1 august 1999

ASTONISHING X-MEN is one of those series which has been too hyped for its own good. So it's perhaps best to make it clear from the word go that anybody expecting the return of loads of obscure characters, or a major change in the direction of the X-Men, or really anything other than a scratch team fighting a villain you've never heard of, should think again.

So, with those preconceptions aside, let's judge the book on its merits. And it's mediocre stuff.

We've got a common problem here. This story is about two things. One, it's about Cyclops putting together a new team. Two, it's about the X-Men saving the Mannites from a villain. And these two threads have absolutely zero to tie them together. Taken as a whole, what's the book about? Nothing, really.

Sometimes you can get away with this if the individual threads are good enough on their own. Here, they're not, so you can forget about that one. The new team line-up, for one thing, is pretty unimaginative. Four longtime X-Men and two relatives of the team leader. Well. Since four of these heroes have worked together regularly in the past, you'd expect the focus to be on the two relative newcomers, Nate Grey and Cable. Nate does indeed get a few moments of attention, but Cable seems utterly superfluous.

If we're supposed to care about these people as our protagonists, then surely the formation of the new team ought to be a big thing. But here, it's really just a throwaway - a vehicle to get some sort of team in place so that we can trot off to help the Mannites. Which is very disappointing.

Now then. The Mannites. How to put this gently?

Nina, when she was first introduced in Onslaught: Epilogue, kind of worked. Yes, she was a bit derivative, and painfully cute, but she was so at odds with the sterile compound in which the story was set that the combination came off as surreal. It was more or less successful. When she showed up again in Hunt For Xavier, diminishing returns were setting in.

Now, we have six of the little bastards. They look different from each other, and that's about as diverse as things get. It's an overload of cute. If you've ever wanted to know what a mutant stage school kid would be like, here's the answer. There are kids on Sesame Street less vomit-inducing than this bunch.

The Mannites simply do not work. They are big, enormous failures. I cannot even say that I don't care whether they live or die. I do care. I will cheer their gruesome murders. I would personally stamp on their cutesy little faces given the chance. Until they burst.

So, what do we have? A series with characters I'm not interested in (even the ones I was interested in at the beginning) fighting to save characters I positively hate from a villain I'm not interested in. Pretty feeble.

As usual, GAMBIT provides a better example of how to do these things. Here, the Shattering (and the lead character's departure from the X-Men) is used as an impetus to get on with something rather more relevant to the series.

Admittedly, Gambit's actions here do have a somewhat convoluted rationale to them. He's decided that Professor X is either hiding something or has gone mad, and for reasons that are far from evident he apparently decides to go and ask Mr Sinister what's going on. Unfortunately, he doesn't know where to find Sinister, so he goes hunting for Marauders who might be able to help.

And that last bit is the real point of the story, as it provides an opportunity to flesh out Gambit's relationship with Scalphunter. Nicieza also dredges up the long-forgotten plot thread of Claire DeLuc and her old photo of Gambit (which was in one issue of Uncanny X-Men about five years ago). There isn't really any great mystery being revealed here, but it's good to see how this bit of Gambit's past fits in - not to mention giving Scalphunter an opportunity to have a sensible conversation with somebody for possibly the first time since the character was created.

As always, though, Nicieza hurls plot elements into the story like there's no tomorrow. On top of all this, we also get our first sight of the New Son, who gives at least a reasonable indication of what he's trying to achieve. The character is an interesting twist on the now tired idea that Apocalypse is going to be coming to power shortly and that we all need to prevent it. The New Son is resigned to the fact that Apocalypse is going to win, and is planning for what comes after. This opens up new possibilities in what had become something of a cliche, since the New Son is dealing in an area of continuity that isn't so firmly nailed down.

Also, Fontanelle finally gets around to meeting Gambit. Bucking expectations, Gambit's been expecting her since (obviously, when you think about it) one of the people she visited in previous issues told him about her. I really do like this scene. Gambit ought to be one step ahead most of the time, and it's little things like this that give him that quality.

And as well as this, there's another appearance of Courier, who plays well as Gambit's sidekick; and an intriguing lead- in to next issue's story with Sabretooth (whose appearance is justified by a marvellous little explanation playing neatly off little details from previous Marauders stories). As always, the thing that makes this series so enjoyable is that there's just so much stuff going on. Why have one good idea when you can have ten?

Now, back to one of the problem books. Since the disastrous outer space story ended, WOLVERINE seems to have been doing purely action stories. The logic seems to be to get in as much fighting as humanly possible.

It doesn't work. There's no variation of pace, no compelling plot to hang the whole thing on - it's just putting its head down, charging forward and hoping. These stories can work occasionally as a change of pace, but it's become numbing. I think this is the reason why I find Larsen's Wolverine stories grating while I thoroughly enjoy his rather less hyperactive Nova stories.

