Uncanny X-Men #514

Persoanlly, this is the Marvel Event of the year. X-Men has never been this good. Aside from maybe Astonishing (and I don't just mean the Whedon stuff).

You think this is better then War of Kings?

@j4K3-You're insane.

I try to never be a negative Nancy, but to me the entire Utopia "crossover" is wholly contrived, conveluted, and worst of all, boring. Blah.

though i dont thinkit is quite WOK, but i am deffenetly enjoying this event so far.

@Andrew  What do you mean by 'contrived'?  I keep hearing this word in respect to this crossover and I don't understand what's meant by it.

@drake when did it become insane to state an opinion?

I can sorta understand someone saying it has been boring.  There has been an awful lot of posturing.  There has also been rioting.  But continuous rioting over a 6 week time span and 4 issues will just become part of the background.  I await something major happening and hopefully in this issue.

I've been enjoying this as well. Fraction's batting a thousand with Uncanny X-Men as far as I'm concerned.

I understand why some see this as boring, but the story line feels as if it flows.  People hate mutants and act against them.  This is the story of mutants in the Marvel U and has been since its inception.  It is never forced to have the act out against each other.  If anything, the idea of legislation against them feels like it belongs and it is a new take on the situation.

This is the first I've read of Fraction's work other than IRON-MAN and I'm really, really enjoying the heck out of it. I'm not even a very big X-Guy; the only major stuff I've read are the first six UXM arcs and the first ASTONISHING Whedon arc.

I am so delighted every time a chapter of this comes out, I can scarcely find the words.

This story manages to surprise me every time, in good ways, and I'm really in suspense about how it's going to end.  I can't remember the last time I felt that way about an 'event.' 

I don't understand why people feel (Ron) says this story feels contrived either.  X stories are always about bigotry.  I think this is one of the better cross overs for X-Men in a while.  I hope they keep up the good work, they made a new fan out of me.

Bah, I didn't really like it.  It was all over the place at times, and my memory is fuzzy so I have no idea what the hell the science team is doing. 

And why was Betsy wearing a wet suit??

I assume Betsy's wetsuit is related to what the science team is up to underwater?  but I mostly noticed that it was on a page facing an ad with Danica Patrick and it was basically exactly the same as her racing suit, just showing slightly more cleavage.

I always like when Cyclops uses some strategy with his team-members.  I'm sure there will be a nice payoff when we see what they're each going to do

Yeah what was the whole thing with the wet-suit about? 

this is being dropped. 

I'm enjoying the hell out of Fraction's slow boil approach to this story.

i dont get this thing people are haveing with the wet suit.  Yes Betsy was wearing a wet suit.  its not like the idea of someone wearing a wet suit is an alian concepts.  i will tel you why she is wearing it, her mission has something to do with water(gasp).  we learn that cyclopes has a big plan in the works but we will have to wait until next issue to see  what it is.  this issue was a little bit slower than the previose ones but i still havnt lost intrest.

^Totally agree.  Be patient.  That wet suit will be fired by the time the story is through.

I think people might be calling this contrived because Trask and the whole porposition to ban mutant birth story element kind of came back out of nowhere kind of(I think he actally popped up in the first Xforce arc, but I dropped that book so I could be wrong).  I don't have that much of a problem with it, but I think that might be what it is. 

 I personally am a little bored with the series right now though, since the formation of the dark team in the first chapter, it doesn't seem like any thing of significance has really happened and there are only 2 issues left.  Plus, I think I can see what the end is going to be already.  The X-men will rescue the people in lockup and are tottally going to ceceed from the US and form a new mutant nation in a cool underwater base, but the Dark team is still going to be around and be the official team under Osborn's rule for the duration of dark reign, however long that may be.

@CaptainJack-Dude, simmer down.  We're just joking about the wet suit.

Proposition X was mentioned in Uncanny well before this issue came out, and the whole 'legislating against mutants' thing has been part of X-Men for 25 years or more.  If 'this plot came out of nowhere' is the reason for calling it contrived, I think that's just inaccurate.  Again, not saying anybody has to like this book, I just haven't been able to understand the basis of the criticism.

*well before this crossover came out

This has been the strongest issue of the Utopia crossover yet. 4/5.

