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Earth X (Collected Editions) #2
Universe X, Vol. 1
From master paintor and comics legend, Alex Ross Continues the critically-acclaimed EARTH X story Featuring character designs by Ross, this sprawling saga looks far into the possible future of the Marvel Universe The critically acclaimed trilogy begins its second installment as we find things in this alternate future timeline not working out quite as well as some had hoped at the conclusion of Earth X The human torches aren't having the effect all had hoped and now new perils are emerging to threaten the wounded world. Will the remaining heroes be strong enough to stem the tide of evil? This volume reprints UNIVERSE X #0 through #7, as well as the spin-off features that spotlight the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Captain America
384 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2002
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About the author
Jim Krueger
437 books54 followersJim Krueger is an award-winning filmmaker, video game developer and New York Times best selling comic book author.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 13, 2021
This is a re-imagined view of the Marvel Universe (or the Mar-Vell universe as it is jokingly referred to in one panel) that may be an alternate universe or a what-if situation or a possible future timeline. Despite the X in the title, it's not a mutant-centered story. There's a vast array of variant versions of popular characters, and some pretty obscure ones, in a confusing series of stories that don't quite seem to come together to make any sense. There's a framing device of Kyle Richmond (Nighthawk) having magic eyes that give him visions of the future (and later the past and alternate realities) that he describes at length to Isaac Christians (Gargoyle), and there are extremely lengthy exchanges between Watchers and robots and so on. Many of the popular heroes are elderly and some are dead, though the dead ones are hanging about in an afterlife thinking the living characters are dead and they're still fighting the good fight. Franklin Richards has become Galactus, Susan died and was revived by using a piece of Reed, and there's also a very lengthy roster of villains about. The problem is that it's all so introspective and complex and the dialog goes on almost endlessly. The word balloons dwarf the art; I can't recall any sequential art story with so much verbiage. And it's all dark and depressing and no one is having anything like a good time. The art isn't bad (though Medusa is so top-heavy I don't think she could actually walk, and Cap is an ancient walking-skeleton with a flag draped over him), but I'm not inclined to look for any of the other four books in the series. There were some good bits, but as soon as I started to get a handle on the overall scenario it skittered away and something odder arose.
March 6, 2013
I first read Earth X a few years ago. I was largely unimpressed and decided not to read the sequels: Universe X and Paradise X. The whole series spans five large trade paper backs and I didn’t want to invest in the story. For some reason I decided to pick up Earth X again and give it a shot, and this time I was quickly engrossed… or at least interested.
Earth X places the Marvel universe in the unspecified future. Captain America is an old man fighting a war against a large metaphor. Reed Richards, devastated over the deaths of his wife and the Human Torch, lives in seclusion in the remains of Dr. Doom’s mostly abandoned fortress. Wolverine is a fat, lazy slob who refuses to get off the couch. Peter Parker is much the same. In this future, familiar super-heroes are supplanted by a new breed of humanity: everyone has super powers.
In the midst of this, the Watcher pulls the cyborg X-51 to the moon and names him the new Watcher. The world is ending and the Watcher wants X-51 to tell him everything that’s happening, as the Watcher has been blinded. There’s also a time machine and about a million side-plots. And dinosaurs.
The bulk of Earth X is told in a somewhat passive voice through conversation between X-51 and the Watcher. The Reader sees different events happening on earth, but immersion is mostly omitted, ironically forcing the Reader to take part as a watcher. Inserted throughout the trade paperback is various info-dumps that basically serve to fill in the Reader on more information about what exactly is going on. These info-dumps are yawn-inducing at best, largely unimportant and extremely uninteresting. They’re kind of like deleted scenes on a DVD.
This time around I still felt that Earth X was a bit heavy handed and too philosophical for its own good, but the story was somewhat entertaining. When I finished the introductory issue I happily picked up the first volume of Universe X to see where the story was heading. Not where I thought, which was a good thing, but the story turned more ridiculous as the pages depleted. By the conclusion of Universe X Volume 2 I was ready to quit again, but I hung in there, hoping the concluding volumes would be okay.
Halfway through Volume One of Paradise X I gave up the ghost and quit. The groans were too loud for me to continue. I developed a tic and a severe allergy to the Marvel Universe. I was no longer at all interested. I flipped through the rest of Volume I and did the same for Volume II, skimming over the artwork and totally ignoring the text. There were a few cool-looking scenes, and if I could somehow read the comic without the words I might continue, but I could not, and I just didn’t have it in me to start again.
