X-Men #11 – Review

By: Victor Gischler (writer), Al Barrionuevo (pencils), Michael Lacombe (inks), Rain Beredo (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters) and Daniel Ketchum (editor)

The Story: A one-shot where Professor X helps Jubilee deal with her vampirism by relating a story of his own past experiences with vampires.

What’s Good: This is a pretty low-commitment issue for a reader that’s easy to pick up even if you don’t know much about current X-events.  If you’ve been following X-Men since it’s launch, you know that the first 6 issues dealt with an attack by vampires on the X-Men’s Utopia headquarters.  For those who claim “nothing ever happens” in superhero comics, the big event from that series was that Jubilee was turned into a vampire.  While her vampirism was dealt with pretty well in the Wolverine and Jubliee miniseries by Kathryn Immonen & Phil Noto, there are probably a lot of fans who didn’t read that miniseries, so it’s nice to see the main X-Men series address this new aspect of a popular character.

Gischler comes up with a pretty nice way to address the issue as we see Professor X reach out to her.  The Professor really works best now when he adopts this more avuncular air (versus bossing people around) and can help the younger mutants with their problems by telling them a story.  In this case, he whips out a story from the 1950’s showing his first dealings with vampires in Africa.  It is a fun little story that (a) reinforces the Professor’s wealth of worldly experience and (b) adds some more foundation to the vampire mega-story that Gischler has been crafting over the last year.  Often these stories where a popular character relates some older story that they never bothered to mention before come off as false — as if I suddenly said to my wife, “Did I ever tell you about the time I ran into vampires in Africa before we met?” — but it really works with Xavier because he is so old.  Imagine an aging grandparent and how many times they were able to whip up some old story that you’d never heard before.  Cyclops can’t tell this story, but Xavier can.

The Barrionuevo/Lacombe art team gets the job done.  I’m not running out to buy original pages from this issue, but everything is as it should be from a story telling standpoint: solid panels that establish new scenes, clear depictions of the action, etc.  Labcombe’s inking gets a little heavy and brushy in places and I think that style works better for 1950’s Africa than 2011 Utopia, but I didn’t have any problems with the art.

Batman Incorporated #1 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Yanick Paquette (penciller), Michael LaCombe (inker), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: Bruce Wayne begins his mission to recruit an international association of Batmen by looking up Mr. Unknown, his counterpart in Japan. Lord Death Man, boss baddie of the Land of the Rising Sun, however has announced his goal to “Kill all Japanese crimefighters!” With the help of Catwoman and Mr. Unknown’s partner, Batman (prime) intends to confront Lord Death Man and prevent the failure of his mission before it starts.

The Review: Grant Morrison tends to polarize readers with a combination of high-concept ideas and ambitious execution. His newest series, however, seems on track to being the most grounded of his current writing: Batman, realizing the power of
his own icon, decides to market it around the world to battle underworlds beyond Gotham. This issue has no philosophical musings, no metaphysical abstractions, no extreme sci-fi complications.

Of course, the idea of a league of Batmen only has weight if the contenders for the symbol can even begin to measure up to it. The first contender in question, Mr. Unknown, at first glance doesn’t seem to. We open on him at his least impressive moments—and also his final ones. He is quite literally declawed before losing face altogether. The instinct is to peg him as an incompetent—how could Bruce even consider lending his symbol to this guy? But even if Mr.Unknown’s defeat paints him poorly, it elevates his nemesis, Lord Death Man, to a level of malice worthy of a Batman villain. Lord Death Man’s cruel teasing and appearance very quickly establish his iconography and formidability.

And if Mr. Unknown himself comes off uninspiring, his partner, Jiro, in comparison shows off his admirable capabilities, setting us up to suspect that perhaps the division of power between Mr. Unknown and Jiro is not what we are initially led to believe (particularly considering the revelation that Jiro acts as Mr. Unknown’s body double). The existence of Mr. Unknown’s underground base, complete with advanced tech and a sleek vehicle further emphasize the parallels between Batman and Robin’s world to their Japanese counterparts.

For those concerned that they’ll receive yet more helpings of an introspective, broody, distinctly-Morrison Batman, have no fear. The Batman of this issue is at his best—absurdly capable, highly observant, and kickass. He extracts information from henchmen in a way no one else can: “Your boss might kill you if he ever finds out, sure. Me? I’ll carve the nose off your face right here!” Not only does Batman show off his chops, but his billionaire persona has never come across as so enviable. In public, he is suave, and in private, irresistibly rugged.

And the lucky object of that ruggedness is Selina Kyle, who hasn’t been portrayed as so competent and sexy since the days of her ongoing (which I miss, by the way). Her mastery as a thief is made front-and-center, and her fighting skills are given their due as she tackles henchmen and robots by Batman’s side. What really sells her characterization in this issue is the nonchalance with which she does everything, very true to a woman who models her behavior after felines.

Morrison sets up the stakes very efficiently and fairly high. The predicament all our heroes, both Western and Eastern, find themselves in toward the end is a classic: escaping the villain’s trap. But this plot device loses its generic quality to some fun, unexpected elements—an underwater cage within a flooded apartment room, with a massive octopus tucked in for good measure. The tension is also heightened by the knowledge that failure here means failure for Batman’s entire mission, and in a metaphysical sense, failure for the concept Morrison is trying to sell.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #3 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Yanick Paquette (artist), Michael Lacombe (inker)

The Story: Part Three, The Bones of Bristol Bay: Bruce Wayne is washed up on the shores outside of Gotham with pirates (Black Beard) and is mistaken for one himself. The other pirates hold him hostage so that he will lead him to the pirate’s gold.

