The X-Axis – 14 February 2010
It’s a podcast weekend, so be sure to check one post down for the latest House to Astonish, which includes reviews of Pixie Strikes Back #1 (on which, more below), Human Target #1 and The Muppet Show#1. But without further ado…
Amazing Spider-Man #620 – Notionally part of “The Gauntlet”, this is actually the concluding part of a Mysterio story by Dan Slott and Marcos Martin. (Those “Gauntlet” tags really don’t seem to signify anything beyond the inclusion of a classic villain.) I really liked the set-up for this story, with Mysterio inveigling his way into control of a Maggia family by simulating the return of the boss. And there’s a rather good set piece in this issue with Spider-Man fighting baddies while holding his breath. But the climax does turn out to be basically a big fight, which is a little disappointing, and I’m also not sure about the wisdom of demystifying Mysterio in the way that the issue does at the end. All that said, it’s still a solid piece of writing, and the art from Martin (and colourist Javier Rodriguez) is truly excellent. Visually, this is some of the best work being done in the superhero genre right now, and worth getting for that alone.
Batman & Robin #8 – As with the previous issue, this is a truly odd mix. On the one hand, it’s a story with a major plot point about the body of Bruce Wayne. On the other, it’s a tongue-in-cheek affair with Cockney and Geordie gimmick villains in a mock-Silver Age style. Obviously Grant Morrison thinks that they blend just fine, and to be fair, it’s not as if anyone seriously thought that there wouldn’t be a plot about Bruce Wayne’s body at some point. Still, it comes across as self-parodying rather than dramatic, and I’m not sure that was the idea. It’s not that I have a problem with stories that I can’t take seriously – it’s that this issue has stuff which you’d have thought the creators would want me to take seriously, and that’s where it kind of loses me.
Dark X-Men #4 – The penultimate issue of Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk’s increasingly thinly disguised Nate Grey relaunch. And if you’d told me a few months ago that Paul Cornell would persuade me that I actually wanted to read a Nate Grey comic, I would have been sceptical. To be fair, his version of Nate Grey doesn’t bear an enormous resemblance to the original, beyond the powers – he’s drawing more on the shortlived “mutant shaman” stuff from the very tail end of the series. But even on that standard, this version of Nate is generally rather more likeable and rather more effective; an issue of him and Norman Osborn trying to outwit one another comes across pretty well. Considering Norman’s chronic overexposure right now, I’m surprised at how effectively this is working. As for the Dark X-Men, well, they’re rather getting marginalised in their own series at this point, but they’re still well-defined characters when they’re on the page. So far, a better series than the premise might suggest.
Daytripper #3 – Curses, I seem to have missed issue #2 somewhere along the line. I’ll have to order it up. This is Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba’s series where each issue visits the lead character at a different point in his life. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that each issue was supposed to be a specific day, although maybe I just got that from the title. Regardless, this issue is a bit more flexible about its time frame. Recently dumped after a seven-year relationship, Bras drifts around wondering how he’s going to start over, all of which builds to a brilliantly executed “seize the moment” sequence that wrongfoots the reader perfectly. So far, a very impressive piece of work.
New Mutants #10 – Well, as promised, this issue does kind-of-sort-of reveal why Cyclops is keeping the New Mutants together as a team. Now, the problem with this book is that so far it doesn’t really seem to be about anything in particular, other than reviving a 1980s comic for the sake of doing so. Ten issues in, we finally get something more than that, but it’s not exactly a grand central theme. Putting it very broadly, Wells is trying to re-connect to the idea that the New Mutants are the next generation of X-Men, but instead of being the trainee squad, this time they’re going to be groomed as the next generation of leaders. This makes reasonable sense, and it’s fine as far as it goes, but I’m not sure it’s really a strong enough idea to build a series around. But having said that, if you’re not too bothered about the lack of a big central theme, then this issue does have some nice character moments, and generally decent art. It’s trying to make use of the broader X-books continuity to give itself a context. And it’s got a thoroughly obscure villain from the late 1980s, which is always nice. What’s here is perfectly good, it’s just missing a strong hook to make it a great story.
