All-Star Western #9 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (story), Moritat (art), Gabriel Bautista (colors)

The Story: Hex sure has had an interesting mix of women in his life, hasn’t he?

The Review: In an era of decompressed storytelling, Palmiotti and Gray’s done-in-two style of narratives is something of a pleasant novelty.  Most of the time, they do a neat job of wrapping up their plots in the couple issues they set out for themselves, but every now and then, it feels like they cut their tale off just before it gets to fully stretch its legs, leaving it slightly unresolved, aimless, or a bit inconsequential.

That’s the feeling you get on this whole “August Seven” affair.  We only just got acquainted with the other four of these highly cultured and bigoted individuals, and before they ever execute another move, Hex and his pals (to use the word loosely) shut them down.  Obviously, the imminent danger to a ship full of immigrants required immediate action, but for all the effort Palmiotti-Gray took to build up the Seven, the Southerners prove rather weak-chinned in a real fight.  And without further ado and little sentiment, Hex and Arkham say so long to their New Orleans companions and go on their own merry way.

All-Star Western #8 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art), Gabriel Bautista (colors)

The Story: Hex discovers that on occasion, violence can be a turn-on.

The Review: The thing about genre fiction, which includes the western, is that the stories are frequently restricted by conventions.  They have certain archetypes fans easily recognize, and their plots tend to follow well-established patterns and formulas.  Breaking out of these ruts can be quite difficult, considering the limited range each genre offers.  With the western, the limits are even greater since it has restrictions on both geography and time.

This title has defied the traditions of its genre by moving the story outside the usual dusty, frontier town and placing it within urban settings.  While we’ve gotten a lot of entertainment out of observing Hex’s unique brand of “country mouse, town mouse” conflict, it’s more important to note that putting him in cities like Gotham and New Orleans means he encounters the kinds of problems we can relate to, making him more accessible to us.  It also means he has to re-discover and re-use parts of his humanity he hasn’t had to deal with in a while.

All-Star Western #7 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Well, if you’re going for a name change, “Scarface” is nothing if not apt.

The Review: You don’t get too much genuine historical fiction in comics unless some time-traveling weirdness is involved.  Even then, writers don’t do much more with the period other than use it as an excuse to put their characters in costume and maybe throw in some anachronistic gags—most of which involve utterances of modern curse words, to the shock or confusion of the antiquated people around them.

All-Star Western provides an opportunity for Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti to land in a period and stick with it for a while, exploring all the issues it has to offer.  We got some child laborers in the last story arc, and a brief foray into early Chinese-American life with the “Barbary Ghost” feature, but so far, these plotlines have only scratched the surface of the post-Reconstruction era, which by all accounts was a very volatile time for the (re)United States.

By taking Hex to New Orleans and introducing him right off the bat to the plight of immigrants under siege by Southern xenophobes, Gray-Palmiotti may be making their first, genuine attempt to deliver a more historically sophisticated tale.  That said, they don’t go much further than having the heroes express pity for innocent victims (“These people killed children!”) and the bad guys dabble in metaphor-laden bigotry (“…the human filth hits our shores with the vigor of an invading army.”).  But these are comics, after all, not socio-political treatises.

GeNext #2 – Review

Christ Claremont, Patrick Scherberger (Writers), Norman Lee (Inker), and Chris Sotomayer (Colorist)

Where to begin with this one…

For the most part, I enjoyed the debut issue of GeNext. I thought the concept was pretty solid and the characters definitely had some potential. I had hoped that issue #2 would actually give the new characters something to do. Unfortunately, I found the neat pencil art of the usual X-Men characters placed throughout the book to be far more interesting than the story of this new class of students. To keep it short, GeNext #2 feels like a very average teen television drama and nothing more.

The majority of the book deals with the relationship between Pavel Rasputin and No-Name. We get some awkward, but well written, courtship, the requisite friend moments regarding “does she or doesn’t she” like Pavel, and then some shadowy figure from the past that throws a wrench into the relationship. This is some seriously generic stuff and, to be honest, I expected a bit more anything really. At least we are introduced to something of a threat that I have to assume ties into some X-Men history, though we get very little explanation regarding that. The book hints at some sort of direction, but seeing as how this is a limited series, I can see the next issue being something of a make or break point.

The writing does elevate the generic story in a way, but too often the characters really come across as overly emotional drama queens. There is something entertaining and even cute about the interaction between Pavel and No-Name, but that aspect of the storyline takes up far too much of the book. I enjoy good dialogue and all, but too much of it feels useless and doesn’t allow for any sort of subtlety. Disappointing all around.

Fortunately, the art fairs much better than the story or writing. The colors pop, the faces are expressive, and everything is just visually pleasing. The sketches throughout the book that fill in some history and explain family ties are extremely well done and almost threaten to overtake the GeNext kids. If I have any complaints, it is that the action scenes feel a bit disjointed and characters fail to real stand out. This is a nice looking book all around.

There isn’t a whole lot more I can add to this review. This book disappointed me in a big way and I am actually confused as to who the target audience for this really is. I can’t imagine that many X-fans are looking for a teen drama when anyone could turn on the TV to find one. (Grade D+)

-Kyle Posluszny

GeNext #1 – Review

Chris Claremont (Writer), Patrick Scherberger (Penciler), Norman Lee (Inker), and Chris Sotomayor (Colorist)

The first issue of GeNext hardly breaks any new ground for the debut of a new team, but what’s here is fairly enjoyable. The story for this series is about the sons and daughters of the X-Men we all know and love and, for the most part, GeNext is off to a promising, if underwhelming start.

Right off the bat we are introduced to No Name, Rico, Becka Munroe, Olivier Raven, and Pavel Rasputin as they go through a rough training exercise lead by X-23. The scene helps to give the reader a feel for each of the characters and the personal baggage each carries. The training exercise is followed by a entertaining social scene that helps to establish the camaraderie present between the team members. That’s really all this issue has to offer, but it works well considering that these are characters with a (mostly) clean slate. I look forward to seeing the direction this team goes in and what type of threat will rise up to challenge them.

Chris Claremont’s writing does a solid job of giving each character a distinct personality, something that is especially important when introducing brand new characters. Becka’s doubt comes across as a bit annoying at times, and Rico’s hot shot act is pretty cliché, but I think that each character will wind up having something unique to contribute to this team as things become more established. My only real concern so far is that the series is supposedly only running five issues and there is absolutely no sign of any villains or threats outside of the usual mutant fearing public. I hope some actual conflict is presented in the next issue, because I could see the series feeling rushed to a conclusion otherwise.

The art team does a nice job with this book for the most part. The characters look distinct enough and the action has a good flow to it, especially the training exercise. Special mention has to go to colorist Chris Sotomayor for helping make the characters pop off the page with some nice vivid color even when the book slows down. I do wish the characters had a little more of a realistic style to them as pictured on the cover, but that is really just a minor complaint. The art style used fits both the characters and the overall light tone of the book.

Overall, GeNext is off to a good start. There is nothing in this debut issue that is particularly mind-blowing or even original, but options are fairly limited when introducing brand new characters like this. Everything is solid and entertaining enough, but I expect something more substantial next issue. (Grade: C+)

– Kyle Posluszny