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X - X + X = ... ummm, X? I'm trying to make sense of something here, in the midst of all my fanboyish enthusiasm for the Real New Direction This Time For Sure over at Marvel. One moment big noise is being heard in New York about thinning the herd of X-titles and promoting this slimmed-down and buffed-up bunch so as to rebuild sales and save the harried X-consumer the stress of a) parting with too much cash and b) having to decide which of the bunch to ignore. So there went titles such as Mutant X, X-Men: The Hidden Years, X-Force, X-Man, Generation X and Bishop. Okay, Warren Ellis-assisted revivals being all well and good. Not a lot anyone would really miss by this point. For my money, in fact, Marvel could have chopped a couple more. In the other corner, however, we have the debut of Ultimate X-Men, a book that benefits greatly from Mark Millar and the dropping of history, though only time will tell how good Millar's approach really is. Unfortunately, I breathed a sigh of relief way too soon when it comes to the idea of a reduced-calorie X-line. The early signals were there, mind you. Chris Claremont was suddenly off of the two main X-titles, and rumbles of unpleasantness were heard ... damped suddenly by Bill Jemas and Quesada making noises about a new X-title to debut this year, with Claremont writing it. Suddenly we have three core X-titles, plus X-Men Unlimited. Next down the pike were hints that the recent Blink limited series was going to lead into a monthly book. Uh-oh. So instead of Bishop in an apocalyptic future, we have Blink in an apocalyptic (alternate) future. Yes, well. Ummm. Well. I don't think I had much time to scratch my head and be puzzled, mind you, because the next thing was the mind-boggling announcement that Mike Allred had signed up with Marvel, first to do an Ultimate Marvel team-up, after which he would be handling the art chores on X-Force. Wait a minute. X-Force was cancelled, right? Well, yes. Now it's uncancelled. In fact, it even restarts with the next issue number, rather than a new #1. This doesn't mean the status quo, however -- the book will sport a new team and a new attitude (well, sorta) in that the celebrity mutant aspect is being revived and accented. The art seen so far looks kind of like The Atomics on a really bad hit of acid. Recent announcements have laid out the teams for the core books -- X-Men is being renamed New X-Men for some reason, even though its new car smell wore off about 50,000 miles back down the road. Claremont's new book is X-Treme X-Men (you in the back, stop snickering!) Each book has its own small core team of mutants to work with, but it shouldn't take too long before things are well out of hand (though Grant Morrison promises lots of dead mutants by his second issue. Joy. Another Mutant Massacre to enjoy.) As it stands now, my enthusiasm is quickly ebbing -- yes, there are creative revamps happening here, but we were given something of a serious rattle during Warren Ellis' go-round with the fringe X-books, an effort that finally came to nothing with the cancellation of those titles. meanwhile, the thinned herd is rapidly expanding out again, and one suspects a case of mad cow disease isn't too far behind (either Grant Morrison is going to overdo it, or Claremont will explode into a cloud of overzealous caption boxes.) Doubtless there will be a new Mutant X series to coincide with the TV series -- retooled, of course, to follow the TV show. Just wait, Havok will get yanked back to his home reality -- just as soon as someone has the bright idea of restarting X-Factor. Don't believe it, then -- the glut isn't on its way to containment. The glut is simply being reconfigured and repositioned in the hopes of getting the cash cow to produce more. It may in fact work, to a degree -- I'll check out X-Force for a while because I like Allred's work, and will miss The Atomics, and I have no doubt that I'm not the only one curious about the effects Joe Casey and Grant Morrison will have on the X-verse (I also have no doubt that I'm not the only one staying away from the new Claremont book.) The question is whether the new readers will offset the loss in the old readership -- and whether they will stay (and whether, in fact, either Joe Casey or Grant Morrison will stick around for more than twelve months.) I really don't know. X-X+X=X ... I never was all that good with algebra. ©2000 by Steven E. McDonald |
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