Comic catchup...

[angelophile]

Since I'm horribly behind in posting opinions on recent comic book purchases, because of the insanity that was my local comic shop closing "for refurbishment", now I'm getting regular purchases again I guess I better catch up.

Soo… what have I been reading lately?
Behind the cut, reviews of New X-men, Daredevil: Redemption, Wolverine, Uncanny X-men, Black Widow, Excalibur, District X, Phoenix Endsong, New Avengers and Jubilee.


NEW X-MEN: ACADEMY X - has had a pretty good storyline for the last three issues. The "Choosing Sides" story seemed to drag a bit for me, but did have some decent character moments. However, the Haunted storyline has been an even better read. The decompressed storyline slotted neatly into three issues and instead of pages of nothing happening the whole thing was packed with character development and reminded me just how much I hate the six-issue standard. And it was a good story, the identity of the "ghost" seeing some good payoff, the Scooby-Dooisms giving some nice comedy, plenty of great interaction between the characters. My only complaint, perhaps a churlish one, is that Noriko has been rather too "nice" recently and the New Mutants are left as a team of complete goody two shoes. They're now all so sweet there's no conflict making things interesting. However, I was gratified to see Julian playing a big role in the final issue of the arc. It seems that for this team, any conflict will be coming from outside, although the Rahne subplot has potential to create another interesting story.

On art, it's worrying to see a fill in artist for issue 9 after Ryan has only just started on the title and following the numerous artist problems the book has suffered from in the past. The art is good though, I actually preferred it to Ryan's, so from that point of view I was fine with it. At least the artist made the teachers look like adults. Ryan's attempt to de-age everyone in his stories is deliberate apparently, to make them look more like the teens they're meant to be, but he didn't restrict himself to the students. Still, again, a churlish criticism of an ever improving book.

DAREDEVIL REDEMPTION - I'm wary of Daredevil mini-series. Daredevil: Ninja was bad, Daredevil: Bullseye, written by Kevin Smith, has never struggled beyond its first issue of about three years ago and Daredevil: Father by Joe Queseda looks to be headed the same way.

So it was with trepidation I picked up this first issue. And I have to say… it's very good. Nice to see Michael Gaydos artwork after his run of Alias, and the storyline is extremely solid. Superior, in fact, to BMB's output on the main Daredevil title for the past year or so. Set 7 years ago, Matt is called on to act as defense for a teenager in Alabama who may have murdered a child. The townsfolk think he's a Satanist and Matt is, for once, left unsure of his client's guilt or innocence. With a great cliffhanger and mature, well developed storytelling throughout, this is one of those mini-series that I'm sure I'll enjoy if it can struggle past the first issue. So good, in fact, it's probably one of my "must buy" purchases.

WOLVERINE - What can be said about this title? It's Millar, so there's a few sleazy moments, but mostly the past few issues have been extended action scenes as Wolverine cuts a swathe through the Marvel universe. Except he doesn't. You'd think a Wolverine unleashed on the Marvel characters would cut a major swathe through them. Instead, so far, we've seen a bumbling, ineffectual Wolverine. One superhero has fallen to him, but one so obscure I have no clue who he is. In the next issue Wolverine supposedly becomes a much more viable threat when he murders another X-man, but I'm so far disappointed with Millar's run on this book. His approach doesn't seem to have been thought out beyond a fanboyish "wouldn't it be cool to see Wolverine fight The Thing?!" And since this book hasn't even touched on others, where Wolverine is a happy go lucky member of multiple teams, it seems a cop out.

UNCANNY X-MEN - Some great art and good fun storytelling made Chasing Hellfire an enjoyable read, although packed with the usual Claremont illogical leaps and suddenly overpowered members. And a load of loose ends. What happened to Selene? How come Rachel kept playing tonsil tennis with Red Lotus? What happened to him anyway? And why's she so jealous of Kurt passing Ororo a towel if she was snogging some complete stranger the issue before?

Not a bad storyline, by any means, though. However, the new arc is looking like a stinker. Yep, Psylocke's back! How is she back? Why is she back? Who knows? Who cares? Claremont doesn't seem to. Betsy acts like an utter bitch from her first appearance and the end result is I don't give a flying toss if she's back or not and she's been brought back in such a rubbish way, I can't see how Claremont can save the storyline. Throw into that Ororo and Logan now apparently being a couple, a long and boring scene aimed purely at proving that Storm doesn't need powers to kick ass, which is the same story that Claremont's been pimping for about 4 years, it's a real nosedive after a fairly solid story. And it doesn't look like he can bring it round anytime soon.

