X-Men Noir #1

[CaptainCanada]

- The NYPD (Chief Eric Magnus, Det. Fred Dukes, Det. Peter Magnus) find the body of Jean Grey washed up on the banks of the river; nobody except newby Peter really cares.
- A Daily Bugle reporter, Thomas Halloway, is also on the case ("a crusader", in the words of Professor Xavier); after stopping off at Remy LeBeau's Creole Club and saving the Chief's daughter, Wanda, a deeply-indebted gambler, from a beatdown from Bishop, he interviews the Professor about his former students, who he trained to be perfect criminal sociopaths in keeping with his views about the evolution of human psychology. The Professor slips him a note to find "Marie Rankin".
- Peter, meanwhile, finds out that his dad and his men run a special organization (three guesses as to the name) which handles certain criminals extrajudicially (in this case, Cassidy's Irish gangsters). He is disgusted, and runs away.
- Halloway goes to Xavier's home for wayward youth and finds Marie's file, but then gets ambushed by the other four original X Men; he protests he's on their side, by Scott says no one is on their side, and fires his gun at him...

- We also get a backup text story about "The Sentinels" by pulp writer Bolivar Trask, following the heroic Nimrod on a mission to save his partner/would-be-girlfriend Rachel.

----

I've been waiting to see how VL would handle this sort of storytelling style, and I have to say I really liked this. It would work just as well if it wasn't a string of X-Men references. The art, meanwhile, is excellent.

VL does a really cool job working in the idea of evolution into the story, so that not just the X-Men's characters but their themes are also here; in this case, the aforementioned psychology stuff, and discussion about criminals and Eugenics.

[Greg Anderson]

Hmm, so Bishop appears? Dammit, guess I'll give it a skim.

[CaptainCanada]

Only for a couple of panels, so I wouldn't look at it just for that. I'd still recommend it, though, it's quite good.

[jarrod]

OMG RACHEL!!!!1!1


I guess I have to get this now. :biggrin:

[Shyft]

So are they still mutants in this?

[CaptainCanada]

No, no superpowers. The X Men are just wayward youth turned into perfect amoral criminals.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

....

Jean's already dead...


Huh... Ok, I'll try to read this, but that's already a big negative IMO.

[soulkiller]

Ack! Was this out this week and my lcs didn't get me my copy???!!!! :eek:

[nikbackm]

The sociopath theory was interesting at least. Almost plausible enough to be a bit scary.

[maigen]

Marie Rankin is Rogue isn't it?
Yes it is! Don't argue.

How did this come out and I didn't notice?

[Omega Alpha]

The concept is pretty interesting, though it's only being set up at this point. Still, this is cool in every single page.

[Canemacar]

Who's the Holloway guy supposed to be?

[worstblogever]

Who's the Holloway guy supposed to be?

I want to say he's just the POV character in all of this.

[Daithi]

Really interesting premise but the first issue didn't do much for me. Hopefully the second can get right down to it without the setup.

[jarrod]

Daithi, give me what I want! Any and all Rachel details!

[f4faith]

Who's the Holloway guy supposed to be?

CBR's review answers this.

"You probably don't know Halloway, but he was the original Angel from Marvel's Golden Age. He appeared in "Marvel Comics" #1, from 1940, and he isn't much remembered these days."

Oh yawn. I assume this is the main character they kept going on about that everyone wouldn't know. And to think I was hoping they'd use an underused x-men character that would be different than their overdone focus on the same 5 characters these days instead of a character so obscure no one cares.

[Canemacar]

So faith, did Gambit show up yet? We know he at least delivers the "Do I know..." line.

[DeadXMan]

So faith, did Gambit show up yet? We know he at least delivers the "Do I know..." line.

yes he runs a speakeasy from the look of things I haven't been able to read all of it.

[maigen]

As much fun as this looks, I have to wonder if the people at Marvel haven't been reading too many fanfics.

[HepOne]

CBR's review answers this.

"You probably don't know Halloway, but he was the original Angel from Marvel's Golden Age. He appeared in "Marvel Comics" #1, from 1940, and he isn't much remembered these days."

Oh yawn. I assume this is the main character they kept going on about that everyone wouldn't know. And to think I was hoping they'd use an underused x-men character that would be different than their overdone focus on the same 5 characters these days instead of a character so obscure no one cares.

There's a reason they're underused, I think you explained it well.

[f4faith]

So faith, did Gambit show up yet? We know he at least delivers the "Do I know..." line.

As others have noted, he does make an appearance. The issue isn't bad but it is sort of slow and obviously a setup issue when it really should grab you and draw you into the concept. Hopefully it will pick up and capture the Noir mood more. Honestly Halloway doesn't help do that.

There's a reason they're underused, I think you explained it well.

There are plenty of popular X-Men characters like Cannonball, Gambit, Iceman, etc. that are underused right now and have nothing to do with a character like Halloway who really is so obscure no one cares.

