Monday, September 30, 2013

Uncanny X-Men 411

This is part two of Austen's first arc, and it's a step up in some ways from the last issue, and continues to plant more seeds that Austen will get some decent material out of down the road.

The biggest positive development has to be Juggernaut's introduction. He was teased on the last page of the previous issue, but we get to see him in full glory here and man, is it good. Out of all the characters Austen has written, Cain is probably the one he had the best grasp of. The issue starts off with a classic comic book "misunderstanding" fight between the wounded X-Men and Juggs, and not only do we get some decent action out of the scene, but also some legitimately funny/bad-ass banter between the two groups (and once again, Garney draws the crap out of this). We then are introduced to the true threat, and that is Cain's longtime ally and friend, Black Tom, who last time we saw him was slowly being take over by his plant powers. At this point, he's gone full-on plant, and it's actually an interesting development which I like because it builds on established continuity. We also see just how much of a friend Juggs is to Tom, as we see some touching moments of concern from him for his friend and that he was willing to go to his most hated enemies for help.It's very strong work with the character, and a good sign that things won't completely suck as Austen's run goes on.

That said, the issue also plants the seed for one of the more... eccentric character arcs, which is the introduction of Annie Ghazikhanian and the return of Havok. Now, this isn't to say this is a purely bad development, but we will get some weird moments out of these characters down the road, to say the least. There are some good things about this development though; for one, I never liked the way Marvel removed Havok from the rest of the X-Men, so at least now Austen is working him back into the mix of things, which will at least make him available to other writers down the road. Also, I like Annie; I know a lot of people hate on her, but, while she has some truly terrible moments, she does get used pretty well as the non-mutant POV character in this run, pointing out just how crazy the X-Mens' lives are to these people who've gotten way too used to the insane things that go on around them. Also, she's a pretty unique character as a single mom raising her kid around meta-humans (she might just be the only one in comics...), and is even more interesting now that I know Austen grew up with a single mom. Still, the Florence Nightengale syndrome she displays here is a little disturbing and cliched, plus the bit with Alex's picture showing up in the newspaper she's reading is contrived as all hell. Also, Stacy X continues to be whiny and annoying in fights. Even with these flaws, though, it's a solid issue that advances the story and sets up some important subplots.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Uncanny X-Men 410

So there's been a bit of a delay with the X-Men Year in Review post, but I should have that up soon. In lieu of that, here's the beginning of my issue-by-issue review of Chuck Austen's X-Men run.

I have to say, I rather liked this issue. It gets by a lot on the "Lobdell Quiet Issue" template, with the Squid-boy scenes, and as an introduction to a new character, it's not bad. I actually like how Austen plays him up as this kid who's in total awe of the X-Men and how Xavier is a genuinely decent person. After years of people shitting on his character, it's nice to go back and read these stories where he's not a total jerk. There's also some legitimately funny dialogue bits in the X-Jet (once again, more quiet issue stuff), and the fact that we don't see the "villain" of the story until the last page is impressive, especially when you take into account where Austen will eventually go with the character. This is his first issue, and the conflict of the story centers on a new character and an unseen enemy; this was a bit of a gamble, and I think it works. It also helps that Ron Garney drew the issue, and at this point he's got a bit of an Kubert Brothers look, which I really like. He's usually better with action heavy plots, but he doesn't drop the ball with the quieter, dramatic bits going on here.

Now that I've talked up the good stuff, it's time to get down to what doesn't work so well. First, there's the fact that Austen really seems to gloss over the fact that Squid-boy was contemplating shooting up his school. He manages to sell pretty well his motivation, but then it's dropped pretty quickly once Xavier shows up. There's also the scene after the X-jet crash that are way too melodramatic. It's not necessarily terrible, so it doesn't ruin the issue, but this kind of melodrama a pretty good example of one of Austen's more annoying traits and a sign of what's to come. Still, as debuts go, it's a solid story. Nothing to write home about, but still enjoyable.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Inhuman and Joe Madureira

