REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 10 August 2008
Paul O'Brien
10 August 2008
==============
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:
CABLE #6 - "Homefront"
by Duane Swierczynski, Ariel Olivetti and Michel Lacombe
NYX: NO WAY HOME #1 of 6
by Marjorie Liu and Kalman Andrasofszky
WOLVERINE: KILLING MADE SIMPLE
"Killing Wolverine Made Simple"
by Chris Yost, Koi Turnbull and Sal Regla
"Disturbing Consequences"
by Todd Dezago, Steve Kurth and Serge LaPointe
THE AUTHORITY #1
by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Simon Coleby
------------
After five issues of big men with bigger guns running around a
devastated future cityscape, CABLE #6 offers a change of pace. It isn't
set in the future. And for the most part, Cable isn't in it.
Instead, this is a Cyclops story. You'll recall that the big idea for
this series was that Cable had fled into the future, taking the new
mutant baby with him - all with Cyclops' blessing. This issue checks in
on Scott, in present continuity, as he wonders what ever happened to the
baby.
Understandably, Scott is a bit concerned that he hasn't heard anything
yet. After all, it's time travel. Cable should be able to get in touch
whenever he wants. So why has it all gone quiet? Scott is beginning to
have the sinking feeling that either Cable has double crossed them, or
he's got the kid killed. Either way, this "sending the brat into the
future" idea is starting to seem like a horrible error of judgment.
I've not been massive impressed with this series to date; the first arc
was a rather basic story stretched out far beyond its natural span. But
Swierczynski does a much better job here, with a story that's concise
and shows a much clearer grasp of Cyclops than most of his recent
writers. The attempt to reposition Cyclops as a take-no-prisoners
leader has not been at all convincing; it's made him seem like a pod
person. The guy who's sending X-Force out to kill people is only
recognisable as the same character because he's wearing the visor.
Swierczynski, then, gets points for being the first writer to make this
version of Cyclops feel like the same character. Largely, it's just a
matter of giving him back a measure of self-doubt, and allowing him to
wonder whether his new attitude is a sign of newfound strength, or
impulsive weakness. Swierczynski even has a brave stab at explaining
how Cyclops can possibly be keeping things secret from Emma, and more or
less gets away with it. And it works; this feels like Cyclops, in a way
that most of his other recent appearances simply haven't.
Guest artist Michel Lacombe, asked to illustrate what amounts to a
series of conversation scenes, does a very good, understated job. He's
strong on the emotional subtleties, and has the discipline to focus on
selling the scenes instead of showing off to the reader. I'm not sure
he's a natural superhero artist, but he's very well used on this story.
Overall, an unexpectedly good effort, and one that gives me some more
confidence that this book could be heading somewhere interesting.
Rating: A-
------------
Almost five years ago, Marvel launched NYX, written by Joe Quesada with
art by Josh Middleton. The book was about teenage mutants on the
streets of New York.
It was a disaster. It was cancelled after seven issues, and it took two
years to produce those. Middleton left before then. The story
consisted of little more than Quesada introducing the cast, for use in
future stories. Except for X-23, who was transitioned into the regular
X-Men stories, they haven't been seen since 2005.
Now it's back, with the new creative team of writer Marjorie Liu and
artist Kalman Andrasofszky. Marvel's solicitations describe the
original series as "beloved", which is a bit optimistic, if you ask me.
True, it got some very good reviews for the art. But I don't recall
much gnashing of teeth when the series was abandoned.
So, Liu and Andrasofszky have an unenviable task here. A
half-remembered comic, with a premise that never quite got off the
ground, and which is remembered largely for the work of a creator no
longer associated with the book. Oh, and they can't use X-23, because
she's in X-Force. That leaves Kiden (the girl who stops time), Tatiana
(the girl who... something stupid about animal blood, wasn't it?), and
Bobby (the guy who looked after his little brother). Only Kiden gets to
use her powers in this issue, and frankly, that's probably for the best.
Cameron Palmer, the teacher from the first series, is also floating
about.
What we have, then, is three teenagers and a mentally ill child living
together in New York, under the semi-protection of a supply teacher. As
with the original series, it's going for a relatively realistic tone
with a handful of fantasy elements around the edges. However, the
trying-too-hard pseudo-gritty elements of the original series have also
been kicked to the curb.
It's a more readable series than the original. Liu is far better at
defining characters and setting up a plot than Quesada ever was.
Andrasofszky isn't quite Middleton, but he's good, with powerful
compositions and lifelike characters, and well supported by vibrant
colouring from John Rauch. Some well-chosen splash pages are truly
excellent.
In fact, the only real down side here is that by making the book more
polished, Liu has also taken off some of the rough edges, bringing in
some stock plot elements of the "how will we make the rent" variety.
But quite honestly, while the original series had some wonderful
pictures in it, I'd much rather read this one.
