REVIEW: All New X-Men, Volume Two: Here to Stay

PLOT: Yesterday's X-Men continue to adjust to a present day that's simultaneously more awe-inspiring and more disturbing than any future the young heroes had ever imagined for themselves. And things get even more dangerous when the shape-changing terrorist Mystique targets our young time-travelers...starting with Cyclops!

REVIEW: To start, I wasn't a huge fan of All New X-Men, Volume One: Yesterday's X-Men but it did leave some things open to get better in this second volume. Things definitely got better, but actually got really great and I really enjoyed this volume. The first volume was more of a set up for this one, as the X-Men from the past are still struggling in finding out what they've become in the present time. Most importantly, Scott Summers has seen where his life has gone and it's all too frightening a truth for him to take. He takes an approach to it, and vows to not be the same Scott Summers and do whatever he can to change it, but that's the typical Summers agenda when problems arise. It's really interesting to see these characters struggle with themselves in the past, when they've seen what they become in the future. There is a tie-in as well with the Uncanny X-Men cast, and I thought that was pretty cool just having read that. My review of the first volume was a considerable bashing, because I've been fed up with X-Men comics for the past year or so. They all seem so similar, and it seemed to me that this Marvel NOW! title was headed in the same direction. However, it has turned around in this second volume and I'd highly recommend All New X-Men to Marvel NOW! readers. It's definitely in the top three in the reboot, and I take back what I said about Brian Michael Bendis last volume. This guy is a mainstay in writing the Marvel universe, and he writes teams really well.

WRITING : ( 8 / 10 )

ARTWORK : ( 8 / 10 )

STORY : ( 8 / 10 )

COVERS : ( 7 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 8 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 8 / 10 )

REVIEW: New Avengers, Volume One: Everything Dies

PLOT: To prevent the collision of our universe with another, the Illuminati must reassemble...NOW! It's the most powerful and brilliant team in the Marvel Universe: the Black Panther, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Beast against an infinite legion of parallel realities. Armed with the six Infinity Gems, the Illuminati gather to plan for the death of everything...but their task is complicated by old wounds, lies and secret agendas. But when the Illuminati experience their first dimensional incursion, can this loose brotherhood of end times trust each other enough to use the Infinity Gems in unison? And what new member will join the group? Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting revamp the New Avengers in a multiverse-spanning saga!

REVIEW: Considering the Marvel NOW! entries haven't really dazzled me, I never have too high of hopes for any of these now upon picking them up. New Avengers is based on an older volume of a previous New Avengers comic it seems, called  The New Avengers: Illuminati. I had picked the previous volume up a month or so ago to read but I haven't gotten around to it, though this one does seem to originate from that story. It's a really cool group of Avengers that are assembled, and in my opinion some of the best characters from the Marvel universe. The volume deals with the threat created by The Black Swan, who upon coming to our Earth, destroys her own. This causes concern with the New Avengers and they then handle the threat as best they can without destroying all the universes and time as we know it. A few things I liked about this volume was the art, and some of the characters. I really like Black Panther, so it's nice to see him in this volume, and of course Iron Man. One character that bugged me to no end though was  Namor, because not only did he seem like he didn't want to be on the team, he didn't really seem like he wanted to be in the comic, as silly as that sounds. It was one complaint after another from this guy, and all he really seemed to serve as was the stirrer of the pot when things seemed to be going all too well for our new team. I'd definitely recommend this title out of the Marvel NOW! before I recommended a lot of others, but I still wasn't absolutely amazed by anything in this comic. I would definitely like to go back and read The New Avengers: Illuminati now to see how this team got together the first time, but you don't really need it to enjoy this book.

WRITING : ( 7 / 10 )

ARTWORK : ( 8 / 10 )

STORY : ( 7 / 10 )

COVERS : ( 9 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 7 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 7 / 10 )

REVIEW: All New X-Men, Volume One: Yesterday's X-Men

PLOT: It's a blast from the past as the original five students of Professor X - Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and Beast - are plucked from the past and brought to the present. But what they find, the state that their future selves are in and the state of Xavier's dream, is far from the future they dreamed of. And how will the X-Men of the present deal with their past coming crashing forward?

REVIEW: Another Marvel NOW! title that just doesn't impress like the New 52's do. All New X-Men is definitely all new, but at the same time the threat seems so familiar. Somehow, they have maintained that the X-Men's worst enemy is themselves and the human race. It's all a story that's been done before, which makes you wonder what the writers of this series were thinking. I'm usually a fan of Brian Michael Bendis' work, but this just fails to live up to its NOW! name. You get a chance to start over and be something completely different for a new generation and you tread on the same stuff you've been doing for years now. Cyclops is out of control, and becoming more like Magneto by the day it seems. Present day Beast brings back the original 5 X-Men to show them what their future holds. There's some interaction between the timelines, self-analyzing and characters putting some perspective on the times. Other than that, I wasn't all that impressed by yet another Marvel NOW! title. If you're an X-Men fan, I say pick it up and give it a shot, but if you're not then I'd just look for your favorite character's new Marvel NOW! title and try it first instead. Unfortunately, All New X-Men is fairly lackluster and failed to find a new voice in an industry that is in the process of re-defining itself to new audiences.

WRITING : ( 5 / 10 )

ARTWORK : ( 7 / 10 )

STORY : ( 3 / 10 )

COVERS : ( 7 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 5 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 5 / 10 )