Week of 4/12/2017
Week of 4/12/2017:
In which Jay and Miles talk about the future, Old Man Logan may or may not be beginning its climax, X-Men: Blue is pretty great, and Weapon X works better than it should.
REVIEWED:
- Old Man Logan #21 (2:40)
- * X-Men: Blue #1 (5:29)
- Weapon X #1 (14:44)
*Pick of the Week
Filmed at Books With Pictures in Portland, OR.
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About Laura’s Legacy position? Absolutely. For the few months Bruce Wayne was dead Dick became Batman. He was in Justice League. He was in all the Batman titles. He. Was. Batman. Marvel are bending over backwards to NOT put Laura into their books. Why do we now have to have two “new male Logans” when we have a perfectly good one. In fact, I might even suggest, better than the original one!
And yeah, apart from a sudden Jimmy Hudson appearing, I really liked Blue as well. Jean’s hair is great and the costumes are bloody gorgeous. I’m down for this one.
Something’s been driving me up the walls ever since the previous issue of Old Man Logan. I admit, I haven’t reread Origin since it came out, but Wikipedia backs me up on it – Logan was born in the 1880s. And here he is, fighting in the war of 1812. Lemire made him older by a hundred years and it seems no one picked up on it. You’d think an editor might have noticed…
On the other hand, it’s the only scene in the issue we haven’t previously seen, with the next episodes being a rehash of Weapon X and Incredible Hulk #181…
If that is/was true about Logan’s year of birth, it would be pretty easy to explain away with, “Old Man Logan is different,” or “Things were put back together differently after Secret Wars.” Alternately, “Those who were responsible for that story watched far too much of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
Even movie Logan only went as far back as the Civil War. Not that I remember, I rewatched the opening credits on YouTube. I had to look for them for quite a long time – I think it’s a testament to how detested this movie is, as there’s not that many clips of it on YouTube. And the opening montage is the best scene of the movie…
Did you make a Bunnicula reference? I never thought I’d see the day.
My favorite Ultimate X-Man is Ultimate Kitty Pryde. I know that’s a long shot, but this book deals with alt-versions so I’d still like to see her.
Best of luck with the move. I’ll miss the podcast when that happens.
I’ll miss you greatly. You’ll leave a gaping hole for the time off, but I wish you well on your new life decisions and getting all things figured out podcasts related and not. Sure, I’ll be waiting for your return. 🙂
As for this week’s comics: While X-Men: Blue really hooked me into the new line (It was a very present surprise since I don’t even like the time displaced O5 concept – I didn’t like it with Bendis, after it was clear he wasn’t gonna do anything with them, and I didn’t like it with Hopeless, but the new cheerful cartoony style of the book, both on the art and the writing, is really giving me all the fuzz. Remind me a bit of X-Men: First Class, only even better!) – well, I still couldn’t find any connection with Weapon X. Land’s art defintely didn’t help, but even while trying to enjoy only from the writing (which kinda misses the whole point of the comic book medium) Pack just never clicked for me. In any book. But more importantly: I’m just sick and tired of male Wolverine. I can’t read anything with him in it anymore, apparently. He automatically ruins a bit every panel he is in, even in the books he’s only a minor character in. I’m sorry, 30 years of over exposure has finally done it for me. So yeah, I don’t think I’ll keep reading this specific series. If you don’t enjoy the art, the writing and can’t relate or be invested in any of the characters you should just move to other books.
But that’s ok. That’s kinda the book I was predicting to leave out anyway…
Just checked, and while Juggernaut’s first appearance is X-Men #12 back in 1965, Black Tom’s was #99 (1976), which I think is just foreshadowing for the Leprechaun issue…
Hiatus makes me sad. Good luck with all the changes!
Huh. So (because vacation last week) I listened to last week’s episode after this one. In that order, it seems really weird to be dinging X-Men: Gold for lack of diversity while (I think?) not mentioning it for X-Men: Blue, given that the O5 are pretty solidly the least diverse group of X-Men ever.
Of course, because I didn’t buy comics last week, I can’t even comment on the actual content of X-Men: Gold #1, because Comixology is no longer selling it. :\
I think the diversity issue is less of problem here because, frankly, the book is better (which helps) and also because this is a book about a specific team line-up. X-Men Gold specifically builds a team, which ends up being 5 white people and Storm. This book is about the original 5 which inherits the team from X-Men 1, which yes, is about the least diverse group of X-Men ever (although at least this group has a queer member, if not any poc). Dennis Hopeless fought this by having a diverse cast around the original 5, and I hope Bunn is going to do something similar. It remains to be seen, obviously, and the addition of Jimmy Hudson is… not a step in the right direction, but we shall see.
And you’re not missing anything in X-Men Gold.
I believe Bunn has said that there will be more members joining the 05, so (hopefully) Jimmy won’t be the only one.
The 05 team is a tricky one as it’s never going to do well on the diversity scale for obvious reasons, but in terms of X continuity it’s arguably the most iconic team the franchise has. When written well each of these 5 characters brings a specific thing to the group and each individual character has a well-defined relationship with each other character. This is not something you see in a lot of other team books or even media with the X-Men. Even the next most iconic team of the All-New All-Different team under Claremont (which X-Men: Gold is a direct homage to) was way more fluid and had members popping in and out on a regular basis.
The 05 X-Men have to be careful to really work in this day and age. When written well they are a charming and endearing group, but they also come significantly close to being a clique (and I say this as someone who loves that set of characters).
100% agree. Claremont’s stated goal with his X-Men team lineups was that they should grow and change and move on. He retired Cyclops for exactly that reason, with only Marvel Editorial deciding to bring him back, as we all know. And his teams were always somewhat reflective of the times in which he was writing, which is why Gold aping the team visually, and not philosophically, is such a letdown and why this team being 5 lily-white teenagers isn’t as much of a problem on the surface.
I hope Bunn can do something interesting with Hudson, but I hadn’t heard his comments about adding more members to the team, so yeah, here’s hoping.
My one problem with X-Men Blue with how Bobby is written younger is that he doesn’t read to me as fifteen or sixteen. He reads as twelve or thirteen, which i think is a much bigger gap in both emotion and speaking patterns than mid teens and late teens.
I was really excited for X-Men: Blue and the first issue did not disappoint. I’m hyped for future issues, most especially to see how the 05’s relationship with their mentor pans out since that character seems to have them set-up as a non-lethal X-Force.
I will miss your podcasts and reviews (especially as the Jean Grey and Iceman solos come out), but I hope the hiatus does well for you and leaves you refreshed, centered, and healthy.
I, too, will be greatly interested to see what happened to create the current relationship with the mentor in X-Men Blue. Especially why The Best Cyclops would trust that mentor after the events of All-New X-Men 2nd volume (“Inevitable”)issue 18. I think that issue could be drawn upon for things which both hinder and help to establish trust.
I’ve been astonished you’ve been able to maintain the level of output you have with just the two of you (and Kyle, and guests) so taking a little time off to recharge amd sort thing out is not unexpected.
I’ll miss my weekly slice of X-geekish-ness on a Tuesday morning communte, but it won’t be for long.
Hope the move goes well!
Thank you for all the work and love you’ve put into the podcasts and reviews, Miles and Jay. Good luck with the move, Jay. Maybe I’m biased, having lived here for 20 yrs, but New York is the greatest city on earth and as someone who spends their days advocating for affordable public housing, with respect, I hope you’ve considered the economic effect this move will have on low income and immigrant families. Also, if you’re looking for a place to pick up physical comics, I recommend bypassing Midtown Comics and supporting small independent shops like Mysterious Time Machine. Roger is the most generous shop owner I’ve ever met. Not only does he give deep discounts to regular customers, he keeps a nice Argentinian Malbec on hand.
With the reviews and Patreon funds placed on pause, I think Jay and Miles would enjoy spending some of this limited not-covering-nine-X-books time with Black Panther & The Crew. With as often as the “buddy cop” movie genre has come up in your podcast, you might like to see how a team-up involving a former childhood thief (twice-over, due to Nanny and Gambit) and a cyborg detective plays out.
Are you still planning on resuming your reviews? The video here suggest that you intended to start them up again along with the podcasts in August, but that seems to have fallen through. No pressure– I’m really grateful for all the podcasting you already do– but I’m super curious as to what you think of the line in general (particularly Gold), now that the ResurreXion era has actually had a chance to unfold for a couple of arcs.