{"id":2003,"date":"2013-06-30T18:46:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T17:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2013-06-30T18:46:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T17:46:40","slug":"the-x-axis-30-june-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=2003","title":{"rendered":"The X-Axis – 30 June 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s one of the X-office’s semi-regular “let’s ship everything in one week” weeks! \u00a0Seriously, all we needed was an issue of\u00a0Astonishing<\/em> and we’d have a complete set!<\/p>\n

All-New X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #13<\/strong> – I’ll give it this, though – for once, I can’t use the now-familiar Standard Bendis Review, because for a change, there’s some actual progress in both of his titles. \u00a0Kitty, Wolverine and the remaining members of the Silver Age team are (at long last) actually trying to trace Mystique and her crew. \u00a0It’s something they should have got around to ages ago – but now that the series has finally got round to it, the pace suddenly picks up tremendously.<\/p>\n

By the end of the issue, the X-Men have not only located the baddies, but the inevitable fight has actually started, and Lady Mastermind has done something very ill-advised in revenge for what Jean did\/will do to her father. \u00a0On top of that, the issue furthers the subplot about her impatience over Mystique’s refusal to explain what the big plan is, and<\/em> goes some way to revealing that plan – for whatever reason, Mystique wants to buy control of Madripoor from Hydra. \u00a0(Is the idea here that Mystique is trying to buy a new Genosha, I wonder? \u00a0That could work.)<\/p>\n

Considering that the usual pace of this series could charitably be described as sluggish, this is a lot more like it. \u00a0And it also, in passing, addresses another question I’ve been asking of late: is there any coherent plan behind Mystique’s seemingly unrelated appearances in multiple titles? \u00a0While none of this week’s books provide an answer, it’s interesting that both this title and\u00a0Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em> choose this week to suddenly remember some of the other characters that she’s currently meant to be associated with, such as the current Silver Samurai.<\/p>\n

In a further sudden sign of inter-title continuity, this issue also devotes a surprising amount of time to having its characters discuss Havok’s controversial “don’t call us mutants” speech from\u00a0Uncanny Avengers<\/em>\u00a0#5 – something that the cast over in that book have also belatedly started talking about. \u00a0My view on that speech, for what it’s worth, is that it was always fine for Havok’s character, who’s never exactly been an X-Men ideologue and would much have preferred a quiet life during whatever it is his degree was in (geology, wasn’t it?). \u00a0But it’s rather out of line with the X-Men’s worldview and should have ruffled some feathers over there. \u00a0That’s exactly what happens here, though the massive time delay in having those reactions tends to suggest it wasn’t exactly the original plan. \u00a0Whether it’s a response to some of the criticism of the original scene, or just a case of Bendis seeing Uncanny Avengers<\/em> #5 and wanting to do something with it, is another question.<\/p>\n

This is a pretty good issue, on the whole. \u00a0The series was overdue to send a message that it was actually heading somewhere, but this issue does so.<\/p>\n

Gambit<\/strong><\/em> #14<\/strong> – Considering that the book is heading for imminent cancellation, this issue feels remarkably like filler. \u00a0James Asmus is clearly a fan of Pete Wisdom and MI-13, as they return as guest stars for a second time here. \u00a0Wisdom enlists Gambit to retrieve the Faerie Grimoire, which has been stolen from his flat by a girl he slept with. \u00a0The result is a few pages of Gambit trying to pose as a magic expert to talk to her, which doesn’t last very long before we have a somewhat directionless fight scene played out against blank backgrounds, and then the whole thing sort of collapses in an off-panel trip to Otherworld. \u00a0Considering that this series is usually pretty good about working out the details of its heist sequences, this issue is a bit of a mess in comparison. \u00a0Khoi Pham’s art veers on sketchy at times (and I have no idea what all those white marks on page 2 are supposed to signify), though colourist Rachelle Rosenberg does a nice subtle job on the Otherworld scenes.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, though, it reads like a story that’s meant to be a light-hearted comedy romp, and it’s just not very funny. \u00a0The cover hits the tone the story seems to have been going for. \u00a0But the story doesn’t.<\/p>\n

Uncanny X-Force<\/em> #7<\/strong> – Um… did we finish the first story arc? \u00a0Because I don’t remember it ever feeling like it had finished, but this issue feels like the book has moved on to something else. \u00a0Psylocke and Cluster team up to rescue Fantomex, intercut with flashbacks to what Psylocke and Fantomex were up to prior to the series beginning. \u00a0The basic idea of those flashbacks is that when Fantomex was split into three people at the end of the previous run, most of the really likeable qualities ended up with Cluster, not with the guy who’s now calling himself Fantomex, who’s wound up as an obnoxious kleptomaniac. \u00a0Since that’s how Fantomex\u00a0always<\/em> acted on the surface, it’s hardly surprising that it takes Psylocke a while to figure this out.<\/p>\n

There’s some very nice art in this issue – Adrian Alphona’s flashback sequences are solid, but Dalibor Talajic does some very strong work on the present day segments, with lovely clear storytelling that wouldn’t be out of place in the current\u00a0Daredevil<\/em> run. \u00a0And I like the idea that all three ex-Fantomex personas are still convinced that they’re in love with Psylocke and are trying to impress her. \u00a0Still, the series is starting to look a bit shapeless right now, and could really do with starting to resolve at least a few of the threads that were started back in issue #1.<\/p>\n

Uncanny X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #7<\/strong> – The conclusion of the Limbo arc, and rather more happens than I was expecting. Quite honestly, I sort of assumed this was a story thrown in there to give the X-Men someone to fight while the main storylines were building in the background. \u00a0And it kind of it; a major part of this story is that Cyclops’ team only just get out alive, and the trainees realise that their new mentors don’t seem to be living up to billing.<\/p>\n

But it also turns out to herald a major retooling of Magik. \u00a0The pay-off – which is admittedly hand-waving and unsatisfactory – is that Magik is tied to Limbo so closely that she can defeat Dormammu \u00a0just by shutting down the entire dimension and getting rid of it for good. \u00a0Or internalising it or something. \u00a0It’s a bit vague. \u00a0I’m, shall we say, not altogether convinced that there’s much support for that in any earlier stories, but I guess if you’re feeling charitable you can link it to the “Phoenix\/broken powers” storyline. \u00a0It’s certainly the bit of this story that doesn’t work, since it’s the wrong sort of magic, the type which can just do whatever the story happens to find convenient.<\/p>\n

However. \u00a0The ultimate point of all this seems to be to break the endless cycle of “Magik tries to keep control of Limbo” stories once and for all, and dump her back in time where (it turns out) she’s been surreptitiously meeting with Dr Strange for a while now. \u00a0I can understand Bendis’ thinking here. \u00a0The story of Magik and Limbo ended with “Inferno” back in the late 1980s, and ever since it’s kind of been something that goes around in circles because as long as she’s in circulation, you’ve got to do something with Limbo. \u00a0It’s really not a very interesting place once divorced from that original story about Magik’s slow descent into loss of control, and if we’re going to keep Illyana around, I have no great problem with dumping it or forcing it into the background, in order to take the character somewhere else. \u00a0Even if Bendis never follows it up, at least there opportunity is there.<\/p>\n

Frazer Irving’s art continues to impress me – aside from doing lovely landscapes for Limbo, he’s also the only artist so far who’s really been able to sell the idea that Cyclops’ optic beams are out of control. \u00a0Most artists just do a bit of swirliness around a basically ordinary beam; Irving, there’s more of a sense that the best he can manage is a swirl of energy in roughly the intended direction and it\u00a0just won’t go quite straight<\/em>. It’s odd that this hasn’t really come across as well in earlier issues, but Irving gets it to work here.<\/p>\n

Wolverine<\/strong><\/em> #5<\/strong> – Ah. \u00a0I\u00a0thought<\/em> issue #4 wasn’t very satisfying as the end to a four-parter. \u00a0And now we know why: it’s part four of six. \u00a0This issue is billed as “Drowning Logan, part one of two”, but it’s very obviously just the next act of the storyline in progress.<\/p>\n

Why the odd labelling? \u00a0Presumably, because these two issues will be drawn by Mirco Pierfederici, and it avoids the awkwardness of having to announce that Alan Davis wasn’t actually going to draw the whole of the first arc. \u00a0But that’s letting the tail wag the dog. \u00a0The bottom line is that the opening arc is six issues, not four, and it’s got two pencillers, not one. \u00a0Randomly claiming that you’re starting a new arc when you aren’t doesn’t solve that problem, and if anything it’s confusing when you’re reading issue #4 and expecting more of a resolution.<\/p>\n

Pierfederici is fine, by the way. \u00a0He’s not Alan Davis, but few people are.<\/p>\n

So… Wolverine knows that SHIELD are lying to him about the mysterious entity that’s been possessing people, and correctly assumes that’s because they’ve been infected too. \u00a0He goes aboard a Helicarrier to try and stop them, and ends up teaming up with the handful of agents who aren’t infected (because they were stuck in an airlock). \u00a0The baddies then have a stab at beating Wolverine by drowning him, hence the rather literal title being given to these two issues.<\/p>\n

It’s an oddly prosaic way to try and kill Wolverine, but I’m glad to see Paul Cornell steering the character back in that direction. \u00a0He’s suffered from power inflation perhaps more than any other character in the X-books, to the point where Marc Guggenheim had to do a story a few years back putting a stop to the idea that Wolverine can return from the dead. \u00a0Originally he was more of a street-level brawler with built-in knives; over the years he’s become harder to kill than the Hulk. \u00a0This won’t do. \u00a0Of course, he can’t die because he’s the title character of his own series. \u00a0But there’s a problem when he can’t die even within the logic of the series himself. \u00a0Wolverine really ought to be at some sort of risk from his arch-enemy Sabretooth. \u00a0If he can’t credibly be killed by a psychopath with a sharp object,\u00a0he’s got too powerful<\/em>. \u00a0Between this and the upcoming “Killable” arc, Cornell seems to be firmly returning Wolverine to territory where he’s a reasonable opponent for the sort of villains he works best with. \u00a0Good.<\/p>\n

Wolverine and the X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #32<\/strong> – Part 2 of “The Hellfire Saga” dials back the craziness a little bit, but we’re still firmly in territory where a lot of readers will find this just too far removed from recognisable human behaviour. \u00a0I’ve said it before and there’s not much point going into detail again: I just don’t buy the Hellfire kids as characters, and I have similar problems here with most of the teaching staff at the Hellfire Academy. \u00a0These are Howard the Duck villains. \u00a0When Toad finally voices the idea that they ought to actually educate the kids, the moment doesn’t work, because there’s no reality to the school. \u00a0He’s talking about a clown car like it was a Ford Mondeo.\u00a0\u00a0(Plus, it’s not like the Jean Grey School as shown in this series has any discernible interest in regular education either.)<\/p>\n

There’s a suggestion in here that the actual power behind all this is the Siege Perilous, which is empowering the Club’s recruiter Philistine. \u00a0I could buy the idea that there’s a proper villain behind the scenes manipulating the parade of weirdos, except where does that leave Mystique, whose inclusion in this series really does seem misjudged?<\/p>\n

Sometimes – often, in fact –\u00a0Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em> manages to hold on to that human core in the midst of the insanity. \u00a0But the Hellfire Kids miss that balance by a mile, and scaling that up to an entire school and making it the focus of a story… it’s just not working.<\/p>\n

X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #2<\/strong> – The launch of this series was delayed because of Olivier Coipel’s availability, and I’m guessing this is the issue where they were racing to catch up. \u00a0It has three credited inkers (including Coipel himself), and three colourists, and some of the storytelling is a little bit ordinary. \u00a0Still, for all that, the art is more than acceptable.<\/p>\n

Issue #1 established this as the most traditional of the X-Men titles, and that continues here. \u00a0It’s basically an issue of the X-Men having their initial fight with Arkea, and if you were thinking that she was going to turn out to be the goodie and Sublime would be the baddie after all… well Arkea is pretty clearly the baddie in this story, and Sublime comes across relatively well by comparison. \u00a0He claims this is because he’s spent more time around humans and so at least has a good understanding of how they behave. \u00a0And indeed, you can read Arkea that way in this issue – she attacks the X-Men because they’re harbouring Sublime. \u00a0On the other hand, she does describe Earth as “a whole planet to conquer”, which certainly sounds like she’s the baddie.<\/p>\n

There’s something a bit awkward in the fact that Arkea controls machines yet apparently still has to have a human host. \u00a0I guess that kind of follows from making her Sublime’s brother, but thematically it seems a bit wonky. \u00a0Still, it’s a solid issue of a team book, and should have a lot of appeal to the more traditionally-minded X-Men reader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s one of the X-office’s semi-regular “let’s ship everything in one week” weeks! \u00a0Seriously, all we needed was an issue of\u00a0Astonishing and we’d have a complete set! All-New X-Men #13 – I’ll give it this, though – for once, I can’t use the now-familiar Standard Bendis Review, because for a change, there’s some actual progress […]<\/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-2003","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\/2003","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=2003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2004,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions\/2004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}