Wednesday, August 29, 2012

New Comics!: The X-Men Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Gambit #1:  Meh.  I like James Asmus a lot, but, by my count, we're now talking about the third time that I'm being asked to buy an ongoing series staring Gambit.  It's a little hard to put in the emotional investment, when, based on past experience, this series is unlikely to hit 25 issues.  But, I gave it a shot.  The premise is a good one, focusing on Gambit as a thief rather than Gambit as an educator, but I just wasn't feeling it.  If you're a die-hard Gambit fan, though, it's probably a better fit for you.  I used to be, but I feel like he's been so reduced to a caricature of himself, or, at least, the self that we first met in the '90s, that I can't say that I'm in that camp anymore.  Asmus seems aware of that problem and trying his best to move Gambit past it, but I'm just not ready to follow that journey.  See you in the X-titles, Gambit.

New Mutants #44:  This issue is a pretty inauspicious start to this new arc.  On one hand, any premise that brings together the East and West Coast New Mutants is a good one in my book.  But, on the other hand, DnA used some pretty obvious plot devices to move this story forward.  First, the Defenders just happened to appear before the New Mutants in time to help them fend off demons from Limbo?  Really?  It's not a huge deal, since it's not all that consequential to the plot, but it did make me roll my eyes.  But, more importantly, it makes no sense that Dani insisted that the New Mutants get a shot at tackling the threat alone or that Dr. Strange allowed them to do so without giving them more information.  If I were Dani, I'd want heavy-hitters like Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, and Silver Surfer on my side if I were going against some sort of cosmically significant supernatural threat.  If I were Dr. Strange, I'd want to make sure a team of young adults with no sorcerer in their ranks had the resources that it needed to combat such a threat.  Even if Dr. Strange wasn't sure what the threat was, he could've at least offered that the Defenders would work to define the threat while the New Mutants tried to identify it in their own way.  But, instead, he and the others leave more or less in a huff, like they know what the threat is, but their feelings are hurt so they're not going to tell anyone about it.  It read like the forced plot device that it is, and it unfortunately overshadowed the issue for me.  (The "disturbance in the Force" crack from Bobby was a highlight, though.)  The art also didn't help.  Fernandez draws some truly bad faces; at one point, I swear that Nate was missing a nose.  All in all, it was a pretty disappointing issue, but we'll see where we go from here.

New Mutants #45:  OK, this issue is a lot better than the last one.  Although DnA might've used some overly forced plot devices to set up this arc, they stay more grouned here as we get to the heart of the matter:  namely, the arrival of future Cannonball and Karma.  DnA tell a tight time-travel story, and I thought that future Sam's revelation that they had to remove present Sam and Shan from the present to avoid creating ripple effects was particularly innovative.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Doug being a super-villain, despite the fact that his latest incarnation has always seemed to have the potential to go that way.  But, I love the fact that DnA are using past events of this series to move forward the plot.  It was pretty clear when Doug came into contact with that metal box with the alien ship in "New Mutants" #36 that it was going to have some serious impact in a later story, and here we are.  DnA don't reveal their hand yet, but we do learn that Doug introduced modified Warlock technology to the New Mutants' costumes at some point and then used this technology to control them.  We also don't know the scope of Doug's control yet, either.  For example, does he run the world, or is he just a super-villain?  I guess we'll find out next issue.  

In the meantime, DnA heighten the impact of the story by focusing on the emotional ties that the New Mutants have to each other.  I've loved this title and its predecessors because they've always focused on a small group of characters.  As opposed to the Avengers and the X-Men, with their huge rotating rosters, we've really gotten to see these characters build relationships with each other over the years.  DnA use these relationships to make the stakes at play higher.  We see a great future where they've moved past some of their current awkwardness and uncertainties to become the family that they've always wanted to be.  But, we learn that Doug used exactly these connections to take control of them, and we feel that betrayal all the more because we felt those connections in the first place.  I can't wait to see where DnA go with that.

New Mutants #46:  Huh.  This issue isn't terrible or anything, but, other than establishing Doug as a future menace, I'm not really sure what it accomplished.  Sure, we have the inevitable slugfest with Doug, allowing us to see just how powerful he has become.  (Shunting the group outside the time stream seems pretty damn powerful.)  But, DnA don't really make it clear what power the metal box gave him.  Improving his ability to control the transmode virus and controlling the space-time continuum seem to be pretty different abilities.  DnA seem to pin it on Doug's ability to "speak the language of dimensions," which unfortunately seems like yet another forced plot device.  Is the transmode virus a dimension?  I could see where that power would apply to the time stream, but it seems a bit much to imply that it extends to the transmode virus.  DnA also don't show how this power enabled Doug to become the world's dictator, as he seems to have become.  How did it help him create the "closed system?"  We never get answers to those questions, since, instead of defeating future Doug, they just return him (and future Cannonball and Karma) to their own time.  The ending is ominous, with Dani and Sam pledging to keep an eye on Doug, but, other than that, it's hard to tell what this story brought us.  I mean, it's clear that DnA will return to the idea in the future, but I still feel like we've been drifting lately.  When DnA took over the series, they re-focused it to create a team that addressed the X-Men's loose ends.  But, between the "Exiled" cross-over event and this arc, it's been a while since we've actually seen them do that.  (In fact, this arc is a soft cross-over event of sorts, given that we saw the Defenders in issue #44, even if they, oddly, never appeared again.)  Finally, I really just don't like Fernandez's art.  Although he had some decent moments early in his run, these last few issues have been incredibly sloppy.  It's bad when it's almost impossible to tell Amara from Dani, or Bobby from Nate.  I found myself wishing that cover artist John Tyler Christopher had been given the reins.  All in all, it's been a disappointing few issues, even if we had some good characters moments in issue #45.

New Mutants #47:  DnA decide to keep us in a time-travel story here, revealing that the New Mutants didn't return to their own timeline when they sent future Doug to his, instead entering one that only looked like it was.  I really dislike time-travel stories and I wasn't a fun of the previous feeder arc, but DnA do a pretty good job with this issue.  They don't rush the story, so it's a surprise when Kitty discloses that the schism between Cyclops and Wolverine didn't happen, raising the team's awareness that something went wrong.  We eventually learn that the New Mutants aren't in a different timeline, but one that shouldn't exist in the first place, though DnA are going to have to elaborate on that theme in later issues if I'm going to end this arc satisfied.  (Did Doug create it to isolate them, giving him time to consolidate his power in the future?)  If nothing else, I enjoyed the return of Cannonball to the fold, and DnA made a good decision splitting the team into two separate groups, using it to build the drama slowly.  In a way, the whole issue turned on Dr. Strange:  for me, it was DnA's excellent portrayal of him as a broken man driven almost insane by knowing that he was right when everyone else was wrong that sold the issue for me.  I'm excited to see where we go from here.

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