Not only is this a day late, but last week’s X-Axis was another postal-disruption catch-up affair… so we’ve got two weeks worth of X-books to get through. \u00a0And Marvel are fairly churning them out at the moment, so two weeks is a lot of X-books.<\/p>\n
If you’re looking for reviews of things that aren’t<\/em> X-books, may I direct your attention a couple of posts down, to the latest episode of House to Astonish, where Al and I are discussing Moon Knight<\/em>, Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors<\/em>, and Spontaneous<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0But for now – X-books, X-books, X-books!<\/p>\n Age of X: Universe<\/em> #2<\/strong> – I can appreciate the desire to get maximum mileage out of Mike Carey’s “Age of X” storyline from X-Men: Legacy<\/em> and New Mutants<\/em>. \u00a0Marvel certainly put a lot into promoting it. \u00a0But if ever a story was unsuited for spin-offs, “Age of X” is it. \u00a0The central conceit of the storyline is that at first it looks like just another dystopian alternate Earth, with the X-Men holed up in a citadel fighting meaningless battles, only for it to turn out that there’s literally nothing out there beyond the fortress itself. \u00a0And now, Marvel brings us Age of X: Universe<\/em> – a two issue miniseries about what’s beyond the fortress.<\/p>\n Now, yes, technically, it’s what the X-Men think<\/em> is beyond the fortress – but even that is a bad idea, because in “Age of X” proper, the villains are intentionally generic, and that’s a plot point. \u00a0Theoretically, Si Spurrier and Khoi Pham’s story is meant to be explaining where the “force walls” idea came from, but the whole set-up leaves them wrestling with an impossible task, and by this point in the crossover we know that it doesn’t matter anyway. \u00a0They end up with an over-the-top “dark” \u00a0Avengers team trying to assassinate Magneto, only for Captain America to learn an Important Moral Lesson in the form of a lecture about tolerance. \u00a0Even if you disregard the context of the wider crossover, it’s just a rather generic dystopia story.<\/p>\n The back-up story by Chuck Kim and Gabriel Hernandez Walta, which explains how Dazzler (thinks she) got into the fortress, is slightly better, since you can read some of it as playing off the idea that the characters have actually built this world for themselves. \u00a0Plus, Walta’s pencilled art is an interesting change of pace. \u00a0But as a story, it’s really little more than a serviceable action sequence.<\/p>\n I’m not sure the concept problems really allowed for Age of X: Universe<\/em> to be much better than this – short of writing the whole thing as a further deconstruction of the dystopian subgenre, I’m not sure how it could<\/em> be made to dovetail with the story proper. \u00a0But in an otherwise well constructed storyline, this miniseries is emphatically skippable.<\/p>\n New Mutants<\/em> #24<\/strong> – Speaking of which, this is the concluding chapter of “Age of X”. \u00a0Everything goes to hell, the “world” literally ends, and the remaining mysteries get tied up. \u00a0It’s odd that Carey manages to give the final battle against the attackers a sense of climax even though the story has so comprehensively established that it’s all a sham. \u00a0Even so, it works, with some nice moments along the way for the likes of Wolverine and Rogue. \u00a0Legion gets a rare opportunity to be a character rather than a plot device, presumably setting him up for a bigger role in upcoming issues of X-Men Legacy. <\/em>And the final scene gives the rest of the story some potential wider significance by allowing the characters to remember their roles in the “Age of X” world – which isn’t such a big deal for most of them, but could be more significant for the likes of Frenzy, who were cast in wildly opposing roles there.<\/p>\n I’m still not entirely convinced that “Age of X” needed to be a crossover; it seems to be essentially an X-Men Legacy<\/em> storyline that took over New Mutants <\/em>for a few months because, hell, it was vacant. \u00a0Yes, Legion plays a major role, and he’s a New Mutants<\/em> character – but the New Mutants themselves had supporting roles. \u00a0Still, I’ve got no problem with a Legacy<\/em> storyline shipping at double speed, and the story undoubtedly benefitted from the pacing. \u00a0(What six-parter doesn’t?) \u00a0The villain also verges on one-dimensional, but that’s perhaps unavoidable when she’s supposed to represent an aspect of Legion’s personality – and besides, the story’s not really about her. \u00a0One of the more successful high-profile X-Men stories in quite some time.<\/p>\n Uncanny X-Force<\/em> #9<\/strong> – Now this, I’m not so sure about. \u00a0X-Force get home to find Magneto waiting for them. \u00a0That’s a big deal, right? \u00a0X-Force’s schtick is that the other X-Men aren’t supposed to know they’re still around? \u00a0And yes, everyone expresses surprise that Magneto’s there… for a couple of pages. \u00a0And then the whole topic gets dropped so that Wolverine can go and kill a geriatric Nazi.