Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: Going Mental – Mind Games: Part 6
Written by: Karl Bollers
Penciled by: Carlo Pagulayan
Inked by: Dennis Crisostomo
Colored by: Transparency Digital
Lettered by: Cory Petit
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: Marvel Comics
“Too little too late, Monsoon! Too little too late!â€
– Jesse Ventura’s commentary at WrestleMania VI after Jake Roberts hit a post-match DDT on Ted Dibiase
That was the single greatest piece of wrestling commentary ever. The voice, the delivery, the subtle indignity at the face’s actions… Brilliant. It’s also a very apt summary of this comic.
If you remember my review of the previous issue you will remember that I was not exactly enjoying this book. Thankfully, my inner-completist has been somewhat satisfied by this closing chapter of the Mind Games arc but not enough to stop me from dropping the title. After all, there’s a Brian Michaels Bendis sponsored Avengers crossover with multiple deaths to look forward to. Comparing this book to that seems like comparing Charmed to The Lord of the Rings.
Mmm… Rose McGowan…
Anyway, due to outside interference from Emma’s sister Adrienne, who sold the kidnapper’s videotaped demands to a news channel, her father Winston has been forced to pay the ransom against his wishes in order to placate the media frenzy that has subsequently been built up. He didn’t want to pay it in the first place, you see, because he “doesn’t respond to threats.†That appears to be code for â€he’s a one-dimensional tough-love daddy that is banned from showing any sign of realistic emotion.†He is the bad guy, you see, and the cod-psychiatry that apparently powers this book has allowed his influence to steer Emma towards other bad guys since striking out on her own. First was her teacher, who loved a little bit of jailbait. Then there was the down-on-his-luck dishwasher Troy; victim to the mob. That led her to mob boss Lucien, who is not only a bad guy but it easily distinguishable as a bad guy due to a scar and the fact he holds his gun sideways, as any little Tyler Durden wannabe is wont to do.
I am being excessively hard on the book, I know, but the fact this feeble storyline has been stretched out to six issues is nothing short of cruel and inhumane treatment of the comic book format. Girl meets guy, guy is in trouble, guy gets girl in trouble, guy gets killed, girl gets herself out of trouble, the end. A more talented writer would be capable of condensing that story outline into one issue, never mind six. However, it is more likely that the fault lies not just with Bollers but with the editor, Mike Marts, and the ominous shadow cast by Joey Q. Time and time again we have seen several story arcs in several comics stretched out to the pre-requisite of six issues. If the creative team happens to be very daring they might even get away with five or even four issues. That’s fine and dandy if you happen to have a story interesting enough to warrant all that attention, such as Straczynski’s Supreme Power but Bollers clearly doesn’t. Is it just laziness on Marvel’s part? Are they simply content to pad and stretch and drag things out so that they don’t have to bother thinking up more than one new idea every six months? According to recent solicitations, Emma Frost is going to be joining the Marvel Age line and be collected in the highly commendable digest format. Well, is the Spider-Girl digest taught us anything it is that having a collection of stand-alone episodic issues is just as enjoyable as a collection of one large story arc. In fact, in many ways it is even more enjoyable.
Sadly, from here the book is going to launch into yet another six-part arc and so I won’t be sticking around. It is a shame because even if Bollers is not capable of crafting a riveting saga there are enough brief flashes of brilliance to suggest he would be able to write an interesting stand-alone issue crammed with neat little character mannerisms. The manner in which Emma eventually manages to make her escape from her kidnappers is quite remarkable. Oh, yeah, she escapes. There’s one hell of a non-surprising spoiler for you. Not only is it the first time she begins to realise the vast scope of her mutant abilities – including inducing hallucinations in others, for one – but the way in which she bears no thought for the ramifications of her actions is a nice little bit of foreshadowing for her future criminal career.
If indeed such a career comes to pass. There has been some speculation online that Emma Frost might wind up with a major retcon courtesy of this series, replacing her blatant criminal actions with something less sinister in order to keep the title appealing to the young female market. That would quite possibly be the thing they could do to piss me off even more in addition to all the potential they have already wasted, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see it come true. After all, why bother in giving us an arresting look at the psyche of a young woman struggling for independence and subsequently obtaining it through nefarious means before her ultimate redemption at the hands of one of the great superheroes in the Marvel Universe, when we can just gloss over everything and turn it into a teenage soap opera with plot holes large enough for Galactus to go and sit in and have a nice picnic?
