X-Men #11 Review
X-Men #11
Time for a much needed Curse of the Mutants epilogue. Today I will be reviewing X-Men #11. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.
So let’s talk about the book. The mutants on Utopia decide to throw Jubilee a birthday party. Jubilee, however, is in no mood for it because of her current condition. She’s a vampire. Xavier decides to give her a pep talk and tells her a story about a trip he took to Africa a long time ago. He met a very old vampire there who saved his life. He tells Jubilee that she doesn’t have to be like Dracula but can live her life in peace like that vampire did. Jubilee resigns to her fate and returns to her party. And that’s the book.
So let’s talk opinions. First off, thank God that Bachalo is gone. The art was actually interesting and enjoyable to look at. It wasn’t awesome or over the top, but it was a tremendous improvement over the disturbingly overlapping images that Bachalo cursed us with in the last arc. There was a lot of nice shadowing work and fairly decent background details. The fight scenes were pretty cool too. I’m still not 100% satisfied with this art but I can deal for now. The story was also a welcome improvement. I feel that the topic of a vampire Jubilee should have been addressed right after the curse of the mutants arc was over. I like her as a vampire. I was always a big Jubilee fan and really liked her as Wolverine’s sidekick. The flashback story was ok but not really relevant unless this vampire character is utilized in the future. Still, it was nice to get closure on a hanging issue that was completely ignored in the last arc. Let’s hope we get some better, more team involved stories in the future. That’s my opinion folks. Take it or leave it.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| great growth issue for Jubilee. HUGE art improvement |
| Rating |
6 Comments
I think your review was…kind…but to be fair, it was accurate.
I can’t help but think it was a near total waste of an issue. Like you said, it was ‘irrelevant.’ Jubilee’s a vampire and having a hard time adjusting; WE GET IT ALREADY! Geeze, move on! They’re really pushing this WAY too far. Consider this, Jubilee was a mutant for years; she’s ALREADY DEALT WITH BEING DIFFERENT. Is there not ONE PART of her that says, “Yes, I have to drink Wolverine’s blood, but Hey! I’ve got super strength, super speed, rapid healing, and immortality!!! It’s not all bad…”
Even if one NEVER read this issue, they would miss absolutely NOTHING pertinent to the story of the X-men or mutants in the Marvel Universe.
This issue adds absolutely NOTHING to X-Men’s story.
Thanks for the comment Tim. I feel your pain and agree with you 100%. Still, compared to Bachalo’s crap arc, this stand alone was tolerable. Then again, after eating shit for three months straight, anything would taste better.
I’d agree with Tim comment. This story only establishes two things: that the professor met a non-murderous vampire in the past, and he only appears in the last few pages. Jubilee herself only appears in four pages in total. The majority of the comic is a weak, drawn out and barely relevant setup. It could have been severely cut back and the freed up pages used on the present Jubilee-Xavier interaction, or the mystery vampire-Xavier interaction.
I was also rather angry with the solicit for this issue, which sounded Jubilee centric (she’s the only character mentioned by name) but turned out to be a Professor X issue in drag. Not only was it deceitful, but from a marketing point of view it was probably incompetent – I suspect Professor X has more interest than Jubilee so mentioning him by name would have been advisable.
Thanks for the comment Herring. You definitely hit the nail on the head. So far, I have not been happy with the last five issues of this title. It’s been terrible art and story followed by pointless fill in. If Marvel doesn’t take us seriously soon and improve this title tremendously, I for one will just stop buying it. I cannot afford to spend an extra $4 a month to get frustrated like I have been.
I dropped this title at the conlusion of Curse of the Mutants. I’m not into vampires, but I loved the arc. I just decided that at $4, it wasn’t worth it any longer. I don’t plan on picking it up again, sorry to say; we are saturated with X-books right now. I also just dropped X-Men Legacy.
Thanks for the comment Paul. I’m sorry to see anyone leave a mutant title. I agree that the market is way oversaturated but Legacy is, for now, one of the good ones. The line up is a powerhouse. The stories are pretty cool and the art is phenomenal. X-Men has been beyond sucky for almost half a year so I can’t blame you there. I hope it improves soon or you won’t be the only one dropping this title.