December Recommendations

Up to this point I've highlighted graphic novels and series in trade format -- comic book entertainment that can be easily acquired at any decent bookstore or online vendor. Hurray for this Brave New World that exposes so much four-color creativity to the masses. But true geek pleasures, we all know, occur each and every Wednesday down at the local comic shop. Looking for a new series to pick up, maybe something to rejuvenate your childhood zeal for superheroic fantasy? Look no further...

Pick Up:
Uncanny X-Men #504 and 505 Marvel's cornerstone franchise for almost thirty years, dating back to the Chris Claremont/Dave Cockrum/John Byrne era, the X-Men may be the book with more sentimental ties for fans new and old than any superhero apart from Batman. Maybe you grew up with comics in the 80s, like I did, and was sucked into the Dark Phoenix saga in its initial incarnation. Or you became a fan in the 90s because of Saturday morning cartoons. Maybe you even credit your X-interest to the movie trilogy of this decade and the rugged charm of a Hugh Jackman Wolverine. Whatever your reasons, the colossal ever-unfolding saga of Marvel's Mutants, in recent years, has become so twisted, tied, and woven together into a reality-warping web of Jamie Braddock quantum plot strings that trying to make sense of it all after any kind of comic book hiatus would cause a Cerebro-size headache. (make that Cerebra-size; see what you've missed?) So why would I recommend this series to someone who hasn't been following it for the last five years? You have to start somewhere, and the current arc, beginning with issue 504, is an excellent jumping-on point. Sure, you're going to need a quick recap of some key events in continuity (see below), but once you dive in, it won't take you long to settle in with some familiar faces in a new location for what promises to be a brand new weave of rip-roaring yarns in the Mighty Marvel Manner.

First off, the writing duties have been turned over to Matt Fraction exclusively. There was a transition period between Ed Brubaker's run on the book and the current issues in which Brubaker and Fraction had been handling the plotting/writing duties together. I love Ed Brubaker, but, as I said in my Read More Comics! column in the second issue of Idle Times, I'm not so sure his talents are best suited to a major team book like this one. He did bring the X-Men to San Francisco, a recent development for which I am extremely grateful. After years of doing all my New York City sightseeing through the panels of Spider-Man and Daredevil, it's nice to see the Dazzler playing the Fillmore, Colossus eating borscht in the outer Richmond, and the X-Jet launching out of Sausalito from a hillside bunker in the Marin Headlands. But in recent issues the Brubaker/Fraction action was getting crazy convoluted, almost as if the two were wrestling with each other over concepts that refused to gel. As of issue 504, however, there are still a lot of things going on, but at least you can tell that all the ideas are coming out of one guy's head. Action, intrigue, and romance. I think Fraction'll make Claremont proud.

Secondly, the art is sensational. Brubaker opened the "Manifest Destiny" chapter of the X-Men saga, bringing the team to the City by the Bay, accompanied by the lush, beautiful illustrations of Greg Land. Land's dense, almost photo-realistic art is the kind of gift that you appreciate while you can, knowing that it's not something that can be produced with the kind of demanding regularity that a monthly title requires. Marvel, fully aware that this valuable franchise's flagship title shouldn't be turned over to occasional guest pencilers when scheduling concerns mount, presents its loyal readership with a second gift: alternating story arcs with Land will be the equally-breathtaking art of Terry Dodson. Issue 504 is Dodson's first work on the series and, right away, his signature style of solid, animated lines and clean, dynamic layout (not to mention beautiful, curvaceous ladies; check out the spread of Emma's tour through Cyclops's mind and all the women that're on it) is perfectly married to Fraction's pacing and dialogue. Again, while it's too early to make Claremont-Byrne (or Claremont-Alan Davis, perhaps?) comparisons, I'm an optimistic guy prone to flights of breakneck enthusiasm. Aaaand, if you're completely new to the title, then who gives a crap if this creative team is anything like those completely unfamiliar names I've been mentioning? Let's all hop aboard the Fraction-Land-Dodson express. The views are spectacular.

Finally, this current storyline is purported to be the one that starts re-connecting the X-Men universe to the Marvel Universe proper. For too long the X-Men and their associated titles have operated outside mainstream continuity. House of M was the last time Marvel's mutants really had anything to do with any other character groups, but now, as of Dark Reign, things are about to change. I'm not saying reading the last page of Uncanny X-Men 505 is going to sucker you into buying other books... but if it gets you caught up in the beautiful, soap-operatic world of comic book fantasy, so be it. I'll loan you some trades. We'll have coffee and talk comics. It'll be amazing.

So... if you have been out of the office for the last decade, let's get you caught up on some key developments...
Jean Grey died (again) and Scott Summers is now dating Emma Frost, the White Queen, who's turned out to be a good guy (of sorts) but is still all kinds of sexy... Colossus and Psylocke died but have since come back from the dead (the former thanks to Buffy creator Joss Whedon) so forget I even mentioned it... Scarlet Witch went crazy and after distorting reality to create a world where mutants were in charge uttered the famous words "no more mutants," re-distorting reality and majorly fucking with the mutant population so that there are currenly less than 200 mutants with powers on the entire planet... one of the de-powered mutants was Professor X, but he's since gotten his powers back (and he can walk again!) so forget I mentioned that too... turns out Havok and Cyclops have a brother with omega-level powers named Vulcan and he's the current leader of the Shi'ar, wreaking havok through the galaxies (and one of major players in the impending War of Kings event)... in addition to millions of mutants losing their powers, no new mutant births have occurred since the Witch went apeshit, which is a major cause for concern for the now "endangered" mutant race, and the focus of Dr. Henry "Beast" McCoy's current scientific quest... okay, there was one mutant birth -- the "messiah," a red-haired baby girl whisked into the future timestream by Cable... during the war that broke out over the baby, the School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester was destroyed and the X-Men were temporarily disbanded... Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde died saving the world, right after she and Colossus had reunited, too (sniff)... Scott "Cyclops" Summers, the new leader of the team, gave Prof X the middle finger for lying to him and wiping his mind of his memory of Vulcan, and took his new team out west to San Francisco...

and here we are. (whew)

Put back:
In addition to a recommendation as to what you should pick up on your trip to the comic shop, I'm going to give you some advice on a book to put right back where you found it.

Batman: Cacophony #1
by Kevin Smith and Walt Flanagan
I'm almost afraid to write any disparaging comments about this book because I'm fairly certain that Kevin Smith gets up every morning and reads the entire internet before lunch, starting with anything written about him. To be fair, I'm a Kevin Smith fan; like many of my generation I recited Clerks quotes ad nauseum in college. And handling the writing duties on the most iconic comic book character in human history is certainly cause for excitement.

This isn't Smith's first foray into the comics medium, and I pray it won't be his last. Cacophony, however, fails on a couple levels. Walt Flanagan's art is too ungainly and cartoonish to be enjoyed in this type of story. Of course, that's not Smith's fault. What I do blame him for is an inappropriately-idiotic rendition of the Joker that is neither menacing nor truly villainous. There's even a scene in which the Joker bends over and starts taking off his pants to thank the mysterious Onomotopoeia for breaking him out of Arkham. "Seduced and abandoned," he says, when his benefactor disappears.

It's only a three-issue limited series and, honestly, I will ride it out to get the full story. But it's a disappointing beginning and one that can be avoided.