(no subject)
I've been spending way too much time on comics lately than is seemly, so let's at least make something constructive out of it. Reviews, then:
X-Men 200, 'Blinded by the Light, part 1'
That was fun. Seriously fun. I love the idea of Mystique and Lady Mastermind defecting to the other side and Omega Sentinel being dragged with them agaist her will (and the downloading move was very neat, btw). I like that the Marauders' ambush was actually sensibly executed. Mystique let them in, Lady Mastermind masked their presence, they took out the most crucial/dangerous target first to level the ground (Sentinel knocked out Emma Frost before she could warn anyone, and it seems that Mystique gave Iceman some sort of power-dampening crabs which, again makes sense because he's the one only who can potentially neutralize all the bad guys in one go).
Well, we don't know what their agenda is yet so there's still a chance that it turns out to be lame which would naturally ruin everything but so far it's all good. Don't screw up, Carey. I really like you, you are doing a great job with this book but it only takes one big mistake, don't forget that. I have faith in you, though. And if you'll manage to pull off Gambit whom Milligan recently fucked up beyond any recognition, I'll be in awe forever.
As for Iceman sleeping with Mystique, I don't mind at all. I like that she played the 'I'm so lonely, nobody loves me' card so, a sa result, it was kind of a pity fuck from Iceman's perspective. And, let's face it, if you take words 'Iceman', 'Mystique' and 'pity fuck' and put them together, everyone would expect the deal to go the other way. Here however it makes perfect sense because Mystique was most probably trying to get close to him to eliminate his ice powers (or, a less likely option, she knew that it was her last day among the X-Men and thought 'what the hell, it's the last chance, I want some') and Iceman was faced with that very hot lady who apparently had hots for him and needed cheering up so of course he went with it. And they've been circling around each other for about ten issues now so it's been actually heavily foreshadowed.
The only thing that actually pissed me off in this book was that the Cable sequence wasn't coordinated with 'Cable & Deadpool 42' which was specifically meant to show the same scene from a different perspective. It is very similar, I'll grant you that, but that's not really enough, is it? Come on, how hard can it be to make a few plot points match? Seriously?
Ok, let's talk the art now. I really wish Bachalo was doing the whole issue here. I adore his wacky pictures. Ramos' are wacky too but not even half as charming. And Bachalo draws a much better Iceman which is always a huge plus in my book (though I have to admit that at least Ramos gives him proper pants instead of those frigging spandex speedos - what were you thinking, Bachalo?). Now, it's not that Ramos is actually a bad penciller. He's squarely in the ok camp. I just wish for more.
I wonder how far they'll go with the deaths. Cable supposedly blew himself up to itty bitty pieces, but I won't believe he's relly gone until I see the body (or the itty bitty pieces). For now, I suppose he'll just disappear for a bit. Rogue got shot in the chest but between her own absorbing powers, the virus thing, the eight billion minds business and wolverine being around, anything can happen. Anyway, I think she's too important a character to go down just like that.
And Iceman got shot, too. If you kill him, Carey, we are so done.
Uncanny X-Men 488, 'The Extremists, part 2'
Crap. Larroca is back. I hate Larroca. I can live with his general panels and with his backgrounds but his close-ups are sometimes downright off-putting (that was positively the ugliest Valerie Cooper I've ever seen). Good thing Ed Brubaker continues to deliver on his end of the deal, so it's still a solid issue.
I like the set-up. The dialog lines are believable, even bordering on witty at times, the plot flows fluently so far (if not terribly fast) and the story seems un-forced. The X-Men, as in Storm (on a loan from Fantastic Four), Warpath and Hepzibah the ex-Starjammer, go investigate the Morlock tunnels after Caliban shows up on their front lawn all fangled up and Professor takes Nightcrawler on a trek to find Magneto before anyone else does. Makes sense so far. And it looks like the tensions between the X-Men and O*N*E are finally getting their deserved limelight here too. The whole story-arch certainly appears to have a lot of potential. But why does it have to be Larroca? I hate Larroca.
Quote of the issue: Professor X: 'We do it the old-fashioned way', Nightcrawler: 'And what is the old-fashioned way', Professor X: 'I secretly probe the minds of everyone in the general vicinity'. I just love Professor's on-and-off relationship he has with ethics.
The 'Endangered Species' backstrips are promising so far, but the overall quality of the series will depend greatly upon the idea at the very end of Beast's journey. All we got so far is a pretty slow build-up and nothing else and I suspect that's going to continue this way for quite some time yet (though, hopefully, not for ALL 17 installments), so everything will hinge on whether the gimmick at the end, the big solution, actually works out.
X-Men First Class 1, 'The Job Shadow'
I'm so glad it returns as on ongoing series. It's possibly the most charming comic book currently available. And finally an angst-free X-Men title. All the others are mired in it so it's really a very welcome change of pace.
