Hard Times Hardcover

Hard Times Hardcover: Uncanny X-Men Manifest Destiny Hardcover.

 

By: Jason Stoneroad

 

     Every so often in the realm of comic book trade paperbacks a story comes along that’s so epic, so awesome, that only the gold standard of hardcover is acceptable for reading it…or it used to be until recently. With the big brothers of the industry fighting for the next mega epic reprint hoping we loved it enough to shell out 30+ dollars for what we feel is the quintessential story of the title the market is bombarded with hardcover trades of all shapes and sizes. So what makes you want to buy the hardcover for uncanny x men manifest destiny, could it be the run of issues? The hardcover while a nice 208 pages only collects uncanny x men #500-503 with the rest of the book being short story filler material spotlighting the various x men living out their lives. Is this important? Maybe. But at 30+ dollars for only 10 issues of x men, one of which was a free comic book day reprint, what else are you getting?

    The story itself is rather good, while the slow start lacks the steel and ferocity of a typical x men run, it shows potential. It starts out showing us the x men’s new home in the city by the bay, San Francisco. Like all good x men tales it sets us up to view things from the eyes of a young up-and-coming x man. This one by the name of “Pixie” is like any other jubilee, shadow cat, rouge, or armor of the x men books. A young girl who dreams of becoming an x man, inadvertently attaches herself to the short hairy, cigar smoking, cheap whiskey drinking Canadian, who teaches them the ropes and always lets them hold him back from doing what he does best stabbing people. With the onset of a new villain, the return of an old adversary, new romances and old vendettas, a subtle conspiracy appears in this run of uncanny x men and is shaping up to be one of the best yet. It is a real testament to the writer and artists who put forth so much time into fleshing this story out…its not their fault marvel decided to publish the mediocre material at the end of the book. The individual “manifest destiny” stories that appear in the end are not from the uncanny run, they were their own series. These shallow stories read more like fluff than character development. Do I want to read about the screwed up self-esteem issues that Emma frost has? Maybe. Do I want to pay 30+ dollars to read them? No. Do I need to know that Colossus misses his girlfriend? Maybe. Do I want to pay 30+ dollars for it? No.

      All in all would I have bought this if it were done differently? Yes, I would have purchased this if the entire thing were just the uncanny run. I see why marvel felt they needed to fluff the characters but such things should be done within a series, not outside of it as a “limited series”. Seeing these things, makes me ache for the days of astonishing x men, when Joss Whedon would spend an issue or two fleshing out characters and made them feel alive, such as the relationship with; Scott and Emma, Peter and Kitty, Logan and his beer. Most of Whedon’s arcs had two issues of setup, followed by three issues of hard core ass kicking, followed by one issue of resolution, and the last pages led you into the next arc with cliffhangers! The man made Cyclops awesome, I kid you not, I loved Cyclops for a while, it was that good. What does the character development in manifest do? It makes Emma frost, Colossus and X-23 Emo, You know what, lets re-name the title Emo-Men for a while, Maybe publish it in hardcover, sell that for 30 bucks.

 

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