REVIEWS: The X-Axis Year in Review 2003
Paul O'Brien
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2003 - the second year of Grant Morrison; four new ongoing series, one
of which has already been cancelled; three cancellations, one of which
has already been revived; Princess Diana's return from the dead is
stillborn; and Chuck Austen forced a recalibration of the good/bad
scale, which previously only went down far enough to accommodate Howard
Mackie.
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AGENT X #7-15
THE CREATORS: Gail Simone and Udon on issue #7, followed by a string of
fill-in issues until they return for issues #13-15.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Five, but that was because the book didn't
have a regular creative team at all for several months.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The "Shameful William" story; fill-ins by Buddy
Scalera, Evan Dorkin and Daniel Way; and "Deadpool Walkin'", the wrap-up
arc where Deadpool came back. And then the book got cancelled.
Remember back in the good old days, when the X-books consisted of
Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and X-Factor - and that was it?
Well, that was over fifteen years ago, and this is now. In 2003, Marvel
produced a grand total of sixteen ongoing series under the X-banner.
Okay, three of them had been cancelled by the end of the year - but
they're all coming back in 2004 in slightly revised guises. Plus, we're
getting a new Alpha Flight series, which Marvel appear to consider an
X-book this time round. Whatever happened to that idea of not deluging
the market?
Anyway, thanks to the miracle of alphabetisation, we'll kick off with
Agent X, a title that had a less an illustrious year. In 2002, I
predicted that the title would be cancelled by June. I was right on the
money - issue #12 did ship in June. Only Marvel brought the book back
for another three issues, so it didn't actually end until October. I'll
still take it as a correct prediction, I think.
Gail Simone and Udon had been getting good reviews for Agent X and its
predecessor title Deadpool, and while sales weren't spectacular, they
could certainly have been a lot worse. However, thanks to what appeared
to be irreconcilable differences of approach between Simone and editor
Andrew Lis (the man who brought you the blatantly doomed revamp of
Thunderbolts), Simone left. Ridiculously, Lis also left almost
immediately after, but Agent X had already been condemned to a run-out
period of fill-in issues before being condemned to cancellation.
The fill-ins were a mixed bag. Surprisingly enough, two of them were
actually very good. Evan Dorkin and artist Juan Bobillo came aboard to
provide a sequel to Dorkin's insane Fight-Man one-shot from ten years
ago, which was genuinely funny and would have been worth publishing in
any circumstances. On the other hand, Buddy Scalera and Daniel Way's
stories were thoroughly unimpressive.
Fortunately, in due course wiser heads prevailed, and Simone and Udon
were brought back to do a three-issue storyline tying up the series.
Those three issues aren't perhaps the best material Simone and Udon had
done on the series - personally, I still prefer some of the earlier
Deadpool issues with the Rhino as a key ring - but they allowed the book
to go out with a sense of closure instead of spluttering to an
uncontrolled halt.
In 2004, Marvel are having another stab at Deadpool. He'll be appearing
in a Cable & Deadpool title, to be illustrated by Udon. Simone, on the
other hand, is lost to the X-books for the foreseeable future. She's
signed an exclusive deal with DC, and has been getting gratifying sales
increases on Birds of Prey, despite Ed Benes' grating artwork.
Considering the circumstances, there was some worthwhile material in
Agent X this year. Fabian Nicieza is writing the new series, which
suggests a different approach. Of course, while he didn't create
Deadpool (or Cable, for that matter), he was probably the writer most
influential in shaping both characters. It might well be a decent book,
but it'll be a very different one.
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EMMA FROST #1-6
THE CREATORS: Writer Karl Bollers, penciller Randy Green and inker Rick
Ketcham.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil. Mind you, it's only been going six
months, and they're changing artists for the next arc.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The six-part "Higher Learning" storyline.
As one book is cancelled, another begins. And another. And another.
Yes, it's Tsunami, in which Marvel take every concept that's worked for
them over the last three years and do the exact opposite. The
Quesada/Jemas regime had a string of very successful launches and
relaunches based on two simple, straightforward concepts. One, big
names where possible. Two, one major event a month, and one only. That
way, nothing gets lost in the shuffle. And every new series looks like
an event.
Tsunami, on the other hand, was a wave of books based on the following
premise. Take a bunch of titles which have nothing in common
whatsoever. Bracket them together solely on the basis that they're
being launched in the same month, thereby demonstrating a complete lack
of understanding of what an imprint is for. Get B- and C-list creators
(albeit that many of them are deservedly on the rise) to write them.
And shove them all out there at the same time, so that nobody can
remember what any of them are called. Probably not even the Marvel
editors.
The results were predictable. Most of the Tsunami books sank without
trace - even though, in some cases, they'd been very well reviewed. But
four Tsunami books bucked the trend and actually sold some copies.
Three of them were X-books - Emma Frost, Mystique and New Mutants. The
fourth was Venom, which also had a built-in audience. (And proceeded to
lose that audience almost immediately by being, far and away, the most
slow and boring comic Marvel produced all year.)
Emma Frost is a strange title. It sits awkwardly in the Marvel line,
let alone the X-books, and seems caught in a dreadful dilemma about what
it wants to be. On one level, it's a commendable attempt to expand the
line and produce something with potential appeal to that elusive
bookstore audience. No matter how elastic your definition of
"superhero", Emma Frost is not a superhero series. It's a teen drama
where one of the characters happens to be telepathic. This is a
perfectly good idea.
On the other hand, it's also clearly an attempt to cash in on the
X-books audience. And those Greg Horn covers - those godawful,
embarrassing covers, which bear no resemblance to the content of the
book at all. If Marvel really think there's such an audience out there
for Horn's work, why not just launch a book called Tits Monthly and get
him to do the covers for that? At least he'd be at home. Anyhow, the
point is that even as Marvel tries to embrace one audience, it can't
quite bring itself to let go of the direct market readers. At some
point Marvel is going to have recognise that these new readers they're
aiming for are very, very different readers and there is no mileage in
trying to produce hybrid comics which appeal to both demographics.
In fact, Emma Frost isn't a bad comic at all. It's not spectacular, but
it's a solid book which tells a decent story quite competently. It
hasn't impressed enough to shake off the impression of an unnecessary
spin-off from a major franchise. But it's done well enough that I can't
begrudge it existing. It's actually quite readable, which is more than
I'd expected from it going in.
It's just those damned covers that make me want to throw things. Then
again, I see from the latest solicitations that Horn's cover for issue
#9 shows a brunette Emma, in a T-shirt and jeans, and without
particularly large breasts. About bloody time.
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EXILES #21-39
THE CREATORS: Judd Winick writes issues #21-25 and #31-37. Chuck Austen
writes issues #26-30 and #38-39. In theory the regular artist is
Clayton Henry, starting with issue #26. The operative words are "In
theory."
