Welcome again true believers to the Marvel Rundown. This week readers continue to live under the benevolent dictatorship of our one true leader Doom in One World Under Doom #2. Be warned our review has major spoilers so if you want to avoid those, skip to the end to see our verdict. Our Rapid Rundown this week covers Magik #3, Avengers #24, and continues our coverage of X-Manhunt with a look at X-Force #9!
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One World Under Doom #2
Writer: Ryan North
Artist: R. B. Silva
Colorist: Daniel Curiel
Letterer: vc’s Travis Lanham
One of those plots that perpetually comes up in Marvel Comics is Ben Grimm getting returned to a human appearance. During the Jack Kirby and Stan Lee Fantastic Four stories the ever loving blue eyed Thing would randomly revert back a forth from his rocky appearance to his human body. Him becoming human continues to occur, always temporarily, throughout the book’s 64 year existence. While rendered in beautiful detail for maximum impact by R.B. Silva and Daniel Curiel, having him become human again as a major plot point in One World Under Doom #2 just feels hollow. Especially with a film on the horizon where Ben Grimm is definitely a rocky dude.
That’s one of the things that feels frustrating about this event so far. It’s either too aware of how temporary all of these developments, Doom as world leader, Ben being human, the heroes made to look like villains, will be. Or writer Ryan North really believes that these ideas are unique or that his changes will stick. It’s either of these things or the plot so far is some kind of three dimensional chess game being played by Doom. Since previews have spoiled that eventually everyone fights Dormammu by issue 5 in this eight part series, it might be the later. Right now though, it’s doesn’t read that way.
Seeing the heroes in this story keep walking into what are obvious traps in this issue continues to frustrate. While last issue ended with the characters with mud on their faces as Doom made them look ineffective. Fine, as a reader, that happening once works to define the stakes of what our heroes are up against. The brilliance of Marvel heroes is that they are fallible individuals. They make mistakes BUT Marvel heroes learn from them to be better people. This issue though makes everyone just look stupid in an effort to keep up the appearance that Doom is right and the heroes underestimate him or how much the public loves him. Between the FF and the reveal of the Avengers plan, seeing heroes act this dumb because plot so far only frustrates. The final page instead of looking like a move of desperation instead looks like people making a move that clearly will blow up in their face. Again.
Truly though what’s been most frustrating about this event is how shallow it has been in its political commentary. The Fantastic Four attempt to stop Doom during a United Nations meeting. Before they go into battle the group, discusses what a blow hard the tyrant is. How the only way to truly defeat him in conquest of the hearts and mind of people is to truly embarrass or make him look ridiculous in front of them. As the last ten years in American politics has proven that no matter how embarrassing, imbecilic or criminal a person is, people will continue to follow them. Doom’s plan of open borders, while intriguing, certainly isn’t the end all solution to global conflicts he presents it as. Maybe the conquest might be empty but some leader really do want to see the world burn.
In Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell’s Zenith, a business man attempts to force world peace by implementing nuclear armageddon. How does Zenith beat this guy? He starts pointing the out holes in his logic and asks him about the finer details of his plot. Eventually the villain just feels dumb he attempted his plan. This feels like anytime something happens in One World Under Doom #2. We’re two issues into this massive event but so far when anything happens, the characters look dumb instead of over confident and plot points come across as poorly thought out instead of subversive. With this and the barely comprehensible X-Manhunt, Marvel editors and creatives really need to start thinking about what they’re doing with their crossovers.
Verdict: SKIP
Rapid Rundown
- Exceptional X-Men #7
- What do you call it when your comic crossover tie-in issue doesn’t actually tie-in? Why that’s Collateral Damage! It’s X-manhunt time, once again and while we see what Xavier was after on Utopia with X-Force #9, we visit the Chicago X-men as they continue to train and deal with teenage angst in Exceptional X-Men #7. Writer Eve Ewing is not letting X-Manhunt derail her story about the seduction of Axo by the Sinister Xenos. The X-Manhunt content is very light here and is limited to just TWO PAGES of them mostly talking about Xavier and the fall of Krakoa. The notable thing about this issue is that it’s narrated by Emma Frost, which is fantastic. Ewing has a great grasp on the character’s voice and she hasn’t been much of the focus of the series just yet. The standout moment is Emma talking about her former loves and showing pictures of Namor, Cyclops, Iron Man, and STORM?! I guess that one body swap story during the Claremont run (I know how little that narrows things down) really stuck with Emma. Additionally, we get to see why Axo has been carrying the “idiot ball’ this arc. Axo being an empath and constantly having people open up to him as his mutant gift makes him question how little people actually like him. This feels very much like a teenager’s concern and further showcases Ewing’s amazing track record when it comes to writing teens. Artist Carmen Carnero continues to be the best X-Line artist with this issue.His command of emotions is unparalleled. We can see the concern, joy, and fear in the character’s faces and this is especially significant given one of the main character is an empath. The backgrounds are limited but that allows for increased emphasis on character acting. I really loved this issue. Technically the best issue of the X-Manhunt crossover, but that seems unfair given that there is literally the most threadbare connection to the event. -JJ
- Magik #3
- As a newly minted Magik superfan, I have been enjoying this solo spotlight series which focuses on Ilyana as a defender of children against demons who would rob them of their innocence and childhood. It’s a strong, clear mission statement for a character who is bogged down by a complicated history. It’s all complicated by her own internal struggle with her demonic darkside. It’s amazing how much this comic works even for someone like me who is relatively new to the character, even as this issue deals more with her past than previous issues. One of the hard things for X-Men characters is finding a distinct voice that operates outside of the interplay of the larger cast and Ashley Allen’s script has managed to do just that. Magik is complicated, difficult, and funny, and fully fleshed out. Often characters in ensemble pieces fall apart when left to their own devices (which is why television spinoffs fail so often) but Magik has defied the odds. German Peralta’s art is superb. The action flows cleanly, with some stellar fight scenes and big, expressive eyes and emotive figures. Arthur Hesli adds drama and mood with painterly colors, and VC’s Ariana Maher remains one of the best letterers in the game (check out how she integrates the SFX into Peralta’s layouts). Magik remains a highlight amidst the saturation of X-Men titles and it hinges on Allen and Peralta’s focus on the character and her emotional journey. Hopefully this continues for more than one story arc and Magik becomes a character with the kind of solo staying power of Wolverine–she’s earning it. – TR
- X-Force #10
- As the penultimate chapter of both the series and the X-Manhunt crossover (Exceptional X-Men this week devotes exactly two pages to the story), X-Force #10 is in a strange position. For its own ongoing plot, it reads as treading water. Writer Geoffrey Thorne, by necessity, has to turn the main plot of his ongoing story into the subplot while the crossover parts have to function as the main plot. So if you’re someone coming into this reading only X-Manhunt, the parts with this book’s main cast are perfectly ignorable because it’s just an extended fight scene. The current X-Force team continues their fight with Diabla to very little success. That said the plot of X-Manhunt finally moves forward after what seemed like seven chapters of a perpetual fight sequence. Xavier uses that egg he found on Krakoa to bring back the character most people expected. X-Manhunt has been so sluggish and incomprehensible in its pacing it’s almost a relief someone just had the story move forward in a direction. And Thorne actually makes clear the relationship between Sage and Professor X in way that explains why of all the X-folks, she would help him without question. You wonder why none of the other writers tried to make 50 years of X-Men history this consist. Artist Marcus To seems a little more at home depicting having Betsy Braddock wield her sword against monsters than a student and her mentor trying to figure out his next move. The quiet scenes between Xavier and Sage seem more like a necessity than moments that hold dramatic weight in this story. Even that character’s rebirth lacks any kind of drama and surprise thought that might have more to do with the lack of build up in the crossover than To’s artistic skills. Still instead of barreling towards a conclusion as the accelerated release schedule has tried to do, X-Manhunt limps towards a conclusion that will likely be forgotten than truly earth shattering.- DM
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