Once again, the wise schedulers at Marvel bring us three X-Men titles in a single week (plus two second-tier X-books, one of which is a crossover, and one of which is the launch of a new direction). \u00a0They certainly don’t make it easy for books to get noticed, do they? \u00a0You’ve almost got to admire the way Marvel gratuitously make life harder for themselves.<\/p>\n
Also this week, DC kicks off its own summer crossover. \u00a0And John Layman and Rob Guillory present one of the more bizarre promotional tactics of recent years.<\/p>\n
Astonishing X-Men<\/em> #37<\/strong> – This is only Daniel Way’s second issue, so it doesn’t bode well that fill-in art is already creeping in, with Sara Pichelli taking over from Jason Pearson towards the end of this story. \u00a0Even more strangely, the book is about to start a new format where alternate issues feature chapters of a different story by a different creative team featuring a different cast. \u00a0It’s not impossible that this might work – Thunderbolts<\/em> and Hercules<\/em> have both tried something similar in the past – but on any view it’s a very odd way of putting a comic together.<\/p>\n The X-Men – well, Scott, Emma and Wolverine, anyway – are in Tokyo fighting a giant dragon, because that’s what you do in Tokyo. \u00a0Apparently the dragon’s supposed to be Fin Fang Foom, though I’m not quite sure how that would fit into continuity – but it doesn’t matter. \u00a0There’s a nice simple idea here; D-list villain Mentallo has double-crossed Roxxon Oil and used them to hitch a lift to Monster Island, where he’s promptly seized control of all the giant monsters. \u00a0Now, in good old fashioned villainous style, he’s embarking on a blackmail scheme. \u00a0As a plot, this is so old school that you almost figure there has<\/em> to be a twist coming. \u00a0But if so, it’s very well hidden.<\/p>\n And hey, fine. \u00a0If we’re going to have this quantity of X-Men stories coming out, they can’t all feature earth-shattering plot developments. \u00a0They shouldn’t, in fact. \u00a0By all means, let’s use some of those extra issues to get the team out there, fight some villains, and have some fun. \u00a0The “giant monsters attack Tokyo” schtick is old as the hills, but the artists are having great fun with it. \u00a0Way is doing a smart job rehabilitating Mentallo, a journeyman villain who’s finally hit on a scheme that works and is being terribly smug about it. \u00a0There’s also a nice sequence at the end with Wolverine arguing the case for not killing the giant mind-controlled dragon; if “Schism” is about the X-Men finally turning on Scott’s hardline stance, then it makes sense to have these scenes that show how far he’s drifted from his original character in the last few years.<\/p>\n On the other hand, there’s also a laboured subplot with Armor attending her parents’ funeral and being guilt-tripped back into her family role. \u00a0And that doesn’t really work – partly because of a sombre tone that just seems silly when it’s intercut with giant dragons, but partly because it’s all a bit cliched and one-dimensional. \u00a0In theory, this is presumably meant to be Armor’s story – it’s about her return home and her dilemma over whether to stay with the X-Men or return to the fold – but she isn’t coming across as a sufficiently interesting character for me to care much whether she stays or not.<\/p>\n Still, X-Men fighting giant dragons. \u00a0That’s entertaining enough.<\/p>\n Chew<\/em> #27<\/strong> – From the “weird yet audacious gimmickry” file! \u00a0The last issue of John Layman and Rob Guillory’s series Chew<\/em> was issue #18; the next one will be issue #19. \u00a0And this, shipping months out of sequence, is an issue from next spring – cheerfully labelled “Space Cakes, part 2 of 5”. \u00a0The idea, supposedly, is to reward people who are buying the monthly series; this won’t appear in the collected editions until the rest of the “Space Cakes” arc appears some time in 2012. \u00a0(It certainly doesn’t make sense as a jumping-on point for new readers, who won’t get anything out of the gimmick.)<\/p>\n The gimmick isn’t completely unprecedented. \u00a0When Quantum & Woody<\/em> came back from hiatus in the 90s, it simply picked up its numbering as if it had kept going the whole time, and left it to readers to figure out what had happened. \u00a0Something vaguely similar is going on here, but in this case, it’s a weirdly meta type of foreshadowing. \u00a0Lead character Tony Chu is in hospital and, from the look of it, his sister Toni has usurped him in the title role. \u00a0For a moment it looks like the book is going to cheat massively and tell a flashback story, but that only takes four pages, and then we’re on to a comic about agents of NASA investigating psychedelic frog\/chicken hybrids. \u00a0Of course, it’s hard to get into that story when you know that it won’t be picked up until the middle of next year. \u00a0But what the book offers instead is fodder for speculation about how the story got to this point.<\/p>\n If they’re serious about this story ultimately appearing in the collected editions as part 2 of 5, then it’s understandable that it has to spend time on things that don’t really carry much weight at this stage, and I can’t help wondering whether it’s really possible to write a story that truly works both as issue #27 and as issue #18A. \u00a0Still, as a novelty that drops hints about where the series is going, fans should enjoy it.