[DeadXMan]

As much fun as this looks, I have to wonder if the people at Marvel haven't been reading too many fanfics.

then damn it do this one then!

http://www.antisepticpoetry.com/comics/2008-12-03-fanfiction.jpg

[mr.brighteyes]

Thats just wrong. But X-Men Noir was fantastic. I love the idea that Xavier's was a school fro troubled youths and he made them into the perfect criminals. Thanks for reminding me who marie rankin was I asked the guy at the comic shop and he had no clue. I'm glad halloway was no one I should have known. I can't believe I dissed this idea when it first was mentioned.

[ClanAskani]

OMG RACHEL!!!!1!1


I guess I have to get this now. :biggrin:

I wish I knew this before, since I would have put it on my pull list. I didn't think I would be interested, but if Rachel is in it, I have to buy it. My LCS was sold out by the time I got there. Bummer. I'm gonna have to track it down at another store.

[Washout]

It's pretty cool to use Mimic's last name as Rogue's last name. They have similar powers. I wonder if she has any other connections to Mimic in this.

[jarrod]

I wish I knew this before, since I would have put it on my pull list. I didn't think I would be interested, but if Rachel is in it, I have to buy it. My LCS was sold out by the time I got there. Bummer. I'm gonna have to track it down at another store.
Ah, the luxuries of trade waiting. :biggrin:


But where's Daithi with those details?! :frown:

[PastePotPete]

This book was GREAT. I know it's just the first issue, but the way Van Lente weaves eugenics and Nietzsche into a 40s detective tale is masterfully done. The art is also pitch-perfect and looking at it you feel like you're watching an old movie.

Hardcore X-fans may be turned off by the lack of powers, but I'd recommend checking it out if you love these characters. I'll be picking the rest of these up.

[MakeshiftHero]

- Halloway goes to Xavier's home for wayward youth and finds Marie's file, but then gets ambushed by the other four original X Men


He only gets jumped by 3, Hank, Bobby and Scott.

Warren was already dead a long time before this happens. It says in the book that no one really noticed the Institute untill "one of the students did a really bad impression of a birdie off the roof."

And as for Holloway being the old Angel he even calls himself "The Angel" when Bobby has a knife to his neck.

[MakeshiftHero]

As for my take on the book I LOVED it! I'm a huge noir fan and this was just fantastic. I've already got the rest of the issues on my pull list along with the Spider-Man Noir and soon to be out Daredevil and I think Wolverine Noir.

I really hope this line takes off like they are hoping so they can start up their ideas for a Marvel Noir line.

The art was really great and the read has a great flow to it and really sets up how the X-verse is in this book.

Go pick it up.

[Daithi]

But where's Daithi with those details?! :frown:

Bah! Anyway "Rachel" features in a story within a story that Trask in Noir publishes. So she doesn't feature in the Noir universe. She features as a character in a novel published by a character in Noir!

It's called Days of Future Past.She's a Sentinel who's the girlfriend of Nimrod. There's some nice little links between Sentinel Rachel and our Rachel. Nimrod states that if mutants didn't exist, he would exist and therefore he wouldn't know about Rachel. There's some other stuff but I'd recommend picking it up as a story as opposed to picking it up because of a teneous (if nice) link to Rachel.

Rereading this again and I'm really enjoying it more the second time. The only thing is for me I tend to like Noir stories where the city is nearly a character itself. It just helps adds to the story but I guess the point here is to show Noir X-characters as oppossed to Noir New York.

[roguephoenix]

bleh >_< sigh

[psychic_therapy]

I was actually pumped up to get this after seeing the previews.

Once I got it, I felt it was trying too hard to get every character they could into the Noir world in issue 1. Otherwise it was merely okay for me. I'm going to need to see more in the next issue to really commit to this.

[psycwave]

I demand a Noir Bedlam and Psylocke!!

[sgt pepper]

I liked it. It's a fun take on the characters and I'm eager to see what happens.

Thanks to the poster who cleared up who Holloway is. I saw the credit on the title page and I thought, Really? Lee and Kirby didn't create the Angel? I was about to wiki it, but no need now.

Was the parking lot outside of the gambling hall scene an homage to The Big Sleep where Bogart stops a thug from "mugging" Bacall outside a gambling hall?

Happy Van Lente day!

[rage6839]

Hmm, so Bishop appears? Dammit, guess I'll give it a skim.

If you are a Bishop fan, you might want to skip it all together. Just a few panels and he is no better than a low-level thug. At least they are being consistent.

[Canemacar]

I was hoping Bishop's appearance would be more like the one from the fairly tale mini they put out a few years ago. He didn't have a big part, but he did show some class, wit, and snappy dress sense.

[Archer]

No proper comments from me, but I loved this issue. Probably my favourite out of this week's stack.

[Shadow ES]

Once I got it, I felt it was trying too hard to get every character they could into the Noir world in issue 1.

really? it only really introduced Angel, Peter, Prof x, and remy. Magnus got a couple pages at the end, and so did the rest of the x-men. Seemed like a good start and good cliff hanger to me.

[x_goalkeeper]

I was finally able to get this, and I liked it mostly.

Maybe it was the previews that were better than the rest of the issue, but it wasn't as I might have liked to see. Wanted a little more action and less talk maybe?

But at the end, that was great! I am definitely looking forward to the next issues!