REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 31 March 2002
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - 31 March 2002
http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk
================================
Go to http://www.egroups.com/group/x-axis-reviews and click on
"subscribe" to receive the X-Axis by e-mail every week.
------------
This week:
DEADPOOL #65 - "Healing Factor, Prologue"
by Gail Simone and Udon Studios
ULTIMATE X-MEN #16 - "X-Men: World Tour, part one"
by Mark Millar, A Kubert and Danny Miki
WOLVERINE #174 - "The Logan Files, 2 of 3"
by Frank Tieri, Sean Chen and Norm Rapmund
WOLVERINE/HULK #2
by Sam Kieth
MARVEL KNIGHTS #1 - "Enter the Brothers Grace"
by John Figueroa and Alberto Ponticelli
TIGRA #1 - "Deepest Cuts, part one"
by Christina Z and Mike Deodato
------------
At long last, the light at the end of the tunnel arrives, with
Gail Simone and Udon taking over on DEADPOOL.
Billed as a prologue, this is something of a transitional issue.
It's largely devoted to establishing Deadpool's new status quo
and introducing a new lead villain. Come to think of it, he's
been in dire need of one of those ever since an overambitious
retcon rendered T-Ray's motives impenetrable to anyone without
a degree in astrophysics.
After inadvertantly killing four villains at once in a complete
fluke (or so he thinks), Deadpool's stock has rocketed in the
mercenary world, allowing him to set up a ludicrously ornate
office and support staff under the name of "DP Inc." And his
arch-enemy, the Black Swan, is an old-school mercenary who finds
Deadpool's whole approach thoroughly vulgar and annoying.
So in other words, we're focussing back on the core concept that
the character is a somewhat demented mercenary. In recent years
the "mercenary" aspect has tended to be given lip service only,
while the "demented" bit has run riot. It's nice to see the
balance redressed here, and while this is still in large part a
humour book, it's also good to see it moving back towards actual
stories rather than gratuitous lunacy.
Despite this, the shift in tone from Tieri's run isn't as drastic
as you might imagine. Simone has commented, over on the Warren
Ellis Forum, that "a little bit of this issue is saying goodbye
to 'zany.' Stick with it for the next couple issues and I think
you'll see what I mean, as the humor moves away from that." Most
writers these days no longer seem inclined to do a gradual fade
in style from their predecessor, preferring to make their mark
immediately. Given that these are among the elements of Tieri's
run that I found most grating, I would have preferred to see the
clean break approach here. But at least it's going, and that's
the main thing.
For the present, the result is at times a slightly odd mix of
tone. The IQ level has shot up dramatically, though. We still
have an eccentric homeless sidekick, but this one delivers
out-of-context random dialogue instead of just vomiting every
three panels. And the humour now complements the story, which
is a decided plus. (Deadpool also seems to have started quoting
Infinite Jest while answering the phone, which I strongly approve
of.) This stuff is much more to my taste than the deliberately
adolescent material of the last few months.
Udon Studios take over as the regular artists. As always, their
art has a nice clean look to it, although it verges at times on
blandness. They do a nice Deadpool when he's in costume; out of
costume, his supposedly hideous appearance isn't really coming
across. He looks like he has a serious case of eczema and a
misjudged hairstyle, which is just a bit too understated. Some
of the action sequences could use work as well, to be honest -
the opening page in particular has some very shaky choreography,
with characters inexplicably reversing positions between panels.
Overall it's okay, but their work on Taskmaster is noticeably
stronger.
Nonetheless, this is a solid start to the new run, moving in the
right direction both in content and style. The art needs a
little work, and the remnants of zaniness don't do much for me,
but the signs are good.
Rating: B+
------------
ULTIMATE X-MEN #16 came out last week, but I only got my copy
this week.
I was really souring on Mark Millar's work last year, as we got
month after month of "let's torture the heroes" in Ultimate X-Men,
only for Millar to to embark on pretty much exactly the same
routine on Authority as well. Thankfully, it seems that he's now
got that out of his system, with Ultimates taking a dramatically
different tack, and Ultimate X-Men moving itself in a more
character-oriented direction.
This issue still isn't exactly subtle, but there's a noticeable
effort to establish some actual relationships within the team,
rather than just treating them all as interchangeable characters.
