{"id":401,"date":"2010-07-04T17:40:25","date_gmt":"2010-07-04T16:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=401"},"modified":"2010-07-04T17:40:25","modified_gmt":"2010-07-04T16:40:25","slug":"the-x-axis-4-july-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=401","title":{"rendered":"The X-Axis – 4 July 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a podcast weekend, so don’t forget to check out the show. \u00a0The thread is a couple of posts down, and this week’s reviews are\u00a0Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark<\/em>, Wonder Woman<\/em> #600, and the Iron Man Annual<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Those aside, it’s a quiet week. \u00a0No issue of “Second Coming” this week – it’s running late. \u00a0Incidentally, the schedule now has the new X-Men<\/em> series launching next week before<\/em> “Second Coming” is over. \u00a0And boy, does that set my alarm bells ringing. \u00a0Because from the look of it, either they’re about to spoil the ending of “Second Coming” in a pretty spectacular fashion… or there’s simply nothing to spoil.<\/p>\n

Now, “Second Coming” has been doing a good job of giving the impression that it’s heading somewhere. \u00a0But to be honest, so did “Messiah Complex” and “Messiah War”. \u00a0Then again, this is the concluding part of the trilogy… and surely they’re not crazy enough to spend three years building to a non-event. \u00a0So I’ve kind of been giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. \u00a0But I’m wondering now, I really am.<\/p>\n

Actually, there is<\/em> a middle ground – the big pay-off could happen in next week’s X-Force<\/em> #28, which is the penultimate chapter of “Second Coming”, leaving the final chapter for a wrap-up and epilogue. \u00a0Maybe. \u00a0Let’s hope.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some of this week’s comics:<\/p>\n

Astonishing X-Men<\/em> #34<\/strong> – No, not Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis<\/em>. \u00a0This is the long-delayed continuation of the Warren Ellis\/Phil Jimenez storyline. \u00a0In continuity terms, it’s painfully dated – it opens with the Beast arguing with Cyclops about the direction of the X-Men, a storyline which was already resolved in Uncanny<\/em> about six months ago when Beast quit the team. \u00a0To give it credit, though, Ellis does gives us one of the more plausible attempts to explain Cyclops’ behaviour over the last couple of years. \u00a0Anyhow, once they’ve had that argument, they fight a giant clone of Sauron and follow the baddie to his base, and that’s literally about it. <\/em>For all that Astonishing<\/em> usually has a couple of decent ideas per issue, it’s so light on plot that it can’t seriously be recommended for the story. \u00a0What it does have is Jimenez’ artwork, and at least the inordinate gaps between issues have been put to work on making something pretty – the Sauron\/Brood hybrid makes a great splash page, for instance. \u00a0So if you’re a Phil Jimenez fan or an X-Men completist, then yes, buy it. \u00a0If you’re an Ellis fan, hell, wait for the trade, when the glacial serialised pace will be less of an issue.<\/p>\n

The Death of Dracula<\/em> #1<\/strong> – This one-shot is a lead-in to the “Curse of the Mutants” storyline which kicks off the new X-Men<\/em> series. \u00a0And god, I wish they’d call titles something a bit more distinctive than that. \u00a0Do they not know any adjectives beyond New<\/em>, Young<\/em>, Secret<\/em> and Ultimate<\/em>?<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, I’m sceptical about the demand, let alone the creative need, for another monthly X-Men title. \u00a0And I’ve been even more sceptical about the point of a mutants versus vampires storyline, which sounds worryingly like an exercise in throwing two random elements at one another and hoping the result will fill some pages.<\/p>\n

But this prologue does a lot to win me round. \u00a0The X-Men aren’t in it at all. \u00a0Nor, for that matter, is there much of Dracula – perhaps recognising that the title kind of gives it away, the story despatches him on page 8, and moves on to the much more interesting business of his sons manoeuvring to replace him. \u00a0The actual lead character here is, of all people, Janus, a character from Marv Wolfman’s Tomb of Dracula<\/em> run in the seventies. \u00a0His rival brother, Xarus, is new. \u00a0It’s, well, it’s basically the annual vampire convention, and Xarus is trying to seize power.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Gischler isn’t giving us a faceless horde of generic vampires. \u00a0He’s doing a story about sects manoeuvring for power, and he’s gone out of his way to make them diverse. \u00a0So we’ve got the traditional vampires, the lunatic warrior types, the Twilight-style pacifists, and so forth, together with a bunch of oddball interpretations that I suspect have been dredged up from the darkest recesses of continuity to round out the numbers. Artist Giuseppe Camuncoli does a solid job of keeping them distinctive and getting the general idea across with costuming – and he’s good with conversations, too. And do you know, it’s all rather good fun, in the way that villains squabbling can sometimes be. \u00a0You can see the ending of the storyline lumbering towards you a mile off, but that’s not a problem, because it feels like it’s going to be enjoyable getting there.<\/p>\n

