{"id":9411,"date":"2023-09-08T22:01:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T21:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9411"},"modified":"2023-09-08T22:01:21","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T21:01:21","slug":"the-x-axis-w-c-4-september-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9411","title":{"rendered":"The X-Axis – w\/c 4 September 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #103.\u00a0<\/strong>By Steve Foxe, Stephanie Williams, Noemi Vettori, Pete Pantazis & Travis Lanham. Continuing the string of standalone stories with the members of the abortive X-Men team, this is Frenzy’s spotlight issue. I still don’t really understand the point which these stories are supposed to making collectively – if there even is one – but this is certainly the best of the bunch so far. It’s workaholic Frenzy focussing on the important task of teaching visiting diplomats how to handle themselves on Arakko, and Paibok persuading her to take a break. That’s pretty much the whole thing, but it’s a well delivered vignette and a nice little read.<\/p>\n

X-MEN #26.<\/strong> (Annotations here.)<\/a> I have very mixed feelings about “Fall of X”. I’m on board with the bit where Orchis outwit Krakoa and the mutants are forced into exile; I can accept the idea of Orchis getting into a position of influence and rolling out essentially fascist anti-mutant policies, even if it seems a bit weird to be doing it during the Biden administration. What I can’t<\/em> buy for a second is the idea that this is a state where the “tiniest slipups could send someone to ‘education camp'” without that being, at the very least, massively controversial on a level far beyond anything we’re seeing here. X-Men <\/em>in particular seems to be treating this as equivalent to the HYDRA takeover of the USA from Secret Empire<\/em>, which was also silly and didn’t work. The fundamental problem here is that the story is both comically over the top and oppressively miserable – basically, exactly what I dreaded “Fall of X” would be when I read the Hellfire Gala <\/em>one-shot. The other “Fall of X” books haven’t fallen into this trap, perhaps because they can skirt more effectively around the edges. But X-Men\u00a0<\/em>has, and the result is just a bit tiresome.<\/p>\n

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As for the marriage of Tony and Emma, the basic idea of the two being stuck in a marriage of convenience is actually quite good, and I can see it working in a less irksome context. Here, the sitcom aspects of it just sit really weirdly with everything around them – tonally, this arc is all over the place.<\/p>\n

IMMORTAL X-MEN #15.<\/strong> (Annotations here.)<\/a> On the other hand, this is working better, especially when the focus is on the exiles. It doesn’t really fit as a spotlight issue for Selene, who doesn’t exactly have many depths to explore. But \u00a0Shaw’s attempt to manoeuvre his way to success through the wreckage works, and Xavier’s virtually symbolic vigil seems like a good touch. Mainly, though, I’m very much up for the idea of Exodus getting the chance to live out his Moses fantasy for real. With her focus on magic and story, Mother Righteous is an intriguing opponent for him here, and Exodus feels like he’s more on her wavelength than she thinks. Admittedly, as a lifelong atheist I’m not exactly up on the details of the original Bible story we’re referencing here, and I should probably make an effort to read up on it before the next issue…<\/p>\n

GHOST RIDER & WOLVERINE: WEAPONS OF VENGEANCE OMEGA.<\/strong> By Benjamin Percy, Geoff Shaw, Rain Beredo & Travis Lanham. The conclusion of the\u00a0Ghost Rider \/ Wolverine<\/em> crossover, which is really a Ghost Rider arc with added Wolverine. I quite liked the more low key bits of this storyline, but the finale is basically just \u00a0a big fight scene with the demon. I wanted to see more of Bram realising that he wanted his demon back after all – that’s the hook here. Instead we get more of the satanic priest guy, who isn’t nearly as interesting. Nice art, though, and it’s a perfectly fine little Ghost Rider story.<\/p>\n

MAGNETO #2.<\/strong> By J M DeMatteis, Todd Nauck, Rachelle Rosenberg & Travis Lanham. Issue #1 seemed to be going for an audacious retcon in which Magneto’s Silver Age villain persona was always an act, but this issue suggests that DeMatteis is going for something more complicated, with Magneto himself trying to rationalise his inconsistent personalities down the years. As a Magneto character piece, this is turning out to be quite promising, though I still suspect it’s going to be an idiosyncratic reading. It’s quite a nice New Mutants story, too (and Nauck does good teen New Mutants). I’m not so sure about the villain, who seems to be a Magneto obsessive trying to get him back to his traditional persona – she’s a bit too close to early Exodus at this point. But definitely an interesting book.<\/p>\n

LOVE UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #66.<\/strong> By Preeti Chhibber, Carola Borelli, Carlos Lopez & Ariana Maher. Pretty much what you’d expect as the final part of this Rogue and Gambit arc: they beat the bad guy, they return his stolen treasures to their rightful owners. I see the logic of using an immortal here, since he can be the original collector of the artefacts. And that way they’re indisputably stolen goods in the hands of the original thief and you simplify the arguments enormously. I’m still not entirely convinced that the reveal worked to escalate the story, but this was a fun, well-executed romp – even if running it in\u00a0Love Unlimited<\/em> is really stretching the remit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #103.\u00a0By Steve Foxe, Stephanie Williams, Noemi Vettori, Pete Pantazis & Travis Lanham. Continuing the string of standalone stories with the members of the abortive X-Men team, this is Frenzy’s spotlight issue. I still don’t really understand the point which these stories are supposed to making collectively – if there even is […]<\/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-9411","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\/9411","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=9411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9413,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9411\/revisions\/9413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}