X.Men Legacy

[Stocky Boy]

So far: #5

Yeah, I quite like it.

The latest reveal and how they tied David's character up with an existing (new'er) X person was quite interesting. It's also just nice to see some character development for Legion. I don't really want to see another story line about Legion losing control. This is far more interesting with him getting control of himself through the prism of a mental prison. It's also just nice to see this concept carry on from something established by Carey or whoever it was. Nice to see some continuity.
The way Spurrier is making the other X.Men seem like blundering idiots is a bit annoying though and Heller's Scottish-come-British voice would be more enjoyable if the character wasn't supposed to be Israeli.
Mostly this is a rather enjoyable book.

Balls! I should have gotten issue one signed by Carey last weekend when I had the chance!

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one enjoying this book. I agree that I like how Spurrier is continuing what Carey established previously with Xavier helping Legion create a mental prison for is personalities. What he's been doing in the book now has been enjoyable and I've found it to be the most surprising book out of Marvel NOW! in terms of enjoyment. I've never been a Legion fan, and yes, all of his stories are always him losing control so this is a nice take.

And while we're on it, I haven't read the newest issue, but on speculation, who do you think is this mysterious personality lurking around in Legion's head? I have my own ideas but no one else I know is reading the book so no one else has been able to speculate with me.

I had never thought about the dialogue for Legion. It's interesting you pointing that out now. While I don't remember him ever talking like that any other time, could their 'reasoning' be he picked that up while living on Muir Island?

I guess it works to say that since Haller has lived a significant portion of his life in Scotland, he therefore speaks with a Scottish accent. But, he's coming off more British/English to me.

So, if you've read issue 5, you know who the mysterious person is inside of David's head. Of course, it would seem cautionary to assume the mystery person only has the appearance of the person he resembles. Whether this person is a known individual or not, I don't know.


Issue 5 appears to be the end of the first story/collection.
I like it. It has set up a main villain and a goal has been established. David aims to proactively set the world to right rather than simply put out fires when they occur. How he intends to do this and do a better job of it than a team of people, I don't know, but it's a goal nevertheless.
The story has given David some supporting cast members in his own mental prison of inmates, Blindfold, possibly that Japanese girl and occasionally the school based X.Men. And the story has achieved all of this within the first arc. Bravo! It's earned itself what should be an easy full marks for any book, which is to set up your premise, main character and supporting cast. Making it interesting should be the only real difficult part of telling a story. Getting structure right, should not be that difficult for professionals. Maybe a protagonist with a very dangerous split personality will interest you or not, but telling a story competently should be easy marks for a writer.

Really not liking how the X.Men, through David's narrative come across as idiots. I'd like to see this as merely the start of his character going through changes where he eventually learns that the X.Men are on his side, but we shall see.
Overall, I'm really liking this series. Art is fantastic too. I think the interior artist is also the guy doing the covers and the covers are fucking awesome every time!

[Tragic Angelus]

I have to agree with you on everything. This book has been wonderfully crafted, putting together a fun story with some nice surprises and twists that I wasn't expecting at first but came to enjoy. And yes, most stories this would take about a year or so to get through but this was done very well in just 6 issues.

I hadn't thought much about his dialogue and English attributes, but I'll also chalk that up to not having read much with Legion before this, outside of what Carey had begun to do with him in the previous X-Men Legacy title. While I've read AoA and Age of X, he still is only a starting/finishing character there rather than the main lead. While it didn't bother me, I can see where you're coming from as it does possibly seem to be out of character for him. I'm sure they could write it out as a personality trait from one of his abilities.

As for the reveal in the newest issue: I was right on who I believed it was. That was my guess from issue 1, and each issue pushed it further and further. How that person came to exist in his head is debatable, though I have a few ideas. Did he develop that personality recently out of guilt, or did someone put it there on purpose.

Spurrier's story is interesting, but yes, the art is wonderful! clean and clear, easily distinguishing characters apart while having a slight difference between the real world and Legion's mind at times. I really enjoy it. And the covers are just absolutely wonderful. Some of the most interesting and intriguing covers every month.

