| Title | : | Earth X |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 078510755X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780785107552 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 464 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2000 |
Collects Earth X #0-12, X.
Earth X Reviews
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Years ago, Alex Ross, comic book artist, showed off some of his artwork depicting a dystopian Marvel future in Wizard magazine. The magazine sold out. He drew some more for a special sketchbook. That sold out. So the honchos at Marvel said, “If we print an actual comic with a story centered on this artwork, we’ll make millions. If we print a series, we’ll make billions, maybe even gazillions.”
So it was written and drawn, but not by Ross. Ross did the pretty covers.
This one bites off a lot more than it can chew, starting with:
The Watcher can’t be The Watcher anymore so he enlists Machine Man. The reason he can’t be The Watcher is because he’s blind, which makes the whole business of watching challenging, no? So Machine Man (X-51) becomes his “eyes” and they get to talk over current and past happenings in this alternate Marvel universe and because they run out of art sometimes, they get to talk and talk in the appendices (sans pictures) of each issue, as well.
“Whatever happened to Man-Bull, Uatu?”
That’s an incredibly long and amusing story, X-51, it should take up at least two pages of prose…”
It's an exposition-a-rama.
They also get to chat – at length – about the byzantine plot revolving around the Celestials (love their teas!), the “everybody’s a mutant and sort of loving it” thing,
…something about Vibranium and planets blowing up, the Inhumans ‘R Us plotline, and a bald Captain America.
See, Cap felt really, really bad about killing the Red Skull, so he quit the Avengers, presumably shaved off his hair, carved an “A” into his forehead and became depressing and boring.
The new Skull is a punk-assed kid who controls people and has an army of evil doers taking a choo choo train to NYC. All a board for world domination and evil. And stuff. Toot! Toot!
Many of the heroes are really, really old. Tony Stark becomes the Howard Hughes of superheroes (booze, hookers and long dirty fingernails) and just hangs out in his iron tower…
Reed Richards took over for Dr. Doom at some point and he takes the blame for how this went down and tries to figure out this whole mess…
…and eventually punks the Celestials .
Bottom Line: This is a hot mess of ideas; it’s as if the plot was built up from issue to issue without much thought for the long (14 issues) haul. It’s not totally devoid of merit – it has a few interesting concepts - but they’re rolled out at a confusing and slip shod pace, and reading becomes a slog-fest for anyone but the truly hardcore Marvel devotee.
Because Marvel Comics is The House of Ideas they sometimes pick through the dumpster of past stories; some of the concepts from Earth X have been regurgitated in one form or another (Inhumanity) over the years. They also “borrow” the Starro concept from DC and have HYDRA as an actual hydra symbiote clinging to and controlling its host.
It’s not without humor – Wolverine in a La-z-boy, now married to Jean Grey (Wolverine also gets punked a the end)…
…the Hulk as a big green gorilla wearing nothing but a big diaper.
“What a revoltin’ development!”
And the Thing’s response to seeing a very out of shape Peter Parker is a classic. -
One of my favorite graphic novels, kind of Marvel's answer to Alex Ross's other major work Kingdom Come but with very much it's own style. Jim Krueger's encyclopedia knowledge of the Marvel Universe turns this story -- along with his Universe X and Paradise X -- into what feels like a true conclusion to the entire Marvel story. As if it was some grand science fiction epic planned that way all along.
Of course, in the many years since this was published a lot of the revelations are contradicted by the current canon (whatever, it's all alternate realities right) but for the most part still ages very well. Earth X is a must-read for superhero aficionados indeed. -
I did not love this one. The art, the story, nothing really clicked with me. It was okay, and I can see where others might love it, but it wasn't for me.
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Even though I had read it before, in the last 24 hours I started, finished reading and all but devoured Earth X. I must admit that when I first went through the book it was a fast, superficial read and I knew much less about the Marvel Universe than nowadays. Today, even when I realised I remembered at least a good part of what was about to happen in the story, I found myself unable to stop until I had read and laughed at Jim Krueger's afterword.
