Exiles (2001 Series) #59

February 5, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: A Tooth For a Tooth

Back on Blink’s homeworld, the Exiles face an unthinkable mission!

Writer: Tony Bedard
Art: Mizuki Sakakibara
Colors: JC
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Mike Marts
Cover Art: Mizuki Sakakibara
Publisher: Marvel Comics

As much as I love Tony Bedard’s writing, I’m the first one to say it’s taken him some time to get his footing on this title. With this issue, it feels like he’s finally nailed it. Too many of his previous arcs have felt like stock stories with the Exiles plugged in, with only the running subplot about the increasingly erratic Timebroker to hold things together.

This issue that subplot takes the forefront as the team returns to Blink’s home, the world of the Age of Apocalypse. We find out what happened to her during the months she was missing from this title and see how that world has progressed. This book is billed as a tie-in to the upcoming Age of Apocalypse miniseries, but this first issue at least stands on its own perfectly well. We delve very deeply into some of our main characters and the team finally does something proactive, rather than just being tugged along from world to world and following the Timebroker’s edicts.

Even when Bedard was struggling, the problem was never that he was telling bad stories. The problem was that the stories didn’t necessarily feel tailor-made for the Exiles. To be fair, this is an inherent limitation in the concept – it’s kind of like the show Quantum Leap. When the premise of the series is that your characters go from timeline to timeline attempting to fix problems, it’s difficult to tell stories that are about the characters and not about the world itself. By returning to Blink’s home, this issue the title finally starts pull it off.

Mizuki Sakakibara’s artwork is top-notch, as always. She has a real candle not just on the characters, but on the storytelling aspect. She knows how to lay out a page to best compliment the script, and she gives us a really great cover.

This issue serves as a prologue to a two-issue “Son of Apocalypse” arc that will hit the series in March. If the next two issues are as solid as this one, it’s safe to say that Bedard is finally making it his own.

Rating: 8/10

Cable and Deadpool #41

June 10, 2007

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Fractured Part Two
Rating: T+

As the Hecatomb battle ends, Deadpool arrives at the ruins of the battle.

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Reilly Brown
Inks: Jeremy Freeman
Colors: Gotham
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Nicole Boose
Cover Art: Skottie Young
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This book picks up right on the heels of X-Men #199. Rogue has absorbed the minds of the Hecatomb, Sabretooth is free and causing havoc, and Deadpool is ready to have a little fun. This issue is pretty good, and is considerably better than the main story it’s crossing into. (In fact, having read this, I finally understand exactly what happened in X-Men.)

Much of the issue is concerned with Cable ruminating on the “death of his dream,” while a far more interesting segment deals with Deadpool fighting off Sabretooth long enough for Domino and one of the survivors of the massacre to escape. For the first time in months, Cable and Deadpool get more or less balanced amounts of screen time this issue, and their stories even wind up converging.

Reilly Brown and Jeremy Freeman do an okay job on the artwork. The Deadpool/Sabretooth fight is particularly good, while the rest of it is effective enough to tell the story, if nothing spectacular.

This is a pretty solid issue, and like I said, it actually helps clarify the X-Men storyline, so if you’re still scratching your heads over that mess, picking up this book can only help you out.

Rating: 7/10

Wolverine (2003 Series) #52

March 26, 2007

Quick Rating: Okay
Title: Blood on the Wind Chapter Three
Rating: Parental Advisory

Wolverine and Sabertooth fight each other… in Wakanda!

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Pencils: Simone Bianchi
Inks and Washed Halftones: Simone Bianchi & Andrea Silvestri
Colors: Simone Peruzzi
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Axel Alonso
Cover Art: Simone Bianchi
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Previously in this title, Wolverine and Sabretooth fought. This issue: Wolverine and Sabretooth fight… in Wakanda. A subtle difference, to be certain. Apparently the new queen, Storm, summoned Wolverine there to show him something they found at an archeological dig, and his slugfest with Sabretooth simply continued along the way.

