Uncanny Avengers Annual #1 – Review

By: Rick Remender (Writer), Paul Renaud (Artist), VC’s Clayton Cowles (Letterer), Arthur Adams (Cover Artist)

The Story:
Martian Transylvania Super Hero Mutant Monster Hunter High School, now filmed before a live Mojo audience. 8pm Eastern, 7 Central, or check local listings for showtimes. Only on Marvel.

The Review:
Well, this will be interesting to review. The last line of the comic reads: “Call in the critics … we’ll leave it to them to decipher.” Okay, then. Challenge… accepted?

What also makes this interesting is that the story essentially wears its themes on its sleeves, which is to be expected when the adversary is Mojo and other, thinly-veiled caricatures of the media executives the story is meant to comment on. Heck, there is no thin veil here at all. It’s pure caricature, as well as pure parody, allegory, pun, and any number of thematic figurative language. We get it! Media executives are as vile a creature as any spineless, extradimensional monster. Or lawyers.

So it’s difficult to critique something that the story itself critiques– Mojo uses the Avengers and some mystical heroes to create a TV show. The problem is that the story doesn’t quite flow like that. Mojo creates the Avengers of the Supernatural to… make a different show with the Avengers in a high school teen drama? Then they break out, but then they actually have to fight Ghost Rider’s Spirit of Vengeance before being returned to Earth without even confronting Mojo a second time? I’ll use the book’s own words “At least Mojo’s new show doesn’t feel unoriginal. … Not on the surface, perhaps.”

Uncanny X-Men #504 – Review

By Matt Fraction (Writer), Terry Dodson (Pencils), Rachel Dodson (Inks), and Justin Ponsor (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: Since hitting the big #500, Uncanny X-Men has been extremely hit or miss. As such, the bigger picture being created by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker has felt extremely disjointed. On top of that, the first arc, while fun at times, was marred by some odd characterization, a fairly generic story, and divisive artwork. That said, with the beginning of the second arc featuring a new artist and a single author, I can’t help but feel that Uncanny can still be straightened out rather quickly.

The Story: This issue is all about setting up the new story arc, introducing multiple situations involving each character in the team.  While doing some soul searching, in an effort to get past the death of Kitty Pryde, Colossus is confronted with an old enemy. In addition, Emma Frost heads into the mind of Cyclops in an attempt to figure out why he has been acting strangely since the encounter with the Hellfire Cult. Also, Beast and Angel have a meeting with the brilliant scientist, Dr. Nemesis regarding the state of mutantkind and what can be done to reverse the effects of the Scarlet Witch.  Oh, and the Mojoverse comes into play as well.

What’s Good: Though very light on action, this is the best issue of Uncanny X-Men since the move to San Francisco took place. While consisting almost entirely of set up, Uncanny X-Men #504 does a good job establishing the direction of the series for the near future through interesting, entertaining character moment,s and impressive visuals. As a fan, I couldn’t be much happier with the way the issue addresses and handles the various story threads surrounding the X-Men in general.

Truth be told, the book is filled with successful moments. In particular, the surprisingly poignant Colossus segments, Matt Fraction’s extremely well-written handling of Dr. Nemesis, and Emma Frost’s encounter with the residents of the high class hotel (or mental bordello?) located within Cyclops’ mind.

What’s Not So Good: My only real complaint has to do with the overall structure of the series itself. I like how Fraction and Ed Brubaker are looking to explore all aspects of the X-Men (and mutant characters/enemies in general), but it seems as though it comes at the cost of a cohesive, long-term vision. While I have no doubt that they will be able to pull all the various threads together when the right time comes, it leaves each issue feeling a bit light. There is a bigger picture for mutantkind, but it feels like we only get a small feel of it with each passing month.

Conclusion: A stylish, well-written book all around, Uncanny X-Men #504 is easily the best issue of the series in quite some time. While I wish it had a little bit more meat to it, I can’t complain too much about something so thoroughly entertaining.

Grade: A-

Looking for a Response: Is it just me, or does the news report at the end of the issue feel long overdue? Seems to me as though the shockwaves of the event should have been felt a long time ago. Anyone else agree? Or is my grasp of the “X” timeline a bit off?

-Kyle Posluszny