The X-Axis – 6 May 2012
And finally we get back up to date. (There’s also a bunch of interesting first issues this week, but I’ll either deal with them separately, or cover them in the podcast next week.)
Age of Apocalypse #3 – My main problem with this book so far has been that too many of the main (human) characters were interchangeable, so it’s good to see David Lapham addressing that in this issue. This is the first point where the likes of Donald Pierce and Graydon Creed have really come across as having distinctive personalities of their own, albeit that Creed is essentially a generic drunken antihero. Pierce, though, is starting to look more interesting – he’s the guy who leads a double life as a member of what passes for the elite.
Even Deadeye gets some opportunity to establish a personality; somewhat implausibly, stranded journalist Harper Simmons happens to know that her brother Matthew was an anti-mutant lunatic on our world, and so there’s a nicely strained quality to the scenes where she eulogises him as a noble hero to Harper’s obvious scepticism. As for Fiend… yeah, looks like she’s a redshirt.
This issue also seems to dial back on the bleakness a bit, with a tone a little closer to deadpan dark absurdity. I suspect that’s probably what they were going for all along, but this is the first time it seems to really connect. The art remains a little too self-consciously gritty for my tastes; I almost think this book would benefit from something a little more over the top, to match the tone of the writing. I can’t say I’m desperately excited about a storyline involving the Dark Beast and the Sugar Man using a Life Seed to revive a bunch of characters I’d forgotten were dead in the first place. (Emplate? Have we even seen him before in the Age of Apocalypse?) But yeah, this series is growing on me. Maybe it’s finding its feet.
Avengers Academy #29 – This week’s only tie-in issue sees the kids from Utopia dumped at Avengers Academy for safekeeping, along with some of the saner – well, more moderate – members of the X-Club. We’re very much off in the margins of the crossover here. It certainly counts; it’s a story that wouldn’t be happening but for the crossover. Even so, this issue is mostly about the two groups of kids bonding (or not bonding, as the case may be), with the main plot actually picking up the Sebastian Shaw thread from the recently cancelled Generation Hope. As with the current Wolverine arc, I’m pleasantly surprised to see these dangling subplots being followed up for a change, though in this case, it may also be a function of casting about for stories to fill those tie-in books.
Christos Gage and Tom Grummett are saddled with an enormous cast in this storyline, and inevitably that results in something of a parade of cameos. But Gage has always been good with large casts, and he’s able to give everyone their own voice here. X-23 also gets a few good scenes, understandably irritated that the X-Men have shown up on her doorstep when she was trying to go off and do something else entirely. The notable exception is Madison Jeffries, who seems to have largely lost the spaced-out quality that (for better or worse) has defined him in recent years; he seems wildly out of character here. You’ve also got to sympathise with Surge and Gabriel’s disbelief that everyone else is happy to make friends so quickly, but I think it works for the tone of this book.
Avengers vs X-Men #3 – Ed Brubaker takes over as this issue’s scripter. And the opening pages, I quite like – Cyclops’ group surrenders and the Avengers wonder what on earth they’re going to do with a whole island of X-Men. (As it turns out, not much before they escape. It’s still a nice little scene.) On the other hand, the plot does involve wrenching Captain America into service as a bit of a bastard, something which even the other characters comment on. This could be some sort of subtle foreshadowing that something’s wrong, but since it’s a summer crossover, I think we can proceed on the assumption that subtle foreshadowing is not in the toolbox. More likely, he’s just out of character.
Still, the basic idea is quite good. And there’s some good use of the other half of the X-Men, by establishing that Cyclops still has contacts on that side of the divide. Casting Rachel in that role is a little more questionable given her own connection to Phoenix, which this series appears to be entirely ignoring. If you don’t want to deal with that, fine, but then don’t use her at all.
And then, after all that, my heart sinks a little as we establish that there are five targets for everyone to chase after, where Hope might or might not be, so we’re all going to split up and fight. I was rather hoping that, with the big fight in the early issues, we were moving on to something else – but this sounds alarmingly like the vastly overrated Avengers/Defenders War structure, where the plot consists of little more than people chasing after widgets. And, as I’ve said before, that’s not really the bit of this that interests me.
Exiled – This is a one-shot leading into the Exiled crossover which runs through the next two issues of New Mutants and Journey into Mystery. So now we know why the New Mutants were given that hell-dog to look after. Why the two books have been taking such a drastically different approach to Mephisto – who appears in this issue, in his JiM persona – remains to be seen, but presumably it’s heading somewhere. The basic plot here involves the Disir escaping from Hell and Loki being enlisted to get them back (in exchange for Mephisto keeping their previous deal secret). Meanwhile, the guy living across the road from the New Mutants turns out to be an estranged Asgardian in disguise.
