14/11/99

Counting the late books from previous weeks, we could have expected nine X-books this week. We're getting one. Admittedly, this doesn't seem to be purely an X-books problem - Marvel as a whole are running slow at the moment. But what on earth's going on here?

Anyhow, the one and only survivor is X-MEN: HELLFIRE CLUB, emerging a comparatively timely one week late.

There are broadly two types of X-Men miniseries that would never see the light of day if it wasn't for the X-Men link. First, there's the titles so catastrophically abysmal that nobody would dare commission them if it wasn't for the guaranteed completist sales. (The Beast is a classic example - one of the worst minis Marvel have ever published and they must have known it.) Second, there's books like this - strange little deviations from the superhero genre which Marvel hope can be palmed off on a superhero audience through the X-Men link.

The X-Men presence in this is next to nil... well, no, it actually is nil. In fact, the Hellfire Club aren't in it either. What you get is the first part of a history of Sebastian Shaw's family, which as of this issue hasn't got around to forming the Club yet. Given that Raab only has three issues to play with here, devoting the entire first issue to the Salem witch trials seems a bit strange, but perhaps the logic of the pacing will become more apparent in the remainder of the series.

The year is 1692, and Hiram Shaw is the minister in the town of Salem (replacing the original minister who has already been strung up for looking a bit shifty in low light). His son Obadiah is seeing Abby Harkness against his wishes, which is of course heavy on the irony since Abby's probably the only suspected witch in the town who actually is one, and Hiram wants to stop it. That's the plot, and fairly standard Salem stuff it is, so far.

The twist is that Hiram himself is a sorceror too. Quite what he's up to is left rather ambiguous. He claims that he's trying to stop Dormammu from interfering any further with the minds of the people of Salem. This is a handy thing for the plot, although it's an idea I have difficulties with. Surely the power of the Salem witch trials - and therefore the reasoning behind setting the story here - is that they're an indication of the sort of bastard horrible things people will do to one another given half a chance. If you chalk it all up to demonic influence, then what's the point? That demonically influenced people will do nasty things?

Anyhow, Hiram is supposedly here to stop Dormammu from interfering any further with Salem, and while he does seem to be holding the line fairly effectively, he isn't doing much to get rid of Dormammu. He's become more concerned with holding his position of social influence, and in the way of such stories, this rebounds on him when he's unable to stop Obadiah and Abby escaping.

It's a nice enough little story, although quite what it's got to do with the Hellfire Club besides the presence of a couple of Shaws isn't immediately apparent. No doubt this is coming next issue - surely Raab wouldn't have devoted an entire issue to this if it wasn't going to be crucial to the plot, especially given he originally pitched the series at double the length.

The framing sequence, incidentally, is Irene Merryweather investigating the Salem witch trials for some kind of journalism piece she's writing. The framing sequence is the issue's weak point, as Irene gets told the story by a priest so spectacularly melodramatic that he must have special effects in his sermons. "Reckon well the tale I will unfold for ye"? In 1999? I think not.

Charlie Adlard's art carries the story well, with some particularly good sections in the sorcery sequence, which gives him a chance to show off. He does a rather good Dormammu, who in the hands of many artists just looks like a low-rent spandex-wearing thug who's had an unfortunate accident with the paraffin. But his variant sorceror supreme costume for Shaw is also a nice piece of design. And sequence with Shaw waking to find his wife dead and covered in spiders next to him is excellent.

Anyhow, the first issue is a perfectly decent story, but one that doesn't have a great deal to say about Salem or, really, much obvious relevance to the Hellfire Club (besides a brief flash-forward routine with Dormammu). A lot will depend on whether this is going to fit neatly in with the rest of the series or whether it turns out to be an awful lot of space given over to something on the fringes of Hellfire Club history. It's a decent start, though.

M.REX is Joe Kelly and Duncan Rouleau's new creator-owned series from Image. The premise, basically, is that machinery has been steadily evolving and has now developed a collective consciousness that leads it to threaten the world. (The word "internet" isn't specifically mentioned that I can recall, but it's pretty obvious where that bit's coming from.)

The big surprise is Rouleau's art. His previous work for Marvel produced a rather mixed reaction, with his stylised and distorted figures proving a bit much for some more conservative tastes. And to be honest, at times they had a point. For this issue, though, Rouleau has shaved off the more extreme aspects of his style, and instead produces something distinctive but rather easier on the eye. With the aid of far sharper colouring than he ever enjoyed at Marvel, he looks magnificent.

Our main characters are, as per genre requirement, a precocious kid, an initially unsympathetic actress, and a professional and somewhat weary robot-fighter type. This is verging dangerously on "seen it before" territory, and certainly we're not breaking any new ground here.

Nonetheless, it does read very well, pitching itself nicely at a level of mild silliness. The agent has a partner with an obsession about monkeys, there's a beautiful opening sequence with two household appliances squabbling as they get fitted with limbs, and the whole thing is just generally fun. It's not noticeably about anything in particular; it's just big, widescreen epic silliness.Which of course is a good thing. For all that it's a definite genre book, it knows the right buttons to press. Give it a look.