She May Be The Messiah, But She's A Very Very Confused Girl.

This is going to be a recurring thing for this blog, a blog devoted to reviews of different mediums. Films, seasons of TV shows, etc. Today, we're looking at comics. Now, Australia has never really been a huge market for comics, or at least in my experience. Trade paperbacks are hard to come by and most newsagents only seem to stock Simpsons and Futurama comics. While I do collect and enjoy those, superhero titles aren't all that common. Sure, I'll see issues of Amazing Spider-Man or Action Comics, but I can never be sure if the title will be stocked next month and I've had to rely on mini-series and one shots when going comic shopping.

Luckily, my local library often has plenty of trades for me to indulge in, or at the very least, I can order them from another library at no cost.
So, most of my reviews will be based on what I can find through the library or from what I have read in the past and can remember a lot of.

Today we're looking at X-Men: Second Coming. However, I acknowledge that I am nowhere near as good as Lewis Lovhaug (better known as Linkara) at reviewing, he's a frickin' genius and I'm some schmuck with a blog. That being said, I will try my best.

The arc is comprised of at least fifteen issues ranging from three issues of Uncanny X-Men to three issues of X-Force and various in-between.
Now, I've long held the thought that amongst all the different series of comics, past and present, finished and ongoing, the X-Men franchise is the hardest to follow. The biggest reason I have for this is the character roster. I mean, before M-Day (or, the end of the events of House Of M), you couldn't swing a dead cat in the Marvel universe without hitting a mutant (chances are, that dead cat WAS a mutant). And not only did you have the various X-Teams and the Brotherhood, but various Avenger teams had mutants at one time or another (most famous of those being Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Beast and Wolverine, though what team hasn't he been on?). Then you have your mutants that strike out on their own, whether they be hero, villain or in-between. Mutants like Apocalypse, Proteus, Namor, Sebastian Shaw and the ever-loveable Merc With The Mouth, Deadpool (who, incidentally, is one of my absolute favourite comic book characters).
There are so many characters within these comics (and let's not forget the non-mutant supporting cast and antagonists, like Moira MacTaggert and Arcade) that its easy to get lost. Often, I've played the game of “Wait, Who's That Guy? And You, What's Your Power?” while reading an X-Men comic, that's how out of the loop I am with modern X-Men comics. And this was AFTER the numbers were reduced to under two hundred mutants. New X-Teams spout up all the time, then disband, then reform with new members. It's hard enough keeping up with rebooted volumes, how can we be expected to keep up with the constantly changing line-ups?
Reducing the population to under two hundred didn't exactly help, because now the game changes to “Who Kept Their Powers?”, even though we all know most of the A-listers would have because you can't change status quo TOO much, lest you actually try and be daring.
Though, on that subject, that is one thing I'll give the Marvel universe credit for. While these days I slant more towards the DC universe (having Batman is a major drawcard, though heavy hitters like Green Lantern and the Flash help, not to mention wonderful series like 52 and Identity Crisis), Marvel almost always tries to keep its changes stuck the way they are and if they don't stick, the resolution is at least either acceptable or was always planted from the start so at least they put some thought into it. Unlike DC, which seems to say “This is boring. Reboot, reboot, REEEEEBOOOOOOT!” and push a big red button. Of course, sometimes Marvel gets an attack of the stupid (or, in the case of One More Day, a near fatal case of total freaking moron. I really, really hate that story. Like All-Star Batman And Robin, the beautiful art is the sole redeeming feature to a story that makes my brain want to cry) but sometimes the changes in one story escalate to something more universal and the resolution seems natural in light of those events (like the events of Civil War kind of being resolved after Siege, with the Superhuman Registration Act being abolished. It didn't take magic or time travel to fix it, just pure simple logic.)

Also, another part of what makes the X-Men hard to follow is all the allegiance changing. Juggernaut kept flip-flopping around for a while, though I believe he's currently a freelancer who'll be on either side provided they pay for him; Gambit, for a time, was one of Apocalypse's Horsemen; and Magneto, well, he goes all over the spectrum any given day (currently, he's kinda-sorta not a villain, but I wouldn't say he's an anti-hero or anti-villain either).

But anyway, enough rambling about that. Time to ramble about the arc itself

So, the plot is laid out thusly: Hope Summers (ugh, that's yet another confusing thing, the goddamn Summers family tree. I'm not going into that here) is the first new mutant born since M-Day. Cyclops' son Cable (damn it, I said I'm not going into it!) has taken her into the future (...not going into that either) to protect her and train her.
Well, that's actually the set up to this story. This arc deals with her coming back and being hunted by a highly evolved Sentinel known as Bastion and various human factions bent on eliminating the so called “Mutant Messiah”. Cyclops is leading the X-Men against all those who wish to see the mutant race ended once and for all but not every decision he makes is being followed without question.

