X-Men: Emperor Vulcan

Collects X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #1-5 by Christopher Yost and Paco Diaz Luque.

Uhm well, yes. Obviously this book is the direct continuation of Uncanny X-Men: Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire. For some reason it was published as a mini-series, maybe so that Brubaker didn't have to it, I don't know. The main plot is about Vulcan and the X-Men momentarily joining forces to kick the collective asses of some alien race that calls themselves "Death to the Shi'ar". Yes that's right, "Death to the Shi'ar" is their name, so you can probably guess what is their game. When they don't kick alien ass, the X-Men discuss the moral implications of actually killing your enemy, and if I remember correctly, the conclusion is that if you hate him enough it's ok. Or something like that. The story has a slightly surprising ending, but it wasn't interesting enough to keep me from yawning violently.

I don't remember reading anything by the two gentleman Yost and Luque before, and I can't really say that I was impressed by this book. This is one of those books that sometimes comes out when you have a franchise as popular as the X-Men. It can't all be good, and sometimes books must be handed over to less-than-stellar writers and artists to get the books to print. I think most Marvel (and DC) readers have become used to this over the years...

So does that mean I can 't recommend this book to anyone? Not really, to some extent the world needs mediocre comic books as well. (But really, "Death to the Shi'ar", pfhh...) If you liked the Vulcan/Rise & Fall... storyline you'll probably want to read this one as well, so why not...

3/10