The Random Eye returns! And he's all backed up! With comics, natch!
Uncanny X-Men #494 (Marvel Comics) By Brubaker & Tan It's the X-Men! It's part Ten of a cross-over Event! There's a Dystopian future! A baby child who could save Mutantkind...or RUIN! them. Cable! Bishop! Gambit! If you like all those things, you'll like this. Word to the wise; that lady on the cover? Pants like that, you're asking for a yeast infection. Don't thank me, ma'am, just doing my job. Speaking of overly earnest dystopian future tales that are About Stuff and centre around a special baby; I just watched Children Of Men, it was Okay, too. Nicely downplayed future and some classy directing and performances. I gots to know: that bit where it's all War Zone a-go-go and we follow Clive "Wilfred" Owen from the street,into the building, all the way up the stairs and back out - all one take? Seemed like it, but I could have blinked. If it was- nice one!
Marvel Atlas By Many People Who Might Want To Play in The Fresh Air A Bit More. In the late 1950's the FBI funded a research programme to investigate the then burgeoning phenomenon of the serial killer. The 5 year project headed by Professors Arlo Standish and Mason Gilpenney discovered, identified and mapped the characteristics and causes of the psychopathic type. They also predicted that with the trends apparent in the Industrialised Nations a surge in this phenomenon could be expected in the next 80 years,a surge resulting in fully one third of the Western population developing these traits. The forecast was bleak but Standish & Gilpenney had a plan. They developed a tool by which such individuals would have their negative and harmful impulses diverted by harmless minutae and staidly conservative concepts. Reader: It was - The X-Men.
For Dreadnought class Nutjobs, however, the FBI reccommend The Marvel Atlas. It is an Atlas of The Marvel World, "there has never before been single reference tome to cover the expanse of Marvel's Earth". See, I knew there was a reason I'd clung stubbornly to life. Random pick: Japan. Konichi Wa! There are three closely typed pages for Japan. The Nonhuman Population of Japan includes Inhabitants of Monster Island; Spider-People and Yiki Onna vampires. Apparently the sovereignty of Monster Island remains in dispute, already I can feel my need for the taste of human flesh abating. Weirdly fascinating, although I fear that is due to my own aberrant nature. An odd artifact indeed.
Midnighter #15 (Wildstorm (DC Comics)) Keith Giffen & some people Just what the overburdened comic market needs; another Batman title. Ho! I jest! In this exciting issue Middy is trapped on a giant green jello building/carrier and has to kill his way off (Batman vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. then). O! The suspense! You can tell Giffen (AKA America’s John Wagner) is a good writer because the familiar plot is still engaging, despite the resolution being a honking great cop-out. Also, even though the back end of the book ties up and explains stuff that happened in previous issues, I could still piece together the gist of it all. Unspectacularly enjoyable stuff. Good, in a word.
House Of M: Avengers #1 (Marvel Comics) By Christos Gage & Mike Perkins Forget House of M (Geddit!?), as associating this book with a wretched Event that made no sense, other than financial, does it no favours at all. What you really have here is “What If..’The Avengers’ Paid Lip Service To House Of Idiocy, Was Actually Readable And Had A Weird ‘70s Blaxploitation Vibe Going On, Honeychile?” If you like that idea, you’ll like this being as how it is solidly scripted, dense with incident and flashbacks and has a sense of playfulness. Fans of photo referenced art will be happy too. It doesn’t, however, have The Hulk running away to join the circus to be a clown, so Classic Avengers is still the best Avengers title on the stands, but this is second. Sho ‘Nuff! Better than it has any right to be given that stink-eye of a title.
