5 August 2001

Extremely quiet week this time, thanks to Marvel's unique "We don't have a clue" shipping schedules. Just Exiles #3, then, and since I've been busy working this weekend, I haven't had time to read the graphic novel I was going to do as a back-up. So we'll have a quick look at Crusades instead, and resume normal service next week.

EXILES is now on to its second alternate world, and this time they're playing off a pre-existing story. The story in question is the Dark Phoenix storyline, with the Exiles turning up on an alternate world to make sure that Jean Grey dies.

The plus point about this is that the book is opening up the possibility that, in order to set the worlds they visit right, the Exiles may have to do things they don't particularly like. Mind you, the book still goes out of its way to tell us that appalling and nasty things will result if they don't kill her, so it still seems to be working on the questionable assumption that everything is meant to be great and anything that goes wrong is some kind of flaw in the fabric of the universe.

The minus point is that the clunky mechanics of this book are all too obvious here. The characters turn up. Blink announces that they have a mission. They argue a bit about whether they can find another way, and decide that they can't, so they trot off to perform it. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's hard to see how this book is going to avoid getting into a tiresome rut at an early stage, and it's certainly going to take more than the comparatively obvious plot idea Winick is using here.

Winick also has to resort to some cumbersome explanation of continuity in order to make this idea work. He wants the Exiles to be upset about killing Jean Grey, so the issue works in a glaringly unsubtle plot explanation to the effect of "Ah, but in this reality she really IS Jean Grey." At least Winick is putting his cards on the table from the outset rather than continually moving the goalposts and using the alternate reality gimmick as a justification for that, but you can still see the strings.

Mike McKone's art is lovely, and if you're so minded you can have plenty of enjoyment from looking at his minor redesigns of the Dark Phoenix-era X-Men. The characterisation is generally pretty good as well, with the cast at least reacting credibly to this highly contrived situation once the writer has dumped them in it. The arrival of new character Sunfire - who turned up right at the end of last issue - is handled badly, though. She never shows much of a personality, and it's halfway through the story before anyone even strikes up a conversation with her; she plugs in as a generic interchangeable team member, which doesn't feel right.

This is a book I want to like, but can't bring myself to because the plot mechanics are so painfully exposed. Somewhere in here there's a decent series, but the whole Quantum Leap II gimmick isn't working for me.

Remember Steve Seagle? Used to write Uncanny X-Men? Of course you do.

Well, these days he's writing CRUSADES for Vertigo, and it's not pretty. In theory this ought to be a decent title. You've got a writer with a solid track record. You've got Kelly Jones on art, who's fundamentally quite good but has been lapsing into very odd distortions these last few years. You've got a solid starting point for a story - medieval knight inexplicably turns up in San Francisco and begins hacking up evildoers with a bloody great sword.

So why isn't it working?

The art has to take some of the blame. While Jones' alternate designs for the knight (everyone seems to see him differently) have been rather good, often the art is distracting from the story with its contorted bodies and bizarre habit of pointing the camera down people's throats. This issue isn't too bad on that score - just the one glaringly stupid mouth shot and an overweight woman drawn as a comedy blob when the ending of the story really calls for her to be an actual character. There's also a rather tiresome shot of radio presenter Marx with the camera located inside his microphone, but in fairness Jones has had to illustrate so many visually dull scenes of Marx in the same room talking for several pages that I'm not surprised he's getting desperate for variation. Radio is not exactly a visual medium.

The pacing is crawling as well, though. This is the beginning of the second story arc, and so far about the only piece of plot advancement is that Venus lost her job last issue. I've seen books before that seemed glacial in the monthly series but would probably make sense as a trade paperback. This series has now completed what would comprise its first trade paperback, and still virtually nothing has happened.

The crusades raise all sorts of interesting issues about morality and the place of religion in society, and it's frustrating to see this book taking so long to get around to dealing with any of them. There's been some hideously obvious material about a religious crimelord called the Pope, but at the end of the day, if Seagle is making any kind of point in these first six issues, he's doing it so subtly that I didn't notice.

I can live with the obnoxious characters - actually, I quite like Marx in his way. I can deal with the art. I just wish something would actually happen. It's been six months, for heaven's sake. This book is taking way too long to get anywhere, and it's not setting up much of a storyline along the way. The central premise is still strong, and this could still easily be turned around. But it really needs to pick up the pace.