REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 8 April 2007

"JLB" <barnett.TakeThisOut@shentel.net> wrote in message
news:1176309753.654877.48760@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On Apr 11, 12:25 pm, "Andrew Walsh" <wal....TakeThisOut@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
> > On Apr 9, 2:06 am, "Bern" <b....TakeThisOut@nothing.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > > OMEGA FLIGHT #1 (of 5) - Alpha to Omega, part 1 of 5
> > > > by Michael Avon Oeming and Scott Kolins
> > > > The big problem with Alpha Flight has always been the fact that it's
a
> > > > weak premise. Some of the characters are rather interesting, but
most
> > > > of them are dead. Remove those characters, and you're left with the
> > > > concept of the Alpha Flight team itself - which is no more than
"They're
> > > > Canadian." In the past, writers have tried to make something out of
the
> > > > fact that they were a government sponsored team, but Civil War has
> > > > actually removed that as a viable distinguishing feature.
> >
> > > I believe the only way for Alpha Flight to work is to have Wolverine
on the
> > > team. Of course he'd have to leave the Avengers or the X-Men because
you can
> > > stretch him only so far. Then again he's already way pas that point...
I
> > > guess he could also be a part-time member on any of those teams. He's
often
> > > just there in the background in a given story, not really being
used... Why
> > > have him appear at all if he's not going to do anything?
> >
> > Putting aside the question of whether or not he is needed (or whether
> > he could leave the X-Men whilst in space with them), this also raises
> > the question of what Wolverine's status actually is with respect to
> > the US government and SHIELD. On the one hand, I thought they said
> > that he and all mutants were registered already thanks to M-Day and
> > the 198 situation. On the other hand, he is apparently still running
> > around with the outlaw Avengers. And none of the mutants appear to be
> > required to participate in the activities with which all other
> > registered heroes apparently must be involved. All of this makes me
> > confused about his status; can anyone enlighten me?
> >
> > And yes, I realize that asking such a question presupposes that there
> > is a rational and consistent explanation for the postbellum Marvel
> > Universe; humor me.
> >
> > -Andy- Hide quoted text -
> >
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> My guess? They're considered an endangered species and any putting
> them in blatent danger is frowned upon.

Best explanation yet. Beats my own 'affirmative action' theories into the
ground for sure.

- Nathan P. Mahney -
http://www.thecomicnerd.com
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 8 April 2007 

"Aaron Forever" <foreveraaron012177.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:1176410789.496208.256820@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

> On Apr 9, 10:45 am, Dan McEwen <ferro....RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Alpha Flight did just fine for about 10 years without Wolverine.
>> They don't need him.

> That was a long time ago, when books at the lower end of the chart
> back then sold the kind of books at the higher end of the chart sell
> today.

What's funny is that the lower tier books of those days we're often a
better read than many of the higher tier books of today.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 8 April 2007 

Dan McEwen wrote:

>"Aaron Forever" <foreveraaron012177 DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote in
>news:1176410789.496208.256820@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>
>
>
>>On Apr 9, 10:45 am, Dan McEwen <ferro... DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>>Alpha Flight did just fine for about 10 years without Wolverine.
>>>They don't need him.
>>>
>>>
>
>
>
>>That was a long time ago, when books at the lower end of the chart
>>back then sold the kind of books at the higher end of the chart sell
>>today.
>>
>>
>
>What's funny is that the lower tier books of those days we're often a
>better read than many of the higher tier books of today.
>
>

Isn't that almost universally true of todays books too?

Fallen.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 8 April 2007 

Fallen <fallen.DeleteThis@ntlworld.com> wrote in
news:TJBTh.256$Jv3.19@newsfe6-win.ntli.net:

> Dan McEwen wrote:

>>What's funny is that the lower tier books of those days we're often a
>>better read than many of the higher tier books of today.

> Isn't that almost universally true of todays books too?