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Twelve. Of which, Jim Calafiore did seven -
as many issues as the nominal regular artist.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The conclusion of "Legacy" (the Vi-Lock)
storyline; "With An Iron Fist" (the one where an evil Iron Man is
president); the first Chuck Austen fill-in run; "Avengers Forever" (the
one where the Avengers are vampires - does anyone even remember it?);
the two "A Second Farewell" stories; "Fantastic Voyage" (the last Winick
storyline); and the start of "King Hyperion".
You know those little machines you can buy for feeding your cat while
you're away on holiday? The ones where you fill up all the little
compartments with cat food, and then every day the machine opens another
one for the cat to eat?
Well, that's basically what Exiles was like in 2003. By the end of
2002, Judd Winick had already signed a twelve-month exclusive contract
with DC. Most people would take this as a cue to leave Exiles
altogether, but not Winick. Instead, he hedged his bets, and wrote
twelve months of scripts before his exclusive deal began. That way, if
he decided not to renew with DC, he could come back and pick up Exiles
again.
However, Winick didn't allow for the fact that Marvel wanted to produce
nineteen issues of Exiles in 2003, which left them a little short on
material. But never mind! As any Marvel editor knows, when there are
pages to be filled, and quality is a secondary consideration, it's time
to reach for Chuck Austen's phone number. As a result, we've also been
blessed with seven Austen fill-ins.
What this meant, in practice, was a year of lacklustre stories
interspersed with awful crap from Austen. Exiles has always had an
innate tendency towards formula, because the set-up requires the
characters to show up, get a mission, and fulfil it. By 2002 that
formula had already become ossified, as Winick resorted again and again
to the same old idea: it's a world conquered by the baddies! Winick did
at least depart from that approach towards the end of his run, and
turned in one genuinely excellent issue with the Sunfire story in "A
Second Farewell". But the formula is still getting stale, and nothing
this year was truly able to overcome that problem.
As for Austen, he gave us a rather pointless story bringing back Moses
Magnum, and a truly diabolical effort where the Exiles visited the
mainstream Marvel Universe. Rather than doing anything remotely
relevant to the characters, however, Austen decided to follow up on his
"Dominant Species" storyline from Uncanny X-Men, which was very bad the
first time round. The Exiles arc was even worse, leaving the Exiles
relegated to the status of guest stars in their own book while Austen's
powers of coherent plotting deserted him altogether. (Havok dies of a
huge stomach wound as a central plot point, only to be back on his feet
without a scratch a few pages later.)
In fact, Winick did renew his exclusive deal with DC this year, so he
isn't coming back. Judging from the solicitations, Austen will be
writing the book for the forseeable future, which is a thoroughly
unenticing proposition. However, Marvel haven't actually announced
anyone as the new regular writer, so it may be that they're holding off
until the X-books overhaul scheduled for next spring. Personally, I'd
be tempted to just draw a line under the title and quit while it's
ahead, but solid sales are unlikely to allow that.
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MYSTIQUE #1-8
THE CREATORS: Brian Vaughan writes. Jorge Lucas draws the first arc,
and Michael Ryan takes over for the second.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The six-part "Dead Drop Gorgeous", where Mystique
stops Cuban Sentinels; and the first half of "Tinker Tailor Mutant Spy",
set in South Africa.
Back to the Tsunami books, and the ongoing Mystique series.
Previous attempts to use Mystique as a lead character had been somewhat
unhappy experiences. She was in X-Factor during the Howard Mackie run,
and that was bad. Then there was the Sabretooth & Mystique miniseries
from 1996, which has almost completely disappeared from memory. (It
wasn't very good.)
However, this version has worked out surprisingly well. As you'd expect
from today's Marvel, it's decidedly light on continuity. There's not
much baggage involved here. Instead, it's a simple set-up: Professor X
needs somebody to do his dirty work for him, so that the X-Men can
maintain deniability. So he blackmails Mystique. That gives us a
set-up where Xavier gives Mystique missions and she reluctantly sulks
off around the globe to get them done.
This could easily turn formulaic, granted. But writer Brian Vaughan has
livened things up by introducing a subplot with villains trying to buy
her out of Xavier's employment. As a result, the set-up isn't as stable
as it first appears, and there's scope to shake it up once it gets
tired.
But for now, it's working perfectly well, as Vaughan packs Mystique off
to the corners of the Marvel Universe to look into mutant-related
problems in Cuba and South Africa. The book is being written as a
straightforward action thriller story, with the settings providing a few
political overtones but never overshadowing the plot. It's intelligent,
but moreover, it's good fun.
Vaughan is still probably better known for writing Vertigo series Y: The
Last Man. But he's been doing some surprisingly good work for the
X-books over the last couple of years, and his ability to write an
action story has been coming along tremendously. As with the other
Tsunami books, this one seemed like a rather pointless exercise when it
was announced, but it's now a title I look forward to reading.
Jorge Lucas, who illustrated the first arc, is a solid storyteller,
albeit that his early issues had an unfortunate interest in stick-thin
women. Michael Ryan has now taken over with work that's being digitally
coloured from his pencils (and looks very good as a result). Neither of
these are particularly flashy artists, but they know how to sell the
plot, which is the important thing on a book like this.
As with most of this year's new X-books, you'd struggle to put your hand
on your heart and say there was a pressing, urgent need for a Mystique
solo series. But we've got one, and it's quite a good one. I can
certainly live with that.
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NEW MUTANTS #1-7
THE CREATORS: Written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir. Keron
Grant starts out as the regular artist but leaves after issue #4. Carlo
Barberi takes over with issue #7
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Two.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The cast is introduced, and the "Ties That Bind"
storyline begins.
The third of the somewhat successful, X-related Tsunami books is New
Mutants, a book which hasn't really worked.
Frankly, you have to wonder about Marvel's forward planning on some of
this stuff. New Mutants is a series about some of the pupils at the
X-Men's school. Of course, the school was shut down a few issues back
in New X-Men, but that hasn't come up yet in this title. Apparently we
can expect that to be addressed at some point in 2004, but - even in
these continuity-conscious days - there's a distinct sense of parallel
universe syndrome here.
Still, there's nothing wrong with the basic idea of having a series
about some of the kids in the school - even though you might have
thought it would make more sense to do a book about the Special Class
who were given so much time in Grant Morrison's New X-Men, rather than
create an entirely new bunch of characters. But on paper, this didn't
sound too bad. Writers Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir had picked
up good reviews for their work at Oni and, after all, it's a solid idea
for a series.
But it's never quite managed to get off the ground. Devoting the entire
first arc to gathering the cast resulted in a series of repetitive
stories, and few of these new characters are really interesting enough
to carry a story on their own. In more recent issues, where they're
been given a chance to interact, some more potential is evident.
