REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004

In article <RltOxxAMlt3AFwzf.DeleteThis@esoterica.demon.co.uk>, Paul
O'Brien <paul.DeleteThis@SPAMBLOCK.esoterica.demon.co.uk> writes
 >THE X-AXIS
 >27 June 2004
 >============
 >
 >For more links, cover art, archived reviews, and information on the
<font color=purple> >X-Axis mailing list, visit <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.thexaxis.com</font" target="_blank">http://www.thexaxis.com</font</a>>
 >
 > ------------
 >
 >This week:
 >
 >ASTONISHING X-MEN #2 - "Gifted, part 2 of 6"
 > by Joss Whedon, John Cassaday and Laura Martin
 >
 >EXCALIBUR #2 - "Forging the Sword, part 2 of 4"
 > by Chris Claremont, Aaron Lopresti and Greg Adams
 >
 >MYSTIQUE #16 - "Unnatural, part 3 of 5"
 > by Sean McKeever, Manuel Garcia and Jay Leisten
 >
 >WEAPON X #25 - "War of the Programs, conclusion"
 > by Frank Tieri, Tom Mandrake and Brad Anderson
 >
 >THE WITCHING #1 - "Fly Me To The Moon"
 > by Jonathan Vankin, Leigh Gallagher and Ron Randall
 >
 > ------------
 >
 >We're now into the second month of Reload, and the newer books are
 >beginning to hit their stride.
 >
 >ASTONISHING X-MEN
 >Emma possibly veers a bit
 >too far in the direction of villainous ambivolence rather than mere
 >arrogance - after all, Emma hasn't actually done anything all that bad
 >in over a decade. Still, there's mileage in the idea that she's
 >conscious of not being cut out for the role.

Didn't she kill her sister along the way? Needed doing, I
suppose.

I don't think her attitude has changed much, except when she was
elevated from generic evil sexy telepath to schoolmistress of the
Hellions, and again, a little, when she found out they were all
dead. After the traumatic experience of Genosha, I think she even
regressed, specifically to moulding her students into what she
wanted them to be instead of what they ought to be - the Stepford
Cuckoos, insect-Angel, and now a Hellions team at Xavier's.

As for falling in love with Scott Summers... I'm not sure how that
even works. I suppose if she's never spent time close to anyone
like him, she could be smitten. It's like Moonstone and Hawkeye -
and I want to see how /that/ ends up. But for Emma Frost to let
her guard down so far as to admit real emotional needs of her
own, to anyone at all, seems out of character. And if she /isn't/
doing that, then she's /pretending/ to let her guard down, so she
can mess with Cyclops's head as well. Which I suppose would fit
with my idea of her regressing to the Hellfire Club bitch stage of
her life, but it won't be nice to watch.

And that's a decade of publishing, I suppose, not in-comics time.

 >Granted, there's nothing desperately new or innovative being added to
 >the mythos here. We have a new villain, but thus far he's not doing
 >anything particularly novel. The idea of wiping out mutant powers as a
 >medical cure has been flirted with before. Plus, there seems to be a
 >glaring plot hole - Ord was apparently trying to draw out the X-Men, but
 >why would he expect them to turn up in response to a kidnapping which
 >has nothing to do with them? The story makes some play of the fact that
 >Cyclops is taking the team on this mission precisely because it's not
 >the sort of thing they normally do, and he's trying to reposition them
 >as heroes in the public eye. So either Ord knows something we don't,
 >which is possible, or Ord has just fluked his way into success with a
 >wildly optimistic plan.

Here's a theory: that Tildie's nightmare-power hasn't been
removed after all, and Ord is one of her nightmares come to life.
Then for the story to operate with dream-logic starts to make
sense?

