“No Goats, No Glory” – Amazing X-Men #7
I’m running late this week, but hey, this one shouldn’t take long. Amazing X-Men #7 is notable more for what it isn’t than for what it contains. What it isn’t, is a comic that particularly matters – however you choose to define “matters” – because it’s a throwaway fill-in issue.
Firestar and Iceman are out shopping when they bump into an alien baby who’s being chased down by Spider-Man, who needs to retrieve him in order to get back a goat mascot who’s been abducted by aliens. (For reasons not shared with posterity, Spider-Man was looking after the goat.)
It’s a perfectly fun piece of silliness, by Kathryn Immonen and Paco Medina. Immonen’s comedy stories have sometimes tended to teeter on the brink of stream of consciousness, but this is tighter, and in many ways better for it. Medina is a good superhero artist who can handle the comedy pretty well. And hey, if you’re of a certain age you can sigh fondly at a reunion of the cast of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, even if that doesn’t play into the actual story at all.
But… what on earth is this doing in issue #7 of a comic that Marvel were trying to promote as some sort of big deal when they launched it only a few months ago? Obviously we all know that the currency of issue #1s has been devalued of late, and we also all know that when there are so many X-Men titles, most of them are going to be throwaway. Even so, it comes as a surprise to see such a blatant filler issue so early in the run of a new title.
An odd feature of the X-Men line right now is that while the two lead titles are plainly the Bendis books, neither of them actually features the X-Men. By which I mean, they both feature teams that, until a few years ago, would have been given a different name and presented as spin-off titles. The X-Men, by any sensible definition, are the team living in the Jean Grey School. Uncanny is about Scott rebuilding a new group after the collapse of his side of the schism during Avengers vs X-Men; All-New X-Men is specifically about the time-travelling teen group, making it akin to the early nineties Legionnaires spin-off from Legion of Super-Heroes.
That ought to leave the way clear for somebody else to write the actual X-Men and have some leeway to make their book feel significant. But none of the other three titles do feel significant right now, in pretty much any way, and hitting a comedy fill-in issue about a goat seven issues in really brings that home.
As a middle aged nerd, i marked out for the reunion, even without ms lion.
I assume thats what YostKyle’s remit is when they take over the book next month.
Well, let’s hope. It certainly ought to be this one since W&TX is principally about the students (despite the name), and X-MEN is about a specific squad. But I’m just not getting the sense that it’s even supposed to be a book on a par with the two Bendis titles.
I can only imagine it went something like this. Aaron had long term plans for the book that included making it the most significant and recognizable “X-Men” team book, but at the last minute decided to drop out. Marvel either had this script laying around meant for a special of some sort or commissioned it specifically as a fan favorite filler issue, either/or because they needed time to get the new creative team rolling. What other options did they have besides skipping a month or stepping on creative toes? There’s nothing wrong with filler if it’s done well and this wasn’t half bad by any means.
Conceivably, but it does little to inspire confidence that there ever was a serious plan for this book beyond “fill pages”. There’s nothing wrong with the actual story; it’s more that its presence here rings alarm bells for me.
My feeling is that the X-Books are basically the following:
Uncanny: Cyclops’ group
All-New: The Original Five
WAXTM: Focuses on the school-age kids
Adjectiveless: “Serious” X-Men team out of the JGS
Amazing: “Lighthearted” X-Men team out of the JGS
I don’t think the problem is necessarily with the title, I think it’s more that Bendis is in charge of the X-Men titles right now and he’s got the Uncanny and All-New squads sitting around spinning their wheels (seriously, has anything been happening with Cyclops’ “mutant revolution”?) The other authors probably don’t have much leeway to really push the overall storyline anywhere important.
Was the goat named Ms. Lion?
@M Carver:
But what’s “important”? The third most recognisable character in Uncanny is *Magik* for crying out loud! Whereas the JGS includes Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Iceman, Angel, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Rachel, Jubilee, soon Colossus and various others. Even if you “just” tell stories involving these characters rather than changing the universe around them, you *should* be able to make them feel “significant” in the X-Men’s world! It’s like complaining that an Avengers lineup with almost every major A-character except Cap, Carol Danvers and Justice available can’t be significant!
Along the lines of, and in furtherance of, what M. Carver said – the X-books have become one big ball of inane prose rolling downhill toward an abyss of nothingness.
@Reboot These days only events and stories that changes the status quo significantly (see Xavier’s Last Will coming up in Uncanny for example) are important.
AXM had one important story – the return of Nightcrawler – but that’s done now and it’s left to spin its wheels till the next crossover. Supposedly they will fight some Wendigo infection in the next arc.
I’ll add that if the Avengers told stand-alone done in a trade (or less issues) stories those would not feel important either.
But since Hickman is using New Avengers and Avengers both to build a big mega-story they are both important all the time.
