REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 26 January 2003
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS
26 January 2003
===============
For more links, cover art, archived reviews, and information on the
X-Axis mailing list, visit http://www.thexaxis.com
------------
This week:
UNCANNY X-MEN #418 - "Dominant Species, part two"
by Chuck Austen and Kia Asamiya
WEAPON X #5 - "Monsters"
by Frank Tieri, Georges Jeanty and Dexter Vines
CROSSOVERS #1 - "Cross Currents, part one"
by Robert Rodi, Mauricet and Ernie Colon
INVINCIBLE #1
by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker
SLEEPER #1 - "Out of the Cold"
by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
------------
There are worse things to be than consistently passable. Nonetheless,
it's not really something to aspire to, and UNCANNY X-MEN seems to be
stalling at that level. And this isn't one of its better efforts.
This is the second part of the Dominant Species storyline, but things
seem to be going a little off the rails. Last issue, Austen gave a
decent build-up to his villains. This issue, they beat the shit out of
the X-Men. They have a great character design from Kia Asamiya, but
when you get down to it, they're just a bunch of werewolves, and they
don't show much in the way of personality. All that build up goes to
waste, since now that we're getting to see the villains, it turns out
that they aren't really very interesting.
Austen's point seems to be that not all mutants will be the next step in
evolution; some mutations will be evolutionary successes, and others
won't. Thus, the assumption that mutants as a whole are the next
evolutionary step is misconceived. This is a perfectly reasonable plot,
but quite how it's illustrated by having the X-Men fight some
werewolves, I'm not very clear.
Over in the other half of the plot, Polaris pops round to visit the
comatose Alex Summers and set up the bizarre romantic triangle with
Annie Ghazikhanian. For those of you who haven't been following this
plot, Annie the nurse is in love with Alex, despite only having known
him as a coma patient. Polaris, meanwhile, has had a long and healthy
relationship with Alex in the past. In theory this isn't a bad idea for
a plot, but a crashing lack of subtlety and heavy melodrama sends it
nastily awry.
Annie's obsession with a comatose man is, by any reasonable standards,
weird and creepy. Polaris' attitude, in contrast, is more or less
reasonable. But Annie's meant to be the sympathetic character here, so
she's played as a starcrossed love, while Polaris is a raving lunatic.
The whole scene is ridiculously over the top, and credibility goes
flying out the window. This storyline might have worked if everyone was
acting within the bounds of sanity, but it's degenerated alarmingly into
ridiculousness.
Asamiya's new costume for Polaris doesn't help much. There's a lot to
enjoy about his art - the layouts are generally pretty good, the action
sequences aren't bad. The character designs are patchy, though, and
Polaris is a particularly odd example. It may seem odd to criticise a
superhero comic for stupid clothes, but when Lorna turns up wearing what
appears to be a cast-off Hallowe'en witch costume, even someone with my
limited sense of style can only gawp and doubletake at Lorna's
shockingly poor taste. And of course, it hardly helps the subtlety of
the scene.
This isn't such a terrible comic, but it's badly flawed, and seriously
lacking in subtlety. It doesn't deliver on the promise of the first
part of this storyline.
Rating: B-
LINKS:
http://www.marvel.com
http://www.tron.co.jp (Kia Asamiya)
------------
When it comes to subtlety, however, Uncanny X-Men is as a beautiful
feather drawn softly across the brow of a sleeping child when compared
to Weapon X.
This is a Very Special Episode of Weapon X, showing us what's going on
in those prison camps of the Director's, from the perspective of the
inmates. As normal, Tieri seems keen to bring in obscure expendable
characters to flesh out the background, so we get appearances by
Maggott, Cecilia Reyes, and even no-hopers like Wildside.
The set-up is that the Weapon X programme has been going around
interning mutants on trumped-up charges of terrorism. This has to be
read as another attack on the anti-terrorism paranoia and the erosion of
civil liberties. But the legitimacy of the metaphor is questionable.
