Peter Milligan on New X-Men in January!

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Here's a preview of PM's first issue of New X-Men (sans dialogue).

When the heckle did Havok turn into a Tron groupie?

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 27 December 2004 22:44 (twenty years ago)

Who are those people?

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 27 December 2004 22:52 (twenty years ago)

Comic art looks pretty neat without all of the word balloons.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 27 December 2004 22:52 (twenty years ago)

But is it funny?

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 02:26 (twenty years ago)

Havok, Polaris, Rogue, Gambit, Iceman (with the White Queen as their home base telepath).

Havok's been kind of like that since the 80s, Daver, only in the past it only happened when he was explicitly using his powers.

This looks gorgeous. I am excited about this book for the first time since GM left.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 14:33 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

Should I buy the second issue? The first one seemed quite confused.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 28 February 2005 10:40 (twenty years ago)

It is a bit confused, which is a shame. There are lots of ideas kicking around, some good, some a bit hokey, but the storytelling isn't really tight enough.

It strikes me that nearly all the Milligan stuff I really like has a very strong central character focus to lead us through the story, often with first person narration. I can't help feeling that Milligan needs something like that here - an arch narrator type. It's not as if the X-titles don't have a glorious tradition of narrator captions, after all.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 28 February 2005 12:05 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, even with X-Statix, the best issues were narrated by someone, or had a framing device (the first one, or the Death In Space, or the last one).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 28 February 2005 12:30 (twenty years ago)

I'd like to think that PM's slowly shifting from Austen's haphazard plot-based characterization to something that's geared towards his strengths. The one thing that's really confusing (which Paul O'Brien noted in his last write-up) is that the art & the script don't seem to be telling the same story.

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 28 February 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

I think that Peter is stuck with the thankless job of transitioning from the dire Chuck Austen stuff into something more like his style. I agree that Golgotha is a pretty confused story thus far, but the second issue is showing bits of the Milligan that I love, whereas the first issue barely seemed like he wrote it. I'm going to be patient with this, because I think that Milligan could do some great work on this series, and it depends mainly on his own investment in the stories. It wouldn't be a good idea for him to waste his biggest gig ever on hackwork, and I'm afraid that he may do just that.

The subplot with "Boy" and the rich LA people was more like the Milligan that I know and love from Human Target and X-Statix, so more of that please.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 28 February 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

I think that Milligan's general approach to writing about mutants is exactly what the X-Franchise needs at this point - there's enough soap opera stuff, that niche is filled. There's so much room within the basic concept of mutants to do interesting, thoughtful social commentary that goes beyond basic persecution hysteria.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 28 February 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

The problem with Milligan is that I don't think there's a bedrock of gee-whiz fandom in him, so if he doesn't get into the work thematically it really tends to show (whereas a lot of writers are fans-turned-writers and can run through dry patches on enthusiasm and a more innate grasp of convention). I'm sure I read somewhere that he wasn't particularly a comics fan at all as a kid - not that you need to be for these big-name jobs, but if you aren't you need to find characters you enjoy writing quickly and get to work on them. Fingers crossed he'll do that soon.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 28 February 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the interview with Milligan in that book of interviews with comics writers that came out recently says just that - he's not a big superhero fan, it's not part of how he grew up. He was also saying that he approaches a lot of his superhero gigs as though he's writing a cheap b-movie. I just hope that he moves beyond the b-movie thing on X-Men, because he really seemed to have a solid grasp on writing mutants in X-Force/X-Statix.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 28 February 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

I think that he actually has a pretty good cast of characters in terms of his interest in identity - Polaris is nuts and has been possessed so many times that she barely knows who she is anymore, Havok is an insecure wreck, Iceman is a guy who has always been able to pass for human who can suddenly no longer go back to human form so he has to deal with being a freak 24/7, and Rogue - well, that's just the jackpot for Milligan, really.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 28 February 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

TAKING SIDES:

"I'd like to think that PM's slowly shifting from Austen's haphazard plot-based characterization to something that's geared towards his strengths." (posted @ 9:17 AM EST)

VERSUS

"I think that Peter is stuck with the thankless job of transitioning from the dire Chuck Austen stuff into something more like his style." (posted @ 10:56 AM EST)

I'm siding with the former, for obvious reasons. No offense to Matthew, of course, but, y'know, gotta go w/ the home team.

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 28 February 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

Milligan X-Men review

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 29 July 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

Bit of talk about it here

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 29 July 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

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