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THE X-AXIS
7 September 2003
================
For more links, cover art, archived reviews, and information on the
X-Axis mailing list, visit http://www.thexaxis.com
------------
This week:
EXILES #33 - "A Second Farewell, part 1 of 2"
by Judd Winick and Tom Mandrake
NEW MUTANTS #4 - "Freaks & Geeks"
by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, Keron Grant, Rob Stull and
Rich Perotta
NEW X-MEN #145 - "Assault on Weapon Plus, part 4 of 4: The Devil"
by Grant Morrison, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Al Vey and Aaron
Sowd
SENTINEL #6 - "Salvage, part 6"
by Sean McKeever and Udon
UNCANNY X-MEN #430 - "The Draco, part II of VI"
by Chuck Austen and Philip Tan
CRIMSON DYNAMO #1 - "Old Toys"
by John Jackson Miller and Steve Ellis
JLA/AVENGERS #1 - "A Journey Into Mystery"
by Kurt Busiek and George Perez
TRANSFORMERS / GI JOE #1 - "The Line"
by John Ney Reiber and Jae Lee
------------
EXILES #33 is billed as part 1 of a two-part story called "A Second
Farewell", which is odd, since it appears to be entirely self-contained.
Since the set-up here is to split the Exiles up, and do a story with
only Sasquatch and Morph, I assume the plan must be to do some kind of
parallel story with the other members of the cast in issue #34.
It's a basic plot which doubles as an opportunity to fill in some of
Sasquatch's back story. She and Morph blunder into the aftermath of
Wolverine's escape from Weapon X, and not surprisingly he attacks on
sight, because he's nuts. The heroes spend most of the issue trying to
get away from him, until Sasquatch manages to calm him down. The big
revelation, if they count as such in this book, is that in Sasquatch's
home timeline, Wolverine was her first husband and she killed him after
he went nuts.
All of that back story is shoehorned into a three page flashback. That's
fine for a recap but insanely dense for something which is meant to be
the key events of a main character's life. I always get the sense from
Exiles that Winick is more interesting in sketching out some ideas that
it might be fun to write, rather than actually writing them. Maybe it'd
be a nice idea to deviate from the format once in a while and do some
flashback stories set in the characters' home timeline, in order to set
up material like this in a less awkward way.
Still, the hunting sequences are quite well written, and guest artist
Tom Mandrake turns in some very good panels of Sasquatch and Wolverine -
though there are a few really clunky moments, especially in the
flashback, in a very inconsistent art job. The finish is perhaps a
little corny, but Winick and Mandrake do pull it off.
I can't move on without noting that this issue poses a few more glitches
with the recent fill-in issues. Given that Sasquatch saw Morph
reattaching his severed body parts in that storyline, it's a little odd
that he's needing to deliver exposition on the subject here. Moreover,
you might have thought Sasquatch would have reacted a little more
strongly to being around her ex-husband; if anything, that storyline
would have been a great point to lay the groundwork for this issue,
though admittedly there are editing practicalities in moving story
elements around like that.
A perfectly okay issue, anyway. I'll be interested to see what appears
in the next issue to justify the "part 1 of 2" tag.
Rating: B
LINKS:
http://www.marvel.com
http://www.frumpy.com (Judd Winick)
http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/tommandrake/
------------
Issue #4, and NEW MUTANTS is still in its recruitment storyline. As
you'd imagine, there's a definite risk of this initial run degenerating
into formula, and while they changed the format slightly in issue #2 by
focussing on a character who was already in the school, that feeling of
formula is definitely back in effect here.
This month's newcomer is David Alleyne, who has one of those low-key
powers that's obviously very useful without immediately lending itself
to superhero stories. But then, New Mutants isn't really a superhero
book - at least, it certainly hasn't been thus far - so that's not
necessarily a problem. David has the power to know everything that the
people around him know, although this seems to be restricted to
learning, talent and general knowledge rather than details of their
personal lives. Which begs a practical question of where exactly you
draw the line, but I suppose it's a workable distinction for most
purposes.
Frankly, David's origin story isn't all that dramatic. He's a diligent
student, because if he doesn't learn things properly, the knowledge
fades again. The anti-mutant thugs find out where he lives, so he
changes his mind and goes off to join the school. And that's really it.