For all that the present US government seems to have a total disregard
for human rights and civil liberties in the pursuit of the ridiculous
War on Iraq, nonetheless there's no real reason to think that they're
going to adopt a policy of internment based on corruptly fabricated
charges which they don't even believe in.
Presumably Tieri is making the "slippery slope" argument - that once you
allow due process and civil liberties to be eroded, the system becomes
open to abuse and exploitation by the genuinely corrupt. And that's a
perfectly valid point as far as it goes, but not one that really
requires an entire issue to make. As depicted in this issue, the
Director is essentially running a Nazi concentration camp, complete with
the genocidal extermination of minorities, and non-consensual
experimentation on them.
This stretches credibility to breaking point even in the current
climate. It also results in an issue of unremittingly obvious tugging
at the heartstrings. What, ultimately, is the point of an entire issue
in the non-existent concentration camps of Weapon X? The point, it
seems, is that concentration camps are a bad thing, and not much fun to
live in. Well, yes, and? Does this really come as a surprise to anyone
reading? For this sort of story to be genuinely affecting as opposed to
just cloying, it needs to have a degree of credibility in setting and
characterisation - see, for a very obvious example, Life is Beautiful.
When the set-up is as absurdly over-the-top as this, it doesn't really
work.
It all comes down to credibility. Is it really believable that the
Director could be engaged in spurious arrests of hundreds of innocent
mutants without attracting the attention of somebody who would put a
stop to it? We're even shown that some of his staff have ethical qualms
about what they're doing, and are trying to help mutants escape. Have
they, perhaps, considered phoning the X-Men? They're in the book these
days. But no. The point here isn't that I want to see a crossover with
the X-Men - it's that, within the ground rules this series has
established for itself, I can't accept that an illegal, genocidal
concentration camp on this scale could be operated without attracting
outside attention, especially when it clearly isn't staffed solely by
brainwashed zealots
Less is more, and this storyline might work if it wasn't so determined
to make the camps as bad as can possibly be imagined. But this is just
too much, and simply not plausible on its own terms.
Rating: C
------------
Code 6 Comics is one of the new imprints being launched by CG
Entertainment, the people who brought you CrossGen. Quite what
distinguishes Code 6 books from the rest of the CrossGen line, besides
not being the CrossGen universe, I'm not entirely sure. According to the
press release, it's a "friendly home for creator-developed projects that
lack the funding for traditional self-publishing." Except it doesn't
seem to be creator-owned. Anyhow, here's THE CROSSOVERS #1, one of
their first offerings.
This is one of those high concept offerings that you can easily imagine
sounding great at the pitch stage. The four members of the Crossover
family all have secret lives, but in completely different genres. The
father is superhero Archetype, the mother battles vampires, the son's
been contacted by aliens, and the daughter has a portal to a
swords'n'sorcery fantasy universe in the basement. As the series
progresses, the barriers between the different genres break down and
chaos ensues.
It doesn't sound like a bad idea for a series, but it lies very flat on
the page. Writer Robert Rodi has taken a conscious decision to stress
the genre elements by making every character as archetypal as possible.
So we have a paranoid UFO obsessive called Perry Noia, a fantasy villain
called the Imperatrix Tyranna, and so forth. Rodi is so busy trying to
stress the genres that he's fallen into the obvious trap by making the
characters totally generic.
The problem is that the characters Rodi has created aren't archetypes,
they're stereotypes. They're not real characters at all, just a bunch
of genre conventions wandering around being deliberately generic in
order to play up the gimmick. To get away with that approach to the
concept, the series would have to be very funny indeed, but it isn't.
While it's played tongue in cheek, it's not exactly packed with jokes.
The series seems to want to be taken at least semi-seriously as a story.
And the characters aren't rounded enough for that to work.
