Northstar-9
Mar 12, 2006, 08:58 am
<a href=http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0306/NXM24.jpgtarget=" "><img src=http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0306/NXM24t.jpg hspace=10 align=left alt="New X-Men #24"></a>Reviewer: Grant Baisley Northstar9_jpb@yahoo.co.uk
Story Title: Crusade (Part 1 of 4)
“They’ll learn or they’ll die. Simple as that.”
Writers: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Pencils: Paco Medina
Inks: Juan Vlasco
Colours: Brian Reber
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Production: Tom Valente
Assistant Editor: Sean Ryan
Associate Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor: Mike Marts
Editor-in-Charge: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published By: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
The glory days of mutantkind are behind them, where once they numbered in the millions they now number in the hundreds… barely. The bigots now exist in far greater numbers than the remaining. These are dark times to still be a mutant; the wolves are most definitely at the door and the mutants are in the house made of straw. Presumably, to counter this Emma Frost has assembled a new team to be the next generation of X-Men. Their first official duty was to oversee the evacuation of those baseline students who had not yet left and, in keeping with a book deeply rooted in teenage catastrophe, it was a complete balls-up. When the very last student had boarded the bus a lone missile tore through the night sky and reduced the bus to so much scrap. The culprit was Rev. William Stryker and his reasons for this, much like Emma’s, remain a mystery.
This issue takes place, mainly, in two scenes; funeral and flashback and each is scripted masterfully. The scenes set in the funeral capture the tone and feel of your typical Catholic funeral and the characters used portray a believable, almost tangible, feeling of grief. Those set in the fiery aftermath of the bus’s explosion capture the chaos and confusion that accompany any such tragedy – the human mind simply cannot process horror in wide screen it seems. This issue used a cast of “non-humans” to showcase humanity at it’s best, worst and deepest and spoke directly to the human condition.
This issue was characterised by a level of characterisation that has heretofore been unseen in this book. It is a sad irony that if an established character appears within the confines of these pages he/she will better written than they have been in years. I’m specifically about Nightcrawler’s spiritual nature coming to the fore in a gentle and believable manner; his grief and faith captured within his sermon. Cyclops and Wolverine have a brief exchange that speaks directly to the heart of each; in fact I haven’t seen a more accurate portrayal of Scott and Logan in years. Forge finally becomes more than just the resident tech-head as he shows his more spiritual nature that befits his Shamanistic past and adopts an almost paternal role with Noriko.
New characters (the core cast) faired equally as well. Rockslide finally revealed that despite it all he isn’t made completely of stone. Dust retreated into her faith in a way that seemed uninvasive and respectful. Julian showed that he’s got far more potential to mature into Scott than into Emma. Cessily, sadly, just cried. Laura wandered through the issue completely devoid of emotional, but she’s Laura. There are hints of some sinister tidings in Josh’s future; that he is going to revert to the more villainous ways N&C had originally intended for him. And Noriko, like Santo, finally let the walls down and showed that she is not nearly as sure of herself as she’s been pretending to be. In terms of emotional content this issue was dynamite, the actual story on the other hand was not nearly as good.
The first problem with this issue’s storyline is that nothing actually happened. For months C&C have been creating sub plot after sub plot that we hope will come together in a marvellous tapestry of storytelling, but at the moment it doesn’t look like that’s going to be anytime soon. Usually new writers come on board and will shake up the status quo in their first 6 issues, a nice little packageable arc tailor-made for the TPB, but here it seems that the change is going to take at least 8 issues to resolve itself. C&C appear to be trying to be Marvel’s new Bendis with his focus on slow-paced stories with small casts and intense characterisation; in books like Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil that format works, but in larger team based books it’s far less successful. And this is after all a team based book.