Earth X is an alternate universe where the reader can get a different look at the characters he might have gotten used to while reading classic or mainstream Marvel comics. The book starts as Uatu, the Watcher, has Machine Man aka Aaron Stack aka X-51 fly to the Moon to be his eyes to world, as he has been blinded by an yet unknown attacker. What begins as a struggle between the Watcher and X-51's human personality turns out to be a whole review on the origins of some of Marvel's best known characters, and the reconstruction of what happened in this Earth during the 20 years Uatu couldn't watch.
SPOILERS WARNING
In Earth X's present, all of humanity is mutated, Johnny and Sue Storm are dead, Reed Richards is a man broke with guilt, posing as Dr. Doom in Latveria, Tony Stark is locked from the world fearing mutation, the Avengers are Stark's robots, Bruce Banner is a kid riding on Hulk's back, Clea is Sorceress Supreme while Stephen Strange's spiritual form is dead, the Thing has kids and Thor is a woman. As if this wasn't enough for a shock, all the psychics in the world are dead, Wolverine is a fat lazy guy married to Jean's clone Madeline Prior (although he only finds out later in the book), Spider-man is forsaken while his daughter dangles around "wearing" Venom, Norman Osborn rules the US and Captain America looks much more old, tired and psychologically overwhelmed than even his century-wide age would predict. It is Caps' finding that the Skull is alive that starts the adventure happening on Earth as the reader watches as Uatu talks with X-51 and tries to stripe him of his humanity that he seemly sees as a flaw. The authors even found a good explanation for the Gods, Olympians and Asgardians alike, and through it a purpose even for Loki to be useful and for Ragnarok to be logical.
PLOT REVEALING SPOILERS
As X-51 tricks Uatu into letting him know of the Celestials' intentions towards Earth, he finds that the planet is hatching a Celestial, that it would be destroyed by it and that humans were enhanced by them to be its protectors. Aaron goes back to reveal the plan leading to the story's climax. The heroes come to the conclusion that mutations were caused by terrigen mists turning everyone into Inhumans and accelerating a process that was due to happen 200 years later. Because of this, the Celestials are coming to Earth to wipe its population. Captain America manages to be the hero and kill the Skull, the last mind-controlling entity in the World, a Celestial fail-safe to keep the mutated super-powered humans from killing each other and threatening the planet. Black Bolt sacrifices himself before the arriving host of Celestials sending a last call for the one being that has been known to counter them - Galactus, and although the true Galactus has been turned to a star, an unknowing Franklin Richards, having achieved the utmost evolution has been turned to what the Celestials believed him to be - Galactus himself. Tony Stark sacrifices himself to buy him time. In the end, Reed Richards burns the terrigen mists in the atmosphere, probably allowing for the mutations to revert. But as if all this wasn't enough, Mar-Vell appears and hints at the future, leaving a cliff-hanger of sorts that saddens me for not having the next books.
The whole idea of the Celestials being the "bad guys", of an evolution that links mutation with them but also explains how the gods came to be, as survivors of planets already destroyed and of aged, tired and depressed heroes appeals to me a lot, as a believable plot that doesn't hang on to what the usual reader expects or believes untouchable.
NO MORE SPOILERS
I must compare Earth-X with Watchmen for it is also set in a dark mood, a broken society and has an apocalyptic plot showing people's reactions and struggles, but also because it was, much as the later, able to keep me reading straight to the end, always exciting while keeping enough suspense right to the last page (a character even asks to be called Watchman so the reference was unavoidable). In spite of these similarities in the way they stand out from the regular comic books, these two novels are still very different in both the plot and the final message they convey. Going back and concentrating on Earth X, Ross and Krueger achieved an almost perfect plot development, the building of the character's personalities and their interference in the whole story was amazing and although I'm not a big fan of the illustrations, I admit they are adequate for the storytelling tone. This might very well have been the best Marvel novel I've read to this point and I instantly went and added Universe X and Paradise X (Earth X #2-5) to my wish list and hope to pick them up as soon as I can.
I would recommend this graphic novel to readers that enjoy dystopias, reflections on the nature of humanity or even on the existence of good and evil and still like to see how depressing people can turn out to be while still able to rise to a life-threatening challenge, though with different motivations. But I mostly recommend it to people that are used to Marvel's characters, that know their origins and their personalities because the shock of seeing them all in this situation adds a lot to the novel.
