I\u00a0have a couple of minor\u00a0titles to cover to\u00a0stop the X-Axis slipping too far behind\u00a0again, so let’s\u00a0deal with them tonight.<\/p>\n
First up, Starlord and Kitty Pryde. \u00a0<\/em>This barely counts as an X-book, really. \u00a0It’s\u00a0the\u00a0stand-in book for\u00a0Starlord<\/em> during\u00a0Secret Wars<\/em>. \u00a0And since\u00a0Starlord is one of\u00a0the handful of characters\u00a0who survived the destruction of the Marvel Universe and wound up as refugees on\u00a0Battleworld, it even gets to feature the regular Starlord. \u00a0And as for Kitty Pryde, she’s a\u00a0supporting character in his book already.<\/p>\n What I’m saying is, this is basically three issues of\u00a0Starlord<\/em>. \u00a0Which I don’t read. \u00a0But hey.<\/p>\n Separated from the rest of his group – funny how that happens when an event book needs to justify some tie-ins –\u00a0Peter is hanging out in one of Battleworld’s many Manhattans, making a living as a bar singer, and\u00a0generally moping about the obliteration of\u00a0his entire universe, including Kitty. \u00a0He winds up crossing paths with\u00a0one of Battleworld’s many other Kitty Prydes. \u00a0And that’s the basic hook – it’s an odd couple caper pairing Peter with a version of Kitty who doesn’t\u00a0know him and\u00a0who isn’t at all impressed.<\/p>\n This particular Kitty Pryde\u00a0works for\u00a0Valeria von Doom’s Foundation, with a remit of\u00a0trawling\u00a0the planet for\u00a0“anomalies” – awkward things that\u00a0might suggest that this isn’t actually a planet created from scratch by Dr Doom. \u00a0The obvious implication is that these things need to be suppressed\u00a0because Battleworld is a planet held together by\u00a0magic sticky tape and\u00a0some rather fragile mass illusions, and if people are confronted with the contradictions too directly,\u00a0the spell could be broken and it could all go to hell. \u00a0Kitty\u00a0is only in on that to a certain extent; she knows the anomalies are potentially trouble, but she\u00a0insists that they’re all going to be studied and scientifically explained as part of Doom’s creation.<\/p>\n Ostensibly, this particular Kitty Pryde is the one from\u00a0Age of\u00a0Apocalypse (or a version of it), but it really\u00a0doesn’t matter. \u00a0It’s her role in the cosmology of Battleworld that defines her here, plus the fact that she’s a humourless professional saddled with the eternally irritating Starlord, but keen to hold on to him because he’s an anomaly in his own right. \u00a0Beyond that, the notional\u00a0plot involves a bit of chasing after a macguffin, but the real\u00a0story is about Peter trying to dig this Kitty out of the mess he’s accidentally got her into, and being both fascinated and appalled by\u00a0her in the process. \u00a0Of course, since she’s the competent one of the team, he’s effectively the sidekick in\u00a0their temporary pairing.<\/p>\n You get the idea. \u00a0It’s\u00a0nothing groundbreaking,\u00a0but it’s a solid enough idea and it’s decently executed by Sam Humphires. \u00a0Alti Firmansyah’s\u00a0art\u00a0gives the characters the goofy charm they need, and does a rather neat job\u00a0of\u00a0establishing this as a slightly off version of Manhattan. \u00a0So\u00a0there are vast, ostentatious statues to Dr Doom, but everyone (including the art) treats them as if they were much like the Statute of Liberty,\u00a0and simply there to establish a familiar\u00a0skyline.<\/p>\n There are some cute ideas here;\u00a0Peter posing as a Steve Rogers counterpart, and a version of Gambit whose\u00a0inherent sleaziness tips over very easily into\u00a0villainy while remaining very recognisable. \u00a0I’m not sure about doing an essentially unrecognisable version of Drax, which\u00a0feels a bit heavy handed. \u00a0Still, continuity geeks will\u00a0be pleased to see somebody actually dusting off Widget, of all characters,\u00a0and<\/em> remembering that\u00a0it was eventually established to be a still further version of Kitty Pryde.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nothing indispensible, but\u00a0light and\u00a0fun. \u00a0Chalk it up as a modest success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u00a0have a couple of minor\u00a0titles to cover to\u00a0stop the X-Axis slipping too far behind\u00a0again, so let’s\u00a0deal with them tonight. First up, Starlord and Kitty Pryde. \u00a0This barely counts as an X-book, really. \u00a0It’s\u00a0the\u00a0stand-in book for\u00a0Starlord during\u00a0Secret Wars. \u00a0And since\u00a0Starlord is one of\u00a0the handful of characters\u00a0who survived the destruction of the Marvel Universe and wound up […]<\/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-3187","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\/3187","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=3187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3188,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions\/3188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}