Wednesday's New Thing

Uncanny X-Men #1. More on this soon. 

All-New, All-Different

I've been reading X-Men comics for a long time. Not as long as some people, of course: I'm barely as old as that massive selling #1 written by Claremont and drawn by Lee, but I've been reading X-Men comics a long time. Long enough that, when I started almost a decade ago, a mediocre writer given to melodrama, Chuck Austen, was writing Uncanny, a certain mad Scot named Morrison was writing New X-Men, and Chris Claremont, a man whose name is probably more closely tied to the group than any other, was writing a book titled (horrifically) X-Treme X-Men. It was, for sure, an odd time for Xavier's merry mutants: the three mainline books were vastly different from one another in not only tone and style, but also in quality. Although I've learned to love Morrison's take above all others from the period, in the moment I loved Austen's Uncanny the best: it had my favorite characters. Now I understand the book to be basically incomprehensible but, when I was thirteen, Austen had me. I loved the melodrama; I loved Angel's angst, I loved that Juggernaut was on the team, I even loved that storyline where Nightcrawler joins the priesthood, only to discover that he was ordained by a bunch of anti-mutant psychos.

All of this is to say, basically, that I'm pretty invested in the X-Men. Except for a two year period during high school, I've been buying and reading X comics pretty consistently for the last nine years; certainly, behind Captain America, they are the major superhero franchise I care about the most and, although I've come close a few times, I've never quite managed to quit them, although I did narrow my purchases from three books to just Uncanny. The last few years have been trying, to say the least, because the writing (from the two writers I hold above all others as the paragons of quality in mainstream superhero comics, Brubaker and Fraction) has been uneven at best and because I was forced to endure the art of Greg Land for a full half of the issues (of course, that the Dodsons did the other half was one of the reasons I hung on for as long as I did). Then, Kieron Gillen took over the book from Fraction and things started to change a little bit. There wasn't a major uptick in quality, at least not immediately, but the books certainly felt different.

And then Schism, a mini with two brilliant ideas and an editorially mandated ending that went on two issues too long, hit.

All the sudden Jason Aaron, he of one of the great crime comics of all time, Scalped, and a Ghost Rider series that is supposed to be very good, despite have been read been read by precisely no one, was writing a book called Wolverine and the X-Men and Gillen was writing a renumbered Uncanny. Despite my distaste for the renumbering, and my ultimate dismissal of the status quo setting mini as utter crap, I have never been more excited to be reading the X-Men.

Let me be very clear about why: both books are hilobrow pop art at their best. This is most obviously true of Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men: Chris Bachalo's art is, of course, the key here. Bachalo's art is highly stylized, and there's no one in the industry who draws anything like it. The figures are reduced to their necessary components; there are no lines out of place, no extraneous muscles. Visually, the book is to the point, yet, it is, because it uses only those distractions (like the occasional benday dots) that add to the books overall style, incredibly detailed. In terms of story telling, Bachalo uses what we might call functional form; when things are calm, so are the layouts. When things get a little more madcap, the panels go a little crazy. He gets points, too, for his colors, which are understated without being drab; it would have been an easy out to go garish, but instead the book has a dreamy, almost water colored look. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, his designs are fantastic. Although no one receives a serious overhaul, everybody looks just a little bit different, and brilliantly so. In particular, what he's done with Quentin Quire and Beast stands out: the choice to go full throttle on Quire's punk streak is welcome, as is the t-shirt with the red exclamation point, the one he wears underneath his school uniform. As for Beast, well, I don't think I've ever seen such a compact vision of the character, bristling with kinetic energy.

If it sounds like there's a lot going on, there is: in contrast to the slow, melodramatic pacing he's employing on Incredible Hulk, Aaron just sort of throws everything out on the table here and, somewhat miraculously, everything works. There are a hundred ideas going a thousand miles an hour inside Wolverine and the X-Men, and each one is better than the last. The characterizations of Quire and Beast stand out here, too, and I suspect that they're the two to watch the most closely. The additions of an arrogant Shi'ar prince, a mutant born of the Brood and some miniature Nightcrawler-looking things to the cast add just the right amount of mysterious and intriguing to make the whole thing feel worth the energy it takes to read. This is a mad book, which takes its cues from Grant Morrison's time with the extended mutant family; it is, in this way, the inheritor of the best X-Men run of the last twenty years, and maybe of all time. If Aaron can sustain both the energy and the coherence of his first issue over his whole run, he might give Morrison his only proper challenge.

