That implies that they’re readable now, which might be true, but I’m not going to try to fill in 10+ years of backstory. It still seems, whenever I look at the Marvel side of the rack, that there are far more X titles than non-X titles.
I’ve found Astonishing X-Men to be both high-quality and very accessible, and it’s teh first X-title I’ve ever read. Of course, some things are more meaningful to long-time readers, but it’s still enjoyable for newbies.
Post-Byrne, Claremont seemed to really mess up a lot of the subplots that made the soap operas side of their Xmen interesting. Then the big crossovers started so I avoided X-books through much of the nineties. I briefly went back to them when Millar, Morrison and Milligan did their stints on Ult.Xmen, New Xmen & X-Force/X-Statix bailing out soon after they left. True, Whedon’s doing a pretty good job on Astonishing certainly, when it comes to characterization, but the decompressed quality of the stories doesn’t appeal, nor does Cassadays’ work on that title. (Though I really do like Planetary on those rare occassions an issue appears on the stands.)
I’ve reached a similar conundrum regarding the Outsiders. I’ve enjoyed 90% of the issues to date, but the new artist really isn’t working for me: he’s a bit uneven. His storytelling, male characters and environments are fine. But his women aren’t rendered all that well at all.
A belated thought from another board: The brief fight in Desolation Jones #1 doesnt really count. In fact it was the one drawback of the story: you’d expect the old man would have to do more damage to get the reaction he was looking for.
If you haven’t tried it out already, give Johns’ Teen Titans a try: that’s been pretty good since the relaunch.
Morrison’s New X-Men was aces, D_Odds. It spun very much out of Claremont’s golden age, but the only backstory you really needed to know was that the island nation of Genosha had been converted into a nation of sanctuary for mutants and Magneto and Emma Frost lived there.
Milligan’s X-Force was great, although I felt it lost its way when it changed to X-Statix, which is when I dropped it.
–Cliffy
New **Conan - Jewels of ** coughGwahur?cough this week. Just doesn’t apepal to me as strongly as the main title. Also a new issue of Fables, continuing Little Boy Blue’s journeys in the Homelands.
The Outsiders - must agree with WonK, the artist is stinking up the place. I liked the issue as a whole, though.
JSA - Woo! Okay, I’ll come back to this one, as I have a mini-rant to make, but I really enjoyed this ish. It’s playing directly into the Day of Vengeance mini, and is also a follow up to Black Reign. We have an interesting three-way conversation between three forces of Vengeance to open the book - The Spectre, Eclipso, and the Crimson Avenger. And later on, we see Blue Beetle’s Scarab again for the first time since Countdown to Infinity Super Mega Final Crisis. Shazam ponders it while Mordru looks on and taunts from his prison inside the Rock of Eternity.
GL : Rebirth #6 of 6 - Well it’s over. And it was good. Minor spoiler : Hal cold-cocks Batman and knocks Brucey on his caped butt. Coming from any other character in the DCU, I’d cry foul. I almost want to cry foul here, if only because Guy should not get to have the reaction he does to the punch - it undoes a karmic balance for him that goes all the way back to the early days of the JLI. But we will let it slide for now. I think the ending amuses me far too much - “So you’re ‘back’ now?” Heh.
I wonder if putting Parallax back restored the yellow vulnerability.
Adam Strange #8 of 8 - The thrilling conclusion to the Adam Strange mini that completely reintroduced the character and made him interesting again. sniff Sad bit with the Darkstars, but it was nice to see them. Adam’s technique for taking on the battlecruiser was nicely inspired. Sardath is portrayed perfectly. And great ending, setting up…
Rann/Thanagar War #1 - Pretty ballsy of them to toast Thanagar like that. A much more interesting set-up to the premise of war between these two planets than I had expected. Yay! Kilowog and Kyle!
Mini-Rant : Seven Soldiers.
