Jono Be Good?
Jan. 16th, 2004 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileMy thoughts on the Weapon X storyline that involves Chamber. I skimmed through the comics first chance I got. What did I think? Well...
First the minus points. I'm not overly enamoured with the Weapon X title as a while. It's not a great comic by any means, but after a few truly awful early issues it does seem to have settled down into a fair steady title. Admittedly it's only the introduction of Chamber into the team that made me consider picking it up again, but actually, it's the title I've been looking forwards to reading most this week. Okay, that's mainly down to Chamber but I actually found myself being impressed by the last issue. Do the next two issues match the quality?
First criticism is the art. It's -okay- and average at best. A couple of the pages are fairly good but there's enough poor mishapen art in there to be a minor irritation. Mostly it's the inconsistancy in the way the characters are dawn. It's actually a tricky skill to get a character's features consistant frame by frame and unfortunately it's not managed here.
Second complaint - the covers. One bearing Wolverine in all his glory, when the character doesn't even appear until the last frame and certainly isn't influentual on the plot. The second has Angel, Iceman, Wolverine and Cyclops ranged up and only Wolverine actually appears in this actual issue. It's a minor point that still manages to irritate the hell out of me.
Then there's the major. They gave Jono back his face. That could be a horrible mistake. Let's face it, the lack of face, the look of the character and the angst that his imperfect appearance povides for Jono has always been the focus of the character. Taking that away destroys the mythos of the character every bit as much as making Marrow pretty.
Or does it?
Actually, compared to the sprawling car crash that was Marrow's induction into the Weapon X programme, Jono's transformation is something of a relief. With Marrow she became beautiful, suddenly turned into shy former mutant girl, boffed Mesmero and then murdered one of her fellow Morlocks before going back and offering her services to her human employers.
Now -that- was horribly out of character. For a former pro-mutant terrorist who actually died for her beliefs and fought for the protection of her fellow mutants, particularly the Morlocks to team up with the man who massacred many of them under the command of a human whose main aim was o wipe out mutants... well, I can't equate with any of that. Apparently Tieri has since read some of Marrow's background, since Marrow's now on the loose and fighting back like the good old days.
Now, with Jono there seems to be some difference. The change in his appearance is a big issue. If you consider Jono's powers to be the main focus of the character then, yep, that change is going to be a bit of a bummer. There are two positive things happening here though - one is that Jono's character is actually being well written and rings true to everything that's been established before. And, let's face facts, if Tieri hadn't rebuilt him, someone else would have eventually. And this way I have to admit, we seem to be getting a pretty strong story out of it.
So... do I like the new look for Jono? Not particularly. I prefered him without a face. -But- thescript so far has convinced me both that Jono is being pretty well written in character and that Tieri has actually taken the time to read previous Jono stories and is picking up plot threads launched in those to continue his story. Somewhat surprisingly, Weapon X seems to be the only X-men book that's paying any attention to continuity and what's going on in the main titles.
So New X-men is referenced a number of times, with John Sublime's and the U-men's appearances, as well as the footage of Fantomex attacking Magneto shown in one issue. Then there's the mention of Generation X and Jono's involvement there, as well as the situation with Paige from the pages of Uncanny. While I'm not bothered about continuity on the whole, it is sometimes nice to see some history making it into a book.
As for the story itself, well, Defection part 1 has a number of really strong moments. The initial flashback to Jono's first manifestation of his powers shows an attention to previous canon that few books show, tying into what Gen X hinted at but never completely confirmed. Jono's own dialogue during this initial scene, and those following is actually pretty good, never intruding into the painful 'mockney' that a lot of writers (Austen and Scott Lobdell to name two) inflicted on him.
The next scenes with Jono coming to erms with his newly rebuilt face arn't bad either, and there's confirmation that he still has full use of his powers as Weapon X seem to have fitted him with the same sort of chest attachment he had during the Age of Apocalype (the first time Jono-wit-face appeared). It's with the entry of Director Jackson that things really kick off and the dialogue starts to sparkle. The tour of the Weapon X complex with Jackson's line about 'Not the dark creepy weapon X you heard about... First words outta my mouth when I took over - "Somebody turn on a flamin' light light in here, for crying out loud!"' are a delight, and Jono's first rather bemused reaction when a woman finds him attractive and his sleezy comeback are quite amusing (and also confirm what I always thought - Jono was a gigilo before his accident ;).
The scene in the burger bar rounds off the issue and this is an example of pretty good writing - during this whole issue nothing really happens. There's no fights, no big battles, it's purely character driven and works pretty well. Jackson's shrewd assessment that Jono wouldn't have been beaten by Wolverine without good reason gives a suggestion that Jackson's close to sniffing out the truth. But then Paige is brought up instead. It's a neat, if predictable, twist, and Jaackson's assessment of Paige as 'trailer park trash, the kind even Springer throws back' is wickedly funny.
