Uncanny X-Men #509

Written by: Matt Fraction

Art by: Greg Land

Well, if you didn’t notice before, this month’s Uncanny cover really proves that Greg Land draws every chick like a porn star. And not that I want to look at some mishapen haggard”butter” face, it just gets annoying trying to tell every female character apart.

Again, Land’s art aside, this issue is a step up from last. The whole ridiculous scenario involving a Godzilla like monster fighting off one of the most boring and uninteresting X-teams in a long time, are gone. The science team is still there, they are just in a lab this month. The one aspect I don’t like about this science team, is the fact that they have so much screen time, if you will. It’s comprised of characters I really don’t care about, or at least I don’t amongst the other things happening in the book. Dr. Nemesis? I don’t like him. Madison Jefferies comes off a little tacked on. I mean, how often can he be of use? He talks to robots. Beast is cool, it is just strange that all this time after the events of House of M, they are just now trying to figure out how to reactivate the X-Gene.

The biggest portion of the book is dedicated to showing off mutants in California, just being themselves again. No wars, no global threats, just hanging out and stopping the occasional minor crimes. This is just to show that as soon as the mutants all flock to California, we learn that a new Mutant Control act is being talked about. If passed, the act will require all mutants undergo a chemical birth control operation that would stop them from breeding. Ever since a video tape was released that showed mutants involved in that disatrous event back in Messiah Complex, which also involved the first mutant being born since M-Day, people have become afraid of mutants again. So just when things seem calm, mutants are back in the spotlight being painted as a menace.

Again, helping to bolster this is the fact that Pixie is growing up and doing what all girls do at that age, go out to parties and flirting with boys. As far as she knows, she is just having fun socializing and becoming a young woman, but out there in the distance looms Propostion X. So in a time where girls like Pixie are becoming interested in boys, this Propostion X aims to ruin all that. Her coming of age may soon be dashed if nothing is done about this. But we all know that it will be addressed. In a very “God Loves, Man Kills”, Uncanny 509 sets out to again cause more grief to the remaining mutants on Earth.

The ressurection of Madelyn Pryor through Psylocke’s body will also bring about some added drama to the mutants. The ending of the book, shows that not only do the remaining good mutants of the world know where they can find refuge in California, but the bad guys women know where they can find their targets.

Lands’ art is good. I don’t hate him, I just think that he sometimes gets a little stale, where every female looks the same. This issue still stays true to that. The opening pages show the Stepford Cuckoos cavorting around town, and the next page shows Dazzler and Pixie on a rock concert stage. What I’m getting at, is the girls all look the same. Just short of hair color, you really can’t tell the difference between them. I only knew this because Dazzler is a singer, and has sparkly things flying out of her hand, and the Stepford Cuckoos are triplets. Oh and Pixie has wings. Other than that, that is where my problem with his art lies. While not badly drawn, it just begs for more varied character depictions.

All in all, not a bad issue. Some of the nagging aspects I have had with Matt Fraction’s story have been remedied, making room for some really great plots. And I mean plots in the most literal sense available. He is tossing around so many plots, it really is amazing that he can give us a taste of all of them in just one issue.
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Amazing Spider-man #592

Written by: Mark Waid

Art by: Mike Mckone

Last issue, upon returning from another dimension with the Fantastic Four, Spidey came home to realize his long time enemy, his constant detractor and the one person who wants to be rid of Spider-man the most just got elected as Mayor. No it isn’t Norman Osborn.

J. Jonah Jameson!

Yes, this Hatfield/McCoy feud between Spidey and Jameson has had its share of ups and downs, but nothing has ever had the impact on ol’ Webhead like this one. And his first order of business as the new mayor? Enacting a 24/7 “Anti Spider Squad” with the goal of finally elimating Spider-man from the city and possibly elimating him all together. The squad storms into the offices after Spider-man attempts to make ammends but fails. Jameson hit the silent alarm and has them kicking in the door and opening fire on Spider-man.

So now that he knows that he is JJJ’s main political platform, Spidey takes some shots of his own. Getting in Jonah’s face non-stop. Sacrificing Peter Parker’s “life” in order to stay in costume and just piss off Jonah.

So while this issue is mostly about fun and games and childish behavior between the two, Peter seems to forget that the Hit Squad will be following him 24/7, with their gun’s “safeties” off.

But something that is even more shocking awaits Peter in the last panel. Unaware that Aunt May has been dating for the past 2 months since he left. Side Note: Although time has passed in our world, around 2 months, when Peter and the FF were in the alternate dimension, every hour there was equivalent to about a week back on Earth. So Peter ends up finding out that Aunt May has been dating, the most awkward way he could ever find out, mind you.

It’s been a while since Peter made that infamous deal with Mephisto in order to turn back time and make the world forget that he ever unmasked back in Civil War. He also had to sacrifice his marriage to MJ, but he decided that he must. Leading up to the controversial Brand New Day, readers shared their thoughts about the whole ordeal, with loud outcry. I for one hated the idea, but soon came to like some of the stories post BND. Getting back to the good old days where Peter had to deal with getting to work and paying rent, instead of having cloned kids and Iron Spider Suits. It all felt real Golden Age to me, and I liked it.

But my point of this rant is this. In the last couple of issues, I’ve started to notice that characters are seeming to recall that something happened to Peter a long time ago, but they just can’t quite recall what. So this leads me to believe that soon we will see an end to this new continuity of Spidey and it will go back to the world knowing who he is under the mask.

I’m not to sure how I feel about this. For one, I thought that MJ and Pete’s marriage was essential to the book. Without MJ, Pete was just not the same. Marvel really gave up a good thing going, all because some writers didn’t know what to do with the two anymore. Before being cancelled and turned into the tri-weekly release as Amazing Spider-man, Sensational Spider-man had an Annual come out a while back just focusing on what was so great about the relationship Pete and MJ shared. It is one of my favorite issues of Spider-man ever. I plan on getting into it in more detail when I finally get around to posting up some of my fav comic books of all time, but that is just due to my extreme laziness.

I do really enjoy the current ASM stories. Utilizing some lesser known villains to tell some great stories, and really just getting back to the roots of what makes Spider-man my favorite and millions of other people’s favorite super-hero of all time. But it can’t be perfect. Essentially writing MJ out of the Marvel Universe all together, but in the mean time, having some really great Spider-man issues. So hopefully, this post Brand New Day world can finally reunite Mj and Peter and still maintain the Golden Age style stories.

I really think that Spider-man has been the best it’s ever been in recent times, but there are still some things I really want need in my Spider-man comics.

So huge rant aside, I do really like that Mark Waid is back on ASM. He is a big proponent of super-heros being good and bad guys being bad. He manages to get in some really funny moments between Jameson and Parker. The two argue like an old married couple, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And Mike Mckone’s art is just amazing. Sorry for the pun. Some really great scenes of Spidey swinging around doing his flips and shit, to the looks on JJJ’s face when he finally thinks he has Spidey trapped. Good stuff.

What’s great about the current tri-weekly release of ASM is that if you don’t like a writer/artist team, you just have to wait a month and a new team comes in. And the stories don’t have too much continuity between the two. Basically just piggybacking off whatever happened the last arc and creating a new story. Plus the DB! style recaps in the front pages really help newbie readers catch up on what’s happening in the Wallcrawler’s world.

I have to give it to Marvel. They really take ASM seriously right now. Devoting alot of man power into making sure that ASM is accessible. And they should. It’s one of if not their biggest flag ship title. So if you haven’t been reading ASM lately, you should. I personally love the classic Webslinger feeling stories. Nothing too high brow and nothing that makes you feel too old to read it. Just good old fashioned Spider-man tales.
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SPOILERS…..obviously.

Walking Dead #60

Written by: Robert Kirkman

Art by: Charlie Adlard

The BIG 6-0. 60 is most notably the time in your life when you start to lose your hearing, and your eyes start getting worse, along with your driving skills, and you go hobble your way into your huge, boat sized Cadillac and break off the odometer at 25 in a 45 mph zone while heading to your local Walgreens and buy some of those huge, wrap around glasses that look like some kind of virtual reality visor. Yeah, its those years when retirement homes scare you, along with all that new fangled technology, and don’t even talk about those young punks with their “raps” and “skateboards”. But you know what isn’t getting old? The Walking Dead.

60 issues in, Robert Kirkman hopes to bring back the original antagonist of the series: zombies. While most of the series has been about the fact that the zombies aren’t the worst thing roaming the land, issue 60 tries to convince us that they are still a contender.

Last issue, we finally caught a glimpse of the “herd” of zombies heading after our intrepid heroes. Rick & Co. could defend against a group of zombies with little to no effort, but a herd comprises of thousands of zombies. Not a walk in the park.

So in this issue, we witness our car-less heroes running from the herd, trying desperately to get back to their loved ones in time to warn them of the incoming danger. While not the most illuminating issue of the series, this issue does help emphasize the immediacy of the undead flock.

I have always said that the issues that deal with the more humanizing aspects of the story are my favorites. Issues where the characters are just sitting around trying to gather some shred of hope while being surrounded and confronted by acts of horrific violence and sanity breaking situations. This issue still brings that to the table. One character in particular gets this in spades.

So all in all, this issue doesn’t reveal a whole lot, but it does hint at the herd arc coming to an end, but not before a little preview at the end of the book. With preview pages with phrases like “”The dead do not stalk” and an accompanying picture of shadowy figures hiding in the trees right above some of the main cast.

Yeah, I don’t really need to tell you about the art and the writing because it is just so good. It’s just a given with this series.
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