The X-Axis – 27 June 2010
As I’ve been writing this, the England/Germany match has been under way. Will England still be in the competition by the time I finish writing this? No. No, they won’t. Still, at least the BBC will have got all the weeping and flagwaving out of its system for another couple of years. It’s all a terrible injustice. I blame God, who stubbornly refuses to make the English better at football.
We’ll get to the comics in a second, but first, a couple of items of prior business.
First, if you live in Britain and you haven’t seen Anvil: The Story of Anvil, then you really should. Luckily for you, BBC4 are showing it on Monday at 10pm.
Second, a word about Crimefighters, which I saw at the Edinburgh Film Festival on Friday. It’s a superhero comedy from the makers of the web serial Zomblogalypse, shot in York on a microscopic budget of £7,000. (No, not New York. York.) The “three friends become superheroes to battle mysterious crimewave” pitch makes it sound like Kick-Ass, but it’s more a sort of superhero B-movie with mock-noir overtones.
And it’s very entertaining. The acting, admittedly, is a bit patchy. On the other hand, though, it’s got a genuinely good script, heavy on the Joss Whedon influence but carefully plotted. And it’s rather well filmed too. It earns the goodwill to get away with the moments when it looks a bit DIY – something which fits the concept anyway, in small doses. Plainly a bit more money wouldn’t have gone amiss, but the bottom line is, I laughed.
The reason why it’s worth mentioning is that the Picturehouse chain – that’s the Cameo, if you live in Edinburgh – are actually screening it over the course of July, so Britain readers have a rare chance to see it in the cinema. The dates and participating cinemas are on their website. (There’s an official trailer there too, though for what it’s worth, I don’t think it really gets across what works about the film – partly because it takes longer than 2.5 minutes to tune into its wavelength, but partly because it doesn’t use the best bits anyway.)
And now, on to this week’s comics.
Amazing Spider-Man #635 – Part two of “Grim Hunt” and… yeah, after all that build-up, this really isn’t doing it for me. At this point it’s looking worryingly like an attempt to feed J Michael Straczynski’s ill-conceived “spider-totem” idea into a blender with “Kraven’s Last Hunt”, the end result being a story which features a ton of uninspiring D-list characters but doesn’t seem to be about anything in particular. Lovely art by Michael Lark, a nice feint with Ezekiel. So there’s a few good moments. But really, it just feels like the trappings of a decent story applied to the plot of a mid-nineties crossover.
Avengers #2 – You know, the more I think about it, these new Avengers team line-ups are downright weird. If the idea of New Avengers is to have Luke Cage’s renegade Avengers team work independently because they don’t want to be under the thumb of the regular Avengers, why are half of them on both teams? And why is Spider-Woman on this team rather than Luke’s? Anyway… this issue brings Noh-Varr into the cast, mainly so that he can share his alien super-tech with our heroes. If nothing else, this does explain why Bendis brought Noh-Varr into the cast of Dark Avengers only to write him out almost immediately – at least it raised the guy’s profile a bit. That said, while Grant Morrison’s original conception of Noh-Varr as a sort of cosmic brat was always going to wear thin after a while, he’s ended up being mellowed into a rather bland character, so there’s a bit of work still to be done. The story isn’t exactly racing forward – it’s sort of a lurch form one exposition scene to another – but Romita’s finding some fun stuff to draw in there, and the time-warp stuff looks great.
Green Arrow #1 – Another “Brightest Day” tie-in book, the justification this time being that whopping great forest that was dumped in the middle of Green Arrow’s city in Brightest Day #1. It turns out that there’s a point to this, and the forest is actually central to the set-up for this new series. Writer JT Krul certainly has the right idea – de-emphasise all the continuity baggage and get back to the central idea of the character. So now he’s Robin Hood, hiding out in a magic forest in the centre of a corrupt modern city, and venturing out from time to time to take on The Man. In theory, that’s actually quite a good idea for the character. Even the fact that he used to be an industrialist fits with the version of the Robin Hood myth where he’s a nobleman. The problem with this book lies more in the one-dimensional execution, where everyone in power is relentless and unambiguously evil, and all the homeless people are magnificently loveable. To be fair, the story of Robin Hood isn’t exactly noted for its political nuance either, and if they’re aiming for a slightly younger audience, then you can’t really criticise it too much for being superficial. After all, nobody really wants to read the Sheriff of Nottingham as a troubled family man. So, yes, I get what they’re going for here… but it’s still a bit simplistic to hook me.
Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark #1 – A classic example of something that seemed like a good idea over a few drinks, being worked up into an actual one-shot. Ryan Ottley and Jason Howard split the book, Howard taking the mysterious Sea Bear, while Ottley takes on the terrifying Grizzly Shark. The risk with these things is that sometimes the idea is funnier than the comic, and to be honest, there’s a bit of that here. The Sea Bear story is pretty much a straightforward monster-hunting-revenge pastiche which happens to plug the eponymous Bear into the monster role. It’s okay, but it doesn’t really take the joke much further. Grizzly Shark works better, though – partly because of the beautifully ludicrous visual of a shark swimming through the trees, and partly because it gets plenty of material out of the Shark biting people (and, in some cases, their beautifully incongruous reactions). The package doesn’t quite live up to the promise of that title (how could it?), but it’s still pretty enjoyable.
Thunderbolts #145 – The second issue of the book’s new direction, and it turns out that last issue’s cliffhanger was a feint. Which is a bit disappointing, to be honest, but maybe it’s laying the ground to do something more with Zemo in due course. This issue, the team go on their first proper mission, which is a nice basic one – it’s not really about the story, it’s about setting up the team dynamic (or lack thereof). Not quite sure about Parker’s take on the Juggernaut – I know it was a Chuck Austen story, but he did reform pretty emphatically, didn’t he? And to be honest, I could have used a little more plot in this issue, given that we’re two chapters in. But I’m still interested to see where Parker’s going with his cast, and I like the rough energy of Kev Walker’s art.
Wolverine Origins #49 – This would be the first half of a two-part epilogue, which looks as though it’s mainly going to be Wolverine musing about how he needs to move on from the cycle of tedium in which he’s been trapped for the past four years. I’m with you there, mate. Second half of the issue is a tedious dream sequence, so presumably he’ll be coming to terms with things next issue in symbolic fashion. Nice cliffhanger, though, unless the resolution is “it’s only a dream”, in which case it’s a lousy cliffhanger. But hey, it’s the epilogue to a four-year story I didn’t much like, so it’d be surprising if I changed my mind now. Will Conrad’s art is pretty good.
Wolverine: Weapon X #14 – In this month’s exciting issue of Avengers vs Deathlok, we get the origin of one of the many, many Deathlok cyborgs who’ve travelled back from the future, and we get a lot of fighting with the Avengers. Wolverine’s barely in it, which wouldn’t be a big deal if it seemed to be in any way a Wolverine story. But it doesn’t, to be honest; if anything, it seems like Jason Aaron has a Deathlok story he’s keen to do, and he’s going to shoehorn it into this title for no better reason than that he happens to be its regular writer. Judged as a Deathlok mini, it’s not bad – I like the idea of inverting the concept by making this one a maniac who’s broadly happy with his new life as a murderous cyborg – and Ron Garney’s action sequences always have plenty of energy. It just doesn’t seem to belong in this book.
X-Factor #206 – In which the team finally get back together and beat the baddies. Yeah… I can see why they wanted to do a peripheral Second Coming tie-in, because X-Factor could use the sales. But in practice it ends up as a bunch of random baddies attacking X-Factor for no particular reason, and if anything it draws attention to a flaw in Bastion’s scheme: the mutants aren’t all trapped in his magic dome in San Francisco, because some of them weren’t there to start with. Mind you, it’s better than it has any right to be, because Peter David uses the essentially random attack as a backdrop to have fun with his characters and, for once, to give them a good clean win. Still feels like a bit of a diversion, though.
X-Men Legacy #237 – Part 12 of Second Coming proper. And since there are only 14 parts, we finally reach the point where the X-Men win something: X-Force get to shut down the nasty robots from the future. Unfortunately, they get to do it in an issue drawn by Greg Land, and the art is decidedly hit and miss. There’s quite a nice page with Cypher talking to a computer, but a central double-page spread which is supposed to be a montage of three different concurrent fight scenes is just shapeless and awful. And Mike Carey seems to be struggling to find opportunities to be smart with this issue – dialogue like “Scott, that was… that was Hope” is surely beneath him. Good closing scene with Cable, though, and they’re still keeping up the idea that this is, presumably, heading to something big and some sort of turning point.
Zatanna #2 – Not as strong as the first issue, perhaps because it doesn’t have quite such strong set-pieces. It’s also an early lurch into a plot device I’ve never liked – the one where a demon makes somebody have an angst-ridden dream so that the story can spell out their character issues for the slow members of the class. Lovely art, though, and Brother Night is a solid villain. I’ll give it a little more time.
the origin of one of the many, many Deathlok cyborgs
I swear to god, if we end up with WORLD WAR DETHLOKS, I am going to go FUNDAMENTAL.
