Comics Ramble Extra: Star Wars #1

Marvel's first issue of Star Wars, the first Star Wars comic published under Disney as part of the new expanded canon. I'm not sure if this series is strictly “canon” as Disney are concerned though I believe the new novels are. Whatever, with the old expanded universe gone there's a lot of blank space to fill. I'm not going to use this issue to read tea leaves about what the new films will be like but I'd like to think there's some evidence here for how Disney views the licence.

Jason Aaron's script quickly establishes the characters we all know doing the things we know they're meant to do: Han's the charming rogue who bluffs like a trooper; Luke gets his big hero moment and a lightsaber quick draw; C-3PO fusses in the background; R2-D2 pulls another cute trick out of the bag; and Leia, soon to star in her own series, is as quietly badass as she's ever been.

The plot itself is actually rather secondary to each character getting their set piece. I wasn't expecting otherwise and I'm not inclined to complain. When an old and venerable property finds itself under new management there's a natural desire by the new owners to prove they understand what they've got their hands on and the set pieces in this issue ably do it. Of all of them its Leia who gets the best showing: standing in the background for several scenes whilst Han fronts the operation before unmasking, beating some Stormtroopers unconscious with the helmet of her disguise and then ordering Chewie on a suicide mission without a second thought.

Have I mentioned how much I love this character recently? Honestly, if there's one disappointment in this issue its the preview of the Princess Leia comic which is two pages of unlettered Dodsons art adapting the medal scene from the end of A New Hope in lieu of telling us anything about the series' story. It looks gorgeous but the Darth Vader preview gives us the erstwhile Ani marching imperiously into Jabba's Palace (also unlettered), much better.

And the book has a hell of an art team in John Cassaday and Laura Martin, veterans of Warren Ellis' Planetary and Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. Cassaday's likenesses are bang on without sacrificing the aesthetic of his style whilst Martin remains the absolute master of atmospheric lighting effects. Between then the three new Star Wars series are being drawn by David Cassaday, Salvador Larocca and the Dodsons, which at least in my book is the sort of A-list line-up the property deserves.

If there is a problem with the series it hasn't manifested yet but this issue and the previews seem to foreshadow it: until the next film comes out the comics are playing with a greatly depleted toy chest. This issue and the Vader preview re-use the trappings of Jabba's Palace, in at least one case in a way that doesn't quite convince. Its something to look out for.

Now I just have to wait a month to find out what kind of havoc Han Solo can wreak in an Imperial AT-AT (that's the “Dog Walker”, right? Never can remember). 

The Comics Ramble finds itself in reduced circumstances

The postal service did what it does and failed to get my comics to me so let's discuss a week old digital comic I haven't bothered to get the second issue of yet: Wonder Woman '77 #1.

Now, I've never watched the iconic Linda Carter Wonder Woman series but I think I might if this is any indication of what it was like. The issue opens with Wonder Woman rescuing a Russian defector from USSR agents trying to kidnap him and drag him to the gulag.

The agents are a trio of young blonde women on rollerskates, wearing red t-shirts and short shorts with CCCP written across the back of them, armed with (you'll never guess) hammers and sickles. The Russian defector is, of course, a nuclear physicist. Its a fantastic little fight scene that sets the overall tone of the issue: camp like the '66 Batman series but played just a little straighter and more dignified. Of course, not having watched the series this could just be Marc Andreyko's interpretation and I'm fine with that because I've missed Andreyko since Manhunter ended.

Of course, this being based on '70s spy-fi, this isn't an isolated incident and Wonder Woman (as Agent Diana Prince) is sure other defecting Russian nuclear physicists will be targeted. Naturally, all but one are under government protection and so they go after the one refusing bodyguards. Turns out he's going to be at New York's hottest disco club Studio 52 (cute) so Diana and Steve Trevor go undercover and in the process dress themselves in the terrible fashions of the time. Seriously, no one would willingly draw Steve, especially this Steve, in a wide open shirt for any reason other than verisimilitude.

