Heretical Review: Uncanny X-Men 01

I'm wondering if I ought to ration my posts - at this rate I'm going to burn myself out before I even have a fanbase. One a week plus Telfords sounds good, but sometimes one just reads too many awesome things. I've not been too consistent with reviews and the goals of this blog, and that isn't going to change any time soon as we move into the realms of the comic.

Quick background: The X-Men are cooler than you, and they just had a mighty (if not wonderfully penned) schism that split mutantkind into two factions – Wolverine and the Baby Squad, and Cyclops and the Extinction Team. One of those subgroup names is for real. Wolverine and the X-Men 01 didn't exactly raise eyebrows. It was par, I read it, will read on.

Uncanny X-Men 01 is, yes, a reboot and (yes) DC comics have been abusing that particular concept recently, with crappy writing, massive boobies, and a total lack of respect for their current fans. BUT, this is Marvel. Uncanny has only a modicum of boobage, wonderful dialogue, and I don't think the fans could have asked for much more. The coolest of the cool, all in one place. Wolverine used to be cool, but then he sold out and joined like 50 teams and comic series, so not that upset to see him leave.

Cool guys don't look at Celestials

More than anything, writer Kieron Gillen show he understands his audience when he uses lines like “The dial's gone past 11! We need a new dial! I Repeat! We need a new dial!” We see heavy hitters let loose, give in to their inner demons, and lose limbs. One wonders how he can continue when he's already delivered the perfect comic for the modern geek.

Gillen has been given a blockbuster cast to work with, and he's already navigated them superbly into their new place in the politics of the Marvel U. While dealing with the narrative of a potentially planet-wide threat he has already established the status quo of the entire Utopian island population, worked-in the complex relationships, revealing rivalries to new readers in simple and artful exchanges. The man is simply a master of the economy of words. All this and a villain who I haven't even mentioned; such is the extraordinary pace.

If you read a comic for the story, and I think most of us do, I always say that the best art is art that you don't notice. If something about it draws your attention, beyond its employ as an illustrator of words, its detracting from the plot. Happily, Carlos Pacheco's clean, consistent, and refined character designs do not disappoint. I have stopped to go back and look at the art, now reflecting that it has flawlessly fulfilled my only criterion. A compliment to Gillen's efficient style, Pacheco mixes up posture and angled eyebrows magnificently to tell us what Gillen's words are too valuable for.

All in all a fabulous read, and any further conclusion will just tread all over the rest of what I've written. The X-Men are way cooler than you.

Wounded on the eve of NaNoWriMo

Today marks the start of the most important month in any amateur (and some professional) writer’s year. November is the Nanowrimo – National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a novel of around 50,000 words in just thirty days, targeting (if you’re sensible) 2000 words a day, because you know there’ll be days when you fail utterly.

I’ve not tried it before, so I’ve spent the last weekend learning about how it all works and fleshing out one of the myriad ideas I’ve been piling high for just such an occasion. Turns out, I should have got into it earlier in October as a lot of people start prepping well before I have. Thousands of people do it worldwide, enough to organise related gatherings in major and minor towns and cities – including Reading. Unfortunately because of when I signed up I had a mere 40 minutes notice of our first meeting, so did not attend. People also sign up to raise money for writers’ causes, getting people to sponsor them and pledge money online. I was tempted by this, but honestly can’t be sure that I’m going to be able to pull off 50,000 words, so thought I’d see what I can do this year before suggesting that people give me money for my efforts next year.

Not bad really, but its's the principle of the thing!

Unfortunately I'm already behind schedule before I've even written a word... Last night I was dragged out of Sakura in Reading for reasons I am as yet unaware. Two bouncers grabbed me and forced me out. I didn't even realise they were bouncers until after I'd cut my right elbow, bruised my left arm and shouted “What the fuck!” loudly several times. I went back to Sakura today to start the ball rolling on identifying the bouncers involved, watching the CCTV, and finding out if I should take the matter further. It went reasonably well, with a little headway made thanks to my sister's lawyer boyfriend, who was not not nearly as shaky as I was.

I get a phone call tomorrow and we'll see how things go from there. Now, on to writing... Megan!