'06 Comics In Reviews, Part 2

So now we enter my homeland, Marvel. It's been an up and down year, as the big name characters have been handled in ways that typically drove me up the wall, while the normally lower-tier characters have been a blast. Today, I'm going to focus on the team books, because if I don't break this up some, these posts will run on forever.

Exiles (76-89, Annual #1) - Exiles was a book I picked up in late January, mostly due to the appearance of Spider-Man 2099 and Longshot. I've been through the last half of the Proteus mess, the fallout from that, a Wolverine story, a run-in with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, and a opposites fight. It's been an interesting book, in that it rarely knocks my socks off, but it also rarely disappoints me. It's a steady, reliable performer, and that's not a bad thing to have.

High Point: #79-80, the issues where the Exiles team-up with the Maestro-Hulk to stop Proteus, were pretty good, and I enjoyed the Silver Savage's showdown with the original Imperial Guard in #87, but I'm going to give it to #85-86, "The New Exiles". The squads of Wolverines, Brother Mutant (a combination of Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Warlock, and Mesmero) being dangerous, absurd, and hilarious at the same time, the Exiles preferring to continue to run missions for those stinking, back-stabbing bugs, rather than settle into a safer life as members of Alpha Flight. It felt flat the first time, but re-reading it last night, it was a lot of fun.

Low Point: The Annual almost wins this because of the wildly variable art, but I liked the concept, and the writing was good, so instead I choose #81-82, the conclusion of the "World Tour" storyarc, wrapping up on Counter-Earth. I think it was because this was the third time I'd seen Proteus come to a new reality, convince the people he was a good guy and needed protection from the Exiles, and then the Exiles get ambushed by those heroes. It got a little tired by that point. It's not that it was bad. I liked the solution to the Proteus problem, especially for the future problems it hints at, it just feels like the weakest point of the past year. Still, this Counter-Earth (which is supposed to be what Franklin Richards created), is more interesting than the one Loeb's trotting out in Onslaught Reborn. So naturally, Loeb is ignoring it. Jeph, Heroes Reborn world isn't in that little ball Franklin has anymore. Doom brought the planet out and set it on the other side of the Sun! Pay attention!

Heroes for Hire (1-2) - I'm not really sure why I stopped buying the book. It's not bad, it's got little-used characters, which is normally right up my alley, and the stories have been pretty interesting so far, based on my skimming through recent issues. Maybe the art was too - what's the word I'm looking for - bootylicious? I think I just decided it wasn't quite good enough to keep spending cash on. Maybe I'll try again in a few months.

New Avengers (15-20, Annual #1, Illuminati Special) - Not much to say. I kept complaining about the book, so I finally gave up on it after the debacle that was Bendis trying to explain the Magneto/Xorn situation at the end of "The Collective"

High Point: New Avengers Annual #1. Man, that was easy. This was basically a two-part Avengers story. They fought an Avengers level threat, it was one that built on what Bendis had done earlier, there was some witty dialogue, everyone got to do something, and we got to see The Sentry get kicked around a bit. Plus, Stan Lee was the priest at the wedding. See this entry for a more comprehensive rundown of what actually turned out to be pretty good issue.

Low Point: Everything else. You want specifics? Fine. There was the scene in #15 where Jameson agrees to cut back on the anti-Spidey press, in exchange for inside scoops, shakes Captain America's hand in agreement, then turns around and blasts the whole team - Spidey included. I know Jameson's a jerk, but I think he's more honorable than that. Besides, Robbie told him to take the deal or he would quit, so I can't see Robbie letting Jonah pull that stunt. There was #16, which as some pointed out, featured almost no Avengers at all, the mess with Xorn in #20, the fact that Avengers not named Iron Man or The Sentry did almost nothing that entire story. Weak. But I'm done with it now, so let's move to happier climes.

New Excalibur (4-14) - Picked this up at the start of February, followed it through Warwolves, Black Tom, the Shadow King, Camelot, and currently the battle for Cain Marko's soul. This one follows roughly the same formula as Exiles: lower-tier characters, mostly short story arcs, the feeling things are building quietly behind the scenes, and while rarely spectacular, has also rarely been bad. Another one of the solid books on my list, regardless of the general contempt it seems to be held in by many others.