Nonetheless, it's been a rather flat book thus far.
The art hasn't helped much. Keron Grant is an artist who likes dynamic
action sequences. So god alone knows why somebody thought he would be
at home on New Mutants, which is essentially a talking heads title. In
the event, Grant produced some rather subdued work which undeniably
conveyed what was happening, but didn't go much further than that. It
was difficult to avoid the impression that he was bored to tears with
the whole thing, and when he quit halfway through the first arc, it
wasn't much of a surprise.
Grant moved on to a Spider-Man miniseries which he's also left halfway
through, so heaven only knows what's going on with him now. Anyway, his
replacement Carlo Barberi seems much more at home with this series, so
at least the visuals look set to improve in 2004.
New Mutants isn't a bad title so much as a thunderously average one.
Frankly, the most memorable thing about the book is Joshua Middleton's
covers - and if you like those, you can buy NYX. New Mutants could
work; there's nothing fundamentally horrible about it. But it just goes
in one ear and out the other.
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NEW X-MEN #136-150
THE CREATORS: Written by Grant Morrison, with rotating artists for each
arc: Frank Quitely on "Riot at Xavier's", Phil Jimenez on "Murder at the
Mansion", Chris Bachalo for "Assault on Weapon Plus", and Jimenez again
for "Planet X."
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The Omega Gang stage a riot; Emma Frost is shot,
but gets better; Wolverine, Cyclops and Fantomex assault Weapon X; Xorn
reveals that he's really Magneto; and total chaos as Magneto conquers
Manhattan in "Planet X".
Grant Morrison's second year on New X-Men has seen most of his plots
through to completion. Now there's only one arc to go, set in the
future and tying up the Phoenix storyline.
As in 2002, New X-Men has set the agenda for the rest of the line. And
the reasons for this are fairly subtle. Fantomex aside, Morrison hasn't
really introduced any new concepts into the series. Rather, he's been
playing with the ones that have been around for years. But for years,
the X-Men have been played primarily as a civil rights metaphor - that
being the approach which worked brilliantly for Chris Claremont.
Morrison has taken a more literal approach, in line with his interest in
human evolution. It's the same series, but subtly reoriented.
2002 was plagued by dodgy fill-in art, thanks to Marvel's incredibly
optimistic assumption that Frank Quitely might produce some pages on a
regular basis. In 2003, they got the scheduling problems sorted, by
moving to a system of rotating artists for each arc. As a result,
Quitely got to complete some excellent work on "Riot at Xavier's",
before handing over to Phil Jimenez and Chris Bachalo for the remaining
arcs. Casting Bachalo on an action story may have been a bit of a
mistake - clarity hasn't been a strength of his for many years now. But
Jimenez has been an ideal match for Morrison's work in 2003, which
really did call for a quality superhero artist.
The big shock of the year, of course, was Xorn's unveiling as Magneto.
That prompted me to go back and re-read the whole run again in order to
see whether Morrison had actually laid the groundwork for this series
properly. And he had - in fact, despite Morrison's occasional claims
that comics are disposable pop culture, this is a run which benefits
tremendously from re-reading. There are scenes in the early issues
which make infinitely more sense down the line. Part of Morrison's
skill is the way that he's hidden clues to Xorn's true identity almost
in plain sight, but structured them so that people don't notice them
until a second reading.
This is one of the great things about Morrison's run: it really does
stand up to multiple re-readings. However, the real legacy of
Morrison's New X-Men is that it's finally broken the mould where every
X-Men story was trying to follow the template set by Chris Claremont in
the late seventies and early eighties. There's nothing wrong with that
template, but it's not the only approach that can be taken to these
characters. It's past time somebody showed that other ways can work
just as well, if not better.
Hands down, New X-Men takes the prize for the best X-book this year.
Of course, what happens when Morrison leaves? Well, in the short term
we can brace ourselves for some fill-ins by Chuck Austen. Marvel have
yet to announce a replacement, although reports seem fairly uniform that
they've got one lined up. Joss Whedon's name has been doing the rounds
in the rumour mills for some time now. I could certainly live with that.
For now, we've got a great series and one arc still to go. Enjoy it
while you can, just in case Chuck Austen really does get the job.
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NYX #1-3
THE CREATORS: Joe Quesada and Joshua Middleton
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: Kiden Nixon and X-23 are introduced.
NYX is an idea that has been in development for absolutely ages. A
couple of years back, Brian Wood was meant to be writing it, only for
the title to be cancelled under somewhat ill-tempered circumstances.
(If you want to know what his version would have been like, then his
current series Demo is said to be not wholly dissimilar.)
After that, it disappeared from the radar this year, only to resurface
with Joe Quesada and Joshua Middleton. The premise is that it's a bunch
of mutant street kids in New York. Since we're only on issue #3 and
it's still introducing the characters, it's hard to know quite where
it's heading. The first two issues seemed to be going to for the
(comparatively) real-world angle. The third lurches off in more
conventional territory by introducing X-23, a character from the X-Men:
Evolution animated show who has connections to Wolverine.
This sort of drawn-out introduction of characters didn't work for New
Mutants, but judging from the solicitations, it's set to continue for a
few issues yet. The idea of launching a new series and hitting the
ground running seems to have gone out of fashion, which is a bit of a
shame. You can get away with a relatively slow start in novels or
cinema - once somebody's bought a novel, they'll probably read it, and
once somebody's in a cinema, they're unlikely to walk out. But with
comics, you've got to inspire people enough to make them return for the
next issue. It's all very well to say that readers should be patient,
but economic reality has to play a part here as well. Frankly, if 2004
sees a full fledged anti-decompression backlash, I'll be all for it.
NYX is hardly the worst offender here, but it's got off to a rather slow
start. However, it makes up for a lot of that thanks to Joshua
Middleton's art, which is consistently striking stuff. Given that this
is a fairly grim and downbeat title, Middleton doesn't seem like the
most obvious choice of artist. His pastel-coloured, graceful figures
always seem beautiful, no matter what the plot involves. That doesn't
really sit with the direction of the story, but in fact it seems to work
out okay. Instead of seeming out of place, there's an interesting
tension between the story and the aesthetic qualities of the art.
NYX really needs to sort out its rating problems, however. In theory
this is a PSR+ book, which is a slightly elevated version of Marvel's
"parent supervision recommended" rating. However, it then carries a
further warning of mature content. The result is the same ludicrous
mishmash that has plagued Ultimates, where the story concepts are
plainly aimed at adults and yet the dialogue is still censored as if the
average reader was eight. In a scene involving forced prostitution and
self-mutilation, it's laughable to have punctuation marks representing
the word "shit." The book seems to want to be a mature readers title;
if so, they should just adopt that rating and be done with it. It
hasn't done Supreme Power any harm.
