Sunday Splash Page #393

"Pyrrhic Victory," in Nightcrawler (vol. 4) #4, by Chris Claremont (writer), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer)

Nightcrawler waited almost a decade for another crack at an ongoing series, though he spent at least a few years of that being dead, courtesy of the "shocking death" roulette wheel landing on him for the Second Coming (Cable bringing a now-teenage Hope Summers back to the present to do. . .stuff) event. Jason Aaron brought Nightcrawler back in Amazing X-Men, through something involving Kurt's (then) father Azazel. I don't know the details, I didn't read it or care to look it up.

The book, part of Marvel's All-New Marvel Now!, handed Nightcrawler back to Chris Claremont, with Todd Nauck and Rachelle Rosenberg as the art team. Like Aguirre-Sacasa, Claremont threw Nightcrawler into stories involving magic, at least initially. Where Aguirre-Sacasa's revolved around a possible brewing war in hell dimensions, where the Soulsword might be very useful, Claremont leaned into the fact Nightcrawler had left Heaven to return to Earth, and a possible link to that realm would be of great interest to certain parties. Much as it was with GrimJack, leaving Heaven was probably a bad idea on Kurt's part.

Also, where Sacasa and Darick Robertson's stories leaned into a horror vibe with deep shadows and threats that were difficult to confront physically, Claremont leans into the mystery threat sending out big, robot-looking guys who shoot energy blasts. Which does let Nauck show off Nightcrawler's skill combining teleporting with martial arts and swordplay. 

To be clear, the book looks good; this is the best I think Nauck's work has ever looked, with less of some of the odd proportions in necks and shoulders I usually notice, and some of the angularity of the faces smoothed out. And Rosenberg colors it beautifully, especially the more ethereal or otherwordly elements. But it does result in a much different feel for the book. 4-color high fantasy, rather than supernatural horror.

Foster-sister/girlfriend Amanda Sefton is again a major part of the supporting cast, though Claremont leans harder into their past romantic history than Aguirre-Sacasa did. He also writes Amanda's mother, Margali, as much less of a concerned parent, and more of a ruthless sorceress, chasing great magical power with little regard for others. Which at least is a parental trait Kurt should be familiar with, given Mystique's general shitbaggery.

Amanda makes a great sacrifice in issue 4, which Kurt can't make with her, despite his best efforts. After that, Claremont brought in some outer space pirates he'd created during one of his later stints on the X-Books, none of whom I knew or particularly cared about. I recall him trying to at least start a flirtation between Kurt and one of them, a Bloody Bess or something like that. I could have stuck with the book for generally lighthearted and swashbuckling Nightcrawler, but then Claremont brought in Shadow King. So I cut bait at issue 10, the same month I dropped Captain Marvel volume 8. The book was canceled two issues later.

There was room to do some stuff with Nightcrawler adjusting to all the changes around him. When he died, there were only a couple hundred mutants, pretty much all living on what was left of Magneto's old asteroid base, now floating off the coast of San Francisco. Now there were thousands or millions of mutants again, but the X-Men were fractured. Cyclops with underground squad off somewhere, Wolverine running a school.

But maybe Nightcrawler had already seen too much change for that to really faze it, so Claremont addresses it during a brief conversation between Kurt and Rachel Summers, and that's it. Much as he briefly acknowledges that Wolverine's current status quo was his healing factor was gone and moves on. He seemed a little more interested in Nightcrawler coming to grips with the fact he left Heaven, which would be a pretty big deal for a religious guy, but I don't remember it getting much play after the first 4 issues. Maybe because there was nothing to be done for it, short of trying to make sure he'd get let back in the next time he died. Of course, I think the next time that happened was the Krakoa era. So much for that!

I assume it wasn't selling well, but even if it was, it would have been canceled for Secret Wars later that year. Still, it was one of the books that briefly got me back up to 10 ongoings series for Marvel, for the first time in 7 years, and the last time as of this post. Marvel was handing books to specific creative teams, and at least giving the appearance of letting them do their thing. Their thing didn't always work for me, but it got me to buy more stuff from Marvel than I had in a few years, and they haven't come close to getting me to buy that many comics in any year since.

Sunday Splash Page #392

"Exorcist Final Exam," in Nightcrawler (vol. 3) #4, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Darick Robertson (penciler), Wayne Faucher (inker), Matt Milla (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

Volume 2 was a 4-issue mini-series, part of Marvel's "Icons" subheading. Never read it, don't know if it's any good. Nightcrawler Volume 3 was an actual ongoing series, albeit lasting only 12 issues, where Aguirre-Sacasa and Darick Robertson went a more mystical route for Nightcrawler.

Not entirely out of nowhere; even if the X-Men only occasionally get involved with magic, Kurt Wagner's foster mother is a sorceress, and his foster sister and sometimes girlfriend (but not in this series) Amanda Sefton was apparently ruler of Limbo at this point in time. Plus, there's Kurt's religious beliefs and spiritual nature, and most of the stories in this volume deal with demons or restless souls.

A group of wealthy dicks who, in exchange for the sacrifice of 14 children, get 14 demons in their service. (Which seems like a bad deal on the demons' parts, but I assume they had some loophole planned.) This is after or during Morrison's run, when the X-Men are public and openly doing hero stuff, so the authorities will actually ask for their help with stuff. In this case, the one surviving child appears to be a mutant.

Later on, things loop back to Kurt having killed his foster brother in the past, after said brother appeared to lose his mind and massacre a town. Did he lose his mind though, or was he under outside control? And Aguirre-Sacasa also brings up the fact Illyana's Soulsword was hidden inside Nightcrawler (and I think had been since Ellis' Excalibur run, if not earlier), which is a big part of why this is all happening. Leading to probably the best known moment of this series, Mephisto trying to make a deal with Nightcrawler, and getting punched in the jaw. Proving Kurt Wagner is, at least, smarter than Peter Parker.

Darick Robertson pencils the entire run, which is a nice change from how Marvel typically does things in the 21st Century. His Nightcrawler is fit and attractive, but not to the extent you get when Alan Davis draws the character. Robertson draws Nightcrawler always looking a bit disheveled. Clothes are wrinkled, hair's messy, shoulders a little slumped. Like he's tired or just too out of it to worry about looking nice. Which, since the Soulsword is an invisible weight on him he doesn't even recall being there, would make sense. Aguirre-Sacasa adds Night Nurse as sort of a regular person viewpoint character, though this is before Dr. Strange: The Oath, so she looks nothing like she does there. Robertson definitely leans into "redheaded sexy nurse" for that design.

He's good at drawing monsters - lots of sharp teeth and beady eyes set deep in the sockets - but his work is maybe too clean. A little bit of oppressive shadows that, say, Tom Mandrake would use, wouldn't hurt. Hint at things that can't be fully perceived. Unless the argument would be that Kurt's spiritually in tune with himself enough he can perceive (or he's got greater perception due to the Soulsword's presence inside him.) The art works better when the threats are supernatural, but a little closer to earth. A visit to a circus in Florida where Kurt apparently spent some unpleasant days before joining the X-Men finds the locals possessed by some sort of fly demon. It's running around in whoever is handy, so it's more a matter of making those people look greasy or diseased than otherworldly. Matt Milla's colors help a lot there, too, because he casts everything in a sickly green-brown that you can almost smell just looking at it.

