Messiah CompleX pt. 4: New X-Men #44

NEW X-MEN #44

Writers: Chris Yost, Craig Kyle

Artist: Humberto Ramos

Marvel Comics


Messiah CompleX chapter 4


Another week in, and we're still in massive crossover-fanboy mode here at LYSAD central!

This is chapter 4 of Messiah Complex, and.. it smells like Teen Spirit!

(cue in soundtrack of the week:)



The issue opens with everyno-one's favourite Weapon-X-lite reject Predator-X (still hate that name, right up there with X-Cutioner and Soldier-X) having breakfast. These interlude pages in each chapter are about as not-wasteful as those appendices in the back of every Marvel issue this month. There's no suspense there to build up, mr Editors, could we please just write that thing out of the future chapter? Is there still time? -sigh-

Back at the mansion, the New X-Men (addendum: the surviving mutie teen angst action force) school body presidents (a team of 10 has 3 leaders. Go figure) catch wind of the Purifiers' (addendum: the late Reverend Stryker's Gun-Happy Sunday Sermon group) involvement in the Great American Mutie Baby Race; still stinging from the Purifiers' culling of the school body last year, Surge (addendum: the surely-menstruating Alpha Female leader, with a recent hobby of throwing herself at anything under 18yo with two legs and something hanging between) lobbies for yet another not-even-remotely well-thought-through suicide mission against Cyclops' better judgment (see Chapter 3); because that went on so well last time they disobeyed orders (addendum: no, it didn't really).

Professor-X (addendum: original Headmaster of the X-school, with an easy tendency to turn villain or simply ass, with a recently achieved level 20 self-awareness of his non-relevance) is stalking the grounds of his empty mansion, sneaking up on kids from the shadows (addendum: he does that a lot lately), providing lame after lamer attempt to feel useful and non-antiquated.

Email

To: Professor-X
Re: Hint!
Body:
Chuck,

Stop pushing it, dude, it's not happening.

p.s. never forget the 80s

But I digress. Diving back into the plot:

With Xavier firmly and thoroughly Pwned (gee, there's a pattern forming there, Prof), the students move the matter to a vote and a strikeforce is formed, with the out-of-left-field addition of Armour in the mix.

Meanwhile over in Antarctica, Mr Sinister (addendum: Albino Goth Prince take on Dr Mengele) is being all plotty and -well- sinister (duh) while the X-Men (addendum: oh, forget it, I'm sure you've heard of them by now) are making a pre-emptive strike to recover the mutant baby, setting up next chapter's month 1 showdown in Carey's book. The X-Men's strikeforce roster has been trimmed down to the tres-nostalgic roster of the post-Phoenix Saga 80s: Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Angel (with Scott and Emma lurking in the mansion). It's been so long (addendum: the ending of Alan Davis' run, in 2000) since we had the big leagues all together in the same team, as marketing forced the big money makers to be spread around for better profit distribution. Actually seeing the three friends and their 'little sister' on the page together again brought me shivers. Good ol' times.

In another running subplot from last chapter, Madrox-2 and Layla Miller have arrived in one of the divergent futures and make their way around trying to discover what's happened to the remaining mutants. Couldn't really have been a real X-over without a tiny bit of time-travel and parallel realities, eh?

The issue wraps up with the New X-Men infiltrating the Purifiers' Church, and basically kicking ass, taking names and saying 'freaking' a lot, to stay hip and stuff. The action sequence works well, with a few nice touches, like Anole's infiltration, and some cringeworthy goofs, like X-23 smelling the enemies' telepathy implants. Reaaaally now, let's get it together, people.

Anole learns from the undercover Rictor that the Purifiers don't have the kid, but they do have a new ally, yet another blast from the past and one of the x-men's most important adversaries: Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers (addendum: Wolverine's psychotic and rather grabby ex, with her team of robo-junkies). Hey don't shout, it's not a spoiler if you had actually read last chapter's cover previews in the back. All we're really missing now is the Hellfire Club, Stryfe's MLF and Apocalypse's Four Horsemen to really get things boiling! Of course, such a highly-anticipated (addendum: sic) return, couldn't have happened without a little gratuitous shock-value death for the cliffhanger! I won't spoil the death in the end, but it's a bigun'.

