Big week for me. Let's get this ball rolling...
X-Factor: Layla Miller
She knows stuff, you know.
When we last left Layla Miller, it was the Messiah Complex, and she was stranded 80 years in the future in a mutant internment camp. The same camp where a teenaged Bishop was living, in fact. It's a horrible future where all mutants are incarcerated just for being mutants. Their heads are shaved, and the letter "M" is tattooed around their eyes. Not a normal tattoo, mind you, but a DNA tattoo that can't be removed without changing the subject's genetic code.
Well, Layla is toughing it out in the camps. Despite the fact that all mutants in the camps have neutralized powers, Layla is still in possession of her ability to "know stuff," which implies that it's not a mutant ability. Using her powers, she marks an "X" on the ground, and stands there for about a week until a large chunk of debris from an old satellite falls to the Earth, breaks down the walls of the camp, and kills the nearby guards. That "X" Layla painted was going to be the only safe place to stand.
Layla also seems to have collected a sizable amount of information about the future through her wackily ill-defined powers. So after making her escape, she wanders the streets of New York and starts stirring things up. Well, you know, after she steals her a blonde wig. The prison guys did shave her head, you know. Knowing about a secret government plot that will infringe on the rights of even normal humans (any human with a mutant ancestor in the past 100 years will soon get tested and imprisoned), Layla informs a group of protesters who spread the word and bring about panic with the general public.
Then she heads to Atlantic City where she meets (wait for it) Ruby Summers. Ruby and her dad, a really really old Cyclops, have been living in the city in secret for some time. If you're curious about Ruby's mother, let me just tell you that Ruby has ruby skin and blonde hair. It's an alternate future, Jean/Scott fans. Deal with it. Anyway, with the general public now demanding rights for all mutants and descendants of mutants, Layla convinces Ruby to lead a new revolution: The Summers Rebellion.
I really love how awesome Peter David has made Layla Miller. Here's this character that Brian Michael Bendis invented as a McGuffin for House of M, and David has taken her "plot device powers" to a whole new level. Here's a girl who can see the future (well, parts of it) and the past (well, whatever she needs to know at the time), and she's just so cool about it all. What's more, in this issue we see a vulnerability in Layla that we've never seen before. She knows practically every bad thing that's going to happen, but there's nothing she can do to stop some of it. Her powers have some sort of weird condition where she can't just do whatever she wants with them. She couldn't even find a way to stop the guards at the mutant camp from torturing her, or a way to escape earlier, but she knew it was all going to happen long beforehand.
By the way, Valentine DeLandro provides us with some excellent art, which makes me wish he was doing the regular X-Factor art instead of Stroman.
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The Doctor Who: The Forgotten #1
He's the Doctor. He's a Time Lord. He's from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. He's 903 years old, and this is the continuation of his stint with IDW Publishing.
Written by Tony Lee and drawn by Y: The Last Man's Pia Guerra (love her unexaggerated art), this book features the 10th Doctor and Martha Jones as his companion. The Doctor and Martha wake up in a dark museum with no idea how they got there. They don't know where the TARDIS is, and the Doctor seems to have misplaced his key. Oh, and the museum is filled with tons of relics that the Doctor recognizes, including an exhibit of the Doctor's clothes. All 9 of his previous outfits (along with an item or two he carried, like the 7th Doctor's question mark umbrella or the 2nd Doctor's flute) are all on display. Whoever's doing this has access to some fearsome tech, including time travel. And with all of the Time Lords dead, who the hell is alive that's actually seen all 10 of the Doctors?
Ah, but there's a mystery man in a control room watching them. A mystery man who, from what little we've seen of his face, has a dodgy goatee. Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if it was a pre-Yana incarnation of the Master. This mystery man, using clever dials and switches, decides to play a game with the Doctor by erasing all of his memories prior to his 10th incarnation. ALL of his memories, including what it means to be a Time Lord. He remembers everything he's told Rose, Donna, and Martha for the past two years about himself, but that's about it.
That's when Martha gets the clever idea to grab the 1st Doctor's walking stick, and hand it to him. This helps jog back some of the Doctor's earliest memories, and jumps the issue into a 1st Doctor flashback, complete with Susan, Ian, and Barbara. Oh, and the entire flashback happens in black & white, which is just neato.
The cover for issue #2 shows the 10th Doctor standing in front of the 2nd and 3rd Doctors, so I guess we can expect more flashbacks. This looks like the beginning of a fun read for this American Doctor Who fan.
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Immortal Iron Fist: The Origin of Danny Rand
"You are Iron Fist."
I have to confess, this issue kinda bored me. I was alright with chapter 1, but chapter 2 just felt like a chore. Boy, do I miss the days when a superhero's origin could be retold in a single normal-sized issue, rather than a double-barreled deal. I think it wasn't helped by the fact that Fraction was incredibly non-linear with the story. At first I thought it was all a flashback Danny was having while in bed with Misty, but each of those flashbacks contained an even earlier flashback. For example...
Danny: "You know, Misty, I remember that time I was facing those challenges by Yu-Ti."
*flashback*
Danny: "Boy, these challenges of Yu-Ti remind me of the time I first arrived in the city."
*flashback*
After the series of flashbacks were done, we were treated to a prose version of Danny's origin, and a few basic stats not unlike those you'd see at Marvel.com. We were also given a few panels from the upcoming issue of Immortal Iron Fist, which... well, I'm not exactly looking forward to the art. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to where the main title's story will go.