Speaking of Steve, its not just his fashion sense that ties the series resolutely to the '70s. He's a typical leading man of the era: a little bit sexist and a little bit sexy at the same time. A James Bond type on a lower budget and I look forward to his first kidnapping.

Reading this issue it struck me how poorly mined '70s nostalgia is in comics. DC tends to go to the made shit of the '50s, the camp of the '60s and, very oddly, the much-missed pre-Flashpoint universe of early 2011 for nostalgia projects. Marvel, meanwhile, mine almost exclusively from their '60s origins except when trying to rehabilitate something from the Dark Age of the '90s. The seventies remain largely untouched.

That tangent aside, I really should get the next issue of this series because it was really fun, that quality oft-neglected by DC's printed work, certainly more so than the Finches' run on Wonder Woman itself. 

Comics Ramble: Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell by Paul Dini

or, Paul Dini joins the resistance against the New 52

Paul Dini is certainly no stranger to the concept of reboots: he was one of the prime architects behind the DC Animated Universe of the 1990s/early-2000s and with his comics he tends towards an accessible style of done-in-ones that very consciously work on their own rather than as part of a larger continuity. He loves his mythos as much as the next comics pro but he's always been magnificently unconcerned with what such-and-such character did in so-and-so issue of whatever title a few years ago.

Part of this is how he came up in DC: Batman The Animated Series used broad archetypes of the established characters and worked them up from there, contradicting and adding to the original concept as they went and they were so good half of it was incorporated into the comics. Reboots, or at least self-contained storytelling, is Dini's established wheelhouse.

So you can imagine my slight surprise when Dini puts out a book that ignores the blank slate of the New 52.

Okay, brass tacks: Bloodspell opens with Zatanna and Black Canary's first meeting when Zee was a child and moves to the near-present with Dinah foiling a casino robbery, a case that turns mystical on her and so she teams up with Zatanna. This is all very much in Dini's style: a clean, crisp rendition of a classic team-up structure (Type A character on Type A case that becomes Type B case, enter Type B character) but spruced up a bit.

The sprucing up takes the form of delightful character set pieces including our heroes goofing off in a toy store and flashbacks to past meetings. One of the best scenes, for my money, is Zee's first day in the Justice League when she was “a geeky newbie sporting a terrified smile and the worst 'grown-up' hairdo I'd ever seen”, according to Black Canary. It's this scene more than any other that wears its pre-Flashpoint colours on its sleeve with cameos from J'onn, Ralph Dibny and a Z-list villain called the Key. We even get to see Dinah's terrible JLI-era costume in a later scene, plus she teams up with “her” Green Arrow for a few pages.

You can see where I'm going with this: the presentation isn't just pre-Flashpoint, it's aggressively pre-Flashpoint.

Not that it's pointless, the pre-Flashpoint setting lends the story emotional context. As far as I'm aware the New 52 versions of Dinah and Zee have never met whereas here their friendship is old enough and deep enough that they can go shopping together; talk to one another as equals; have funny stories about each other; and one can talk to the other whilst she's in the bath without it being weird.

This all could have been left out, though. Ultimately, Ollie doesn't need to be there: aside from a short scene of pillow talk his plot functions could be taken over by Batgirl (and even then I don't think there'd be many complaints...). Dini writes completely original flashbacks to his title characters' earlier meetings: modern Zee could have encountered the Birds Of Prey or consulted on a mystical-themed mission for Team 7. It doesn't even call back to Dini's previous run on Zatanna's solo series. This could be tweaked into a New 52 story with relative ease.

I wouldn't care as much, though, would I?

This continues an odd theme from DC's “Digital First” anthologies Legends Of The Dark Knight and Adventures Of Superman that whilst the mainstream of DC's output is focussed on building a new continuity in the Dini/Timm mould building from the archetypes up, re-visitations of their old continuity have emerged as a new form of fanservice.