Rodi was also responsible for the Vertigo book Codename: Knockout, which
I found equally uninspiring. I recall an introduction which he wrote to
that series, explaining that he'd had this great, original idea of doing
a lighthearted comedy spin on sixties spy movies. Since Codename:
Knockout came out some time after Austin Powers, this always struck me
as overestimating the originality of the premise. Much the same seems
to be happening here, as Rodi's approach seems to be that the
interaction of genres is inherently a novel and imaginative idea.
But it isn't. You can cross these genres and find plenty of past
examples. If you blend horror and sci-fi, you don't get an amusingly
novel awkward mess, you get Alien. Superhero plus alien invasion
paranoia equals ROM, among many others. Fantasy and gothic horror is
hardly a difficult pairing to match, and so forth. Crosspollination
between genres has been going on for years, and the hard-and-fast
dividing lines that this series takes as its starting point just don't
exist any more.
Mere interaction between genres isn't original enough to carry a series
on its own, and Rodi doesn't bring a great deal more to the table. It's
got quite good art by Belgian artist Mauricet and inker Ernie Colon, but
that's not very distinctive either - it can't be, really, because it's
got to fit with all four genres at once, and the result is art which is
attractive, pleasant, but ultimately neutral.
Somewhere in here, there's a good idea for a series - but it's a much
broader comedy, and the premise won't hold up to being taken even this
seriously.
Rating: C+
LINKS:
http://www.crossgen.com
------------
Meanwhile, the Image superhero line produces another debut issue with
INVINCIBLE.
Teenager Mark Grayson is the son of Omni-Man, Defender of Democracy, the
world's leading Superman analogue. Now Grayson is developing powers of
his own and wants to follow in dad's footsteps. The twist - or at
least, the unique selling point - is that while dad has a secret
identity, his family know about it, and dad's very enthusiastic about
his son going into the family business. So none of that old "concealing
my secret identity" from the family stuff.
The good news is that Mark and his father are both properly fleshed out
as characters, and therefore they do qualify as archetypes rather than
stereotypes. As with Robert Kirkman's previous Image superhero work,
the book has a clear sense of its own absurdity, and works with it
without letting it take over. Mark has a great costume design - simple,
straightforward, and perfectly suited to artist Cory Walker's stark,
geometric lines. He certainly looks the part.
This entire line has suffered from surprisingly poor orders for the
debut issues, particularly considering that the launch got a cover in
Previews. As with Firebreather, this is a very pleasant read,
comfortably above average, attractive to look at, with likeable
characters. But it's also located firmly in very familiar territory.
Another scene about a vaguely geekish teenager having to avoid using his
powers to fight back at school? I know it's a classic, but really.
For all its strengths, Invincible isn't all that distinctive - rather,
it's a fairly stock idea done quite well. As was Firebreather. This
line needs something which is going to reach out and grab people, and
thus far it hasn't produced one. Which is a shame, because it looks
like being a line of good books, just not ones that stand out enough
from the crowd.
Rating: B+
LINKS:
http://www.imagecomics.com
http://www.funkotron.com
------------
Continuing the theme of high-profile imprints that haven't done terribly
well, the Eye of the Storm imprint continues with SLEEPER.
Holden is a sleeper agent for covert government organisation
International Organisations, working as a superpowered henchman for Tao.
Since he hasn't been called upon to do anything by IO, he's essentially
been a de facto supervillain for the last few years, and given that he
isn't too wild about IO either, his life isn't in particularly great
shape.
It's certainly a strong premise for a series, and Brubaker makes the
most of it with the opening story, in which Holden is paired up with
another of Tao's agents, who's suspected of being a traitor. As with
Brubaker's miniseries Point Blank, although this is billed as a
superhero title, it's really more of an espionage book. It plays to
Brubaker's strengths in plotting and characterisation.
On the other hand, Brubaker is all too keen to make use of WildStorm
continuity without really explaining it. For example, despite the fact
that the series is premised on Holden being a sleeper agent within Tao's
organisation, we're never given any clear explanation of what Tao's
agenda is, and what his organisation actually does. Is he a terrorist?
