Scott's Take: Children of the Vault by Deniz Camp

Children of the Vault by Deniz Camp, Illustrator Lucas Maresca, explores some of the aftermath of the Fall of X. Without a majority of the X-Men around to maintain the dream prison holding the Children of The Vault (a group of superhuman conquerors who live in a place that time moves at a rate faster than Earth), they are free to conqueror the planet. Since a majority of telepaths were mutants, humanity is now vulnerable to a thought virus. The Children unleash an idea virus that spreads person to person which will kill 99 percent of humans while also converting the few survivors into new Children. They will win a war that most humans won’t even realize has begun.

 

Luckly there are two X-Men left who have a plan to stop them. Cable and Bishop. This is a buddy cop tale featuring the two X-Men from dystopian futures. They could not have more in common. They are both mutant soldiers who are determined to do whatever it takes to complete their mission. They do not have lines they won’t cross. They are not heroes. They are soldiers. They could not hate each other more.  They have a lot of bad blood and history between them. There was a whole thing that Bishop tried to murder Cable and a little girl he was protecting so they committed horrible crimes against each other. For example, Bishop would nuke a whole continent full of people to kill Cable while Cable would start a cult to murder Bishop.  That kind of thing causes issues between them. That’s just one of their problems with each other.

 

This is action miniseries where the buddy cops are insulting each other with shots about their history. There is plenty of action. The villains are interesting if not explored fully because this is only a four-issue series. The art is cool and depicts things well whether it is combat on the astral plane or being a man with his own hammer or deploying a black hole gun. This is a fun miniseries and a good way to learn more about Cable and Bishop. Two complicated mutant soldiers that have a lot of blood on their hands.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4atwxpI

 

 

My reading copy came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2024

Scott's Take: Jean Grey: Flames of Fear by Louise Simonson

Jean Grey: Flames of Fear by Louise Simonson, illustrated by Bernard Chang, is another Fall of X title dealing with Jean Grey who died at the Hellfire Gala, but is not gone completely. She is in between being alive and dead. In the first three issues, Jean Grey explores her past and sees what would have happened if she chose a different thing. In the fourth Jean reflects and decides what to do from here.

 

The art and the stories are excellent. But. one must be somewhat familiar with her history as a character to appreciate the stories. One example, is in the first issue that deals with the question -- what if Jean when she was a teen and the rest of the original X-Men that had been sent to the future did not have their memories of the future wiped from them and instead chose to keep those memories to change their present.

 

This was a good book even if the final issue connects to an Immortal X-Men Volume I have not read yet since it was not out as I was reading this. This is a good Jean series, but one would get the most out of it if they are familiar with the comic book character’s history.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TPZQ0f

My reading copy came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2024

Scott's Take: X-Men: Hellfire Gala: Fall of X by Gerry Duggan

X-Men: Hellfire Gala: Fall of X by Gerry Duggan collects the issues that compose the third Hellfire Gala book. This book kicks off the Fall of X books. The Fall of X is the banner name for a series of titles for the X-Men.  Since this is the beginning, there are a lot of plot points setup that are not finished here. In this story, the X-Men are hosting their third annual party trying to build relations between humans and mutants. Of course, things go horribly wrong for the X-Men.

 

There is plenty of gore, violence, and death as the party is ruined. Some big-name characters are killed along with several lower-level names. The big names of course will return quicker since they already have books set after the events depicted here. The art for the most part is spectacular in the main Hellfire Gala issue, the free comic book day issue, and the Iron Man issue.

 

However, the art is just adequate in the X-Men unlimited issues which are set before the gala. Marvel has a series of comics that are exclusive to their app Unlimited. In this case, the X-Men Unlimited issues are short stories that expand on minor plot points using lower tier art and lower tier, name recognition wise, writers. They don’t get the budget the main titles get.

 

Additionally, the prequels are presented in this collection after the main issue.  By doing it that way, the momentum of the collection is derailed. It also kills the idea of giving some character development to certain characters who are later killed.

 

Jean Grey is the highlight in this read, in my opinion, as she has some impressive moments. However, there are plenty of cool scenes for other characters such as Wolverine, Talon, Emma Frost, and Iron Man. The Kingpin (who has now joined the X-Men) also has a cool moment himself. Professor X is put through the ringer in this Gala. The villains are impressive and well prepared. They remain formidable foes as the X-Men are forced to go on the run.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this volume despite some hiccups in how Marvel chose to handle this story.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/43rPhUo

 

 

My reading copy came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2024