It’s been a while since Marvel last put out a story that so obviously looked as though it had received a visit from the rewrite fairy.  Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira were the creative team on the first three issues of the team-up book Avenging Spider-Man, and this story was originally slated to appear in that book.  And Spider-Man dutifully appears in the first issue… only to disappear entirely and resurface for a cameo in the coda.

It seems reasonable to infer that he was originally planned to have a larger role, and it’s far from obvious why he’s been removed, given that the story could certainly have used somebody in the outsider/comic relief.  And given that a decision has been taken to downplay him, it’s no less clear why he’s still in the story at all, particularly considering that he’s the Peter Parker version of the character, thus placing the story massively out of sequence for no clear reason.

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There’s a big crossover going on in the X-Men books right now, and Astonishing X-Men is not invited to the party.  The book is scheduled to end with issue #68 (albeit that it’s being instantly replaced on the schedules by Amazing), so you might have thought that outgoing writer Marjorie Liu would be using these remaining issues to wrap up some outstanding storylines, such as the subplot about Northstar’s immigration status.  Instead, these two issues contain a story that doesn’t seem to have much to do with anything else from her run.

Issue #66 picks up in the aftermath of the Iceman storyline.  The melting ice floods the New York subway and wakes a green tentacled baby alien that can possess people by touching them.  Mostly the alien just wants a hug, so the result is shambling groups of people asking for a cuddle.  The X-Men break its hold on some New Yorkers (using a good old fashioned electric shock) and then try to hunt the alien down, while it apparently manages to hitch a lift on a series of vehicles out of town.

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What was the last time a series ended with six straight issues of epilogue?  Sandman?

Yes, granted, X-Factor is evidently being relaunched.  Issue #260 ends with Polaris being being recruited for a new corporate version of X-Factor, and Peter David’s closing essay is sure to remind us of that.  In fact, it sounds very much as though David himself is sticking around for the new version.  This is not a high-selling book, and from the looks of it everyone realised that the Hell on Earth War was a suitable opportunity to quit while they were ahead and go for the relaunch.

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They’re doing odd things with the collections of Brian Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men.  The first collection, titled “Revolution”, covers issues #1-5.  Volume 2, “Lost in Limbo”, covers #6-11.  But this doesn’t match up with the story arcs – the Limbo arc actually appears in issues #5-7, so it’s been split between the books.  And issues #8-11 are just kind of lumped in with volume 2.

In fact, they’re not really an arc at all; they’re just issues of an ongoing series, a storytelling structure we don’t see that often.  Calling issues #10-11 an arc is a bit arbitrary, in fact, but since the “Battle of the Atom” crossover starts next month, it’s as good a place to stop as any.  And they’re both drawn by Fraser Irving.

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In his latest weekly interview over at CBR, Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso sings the praises of the anthology format as a place for new creators to cut their teeth at Marvel.  “There are few easier ways to gauge a new writer or artist than to have them work on a short story,” he says.  “It gives you a quick glimpse at how they approach their craft because they have to structure a story with a beginning, middle and end without occupying lots of real estate.”

In theory, there’s a lot of truth to this.  There’s long been a widely held view that British creators who started off at 2000AD learned how to get to the point, if nothing else.  But the ability to structure a story with a beginning, middle and an end has not been consistently in evidence in A+X.

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