Comic Vine Review

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Uncanny X-Men #11

3

Cyclops and the X-Men come together to take on the Blockbuster Sentinel.

The Good

Cyclops and his team of X-Men take on the Blockbuster Sentinel, which is the toughest of the sentinels so far. Can they come together to defeat it?

Frazer Irving's art is beautiful throughout this issue. Flatout, the best art of the week. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but his use of color and shading is brilliant. He really has a way with invoking emotion in the reader as we watch these characters struggle. He's great at capturing these moments-in-time and making the reader feel like they're right there. He's wonderful with putting these panels together to tell a compelling story as well.

The flat out best part of this book is the reveal page. It took a while to register (spoilers ahead) because that character behind it all look so darn familiar, but I couldn't place them, so I researched real quick. It's a character from the Finch variant cover of NEW AVENGERS #1 from 2005. Many will remember this character because it never appeared in any issue, only on this one variant cover. Pretty brilliant move.

The Bad

Frazer Irving is one heck of a talented artist with a very distinct style. Brian Michael Bendis is one heck of a writer with his own distinct style. The problem is that these styles clash and don't work on this book. Irving's art is darker and a bit gritty and pretty serious. Bendis, on the other hand, weaves a lot of fun into his stories and isn't afraid to throw a joke or two around. Together, it simply doesn't work. Now, there are times where Irving's art really drives a great point across, like anytime the reader sees the Blockbuster Sentinel, it comes off as incredibly stoic and intimidating, but all that goes away when Fabio yells out "Gold balls!"

There's an artist switch up in this book as well, Kris Anka does a few pages, and while Anka's art fits Bendis' writing style a bit more (I'm assuming the Madripoor pages are Anka) it's a bit of a throw off. Switching up artists for a few pages needs to have meaning, and here it's just to travel around the globe. Personally, I'd rather just one of these talented artists do it all themselves.

Frankly, the issue was just "meh." It was a David and Goliath tale without the suspense or intrigue. And while the ending of the issue, with that fantastic reveal page, catches the reader's attention, it wasn't enough to make up for the rest issue.

The Verdict

UNCANNY X-MEN #11 is a visually stunning book with an ok story. The biggest problem here just lies within the fact the art and the writing mesh poorly and there's an art switch-up for a few pages within the middle of the book. The reveal page here is the big kicker, which will really get you excited for future story lines, including the upcoming "Battle of the Atom" story line. This is not a bad book by any means. It's just another down the middle of the road issue.

20 Comments

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Overlander

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Edited By Overlander

I 100% agree with the story + art mesh. Get Bachalo back.

Bendis was also improving in his ability to write Emma, but that all falls apart in this issue. Scott's internal voice is interesting, but he kinda felt inconsistent in this issue...despite the things that go wrong for him.

The Stepford Cuckoos were still spot on.

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Trevel8182

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EvilPenguin543

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I personally preferred the book when Bachalo was on it. Irving's art is a bit off-putting for me and as you said, doesn't really mesh with Bendis's style.

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Noteworthington

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Edited By Noteworthington

I don't have much of an opinion on Bendis and his writing style, and as such I don't find a huge mismatch between writing and art. I think most of this is in the eye of the beholder, and I enjoyed the issue sans any perceived conflict. =)

More specifically, I don't much care for these artists, or Bachalo, so I'm likely more focused on the overall plot. =P

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owie

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owie  Moderator

So....who the hell is that guy, then?

The biggest problem I had is that this sentinel didn't seem any different from any other sentinel. They're all adaptive, they all survive lots of attacks. It didn't have any more creative or unusual attributes than anything else. Honestly they haven't ever topped Nimrod's classic fight with the X-men and Hellfire club in Central Park for pure awesome sentinel adaptiveness and creativity and power.

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knighthood

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Edited By knighthood

Yeah this issue was kinda lackluster. Irving's art was even off a bit. I don't have a clue who the guy in the variant is.

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knighthood

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judasnixon

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Edited By judasnixon

Oh man is that a Phil Noto cover?

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sparty-dbq

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Yeah, some leader Scott is, right? His spends the whole friggin' issue monologueing, while his mostly untrained students fought the destructive killer robot.

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JohnnyGat

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I liked the issue, I liked it simply because it gave almost everyone a moment to shine to see everyone apply their skills in a tense moment. Art as far as I'm concerned didn't exactly fit perfectly in this issue I still thought it was nice means of making a rather gloomy monologue of Cyke blend with the style.

