REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 28 July 2002
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - 28 July 2002
http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk
================================
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This week:
MUTIES #6 - "The Patriot Game"
by Karl Bollers and Salgood Sam
X-TREME X-MEN #16 - "While I Live, You Don't Die!"
by Chris Claremont and Salvador Larroca
MAXIMUM FORCE #1
by Dave Elliott and Simon Bisley
ONI PRESS COLOR SPECIAL 2002
"Friday I'm In Love" by Warren Ellis, Phil Hester and Ande Parks
"The Big Snobby Git" by Gail Simone and J Bone
"One Plus One" by Neal Shaffer and Daniel Krall
"Technorganic: Mechanized Fate" by Sabina Ex Machina and Steve
Rolston
"Dash & Dim Sum" by Christine Norrie
"Courtney Crumrin & The Night Things" by Ted Naifeh
"Vacant" by Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston
"Never Let 'Em See You Slip" by Gary Phillips and Brett Weldele
"Time Marauders!" by Christian Gossett, Bradley Kayl and
Aaron Holvarth
"Lost at Sea" by Bryan O'Malley
"Milkweed" by Kelley Seda
------------
I was expecting to review Soldier X #1 this week, but Marvel have
omitted to actually publish it. And quite honestly, I really can't
summon up the faintest interest in westerns. So here's a miniseries
no-one cares about, the tail end of a storyline that long since
bored most readers into resigned submission, a Simon Bisley reprint
book, and the annual Oni catalogue.
Let's start with the final issue of MUTIES, another of those X-Men
miniseries which nobody pays much attention to. In fairness to
writer Karl Bollers, this series has improved considerably as it's
gone on, as later issues haven't had quite the same heavy-handed
"social issue TV movie of the week" feel to them. Even though I
don't consider the miniseries a success, I'm still quite pleased to
have seen it publishsed - Bollers is obviously trying to stretch
his range with this series, it's given exposure to some generally
good artists, and if nothing else, it wasn't a safe and obvious
thing for the X-office to commission. Of course, the nature of
risky commissions is that quite a lot of them don't work, but it's
for the best that Marvel were prepared to publish this.
The final issue brings back artist Salgood Sam, and takes us to
Northern Ireland. It's a story about a mutant called Liam who has
borderline controllable explosion powers, which is clearly very
convenient for the local terrorists. They duly enlist him against
his will, and you get the general idea.
Fortunately, we're spared most of the usual platitudes about the
reasons why terrorism is a very bad thing. The focus is more on
the kid being dragged into the campaign against his will than on
the underlying merits of the cause. It's not too bad, taken on
that level, but the issue suffers from a rather mangled version of
Northern Ireland.
For one thing, the Irish accents are hideously overplayed. If I
could ban one thing from comics for all time coming, it would be
phonetic accents. I despise the things. They almost invariably
fail to sound remotely like the accent they're aiming for (not least
because they always assume that the reader has the same accent as
the writer). And they invariably make every character sound like a
complete twat. The story gains no authenticity whatsoever from
having its cast wandering around delivering dialogue like "Oh me
saints alive, if yer da' could see th' shenanigans th' two of
yeh're up ta!" This does not convey Northern Ireland. This conveys
Fairyland. (Oh, and by the way, "the gardai" is the Republic of
Ireland's police force, not the north's.)
The motivations of the terrorists are also left a little obscure.
I would assume that they're supposed to be trying to derail the
peace process, which is why they're bombing their own community.
But I have my doubts that this is going to be readily apparent to
most American readers. I suspect that the obscurity results from
a deliberate decision on Bollers' part not to set out clearly
whether the terrorists are Catholic or Protestant, but he'd probably
have been better off just choosing a side and sticking with it.
The art is impressive, though, and goes some way towards making the
setting more convincing. Heavyhanded crucifixion symbolism aside,
the last three pages are a very effective silent sequence.