Maybe I'm in an unduly forgiving mood today, or maybe it's simply that
this book far surpassed my expectations. Either way, though, it's won
me over to a series I wasn't much interested in before.
Rating: A-
------------
If you're a fan of Wolverine fill-in stories, well, good news. Marvel
have published YET ANOTHER RANDOM WOLVERINE ONE-SHOT.
This one is called Killing Made Simple, although that seems to be some
sort of transcription error, as the lead story is actually called
"Killing Wolverine Made Simple." It's a Chris Yost story, illustrated
by Koi Turnbull, in which Wolverine has to rescue one of the former
students from Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, and ends up giving her a
little lecture about all the ways the villains could do him in.
It should have worked, but it doesn't, largely because of some very
ropey plotting. And that's a shame, because there are some well-chosen
elements here. It's nice to see Yost making a break from his usual
misery-fests to produce a lighter story. Nanny - a black comedy villain
created by Louise and Walt Simsonson back in the 1980s - is just the
sort of character worth dusting off. It's another story attempting to
re-establish the boundaries of what Wolverine can do. And it makes
sensible use of Trance, one of those bit-part background players from
New X-Men.
So where does it go wrong? Well, the big idea is that Trance and
Wolverine are captured, and Trance is sure that Wolverine will rescue
her, so Wolverine has to explain to her why she can't just rely on him.
This is fine. But the pay-off is that Trance uses her astral-projection
powers, and then her astral form simply shatters Wolverine's chains and
frees him.
This begs two questions. The first is how an astral form can break
chains or (as it does a few pages later) disarm bombs. But given that
she can apparently do all this, the second question is: Why didn't you
do that sixteen pages ago? And the story has no answer to that. She
just waits until the bad guys show up, in order to create artificial
peril.
I suppose it's possible that they were going for the idea that Trance
can't get her act together to use her powers until the moment of crisis,
because she's panicking, or some such thing. But that's not explained
anywhere in the story, and she simply comes across as a lazy idiot.
Kills the story, really.
The back-up strip, "Disturbing Consequences", is an off-the peg fill-in
by Todd Dezago and Steve Kurth. The big idea is to have a virus
villain, who Wolverine can defeat with his healing factor. Otherwise,
it's a competent but uninspired effort, helped by above average art.
Another one for completists only.
Rating: C
------------
It's time for yet another relaunch of the WildStorm imprint. WildCATS
has already re-started, but this week sees the return of flagship title
THE AUTHORITY. So, what have they got this time?
Let's be blunt: the WildStorm Universe is floundering. The last
relaunch was an utter fiasco, with big name creators simply failing to
produce the advertised comics, and stories being abandoned halfway
through. Sales have been sluggish for a while, and even the reviews
aren't what they were. It's time for something attention-grabbing and
daring. And desperate.
So, they've destroyed the world. Well, more or less. WildStorm's Earth
has been wrecked in a miniseries that nobody read, and it's now a
post-apocalyptic dystopia, with the remaining heroes stumbling around
scavenging for batteries and trying their best to look after the
survivors. WildCATS involved that basic concept in America. Authority
is the same basic concept, in London. Because that's where the Carrier
crashed.
Now, on the one hand, you've got to admire the nerve. This is clearly a
last-ditch "try anything" idea - but by god, at least they've committed
to it. No half-measures here. But... you know, what do you do with it?
There's a decent creative team on this book - Abnett and Lanning
writing, Simon Coleby on art - but their approach isn't fundamentally
different from WildCATS, and it's hard to see how matters can be
different for the other titles. It's a concept so overpowering that it
smothers the individual titles. Where do you go with it?
Still, it does just enough to persuade me to give it a couple of issues.
There are some neat ideas based on following through the logical effects
of the apocalypse (and the collapse of all technology) on the Authority.
Apollo has to hover over the smog clouds in order to get any sun; the
Engineer has lost her powers altogether; Hawksmoor is as wrecked as the
city around him. As a short-term inversion of the series, I can see
something to it. But beyond that, I don't know.
Will this new direction save the WildStorm imprint? I have to say, I
don't see it. Remember when the New Universe blew up Pittsburgh and
instituted a draft? Or when the 2099 imprint went for environmental
catastrophe and flooded New York? They both involved basically the same
idea - shake things up drastically. But it didn't work, because nobody
was reading. Sadly, I think the WildStorm Universe is probably beyond
salvage at this point, no matter how well they execute this direction.
Rating: B-
------------
Also this week...