<\/p>\n Daken: Dark Wolverine<\/em> #9<\/strong> – As well as being the conclusion of “Collision”, the four-part crossover with X-23<\/em>, this is also Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu’s final issue before handing the series over to Rob Williams. \u00a0But if you’re hoping for their run to end with any particular pay-off, well, think again. \u00a0What we get in this issue is a resolution of “Collision” and a restatement of much the same thing that the book has been saying about Daken for months.<\/p>\n Daken and X-23 team up in an alliance of convenience to take on the reborn Weapon X project, and something of a bloodbath ensues. \u00a0And then they have a chat about stuff. \u00a0Daken sees Laura as someone who ought to be a kindred spirit, and doesn’t understand why she’s on the other side. \u00a0Laura sees Daken as someone who’s accepted his role as a sociopath instead of trying to broaden himself like she does. \u00a0Here endeth the insight. \u00a0While it ought to be possible to construct an interesting story based around these two characters, and even around these particular themes, this isn’t it. \u00a0It’s a hack and slash affair, after which everyone stops to moralise at one another. \u00a0And then, at the end, it turns out that (you guessed it) Daken has outwitted everyone yet again. \u00a0The book finishes by hitting the usual note of ambiguity: is Daken the one-note psycho he holds himself out as, or does he have a buried yearning for something more, which he denies even to himself? \u00a0At this stage it’s almost become a case of “Can he really be as one-dimensional as he seems?”<\/p>\n I’d count “Collision” as a failure. \u00a0It doesn’t manage to get anything particularly interesting out of the two characters. \u00a0It hauls X-23 into the Madripoor storyline for no very clear reason and shunts her out just as quickly. \u00a0Colcord, cast as the common antagonist, never gets to do anything interesting. \u00a0And the plot just lurches arbitrarily from one thing to the next. \u00a0I get the impression that we’re supposed to view Daken as a master planner who’s one step ahead of everyone else, but the schemes don’t fall into place neatly enough to give that impression. \u00a0He just seems like he’s making it up as he goes along – and so do the writers.<\/p>\n Flashpoint<\/em> #1<\/strong> – The summer crossover season continues, as DC’s big series gets under way. \u00a0And it’s a better first issue than Fear Itself<\/em>. \u00a0I’d take Stuart Immonen’s art over Andy Kubert’s (though his work here is perfectly okay), but at least Flashpoint<\/em> gets around to establishing the concept and setting its terms, instead of just dropping cryptic hints.<\/p>\n As everyone already knew, it’s an alternate reality story. \u00a0The world has changed, and Barry Allen’s the only one who remembers it. \u00a0But he’s not the Flash any more, so there’s not a great deal he can do about that. \u00a0From Barry’s point of view, it’s a story about trying to figure out what happened and get the world back to normal, despite this world having at least a couple of points in its favour. \u00a0For all the other characters, this is<\/em> normal, and they’re more worried about the ongoing war in Europe between Aquaman and Wonder Woman. \u00a0There’s a Batman as well, but he’s got other things on his mind.<\/p>\n Granted, there are also quite a few cameo appearances which seem intended to set up the legion of spin-offs that DC are producing for this series. \u00a0A couple of the reinventions of existing characters are clever, though – a group of kids who each have one of \u00a0the “SHAZAM” powers and collectively turn into Captain Marvel, for example. \u00a0The change to Batman is a similarly neat twist. \u00a0And the story makes good, logical use of Barry’s position: he may not have any powers, but he does remember the real world, which means he knows stuff about the other characters – albeit stuff which might or might not still be true.<\/p>\n It’s a fashionable way to structure crossovers these days – build the central story around a core cast, and then use it as a backdrop for other people to do whatever stories they want. \u00a0On the face of it, it’s basically DC’s version of House of M<\/em>, but with a stronger central story. \u00a0That said, DC are claiming it has wider implications for the DC Universe, and we all know what that normally means – yet another continuity revision. \u00a0Whether that means you need to actually read Flashpoint<\/em> or merely know that it happened, is another matter. \u00a0Still, it’s a good opening issue, and hits the ground running more effectively than Marvel did with Fear Itself<\/em>.<\/p>\n New Mutants<\/em> #26<\/strong> – The first issue for a new creative team, with Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning writing, and Leandro Fernandez on art. \u00a0That’s a strong team, which bodes well in itself. \u00a0Abnett and Lanning know how to juggle the cast in a team book, too. \u00a0Their first issue opens with an action scene designed to show off Dani as a potential leader; moves on to Illyana being taken to task for her behaviour when Zeb Wells was writing the book; checks in on a dangling subplot about Karma and Face; gives Sam and Dani a scene to discuss handing over the leadership role; sets up the team’s new remit; and wraps up with another action scene leading into a cliffhanger. \u00a0These guys know how to make the most of their page count.