Okay, let's start with a couple more points on the adverts before moving on.

First of all, while the quantity is still absurd this week, there's actually a marginal improvement in placement.  We no longer have a single page of story stranded in amongst five adverts.  Some shuffling has been done.  It's still nowhere near remotely acceptable, but at least it's marginally less obnoxious.  In fairness, I have no doubt that there are at least some people in Marvel's editorial offices gazing at this month's advert count with despair and trying to make the best of it.

Secondly, Joe Quesada's explanation of the situation can be found over at Newsarama, and - in plain English - boils down to "Yeah, we did say we wouldn't do it again, but when we were actually offered all the money, we thought, screw you.  Turn down adverts merely because all the pages had already been sold?  Whoever heard of such a thing?"  Interesting fact: these books were solicited at 32 pages (which must include the adverts, since the stories only ever clock in at 23).  New X-Men #32 actually shipped with 48 pages, and the extra 16 are all adverts.  Come to think of it, does that even count as conforming to the solicitation?  It's not a merely aesthetic matter - over the course of the month, it's actually a considerable extra weight, and somebody has to pick up the shipping costs.  Last year, as I understand it, Marvel dumped the whole cost on the retailers, who found themselves paying for some unexpectedly heavy comics, and getting no extra revenue in return.

Thirdly, it's been pointed out to me that if you're so minded, there's this new-fangled file-sharing technology which allows you to avoid the adverts altogether.  And it's free!  Now, personally, I don't condone copyright infringement.  But that aside, comics publishers have one big practical point in their favour when it comes to this issue: online comics are an awful format, totally lacking in portability, and requiring the reader to squint at a screen.  Obviously, the more unreadable the actual comics become, the more attractive any other option appears.  This seems an unwise line of thought for publishers to be encouraging.

Okay, with those points covered, let's move on to the advert-drenched New X-Men #32.

This is a single-issue transition story, doubling as an epilogue to the last year's storylines, and as a catch-up on what happened to supporting character Wither after he ran away several months ago.  As with most of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost's run on this title, it doesn't quite work.  There's a reasonable solid agenda behind it all, but somehow it isn't clicking.

Last year's stories were all based on an attempt to hammer home the idea that it was a new and dangerous world post-House of M, and that this title is now an action book.  Unfortunately, the writers went about that with a string of seemingly random killings, which went on far, far longer than necessary.  By the end of the year, readers were pretty much deadened to the whole thing; New X-Men had become a literal example of overkill.

Regrettably, this issue turns out to be a fitting epilogue, as the cast attempt to mourn their fallen characters, and then realise they have nothing to say about them.  Laurie Collins seems to be of interest solely as a love interest.  Icarus' mother turns up to collect his body, and spends more time talking about the early days of Cannonball.  The whole exercise feels like it's going through the motions.

Meanwhile, in his half of the story, Wither is still engaged in the traditional pastimes of adolescent mutants: living rough, and angsting.  A bit of angst is all very well.  The X-Men formula was built on it.  But god, all this boy does is angst.  Is there nothing else to him?  By this stage, the character has been around for years; surely we should have moved past this by now.  On the plus side, Kyle and Yost seem to have plans for the character.  Perhaps they'll finally move him onto something else.  But there's no immediate sign of it, and frankly, I'm just bored with this kid's whining.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with this book; the story concepts are decent enough, the characters have potential.  And it has guest art this month from the reliable Mike Norton, whose contributions are always a welcome sight.  This ought to be working, and really, all it needs is a bit of tweaking to help it bring out the characters and shake off the cloud of despondency that hangs over the proceedings.

But somehow the whole thing isn't coming to life.  It's missing that vital spark.

Rating: B-

back | continue