Andrew Taylor Comic Reviews

Whether or not Damian comes back isn't important, and neither is the gruesomeness of his death: all that matters is he lived.

Mainstream superhero comics like this rarely come along these days. Silly in spots, challenging in others, but never limiting itself to a select few emotions. The pull between Aarons simplistic narrative, Ribic and Whites grandeur, and the genuine ambition of the premise gives Marvel what they sought for so long, and through many convoluted methods: a comic book for everyone.

Its never too late to check out a quality title like The Zaucer of Zilk! 

I think resurrection is a current X-Men theme a la Xavier, Jean, Logan, and Multiple Man and continues in this title. The concept of possession is prevalent to this storyline as most characters suffer from direct possession or have a history of being possessed or possession related problems.

Nothing really happens here of relevance beyond a nice reference to Giant-Size X-Men and Krakoa while building to an inevitable confrontation between X and Proteus.

It seems we finally remembered that there were other members on the team and everyone excepting Gambit actually proves useful in some respect. Bishop and Rogue dispatch Proteus huzzah! Psylocke and X doing most of the heavy Psychic hitting but ultimately resulting in the reality/psychic choke-hold over the world that the Shadow King has wanted to achieve for 20 odd years of our reader's real-world time.

Professor X has been unleashed upon the world again in a new, fully functioning host body with an undefined dream with no declared tenets and unrivaled psychic abilities. The ideology not looking sunny or bright after he just forcibly mindwiped the X-Men against their will.

Havok, unqualified for most things, tries to make himself relevant by being the hero for which nobody asked. The majority of the issue is spent in X-Position and over half of the characters promised on the cover either is not in the issue or barely in the issue. Hopefully, more is explained next issue regarding the menace that is the military controlled Reavers and that the rest of the team as promised actually joins up.

The band is back together with a lead singer! The team promised on the covers finally joins up and kicks some evil robot butt thanks to the addition of Dazzler to the team. The overall theme seems to be that the X-Men involved in the story might be down and on hard times but can still pull it together to destroy that disco. But Disco never dies!!! The artwork of Land is amazing, the story is compellingly self-aware. Will Dazzler take over leadership of the team from incompetent Havok? Stay tuned"

A lot of X-Men exposition in this issue that lets us know the Reavers are not teamed up with O*N*E willingly. Alex tries to protect the others from his problem but fails as usual and they are somehow easily captured as more of a convenient plot point than a logical battle end result. Alex and Warpath with their Reavers bedfellows will now have to tackle O*N*E to release their buddies and boss respectively.

In this issue we still have questionable leadership decisions, others making fun of those decisions, and even a Havok/Cyclops comparison which I think is a per-issue requirement. The overall assessment of Havok's leadership abilities thus far seems to be a large failure.

Dazzler, decidedly not a bootleg Ke$ha shines bright this issue by creating light illusions and ultimately defeating the Reaver/Sentinels with her Banshee powered blasts. Havok discovers he has the gumption to take the fall for the team and become a hero. All in all it was a satisfying conclusion to the series and story arc letting us see that the less than perfect X-Men can still pull it together to succeed.

*Series regular Mateus Santolouco was erroneously credited on the cover.

There is, however, a great fight this issue. When confronted in a nightclub by their mind-controlled parents, the Young Avengers regress to primal urges (Hulking and Ms. America fight, Wiccan and Loki flight), looking to settle familial dispute through genre convention. McKelvie and Norton show razor precision: you know exactly where everyone is and what is happening. The intercutting of small, fast punches with wider, dramatic panels keep the scene moving at a brisk pace. It's almost as good as Jerome Opena's Avengers artwork, but without the mindless posturing of Jonathan Hickman.

Probably the best analog is the series' seventh issue: both occur right after a game-changing abduction, both involve Wonder Woman going to a previously unknown third party for help, and both have wholly unecessary conflicts. The only difference between the two is that, where #7 was controversial, it's doubtful anyone will remember#13.

What results is a comic typical in an industry obsessed with rugged individuals. Any ethos is cover for self-congratulation, every good a careful marketing ploy. In this regard, Great Pacific is every bit the insular product of the comic industry's gated community as superhero title from Marvel or DC. More refuse for the Great Man theory's trash heap.

At this point, I'm damning Captain America with praise. Much of the comic is so good on a technical level, but its biggest failing has nothing to do with skill. Rather, it's a problem of point. Specifically, that Remender doesn't seem to have one. His Cap is a good old-fashioned pulp hero on good old-fashioned pulp adventures. What he misses, though, is pulp's ability to express reality through metaphor.

I have to admit: I'm torn about Change. On the one hand, it is the sort of comic I wish I could get my hands on more often: goofy, horrific, willing to throw anything and everything at the wall just to see what would stick. On the other"well"it's nonsensical crap. Not a very 'critic' sentence to write, but that is what it is. So much of it is dedicated to its gleeful attempt to mindscrew readers that it never becomes about anything else, despite what a final, emotional plea over a white background would have you believe.

Land's art is good for one thing: showing how Iron Man #1 lacks any clear vision. Gillen has one story arc established, and no guiding aesthetic. There's an unwillingness to do anything but rehash old Iron Man themes of conscience. He does so in hamfisted fashion by making a sequel to the marginal Warren Ellis/Adi Granov arcExtremis, killing off a character from that story casually. Where Gillen was able to breathe new life into Thor enemy Loki over in Journey Into Mystery, he seems hesitant to comb through what's now become Tony Stark's pet clichs. The end result is something timid and glacial. Between this and Uncanny Avengers, perhaps "Marvel Eventually!" would have been a better moniker.

On a side note: while I came down hard on that misguided scene, I consider the lack of reference to it this month a mixed blessing: sure, it means no more dialogue like We want a taste of Berry, but it also (unfortunately) dwindles any chance Marx could spin a truly mature tale dealing with such trauma. Instead, that scene just becomes one more bit of empty shock for its own sake. If thats all Sword of Sorcery is going to provide, it probably isn't worth the effort.

Guedes' overall competence does underscore how poorly-thought the writing is, though. Two scenes in particular are exposed: an early scene where a man "sneaks up" on Constantine by simply standing in front of his home (with nothing around to hide behind, Guedes just puts a convenient shadow over his face), and another where Constantine notices someone has poisoned his drink. The latter is Lemire/Fawkes trying to show his eye for detail, except Guedes has the assassin offering the drink while poisoning it"right next to Constantine's face (instead of, I don't know, before giving it to him?). For a comic so haphazard in design, the art suits it.