X-City by the Bay: Uncanny X-Men #500

Talk about buyers' remorse!

I got way too many comics today. It makes me feel bloated just to think about it. Ugh. This week is gonna set me back so much that I'm gonna have to mortgage some of my organs. In fact, I should probably just abstain from comics for the next week or two!

Or maybe even the month!

Okay, fine, Mr. Banner! You got me.

I got two this week.

Uncanny X-Men #500
by Brubaker, Fraction, Dodson and Land

Stupid variant covers! Terry Dodson's was gorgeous, and it even had Jean in it, but my shop was selling it for a whopping thirty dollars! Ten times a regular comic book!

(deep breath)
You might notice that this is pretty much the first time ever that I talk about X-Men on the blog.

I admit it. I bought into the hype for the X-Men's 500th issue, but I have an excuse.

Early in the year, I got a marvel subscription to X-Men: First Class, but the title's lately been floundering, so I thought it'd be fair enough to change the sub from First Class to Uncanny. The sub actually starts at issue 501, but it would just make sense to start at issue 500, since it's been awhile since I've actually read the X-Men.

Here's my history with X-Men: Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men #'s 1-12, a lot of Chris Claremont's early works in Uncanny, some miscellaneous miniseries from the library, and, of course, every issue of First Class thus published. In short, since First Class isn't even in continuity, I'm relatively a new-ish reader.

The characters are as I remembered them, and no one's really taken a left-turn character-wise. I like how Beast tries to make their headquarters as green-friendly as possible, and there's even a fastball special (!), but there's one thing that I didn't get. No it's not Cyclops saying "Suck it!" although that too is confusing. Instead, it has to do with Magneto, who apparently lost his powers at some point.

Anyways, this issue is mostly set-up, but, since it's a 500th issue, there's a little something special. The San Francisco MoMA holds an exhibit on "Mutant kitsch," and San Franciscans end up cosplaying X-Men of the past and present to much hilarity.

See, in that panel, Magneto is awakening the defunct sentinels to attack the X-Men. The hilarious part is that all of the civilians think this is part of the exhibit, which explains the over-dramatized expressions on their faces. For once, Greg Land actually draws with storytelling in mind.

I know, I'm confused too, but that's the exception to the rule, because he can't seem to draw Emma consistently and some of his panels are over-the-top and don't fit the dialogue. There's also the tracing; how could we forget the tracing?

Although Land takes up an atrocious majority of the issue (25 pages???), Terry Dodson gets some action too (13 pages), and quite frankly, it should have been more. I mean, Emma is just great here:

All in all, an issue that's mainly for set-up, but doesn't seem to commit any crimes. I know that people call some instances out-of-character and all, but I guess I'm fortunate to not have read any current X-books?

Seeing as how Fraction and Brubakers both are on the book, I trust the next issue to follow up well.

Holy crap, I drew out this post for way too long. Since I'm abominably lazy my head hurts, we'll talk about the other comic I got tomorrow.

Although I felt only lukewarm about this title, you can bet on better feelings for the other title!