Selected-X Reviews July 14th, 2004 (SPOILERS)

73rd edition. Happy Bastille Day, to those that celebrate. At any
rate, this week we have a modest week with 5 reviews. Since I'm
running a little late after a long day of work, I'm going to try and
be brief.

This week we've got...

District X #3 - 3.25 Stars
Gotham Central #21 - 3.25 Stars
Guardians #1 - 2.75 Stars
Teen Titans #13 - 3.5 Stars
Ultimate X-Men #49 - 3.75 Stars

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District X #3 - "Mr. M 3 of 6" (Writer: David Hine, Penciler: David
Yardin, Inks: Alejandro "Boy" Sicat)

A gang war is threatening to erupt over Toad Boy, a young mutant
who sweats out a highly addictive (and so, highly profitable) drug.
Meanwhile Ortega and his ex-partner are still worried about the
enquiry into the deaths we saw in issue 1.

While it doesn't have the 'wow, cool' factor of the first two
issues (there are no neat new mutants of note), the title is
continuing to be a solid performer. We get to see some more of
Ortega's daily family life, which is nice, and helps build him
into a likeable character. Despite the lies, he seems to be a
genuinely good guy, trying to do his job.

Mr. M also gets some development, although I'm not sure what to
make of it yet. No longer just an apparent innocent eyewitness
who might complicate matters, he seems to actively seek out
trouble for his own purposes. It's possible he's a vigilante,
which could actually make for a pretty interesting dynamic for
the title. Bishop and Ortega, on the side of the official law
enforcement, with their jobs being complicated by the presence
of a vigilante in the community... I could see some pretty good
stories down the line with that, flipping some traditional
superhero conventions on their head.

Not the best issue of the title, but still pretty good for a
new title.

Review: 3.25 stars

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Gotham Central #21 - "unresolved, part three" (Writer: Ed Brubaker,
Artists: Michael Lark & Stefano Guadiano)

Driver and Josey Mac investigate the leads they got from the Mad
Hatter, but it leaves them less convinced than when they started,
especially after a conversation with Bullock.

The real meat of this arc, and again this issue, has been Bullock.
The best thing here was a conversation between Bullock and his
ex-partner, Montoya. It just felt honest, with mixed emotions
and hurtful words. My only complaint was that I hoped it would
be longer, but perhaps there'll be room for that in the next issue.

I also really enjoyed the conversations with people who knew Tetch
before he became a villain. It just seemed so pleasantly absurd
that people can blithely toss off lines like, "Oh, I know he's the
Mad Hatter now, but he was very nice."

It's also enjoyable that what seemed at first to be a relatively
cut and dried case has become murky again, so I not only don't
know who committed the crime, there's also anticipation built up
for what happens next.

Overall, a good issue.

Review: 3.25 stars

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Guardians #1 - "Reach for the Stars, Part 1 of 5" (Writer: Marc Sumerak,
Artist: Casey Jones)

I bought this one pretty well on impulse. The premise sounded
vaguely interesting when I first heard of it, but not enough that
I wanted to rush out and buy it (I also suspected it wouldn't get
enough orders to survive very long). But, owing in part to it being
a light couple of weeks, comic-wise, I decided to pick up the
first issue and see if it was interesting at all.

It's.. well, it's not bad, but it's yet to draw me. It's got some
potential, but there are some flaws that irritate me.

First of all, this does not seem to take place in the Marvel Universe.
This is neither a plus nor minus to me (unless they try to tell us
later that it _is_ in the MU), but you should be aware of it. In the
Marvel Universe, although the story probably _could_ work, I can't
imagine a psychiatrist telling someone aliens don't exist. Galactus
himself stomped over New York, and some aliens have been members of
superhero teams. As there's no mention of mutants or any other
heros, it's a safe assumption that this is an out of continuity
tale.

The story centers on a group of young kids of indeterminate age
(I couldn't tell from the art or the text). While playing out
in the woods and looking for a crashed meteor, they encounter
an actual alien, and help him, telling him (as was part of their
game while searching for the meteor) that they were the Guardians,
a group of people assigned to protect the Earth. The alien
thanks them, and gives one of them a token of friendship.

Cut to some amount of years later. Nobody bought the kids story
about an alien encounter, and everyone has done their best to
convince them that it was their imaginations. Now, even of the
kids who were there, only one seems to really truly believe that
it was real, and even he's starting to doubt it, mainly because
keeping the faith has really messed up his life.

