Not-Very-New Comics: The November 21 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Astonishing X-Men #17:  This issue is a mess.  But, I appreciated what Rosenberg was trying to do here, as he explained it in his concluding letter.  He wanted to tell a story about the heroes who don’t always get it right.  It's a good goal, the type of story we don't see told enough.  I'd say that he largely accomplished that goal, messy though the road to that goal was.  After all, the characterization was...dodgy.  Alex seemed like a combination of Bobby Drake with the bad jokes, Quentin Quire with his easy disillusionment, and Tony Stark with the weary drinking.  Allison made weird comments about the Beast’s weight.  But, Rosenberg was getting Alex to a place where I liked him.  It was a more interesting iteration of him.  I mean, it's been a while since we had a consistent characterization of him, so I was really just happy for Rosenberg to have a specific vision of him.  But, the progress Rosenberg was making ends here with the advent of “Uncanny X-Men.”  After all, I’m still not really sure what the Reavers were doing or planning, but I guess it doesn’t matter at this point.  Unfortunately, this series appears to be part of the trend over the last few years of all the X-books being disposable.  Just when the authors seem to get somewhere interesting, the series is canceled due to yet another line-wide “relaunch” and the team is disassembled.  [Sigh.]  It’s bad when you’re pining for a series you didn’t even like all that much, just because you want some stability.

Batman #59:  This story would be great if it weren’t a “Batman” story.  I’m fine believing Bane is only pretending to be semi-comatose while actually running Arkham and, by extension, Gotham.  (I mean, that connection is kind of a stretch, but whatever.)  I’m also fine with Penguin confessing this information to Batman as part of his revenge against Bane for killing his Penny.  King has Penguin make it clear the strikes against Bruce — Dick, Alfred, etc. — came from Bane.  But, I don’t buy Bruce’s actions.  King seems to subscribe to Snyder’s belief that Bruce is incompetent.  After all, Bruce doesn’t really figure out anything here.  Sure, he realizes Penguin was the one actually to kill the women who Freeze allegedly killed, but it also seems like Penguin wasn’t really hiding his tracks all that well.  But, King goes ones step further as Bruce isn’t just incompetent but also psychotic.  Rather than tricking Bane into revealing the truth, he just simply beats him to a pulp, as if Bane — the man whose “powers” come essentially from surviving Santa Prisca — would crack under the torment.  Gordon tries to get him to stop and he punches Gordon.  Gordon dismisses him, saying he’s sick of him, and I couldn’t agree with him more.  A Red Hood story?  That makes sense.  A Batman story?  Nope.

Infinity Wars:  Sleepwalker #3:  I mean, this issue and series are just the effing worst.  Nothing makes sense.  Like, I couldn’t even pretend to tell you what story Bowers and Sims are actually trying to tell here.  I can’t believe I got suckered into buying it because Darkhawk was in it.

Mr. and Mrs. X #5:  Honestly, y'all, I just fucking love this series so much.  It's romantic, it's suspenseful, it's funny.  Thompson gets these characters in an intuitive way, and it shows in every panel.  Also, Bazaldua and D'Armata are an excellent team.  "Astonishing X-Men" and "Uncanny X-Men" suffered from such consistently disappointing art, the great art here just really underscores what a wonderful book this series is.  Also, cats!

The New World #5:  Kot ends this series by leaning into the idea of the wall as a metaphor.  Thanks to Stella’s A.I. successfully hacking into border security’s systems, Kirby and Stella reveal to the country that the wall is merely a hologram, a prison of their own making due to their faith in, and fear of, their institutions.  Kot could’ve left it there and scored a point against our Trumpian reality.  But, he goes one step further.  Kirby knows the revelation will result in chaos, so he wants to stay and make the United States a better place.  But, Stella has done enough, and they part.  By adding this exchange, Kot exposes the sort of disagreements many people opposed to any agenda have in this era.  Stella is exhausted and just wants living her life with her love serving as the best revenge, whereas Kirby wants a more direct approach to right the wrongs he sees.  They’re both valid options, and they may not be as incompatible as they seem in this moment.  To that point, as Stella summons up her courage to take that step through the wall, Kirby is there with her.  Kot leaves us there:  we don’t know what they ultimately do; we just know they’re in love, hand in hand, for right now.  It’s a great ending to this trippy series, a reminder how much Kot and Moore really accomplished with just five issues.