This review was published on my
blog. -
A little heavy going at times and I wasn’t overly keen on the long text pieces at the end of each issue, but really loved this! It goes deep into marvel history and lore and creates a new story from it. Would have been stellar had it been drawn by Alex Ross, though I don’t mind John Paul Leon’s style.
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I have always enjoyed alternative future stories (and historical ones too) in both the DC universe and the Marvel universe, so obviously, Earth X and its sequels have long been on my radar. I actually picked up this fine hard cover volume quite a while back, but had not got around to reading it until now.
And the reading process was a mixed experience.
Starting out some 20 years plus into the future of the Marvel universe, Aaron Stack, a.k.a. Machine Man a.k.a. X-51, is summoned by the Watcher on the Moon, who requires his assistance in watching the development of the human race. Apparently, an experiment gone awry has caused all of the human population (with the exception of Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man) to mutate and gain superhuman powers. Superheroes, in other words, have been made somewhat redundant, and the question is how they have coped (or not).
Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger have come up with a very interesting premise and the story is well-told with the visual assistance of penciller John Paul Leon and inker Bill Reinhold. Sometimes the scope almost seems to big for the story, however, and this becomes particularly clear in some scenes in which certain minor characters (in the context of the story) are presented in ways that mostly seem gratuitous and out of character. In fact, in the middle of the story, these scenes started bothering me so much that I actually wondered if the story would go belly-up and earn a mighty low grade from me after a genuinely strong and interesting start.
I am happy to say that this growing fear met a turning point, where my faith was restored in the work as a whole if not in those particular scenes.
So, is this worth reading? If you are a Marvel fan, the answer is definitely. Ross and Kreuger have refashioned the mythological fabric of the entire Marvel universe and we suddenly perceive its cosmic scale on new levels. After all, the mystery at hand involves Kirby's Celestials. For newcomers, however, the continuous references to minor characters and various incidents might be off-putting. I say "might" because there is the chance that the references could be contained within the work itself and only be a matter of added depth . . . but I honestly kind of doubt that. -
I've known about this book for ages but it's taken me ages to get hold of a copy - even in this internet age! I tried not to read too much about it so not to spoil it. I harboured a secret wish that it was an undiscovered gem of the calibre of Kingdom King or Marvels. It isn't, unfortunately.
I really liked the explorative elements of the book, which I suppose is a fancy way of saying I enjoyed the continuity fanwank. A look at 'the future' of your favourite heroes and villains is always fun. I liked Old Man Logan for a similar reason. The characters don't really age or grow old in the main continuity, but in books like this the creators can imagine their later years.
I suppose that in just the same ways as their origins and present status are updated from time to time in line with the current day, their future keeps pace with the Zeitgeist in the same way. It's been going on for a while - since the silver age if you want to start it with The Flash of Two Earths.
Anyway, I also liked the Alex Ross character designs, by and large, and the art by John Paul Leon. I wasn't quite so keen on the script and story. I found the style very similar to Kingdom Come, and it all fell in to shape when I read (on wikipedia) that the book came about after Ross did some KC-style character sketches for a magazine and it shows. There’s the wounded Superman-style icon Captain America, the crippled Batman figure of Tony Stark isolated in his lab, and the strong female Wonder Woman character... uh, well, ... anyway.
In Earth X, the dialogue between X-51 and Uatu the Watcher was used to provide the back story, in the same way the Spectre and Norman McCay in Kingdom Come, and with a similarly sententious tone. In the latter, however, it’s done with remarkable brevity. The script is a fraction of the length of Earth X's long monologues. Most of the pages in Earth X are dense with text and characters often quite static. There's also text pages at the end of every issue, which I soon started skipping.
It’s not like I think Kingdom Come is a work of genius – I generally prefer Marvels, in fact – but it still has aspirations to address deeper moral issues. I enjoyed Earth X on the level of a good super hero story, it didn’t make the kind of impact of Marvels or Kingdom Come, let alone more famous works like Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns. -
This book starts out like a barely-prosaic version of the Marvel Encyclopedia, just a pretty dry retelling of the high points of the Marvel universe’s history, sprinkled with the occasional “why did it work this way?” “Shut up and stop asking intelligent questions - it’s a mystery”. Very nearly veered into “it’s all part of gods’ plan” schlock territory.
