The X-Axis – 25 March 2012
All right, then! We’ve got two weeks worth of X-books to cover – which, in this day and age – is a lot – so let’s run through them. I’ll try and take some of these quickly but, well, I said that last time and it didn’t seem to work out that way. Let’s see how we go.
Avengers: X-Sanction #4 – This is the final issue of the miniseries that’s being billed as a lead-in to Avengers vs X-Men (and, incidentally, Marvel are displaying remarkable confidence in product awareness by shipping it with a cover that completely obscures the “X-Sanction” bit of the logo). A while back, I predicted that the pay-off would be that Cable’s mission ended up tipping off the Avengers to the threat posed by Hope, thus ironically bringing about the very thing he was trying to stop. Well, that doesn’t happen.
Thing is, nor does much of anything else. Cable is finally subdued and carted off to the X-Men’s prison; Hope somehow or other cures him of the techno-organic virus; and Cable and Cyclops have a brief conversation in which they acknowledge openly that she’s Phoenix. Which, from the look of it, is supposed to be the big pay-off. Except any remotely attentive reader must have figured it out during “Messiah Complex”, which was years ago. That aside, it’s a load of running around and fighting, with some leaden attempts at emotional melodrama. Oh, and it has one of the stupidest scenes I’ve read in years, in which we’re asked to believe that Hope understands Cable so well that she can guess correctly which wire to cut to defuse a bomb that he’s set. It’s the sort of thing that would be charmingly goofy in a Silver Age comic, to be fair, but even if you’re willing to be charitable and take it that way, it still seems absurdly out of place here.
If you decided to skip the prequel and go straight to the regular series – smart choice. You missed nothing.
Daken: Dark Wolverine #22 – The penultimate issue, as Daken tries blowing things up in order to make his grand gesture of empty revenge at the superhero community. I’m not sure this entirely works; the plot hinges on Daken’s belief that he’s going to somehow turn the public against superheroes with his terrorist attacks. But the Marvel Universe public are nothing if not notorious for their perennial ingratitude, which has pretty much become a genre convention in its own right – so that when this book tries to build its plot on the idea that it’s something new, you’ve got a problem. Nor can it really play the “self-contained” card, since the whole meta-point is Daken lashing out at the genre as a whole.
Then again, there’s still an issue to go, and maybe it’ll turn out that the whole idea is that Daken doesn’t quite get the superhero thing. I do like the theory of what’s going on here, the failed antihero series going out by nihilistically lashing out at the more established books that spawned it – I’m just not quite sure it’s riffing on the genre in a way that makes sense.
Generation Hope #17 – The final issue. Writer James Asmus has a tricky job here; he can’t really wrap up the Sebastian Shaw storyline properly, but he’s got to do something to give the series some resolution. Sensibly enough, he focusses on the running plot thread that most goes to the heart of the book – Hope’s supposed messiah status and the influence it gives her over the other characters. So this issue sees Zero attempt to take her down, accompanied by a bunch of mind-controlled Utopia residents and Laurie, who, in a nice touch, seems reasonably happy to play along of her own free will until she figures out that the mob isn’t a voluntary mob.
All this leads to Zero becoming an outright villain and getting defeated, and Hope reconciling with the rest of her group. It’s not really the way I’d have wanted to see either storyline develop, and I’d rather Zero had remained as a more ambiguous character. But in fairness to Asmus, when the book’s being axed anyway, lost potential is all a bit academic. This issue does at least wrap up the book’s major storyline and give the series some closure, in a way that more interesting long-term directions wouldn’t have done. While that doesn’t alter the fact that Generation Hope ends up as a book that never delivered on its early promise, the compromise is an understandable one.
New Mutants #39 – The New Mutants are stuck on Paradise Island, where they’ve all been infected with a rather nasty virus except for Warlock, who’s immune and therefore has to take charge of the situation. That’s the basic conceit of this issue, and it’s done very well. The basic plot – everyone’s dying – could easily be horribly grim, but it’s nicely balanced with Warlock’s well-meaning yet utterly hopeless attempts to keep up everyone’s spirits, mainly by deploying his “confident, reassuring smile”. The overall effect is a very funny issue, but one that doesn’t lose sight of an underlying horrific threat. One of the book’s strongest issues in quite a while.