But the book ended at 12 issues and whatever mystical war that was hinted at never came to pass. So it goes when you're writing second or third-tier books.

Sunday Splash Page #391

"X-Babies, Version 1.0," in Nightcrawler (vol. 1) #3, by Dave Cockrum (writer/artist), Paty Cockrum (colorist), Jim Novak (letterer)

Released in 1985, a 4-issue mini-series about Nightcrawler and Lockheed getting lost in other dimensions because Kitty messed around with the Danger Room after Nightcrawler described a past adventure he had after his teleportation powers got tangled with the Vanisher's and they ended up at the Well of Time. 

Nightcrawler initially ends up in a world of sky pirates, which seems like a dream come true until he realizes these aren't nice honorable pirates, but greedy killers. It does present him the opportunity to rescue a scantily-clad princess, but he also runs afoul of a shark-looking wizard, Shagreen, who'd sacrifices young women, and wouldn't mind hacking Nightcrawler up in an attempt to unlock the secrets of teleportation.

Eventually, Dave Cockrum brings in the versions of the X-Men from some fairy tale story Kitty told Illyana, where Kitty's a pirate (sailing seas, not skies), Storm's called "Windrider," and Wolverine's an even shorter-than-usual dwarf-looking thing called "Mean." Shagreen's defeated a second time, and Nightcrawler eventually finds his way back to the X-Mansion.

The series seems to get sillier the further along it goes. Kitty does, in one of her attempts to rescue Kurt, only manage to grab his costume, while he's wooing the princess. At another point, she grabs Shagreen's muscle, "Dark Bamf", who can't explain where he went when he's sent back, only that he just pawn, in game of life. During the climactic battle, Kitty's at least able to open a portal to see what's going on, and be seen. Her attempt to intimidate Shagreen with a "Great and Powerful Oz" routine is entirely ineffective. Before he makes it home, Kurt has a brief run in with Cretaceous Sam, a mammal-hating Tyrannosaur cowboy.

And then there's the Bamfs. Kurt meets two different races of being that bear similarities to him. In the sky pirate world, there's the Boggies. They only reach waist-height on him, wear little but loincloths and ragged boots, and speak in a weird jumble of mashed together words ("turnloose", "nastyface" "fastpoof" for teleporting.) They also have the ability to move into and through mirrors. Boggies don't seem well-regarded, and Kurt's appearance in a town market prompts a panicked frenzy of people wanting to kill the "Boggie."

The Bamfs look more like Kurt, albeit they don't come up to his knees. They speak a bit like they escaped from the Little Rascals or something of a similar era. That's the boy Bamfs anyway; the girls are almost Kurt's size - he describes them as all looking like his kid sister - and are pretty wary of the boys, who are apparently really horny. Though the girls all start drooling over Kurt the moment they see him, so they're just as bad. One actually uses the phrase, "Hubba-hubba." 

Actually, the last we saw of the Boggies was them being happy Kurt got zapped away, because it meant the princess was alone. Which, yikes, but also, apparently the defining characteristic of furry, blue teleporters with spiked tails is a high libido.

What I Bought 12/22/2023

I know it's already passed for some of you, but if you celebrate, Merry Christmas. Or a pleasant and/or unobtrusive December 25th. I was hoping to pick up both comics from last week on the way to my dad's, but only managed one.

Uncanny Spider-Man #5, by Si Spurrier (writer), Lee Garbett and Simone Buonfantino (artists), Matt Milla (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Kurt, the suit was a gift. Try to take better care of it.

The captured Nightcrawler is, to the surprise of no one other than ORCHIS, actually Mystique. Nightcrawler is pretending to be the mutantphobe on Silver's team. Kurt, his mom, and his girlfriend fight it out with a techno-organic'ed up Vulture and the Hounds. It's not going well until Kurt and the Bamf ghost free Warlock, who can at least cure the Hounds. Vulture's more of a problem, but Kurt's magic sword takes care of that.

Buonfantino takes over the art chores right after Kurt defeats the Vulture, so at least they waited until we're into the wrap-up. Everyone's a bit sharper-edged, bigger eyes. For Garbett's part, either he or Milla obscure or blur his linework on Warlock, especially when he's first freed. Makes him a bit seem malleable, suggesting he's not really holding a distinct shape in that moment. Things are shifting and rearranging.

After, Kurt decides he's got to get back into fighting for mutants, but Spidey lets him keep the suit. And the Bamf ghost is a part of Legion, while the rest of him hides. . .somewhere. I'm assuming the part about hiding with Kurt's heart and hope was metaphorical.

So, what do we got now that this is done? Kurt's rediscovered his resolve after having his self tampered with and manipulated. He's willing to get back in the fight. The specifics of Nightcrawler's birth have been retconned for at least the third time, with at least partially the goal of making Mystique less of a shit parent, and I guess codifying something Claremont says he always intended or wanted to do.

You could argue ORCHIS was dealt a loss, but the X-writers seem so unclear about how ORCHIS was planning to go about their goals (or even what their goals are, since the machines would ostensibly have a different goal than the "humanity defenders") that's difficult to square. How big a deal was infecting mutants with the techno-organic virus to make them mutant hunters to ORCHIS? How much does losing that actually hurt them?

My impression of the current situation is there are a bunch of different forces fighting a bunch of different parts of ORCHIS all over the place, with very little coordination on either side. Which could be the heroes dealing with problems as they arise, as has historically been the case in superhero comics, while ORCHIS is some kitchen nightmare scenario, with a dozen cooks all running in a dozen contradictory directions. So nobody's really making any progress in any direction.

What I Bought 11/22/2023

Well, alright, holiday's over, for the folks here in the States that celebrate it. Which means back to work for me. Booooooooo. But here's some comics, which work helps me to afford, so it all works out.

Fantastic Four #13, by Ryan North (writer), Iban Coello (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Do you really need me to attempt a jokey comment for this cover?

First things first: In regards to Kelvin's questions after the previous issue, we are not told what the Savage Land of Dino-Earth is like. However, there is an offhand reference to "Moon Girl and Devil Human" made by the Dino-Thing. I'm assuming Moon Girl is a big red intelligent T-Rex, and Devil Human is a tiny, speechless ape. Or maybe Devil Human is King Kong, I don't know.

Anyway, plot stuff. Human-Earth Doom narrates this issue, because there were other portals and he and Dino-Doom have a plan, and they can't let the "heroes" (Doom always puts the word in quotes) interfere. They're going to combine the universes into one twice as large, with twice as much to rule. Which they will do together, equally.

You see where this is going.

Human-Doom trounces the Avengers and Dino-FF because he's got a gizmo that transfers quarks from one universe to a spot on top of another quark in the other universe, creating a powerful release of energy that can't be shielded against or absorbed. And he can precisely direct it, so he could put it inside their skulls, if they force the issue. They don't, but the two Things go after the two Dooms and point out that obviously they're going to betray one another eventually, they just hadn't realized the other Doom came to the same conclusion yet. Cue fight, cue Things rerouting energy, cue universes being pushed apart, cue Dooms being consumed in big explosion.

