X-Statix Omnibus

[Michael V. Bramley]

Hey, I know it's not exactly new, but it's sort of new to me. I was wondering how many other people picked up the recent omnibus edition of X-Statix. I'm about halfway through this behemoth and it's well worth the money and the time.

This is the perfect X-book for people who are bored of X-Men. It's plucked straight from my favourite era of X-Men comics, back when Morrison was blazing a trail with his fresh science-fiction-heavy run on New X-Men and editorial were trying hard to push books in innovative directions. Things were glorious for a brief, bright time - then that milk suddenly soured. Originality waved a white flag and it was back to basics.

X-Statix (for those of you who don't know) was less about mutants as outcasts and more about mutants as celebrities and media-darlings. That may sound sort of unspeakable, but consider this; they are a team of people who aren't fighting crime for good, or for evil, they're fighting for fame. They're a bunch of self-centred narcissistic, backstabbing assholes who will do anything to get their faces on television, or their names in the gossip columns. It's like a glorious car crash you can't look away from, being filmed by a small, amorphous green blob with eyes. How can you resist?

I hear Jonathan Ross has an upcoming book exploring the idea of reality show contestants as superheroes, but that's already happened.

What are your thoughts?

[Colin YNWA]

Absolutely love X-Statix (X-Force). One of the mighty Milligan's finest and I'd recommend it to anyone who'll listen. Absolutely glorious art across the board too.

[Michael V. Bramley]

Right, I mean - I'm a huge fan of Allred's art, but I never knew Paul Pope had work in there until I picked this omnibus up. His issue is stunning. Not to mention Darwyn Cooke's stuff on the Wolverine/Doop mini. Beautiful!

[TordelBack]

Didn't know Paul Pope was in there either - he's one of my all-time favourites.  May have to track that down.

[Michael V. Bramley]

Yeah, he only did one issue though, I think. It was one of the 'FANBOY' issues.

[Greg M.]

Yeah, it's X-Statix #5 - the one where they're all hiding in the toilet to discuss how to deal with the Mysterious Fanboy, due to some gloriously contrived reason involving Doop and confined spaces. I remember that issue very fondly... the first four X-Statix issues had been good but not as strong as the final X-Force arc, but #5 was absolutely superb. The bit where they have to leave a restaurant early and Fanboy hasn't had his creme brulee - he's told that he's in X-Statix now, and these are the kind of sacrifices you have to make. Extremely funny.

[Michael V. Bramley]

Yes! That was genius. I had to show my wife those panels to explain what I was talking about.

That whole issue was some of the best work I've ever seen from Pope. The colours were great. I wish he did more superhero books.

[Gibson Quarter]

Reading this thread means that I'll have to pull out all my single issues and read them again. I loved this series when it came out the first time.