<\/p>\n Putting Dani in charge is probably a wise move. \u00a0Playing up her leadership role gives her a reason to be on the team beyond pure nostalgia; it could also help move Sam beyond the “young leader in the making” role where he’s been stuck for the last twenty years. \u00a0And it’s also nice to see the book taking as its starting point the fallout from Zeb Wells’ stories, with a nice dash of understated black humour in Illyana’s scenes.<\/p>\n In fact, this story looks very much as though it was intended to follow immediately from Wells’ final issue, which still seems to be preoccupying many of the characters. \u00a0There’s a token reference to “Age of X”, but not much more than that. \u00a0And that tends to confirm my suspicion that “Age of X” shouldn’t really have been in New Mutants<\/em>. \u00a0I have some doubts, also, about the stated new direction for the team: tying up the X-Men’s unfinished business. \u00a0True enough, there are plenty of loose ends that need addressed, and there’s nothing wrong with using those as the springboard for individual stories, but surely the book needs to be about more than just that. \u00a0Part of the problem with New Mutan<\/em>ts, at least in its current incarnation, has always been to establish quite what the series is about. \u00a0In 1983, it was the comic about the X-Men’s trainee team. \u00a0In 2011, it’s the comic about the team who used to be the X-Men’s trainee team, aren’t any more, but aren’t quite proper X-Men either. \u00a0Perhaps the defining feature of the New Mutants is simply that they’re a tight knit group of friends in an increasingly anonymous X-empire. \u00a0At any rate, a series can’t live on nostalgia and continuity-cop stories alone.<\/p>\n But this is a strong debut for the new creative team, and I have faith that there’s more to their direction than merely resolving loose ends from other people’s stories.<\/p>\n X-Men<\/em> #11<\/strong> – Because you demanded it – an epilogue to “Curse of the Mutants”? \u00a0Really?<\/p>\n This issue picks up on the storyline about Jubilee being turned into a vampire, with the X-Men still trying to help her settle in, and Professor X trying to cheer her up with a story from his past. \u00a0Cue a flashback which fills most of the issue. \u00a0Al Barrionuevo’s art is perfectly attractive, and the story is okay so far as it goes. \u00a0But the scheduling of this story seems curious – why do it now, instead of at the end of “CotM”? \u00a0And why do it after the Wolverine & Jubilee<\/em> miniseries which covered much the same territory of Jubilee coming to terms with her condition? \u00a0Perhaps Gischler has long term plans to do something with this storyline, and this is a case of reminding the audience before he moves on to the next arc. \u00a0But it does feel like a strangely scheduled afterthought.<\/p>\n X-Men: Legacy<\/em> #248<\/strong> – The first of two issues dealing with the aftermath of “Age of X”, and Mike Carey seems to be trying to have his cake and eat it. \u00a0Even though everyone was only in the Age of X pocket reality for seven days, they remember being there for years. \u00a0A few are permanently changed, with Carey taking the opportunity to hit the cosmic reset button on Chamber – certainly, everything that’s been done with the character since M-Day has been a dead end, but you’d still think people might be a little more excitable about another mutant being re-powered. \u00a0Pixie apparently has a split personality now which manifests with different wings, but that’s not very clearly explained.<\/p>\n Now, most characters aren’t supposed to be seriously changed by “Age of X”, so this issue sets about having Emma wipe their memories of the whole storyline. \u00a0But a few insist on keeping what they remember, most notably Frenzy, who’s apparently being elevated to a major character in this book – an interesting choice, since she’s been little more than a henchman since her creation in the mid-1980s. \u00a0As so often in this book, Carey evidently sees that as an opportunity to work with a character who has history but not much baggage. \u00a0The angle here is that Frenzy refuses to forget her relationship with Cyclops, and he’s having none of it.<\/p>\n Gambit appears to write himself out of the book (perhaps so that he can go on his road trip in X-23<\/em>), though the adverts suggest that won’t last. \u00a0And in a neat touch, some minor elements of “Age of X” that had little impact on the story turn out to be more significant now it’s over. \u00a0Hellion gets to keep his artificial hands. \u00a0And the girl who looked suspiciously like Phoenix is indeed Rachel Summers – who can’t quite remember what she was doing on Utopia in the first place. \u00a0It’s things like that that help give the impression that Carey is going somewhere with this; even Hellion’s original maiming, which seemed horribly gratuitous at the time, now looks like it might have fitted in to a broader plan for the character.<\/p>\n This issue isn’t really a story so much as a series of conversations picking up on where the characters are, as the book transitions into its next status quo in issue #250. \u00a0But it’s clear that Carey has strong ideas for what he wants to do with his central cast, and his eccentric selection of mostly underused characters makes for interesting reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once again, the wise schedulers at Marvel bring us three X-Men titles in a single week (plus two second-tier X-books, one of which is a 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