X-Men: Zero Tolerance

Rating:
Summary: C'mon. It wuzn't THAT bad.
Review: All rite, this izn't a storyline that equals Age of Apocalypse or The Dark Phoenix Saga- that's nearly impossible. But I mean, I thought it wuz okay. If yer a collector, you would have had to buy from like 4 different titles (UXM, Cable, X-Force, Wolverine, etc) but this collective book arranged the storyline in a very logical and easy to understand sequence. If they had half-stars, I woulda given it 3.5, but they dont' so I rounded up. I mean, it had it's moments. I guess the fact that Zero Tolerance wuz a government project made it a li'l boring, considering their enemies Senator Kelly or Prime Sentinels (which are a new deadly type of sentinels that take on humanoid forms). They're very minor characters whom we know (and care)very little about and therefore don't have that familiar notoriety that has we've become acquainted to through villains such as Apocalypse, Magneto, and Sabretooth. I still think Bastion made an interesting and mysterious foe. They dont' resolve his past in this book, so that's one of it's many shortcomings. It would have been much more complete if they revealed his true nature. He still manages to keep the books interesting. As for the artwork, Pacheco makes some of the pictures worth looking at. In general, though, they weren't anything special, so I therefore focused on the plot. Personally, I would have enjoyed it much more if they had Joe Madureira instead. At the time, he was drawing for the Uncanny X-Men titles, which brings OZT to another drawback. Half of the team is in outer space and don't return until the final 10 pages or so of the 400+ page collection. I personally like those characters (Rogue, Gambit, Beast, etc.) compared to Wolverine, Cyclops, and Phoenix just cuz, so yeah, I found some moments pretty boring. On the other hand, once you actually get into it, Iceman and Dr. Cecilia Reyes make a very dynamic couple. When Sabra and Marrow eventually join in, they're actually quite entertaining, but moreso through their petty squabbles than their action, though. Cable plays a key role, and he's an intriguing character, too. I normally don't read X-Force ((my biggest branch from X-Men to other titles besides Gambit iz Gen X and the occasional X-Factor which I don't believe exists anymore, so this wuz a big reach I'd never even heard of Rictor or Dani Moonstar til then.)), but began to like several characters from them, too. Overall though, I thought it wuz all rite, juss not enough to blow me away. If yer a big fan of wolverine and Cable, you'll probably like it. I'm warning you though, they seem to have lots of unnecessary stuff in between, like two books about Domino, who has very little to do with the story. But, even though I found the story very enjoyable, I don't think it's good enough to be considered necessary fer a Marvel conossieur. So my review and advice would be thus: If yer a hard core collector, go ahead and get this. It may be valuable in the future, and you may get some jollies out of it. If yer looking fer X-Men entertainment, I recommend the Phoenix Sagas, Onslaught series, Age of Apocalypse, or the recent Hunt for Xavier. I havent' read this yet, but I have also heard good things about The Twelve.

Rating:
Summary: C'mon. It wuzn't THAT bad.
Review: All rite, this izn't a storyline that equals Age of Apocalypse or The Dark Phoenix Saga- that's nearly impossible. But I mean, I thought it wuz okay. If yer a collector, you would have had to buy from like 4 different titles (UXM, Cable, X-Force, Wolverine, etc) but this collective book arranged the storyline in a very logical and easy to understand sequence. If they had half-stars, I woulda given it 3.5, but they dont' so I rounded up. I mean, it had it's moments. I guess the fact that Zero Tolerance wuz a government project made it a li'l boring, considering their enemies Senator Kelly or Prime Sentinels (which are a new deadly type of sentinels that take on humanoid forms). They're very minor characters whom we know (and care)very little about and therefore don't have that familiar notoriety that has we've become acquainted to through villains such as Apocalypse, Magneto, and Sabretooth. I still think Bastion made an interesting and mysterious foe. They dont' resolve his past in this book, so that's one of it's many shortcomings. It would have been much more complete if they revealed his true nature. He still manages to keep the books interesting. As for the artwork, Pacheco makes some of the pictures worth looking at. In general, though, they weren't anything special, so I therefore focused on the plot. Personally, I would have enjoyed it much more if they had Joe Madureira instead. At the time, he was drawing for the Uncanny X-Men titles, which brings OZT to another drawback. Half of the team is in outer space and don't return until the final 10 pages or so of the 400+ page collection. I personally like those characters (Rogue, Gambit, Beast, etc.) compared to Wolverine, Cyclops, and Phoenix just cuz, so yeah, I found some moments pretty boring. On the other hand, once you actually get into it, Iceman and Dr. Cecilia Reyes make a very dynamic couple. When Sabra and Marrow eventually join in, they're actually quite entertaining, but moreso through their petty squabbles than their action, though. Cable plays a key role, and he's an intriguing character, too. I normally don't read X-Force ((my biggest branch from X-Men to other titles besides Gambit iz Gen X and the occasional X-Factor which I don't believe exists anymore, so this wuz a big reach I'd never even heard of Rictor or Dani Moonstar til then.)), but began to like several characters from them, too. Overall though, I thought it wuz all rite, juss not enough to blow me away. If yer a big fan of wolverine and Cable, you'll probably like it. I'm warning you though, they seem to have lots of unnecessary stuff in between, like two books about Domino, who has very little to do with the story. But, even though I found the story very enjoyable, I don't think it's good enough to be considered necessary fer a Marvel conossieur. So my review and advice would be thus: If yer a hard core collector, go ahead and get this. It may be valuable in the future, and you may get some jollies out of it. If yer looking fer X-Men entertainment, I recommend the Phoenix Sagas, Onslaught series, Age of Apocalypse, or the recent Hunt for Xavier. I havent' read this yet, but I have also heard good things about The Twelve.

Rating:
Summary: Lobdell ran out of story ideas
Review: The title pretty much says it. This is one of the worst X-Men story arcs that I have read. O:ZT? It seemed like more of a filler story than anything else. I read (and bought!) almost all of the books that had to deal with this before I read them, and when I finally read them I was monumentally disappointed. I think the only good thing that came out of this story arc was Marrow and Doc Reiss joining the X-teams.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst XMen Stories I've ever read!
Review: The title pretty much says it. This is one of the worst X-Men story arcs that I have read. O:ZT? It seemed like more of a filler story than anything else. I read (and bought!) almost all of the books that had to deal with this before I read them, and when I finally read them I was monumentally disappointed. I think the only good thing that came out of this story arc was Marrow and Doc Reiss joining the X-teams.

Rating:
Summary: Lobdell ran out of story ideas
Review: This was the idea of Scott Lobdell to do a story where the X-Men are attacked by a new generation of Sentinels with the purpose of wipeing them out. Sound Familar? Anyway from issue 1, this concept went no where expect to rehash story ideas that have been done before. It also marked the end of Lobdell's seven year run on the X-Men and brought about the return of Chris Claremont (although Claremont's second run on the X-Men has been nothing to be proud of either).