And I could agree that the X-Men come off as idiots, but I think that's mostly to make Legion look 'stronger' and 'better' since he is the lead character. While I'm not a fan of it either, I am a fan of finally seeing them act like a team and take someone on in one of the X-Books rather than dealing with other issues. It's nice to see them come together like a team in a "we're going to fight the bad guy" kind of way.

Very underrated title in Marvel NOW! that I would suggest giving a chance. At least pick up the first few issues, and definitely look for it in trade if you can't get singles. Well worth it.

[Stocky Boy]

Oh, concerning Tan Eng Huat's art, I think he does one of my favourite renditions of the Beast. It's a quite a bit similar to Kaare Andrews, who took the best, beast-like qualities of the original Beast look, which I feel is the large, stocky, ape-like and furry look and added cat features to a face that was still drawn a little simian.
I don't understand really how artists can draw Beast in the ugly, large cat style that he's often drawn in. I even found Cassaday's rendition in Astonishing X.Men to be bizarre and he took a lot of creative license out when he drew the Beast with his second mutation. Cassaday drew him as a blue, wookie cat instead of Disney's Beast with the horns removed and a cat face inserted.

Hopefully This books does well, because it's hardly an easy sell book.

I've decided I'm going to try and write little blurbs about the books I'm reading in our dedicated forums again. I was talking comics recently with a friend I went with to LSCC the other weekend and I'm now missing the regular comics chit chat this message board used to have. It's probably going to be nigh on impossible for any of us to post many, lengthy posts like before, seeing how we all have jobs, etc. But, I reckon just a couple of sentence exchanges in posts about whether we liked a book this month, would be really quite enjoyable.

Also, I think I should give a little update on what I got signed at LSCC.

[Tragic Angelus]

Beast hasn't looked too bad in the book. However, I'm waiting on all of the books to update his look to the now current one. Wolverine and the X-Men was the second to add it that I noticed, but Legacy had yet to do so.

I personally liked Bachalo's rendition of Beast the most, because he basically ignored the concept of cat-Beast and drew him more like the original ape-Beast during his initial run on W&TX. He had some cat like features, but was far more ape like.

The one I always hated the most was Greg Land's Beast. He was 100% a cat face and it just never sat well with me. Ape-Beast was always fairly consistent when drawn by different artists, but no artists really ever drew cat-Beast the same way which was another drawback to the overall look.


And I like your decisions and will do my utmost to follow suit and support you.

[Mr Wallstreet]

I'm all for more comic chit chat even if its only quick exchanges.

Regarding John Cassady art, I'm pretty indifferent towards it. He's never been a regular artist on anything I read. However, upon googling some of his work, I find his characters look somewhat blocky. Not enough to get me to form a decision on how I feel about him just yet

[XIII]

Dude, those posts are way too long to qualify as "quick exchanges".

[XIII]

Oh and the last time I was excited for Cassaday's art was the launch of Astonishing X-Men. I think his stuff looks terribly bland now.

[Tragic Angelus]

I think Cassaday's work can be a little blocky, but it's far superior to Romita Jr.'s work which is 100% squares to me. I like Cassaday's work as it's at least clean, and the coloring is often well done on it. I think it just works best with larger and more in depth stories. I really liked Astonishing X-Men and Planetary, and this is starting to feel a bit like Astonishing as well so it fits the book for me so far.

[Tragic Angelus]

Dude, those posts are way too long to qualify as "quick exchanges".

I miss seeing these kind of posts from you

[Stocky Boy]

Dude, those posts are way too long to qualify as "quick exchanges".

It's like I just can't do it. I can write 'quick exchange', but I just can't apply it's meaning.


And yeah, Greg Land's Beast looked like he'd put down the porn mags for a second, opened up a cat mag, traced a cat and then coloured it blue.

I'll have to remind myself what Bach's WXMen's Beast looked like. The faily regular, Mcguinness-like artist on the book did a very ape-like Beast look.
I like what Bendis did to the Beast in All New X.Men. What was the purpose of it though? Just to get rid of cat look? I do, however, think the current rendition of this new look in recent issue sof WXMen make it look like Beast is a chemo recovering version of himself who's lost a lot of weight and is regrowing his fur.