Last year's bloodshed has been a constant ghost looming over the kids' heads, and everything comes to a boil in this issue as Surge bursts at Professor X, and then leads her team against the Purifiers to exact sweet sweet revenge. The writers finally prove here that all the death and devastation wasn't merely shock value; it served a purpose of maturing, hardening the kids and bringing them to this current characterization. Since we're spreading kudos, an extra helping to Kyle&Yost, as well as the rest of the x-writers summit for managing to integrate all the ongoing plots from every x-title into this crossover, and giving the overall feel of a very well planned and orchestrated event. After all, once the dust is settled this is it for this book, so everything needs to be resolved in the best fashion before final curtain.

While we were drafting this year's Nexus Awards for Best Death (coming soon!), we suddenly came to the realization that after last year's horrific 45-50 death count in New X-Men, not a single student had died for the whole of 2007! I guess Kyle&Yost were biding their time, lulling everyone in a false sense of security before this issue's shocking finale. I just hope this doesn't turn into another 'New X-Men cannon fodder' ploy by the end of the crossover.

After Skottie Young's celebrated short run as artist, he passes on the final honours to Humberto Ramos. It's fun to see the book rise in status to attract such big names (or is it just the crossover appeal? either way), since its really humble beginnings with Keron Grant and Randy Green. As high-profile as Ramos is these days, the result in the art isn't really satisfying; some sequences tragically suffer from his lazy storytelling approach, especially in the following sequence:

The X-Men are waiting for Nightcrawler to report in, literally frozen in palce for three static, boring, stale panels. Was it so hard to swap camera angles around a bit, play with perspective, do a few close-ups, anything? The designs of the X-Men and their villains still look snappy, but unfortunately this is not a pin-up book, and the fight scene is again mainly limited to a single splash page (a bad habit from Ramos' X-Men run as well).

Messiah Complex is proof positive that great engaging crossovers are still possible following the classic multi-title model, with appropriate forethought and editorial prowess. The writers are working flawlessly together to bring to the readers this feeling of a great strategy board, with multiple players and fronts, each chapter focusing on one specific team's activities while catching the rest of the action in the peripheral vision. An instant classic in the making!

Grade: 7.5/10
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Thor opens a can of bad-ass

Thor versus Iron-Man.

because JMS can actually write a great story if he puts his mind to it, after all.

and if you thought that was Tony Stark at his most pathetic and powerless...

Thor. Bad-ass. GOD.

Who would have expected it? Worth the long wait, and the clone garbage, after all.

(source: Thor v.2 #3)
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Fcuekd Up Exnirpemet

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it
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We Miss You, Jean Grey

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The Right Brain vs Left Brain test

Introducing Betty the Ballarina. She's a famous old girl:


The question: Do you see Betty turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain, the creative side.
If counter-clockwise, then you use the left side of the brain, the logical side.

Most would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though some people can focus and change the direction with practice. For the first 10 minutes I could only see her turning clockwise, and thought it impossible how she could be going any other direction. Guess I'm more an artist than a scientist after all. After slowing the animation down, I could manage to switch between rotations after a few tries. This is an actual test, I've checked the gif frame-by-frame there's no trick to it.

Source

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BICS Report part 5: Sketches

Sketches Gallery

Part 5 of our BICS coverage

a look inside my convention sketchbook. I try to get 4-5 new sketches in every convention, some from my big favourites who indulge me at every meeting (like d'Israeli, Bucky and Duncan Fegredo), and others from the special convention guests, if I can stomach the hour queues.

This year, I didn't bother asking for a Mignola sketch, as much as I love the guy, as the queues were massive and I felt bad for the guy who had to make the same Hellboy sketch 200 times that day.

I did queue up for Kevin Nowlan, only to reach my turn and be told that he won't be sketching any more until after lunch. When I returned later, I was asked to wait in queue all over again, which i really didn't have the energy for. Next time, mr Nowlan!

D'Israeli:
Matt is probably the first artist I see in every convention, as he always has a big surprise sketch in his mind for me. I just ask for 'something Greek' and he impresses me every single time!

