The X-Axis – 17 September 2011
(Before we get started: it’s a podcast weekend! Just one post down! Don’t miss out!)
Meanwhile: sticking with last week’s format, I’m going to do the X-books here, and the DC launches in their own post. That’ll most likely be tomorrow, assuming I’ve actually read them all by then. Which is not currently guaranteed. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Actually, there’s only three X-books out this week, but hey, I’ve got six DC launch issues sitting here, so that’ll do me. Check out the podcast if you want to hear Al and me talk about the first issues of Ultimate Spider-Man and Pigs (both of which are good reading).
Daken: Dark Wolverine #14 – Judging from the comments threads, none of you are reading this book. So let me spell it out: under Rob Williams, this title has become pretty darned good. Not only does it now have a genuinely intriguing mystery plot, but Daken himself has become an interesting protagonist without embarking on any kind of redemption arc.
The problem with Daken, put short, is that he’s Poochie. He’s an unwanted Wolverine spin-off who simply isn’t as cool as he’s meant to be. And the problem with earlier stories is that they tried to ignore that fact. So we got story after story which simply consisted of Daken outwitting everyone to get his own way, Because He Is So Awesome. (It didn’t help that some of his planning strained credibility, so that his achievements felt contrived and unearned.) Rob Williams has addressed this problem simply by foregrounding it; his Daken hasn’t lost any of his technical skill, but he’s not as cool as he thinks he is. And the gap between Daken’s self-image and the reality is what drives the story.
The current storyline has Daken trying to identify a mysterious clawed serial killer, not because he cares in the slightest about the victims, but because he’s worried it might be him during his drug blackouts – and he sees himself as better than just a random killer. In itself, that’s a nice idea. But Williams develops it cleverly – first by bringing in a less than empathic police officer who’s also interested in the case more as a challenge than a moral issue; then by bringing in Moon Knight as a way to flag up Daken’s desperation to deny the influence of his father; and now with a really odd twist as the identity of the killer is revealed. (Or is it?) I’m particularly impressed by the way Moon Knight is fitted into the story; Daken’s understandably bemused reaction to a guy in completely the wrong costume doing a dodgy Wolverine impression is written nicely.
Unexpectedly, this has turned into one of the stronger X-books. Really, give it another try.
Uncanny X-Force #15 – Part 5 of the Dark Angel Saga (or six, if you count the prelude, which you probably should). And in this issue Rick Remender draws together some plot threads from previous storylines in order to set up Archangel’s big plan: he’s going to use the Life Seed the team picked up a couple of issues ago, together with the time-distorting equipment from The World, to create some hothouse evolution in the real world, and steer it in the direction he wants.
Meanwhile, Psylocke is hanging around trying to get a chance to talk to him, which surely won’t end well; Wolverine is nowhere to be found; and that leaves the team’s mercenary/insane contingent to try and stop the bad guys pretty much on their own. (As the previous issue made clear, this is partly a device to justify the team’s failure to call in help on a global threat – who’s going to trust a warning call from Deadpool or Fantomex? Slightly contrived, but I’ll go with it for the purposes of this title.)
Though in theory X-Force is still supposed to be about the X-Men’s black ops team, Rick Remender and Jerome Opena’s work on this title has none of the ponderous, grim-n-gritty tone that you’d expect from that. What Remender’s truly writing here is simply a tight team book with a somewhat old-school epic threat, and enough of an original slant to make it feel relatively fresh. Apocalypse and his cohorts have generally been written as lunatics whose supposed survival-of-the-fittest agenda has never been taken terribly seriously, so it’s a nice change to see Remender write them as true believers who genuinely think they’re helping to shape a better world, at a price that’s worth paying. As for Opena’s art, it’s beautiful stuff, and the book is helped no end by his character designs for henchmen that depart from the genre standards.
Not sure I would have suddenly wheeled in the Dreaming Celestial five issues into the story, but it’s only got a minor role (so far), so it’s not a big point. They’re delivering a strong team book here.