Yes, this started off as a review but it rather got away from me. That's why I call these posts “Rambles” instead of reviews. You want the review part of the review then the bottom line is this: it's fun, it's frothy, it's self-contained with an efficiently written plot and well-honed characterisation plus a nice magical mystery woven in but any element of that description was pretty obvious from the sentence “Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell by Paul Dini”. 

The Comics Ramble

You know what I forgot to buy last week? Miles Morales, Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and Original Sin #1! Because I am an idiot. Otherwise it was a pretty light week, just these two:

Everyone stinks at being sixteen (Cyclops #1)

I never pegged All-New X-Men as a spin-off-y kind of title. Naive of me in retrospect but I'm rarely this glad to be wrong.

So, situation: at the end of The Trial Of Jean Grey crossover young, time-lost teen Scott Summers decides to swan off to outer space with his space pirate, missing presumed dead Dad. He does this mainly because he finds out about his and Jean's future of marriage, multiple-bereavement and general misery at a stage when he's still only just about crushing on her. As excuses to bail out on uncomfortable social situations goes it's pretty much the best one ever. Also, if there was ever an ancillary X-character I felt could do with some extra fleshing out its Major Chris “Corsair” Summers.

Previous Cyclops/Corsair meetings have dwelt on their incompatibility: a professional soldier and a pirate, a down-to-earth civil rights activist and a freewheeling space jockey. I'm thinking in particular about a just-pre-Grant Morrison issue of Uncanny X-Men where they have a camp out and really, really get on one another's tits.

Time-lost teenage Cyclops is just glad to have his Dad back, he's happy to be in space and he sort of fancies his stepmother which is conflicting for him on multiple levels because she's his stepmother and she's a catgirl... or possibly a skunk girl... maybe an albino squirrel, I'm really not sure.

But this is what the X-Men franchise is for: taking something relatable and making it really bloody weird. Talk away the spaceship, the aliens, the sultry cat-skunk-squirrel woman and what you've got is a young man who doesn't know what he wants to do with his life going on a road trip with his Dad.

I don't know if this is an ongoing or a limited series but I am onboard for this like you wouldn't believe.

Cheap, penny-ante slight-of-hand (Loki: Agent of Asgard #4)

It has to be said, after the covert long games of Gillen's Journey Into Mystery and Young Avengers this series is surprisingly direct. Here we are, four issues in and the third wasn't even about “our” Loki, and we're already getting to the point. When Loki revealed in #2 that he was planning something I expected him to spend the better part of the year assembling his team but #4 and it's done, caper incoming next month.

I'm not complaining. Dear God, am I not complaining! I'm not an enemy of decompressed storytelling, I've been reading Ultimate Spider-Man since day one but it is nice to to see a few series championing brevity. Hawkeye has this quality as well, being mainly done-in-ones that build the ongoing storyline quietly in the background.

It was also great to see Verity Willis the human lie detector make a return because I really liked her in #2. I was less enthused by Sigurd turning up but since Ewing clearly agrees with me that Sigurd is a sleazy bastard I was won over by the idea of bringing him back.

If I have one criticism I think this Loki's origin is now established enough that Ewing could drop the flashbacks to “I am the crime that will not be forgiven.”. Not that “flashback” is actually the right word, that wasn't how Journey Into Mystery ended it was, if you'll pardon the phrase, considerably more low key and better for it.

I also admit, with zero shame, to laughing out loud at the illustration of Thor wearing an A-Ha t-shirt. 

Bad luck 'aving comic reviews on board... even a miniature one

The Royal Mail finally condescended to bring me my comics, so, y'know, reviews of a few comics from the pack, a light one this week and both by Mark Waid (not that I'm complaining, I bloody love Mark Waid comics)...

Daredevil #2

I could certainly bitch about how this issue in no way addresses #1's cliffhanger but I'm not going to. A mystery like that will probably be better for a slow boil and in the meantime Matt and Kirsten's hazy and undefined relationship is more than interesting enough for me. Besides, arguably the #1.50 one-shot gave us enough clues for the time being.

