Search

Search only in certain items:

X-Men: Second Coming
X-Men: Second Coming
Craig Kyle | 2010
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was a re-read for me, as I remember reading the actual issues when when came out in 2011. I can recall liking it overall. After this return to it, I have to rephrase my opinion.

The story is about Hope Summers, but it is also about Cable, and it is about sacrifice. It is also about taking responsibility for our actions, and the consequences of those actions. And, it is about the end of Christoper Yost's and Craig Kyle's X-Force run.

There was some top writers assigned to this x-over, but it just felt inconsistent. I love Matt Fraction's HAWKEYE run (still one of my favorite Marvel series runs EVER), but here, it just was missing something, like when someone gives you a recipe, you try re-creating it, and the end result is as far from the recipe as the tool in the White House posing as the President! Even Yost and Kyle, who I have a great deal of regard, felt like they were glad to be done and having nothing more to offering.

Then there is the art. There was really great pages in the beginning. The art by David Finch (he was the only reason I gave this book three Stars) in the first chapter is brilliant and totally suits the theme(s) of the story. However, after his issue, everything goes from derpy (re: Greg Land, "Mr. Lighbox" himself) to just not-as-good-as-I-remember (re: Terry Dodson). And don't even get me started on the inconsistency of which costume Wolverine would be wearing in the issues he would be appearing!

I thought that NECROSHA was as bad as it could get, but this one definitely took care of that bad taste!

Instead of reading SECOND COMING, there are slew of older X-books out there, with better art, better stories, and better direction. Save your money!
  
Star Wars: Bloodline
Star Wars: Bloodline
Claudia Gray | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
4
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
By and large, most of the Star Wars books to date (including in the old EU), have pretty much belonged to the 'boys club', dfocusing more on the male characters (Han, Luke, the X-Wing pilots, etc) than on their female contemporaries.

I think that's to be expected, given the predominantly male targer audience of the film series - an expectation that Disney themselves are trying to shake up, both in the new films (both of which - The Force Awakens and Rogue One - , so far, have female leads), and in the wider media, as can be shown by their 'Princess Leia' series of comics.

This follows(?) (or did it come first?) in the latter footsteps, with nary a sign of Luke and Han only popping in to give Leia a hand towards the climax of the novel.

Set in the period between the end of 'Return of the Jedi' and the start of 'The Force Awakens', this also seeks to bridge the gap between those two films, providing a bit of background to the history of The First Order and explaining why, if Leia was part of the Rebellion which toppled the Empire, just why she is now a key member in The Resistance - the Resistance to what, I hear you ask? This answers that question.

It's not a bad read by any strecth of the imagination - according to Goodreads own rating system, 2 stars is a 'I liked it'; I just personally found this a slower, somewhat heavier read than [a:Claudia Gray|1192311|Claudia Gray|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234643683p2/1192311.jpg]'s other Star Wars title: '[b:Lost Stars|25067046|Lost Stars (Star Wars Journey to the Force Awakens)|Claudia Gray|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462731623s/25067046.jpg|44751860]';. And yes, I'm aware that this is aimed at a different audience.

How best to put it? I didn't find myself reading this quite so much in my spare time on the bus on the way to work!