Happy new year! \u00a0And while everyone else is on holiday, the comic book release schedule ploughs relentlessly onward. \u00a0So let’s take a look at the three X-Men titles that came out in the last week of December…<\/p>\n
Astonishing X-Men<\/em>\u00a0#45<\/strong>\u00a0– Marvel’s publishing strategy for 2012 seems to mainly involve cutting back on all the low-selling titles and putting out extra comics with the big franchises instead. \u00a0Hence the further expansion of the X-Men line, which is now up to five ongoing titles, most of which are shipping twice a month. \u00a0This makes a certain degree of sense in the short term, but it also begs the question of what exactly is going to appear in all those fourth-tier X-Men comics, which don’t get to tell “important” stories, but still have to somehow avoid appearing redundant.<\/p>\n X-Men Legacy<\/em>\u00a0solves the problem by focussing on minor characters who don’t get used in the major titles, and giving them their day in the sun. \u00a0X-Men<\/em>\u00a0kind of sort of tries to solve the problem by being a team-up book, which doesn’t work, but at least goes for something. \u00a0And Astonishing X-Men<\/em>… nope, I’m still trying to figure it out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Very broadly speaking, I suppose the agenda for Astonishing<\/em>\u00a0is to do let the creators do what they like as long as it’s broadly self-contained. \u00a0So Greg Pak and Mike McKone’s “Exalted” turns out to be a Cyclops solo story with parallel worlds thrown in. \u00a0Cyclops has been kidnapped by a guy called the Savior who’s using X-Men counterparts from various dimensions as batteries to power… well, something or other. \u00a0Possibly his city, though it’s a bit unclear. \u00a0He helps other captives to escape and forms a makeshift X-Men team to take on the Savior, comprised of X-Men counterparts from different worlds.<\/p>\n In other words, it’s basically Exiles<\/em>. \u00a0Which is fine as far as it goes. \u00a0It’s been a couple of years since Exiles<\/em>\u00a0was cancelled, so the idea’s been allowed to lay fallow for a little while. \u00a0Even so, the idea of X-Men from parallel worlds is hardly a novelty. \u00a0There are a couple of neat ideas here – I like the non-combatant schoolboy version of Nightcrawler who, instead of recovering his weapons like the rest of the group, retrieves his lunchbox. \u00a0And the closing splash page of the Savior, while baffling, is intriguing enough to work as a cliffhanger. \u00a0On the other hand, though, there are clarity issues here – the tail end of the opening illusion sequence is difficult to make sense of, and it’s wholly unclear what the things sticking out of Wolverine’s back are supposed to be until the dialogue finally spells it out.<\/p>\n I guess the idea here is to do a solo story with Cyclops, and ironically play up his role as a natural uniter of X-Men from different worlds when he can’t even keep his own X-Men together. \u00a0It’s certainly a decent idea to give him a spotlight at this point. \u00a0But the end result doesn’t really grab me for some reason. \u00a0It feels more like a big idea than a fully developed story – and that big idea is partly recycled from Exiles<\/em>. \u00a0There are enough smart elements to make it readable, but somehow it isn’t quite there.<\/p>\n Uncanny X-Men<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0#3<\/strong>\u00a0– Like\u00a0Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em>, this title is opening with a three-issue arc. \u00a0That’s shorter than the standard in recent years, which has favoured protracting every storyline to fill a trade paperback, but I think it’s the right length for this one. \u00a0Structuring a series so that it’ll read well in collected editions doesn’t have to mean padding out a story to six issues.<\/p>\n The main event here is the defeat of Mr Sinister, or at least this iteration of him. \u00a0Another one will be along in a bit, which firmly establishes his new gimmick: that every time he’s beaten, a new and improved version is released to take his place. \u00a0While it’s true that this veers some way from the version of the character that appeared in his heyday, the “new version” idea provides some internal justification for that – besides which, that version of Sinister was excessively cryptic. \u00a0This one has clearer ideas in mind; they’re insane ones, but they’re ideas. \u00a0There’s more to hang onto here, while preserving the flexibility that the character always had.<\/p>\n As for the actual manner of his defeat, that felt a bit abrupt to me. \u00a0The basic idea is that this version of Sinister has based himself heavily on Scott’s mind, which leaves him vulnerable to Emma because she knows Scott so well. \u00a0That’s a fine idea, and it gives Emma a suitably heroic moment by having her change out of diamond form in order to use her psychic powers. \u00a0But I’m not sure that the story set up the idea of Sinister using Scott’s mind clearly enough – it’s mentioned in passing in the previous issue, but still seems to come a little out of the blue when it reappears in the finale. \u00a0Not sure about the closing dialogue, either – it feels a bit weak for an ending.<\/p>\n Sinister hasn’t completely abandoned his old tendencies to throw in information to advance the plot, as he helpfully takes a moment to set up Avengers vs X-Men<\/em>\u00a0by confirming that Hope does indeed have some sort of connection with Phoenix. \u00a0If you can trust him, at any rate. \u00a0While I’m slightly wary about the prospect of the line been dominated for months by a committee-written crossover, I’m also pleased to see that the pieces seem to be being set up in advance; it’s always reassuring to get the impression that there’s a plan here.<\/p>\n Carlos Pacheco really does seem to be having trouble hitting his deadlines – for the second issue running, he’s joined here by two fill-in pencillers, not to mention three inkers and three colourists. \u00a0The resulting work isn’t bad at all, but it does look a little rough around the edges at times.<\/p>\n Regardless, since Sinister is evidently coming back at a later point, it’s okay to leave some of the plot points open for now; the key point is that Cyclops’ team get a clear win over a major threat, which is what they need at this point in the storyline, to set up the credibility of his Extinction Team. \u00a0While there are some elements here that don’t land, the overall idea works.<\/p>\n X-Men: Legacy<\/em>\u00a0#260<\/strong>\u00a0– Mike Carey’s final issue concludes the two-part story oddly devoted to bringing Ariel back into circulation. \u00a0Since Ariel wasn’t even appearing in the X-Men titles until Carey introduced her for the sole purpose of killing her, I guess this is a case of him putting the toys back in the box before he leaves. \u00a0Along similar lines, the Starjammers are packed back off to space. \u00a0And Korvus is split off to take \u00a0charge of the Shi’ar crew, probably dooming him never to be seen again. \u00a0Since Carey barely used Korvus in the previous arc, this one feels rather more like a case of getting rid of an unwanted character so that Rachel will be free for use in Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n The bulk of this issue consists in such wrap-up material, and Rogue once again assembling characters from the X-Men’s supporting cast to carry out her rescue mission. \u00a0There’s never really much doubt about which side Rogue will choose in the split, nor why – since in theory she’s supposed to be in charge of looking after the kids, of course she’s going to go to the school. \u00a0Not that this format has played much part in the last two or three storylines, and that slightly haphazard aspect to the book pretty much prevents Carey’s final issue from serving as a satisfying wrap-up to his run. \u00a0There just isn’t a sufficiently consistent through-line for him to resolve.<\/p>\n But there have been good stories and good use of minor cast members. \u00a0Perhaps that’s the point of devoting his final issue to reinstating a thunderously obscure character and spending a few pages to sell us on why we might want to read about her under the next writer; more than anything, that’s what people will remember about Carey’s extended run on this series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy new year! \u00a0And while everyone else is on holiday, the comic book release schedule ploughs relentlessly onward. \u00a0So let’s take a look at the three X-Men titles that came out in the last week of December… Astonishing X-Men\u00a0#45\u00a0– Marvel’s publishing strategy for 2012 seems to mainly involve cutting back on all the low-selling titles […]<\/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-1218","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\/1218","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=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}