Marvel Round Up 12/2/14

Wolverine & The X-Men #41

Right off the bat, something about the cover seemed out of place. The originally solicited cover for this comic featured Kitty by the door giggling, but since she’s jumped ship to Scott’s team, she was replaced on the cover by Husk. This makes perfect since in the issue, since it focuses quite heavily on Husk’s recent secondary mutation (a lovely Grant Morrison concept) and the effect it has had on her mental health. It does make me wonder though- since the solicitation of this comic late last year, and the wrapping up of Battle of the Atom, where Kitty makes the move to Scott’s team, was Kitty’s move to Scott’s team a very last minute decision?  Everyone knows and can tell that Bendis is besotted with the character over on All-New X-Men and he writes her very well, but it is interesting to see how late in the day the decision to transfer Kitty to the other team might have taken place.

Anyway, the issue itself is a fairly strange one. It sets out to resolve some of the dangling threads that were left hanging at the end of the Hellfire Saga. Toad and Husk are decidedly tertiary characters in this book- characters whose stories have taken a definite back seat to the antics of the main teaching staff and the students. I was fairly certain that Jason Aaron had decided that Husk was just a joke character, but he does a lot to rehabilitate the character in this issue, offering an explanation as to her recent inconsistent characterisation. This issue is essentially retconning from start to finish, but it offers a surprisingly moving resolution to Husk and Toad’s romance and their recent status in the X-Men’s world.  Husk has been a problematic character for quite a while now. She worked quite well back in the 90s when she had a definitive role as a teenaged mutant on the Gen X team. Since the turn of the noughties, she has gone through that awkward transitional phase that a lot of once-teen mutant characters went through. When written by Chuck Austen for example, she was most famously known for having aerial sex with Archangel in front of her whole family. Since then, she hasn’t been up to much (presumably she was too embarrassed to leave the house) and writers have left her alone. I thought we might have got an interesting take on her since Aaron took over, but he was glad to leave her in the background. Now, she (and Toad) have been returned to what passes as a status quo for them. Toad is a villainous servant to Kid Frankenstein, and Husk is a pleasant, but dull staff member at the school. I hope to one day see an interesting take on her, but I won’t be holding breath. This was an issue of treading water before next month’s conclusion.

X-Men Legacy #24

I’m really going to miss this book. This issue wraps up the mind-worm stuff and neatly resolves Blindfold and David’s story- all of the toys are safely back in the box by the end of the issue, and some of those toys never existed at all. Si Spurrier has chosen to deal with the concept of Legacy in terms of comic-books, as well as the issues surrounding the legacy of Charles Xavier and that makes for a very interesting combination. Issues that plague a lot of comic book fans are dealt with in this finale- what makes a comic book matter, which continuity should I pay attention to, etc. It feels like Spurrier is referring to the not-so-recent New 52 relaunch over at DC at one point. David absorbs the powers of his internal world-weaver, which seems to include the ability to completely reset continuities, retcon deaths, and undo bad editorial decisions.

“I could burn it all away….I could replace it with a new world…it’d end up just as buggered as this one.”

It’s an interesting moment that addresses comic book companies’ tendency to go for the hard reset, and David’s resistance to do this as well as his insistence that even though world continuity is confusing and messy, it’s not worth jettisoning it for the sake of temporarily tidy world. It’s a daring moment that could have felt like the voice of Marvel editorial, but because it’s so definitively delivered in David’s voice, the moment works. It’s authentic to the book and to the character’s journey through the book. Blindfold’s arc is concluded too, but less definitively. I hope that other writer’s take the baton for her and build on the great work that Spurrier has done with her (as well as some other secondary players in this book like Chamber).

I’m really going to miss Spurrier’s purple prose and Tan Eng Huat’s loose, vivid style.

All-New X-Men #23

The partition between the two facets of Scott’s team seems to have firmed up a bit since this story arc began. All-New contains Kitty, the time displaced original team and X-23 (because every X-team needs a Wolverine). I do hope that this separation doesn’t preclude Kitty and the others from interacting with the power-house team over in Uncanny. 

Back to the story being told in this issue. I was afraid this cross-over was going to be that most egregious of X-Men stories: X-Men in space. When this franchise goes to space, with the exception of the original Phoenix saga, nothing of much interest ever happens. They went a few times in the 90s and got those space suits that look an awful lot like what the time-displaced original team are now wearing. Then we had Rogue, Rachel Grey, Darwin et al. zoom off to space in the mid-noughties. The only good thing to come of that extensive story line was the arrival of Broo. So now, we’re off in space again and the verdict? Not very boring! Which is a good thing. We’ve got Starjammers and Shi’ar- core X-Men in space concepts, intermingling with recent Marvel darlings the Guardians of the Galaxy. It all melds together quite well. It’s aligning the Guardians more closely with the earth-based Marvel universe (just in time for their movie!) while allowing us to experience the original X-Men’s take on space, which is something we never really got to see before at this point in their lives.

The art is once again beautiful in this issue- Immonen’s cast of characters are so gloriously expressive. I’d love to see a Saturday morning cartoon based on these models. There are a lot of fun moments peppered throughout this issue too- Kitty’s dislike for space (who doesn’t hate getting shot across the stars in a giant bullet), and Bobby’s adorable whimsical response to Rocket- “I just like talking to the talking raccoon. It makes me feel like a Disney princess.” This comic continues to be hugely solid and light-hearted, despite the increasing high-stakes. The pacing is still a bit wonky, since we have yet to get to the actual trial of Jean Grey, but I find it hard to care when the experience is so much fun. Cannot recommend this book enough!