Universe X Volume 2 TPB (New Printing): v. 2 [Paperback]

Rife with errors. Kingdom Come this is not.

I almost bluched at the mention of "meat shortages." Yeah, right everyone on earth has superpowers, and they just overcame Galactus and the Celestials but they're all going to die out because it's cold and there is a shortage of meat. Right...

Every charecter has become a caraciture of their former shelves, ignoring character development, and taking each character back to their roots.

1. Wow Jean Gray is once again dead (for the third time). What a surprise.

2. Silver Surfer once again gained and has lost Shalla-ball (for the 30th time). What a surprise. Don't worry, Norran. You'll get her back. You always do. You'd think you'd be used to it by now.

3. Thanos is once again in love with Death (He isn't any more), and look, his cosmic evil and nilhilism is revealed to be a result of mom issues and parental confusion. COME ON!!! Krauger turned one of the greatest monsters in literature into a baby that just wants his mother (carndinal sin in media, also used in "Alien: Resurection" and "the Ring II".)
Thanos killed his real mother (she wasn't a Skrull either), he did not mistake her for Death. He loved Death not as a mother, but as a lover, unless Krauger's getting into some weird incestual disorder. Either way its wrong, and out of character for Thanos.

4. Captain America's entire life is shattered when he kills Red Skull just to shut him up, and his origins are revealed to be Nazi science. That wouldn't shatter Captain America and it fails to shock the reader as well. Science is science. That in itself cannot be evil. Even if Captain America was created through Nazi science, that doesn't tarnish his deeds, which included aiding in the defeat of the Nazis, so he should be happy that he used their own weapon against them.

5. Peter Parker just can't get rid of the alien suit AGAIN. Can writers please just drop it already.

6. And Mephisto has been reduced to being the first mutant/deviant, instead of a being of cosmic evil, just as disappointing as revealing the Beyonder to be a cosmic cube (which was again retro-conned as him being an Innhuman).

7. Oh, and Eternity is dead. Again retarded. Eternity has been around since the Big Bang, and then just happened to die around the 20th century from unrelated causes when bad things are happening on Earth. What are the odds? Just because if bad things are happening on Earth, that dosen't mean things are bad for the universal embodiment. I'm pretty sure the death of Eternity would result in the end of everything, including Earth, so he cannot be dead. If would be like mankind being wiped out in a nuclear war, and then the sun going nova as a result.

"Universe X, Volume 2" is the second half of the middle part of the "X" trilogy created by writers Alex Ross and Jim Krueger. If you have not read "Earth X" and "Universe X Volume 1," then you have no reason to pick up this trade paperback collection because you will be completely lost as to why Peter Parker is a policeman, T'Challa is half-man and half-panther, Thor is a woman, and dozens of other twists on the regular Marvel Universe. This volume collects "Universe X" #8-12, "Universe X: X," "Universe X: Beasts," "Universe X: Iron Men," and the "Universe X Omnibus." Now, the whole idea of the "X" saga is to really go out on a limb with the Marvel Universe, but by the time we get to these stories we are way out there and I do not think the branches are capable of supporting the weight.

In terms of what has happened in the first half of the "Universe X" story the big problem is that because the Celestial embryo is gone the mass of the Earth is reduced, which causes shifts in both polarity and orbit resulting in catastrophic climate changes. Meanwhile, the Tong of Creel is running around collecting the pieces of the Absorbing Man, Pope Immortus has founded a church advocating mutant rule, and Captain America ends up sacrificing his life to save the Mar-Vell child. In the wake of Cap's death, the superheroes that remain on Earth are following the reborn Captain Mar-Vell in his quest to bring an end to Death. At this point memories of various stories in which Death dies and human existence becomes much worse, immortality aside, and I am reading everything with one eyebrow arched. But killing Death actually matters more for the dead, who are still "alive" as far as they know, then it does for the living, who all have superpowers because of the Terrigen Mists that Reed Richards is trying to negate with his string of "Human Torches."

I read one issue a night in this collection to get a sense of each story on its own and re-create how it came out originally, where you could not race through the entire thing in one sitting. But by this time in the sage the weight of everything is achieving an escalating sense of pomposity (I only made things worse because every time I picked up this book my inner voice would announce, "And now more deep thoughts..."). Beyond that, the effort to account for seemingly everyone and everything in the Marvel Universe is complicating the narrative at an exponential rate. On balance, what was happening with the traditional Marvel villains (Loki, Doctor Doom, Thanos, etc.), was proving to be more interesting than what was happening with the heroes. Ultimately the focal character here become the Absorbing Man, and why it was rather intriguing that because of his powers it is Crusher Creel who becomes the most dangerous person on the planet. But when we get to the end game here and how the Absorbing Man becomes the solution instead of the problem, I was taken to the comic books of my youth where all sorts of outlandish things happened (albeit, not in the Marvel Universe, if you get my drift), which is not a good thing.

The "X" trilogy concludes in the two parts of "Paradise X," which will be republished as trade paperbacks in the future and I am going to see how this one plays out. Given what happens at the conclusion of "Universe X" I can readily understand how a paradise will need be created, and I hold out hope that I will better appreciate the direction Ross and Krueger take the story and their characters. I may well end up limiting my recommendation to just "Earth X" by the time I have read the entire saga, but I am not there quite yet. In the afterword to this collection, Ross revels in the carte blanche they had in these comic books to play with the characters in the Marvel Universe to their heart's content (and beyond). Once you buy into that idea I think you are ultimately doomed, because when it comes to alternative reality comic book stories I would once again take refuge in the commonplace that less is more.

The Celestial at the heart of the Earth is dead, and a war now rages on the planet. The human population is now mutated and empowered, and looking to take over from their guardian heroes.

Mephisto is at the heart of this, but Captain Mar-vell is leading a revolution, and looking to bring an end to Death.