It's early days for NYX, and it's got off to a rather slow start. But
there's enough there to hold my interest, and it does look fantastic.
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SENTINEL #1-10
THE CREATORS: Sean McKeever and Udon
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: Juston Seyfert discovers a Sentinel, rebuilds it,
and uses it to make himself look good at school. Which backfires badly.
Then he helps out with a plane crash.
I mentioned earlier that the Tsunami line had produced four relatively
successful titles, of which three were X-books. Unfortunately, there
were four X-related Tsunami titles, and the unlucky fourth was Sentinel.
Writer Sean McKeever produced two titles for Tsunami - Sentinel and
Inhumans - both of which got fairly good reviews. Unfortunately, both
also got cancelled within a year after rather dismal sales. Of course,
Sentinel is so detached from the rest of the X-universe that it barely
qualifies as an X-book at all. It involves a kid in Wisconsin finding a
broken Sentinel and repairing it. This might explain why it hasn't met
with quite the success of the other new X-books.
It's a shame, as Sentinel might possibly have been a project that stood
a chance in the bookstores - at least, if it was properly packaged.
There's still a plan to do some kind of digest version for that
audience, so you never know. But it now looks like an abandoned project
which is being cannibalised as a format experiment.
Despite the titular giant robot, Sentinel is basically a high school
drama. The robot lies in a shed for the first few issues, being
steadily rebuilt from junk, while lead character Juston Seyfert goes
about his teen issues. Admittedly, the book doesn't have a desperately
original approach to school drama - there are bullies! There are
shallow cheerleaders! Then again, the end of the first arc played
neatly off the occasional Columbine mentions while staying far enough
away to avoid obviousness, and provided an interesting set-up for the
series.
The second arc, involving a rescue of a downed aircraft, wasn't
particularly involving. That's probably because it left the supporting
cast behind to focus on Juston and the robot. The final arc, leading up
to cancellation with issue #12, seems to be getting more on track.
Udon have opted for a cartoony approach to the art - I'm sure it's no
coincidence that everyone seems to have a wardrobe consisting entirely
of the same clothes in different colours. With the humans, it's been
very successful. With the robot, perhaps less so - the story has it
being constructed out of junk, and it's never looked remotely like
something that could have been made that way. How much purple metal
does Juston have in that scrapyard of his?
A brave try, anyway.
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SOLDIER X #7-12
THE CREATORS: Darko Macan and Igor Kordey on issues #7-8; Karl Bollers
writes issues #9-12, with assorted artists.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Four.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The Macan/Kordey run ends with some really
bizarre stuff about Kashmir, and the Askani in the far future. Then Karl
Bollers kills time while waiting for the axe to fall.
Bet you'd forgotten about this one.
Soldier X actually made it up as far as June, but like Agent X, it was
on life support for 2003. Under Darko Macan and Igor Kordey, the book
had been an interesting attempt to reinvent Cable as an absurdist hero.
It was certainly an intriguing attempt to do something very different.
However, there were two major problems. First, not many people want to
read an absurdist Cable comic, no matter how good it is. Cable's
audience aren't interested in that style, and the readers who like that
style won't touch Cable with a ten foot bargepole. Second, it wasn't
really all that great. It was too busy being weird to work as a story.
So by the end of 2002, Macan and Kordey had already been relieved of
their duties. Marvel then turned to Karl Bollers to write the series,
and cancelled it almost immediately afterwards. Bollers yanked the book
back towards the centre ground, although he did at least try to maintain
some of its quirkiness. Still, the results - a story about domestic
terrorism and another about a wrongfully accused murderer - were less
than satisfactory.
After the end of this series, Cable was packed off to the supporting
cast of Weapon X, for the extended "Underground" storyline. Fortunately
for him, he's not been left to languish there indefinitely. Marvel are
having another stab with him in 2004, in the Cable & Deadpool series.
With Fabian Nicieza and Udon, it's fairly safe to assume that the
character will be moving back into more traditional territory, although
he's likely to end up as the straight man in their double act.
Soldier X was dead on its feet by the start of the year. Points for
trying something completely off the wall, but it was always a long shot
that this was going to work. The fill-in stories in the run-out period
showed more effort than usual for those sorts of issues. But if you
only read one Karl Bollers comic in 2003, you'd certainly have been
better off with Emma Frost.
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ULTIMATE X-MEN #27-40
THE CREATORS: Mark Millar and Adam Kubert up to issue #33. Brian Bendis
and David Finch since then.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Three - all during Kubert's run, and all by
Finch.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: Mark Millar concludes his run with the big
showdown against Magneto in "Return of the King." Brian Bendis starts
with "Blockbuster", and then starts "New Mutants."
Mark Millar finally wrapped up his three-year run on Ultimate X-Men, and
handed the title over to Brian Bendis. It goes without saying that this
involves a certain change of style.
Millar's "Return of the King" gave us the X-Men's showdown with Magneto,
before ending with a couple of rather strange coda issues in which the
X-Men became associated with the US government. Naturally, it had
everything we've come to expect from Mark Millar - cynical humour,
violence, and shamelessly over the top action sequences. He's not to
everyone's taste, and at times I still find his fashionable nihilism a
little grating. Still, it did wrap up his run quite satisfyingly.
Brian Bendis and Mark Millar were the two writers who defined the ground
rules for the Ultimate Universe. On that level, Bendis seems a sensible
choice to take over. On pretty much every other level, it's hard to
imagine two more different writers in the superhero genre. Bendis is a
much more character-driven writer, whose stories are much more about
personality and emotion. It'll be very interesting to see how he and
Millar work together, co-writing Ultimate Fantastic Four - either their
strengths will complement one another, or it'll be an unholy mess. It's
very hard to tell.
On Ultimate X-Men, Bendis' first arc seemed to be trying to stay close
to Millar's territory. "Blockbuster", at least for its first half, was
a string of action sequences across New York, with a bunch of utterly
gratuitous guest stars thrown in. It wasn't exactly deep, and it went
on a bit too long, but it had a definite guilty pleasure quality to it.
The second half of the story lurched more towards Bendis' usual
territory as readers were suddenly asked to take it seriously again; the
abrupt shift of tone didn't really work.
However, it did take the book more towards Bendis' strengths. Issue #40,
the beginning of the "New Mutants" arc, was a lovely little issue. It
introduces the Ultimate version of the Angel, and does more to restore a
sense of wonder to "bloke with wings" than anything I've seen in years.
The Ultimate X-Men that Bendis inherited from Millar were, at best,
sketchily drawn characters - if he can fill them out, so much the
better.
