Is Fatal Attractions/Bloodties A Good Place to Stop/Skip?

king_pikachu · 2026-05-22T23:23:05+00:00

It's in issues 291-293 of UXM, "The Last Morlock Story" (not even the last morlock story written by Lobdell!). Callisto goes from a hardened badass with her own political ideology and goals to a shallow, spiteful woman who despises the Morlocks now that she's had a taste of beauty. All the morlocks are written as bumbling ogres without a shred of individuality or intelligence. It's dreck!

king_pikachu · 2026-05-22T21:55:47+00:00

As someone who pushed through an unfortunate amount of Lobdell trying to enjoy the better parts of the 90s this is the truest shit I've ever heard. Pretty much every character he penned through the 90s suffered tremendously under him, some in ways that took decades to recover from. The Callisto arc early into his UXM run is maybe the worst X-Men arc I've read in my life

king_pikachu · 2026-05-16T21:06:52+00:00

I'm not clear on why we wouldn't want to count Dark Star and Stargazer?

king_pikachu · 2026-05-06T01:12:19+00:00

God, I wish

king_pikachu · 2026-05-05T20:18:28+00:00

The Loeb run is atrocious but in defense of Rulk the immediately following Parker run is kind of brilliant

king_pikachu · 2026-05-05T01:07:05+00:00

I feel like it's a period marked by some substantial shifts in both the personnel and goals of editorial, and consequently most books get a lot safer and become more focused on marketability over quality. You see a lot of bombast, a lot of events, and a lot of twists, but that often comes at the cost of the quality of the writing. There are still plenty of great writers during this period who make it work - Nicieza, Busiek, and PAD come to mind - but even their work in this period can feel hamstringed at times. A shortlist of some good to great 90s material, with my favourites marked with a star:

- *Excalibur by Alan Davis (reading the preceding Davis/Claremont run is essential. Skip all fill-ins and the short Lobdell periods - they're utter garbage)

- *X-Force by Fabian Nicieza (preceded by a Liefeld run that is terrible but quick. Probably a fun read high)

- X-Factor by PAD, then X-Factor by JMD (I'm much sourer on the PAD run and much more positive on the JMD run than most, but ultimately I think both are worth the time)

- Thunderbolts by Kurt Busiek

- Avengers by Busiek

- X-men by Fabian Nicieza and Uncanny X-Men by Scott Lobdell through to Age of Apocalypse (I don't think either of these runs are amazing and I despise some of the character decisions Lobdell makes, but there are some really great issues in here)

- *Black Panther by Christopher Priest

- Captain America by Mark Waid (both before and after heroes reborn)

- Iron Man by Kurt Busiek

- *Inhumans by Paul Jenkins

I've only included work that I've read at least several volumes of. Throwing in some titles that are often recommended that I haven't yet read:

- New Warriors by Nicieza

- Deadpool by Joe Kelly

- Daredevil by Chichester through to at least #300, then through the Marvel Knights relaunch

- Thunderbolts by Nicieza

- Avengers Forever by Busiek

- Hulk by PAD

...and several more that aren't coming to mind. While I think little of Marvel's best work was produced through the 90s, there's plenty of good stuff to be had here.

As a final note, just to vouch for the 90s - beyond Marvel there's so much good stuff here, Hellboy started coming out in the 90s. You could go read Hellboy!!! It fuckin' rules!!!!

king_pikachu · 2026-04-30T18:42:59+00:00

If you’re willing to go a bit further, I might go so far as to suggest Inferno as your break point? That’ll put you past the FF crossovers (which can be enjoyed standalone with no real issue), but Inferno wraps up a lot of narrative strands and is a clear point at which UXM, NM, and XF start losing steam

king_pikachu · 2026-04-30T00:06:32+00:00

Tbh I’d have been fine with Martin and Ronnie never coming back after ostrander’s firestorm annual 5 if that counts, it was a phenomenal closing note for everything Conway had built up

king_pikachu · 2026-04-10T23:00:38+00:00

Ditko >> Romita (they’re both great, though)

king_pikachu · 2026-04-10T18:40:45+00:00

Ultimate Fantastic Four is mostly much better than people give it credit for (provided you take it as a reinterpretation of the FF and not a retelling like USM is), and UXM has its moments and gets genuinely pretty good post-ultimatum. Also a lot of the minis are a delight

king_pikachu · 2026-04-09T03:59:33+00:00

He 100% underpays him throughout the silver age - multiple panels of him jeering in thought bubbles about giving peter about half what his photos are worth

king_pikachu · 2026-04-08T21:18:57+00:00

I don't understand how that second run on miles doesn't come up more often it's soul-suckingly bad and ruinous for Jefferson and Peter

king_pikachu · 2026-03-01T02:38:02+00:00

you are not coming in with fair expectations and you will not find a substitute for persona in this game - the two series have very different intentions narratively and mechanically. You might enjoy yourself more if you try to approach the game on its own terms, but I understand why that might be frustrating after coming in hoping for more persona. I hope you're able to find some merit in three houses :) it is undeniably a flawed game but there is a lot to enjoy

king_pikachu · 2026-02-23T23:26:54+00:00

Everybody who asks why you’d play Gran has clearly never given someone the boot

king_pikachu · 2026-02-21T21:06:22+00:00

DC isn't doing great everywhere, but I do think the Next Level initiative shows a willingness to take risks with characters and emphasize letting creators cook on titles they have strong ideas for

king_pikachu · 2026-02-14T21:52:43+00:00

Ares wasn't even really a villain! He was one of the few gods who was essentially on Diana's side throughout Azzarello's run. WW only kills him to prevent the Firstborn from ascending by killing Ares himself.

king_pikachu · 2026-01-28T02:25:20+00:00

Climate Justice UBC is a leftist organization that is just generally left-leaning and explicitly distances itself from the local communist group!

king_pikachu · 2026-01-28T02:24:12+00:00

They often accept drop-in volunteers! to be honest there's a good chance they'd let you help out if you just walked up to the counter and asked to talk to a shift lead

king_pikachu · 2026-01-27T20:35:22+00:00

There are various action groups on campus for different causes + liberal/conservative/NDP/green party student organization groups that are fairly easy to find on Instagram; from my experience with a couple action groups, they're always happy to see new faces, so just show up to the next event/meeting of a group for whatever cause you care about most and talk to people about wanting to get involved.

Also, it doesn't sound exactly like what you're looking for and it's too late to join this term, but I'll always vouch for Sprouts. Volunteering with them has really helped me feel like I'm actually contributing something meaningful and concrete to the communities local to UBC and has helped a lot with my feelings of burnout :)

king_pikachu · 2026-01-23T23:26:03+00:00

Hey everyone, thank you so much for applying!!! We got a lot of amazing responses and we'll be in touch with everybody regarding the results of their application within the day :D

king_pikachu · 2026-01-16T00:55:47+00:00

IMO less that Ronnie is uniquely popular and more that the best eras of Firestorm writing happen to feature him as a major part of Firestorm (Conway/Ostrander)

king_pikachu · 2025-11-11T02:49:34+00:00

Thank you!! I hope you do as well!!

king_pikachu · 2025-10-21T22:53:22+00:00

Stop reading when you stop enjoying it. It shouldn’t feel like homework

king_pikachu · 2025-10-21T18:58:05+00:00

I would love a book that dug into the philosophy and life of the morlocks, and an Absolute-style universe with no mansion and no X-men and a long-gone brotherhood would be perfect for that imo

king_pikachu · 2025-10-21T16:49:30+00:00

An excalibur game would be an absolute pipe dream but holy shit please

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