Uncanny X-Men #9 – The first half of a two-part storyline leading, in a way, into the Avengers vs X-Men crossover. According to interviews, Kieron Gillen’s thinking here is that if the series is going to truly stand alone, the Avengers need to be introduced before the crossover hits – so this is a team-up story. But the focus isn’t really on the Avengers; they’re just here to get them on the board. (They’re on three pages, and Wolverine and Cyclops sort of look at each other without renewing their big argument – after all, it’s not in issue.) First and foremost, it’s a story about a prison break from the SWORD orbiting satellite, allowing Gillen finally to do the story about Unit, the alien robot serial killer he introduced in SWORD‘s short lived series and never got around to. Unit’s a fun villain, with his calmly condescending and manipulative manner, and he’s a nice threat to put against Hope. Carlos Pacheco is back on art, and he’s on good form here. He’s getting to draw loads of superheroes fighting loads of obscure aliens, and it looks lovely. This is a great little superhero book.
Wolverine #303 – Jason Aaron’s run nears an end, and “Back in Japan” feels like a very strange way of doing it. With most of his core themes already wrapped up, Aaron seems to be doing a mixture of a coda and some set-up material for the next writer. That’s an unusual way to finish an extended run these days; usually writers seem more interested in making their run feel relatively self-contained. But the main point of this story seems to be to place Amiko, Sabretooth, Mystique, Lord Deathstrike and the new Silver Samurai with a new position in the Marvel Universe, ready for use in future stories. Nothing wrong with that – there’s much to be said for the view that if the series is continuing, the right thing to do is to help smooth the transition, not put up a big neon sign saying “Jumping Off Point” – but it isn’t the way things have often been done in the last decade, and it’s certainly a little unexpected to see it happening here. Aaron has one more issue to go, which will presumably be his farewell story, but the emphasis here seems to be squarely on building for the future.
I’ve not been a huge fan of this storyline, but this issue does pull it back a bit. One of my major criticisms – that Sabretooth wasn’t being given anything to do, despite his return being a supposedly major event – is pretty much addressed here. He’s playing possum and turns out to be the real main villain after all. That’s a nice feint, and I think it works really well. There’s still no explanation for why he’s back, but hey, that’s presumably being saved for the Jeph Loeb storyline that appears to have spiralled off into scheduling oblivion (and long may it remain there). Regardless, it’s a clever twist that raises the story in my estimation quite a bit. Still not really sold on the new Silver Samurai, still think the flurry of artists with clashing styles is a mistake, but there’s more to this than earlier issues may have suggested.
Wolverine and the X-Men #7 – End of the second storyline, and the book remains as raving mad as ever. Some of the team go inside Kitty’s body in Fantastic Voyage style to take on a horde of little Brood; Broo is confronted by a militant alien scientist who thinks he’s a threat to the natural order; and Wolverine and Kid Omega continue their attempt to raise loads of money from an alien casino. (That doesn’t go very well for them. But that’s probably for the best, actually, since it means the whole “Angel losing control of his company” storyline still has something at stake after all.)
The real drama here is obviously meant to be Broo finally lashing out and fighting back in order to protect Kitty, thus proving that he is indeed a killer under the friendly veneer, and advancing the storyline about which side he eventually chooses. The Fantastic Voyage material, to be honest, I can take or leave – Nick Bradshaw draws it beautifully but I kind of have the feeling that the novelty value on that one was pretty much covered in the previous issue. But the alien biologist is fun (“Anyone not willing to murder for the sake of science is no scientist at all”), and the casino stuff is so silly and over the top that you’ve got to embrace it.
