tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post4456613090466505265..comments2024-03-16T14:43:09.430-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining Wolverine #54Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-83245975170024539642016-09-27T17:07:27.121-05:002016-09-27T17:07:27.121-05:00Ah, I missed that. I hadn't looked too closely...Ah, I missed that. I hadn't looked too closely at what was being included in that Epic since I figured it would just be the first chunk of X-FORCE issues. I like that it's getting included. It fits there, and I also appreciate when the Epics toss in extra stuff like that outside of the main series a given volume is collecting. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-81848009837202182252016-09-27T17:06:11.657-05:002016-09-27T17:06:11.657-05:00I agree that Shatterstar's "I'm was g...I agree that Shatterstar's "I'm was going to join them!" comment was weird. I was definitely getting a "I want to stop this" vibe from him before that. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-74069382073589921222016-09-27T17:05:19.930-05:002016-09-27T17:05:19.930-05:00While their dress and overall "look" is ...<i>While their dress and overall "look" is probably dated, unfortunely the act of doing horrible things to people and putting it on camera isn't.</i><br /><br />Yeah, I should have clarified that it's all the video schtick specifically that is dated, not, unfortunately, the general idea of bad people filming themselves doing terrible things to other people. <br /><br />@Matt: I agree that using the costume as a temporal indicator is dubious. Not only for the reasons you mention, but the fact that the her costume in this issue isn't an exact match for her X-MEN #1 look anyway. And if the "Muir Island Saga" taught us anything, it's that Rogue is capable of going through many looks in a short period of time. Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-57834374484185291392016-09-27T16:13:04.881-05:002016-09-27T16:13:04.881-05:00Ah, that's right. I think I got the timing scr...Ah, that's right. I think I got the timing screwed up in my head from reading SuperMegaMonkey, where fnord is about nine months ahead of me (and thus Robertson is on NEW WARRIORS). Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-7699523593314804492016-09-27T11:42:22.250-05:002016-09-27T11:42:22.250-05:00"I wonder if the MCP places this story after ..."<b>I wonder if the MCP places this story after X-Men# 3 because Rogue is wearing her then-modern outfit, which she didn't start wearing until the big X-relaunches.</b>"<br /><br />That probably is their reasoning, but if so, I think they're taking the costume's debut a bit too literally. Are we to assume that the training sequence in X-MEN #1 was the very first day Rogue ever wore this outfit? Time clearly passed between "Muir Island" and the relaunch; she probably got the costume sometime during that span.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-52096934690195090292016-09-27T11:40:24.022-05:002016-09-27T11:40:24.022-05:00"So, why is it appearing in Wolverine, and no..."<b>So, why is it appearing in Wolverine, and not X-force?</b>"<br /><br />I think it was practice back during this period (at least I know it was during the Shooter era) to commission fill-ins co-starring characters from multiple series so they could be plugged into one or another as needed. In this case, this story could work in an issue of WOLVERINE or X-FORCE (or, even in a pinch, X-MEN or UNCANNY). So depending on how deadlines shook out, it could very well have been an X-FORCE issue instead.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-62080605751474647122016-09-27T09:29:53.770-05:002016-09-27T09:29:53.770-05:00This is definitely the most (or, any) characteriza...This is definitely the most (or, any) characterization Shatterstar has received up until now. Probably why they're including it in the first volume of X-Force Epics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-33607845930978389562016-09-25T16:07:30.048-05:002016-09-25T16:07:30.048-05:00The whole “mutant snuff-film” thing is a solid eno...<br>The whole “mutant snuff-film” thing is a solid enough idea. On the other hand, I find Nicieza’s dialogue for the Vidkids just atrocious. On the other hand again, Shatterstar really is more of a character on his first page here than he’s been in all of <i>X-Force</i> to date — a dubious accolade to be sure, but like you say perhaps due to what Liefeld has given him to work with there. Wolverine’s “I’m startin’ t’like this kid” is spot-on, too. On the other hand, Shatterstar telling Wolverine he was there to join the Vidkids’ game confused me, because when he said he was going on the hunt it seemed like he’d already determined that the Vidkids’ preying on Morlocks was a hateful, grisly perversion of entertainment. Robertson’s art looks pretty uneven here, some of the faces especially, although I’ll confess to not being a particular fan of his later, more celebrated work either.