{"id":671,"date":"2011-01-10T22:05:38","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T22:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=671"},"modified":"2011-01-10T22:05:38","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T22:05:38","slug":"the-x-axis-10-january-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=671","title":{"rendered":"The X-Axis – 10 January 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve got a week and a half’s worth of X-books to cover here (thanks to Diamond UK splitting the week-before-last’s shipment in two), and there’s a ton of them… so let’s get to it. \u00a0Below the cut: Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine<\/em> #4, Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis<\/em> #4, Chaos War: X-Men<\/em> #1, Daken: Dark Wolverine<\/em> #4, Generation Hope<\/em> #3, New Mutants<\/em> #20, X-23<\/em> #4, X-Men Forever 2<\/em> #14, and X-Men: To Serve and Protect<\/em> #2. \u00a0Needless to say, we’ll be kind of rushing through some of these…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine<\/em> #4<\/strong> – We’re two thirds of the way through the series now, and Jason Aaron starts making the transition from seemingly-random insanity to hinting at what’s actually going on. \u00a0Which is to say, he brings on the villains who are clearly responsible for it all, and then they cheerfully refuse to explain anything. \u00a0Basically, though, they’re a couple of Barracuda-style thugs who’ve stumbled upon some time-travel thingies, and from the look of it they’re using them mainly to have fun and screw with people. \u00a0Mind you, Aaron’s making enough of their refusal to properly explain the plot to suggest that there’s more to it than just that.<\/p>\n

Not that it really matters, because the bottom line is that this miniseries is a fun romp, as per the advertised purpose of the Astonishing<\/em> minis. \u00a0Whether it’s entirely self-contained, I suppose you can argue about; it doesn’t interact with any other comics coming out at the moment, but this issue involves the time-travelling Spider-Man and Wolverine going into each other’s past. \u00a0Wolverine gets to meet Spider-Man during that bit of his origin story when he was a pro wrestler; Spider-Man ends up being dumped into Origin<\/em>, which isn’t really quite so iconic. \u00a0To be honest, I initially assumed they were going for Weapon X<\/em>, partly because Wolverine looks rather older than I remember him being in that story. \u00a0The plot doesn’t greatly matter, mind you; Aaron and Kubert seem to be mostly just dumping something rather silly into the somewhat ponderous Origin<\/em> (whose digital-painted art style is dutifully mimicked throughout the relevant scenes).<\/p>\n

One of Aaron’s strengths as a superhero writer is the willingness to write some utterly ridiculous stories but let the characters take them more or less seriously, and he shifts gear quite nicely a couple of times here – there’s a nice little throwaway bit with Wolverine realising that he’s meeting Spider-Man before<\/em> he learned his Terribly Important Moral Lesson, which is great, because it brings us back to the characters and makes sure they don’t get overwhelmed by the plot. \u00a0Anyhow, another good issue in a very strong mini.<\/p>\n

Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis<\/em> #4<\/strong> – Christ, is this still going<\/em>? \u00a0And it’s still got another issue to go? \u00a0When did the first issue come out? \u00a0Hold on, I’ll just check… \u00a0May! \u00a0May 2010! \u00a0And we’re still only on issue #4 of 5!<\/p>\n

It’s an old complaint but it’s worth repeating: the schedule is doing this mini no favours whatsoever. \u00a0It’s a fairly straightforward story in which the X-Men (i) investigate a spate of weird births in an African village, (ii) discover that they’re not mutants, (iii) squabble with the local authorities, but then (iv) team up to deal with the greater threat, before presumably (v) vanquishing evil to save the day. \u00a0Nothing wrong with this as a five-act structure; nothing wrong with this issue as act four, with a well-handled fight scene between the X-Men and a bunch of Furies, lasting… well, all issue. \u00a0Kaare Andrews’ work is, as always, beautiful. \u00a0But seriously, nine months to get most of the way through a 90-minute movie? \u00a0No, no, no.<\/p>\n

It’ll make a nice trade paperback, I guess.<\/p>\n

Chaos War: X-Men<\/em> #1<\/strong> – This is one of many tie-in books to the Hercules miniseries Chaos War<\/em>, where the basic idea is that the Chaos King – a Japanese god – is trying to destroy reality and a bunch of god-type characters have to stop him (since all the mortals got put to sleep in issue #1). \u00a0As part of the series, there’s a subplot about the dead rising, and so we’re getting minis where dead members of the X-Men, Alpha Flight, the Avengers and so on come back for another go around.<\/p>\n

