Monday, June 22, 2015

Look and find...bad flash photography, apparently.


I love, love, loved the Wolverine and the X-Men series, so naturally it was cancelled after 25 episodes. (Conversely, Bob's Burgers, which I've never been able to warm up to, is probably going to be on TV for the rest of my misbegotten life...) So, some time back when I saw a kids "Look and Find" book for the show, I kept that in the back of my mind, and then finally ordered it a couple of weeks ago when I had a credit with Amazon. I was ordering it sight unseen, but I was hoping Nightcrawler might get a bit of page time, since he was predominantly featured in a few episodes. So, how was it? Well...

Years ago, my Oldest son and I read the heck out of an Amazing Spider-Man Look and Find book. That particular book may have been reprinted with different covers since, and it's not like the credits are plastered on the front of it, but it was written by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, who is a name I at least recognize from old Marvel Bullpen Bulletins; and featured inks by Don Heck, Mike Esposito, and Marie Severin! Flip through it, and it guest-stars the Avengers, the Silver Surfer, Daredevil, the New Warriors, the Warriors Three...! It is so great.

This Wolverine and the X-Men, though: nowhere near as good. The book is credited to a single artist, Art Mawhinney, and doesn't look too bad on the cover, but seems overly blown-up on the interiors. Worse, Nightcrawler only appears a couple times--I think Toad is in the book more, as unfortunately is Cyclops, in his horrible trenchcoat...

It would be fun to write one of these books, if you had a cadre of artists that you didn't mind torturing a bit.

Pages 1-2: Brainwashed and amnesiac, Logan is escaping the Weapon X Faculty! Can you find:
Severed Right Arm (among piles of Lefts)
Wolverine's pants
Canister of Adamantium Resin A
Cables, so many cables
Dunking tank
Deadpool (You know he's in there somewhere.)

Pages 3-4: The X-Men are looking for Nightcrawler! Can you find him?
Bamfs
Azrael
Beast
Boggies
Demons
Smurfs

Pages 5-6: Bishop is back from the future, trying to stop his apocalyptic timeline from coming to be! Help him find the items he needs to stop the future!
Mutant Plague
Senator Kelly
Nimrod
Cable
A giant-ass gun. The one he really likes.
Whatever you pick, it'll be the wrong thing when he gets back.

Pages 7-8: Cyclops is missing? Can you find him?
Hell, no.

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Sounds promising for kids.
I had a 90's version of this, from the 90's, which was basically a "Where's Waldo" but with the X-men. The art was pretty dcent, but not overly great. Still for a kid and major fan of the X-Men back then, it was worth getting. That, and the the activity book where the artwork was already there(various panels taken from Jim Lee's UNX run) you just had to shade it out with your pencil. Introduced to me to a lot of his work before I actually saw the real comic source material.

SallyP said...

Seriously, why would anyone look for Cyclops?