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Title: Uncanny X-Men - Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Billy Tan
ISBN: 0785118004
Format: Trade Paperback
Page Count: 312
Overall Concept 7
Execution 8
Art 8

This is the trade paperback collection of the 12 issues of Uncanny X-Men that occur immediately after the events of Deadly Genesis, which was a stand alone mini-series event.

As soon as I had finished Deadly Genesis, I felt not only comfortable reading this X-men series but was very interested in doing so.

And I was not disappointed with the results. This story is very much a space opera with the X-men in the very midst of it all. It has to do with large galactic empires that are crumbling, a single individual bent on the destruction of a king, a man who wishes to help the one he loves despite her having exiled him from her land, and a few rag tag fighters that help everyone along their way.

Mr. Brubaker has done an excellent job in making the events of this story very, very entertaining while being both fresh for the long time fan and the 'newbie'.

Billy Tan, who did most of the art on the series, has a very nice look to his drawings and pays all these characters great homage with his skills.

This series not only kept me interested and entertained, but demanded that I find out what happens next, as at the stories end the initial groups have split into two, one that returns to Earth and the other that stays behind to deal with the galactic menace Vulcan becomes.

Again, to any fan of comics, and especially to those X-men fans who may have been away for a while, I would easily recommend this book. And to those non-comic fans, there might just be a tad too much expectation on behalf of the reader knowing the finer details of who's who for this to be truly enjoyable. Though the writing can easily show a non-comic fan why there are comic fans.