Hey y’all. I’m back this week with an interesting set of comics. There wasn’t a Featured Review yesterday for a number of reasons, but it will be back Sunday with a look at Batman: Three Jokers #1, so it’s time to get hyped. Outside the comics reviewed here, I’m still reading Boruto and am enjoying it a lot. I wish it would move a little faster though. Burn the Witch, Tite Kubo’s new miniseries, also started this week and it had an excellent first chapter. Anyway, let’s get onto the main event!
Cable is good
Empyre: X-Men #4
Writer: Jonathon Hickman
Artists: Jorge Molina and Lucas
Werneck
Inks: Adriano Di Bendetto and Lucas
Werneck
Colors: Nolan Woodard and Rachelle Rosenberg
Letters: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller
Cover: Kyle Holtz and Dan Brown
This miniseries was strange.
Each issue has a different creative team, a significant chunk of the first
issue was spent on a story that is never followed up on, Hordeculture doesn’t
contribute much to the plot, the army of psychic mutants never accomplish much,
and the X-Men don’t have anything to do with the resolution of the conflict.
Having said all that, this series was so fun, and this issue serves as a
perfect capstone to this strange detour from the larger X-Men story.
Most of this comic comes from
two sequences. The first is following up on the opening of the miniseries with
Scarlet Witch attempting to fix the zombie problem she made. Doctor Strange
helps her assemble a counter spell that will cause the zombies to re-die in
exactly 30 days. This sequence seems to serve three purposes: Establishing
Wanda’s relationship to mutantkind, providing a way to get the X-Men out of
their problems in this series, and show that magic doesn't necessarily do what
you want it to. The first is likely the most important as this is at least the
second time Wanda has come up in Hickman penned X-Men comics.
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| I would do the same |
The second sequence is the far more interesting one, philosophically. It features a mutant talking to his reborn zombie self about who is real, does it matter, and how they should move forward. They talk about their first kiss with a spider girl that's out of their league and how it turns out, they don't like spiders like that. They talk about how they've started down the path of reconnecting with their family. Eventually, realizing living him is doing well and that he is going to end up unzombified, the zombie kid decides to sacrifice himself for the greater good and uses a jet pack to kamikaze the giant plant monster stomping around Genosha. He explodes, it explodes, and the day is saved. There are still a ton of zombies, but, luckily, the 30-day mark is reached, and they all dissipate.
Of course, the larger questions that
have formed the backbone of the X-Men for the last year are not answered here,
but it does show that Hickman is thinking about them. Are you still the same
person after being brought back the method the mutants use? The kids are the
center of the center of issue seem to think so, but it is far from a definitive
answer. There is no definitive answer. Just thought-provoking philosophy. And
that's enough for this comic to be fun interesting.
Cable #3
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Phil Noto
Letters: VC’s Joe Sabino
Design: Tom Muller
Cover: Noto
Cable is a vibe book. Not that
it doesn't have an interesting story characters, but the charm of the writing
and art make this a good comic to just chill with and enjoy. It floats along
from being kidnapped by space robots to Cable exhuming himself to Deadpool
being King of Staten Island (Is this a thing in other series?) to an emotional
letter exchange between Old Cable and Deadpool. The charm of the characters It
seems so effortless for the people crafting this story.
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| Also my reaction to seeing Deadpool |
Not much of note occurs here. We see that Cable has nightmares about killing Old Cable and he gets the Space Knights out of town. Also, there’s a mutant worshipping cult that might sacrifice babies but definitely kidnaps them. All this is moved along by the snappy dialogue and witty jokes. I didn't have Deadpool in this comic. It's an actual miracle. This Duggan fellow might be good.
The secret weapon is, of course,
Phil Noto. Three issues in and I'm already struggling to find ways to describe
his art without repeating myself. The key here is that his pacing is
phenomenal. Noto really makes the already good comedy sing and the action scene
at the beginning feels like the perfect length. The final scene, starring the
aforementioned cult, had to perfect number of panels to maintain moment while still
building a sense of dead. It’s masterful.
Excalibur #10
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Marcus To
Colors: Erick Arcinega
Letters: VC’s Ariana Maher
Designer: Tom Muller
Cover: Mahmud Asrar and Matthew Wilson
Finally, after many moons, Excalibur
has returned! You may remember when I wrote about this series last, I
was in love. That remains true, although this issue is all setup for…
something, likely X of Swords. It’s unfortunate because this series had so much
forward momentum. Luckily, this comic is still immensely entertaining and
reveals so much information that will undoubtedly be instrumental in the future
of the series.
The most interesting aspect is
the way Saturnyne has setup her worshippers. They are split into two factions:
white and green. The white faction lives with Saturnyne and they carry out her
direct will. The green lives far away and carries out the spirit of her
teachings. I am unaware of any real-world religion that is split in this way,
but many fall into these kinds of factions: some that believe they are carrying
out their gods’ will and those that interpret the teachings as a guide. Exploring
this dynamic and how the two groups interact could possibly be the most
interesting path for this story going forward.
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| Pure exposition babyyy |
We also get some history on Apocalypse’s first coven: The Externals. They share life forces so when one sealed hers in a stone, some of the group were angry. The stole they sealed it in is stolen from Saturnyne by Gambit in the closing moments of the issue. This seems like it will come into play soon and given that there is only about a month until X of Swords begins and Tini Howard is a lead on that story, it seems likely to be related.
Marcus To remains one of the
most consistent artists in the business. Every issue looks good, has good
pacing, and change up panel layouts enough to get the reader engaged. Arcinega’s
colors really accentuate how magical this world is. The book looks quite good.
As always, feel
free to give your thoughts in these comments or on Twitter at @alexraysnyder.
And if you like what you read here, consider throwing a couple bucks my way on Patreon to help
cover costs.
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