As to what this issue is doing it's another pleasingly direct issue of Mark Waid Daredevil. Someone's kidnapping Mafiosi, Matt Murdock's contact Deputy Mayor Charlotte Hastert brings him the case and away we go! If this seems like damning with faint praise it is not. What superhero comics need right now are a few more series like this because we've spent damn near two decades now de-constructing, reconstructing and subverting this art form to the point that there really is mileage in writing “standard” superhero stories with modern techniques.

Aside from that the issue sketches in some more of Matt's life in San Francisco, consciously fails to define his relationship with Kirsten (so she's probably going to live a while longer) and even introduces one of San Fran's native heroes to the mix. Marvel's San Francisco has a storied (if spotty) history so seeing that come into play was nice. There's a lot of foreshadowing, mainly name-dropping the Owl who we know will be a big cheese in this series from #1.50 and you're confident in where things are going but then Waid pulls out a last page twist.

Original Sin #0

What did this issue do? It made me care about a character I had no previous knowledge of and added layers to one I've known practically my entire life.

It didn't look like either was going to happen to start with. The issue is mainly the new Nova, Sam Alexander, soliloquising about his relationship with his absent, alcoholic father in the general vicinity of a more-silent-than-usual Uatu. Since I'd never read a Sam Alexander story and barely read any Nova stories this wasn't a promising start. I mean that's as basic an origin as you can get, the only real distinction is that a young man has daddy issues.

But this is Mark Waid writing and as we deal with four paragraphs ago Mark Waid does simple only so he can pull the rug out from under you with something clever and makes Sam's origin actively relate to Uatu's character. As an origin primer it's a good choice because really the only other thing this telling has going for it is one small different detail from the standard telling so giving it emotional weigh gives me another reason to stick around.

Yes, it's true that Uatu's strong silent act does not quite ring true. Just a week or so back he was keeping Hank McCoy up all night (in All-New X-Men #25, by talking, what did you think I meant?) and he's never been big on keeping to his non-interventionist vows. 

The Comics Ramble. Moving Out Mini-Rambles part 1

Since a) it's going to be some time before the trades I'm now determined to collect outpace the single issues I already own, and; b) I have to start thinking about moving out so it's time to have a clear out. I've spent a little over three years in my current flat collecting all sorts of junk and sending some of it down the charity shop should make the actual act of packing somewhat easier.

So, in no particular order, I'm going to put the contents of my bookshelves under the microscope and see what I can bear to part with and what goes in a box waiting for new shelves in a new flat to call home. Warning: here be spoilers!

Axe Cop

The idea behind this series is insane but brilliant: artist Ethan Nicolle plays a “let's pretend” game with his 5 year old brother Malachai about a character the kid created called Axe Cop and publishes it all in comic strip form. The result is an unpredictable stream of consciousness narrative with the inventiveness only very young children have: completely unburdened by logic or ideas about what “shouldn't” happen in a story. Also, poo jokes. Keep.

Judge Dredd: Origins

I bought this just after seeing Dredd 3D in the cinema and whilst it isn't in any way bad it doesn't feel like a keeper. 2000AD was never a magazine I read so my emotional attachment to Judge Dredd is effectively nil when the idea isn't paired with Karl Urban's natural charisma. Charity shop.

Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon

Hands down I think Matt Fraction's Hawkeye is the best series Marvel are publishing right now. What I like the most is that Fraction is clearly writing a 70s cop show that just happens to star a superhero. Bringing the other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, into the mix gives the series all kinds of opportunities for one or other of the characters to be the fish out of water: Kate in Clint's street level world, Clint in Kate's world of high society and wealth. There's also a whole essay to be written about Matt Hollingsworth's use of the colour purple in this series. Keep.

Serenity: Those Left Behind

I honestly think this series is better than the film it was written to lead into. The film focussed on explaining the Reavers, a minor element of the earlier series, and linking them in with the Alliance. That was fine but lacked much emotional connection to the TV series. Those Left Behind resolved the threat of The Men In Blue Gloves, a more significant recurring element of the series who never got a face-to-face confrontation with the crew on screen. Bringing back Agent Dodson also gave it a nice “season finale” feel. Still, hardly essential to my enjoyment of the series: charity shop.

