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Peter David and Pablo Raimondi's Madrox
miniseries wraps up, having achieved the usual results for
good Marvel titles that weren't hyped to the heavens - great
reviews, less than spectacular sales.
Interestingly, Andy Schmidt's editorial
reveals that Marvel offered to launch the book on an "if it
does well, we'll just extend it" basis. To judge from
the number of retroactive miniseries we get these days, Marvel
is doing that sort of thing a lot. And boy, it never
seems to work, does it? Schmidt turned that option down,
and he was right to do so. If Madrox was an
ongoing title, it would have done no better - it would have
bombed out even worse than Gambit, Nightcrawler
and Rogue. A swift cancellation would have
ensued.
But Madrox finishes off with an
obvious set-up for a sequel, apparently in the form of an
X-Factor revival based around Madrox's detective agency.
And if Marvel go for that, they'll be in a position to launch
that new title with a legitimate "because you demanded it"
claim. Rather than having the stigma of being a failed
title which is being relaunched (like Runaways and
She-Hulk), it gets to be an acclaimed miniseries returning
for another run. That strikes me as rather more
marketable.
The strength of the Madrox
miniseries lies more in the general approach and the take on
the character, rather than the specific stories being
investigated. The stories are perfectly decent, but
they're nothing out of the ordinary. It's David's take
on Madrox's character and the implications of his powers that
really make the book work, combined with Raimondi's ability to
sell those small character moments.
Here's the real indication of how much I
liked this book. Even though I think the line is
hopelessly overextended, and I'm desperate to see most of the
X-books axed, I'd genuinely love to see an ongoing title spun
out of this. It's one of the real high spots for the
X-books in the last couple of years - strong characters, great
ideas. Hopefully Marvel will do something with it.
Rating: A
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