REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 18 May 2008
Paul O'Brien
18 May 2008
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For more links, cover art, archived reviews, and information on the
X-Axis mailing list, visit http://www.thexaxis.com
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This week:
GENEXT #1 (of 5) - "Where Do We Go From Here?"
by Chris Claremont, Patrick Scherberger and Norman Lee
NEW EXILES #6 - "The Course of True Love!"
by Chris Claremont, Roberto Castro, Scott Hanna and Gary Martin
WOLVERINE #56 - Get Mystique, part 4 of 4
by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney
WOLVERINE: THE AMAZING IMMORTAL MAN AND OTHER BLOODY TALES
"The Amazing Immortal Man" by David Lapham and Johnny Timmons
"The Animal Man" by David Lapham and Stefano Gaudiano
"Coney Island Baby" by David Lapham, Kelly Goodine and Paul
Neary
X-MEN ORIGINS: COLOSSUS
by Christopher Yost, Trevor Hairsine and Kris Justice
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI13 #1 - The Guns of Avalon, part 1
by Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk and Jesse Delperdang
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It's been quite a while since the X-books had such a busy week. That's
especially odd, since two of this week's titles are one-shots which
could quite happily have gone somewhere quieter. Regardless, we've got a
lot to get through, so let's get down to business.
GENEXT has been in the pipeline for ages. Some time ago, Marvel ran an
online poll to decide what Chris Claremont's next project should be.
Fans voted for a book called Next, with a rather convoluted premise: set
in a Marvel Universe where the characters aged in real time, it would be
about a new generation of X-Men taking over as the founders came up for
retirement. And they're literally a "new generation", as most (if not
all) of the characters here are supposed to be the X-Men's descendents.
This is potentially complicated premise to start with, so I was faintly
alarmed to see Claremont explaining, in interviews, that this is also a
sequel to X-Men: The End. Not only is that a weird idea to begin with,
but X-Men: The End was something of a mess, as Claremont diligently
threw in everything including the kitchen sink. It's not a story that I
particularly want to revisit.
Fortunately, GeNext is a lot more focussed. It has a core cast of five
teenage mutants, pressganged into training as the next generation of
X-Men even though some of them have no particular desire to follow in
the family business. So it's a story about teenagers trying to find
their own identity, presumably, and deciding how much of their
inheritance they want to embrace.
It's quite pleasant. The cast are likeable enough, and Claremont seems
to have put some thought into making them distinctive. Yes, there are
some curious logical glitches - I really don't understand how any of
these characters could keep their identity secret from the others, given
that they're all being trained by the X-Men - but Claremont's usual
stylistic tics are kept under control, and it's all quite readable.
Artist Patrick Scherberger has spent the last few years on Marvel
Adventures: Spider-Man. There's a slight Humberto Ramos influence,
particularly on his character designs, and his costumes are maybe a
shade too busy. But he can tell a story well enough, and he makes a
decent fist of a seven-page sparring sequence.
Perhaps most importantly, Claremont and Scherberger both seem to be
genuinely more interested in their new characters as individuals, as
opposed to playing up their links with the past. I suspect the whole
thing will vanish into the ether once the five issues are up, but it
does feel like the creators have a story they want to tell with in this
series.
A solid start. The book does what it promised to do, but without the
weight of continuity and tradition that you might have expected.
Rating: B
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Claremont's other X-book for the week is NEW EXILES #6, the concluding
half of a fantasy-world story.
Last issue, Morph, Cat and Sage arrived on a world where a prince had
fallen in love with a dragon, much to his mother's displeasure. This
issue, the heroes set things right, and everyone goes home happy. It's
a straightforward little story, with a simple idea.
There are a couple of minor twists in this issue, but nothing terribly
important. The fairy-tale world turns out to have modern technology,
which is fair enough. The dragon turns out to speak English, which is
less plausible - it requires her to stand around silently through
lengthy conversations, simply so that she can take Morph by surprise
halfway through this issue. And there's a glaring deus ex machina at
the end of the issue to bring about a happy ending, but hey, that's
fairy tales for you.