X-23 #21 – This looks like a case of Marjorie Liu looking at her one remaining issue, figuring that she can’t possibly resolve all outstanding story lines, and opting for the thematic route. So, despite being billed as “Girls Night Out, part 2”, this actually turns out to be a silent issue of Laura riding out into the wilderness, running around naked with wolves, and having a mystical experience.
I can see why Liu’s taking this route, and visually the storytelling is very impressive, but the story left me rather cold. To the extent that the story seems to suggest X-23 confronting the dark side of her personality and overcoming it, it feels, if not unearned, certainly arbitrary as a conclusion to a series where that internal conflict has been the main theme. I’m sure this is mainly a reflection of the issue having an impossible task, since the slow-burn approach to X-23’s character has been a real strength of the book, and Liu has done well to make an enjoyable series out of such a grim and (superficially) one-dimensional character. The series as a whole has plenty to recommend it, but I can’t honestly say this issue is a satisfying wrap-up.
X-Factor #233 – Madrox has returned from his trip through alternate realities, but while he’s been gone, Havok and Polaris have taken command of the team. So this issue is mainly about establishing the team’s status quo under their command, with X-Factor taking on a camp of anti-mutant extremists, while in the subplots, Layla brings Madrox up to speed, and somebody goes up north to hook up with the Isolationist. For the most part it’s a straightforward story of the regular team in action and, for a change, working effectively as a team – which is presumably going to be the theme here, as Alex and Lorna turn out to be more effective at least when it comes to the practical side of leadership. It also shows why the series needed to get Madrox out of the way for a few months, although his actual dimension-hopping still wasn’t a fantastic story.
Basically a straight issue re-establishing X-Factor as a regular and effective team, with the subplots livening it up. But that’s worth doing from time to time, and Peter David and Leonard Kirk handle it well.
X-Men: Legacy #263 – The X-Men and Generation Hope team up to beat Exodus, which, as he points out, is actually kind of a win for him. He’s all about encouraging them to team up. The idea here seems to be that even if Exodus’ attack didn’t achieve anything in itself, the knock-on effects for the characters will be more significant. I’m not sure I’d have gone for Rogue and Wolverine squabbling this early into the book’s new set-up – I’d have preferred to let the new status quo bed down before disrupting it – but who knows what the scheduling considerations are, given the imminence of the big summer crossover? And bringing in the teenagers from Utopia does make some sense, in giving them an opportunity to voice the argument for rejecting the school, something that’s kind of been glossed over when it comes to the likes of Surge and Dust. A good issue on the whole, just maybe teasing discord a little early in the run.
X-Sanction might have been pretty pointless overall, but it did apparently manage to bring Cable back and cure him from the TO-virus.
Probably setting him up for something during or after AvX. Maybe a new X-title for his fans? (I guess he must have some judging by past titles he’s been starring in).
About Wolveringe & the X-Men #7, I think you might have overlooked something: While Logan and Quire haven’t gotten money on the Casino trip, there a panel on the penultimate page that solves the monkey problem in short order: Krakoa can grow diamonds, they simply had to ask him/it to do so.
Knew I’d forgotten something. Yeah, that’s kind of a cop out ending, isn’t it?
I gave up on X-men a while back, despite still being a fan of the characters. What’s the overall concensus of the new direction? Is it worth starting from Schism and picking up WATXM and Uncanny trades? Will both those titles keep me covered with the “important” stuff in X-land? Or is the whole thing still a bucket of suck and not really worth it?
Wolverine & The X-Men is the best ‘main’ title in years. Fast paced, fun and no Greg Land art.
Schism isn’t worth it, besides the title reveals all you need to know about the story.
WATX is still working for me. It seems pretty novel for a flagship title to be basically a comedy book, but the thing that puts it over the top for me is the fact that Aaron still puts in some great character moments in the midst of the madness.
Uncanny had looked really boring to me lately so I hadn’t been picking it up, but your review of this issue makes it sound pretty fun.
Ive prefered uncanny to waxm.
Gillen.has had some great quips so far.
Knew I’d forgotten something. Yeah, that’s kind of a cop out ending, isn’t it?