Phonogram: The Singles Club #7 – The final issue of the series is Kid With Knife’s story, and, well, he doesn’t intellectualise things. Most of this is dialogue-free, as KWK gets high on listening to TV On The Radio, and then goes out on the town. Really excellent work, this – rather than trying to explain the effect of music, it just shows it, dispensing with the dialogue because this isn’t an issue for smart one-liners. And it goes without saying that McKelvie is able to carry off a silent issue admirably. As for the back-up strips… well, more hit and miss than usual, to be honest. But the Vikings are good.
S.W.O.R.D. #4 – Kieron Gillen’s other book of the week reaches its penultimate issue, as Abigail Brand sorts out some very confused alien invaders, and naturally Henry Gyrich screws everything up. It’s a shame that this series hasn’t sold better (though a de facto Abigail Brand solo title was always going to be a tough sell), but at least it’s looking set to deliver a nice satisfying wrap-up with the next issue. And it’s fun. And it’s got stupid rocks in it. That’ s enough to entertain me.
Uncanny X-Men: First Class #8 – Final issue of the miniseries, and it looks like the concept is being put to bed for a while after this – though I’m sure it’ll be back when the movie comes out. The series has just completed a multiparter, but for some reason it’s rounding off by tacking on a single-issue Banshee story. And of all the things to focus on, Scott Gray has decided to do a story about the leprechauns of Cassidy Keep. Now, those leprechauns did indeed appear in a late-70s X-Men story… and yes, I suppose technically there is a gap in there to tell a story about how the leprechauns lived when their castle wasn’t being invaded by supervillains (which is effectively what this issue is doing, under the guise of a murder mystery). It’s competently written, and the art’s quite decent. But come on. They’re the leprechauns of Cassidy Keep. Does anyone really want to read a whole issue about them?
Unwritten #10 – Mike Carey and Peter Gross begin a new arc, “Jud Suss”. It goes without saying that this series, about fictional characters crossing over into the real world, is largely interested in the power of fiction to influence reality. The topic of propaganda has been touched on in an earlier issue about Rudyard Kipling, but here the book goes straight to the heart of the matter with the titular film, a Nazi-sponsored film version of a Lion Feuchtwanger novel which was, shall we, not altogether faithful to the source material. There’s always a risk in using the Nazis, never exactly the most nuanced way of making a point, but Unwritten is the sort of genuinely cerebral series that can certainly avoid any impression of seeming gratuitous. I’m still slightly unsure whether this was the best example Carey could have chosen, but I’ll see where he’s going with it.
X-Men Forever #17 – Now, I liked last issue’s cliffhanger, but I’m not so sure about this issue’s follow-up. It seems to take the better part of an isue just to make the point that Something’s Gone Wrong Here, which was surely implicit in the previous issue’s cliffhanger. I don’t think we really needed an extended “rescue people from a burning building” sequence to hammer it home further, and if anything, having Kurt still scaling walls without his powers just confuses it. Unfortunately, I feel a bit like I’ve spent 22 pages watching Claremont undermining the effectiveness of the previous issue.
X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1 – Kathryn Immonen and Sara Pichelli, formerly of Runaways, are reunited on this Pixie miniseries. Pixie’s one of those generic X-students who started off as a background character in New X-Men and has slowly ended up getting more and more screen time. I’m still not quite sure she’s got the fanbase to justify a solo miniseries, but she’s a likeable enough character and serves the “girl next door” role plausibly enough. The plot: Pixie, Blindfold, X-23, Armor and Mercury are inexplicably all normal schoolgirls in a normal school, and obviously that’s not right. Cue weirdness, and what looks like an attempt to complicate Pixie’s back story. The plot gimmick is nothing new, but it’s done well, and the art is gorgeous. Most importantly, though, it’s an X-Men spin-off mini that feels like it has its own voice (or at least, like its creators do). It’s different, and that stops it feeling like just another schedule-filler.
Haven’t made it out to the comic shoppe yet, so this is totes off-topix, bu-ut YouTube are showing plein de comics-related cartoons, uncut, on their TV service.
So far, I’ve seen the French Fantastic Four cartoon, X-Men Evolution, and the Spider-Woman and Astonishing X-Men motion comics. Which are hiLARious.
