Jason Grasso
Mar 9, 2008, 08:48 pm
<a href=" http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0308/CABL001_col.jpg" target="_blank"><img src=" http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0308/CABL001_colt.jpg" alt="Cable #1" hspace=10 align=left></a> Reviewer: Jason Grasso, Desperad07@aol.com
Story Title: War Baby, Chapter One
Two Guys with Huge Metal Arms...and a Baby
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Ariel Olivetti
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Assistant Editor: Will Panzo
Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
Bursting out of the Messiah Complex uber-crossover, comes the ultimate man out of time and a little tyke that might just save the world (but right now can't even go to the bathroom without help). Cable, seeking to protect the mutant baby messiah, of course heads into an apocalyptic future setting so that his artist has cooler stuff to draw. I guess 1950s Iowa wasn’t an option for peaceful seclusion?
It’s 2043 in New Jersey. Cable is in East Orange looking towards downtown New York. This isn’t very far from where I’m writing this review and I can assure you that it is impossible to look across the water towards New York City from East Orange, what with there being about 10 miles of land in-between there and the Hudson River. A “superstorm” is mentioned but had such a thing happened, you’d have to contend with hundreds of Newark skyscrapers jutting out of the water and the city wouldn’t appear that close.
I’m from Jersey, you didn’t expect me to let this go without commenting, did ya? (Still it's indicative of an overall inability to gage distances and proportions.)
Cable contends with some fairly dispensable soldiers before changing the baby’s diapers. They’ve traveled from Scotland for a few months to get here and Cable hasn’t slept since. It seems that New York is fairly impossible to get into so the two take a detour at a diner where a mysterious robotic arm awaits.
It’s Gauntlet from The Initiative!! No, actually it’s Bishop, with a metal arm that defies physiology, gravity, and pretty much all of reality. He’s somehow tracked Cable, perhaps via some new capability in his super-arm. Logic would dictate that if you or I disappeared into thin air in a universe we’re told has infinite alternate timelines, it would be pretty hard for someone to track us to the precise location we ended up. Not here though. It doesn’t help that Bishop has been force-fed such a massive quantum shift in characterization, one that was never properly explained nor logically carried out in Messiah Complex.
Olivetti’s art is interesting, likely a love-it or hate-it style. I had always admired it from afar when perusing recent Punisher War Journal issues. It’s unique enough to enjoy, but I’ll admit it sometimes gets too stylized. Here, I think his biggest faults are matters of proportion. The aforementioned bionic arm is so absurd, you expect Deadpool to rejoin his former comrade and start cracking jokes. But this is just one frame. The baby is a much bigger proportion issue. Olivetti shares the blame here with some of the Messiah Complex artists; still, he had every opportunity to correct it here. Cable has always been a man of disproportion. (Remember those huge guns he used to tote around?) But here the baby is barely larger than his chin! And is probably smaller than his sidearm. Not to mention, he’s carrying around the baby on his chest, center mass, literally inside of an X emblem, a target if I’ve ever seen one.
The story has promise. (Swierczynski's writing was almost entirely short narration so the jury's out on his writing.) Cable once played the part of “Chosen One” so it’s an interesting pairing. He’s essentially raising the next chosen one. But someone is going to have to flesh this whole Messiah storyline out more thoroughly, and soon. For now the mystery is enticing enough but it could quickly fall flat if the title isn’t given a purpose other than protecting a baby from Bishop.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg
‘Buy Cable online now from X-WORLD and save!’ ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=26360)
Story Title: War Baby, Chapter One
Two Guys with Huge Metal Arms...and a Baby
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Ariel Olivetti
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Assistant Editor: Will Panzo
Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
Bursting out of the Messiah Complex uber-crossover, comes the ultimate man out of time and a little tyke that might just save the world (but right now can't even go to the bathroom without help). Cable, seeking to protect the mutant baby messiah, of course heads into an apocalyptic future setting so that his artist has cooler stuff to draw. I guess 1950s Iowa wasn’t an option for peaceful seclusion?
It’s 2043 in New Jersey. Cable is in East Orange looking towards downtown New York. This isn’t very far from where I’m writing this review and I can assure you that it is impossible to look across the water towards New York City from East Orange, what with there being about 10 miles of land in-between there and the Hudson River. A “superstorm” is mentioned but had such a thing happened, you’d have to contend with hundreds of Newark skyscrapers jutting out of the water and the city wouldn’t appear that close.
I’m from Jersey, you didn’t expect me to let this go without commenting, did ya? (Still it's indicative of an overall inability to gage distances and proportions.)
Cable contends with some fairly dispensable soldiers before changing the baby’s diapers. They’ve traveled from Scotland for a few months to get here and Cable hasn’t slept since. It seems that New York is fairly impossible to get into so the two take a detour at a diner where a mysterious robotic arm awaits.
It’s Gauntlet from The Initiative!! No, actually it’s Bishop, with a metal arm that defies physiology, gravity, and pretty much all of reality. He’s somehow tracked Cable, perhaps via some new capability in his super-arm. Logic would dictate that if you or I disappeared into thin air in a universe we’re told has infinite alternate timelines, it would be pretty hard for someone to track us to the precise location we ended up. Not here though. It doesn’t help that Bishop has been force-fed such a massive quantum shift in characterization, one that was never properly explained nor logically carried out in Messiah Complex.
Olivetti’s art is interesting, likely a love-it or hate-it style. I had always admired it from afar when perusing recent Punisher War Journal issues. It’s unique enough to enjoy, but I’ll admit it sometimes gets too stylized. Here, I think his biggest faults are matters of proportion. The aforementioned bionic arm is so absurd, you expect Deadpool to rejoin his former comrade and start cracking jokes. But this is just one frame. The baby is a much bigger proportion issue. Olivetti shares the blame here with some of the Messiah Complex artists; still, he had every opportunity to correct it here. Cable has always been a man of disproportion. (Remember those huge guns he used to tote around?) But here the baby is barely larger than his chin! And is probably smaller than his sidearm. Not to mention, he’s carrying around the baby on his chest, center mass, literally inside of an X emblem, a target if I’ve ever seen one.
The story has promise. (Swierczynski's writing was almost entirely short narration so the jury's out on his writing.) Cable once played the part of “Chosen One” so it’s an interesting pairing. He’s essentially raising the next chosen one. But someone is going to have to flesh this whole Messiah storyline out more thoroughly, and soon. For now the mystery is enticing enough but it could quickly fall flat if the title isn’t given a purpose other than protecting a baby from Bishop.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg
‘Buy Cable online now from X-WORLD and save!’ ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=26360)