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Let's hear it for the Collector Times making it to it's second anniversary! This month, I've got some great stuff planned. The X-Books Revolution is upon us, and I got a lowdown on all the books that have come out so far! Except Wolverine, which is going to take a bloody miracle to get me to pick up again. I also scored an interview with the new, and pretty darn good, writer of Cable, Robert Weinberg! That's in it's usual spot, so don't miss it!
First though, I have an announcement to make. This will be my last Great X-Pectations. I've been having major money troubles lately, and comics are the first thing to go. No more comics, no more rants... So, as the X-Books move into a new era, I'm sadly leaving them behind.
For now though, we got one last rant to get through!
First off, we got Cable. My GODS! A plot! Decent non-Liefeld artwork! A comic being written by an actual honest to gosh writer! Literary references. To Shakespeare! It...it was such a welcome change of pace from the Liefeld issues. Weinberg actu
a
lly tried to develop a one-shot character in this issue to give him a personality and make us sympathize with him. Wow. Oh, and most importantly of all, continuity with past issues. And finally, plans to bring back Rachel, and some innovative ideas on
temporal theory. I will be worshipping at this man's feet for awhile. Unless he screws up Rachel.
Next, we have the first of three Counter X books being brought to us by Warren Ellis, and in this case, the help of Brian Wood, and Steve Pugh. Yes, it's generation X. And again, it's good. It is far from perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. The art was spotty, but I'll what another month for my final verdict on that, since this was inked and colored in two days for each step. Major rush job. the character's each had distinct personalities, banshee sounded like an actual Irishman and not the Lucky Charms mascot, and Emma kinda bothered me, but the characterization made sense. No longer wallowing in silly kid stories about hunting vampires or pookahs. We're going after a total bastard incarcerating naughty kids!
Next on our Ellis investigation comes X-Man. The toughest turd of the bunch to polish. A book which has had as many directions as issues, and yet absolutely no direction at all. The book starts off with an alternate world (yes, that was NOT our Forge who had his heart ripped out. Reread the sequence.) and then segueing to a new X-Man, with very subtle powers, a new outlook, and a purpose. This is far from a great book. It's still hard to care about this all powerful godboy, but the book is damned entertaining, and Ariel Olivetti's art is beautiful to look at. And so he doesn't go unrecognized, Steven Grant's co-writing meshes well with Ellis' style. This was a very dark book. I loved it.
The last of Ellis' Counter X books is X-Force. Now, I'm a huge fan of Warren's Pete Wisdom, and felt no one ever quite got him right when they tried to use him. Now he's back in Ellis' hands, and this is the proper Wisdom. His loss of an eye is explained away very well, in a way that I could almost hear Warren saying, "You messed up my character. I'll just have to fix him!" Again, we get a dark storyline, and the mutants taking the fight to the bad guys. Ellis is borrowing heavily from his Authority and Planetary books for the Counter X relaunch, and that is not a bad thing. This issue also had some other continuity references to some old Excalibur comics, with a nice guest shot for long-time readers. The darkness of the books, and X-Man, has some good humour to keep it lighter, and it's pulled off well, and doesn't seem forced. Portacio's artwork is nice, and if you like his style, this is some more good work from him.
Now that we're done with Warren's corner of the x-books, we move back to the more mainstream stuff, with Gambit. So far the one and only Revolutionized book that shows us some of the events of what happened during the Six Month Gap between last month's issues, and this month's. There isn't really much to say here, since the writer is the same, and the new artist came on last month. More great work from the Gambit crew. Buy this book.
Finally. The big one. The Second Coming of Chris. X-Men 100. Actually, Claremont ghost scripted four issues of the X-Books in the last six months, so this was the hyped return, making it coincide with a multiple of 25 comic. And it's good. Claremont is still wordy, and the art is a bit off at times, but I think it's just a matter of the writer and artist needing time to adjust to one another, and Claremont needing to get back in touch with the characters.
I did have one big problem with X-Men 100. Seven plus alternate covers. Do we really need this many? No. Stop with the alternates Marvel, it's annoying. I for one was not about to spend 20 bucks to get them all either. I picked up the one cover I liked the most.
And the rare variant my store got. I feel so ashamed. Luckily, I do like the cover.
Well, that wraps it up for this month. Lots of recommendations. A very good month. I've still got some more to pick up when they come out next week, and will pass on my thoughts on those next month.
What? I'm quitting? Oh yeah! April Fool's!! What? Give up my one chance to moan about X-Men to a wide public forum? Heck no! You're not getting rid of me that easily.
Take care, read Ellis, and trust no one on April Fool's Day.
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