It's really not so bad an issue, but the unrelenting Oirishness
of the dialogue is a serious problem.
Rating: B
------------
Meanwhile, X-TREME X-MEN finally concludes the alien invasion
storyline.
I lost interest in this plot months ago, and nothing here rekindles
my interest. The B-movie alien invasion has now been underway for
over six months, which is just ridiculously long for a storyline
like this.
I don't really have anything to add to what I've said about
previous chapters of the storyline, since there isn't really
anything new here. It's the resolution. The X-Men win. It's
not desperately good. One for the hardcore Claremont fans only.
At least it's finished.
Rating: C-
------------
MAXIMUM FORCE #1 is a one-shot reprinting two previous Maximum
Force stories as a trailer for an upcoming miniseries. This is a
superhero book, but it's a superhero book by Dave Elliott and Simon
Bisley, with everything that implies.
I've always been ambivolent about Simon Bisley's artwork. Bisley
is one of the most insanely over the top artists you'll find, and
of course that's largely the point of his work. His style doesn't
really work for me outside absurd comedy stories, though. On
stories that are trying to take themselves seriously, it usually
strikes me as out of place.
In this issue, Elliot and Bisley are trying to have their cake and
eat it. Much of it is gleefully absurd. It has a deliberately
simplistic plot, it has the obligatory Bisley ultraviolence, and
it has Blitz, The Manic Mandrill, a talking mandrill who hits
criminals over the head with a wrench. Oh, and a demented cyborg
Thor calling himself Max Carnage. It's a superhero book exaggerated
to the point of lunacy, in other words.
On the other hand, the first story introduces a relatively sane
subplot about the team being helped by one of Thor's old friends.
And the second story seems to be taking itself more or less
seriously, despite featuring extensive female nudity way beyond
the point of making any rational sense.
The result is a book that doesn't work for me, and seems to fall
between the two stools of being a real story, and a ridiculous
exaggeration. Elliott and Bisley's fanbase will probably be
happy enough with it, since it's nothing particularly unexpected
from either of them, but I'll pass.
Rating: C
------------
Finally this week, the ONI PRESS COLOR SPECIAL 2002. Oni have been
producing these things for a few years now. They're anthologies
which usually combine a couple of comedy stories, and material
spun off from a variety of their recent and upcoming series.
Warren Ellis, Phil Hester and Ande Parks contribute "Friday I'm In
Love", which is nominally an Operation story but is actually this
year's obligatory inter-character comedy crossover. Apparently
there's going to be more Operation stories to come, although it's
not clear from this whether it's going to be a comedy concept
generally or whether it's just being played that way for present
purposes. They come across here as a "Men in Black" type
organisation monitoring weirdness around the world, which isn't the
most original concept, but works quite well here when it's played
for laughs. Hester and Parks play deadpan on the art, which is
usually the best way with this kind of material.
Gail Simone and J Bone's story is a four-page comedy piece, "The
Big Snobby Git." It's a neat jab at American Anglophilia - with
obvious comics fandom overtones - and pretty much accurate, if you
ask me. (Here in Scotland, Anglophilia is not a widespread problem.)
"One Plus One" by Neal Shaffer and Daniel Krall is a trailer, albeit
for a miniseries which is actually on the schedules for September.
Given the nature of these stories, it would probably have been an
idea to put some kind of reference to the actual series at the end
of the story itself - as it is, many of them read rather oddly if
you're expecting them to work on their own. While this is very
nicely illustrated, it reads like four pages randomly excised from
the first issue, and it doesn't hold up all that well in isolation.
"Technorganic: Mechanized Fate" by Sabina Ex Machina and Steve
Rolston is a vignette about a robot escaping its programming. I'm
not certain whether this is a trailer for an upcoming series or
not - it reads like one, but there's no mention of it anywhere
that I can see. It's a cute idea, which doesn't feel like it's
been fully explored here. Fine if it's a trailer.