I like North's Doom. The arrogance, the insistence Stark refer to his as Doctor, not Victor. The sort of casual way he fights. Coello draws Doom as basically standing in one spot and just gesturing to defeat the attackers. He doesn't need to leap around or do anything so lowbrow as dodging. It does throw me when he calls Reed that, rather than "Richards". Granted, it was Dino-Reed, but I don't figure Doom makes much distinction, and "Reed" seems too familiar for someone Doom hates that much.

Uncanny Spider-Man #4, by Si Spurrier (writer), Lee Garbett (artist), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramgna (letterer) - Guys, the giant genocide 'bot is behind you.

Kurt sits back to watch Spidey protect the pizza delivery guy from anti-mutant mobs. Until one of those Stark Sentinels shows up and declares, this guy ain't a mutant, but we're going to take him in for possible mutant sympathizing. Oh, and Spider-Man's a mutant, too. Those pages look very rough. Garbett's line isn't as smooth, the shading is less of a gradation, it just all looks rushed. It gets better in place later in the issue, but overall, the work's not as strong as it was the first two issues.

I saw someone insist that was probably the Vulture's doing, but I can't imagine he's high enough up the ladder to muck with those Sentinels' programming. More likely this is the machine's first step in eliminating other potential threats to their ascendance besides mutants. Now if they'd get around to killing Judas Traveler and MODOK. . .

Mystique tries to fire on the crowd with a bazooka, so Kurt finally gets off his ass and redirects the rocket into the robot. He chases Mystique, leaving Spidey to deal with the pizza guy and the crowd of bigots. Silver Sable has another date with Kurt, where she has little more success than the Bamf in getting Kurt to stop running away from dealing with real problems. But it does convince him to talk to Mystique. . .in another comic that I'm not going to buy, so oh well.

And then Silver goes ahead and catches Kurt (maybe) because that bigot on her payroll is gonna blab to everyone otherwise. So Spurrier's Silver Sable is both unprofessional and incompetent, because that dude is a meathead, but he managed to get a bug on her.

Setting aside the Mystique & Nightcrawler stuff, which will be resolved in that one-shot, I still expect a lot of this stuff to remain unresolved at the conclusion of this mini-series. Will we know who sent the Bamf? Probably not. Will Kurt free the Hounds with his Hopesword? Maybe, but wouldn't bet on it. Will he even kick Vulture's ass? You'd hope he could manage that much. It just feels like there's way too much here to conclude in one issue, unless Spurrier has decided that once Kurt stops running from his problems, he's hyper-efficient at solving them.

What I Bought 11/15/2023

I thought I found both of the new comics from this week I wanted, but upon a second glance, it was last month's issue of Fantastic Four. Oh well, leaves us with a Si Spurrier double feature.

Uncanny Spider-Man #3, by Si Spurrier (writer), Javier Pina (artist), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I ended up with the variant with the Vulture on it, and he looks really blurry. Is it supposed to be 3-D?

Nimrod and Vulture discuss recent attempts to deal with the "Creepy Crawler", as he keeps interfering in their plans. Nimrod's also not pleased Toomes hired Silver Sable, who refuses to leave until the job is done, under the cover of "professional ethics." Which don't preclude her canoodling with Nightcrawler in her off time.

Spurrier and Pina spend 5 pages on Kurt and Sable talking on a rooftop, with basically all the panels focused on them from the shoulders up, because they're both naked. Then another page on the lyrics to a Lila Cheney song Sable apparently really likes. If it's so critical the comic end next month that they're double-shipping this month, maybe cut some of the filler and make it a tight 4 issues, instead of a bloated five.

Kurt abruptly leaves to try and talk to his mother again, only to get attacked by Feral, Cloak, and Dagger, turned into Hounds by Toomes experimenting with the techno-organic virus. Did Dagger get caught in some other comic, because she was just fine last issue. But I guess this is why she couldn't find Cloak last issue, so assume he got caught sometime between issues 1 and 2, and her between 2 and 3.

Kurt cuts his way out of Cloak with his weird glowy "hopesword", and then Mystique shoots Cloak in the head. They show the large exit hole, naturally. It only slows him down, though one can't help but wonder what happens once the techno-organic virus isn't around the heal him up. Not like Mystique would give a shit either way, even if her brain wasn't a mess right now. Kurt's still arguing with the little ghost Bamf, what ever it is, and Mystique pulls a fade again.

Milla's colors maintain the feel of the book with the shift from Garbett to Pina. The Hound designs are pretty blah, nothing really remarkable or memorable about them. Some bright yellow-white bits, the old "yellow network of lines against black backdrop" from Warlock in places. I'm sure ORCHIS doesn't want the Hounds to be individualized - they're weapons - but it's still not visually interesting.

Coda #3, by Si Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist/colorist), Patricio Delpeche (color assists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Lo, and I tell you, fear not the big marble being eaten by the big snake, for it, like a mouse's skeleton, shall pass.

Hum is trying very hard to stay out of what the preacher, formerly Mildew the Breaker, is doing. This new prophecy, which involves rewriting the end of the old world for a bunch of suckers. And a miracle, of course, or the appearance of one, which the mad illusionist is capable of creating. 

Hum is trying to focus on names for the possible approaching baby, without alerting Serka to that fact. For her part, Serka is aware the gnomad is going to use his new weapon to kill the preacher. Which could solve their problem of all these people trampling their garden, or make it much worse. They choose to get involved, though Spurrier and Bergara ignore the crowds outside for the entire discussion. It's just Hum and Serka and the pieces of their life. Hum fussing over her, Serka slowly armoring up. Glimpses of their respective steeds. It's ultimately about them as a couple, deciding what to do.

The miracle does not occur, nor does Mildew die. It doesn't matter. People believe what they want to believe, the only apparent deterrent is to kill them, and neither of the leads are up to that. Though they both lie to the other about how things went, Bergara contrasting what they say in solid panels with the typical color scheme, against panels with no borders done in basic shades of yellow for the truth. 

I mean, at least kill Mildew. Fine, he's a martyr then. But he doesn't benefit. Because he's dead. See if the threat of it's enough to make him change his tune, since this is all just a ploy anyway. Instead, Serka's got a notion to go on an extended vacation to seek a solution to the problem.

What I Bought 10/25/2023 - Part 2

The temperature started dropping like a rock midday Friday and didn't stop until Sunday morning. Went from mid-70s to mid-20s. As long as there's no ice, I'm fine with it. Meanwhile, we've got two X-Books to review.

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2, by Iman Vellani and Sabir Pirzada (writers), Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham (artists), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Again, only one of these characters appears in the book. Thankfully, it's not Gambit.

Contrary to the first two issues, over half of this issue is spent in Kamala's dreams, as she and her fanfic Silver Surfer/Dr. Strange mash-up travel through her mind, trying to sort out her identity issues. Whoever draws the dream sequences makes Kamala look a closer to how she did when Adrian Alphona was illustrating her adventures. Kind of gangly-limbed even without her powers, alternately drawn in on herself and uninhibited (scarfing down popcorn while watching one of her memories with Dr. Surfer.)

