Welcome to the land of "reality", where scientific experiments, accidents, genetic heritage, and alien influences affect the lives of ordinary mortals. Join me as I observe the superhumans of planet earth and their struggles against equally powerful foes.
This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.
That said, on to the review!
X-Men: Mutant Empire, Book One--Siege starts a self-contained saga in the Marvel Universe. It doesn't involve any of the other Marvel-authorized books that came before it, but that's all right. For the most part, the "X" comics only occasionally involve themselves in other storylines (the whole Onslaught thing was an exception, they're mostly separate again). But that's all right, too, because having mutants fighting mutants allows for a variety of conflicts, whereas with an adventurer like Daredevil you're mostly limited to opponents that are more or less equally matched. With mutants you get to see one person fighting with telekinesis, another manipulating the weather, a third and fourth merging into one being, a fifth flying on wings made of organic metal, a sixth...you get the picture.
This book has a lot to offer X-Men fans. The X-titles--X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Generation X, Xcalibur (now defunct), Cable, X-Man--are ones I'm always buying, because they involve some of the most human characters you'll ever find. Cyclops and Iceman (Scott "Slim" Summers and Robert "Bobby" Drake) are two of my favorite characters and have been for a long time. It isn't because they have such totally cool powers (pun not intended) but because they are real human beings coping with life in a world that treats them as outcasts. Christopher Golden has my heartfelt thanks for showing that there's more to Cyclops than just the X-Man and more to Iceman than just the team's resident joker. Cyclops has a human side that must deal with the knowledge that his long-thought-dead father is with an alien woman and wondering if he's living up to his father's expectations. Iceman has his own insecurities and worries equally motivating as Cyclops'. And that's not even looking at how each of them actually handles themselves in combat when they have all these things in front of them!
Siege is definitely worth reading, and any X-Men fans out there should definitely give this book a chance. You may think these books detract from the comics, but they don't. They add to them. Immeasurably. And while I'm not knocking the comics themselves, it's great that I don't have to wait an entire month to see the outcome of a conflict. Well...in this case I did, since I had to buy the next book, but you know what I mean, right?
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