{"id":690,"date":"2011-01-23T20:29:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T20:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=690"},"modified":"2011-01-23T20:29:07","modified_gmt":"2011-01-23T20:29:07","slug":"the-x-axis-23-january-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=690","title":{"rendered":"The X-Axis – 23 January 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a pretty good week for new books. \u00a0From the X-books, we’ve got the conclusion of the “Wolverine Goes to Hell” arc in Wolverine<\/em> #5, the launch of Kathryn Immonen and Phil Noto’s Wolverine & Jubilee<\/em> miniseries, a very strange Darwin story in X-Factor<\/em> #214, and X-Men Legacy<\/em> #244, in which some minor characters fight a giant astral squid. \u00a0Plus, the final issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8<\/em>, and the debut issues of Daredevil Reborn<\/em>, Infinite Vacation<\/em> and Memoir<\/em>. \u00a0Shame we’re not doing a podcast this weekend, actually.<\/p>\n

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8<\/em> #40<\/strong> – The main storyline for Joss Whedon’s notional eighth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em> actually ended last issue, so this is more of an epilogue designed to tie up loose ends and signal the direction of Season Nine. \u00a0For, yes, there will be a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9<\/em> in the not too distant future.<\/p>\n

Now, I’ve rather been losing patience with this series, which seemed at times to have lost touch with what made Buffy<\/em> work in the first place, in favour of a lot of globetrotting and warmongering that wasn’t all that successful. \u00a0Interestingly, Joss Whedon’s closing editorial suggests he tends to agree with some of those criticisms. \u00a0“I was so excited to finally have an unlimited budget that I wanted to make the book an epic,” he says, “but I realised along the way that the things I loved the best were the things you loved the best” – the characters. \u00a0 \u00a0And indeed, this issue seems to be setting us up for a much more low-key Season 9 with a much more restricted central cast, something that can only be for the best. \u00a0The remaining characters are relocated to San Francisco, lots of magic-users have been depowered as a result of last issue’s destruction of the Enormously Important Macguffin, and some of the ones who remain aren’t very happy about Buffy wiping out so much of the world’s magic. \u00a0It’s not a reset button – the change of location and the embittered ex-followers are enough to avoid that – but it’s a back-to-basics approach which is very welcome at the end of a series that laudably tried to stretch the format with mixed success.<\/p>\n

It also turns out that one of Whedon’s main aims for this series was, of all things, to try and reconcile Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em> continuity with the sci-fi spin-off comic Fray<\/em> (the question being, given how the TV show ended, why are there no slayers left in Fray<\/em>?). \u00a0Technically that’s a valid question but it does feel like a loose end rather too minor to merit such extended attention. \u00a0Still, the practical effect – somewhat to my surprise – is a final issue that pretty much convinces me that Season 9<\/em> will be much more to my tastes than Season 8<\/em>. \u00a0I was planning to jump off after this issue. \u00a0He’s got me reconsidering now. \u00a0Damn you, Whedon.<\/p>\n

Daredevil: Reborn<\/em> #1<\/strong> – The problem with Daredevil is that he’s been literally written into a corner. \u00a0For the last quarter century, he’s been on a treadmill where writer after writer destroys his life (and his mental health) and then rebuilds it again. \u00a0Brian Bendis, during his run, went for the next logical step by having the courage to follow through with the story and definitively wreck the character, exposing his secret identity in a way that’s going to be very hard for any future writer to retract. \u00a0Of course, anything’s possible in the Marvel Universe – Captain America, Spider-Man and Iron Man have all regained their secret identities by hand-waving magic – but that sort of story doesn’t really fit with Daredevil, and it would invariably come across as a case of raising the white flag.<\/p>\n

So, with last year’s\u00a0Shadowland <\/em>storyline,\u00a0Andy Diggle took the other route by hurling the character even further off a cliff, bringing us to a point where at least some sort of scorched-earth rebuilding exercise can begin. \u00a0Personally, I’d have liked to see the character put on the back burner for at least six months or so, rather than racing him straight back into circulation, but that’s not the way Marvel work these days.<\/p>\n

Considering that it’s coming off an event mini, this issue is a sharp change of pace. \u00a0Matt is wandering around the wilderness, and eventually comes upon a desert town which has obviously got Secrets. \u00a0He’s not Daredevil any more, and he’s minded to just move on, but the locals recognise him as Matt Murdock, so that might not be an option. \u00a0It’s all quite low key, and (as yet) open to the objection that Matt’s basically just wandered into an arbitrary story – it’s not terribly clear how any of this is going to tie in to the presumed goal of rehabilitating the character for future use. \u00a0Still, there’s three issues to draw all that together. \u00a0As it stands, lovely art by Davide Gianfelice, who gives the book a nice open feel that emphasises the change of setting, and a well-told story. \u00a0Is it heading anywhere beyond that? \u00a0Tough to call.<\/p>\n

