Comics this week

Uncanny X-Men #1- There are a few rules you have to follow when it’s the first issue of a new series. You need to introduced the characters, you need to show what the series is about, you need to show why the characters are doing what they are doing, and you need to do all these in an entertaining manner. It's hard and unfortunately I do not believe writer Kieron Gillen managed to do it in Uncanny X-Men #1. Gillen tried to cram all the information in the first half of the issue and then have a fight against Sinister in the second half. However by trying to do too much, he succeed in neither. The main problem for me is the fact that Cyclops' plan to be both superheroes as well as weapons of mass destruction was given short shift in this issue. I mean if he is going to call a meeting of all the big guns of the mutant race, the least he should do is to tell them what actions they are allowed to do to act as deterrent right? I mean there are guys like Magneto and Namor at the table, people who think nothing of killing a couple of hundred people to get their message across. You are going to tell them to be weapons of mass destruction but not tell them what they can’t do? I would much rather Gillen skip the fight in the latter half of the book and concentrated on how the team would function. Lucky for us, artist Carlos Pacheco did a great job to (almost) save the issue. Pacheco captures the characters well and make the action sequences exciting. It’s just too bad Gillen's script trying to do too much.

Villains for Hire #0.1- Writers Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning had a short, forgettable and unsuccessful run at Heroes for Hire earlier this year. Now they are back but with a tweak in the series. Instead of heroes for hires, it is now villains for hire. I dig this. The concept of villains being up for hire works perfectly (much better than the concept of heroes for hire) and having a villain like The Purple Man as the main man pulling the strings is a great idea. Abnett & Lanning picked the correct villain for the job and this prologue fill me with excitement; something Heroes for Hire never did. This is one reader looking forward to the series.