X-Men Divided We Stand #1 (OF 2)

'll be picking this up, but I can't help but wonder: what's the point?  With each of the X-titles (including 3 brand new on-going series) supposedly addressing the 'divided' topic, I think that a one-shot is a bit superfluous.  this wouldn't be necessary if they spent more time on the post-MC storyline and not on russian bar fights.

Why is there a Nightcrawler story if we already know what he's doing? heh and I know it's ultimately filler but the russian bar fight was a guilty pleasure...don't tell anyone I liked it.

this wouldn't be necessary if they spent more time on the post-MC storyline and not on russian bar fights.

Hear hear!  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the anthology idea (I have to admit I adored X-men Unlimited and I'm sorry it doesn't exist anymore).  But the lack of coherent exposition in the main books is getting frustrating and it looks like, instead of addressing that in a unified way, this mini is just going to be small stories.  I mean, yay for small stories (especially small Fraction stories) but Marvel had the opportunity to bring some coherence to the X-line and they've barely even tried.

Huh?  The Russian bar scene was better than the whole Messiah Complex story.

Let me guess, this is going to be the first time the teams actually address the issue of Xavier's missing body.

The stated questions in the above issue summary read like something we should learn RIGHT AFTER Messiah Complex, not three months later.

Cyclops at the end of Messiah Complex said something like "There's no more X-Men", then all of a sudden with no explanation it was "Hey Kids, pick up the next issues of all your favorite X-titles next month! And we're also going to be adding three NEW X-titles!"

Such poor design and timing. Oh well, I'm sure it will all fit chronologically in whatever trade paperback they put it in. Groan. The titles on an issue-by-issue basis have been slightly improved, but the whole clunky overarching story just doesn't do it anymore. Really not digging the whole overblown hushed tone of "It's a new ERA! WITHOUT Xavier! What's going to HAPPEN?? Find out before status quo resumes again with Uncanny #500 (featuring the appearance of a villain whom you'd NEVER guess in a million years!)" 

Just give me Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men already.

I'm snatching it for mckelvie's art. 

@Andrew -- The problem, at least for me, isn't the quality of the stories; it's that everything going on in the X-books is based on Cyclops having made a decision that came out of nowhere and was completely unexplained.  And 'Uncanny,' which is supposed to be the core book, hasn't given any explanation for such a major decision.  (or, for that matter, why Emma or anyone else LET him make that decision; remember when Emma actually had a leadership role with the X-men that consisted of anything besides talking about how great her boyfriend is?  Apparently, the writers don't).

I agree with most of you that the X-men books never actually seem to deal with the larger issues.  They never dealt with M-Day, or the Decimation, and now Messiah Complex is being skipped over. One of the things I used to like about the X-books even during the awful Scott Lobdell/Bob Harras days, was that when a major storyline occurred it legitimately set up the stories for the next year.  Now that doesn't seem to be the case.  It's a shame, too, because the X-titles haven't had this strong of a line in many years.

@shogunt -- This is probably my biggest problem with Marvel overall; too much seems to happen because editorial said so.  The whys and wherefores, much less the consequences, don't get enough attention.  I really don't think this is a continuity nitpick; I think it's a basic storytelling problem.  And it's frustrating because it would take minimal effort to fix.  A line in the scene where Emma is rollicking with dinosaurs where she says, "I've devoted the last decade of my life to teaching, but things are different now because. . ."  Or give the bar scene in Russia a couple of exchanges where they're trying to figure out why Cyclops made that decision.

Am I asking for too much?  I like to think not.

This is definitely in my pull, but I have a feeling it would have been more relevent had it been released before any of the Divided We Stand tie-in books. That said, it looks like the only possible repeat story would be Nightcrawler...

@ohcaroline -- I don't feel like the X-books have had a real direction since Morrison's run ended.  Since then and especially after M-Day it just been there with books tripping over each other mixing up details and contradicting each other.  I tried to think of a single storyline since besides Messiah that I liked but honestly it's been kinda crappy for years now.

*have not* I should say

@Kimbo -- Oh, the Xline is definitely much better than it's been.  Without question.   It's just that Messiah Complex COULD have been a unifying story.  It's SO CLOSE to really being there, that just makes the flaws more frustrating.

totally.  I remember reading Messiah feeling like 'oh man, we're back!' and then, boom- divided we stand. 

Okay, i tried to read this issue and I couldn't.  I'll try again later.  At the moment, I'm pissed off that the Xmen leaders are portrayed as just dumping their students, apparently because the main books couldn't be bothered to deal with that aspect of the story.  I mean, God, I didn't even care about the kids' book but, considering that the school has been central to the Xmen's mission for the last decade it's just a stupid and absurd turn to take.  I'll try to read/review this later when I feel like I can be more objective.

ok i read the book, and i thought it was rather sad.  i felt bad for the now ex-students.  this wasnt a bad book, except for the last story in it(i dont know why they put it in, it was dumb) but other than that it was good.  i would like to say one thing about marvel is that they are moving too fast with everything.  with spider-man there must be a few more stories that they could have gotten in before brand new day.  same with professor x. it really adds to the irrelevance to everything.

I flipped through this at the store, just to peek at Jamie McClevie's art.  While it was well colored I thought his Nightcrawler was a bit weird.  Maybe not so much weird as his movements didn't seem to have much fluidity to them.  But other than that, the rest of his part looked great. 

ok, after a busy week I finally sat down and read this book.  I'm not sure what to think.  On one hand, I'm impressed that they took the time to illuminate the feelings of characters who no longer fit into the grand scheme of the x-books (whatever scheme that may be).  On the other hand, much like ohcaroline mentioned, this book really points out how the leaders of the xmen have just dumped their students/comrades.  In my opinion, this is a poor characterization of the merry mutants.  Are we to think that Beast/Iceman/etc would just abandon the children simply because Scott decided the xmen should disband?  According to Endangered Species (don't get me started) Beast was willing to darken his soul to help mutantkind, but now he is willing to send 16 year old kids packing to fend for themselves.

 I guess I'm just frustrated.  I liked the messiah complex storyline.  I didn't think it was great in itself, but I thought that it was a nice setup for future stories.  Instead, Cyclops has wolverine lead X-Force/Hunt Mystique/Vacation in Russia, he forms the Young Xmen, and goes on his own vacation to the Savage Land.  Meanwhile, Cable has done nothing to give insight into the mutant baby.  I know that a slowdown was expected before issue 500, but this is a bit much.  ok, my rant is done.