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X-Statix (Collected Editions) #8
The X-Cellent: New Blood, New World
They were cherished by their adoring fans. They were reviled by the harsh press. They lived, they loved, they fought, and they died…a lot…all for the sake of fame. They were the X-Statix, a team of mutant celebrities fighting for a brighter world and an even brighter spotlight! But they’re old news now, because there’s a new mutant team that will live harder, love harder, fight harder, and die a whole lot harder than those has-beens! Peter Milligan, Michael Allred and Laura Allred return to introduce the best new superhero team you didn’t know you needed! Meet…the X-Cellent!
COLLECTING: Giant-Size X-Statix (2019) 1, X-Cellent (2022) 1-5
COLLECTING: Giant-Size X-Statix (2019) 1, X-Cellent (2022) 1-5
152 pages, Paperback
Published October 11, 2022
About the author
Peter Milligan
1,317 books396 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.
He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.
His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.
Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).
Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.
He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.
His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.
Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).
Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
September 11, 2025
Giant Size X-Statix #1: Yes, you are not lost in a time warp, it's 2020, and there's a new X-Statix comic book out! This annual centres round bringing X-Statix back together with legacy and next generation members. Although same art, style and tone, it lacks the depth of the original run, and is definitely not as darkly comedic. 5 out of 12. It turned out that this was the prologue to The X-Cellent:
The X-Cellent vol 1. New Blood, New World: New blood, as in returned-from-the-dead original team member putting together a group, The X-Cellent who want to out-shine X-Statix, make more money, get more followers, have more spectacular death scenes. As in the prologue this would all be great work 20 years ago, but now there's nothing new to see hear anymore, I think the creators (and this is the original creative team) don't really appreciate that this series cult status was due to just how ridicuolusly different it was to mainstream Marvel at the time. Take note! A Two Star, 5 out of 12 read.
2025 read
The X-Cellent vol 1. New Blood, New World: New blood, as in returned-from-the-dead original team member putting together a group, The X-Cellent who want to out-shine X-Statix, make more money, get more followers, have more spectacular death scenes. As in the prologue this would all be great work 20 years ago, but now there's nothing new to see hear anymore, I think the creators (and this is the original creative team) don't really appreciate that this series cult status was due to just how ridicuolusly different it was to mainstream Marvel at the time. Take note! A Two Star, 5 out of 12 read.
2025 read
November 27, 2022
I had high hopes for this comic, but instead it was highly disappointing.
I mean, I'd assumed it was going to be set in the Krakoa age, and that had a lot of potential, because it would be the ever-dying heroes in an undying age.
But it's not. So, you gotta review what a book was trying to do, not what you wanted it to do.
And here, X-Cellent falls short too. It couldn't be a more vapid remix of the original, just slightly varying the personalities of dead heroes by replacing them with their children. Then we get an eternal fight against another set of four-color weirdo mutants. And internal in-fighting.
And in the end, we don't even get a satisfying ending. (Or really: any ending at all.)
I mean, I'd assumed it was going to be set in the Krakoa age, and that had a lot of potential, because it would be the ever-dying heroes in an undying age.
But it's not. So, you gotta review what a book was trying to do, not what you wanted it to do.
And here, X-Cellent falls short too. It couldn't be a more vapid remix of the original, just slightly varying the personalities of dead heroes by replacing them with their children. Then we get an eternal fight against another set of four-color weirdo mutants. And internal in-fighting.
And in the end, we don't even get a satisfying ending. (Or really: any ending at all.)
April 30, 2024
Veinte años más tarde, Milligan y Allred regresan a la fórmula y, dentro de lo que cabe, salen bien parados. Adaptan la base a los nuevos tiempos (lo viral, la copia, lo memeable), dan vueltas a las situaciones de entonces con nuevos y viejos personajes, y logran un agradable revival convenientemente alejado de la continuidad.
September 7, 2022
You REALLY have to have enjoyed the previous work of X-Statix or any of Milligan/Allred work.
It's.....something.
It's.....something.
October 7, 2022
Trying to recapture a lightning strike of a book like X-Statix is always going to be difficult; Peter Milligan tries very hard, but X-Cellent kind of oscillates between trying too hard to be original and literally rehashing the same plot points from the original X-Statix run. Also, as much as the X-Cellent are right there in the series name, I wish we got more actual X-Statix since they're...you know, the good guys.
I think the problems begin once you realise that the characters pulled back into X-Statix are literally the same characters as before (having barely changed, if at all) or are carbon copies of the others, like U-Go Girl's daughter. There's also absolutely no mention of the current Krakoa status quo for the X-Men, which I find a little bizarre - if you're literally resurrecting an old book, and some of the plot points rely on mutants from the past being dead (like Tike and U-Go Girl), I feel like you should at least acknowledge why they can't just...come back.