A criminal? A zealot? I really haven't a clue, and given that it's
central to the premise, I'd have appreciated some clearer explanation
about what Tao does.
It's not the most visual comic in the world, either. Sean Phillips is a
great artist, and the panel layouts are certainly imaginative. But the
colouring... This book seems to subscribe to the view that if you want
to give your comic a moody, adult tone, you should reach for the subdued
palette. However, there's a subdued palette, and then there's what we
have here, which is 22 pages of Mostly Brown and Grey. It's just too
monotonously drab for a story which features a bar full of superheroes
in full costume, and ends with a four page shootout
The concept and the characters have promise, but god, turn on the damn
lights.
Rating: B
LINKS:
http://www.wildstorm.com
http://www.edbrubaker.com
------------
Also this week...
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #49 - Despite having increased sales substantially,
Straczynski still feels the need to open the issue with a page of
lecturing about how we ought to accept his rather silly "totem powers"
idea as an essential part of the mythos. The argument amounts to "it's
no sillier than anything else", which isn't the best creative argument
I've ever seen. Anyhow, this is an issue of build-up to Peter and Mary
Jane's reunion next issue, and while it hinges on a series of rather
unlikely coincidences, it's a reasonable enough recap of the state of
their relationship. B
CAPTAIN AMERICA #8 - Ah, and we're into the Chuck Austen co-written
stuff. Stuff about clones, nasty villains who don't play by Cap's
rules... does anyone really care? It's at least not quite as ponderous
as Rieber's own issues, but it still boils down to being a fairly bland
superhero plot that doesn't have anywhere near the amount of political
weight it seems to think it has. And for heaven's sake, why is there a
conveniently passing school bus in the middle of nowhere? C
CATWOMAN #15 - Now you see, here's another Ed Brubaker book with subdued
colours. But this one remembers to change them once in a while.
Anyhow, this issue Catwoman tracks down information, as a masked lunatic
tortures her brother-in-law. Crime book meets superhero in a fairly
effective marriage. B+
DAREDEVIL #42 - Second part of the "Lowlife" arc and the follow-up to
the 25c issue. And this is looking like a great story, combining the
big trial of Matt's secret identity, the smitten Milla, and a tenth rate
supervillain trying to be the Kingpin despite lacking some of the key
qualifications for the job (notably, intelligence). The pace has also
picked up compared with some of the earlier Bendis arcs. Excellent. A
PARADIGM #5 - I can never quite make up my mind whether I'm missing
something with this book, or whether it really doesn't make any sense.
This issue is Ethan and Audrey reacting to Chris' death, and the
interaction between the characters gives the book a much-needed spine to
hang its odder ideas on. Nonetheless, I can't shake the feeling that
this series is being way too cryptic for its own good. B-
WILDCATS v3.0 #8 - The strongest issue so far, as characters begin to
have their doubts about Halo's true motivations, and Marlowe continues
to take over the world through, uh, selling batteries. Casey's at his
most persuasive here, compared to some of the shakier points in previous
issues. Fabulous artwork from Dustin Nguyen and Richard Friend, who
seem really at home with the bright, corporate look of the series. A-
Y: THE LAST MAN #7 - Yorick finds himself in Marrisville, Ohio, a town
full of women which shows suspicious signs of having been that way for a
lot longer than the rest of the world. Great lead storyline, but I'm
still not entirely sold on the Amazons in the subplot, which just
strikes me as a rather superfluous agenda in a world that doesn't have
any men in it. Still, it deserves all the attention it's getting. A-
------------
Last week's Article 10 is still up at Ninth Art.
Next week, Agent X concludes Gail Simone's run; Hulk/Wolverine: 6 Hours
continues; Ultimate War; and X-Statix. That means Ultimate X-Men and
X-Men Unlimited are missing from the shipping list, but you never know
these days.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
ARTICLE 10 - http://www.ninthart.com
NTL - even worse than I'd heard.
