Bought/Thought 3/26

[iloveclones]

No, his swipees.

 

[Egotastic]

I wish I could've heard the phone call between Mack and his editor when backlash began over NA #39.

 

[Themanofbat]

The idea of copying other people's work from media to comics is not exactly something new...

Back in the mid-80's, Jon J. Muth took some LP artwork from a late 70's (and relaytively unknown) band called "Japan" and used it in the interiors of the maxi-series "Moonshadow", written by JMDeMattheis and put out by Marvel's then Epic line...

 

[iloveclones]

I'll be honest, if I were JQ, I would ban him from Marvel. Period.

I know that's a big turnaround from what I was saying before, but I think, regardless of the legality of it, as a professional courtesy, he needed to contact those publications for permission.

 

[Egotastic]

I'll be honest, if I were JQ, I would ban him from Marvel. Period.

I know that's a big turnaround from what I was saying before, but I think, regardless of the legality of it, as a professional courtesy, he needed to contact those publications for permission.

Yeah, what's up with the complete 180 in opinion there?

 

[iloveclones]

Well, there was a (mistaken) presumption on my part that he or Marvel had obtained permission.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with pics that he used as reference to paint (even though I don't like that style)

But you can't outright use another persons work without permission.

 

[RockSP]

Bought:

New Warriors #10
Fearless #2
Countdown #6, #5
Runaways #29
Moon Knight #16
Marvel Comics Presents #7
Legion of Superheroes #40
All-Star Superman #10
Ultimate Human #3
She-Hulk #27
Ms. Marvel #25
Ultimate Fantastic Four #52
Daredevil #106
New Avengers #39
Black Panther #35
Uncle Sam #7
Green Lantern #29
Proof #6

Thought:

Moon Knight: I'll probably be dropping this, it just seems to be dragging along. Texiera is really the only reason to stay...though it was funny to see him use Denzel Washington as MK's sidekick.

Legion of Superheroes: Shooter seems to be what the book needed. The early issues by Waid were only just okay to me but I've enjoyed Shooter's run enough to add it to my pull list. Hopefully the "adrenaline" chick will join up...they need some members other than Chameleon who don't look like they stepped out of an episode of Friends.

Green Lantern - So now Hal and John first met when they were in the military. Harmless enough retcon. Glad Reis is back on the art chores.

Marvel Comic Presents - I guess I'm a sucker for underused, "second tier" characters. I like Vanguard. Maybe they'll get a mini someday...

 

[Egotastic]

Well, there was a (mistaken) presumption on my part that he or Marvel had obtained permission.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with pics that he used as reference to paint (even though I don't like that style)

But you can't outright use another persons work without permission.

I assume you have the same opinion of Greg Land?

 

[iloveclones]

I don't like any of the tracers/painters, even Alex Ross. Greg Land seems to make it work somehow, to keep it dynamic. So, I sort of like his stuff. I'll take a JRJR or a Scott Kolins or a Andrea Divito over him any day of the week though.

 

[Egotastic]

Huh. I find Greg Land's work to be incredibly stiff.

 

[iloveclones]

Well, like I said, I find his the most dynamic of that group. Give me an artist that can draw from his imagination any day.

 

[FatalEnergy]

I love how you always arrive in a debate a day late and a dollar short. We moved on.

Also, people who find swipes are usually losers with a lot of time on their hands. I mean, I have never read a comic and been like "Wow, that's a swipe, I've seen that before!" NEVER.

I just want to let people know that I didnt find all those swipes. Thats just a compilation of all the pics that the posters over at news-a-rama found. I'm just simply providing the link.

Tis sad indeed.

 

[Darthphere]

I'll be honest, if I were JQ, I would ban him from Marvel. Period.

I know that's a big turnaround from what I was saying before, but I think, regardless of the legality of it, as a professional courtesy, he needed to contact those publications for permission.

Then he would have to resign, he's been caught swiping as well.

I just want to let people know that I didnt find all those swipes. Thats just a compilation of all the pics that the posters over at news-a-rama found. I'm just simply providing the link.

Tis sad indeed.

Heh, don't worry, I wasn't talking about you. Go over to CBR Forums and the Lying in the Gutters forum and watch all those asshats.

 

[Darthphere]

I don't like any of the tracers/painters, even Alex Ross. Greg Land seems to make it work somehow, to keep it dynamic. So, I sort of like his stuff. I'll take a JRJR or a Scott Kolins or a Andrea Divito over him any day of the week though.