Christine Norrie, the artist from the first Hopeless Savages mini,
does a Kung-Fu Space Girls four-pager. Judging from her website,
this seems to be a set-up for something bigger, although again
it's not desperately clear from this issue alone. One of those
"cross two concepts and produce something knowingly ludicrous"
things, and I can see it making for an amusing mini. Norrie's
art works well with the flat, animation-style colouring she's used
here.
>From Ted Naifeh, there's a prequel to Courtney Crumrin & The Night
Things, which is one of Oni's titles aimed at younger readers.
This is a nice little piece, which strikes the right balance between
acting as a trailer and containing its own mini-plot.
Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston, the creative team from the rather
good Coffin miniseries, produce "Vacant", a story about a homeless
man who's largley abandoned his body in favour of astral
projection. Quite a strong idea here, and excellent artwork.
Probably the best thing in the issue.
Gary Phillips arguably misses the point of a colour special by
producing a text piece whcih acts as a prequel to his Shot Callerz
miniseries, with illustrations by Brett Weldele. As with the comic,
it's not my sort of thing, and to be honest, I didn't finish it.
It's good within its genre, but it's just a genre I'm not interested
in.
Christian Gossett and Bradley Kayl of Team Red Star make a rather
drastic shift of style with their story, a teaser for an upcoming
Buddha Master & Angst Man miniseries. It's a proudly incoherent
story, more about conveying the attitude of the series than
actually making any sense. However, it's genuinely funny, and
newcomer artist Aaron Horvath gives it a suitably exuberant and
mock-innocent look. Promising, although the actual series isn't
scheduled until 2003.
Finally, there's a two-page vignette from Bryan O'Malley trailing
next year's Lost At Sea mini (which is a nice little monologue
about blurred vision but doesn't really get enough space to make
much of the characters) and a frankly cryptic one-page strip by
Kelley Seda which soars gently over my head before colliding with
the back wall in an ugly fashion.
Anthologies are inevitably a mixed bag, and the main negative with
this collection is the inclusion of several trailer stories which
aren't all that effective when you take them in isolation. And
given that most of this year's stories is trailing books which
haven't been published yet, it's not like I have much choice in the
matter. It's also a mild irritation that it isn't immediately
apparent which of these stories are trailer and which, if any, are
supposed to be solely self-contained. Given that part of the point
is to promote the miniseries, you may as well be obvious about it
rather than relegate it to a page of "meet the creators" at the
back.
Nonetheless, Operation, "Big Snobby Git", "Vacant" and the Team
Red Star stories all hit the mark, and there are several others
which make for interesting adverts. It's patchier than some
previous years, but still a nice survey of Oni's wideranging output.
Rating: B
------------
Also this week:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #43 - Peter and Aunt May go to Hollywood to
track down Mary Jane, who's playing a superhero's girlfriend in a
film. Talk about obvious parallels. On the bright side, though,
the story does have a very nice take on Dr Octopus in a subplot,
which bring a bit more credibility back to the character. B
APACHE SKIES #1 - It's another updated western, this time with
characters avenging the death of the Apache Kid. Technically this
is quite a good book, with some excellent painted artwork from
Leonardo Manco. But the western genre has always left me cold, and
at the end of the day, this is still a western. Consequently, it
doesn't do anything for me. B
CATWOMAN #9 - End of the "Disguises" arc, and a cute finish which
gives a bit more moral ambiguity back to the lead character. She'd
been looking uncharacteristically heroic for some of this story.
Good way to round out the story, and it's good to see the series
remaining stubbornly disconnected from the other Batman books. A-
DEADLINE #4 - Last issue, and as you might expect, Kat works out
what's been going on. Rather unusual use of minor supervillain
the Tinkerer here, and I'm still not quite sure whether I buy it
or not. Anyhow, the series has been a pleasant surprise. We
already knew that Guy Davis is good, but it was less expected to
discover that Bill Rosemann can actually write. B+
FUSED #2 - Continuing the origin story, pseudoscience abounds in
order to justify Mark becoming unable to leave his armoured suit.