That said, Uncanny is the most exciting its been in a really long time. Kieron Gillen really kicks it into gear with the title's first #1 since the sixties: where Aaron's book is wild, though, this one is reigned in. Although some writers would take the opportunity, when writing a team book with a team that's half ex-supervillains, to do something utterly incomprehensible or suffocatingly moralistic, Gillen makes Cyclops' vision for his team just Machiavellian enough for the enterprise to make sense; it helps that his characterization of Cyclops as the military leader of a sovereign state, inherited from Fraction but perfected since then, is spot on. The rest of the team feels right, too: Magneto, Namor and Emma are, perhaps rightfully, arrogant; Storm's humble power is striking; Colossus and Magik are convincingly tortured. Dr. Nemesis and Danger, two characters who sometimes get short-shrift because they have gone relatively undeveloped except as plot devices, get some of the book's best moments. This is a team book at its best, controlled, except the one place it shouldn't be, that is, the villain, and Mr. Sinister here is a perfect counterpoint to Cyclops and his Extinction team.

Although I've been really impressed with Carlos Pacheco's art in the past, here, despite its few flaws, there's something stopping it from transcending from mere high-quality into a kind of brilliance. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but I do sense that Pacheco is holding back a little bit, perhaps mirroring the control of the writer. I wish he would let loose a little bit; it's a good time to be reading the X-Men, in part because there's nothing conservative about either of the line's new books. If Pacheco begins to take the same chances that Gillen, Aaron and Bachalo have, we could have another brilliant new book on our hands.

Uncanny!

Well, this is pretty cool.

Kieron Gillen, who finished up his run on Thor a couple of weeks ago and who will begin a new X-Men series entitled Generation Hope in a month or so will be joining Matt Fraction on the writing team for Uncanny X-Men starting with issue #531.

Remember that when Fraction joined Ed Brubaker on the title two and a half years ago with #500, he replaced Brubaker soon thereafter. Does this mean something of a changing of the guard for the X-Men? Is Gillen going to replace Fraction at some point in the near future?

I don't know, but what I do know is this: if you're going to put together a brilliant writing team like Fraction and Gillen, why the hell would you put Greg Land on the art?

Uncanny #531 comes out in December.

Uncanny

I hate the idea of fandom.

Fans, genre fans in particular, are notoriously difficult and hard to please. It's not even a good kind of hard to please, either- rather than looking for quality, they look for fan service. They want stories that seem familiar, they like narratives that make them feel like they're coming home. As a result, comics are notoriously stagnant- they rarely move forward and when they do the move generally doesn't last very long, a victim of that all-important but ever elusive king of comics: sales.

I'm not particularly fond of being called a fan, either; I'm a comics reader, consumer and scholar, for sure, but I don't like the possibility that I might be blinded by my fandom, the possibility that I might reject good stories simply because they take characters in a new direction, one that makes me uncomfortable. In fact, what I want is just the opposite- I want writers to take me places that are new, that are uncomfortable, places where I haven't been before: that's part of the reason I read comics, because I would like to imagine that the world is better than advertised.

With all that said, I have a confession to make: when I figured out Nightcrawler was going to die in Second Coming, I stopped buying the crossover. In fact, I even stopped buying Uncanny X-Men, which is a comic I've bought consistently since I began reading comics in middle school. That moment, when I started buying comics, came in the middle of what I now think of as a pretty awful period in Uncanny's history, when the book was being written by former artist and minor league baseball player Chuck Austen. Say what you will about his writing now (and, believe me, I've said plenty of those things) there was a period of time when I thought Austen could do no wrong- I loved those stories, and I loved the characters they were about. I still love those characters- I read the book through worse writers than Austen, so something must have made me stick around- and for better or for worse that made me a fan. It was only the death of my favorite character (well, that and the prospect of spending four times as much on X-Men comics per month as I was used to) that drove me away.

All accounts seem to indicate that, for a sprawling mini-epic crossover event, Second Coming was pretty good- and I didn't want to hear it. I was done with the X-Men- DONE... until I saw this book hanging out in my LCS today during my lunch break.