This month, for example, Guardian (both of him) is captured by AIM, and Wolverine and Alpha Flight go to rescue him. Wolverine finds Guardian, and Alpha Flight get captured. Garrison Kane pops his head round the door in the last panel. But because the story picks up halfway through, what we've actually got is Wolverine and Alpha Flight fighting AIM for an entire issue.

The use of Alpha Flight is a bit questionable as well. It's understandable that the team couldn't be left in the state they were in at the end of their last series. As that book admitted, such a large team is unwieldy to write stories about, and so Larsen has duly pared the team down to something approaching its original line-up, with the newer members sent off to Beta Flight. This makes perfect logical sense (the newer Alphans simply weren't up to scratch, and this was a recurring plot point in their series), but it does come across as trampling on the Flight's last series.

More to the point is that all of this continuity and back story has to be explained, in a very cumbersome way, by Heather Hudson narrating a flashback in the middle of a pitched battle. If you need to get this sort of information in (and here, it probably does need to be included) then this is not the way to do it.

Leinil Francis Yu and Dexter Vines produce some very striking art - there's a wonderfully composed double page spread of Wolverine finding Guardian - but there's not really very much here to work with. There IS a story in here, but the all- action issue was not the best way of tackling it.

X-FORCE gets back on track after a couple of rather shaky issues with the first part of a Genosha story. Although actually, it's not about Genosha at all.

Genosha, it seems, will be coming next issue (although even then I suspect it's being used more to serve as an anarchic location than because Moore has any intention of getting into the complex political stuff). This issue is about memory boxes, which hold a copy of somebody's memories and allow other people to experience them by opening the box.

All a tad odd, and I've grown suspicious of plot devices like this which seem to be just an excuse to say "Look! Here's a defining moment in this person's life!" instead of actually illustrating it with any subtlety. Fortunately, that's not what we get, as Moore opts for some rather less melodramatic images than I'd feared, and pretty much pulls it off, raising the thing above simple plot Macguffins (not that they won't be serving in that role too).

Pete Wisdom guest stars, and is now apparently working with other former intelligence agents to try and clear up some of the mess left over from the Cold War. Which includes something that's landed in Genosha, though it's strongly implied he has a more personal interest as well. At any rate, this certainly makes sense as something that Wisdom would take an interest in, and although his role in this story is primarily exposition, fans of the character should be happy.

It's also nice to see Magneto being kept in reserve this issue (because, let's face it, the real Genosha story is coming next issue, so why waste him now?). Instead, Quicksilver is wheeled out to get his head kicked in, in a clever fight scene that gives X-Force a plausible way of actually winning.

One blatant plot hole, though. Sunspot isn't with X-Force at the moment because he was thrown out of the USA by immigration authorities. But this story isn't set in the USA. So what's the rationale for his absence from the team? Admittedly, it leaves him free to hang around in Brazil and appear in a subplot, but it's not quite logical.

But this is really the boxes' story, and whether you enjoy it will depend mainly on whether you love or hate them. So there you go.

X-MEN UNLIMITED #24 is the last issue of the title before editor Jason Liebig's masterplan to make it a core book comes into effect. What we get for the first time here, though, is the split book format.

The lead story is Wolverine and Cecilia Reyes investigating a plane crash and stumbling across the Silver Samurai hunting down an alleged Japanese spy. And there's not very much to be said about it. Joe Pruett writes the character moments well, and I love the scratchy artwork by Pascal Alixe (which remains surprisingly consistent despite five inkers). But at heart, this is a very simple and basic story and there's not a lot to it.

In fact, it's one of those supremely inconsequential stories that X-Men Unlimited has become well known for, although it's certainly a damn sight better executed than some of the drivel that has appeared in this title. Competent is the best word for it.

The back-up strip is an epilogue to Magneto Rex. Since Magneto Rex was basically three months of set-up for future Genosha storylines, the idea of giving it an epilogue seems rather perverse. What we actually get is really a recap of the status quo in Genosha at the moment, for the benefit of those who didn't buy the miniseries.

It's not really a story as such, so much as Magneto checking in on each of his cabinet members and re-establishing his relationship with each of them for the benefit of newcomers. There's some reassuring signs of Magneto being humanised somewhat, as for the first time in a while, he indicates that Rogue's feelings for him aren't entirely unrequited. And it's drawn by Tom Raney, who's always reliable.

Nonetheless, this is a story principally of interest to those who didn't read the miniseries but would like to know where things have got to now. Again, perfectly good for what it is, but you couldn't go much further than that.

This is actually one of the better issues of X-Men Unlimited, but we all know there's not much competition there. (The first couple of issues were alright, there's a decent Sabretooth story, a couple of Ben Raab's issues were okay, and other than that...) Liebig's desire to revamp the thing is understandable, but I hope it amounts to something more than just making it a third X-Men title.