The Infinite Vacation<\/em> #1<\/strong> –\u00a0\u00a0Nick Spencer is something of a breakout writer at the moment; he’s got a fair bit of work coming out through Marvel and DC, including his well-received Jimmy Olsen stories, but he’s also got some more unusual books over at Image, most notably Morning Glories<\/em>. \u00a0A while back, he also wrote Existence 2.0<\/em>, in which a man finds his mind trapped in the body of the hit man who just killed him. \u00a0Al and I reviewed the first issue for the podcast and weren’t entirely convinced – as I recall, it was a good idea, but it felt like it was trying too hard to be edgy.<\/p>\n

Well, Infinite Vacation<\/em> takes Spencer back to a somewhat similar theme of life-swapping, but with rather more success. \u00a0This one is high concept, to put it mildly. \u00a0In a world – well, in worlds – where parallel universes are common knowledge, the Infinite Vacation offer the unusual service of allowing you to visit, or trade lives with, your own counterparts in other worlds, all through the medium of an eBay style iPhone app. \u00a0Mark is a particularly enthusiastic customer, but remains strangely dissatisfied with his lot. \u00a0Oh, and also, his counterparts seem to be winding up dead a lot.<\/p>\n

It’s a nice central conceit, and I like the way Spencer simply presents it as a well-established fact of life. \u00a0Admittedly, there are bits of it that don’t quite make sense. \u00a0What happens to the people whose lives you take over? \u00a0Do they swap with you? \u00a0Do they head further up the chain? \u00a0And if you take over their lives, don’t you take over their property – so how are you paying them? \u00a0All of this might get covered in due course, and to some extent the book’s entitled to a bit of artistic licence to make the premise work, but still, the set-up needs to make a degree of internal sense.<\/p>\n

That said, it’s a strong idea, and there some neat little details in the execution. \u00a0Somewhere out there, in an infinite universe, one of your counterparts works for Infinite Vacation Customer Service Department… dealing with other versions of you. \u00a0And\u00a0Christian Ward’s art is excellent – bold, vibrant stuff which humanises the story at the same time as being dizzyingly abstract when it needs to. \u00a0It’s a really striking book, with some interesting ideas about finding meaning in a world of literally infinite possibilities. \u00a0One to watch.<\/p>\n

Memoir<\/em> #1<\/strong> – A miniseries by Ben McCool and Nikki Cook, which I guess fits somewhere along the mystery\/horror spectrum. \u00a0Ten years ago, the entire population of \u00a0the small midwestern town of Lowesville woke up with no memory. \u00a0Journalist Trent MacGowan visits to do an anniversary piece, in search of a story. \u00a0There are, needless to say, secrets. \u00a0The hook’s quite good, but the execution isn’t altogether convincing. \u00a0The book opens with MacGowan doing a TV interview seemingly to promote the fact that he’s planning to write the story; quite why this is supposed to be newsworthy in its own right is altogether unclear, and the sequence comes across as clunky exposition. \u00a0MacGowan also seems to end up in the town with no apparent plan beyond wandering around and hoping to stumble upon something that might fill a few paragraphs. \u00a0It all feels a bit shapeless. \u00a0Then again, the closing pages set up an interesting idea by refocussing attention on what<\/em> everybody forgot, and Cook’s black and white art is compelling.<\/p>\n

Wolverine<\/em> #5<\/strong> – So that’s the\u00a0end of the “Wolverine Goes To Hell” arc, a story idea which makes some sense in terms of the way Jason Aaron’s been developing the character, but probably didn’t need to be shoehorned into a three-book crossover. \u00a0Fortunately, nothing that happened in Daken<\/em> or X-23<\/em> was particularly relevant to the plot of this book, so we can take it on our own terms. \u00a0In Hell, Wolverine is reunited with his father (that’d be the groundskeeper from Origin<\/em>, who was implied to be Wolverine’s biological father before), who’s terribly proud of all he’s achieved – though not for the right reasons. \u00a0Wolverine gets out of hell, the demon gets exorcised from his body… yeah, it’s a bit of an anticlimax, to be honest. \u00a0The story gets away with it to some extent by telling us that the Red Right Hand group never expected Wolverine to get stuck in Hell forever – this, apparently, was just their opening salvo. \u00a0And Aaron does make a point of selling this as a traumatic experience which should have a lasting effect on him. \u00a0Fair enough, and I’ll re-read the whole arc to see how it reads in one go. \u00a0But this issue feels a bit “Okay, time for Wolverine to leave hell now”, without quite building in the way you’d like. \u00a0The back-up strip this issue, which shows exactly how Wolverine ended up in hell in the first place, is mainly tying up the loose ends, but it does have some beautiful artwork by Jason Latour.<\/p>\n