This week’s JSA gave me an idea of what DC Should have done with the Seven Soldiers concept. When Grant pitched them the idea for the current trainwreck of that title, they should have asked him to go back on his meds, and given him the thumbs up, minus the characters already extant in continuity, and the name Seven Soldiers, and let him go nuts.
Why? Well, then I wouldn’t have had to buy it in the first place and DC would be free to use the concept over in Day of Vengeance. Call it : Seven Soldiers of Sorcery, if you must. Pretty much the Day of Vengeance concept, tweaked slightly so that the team of intrepid adventurers banding together are the mystically empowered warrior types, including no spellcasters of any kind. The lowest level threats on the Spectre’s radar. People that can’t bend the fabric of reality to their will (a la the Enchantress), nor talking apes that seem to appear just for amusing continuity in-joke appeal. Just people who kick ass, but mystically. The Shining Knight. The new Crimson Avenger. Ragman. Blue Devil. Zauriel. A new Blue Beetle. And Captain Marvel, as the team’s cornerstone. They have to track down the Spear of Destiny, recover it, then use it to beat up the Spectre. It’d be a classic.
The hits keep coming, folks:
Ultra: Seven Days – A TPB of the 8-issue Image miniseries by Joshua and Jonathan Luna that tells the story of Pearl Penalosa (aka the superheroine Ultra). It’s set in a world where superheroes are the big celebrities. Pearl is not as go-go into the celeb aspects as some of her friends, and when she lets herself go a little, it comes back to haunt her.
This is a really good book. The art is lovely (although there’s way too much stat work) and the pencilling Luna is pretty good at making people distinguishable even outside their costumes. The action is a little lacking in the beginning, although it picks up at the end. More importantly, though, are the relationships, which is what the series is about. And those are handled beautifully. All the characters’ reactions make sense without always being predictable. And the series had some truly excellent covers. Well worth it.
Rann-Thanagar War #1 – Pretty interesting by the end, but to pay off the concept we’d better see the Hawks/Adam partnership in trouble down the road.
–Cliffy
That struck me as so obvious I’m glad that they aren’t going that route.
Fables: Is it just me, or has it been way too easy for Boy Blue to accomplish all he’s done? If this kind of firepower (i.e.: magic) is at the Fables’ disposal, why didn’t they try to re-take the Homelands sooner? Why did they lose them in the first place? Is what I’m wondering.
Desolation Jones, so far, looks like a deliberate take-off of The Big Sleep. I wonder how far into the story that will continue, or if Ellis will shift gears and riff on another noir classic.
Whedon’s X-Men (don’t know the exact title) has become a Star Trek: The Next Generation “amok holodeck” episode. And I don’t mean that in a good way.
Adam Strange: Overwrought and under-written. And it’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that was so contemptuous of science (did you notice all those characters talking to each other in space? Many of them weren’t even wearing spacesuits!) and story logic. I won’t be reading the Rann-Thanagar War.
Personally, from the fact that Danger just did near lethal damage to both Kitty and Piotr… I think that Danger’s the one in the holodeck.
Fiver, you’re only seeing the obvious. I think Joss has this tendency to show people the obvious and… no, sorry, it’s not obvious after all.
They’re off-guard, complacent, and being attacked guerilla-style. Besides, there’s only one Witching Cloak and one Vorpal Blade.
Contemptuous of science? No, I think you’re just unconsciously contemptuous of DCU history. The Darkstars have personal force fields to preserve their personal atmospheres, so they don’t have helmets. Likewise, they have communications gear in their armor. Not sure what you mean by story logic - everything in the book follows from what has gone before.
Usagi Yojimbo–refined, elegant, yet funny, as always.
OH! How this comic is underrated!
BTW, Fiver, Rann-Than War is written by someone other than the guy who wrote Adam Strange. (Dave Gibbons vs. Andy Diggle.)
–Cliffy
Maybe I’ll pick up the trade, then.
