X-Men Legends. At first glance, the title is a little confusing. Are the stories legendary, or the creators involved? The answer is a little bit of both. The stated mandate of X-Men Legends as a series is to tell X-Men stories set in various classic eras of the characters’ long history, designed to stoke nostalgia for and featuring creators with a previous connection to the era in question. Furthermore, the tales are set between specific issues, and though they are “legendary,” Marvel assured fans that these stories “count” from a continuity perspective: they are not Elseworlds or What Ifs? or Imaginary Tales. Instead, these are stories meant to reveal new information about the past.
X-Men Legends Vol. 1: The Missing Links collects the first six issues of the twelve-issue miniseries, but as of this writing, the series’ eighth issue has been published, with the general plots and creative teams involved for the remaining four issues all announced. So let’s dig into the series thus far and see how well it meets its mandate as a vehicle for nostalgia, a celebration of beloved creators, and a reinterpretation of past continuity. [Read more…] about X-Men Legends Vol. 1 Review!
. Clint’s entrance into super-heroism was essentially an effort in trying to prove himself, combined with good intentions gone wrong. Upon witnessing the teched-out Iron Man save the day at the very circus he performs at, Clint becomes adamant that his talents in archery and swordsmanship could allow him to become a superhero too. Overnight, the teenage archer creates his own superhero persona -‘Hawkeye’- complete with a cowled costume and an array of hand-made trick arrows. Clint was ready to show the world that you didn’t have to be poisoned by Gamma or fitted with state-of-the-art technology to be a hero.
is that it is a ruin. It’s a six issue miniseries stretched out into nine issues, and it shows. There are several points in the narrative where it’s clear that the wheels are spinning, everyone’s just waiting to get to the bit where Wally West confesses everything. I’m tempted to argue that the series would have been better suited for a more Columbo-esque structure where the reader is aware of who did it and the rest of the series is spent finding out why, rather than having that why provided over the course of an issue long monologue.