X-Men By Jonathan Hickman Vol. 2

This collection isn't terrible. We get five comics, four stories (one is a two-parter) and a whole lot of set up. While each story is a complete story, they all end in a way that set up future storylines... but not the NEXT story.In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the Claremont era where we dealt with so many sub-plots that some people found it hard to keep track of them all. The difference is Claremont would usually juggle multiple sub-plots per issue and that is not what we see here. I haven't decided which way is preferable. They both have their positives and negatives.Hickman wrote the first New Mutants trade and that storyline has elements that continue in the King Egg story in this collection. New Mutants was my highlight of the whole Dawn of X series so it was nice to see that continued here even though someone just reading THIS title might wonder what the heck is going on. It does a pretty good job setting up the basics but doesn't go out of its way to explain why everyone is where they are. So... positives and negatives again.Vulcan's backstory is given some fleshing out but, again, I wish they'd give new readers just a LITTLE more explanation of who he is, what he's gone through, and who he's hanging out with. It would just take a few lines of dialogue or they could even fit it in on one of those many text pages they insert into the comics. As it stands, we get some background of him being involved in some space shenanigans and being assumed dead but it's likely a lot of people weren't paying attention to War of Kings or maybe they weren't around for Deadly Genesis or The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire. You might not know how this guy is a Summers brother since he has barely appeared in the X-Men books and you might be completely unaware of his time as Majestor of the Shi'ar Empire and how he used to be a whole lot more crazy. The book makes very vague suggestions of his past but it could be more clear. I don't need everything spelled out but the Summers family is already complicated. Just a brief summary would help new readers.But, yeah, if you want to know more about Vulcan, Deadly Genesis, Rise and Fall, and War of Kings are where you need to go. It's a pretty good story arc (War of Kings, especially) and will definitely make the Vulcan story here more impactful.I really like that we get so many stand alone stories in this collection. It's rare that one comic contains a beginning, middle, and end. But it's so much set up. So many little sub-plots that need to be further explored. And the first collection had their own set-ups to future stories. Now, part of that is cool because it shows that we have a lot of story left to tell. But... the cynic in me remembers the nineties comics with all their little passing comments alluding the all these sub-plots then never saw fruition. The cynic in me remembers Grant Morrison's New X-Men run where we went off in a million directions only for most of them to be disregarded or reversed as soon as Morrison left the title. I guess I'm very cautious about the direction of the X-titles and I'd rather that this book would be more tightly focused instead of being a one-stop shop for future story set up.But... it's interesting stuff. I like the world-building even though I've seen world-building implemented better in other titles (James Roberts' Transformers MTMTE/ Lost Light run is a blueprint on how to keep a story moving forward while expanding on the lore of your world at the same time). This book is fine. It's just fine.But I wish it were better. I wish that Magneto story that finishes this collection off was good. Hickman's Magneto kind of falls flat. He's played as a big mutant hero but to me he seems to have lost his edge and lost that hook... that internal conflict that gave him his tragic fire in the first place. And maybe that's a perfect way of looking at this X-Men run as a whole. There are interesting bits but it's missing that exciting spark.The New Mutants parts are a highlight. So is the Vulcan story if you has a passing knowledge of his history. The art is above average. Mahmud Asrar's guest issue is a highlight. Let's hope some of this set-up has some payoff.

Continues to be good

there seems to be so many characters, plots, and subplots that it was confusing. Granted, I'm an old X-men fan and I loved the House of X book, but this didn't hold my attention.

Great book, super excited to read. Sadly, mine came pretty beat up. Otherwise, awesome purchase. Condition knocks off a star.

I agree with the other 3-star reviewer. This collection felt like it was just connecting to other stories. We move a bit forwards in each, but nothing was resolved. Events also seem move somewhat out of order, with the later stories seeming to occur before the initial story in the collection.

This is a Lott, in typical Hickman fashion you're given a lot to read and chew on nerve once being allows breeze through. This is my kind of book.

Right, that’s it - I’m out! I’m totally done with this new Hickman X-Men run...Plus this doesn’t contain issue 12, which the Amazon description says it does.Don’t get me wrong, I adored the House of X/Powers of X book - probably the most consistently enjoyable, engrossing, and inspired graphic novel I’ve ever come across. Plus, unlike a significant amount of other comic-adventurers, I was totally taken with Hickman’s interstellar run on The Avengers ...at least I was, once I went back and read the incursion story-arc from the very start anyway!But let’s not beat around the bush here, this book is, yet again, a totally unfulfilling waste of money... and I just don’t care anymore.The idea of publishing each interconnected Hickman universe tie-in issue together in the Dawn of X series sounded amazing on paper - but by issue #9, I really couldn’t keep track of what the significance of *anything* that was happening (in Excalibur, Marauders, New Mutants, X-Force, etc) actually was, in relation to Hickman’s “Head of X” ongoing X-Men narrative?!So after paying £13.99 per volume for each Dawn of X book - that’s £125 in total btw(!!) - I bought this second X-Men book to just skip to the end. At the very least, I thought I could see where the central X-Men narrative was going to conclude and then decide if the remaining DoX volumes were worth buying. SPOILER: THEY’RE NOT!!What do you get for your money with this second X-Men volume, I hear you ask? What will Prof. X be doing by the end of the 12 issues? Well, this is a set of UNCONNECTED chapters which have absolutely nothing to do with the events occurring at the start of the DoX series - so there’s that. Then, you also don’t hear a peep from Prof. X for the whole volume?!? So there you go... it was all just a scam to get you to pay too much money for each unnecessary tie-in issue at every turn, with no clear, or cohesive, narrative direction bonding them together. You end up with a pile of very expensively acquired glossy paper you’ll never pick up again, and that’s your lot.Like I said, I’m out! Sorry Mr Hickman, let me know when you go back to doing your own singular project again.

I absolutely adore Hickman’s brand new version of the world of X. Yes, it is very different and there are lots of characters but finally we are back in Claremont era greatness.

I'm really enjoying this fresh, new take on the X-Men.

It's ok, not as good as the first volume but seems to be building for future pay offs.

Comic is great, tho it had a sticker sealing the book that has ruined the cover and back cover. Very disappointed, I will probably avoid buying comics from Amazon in the future