BLACK WIDOW - This book continues to have some spot on characterization from a superb writer, with some stunning art from Bill Sienkiewicz. The Black Widow here gets some revisionist history in her origin, explaining for the first time her longevity and her superhuman powers and the plot is the real downfall of this book. It's an attempt at a hardboiled, spy novel and it doesn't quite 100 percent gel in comic book form. However, any failings are more than made up for by the writing of Natasha as a cold-blooded, but entirely female, antihero. The feminism of the character is touched upon, none too subtly on occasion, but the sheer coldness of some of Natasha's actions set her apart from the usual air headed comic heroine. If you haven't been picking it up in issue form I will heartily recommend the trade which is superior to other spy-genre titles, such as Sleeper, in a number of ways. The art, as always, is a joy, with Bill S. nicely portraying Natasha as a cold-blooded killer who's all woman.

EXCALIBUR - There's not much to say about this book. It's not one that grabs me, but neither is it one that offends me. None of the potential of the setup of the book has been touched upon at all - the latest storyline is the first where anyone seems to give the slightest consideration to rebuilding Genosha. However, that plot has quickly been derailed by the invasion of Wanda, fresh from Avengers Disassembled.

There's a couple of things going for this book. The first is Magneto, who is portrayed as a more rounded and sympathetic character than he has been for 20 years. But I'm still at a loss why he is suddenly Xavier's best friend again after spending the best part of a decade trying to kill him. Still, we're seeing a little more of Magneto's history and a retelling of other parts, so it's all good.

The other thing I'm loving about this book is Dark Beast. Something about Beast never really did it for me, but I've always had a great fondness for his evil counterpart. Perhaps it's how McCoy's cornball humor is turned into genuine wicked wit in the hands of his dark counterpart. Either way I'm hoping that the thankfully un-evolved Dr McCoy is still breathing at the beginning of the next issue, I'm having a lot of fun with his sardonic and vicious wit.

DISTRICT X - I'll be dropping this at the end of this arc. What started out as a solid book and was hailed by critics and myself, has slipped rapidly in quality. We get another Morlocks/Gene Nation style story, we get to see the book's hero turn into an asshole, before we even had a chance to like him… Thanks, but I'll be sitting this one out.

NEW AVENGERS - I doubt I'll last long with this book. It suffers from what most of Bendis's work has suffered from recently - all action and no soul. It's a slow issue as the breakout from Rikers just sorta… ends at the beginning of the issue, then we get Cap going around inviting everyone to join the New Avengers. Despite the brash cover portraying the Sentry, whose mystery is one of the potentially more interesting aspects of the book, he only features on one page so we find out nothing more. I'll stick around for the rest of the arc but it's not really grabbing me.

PHOENIX ENDSONG - Now THIS is more like it. From the very start it's clear this isn't going to be the Jean Grey revival some people were predicting. I read the second issue online and was so impressed this is now on my regular order. Having caught up with issue 1 I have to say that this is a VERY impressive X-book and potentially has the chance of bettering Astonishing if it stays top of the game after Astonishing lackluster last issue. The first issue was good but the second has a moment to rival Colossus' return with the interplay between Scott and Emma for the first few pages. Jean is ignored to take time to deal with their relationship, and it's about time someone took the effort to build on it. The result is a touching scene which proves, for now at least, Emma and Scott do work.

The best part of this book is the way it takes the best parts of Morrison's stories and dilutes them into a suitable continuation, often bettering his work in parts. Some of the moments are downright creepy, like the rotting Jean Grey crawling from her grave and now, with the return of Quentin Quire, Kid Omega, even more creepy images. There's a nice balance between pathos and horror and aided by Greg Land's often beautiful art. My only complaint is that he's inconsistent as to what playboy models he's drawing - take the pages of Emma, who looks like a different busty blonde in each frame.

JUBILEE - Well this sucks. As the series was cancelled early on, we're stuck with a hurried wrap up to the series that effectively negates everything that's gone before. Instead of decent characterization, we get a guest appearance from Wolverine, lots of explosions, bad guys and good guys all going up in smoke and an ending that reads like trash. How disappointing. Worst of all, a fill in artist. After the previous art's high quality, we get 22 pages that look like they were scrawled by a child. What a letdown to people that stuck with the series. I guess they figured by the sales figures, no-one would care. Well, I did and I have to say, the last issue stinks.