Brightsurf Science News and Current Science News Events
 

View Larger Image

Uncanny X-Men: Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire


by Ed Brubaker
by Billy Tan, Clayton Henry

List Price: $29.99
Price: $19.79
You Save: $10.20 (34%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 73125
Studio: Marvel Comics
Binding: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 312
Publication Date: February 27, 2008
Publisher: Marvel Comics


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
A brand-new era for Uncanny X-Men begins here! Vulcan is out for revenge and has his sites set on the Shi'ar Empire! Get ready for the ride of your life! Fresh off X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Ed Brubaker takes the helm of Marvel's mighty mutants. Billy Tan and Clayton Henry joins Ed for a story that won't just affect Earth, but will rock the foundations of the entire galaxy! Collects Uncanny X-Men #475-486.


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 12 reviews)

Ed Brubaker Delivers  
After the "Deadly Genesis" mini-series, I was highly skeptical when Ed Brubaker was announced as the new ongoing writer for the "Uncanny X-Men." It turns out that I didn't have anything to fear: "Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" is a fun, rollicking space epic in the vein of Chris Claremont's "The Phoenix Saga." Brubaker expertly balances character development with action. With Billy Tan's pencils, it's almost a 5-star book...except for the villain. The villain--the third Summers brother, Vulcan--is an "omega-level" mutant with vaguely-defined energy powers. As such, it sometimes feels like his mutant "powers" change as the story calls for.
August 12, 2008

THIS is why i read the X-men!  
To start, i was almost turned off to this by the negative reviews on this site. But when it comes down to it the X-men in space written by Ed Brubaker was enough to draw my dollars in. And i'm glad i went with my gut because this is what the x-men is all about. Professor X, feeling guilt over the Vulcan situation he created gathers a team of X-men to take into space to try to make right the situation and stop Vulcan from destroying the Sh'iar and his ex wife Lilandra. This team consists of Havok, Polaris, Warpath, Rachel Summers and Nightcrawler. Its a strange teaming of x-men, but all the originals (cyclops, and the rest) are as warpath puts it "pissed at you right now".
But the team works, Warpath has never been my favorite, but after this run hes one of them now. And i've always kinda liked Havok. The rest are pretty well written also. New characters are introduced, theres a lot of political intrigue on the shi'ar end. The art is amazing. Its the same artist who did "deadly genesis", so if you enjoyed that he just gets better in this volume.
No, vulcan is not the most realized villain and i always thought maybe he was just poorly written, but there is an explanation in this story why he often acts though hes a 15 year old. And it kinda makes sense. But his supporting cast of villains in this story really flesh him out a bit.
The end isn't really an ending, and yes the follow up is the 'Emperor Vulcan' trade which can also be bought cheap at amazon. But the end of this does change the status quo of the x-men and to the shi'ar empire.
Bottom line is, that if you enjoy the x-men "space opera" type of stories you will love this. What i really like about this story is that i really feel like the x-men are underdogs, and since they aren't the MAIN characters anything could happen to them. Its epic in scope, the art is top notch and i really feel like i'm reading a throwback story but with better art and writing. If you hate the x-men space stories then save your money.
BUT if you do enjoy the x-men stories in space (phoenix sage, the brood, and so on) then your money couldn't be better spent than right here.
June 12, 2008

Brubaker is good  
It is not as good as Daredevil or Captain America, it takes too long. But when action starts, it doesnt end very soon. If you like X-Men, especially Havoc (like me), this story will please you.
May 21, 2008

Brubaker has done better  
I can't believe I'm the first to give this thing one star. I read "Deadly Genesis" when it came out, and thought it was ok. It seems like Brubaker is trying to do to X-Men what he did (much better) in Captain America; take a long-lost character, presumed dead, and re-insert him into the current timeline.

The main reason it works in Cap is that BUCKY EXISTED PRIOR. To create a "new" Summers brother, and then use that character to spring board this epic space yarn is just lazy. It would have been more believable to have the living island Krakoa fall into Shi'ar hands and become a supervillain. What's next? Beast's long lost sister? Iceman's long lost third cousin?

Others have noted the lack of character development of Vulcan. I do like the new and pissed off X-team, especially Darwin, and the concept of a big rise and fall of the Shi'ar and all it's supporting cast. But creating and using Vulcan is literary contrivance garbage.

Some of the art's nice. I'll be looking forward to Brubaker's next work, and not reading any more of his X-Men
May 09, 2008

Rise of X-Men through Shi'ar  
The artwork was fantastic and the story was great. A little jumpy at times where I was not sure where I was in the story, but definitely a must read. For fans, like myself that have not read the X-Men for a while, pick it up. It harks back to the days of the 80's X-men hopping around Shi'ar space. I love the new team. I always liked Warpath and he was shown pretty well here. Although his full strength was never realized. Loved this story about the 3rd Summer's brother. Hated the cliffhanger ending, but definitely worth having!

Excelsior!
May 05, 2008


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

X-Men: Supernovas
by Mike Carey
by Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos

X-Men: Messiah Complex
by Mike Carey, Ed Brubaker, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Peter David
by Marc Silvestri, Billy Tan, Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos, Scot Eaton

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2: The Extremists
by Ed Brubaker
by Salvador Larroca

Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk
by Greg Pak
by Carlo Pagulayan, Aaron Lopresti, Juan Santacruz, Gary Frank, Takeshi Miyazawa

X-Men: Blinded by the Light
by Mike Carey
by Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos
© 2008 BrightSurf.com