Saturday, February 6, 2010

Classic Review: Uncanny X-Men #268

Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Jim Lee
Cover By: Jim Lee



This issue is a little confusing because it keeps jumping between the past and the present. It takes a lot of time to figure out what’s actually going on, but when you do, it turns out to be a pretty good story. Well, the story begins with Captain America fighting off The Hand in Madripoor. The year is 1941, and he has no idea who The Hand is. Wolverine jumps into the brawl to give Cap a hand, telling him he’s just there to help. The duo is able to fight off the ninjas and Logan and Cap have a short exchange of words. At this time, they do not know each other yet.

From here, the story jumps to the present-day Madripoor, where Black Widow is getting attacked by The Hand. It looks like Widow is overwhelmed until Jubilee and Psylocke help her out, along with Wolverine. From that point, they are able to take out The Hand pretty handily. Logan and Black Widow talk, and then the story jumps right back to 1941. Now you can see why this issue is so confusing.

What’s happening is that there are two stories going on simultaneously. One is a memory, being shown in all flashbacks, which consists of Logan helping Cap and protecting Natalia Romanova ( Black Widow) from both Baron Strucker and The Hand. The story taking place in the present is basically Wolverine, Jubilee and Psylocke helping Black Widow catch Soong, a criminal in Madripoor, while fighting the hand at the same time. The whole situation is a little puzzling, and the stories are a little cluttered. If you pick them apart, there is nothing complex about them at all, I just wish that they were made a little more clear.

The only other thing that bothered me was the ending. There are technically two endings, one for the mission with Cap, and one for the present day with Widow. The past story actually had a decent ending, with Wolverine crashing Cap’s execution and ruining Strucker’s plans, but the other story really lacked any closure. Basically, once Wolverine arrived with Widow, Jubilee and Psylocke, all the bad guys ran away. That really left me with nothing.

Overall, this issue was pretty fun, but it just was too much of a hassle to read. It was hard to get too into the story when I had to keep going back and looking at pages I had already read to figure out what was going on. It did include some funny interactions between the various characters in this comic, mostly Jubilee and Psylocke. When Psylocke told Jubilee, “Child, please,” I couldn’t help but think of Chad Ochocinco. Also, the art was great and the cover was even better, but what do you expect from the great Jim Lee? The story leaves you with a chuckle when Cap hints to Logan that they should be a team, and both are thinking that the other should be the sidekick. Of course, neither would ever settle for being the sidekick, so it would never work.

I’m gonna give this one a 3.5/5




8 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing the link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my post if you do!

    I would appreciate if a staff member here at wolverinepodcast.blogspot.com could post it.

    Thanks,
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi there,

    This is a question for the webmaster/admin here at wolverinepodcast.blogspot.com.

    May I use part of the information from this post above if I provide a backlink back to your website?

    Thanks,
    William

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing the link, but argg it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my message if you do!

    I would appreciate if someone here at wolverinepodcast.blogspot.com could post it.

    Thanks,
    John

    ReplyDelete
  4. Greetings,

    This is a question for the webmaster/admin here at wolverinepodcast.blogspot.com.

    Can I use some of the information from this blog post right above if I give a backlink back to your site?

    Thanks,
    James

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello there,

    This is a message for the webmaster/admin here at wolverinepodcast.blogspot.com.

    Can I use some of the information from your blog post right above if I provide a link back to this site?

    Thanks,
    Daniel

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi,

    Thanks for sharing the link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at wolverinepodcast.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?


    Cheers,
    Harry

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello,

    Thanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be not working? Does anybody here at wolverinepodcast.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?


    Thanks,
    Alex

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hmmm...these posts look eerily similar. My feral senses smell spam.

    ReplyDelete