See, I’m on schedule! \u00a0I’m on schedule!<\/p>\n
I’m going to hold over Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine<\/em> for its own post, since having re-read the whole series, it turns out there’s quite a bit to be said about it. \u00a0That still leaves us with four other X-books, plus a few other titles I feel like throwing in there…<\/p>\n Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker<\/em> #3<\/strong> – We reviewed the first issue of Joe Casey’s bizarre stream-of-consciousness superhero book on the podcast and, uh, then I forgot to order issue #2. \u00a0Judging from the recap, what I missed was that some of the supervillains in the asylum survived when it was blown up, and now they’re out for revenge. \u00a0It’s not like anyone expects this to be a plot-heavy comic. \u00a0(Butcher Baker himself spends the entire issue driving a truck and fighting a crazy lady with electric powers.)<\/p>\n It was always obvious that this was going to be a ridiculous, OTT series; the question that issue #1 left me with was whether there was a wider satirical streak to it, or whether it was simply pure id. \u00a0The book is certainly Casey’s reaction <\/em>to the current state of superhero comics, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually about<\/em> superhero comics. \u00a0From the look of it, Casey’s point really comes down to this: superheroes used to be cheap, vaguely disreputable, and outright crazy. \u00a0And over time, through a mixture of genre conventions and commercial expectation, they’ve got into a rut.<\/p>\n So this is Casey’s attempt to do the sort of thing that, in his mind, the superhero genre ought to be producing – tasteless, absurdist, detached from reality, and completely devoid of common sense. \u00a0If there’s a point to it, it’s to show up how narrow and conservative the rest of the genre is at the moment, and do something that breaks the rules for the sake of breaking them. \u00a0(As the solicitation copy acknowledges, even building the issue around a car chase qualifies for that; conventional wisdom says comics can’t do car chases, so writers tend to avoid them. \u00a0To which Casey would presumably say: comics can<\/em> do car chases, they just need to try harder<\/em>.)<\/p>\n And on that level, it works – it’s ridiculous, but it’s also got such a strong sense of its own identity that it gets by pretty much on that alone. \u00a0Does it work as a story? \u00a0Well, not really, but given its agenda, does it need to? \u00a0Perhaps it does, if it’s going to carry on for an extended run – but to be honest, this is the sort of sugar-rush comic that probably shouldn’t<\/em> go for an extended run, because over time it can only fall into a routine of its own. \u00a0This book is all about style, and it’s got plenty of that.<\/p>\n Daken: Dark Wolverine<\/em> #9.1<\/strong> – Not, I swear, a deliberate juxtaposition.<\/p>\n This is a Point One issue, but it’s also the first issue by new writer Rob Williams. \u00a0Thus far, Daken’s series has been a bit frustrating. \u00a0There are some interesting ideas in the character. \u00a0Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu have set up a degree of mystery about whether Daken aspires to anything higher than building a power base, or whether he’s just a psychopath. \u00a0And, in a rather more heavy-handed way, they’ve also built a tension between Daken’s avowed desire to be his own man, and the way he obviously keeps returning to motifs associated with Wolverine, his father. \u00a0The problem is that having introduced these ideas, the book has been spinning its wheels for months, seemingly afraid to take them forward. \u00a0Instead we’ve had some rather ponderous stories in which Daken outwits everyone and becomes the new crimelord of Madripoor, but which don’t actually take his character anywhere interesting.<\/p>\n If nothing else, Williams seems determined to break out of that cycle. \u00a0His Point One story hammers the idea that Daken is still seen as merely a cheap knock-off of Wolverine, and pushes to the foreground Daken’s desire to be known for something that is clearly and unequivocally his own. \u00a0The plan, it seems, is to send him to Hollywood, if only because it’s the least Wolverine location imaginable. \u00a0But that’s the next arc; this issue is about Daken being prompted to go in that direction and, uh, filling half an issue by dropping by at Avengers Tower to say goodbye to Wolverine.<\/p>\n There aren’t really any new ideas here; the theme has been central to the character for a while. \u00a0But Williams does seem to be signalling that he’s planning to get Daken out of his rut by getting him away from Wolverine motifs and forcing him to do stories of his own. \u00a0That’s a plus, even if it seems like something a U-turn coming only a few months after the outgoing writers installed him in Madripoor. \u00a0Quite what the guest appearance by the Avengers contributes, other than killing half an issue before the plot proper starts, I’m less sure; it makes Daken seem weirdly insecure, but whether that’s intentional, I can’t say.<\/p>\n Art comes from Ron Garney, who should surely be getting better assignments from Marvel than doing fill-in work on the Wolverine D-title. \u00a0But he’s a solid pro – and in a book which has often seemed to take itself far too seriously, his meat-and-potatoes approach is a welcome change.<\/p>\n Ruse<\/em> #3<\/strong> – The sales on the CrossGen titles haven’t exactly been brilliant – both Ruse<\/em> and Sigil<\/em> slumped alarmingly with their second issues. \u00a0And while the jury’s still out on Sigil<\/em>, where it’s far from clear what Carey is trying to do, it’s certainly a shame for Mark Waid’s revival of Ruse<\/em>. \u00a0Shorn of the unwanted baggage of CrossGen continuity, this version is simply a well written mystery story with echoes of Sherlock Holmes in style, but distinguished by having such a different relationship between the two leads, which also allows Waid to work in more comedy. \u00a0This issue has fill-in art by Minck Oosterveer, which isn’t as polished as the earlier issues, but that’s fill-in deadlines for you. \u00a0At least he’s a sensible choice to work with Waid, having collaborated before on\u00a0The Unknown<\/em>. \u00a0It’s easy to see this making for a better film (or TV series) than most comics designed for the purpose. \u00a0Come to think of it, perhaps that’s<\/em> why Marvel are dusting these properties off.