Meanwhile, ORCHIS' little bug thing has injected something that, if Kamala unwittingly accepts it, will attack the minds of every telepath she communicates with. The virus appears before Kamala, pretending to be her X-gene that never activated, offering her the chance to feel fully accepted by the X-Men because she'll be a "real" mutant now. It would seem ridiculous for ORCHIS to think that was going to work, if the X-writers hadn't spent the entire Krakoa era with the X-Men touting Magento's "mutant supremacist" horseshit. Also if ORCHIS wasn't employing a bunch of morons who take the zero-sum approach to human & mutant relations.

Either way, Kamala finally recognizes she won't be defined by any one aspect of herself, biological or otherwise, and wakes up. To find a Sentinel outside her window, because she does register as a mutant now. Although the color scheme seems like the classic purple Sentinel, and I thought they were all rocking the red-and-gold Stark paint job now, so I can't rule out this still being some sort of hallucination. But the art style shifted back to what it is when she's awake, so I assume this is the point where she manifests the energy powers they gave her in the TV show.

There's a point where Bruno's hacking of the little drone allows ORCHIS to figure out which dorm building Kamala's in and send drones to look for facial recognition. Which Bruno beats by slapping Kamala's floppy-eared winter hat on her head and a facial mask over her mouth. The drone concludes this student matches no one in their records. But Bruno comments the X-Men must have some serious tech to fool facial recognition software.

I know the X-Men did do something similar to that, but I'm pretty sure it turned out face masks were great for fooling facial recognition software when the cops were trying to arrest people after the fact for protesting the cops being authoritarian, jackbooted thugs. But Bruno didn't know about that, or why disguise her? And since he did, why assume that wasn't what did the trick?

Uncanny Spider-Man #2, by Si Spurrier (writer), Lee Garbett (artist), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I don't mind when Marvel does alternate universe versions of the Rhino that are in big mechanical exo-suits (like the Ultimate Universe's version), but I don't like it for the classic Marvel version.

Most of this issue is Silver Sable flirting (or openly lusting after, if you prefer) Nightcrawler. There's a little bit at the beginning where he's trying to talk to Mystique, except she doesn't recognize him. Oh, and the details of his birth are going to change. Again. I know, right? Kurt's origin gets shifted around more than Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's. ORCHIS sends Rhino, controlled by the same doohickus they used to make Kurt kill people, after Kurt.

I would have been curious to see how Nightcrawler handled that sort of challenge on his own, but Silver Sable's group bust in and briefly capture him. The control thing is messed up and hurting Rhino, so he goes berserk and Kurt escapes into the sewers, bringing Sable with him. Who acts extremely unprofessional, unable to stop openly making comments about how attractive she thinks Kurt is.

That's one of her two settings in this issue, the other being condescending.Spurrier writes her a lot like he wrote Elsa Bloodstone in that Black Knight mini-series, but hornier. It just seems silly. Let one of Silver's subordinates be the one openly ogling and being reprimanded for it. Silver Sable's supposed to be professional, but with enough of a core of decency she ends up doing unprofitable things sometimes anyway.

Either way, Nightcrawler escapes to spend another day arguing with little Bamf ghosts and keeping all his problems bottled up.

What I Bought 9/20/2023

The downside to a week spent in the field was my allergies went berserk. I wore sunglasses most of the time just to obscure my bloodshot eyes. I knew it was gonna happen, I just always underestimate how annoying it is. On the positive, I didn't find anybody screwing things up badly. And, a comic shop in the town I was staying had the one book I wanted this week, plus one from earlier in the month.

Moon Knight #27, by Jed MacKay (writer), Federico Sabbatini (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Hunter's Moon over there like, "I don't see any vampires," while Marc's getting a head start on the race for the last slice of pizza in the fridge.

Desperate for information on Black Spectre, Marc turns to the creepy guy with the mind-controlling sweat MacKay introduced back at the beginning of this series. Hawley's in a coma, but if Marc and Badr drink the sweat (yuck) and inject it into Vibro's IV drip, they can get in Vibro's mind. That is a hilariously ridiculous plan, though MacKay does address the notion of why Marc doesn't get some super-powered help by mentioning Clea's at her mother's wedding in Antarctica. And, you know, the mutants have all the telepaths and they got their own problems.

The rest of the issue is those two in Vibro's mind. They find a seemingly ordinary geologist named Alton there, too, and Jake and Steven chat with him while the Fists fight a bunch of Vibros. Eventually Badr figures out Alton is who Vibro was before the accident that gave him powers, and Marc convinces Alton to tell them Black Spectre's plan, while Hunter's Moon buys them time by fighting an army of Vibros with an army of all the past Fists stored in his head. Which seems like it would only weaken the line between him and them even further, but desperate times.

That's basically it. I think the book is being canceled and rebooted at issue 30, but this really feels like it was drawn out to help stretch the story. Vibro's mindscape is rendered as a rather dull plain with some rock spires or stalagmites here and there, all drenched in red. Other than there being a lot of them, the Vibros don't really take advantage of what is theoretically home court. I could rationalize that Black Spectre's done something to Vibro to make him so devoted, and that plus the coma, have removed a lot of the depth from his mind. But if this - Moon Knight and Hunter's Moon diving into a super-criminal's mind for answers - is what you devote the entire issue to, it could be a little more visually interesting.

Uncanny Spider-Man #1, by Si Spurrier (writer), Lee Garbett (artist), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Can he BAMF? Listen bub, he's got inherited genetic traits that express themselves in a variety of ways.

Nightcrawler's living in New York, wearing a Spider-Man costume Peter loaned him (and which Kurt has somehow modified to accommodate his unique morphology), fighting random crime and sleeping in a church steeple. What looks like one of those "bamfs", the mini-Nightcrawlers, is hanging around as some invisible voice, whispering stuff. Mystique is living in Central Park, seemingly muddled in the head. The Vulture is working for ORCHIS, and mucking around with the techno-organic virus from the Phalanx, it looks like.

I know all comic book scientists are multi-disciplinary geniuses, but there had to be someone better suited than the Vulture, who's into aerodynamics and magnetic lift or however his outfit worked. Whatever, ORCHIS seemingly has nothing ready to hunt Nightcrawler, so they hired Silver Sable. Or at least, Silver Sable has come to New York to find Nightcrawler, and either capture or sleep with him. Or one, then the other.

Questions about how Kurt got the costume to fit aside, and ignoring that the chest logo reminds me of Knull, I like the look. Red and black work well together, it isn't an overly complicated design, Garbett minimizes how much the ears stick out compared to what Tony Daniel does on the cover. Overall, it works for me.

The story aspects, I don't know. The X-Office threw in the whole thing where ORCHIS threatened to kill ten humans for every mutant they saw running around, then has to contrive reasons why they don't carry out this threat - which would likely turn a lot of even dumbshit Marvel Earth against them - when mutants like Kurt (who they're 97% certain it's him) or Iceman or Kamala Khan are visibly running around.