(World War Dethklok, on the other hand…)
//\Oo/\\
Thanks for another timely update of some of the most important goings-on in the comic-verse.
As for international football… I can only say that the English team is obviously being haunted by a retro-active continuity change, when their second goal was not recognised.
Or mabye: “It’s only a dream… ” 🙂
It’s karmic balance. Back in ’66, they had a goal allowed that some think hadn’t really crossed the line. They went on to win that match against, who else? West Germany.
I just hope they keep showing that Carlsberg advert over and over in a loop.
Oh, wait. No.
//\oo/\\
Totally agree about Amazing Spider-Man. After all the build up this is a big let down. I never needed to see the Spider-Totem stuff or Clone Saga mentioned again. And even if this story is going to write them out completely, they were accomplishing that better already by just ignoring it. Rumor online is that Dan Slott may become the sole writer and the book get bumped down to 2 times a month. At this point I think that is the best option. Anything to get Joe Kelly off the title is ok in my book.
OOOOHH. I like Joe Kelly. That One Superman Comic That Was About How Much Of A Get Warren Ellis Is tainted my enjoyment of his work for a while, but I’ve enjoyed his Spidey.
…hh. I wonder. I wonder I wonder I wonder.
Has anybody separated out the various stories by writer and tried to go through them that way? Hm.
//\Oo/\\
Now England know how we felt when those French cheaters prospered months ago (first round exit & complete laughing stock = karma’s a bitch). Oh wait, they don’t, because Ireland deserved to win that match while England were laughably atrocious and perhaps lucky to lose by only 3 goals. Oh well, I’m sure the tabloids have their excuses all ready (same old cycle: hype them up to ridiculous expectations, then crucify them the second they inevitably fail).
Ah anyway, comics…I’m not big into DC or whatever continuity they have, but I’m really digging ‘Zatanna’. Paul Dini seems to have a fairly decent idea what he is doing and the art is gorgeous, Stephane Roux’s work appears to be a nice blend of Alan Davis & Terry Dodson (who are 2 of my favourites). I going to stick with it a while yet.
I’ve enough faith in Jeff Parker to keep with ‘Thunderbolts’ for another couple of issues. The main hook for me is that the team is just so oddball & varied, which leaves for a large number of possible interactions or directions that Parker could go with.
This final arc of Origins appears to be an accurate enough coda for the series – dull nonsense, unnecessarily drawn-out stories that were somewhat saved by solid art.
Matthew-
I tried that because I wanted to see if you could get an overall “vision” of each writer, but it doesn’t really work. There’s too much interweaving of the plots now. From 550-600 I would say you could get by reading only the Slott, Guggenheim and Waid issues, which is rougly half of them during that period, but since the Gauntlet started, it’s much more difficult to read just certain writers.
Gauntlet didn’t really seem to fully connect, imo. It just felt like a banner with the Kravens coming in at the end of every arc to “offer” something. I mean, other than that Joe Kelley arc where Spider-woman III was taken off the field after a very long delay in appearances (I hope no one was a fan of her), they didn’t seem to build up or connect all that much, but then again, I didn’t follow the stories all that much, so I may be off the mark in thinking it was mostly background action until now.
Second Coming has largely disappointed me to the point that I dropped it several issues ago. Probably an issue after Kurt’s funeral. It was set up to answer so many questions and decided to meander after issue 5. We still know next to nothing about Hope outside of what “Cable” revealed, we still don’t know why she’s important, and the X-men have been stuck in a non-ending battle for several issues now. I think I now understand why Fraction made the last part of the trilogy seem like a “Cyclops” story. I miss the excitement factor and forward momentum the early issues had.
I liked Weapon X and Tbolts this week. True, Wolverine seems more like an Avengers/Dethlok book at the moment, but considering it’s getting relaunched in a few months time, why not take advantage and do something with other characters? It’s not like we’re not seeing Wolvie in 8 other books as a leading character. With that said, I can’t wait for Wolverine Origins to end, and I’m hoping someone can make Daken interesting again, otherwise, he can go to.
Never mind World War Deathlok, I hear Death’s Head II appeared in Avengers #2 (couldn’t bring myself to buy it) mere months after the original’s appearance in SWORD, so maybe we’re heading for World War Death’s Head!
Or not.
