Monday, March 8, 2010

X-Men #1


X-Men is meant to be social commentary. I had no idea NASA had laser-shooting shuttles!


69 comments:

Alex Stritar said...

Whoa! A comic that doesn't suck! You just blew my mind.

Lets see if I can guess the reasons this issue sold so well. 1. The X-Men were a hot property in the early 90's due to a combination of the animated series that came out around that time and the already established fanbase from the 70's and 80's. 2. The fact most collectors at the time tended to buy multiples of 1st issues in hopes of getting rich years down the road. 3. The fact that there were 4 variant covers giving the afformenchaned collectors a case of proto-Pokemon gotta-catch-em-all fever. 4. It was a preaty good story all things considered.

Also, glad to see the continuity alarm is back up and running, to bad it now has a bit of a snark edge.

Anonymous said...

I actually think I had that comic back in the day. It was pretty solid as far as I remember. And like you said, it suffers from 90s artwork. But that's about it.

Ironbite-though whatever happened to those russians.

Marc Reyes said...

I see the 'ol Continuity Alarm is back with a vengeance. Hopefully it doesn't drive you to insanity.

As for the comic itself...I guess it's one of those rare comics where its being sold like hotcakes is justified by a good all-around story and decent art.

Linda said...

I had a copy of X-Men #1 when I was a freshman in high school. While the story was fine, I felt it contributed greatly to my art teacher's dour personality. After I had read it, I insisted on drawing nothing but X-Men for half a quarter :) Oh, nostalgia!

Anonymous said...

I didn't really care for this episode. It really has a lot of things that are starting to push me away from watching your show. The constant references are unfunny and make you seem like the Nostalgia Critic (the constant references are one of the things that bug me about the Critic as well). I've noticed that you sometimes make references to the Critic's videos and I don't they work for you, nor do I think they're funny when you reference them. I don't care for the random humor you sometimes use (your joke about Magneto's mistranslation).

I do agree with some of your pros and cons about the issue. Though, I can't believe you don't care for Wolverine's brown costume! That's my favorite outfit for him! It certainly looks way better than Wolverine's original look when he first appeared (those whiskers!).

Seeing this issue does make me want to read more X-Men, seeing how they are my favorite Marvel superhero team.

ShadowWing Tronix said...

The only thing I agree with Goose on is that I like Wolverine's brown costume more than his bright yellow one. Although the black one may be his best.

Then again, I despise Wolverine, so I'm not the guy to ask.

As for the Shortpacked comic, wasn't that a guest comic? It's not his usual art style. (Actually met him at ConnectiCon last year, and "knew" him via the Transformers groups, so it was cool to meet him in person.)

AmuroNT1 said...

Oh wow, I actually owned this one when I was young. I didn't get it because it was a "collector's item", tho, but rather because the 90s cartoon got me into the X-Men. I don't even know what happened to my copy, probably lost between one of the three or four houses I've lived in since.

Anyhoo, another fun episode. Thanks for all the hard work!

MFlorian said...

Some comments:

About the permanent hip-sway in the female characters: THANK YOU. I noticed that ages ago. Nobody else brings it up and it's weird as all hell.

About Moira not appearing before the last page - She did. See 12:20 of your review. =)

About affording all that stuff - It's weird. I know Charles Xavier is supposed to be independently wealthy, but I have no idea where it was said that he was.

EcchiOtaku said...

Hold on wasn't the story for this comic used for an arc in the cartoon? In that one I remember they go to the asteroid, Magneto's actually hospitable to them though some of the X-men are suspicious of him, and then the red haired guy with the pony tail tries to kill Magneto and frame the X-men for it.

The Mad Scientist said...

The return of the Continuity Alarm! A moment I have wanted for quite some time now. Great review, Linkara! I hope that you decide to do experiments like this again in the future!

Pmax said...

"...using the mutant power of big guns." I believe this to be the defunct power of any mutant, as well of superhero from the 90's. Why? Because it's EXTREME!!!

Good show! I quite enjoyed it.

