Dex's Comic Awareness

X-Men #175
written by Peter Milligan
pencils & cover by Salvador Larroca

So begins the Wild Kingdom crossover as we find our X-Men heading to Africa. Quite honestly, this wasn't a very good issue. Everyone acts like children more and more in Milligan's team. Storm is a royal bitch, Bobby is an annoying asshole, Gambit's an insecure and pussy whipped, Rogue is an uptight girlfriend that is mad for no real reason, Lorna is incredibly cold and heartless, and Havok is the stereotype jealous lover. I know this is different than what I had been saying about this series before but somehow Milligan made his characters all become whiney and mean in only one issue. I wouldn't want to hangout with any of these people. That's not the kind of cool impression the X-Men are supposed to emote.

And I really can't understand the whole, power struggle thing between Storm and Havok and Emma Frost. What is that all about? Why are they suddenly all feminist and shit and telling Havok that he can't take orders from a woman? I understand tension is dramatic but it definitely just feels like watching teenagers here.

Complaint number two: What the hell is up with Milligan's take on powers? Rogue has some kind of fire shooting ability now? Lorna's ability to control magnetism somehow allows her to shoot energy beams at creatures? And Storm is invulnerable to a giant mutant crocodile biting her nearly in half? Milligan really needs to clarify this shit. If you just make shit up for their powers then what’s the point of fight scenes? You could make up any old thing.

Complaint number three: The villain is dumb and paper thin but would Storm really leave him to die? It was so out of character that it just felt like that scene in Daradevil the movie where he lets the guy get killed by the subway train.

What the hell is Milligan doing here? He started off so well but now he's turned all the characters into whining brats. Spare me.

Rating - Poor

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X-Men #174
written by Peter Milligan
pencils and cover by Salvador Larroca

We finally get the sputtering conclusion to the Mystique/Foxx story arc. For four issues, nothing has happened except the characters have gotten more annoyed with each other, one student flipped out, and now the possibility of Mystique joining the X-Men is in the air. God this arc was too long. It really could have been done in two issues and been much better.

The X-Men vote to let Mystique join the X-Men. But Kurt convinces Mystique to leave before the vote even finishes so that he can "wrap his mind" around the idea of her joining the team. It's a touching moment between the two I'll admit. But his reason for having his mother not around is pretty lame. Quite frankly, I was ready for her to join. I'm assuming she's off to limbo since she isn't in any other books. I have a distinct feeling that she is going to be forgotten and that really makes this little arc more meaningless. If Milligan doesn't use her for something else then we can chalk these four issues up to another big fat waste of time.

Remy's line of wanting whatever Rogue wants rang true. And it was nice to see all the members from all the books having a dialogue but it really wasn't handled that well. I'm pretty sure the X-Men don't normally vote on who gets in like some children's club, but even with them doing that, the chance to see who really wanted Mystique in and didn't wasn't explored. And I was very surprised that it took Milligan this long to mention that Rogue, White Queen, Juggernaut, and others had all been on the wrong side before. Part of the problem with the lack of mentioning it is that the White Queen has been in the involved with every pair of broken lovers and lying spies.

The scene with the crazed Onyx and his obsession with Foxx was weird. And Mystique's beating of the kid was also poorly done. Not sure how a woman, even with her training, was able to just kick a person made out of rock and gets him to drop her. Whatever. We get more undefined fire powers from Rogue, and a really crappy drawing from Larroca of those powers. Since when did Rogue have fire shoot out of her when she flew?

This has turned into a big letdown. If this is all used later in some unforeseen master plan then I'll be singing a different tune. Even if, this issue just falls flat. This is an example of how the X-Men can be TOO much like a soap opera. All character and no plot.

Rating - Poor

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X-Men #173
written by Peter Milligan
pencils and cover by Salvador Larroca

Peter Milligan's run so far has been better than Chuck Austin's but that's not saying much. His characterization is fine but so far his plot hasn't really been that engaging, till now. Mystique has come to the school and this issue we find out that her purposes may have been to join the X-Men. It's plausible that she's not lying. She has been working for Xavier as a solo agent for some time now so we know she's at least reformed a little bit. And her book by Sean McKeever is being canceled so it makes sense that her character would go into limbo and need a home. Nice of Milligan to give her one. It's really a shame that Mystique is being canceled. It was a fairly good series and a lot of people have been talking about how great it is. I can't say the same for the Gambit or Rogue series that came out, bleh.

The whole idea of the character Foxx, who is actually Mystique, was completely retarded. So I'm glad to see that it was in fact Mystique, who has a real reason to try and seduce Gambit, albeit a fucked up one. Gambit and Rogue's relationship had been getting rocky but now it's starting to wither on the vine as Rogue is fed up with it. Her anger comes off more as general frustration and Gambit's confusion seems genuine. Which is to say that Milligan is a good writer and these character interactions is what he does best. His missions always seem a little lame but who cares when the characters actually act and seem like the characters we all loved and remember. I like that Lorna and Alex's characters are actually GOING somewhere now. They had been stuck in Chuck Austin hell for a while now. Let’s just get Iceman back to flesh and we'll have fixed almost all the stupid ass problems Austin started.

Rogue's fire powers were a little dumb and came off as a blatant plot device. Someone really needs to define what she can and can not do and then everyone needs to stick to it in some kind of reasonable manner. Her powers seem to be anything the writer damn well pleases them to be.

I really like the idea of Mystique becoming an X-Man formally. It makes sense that the intelligent villains of old would reform a bit in their old age and come over to the X-Men's side after having been beaten over and over again. The only villains would should always stay villains are those that only care about money or ultimate power. The White Queen and Mystique were never two of those villains. Juggernaut was but his rehabilitation was handled very well and came off as natural.

It feels like Milligan is just gearing up. I hope so because this book has a lot of potential. Austin shat on this book for a long time. Milligan has his work cut out for him in trying to fix the problems while pushing the characters and the story forward. This is a good step towards that goal.

Rating - Great