Unreachable Star Reviews January 6th, 2006 + Year In Review (SPOILERS)
This is our big 150th edition spectacular. What's spectacular
about it? I don't know. It's a big roundish number. We're also
a day late again. Anyway, we've got four books this time around,
including Exiles from last week. Also, there's the 2005 Year In
Review, with some of my favorites and not so favorites of the year,
as well as what I'm looking forward to in 2006, and a bit of a
farewell of my own to make.
This week, we have...
Exiles #74 - 3.25 Stars
Gotham Central #39 - 3.5 Stars
New Excalibur #3 - 3.25 Stars
X-Men: The End Book Three #1 (of 6) - 2.75 Stars
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Exiles #74 - "World Tour: New Universe, Conclusion" (Writer: Tony
Bedard, Penciler: Paul Pelletier, Inker: Rick Magyar)
With Mimic dead, the Exiles have to defeat Proteus somehow, so
they come up with two plans... one making use of some of the
local paranormals, and a back-up plan involving a deal with Mojo
in exchange for a mystery new recruit. Well, okay, it's not
that big a mystery, considering he's on the cover.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the gratuitous DP7 cameo
earlier in the arc wasn't quite so gratuitous after all... they
(or at least, one of them) does have a significant role in the
story. Given who they had at their disposal, the conflict made
a certain amount of sense, and was fun to read despite my
distaste for Proteus as a villain.
I can't help but feel that the issue (and, to a certain extent,
the new status quo of the Exiles) risks exposing the seams of
writerly intent. Clearly they wanted to add Longshot to the team.
But it seems unlikely that, with all the possible universes
Heather has access to, they can't find a better person to come up
against Proteus. How about three different Piotrs, or some mutant
we've never heard of that shoots metal, or hell, a _good_ Proteus
(there's gotta be one out there somewhere). I'm left with the
feeling that the only reason the cast is the way it is, is because
the writer wants it that way, rather than it making any sense.
Still, that's a minor problem, and the issue is a fair amount of
fun.
Review: 3.25 stars
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Gotham Central #39 - "Corrigan II: Part Two" (Writer: Greg Rucka,
Artists: Kano & Stefano Gaudiano)
Detective Crispus Allen is dead, and Montoya and many others in
the MCU think they know who did it... Corrigan. The only problem
is whether or not they'll be able to prove it.
It's one of those issues that's mainly focused on the emotional
impact on the death... as such, there's not a whole lot of actual
action, and only a little bit of investigation. Mostly we just
get to see how the death of one of their own affects the team.
It also ties back nicely to the very first issue (with another
death of the team, but one that didn't mean as much because we
hadn't come to know the people involved).
It does suffer a little from being the middle part (nothing really
gets resolved and we don't even really see how Corrigan may have
managed to escape the blame), but it's still solid work and my
Pick of the Week.
Review: 3.5 stars
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New Excalibur #3 - "Shadows on the Soul!" (By: Chris Claremont &
Michael Ryan)
While Marvel Girl and Kitty try to fend off a personality-warping
mental assault by an evil version of the Professor, Sage organizes
the rest of the mutants to help take him down. Under the theory
that Xavier might read the plan out of the minds of anyone who
knows it, they must all trust Sage to handle all the planning, and
merely follow her orders.
It's not perfect. I'm still not convinced of the idea that once
Xavier is able to dress up Kitty and Rachel in fetish-gear than
they'll be permanently changed, but until every bit of it's on
they're still themselves. We also really don't have any sense of
the direction of the title as a whole, despite being one full arc
into it. Finally, there's an absolutely shameless Harry Potter
reference in the issue. Bad Claremont, bad!
It does have a sense of fun going for it, and there are a number
of moments with Wisdom or with Juggernaut that made me smile,
so I'm not disappointed with it as a whole.
Review: 3.25 stars
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X-Men: The End, Book Three: Men & X-Men #1 (of 6) - "The Grand
Alliance" (By Chris Claremont & Sean Chen)
After the massive attacks on the X-Men, Xavier takes a diplomatic
mission to the Shi'ar to find out what's going on. Other forces
gather in various ways as part of an intricate plot.
The issue started out fairly well, with Xavier trying to hold up
the ideals he started with, and a really nice mental conversation
with Kitty, but unfortunately, as the issue went on, I realized
how little I continued to care about the space-subplots, especially
after the gap between this and the previous 'book'. I also didn't
particularly care for Jean and Logan having intergalactic mindsex.
I generally found myself flipping the pages waiting for the issue
to be over, and that's never a good sign.
Review: 2.75 stars
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Now, before we close off, it's time to do our 2005 YEAR IN REVIEW!
The Unreachable Star's 2005 Year In Review!
As it's the first week of the New Year, it's time to look both ahead
and forward, to reflect on what the last year has brought us, and what
the new year might hold. In my case, it's an excuse to talk about my
favorites of the year, and rant about my disappointments one last time.
So, without further ado...
Of 2005:
Favorite Comic Book: There are a lot of very good ongoing books
this year, but I think I have to go with Runaways. It's consistently
a lot of fun, and almost every single issue makes me laugh at least
once.