From the final page, it looks as though the concept here is to have the Asgardian characters turned into ordinary (well, ordinary-ish) humans while the New Mutants investigate what happened to them. I can’t help feeling that we’ve seen the Asgardians as ordinary people before, and not too long ago. Then again, Hela is such an obviously weird “mom” in the final page that we’re probably heading somewhere different and more quirky with it.
The connections between these two books are there – Dani’s still technically a Valkyrie, Amara is dating Mephisto, and there’s a hell-dog in the house – but there’s still a slight sense here that this is a Journey into Mystery story into which the New Mutants have stumbled by accident. With Abnett, Lanning and Gillen writing, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one, though it remains to be seen how everything is be drawn together; it certainly does seem like the plot is driven by the enormous coincidence of Sigurd happening to move in next door.
Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega #5 – The concluding part of one of the better miniseries we’ve had in quite some time. Ironic that it comes just as Marvel seem to be dialling back on all those superfluous minis, but there you go. The basic story here has been about Quentin massively overestimating what he can get away with, and realising far too late that hauling Wolverine and Armor into a pocket reality was probably not the smartest prank he’s ever attempted, especially because he has no idea how he’s going to get out of it.
The ending is admittedly a little predictable; Quentin ends up having to throw himself on his sword in order to get out of the whole mess, and in doing so, he redeems himself up to a point. But what works about this story is that Brian Wood gets what makes Quentin work as a character. He’s not a cool rebel; he just thinks he is, and tends to only realise his limits far too late. This story also does the heavy lifting of establishing why on earth Quentin is co-operating with the school at all, given that it’s not so long ago that he was trying to bring down the United Nations. It’s not merely that he doesn’t have a choice; ultimately, he does know his limits, even if he tends to ignore them, and he does have some respect for the adult X-Men. Equally, Wolverine wants him around not just to keep an eye on him, but to take advantage of what he’s got to offer.
Does that make Quentin the ultimate winner of this story? He evidently thinks so, since instead of wanting to punish him, Wolverine’s principally impressed about the power he’s demonstrated. Wolverine sees this as taking the moral high ground and being responsible; Quentin doesn’t really think that way. Regardless, the story does lead us to a clearer understanding of how these two characters relate, and thankfully, it’s one that dovetails nicely with Jason Aaron’s take on the characters over in Wolverine and the X-Men.
X-Factor #235 – Ah, it’s a storyline about the Rain City Superhero Movement. That’s Phoenix Jones and his mates, if you don’t know. Obviously the idea of the “real life superhero” works a little differently in the Marvel Universe, but basically, this story is about a bunch of completely ordinary people dressing up to fight very low level crime in Seattle. They’re also, from the look of it, completely deluded – or at least, their leader Lord Defender is, improbably claiming to be a mutant with “recessive genes”.
What could be a fairly cheap story turns out to be a little more balanced than that. Lord Defender is a fool, but in a nice touch, his sidekick turns out to have a rather more realistic grasp on the whole situation, and he seems to be there mainly to stop Defender from getting himself hurt. Since a serial killer is currently taking out members of the group, of course, that may be easier said that done. Meanwhile, Madrox and Shatterstar show up to go undercover with the group – so we’ve got actual superheroes posing as people posing as superheroes, which is precisely the sort of thing that Peter David does well.
Aside from the usual strong art by Leonard Kirk, and some neatly worked-in subplot material about Havok and Madrox’s awkward status as co-leaders, there’s also a nice contrast here between a broadly comedic set-up and a mysterious but clearly Very Nasty Indeed threat building around the edges. Another strong issue; the book seems firmly back on track after its digression into alternate earths a few months back.
X-Men #28 – First part of a new storyline in which the X-Men (specifically, Pixie and the book’s regular group) join up with the FF and Spider-Man against some Skrulls. You don’t buy this book for stories that “matter”, and this is not a story that “matters”. But to give it its due, it does offer a rare attempt to use the Skrulls’ gimmick properly, as the group of shape changers start the issue by cheerfully outwitting everyone in good old-fashioned style.
I also like the basic idea of the Skrull group – they’re basically soldiers from Secret Invasion who deserted under fire and, with one exception, really just want to power up an escape vessel and get home. Unfortunately, the only one of them who can actually get anything done is a bit of a Skrull version of Rambo. That’s a nice little dynamic, and a potentially fun set-up for the story. Sadly, Will Conrad’s art doesn’t really succeed in drawing a clear distinction between the members of the group; granted, the body language is right when it matters, but they really do all look very much the same, and that’s a pity when the story is built so heavily around the differences within their group. Decent idea for a story, nonetheless, and actually quite well executed on the writing level.