Hell, it's the core concept, I'll allow it a bit of leeway to get
it out of the way. Steve Niles continues to underplay the artwork
nicely. A back-up strip introduces a bunch of superhero characters
into the plot, which seems a slightly odd choice, but we'll see
how it works out. B+
GREEN ARROW #15 - Ehh. End of the Onomatopoeia plot, and no real
explanation of what the point was. I'm not a big fan of plot
device villains, and this story doesn't really hold up for me.
Still, the art's good. C+
INCREDIBLE HULK #43 - Everyone stands around quoting Coleridge at
one another and intermittently advancing the plot. It feels a bit
forced, as all three main characters seem willing to debate the
symbolic significance of the albatross in Rime of the Ancient
Mariner so that Jones can drag it kicking and screaming into his
plot. If you're prepared to let that slide, though, it's otherwise
another strong issue. B+
INFINITY ABYSS #4 - More retro cosmic stuff. Fine if you like
that sort of thing, but unlikely to win over any new fans. And
it still feels like a 1980s throwback, not helped by the fact that
it seems to be tying itself into old Warlock stories from the
Infinity Watch days. B-
MARVEL KNIGHTS #5 - And more of the same here. In fact, I quite
like Alberto Ponticelli's artwork most of the time - although he
produces a stunningly bad team shot near the end of the issue.
The plot, though, remains a pile of unrelated concepts that just
doesn't hold together. C-
THE ORDER #6 - End of the story, and the end of the Defenders
series, since it's not being continued beyond this point. Perfectly
acceptable superheroics, but nothing that's really going to make
me miss the series. The curse concept was a neat attempt to get
round the fundamental problem with this book - that the cast have
no motivation to remain together as a team - but it's never really
clicked, and after Larsen's departure, the book has drifted into
slightly bland territory. B
QUEEN & COUNTRY #10 - The letters page is still screaming about
Tara's tits, although my own objections to the art are considerably
lessened this issue now that Tara has gone back to wearing sensible
clothes which don't jar so horribly. That means we can get back to
focussing on the plot, which is largely about Tara and Ed's affair
starting to interfere with her professional distance. All good
stuff. A-
SPIDER-MAN'S TANGLED WEB #16 - And immediately, here's artist
Leandro Fernandez again. Tombstone goes to jail and hooks up with
various other minor criminals, in one of those stories that leaves
me with too many niggling continuity problems to really get into
it. (Such as: Rocket Racer as a villain? Wasn't that fifteen
years ago?) None of these things really go to the heart of the
story, but there's enough of them to be an irritating distraction.
B-
THING: FREAKSHOW #2 - Oh lord, it's a small town full of Kree and
Skrulls. I'm sure I've seen this before somewhere. Anyhow, the
art's rather good, but the story is drifting further away from
holding my interest. Haven't we done the Kree/Skrull War to death
by this point? B-
------------
Links, which you won't be surprised to hear are dominated by
websites from Oni contributors...
Simon Bisley - http://www.hksquad.com
Courtney Crumrin & Night Things - http://www.thenightthings.com
Warren Ellis - http://www.warrenellis.com
Christian Gossett - http://www.theredstar.com
Marvel Comics - http://www.marvel.com
Ted Naifeh - http://www.tednaifeh.com
Christine Norrie - http://www.spookoo.com
Brian O'Malley - http://www.radiomaru.com
Oni Press - http://www.onipress.com
Oni Press Color Special 2002 (includes previews) -
http://www.onipress.com/titles/titles.php?id=ONI
Ande Parks - http://www.andeparks.com
Gary Phillips - http://www.gdphillips.com
Steve Rolston - http://www.steverolston.com
Sabina Ex Machina - http://www.machina.nu/weblog
Salgood Sam - http://www3.sympatico.ca/salgood.sam/
Kelley Seda - http://www.kseda.com
Brett Weldele -
http://www.jasonbeamstudios.com/~brettweldele/index.html
Women In Refrigerators (Gail Simone) -
http://www.the-pantheon.net/wir/
Last week's Article 10 is still up at Ninth Art if you want to read
more about Automatic Kafka #1. http://www.ninthart.com
Next week, the first issue of X-Statix. Alpha Flight guest star in
Wolverine #179, which is the third Matt Nixon fill-in issue. (I
will be having a stiff drink handy.) And Kaare Andrews writes a
jam issue in X-Men Unlimited #37.
