Humble apologies for my long silence- or if you'd enjoyed that silence, no apologies for me breaking it. My long sojourn offline involved a great deal of real world travel. Seeing the the US from the Columbia to the Chattahoochee over the past few weeks gave me abundant time to read, but few opportunities to actually visit a comic book store and no chances to write and post reviews.
Uncanny X-Force 20 defied a lot of odds stacked against it. I found the interior art rather inconsistent, running the gamut from beautiful and dreamy, to suitably dynamic, to just a bit too loose. I caught a couple of little nits that perhaps the art director or an editor should have picked. Nightcrawler's pupils, for instance, became uncharacteristically visible in one panel. And I don't think there is any "Captain Whales" in the Captain Britain Corps.
Remender wrote AOA Nightcrawler as arrogant, self-centered, vengeance-driven, foolish malcontent that made me wish some good person would knock some sense into him- and yet I rather liked that. It shows that Remender knows this "Not-crawler," as some fans call him, is not the Kurt Wagner fans have loved since 1975, and he makes no attempt to pass him off as any kind of substitute. Nonetheless, this longtime fan of the Fuzzy Elf felt a bit sad.
Still, I'd long anticipated seeing Fantomex being held to account for his crime, and I love how Otherworld is being written, drawn, and in this battle for it, completely turned inside-out. It made for a rather fun issue, especially for UXF.
Wolverine and the X-Men 4, on the other hand, did not strike me as quite as much fun as the previous three issues. Sure, there were moments chock full of hilarity, like the faculty meeting, reactions to Deathlok's lecture, and little details like a picture of Cyclops on a dartboard. Unfortunately, the ramifications of Fantomex's misdeeds in Uncanny X-Force have spilled some excessive gloom over into this book. I had been hoping that the events in X-Force would, as Kitty Pryde put it, "never be allowed to affect what happens at the school." Of course they had, and now not only do I fear for a number of young characters that have grown on me lately, but I'm a bit worried that this book might take a darker direction.
I can only hope that Jason Aaron leaves the darker plot threads for Rick Remender to tie up in UXF, and keeps WATX the fun break from all the doom and gloom that it has been so far.
Showing posts with label Uncanny X-Force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uncanny X-Force. Show all posts
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Uncanny X-Force 15: Review and Spoilers
So Archangel's evil plans are well under weigh. A town in Montana has been completely wiped out, the stage set there for he and his minions to restart evolution and for Jerome Opeña to really show off. Besides the impressive artwork, I found quite a bit more to enjoy. I found Deathlok interesting for the first time ever- even though I generally don't like it when characters happen to save the day by going all murderous psychopathic all over people. Of course this means I find the very existence of a kill squad among the X-Men disagreeable- even repugnant in less capable hands. Rick Remender continues to show the characters still have consciences that are somewhat functional. I look forward to seeing where this will go, and how it will lead to the big lineup changes in the upcoming months.
That also ended up being one of the drawbacks. Despite cramming thirty million years of surreal alternate evolutionary history in one book, the plot moved a bit more slowly than I would have liked. And one line had me wondering when Fantomex started listening to Danzig.
But enough about that. Onto the real reason I bought this book. I'm partial to extras, though I believe the tenth anniversary of 9-11 warrants more than a reprinted short story in the back of Uncanny X-Force, which perhaps isn't the most appropriate book to have a 9-11 tribute in the back. I'll go into that more in my next "Comics for Causes" entry but I digress.
Marvel Comics first released A Moment of Silence in the fall of 2001 to support the Twin Towers Fund. This collection of four short stories details a few different perspectives on 9-11 silently, as the title suggests, with no dialogue or caption boxes to get in the way of what we're supposed to see. "Moment of Truth," by Bill Jemas, Scott Hanna, and Mark Bagley, with Hi-Fi on colorist duty and lettering by Sharpefont's PT could be effective either way. But all we need to know about Tony Savas, a true hero of the Port Authority as well as of this story, is written in an introductory panel and a two sentence epilogue. The art tells the rest of the story clearly, and the pacing is perfect, building up to the point when he made a decision that sealed his fate- and probably helped save countless lives. This extra brought a lump to my throat, brought to mind how heroes are supposed to be written better than too much fiction these days, and proved to be a poignant highlight to my reading experience.
That also ended up being one of the drawbacks. Despite cramming thirty million years of surreal alternate evolutionary history in one book, the plot moved a bit more slowly than I would have liked. And one line had me wondering when Fantomex started listening to Danzig.
But enough about that. Onto the real reason I bought this book. I'm partial to extras, though I believe the tenth anniversary of 9-11 warrants more than a reprinted short story in the back of Uncanny X-Force, which perhaps isn't the most appropriate book to have a 9-11 tribute in the back. I'll go into that more in my next "Comics for Causes" entry but I digress.
Marvel Comics first released A Moment of Silence in the fall of 2001 to support the Twin Towers Fund. This collection of four short stories details a few different perspectives on 9-11 silently, as the title suggests, with no dialogue or caption boxes to get in the way of what we're supposed to see. "Moment of Truth," by Bill Jemas, Scott Hanna, and Mark Bagley, with Hi-Fi on colorist duty and lettering by Sharpefont's PT could be effective either way. But all we need to know about Tony Savas, a true hero of the Port Authority as well as of this story, is written in an introductory panel and a two sentence epilogue. The art tells the rest of the story clearly, and the pacing is perfect, building up to the point when he made a decision that sealed his fate- and probably helped save countless lives. This extra brought a lump to my throat, brought to mind how heroes are supposed to be written better than too much fiction these days, and proved to be a poignant highlight to my reading experience.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Uncanny X-Force 14: Review and Spoilers
There are two reasons why I have thus far not reviewed any superhero comics. One is that I expect a lot of characters pushed on the public as superheroes. They may have shortcomings. They may face hard ethical dilemmas. They may not be perfect, but they have to be heroic. I have to not only find the stories entertaining, I have to admire the characters. The other is that I wanted to avoid turning this blog into a forum where people- myself included- behave like so many angry primates flinging complaints like so much excrement. Sadly, there may be some reason to be angry, or at least disappointed.
The X-Men haven't been anything like what I'd call heroic since Decimation. Furthermore, they hadn't faced what I would consider logical consequences for their unheroic actions, such as the formation of an assassination squad that has to debate among themselves whether or not it's acceptable to kill a child. But writer Rick Remender has accomplished the difficult task of bringing around what comes around while also making me care again about the characters. I could even almost admire Psylocke for the first time in years. Deadpool, whom I always found amusing though not heroic, I actually loved for the nerve and caustic wit he showed in pointing out that X-Force had brought their current spate of problems upon themselves- and upon the rest of the world.
Most moving is the child reassuring his very pregnant mother that everything will be all right, because Archangel and Holocaust are superheroes- just as Holocaust/Genocide incinerates them. I don't think Remender meant it that way. It's entirely possible that I'm overthinking this or reading too much into that brief scene, but it tragically illustrates the disconnect I see some fans make between actions and character. Even in the midst of the atrocities various X-Men characters have committed, some still brand them as heroes. It's refreshing to see that finally addressed in the X-books, as well as to see Archangel basically admit he's not a superhero.
The work of colorist Dean White is well worth noting for its appropriately moody range from dim, dingy gloom to fierce, ruthless vibrance. Artist Jerome Opeña could benefit from tightening up the pencils in some panels, but he demonstrates an excellent grasp of sequential storytelling, especially of how to draw a fight scene. Most importantly, however, is the story itself, and Remender's writing may well put an X-book on my regular pull list again if he keeps up the good work.
The preview of New Avengers: Fear Itself 16 proved a nice and hilarious bonus that addresses and piques curiosity about the following questions: Exactly what's Daredevil doing on the Avengers, how will he do, and how will his teammates deal with him?
The X-Men haven't been anything like what I'd call heroic since Decimation. Furthermore, they hadn't faced what I would consider logical consequences for their unheroic actions, such as the formation of an assassination squad that has to debate among themselves whether or not it's acceptable to kill a child. But writer Rick Remender has accomplished the difficult task of bringing around what comes around while also making me care again about the characters. I could even almost admire Psylocke for the first time in years. Deadpool, whom I always found amusing though not heroic, I actually loved for the nerve and caustic wit he showed in pointing out that X-Force had brought their current spate of problems upon themselves- and upon the rest of the world.
Most moving is the child reassuring his very pregnant mother that everything will be all right, because Archangel and Holocaust are superheroes- just as Holocaust/Genocide incinerates them. I don't think Remender meant it that way. It's entirely possible that I'm overthinking this or reading too much into that brief scene, but it tragically illustrates the disconnect I see some fans make between actions and character. Even in the midst of the atrocities various X-Men characters have committed, some still brand them as heroes. It's refreshing to see that finally addressed in the X-books, as well as to see Archangel basically admit he's not a superhero.
The work of colorist Dean White is well worth noting for its appropriately moody range from dim, dingy gloom to fierce, ruthless vibrance. Artist Jerome Opeña could benefit from tightening up the pencils in some panels, but he demonstrates an excellent grasp of sequential storytelling, especially of how to draw a fight scene. Most importantly, however, is the story itself, and Remender's writing may well put an X-book on my regular pull list again if he keeps up the good work.
The preview of New Avengers: Fear Itself 16 proved a nice and hilarious bonus that addresses and piques curiosity about the following questions: Exactly what's Daredevil doing on the Avengers, how will he do, and how will his teammates deal with him?
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