Derangel said...

I like when you do comics that don't suck occasionally, an interesting change of pace. I remember this issue I used to own it in the 90s before I stopped reading comics for a while. Pity that the level of quality drastically dropped to the level of your last X-men review in the 90s and didn't come back up until someone at Marvel was smart enough to get people like Mike Carey, Matt Fraction, Joss Whedon, and Warren Ellis to work on the books.

You should do a review of the post Decimation issue where they decide to reveal that Bobby lost his powers because he was afraid of them. That is among the dumbest things I have ever read in an X-men comic and I've read some dumb things in them over the years, including those issues revolving around making Nightcrawler the Pope.

日本文化のマニアック said...

So... as a newbie, What's with the numbering? It clearly isn't the introduction of the X-Men, so why is it #1?

BloodySharpie said...

Yay, the Continuity Alarm is back!

Anonymous said...

ITS NOT WORKING!!!!

Magrippinho said...

Huh. First time I noticed Magneto can breath in space.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"So... as a newbie, What's with the numbering? It clearly isn't the introduction of the X-Men, so why is it #1?"

Whenever a new volume of the series starts up, it starts as #1, both for sales reasons as well as to start things off fresh for anyone who might want to jump onboard. Also, if the title of the book is different (at the same time this came out, Uncanny X-Men was still being published).

"ITS NOT WORKING!!!!"

Seems to be working fine for me.

Lotus Prince said...

After hearing your introduction, I'm sorry to say that I'm one of those fools who has three or four color variants of Spiderman #1. It wasn't even a great story - it was just Spiderman #1. In fact, in a later issue, the readers' input mainly said that Todd McFarlane is a great illustrator, but a poor writer, and should stick to illustrating. :-P

Slade Dreizehn said...

an amusing vid as always. liked the fish comment.

one thing that i'm wondering though:
why, if magneto had just killed them, were the bodies of the seamen nothing but bleached bones?

Tezzle said...

So hilarious. "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY."
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1622/magneto.png

Radar said...

I'm just curious, who's died more times: Jean Grey or Prof. X?

James said...

Glad to see you got the Continuity Alarm fixed. And here I thought you'd give it the TARDIS Cloister bell sound.

Oh my god, I can't believe you used the "Pryde of the X-Men" intro. Can you please do a review of that episode? I have got to see your take on it.

Another excellent review of a decent, yet seriously overhyped comic. While I did like the characterizations (they were a pretty close match to those in the animated series) and plot, it just tries to cram too much into one issue. Looking at the art, it is refreshing to see that Jim Lee's style has evolved over the years into something better than Liefeld-style. Loved the jokes, voices (especially Rogue's), and the shout-out to Shortpacked (Any thoughts of collaborations with Dave Willis in the future)?

Anonymous said...

You should do more comics that don't suck every now and again Linkara. I know, goes against the point of your show but hey, you'll probably need to relax now again after the occasional abomination comic you run into.

lourodd said...

This comic was actually the VERY FIRST comic I collected, despitye having no knowledge of the newer characters at the time. I was all like, "Who the hell is this french asshole on the team?" Now Gambit is one of my favorite Xmen.

LoneWolf said...

Magnetic fields can, in fact, alter the trajectory of radiation. However, a really powerful field is needed, and only up to microwaves (which are significantly less energetic than gamma rays or even visible light,) have been bent in a laboratory.

In short, the science checks out, but was probably way beyond Magneto's capabilities.

Fran said...

Just wanted to drop by and say I really enjoy your show, and I particularly liked this episode. Keep up the great work :)

Quicksilver said...

Oh Gambit... how I remember you in all of your 90s glory, clearly a cartictature of a culture the writers didn't bother to understand, but badass/sexy enough that all of us Louisianans claimed you. Good times, good times.

On the actual review, it amuses me that the new Continuity Alarm has a siren effect. Just like it's saying : "ZOMG THOSE WORDS... EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, CODE RED."

Back to studying fot the midterm for me... thanks for the study break, Linkara! I do appreciate them. <3

Unknown said...

There is a version that has the whole cover as a fold out. You probably know this though, because you used a scan of it. I own that one and had another cover I got in a 3-issue X-Men pack that I probably gave to a friend.

I used to hate that the Wolverine action figure with the retractable claws had the orange suit, while the yellow suit Wolverine had these stupid hooked claws.

I can't find a picture of the action figure I'm thinking of. They were like meat hooks.

Unknown said...

Hey, finally being a nuclear engineer is good for something! I think I can answer that question of yours.

With a nuclear explosion, the primary damaging effects are a blast wave, thermal radiation (heat), and ionizing radiation (alpha, beta, and gamma rays as well as neutrons).

Magnetism can't do anything about a blast wave. The weapon in the comic is estimated at 1 megaton, so any person within 5 km or so would die. Simple as that. If there's debris to throw around, that would make things worse.

Thermal radiation is technically made up of photons, which are electromagnetic disturbances. So, with a strong enough magnet, they could probably be deflected. If Magneto's power over magnetism is infinite, this is somewhat reasonable.

Ionizing radiation is made up of alpha particles (helium nuclei), beta particles (electrons), gamma rays (high-energy photons), and neutrons. The alphas and betas carry an electric charge and could be deflected by magnetism. The gamma rays, like the thermal photons, could also possibly be deflected. The neutrons, however, carrying no charge, would be unaffected by magnetism. Those are still quite capable of killing living beings.

My conclusion: Rogue would be toast, with Magneto powerless to stop it. He could deflect some of the effects, but not all.

BloodySharpie said...

@ Forteblast

Yay for science! :D

m121akuma said...

I actually have the reprint of this issue (and the two after it) Marvel published a few months back, so it was nice to whip out the comic and follow along for a change!

Great review, I definitely agree with most of your comments. Except...

Wolverine's brown costume is AWESOME! BOO! BOOOOOO! *throws tomatoes*

Just kidding.

Dreammirror said...

nice review Linkara, just wanted to add a small bit of nerd info to it. The danger room of the X-Men predated that of the Star Trek series, and has had several versions, but the one we see here is prob based on the Sh'iar (sp?) technology-Professer Xavier used to date the Queen of that empire and she gave him their technology to redo the danger room at one point (and the blackbird too). This explains anti gravity, self repairing robots, walls, etc and has technology seemingly centuries ahead of earth tech(which it is).

Coughman said...

DUDE, AT 7:46, COLOSSUS' POSE IS THE EXACT SAME POSE IN THE FIRST PAGE SPREAD OF "THE WARRIOR" COMIC!!!

HOLY EFF' IN CAPS BATMAN

BloodySharpie said...

I just randomly noticed something: At 16:30, how come you didn't mention how that woman's spine was bent? It looks worse (and a lot more painful) than whatsername from the Ultimates 3. O.o

teflonTaco said...

nice to see you tossing a shout out to David Willis I've been reading his work for several years now. I'm really enjoying your work and I look forward lot's more reviews.

spiderman1989 said...

Do you have plans to review Spiderman Torment?

Dante said...

Well, apart from Magneto being able to deflect some of the negative effects of the nuclear missile, Rogue, at the time, had Ms. Marvel's powers that granted her some degree of inmunity.

Linkara, great review! It gets a little boring when you only review comics that nobody likes or nobody knows. This was a delightful surprise. ^_^

Blitzkrieg64 said...

Interesting video dude, the second if I remember right that features a comic that does not suck, albeit the first was more of a tribute to the Blue Beetle series rather than an actual AT4W video. Still, great video hope you don't stop anytime soon, also slow down on the references you aren't NC and you don't need to act like you are even if you weren't trying to you were going a bit overboard with the cutaways and reference gags.

dollmaker88 said...

Nice review of my Favorite subject matter. The X-men.

I had no idea comics could sell in those numbers but its impressive.

Also You have no idea how happy i was that you could pronounced Moira's name right. You have no idea how frustrating it is to have that name and have people butcher it.