–I kind of liked it in a nonsensical kind of way. Like that episode of the Simpsons where the kids get stranded on an island, and right at the end, they announcer goes “oh, Moe rescued them”
I’ve been reading the current New Mutants storyline, because God help me, I wanted to revisit Bird Boy. The first issue wasn’t bad, but the current one, I can’t agree with Paul at all. I didn’t even take the “notice self’s reassuring smile” stuff as a joke (which is probably just my autism playing up again). But the main problem is nothing much happens. They bum around the island, then the bad guy turns up, to be continued. There’s some character bits in there, and the creeping horror is done very well, but those things should be happening alongside the plot advancing, not instead of it. It just felt to me like the story is in a holding pattern so it can finish off with the correct number of issues.
Uncanny hasn’t been horrible, it’s just been bland. Those Tabulate Rasa aliens couldn’t have been more ‘meh’, and most of the arc was dedicated to them, with a panel or two thrown on for team character development. The newest issue with Unit and SWORD was a big step up. Oh, and no Greg Land art :D.
Wolverine and the X-Men has been great maniacal fun, but (as mentioned above) has had enough great character moments that it doesn’t really feel like the comedy book so many people are trying to label it.
Did anyone else notice how in both “Legacy” and “Wolverine and the X-men” when their respective villains were defeat both went down saying something akin to “I told you so”? I thought it was strange but then again I read them back to back.
I think Gillen has been doing amazing things with Uncanny… I found the set-up of the extinction team kind of clunky, but he’s been making me think back fondly on a very long X-fandom. He reminds me most of the glory days of Claremont without feeling like he’s rehashing or treading the same soiled waters. Uncanny #9 in particular, the brilliant use of Danger to give us, what I felt was one of the most succinct and spot-on takes of Colossus and Illyana, seen in a really long time. The use of the Avengers, which echoed to old Marvel where characters like that came and went without major trumpet flare. All of the little stories happening on the page, as Unit’s story flares up around them. I’m generally more a fan of Aaron’s type of crazy, but Gillen’s last few issues have been iconic X-Men to me.
Bravo!
Oh… I’ve never been able to stomach solo-Wolverine… but is there any hint of Mystique’s future presence?
I skipped X-sanction but did the cover come out with Colossus on it like it was colored in the house ads?
so isn’t a non TO-virus Cable just an old X-man?
I would think they are rushing things with Legacy but I think we will have a new status quo after this summer anyway so they are just burning up the story ideas now.
“so isn’t a non TO-virus Cable just an old X-man?”
No, the main difference is that Cable would vote for Sarah Palin while X-Man would be too busy eating mushrooms in Zuccotti Park to vote at all.
2 things come to mind with all these Nate Summers.
First, who wants to see a story where some firm of alternate time line child support enforcement agency comes after Scott Summers for back child support?
Second, it seems Alex Summers is either infertile or practices safe sex in all time lines but mutant X and for that we thank him.
I’ve never had much use for the Brood and think they’re another ill-fitting concept that Claremont shoehorned into the X-Men mythos because he liked writing cosmic stories and Starlord didn’t have an ongoing series at the time. But damn, did my heart break for poor Broo at the end of the newest WAXM. I just love that little guy.
Kudos also to Abnett & Lanning for actually making the frigging Ani-Mator into a pretty terrifying villain. Just goes to show that good writers can make a silk purse out of any sow’s ear.
Brad, that moment with Broo is exactly the kind of thing that is sorely lacking in Uncanny, and really elevates WatXM to more than just a comedy book. I sense similar unexplored depth in the new Apocalypse Jr character
I think Aaron has put Wolverine’s team up against much more interesting villains, too, as opposed to Uncanny. I can’t wait to see Sabretooth next issue.
Looking forward to more X-Factor with Havok and Polaris, even though arguably the last thing the book needed was more cast members.
Uncanny and WATXM are both pretty good; certainly better than the “main” lines have been in awhile. Uncanny, while I love the team (Cyclops, Magneto, Psylocke, Colossus, Namor all would be among my choices), seems a bit empty. Gillen gets some good quips but that’s about it. Might just be the heavy dose of decompression. WAXTM is definitely light-hearted and silly, but fun. And I really liked the old-style “AN X-MAN WILL DIE!” on the cover, even though with the light-hearted tone I wasn’t worried anyone would actually die.
Gillen and Aaron are both doing great. Aaron is writing some excellent, funny stories. Gillen’s individual issues and and story arcs aren’t quite as strong in themselves, but I suspect they’ll read even better when we see what comes next. He’s doing a great job of making it seem like Uncanny is going somewhere.
Regarding the successful curing of Cable’s T.O. virus, I’m really surprised nobody’s mentioned the obvious possibility that, being of Jean Grey’s blood and now an “Omega-level” mutant like Nate Grey, he should have some interesting interaction with the Phoenix Force awaiting him.
Wouldn’t that be true of Nate & Rachel too? Kid Omega and the Cuckoos also have links to the Phoenix force. Have any other characters got links to the Phoenix force?
I only sporadically pick up the X-books when my interest is piqued and money allows, so I was wondering: how much does the foreshadowing of Phoenix’ return acknowledge Grant Morrison’s Phoenix stories? He rehabilitated the concept quite effectively, I thought.
Is the Phoenix Force generally considered something to be feared and contained? Or do some of the characters remember when Jean became Phoenix again during Morrison’s run and believe that she was a genuine force for good that “stripped everything down to the truth” and all that?
Presumably if the Phoenix Force did take over Cable he’d activate it by firing little Phoenix bullets from his gun.
Hmm why isn’t What If… still a monthly series? Get Aaron/Van Lente/Parker to write it.
Huh – it’s almost as if Avengers: X-Sanction was conceived as a story to give Cable a new status quo, and later shoe-horned into an AvX prelude.
“Presumably if the Phoenix Force did take over Cable he’d activate it by firing little Phoenix bullets from his gun.”
Speaking of Grant Morrison…
I still think the whole concept of the Phoenix is in need of rehabilitation, and it really could have done with having been cleared up before this event centred on it.
I still have little to no idea why actual Jean has ever manifested as Phoenix after the cocoon retcon. Oh, was it something to do with going into Maddie when Jean ‘died’, then going into Jean at the end of Inferno?
Then there’s all the other ‘fragments’ diluting the concept. Rachel lost it when she got taken to the end of time (maybe not for the first time?), but had the raptor symbol in her eye whenever she used her powers some time after that.
Morrison, as far as I could tell, reinvented it rather than clarified it. Adding new bits like the White Hot Room certainly didn’t simplify it (never got my head round what that part even meant).
Now Hope is Phoenix but Phoenix hasn’t reached Earth yet…
They had a go at explaining it in one of those ‘Saga’ recap things, what, 3 or 4 years ago now? And that really just summarised the previous stories it was in rather than presenting it as something with any real degree of consistency or coherence.
@Tdubs
That isn’t Colossus on the cover of X-Sanction, it’s Cable with the techno-organic virus completely out of control.
I think it is colored like the house ads; I’m not sure which element of the coloring you’re asking about, but it has Wolverine in his grey X-Force uniform and Spider-Man in his black costume (neither of which are the outfits they actually wear in the issue) fighting Cable with metal skin and black hair (I think the colorist migh have thought that was Colossus too (and not known he’s bald now), as Cable should actually have white hair) against an orange background.
(Okay, I just reread Tdubs comment, and realized that he actually was asking whether it was accidentally colored as if Cable was Colossus. So: Yes. Yes it was.)
Doesn’t the presence of Apocalypse Jr. alive totally negate the “trial of Fantomex” storyline over in Uncanny X-Force? Even if Fantomex was keeping his existence secret to protect him (but what did he tell Wolverine about who the kid is?), it’s still a major fail for the Otherworlders that they don’t know Jr. is actually not dead…
@Karl Hiller
They are different kids. Fantomex killed the kid who had been raised by Clan Akkaba. Then he made another clone of Apocalypse and raised him in a simulated environment so that he would have a more heroic worldview rather than the Clan Akkaba indoctrination.
About Apocalypse… Shit, they keep throwing more and more bits into this mess and none of it makes sense. The last time we saw the real, present day Apocalypse, he had just been beaten by the X-Men in that stupid Milligan run and was being taken away by the Celestials who had come to “collect” from him. Then, years later, he was back as a kid for no reason. Then he got shot. Then he’s back as a different kid. Why are we even calling either of these kids Apocalypse? Did the Celestials make him into a kid for fun, or what? I know it’s Poccy and none of his resurrections ever make sense, but I find this so annoying.
Comic characters coming back to life happens as much today as it did years ago, but I’ve noticed in the last few years that they’re hardly even trying to come up with a reason for why they come back anymore. The last “good” one I remember was Colossus, I guess. With Magneto, it’s obvious they had no idea when they did it. They tried a couple of explanations before just saying “fuck it, we don’t know, but he’s back so get used to it.” Then you’ve got Cypher and Blink and Legion and X-Man and Magik (sheesh) who were explained but came back so suddenly and everyone’s just like, “oh”. And then you have Sabretooth, were it’s like they said, “the story that killed him was so stupid that we just don’t care. He’s back, fuck you all.”
Sorry it’s late and I’m tired
@Dan
The appearances of the two Apocalypse kids were well explained and based on previous Apocalypse stories, such as his rejuvenating device (X-Factor, Cable & Deadpool Blood of Ap. ties in) and his devoted Clan Akkaba, taking care of Apocalypse when he is in his rejuvenating chamber and generally continuing his plans (Apocalypse vs. Dracula).
The first kid was created by the Clan and trained to be a conqueror. Apparently, he didn’t have any memories of his previous lives.
It only takes a few steps to have the Clan using the rejuvenating device to bring back an Apocalypse when the ‘original’ one was lost to them. Perhaps the lack of memories is due to their relative lack of practice with launching the machine or it is by design.
The second kid, Genesis, was created from the blood of the first kid, probably by different mean (don’t think Fantomex has access to a rej. chamber) once again without memories, by design this time.
The Apocalypse that appeared in Milligan’s Blood of Apocalypse is still, afaik, in space.
Dan: while some of the explanations for character returns can come off to some as obscure or rushed, I’m completely okay with the ‘just ignore that shit Loeb did to Sabretooth’ strategy, which from here on out shall be referred to as “The Chuck Austin Solution”.
Unfortunately, killing off Sabretooth, no matter how lousy the story it happened in, was a really good thing. I’m actually disappointed to see him back, because I never much liked him and he was massively overexposed in the 90s.
Dave, I too have many a question about Phoenix as a cosmic entity and how it relates to Jean – or anyone else for that matter. How and why Jean began manifesting Phoenix (like?) powers (even before Morrison’s run) baffled me. How was she able to do that? Did some part of the Phoenix remain with her? And the Phoenix entity has already been back to Earth at least two or three times in recent years (remember when it tried to reanimate Jean’s body – and isn’t her body still in the Antartic? – and then came back for the Cuckoos). So why this time every one seems to have a completely different view on the Phoenix and the threat it poses is beyond me. And then we have Rachael (who, if she was born to Scott and Jean in an alternate timeline and that Jean was actually the Phoenix in Jean form, would Rachael be part cosmic entity?), and that Phoenix sword thing – I don’t know. I feel like the Phoenix is simply one of those concepts that changes depending on who is writing it and THEIR particular understanding of it.
About Apocalypse:
So the kids are technically different entities from old Poccy? Also, about Clan Akkaba. I haven’t read everything dealing with them, but I know they were created for the Dracula mini. What I want to know is, have they been retconned into always having been there to bring Poccy back? I thought it was odd when Ozymandias just showed up one day and was suddenly Poccy’s pal all along. Is Akkaba now considered to be protecting him all through his history?
@maxwells hammer
I agree, and I have no doubt it will be addressed eventually. Considering the goofy supernatural circumstances in which he died, I’m guessing they’ll use similar means to explain how he’s back. Or that he won his freedom and walked out of Hell. Oh, and I still can’t believe that Hell is now a literal place in the MU. Looking at that entire Wolverine run (Romulus, Hell, Sabretooth’s death), how was any of that given the go ahead? How did any of it even sound good on paper? Honestly, it’s hard to even treat it as canon since the other 100 books Wolverine is in completely ignore it. That’s right up there with the Draco for me; it happened, I guess, but it affects nothing and no one ever talks about it. So yes, if it means getting Sabretooth back into circulation, I’d say ignore that story too.
@Mike
I agree and I hate it. How the Phoenix has persisted for so long is completely beyond me. I really have no problems with the original Phoenix story. Anything beyond it can go to hell (yes, that includes Rachel and Madelyne). It was a convoluted mess then and recent years have made it even worse (that X-Men: Lost Years story, Grant Morrison, Phoenix sword and other random Shi’ar crap). It started to fall apart after Jean’s resurrection and it was used as a plot device to give Maddy and Phoenix-Jean’s memories to the newly returned Jean. I understand why it was done, but it’s just been a cluster fuck ever since. But even after that, it could have been salvaged; really, there was no reason why Jean should have been doing Phoenix stuff in the late 90’s / 00’s up through Morrison’s run. As much as I love Morrison, he latched on with these goofy metaphysical Phoenix concepts (White Hot Room, Cukoos and Quentin’s involvement, etc.) which are STILL in heavy rotation today) and just made the entire thing one indecipherable mess. Add to that whatever Claremont was doing with it on the side at practically the same time, and yes… it amounts to whatever the current writer wants it to be. It just needs to go away. It’s really death (no pun intended) to a character like Jean, who I guess really had no character before the original story. She’s been saddled with it on and off ever since, and I swear it’s gotten worse since she’s been dead somehow. It’s just rotten storytelling and it brings character growth to a halt. I see it like I see Rogue and Gambit’s relationship, a once interesting concept that has sucked the life out of everyone around it for the past 20 odd years. Face it, the writers have always felt the need to bring it back; they don’t know what to do with it and they know it’s one of the most famous stories so they keep trying and trying. They just need to let it go. I hate the Phoenix, I’m sorry. It’s the freaking Death of Gwen Stacy of X-Men: we get it, it was a major story and a cornerstone of the mythos, so why can’t we just leave it at that?
I don’t know about the specific characters in the vs.Dracula mini, but the idea of Akabba has been around a while. Similarly, Ozymandias has been around since the 90s, when Marvel started to flesh out Apocalypse’s Egyptian roots, and tried to get away from him being just a generic all-powerful mad man.
Likewise, Hell has been an actual place in the Marvel Universe for decades. Actually, the general problem with Marvel is that there are too many Hells (and too many “devil” figures all claiming to be Satan) rather than there not being such a place.
@Joseph
That’s true. Sadly, I suppose we can even count Azazel among the “devils” now. I know Hell has been around in various forms, but there was something about the way it was done in the Wolverine story that seemed a little off. It was just so literal and so serious for what it was. It’s almost like Wolverine can now go to Japan or Madripoor one weekend and drop by Hell to see his father the next. It was just not in spirit with Wolverine at all. There was a kind of lame story a while back that revealed Wolverine has to fight for his soul in the afterlife every time he “dies”; he always succeeds which lets him heal. This wasn’t as glaring because it wasn’t so literal; it was ambiguous enough that in retrospect you could take it as a (crappy) metaphor for internal struggle.
Man, you guys are correcting me at every turn. I suppose that’s what I get for complaining so damn much. Oh well, I’m glad someone here knows what they’re talking about. 😉
Oh, and your name is Joseph! See, I knew I forgot someone on my resurrection list. I haven’t read Not a Hero; did Joseph get an explanation for his resurrection, or is he just back?