@ohcaroline  I think what bakakaba meant was that the Human/Mutant hate storyline was written into the ground during the 90s and all but disappeared from about 2000 until X-Force #1. It's certainly been mentioned, but it does seem contrived for "race relations" to have somewhat calmed in the narrative and then have them randomly become worse than they ever were coupled with all these other moves Fraction has on his plate. I have to agree, it's been a fun story but the constant heaping on of drama ("There's only 198 of us left!" "Oh no, we have to move cross country!" Oh No this new place has quickly gotten worse than our last home ever was." "Most humans hate us again." "The dead are coming back." "We can't fix our genes.") is getting to a point where it's too much even for X-Men standards. Some of these stories have even disappeared into the ether as if they only were there to get from A to B.

I'm wondering who Dani's meeting in vegas. The sign translates to "Abandon all hope, Ye who enter." I was hoping they'd be calling in the help of Magneto since the middle of Vegas would probably be the last place he'd be but now it's up in the air. 

@PraxJarvin  I think what you're describing could apply to any comic book series with multiple writers and titles.  If you're looking for a consistent acrosstheboard narrative it isn't going to happen.  But Fraction has been telling this story pretty consistently since he took over the title, as have Yost and Kyle across New X-Men and X-Force.  Again, I think it's perfectly fine not to LIKE this story, but to characterize the writers as having pulled it out of thin air is just factually inaccurate. 

@Soma  I'm assuming the Hellfire Club is involved in some way.  Don't the XMen still have Sebastian Shaw in their basement?  That doesn't mean it can't be Magneto, since he has a history with Hellfire.  I keep hearing about the return of Selene, as well so maybe Magneto and Selene are running Hellfire in Las Vegas.

I may have been too generous with a 5 but I loved it.

I love the rivalary I have been seeing across the titles between Daken and Bullseye.

@ohcaroline Contrived can mean both "artificial" (as in pulled out of the air) or "forced." I generally use it to mean forced, which is what I think the overall X-Men narrative has been for a while. And yes, an inconsistent narrative is a claim that can be argued for all comic books, but there certainly have been attempts at it (Superman, Batman, Avengers, etc.).  But I digress, I feel the overall narrative for the X-Men feels forced. It feels like these things just happen out of nowhere more often than not, as opposed to being linked to something tangible in the plot. I can pinpoint big story changes off the top of my head in the a good deal of the X-Books, but this recent seachange feels all over the place, or in some places, never showcased. Again, I actually liked this issue. And the latin inscription (I think it was Latin? I honestly didn't bother to try and translate) leads me to believe Dani is going to Nova Roma. 

(It's interesting to note that in his book about writing comics, Peter David said (and he's said it elsewhere) that Marvel has no system in place to easily consult with other writers about what characters were doing. He conceded DC's version was terrible, but there at least an attempt. That book is a few years old so it may have changed.) 

@PraxJarvin  It's pretty evident to me that the Marvel writers communicate with each other all the time.  This may have been a problem in the past, but every interview that I read contains references to regular summit meetings for Marvel storylines and also those specific to X-Men.   And just based on a casual glance at Twitter,  it's evident that the writers and editors have every opportunity to communicate with each other.  So (a) I think your assumption is dated and (b) you haven't given any actual specific way in which these stories are contradictory or forced.   Again, I'm not saying anybody has to like the direction of the books; I have a lot of problems with it myself.  But if your criticism is "I wish they would not do these storylines about mutant oppression," then give that criticism instead of inaccurately claiming that the story has been brought up without prior reference.

I can't believe I've been reading Uncanny for 14 issues now and am still enjoying it. I expected to leave in tears after three or four issues, but I'm still hooked. At least Fraction hasn't done anything to chase me away yet - no surprise there, I generally enjoy his work. I just wish Fraction could have Rogue to play with too - it would be fun to see what he'd do with her.

Did anyone else pay 4.99 for this at their LCS?  I also have a subscription from Marvel and that copy arrived with a 3.99 cover price.  I have never noticed different prices between comic shop versions and subscription versions before, but I dont usually buy two copies.  Seems really strange to me.

@theTaken I only paid $3.99 at my LCS. I've never noticed a price change except with certain variant covers on issues.

Yeah both these issues have the same cover, but different cover prices.