It’s the weekend of the Chicago comicon! \u00a0I’m sure all sorts of interesting things have been announced. \u00a0I’ll read the round-ups on Monday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it’s a busy week for reviews, with five X-books and a bunch of other interesting (or at least noteworthy) titles. \u00a0So to work…<\/p>\n
Fear Itself: Book of the Skull<\/strong><\/em> – Billed as the prologue to the upcoming Fear Itself<\/em> crossover. \u00a0Matt Fraction is writing the main event, but this lead-in one-shot is by Ed Brubaker, presumably because it spins out of his Captain America storylines. \u00a0The Red Skull is apparently dead, and his estranged daughter Sin is planning to carry on the family tradition. \u00a0So she and Baron Zemo raid an abandoned Red Skull base, in order to lay hands on a Magic Widget which will clearly be of tremendous importance to the upcoming crossover. \u00a0The angle is that Sin is going to outdo her father by revisiting one of his failed plans from World War II and getting it right this time. \u00a0Cue an extended flashback, with Captain America, Bucky and the Sub-Mariner thwarting a Nazi plan that can fairly be described as enigmatically vague. \u00a0Scot Eaton’s art is fine, though the inking’s a bit heavy for my taste. \u00a0But the big pay-off is rather undermined by the fact that it really just tells us something that was already in the adverts for the series proper, accompanied by some vague hinting that will no doubt make sense in seven months’ time. \u00a0It’s a perfectly acceptable comic, but I can’t honestly say it gets me excited about the crossover.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Generation Hop<\/em>e #5<\/strong> – Now that the cast has been assembled, this book is hitting its stride properly. \u00a0This is essentially a second issue of the Lights settling in on Utopia, but focussing more in the question of how the group as a whole relates to the X-Men. \u00a0Poor, marginalised Professor X shows up to introduce himself to the group, only to get a lecture about how times have changed. \u00a0And Emma, who clearly doesn’t much care for Hope, struggles to assert her authority. \u00a0Actually, the Hope\/Emma stuff teeters on the brink of overdoing it; it leaves Emma looking like a bit of an idiot, and I have some difficulty believing that she crumbles quite that quickly in the face of insubordination. \u00a0It’s fine if you view it as a special case of her being intimidated by Hope – I take it that Emma too finds Hope worryingly reminiscent of Jean Grey, or worse, Phoenix, and doesn’t much care for either thought. \u00a0But it might be trying a little hard to make the new character look cool at the expense of an established one. \u00a0Jamie McKelvie is this month’s guest artist, reuniting the creative team from Phonogram<\/em>, and he’s very well suited to an issue which is entirely character-driven. \u00a0Oh, and we finally get a clear statement of what I’d kind of been hoping was the case: that the Five Lights are, officially, just the first of a new wave of mutants, so the “no more mutants” era is finally behind us. \u00a0I’m a little less sure about the idea of Hope having to stabilise all<\/em> the new mutants – it got a bit repetitive even in the “Five Lights” arc, and I don’t really want it to be the springboard for every arc in this book. \u00a0Still, a good issue overall.<\/p>\n Hulk<\/em> #30.1<\/strong> – I’ve heard that Jeff Parker has been doing good work on this book since taking it over, so I thought I’d try the Point One issue. \u00a0The whole Point One programme seems to be going badly off the rails, with a number of issues that either don’t work as jumping on points, or are sunk by incomprehensible scheduling. \u00a0(We’ll come to one of those later.) \u00a0But Jeff Parker does understand how this is supposed to work, and has indeed delivered an issue which establishes the premise and sets up a new storyline. \u00a0Thunderbolt Ross is the Red Hulk; he’s trying to atone for what he did in the Jeph Loeb run; he’s now working for the government thanks to Steve Rogers; but other people are out for revenge. \u00a0Parker’s obviously playing up the dramatic irony here: Ross has taken over the Hulk’s role, and his enemies are people who are setting out to fill his shoes. \u00a0All of which makes perfect sense, and it’s a well executed comic, with Gabriel Hardman and Tom Palmer providing some neat old-school Hulk art.<\/p>\n Well, I say it makes perfect sense. \u00a0There does seem to be a glaring plot hole, or at least an obvious question that isn’t addressed: if the Red Hulk is working for the government, then why doesn’t he just get his new pursuers shut down? \u00a0I’m kind of confused by that, and it does hang rather uncomfortably over the story. \u00a0Since Parker is no fool, I’m kind of figuring that there is an explanation, but it’s not one that comes across in this issue, and since it’s meant to be a jumping on point…<\/p>\n Aside from that, though, it’s a good introductory issue. \u00a0But I can’t say I find Ross a compelling enough character that I want to read a whole series about him. \u00a0Often a problem when characters are put into a role for which they weren’t designed, and Parker’s got an angle here that makes sense, but I’m just not gripped.