REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 11 March 2001
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - 11 March 2001
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:
BERLIN: CITY OF STONES
by Jason Lutes
BLINK #3 - "On The Side of the Angels"
by Scott Lobdell, Judd Winnick, Trevor McCarthy, Norm Rapmund
and Tyson McAddo
GAMBIT & BISHOP #4 - "My Brother, My Enemy!"
by Scott Lobdell, Joe Pruett, Thomas Derenick, Eric Cannon and
Team X
MUTANT X #31 - "You Say You Want A Resolution?"
by Howard Mackie, Ron Lim and Andrew Pepoy
X-MEN: THE SEARCH FOR CYCLOPS #4 - "Found!"
by Joseph Harris, Tom Raney and Scott Hanna
------------
Face front, true believers, for another week of Mighty Marvel
Mediocrity. Lord knows I sit through some bad comics for the
X-Axis, but this week's X-books are a particularly feeble
collection.
I'll come back to them later. In the meantime, I'm going to
break with the usual format and lead off with BERLIN: CITY OF
STONES. This is because it deserves the prominence far more than
that bloody Blink miniseries.
City of Stones is the first Berlin trade paperback; ultimately,
it's apparently planned as a trilogy. It's a historical drama
set in the Weimar Republic. Time's review on the back cover
proclaims that Berlin will be "the longest, most sophisticated
work of historical fiction in the medium." This is one of those
claims that's rather less impressive on further consideration
(how many long-form works of straight historical fiction in
comics ARE there?), but even if there was more competition out
there, Berlin would still be staking a pretty strong claim to
that title.
The central storyline is the romance between journalist Kurt
Severing and art student Marthe Muller, but the focus goes wider
than that. Lutes allows the focus to drift from his central
characters to follow characters from around Berlin, showing
all the factions that would shortly become invovled in rather
unpleasant upheavals in German society. The book is impressive
in large part because of the way it simultaneously brings out
the wider political picture and narrows in on human characters
from all the factions. (The Nazis get a rather less sympathetic
view than everyone else, but one with understanding of their
position.)
Lutes' characters are the followers rather than the leaders,
people being dragged along by the forces of society. The two
central figures are remaining on the sidelines of all this for
the moment, declining to ally themselves with anyone and trying
to get on with life as normal; future volumes will presumably
show why that ceased to be an option. At this stage, Kurt's
role is to be the journalist observing the political forces,
while Martha's function is to be an observer of the parallel
debate in the Berlin art world (the rise of objectivism as a
reaction against impressionism).
The book's not entirely flawless - sometimes the exposition of
1920s German history is worked in rather obviously. There's also
a rather glaring "let's celebrate the history of sequential art"
moment where a debate on art is illustrated by reference to Franz
Masereel's 1926 graphic novel "Passionate Journey". (Yes, it's
topical and relevant - Masereel was banned by the Nazis as
denegerate art - but it's such an obscure reference that those
points get overshadowed.) These are nitpicking points, though.
Given the immense amount of material that Lutes needs to get
over, the exposition is generally handled well, without reducing
the characters to mouthpieces for history lessons.
Lutes is an excellent visual storyteller. I reviewed his work
on The Fall a couple of weeks ago and made some vague comment
to the effect that he was quite good in an understated way;
after reading him in long form, I'm far more impressed by the
subtlety of his work here. The atmosphere and pacing are
impeccable. He even has a stab - more or less successful - at
doing a song and dance sequence, something that's incredibly
difficult to pull off in comics (which can't do music, can't
do rhythm and can only do movement at one remove).
This is a marvellous piece of work. Screw all the rubbish I'm
about to talk about. Go and buy this instead.
Rating: A+
------------
>From the sublime to the X-books. God, three miniseries and Mutant
X in one week. What have I done to deserve this?
BLINK is onto its third issue, and still shows no signs of having
any real point. Blink's still in the Negative Zone, having
hooked up with armed forces of the deposed Annihilus in a bid
to depose Blastaar. Eventually it turns out that her lover from
the last issue is actually Annihilus in disguise.
Thre are a couple of pages with Blink rescuing children of
Annihilus' royal family (uh, right) and remembering the abuse
she suffered as a child which are actually quite effective.
