From: mcollins@nyx.cs.du.edu (Killans - First And Last And Always)
Subject: Re: X-Cutionner's song
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Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 06:41:15 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.194727.2829@cc.umontreal.ca> royd@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Roy Daniel) writes:
>Since, The X-C. S. is getting to an end, I must say that I am very disappointed
>by it.
>
Well I'll blow all credibility I laughingly believe I possess by saying that
I'm actually enjoying the story more than I've enjoyed X-Men, U X-Men or
X-Force for a good few months. It's fun, and it seems to be dealing with
quite a few dangling plots - developing them if not resolving them.

>The story to date would have fitted in two, maybe three books in all, in lieu of
>those 12 parts.
>
True, but the slow pace has given room for the writers to breathe and to
concentrate on the characters rather than the non-stop fight scenes which
the X-Books have begun to degenerate into of late. I'd rather the 12 parts
than 2 or 3 all-fight books.

>I mean, what happened to date? 
>
>1) We get hints to the connection beetween Nathan and Stryfe so big that a blind man in a black painted room at midnight would have seen;

True, they haven't been what you might call subtle. Still, remeber that we
on the Net have been used to hearing this idea for several months now. It
probably won't have occurred to many readers who don't have net access or
read trade magazines, so maybe it's not quite so obvious. 

>2) Professor X. gets shot; we all know he will get better, since Apocalypse will certainly heal him. For all I know, this techno-virus is nonsense; after all,
> isn't the goal of an assasination to kill the target? A normal slug would have  done the trick.

That's a pretty big plot hole, why didn't Stryfe just kill him? One answer is
that Stryfe seems pretty hell-bent on working out his childhood experiences.
Maybe he sees a certain irony in plugging Xavier with the techno virus which
he himself was sent into the future to avoid.

>3) X-Force gets arrested; they try as best as they can to convince everybody of
> their innocence for two issues. Cable, when met by Wolverine and Bishop, does 
> the trick in two pages.

The scene where Cable persuades Wolvie and Bishop of his innocence struck me
as being a bit trite and easy, too. Still, Wolvie and Bishop are much more
pragmatic (read: willing to ignore Cable's other misdemeanours for
convenience's sake) than Alex (who would probably have to have several
steel rods extracted from his posterior before cutti ng X-Force any slack.
I must add that one thing I have liked about this story is that the
relationship between X-Force and the others is being dealt with and
hopefully defined a bit clearer.

>4) We get to see the incredible talent (read on a sarcastic tone) of Scott 
>  Lobdell.
>
Actually, Lobdell's been displaying worrying signs of adequacy in the
last couple of issues of U X-Men. Fortunately he's still churning out
appalling Excalibur fill-ins to remind me that he's really the slime
clinging to the bottom of the Marvel barrel...

>One good point: Peter David was still writing his part (I don't want anybody
>else to touch Guido, please, PAD!); I look foward to the end of this X-Over
>and the return to the usual X-Factor mayhem.
>
Something *I've* felt when reading this story as that it seems to flow
continuously from one title to the next - like a weekly 'X-Teams' book
rather than 4 books each focusing on a different team. And I prefer it
that way.

>If anybody out there still like the X-Men, please, let me know! I'm about to
>stop buying them, and I want to be sure wether or not I'm making a big mistake.
>
Actually, I was going to give all the titles to the end of X-C S before 
deciding whether to drop them. Now I'm starting to like them again (well,
I always liked X-Factor and wasn't going to drop that, just the others), and
I think I'll give them *another* 3 issues after this one to see if they
drop back in quality again.

Oh well, I've probably shocked a few people by praising this crossover.
Please note, I'm not trying to compare it to the true classics of
Byrne-Claremont era U X-Men, just saying it's more enjoyable than it has
been for a while. 

Mike
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