Friday, January 25, 2013

Machine Man & Bastion Annual 1998

Machine Man & Bastion Annual 1998
Writing: Mike Higgins & Karl Bollers
Art: Martin Egeland

What Went Down:  Cable and Bastion/Nimrod engage in battle as we get a close up of Machine Man’s systems repairing themselves from Bastion’s attack last issue.  Bastion is able to use all the machinery in the lab to attack Cable as he interfaces with the computers. 

Back on the Helicarrier, G.W. Bridge, then head of SHIELD, worrying about the mission and arguing with a General Kragg, whose daughter was part of the failed mission to the Prospero clinic.  Back at said clinic, Bastion/Nimrod attacks Cable with more turrets while he begins to convey his origin to Cable.  Helpfully, Bastion has decided to project his memories onto video screens while he narrates, even though Cable is busy fighting for his life.  Bastion not only mentions every appearance of Nimrod from Uncanny, as well as the Siege Perilous, but he incorporates every Sentinel appearance since the original team fought them in the sixties into his exposition.  Cable uses his telekinesis to blow a hole in the floor and escape the lasers.

As Cable catches his breath, and Bastion continues with his very long origin, X-51 reactivates.  Cable contacts Bridge, telling him the squad is gone, but Bastion is there.  Cable says he can handle it before being cut off by another attack from X-51.  Bastion continues his origin, explaining that he is a combination of Master Mold and Nimrod magically fused through the Siege Perilous, a mystical plot device from the late eighties.  Upon leaving the portal, he was the entity know as Bastion, and he was found and raised by Rose.  Although brought up to be caring, he could not ignore the state of the world and blamed mutants for the world’s problems.

As Cable and Machine Man continue to fight, Bastion shows the beginnings of his clinic and the origins of Operation Zero Tolerance, as well as the building of a new Master Mold.  On the Helicarrier, Bridge argues with a shadowy committee of superiors over what to do about the clinic; they don’t trust Cable and Machine Man to finish the job.  The committee wants him to send an air strike. 

Bastion finishes his diatribe, describing his defeat and the subsequent experiments on his body.  At the same time General Kragg tries to convince Bridge to launch the air strike.  Bastion has decided to use X-51 as the storehouse for his mind, but Cable uses his telepathic bond to break Machine Man from the villain’s control.  After being flooded with his own memories of his father and creator, Machine Man regains control and helps destroy the lab.  X-51 then takes control of the turrets and turns them on Bastion.  They set the clinic to explode, after Cable fails to find any other traces of humanity in the test subjects.  The lab blows before the air strike reaches the location, and the two heroes shake hands and complement each other. 

How It Was:  That’s right, in 1998 we had an annual starring two obscure robot characters, neither of whom had their own series.  The first thing that jumps out in this book is the drastic shift in art styles.  Mark Egeland’s style is cartoonier, but it’s also cleaner than Leonardi and there’s quite a bit more detail put in.  You can just tell from the smoke coming off X-51’s chassis, or the two page splash on page 2 and 3, that there is just more to the layouts and backgrounds in this book.  Unfortunately, aside from some gratuitous action at the beginning and the end, the rest of this issue is a slog. 

We spend the majority of this double-sized issue with Cable running through corridors while Bastion projects his history onto screens for us to see and explains his origin.  For those who don’t know, Bastion is Master Mold and Nimrod magically combined through the mystical plot-device the Siege Perilous.  You’ll note that it took me exactly one sentence to explain that.  Higgins and Bollers instead decide to recap and show every single Sentinel appearance since the original X-Men team, including appearances in non-X-books like the Defenders.  This does absolutely nothing for the story except for padding it out to unconscionable levels while Machine Man is allowed to repair. 

There’s also a subplot with GW Bridge being pressured to bomb the lab to the ground to prevent Bastion from rising to power again.  It adds a little tension, but it’s just been so done to death (most recently in Marvel’s The Avengers).  As for Bastion, he is so boring this issue.  He is supposed to be connected to the entire lab, but he can barely manage to keep track of Cable.  He just keeps droning on and on about Sentinel appearances that nothing to do with him, and then explaining the beginnings of all the plot details we already knew about him.  And poor Cable has absolutely nothing to do other than use his telepathic powers to free Machine Man from Bastion’s influence. 

Machine Man does get a few nice parts where he reflects how easy it would have been for him to turn out like Bastion, but other than that there’s not much to this issue.  This book is so full of filler that it really takes away from an experience that should be rather interesting—this whole debate over nature versus nurture and its effects on artificial beings.  Instead we just get a story that’s more interested in calling back to lots of better issues of Marvel comics.