Other than that, we're in paint by numbers territory. The
story never makes it particularly clear why we ought to favour
Blastaar or Annihilus, or indeed care one way or the other.
Those familiar with the characters know that they're both
bastards; those unfamiliar are given no reason to be interested.
Artist Trevor McCarthy is still amusing himself by playing "how
contrived can I be in covering up Blink's crotch", and vaguely
emulating Adam Pollina. He's okay, although he does some really
quite bad exaggerated perspective at points.
This book is doing nothing to build interest in the Exiles series,
which is presumably the justification for publishing it in the
first place.
Rating: C-
------------
The parade of lame ducks continues with GAMBIT & BISHOP, which
has now crossed the magical line between "Well, maybe it'll make
sense in the end" and "What the hell are they thinking?"
This issue, Gambit & Bishop chat to the Witness and Stryfe for
half the story. Then Stryfe gets carted off by Cable, and our
heroes trot off to stop Cable from killing him, on the grounds
that killing would be bad.
This has all the hallmarks of a rush job. Over on the X-Men
proper, Lobdell has been producing fairly sound stories. This,
however, is a train wreck. Things get off to a bad start as we
get a lengthy explanation of why X-Men don't kill. Lobdell
dutifully reminds us of the time Bishop was talked out of killing
Trevor Fitzroy. Good old X-Men, says Bishop. Stopped me from
killing someone, which would have meant sacrificing everything
I ever believed in.
Now, the point of that story was in part that Fitzroy was the
last surviving escapee from Bishop's timeline, because Bishop
had killed all the other ones. You can portray this as a turning
point where Bishop adopts the X-Men's moral standards, but the
attempt to suggest it was a momentary aberration on Bishop's
part is ludicrous to anyone who remembers the actual story.
There are ample reasons why Bishop would be opposed to killing
Stryfe which don't involve dredging up ten-year-old stories
for the sole purpose of misquoting them.
We then get a chat about how the Witness is transchronological.
This is a pointlessly complicated way of justifying him as a
wise old man who can make cryptic comments for the purpose of
advancing the plot. It doesn't work.
But the book hits the point of no return when our heroes have
failed to stop Cable from capturing Stryfe, and wonder where to
go to find him. Out of nowhere, Gambit produces the following
jaw-dropping piece of pseudo-logic (dire accent erased for
purposes of sanity):-
"Okay, let's think about this for a minute. Suppose Stryfe's
right and Cable is out to finish off Stryfe once and for all.
That being the case, he's going to have to kill him at a nexus
place in time, or else Stryfe'll always have the option of
returning before or after his death like he did the last time
we all thought him dead."
What? What the fuck was that? Nexus points in time where you
have to kill time travellers in order for them to stay dead?
Coming into the plot with no warning? In issue #4? From
bloody Gambit? This is drivel.
Art, incidentally, comes from the ever-competent Thomas
Derenick. It's not really relevant, since the story is beyond
salvage.
Rating: D+
------------
Surely it can't get any worse, you say? Oh yes it can.
MUTANT X is now just two issues from cancellation, counting the
annual. I am grateful that the book is getting an annual this
year. It means the end will come all the quicker. In the
meantime, Howard Mackie is building to a climax.
Howard Mackie building to a climax is not a pretty sight. Never
a subscriber to the "less is more" theory, Mackie is throwing
in everything but the kitchen sink in haphazard style. The
cookery equivalent would be a cornflake and soap omelette. The
big plan, fairly blatantly, is to tease the destruction of the
world. Fair enough - it's an alternate universe, and you can
do that with the real threat that it might happen.
But what device does Mackie choose to start the war? Why, it's
the risk of war with Canada. Dear God.
The root premise of threatening a war with Canada is not wholly
without possibilities. Mackie laid some groundwork for this
back in the early days of the series by establishing that there
had been a war between the US and Canada, though he never
established why. It didn't matter in that issue because the
only relevance was to establish as a background plot point that
Americans weren't welcome in Canada.
In this issue, however, the threat of war with Canada is right
at the centre of the plot. This issue would fail in any event,
because Mackie never establishes why a squabble with a few
freelance superheroes on the border might start World War IV
in the first place. But the failure is all the greater because,
frankly, the threat of war with Canada is funny.