<\/p>\n Yes, it’s a change of pace for the book. \u00a0Yes, it gives Rick Remender a chance to make Wolverine sit through a speech about how he can never outrun his past deeds – though it’s not like he doesn’t know this. \u00a0But the issue has what ought to be a major plot point, with Magneto revealing that he knows the team exist, and just kind of breezes on past without following it through. \u00a0And that doesn’t work.<\/p>\n Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #536<\/strong> – Part 2 of “Breaking Point”, Kieron Gillen’s sequel to Joss Whedon’s Breakworld arc from Astonishing X-Men<\/em>. \u00a0I’d kind of expected that this issue would see the X-Men decamp to the Breakworld, but as it turns out, we get something rather more interesting: Kruun and his boatload of refugees come to live on Utopia with the X-Men. \u00a0The set-up of “X-Man becomes tribal leader, swans off and leaves them behind” was done in the 1980s with Storm, but that time, the Morlocks just waited meekly in the tunnels until they got slaughtered. \u00a0This time, with Colossus, we’re taking a different route – the tribe show up at the door and refuse to leave.<\/p>\n The Breakworlders’ warriors-without-compassion angle risks making them terribly one-dimensional, but Gillen manages to flesh them out a bit without deviating from the concept. \u00a0A page of Breakworlder vox pops gets the idea across nicely. \u00a0And just as everything’s seeming a bit cosy, it changes tack at the end with a strong cliffhanger. \u00a0Good issue.<\/p>\n Wolverine<\/em> #8<\/strong> – This is the concluding part of “Wolverine versus the X-Men”, and I think this is a three-parter that would have been better off in two. \u00a0Or, frankly, even one. \u00a0The basic idea of various facets of Wolverine’s personality fighting demons inside his head is a cute one. \u00a0And I don’t mind that Cyclops seems a little too trigger-happy in jumping straight to the “kill Wolverine” solution – I’ll give Aaron the benefit of the doubt and assume this is set-up for “Schism”. \u00a0I just don’t think this is a concept that really needed to be extended over three months, particularly when it’s essentially the epilogue to a storyline that was already five issues to begin with. \u00a0Nor does it seem that all the mental destruction has any lasting effect, which is unsurprising but still anticlimactic.<\/p>\n That said, there are some nice gags here with the rooms inside Wolverine’s mind, and the last couple of pages are a well-executed scene. \u00a0But three issues? \u00a0Too long.<\/p>\n Wolverine & Hercules: Myths, Monsters & Mutants<\/em> #3<\/strong> – Technically an X-book, really more of a Hercules story with Wolverine guest starring. \u00a0And he spends half the issue as a statue, in case there was any doubt about whose story this really is. \u00a0I can’t help wondering how long this book spent in development; it’s got a villain who was killed off in a miniseries last year, and a hero whose status quo has changed at least twice since this was written. \u00a0It’s not really fair to hold that sort of thing against the book, but it doesn’t do it any favours. \u00a0Judged as a throwaway team book, it’s perfectly fine. \u00a0Still, it’s hard to know what to say about it other than to shrug my shoulders and acknowledge its existence as a piece of acceptably diverting completist fodder.<\/p>\n Wolverine & Jubilee<\/em> #4<\/strong> – Uh… I think I might have to go back and read this mini again to see if it actually makes sense.<\/p>\n It makes sense on some level. \u00a0The character arc is all there – Jubilee comes to terms with being a vampire, stops moping, and gets back on her feet (even though everyone’s still a bit nervous about the whole vampire thing). \u00a0That’s all great, and Kathryn Immonen does a good job getting the character’s voice and selling this whole thing as the next phase in her story, when it could so easily seem like a ridiculous gimmick. \u00a0And the art’s beautiful throughout.<\/p>\n But then there’s the story, which involves a vampire seductress who just kind of vanishes from the plot, and a… cosmic pawn shop of some sort? \u00a0This is just gratuitously weird. \u00a0And gratuitously weird can be fine, but I have to admit I was completely lost as to what the threat actually was and why everyone was fighting a giant dragon. \u00a0The recap page doesn’t exactly shed much light on it either. \u00a0Which is a shame, because the story isn’t really about the plot, it’s about giving Jubilee an opportunity to get back in the saddle. \u00a0The details of the story don’t greatly matter. \u00a0But I was just kind of baffled by this issue, and that’s unfortunate when the series had been doing so well up till then.