X
X-Men & Ghost Rider: Brood Trouble In The Big Easy
by Scott Lobdell & Howard Mackie
(Art by Jim Lee, Ron Wagner and Mike Witherby)
A crossover story in which the X-Men and Ghost Rider (obviously) get drawn into the blood feud between New Orleans' thieves and assassins. However, there is a much more dangerous foe in play; the ravenous alien race known as the Brood.
Honestly, there's not much to love about this book. It's very short, not very deep and, to make matters worse, I found myself reading the very poorly edited version published by Boxtree in the UK. It's like it was stitched together by someone who'd never read a graphic novel and didn't realise comics could be seamlessly edited together if you put in just a tiny bit of work. If you read other editions of this book you won't have this problem, however.
What you will have are the problems that are inherent to the story. Namely, none of the characters really gets any time to shine due to the bizarre decision to have the entire population of the X-Mansion head for New Orleans on what is, mostly, a personal matter for Gambit. This would've been far better if maybe it had only been Gambit, Wolverine and Ghost Rider in play. And maybe Jubilee because I like her relationship with Logan. As it is, no-one is done justice by cramming everyone in. The Brood are a crap, cheap rip-off of the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise too, so having them be the baddies just makes it all worse.
Honestly, this book's one redeeming feature is only present part of the time; Jim Lee's iconic artwork. I used to own a t-shirt with his famous X-Men montage image on it. I miss that shirt. I won't miss this book.
2 out of 5
X-O Manowar: Retribution
by Bob Layton, Jim Shooter & Steve Englehart
(Art by Barry Windsor-Smith, Sal Velluto, Mike Manley, Bob Layton, Tom Ryder, Ted Halsted, Ralph Reese, Kathryn Bolinger and John Holdredge)
The very first book of the original X-O Manowar series. The Visigoth warrior Aric was captured by aliens and placed in stasis two millennia ago but he manages to break free aboard their spaceship and seizes control of a suit of powerful technological armour; the X-O Manowar. A man out of time, Aric returns to Earth and attempts to adapt to the modern world whilst taking the fight to the aliens secretly living there.
X-O Manowar has a special place in my heart due to having played the game and read the comics of the crossover with Marvel's Iron Man back in the mid-90s. Therefore it was nice to go back and read the origins of the character who went on to become Valiant Comics' most recognisable.
What I particularly liked here, and the core idea for the character as explained in the introduction, is the concept of a barbarian warrior from Earth's ancient past gaining control of an advanced alien race's most powerful weapon. It's a great juxtaposition of brutal primitive and high technology and makes for X-O Manowar's most individual element (I almost wrote 'most unique' there but then shuddered at how much that phrase irritates me when others use it). There is a downside, however, in that Aric's speech patterns rapidly become irritating once he actually becomes communicative. He definitely makes a better silent hero!
3 out of 5