Erwin Rafael
Mar 24, 2002, 10:16 am
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/uxmen402.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/uxmen402t.jpg" align=left alt="Uncanny X-Men #402"></a> Reviewer: Erwin Rafael, 3rdsummers@edsamail.com.ph
Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Utility of Myth
The X-Men finally sees firsthand what Banshee's plans are all about as the tale of the X-Corps continues.
Written by: Joe Casey
Pencilled by: Ron Garney
Inked by: Mark Morales
Lettered by: Richard Starkings and Comicraft's Saida Temofonte
Colored by: Hi-fi Design
Assistant Editor: Pete Franco
Editor: Mark Powers
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
When Joe Casey previewed his plans for a new team named X-Corps months ago, the message boards buzzed with frenetic activity. The X-Corps quickly became the subject of scrutiny and debate, and to label it as controversial was mild, to say the least. There were many reasons why Casey's new team became a hot item in the message boards. For one, the X-Corps promised the return of long absent characters, such as Banshee, the Generation X kids and members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. Then there's the matter of the rather fascistic, or even Nazi-istic, concept behind the group, which really became a hot item when the preview images started to "leak out". And of course, there were also the people who had nothing better to do but to make a Casey-bash, which was really an "in" thing during those days, but then again, that really is a topic for another forum :). Suffice to say that whatever the reason, Casey's X-Corps attracted a lot of attention, and in this issue of Uncanny X-Men, we finally see what the hoopla was all about.
The issue in a flash: The X-Men have been invited to grace the G-8 summit to discuss mutant relations. Along the way, the X-Men visited the X-Corps headquarters in Paris to confront Banshee about his plans, which was already becoming a hot topic in Europe. The X-Men got to see the X-Corps in action when Banshee's team quelled a mutant disturbance involving Abyss and Fever Pitch. Suffice to say that the X-Men did not like what they saw. The issue ended with Banshee visiting a mysterious woman who appears to be a very important player in Banshee's operations.
After a rather disappointing Nuff Said! issue, Casey picked up the pace and rebounded with a well-written story this issue. "Utility of Myth" is pretty much a "standard" X-Men story and does not seem to attempt to reach the readers on different levels, unlike Casey's previous stories in "Poptopia" and in issue # 400. However, Casey brought up valid questions and new ideas, which definitely piqued my interest.
The idea of mutants policing mutantkind is an interesting and controversial one. Some would argue that it's a bit of a racist and separatist approach which does not gel with Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence, an argument that Casey reflected in the story through the X-Men. But doesn't the idea of policing your own kind hold any merit? How could you sue for peace with another community if your own people are at war with each other? Taking the anti-globalization movement's arguments as an analogy, why would a group of people concern itself so much with global issues if there are still so much to be solved internally? It's a good question which does not have a black and white answer, and it'd be interesting to see how Casey would ultimately answer this question when the story comes to a resolution.
Banshee's change of heart may seem to be a bit "out of character" to many people. I do have faith, though, that Casey knew what he's doing and that this is not a case of disregarding continuity. For one, several characters in the story itself, like Iceman and Chamber, observed that Banshee is a changed man, thus, indicating that Casey knew that his Banshee was written differently from what we have seen before. Secondly, speaking from experience, I believe that the change in Banshee's character is not exactly far-fetched. I have personally seen holy men and women join armed rebellions. I have witnessed once-good people driven to terrorism because of extreme injustices they experienced in their life. I am not defending their actions nor passing judgment on them, but what I am saying is that a person can go from one extreme to another given enough motivation. In the case of Banshee, seeing all the suffering mutanity suffered in the hands of other mutants, along with the death of his love, Moira, due to a virus propagated by another mutant was enough motivation for him to question the effectivity of his actions.
Based on his other works like Cable, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Wildcats, to name a few, Casey really excelled with characterization rather than action sequences. This issue, however, featured some good action as well. I was particularly entertained with the use of the Blob as a human bomb. It's original and it's visually exciting, which really is a plus since this story is being told in a visual medium.
I do have some complaints this issue. Specifically, I have three complaints and one case of disappointment over an unrealized potential. My first complaint is that I do not like the "holier than thou" attitude Casey gave to the X-Men when they dealt with the X-Corps. This is something that I have always had a problem with whenever the X-Men encounter groups utilizing different means to achieve Xavier's objectives. I would agree that Banshee's group is a cause of concern, but can the X-Men rightly assume that they have the moral high ground and that they have all the correct answers when it comes to Xavier's dream?
My second complaint is Casey's poor team dynamics. Casey handled well the team dynamics of the X-Corps, but his handling of the X-Men was a bit lacking. All the X-Men ever did this issue was to stand around as a group while observing the X-Corps' operations. Team books work through interaction and chemistry. Having a bunch of people standing around doing the same thing and reinforcing each other's comments is indeed a plausible scenario, but it definitely is boring as well.
