This week's obligatory Chuck Austen book is Uncanny X-Men #428.  Is it just me or is there something seriously wrong about the perspective on that cover?  I know it's deliberately exaggerated, but it just seems wrong.  There's something inconsistent about it.  Shouldn't those feet be smaller?

Anyway, this is a flashback story serving as a prologue to Austen's next storyline, "The Draco."  Basically, it's intended to fill in some of the blanks in Nightcrawler's origin story, specifically by identifying his father.  Austen's high concept is to establish that Kurt's father actually is a demon, namely Azazel.  Yes, alright, they don't come right out and say he's a demon, but for god's sake, Azazel's a well-established demon name, he comes from "La Isla De Demonas", and he's got red skin, a goatee, pointy ears and a tail.  This, presumably, is the essential plot element that's needed for the upcoming storyline.

Or, viewed from another perspective, it's a whopping great retcon.

So, is it a good idea?  Well, that depends on where Austen's going with it, so get back to me in a few months time.  As a general rule I'm very sceptical about doing full-blown magic stories with the X-Men; it's not a theme that really has much resonance for most of the characters and it has little to do with the themes of the book.  But it can work - just ask Magik.  In Kurt's case, it's not entirely without foundation in the character.  And given Austen's obsession with religion, bringing in a demonic side to a Christian character is not necessarily out of line with the themes of his book - though whether the world really needs more Chuck Austen stories on religion is a debatable point, to put it mildly.

The main character this issue is Mystique, during her "living in a German castle" phase.  I have reservations about this entire set-up, which I'll get back to in a moment.  They're not really Austen's fault, since he's saddled with them from earlier storylines.  In fairness, Austen does at least finally come up with a perfectly good explanation of how Kurt managed to survive being chucked off a cliff as an infant, something which has niggled for a while.  Mind you, Austen's chosen to bring up all this stuff again, and the problems of the history come with the package.

Basically, the story Austen wants to tell is Mystique in what seems to be a loveless marriage with a nice baron, Christian Wagner, whom she only married for the money.  Mystique wants kids but Christian's infertile, so there's an in vitro fertilisation subplot.  Azazel turns up in human form and does the seducing demon routine.  You get the general idea.  The basic approach is fair enough, leaving aside for the moment the question of whether it's a good idea to do this story at all.  Female characters are not Austen's strong point, and Mystique's actions do seem rather forced here.  I can't help noticing that all of Austen's women seem to be exclusively obsessed with sex, relationships and (where applicable) motherhood.  A Y-chromosome seems to be a prerequisite for having a storyline revolving around any other subject.  His Mystique, unfortunately, fits neatly into this pattern.

The real credibility problems, though, come from the set-up that Austen's saddled with by continuity.  The opening page claims, rather implausibly, that this is taking place "20 years ago."  I'd place Kurt's age a little higher than that, but whatever - we'll take it as a ballpark figure.  So we're expected to believe that this story is happening in West Germany in 1983.

The quaint, servant-filled castle occupied by a Baron is itself a bit of a stretch, but in itself, it just about squeezes through.  Credibility collapses altogether, however, when (in compliance with continuity) Austen presents us with the obligatory torch-wielding lynch mobs.  Torches, for christ's sake.  You can't seriously expect us to buy this rubbish at the same time as telling us that there's an IVF programme in the vicinity.  This is West Germany in 1983, not Transylvania in 1893!  How long is Marvel going to keep stringing together a bunch of old horror movie cliches every time it wants to set a story further east than Calais?  If they treated Africans the way they treated continental Europeans, the R-word would be all over the place.  They'd be publishing stories where Nairobi consisted of a bunch of mud huts occupied by a wise old man and four guys in loincloths with spears.

I'm not saying I find the lynch mob stuff offensive; I just think it's lazy and stupid.  To be honest, I find the idea of the USA suggesting that West Germany was full of superstitious fundamentalist hicks in 1983 absolutely hilarious.  Who says you don't have irony over there?

If you want to think this through further, by the way, Mystique's other child Graydon Creed is clearly more than twenty years old.  That means that she must have had a career as Mystique already by this point (somewhat obviating the need for a scene designed to explain her codename), met Sabretooth, and generally been a damn sight less naive than she's shown to be here.  I'm not going to press that point too strongly, since it's not directly flagged up in the comic.

The issue isn't all that bad, if you're prepared to (a) wait and see how the central concept plays out, (b) ignore the sheer absurdity of presenting this as a story taking place in West Germany in 1983, and (c) disregard the inconsistency with Mystique's wider history.  And many people will - (a) is just the benefit of the doubt, (b) won't even register for 90% of American readers, and (c) is an issue for hardcore fans.  The rest, in fairness, is alright.

Rating: B

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