Dave's X-Rant Sept 15: Xcalibur, Uncanny
Dave Van Domelen
Excalibur #70
X-Men #305
Whee....spoilerspace.
Excalibur: Well, Fang II dies in less than 5 pages from her introduction.
Well, now we know the gender of Cerise's friend...it was not at all clear last
issue. And, of course, she has Plot Device Powers. Lashley's art is somewhat
better than last issue's, but is too strongly reminiscent of early Liefeld for
my tastes. And where the hell did Kurt's torso go on page 6? Yep, Feron
(misspelled Ferron) is now sucked into the "Not A Mutant So We Can Him" void in
preparation for next issue's Binding Spell to make this a full X-Book. I have
one major problem with this explanation of Cerise's origin. If she was so
ashamed of her crewmates, why did she proudly announce her membership in the
Ghrand Jhar back in #46? And, of course, Cerise is now sucked out of the book
by a "To Catch a Thief" ploy, further reducing the nonmutant population. Scum.
Hmm. Next issue Lashley will be ripping off Jim Lee.
Uncanny X-Men: Okay, I liked Opal telling Bobby off. I really liked his
line "To tell the truth, it kind of..." Of course, it is a contextual joke.
Duursema seems not to like the Jim Lee-ized spiky Iceman style, and has
smoothed him out again. On the title page, he's spiky and has his hair
fluttering about, but by page 8 is back to the Classic Iceman look. Umm,
shouldn't have Rogue's costume held her in much as the dude's armor did? I
mean, its not like she burst out of it, it's back when she 'powers down'.
Well, at least now Rogue knows exactly why Bishop hates Gambit's guts. The
whole AntiMag suit thing seems to be a maguffin just to get Storm to break and
enter again, raising some Angst and providing a cheap way to retell her origin.
I still don't like the Mutant Underground...a vast organization with a
loooong backstory, suddenly sprung on us.
Dave Van Domelen, Oh yeah, Cameron Hodge is back....
Paul M. Liss
> Uncanny X-Men: Okay, I liked Opal telling Bobby off. I really liked his
>line "To tell the truth, it kind of..." Of course, it is a contextual joke.
>Duursema seems not to like the Jim Lee-ized spiky Iceman style, and has
>smoothed him out again. On the title page, he's spiky and has his hair
The whole bit about making Iceman Spiky was in "Moorlocks take Manhattan"
which was in Uncanny X-Men. Jim Lee did not draw that.
FLAMES ON!
It bothers me when people slam an artist for something in a book in which
the artist didn't participate! I realize that Jim Lee bashing is in
vogue, but make sure that you're bashing Jim Lee! In any case, I think
that the reason Iceman got spiky was because it was written in that he
could take better advantage of his power if he was MADE of ice. Please
take a look back. Mikhail Rasputin does the honors. Don't blame the
artist for drawing what he/she was told to!
FLAMES OFF!!
--
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
David R. Henry
I'm surprised it took him this long to bounce back. He's usually ahead
of such things.
"See? The shade of the lamp was Grant's head!"
--
David R. Henry -- Rogue Fan Club - THE RED SHOES is coming! Ia, Kate Bush!
Obessa Cantauit. -- Richard Darwin // What was the question? -- Kate Bush
"All you of Earth are IDIOTS!"-P9fOS // Thanks... for the memories.--Rogue
dhe...@plains.nodak.edu * Evolution: Give it some time, it'll grow on ya.
Kevin Decker
> Dave Van Domelen, Oh yeah, Cameron Hodge is back....
Oh yeah, Cameron Hodge is back....Oh fu*k!!!!!!!(deep breath)
As you can see the X-Men are going to be in serious sh#@! But as you can
tell that's going to another limited series, another $ 7.00 for the whole
series..... cheep college students have no money when they need it.
--
"We must preveil...good bye senator, Mutant Liberation is at hand!"
-Magneto
--
"What are you doing?" -General
"Swatting a Gnat" -Magneto
Dave Van Domelen
Liss) writes:
>In article <278n19$5...@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> dva...@magnus.acs.ohi
o-state.edu (Dave Van Domelen) writes:
>>Duursema seems not to like the Jim Lee-ized spiky Iceman style, and has
>>smoothed him out again. On the title page, he's spiky and has his hair
>
>which was in Uncanny X-Men. Jim Lee did not draw that.
Morlocks, if you want to be so picky. And I didn't say explicitly that
Jim Lee drew it (I can't offhand recall if it was Whilce or Raney who drew the
actual issue), rather that it was Jim Lee-ized. That refers to a whole family
of artists who draw like Jim does.
>FLAMES ON!
Won't that melt Bobby?
>
>It bothers me when people slam an artist for something in a book in which
>the artist didn't participate! I realize that Jim Lee bashing is in
>vogue, but make sure that you're bashing Jim Lee!