My third complaint would be the new anti-mutant group this issue, the Acculturation Resistance Movement or A.R.M. Two of my favorite mutant-hate groups were creations of Joe Casey. One would be the group which served as the main opposition in X-Men: Children of the Atom and the recently-debuted Church of Humanity. A.R.M., however, seemed to be a bit too generic and shallow. They basically have the same level of ridiculously close minded bigotry as the Church of Humanity, but while the Church's extremist behavior could be explained by religious fanaticism, A.R.M. seemed not to have any other motivation but to hate. Maybe it's still too early to tell and Casey may have plans to make A.R.M. a more rounded group in future issues. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
My source of disappointment this issue was, ironically, also the element that I found to be most praiseworthy in Casey's story. While Morrison is making good with the X-Men's media relations in New X-Men, Casey is now playing with the X-Men's role as a representative of mutanity in front of the world's different governments. Such a move is a natural consequence of revealing their secret in the public. The X-Men has battled in the political arena before through Xavier's posing as a mutant sympathizer, but representing themselves as mutants is a whole different thing, and I applaud Casey for making the first move to tackle this subject matter.
However, Casey's handling of the X-Men's appearance in the G-8 meeting was a bit disappointing. Angel's speech was a bit generic and lacking in impact. Now, I understand that Casey just showed us the introduction and not the body of the speech, but I really wish that Casey showed us instead something with more substance. It's the X-Men's first statement in front of the world leaders, and such an event, in my opinion, should have been treated as a landmark, like how Morrison tackled the X-Men's first press conference in the pages of New X-Men. I don't want to hear motherhood political statements. I really want to hear what the X-Men really has to say.
Garney's work this issue, technically, is a fine piece of sequential storytelling. The flow is clear and the layouts are logical. Unfortunately, this is turning out to be another case of an artist not fitting Casey's writing style. Garney's work has been harshly criticized as bland and unexciting. I think that description is inaccurate. His work did not come across as bland when the stories were "bright" in nature. That was one reason why he really worked well with writers like Mark Waid. However, his simplistic and cartoony style just didn't gel with Casey's more grounded and darker-toned stories. I know that I may come across as stereotyping Garney's art, but art styles have a sense of individuality which makes them fit or not fit a certain style of writing. And in this case, Garney and Casey's styles just didn't match.
After an unimpressive debut last issue, we finally got to see what the X-Corps is all about. Casey's interesting ideas got me hooked enough to see this thing through until the finish. I'm wishing that there would be more chemistry between Casey and the coming set of art teams, with Aaron Lopresti filling in next month and Sean Philips working on every succeeding chapters thereafter. Here's to hoping that the X-Corps storyline would live up to its potential and lead to a satisfying resolution.
Rating:
Art:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Story:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Overall:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!
Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Utility of Myth
The X-Men finally sees firsthand what Banshee's plans are all about as the tale of the X-Corps continues.
Written by: Joe Casey
Pencilled by: Ron Garney
Inked by: Mark Morales
Lettered by: Richard Starkings and Comicraft's Saida Temofonte
Colored by: Hi-fi Design
Assistant Editor: Pete Franco
Editor: Mark Powers
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
When Joe Casey previewed his plans for a new team named X-Corps months ago, the message boards buzzed with frenetic activity. The X-Corps quickly became the subject of scrutiny and debate, and to label it as controversial was mild, to say the least. There were many reasons why Casey's new team became a hot item in the message boards. For one, the X-Corps promised the return of long absent characters, such as Banshee, the Generation X kids and members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. Then there's the matter of the rather fascistic, or even Nazi-istic, concept behind the group, which really became a hot item when the preview images started to "leak out". And of course, there were also the people who had nothing better to do but to make a Casey-bash, which was really an "in" thing during those days, but then again, that really is a topic for another forum :). Suffice to say that whatever the reason, Casey's X-Corps attracted a lot of attention, and in this issue of Uncanny X-Men, we finally see what the hoopla was all about.
The issue in a flash: The X-Men have been invited to grace the G-8 summit to discuss mutant relations. Along the way, the X-Men visited the X-Corps headquarters in Paris to confront Banshee about his plans, which was already becoming a hot topic in Europe. The X-Men got to see the X-Corps in action when Banshee's team quelled a mutant disturbance involving Abyss and Fever Pitch. Suffice to say that the X-Men did not like what they saw. The issue ended with Banshee visiting a mysterious woman who appears to be a very important player in Banshee's operations.
After a rather disappointing Nuff Said! issue, Casey picked up the pace and rebounded with a well-written story this issue. "Utility of Myth" is pretty much a "standard" X-Men story and does not seem to attempt to reach the readers on different levels, unlike Casey's previous stories in "Poptopia" and in issue # 400. However, Casey brought up valid questions and new ideas, which definitely piqued my interest.
The idea of mutants policing mutantkind is an interesting and controversial one. Some would argue that it's a bit of a racist and separatist approach which does not gel with Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence, an argument that Casey reflected in the story through the X-Men. But doesn't the idea of policing your own kind hold any merit? How could you sue for peace with another community if your own people are at war with each other? Taking the anti-globalization movement's arguments as an analogy, why would a group of people concern itself so much with global issues if there are still so much to be solved internally? It's a good question which does not have a black and white answer, and it'd be interesting to see how Casey would ultimately answer this question when the story comes to a resolution.
Banshee's change of heart may seem to be a bit "out of character" to many people. I do have faith, though, that Casey knew what he's doing and that this is not a case of disregarding continuity. For one, several characters in the story itself, like Iceman and Chamber, observed that Banshee is a changed man, thus, indicating that Casey knew that his Banshee was written differently from what we have seen before. Secondly, speaking from experience, I believe that the change in Banshee's character is not exactly far-fetched. I have personally seen holy men and women join armed rebellions. I have witnessed once-good people driven to terrorism because of extreme injustices they experienced in their life. I am not defending their actions nor passing judgment on them, but what I am saying is that a person can go from one extreme to another given enough motivation. In the case of Banshee, seeing all the suffering mutanity suffered in the hands of other mutants, along with the death of his love, Moira, due to a virus propagated by another mutant was enough motivation for him to question the effectivity of his actions.
Based on his other works like Cable, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Wildcats, to name a few, Casey really excelled with characterization rather than action sequences. This issue, however, featured some good action as well. I was particularly entertained with the use of the Blob as a human bomb. It's original and it's visually exciting, which really is a plus since this story is being told in a visual medium.
I do have some complaints this issue. Specifically, I have three complaints and one case of disappointment over an unrealized potential. My first complaint is that I do not like the "holier than thou" attitude Casey gave to the X-Men when they dealt with the X-Corps. This is something that I have always had a problem with whenever the X-Men encounter groups utilizing different means to achieve Xavier's objectives. I would agree that Banshee's group is a cause of concern, but can the X-Men rightly assume that they have the moral high ground and that they have all the correct answers when it comes to Xavier's dream?
My second complaint is Casey's poor team dynamics. Casey handled well the team dynamics of the X-Corps, but his handling of the X-Men was a bit lacking. All the X-Men ever did this issue was to stand around as a group while observing the X-Corps' operations. Team books work through interaction and chemistry. Having a bunch of people standing around doing the same thing and reinforcing each other's comments is indeed a plausible scenario, but it definitely is boring as well.
My third complaint would be the new anti-mutant group this issue, the Acculturation Resistance Movement or A.R.M. Two of my favorite mutant-hate groups were creations of Joe Casey. One would be the group which served as the main opposition in X-Men: Children of the Atom and the recently-debuted Church of Humanity. A.R.M., however, seemed to be a bit too generic and shallow. They basically have the same level of ridiculously close minded bigotry as the Church of Humanity, but while the Church's extremist behavior could be explained by religious fanaticism, A.R.M. seemed not to have any other motivation but to hate. Maybe it's still too early to tell and Casey may have plans to make A.R.M. a more rounded group in future issues. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
My source of disappointment this issue was, ironically, also the element that I found to be most praiseworthy in Casey's story. While Morrison is making good with the X-Men's media relations in New X-Men, Casey is now playing with the X-Men's role as a representative of mutanity in front of the world's different governments. Such a move is a natural consequence of revealing their secret in the public. The X-Men has battled in the political arena before through Xavier's posing as a mutant sympathizer, but representing themselves as mutants is a whole different thing, and I applaud Casey for making the first move to tackle this subject matter.
However, Casey's handling of the X-Men's appearance in the G-8 meeting was a bit disappointing. Angel's speech was a bit generic and lacking in impact. Now, I understand that Casey just showed us the introduction and not the body of the speech, but I really wish that Casey showed us instead something with more substance. It's the X-Men's first statement in front of the world leaders, and such an event, in my opinion, should have been treated as a landmark, like how Morrison tackled the X-Men's first press conference in the pages of New X-Men. I don't want to hear motherhood political statements. I really want to hear what the X-Men really has to say.
Garney's work this issue, technically, is a fine piece of sequential storytelling. The flow is clear and the layouts are logical. Unfortunately, this is turning out to be another case of an artist not fitting Casey's writing style. Garney's work has been harshly criticized as bland and unexciting. I think that description is inaccurate. His work did not come across as bland when the stories were "bright" in nature. That was one reason why he really worked well with writers like Mark Waid. However, his simplistic and cartoony style just didn't gel with Casey's more grounded and darker-toned stories. I know that I may come across as stereotyping Garney's art, but art styles have a sense of individuality which makes them fit or not fit a certain style of writing. And in this case, Garney and Casey's styles just didn't match.
After an unimpressive debut last issue, we finally got to see what the X-Corps is all about. Casey's interesting ideas got me hooked enough to see this thing through until the finish. I'm wishing that there would be more chemistry between Casey and the coming set of art teams, with Aaron Lopresti filling in next month and Sean Philips working on every succeeding chapters thereafter. Here's to hoping that the X-Corps storyline would live up to its potential and lead to a satisfying resolution.
Rating:
Art:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Story:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Overall:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpg http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!