{"id":1164,"date":"2011-11-27T16:52:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-27T16:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2011-11-27T16:52:48","modified_gmt":"2011-11-27T16:52:48","slug":"the-x-axis-27-november-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=1164","title":{"rendered":"The X-Axis – 27 November 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Thanksgiving, or whatever it is that Americans say to one another! \u00a0If you check one post down<\/a>, you’ll find this week’s podcast, now in association with CBR. \u00a0It’s also something of an epic since it includes the interviews with Stephen Wacker, Nick Spencer and Kieron Gillen that Al taped at last week’s Thought Bubble convention. \u00a0I usually leave the hype to Al, but you won’t want to miss this one, True Believers<\/em>. \u00a0I gather that’s how it’s done.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I’ve got two weeks of X-books to catch up on (plus X-23 <\/em>#16, which I think slipped through the net somewhere)…<\/p>\n

Astonishing X-Men<\/em>\u00a0#44<\/strong>\u00a0– Another Regenesis issue, and another new creative team, as Greg Pak and Mike McKone take over. \u00a0This is another of the Utopia titles, and quite what its remit is these days, heaven only knows. \u00a0“Exalted” is a four-issue arc, so for all we know, this could turn out to be the book with rotating creators on each arc.<\/p>\n

We start with a few pages of Cyclops brooding about everyone having walked out on him, before Storm shows up early, with a new look, to gratuitously pick a fight with him. \u00a0(Can you see where this is heading?) \u00a0Having decided that he’s sufficiently back on form, Storm hauls him off to South America to fight a bunch of Sentinels, whereupon she tries to make a pass at him and he finally twigs to the fact that all is not well here.<\/p>\n

The cover, with Cyclops and Storm locked in romantic embrace, is of course a fake-out – though in fairness, since it shows Storm in a version of her mid-1980s costume and hairstyle, there’s a pretty heavy clue there. \u00a0Because, yes, it’s not our Storm. \u00a0Effectively this seems to be a Cyclops solo story, with the mystery being why somebody is going around gathering up X-Men from different timelines.<\/p>\n

It’s alright. \u00a0The central mystery is decent, but there are some big problems. \u00a0The art’s a little stiff at points, and the colouring’s a bit murky. \u00a0The issue pretty much beats you over the head with the fact that Storm’s acting out of character, but it takes forever for any of the other characters to notice. \u00a0Mike McKone does a good job of drawing her with different body language from normal, but that also makes it harder to figure out why nobody sees through her until the plot requires it. \u00a0The fight scene between Cyclops and Storm is the sort of thing Chris Claremont used to do occasionally, but really does feel so undermotivated that you have to wonder why it blows over so swiftly.<\/p>\n

Daken: Dark Wolverine<\/em>\u00a0#17<\/strong>\u00a0– Given their prominence on the cover, somebody evidently thinks a guest appearance by the Runaways might shift a few copies. \u00a0So it’s only fair to tell you that the cover actually depicts the cliffhanger ending, which is the Runaways’ only appearance in the issue.<\/p>\n

That being said… this story does involve the Pride, who were the Runaways’ arch-enemies. \u00a0It is an essential issue of set-up before we get to the team-up (or fight?) next issue. \u00a0And it really wouldn’t have made sense for the Runaways to turn up any earlier than they do. \u00a0But yeah, if I’d bought this issue on the strength of the cover – which was the idea, right? – I wouldn’t be best pleased.<\/p>\n

Let’s judge it as an issue of Daken<\/em>, though. \u00a0Daken now knows who’s been manipulating him, but he’s so beaten down that he’s not really in much of a position to do anything about it. \u00a0All this goes to the heart of Rob Williams’ take on Daken as an antihero – ultimately, for him, it’s all about being in control of his life, which means being in control of everyone else. \u00a0Control is an end in itself for Daken. \u00a0Which is fine up until he’s outwitted by somebody just like him; and even then, the physical beating bothers him a lot less than the humiliation of losing. \u00a0It’s not enough for Daken to simply back off and retreat to Madripoor to rebuild; for the sake of his own self-image, he simply has to stay and win. \u00a0The pay-off, it seems, is Daken’s grudging recognition that he can win or he can be totally self-reliant, but it ain’t gonna be both. \u00a0All of which is neatly paralleled with Daken’s equally psychopathic (but less murderous) supporting character Donna Kiel, whose control-freak impulses are channelled into a desire to appear professional and to win at all costs.<\/p>\n