I guess the only X-book focusing on the franchise’s original premise of peaceful coexistence between mutants and humanity is Uncanny Avengers. Sure, it lack the “X-” suffix, their base is Avengers mansion & for some reason Wonder Man is there. But it’s a team that was founded specifically in response to Xavier’s Dream whom promptly get derailed by the latest versions of Onslaught and Apocalypse. It doesn’t get more X-Men than that.
Well said, Brendan.
The Bendis books have been utter garbage. Absolutely nothing has happened in them. Nothing. Less than nothing, since stuff has to happen to put things back in the box for when the next writer helms the X-line.
I imagine it went something like this: WATXM was getting to be a real embarrassment content-wise, and its sales were also slipping. Marvel was helping one of their “architects” save face by launching a new book for him with a new #1. When that appeared to be going nowhere, they mutually agreed to take him off the book and move him to more events in order to keep they hype machine rolling for their “superstar” writers like Aaron (and Fraction, and Bendis) into whom they have invested a lot of energy.
making it akin to the early nineties Legionnaires spin-off from Legion of Super-Heroes.
I laughed at this one.
It’s actually a great analogy, but despite being a big fan of the Legion I didn’t make the connection. So thanks Paul!
@Brendan
A-ha! We tricked all of you into reading an actual X-Men book by putting “Avengers” on the cover and sticking Thor & Captain America in it! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
@Jamie
I fully understand Uncanny X-men and All-New X-men (or Bendis comics in general) aren’t to everyone’s liking, but to say nothing is happening is disingenuous.
Uncanny seems to be picking up on an early New Avengers sub-plot that was promptly dropped after the first six issues. Cyclops’ team is investigating a hidden faction in SHIELD that is sending Sentinels to attack new mutants and to lure out Cyclops and his team.
Cyclops has since declared war on SHIELD, which given the current state of the Marvel Universe IS revolutionary since the Avengers (and all other superheroes) essentially work for SHIELD now.
While the pacing is glacial, I’m glad the there’s a team of X-men that are getting back to the “outlaw” team of heroes that is hated and feared by the public they are trying to protect.
He’s also returned the concept of a SECRET headquarters which I feel like Marvel has dropped for all their teams.
As for All-New X-men, it’s less about a time-traveling team and just a way to let Bendis have a teen X-men book which is significantly different than the teen X-men book on Wolverine’s side.
I don’t know how secret the Uncanny X-Men HQ are, everyone seems to know where to find them except maybe SHIELD. But I suppose they’re not public knowledge as the JGS.
I believe Amazing under Aaron was supposed to be the book where they can just be X-Men made significant by Nightcrawler’s return, but with Aaron stepping out that sort of went out the window. I would like Yost and Kyle’s run to be a classic X-Men, which they’ve proved at least in animation that they can accomplish, but so far their first arc doesn’t sound particularly relevant other than the return of Colossus.
“Cyclops has since declared war on SHIELD”
He’s a saint!
//\Oo/\\
@Lawrence,
In your defense of Bendis, you inadvertently highlight the biggest flaw in his run. The ideas behind his titles are great; but the execution sucks.
Let’s have a team in a secret base that’s at war with the establishment. That’s a great idea! Too bad !@#$ has happened.
Let’s have a team of time-displaced teen X-Men. Great idea! Too bad !@#$ has happened.
Characters are poorly written, dialogue is flat and fake, stories are boring and often nonsensical, and continuity is trampled with no compelling reason. The core ideas of the books, but the execution is as bad as we’ve seen on the X-Men since…Joe Casey? Some of the Claremont 2.0 stories? It’s worse than even Chuck Austen.
As with basically everything I’ve read from Immonen, I really didn’t like this slapdash Spidey & His Amazing Friends tribute issue. It was too busy with “witty banter” and alien baby poop jokes to bother with “plot” or “clarity” or “not sucking,” it seems…
Odessasteps –
Did you see the PET AVENGERS series? (I think there were two of them.) Ms. Lion was prominently featured in those.
I get the feeling that most of the X-Men titles are just filler to tide the audience over until the next event anyway. It’s obvious that no one’s communicating with each other on the actual status of the characters anymore. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m drifting more toward the solo titles. Sure no one’s going to acknowledge anything that happens in them, but that’s no different from what’s going on in the supposed flagship books.
In a week where I bought 4 other comics, this issue felt like a real waste of money. I’m dropping this title now, and I’ll only pick it up after the fact if the stories are worth it. This now makes WatXM my only X-title. (Unless you count Uncanny Avengers and the Wolverine solo.)
Tim
– yeah, i read those when they came out, mainly for Lockjaw and Thor Frog. 🙂
For a filler issue, I really enjoyed this. Its all about the meta angle, even the witty dialogue. Very clever. Much clearer than her short in A+X. I hope they give her a book again. The first arc of the JiM reboot was excellent.
