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Leave Your Spandex At The Door v. 3 #3.1 – The Regenesis Special Edition By Dr Manolis Vamvounis

Published Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:30:57 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:58:24 -0500

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Dr Manolis Vamvounis writes for Bleeding Cool

(What? If Marvel can go all decimal in their numberings, then bitch, so can I!)

In which I bitch and moan about the new X-Men books out this month!

Follow my daily rantings on @theComicsGreek.

WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #1

HELLO, X-MEN!

Jason Aaron takes the X-Men to the next step, which also happens to be step 1. It's the core concept of the original book, mutant students in a school learning about their powers, infused with the mad scope and innovation of Morrison's New X-Men run, the OCD tidiness and HarryPotter-esque school/class structure of the Weir/DeFilippis Academy-X books, the rich character maturation of the Kyle/Yost New X-Men run and the fun unpredictability and INSANE art of the Lobdell/Bachalo Generation-X. It's class picture perfect, dammit.

Co-Headmasters Wolverine and Kitty Pryde (YES!) give a tour of the new Jean Grey School (DOUBLE YES!) to visiting government inspectors, introducing the reader to the faculty (Beast, Iceman, Rogue, Gambit, Cannonball, Husk, Karma, Doop) and the students old and new at an unyielding fast beat. Not the most original of storytelling skeletons (heck, Bachalo drew a story just like this one back when he was on the title with Steve Seagle) but it gets the job done and it's a great comedic device. We touch base with everyone in the school, get a good feel of the mood there and get to know just enough about each character to keep us wanting more.

The book is fresh and easy to access for new and lapsed readers, but there's also an endless string of geek references to be appreciated and enjoyed by the loyal long-time reader. Just those last three bonus pages with the Class List and the Faculty/Student Roll-Call alone are an X-nerd's wet dream. "Diction and Linguistics with Professah Rogue" and "Ethics 101: Forgetting Everything You Ever Learned from Emma Frost, with Headmistress Pryde" (what a great Whedon nudge) had me laughing out loud for a good ten minutes. And hey, someone else out there remembers Bobby Drake's glamorous past life as an accountant!

As for Bachalo, he's surely on his A-game here. He's always had his ups and downs, experimenting with cohesion and style and storytelling, allowing more or less of a direct manga influence in his work. His recent stint on Avengers and Spider-man was some of the best work of his career since his Death and Generation-X days with Mark Buckingham's inks. Here he takes a step back into crazy-ass town with his composition and character design but it's still some quality work. 9/10

(bonus fun fact: notice how EVERY SINGLE GAY MUTANT has opted to follow Wolverine OUT of San Fransisco? Karma, Bling, Graymalkin, Anole. Cyclops is such a homophobe!)

bonus section: the DOOPspeak translator!

(You can try your hand at deciphering what Doop is saying on your own with this handy little remnant from my early 00s X-Force/X-Statix fansite or just scroll down underneath the scanned panel for the translation provided)

Translation: "See the nurse for your Legacy vaccination"

UNCANNY X-MEN #1

Meanwhile, back on Utopia… Cyclops and Storm are stuck on a team with every single remaining mutant ex super-villain. Kieron Gillen's work on the book so far reminds me of Scott Lobdell's best work on the book. He pays equal attention to both the big action / big threats (with new twists) and the little interpersonal moments between individual characters, building relationships and conflicts and making them feel more real as characters.

Matt Fraction's great X-periment where EVERYONE was an equal X-Man failed in the long run because the focus was split too thinly between these dozens upon dozens of characters with the only ones really getting any spotlight being the same overexposed handful of best-sellers. A return to a traditional team model is a welcome change.

I understand the focus on the power levels of the team in order to give the reader a clear justification for this specific character selection, but it's still baffling to me, seeing as how ALL these characters were members of the larger team before the Schism, it's just that now all the other medium power range mutants and the students have left. It's not so much that they're stronger, as it is that they are ALL-power and can' deal with any street-level threats any more, without eradicating the entire street. 8/10

Roll Call (Left to Right): Emma Frost, Namor, Hope Summers, Danger, Colossus/Juggernaut, Magik, Magneto, Storm, Cyclops.

(minor NERDRAGE nitpick: Cyclops' Ruby Quartz glasses are supposed to ABSORB his optic blasts, they don't negate them, it's always a bit silly to see him wearing some sort of stylish red-lens pair of sunglasses and being able to see his eyes underneath)

NEW MUTANTS #33

Through the many ups and downs of the X-titles since the last great reshuffling, New Mutants has remained THE most consistently enjoyable title of the line. The Schism and Regenesis finds the team a few members short but with an even tighter focus.

Roll Call (Left to Right): the still powerless (but constistently kicking ass) Danielle Moonstar, the mutant shaman Nate Grey (in his Warren Ellis incarnation), Magma and Sunspot, Cypher and Warlock.

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (and Zeb Well before them) succeed where so many other attempts to cash in on the New Mutants nostalgia have failed because they let these characters really breathe. DnA let these 'young ones' mature away from the amber-cased memories of how they should speak and act accoding to the memories of the collective fanboy subconscious and grow into new unknown directions through their new adventures in increasingly imaginative and ludicrous locales. Isn't that how they become such fan-favourites in the first place? It's the first time that they really do feel like real 'X-Men' despite the title's brand marketing.

David Lopez (of Fallen Angel and Hawkeye/Mockingbird fame) is the latest in a great string of artists to work on the book. He has taken great care to find an individual body type (and language), face design and fashion sense for each character and provides and it adds a great layer of quality in this issue that is so focused on the characters and their interactions. 8/10

(bonus section: I WILL dare to tackle unraveling the insane connection between the awkwardly romantic(?) pair of Nate Grey and Hope Summers:

HE: the teenage vat-grown alternate reality incarnation of the man who raised her.

SHE: the possible reincarnation of (the alternate reality incarnation of) the birth mother that he never met. Whose clone (also the birth mother of Hope's father figure) he used to sorta awkwardly almost date.

Makes Sense?

(bonus section 2: coolest dialogue scene of the month, between Warlock and Cypher, gossiping around like two old ladies… in machine code)

X-MEN #20

Why is this book still around? It's already burnt through two concepts, the ill-advised "mutants versus vampires" angle (surprising noone) and the "mutants interact with the Marvel universe" non-twist.

The new scope of the adjectiveless (and directionless) X-book? I'm guessing it's a sort of "Not X-Force" X-Force book from Cyclops' side of the X-family — or maybe it's "Wolverine's Amazing Friends" sans any actual Wolverine. Just look at the line-up: Vampire Jubilee (groan), Warpath, Storm, Colossus, Domino, Psylocke. The little sister and little brother, the big sister and best friend, the X-Force lieutenants. There's no reason why this particular team is selected and none of the dynamics I easily explained here are even hinted at in the actual book. Are they even aware of them? 4/10