REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 16 March 2008
Paul O'Brien
16 March 2008
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This week:
X-FACTOR #29 - The Only Game in Town, part 1
by Peter David and Valentine De Landro
COMIC BOOK COMICS #1
by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey
LAST DEFENDERS #1 - "Destiny Falls"
by Joe Casey, Keith Giffen, Jim Muniz and Cam Smith
------------
The X-books are all in mid-storyline this week, but on the principle
that I ought to properly review at least one of them, let's check in on
X-FACTOR.
Issue #29 is titled "The Only Game in Town, part 1", but in reality it's
the second part of a story that began with last month's post-Messiah
Complex transition issue. Notionally, that crossover provides the
starting point for this story. But in fact, X-Factor is currently doing
the sort of soul-searching that all of the X-books should have done a
few years ago, after House of M.
There are still virtually no mutants around to protect, and "Mutant
Town" has now reverted to being the Middle East Side, as the ex-mutants
drift back into normal lives. The X-Men have officially called it a
day, and as the only X-team still together (so far as they know),
X-Factor find themselves sitting around wondering: What's the point?
What exactly are we trying to achieve here? And, by extension, what's
the book about?
Ironically, it's Madrox who seems most determined to keep the team
together. Over the last few years, Peter David has generally been
writing Madrox as somebody who has no direction in life, because he can
do everything at once and never needs to choose. David has written a
very clever gradual transition over the last few years, with Madrox
rediscovering some sense of purpose in his new group - and now haunted
by the niggling fear that the group might not have any purpose at all,
beyond sticking around for the sake of it.
The story doesn't offer any particular answer to the "What's the point?"
problem, which continues to afflict most of the X-books to some extent.
But it does place the issue front and centre, giving the storyline the
direction and purpose it's been missing. If you just wipe out all the
mutants and the survivors carry on doing superhero stuff as normal, even
thought the raison d'etre of the team has been eradicated, then you've
got no direction. But if you have the characters standing around
wondering why they're still together then that lack of direction becomes
the direction in its own right - at least for a short period.
Admittedly, to some extent, this genuinely does come across as a
last-ditch attempt to salvage something from a deeply unsatisfactory
status quo. Rahne was hastily written out last issue, so that she could
join the cast of X-Force, and this month the subplot about Guido
becoming the sheriff of Mutant Town is also dropped like a stone. All
this gives the impression that David is changing tack to address the
problems that the wider X-Men storylines have caused for him. But he's
doing it successfully, and turning a highly questionable status quo to
genuine advantage.
From here, it seems, we're heading into an Arcade storyline. Arcade
couldn't be further removed from the noir stylings of early X-Factor
issues, nor is he obviously likely to an answer to the team's
existential woes. After all, as a weird pseudo-Silver Age gimmick
villain, Arcade is perhaps the most pointless and absurd bad guy in the
X-Men's catalogue. I suspect that's why David is using him; the last
thing the X-Factor cast want right now is to spend two or three issues
fending off utter meaninglessness, which may well make this a singularly
inspired use of this questionable character.
The crucial thing, I think, is that while I have no idea where Peter
David is heading with this series, the fact that he's so openly
addressing the apparent problems with the status quo convinces me that
he must have something in mind to get out of this corner. And that
makes everything work.
Rating: A-
------------
COMIC BOOK COMICS is the new series from Fred Van Lente and Ryan
Dunlavey, the creators of the decidedly unlikely Action Philosophers.
If you haven't read Action Philosophers, it's well worth picking up.
Basically, it's a series explaining the lives and ideas of great
philosophers in comic book form. Some of them are relatively straight
explanations, and sometimes you get John Stuart Mill explained in the
style of Charlie Brown. It's a good introduction to the subject - often
very funny, while successfully explaining the ideas. And it's a
convincing display of what can be done in non-fiction comics, a genre
that remains almost completely unexplored (unless you count
autobiography, but that's still narrative).
Comic Book Comics sets its sights a little closer to home. It's a
history of comics - both as a medium and as an industry. In many ways,
this isn't such promising territory. Action Philosophers worked in part
because of the seeming incongruity of doing a humour book about
philosophy. The history of comics isn't quite in the same league of
seriousness, and runs a decided risk of insularity.
What you actually get, in the first issue, is a semi-straight account of
developments in the comic book and animation industries from their
invention through to just before the Golden Age. There's some discussion
of seminal comics, explanation of how ideas that we now take for granted
first emerged, and biographical stuff about major figures. Mercifully,
they've chosen to interpret the dawn of comics as the invention of the
newspaper strip cartoon in 1896, rather than going through the usual
tenuous attempts to claim a storied history going back to the Bayeux
Tapestry.
Nonetheless, this first issue is inevitably rather light on familiar
comics, and accordingly heavy on the history. I suspect that later
parts of the history will be easier source material for jokes, and it
would be fair to say that issue #1 is engagingly informative rather than
being especially amusing.