The second problem is what little storyline there was wasn’t terribly original and as a result half the impact of the book is lost. A large part of Emma’s character in this book revolves around her devotion to the students because she cannot lose anymore of them, but here she once more loses her students in a wholesale manner – the mass slaughter of the baseline students doesn’t add anything to Emma in the way that the deaths of the original Hellions did. Nor does it add to the darkness of the book; it just removed a bunch of characters for no reason. The funeral doesn’t quite have the total impact that it should since we watched them bury Northstar less than a year before. Likewise any reaction to Josh’s impotence is fleeting because we already saw it back in issue 13. The chaos of the flashback is lacking because it fails to compete with what we saw five months ago in issue 20. Worst of all, there was another cliff hanger ending; that’s now five for five if anyone else is counting. It’s not the responsibility of the final few pages to entice me back next month – that was the job of the 20 pages preceding them.
This issue was the first one penned by Paco Medina, the series’ new regular artist. Now there has been a great deal of concern over his taking over, but the pencils were, for the most part, delightful to read. The funeral scenes were haunting and expressive. Those set in the flashback kinetic and fast-paced. Each expression rendered masterfully in a believable, often heart-wrenching manner. Unfortunately he fails to deliver on the larger wide angle scenes. The art would have been the issue’s greatest strength, but for a few ill-picked choices with regards to artistic licence. Why is Gambit in costume at the funeral? Seems tacky, as does Sam wearing those red shades. Including Archangel in the funeral proceedings just ruined the ending to Generation M which only ships next week. The greatest problem with the art though, is the colouring in the flashback scenes. At first it seemed that the pallet of yellows, reds and oranges were being used to show that this was in fact a flashback, but that illusion was quickly dispelled when a green or purple joins the fray and then the panel decays into a gaudy orange mess.
This book was a conflicting mixture of all sorts of elements, a great deal like the art and the emotional content was superb, however the lack of originality and the colouring were dismal. It’s hard to call, but the good did in fact beat out the bad if only by a nose. While reading this book, I couldn’t help imaging a power mad executive (actually it was Mojo) roaming the halls of the Marvel offices shrieking “Yes! Do it exactly like last time; only bigger, louder and with more explosions!”. The new direction of the book seems to be too focused on senseless, sensational slaughter to give the series any chance at longevity. I cannot help worrying that Marvel is simply looking at the immediate future than at the larger picture. Guess I’ll have to wait to next month to see if I get some plot development or just the same old, same old with a sprinkling of dismembered limbs.
ART:
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STORY:
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OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/nxfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/nxfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/nxfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/nxnone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/nxnone.jpg
Story Title: Crusade (Part 1 of 4)
“They’ll learn or they’ll die. Simple as that.”
Writers: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Pencils: Paco Medina
Inks: Juan Vlasco
Colours: Brian Reber
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Production: Tom Valente
Assistant Editor: Sean Ryan
Associate Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor: Mike Marts
Editor-in-Charge: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published By: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
The glory days of mutantkind are behind them, where once they numbered in the millions they now number in the hundreds… barely. The bigots now exist in far greater numbers than the remaining. These are dark times to still be a mutant; the wolves are most definitely at the door and the mutants are in the house made of straw. Presumably, to counter this Emma Frost has assembled a new team to be the next generation of X-Men. Their first official duty was to oversee the evacuation of those baseline students who had not yet left and, in keeping with a book deeply rooted in teenage catastrophe, it was a complete balls-up. When the very last student had boarded the bus a lone missile tore through the night sky and reduced the bus to so much scrap. The culprit was Rev. William Stryker and his reasons for this, much like Emma’s, remain a mystery.
This issue takes place, mainly, in two scenes; funeral and flashback and each is scripted masterfully. The scenes set in the funeral capture the tone and feel of your typical Catholic funeral and the characters used portray a believable, almost tangible, feeling of grief. Those set in the fiery aftermath of the bus’s explosion capture the chaos and confusion that accompany any such tragedy – the human mind simply cannot process horror in wide screen it seems. This issue used a cast of “non-humans” to showcase humanity at it’s best, worst and deepest and spoke directly to the human condition.
This issue was characterised by a level of characterisation that has heretofore been unseen in this book. It is a sad irony that if an established character appears within the confines of these pages he/she will better written than they have been in years. I’m specifically about Nightcrawler’s spiritual nature coming to the fore in a gentle and believable manner; his grief and faith captured within his sermon. Cyclops and Wolverine have a brief exchange that speaks directly to the heart of each; in fact I haven’t seen a more accurate portrayal of Scott and Logan in years. Forge finally becomes more than just the resident tech-head as he shows his more spiritual nature that befits his Shamanistic past and adopts an almost paternal role with Noriko.
New characters (the core cast) faired equally as well. Rockslide finally revealed that despite it all he isn’t made completely of stone. Dust retreated into her faith in a way that seemed uninvasive and respectful. Julian showed that he’s got far more potential to mature into Scott than into Emma. Cessily, sadly, just cried. Laura wandered through the issue completely devoid of emotional, but she’s Laura. There are hints of some sinister tidings in Josh’s future; that he is going to revert to the more villainous ways N&C had originally intended for him. And Noriko, like Santo, finally let the walls down and showed that she is not nearly as sure of herself as she’s been pretending to be. In terms of emotional content this issue was dynamite, the actual story on the other hand was not nearly as good.
The first problem with this issue’s storyline is that nothing actually happened. For months C&C have been creating sub plot after sub plot that we hope will come together in a marvellous tapestry of storytelling, but at the moment it doesn’t look like that’s going to be anytime soon. Usually new writers come on board and will shake up the status quo in their first 6 issues, a nice little packageable arc tailor-made for the TPB, but here it seems that the change is going to take at least 8 issues to resolve itself. C&C appear to be trying to be Marvel’s new Bendis with his focus on slow-paced stories with small casts and intense characterisation; in books like Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil that format works, but in larger team based books it’s far less successful. And this is after all a team based book.
The second problem is what little storyline there was wasn’t terribly original and as a result half the impact of the book is lost. A large part of Emma’s character in this book revolves around her devotion to the students because she cannot lose anymore of them, but here she once more loses her students in a wholesale manner – the mass slaughter of the baseline students doesn’t add anything to Emma in the way that the deaths of the original Hellions did. Nor does it add to the darkness of the book; it just removed a bunch of characters for no reason. The funeral doesn’t quite have the total impact that it should since we watched them bury Northstar less than a year before. Likewise any reaction to Josh’s impotence is fleeting because we already saw it back in issue 13. The chaos of the flashback is lacking because it fails to compete with what we saw five months ago in issue 20. Worst of all, there was another cliff hanger ending; that’s now five for five if anyone else is counting. It’s not the responsibility of the final few pages to entice me back next month – that was the job of the 20 pages preceding them.
This issue was the first one penned by Paco Medina, the series’ new regular artist. Now there has been a great deal of concern over his taking over, but the pencils were, for the most part, delightful to read. The funeral scenes were haunting and expressive. Those set in the flashback kinetic and fast-paced. Each expression rendered masterfully in a believable, often heart-wrenching manner. Unfortunately he fails to deliver on the larger wide angle scenes. The art would have been the issue’s greatest strength, but for a few ill-picked choices with regards to artistic licence. Why is Gambit in costume at the funeral? Seems tacky, as does Sam wearing those red shades. Including Archangel in the funeral proceedings just ruined the ending to Generation M which only ships next week. The greatest problem with the art though, is the colouring in the flashback scenes. At first it seemed that the pallet of yellows, reds and oranges were being used to show that this was in fact a flashback, but that illusion was quickly dispelled when a green or purple joins the fray and then the panel decays into a gaudy orange mess.
This book was a conflicting mixture of all sorts of elements, a great deal like the art and the emotional content was superb, however the lack of originality and the colouring were dismal. It’s hard to call, but the good did in fact beat out the bad if only by a nose. While reading this book, I couldn’t help imaging a power mad executive (actually it was Mojo) roaming the halls of the Marvel offices shrieking “Yes! Do it exactly like last time; only bigger, louder and with more explosions!”. The new direction of the book seems to be too focused on senseless, sensational slaughter to give the series any chance at longevity. I cannot help worrying that Marvel is simply looking at the immediate future than at the larger picture. Guess I’ll have to wait to next month to see if I get some plot development or just the same old, same old with a sprinkling of dismembered limbs.
ART:
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STORY:
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OVERALL:
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