The art’s a bit sketchy at points, as if the deadlines were catching up on Matteo Buffagni. \u00a0And I could live without the appearance of a generic teenage hacker, albeit that he’s only there to move the plot along. \u00a0Suddenly hauling the Pride into the storyline at this late stage seems a strange choice as well, particularly since it’s done in a way that doesn’t altogether make sense – there’s a nagging feeling that somebody really wanted to get the Runaways into this storyline, and wrenched an existing plot point so as to justify them being here. \u00a0But the central ideas remain strong, the visuals are still perfectly good, and what we see of the Runaways at the end suggests that there could be some fun material in playing them off against Daken.<\/p>\n

Generation Hope<\/em>\u00a0#13<\/strong>\u00a0– Marvel’s recent night of the long knives has inevitably led to people wondering how safe Generation Hope<\/em>\u00a0can possibly be, considering that it’s outsold by several books which have just been cancelled. \u00a0Of course, the “Regenesis” promotional push might help, and it’s clearly safe at least for one more storyline.<\/p>\n

The new creative team are James Asmus and Ibraim Roberson – both of whom have been around for a while now doing one-off and short-run stories, and are now getting their first assignment on a regular title. \u00a0Inevitably, there’s something of a shift of tone here. \u00a0Broadly speaking, the angst is turned up a bit, and the characters are written a little bit more broadly. \u00a0Laurie’s more of a wimp. \u00a0Gabriel takes time to explain his troubles. \u00a0But it’s a mainly a case of Asmus having a slightly more trad-Marvel tone than Kieron Gillen, and also bending over backwards to explain everything to any new readers who might have taken the invitation to jump aboard.<\/p>\n

The promo art for this arc has the team with Sebastian Shaw, who was last seen over in Uncanny<\/em>\u00a0when Emma Frost wiped his memory and dumped him in the middle of nowhere in the hope that Namor wouldn’t figure out that he was still alive. \u00a0Naturally, that begs the question of how the other X-Men would fail to stop him on Cerebro, and this issue provides an answer of sorts: she’s told the Stepford Cuckoos to turn a blind eye. \u00a0Naturally enough, Hope decides he must be a tragic new mutant in need of her help, and charges off to sort things out. \u00a0Nice enough idea.<\/p>\n

It’s a pretty solid first issue; it sets up all the key points, including a bunch of soap opera plots, and it also kicks off the mystery of what on earth Shaw is up to, while getting to a decent cliffhanger. \u00a0There’s a lot of ground covered in this first issue, and it benefits from good solid artwork, and gorgeous colouring from Jim Charalampidis. \u00a0It’s maybe lost a bit of subtlety and distinctiveness on its way to becoming a more typical Marvel team book, but it does the job well.<\/p>\n

New Mutants<\/em>\u00a0#34<\/strong>\u00a0– Blink is back, and she seems to be hanging around with a band called Diskhord, who look a bit like Slipknot, but seem to have superpowers. \u00a0Meanwhile, the New Mutants are meant to be looking for her. \u00a0But since they don’t actually have much in the way of leads, mainly they’re just moving into their new house and meeting the comic relief retired neighbour.<\/p>\n

For those of you who don’t follow the books too closely, best to be clear about this: we’re not talking about the Blink who appeared in Exiles<\/em>. \u00a0We’re talking about the regular, Marvel Universe version of Blink, who was brought back during the Necrosha storyline a couple of years back, and hasn’t been seen since. \u00a0This issue doesn’t really go out of its way to explain who she is or why the team ought to be looking for her – which is odd, since it’s not really a mystery, and Nate Grey even asks, only for the conversation to be interrupted before he can get an answer. \u00a0Presumably we’re getting to that next issue, particularly as mainstream Blink is something of a blank slate for Abnett and Lanning write however they want – but it still seems an odd choice not to introduce her at all.<\/p>\n

Much of the issue is really about the New Mutants settling into their new home, which is given a nice distinctive look by David Lopez’s art. \u00a0There’s the usual strong interplay between the characters, and a fun little subplot of Amara insanely deciding that she’s going to try and hold down a regular job in addition to storming off to battle evil on a regular basis. \u00a0Plenty to enjoy here, if a few curious choices.<\/p>\n

Wolverine & The X-Men<\/em>\u00a0#2<\/strong>\u00a0– In this issue: fighting! \u00a0After last issue’s extended tour of the school, this one is all about the new Hellfire Club’s attack. \u00a0As they helpfully explain, they’re not actually trying to kill any of the pupils – after all, their schtick is profiteering from anti-mutant sentiment, so it’s not in their interests to succeed in wiping mutants out. \u00a0But a bit of serious maiming is perfectly acceptable.<\/p>\n

It’s pretty clear that the tone of this book is going to be downright crazy. \u00a0Much like last issue, this is a case of throwing increasingly mad ideas at the page and constantly upping the stakes. \u00a0And as you might expect, while the Hellfire kids seemed a little out of place in Schism<\/em>, they’re perfectly at home here, in a comic that tells you point blank that the entire school was built in a fortnight and dares you to disagree.<\/p>\n

If I’m being honest, issue #1 was slightly stronger. \u00a0Chris Bachalo’s always been a hugely inventive artist, and there are some very striking images in this book, but clarity in action sequences has always been his achilles heel, and there are points where it rears its head again here. \u00a0(What does Husk actually do<\/em>\u00a0to the Frankenstein soldiers, for example?) \u00a0But if you’re willing to embrace its shamelessly nonsensical tendencies – which is usually worth it with Aaron’s stories – this is good fun.<\/p>\n

Wolverine: The Best There Is<\/em>\u00a0#11<\/strong>\u00a0– Lo, there shall come an eighteen page expository monologue.<\/p>\n

The staging tries to make it more interesting than that – and granted, some of those pages are narrating Contagion’s otherwise-silent origin flashback – but the bottom line is that it’s still an eighteen page expository monologue. \u00a0If you want an explanation of Contagion’s scheme, then you get it here. \u00a0Essentially, he’s been carrying out tests on powerful healers in an attempt to create a virus that can kill everything. \u00a0Which is apparently going to remake the universe in his image, though whether he means that literally or metaphorically, I neither know nor care.<\/p>\n

The usual waste of time, basically.<\/p>\n

X-23<\/em>\u00a0#16-17<\/strong>\u00a0– Not sure how I missed the previous issue, but let’s cover them both together. \u00a0Issue #16 is the final part of “Chaos Theory”, and it’s got some nice moments. \u00a0Somebody needs to sacrifice themselves in order to free Valeria Richards from the evil demon, and X-23 nobly offers herself because she thinks everyone else is less dispensible. \u00a0That’s a nice touch.<\/p>\n

After that, though, it kind of falls apart, as X-23 becomes Captain Universe to fight the demons (all of which is passably logical given their back story), and then, uh, yeah, something happens and she wins. \u00a0I think it’s supposed<\/em>\u00a0to somehow mean that she ultimately triumphs because she still has the capacity for hope, but while you can just about see the metaphor, it really doesn’t make a tremendous amount of sense as a story wrap-up, and ends up feeling a bit contrived and unsatisfying.<\/p>\n

Issue #17 begins “Misadventures in Babysitting”, in which Laura kindly agrees to help out the Fantastic Four by taking care of Franklin and Valeria. \u00a0You can probably imagine how well that goes. \u00a0In other words, it’s a change of gear for the series, by going for a relatively light issue. \u00a0That’s fair enough, though I’m not sure about running with the FF as guest stars for two consecutive story arcs. \u00a0It’s not like they’re such a natural fit.<\/p>\n

There’s also a scene at the beginning which brings Hellion back into the cast, picking up on the scenes they had in the early issues of the series. \u00a0That much is fine, though it’s also the sort of scene that could desperately do with some footnotes – Hellion talks about doing “some bad things after you left” but gives absolutely no indication of what story he’s talking about, or even what actually happened in it and why it’s upset him. \u00a0For what it’s worth, I assume he’s referring to X-Men Legacy<\/em>\u00a0#243, when he shut down Omega Sentinel. \u00a0But if it’s important enough to be presented as a turning point for the character, surely it’s also important enough to need explaining for the readers of this series?<\/p>\n

Sana Takeda is back on art, which means there’s plenty of opportunities to see Laura’s sad face again – which, of course, is how she’s written. \u00a0I think this issue is either coloured or printed a shade dark for my tastes, but as usual, there’s a nice delicacy to her work, and the comedy with the kids is well done.<\/p>\n

X-Factor<\/em>\u00a0#227<\/strong>\u00a0– Continuing the Bloodbath storyline. \u00a0I’m starting to get the idea of where this is heading: our villain is apparently engaged in harvesting souls, and the strong implication from earlier stories is that Guido doesn’t have a soul any more. \u00a0So presumably that’s the story which is going to come to a head here.<\/p>\n

Bloodbath himself is a bit one-dimensional as villains go – he’s called Bloodbath, after all – but that’s not a major problem, since he’s really just there as an unusually vicious opponent for the regular cast to bounce off. \u00a0Peter David seems to have decided to play him as something of a cypher, who’s playing along with the rules of how these stories go, and therefore may intentionally be setting out to serve the role of villain; I wouldn’t be altogether surprised if there’s a reveal coming down the line which puts him in a different perspective. \u00a0For the moment, at least he’s a credible threat – and given this book’s tendency to split up the cast, there’s actually some weight in the idea that it takes the whole team to beat him.<\/p>\n

Leonard Kirk’s art is typically clear and strong, shifting gears easily between the quiet and dynamic moments. \u00a0It’s the sort of storyline where a lot will depend on how cleverly it’s wrapped up, but thus far, it looks promising.<\/p>\n

X-Men<\/em>\u00a0#21<\/strong>\u00a0– Okay, so the basic story here is that a small Eastern European country has figure out how to build its own Sentinels, it’s threatening to use them against its more powerful neighbours, and the X-Men have to team up with War Machine to restore stability. \u00a0Meanwhile, Domino’s been captured by the baddies, who seem to think she’s dead, despite relatively little in the way of visible injury – but hey, it’s a T-rated book.<\/p>\n

That’s all okay as far as it goes, and Will Conrad’s art is actually very good, in a vaguely Mike Deodato-ish way. \u00a0It’s also nice to see this book making use of some of the other Utopia residents who don’t make it into the regular cast of Uncanny<\/em>, since at least it gives them (and this book) something to do.<\/p>\n

But let’s take a moment to say something about history and geography. \u00a0I have some sympathy for Americans writing about Europe, since it’s not like I know a great deal about, say, Ohio. \u00a0But if I’d decided to write a story there, I’d probably bother myself with at least some superficial research. \u00a0So, a couple of points. \u00a0A map in this story shows the said small Eastern European country nestling between Hungary, Romania and Serbia, along with a couple of other fictional Marvel countries.<\/p>\n

But if that’s where it is, why the hell is it called “Puternicstan”? \u00a0I’m not sure I’d buy that as a name for any country anywhere, but a country with “stan” at the end of its name is not going to be in eastern central Europe. \u00a0It’s the Persian\/Sanskrit equivalent of having “land” at the end of the name. \u00a0It doesn’t go any further west than Kazakhstan. \u00a0Which is still to the east of Iraq.<\/p>\n

And point two, why is a middle aged woman reminiscing about the place having been invaded by two neighbouring countries before<\/em>\u00a0the Soviets took over? \u00a0This one’s maybe a little bit more forgivable, but it’s not as if the Soviets were regularly conquering small satellite states beyond 1945 (as distinct from sending in the tanks to keep existing regimes in line). \u00a0Yes, there was a history of local conflict in the area before that, but is this character really supposed to be sharing her personal recollection of the Balkan Wars of 1913?<\/p>\n

These aren’t really plot problems, but they do seem terribly tone deaf, and they do the story no favours. \u00a0A shame, since otherwise it’s an entirely serviceable team-up story with good art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Thanksgiving, or whatever it is that Americans say to one another! \u00a0If you check one post down, you’ll find this week’s podcast, now in association with CBR. \u00a0It’s also something of an epic since it includes the interviews with Stephen Wacker, Nick Spencer and Kieron Gillen that Al taped at last week’s Thought Bubble […]<\/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-1164","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\/1164","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=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1165,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}