X-Men Legacy #255 – Part two of the Starjammers arc, and this is turning into an odd one. The set-up is simple: to rescue the Starjammers from whatever it was that caused them to send a distress signal, Rogue’s teleported her team across the universe to find them. As it turns out, they’re on a space station where the Shi’ar have recently been overthrown by a slave race called the Grad Nan Holt. Havok and Polaris are helping the rebels, while Rachel is for some reason in a coma and being held by the Shi’ar freebooters from a few storylines back, who are quite coincidentally passing by. And the space station is about the fall into the sun, though the Holt don’t seem too bothered about that for some reason.
Carey writes his characters well, the Holt have a nicely weird design, and there’s something genuinely creepy in the Starjammers’ mildly perturbed response to their hideously sadistic revenge killings – even if it’s presumably a mind control storyline. Sovel’s crew get some good lines in this issue too. But the set-up feels a little too obviously contrived for peril, and for the life of me I have no idea why Rachel’s out of her coma or how Rogue beat Horse. And nobody seems to have told artist Steve Kurth that those things on the Shi’ar’s heads are meant to be feathers, not hair.
Of course, I’ve never been a huge fan of the outer space stories, and the story may seem more satisfying when we get the full explanations. Still, thus far it’s a patchy one.
I’m reading Daken, and enjoying it. Which is a surprise, because Williams’ Ghost Rider has been truly wretched
I haven’t been reading Daken, but I’ll probably jump on for the Runaways arc.
anybody feel like telling me what the dreaming celestial is about? didnt understand him when he popped up in uncanny and i still dont know what his deal is. his wiki entry is so garbled im not even sure whether hes supposed to be a villain or what.
So have you given up on Fear Itself? I don’t think many wil blame you. This issue fell back into the mess that the first quarter was, a bunch of hollow scenes that were meant to have real significance. I think the reason for the .1.2.3 issues is clear to me now…this event didn’t accomplish what it was intended to do so we need three issues to focus on Ironman, Thor and Cap.
Another complaint I have about Fear Itself is that this is a comic that was TOLD in the advertising. Marvel released the teaser for the mighty and they don’t show up?! Their reveal should be part of the build up to a climax not cool ads.
I haven’t read this week’s FEAR ITSELF yet.
The Dreaming Celestial is supposed to be an expelled member of the Celestials, the alien space gods who influenced the development of life in the Marvel Universe. He’s been standing in San Francisco ever seen Neil Gaiman’s ETERNALS series.
The Celestials are a rather hazy and pseudomystic concept, and something of a relic from a previous era – basically they’re a Kirby take on Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods, which was a vaguely topical pseudoscientific notion at the time the Celestials were created.
Yeah, the Dreaming Celestial appears to be one of those very confused bits in the M.U. right now, who (as far as I can tell) remains standing outside of San Francisco but is rarely referenced. Apparently people are so used to it you can just pop by to see it and find less security than we currently have outside the Statue of Liberty.
I’m hoping it was just a questionable but quick use for plot purposes. After all, the Seed has to come from somewhere.
Apocalypse/Archangel seems to have a more directly subservient role to the Celestials – or at least pretends to – than I had expected, too.
Nevertheless, I thought it was another strong issue. UNCANNY X-FORCE is now at the bottom of my little stack every month (which for me is the position of honor; I always save a comic I can trust for last, so I end my reading with a good feeling).
Didn’t Magneto and the High Evolutionary do something to the Dreaming Celestial’s brain way back when Fraction started on Uncanny?
And despite having no real interest in the character, I think I’ll give this arc of Daken a go in trade-paperback form. (Eventually, I have a massive backlog). What’s the name of the arc?
The Celestials are one of those Kirby concepts that always come back because they are a Kirby concept and it’s just assumed that we all still find them interesting. The only one I ever liked was Ashema from Heroes Return because she actually got to become a proper character.