Andrew Farrell
> I'd have appreciated some clearer explanation about what Tao does.
Also perhaps an explanation of how he's still around, considering that
the last issue of Moore's Wildcats was the "Majestic kills Tao dead.
Very dead." issue.
Andrew
Brian Doyle
"Andrew Farrell" <afar...@maths.tcd.ie> wrote in message
news:d983ce8f.03012...@posting.google.com...
All together everyone, in classic comics ressurection style
"He got better!"
Graeme
news:d983ce8f.03012...@posting.google.com...
> > I'd have appreciated some clearer explanation about what Tao does.
>
> Also perhaps an explanation of how he's still around, considering that
> the last issue of Moore's Wildcats was the "Majestic kills Tao dead.
> Very dead." issue.
Blame Scott Lobdell for resurrecting him with no explanation in Gen13 #50
(or thereabouts).
Graeme
--
http://members.optusnet.com.au/graeme
"Cut myself shaving this morning. Got pretty scratched
up shaving the cat, too." - Bug-Eyed Earl (Red Meat)
David J. Snyder
Graeme <gra...@optushome.sodoff.com.au> wrote:
>>
>> Also perhaps an explanation of how he's still around, considering that
>> the last issue of Moore's Wildcats was the "Majestic kills Tao dead.
>> Very dead." issue.
>
>Blame Scott Lobdell for resurrecting him with no explanation in Gen13 #50
>(or thereabouts).
Except you shouldn't since Tao had been brought back with explanation
in Wildcats 50.
You can blame Lobdell for writing him so poorly though.
-Dave
Graeme
news:BhqdnQ7lq7j...@news.io.com...
> >Blame Scott Lobdell for resurrecting him with no explanation in Gen13 #50
> >(or thereabouts).
>
> Except you shouldn't since Tao had been brought back with explanation
> in Wildcats 50.
Well it's not like there's a shortage of other things I can blame Lobdell
for :)
What was the explanation, and who was the writer? His death seemed pretty
conclusive at the time.
> You can blame Lobdell for writing him so poorly though.
"Blame" isn't a strong enough word for what Lobdell did to Tao (or for Gen13
as a series, for that matter)..
Bala Menon
news:b171kn$rti$1...@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au...
> "David J. Snyder" <da...@io.com> wrote in message
> news:BhqdnQ7lq7j...@news.io.com...
>
> > >Blame Scott Lobdell for resurrecting him with no
> > >explanation in Gen13 #50 (or thereabouts).
> >
> > Except you shouldn't since Tao had been brought back
> > with explanation in Wildcats 50.
>
> Well it's not like there's a shortage of other things I
> can blame Lobdell for :)
>
> What was the explanation, and who was the writer?
Alan Moore. You really might like to read the explanation
yourself, though, since it's a pretty good story, and the
only reason I bothered to buy Wildcats #50.
> His death seemed pretty conclusive at the time.
The return was quite good, though. Well played.
--
Bala Menon (bala...@panix.com)
David J. Snyder
Graeme <gra...@optushome.sodoff.com.au> wrote:
>
>What was the explanation, and who was the writer? His death seemed pretty
>conclusive at the time.
>
the one who could change shape rather than possess people.
-Dave
Chris Wilson
> Asamiya's new costume for Polaris doesn't help much. There's a lot to
> enjoy about his art - the layouts are generally pretty good, the action
> sequences aren't bad. The character designs are patchy, though, and
> Polaris is a particularly odd example. It may seem odd to criticise a
> superhero comic for stupid clothes, but when Lorna turns up wearing what
> appears to be a cast-off Hallowe'en witch costume, even someone with my
> limited sense of style can only gawp and doubletake at Lorna's
> shockingly poor taste. And of course, it hardly helps the subtlety of
> the scene.
