After Months of Waiting…

     Warren Ellis’ inaugural arc on Astonishing X-Men is FINALLY over.  I say Warren Ellis’ arc because Simone Bianchi will, thankfully, not be the artist on the next one.  The new artist will be Phil Jimenez, someone who is actually very good.  In this last issue of the all over the place arc, Forge reveals that he has gone stark-raving mad.  He’s created his own species of mutants to fight off alternate universe mutants trying to take over Earth-616.  He insists that the X-Men help him, but they all refuse.  Abigail Brand calls in to mention that she has a giant laser pointed at their location, and Wolverine pops his claws in a confusing way, since they’re a part of his mutation, but there was an X-Gene inhibitor.  The invasion begins, everything goes nuts, and Abigail Brand shoop da whoops the Ghost Box.  Storm fails to convince Forge to come with them, and he presumably dies.  And thus, the X-Men fly off, reminding themselves of their lost innocence.  Happy, huh?

     So, the ending was fun.  I’ll admit, that I had no idea that this is where things were going when we first began with this highly bizarre arc.  I thought it was going to be another Joss Whedon-esque arc.  I also am surprised that more didn’t happen with the alternate universe mutants.  Maybe they’ll come back in the future.  However, this rambling has been the main problem with the arc.  I think that Warren Ellis has gotten a better hold on the characters, as he’s not trying too hard with the dialogue anymore.  And we don’t have to deal with any of his insufferable excuse for dialogue with Emma Frost.  So I think that the next arc will be much better.  Also, Simone Bianchi won’t be there, which is a plus.  Just as he got better with certain faces, like Storm, Cyclops, and Forge, he got worse with other faces, like Beast and Armor.  Poor Beast starting looking like the Cheshire Cat again.  More than anything, I’m just glad it’s over.  I forgot for a while about this series altogether, and that’s never a good sign.  Hopefully, the next arc will start out with more of a bang and less of a snoozefest.

Plot: 8.6      Art: 8.2      Dialogue: 8.4      Overall: 8.5

Paging Dr. Voodoo

     So, Brother Voodoo is the new Sorceror Supreme.  Or as Ronin calls him, Dr. Voodoo.  In the newest issue of New Avengers, Voodoo, Dr. Strange, Daimon Hellstrom, and the New Avengers face off against the demonically-possessed Hood.  In a flashback, Voodoo accepts the Eye of Agamotto and the title of Sorceror Supreme.  Then, in the present, the three mystics whip up a barrier, and Voodoo exorcises Dormammu from the Hood.  Hellstrom fortells of greater trials, and Ronin hands over Madame Masque and the Hood to the authorities, saying that, when the two of them get freed by Osborn, the public will see that the New Avengers were doing the right thing.  Loki comes to give the Hood another source of power, and, corresponding with Dark Avengers, Norman Osborn refutes Ronin’s claims, prompting Ronin to decide that he will have to kill Osborn.

     Despite the fact that this title is the New Avengers, the titular characters take a back seat to Hellstrom, Strange, and Voodoo in this issue.  Aside from Ronin’s parts, most of the characters just get to spew some of Brian Michael Bendis’ teenage witty dialogue.  It’s those three, plus Ronin, who really get the meaty dialogue.  I’m still not particularly excited to see Doctor Voodoo as the Sorceror Supreme, though.  Bendis hasn’t really sold me on the concept.  I’m intrigued to see what Loki will do with the Hood, as it’s clear that sides are being drawn in the Cabal (Dr. Doom and Namor, Namor and Emma Frost, Loki and the Hood).  As for Ronin, I’m a bit surprised, as this choice is rather drastic, even considering the circumstances.  I would hope that he wouldn’t actually go through with it.  Billy Tan’s art is about the same in this issue as it was in every other issue.  His anatomy is odd at times, but otherwise, it’s solid.  This is a nice ending to the Dr. Strange/Sorceror Supreme arc, but it wasn’t exactly the stellar ending that I expected at the beginning of the arc.  At the very least, though, I can say that Bendis is defying my expectations.

Plot: 8.3      Art: 8.0      Dialogue: 7.8      Overall: 8.2

Cliché-Riddled Trash

     I think I finally understand how Mark Millar works.  All of his work is based on style and shock, and it’s often devoid of any real substance.  For Civil War and Enemy of the State, he actually had some good ideas behind them.  Unfortunately, in his final arc on Fantastic Four, his ideas have been crap.  In this issue, the Thing and Debbie deal with the fallout from the bizarre weather occurrences and Ben’s little tantrum on live television.  Then, the Marquis of Death and his apprentice arrive at the Baxter Building and begin forcing the F4 through various tortuous trials.  The Marquis particularly picks on Mr. Fantastic, trying to get him to sacrifice the lives of Franklin, the Thing, and Clyde Wyncham, some random mutant character from Millar’s previous work, Marvel 1985.  The Marquis then reveals that he is the Clyde Wyncham from the Old Man Logan universe, freed when all the supervillains banded together.  After that, he sends Reed back to the Baxter Building, which is under attack by various alternate F4s.  And the Earth-616 F4 mistake him for one of the enemies…

     Well, I think the Marquis of Death is one of the single most ridiculous villains I have ever seen.  His modus operandi in trying to break the F4 is just so stupid.  He states that he’s going to force the Invisible Woman to pick between Valeria and Franklin.  Cliché #1.  Then, he starts trying to get Reed to sacrifice someone else to save the world.  Cliché #2.  He also randomly kills Uncle Ben’s Aunt Petunia just to be an ass and to shock people.  Cliché #3.  So no, I don’t like this one bit.  In fact, I’m quite surprised that anyone likes it.  This comic book reeks of bad writing.  And did I mention that Millar can’t even take the time to finish this story himself?  He gets one of his collaborators, Joe Ahearne, to write the script for him.  Not that I could tell the difference.  As for the art, Bryan Hitch likewise can’t do it by himself.  So he gets Neil Edwards to finish it.  And believe me, it’s rather jarring to see the stylistic difference.  I noticed it the first time I skimmed through the pages.  So let’s see.  The story is bad, the art is funky (especially when Edwards is doing it), and neither of the main creators can be professional enough to do the work themselves.  If this is the price for the Fantastic Four achieving modern popularity, I’ll take the old days when a lot of people ignored it.  At least then the stories were of high quality, even if no one understood the appeal of Marvel’s first family.

Plot: 1.5      Art: 6.2      Dialogue: 3.3      Overall: 2.0