2015年8月9日 星期日

Comic Book Interlude 4

The Uncanny X-Men: Quarantine



An evil corporation steals the mutant genome, which makes the X-men sick.  Another example of comic book genetics at its finest.  Makes about as much sense as Doomsday's origin, I suppose.  Anyway the art is great and the dialogue is memorable.  Just don't think too hard about the premise?

X-Men: Age of X



If this was a movie, most of it would be long, lingering shots of perfect breasts and shapely asses.

But hey, what about that story?  To be honest, I can't go into too much detail without giving the whole thing away, so I'll just say that the mutants are holed up in New York, and the remainder of human (un)civilization is trying to kill them.  As the X-men tend to veer between the soap opera and paramilitary ends of the superhero spectrum, you can probably guess which of the two extremes they occupy in this comic book.

I will say, however, that the short story featuring the Avengers near the end is very good.  I really like what they did with the Hulk.

The Death of Superman



Fran: Hi, Clark.  Lois left you a computer message.
Clark Kent: Very high tech of her.  Thanks, Fran. 

It may surprise readers of this blog to know that I'm reading this comic for the first time.  What took me so long, you ask?  The culprit here is ambivalence.  When it first appeared I was getting very sick of variant covers, crossover events, and whatnot, so I decided to pass on "The Death of Superman."

Finally reading it now - so many years later - I'd have to say that it's something of a non-event.  The whole thing is (strangely) without drama, and by the end of it I was glad the multi-issue fistfight was finally over.  Doomsday - in this incarnation, at least - is not an interesting villain, and Lois Lane spends much of this saga oddly disinterested in the goings on.

Given that one of Superman's greatest powers is supposedly his intellect, it's strange how little thinking he does in the course of this battle.  I can't quite figure why it took him so long to attempt to throw Doomsday into space, and why he continually throws both himself and others into harm's way.  What is it at this point in his career?  Overconfidence?  Fear?  Lazy writing?  Whatever it is, the version of Superman beaten to death in this comic never really feels like Superman, and as such his death lacks the kind of impact that would have made this book truly memorable.

The Starman Omnibus: Volume 1



Quirky, yes, but interesting?  I didn't find it to be so.  I suppose if you like superheroes that are obsessed with antiques and collectibles this is the comic for you, but I spent a lot of these 17 issues wishing that the hipster protagonist would meet his untimely end.  Perhaps if you've read all of Gaiman's Sandman, and Moore's Swamp Thing, you'll find something to like here, but it really wasn't working for me.

Carnage U.S.A.


The Avengers and several symbiote characters try to drive Carnage out of a small town in Colorado.  In tone it reminded me of the Aliens films.  I'm not really sure what the "U.S.A." part of the title is supposed to signify, since the characters never leave the small town, and this comic book isn't political at all.  Light reading to be sure, but not bad.

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