<\/p>\n Iceman & Angel <\/em><\/strong>– Another of the “X-Men First Class” one-shots, which are set to be collected in May for an extremely tenuous movie tie-in. \u00a0Are these things supposed to be in continuity? \u00a0For the movie? \u00a0For the Marvel Universe? \u00a0For X-Men: First Class<\/em> (the series which inspired the title of the movie and from the looks of it not a great deal else)? \u00a0This one’s downright confusing. \u00a0It’s got Bobby and Warren on spring break, and for the most part it seems to be going for early Silver Age, but it also inexplicably references Wolverine. \u00a0How did that slip through?<\/p>\n So… Warren and Bobby are hanging around New York, and a giant monster attacks, and they fight him, and yeah, that’s pretty much it. \u00a0But the plot’s really just a backdrop for Brian Clevinger to play the characters off against one another, and there’s some fun banter in here – such as the immature Bobby musing about how awesome it would be if Warren had, like, knives for wings… \u00a0Art is by Juan Doe, and I don’t recall seeing him doing interior art before. \u00a0As it turns out, his work here looks nothing like his cover art – but it’s good work, with clear storytelling and a nice spontaneously sketchy feel to it. \u00a0The issue as a whole could use a bit more plot to hang everything on, but it’s very readable.<\/p>\n Knight & Squire<\/em> #6<\/strong> – The final issue of Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton’s curious miniseries, which hasn’t been about the title characters so much as a whole milieu of mock-Silver Age British superheroes. \u00a0This issue, the actual Joker shows up to express his disdain for the whole thing – and just in case anybody hadn’t figured out that this series is a reaction against pseudo-realism in the superhero genre, he’s also controlling people’s minds using V For Vendetta<\/em> masks. \u00a0Cornell’s basic thesis seems to be that there’s more complexity to these characters than meets the eye, given the layers of irony and humour that are built into them, \u00a0and conversely rather less to the Joker than you’d think, since he’s basically just a one-dimensional psycho. \u00a0I’m going to re-read this series and see how it holds up, since it’s a bit episodic – and the last couple of pages of this issue do feel a bit rushed. \u00a0But it’s been an entertaining read, and an interesting attempt to challenge the genre’s often rather adolescent idea of what constitutes complexity.<\/p>\n Ruse<\/em> #1<\/strong> – The second relaunched CrossGen title is rather closer to its original incarnation. \u00a0Mark Waid’s pseudo-Victorian detective series now has the Sigil elements apparently stripped out, leaving it as a straightforward Victorian detective series. \u00a0Well, maybe still pseudo-Victorian, actually, since there are some odd references here to a Royal Family that don’t seem quite real-world. \u00a0It’s a simple set-up – Simon Archard is the acclaimed world’s greatest detective, and Emma Bishop is the long-suffering partner (or assistant, as Archard would have it) who has to put up with him and serve as his contact with reality. \u00a0They investigate stuff, he’s a genius, and it works very nicely on a combination of well-constructed plots and strong character interaction with some fun comedy asides. \u00a0Waid was doing some very good oddball detective stories recently on Unknown<\/em>, and many of the same qualities are in evidence here. \u00a0The risk with this kind of set-up is that you end up with characters who are obviously knock-offs of Holmes and Watson, but Waid avoids that pitfall effortlessly. \u00a0Mirco Pierfederici’s art has a good sense of location and nicely expressive characters. \u00a0Good issue.<\/p>\n Uncanny X-Force<\/em> #5.1<\/strong> – Another Point One comic, and this is the sort that makes you wonder what on earth Marvel can be thinking. \u00a0In fairness, Rick Remender clearly does get the idea. \u00a0He’s written a single issue story where X-Force take on the Reavers (er, weren’t they mostly dead already?), largely as a background to Psylocke agonising over whether she’s taking too much enjoyment in X-Force’s work when she ought to see it as a necessary evil. \u00a0That’s really the central theme of the series and it’s absolutely something to put front and centre in this issue. \u00a0The issue also nudges the overall plot along by having X-Force nearly cross paths with the regular X-Men, hinting at how Scott might react when he finds that they’re still around. \u00a0Rafael Albuquerque’s art is a little rough for my taste, and I think he oversells Psylocke’s angst, but there are some good striking panels, and he draws good Reavers.<\/p>\n But the scheduling! \u00a0What maniac decided that this issue should come out between issues #5 and 6 of the regular series? \u00a0The Point One books, let us remember, were supposed to be jumping on points. \u00a0So, you might expect that if you bought this book and enjoyed it, you could pick up issue #6 and start reading, right? \u00a0Wrong! \u00a0Because issue #6 is chapter two of a storyline in progress, to which this issue is completely unrelated. \u00a0This is all the more baffling because the issue would fit in quite happily between issues #4 and #5. \u00a0All they needed to do was swap the order of two issues and it would have been a perfectly good jumping on point. \u00a0But they didn’t, and they’ve blown it. \u00a0It doesn’t work as a jumping on point at all. \u00a0It doesn’t even contain a summary of the storyline in progress. \u00a0There’s a “next issue” page, but all it contains is the cover art for issue #6, and what’s that supposed to achieve? \u00a0It doesn’t even list the shipping date!