Um, you better be sure I'm bashing in the first place. I was merely
commenting that Duursema didn't seem to like the spiky style, since she (I
think Jan is a she...) 'wrote it out' so quickly. Obviously Lobdell hasn't
eliminated it, since Iceman refers to his powers really going.
In any case, I think
>that the reason Iceman got spiky was because it was written in that he
>could take better advantage of his power if he was MADE of ice. Please
>take a look back. Mikhail Rasputin does the honors. Don't blame the
>artist for drawing what he/she was told to!
A: Being made of ice is totally contradictory to Iceman's original power
concept, and is a rather extreme retcon. Mikhail's abuse of Bobby's genetic
structure may have later consequences (perhaps he will have become immune to
the Plague and a cure can be based on him or something. }->).
B: Actually, it does seem that in this case, the artist didn't do what she
was told, not for long anyway. No plot/script reason was given for Bobby
smoothing out, but Jan did it anyway. That, really, was the crux of my initial
observation, that the artist seemed to be taking the plot into her hands.
>FLAMES OFF!!
Hey, Dhenry...these guys always so quick to flame at the hint of
artist-bashing? }->
Dave Van Domelen, personally thinks the new Iceman look is alot less
boring than the old, but the reasoning behind it is specious (even when utterly
cranked by Loki he still didn't go spiky)....
David R. Henry
>>FLAMES OFF!!
>
> Hey, Dhenry...these guys always so quick to flame at the hint of
>artist-bashing? }->
I think we've been made the preliminaries for the Olympic Events of
Directed Flaming: talk.abortion, alt.athiesm, and so on. (As opposed to
the Purposeless Flaming of, say, alt.bad.clams or alt.flame). There's been
some concerns that Jennifer has been spiking her thesaurus with steroids,
which could eliminate her from the Asinine Put-Down 50 Meter Spit-Draw,
but we're waiting for a ruling from Cowling Central before we start worrying.
> Dave Van Domelen, personally thinks the new Iceman look is alot less
>boring than the old, but the reasoning behind it is specious (even when utterly
>cranked by Loki he still didn't go spiky)....
I don't mind that Bobby is coating himself with spiky ice. I mean, if he can
make ice walls, he can do that. I do mind the idea that he's been changed
that he now _becomes_ ice. There have been enough changes for the hell of
it in the X-titles lately; adding more powers to a character at the cost of
character development does not a good plot make.
"Where do these people come from? Is there an agency out there that reads the
Net and says "oops, not enough morons on this newsgroup" and then assigns some
slack-jawed inbred grit-eatin' stooge to gum up the works?"
--Jim Cowling
Paul M. Liss
>In article <27adr9$d...@samba.oit.unc.edu> Paul...@launchpad.unc.edu (Paul M.
>Liss) writes:
>>In article <278n19$5...@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> dva...@magnus.acs.ohi
>o-state.edu (Dave Van Domelen) writes:
>>>Duursema seems not to like the Jim Lee-ized spiky Iceman style, and has
>>
>
> Morlocks, if you want to be so picky. And I didn't say explicitly that
>Jim Lee drew it (I can't offhand recall if it was Whilce or Raney who drew the
>actual issue), rather that it was Jim Lee-ized. That refers to a whole family
>of artists who draw like Jim does.
I don't understand how you can say that making Iceman look spiky (i.e. he
looks really stupid, I think we all agree on that... )is Jim Lee-ized.
I've never seen him draw Psylocke, or Scott, or Jean, or Jubilee, or Peter
Or Prof X or any X-man spiky. Whilce did not draw the actual issue, but I
would say that he does draw things spiky. Look at Archangel's wings, or
anyone's hair, or those little spiky guys that used to follow Apocalypse
before Stryfe kicked his butt..
> A: Being made of ice is totally contradictory to Iceman's original power
>concept, and is a rather extreme retcon. Mikhail's abuse of Bobby's genetic
>structure may have later consequences (perhaps he will have become immune to
>the Plague and a cure can be based on him or something. }->).
> B: Actually, it does seem that in this case, the artist didn't do what she
>was told, not for long anyway. No plot/script reason was given for Bobby
>smoothing out, but Jan did it anyway. That, really, was the crux of my initial
>observation, that the artist seemed to be taking the plot into her hands.
A: I'm not very familiar with the character Iceman. I've read U-Xmen
since 180 or so. Plus some graphic novels here and there.
Seems reasonable that a 70% H2o being could turn himself into Ice. ??
B: I see him as spiky once in UX #305. Only because I looked closely. I
don't see Jim Lee art in here, anywhere.
> Hey, Dhenry...these guys always so quick to flame at the hint of
>artist-bashing?
The artist who drew the issue in question, sucked. At first I thought
Iceman might have been spiky because the of artist's liscence. I will
flame bad artists. I don't consider Lee or Whilce bad artists.
> Dave Van Domelen, personally thinks the new Iceman look is alot less
>boring than the old, but the reasoning behind it is specious (even when utterly
>cranked by Loki he still didn't go spiky)....
Agreed.