Artist David Finch, illustrating Bendis' stories, turned out to be a
surprisingly good fit. Finch's art has the look of somebody who's spent
long hours working on the Top Cow house style. Normally artists like
that turn out to be good at the flash, but awful at the storytelling.
Finch seems to have a pretty decent grasp on that side of things as
well, and meshed much better with Bendis than I would ever have
expected.
There's still work to be done in order to make the Ultimate team into
characters I really care about. After all, they're typical Millar
characters at heart, and a long way from being three dimensional. But
despite some very noticeable flaws, there's been plenty of entertainment
in Ultimate X-Men this year. If Bendis is going to continue moving it
towards his strong points, I'll be very happy.
------------
UNCANNY X-MEN #417-436
THE CREATORS: Written by Chuck Austen - your guarantee of quality!
Semi-regular artists include Kia Asamiya (#417-420), Ron Garney
(#421-424 and #435-436) and Philip Tan (#425-426 and #429-433)
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Three - but then, it does have three regular
artists as well...
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: Deep breath, all be over soon. "Dominant
Species" (the one with the wolves); "Rules of Engagement" (Alpha Flight
attack the school); "Holy War" (come on, you can't have forgotten it);
"Sacred Vows" (the non-marriage of Havok and Polaris); Skin's funeral
(where nobody can remember his name); "The Draco" (oh god, the Draco);
and "The Trial of the Juggernaut."
Chuck Austen is nothing if not prolific. As a result, in a year where
he often seemed to be writing half the Marvel Universe singlehandedly,
he still found time for a ludicrous twenty issues of Uncanny X-Men.
Thanks a bunch, Chuck.
This has been a truly dreadful year for Uncanny X-Men. Austen's
dwindling defenders sometimes suggest that his critics have a kneejerk
reaction against him. In that vein, it's worth remembering that his
initial issues were fairly warmly received. They weren't desperately
imaginative, but they were competent enough. Over the course of this
year, Austen has managed to alienate more and more readers who had
previously found his stories acceptable. And that's hardly surprising,
because this year he's written some jawdroppingly horrible comics.
There are two kinds of bad comic. First, there's the comics which had a
passable idea, but blew it at the stage of execution. They may be
dreadful, but at least you can understand why they were commissioned.
Second, there are comics where the premise is to immediately and
obviously awful that you can't imagine how they ever got approved in the
first place. Much of Austen's work on Uncanny this year has been of
that sort.
"Dominant Species": a bunch of mutants with wolf powers all join
together because that's what people with similar genetics do. (No, they
don't, Chuck.) None of them have a personality or an agenda, but they
fill up several issues anyway. This was very boring, but not a patch on
what was to follow.
"Holy War": The Church of Humanity is retconned into a heretical sect
led by a victim of Catholic rape, who plans to instal Nightcrawler as
the Pope and then cause a crisis of Catholic faith using evil
disintegrator communion wafers. This will make people believe that the
Rapture has occurred, and turn their backs on Catholicism. Point one,
as many Catholics e-mailed me to point out, the Rapture isn't even part
of Catholic theology. Point two, any plot involving evil disintegrator
communion wafers is too stupid to live.
"The Draco": Ineptly plotted garbage in which Nightcrawler learns that
his father Azazel is the inspiration for Satan, and Azazel attempts to
escape his prison through a really elaborate plan involving fathering
children around the world. (Rather than, say, going through the portal
to Earth and staying there.)
Try to imagine, if you can, a conversation between Chuck Austen and his
editor which starts with him pitching any one of those three stories and
ends with them being commissioned. "Evil disintegrator communion
wafers, you say? Fantastic!" Imagine, further, a conversation where
Marvel are so impressed by the evil disintegrator communion wafers that
they decide to give it a 25c promotional price tag and a huge push to
tie in with the X-Men 2 movie.
Imagine a terrifying window into a dark world of anti-talent.
In fairness, it's not that Austen is incapable of writing decent
stories. When he keeps it simple, he can. His Juggernaut subplot has
been more or less acceptable. However, he really needs to steer clear
of anything remotely complicated. Or anything involving religion. Or
difficult ideas. Or plotting above the most elementary level. Or
women. Especially women. He can't write them to save his life.
Austen is, thank christ, being removed from Uncanny in the new year, to
make way for Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. Claremont was dreadful the
last time he was on this book, but he's been improving of late, and I'd
still take him over Austen. Alarmingly, rumour has it that Austen will
be getting an ongoing Nightcrawler series. The mind boggles. The idea
that anyone can possibly look at Austen's work from this year - on this
title, on Exiles, on Captain America, on the lamentable Call - and find
him worthy of employment as a writer genuinely astonishes me.
Oh yes - Philip Tan was also crap. Awkward figures, poor storytelling,
key elements of the story being kept off panel, ridiculous scrawl where
an invading army ought to be. I can see what he's trying to do, in
combining the figure design of manga with the fiddly detail of western
comics, but it generally hasn't worked. And even if it did, "The Draco"
in particular showed that he is nowhere near ready for a flagship title.
This has got to be the worst year any X-Men title has had, in the forty
year history of the franchise. If you cast the net wider to the X-books
as a whole, I would concede that technically, the final year of Mutant X
was probably worse. But it wasn't so bloody aggravating. Mutant X was
just stupid; Uncanny X-Men seemed almost obnoxiously incompetent, an
impression which Austen's regrettably arrogant interviews only served to
bolster.
------------
WEAPON X #5-15
THE CREATORS: Written by Frank Tieri, with pencils by Georges Jeanty and
inks by Dexter Vines.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Three.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: Mutants get carted off to Neverland; Cable and
some stray X-Force characters guest star in "The Underground", leading
to a change of command; Mr Sinister pastiches Schindler's List; and
Chamber is offered a job.
Remember the halcyon days of 2002, when Frank Tieri was the worst writer
in the X-books? Well, there's a flicker of that coming up later. But
for now, with that honour comfortably taken by Austen, Tieri has settled
down to a relatively quiet year on Weapon X.
I'm still far from impressed with this series, but I've got to admit
that it's been improving. Early issues were plagued by characters who
changed their entire personality from issue to issue depending on what
was convenient for the plot. Tieri couldn't even seem to make up his
mind whether Wild Child had an animal intelligence, or whether he was
just mute. (Or if he could, he was unable to convey it consistently.)
That, however, has largely been eliminated. Characters seem to have
settled down into relatively consistent behaviour. Most of this year
was given over to the lengthy "Underground" storyline, which was
supposed to pay off many of the stories to date. Up to a certain point,
it manages to do that. It suffers from the fact that early issues laid
the groundwork in a very incoherent way, which stops any of the
characters having an overall believable character arc. And even in "The
Underground", there are some very misguided ideas - Garrison Kane's
sacrifice is both undermotivated and an unintentionally hilarious
visual.
