COMICS: Dave's Acclaim Rant: MRF, X-O
Dave Van Domelen
Dave's Acclaim Rant:
Magnus Robot Fighter #17 "Not All There"
X-O Manowar #20 "Flash Point"
Spoilers....
Magnus "Love Sick": Toyo Harada's men come in, offer Damon Angel a way
to become lucid (more or less) and bring him off to a big meeting which will
tie in to the whole end of the line party in Troublemakers. And this B-plot
is more interesting than the A-plot, which is just more of the same from
Magnus in Albania, as things slowly fall apart for him. The one plus for the
issue was Mitch Byrd's art, which I rather like, and definitely prefer to
Gimenez's stuff.
Since I don't have much to say about the story itself, I'll take this
moment to comment on the info page spiel on the future of Acclaim Comics. To
put it bluntly, unless you're a fan of their video games, the future is
bleak. Fabe makes a bit deal about moving into publishing game cheat guides,
but I would be more interested in reading a Cyberfrog hardcover. The
properties which will continue to be focused on are the ones I have the least
interest in (Turok, Shadowman and Bloodshot). Oh, and while the info page
mentions that the X-O Manowar action figure deal is still on...it's not.
According to the new issue of Tomart's Action Figure Digest, the X-O figure
has been cancelled due to poor pre-orders.
Crumble, crumble, crumble.
X-O "Free Your Mind & Your Ass Will Follow": For the most part, it's a
good story with few surprises. Thalia and Donovan talk in his mind (using
the holosuite sort of gimmick cooked up for Tish a few issues back) while
Master Blaster's energies build to an explosion. Once Donovan wakes up, it's
too late to stop the explosion, so he flies out into space to detonate away
from everyone else. Funeral next issue.
However.
Along the way there's a bigger explosion than the one Master Blaster
caused, and it's an emotional one. Donovan asks Thalia to marry him. She,
being no fool (and a psych-trained non-fool to boot) turns him down, knowing
that he doesn't love her, he's just reaching out because he needs someone,
and thinks he loves her. Definitely a set-up for the revelation next issue
that Donovan loves Renata after all, methinks.
How is this possible if there's not enough left to bury after the final
panel? Welllll...it could be a posthumous thing. The reason Thalia said he
didn't love her being that she knew he loved Renata, and she tells Ren,
something like that. Or, of course, maybe he's not quite so dead after all.
There would especially be a certain amount of irony in Solar saving Donovan
from death, given how much is made this issue about Solar giving Wylie the
screaming heebie-jeebies.
Of course, for maximum Evangelion-style make-everyone-who-survives-
hurt-as-much-as-possible storytelling, Tish returns with an X-O, but "Rand"
is dead with the Manowar suit, and it turns out that Thalia thinks Donovan
loved Tish, despite his protestations. That would be very cruel, so don't
count it out. }->
Dave Van Domelen, "Renata, Renata, Renata. You're so good at this, it
ought to be illegal. Oh, wait. It is." - Renata, hacking into secure
databases from her laptop