Comics: Week in Review
OK, I decided to give this weekly “comics-I’ve-read” review thing a try, and this looks like a good week to start, since I only bought 2 comics. Here we go then….
Demo #2: Emmy (Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan)
So this is the second of a series 12 stand-alone stories, all united by the theme of Ordinary People with Superpowers. The first issue was a little spare on story for me; it was an interesting vignette, but didn’t feel like there was much structure to it, no rising conflict or resolution. It was more of a “beginning” that didn’t lead to a real “middle” or “end.” It wasn’t a bad issue, just somewhat mediocre. Considering these are supposed to be stand-alone stories, that kind of put me off. I wasn’t sure If I wanted to read 12 consecutive dangling ends of interesting narratives. However, the artwork was interesting, and the premise of the series intriguing enough for me to give it a further chance.
The second issue takes the strengths of the first issue (strong sense of character, even in limited space, unique artwork, and engaging premise) and builds on top of them with a truly self-contained story that works as a complete narrative. The ending to this issue is open, like the first one was, but it’s a more satisfying open ending. It feels like something has been accomplished by the character this time around, whereas all the decisions had been made by the first page of the inital issue, and the characters just ran their course.
Emmy, the main character of this issue, is a sullen young girl who works at a gas station in a dead-end rural suburb. She hasn’t talked to anyone in a long time,s he informs us, because bad things happen when she does. The details of her life and her past are revealed slowly through her interactions with her present situation, in a very natural-feeling way. The sadness and guilt of her circumstances are illustrated with effective scenes and quiet revelations that drive home her emotional state subtly and simply.
I’m looking forward to the next few issues of this, as Emmy’s story seems to have corrected every complaint I had about the first story. Hopefully this issue is a better indication of the direction of the series, with more “finished” stories than vignettes. I’m also looking forward to seeing Becky Cloonan’s art evolve; she’s said she’s trying to do a unique style for each story, and while her core “look” has been there in each issue so far, her technique is different and lends a different “feel” to each story.
New X-Men #152: Here Comes Tomorrow, Part 2 (Grant Morrison and Mark Silvestri)
I’m not sure how I feel about this storyline yet. I want to see it tie up all the loose ends of the past two years worth of this series, and it looks like that’s what Morrison is working towards, but he’s doing it in a way that’s a little roundabout and sometimes frustrating. This issue and last issue have had the challenge of setting up a dystopian future world, introducing new characters (or new situations for old characters) and keeping the story more interesting that just 22 pages of “setup.” It’s been half successful in my mind. The beginning of this issue, depicting the fall of the Proud People and Tom Skylark’s escape with the Phoenix Egg, is a perfect example of the difficulty of this undertaking. The first few pages of this comic deals with an entirely new cast of characters, the Proud People, who are introduced, see some action, and are all killed more or less immediately, with no time for the reader to understand or care about them.
The ideas and plotline of this story are so far engaging, and the big revelations here are definitely keeping the audience on their toes, but I feel like the execution is a little looser than it should be. The reveal of the villain’s true identity makes sense, given what’s happened in the past stories, but it leaves a lot of questions that’ll have to be clarified in the next two issues for this to feel really satisfying. Also, it seems like this reveal might come very close to mimicking the big Magneto/Xorn reveal from issue 146, if it’s not handled right. There is however, some speculation that this character has a few more layers to peel off before we know what’s really going on.
One thing I missed in this issue is more of the “present” action between Scott and Emma that finished off the last issue. In my mind, that’s where the real meat of the story is, and what will relly determine the future direction of the series after Morrison leaves. Of course, this is all assuming that the next writer (or Morrison) doesn’t just hit the cosmic “reset” switch and erase all the changes that’ve been made. That would be a true shame, after the series has had a firm, re-vitalizing kick in the pants. And with Marvel announcing an “X-Men Reload” in the near future, things are looking bleak for the series, post-Morrison.
Oh hey, and what was up with the telepathic whale that showed up in exactly one panel? What the fuck?
Next week: X-Static #18