Honestly, I don’t know how to feel about this story. Ostensibly, this will finally settle the question of the relationship between the two characters once and for all, but so far we haven’t really seen much other than fighting, flashbacks to previous fighting, talking about fighting, and fighting. Okay, when you’re dealing with Wolverine, especially with Sabretooth in the mix, you’ve got to expect some fighting, but there has yet to be any real substance to go with it. The Black Panther and Storm are pretty incidental to this story, and only seem to be included because of the reveal at the end, which was found in Wakanda, which could have been placed at virtually any other point on the globe except that the creators wanted to include the Black Panther and Storm.

Simone Bianchi’s artwork is… okay. Frankly, I think the art style works far better on covers rather than in sequential storytelling – it makes for a good piece of art, a good static image, but there are several scenes where I feel it simply doesn’t tell the story that well.

I’ve heard mixed reactions on this storyline – a lot of fans seem to love it, a lot seem to hate it. I fall squarely in the middle – it’s not terrible, but it’s not really crying out for a recommendation either.

Rating: 6/10

X-Men (1991 Series) #194

December 26, 2006

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Primary Infection Part 1
Rating: A

A plague is about to be unleashed.

Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Humberto Ramos
Inks: Carlos Cuevas
Colors: Edgar Delgado
Letters: Cory Petit
Editor: Andy Schmidt
Cover Art: Humberto Ramos
Publisher: Marvel Comics

As Rogue’s team searches for the truth about the mysterious Pan, the Beast continues his examination of a stranger who dropped dead outside of the gates of Xavier’s. Meanwhile, a plague is in the works that could threaten all mutantkind.

Mike Carey still seems like an odd choice for the X-Men, but he’s definitely brought his own flavor to the title. The opening scene in the bar includes some dialogue that’s incredibly Carey-esque, and he’s culled some very unusual characters to join the team (and I don’t just mean Sabertooth and Mystique). Sometimes the weirdness works, sometimes it doesn’t. There’s a character, for example, who calls himself a “reverse Typhoid Mary,” but as far as I can tell, he’s exactly like Typhoid Mary.

Humberto Ramos, likewise, is an odd choice, but I think he’s a better match all-around. He has a good feel for basic superhero storytelling and most of his character designs work as well. I particularly like his version of the Beast, right down to the bow tie.

I give Carey credit for trying something a little different with the X-Men – not enough writers are willing to do that. In execution, it’s a mixed bag of stuff that fits and stuff that doesn’t.

Rating: 6/10

Wolverine (2003 Series) #15

May 16, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Return of the Native Part Three

As Wolverine and the Native canoodle in the woods, Sabertooth tries to hunt her down.

Writer: Greg Rucka
Pencils: Darick Robertson
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti & Tom Palmer
Colors: Studio F
Letters: Rus Wooton
Editor: Axel Alonso & Warren Simons
Cover Art: Darick Robertson
Publisher: Marvel Knights

It took Greg Rucka’s writing to get me to read Wolverine, and as much as I’ve enjoyed this series overall, this last story arc isn’t quite grabbing me the way the first few have. Wolverine has hunted down a woman called simply “The Native,” who he finds he has a lot in common with, and I don’t just mean the sleeping skins they share in her cave. After the canoodling is over, Wolverine remembers that Sabertooth is out there looking for this girl, and he’s got to get her out somehow.

I think the part of this story I’m having trouble with is the idea that there’s a “native” woman running around with the same claws as Wolverine – it’s a pretty unique mutation, at least in the form he has it, and the fact that this girl has the same claws is a little farfetched to me. Plus, the story seems to hinge on the old Weapon X storyline, which isn’t a period of Marvel Comics history that really holds any interest for me. Still, that’s my problem, not a problem with the writing, so don’t take off too many points for that complaint.

Darick Robertson is the perfect penciller for this title. He draws the best out-of-costume Wolverine I’ve ever seen. He makes him look gruff and grizzled, without losing the compact size that makes him stand out amongst other superheroes.

It’s too bad that Rucka will be leaving the book at the end of this storyline, because he’s really made Wolverine an entertaining character to me. Very few people have done that, and this issue particularly ends in a fashion that leaves me completely flabbergasted, because I simply have no idea where he’s going to take the storyline. How many comic books can you say that about these days?

Rating: 7/10