Earth X - Dystopian Marvel Sensation

So, months ago I bought a trade paperback copy of Earth X. I bought this because it came highly recommended from Nick, whose taste I trust to yield interesting things. He had mentioned it to me some time ago, but I remember the oddest things at times, and so asked after it as well as Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe at the little comic shop in downtown Atown, balked momentarily at the price ($30), and bought it as well as PKTMU anyway.

I read PKTMU quickly (it is, regrettably, a single issue) and didn't get into Earth X. It looked long, and I was a few weeks away from moving out to Austin, which meant I had other things to be doing.

I finally pulled out Earth X on Thursday night and started reading. I didn't stop until I was more than halfway through, staying up far later than I had intended to. Which is unsurprising, really, since I am easily engrossed by reading and have been since I was rather young. I picked it up almost immediately after waking up, and finished before I had to go to work.

It's phenomenal. Comparison's have been drawn between (and Earth X was done in part because of the success of) DC's Kingdom Come and Earth X, mostly because both take a large scale view of the universe they take place in, star the big stars of their particular license, deconstruct the idea of super heroes, and are apocalyptic. I liked Kingdom Come quite a bit, but in the end, I'm much more familiar with the Marvel side of comics than the DC side, which tips the scales in the favor of EX. I ended up getting the jokes more often (poor Bucky).

The way it was done also leans more to my tastes than Kingdom Come. KC was much more visually oriented. The art style was gorgeous photo-realism and there were lots of splash pages (it is a very pretty book). EX is really heavy on dialogue (with lots of text-only interludes between 'issues') and the images almost feel cramped at times with how small they are, like everything is being squeezed in, but in a way that ups the intensity of the read (for me, anyway). As a reader, I squirmed my way through the panels along with the desperate characters as the story unfolded. EX also benefited from a cast of characters who were more human beings and less gods incarnate, the way that the DC flagship characters tend to be. Or maybe the things that keep the Marvel characters awake at night are things that make more sense to me as things to stay awake at night over.

Anyway, EX does an excellent job of stringing multiple story threads together into a coherent tapestry with enough creativity and thoughtful (Fact or Crap) changes to make it all hang together without violating one's sense of the essential characteristics of the involved characters (unless one is one of those crazy canon continuity types who can't stand being so frivolous with the carefully constructed backstories of so many characters). The development of the plot through dialogue between the main viewpoint character and his interlocutor is well-handled, and the plot devices don't end up feeling forced. It's a great read and well worth your time. If you don't know much about the Marvel mythos as a whole, some stuff will be a bit unclear to you, but the essentials are all in EX, so readers able to juggle a few things at once without the background will do fine anyway. Some have complained about the complexity of EX, and it is a complex plot at times with a few sharp turns here and there, but that's part of what makes it a satisfying read. And Joss Whedon liked it, too.