Completionists Only

Cable & Machine Man Annual 1998

Cable & Machine Man Annual 1998
Writing: Mike Higgins & Karl Bollers
Art: Rick Leonardi

Retro Note: This story takes place after Uncanny #352, but before Uncanny #356.

What Went Down:  A team of SHIELD commandos is sent to explore the abandoned Operation Zero Tolerance clinic from Wolverine #117-118.  Much to the chagrin of everyone involved, the base turns out to have hidden labs full of human test subjects and Sentinel tech.  The troops get in touch with current SHIELD head of the day G.W. Bridge, but all the troops are killed by the Machine Man. 

A strange fantasy follows with Bastion watching fireworks with a wife and child with similar skin and hair color.  It is revealed that Bastion is actually in a containment field being monitored by SHIELD scientists and Senator Brickman (later seen in Uncanny #359).  The scientists are trying to determine Bastion’s origins, noting that his body is not authentic.  Bastion then breaks out of the tube.

In Alaska, Cable watches Cyclops and Jean in their house trying to live a normal life.  Cable is happy for the couple, but reflects on his own struggle.  He briefly recaps his history being raised by Scott and Jean in the future, as well as his history with Stryfe, the Askani, and Six Pack.  As he hikes away, his revelry is interrupted by a SHIELD helicopter. 

The transport takes Cable to the hellicarrier.  There Bridge briefs him on Bastion’s recent escape, showing Cable the security footage.  Bastion is displaying strange strength and energy blasts that he has never used before.  Cable says this is the government’s fault, but agrees to help search for the missing team at the clinic. 

After cutting briefly to Machine Man plugged into a Sentinel, we see Bastion (in his underwear) visiting Rose (the women from X-Men #68-69).  He asks for help from the woman, and we learn that years ago Rose found Bastion and raised him; he was as ignorant as a child although apparently fully grown.  The authorities track Bastion down and open fire on him, accusing him of being a mutant; the bullets ricochet off him and kill Rose.  Bastion flips out and flies through the helicopter a la Cannonball. 

Meanwhile SHIELD loans Cable a plane, which he takes to the Prospero Clinic in New Mexico.  Upon entering, he is attacked by automated turrets, which he fends off.  Cable reaches the main lab and discovers Machine Man.  He is surprised when Machine Man attacks him, noting that he is a super hero.  MM captures Cable just as Bastion enters.  While trying to escape, Cable’s telepathy causes a mind meld between himself and MM, sharing memories and feelings between the two heroes.  Bastion takes out Machine Man and reveals that he has transformed himself into Nimrod—the Sentinel from the future.

How It Was:  Presenting the story that should’ve been a two page section of Operation Zero Tolerance: the Origin of Bastion.  This is such a strange one, since Cable and Machine Man both had absolutely nothing to do with the original Bastion story.  You can see what the writers are going for, juxtaposing X-51 and Bastion’s origins as artificial beings with human mentors that diverged in different directions, but the Machine Man is such an obscure Marvel character and Cable is left with little to do.

The writing team of this story can’t get through two pages without having to retcon the Zero Tolerance story—oh actually the Prospero clinic wasn’t abandoned, they just moved all the lab equipment to a secret room in the same building.  Also odd for this story—it is hinted that X-51 murders the soldiers in the opening scenes, but this aspect is never touched on again.  Because this is a double-sized annual, the reader is subjected to a number of expository flashbacks of the main characters’ pasts that have little to nothing to do with the main plot.  I don’t really see how X-51’s battle with the Hulk or Cable’s past with Stryfe help to inform the story better.  There’s also this weird plot device of a mind link between the two heroes which doesn’t make a lot of sense since Machine Man is well… a machine.

As for Bastion, he’s been tweaked a little.  Oddly the writers are trying to make him out to be sympathetic, unable to fight his inherent programming. Higgins and Bollers go down the checklist of hints we got from the OZP story: what’s up with Rose—check, unapologetic hatred of mutants—check, weird Sentinel tech—check.  He’s also been reimagined as this ultra-powered energy wielding robot, which lends the question of why he didn’t put up more of a fight at the end of OZP.

This plot is by the numbers. After the first few pages, you can pretty much predict the story beat for beat, from the fight between the two heroes to the cliffhanger at the end.  The art is pretty nice; other than some odd facial expressions from G.W. Bridge everything looks great.  It’s just too bad it takes so long for things to get going.  Cable doesn’t start his mission until almost two-thirds into the book.  It’s a very padded story meant to shed some light on one of the lesser remembered villains of the X-universe.

