Comic Books

UNCANNY X-MEN #531

‘Quarantine.’

The X-Men on Utopia are getting sicker and sicker and their powers are shutting down one-by-one. Wolverine’s healing factor is down and he’s suffering adamantium poisoning, but he’s much better off than the mutants whose mutation defines their bodies, like Rockslide and Mercury. And if that weren’t bad enough, The Collective Man has Chinatown in the palms of his many hands and the Sublime Corporation is kicking the plan they’ve been hatching since #515 into high gear!

Written by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen
Art and cover by Greg Land

Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.1%

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Comments

  1. Can’t believe I’m actually looking forward to seeing if I can continue to follow a Fraction book, interested to see what happens with this Collective Man, the cleverly named HX-N1 virus, and when it comes down to it, a book where Kitty’s back, what more can you ask for really?  Hope he doesn’t screw it up for me.  (Guess this is all before Fantomex is saving X-Force’s ass from being completely kicked too.)

  2. Wondering how Kieron Gillen’s input will turn out, and if he can turn around this garbage pail of a title. Not expecting change to come fast, though.

  3. FRACTION’S REIGN NEEDS TO STOP! As for Land, his style doesn’t bother me anymore.

  4. I’v actually been kind of enjoying this. With so many superhero books obsessed with constant action its nice to see a title take it a little slower.

  5. Last issue was the first one I liked in a while.  It had a nice pace and all the threads worked for me.  Typically my issues with Fraction are his constant mischaracterizations, but I had no qualms last month

  6. I agree that last issue was actually fairly good. That has been a recurring theme, though. Every 5 issues or so Fraction manages to pull a bunch of good stuff together and manages to not screw it up with some clangingly awful characterization. So I am nervous about this one as I have not seen two in a row that were good since Fraction came on board. Maybe Kieron will help. Maybe Fraction has a solid handle on these storylines. We’ll see. I don’t like the Land stiffness and I find it maddening trying to figure out what female character he has drawn, but I can live with him. He occasionally makes stuff look sleek and his single porn star, female face does work for Frost who is regularly featured.

  7. I’m going to give Uncanny a try for this ark and see where it goes. I want to read an X-Men book but maybe this isn’t the one? It doesn’t seem to garner much praise which is sad for the “flagship” X-Men title.

    Any suggestions? If you could only buy 1 X-Men book? 

  8. @david: I’ve been reading this book since the end of Second Coming and have been enjoying it so I’d recommend this one. However I think X-Men Legacy and Generation Hope are going to tie into the upcoming Age of X more than Uncanny if that effects your decision.

  9. @davidpentecost  I can’t recommend this one because its been pretty bad for a few years, but it still feels like the “flagship” if that’s what you’re looking for – that is, its pushing the overall mutant narrative.  Uncanny X-Force is great right now albeit a little light on your typical a-list characters.  If I were in your shoes, I’d jump into the upcoming crossover, It starts with the Age of X: Alpha one-shot and goes through X-Men: Legacy and New Mutants.  Crossovers are almost always a lot of fun and give you a real x-men fix.

  10. Plus, Age of X is a small self-contained crossover written by one person, the talented Mike Carey. I’m not sure the exact length, but it will probably be ~10 issues over 3 months. The only possible drawback I can see is that some of the fun will be seeing how Carey twists all the various X-characters into his Age of X. If you are not familiar with the majority of X-people, you might not get the full satisfaction and X-nut might.

  11. @JimBilly4  I’ll second that.  Crossovers like Age of Apocalypse are somewhat wasted (not the right word) on people not well versed in the players involved.  A lot of the fun is seeing the new characterizations

  12. Thanks for the suggestions. I really don’t know anything about X-Men outside of the popular core characters such as Wolverine, Cyclops etc. And even then, I haven’t followed their story to know what is driving them. I’ve caught up on the fact that Cyclops is the leader and they all live in Utopia (I was reading the Dark avengers crossover and got a good dose of X-Men Utopia there).

    Maybe I should drop this and pick up X-Force. Remender seems to be a top notch writer.

  13. @davidpentecost  Yeah, just stick with X-Force.  It’s self-contained and probably pretty new-reader-friendly after a Wiki of Apocalypse.  (although I’d suggest just reading a small summary, his history is pretty convoluted).  Uncanny X-Men draws from a large cast and the writing is pretty average.

  14. Must I say this was pretty good.  Namor and Wolvie infected with the HX-N1 virus, resulting in Wolvie having adamantium poisoning, Storm in all her glory, Rao injecting herself, but would Fantomex really make that kind of mistake, how could he not know with E.V.A.?  Great work by Land this issue too.

  15. Not digging the Land art at all.

  16. I’m digging the Land art. It’s not my favorite, but it works and nobody ever looks *bad*. Land is one of the few people who does a good job of not making Cyclops look like Generic White Man #12.

    Fraction is doing a damn good job on this book and I hope Gillen brings it up even farther.

  17. Oh my God was this bad, from story to art. And it’s not even original, all Fraction is doing is ripping off everything Grant Morrison did in his run, the only difference is that this looks like shit and is painfully boring.

  18. It really is all Land’s fault that this arc is terrible. I mean, nevermind the fact that he is a dreadful artist, he doesn’t mesh with Fraction’s scripts in the slightest.

  19. Thought Land’s Storm looked great too, nothing we haven’t seen before, but classic nonetheless.  Just wonder what Kitty is really up to, she’s gotta have better things to do than to tag along with Emma, she’s gotta know that ain’t nothin but trouble.

  20. Not reading this until Land is gone.

  21. Lands art isnt the worst but for it to be on one of their premiere titles is a mystery. I think it almost looks cell shaded or video gamish. I think Marvel thinks the strenght and lineage of the Xmen can carry the title no matter who’s the artist…

  22. There were a lot of different X-Women in this one and with Land “drawing” that led to a lot of pain. Seriously, he can only do one female face and it has two expressions: orgasmic and laughing like you sucked Joker gas. If this mysterious woman ends uo dismembered in Land’s refridgerator we will all be kicking ourselves for missing such obvious cries for help. As far as Fraction, I am digging this story a lot, but he did hit a few character clangers this time…

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