The march of the middle chapters continues…<\/p>\n
Astonishing X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #61<\/strong> – Part five of “X-Termination”, which now seems bound and determined on being the worst crossover in years. \u00a0 Notionally this seems to be intended to wrap up two cancelled titles,\u00a0X-Treme X-Men<\/em> and\u00a0Age of Apocalypse<\/em>. \u00a0Since they both share an alternate reality theme, that could potentially have worked.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, what we’re getting is resolution the\u00a0Ultimatum<\/em> way – “everybody died, the end”. \u00a0Except for\u00a0Astonishing<\/em>, of course, which is only there to prop up the sales, and seems to have no clear idea of why it’s present at all. \u00a0This issue features yet more characters wailing histrionically about the existential threat posed by the personality-free cosmic guys. \u00a0I can’t help suspecting that at some point this was a story where the threat was simply an all-consuming wall of energy, or something like that, and that somebody decided that such a threat wasn’t sufficiently personal. \u00a0But instead of giving the threat a personality, or an agenda, they just gave it legs.<\/p>\n Art comes from a barrage of wildly inconsistent passers-by, in an assortment of ludicrously incongruous tones, with some characters even changing clothes mid-scene. \u00a0Some of the pages done in the style of the\u00a0Age of Apocalypse<\/em>\u00a0series are at least okay to look at it, though the design of the giants doesn’t seem to fit. \u00a0The rest is mediocre at best.<\/p>\n To be fair, Marjorie Liu makes a reasonable job of selling the idea that everything depends on Jean staying in control of herself long enough to beat the baddies, which at least brings this story down to some sort of character conflict. \u00a0But there’s only so much to be done with this material.\u00a0The eventual pay-off is that the only way to save our world is apparently to sacrifice the entire Age of Apocalypse. \u00a0In theory, that’s fine so long as it’s just there to drive the dramatic tension. \u00a0But if they actually do it – and given the way this story has gone so far, they very well might – that would be a dismally misguided way of finishing the\u00a0Age of Apocalypse<\/em> series.<\/p>\n Cable & X-Force<\/strong><\/em> #7<\/strong> – The main story here, I quite like. \u00a0It’s a nicely multi-layered heist plot, with X-Force trying to steal a spaceship from SWORD, and taking the opportunity to try and break Colossus out of the same prison, since he’s being held there. \u00a0Except Colossus doesn’t want to go, and when it comes down to it, X-Force aren’t ultimately bothered whether he comes with them – he’s just a convenient distraction from the real purpose of being there.<\/p>\n Yes, okay, that means the plot hinges on the deeply improbable coincidence of Colossus just happening to be held in a prison which just happens to be relevant to Cable’s next vision – but I can live with that, since it allows Colossus and Domino to get some worthwhile character moments in this story.<\/p>\n More problematic is the way the story uses Cyclops, whose arrival at the end of last issue was presented as the big cliffhanger, and whose appearance is given pride of place on the cover. \u00a0Yet Cyclops contributes nothing to the plot and shows every sign of having been belatedly shoehorned in to a carefully constructed story that has no role for him. \u00a0Even stranger, the story plays him as the established hero who might potentially have come to rein in his wayward son – wholly at odds with his current portrayal in the Bendis titles as a guy who is, if anything, more of a revolutionary radical than Cable. \u00a0Mainly, though, the Cyclops scenes don’t work because they don’t seem to go anywhere.<\/p>\n Savage Wolverine<\/strong><\/em> #4<\/strong> – Oh lord, is this is an origin story to superpower Shanna for future Frank Cho stories? \u00a0She’s mystically revived from the dead with all sort of amped up powers, and… yeah, that’s a direction for the character that holds no interest for me at all. \u00a0Not, admittedly, that\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0direction for the character has ever held any interest for me. \u00a0Mind you, I guess it could all burn itself out by the end of the story.<\/p>\n To give Cho his due, this issue\u00a0does<\/em> have an unusually brutal fight scene that doesn’t attempt to conceal the fact that we’ve got a lead character whose only offensive power is to knife and cut people – it’s genuinely a little surprising to read, and works because the casual brutality seems right for the story, instead of being foregrounded in a way that would make it feel gratuitous. \u00a0It’s a lot more graphic than I’m used to seeing in a mainstream Marvel title, but the age rating on this book is 12+, and I guess it’s on the right side of the line for that.<\/p>\n There are elements in Frank Cho’s comics that are very good – I just wish I felt that way about the whole.<\/p>\n Wolverine and the X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #27AU<\/strong> – Completely forgot to download this. \u00a0Give me a minute…<\/p>\n Right, this is by Matt Kindt and Paco Medina, and it’s one of the alternate-reality issues being published as part of the\u00a0Age of Ultron<\/em> crossover, which I’m not reading, because rubble is dull. \u00a0(Officially\u00a0Age of Ultron <\/em>isn’t an alternate reality, but let’s be serious now.) \u00a0Apparently, the plot in the main series is that Wolverine and the Invisible Woman have come back in time to try and stop Hank Pym before he can make Ultron in the first place, which seems fair enough. \u00a0But, in what I’ll agree is a nice twist on the formula, the plan isn’t to kill him, simply to talk him out of making the dangerous killer robot. \u00a0The question, obviously, is what happens when that doesn’t work, as it plainly won’t, because there wouldn’t be much of a story that way.<\/p>\n This issue features the duo having arrived back in the Silver Age, and obviously faces the major problem that not a great deal can really happen (this being the sort of crossover where everything of importance needs to take place in the main book). \u00a0Instead, Kindt gives us an incidental break-in to a SHIELD base to pick up a Thingie, and tries to work a couple of character beats into that. \u00a0Wolverine learns about the dangers of altering the past by inadvertently encouraging the Brood to get more powerful (which doesn’t work\u00a0at all<\/em>, since I just don’t buy the idea that this one encounter with a single captive leads to the whole race changing). \u00a0And Sue… uh, well, Sue reflects on an old issue of\u00a0Fantastic Four <\/em>and sends a message to Reed.<\/p>\n It’s an adequate issue judged by its remit of padding out the crossover, but it simply hasn’t been given anything to work with, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the series it’s notionally attached to.<\/p>\n X-Factor<\/strong><\/em> #254<\/strong> – Part 5 of “Hell on Earth War”. \u00a0Mephisto’s running around killing other Hell Lords, \u00a0Tier’s belatedly decided that he doesn’t really want to kill demons, and Jezebel has decided he’s going to do so anyway. \u00a0Though I could have stood to see this storyline run a little shorter, Peter David is building the momentum quite nicely. \u00a0In many hands this would have been an entire storyline of X-Factor on the run, but David knows how to escalate the minor details to at least give the impression that it’s building to a climax – even if, when you stop to think about it, the heroes really are just basically on the run for the whole arc.<\/p>\n X-Men Legacy<\/strong><\/em> #9<\/strong> – Another single-issue story – that’s three in a row, the common theme apparently being to further Legion’s relationship with Blindfold, and illustrate how he sees his “pro-active” version of the X-Men’s mission working. \u00a0This time, Legion has discovered, of all people, the Golden Age Vision living on the moon. \u00a0Apparently this guy pops back to Earth from time to time to pick up books from the library and when he learns about mutants from an anti-mutant book, he’s going to launch a devastating attack which the X-Men won’t be able to deal with. \u00a0So Legion gives Blindfold a pep talk about the whole problem, and then decides to deal with it himself – pre-emptively.<\/p>\n The basic idea is fine, as is the fact that Blindfold simply refuses to endorse this exercise in punishing things that might happen in the future. \u00a0Both the fact that Legion hauls her along in the first place, and the fact that he ploughs on without her, are interesting illustrations of where their relationship currently stands, and of where Legion’s priorities ultimately lie. \u00a0His behaviour here is\u00a0meant<\/em> to be disturbing on a variety of levels, just as it was in the previous issue.<\/p>\n But I have two problems with this story that stop it from entirely working for me. \u00a0First, Legion’s power levels are all over the place in this series, and it’s starting to feel like they fluctuate according to the convenience of any given story, instead of being the outward display of greater self-control that earlier issues seemed to suggest. \u00a0I’d prefer to see a bit more discipline in sticking to that theme so that Legion has to earn the displays of power.<\/p>\n And second, the set-up with the Vision seems terribly contrived. \u00a0Leave aside that it doesn’t fit with continuity (the\u00a0Torch<\/em> mini from a few years ago had him living on Earth, so he ought to know about mutants already). \u00a0Leave aside also that the Golden Age Vision was never anywhere near powerful enough to be the major threat that the plot requires. \u00a0It just strains credibility horrendously that anyone the guy would go off on this crusade based solely on reading a single book, and hand-waving references to him being insane aren’t enough to bridge that gap, for me.<\/p>\n The idea is sound, but a lot depends here on how forgiving you are for really awkward set-ups, as long as they allow for interesting reactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The march of the middle chapters continues… Astonishing X-Men #61 – Part five of “X-Termination”, which now seems bound and determined on being the worst crossover in years. \u00a0 Notionally this seems to be intended to wrap up two cancelled titles,\u00a0X-Treme X-Men and\u00a0Age of Apocalypse. \u00a0Since they both share an alternate reality theme, that could 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