The X-Axis, 3 February 2008
Part 4 of 4

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Also this week:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: SWING SHIFT - This is the "Director's Cut" edition of the Free Comic Book Day story, which got virtually no distribution over here.  As an afterword explains, this version restores some original dialogue which was cut after Marvel figured out that it would give away upcoming storylines.  And it's a perfectly good story, although Overdrive doesn't quite work as a villain.  (Maybe I'm missing something here, but how does his power to control the car he's sitting in offer any advantage over simply driving it?)  Perhaps the most interesting bit of the issue, if you're into that sort of thing, is a five-page essay by Tom Brevoort written as a manifesto for the relaunch, perceptively analysing where the Spider-Man books lost their way.  B+

ULTIMATE X-MEN #90 - The first part of "Apocalypse", which will be Robert Kirkman's final storyline.  (After that, we're into the "Ultimatum" crossover.)  Kirkman picks up on Brian Vaughan's version of Mr Sinister in what seems mainly a concession to the fact that Apocalypse has been touched on before.  In fairness, Kirkman is certainly working with what he's inherited, but I can't help feeling he really wants to get rid of it so that he can move on to the story he really wants to tell.  And, typically of this parlour game series, Sinister goes charging after the Morlocks because, well, that's what happened in the late 1980s.  It's a strange series, this - professionally constructed, perfectly effective, and yet it feels like a collage of plot elements drawn from other sources.  To Kirkman's credit, his story still works, even while showing its influences.  B+

 

There's more from me at If Destroyed, and if you're desperate for more Article 10 columns, you can always hunt through the archives on Ninth Art.

Next week, it's back to the aftermath of "Messiah Complex" with Uncanny X-Men #495.  Plus... oh, hold on, they've rescheduled X-Force #1 to the next week.  So just Uncanny, then.

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Copyright 2008 Paul O'Brien.  This web site is a work of critical comment and review. All characters and publications referred to, and artwork reproduced, are ™ and © their respective owners.
 

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