[Tragic Angelus]

I read an interview with X-Men editor Nick Lowe where he said that Bendis basically proposed it and the "story made sense so they wanted to go through with it" which I don't know how that works. I think it's a mix of alleviating the issues of cat-Beast while trying to continue to revitalize and change the character some more. I suppose it's a change for change sake, but we'll see how long it takes for him to grow the old ape Beast hair tufts again.

[XIII]

I think Cassaday's work can be a little blocky, but it's far superior to Romita Jr.'s work which is 100% squares to me. I like Cassaday's work as it's at least clean, and the coloring is often well done on it. I think it just works best with larger and more in depth stories. I really liked Astonishing X-Men and Planetary, and this is starting to feel a bit like Astonishing as well so it fits the book for me so far.

JRJR is definitely not the great artist he used to be. His recent work on AVX or Captain America was really bad on some panels.

As for the Beast look, my main problem is a more general one. W&TXM used to be a rather self contained book since it was the only book taking place in the school. It's the not the case anymore and I'm quite unhappy that I'll have to read All-New to know why Beast is now looking different. That's what was plaguing Bendis Avengers and now he has brought it to the X-Men.

[Stocky Boy]

Now that the All New X.Men have set up their premise, hopefully there won't be further Bendis in W&TXM.

This being said, I think Bendis has done a much better job with his X-team book than he has done with his Avengers books. I think a smaller cast might be a big factor in this.

[Tragic Angelus]

The downside to All-New is that not only are the original 5 X-Men core cast members, but it seems Modern Day Beast, Iceman, Storm, Kitty, & Wolverine are also nearly main, if not secondary. But they're the main cast in W&TX, so now I'm sure what Bendis does won't always work alongside what Aaron does. Aaron's book has been focusing on JGS students lately, but at the same time those teachers are the main X-Men cast. It seems like things might contrive each other, or All-New will occasionally dictate what will happen in W&TX.

[Stocky Boy]

I see your point. Maybe Aaron's been given a push to concentrate on JGS students so as to avoid making story direction movements with the teachers, so as to avoid any clash with what Bendis might have in store.
If this is the case, or if there is any case where Bendis's book takes lead, then that's annoying since, I would have considered W&TXM the lead book in the absence of UXM and frankly would have thought the gimmick of the original 5 X.Men time travelling into the present was a short term book.

[Tragic Angelus]

Well Bendis and Marvel have already confirmed via early Marvel NOW! and All-New X-Men interviews that All-New and Uncanny will be the flagship/core X-Men titles. The two are supposed to compliment each other (i.e. crossover) quite a bit it seems. This appears to have pushed W&TX to the third title rather than first. Which is a shame because up until the launch of All New it was reading incredibly well. Lately it hasn't even as entertaining to me. Possibly due in part to what you suggested in that Aaron has had to focus more on students while Bendis uses staff to set up his book's major plot?

[jedispyder]

I agree with W&tX lacking it's usual quality. I was not a fan of the Frankenstein storyline, felt it needed to be another issue to show a bit more of how they were captured instead of "oh look, the main cast are now freakshows!" The last issue was better but still not as great as it had been. Hoping this week's issue is better...but let's be serious, when Bendis decides he wants a title, he hoards anything good for himself.

[Tragic Angelus]

Personally, I felt the Frankenstein story ran a little long. Maybe it's because we had that Brotherhood recruitment issue in the middle of it. I wasn't a fan due to how long it took, but I liked the development of the Frankenstein member of the Hellfire Club.

I didn't mind the fact the X-Men were already under the control of the carnival. It's happened before back in Uncanny 111, and the story worked out. Had they taken time to do the set up issue, this story would've dragged on even further I'm sure.

[MGM]

The Frankenstein story ran at least 3 issues too long. This title has gone from awesome to mediocre, but that was already before Bendis.

[wolf_2099]

Aaronmay have been forced to make changes before all new.

This thread made me go buy xmen legacy. Reading it this week.

Also. Jr Jr sucks.