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kai200995

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This was a action packed issue,dialogue is at minimum, which mean the character's actions and reactions are their only form of development, which showed a lot. Fabio accepted his abilities, Emma without her telepathy now plays team muscle, and the team itself is in sync due to them accepting their circumstances. The art is as brilliant as the writing, Irving really know how to express emotion which supports Cyclops monologue. With that being said I don't agree with the complaining of the art and story mash up.

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akbogert

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Edited By akbogert

This was a action packed issue,dialogue is at minimum, which mean the character's actions and reactions are their only form of development, which showed a lot. Fabio accepted his abilities, Emma without her telepathy now plays team muscle, and the team itself is in sync due to them accepting their circumstances. The art is as brilliant as the writing, Irving really know how to express emotion which supports Cyclops monologue. With that being said I don't agree with the complaining of the art and story mash up.

Yeah, this is a lot closer to the way I interpreted the issue. I thought it was a fantastic transition for all the new kids, and actually cheered for Fabio. I can appreciate the review's point but I just definitely don't agree with it.

Side note: loved the cover.

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lykopis

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I agree with this review -- it came off as run of the mill for me -- nothing made me ooh or aah and the points about the writing not meshing with the art is spot on -- what should have come across as hilarious was ...not. Plus -- the grittier, darker imagery didn't match the very poignant commentary of Cyclops as he watched his team go to battle with the sentinel -- the art was too cold - it failed to compliment the story.

Still, not awful and I am relieved one of the Cuckoos was a brunette (something that was not true at the end of the previous issue which was glaring) but like the issues before this, not much happened in this issue. Just an introspective Cyclops. What might have been intended (a deeper understanding of Cyclops) didn't really happen and left me more confused than anything.

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tximinoman

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I actually loved the art and thought it went along with the story pretty well. It's an issue about a sentinel attack in the first pro-mutant rally ever with the weakest x-team now fighting for everyone's life, and it's being told from Scott Summers perspective who, right now, is pretty fucked up, so, yeah, I think this obscure nearly abstract art fits really well with that idea, it really gives you the feeling of how bad this situation is in Cyclops mind. The Goldballs thing might seem out of tone with this gritty art but, again, this is Cyclops perspective, he has nothing to do with the 16 year old kid that shoots gold balls, and you can really belive (for what they have shown about that character so far) that he would say such a lame quote.

But that's my opinion I guess, clearly I might be one of the few who actually enjoy it :)

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jonesy10

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@overlander: Yes, Bendis' handle on Emma has always been shaky. He's not really witty or clever writer. I don't like how he handles the Cuckoos either

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jonesy10

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Edited By jonesy10

This issue did seem a little off, artwork wise. It certainly doesn't stand up to the quality that Irving has displayed in the earlier stories. The Anka pages were terrible imo, like some bad Saturday morning cartoon imo

The main problem with Bendis' run is this constant stalling. He works very slowly to get to a payoff that is generally underwhelming. I also can't get over his lackluster characterizations for the new mutants. Not only are most of their powers lame, but they have one note personalities. 11 issues in and we know nothing about them personally. I also hate Magneto's costume (and why is he bald?)

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mickeymayhew

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@owie said:

So....who the hell is that guy, then?

The biggest problem I had is that this sentinel didn't seem any different from any other sentinel. They're all adaptive, they all survive lots of attacks. It didn't have any more creative or unusual attributes than anything else. Honestly they haven't ever topped Nimrod's classic fight with the X-men and Hellfire club in Central Park for pure awesome sentinel adaptiveness and creativity and power.

wow that takes me back! when Nimrod killed half the Hellfire Club and Rachel left the X-Men; you actually felt like stuff was happening and it mattered!

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owie

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owie  Moderator

@owie said:

So....who the hell is that guy, then?

The biggest problem I had is that this sentinel didn't seem any different from any other sentinel. They're all adaptive, they all survive lots of attacks. It didn't have any more creative or unusual attributes than anything else. Honestly they haven't ever topped Nimrod's classic fight with the X-men and Hellfire club in Central Park for pure awesome sentinel adaptiveness and creativity and power.

wow that takes me back! when Nimrod killed half the Hellfire Club and Rachel left the X-Men; you actually felt like stuff was happening and it mattered!

Yeah, that was definitely the gold standard.

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G_Money_Christmas

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Did anyone else notice the ghost Rider mention? Are they going to bring him back to marvel?

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Solarflare32

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Anyone think the villian is the Shadow king in omega whites body.