Love as a Foreign Language volume 2

Where's volume 1 gone? Anyway, a very sweet fish out of water comedy / romance series. It's about a Canadian man teaching English in Korea. He hates it, living in constant culture shock but just as he decides to quit he falls for the school's new receptionist. It's really sweet and I hope volume 1 turns up at some point. Keep.

Spider-Girl: Turning Points

I didn't even know I owned this. I've immense nostalgia for the May “Mayday” Parker version of Spider-Girl but this is hardly the most thrilling collection of issues. It's mainly single issue bottle stories and... I don't know, re-reading it there doesn't seem to be the spark I remember the series having. Tastes change, I suppose. Charity shop.

Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World

Definitely one of my favourite Avengers runs. Warren Ellis takes what could have been six issues of filler between creative teams and writes a series of brilliant one-issue bottle stories, each with a different artist. And what artists! Jamie McKelvie, Kev Walker, David Aja, Michael Lark, Alex Maleev and Stuart Immonen, top bench talent and all favourites of mine. Keep.

Doctor Who: Oblivion

To go into all the details of why this was good would take an essay but here are the cliff notes: the Doctor's companion Izzy is gay, she's also adopted and insecure because of it. To make her confront these issues the writers had her body swapped with a very non-human alien so she had to constantly and consciously define what was “her” and what was merely the body she was in. The ending of the arc, Izzy defining moment of self-acceptance, actually brings a tear to my eye. Keep.

Heavy Metal, Hearts + Flowers: a Scary Go Round story

Keep. I might have the old Bobbins strips this is based on stored on my hard drive but this book is an artefact of nostalgia. Scary Go Round was one of the first webcomics I ever read. Plus, the way John Allison writes dialogue just doesn't stop being funny.

Mouse Guard: Autumn 1152

There are mice, they have a civilisation, they're vulnerable from all sorts of predators and the Mouse Guard are the ones protecting them. David Petersen writes and draws a series that makes a surprisingly good stab at doing medieval fantasy with mice and turning crabs and grass snakes into epic monsters. Keep.

Hawaiian Dick: Byrd of Paradise

I love a good hard boiled detective story but some of the tropes get boring after a while. There's only so many untreated alcoholics in New York you can take before you need a change and, well, 1953 Hawaii is certainly a different setting. It's got a supernatural twist as well as an interesting period setting but it's a detective story so saying anything else would be wrong. Keep.

The Question: Zen and Violence

The series that just says “bollocks” to every moral convention DC Comics usually harps on about. There's a great one-issue story in here about the city descending into chaos after the villains are killed which keeps switching back to an old woman sitting on a bench in the snow waiting for a bus that's never going to come. We keep going back to her again and again between scenes of the Question and the supporting cast dealing with the violence and looting and processing recent events. Then on the final page we switch back to the old woman and realise she froze to death ages ago. O'Neil really knew how to sell the fallible hero, how to have characters commit cold blooded murder and not make you hate them. I really should get the later volumes in this series.

Doctor Who: The Crimson Hand

This collection was a great last hurrah for David Tennant's Doctor: a big comic strip story arc like back in the old dys before the TV show came back. He got a new companion (the wonder alien conwoman Majenta Pryce); a big UNIT story; one last melancholy monologue; a pastiche of Eisner's The Spirit; and even a trip to Stockbridge to meet Max Edison. Keep.

And that was just the first shelf.

The Post Office let me have some comics! Hooray!

So, last week a strong female protagonist got cancelled; two young gay men wandered off into the wild blue yonder (not together); both Kid Flash and Superboy got felt up; Thor had a day off; and my favourite character in the whole history of comics DID NOT come back from the dead for an epic confrontation with his successor.