Which means that Soldier X #1 still won't be out, and Agent X #1 is
going to miss its shipping date as well. They're the only two
late-running books, but god, if you're going to relaunch three titles
in one month, it's not impressive for two of them to miss shipping.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk
ARTICLE 10 - http://www.ninthart.com
NTL - even worse than I'd heard.
Paul O'Brien
Sean Walsh
news:g6yyGyHr...@esoterica.demon.co.uk...
>
> SPIDER-MAN'S TANGLED WEB #16 - And immediately, here's artist
> Leandro Fernandez again. Tombstone goes to jail and hooks up with
> various other minor criminals, in one of those stories that leaves
> me with too many niggling continuity problems to really get into
> it. (Such as: Rocket Racer as a villain? Wasn't that fifteen
> years ago?) None of these things really go to the heart of the
> story, but there's enough of them to be an irritating distraction.
> B-
As I was reading this issue, it occurred to me: wasn't there a second Rocket
Racer introduced a few years ago, during Byrne's run? Maybe this is him and
not the original who reformed eons ago...?
And the usage of the Hypno-Hustler made this comic a plus in my mind.
> THING: FREAKSHOW #2 - Oh lord, it's a small town full of Kree and
> Skrulls. I'm sure I've seen this before somewhere. Anyhow, the
> art's rather good, but the story is drifting further away from
> holding my interest. Haven't we done the Kree/Skrull War to death
> by this point? B-
Sounds like it could be a holdover subplot from Maximum Security. Or maybe a
nice nod to Grant Morrison's SKRULL KILL KREW.
--
Sean
Sean-Walsh.com!!! Just guess the URL...
New Gods Library: http://fastbak.tripod.com
Quantum Piett! http://www.geocities.com/quantumpiett/
My latest eBay auctions: http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/slwalsh/
¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø
Laura M. Parkinson
>Paul O'Brien <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:g6yyGyHr...@esoterica.demon.co.uk...
>>
>> SPIDER-MAN'S TANGLED WEB #16 - And immediately, here's artist
>> Leandro Fernandez again. Tombstone goes to jail and hooks up with
>> various other minor criminals, in one of those stories that leaves
>> me with too many niggling continuity problems to really get into
>> it. (Such as: Rocket Racer as a villain? Wasn't that fifteen
>> years ago?) None of these things really go to the heart of the
>> story, but there's enough of them to be an irritating distraction.
>> B-
>
>As I was reading this issue, it occurred to me: wasn't there a second Rocket
>Racer introduced a few years ago, during Byrne's run? Maybe this is him and
>not the original who reformed eons ago...?
>
>And the usage of the Hypno-Hustler made this comic a plus in my mind.
Actually, what came to me in reading this issue... wasn't the whole
prison that was used the same one that was used in that godawful story
by Tieri? The one where we first got introduced to Mauvais?
Glad to see that people can't let a bad idea just drop...
(Personally, I thought this specific issue was horrible, but that's
apparently just me.)
--
-'-,-'-<<0 Trickster 0>>-'-,-'- lpark...@mindspring.com
http://lparkinson.home.mindspring.com
"Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be
destroyed." -Richard Adams, Watership Down
Carl Henderson
> Meanwhile, X-TREME X-MEN finally concludes the alien invasion
> storyline. [...] It's the resolution. The X-Men win.
