UNCANNY X-MEN #503

Review by: ultimatehoratio

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Avg Rating: 3.6
 
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Size: pages
Price: 2.99

We now interrupt this review for a public service announcement from Matt Fraction:

“Did you know that it’s only been since the National Voting Rights Act of 1965 that African-Americans have been able to vote free from discriminatory practices?”

Did you also also know that’s a line of dialogue from Uncanny X-Men 503?  Seriously.

Heavy-handedness with social issues like racism and the environment aside, I like both the plotting and the dialogue in Matt Fraction’s X-Men.  Whereas Astonishing X-Men deals with the big idea and the big threat, Uncanny X-Men’s focus seems, for now at least, to be on “smaller” stories, like mutant prejudice in San Francisco, Cyclops’s ex-wife issues, and Pixie’s battle with self doubt.  Fraction’s got the characters down, and the playful dialogue brings Whedon’s Astonishing run to mind.  You could almost say that the final confrontation with the villain doesn’t live up to the promise of the build-up, but then Fraction drops a bomb on the reader with the reveal of the true mastermind of this arc’s events.  I won’t spoil the reveal here, but let’s just say that long-time fans will be thrilled and possibly dismayed.

The art in this issue is good.  Actually, it’s damn good.  I can’t see anything at all wrong with it.  The Greg Land hate seems to have taken on a life of its own and it’s come to the point where I roll my eyes whenever someone even brings it up.  While there is merit to the criticisms, it’s way overblown.  Greg Land is a good comic artist, occasional porno face or not.

P.S.  I live about 45 minutes from Cumberland, KY, which is Cannonball’s hometown.  I have never heard anyone use the term “meemaw” for their grandmother.  The correct term is “mamaw”, which is what I called my grandmother.

Story: 3 - Good
Art: 4 - Very Good

Comments

  1. Even being a Land hater myself, this issue seemed to contain less of the stuff that makes me hate him.  Fewer porno faces and fewer overacting poses.  Just the occassion super-sized driver’s license.

  2. Y’know, it’s funny… I didn’t mind the fact-drop because I saw that Fraction was going for the joke. Sam makes a social blunder, and where the typical reaction from a big, African-American bouncer type would be to knock Sam on his ass, he instead lectures Sam… leading Sam to go back to his table spouting off the facts he’s just been lectured about. It was a bit awkward, but I think I didn’t mind it because I was conscious of what Fraction was trying to do.

    Overall, I agree with your review. This book has been fun, and the art isn’t as bad as the cloud of hatred that follows Land would suggest. I don’t know if I’d give it a "4" but, yeah. It’s not deserving of the hate it gets.

     

  3. The idea was good, but the actual line sounded like something Fraction found on wikipedia.  It was a bit too perfect. 

    Thanks for the comment!

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