Completionists Only

New Year, New Beginning: Some Slight Changes to Illegitimate Children of the Atom

If you’re a regular reader, first off thank you, and second off you’ll notice that my posts have not been coming as frequently as usual.  I am very sorry for the long hiatus; part of this was due to being busy with life, but I’ve also been putting a lot of thought into my writing here and the idea of criticism in general.

I worry that criticism has become synonymous with “hating and  disliking” to the point that I often read reviews of things and wonder if whoever wrote the pieces even likes movies or video games or whatever is being reviewed to begin with.  Many focus on the dozen things they don’t like, while ignoring everything that does work.

Being an introspective and sensitive guy, I’m concerned I might come off as self-entitled and jaded—taking for granted the bounty of entertainment available to me because it doesn’t fit within a narrow category that I’ve deemed acceptable.  At the end of the day I want people to like comics, and more importantly I want to like them.  All the issues I’ve read had some merit, and I like to think that even though I am quite fond of the X-Men, I hope I can still be fair, logical, and somewhat objective.  And so I sit here typing, pondering if the majority of reviews and criticisms today are spoiled people holding modern creations to unobtainable standards or if they actually push artists and creators to be better and more relevant.  Does this current climate automatically lead to toxic cynicism and negativity for the sake of negativity, or does it in fact hold creators and audiences to a higher standard of quality?  And where on the spectrum does my writing fall?

I can’t change my opinions, and really I don’t think that my reviews up to this point have been that mean-spirited, but I can change the way I rate issues.  Letter grades are so open to interpretation, and often carry negative associations, so I decided to try creating a more accurate way of measuring the quality of an issue.  I want to create a system that better reflects my enthusiasm and appreciation as a fan, and hopefully makes the issues more accessible.  I’m not claiming I’m the first one to come up with a system like this; this is just what I came up with.  So, without further ado, my new rating system.

Everyone Should Read: When I was an undergrad in college, I always had between one and seven roommates, and I went to the comic store every Wednesday.  Although none of my roommates read comics habitually as I did, all were open to the medium as they were fans of the various comic book based-movies and cartoons that have come out.  The only problem was they didn’t know where to start.  And as comic fans, we should all realize that it is our duty to pick out books that not only we like, but that we can share with non-fans to keep our hobby alive.  Long story short, I actually got some of them to subscribe to a few titles at my local comic store thanks to  the likes of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, Brian K. Vaughn’s Runaways, and Bendis’s New Avengers because of their quality and universal appeal.  Looking back on my reviews, the one’s I’ve rated highest are, for the most part, the ones I’d most likely share to grow appreciation for comics.
 
For X-Men Fans: There are a lot of comics out there, each with their own audience and appeal.  The X-books are no different in that respect.  In my mind, being an X-Men fan doesn’t mean having read every issue—it means having an appreciation for the characters and the universe, and being able to put up with some flaws as long as it leads to some great character moments.  Or being able to put up with some lousy character moments for some amazing events.  It means that you’re willing to overlook some minor problems for the big picture, as long as it leads to something true to the themes and characters of the X-Men.  And this label is for books you might appreciate that others might scoff at.

Completionists Only:  I place myself firmly in this category.  Even if you don’t own every X-book out there… if you own a couple hundred issues, you’re probably in this category.  If you’ve ever found a story dreadful, but continued to buy it every month, whether for the little moments you might enjoy, or because you just needed to know how it ended, this is the category for you.  These are books that may not be the favorites, or may’ve been ill-conceived, but still fit into the texture of the X-Men one way or the other.

So there you have it, my new rating system.  Was it necessary?  I have no idea, but I figure it’s something new.  Plus I like how instead of qualifying a book as good or bad, it instead breaks down the appeal the book might have to different audiences.  Some might argue that this is just a different looking good to bad scale, and they’d probably be right, but I promise my intentions are pure.  So happy reading.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Long Time No See

Holy cow!  Has it really been four months since I've posted?  Don't answer that; it's rhetorical as well as filled with shame.  I apologize if you've been patiently waiting for new posts; according to Blogger there have been quite a few visits, and I feel bad for disappointing anyone.  All I can say is that my new job has been a little crazy, but I think I've settled into a pretty good groove.  As for the purpose of this post, I will be posting some new reviews, probably around Friday or Saturday.  Hopefully I will be able to get back into a routine after taking so long off.  No promises, but I will try to do my best.  Who knows, this might be the year I get around to writing about something other than X-Men comics on here.  I hope 2013 is going well for everybody reading this, and thank you very much for continuing to frequent this humble little blog.