X-Men Planet X

Rating:
Summary: Just a Lot of Fun
Review: This is a book that shouldn't be taken all that seriously. It's just a fun read. Fans of both "Star Trek" and The X-Men will have a good time with this. Underused characters such as Banshee and Nightcrawler are treated well in this story.

Rating:
Summary: Corporate America's Poor Excuse for a Money-Maker
Review: This is a fine example of how corporate America chooses to make money in a way that (in the words of Spock) are "illogical". How are Star Trek and X-Men in any way able to coexist in the same universe? I can see little reason for these franchise's owners to combine these two series other than the dollar sign.

Rating:
Summary: A slight but fun collision of two pop-culture universes
Review: When it was first announced, this book seemed to me (a Trek and a X-Men fan) a terrible idea... dreamed up by the two corporations to pull in the millions of fans (and dollars) of both mega-pop-culture phenomena. Well, sure, it may be that, but it's also a lot of fun. Friedman isn't my favorite Trek writer, but his enthusiasm for both teams shows, and there's some solid character work: an intriguing spotlight on Archangel (never one of my favorite X-Men, but portrayed here with an interesting and original twist), Wolverine and Worf bonding in the holodeck, and a scene every fan has been waiting for: Picard and Xavier noting just how much the other looks like him (Patrick Stewart *should* be the frontrunner to play Professor X in any proposed X-Men movie, if there's justice in the universe!). The plot --the emergence of alien mutants-- seems almost tacked on as an excuse to get the two teams together, but that's forgiveable, the team-up is so much fun. Not one of the classic Trek books, not even an all-time great X-Men story, but a fun evening's read and a solid contribution to a genre previously only seen in fan fiction.