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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How stupid is too stupid?

It’s a question that’s come up a lot ever since Schism, where Jason Aaron introduced the current version of the Hellfire Club – a quartet of evil twelve-year-olds who seized control of the Hellfire Club and moved on to become the main villains of Wolverine and the X-Men.  These characters don’t work.  But why not?

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The Arkea story finished in issue #3, the “Battle for the Atom” crossover doesn’t start until issue #5 – let’s round out that first collection!

Actually, though, that’s unfair.  This isn’t a filler issue; Wood could easily have strung out the Arkea arc for four issues if he’d wanted.  If anything, four issues would be more common these days.  Instead, this issue seems to be trying to take a moment to lay down some markers for future stories and character directions, before the big crossover comes along and subsumes everything for two months.

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If you haven’t listened to this week’s special bonus podcast, one post down, then do.  I’m not in it, but it’s great.

There’s one more issue to come out in this series, but that’s the epilogue and wrap-up.  We’ve reached the end of “Frozen” itself (which is going to be the bulk of vol 12, if you’re getting the collections), and thus Marjorie Liu’s last full storyline.

It’s a simple enough idea.  In the previous arc – the “X-Termination” crossover – Iceman picked up a bit of Apocalypse’s power, and so he’s both powered up and going mad.  The result is that the world plunges into a new ice age, while duplicate Icemans run around making contact with his ex-girlfriends.  The story can’t quite make up its mind whether the Apocalypse seed is meant to be a big reveal.  It’s pretty much signalled up front in the recap page of part 1, but the actual story seems to start off trying to suggest some uncertainty about what’s going on.  It doesn’t really matter, though, since the seed is just a macguffin anyway.   (more…)