I could swear that this book at its time was evolutionary - updated and refactored many of the key moments in Marvel history to bring it all together. I’ve long since forgotten which of these twists on the original Stan/Jack/Steve origins were present by the time of this book, and which were retcons introduced by it, but boy is it underwhelming to read this stuff now that so much of this history has been integrated into everything I’ve read since.
And the “What If?” tales to astonish? Pretty lacklustre, and the end-of/issue reveals of who replaced whom are a total letdown. Clea as the Sorceress Supreme? Well of *course*, that’s no surprise (except the “shock” of Stephen Strange not being there I guess, but boy what were they smiling to think that this would be “edge of your seat thrills”?
I got about four chapters in before my complete boredom got the better of me and I stopped trying to pick this up. If anyone can tell me that it gets immensely better after this, I’ll give it another shot, but whoof, that’s a journey into mystery I’d rather end early. -
La risposta Marvel a Watchmen. Immenso. L'ultimo numero mette i brividi. Excelsior!
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I absolutely loved Marvel comics alternate timeline event that was Earth X. The cover art by Alex Ross & his sketches are absolutely amazing. I also appreciate the internal art by John Paul Leon. The premise, story and presentation all fit together to create a dark & brooding epic within the marvel universe. Cataclysmic events occur on the earth with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance.
An excellent thought experiment that explains why some people of Earth in Marvels universe have super powers or the potential to manifest super powers. We learn that Earth's fate & the fate of humanity have been meddled with to further the aims of the Celestials(God like cosmic Entities that have the power to reshape reality it's self).
The story is dystopian and surprisingly touching, it's wrought in a realistic fashion; characters emotions & motivations are closely considered in the backdrop of the dystopian setting. We get to see an alternate Peter Parker who dejected has turned his back on his Spider man identity and fighting crime. Peter's daughter however has taken up the mantle & has control over the symbiote that we knew as Venom. We watch the embers of the great civilisation of the inhumans represented by Black Bolt, Medusa & the Royal family desperate to find their son after returning to earth from the stars. We see an old and handicapped Captain America fighting against the new threat of the Red Skull who happens to be a teenage boy with the ability to telepathically subjugate whomever crosses his path. We consider the implications of all the people of Earth being mutated & super powered. The story tangents are woven together in an arch that reads like an apocrypha of one of the grandest conspiracies against the earth that has ever graced the pages of the Marvel universe.
Be prepared for some shock revelations and unexpected twists in this story. Its the marvel universe but not the one you are familiar with. Definitely one of the finer intellectually stimulating graphic novels from Marvel. -
The story is fantastic and a must-read for any old school Marvel fan who grew up ensconced in their mythos, but the art really wasn't for me and took what is easily an otherwise five-star book down - It was just too heavily inked and the colour palette left everything looking almost washed-out, which was probably what they were going for, but it didn't work for me.
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I actually read the signed Graffiti black and white version. I found it at an inexpensive price so I went for it.
In concept this story was supposed to be a Marvel Kingdom Come. And there are a few similarities. But some of the most poignant moments of Kingdom Come don't hit me in this book. Perhaps it really needs to be in color for me to get into it better.
Overall the story was interesting and I believe there is more story that follows the events in this book. I would really like to see an omnibus version printed at some future point with all the story. -
Too much backstory, not enough "happening". Enough said.
OVERALL GRADE: C minus -
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.
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I haven't read superhero books in maybe 15 years (got sick of the constant restarts), but a friend gifted this to me, saying it'd be relevant to my "how does belief change the supernatural" interests, and boy, was he right. I've always had a soft spot for the Watcher, and the way EARTH X deals with the alternative timelines/universes is masterful. The blending of "being told a story" plot and active engagement made the series nigh impossible to put down. Also: Because I've been reading this during the girl-Thor kerfuffle of late, I couldn't understand why everyone is upset. EARTH X is legitimately so good that it inoculated me against nerd rage. Amazing.