Of course, it's all real, or it wouldn't be all that good for a
comic (though might still make an interesting story).

There is some good here, especially the idea of how you might
be talked into a memory that you then make your own. All of
the other kids seem to now believe they were making it up.
It's also nice to see exploration how a belief that others
can't accept might isolate you and do damage, even if it's
true.

My first problem with this was the pace. Decompression
may be all the rage, but I really wanted to get a sense
what this title was going to be _about_. That is, how
the discovery that the alien actually _was_ real, and has
returned, affects the kids, and what they do together.
The problem is, we didn't get any of that. In fact, I knew
pretty well how the issue was going to end halfway through.
Decompression breeds a certain predictability to it.

A secondary problem is some of the characterization of the
kids as kids. Playing around at being a Star-Trek like
crew, sure, I have no problem with that. I've done things
like that. If it didn't get me looked at strangely, I'd
probably still do things like that. However, once they
realize they've actually uncovered something real... they
still seem to be playing. Like, finding an alien and a
force field is cool and all, but don't break character,
we're playing!

I think kids have enough sense of wonder that when they
encounter a real unusual phenomenon, they wouldn't turn to
the one of them with a pocket computer and ask them to analyze
it on their imaginary sensors, or tell someone to shoot something
with a 'plasma rifle' that's really a water gun. They'd be too
awed by encountering something real that was better than their
imaginations.

The art reminds me a little of the art in Runaways, but,
although I've grown to like the art in that title, it's
different enough here that it just looks a little too
cartoony for my tastes. Perhaps that will change.

I'll probably wind up giving it one more issue just to see if
the direction of the series is to my liking, but I don't yet
expect to continue beyond that.

Review: 2.75 tars

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Teen Titans #13 - "Beast Boys and Girls, Part One: Concrete Jungle"
(Written by: Geoff Johns, Pencilled by: Tom Grummet,
Inked by: Lary Stucker)

Ignore the dramatic cover, it has very little to do with the issue
inside. Although Superman and the new Robin do meet and come into
some amount of conflict, it's only a few pages and is at best a
subplot (there are also timing issues here... Superboy complains
that Robin didn't come by the Tower, which, since the Teen Titans
is a weekly thing, would imply that he just stopped being Robin.
Steph wouldn't be out on her own as Robin in that short a time)

In the main plot, Garfield is feeling a little sick after the
battle with Brother Blood... but that's not the real problem.
The real problem is other kids in the city turning green and
then into animals.

At long last, after a bunch of plots that really didn't mean
anything to me, we get a plot that actually strikes me as being
pretty cool. It relates directly to one of the characters without
requiring too much backstory, and provides a serious problem
without an over-the-top villain.

There are also some great 'downtime' scenes of the Titans out on
the town. Particularly fun is Bart's tattoo and his reasonings
for it. He thinks a little like me. Which I suppose is kind of
scary, in its way.

This was a pretty fun issue, and I enjoyed it more than I usually
do, despite the let-down about the Robin plot not getting much
attention.

Review: 3.5 stars

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Ultimate X-Men #49 - "The Tempest: Part Four" (Story: Brian K. Vaughan,
Pencils: Brandon Peterson)

Sinister has arrived at the X-Mansion to kill more mutants, but most
of the X-Men are still in New York looking for him. This leaves
the newer students (and Bobby, who was with the team longer than
Wolverine but doesn't get any respect) to try and solve the problem.

It's fun. A lot of fun. Some nice quips, and Vaughan respects
some of the differences that have built up in these characters
from history, particularly with Rogue, who has a harder edge
than many of the X-Men. Also, the issue being mostly a fight
scene, there are a lot of cool visuals and entertaining use of
powers. I must also admit I enjoyed seeing Professor X's one
true archenemy show up. Perhaps he and the Daleks can join
forces one day.

The ending was a little disappointing, as it suggests that the
Ultimate version of a character isn't quite what he seemed last
issue, but I figured that would happen sooner or later.

The issue winds up being my pick of the week, and once again
confirms my desire to see Vaughan take over the regular X-Men
title after Austen leaves.

Review: 3.75 stars

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X-Books not being reviewed (and why):
None!

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That's it for this week folks. Next week we get another big week of
books. According to the shipping list, we have 8 titles. New X-Men,
X-Men, and Cable/Deadpool are the only X-books (for me), but we also
get Daredevil and, from DC, Birds of Prey, Ex Machina, Outsiders,
and Robin.

See you then...

Peter Dimitriadis