Favorite Core X-Book: Really it's all down to Astonishing X-Men, or,
if you consider it a core book, Ultimate X-Men. Unfortunately, much
of 2005's Astonishing was the disappointing Dangerous arc. So, even
though the claim of being a 'core X-book' is tenuous, I'm going to go
with Ultimate X-Men.
Favorite Satellite X-Book: The contenders here seem to be Cable &
Deadpool, Exiles, and New X-Men, all of which have been rather fun at
times. Despite the disappointing House of M tie in, I'll go with New
X-Men.
Favorite Comic Miniseries: X-Men: Phoenix Endsong is probably the
best of the bunch... even though the ending was shaky, the mini had a
lot of strong character moments and made me really wish Pak would
take on a regular X-Book. Madrox only shipped the last issue in 2005,
so I can't consider it a nominee, but is worthy of note anyway.
Favorite Comic TPB: I think this year my favorite TPB was the Rising
Stars: Fire and Ash TPB, finally completing the whole story.
Obviously it doesn't stand alone, and really I don't think it was as
good as the first two acts, but it's worth reading.
Favorite Comic Artist: Aside from the usual suspects like Bryan Hitch,
and John Cassaday, I think Adrian Alphona has to be considered for
his work on Runaways, and I've recently become impressed by Pia
Guerra on Y: The Last Man. It's a very close category, but I'll give
it to Jim Cheung on Young Avengers.
Favorite Female Comic Character: Last year's winner, Kitty Pryde from
Astonishing, is a strong contender here as well. There's also Gert
from Runaways, and Kate Bishop from Young Avengers. A couple of the
girls from New X-Men are enjoyable to read about, too. Still, I
think this year I'm going to give it to Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, in
large part because my speculation is she won't be around past the
first few months of 2006.
Favorite Male Comic Character: Yorick from Y: The Last Man deserves a
mention, although, because I'm reading it in trades, I haven't
actually read any of the stuff that's come out in 2005 yet. So I'm
going to disqualify him. With Runaways vol 2, Chase actually shoots
ahead... I never liked him much in the first volume of the title, but
this year he's regularly a source of laughs and cool moments.
Ultimate Spidey's always a strong nominee, although he's been a
little unlikeable this year. Hellion from New X-Men's also been
pretty cool this year (being unlikeable is part of his charm). But,
the category goes to Chase.
Favorite Comics Creator: I excluded Joss Whedon last year because he
was only scheduled for a 12 issue run. I said that if he comes back
for another year, he'd be eligible. He also supposedly co-wrote on
the Serenity miniseries. So, he's certainly eligible... and yet,
his output this year has been a little disappointing. Dangerous, as
mentioned, was a little weak, and Serenity lacked much of the spark
of the series. While there are a number of great creators out there,
my top choice still has to be Brian K. Vaughan, last year's winner.
Whedon might well have won if he'd been at his best.
Best New Comic: X-Factor only got started in the last month of 2005,
but it's already a strong contender. Young Avengers gets the nod, I
think, though. It's a bunch of new characters and it's tied to the
Avengers (a team I've never been too interested in), but it managed
to be fun right out of the gate.
Most Underrated Comic: Runaways again, hands down. Although this year's
Batgirl does deserve a mention and a look.
Most Overrated Comic: Can't think of any this year that I actually
read - I think I managed to drop most of the titles I considered
overrated.
Best Comic Arc: I think I have to give it to Ultimates... even though
it's not quite finished yet, all of what's published in 2005 seem to
be part of one big arc, and it's a good one. Ultimate X-Men gets
honorable mention for Magnetic North.
Worst Comic Arc: Peter Milligan's Golgotha arc.
Biggest Comic Surprise: I think it has to be the huge upswing in
quality after Andersen Gabrych took on Batgirl. It went from a
title I kind of enjoyed, to one of the ones I really looked forward
to. Technically he started in November of 2004, but the first two
issues were a crossover so it was hard to judge from those.
Biggest Comic Disappointment: House of M, and more particularly
Decimation. House of M had some good ideas but had huge holes in
the plot, and Decimation's been handled poorly and bodes poorly for
my interest in the franchise. Milligan taking over X-Men also has
to rank up there, because I was actually looking forward to it, and
now I almost wish Austen was back. Then there's the cancellation of
Batgirl. I think I have to go with House of M and Decimation, lumped
together as one, because I can't think about how they handled the
depowering and yet left the A-list characters mostly untouched,
without feeling an urge to yell CHEAP at the top of my lungs.
Favorite Theatrical Genre Release: Serenity. No question about it.
Far better than Revenge of the Sith.
Favorite SF Book(s): This is always a tough category, both because
I read a lot and don't remember when I read a given book, and because
I don't typically read many 'new' books. I think I've read 3 books
that were new (or at least, new in Paperback) in the last year.
Reflex, by Stephen Gould, Song of Susannah by Stephen King, and
Dies the Fire, by S.M. Stirling. None of the three have full reviews
yet, but I'll call Reflex my favorite, with Song of Susannah a close
second.
Favorite Genre DVD: Serenity again. Although we really should have
had a bit more in the way of bonus features, and a better cover.