Fortunately, David's been located in Chicago, which means that Dani also
gets to drop in on Karma and bring her back to the school. The issue
does rather better when it's focussing on that side of the plot, and it
helps that DeFilippis and Weir are the first writers in years to give
Karma's siblings any sort of personality. Their made-up game is set up
entertainingly enough that it doesn't read like a set-up, which makes
for a fun pay-off at the end.
This being 2003, we're now allowed to just come out and say that Karma's
a lesbian, without having to drop heavy-handed hints by relocating her
to Greenwich Village and giving her a makeover. The script takes a
rather more circuitous approach to suggesting that Karma is attracted to
Kitty Pryde - an odd idea to include given that Kitty's been assigned to
the supporting cast of X-Treme X-Men, so there's no real prospect of
following it up. She's not even in this issue, presumably because she's
meant to be off appearing in that book's recent "God Loves Man Kills II"
storyline.
DeFilippis and Weir seem to have a decent handle on Karma's character,
and I'm happy to see her being brought back into a regular cast. Unless
I'm very much mistaken, Karma hasn't been on the core cast of any X-book
since she quit the original New Mutants, and that was about 15 years
ago. I'm less sold on David, who seems a rather bland character so far
- he's a nice enough guy, but with no real points that hold my interest
for the future.
Artist Keron Grant is moving on at the end of the storyline, which is
good news all round. He always seems at his happiest when he's drawing
dynamic action sequences. This is a conversation book, and quite
honestly, Grant seems bored out of his mind. For the most part, he's
not that great at the more subtle character work which is necessarily to
breathe visual life into the story, and the result is a very bland
looking comic. Nor is he getting much opportunity to show off his
strengths. This seems to have been a horrible piece of miscasting.
Overall, an okay issue - but this set-up phase is really going on for
longer than it should.
Rating: B
------------
According to the title, NEW X-MEN #145 is the final part of "Assault On
Weapon Plus." But, as Grant Morrison often points out in interviews, he
doesn't actually write in arcs any more. What we've actually hit is the
break point at the end of the next trade paperback. And since it ends
on a cliffhanger, the people who are reading the series in six-monthly
instalments are going to be really annoyed. Ah well.
This issue takes Fantomex, Wolverine and Cyclops up to the Weapon Plus
orbiting satellite, which by a happy coincidence is shortly to go live
and make a bid of the global destruction of the entire mutant gene-line.
Weapon XV, who went flying up to the satellite at the end of the
previous issue, promptly lies down and accepts what the Weapon Plus
people tell him, as is his wont. So it's up to Fantomex and the X-Men
to get rid of them - though Wolverine's more interested in reading the
computer files.
I suppose I should mention the obvious objection to this story. Given
that Fantomex' plan is to blow up a manned space station, presumably
killing everyone aboard, it's a little odd that neither Wolverine nor
(especially) Cyclops seems to object. In fact, Cyclops is perfectly
happy to play along. It's an odd thing to just gloss over.
We don't actually get to see all of the Weapon Plus files, but it does
indeed appear that Morrison is trying to cement them as a power behind
the throne for all of the various North American government-sponsored
super soldier projects that have turned up over the years. Captain
America is indeed established as Weapon One (with a throwaway reference
to a Weapon Zero presumably accounting for Truth: Red White & Black).
In a curious nod to continuity from a different series altogether, it
appears that Nuke was a product of the Weapon Nine Project. I suppose
it does make a kind of sense to tie these various projects together,
although quite what the earlier ones have got to do with anti-mutant
sentiment is far from clear.
Meanwhile, Morrison's pet theme of metafiction rears its head.
Basically, the Weapon Plus Program's plan turns out to be to create a
loyal JLA of Super-Sentinels who'll be the marketable, acceptable face
of genocide. All of them have been carefully designed to fit obligatory
genre roles, and the general implication is that Fantomex is an attempt
at Batman gone horribly awry. If you thought that the story was trying
too hard to sell you on the idea of Fantomex's inherent coolness then...
well, it seems that may have been precisely the point.
It reads a little oddly for characters who live in a world of
superheroes to talk about the Super-Sentinels as "scripted" characters,
and as a "Saturday morning cartoon come to life." But that's how the
Weapon Plus Program - as represented by Sublime - insist on talking.
The idea of fictional characters having some degree of reality and
autonomy is one of Morrison's pet ideas, and I have a suspicion that we
may be about to take a headlong dive into this area.
Regardless, despite my reservations, we're getting into some interesting
territory here. And it's got a good old-fashioned cliffhanger to boot.
