Comic Review: X-Men #500-504

Writers: Matt Faction and Ed Brubaker

Artisits: Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson

If memory serves me right, the first X-Men comic I ever read was issue #36 (September 1967), in which Xavier's young students - at that time, back in the Dark Ages, Cyclops, Angel, Marvel Girl, Iceman, and the Beast - battled Mekano, a disgruntled college student with a strength-enhancing exoskeleton.

After that, I followed the adventures of Marvel's Merry Mutants sporadically, getting on board for good with the publication, in the Summer of 1975, of Giant-Sized X-Men #1, the book that single handedly reinvented Marvel. I was a loyal fan for years, enjoying the tales woven by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith and others, but eventually the franchise started to collapse under its own weight. Where there had once been only a handful of mutants, now there were literally thousands. It seemed that, in the Marvel Universe, every other person you passed on the street was a mutant. It got to the point that mutants eventually had their own country, Genosha. It was impossible to keep track of all the characters coming and going, and I eventually lost interest and dropped the main title and all its spinoffs somewhere around issue #400.

Apparently, Marvel also felt that this was a problem, as they attempted to rectify the issue in their mega-event, Avengers Disassembled, when Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, obliterated virtually all mutants from the Marvel landscape with three little words cast as a reality-altering spell: "No more mutants."

All of a sudden, the vast population of mutant humanity was reduced to a relative handful. Perhaps now it would be possible to make sense of what was going on and who was who. At least after Marvel got the rest of their ultra-mega reality-altering events out of their system.

Well, now it's post-Avenges Disassembled, post-House of M, post-Civil War, and post-Secret Invasion, and, lo and behold, X-Men has hit issue #500. Traditionally, important issues like this are considered good jumping on points, so I thought I'd give Marvel's mutants another chance, even though I expected to be disappointed and confused.

What can I say, I was pleasantly surprised. Behind a beautiful cover by Alex Ross, writers Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction set to work establishing a new status quo for the X-Men, relocating them to San Francisco in the wake of the destruction of Xavier's mansion, their traditional home, in Westchester, NY.  Although there are a few plot points that go unexplained for new readers - like, why is there a Celestial standing in the middle of Golden Gate park? - overall this is, as hoped, a good place either to climb on board for the first time or to get re-acquainted with the franchise. Over the course of the next few issues, Brubaker and Fraction tell the story of a mutant named Empath who, under the control of the mysterious and enigmatic Red Queen, leads an anti-mutant hate group, beating up all the mutants who have now come to SF to join the X-Men. At the same time, Magneto - depowered in the wake of Wanda's spell - joins forces with the mysterious High Evolutionary for reasons that have yet to be revealed, and battles the X-Men, his powers seemingly restored. It's a good read, told briskly over the course of four issues. I give them credit for not padding it out to six issues as seems to be industry standard these days.

Fraction and Brubaker are two of the better writers working in comics today. Brubaker, of course, is the guy who did the seemingly impossible: he brought Bucky, Captain America's World War II-era partner whose death shaped much of Cap's character over the last forty years, in a way that didn't seem trite, forced, or ridiculous. And Fraction is the new writer on Iron Man, a book that, sadly, has floundered under a lack of creative direction for years. I have high hopes that he'll make the character worth reading again.

While the story is a good read, the art in #500-503 is less successful. Greg Land is a proponent of the photo referencing school of comic book art, in which he uses photos of real people as the basis for his drawings. This leads to a number of problems. First, virtually all of Land's people look the same, distinguished only by their costumes and hair color. Face and body structure are identical from figure to figure. Second, Land's poses are stiff and static, like his characters are posing for a product advertisement (no doubt many of them were). It's difficult to get involved with characters when they all look like they're posing for a Pepsodent ad, especially when they express emotions wholly inappropriate to the moment. Yes, Photoshop is a good thing, but it's being overused in comics today, especially in the work of artists like Land.

Things get better in issue #504, when the husband and wife team of Terry and Rachel Dodson take over the art chores. They have a far more pleasing style than Land, less stiff and photo referenced. They're particularly adept at rendering beautiful women, which this issue definitely spotlights. With any luck, they're on the book for the long haul.

Another thing to like about the current status quo of the team is the use of long-established characters. For quite a while, it seemed, the X-Men were populated entirely by second stringers. Now, Cyclops is in charge as team leader with Emma Frost as his second. Also on the team are the Angel and the Beast - both founding members - Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine (the most overexposed character in the history of comics. Are we really supposed to believe that Logan can be a functioning member of this West Coast-based team while, at the same time, serving as part of the East Coast-based Avengers. Come on.), with intriguing newer characters like Pixie thrown in for good measure. The use of these long-established characters restores a sense of history to the team, and brings them back to the forefront of the Marvel Universe, as one of the premiere super teams.

