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Frankly, I wasn’t expecting to come back to ranting about
the Rogue limited series, but that last issue was rather
spectacularly bad. My original comments stand, though. The
art is good, the story is well told, but these characters don’t exist
anywhere in any form of Marvel history.
Series like this suffer from one major flaw, and that is since it
takes place in the past, there’s no real danger. Even less-so
than usual, since the status quo is rarely, if ever, changed in the
mainstream comics. If the story is well done, and gives us some
new insight, I don’t mind though.
A minor quibble to start with: Rogue and Nightcrawler
playing with modern cell phones and making internet jokes. This
is only a little thing that bugs me, because this story takes place
at a timeframe around the early ‘80s when no one but total
geeks knew about the internet, and cell phones weren’t very
portable yet. Yeah, I know, Marvel’s sliding timeline, but when
they point it out in such a blatant fashion, it just twinges the back
of my brain.
The story ends in fairly standard fashion, and Rogue is at a
point with her powers she’s never been at, even today, and we
get an appearance by Jean Grey.
Yes, Jean Grey.
The longtime X-Fans out there should be well aware of what
is wrong with this picture. Maybe even those who’ve read last
month’s column. Excuse me, but shouldn’t Jean be, oh, forty
issues DEAD by this point in time? Ok, believed to be dead
and actually in a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay, not to
return for about 30 more issues. This one simple event causes
this series to totally jump the continuity tracks, and crash into a
burning wreck.
I was, however, amused by the new mutant shown here, a
young boy being checked out by Jean Grey in an infirmary, with
pyrokinetic abilities, named Jason.
Speaking of series being set in past continuity, anyone else
heard of that new limited series from Marvel, Origin? I heard its
sales were doing pretty decent numbers. Yeah, right, it’s
Marvel’s top seller right now. If you haven’t heard of it, crawl
out from under your rock, and get off the internet. This thing has
even made mainstream news sources.
So far, I love this series. Paul Jenkins is a highly capable
writer, and the collaboration with Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas
(and likely others) has not hindered the writing quality of this
book at all. The art is absolutely gorgeous. I am no big fan of
whichever Kubert is doing this series, but he is definitely doing
some of his best work here, and some of the best work I’ve
seen in a long time, period. The colouring, using the new
computer technique of going straight from uninked pencils, much
like is being done on X-Treme X-Men, is just beautiful.
Be warned though, this is not your typical comic book story.
Believe me, that is an understatement. No spandex, very little
display of powers, and set back during the late 1800s . . . The
best way to describe the first issue is "The Adventures of
Loganberry Finn."
If you’re looking for something a little more literary from a
comic, especially one from Marvel, don’t miss this . . . er, right, this
is kinda sold out and going for seventy bucks a pop on Ebay.
Don’t miss the inevitable trade paperback, then. Or the several
reprints coming over the next few months. Or the hardcover
edition they’ll be putting out. I think you get the idea.
I had planned to air out some complaints in regards to New
X-Men this month as well, but I think I’ll save those for next
month, when the conclusion to the current storyline will be in my
hands. Oh wait, I‘m assuming that New X will be out a month
after the last issue, my mistake. Plus, a little bitching about my
comic store will surely come up.
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