No disrespect intended to Canadian readers, but the threat of
the world being destroyed by Canada is literally laughable.
I can think of three stories involving war or military tension
with Canada, all of which were satires (Infinite Jest, Canadian
Bacon and South Park: The Movie). Nobody buys the Canadians
as a threat to world peace, not even the Canadians. They're just
too nice.
A war with Canada could work, but it would need a lot of set-up
to convince the readers to take it seriously. Mackie has done
none of that set-up, and so his story falls flat on its face.
And then gets hit with a custard pie. Even South Park had some
kind of rationale for a war with Canada. Mackie thinks it's
sufficient to tell us that Canada is "the most militarily
aggressive nation on the planet." He just doesn't seem to
understand that this is funny.
But wait! The comedy escalates! Captain America turns into
a steroid-swelled, energy-spewing mad patriot. No explanation
is given of why he's gone off the edge. He just has. From
being a bloke with a shield last issue (albeit that they'd
suggested he had mutant powers), he's now apparently the most
powerful man on the planet.
The sight of a partially inflated Captain America babbling about
"our great nation" is funny. Dialogue like "I am the sentinel
of liberty! The living embodiment of the American ideal! Let
freedom ring!" is funny. This is what seems to pass in Mackie's
writing for a portrayal of mental illness. Again, Mackie seems
oblivious to the comedy of the situation.
Oh yes - and then, for an encore, Captain America and Havok
have a big fight with energy beams. Their energy can't get
through Iceman's defensive walls of ice, but is still
sufficient to inadvertantly destroy the moon.
I'll repeat that again. Inadvertantly destroy the moon.
They're standing on the US/Canadian border. They can't get
through the ice sculpture down the road. And they destroy
the moon.
This is some kind of sick joke on me. Surely Marvel have
published this special ultra-bad edition of Mutant X #31 and
collaborated with my store to get it into my hands. Surely
nobody in their right mind would publish this catastrophe. There
is no such thing as an unbelievably bad comic, but this comes
very close. I believe in its existence, but only because it
is lying on my desk in front of me. It is certainly an
incomprehensibly bad comic, in the sense that I cannot for the
life of me comprehend why anyone would put their name to it.
Pity poor Ron Lim, who spent a month illustrating this nonsense.
The terrible things that that must do to a man's soul do not bear
thinking about. While he certainly has to take a share of the
blame for just how badly the Captain America scenes come off,
most of his work is okay. The rating for this book scrapes off
the minimum of D-, solely to recognise the fact that the art
could have been significantly worse.
This book is a fiasco. If this was the best finale the creators
had to offer, Marvel should just have pulled the plug.
Rating: D
------------
X-MEN: THE SEARCH FOR CYCLOPS concludes. It's the best X-book
of the week by a country mile, but it's still an uninspiring
package.
There was never any tension as to whether Cyclops was going to
be freed from Apocalypse in this issue. Of course he was. Even
before Marvel got bored of waiting for this issue and blew the
ending in another book, that much was plainly obvious. (This
issue is two months late, incidentally.)
Any interest in this story would have to come from the way in
which the ending was achieved, and any character points which
could be achieved along the way. The end result is sadly
formulaic. Cable and Jean wonder whether they're willing to
kill Cyclops in order to finally dispose of Apocalypse, but in
the end Jean just tears the two of them apart and they kill
Apocalypse. This doesn't really seem to be all that difficult
for her, making the question of whether they would have killed
Scott look entirely hypothetical.
There's nothing wrong with this book - it looks fine, everyone's
in character, the desired plot result is duly achieved - but
this really didn't need any more than, at most, a two-parter
in the mainstream X-Men titles. Getting Scott back into active
use as a character was something they needed to get over and
done with. It didn't need a four-issue miniseries to do it,
and the creators have understandably struggled to make this
foregone conclusion interesting.
Bill Jemas is right; they shouldn't have killed Cyclops off in
the first place if they were just going to bring him back, and
if they were going to bring him back they didn't need a four
issue miniseries in order to do it. Joseph Harris has done
better work in the past and doubtless will do better work
again; in the meantime, this is somewhat disappointing.
