So, I bought two tpbs last Friday:
a. Bendis' Uncanny X-men.
b. Fearless Defenders.
I bought
X-men on the basis of Bendis' writing, which I really like. And indeed it is really good. I don't understand a lot of the back story (Phoenix seems to have returned again, Tony Stark trapped Phoenix in the bodies of some of the X-men, which fouled up their powers. So Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magneto and Magik all have problems using and controlling their powers. This somehow lead to Xavier's death at the hands of Phoenixed Cyclops, and a consequential schism within the X-men with two schools. Oh, and Cyclops and Emma Frost have split up but it is clear that she still loves him and is having trouble with it) but I caught up quickly.
Anyway, Cyclops is becoming a media celebrity mutant poster boy, almost like some sort of Nelson Mandela for mutants. You can sense that Bendis is engineering a shift in attitude about mutant hysteria - now it seems that there are some people who think this isn't ok (it reminded me of changing attitutdes towards gays).
There is a tense and well-written confrontation with the Avengers, who the X-men drop with one shot. Cyclops rubs the Avengers' nose in it in a speech which becomes a YouTube video. The Avengers "don't want to talk about it" to SHIELD - there was a lot of big talk especially from Hawkeye and Cap, who felt confident backed by the Hulk and Iron Man, and suddenly the Avengers find themselves snap frozen and harmlessly taken out by a teenager. This mutant is Australian, and there is a flashback to her at school where she gives a speech about idolising Captain America. Part of the charm of this is that the new mutants are overwhelmed to see Cap and the Hulk - stunned by their celebrity. Then - pop! - the underdogs win in one move. Awesome.
And then Magik, certainly my favourite Marvel character and who has been rendered powerful and dangerous in this new iteration, has some trouble with Dormannu in Limbo. She sends Dormannu packing - essentially, one of the big Marvel villains is shut down by a girl in hotpants. Just great. Here is a gratuitous image of sexed-up Magi, just because it makes me feel grubby:
So. Now we have
Fearless Defenders. I confess I bought this because I like Valkyrie, one of Thor's sidekicks. My mistake - don't buy a book for the characters, buy them for the writers! Within the book, they have included the front covers to each individual issue. Some of these covers are clever and fun. Here's one now:
That's the only good thing I have to say about this book. In some very stilted dialogue, Misty Knight and Valkyrie team up. Early on, Valkyrie snogs a chick they save - hello 15 year old boys, we have a lipstick lesbian on board to keep you buying the title. I'm not sure how lesbianism became a sales tool for selling comics, but it is as subtle as a freight train and, in this instance, totally unnecessary.
Then, they introduce Danielle Moonstar, a former New Mutant, and a character called Warrior Woman, a white trash version of Wonder Woman (Hippolyta, daughter of Ares). There is some banter between Warrior Waoman, who considers herself an Olympian, and Valkyrie, the Asgardian, as to which form of godliness is best. That was an annoying substitute for genuine friction driven by good characterisation.
When some zombie valkyries get into a fight with the team, Misty Knight calls in help. Does she get the Fantastic Four? The Avengers? The X-men? No. She somehow has the private numbers for every notable female character in the Marvel Universe, who arrive en masse. Why does Storm come to a fight sans the rest of the X-men? Because the writers thought it would be a good idea to exclusively have chicks in the book! The Chewbacca Defence makes more sense than this title.
What this demonstrates to me is that the quality of Marvel comics is very haphazard. It smells of a weak senior editorial team. OR perhaps Fearless Defenders was just pegged as an unimportant T&A title by Marvel management and so they just don't care about quality.
Anyway, go buy Bendis' X-men, its good.
