11 april 1999

CABLE ties up the Sign Of The End Times three-parter this month, and once again I remain underwhelmed by Joe Casey's writing. This is the big climactic battle, and while it's well paced and helped in no small part by the sense of epic scale in Ladronn's art, I just don't go for it.

The fundamental problem that faces all stories threatening to destroy New York is that, of course, we all know New York isn't going to be destroyed. The interest comes either from the characters or from the way in which the treat is defeated. On both scores, this story comes close, but not close enough.

For characterisation, for example, we have some pretty good material in the cutaways to Stacey hiding underground and worrying about Cable's safety. But does this really take us very far beyond what we already knew? It makes sense, and it's well portrayed, but I don't get any real sense of surprise or of some new idea emerging.

As for Cable himself, we get his life flashing before his eyes shortly before his apparent death - very well shown by Ladronn, but still fundamentally a cliche. And then there's his reaction to the plot device prophecy, which said that if New York was sacrificed, Apocalypse would be saved. He pretty much brushes it aside - which is all well and good, and perfectly in character, but why bother introducing a dilemma which your character doesn't find a dilemma at all? It can hardly be said that Cable's reaction here comes as much of a shock.

So far as the method is concerned, we've got a guest starring role for the Avengers (whose only real function is to be very heroic indeed and remind us how powerful the villain is), and a conclusion in which Iron Man lends Cable his boot jets so that Cable can carry the villain away before he explodes.

Of course, credit has to be given to Ladronn for managing to avoid the pretty obvious comedy potential in that scene. But it's still silly after more than a moment's thought. Why does Iron Man waste time giving the boots to an inexperienced pilot when he could do it himself (and have a damn sight better chance of not dying in the bargain)? How does a villain so powerful that the entire Avengers team can't beat him suddenly get swept away by a muscular man with a pair of rockets?

The way Casey and Ladronn handle their story is perfectly good, but the problem is that the underlying story is pretty short on strong ideas. The best bits here are Ladronn's big, sweeping fight scenes - but it lacks anything really special to lift it above the herd.

UNCANNY X-MEN #369 isn't a great deal better, but it does give me more hope for the future. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about this issue that shows some of Alan Davis's old style glimmering through. Obviously, a glimmer is about all you can expect when he's only plotting, but this is the first issue where I've really got the feeling Davis has genuinely got a story to tell, rather than trudging through the motions of a predetermined plot.

It's not one of his best plots, not by a long way, but at least it reads like one of his. My current speculation is that this two-parter has been kind of a delaying tactic while Davis adapts to the fact that no, he really IS writing the X-Men indefinitely, and works out his future plotlines. At the very least, it's hard to imagine that the editorial office was crying out for a two-part Steve Ditko homage, and if Davis is now initiating the storylines, we may start to see a more consistent direction emerge at last.

No doubt next month's issue will be utter crap, of course, but I can dream, can't I?

This is the first issue scripted by Terry Kavanagh, a choice which raised a few eyebrows, not least because Joe Casey was passed over in his favour. Kavanagh's scripting here isn't as good as Casey's was last month, but it's still more than acceptable. He gets the characters' speech patterns pretty well, and there's even a couple of decent one-liners. The script only really seems to falter in a couple of clunky recaps, but overall Kavanagh does well here. Quite surprising, given that he's called upon to script an Irish character.

The artwork is decidedly improved from last month as well, although Adam Kubert and Tim Townsend still don't seem to be meshing as he has with previous inkers. There's something lacking in the textures. But overall, this is back up into the levels of quality I normally expect from Kubert.

Where things falter, though, is all this stuff about Ditkoesque alien dimensions and Trions, none of which really interests me greatly. The plot also reads disturbingly like a load of elements from previous stories (idyllic visions of Africa; visionquests; symbolic battles on the astral plane) strung together in a kind of Frankenstein plot of ideas, seeming rather disjointed. Something about it fails to engage me.

But the elements are in place, and in fairness, this story has been a homage to an area of comics that has never particularly appealed to me. Perhaps the upcoming time travel will be an improvement; it's at least got a decent shot.

GRRL SCOUTS is the new miniseries from Jim Mahfood, whom X-readers will remember from his Generation X Underground special. Somehow, I suspect this story might be a little less to Marvel's tastes.

This is the story of three heroic drug dealers (now there's a phrase we don't hear very often) who manage to infuriate the establishment (represented, rather arbitrarily, by Nike) by singlehandedly cornering the drugs market in Freak City. The words "completely insane" spring to mind.

Of course, the series has two strikes against it from the start. For one, it's got some pretty ridiculous cartoon politics. (Mind you, so do NATO.) For another... well, wasn't Riot Grrrl about five years ago? How long has this idea been around?

But really, it's almost impossible not to like this story. It's camp as hell, ridiculously over the top, and often very funny. Since the Grrls have somehow managed to corner the drugs market without dealing in any serious drugs at all, they're likeable characters despite, or perhaps because of, their tendencies to extreme violence. And Mahfood does work in some good character moments in the midst of the lunacy.

Grrl Scouts would have fitted in perfectly in Deadline, which is probably the best guide I can give as to whether you'll like it or not. It's totally divorced from the real world, of course, which is precisely why I like it.