Young X-Men #11-12

"End of Days"
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Penciller: Rafa Sandoval
Inker: Roger Bonet
Colourist: Ulises Arreola
Art on future sequences: Daniel Acuna
Letterer: Dave Sharpe

Continuing the deathwatch theme, we have the final issue of Young X-Men, a book which tanked so spectacularly that it got axed within a year.

Marc Guggenheim is not a bad writer, but this book embodies one of the worst tendencies of superhero comics: the endless fiddling with concepts for no apparent reason other than a reluctance to let them go. Young X-Men is the successor to New X-Men, which itself was retooled drastically halfway through its run, and which in turn was the successor of a shortlived New Mutants book. Embarrassingly, New X-Men was actually on something of an upturn before they axed it to make way for this title, replacing half the cast, and driving the book into a ditch.

Through no fault of his own, Guggenheim has spent his first year introducing characters and setting up stories which will never see the light of day. We've had lengthy build-ups for Graymalkin, Ink, and Cipher, none of which went anywhere. The first six issues were devoted to an extended "gathering of the team" arc which was very badly received and, even in hindsight, still looks suspiciously like an exercise in killing time while the book was waiting for "Manifest Destiny." Once that was out of the way, the book actually improved significantly, but evidently too late to turn things round. And even once it had settled into a reasonably promising team book, it never overcame the feeling that they would have been better off sticking with the New X-Men cast - the likes of Mercury and Hellion had great potential, still relatively untapped.

This final story does at least try for some sort of resolution. Guggenheim completes his running subplot about Dust's terminal illness; and he wraps up Ink's story into the bargain. On the other hand, the story seems mainly designed to set up the idea that Dust becomes a villain at some point in the future. Which she won't - at least, not in this cancelled book. And perhaps that's for the best, as she seems to become off-the-peg crazy, rather than being an interesting bad guy. There's some blather about her soul becoming corrupted but, without any sort of symbolic overtones, it means little more than "she went evil."

Whatever the plan was, this feels like pure set-up, and doesn't belong in a final issue. And that's unfortunate, because the story has a parallel structure, cutting between the Young X-Men in the present day, and a bunch of survivors fighting Dust in the future. There's no direct plot connection; presumably the idea is to add a layer of dramatic irony to the team saving her in the present day. And since the Dust-as-villain stuff doesn't work, that bit falls flat - taking the future scenes with it.

Still, Ink gets some resolution, and subplots are dutifully resolved for the final issue, which is just about enough for the story to work. Kind of. Cancellation issues are always a compromise, and you can't really hold that against the creators. The book also offers guest art by the talented Daniel Acuna, working on the flash-forward scenes. It's a shame he's doing the half of the book that doesn't work, but there's definitely some flair to his pages.

The moral of this book, I suppose, is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Or, more accurately, recognise what you need to fix. New X-Men certainly had its problems: most obviously, it had become oppressively miserable, massively over-reliant on shock killings, and generally didn't give the characters a chance to function as teenagers. But it had a cast of strong, likeable characters - all they needed was a shift of emphasis and a lighter tone. It wouldn't have taken much to sort out the book's problems and bring out its strengths.

Instead, we got Young X-Men. And to be fair, this book did lighten up from its wrist-slitting predecessor. But it still didn't feel like the characters were teenagers, and the new roster was not an improvement. Throw in its widely panned six-issue opening arc, and it was dead in the water.

The book is being replaced by a relaunch of New Mutants, the original 1980s team. Frankly, this strikes me as the sort of thing you do when you've run out of ideas altogether. But it's written by Zeb Wells, whom I have a lot of time for, so hopefully he'll prove me wrong. As for Young X-Men - well, it just goes to show that the X-books won't support satellite titles so easily any more.

The X-Axis - 22 February 2009

It's one of those weeks where I don't really have time to do more than run through the capsules, I'm afraid. So we'll hold off for now on the final issues of NYX: No Way Home and New Exiles, and hopefully I'll get to them later in the week. Otherwise...