And getting some of the cast in on the commentary track would have
been gold. I bet they're saving that for some two-disc collector's
edition down the line though.
Favorite Outgoing SF Series: I can't think of too many SF shows
that got the axe in 2005. The big, obvious, one is Star Trek:
Enterprise. And yet, I can't say I'm at all disappointed at that
one. It was time to give the franchise a rest, and Enterprise was
never anywhere near as good as the peak of the franchise (Deep Space
9, for the record). Still, because I can't recall any other
examples, I'll give this category to Star Trek as a whole - it's been
almost 20 years since we've not had a ST show on the air. Alias was
announced as cancelled this year, but doesn't actually end till next,
and it falls into the same category as 'it's time'.
Favorite Returning SF Series: This is another tough one, because
there's actual a fair bit out there nowadays. Battlestar Galactica,
4400, Dead Zone, the two Stargates, Lost... it's actually a pretty
good time to be a SF fan. Even though it's probably not my absolute
favorite of the returning shows (which would probably be a tie
between several) I'll give the category to Lost, because it's
managed to keep the tightrope of being good and being popular.
Favorite New SF Series: The new version of Doctor Who probably
qualifies as a 'new' series, since the last series version was in
the 80s. Other 'new' series I might consider are either already
cancelled (Threshold) or are really continuations of a miniseries
(4400), so I think Doctor Who is the only real choice. It has its
ups and downs, and is a bit cheesy at times, but it's still a lot
of fun and Eccleston made a great Doctor.
Favorite Male TV/Movie Character: Malcolm Reynolds, from Serenity.
The charismatic rogue who just keeps going despite losing everything,
and does what he thinks is right.
Favorite Female TV/Movie Character: Kaylee from Serenity I suppose.
I can't think of many standout female TV or movie characters aside
from Serenity (where sadly none of them got as much play as they
should have save River, who was a bit too crazy to be a favorite).
For 2006:
What I'm looking forward to:
In Comics: As a big fan of the New Universe from the 80s, I'm both
eagerly anticipating and dreading their celebration of the 20th
anniversary... they're due to do several 'Untold Tales of the New
Universe' one shots, and then, in August, do a reimagining of the
whole concept with Warren Ellis writing. It could be good. It
could be horrible. We'll see. Also, even though it started this
year, I'm hoping X-Factor will really hit its stride in 2006.
Finally, there's Runaways... the New Pride storyline is coming up,
so I really hope it'll wow me.
In Books: Now that the last Dark Tower book is out in TPB form,
I really can't think of anything on the horizon that I'm really
anticipating. With books, it's almost more about the joy of a
random discovery rather than anticipations. Although I guess I am
looking forward to _reading_ the last Dark Tower book (which is
still on my To-Read pile), so I'll go with that.
In Movies: There is the Ultimate Avengers direct-to-DVD movie,
which is supposed to follow the first few issues of the Ultimates
fairly closely. V for Vendetta also has the potential to be very
good - there's good source material, and, although I've heard some
troubling things about changes made for the movie, none of what
I've heard is enough to make me worry about it as a whole.
In TV: There are no upcoming new shows on the horizon that have
caught my eye yet, so I have to stick with existing ones... so I'll
go with Stargate SG-1's upcoming 10th season. I still like what
they're doing, and the cast addition should keep things fun.
What I'm dreading:
In Comics: Decimation has really reduced my interest in the core
X-Books. Likewise, DC's One Year Later event is poised to reduce
my DC list to two.
In Books: Nothing really.
In Movies: The third X-Men movie. Sure the trailer looks all right,
but it also matches up too much with some of the bad early reports,
and they've made too many questionable decisions. I really hope this
isn't the one to end the franchise.
In TV: Probably May, where I always have to face the fear that one
of the shows I've grown attached to isn't coming back.
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Well, that's it for my picks, and that's it for this week folks.
Next week, according to the shipping list, we have a big week with
six books, and back on our regular Wednesday time-slot. There's
Ultimate X-Men #66, New X-Men #22, X-Men: The 198 #1, Cable &
Deadpool #24, Exiles #75, and Ultimate Extinction #1.
Unfortunately, it looks like next week it won't be posted to Usenet.
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, my main ISP stopped offering Usenet
access (damn you Rogers), and on the 10th I'm losing access to the
university ISP that I'm using to post this one. I can't really afford
to pay extra every month for a NNTP server (nor do I have a credit
card, for that matter), and none of the free ones I've tried have
panned out (I can read, but not post). If someone does know of one,
please let me know (at ghost@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, as I'm losing this
e-mail address too), and I'll keep trying on my own to find one, but
for now I'll have to treat it like my last week here.
I was never the most active poster and probably not that memorable
to most, but I did really enjoy my time here and some of the
discussions I've had with many of you. I'll be lurking and
reading and, maybe, once in a while, I'll post to a discussion
through google groups, but I'm not going through that hassle every
week to post these reviews. They will continue to be posted every
Wednesday (assuming comics ship Wednesdays) on my website,
http://www.unreachablestar.net .
See you, well, until, next week, and after that, whenever...
Peter Dimitriadis
http://www.unreachablestar.net
The Unreachable Star - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinion
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