<\/p>\n To be honest, the Point One books don’t seem to have made much difference to sales anyway, so the failings in execution may be academic. \u00a0But still, to create jumping-on issues that aren’t labelled as such and don’t ship in the correct sequence? \u00a0What were they thinking?<\/p>\n Uncanny X-Men Annual<\/em> #3<\/strong> – This is the first part of “Escape from the Negative Zone”, a crossover running through this issue, Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier Annual<\/em> #1 and Namor: The First Mutant Annual<\/em> #1. \u00a0As you can imagine with that billing, I didn’t have my hopes up for this. \u00a0As it turns out, though, it’s actually pretty good. \u00a0The set-up is basically that a random lab explosion sends four of the X-Men off to the Negative Zone, which of course they don’t recognise because it’s a Fantastic Four concept. \u00a0The plot is slight, but that’s not a problem, because James Asmus’ story really just uses it as a backdrop for the characters to interact in. \u00a0The utterly random “X-Men” team for this story is Cyclops, Hope, Namor and Dr Nemesis, the idea being that Cyclops is stuck with a team who don’t accept him as their leader. \u00a0Namor and Dr Nemesis both think they ought to be in charge, and Hope just thinks Cyclops is infuriatingly condescending. \u00a0And she’s right, of course. \u00a0It works because, aside from providing some comedy, it also forces Cyclops out of his established role as the unquestioned leader, and that’s a good story. \u00a0Nick Bradshaw’s art won’t be to everyone’s taste – there’s a degree of distortion on the faces that some people will hate – but I think it’s beautiful work. \u00a0He’s good with emotion, and he’s able to render stock Kirby environments in a way that makes them seem fresh. \u00a0There’s a vaguely Art Adams quality to some of it. \u00a0I’d like to see more from him. \u00a0An unexpectedly strong issue.<\/p>\n X-Factor<\/em> #217<\/strong> – Part 2 of the J Jonah Jameson story. \u00a0Ballistique and Rococo are trying to kill him, X-Factor are trying to protect him, and he gets to make a speech about tolerance about halfway through to show that he’s a multifaceted character. \u00a0No Spider-Man this issue, but there’s a big role for the Black Cat. \u00a0It’s the sort of issue that’s kind of hard to comment on since it’s basically a story being advanced – it’s good, but for the same reasons that Peter David’s X-Factor<\/em> is always good, rather than for any particular stand-out qualities of this issue. \u00a0Continuity wonks will wish to note that the book seems to be gearing up to address the dreaded question of “What’s the connection between Longshot and Shatterstar?” \u00a0Good luck with that one – Shatterstar’s back story has been utterly incomprehensible since the 1990s, thanks to a horrifically botched X-Force <\/em>storyline that (allegedly) even the writer couldn’t understand by the time the editors had finished with it. \u00a0Actually, there’s something to be said for \u00a0sweeping all that stuff away in order to put Shatterstar on more secure foundations as a character, but it’s going to be a challenge.<\/p>\n Xombi<\/em> #1<\/strong> – There’s something quite endearing about DC’s disregard for common sense. \u00a0A revival of Xombi<\/em> from the Milestone imprint? \u00a0Not a bad idea. \u00a0Many people will tell you that Milestone had plenty of good characters with untapped potential. \u00a0But launching straight into it as an ongoing series? \u00a0It seems insane – but a part of me is kind of glad that DC are crazy enough to do it anyway.<\/p>\n I didn’t read the original series, but John Rozum and Frazer Irving seem to be picking up where it left off. \u00a0To be honest, I wouldn’t have minded a slightly clearer explanation of the back story (by which I mean, a couple of panels covering the origin flashback, or maybe a one-page back-up strip). \u00a0But in principle I’m all for jumping straight into the story and filling in the details as we go along. \u00a0David Kim has – somehow or other – had his body fused with loads of nanotech machines, and now he’s sort of immortal with vaguely defined powers. \u00a0That’s the relatively normal bit. \u00a0Then you get to the story, which is a lunatic rush of insane and sometimes vaguely disturbing concepts – talking coins, evil papier mache, supporting characters called Catholic Girl and Nun Of The Above. \u00a0And some saturated colouring only makes it odder.<\/p>\n You could make a case that it’s maybe a little heavy on the freeform weirdness at the expense of giving the reader something to hang on to, but it’s so distinctive and bizarre that I can’t help liking it. \u00a0I’ll be stunned if this finds an audience, but I really hope I”m wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the weekend of the Chicago comicon! \u00a0I’m sure all sorts of interesting things have been announced. \u00a0I’ll read the round-ups on Monday. Meanwhile, it’s a busy week for reviews, with five X-books and a bunch of other interesting (or at least noteworthy) titles. \u00a0So to work… Fear Itself: Book of the Skull – Billed […]<\/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-768","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\/768","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=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}