REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 1 October 2006
Paul O'Brien
1 February 2004
===============
For more links, cover art, archived reviews, and information on the
X-Axis mailing list, visit http://www.thexaxis.com
------------
This week:
CABLE & DEADPOOL #32 - "A House Divided"
by Fabian Nicieza, Staz Johnson, Klaus Janson and John Stanisci
STAN LEE MEETS SPIDER-MAN #1
"Stan Lee Meets the Amazing Spider-Man"
by Stan Lee and Olivier Coipel
"Welcome to the Second Interdimensional Comicon"
by Joss Whedon and Michael Gaydos
"Unmasked at Last!
by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr
ZOMBIE #1 (of 4) - "The Getaway"
by Mike Raicht and Kyle Hotz
------------
If nothing else, Civil War has done wonders for sales on some of
Marvel's less privileged titles. CABLE & DEADPOOL has seen its sales
more than double during its three-part contribution to the storyline,
and it's hard to argue with numbers like that.
But writer Fabian Nicieza has approached the crossover in typically
confrontational fashion. This is not a conventional superhero book at
the best of times - it's the story of a semi-retired soldier who's
trying to change the course of human history, and a moron in a jumpsuit
who insists on hanging around with him. Since Nicieza has been quite
happy to run with that, instead of hammering the "heroes" into a more
typical story, this can be a very unpredictable book.
On one level, Nicieza jumps in wholeheartedly and uses Civil War as an
excuse to have Cable fight Deadpool. But although Deadpool cheerfully
signs up to get work from the government, and Cable hangs around with
the anti-registration heroes, neither character is truly that bothered
about Civil War itself. Cable thinks the whole crossover is an
infuriating waste of time that's distracting people from doing what's
really important - namely, obeying him. Deadpool, in contrast, is too
stupid to understand or care about the issues, and just wants to beat up
some superheroes while the opportunity presents itself.
However, the story does finally provide Deadpool with the trigger that
causes him to lose patience with Cable's lecturing. For a couple of
years now, this book has basically consisted of Cable sternly telling
people that he knows what's important for the future of humanity,
because he comes from the future. He never really justifies any of his
actions beyond that. Deadpool finally calls him on it in this issue,
which is a great turning point for the series.
Meanwhile, President Bush shows up, to be a git. Cable complains that
the Superhuman Registration Act is a terrible idea; Bush replies that he
doesn't care about the long term because all that matters is the
election in November. Not what you'd call a sympathetic presentation.
In fact, it's come to something when Cable can spend an issue arguing
with the President of the USA and Deadpool, and it's the maniac in the
red costume who comes out of it as the voice of reason.
Right-wing readers often complain that comics - and indeed pretty much
every form of storytelling - displays a liberal bias. To be honest,
they've got a point; on the whole, writers and creative types tend to be
liberals, and it shows. But even allowing for that, Marvel's insistence
that Civil War is balanced and nuanced beggars belief. With very
scattered exceptions, the overwhelming tone of the thing has been that
the anti-registration guys are right, and Iron Man is a total bastard.
While this arguably makes for a much more interesting story, since Iron
Man has been dull as ditchwater for years, it certainly isn't balanced.
But then again, I try to imagine what a balanced version of Civil War
would look like, bearing in mind that it's supposed to be a metaphor for
the current debate in America about the trade-off between security and
civil liberties. And this presents some inherent difficulties, because
if the metaphor is to work, the pro-registration heroes are going to end
up arguing for something legitimately comparable to current US
government policy. Trouble is, official US government policy involves
the exclusion of fair trials and the use of interrogation techniques
considered to be torture by every other civilised nation on the planet.
Now, whatever you think of such a policy, it's incredibly hard to
imagine most Marvel Universe heroes arguing in favour of such a thing
without acting wildly out of character. I suppose the Punisher might
approve - he's never been big on legal technicalities. Or Wolverine, at
a push. But that's about it.
Perhaps this is a central problem with Civil War - Millar really does
consider the pro-registration side to be a fair moral representation of
the Bush administration, and god help us, he might be right. But when
you start trying to ascribe those attitudes to pre-existing characters,
you've got a problem.
All of this is a bit of a digression in the context of Cable & Deadpool,
where no character is prepared to actually argue in favour of the Act
except for the President himself (who mouths some platitudes). Still,
it's yet another story where the central dilemma of Civil War fails to
work because everyone on the pro-registration side looks like an idiot
or a maniac - and Deadpool literally qualifies as both. That's not
entirely Nicieza's problem, since he's sidestepped Millar's agenda and
made it a backdrop for his own. The best way of dealing with a
crossover like this, perhaps.