More to the point, Gischler manages to convince me that there may in fact be an X-Men story in here. \u00a0Xarus’ big pitch to the vampire hordes is basically that Dracula, representing the forces of tradition, has been too willing to accept that vampires are inferior and wrong, and too willing to hide away from (yes, you guessed it) a world that fears and hates them. \u00a0Aren’t they natural too? \u00a0Isn’t it right and normal for them to go out and kill people? \u00a0All of which rather conjures up the image of the vampires invading San Francisco in order to hold an Undead Pride rally… but yes, if we’ve got a bunch of vampires who are justifying themselves using the X-Men’s stock arguments, then there is<\/em> an X-Men story in here.<\/p>\n

Reservations: the only female vampires in this story are in an all-seductress sect. \u00a0The sect itself isn’t a problem (vampires are all about seduction), but the absence of women from all the other sects is maybe a little worrying. \u00a0Mind you, most of the other vampires in this story are official delegations from traditionalist groups, or meatheaded warriors, so I’ll reserve judgment on that one just yet. \u00a0Oh, and since Dracula is being used in this story as a symbol of vampiric tradition, I really wouldn’t have given him a primary-colours redesign. \u00a0That’s a mistake, I think.<\/p>\n

But on the whole, this is really quite promising. \u00a0It’s persuaded me that there could be something in this story, and that’s a good start.<\/p>\n

Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Battle<\/em> #4<\/strong> – Garth Ennis and Oscar Jiminez’ miniseries has sailed completely off any sort of schedule, but that doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem – perhaps because there’s enough content to make each issue worthwhile on its own, and perhaps because Ennis is such a strong storyteller that he quickly draws you back into the story. \u00a0This issue is much as we’ve come to expect from Wormwood<\/em> – a mixture of eccentric theology, with Jesus and the Antichrist trying to escape their pre-ordained roles so that they can rail at the evils of organised religion, and some decidedly adolescent comedy. \u00a0It really shouldn’t work, but Ennis has such a firm grasp of structure that he can hold it all together, and Jimenez is doing some gorgeous work here.<\/p>\n

Flash<\/em> #3<\/strong> – Goodness, we’re three issues in to a Flash<\/em> series and I’m still enjoying it. \u00a0It’s a very traditional, Silver Agey superhero series, but without being particularly heavy on continuity – and for a character like the Flash, that seems precisely the right approach. \u00a0It remains true that the Flash himself is more memorable for his powers than his personality, but the book as a whole has enough identity to carry it through – and I love Francis Manapul’s art, which is nice and clean while remaining loose enough to sell the action.<\/p>\n

Secret Avengers<\/em> #2<\/strong> – This, on the other hand, is in real danger of coming across as a generic superhero team featuring characters drawn at random from a hat. \u00a0I can’t quite figure out what they’re going for here. \u00a0If these guys are supposed to be the Avengers’ black ops team, then you’d think the first arc should be doing something with that theme. \u00a0That doesn’t have to mean “grim and gritty” – by all means, try to cross it with the Avengers’ usual stomping grounds. \u00a0But this seems to be an “Avengers investigate mysterious goings on on Mars” story which any team could have done with cosmetic changes. \u00a0Not doing it for me.<\/p>\n

X-Men Forever 2<\/em> #2<\/strong> – Last issue, the X-Men blew themselves up, in what’s pretty obviously a feint. \u00a0This issue, Rogue shows up on a couple of pages hiding in the shadows, but basically it’s a story about the government spinning the event, and Peter Parker trying to investigate it for the Daily Bugle. \u00a0The story never quite makes this explicit, but the idea seems to be that even though the X-Men’s base is supposed to be an official secret, word has got round that they’ve been blown up, and the public isn’t entirely thrilled about it. \u00a0It looks like we’re getting the story where baddies take control of the security forces, and I can’t say I’m particularly interested to see that again. \u00a0But I am interested to know where Claremont’s heading with the X-Men-faking-their-deaths thing. \u00a0Of course, this is basically the set-up he was working with during the Australia stories of the late 80s, a period which was cut short on editorial insistence – so perhaps we really are getting back to an idea that he never really got to explore as fully as he wanted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a podcast weekend, so don’t forget to check out the show. \u00a0The thread is a couple of posts down, and this week’s reviews are\u00a0Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark, Wonder Woman #600, and the Iron Man Annual. Those aside, it’s a quiet week. \u00a0No issue of “Second Coming” this week – it’s running late. \u00a0Incidentally, […]<\/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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","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\/401","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=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}