review: X-Men #188-189 (2006)

Publish: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Antonio Fabela

Rating: 7/10

Mike Carey is another new writer for me, and another good find. I may be the only one, but I think this is much more interesting so far than the Uncanny X-Men relaunch. There's a good deal of action, some mysterious, powerful bad guys, some surprise and controversy, deft handling of existing storylines, good characterization and dialogue -- what more could you want in a superhero book?

I've seen other reviews dismiss this series mainly for the Chris Bachalo art, with criticisms about consistency and proportions, but I disagree. Personally, I don't see the lack of consistency, at least not any more than with any other artist, so I can't address that. As for the proportions, well, it's a much more cartoony style, more along the lines of Arthur Adams than Neal Adams, so sure, it doesn't look like your artist's anatomy book, but that doesn't make it bad. It's a stylistic thing, which reasonable people can like or not, but I don't think you can criticize the style for what it is. Of course, the art's not perfect, and I would fault him for, on almost every book I've seen of his, drawing at least a couple of completely inscrutable panels, where I literally have no idea what I'm looking at. And there's also a tendency for ultra-heavy shadows, which can further make some scenes hard to read. But in general, I find Bachalo's art fun and dynamic, and a nice change from all the "realistic" stuff out there.

Overall, fun, well-done superhero fare. I'll definitely see it through.

review: Uncanny X-Men #475-476 (2006)

Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Billy Tan, Danny Miki, Frank D'Armata

Rating: 4/10

Considering how much I'm enjoying Brubaker's work on Daredevil, I had high hopes that this new team was going to give me a reason to be interested in the X-books again. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. The first two issues of the twelve issue "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" story arc were a complete borefest.

The first issue in particular was a complete mess. It seemed to be just a series of excuses for why Brubaker's pet characters, many of whom are appearing totally out of the blue, need to be part of the team. I'm not opposed to switching up the team, and when you have so many good characters at your disposal, it's arguably worse to not use them enough, rather than to swap them around too often. However, this switch up felt too forced, a feeling which was reinforced by the lame explanations for why these characters were suddenly showing up. It would have been better to not try to explain it at all; just bring all the X-Men into a room and assemble a team like you're picking players for a pick-up basketball game. It's just as reasonable, without the downside of wasting a whole issue on tedious justifications.

On the art side, I can't quite put my finger on the problem, but it just doesn't come together for me. I've tried to like Billy Tan before, and he's done some good stuff, even in these issues, but he doesn't do it consistently. I think the problem is that it feels like Image-lite. It's as if it wants to be Lee or Silvestri, but it misses the mark just enough that it becomes distracting, and thus maybe seems worse than it actually is.

I also can't stand the coloring style D'Armata is using here. I'm sure this is a conscious decision, since he doesn't always color this way (his coloring on Daredevil is completely different, and I even cited it as an asset on that book). Everything looks way too shiny, particularly the people. It's as if they all just took a bath in baby oil. It's downright disturbing. The coloring alone is almost reason enough for me to stay away from this book.

Overall, if you're a die-hard X-Men fan, I don't think there's anything here you will object to, and you may even be excited by the reappearance of some under-utilized characters, but for the rest of us, there's not much here to recommend. I may give it another issue, in case it was just a very poor start, but I'm not looking forward to it.

review: Moon Knight #1-3 (2006)

Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Charlie Huston
Artists: David Finch, Danny Miki, Frank D'Armata

Rating: 7/10

I don't know if I've ever read anything by Charlie Huston before, but I'm quite impressed with this first (for me) showing. He's done an excellent job crafting an interesting, and intense, rebirth of this character. The story is well-written and nicely structured, starting with a lot of intrigue, and then revealing more and more information about where Moon Knight has been and what he's up to now. At the same time, each issue, even the first, where we know almost nothing about the "big picture", stands on its own as a satisfying read.

If I had a story gripe, it might be the "gay thing" in issue #3. Maybe there's some forthcoming storyline where Huston needed to establish that character's sexuality, but I suspect it was just meant to be something shocking or controversial. But really, it's 2006. Are gay characters shocking anymore? And even if they are (e.g. all the Batgirl coverage), it's certainly less so for supporting characters. It feels forced and contrived here. Maybe he just needed something for these characters to talk about for a few pages. But worse than that, it's basically saying Moon Knight is an idiot for not realizing it, even after all these decades, and despite it apparently being obvious to everybody else.

I doubt that was Huston's intent, but that's the trouble with things thrown in just to shock -- they rarely make sense when you look passed their shock-value. I hope Huston isn't one of those writers who thinks these kinds of gimmicks are necessary to tell a "cool" or "realistic" story. The story is plenty interesting already. There's no need to "punch it up" with artificial controversy.

I've seen David Finch on a few other books, and I think his art here is about the best I've seen it. I've heard other people complain about various aspects of his work, but I don't have any serious gripes. It's classic Image-style, highly-rendered, muscle-bulging, butt-kicking, superhero fare, by one of the current best practitioners of that style. If you like that, you'll definitely like this book.

One other point worth mentioning. There is some really gruesome stuff in here. As in, those with weak constitutions might want to keep a barf bag handy when reading. I'm not objecting to it, just warning about it, although personally I think the story would be just as good without being quite so graphic (ugh, I feel so old saying that).

Overall, a very promising start to a hard-edged superhero adventure.