Uncanny seems to be picking up on an early New Avengers sub-plot that was promptly dropped after the first six issues. Cyclops’ team is investigating a hidden faction in SHIELD that is sending Sentinels to attack new mutants and to lure out Cyclops and his team.
Cyclops has since declared war on SHIELD, which given the current state of the Marvel Universe IS revolutionary since the Avengers (and all other superheroes) essentially work for SHIELD now.
Okay, but that happened in what, last issue? What’s happened in the 20 issues before that, besides gathering some random students and the BotA crossover? (He already took out a bunch of SHIELD sentinels with Wolverine at the end of the first WAXTM!)
Now, if it actually goes anywhere with that plotline – great. I agree, it would be pretty interesting. But I have the feeling that the X-Men will find out who the mystery villain is, take him down, and Cyclops will undo his war on SHIELD by the end of the arc. Either that, or it’ll be a lot like the last Cable and X-Force book, where they were “on the run” from the authorities but never actually took them on, just kept dodging them for 20 issues until the book ended.
He’s also returned the concept of a SECRET headquarters which I feel like Marvel has dropped for all their teams.
So secret that both the Shi’ar and the Future Brotherhood was able to find it no trouble…
As for All-New X-men, it’s less about a time-traveling team and just a way to let Bendis have a teen X-men book which is significantly different than the teen X-men book on Wolverine’s side.
The problem with All-New is that, again, nothing really happens. The weird thing is, Bendis keeps laying down the seed for stories – like a possible Cyclops/X-23 relationship, for example – and then undoes it by having Cyclops go off on his own series. Nothing really sticks long enough to tell any actual stories.
I feel a lot like Suzene, in that Marvel has realized that we’ll just keep buying these books (and that people love crossovers) so they just keep things bland and glacial until the next big event comes along. Between events, the titles don’t get to really tell meaningful stories. Unfortunately, titles like Uncanny Avengers – where there was a clear plan put in place for 35+ issues – are few and far between.
“He’s also returned the concept of a SECRET headquarters which I feel like Marvel has dropped for all their teams.”
When did the Avengers or the Fantastic Four ever have a secret headquarters?
@ww5d
Yeah, after I submitted I realized that Marvel never really had a secret bases before. That’s more of a DC thing.
I’ve been away from current Marvel Comics since Siege, reading nothing but Essentials and Epic Collections now. I’ve had the itch to start reading again, but the overall direction of this line is atrocious. I still listen to the podcast when it comes out and I still read you guys’comments. I’ve made a decision that I will not come back to Marvel until:
Bendis is completely gone from the Marvel Universe.
The brand is severely streamlined. There is no reason for more than two core X-Men books.
Focus on stories instead of just filling time in between events.
I’m voting with my wallet. There was a time when I was buying at least five Marvels a week, unfortunately I don’t see that every happening again unless some major changes are made in editorial and management.
I would love a streamlined X-Men book universe. Two, maybe three books, tops. One X-Men book, one book about students, and then one other X-related team – X-Force, X-Factor, X-whatever. Let’s thin out the mutant crowd – we don’t have to have all mutants running around in a group or in the background – particularly when writers only feature a handful of characters, going so far as to have the same ones star in multiple books (if you are going to have six or seven X-titles, does Storm and Wolverine and Ice Man and Beast have to appear in two or three of them? Use some of those other characters that pop up in the background of the school as teachers and make them popular!)
Once upon a time, when there was one (or two) x-books, each storyline was important – because that was the only place the X-Men were appearing. So whether it changed the X-Universe or not, it had value. Now, we have a sprawling number of books and they are judged on whether they are telling relevant stories – or stories that change things. Once upon a time, this latest issue of Amazing X-Men would have been the ‘change of pace’ issue – now, it’s a sign of a book that isn’t relevant to the line (which, sadly, may be in fact, true).
So, in order to make the X-books on the market matter, we need to have less of them. The more X-books, the more at least a few of them have to be ‘filler’ since they all can’t be telling tales that change everything.
“So, in order to make the X-books on the market matter, we need to have less of them.”
Agreed! The only reason we the fans THINK All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men are the “lead” titles is because of Bendis’ clout. Those books, as written, do not “act” like they are leading the line.
And, now Uncanny X-men doesn’t even hold the distinction of being “the core title”.
I thought the 80s had it right:
Uncanny X-Men (core X-Men title)
New Mutants (new crop of kids title)
X-Factor (secondary X-Men title 1)
Excalibur (secondary X-Men title 2)
Wolverine solo book (people seem to like the chap)
That’s five titles, each with a clear “reason for being”. I’d wager sales would be MUCH strong if they pared down the line, even if they published them more frequently. This is what they did with the Spider-Man titles and I think it worked.
What they are doing now, isn’t working. The X-Men books used to be top sellers; now the line is an unfocused mess.