The AOA Emplate was introduced and killed in one of the bookshelf editions that came out after the crossover. I think it was the Bloodlines one, featuring Factor X, where Corsair came back from space and was infected with Brood. Emplate and M were one of Sinisters pairs of siblings that were his foot soldiers.
X-men & the FF & Spider-man vs Skrulls would seem to harken back to the classic byrne story in ff 250.
“…but there’s still a slight sense here that this is a Journey into Mystery story into which the New Mutants have stumbled by accident.”
I kind of hope so. I’d just dropped New Mutants before this crossover was announced, and JiM is my favorite ongoing, so I want that one to be the title steering things.
I hope for the same thing in the “Everything Burns” crossover with The Mighty Thor coming in August, as I found Fraction’s Thor terribly disappointing.
Man, I loved the scene with Laura and Jeanne-Marie bonding in AvAc. (And I hope Hercules sticks around) Also, best use of Shaw’s powers EVER.
I really wish AvX had gone with one scripter instead of changing narration style and Character voice every two weeks. I find it jarring and I was also hoping that Cap’s stance is a plot point otherwise I’m kind of hurt Brubaker wrote this issue.
I think it would be kind of hilarious if Wolverine spent the rest of this crossover getting dismissively pitched out of airplanes while trying to kill a teenager.
On a completely unrelated note – I just recently read the Immortal Weapons mini from years back, and raised an eyebrow at the fact that Jason Aaron used the exact same plot twist for Fat Cobra that he would later use in his Wolverine run.
Asgardians-as-normal-people was the opening arc of JMS’s Thor.
I really dug Avengers Academy, as usual. Gage has done a great job writing stories that pits the students against villains who are out-of-their-league, and this seems like it will be another one.
AvX #3 was the first issue I was disappointed in (keeping in mind my expectations for books like this). I thought Cap was wildly out of character. But until I read your review, it didn’t even occur to me that it might be a plot point. I wonder if that says something about me, or about books like this…
Frodo-X said:
“I hope for the same thing in the “Everything Burns” crossover with The Mighty Thor coming in August, as I found Fraction’s Thor terribly disappointing.”
Huh. I just picked up Journey into Mystery for the crossover with New Mutants and am sticking around for the Otherworld arc but will be dropping the book starting with the Mighty Thor crossover. Otherwise I would at least consider sticking around but I am not paying the “architect tax” to read mediocre Matt Fraction stories.
Hang on, hang on. Exiled? Are you telling me that there’s a crossover that’s been quietly building over the past months, with no fanfare or great big neon arrows pointing at Something Significant, just the writers quietly putting the pieces into place without disrupting the ongoing story? I had no idea that such a thing existed any more.
I haven’t read any of Journey into Mystery, and my interest in New Mutants tends to come and go, but this one might be worth a look.
“Are you telling me that there’s a crossover that’s been quietly building over the past months, with no fanfare or great big neon arrows pointing at Something Significant, just the writers quietly putting the pieces into place without disrupting the ongoing story? I had no idea that such a thing existed any more.”
Um, Age of X last year?
I didn’t read it, but wasn’t Age of X just sort of “Bang! Everything’s different, now read on to find out why”? Which is also a fine method, but not quite the same thing.
I feel like Journey Into Mystery is being crossovered to death.
“I didn’t read it, but wasn’t Age of X just sort of “Bang! Everything’s different, now read on to find out why”? Which is also a fine method, but not quite the same thing.”
The difference is that surprisingly the why was interesting and the storyline did have consequences for a lot of the characters involved
Leo, I think Si means Age of X began with the start of that arc–it wasn’t seeded organically (or otherwise) in any stories prior to its official start, as seems to be the case with Exiled. In the case of Age of X, I think the lack of seeding worked. Anything else wouldn’t have made sense because of the nature of that story.
I haven’t checked out the Wolverine mini (I’ve loyally avoided those since ’95) or Avengers Academy (read the beginning of that book’s run and stuck around till the Typhoid reveal–mainly because I was hoping the mystery mutant would be Jean Grey), but they both sound worth a look.
AvX #3 was definitely disappointing. The idea that this event might ironically reverse Cap’s role from Civil War is a good one, but I have a feeling AvX will be too shallow to really do something like that any justice. And I gave up on Bendis’s avengersomething long before Rogers returned. How did he and modern day Wolverine work together anyway? WW2-era, sure, fine, but today? I feel like 2012’s Wolverine and Captain America should have a much different relationship than they seem to have had at the beginning of this event.
Rachel Grey is another potential plot line I bet will be nothing more than a raised eyebrow. Somebody in the X-office needs to write a Phoenix bible. Which stories have happened, which haven’t? There’s been tons more Phoenix stuff than TDPS and HCT. Why they need to dredge up dangling plot lines for crossover issues instead of trying out the low-hanging fruit from the brand new tree, I’ll never know.