And Roger Cruz' art is simply beautiful. And, I don't know, the word 'fresh' just springs to mind. Ok, I admit that Iceman's bizarre hair bothers me a tad, but Cruz more than makes up for it with the way he draws Angel, who's finally FINALLY pretty. Not-pretty Angels piss me off because the man's otherworldly beauty is supposed to be his main distinctive quality (well, that and the 20-feet wingspan) and pencillers have this irritating tendency of making him look like Dolph Lundren on a very bad day.
The plot is, as usual, simple and straightforward. Jean isn't doing all that great (and I like this idea of young, fumbling Jean Grey a lot), Professor decides that she needs some female influence and he gets Sue Storm to role-model a bit, Sue Storm takes Jean away for a Fantastic Four mission, the boys are desolate that she left them, mope around a bit and then go to get her back, X-Men and Fantastic Four pool their resources together and the Monster of the Day goes down, everyone is absurdly happy and the teams go their separate ways. Oh, and they hug a lot. A very simple story, nothing unexpected but done with so much charm that it works very well. And the pictures are really really pretty.
New X-Men 39, 'The Quest For Magic, part 3'
I love this Skottie Young guy. His art is fantastic. Actually, between him, Bachalo and Cruz, I really can't decide who's my favorite. If only they kicked out Salvador Larroca, I'd have a perfect set.
Ok, I have one grumble. I have some reservations with how Young draws Prodigy, mostly because it makes him look about twelve. Other that that, though, I'm downright delighted.
I think 'New X-Men' score the most impressive body count from all the X-titles. Probably going through the 'everybody gets to die at least once' special offer or something. They should probably reconsider that approach soon, because the thing is definitely getting out of control. I love me some gore and carnage but, really, tone it down already. It's getting ridiculous. At least this time the deaths and maiming probably aren't going to stick, especially since Elixir is seemingly in some sort of a healing-frenzy at the moment and the most afflicted one at the moment happens to be X-23. Still, they really should give those kids a break.
The funny thing is that, basically, nothing actually happens in this issue. That is, there are 24 pages full of non-stop fighting but the plot barely moves forward a meager inch. Which, in fact, I realized just now, because it's really easy to get sidetracked by all the gleeful carnage and confuse if for actual story. I hope we'll get more actual plot points in the next issue because it main be fun on short distances but I can see it getting old very soon.
And I really hope we'll get a decent explanation as to what the hell happened with the freaking X-Men that are supposed to be guarding all those kids and how yet another supervillain managed to snatch them away and maul them unnoticed.
.
X-Men 200, 'Blinded by the Light, part 1'
That was fun. Seriously fun. I love the idea of Mystique and Lady Mastermind defecting to the other side and Omega Sentinel being dragged with them agaist her will (and the downloading move was very neat, btw). I like that the Marauders' ambush was actually sensibly executed. Mystique let them in, Lady Mastermind masked their presence, they took out the most crucial/dangerous target first to level the ground (Sentinel knocked out Emma Frost before she could warn anyone, and it seems that Mystique gave Iceman some sort of power-dampening crabs which, again makes sense because he's the one only who can potentially neutralize all the bad guys in one go).
Well, we don't know what their agenda is yet so there's still a chance that it turns out to be lame which would naturally ruin everything but so far it's all good. Don't screw up, Carey. I really like you, you are doing a great job with this book but it only takes one big mistake, don't forget that. I have faith in you, though. And if you'll manage to pull off Gambit whom Milligan recently fucked up beyond any recognition, I'll be in awe forever.
As for Iceman sleeping with Mystique, I don't mind at all. I like that she played the 'I'm so lonely, nobody loves me' card so, a sa result, it was kind of a pity fuck from Iceman's perspective. And, let's face it, if you take words 'Iceman', 'Mystique' and 'pity fuck' and put them together, everyone would expect the deal to go the other way. Here however it makes perfect sense because Mystique was most probably trying to get close to him to eliminate his ice powers (or, a less likely option, she knew that it was her last day among the X-Men and thought 'what the hell, it's the last chance, I want some') and Iceman was faced with that very hot lady who apparently had hots for him and needed cheering up so of course he went with it. And they've been circling around each other for about ten issues now so it's been actually heavily foreshadowed.
The only thing that actually pissed me off in this book was that the Cable sequence wasn't coordinated with 'Cable & Deadpool 42' which was specifically meant to show the same scene from a different perspective. It is very similar, I'll grant you that, but that's not really enough, is it? Come on, how hard can it be to make a few plot points match? Seriously?
Ok, let's talk the art now. I really wish Bachalo was doing the whole issue here. I adore his wacky pictures. Ramos' are wacky too but not even half as charming. And Bachalo draws a much better Iceman which is always a huge plus in my book (though I have to admit that at least Ramos gives him proper pants instead of those frigging spandex speedos - what were you thinking, Bachalo?). Now, it's not that Ramos is actually a bad penciller. He's squarely in the ok camp. I just wish for more.
