Thoughts on The Rise and Fall of the Shiar Empire Storyline

[adamishere1]

Hey all,

Looking to maybe buy the Trade for The Rise and Fall of the Shiar Empire storyline - its being sold cheap on Kindle. What are your thoughts on it?

[Til]

Oh boy, that was quite a while ago. I remember I liked it, but I also remember it had a more mixed reaction online. I would recommend reading X-Men: Deadly Genesis first, because it spins directly out of that.

[charliehustle415]

It was Brubaker's second X-Men arc, I remember there was a lot of hype because Brubaker was just coming off of his stellar Captain America run.

But to me his run was middling at best and it ended with giant crossovers and then Fraction took over whose run was a little better.

[adamishere1]

Oh boy, that was quite a while ago. I remember I liked it, but I also remember it had a more mixed reaction online. I would recommend reading X-Men: Deadly Genesis first, because it spins directly out of that.

Actually read all of that story - was going for the Rise only because it was cheap LOL

[Master of Sound]

The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire was actually one of my favorite stories on those days (together with Supernovas). Like Til mentioned above, read the Deadly Genesis mini series first, then read this.

It is well worth your time.

[Quill-Han-Vos]

Ed Brubaked tried (for once) to go out of his comfort zone (his usual street level stories : Criminal, Gotham Central, Captain America, Daredevil, etc) but it was not very convincing to say the least (unlike the great Abnett/Lanning cosmic era with Nova & the GotG).

[IN-a-Synch]

My bad i shouldn't post spoilers

[davetvs]

I liked the run and the whole Space X-Men thing they had going on at the time. It's not a favorite, but it was solid.

[Mutant X]

The interesting thing about this story is that most of the cast members have passed for a lot of terrible writing just before that.
So it's a relief to read characters like Xavier, Havok, and Polaris sounding like themselves for a change.
The big cosmic plot is also well-written.

It's not Brubaker's best work, but it's enjoyable.

[MythicalChicken]

I liked the run and the whole Space X-Men thing they had going on at the time. It's not a favorite, but it was solid.

Good way to put it. It's a good x-men in space story that doesn't strip mine the brood saga, but it's not GOAT.

[GoingGreen]

Had the entire year run resulted in a Beginning, Middle, and End, I would've liked it a lot more. I liked it, but when we finally got to the epic conclusion just to learn it wasn't over... I was let down. And worse, they left several X-Men stranded in space for years to come, so their IPs missed out on some important modern stories. This story led to, what, three more minis? X-Men: Emperor Vulcan, Kingbreakers, and War of Kings? Anything else? And RAFOTSE started in 2006. War of Kings concluded in 2009. That's a three year space war that amounted to next to nothing. Havok, Polaris, and Rachel weren't shown back on Earth until 2012. More than half a decade as bit parts in a pointless war. And Vulcan has been written as so laughably useless since then, I'm baffled.

Had RAFOTSE been entirely self-contained, I would be much kinder in my feelings.

[SturdyMike89]

I really enjoyed it as it felt like the X-Men were getting back to basics. I think Mike Carey's run was getting started at the time and it was an exciting time to be an x-fan again. The one part I did not care for (with the exception of what GoingGreen posted about above) was how they broke the story. Three issues would be about the X-Men's progress with a fourth issue being about Vulcan's story. This was a good idea that allowed Billy Tan to avoid deadlines, but the other artist Clayton Henry had a style that was way too cartoonish and ruins the flow of the story especially when reading it in trade. It was like seeing the family friendly Marvel Age kid's comics they published back then only with the character doing horrible violent things.

[GoingGreen]

I really enjoyed it as it felt like the X-Men were getting back to basics. I think Mike Carey's run was getting started at the time and it was an exciting time to be an x-fan again. The one part I did not care for (with the exception of what GoingGreen posted about above) was how they broke the story. Three issues would be about the X-Men's progress with a fourth issue being about Vulcan's story. This was a good idea that allowed Billy Tan to avoid deadlines, but the other artist Clayton Henry had a style that was way too cartoonish and ruins the flow of the story especially when reading it in trade. It was like seeing the family friendly Marvel Age kid's comics they published back then only with the character doing horrible violent things.

Yeah, I loved Clayton's work on Exiles and Alpha Flight, but totally agree... his work was not appropriate for RAFOTSE.

[Project Initiative Cascada]

As others stated, Brubaker is an incredibly talented writer but you can tell he didn’t have much passion writing the X-Men and that it was just a paycheck for him. Not all writers can bat 1000 with every title they write.

However, I will say the Shi’ar arc was an excellent storyline for Mam’selle Hepzibah. This is one thing I’ll give Brubaker credit for as he did a fantastic job with her characterization and gave her a much deserved breakthrough by making her an X-Man.

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[Sutekh]

However, I will say the Shi’ar arc was an excellent storyline for Mam’selle Hepzibah. This is one thing I’ll give Brubaker credit for as he did a fantastic job with her characterization and gave her a much deserved breakthrough by making her an X-Man.

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Still waiting for Corsair and her to produce *another* Summer's brother, only, this time, a cat-person!

And if this new kid follows the traditional progression of newly introduced kids being more powerful than previously established kids (as happened with Scott -> Alex -> Gabriel, or Piotr -> Ilyanna ->Mikhail), he'll be Galactus-tier right out of the gate!