This arc of Daken will be collected in “The Pride Comes Before The Fall”: http://www.amazon.com/Daken-Wolverine-Pride-Comes-Before/dp/0785152350/ (collecting issues 13-19)
The HC’s out in February, so the TPB is a while off yet.
Did you not read any of the dialogue in Legacy? It was pretty straightforward. Rachel woke up from her coma because she’d recovered from the telepathic whammy the Holt’s telepath gave her. Rogue beat Horse by distracting him while the awakened Rachel turned off his brain.
Of course I read the dialogue. But, point one, if Rachel’s been out for a week then it’s absurd to have her suddenly acting as if everything is fine; point two, Rachel surely doesn’t need a distraction just to zap someone telepathically; point three, the art seems to imply that Rogue touching Horse has something to do with it; and point four, if Rogue can touch Horse’s skin, why doesn’t she just knock him out with HER powers instead of praying that coma girl wakes up to lend a hand?
Fuck me it looks like I’m going to have to check out Dark Wolverine. You’ve never steered me wrong Paul.
Not really relevant to this week’s books, but speaking of Havok, anyone else think he might have been a good alternative to using Wolverine as one of the faction leaders post-Schism? Seems like the story would be a natural fit for him:
1: Come back from space
2: See what Cyclops has done with Utopia
3: Complain about how big brother has done things
4: Fight
5: Leave
6: Take half the X-Men with him.
Seems like it’d avoid the problem of Wolverine not being a credible leader,have the added bonuses of playing into the Summers sibling rivalry, and have the added bonus of having an outsider come in and say the emperor has no clothes.
An interesting idea, but Havok has been on the Fringe of the Marvel U for too long to believably come in and take over…. and Wolverine’s name sells more comics and therefore trumps all logic.
“and Wolverine’s name sells more comics and therefore trumps all logic.”
Never were truer words spoken.
What I particularly light about X-Force at the moment, aside from the lovely artwork, great dialogue and character interaction, is the fact that it seems that Wolverine has been sidelined for a couple of issues. I’m pretty certain if he got burnt to a crisp like he did in many other comics he’d be up and walking in a few panels, but not here.
Really enjoying the fusion of all the plot elements in X-Force, it’s a fantastic team book.
I thought the Celestail finally left. It definitely took off at the end of the last Eternals series, and since it hadn’t appeared in any X-titles since I’d assumed it didn’t come back.
No idea. Was anyone still reading ETERNALS by the end of its run?
Eternals had a run?
(well, THAT answers your question, Paul)
Anyone else feel like Xmen Legacy is crawling along? It feels like we’re two issues into this arc and not enough has happened. I presume thatbthe trip to space is to rescue the star jammers and bring them home. If they’re not going to stay, more than two issues seems a bit much. I guess I’m also not so hot on the space stories.
[…] for those of you checking in late of a weekend: you’ll find this week’s X-book reviews here, you’ll find this week’s podcast here (with reviews of Pigs, Ultimate Spider-Man and […]
Haven’t actually read this column yet, I’m still reeling from your discovery that the Dr Zaxton story completely the explains US medical system and foreign policy.
I was really surprised to not see Wolverine up and about at any point during this week’s X-Force (or hell, any mention of him at all beyond the recap page). If nothing else, it would undermine the whole “we can’t call in back up” thing if he was at least conscious.
Who knew X-force: Hit Squad 2.0 would be at the top of my must-read-list out of all the x-titles? The main titles just aren’t cutting it for me, so this, X-factor, and Legacy are the titles I look forward to the most.
I might have to check out Daken, since everything Paul mentioned about the old title infuriated me as well…not to mention, in order to make Daken all the more bad-ass, it required the IQ of everybody around him to drop by 50%…second mutation, anybody?
The last arc of the Eternals’ run (guest starring the X-Men) showed us the Dreaming Celestial leaving earth….
Anybody knows when he came back in SF ?
I know that the Dreaming Celestial showed up in the short-lived SWORD series.