16 july 2000

Hey kids, comics. Remember those? Yes, while all eyes (in the USA) are on the film, the X-books have actually published some stories this week too. For anyone who's wondering, the X-Men film doesn't come out in Britain for another month or so, and I'm not planning to review it then either (by that time, there'll be no point). So the X-Axis is, for the moment, a film free zone.

CABLE is now into the fifth month of the current storyline, and it's still holding my attention, so it must be doing something right. The underlying story Weinberg is telling is a fairly basic one, but by teasing out the details over time from what was a pretty opaque beginning, he's kept it interesting.

As I predicted a while back, we get the ending where Cable does something that invalidates both of the timelines he's meant to be deciding between, but it works rather better than I'd expected. Partly it's because this plot is made secondary to the more immediate story of Domino's attempt to kill Shire, and partly it's because it turns out not to be the end of the story after all. Rather than just removing the two future timelines from the equation altogether, Weinberg leaves us with groups from both timelines stranded in the present, turning what could have been a limp ending into a decent origin story for some new villains.

Artist Michael Ryan is doing some solid, albeit unspectacular, work here. He's been one of Marvel's favourite fill-in artists for a while due to his speed (as we'll see later on), but the monthly assignment on Cable is finally giving him a chance to show what he's capable of. He may not be as flashy as other artists, but he's a sound storyteller, and he does some very good action scenes with Cable and Domino here.

Cable may not have the touch of inspiration that marks out the really great books - after all, it's essentially a very good rendition of some stock plot ideas - but it's still a reliably entertaining book, more so than most of the line.

After the horrible misfire of the Correction storyline, GENERATION X gets back on track with the first part of its Shockwave story arc. For those of you coming in late, the three Counter-X books are all running four-part story arcs starting this month which will explain what happened in the six month gap before the Counter-X storylines began a few months ago.

Generation X's changes were more drastic than most, including the apparent death of Synch and Adrienne Frost, and the closing of the school to normal students. The latter two changes really just hit the reset button to return the team to where they were prior to Jay Faerber bringing human students in; Synch's death is the real move forward.

The strengths of the previous Counter-X arc were in the characterisation, and this storyline starts off with what's pretty much a pure character issue. The aim seems to be to emphasise just how well-adjusted and nice Synch is, partly for the benefit of new fans, but I suspect mainly because it's the reason he was chosen for the bullet. Nice guys have a tendency to finish last in Warren Ellis stories. We'll see, though.

So what we get is an issue of Everett being a nice guy, him and Monet kicking off a romance, and the team basically being normal teenagers in school. It's an Ellis storyline, but we're now onto the stage of Brian Wood plotting and scripting, and he's nailed the characters pretty well. Of course, we'll have to see what happens when the villains come along (which is where the last storyline went to hell), but for the moment this is a promising start.

There are pretty good reasons for getting rid of the other schoolkids. The big problem is that the Massachusetts Academy is a school for the rich and the elite - a concept that was fine when it was the Hellions' cover, but not so good when we're meant to empathise with the team. Let's be honest, most people just don't like rich private school kids very much, and by sticking Generation X in this environment you kind of force the audience to see them that way. If they're fitting in and functioning in this school, then they ARE private school kids, and that's not really a help. Having some normal kids around to anchor the series in reality is a plus; having THOSE kids around isn't. And of course, that's on top of the practical problems of getting the team into any stories when they don't go looking for trouble, and the other kids are bound to notice if trouble keeps coming for them.

The main villain is Adrienne Frost, presumably because Ellis needs to use her in order to kill her off. Having taken the decision to bump Emma back towards her original personality, Adrienne becomes a bit surplus to requirements as a consequence. If there's a flaw in this story, it's that Adrienne is given zero motivation for her plan to go back and kill Generation X. The story gets around this for the moment by playing her as a slightly disturbing psycho (flirtatiously explaining her plans to a corpse she's just bedded in a nicely played scene), but isn't she going to need a bit more substance to carry a four issue storyline?

Also, given that part of the remit of this storyline is to address the continuity issues, it's surprising to see no reference to the status of Artie, Leech or - most of all - Penance. They're not a top priority, of course, but they were a part of the pre-gap status quo and they need to be addressed. Penance even had an ongoing storyline, for heaven's sake.

Four inkers this month, in what looks like an ongoing quest to find somebody who can take Steve Pugh's art and Marvel it up a bit without making it look crap. The scenes with Monet and Everett seem to have nailed it - I'd take a guess, though, that those are Rod Ramos's pages, and he's rather busy to be doing this regularly. Adrienne's opening sequence is pretty good as well. The rest is alright, save for a horrible splash page in which Jubilee seems to have contracted a facial palsy of some sort.

The book is back playing to its strengths - and the strengths of its current creative team - which has to be a good thing. But the villains are coming down the line, and I'm not convinced Adrienne's going to work as the focus for a four-issue story. It could all go wrong (again), but for the moment this is the best book of the week.

MAGNETO: DARK SEDUCTION ends on a somewhat disappointing note. I'm not referring here to the much discussed editorial rewrite that deleted the explanation of who the telepath contacting Magneto was (yes, it's annoying, but it's not like it was a major plotline).

No, it looks like we're back to Magneto as outright villain, with the emphasis moving away from the moral ambiguity that makes him interesting. There's nothing wrong with having Magneto as a villain, of course, and certainly nothing wrong with giving him a win over the Avengers just to remind us how powerful he's meant to be (although having him throw these levels of power around can be a hostage to fortune the next time you need somebody to credibly beat him). But I've always been of the view that Magneto works as the X-Men's archenemy because he puts across an alternate viewpoint that actually has some merit to it. That's not altogether eliminated here, but there's way too much of Magneto as arrogant racist bastard for my taste.

Still, it gets the job done, restoring Magneto's power levels and tying up the Genoshan civil war, which I suppose is what the book was meant to achieve. It's just a shame that after spending much of the series reminding us that Magneto is arguably doing some good for this country, the final issue de-emphasises that side almost to the point of invisibility.

No Roger Cruz this month, and so instead we get art from Michael Ryan and Jorge Santamaria Garcia together with five inkers. It's certainly an improvement for the most part, although the garish (and on occasion just plain wrong) colouring remains an annoyance.

It's okay as far as it goes, but this is not the direction for Magneto that really interests me.

I've never been a big fan of Jamie Delano's work, but his HELLBLAZER: BAD BLOOD miniseries seems to be an exception.

What we have here is John Constantine transplanted to a completely different genre, namely satirical sci-fi. It's 2025, Princess Diana is the subject of a religious cult, and there's no obvious heirs to the dying King Charles. A republic looks imminent, until somebody starts circulating rumours of an illegitimate heir. Not really virgin territory for Hellblazer, but played for comedy here.

Of course, as a vision of the future of the UK it's utter nonsense. The "canonise Diana" stuff didn't last all THAT long after her death. But I'll have to admit to shameless personal bias on this count - the UK was a downright scary place to be in the aftermath of that, accompanied by a complete abrogation of all basic journalistic values which is still uncomfortable to consider, and anything which mocks the cult of personality of Our Blessed Lady In Versace is alright by me.

Maybe Delano should try this stuff more often. It's clearly not trying to be anything other than sarcastic fun, and he's been matched with an excellent artist for the material in Philip Bond. Stories like this call for the cartoon style if they're not to come across as silly, and Bond hits the tone exactly.

Great stuff, and I'm not saying that just because I hate the same things it does.