I also didn’t care for the abrupt opening of this issue or the fake out and it’s reveal. The art was a little goofy when Cyclops was being all Cyclopsy and it just came off like a kewl moment. Made me pause and think, This reads like a bunch of incompetents playing a Civil War renactment! Hope’s story could have progressed more, too, and the fact that it didn’t probably means her arc is so slight any progression in issue 3 would put the kabosh on the whole shabang shortly thereafter. That’s kind of been Hope’s story all along, hasn’t it? In and out of the text, it’s always “Hurry up and wait” with Hope.
With #235, X-Factor does seem at least closer to back on track. I’m liking how the additions to the cast are settling in, but there are just way too many characters in this book. Which I hate to admit because I wouldn’t want to lose anyone. (Per se, actually, because now I’m running through the roster.) But the characters, stories, and readers are getting short-changed. Too many actors with not enough screen time. Ideally, the book would spinoff into something like Uncanny X-Factor, but we all know that’ll never happen. We’re lucky X-Factor has lasted as long as it has. But PAD needs to kill a few darlings, and soon. (I would say he at least needs to write a few of them into limbo but you can’t really write mutants into limbo these days without somebody else immediately bringing them back.)
Anyway, I’m usually a lurker, but thought I’d throw my two cents in. Before I knew it, I’d thrown in a lot more.
PS- Feeling spoiled with all this X-Axis, but that was quite the drought! Thanks!
PuzzledDaily: Yes that’s what I meant, thank you.
If I could get all fanfic for a moment, I’d settle the Phoenix problem like this: convergant evolution. There’s two different things that are called the Phoenix. One is this independent cosmic entity that represents rebirth – with the horrible dying in flames that goes with it. The other is a phenomenon where psychic energy pushed to its extreme takes on aspects similar to the Phoenix entity, because that’s the ideal shape for extreme psychic energy to be. It works to the extent that powerful psychics begin to actually think like Phoenix if they’re not careful. So the original Jean Grey-impersonating Phoenix was literally the entity, while Rachel Summers was simply very powerful, as was the later real Jean Grey as written by Grant Morrison. Further, the uiniverse has a few very powerful psychics who have lost themselves to their power and literally believe they are the Phoenix. Sometimes they come to Earth and make trouble.
And so you have your Doombot explanation. Which stories were the real Phoenix and which were impersonators? All the stories you liked were the real one, all the ones you didn’t weren’t.
I’m sure there’s precedent for people taking on the job of cosmic entities becoming the cosmic entities themselves in the comics, there’s one or two right on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t quite recall.
Can anyone fill me in on these Hel puppies? A bit of googling tells me they are Garm’s litter, and all but one are sweet puppies. But is there further relevance to them? Has it come up in New Mutants previously?
sorry, but the phrase “low-hanging fruit” always makes me giggle.
Si: the Hel-puppies are a plot thread carried over from JiM. They’re the children of Garm and a Hel-hound Loki tricked/forced into serving him (and then discarded in appropriately Lokiesque fashion – although Gillen has been softening up/cutesifying Loki lately in a way that’s been putting me off the book, but that’s a whole other post). I wouldn’t say they’re ALL “sweet,” exactly, but only one of them – the one Loki kept – is obviously hellish.
Si, I never heard the doombot explanation, but I like it. Pretty good Phoenix explanation. Makes much more sense for high level psychics to kind of imitate the Phoenix. Otherwise, if it was really the Phoenix each time in all those appearances it makes it seem a) like it has nothing better to do, and b) like it’s not so threatening after all.
SI and PD,
I like your idea of trying to take some time to have a coherent explanation of Phoenix. Even with the original Claremont stories it was originally unclear whether the Phoenix was an expression of Jean’s ultimate power or a seperate entity. You’re explanation means it was a little of each.
And while I realize that I should just go along for the ride on this thing, I’m going to complain about Rachel anyway. Not only is she an example of a benign Phoenix power, but her whole backstory was how haunted she felt about being forced to use her powers to hunt down mutants. Shouldn’t Wolverine see a problem with asking her to use her powers to hunt down a mutant so he can kill her?
Is the guy who shows up at the end of X-Factor an existing character, or is he just meant to look like a parody of a terrible 90’s X-villain?
Its like the phoenix is marvel’s parallax. 🙂
@Jeremy H
I thought for a second it might have been Krule or whatever his name was from the X-ternals but I’m not sure if it’s just a parody.
@JeremyH @Tdubs
The guy at the end of X-Factor is a new character with some (as of yet unknown) connection to Longshot and Shatterstar. He is intended as a parody of 90s character designs.