Give someone a week, they'll find an instance where they swiped.

 

[Egotastic]

Then he would have to resign, he's been caught swiping as well.

Pics or it didn't happen.

Give someone a week, they'll find an instance where they swiped.

I doubt it. Those guys seem to be actual draftsman.

 

[Darthphere]

Pics or it didn't happen.

It's in one of the Lying in the Gutters, give me a night.

I doubt it. Those guys seem to be actual draftsman.

Come on, there has to be one panel where they referenced something a little bit too much....

 

[Egotastic]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[RockSP]

That's what she said.

 

[Darthphere]

It's amazing how many times Joe Quesada's name and swipe show up on google. Except that it's Joe Quesada takes a swipe at DC or something.

 

[BrianWilly]

I find that that if someone has swiped once, it usually means that the guy has swiped a bunch of times. It's never just a one-time deal, or even a three- or four- or five-time deal. You never stop finding new instances.

Still, I don't think it's weird at all for Marvel to have no taken any action whatsoever. I mean they continue to give work to Greg Land, and Mack positively pales in comparison to him.

 

[iloveclones]

Look, I think you guys are talking about two different things. That Avengers cover is a blatant example of some using someone else's work in the exact same manner that it was produced. That, to me (and apparently the magazine) is unacceptable.

Guys like Ross, Land, etc who are using models, pictures, movie clips whatever as reference is a whole different story. I don't feel that is "swiping."

 

[iloveclones]

Give someone a week, they'll find an instance where they swiped.

Not in my definition of it.

 

[Dread]

Heavier week than average, but nowhere near a "wallet buster" to finish out March. Of course, that means less than a week now before Marvel officially shifts from "line-wide prologue to SECRET INVASION" to "line wide support of SECRET INVASION". For the record, I will get the mini, mainly to ***** about it (this isn't 2005 and my faith in Bendis is exactly zero) and any tie in that happens to be in a book I happen to get. Tie in with NA and MA? Or even, say, GHOST RIDER? Natch. MS. MARVEL? It's out of luck. I learned my lesson from CW, and with that I only got 2/3rd's of all the tie-in's.

As always, full spoilers ahead.

Dread's Bought/Thought for 3/26/08:

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #10: Not sure if this title is still maintaining bi-monthly schedule or a "whenever the **** Morrison & Quietly are done with it" schedule, but judging by Feb. 2008's sales, DC could use this badly. Aside for the All-Star titles, all two of them, DC seems unable to keep a book selling at 100k or even 90k. JLA is their best ongoing and it struggles to sell in the Top 10 even on a down month like Feb. 2008 (Marvel "merely" had three 100k sellers that month, when X-FORCE #1 of all books was tops). Still, A-SS is such a rare book that counting on it's sales boost is hardly something to feel proud about. Of course, that never stopped Marvel from claiming AXM as the flagship X-title for over a year despite THAT book's schedule. But DC's in a more dire state in terms of sales.

Anyway, as for the issue. The subplot of the maxi-series is still the fact that Superman is dying, and by this stage has only weeks left. This issue deals with a lot of the things he is trying to do in that time left around Metropolis and the world, from flying terminally ill kids to Egypt by bus, replacing all the bridges worldwide that were used to "staple" the moon together last ish, fighting the occasional robot-empowered mad scientist (and the obligatory saving of Lois), to employing aid from Prof. Quintum in curing the Bottle City of Kandor from being, well, a bottle city (another tidbit from last issue, when his failure to save that city was thrown in Kal's face). A smaller but all but issue-stealing moment is when Superman visits Luthor in prison (and on death row) and challenges him to use his intellect for the good of the world for the 3 weeks Luthor will have between Kal's death and his own execution, since he'd always claimed to be Earth's savior without Superman in his way. Lex's response is spitting at the glass between them in disgust.

Don't get me wrong, the rest of the issue was good stuff, with Morrison playing with all the far-out super-science of the Golden Age without any cynicism and whatnot, doing the kind of story the Bendis' of the world NEVER could because no attempt it made to make Superman "common" or pedestrian (or inept in the name of being "relatable"). But the biggest problem with the subplot is, well, the "Superman is dying/dead" plotline has been overdone to death since the 90's mega-event in various cartoons, elseworlds, DTV's, and even other comic stories. Superman sometimes almost seems on the verge of becoming Gwen Stacy-esque, a character whose defining in-continuity story for a generation was his death. What does A-SS a favor is rather than have Superman's death be more dramatic and violent, it is more subtle, and takes time. Superman himself has to come to grips with it while trying not to let word slip, lest the world panic (Lois knows at this point, having been told by Quintum).

When the Kandorian scientists proclaimed to use their micro-might to try to cure Superman, I expected an "out" of the death story, but Morrison sticks to the guns here; while they can't cure Superman, they are afterward able to cure the terminally ill kids (and presumably many more). Superman constructs a pocket universe to examine how a world without Superman would have progressed, and he ends up becoming a vague messiah figure on Earth-Q anyway. He plans for the Kandorians to live on Mars, starts building for his next "challenge" and even entrusts Quintum with the building blocks of a son with Lois.

While the pace of the book is slow and often meandering, helped not by the schedule, it hasn't been hurt by it either. Now, with the book gearing towards the climax, though, it would be helped by shipping more often. But the best we can expect is issue #12 by Fall. The challenge will be to do a Death of Superman story that, within the past 15 years, hasn't been done before. Hopefully Morrison & Quietly can pull it off. So far this book is a well written and good-natured interlude in my monthly reading but I don't lavish it like some others do, and one could call it overrated. Still, with the only other A-S book being the Millar/Lee Batman, it comes off smelling like a rose. I still don't see any difference between All-Star and Elseworlds, other than the fact that the Elseworlds stories are apparently part of the New Multiverse and have people popping up in COUNTDOWN, and All-Star isn't...yet.

BLUE BEETLE #25: After over 2 years, this title has forged itself into a great little superhero book thanks to the efforts of Giffen, Rogers, & Albuquerque, but in terms of sales, it has always struggled. Like SHADOWPACT, it is an ongoing launched from IC, and it sells worse than SHADOWPACT, which has reportedly been canceled as of issue #25. BB'll be around for probably another arc but after that, who knows? Still, DC at least seems to want some younger characters around and will support them despite low sales for a while.

This issue pretty much wraps up the Reach storyline and in some ways feels like a series finale, but it isn't. All of Blue Beetle's allies, save the Teen Titans themselves, pitch in as his mad plan to defeat the aliens comes to the final hour. Having tricked the reach into attaching their entire hardware into his seemingly "dead" scarab, Jamie reactivates it and assumes command of their systems. On the ground, Traci, Paco, Brenda, Peacemaker, and his family manage to hold their own against the aliens until pretty much the entire JLI reorganizes as the cavalry. Seeing the bad guy's reaction to facing Guy was priceless. Albuquerque's art has been solid for ages and he's really taken over for Cully Hamner, but this issue seemed to have some extra spark to it, like he tried a little harder on this issue. Or at least that was the impression I got. This was feel-good superheroics. Jamie uses both his brain and his powers to deal his enemy a crushing defeat and save the world. It has some allusions to TT and GLC but they don't play a huge role in the story; Rogers at least is aware that some readers don't read those. I like Jamie but I certainly won't read TT for him. Within two years, Jamie has evolved into a character who at first questioned his powers and role to the point where he is standing in for not one Blue Beetle, but two, and has faith that there will be more after him. Paco & Brenda also have a cool moment. As usual, the action runs neck and neck with some very quotable one-liners.

During the first year or so of the book there were months with the "look for his origins" subplot got drug out and I almost lost interest, but I am glad I stuck it out. Goes to show you that sometimes some books DO need a little patience and dumping them the moment there is a slip can be an overreaction. BLUE BEETLE is pretty much everything you want in a superhero book, and for once I am not saying that about an Image title. What once was a fun lark has become essential reading for me. I just hope after this great run, the next stories and creative teams don't botch it.

DAMAGE CONTROL #3: Not an issue for everyone, just those with a sense of humor. I guess that could have been said about the entire series, but this issue especially takes the "Aftershock" lead in aside and deals with a goofy aside. In this case, the Chrysler Building growing a face & arms and sentience and wanting to walk about. Turns out the thing is infected with Shadowpower or whatnot, and after it trashes all the heroes and engages in some funny conversations with the D.C. team, they compromise with it, allowing it to go on vacations in return for, well, being a good little building.

Not for everyone, and not what I expected in a last issue, but too fun to let it bother me. After all the angst with S.I. and the "all superheroes are evil and out to get me, omigod who do you trust!?" baloney, sometimes it is good to have something that gives laughs, and isn't ashamed to do so. That leftover robot had some great lines, too. You could easily find a bunch of choices for a sig here.

For only 3 issues, it rarely gets much better for entertainment. McDuffie had a blast reconnecting with his old franchise and Espin did some great art. Hopefully it won't be another decade or so before we see these folks again, written as they should be (Guggenheim's WOLVERINE arc notwithstanding).

MIGHTY AVENGERS #11: Look at what a fast artist can do for you; this book is almost bimonthly and is all caught up with S.I. And it looks decent without looking like an Eros Comic (thanks, Cheescake Cho. Seriously, look at his WIZARD cover, the guy draws breasts almost comically huge).

In typical Bendis fashion, this story takes place not immediately after the cliffhanger from the last, but immediately after issue #1 and chronicles what the rest of the Avengers did while Iron Man & Sentry were lost in time. The answer was get their asses collectively kicked and captured by Dr. Doom, who used time travel to learn another spell from Morgan LeFey and then clobbered the heroes with an army of minions that kind of look like the Mindless Ones, but aren't. Bendis has done this with stories endless times, but this part works; it certainly was more interesting than 14 pages of Sentry sobbing on a rooftop. Unfortunately, Bendis still struggles with Doom's dialogue in spots and Spider-Woman busts a power out of her rear end again when most convient, only unlike NA #2, there is a hint given by other character reactions that this is abnormal (Black Widow mostly). The fisticuffs start again and on the whole while it was nothing fantastic, it was readable enough...until the end.

The funny thing is all the solicts go, "with an ending NO ONE will see coming!" Alas, it was the ending everyone saw coming, thanks in no part to summer solicts for FF. The Avengers defeat and arrest Dr. Doom. Now, I will admit, I was wrong. I expected and called that Doom would be pwned by a woman, and I was wrong, technically. He is pwned by Sentry, who simply grits his teeth and strips the monarch of his armor for the win. It just looked too easy. I know Sentry desperately needed SOME victory, but this was too lopsided to the point of Doom jobbing to him. If it was that easy, then Thing should have arrested him ages ago. And yes, I am aware of a classic story where Thing crushed Dr. Doom's hands, but that had far more weight and drama than this. No, this reeks of one of those moments where Bendis things about something that hasn't been done, and does it, and doesn't care about the consequences. "Hey, no one ever arrested Dr. Doom and put him on trial like a common thug before! Go me!" Only this, like everything else, sucks in the grander scheme. Dr. Doom was a threat whose very drama was by how he often skirted out from the law or death or whatnot. Now after this issue, he's little more than Dr. Octopus, just another wonk with a science fetish. I mean, Doom will undoubtedly escape, and then what? Waste.

Another waste is how little Dr. Doom has done since Waid's arc in FF. With all the CW and WWH stuff, he's had golden chances for some big act, but has done absolutely nothing aside for set alligences with Black Panther & Namor, and get wet over Thor's hammer and return. Dr. Doom is one of Marvel's grandest villains; unfortunately, as the core Marvel event machine sees more drama in hero in-fighting than heroes fighting villains, their grandest villain has been underused because of it.

Bendis is the anti-Morrison, taking grand, larger-than-life figures and doing his best to make then common and pedestrian in the name of "relativity".

NEW AVENGERS #39: Ah, yes, the issue where Mack was proven and convicted of being a swiper by fans on Newsarama, to the point where a cover had to be changed. Swiping for comic art is much like steroids in baseball; it has been around in some way for years now, but only when they reach a certain oblivious level with an artist is something done about it. And sometimes even not; I mean, the only reason why Greg Land isn't vetted is because Marvel likes his hot chick art. And the irony is that this is one of those rare NA issues that isn't all that bad. Like it was actually of C-grade quality. And why? Because it was a one-shot story which mostly focuses on a single character. Bendis' strength. Alas, he has been coddled to the point where he no longer relies on his strengths and feels he can tackle anything and everything, which is where stuff turns to crap.

This issue is about Echo, who in some ways has taken the role of Spider-Woman on the book; an angsty, mysterious assassin-type woman who usually is lost in the shuffle unless an issue like this is devoted to her. She doesn't feel like she belongs as an Avenger or that their team is accomplishing much, so she seeks out Daredevil to ask why he recommended her to Capt. America in the first place. And then she suspects he is a Skrull, and accuses him. And then...he reveals himself, makes it blatant, and is killed by Echo & Wolverine.

Now, this doesn't work.

No, the issue isn't connecting with Brubaker's DD. To the best of my knowledge, DD spends time outside the U.S. over there so the impersonation could have happened easily at various points. No, the issue is how Bendis presents the new Skrull threat. This issue reveals that he has, once again, written himself into a hole by only writing about something "that'd be cool" without thinking of the consequences. In this case, that "something" is the notion of brand, new, "efficient" Skrulls who cannot be detected via scent, psychic powers, technology, spider-sense, or even Sorcerer Supreme level magic (which is utterly ******ed). The Skrulls are gene-modified to be 100% undetectable now, as well as sprout super-powers. The big danger about this entire event is that no one can tell who is a Skrull and who isn't. Ooooo, WHO DO YOU TRUST!? Only the problem is, when you want to have a story like this, where one character stumbles upon a Skrull and they leak random hints about the subsequent invasion...you have NO good way of figuring how that hero unravels it. There's always the "threat is killed and shockingly becomes a Skrull", but Bendis already did this with Elektra. So, this time, all that it takes for a Skrull to out himself...is being accused in a threatening manner. This isn't the first place we have seen this; both Luke Cage and Iron Man seem to believe the only way to hunt for Skrulls is getting nose-to-nose with someone who is calling them on their paranoid baloney and screaming, "ARE YOU A SKRULL!?" or a thought balloon that is similar. By eliminating all the reasonable ways to out a Skrull, Bendis now has to rely on unreasonable ones that rely on dumb luck or incompetence, the latter being a theme he seems to love exploring (see USM, the most incompetent superhero ever written).

I mean, the DD Skrull could have simply denied Echo. Could have done nothing even if Echo attacked. Could have tried to play off that Echo was the Skrull, attacking Daredevil, and getting her own team to capture or kill her. But, then this issue couldn't be the way it is. So in light of the "super-morph" addition, Skrulls now have to be even dumber than usual to be vetted. And if they are so stupid as to be easily riled into blowing cover that not even a rookie undercover cop would blow, then it is hard to take S.I. as seriously as the powers-that-be want us to. I mean, the promotion campaign for it has officially gone from annoying to obscene.

The sad bit is the rest of the issue works. Logan and Echo connect, and then Echo does what Wanda Maximoff does; sleep with Clint. Or talk about sleeping with Clint. In this case, both. But Clint's a horn-dog so it works out. Some of Mack's panels and art work awkwardly with the dialogue and captions, like he was drawing a script meant for Maleev. But compared to the usual teeth-clenching-hate that usually comes with an issue of NA, this isn't bad.

Oh, and Spider-Man is now back in his usual costume. Marvel still has no clue how NA Spidey fits into BND Spidey's world. One may be a Skrull. Because that is the only way to explain it without going, "we ****ed up", and admitting a mistake is not something Joe Q's Marvel does often. And when it does, it has to come from Tom B. and not Joe himself.

NEW WARRIORS #10: With sales being what they are, I wonder if this book will last past issue #12. While I like the wonky cast of the book and the twist of the first arc's roster, I can understand this not being what some readers signed on for. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE seems to have more New Warriors than this book. Although in retrospect this seems a little like THE LAST DEFENDERS; only one character has ties to the original team, and the rest are fresh faces to that roster. Although one could note that Night-Thrasher was a founding member of the team, even if this is his brother; Nighthawk tried to organize the Defenders many times but often came off as a Dr. Strange wanna-be in terms of leadership.

Medina is back to form on art and has redesigned a few of their costumes again, namely Wondra and Jono, and they look a little better to me. Jubilee is growing tired of Night-Thrasher's leadership style, coming and going as he pleases and taking little part in their training. The irony of course is that she started the series gung-ho for the team and convincing Sophia, and now Sophia is more convinced than she is. Night-Thrasher worked with Kaz last issue to provide a reason for the team to get them to trust him, and he reveals a makeshift Cerebro, only it works for all superhumans. Jubilee still doesn't buy it. There is one bit where she blames Thrash for Longstrike's death because of the "useless" tech she chose for her costume, but I would've dwelled on the fact that Thrash could have installed "intangible" codec into their costumes to save her like he did for their fight with Alpha Clan earlier. The other members think Jubilee is being a wonk and a hypocrite, and she seems ready to ditch the team until she learns that Thrash basically saved his support staff from the streets.

Our favorite detectives also get involved in a stake-out with a crook named Siesmic, which turns deadly when the SWAT team doesn't feel like waiting and rushes in. Gee, isn't that reckless? Just as reckless as the NW's were with Nitro (if you buy that theory)? Given that this is a NW book with another two issues to the arc, though, it may be addressed.

I do like this book, but sometimes it does move slowly and lacks a geniune antagonist most issues. But it has done wonders for Jubilee to me. To me she's grown up here, and if this book does end I'd love to see her take her Wondra act elsewhere. Grevioux's struck gold with her.

 

[Dread]

No more swiper talk for a moment! The rest of my B/T:

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #52: Carey chugs along with his Cosmic Cube storyline, and provides some payoff for his initial arc on UFF that was deep in sci fi gibberish. This arc is finding a good blend that it isn't unreadable, and things really do seem dire for our heroes, which means the drama level is appropriate. Less successful is Kirkham on art, who seems to be duplicating Top Cow's house style and struggles with some of Pasqual Ferry's designs. This issue he gets to draw the Ultimates (and the recap tells us this takes place before the worst comic of the line, ULTIMATES 3 #1), and while he is fine with Iron Man and Cap, his Wanda has a weird mask thingie on and I still don't know why Ultimate Thor's hammer went from looking all tech-ish to how it looks in 616. Some panels are stiff as well.

The issue has Thanos return to Earth with the Cube, after seemingly destroying Reed in a contest of wills and changing the Storm siblings into "darker" versions of themselves. I saw this in MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE most recently. The Ultimates try to fight them but are defeated, and in short time Thanos has started remaking the world in his image. Carey at least provides a good reason as to why Thanos' power is limited for the moment; he needs time to adjust himself to the new cube, especially after Reed was using it for a bit. All of the Ultimate heroes are under Thanos' control. Even, presumably, Geldoff.

A bit that works better is Thing being rescued from death by Atrea, Thanos' daughter who fancies him and hates Thanos' brutality, yet when she doesn't get her wishes can prove almost as aggressive. I liked their conversation and while most of her purpose is to provide exposition and get Thing back on Earth without Reed or "The Awesome", I felt Carey handled things well and made her quirky. And it has been a while since Thing saved the day.

Carey's no Millar on the title but I think overall he's done fine work on this book; after all, I have dropped every Ultimate ongoing except this one. I'm curious as to how his run on X-Men was, but that would mean going through Bachelo/Ramos art, which is more pain than my eyes deserve. Hopefully we'll see him on other stuff from Marvel.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #10: Probably the most random title for a Romita Jr. cover. I mean, this book sells like 12k copies. It basically is a Marvel Adventures Lite book. That's like Alex Ross painting a cover for ARCHIE. Usually high profile artists do covers for, well, big books. Not tiny ones like this. It is a cool pic of Cyclops, though. I just found it odd to see that level of pedigree on a First Class cover. Don't get me wrong, XM:FC is good simple fun, but I don't pretend it is more than it is. Thankfully, neither does Jeff Parker, which is why it works.

This issue, as the cover hints, is an all-Cyclops issue. Apparently the rest of the X-Men are sidelined not by a horrible injury or a cosmic menace, but by some intestinal virus they caught on a prior mission, leaving Scott alone to deal with a mutant who is kidnapping people around an old town area. I felt the team being sidelined by a normal illness was an amusing dose of reality that a lot of modern books wouldn't bother with. Y'know, reminded me of times that some simple viruses proved problems for Spider-Man, helping him seem real (I mean, who the hell'd want to fight crime with the flu? I sure as hell wouldn't). Rousseau does fill-in art for Cruz and nails the tone of the story very well.

The bad guy of the piece is Frederick, a mutant whose father died from radiation at a mine that also empowers Fred. Local people teased him during youth and did nothing about the mine even after his father died, so he is kidnapping people involved in that time. Fred is one of those generic mutants who seems to have any power he wants to have, which gets a little annoying, but he's not meant for more than being the threat of the month, not unlike many of those 60's stories, so it works. Cyclops naturally has to use his powers and leadership cunning to prevail. There is a subtle hint of the theme of bigotry when one of the victims refers to Fred as a "mutant freak" and Cyclops, their rescuer, admits he is one too. I kind of liked it being subtle. Overall, another solid issue of an enjoyable series. It won't remake the wheel or get attention, but it knows what it wants to do and usually does it well, without pretending it does more.

 

[iloveclones]

No more swiper talk for a moment! The rest of my B/T:

party pooper...