Rating: B-
------------
Also this week:
BLACK WIDOW #3 - The Russian villains are defeated, and an
explanation is given for the Face/Off routine that just about
makes sense. The book works, but I can't help being reminded
of Peter Milligan's Human Target series for Vertigo, which
explored rather similar questions of identity and did so much
better than this series. I also have a bit of difficulty with
Natasha using what amounts to a superhero plot device of face-
swapping to illustrate her point that she's an espionage
character rather than a superhero. Even so, the book hangs
togther on its own terms. B+
CRUSADES #1 - Well, I'm damned if I understand why they didn't
just call Urban Decree the first issue and call this issue #2,
which is what it is. Anyhow, the main thread of the plot
becomes apparent here - Anton Marx is going to tell everyone
that he knows who the knight is, meaning that he then has to
try and actually work it out so that he can deliver on the
tease. Not that different from Urban Decree, to be honest, so
you probably know by now whether you're going to like it. I'm
in the "for" camp, for the moment. A-
HOUSE OF SECRETS: FACADE #1 - The promised follow-up miniseries
to House of Secrets finally comes out. With its homecoming
theme and the subplot about Rain being drafted in as a member
of the Juris, this feels mainly like an attempt to give the
original series the resolution it never got, so it'll probably
be mainly of interest to readers who remember the original
series. B+
LUCIFER #12 - The angels invade Los Angeles, and get their
heads kicked in by Lucifer's pre-planning. Deeply satisfying.
Mike Carey is drawing his disparate plot threads together
rather more successfully than you might have expected. B+
RED STAR #5 - A change of pace, with a single issue story about
the slave labour engineers on board the warships. The usual
stunning visuals combined with some strong character work and
more than a hint of "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."
This is the point where Red Star demonstrates that it's more
than just big action scenes. A
THOR #35 - A double-sized issue, for no apparent reason. Thor
fights the Gladiator. Numerous subplots advance. Everything
is horribly formulaic. Tiresome. C-
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #7 - Spider-Man fights the Green Goblin,
except this time round he's basically a growling lunatic. The
visual certainly gets around the basic silliness of a man
dressed as a Goblin, but the character's rather one-dimensional.
Still, in this issue he's just a foil for Spider-Man to have
his first fight against, and on that level the book's a success.
A-
------------
Next week, X-Men #111 and X-Men: The Hidden Years #18, both of
which are running late. No X-books will be coming out on time
next week. At all. For those keeping track, in fact, Marvel
solicited nine books to come out next week. Only four are
going to make it. Somebody needs to get this under control;
it's embarrassing. Anyhow, Magneto threatens to start a war in
X-Men, and Hidden Years kicks off its final storyline.
The late running books list, as of next week, stands at: Cable
#91, Excalibur #4, Gambit & Bishop #5, Generation X #74-75,
Uncanny X-Men #392 and X-Force #114. Pitiful, isn't it?
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS REVIEWS - http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk
Relax - Bush can't count as far as World War III.
Christian Landry
"Paul O'Brien" <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:6brg89...@enzym.rnd.uni-c.dk...
>
>
> Oh yes - and then, for an encore, Captain America and Havok
> have a big fight with energy beams. Their energy can't get
> through Iceman's defensive walls of ice, but is still
> sufficient to inadvertantly destroy the moon.
>
> I'll repeat that again. Inadvertantly destroy the moon.
>
> They're standing on the US/Canadian border. They can't get
> through the ice sculpture down the road. And they destroy
> the moon.
>
*LOL*
I picture that scene with the "Dragonball Z" theme song running in the
background. How many times have they destroyed the moon in Dragonball Z
anyway? Two, three times? :-D
Christian Landry
James Moar
<pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>I'll come back to them later. In the meantime, I'm going to
>break with the usual format and lead off with BERLIN: CITY OF
>STONES.
You know, you may just have sold me on this one.
>But the book hits the point of no return when our heroes have
>failed to stop Cable from capturing Stryfe, and wonder where to
>go to find him. Out of nowhere, Gambit produces the following
>jaw-dropping piece of pseudo-logic (dire accent erased for
>purposes of sanity):-
>
> "Okay, let's think about this for a minute. Suppose Stryfe's
> right and Cable is out to finish off Stryfe once and for all.
> That being the case, he's going to have to kill him at a nexus
> place in time, or else Stryfe'll always have the option of
> returning before or after his death like he did the last time
> we all thought him dead."
Was the next line by any chance "Man, dis shit is really good..."?
--
James Moar
We were all put on Earth for a purpose. Yours is target practice.
Alan David Doane
>has now crossed the magical line between "Well, maybe it'll make
>sense in the end" and "What the hell are they thinking?"
I couldn't agree more. The first couple issues were inoffensive, and
offered a bit of hope for redemption, but man, how the mediocre have
fallen.
>X-MEN: THE SEARCH FOR CYCLOPS concludes. It's the best X-book
>of the week by a country mile, but it's still an uninspiring
>package.
Agree here, too. Tom Raney is too good an artist to get bogged down in
this mediocre storytelling. He should be doing one of the core
X-titles come May, in my opinion, or better yet, find a title truly
worthy of his talents.
Alan David Doane
Editor-in-Chief
Comic Book Galaxy
Usenet's 8th Favourite Comics Web Site
http://www.comicbookgalaxy.com
Ken Dreger
<pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Hey, Paul, thanks for the write up. As a Canadian I found it
particularly funny.
> ------------
>
>Surely it can't get any worse, you say? Oh yes it can.
>
>MUTANT X is now just two issues from cancellation, counting the
>annual. I am grateful that the book is getting an annual this
>year. It means the end will come all the quicker. In the
>meantime, Howard Mackie is building to a climax.
>
>Howard Mackie building to a climax is not a pretty sight. Never
>a subscriber to the "less is more" theory, Mackie is throwing
>in everything but the kitchen sink in haphazard style. The
>cookery equivalent would be a cornflake and soap omelette. The
>big plan, fairly blatantly, is to tease the destruction of the
>world. Fair enough - it's an alternate universe, and you can
>do that with the real threat that it might happen.
>
>But what device does Mackie choose to start the war? Why, it's
>the risk of war with Canada. Dear God.
Well we are pretty technologically wise with our use of ATM's and all.
>
>The root premise of threatening a war with Canada is not wholly
>without possibilities. Mackie laid some groundwork for this
>back in the early days of the series by establishing that there
>had been a war between the US and Canada, though he never
>established why. It didn't matter in that issue because the
>only relevance was to establish as a background plot point that
>Americans weren't welcome in Canada.
So much for those tourism dollars...
>
>In this issue, however, the threat of war with Canada is right
>at the centre of the plot. This issue would fail in any event,
>because Mackie never establishes why a squabble with a few
>freelance superheroes on the border might start World War IV
>in the first place. But the failure is all the greater because,
>frankly, the threat of war with Canada is funny.
>
>No disrespect intended to Canadian readers, but the threat of
>the world being destroyed by Canada is literally laughable.
I'm a proud Canadian and I agree such a war is laughable.
>I can think of three stories involving war or military tension
>with Canada, all of which were satires (Infinite Jest, Canadian
>Bacon and South Park: The Movie). Nobody buys the Canadians
>as a threat to world peace, not even the Canadians. They're just
>too nice.
Well that and we have 1/10 of US population, we're generally
pacifists, we can't agree on anything and we don't have the *right* to
bear arms in our constitution so most people haven't fired a gun.
Thank god people hunt up here though.
>A war with Canada could work, but it would need a lot of set-up
>to convince the readers to take it seriously. Mackie has done
>none of that set-up, and so his story falls flat on its face.
Even with a setup I still can't picture it. Maybe in an alternate
reality where we're more like Australia who's foundation is based on a
*real* struggle and identity. Why would Canadians need to have such a
psychological bent? Too many US TV stations?
>And then gets hit with a custard pie. Even South Park had some
>kind of rationale for a war with Canada. Mackie thinks it's
>sufficient to tell us that Canada is "the most militarily
>aggressive nation on the planet."
hahahahah hahahahah Stop! It hurts!
>Oh yes - and then, for an encore, Captain America and Havok
>have a big fight with energy beams. Their energy can't get
>through Iceman's defensive walls of ice, but is still
>sufficient to inadvertantly destroy the moon.
ptthhhhhh *spew* HHAHAHAHAHAH
I want to start a new award ceremony... :)
>
>I'll repeat that again. Inadvertantly destroy the moon.
>
>They're standing on the US/Canadian border. They can't get
>through the ice sculpture down the road. And they destroy
>the moon.
I love the way you describe this point. Great work Paul! :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'A Week in Review', comic news, and other self-involved trite:
http://www.comicgeek.ca
David Goldfarb
Christian Landry <chri...@NOSPAMnbnet.nb.ca> wrote:
>
>"Paul O'Brien" <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:6brg89...@enzym.rnd.uni-c.dk...
>>
>> They're standing on the US/Canadian border. They can't get
>> through the ice sculpture down the road. And they destroy
>> the moon.
>>
>
>*LOL*
>
>I picture that scene with the "Dragonball Z" theme song running in the
>background. How many times have they destroyed the moon in Dragonball Z
>anyway? Two, three times? :-D
They destroyed it once in the original "Dragonball", then they put it
back; then they destroyed it again near the start of "Dragonball Z"
for similar reasons. I've only seen the episodes of DBZ that have been
dubbed into English so I don't know if they put the moon back yet
again in that series.
--
David Goldfarb <*>|"I require three things in a man. He must be
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | handsome, ruthless, and stupid."
aste...@slip.net |
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | -- Dorothy Parker
Pat Weber
>>through the ice sculpture down the road. And they destroy
>>the moon.
>
I feel like I'm reading a deleted scene from south park the movie, where the
X-Men were cut out or something.
Pat Weber
"I'm really starting to dislike you." Gerbil in "The Micro-Gerbil 2001"
Eric J. Moreels
> background. How many times have they destroyed the moon in Dragonball Z
> anyway? Two, three times? :-D
I really don't "get" that show... caught it once on Cartoon Network and that
Goku guy was fighting Frieza (sp?), then a week later caught it again (after
one episode per day throughout the week) and they were having the same
fight. Another week or so later, and they were *STILL* fighting.
What an absolutely pointless show.
--
Eric J. Moreels
X-Fan @ Fandom.com
e-mail: xf...@fandom.com
Web: http://x-men.fandom.com/
ICQ: 162622 AIM/MSN: XFan2K
"Christian Landry" <chri...@NOSPAMnbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
news:33Tq6.12582$br1.1...@sodalite.nbnet.nb.ca...
Hooks
Eric J. Moreels <da...@ihug.com.au> wrote in message
news:3aac2f27$0$9080$603e...@news.adl.ihug.com.au...
> > I picture that scene with the "Dragonball Z" theme song running in the
> > background. How many times have they destroyed the moon in Dragonball Z
> > anyway? Two, three times? :-D
>
> I really don't "get" that show... caught it once on Cartoon Network and
that
> Goku guy was fighting Frieza (sp?), then a week later caught it again
(after
> one episode per day throughout the week) and they were having the same
> fight. Another week or so later, and they were *STILL* fighting.
It's pacing is the equivelent to the Mutant Massacre lasting seventy-two
issues. And that's an underestimate.
(X)
Arbane the Terrible
<da...@ihug.com.au> wrote:
>> I picture that scene with the "Dragonball Z" theme song running in the
>> background. How many times have they destroyed the moon in Dragonball Z
>> anyway? Two, three times? :-D
>
>I really don't "get" that show... caught it once on Cartoon Network and that
>Goku guy was fighting Frieza (sp?), then a week later caught it again (after
>one episode per day throughout the week) and they were having the same
>fight. Another week or so later, and they were *STILL* fighting.
>
>What an absolutely pointless show.
Yeah. Weird-looking, ridiculously over-powered characters whomping on
each other on flimsy pretexts....who could possibly enjoy something so
pointless?
PS: :) :) :)
Remember, the plural of 'moron' is 'focus group'.
-- James A. Wolf
John Hogan
>
> BERLIN: CITY OF STONES
> by Jason Lutes
> City of Stones is the first Berlin trade paperback; ultimately,
> it's apparently planned as a trilogy. It's a historical drama
> set in the Weimar Republic. Time's review on the back cover
> proclaims that Berlin will be "the longest, most sophisticated
> work of historical fiction in the medium." This is one of those
> claims that's rather less impressive on further consideration
> (how many long-form works of straight historical fiction in
> comics ARE there?),
Maus, From Hell, and Torso, off the top of my head.
John Hogan
Biddle Law Library/AFSCME Local 590
sw
If the X-Men were written like Dragonball Z, though...
[Issue begins: Jean and Magneto are smacking the sh*t out of each other.
The rest of the X-Men stand around, commenting on this. Toad also shows
up, for no particularly important reason.]
[Magneto] Victory for you is impossible.
[Jean] Says you!
[They pound on each other. Magneto knocks Jean into a nearby city (say,
Detroit), completely destroying it.]
[Head shots of all the X-Men, who comment on this.]
[Cyclops] Jean!!
[Gambit] <something incomprehensible and vaguely Cajun>
[Kitty] Detroit!!
[Beast] Wake me up when this is over, all right? Thanks.
[Toad] Go team!
[Rogue smacks Toad around. For three entire pages. Doing enough damage
to reduce any twenty normal people to paste. Toad is vaguely nonplussed.]
[Jean flies back towards Magneto, throwing off enough stray energy to
inadvertantly vaporize, say, Peoria.]
[Cyclops] Jean!!
[The other X-Men comment on this.]
[Magneto] Hmm. I see I shall have to show you my *true* power.
[Jean] Says you!
[Gambit] <incomprehensible>
[The rest of the issue is spent posing. The other X-Men comment on this,
at great length.]
--
--- An' thou dost not get caught, do as thou wilt shall be the law ---
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make
my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." -- Voltaire
Mick
Maus isn't fiction.
-Mick
Paul O'Brien
<jho...@law.upenn.edu> writes
>This is one of those
>> claims that's rather less impressive on further consideration
>> (how many long-form works of straight historical fiction in
>> comics ARE there?),
>
>Maus, From Hell, and Torso, off the top of my head.
I think the anthropomorphism of Maus is enough to stop it qualifying
as STRAIGHT historical fiction, although it's borderline. But the
numbers are still limited.
CleV
>[Issue begins: Jean and Magneto are smacking the sh*t out of each other.
> The rest of the X-Men stand around, commenting on this. Toad also shows
> up, for no particularly important reason.]
I would love to see Jean and Magneto really throw down and hit each
other with everything they had.
(Note how I've carefully snipped so as to confuse the casual NG
reader.)
Hooks
sw <s...@eyrie.org> wrote in message news:slrn9aq5...@haven.eyrie.org...
> If the X-Men were written like Dragonball Z, though...
*snip*
Brilliant.
(X)
Yujon3D
shelves on a regular basis. Never mind that most of the Northern Hemisphere
should be toast (which would preclude vampires showing up at the end of the
issue), Howard Mackie wants to finish his grand epic. Uh, what are you
smoking, gentlemen?
--
/----[]----\ mailto:Yuj...@concentric.net
[[]]00[[]]
|----------|=== The Yujon3D Home Page
\__________/ http://www.concentric.net/~Yujon3d/index.shtml
(( (( (( Fan-Art, Fan Fiction, Random Mutterings,
)) )) )) And the Yujon3D NASCAR Racefan Page.
Christian Landry <chri...@NOSPAMnbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
news:33Tq6.12582$br1.1...@sodalite.nbnet.nb.ca...
>
Royce
<pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <3AACF721...@law.upenn.edu>, John Hogan
><jho...@law.upenn.edu> writes
>>This is one of those
>>> claims that's rather less impressive on further consideration
>>> (how many long-form works of straight historical fiction in
>>> comics ARE there?),
>>
>>Maus, From Hell, and Torso, off the top of my head.
>
>I think the anthropomorphism of Maus is enough to stop it qualifying
>as STRAIGHT historical fiction, although it's borderline. But the
>numbers are still limited.
What about Lone Wolf & Cub? I'd consider that to be straight
historical fiction, and it's a fairly long series.
Ryan
David Goldfarb
>as STRAIGHT historical fiction, although it's borderline.
Also the fact that it's not fiction stops it from qualifying as
historical fiction. It's a combination of history and memoir.
--
David Goldfarb <*>|"...with very few exceptions, nothing lasts
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | forever; and among those exceptions no thought
aste...@slip.net | or work of man is numbered." -- Iain M. Banks
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu |