As per the previous post, I’m going to split the reviews into two this month.  So the X-books are one post down, and in this post we’re going to do (some of) the new DC titles.

Before we start: yes, I know it’s technically week two, of the relaunch, but I’m treating Justice League as week zero.

And no, I didn’t buy Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Hawk & Dove, Justice League International, or Men of War.  Just to save you scrolling down.

Oh, and for those of you who missed the plug on Twitter, Al is the guest co-host on this month’s episode of The Thumbcast, which is well worth a listen.

Action Comics #1 – Well, this is the big one, isn’t it?  As far as online fandom is concerned, at any rate.  The challenge for Superman writers is his overfamiliarity; like Mickey Mouse, he’s so iconic that he’s a brand first and a character a distant second, if at all.  With All-Star Superman, Grant Morrison addressed that problem by doing a definitive modern take on the classic (ie Silver Age) Superman set-up, but with Action Comics he’s taking a more radical approach.

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The big news this week, and for the next few weeks, is obviously the DC relaunch.  There’s going to be a lot to talk about there.

But there are also quite a few X-books out this week.  Because Marvel, being Marvel, have decided that a very good number of Wolverine comics to ship in a single week is three.  To the uninitiated this might appear moronic, but they’ve been doing it for long enough that one would like to think somebody has deluded themselves into thinking it makes sense.

Anyway, rather than do a juggernaut mixture of X-books and DC first issues together, I’m going to split them into two columns this week.  We’ll see how that goes.

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Astonishing X-Men #36-37, 39, 41

Writer: Daniel Way
Pencillers: Jason Pearson, Sara Pichelli and Nick Bradshaw
Inkers: Karl Story, Sara Pichelli, Nick Bradshaw, Norman Lee, Jay Leisten and Craig Yeung
Colourists: Sonia Oback and Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterers: Cory Petit, Joe Caramagna and Clayton Cowles
Editor: Nick Lowe

As regular readers will know, I find that most storylines are improved by reading them in one sitting.  Partly it’s because the structure comes across better.  Partly it’s because it’s a re-reading, and you always see things that you didn’t spot the first time around.  And yes, partly it’s because a lot of comics weren’t properly structured for the serial in the first place, even though it’s the format in which most readers will experience it.

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It’s a podcast weekend, so don’t forget to check out the show just one post down from here.  Strangely enough, there’s a lot of stuff about the DC relaunch, but we’re also reviewing Angel and Faith and Secret Avengers.

And for once, it’s a very quiet week for the X-books – one regular title, one oddball obscurity – which means we’ve got time to talk about the other stuff.

Angel & Faith #1 – Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 was, shall we say, not an unmitigated success.  By getting carried away with the lack of practical restrictions in comics, it lost sight of what made the original TV show work, and turned into a very strange cosmic superhero title – to such a degree that the final issue ended up carrying an editorial from Joss Whedon acknowledging that he’d taken a bit of a wrong turn and pledging a back to basics approach in Season 9.

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“Wolverine’s Revenge”

Writer: Jason Aaron
Penciller: Renato Guedes
Inker: Jose Wilson Magalhaes
Letterer: Cory Petit
Colourist: Matthew Wilson
Editor: Jeanine Schaefer

Jason Aaron clearly has long term plans for this book, considering he’s spent the better part of the year setting up the big reveal in the last issue, which isn’t even the end of the story.  Having been banished to Hell by the Red Right Hand and spent nine issues getting out again, Wolverine finally gets to confront them.  And what happens in the first four chapters can basically be summed as follows: Wolverine fights and kills a Mongrel, while one of the Red Right Hand has an extended flashback about why he hates Wolverine.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

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Once again, I’m going to stick to reviewing the X-books this week.  Because (a) there’s eight of them, which is far too many, and (b) there’s not a great deal else out that’s noteworthy, no doubt because everyone’s keeping their heads down and waiting for the DC relaunch to blow over.

I was interested to read Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso being interviewed at CBR this week, where he was reminded about how Quesada and Jemas, in their early days in charge, had reined in the size of the line, and more or less asked whether there were too many X-books.  Obviously, he dodges the question (though the general thrust of his answer hints at what we all know, which is that Marvel commission as many X-Men books as they think the market will bear, and then it’s up to the editors and creators to try and find something to put in them).

But he does comment that he wants each book to have a “mission statement”.  Which is fair enough – if you’re going to have multiple X-Men comics (as opposed to a single book which ships more frequently) there ought to be some point of distinction between them.  What interests me is that he goes on to talk about that “mission statement” solely in terms of the two post-Schism core titles, which begs the question: what’s the point of X-Men, Astonishing X-Men and X-Men Legacy?  Does anyone working on those books have a clear idea of why they exist, beyond the fact that the financial projection spreadsheets say they do?

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