Sinister Monday #8

Let me indulge a letter to the editor for just one moment. Ahem.

Dear Cerby,
Love the site, but have to ask, where'd the single issue reviews go? Nobody out there in the comic blogdom has anything quite like them, and for a while you guys were doing about 2 per week or at the very least one. I miss them.

Sincerely,
the Velociraptor

Well Mr Dinosaur, sir, we here at the Cerby (Cerby? how cute!) have been asking ourselves that very same question. And since this is the first time we've ever been written to by a member of an extinct species (or pathetic NBA team), behold! A single issue review! Fresh from the convoluted folds of LeftD's gray matter. Hope you enjoy it... er, Rapty.


X-men #200 (+ Endangered Species chapter 1)
Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Chris Bachalo & Humberto Ramos
Ridiculously Awesome 4-part fold-out cover: David Finch

It's time for Mike Carey to put up or shut up. Dude's been waiting for this. Giving interviews for this. Building and preparing for this. And now the show is his. Endangered Species, a storyline that Carey is a chief architect of, launches its first chapter in the rear of X-men #200. A double-sized issue to begin with, there is a lot of room inside for all kinds of character depth and fireworks. Usually with Carey, the former is sacrificed on the napalm soaked altar of the latter. But I can't fault the guy for trying to fit too much into the space of single issue. Oh wait. Yes I can, and yes I have. Carey's pace on the X-men has been frenetic and disorienting. I've never really bought into his team, it never made sense to me. Why would these folks even hang out together, much less campaign as superheroes together? Carey has had much to say on this topic. The cliff notes reads that he wanted a stable core (Iceman, Rogue, and Cannonball) surrounded by an 'unstable' core (Mystique, Omega Sentinel, and Lady Mastermind). I think the first triforce works just fine, though I've never been the biggest Rogue fan. But the latter triumvirate... nope. I just don't see these guys as X-men.

Together, these two cores compose Carey's self-described 'strikeforce,' a group that has been through the wringer lately. Mowing down villains at a startling rate, with each batch of adversaries dispatched something 'important' has been added to Carey's master plot-line. Be it the recuperation of Sabretooth in the "Children of the Vault" storyline, the infection of Rogue with Strain-88 when the X-men faced Pandemic, or the destruction of Providence and the attack from Hecatomb in their most recent adventure, Carey's ducks are all lined up in a pretty little row. A row that is about to get a few hand grenades chucked at it.

It's no secret that this issue marks the return of both Gambit and the Marauders. But like BENDIS!' remarks on how the Skrulls may have already infiltrated the Marvel U so well that the "war may have already been lost," I am surprised how exposed and bewildered even the most veteran X-men are at this attack, largely from within. You'd think that what with being an endangered species and all you'd have a guy like Logan purposely watching certain former baddies turned goodies. You know he doesn't trust them anyways. And Wolverine, pugnacious or not, is right. Massive defections occur in this issue, and with them a high body count. The fate of two very beloved X-men is in doubt, but their 'deaths' are shadowed just enough to make one question whether or not there is anything to be worried about. These are the X-men after all, and while not Hawkeye or the Flash, these dudes have a way of surviving apparent deaths.

The plot shifts from New Orleans to Cable's ruinous island nation of Providence, to Westchester and back, but most of the action happens at the childhood home of Rogue. Struggling to secure a sense of self in a mind that has recently absorbed 8 billion alien intelligences, Rogue is going back to her roots in the hope of saving herself from the very real possibility of going insane. The X-men Old Guard of Whedon's team are called in to help (apparently this is before they sally forth to Breakworld), and arrive just in time for the shit to hit the fan. The latter portion of the issue features a scrum between an out-gunned X-tribe and a Marauders squad chock full of femme fatales.

Back in Providence, Cable fairs just as poorly. In a very slick, perhaps too slick, cinema style set-up, Cable squares off with Gambit. I've never fully understood the popularity of either of these two characters, specifically the "ragin' cajun", the X-men in particular, but the Marvel U as a whole already have plenty of misunderstood love to hate 'em badboys, to me Gambit just seems superfluous. But don't tell that to his mighty legion of fans. They will be pleased to find him fucking shit up on a grand scale.

A few words on the art-work. Both Ramos and Bachalo have an army of detractors. They claim the artwork is too aggressively unrealistic. Blocky and disproportionate. The only thing I have to say in the defense of "Ramachalo" is that most of these haters are forgetting one important thing. This is a comicbook. Not a Miyazaki anime film. I have a growing dislike of 'photo-realist' comic artists (Like Larocca, e.g.). I also favor artists who have their own style and don't ape other well known signatures. Oddly enough the only people Bachalo and Ramos' artwork resembles is each others, and pairing them up works better than most tag-teams. Having read through the issue three times now I find the transitions smooth, nearly indistinguishable. So what if Guthrie's biceps are larger than his head. So what if Mystique's face when viewed straight on and then in profile looks like two entirely different people. For the most part the penciling is original and bold. And it never lapses one frame from fully supporting the story.

This may sound odd but it's too bad the Endangered Species chapter is included here. X-men #200 is a solid issue on its own, but for many people the 'add-on' will trump most of what came before it in terms of shock value and genuine 'holy shit, i didn't just read that, did I?-ness." One thing is for certain, the Beast is for real. Like Carey himself, Beast is going all in. Whether or not the Beast of X-men lore would actually do something like this is an argument for another day. I aim to think that he merely has full confidence in his own team, and that in getting aid, from whatever horrible source that takes him up on his offer, he believes that in the end, when the inevitable melee occur, the good guys will come away with the 'W'. Plus, as my good friend and Cerberusian colleague cenTrale has recently said, "Plus, I think if needed [the Beast] can really throw down." In short, he's not afraid you or anyone, punk. But I sorta am. Jesus. What the Hell is he thinking! I mean seriously! That's like working with devil himself... that's... that's... oh well, that would be spoiling things now wouldn't it?

Rating: a hybrid composite. (Main story = a Gimli. Endangered Species = a Voltron) Over-all? a Snake-Eyes.


And just like X-men #200 has some great bonus material at the end, so does Sinister Monday #8. And by that I mean...


3...
sentence...
howls!



Daredevil #98
Writer: Brubaker, Artist: Lark
I wish I, too, could kick the door off a police car from the inside while wearing handcuffs and recovering from a savage beating from a drug-crazed sociopath. I also wish gravity effected every falling object the same and that no matter how quickly a man dives off the top of a building he won't catch up with something else that started falling a few seconds earlier. But maybe I'm just being picky... or maybe I just really wanted to see Stark and DD have a tete a tete--that so much to ask?
Rating: Lando


Fables #62
Writer: Willingham, Artists: Buckingham/Pepoy
The interior is solid, that's a given. What's also a given? A James Jean cover, but this one wins cover of the year, hands down; my eyes are bleeding from the goodness.
Rating: Snake-Eyes


Amazing Spider-Man #541
Writer: JMS, Artist: Garney
Just a few more issues until One More Day and then Amazing Spidey goes almost kinda sorta weekly. That is all well and good except this issue kinda sorta sucked balls. Melodramatic!!!!
Rating: Starscream


Captain America #27
Writer: Brubaker
Artist: Epting
Who does Tony Stark need fear the most? Not the Hulk, not Ultron, not the entire New Avengers Crew, Doom, or anyone else. The man better be prepared for the Winter Soldier.
Rating: Snake-Eyes (like most things in life, including that drink in your hand, this coulda used more Red Skull)