Kathryn Immonen's Journey Into Mystery ended with #655 and I was sad to see it go. Her run might not have had the anarchic glee of Keiron Gillen's Loki-focussed mega-arc but it had a great deal of charm. To me this run will always be iconic, though mainly because I'd never really seen much of Sif before this, just the Women Of Marvel issue a few years back. “Strong woman” is a cliché in comics but Immonen explored the idea in interesting ways, playing on different ideas of strength in the two brief arcs she had. If you didn't check this out I'd certainly recommend the first arc, Stronger Than Monsters, whenever it comes out in trade paperback.

Teen Titans continued to teeter on the brink of falling off my subscription list by following #22's cliffhanger promising all sorts of revelations about Kid Flash with... filler. Kid Flash gets rescued from the mysterious portal he was being dragged through at the end of #22, we get a little glimpse of the people who were trying to abduct him and then the rest of the issue is spent on random character pieces, most notably Red Robin meditating on what each Titan brings to the team. This isn't uninteresting it's just underwhelming.

As to the character pieces themselves, they vary. Red Robin filling Raven in on who everyone is and what they bring to the table is interesting but something you would think might be left for #24 and new readers coming in off Villain's Month. Wonder Girl and Superboy have a romantic moment after discussing how Cassie recently slept with Red Robin that is... ambiguous, to say the least.

On the one hand Cassie acknowledges (comparing Tim's possession by Trigon to her own situation with the Silent Armour) that both she and Tim acted on legitimate, if suppressed, feelings. She then kisses Superboy. The dialogue makes it ambiguous whether she's moving on from Tim, who won't acknowledge as she does the legitimacy of those emotions, or whether this moment with Kon (now Conner) is a similarly momentary thing. (I want them back as a couple, dammit!). There's also the third possibility, given weight by her seeming disappointment that Superboy doesn't share her lust for Red Robin, that she might just be playing a long game and trying to set up a threesome.

And then there's Bunker. Poor under-appreciated Bunker who has been the heart of the team and Superboy's conscience for so long who now gets his happy ending and rides off into the wide, rainbow yonder to be with his boyfriend Gabriel. I do hope he comes back soon because he was one of the only characters I really liked (alongside Tim and Cassie, as it happens).

Scarlet Spider #21 did not, no matter what the cover said, feature the return of Ben Reilly. I had to hope, of course, and Chris Yost knew all the right buttons to press in bringing Ben “back from the dead”. The gloriously crap sleeveless hoodie, callbacks to Spider-Man: The Lost Years, an unmasking early on in the fight to assure us this wasn't a confidence trick on the audience.

It bloody was, of course. What saves it was that it was well-executed confidence trick and there's something to be admired when someone gets something over on you with skill. The point was never to bring Ben back, that achieves nothing except to make Kaine look like an impostor in his own book, what's elegant is to use the possibility to explore Kaine's shameful past capping off a notional trilogy following his encounters with the Guild Of Assassins in Wrath and with “Peter Parker” in Sibling Rivalry. Ben Reilly is Kaine's original sin: his past as an assassin or a mid-level Spider-Man baddie pales in comparison to the things he did to Ben.

Yes, Yost, you are forgiven.

Thor: God of Thunder #12 was a nice break after the nearly year-long God Butcher saga. Yes, it was one of those standard template filler stories where we see the hero through the eyes of others for a brief moment but it was so well done that its easily forgiveable. This issue also did the leg work of setting up supporting cast for the run, which is a surprising job for a twelfth issue. It was especially nice to see that Doctor Jane Foster still has a place in this series after all the time and space travel Thor has been through.

I certainly hope Jane's new storyline gives her a happy ending but I also know there's value in writing the unhappy ending in these circumstances, having lived through that particular outcome with some of my relatives.

Young Avengers #9 was everything I hoped for from the multiple cliffhangers the last issue left off on. David planting a surprise kiss on Teddy was, thankfully, not the lead in to the predictable love triangle I feared we were going to get (because Keiron Gillen is a good writer) and Loki's face-off with Leah was appropriately tense and impenetrable. The ghost of Kid Loki even got another cameo, which was nice.

