(If you’re here for the wrestling preview, it’s one post below.)<\/p>\n
After the deluge of new material in September, things seem to be settling back into the normal routine. \u00a0But we’ve got a few X-books, we’ve got the end of a major crossover, we’ve got the second issue of DC’s flagship title, and we’ve got a new title from Image.<\/p>\n
Fear Itself<\/em>\u00a0#7<\/strong>\u00a0– Well, this certainly didn’t work. \u00a0I have half a mind to do a separate post trying to figure out the plot glitches and random jumps that have plagued the series, but really, this issue illustrates the point. \u00a0It’s the big climactic battle between the Serpent’s forces and everyone else – okay, fine. \u00a0Iron Man returns from Asgard with the special weapons that will empower some characters chosen entirely at random and turn them into variant action figures. \u00a0There’s no discernible rhyme or reason to the characters chosen, and no real attempt to suggest a logic to it. \u00a0With all the world’s superheroes to choose from, Iron Man chooses to power up the Black Widow, Iron Fist, Hawkeye and the Red She-Hulk? \u00a0Why?<\/p>\n But the story of Fear Itself<\/em>\u00a0is supposed to be that the Serpent is empowered by fear, and that he’s been spreading terror to make himself more and more powerful, in order that he can take on Asgard. \u00a0In itself, this raises a plot problem: if the Serpent needs to do this, why didn’t the Asgardians just squash him right at the outset instead of fleeing the planet? \u00a0Put that aside, though. \u00a0If that’s your central theme, then logically, the Serpent’s defeat ought to involve undermining his power base by stopping people from being afraid. \u00a0Matt Fraction clearly understands that, because this issue is peppered with scenes of Hope around the world.<\/p>\n Except there’s no apparent reason for people to suddenly develop hope. \u00a0The story vaguely seems to suggest that because the Serpent’s being beaten back by the empowered heroes, therefore people are getting less afraid. \u00a0But that’s all backwards. \u00a0The fear wasn’t an effect of the Serpent’s success, it was the cause.<\/p>\n As a plot concept, this could have worked. \u00a0You could (for example) have done something where the heroes win, not so much by physically beating the Serpent’s forces, but by performing acts of heroism that inspire the public. \u00a0That might have made for a decent story, as a way of dramatising Why Heroes Matter. \u00a0What we get here, though, is a massive random fight scene, where completely incongruous moments of hope are thrown in because somebody has vaguely understood that they’re thematically necessary. \u00a0For its dramatic weight, it relies instead of the heroic sacrifice of Thor, but that’s weightless, because we know perfectly well he’ll be back soon enough.<\/p>\n Then there’s an epilogue about the ordinary folk of Broxton pulling together. \u00a0Remember the ordinary folk? \u00a0They were in issue #1.<\/p>\n It’s very pretty and all, but this was a dreadful story – partly because of the storytelling blunders that undermined key moments, but mostly because the plot itself is poorly constructed and lacking in drama. \u00a0Instead of building logically to a climax, it seems to throw in vaguely climax-shaped things and hope for the best. \u00a0It’s a mess, and while part of that can be blamed on the inevitable clutter of writing a story that doubles as the backdrop for a line-wide crossover, I’m left with the impression that Fraction and his editors just never had a clear enough handle on the story they were trying to tell.<\/p>\n Justice League<\/em>\u00a0#2<\/strong>\u00a0– Technically this is still on a monthly schedule, having shipped at the start of September and in the third week of October, but it does make you wonder whether Justice League<\/em>\u00a0is really going to remain on the same schedule as the other DC books, and whether DC would truly bite the bullet and use a fill-in artist if it came to it.<\/p>\n Anyway. \u00a0The main criticism of Justice League<\/em>\u00a0#1 was that people thought it was too slow and didn’t get the whole cast into play quickly enough. \u00a0And this issue isn’t really going to change any views there, since it’s evident that the plan is to introduce the characters one issue at a time. \u00a0This month, it’s the Flash, who’s brought into the plot by the simple expedient of revealing that he and Green Lantern are already friends. \u00a0About half of this issue is the obligatory hero-on-hero fight, as Superman outpowers everyone – though Geoff Johns does have a nice angle with the idea that Superman is to the other heroes what they are to the general public. \u00a0Cyborg gets another three pages to advance his subplot, and then it’s back to exposition territory for people to discuss the Mother Box until some actual baddies show up at the end.<\/p>\n The criticisms of issue #1 pretty much remain valid, but I kind of enjoyed this. \u00a0It does set up a nice team dynamic, with Flash and Green Lantern as their own little unit within the bigger group, Superman taking a little persuasion that these bozos have anything much to offer him, and Batman as the one who tries to herd them all into working together. \u00a0I’d prefer the story to move faster, but what it does, it does well.<\/p>\n Uncanny X-Men<\/em>\u00a0#544<\/strong>\u00a0– The house ads billing this as “the final issue” have had me rolling my eyes in exasperation. \u00a0We already know they’re shipping Uncanny X-Men<\/em>\u00a0#1 in November. \u00a0It’s not the final issue, it’s just a renumbering stunt – one intended mainly to hype up the new direction, though I suspect it’s also intended to put Wolverine’s faction on an equal footing with Scott’s and avoid the impression that it’s X-Treme X-Men II<\/em>.<\/p>\n But Kieron Gillen, bless him, understands that if you’re going to do something like this, you’ve got to commit to it all the way. \u00a0So this is an issue largely devoted to selling the idea that the X-Men have been profoundly altered and that, in some meaningful way, things are drawing to an end. \u00a0(It also serves to bring Mr Sinister back into circulation, as a strangely meta commentator reflecting on how Xavier’s version of the X-Men is finally dead.)<\/p>\n This would have been easier to pull off if the break had happened at around the move to Utopia, when there was much more obviously a shift in what the X-Men had become. \u00a0But Gillen manages to pull it off. \u00a0With Jean dead, Warren out of circulation following the current X-Force<\/em>\u00a0arc (though the story is careful not to spell out exactly why), and Hank long since departed, all that’s left of the original X-Men are Scott and poor, marginalised Bobby, who hasn’t had a storyline in years. \u00a0But Bobby gets plenty of use here, as the story plays up the fact that Scott is losing his last link to the original team. \u00a0The story completely glosses over what happened to Professor X, presumably to avoid treading on somebody else’s plot – which is unfortunate.<\/p>\n As for Greg Land’s art… well, there are some downright clunky sequences, and some wonky panel layouts in conversation scenes for no discernible purpose. \u00a0But the Sinister scenes are good, and the central double-page spread of X-Men history is well done. \u00a0Overall, it’s passable.<\/p>\n Still, even if there’s more than a little smoke and mirrors, the story does manage to sell the idea that this is a meaningful break. \u00a0For Scott, all the leavers are trying to recapture past glories. \u00a0He knows that his team, a bunch of separatists living on a rock and staffed mainly by characters of dubious sanity and\/or virtue, are not really the X-Men as traditionally understood. \u00a0But he doesn’t see that as a problem, so much as empty nostalgia. \u00a0If I don’t buy the idea that this is where things changed, I at least buy that this is where Scott has it brought home to him, and that’s enough for the story to work.<\/p>\n Wolverine<\/em>\u00a0#17<\/strong>\u00a0– This has a “Regenesis” banner on it, but that turns out not to mean a great deal beyond “it takes place after Schism<\/em>.” \u00a0Wolverine’s returned to San Francisco to pick up some belongings, say goodbye to Melita, and (by implication) collect some money that he was planning to use to fund the new school. \u00a0Naturally it can’t be that simple, and so we have a story of Wolverine being dragged into more feuding in Chinatown, presumably so that Aaron tie off the loose plot thread of Wolverine being the notional kingpin of the Chinatown underworld. \u00a0(Which dates from… what, the Wolverine: Manifest Destiny<\/em>\u00a0miniseries?)<\/p>\n This turns out to be an opportunity to do something with stray characters from Agents of Atlas<\/em>, which should be a good match for Aaron’s writing style. \u00a0Ridiculous ideas played straight is pretty much the way he works, and Atlas<\/em>\u00a0has plenty of that. \u00a0Ron Garney seems very happy to be drawing gorillas and dragons, too. \u00a0I’m less convinced about the stuff with Melita; I suspect this is a feint and that she’s going to follow him to the east coast, but after the major role she had in the last storyline, I just don’t buy their relationship going this way, and certainly not so abruptly.<\/p>\n Xenoholics<\/em>\u00a0#1<\/strong>\u00a0– A new Image book which I suspect we’ll be talking about on next week’s podcast, but I may as well mention here that it’s pretty good. \u00a0It’s basically a comic about a support group for people claiming to have been abducted by aliens. \u00a0And while you can probably figure out that this comic will indeed feature aliens (there are some on page 1), since the group’s accounts are all wildly contradictory, it remains entirely possible that some or all of them could nonetheless be utterly deluded. \u00a0Nonetheless, the central plot hook appears to be: what happens to people like this if some actual aliens show up? \u00a0That’s a nice angle for a comedy-drama, which is basically where this is going.<\/p>\n Seth Damoose’s art might be a bit cartoony for some tastes (and I suspect it might look better at digest size), but he’s good with characters, and it’s a nice fit in terms of the tone of the story. \u00a0The cast are all well defined, and there’s a nice sense that this is going to be more of an ensemble piece than a gag comic. \u00a0I’ll stick with this a little longer, I think.<\/p>\n X-Factor<\/em>\u00a0#226<\/strong>\u00a0– Now that’s a great cover, even if the link to the contents is largely thematic. \u00a0Peter David seems to be set on rummaging around the obscure corners of the Marvel Universe in this book, as he’s now dusting off the Hangman, a villain whose only previous appearances were in two largely forgotten storylines from Avengers West Coast<\/em>. \u00a0That’s fine, though, because he’s evidently more interested in the concept than the details of any previous stories; this is effectively a reintroduction of the character.<\/p>\n This arc looks to be getting the series back on track after the “mythological figures chase the baby” stuff. \u00a0It’s a nice change to see the cast actually working as a team, and it gives David a chance to do something with the team dynamic. \u00a0Art from Leonard Kirk guarantees a nice clear read, and the comic relief moments are well judged. \u00a0Good issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (If you’re here for the wrestling preview, it’s one post below.) After the deluge of new material in September, things seem to be settling back into the normal routine. \u00a0But we’ve got a few X-books, we’ve got the end of a major crossover, we’ve got the second issue of DC’s flagship title, and we’ve got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1105,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}