I wonder how far they'll go with the deaths. Cable supposedly blew himself up to itty bitty pieces, but I won't believe he's relly gone until I see the body (or the itty bitty pieces). For now, I suppose he'll just disappear for a bit. Rogue got shot in the chest but between her own absorbing powers, the virus thing, the eight billion minds business and wolverine being around, anything can happen. Anyway, I think she's too important a character to go down just like that.
And Iceman got shot, too. If you kill him, Carey, we are so done.
Uncanny X-Men 488, 'The Extremists, part 2'
Crap. Larroca is back. I hate Larroca. I can live with his general panels and with his backgrounds but his close-ups are sometimes downright off-putting (that was positively the ugliest Valerie Cooper I've ever seen). Good thing Ed Brubaker continues to deliver on his end of the deal, so it's still a solid issue.
I like the set-up. The dialog lines are believable, even bordering on witty at times, the plot flows fluently so far (if not terribly fast) and the story seems un-forced. The X-Men, as in Storm (on a loan from Fantastic Four), Warpath and Hepzibah the ex-Starjammer, go investigate the Morlock tunnels after Caliban shows up on their front lawn all fangled up and Professor takes Nightcrawler on a trek to find Magneto before anyone else does. Makes sense so far. And it looks like the tensions between the X-Men and O*N*E are finally getting their deserved limelight here too. The whole story-arch certainly appears to have a lot of potential. But why does it have to be Larroca? I hate Larroca.
Quote of the issue: Professor X: 'We do it the old-fashioned way', Nightcrawler: 'And what is the old-fashioned way', Professor X: 'I secretly probe the minds of everyone in the general vicinity'. I just love Professor's on-and-off relationship he has with ethics.
The 'Endangered Species' backstrips are promising so far, but the overall quality of the series will depend greatly upon the idea at the very end of Beast's journey. All we got so far is a pretty slow build-up and nothing else and I suspect that's going to continue this way for quite some time yet (though, hopefully, not for ALL 17 installments), so everything will hinge on whether the gimmick at the end, the big solution, actually works out.
X-Men First Class 1, 'The Job Shadow'
I'm so glad it returns as on ongoing series. It's possibly the most charming comic book currently available. And finally an angst-free X-Men title. All the others are mired in it so it's really a very welcome change of pace.
And Roger Cruz' art is simply beautiful. And, I don't know, the word 'fresh' just springs to mind. Ok, I admit that Iceman's bizarre hair bothers me a tad, but Cruz more than makes up for it with the way he draws Angel, who's finally FINALLY pretty. Not-pretty Angels piss me off because the man's otherworldly beauty is supposed to be his main distinctive quality (well, that and the 20-feet wingspan) and pencillers have this irritating tendency of making him look like Dolph Lundren on a very bad day.
The plot is, as usual, simple and straightforward. Jean isn't doing all that great (and I like this idea of young, fumbling Jean Grey a lot), Professor decides that she needs some female influence and he gets Sue Storm to role-model a bit, Sue Storm takes Jean away for a Fantastic Four mission, the boys are desolate that she left them, mope around a bit and then go to get her back, X-Men and Fantastic Four pool their resources together and the Monster of the Day goes down, everyone is absurdly happy and the teams go their separate ways. Oh, and they hug a lot. A very simple story, nothing unexpected but done with so much charm that it works very well. And the pictures are really really pretty.
New X-Men 39, 'The Quest For Magic, part 3'
I love this Skottie Young guy. His art is fantastic. Actually, between him, Bachalo and Cruz, I really can't decide who's my favorite. If only they kicked out Salvador Larroca, I'd have a perfect set.
Ok, I have one grumble. I have some reservations with how Young draws Prodigy, mostly because it makes him look about twelve. Other that that, though, I'm downright delighted.
I think 'New X-Men' score the most impressive body count from all the X-titles. Probably going through the 'everybody gets to die at least once' special offer or something. They should probably reconsider that approach soon, because the thing is definitely getting out of control. I love me some gore and carnage but, really, tone it down already. It's getting ridiculous. At least this time the deaths and maiming probably aren't going to stick, especially since Elixir is seemingly in some sort of a healing-frenzy at the moment and the most afflicted one at the moment happens to be X-23. Still, they really should give those kids a break.
The funny thing is that, basically, nothing actually happens in this issue. That is, there are 24 pages full of non-stop fighting but the plot barely moves forward a meager inch. Which, in fact, I realized just now, because it's really easy to get sidetracked by all the gleeful carnage and confuse if for actual story. I hope we'll get more actual plot points in the next issue because it main be fun on short distances but I can see it getting old very soon.
And I really hope we'll get a decent explanation as to what the hell happened with the freaking X-Men that are supposed to be guarding all those kids and how yet another supervillain managed to snatch them away and maul them unnoticed.
.