Spurrier wings it that ORCHIS thinks Nightcrawler is more likely to disappear than surrender himself. And the way Spurrier's writing this, maybe that's accurate, as his Kurt seems mentally exhausted. He apparently told Spider-Man he wanted to help mutants and clear his name, but it seems more likely he simply can't muster the energy to think about anything like that. The best he can do is save a person her or there, eat pizza, ogle women out jogging in the park. Peter Parker used Spider-Man as a way to let out the personality he couldn't show as old Puny Parker. Nightcrawler's using it as an escape. Play a role, avoid thinking about his problems.

Only Swashbuckling Nightcrawler Can Lift My Spirits Now

It continues to annoy me that Marvel (or Jonathan Hickman, whichever) went to the trouble of making a pirate-themed X-Men book, and didn't include Nightcrawler in the cast. He's the most pirate-enthusiastic X-Man there is!

Hmm, maybe Kitty was enforcing a strict dress code for her crew and Kurt wanted to show too much fur. Could make it difficult for anyone to concentrate on what they're supposed to be doing. Looks like Kurt raided King Conan's wardrobe or something.

As far as I know, the book is all about Kitty and her crew running around rescuing mutants who can't make it Krakoa and similar positive acts. Kurt wouldn't even have to be bummed out about doing some of the more historically accurate pirate stuff that he was reminded of when he was on that pirate crew in his 1980s mini-series.

Plus, Kurt wouldn't want to lend his friend Kitty a helping hand with the swashbuckling? I mean, who's she got on that crew? The new Pyro? Iceman? Boring. I have no idea what he's doing currently on Krakoa. It didn't seem like he had a lot of pressing business based off that one-shot I bought at the end of March. Might as well enjoy the some sea air and do something useful.

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.

Probably Falls Under the Category "Unacceptable Risk"

Something that used to come up for Nightcrawler was the danger of his teleporting blindly. The fear being that, if he did, he could materialize within a wall, rock, tree, something. And that the physical disruption of that would most likely kill him. Which makes sense. You reappear and there's part of a boulder sharing space with your lungs, that's probably not good.

Of course, it raises the question of how Kurt knows that's an issue. Short of trying it and finding out, I don't know how he could. He could certainly suspect it's a risk, but unless he's encountered someone with teleportation powers, and seen or heard that it happened to them, there's no reason to think it would. I know on occasions, when fighting machines, he'll try teleporting something like an engine block into their bodies.

But, again, what gave him the idea that would work?

After all, when Kurt teleports into open space, it isn't as though there are no atoms or molecules already there. It's air, so it isn't solid, but it's still matter. So wouldn't Kurt's body merge with whatever air molecules are in that space when he appears? It could appear in his bloodstream, and last I checked, getting air directly into your bloodstream is kind of dangerous.

So maybe when he appears, the doorway, gateway, whatever you want to call the process he uses for teleportation, has enough force behind it to shove the air aside. But OK, that's air, and Kurt's worried about solid matter, not gases. It does make me wonder what would happen if he teleported into a body of water. The pool at the Mansion, or the ocean because he had to get off a submarine fast. Would he materialize and merge with the water, or would it be shoved aside by his arrival?

The answer might be to see if there's an X-Man sitting around that can keep coming back from the dead, and ask if they'll be willing to act as guinea pig. One of Madrox' clones, perhaps. Otherwise, it may just be one of those things you take on faith, because testing it is too risky. Like not flying a plane directly into the side of a mountain to see if it can punch through to the other side.

I Guess I Want Buddy Cop Hijinks

I'd like to see Nightcrawler and The Thing hang out sometime. They seem like they'd get along well. Both affable, friendly guys. The exterior can seem fearsome, but they're actually softies. Best friends with a couple of hotheads*. Both enjoy beer. Kurt fancies himself a swashbuckler. Ben was Blackbeard the pirate.

I don't think they've interacted much. They were both in Secret Wars, but the X-Men split off fairly quickly. Kurt was out of commission during the Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men mini-series. Ben's off in space right now, but that's fine. Kurt's done the outer space thing before. And Kitty's out there now, too, so he could visit her. Although I'm leery about adding another character from a different franchise to the Guardians of the Galaxy, but it could just be a short stint.

They could use his help with something - maybe they need a teleporter that's not technologically based, or they could just use a wild card - and Kurt's not the sort to turn down a friend. Then there's time for sitting around and talking, or getting into mischief. Kurt and Ben get into a high-stakes intergalactic poker tournament against the Grandmaster, or they help some rebel group overthrow a brutal dictatorship (that just happens to be run by Star-Lord's jerkwad dad, probably).

* I admit I'm counting Johnny as Ben's best friend, rather than Reed. I could see Ben still being Reed's best friend, but I feel like Ben has other best friends. But it's hard for me to picture what being best friends with Reed would be like. Doesn't seem like someone to whom hanging out would come naturally.

31 Days of Scans - Power or Ability I'd Steal

This is an easy one. If I can have any power, it's teleportation.

Ah, teleportation, for when super-speed won't get you there fast enough. Though I want world-spanning teleportation capabilities - at a bare minimum - so maybe I ought to post a Lila Cheney picture instead.

There we go. I've never been good at that "it's the journey, not the destination" philosophy. If I'm going somewhere, it's for a reason, and I want to get there sooner rather than later. Also, I get a bit paranoid about not getting places on time. So there's no better power for those problems than the one that'll get me wherever I want to go, instantaneously.

Also, teleportation offers plenty of opportunities for pranks. My coworkers use to say they'd get really fat if they could teleport, because they'd never walk anywhere. Want a beer? Just 'port to the fridge and back. Finished checking that array? Don't walk back up the hill to the truck, teleport! But I actually enjoy walking, so I don't think that'll be an issue. Besides, it has to use up energy to teleport, however you do it, so that'll probably be a calorie burn.

First panel is from Nightcrawler #1, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Darick Robertson (penciler), Wayne Paucher (inker), Matt Milla (colors), Cory Petit (letters). Second panel from Captain Marvel #9, by Kelly Sue DeConnick (writer), David Lopez (art), Lee Loughridge (color art), Joe Caramagna (letterer). I have no idea what the third image is from, I just found it online when I searched for teleportation.

31 Days of Scans - Favorite Friendship

You may have noticed by now these aren't scans, but photos. Someday they'll be scans, someday.

Anyway, I strongly considered Steph and Cass here, but I'm pretty sure I've gone on at length about those two several times. So in the spirit of not retreading over entirely old ground, let's discuss two good buddies, who are themselves a mismatched pair. One, a devil-may-care adventurer, the other more grim, a living weapon.

Beer will be a recurring theme.

Despite the likelihood that we'd be attacked by ninjas, or Omega Red, Kurt and Logan are still the two comic book friends I'd most want to hang out with, if only because I think we'd have more common ground to discuss than I would with Steph/Cass, or say, Booster/Beetle, even if I don't drink. Kurt could help me polish my German, and I think we all like to play pool and avoid large crowds, so there you go.

I enjoy how even though they're very different people, with different outlooks, this makes each one kind of well-suited to helping the other through personal problems. Kurt has a tendency to navel gaze, to obsess over past mistakes or choices. I think Logan, because of how long he's lived, and some of things he's done, recognizes that while self-reflection isn't a bad thing, there comes a point when you simply have to accept the decision you made and make the best of it.

At the same time, Logan struggles with the gap between who he wants to be, and the man he frequently is. He doesn't want to be someone who fails to protect people, and is only good for avenging them by brutally hacking to pieces their killer, but that's how it ends up going a lot of the time. And that eats at him, that he keeps falling back into old patterns, whether they're ones shaped by choices he made, or that Weapon X made for him, and maybe that's who he is. Kurt, though, has a hopefulness about people that enables him to believe that Logan is gradually moving towards who he wants to be. So he lets Logan let it out, and then he explains what he thinks, and Logan can accept it or not.

Logan's seen enough not to be bothered by Kurt's appearance, and Kurt's seen enough actions motivated by blind hatred to recognize that isn't the case with Logan. They both like to fight, albeit at a somewhat different level of intensity. Logan prefers brawls, Kurt likes something with a little more flair and style, but it works out. They'll both play wingman for each other, or conversely, help the other keep things casual with a lady friend. And there's only one guy Logan trusted enough to bring beer for his wedding to Mariko. Marriage that never happened, but the point remains, he asked Kurt.

Also, I love Uncanny X-Men #183, where Kurt and Logan give Colossus the business for how he broke up with Shadowcat, then let Peter get his ass beat by Juggernaut. Logan does most of the talking, and you think Kurt's just there to make sure it doesn't turn into a fight. But then Kurt keeps chipping in with brief comments to keep Peter's head on a swivel. And I like the placement on the page at the end, as Logan gets to the point of why they think what Colossus did was a shitty thing. Logan's still doing all the talking, but Kurt's the one standing closest to a kneeling Colossus, completely in shadow. It makes it feel like Kurt's glare is weighing Colossus down, so he doesn't have to say anything.

Edit: Forgot to give credit where it's due. First panel is from Uncanny X-Men #211, Chris Claremont (writer), John Romita Jr. and Bret Blevins (artists), Al Williamson (inker), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Glynis Oliver (colorist). Second panel is from Nightcrawler #3, Claremont (writer), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer). Third panel is from Wolverine #6, Greg Rucka (words), Darick Robertson (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Studio F (colors), Rus Wooton (letterer). Last panel is Uncanny X-Men #183, Claremont (writer), John Romita Jr. and Dan Green (artists), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Glynis Wein (colorist).

The Long, Dark Day For Kurt's Soul

One of the first things I thought of when Nightcrawler was able to come back to life after a fatal stabbing was GrimJack. Maybe not unusual, since I think about that series fairly often, but it fit in this case.

John Gaunt died, and narrowly made it into Heaven. Once he was up there, he saw his best friend was about to be killed by John's reanimated corpse, and he left Heaven to save his friend (this involved a clone body created by a clone of a scientist trying to prove she was more than just a copy of the original). Eventually, Gaunt learns there are consequences to leaving Heaven. He'd tied his fate to that of the city of Cynosure, and so until it is destroyed, he's going to be reborn again and again. This ends up having a less than positive effect on Gaunt's sanity, being destined to see everyone he cares about die, and being denied any chance at reuniting for who knows how long.

In the Marvel Universe, death is a little different, at least for the super-powered set. It's almost become a joke now how often people come back. A lot of times, the character wasn't actually dead. Xavier's faked his death before, Captain America was shot with time bullets instead of real ones, Kraven put Spidey in a two-week coma, Colossus was. . . actually, I'm not sure what Colossus was. Wolverine died at least once before, during the Tieri/Chen run on Wolverine, but it lasted for about half an hour, and he didn't seem to remember any of it.

That's the most notable thing to me about death in the Marvel Universe: It seems like most characters shake it off pretty fast. Wonder Man actually sticks out to me, because after his first return, he was scared for a long time of going into battle, because he might get killed again. Which seems like a perfectly reasonable response, since he knows he can die. But I don't know if it was ever detailed what his time being dead was actually like, if he remembers it. Was he in Hell, did he experience nothing at all? You'd figure it had to be a lousy experience if he was so desperate to avoid it again.

Hellcat's probably the exception. We know she went to Hell, and she struggled to shake off the effects of that (and the knowledge she'd go back the next time she died) for awhile. I honestly wonder if Soule's portrayal of her in She-Hulk, as someone with nothing going on, and string of shitty boyfriends in her recent past, is meant to be some result of that. It's made it harder for her to connect, or messed with her self-esteem or something. Or it could just be a continuation of her past history of having lousy taste in men. Either one.

Kurt's in a situation where he died, went to Heaven, which basically confirms the things he'd believed in his entire life, and then left it. He remembers what he left, and now he finds he can't get back to it. In the first few issues, Claremont wrote a scene between Kurt and Logan where they discussed that, as well as the changes Logan was having to accept. Logan mentions he'd always figure he would live forever, and in particular that meant he and Jean would meet up again someday when she came back. Now he had to accept he was going to die, and given Logan's lengthy list of enemies, probably very soon. Kurt, for as much as he enjoys life, had believed there was a greater reward waiting later, and that he was definitely mortal and would see it. Now he has to come to grips with the idea that may not be the case, because the fact he couldn't enter that portal to Heaven like Amanda, and the fact he pops up miraculously fine after being stabbed three times in the torso, suggests something is up.

That could be an interesting approach for Kurt. If he's become immortal in some regard, how does he react to that? Part of Gaunt's problem was he already struggled with the question of whether he was a good friend, considering people around him die an awful lot. On the one hand, when he died he learned it was that quality that got him in Heaven, because his friends argued for him, which ought to put the question to rest. On the other hand, it was going back to save a friend that effectively bars him from seeing those people again for some ludicrous amount of time, and now he gets to start the process of watching friends die all over again, and again, and again, because in his reincarnations, it takes awhile before he remembers the past lives, so the chance to make new friends. Who will eventually die. Before it's all said and done, Gaunt pretty much sabotaged his chances of getting back.

Kurt doesn't have the reincarnation issue, and I doubt he's going to do things that would get him barred from Heaven. Still, he's a deeply compassionate guy who may end up watching a lot of his friends die, from the same things he pops back up unscathed from. Does he start taking the most dangerous missions for himself? I don't expect Kurt to start throwing himself on live hand grenades - after all, he can't be entirely sure how long this is going to last, or if there are limits - but the idea he might continue on indefinitely, that ought to have some sort of effect on Kurt. I know I'd do things differently if I thought I wouldn't stay dead. Kurt's a swashbuckler, but if there's less risk for him, does that take some of the fun out it? Though it might encourage him to try different things. I would love to see Kurt try acting, because what the hell, he's got time.

What I Bought 1/26/2015 - Part 7

I started watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes on Netflix this week. It's been as good as I remembered, Hawkeye was a good addition, though the show still had a lot of humor even before that. But he and the Hulk play off each other well. The closed captions had an awful lot of errors, though. Stuff like, 'But several we are strong', instead of 'Assembled we are strong'. Metal instead of mettle. Little things, not a big deal, just kind of distracting.

Nightcrawler #8-10, by Chris Claremont (writer), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Little disappointed they didn't go with a 'Welcome back to the X-Men, Nightcrawler - Hope you survive the experience!' cover blurb. Sure, Kurt's been back for awhile, but this is the first time where it's really fit.

The Crimson Pirates went looking for a powerful energy signature in the Gobi desert, and unleashed the Shadow King. Because of course they did. Bess, having some psychic ability, was the only one who avoided being controlled, and while on the run from her former allies, called out to Kurt of all people. So off he went (with an assist from the Bamfs), the X-Men in hot pursuit. Which turned out to be a bad idea. While Kurt is somehow immune to the Shadow King now as a result of his metaphysical journeys, the rest of the team is quickly controlled, which leaves Kurt locked in battle against the lot of them. He does manage to separate Psylocke from the rest, and leave her to Bess, but that doesn't seem like a good strategy, since even as Kurt's turning the X-Men's powers against each other, Shadow King is possessing the Bamfs, who are naturally not going to fall prey to Kurt's teleporting tricks.

About that time, Rico, Ziggy, and the remaining Bamfs arrive in the old school Blackbird, and Shadow King gets distracted tormenting them, enabling Psylocke to reveal Bess helped break her free of his control. The two of them use their powers to send Kurt into the astral plane, he beats the Shadow King, and he and Bess stuff S.K. back into Omega Black (whoever that is). But in the meantime, the Crimson Pirates got up, they've gotten Ziggy (who was their original target, after all), and a bunch of them stab Kurt before departing. So he's dead, again. Oh well, no wonder the book is ending, wait, what's this Kurt isn't staying dead? He chats with Amanda a bit, and then he's able to go back, and he's mysteriously healed. And now he and Bess plan to rescue Ziggy and Rico from her former partners.

Well, at least the Shadow King's appearance was relatively brief. I didn't really buy that Bess would, when in trouble, call out to Kurt telepathically, as the only person she knew would come help. Admittedly, she doesn't know hardly anyone else on Earth, but it was a little odd, as was their almost immediate makeout session. I can sort of buy it from Bess, since I don't know enough about her to know if it's unusual. She's a pirate, takes what she wants, lives for the moment, Kurt has a long history of being remarkably irresistible to the opposite sex. Seems a little odd for Kurt, given it's a lady he barely knows and was fighting against the last time he saw her. I'd suspect she was pulling some shenanigans with her psychic powers, except Kurt's apparently immune to that now, so who knows.

As for Kurt not staying dead, it could be interesting. I want to think it over a little more, so we'll come back to this, maybe this weekend.

Nauck did a good job with issue 9. Always good when the artist can draw a nice fight scene. The giant ice monsters the possessed Iceman made were fairly cool looking. I continue to enjoy the Bamfs, how they're always around and up to something. Maybe they're grabbing the Blackbird, or they've retrieved Kurt's escrima sticks, or they're just hanging out. There was one panel where I think one of the pirates was supposed to have a big grin on his face, but his mouth was opening and he was shouting something about Kurt being doomed, slight miscommunication between Claremont and Nauck there. Otherwise, the two seem to be on the same page. Even so, this is probably the end for me with this book. I might pick up the final two issues down the line, depending on if I get really curious about where Claremont leaves Kurt.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 6

So I wake up this morning to the news they aren't going to prosecute that cop Darren Wilson for murdering Michael Brown in Ferguson. Which did not exactly surprise me, because I'm fairly pessimistic about these sorts of things, but it's still disappointing. I wanted to be surprised, to find out that at least this one time, someone who had abused their power was going to be held accountable for their actions. Yeah, I know, silly Calvin. I don't typically get serious here, and in a paragraph we'll be back to discussing a disappointing pair of comics, but I felt like I should type something. I know things have always been stacked against African-Americans in this country, but have we always accepted so little accountability from people in charge?

Nightcrawler #6 and 7, by Chris Claremont (writer #6, script #7), Marguerite Bennett (plot #7), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist),  Joe Sabino (letterer #6), Cory Petit (letterer #7) - Man, that bad guy has a creepy neck. It's like his beard fused into his neck. Please, bad guy, wear an outfit with a higher collar. Nobody wants to see that.

In issue 6, Kurt and Rico fight the Crimson Pirates to protect a young super-intelligent mutant girl named Ziggy. There's a brief moment where they think they've failed, until they realize the pirates' guns actually teleport people, rather than kill them. Kurt pretty well kicks the bad guys' rear ends on his own, but Rico does a decent job protecting civilians considering it's his first time in the field. Considering Kurt was fighting an entire team of villains, he made it look pretty easy, although the bad guys exhibited zero teamwork, which helped. Issue 7 was Kurt dealing with Logan's death, by going to the Danger Room and reliving a bunch of his past history with Wolverine. Then he tries to make design a house that he thinks Logan would like and fill it with his friends for a big party (that is all fake because he's still in the Danger Room), except Holographic Logan won't show up, and Kurt decides Logan would want to be honored by people living their lives.

These were not terribly enjoyable issues. They look nice enough, I'm pleased that Nauck's work hasn't fallen off while sticking to his monthly schedule. The fight with the Crimson Pirates was well-drawn, nothing flashy with the page layouts, just solid workmanship presenting the action in a clear fashion.

But the stories themselves, not so much. Maybe the Crimson Pirates are supposed to look like losers, but Kurt really seemed to handle them easily. I wasn't expecting him to die, obviously, but there wasn't any real tension to the battle, where I thought he might fail to protect Rico or Ziggy. That's probably because Claremont was more concerned with trying to build a bond between Kurt and Rico, or illustrate a point to Rico about being a X-Man, or humans accepting mutants. But if most of the issue is going to be a fight, there ought to be some sort of suspense to it. The story might honestly have needed another issue. End this one on a cliffhanger of Kurt in trouble, or Rico missing, then resolve things the next month. But we had to get to Logan being dead.

It makes sense for Kurt to want to honor his friend's memory, but I can't help feeling Kurt's own return from the dead roughly 5 minutes ago ought to have some effect on that. A quiet confidence Logan will return again. Beyond that, I think Kurt and Logan might have done this better a few issues ago when they had their drinkin' buddy conversation in the Danger Room about Kurt's reservations over leaving Heaven, and Logan having to face his own mortality, and the very real chance he wouldn't live long enough to see Jean's next return from the dead. The discussion felt more natural there, whereas here, it feels more forced. Plus, it has a strong "clip show" element to it, and the idea of Kurt having the Danger Room make a bunch of copies of people for a false wake/party, rather than just go spend time with those people in real life, felt off. I could go with Kurt wanting to be alone, or wanting the comfort of mutual friends, or even him creating just a Logan in the Danger Room to talk to, but the whole big thing didn't seem right. Not even as something Kurt started, then acknowledged as a bad idea.

Oh well, truth be told, I'm dropping the book in a couple of months - because I don't want to deal with the Shadow King - so we're just playing out the string here.

What I Bought 9/5/2014 - Part 8

OK, last book on the list. Just the one today.

Nightcrawler #5, by Chris Claremont (writer), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Paul Smith sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of artists Claremont worked with during his first run on Uncanny X-Men, what with Cockrum, Byrne, Romita Jr., Lee, etc., But either Smith is responsible for a lot of classic images, or Nauck is just a big fan of his, between this and that panel of Kurt on the couch in the first issue.

Having accepted he's back among the living, but having lost Amanda for the time being, Kurt's trying to decide what to do now, while reflecting on how things were. As Paul O'Brien noted, it's hard not to see it as Claremont reflecting on how much things have changed in the X-books since the time when he was pretty much the only writer on them. After a bit of baseball with the Bamfs, he and Rachel spend time training some of the kids in the Danger Room. Afterward, Kurt relaxes by working on the old Blackbird, which Storm has kindly left in his care. He and Rico (the kid who basically looks like a scorpion) take it up for a flight, and then get asked to go investigate a new mutant energy signature. Which apparently belongs to a young girl who is super-smart and about to be the target of an abduction by some villains called the Crimson Pirates. I guess they're leftover from one of Claremont's earlier returns to the X-books. I'm always down for Kurt fighting pirates, I guess, though the leader looks far too much like those Trimega guys from the first 4 issues. Be interesting if that's deliberate, Margali pulling the Trimega's design from a threat she saw in Kurt's future.

I was a little disappointed that Kurt's teaching was, for the moment, relegated to combat. Why not teach German? The Jean Grey School doesn't have a foreign language requirement? Or drama? Kurt's a ham, but he has experience wearing another face (all those years with the image inducer), and later on, in making oneself unaware of the people watching him. Either one of which would seem useful for hopeful thespians.

Claremont on the whole is doing a good job working in the margins of the current status quo for mutants at Marvel. He's not trying to regress everything back to how it was, he's trying to play up the fact things are much different than even Kurt remembers (and Kurt hasn't been dead near as long as Claremont's been away from the main X-books), and use that. You come back to a place you used to know after a long absence, and it can be startling, you can feel out of place. I've experienced it, and I usually try to find something familiar and start from there. Use it as a touchstone, so to speak. So maybe that's Kurt running one of his old high adventure programs with Rachel for the students. Find something familiar, go from there. We'll see.

Nauck's still doing well on the whole. His Beast's head seems small for his upper body, but maybe that's just a function of Hank's most recent mutation. It's the sort of thing that's bothered me about Nauck's art in the past, though, so it might just be him. The burlier characters give him trouble. Or put another way, the way he draws them bothers me. Take your pick. Also, kind of surprised at the outfit Rachel was sporting for that swashbuckling program. Kurt's always seemed pretty comfortable showing a little skin in these things, but I figured Rachel would at least want pants. I do like that she mentions it's one of her and Kurt's favorite programs, implying it's one they've had since way back, and so of course Emma is the villain. Frost has never been one of Rachel's favorite people - that whole thing where she helped break up Rachel's mom and dad probably has a bit to do with it, and Kitty's never been fond of Emma, and Rachel's close with her. So if your best friend hates someone's guts, you might not look on them favorably, either.

What I Bought 7/31/2014 - Part 6

Last set of books from this batch, but I did manage to find a couple of the ones he didn't have, so expect that on Friday.

Hawkeye #19, by David Aja and Matt Fraction (storytellers), Matt Hollingsworth (color art), Chris Eliopoulos and David Aja (lettering) - Look out flying rats of New York! It's a sad, crying clown with a rifle!

OK, Barney's in a wheelchair, and Clint's deaf. Yes again. Counting the time as a child I didn't know about, he's up to 3. And he's being mopey, generally ignoring Barney's attempts to sign to him, which is what he did as a kid, apparently. But Barney finally gets through to him, with punching, and Clint calls a meeting of all the tenants of the building, where he explains they, meaning everyone there, will stop the Track Suits. Then he and Barney go tear up their strip club/meth lab and burn their vans. Hopefully, just the vans. I quite like that Clint is the guy who feels really strongly Avengers don't kill, and Fraction's on thin enough ice already without violating that one. Though he may have, it's been so long since I read some of the early issues I can't remember. Clint certainly didn't seem perturbed when Barney hucked that guy out the window.

You remember when Jaime Reyes got his first ongoing, in the post-Infinite Crisis days, there was a special
Cinco de Mayo issue all in Spanish. But at the end of the issue, they included a translation of all the dialogue for folks like me who studied German in high school instead of Spanish. Yeah, I could have used one of those here. I don't know what Barney's signing. I get the gist of the issue - he's trying to get through to Clint, asking him what he's going to do about this - but I'm probably missing some details. Which annoys me, but here we are. It's a nicely laid out issue. Lots of mirroring between Kid Clint and Adult Clint by Aja, but I really like Hollingsworth's coloring. The reds for all the stuff with the Track Suits. The way the background is yellowish when Barney confronts Clint in the hall, but then as they go to the roof, it switches to the purple that's been adopted as Hawkeye's color in this series (it really seems more lavender to me than purple, but oh well). The dark blues on the rooftop, that faded yellow/tan for the flashbacks to childhood. Everything has its own predominant color, which helps make everything distinct.

Nightcrawler #4, by Chris Claremont (writer), Todd Nauck (arist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) -McKelvie's art is very pretty, and his covers for the series up to this point have all been nice, but this one feels a little sterile. Maybe if he'd put the kick to the face part front and center, I'd like it better, but the main image looks more posed, and less like two characters interacting.

The school's under attack, but the X-Men are handling that. Amanda's able to put Storm and Beast back
together, which leaves Kurt to deal with Margali. Which he does, but the portal Margali opened to Heaven
is still open, which is bad. Kurt and Amanda plan to close it from the other side, but Kurt can't get back in. Kurt, if you'd talked to GrimJack, you'd have known leaving Heaven was probably a bad idea. So Amanda is left to close the portal herself, which leaves her who knows where. I mean, was she in Heaven proper, or somewhere on the path to it? Now Kurt's sad.

Well, I predicted after issue 3 this was going to be Claremont putting his own bow on the Kurt/Amanda
relationship. I was not predicting her making a noble sacrifice, but I should have figured she'd get a better death. Claremont's never seemed like one to send out characters like punks. At least, not the ones he likes. Having Kurt refer to Amanda as 'his heart', so he could say he'd lost his heart at the end was perhaps too cute, though. It seemed out of place when he said it to Logan initially, and then I get to the end and see why Claremont used it, and it makes it worse.

Another thing I noticed, he had Psylocke you the term "mates" in reference to her and Kurt. I noticed
when I read through X-Men Forever, he had her use more Britishisms, shall we say, than I remember
from when he originally put her on the team in the '80s. Maybe because she's in an Japanese body he feels
the need to use those to establish her cultural heritage, in that familiar shorthand he favors. Don't know
for sure, it was just something I had a bit of a hard time picturing her saying.

I probably shouldn't, but I found the panel where Kurt faceplants against the barrier funny. He was trying to be reassuring to Amanda and then SPLAT! Nauck's still doing a good job. He's got Kurt using all his appendages in fights, whether it's grabbing a Trimega arm with one foot, or holding a sword in his tail. That's always been a feature of Nightcrawler's I appreciated, that versatility and the chances it offers for artists. Kurt does seem to be teleporting an awful lot, though. Sometimes it seems like hardly a panel goes by he isn't bamfing somewhere. Wonder if that's significant.