Rating: A-
LINKS:
http://www.grantmorrison.com
------------
SENTINEL reaches the end of its first storyline, "Salvage." To be
honest, it hasn't been selling all that well, but it's getting another
few issues regardless. Hopefully it'll do better in the trade paperback
market, although unless Marvel package the things properly, I have my
doubts about the Tsunami books' prospects.
Anyhow, the big idea of this issue is that Juston did indeed have a plan
beyond just sending in the Sentinel to kill everyone. The big idea was
for it to pose as a threat so that he could then run in and defeat it to
become the hero of the day. Nice and simple.
And the twist? Well, the twist is that it works. He gets away with it.
Completely. End of arc 1.
Or not quite, since Juston's left with the nagging feeling that this may
have been a dreadful miscalculation. Not only has he scared the hell
out of everyone, but he's now getting adulation which he obviously
doesn't deserve. And, of course, there's a killer robot in the shed,
which somebody's bound to discover in the end. Sean McKeever writes all
this rather well - Juston doesn't require anything more than seeing
other people's reactions to get the hint that he's just traded in one
problem for a much, much bigger one that's now looming some way down the
road.
And with that, the book finishes setting up its status quo. The next
couple of storylines seem to be scheduled for shorter runs, so hopefully
we can now pick up the pace a little bit and get a sense of where
McKeever's going to head with the whole mess.
The book's got a lovely cover but I'm starting to have my doubts about
Udon's work on the Sentinel itself. It really does look unbelievably
cumbersome, without ever truly giving the impression of being a
makeshift collection of recycled parts. But they do a great job with
Juston, and his awkward frustration at the way his plan has intangibly
failed.
Good book. The first trade is due out at the beginning of November, by
the way.
Rating: B+
LINKS:
http://www.seanmckeever.com
http://www.udoncomics.com
------------
I'll skip quickly over UNCANNY X-MEN #430, since this is only part two
of a six-parter and there's not a great amount to add to what I said
when I reviewed the previous issue.
With this issue, the theme of the storyline becomes glaringly obvious.
Nightcrawler's off with his long-lost father on the cornily-named Isla
Des Demonas; Polaris has decided to re-open the question of whether
she's Magneto's daughter; and up in Toronto, Sammy's dealing with his
abusive father. And, of course, abusive fathers were the subject of a
discussion between Xavier and the Juggernaut last issue. The
Juggernaut's not actually in this issue, for understandable pacing
reasons, although that didn't stop them putting him on the cover.
The coincidence of three separate plotlines involving abusive fathers
coming along simultaneously does seem a touch heavy-handed, but at this
stage none of the three are inherently objectionable. It's the same
sort of competent-to-dull averageness which tends to mark the early
stages of Austen plots, where there's still time to speculate that the
ideas might turn out interesting. Quite why Austen wants to reopen the
question of Polaris' parentage, I have no idea - the point was settled
back in 1969. Isn't this precisely the sort of story that modern Marvel
don't do, reopening thirty-four year old subplots?
The biggest glitch here is a very odd scene where Xorn, of all people,
turns up to accuse Annie of anti-mutant bias. If Austen is going to
keep having characters say that, perhaps Annie ought to actually
demonstrate some anti-mutant bias from time to time. Otherwise it just
makes other characters look stupid; and the relentlessly passive Xorn is
the last character in the world who makes sense bitching about this.
(In fact, going by the rumour mill, I have a strong suspicion about why
Xorn was chosen for this scene - although it's a bad reason. But we'll
get back to that after New X-Men #146.)
Philip Tan's art is still proving irritatingly erratic; the mixture of
babyfaced manga females and pernickety detail often seems awkward, and
there are a couple of truly awful panels. Worst of all is a double-page
spread which is, apparently, meant to show an invading army approaching
through a glowing portal. What it actually shows is a half-page of
scribbling with a glow effect around it. It's a dreadful page which
doesn't convey the action at all and should really have been redrawn.
Tan also seems to have serious problems with keeping his character
models consistent from panel to panel. There are parts of his work that
I like, but I'm increasingly convinced that he's not ready for prime
time.
It's the art that poses real problems for this issue. The writing is
flawed and uninspiring, but not too objectionable.
Rating: C+
------------
CRIMSON DYNAMO is, to all intents and purposes, the first Epic book.