There’s alos, like, a ton of anime, such as MONSTER, which I’m told is a ve’y good comic. And Desmond’s! Which has nothing to do with comics beyond how awesome a Jonah Jameson Norman Beaton would’ve made.
…I mean, you could watch the documentaries, and that. If you want.
(I’m thirty-four)
*weeps*
//\Oo/\\
I couldnt help but notice that Slott set up a subplot (Aunt May being affected by negative’s mind control and flipping out on Jay Jameson and Peter), and then ignored it. Especially because I’m reasonable sure that that’s the point of next week’s issue too (with Black Cat)
Paul
Just like to say that I have been following your blog and reviews for quite some time, even though I don’t particularly like the X-Men (I haven’t really enjoyed the blighters since the Claremont/Byrne days, with a very few exceptions), but I always wait for your reviews on a Sunday.
Listened to the Podcast this afternoon, and just read your reviews – always good.
Matthew,
Looks like Youtube’s TV service is going to keep me in viewing for a while. Gurren Lagann is very good in an extremely OTT way, and I’ve heard good things about Baccano and El Cazador de la Bruja.
Uncanny X-Men First Class has been a disappointment, coming from someone who thinks the first two series were the best X-Books at the time.
Outside of the 3 part warrior story, it was too scattershot. And the subplot about Scott being upset that Jean was changed due to the Hykon warriors, which I thought we would get a resolution to this issue, never appeared.
In fact, and I don’t really have anything but speculation at this point, but it seems like through stories set in the past (and X-Men Forever), they are trying to make Scott and Jean seem less like the “made for each other” couple that they have been for so long.
Whether this is to soften the waters for Jean coming back and not running straight to Scott, or to make the Scott/Emma pair seem stronger, it’s just something I’ve been wondering.
someone please remind me again why that airhead named Pixie is an X-Man…since she’s been “powered up”, she’s done nothing significant except get beaten up several times and teleport a bunch of people. here’s hoping illyana impales her sometime with the soulsword.
I liked Pixie, but since got an angsty power upgrade to make her worthy of running with the X-Men (and looks to be getting an angsty parentage upgrade to go with), it seems like she has been made more of a bubblehead to keep her from upstaging the newly returned Illyana. For goodness sake, she’s a long-range teleporter who’s apparently not bright enough to hop off of the island and get her own toilet paper when the X-Men run out. 😉 Common affliction of powered-up characters, though — increase the supposed coolness quotient and the plot-induced stupidity in equal measure.
Ash- To be fair, the reason she’s an X-man now is because, aside from the civilians, they’re all X-men now.
In any case though, I like her, and I fully support their not turning her into Penance.
Add me to the list of folks who’ve thoroughly enjoyed your reviews & never quite thought to say it. I honestly think that your reviews are the most insightful & reliable of all those I’ve come across on the net, which is something of a cringeworthy thing to actually write, but true enough, and therefore worth saying. It’s a hard thing to keep a comic book blog going, Grud knows I know it is, & still keep it full of good content. Good on you, sir, for your splendid work. (And like Terrence above, I too am no longer an X-Men freak. Lost my mutant mojo way back around Uncanny # 175. Which speaks volumes for your predominantly X-Men-centric reviews.)
In the name of not seeming like a complete Uriah Heap, I’ll try not to post here again until I thoroughly disagree with you on something. Oh, but then …. well ….. I’ll probably still be polite …
Hey! Don’t do Pixie down!
In UXM she managed to take down a powered-up Empath on the rampage in SF!! After all the big-shot X-Men had tried and failed!
(The fact that the story offered no real or credible reason why everybody else was struggling to deal with him, while simultaneously making it fairly unclear exactly HOW Pixie did take him down is entirely beside the point…)
I *loved* Pixie in the Kyle/Yost New X-Men series, but when she moved over to Fraction’s Uncanny all the things that endeared me to the character went away. Just like all the *other* characters appearing in Fraction’s X-Men book.
She rolled a natural 20.
Don’t have much to say on the reviews. But since finding myself reading a lot of stuff I’ve never read before (completet Excalibur, X-Factor, New Mutants/X-Force, etc), I’m really wishing the Indexes were still going to cover these titles.
