28 may 2000

Now that things are settling down to normal after the Revolution, BISHOP isn't getting quite so lost in the avalanche of big new releases. On the other hand, it's still not exactly standing out, which is part of the risk of doing an X-book totally unrelated to the rest of the line.

After a few issues of wandering around meeting strange monsters (and don't there seem to be an awful lot of them for what's meant to be a future Earth?), the series is getting back to its core plot here by setting us up for Bishop's conflict with Fitzroy. That won't be starting for a couple of issues yet, however, so in the meantime there's time to meet more cute little monsters.

Two sets, in fact. There's a bunch of inarticulate Morlocks in the basement of Fitzroy's castle, which actually isn't such a bad idea, even if it does seem like a gratuitously cute reference to mainstream continuity. And there's a bunch of people up in the mountains with an assortment of deformities and unlikely physical characteristics. Some of these are rather good character designs; the dwarf with the inflated forearms works better than you'd think.

Neither of these groups get an enormous amount of screen time this issue - I mention them only to point out that this series seems to have an obsession with deformed monsters, and that doesn't seem to have much connection with the actual story. The main plot is a gathering of forces story, with Bishop putting together an army and Fitzroy pointlessly slaughtering his allies in classic mad villain style.

Bishop as army leader is a logical extension of where this book's been heading (a reversal of his role in the X-Men, with him as the legendary messiah figure from the past). Harris doesn't make as much of this as I'd have thought, however. Bishop hasn't previously been put in charge of a group larger than single figures, so you'd have thought there was some story material in how he reacts to his current situation. But instead, he's more worried about his relationship with the kid sidekick, which seems a little forced. (He's worried about the X symbol making Michael a target? What about the fact he's hanging around with the high command of an army?)

It's an alright issue, and nice to see the book moving back to its central conflict, but the fantasy tendencies are still leaving me cold.

Three months into the Counter-X X-MAN and I see where we're heading with this. It's a pretty rudimentary plot - arrogant bastards interfere with nasty universe which hits back - but presumably it's here to set up the whole "upspiral and downspiral worlds" concept, as well as providing a backdrop for Nate's new status quo to be established.

All well and good, but four months for this story arc is really pushing it. It's far from complicated, and so far, I'm not convinced there's anything here that couldn't have been done just as effectively in half the space. While his new mission statement at least gives the character some direction, this story arc hasn't actually managed to go the next step and make him interesting as well. He's an outsider and he's going to protect his tribe (ie, people). It's hardly an unlikely or ground-breaking new motivation for him, and while any direction is better than none, I'm still finding this a tad bland.

And since everyone else in this storyline is pretty much a cypher - the Gauntlet have some reasonable motivations, but none of them have been given enough screen time for the group to come across as anything more than an arrogant blob, and the villain thingy is pretty much a blank slate - there's really not much to hang onto in the way of character depth. At best, this story is laying the building blocks on which interesting stories can be built, but it's not actually all that interesting in its own right.

That's not necessarily such a bad thing; this book was spiralling so far off the rails before Counter-X that it understandably needs dragged back on course before anything particularly gripping can be done with it. Nonetheless, while it's certainly heading in the right direction, there's not really enough here to justify the space that's being devoted to it, and I find it hard to imagine that next issue is going to give us some spectacular pay-off that'll reverse my views here. It's okay, and it's serving its purpose in a reasonably entertaining way, but it's not quite there yet.

X-MEN #102, and we're still in the Neo plot. Five issues now and counting, and sing it with me, THE NEO STILL DON'T WORK.

In fairness, they don't come off as badly in this issue as they have in some recent stories. They do at least come across as credible opponents in a fight. But so far as coherent motivations, worthwhile characterisation, and just generally being in the slightest interesting to read about... Nope, the Neo still don't work.

Things get off to a promising start as we establish that the Neo have been attacking Mr Sinister repeatedly over the last few weeks. Okay, now this makes sense - Sinister actually WAS responsible for the big disaster that's supposed to have given them the impetus to go out and kill people. Sinister doesn't get to put up much of a fight here, mind you, and wheeling out major villains to suffer humiliating defeats in order to build up newcomers is a dangerous game - it wrecked the credibility of the Juggernaut forever. But okay, in fairness, this issue isn't really about Sinister, and maybe he'll get his retaliation down the line.

Problem is, and it's a big problem, if the Neo know about Sinister's involvement, they must logically know that their brief power loss was caused by Sinister and the High Evolutionary. Which means that they STILL don't have a credible or logical motivation for attacking the X-Men, since they have absolutely no reason whatsoever to blame them for what happened.

And once again, Claremont wheels out another bunch of interchangeable thug Neo to fight the X-Men, who have perfectly decent powers, but are nonetheless generic thugs. Hell, even the low-grade members of the Reavers and the Marauders could run to slightly more personality than these guys. You can't establish the Neo as interesting just by chucking completely new characters at us every week. Domina's the only one who seems to be recurring, and while there's at least something there to work with, she's hobbled by her contradictory motivations and she's still to develop any real depth beyond the stock Strong Claremont Woman.

So they're generic, they've got no personality, they're STILL not getting over as being particularly different from any other type of mutants, their motivations make no sense, and I simply don't give a toss about them. They don't work. They haven't worked since they were introduced. They show no signs of working. They're a failed idea. Time to cut losses and move on.

The issue is also marred by some bizarre and shaky storytelling. Nobody even mentions the fact that Shadowcat was captured last issue. There's no attempt to follow up on the Charlotte Jones subplot, taking place in the same building, which filled a large chunk of last issue and had no payoff. And on the more detailed level, there are some really badly handled scenes. When we see Nightcrawler in the background of Cecilia's fight scene, why is he lying around with three other characters who aren't identified and who don't even look familar, and who are never seen again? Why do Colossus, Rogue and Psylocke get big entrances to signal their arrival, yet Thunderbird just turns out to be present halfway through a scene? Did Wolverine actually get out of the building before it was sealed in the last page? (Presumably, but wouldn't it have been a lot clearer to actually SHOW HIM in the group shot in the next panel?)

To be perfectly honest, this book has now moved beyond merely not being entertaining into the realm of being actively irritating. That surprises me; at worst, I'd expected to get some obnoxious characterisation resetting from Claremont (and there does seem to be a distinct attempt to turn the clock back on Senator Kelly in this issue, come to think of it). But, maybe because this is a book I really want to be good - unlike some of the crap I review every month, where I really don't care all that much - I'm finding this thoroughly annoying. My head says to give Claremont more time, as that's always where his strengths lie. And I always try to review from the head. But my patience is running very thin.