High Point: #10-12, when the team winds up in Camelot, trying to prevent it's destruction by rather large dragons? Or are they something else? We had Pete Wisdom's continuing disintegration, some rising tensions between the team, the Juggernaut's continuing concerns over his powers, and what I thought was a pretty clever response to the invasion. I thought the writing was pretty good, and Michael Ryan's art was excellent. Pity he's moving on to Runaways. Damn Joss Whedon.

Low Point: #4, mostly because I'm a fan of the Lionheart character (yes, I'm the one), and she kind of went over the edge, and possibly to the dark side in this one. Personally, I'd been hoping Braddock was going to refuse to join the team, and she was going to take his place. Wisdom could think he was in charge, while Sage still continues to be the true leadership. Oh well. So I was a little concerned with that, but it looks like with Claremont returning I'm going to see some resolution to the story in the next few months. Until then, this kind of bummed me out, so it winds up here.

Ultimate X-Men (66-68, 72-77, Annual #1) - Last year, I named this my third favorite ongoing series of 2005. Even assuming I was doing things the same way this year, it wouldn't maintain that position. I had to bail out for the three issue Phoenix story, "Magical" was confusing, and the jury's still out on "Cable", which just leaves "Date Night" and the Annual. Yowza.

High Point: #66-68, because it was a pretty fun story, seeing what the team does on it's downtime, with even Xavier going out for dinner. He says it was business, but we all know Chuck wanted to get his groove on. Better with Lilandra than Jean Grey, Charles. The situation with Rogue and Iceman, Jean trying to make Scott more assertive (emphasis on "make"), and Raney's art was nicely done. The whole "Wolverine is Sabretooth's dad" thing was not appreciated, but I guess I'll let it slide.

Low Point: Ultimate X-Men Annual #1. "Magical" may have been hard to make sense of, but the Annual decided to make Nightcrawler into a severely damaged person, plus Dazzler ended up leaving the school, so that nicely took two of my favorite characters out of play right there. Nightcrawler as a homophobe I could see, it wouldn't totally surprise me that someone who faced hatred and intolerance like he did in Weapon X would develop similar feelings towards others that are sometimes considered to be different, but abducting Alison, and fighting the whole team? Just a real downer of an issue. Well, back to greener pastures.

X-Factor (2-14) - Talk about your greener pastures. Once again following the formula of lower-tier, lesser-used characters, short story arcs, clever dialogue, stuff going on in the background. The difference is, this book not only rarely disappoints, but frequently kicks severe amounts of ass. This is gonna be tricky.

High Point: So many to choose from. There's #3, with Layla dealing with Singularity's hired killer. #13, the Leonard Samson issue. Even #8-9, the Civil War tie-ins, were pretty damned good. But I'm going to have to take #12, where Layla thwarts Singularity again, Jamie's "x-factor" gets loose, and the Elder Tryp finally finds out who it is that's really bolloxing up his plans, plus we found out why his plans are what they are. That ending with Layla standing frozen in front of the fridge was very nice. Atmospheric. A heck of a way to wrap up the first year for Peter David. And I'd be remiss not to mention the letters page, particularly the one when he considers having Deadpool show up to get involved with Shatterstar, just to piss both segments of fans off simultaneously.

Low Point: I was tempted to pick #8-9, the aforementioned Civil War tie-ins, just on principle. How dare Joe Quesada try to damage this title by making it consort with that cheap trollop of Millar's? But honestly, I had a pretty good time with that so for lack of a better choice, I'll choose #7, when Siryn learns about her father's death. It certainly wasn't a bad issue, but I've got to admit, if I look at the cover, all I remember is that Tryp throws Jamie out of a window (since that's what the cover depicts), and that doesn't seem to bode well. So on that extremely narrow basis, it wins. Or loses Basically, it's the equivalent of a "Lowest mountain in the Himalayas" type thing. Still damned impressive on it's own, though.

Whew. Well, that's done. Not a bad year, all things considered. I'd say X-Factor, Exiles, and New Excalibur more than make up for New Avengers. Tomorrow, I'll move on to Marvel books with more of a solo slant to them (excluding Spidey books, there's so many they get there own section). I don't think it's been quite as stupendous a year there.