So yeah, I'm not excited about this to say the least. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Mad's work and I'll be picking up this Inhumanity tie-in, but I'm not expecting much out of this besides some awesome pencils. I'm only supporting this series because I'm hoping Marvel gets the message that it's worth it to them to make it worth Joe's while to continue penciling their comics. Also, I haven't seen much about this mini besides the creative teams, that it's the main tie-in to the upcoming crossover, and it's supposed to feature the important stuff that can't fit into Inhumanity. Based off the cover of the first issue, I expect it will focus on the new Inhumans that are supposed to be popping up during the crossover. Other than that, I have no idea what it's going to be about.

I also figure, based off the recent work Mad has done on Savage Wolverine (and Avenging Spider-man a while before that), it'll be 3-4 issues long. I like this, since it's not a huge investment on my part to get the whole thing, and it'd be short enough that there shouldn't be delays (however, I wouldn't be shocked if we still had delays). I could also see them releasing a new issue every two months, which would make for an easier schedule on Joe and it would wrap up around the same time as Inhumanity (which I expect to last around 7-8 issues). When it comes to positives about Inhuman, I've listed all of mine, which doesn't bode well.

As for negatives? Well, there's the fact that Fraction doesn't have a good track record with crossover events, to say the least (remember Fear Itself? Yeah, I've tried repressing my memories of it too). This isn't even the actual event mini, either, this is a tie-in which means it clearly isn't as high a priority for him as Inhumanity is. Now, maybe I'm biased, but when you manage to get what might just be the best artist currently working in the industry on your payroll, you don't assign him to a tie-in that will be written by a guy with higher priority projects from a genre he kind of sucks in. It's a waste of talent.

Then you have the fact that the concept for this event is pretty weak too. Basically, Fraction is turning the Inhumans into the mutants. So not only did Fraction have to have a terrible run on Uncanny X-Men that almost killed the franchise (sales for Second Coming aside; what worked about that crossover came entirely from the other writers' chapters), but he now has to steal their shtick for his event? So what will happen to the X-Men as a metaphor for minorities/oppressed/disgruntled youth now that the Inhumans will be given a big push with that as their main subtext? Oh, because the Inhumans have a royalty aspect, that apparently changes everything. Yup, totally different. If Fraction couldn't write the X-Men, how is adding a king and a queen going to change that? And on a side note, way to go Marvel, you've managed to go and undercut what should be your flagship franchise. Again.

Finally, there's the compatibility factor - what about Joe Madureira made Marvel think Matt Fraction? The fact that they've both worked on Uncanny at some point? That Salvador Larroca (Fraction's main collaborator on his Iron Man run), at one point, used to have a bit of an anime-inspired look? Seriously, I'm not sure I could think of two creators least suited for each other. Joe Madureira is an anime guy, he draws explosive, dynamic action sequences that just don't show up in Fraction's scripts. Madureira has drawn padded issues before, but they were padded with some amazingly choreographed fights (padding which, in comics, is ok). Joe can also do quiet character moments and talking heads, but he works best when he's able to write mostly action, with enough quiet moments and dialogue to keep things from getting monotonous. This is why he worked so well with Zeb Wells - he was a good writer who could make the scripts uniquely his while also writing to Joe's strengths.

On the other hand, Fraction only seems to write pointlessly dragged out conversation scenes that a) don't have any of the characters actually in character, b) they don't contribute anything to the character, and c) they don't contribute jack to the plot. Fraction may just be the worst offender of writing for the trade. Don't get me wrong, when done right writing for the trade can work, but Fraction's mainstream work exemplifies all of the flaws with that style while having none of its positive attributes. This mini is most likely going to be 90% unnecessary dialogue exchanges, 9% actually relevant/important dialogue, and 1% what Joe does best (so basically, Fraction's going to take several issues to tell a story that could be much better done in 10 pages). Now, I'm all for getting people to work outside their comfort zone as it gets them to improve their craft, but Joe already puts out very little work - why can't he just what he's good at? Fraction's the one who could stand to hone his craft quite a bit more, plus he writes multiple books a month; it's not as big a deal for him to write outside his comfort zone, since he can do one book that way and the rest of his books can be done more to his strengths.

