Monthly (Comic) Book Club - January - Nyx20298
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dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
Monthly (Comic) Book Club - January - Nyx Nyx #1-7 Week 1 (1/2-1/8): Nyx #1-2 Week 2 (1/9-1/15): Nyx #3-4 Week 3 (1/16-1/23): Nyx #5-7 Discussion topic ideas: * Thoughts on the story or artwork * Details in the story, artwork, or presentation * References to outside events or other works of fiction * Making of/Behind the Scenes details * Editions you will be reading from * Items in your collection pertaining to this week’s selection |
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 Staple topics, nice.
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makahuka private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I have a few singles, maybe I can dig them out. | ||
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I’ll be reading from Nyx/X-23 hardcover which collects the Nyx and original X-23 mini series |
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 If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| I'm going to try to take pictures of my X-23 stuff today, and hopefully start in on the reading. Have to take my usual Sunday afternoon trip to the LCS first. | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Wolverine was always my favorite character, because I was an 80s kid like everyone else. So when they introduced Laura/X-23, and she stuck around enough to have her own series and so on, I was excited because I thought it was an opportunity to have someone as cool as Wolverine but without all the baggage. Different villains, not flashing back to the tube at the Weapon X facility, maybe a little less morose. Not that I don't still like Wolvie but sometimes the cycle gets a little old. They've been somewhat successful in doing that with Laura. Her origin is basically the Weapon X story, with her being raised and trained by some shadowy group that just wants an assassin, not a person. Some of the storylines in her series are explicit callbacks to Wolverine stories, like Enemy of the State. But she has some different stuff as well like her 'sister' (a clone of her) Gabby and (usually) a different personality. Currently she's kind of just another X-Man, being a primary character in X-Men but not really getting a lot of character development. Hopefully she gets another series or takes more of the center stage soon. I really liked what they did with her in the movie Logan and that gave her some more prominence. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| For issues 1 through 5, I'm reading my Marvel Must Haves copies. 6 and 7 I should have loose somewhere. 1 is mostly a day in the life of Kiden Nixon. She's a cop's daughter but he's shot on the street in front of her as a kid and things don't turn out so well. Come high school, she's taking drugs (sold by her brother) and sneaking cigarettes from her mom and the local corner store guy who already gives her free stuff. She gets into a thing with a guy on the playground, which turns into a fight at school. Something happens where everyone stops moving except Kiden, and when she pokes Hector's arm it breaks. This doesn't really feel like a Marvel book, given the content. There's one mention of Charles Xavier and then the weird event at the end. So that's a change of pace. I think the art is fine. This series brought Josh Middleton to my awareness and I really like some of his covers. For the interiors I don't think anything is wrong per se but the style/look is not 100% my cup of tea. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 2 follows up with Hector trying to get his revenge. Things at Kiden's house are still crappy, and when she goes to school Hector tries to shoot her. Time stops again and Kiden is excited until it starts again and her teacher was shot instead. Fast forward six months and Kiden ran off while Cameron has been home and hasn't gone back to teach. Kiden comes into her house for some reason and finds her after a suicide attempt. I think the second issue clarified for me that my problem with the art is that it seems very bright and saturated while the story is very grim and unhappy. It feels like a mismatch. Nothing is wrong per se though. My only actual complaint so far is that at the beginning of the issue I had no idea the woman in bed was the teacher. School shootings and inner city violence were not new but also still shocking when this came out in 2003. There had been shootings before Columbine but that was the first time I remember it being a huge thing, and that was 1999. From wikipedia's count, there were 100 school shootings across the 90s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States_(before_2000)#1990s) and 80 across the 2000s. Then there were 260 in the 2010s and 169 already in the 2020s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States_(2000%E2%80%93present)#2000s). It's scary for me to see it portrayed in the book. I've spent a lot of time in schools and have thankfully never felt close to an event. These days a school shooting is old hat though and we have things like this  |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Here are pics of some of my X-23 stuff. I don't have everything she's ever been in (like Uncanny X-Force) but I have all of her individual series and she's a favorite for finding a cool variant. I asked a local artist to update a couple of my favorite Uncanny X-Men covers. This is 168 with X-23  and the backside is 173 with Gabby and Jonathan the wolverine.  Some variants from various series   All-New Wolverine 1 variants. I also have X-23 #1 variants but they aren't as exciting.  One of my favorite variants, from the All-New Wolverine run, because this is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about with having Wolverine without the baggage.  NYX 3 and a rare X-23 variant. I think the only one of note I don't have is the Djurdjevic variant, which is rarer than the Dell'Otto.  A poster by the same guy who did the 168/173 homage.  A couple of variants that aren't the most expensive but I happened to buy slabbed, and a sketch that was my first commissioned art. It's meant to be an updated version of the NYX 3 cover   And my most recent sketch, by Criss Madd  |
