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A few months ago, I reported about the disturbing, to myself
at least, trend turning up in Marvel's comics to try and sell
their books with blatant sexuality on the covers, and in the
books, without even trying to thinly veil it. The veil was so thin,
it was arguably not even in existence on some of the books
coming out. Most notably the horrid manga Phoenix effort. But
I digress. One of the books I brought up was the new Mystique
series, and how I would withhold judgement for a little bit
before coming to a decision, since even though it did have some
heavy T&A elements, the first issue at least struck me as at
least having a viable story going along with it.
Well, the first storyarc is complete, and my verdict is in.
Storyarc is a loose term here, I suppose, since it's more like the
first six issues being released as a trade, but it's really two
seperate stories with plotlines being set up to be dealt with
even further down the road. Very 80s style of storytelling, and
I for one welcome it. Brian Vaughan is a very talented writer,
and he can balance characterisation, action, comedy, and drama
quite well. His writings go a long way to keeping this title from
being just more T&A for the sake of it, and it's very smartly
written.
The art, however . . .
To be fair, the art is actually pretty decent in the first six
issues, and gets even better with the rotation of one of my
current favourite pencillers onto the title as the new regular
guy, Michael Ryan. Jorge Lucas handled the first six issues, and
yes, there is some heavy, in-your-face T&A, but it was
definitely toned down somewhat in later issues, and the story
always seems to be the thrust, not the art.
Another thing of note is that this book was marketed under
the Tsunami label, which was being put out there as American
Manga from the House of Ideas. This story, and art, does not
strike me as being terribly manga-like, and only, at best, slightly
inspired by western stylings. The manga style slipped even
further away when Ryan came in for the art.
The sex angle also makes some level of sense in the overall
story of the series. Mystique is being used by Xavier as a
spy/underground operative for his dirty work that he wants
deniability on, and when you have a shapeshifter in that role,
the art of disguise can be a very useful one, from hiding as an
everyday object, to any person they want, or a seductress.
Seduction has quite a history in real spying, so some of it is
forgivable in this context. As long as the stories remain strong,
then I, for one, can let the attractive redhead do her thing as
much as she wants.
Some folks have asked why Mystique 'deserves' to have a solo
title. Personally, I've never liked thinking of it as deserving a
title. If a writer comes along with a compelling story to tell,
that's either just a good story, or a story that needs telling,
than it should by all means be told. In the comics medium, I
would personally prefer they use existing characters than
churning out new, cardboard cutter, thin versions, when the old
ones would do the job just fine. Which is what Vaughan has
done here. Spies and action thrillers are big again, what with
the success of ABC's "Alias", and FOX's "24" bringing them
back firmly into the public's mind, as well as the persistence of
the James Bond films. This is Marvel's take on that, and the
take is being very well handled.
Now is an excellent time to dive into the Mystique title, since
they just finished up their fist six issues, which should be
available shortly in a trade paperback (At the time of this
writing, the status of the Tsunami trades were somewhat
unclear) and the newest arc has come out starting with issue
seven. Look for the black cover with purple shiny ink. This is a
great jumping on point, as everything you need to know was
either covered here, or in the course of the issue itself,
including the handy recap page.
This definitely gets a high reccomendation from me, and is
worth checking out. If nothing else, it's a fun ride.
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