Maybe I’m just the wrong audience for this kind of mega-comic. I’ve been a lifelong comic book reader, a lifelong fan of Marvel (albeit niched to really only just Spider-Man and the X-Men for most of my growing years), and I’ve even been known to enjoy an occasional philosophical tangent for no other reason than to wander down different avenues of thought. But the Earth X saga failed (twice) to live up to expectation. The writing was terrible and the plot was such a mess that meaning was lost in untranslated psychobabble. Joss Whedon wrote the introduction for Earth X, praising the series as innovative and entertaining. I disagree with Mr. Whedon here. It may have been innovative when it was written, but I cannot imagine it ever being entertaining.
All in all I really cannot recommend the five-volume saga of Earth X. There were plenty of people who enjoyed it, but count me out on this one. Sorry.
Earth X places the Marvel universe in the unspecified future. Captain America is an old man fighting a war against a large metaphor. Reed Richards, devastated over the deaths of his wife and the Human Torch, lives in seclusion in the remains of Dr. Doom’s mostly abandoned fortress. Wolverine is a fat, lazy slob who refuses to get off the couch. Peter Parker is much the same. In this future, familiar super-heroes are supplanted by a new breed of humanity: everyone has super powers.
In the midst of this, the Watcher pulls the cyborg X-51 to the moon and names him the new Watcher. The world is ending and the Watcher wants X-51 to tell him everything that’s happening, as the Watcher has been blinded. There’s also a time machine and about a million side-plots. And dinosaurs.
The bulk of Earth X is told in a somewhat passive voice through conversation between X-51 and the Watcher. The Reader sees different events happening on earth, but immersion is mostly omitted, ironically forcing the Reader to take part as a watcher. Inserted throughout the trade paperback is various info-dumps that basically serve to fill in the Reader on more information about what exactly is going on. These info-dumps are yawn-inducing at best, largely unimportant and extremely uninteresting. They’re kind of like deleted scenes on a DVD.
This time around I still felt that Earth X was a bit heavy handed and too philosophical for its own good, but the story was somewhat entertaining. When I finished the introductory issue I happily picked up the first volume of Universe X to see where the story was heading. Not where I thought, which was a good thing, but the story turned more ridiculous as the pages depleted. By the conclusion of Universe X Volume 2 I was ready to quit again, but I hung in there, hoping the concluding volumes would be okay.
Halfway through Volume One of Paradise X I gave up the ghost and quit. The groans were too loud for me to continue. I developed a tic and a severe allergy to the Marvel Universe. I was no longer at all interested. I flipped through the rest of Volume I and did the same for Volume II, skimming over the artwork and totally ignoring the text. There were a few cool-looking scenes, and if I could somehow read the comic without the words I might continue, but I could not, and I just didn’t have it in me to start again.
Maybe I’m just the wrong audience for this kind of mega-comic. I’ve been a lifelong comic book reader, a lifelong fan of Marvel (albeit niched to really only just Spider-Man and the X-Men for most of my growing years), and I’ve even been known to enjoy an occasional philosophical tangent for no other reason than to wander down different avenues of thought. But the Earth X saga failed (twice) to live up to expectation. The writing was terrible and the plot was such a mess that meaning was lost in untranslated psychobabble. Joss Whedon wrote the introduction for Earth X, praising the series as innovative and entertaining. I disagree with Mr. Whedon here. It may have been innovative when it was written, but I cannot imagine it ever being entertaining.
All in all I really cannot recommend the five-volume saga of Earth X. There were plenty of people who enjoyed it, but count me out on this one. Sorry.
September 17, 2012
Unlike Earth X which had a strong plotline,this seemed somewhat confused. While I understand the difficulty involved in keeping so many different storylines going at the same time, I felt the author could have done a much better job. There were too many cutaways from one storyline to another, often in the midst of important developments and when the book retrned to those characters, the event was over and little mention was given as to how it was concluded.
Disappointing follow up to Earth X.
Disappointing follow up to Earth X.
December 11, 2015
What a weird, weird book. Loki was cool, what little he was in it ("they" is maybe a more appropriate pronoun here because Loki's appearance in this book is pretty androgynous), and May Parker is even better because she gets a whole issue more or less to herself (I mean, it's also about Spider-Man, about whom I really do not care, but May's the POV character and she's awesome, so whatever), but otherwise, it's just...weird and confusing throughout. If you don't already have an encyclopedic knowledge of the mainstream Marvel universe, this series is nearly impenetrable, even aside from the occasionally bad writing, the fridged women, and the stupid names.