The one low point is that while the dialogue is pretty snappy, the plotting itself isn't much to write home about. Pretty much everything here is predictable. There's no real surprises, but I'm happy with that if Jono escapes being ruined in the process.
The second part of Defection starts on a high. There's Jono and Logan's surruptitious meeting in the movie theatre that confirms what we already knew. jono's a plant. But along the way there's some strong character driven dialogue. Jono's rather close to the bone observation that casablanca was an ironic film to meet in is a great moment, especially his observation about how the film mirrors his own and Logan's life. It obviously starts them off on the bad footing because it all come out in the wash after that and Jono's loyalty to the X-men is questioned.
And rightly so. This is something that's been in the works since his very introduction. jono's never been a team player. he's never seen eye to eye entirely with the X-men and the assessments he made int he Chamber mini-series are again echoed by his reluctance to go along with logan. Since Jono joined the X-men in Casey's run its been obvious he's not really felt he owed them any favours - the team considered him a rookie from the start and it was telling how, given the choice, Stacy was the only one he felt he had any connection with. The others just treated him as a child. Warren then went and stole the love of his life from him as well. No wonder he's a bit bitter. And this bitterness fuels the ongoing angst in Jono's life. Sure he might be fixed now physically but things certainly aren't going his way.
The second part of the story with the straightforward mission to try and assassinate John Sublime was steady but not particularly interesting stuff. Okay, but nothing new to be learned about Jono from it.
So, so ar I'm actually really happy with this arc and the way Jono's been handled. He's been written well in terms of speech patterns, not been given any American hating dialogue, like Austen forced on him, given a decent role in a steady plot and his past has been referenced on numerous occasions. his actions are in character so really there's not much to fault.
Where the arc goes from here could cause worry though. There seems tobe the suggestion that jono may become more loyal to Weapon X that he is the X-men. There's reasons for that, but hopefully if he balked at the X-men's suggestio of killing one man, if he discovers the truth about Neverland then he'll rebel entirely. hopefully it won't all be blown in the final reel. Hopefully in a month's time I won;t regret giving this arc a positive assessment.
First the minus points. I'm not overly enamoured with the Weapon X title as a while. It's not a great comic by any means, but after a few truly awful early issues it does seem to have settled down into a fair steady title. Admittedly it's only the introduction of Chamber into the team that made me consider picking it up again, but actually, it's the title I've been looking forwards to reading most this week. Okay, that's mainly down to Chamber but I actually found myself being impressed by the last issue. Do the next two issues match the quality?
First criticism is the art. It's -okay- and average at best. A couple of the pages are fairly good but there's enough poor mishapen art in there to be a minor irritation. Mostly it's the inconsistancy in the way the characters are dawn. It's actually a tricky skill to get a character's features consistant frame by frame and unfortunately it's not managed here.
Second complaint - the covers. One bearing Wolverine in all his glory, when the character doesn't even appear until the last frame and certainly isn't influentual on the plot. The second has Angel, Iceman, Wolverine and Cyclops ranged up and only Wolverine actually appears in this actual issue. It's a minor point that still manages to irritate the hell out of me.
Then there's the major. They gave Jono back his face. That could be a horrible mistake. Let's face it, the lack of face, the look of the character and the angst that his imperfect appearance povides for Jono has always been the focus of the character. Taking that away destroys the mythos of the character every bit as much as making Marrow pretty.
Or does it?
Actually, compared to the sprawling car crash that was Marrow's induction into the Weapon X programme, Jono's transformation is something of a relief. With Marrow she became beautiful, suddenly turned into shy former mutant girl, boffed Mesmero and then murdered one of her fellow Morlocks before going back and offering her services to her human employers.
Now -that- was horribly out of character. For a former pro-mutant terrorist who actually died for her beliefs and fought for the protection of her fellow mutants, particularly the Morlocks to team up with the man who massacred many of them under the command of a human whose main aim was o wipe out mutants... well, I can't equate with any of that. Apparently Tieri has since read some of Marrow's background, since Marrow's now on the loose and fighting back like the good old days.
Now, with Jono there seems to be some difference. The change in his appearance is a big issue. If you consider Jono's powers to be the main focus of the character then, yep, that change is going to be a bit of a bummer. There are two positive things happening here though - one is that Jono's character is actually being well written and rings true to everything that's been established before. And, let's face facts, if Tieri hadn't rebuilt him, someone else would have eventually. And this way I have to admit, we seem to be getting a pretty strong story out of it.