There's also some slightly heavy-handed moralising, to the effect
that the X-Men need to emphasise social responsibility in order
to maximise good PR for mutants. Still, at least we're away from
pointless nastiness, so I'm happier.
Our villain for this arc in Proteus, played this issue as a
fairly conventional, but legitimately threatening, vampire-type
villain. Apparently Proteus comes from "Land's End, Scotland".
I'll just shake my head in disbelief at that one.
Not as strong as Millar's work on Ultimates, but at least the
book is out of its rut.
Rating: B
------------
WOLVERINE continues the Logan Files, and keeps up the general
pattern of the previous issue. Nasty villains torture Wolverine's
friends, Wolverine fights back.
Typically for a Frank Tieri story, there's no sign of anything
going on beneath the surface, and the surface itself isn't shiny
and exciting enough to get away with lacking any actual content.
Tieri rehearses some fairly standard plot elements with Wolverine
fighting back against the baddies, and in fairness, at least the
plot here holds together passably enough. It just isn't very
interesting, and it certainly lacks originality.
Tieri generally seems more interested in hyping his upcoming
Weapon X series, so at least that's one of us who's looking
forward to it. Somewhere at the core of Weapon X there's an
interesting idea, but so far it isn't linked to any particularly
arresting characters. The Director is a one-dimensional loony,
and Tieri's pet project Brent Jackson seems to change personality
from issue to issue depending on whether the plot calls for him
to be a stormtrooper asshole or a man with conscientious worries
about the project's activities. If this is meant to indicate
character complexity, it isn't working. Instead it's coming
across like multiple personality disorder, with no consistency in
the character's portrayal.
I've read far worse, but ultimately Wolverine remains a hollow
affair with little to offer beyond stock elements arranged in the
usual order.
Rating: C
------------
Meanwhile, whatever else it may be, WOLVERINE/HULK is certainly
not going through the stock plot elements, and that along is
enough to endear it to me.
Sam Kieth is continuing his puzzle-box approach, in which the
plot is simple but quite openly makes little or no sense, leaving
most of the dramatic tension to centre on quite what the hell is
going on. However, unlike the similarly structured Four Women,
this series breaks up the story with Wolverine and the Hulk
beating the crap out of one another in absurdly over the top
fashion.
It goes without saying that for most people, this will be a
love it or hate it book. Personally, I always like to see
something different, although I have some doubts that this book
is really going to have a pay-off that will justify four months
of buildup.
But the art is endearingly ridiculous (and it knows it), and for
the moment the book is having fun rather than trying to be too
smart for its own good. I'm getting a kick out of it.
Rating: A-
------------
Marvel are having another stab at MARVEL KNIGHTS, for reasons
best known to themselves. The concept of this series always
seemed a little pointless - various solo heroes with no motivation
to work together do so anyway. And Chuck Dixon's attempt did
nothing to suggest that there was any better idea lurking in
there. It was a highly generic affair which generally seemed
to be floundering around in search of a purpose.
Now the series is being relaunched with writer John Figueroa and
artist Alberto Ponticelli. This first issue is certainly more
in keeping with the ethos of the Marvel Knights imprint, in that
it's not so obviously generic and it's full of rather odd ideas.
For the moment, it's running with an impromptu alliance of
Daredevil, the Black Widow and the Punisher, and so it doesn't
yet have to deal with the problem of why they'd form a recurring
team.
It's more promising than the first series was, but still not
wholly convincing. At this stage, there's a sense that the
villains are weird for the hell of it, rather than that any actual
point is lurking in here. Weirdness for its own sake is all well
and good, but it tends to wear thin. Still, it's possible that
some kind of theme is lurking in all the apparently random
material, so I'll give it a few months to see if anything emerges.
This story introduces new villains the Brothers Grace, criminal
brothers obsessed with plastic surgery, and with a sidekick whose
hobby is mutilating bodies as a supposed work of art. They're
obviously supposed to be sinister, but none of them come across
as actual characters, so much as a selection of oddball gimmicks.
As a result, I'm not all that interested in their story.
Alberto Ponticelli's artwork is a little inconsistent, but the
tone is generally appealing, despite the odd awkward panel.
He certainly does some nice backgrounds. Nathan Eyring does an
excellent job on the colouring, as well, which helps the
atmosphere considerably.
