Age of X-Man: The Marvelous X-Men #1: Nadler and Thompson do a solid job here as we get a better sense of the rules that Nate has imposed on this reality. In a serious wink to continuity nerds like me, the authors reveal that a fateful meeting with an alternate Universe version of himself (as depicted in an issue of his self-titled series from 2000) inspired Nate to build his all-mutant Utopia around his own take on "rugged individualism." His alternate self apparently sacrificed himself to save his own Universe, inspiring Nate to do what he had to do to save his Universe. In his conversations with Nate, alterNate (see what I did there?) repeatedly expressed a philosophy that held each individual was essentially his own god. Nate has now taken this concept to the extreme: for example, the X-Men all live in separate houses divided by fences. It's also why he's outlawed sex: he doesn't want people to develop connections to each other.
We get to see how this philosophy works in everyday life when X-23 fleetingly remembers Gabby. She tells Nate about the memory, and he confesses he shared a similar past as she did: they were both clones bred as weapons. X-23 expresses surprise that she never heard that story previously, and Nate informs her it's because it would've led to an emotional connection. Just like she can't remember Gabby, X-23 can't feel a bond with Nate. Nate erases her memory just as Laura realizes what he's doing and unsuccessfully tries to stop him.
This rest of the issue's plot is just as interesting. The X-Men try to stop a wildfire around Los Angeles that is destroying Cerebro West. Given Nate's seemingly total control over this reality, Nadler and Thompson's decision not to show how the fire started raises all sorts of questions. After all, it seems like the fire wiped out pods full of unhatched children; Nate hurriedly (and unconvincingly) tells the X-Men he managed to save the pods. The only part of this issue that made me raise an eyebrow is the depictions of just how powerful the X-Men are: Jean reading four books at a time, Magneto making dinner while reading a book, etc. It implies a casual use of pretty significant powers that we don't normally see, but that may be intentional on the authors' part. All in all, it's a solid debut that answers just enough questions and leaves us with all the right questions.
Avengers #14: This issue is pretty great, to be honest. After the fizzled "war" with Atlantis and non sequitur paleolithic Iron Fist issue, I was starting to feel disillusioned with this series. Aaron had too many irons (heh) in the fire, and it was hard to tell what story he was telling from issue to issue. But, he wisely focuses on one story in this issue, and it's a doozy: someone named the Shadow Colonel and his Legion of Unliving announce the start of a vampire civil war when they raze Dracula's castle to the ground. The Avengers spread across the globe trying to mitigate the war's impact on civilians, and they're surprised when the Shadow Colonel seems to surrender to Cap and Thor. But, it's really because he wanted access to Ghost Rider, who he can somehow control. Meanwhile, Dracula seeks asylum in Russia from the Winter Guard, and I'm totally sure that's going to go over well. Aaron should stick to these sorts of issues, particularly ones that allow for a relevant guest star (like Blade, here). It was super fun and didn't feel like filler (like the paleolithic Iron Fist issue) or unnecessary (like the Agents of Wakanda issue).
Batman #64: I'm happy to say this issue is much better than many recent ones. Gotham and Gotham Girl were great characters, and I'm glad to see them used here. The tension between Bruce and Barry is also great. I haven't been following "Heroes in Crisis," but Williamson does a good job of showing both men at the brink of exhaustion and behaving accordingly. After King's often nonsensical ramblings, Williamson is a breath of fresh air: everyone here acts like actual human beings and not just poetry-spouting automatons. I'll even get "The Flash" issues! But, OMFG, I can't believe it just extends the amount of time we have to deal with "Knightmares." They need to fire whoever the Batman editor is, because it's absurd that the already absurd delay in addressing Thomas Wayne's appearance is getting extended even longer.
Die #3: This issue is one of the most brilliant issues I've ever read, and it has little to do with Dungeons & Dragons. Oh, Kieron Gillen. Is there anything you can't do?
We start in media res as the party faces a pretty fierce looking dragon. We learn Angela accidentally attracted the attention of the Prussian forces (and said dragon) when she left to party to find some Fair. The party hoped they took out the Prussians before they could alert command, but they obviously failed as they're now face-to-face with a Prussian steel dragon. The dragon billows poisonous gas, and Isabelle is able to get a warning from one of her gods just in time to get everyone to scatter. (Well, except Chuck, whose power is apparently extreme luck.) Ash stumbles off the battlefield into a foxhole, encountering a British solider holding the hand of his dying comrade. Stephanie Hans doesn't flinch here in showing the terribleness of the war: the gas melted the dying soldier's eyes as he kept returning to the battlefield to save his comrades.
At this stage, it's clear "Eternal Prussia" is 1914 every day. The soldier dies, and the remaining soldier knows he's never going home, just like his various great-grandfathers. (The reference to a long line of male ancestors who died in the war really underlines the "Eternal" part.) His lungs are full of the gas, and he expresses surprise, because he had been pretty sure he'd survive "the curse." He manages to dictate a letter to his family to Ash before he dies. In possibly one of the most unexpected developments I've ever read in a comic, an unnamed J.R.R. Tolkein then appears. He's the master of this realm, a title that clearly has significance in Die. He and Ash talk about his experience in the "Great War" (and how the hobbit chapters, and not action ones, were always Ash's favorite), and Tolkein uses one of his giant eagles to send the soldier's letter to his wife. But, even this development isn't a win: a British commander slays the eagle. When one of his soldiers asks what the eagle was carrying, the commander burns the letter and dismisses it as propaganda. Gillen implies that the commander knew damn well what the letter was and that it wasn't the first one he burned. But, the greatest question this issue poses is whether Tolkein knew as well. Gillen lets us sit with that unresolved question and all the implications about wars and commanders it raises.