I had room in my budget, and I just couldn't resist, so I picked it up- and I'm glad I did, because it was actually pretty good, despite the presence of three different pencillers. Luckily, the fact that each artist was telling a distinct story maximized readability and it helped that I like Steven Sander's slightly off-model interpretation of Beast (can we get this guy on a real X book please? One of the great tragedies of S.W.O.R.D.'s cancellation was that I don't get to see his work on a monthly basis anymore). The Sanders drawn Beast tale is, I think, the best of the bunch- unlike the other two stories (one about Cyclops, the other about Hope), it doesn't serve mostly to move the X-Men forward out of Second Coming and into The Heroic Age, and Matt Fraction is at his lovable best there. There's a pretty poignant, if slightly opaque, reference to Nightcrawler's death, a reference that easily could have come off all wrong, that Fraction writes to perfection.

The other two stories are pretty good at their best moments and serviceable at their worst: Whilce Portacio's art on the Cyclops story is surprisingly fluid and it's hard for me to resist loving anything with Steve Rogers in it and even the Hope story, the weakest by a pretty wide margin, has its moments, despite being generally flat.

I hate to say it, but Uncanny X-Men: The Heroic Age made me feel like I was coming home again. I may as well just admit it- I'm an X-Fan. And there's nothing wrong with that.

The Comic Symposium Is Upon Us....

On April 10th, Bard College will host its Fifth Annual Comic Symposium. Clare and I have been planning it for months, and it's nearly here. Featuring presentations from both Clare and myself as well as other members of the Bard community and, most excitingly, Bard grad and comic legend Chris Claremont. Above is the poster that I designed, and I think it's pretty sweet.

Hope to see y'all there.

A "Testament" to Art in the Face of Death

A few years ago, after the sudden lunge Marvel Comics made to capitalize on the upcoming Fox Studios X-Men movie "X-Men: Last Stand" and their soon to be announced prequels "X-Men Origins: Magneto" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (one of which got made and one of which didn't) a very special project was started.

It wasn't "Wolverine Origins" and it wasn't "X-Men: First Class" and it wasn't "X-Men: Origins". It was a five issue mini-series about one of their most central villain's origins.

I'll give you a few hints:

It was about the villain who appeared in the very first X-Men comic. (Pictured to the right.)

A character who never got his movie probably because Fox didn't want to do a movie about the Holocaust. Hitler's Final Solution. The genocide of six-million people. Whether Fox Studios (or Marvel Studios) may still someday make a film out of the shell of this project is yet to be determined.

It was written by Greg Pak, drawn by Italian comics artist Carmine Di Giandomenico, and edited by Marvel editor Warren Simons.

It was, of course, "X-Men: Magneto- Testament".

In 2008, almost as an aside from all those aforementioned "Origins" projects, both the comics and the films, Warren Simons began talking about the idea of a historical fiction project detailing the harrowing childhood of the character of Magneto before he became 'Magneto', even before he began calling himself Erik Lehnsherr. Greg Pak signed on as writer; he said: 'I knew from the start this was a project I had to do'. It seems that we should all be glad he did, since the book has earned a great deal of praise since its release.

I have, shamefully, yet to read all of "X-Men: Magneto- Testament". It was one of the rare occasions I chose to 'wait for the trade' and because I rarely pay attention to those releases, I never bought it. I now know a great deal about it because The Simon Wiesenthal Center (an organization devoted to keeping Holocaust studies alive) held a great event on December 8th at The Center For Tolerance here in NYC titled: "An Evening with the Author and Editor of X-Men: Magneto Testament". It was a fascinating presentation of the thought process, historical research, blood, sweat, ink, and tears, that went into the writing and production of "Magneto: Testament".