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X-Factor #34
He Loves You
The X-Factor/She-Hulk/Secret Invasion crossover finishes here, and... well, it's just the end of the fight that started back in Part 1. She-Hulk & Jaz stop fighting X-Factor Investigations just long enough to finally attack the Skrull who's been impersonating Longshot. This Skrull happens to be some sort of avatar for the Skrull gods, and other Skrulls can feel his presence on a planet, which gives them the confidence to know that their invasions are just. Jazinda, having sensed him, takes She-Hulk to find him Detroit so they can apprehend him. This Skrull is pretending to be Longshot so he can keep an eye on Darwin (whose ability to survive anything shows too much potential in the human race for the Skrull to ignore). X-Factor has been hired by Darwin's dad to find him, and... well, all hell broke loose for the past 2 issues of this story.
The whole gang has learned to work together, however, and after Darwin distracts the Skrull by absorbing everything thrown at him, She-Hulk gives him a good punch. She wants to take this Skrull dude back to Tony Stark until some white chick I assume was supposed to be Monet points out that Tony might actually be a Skrull in disguise. Not knowing what to do, She-Hulk and Jazinda pack this sacred religious figure into their RV and drive off into the night. Or the really dreary day. I can't quite tell.
Oh, and Darwin's skin becomes charred into a nice brown tone, adding another to the list of characters who shouldn't be (but are now) darker than Monet St. Croix. Yes, I know I'm beating a dead horse, but how else am I going to make my obsession with Monet's skintone stick than with glue?
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Incredible Hercules #120
Where is your Skrull God, now?
Right, so the God Squad has found the base of the Skrull gods Kly'bn and Sl'gur't-- names that only further increase my hatred of aliens in science fiction whose names have unnecessary apostrophes. How f***ing hard would it have been to name them Klybin and Sligurt? Who the hell do I blame for creating these characters' names?
Anyway, the God-Eater and the Eternal take on Sl'gur't and Kly'bn respectively, and both fall in the battle. Hercules and Amadeus stand back for most of the fight, but when Amadeus is blasted into the void of the Dreamtime (as per Athena's instructions for him to do nothing when the time comes), Hercules goes into a rage wherein he and Kly'bn beat the living crap out of one another until Snowbird bounces back from nowhere, rescues Amadeus, and delivers the final blow to Kly'bn.
Hooray! The Skrull Gods are dead! Now what? Well, somehow everyone forgot about the Japanese god Mikaboshi, who slays Sl'gur't and takes control of Kly'bn and Sl'gur't's (the apostrophes! It's too much!)empire of conquered gods. The really weird part? Athena saw this all coming, and it's apparently all going according to her plan.
The Sacred Invasion is pretty damn good, which is quite the accomplishment considering I'm not enjoying the main Secret Invasion miniseries. If this was a storyline in and of itself, it'd be awesome. However, because this is just part of a larger crossover and I get the distinct feeling Bendis is caught up enough in his own stuff to ignore it and make the entire story inconsequential, it's merely okay.
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Uncanny X-Men #501
[Insert Porno-Related Greg Land Joke Here]
To start off this issue, everyone's favorite (okay, only) Welsh mutant gets the living crap beat out of her by a bunch of dudes in masks. Granted, this all happened in the middle of the night in Oakland, so she's lucky she didn't get shot just for looking at someone the wrong way. Meanwhile, Greg Land gets to do what he does best when writers Brubaker & Fraction give him an excuse to draw Scott and Emma with porno faces. Then in a little continuity snafu, we see Scott building the crib for the Messiah Baby that we've already seen in a recent issue of Cable.
Everybody's smiling!
Warren gives Scott a ride to their new base in Worthington Automotives' new experimental hydro car, which everyone in the team will soon receive. God only knows where the X-Men are sleeping at night if they have to commute to the Marin Headlands (just outside of San Francisco, but is technically in a different county altogether) every morning. Anyway, it seems Beast is regaining use of his fingers (which he made a point of calling paws during Morrison's run), but is unable to make an omelet when he realizes that their fridge is filled with hot pockets. Flat-falling jokes ensue.
Then Pixie comes wandering in, which finally moves along the actual plot. Cyclops organizes a team (which includes the long forgotten Karma) to take down the men who assaulted Pixie last night. All goes according to plan, but behind the scenes we see that the new Hellfire Cult is being run by Empath, under the orders of a mysterious dominatrix named Red Queen. I swear I will one day find Brubaker & Fraction and SLAP THEM if the Red Queen turns out to be Maddie Pryor.
Overall, this was better than #500. The new status quo is further explained, including the fact that their new base is called Greymalkin Industries. I guess that means I can stop calling it the X-Center, which I should note Cyclops called it in #500. My only real complaint is that the story from #500 is completely unresolved. It's like they're pretending it never happened, which I suppose is for the best. Oh, and I don't like Land's art, but I don't really have the strength to B****-moan about that at this point.
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Young X-Men #5
Oh, thank god. It was just Wolfcub who died.
Moving on...
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X-Men: First Class #15
...did the Professor just say "for real"?
One snafu in the dialogue aside, this was yet another fun issue in the lives of the original 5 X-Men. Medusa, hot off of her time running with the Frightful Four, escapes the Wizard and accidentally runs into the X-Men. As many of you may remember, Medusa suffered from amnesia back when she was in the Frightful Four, so she has no idea who she is. The X-Men offer to take her in, then (like a pimp looking for his lost ho) the Wizard breaks into the Xavier School and tries to get Medusa back. He even tosses a couple of his antigravity discs on Beast, Marvel Girl, and Iceman. After the Wizard is finally defeated and Medusa runs off to be on her own, Angel returns from the lost city of the rain forest he's been hiding in for the past few issues! Oh, and, you know, he rescues the 3 X-Men with antigravity discs from flying upward forever.
The issue finished off with yet another humor cartoon in the back, which reveals Angel's reasons for coming back to New York. It turns out in his courting of that one native girl, he accidentally got engaged to her. Not one for marriage, Warren skipped town. One can only hope he didn't get her pregnant.
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