Monday, April 27, 2015

Cosmic Consequences: A Black Vortex Overview


Cosmic Consequences: A Black Vortex Overview

By: Mr. J’s Comic Reviews

Let me first get started by saying I did not read all the parts. I did not read the Nova or Captain Marvel tie ins. Also I will not be going over each part individually this will just be my thoughts on the event as a whole overall. Here’s your last chance to avoid some spoilers for the event. I’m going to do a quick synopsis then I’ll go into what I felt were the good and the bad of the event. Let’s get started.



Event Synopsis

The Black Vortex is an ancient device that allows whoever uses it to see their full cosmic potential and be granted the ability to transform into the form that they see in the Vortex. This grants them an immense amount of power but as well all know power can corrupt even the best of us, and the guardians and the x-men are no exception. Well one x-man is but I’ll get to that later. Star Lord’s father King J-Son is after the black vortex to gain enough power to take back the Spartax Empire and destroy earth as well. Kitty and Star Lord try their best to stop him but they realize that they’re going to need backup, so they call in both their teams Kitty’s X-Men and Star Lord’s Guardians of the Galaxy. This leads to pretty much one giant game intergalactic keep away between our heroes and King J-Son’s forces known as The Slaughter Lords. Along the way a few members of both the Guardians and the X-Men get transformed by the Black Vortex including present day Beast, young Iceman, Groot, Gamora, and young Cyclops. Eventually even young Sam Alexander Nova joins the fray to assist the heroes. The battle for the Vortex does have some huge consequences, one of which is the destruction of the Kree homeworld Hala. It all comes down to one decision. One last hero must be chosen to be transformed by the black vortex. Who is it? Why it’s none other than my personal favorite X-Man, Shadowcat aka Kitty Pryde. She’s the perfect candidate because unlike the others deep down she has no need for more power. Kitty uses her new found cosmic powers to finally end the conflict. She stops King J-Son and The Slaughter Lords and returns the Black Vortex to its proper keeper. However it doesn’t end there folks, after all these events we get a happy ending. All the X-Men and Guardians who were transformed by the Vortex chose to return to normal except for Kitty, Gamora, and young Angel. The heroes who returned to normal however are warned that there are consequences for rejecting the gift of the Vortex. Once all the dusts settles we’re treated to a real happy ending when Star Lord proposes to Kitty and she says yes.   In the end both teams of heroes part ways, King J-Son is captured by The Collector, and Thane begins plans to follow in his father’s footsteps and attempt to rule the universe. That covers the event synopsis, so let’s get into the good and the bad of The Black Vortex. I’m going to start with the good.


The Good

The concept of The Black Vortex was really interesting and a lot of the powered up forms looked really awesome. 
  • The event had real consequences with the destruction of Hala and the aftermath of some of the X-Men and Guardians giving up or keeping their new powers. 
  • For the most part the art in the chapters were consistent and ranged from solid to great. 
  • There were some great character interactions and character moments throughout the event, especially for Kitty and Star Lord
  • I personally loved the ending. This event didn’t just feel like it was setting up for the next one which makes me think that the changes it caused will actually stick.



The Bad
  • I felt the event should’ve been shorter. Twelve chapters is a lot and at times I felt that the event was dragging its feet so to speak.
  • I honestly didn’t care much for King J-Son or The Slaughter Lords. The villains could’ve been handled better.
  • Having each chapter takes place in a different title forces fans to buy titles they may not currently be reading. It wasn’t that big of a deal but it was a bit inconvenient, and I’m sure that it was for some of you too.



Final Thoughts

I enjoyed The Black Vortex as an event. With Secret Wars on the way I feel like this will be Marvel’s sleeper hit of the year. Unlike a majority of the events over the past couple years The Black Vortex actually carries some weight to it. It wasn’t just an event to set up another event. The Black Vortex had big consequences by the end for the cosmic side of the cosmic universe, and it actually delivered on its promise of bringing big changes to the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe which is more than I can say for most Marvel events from over the past two or three years. Overall as an event I give The Black Vortex as an event:
 


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