This is probably going to be another of those weeks where I won’t have time to write a full review. In fact last weekend I didn’t even find the time to write my MCU movie post. It’s written now, and I’ll hopefully be able to edit and post it either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. But for now, let’s talk about the comics I picked up today. This week it’s X-23 9, Uncanny X-Men 11, Star Wars 61 and Red Sonja 1.
X-23 9 is good. We learn a bit more about the mysterious cyborg that Laura and Gabby brought to Beast’s lab. We learned that she’s another damaged clone with no healing factor, and there are probably other things that were intentionally taken away from her. Yet there are plenty of unanswered questions to keep the story moving forward. There’s also a great action scene told with a brilliant splash page with a couple larger panels, and a bunch of smaller ones overlapped by a large image of Laura slicing up a bunch of attack robots. That page alone actually makes this the most entertaining comic I read this week. A couple of Laura’s lines feel a bit off, but not dreadfully so like in the Uncanny X-Men series. Also, the line about Gabby having killed in her past kind of betrays the whole point of her character – she’s innocent and always was. Besides those complaints, this is a pretty good comic and worth checking out for X-23 fans.
Uncanny X-Men 11 was actually kind of terrible. This issue has three stories, all of them intertwining to the point where it kind of feels repetitive. It’s also very heavy handed with the whole doom and gloom story that we’ve seen far too many times lately with the X-Men. Decimation was fine because some actual good stories came out of it. But we only left decimation for a few years before the whole Extraordinary X-Men debacle with the terrigen mists happened. That didn’t go over so well with the fans. Now they’re doing it again with mandatory X-gene killing vaccinations while at the same time, most of the X-Men have disappeared into some sort of alternate reality. This is a completely joyless comic that felt like a chore to read through. And that’s to say nothing about one particular moment that’s already stirred up a lot of controversy and deservedly so. The only thing I liked about this issue is that after a pretty good fight scene, Logan and Scott’s reunion was really quick yet effective. I’ll give this series at least one more issue, but if it doesn’t at least hint at a ray of hope, this’ll be the third flagship X-Men series I would have dropped in a row.
Star Wars 61 is good. This is mostly a reunion/setup issue, promising a major conflict between the Rebels and Shu-Torun, the mining planet whose queen recently betrayed the rebels to the Empire. Not sure what else to say about this one. Star Wars fans will likely enjoy this series – this just isn’t the best issue to start with.
Red Sonja 1 is good. Like Star Wars 61, this is mostly a setup issue. It’s also kind of dark and depressing similar to this week’s Uncanny X-Men, but it’s at least balanced out with an entertaining fight scene and kind of an awesome ending. If you’re a fan of Red Sonja, this issue on its own isn’t all that exciting, but the ending will probably get you looking forward to this story as a whole. On that front, it’s at least worth a look.
healed1337 
I was going to get that issue of Uncanny X-Men, but forgot, but from what you say it sounds like I didn’t miss much. It was quite an expensive issue as well wasn’t it?
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Yup, a double priced issue for a triple-sized comic. But apart from a somewhat entertaining moment where you finally see Wolverine and Cyclops fighting alongside each other after years of them both being dead (not to mention not working with each other even before they died), there’s really nothing worth seeing in this issue.
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It is a shame to hear that. The X-Men comics have been so disjoined for a while now, I was hoping they’d got their act together a bit more with this new Uncanny series.
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X-23 is good. Not blowing me away, but I’m enjoying it.
UXM is frustrating. It’s a well-made comic. The dialogue and art are both solid. But I hate it. I hate the X-franchise’s obsession with genocide plots. I hate the fact that two cool, underutilized characters were killed off (and the fact that neither of them are likely to get resurrections – Blindfold has an outside chance, but it’s a safe bet we will never see Loa ever again). I am just so damn tired of so much that happens in this comic, which has absolutely nothing I haven’t seen entirely too much of in the past 15 years.
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You know what I’d like to see? A flagship X-Men comic that’s fun again. Let them be superheroes for a change, instead of frequently fighting for their survival. Even let their stories get a bit silly again. Historically, the X-Men were never just about allegories for prejudice – that was just one element of what makes this franchise special.
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