MisterSmith on 
James Hunt on 
Seb Patrick on 
Alex S on Uncanny X-Men #500
by James Hunt ~ July 24th, 2008
As if the last year hasn’t driven the point home enough, Uncanny X-Men #500 will immediately remind you that it’s a very good time to be an X-Men fan. The writing team of Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction have brought with them their unbridled enthusiasm for the X-Men characters, and you can feel it bursting off every page. With the new satus quo now firmly established, the relocated X-Men feel like they’re enterting a new era, with a new mandate to move towards the future that the ast few years have left them unsure even existed.
The sense of gravitas that anniversary issues were afforded in the past returns with #500, as Magneto makes a brilliant, classically-inspired appearance as an evil super-villain with a dastardly plot to destroy the X-Men – but all is not as it seems, as Magneto’s facade actually disguises something far more in keeping with his current situation as the unintentional architect of the Mutant race’s downfall.
While Brubaker’s run has been mildly disappointing – hampered,nitially by the attempt to make his run a self-contained, 12-issue story, adding Fraction into the dynamic has clearly re-invigorated the writing side of things. Dodson’s artwork is great to look at (wisely, he’s given the action scenes) and even Greg Land almost manages to keep up despite his particular brand of artwork being fairly unpalettable – there are still some moments where the tracing and posing get a bit much, but largely due to the strength of the writing, and the expert tempering of any tonal shift in art, the book manages to survive unscathed. The last time the franchise looked this promising was during Morrison’s and Whedon’s early issues, but this time, tone of the book seems substantially less knowing and ironic, it pushes forword while respecting the past, rather than winking at it.
In short, Uncanny #500 is a fantastic new start and a fantastic, mostly self-contained anniversary issue featuring probably the most enjoyably old-school Magneto Vs. X-Men clash in almost a decade. There’s almost nothing to complain about. If Ellis’ clinical, acerbic take on the team didn’t enthuse you, then good luck – Uncanny X-Men might just be back to try and reclaim its crown as the line’s flagship title.
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July 24th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
“Nothing to complain about?” There’s plenty of complaining over here: http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2008/07/23/uncanny-x-men-500-review/
-LOTRKing
July 24th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Haha! So there is. While I think we can all agree that Land’s art is horrendous, the only part of the book where the writing wasn’t top-notch for me was when the X-Men got outraged at the Sentinel exhibition – and even that was only a minor stylistic stumble rather than any real failing. This is very genuinely my favourite Uncanny for over a hundred issues!
July 29th, 2008 at 1:57 am
I don’t mind the art issues or writing at all.
This comic was horrible because it broke continuity.
This takes place before Astonishing #25 where they are already in San Fran but in some kinda sewer base with only some of the x-men then Storm begs to join the team. Yet in Uncanny Storm is already a part of the team along with EVERYONE else, and all are in San Fran…not the case in Astonishing. Clearly no one is paying attention to the only two X-books on the topic at the moment.
And what the heck is with Angel…in X-force he is Archangel…so do we already know he completely reverts back to normal as we see him normal in this issue?
Also why the heck does Uncanny have most characters (where the heck is Rogue?) but Astonishing only has a few…this doesn’t make any sense. Is the same team in both comics…or are their different teams in each comic. Make up your mind, this is childish nonsense. We have no need for astonishing if this is the case.
Also, the entire story with the Sentinels being brought to where ALL the x-men are is just plain stupid and NOT creative at all. And why all of a sudden Magneto going against everything his character was just built up to be these last 2 years.
I don’t get it….these are such simple concepts, who is editing this crap