Of course, Mike Allred's artwork is still phenomenal. I'm always surprised to see him on interiors these days, but he never misses a beat, and while Milligan's writing might still be a little stuck in the past, Allred's artwork is timeless.
X-Cellent isn't quite excellent, because it's a little too concerned with being X-Statix, which leans to it being X-Static, and not really going anywhere new. It looks great, but it's definitely a bit more style over substance.
I think the problems begin once you realise that the characters pulled back into X-Statix are literally the same characters as before (having barely changed, if at all) or are carbon copies of the others, like U-Go Girl's daughter. There's also absolutely no mention of the current Krakoa status quo for the X-Men, which I find a little bizarre - if you're literally resurrecting an old book, and some of the plot points rely on mutants from the past being dead (like Tike and U-Go Girl), I feel like you should at least acknowledge why they can't just...come back.
Of course, Mike Allred's artwork is still phenomenal. I'm always surprised to see him on interiors these days, but he never misses a beat, and while Milligan's writing might still be a little stuck in the past, Allred's artwork is timeless.
X-Cellent isn't quite excellent, because it's a little too concerned with being X-Statix, which leans to it being X-Static, and not really going anywhere new. It looks great, but it's definitely a bit more style over substance.
October 30, 2022
A bit hackneyed and tired / safely retreading their old formula, it still wins because the old formula was pretty great. And Mike and Laura never miss a beat!
October 16, 2022
4.75
Allred and Milligan's work is always somehow fresh and creative. So much packed into each issue. And you never know what will happen. No character is safe.
Allred and Milligan's work is always somehow fresh and creative. So much packed into each issue. And you never know what will happen. No character is safe.
September 10, 2023
5 stars for the art
Books should not end with zero resolutions.
Books should not end with zero resolutions.
January 18, 2023
Only for Fans of the X-Statics. A reawakening of Milligan and Allred's spoof series of superheroes, mutants, and pop culture was a welcome addition to the year. This series has all the elements of the old series: violence, manufactured angst, greed, and celebrity navel gazing. However, it seems a little stale > perhaps its because the whole thing was fresh in the early 2000s, but now its a little old hat. The idea of going "meta" having been done over and over again. perhaps its because certain elements are almost gone. The business mindset driving the hero community, rather than the idea of "doing good", is briefly mentioned and told at certain times, but is not shown like it used to be. To me this is a fatal flaw, for the all the silliness of the old series, the desire for money and those who profited from misery was at the heart of everything. Remove that and the characters and situations become flat and useless, which is I believe the problem many have with this revival series.
The story also seems to hang heavily on nostalgia for the old series. It assumes that everyone who is reading it is familiar with the characters and events from the past. In fact, it seems to be feeding on itself to come up with new ideas. Many of the characters are just retreads of old protagonists. Of course, that might be the point. That comics have become stale and all they can offer anymore are stale rebrands of original ideas.
The titular X-Cellent are a villainous group formed by the dead/not-dead former leader of X-Force, Zeitgeist. Here they take on the former hero group X-Statics in a competition to see who could gather the most followers. There is a plan, an insane one, but no crazier that many supervillain schemes. There are also many secrets that should have been address earlier in the tale. There are six issues here and the story seems to drag. There are many characters, mutants, who are just there with no real input or development of their own. It seems a wasted potential. Additionally, this is an unfinished story and ends on a cliffhanger, and there does seems some doubt as to whether the series will continue. So caveat emptor.
The story also seems to hang heavily on nostalgia for the old series. It assumes that everyone who is reading it is familiar with the characters and events from the past. In fact, it seems to be feeding on itself to come up with new ideas. Many of the characters are just retreads of old protagonists. Of course, that might be the point. That comics have become stale and all they can offer anymore are stale rebrands of original ideas.
The titular X-Cellent are a villainous group formed by the dead/not-dead former leader of X-Force, Zeitgeist. Here they take on the former hero group X-Statics in a competition to see who could gather the most followers. There is a plan, an insane one, but no crazier that many supervillain schemes. There are also many secrets that should have been address earlier in the tale. There are six issues here and the story seems to drag. There are many characters, mutants, who are just there with no real input or development of their own. It seems a wasted potential. Additionally, this is an unfinished story and ends on a cliffhanger, and there does seems some doubt as to whether the series will continue. So caveat emptor.
