"X-men: Battle of the Atom" by Brian Michael Bendis et al. (2013)

Sexiest (female) comic book character: Magick or Psylocke?  I'd have difficulty answering this question.  I was exposed to Magick at a much younger age, but Psylocke's "Eastern ninja thing" was more in line with both the kind of movies I was watching in the 80s and the kind of women I was fantasizing over.

But I've digressed before I've even started.  I was going to discuss Brian Michael Bendis' Battle of the Atom, wasn't I?  I should probably do that instead of sidestepping into the historically hot women of comic books. 

First, a bit of background.  Battle of the Atom is one of those "interim" X-men comics that follow the years in which "the X-men were important at Marvel" and Jonathan Hickman's House of X and Powers of X, which are regarded as a return to form.  This isn't to say that Bendis' work on the characters is bad or irrelevant, just that these "interim years" were disappointing for many fans, and that there was an impression that the mutants were being sidelined in favor of other, non-mutant characters that Marvel Studios had the rights to.

There was also a feeling that the X-men "couldn't catch a break," and yes, reading Battle of the Atom one gets a sense of this.  Just thinking of the deaths and upheavals that came before this series, yeah, it was a rough time to be a mutant.

In Battle of the Atom the X-men have split into two factions after the death of Charles Xavier.  One faction is led by Wolverine, the other by Cyclops.  At some point in the recent past these two factions were joined by the original X-men, who were transported to the future by Beast.  To these original X-men are then added a group of future X-men, who want the original X-men to return to their own time period so that everyone involved can avoid a catastrophic future.  Oh, and there's yet another group of X-men that show up, also from the future, to oppose the first group of future X-men, who may or may not be the good guys.  Confused yet?  I was.

But the problem with this comic book series isn't really the confusion it creates, but rather the ending, which just seems to represent a form of writer's block on the author's part.  After wading through so many iterations of the X-men, some of whose interactions are fun, one expects a grand finale, but this grand finale never arrives.  Instead the villain overexerts him/herself, and we're left with a series of epilogues that don't really add anything to the saga.

It's a comic book half full of good art and half full of mediocre art.  The story just barely holds together.  You could read it I suppose, but there are better comic books out there.

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"The Castaways of Tanagar" by Brian Stableford (1981)

"Salvador shook his head. 'If there's to be a new cult,' he said, 'It won't be of my making, even if I remain its figurehead.  Religious beliefs may have far more power to determine how people live than scientific ones, but their effect on the course of history is far less than what appearances might suggest.  What alters the course of history is discovery and technology.  If any man is to make a substantial contribution to the future of this new civilization then he must do it through Macaria, not Merkad.  Messiahs, in the long run, have little to contribute to the pattern of progress, precisely because an essential part of progress is winning freedom from the prison of their arbitrary ideas.  The kind of stable society that results from religious tyranny is a fake, because it depends upon deception and faith."

Ever hear of Brian Stableford?  No?  Well neither had I.  He did a run of Daw paperbacks in the late 70s and early 80s, and (re)lapsed back into obscurity soon after.  These days he's known more as a translator of obscure French science fiction novels, though his output remains prolific.

It's really a shame that he's not better known to modern readers, because "The Castaways of Tanagar" is a fantastic book.  I can only assume that this book failed to find an audience because it was a) burdened with a terrible cover, b) given a less-than-interesting title, and c) it came across as too dense, too intellectual, or even too pretentious for readers back in the 80s.

Whatever the true cause of his fame - or lack thereof - I would encourage fans of more intellectual science fiction to locate this book.  It follows the exploits of several space travelers as they return to Earth, their ancestral home, and describes the social experiment designed by their leader.  Along the way the author finds time to say a lot of insightful things about our society, and the world presented in "The Castaways of Tanagar" is as convincing as something you might come across in Tolkein, Jules Verne, or even Joseph Conrad.

Yes, there are moments in the book where the author tries too hard to make a point.  The description of Tanagarian society threatened to bring the whole thing to a screeching halt, but such faults are forgivable, given the well-delineated nature of both the characters and the environment they inhabit.

I would strongly recommend Stableford if you've exhausted authors like Frank Herbert or PKD.  He offers a uniquely British take on the genre, and although his work is challenging, it is definitely worth your time.