X-Men #19 Review
Oct. 7th, 2011 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nomadicwriter posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
doomfansThis is the last issue in the FF/X-Men crossover, and makes for a pretty decent conclusion to the storyline. Overall I've been quite pleased: this story definitely shaped up to be better than I was expecting from the slightly shaky start in issue #16.
From the preview, we already saw that Doom allied himself with the Scorpius solely as a pretext to get access to the Emperor's power source, which was predictable as soon as he joined the bad guys two issues ago. But still, there's a nice little moment between Doom and Magneto when Doom asks for his help in making his story convincing. They get a few good interactions in this issue.
Magneto goes on to free the team's heavy hitters from their captivity, while Lee and Pixie rescue Scott's group. Sue smashes the building up with an expanding forcefield and the psi-field generator is taken out, so their alien allies can now attack the Scorpius. Emma Frost gets her powers back and broadcasts the message for everyone to get away and leave the two groups of aliens to battle it out.
The Scorpius Emperor captures Reed and Nemesis at the gateway they've built to return to their home dimension. Doom shows up, continuing the pretence of being an ally, but the Emperor thinks Doom has come to the end of his usefulness and turns on him. Doom, on the other hand, thinks his plan has worked perfectly. The Emperor gets a pretty great line in response: "You seem to have a very poor grasp of current events, and your arrogance is so complete it's almost admirable. Almost." (No almost about it, friend - that's why he's Doom!)
Magneto, arriving at the head of the rest of the team, agrees with the Emperor's assessment, but asks him to unhand Doom anyway. There's a battle, but the Emperor's too strong thanks to the orb that gives him his powers, and Sue can barely hold him with her forcefields. Luckily, Doom's the man with the master plan. He casts a spell and has Sue keep it contained in a force-bubble, while Wolverine delivers it right down the Emperor's throat, aided by Ben stretching Reed out like a giant rubber band to fire him. Then Sue releases the forcefield holding the spell and boom, no more Emperor.
Doom retrieves the orb and uses it to power their gateway home, but Cyclops is not happy about the idea of him keeping hold of it. Doom grudgingly concedes that it's too powerful to bring back to their home dimension and they should destroy it instead. Ultimately, though, Skull and Lee elect to stay behind and deal with the remaining Scorpius, so they get to keep the orb.
Everybody else goes home and we get a little page of epilogue; Emma snarks about Lee not being in shape for her cavegirl bikini and Scott claims he didn't notice she was wearing one, Ben and Wolvie note that they'll see each other in the Avengers (I kind of like Ben calling him "shrimp", heh), and then we finish with another great little exchange between Doom and Magneto. Magneto is surprised Doom agreed to give up the orb, as he knows it's hard to get over old habits. Doom doesn't see why it's so hard, since after all, heroism comes naturally to him. ;)
So, all in all, I'd consider this a pretty satisfying conclusion. I was glad to see Doom get to make some use of his magic, which I wasn't expecting to come into play in this storyline, and it's definitely nice to see him get the final word for once. The only real weak point in the issue was the rather hasty one-page wrap-up of dealing with who gets to keep the orb. (Doom also calls Reed "Reed" at one point, which weirded me out, though to be fair, he has done it before. Just... rarely, and usually on occasions of more significance.)
But overall I do like Gischler's take on the character, and while Molina's characters can sometimes look a little blank-faced when he's just doing the pencils rather than fully painted artwork, his Doctor Doom always looks absolutely fantastic. I'd be very happy to see either of them put on another Doom story in future.
Taken as a whole, I'd say this crossover was a decent enough if mostly predictable story, with some nice little character moments and a pretty good showing for Doctor Doom. So I have no complaints.
From the preview, we already saw that Doom allied himself with the Scorpius solely as a pretext to get access to the Emperor's power source, which was predictable as soon as he joined the bad guys two issues ago. But still, there's a nice little moment between Doom and Magneto when Doom asks for his help in making his story convincing. They get a few good interactions in this issue.
Magneto goes on to free the team's heavy hitters from their captivity, while Lee and Pixie rescue Scott's group. Sue smashes the building up with an expanding forcefield and the psi-field generator is taken out, so their alien allies can now attack the Scorpius. Emma Frost gets her powers back and broadcasts the message for everyone to get away and leave the two groups of aliens to battle it out.
The Scorpius Emperor captures Reed and Nemesis at the gateway they've built to return to their home dimension. Doom shows up, continuing the pretence of being an ally, but the Emperor thinks Doom has come to the end of his usefulness and turns on him. Doom, on the other hand, thinks his plan has worked perfectly. The Emperor gets a pretty great line in response: "You seem to have a very poor grasp of current events, and your arrogance is so complete it's almost admirable. Almost." (No almost about it, friend - that's why he's Doom!)
Magneto, arriving at the head of the rest of the team, agrees with the Emperor's assessment, but asks him to unhand Doom anyway. There's a battle, but the Emperor's too strong thanks to the orb that gives him his powers, and Sue can barely hold him with her forcefields. Luckily, Doom's the man with the master plan. He casts a spell and has Sue keep it contained in a force-bubble, while Wolverine delivers it right down the Emperor's throat, aided by Ben stretching Reed out like a giant rubber band to fire him. Then Sue releases the forcefield holding the spell and boom, no more Emperor.
Doom retrieves the orb and uses it to power their gateway home, but Cyclops is not happy about the idea of him keeping hold of it. Doom grudgingly concedes that it's too powerful to bring back to their home dimension and they should destroy it instead. Ultimately, though, Skull and Lee elect to stay behind and deal with the remaining Scorpius, so they get to keep the orb.
Everybody else goes home and we get a little page of epilogue; Emma snarks about Lee not being in shape for her cavegirl bikini and Scott claims he didn't notice she was wearing one, Ben and Wolvie note that they'll see each other in the Avengers (I kind of like Ben calling him "shrimp", heh), and then we finish with another great little exchange between Doom and Magneto. Magneto is surprised Doom agreed to give up the orb, as he knows it's hard to get over old habits. Doom doesn't see why it's so hard, since after all, heroism comes naturally to him. ;)
So, all in all, I'd consider this a pretty satisfying conclusion. I was glad to see Doom get to make some use of his magic, which I wasn't expecting to come into play in this storyline, and it's definitely nice to see him get the final word for once. The only real weak point in the issue was the rather hasty one-page wrap-up of dealing with who gets to keep the orb. (Doom also calls Reed "Reed" at one point, which weirded me out, though to be fair, he has done it before. Just... rarely, and usually on occasions of more significance.)
But overall I do like Gischler's take on the character, and while Molina's characters can sometimes look a little blank-faced when he's just doing the pencils rather than fully painted artwork, his Doctor Doom always looks absolutely fantastic. I'd be very happy to see either of them put on another Doom story in future.
Taken as a whole, I'd say this crossover was a decent enough if mostly predictable story, with some nice little character moments and a pretty good showing for Doctor Doom. So I have no complaints.
