White: In many ways, it’s about giving the fans what they want. It’s called “Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe” and we absolutely deliver on the promise of that title. If you think that idea sounds interesting or intriguing at all, this series is made expressly for you.

Yes, yes. Obviously, it’s the fans who have been pushing for this and it is in no way a desperate attempt to put out a mini-series that might actually move more than 20K of the first issue.

I can’t even get too worked up about this. Not long ago, I would have had something to say about the idea that Marvel thinks what fans really want is to see morally bankrupt characters killing heroes, but most of Marvel’s lead characters barely qualify these days. And it answers the question of whether or not I’ll be picking up Cullen Bunn’s Marvel work (that answer being “no”).

Sorry this took so long, James.

Obviously, there were some things I didn’t like about this issue (Warbird’s hi-LARious sexual harassment schtick, the mystery-to-action ratio, Kyle’s color-changing jacket), but let’s focus on the positive.

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Cool, though I confess that I tend to instinctively flinch when writers - pro or fan - talk about “updating” JP, as it usually seems to equate to in some way to focusing on making his queerness hip and fashionable. I’d like to just seen him written in character as opposed to written as whatever the writer’s image of a modern cis, queer white dude is supposed to be.

It might have been worthwhile in it’s own right if TPTB at Marvel had been possessed of enough guts to actually out Iceman as bi (though, given that it would have meant enduring a queer romance from Austen’s misogynistic, stereotype-ridden pen, perhaps it can be counted as Northstar again being inadvertently rescued by Marvel’s homo-skittishness). Unfortunately, what we got on page was another case of the lovelorn queer pining for the oblivious straight guy/gal, something that had already been done with Northstar (and in a more entertaining fashion) by Byrne and Mantlo, and at least they were trying to do it in the 80’s, when even the hint of queer sexuality on the page could still be considered subversive. It looked even worse given that pretty much the same thing happened with Karma and Kitty at around that time, and that DeFillipis and Weir had to do Northstar’s memorial issue over in Academy X without being allowed to actually say that he, Karma, or Anole were gay.

I don’t fault the JP/Bobby ‘shippers for working to salvage the potential of the pairing, but for me, the whole thing was just a reminder that Marvel was (and, to a certain extent, still is) either gutless or exploitative wrt the portrayal of their queer characters.

Yeah. I definitely don’t think it’s as simple as “everything sucks” — for all my criticisms, I’m buying more books from Marvel now than I have since Ben Raab drove me off of Excalibur. (It’s just three, but still…) And one of them isn’t even an X-Book!

Both of the Big Two are putting out good product…but the problem is, they usually make you hunt for it. Meanwhile, the books they push to the front are the 17-part crossovers written by twelve dudes, illustrated by twenty dudes with inks by fifty dudes, that will inevitably have a main series, thirteen satellite series, and then go on to hijack the storylines of 9/10ths of the regular books as well. That kind of thing is just anathema to quality. It’s a recipe for, at best, an enormous pile of mediocrity with a few high points and at worst, it’s Ultimatum. It’s just not something to get excited about…well, not in positive terms, anyway.

The fact that none of this cynical, bullshit, pitiful excuse for storytelling will affect Astonishing X-Men in the least may get me back on the “preorder the HC” train.

Seriously that didn’t make any sense to me. He had so many resources. Honestly I think(know) his ego was the problem.

Seriously. I think if there had been one story about scarcity of resources, it could been fanwanked away as an unexpected hiccup in the system. You could even say the farming was less about anyone actually thinking they could feed 200+ mutants from what little tillable area there appeared to be on Utopia and more about keeping the kids out of trouble/fostering a sense of home and pride. But I count 6 stories out of a baker’s dozen that either mention shortages of supplies/rationing or where that’s actually the backbone of the whole story. At that point, you can only assume that either no one was reading the proposals very closely, or Cyke is meant to look like a chump.

So I got my cheap-o used copy of the Nation X trade in today, and the overall impression I’ve taken away about Utopia is that Cyclops was a fucking idiot. Every third story was about how Utopia was short on supplies — they even try subsidence farming on a rock surrounded by salt water.

I’m just…you have Madison Jeffries on your team, and you’re still depending on Iceman to act as a water purifier? You have several independently wealthy team members, a flying speedster, at least three long-range teleporters, and multiple telepaths with flexible ethics, and yet you still have trouble keeping people fed? Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of tactical genius, Slim?

Look, I get it…things are supposed to be hard for mutants at this point. But it’s hard to feel that bad for them when the hardship seems to originate in no one being smart enough to pipe up with the obvious solution.

Oh. no. No, no, no, no…

Lamb, you did NOT just claim Marjorie Liu is as bad as Chuck Austen. Come on, let’s not say things we can’t take back.

Even if one thinks that Liu’s mix-up of character names was a bigger fumble than Austen’s (and a strong case can be made for that), the reason there’s so much more bile directed at Austen’s “Angelo Torres” screw-up is the weight of the misogyny, stereotypes, egotistical bullshit, and just plain bad writing that he smeared across a half-dozen high-profile comics. Skin’s headstone was not just one mistake, it was another stratum of lumpy turd in the seven-layer dip of sewage that was Austen’s company-owned work. Liu is not getting off (relatively) easy because she’s a woman or because people love X-23, she’s less reviled because she simply hasn’t done anything to earn that level of scorn.

I mean, seriously. Here’s Austen in his infamous CBR interview, reacting to criticism with his usual maturity and tact:

Continuity and much of the market as it stands are for die-hard fans who have every issue of every comic indexed and categorized, and give me hell every single day of the week online because they have no life, and no one who loves them, or will touch them naked, and they have nothing better to do with their day once they’ve indexed last Wednesdays shipment. The more we cater to that inbred mindset, the less we will appeal to real readers, or casual fans who enjoy a good story with good characters. Those casual fans will eventually move on as they have been steadily for the last many years, leaving us with only the twelve trolls online, who will have nothing to complain about, because Marvel and DC will be gone.

The AXM wedding could be between Northstar and Wolverine and Liu still wouldn’t have rightfully earned as much ill-will as Austen did.

OK, so looking past the disappointment of sloppy proofreading/editorial failure, my overall impressions of AXM #48.

Art:

Not perfect, obviously. Perkins’ characters pull off some wonky faces here and there, Jean-Paul’s ears have a tendency to lose their points, and there is no button-down shirt made by man that shows off a six-pack like JP’s does during the fight. But overall, I do like this art. The style really stands out from the more traditional superhero art over with the Utopia teams and the brighter, (appropriately) frantic work in the the JG School books. Perkins’ art gives AXM a darker, slightly oppressive mood that’s just brushing it’s fingertips up against realism. It’s all still superheros, but there’s this sense of suspense, that the fights are really going to be wince-worthy, because that grounding touch in the art is a reminder that getting put through a wall probably hurts a bit and that things won’t necessarily turn out all right. On board with this.

Cast:

Yes, please. I’ve mentioned before that I always like the X-Men better when they’re a little more grounded, and this whole cast is made up of people who have a life beyond the X-Men: Wolverine and Gambit have a wiiiiide range of interests and contacts outside of the school, Northstar has his business and a non-superhero boyfriend (and usually has to be dragged back into spandex kicking and swearing), Karma has her family and spent time away getting her degree, Warbird is completely new to this superhero thing, and CeCe wouldn’t go back to the X-Men if you paid her. Even Bobby tried living as a CPA for a while. It’s an interesting set of perspectives.

Story:

This is largely a set-up issue, with the majority of the character moments spent on characters who could actually use the introduction — Northstar, Kyle, and Cecilia Reyes. Northstar and Kyle are looking for a fresh start away from Canada…though Kyle isn’t exactly pleased to learn that Jean-Paul’s idea of a “fresh start” included keeping his ties to Wolverine and, by extension, the JG school. Cecilia is also looking for a place to stay; unlike Northstar, however, she makes it absolutely clear that she has no interest in throwing in with the X-Men again.

I love JP and Kyle as a couple, and I’m glad to see them get a little downtime together. I don’t think Liu has JP’s voice down pat yet; aside from his calling Kyle “babe” — which, as seen in LDR, is what Kyle calls JP — he’s just too casual in his interactions with Wolverine and crew. Generally enjoyed them, though. I also liked Kyle being shown to have a brain in his head. With any luck, he’ll get the moments of badass normal that I was hoping for in Alpha Flight.

I also enjoyed how Gambit and Cecilia’s relationship seems to be rooted in friendship and not UST. There’s no overtone that he’s trying to get into her pants, just trying to be a decent guy. I don’t think I’ll ever like Gambit, but since the writer does like him and will probably not stop using him any time soon, it’s nice to know that I probably won’t hate him.

Admittedly, I do feel Wolverine comes across as a bit hypocritical; only a couple of months into running the new school, and he’s already keeping secrets from the rest of the staff. But hypocrisy isn’t exactly out of character for the Canucklehead, so not a deal-breaker.

I’m here for the character moments, but I will say, I think this installment could have used a little more action and a little less mystery. This is a case where the solicits actually provided more context for what was going on with the various villain factions than the issue itself, and I wasn’t best pleased with that.

All in all, not a bad read on its own merits, but one that could have been easily improved by the editors having been more alert. I’m in for this arc, but holding off on that HC pre-order.