Back in the trenches (literally), Matt arrives, and Ash tells him that only he can stop the dragon. Matt threatens Ash when it seems like he's going to use his powers on Matt again, but Ash demurs, saying he doesn't have to do so -- he simply points out the horror around them. It's enough: Matt goes full Grief Knight and defeats the dragon. As they leave Eternal Prussia, Matt notes that they thought being trapped in Die at 16 years old was the most terrible thing that could happen to anyone. But, he now wonders what it would've been like to have been 16 years old in 1914. That, my friend, is the sort of brilliant insight that shows why Gillen is such a great writer. He manages to turn this issue into a reverie on the fruitlessness of war and not "just" a fantasy comic. As Ash and Tolkein note, you may know a dragon is just flesh and bone, but then you face a dragon and it becomes something else again. It's all brilliant, brilliant stuff.
(In re-reading this issue, I noticed the next set of soldiers the commander sends into the field are hobbit-sized and the commander tells them they can walk where they're going. Seriously, this series is effing amazing.)
Star Wars #61: The best part about this issue is Gillen (again!) doesn't even let us get unreservedly excited about Leia's plan to decimate Shu-Torun, as one of the members of Scar Squadron on Hubin unexpectedly stumbles upon her plans. This development adds a whole new layer of tension, as Leia is unaware that the clock is ticking on her mission. Will she get her revenge before Scar Squadron escapes Hubin? We'll see!
Uncanny X-Men #11: Rosenberg does great stuff here with this introductory story. By the end of the issue, it feels like Cyclops' stumbling efforts to protect the last of Earth's mutants is an entirely separate event unto itself, as much a "What If...?" as "Age of X-Man" is. It just happens to be the one that won't be ret-conned.
Over the course of the issue, Rosenberg takes us on a tour of the X-Men's and Scott's failures. We start with Scott struggling with his denial that the X-Men are truly dead while governments around the world are mandating that people take the anti-mutant vaccine. Rosenberg uses these two realities to underline just how much mutantkind is closer to extinction than it ever has been, maybe ever more than when Wanda decimated the mutant population. Both Blindfold and Phil Ulrich encourage Scott to accept the X-Men are gone, but he can't. Scott is also struggling to accept his role in creating this status quo. In other words, not only did the X-Men -- the team that he led for most of his adult life -- fail to prevent this outcome, but he personally failed to do so. In fact, he made everything worse, as Chamber reminds him when Scott goes looking for Morlock support. Chamber accuses, not unjustly, Scott of being responsible for fanning the anti-mutant flames in his wars against the Avengers and the Inhumans, and Scott doesn't really have a rejoinder to this accusation. How could he? Rosenberg makes it clear that it's one more blow Scott struggles to take. After all, he's sacrificed everything -- even his life -- for the X-Men, and all it did was get mutants to the brink of extinction.
Rosenberg's at his best when he takes a deteriorating Scott to an anti-mutant rally headlined by a woman trying to unseat Senator Allen. She celebrates the anti-mutant vaccine for removing the "genetically abnormal," a phrase that struck fear into my gay, gay heart. Not surprisingly, Scott gets into a fight with a group of anti-mutant protesters, and he's only saved when Captain America intervenes. It's here where Rosenberg shines. Scott rails against Cap for failing to do more to help the mutants, as he once promised he'd do. Cap asks Scott what exactly he thought he was going to accomplish, taking on a crowd by himself. Scott amazingly responds that he thought "standing up to fascism" was something Cap would understand. Noticing a camera on him, Scott invites all remaining mutants to meet him at Salem Center. Not surprisingly, the Reavers, the Sapien League, and other enemies appear, and Rosenberg makes it seem like Scott is actually suicidal at this point. But, then Logan also appears, and away we go.
The back-up stories flesh out these dynamics a little more. For his part, Logan goes further than Scott when confronting Black Widow and Bucky on the rally's margins. He wonders why they're protecting a bunch of fascists from the MLF when they could be protecting mutants from the fascists. (Natasha and Bucky don't really have an answer to that.) Callisto fleshes out the precariousness of mutantkind's situation when she tells Logan that the X-Men's disappearance means O.N.E. and other government agencies are no longer kept in check by fear the X-Men will intervene. As such, they felt free to mandate the anti-mutant vaccine. One question left unanswered here is why O.N.E. was trying to find Blindfold; Rosenberg never really tells us what O.N.E. thought Blindfold knew. She commits suicide at the end of the issue, so it's clear we're not going to know anytime soon.
Perhaps the best part about this issue is that Rosenberg actually makes this story feel like the event. Forget "Age of X-Man." Cyclops and Wolverine as the last two X-Men on Earth, racing to stop the total extermination of the human race (possibly by Logan stopping Scott from doing something stupid)? That's the event, to me.
Also Read: Conan the Barbarian #3
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