This could go either way, depending on whether there's actually
a point in here or just a load of gratuitous oddity. Too early
to judge, but it's at least trying to avoid the formula that the
previous run fell into.
Rating: B
------------
After the largely unconvincing X-Men Icons range, it came as
something of a surprise to see Marvel launching an Avengers Icons
range as well. And it was even more bemusing to see that the
first "Icon" selected was TIGRA.
Tigra is a weird choice of character on all counts. About all
she has going for her is a nice visual - albeit that the sight
of what's essentially a werewolf in a bikini can all too easily
look rather silly. But the character hasn't had her own series
since 1973, and hasn't even been in print on a regular basis
since she left the West Coast Avengers - which must be getting
on for a decade ago. Nor did she ever really strike me as a
very interesting character - the handful of Tigra stories I can
remember were largely concerned with magical Cat People, a
concept which doesn't much excite me.
The writer on this book is Christina Z, best known for her work
at Top Cow. She appears to share my lack of interest in the
Cat People, and instead has built the plot on Tigra's late
husband, police officer Bill Nelson. No, I didn't remember him
either. A quick check of the Official Handbook reveals that
even back then, he barely merited a mention in Tigra's entry.
Still, it's something to work with, and it beats the Cat People,
so why not?
The twin plot threads here are Greer's failure to move on
following the death of her husband, and her investigation into
some kind of vigilante cop group called (ahem) the Brethren of
the Blue Fist. Despite the dodgy name, the vigilante concept is
sound enough. As for Greer's emotional hang-ups, it does seem a
little forced for her to suddenly rediscover an obsession with
such a long-forgotten plot thread after all these years, but it's
fairly well written.
There's some dodgy pop psychology in here, and sporadically corny
dialogue, but all told this really isn't bad. If nothing else,
Christina Z seems to have an actual story to tell about her lead
character, which is more than some of the other Icons minis have
suggested. It's a pleasantly engaging read, and better than I'd
been expecting. Oh, and I belive Tigra may have just become the
first Marvel heroine to deliver the line "If you try to run, I'll
castrate you."
Mike Deodato's art (and that of his studio) can be awfully
inconsistent, but he seems to be on form here. He's a good
storyteller, and there's some good use of shadow here, helped by
some good colouring work from Chris Sotomayor. Given that this
is a miniseries about a woman in a bikini, it's mercifully low
on the cheesecake - although, admittedly, not entirely free.
Much better than it sounded in the solicitations, although I
suspect it may still struggle to get attention.
Rating: B+
------------
Also this week:
CAPTAIN AMERICA: DEAD MEN RUNNING #3 - Well, what do you know, all
that stuff about "We are dead" wasn't building up to a big reveal
that they were in the afterlife at all. It's just a story set in
the past before the character got killed off. Possibly the sort
of thing worth clarifying at the outset, you know. Anyhow, it's
a solid resolution to the story, even if the basic "nasty people
are inspired to niceness by Cap" character arc is fundamentally
rather corny. B+
CAPTAIN MARVEL #30 - Bill Jemas is a tragic loss to professional
wrestling, and it continues to amaze me that so many people take
his wind-ups literally. Nonetheless, this is the sort of issue
that lends a lot of weight to the criticisms he's been making of
this title. Peter David piles on the references to his own
previous stories without providing anywhere near the degree of
explanation needed to make them work. I'm sorry, but given I've
never read a Maestro story before, I need a damn sight more in
the way of explanation than "He's the evil Hulk from the future"
before I give a toss. He and his world's Rick Jones are central
characters in this plot, but David seems to be working on the
assumption that we're already familiar with their personality and
motivations from other stories. I'm not, and what I'm left with
here is a disconnected story which falls flat. And I've read
every issue of this damn series - if it's not accessible to me,
then it really does have a problem. Judging from other reviews,
people who HAVE read the Hulk stories seem to like this issue,
but that cuts no ice with me. C+
CATWOMAN #5 - Brad Rader and Cameron Stewart take over as the art
team, but the basic style remains unchanged. This issue looks to
be a set-up introducing the series' major villain, but it's also
a solid story in its own right. And mercifully free on Batman
crossover material, to boot. A-
ELEKTRA #8 - Elektra kidnaps some alleged rapists, although
alarm bells should be ringing from the complete lack of any