It was one of those really strange nights in which you just lean back and marvel at how two completely different spheres of interest can come together so perfectly. I didn't realize how little I knew about the Holocaust and about the character of Erik Magnus' involvement in it. I took World History II in high school and read Art Speigelman's "Maus" but it didn't cover the sonderkommando, prisoners drafted into helping the extermination process in return for better treatment for themselves and their families, or the deceptive signs convincing soon to be executed prisoners that they were about to take a shower. I'd read "X-Men" #1 and seen the X-Men films but I didn't know that Magneto had a child who died at a young age between his survival of the concentration camp at Auschwitz and the birth of his living twin children Wanda and Pietro or that it had been established years and years ago that the future supervillain was one of those sonderkommando at Auschwitz. Magneto (a.k.a. Magnus, a.k.a. Erik Lehnsherr, a.k.a. Xorn?) is revealed in "Testament" to have began life as Max Eisenhardt. The new name was chosen because it was discovered by way of their historical consultant with the Simon Wiesenthal Center that neither of the names Magneto had gone under until that point were truly Jewish, nor were they popular names for boys in Germany at that time.

Probably the most remarkable moment of the presentation came during the question and answer session at the end, when an older woman who hailed originally from Pak's native Texas told us that when she moved to New York City after high school (possibly it was even after college, I can't remember) she had never been told about the Holocaust at all. She personally thanked the writer and editor for creating a work of art that tells the story of what the average Jewish person underwent during WWII in a visual medium that often grabs the attention of children. To this Pak responded that it has been proven that different people learn best through different media and that is why it is worthwhile and important 'to tell these stories again and again'.

So these are some of the things I learned last week. Warren Simons (the editor; pictured to the left), Greg Pak (the writer; pictured to the right), and Mark Weitzman (the historical consultant; not pictured) gave us a wonderful conversation about the careful balancing act that had to be played between aggravating old-school Magneto fans and accidentally feeding the fires of the Holocaust deniers with any inaccuracies. The nightmare of scheduling something with subject matter requiring this delicate accuracy on a printing schedule for a major comic-book publisher sounds as if it would have tried the nerves of anybody. According to the two men, it was artist di Giandomenico (unfortunately not present at the talk) who most kept them on track, in the words of Simons: 'He never missed a day'.

December 8th was an eye-opening and fascinating evening and I wouldn't be surprised if the Wiesenthal Center's other programming is equally interesting.

P.S. ~

There is, by the way, an excellent essay available online here detailing Magneto's life as seen in the comics published up to that time and classifying him as a sufferer of Bipolar Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Think about that.

P.P.S. ~
I was told about the event at the Wiesenthal Center by my good friend and fellow member of the blogosphere (and consummate Jew!) Matt Rosza. (He blogs about things that cross his brain at: Risking Hemlock. Although comics are not the driving force of his interests, they do intersect with the world of history/politics in surprising ways, like in this post about the photoshopped image super-imposing the scars and make-up from "The Dark Knight" version of the Joker over the face of Barack Obama. Check the blog out.)

Jon Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 10/14/09

Well there ain't much for me this week, which is bloody comforting after the slew of comics I haven't finished reading let alone reviewing from last week!

I'll be off soon today to buy:

"Web of Spider-Man" (v2) #1
Writing by J.M. DeMatteis. Check. Spider-Man. Check. Clone Saga? Check. Cool.

"Batman" #691
Well, I'll probably buy this. (I got FOUR comics from last week to read and review, bub! Plus I'm unemployed! Give a guy a break!) I enjoyed #689 very much. We'll see if this issue is equally magical.

and I'm curious about:

"Blackbeard: The Legend of The Pyrate King" #1
Historical fiction in comics is a rare thing and this looks very good. Nothing else to say.
and
"Uncanny X-Men" #516
For essentially the same reason Josh is so excited about it: Magneto fully powered taking on the merry mutants for the first time since losing his powers in "House of M" and getting them back. Very cool. Written by Matt Fraction. Oh yeah he's amazing. I may have to buy this...

UPDATE: 10/15/09

I bought the "Batman" issue and the first issue of "Blackbeard". "Blackbeard" looks like quality visual historical fiction to me!

Already Tired of Tuesday 10/13/09

Last week was a huge week for me, and it was a damn good one too. Between the start of the new Criminal mini and the end of Planetary, I would be hard pressed to find a week that was quite that good in the recent past.

This week, for the record, isn't looking too shabby either.

I think I'll start out with Incredible Hercules #136, where I'll get to watch Thorcules battle Hercuthor, in what is sure to be a delicious battle for the ages. Then I'll get my Brubaker fix with The Marvels Project #3, which threatens to blow the top off of a wonderfully slow burning series. I'll round into the third course, Uncanny X-Men #516, looking for some Magneto action and I'll finish up with Fables #89 for desert.

Then, I'll wash it all down with a Coke and call it a night.

Already Tired of, uh, Monday....

I know I'm way early this week, but I'm procrastinating on a paper, and this seemed like a perfect way to do it. Also, there's a lot of really great stuff coming out this week, stuff I'm really excited for.

First, and foremost (perhaps even foremost of any comic being released this year) is the grand finale of one of the greatest comic stories of all time- Planetary. The long awaited issue #27 of the Warren Ellis penned and John Cassaday illustrated series comes out this week and I'm really, really excited. If you haven't already checked out the preview pages Jon posted about earlier in the week, well, you should. They're pretty fantastic, as is the rest of the series.

And that's just the start of the barrage of the comics on the imprint front this week. From Vertigo we get the second issue of Jeff Lemire's fantastic Sweet Tooth and the Bill Willingham penned Fables novel Peter and Max (although I'm hoping to win a copy through this contest over at Graphic Content). What's really exciting me this week, though, is an imprint release from Icon: Criminal: The Sinners #1. The dynamic duo of Ed Brubaker (who, lets be honest, turns whatever he touches into gold) and Sean Phillips (who, aside from David Aja, might be my favorite illustrator in all of comics) proved themselves once again with the conclusion to Incognito, and I'm ready to return to the tale of Tracy Lawless- and this one sounds like a killer. Brubaker's crime stories are the best in all of comics, which is why I was sad to see him leave Daredevil...

But the new writer, Andy Diggle, seems to be planning some cool stuff- after buying the Daredevil Dark Reign one-shot, I'm convinced that Matt's life is about to get really difficult- and that makes for great Daredevil comics, so I'm pumped for #501 to come out this week. I'm also pumped for the X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas mini to get started- although I was disappointed by the last issue of the AoA ongoing a couple of weeks ago, I think the manic energy that Jeff Parker brings to his work is perfect for a short series like this and I'm curious to see which X-Men he's going to use (hopefully Nightcrawler is going to be one of them; the blue elf has been criminally underused by Matt Fraction in Uncanny). Strange Tales #2 comes out this week too, as does the new issue of The Torch, but I'm not sure if I'll be picking up the latter- I think I might trade-wait it. As for the former, well, I think Jon and I are going to take another shot at reviewing it jointly and seeing what happens. And then, of course, add Batman and Robin #5 to the list and, well, I've got a huge week to make up for last week's tiny little one.

It's going to be a good Wednesday.

Jon's Looking Forward to... Wednesday 9/23/2oo9

(The standard Spideys:)

"the Amazing Spider-Man" #606

"New Avengers" #57
Bendis has, as usual, left us with quite a cliffhanger from last issue. Spidey, the new Cap, Luke Cage and pals are temporarily without their powers and staring down an army of supervillains while Norman Osborn is dealing with a power-play from the relative unknown Dr. Jonas Harrow. Where in the hell is this going and is it going to be wrapped up in this issue like I think it is?

(In the take-a-peeks:)

"Dark X-Men: The Confession"
It looks emotionally brutal. I read Clare's copy of "Exodus" and I was impressed. Made me wish I had read the entire crossover.

"Ms. Marvel" #45
My curiosity will get the better of me it will. If you've read my review of issue #43, you know I'm not crazy about this book. Maybe the final part of "War of the Marvels" will convince me otherwise... Maybe Spidey will appear.

"Superman: Secret Origin" #1
Oo! Oo! Hunh! Geoff Johns! Gary Frank! The Origin of Superman! Cool!

(A cautionary tale:)

DC Comics Classics Library: "Batman: A Death in the Family" hardcover
This was one of the stories that made me a comic-book reader. If this collected edition is nice enough... I don't know. Might be tempting. But in light of my recent editorial about comics collections, well, I think you know how I feel about hardcover comics collections. So to that point: What the deuce is "A Lonely Place of Dying" and what is it doing in a collection titled "A Death in the Family"? I've got a bad feeling they're attempting to squeeze-in the creation of the third Robin to give a more up-beat ending to the death of the second Robin. That's TWO incomplete stories instead of ONE complete one. Nobody listens to me.

UPDATE
Yeah, quick Amazon.com research corroborates my theory. Sheesh!

Well, other than that hardcover, check back in a few days to see what I review!