All in all, it's a good effort that make the X-Men more accessible than they've been in years. My hat's off to Fraction and Brubaker for putting this once-mighty book back on track.

Rating: Three Ravens (Land issues), Four Ravens (Dodson issue) out of Five.

Me and Stan the Man

From time to time, I'll post some of my favorite pictures, and I can't think of a better one to start with than this.

That's a picture of me with Stan "The Man" Lee. For the tragically unhip, Stan was the writer and co-creator of such pop culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, Spider-Man, and much, much more. When I was a kid - a kid who was deeply into comics - I idolized Stan. Even more than the artists - legends like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Gene Colan, and George Tuska - Stan was, to me, the heart and soul of Marvel. He was the one who created the "clubhouse" feel that made Marvel seem like more than a big corporation (like rival DC), but like a bunch of friends who loved comics as much as I did. Stan wrote virtually every title Marvel published in the early years, and, even in the books he didn't write, his presence was felt through the "Bullpen Bulletins Page," and his monthly "Stan's Soapbox."

What made Stan so different from virtually everyone else writing comics at the time was that he wrote stories that both adults and kids could enjoy. He wasn't writing pretentious "graphic novels," like so many "creators" seem to be doing today, nor did he write down to his audience, assuming they were semi-literate morons, as many writers - then and now - tend to do. No, Stan knew how to write engaging, fast-paced stories that would stand the test of time. Don't believe me? Then check out such personal favorites as CAPTAIN AMERICA #106 ("Cap Goes WILD!!"), FANTASTIC FOUR #48-50 (the justly famous "Galactus Trilogy") or JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #114-115 (the introduction of the Absorbing Man in Thor). These are just a few examples of the way Stan could write a story that could be enjoyed on a number of levels, and illustrate just why I think he's one of the greatest writers of the modern era.

Anyway, when I joined Heritage Auction Galleries as their founding director of Rare Comic Book and Comic Art Auctions, I soon had the chance to meet and work with Stan to sell his collection. While not a collector himself, Stan had amassed a treasure trove over the years (or so we assumed: even Stan admitted in our preliminary talks that he had no idea what he might have), so the decision was made that I would fly to Los Angeles and inventory his stuff.

If you're into comics at all, you know what a thrill this was. Not only was I going to meet one of my lifelong idols, but I was going to get a chance to dig through his closets! After the initial shock wore off, I started to have second thoughts, though. What if Stan wasn't the kind of guy I imagined him to be? What if he was a nasty, bitter, cynical old man who just wanted to cash in on past glories? If that was the case, I knew that nearly forty years of adulation and hero-worship would go down the drain (on a much smaller scale, I had had a similar experience with Frank Perdue some years earlier. In his chicken commercials, Perdue always seemed like a decent guy, and so when I heard he was doing a local store appearance, I made sure to stop in. I can't imagine a meaner, less friendly person.  I know that everyone has a bad day once in a while, but he really went above and beyond. What a jerk.)

And so I flew out to meet Stan. Bear in mind that this was right around the time that the first SPIDER-MAN movie was coming out, so Stan was incredibly busy doing interviews and personal appearances, with enough stress to test the mettle of a man half his age. I was, to say the least, nervous.

And then I met him. He came into the room where I was working and gave me a warm handshake, introduced himself (as if I wouldn't know who he was), and apologized for not being more accessible. And then he invited me to go to lunch with him. Best of all, he even bought my lunch. Stan "The Man" bought me lunch!

Stan turned out to be the nicest, friendliest, most down-to-earth guy you could possibly imagine. As much as he comes across bigger than life in his TV appearances, he couldn't have been more genuine in the time I got to spend with him. On a subsequent trip, he invited me to his home, where I met his utterly charming wife Joan. Honestly, they don't get much better than Stan.

The photo above was taken in his office during a later trip, when I presented him with the first check for the sale of his comics and memorabilia. In the storage area, in the midst of everything, I managed to find a near-complete collection of important Marvel first issues, including FANTASTIC FOUR #1, AMAZING FANTASY #15, INCREDIBLE HULK #1, TALES OF SUSPENSE #39, and many more. Working with Steve Borock at CGC, we were able to encapsulate and label the books as coming from the "Stan Lee Collection," and they sold for astronomical prices when offered. The auction itself was a thrill, but meeting and getting to spend time with Stan was really one of the high points of my life.

So that's the story behind the picture. It hung on my mother's refrigerator for years, and now it's here. Enjoy.