<\/p>\n Wolverine: The Best There Is<\/em> #6<\/strong> – The end of the first arc, and oh boy, this is crap. \u00a0As I’ve said, there’s a glimmer of a half-decent idea in here, with Contagion experimenting on unkillable characters to try and… well, something or other. \u00a0The recap page says he’s supposed to be trying to find out how to cure himself of his powers, but the ending of the story suggests he could have done that at will whenever he wanted, so god knows, really. \u00a0There’s a slightly more interesting subplot suggesting that Contagion is also trying to prepare one of his henchmen for a role she’ll have in the future (though again, god knows why). \u00a0But basically it’s just an exercise in extended gore and gross-out sequences, and the bottom line is, it doesn’t work as a story, and it’s all rather boring. \u00a0I’ll give Charlie Huston credit for at least trying to design a story around his ultra-violence remit instead of just doing a generic Wolverine story with added slaughter, but he hasn’t succeeded. \u00a0(And he doesn’t understand Madcap at all.)<\/p>\n Huston’s not a bad writer. \u00a0Maybe he’ll do better with the second arc, particularly given the universal kicking which issue #1 received online. \u00a0But this arc? \u00a0Horrible, and not in the way it wants to be, either.<\/p>\n X-23<\/em> #9<\/strong> – This, on the other hand? \u00a0File under “meh”. \u00a0It’s part 3 of the “Collision” crossover with Daken: Dark Wolverine<\/em>. \u00a0As I’ve said before, in theory there’s an interesting story to be told with these two meeting. \u00a0They’re both versions of Wolverine who are obsessed with their own individuality; in theory, seeing other, different versions of Wolverine ought to be an interesting experience for both of them. \u00a0But three chapters into this four part storyline, all we’re really getting is the characters doing their usual routine in front of one another. \u00a0They don’t actually interact in any particularly memorable way. \u00a0It’s all very underwhelming, and not helped by the use of the Weapon X Project in an utterly generic role as the common threat. \u00a0I think the idea is meant to be that Daken is morbidly curious about Weapon X and X-23 just hates the place, but that doesn’t really go anywhere. \u00a0Bit disappointing, really.<\/p>\n X-Men<\/em> #10<\/strong> – The final part of “To Serve and Protect”, and hey, here’s Paco Medina to do fill-in art on the closing pages! \u00a0But never mind, Chris Bachalo makes it almost to the end, and the style shift is less jarring than you might expect. \u00a0It’s a pretty basic story arc – the X-Men and Spider-Man team up to fight the Dark Beast and the Lizard. \u00a0And the subplot from the early issues about the kids Lizard was kidnapping kind of peters out in favour of More Fighting. \u00a0But it’s nice to do a straight, uncomplicated superhero story from time to time, and that’s what this is. \u00a0Victor Gischler gets the voices of his characters well, and there’s some fun banter with Spider-Man and Emma Frost. \u00a0And Bachalo… well, Bachalo just loves drawing lizards, and who can blame him? \u00a0Simple, fairly basic, but good fun nonetheless.<\/p>\n X-Men: Prelude to Schism<\/em> #1<\/strong> – A four-issue miniseries which, as the title suggests, leads in to the upcoming “Schism” event. \u00a0Though from the look of it, it’s more a series of personality studies than an actual story. \u00a0This is written by Paul Jenkins, a name we haven’t seen at Marvel in quite a while (I vaguely recall reading that he’s been ill). \u00a0And it opens strangely – everyone’s standing around on Utopia waiting for some unspecified threat which is apparently on the way. \u00a0Presumably we’ll get to that with “Schism” proper. \u00a0Scott has to make some sort of important decision. \u00a0And then we fade into a load of flashbacks about Scott’s career, and his relationship with Professor X. \u00a0(Incidentally, the First Class<\/em> uniforms now seem to have become the standard design for Silver Age flashbacks, for the continuity wonks among you.) \u00a0The angle, broadly, seems to be that Scott has exceeded Xavier’s expectations by emerging from his shadow and taking the X-Men in a new direction, so that leadership has passed to the next generation and Xavier can recede into his role of father figure. \u00a0But all this comes at the cost of Scott having given up any sort of life outside his leadership role.<\/p>\n None of which is likely to surprise any regular reader of the X-Men. \u00a0But it’s more an exercise in restating the themes than in trying to do anything new. \u00a0It’s not really a story, and barely even pretends to be; it’s a low key character study, and not a bad one. \u00a0It’s very subdued, though, down to the muted colouring (which actually works quite well with Roberto de la Torre’s more dramatic art), and it’s clearly going for a sense of weight that I’m not sure it really pulls off. \u00a0Certainly a strange way of leading into a major storyline, but in a way, that almost encourages me; it’s definitely not bombastic. \u00a0I’ll be interested to see if the whole book keeps this tone, or whether it’s been particularly selected for Scott. Intriguing, but it’s too early to say whether it’s anything more than a curio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not only is this a day late, but last week’s X-Axis was another postal-disruption catch-up affair… so we’ve got two weeks worth of X-books to get through. \u00a0And Marvel are fairly churning them out at the moment, so two weeks is a lot of X-books. 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