Fiver, re: Fables. In addition to what Gamera (who is, by the way, really neat and made of turtle meat 
) said, keep in mind that
- Blue hasn’t yet reached the Emperor,
- As has been made clear throughout the series the various Fables didn’t have much to do with one another until it was too late and they were already under attack,
- That also means they wouldn’t have had access to each other’s weapons when said weapons might have made a difference,
- Living among Mundies for so long, the Fables have undoubtedly learned a few things. I’d question whether or not Blue was much of a warrior in his original life.
Now, just who is the adversary? I wonder if it’s not a Fable at all, but rather somebody who created Fables and eventually lived among them. Aesop? A Grimm?
Outsiders: I read the Febraury issue of this, plus I know Jade from catching up on GL via paperbacks (Are Jade and Kyle still an item? The whole being the GL of space thing might put a damper on that.), so I kinda have an idea of what’s happening. This comic has so many nice touches like Roy’s comment on how he’d need two shots to take out Starfire. I agree, there is something off about the art. Jade looks nothing like the Jade I’ve come to know and love. I wouldn’t mind so much if I actually liked the end result, but I don’t. I also agree that something is up with Roy just blasting the shape-shifter like that. Outsiders is crossing over with Titans, so I’m probably going to wind up hooked on it too.
Birds of Prey: Thank you, whoever reccommended this to me. Simone is awesome. That said, I again disliked the art. Something about it just bugged me. I can’t put my finger on it. Also, I generally prefer super-powered heroes. Non-metas (like Speedy and Robin) are cool on a team, but I generally don’t like them by themselves. I might pick-up the next issue. I might not.
JSA: I didn’t read the Black Reign arc and Day of Vengance is just starting. Maybe I’ll be more into it after the next Day of Vengance comes out. Who drew the cover? The man on it looks like Captain Marvel in 10 years after letting himself go, complete with receeding hairline.
I’m usually not that picky about art. I have no art skill whatsoever, so I admire those who have any quality of it.
That’s Alex By-God Ross doing the cover of JSA, so you watch your mouth!
My last for this week was Majestic - which is slowly renewing my interest in the Wildstorm universe.
Nope, Kyle returned from rebuilding the Corps, and Jade dumped him for some guy she’d been seeing: all we know is that he’s in finance. This all took place just before Rebirth started.
I dropped BoP after Dixon went on to CrossGen. I’d heard Simone did a good job on Deadpool so when she took over the book I tried it out. She’s proven to be a fun clever writer, with her own interesting take on the characters: though I must say i like her Huntress and Canary more than her Oracle.
The art team just changed too: previously it was Ed Benes and Alex Lei. Now it’s Joe Bennett and (an inker, whose name I can’t recall at the moment). The work might be suffering a bit, as Bennett’s also pencilling Hawkman.
If you liked Simone’s story, but didn’t care for the art, try out the Sensei & Student storyarc, now out in trade paperback.
AWESOME. Alex Ross is probably one of the best-known artists in comics. It’s clear you didn’t recognize his style, but that’s cool, because you brought a fresh, unbiased opinion. Personally, I think he’s merely “okay,” but there are much better painters out there (Dan Brereton, for example.) All of Ross’ characters look like old farts. This is because he works from photo-references, and dresses his parents and neighbors up like superheroes so he can paint them. Seriously. Everyone look positively ancient, not youthful and vibrant and exciting. Plus his fans tend to get obsessive and defensive should anyone disparage his work (see also: Smith, Kevin). I consider Ross a big fish in a very small pond – he only does one thing, and he’s pretty good at that one thing. But his art is not the be-all and end-all, there are better artists out there who don’t get any of the acclaim he does, and it’s past ridiculous now, seeing his fat, old relatives dressed up like Superman and Batman and Captain Marvel en lieu of the “real things.”
That’s always been a big beef of mine, when it comes to Ross’ work: not so much his use of models (a complaint I find odd, given his style of work), as his purposefully limited selection of models. It almost seems lazy (or cheap) to use the same models for the men and women of the JLA (where the repetition becomes painfully obvious). I realize he lives in a suburb in the the North MidWestern states, but come on! There has to be more human variety out there!