And here's the thing - he might be doing that. Fraction might actually change his style up to suit a superstar like Joe Madureira. I'm all about giving the creators the benefit of the doubt (except Greg Land. Fuck that guy), so I'm willing to give Fraction another shot. I know this sounds like BS, but I really want Fraction to succeed with this. I don't actively wish for a creator to bomb, I want good stories, especially when they feature artwork from my favorite penciller of all time. It would be great to not only buy more Madureira drawn comics, but for those comics to also be a half-way decent read. I've listed my concerns going into this story, but I'm hoping Fraction will surprise me.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Chuck Austen and other comics tomfoolery

I know this has happened before, but I'm back after a long hiatus from this blog. Life managed to get in the way again, though hopefully this time I won't stop posting after a week. Like last time, I have plan for how I'm going to put up regular content, and I'm hoping this will give me incentive to stick around.

Basically, I'd like to examine a topic no one seems to have touched in a while, and that is Chuck Austen's X-Men run. Like Liefeld, the internet loathes him and I don't really understand why. I constantly see his name brought up as the one guy that makes Lobdell's run look decent, which is odd to me because not only am I a huge fan of Lobdell's X-Men work (especially the Joe Madureira issues and Generation X), but from the scattershot issues of Austen's run, I didn't think he was that bad either. His work clearly had flaws, but he did get some things right: Juggernaut joining the team, Fishboy, he brought Havok back into the fold, he worked with some talented artists and he had a pretty good grasp of dialogue.

Specifically on the artists point, he was the one guy who seemed to see the direction pop-culture was going in at the time, which was anime and manga. I'm a huge Joe Madureira fan, so I love the blend of X-Men and anime/manga. Seeing a writer make the attempt to bring that look back by working with artists who either had a background in it or had a style reminiscent of it gets a huge plus in my book (it also helped that the artwork these guys produced was, in my opinion, very good).

However, my assessment hasn't even taken into account the context of the times in which these issues were released. From the time Austen took over until he left was also around the same time of the anime explosion in the United States. I was a die-hard Toonami and Shonen Jump fan, both of which I believed reached their peak viewership and readership from around '02 through '06 or so.  You can't deny that both of those venues took something whose primary audience in the US were kids and cult fans, and turned it into a pop-culture phenomena for a while. Austen, who is also a fan of the genre, saw this and tried to tap into this market by applying it to the X-Men. It had worked before with Madureira, plus the X-Men as a concept are much more open to a wide variety of interpretations than any other comics franchise (it's part of why I like them so much - there's so much you can do with them and it still feels like X-Men), so I'm shocked that it didn't really catch on. I'd much rather see the UDON-style Salvador Larocca of Austen's X-Men v2 issues doing art on Cable and X-Force than the Larocca that drew Fraction's bloated Iron Man run.

Austen was, I believe, a man that was much smarter and more talented than people give him credit for. I'm not saying he was on the level of Aaron, Morrison or Claremont, but there is a huge disconnect between the reputation his run has garnered and the actual quality of that run. I have recently come into possession of the issues of his that I'm missing, and it's given me the idea to do a series of reviews on this highly controversial run. I'm hoping that by reviewing it on an issue by issue basis, I can maybe do something to remedy this.

Before that though, I'd like to put up my thoughts on the past year or so of the past years worth of X-Men books and my take on the news that Joe Madureira will be drawing the new Inhuman mini-series; I'd like to get those posts up by the end of the week, but who knows if I'll get around to it? Part of the reason I'm doing this is because right now I'm at school and I don't have access to the issues I'd need to start doing my reviews.  The other part is that I have a lot to say about the current X-Men books and good ol' Joe Mad. Once I have those topics out of the way, I want to get down to business.

I'll be back soon.