{"id":9610,"date":"2023-11-19T15:57:51","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T15:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9610"},"modified":"2023-11-19T15:57:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T15:57:51","slug":"the-x-axis-w-c-13-november-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9610","title":{"rendered":"The X-Axis – w\/c 13 November 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #113.<\/strong> By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. Infinity Comics don’t really lend themselves to writing reviews of individual chapters, since they’re often just extended scenes – something that’s absolutely fine when you’re releasing on a weekly schedule. This is one such issue, and on those terms, perfectly decent. It’s Firestar trying to help Orchis capture her ex-fianc\u00e9e Justice in order to keep up her cover. We don’t see much of Justice in the X-books, despite the fact that he’s a relatively high profile mutant, but it makes sense to bring him over for a Firestar arc. If you want to have Firestar feel uncomfortable about how she’s perceived by her friends while undercover, Justice is a much better choice for that role than any of the regular X-Men. The plot is exactly what you’d expect, but it’s handled quite nicely, with Justice knowing Firestar well enough to get that none of this makes sense, and Firestar bringing up uncomfortable bits of past continuity in order to sell him on her supposed sincerity.<\/p>\n

JEAN GREY #4.<\/strong> (Annotations here.)<\/a> Some of the Fall of X minis are already ending, others are on their penultimate issue. That was quick. At this point, it seems clear enough that some books are central to key storylines (X-Men, Immortal X-Men<\/em>,\u00a0X-Men<\/em> Red<\/em>, Invincible Iron Man<\/em>); some are just carrying on with their own thing (Wolverine<\/em>, X-Force<\/em>,\u00a0Legion of X \/ Uncanny Spider-Man<\/em>); and… well, the publishing schedule says we still need more books. Jean Grey<\/em> is three issues of\u00a0What If…?<\/em> stories based on points in Jean’s life, with a fourth issue that spells out the message we’re meant to be taking from the first three. That message, more or less, is that Jean shouldn’t be second guessing her past choices because anything else that she could have done would have been worse. For that to work, you have to accept that the Phoenix Force is being honest with her. But if it’s not, what’s the story? Even taking it at face value, though, I don’t think this sticks the landing. I’ve generally enjoyed this series as what it is, but I’m not convinced it’s taken Jean anywhere. It’s not as if this sort of self-doubt has been a key character note; if anything, Gerry Duggan tends to write her as supremely confident in her power and her moral choices, albeit with the occasional bit of hand-wringing about that time Dark Phoenix committed genocide. This issue is working hard to sell the idea that the last few issues have taught us something important about Jean, and I’m really not convinced that they have.<\/p>\n

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ASTONISHING ICEMAN #4.<\/strong> (Annotations here.)<\/a> Mostly a fight scene, but hey, it’s a very nice looking fight scene.\u00a0Astonishing Iceman<\/em> isn’t central to the event either, but it gives a much clearer idea of what it’s for. The defiantly upbeat tone makes it one of the easiest Fall of X books to actually enjoy. It uses the event as the occasion to write Iceman as the last hero standing, and if it’s turning a blind eye to all those other X-books out there, so be it. If you’re going by actual Marvel continuity, then presenting Spider-Man as anything more than a random passing guest star is a bit dubious – and even if we’re going by Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends<\/em>, does it really mean much to people under 40? But the story doesn’t really depend on them having any history; Spider-Man works here simply as a random guest, because he fits the tone that Iceman himself is already trying to project to the world. The book is simple, and you can see where it’s going a mile off, but there’s nothing wrong with that, and Orlando has managed to set up Z-lister Mr Clean as a strong opponent for next issue’s finale.<\/p>\n

CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #4.<\/strong> (Annotations here.)<\/a> Another book reaching its final issue. This one really is inessential to “Fall of X”. But then, the Children’s set-up in X-Men<\/em> did require them to escape as soon as Krakoa fell, so you’ve got that as a link. Children\u00a0<\/em>also uses “Fall” to set up the odd couple of Cable and Bishop as the heroes, in opposition to the Children’s attempt to bring about a better future by wiping out 99% of the population. There’s no real doubt that the Children are the bad guys here – they’re going to commit genocide and the plot of the final issue involves their historian Diamante recognising that their society, built on a core belief that they are the future of Earth, is fundamentally flawed. But there’s an interesting tension here in Cable and Bishop seeming almost as awful as the Children. This is a rare story that not only acknowledges but actually embraces Bishop’s largely downplayed phase pursuing Hope through time. And there’s something in the idea that the Children at least represented some<\/em> sort of vision of a better future, however appalling the route to get there, while Cable and Bishop are both busily fighting to preserve a dystopia. There’s some nice art, too, on the humans reacting to their transformation and Muerte’s misery as he wipes out Orchis. Cable and Bishop spend the issue grinning smugly as they threaten to wipe out the Children. This has been one of the pleasant surprises of Fall of X.<\/p>\n