In the meantime, the series has been able to have fun with the crossover
and avoid getting sidetracked too badly from its own stories. Staz
Johnson's fill-in art tells the story solidly enough, and really seems
to be hitting its stride with this concluding part. Considering that
it's a commercially-driven crossover, the story fits remarkably well
into this oddball title.
Rating: B+
LINKS:
http://www.marvel.com
http://www.stazjohnson.com
------------
This year sees the 65th anniversary of Stan Lee's first story for Marvel
- a Captain America text story, if you were wondering.
Even though Lee long since ceased to have any meaningful involvement
with Marvel's output, their universe is still dominated by characters
and concepts that he co-created in the early sixties. For all the
ongoing squabbles about exactly how the credit should be divvied up
between Lee and his artists, it's quite just that he retains his status
as Marvel's spiritual father.
Marvel are always on the lookout for a theme that might justify some
low-selling one-shots. So over the next few weeks we'll be getting a
string of STAN LEE MEETS... one-shots, each featuring three stories - an
original one by Stan Lee in which he meets the titular star, a back-up
story by today's creators paying tribute to Lee, and a reprint of one of
his old hits. It's perhaps fortunate that Lee is no longer involved in
the commissioning process, since otherwise this might seem a little
self-indulgent.
Up first is Spider-Man, and Lee's take on him is slightly surprising.
It's fair to say that after his sixties heyday, Lee degenerated somewhat
into self-parody, and certainly struggled to move with the times. But
this one actually feels modern. Spider-Man drops by to see Stan, and
complains about the hardships of his life as an underappreciated
superhero. He wants to quit. Stan talks sense into him - not by
talking about heroism or duty, but by reminding him how many people are
kept in work by Spider-Man merchandise. ("Singlehandedly, you're
keeping our economy afloat!")
This is... downright odd, let's be frank. There's a tone of resigned,
what-the-hell cynicism that I wasn't expecting in the slightest. And
it's actually funny. The old guy can still surprise me sometimes.
Who'd have thought it?
In their own 10-page contribution, Joss Whedon and Michael Gaydos duly
fulfil their remit and pay tribute to Stan. The basic conceit is that
it's an interdimensional comicon with basic issue comics from every
parallel Earth. But it turns out Stan Lee is unique in the multiverse,
and so in every other universe, Marvel Comics are absolutely crap -
either pure wish fulfilment with no story, or banal realism with no
fantasy. It's a cute conceit, and some of the excerpts from these
ludicrous comics are laugh-out-loud funny - on the cover of The Normal
Four #1, the "heroes" are just standing around discussing the size of
the pothole where the monster ought to be. The comedy manages to add a
bit of spice to what would could easily have been a fawning tribute to
Stan.
Much to my surprise, this book turns out to be a pleasure - and it's
backed up with a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #87, featuring sixties
Marvel at its goofiest. I'm not sure I'd really want to own five issues
of this; once is probably enough. But it's good fun.
Rating: A-
LINKS:
http://www.stanleeweb.com
http://www.michaelgaydos.com
------------
Simon Garth, the Zombie, was originally a character from a 1953 horror
story by Stan Lee and Bill Everett. He was briefly revived in the 1970s
for the short-lived Tales of the Zombie, where he appeared in stories
with titles like "When the Gods Crave Flesh!" To be honest, for readers
of my generation, he's mainly notable for being the penultimate
character in the Official Handbook.
Now, he's brought back as part of the unexpectedly revived Max imprint.
For a while it looked as if the Max line was being run down, with only
Punisher still going, and Supreme Power relaunched as a new Squadron
Supreme title. But now there's a whole range of new Max titles in the
pipeline. In fact, when you throw in Marvel's recent deal with Dabel
Brothers, they seem to have a renewed interest in non-superhero comics
right now. (It must have helped when the sales figures for Squadron
Supreme came in and they hadn't gone up at all, firmly squashing the
notion that a "mature readers" logo was holding the book back.)
Mike Raicht and Kyle Hotz are the creators tasked with reviving this
minor character, and their solution is... well, frankly, not to bother.
The original Simon Garth was a businessman who was killed by a
disgruntled gardener called Gyps (oh yes), raised from the dead by his
loyal secretary Layla, and wandered around random stories being
controlled via a magic amulet. In this version, he's a beleaguered
clerk kidnapped by bank robbers just as a mysterious chemical spill
causes a zombie rampage.
Zombie count notwithstanding, this really has nothing in common with the
original character besides the re-use of his name. He has a co-worker
called Layla and one of the robbers is called Gyp (singular, you'll
note), but that aside, it's all new. You have to wonder what the point
is of reviving a specific zombie character if you're just going to
re-use the name and do Dawn of the Dead.