That today's lower tier books are better than today's higher tier books?
I suppose so. New Avengesr is a higher tier book but it's not actually
a good book. Actually, I'm getting more interested in Wildstorm, but
I'm a little sad they've dropped The Boys due to content. (Fortunately,
Dynamite is picking it up.)
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 8 April 2007 

Dan McEwen wrote:

>Fallen <fallen.RemoveThis@ntlworld.com> wrote in
>news:TJBTh.256$Jv3.19@newsfe6-win.ntli.net:
>
>
>
>>Dan McEwen wrote:
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>>What's funny is that the lower tier books of those days we're often a
>>>better read than many of the higher tier books of today.
>>>
>>>
>
>
>
>>Isn't that almost universally true of todays books too?
>>
>>
>
>That today's lower tier books are better than today's higher tier books?
> I suppose so. New Avengesr is a higher tier book but it's not actually
>a good book. Actually, I'm getting more interested in Wildstorm, but
>I'm a little sad they've dropped The Boys due to content. (Fortunately,
>Dynamite is picking it up.)
>
>

Almost every book I consider 'good' in the sense that it's well written,
shows at least a passing courtesy with continuity and existing
characterisation, and doesn't have gratuituous deaths or cheesecake
manages to die a swift death, or at best putter along at the bottom end
of about 20-30k sales.

Everything I consider utter shite that exists purely to cram existing
characters into absurd situations where they act like utter morons and
fight each other or die ridiculous deaths breaks 100k without a sweat.

Fallen.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 8 April 2007 

Paul O'Brien wrote:

