Ed Liu
06-09-2003, 09:42 AM
Howdy,
After reading Y: The Last Man, Runaways, and Mystique, I think I've decided that Brian K. Vaughn is the master of the quiet little details that accumulate to totally blow your mind. He's just graduated to the short list of writers whose work I'll check out simply because his name is on a title.
This issue picks up with Mystique surrounded by a WHOLE lot of guys with Really Big Guns. After tossing off a non-chalant quip that also serves as a nifty pop-culture reference, Mystique then proceeds to escape from their clutches, whipping out three or four of those little details I mentioned earlier involving some of the most creative applications of shapeshifting I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work as well as she had hoped, and she ends up in the clutches of the agency charged with "Homeland Defense." After a conversation with an agent that's also filled with more of those little details, and is about to be summarily executed when she's rescued by...Magneto? The "real" identity of Mags isn't any real surprise, but it does set up one of the most potentially interesting conversations for #3 (which seems so very, very far away, and not just 'cuz I get my comics once a month).
I thought Mystique was one of the best things about X2, and can only hope that fans of the movie will see the eventual trade book of this comic series and pick it up. There's nothing here that's inaccessible to a new reader, but enough reference to the past to satisfy all but the most hardcore long-time X-reader. Vaughn manages to make the title as hard to pin down and figure out as Mystique herself -- just when you think you've got things figured out, he'll throw in a twist that reverses everything in the blink of an eye.
Thankfully, the T&A of the first issue has been greatly toned down, too, which was one of my major complaints about the artwork.
This book is all different kinds of fun and doesn't suffer from the "12 pages stretched to 22 for the eventual trade paperback" syndrome a lot of modern comics have these days. This is all the more remarkable considering that Tsunami's stated intention is to collect these comics into trade books shortly after the story arc finishes.
-- Ed/Ace
After reading Y: The Last Man, Runaways, and Mystique, I think I've decided that Brian K. Vaughn is the master of the quiet little details that accumulate to totally blow your mind. He's just graduated to the short list of writers whose work I'll check out simply because his name is on a title.
This issue picks up with Mystique surrounded by a WHOLE lot of guys with Really Big Guns. After tossing off a non-chalant quip that also serves as a nifty pop-culture reference, Mystique then proceeds to escape from their clutches, whipping out three or four of those little details I mentioned earlier involving some of the most creative applications of shapeshifting I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work as well as she had hoped, and she ends up in the clutches of the agency charged with "Homeland Defense." After a conversation with an agent that's also filled with more of those little details, and is about to be summarily executed when she's rescued by...Magneto? The "real" identity of Mags isn't any real surprise, but it does set up one of the most potentially interesting conversations for #3 (which seems so very, very far away, and not just 'cuz I get my comics once a month).
I thought Mystique was one of the best things about X2, and can only hope that fans of the movie will see the eventual trade book of this comic series and pick it up. There's nothing here that's inaccessible to a new reader, but enough reference to the past to satisfy all but the most hardcore long-time X-reader. Vaughn manages to make the title as hard to pin down and figure out as Mystique herself -- just when you think you've got things figured out, he'll throw in a twist that reverses everything in the blink of an eye.
Thankfully, the T&A of the first issue has been greatly toned down, too, which was one of my major complaints about the artwork.
This book is all different kinds of fun and doesn't suffer from the "12 pages stretched to 22 for the eventual trade paperback" syndrome a lot of modern comics have these days. This is all the more remarkable considering that Tsunami's stated intention is to collect these comics into trade books shortly after the story arc finishes.
-- Ed/Ace