{"id":3645,"date":"2017-01-03T22:57:16","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T22:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3645"},"modified":"2017-01-03T22:57:33","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T22:57:33","slug":"old-man-logan-14-15-monster-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3645","title":{"rendered":"Old Man Logan #14-15: “Monster War”"},"content":{"rendered":"

So it turns out\u00a0Old Man Logan<\/em> isn’t cancelled after all, despite Marvel soliciting issue #18 as “The Epic Conclusion!”, which normally\u00a0at least means a season break. \u00a0At least that explains why two issues were given over to this – it might come from the pen of regular writer Jeff Lemire, but it’s got filler written all over it.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0standard set-up for this book is to bring\u00a0the future Logan into contact with the\u00a0original supporting cast. \u00a0And that’s sort of how this one starts off, as Logan investigates the disappearance of Jubilee. \u00a0Somehow or other the X-Men already know she was last seen in Romania, so Logan goes there and promptly crosses paths with…<\/p>\n

… STAKE. \u00a0That’s the team from the last version of\u00a0Howling Commandos of SHIELD<\/em>, the one\u00a0full of monster characters. \u00a0Now,\u00a0that’s a book which lasted a handful of issues and got cancelled\u00a0a while back. \u00a0So\u00a0it’s not like a STAKE guest shot is a big crowd pleaser. \u00a0At any rate,\u00a0after the usual token misunderstanding, the plot turns out to be that Dracula is summoning all vampires to Transylvania with mind control, so that he can build an army. \u00a0Logan is after Jubilee, and\u00a0STAKE are looking for their teammate Vampire By Night. \u00a0Dracula uses Jubilee to sucker Logan in so that he can try and turn him into a vampire.<\/p>\n

And then they just kind of fight for the second issue and everyone goes home. \u00a0Really, that’s pretty much it. \u00a0I mean, there’s the usual beats about Logan trying to get through to Jubilee to get her to break the mind control. \u00a0And Dracula gets to announce his big plan, but it’s nothing more elaborate than “we’re going to bite everyone and\u00a0then everyone will be a vampire and that’ll be great”. \u00a0And the good guys win and the bad guy loses and The End.<\/p>\n

This is weak. \u00a0Jubilee spends\u00a0most of the story being mind controlled, so we never really get\u00a0a proper reunion until the epilogue in the last two pages. \u00a0And those two pages are nice enough, but it means\u00a0their\u00a0history together never really plays into the story. \u00a0As for STAKE… well,\u00a0I guess Lemire is in the camp that finds the concept endearingly goofy,\u00a0and I guess it is in a way. \u00a0Actually, he’s got some amusing bickering going on within the group that shows how it\u00a0could have worked as an ongoing. \u00a0And the giant Orrgo showing up to save the day by lifting the roof off the castle while grumbling about the paperwork can’t help but raise a smile.<\/p>\n

Still, they don’t contribute much to the story beyond the novelty of being there at all. \u00a0And the concept isn’t\u00a0that<\/em> funny that it can carry a two issue story just by turning up.<\/p>\n

The main thing that sticks in the mind here is Filipe Andrade’s art. \u00a0It’s stark, angular stuff, heavy on the exaggeration, cartooning and shadow. \u00a0It’s quite a difference from the more finicky layouts that regular artist Andrea Sorrentino tends to favour, and\u00a0it’s got a welcome energy. \u00a0That said, it’s actually\u00a0at its best in the opening pages before the plot gets under way; once the fighting breaks out, it\u00a0becomes much more patchy\u00a0– there’s some nice emoting but also some histrionic confusion. \u00a0Parts of issue #15 look\u00a0rushed, though there are other bits where the gothic castle is very effectively done. \u00a0And he does nail Orrgo’s big entrance. \u00a0I can see why someone thought he was a good match for a Howling Commandos\u00a0<\/em>story,\u00a0since they’re a\u00a0pretty ludicrous idea that\u00a0lends itself to\u00a0over the top, tongue in cheek dramatics. \u00a0It doesn’t always land here, but I wouldn’t mind seeing\u00a0more of his art.<\/p>\n

It’s a weirdly throwaway story for this book, and strangely out of kilter with the usual tone. \u00a0I wonder if it started life as a\u00a0possible annual before being reassigned to the regular series. \u00a0At any rate, it’s disappointingly slight – the\u00a0basics\u00a0are\u00a0there but there’s not much flesh on the bones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So it turns out\u00a0Old Man Logan isn’t cancelled after all, despite Marvel soliciting issue #18 as “The Epic Conclusion!”, which normally\u00a0at least means a season break. \u00a0At least that explains why two issues were given over to this – it might come from the pen of regular writer Jeff Lemire, but it’s got filler written […]<\/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-3645","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\/3645","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=3645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3647,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3645\/revisions\/3647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}