Still, with a change of control at the Weapon X project, and a line
drawn under most of the storylines to date, Tieri has established a
workable starting point. I still have grave reservations about this
book - I don't really wish to see any more of Mr Sinister, and I
certainly question the tastefulness of having him appear in a take-off
of Schindler's List in issue #14.
It's still not great by any means, but it's improved to the point where
it's just rather bland. Perhaps, with the benefit of a clean break from
past storylines, it can do better in 2004.
------------
WOLVERINE vol 2 #185-189
WOLVERINE vol 3 #1-9
THE CREATORS: Frank Tieri and Sean Chen start out as the creative team,
but Chen ends with issue #185 and Tieri leaves after issue #186. Some
fill-ins by Daniel Way and assorted artists round off the series. After
the relaunch, Greg Rucka writes, with Darick Robertson on the first
storyline and Leandro Fernandez on the second.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Four.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The tail end of Tieri's crime story; that
unforgivably bad issue with the Punisher; a string of fill-ins by Daniel
Way; "The Brotherhood" (the cult storyline); and "Coyote Crossing" (the
one about Mexican immigrants).
At the beginning of 2003, Wolverine was still being written by Frank
Tieri. Any look back at the year would not be complete without drawing
your attention to the regrettable issue #186, in which Tieri attempted
to answer Wolverine's hilarious abuse at the hands of Garth Ennis over
in Punisher. Result: a pointless fight scene, with the pay-off that the
Punisher likes gay porn. An utterly hopeless and self-indulgent waste
of paper, if ever there was one.
Anyway, by that point Wolverine was scheduled for a relaunch during the
year, so the old title saw out the remaining months with a string of
fill-ins by Daniel Way. Taking the traditional fill-in route, Way wrote
a bunch of stories in which everything revolves around new characters
introduced for the purpose. However, Way took that approach to unusual
extremes by omitting Wolverine almost completely. They're actually not
too bad as stories, but perhaps a little unsatisfactory as Wolverine
stories.
The relaunch under Greg Rucka and Darick Robertson has gone for a back
to basics approach. Wolverine is the hard man who stumbles upon
injustice and sorts it out, through the time honoured means of beating
the shit out of people. It's kind of a return to core values of
Wolverine as relentless, violent tracker.
Fair enough, but the results have been a little underwhelming. Rucka
hasn't yet produced any satisfactory antagonists. There's a general
feeling of seeing Wolverine going through his usual routine against an
assortment of people who haven't got a hope. A subplot with Cassie
Lathrop adds a degree of interest, but unfortunately this hasn't proved
to be among Rucka's stronger work. It's still good, but it doesn't live
up to the standards we know he's capable of.
Darick Robertson went back to the short, hairy look for Wolverine, only
to be rapidly informed of the importance of Hugh Jackman to Wolverine's
look in the twenty-first century. Personally, I prefer Robertson's take
on the character, who really should look more animalistic than he's
usually allowed to these days.
Rucka is another writer who's decamping to DC for an exclusive deal,
although he's honouring his existing commitment to Marvel by writing the
scripts they already ordered. That should keep him on this book,
Winick-style, until sometime during 2004; no word yet of what's
happening after that, but presumably we'll hear something in the course
of the upcoming relaunch of the X-books.
Disappointing considering the high expectations that attach to a
Rucka/Robertson project. But still a huge improvement on what came
before it.
------------
X-MEN UNLIMITED #40-50
THE CREATORS: Various
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: Assorted stories of little consequence.
X-Men Unlimited was cancelled in July, but that didn't stop Marvel from
finding time to release eleven issues. This begs the question: why?
This book started as a quarterly, along with a bunch of other Unlimited
titles long since lost in the mists of time. Nobody ever seemed all
that clear what it was for. It survived the cancellation of its
brethren because it was selling quite well, but nobody knew what it was
for. It became an anthology for a while, but still nobody seemed to
have much idea what the point was meant to be. And in 2003 it started
spraying out issues at an incredible rate - without ever really making
it apparent what the point was meant to be.
Hands up anyone who can remember anything from a 2003 issue of X-Men
Unlimited. Anyone?
The final issue, which had a story by the creator of Lone Wolf & Cub.
Fair point. Wasn't a very good story, though, was it? The
Claremont/Sienkiewicz New Mutants reunion? Okay, yes. But again, it
wasn't exactly blow-away stuff. Five Chuck Austen stories? Yes, god
knows we needed more of them.
There's quite a good Nightcrawler story by Bill Willingham in issue #49,
I guess. And some oddball curios - Adam Warren doing a Psylocke story,
and Mike Allred pastiching A Hard Day's Night. But why? What's the
point?
When X-Men Unlimited was unceremoniously axed - after the final issue
had shipped - it seemed an eminently sensible decision. The title had
always seemed like an endless quest to fill pages, rather than a vehicle
for deserving stories that didn't fit anywhere else. Incredibly,
however, it's being brought back next year.
The 2004 version is slightly different, and emerges from the ashes of
the Epic imprint. It will supposedly be bimonthly vehicle for new
talent. Given the difficulty that Marvel had in filling it the first
time round, you will forgive my scepticism that it's going to get any
better now that it's the province of novices.
No doubt it'll produce the occasional decent story. It always has. But
the strike rate has never been all that good, and I wouldn't bet on it
improving.
------------
X-STATIX #7-17
THE CREATORS: Writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: One.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The latter half of "Moons of Venus" (the Bad Guy
storyline); the introduction of El Guapo; Edie's diary; Dead Girl's solo
story; and the Not Diana fiasco.
X-Statix has had a very strange year indeed. Only eleven issues in
2003, by the way, but that's because the book was on hold for two months
while the Wolverine/Doop miniseries came out.
The first half of the year proceeded along normal X-Statix lines - a
mixture of satirical humour, metatextual awareness, and actual
characters. A lot of the skill in this series lies in how it makes the
characters strangely believable even though, at the same time, it's
bending over backwards to remind you of how ludicrous and contrived it
is. After all, perhaps the strongest issue this year was Edie's diary
flashback in issue #10 - one of Milligan's most conventional stories,
which shows how the characters really do stand up in their own right.
But that's not the real story for X-Statix in 2003, of course.
The big story is the chaotic mess surrounding the Diana storyline, "Di
Another Day." The big idea was that Princess Diana would come back from
the dead, and join X-Statix. They would then be stuck with somebody
even more popular than they are - naturally, a situation which they
could never live with. This would have fitted in perfectly well with
the tone and themes of the book; it would also, naturally, be a
deliberate piece of controversy-baiting.
And so, having commissioned a deliberately controversial story, and put
out a press release because they knew how controversial it was, Marvel
then decided not to publish it, because it was too controversial.