Which sounds like quite a nice idea. \u00a0Let’s visit a bunch of characters we haven’t seen in a while. \u00a0And in the case of the X-Men, that means the people who were left in the Mansion graveyard – Thunderbird, Banshee, Moira MacTaggert, two of the Stepford Cuckoos, and three Madroxes. \u00a0(I could have sworn there’s a bunch of nobodies from New X-Men<\/em> buried under the vegetable patch as well, but even the chaos gods draw the line at reanimating the extras, I guess.) \u00a0Consistently with the nostalgic theme, it’s written by Louise Simonson and Chris Claremont, and it’s got some very nice art by Doug Braithwaite.<\/p>\n

But there’s a problem: even though Marvel is publishing all these Chaos War<\/em> tie-ins, the miniseries itself doesn’t seem to provide any role for them. \u00a0And so the X-Men emerge from their graves and… er, basically stand around wondering what to do for an issue, hoping that the plot turns up. \u00a0It kind of does towards the end, but boy, this comes across as a story without a role. \u00a0It’s not Simonson and Claremont’s fault; they dutifully come up with a function for the series, by kind of declaring that something or other needs to be done on Muir Isle which is, honest, terribly important to the main story. \u00a0And they try to give the story an emotional hook by having poor swiftly-slaughtered Thunderbird emerge as the group leader, which is quite sweet in a way – it may be 35 years since he was killed off, but he’s finally getting his moment to shine. \u00a0(It reads slightly oddly when Banshee’s around, since he’s a more natural leader for the group, but so it goes.)<\/p>\n

The art’s great; there are a couple of nice moments with Thunderbird’s character arc and the Madroxes wondering why they’re still separate entities even beyond the grave. \u00a0The details are generally pretty good. \u00a0But it can’t quite overcome the feeling that Chaos War<\/em> just doesn’t have a place for it, and the characters are left to wander around hoping something turns up.<\/p>\n

Daken: Dark Wolverine<\/em> #4<\/strong> – A step up! \u00a0Having faked his death last issue, Daken curiously turns up at the Fantastic Four’s doorstep to assure them that he’s not dead after all. \u00a0(Actually, the recap page says that Daken didn’t fake his death; rather the impostor Wolverine just let him live, and he’s seizing the opportunity to start a new life. \u00a0Can’t say I picked that up from the story, but I’ll take your word for it, guys.) \u00a0Now, the first few issues of Dark Wolverine<\/em>, where Daken sort of ingratiated himself with the FF by persuading them that he might be a potential ally inside the Dark Avengers, were among my favourites, partly because they gave Daken some sort of ambiguity. \u00a0There’s a bit of that here as well, though I’m a little less receptive to it now, since the writers have made it so abundantly clear that they think this is just a villain book, in which we’re presumably supposed to admire Daken outwitting the FF. \u00a0But yes, it is kind of entertaining on that level, and it’s nice to see Daken interacting with some relatively sympathetic characters who give him the benefit of the doubt up to a point, if only because it’s a break from the parade of murderers and dupes who normally populate the pages of this series. \u00a0Giuseppe Camuncoli’s art is also nice and clear, and his minimal angular style is unusual in actually making Daken’s character design look half decent. \u00a0A pretty decent issue, all told.<\/p>\n

Generation Hope<\/em> #3<\/strong> – My main problem with issue #2 was that it didn’t give the main characters enough to do. \u00a0With this issue, I can see where they’re going with it: the X-Men set out to take Kenji down, Hope and her group want to save him, conflict. \u00a0The title characters get a bit more to do this issue, as a result. \u00a0There’s some nice stuff with Laurie, who seems to be the only member of the group not entirely sold on tailing around after Hope, but unable to quite say no either; that should give her a potentially interesting role in the group. \u00a0On the other hand, considering it’s the first arc, I’d still have liked to see Gabriel, Idie and Tenon get more to do in this story – yes, Hope’s the title character, and there are good reasons for her to be prominent in the group, but this feels a bit like a Hope solo book with a supporting cast at the moment. \u00a0Still, we’re past the opening fight with Kenji now – which might have worked better at two issues – so hopefully we can get to the characters more next time.<\/p>\n

New Mutants<\/em> #20<\/strong> – This is billed as part 1 of “Rise of the New Mutants”, a two-parter that wraps up Zeb Wells’ run as writer, but it’s really a direct continuation from the previous story, with most of the team prisoners of Project Purgatory, and Magik and Karma making it back to Utopia to rally the rescue party. \u00a0I can see I’m going to have to sit down and re-read the whole run once it finishes next month – Wells is evidently going for the big pay-off of his Magik subplot, and that means scenes where people say “Ah, so that’s<\/em> why you did such-and-such in issue #5″, while I desperately try to remember what the hell they’re talking about. \u00a0For all that, though, there’s some great bits in this story – the three demon ambassadors sent to negotiate with Project Purgatory have great dialogue, Dani gets to show off in a lovely subplot, and the build to the X-Men’s rescue party setting off for Limbo (or are they?) is paced beautifully. \u00a0Not exactly an ideal place to jump aboard, but that kind of comes with the territory when you’re reaching the climax of a two-year storyline, so you can’t really complain about that. \u00a0Leonard Kirk’s art tells a good story, and his Limbo is all the more effective for having a sense of geography. \u00a0This has been one of the stronger X-books over the last couple of years, and I’ll miss Wells on it.<\/p>\n