But it is indeed informative, with plenty of intriguing details that
aren't especially well known; and Van Lente and Dunlavey know how to get
this dense material across. Inevitably, a subject this esoteric won't
be for everyone. However, if you're remotely interested, CBC looks set
to be an excellent primer.
Rating: A-
------------
Finally this week, THE LAST DEFENDERS #1. It's a Defenders miniseries.
Kind of. A bit.
Co-written by Joe Casey and Keith Giffen, with Jim Muniz providing art
from Giffen's breakdowns, this is a curious comic. I'm not entirely
sure quite what it's trying to be, although it seems pretty clear about
what it isn't. Ultimately, it's my faith in the writers that makes me
assume they must be heading somewhere with this, rather than the story
itself, which is mildly irrational, and littered with subplots.
As a concept, the Defenders have never really worked. The original
premise was little more than "Here's some solo heroes who aren't in the
Avengers - let's put them in a team." Unfortunately, there was no
convincing reason for the Hulk, Dr Strange, the Sub-Mariner and the
Silver Surfer to be on a team, and writers generally gave up trying
pretty quickly. Instead, Defenders became a more or less random
collection of C-list heroes, on which idiosyncratic creators such as
Steve Gerber were sometimes allowed free reign. But the distinctiveness
of those stories was due to Gerber, not to any particular strength of
the "yet another generic team" concept.
What we seem to have here is a Defenders series wrestling with the
fundamentally shaky nature of the premise. Having belatedly signed up
for the Initiative, Nighthawk is convinced that the Defenders must
surely have something to offer. After all, the Initiative is putting
together a superteam for each state. Surely, with 52 teams to recruit,
there's got to be room for a Defenders reunion?
But that's not how Tony Stark sees it. The Defenders? Not a bad name.
But otherwise, basically rubbish. And so it is that poor, beleaguered
Nighthawk finds himself a new "Defenders" team consisting of Colossus,
She-Hulk and the Blazing Skull - none of whom have got the slightest
connection with the Defenders. Together, they defend... New Jersey.
This isn't quite what Nighthawk had in mind, but he's going to make the
best of it.
This is a weird premise for a book. Casey and Giffen seem to have gone
out of their way to create a Defenders team whose defining feature is
that they aren't the Defenders. It's almost as though they're going to
attempt to define what the Defenders were really about by saddling
Nighthawk with this travesty. He's the only character to provide any
real link with the original team, and even he was always a bit of a
well-meaning wannabe.
Not that the characters are played for laughs, particularly. But
they're not the Defenders. They're an essentially competent random
team-up. The issue even ends with Yandroth (an obscure Defenders
villain) telling us how important the original Defenders are.
Where on earth do you go with that, as a story? Common sense says that
this is heading towards a story about how the Defenders concept has some
value after all, and I can't imagine how they're going to sell me on
that idea. If that's not the direction, I can't begin to imagine where
this is going.
But there's enough in here to give me faith that Casey and Giffen know
what they're doing, and in a weird, roundabout way, they really do have
a good reason for calling this a Defenders series - even though the
Defenders aren't in it. An oddity, but an intriguing one.
Rating: B+
------------
Also this week:
NEW EXILES #3 - Um. Minor henchmen proclaiming their names loudly, mind
control elements... this all seems desperately familiar for a Chris
Claremont story, without much in the way of new ideas. It's not bad for
what it is - Claremont's fanbase should be happy with it. But it's
really just more of the same, and feels decidedly uninspired. B-
WOLVERINE #63 - Goodness, they were serious about de-powering Wolverine.
Apparently a bunch of locals with guns are now at least a nuisance for
him, if not a genuine threat. We're back to the days when getting shot
was a serious hindrance, and thank heavens for that. Meanwhile,
Mystique runs around causing chaos in modern Iraq and 1920s Kansas, as
Jason Aaron and Ron Garney continue to make the most of a back-to-basics
take on the character. Shame they're only doing a single storyline,
because this is the sort of thing I'm looking for from a Wolverine book.
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, just Wolverine: Origins #23, still guest starring Deadpool.
I am smiling, but not very convincingly.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
IF DESTROYED - http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
NINTH ART - http://www.ninthart.com
Dan McEwen
news:s2Bo4eAC...@esoterica.demon.co.uk:
> The X-books are all in mid-storyline this week, but on the principle
> that I ought to properly review at least one of them, let's check in
> on X-FACTOR.
>
> Issue #29 is titled "The Only Game in Town, part 1", but in reality
> it's the second part of a story that began with last month's
> post-Messiah Complex transition issue. Notionally, that crossover
> provides the starting point for this story. But in fact, X-Factor is
> currently doing the sort of soul-searching that all of the X-books
> should have done a few years ago, after House of M.