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #1 - Relaunched version of the enormous
104-page bimonthly anthology. Supposedly the idea was to tie it more
closely to the regular titles, but the only story in current continuity
as an uninspired Aunt May piece. The lead story, by J Marc DeMatteis
and Alex Cal, is actually yet another flashback to the early days of
Spider-Man's career. It's perfectly good, but it's well-trodden
territory. "Mr and Mrs Spider-Man" is a prequel to Spider-Girl and,
shall we say, seems tonally at odds with the rest of the issue. And
there's a trailer story for Marvel Apes which is utterly beyond
redemption; it's got one joke, namely that everyone is an ape, which
wears thin very quickly. Rounding it off, there's a reprint of the
debut of Venom from Amazing Spider-Man #300. A very strange mix of
material, most of which isn't that good. I can't quite imagine who's
going to want it all. C
NEW EXILES #9 - Mind control again? For god's sake. To be fair,
there's some half-decent stuff in here, with a dodgy local version of
the X-Men. And I do like the idea of a world where naval technology is
still stuck in the seventeenth century because the Atlanteans sink
anything more recent. But we don't need another Chris Claremont mind
control story. It's been done to death and back again. B-
VENOM: DARK ORIGIN #1 - Zeb Wells and Angel Medina take a crack at
retrofitting the origin of Venom. This issue starts with Eddie Brock's
childhood, but runs up as far as his first encounter with Spider-Man (as
one of those generic mugging victims). Wells writes good psychological
villains - he gives us plenty of reasons to feel sorry for Eddie, but
then has Eddie undermine that sympathy in the way he deals with things.
Pretty good stuff, dodgy title notwithstanding. A-
------------
There's more from me at If Destroyed, and apparently the Ninth Art
archive is going back online at some point...
http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
Next week, Secret Invasion: X-Men #1 begins the X-Men's tie-in to the
big summer crossover. X-Men Origin: Jean Grey speaks for itself.
Astonishing X-Men #26 has the second part of Ellis and Bianchi's arc.
And GeNext #4 continues Chris Claremont's alternate reality miniseries.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
IF DESTROYED - http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
NINTH ART - http://www.ninthart.com
James Wyllie
>
> NEW EXILES #9 - Mind control again? For god's sake. To be fair,
> there's some half-decent stuff in here, with a dodgy local version of
> the X-Men. And I do like the idea of a world where naval technology is
> still stuck in the seventeenth century because the Atlanteans sink
> anything more recent. But we don't need another Chris Claremont mind
> control story. It's been done to death and back again. B-
>
I thought the whole point of the new resurrected Psylocke was that she
couldn't be mind controlled, altered, essentially manipulated in any
way.
Guess I was wrong...
But she's never leaving this book because I am reasonably certain it
is her (and Claremont's) fans that are propping up the series.
YKW (ad hoc)
8cbf-835...@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:
Honestly? I doubt it. Pre-Claremont EXILES and Claremont NEW EXILES are
at, essentially, the same level of sales. Having Psylocke (or Sage or a
Sabretooth or a more-or-less Kitty) likely hasn't made an impact aside
from the earliest issues of Chris' run.
--
------------------- ------------------------------------------------
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"DC, currently, is run from the top down in a way that makes Jim
Shooter’s aegis at Marvel look like a hippie commune."
- Chuck Dixon, COMICS SHOULD BE GOOD, 14 June 2008.
<http://tinyurl.com/5rxsvp/#comment-665962>
Billy Bissette
8cbf-835...@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:
>
>>
>> NEW EXILES #9 - Mind control again? For god's sake. To be fair,
>> there's some half-decent stuff in here, with a dodgy local version of
>> the X-Men. And I do like the idea of a world where naval technology is
>> still stuck in the seventeenth century because the Atlanteans sink
>> anything more recent. But we don't need another Chris Claremont mind
>> control story. It's been done to death and back again. B-
>>
>
> I thought the whole point of the new resurrected Psylocke was that she
> couldn't be mind controlled, altered, essentially manipulated in any
> way.
>
> Guess I was wrong...
She couldn't be altered, even by major league reality changers. I
don't remember if Claremont said anything about mind control.
Not that Claremont botheres to be consistent with mind control
resistance. He's constantly upping both sides of the equation,
for whatever story he wants to write.
~consul
about Exiles #9
6161
6161
616
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616
16
161
61616
1616
161616
161
616
161
6161
616
1616161
6161616
16
161
61
616161
61
611
> NEW EXILES #9 - Mind control again? For god's sake. To be fair,
> there's some half-decent stuff in here, with a dodgy local version of
> the X-Men. And I do like the idea of a world where naval technology is
> still stuck in the seventeenth century because the Atlanteans sink
> anything more recent. But we don't need another Chris Claremont mind
> control story. It's been done to death and back again. B-
So what I don't understand is why she has to go through any particular training with the sensei in the first place. She's our 616 Psylocke, who already had super ninja training instilled in her. It's like they took the old british betty and wiped her slate clean.
Did they do that in the past few years and I forgot?
--
"... respect, all good works are not done by only good folk. For here, at the end of all things, we shall do what needs to be done."
--till next time, consul -x- <<poetry.dolphins-cove.com>>