MintWhelp said...

Oh, hey, Linkara. A wee question though, mainly because I'm not 100% knowledgeful of american comics...

But are there any disabled students in Xavier's Academy? I mean, that at least appear every few issues and at least say "Hi"?

I can't remember any students that would need Hoverchairs, or any sort of wheelchair for that matter.

Kate Holden said...

I thought this was one of the funniest episodes I've seen in a while. I think the strongest episodes of your show are always the ones that are either comics that aren't particularly bad, so there's a nice mixture of appreciation and background explanation to balance the snark, or the ones that are of comics which are truly, hilariously awful.
The continuity alarm got a good airing this week!

Anonymous said...

Wow. And I thought I was the only person who preferred Logan in his Blue/Yellow Tiger Stripe costume. Bravo for you Linkara! And agreed, I hate the X-Men in the same boring costumes. They look much better in varied individual costumes. Also a shame you didn't do a longer review and include X-Men #2 and X-Men #3.

Re: Magneto's italics speech when he arrives on Genosha. He was broadcasting his voice at the same time.

By the way, in regard to the X-Men's tech levels and such. They got a bunch of that tech from the Shi'ar, thanks to Xavier's relationship with Lilandra. Including his goofy yellow hover wheelchair. Which I actually kind of miss now after all these years.

Ultimalice said...

You what you should review next? Action Comics #1 and Dedective Comics #27. I know they are legendary but are they still entertaining by today's standards?

Dodger Of Zion said...

Lewis, you realize that a certain comment you made to a certain troll on TGWTG is now going to make a lot of Tropers squirm in their bunks, right?

Keep up the good work, sir; your reviews are a treat every Tuesday morning with my Pepsi and TV dinner breakfast.

Crayzee said...

When you made the joke asking how Xavier got his funding. Is he not friends with Iron Man and a part of the Illumani? Tony Stark could of given him money.

Anonymous said...

Xavier also comes from Old Money. In New X-Men at one point it was mentioned that he has a net worth of $3.5 Billion Dollars. Xavier also had ties to the Government early on as well. At least back in the O5 era. Anyone but me remember FBI Agent Fred Duncan?

His old money. The government contacts. And his ties to the Shi'ar all explain most of the X-Men's tech. Plus IIRC, there was a retcon reveal that Cable came back in the past earlier than originally thought and helped Xavier upgrade a lot of the stuff with future technology.

LN said...

The video refuses to finish, Blip just stops working. Tried two times. Will try again tomorrow (maybe).

Is there no alternative to bloody Blip? I know this is just my problem, be seesh.

Hebe said...

I know that I am probably putting way too much thought into this, but is the continuity alarm the old on that you "fixed" or a new one that has a "predecessor"?

Also, just my two cents, but hip-swaying would throw a person off-balance and is a dreadfully non-advantageous position from which to fight.

Anonymous said...

I think he was talking about the technology being used by the US / Russian governments - laser cannon space shuttles and so on.

BloodySharpie said...

@ Dodger Of Zion:
What comment?

*checks comments on TGWTG.Com*

Oh, that one. O.o

Mr. Lovhaug, I know you were just responding to that person just to prove their assumption wrong, but I thought it was a little too much information for us fans to know since what you do (or have done in this case) in your personal life is not really any of our business (in my opinion at least). Sorry if I sound like an ass, I just thought the comment was really... awkward. o.o

Birthmark Hal said...

As mentioned before Professor Xavier inherited a good hunk of cash.

He's also regarded as the world's best mind reader and a genius level tactician in the Marvel continuity.

He also lives within driving distance of the New York Stock Exchange. As a brilliant, fraud proof, insider trader that can read the mind of every broker just by driving down Wall Street a couple of times I think Professor X has all the money he needs any time he feels like it.

As for Beast throwing Wolverine, well, they seriously do that all the time. It's called the Fastball Special. It's apparently used enough to have its own Wikipedia page which claims it was first used with Colossus hurling Logan in Uncanny X-Men 100 (August 1976).

Dodger Of Zion said...

@Bloody Sharpie:

"No I'm not a virgin" isn't too much information for the sake of putting down Douchey McNitpick's 7th cousin, twice removed. "No, I'm not a virgin; I lost that to a $5 hooker in Tijuana,"* however, IS...in virtually EVERY situation.

*-used for sake of a cliche, ridiculous example. Don't know the real circumstances, don't really care.

James said...

Sorry to hear you're ill, Lewis. Hope you get better soon.

Chris M H said...

Wow, I really like this episode. Maybe we'll get some more non-sucky comics mixed in with the crap?

Well, probably not, but I'd like to emphasize that this was definitely my favorite episode of your show with the possible exception of ASB&R and Fortunate Son.

Unknown said...

@Bloody Sharpie

Hypothetical response from Linkara"

"You are a virgin...I AM A MAN!!!"

Jeremy A. Patterson said...

This is a decent review!

J.A.P.

Anonymous said...

Linkara, have you ever thought of starting your own comics podcast?

Dodger Of Zion said...

@Travis: ZING!

日本文化のマニアック said...

Yeesh... I'm sort of appalled you felt you had to "defend" yourself from the "slur" of being a virgin. I hope that after that you pointed out that this kind of thinking is 1) discriminatory against asexuals and 2) encourages people to have sex with persons or in situations they might otherwise not want to just to get rid of the stigma of not having had sex.

It's bizarre: it used to be horrible to have had sex, now it's horrible not to have. When will our society learn that it doesn't really matter one way or the other? Sex doesn't make you impure, but it doesn't make you automatically better either.

/end rant

I'm still waiting to know why this was a #1, btw.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"I'm still waiting to know why this was a #1, btw."

I already answered. =P

日本文化のマニアック said...

@Lewis:
*scrolls down*

Ah, there it is. Too many posts, hard to read all of them. :/ Danke danke.

captian ghost said...

nice vid man
oh and by the way what was that soung in the beginning?

Kraken said...

That's the 'X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men' theme song, Ghost.

HOT DAMN THAT SONG IS AWESOME

Gyre said...

Why are they afraid of him? He's only a former terrorist who's harboring wanted criminals he just met and decided (on basis of advice of these criminals he just met) to obtain several nuclear missiles from a submarine and decided to DETONATE one of those missiles before even properly clearing the planet. Nope, nothing to be worried about at all.

On another note, they never made any efforts to retrieve the sub? Never?

SynjoDeonecros said...

Huh, so this is how the Asteroid M plotline from the cartoon started,in the comics. Interesting. I'd still like to see you do a comparison critique between the cartoon and the comic, just to get your thoughts on the changes between them.

Also, you said that this was an "experiment" of some kind. Mind elaborating on that? What's it supposed to be an experiment OF, exactly? Reviewing a good comic in general? Reviewing a good but overrated comic?

Anonymous said...

i'm new... anticipation to despatch nearly more time after time!

Anonymous said...

@Japan 文化 Maniac (?)

"I'm sort of appalled you felt you had to "defend" yourself from the "slur" of being a virgin... discriminatory against asexuals"
Thank you!

Y'see, while I'm not asexual (which would imply I have little or no desire for sex), I am a deeply committed Christian, (or a Christian who's getting committed... which one is blue again?) and so I have decided to wait for marriage. Since that's never gonna happen (because of technobabble), I'm effectively celibate. And, yes, a virgin - very old for one (but I'm not saying how old).

I'm used to people acting like that decision isn't even possible, especially for a male, let alone a valid, acceptable choice.

So, again I thank you. You've been more than fair.

- Mik

Vickram101 said...

I had my copy in hand during this review. LOL. I saw this review before, but did not remember it when I bought this comic at comic fest. I thought the cover looked familiar. Anyways I payed $15tt which is $2.50 US.

Enima_2099 said...

Just rewatched this review, and caught your critique about Wolverine's brown and tan costume.

Great as always, but as for the costume comment... bite me. That costume rocks.