It’s the quietest week we’ve had in ages. \u00a0In fact, I’m slightly surprised to learn it’s even possible to have such a quiet week given the volume of material the X-office puts out these days. \u00a0This won’t take us long.<\/p>\n
What If? AvX<\/strong><\/em> #1<\/strong> – How’s this for the most optimistic solicitation of the year? \u00a0“The biggest event of 2012 is now the biggest miniseries of 2013!” \u00a0Come on, now. \u00a0This isn’t even the most anticipated miniseries of the week. \u00a0It’s a four-issue weekly mini with an alternate version of last year’s\u00a0Avengers vs X-Men<\/em> story, and honestly, the only reason I’m even mentioning it is because it’s so quiet otherwise.<\/p>\n Jimmy Palmiotti and Jorge Molina are your creative team, and this first issue is basically a retread of the opening act of\u00a0AvX<\/em>. \u00a0It’s not a beat-for-beat recreation, but it’s essentially a cover version of the same story with only minor changes, up until the closing pages where – this being\u00a0What If?<\/em> – a major character gets killed. \u00a0Up to that point it’s really just the same thing with a change of emphasis, such as a larger role for Magneto to cause the friction between the two groups. \u00a0And it has to be said that using him in that role does make the conflict feel a bit less forced, though I get why the original story wanted to keep the story more on Cyclops. \u00a0He had more to do in the mini, and it played into his overall character arc – which this book doesn’t necessarily have to worry about.<\/p>\n Judged purely as a freestanding issue, it’s okay. \u00a0But then, it’s\u00a0not<\/em> a freestanding issue, it’s intended as a companion piece to\u00a0AvX<\/em>, and given that, it’s hell of a repetitive. \u00a0The original What If?<\/em> series usually avoided this sort of thing by just having the Watcher recap the original story in the opening two pages, and there’s a lot to be said for doing it that way. \u00a0Admittedly, the original series also tended to feel ridiculously overcompressed, not least because its stories tended to feature the world ending in the remaining 18 pages or so. \u00a0But what Palmiotti has written here is a perfectly reasonable first act repeating the set-up from scratch. \u00a0That’s laudable if he’s aiming to make a story that’s completely accessible to new readers in its own right, but I wonder whether that’s really necessary where\u00a0What If?<\/em> is concerned. \u00a0For 95% of readers, at most they needed their memory refreshed. \u00a0It’ll read better in the trade, but as a single issue it feels weirdly redundant.<\/p>\n X-Men Legacy<\/em> #13<\/strong> – The minor-tier X-books really do love Pete Wisdom, don’t they? \u00a0We’ve just had him guest starring in\u00a0Gambit<\/em>, and now here he is again in\u00a0Legacy<\/em>. \u00a0David has shown up in London with some non-specific dodgy plan in mind, and Wisdom duly sets out to nip that one in the bud. \u00a0David’s plan\u00a0probably<\/em> has something to do with the state visit of a bigoted Middle East ruler, but since he never actually says so outright, there’s room for speculation.<\/p>\n The oddity of this issue is that, for the first time that I can recall, the series completely drops David as its point of view character, and does everything from the standpoint of the guest star. \u00a0The book has always played tricks with David’s narration, by having him turn out to have convoluted plans that he never actually mentioned to the reader, but now we’re completely shut out from knowing what he’s going to do, and seeing him entirely from the perspective of the other characters. \u00a0And as best we can see, it’s obvious why you wouldn’t trust him; he’s presumptuous, unrepentantly manipulative when people won’t play ball with his scheme, and refuses to explain himself with anything more than a petulant wail that “You don’t understand.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the book goes on a veritable tour of UK-themed continuity with the characters David tries to rope in to help him. \u00a0Considering that it has at best an ambivalent attitude towards the superhero genre, the book’s more than happy to play around in Marvel Universe minutiae. \u00a0The likes of Pixie and Chamber and to be expected, and Lila Cheney at least used to be a major character, but Alchemy hasn’t been seen in about twenty years (as I recall, he was the winner of a “create-a-character” contest or something). \u00a0And “very off the grid” is an understatement for Liam Connaughton, whose only previous appearance was in 2002’s\u00a0Muties<\/em> #6.<\/p>\n This being\u00a0X-Men Legacy<\/em>, it seems inevitable that there’ll be more here than meets the eye, and that David will actually turn out to have some complicated plan that depends on making people\u00a0think<\/em>\u00a0this is what he’s up to. \u00a0(Did all these characters\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0come all the way to the UK just to tell him to get lost?)\u00a0 Still, it’s a worthwhile break for the series to change its perspective and show him from the outside.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the quietest week we’ve had in ages. \u00a0In fact, I’m slightly surprised to learn it’s even possible to have such a quiet week given the volume of material the X-office puts out these days. \u00a0This won’t take us long. What If? AvX #1 – How’s this for the most optimistic solicitation of the year? 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