REVIEWS: The X-Axis - 6 January 2008

THE X-AXIS
6 January 2008
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This week:

EXILES: DAYS OF THEN AND NOW
by Mike Raicht and various artists

ULTIMATE HUMAN #1
by Warren Ellis and Cary Nord


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EXILES #100 wasn't an anniversary issue, so much as a transition story
leading into the upcoming relaunch. But in this day and age, it's
unusual for a new title to make it all the way to issue #100, and so
somebody at Marvel has decided to commission a proper tribute.

That would be Exiles: Days of Then and Now. It's a strange-looking
project. It's written by Mike Raicht, the book's original editor, who
went freelance a while back. As for the art, it's a jam issue,
featuring creators who have nothing much to do with Exiles. The credits
list a total of seventeen contributors to this book - and that's after
they forgot to mention the letterer.

Rather than writing about the Exiles themselves, Raicht has produced a
story which is loosely about the effect they had on the worlds left
behind. Starting out in a reality where the Hulk hijacked the
Annihilation Wave and conquered the world, Kid Omega from New X-Men sets
off in search of the Exiles, hoping that they'll liberate his world. He
ends up jumping between realities which the team have visited before and
meeting some of the locals.

This is quite a neat idea for an anniversary book. The Exiles
themselves barely appear, but they're a presence in virtually every
scene. It allows Raicht to focus on the earlier versions of the Exiles
instead of being tied down to Claremont's recently-revamped line-up.
And it lets us check in to see how these worlds ended up - some better
than others.

Oh, and obviously, the episodic format is convenient for a jam issue.
The art style varies wildly, from Carlos Ferreira's relatively polished
framing sequence, through to Paul Azaceta's pages, which look like they
belong in a Vertigo book. Some of the segments are a bit rough around
the edges, to be honest, but they all get the job done well enough.

Sticking out like a sore thumb is a segment with Spitfire, from a world
apparently based on Warren Ellis's newuniversal. This doesn't seem to
have anything much to do with Exiles, and it comes across as a loss of
focus. And when you stop to think about it, the ending is also a bit
doubtful; Quire is joined by some of the heroes he meets along the way,
but it's hard to imagine this bunch of D-listers making that much
difference.

Still, I kind of liked this issue. It's intended primarily as a look
back over the series, and for the most part it works well on that level.
It gives the first hundred issues a little bit of closure, and it makes
good use of the parallel-worlds gimmick to have fun with the Marvel
Universe characters.

Taken on its own terms, this is perfectly fine.

Rating: B+

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ULTIMATE HUMAN is the latest in the seemingly endless stream of Ultimate
Universe spin-off miniseries. This time, it's Warren Ellis and Cary
Nord telling a story about Iron Man and the Hulk.

Now, this is not a particularly major release by any stretch of the
imagination. As I've mentioned before, the Ultimate imprint is in the
doldrums. I haven't seen a great deal of advance promotion for this
book. And the recent Ultimate miniseries have been a forgettable bunch.
But it's a quiet week, and Warren Ellis is taking over Astonishing X-Men
in the course of the year, so what the heck.

There's actually a solid concept in here. Iron Man and the Hulk
represent two different approaches to "improving" on humanity. Iron Man
is the technologically enhanced man, with sleek little gadgets and so
forth. The Hulk is an attempt to mess about with DNA, and although he's
gone horribly wrong in terms of the desired result, he's still pretty
impressive in his own way. Banner wants Iron Man to cure him, but as
you'd expect, they're being manipulated by a villain, and it's all going
to go horribly wrong.

The upgrading of human beings has been a pet theme of Ellis' for a while
now. It was the focal point of his revamp of Iron Man, and it's natural
that he would home in on it here.

However, at the same time, you couldn't say this was a serious attempt
to get into the subject. It's just a pet theme on which Ellis has
chosen to hang a relatively straightforward story. I recall Ellis, a
few years ago, sarcastically observing that people complained when The
Authority paused long enough to explain the plot. And in that series,
the plot was indeed kept to the bare minimum of context necessary to
make the action sequences cool.

This story works on similar lines. The plot is remarkably minimal.
Bruce Banner walks into Tony's office one day and suggests that they try
to cure him, so they do. A villain crops up for a few pages of
exposition in the middle, but basically, that's the entire story. Bruce
shows up, says "Let's do this," and then they spend the rest of the
issue trying to do it. The whole thing is done in three-panel pages
(except for the bad guy, who gets a six-panel grid).

A story like that stands and falls on the details. And indeed, they're
pretty good. Ellis has always had a nice turn of phrase. Although he
has a tendency to slip into writing stock personas, he doesn't do so
here, perhaps because he's working with Mark Millar's versions of Hulk
and Iron Man. Not that he's very interested in any of their quirks,
mind you - frankly, he's writing a story that feels like it was designed
for the mainstream Marvel Universe characters. But at least they've got
strong established voices that he has to give lip service to.

Cary Nord's art is expressive and makes good use of the space. His
Banner is suitably downtrodden without becoming the figure of ridicule
that he tended to end up as in Ultimates. Colourist Dave Stewart also
does an excellent job, managing to be subdued and somewhat atmospheric
without falling into the trap of becoming murky. These guys really
deserve to be working on a higher-profile book.

It's a very simple and straightforward comic, but what it does, it does
very well. A better issue than I was expecting.

Rating: A-

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Also this week...

DAN DARE #2 - This is Garth Ennis at his most restrained, but that often
works to his advantage. There's a nice balance here between Dan Dare as
a traditional, straightforward hero returning to save the day, and a
gentle background acknowledgement that, yes, perhaps he's just an
anachronism. To be honest, the Treens don't quite fit into the visual
style of this series; they're a little bit too basic and feel like
they've wandered in from a different series. But that aside, I'm
impressed with the way that Ennis and artist Gary Erskine have made this
rickety old character come together. A

HOWARD THE DUCK #4 - I think this may be a first. A Howard the Duck
story which isn't be Steve Gerber, but which is still genuinely funny,
intelligent and satirical? Expectations are usually understandably low
when someone other than Gerber touches the character. But this
miniseries did live up reasonably well to the character's reputation,
and Juan Bobillo is a great artist for absurd comedy scenes. Howard
himself is perhaps not the best vehicle in 2008, but I'd certainly like
to see the creators do more among these lines in future. A-

UNCANNY X-MEN #494 - "Messiah Complex", part ten of thirteen, so the
end is now in sight. My head says that there's an awful lot of running
around and fighting in this storyline, for a relatively slight plot. It
looks like the pay-off to this storyline is simply going to be the
revelation of who gets to keep the baby, and what its significance is.
And yes, yes, I know, Bishop's timeline was invalidated back in
"Onslaught", so he can't possibly be from "our" future. But despite it
all, I'm still enjoying this. It's light, it's well paced, it's got
direction, and it's got some fun little character moments dotted along
the way. It's entertaining and unpretentious, and it's succeeding at
what it sets out to do. B+

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There's more from me at If Destroyed, and if you're desperate for more
Article 10 columns, you can always hunt through the archives on Ninth
Art.
http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
http://www.ninthart.com

Next week, Wolverine #61 completes the afterlife storyline, and "Messiah
Complex" continues in X-Factor #27. Although next week also sees the
first issues of "Brand New Day", Hulk and The Twelve, so most of the
attention will be elsewhere...


--
Paul O'Brien

THE X-AXIS - http://www.thexaxis.com
IF DESTROYED - http://ifdestroyed.blogspot.com
NINTH ART - http://www.ninthart.com