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for you but in terms of character development there wasn’t
much happening.
B: Like you, I felt that given the
changes that came out of it, it
didn’t warrant ten issues. As I
said earlier, I felt that it overstayed its welcome somewhat.
All of the major plot points
could have been covered in
five issues or even just in the
regular monthly titles.
S: I definitely thought it was
the lesser of the recent crossovers. I didn’t think it was as
good as AvX. I know AvX had
its faults but I enjoyed Battle
of the Atom less than that. I
also enjoyed it less than X-Men
Schism. Both of those crossovers had quite significant effects on X-Men. Schism split
the team and in AvX Professor
X died and caused Cyclops to
go rogue whereas here Kitty
switches teams and that’s it.
B: As far as I can tell, Kitty
switched teams and we, potentially, have some new bad
guys. That’s it. Otherwise it
was all just…amusing chaos.
S: Okay, how about what you
did like about it?
B: Well one thing that I really
liked about these stories (All
New X-Men and Battle of the
Atom) is that they’re mostly
about Jean Grey and she’s one
of my favourite characters.
I’m always going to enjoy a
story that’s Jean Grey-centric
and that’s certainly true of
these. I also think the writing
is pretty snappy throughout;
I enjoyed all the dialogue in
these issues. They used quite a
few different artists, not all of
the art was to my taste but a
lot of it I really liked.
S: There were a few things I
liked. I really liked the first
couple of issues up to the
point where it was revealed
that Xorn was Jean Grey. I
thought that twist was really
cool because I honestly wasn’t
expecting it.
B: Neither was I.
S: So I thought that was really
fun. I liked future Shogo and
the scenes between him and
Jubilee. That was cool given
what’s been happening in XMen where he’s a baby. I also
liked Quentin Quire as the future Phoenix.
B: I felt like not a lot of his
personality came through,
like they couldn’t quite reconcile the awesomeness of being
Phoenix with the smart-arseness of being Quentin Quire.
S: I think those were really the
highlights for me and I liked
the resolution where Cyclops
gets one up on Wolverine.
B: Yeah I’m more and more
on Cyclops’ side now since
Wolverine seems always to be
moralising and lecturing.
S: So, what’s your rating?
B: For a short run event I’d
actually give this an eight out
of ten. I did really enjoy this.
It did feel a bit meaningless in
the end but it started off really strong and it was relevant
and, although it could probably have been a few issues
shorter, it was good fun.
S: I’m going to have to go
lower with a six just because
it felt unsatisfying, but I will
continue to buy X-Men.
B: Well then, until next time!
Shane & Bernice (CotA)
You can here more of Shane
and Bernice by downloading
episodes of the Children of the
Atom podcast from the Geek
Syndicate web site. They’re
also on twitter @CotAPodcast
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