Read
July 25, 2022A comeback series fascinated with why comebacks are a bad idea, reuniting X-Statix creators Milligan and Allred to look at the survivors and heirs of their celebrity superhero team. Some of the targets are obvious ones, 'structured reality' having eclipsed reality TV proper in the intervening years, but to complain about a lack of subtlety in a sequel to X-Statix would put one in the same camp as the old hand complaining about how the new guard are commercialising the team, only to have it pointed out to him that only in his carefully massaged memories were they ever aloof from such concerns. And having eg a mutant born in Berlin, with the most obvious powers for an American comic to derive from that, at whom the team leader then gets to bellow "Build the wall!", is exactly the sort of gloriously stupid spoof in which X-Statix always excelled. See also the purple prose of "M-my hand... Phalanges on fire...m-metacarpals...a torture g-garden..." But if the story definitely flows better than much of what Milligan has been up to in the interim, doubtless helped enormously by Allred's art, it nevertheless feels clunkier than the original series at its peak. It's also weirdly at odds with the rest of the mutant status quo; I'm not expecting it to fully dovetail with the cultish Krakoa office at Marvel, but a line such as "Come on, I don't think any of us mutants actually like ourselves" just feels weird when Homo superior is currently on top of the world. Still, I suppose it is delivered by a guy called Hurt John, just one of the classic Milligan/Allred creations deployed here: see also the living mirror, the woman with power over all things stripy, or a lothario who can control the volume and chemical composition of his belly button lint. Not all of whom will survive, needless to say. File it alongside the comeback albums that will never eclipse or even stand alongside the original stuff, but which are pleasant enough while they're playing.
October 12, 2022
Milligan & Allred's X-Force/X-Statix run is an all-time Marvel run for me. The satire was on-point and ahead of its time - easily one of the most daring Marvel comics in a long time.
The X-Cellent feels a bit like a poor attempt to recapture the magic. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fun series. Framing it around the long-believed dead and former X-Force leader Zeitgeist was an inspired choice, with a fun new roster to surround him with. But it quickly becomes apparent that little thought was put into characterizing the new members of Zeitgeist's team, and that's where the book starts to lose steam. It's still fun at times, and the X-Cellent pulling off a heist in the Sanctum Santorum was an enjoyable sequence. Zeitgeist's goal of beating the X-Statix using social media followers is genuinely hilarious. But it doesn't feel like the biting commentary on celeb culture that the original run was.
This is really only for fans of the original X-Statix run who want a little more. And if you're someone who has not read the original run, why the hell not? It's literally one of the best superhero runs.
The X-Cellent feels a bit like a poor attempt to recapture the magic. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fun series. Framing it around the long-believed dead and former X-Force leader Zeitgeist was an inspired choice, with a fun new roster to surround him with. But it quickly becomes apparent that little thought was put into characterizing the new members of Zeitgeist's team, and that's where the book starts to lose steam. It's still fun at times, and the X-Cellent pulling off a heist in the Sanctum Santorum was an enjoyable sequence. Zeitgeist's goal of beating the X-Statix using social media followers is genuinely hilarious. But it doesn't feel like the biting commentary on celeb culture that the original run was.
This is really only for fans of the original X-Statix run who want a little more. And if you're someone who has not read the original run, why the hell not? It's literally one of the best superhero runs.
July 6, 2023
X-Statix was a curiosity of the early 2000s that feels like it shouldn't have existed. So I was excited to read an updated take on the team almost 20 years later. How would the commentary on modern media evolve?
It didn't.
With a couple of small tweaks you could tell me this was set in 2003 and I'd believe you. Milligan even adds in carbon copies of the main characters who died back then. Why does this exist? What point does the story have? And to wrap it all up, this "Season" ends almost mid-sentence without any closure or even an obvious cliffhanger. Bizarre structure.
Side note: In the Marvel Unlimited app, Season 1 is titled "X-Cellent". Season 2 is titled "The X-Cellent". So they show up as two different series with no links between them. It's like they want reading comics to be hard.
It didn't.
With a couple of small tweaks you could tell me this was set in 2003 and I'd believe you. Milligan even adds in carbon copies of the main characters who died back then. Why does this exist? What point does the story have? And to wrap it all up, this "Season" ends almost mid-sentence without any closure or even an obvious cliffhanger. Bizarre structure.
Side note: In the Marvel Unlimited app, Season 1 is titled "X-Cellent". Season 2 is titled "The X-Cellent". So they show up as two different series with no links between them. It's like they want reading comics to be hard.
August 19, 2024
A little more brutal and mean spirited than the original run of X-Statix. Lots of cartoony blood and guts. We see a character’s body after he has fallen to his death, with spilled guts and fractured bones. I guess I am used to violence, but not accustomed to seeing so much in an X-book.