What’s Good: This story was a lot of fun! The action and conflict shot out of the first page, and didn’t let up (with one exception), until near the end of the book. Bruce is getting more of his memory back, but it’s still patchy and we as readers don’t know where the patches are. This makes things more tense for us, because we really have no idea what Bruce has to work with. He’s at least got his detective skills (as we saw in the last issue), but the reader gets to share in Bruce’s disorientation. The narrative appears to be deliberately under-explained, but as the story progresses, enough pieces are laid out that the reader can figure it out. It’s great to be treated intelligently by a writer! Also, and as I said in my review of Return of Bruce Wayne #1, I really, really like the realistic way Bruce’s physical skills are handled by Morrison. Another writer would have had an unarmed Bruce mop up a dozen armed pirates without working up a sweat. Morrison doesn’t strain credibility with that – Bruce is obviously outgunned. Another part I really enjoyed with this story was the time travel. Morrison is now showing us the effects of Bruce’s previous episodes in the past and shows him starting to take active measures to deal with what he’s going through, leaving those pieces that Red Robin and Batman have been discovering in the present. It’s eerie and cool.

On art, jury is still out for me on Yanick Paquette. He did well with the dark, stormy mood of Gotham and the caves and his work on faces did the job, but I’m not sure how well they showed emotions. And for some reason, the eyes in many panels were just dark zones on the faces. Like I said, jury’s still out on whether I’d turn to a book because of Paquette, but he told the story competently.

Dark X-Men: The Beginning #2 (Utopia) – Review

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I picked up the first Dark X-Men: The Beginning book because I liked the characters that were featured. Time to find out if The Beginning can hold out without the likes of Namor, Dark Beast, or Mimic…

“The Last Temptation of Cloak and Dagger”

By Paul Cornell (Writer), Leonard Kirk (Pencils), and Brian Reber (Colors)

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: Paul Cornell’s story about Cloak and Dagger is about as basic an “offer” story as you can get. Norman Osborn approaches Cloak and Dagger about joining the Dark X-Men and as expected, Cloak and Dagger really don’t have much of a choice in the matter. Cornell’s dialogue is pretty strong (he writes a great Osborn) and Leonard Kirk’s art certainly gets the job done, but that’s really all there is to say about “The Last Temptation of Cloak and Dagger.”

“Weapon Omega”

By Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman (Writers), Michael Lacombe (Art), and John Rauch (Colors)

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: The story about Norman Osborn’s plan to get Weapon Omega on board with the Dark X-Men is rather clever, visually solid, and well-written. Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman do a nice job of explaining what Michael Pointer’s deal is and why he is the type of person he is today. In addition, Bernardin and Freeman manage to add an extra layer of slime of Osborn’s character. That’s no easy task with all the Osborn over-exposure going on.

“I Am Daken”

By Rob Willaims (Writer), Paco Diaz (Pencils), Guillermo Ortega (Inks), and Edgar Delgado (Colors)

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: Before I say anything about “I Am Daken,” I have to ask: Is there anyone who truly likes Daken or thinks he’s a good idea for a character? Isn’t one Wolverine (that appears in at least one book almost every week) enough? Ok, with that out of the way, time for me to say a few things about Daken’s story.

Surprisingly, “I Am Daken” is the best of the three stories featured in Dark X-Men: The Beginning #2. That’s really not saying a whole lot, but there’s no denying that Daken’s conversation with Norman Osborn is sharply written and that the artwork by Paco Diaz is pretty slick (though I’m not sure I like how Osborn looks). If I have any complaint, it’s that the brief action scene comes across as a bit disjointed and somewhat unnecessary.

Conclusion: I enjoyed the first Dark X-Men: The Beginning book quite a bit more than the second. That said, the second is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the characters. If you aren’t a fan, then by all means skip Dark X-Men: The Beginning #2, since there’s nothing in the book that absolutely must be read in order to get more out of the Utopia storyline.

Grade: C

-Kyle Posluszny

Cable #6 – Review

Duane Swierczynski (Writer), Ariel Olivetti (Artist- Cable Scenes), Michael Lacombe (Artist-Cyclops Scenes), & Val Staples (Colorist-Cyclops Scenes)

For fans of the X-Men, Cable # 6 is a must read.

Finally, after five issues of drawn out plot, we get an issue that not only gives us some development, but context and character beats as well. Although Adi Granov’s beautiful cover insinuates that Cyclops and Cable meet physically, the father and son do not. Instead, we follow Cyclops in his struggle with doubt and guilt concerning Cable and the baby, the clandestine mission of X-Force, and the decision to kill a certain traitor.

Cable himself appears sparsely in this issue, but by the end, the reader is reminded how much rides on his success in keeping the messiah child from harm. Furthermore, the focus on Cyclops realigns the series and its title character with the meta-narrative of the X-books. X-Men must protect the mutant race at any cost, even if it comes to murder. As solider, Cable is familiar with those decisions, but ironically its his younger father that struggles with it.

We return to a critical moment in Divided We Stand that causes Cyclops this confluence of uncertainty and guilt. We pick up right where Cyclops sends Wolverine to kill Mystique in Wolverine # 62. As Wolverine heads out to do what he does best, Warpath and X-23 enter and report the escape of Bishop off Muir Island. As Cyclops instructs the two to find Bishop, Warpath asks, “With or without a pulse.” “Either,” he replies. His decision to kill both Mystique and Bishop was in the heat of the moment, kept to himself without query or argument.

So now that he’s had time to mull over his decisions, it eats away at him. And though he may side step the issue with Emma and the others, he cannot escape the guilt of making such decisions and the possibility that they will fail. The resolution is dramatic and touching, and gives the series a jolt of life.

Cable isn’t the same blow-it-up series of the 1990s, but an integral part of the X-Men’s future with emotion and passion. And explosions. And a baby. (Grade: A-)

-Steven M. Bari