Of the things I did like about the issue, the only thing that stands
out is Annie's dialogue with her son at the beginning. However, I did
want to comment on Polaris' new costume. The new headdress on top of
the green hair lend the character a new similarity to Morrigan
Aesland. Morrigan is a character from Capcom's Darkstalkers series, a
two dimensional fighting game that first came out in '94 on the heels
of Capcom's earlier success with the Street Fighter franchise. I
think it was the first Capcom 2D fighter to feature hand drawn sprites
(and much to the fans' dismay, they continue to use the same old
sprite of Morrigan in games made currently). Maybe I'm
overemphasizing the similarities between Polaris and Morrigan, but to
me, it seems that Asamiya has been playing a few too many video games.
And, while on the topic of costumes, does anyone else think that
Asamiya's costumes are a bit convoluted? I mean, it is a great detour
from the over-simplified costumes of the past (think Psylocke, the
nimbo), but how will any follow-up artists remember all the design
intricacies... Well, I guess that's their job.
-CW
Paul O'Brien
Wilson <snea...@hotmail.com> writes
>
>And, while on the topic of costumes, does anyone else think that
>Asamiya's costumes are a bit convoluted? I mean, it is a great detour
>from the over-simplified costumes of the past (think Psylocke, the
>nimbo), but how will any follow-up artists remember all the design
>intricacies...
There are probably design sketches, showing the costumes from various
angles, which would be available for future artists to use as reference.
Brian Doyle
> In message <4a6a7dc3.03013...@posting.google.com>, Chris
> Wilson <snea...@hotmail.com> writes
> >
> >And, while on the topic of costumes, does anyone else think that
> >Asamiya's costumes are a bit convoluted? I mean, it is a great detour
> >from the over-simplified costumes of the past (think Psylocke, the
> >nimbo), but how will any follow-up artists remember all the design
> >intricacies...
>
> There are probably design sketches, showing the costumes from various
> angles, which would be available for future artists to use as reference.
"Turnarounds" as they are usually referred to. The loose-leaf Marvel
Handbook thing is probably the best example for comics though they are also
used on animation shows.
Robert Carnegie
>, Chris Wilson <snea...@hotmail.com> writes
(more or less)
>To comment on Polaris' new costume:
>The new headdress on top of
>the green hair lend the character a new similarity to Morrigan
>Aesland. Morrigan is a character from Capcom's Darkstalkers series, a
>two dimensional fighting game that first came out in '94 on the heels
>of Capcom's earlier success with the Street Fighter franchise. I
>think it was the first Capcom 2D fighter to feature hand drawn sprites
>(and much to the fans' dismay, they continue to use the same old
>sprite of Morrigan in games made currently). Maybe I'm
>overemphasizing the similarities between Polaris and Morrigan, but to
>me, it seems that Asamiya has been playing a few too many video
>games.
Haven't I seen ads for a "Capcom vs. Marvel" video game?
If Polaris is in that, maybe she got to be pals with this Morrigan
dudette - they compared notes on hair care in the locker room,
between matches - and when Morrigan picked up that issue of
_New X Men_ where Polaris was walking around without a stitch
on, she rushed over to Genosha with one of her own spare suits.
It must be pretty hard to get an outfit that doesn't clash with long
green hair, the girls probably have to have them tailor-made.
(I'm continuing a presumption, by the way, that Morrigan Aesland
qualifies us to be in rec.arts.comics.misc, as well as the X-books
newsgroup.)
As to the headdress being on top of Polaris's green hair, where
else would she put a headdress ;-)
Robert Carnegie at home, rja.ca...@excite.com at large
--
"Next week, we're going to be looking at the Rare Breeds Survival Trust,
and tasting the results of their work." - The Food Programme, BBC R4
Brian Doyle
"Robert Carnegie" <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote in message
news:Q8T$zbAnz3...@redjac.demon.co.uk...
> As to the headdress being on top of Polaris's green hair, where
> else would she put a headdress ;-)
There's a mind bogglingly filthy answer to that, but I'm not going to be the
one to say it.