Unreachable Star Reviews April 16th, 2008 (SPOILERS)

This is our 256th edition. Three books this week, which is a pretty
big week as of late, and as I'm running a little late, they're
going to be short.

This week we have...

Avengers: The Initiative #11 - 3 Stars
X-Factor #30 - 3 Stars
X-Men: Divided We Stand #1 (of 2) - 3.25 Stars

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Avengers: The Initiative #11 - "Killed In Action, Part 4 of 4: Worst
Case
Scenario" (Writers: Dan Slott &
Christos N. Gage, Artist: Stefano
Caselli,
Color Art: Daniele Rudoni)

KIA chases the Initiative to Tennesse, where they're attempting to
get Michael Van Patrick to help them shut him down.

Well, it's over... and it's not a terribly great ending, either,
which
is perhaps appropriate because the storyline as a whole didn't really
work out. When a normal team book has a ultimate killer type
character
who's whole reason for existence is to slaughter people, you might not
really expect them to kill anyone on the team for keeps. But the
Initiative is a much larger book with a much larger cast. You'd think
there might be some significant casualties to give the story some
more oomph, and less of the scare phony deaths that get undone by
the end of the issue. Sometimes it's better to commit to a story or
not bother with it at all.

The only thing that's terribly redeeming about the plot, aside from a
few individual moments, is the ending that sets up something for
later,
except even that doesn't really make much sense when you examine it.
You'd expect that the body wouldn't just be lying around without any
attempt to guard or secure it, such that a character could walk up
and
do anything they like to it without being noticed.

The KIA arc has made me teeter far closer to dropping the book for
good.
If the next issue doesn't really bring something to the table, I
think that'll be it.

Review: 3 Stars

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X-Factor #30 - "Only Game In Town, Part 2" (Writer: Peter David,
Penciler: Valentine De Landro, Inker: Andrew Hennessy,
Colorist: Jeromy Cox)

Arcade's been hired to take care of Rictor, X-Factor, and all of
Mutant Town, and you know what that means. Murder, Mayhem, and
Murder again!

Sadly, it's not everything I hoped. When you bring Arcade to the
table, there's a certain amount of whimsy involved, and even though
his Murderworlds might contain a lot of wacky, unrelated elements,
it still seems to hang together in some kind of whole, usually
around the Theme Park theme.

That's almost completely lacking here. For no particular reason,
Mutant Town turns into a holographic jungle. For no particular
reason, it stops, and cars go crazy running into people. There are
robots running around that shoot people. Many of these are elements
of Arcade's normal arsenal, but it doesn't hang together. Arcade
doesn't really feel like Arcade. Maybe he's a Skrull.

Because of that, his appearance feels a little wasted, and it's not
much fun watching X-Factor survive the traps. The ending does make a
good cliffhanger, but I wanted more.

Review: 3 stars

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X-Men: Divided We Stand #1 (of 2) (Various writers and artists)

This is a series of short stories, mostly focusing on the younger
X-Men, dealing with the wake of the X-Men splitting up, and how
they react to it. There's also an odd story at the end dealing
with one of the Marauders.

It's a mixed bag, certainly. Most of the stories are fairly good
for what they are - short little vignettes, about the length and
depth you'd see in an old issue of X-Men Unlimited. There's less
variety than that anthology series though, as most of them deal
with a single theme.

I mentioned my problems with that theme the last issue. Either
mutants are so horribly at risk now that extreme measures are
required to keep them safe, or they are not, and can be blithely
dispersed to the four winds and told to live their lives just
because Xavier was seriously hurt. Here again they're trying to
have it both ways, and it doesn't really work.

Leaving aside that, there's some decent work. Skottie Young both
writes and illustrates a story about Anole's anger at being forced
into danger as a student at Xavier's and then just told to return
home. It's not a direction I like for the character (who I'd hope
would be somewhat lighter in tone), but it does make sense given
what's happened recently. Most of the other stories seem solid,
with only a couple of notes on characters feeling a little off.

I guess I'll name it my Pick of the Week, if only because the other
two books I got were a little weaker.

Review: 3.25 stars

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Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, it's another skip week. So I'll see you in two.

See you next time...

Peter Dimitriadis
http://www.unreachablestar.net
The Unreachable Star - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinion