Reviewer: Andy Logan
Story Title: Cardinal Betrayal, Chasing Hellfire! 2/3
Writer: Chris Claremont
Art: Andy Park
Inks: John Sibal
Colors: Justin Ponsor
Letters: VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts
I first started reading comics when I was about nine or ten years old. I had an Uncle who was in the Merchant Navy, and a huge comics fan. He used to pick up the books on his travels aboard, and bring them home, storing them in a big, red, plastic box.
I quickly grew to love going round to his house, as I’d just haul the big box from out of its cupboard and sit down, reading and re-reading Captain America and Iron Man adventures, enthralled by the big, bright, colourful pages and the exciting stories.
It was my first introduction to the World of Comics, and I was hooked from then on.
Of course, it wasn’t easy getting your hands on comics on a regular basis on the tiny Isle of Wight in England, where I grew up. So, although I used to pick up comics whenever we traveled to the Mainland (which wasn’t often – we didn’t like strangers) I never really managed to keep up with the Marvel Universe and it’s collection of characters.
It wasn’t until Marvel UK released Secret Wars in England, and my local newsagent decided – shock! horror! – to stock it, that I managed to get a regular, weekly fix of comic action; and it was great to see old favourites, and some new characters that I quickly started to dig in a big way.
Chief among them were the Uncanny X-Men, and Chris Claremont quickly became my favourite comic writer – whenever I was able to get my sticky mitts on his work, that is.
So, it kind of pains me to say that these days, Claremont (he only lets certain people call him that) has lost a lot of the luster that he used to bring to this great comic book.
So far during Claremont’s current run of UXM, not one story arc has moved me whilst reading it, or made me wait with bated breath for the next issue. To be fair, the very last page DID whet my appetite this issue (more on that later) but I’m not convinced that the following issue will deliver a satisfying pay off to the cliff hanger.
In all honesty, the entire blame can’t be laid at Claremont’s feet. The X titles in general (with maybe the exception of District X and Madrox) are wallowing in mediocrity at the moment. A dearth of uninteresting characterization and a series of insipid story arcs across almost the entire X-Family, coupled with an over-reliance on Wolverine (I know he’s a mutant, and I know he’s got a healing factor, but my God, at times he must be absolutely knackered the amount of traveling and fighting he gets through in the Marvel U) means that the panache and originality that used to suffuse the line has now almost entirely vanished.
This overall decline in quality is suggestive of a slack editorial approach, perhaps best personified by the sudden rush to plug X-23, a character so lame and derivative that I get deja vu regarding the 90’s reading about her. Just what we need to inject new life into the X-Books, another Wolverine clone, a feisty, spirited loner with a noble streak and a hidden, mysterious past – great! But hey! Here’s the twist, this time – she’s female! That’s right, a female Wolverine clone! How original.
If you stick a fur coat on a pig, it’s still a pig.
In this latest story arc, we discover wheels within wheels as smoke and mirrors takes over. The “cliff-hanger” from the last issue is explained away nice and concisely, but is it just me being stupid (it happens a lot) getting confused (that happens a lot, too) over Wolverine? If Logan was aware of the nanite attack because of his healing factor, why the Hell did he want to rip Bishop’s heart out last issue?
We see the welcome return of Roberto DaCosta – for me, one of the most potentially fascinating characters in the entire X-Universe, both in terms of personality and powers, but also one of the most under used. Seeing DaCosta join The Hellfire Club is a shock at first, but somehow, it just fits his character to be a part of such a society. Of all the New Mutants, Sunspot has always been the one who hovers closest to the edge of a heart of darkness, the one you could imagine treading the grey line between noble and self-serving depending on the circumstances.
The entire premise of the Hellfire Club in its current incarnation is spun on its head – instead of a would-be group of World conquerors, it’s all a front led by Sebastian Shaw to break apart and destroy an international mutant slavery ring. An intriguing premise, to be sure, but it’s all explained too neatly, too quickly at the tail end of this issue, removing much of the initial suspense we could have enjoyed trying to second guess what Shaw – and Roberto – were up to.
Having said that, as we’ve seen in the past, there’s still plenty of time for a double cross, and who knows? Maybe everything we’ve seen so far is about to proven a big, fat, dirty lie. Now THAT would be fun to watch unfold.
On the VERY plus side, there is a wonderful exchange about affairs of the heart between Wolverine and Nightcrawler in a coffee house in Paris, which perfectly captures the easy nature of their long standing friendship. Kudos to Claremont for capturing the moment, and the sentiments, so beautifully.
Also, the return of an old time foe who is as much a part of The Hellfire Club as Shaw is very, very welcome. I won’t spoil it by revealing who in case you haven’t read it yet, but suffice to say that this villain has always been one of my favourites, and their last page re-appearance bought a huge smile to my face and actually helped end the book on a high.
Sage is again portrayed as a shadowy figure – who’s side is she on? What game is she playing? Wolverine, Bishop and Storm are undoubtedly of the opinion that she is on the side of the angels, and we as readers are undoubtedly supposed to be biting our nails figuring out for ourselves were her allegiances lie, but for me, I have to say I don’t really care. It seems that barely an issue has gone by of either Xtreme or UXM in which Sage’s true allegiance hasn’t been called into question, and, frankly, it’s getting reeeeeally boring now.
Claremont obviously has a hard-on for the character, and there are many potential facets of her that are promising, but constantly portraying her as somebody that even her own team mates are somewhat unsure of is both lazy and dull.
We get the picture; she may or may not be wholly loyal to her team mates, and is as liable to pursue her own, private agenda as she is to support the rest of the X-Men. This is fine for a period of time – in the early days of Claremont’s UXM run, Wolverine was constantly portrayed as a loner who wouldn’t share his thoughts and true feelings with his team mates, someone that (maybe apart from Kurt) the others couldn’t figure out, but that changed over time.
It had to, to keep the character fresh and interesting. Oh, yes, believe it or not, once upon a time, fresh and interesting were words that were synonymous with the Canucklehead.
By constantly returning to the same thematic stance with Sage, and by not attempting to show us any deeper layers to her beyond the “enigmatic team mate with a secret past and a hidden agenda”, the character has stagnated.
In fact, much of this book has stagnated. Again, much as this month’s issue of Exiles, it’s not offensively bad, merely mediocre. This, for a book so steeped in comic history and tradition as this one, is in many ways unforgivable.
I truly believe we have seen the best of Mr. Claremont’s work on UXM, and that the time has come for a completely fresh, new perspective – not, in fact, just for this book, but for the whole X line.
Maybe Pete Milligan on X-Men can provide the shake up that this franchise so desperately needs?