Roberto Castro's art feels a little bit dated at times, but he's a
decent enough cartoonist, and his storytelling is clear. And
Claremont's decision to split the Exiles into two groups for their first
two storylines has worked quite well here; with only three regular
characters to focus on, he's been able to give them proper attention.
It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's an amusing little story, fine on
its own terms.
Rating: B-
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WOLVERINE #65 is the concluding chapter of "Get Mystique." This arc has
been billed as a "Divided We Stand" story, and it's only just occurred
to me that there's no particular reason why. The fact that the X-Men
have split up is completely irrelevant to this story, which is all about
Wolverine hunting down Mystique. Oh well.
This has been an unusually focussed story. Although there are a few
other characters floating around, Jason Aaron has focussed
overwhelmingly on Wolverine and Mystique. The basic idea is to compare
and contrast them - both in the present and in an extended flashback
showing them together in the 1920s - and then ask to what extent they're
opposite sides of the same coin. Obviously, that's a conclusion
Wolverine's rather keen to refute.
Well, I say that's the basic idea. Perhaps that's a slight
exaggeration. Really, the basic idea is to do four issues of Wolverine
hunting down Mystique in the Middle East, with plenty of fighting. And
that's what Aaron and Garney delivered. But Aaron understands that even
a basic chase story needs a bit of context to make it work, and he's
managed to add that without detracting from the all-important fighting.
Then again, this issue pushes its luck a little bit. This is the final
climactic fight. The idea seems to be that all Mystique's tricks and
disguises have been stripped away, so that we're left with the real
woman. Presumably in order to symbolise that, Aaron has her choosing to
fight naked. Now, remarkably enough, this somehow manages to avoid
seeming completely gratuitous. He gets away with that, in a
Tarantino-esque way where the sheer senselessness of it almost becomes
the point.
But it can't avoid seeming a little bit stupid, as poor Ron Garney has
to choreograph the fight scene to stay within the book's designated age
range. The result can only leave you wondering why, if Mystique is so
keen to cover her breasts, she doesn't just put some clothes on.
Still, Aaron pulls off an interesting comparison of the characters,
leaving readers to decide for themselves how much they have in common.
For all the over the top silliness, this has been a well-paced story
with clever use of misdirection, and generally excellent art throughout.
A good arc.
Rating: A-
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WOLVERINE: THE AMAZING IMMORTAL MAN AND OTHER BLOODY TALES - and yes,
that's really the title - is a curious project.
It's a one-shot Wolverine comic containing three stories, all written by
David Lapham. Lapham is something of a cult favourite, with a
reputation build around his Stray Bullets series (although his current
Vertigo project, Young Liars, has seen rather mixed reviews). He's
contributed a Wolverine story before, which saw print as Giant-Size
Wolverine #1.
Given that the whole book is "David Lapham does Wolverine", it's a
little surprising that they haven't bothered to put any credits on the
front cover. Perhaps they're assuming that his fans will know to find
it. Or perhaps it's actually just an exercise in using up stories that
were commissioned for some other, abandoned project. I don't know.
However it came about, this is an all-Lapham Wolverine anthology. And
it's a mixed bag, but with enough to make it worth a look for fans of
either the creator or the character.
"The Amazing Immortal Man" itself is a story about Logan working in a
1930s Kansas circus, back in the days before he really knew how to stand
up to the bad guys. Actually, it might be argued that Wolverine's a
little bit too passive and compliant in this story; it's borderline.
But thanks in no small part to Johnny Timmons' art, there's plenty of
atmosphere here. It's one of Wolverine's strengths as a character that
you can get away with dropping him into random stories like this (a
point which Wolverine: Origins doesn't seem to grasp at all).
"The Animal Man", with art from Lapham himself, is the high point of the
issue. It's a story about a bus driver who's rescued from thugs by
Wolverine, only to go steadily mad as a result of his experience.
Taking Logan as an exemplar of how to deal with the modern world, and
increasingly convinced that he can see evil all around him, the driver
sets out to follow his inspiration, with predictably disastrous results.
Wolverine himself is barely in it, but it's a neat story about how the
character is often seen, and well worth reading.
"Coney Island Baby" is less successful. Wolverine chases a bad guy
around Coney Island; it ends with a rather convoluted explanation of the
villain, and we're all supposed to stroke our chins and go "Hmm." But
as the twist is so bizarre as to bear no relationship to the real world
whatsoever, it just doesn't work.
So, a hit and miss collection. But the good stuff... well, it's not
spectacularly good, but it's interestingly good, and that goes a long
way.
Rating: B+
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X-MEN ORIGINS: COLOSSUS is a one-shot about Colossus' life before he
joined the X-Men. From the look of the title, we can presumably
anticipate more in the same vein.
Although the logo borrows from Wolverine: Origins, the story itself is
in a different vein. It starts off with Peter's brother, Mikhail,
heading off to become an astronaut, and it runs through to Xavier
recruiting him. Much of the issue is taken up with Peter mourning his
brother's death (which was retconned away years later, but that doesn't
matter here), and an explanation of why the Russian authorities kept off
his back.
This isn't a bad idea for a spin-off story. Despite the X-books'
obsession with continuity, Colossus' backstory is largely unexplored.
But when you think about it, there's a good reason for that. When
Colossus was first introduced, the idea was that he was a simple
farmboy, continually surprised by the strange things he was now
experiencing. Hitherto, his life had been stable and uneventful. That
idea lasted a good few years, until he faded into the role of an
established superhero.
So when you have Colossus fighting off Russian secret agents and
smashing up helicopters, long before he gets anywhere near the X-Men...
well, you've kind of missed the point. After all, this is billed as an
origin story. And the function of an origin story is to explain how the
character came to be the way he was. It's difficult to see how this
story sets up any version of Colossus, let alone the early incarnation.
Now, granted, if you were going to do the origin of Colossus properly,
it would probably end up as a story of a nice young boy discovering that
he can turn to steel, and everyone in the village being fine with that,
perhaps after a gentle misunderstanding or two. And sure, that's not
very interesting. Which is probably why nobody's done it before.
Still, that's the problem here. If you judge it as a story, purely in
isolation, well, it's okay. It features an unusually grim and downbeat
Colossus, mourning a lot (well, it is a Christopher Yost story) and
being sucked into a life of fighting. And it's got rather good art from
Trevor Hairsine, who does good metal bodies. The story has its merits.
But it doesn't work very well as a back story for Colossus, simply
because the nature of the character is that he doesn't particularly need
one.
Rating: C+
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Before any of you ask me, let's get one thing clear. CAPTAIN BRITAIN
AND MI13 is not an X-book. It's a Marvel Universe title. And given the
number of X-books these days, I'm happy to run with that.
But let's take a look at the first issue anyway. After all, this book
has its roots in last year's Wisdom miniseries, also by writer Paul
Cornell, which cheerfully ignored Excalibur to have Wisdom running an
oddball group of low-rent UK superheroes - an old man who defends the
Midlands, a Skrull defector who pretends to be John Lennon, that sort of
thing.
Although this new series is billed as primarily a Captain Britain title,
with MI13 as co-stars, it's really a continuation of Wisdom. I'm
delighted about that; Wisdom was one of the most enjoyable and inventive
X-books of last year, even if nobody bought it. Which is presumably why
Marvel have given it an ongoing series. It wouldn't be the first time
that a low-selling mini has been given another shot, on the strength of
positive buzz.
In a fairly transparent attempt to boost sales, the first arc is a
Secret Invasion tie-in. For most books, this wouldn't be ideal.
Fortunately, the MI13 cast actually features a Skrull, so Cornell is
able to make good use of the Invasion as a backdrop to set up his team.
This is very much a classic first issue. It's all about introducing the
characters and establishing who they are. Cornell is clearly determined
to reinvent some of them - he wants his Captain Britain to be a symbol
of the country, and he wants his Black Knight to be a more flippant
adventurer - but he also goes to the trouble of justifying those
changes.
The result is a comic that ought to work both as a straight team book
and an exercise in oddball eccentricity. Artist Leonard Kirk is well
cast, as his style can accommodate both elements of the book. But
Cornell really is a find for Marvel. Although he's been writing genre
novels for ages now, his style is perfectly suited to the Marvel
Universe - he keeps the tone light and doesn't seem to take things too
seriously, but manages to hold on to some dramatic weight at the same
time.
