New Comic Book Day: July 26, 2017

[callirhoe]

This post is for discussion and reviews of new comics for the week of July 26! Feel free to start threads for anything you've just read, want to read, or are curious about.

Here there be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Comments

X-Men: Blue #8

[callirhoe]

(The Story So Far: We are Secret Empire now and will be for at least one more issue, so buckle up. The young X-Men + bearded sniktbub Jimmy Hudson have been revolutionarily freeing political prisoners from psychic re-education camps in New Tian, but then they were attacked by an extremely weird strike force and taken prisoner! The recap page says that Jean and Jimmy are "presumed dead" which 1) I did not catch at all in the last issue and 2) surejan.gif.)

Secret Empire tie-in #2. Like last issue, this one had some stuff that leaves me scratching my head, which I assume people following the main title might at least have better ideas about. To wit: Why does Magneto have a red skull in a box? Emma is always Emma but why is she SO EVIL? Ditto for Havok (this is like the second or third time in this arc he's told the young X-Men that he is ready and willing to murder them for resisting Hydra, and I don't like it D:).

I still don't really care about Briar Raleigh, and because I'm familiar with Alex's track record with redheaded women, their whole scene had a foreboding "ugh" vibe hanging over it. And Emma's yandere mustache-twirling evilness toward Scott is so ridiculously over-the-top that it kind of stops making any sense. So much noooope in the shipping department over here! But on the positive side of things, I appreciate that Bunn didn't turn the "Jean and Jimmy are alone together in the woods together" scene into a shipportunity. I am so worried Jimmy joining the team is destined to go that direction because of that tired Jean/Scott/Logan triangle trope, and I'm just glad it hasn't yet.

I am completely okay with the Blackbird turning out to be Danger disguised as a Transformer! The scene with the classic X-Men leaping down from the sky to do battle against the Hellfire goons was great, I enjoyed that art and the wtf reactions from Jean and Jimmy as well as the goons.

I also really appreciated that the "secondary mutations" stuff from the last issue came up again and Hank is thinking about what that means. I think we'll get some kind of explanation -- Wolfsbane's new duplication ability and Toad's fiery tongue, etc., are just too out there to be explained by random secondary mutation.

Finally, that last panel! LORNA. THANK YOU. I am sometimes a Lorna fangirl because she can be so interesting in certain situations, and her busting down a wall in the grand old X-Factor tradition to confront Alex about being such an evil dick was top-notch. So now we have Magneto's team of young X-Men, plus Magneto's girlfriend/whatever she is, plus Magneto's daughter, all being rebellious in New Tian... and Magneto sitting pretty in his mansion with his robot butler being all "I promised not to interfere with Hydra or New Tian..." lol, why the heck does anybody ever trust Magneto to keep a promise??

Only one more SE issue and then back to whatever we were talking about before this stupid event! I am so ready.

Iceman #3

[callirhoe]

(The Story So Far: Not a SE tie-in! Excelsior! After preventing a Purifier from attacking a young mutant at the hospital while visiting his father who's just had like his fifteenth heart attack [seriously, Bobby's dad has about two defining character traits: being a bigot and having heart attacks at inopportune times], Bobby is working on telling the important people in his life that he's gay. Also dealing with being hated and feared, etc, you know the drill.)

I was not a big fan of this issue. Just putting that out there. A lot of that is due to the horrendous art. I'm not convinced that the artist (Alessandro Vitti, sorry dude!) has actually seen an older person and knows how wrinkles work? Bobby's mom and dad look like their faces are melting off in almost every panel. It's horrific. (There is something to be said about illustrating the two of them to look monstrous, because they really are despite Bobby's love for them... I don't know, though, it's really offputting to me.)

The writing had its problems, too. For one thing, Bobby coming out to his friends via text on the first page? It is strange and uncomfortable, and I don't particularly buy that any of the characters would react like that (except for Boom Boom. A trolly "new phone who dis?" is very Tabby <3). Jean-Paul is particularly cringe-worthy, not least because I really, really would like to see these two characters have this convo in person. You owe us that, Sina Grace! Also, JP is old and married and incredibly snobby and I feel very strongly that even in texting he should not sound like Jubilee. :(

Anyway, the actual action of the comic was so-so. I liked Bobby's initial interactions with his terrible parents, whose approval he craves despite all previous experience telling him he's never going to get it. His mom telling him he should get a real job with benefits and a 401K was good. :) Of course he didn't manage to come out to them, yet again, before the Purifiers attacked in retribution for the hospital event from the first issue. The really interesting thing is that everything the head Purifier guy says as his gang threaten Bobby and his parents is basically the same sentiments as Bobby's parents have espoused against mutants in the past few issues. Their bigotry is the same; only the way they express it is different. Makes me think that it's not going to go so well when he finally does manage to come out to them.

The way Bobby's dad stands up against the Purifiers is really, really weird, especially the Bible stuff, because... what? Now suddenly he thinks mutants are a persecuted minority who have every right to exist and need defending? Because he was definitely singing a different tune earlier in the evening when he was mocking and berating his son for his life experiences as a mutant. His mom was no better despite being positioned as the slightly more empathetic party here, and her weird flip-flopping between condemnation and support made little sense.

Next issue Bobby meets and fights Daken? What?? Gorgeous cover, though. Sadly, these Kevin Wada covers are just SO GOOD, it makes the art inside even more disappointing by comparison. :(

Re: Iceman #3

[dhampyresa]

Not a SE tie-in! Excelsior!

I didn't know they still made those!