 >EXCALIBUR #2
 >Xavier was apparently not surprised to see Magneto alive in
 >Genosha. It seems they were expecting to meet up. That
 >means there was
 >communication. If there was communication, why doesn't Magneto know
 >about the death of Jean Grey and "his" attack on New York? If he can
 >contact the outside world, wouldn't he have noticed this sort of thing?
 >If he can't contact the outside world, how did Xavier contact him? And
 >even then, why didn't Xavier tell him?

I presume Charles contacted Magneto telepathically, and hasn't
Xavier been keeping quiet about things that people around him
would like to know for his entire career? Like Muir Isle, and David
Haller?

For that matter, Charles may have only decided that this is the real
Magneto and Xorn wasn't, /after/ they met at the end of #1. Maybe
during this conversation, Charles is testing Magneto.

 >WEAPON X
 >(what did
 >Wolverine see in the Weapon Plus files?)

I missed that. Save me some money. What /did/ Wolverine see in
the Weapon Plus files?

 >QUEEN & COUNTRY #25 - Hey, a single-issue story. Queen & Country
 >doesn't do many of those. Tara goes off to Switzerland to catch up with
 >her estranged mother, who's about to get married to somebody half her
 >age. Meanwhile, there's some reshuffling going on back at the office.
 >A good character piece, with strong art by Steve Rolston. Besides, it
 >makes a nice change to get the character away from work for once. A-
 >http://www.onipress.com
 >http://www.gregrucka.com
 >http://www.steverolston.com

If you took French /and/ German in school, it's a good-ish read.
And there's quite a lot of sex. A /whole/ lot of sex.

Robert Carnegie at home, rja.carnegie.DeleteThis@excite.com at large
--
I am fully aware I may regret this in the morning.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

"Christian Smith" <christian DeleteThis @jasdigital.com> wrote in message
news:3fk0e09t88q88nvl9cukijuj2nboh0tueh@4ax.com...
 > On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 17:54:58 +0200,"Marc-Oliver Frisch"
 > <Derschwarm DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote
 >
  > >Looking back, though, I have to admit it's not as bad as I remembered. He
did
  > >acknowledge the Archangel/ Psylocke relationship or include Cecilia Reyes
(even
  > >if he stubbornly insisted on misspelling her first name), for example.
 >
 > Is that why for some reason my mind reads her name as Celia Reyes?
 >
 > Actually, thinking about it, why the hell didn't they get her to work
 > at the X-mansion as a Doctor instead of just having Nurse Annie?
 >
She was last seen in Neverland - which is a place that seems to have the
mutant power to make everyone forget about the people who go into it.

D.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

"Marc-Oliver Frisch" <Derschwarm DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2kbqfvFi624U3@uni-berlin.de...
 > :
 > : Is that why for some reason my mind reads her name as Celia Reyes?
 >
 > He spelled her name "Cecelia," if I remember correctly. You'd think the
editor
 > would catch that sort of thing.
 >
 > Then again, of course, Claremont couldn't even make his mind up on whether
 > Thunderbird, his own creation, was called "Shaara" or "Sharra," referred to
 > Gambit as "Remy Boudreaux" and called Legion "Daniel Haller," and no one
caught
 > these, either.
 >
It really should be the editor's job to catch these, and how can you be sure
it wasn't a letterer's error?

D.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

In article <2kbqfuFi624U1.RemoveThis@uni-berlin.de>, Derschwarm.RemoveThis@hotmail.com says...
 >
 >
 >Carl Henderson wrote:
 >
 >: I'm not joking. I enjoy the man's work. I thought most of X-TREME
 >: X-MEN was
 >: first rate (save for the chopped-up BDSM flavored Storm graphic
 >: novel that
 >: got inserted there towards the end). I'm very impressed with his
 >: first two
 >: issues of UNCANNY, and I thought his FANTASTIC FOUR was one of the
 >: best
 >: takes on the characters in years.
 >
 >I agree on FANTASTIC FOUR, actually; that was fun.
 >
 >In 95% of Claremont's X-Men work after 1986 or so, though, I detect
 >far too many
 >flaws to still count him as a great writer-- and even the five
 >percent that are
 >good are far from being on such a level that I would consider him
 >one of the
 >best writers in the field today.
 >
 >Mostly, to be frank, Claremont's work nowadays just reads like he's
 >content with
 >pandering to people who liked his work in 1980, and just tries to
 >hit as many of
 >the right buttons for that crowd as he can manage.
 >
 >Which doesn't work at all for me, unfortunately. Not that I don't
 >like the 1980
 >stuff, but it's 2004 now. The kind of writer I'm interested in are
 >the ones who
 >are constantly looking to refine and reinvent their craft, and take
 >on new
 >challenges.

I hear Bush is working on a english lit. book. I'm sure
you'll be first in line to buy it.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

"Donnacha DeLong" <donnacha.DeleteThis@NOSPAMsortedmagazine.com> wrote in
news:40e3bc4b_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com:
> "Marc-Oliver Frisch" <Derschwarm.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:2kbqfvFi624U3@uni-berlin.de...

>> Then again, of course, Claremont couldn't even make his mind up on
>> whether Thunderbird, his own creation, was called "Shaara" or
>> "Sharra," referred to Gambit as "Remy Boudreaux" and called Legion
>> "Daniel Haller," and no one
> caught
>> these, either.
>>
> It really should be the editor's job to catch these, and how can you
> be sure it wasn't a letterer's error?

One would think so, by title. But as several other threads have
shown, editors at Marvel are really more sales and PR guys, with a
bit of middle management thrown in. No time for actual editing or
checking or story cohesion, as their job is primarily to sell books
and make sure books get done, not to personally confirm the quality.

Maybe Marvel should start hiring guys to do that kind of stuff.
They can call them .. uhm... Continuity Consultants, since "editor"
is already taken. :p Or Quality Assurance, since everyone knows what
a QA guy is.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

Billy Bissette <baines.TakeThisOut@coastalnet.com> wrote in message news:<Xns95199797F6BCCwhacholookinat.TakeThisOut@207.69.154.204>...
> "Donnacha DeLong" <donnacha.TakeThisOut@NOSPAMsortedmagazine.com> wrote in
> news:40e3bc4b_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com:
> > "Marc-Oliver Frisch" <Derschwarm.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:2kbqfvFi624U3@uni-berlin.de...
>
> >> Then again, of course, Claremont couldn't even make his mind up on
> >> whether Thunderbird, his own creation, was called "Shaara" or
> >> "Sharra," referred to Gambit as "Remy Boudreaux" and called Legion
> >> "Daniel Haller," and no one
> caught
> >> these, either.
> >>
> > It really should be the editor's job to catch these, and how can you
> > be sure it wasn't a letterer's error?
>
> One would think so, by title. But as several other threads have
> shown, editors at Marvel are really more sales and PR guys, with a
> bit of middle management thrown in. No time for actual editing or
> checking or story cohesion, as their job is primarily to sell books
> and make sure books get done, not to personally confirm the quality.

Still better than pre-Quesada when it seemed the Editors were too
hands on and dictated storyline and had a firm hand in directing the
line.
I would expect the editing of the sort being discussed here would fall
to the Assistant Editor or someone in the bullpen in most
cases...though I am sure there are editors that are still very hands
on with the titles that carry their names as editor.
Editor is a catch all job title. It doesnt say much about what you
actually do and is applied to people who do vastly differing jobs.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