apparent connection that might have brought these four characters
together in the first place. Greg Rucka writes some strong
scenes here, but the art is continuing to hurt this book -
bluntly, it's not easy to care when every scene looks like it's
being acted out by posed Barbie dolls. B-
HOWARD THE DUCK #3 - Erm... right. Well, it's a parody of bad
girl comics, and specifically Witchblade. But why? Not only is
it a barn door target, it's also a genre that's already in
retreat. Sporadically amusing, but three years late. B-
INCREDIBLE HULK #38 - Bruce Banner ends up in a cafe along with
everyone who was hunting him. I'm warming to Jones' approach of
dropping individual pieces of oddness into an otherwise ultra-
normal environment, although I can see why the slow pace of this
storyline isn't to everyone's taste. Still, it's building nicely
towards next month's conclusion. A-
JLA #64 - The last part of the Golden Perfect storyline, and Joe
Kelly continues to explore the subjective nature of truth. Not
a theme which easily lends itself to superhero plots, and
indeed we have a slightly garbled ending here in which somehow
or other everything gets put back to normal because the plot has
arbitrarily dictated that it should. Interesting, but not quite
a success. B
SPIDER-MAN'S TANGLED WEB #12 - Wow. This is really good. Yes,
it causes some further difficulties for Frog Man's already
beleaguered continuity (although as near as I can make out, this
is actually meant to be a re-telling of the character's origin,
not a present day story). And yes, the debut story from a writer
whose main claim to fame is winning a competiton in Wizard is not
an immediately enticing prospect. But what we have here is a
lovely little story about the sheer humiliation of being the son
of New York's most ineffective supervillain. This is a very
pleasant surprise indeed, and having Duncan Fegredo on art is
always a bonus as well. On the strength of this, writer Zeb Wells
could have a lot to offer. You should pick this up. A+
THUNDERBOLTS #62 - Ah, the split is finally here. We've now
reached the point where the series is going to be doing the
Earth and Counter-Earth stories in alternating issues, starting
off this month with the Counter-Earth plot. And the series is
all the better for it, since up to this point the plot had been
bursting at the seams. Even now, it's still pretty packed, but
the extra breathing space helps enormously. Good stuff. B+
ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP #14 - Spider-Man and the Black Widow.
Or, as tends to be the way of this series, a Black Widow primer
with Spider-Man arbitrarily turning up at the end. Decent enough
as an introduction to the character, who's apparently going to be
turning up in Ultimates in due course, but not a particularly
stunning story in its own right. Terry Moore's art is sound, if
fairly neutral in style. B
ULTIMATES #3 - Well, we're now three issues in, and there's some
validity to the criticism that, by this point, we might reasonably
expect to see some sign of an antagonist. But oddly enough, that
doesn't bother me. Millar is finally moving beyond his "sadism
is cool" rut, and here we're getting some reasonably fleshed
out characters as a starting point for the series. Most of this
issue is about Steve Rogers adjusting to 2002, and meeting up
with a geriatric Bucky, who didn't die in this reality. It's a
slight shame that Millar has apparently built one otherwise very
effective scene on an urban legend (Cap's claim that there were
no black US soldiers ranking above captain in World War II is,
I'm told, wildly false), but even so it's a strong character piece.
A
------------
There's another Article 10 column on Ninth Art on Monday. And no,
it isn't an April Fools column. I can't stand those. Anyhow,
you can read it at http://www.ninthart.com.
Next week, Exiles #12 kicks off a new storyline; the Morlocks
miniseries begins; Muties has a third stab at trying to transcend
its TV movie influences; Uncanny X-Men continues the X-Corps
storyline; X-Force #126, where we might find out who dies; and
X-Men Unlimited #34.
That means that all four of next week's X-books will be shipping
on time, and that the only late book will be Origin #6. In fact,
Marvel are looking close to getting their overall lateness
problems under control at last. If the shipping list for next
week is correct, then there will only be three books running
more than a week behind schedule (Origin, Amazing Spider-Man and
Elektra - and one of those has a pretty good excuse).
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS REVIEWS - http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk
ARTICLE 10 - http://www.ninthart.com
Brevity is the sister of talent.
Paul O'Brien
James Hunt aka Urthworm
> fairly conventional, but legitimately threatening, vampire-type
> villain. Apparently Proteus comes from "Land's End, Scotland".
> I'll just shake my head in disbelief at that one.
two words: "Ultimate Scotland"
James Hunt aka Urthworm.
Kevin
"Paul O'Brien" <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:opg78a...@enzym.rnd.uni-c.dk...
> ULTIMATE X-MEN #16 came out last week, but I only got my copy
> this week.
> Our villain for this arc in Proteus, played this issue as a
> fairly conventional, but legitimately threatening, vampire-type
> villain. Apparently Proteus comes from "Land's End, Scotland".
> I'll just shake my head in disbelief at that one.
That was one of the best laugh-my-arse off moments of the year so far; can't
anyone at Marvel afford a damn atlas?!
> WOLVERINE continues the Logan Files, and keeps up the general
> pattern of the previous issue. Nasty villains torture Wolverine's
> friends, Wolverine fights back.
> I've read far worse, but ultimately Wolverine remains a hollow
> affair with little to offer beyond stock elements arranged in the
> usual order.
Wolverine is becoming one of the most crushingly (sp??) pointless books in
print. Every issue there's one sadistic, violent routine after another. I
mean is the best that Marvel can do with one of its very best characters?
Logan deserves a better fate than gnashing mediorcity of this scale.
> After the largely unconvincing X-Men Icons range, it came as
> something of a surprise to see Marvel launching an Avengers Icons
> range as well. And it was even more bemusing to see that the
> first "Icon" selected was TIGRA.
Hmm...I dunno, huge cleavages a go-go, I thought J Scott Campbell had
slipped quietly out of the Danger Girl camp into this one. Anyway the best
thing I remember Tigra for was some huge retcon job Marvel pulled in
Avengers to bring Spider-Woman back to life. I think it was Tigra that saved
her life shortly after the final issue of Spider-Woman's own run.
> Much better than it sounded in the solicitations, although I
> suspect it may still struggle to get attention.
Well issue one certainly helped illustrate why Marvel didn't want the comics
code seal on their books anymore, Tigra lying in bed, legs akimbo, etc...if
some good old fashioned angst ridden sex doesn't work, I don't know what
will.
> CATWOMAN #5 - Brad Rader and Cameron Stewart take over as the art
> team, but the basic style remains unchanged. This issue looks to
> be a set-up introducing the series' major villain, but it's also
> a solid story in its own right. And mercifully free on Batman
> crossover material, to boot. A-
Great, great, great. Catwoman is at last out of the shadows of Batman and
Selina is mercifully sane again.
> ELEKTRA #8 - Elektra kidnaps some alleged rapists, although
> alarm bells should be ringing from the complete lack of any
> apparent connection that might have brought these four characters
> together in the first place. Greg Rucka writes some strong
> scenes here, but the art is continuing to hurt this book -
> bluntly, it's not easy to care when every scene looks like it's
> being acted out by posed Barbie dolls. B-
I couldn't help but think that the implied Greeko-sapphic ladies in this was
borrowed almost in its entriety from Wonder Woman but I find the story a
little difficult to swallow. Like you say, we don't know how these four
characters are connected, and we don't know whether they actually did
anything to anyone.
> ULTIMATES #3 - Well, we're now three issues in, and there's some
> validity to the criticism that, by this point, we might reasonably
> expect to see some sign of an antagonist. A
I'll probably be alone here but the Ultimates just isn't working for me. No
Scarlet Witch, no Ms. Marvel...this all seems very bland to me. And seeing
as how in Ultimate continuity the X-Men are no longer a covert force, why
would you need the Ultimates when the X-Men are a naturally much more gifted
team? It seems an irony that the X-Men seem a more stable and more mature
team than this version of the Avengers; in this version of the Marvel
Universe the X-Men look much more like the heroes of the future than the
Ultimates..
Kev.
Polaris
> DEADPOOL #65 - "Healing Factor, Prologue"
> by Gail Simone and Udon Studios
> At long last, the light at the end of the tunnel arrives, with
> Gail Simone and Udon taking over on DEADPOOL.
>
> Billed as a prologue, this is something of a transitional issue.
Actually, I'm pretty sure the 'Prologue' line was referring to the Four
Winds flashback at the start, and not part of the actual issue's title.
It makes more sense this way.
--
Polaris
--
"I am the mack daddy of deception." -- Deathasauras
Legend says only virgins can see unicorns. You pretend you can't see it.