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dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I don’t have a ton of X-23 stuff. Scattered issues mostly. I had these two but they were stolen while in possession of an AW   Fortunately they did replace the book and threw in some free signatures on top it  |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Glad they did right by you! I would've been furious. | ||
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| Honestly, I was scared for a second because I couldn’t remember if Nyx was written by Brian Michael Bendis or by someone else. Thankfully I was remembering incorrectly (I might have been thinking of Alias) and it was Joe Quesada, who I usually like and that holds true with issue #1. In a way, I kind of agree with you about the book feeling like a Marvel book but I also disagree. I agree that the content is a bit edgier than we might be used to from a mainline Marvel book but Joe Quesada did spearhead the edgier Marvel Knights push not too long before this book was published and I think the issue wouldn’t be terribly out of place in the MAX line, which was started just a few years before. I also think that it is fairly standard in structure to a lot of Marvel origin stories for their less (relatively) fantastical characters like Spider-Man. The world they inhabit is very grounded and familiar until something changes for the main character. I think Quesada did a great job of writing that kind of edgy and rough high school experience that, if not normal, certainly has recognizable elements for someone growing up in the era. I think he was able to create a high school environment that feels authentic and dangerous. I also think Quesada’s dialogue also holds up well enough. The art, I don’t think has aged that well. The line work isn’t bad but it is very simple and the coloring has that very unimpressive, flat, digital look a lot of comics had at the time. |
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| For me the issue with the art isn’t so much a mismach with the tone of the writing. It is that very simple look combined with a very flat color scheme. I had similar issue with the art in Invincible, which had come out just before this book. In Invincible’s case, I think the characters had some easily distinguishable features that made them easier to recognize through the art style. Here, all the characters are supposed to be average, everyday girls so Kiden’s big distinguishing feature is that she’s blonde. As far as the story goes, I think Quesada maintains that feeling of authenticity, as painful as it is to see. Stan Lee was quoted as saying “Marvel Comics is the world outside your window” and we see a lot of that world reflected in this book, as uncomfortable as it may be. One thing that probably hasn’t aged so well is the school being named after Rudy Giuliani. |
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| Issue 3 introduces X-23, but I don’t think she’s ever referred to by a name (maybe Zebra?) I think Quesada worked in Wolverine’s catch phrase well in introducing her. A big focus in this issue is the underground sex industry and how dangerous it is for the women trapped in it. Be it from pimps or clients. Kiden was able to get to Ms Palmer in time and after some time in the hospital is recovering. I did think it was a little bit weird that she wouldn’t hear out Kiden when she tried to tell her that she was a mutant. Sure the setting has been fairly mundane but it’s not like mutants are unknown or anything. It turns out that Kiden may have another ability including her super speed/time altering powers when she is given X-23’s location, presumably the same way she knew where to find Ms Palmer. |
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| Issue 4 is mostly a flashback showing what Kiden was up to in the six months she was missing. I gotta say, the art for the flashback segment really stepped it up. I wod’ve loved it if the entire book were illustrated in that style but alas it was only temporary. We don’t know what to make of Kiden’s visions of her dad. Are they her dad sending her messages or is it the manifestation of another mutant power? Why are the visions guiding Kiden to these different people? I’m definitely curious to see where things go. The issue introduces a new character, Kara. She’s a hard, honest working young girl who loves animals but has a bit of a rough home life. Her story’s not yet connected with Kiden’s but as the issue ends with a vision of Kiden’s dad we can probably assume Kiden’s going to see her next…and that something’s going to go horribly wrong for someone |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite Yeah, that's a factor too. Maybe a bit like Phil Noto, although I can almost always immediately tell when Noto did the art. His flatness is very distinctive to me for whatever reason. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| As mentioned, #3 introduces X-23 but she's never named. Zebra Daddy is the pimp. There are some hints before the last-page reveal though, like Wolverine's catchphrase and her cuts looking like X's. But it's pretty subtle without the benefit of hindsight. I think this issue starts to move away from the grounded nature we mentioned in the first two issues. It's still pretty gritty (although I feel like things are maybe getting a little close to stereotype), but now Kiden is getting dream messages from her dead father. Cam's reaction to Kiden thinking she's a mutant did seem over the top. Maybe she just deals with a lot more kids saying crazy stuff about why fairly normal things happen. Not that her being shot at school is normal, but hopefully I made sense. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I agree about preferring the flashback art to the current-time art. It's more pencil-y and textured. That said, I'm not sure the flashbacks do much for the story besides tell us that Kiden spent more time in the past than she was actually missing (since she slowed time quite a bit), and that she learned a bit about how to control her power. Issue 4 also introduces Tatiana, who has kind of a Disney princess vibe. All the people she interacts with love her, she sings on her walk home, and she's surrounded by animals. Her mom seems mean, too. | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| The Marvel Must Haves puts issues 4 and 5 together, so I'm reading 5 early and will finish with 6 and 7. 5 reveals that Tatiana is a kind of were-mutant, able to turn into an animal form if she touches blood. It happens involuntarily at school and she's chased by mutant-hating students. Tipped off by a vision of her dad, Kiden, Cam, and X-23 are there to help recover her. I assume because there are only two issues in the 'collection', there are some sketches added on at the end. Nothing especially illuminating, although there are some characters and covers shown for 6 and 7. It does include some of the penciled (i.e., pre ink and color) pages though, and I would say those look fine. I think the colors are largely to blame for the look we disapprove of. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| #6 mostly follows Felon, a guy that Zebra called in to try to find X-23. He has the ability to possess people although it apparently causes him some memory issues. Meanwhile, the ladies are out on the streets and don't seem to have much of a plan, and Cameron is taking it out on Kiden. At the end of the issue, Felon sees Kiden's dad, so he apparently isn't just a Kiden thing. Next issue is the last one, and it seems like it would be tough to wrap everything up. We'll see how it pans out. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| #7 gets to the fireworks factory with a big confrontation between Zebra and everyone else. Kiden realizes that Zebra is the same guy who shot her father years ago and saves Cameron, and X-23 does X-23 stuff. It turns out that Kiden's visions were actually from Felon's little brother, who has some kind of mental powers despite appearing locked in or autistic. And everyone decides to wander off together. I think this was fine but not great. I think it went for the "things wrap up a little too tidily" angle at the end. Some of the characters felt more like caricatures. But it could have been worse. As far as X-23 goes, she appears next in Uncanny X-Men 450, which was published a couple months after this series ended. That moved her into the X-Men world and she never looked back. There was a second NYX series in 2008 but I don't think she appears in it, and I can't remember Kiden or the others showing up in an X book that I've read. |
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| I enjoyed the series for the most part. I gotta admit that I wasn’t sure how to interpret what was happening with Felon’s brother. At the end I thought it was Kiden’s dad possessing his body for some reason. Your interpretation does make more sense. I don’t have a problem with things working out nicely but I’m on the fence about whether or not the series could’ve used another issue to give the arc a little more direction before concluding it. As it is is kind of ends and then we’re kind of shown that it was a plan by someone else. It kind of just barely works but I think it could work better. According to the Wikipedia article it was originally planned as an ongoing series then changed to a mini-series. Unfortunately the source link is now down so I can’t read the original context for it. Seven issues is a bit odd for a mini series so I wonder if the ongoing series was cancelled after it had already started so they had to rush an ending that wasn’t initially planned. It also seems that Quesada was often late with with scripts leading to big delays between issues. So that was my major criticism. The page to page writing I thought was fairly solid. I liked Kiden’s character more than I thought I would. She’s clearly not being written as the next marvel super-hero. She’s a damaged teenaged girl and in the end she realizes that she has to choose to break herself out of that and be better than circumstance has made of her. I’m actually interested in checking out the other Nyx series just to see what happens to her next. I understand how X-23’s appearance as an underage prostitute was controversial, having been created for the X-Men Evolution cartoon. That said, in this setting, I think it fits. She’s damaged in a different way than the other characters are and I think it would have been interesting to explore in an ongoing series. Soul and Tatiana were fine but having been introduced so late in the series we didn’t get to spend much time with them |
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