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My favorite Marvel GN of all time! Ideally, readers should feel comfortable with a LOT of Marvel history before venturing into this alternate reality tale and what they'll find is a bold new take on much of what we thought we knew. Reed Richards hiding in the guise of Doctor Doom? The Watcher on the brink of death because Black Bolt didn't want him to see what was coming? Planets as eggs for space-faring Celestials? There's so much fresh material here, all gorgeously drawn by John Paul Leon, it's the Marvel Universe told like never before. A pleasure to read over and over again.
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I thought this was going to be like Marvel's version of DC's Kingdom Come, instead it's a guide to the Marvel universe and some little things that might happen. Seen this on other reviews, this need more what is currently happening rather than what did happen. Maybe if you never read a Marvel comic before you might like this. I see there is a Universe X I'll probably read in the future in hopes it's more story and less Marvel history I already know.
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Marvel’s equivalent to kingdom come... and bit messier one it is. No Alex Ross art in case you missed that, just some covers...
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Omega powered cosmic entities vying for power are Marvel's ace in the hole. But what this proves is that only DC excels when it comes to superheroes in their golden years facing grim late life lessons. What I'm saying is that Marvel can't Kingdom Come the way DC can. This wasn't bad, but I had honestly never heard of Machine Man before and several other readers give me the impression that he was around before this, so whatever. My biggest problem with the story, aside from DC doing it better twenty three years ago, is that I dislike 'origin of man' stories that leave virtually no wiggle room for any purpose except one. That's what the origin of man spoken of late in this story does. It makes humanity a sort of gods-made utility (not even proper gods, but that not so secret giant alien robot variety of gods Marvel often have to feature in cosmic stories) where they're living not for their own purposes, but to be used in a way that is directly compared to germs and blood cells in the body. That's not at all an uplifting message to read in a comic book. Kingdom Come was about rediscovering hope, restoring faith in American institutions and preventing the grim portents prophesied in the Book of Revelations, averting catastrophe. Earth X is basically about fighting bacteria and keeping the body warm on a cosmic scale. Kingdom Come > Earth X. Not even a competition.
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I don’t know why I struggled with this one so much. Not too long ago, I also tried and failed to get through The Nail. Both are grand, big-scale comics reliant on exposition. So maybe that is the reason. I like Alex Ross, and I like seeing a comic that boldly reimagines Marvel, but this one just didn’t do it for me.
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This was a slog. I get why some people really enjoyed it - the continuity, integrating everything into a coherent whole, having an overarching cosmology for the whole Marvel Universe. A gritty take on superheroes when there weren't that many. Interesting looking art that wasn't common in Marvel. The art was a big selling point apparently, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. It was far too static and it didn't help me understand what was going on.
I also have very little interest in seeing fallen heroes, I guess as a consequence of having been overexposed to grimdark fantasy and negative takes on superheroes over the past decade. What was shocking once is now commonplace and trite. But I was surprised to see that so many bits of this alternate history were later integrated into proper Earth-616 and even used for the MCU. The Eternals is essentially the same story! Unsurprisingly, my feelings towards that film and this comic are the same - too boring, too tidy, clunky execution, and way too much exposition.
It has some merit (hence the two stars), but I definitely did not have even the tiniest bit of fun reading this. My advice? If you really must know what Earth X is about read the wiki entry and call it a day. -
Decent but way too many plots going on at same time
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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
John Paul Leon 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. -
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. -
This graphic novel contained so much written text that I decided to count it as a full novel, even though I usually do not review the graphic novels I read on Goodreads. Also, this was so good, I thought it deserved a place on here, and also deserved the attention of writing a review. I was surprised by how good this book actually was. Plot summaries didn't make it sound that appealing, and just leafing through the book I didn't see a coherent whole. My expectations were lowered, I thought I would have done better to spend my money on a different book. But when I started reading at the beginning (as was the intention of course), and reading it all (including the pretty long written parts - that make it a novel, really), I was taken in. This is some pretty dense writing, looking at the past of the Marvel universe and the origin of its superheroes (including the cosmic ones), and looking at their future too, where Spider-Man has an expanding waistline, and Reed Richards dresses as Victor von Doom. This is an apocalyptic story about a world where everybody is equal, because everyone is a mutant. It has captain America struggling against a new incarnation of the Red Skull, while at the same time a struggle of cosmic proportions is taking place (told form the moon). All the parts really come together at the climax (even though the story took some narrative shortcuts, and some heroes were given short shrift, and the end is possibly so grand in scale it's hard to comprehend - thus four stars instead of five). At the same time there's some serious discussion about morality, the existence of right and wrong, and of the purpose of humanity and of heroism. And there are quotes by among others G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis - my favorite authors. Both christians. By the way, I don't think those quotes were accidental - I read in the afterword by the author that he believes we all live in a larger story, that envelopes us, and gives us meaning. I believe that as well. And there's a powerfull analogy of our adoption by a loving father, making us his children, and then taking the responsibility that is part of that. It was gospel. Good news. This raises Earth X above a lot of disposable comic books, and makes it a favorite. Definitely worth checking out!
