CABLE #21 – I think I may have figured out just who and what Hope is. Review first, then theories. Last issue, Cable ad Hope just barely managed to escape the Brood and Bishop by using the ship’s escape pods. Bishop also manages to survive by bonding with a living Brood-ship and chases the two pods for two years on their course to Earth. Over the two years, Hope has become a young woman is her teens. Once back on Earth, Cable and Hope have one last confrontation with Bishop in which Hope manifests her powers for the first time – with a suspiciously familiar power signature. Hope handily beats Bishop by herself and is stopped from delivering the killing stroke by Cable himself. Taking Bishop’s (Forge’s really…) time components, they jump to what they thinks will be just a little after they the present. Unfortunately, they wind up in New Amsterdam in 1614 and a pissed-off Bishop mysteriously still on their trail. Writer Duane Swierczynski seems to do better when there’s a set story goal in mind. For half of this series, he’s seemed lost story-wise. Great dialogue, but major hit-or-miss issue to issue. Humberto Ramos teases us with a few pages at the beginning of this issue only to be replaced by Lan Medina (who I can buy on a regular series…) and Paul Gulacy (ugh.). The X-editors have been dropping bigger and bigger hints over the last two years as to the identity and worth of Hope – really tipping their hand in the back-up stories running throughout some of the X-books. Beginning with Rachel Grey losing her portion of the Phoenix Force during the War of Kings storyline, the loss of a small portion of the Phoenix Force by the Cuckoos and the Phoenix symbol in the eyes of Hope herself just recently really tipped their hand. So fine. Hope is the next host of the Phoenix… but why? My theory is this: Sinister cloned Jean once before, resulting in Maddie Pryor-Summers and he had two teams on scene at Hope’s birth. In Alaska. Former home of the Summers clan and Scott and Maddie’s marital home. Too many coincidences not to have some truth and what better way to bring “Jean” back without disrupting the Scott/Emma relationship? It may also play out to a mutant civil war I can see brewing in the distance with Scott’s faithful on one side and those loyal to Xavier, Jean and Beast on the other – or even West and East coast teams. I’m keeping my ear to the ground on this one before the start of the Second Coming storyline.
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BATMAN #694 – Wow. I was really exicited when Judd Winick signed on to be the writer on Batman and even more so after reading his dialogue. I wasn’t happy about Mark Bagley as the artist – too bright for a Batman title. Thankfully, the Batman editor managed to bring back artist Tony Daniel. Daniel’s art suits Batman perfectly and his run just prior to the Mark Bagley switch over was some of the best of his comic’s career. Unfortunately, the return of Daniel somehow forced out Winick. Daniel now has total control of the title as both writer and artist – doing neither well. The current Black Mask storyline is so disjointed that I’m on the verge of dropping this book until a new writer comes on (I’ll find my Batman fix in Batman & Robin…). He’s not addressing Dick’s issues with becoming Batman or his (lack of) relationship with Robin (Damian). For that matter, Robin has barely made an appearance in the series since Daniel took over. WFT?!? Just pass.
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X-FORCE #22 – Another Necrosha-X (X- Necrosha. whatever…) crossover. Basically, all of the mutants have become split up into groups and are trying to stay alive as they fight waves of dead friends and foes. Selene has begun rebuilding Genosha in her image and discovered that Warpath is in possession of the knife she must use to complete the ritual making her a god. The Asgardian wolf prince has brought a wounded Wolfsbane to the island only to discover that she is pregnant with a half-god baby her body can’t support. The prince gets to the highest point on the island and howls until he is answered by Hela herself. This will be an interesting storyline all by itself, but the big problem is between the art and the hectic pace of the story; it’s easy to get lost. Clayton Crain has a great style very well suited for covers or a title focusing on a single hero (Punisher, Wolverine, Daredevil… hell, even Moon Knight!), but is much, much too dark to handle multiple characters or even more than four panels on a page as the details start to get lost. Craig Kyle and Chris Yost obviously have a plan for this storyline, but it doesn’t seem to have a planned direction other than Selene wants to be a god and the X-Men are in a fight for their lives. Yawn. Like I’ve said before, this whole crossover feels like it was handed down from the X-editors simply because Blackest Night over at DC was making money (remember the Identity Disc story Marvel did when Identity Crisis was going on? Good. It’s better you don’t…). There’s plenty of stuff that X-Force could be dealing with from past storylines and laying more groundwork for the return of Cable and Hope. More wasted potential from Marvel. The best thing about this issue was the Cable & Hope backup story (that should have been done in the Cable regular series instead of some of the crap they’ve been doing…) that showed Hope with images of the Phoenix Force in her eyes. Oh did I mention that Steve Dillon is doing the art? X-Force story
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DARK AVENGERS #12 - Brian Michael Bendis is really enjoying showing us just how f-ed up each of the Dark Avengers really are. Hell, when Ares is the most stable – you got problems. Still trying to talk The Molecule Man down from destroying anything he wants to, Director Hand isn’t succeeding as much as she’s unknowingly stalling for time. As Osborn and the rest of the Avengers are still being tortured, Sentry manages to reform himself after being killed by MM last issue. Once reformed, Sentry discovers that he can control molecules to a greater extent than MM and forces him to put everything back to normal and then flies home alone – leaving the rest of the team with their collective jaws on the ground. Osborn is seriously beginning to lose it, trying to pull off his face in private and struggling to keep his Goblin persona in check. Bendis is going to have to address the whole Sentry thing fairly soon… the guy has brought himself back to life twice in the last six months and now realizes he can control the molecules of the universe. I really like the way Bendis walks us through the minds of the characters he’s writing, but I’d also like to see a little more action; especially with an amazing artist like Mike Deodato onboard. Loki is also shown in shadow, scheming on how to manipulate Osborn into doing his bidding – leading directly in Siege this month.
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Rating System: 0 to 1.5 stars = save your money unless you are just mindlessly collecting the title. 2 to 3.5 = worth a shot if you are up to trying something new or wanting to get back into a title. 4 to 5 = a must buy for any comic reader.
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