I really enjoyed the iconographic Phonogram 7 – now THAT’s how you do it, Sam Raimi – and am both surpised and saddened by the ending (by the fact that it is an ending). I actually thought it was going to go another way.
The double page spread is the best of the series.
The juxtaposition of YOU KNOW WHO with YOU KNOW WHAT made me smile.
Also, Indie Dave.
The Aunt May subplot…yeah. Lot of slow burn in this comic, isn’t there? I mean, it’s part of the broader Mister Negative story, but how the heck long has Harry been in that house with the Nasal Sisters?
I re-read the Silvermane/Kingpin/Tablet story last night, and it left me wondering: what is this comic really saying about Peter Parker, right now? Anything at all?
I don’t mean that as a criticism, exactly – Spidey is Spidey is Spidey, after all, and it is moving at a fair ole clip – but what’s the character story, here? Peter learns that he can’t take his peeps fer granted JUST WHEN HE NEEDS THEM?
I dunno. I know what it’s building up to, kind of, and it should be worth hanging around for. I have, in fact, added the comic to my pull-list after five-narf years away.
SWORD, man. I enjoyed the stuff on the station more than the Beast stuff, but not by much. Damn shame this is going away, but. Could very much stand to see more Death’s Head. Death’s Head versus UNIT, even.
I mean, why the fudge would you whinge about The Beast when Sanders is drawing Iron Patriot like that? Or those xenoliths? Fft. Whiners.
I…I make comics about pixie-powered superheroes too, you know. *sniff* There’s an Evil Robbie Williams in there, an’ evryfing.
IN FACT I THINK I’LL GO MAKE ANOTHER ONE RAYT NEAUW.
//\Oo/\\
@Cheeris. You can probably blame Greg Land for the unclear story telling on the Empath fight. I think the idea was that Empath was making eye contact with all the other X-Men and thus disabling them with psychic attacks, whereas Pixie was wearing her goggles, so was unaffected.
I think. I would go and check, but Greg Land art isn’t something I afflict upon myself without long preparation.
The ongoing problem of the nigh-weekly Spider-Man series is that Peter wasn’t relaunched as a finely-detailed character with OMD, but as a character type — the put-upon quarter-life guy — drawn as much from recent sitcoms as anything.
I know this is sort of arbitrary and out of nowhere, but I was actually really bothered by that issue where it turns out that Peter was drinking apple juice at the wedding, and was not really drunk. It was just so completely improbable and silly, and it was obviously just serving a rule that somebody decided this character needed (which also explained Peter’s earlier “this must be what a hangover feels like” line).
It’s not like I need all of these characters to drink or something, but it made me feel like this character was definitely going nowhere- or like Omar Karindu just said, like he wasn’t really a character at all. Just a construct of mandates and limits. I’d been following Spider-man since OMD (and hadn’t picked up an issue is years before then), and thought it was promising, but that was more or less the end for me.
Funnily enough, I agree with you on that. I mean, I’ve been teetotal for fifteen years (more or less to the day!), and I’ve always thought it important – both from a fan-identification and a strict biological level – that Peter Parker be the same way.
But…but but but.
The last time I was drunk, I was in THE SAME EXACT SITUATION.
The bit that bothered me was Peter drinking at the engagement party. Like it was nothing.
I can’t fault Wacker et al. for trying to backtrack harder than Wile E. Coyote, though, and am more than willing to chalk it up to hurly-burly hustle-bustle foofraw.
Who might actually have been the mayor of Cleethorpes, back in the day.
//\Oo/\\
@Martin S Smith:
Don’t blame the Empath fight on Land’s art. The story itself was terrible. About the only person taken out by Empath’s powers is Angel. Storm, for example, simply quits so that the next person in line can try. Apparently, when Empath didn’t carefully come to a stop after she placed some nearby lightning, she completely ran out of ideas.
As for the idea of Pixie’s goggles, the text itself implies that Emapth’s powers were unimpeded, and Pixie was just too tough a nut to crack. It was pretty much a Claremontian solution.
