X-23 #8 – Review

By: Marjorie Liu (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), John Rauch (colors), Cory Petit (letters), Jody Leheup (assistant editor) & Jeanine Schaefer (editor)

The Story: X-23 goes to Madripoor to talk to Daken, who she thinks has some clues about a “new” restart to the Weapon X program.

Importance of art in comics: What a difference really stellar art makes!  I’ve been following X-23 from the beginning and haven’t loved it.  In out internet world where everything has to be an extreme statement of some sort, not “loving something” often is taken to mean that something “sucks”, but that isn’t the case at all.  X-23 has been “okay”.  But, when you have a pull list that never gets below 60 titles and sometimes inches into the 80s, you’re always looking for titles you can drop to try out that sexy-looking new creator-owned title or all those Fear Itself tie-ins.  But, when you put a really stellar artist like Stegman on the title, I suddenly care about the entire X-23 story more than I did before and I might keep getting it after he moves of just to see if I still like it.

What’s Good: When you feel the need to have a separate aside in the review about the art, obviously the art is good.  Stegman’s storytelling is impeccable and that is something that gets overlooked when reviewing comics.  His degree of difficulty is pretty high on a story like this with much of the action being cat-and-mouse stuff going on in the darkness of Madripoor.  It is very easy for those scenes to get away from an artist and have it suddenly be unclear which characters are in a panel or what they are doing.  Stegman even ratchets up the degree of difficulty by doing lots of really tight shots in these panels.  It’s also nice to see Stegman handing material that is a little darker.  Most of his earlier Marvel work had a light-hearted tone to it (Sif, She-Hulks, etc.), so it’s neat to see that he can do something gritty too.  And, of course, it goes without saying that Stegman draws very pretty women (great eyes).  I’m sure we all can tell what kind of scribbles were in his notebooks in high school!

The story is pretty fun too.  It makes a lot of sense that X-23 and Daken would come into conflict as X is continuing her struggle against forces trying to restart the Weapon X program (more on that below) and thinks that Daken knows something about it.  At times, both are in the midst of full-blown identify crises due to their clone/son relationships with Wolverine and are both trying to escape his shadow and become their own person.  Daken is kinda like X’s slightly evil and much older step-brother.  It’ll be fun to watch these two interact as the story unfolds.

Wolverine & Jubilee #1 – Review

By: Kathryn Immonen (writer), Phil Noto (art), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Jeanine Schaefer (editor)

The Story: Jubilee is now a vampire.  How will the X-Men deal with her?

What’s Good: There are a lot of good things about this comic.  From a story standpoint, it has the feel of a story that “matters” to the character of Jubilee and (to a lesser extent) the other X-Men.  That’s no small thing in today’s era of highly disposable 6-issue story arcs that reference very little from the past and will be referenced by very few stories in the future.  Too often Big 2 superhero comics tell stories that are just chasing their own tails, so it is nice to see some real character changes and progression for someone like Jubilee as she and the X-Men struggle with how to manager her new status as a vampire.

I also really enjoy the dynamic that Wolverine has with any young female character because these situations allow him to showcase his fatherly (or at least avuncular) nature.  When Wolverine is alone or hanging out with the Avengers, he gets grumpy pretty fast, so I really treasure his relationships with Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Armor (who makes a rare appearance in this issue) and Jubilee.  He’s just more interesting as a character when his sensitive side is on display.

But, what is most interesting is Jubilee herself as she deals with the compulsions she feels now that she is a vampire.  It seems pretty clear that there is no “cure” for her condition, but this will allow all sorts of interesting stuff to be done with her as a character, especially as Marvel seems to be really dusting off the vampire corner of their publication history.  One thing I HOPE that Immonen explores is Jubilee’s new immortal nature.  A thing that makes Wolverine such an odd guy in the Marvel U is that he is basically immortal, so he’s going to outlive all of the current heroes.  Perhaps now that Jubilee is immortal too, Wolverine can at least have a pal?

Of course, no discussion of this comic would be complete without saying some nice things about Phil Noto’s art.  Noto is an accomplished painter and I honestly can’t tell if this art is painted or not.  I tend to think it is a mix of painted art and art that he has colored digitally, but he brings a painter’s perspective to all of his colors and linework.  You can really see this shine though (no pun intended) in a sunset scene.  Most colorists wouldn’t capture this scene as well as Noto does.  This painter’s sensibility also is on display in the women’s hair that is so subtly shaded and contoured.  Ironically, he can’t really show his stuff as much on Jubilee’s dark hair but Emma and Pixie look GREAT.  And, Noto also does some of the best eyes that you’re going to see in comics.  Really glad that Immonen wrote Emma into the script so that Noto could use his retro style to draw her so nicely.  There are pages in this comic that are just a feast for the eyes.