Happy Post-Halloween, everybody, since I completely forgot to mention it last month. As I write this, we have yet to come upon the spooky day, but I'm scared none the less. The X-Books actually show promise of returning to greatness again. Well, maybe not great, but definitely readable again.
Lotsa creative changes are coming up, and some odd little storylines, providing me with tons of fodder for the column well into the next millennium. The one we still have to wait a little over a year for, that is. Let's get it right, shall we?
First off, Liefeld is off of Cable! After drawing a whole two issues! Can I call it or what? Next, we have Claremont returning as the writer of the core x-books. I'm both overjoyed, and concerned about this. Can he recapture the magic he did over 20 years ago? If he does, hot damn, this is gonna be a cool ride.
There's more, but those are the two big ones. Pretty much, all the creators are off of the x-titles come February, and then big changes come. I'll cover that later. For now, let's deal with the present.
I foolishly decided to pick up the Astonishing X-Men miniseries, since I like Brandon Peterson's art, and Howard Mackie can sometimes weave a good tale. He didn't this time. The Mannites? Who cares? Bastion? I thought he reverted to Master Mold/Nimrod and was blown up REAL good? Death? Who?? Yup, we basically got three issues of fighting here. Whee.
WARNING!!! Spoilers ahead, so stop now if you don't wish to know what's been happening in the x-books lately.
And in the end, we get some clues about who Death is, and the death of an X-Man, which was done rather crappily. Death kills Wolverine. With a sword. Through his chest.
Yet, this actually ended up making sense. For the first time in what seems like years, the x-men creative teams planned something out, amongst several different writers, dropped enough hints, and knowing the outcome, made it all hang together.
Turns out, this wasn't our Wolverine, but a Skrull impersonator, and Wolverine is actually Death. The story is far from over though, and for the first time, I am actually interested. The story isn't the best, or even the most original, but for a change, they have a plan and a purpose. The story is actually going somewhere, and has a predetermined resolution. On that note, I salute Marvel.
The art on Astonishing was quite good. Brandon did better work here than on Magneto Rex, and had some help from Brett Booth, whom I also like. It was not worth the 2.50 an issue for pretty pictures though.
And so, concludes my monthly damning with faint praise of another corner of the x-universe. The x-books getting good again...
