Jackson Tyler
Shame this series came to an end, I liked it as a way to introduce heroes to the Ultimate Universe and have fun, episodic adventures.
Began to drag in the second half, the book really suffers from a lack of concrete structure, though it doesn't hide it's true nature as a bunch of disconnected stories from the life of a beloved Trek character.
It was a fun enough read. I'm sure there are worse trek books.
as a professional scaredy baby, i fully regret reading this
Merged review:
as a professional scaredy baby, i fully regret reading this
I tore through this volume, a drastic improvement on the prior arc. This isn't really an arc per se, rather than a few storylines interwoven through mostly one-shot issues, and it's all the better for it. I felt like there was real space for story here, rather than the dizzying epic conflict of Imperial.
It was really only let down by the final issue, which had some embarassing post 9/11 politics and built up to an uninteresting cliffhanger. But New X-Men is swinging in better directions now and I'm onboard for the rest of it.
can't fucking believe they made “jake sisko goes to firefly and also there's a prophecy” a good book but they did
Best thing about this title is how all the stories are entirely episodic and so are full of gags and cool character moments. Tone shifts wildly as Spider-Man goes on a tour of Marvel Origin Stories so there are good and bad issues but it's a better approach than giving everyone an Ultimate Book.
Read this one before the X-Plain the X-Men podcast on it, hey it's pretty good who knew? Definitely less impactful to me however because every single plot point has been riffed on a thousand times in the decades since, but glad I went back and read it.
Towards the end of the book, there's this personal story about living with Bipolar Disorder and how that intersects with a life working in games and games culture, and it's a really interesting insight into the self-perpetuating status quo and its effects on people. It made me realise that there totally was a book that I really liked within this, but unfortunately the one released wasn't for me.
It's probably a great quick read for people who aren't as familiar with alternative games spaces, who want a primer on why Western AAA games are all the same. However in not engaging in any other spheres, which to be fair the book does say up front, the whole thing falls down. I don't think there's much point tearing down the bad parts of an industry without at the same time highlighting the very real positive work being done by alternative - often marginalised - creators.
It's alright. Some really cool moments, especially at the beginning and the end, but it's disappointingly rote, and the eventual reveal, while cool in concept, doesn't really capture the potential. But I'm nitpicking, it's a perfectly fine horror story.
Whoops, that podcast made me wanna read some X-Men comics, so I'm glad I picked one of the good ones.
One of the most quietly sad books I've ever read, about the inevitability of hurting those close to us with our pain.
Also it's short and well written, a tight and dense read that I recommend to you all.
Finally finished this one up! I enjoyed it, although I think it structurally suffers from the sheer length of it; filling a whole book on a reading Spec Ops was an interesting challenge but the games' themes are so consistently repeating that a close read dragged a little, mostly in the early goings for the game's set up. Plus, such a focus on Spec Ops left me craving some more analysis on other games, as the book is speaking to how Spec Ops comments on the shooter genre so often.
But I enjoyed it a bunch, it was a nice fast read, and I'm glad I finally finished it.
Millar is gone for all of two issues, and they are far and away the best issues in the whole series, having a real sense of pacing and tone, not to mention some actual heart. Then we're back to the usual crap, this time doing Xavier/Moira/David BUT DARKER and it's the best arc so far, technically, but it is not good.
This book is bad. It's so bad. It's hypermasculine grimdark sexist bullshit that has atrocious politics, reveling in provocation while having the call to pretend to have an uplifting message. So, basically, it's a Mark Millar book. Luckily, unless the credits are lying to me, Millar moves off this book after this arc and maybe there will be some enjoyable X-Men for us?
But also... maybe not?
I don't like the way Morrison structures this at all, there's no real ebb and flow, it's always on, there's always a pressing mystery, and within just a few issues it's way too convoluted with no room to breathe. Which I suppose is par for the course, because it is X-Men after all, so maybe I just got misled about this being a good jumping in point?
I dunno. I wanna keep going though, see the Whedon run at least then call it a day.
For reasons unbeknownst to humankind, I decided to start reading the Ultimate Marvel Universe. And it starts well! Spider-Man's origin is pretty well worn and there's no surprises here, but it's effective, and the goofier moments are charming enough. Solid stuff.
Best arc of the series so far, a more small scale and sad chapter which really hammers in on the strain on Peter's relationships. MJ's definitely my favourite character in the book.
A very good first half of a book that just kinda stops in the middle. Doesn't even have a cliffhanger.