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Once upon a time, I disliked this book, as did most other "serious" comics fans. It was silly, overwrought, etc. The interior art didn't stand up to the pretensions of Ross and Krueger.
But now, with a decade of hindsight, I'm ready to say that this was a much better book than Watchmen. It was almost as good as Miller's DKR...and if anything, it was Marvel's answer to that. Because Krueger nailed something here that I didn't realize until I was watching the Guardians of the Galaxy, an excellent film that blessedly severed ties with those book report-quality Marvel Studios movies that preceded it; namely, that the Marvel Universe owes its success to the cosmic jibber-jabber and mumbo-jumbo that Jack Kirby and Jim Starlin bequeathed to it. Its "moody" 60s heroes are actually far more superficial than DC's iconic crew, and most of its super hero stories were utter bullshit...except for the cosmic stuff. The cosmic stuff, from Galactus to Korvac to Thanos, always delivered. And what Krueger did here was to craft a Unified Field Theory of Marvel's Cosmic Bullshit. His later work on Justice wasn't anywhere near as good, though he managed to raise some interesting questions about the role of the super team in a world of "normals" (questions raised far earlier, and in a far more sophisticated way, by Mark Gruenwald on Squadron Supreme). But here, my goodness. Of course it's writerly and slow and stupid and the action makes no sense whatsoever. It's both homage and apotheosis of the grand cosmic fuckery genre. Krueger's explanations are gibberish, much as Starlin's and Kirby's were, but it doesn't matter and it never did. And by "issue X," your mind has been blown and your heartstrings have been tugged. The late 90s/early 00s represented something of a golden age at Marvel, with the company greenlighting projects such as Jenkins' Inhumans miniseries, but nowadays everything is the same--a boring Comicrafted and Bendis-penned equivalent of the staid, silly early 1980s where only one book (then it was Byrne on F4, now it's Hawkeye) warrants any attention whatsoever. Highly recommended, but you probably won't like it...and I don't blame you. -
This book followed in the footsteps of Marvels and Kingdom Come and so it ended up being a bit of an "also ran", which is a pity because it's a carefully constructed story that puts one foot in the past and one in the future, combining the best aspects of its predecessors. It also unveils a delightful conspiracy underlying the Marvel Universe that feels like it *should* be true in 616, even if it isn't. The Inhumans, the Watchers, the Celestials, and the Asgardians all connected up together: it's terrific. (So much so that an element here or there has made it into 616, the movies, or both.)
Today, it feels a little bit long and a little bit wordy, but it's still a dense, interesting read. -
Un tronchazo interminable de paginas, no engancha en ningún momento. Mal escrita y con dibujos sosos, se salva el arte de tapa y cada portada que mete Alex Ross. Insufribles las apariciones de Uatu que son muchas y su lenguaje coloquial. De los pocos cómics, libros en general que me negué terminar, hojee un poco lo que seguía, pero imposible leerlo, por suerte lo había pagado barato y lo vendí al mismo precio...
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Kind of an Out There, Elseworlds-style story set in a not-so-distant future wherein everyone on Earth has mutated into a powered being.
It strains mightily to weave together all the strands of nearly 40 years of Marvel Universe storytelling into a cohesive whole, with mixed results.
If you’re looking for another “Marvels” this isn’t the book for you as Alex Ross is only on covers duty here, but personally I liked the murky artwork and wonky takes on familiar characters aged up and bummed out.
