New X-Men #156

[A-San]

WRITER: Chuck Austin
PENCILS: Salvador Larroca
INKS: Danny Miki
"Bright New Mourning" 2 of 2

To start off, I've always considered myself a fan of Chuch Austen's work, and while I could see the weak points his style had, it was never anything that took away from my overall reading experience. Well, something happened after Grant Morrison left the forum.

I felt that the ire directed to Austyen's previous New X-Men issue was a bit premature. True it wasn't the best X-Comic of all time, but it was an enjoyable read nevertheless, and I looked forward to the resolution to the story. Unfortunately, things did not turn out the way I hoped they would.

While it was good to see Hank finally admit to being angry at Scott for his actions, the rest of Austen's story was full of holes. Cyclops gets shot, but is able to catch Emma falling from a building, in diamond form, no less? The Cuckoos acting less and less like the hive mind they are? Are Scott and Emma actually a couple, as Grant Morrison showed at the end of his run? I hoped to get resolution to that point during the issue, but instead, I'm only left with more questions.

Larroca's pencils are quite good, though nowhere near the level they've been in the past. The man's just too overworked drawing four issues this month, in my opinion. Miki's inks, in my owbn humble opinion, of course, don't do as much to take away from Larroca's work, but his best work was definately his uninked pencils colored by Liquid! seen during his X-Treme run.

I still plan to purchase this title when Austen takes it over officialy, and I'm still a fan of his work, but this issue did not sit well with me at all. I was left scratching my head after reading this issue, asking myself "What happened?", mainly because of the lack of resolution to the Scott/Emma ordeal. Of course, Marvel could be saving that for Joss Whedon, who takes over the characters in Astonishing X-Men, but I felt it was a point that absolutely needed to be resolved.

All in all, I'd Give New X-Men #156 a C-.

[Xaraan]

I liked this issue.

I think Austen comes up with some good ideas, but still needs to polish his skills at getting from point A to B smoothly. There are always small misses (like the catching White Queen- though my thoughts were more toward the diamond form than the gunshot- I hadn't even thought about that) or misses in his dialogue where he sometimes forces something out of a characters mouth to get a point across.

All in all though, I enjoyed the read and will be sticking with him when he takes over on his own run.

C

[The 'Nam]

When i see an issue like this, it makes me angry. It makes me angry that Morrison signed with DC, and left other creators to clean up his mess. and of all the people they give it to, they give it to Chuck Austen to fix some loose ends on Morrisons run. I dont wanna Austen-bash here, but i think Marvel could have chosen a much better 'sweeper'. And its strange too, because i found Austens new arc in Uncanny to be much better than this new arc.

and is it just me, or is Salvador's arc a little weak here? I know hes doin 4 books this month and gearing up for next month, but still....At least he has an inker this time. A-San, i agree with a lot you said, except for one bit: Salvador's uninked work on X-Treme was not very fulfilling at all. In my opinion, his work is much better when it is inked.

Overall, i give it a C-. Its not that i dont like Austen, its just that Morrison cant stay around to clean up his damn mess, and Austen didnt really know how to clean it up.

[Caramuru]

Originally posted by A-San
While it was good to see Hank finally admit to being angry at Scott for his actions

I was almost relived when I read that. Scott kissing Emma over Jean's grave bothered me to no end. I'm glad it was addressed.

I didn't think it was weird that the Cuckoos were acting less like a hive. They lost two of their sisters and had their world turned upside down. I think that was OK.

Now, catching Emma... Even with Scott in full health and Emma in human form it would be too much. If Scott wouldn't be harmed by the impact, I think Emma probably wouldn't need to be caught.

[Logan X]

First of all don't get the impression that I'm here to ridicule Austen, but...

what you guys are saying is exactly what I was expecting to hear.

[bigmentalross]

I actually thought the issue was fairly well written.

There were several problems and to be fair Scott being shot seemed wholly superfluous and seemed to be completely forgotten by the end of the book.

On the whole though I thought Austen handled the situation well and set everything up for where it needed to be when Whedon steals pretty much all of these characters next month.

Larocca's art was shocking though. What happened to his Emma Frost. What happened?

And I disagree about inking Larocca's work and thought his pencils colored by Liquid produced some of the best all-round art Marvel put out in recent years.

B+

[Daedelus]

The only thing I found interesting from the previous issue that I was looking forward to in this one was totally forgotten: Is Casandra Nova still in the basement? Instead Hank and Scott fight a not very formidable robot and head to town. I realize that Emma and others were in danger, but isn't Casandra Nova a global/galatic threat? I was really upset they completely plowed over this...