Spider-geddon #4:  Gage does a solid job of keeping all the plates spinning at this point.  This series has had some problems with tie-in coordination, like we see here with Jessica Drew arriving after the events of the so-far unpublished "Spider-Force" #3.  But, it's not too much of an issue.  Gage cleverly ups the stakes by having the Web-Warriors expel an unhelpful Norma Osborn.  As revenge, he destroys the Web of Life and Destiny, severing the Web-Warriors' ability to travel between dimensions and thus stranding everyone else on Earth-616 with the Inheritors.  I'd say that sets up the final conflict pretty nicely.  This series lacks the overarching brilliance of "Spider-Verse," but as a sequel to a previous event it's doing really well.

Uncanny X-Men #2:  This issue is marginally better than the first one, in that at least it makes sense on the face of it.  Storm leads a team to Kansas when a veritable horde of Madri suddenly appears and Jean decides (for reasons that remain unclear) that Storm is best suited to handle it.  Meanwhile, Jean leads a team to Montana to stop a group of rampaging dinosaurs, part of a worldwide phenomenon of long extinct animals suddenly coming to life.  Hank posits all these events — including the mysterious development of a lake in Africa that he and Storm investigated last issue as well as the disappearances of Senator Ashton and Kitty — are all connected.  But, instead of doing more research on that connection, he goes to recover the mutant “vaccine” from the pharmaceutical factory the X-Men destroyed when they accidentally crashed a Blackbird into it last issue.  Just when I had hope it was going to start getting better, Legion appears on the last page to “save the day,” which means it’s all going to get worse.

Also Read:  Nightwing #53; Spider-Force #2; Star Wars #57; West Coast Avengers #4

Not-Very-New Comics: The October 3 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Infinity Wars:  Sleepwalker #1:  I picked up this series -- the only "Infinity Wars" tie-in miniseries I'm getting -- because it promised Darkhawk.  But, he doesn't appear here.  Instead, I had to make my way through Marvel's attempt to make Sleepwalker happen again.  The only upside to this issue is that I now understand a little better what Gamora did in the main title.  At first I thought Marvel was saying we always existed inside the Soul Gem, but now I realize Gamora's "first order of business was to combine and transplant the essence of every life on Earth into the Soul Gem."  The Sleepwalker Council for some reason finds this move less horrible than when Thanos did it, because for some reason it didn't inspire the same level of "unease and panic."  I'm not quite sure how it's true, but it is what it is.

Shatterstar #1:  Given how popular Shatterstar has been as a character over the last 27 (gulp) years, it seems hard to believe this miniseries is our first real look at him.  Peter David on "X-Factor" is really the only author that gave him a personality, with most other authors just treating him as a somewhat unhinged (or, at least, unremorseful) killer.  Seeley wisely decides to start at the beginning, focusing on Shatterstar's roots in the Mojoverse.  But, the good news is that he does so without undoing what David's excellent characterization.  Here, "Ben Gaveedra" is landlord of a building that provides refuge to other time-displaced persons.  It's a brilliant device, creating a motley crew of supporting characters and a solid motivation for a driftless "Ben" all in one fell swoop. We get a better sense of how the Mojoverse still frames Ben's outlook, as he sees the world through the lens of entertainment:  everyone around him is a character with his or her own plot.  For example, we learn Rictor tearfully ended their relationship because Ben had lost interest in him since they didn't fight enough.  We don't hear directly from Ben here, so we can only guess whether he believes that characterization is fair.  But, it definitely fits with the idea that he was a warrior bred and he misses the drama.  He gets enough of it here, when a former lover from his gladiator days kidnaps his tenants in some sort of revenge plot.  This device allows us to see Ben fully embrace his Shatterstar persona in what promises to be a Liam Neeson-esque spree of fury.  Obviously, I'd like him to be with Julio when this miniseries ends; if Shatterstar's ex-lover had swiped Rictor, I feel like we would've gotten to the heart of their relationship more quickly.  But I'm also happy to wait to get there.  Seeley is giving us the sort of street-level view of superheroes' lives that I loved in "Batgirl" and the too-short "New Mutants" reboot from a few years ago.  If Marvel were smart, they'd move all the New Mutants to Brooklyn and give us a show.  For now, I'm happy to see where Seeley goes from here. 