Do you support England, Paul? I didn’t think Scotsmen did that…
Zemo is going to be completely written as a bad guy in Brubaker’s current Captain America arc, as he’s written in online interviews of wanting bad guys to be bad guys, and Zemo was a Cap villain so he needs to be a Cap villain again (because it’s the Heroic Age, no subtlety needed).
Which is complete BS, because that’s basically throwing out one of the best changes of character in the past 10 years.
Death’s Head II appeared in Avengers #2
FFFFF –
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It’s okay Matt, it was a one panel appearance to illustrate “alternate futures”. Not even any dialogue for ol’ grille-face.
*palpitations subsiding*
//\Oo/\\
I like all the writers they have on ASM now; I’d hate to see it winnowed down to just Slott. Mark Waid’s been killing it, Van Lente is always top-notch, Kelly’s been solid-to-great.
I admit Slott was the clear stand-out among the first “Spidey Brain Trust” (other than Zeb Wells), but now he’s clearly among equals. ASM has been consistently better than it’s been for a looonngggg time, so I’d hate to shake things up now.
Even Grim Hunt is solid; I think the main complaint is that it doesn’t feel good enough to be the climax of a half-year build-up of stories, which is a valid point.
The second main complaint is that it seems to be dredging up crap from continuity that people have either never heard of, or didn’t want to see again. (See: Spider-Totem, Clone Saga, John Byrne’s Spider-Woman.) I don’t mind it so much, because I am well-versed in Spider-Man’s history, but I can see how it would be off-putting. I don’t know what people expected from Grim Hunt, but a continuity cleaning exercise wasn’t it.
Thunderbolts: Man, I was excited to see Zemo last issue. This issue was disappointly straight-forward for a book that has a history of huge plot twists and breakneck pace.
No, I do not support England.
The Scarlet Spider (presumably) wouldn’t come within the spider-totem theme because he doesn’t actually have spider powers, he just wears a spider-themed suit.
Soo … will Second Coming change the not working concepts from M-Day or is it just another tease without any resolution whatsoever?
Yes, apparently it’s only a DHII cameo, otherwise I would have considered getting it. That said, I don’t know if I could handle Bendis writing DH.
he doesn’t actually have spider powers
Had to Google her to check, ’cause I thought that Mattie Franklin didn’t have spider-powers either, strictly speaking, but it’s more of a case of what powers didn’t she have!
(including one you might have thought would work in her favour)
//\Oo/\\
“The Scarlet Spider (presumably) wouldn’t come within the spider-totem theme because he doesn’t actually have spider powers, he just wears a spider-themed suit.”
But he’s a clone of someone who has spider powers, just like Kaine, so . . . is there a difference?
Or is there another Scarlet Spider I’m unaware of?
You know that godawful Iron Spider costume? The one with the three extra legs, accurately simulating the total number of limbs borne by real spiders – seven – and the spats?
That.
(oh, fart on it: they’re clones, too!)
I mean, there was also a kind of crazy holonanobiotechnolographic Scarlet Spider who had a ripped sweatshirt and machine pistols, about 15 years ago. He was deactivated and taken into some kind of custody, and it was never really explained where he came from. or where he went to, but…
…my head hurts. Seriously, I’m trying to read the Wikipedia entry for Michael Van Patrick, and I just want to cry cry cry and cry until my eyes run red with blood.
OH MY GOD HE’S THE GRANDSONCLONE OF THE SUPER-SOLDIER SERUM GUY.
And with that, ah’m oot.
//\Oo/\\
And I can’t help but think that the name Michael Van Patrick is a reference to Peanuts’ Lucy Van Pelt.
It probably isn’t, but…you know.
(aside: it is)
//\Oo/\\
Michael: Long story short – the current Scarlet Spider is a clone of a former member of the Initiative. No spider-powers, just the Iron Spider suit designed by Tony Stark.
Matt: The Wiki entry makes it sound a lot worse than it is – the story was done really well in the book itself. (Avengers: Initiative was the only good Avengers book for the last few years, for my money. I hope Avengers Academy maintains that standard.)
At the risk of being Captain Obvious: the name Michael Van Patrick was chosen so it spells MVP, which stands for Most Valued Player, which is some sort of accolade in sports. And “van” is just a common particle in Dutch names that means of/from.
