One of the things I love most about shopping at Big Planet Comics in College Park is that right in the front of the store they have the 'give away shelves' - restocked pretty consistently week to week with books culled from the back issue bins and donated collections. Any book on those two shelves are free to take away with you, and I have used that opportunity to add greatly to my back issue collection. It adds a better value to my trip, as I may be paying full price for my new issues but overall I'm still getting a great deal on what ends up in my bag. It also means that in my weekly reviews from the store I'll have an interesting collection of the books I'm reading now (mainly X-Men related with some New 52 thrown in), but also some curious selections from the back catalogue. Case in point today - two over sized Spider-Man anthologies I had never even heard of.
So lets take a look at this week's haul.
***** SPOILER WARNING***********
Wolverine and the X-Men #4
Okay, if you're not reading Wolverine and the X-Men and Uncanny X-Force then I can't promise that's your first problem, but it's definitely your current problem. Because these are phenomenal books and both are important to this issue, which sees writer Jason Aaron succeed in a tremendously difficult arena - the creation of an enjoyable self contained issue that also pushes the main plots forward while adding in subplots from an entirely different series. He does this all while deftly juggling an ensemble cast in the double digits and giving everyone a moment in the spotlight. It's fun, funny, quirky, and hits just the right notes of playing to the shared universe of these stories without feeling beholden to it. Given, I'm reading both books, and this is a compelling next step for a trio of characters that seem to be moving from X-Force to WatXM. This series has been a home run so far, and I truly recommend it.
To catch you up, the X-Men have split on philosophical differences, mainly relating to the treatment of mutant teenagers as part of the post-Decimation world (where the Scarlet Witch robbed just about all mutants with the exception of the 198 most famous ones of their mutant powers, leaving them an endangered species). Cyclops is leading a mutant nation on an island just off the coast of San Francisco, utilizing the relatively novel strategy of starting a new cold war with the rest of the world to ensure mutant safety, using themselves as the nukes. Scott is training the younger X-Men that stayed with him to be combat ready in a world that may strike at any moment. Conversely, Wolverine basically said enough is enough, and kids are kids, and went back to Westchester to reopen the old school and teach younger mutants rather than train them. Their school is insanely awesome. Effectively, Scott is now practicing the more pragmatic and isolationist ideas that Magneto used to champion, only without the killing innocent people part. Logan is championing a more pure version of Xavier's dream by not only re-opening the school, but incorporating more species than mutants into the student body - including aliens, clones, and living land masses at last count. It may seem surprising that Scott Summers, the former poster boy for the Xavier school, is the one living alone on an island with Magneto daring Iran not to blink, but it's actually a pretty natural extension of the characters after the last few years, not to mention a guy who was raised to be the leader of a covert para-military operation since he was 16. In many ways, Logan's new school is MUCH more representative of an actual school than ever before in X-Men history, except for the Morrison era, and so far he has a leg up on Xavier since no busses full kids have blown up yet (yup - totally happened).
What's pretty awesome about this set up is two fold. First, while characters like Magneto and Xavier are both still around and operating and significant supporting characters, they are no longer the figureheads for the core ideological discussion at the root of the X-Books. They have been supplanted by the next generation of mutant leaders and thinkers - a promise heralded all the way back in Grant Morrison's seminal New X-Men - Planet X arc, but with a potential only now just beginning to be realized. This allows the book to feel like it has actually evolved - a tremendous feat in a medium where Stan Lee once boldly (and apocryphally) announced in the 1970s that we 'no longer needed change, only the illusion of change,' and where nostalgia fueled reboots tend to wipe out years of development in favor of starting clean for a new generation.
The second exciting thing is what the nature of this schism allows us to have from a storytelling perspective. It took a long time and a lot of moving pieces to get us here, but we finally have both sides of the ideological divide represented equally and evenly and at a relatively equivalent morality. For a long time Xavier's methods were always the protagonists' methods, and so while Magneto might have made a good point or two, it was hard to ignore that he was doing so while leading 'The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' or calling for the slaughter of most homo-sapiens. Now maybe you disagree with Scott's politics and worry he's riding way too close to the edge - a plot point in the book - but he's also been shown as a capable and competent wartime general who united and led his people to survival. This is no evil villain calling for the death of humans, this is Scott friggin Summers from 1963's X-Men #1 taking on the responsibility of a world leader. And it is EXACTLY what Magneto was trying to do with Avalon in the 90s, only on island by the bay instead of out in space. And the threat of a global EMP. It's fascinating to see that for all of Xavier's teaching Scott is basically following the Magneto path, down to Mags kneeling before him in a public show of fealty and is now acting as his concierge. Intentional or not, that is a rather damning commentary on either Xavier's dream, or his methods. I'm going to go with methods, as I've spent the better part of my life believing in the peaceful coexistence of races - but it is fascinating to see both sides fleshed without one being the ostensible villains.
Which leaves us with Wolverine, the man who is concurrently running a non-violent school for youths AND a black ops hit squad, as the moral figurehead of Xavier's dream. This duality is at the center of this particular issue as we see how the ramifications of X-Force's latest mission (which resulted in the death and rebirth of Archangel without any of his memories, and a young clone of Apocalypse named Evan who was raised in a virtual reality Smallville to really answer the nature vs. nurture question) will affect the school, and how Logan and his staff will navigate that. It's interesting to note that while Hank, Kitty, and Bobby (definitely the core moral center of the X-Men now) want NOTHING to do with X-Force, none of them are particularly surprised to hear Wolverine is doing that kind of stuff, because that's the way he's always been. If anything, this school is a MUCH bigger change for Wolvie - who used to take teenage girls under his wing by teaching them how to use swords and dodge bullets. Contrast that with the shock and horror everyone had when Cyclops was doing the same thing, and it's because Scott has changed, and I don't think it was apparent to anyone just how much he had until recently.
So this issue is a bit of an epilogue, a bit of a breather, and a TREMENDOUS amount of fun. It's the X-Men book I've wanted for a long time, and I've been a fan of some more recent runs (Fraction's, for all its flaws, in particular). The students are great, the teachers are great, the stakes are high, the high concepts are present and so are the small character moments, as well as the philosophical implications.
If you look at the X-Men as one giant, long form story told over generations this is an important series of moments.
To Be Continued
No comments:
Post a Comment