What I Bought 3/28/2020 - Part 1

Welcome to what may very well be the last set of new comic reviews for some time here on the blog. You know, depending on how completely everything collapses.

Giant-Size X-Men: Nightcrawler, by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Alan Davis (artist/writer), Carlos Lopez (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - That's pretty smart of them to leave bats running loose in the arboretum. Keeps the bug population under control, without harmful pesticides.

So the old X-Mansion has one of the gates that lets mutants reach Krakoa. A mutant came there, but never made it to the island. A small team goes to investigate, but keep encountering mutants who should either still be dead, or are dressed archaically and speaking in an alien language. Doug Ramsey, who has Warlock hiding on his arm for some mysterious reason finds out a race of alien bugs has infested the mansion and captured Lady Mastermind when she came to use the gate and they perceived her as a threat. That's pretty much it.

I thought I knew most of the weird space stuff the X-Men get tangled up in periodically - and unlike what seems to be a lot of X-fans, I don't mind the space opera stuff - but I have no idea what the Sidri are. The story tells me they're normally bounty hunters, the X-Men encountered them at some point after they first met the Starjammers, that's about all I can tell from this story. I like the way they're able to sort of pile together to form a roughly human form, make their body shape resemble a human face.

The thing is, this really isn't much of a Nightcrawler story. He's ostensibly in charge of the mission, and he seems to be the only one who recognizes the Sidri, but beyond that, he's not doing much. It's really more of a Doug Ramsey and Warlock story. I don't know why Warlock is pretending to be some techno-organic infection Doug has - Warlock's a mutant, shouldn't he be welcome on their special mutant island? - and I presume it's something Hickman will address eventually. Just, you know, not in anything I'm going to end up reading.

I also don't really get why, if Lady Mastermind was unconsciously controlling the Sidri so they'd take human forms, why they'd imitate Rachel in her hound outfit, or Thunderbird. She wouldn't have even met either of them in those states, would she? Maybe Alan Davis just liked those looks, so that's what he went with. Anyway, it's nice to see Alan Davis draw Nightcrawler, but even if you're someone following Hickman's X-stuff heavily, I don't think you need this book.

Amethyst #2, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist), Gabriella Downie (letterer) - Hey, you break it, you buy it. Which will at least be one more issue sold.

The trip to House Sapphire ends with Amy and Phoss getting the old trap door treatment. So that's 0-for-2 recruiting help. They end up on a ship Phoss used to work on, where Phoss' friend asks Amy about Earth. Amy makes Earth sound pretty lame which, you know, that's fair. But Elba's intrigued by the book on crystals Amy's parents gave her, and Amy finds she actually can travel mentally through amethysts. Which is how she finds all her subjects imprisoned in that same material. Including her magic parents, who are supposed to be dead. Amy freaks out a little about that.

The issue started with a flashback to Amy first learning her heritage, with Citrine and Granch assuring her everyone loved her parents, who were so great and brave and true, then returning to the present where everyone in Sapphire's court laughs at the notion. The thing about this mini-series so far is that I wonder if Amy has even interacted with anyone outside her kingdom prior to this. It has that strong feel of a person growing up strictly within the borders of their own nation, never questioning the propaganda it puts forth about itself.

But I was under the impression Amethyst had worked with these other kingdoms against Dark Opal already (the flashback was three years ago). Like back in the original '80s mini-series. She must have met people from other lands at some point? Even if she was traveling everywhere on her flying horse.

Which, I'm with Amy, there is nothing wrong with traveling on a flying horse. Especially compared to traveling on a ship full of people or a giant caterpillar. Arguments about not having experienced anything if you travel in the sky are not persuasive to me.

We got a glimpse at Reeder's versions of a few different kingdoms in this issue. Sapphire's court has a very, it reminded me of Tron. Lot of darkness, broken up by narrow bands of light. This city itself is more cyberpunk, New York in the Marvel 2099 universe. City stretching into the sky, lots of levels, lots of lights and walkways, that kind of thing. The bit of Opal's realm we saw looked like a metal silo, but that might be because it's where he's holding all of Amy's people. Aquamarine, unsurprisingly, has a realm water motif. Shades of blue, falling water, smoothed edges and curves on the furniture and archways.