Yes, I know - Trouble was the first. But it doesn't really count. The
point of Epic was low-budget comics with new talent; Trouble was a
high-profile miniseries, apparently done on a work-for-hire basis, by an
established art team and the writer of two top ten titles. It's got
nothing whatsoever to do with Epic.
Crimson Dynamo is also a little shaky around the edges when it comes to
the Epic remit; Steve Ellis is not a novice artist, and in fact I'm
pretty sure he's worked for Marvel before. John Jackson Miller is a
novice writer, although he's not a newcomer to comics - he's one of
those journalist types who got invitations to pitch for the first wave
of Epic books. Anyway, it's closer to the stated aims of Epic.
Miller has a longstanding interest in Russia, and he's decided to play
with that by reviving the Soviet equivalent of Iron Man. However, rather
than bring back the original character (who's dead anyway), this series
takes the ever popular approach of having a completely new character
stumble upon a spare set of armour.
Gennady Gavrilov, the new owner of the armour, is a rather unsympathetic
and feckless little brat, not that that's necessarily a problem.
Basically, the set-up here is a Russian version of the bored,
disaffected teenager who's delivered from the mundane when a great big
lump of Kirbytech lands in his lap. It's transplanted to a different
society - one where the local university is jealously protective of its
exciting new CD burner - but the thrust remains the same.
But is it any good? Well, yeah, it's okay. It's above average,
actually. The story's not particularly out of the ordinary, but it's
quite well paced, and Miller writes decent enough dialogue. I'm
interested enough to see how he's going to try and get an ongoing series
out of a character quite this feckless, who doesn't at first glance seem
like ideal superhero protagonist material. The art struggles a little
with clarity in a lengthy sequence intercutting between Moscow and
Siberia, although that may be more of a colouring problem which fails to
distinguish sufficiently between the two settings. Some of the
slapstick sequences with Gennady's moped are a little ropey, too. But I
do like the red star design for the armour, and for the most part the
storytelling works well enough.
This is alright; it's not staggering, but it's got some promise.
Rating: B
LINKS:
http://www.marvel.com/epic
------------
To be honest, I haven't particularly been holding my breath waiting for
JLA/AVENGERS. I'm not a huge fan of either team. But there are plenty
of people who've been asking for this book for years, guaranteeing it a
nice big audience.
Realistically, JLA/Avengers is a book that's intended more as a treat
for the hardcore fans who wanted it all that time. It's an excuse to
bring two separate universes together, mix up the elements and let them
play off one another. It's having fun, and inevitably it works on the
assumption that you have at least a passing familiarity with both
universes. (If you don't, then you'll follow the plot but I doubt
whether you'll really be all that engaged.)
The target audience should be very happy indeed. If it's mainstream
superhero team stories that you want, then Kurt Busiek and George Perez
are the ideal creative team. You're dealing there with people who
obviously know and love both companies' history and are clearly taking
tremendous pleasure in playing with the toys in new combinations.
The story sets up a fairly standard quest framework (here's a list of
objects, go and find them) against the background of a cosmic threat
clearly set up to echo Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's a little
surprising to see a long-established alternate dimension from Marvel's
universe wiped out in the opening pages, actually - even if it is a
backwater that hasn't done much of interest in years.
The entertainment comes more from sticking the characters in the other
universe and watching it confuse the hell out of them. In a
particularly nice touch, the DC characters arrive on Earth-Marvel and
think they've stumbled into a dystopian hell. Meanwhile, the Avengers
reach the DCU and promptly decide that it's a superhero version of the
Stepford Wives. Okay, this is a point which is much less valid than it
once was, and Captain America's perhaps not the best spokesperson for
the Marvel characters on the issue - but it's still funny.
To be honest, I enjoyed this much more than I was expecting to. It's got
enough of a story to justify the whole exercise, but not enough to
distract from the real point. And it does work.
Rating: A
LINKS:
http://www.dccomics.com
------------
I picked up the first issue of TRANSFORMERS/GI JOE largely out of
curiosity.
This is the second in a series of inter-franchise crossovers; Image have
already published their leg, GI Joe / Transformers, which was a straight
crossover and frankly didn't sound particularly interesting.
DreamWave's version is altogether more bizarre, as John Ney Reiber and
Jae Lee reposition both sets of characters into World War II.
