That really is some in-depth coverage. I'm sorry I didn't see it in the original thread. Prior to starting the Wein run in September, I'd never really read much of The Hulk. Now that I've ventured through my Hulk collection, I'm ready to read up on the rest and discuss.

A few things I've noted in your reviews: you mention at least two times The Hulk made a friend (though one ended up being The Leader) and that surprises me. I really thought Wein was the first to depict Hulk as anything other than driven by frustration, rage, and adrenaline.

But I also think our disagreement stems, in part, from differing interpretations of "being in a rut". For you, The Hulk was not in a rut because, as you wrote:



but it also seems that all that's happening in these issues is Hulk exchanging blows with one villain or another. I'll readily concede Trimp and some of the writers he worked with did this well and kept it interesting, but it still sounds like the same song and dance issue after issue, so while it may not have grown stale, per se, it still sounds like a "rut" to me in that the series wasn't moving forward in any particular direction.

I felt Wein really changed that by spending more time on The Hulk's characterization and not devoting the full issue to setting up the massive battle that would inevitably come by the close. Then again, I haven't read as many of these Pre-Wein issues as you have.

I started to read the Hulk when Mantlo took over circa #240 something or thereabouts and combined with Sal Buscema to me it's a great run. But then again I've never read any Hulk before Mantlo. I have all the Hulk issues from #251-467 and the only times i never really cared for it was the time between Mantlo's run ending and the beginning of PAD's run on the title. When Al Milgrom was writing. Now that was bad. Actually that's not true...there's probably about 20 issues or so in Peter David's run ruined by crossovers and the like and some atrocious art by Angel Medina and Mike Deodoto before he found his footing. I like John Bryne's 6 issue run too.

I really need to read some Stern and Wein.

X-Men: The X-Cutioner's Song



Uncanny X-Men #294-297
X-Factor #84-86
X-Men (vol. 2) #14-16
X-Force #16-18

writers: Scott Lobdell (Uncanny X-Men), Peter David (X-Factor), Fabian Nicieza (X-Men and X-Force)

pencilers: Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men), Jae Lee (X-Factor), Andy Kubert (X-Men), Greg Capullo (X-Force)

editor: Bob Harras


Overview:

Perhaps the best remembered of the mega inter-title X-Men crossovers in that it was both the largest at the time (12 chapters and an epilogue across four monthly titles) and produced at the height of the X-Men's popularity in 1992. And, unlike many of those other crossovers that came before and after, this one holds up remarkably well two decades later.

The plot, itself, is largely nonsensical and heavily borrowed from Fabian Nicieza's Kings of Pain crossover in the X Annuals a year earlier (the teams likened to pawns in some mysterious mastermind's game of chess, trotting the globe to solve a mystery, running into each other and first battling it out over a series of misunderstandings, but ultimately working together to learn that the real threat at the heart of the mystery is an unloved child throwing a super-powered tantrum. Yup, been there). And yet, it's not the plot that matters most in this crossover. Rather, it's the break-neck pacing, non-stop action and, most importantly, the human drama and interpersonal conflicts playing out through and between the scenes that really makes this one memorable. Whether Stryfe getting his first reunion with Scott Summers and Jean Grey, Cable, Bishop, and Wolverine male-bonding aboard Greymalkin, Archangel finally resolving his conflict with Apocalypse, or Jubilee teaching Professor X to roller blade, this storyline never forgets that characterization and human drama are the strong points of the X franchise.

From a personal standpoint, I only collected comics as an adolescent between the years of 1989 and 1994, getting out pretty much when everyone else did once the comic book industry had turned into an over-saturated speculators' market with no substance in sight. It was only when I was twenty two years old and home from college that I pulled out my old comic books, decided to re-read this storyline on a lark, and instantly became an adult comic book fan for life. Today, as I pulled these issues out once more, I worried that I wouldn't love this story as much upon re-reading it again nineteen years later and with a lot more maturity and familiarity with great comics on my side. While I can't say I loved the storyline in the way that I did the first time, I most definitely still enjoyed it, and that's more than I expected.



Worth Noting:

Since the franchise's resurrection in the mid-1970s, the X-titles have always been riddled with references to past continuity, and the X-Cutioner's Song is no exception. There's A LOT of backstory referenced across these thirteen chapters. If you've read little or no X stories prior to this, X-Factor #68, at minimum, is required reading for understanding all that happens here. Editor boxes and Wikipedia will likely guide you through the rest.

Though a point of obvious confusion in hindsight, the X-character known as The X-Cutioner does not appear in this storyline. His first appearance is still a year away. In fact, the title of this crossover comes off as arbitrary at best.

The X-factor chapters are, by far, the weakest of the series. Peter David clearly wants to continue to tell his own story, constantly bringing in B plots from his own title that have no bearing on the crossover, and his characters seem flat and unenthusiastic when dealing with the events of this one. Worse yet, Jae Lee's art is abysmally early 1990s, more concerned with having characters strike cool poses and creating artistic panels that make it impossible to understand who is saying or doing what, than actually moving the story forward. It's a continual and jarring disruption.


Worthwhile to read?:

Though I would argue the X-Men were a decade past their prime by this point, this mega crossover event encapsulates the best of what the X-franchises were in the early 1990s. This is a very good story, especially for a mega hyped crossover event, even in spite of its flaws.




Grade the run as a whole: B+

Most of the time, you could understand the basics by reading the editor boxes, but yeah -- they really really played to past continuity. I loved it back then. These days, even I (the continuity geek) sometimes find it excessive.

I don't have a full review or anything, but I just read Ditko's Shade the Changing Man #1-8. Man, he really just jumps into the action, right from page one. Decompression? For wusses. The book really felt like old school storytelling, even for the period in which it came out - and in a very good way. Everything was densely written - not just densely plotted, but dense characterization. And some really bizarre, weird ideas, like the identity of the big bad guy, which turns out to be redacted inside a giant smiley face robot. I'm sorry the series came to such an abrupt conclusion, it was starting to go in some unexpected directions.

Definitely worth the read, though I have to give it a grade of Incomplete given that it is literally that.

Dear lord, man. What are you on about. That's one of the worst superhero stories ever. It's like the X-Men version of the Crossing.

B+? It's an overlong barely coherent nonsense story with questionable art and scripting everywhere you look.

I have a nostalgic fondness for the era as a whole and there's a Nicieza story here or there around the time period I tend to enjoy (X-Men #33 for example is a guilty pleasure), but it's still a pretty bad era for X-Men, and that story is probably the worst of it.

As a general rule, all crossovers for X-Men are terrible. I'm a big fan of the Claremont era from beginning to end, except that I can't defend most of the crossovers. Mutant Massacre was good. Fall of the Mutants was good, but mainly because it was barely a crossover. Most of the rest I find indefensible. Inferno, X-Tinction Agenda, X-Cutioners Song, Phalanx Covenant, Operation: Zero Tolerance, etc etc.

My favorite is Fatal Attractions, but even that is really only because I like some particular moments, mostly in X-Men #25. As a whole, it's a bloody mess. X-Cutioners Song is even more of a mess.