Apparently it came to the attention of people much higher up in the
organisation who were deeply unimpressed.
The result has been the redacted version of the storyline, "Back From
The Dead" - a spastic piece of writing in which early chapters are
chaotically revised to remove Diana and substitute her for a different
character, while at the same time making it blindingly obvious that
she's meant to be Diana. (Her favourite charities are AIDS, landmines
and bulimia, for christ's sake.)
As the story staggers towards its conclusion, Milligan and Allred have
stopped paying any attention to Henrietta at all. She's entirely
marginalised in this week's issue, leaving the plot to focus on
X-Statix' unfortunate history of selling weapons of mass destruction to
Saddam Hussein, and the subplot about random killings which obvious
echoes the Washington Sniper.
Because you can make jokes about the Iraq war and the Washington sniper,
you see. That's okay, because they just killed anonymous people, who
don't really count. But making jokes about Our Lady in Versace isn't
allowed. That would be tasteless, because she was on TV lots.
Marginalising Dianrietta has at least allowed the series to get back on
course, but inevitably the whole mess has dragged the book into
difficult territory and damaged the quality of the work. Hopefully in
2004 it can get back in its stride.
------------
X-TREME X-MEN #20-38
THE CREATORS: Chris Claremont continues to write. Salvador Larroca
pencils through to issue #24, after which Igor Kordey takes over.
THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: "Schism" (the one with the boy taking refuge at
the X-Men's school); Cannonball rejoins the team; "God Loves Man Kills
II" ties in with the movie; "Intifada" (the one with the humans being
driven out of a town); and three-quarters of "Storm: The Arena."
No, you're not seeing things. They really did ship nineteen issues of
X-Treme X-Men in 2003.
And in fact, this hasn't been a bad year for the book. It's been a
while since I've had much enthusiasm for Chris Claremont's writing - he
was fantastic in the 1980s, of course, but his "Revolution" run on
Uncanny X-Men and X-Men was a mess. Early issues of X-Treme X-Men
weren't much better.
But in the last year, Claremont has hit his stride again, up to a point.
Rather than trying to ignore what's going on with the rest of the
X-books so that he can do his own thing, he's hit on a set-up that he
seems comfortable with. X-Treme X-Men isn't really an X-Men title at
all, but a spin-off book using the X-Men name. (And the orders suggest
that's how most retailers see it, too.) Previously, it seemed to be a
team which existed solely to give Chris Claremont something to write
about. Now, they've been repositioned as the team who reject the
changes brought about by Grant Morrison, on political rather than
nostalgic grounds. As a team of dissident refuseniks, they actually
have a persuasive reason to exist for the first time.
"Schism", which guest starred the New X-Men cast, was actually pretty
good, and got decent mileage out of the tension between the two books.
More recently, "Intifada" hasn't been so successful. But at least it had
the right idea, and was raising some interesting questions.
To tie in with the movie, the book ended up doing a sequel to "God
Loves, Man Kills". It didn't need a sequel, and the story that we got
made somewhat awkward by attempts to tie in with the movie - Lady
Deathstrike is shoehorned in, for example. Still, it was a perfectly
readable story.
Artist Salvador Larroca was yanked off the book - by most accounts, very
much against his will - in order to work on Bill Jemas' ill-advised
Namor series. That left Igor Kordey to replace him, a drastic style
shift which was never going to go down well with all the book's fans.
Personally, I prefer Kordey's work; there's something about Larroca's
costume designs which is just plain silly, if you ask me.
At the moment, the book is in the middle of serialising "The Arena", a
story by Claremont and Kordey which was originally meant to be a Storm
graphic novel. Unfortunately, it's really quite bad - a pile-up of
ideas and themes that Claremont has done much better before. This is a
story that has been in the works for ages and hopefully just represents
a throwback to the dodgier work Claremont was producing a couple of
years back; I'd hate to think that he was relapsing.
With Claremont moving over to Uncanny, there has to be a question mark
over the future of this title, and whether there's still a call for it.
No doubt everything will fall into place once we see what direction the
line is taking, post-Morrison.
------------
Finally, the miniseries that shipped in 2003. The good news is that
there weren't nearly as many as in 2002. The bad news is that the hit
rate still wasn't great.
DOMINO was commissioned ages ago and was originally announced for autumn
2001 before being shelved for almost two years. Quite why it finally
emerged in 2003 is anyone's guess. Presumably Marvel figured that they
might as well try and recover the costs. Released with almost no
publicity, Domino was a curious book that had a bafflingly complex and
often silly plot. (I mean, Armajesuits?!) However, it did have some
lovely, stylised art from Brian Stelfreeze, so at least it was nice to
look at.
Dodgy Wolverine miniseries, number one: HULK / WOLVERINE: 6 HOURS. The
Hulk and Wolverine meet up in a Canadian forest by sheer coincidence and
must join forces to save a boy who's been bitten by a snake. Meanwhile,
a villain chases them around, looking like the result of a Cobra
Commander figure that was left too close to the fire. The gimmick was
supposed to be real time. Of course, that's completely meaningless in
comics, where there is no time.
Marvel produced several MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF GUS BEEZER one-shots by
Gail Simone and Jason Lethcoe. They're strange books - a combination of
all-ages humour and superhero primer. I liked them a lot. They were
charming and funny, even if the audience might have been on the small
side. No doubt somebody will exhume Gus in ten years time in order to
show off their extensive knowledge of continuity...
MEKANIX was Chris Claremont's Shadowcat miniseries, running over from
2002. It had some very nice art from Juan Bobillo, and it certainly had
its moments. Not many people bought it, which was a little surprising.
Quite entertaining on an issue-by-issue basis, it reads rather oddly as
a whole - the first half of the series is all about anti-mutant bigots,
and then in the second half the Sentinels show up and take over the
series. The plot from the first half is largely forgotten. Okay, but
not spectacular.
Dodgy Wolverine miniseries, number two: SPIDER-MAN / WOLVERINE. Well, it
must have seemed like a good idea to somebody. Spider-Man and Wolverine
run around and fight people. Things happen for no particular reason,
and at the end, there's a "hilarious" twist explaining the framing
sequence. Really quite poor. Looks nice, though.
In the Ultimate line, they don't have crossovers. Instead, they have
miniseries like ULTIMATE WAR. Much better for trade paperbacks. This
is an Ultimate X-Men and Ultimates crossover by Mark Millar and Chris
Bachalo. It starts off pretty well, and then halfway through you get
the sinking realisation that it's not actually heading anywhere - it's
all just a set-up for "Return of the King" in Ultimate X-Men. Fine if
you wanted to see a nice big fight between the X-Men and the Ultimates.
A bit disappointing, otherwise.