Star Wars #55:  This issue wraps up the "Hope Dies" story well, though I admit it's almost too well.  I would've preferred for Han, Leia, and Luke to have stayed stranded on this random moon a little while longer, to give them time to contemplate the events of "Hope Dies."  After all, Leia's overconfidence cost the Rebellion 90 percent of their ships and 50 percent of their just-built cruisers.  Gillen makes it clear her failures in this arc make her into the woman she becomes, but I think we could've spent a little more time seeing her actually process those emotions.  Moreover, Han almost single-handedly saved the Rebellion here.  His return to help Luke destroy the Death Star at the end of "A New Hope" is no longer a fluke; he's an honest-to-God hero of the Rebellion.  Leia dealing with her failure and Han dealing with his heroism while stranded on a moon together seems to me to be a story with some potential.  Instead, Gillen rushes us to the next phase.  Mon Mothma promotes the three of them because she has few options left, and they're all quickly on their way to locate the Falcon and Chewie, even though it's unclear how they're going to do so.  That said, I'm still more or less happy with the story as it ends.  In one of the better moments, Gillen uses the waning panels to reveal Meotri's name means "hope."  She plays a significant role here, as she's forced to pilot a ship to a cruiser to provide them with the codes Leia swiped.  It's a nice reminder of the supporting characters we saw throughout this arc sacrificing themselves for the greater good.  Gillen doesn't skip over the fact that the Rebellion's greatest losses from this debacle were its people, from General Draven last issue to General Dodonna in this one.  It reminds me of the end of "The Last Jedi," where we have to wonder how the Rebellion rebuilds after this incredible loss.

The Superior Octopus #1:  This issue is remarkably clever for how it sets up "Spider-geddon."  Otto is busy trying to establish himself as the protector of San Francisco, but finds himself increasingly frustrated as everyone associates him with HYDRA.  Underlining the point, he's surprised to find Arnim Zola in his HQ.  Zola views Otto as part of HYDRA and wants his help working on new cloning technology.  Otto refuses and Zola sics a LMD Gorgon on him.  Otto seems lost when Gorgon turns him to stone, but he reappears in a new body and defeats Gorgon.  Zola is stunned because mind-transference is exactly the sort of cloning problem he wanted Otto to help address; after all, the people Ben Reilly cloned only maintained their memories if they were cloned from the ashes of their previous body.  Otto defeats Arnim and reveals his secret:  he's using the Inheritors' cloning technology.  On Loomworld, the Web Warriors disband as they've returned all the loot the Inheritors stole.  But, Captain Britain and Karn are on hand to hear a beep that confirms the Inheritors' cloning technology is active.  Although they don't yet know it's Otto using it, Karn realizes the Inheritors can use the communications systems in the robots they've been sending to their location (as seen in "Spider-geddon" #0) to transfer their minds to new bodies in Otto's HQ.  Game on!  I love the fact that Otto's arrogance has once again blinded him to reality.  I wonder how he'll take it this time!

X-Men:  Black - Magneto #1:  As others have observed, the X-Men seem custom-made for our current era.  Claremont leans heavily into dialogue and narrative that initially seem overly political, except for the fact this story and these speeches happen every day in today's media.  Here, the immigrant children being taken from their parents are substituted with mutant children, with O.N.E. putting them in detention facilities "for their own safety."  Claremont has little work to do; he could've probably composed 95 percent of the issue's dialogue from comments talking heads have made.  But, it's a good sign of where Marvel (rightly) seems to be going with the X-Men.  It's been a long time since they faced the concerted efforts of the U.S. government to imprison them, and this era suits that story perfectly.  I'm excited to see where we go from here.