"Billy Bissette" <baines.DeleteThis@coastalnet.com> wrote in message
news:Xns95199797F6BCCwhacholookinat@207.69.154.204...
> "Donnacha DeLong" <donnacha.DeleteThis@NOSPAMsortedmagazine.com> wrote in
> news:40e3bc4b_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com:
> > "Marc-Oliver Frisch" <Derschwarm.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:2kbqfvFi624U3@uni-berlin.de...
>
> One would think so, by title. But as several other threads have
> shown, editors at Marvel are really more sales and PR guys, with a
> bit of middle management thrown in. No time for actual editing or
> checking or story cohesion, as their job is primarily to sell books
> and make sure books get done, not to personally confirm the quality.
>
> Maybe Marvel should start hiring guys to do that kind of stuff.
> They can call them .. uhm... Continuity Consultants, since "editor"
> is already taken. :p Or Quality Assurance, since everyone knows what
> a QA guy is.
>
Subeditor would work fine, seeing as that's what subs normally do (check
consistency and correct errors - and, in some cases that would benefit
adjectiveless - completely rewrite stories when the source is nonsense).

D.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

"Marc-Oliver Frisch" <Derschwarm.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2kj136F2ufd8U3@uni-berlin.de...
> Chris Lee wrote:
>
> : I hear Bush is working on a english lit. book. I'm sure
> : you'll be first in line to buy it.
>
> I'm not sure if I'd buy it, but it sure strikes me as a more interesting
> prospect than Chris Claremont's poor attempts to do cover versions of his
older
> stuff in his five-thousand-and-eighty-seventh issue of X-Men.
>
> Besides, I'm very much in favor of George W. Bush finding his true calling
in
> life.
>
Leming imitation.

D.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

In rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks Carl Henderson <jch-usenet-2004 RemoveThis @carlhenderson.net> wrote:

: > But how was Magneto disrespected by going on one of his greatest
: > rampages ever?

: Because Magneto had grown beyond being a simplistic "EVIL for EVILs sake"
: supervillian. Because his actions in "Planet X" were inconsistant with what

That was a long time ago, and he'd regressed on several occasions since
then, too.

: been under the control of Sublime.) Because his "greatest rampage ever" was
: fundamentally stupid (even by super-villian standards) and not likely to
: accomplish much of anything.

Stupid, or angry? Magneto was visiting wrath upon the world, and trying
to literally invert it.

: And finally, because the "Planet X" Magneto got killed by a guy with _metal_
: claws.

Wolverine's tried many times before; this time it worked.

: > You'd think Byrne at least would approve, but maybe
: > Morrison touches everybody's "patriarchal authority" button.

: I'm not clear on what you mean here.

Byrne views Magneto as a villain, with no shades of gray. Morrison
undermines the patriarch in whatever comic he writes. Charles is
impotent, Niles Caulder is an evil pupeteer of fate, King Mob is a
student of powerful women, not in any way their leader, Wonder Woman
saves the day in the JLA, etc.

: > Morrison
: > always lampoons or overturns the big daddies, but I suppose more
: > conventional writers actually depend on such stereotypes.

: I'm really confused now. Are you saying that by reverting Magneto to the
: most cardboard of super-villian sterotypes, Morrison was overturning a
: sterotype?

This Magneto wasn't cardboard in any way. He was all flesh and blood;
oozing, sweating, bleeding, petulant, vengeful, hurting, vulnerable,
fugitive and angry flesh. He was a walking wound, just like the young
student who staged the riot at the mansion, but Old. The stereotype
Morrison was overturning was Erik's pretensions to authority; he was old,
outmoded, increasingly desperate, reduced at the end to dirty tricks.

: So what? Does that mean that a creator's work should not be treated with
: respect? The fact that Claremont's X-Men aren't creator-owned, means that
: Marvel doesn't _have_ to treat his work and characterizations with respect.
: I doesn't mean they can't do so.

Hiring one of the best writers of recent years and giving him a
relatively free playing field for as long as he'll stay is a sign of deep
respect.

: >: To be fair, when Morrison was outselling Claremont two to one,
: >: Morrison was on the flagship book (NEW X-MEN) with Phil Jimenez, and
: >: Claremont was on X- TREME X-MEN with Igor Korday (who while a very
: >: good artist, isn't a good superhero artist).