Dodgy Wolverine miniseries, number three: WOLVERINE / DOOP. Perhaps I
should be kind and call it "enigmatic." But to be honest, this was a
bit of a misfire. Wolverine and Doop run around in a deliberately
insane and impenetrable plot, trying to track down the Pink Mink. Much
as I like Peter Milligan, this was just too damned weird for its own
good. If anyone out there actually has a clue what the point was
supposed to be, do let me know.
Dodgy Wolverine miniseries, number four: WOLVERINE: SNIKT!. It sounds
like a good idea on paper - get a top manga artist to do a Wolverine
story, and see if you can bridge those audiences. The result is an
utterly pointless five-issue fight in the far future which isn't going
to win anyone over to manga, and has nothing whatsoever to do with
Wolverine. Initial solicitations suggested a vastly different plot
which would in fact have been more specific to Wolverine, so god only
know what was going on backstage with this one. It was rubbish, anyway.
Dodgy Wolverine miniseries, number five: WOLVERINE: THE END. A bookend
to Origin covering Wolverine's final days. Only had one issue out so
far, so it's really too early to judge, but I wasn't much impressed.
Somebody really needs to tell artist Claudio Castellini that Wolverine
is not a tall man with a mullet. Issue #1 did sell very well, however.
So as with Origin, it might turn out to be a sales juggernaut where I'm
in the minority...
Dodgy Wolverine miniseries, number six: WOLVERINE: X-ISLE. Christ, this
sucked. Wolverine wakes up on an island and goes round and round in
circles having hallucinations as he tries to get off it. Eventually it
turns out that he dumped himself there because he felt really guilty
about letting down his foster daughter. And the boy symbolises his
inner child. It's REALLY DEEP. Or at least, it thinks it is. It's
actually dreadful, pretentious crap.
Where there's a movie, there's a tie-in. Hence, the two X-MEN 2
PREQUELS. In the interests of balance, let it be noted that Chuck
Austen wrote the Nightcrawler one, and it was really quite good. The
Wolverine one tries to square two very different versions of Sabretooth,
and ends up making a bit of a mess. Still, not bad for tie-ins, all
told.
And then, the Mangaverse. I gave up reading X-MEN: RONIN after two
issues because I was so bored by it. I didn't even touch the other
X-Men Mangaverse series, X-Men: Phoenix, because the covers were so
embarrassing. (Okay, I flicked through issue #1 in the store, and it
looked every bit as bad as I was expecting, so I put it straight back.)
The Mangaverse appears to have quietly died a death, judging from the
solicitations. If these were any indication of what it had to offer,
then I certainly won't miss it.
------------
And that's 2003. The next year, of course, is completely up in the air
at the moment, until we find out what's happening after Grant Morrison
moves on. Expect announcements in the new year on that one.
Over at Ninth Art, you might want to read my most recent column. I'd
also direct your attention to the Committee for the Prevention of
Sequential Mediocrity and their review of the worst of mainstream comics
in 2003. http://www.ninthart.com
As for next week, there aren't any X-books due out. I'll probably do a
couple of random reviews anyway, though...
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
ARTICLE 10 - http://www.ninthart.com
LIVEJOURNAL - http://www.livejournal.com/~paulobrien
Flash 01
Excellent recap on the year.
Of all the X-Men "spin-off" titles I think I have actually enjoyed
Mystique the most. I came to it late but once I discovered it I was
actually very impressed by the quality of the series. And it's
definitely one of the most "fun" comics I've read in quite some time.
I'm hoping more fans will give this one a try. Perhaps once the first
trade appears that will prompt more readers to give the series a look.
Wolverine and New Mutants also made it onto my pull lists in 2003 and,
in general, I've been pleased with both titles. This is a version of
Wolverine that I think a lot of us have been craving for a while now and
certainly quite a departure from the yellow spandex/Jubilee days of old.
But I really think the more realistic approach to the character works
much better.
New Mutants has been something of a dissapointment. I've enjoyed the
series but I would have preferred to see the series concentrate more on
existing characters than making the attempt to create new ones. There's
something about this series that, for whatever reason, puts me in mind
of DC's latest Doom Patrol attempt. If we must get new characters though
at least we could get some slightly more interesting ones. I'm more
interesting in the "adult" versions of the original New Mutants team
than the new students we've been presented with so far. But this title
seems less interested in rebooting the New Mutants as we once knew them
than in attempting to cash in on the teen manga audience, such as it may
be. Why not just call it "Superhero High" and be done with it? But if I
sound overly critical here, I don't mean to--as stated I _have_ enjoyed
the series for what it is, but still feel that this is somewhat less of
a relaunch as a "reimagining."
I have to agree on two other points: New X-Men has indeed been (once
again) the flagship title for the franchise. It will be interesting to
see what happens not just with this title, but with the X-Men franchise
as a whole, once Morrison departs. And the other point: Uncanny X-Men
has been absolutely horrible. And I'm one of those who, in the
beginning, actually was optimistic about Austen. I was willing to give
him the benefit of the doubt right up until the Holy War fiasco and it's
pretty much been downhill from there. I truly hope Claremont is able to
elevate the title but his placement on the series seems to me to be more
of a publicity move than anything else. Time will tell, I suppose. After
the past year, I'm certainly willing to give him a chance.
teepee
"Paul O'Brien" <pa...@SPAMBLOCK.esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote
> THE X-AXIS REVIEW OF 2003: PART ONE
And so it's the time of year where we all thank Paul for the entertainment
and taste pointers that have guided us unerringly through the last 12
months. Salut.
~consul
> still take him over Austen. Alarmingly, rumour has it that Austen will
> be getting an ongoing Nightcrawler series. The mind boggles. The idea
I could see Austen trying to redeem himself. Maybe he can still tie it in by
doing a sort of ... "The Order" or like the other movies that have secret orders
of the clergy (or clergy in training) investigating miracles or other
ecclesiaccal themes. The tv show "Miracles", with Skeet Ulrich and Angus
McFaddyn, is what I'm thinking of.
> X-MEN UNLIMITED #40-50
> The 2004 version is slightly different, and emerges from the ashes of
> the Epic imprint. It will supposedly be bimonthly vehicle for new
> talent. Given the difficulty that Marvel had in filling it the first
> time round, you will forgive my scepticism that it's going to get any
> better now that it's the province of novices.
I agree with you, but I think we still need a AAA league playing area for our
xbooks. I think it will be a good idea to try out some new writers on these
little bits, before we let them work on the big stuff. It seems fair.
--
There is a significant difference between being 'dignified and understanding'
about those who disagree, and 'not caring essentially about the other dregs of
society'
-till next time, Jameson Stalanthas Yu -x- <<poetry.dolphins-cove.com>>
con...@INVALIDdolphins-cove.com ((remove the INVALID to email))