Comics of October 23, 2019

I only just noticed that I didn’t post anything about comics in the last couple of weeks. Although I read the comics that I picked up, I guess I didn’t even notice that I didn’t post anything. I’m not going to talk about every comic that I read in the last three weeks – only last week’s X-Men 1 and this week’s Star Wars 73 (the only comic I picked up this week).

But in general, while I’m still enjoying reading comics, and I like that the general direction for the X-Men actually feels new and interesting, I’m finding it difficult to get genuinely excited about comics these days. Maybe I needed a two week break from comic posts. Lately I’ve been much more excited about movies and games than I’ve been about comics. Also, even though I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I am getting excited about my plan to start easing back into writing. I’m planning on at least showing up to a couple of the NaNoWriMo events in my hometown, where I’ll probably spend my time either editing short stories or planning my next major project. I plan on beginning this project in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Enough about my writing plans though; it’s time to talk about comics.

Star Wars 73 is fun. The original trilogy’s main characters are in the middle of performing a bunch of different missions that are ultimately connected. They’re trying to ambush and destroy a bunch of imperial cruisers at once. Things have become a lot more complicated with the main location of the plan, a planet previously thought to be uninhabited, is home to a species of rock people. Oh, and Darth Vader is there too. Meanwhile, Luke has encountered a force sensitive criminal who’s helped him a bit on his journey to become a Jedi, while also challenging his morals. Leia and Han Solo ran into an old flame of Leia’s, and their mission feels like a straight up espionage thriller. A good one at that. This is a fun storyline, building up towards The Empire Strikes Back, and it’s well worth checking out.

X-Men 1 is … interesting. Compared to the House of X/Powers of X series, there is more characterization in this one. Most of the characterization focuses on Cyclops and his state of mind, but Magneto, Polaris and Jean get a couple moments too. That said, this is still mainly a story focused series, and it seems to be building up towards a complex story at that. I actually didn’t pick this up last week because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to or not, and only picked it up today because Star Wars would have otherwise been my only comic for the week. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one, but those who loved House/Powers will very likely enjoy this too. Personally I’m more interested in Excalibur, Fallen Angels and maybe X-Force. Depending on how their first issues are, I might not pick up X-Men 2.