But I guess the dark tone is fitting since X-Statix is not really the focus here. The main characters are really the bad guys. Or should I say bad guy? As Zeigeist is front and center. 2-dimensionally bad. While his team is mostly confused or just made the wrong choice when choosing a super team to join.
If I could point out one big thing, ignoring the lack of character depth, that bothers me. Why did Milligan decide to replace dead characters with identical ones. We have sons, daughters, and clones of original characters on the team. Why was this necessary? Seems unoriginal to me.
But I guess the dark tone is fitting since X-Statix is not really the focus here. The main characters are really the bad guys. Or should I say bad guy? As Zeigeist is front and center. 2-dimensionally bad. While his team is mostly confused or just made the wrong choice when choosing a super team to join.
If I could point out one big thing, ignoring the lack of character depth, that bothers me. Why did Milligan decide to replace dead characters with identical ones. We have sons, daughters, and clones of original characters on the team. Why was this necessary? Seems unoriginal to me.
March 29, 2023
This was really weak. It couldn't even be saved by the Allreds' timeless art. I mean Mike and Laura are some of the best creators working in comics today. I wonder if they need to dump Milligan for this to be any good?
This just rehashes a bunch of the stuff from X-Static. The focus though is on this new team of bad guys, The X-Cellent, as they try and build followers. Yes, I know overly done in media and not interesting at all. Most of the characters lack any kind of depth at all. Over half of them are little more than a name. The story goes nowhere and ends midstream with Season 2 coming out now in comic book shops.
This just rehashes a bunch of the stuff from X-Static. The focus though is on this new team of bad guys, The X-Cellent, as they try and build followers. Yes, I know overly done in media and not interesting at all. Most of the characters lack any kind of depth at all. Over half of them are little more than a name. The story goes nowhere and ends midstream with Season 2 coming out now in comic book shops.
January 10, 2025
I'm not sure why this has such a low rating on Goodreads. (3.3 at the time of writing) I was a fan of the original X-Force/X-Statix run years ago and just found out about this revival. It definitely keeps up with the times and I think it still has a good satirical edge to it. Sure, some of the new characters aren't as good as their original counterparts (except for Pood!), but I still liked what happens with the story. And now, on to the 2nd collection!
October 26, 2022
I am a 100% supporter of X Statix (I have a tattoo of Mr Sensitive and Doop). To see them return was like a shock to the system. I hold a very special place in my heart for this X team and I hope they can get their crap together to defeat X cellent. The storyline is fantastic and I’m fully on board for this new iteration. Bring ‘em on.
December 26, 2023
I was glad to see a return of X-Statix, thrilled, in fact, by the hints in Doop, but this falls a little flat. Some of the attempts, like Lady Joe's verbiage and some of the exposition, is just cringy, no two ways about it.
Maybe the next volume will save some face and scratch that itch. Not a bad volume here, but less than I had hoped for.
Maybe the next volume will save some face and scratch that itch. Not a bad volume here, but less than I had hoped for.
February 3, 2024
X-Force, X-Static y ahora X-Celents. El tandem Milligan-Alred vuelve en plena forma y con la misma mala leche e ingenio de siempre para tomar el pulso a las formas de relacionarnos del s.XXI. Si al principio fue la telerealidad ahora son las redes sociales. Ganazas de ver comsiguen y resuelven esto; de momento sigo comprando.
December 28, 2024
This was… not as good as the original run. It’s also a bit weird that while the rest of mutantdom is effectively immortal, death is still a very real thing for the X-Statix/X-Cellent. Also, original characters’ kids are somehow adults now while original members are basically the same age they used to be. The retcon is too damn high!
June 21, 2023
I read the original X-Statix two decades ago. I thought it was really fresh at first, but after a while I realized the story only has one real trick up its sleeve. This collection was more of the same. Allred's art is always a treat though.
February 23, 2023
Not quite at the original X-Statix level but I was well satisfied with the old questionable media darlings vs. new ones dynamic.
January 16, 2024
Any enjoyment strictly derived from the Allred art. Reading the "plot" gave me a headache, so mostly skimmed.
February 8, 2024
3.5 feels like visiting old friends
February 12, 2024
Not as hokey as prior books but still great to have the teams back ... but against each other.
May 6, 2024
A pathetic faux X-men rip off -- Blech.
April 4, 2025
This is trash tv meets comics. Like I can't stand any of them but the Book of the Vishanti is involved and I have to know if it ends badly for Zeitgeist.
December 17, 2023
I love you, X-Statix, but what YEAR IS IT??
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May 6, 2023The X-Force/X-Statix crew will always hold a special place in my heart.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews