Volume 25: Spider-Man: Blue

Spider-Man: Blue

Author: Jeph Loeb  |  Illustrator: Tim Sale

"[M]aybe by chance, or maybe God has a sense of humour and we're all part of the joke."

Blue is the story of how Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy fell in love, and of how Peter's life seems to him a pendulum that swings repeatedly from good times to bad times. He tries to rationalise the situation by seeing the bad as being a necessary precursor to the good.

It's split into two distinct time periods that work in tandem.

The first is a confessional memoir narrated by Peter in what I'm going to call the present. It mostly takes the form of text boxes (captions) that sit inside the frame and act like a v/o in a film. They're spoken by a Peter that's endured hardship - a Peter that's developed a deeper understanding of his purpose and the dangers inherent in it.

The second time period is a visual retelling of past events. The art and speech bubbles that make up the majority of the frame depict what happened or was said in the past. They show a Peter early in his career as Spider-Man; he's less mature and therefore less acutely aware of how tragedy can shape and scar an individual.

The past and the present exist as one within the same frame and together they tell the full story.

Even though the pictures fill the majority of the page, it's the captions that carry most of the weight and the reason the story works so well. If they were absent it wouldn't need to be retold. Jeph Loeb tinkers with the original very slightly but there's no major retcon happening. I'm willing to bet that, by the end, more people than not will be glad that he did what he did, particularly if you can relate emotionally.

My belief that the art is respectfully subordinate to the text doesn't mean the art is weak. On the contrary, Tim Sale's style is a perfect match for Loeb's words. His colour-blindness doesn't seem to be a handicap at all. His lines are bold and his blacks are striking.

He seems to have a filmmaker's eye. If his frames were taken verbatim to a screen they would make dynamic eye-candy; most likely even better than any of the live-action Spider-Man films that exist at time of writing.

The book collects together Spider-Man: Blue #1–6.
The events that Blue reference can be found in The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #43-48 and 63.

Verdict:

Volume 24: New X-Men: Imperial

New X-Men: Imperial

Author: Grant Morrison  |  Illustrators: Frank Quitely / Ethan Van Sciver / Igor Kordey

"Hey, it's those pesky X-Men."

Now they ask the obvious questions~. I'm not sure if that redeems them or further highlights how blinkered they were before.

Imperial continues the story that began in Volume 23. It's a much bigger book, containing over twice as many issues as before. But like a guy with small feet might say, size is no indication of quality. In fact, Imperial is even less enjoyable than the previous book.

A lesson that has been well-learned countless times before is given another airing: that when you make yourself a target (or someone else makes you one) there's no shortage of people willing to take up arms and cast their stones in your general direction.

As the story grows more and more chaotic it seems as if Morrison was respectfully acknowledging an old way of plotting, but at the same time giving it a new skin to live in. The wild comic book fantasies exist alongside real world concerns, the latter functioning as occasional much-needed grounding to the former.

The Nuff Said! event that I first mentioned in the Volume 22: The Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations and Until the Stars Turn Cold post hit New X-Men at issue #121, which is included. It's interesting.

I fear my eventual scoring will overshadow the books strongest aspect; i.e. the art. I want to draw particular attention to Ethan Van Sciver's backgrounds, all of which are detailed and beautiful.

If Sturgeon's Revelation (aka Sturgeon's Law) is accepted and ninety percent of everything is crap, then statistically team-based adventures make up a sizeable potion of Marvel's ninety percent.

The book collects together New X-Men #118-126.

Verdict:

Volume 23: New X-Men: E is for Extinction

New X-Men: E is for Extinction

Author: Grant Morrison  |  Illustrator: Frank Quitely / Ethan Van Sciver

"...[G]allows humor is currently the only thing keeping us sane."

Both Morrison and Quitely are fully deserving of inclusion in the collection, together they've produced some excellent work (DC's All-Star Superman is a good example), but E for Extinction is neither man's best work; in fact, it's probably some of their worst.

The book's cover neglects to mention that artist Ethan Van Sciver also contributed; he illustrated a full one quarter of the content. I'm not familiar with his work elsewhere, but here his art is detailed and dynamic, and his version of Beast in his current form is excellent.

It's a thin volume, just four issues, but should really have been only three because it's a three-part story. The fourth issue does keep continuity but feels like it doesn't belong, like it should've been moved to the next volume in order to preserve the completeness of this one. I suspect it was added to boost the page count, which, as you'll see, is something that Volume 24 had plenty of already.

The ongoing series having the word 'New' added to its title wasn't the only new thing to happen: it was Grant Morrison's first issue; Professor X got a new sci-fi toy to play with; it was almost the beginning of a new school term; and the team got a new member, which feels rushed and is accepted all too quickly by the remainder of the team, namely Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine and Beast.

A similar criticism can be applied across the board, with many of the major events hurried and failing to make the impact they deserve.

One example is when a lot of people die; because the build-up was lacking I'd no connection to them whatsoever and didn't feel anything when they were snuffed out. It was like crossing items off a list.

I had just as many problems with the relationship side of things. Wolverine and Cyclops cooped up together in a small space had the kind of strained atmosphere you'd expect, but elsewhere a few people were doing things that felt unnatural and forced.

One of the major scenes involves such an action, but the others accepted it when in reality they should've been almost enraged. As it is, they felt false and it pushed me even further away from caring about the plight of those affected. I'm all for changing the X-Men formula because I consider them a boring bunch a lot of the time, but I just wasn't able to connect with what we got.

The book collects together New X-Men #114-117.

Verdict: