File #13: Not so Uncanny, 500

Story: Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction
Art: Greg Land & Terry Dodson
Inkers: Jay Leisten and Rachel Dodson

A 500th issue in the world of comics is a big deal and should be treated like such.

From trying to gain its fanbase while trying out new concepts and ideas, while staying true to its core story (and make money while doing so), making it past the 500 mark in comics, while not a uncommon feat, is a major accomplishment.

The X-Men franchise, specifically Uncanny X-Men, or X-Men Vol. 1 is the last of Marvel's heavy hitters to hit the 500 mark. With over 4 different variant covers & two well respected writers, does Uncanny 500 establish itself as a well done and memorable issue to 45 years of history?

Yes and No. Okay, definitely no.

The story, which focuses on the reappearance of two classic foes from the X-Men's past felt somewhat lame compared to the underlying B-plot, which is the city of San Fransisco giving mutantkind sanctuary status. The first, a trio of Sentinels, set up Chekov's Gun style as an instalation in an art project generates expected hostility from the X-Men. The other cameo which I wont spoil will either depending on the reader, will either bring out your inner fanboy shriek of glee, or make you bang your head against the wall when you think how out of character this is, if you've been keeping up with current continuity.

The major weakness for this issue is the art. I am not a fan of Greg Land by any means. While he is a talented artist in his own right, his art suffers from the worst character design this side of Hisashi Hirai (think "same face different hair", even on Storm). His inspirations, mostly from images on Google, skew from his preference to have his women look as if they're performing porn. There are also some glaring gaffes in continuity in continutity from hair design to proportions. Dodson on the other hand, is much better, however the incosistency of placing his art beteween Greg Land's is jarring and at times grating. Lastly, in a minor nitpick, the X-Teams seem to be making a return to the "FABULOUS" costumes which dominated the 90's. I was hoping the "Big Red 'X's everywhere and all over" phase would've been gone forever, but thanks to bad editorial decisions, it looks like in short time, everyone's gonna be wearing hideous blue and yellow tights with 15 pockets. Ugh.

Overall, for a landmark issue, Uncanny 500 does everything mentioned in the first paragraph. Is it a memorable issue? No. Is it a well done issue? Hell no. But It will please the hardcore fanboys while seting up a status quo for future events. How well will those ideas will develop and play out in the long run remains yet to be seen.

Hopefully, Fraction and Brubaker can work the kinks out. But for the time being, I'll be happy with a single artist.

Even if it's Greg Land. Ugh.

3 Out of 5 Stars

File #9: Return Of The Invincible

While I'm not a hard core fan of the character (I haven't seen the movie yet), I loved a lot of the Iron Man books from the 70's and 80's. The whole "Rich Idiot With No Day Job who fights crime with Money (Ironically, Tony Stark is a major subversion of it)" trope combined with the over the top light drama and those "Blasted Boot Jets" dialog always made it a fun read...

Which really disappointed me when I got back into comics a year ago, to see Tony Stark charactered derailed into a political soapboxing douchebag that shepherded Marvel's Civil War crossover into a new low of the Dork Age of Comics.

However, Invincible Iron Man, which deals with the more Repulsor Rays aspect of Tony Stark, is one of the better comic debuts of the summer.

"The Five Nightmares", penned by Matt Fraction and drawn by Salvador Larroca, opens with suicide bombers using Iron Man technology to lay down massive damage. The man supplying the terrorists happens to Ezikiel Stane, son of Obediah Stane (not the movie Version), the famed Magnificent Bastard who damn near destroyed Tony in every way possible in the 1980's.

Issue three, which is out now, finds Tony using a "familliar method" to save "his girl Friday", Pepper Potts. Plus theres a new retread on the Tony's origin story.

Fraction's writing is in good form here. He keeps the story on pace while maintaing the drama. Larroca's photorealistic art is very tight and he handles action scenes with a slick, cinemeatic flair.

Overall, a tight start to what will hopefully be a decent series.

4 out of 5 stars.