Astonishing X-Men #21 - "Unstoppable, Part 3" (Writer: Joss Whedon,
Artist: John Cassaday, Colors: Laura Martin)
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The X-Men continue to wander about the Breakworld, trying to stop the prophecy and destroy the weapon the Breakworlds have created to retaliate.
Something just wasn't really right with this issue. It suffers that that typical 'middle part' problem, where not a whole lot happens on its own, but people are moving into various places to get them set up for the next parts.
So, although there are a few cool moments, there's not a whole lot of sense of advancement. Also, the Breakworld doesn't really ring true, as an alien society. Warrior cultures are all pretty common SF tropes, but this one doesn't make me believe it's anything more than a plot device, especially when there's still no good answer to things like why they didn't just fire this 'retaliatior' _before_ the prophecied doom came to their planet.
It's still Whedon writing, so one can enjoy it on a number of levels despite the problems, but it's not one of the best.
Review: 3.25 stars
The young members of the initiative continue their training, but are
called into action when HYDRA attacks. Also, Trauma continues to have
trouble controlling his powers.
The issue starts out fair enough. Not great, but okay. It's when Hydra
attacks the President that things start to go bad. We have a big fight
between the Initiative and HYDRA. The problem is... the kids are called
into battle.
So, the Stamford explosion, which is blamed on a bunch of untrained
young superheroes (who nevertheless had a lot of experience) tackling a
problem they couldn't handle. In response, the government forces all
superheroes to register, and for young superheroes to be trained...
and then immediately ships out raw, untrained, teen recruits into
battle with heavy weapons and equipment they've never used before the
first time there's an emergency.
Add to that the almost comically forboding warning about how each trip
through the negative zone wears down the point between positive and
negative space ("Remember, once you drop off supervillains here, there's
no way they're _ever_ getting out. At least until the barriers between
dimensions rupture, which it inevitably will."), and you have to wonder
if the government is even thinking at all. They've got almost every
superhuman registered... can't they think of a better means of
teleportation?
One could argue a clear and present danger to the president might well
qualify them to make an exception to a rule on both of these cases,
but I have a strong suspicion this won't be a one time thing (and
the President allowing an army of superpowered soldiers be dispatched
to protect him instead of simply evacuating everybody so HYDRA
doesn't have a target is criminally stupid on a level... well, okay,
maybe it's not all that out of the question).
It's not just the government, either. I keep expecting _someone_ on
the massive list of heroes to raise a hand and say, "Uh, isn't this
all spectacularly stupid and sure to end in disaster?" There are ways
to credibly have a government run superhero program, but this isn't it.
Unless the whole series is being set up as a means to an eventual reset
of registration by providing the program with constant screwups and
looming public relations nightmares, I just can't see any logic to it.
This gives me grave doubts about the overall premise of the series. I'm
not ready to give up on it yet, but it's not a good sign.
Review: 3 stars
Ricochet is feeling guilty about keeping the rest of the group in
the dark about the superhero activities he, Spider-Woman, and Darkhawk
have been involved with, as well as some of his own personal demons.
He decides to don the costume again.
I don't have a lot to say about it. It was a fairly pleasant issue,
and some nice character work on Ricochet, someone I know very little
about. The support group gimmick works well in this issue, even if
I still can't see it necessarily working long term.
Review: 3.25 stars
The Punisher tries to stop the Runaways from stealing something from
the Kingpin, and Nico has doubts about her leadership abilities.
I don't think Whedon's quite captured the voice in this issue as
he did in the last, but it's only to a minor degree. More
significantly, there's some irritating problems, such as Karolina
seeming to require her bracelet. When she returned from space, they
made a big point about how she doesn't need it anymore, because she's
learned to control her powers. But here, that seems to be forgotten.
I can forgive Whedon's continuity lapses on X-Men, where there are
decades worth of stories to keep straight, but one would hope that
he'd manage to have remembered significant aspects from the 40-something
issues before him.
Still, it's an entertaining story so far, and there's at least much
more sense of progress here. Plus there's plenty of funny bits and a
few surprises. So I'm making this my Pick of the Week.
Review: 3.5 stars
Deathstroke's real plan is revealed as his Titans East fight the Titans,
past and present.
It's a continuation of a big fight issue, and really, there are too many
characters involved to really get a good look at any particular part of
the battle. About the only thing that bumps the issue up is the
revelation of Deathstroke's true motives, but even that's only worth a
little. Mostly, I just stopped caring very much, as the status quo is
nearly completely restored.
Next arc I decide whether I drop the book or keep reading under Beechen.
Review: 3 stars
Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, we're back down to 1 book. That's New X-Men #38.
See you next week...
Peter Dimitriadis
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Avengers: The Initiative #2 - "Hero Moment" (Writer: Dan Slott,
Artist: Stefano Caselli, Colorist: Daniele
Rudoni)
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Loners #2 (of 6) - "Reflex Actions" (Writer: C.B. Cebulski, Artist:
Karl Moline, Colorist: Christina Strain)
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Runaways #26 - "Dead-End Kids, Part 2" (Written by: Joss Whedon,
Penciled by: Michael Ryan, Inker: Rick Ketcham,
Colorist: Christina Strain)
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Teen Titans #46 - "Titans East, Part 4" (Story: Geoff Johns & Adam
Beechen, Script: Adam Beechen, Pencils: Al Barrionuevo,
Inks: Bit, Colors: Marta Martinez)
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