All of it was, ultimately, set up for Teddy spinning off into his own storyline separate from the team and I do like that Gillen is shaking up the formula. The Young Avengers as a unit have been so popular in the past that it's nice to see the series isn't settling into a crowd pleasing rut now it's an ongoing again.

The Comics Ramble: Ladies' fashions in Uncanny X-Men #9

Last week's pull was a light one and, really, the only thing I feel like discussing (possibly under the influence of finally reading Chicks Dig Comics) is how the female characters in this issue are dressed. Don't run away! There's some element of plot analysis in this, as well, I swear.

Dazzler: Agent of SHIELD

Let's deal with the elephant in the room first: in my opinion, Dazzler is absolutely rocking the high heels on that costume. High heels are, of course, the single most impractical piece of women's fashion ever invented (though the back-lacing corset comes in a close second) and usually I would be up in arms with everyone else about the bloody things.

Batgirl in heels, for instance, is one I'm dubious of. Batgirl is a leapy-about, ten-against-one, lose your balance and you're dead kind of hero whose costume comes from an otherwise very utilitarian design aesthetic. Anything about her costume that isn't instantly practical (the utility belt, the mask) is designed to make the Batman connection in the minds of criminals (the symbol, the cape).

No one has ever accused Dazzler of being practical about her costume, after all it used to include roller skates. Dazzler is a former pop star, presentation and style are big things in her design aesthetic. She's a SHIELD agent now so naturally she's wearing a shiny catsuit because you know who the most stylish female spy in history was? Emma Peel. Emma Peel's two modes were “catsuit” and “sexy mod fashions” and Dazzler's white PVC and heels sort of split the difference between the two.

Curiously, the heels serve a sort of purpose. The “point” (he said sarcastically) of high heels is to stretch the leg muscles to give them extra definition. Heels on this costume a) make Dazzler taller, significantly taller than anyone in the Medina household and, b) allow her to pose a little. In my own personal head canon that cover is Dazzler standing in front of her bedroom mirror trying on the idea of “I'm a super spy now” for size.

Because this is a real step up. Dazzler's last series (the short-lived X-Treme X-Men) thrust her into a leadership role and that clearly hasn't been forgotten. Her confrontation with Cyclops in this issue is clearly of the earnest, passive-aggressive pissing competition variety when two strong alpha personalities collide. She can't quite hold the pose until the end, though, and is reduced to a petty comeback as Cyclops swans out so she's not quite there yet but she's gained considerable confidence just to hold his stare and turn him down.

Irma Cuckoo

There's a training scene with Cyclops' new X-Men where Irma Cuckoo swans in late wearing her Grey School uniform and, quite scandalously to her sisters, she has cut her hair and died it black. The Cuckoos have always been completely identical, even homogeneous, and the last time one of them displayed individuality they tried to murder Emma Frost and joined the Brotherhood.

It should also be noted that what the other Cuckoos are wearing are X-Men uniforms from the Grant Morrison era. I don't have an extended analysis of this to make, I just loved the uniforms from the Morrison run and I'm glad to see them back. Though it is interesting that when the team goes into combat against SHIELD Eva dumps her uniform and goes back to the sleeveless top and miniskirt civvies combo she's been wearing since the series began, which is probably more “her costume” in most people's head by now than any X-uniform (the miniskirt and lack of sleeves give it a distinct silhouette even if she does appear to have no bum).

Emma Frost

This one, obviously, is not a development of issue 9 but since the new series began Emma has dropped her usual revealing white outfits for a no less revealing black one.

One of the big plots Bendis is working with is that the former-Phoenix-possessed X-Men are having trouble with their powers. In a previous issue the Cuckoos invaded Emma's mind to prove a point and discovered this fact, which Emma described as them trying to hurt and embarrass her and admitting they did. Without her powers (her psychic ones, at least) she no longer considers herself the White Queen and so no white costume. But it goes deeper than that: whilst the black costume might be as revealing as some of her previous wardrobe choices with a cleavage-revealing cut-out from waist to throat (Power Girl boob window haters, beware) she now wears an ankle-length black coat over it.