Birds of Prey #127 - The final issue of a once rather-good title that seems to have been getting by on sheer inertia for years - by which I mean, it already exists and despite a lack of particularly compelling ideas for new stories, nobody has hitherto felt sufficiently moved to actually cancel it. The final issue is a load of running about which kind of pays off a long-running storyline about supervillains in Silicon Valley, but also ends with a decidedly tacked-on "so let's break up" schtick. Not absolutely awful, but mediocre enough to make me grateful that the book has been put out of its misery.

The Great Unknown #1 - I suspect we might end up talking about this on next weekend's podcast, if only because this was such a quiet week for new book. This is a five-issue miniseries by Duncan Rouleau, whose work on books like Metal Men has tended to feature very interesting ideas told in an insanely convoluted way. The Great Unknown marks something of a departure, because while the central idea is still refreshingly oddball, the art and writing are both stripped back and much more straightforward. Zach is an obnoxious genius who has inexplicably failed to achieve anything in his life; the story is about him finding out exactly why that is. And no, it isn't because he needs to be a nicer person. The book takes the high-risk approach of having a massively unsympathetic lead character, but he does have an abrasive charisma. Pretty good, and I'm pleased to see Rouleau taking a more direct approach with his storytelling - it's usually for the best.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #60 - This is the final issue? This? Half the team run around fighting Atlanteans for the whole story, and then a caption saying that the story is continued in Ultimatum and Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem? Christ. With comics like this, it's no bloody wonder nobody gives a toss about the Ultimate imprint any more. Awful.

Uncanny X-Men #506 - In which ex-mutants start seeking refuge with the X-Men, Colossus rescues some women from slave traffickers, and the science team track down the guy who created Red Ronin back in those 1970s Godzilla comics. It's a pretty book, and Terry Dodson is doing some great work here, but there's still something missing. It's less than the sum of its parts. Perhaps the problem is that there's a bunch of Stuff going on, but I'm not getting the sense of a bigger picture or an overall direction. There are several plot threads in evidence, but nothing that seems to connect them. Now, sure, there are bits that look like they must be set-up for something, such as the ongoing theme of recruiting mad scientists from old comics. And I've no doubt that Fraction has a plan in mind - but it doesn't seem to be filtering through to give any particular structure to the stories I'm reading right now. I'm getting restless here...

X-Factor #40 - Once again, Peter David asks us nicely not to reveal the ending - not that I would have done anyway, since in this case it's the closing twist. Most of the issue involves a depressed Madrox going back to visit John Maddox, the stray duplicate who built a peaceful family for himself. As such, he now represents the embarrassing proof that the real Madrox didn't have to screw up his life quite so badly. Madrox has provided some of Peter David's best material over the last few years, as he's managed to take a mildly ludicrous gimmick superpower, and use it as an effective vehicle to tell stories about identity. This is no exception, with David and artist Valentine De Landro both at their best. Very good.

X-Men: Kingbreaker #3 - Sorry, but does this book serve any purpose at all, other than to get the Starjammers into position for War of Kings? I mean, is this story actually bloody about anything? Because it doesn't seem to be. It just seems to be some random action sequences designed to get the characters from A to B, and my interest is waning rapidly.

X-Men: Legacy #221 - It's one of those weeks when they deluge the market in X-books, in case you hadn't guessed. Of course, this is one of the better ones, at least for those with a decent knowledge of X-Men history. Professor X and Gambit are looking for Rogue, and they track her down in the X-Men's old Australian base - which is currently running a giant Danger Room simulation of stuff from Rogue's past. Great if you know all the references. But as so often with this book, I can't help but wonder what you're supposed to get out of this if, for example, you don't recognise re-enactments of scenes from the mid-1980s, or you've forgotten that Havok was briefly a brainwashed Genoshan guard for a handful of issues nineteen years ago. Legacy is very good at what it does, but what it does must surely be of niche appeal.

Young X-Men #11 - The penultimate issue, and apparently we're teasing the death of Dust. Actually, I strongly suspect they're not going to kill her - partly because the story has all the hallmarks of a feint, and partly because there's just no point killing off a perfectly decent character in the final issue of a third-tier X-book which bombed inside a year. The book isn't worth it. Anyway, the basic idea here is that Dust is dying and Donald Pierce claims he can help her out. It's an okay premise that doesn't quite come across. For this to work, we have to believe in Dust betraying the X-Men to try and save herself, and she just never seems desperate enough for that. Nice cover, though.