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Comics read since last time:

Young X-Men 1-6
Cable 3-5
The Last Defenders 1-2
Gotham Underground 7-9

Young X-Men is a lot more of a continuation of New X-Men than I thought it would be. Including New Mutants #1 was pretty neat; it brought back memories for me. I wish I could still get the feeling I used to get when I was reading New Mutants as a young teenager, but then again, isn’t that true of everything you remember from your youth? Nostalgia includes the Greek word for pain. The bad guy is telegraphed so early on, I hope they didn’t think anyone would actually be fooled by the subterfuge. I did enjoy this a lot more than I thought I would, but then, it is Guggenheim doing the writing. Although I’m annoyed by most of the characters, and miss some of the ones from New X-Men that I liked. Anole, come back, all is forgiven!

Cable got better, but only slightly. Cannonball apparently had no trouble finding steroids in future. Honestly, Sam Guthrie, one of the lankiest characters ever created suddenly has not guns, but cannons? At least I’m not paying for it, other than the cost of getting to the library. I have a feeling the time travel chase scenes will get old. Cable should’ve brought Sophie with him. Of course, it would’ve been a little too much of Voyagers crossed with Doctor Who at that point. Oh, with huge nonsensical guns.

I don’t know much about the history of the Defenders, just knowing some of the team line-ups. I don’t think I’ve read any of the original series, and much like the Champions, it’s always seemed like a way for Marvel to cash in on the success of the Avengers and the relaunched X-Men. At what point did the X-Men become an actual hit? I know that it was on the verge of cancellation in the ’60s, with a long run being reprints. But the Defenders has always seemed like a “why bother” team. Maybe it’s a way that Marvel retains copyright on certain characters by bringing them out, dusting them off for awhile. These first two issues are an awful lot of set-up, so far. I can feel Giffen’s touch, although not as much as when he and deMatteis wrote their other Defenders story earlier in the “bwah-ha-ha” vein. A few nods to Civil War, the Initiative, and even Secret Invasion, with Blazing Skull correcting Nighthawk about his moniker. I’m interested in Nighthawk’s history, so that might be a reason to go back and read some original Defenders stories. Was he one of Marvel’s answers to Batman?

Speaking of Batman, I wonder if anyone is able to tie together into a cohesive continuity all of the stuff going on in DC right now. Where exactly does Gotham Underground fit in to Batman RIP and Final Crisis? I finished this trade off last night, and it seemed mostly to be a rehash of War Games, as well as a way to reintroduce Spoiler. I love Batman’s rogues gallery, and would like to see more Penguin and Riddler–the Joker’s so over done now. But I’d like to see them given some respect again. Maybe a little less reinvention and bit more back to basics.

Comics read since last time:

X-Force 1-6 (new series)
Cable 1-2 (new series)
She-Hulk 26-30
X-Factor 30-32 and The Quick and the Dead
JLA 51-54

I have to start off by saying that I’ve never really liked Cable. Not now and not when he led X-Force. Not drawn by Ariel Olivetti and definitely not drawn by Rob Liefeld. I’m also not a huge fan of X-Force, coincidentally most identified with Rob Liefeld. I can’t say that what I’m currently reading has given me any great joy either. Both of the runs I’m reading now are part of the X-Men: Divided We Stand non-crossover. I’m actually being something of a hypocrite, in that I’m only reading them (in trades from the library) because X-Factor crosses into Secret Invasion and since the X-Factor trade I just finished is also part of Divided We Stand, I’ll read the rest of the related series. I say I’m a hypocrite, because when people say that they don’t want to read this series, or this crossover or comics from this company, because there’s too much background, or too much continuity, or they don’t want to have to know the past 50 years of comics, I gently scoff. And now, before diving headlong into Secret Invasion, I’m reading series I have no interest in, just to keep up with what’s going on. That’s kind of what I’m doing with She-Hulk, as well, although I’m more likely to have an interest in continuing on reading the Jade Giantess, afterwards.

Peter David is writing both She-Hulk and X-Factor (maybe he likes hyphens).The two series have a similar theme, in that they both cross into the crime genre: X-Factor is a detective agency, and She-Hulk along with her partner Jazinda (a skrull who currently doesn’t seem to be involved with the invasion) are bounty hunters. I’m definitely enjoying X-Factor more, though, than the “buddy film” adventures that She-Hulk is having.  It’s almost like David is having a better time writing these characters, than revisiting Gammaville.

Coincidentally, I also finished off a JLA trade: Divided We Fall.  As the X titles are all about what happens when Cyclops decides the X-Men are no more, this chapter of JLA is about what happens when DC’s greatest team has an irrepairable rift.  While the X-Men experience their disillusionment in the destruction of both the school and the near-fatal shooting of Professor X, the JLA’s wounds come from within, from Batman’s secret files on the rest of the heroes, specifically how to take them out.  All of that happened in the previous arc, where a villain gains knowledge of these vulnerabilities.  Now, the JLA has to decide whether they’re going to be able to function any more without their inherent trust.  Going back and reading all of this, after having read Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and everything else that’s come after it, I can see how much has really been building for the past decade in DC.  This is a good example of what I was talking about.  I didn’t have to have read the JLA to enjoy the later stories, and going back now, it show just how much more of a tapestry everything is.  The threads have been there, and my noticing them now, makes it a much richer design.