by Alex Ross and the mystery that unfolds are very interesting, but as a story, the book felt tedious overall.
shutupitybi's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
murphyc1's review against another edition
3.0
Meh. The plot was all over the place and tedious to follow. The art was too dark. Worth a read, but I'm not likely to go back to it in ten years.
scheu's review against another edition
5.0
I'd forgotten what a great story this was, even if the following stories weren't quite as great. Watching the Marvel Universe consume itself is thrilling.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
4.0
I had fun with it. TOTALLY not for everyone. I think if you weren't a 90's member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society, this probably won't do a whole lot for you. But if you WERE, I think this one is a little better than you might expect.
It's a little clunky in places. I don't love that each issue ends with a straight-up, no images dialog between Aaron Stack and The Watcher. But on the other hand, I DID like that it spelled out the story pretty clearly for us lunkheads. Because I definitely would not have understood otherwise.
It uses these text bits differently than, say, Watchmen, where most of the text is filling in the world and really unnecessary to the main story. This is story-critical stuff. Which made me sort of hate it, but sort of like that we had this device to do the heavy story lifting and we could let the comics part be comics.
The art is cool. The covers, Alex Ross, are of course spectacular. This might've been him around his height. But the interior art is different, not Alex Ross stuff like Marvels and Kingdom Come. So be prepared. That said, I think it's got a distinct style, and it fits an alternate Earth. I just wouldn't have minded another full Alex Ross book.
The joke I made after this came out was, "Alright, we need a new story. What if Thor...was a chick!? And then Spider-Man...we'll make him a chick!?" Because that's what it looks like based on the covers (and, okay, it happens a little bit).
But it's not really about that. There's in-story, continuity reasons for all of it, which is kind of cool, and a big bonus for dorks, whale penises like myself.
The other thing to like about this story, it's alternate-world, but it's not asking a question like, "What if Thor...was a chick!?" It's asking a question more like, "What if Reed Richards...wasn't different at all, but had achieved maximum Reed Richards?" That's a more interesting question, to me. What do these characters look like when stretched to their logical conclusions? What does Captain America look like after World War XXVII, when world war numbers start to look like Super Bowl numbers? What does Spider-Man look like when he gives up his webs? Well, he looks fat. But that's getting very literal. Also, I just wanted to put in Thing's great one-liner: "Whoa, when did you get bitten by a radioactive spare tire?" Classic.
The Daredevil subplot was bizarre and very cool, the designs on the Inhumans were great, the story was maybe a little overly-complicated, but conceptually different and interesting, and it's a damn decent entry into Marvel canon.
It's a little clunky in places. I don't love that each issue ends with a straight-up, no images dialog between Aaron Stack and The Watcher. But on the other hand, I DID like that it spelled out the story pretty clearly for us lunkheads. Because I definitely would not have understood otherwise.
It uses these text bits differently than, say, Watchmen, where most of the text is filling in the world and really unnecessary to the main story. This is story-critical stuff. Which made me sort of hate it, but sort of like that we had this device to do the heavy story lifting and we could let the comics part be comics.
The art is cool. The covers, Alex Ross, are of course spectacular. This might've been him around his height. But the interior art is different, not Alex Ross stuff like Marvels and Kingdom Come. So be prepared. That said, I think it's got a distinct style, and it fits an alternate Earth. I just wouldn't have minded another full Alex Ross book.
The joke I made after this came out was, "Alright, we need a new story. What if Thor...was a chick!? And then Spider-Man...we'll make him a chick!?" Because that's what it looks like based on the covers (and, okay, it happens a little bit).
But it's not really about that. There's in-story, continuity reasons for all of it, which is kind of cool, and a big bonus for dorks, whale penises like myself.
The other thing to like about this story, it's alternate-world, but it's not asking a question like, "What if Thor...was a chick!?" It's asking a question more like, "What if Reed Richards...wasn't different at all, but had achieved maximum Reed Richards?" That's a more interesting question, to me. What do these characters look like when stretched to their logical conclusions? What does Captain America look like after World War XXVII, when world war numbers start to look like Super Bowl numbers? What does Spider-Man look like when he gives up his webs? Well, he looks fat. But that's getting very literal. Also, I just wanted to put in Thing's great one-liner: "Whoa, when did you get bitten by a radioactive spare tire?" Classic.
The Daredevil subplot was bizarre and very cool, the designs on the Inhumans were great, the story was maybe a little overly-complicated, but conceptually different and interesting, and it's a damn decent entry into Marvel canon.
latterature's review against another edition
2.0
A bloated, pretentious mess. Tries very hard to be epic in scale but many others have done a lot more with a lot less.
jhouses's review against another edition
2.0
Buen arte y un guión un poco plano para una historia de futuro alternativo del Universo Marvel empeñada en organizar y dar coherencia en un Gran Plan Conspiranoico a todo el Corpus Marvel. Superficialmente se defiende pero no resiste un escrutincio. Al fin se hace aburrida.
mschlat's review against another edition
2.0
I re-read this to see if I should remove this from my collection (and I will). This is basically a huge "What If?" about a future dystopian Marvel Universe with a heavy, heavy dose of Celestials and Inhumans. A lot of the concepts and designs come from Alex Ross, but art-wise, he only provides covers and some images in the appendices. The pencils are done by [a:John Paul Leon|12742|John Paul Leon|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] and are beautiful, but the story itself spends way too much time on world-building. (Even in the last issues, the narrative spends time retelling the origin stories of Marvel heroes with a Celestial twist.) And the whole thing is awash with omniscient narrators (e.g., the Watcher, Machine Man) having philosophical arguments about the events.