>
> There are still virtually no mutants around to protect, and "Mutant
> Town" has now reverted to being the Middle East Side, as the
> ex-mutants drift back into normal lives.
The funny part is that I've never heard this area of Manhattan referred
to as the "Middle East Side". Also, oddly enough, some thought Mutant
Town was originally set in the Lower East Side (which is an actual area
of Manhattan).
> The story doesn't offer any particular answer to the "What's the
> point?" problem, which continues to afflict most of the X-books to
> some extent. But it does place the issue front and centre, giving the
> storyline the direction and purpose it's been missing. If you just
> wipe out all the mutants and the survivors carry on doing superhero
> stuff as normal, even thought the raison d'etre of the team has been
> eradicated, then you've got no direction. But if you have the
> characters standing around wondering why they're still together then
> that lack of direction becomes the direction in its own right - at
> least for a short period.
The thing is that none of them were ever generally super-hero teams.
They were mutant teams who dealt with mostly mutant problems (except
when dragged into space for whatever reason). The X-Men could pick up
and become super-heroes but X-Factor was designed to solve cases
revolving around mutants. I suppose they could just be a generic
detective agency if necessary but that doesn't seem quite as
interesting.
> The crucial thing, I think, is that while I have no idea where Peter
> David is heading with this series, the fact that he's so openly
> addressing the apparent problems with the status quo convinces me that
> he must have something in mind to get out of this corner. And that
> makes everything work.
I was actually surprised that he could keep up the quality for so long
but I'm really glad he has. I'm not especially looking forward to the
complete change of artistic style this book is about to get but we'll
see how it works out.
Daibhid Ceanaideach
> Paul O'Brien <pa...@esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote in
> news:s2Bo4eAC...@esoterica.demon.co.uk:
>
>> The X-books are all in mid-storyline this week, but on the principle
>> that I ought to properly review at least one of them, let's check in
>> on X-FACTOR.
>>
>> Issue #29 is titled "The Only Game in Town, part 1", but in reality
>> it's the second part of a story that began with last month's
>> post-Messiah Complex transition issue. Notionally, that crossover
>> provides the starting point for this story. But in fact, X-Factor is
>> currently doing the sort of soul-searching that all of the X-books
>> should have done a few years ago, after House of M.
>>
>> There are still virtually no mutants around to protect, and "Mutant
>> Town" has now reverted to being the Middle East Side, as the
>> ex-mutants drift back into normal lives.
>
> The funny part is that I've never heard this area of Manhattan
> referred to as the "Middle East Side". Also, oddly enough, some
> thought Mutant Town was originally set in the Lower East Side (which
> is an actual area of Manhattan).
Is it just me or does "Middle East Side" sound less like a geographic
discription (like Lower East Side) and more like the Arabian district?
--
Dave
"I thought Billie Piper was an oil rig."
-Sandi Toksvig, The News Quiz
Dan McEwen
news:Xns9A64C308E1FFBda...@130.133.1.4:
That's what it sounds like to me. It's just that Manhattan does have
all kinds of names for specific areas. I've never heard of "Middle East
Side". Maybe Midtown East or something would be better. Then again,
maybe that's just a name someone came up with since Mutant Town was no
longer suitable.
Derik
> Where on earth do you go with that, as a story? Common sense says that
> this is heading towards a story about how the Defenders concept has some
> value after all, and I can't imagine how they're going to sell me on
> that idea. If that's not the direction, I can't begin to imagine where
> this is going.
At a guess it's gonna do it's best to hang Stark with his own words
when he shots Kyle's lineup down. "There a formula for any successful
super-team. And when it comes to choosing team rosters I'm an
expert."
TLD#1 makes a good case why everyone ON it thinks Starks' kneecapping
this team. The crux has to be the lineup- if the roster fails (as it
seems doomed to) then what's the counter-argument? The Defenders un-
team lineup let them become what they needed to respond to the
situations they ran into? It's not a bad counterargument-- though the
last page indicates that the Defenders DO have a forumla- it's just
one that's harder to 'clock' and they they do they'll rise higher and
faster than anyone thought possible.
I'm a bit wary of that- because I think when your premise is 'our team
out-Avengers the Avengers' (who are admittedly distracted by the whole
Skrull thing at the moment) the actual STORIES THEMSELVES have to out-
avenger the Avengers, so if Giffen and whatisname fail to tun out a
seminal piece of storytelling... then the story fails.
Maybe it's not going that way. It's only a mini after all.
Regardless, it looks like a title where Tony Stark's going to get some
comeuppance... and that should be fun to read.
(Tony needs someone to outshine him and be awarded Champion License
like Cap had. Both to balance him out... but mostly because sooner or
later Stark's gonna drop all the bal;s the juggling... and he's
currently juggling THE ENTIRE PLANET.)
-Derik