I'm very much looking forward to reading more of this series.
Rating: A
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Also this week:
AYRE FORCE - One of the strangest things ever to cross my desk. Calvin
Ayre, founder of the Bodog group, has commissioned a comic starring
himself as the leader of a covert action team, comprised of people
signed to various Bodog companies. Such as poker player Evelyn Ng, or
Canadian singer Bif Naked. The whole thing is played without a hint of
irony, almost like a pitch for a Saturday morning cartoon. Thanks
mainly to artist Shawn Martinbrough, it's actually quite readable. But
the results are quite baffling. It's too generic to be notable as an
action story, but the creators simply blank the incongruity of a cast
made up of (let's face it) rather minor celebrities. Depending on how
charitable you're feeling, either it's an amusing exercise in deadpan
kitsch, or it breaks new ground in the field of vanity publishing. I'm
inclined to think it's probably the former, but it's so weird that I'm
not even going to try and rate it. Taken at face value, it's not very
good, but the sheer audacity of it rather amuses me.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1 - Not the old seventies sci-fi superheroes,
but a team book launching out of Annihilation: Conquest, with the likes
of Adam Warlock, Starlord and Rocket Raccoon. Writers Dan Abnett and
Andy Lanning are already writing the Nova series, and readers of that
book will probably enjoy this one too. Some of the comic relief
segments work very well, such as Gamora's surly feigned enthusiasm.
("I'm completely committed to this team. Yaaaay. Go team. You see?")
Whether the audience is really there to support another "cosmic" title
at the moment - well, I have my doubts about that. But the book itself
is good fun. B+
X-MEN: LEGACY #211 - Continuing his tour of the backwaters of X-Men
continuity, Mike Carey brings back Hazard. No? Carter Ryking? He was
in a handful of Fabian Nicieza stories which have been out of print for,
ooh, about 16 years. Either Mike Carey's been reading the X-Men with
astonishing devotion for a good long while, or he's put in a remarkable
amount of research for this series. However, my concerns about the
book's approachability for new readers are somewhat assuaged this issue,
as the book eases off on the convoluted montage sequences, in favour of
choosing a particular obscure piece of continuity and building a story
around that. Still, this is very much a book for people interested in
fictional history, and while fans were trained to think that way from
the seventies to the nineties, I wonder what the current generation of
readers will make of this. It's a great book for hardcore fans like me,
mind you. A-
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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, Aron Coleite takes over as writer on Ultimate X-Men with
issue #94. Wolverine: Origins celebrates 25 issues, by finishing off
the Deadpool arc and reprinting the whole of New Mutants #98. X-Factor
#31 sees riots in Mutant Town. And X-Men: Divided We Stand #2 is the
second of two short story collections.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
IF DESTROYED - http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
NINTH ART - http://www.ninthart.com
Billy Bissette
news:oSJtjcAJ...@esoterica.demon.co.uk:
> THE X-AXIS
> 18 May 2008
> ===========
> WOLVERINE #65 is the concluding chapter of "Get Mystique." This arc
> has been billed as a "Divided We Stand" story, and it's only just
> occurred to me that there's no particular reason why. The fact that
> the X-Men have split up is completely irrelevant to this story, which
> is all about Wolverine hunting down Mystique. Oh well.
I think "Divided We Stand" as a label is supposed to be about more
than the X-Men halfway splitting up. It is also about abandoning
Xavier's dream and the new directions taken.
One of those directions is Cyclops sending X-Men out to kill former
foes, as seen in X-Force.
Isn't that the premise of "Get Mystique"?
grinningdemon
Don't forget...Mystique is always naked...she just doesn't usually
look like it...that said, I thought this was a good arc...I'm not
usually one for solo Wolverine stories but I did enjoy this one...even
though I am constantly annoyed by every character in the Marvel
Universe having a secret history with Wolverine, I think it actually
worked pretty well here...the only thing I didn't care for was the
ending...which was kind of a non-ending...I mean, is there any doubt
that she will somehow survive to wreak havoc another day.