DARK X-MEN #4.<\/strong> (Annotations here.)<\/a> One more issue to go here. I’ve generally enjoyed Dark X-Men<\/em>, but this isn’t its strongest chapter. It’s an exercise in getting the demon version of the Goblin Queen into the Limbo Embassy so that our heroes can fight her next issue, all of which is fine as far as it goes. Azazel gets a nice moment with one of his obscure offspring, and the art has a nicely shadowy quality to it. But it doesn’t have the feel of growing very organically from what’s come before, and Chasm – built up last issue and on the cover – winds up feeling like a throwaway who would have been better off kept on the margins altogether.<\/p>\n

UNCANNY AVENGERS #4.<\/strong> By Gerry Duggan, Javier Garr\u00f3n, Morry Hollowell & Travis Lanham. The identity of Captain Krakoa is revealed, and it’s precisely who everyone thought he’d be. He’s the Hydra version of Captain America from the Nick Spencer run. There’s nothing wrong with being predictable, but Hydra Cap just isn’t a very\u00a0interesting\u00a0<\/em>choice. Orchis, in Duggan’s stories, are terribly one-note to begin with – they basically have a single personality to share between them – and Hydra Cap is just more of the same. I do understand that there’s a case for saying that these are times when subtlety will not do and the very, very obvious needs to be said loudly, clearly and unequivocally. But a lack of subtlety isn’t the issue here – Uncanny Avengers\u00a0<\/em>just doesn’t feel like it’s bringing anything to the event beyond simply being an extra book.<\/p>\n

ALPHA FLIGHT<\/strong>\u00a0#4.\u00a0<\/strong>By Ed Brisson, Scott Godlewski, Matt Milla & Travis Lanham. This is more like it. There’s some actual Alpha Flight stuff going on amidst the Fall of X setting, it’s got a nice classic look to it, and I buy Department H’s irritable bureaucrat as a character. Laurent is the traditional character who doesn’t listen to clear warnings and gets everyone into trouble as a result, but the story sells it convincingly. This might be a case where the excesses of Fall of X work to the story’s advantage, because it makes sense that Laurent refuses to accept that the state of affairs can really be as people are telling him. And hey, there’s some momentum towards the final issue. It’s a completely peripheral series in the scheme of “Fall of X”, but on its own terms it works.<\/p>\n

DEADPOOL: SEVEN SLAUGHTERS.<\/strong> By… oh, god, I can’t be bothered writing out seven creative teams. The solicitation for this terrifyingly expensive 70 page comic describes it as “Seven kills in seven days” and “a week in the life” of Deadpool, which might lead you to think that the seven 10-page stories will actually be connected in some way. They aren’t – it’s just an anthology of seven random Deadpool stories. And… look, I know that if you do the maths, it’s nearly three times the content of a regular issue, but nobody looks at a price tag of \u00a37.85 for a single comic and thinks “great value!” At that kind of price point I’m starting to think about how I could have bought a novel instead, and that’s not a value comparison where comics are going to come off well.\u00a0Admittedly, there are some names on this. Cullen Bunn, Greg Land, Marc Guggenheim and Whilce Portacio are here. Steve Foxe and Gerardo Sandoval do a story with the Limbo Embassy. Gail Simone and David Balde\u00f3n revive their team from the Domino\u00a0<\/em>ongoing. But 10-page stories have never been Marvel’s strong suit and it’s all really quite forgettable. The only real surprise comes when Rob Liefeld decides to have a stab at chibi for a couple of pages… with predictable results, admittedly, but it’s certainly unexpected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #113. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. Infinity Comics don’t really lend themselves to writing reviews of individual chapters, since they’re often just extended scenes – something that’s absolutely fine when you’re releasing on a weekly schedule. This is one such issue, and on those […]<\/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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9610","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\/9610","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=9610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9613,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9610\/revisions\/9613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}