8 August 1999

Well, you might have expected UNCANNY X-MEN to pick up on the Shattering, and I suppose it kind of does. It looks like the Shattering is going to be used as a way of letting the two X-Men books have some kind of seperate identity again, with each covering a different faction of the team.

Uncanny has drawn what might perhaps be viewed as the short straw of Colossus and Marrow. Peter, solid though he is, has never really been the most gripping of heroes, and Marrow is such a dreadful mess these days that any story focusing on her is in real difficulties from the start. Nonetheless, there's something quite appealing about this issue, in a "nothing really happening" kind of a way.

Well, that's not entirely true - what happens in this issue is that Marrow finally gets the hang of withdrawing the bones sticking out of her head so that she can go out in public without a disguise, and then Peter takes her to an art gallery. Where she meets a painter with the rather grating name of Zone and has a nice chat.

Honest, that's basically it for this issue. Sure, the bones stick out again at the end and she has to make a break for it, but really this story is about getting Marrow out there into the real world and trying to get her functioning as a relatively sane human being. Here the story pretty much succeeds, and given the dreadful state the character has been in, that's a worthwhile achievement.

It's obviously been decided that we're just going to turn a blind eye to Marrow's period as a terrorist and serial killer, and infuriating though this is, that's something I suppose we're just going to have to learn to live with. For the moment, the character is being played as damaged rather than evil, which is fair enough in its way, and even though she's pretty hard to reconcile with her earlier appearances, her recent stories have at least been consistent in themselves. It's not ideal, but I suppose there's no point hoping for anything more. (It goes without saying that in an ideal world, her past would be addressed or she'd be written out.)

The B plot concerns Mikhail Rasputin recruiting Colossus' aid to "re-make the world the way it should be", which seems to primarily involve bringing Magik back to life. Poor old Mikhail obviously has very narrow horizons. I'm a bit sceptical about this, not so much because I've always been against bringing Illyana back (I don't really think it's going to happen) but because it's a Mikhail Rasputin story. Mikhail's got a pretty dire track record of appearing in good stories, and it's hard to get too optimistic about anything that involves his return. Still, we'll worry about that next month.

Adam Kubert produces some absolutely wonderful art, particularly in the opening dream sequence and Mikhail's appearance as a ghost in the art gallery. He doesn't actually draw the entire issue, but the filler art on the final few pages isn't too jarring, all things considered.

Anyhow, a decent enough story - talky, but pleasant in its way.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION ends this week. Well, that one was met with a resounding silence, wasn't it?

I'd like to say that was a shame, but to be honest, this was a pretty mediocre series, livened up by the stylish art of Pat and Alvin Lee, but without much substance underneath. Somewhere in there, there's a reasonably interesting dilemma for the Punisher (he can't allow himself to die until he's redeemed himself so that he can get into heaven, so is he willing to murder Revelation to ensure that he gets that chance?), but it hasn't really come off.

What we've had, in effect, is four issues of Wolverine and the Punisher running around tunnels fighting manga robot rejects. For all that it's been atmospheric, it's quickly become monotonous, and there's not much to this final issue that pulls it back together again. And at the end of the day, there's no real reason for Wolverine to be in the story at all.

What can you say, really? It's not one we'll be talking about much in future, and it's barely one we're talking about now.

Generation X writer Jay Faerber gets a crack at writing NEW WARRIORS with the book's relaunch this week. His love of the characters is pretty obvious, and we all know that the title retains a devoted fanbase. Still, it goes without saying that in the current market, the pressure is on to grab an audience early. So what's the angle?

Well, it's funny. I mean, it's not a comedy book, but it IS funny. It doesn't take itself seriously. Sure, it's got the villains, and it's got the characterisation that works so well for Faerber in Generation X, but what makes the story work for me is simply that it makes me laugh. It's all in the timing.

The first issue is naturally devoted to Speedball putting the team back together, and ending up with something more or less recognisable as the New Warriors, complete with a couple of new members. I'll come to them in a minute.

In theory, the story also involves them fighting Blastaar, but really it doesn't. Blastaar's just a pretext to get them all together, and he seems to have been selected largely because he's the sort of villain who can always show up when required to create a helpful fight without needing to burden the plot by actually giving him any kind of real plan. He's the generic villain, really, but it's pretty successfully disguised, and the book gets away with it.

The book also more or less gets away with the hefty coincidence count that gets all its characters together in time for the big fight - two characters just happen to drop by the headquarters before the team get a call for help, another just happens to be passing and overhears the distress call on her radio, and Aegis rather implausibly gets dragged into the plot when Nova gets punched halfway across the city and lands in his neighbourhood. Still, somehow the book's so good-natured you don't really mind any of this.

On the whole, Faerber manages to sustain the right balance between jokes and proper characterisation. A lot of Speedball's recruitment drive is played for laughs, but his desperation to try and put his social circle back together again is obvious. There's an absolutely wonderful moment near the end where the team are discussing what to do with the defeated Blastaar, and after everyone else makes the usual suggestions, Aegis very politely and hesitantly asks why they don't just kill him. Not only is this very funny, it's a great character moment.

Since this is supposed to be mainly a review of X-books, I ought to say a few words about Bolt, last seen as a supporting character in Maverick and rather surprisingly drafted in as a new team member here. In fact, Chris Bradley's decision to make a career as a superhero despite being hampered by an increasing lack of control over his powers, not to mention not having anywhere to live, is a sensible continuation from what had been shown in that series, and his unfortunate domestic circumstances (which he doesn't share with anyone else on the team) are an interesting plot in themselves.

Steve Scott and Walden Wong give the artwork a suitably clean look, fitting in nicely with the tone of the story. It's all bright colours and clear storytelling, just the way it should be. There's a few shaky moments - notably the first couple of pages with Speedball fighting Boomerang, where the villain manages to throw a projectile at right angles to the direction of his hand, looking very odd indeed - but the overwhelming majority of the book looks great.

Sure, there's nothing particularly groundbreaking here, but this is a solidly entertaining issue, well worth picking up.