X-Men: Messiah Complex | 
| Authors: Mike Carey, Ed Brubaker, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Peter David
Creators: Marc Silvestri, Billy Tan, Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos, Scot Eaton
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $21.94
You Save: $18.05 (45%)
New (29) Used (5) from $17.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 4530
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 11.1 x 7.5 x 1
ISBN: 0785128999
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9780785128991
ASIN: 0785128999
Publication Date: April 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New; Excellent condition! Clean crisp tight copy, no marks,could have some minor shelf wear. Email Notification, Satisfaction Guaranteed,Direct from our warehouse.
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Product Description
The biggest event to hit the X-Men in ten years is here! Just when it looked like there was no possibility of a future for mutants, hope arrives. But the X-Men aren't there to meet it - The Marauders and Purifiers beat them to it. Now the race is on to get the first new mutant since House of M! Collects X-Men: Messiah Complex One-Shot, Uncanny X-Men #492-494, X-Men #205-207, New X-Men #44-46, and X-Factor #25-27
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Setting Up Something Bigger July 19, 2008
I'm still playing catchup with the X-Men after a long hiatus from reading the series. It has gotten much more violent but also much more expansive in its depictions of the characters' milieu, which has always functioned in a kind of bubble that divides it from the rest of the Marvel continuity. I had high expectations for Messiah CompleX due to the positive reviews and the promise of important events. But really the book is just sort of mutant free-for-all with too much brawn and not enough brains. You get to see Cyclops function as a leader after his "overthrow" of Professor X in Deadly Genesis, and Messiah CompleX contains the deaths of two characters that are VERY central to the X-mythos. However, I think Marvel's mutant titles are notorious for deaths of characters who then quickly come back to life via some deus ex machina, making the whole concept of death somewhat immaterial and pointless in these titles.
The premise of the "messiah" predicted way back when by the mutant Destiny is cool though. I just found this installment itself was less interesting than the events it seems to set up for next time around.
 Just OK July 18, 2008
I don't want to waste my time reviewing this, so here goes. Don't buy into the hype too much. This is a good story but it could've been executed easliy in 9 or even 6 issues. It really started off slow. It wasn't as interesting as many books have been over the past couple years. I simply prefer the other X-Books and Wolverine to this stuff. Even Mighty Avengers vol 1 & 2 are better than this.
 Disappointing July 10, 2008
Very weak and repetitive plots. Uninteresting characters (Cable? Bishop? Please...)
Simply disappointing, boring. Old enemies. Old motifs. Sadly, not enough to warrant its price. It pales in comparrasion with the Astonishing X-men mini-series. That one has GREAT art and writting.
 A new comic masterpiece July 3, 2008
This book has the latest battle between the X-men and the terrible future, the story begins with the first new mutant since "M-DAY" and all the people (purifiers, predator x, marauderers, Mr. Sinester and X-men) who has an agenda with the new born. The art is relly good, and the structure of the arc is perfect, and besides is one of the fierst X-men event where Cyclops gtes the respect as a leader that he deserves, and I asure you that this is a MUST HAVE.
Mediocre, like any Marvel X-Men crossover June 21, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
First, let me say that Messiah Complex is a good crossover, but considering Marvel's track-record, that isn't saying much. Generally, the last good crossover was X-Cutioner's Song and Age of Apocalypse, and those were back in the early-to-mid 90's. Messiah Complex follows a similar structure/template, and generally gets the same results.
Like any crossover though, it carries over many faults. For one, I felt that the New Mutants were jammed into the book. I felt the story would have been stronger and tighter if they were not included.
If you don't read all the books regularly, it'll just seem like they are too many characters to keep track of. Even if you know all the characters, you'll get the impression that most characters don't get any air-time. For example, despite Mystique being on the front cover... there is only 10 or so pages featuring her. Mr. Sinister was supposed to play a big part in the story it seemed... and he hardly gets any dialog at all.
X-Factor is another group that had very little to do with this story. Ironically, unlike X-Cutioner's Song, you can tell the crossover plotters tried very hard to give X-Factor a reason to be there. I enjoyed their plots well enough, and once again, Peter David is forced to stop what stories he is doing in favour of going along with the X-Men's plans. Fortunately, Messiah Complex is better off than X-Cutioner's Song.
The art in this book is mixed. I generally thought the art and style was fairly consistent through most of the book (Uncanny X-Men and X-Men issues being the best)... except for the issues with the New Mutants, which are featured in a "manga" style. I'm sorry, but 1/4 of the book being manga completely breaks up the book. Even worse, some of the characters really look terrible, like Gambit. Transitions between issues featuring the same locals and characters also look extremely odd. This isn't a style that works in my opinion, and the book suffers for it.
One thing Messiah Complex gets right is that the story is simple, unlike many other crossovers. It takes 13 issues to get the story across, so the pacing is a little slow, and action sequences tend to drag on longer than they need to... but at least it's not an incoherent mess.
Lastly, I don't think the book achieved a sense of scale or purpose at the end. I won't spoil anything, but the end feels anti-climatic. It doesn't feel like any real change has occurred, or that the events that happen in this book actually matter. In fact, one month after this book was published, Marvel has already retroactively changed the most controversial aspect of the book, thus completely eliminating the importance of the final 2 pages of the book! Marvel, why should the reader care if you it's not permanent and has no importance?
Generally, the story is good... but it doesn't really match something like Morrison's run, or something like that. It's worth a read - just don't expect much. I don't understand the 4- and 5-star reviews. I give it 2.5 stars.
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