<br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-67771309672246641092016-09-25T09:17:22.997-05:002016-09-25T09:17:22.997-05:00I see Anonymous already pointed it out what I was ...I see Anonymous already pointed it out what I was going to say, but yeah, at this time the New Warriors team was Nicieza and Mark Bagley.<br /><br />Given the way these fill-in stories usually work, I'm surprised there wasn't simply a framing sequence introduced to explain away any uniform discrepancies ("Slicing up The Hand for the 400th tome reminds me of the time I met Shatterstar who...") Speaking of costume continuity, I wonder if the MCP places this story after X-Men# 3 because Rogue is wearing her then-modern outfit, which she didn't start wearing until the big X-relaunches.<br /><br /><i>"The villains of this story are the Vidkids, a group of teenagers who attack mutants and capture the whole thing on videotape. They're generally just terrible people, as opposed to anti-mutant bigots (ie they target mutants just because it guarantees more attention for their videos). They are pretty terrible and horribly dated, and as far as I know, exist nowhere outside of this issue."</i><br /><br />While their dress and overall "look" is probably dated, unfortunely the act of doing horrible things to people and putting it on camera isn't. In other words with a few more "updated" references, this story could be have bern done today (indeed, given that the videotape aspect of this story has such a "ripped-from-the-headlines" vibe around it, I suspect that Nicieza got this idea from some big shocking "scandal" makingbthe news at the time, although I'm not sure which headlines this story wpuld be "ripped" from.)Jon Dubyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783906806644566810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-11789179171860282882016-09-24T07:52:24.287-05:002016-09-24T07:52:24.287-05:00"The then-current New Warriors team of Fabian..."The then-current New Warriors team of Fabian Nicieza and Darick Roberton write & draw this issue."<br />Not quite- Robertson didn't start New Warriors until a few months after this issue came out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-34001497097032071432016-09-24T00:30:35.950-05:002016-09-24T00:30:35.950-05:00"Cannonball is wearing a Button Your Fly t-sh..."Cannonball is wearing a Button Your Fly t-shirt"<br /><br />Even if it wasn't a reference to Liefeld, it's still such an early 90s thing.<br /><br />"Shatterstar references American Gladiators, considering it one of the closest approximations to the way his homeworld views TV currently on the air."<br /><br />Which even back then, made me laugh. I guess today he'd be referencing the Hunger Games?<br /><br />This is a weird one. It's too good to be pointless filler, between the better than average art-work Robertson gives us, and the decent characterization Nicieza gives us via Shatterstar. If anything, this is probably the most character work we've gotten up till now regarding Shatterstar, and certainly more than what we got in X-force so far. So, why is it appearing in Wolverine, and not X-force?<br /><br />If anything, this would been better had it appeared in X-force. With a little tweaking, by having a few less pages featuring Wolverine and a few more showing what some more members of X-force were up to, it would have been a better than average issue of X-force at the time.<br /><br />Overall, as you say, it isn't bad. It's more than cromulent. It just isn't all the essential as an issue of Wolverine. wwk5dnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-17464530574831619542016-09-23T21:21:19.907-05:002016-09-23T21:21:19.907-05:00Back in 1992 I regarded this issue as one of the b...Back in 1992 I regarded this issue as one of the best comics of the year (along with Alpha Flight 106, 107, and 108). I probably overrated it then, but I would probably still enjoy it.<br /><br />For those wondering, AF 106 was Northstar's official outing, #107 featured AF with X-Factor at a zombie wedding (i'd understand it not being reviewed, but it would be sweet if it was), and 108 was Af having to stop brainwashed superheroes from all over Europe from killing their leaders.Bedfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02833301170976646038noreply@blogger.com