<\/p>\n Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #537<\/strong> – Part 3 of the Breakworld arc is an action issue, but a nicely constructed one. \u00a0Kruun takes on Colossus (without his powers), and then Kitty has to race through Utopia trying to stay one step ahead of Kruun and alert somebody else to help her out. \u00a0Since she doesn’t have the containment suit, she can’t touch anything, and nobody can hear her. \u00a0But (because it wouldn’t be much of a story otherwise) he’s got a magic knife that can hurt her.<\/p>\n Yes, you can pick holes in this. \u00a0Yes, Kruun is the sort of villain who makes life unnecessarily difficult for himself in order that he can prove his own superiority. \u00a0Yes, Kitty shouldn’t find it that hard to draw somebody’s attention on Utopia, considering that there are hundreds of people living there. \u00a0But it’s got the momentum that those points only really come to the fore afterwards. \u00a0The book is always stronger when it focusses on the characters who matter and ignore the hordes in the background. \u00a0It’s an issue that actually does<\/em> something with the idea of Kitty being stuck in ghost form, other than treat it as a generic angst point or something to be bypassed using the containment suit. \u00a0And there’s a good final twist leading into the cliffhanger. \u00a0Lovely art from the Dodsons, solid issue.<\/p>\n Wolverine<\/em> #9<\/strong> – You’ve got to give it to Jason Aaron, he’s not afraid to be stupid. \u00a0The first three pages of this story are an assassination sequence so unapologetically ridiculous that they wouldn’t be out of place in Butcher Baker<\/em>: new villain Lord Deathstrike proves why he’s the most awesome assassin in the world by standing on the opposite side of the planet from his target and shooting straight down. \u00a0It’s a scene that looks you in the eye and dares you to complain that it’s absurd. \u00a0And Aaron’s Wolverine is at its best when he’s able to work that kind of thing into the book without derailing it as a story.<\/p>\n So, Lord Deathstrike has been hired by the Red Right Hand to kill Mystique for betraying her. \u00a0She’s a harder target thanks to her inconsiderate habit of moving. \u00a0Wolverine’s also after her because she was involved with the Red Right Hand in the first place. \u00a0(Cue, oddly enough, a car chase…) \u00a0I’m not sure I buy Aaron’s take on Mystique, which is that she hates Wolverine but wanted to help him to honour his friendship with Kurt – that doesn’t really fit with the way she and Wolverine have been written in the past. \u00a0But I do like the idea that Wolverine’s so busy trying to get revenge that he completely misses the fact that she’s trying to warn him about the bad guys – or just dismisses it as a scam. \u00a0There’s certainly a risk that this sort of story will be too silly for some people’s tastes, but I think Aaron gets away with it.<\/p>\n X-Men Legacy<\/em> #249<\/strong> – From the cover, you might be expecting another issue devoted to Magneto’s time in the Holocaust. \u00a0Actually, the second half of the “Age of X” epilogue devotes about six pages to that flashback, and it’s not as overwrought as the cover might suggest. \u00a0No doubt looking for a fresh angle on material that risks overfamiliarity, Carey gives us the story of Nazi doctor August Hirt. \u00a0Hirt really existed and (other than the obvious point that his suicide wasn’t provoked by Magneto) the version of events in this story is basically accurate, though the photos of him online don’t look much like artist Rafa Sandoval’s Hitler-esque rendition. \u00a0The point, of course, is that Magneto is shaped by his own past, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that this gives him an excuse.<\/p>\n Carey’s already done decent work with Professor X in a post-leadership role, and it could be interesting to see what he does with Magneto. \u00a0For all that people say nothing ever changes in superhero comics, the effect of the last few years’ stories has been to oust both Xavier and Magneto from their traditional positions and cast them as men looking for a role in a world being run by the next generation. \u00a0While one response would be to just write them out, another is to see it as an opportunity to tell different stories with them, and if that’s where Carey wants to go, I’m good with that.<\/p>\n The rest of the issue focusses on Frenzy, who’s decided to try and recapture what she had in the Age of X reality by becoming an X-Man for real, and Legion, who has a plot device he’d like to share with us. \u00a0Of course, Legion has always been more of a plot device than a person. \u00a0It goes with the territory of being a high-concept gimmick character (multiple personalities, each with their own powers), and it can’t easily be changed overnight. \u00a0Since Legion’s sticking around in the regular cast, I can only assume Carey has longer term plans for him; at the very least, if he’s going to be the X-Men’s version of Crazy Jane from the Doom Patrol, Legion could do with some more multiple personalities with defined characters.<\/p>\n Anyhow, the point of these issues is to set up the cast for the book’s next phase, and it does that well. \u00a0I’m looking forward to seeing what Carey can do with these characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" See, I’m on schedule! \u00a0I’m on schedule! I’m going to hold over Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine for its own post, since having re-read the whole series, it turns out there’s quite a bit to be said about it. \u00a0That still leaves us with four other X-books, plus a few other titles I feel like throwing […]<\/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-851","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\/851","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=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}