X-23<\/em> #4<\/strong> – The obligatory opening crossover out of the way, we begin X-23’s road trip of self-discovery. \u00a0Gambit shows up to tail after her, but hey, it’s not like any of the other writers were doing anything with him, and if it wasn’t for people who wouldn’t leave her alone, X-23 wouldn’t have a supporting cast to speak of. \u00a0I think he’s a good choice for this book; when you’ve got a main character as taciturn and gloomy as X-23, it really needs a lighter presence to balance her out, and Gambit can do that without overshadowing her. \u00a0There’s a nicely meta conceit in here – you might expect an X-23 road trip series to be a load of stories where X-23 meets equally gloomy people and helps out with their problems while Finding Herself. \u00a0And Marjorie Liu kind of teases doing exactly that sort of story, with X-23 confidently declaring that this is exactly what she’s dealing with – only to be hopelessly wrong as she gets to deal with a supervillain after all.<\/p>\n

I’m in two minds about choosing Miss Sinister as the villain – a character from Mike Carey’s X-Men Legacy<\/em> run who didn’t strike me as one of the more successful ideas. \u00a0But then again, my main reservation about her is that she’s a rather hazily defined character, so it’s equally possible that Liu will be able to take her as a blank slate and do something with her. \u00a0She’s certainly at odds with X-23’s rather downbeat, real-world tone (well supported by Will Conrad and Marco Checchetto’s art), but that clash could work in her favour; do you really<\/em> want to read a whole series of X-23 moping? \u00a0On the whole, now that the opening crossover is out of the way and the series is hitting its stride, this is pretty decent.<\/p>\n

X-Men Forever 2<\/em> #14<\/strong> – Building to a climax, as Claremont brings all his characters together in Wakanda. \u00a0It’s quite good, actually. \u00a0The big fight is next month, and on one level this is just an exercise in moving the pieces into place. \u00a0That could be very boring, but Claremont livens it up nicely by turning it into a heist issue, with the X-Men breaking into Wakanda and outwitting their way into the heart of the castle. \u00a0It’s still basically covering the same plot points, but this way it gets to be entertaining along the way. \u00a0Andy Smith’s art is pretty good on the action scenes, sometimes more awkward when he’s asked to draw people talking and giving orders, but fine overall. \u00a0 One of the stronger issues in a while, I think.<\/p>\n

X-Men: To Serve and Protect<\/em> #2<\/strong> – It tells you something about the X-Men titles that we can now have an anthology title where the theme is “the heroes actually help somebody for a change.” \u00a0Still, loose themes are often the best for these anthologies, and the strike rate on this one is high. \u00a0Chris Yost and Derec Donovan’s lead serial, with the unlikely duo of Anole and Rockslide going on patrol in San Francisco to fight low-level crime, is really quite strong; Yost gets the right mixture of obnoxiousness and sympathy with Rockslide, and Anole plays well against him. \u00a0They’re both horribly underused characters right now, and hopefully this will persuade somebody to use them more. \u00a0Ray Fawkes and Ron Chan have the Stepford Cuckoos (in Manhattan, for some reason) not just defeating but utterly humiliating some bank robbers without breaking a sweat; it’s amusing but kind of overplayed towards the end. \u00a0Stuart Moore and Garry Brown do a Colossus\/Iron Man team-up, which fortunately turns out not to dwell on the steel\/iron similarity, but instead uses Iron Man as the sort of smart-ass foil who ultimately doesn’t know as much as the gentle giant. \u00a0Nothing really new, but it’s a nice rapport between two characters who’ve been around for decades but, now I come to think of it, have barely had a conversation before. \u00a0And Simon Spurrier and David Lafuente team up X-23 with Ghost Rider in a basically arbitrary fight which is really a device to have X-23 wonder whether she’d like a go with Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare power. \u00a0Unless I’ve missed a story somewhere, Ghost Rider seems way out of character, but the central idea’s solid and the art’s got great energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve got a week and a half’s worth of X-books to cover here (thanks to Diamond UK splitting the week-before-last’s shipment in two), and there’s a ton of them… so let’s get to it. \u00a0Below the cut: Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #4, Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #4, Chaos War: X-Men #1, Daken: Dark Wolverine #4, Generation […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","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=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}