BUT May Parker as Venom. For her alone, I'm glad I gave this series a try.
BUT May Parker as Venom. For her alone, I'm glad I gave this series a try.
May 16, 2008
Disappointing as a follow up to Earth X. The writing quality decreases and the blatant errors in the text continue. The awesome beards disappear one after the other. Too much mystery and talking about the mystery without saying what it is because they all know and the reader doesn't. I'm all for surprises, but don't spend issue after issue talking about it while nothing else happens. Still, will definitely be reading Vol. 2.
July 29, 2015
Lo speciale di Spider Man è la migliore storia del volume e forse la più bella mai realizzata sul personaggio: John Romita Senior è un Dio, il figlio non ha una briciola del talento paterno.
April 30, 2021
Things get worse as the planet's ecological conditions continue to decline after the events of Earth X. Meanwhile, Mr. Fantastic sets up gigantic "human torches" around the globe to burn the Terrigen Mist that turned every human into a mutant, but the growing Church of Immortus wants to douse the flames in order to keep their powers. The mysterious Tong of Creel surfaces to reassemble the Absorbing Man, the villain responsible for destroying the Avengers. The heroes rally around a young Mar-Vell (returned from the dead) in an attempt to prevent the approaching armageddon
Universe X doubles down on the dystopian future by showing the devastating consequences of the heroic actions to save the planet from both the Skull and the Celestials. Despite the sacrifices and victories, things continue the downward spiral. Humans will be humans as the series reveals both our inherent greed and our base instinct to survive. It is against that dark backdrop that we can better see the nobility of those who selflessly protect and defend the people around them.
If Earth X feels like a tribute to the Silver Age, then Universe X looks back through the Bronze Age. The series doesn't attempt to reframe past stories, but it still relies on a deep understanding of the heroes and histories -- especially Mar-Vell (Captain Marvel) and Adam Warlock. As with the last series, I was often left scrambling to find cliff notes online to fill in the gaps of my limited knowledge.
Universe X feels like a pale comparison to Earth X (which was already not my favorite read). The themes were less inspiring and the writing agonizing longer. The lengthy prose-like introduction conversations remained a fixture of the series -- this time between Kyle Ricard (Nighthawk) and fellow Defender Gargoyle.
Universe X doubles down on the dystopian future by showing the devastating consequences of the heroic actions to save the planet from both the Skull and the Celestials. Despite the sacrifices and victories, things continue the downward spiral. Humans will be humans as the series reveals both our inherent greed and our base instinct to survive. It is against that dark backdrop that we can better see the nobility of those who selflessly protect and defend the people around them.
If Earth X feels like a tribute to the Silver Age, then Universe X looks back through the Bronze Age. The series doesn't attempt to reframe past stories, but it still relies on a deep understanding of the heroes and histories -- especially Mar-Vell (Captain Marvel) and Adam Warlock. As with the last series, I was often left scrambling to find cliff notes online to fill in the gaps of my limited knowledge.
Universe X feels like a pale comparison to Earth X (which was already not my favorite read). The themes were less inspiring and the writing agonizing longer. The lengthy prose-like introduction conversations remained a fixture of the series -- this time between Kyle Ricard (Nighthawk) and fellow Defender Gargoyle.
April 12, 2020
The first story, Earth X, was an interesting imagining of a darker future for the Marvel Universe based on character concepts by Alex Ross. But concepts alone don't guarantee a great story and this continuation of that story reinforces this to a painful degree.
A bigger part of this book involves the constant retelling of past Marvel comic book events in order to contextualize them to fit the philosophical direction of this book. But that really bogs down the actual storytelling since all these flashbacks take more focus than the actual events. Thus it's harder to tell why the heroes are gathering every McGuffin from Marvel's history among other plot elements.
A bigger part of this book involves the constant retelling of past Marvel comic book events in order to contextualize them to fit the philosophical direction of this book. But that really bogs down the actual storytelling since all these flashbacks take more focus than the actual events. Thus it's harder to tell why the heroes are gathering every McGuffin from Marvel's history among other plot elements.
April 7, 2024
More 2.5, mainly for the ideas and exquisite artwork. But this is basically exposition the series and it is extremely obvious where contextual panels had to be cut for space because sometimes you either have no idea what is going on, or the action doesn’t flow properly between panels. And that’s not to mention the amount of jumps between perspectives, locations, and times, sometimes simultaneously before or after a previous perspective that happens at the same location. This is especially evident towards the end when the various groups of heroes start converging on each other.