It's a B-movie zombie story, no more and no less. In fact, it's so
shamelessly B-movie that there's even a role clearly reserved for Samuel
L Jackson. For what it is, it's alright, but nothing especially
memorable. Kyle Hotz ought to be a good artist for this, since he's
made the macabre his specialty. But while it's okay, it's not his most
inspired work, and somehow he's blundered into giving Simon and Gyp
virtually identical character designs, making some scenes hard to
follow.
If you want a zombie comic that does the usual, well, this is it. On
that level, there's nothing wrong with it, and it goes through the
routine competently enough. But it feels like it should be doing a lot
more.
Rating: B-
------------
Also this week...
HEROES FOR HIRE #2 - Heaven only knows what's happening with this book
now that writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have signed an
exclusive deal with DC; I suspect a lot will depend on what happens to
sales after the initial Civil War story is out of the way. Despite some
mildly exasperating lapses into T&A - and no, it's not the only way to
make your female characters look attractive and glamorous - it's
actually not a bad book all told, with Misty Knight and Colleen Wing
leading a group of Z-listers on the very fringes of the Civil War, and a
cute closing twist that makes perfect sense. Somewhat against my better
judgment, I'm quite enjoying this. B+
http://www.paperfilms.com (Palmiotti & Gray)
http://www.crusadefinearts.com (Billy Tucci)
X-MEN #191 - Oh goody, fill-in art. It's Clayton Henry this month
(though he seems to have started calling himself Clay) and as expected,
the visuals are less distinctive, but an awful lot easier to follow.
And when the art helps me into the story instead of putting up barriers,
I have more fun. I'm a simple soul, you see. There's a bit of
mid-story padding here, as much of the issue is devoted to a rather odd
subplot with Cannonball being tricked into thinking that he's married
one of the villains. An old concept, and it doesn't really go anywhere,
but at least it's neatly done, and the jumps to new scenes as Sangre
rebuilds the reality to fix Sam's doubts work so much better with a
straightforward artist than they would have under Bachalo. We also get
the origin of the Children - it seems they're the result of humans who
were locked in an accelerated time capsule to breed for generations.
Er... isn't that exactly the same as the origin of Fantomex? Like,
exactly the same? Surely the statute of limitations hasn't yet expired
for reusing that concept. I mean, it's a good idea and all, but come
on... Still, that concern aside, it's another strong superhero story,
and Carey is doing well with this book. B
http://www.mikecarey.net
http://clayton-henry.deviantart.com
------------
There's more from me at If Destroyed, and if you're desperate for more
Article 10 columns, you can always hunt through the archives on Ninth
Art.
http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
http://www.ninthart.com
Next week, Giant-Size Wolverine #1 offers a 34-page Hallowe'en story by
David Lapham and David Aja, which is admittedly an interesting prospect.
X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong #2 continues the Endsong sequel. And outside
the X-books, there's a ton of new titles starting, most notably Ed
Brubaker's Criminal.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
IF DESTROYED - http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
NINTH ART - http://www.ninthart.com
bar...@shentel.net
War
> would look like, bearing in mind that it's supposed to be a metaphor for
> the current debate in America about the trade-off between security and
> civil liberties. And this presents some inherent difficulties, because
> if the metaphor is to work, the pro-registration heroes are going to end
> up arguing for something legitimately comparable to current US
> government policy. Trouble is, official US government policy involves
> the exclusion of fair trials and the use of interrogation techniques
> considered to be torture by every other civilised nation on the planet.
> Now, whatever you think of such a policy, it's incredibly hard to
> imagine most Marvel Universe heroes arguing in favour of such a thing
> without acting wildly out of character. I suppose the Punisher might
> approve - he's never been big on legal technicalities. Or Wolverine, at
> a push. But that's about it.
You know, I hate Civil War, but the funny thing is the heroes might not
have the problem with the policies as you suggest. Think about it,
most times when a supervillain is apprehended it's a massive battle
that involves lots of property damage, but the fight is so prolonged
and brutal, well it just might qualify as toture, especially
considering thew number of teams who have forcefield generators or
telekinetics. Someone who could just cut off the villains oxygen. And
how many supervillains are lost in some dimensional limbo, supposedly
never to return. That's imprisonment without a trial.
JLB
Shawn H
: > Paul O'Brien wrote:
: > But then again, I try to imagine what a balanced version of Civil War
But those aren't policies, those are unforseen results.
I think Paul has really nailed what's going on with this story, and I like
this (European) perspective:
Rather than lamenting that the Pro-Reg side are coming off like such boobs,
instead he finds that the metaphors are quite intact, since the actual U.S.
gov't has been commandeered by boobs. So it's not that Cap's motivations
(freedom, liberty, volunteerism) don't make sense; it's that Tony's and
Reed's inability to justify themselves does.
Shawn H.