Wolverine and Jubilee<\/em> #1<\/strong> – If the only lasting consequence of “Curse of the Mutants” was to turn Jubilee into a vampire, at least they’re following up on it. \u00a0Despite the title, this is mainly Jubilee’s story, with Wolverine as the main supporting character. \u00a0Actually, there are enough other cast members floating around in minor roles that the story could quite happily have been run as an issue of X-Men<\/em>. \u00a0The basic set-up is that the X-Men, tolerant as ever, are trying to help Jubilee come to terms with being a vampire, because hey, if they drug her up enough and give her enough blood, it’ll be okay, right? \u00a0Strangely enough, being a heavy sedated vampire doesn’t altogether appeal to Jubilee.<\/p>\n

Now, the whole X-Men versus vampires thing was a bit of a damp squib over in X-Men<\/em>, but Kathryn Immonen’s found a good angle here. \u00a0The X-Men, being the heroes, are dealing with the situation by trying to give motivational speeches about making the best of things, and assuring Jubilee, in the face of all logic and common sense, that they’ll find a way forward. \u00a0(“If you want to go to college, you can go to college… \u00a0We’ve been helping people deal with unusual changes in their personal lives for quite a while now.”) \u00a0Is this laudably stubborn determination, or just plain stupid?<\/p>\n

Immonen’s always an interesting writer, but some of her previous minis have hit levels of quirk that may limit their appeal. \u00a0This one, however, ought to go down well with X-Men fans generally; it’s closer in tone to regular X-Men stories, she’s got a handle on the characters, and she’s got a good premise. \u00a0Some of the supporting cast are a little shakier – Rockslide seems to have gained 30 IQ points and a clue, most notably. \u00a0Phil Noto’s art is consistently excellent; the issue is a great example of how an artist who’s mastered body language can transform a story. \u00a0(I read this back to back with X-Men Legacy<\/em>, which might explain why that leapt out at me…)<\/p>\n

Even if the vampire angle doesn’t appeal to you, this is a good X-Men story.<\/p>\n

X-Factor <\/em>#214<\/strong> – A Darwin solo story, because this is the sort of book where you get more panel time if you leave the team. \u00a0Wandering through the desert, Darwin… well, either has a hallucination or stumbles into a really weird limbo town where a sheriff claims to be keeping the whore of Babylon prisoner, and waiting for the end of the world. \u00a0A thoroughly strange issue, but since hallucinations in comics are never just<\/em> hallucinations, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s full of groundwork for the next major storyline. \u00a0As I said about the last issue, Darwin’s a tricky character who didn’t really click until recently, but Peter David’s recent tweaks have finally found an angle that may be working. \u00a0With the plot essentially an extended dream sequence, Darwin has to carry a lot of weight in this story, giving the audience something to hold on to, and it pretty much works. \u00a0It helps, of course, that the book is witty enough to keep its surreal excursions readable.<\/p>\n

X-Men Legacy<\/em> #244<\/strong> – In which, as mentioned at the outset, some secondary characters fight an astral squid. \u00a0This is a single issue story before “Age of X” starts next month, and presumably it’s some sort of lead-in, though quite how it connects is decidedly opaque. \u00a0Blindfold is having cryptic premonitions of catastrophe again, and something nasty is coming. \u00a0Also, there’s an astral squid around, for some reason. \u00a0Cue the fighting. \u00a0While it might make more sense with hindsight, judged in isolation, it’s not one of Mike Carey’s better issues; it’s basically a lot of ominous build for something unspecified to come. \u00a0This month’s guest artist is Harvey Tolibao; his work is quite stylish, and he does well when it comes to visualising weird stuff. \u00a0The odd light effect on the last page is rather good, too. \u00a0But he’s not so great when it comes to drawing characters – they’re all clearly recognisable, but there’s a lot of blank faces and generic poses here, which lets the book down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a pretty good week for new books. \u00a0From the X-books, we’ve got the conclusion of the “Wolverine Goes to Hell” arc in Wolverine #5, the launch of Kathryn Immonen and Phil Noto’s Wolverine & Jubilee miniseries, a very strange Darwin story in X-Factor #214, and X-Men Legacy #244, in which some minor characters fight […]<\/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-690","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\/690","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=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}