May 2, 2024
Earth X was fantastic, but this reads like a fan fiction sequel. I really wanted to push on because I do remember reading the whole X series and leaving impressed when it first came out... But thinking back I was young and this kind of story seemed smart to me then because it was convoluted vs now where I recognize it's just bad.
I do think if the Earth X artist had returned it would be easier to stomach this
I do think if the Earth X artist had returned it would be easier to stomach this
January 12, 2025
As a continuation from Alex Ross and Jim Krueger’s Earth X epic, Universe X: Vol 1 was a satisfying experience. I love diving into a story that is able to use exposition and plot simultaneously. I recommend continuing the Earth X trilogy if you have read the first part and were interested to see what the world outside your window can offer.
March 13, 2021
I really like this whole series. It’s a great combination of a deep dive into the Marvel myth is combined with philosophy and theology. It’s not for everyone and it’s not light reading. But if you have that combination of interests you’ll probably get into it.
October 30, 2024
Honestly I really enjoy this unwieldy alternate universe thing. By taking himself too seriously Krueger’s apocalypse and judgement narrative retains a juvenile character necessary to most Marvel comics. It makes about as much sense as Revelations does.
July 27, 2022
I really enjoy superhero stories that deal with the history and mythology of their universe. These stories along with mcu are making me like the marvel universe more than dc just by a bit.
January 1, 2016
This book could do with some serious editing. Earth X was such a strong book, it is Marvel's version of DC's dystopian Kingdom Come. It manages to tell a great future vision of the Marvel Universe while also pulling the characters apart and messing around with the original mythos in cool and interesting ways. Universe does a lot of the same things, the beautiful artwork, the unique plot structure. Where Universe X comes unstuck is that it's so convoluted, even for the biggest Marvel nerd this book has to be next to impossible to unravel. The reader is pulled through an ever increasing number of obscure plot lines from Marvel's past, in painful detail. If you dropped all of the excessive sub-plots, this would be an exceptional book.
August 20, 2014
Goofball fan fiction not quite at its finest, along with some gorgeous Alex Ross covers. Jim Krueger's done a good a job as anyone since Jim Starlin at going batshit crazy on the Marvel Universe and can occasionally even render a moving scene or two. The interior art is blah--worse than EX's stylized, dark illustrations--and the typos in the appendices (absent from EX) are inexcusable. They also indicate that no one at Marvel was reading X-51's internal monologues, which makes sense given that they're now far less integral to the plot.
May 7, 2012
The Earth X books are pretty good, although I would prefer the art to be all done by Alex Ross. My only real complaint is that the story (especially for Universe X) is so incredibly expository. It gets a little tedious after a while. A better balance of the overarching story involving the mythology of the Marvel Universe and the personal stories that make the mythology interesting would have been nice.
January 26, 2016
Is Earth X a possible future or an alternate reality? No matter which of these possibilities holds true it all comes out as fantastic story for Marvel's superheros. Exceptional art and an excellent plot by Alex Ross make these a superb read. Very recommended
Read
July 30, 2011I still feel like I should have read all the back stories for each character before I started reading this series. Must keep reading...
August 5, 2016
actually have this in individual issues...
May 11, 2012
As I said, loved this series.
March 15, 2013
Story's confusing and all over the place
August 14, 2013
barely
They came close
the story lost me
to much I didn't care about
They came close
the story lost me
to much I didn't care about
November 12, 2013
High marks indeed for this very creative take on the Marvel world. Read the whole run in order. You will be very impressed.
November 24, 2014
I've got very little clue as to what I just read - but I enjoyed reading it. Hope there is a vol. 2!
September 11, 2015
What a bunch of continuity nonsense.
September 8, 2020
A valiant attempt to draw the whole Marvel universe together.
July 23, 2012
The story continues, keeps us interested and reading past the hour we should have stopped.
June 27, 2017
I really liked the spin-off issues of FF, Spidey, and Cap. These great stand alone stories within the main story focus on the said characters and I feel say something in each one.
The main story however, is pretty garbled. It's convoluted and has a lot of things going on that don't feel like they will tie in later? I guess we will see.
The main story however, is pretty garbled. It's convoluted and has a lot of things going on that don't feel like they will tie in later? I guess we will see.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews