Astonishing X-Men #22
This was the comic that got me into comics; due to Whedon's name, I picked up the first issue in 2004. Okay, that's not quite true. I must confess my most shameful secret: the 2003 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film got me into comics, because I liked the look of the trailer, and so checked out the source material in anticipation (obviously, the source proved far superior to the abysmal film). But Astonishing X-Men got me into reading single issues.
Anyway, I've followed this series for more than three years, and, along the way, picked up over a dozen other regular buys, and a massive trade collection. But, with this issue, I officially just don't care anymore. The delays have gotten so massive, the storyline so protracted, and the lack of any feeling that this means anything so complete, that I just don't care. I don't believe for a second that Cyclops is dead. All the interesting stuff in the X-Men line is happening elsewhere, with our heroes facing extinction, and here the supposed premiere X-book is running around some generic alien world.
It's a shame, because the craft in this issue, in terms of art, dialogue, and characterization is great.
Batman #668
Part Two of a three-parter that could be aptly titled "The Obscurest Team-Up Of All", as Batman and Robin join forces with some Z-list (Robin charitably labels them "C-list" in the issue itself) Silver Age characters for a murder mystery set inside a mansion that is the brainchild of Wes Craven and that annoying little kid from Home Alone.
Morrison revived the "Club of Heroes" (aka "Batmen of All Nations"), last seen in 1957, I believe (apart from the new Knight and Squire, who Morrison created in JLA Classified) in the previous issue, and then promptly killed the Legionary (the Italian), and the original founder of the Club, with the culprit being an unseen killer by the name of the Black Glove. Obviously, the various other members of the Club of Heroes are suspects in this.
It's a fairly standard plot setup, but there's absolutely no reason that can't be done well, and this is just that; a well-executed story, although with occasionally confusing art (Williams is a talented and versatile artist, to be sure, but stuff like the two-page spread shaped like a Bat symbol is just confusing and needlessly difficult to follow; I'd really prefer a more conventional layout). For Morrison, this is one of his more restrained styles of writing; he isn't throwing in random concepts just to confuse people, just telling a fairly linear mystery story. It's quite good.
Green Lantern Corps #15
The first few issues of the "Sinestro Corps War" story have tread the line between making it essential to read both this series and Green Lantern Corps and making each storyline work on their own merits; this issue, however, crosses the line, in my opinion. In particular, at the end, we catch up with the Lost Lanterns on Qward (indeed, it's the basis for the cliffhanger ending, as they come face-to-face with the Anti-Monitor), which someone reading only this series (which may be largely hypothetical, given that Johns' title is clearly the "main" story of this event) would have no knowledge of.
This qualm aside, this is a very good issue, and another part of what has been a very successful mini-event, critically and commercially, for DC, at a time when they could dearly use one. The main thrust of the GLC story is the Battle of Mogo, pitting Kilowog's outnumbered brigade of Lanterns against the main division of the Sinestro Corps, including Ranx, the Sentient City (now the size of a moon). This whole story is strongly interlaced with elements from Alan Moore's "Tygers" story from the 1980s, which prophesied the fall of the Green Lantern Corps. Now, obviously, DC just spent a few years rebuilding these guys, so they aren't going anywhere, but I'll be interested to see how they cheat fate (the Guardians in this issue make the decision to rewrite the Book of Oa itself, whatever that means). Meanwhile, Soranik Natu departs Korugar to join the war, in violation of Sinestro's command/prediction of her actions. This is one of the most interesting story threads in the event, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Soranik.
The combination of two different artists on this book is somewhat messy, but both work fine, and they ultimately mix together well (although, given that this a major crossover, I'm surprised they didn't arrange for one artist to do the whole thing).
X-Men #202
Carey's team of X-Men has been more or less completely disassembled by this point, with just Iceman and Cannonball still standing/not defected or hijacked, and so the brunt of the issue is carried by the casts of New X-Men and Astonishing X-Men. Colossus, Shadowcat, and the New X-Men find themselves under attack at the mansion from Exodus and his team of Marauders, and give a pretty good show in battle, but ultimately are defeated; however, the Destiny Diaries that Exodus is after have been swapped out by the White Queen, so they don't get what they're there for. The rest of the AXM team are buried under the ruins of Mystique's house, but Emma mentally guides Sam and Bobby to go retrieve the books from her hiding place (however, the reintroduced Mister Sinister has somehow obtained a duplicate of Cerebro, and is tracking them as well). It's a very action-heavy issue (like all of Carey's issues, really), and a lot of the potential enjoyment is taken away by the chaotic art from Ramos; when there are so many fight scenes and combatants, it would be nice if they'd be easier to keep track of. Sinister's plan, it seems, is to cut off the X-Men from any precognitives who have knowledge of the future, to prevent any knowledge of some upcoming event from reaching them.
In backup land, we continue our grand tour of the backwaters of X-Men/Marvel Universe continuity, coming to rest at Dark Beast's old Genosha laboratory from Excalibur, where they're examining the corpses of dead mutants. They actually decide on an alley for potentially restoring mutancy; that is, synthesizing the "X-gene" and artificially reintroducing into into DNA, thus reactivating all the old cells that had been taken off-line by the absence of the CPU. This story looks to be actually going somewhere now, which is a plus.