My God man! Put some spoiler space in there.
--
Carl Henderson carl.he...@airmail.net
RAC/RACM FAQ http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/miscfaq.htm
Robert Carnegie
> Paul O'Brien <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote in
> news:g6yyGyHr...@esoterica.demon.co.uk:
>
> > Meanwhile, X-TREME X-MEN finally concludes the alien invasion
> > storyline. [...] It's the resolution. The X-Men win.
>
> My God man! Put some spoiler space in there.
Some of them are killed. But they get better.
I haven't actually read the comic yet ;-)
Christian Henriksson
<pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> sayeth thus:
>Gail Simone and J Bone's story is a four-page comedy piece, "The
>Big Snobby Git." It's a neat jab at American Anglophilia - with
>obvious comics fandom overtones - and pretty much accurate, if you
>ask me. (Here in Scotland, Anglophilia is not a widespread problem.)
In fact, isn't the American Anglophilia so widespread that it becomes
American Britophilia? I mean, folks like Morrison and Millar seem to
be included in this "Anglophilia."
Christian Henriksson
(che...@tiscali.se)
--
"Drink," said the Irish priest,
"is this country's great curse.
It makes you quarrel with your neighbours.
It makes you shoot at your landlord,
and it makes you miss."
Shawn Hill
: Lo and behold, on Sun, 28 Jul 2002 19:34:19 +0100 Paul O'Brien
: <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> sayeth thus:
:>Gail Simone and J Bone's story is a four-page comedy piece, "The
:>Big Snobby Git." It's a neat jab at American Anglophilia - with
:>obvious comics fandom overtones - and pretty much accurate, if you
:>ask me. (Here in Scotland, Anglophilia is not a widespread problem.)
: In fact, isn't the American Anglophilia so widespread that it becomes
: American Britophilia? I mean, folks like Morrison and Millar seem to
: be included in this "Anglophilia."
I don't think we Americans really have a clear view of how the Scottish,
Welsh, Irish and English all feel about each other. I mean, we think they
all speak the same language.
And we think of gorgeous redheads when we think of Ireland, but I wouldn't
advise telling an actual (dark-haired) Irish person that.
Shawn
Brian Caffrey
"Shawn Hill" <sh...@fas.harvard.edu> wrote in message
news:ai43ha$s2s$2...@news.fas.harvard.edu...
> In rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks Christian Henriksson <che...@tiscali.se>
wrote:
> : Lo and behold, on Sun, 28 Jul 2002 19:34:19 +0100 Paul O'Brien
> : <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> sayeth thus:
>
> :>Gail Simone and J Bone's story is a four-page comedy piece, "The
> :>Big Snobby Git." It's a neat jab at American Anglophilia - with
> :>obvious comics fandom overtones - and pretty much accurate, if you
> :>ask me. (Here in Scotland, Anglophilia is not a widespread problem.)
>
> : In fact, isn't the American Anglophilia so widespread that it becomes
> : American Britophilia? I mean, folks like Morrison and Millar seem to
> : be included in this "Anglophilia."
>
> I don't think we Americans really have a clear view of how the Scottish,
> Welsh, Irish and English all feel about each other. I mean, we think they
> all speak the same language.
Everybody Vs. England... ;)
> And we think of gorgeous redheads when we think of Ireland, but I wouldn't
> advise telling an actual (dark-haired) Irish person that.
No comment...
Brian
Matthew Shepherd
>
> THE X-AXIS - 28 July 2002
> http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk
> ================================
>
Paul, it occured to me that I should take a second to say I really, really
enjoy and appreciate these reviews. I can't afford to keep up with all the
X-Books (not to mention the gazillion other ones you review), so the plot
summaries are appreciated, but your criticisms are also usually bang-on,
and even when I don't agree, I generally understand what you're talking
about.
Thanks for all the good work. I look forward to the X-Axis every week.
--
Kick the crap out of me to respond...
...or visit www.man-man.org!