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Hey folks, and welcome back once more! Yeah, I survived
not turning anything in last month, barely. Visiting the boss and
meeting her face to face saved my skin, most likely. Yes, that’s
right, I left the Phoenix Fortress, secluded deep in the mountains
in Vermont, and visited Texas. When visiting really cute girls
comes into the picture (Editor‘s Note: Jason isn‘t talking about
*me*), you can talk yourself into leaving the safety of your
sanctum.
But enough about me, no one comes here to read about me,
they want to read about me being annoyed at the X-Books!
Which X-Books are on the chopping block this month?
Quite a few, actually. This month, we have the thus far released
X-Men Icons miniseries. There is three issues each of Rogue
and Cyclops, and one issue of Iceman, with more of solo series
coming down the road.
The Icons series were designed to be primers to the title
characters of each series, so Marvel could give all those new
readers coming in from the X-Men movie an idea of what makes
the comic versions of the characters tick. We’ll ignore the fact
that the X-Movie was out over a year ago, thus negating most of
the worth of that endeavor.
Let’s get the least interesting one out of the way first, the one
I actually liked. Iceman, even with just one issue, is loads better
than the other two limited series. It’s a good, solid, solo story
that serves as an introduction for the title character. The art is
clean, strong, and has a good sense of flow and storytelling. It
doesn’t insult longtime fans of the character, nor does it
contradict already existing continuity. There isn’t really much
more to say about the series so far, since it is only one issue so
far, and as I said, I rather liked it. If you’re an Iceman fan, give
it a shot. It’s nothing special, but there is nothing wrong with a
good, solid story, is there?
Now, for Cyclops, which is the middle of the road for
quality. The story is good for what it is, and if you like Mark
Texiera’s artwork (which I do), then you might want to give this
book a try as well. However, Mark’s art isn’t up to his usual
standards, and the story is very derivative. It’s well written, for
what it is, but it is going out of it’s way to draw parallels and
make allusions to the classic Homeric tale, Ulysses. I’m also
thinking more and more that Cyclops just doesn’t work without
a team to lead. Sure, he’s a great tactician, and fighter, but
another of his main personality qualifiers is that he is a leader,
something that lacks here. Again, a good starting point for new
readers to get a feel for an old character, so they can know what
his deal is when reading the main titles, but nothing special.
And now for the worst of the Icons miniseries, Rogue, which
is an utter and total failure at what the Icons series are supposed
to be all about. First off, the character is at a point in continuity
shortly after joining the X-Men, which is a good idea, to let the
X-Movie people get an overview, but comics Rogue is vastly
different from movie Rogue, and this version is very much like
movie Rogue. Also, it’s placed in a point of continuity in actual
comic history, which with the movie Rogue-like powers and
characterization, also doesn’t fit. So, we have a weird
amalgamated character that doesn’t exist in either version, in a
strange limbo continuity, pissing off old fans for utterly ignoring
what has gone before, and not helping the new fans whatsoever,
because this isn’t the comic Rogue they’re supposed to be
getting to know.
All of this is rather a shame, because the characters are very
well written, and mostly conform to how they acted in the
comics at the time this is supposedly taking place during, and the
art is by one of my favorites, Aaron Lopresti, who has always
had a good, smooth, fluid style with good proportions.
If the writer had been allowed to actually write Rogue, and
place it in continuity like she wanted to, this could have been
quite a good story, even if it does fall into the trap of being a
story told in the past, and we know nothing bad can really
happen to the characters.
The Rogue miniseries would have been quite good, if it was
actually about Rogue sums the series up pretty well.
That’s enough pissing and moaning for this month folks!
There are more Icons limited series coming out over the next
few months (Nightcrawler and Archangel being two), but based
on the track record so far, I don’t have high hopes for them.
The Storm Icons miniseries has recently been upgraded to a
graphic novel, so that’s uncertain. It’s also Claremont, so I’m
more likely to check it out. Take care, and keep ignoring
Liefeld!
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