Didn't people love X-Force back when it started, too? I wonder if this version will wind up like its predecessor as "the weakest book of the X-books line" in another year or so...
To be fair, when "Team Stabby" first debuted, I recalled that reviews were more mixed.
I can understand some hesitancy towards certain characters. Fantomex never thrilled me...Deadpool has gotten way too hyped...Archangel and Psylocke haven't been interesting for YEARS...Wolverine is ...well, Wolverine. But, Remender made them all pretty darn interesting.
Dread, I guess I still don't understand it. If this came from a regular comic fan, I might a bit more; but, from someone else who does reviews, it just seems a bit hypocritical to say "you guys should really try a book, like Dynamo 5;" but, refuse to listen to what anyone else hypes. Last week, you gave a good excuse on a title that might have been going for a while; but, here is a where you can get on the ground floor...and, at least give a first issue a try. If after the first issue, you still feel the same about those characters, I'd understand. (And, it's almost not as much about the characters, but the person writing them.)
It's probably gonna be one of those "agree to disagree" points. It just peeves me (just a tiny bit..nothing that significant) that I'd check out a book that you told me was good, but you wouldn't do the same. I mean, I wouldn't have considered going back to Dynamo 5 if you didn't keep saying each month (well, longer than "each month," since the title used to be so late) how good it was.
I operate on a limited budget. I don't have enough disposable income to spend on too may "new" titles. Therefore, if I do hop on something new I try to make sure it is something I am fairly certain I am going to like. Yes, reviews from others help, but I also need some dose of incentive besides that. A fondness for a character, or the writer, especially. To be honest, the only name from UNCANNY X-FORCE I heard that sparked any interest in me was the artist, Opena. He drew the first six issues of VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT and it was a shame to see him leave that book; however, it's probable he left so he could get a few issues of this into the can (I assume), which is likely much higher profile work for him.
Remender isn't a writer I've read anything from and he's not attracted much buzz for me. All I know of him is he was the "Franken-Castle" guy, which was...well, something else I didn't read, but I found the idea very absurd. On the one hand, turning the Punisher into the Frankenstein's monster sort of implies there is nothing else to do with him. On the other hand...given all the stories he's had over the years, which included turning into a black man as well as an angel (in that order), maybe there WAS nothing else to do with him. But besides that, I've never read anything he's done.
Which leaves the franchise and the characters. I've never read any incarnation of X-Force. Especially not the prior volume that came before this. I haven't bought and read an X-Men comic since the end of Joss Whedon's run on ASTONISHING X-MEN. I certainly haven't read any of the Messiah Complex/Messiah War/Second Coming stuff. I have no interest in any of the characters. Wolverine, Deadpool, Fantomex, Archangel, and Psylocke could all be sacrificed in a Bendis issue of AVENGERS in the most ridiculous manner possible and I can't say I would care (even if of course Wolverine and Deadpool are effectively immortal, and even Psylocke came back from the dead).
I'd argue it's much easier jumping onto something like DYNAMO 5 than it is an X-Book out of the blue. For one thing, D5 doesn't take itself as seriously. For the other, it doesn't have as much continuity behind it. It's not that I don't take the recommendations of others seriously; I do. My local shop certainly ordered enough copies of UNCANNY X-FORCE this week that I am certain they'll have unsold copies next week if my curiosity gets the better of me. But this would be a case in which the recommendations of people online is LITERALLY the ONLY thing I have looking forward to the book. That and the artist. Nothing else is anything I have any confidence in, and when a debut is $3.99, it has to not simply be good under those circumstances. It has to be "knock me off my ass" awesome. And that's a bar that sometimes even writers I do like struggle to attain. I used to like Matt Fraction, but his INVINCIBLE IRON MAN is on a week-to-week basis for me, and he has one (and perhaps only one) arc to keep me on THOR. I like Brubaker on CAPTAIN AMERICA, but his first arc on SECRET AVENGERS was far from his best and he has only one more to keep me. And those are both titles were I have interest in the characters, too.
Next week, especially, is a $30 comic book week, which for me is a lot. It'll be $27 if I can kick INVINCIBLE IRON MAN to the curb, which I probably should, but habit and the last issue finally being good may keep me until the arc finishes, whenever that is. But as an example, two books that I am getting next week were newer stuff that I tried because of some tangible interest. INVADERS NOW! is very much a continuation of Alex Ross' AVENGERS/INVADERS and THE TORCH. I read one issue of the latter and didn't think it was good enough for $4 a pop. So why did I try INVADERS NOW? Yes, there are characters like James Barnes, Spitfire, and Union Jack that I like. But the major factor was Christos Gage writing; he's rarely off his game and he didn't disappoint. Another is SHADOWLAND: BLOOD ON THE STREETS. Pretty much the only one of the creative team I knew of going in was Wellington Alves, who drew NOVA and WAR OF KINGS: ASCENSION so I knew his art would be good; but art alone isn't enough to try a book blind. No, I gave it a chance because it had the Shroud in it, a D-List character I happen to like. If UNCANNY X-FORCE had even that, one D-Lister I cared about, I might be more willing to go with the flow and try it. It isn't like I hate Deadpool, I can only tolerate him in about one issue every few months, at best, before he annoys the spit out of me. I'm a recovering Wolverine fan-boy (from about age 10-18 I liked him, but once I hit my 20's, I'd had my fill), but these days I usually can't stand him and, like Deadpool, I can only take him in doses (such as the bi-monthly ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE). Archangel and Psylocke are characters that at best I tolerated and never liked; the former has often been a poster child for x-treme 80's angst and I never liked his metal wing/blue skin era (and the fact that he can swap between that and feather form is silly even for the X-Men). Which leaves Fantomex, and I know I've preached about giving "new" characters a chance, at least if you assume a character made in '02 is still "new", but I can't think of one detail about him that caught my interest, not even from his Handbook Bio.
I have a very tight budget for comics. You have a looser one, given as you can buy most of what both the big two put out and apparently still pay utilities. It's a different situation. It may seem hypocritical, but I sort of see it as being prudent.
(Also, given that DYNAMO 5 sells, quite literally, towards the bottom of the Top 300, it probably needs every reader more than UNCANNY X-FORCE.
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