As Reiber puts it in his foreword, "This story is our attempt to reach
back and drag a few old friends from the strange and simple world we
once shared with them into the strange and complex world we live and
dream in today." In theory this is all well and good, because the core
audience for these books is presumably adults who adored the toys when
they were kids. In practice, especially when coupled with a promise
that the characters haven't been changed, it screams of potential to
backfire.
It perhaps doesn't help matters that Hasbro were not prepared to have
the story take place in World War II, as the creators originally wanted.
Actual references to the Allies and the Axis are off the cards. The
solution which is taken to sidestep this problem is to start the series
in the winter of 1938, and have the Decepticons and Cobra launch a
pre-emptive strike on Europe which derails history before World War II
ever came along. So it's not really World War II; it's a World War
II-like period.
But is it any good? Well, no, it doesn't really work. The problem is
that unless you're prepared to overhaul the characters quite
drastically, they're really not up to being positioned as dark and
complex. They just won't bear the weight. The promotional art looks
great, as you'd expect from Jae Lee, but really, when it comes to
telling a story with these characters, it doesn't fit. If you're going
to do something as fundamentally ludicrous as a Transformers and GI Joe
crossover in 2003, it's probably easier to embrace that and run with it,
rather than try to take it seriously. Not unlike Reiber's initial run
on Captain America, this book seems to take itself seriously, and does
so to an extent altogether disproportionate to the weight of its
contents. What exactly is "complex" about this story?
Purely from the art perspective, it does have its moments. Characters
like Snake Eyes and Ravage fit Lee's sinewy art well. Still, it can't
quite get past the fundamental problem - this book wants to be taken
seriously, but it's Transformers / GI Joe. The concepts just don't want
to play that way.
Rating: B+
LINKS:
http://www.dreamwaveprod.com
http://www.transformers.com
------------
Also among this week's comics...
CEREBUS #293 - I don't know why I keep punishing myself by reading this.
But then again, the end is only seven issues away. It would be such a
shame to stop now, wouldn't it? This issue, Cerebus is prevented from
enjoying a visit from his son thanks to the paranoia of militant
feminists (a subject which, you'll recall, Sim promised to stop writing
about several years ago). Mind you, Cerebus is at least dying alone,
unmourned and unloved, so that part of the story is preserved. The
story runs to 20 pages; yet another continuation of the essay "Why
Canada Slept" runs to 28 pages of interminable small print. If I were a
diligent reviewer, I would bother reading it. But more importantly, I
am a human being who is not insane, and therefore I will not waste my
time reading it in full. A random skim of page 2 reveals that Canadian
policy suffers from "Marxist-feminist extremism." No doubt this will
ring true to all those suffering under the forced labour regimes of the
Manitoba tampon collectives. Honestly, is there any point to reading
this comic any more, other than to obtain ammunition with which to mock
the mentally ill? B-
DAREDEVIL #51 - David Mack arrives for a new storyline, and kicks off
with an issue that amounts to a one-issue monologue summarising the
history of Echo. It is, of course, beautiful. On the other hand, it
raises my hackles by spending several pages rhapsodising about the glory
of visual storytelling. Why can't comics artists just prove how good
they are instead of droning on about it? I'm fed up of reading comics
about how good comics are. The very fact that people seem to feel the
need to keep producing them is, if anything, testimony to how few people
agree. Anyway, if you can ignore the tedious promotion of the medium
(even the converted can be bored by preaching), it is undeniably a very
well put together monologue. I am open to persuasion as to whether it
actually constitutes a comic. B+
THOR #68 - This is the prologue to "The Reigning"; last issue, readers
will recall, Asgard fell down onto New York and obliterated the city.
Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that we're heading for a reset
button storyline? The fact that this storyline picks up in 2020 only
fuels my suspicions. That said, Dan Jurgens' curent writing on Thor is
far and away the most interesting stuff he's done in years - and now
that the book has completely parted company with Marvel continuity, at
least we don't have to worry about it being reined in. I still can't
quite believe Jurgens is writing this stuff, to be honest. This issue,
Asgard has quietly conquered the world, and humans complain about Thor's
abuse of the register of births. Now there's a story I never thought
I'd see. B+
------------
Last week's Article 10 is still up at Ninth Art. http://www.ninthart.com
Next week, Emma Frost #3, New X-Men #146 and Ultimate X-Men #37. Nice
quiet week, then.
--
Paul O'Brien
THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
ARTICLE 10 - http://www.ninthart.com
LIVEJOURNAL - http://www.livejournal.com/~paulobrien
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