The 1990s in comic books is a very discussed decade. The quality is all over the place. They made great comics in the 1990s, from indie stuff like Bone to DC telling fun stories like Knightfall (which is still pretty good despite some faults at least I remember it being good. I guess we will have to put it on the list of stuff I shall have to discuss again) The 1990s also had way too much Rob Liefeld and I do not like him. Not a single bit. One of the things that are much ballyhooed about from the 1990s is Marvel's X-Men. So many people consider this a great era for the X-Men and I'm like "What are you hooligans smoking?". I figured it's finally time for me to blab about this for way too long because I'm a boring turd like that.
First off I have no real nostalgia for this era of X-Men. For the most part I would buy back issues from the 1970s and 1980s at The Second Page Bookstore. Which is still the greatest used book store of ALL time. I miss it fondly. I think I had a handful of actual 90s X-men comics as a kid. I guess it was a trip to the grocery store and I KNEW I had to get something. I'm surprised I didn't try to get a movie rental instead. I guess that was a part of the trip plan anyway. So yeah I had some random issues where they fight in space with the Shi'ar or against the Shi'ar. Those bird people are always hard to peg down. I would end up clearly reading the 80s issues I had wayyyy more because some of them are falling apart, and I don't even own those 90s issues anymore.
I also have to say a few things, when I say 90s X-Men, I do not mean the first two years of the 1990s (1990 and 1991) the last years of the Chris Claremont era, while definetly not the best stuff that man ever wrote it's still pretty good and worth owning. Two, I'm not talking about X-Force, X-Factor, X-Man, X-Fuckers, XXX-Men, I am just talking about X-Men and Uncanny X-Men. So now on to the complaining, a thing we comic book fans do incredibly well. (I will also say that Excalibur was a good series, well when Chris Claremont or Alan Davis were doing it)
I have to say they came up some pretty good ideas in this era. Like the Legacy Virus, which is a disease that kills mutants. Or Greydon Creed becoming a senator (or maybe president). They just waste these ideas so badly. Legacy Virus goes on so long that by the end no one gave a shit. It was OH SHIT WE GOTTA FIND A CURE. then OH SHIT WE MIGHT HAVE A CURE. then they forget about it for a while. Then OH SHIT WE FOUND A CURE. I don't know what I'd have done with this idea but I'm sure it would have been better than what Scott "Shitty Fucker" Lobdell comes too. The Greydon Creed stuff would have been so much more interesting if he actually got to be a senator instead of being killed by I think Mystique?
The other stories were just not great rehashes of Chris Claremont stuff. Why read that when I have like all of those issues which were much better. I dunno what else to say other than that.
I also do not like the art of Joe Mad. It looks awkward and ugly. I do not care to ever see it again.
I started reading comics right after Claremont left X-Men. It wasn't until they ripped Wolverine's adamantium out. After that, it slid fast. Age of Apocalypse was good - the last fresh fart - but it led to too many "alt universe" X-Mens like House of M and Age of X-Man and X-Men Worlds (I made that one up).
ReplyDeleteThen Lobdell forced Generation X on us, trying to remake New Mutants without being New Mutants and it had so much potential but it went nowhere. He tried to make mutant abilities that were too different that they ended up stupid. Like SKIN and HUSK and the BALD BLACK GUY. It was crap from there.
The Onslaught reveal was good (the rest of the series was ass backwards I will admit), using it to wrap up Bishop's biggest hanging thread. After that,
Operation Zero Tolerance was my last stab at trying to get back into X-Men and it was just bad. Bastion was and is a shitty villian (ooh ahh look, another mutant hating guy with a goatee) and it gave us two useless mutants (Cecilia Reyes and Maggot) and one good one (Marrow) who they promptly buried.
After that, the last thing I read was them bringing back Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde back to the US with the whole Cerebro is sentinent storyline which was only good because... Nightcrawler and Shadowcat were back. I remember they introduced 5 mutants that were analogs of the original 5 and then they... got sucked into Cerebro. Did they ever exist? Were they dead and just xeroxed? They seemed an interesting remix on the original 5 but oh well, gone.
I am just so glad I missed Grant Morrisons turding on X-Men. I was safely in Deadpool (HES GREAT FUCK YOU) and wrapped up in the security blanket that was Joe Kelly, Chris Priest and Gail Simone's run. We will not speak of Fabien Nicienza's godawful issues or the Weapon H crossover issues between Priest and Simone because they do not exist. DOORKNOBS DONT KILL ME PEOPLE, I KILL PEOPLE. Seriously, if you like well written comics that are funny, at least read Gail Simone's run (late 50s to like issue 69 of the original monthly series, plus all issues of Agent X). It was just amazingly put together, written and drawn too. Some Japanese photoshop guy did it or something. Really good. Give at least that run a chance. Joe Kelly's run requires investment in all 30+ issues and Christ Priest's year run is good but short and a little all over the place.
Joe "Beach Ball Tits" Madieura does not make good art. I reread 2 issues of Excalibur that he drew and like, how do the woman move without knocking themselves out. Lobdell also wrote that issue and he stinks.
Deadpool makes me piss from my ass. I don't like it.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually enjoying Grant Morrison or what I've read of his stuff. so there's that.
I've never read Age of Apocalypse. I did actually enjoy Age of X-Men tho.
ReplyDeleteAge of Apocalypse is good and fun because it made logical tweaks to the characters that weren't a stretch. Cyclops as a dick? Yep. Wolverine and Jean Grey together? Sure. Magneto running the Xmen? Beast being too tempted by science? The characters flipped good or evil made sense. It was put together well.
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