Of course, also remember that this chase is the event that causes the X-Men to realize, completely out of left field and with no logical support, that what they really needed on the team was a speedster. No, what they needed was either some inkling of teamwork or someone with an IQ that was greater than a single digit. Though with battle tactics like that, I guess I can understand how they might think “villain stoppable by an angry teen on a moped using no special powers whatsoever” translates to “we’ve got to get someone who can move faster than the speed of sound”.
As for New Mutants, there have been so many starts and stallings of various “These will be the next generation of X-Men” groups that the whole think has become a joke.
These groups never go anywhere. If anything, they probably hurt the involved characters more than help them.
And what does springing the idea again say about what Cyclops thinks of the last iteration? (Kid’s team) New X-Men were supposedly the cream of the crop, selected and groomed by Emma and approved by Scott to be the next generation. Still classed as kids, some have made it onto full teams. Now they just aren’t special anymore, because an older group reformed?
So, what happens after New Mutants eventually gets canceled? Does Marvel immediately follow with another two or three attempts of new characters forming the new next generations? Or do we see Jubilee and a Gen-X reunion as Scott’s next group of golden children?
Well, I think the idea is that those kids are still very young and very inexperienced, and none of them are ready to step up and actually lead the X-Men.
More importantly though (as Scott discusses), the New Mutants were raised in Xavier’s dream, and although he’s doing what he feels needs to be done for their survival, the future should belong to them and to that dream again. You know, like in V for Vendetta.
I’m not sure that GenX were quite as pure, although maybe that’s unfair… In any case though, only one member of that team is currently an X-man, so it’s kind of moot.
Of course, in reality, the whole thing is kind of moot, because Scott’s reasoning applies to the world as he sees it- a world where Scott and anyone who might succeed him, like Emma, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Psylocke and Rogue, could all conceivable either die, leave the team or age, even though the reality is that that will not happen.
I think it is even worse looking from a point of view set inside the Marvel universe.
Every year or two the X-Men come up with a brand new “future of the X-Men” group? Most of these groups will last maybe a year at best, at which point they will be disbanded, and the members will go their separate ways. Pretty much no one will get moved to a core adult team, and most will be lucky if they are only cast to the fringes. You’d think if *any* of these guys and gals were anything special (much less “next generation”) material then they’d be kept around.
I think that says a lot about Scott’s attention span. And a bit about the glass ceiling and/or old-boys-club nature that he tends to keep in place.
Of course from the real world, it is mostly just Marvel repeatedly mismanaging the concept.
Well… I mean, if we count them, there were the New Mutants, then nothing until GenX, then another big gap until Grant Morrison’s run and the second New Mutants series. And at that point the idea was that these kids were students not that they were really trainees. Following the Decimation, those same kids were treated as the next generation, etc. Then everyone split up briefly (including the kids) for Manifest Destiny (which, okay, made only a little bit of sense). Then some of those same kids were tricked into becoming the Young X-Men, who remained a team briefly just because they already existed and were being mentored by the old New Mutants, and now those kids are X-Men.
So essentially, most of the new Mutants are X-Men now, including the dead ones. GenX’s living members are few, and mostly kind of scattered and ruined, but Husk is an X-Man, and so are all the living/powered members of New Mutants vol. 2/Academy X and Young X-Men.
So actually don’t think the track record on this is too bad.
And to be fair, most of these books have produced some excellent characters. In particular, the current young generation are great characters. And the original New Mutants are always great.
I don’t understand why Peter Parker is meant to be teetotaller. I meant, he’s an adult, he’s not a muslim, or of any other religious belief that prohibits alcohol. I thought the general consensus was that there’s nothing morally wrong about drinking alcohol. I’m not an avid Spider-Man reader, so is there some canon reason why?
Also, if Cannon Ball isn’t ready to be an X Man after 100 issues of New Mutants, 100 issues of X Force and Several years in the X Men, he should probably give up and go back to the Farm.
> Well… I mean, if we count them, there were the New Mutants, then nothing until GenX, then another big gap until Grant Morrison’s run and the second New Mutants series.
Actually, GenX was cancelled only a month or so before Morrison’s run, and as a direct result of Morrison wanting to do the school setup rather than because of sales.
Well, here’s the thing. I’m a teetotaller, and an atheist, from a family of healthy…er, you know what I mean, drinkers. Hell, if you’ve ever seen me in a pub, you…anyway, that’s beside the point.