> THE X-AXIS
> 8 April 2007
> ============
>
> For more links, cover art, archived reviews, and information on the
> X-Axis mailing list, visit http://www.thexaxis.com
>
> ------------
>
> This week:
>
> FALLEN SON: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA - WOLVERINE
> "Denial"
> by Jeph Loeb and Leinil Francis Yu
>
> AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #1 - "Happy Accidents"
> by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli
>
> OMEGA FLIGHT #1 (of 5) - Alpha to Omega, part 1 of 5
> by Michael Avon Oeming and Scott Kolins
>
> ------------
>
> In Marvel's weekly Q&A over at Newsarama, somebody asked why it was
> that the scheduling of the X-books, and the similar families, is so
> haphazard. The official answer, given by David Gabriel, was to the
> effect that Marvel put hours of effort into planning the schedule for
> each month.
>
> "Great consideration is put into shifting Spider-Man titles so they
> are not all in one week," he explained, "and the same goes for
> X-titles, Ultimate books, Marvel Adventure titles and now Ultimate
> books. Keep in mind that this is all done 3-4 months prior to the on
> sale week. Then life takes over, books shift around for one reason or
> another, even by a week or two within a month, and by the time the on
> sale date is up, the books have often shifted in the schedule beyond
> anyone's control."
>
> Uh-huh. Marvel solicited thirteen X-books for May, with six in one
> week, and none in another. You're telling me that's because of
> last-minute rescheduling? Before the solicitations came out? To that
> extent? I have some trouble with that explanation.
>
> To be fair, June is a lot more balanced, so perhaps somebody's finally
> taking this in hand. But the scheduling has been an utter mess for
> months now, and you can't blame it entirely on delays.
>
> This, for example, is another very quiet week. The only X-books are
> New Excalibur #18, and FALLEN SON: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA -
> WOLVERINE, the first part of Jeph Loeb's five-part miniseries in which
> various characters react to the death of Captain America.
>
> Jeph Loeb was one of DC's big name writers. Understandably, his jump
> to Marvel was greeted with some fanfare. I wasn't reading any of his
> DC work, but I do recall it getting a decent reaction. His Marvel
> output, thus far, has been distinctly underwhelming. Wolverine has not
> impressed. Onslaught Reborn is outrageously horrible.
>
> Fallen Son isn't great either, but to be fair to Loeb, the basic
> premise of this series is credited to J Michael Straczynski. And the
> premise is a far bigger problem than anything to do with the
> execution. The high concept is that each issue represents one of the
> so-called five stages of grief - so issue #1 is denial, issue #2 is
> anger, issue #3 is bargaining, issue #4 is depression and issue #5 is
> acceptance. I've certainly heard worse ideas.
>
> But the decision to base each story on a different character strikes
> me as a mistake. For this structure to work, surely it needs to
> follow the psychological process. In other words, there needs to be
> some sense of progression. If you're going to have a different
> character representing each stage then you're not showing anyone's
> progression - you're just doing a gimmick based on some overfamiliar
> pop psychology.
>
> In fact, it doesn't feel like a story at all. The distinct impression
> given is that Marvel came up with this structure, thought it was
> incredibly clever, and only worried later on about the actual content.
> To pull off something like this requires a writer with a sure touch
> for complex emotion. I can just about imagine it working with
> Straczynski. But Loeb is principally a writer of big, sweeping epics.
> This sort of story isn't his strength.
>
> The most fundamental problem, of course, is that nobody really
> believes that Captain America is dead. Marvel can insist that he's
> dead until they're blue in the face, but nobody will believe them. In
> 2012, if the Winter Soldier is firmly established as the new Captain
> America, and the Captain America movie has come and gone and Steve is
> still dead, then maybe people will start to say "Hey, he really isn't
> coming back." I'm actually more open-minded about this than most. I
> think there's, ooh, about a 5 to 10% chance of that happening. I'd
> actually like to see that story. But I certainly wouldn't put money on
> it.
>
> In Captain America itself, this isn't a problem. Even though we don't
> believe Cap is dead, his supporting cast do, and that's good enough
> for the story's purposes. But when you start wheeling out characters
> like Wolverine, who have very little connection with Captain America,
> you're really just making a declaration that the death of Captain
> America is an event - an event so big that it deserves a five-issue
> tie-in miniseries to remind us of how big it is.
>
> The more you present it as an event, the more it looks like a stunt,
> and the less it looks a story. I don't believe Cap's dead and
> bluntly, I couldn't care less what Wolverine thinks about the
> subject. And after reading the story, I still can't work out why I'm
> supposed to care what Wolverine thinks about it.
>
> If this story serves any purpose, it's to stick Wolverine in front of
> the corpse so that he can verify it as dead. But he did that back
> in the mid-1990s when they killed of Nick Fury, in a similar spirit of
> "No, honestly, he's really dead - look, Wolverine's checked the body."
> Having been fooled by a SHIELD substitute once before, you'd think
> Wolverine would be less easily persuaded this time round. I don't
> blame Loeb for not mentioning that - even if he knows about it,
> there's no possible upside in undermining the story by drawing it to
> people's attention. But really, you could publish an entire issue
> consisting entirely of trustworthy characters examining the body in
> detail and proclaiming it definitively dead, and still nobody would
> believe it. That's just comics for you.
>
> A story that asks us to believe, as a starting point, that Captain
> America is really dead and that it's a huge event deserving of
> commemoration, is a story that faces a huge uphill struggle. That's
> essentially what Loeb confronts here, and while I can't really fault
> anything in particular about his approach to it, I'm not at all
> persuaded that it's an achievable task. It's not a bad comic, just an
> unconvincing one - and it does have some beautiful artwork for Leinil
> Francis Yu to liven up the proceedings. That's the main thing that
> raises the book out of the doldrums. Sketchy as his art is, his
> layouts have a lot of power and grace to them.
>
> Ultimately, though, it's a story about a character chosen for his star
> power rather than his relevance, reacting to an event that I simply
> don't believe in. It doesn't work for me.
>
> Rating: B-


How come nobody noticed that Wolverine is starring in two high profile
books at the same time and both of them involve him thinking Cap might
be alive and walking away at the end of them knowing he isn't?

Reminds me of the multiple 'timeout' chats that Iron Man and Cap had
during Civil War that each played out like they were the only chat they
could ever have.

Fallen.
 >> Stay informed about: REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 8 April 2007