So... do I like the new look for Jono? Not particularly. I prefered him without a face. -But- thescript so far has convinced me both that Jono is being pretty well written in character and that Tieri has actually taken the time to read previous Jono stories and is picking up plot threads launched in those to continue his story. Somewhat surprisingly, Weapon X seems to be the only X-men book that's paying any attention to continuity and what's going on in the main titles.
So New X-men is referenced a number of times, with John Sublime's and the U-men's appearances, as well as the footage of Fantomex attacking Magneto shown in one issue. Then there's the mention of Generation X and Jono's involvement there, as well as the situation with Paige from the pages of Uncanny. While I'm not bothered about continuity on the whole, it is sometimes nice to see some history making it into a book.
As for the story itself, well, Defection part 1 has a number of really strong moments. The initial flashback to Jono's first manifestation of his powers shows an attention to previous canon that few books show, tying into what Gen X hinted at but never completely confirmed. Jono's own dialogue during this initial scene, and those following is actually pretty good, never intruding into the painful 'mockney' that a lot of writers (Austen and Scott Lobdell to name two) inflicted on him.
The next scenes with Jono coming to erms with his newly rebuilt face arn't bad either, and there's confirmation that he still has full use of his powers as Weapon X seem to have fitted him with the same sort of chest attachment he had during the Age of Apocalype (the first time Jono-wit-face appeared). It's with the entry of Director Jackson that things really kick off and the dialogue starts to sparkle. The tour of the Weapon X complex with Jackson's line about 'Not the dark creepy weapon X you heard about... First words outta my mouth when I took over - "Somebody turn on a flamin' light light in here, for crying out loud!"' are a delight, and Jono's first rather bemused reaction when a woman finds him attractive and his sleezy comeback are quite amusing (and also confirm what I always thought - Jono was a gigilo before his accident ;).
The scene in the burger bar rounds off the issue and this is an example of pretty good writing - during this whole issue nothing really happens. There's no fights, no big battles, it's purely character driven and works pretty well. Jackson's shrewd assessment that Jono wouldn't have been beaten by Wolverine without good reason gives a suggestion that Jackson's close to sniffing out the truth. But then Paige is brought up instead. It's a neat, if predictable, twist, and Jaackson's assessment of Paige as 'trailer park trash, the kind even Springer throws back' is wickedly funny.
The one low point is that while the dialogue is pretty snappy, the plotting itself isn't much to write home about. Pretty much everything here is predictable. There's no real surprises, but I'm happy with that if Jono escapes being ruined in the process.
The second part of Defection starts on a high. There's Jono and Logan's surruptitious meeting in the movie theatre that confirms what we already knew. jono's a plant. But along the way there's some strong character driven dialogue. Jono's rather close to the bone observation that casablanca was an ironic film to meet in is a great moment, especially his observation about how the film mirrors his own and Logan's life. It obviously starts them off on the bad footing because it all come out in the wash after that and Jono's loyalty to the X-men is questioned.
And rightly so. This is something that's been in the works since his very introduction. jono's never been a team player. he's never seen eye to eye entirely with the X-men and the assessments he made int he Chamber mini-series are again echoed by his reluctance to go along with logan. Since Jono joined the X-men in Casey's run its been obvious he's not really felt he owed them any favours - the team considered him a rookie from the start and it was telling how, given the choice, Stacy was the only one he felt he had any connection with. The others just treated him as a child. Warren then went and stole the love of his life from him as well. No wonder he's a bit bitter. And this bitterness fuels the ongoing angst in Jono's life. Sure he might be fixed now physically but things certainly aren't going his way.
The second part of the story with the straightforward mission to try and assassinate John Sublime was steady but not particularly interesting stuff. Okay, but nothing new to be learned about Jono from it.
So, so ar I'm actually really happy with this arc and the way Jono's been handled. He's been written well in terms of speech patterns, not been given any American hating dialogue, like Austen forced on him, given a decent role in a steady plot and his past has been referenced on numerous occasions. his actions are in character so really there's not much to fault.
Where the arc goes from here could cause worry though. There seems tobe the suggestion that jono may become more loyal to Weapon X that he is the X-men. There's reasons for that, but hopefully if he balked at the X-men's suggestio of killing one man, if he discovers the truth about Neverland then he'll rebel entirely. hopefully it won't all be blown in the final reel. Hopefully in a month's time I won;t regret giving this arc a positive assessment.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-16 03:52 pm (UTC)man am I really out of touch? isn't weapon x well.. the bad guys? or has that changed too?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-17 04:41 am (UTC)For -why- well, read the full post. ;)