You don’t have to be a Pledger or a God-botherer to be teetotal. Some people just don’t drink. But in Peter Parker’s case, it was sort of always there, in the background. An unspoken thing.
Canonically (ouch), there’s the point that he doesn’t take a drink before that one story where he gets his drink spiked by Flash Thompson, and fights the Hobgoblin off his face (and later gives Jonah Jameson the Pink Pancakes*). J.M. DeMatteis wrote the line “Why did they have to clone me from a man who DOESN’T DRINK?” (sic) for Ben Reilly in ASM 400, who tries it, but can’t handle it?
There’s other character moments here and there that support it. The Wolverine’s Birthday story they did last year (drunk in charge of superpowers=not responsible), for example.
(and yes, there’s that one Stan Lee/Gene Colan story in that DareDevil anniversary issue, and that one Claudio Castellini with the two Spideys and MJ having froth-headed beers at the end. Two words for you: LALALALA LAAA)
I mean, if you really want to get anal about it, then there’s scientific evidence that shows that spiders are highly susceptible to drink/drugs/caffeine. And by “susceptible to,” I mean “hilarious on.”
I dunno. It just seems to fit. I can imagine Uncle Ben having *a* beer in the fridge to sink after a hard day’s responsibility, maybe, but not Peter.
//\Oo/\\
(* – this never happened. Don’t Google it. Especially at work or school or church or on live TV.)
I think you could make a strong argument for Peter not drinking on purely practical grounds. He does spend an awful lot of time getting ambushed or rushing off to deal with some catastrophe or other. Presumably he’d rather do it sober.
@Matthew-
Well, all right! Nice work. I’m sold.
@Valhallahan-
He is an X-Man. I don’t think there’s any question that he’s ready. The question is whether or not he can lead the X-Men, which obviously requires a great deal more.
@Mammalian Verisimilitude-
Did not remember that at all. (Either way though, it was probably time to put it to bed.)
I’ve always been of the impression that any responsbile superhuman would be extremely careful about driking, if only because for someone with powers, getting drunk around other people would be like getting drunk while driving a truck with one hand and waving a gun around with the other. I have a friend who once got drunk and decided it would be funny to try to knock down the frame of a house under construction. If he’d had Spider-Man’s strength, he would have accomplished it. Which isn’t to say superheroes couldn’t get drunk, but they should at least make a good faith effort not to do it around civillians.
It also occurs to me, thinking about the Pixie vs. Empath fight for the first time in ages, that (and I’m sure this isn’t what they were going for – there should have been at least one line of dialogue to that effect if it was) it would be neat to see a similar fight in which it’s made clear that the rookie beat the empath who was able to take out veterans because the veterans keep a tight lid on their emotions, and therefore are no longer used to fighting while terrified/enraged/distracted etc., while the rookie is such a bubbling pot of inner turmoil going into the fight that projecting emotions onto them is like throwing a Molotov cocktail at someone who’s already on fire.
“It also occurs to me, thinking about the Pixie vs. Empath fight for the first time in ages, that (and I’m sure this isn’t what they were going for – there should have been at least one line of dialogue to that effect if it was) it would be neat to see a similar fight in which it’s made clear that the rookie beat the empath who was able to take out veterans because the veterans keep a tight lid on their emotions, and therefore are no longer used to fighting while terrified/enraged/distracted etc., while the rookie is such a bubbling pot of inner turmoil going into the fight that projecting emotions onto them is like throwing a Molotov cocktail at someone who’s already on fire.”
So, of course, the logical next step is complain they need a speedster….
Great answers for the drinking thing!
“So, of course, the logical next step is complain they need a speedster…”
Exactly! Someone who can get over themselves with lightning speed!
(Granted, maybe Northstar wasn’t the best choice for that)
Actually, it would be refreshing to see comics explore the non-physical aspects of superspeed more often:
“After he hit me with that fear power of his, it took me hours to work up the courage to punch him.”
“It took you three seconds.”
“Well, it felt like hours to me.”
Or maybe a one-panel montage of a speedster going through the “five stages of grief” in the middle of a fight or something.
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