So if anything, it’s Charles Schultz who was referencing Marvel Comics by using a Dutch name, if you catch my drift…
Avengers: the Initiative was all right, but I would say Dark Avengers was the most consistently good Avengers book over the last year (barring the Utopia crossover and the initial Morgan LeFaye storyline). But then, I thought New Avengers was pretty great throughout Leinil Francis Yu’s run (although I suspect that’s not a popular opinion in these parts). I don’t really think the quality dipped until Secret Invasion.
As for Avengers Academy, I thought the first issue was excellent. Lookin’ forward to more.
You mean the Scarlet Spider has become a legacy name, and the new one is even more confusing than the first?
Way to go, Marvel.
Regarding Wolverine: Origins. Are you going, at all, to do a collective look at the entire series with the last issue as it’s own entry? I’ve rather enjoyed you ripping this title to shreds (in your own way) and would really appreciate one last hurrah.
Yes, I still enjoy looking at the summary of the last few issues of Mackie’s Mutant X, and it’s been a while since we had one of those rants.
Possibly, but that would involve actually re-reading the sodding thing, and I think on the whole that’s an unenticing prospect.
I third a summary review!
Bow to the will of the people!! hahaha.
Is this correct? My LCS says that there is no new chapter in Second Coming this week. WTF?!?! So for 13 weeks they have it regular as clockwork, only to fuck up on the penultimate issue? Way to go, Marvel: For a second there, you had almost convinced me you weren’t total assholes (an insult to assholes everywhere). Now I see that it was just me who was the asshole, for believing you had changed your ways.
Well… this is actually the second time Second Coming has fallen off-schedule.
Actually, doesn’t this mean that the end of Second Coming will be out at the same time as X-Men #1?
Incidentally, I’m sort of dreading that. It looks awful, but I know I’m going to buy it anyway. Matt Fraction says he’ll be paring down his cast when that book starts up though, which is good. (Although the cast of X-Men appears to be mostly Fraction’s main team, plus X-Man.)
(…And minus Namor.)
Lambnesio: PLEASE DON’T BUY VAMPIRE X-MEN!!
Its a number 1 issue, so it will sell a gajillion issues and Marvel will proclaim it a massive hit even though it will be mediocre in quality! For the love of Mike, don’t give in and add to the problem!!
Well, I should probably read the first issue before I decide I hate it, yeah?
Oh come on, Lamby…let the cynicism overcome you. It’ll feel good!
Also, does “From The Writer of Deadpool Book #32!” really instill you with that much confidence?
I fell for the X-Men #1 gimmick last time around; never again.
You know, I’ve been thinking about this, and my first three memories of the X-Men are, in order:
1. That one Spider-Man & Wolverine team-up where the cover has Wolverine’s left leg really powerfully foreshortened. That came as a pull-out poster, which hung in my cupboard for a while.
(still have a Bob Wakelin Spidey hanging in another cupboard!)
2. That one X-Men team-up where they’re on the plane, and Nightcrawler has an image-inducer and they crash into a nuclear reactor and have to create an X-Machine out of their own bodies in order to defeat the engineering staff, all of whom have evolved into Future-Men, even further up the ziggurat than Charley and the gang. And Charley wipes everyone’s memories of Peter being Spidey…includng possibly Mary Jane?
3. The UK reprint of X-Men 1 – the first time around – where Jean joins the team and they put on their costumes, and Cyclops’ origin is in the back, and the balaclava masks made me think of…some bad people…
This has been your portion of irrelevant data for the day.
//\Oo/\\
Guys, can we talk about something important, please? Astonishing X-men #34 FINALLY came out… almost a year later. So sad that while I was reading it, I had no idea why Beast and Cyclops were having that exchange they did at the beginning of the book… but at least Emma wasn’t overly sexualized like she is over in Xenogenesis.
The only thing that’d get me to browse X-men #1 is to see how they used Jubilee who has done nothing since New Warriors ended. Even her return in the X23 one-shot amounted to nothing. Victor Gishler does nothing for me, and i don’t know how he made it to a top tier X-book with his short Marvel resume. Nothing he’s done has been earth shattering good, and his DP stuff was borderline atrocious. They need to let him develop his comic writing ability on Punisher and then transfer him elsewhere. His Punisher Max run didn’t look like it set anyone’s heart on fire with interest, but I may be wrong.
Uh, it looks like they’re making Jubilee a vampire.
Sorry.
Emma not overly sexualized? Emma IS sex. How can she be anything other than overly sexualized?
I dunno… let’s ask Fraction. :P.
But seriously, the way she behaves and dresses is conservative (for her) in comparison to what she’s doing over in Xenogenesis. Uncanny Emma is an entirely different beast I’d rather not talk about.
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