Overall, it's a good story. I wouldn't say great, partly due to its length (it really, really feels a lot longer) and the fact that some of the villains can have their dialogue replaced with “Those muties are nuthin' but scum, we gotta git them keeeeled, yeeeee-haw!” and you'd get the same thing. Really, that's partly why I like the DC universe more: the humans are a lot more appreciative of their superheroes and crimefighters, which was a huge point in 52. But the Marvel universe is filled with ungrateful assholes. I mean, I know that mutants are basically racism and homophobia parallels in comics but if people are willing to accept a chemically enhanced soldier, a man who can go giant and ant-size and a thunder god, it just comes across as petty jealousy and that's why they smear mutants. Humans are just pissed that they got their special status taken away and don't like the fact that some mutants ARE better than they are, because of their attitude.

Anyway, I quite liked the relationship between Hope and Cable, it's reminiscent of Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor, only making the relationship one of surrogate father and daughter, rather than a romantic one (which would be really squicky). Hope's in a world she doesn't know and Cable's the only one she feels comfortable with and while she's with him, her character is tolerable. When he's not... well, let's just say, the words “You better be worth this, I swear to God” sum her up really well. She had better improve next time, or I won't bother reading about a petulant child. She may be confused and scared but it doesn't give her the right to act like Dawn Summers (different Summers family this time, not comic related) circa Buffy Seasons 5-6.
Cyclops I really liked in this story. For a long time, Cyclops was treated like the butt monkey of the X-Men and barely anyone (in-universe or out of it) gave him the time of day. Now, I think he started getting really awesome around the time Joss Whedon began an X-Men title, Astonishing X-Men. I've read a few of his arcs and damn if they don't kick ass. Now he's the full-fledged leader of the X-Men. But it seems a few of his long time friends don't see things the way he does and they let him know about it.

But now, for what I actually hate about this book. There will be spoilers, I warn you now.

Death in comics is pretty common. So common it gets joked about. And the X-Men has one of the most well known with Jean Grey (I think she's dead as of this blog... possibly?)
But that doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt when a beloved character dies. Whether it's pointlessly (see the Atop The Fourth Wall review of Cry For Justice for an example, and Lewis is right on with the reasons why these deaths can hurt us so much)
And, it is within this arc, one of the most beloved X-Men, Nightcrawler, dies. He dies the death of a hero, teleporting in between Hope and Bastion to take Hope to safety and gets impaled by Bastion because of it. He gets a worthy send-off, with so many of his comrades speaking about his warmth and compassion, his sense of humor. Even Wolverine has his moment, when he says that Nightcrawler always treated him like a man and with respect. “He was my best friend and he never treated me like a damn animal.”
Beast calls Cyclops out at the funeral, saying: “This is yours. You own this. Now and forever. Do you understand? Do. You. Understand?”, further cementing that there are those who question Cyclops' methods
Now, it may be asked, why do I hate this if Nightcrawler died valiantly and he was given a heartwarming send-off? Well, remember that quote I posted earlier about Hope? That is the reason. Since I found the character uneven, I have to wonder if his death is in vain. I guess time will tell, but so far, I'm not impressed.
Also, well, he's one of my favourite X-Men. In fact, second only to Beast. He had a wonderful heart, he was courageous, he had a great sense of humor and a kick-ass power. He had his hang-ups, but he never let them defeat him.
And, like Linkara says in the Cry For Justice review, not everybody comes back to life in comics. Hell, it took over twenty years for Barry Allen to return to the world, and I don't think anyone actually saw that coming.
So, who knows if he's coming back or not? Especially with Marvel supposedly having a “dead is dead” policy now. That being said, at least this is a better send-off than the logic-bending death of Nightcrawler of the Ultimate Universe. I mean, death by drowning? A teleporter dying by drowning? Maybe if they were weakened or knocked out or something, but come on!

So, all in all, mutantkind looks to the future with new mutants popping up, perhaps suggesting that while not every former mutant will get their powers back, they also will not be going extinct. But whether or not Hope is a messiah remains to be seen.

While I did have a few problems (especially with the length), I do recommend the story. Out of 5, I'd give it a 3. However, if your knowledge of X-Men is from the movies only, I'd suggest boning up on X-Men history first.