: > Morrison actually had musical artists (including Kordey). CC had
: > Larocca for most of his run. The art wasn't the major seller for either
: > title.

: Irrelevant. Paul was comparing X-MEN to X-TREME X-MEN sales for a particular
: point in time. And at that time, the art situation was as I described above.
: Furthermore, the fact remains that Morrison was on one of the two "core" X-
: books, while Claremont was on X-TREME. Note that UNCANNY also outsold X-
: TREME; is that because Austen was the better writer?

Austen's sales were dropping, it just took longer for the backlash to
seep in. Interest in CC's non-flagship title was dropping even faster.

Shawn
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

Shawn H <shill#@fas.harvard.edu> wrote in
news:ccf6hm$m9f$1@us23.unix.fas.harvard.edu:
 >
 > Stupid, or angry? Magneto was visiting wrath upon the world, and
 > trying to literally invert it.

Though the funny thing is, reversing the Earth's magnetic field is
a natural occurance. And is currently already on the path to a very
long overdue reversal, but that won't happen for quite some time yet.
Magneto would just be speeding up a natural process, and at the same
time would reduce the bad effects of the slow shifting process. :p

(Geological studies and computer simulations reveal that the Earth's
magnetic field reverses roughly every 200,000 years, but it has been
some 700,000 years since the last reversal. Preceeding a flip, the
overall magnetic field of the Earth weakens as increasing pocket areas
of reversed flow counter the surrounding "normal" areas. And there is
at least evidence that that has been happening for the last hundred or
so years through naval records. The known "bad" effects come not from
the flip itself, but the rather long time spent with the nearly negated
magnetic field, both preceeding the flip and during the post-flip
recovery. Not only does the earth have a weakened protection from
solar radiation, but some areas would actually be receiving concentrated
doses shed from sections which still have a more effective local field.)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

Robert Carnegie wrote:
  >>EXCALIBUR #2

 > For that matter, Charles may have only decided that this is the real
 > Magneto and Xorn wasn't, /after/ they met at the end of #1. Maybe
 > during this conversation, Charles is testing Magneto.

And it was a long time, wasn't it? It seemed that a lot of time had progressed during this
comic, like maybe through a meal or something.
--
"... respect, all good works are not done by only good folk ..."
-till next time, Jameson Stalanthas Yu -x- <<poetry.dolphins-cove.com>>
consul RemoveThis @INVALIDdolphins-cove.com ((remove the INVALID to email))<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

In rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks Janus <janusredway.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote:
: Paul O'Brien <paul.RemoveThis@SPAMBLOCK.esoterica.demon.co.uk> wrote in
: news:jtBCzaCC9F4AFwMu@esoterica.demon.co.uk:

: > Austen has said that HE was mandated to do it. I don't believe
: > Claremont has made any similar claims, and an editorial mandate, in this
: > case, could very well mean "Chuck, Chris has come up with this story
: > idea. Play along."
: >
: >

: Why would Austen have to play along with anything? The events of Excalibur
: don't necessitate the Return of Xorn. I'd think it would be best not to
: intimate this mandate is the fault of Claremont.

I think it's more of a deduction than an intimation. Of course there's an
even simpler explanation. Why is Austen using Morrison and mucking it up?
Because he's bereft of better ideas of his own, and is a hack. He can do
no better.

Shawn
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004 

Twihlite <twihlite.TakeThisOut@aol.com> wrote:
: >
: >Actually, thinking about it, why the hell didn't they get her to work
: >at the X-mansion as a Doctor instead of just having Nurse Annie?
: >

: Probably because Annie is human, and they couldn't do an arc around Cecilia
: being uncomfortable around mutants since she happens to be one.

Well, wasn't Cecilia rather unhappy with her newfound social peers?

: And Annie is loco, while Cecelia is not (at least when she's not in a bad story
: about drug addiction any way).

Yeah, that's true.

Shawn
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 27 June 2004