Aside from making her look like a bit of a dodgy flasher this shows us how far Emma's self-esteem has fallen. She wears a revealing costume because that's what Emma Frost does but she no longer feels confident in utilising her body as she used to. Her appearance and the effect it has on others has often been allied to her confidence and self-perception (she's the only superhero I can think of who achieved her perfect physique through cosmetic surgery). Her loss of power hasn't changed her appearance in the least, she still has it but she no longer feels the confidence to flaunt it. All of this brings us to the question:

Is Dazzler the new White Queen?

So we have Emma Frost in a crisis of confidence giving up her usual visual iconography: black costume, less revealing. At the same time we have Dazzler turn up with new confidence and leadership skills in a white catsuit with kinky boots and what I assume to be an integral flak jacket but could easily be taken for a corset.

And what is the reaction of Cyclops, Emma's ex-lover, the first time he sees this vision in white and bondage accessories? This tall blonde whose new costume so resembles his ex-girlfriend's old iconography? He offers her a place on the team. Right in front of Emma! That's nerve, that is.

The Comics Ramble featuring Pizza Dog

Seemed a good week to start doing comic reviews since last week all of my absolute favourite series had issues out.

Guardians of the Galaxy #4

This was a nice one-shot issue after the all action three-parter that opened the series (a thee-parter? From Bendis? With his reputation?). There is a plot but it all pales in comparison to Drax being boisterous and drunk and Gamorra being flirty and drunk.

Hawkeye #11

It took eleven issues but finally reading the recap page month after month paid off. The whole issue is told from the perspective of Lucky (aka Pizza Dog), Hawkeye's dog. The only legible dialogue in the issue are the words Lucky understands (“Good boy”, “up”, “stay out”) so David Aja's art, which is always fantastic, has to tell the story largely by itself. The best touch of the issue is how Luccky's sense of smell is portrayed as little spider-grams surrounding people, the scents picked out as images: Hawkeye smells of coffee and dogfood; Kate smells of pizza and martini; some cops smell of coffee.

It is a very cool issue, which almost makes up for the fact that it seems to write Kate out. I suppose I can hope the next issue might explain her departure, which seems a little separate from her issues in Young Avengers. Speaking of which...

Young Avengers #6

Last week was a bit of a filler week, all told, but high quality filler. I can't say I'm disappointed at all. I'm not disappointed that Jamie McKelvie isn't on art this issue, even though he's by far my favourite artist these days. I'm not disappointed that we've skipped from the new YA team to look in on Speed, who was never my favourite character in the original run.

Kate Brown's art drew me in from the first page just from the realism of how Prodigy slumps in his office chair. I'm not sure exactly what sort of mad company he's working for but people call him to ask how to defuse a Skrull bomb or how to deal with Elektra. Just seeing Prodigy again was fun (as I said, Speed doesn't really interest me) since I don't think he's had a decent starring moment since... oh, Secret Invasion: X-Men stands out in my mind as the last time he was really used as much as this issue plays on where he would have been in AVX.

We'll be seeing him again, I hope, since the end of the issues hints quite heavily that he'll be the new Patriot.

Wolverine and the X-Men #32

Of all the many, many X-Men team books this is by far the most fun. Just look at the opening scene: Iceman and Kitty have broken into Kade Kilgore's corporate headquarters so they can ferret out where the Hellfire Club have taken their students. It all sounds very dry and po-faced but its written to be so fun: they clearly consider this date, for a start, and Iceman holds off the Hellfire troops by creating a giant snowman that sings as it fights them.

A substitute teacher who's a dragon; Quentin Quire being a smartarse even as he's tortured by a sorcerer with daemons for hands; a band of over-privileged, genocidal rich kids for villains; the Bamfs. I'm seriously considering cutting some X-titles from my pull list but this one stay come rain or shine.