This year it was a sketch of Achilles, along with the official Achilles theme song (you can sing it to the theme of 'Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever...'


and as a bonus, the sketch he did for the previous guy in line: Monster vs Bunny


Dougie Braithwaite:
it took me two days to decide what to ask for, and Dougie was a gent, spending a lot of time to get the face details just right and then coloured it in graytone as a bonus! Meet Poison Ivy:


Random Zombie Sketch:
I feel so bad that I didn't get the artist's name, but he was making the greatest looking Zombie Sketches in the hall. The red ink was an especially nice touch! I did get a photo of their table though, and bought a fab 'break in case of Zombies' axe t-shirt


and finally, mr Eisner Award himself, Mark Buckingham!
I asked for one of Snowhite's 7 cubs from Fables, and he threw in an extra one for kicks! Ambrose and Ghost:


BICS Coverage Archive:

Part 1: the Convention & Arrival
Part 2: Comic Artists Flip Out
Part 3: Photo Parade: Creators
Part 4: Photo Parade - Indies
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Bob, Agent of Hydra

In honour of last week's panel winner, the complete scanned page from the issue:


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BICS Report part 4: Photo Parade - Indies

Photo Round-Up: Indies

Part 4 of our BICS coverage


Emma Vieceli (Manga Shakespeare) and Sweatdrop studios



Geof Banyard and Fetishman, the most disturbing cockytail of cute and kinky


Philip English and Genki Gear T-shirts, available also in their online store


Village People circa 2007, on skates, from Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames


Studio Blink Twice (duh)


Mark Ellerby (Love The Way You Love), scary beard-lover girl and Adam


The Cool Kids table, home of Zombies and the Ninja Bunny


ZipGun Comics


Orang Utan Comics


Selina Lock, and the Girly Comic



Seven Sentinels from Engine Comics


BICS Coverage Archive:

Part 1: the Convention & Arrival
Part 2: Comic Artists Flip Out
Part 3: Photo Parade: Creators
Read more!

Vote for Panel of the Week 14.1107

What a race! Last week's voting had led to a TIE, between Ultimate Spider-man and the early favourite Bob, Agent of Hydra, until Bob narrowly cut the ribbon at the time of this writing. Each panel had about 32% of the votes.

It's catch-up time this week, running panels from two weeks to get back into the proper timetable. That means it's a record 6 panels running for the best spot this week:

CoolWebPoll

Panel A
Marilyn Monroe's got nothing on our Queen (ASTONISHING X-MEN #23)


Panel B

Low Blow (ASTONISHING X-MEN #23)


Panel C

Aaron Stack, Ms Machine Man (Ms Marvel #21)


Panel D

PWNED (Uncanny X-Men #492)


Panel E

Bizarro Dark Knight Returns (DC Infinite Halloween Special)


Panel F

M.O.D.O.K. = (Pinky + Brain) (Super-Villain Team-Up: M.O.D.O.K.'s 11 #5)
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BICS Report part 3: Photo Parade - Creators

Photo Round-Up: Creators

Part 3 of our BICS coverage

Kieron Gillen (Phonogram) and Jamie McKelvie (Phonogram, Suburban Glamour),
winners of the charades award

Dave Kendall (Bad Planet) drawing on the ImagineFX booth,
winner of the second tallest -after me- award

Rich Johnston (Lying in the Gutters)
dedicating the newest -colour- edition of the Flying Friar


Guest-of-Honour Kevin Nowlan
sketching for his fans, and mrs Nowlan


Mike Carey... and Mike Carey on the limited edition cover of his first novel The Devil You Know,
winner of the fan-friendly award for his hours talking and drinking it up with our great unwashed lot


Alan Davis and Mark Farmer,
a penciller and inker team even in the sketch sessions


Adi Granov (Iron Man),
winner of the biggest sketch queue award (take that, Mignola!)


Staz Johnston (Underworld),
winner of the Best Hair award


Ilya (far right) and his army of writers and artists from the Mammoth Book of New Manga, vol. 2,
winners of the 300-UK award


Dean Ormston (Testament, Lucifer, Books of Magick),
winner of the bottomless pint award


Essad Ribic (Loki, Silver Surfer) ,
winner of biggest and sexiest artist award (phwoar)



Mark Buckingham (Fables) and Irma Buckingham,
winners of the friendliest bunch award


Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Green Lantern Corps),
winner of the Friends of Budgie award

BICS Coverage Archive:

Part 1: the Convention & Arrival
Part 2: Comic Artists Flip Out
Read more!