Friday, August 27, 2010

The List #38 Part 2

X-Factor #208
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Emanuela lupacchino
This issue opens with Monet filling in for the voice of the reader, and questioning Layla on what her deal is considering her hanging out with Dr. Doom. Layla sort-of answers and Monet ends up fainting before anything else can be found out. I'd not mention this, but this also features the return of creepy, cryptic Layla so that's a big plus in helping restore my love for her. Meanwhile....

Rahne is a total bitch. Look at what she interrupted when her and the monstrosity in her stomach came bursting through the door--->

Pants were unzipped! People's comic book homo-quotas could have been filled for three years if they'd have been allowed to go further! But no, Rahne yet again gives me more fuel as to why she's the one of the X-Characters I hate the most.

Then she goes on a 'high and mighty' rant with her finger vertical and waggling in the air and proceeds to accuse
Shatterstar of brainwashing Rictor into this. Then she has a big fight scene with him. If you don't hate her yet, you will by the end of this issue.

Meanwhile, Longshot picks up some hoes and Darwin comments that he's tired of fighting when they come upon the Rahne/Star fight. Possibly a hint that he's that X-Factor team member leaving soon? Here's hoping, he contributes next to nothing to this series. And with Siryn and Madrox, it turns out they were duped into handing over the guy who used to be Hela's jester back to her, and that sets up the Vegas Trip for next issue.

The fight scene between Rahne/Star finally ends with Rictor explaining that he's genuinely with Shatterstar. She's hurt by this and says the most horrible thing:
At this point, I've had enough of Rahne Sinclair. Seriously, go die in a fire, bitch.
At first I thought she was lying on purpose to get Rictor back with her, but then I dug up my Necrosha issues of X-Force and turns out she really does have no idea that it's Hrimharri's. Whatever, she's still a bitch. What's worse is a rumor I've heard is that Miss Homo-Cockblocks is not just guest-starring, she's back on the team for good now. I'm not kidding about wanting her dead; I want her dead more than I wanted Cable dead. Seriously, she's like the Angelina of this series (Jersey Shore reference). No one wants you here, bitch! Oh and one last thing: Hela, who's getting an X-Factor visit soon, was involved in righting Rahne's pregnancy problems, so that may be something touched upon next issue. One good thing came of this devastating reveal:

Layla's onto you, Rahne!

And that's another push towards me loving Layla again. I'm so glad she's back to playing the weird girl who knows what's up. However, one thing I'm not glad to see is her ta-ta's hanging out. Girl, put those away, you were 13 two year ago, and we're just not ready for this.

Conclusion: Not as good an issue as the previous one, but still a great issue that makes X-Factor feel like it's getting revitalized after that dreadful, dragging FF crossover/Second Coming tie-in arc.



X-Men Legacy
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Clay Mann
Continuing from last issue, the X-Men take on the sentinels sent after the blonde girl with ease with Loa showing off her wonderful powers (here). I adore her powers, if I were an X-Man I would totally have her use her powers at every chance she had.

Turns out the blonde girl's name is Luisa and she's got a neat power:
Yes, she sounds like a modified Dazzler, but still, I think in a more awesome way here. Maybe because it has no connection to disco or other music scenes that have extremely soon expiration dates.

Paras' father has issue with taking her in, and Paras tries to calm him down while also revealing to the X-Misc. that he's getting married to his brother's fiance. Speaking of things that are weird, wasn't he determined to be the youngest New X-Man (14 then) right before it ended? What age is he now if he's able to enter a marriage in India?

Looks to be 16 by way of Taylor Lautner.
Obv. the transition from Scottie Young to another artist makes a difference (Pixie having suffered this the worst), but something about him strikes me as odd. I dunno, muscle-y 16 year olds just strike me as odd in general.

Everyone reacts to the news of engagement differently, Luisa having the most interesting reaction as she paints a picture on this:

No doubts about how she feels about Paras there. Later on we find out that for her this is subtlety. Exactly what's her idea of obnoxious? Rape?
Later on Magneto and Rogue have a talk about Luisa and how they can get her to tell them where she comes from as thus far she's been lying. Here's what Rogue's wearing during this little brainstorming sesh--->

...I haven't seen tops like those since the late '90's, and I haven't missed them. Ugh, just poor sartorial choices done by Rogue during this arc, seriously poor. During the discussion, Magneto also questions Rogue's choice in clothing. Her reaction?

Actually, he suggests to her that she should just siphon off the information from Luisa against her will with her powers, and she takes offense when he mentions that she's done it before.

In another room, Luisa tries to convince Paras to ditch his fiance, who we find out is boring and obedient, by using her lips. He shakes her off, and then comes the bright light of detail reveal as it turns out Luisa is Luz....and that she's one of the Childen of the Vault as they return (Serafina included) to collect her. Conclusion: Good issue, just not a whole lot else to say about that.

7 comments:

X-23 said...

God, I love my X-Men in casual clothing! And I also love the Children of the Vault. ESPECIALLY Serafina. God, I fell in love the first time I saw her. Too bad Cannonball is not on the Legacy-team. I'd love to see the story of him being in love and knowing it's bullshit that was implanted in his head by her again.
The only thing I don't love so far is that we always get new, disposable characters, when we already have so many of great characters rotting in limbo. I think it's unfair. Don't get me wrong, new characters are very important and ofter necessary (even here, to connect the CotV to the story), but I'd rather see some of the New X-Men used than some other teenagers.

And hey, I never knew that Rahne didn't just lie... It's because I fell asleep during the whole Necrosha crap, especially during this Asgardian baby bullshit. Well, it's good to know Rahne isn't a complete bitch. I kinda liked her before in the X-Factor, but I started hating her in X-Force because her storyline was so goddamn boring and dull and she never contributed to the case. And now she's about to destroy the second-best gay relationship ever (the best being Apollo/Midnighter). Sometimes I think that David just writes drama for the sake of drama, to get more comments and readers, and sometimes it seems desperate and a little too much, especially if you add the comics descriptions to it - "JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE...", "IT WILL BE THE MOST DISCUSSED STORY EVER..." But still - at least we always get surprises, not dull fighting with boring villains.
Oh and I still love Layla, but I think David doesn't know how exactly to write her now that she's an adult (teenager). He kinda lost the feeling of the character a little, because she doesn't seem solid to me. Well, I'm sure he'll fix it. And didn't she sleep with Madrox?? I always thought they had sex in the future...

Mr. Hellfire said...

Yeah, he definitely writes like he's grasping for attention sometimes, but honestly, he really just needs to recapture the fun of the beginning of the series. Now it's too much angst and depression and honestly it's like that friend that whines to you about every little thing.

Mmm, well the future of Layla and Madrox is still to be written, and also David said people would probably feel weirded out by it considering she was 13 two seconds ago.

FSaker said...

The scene of Rogue uppercutting Magneto should have her yelling "SHORYUKEN!"... that would have been awesome!!

Prodigial said...

Gonna have to backtrack on this Children of the Vault thing. I got nothing on this Serafina chick and Cannonball. Whether it was because of the artwork of the arc or the lame post-M-Day storyline, I completely skipped the story.

Prodigial said...

I am enjoying Carey's take on the secondary-new x-men characters like Anole, Loa and Paras. Personally, he's the only creative, consistent and decent writer that delivers in the franchise now.

But, I hear ya, @X-23, about the New X-Men limbo shit. A character like Surge or Mercury, would have suited perfectly well with the devices in this story, me thinks. He's obviously purposefully avoiding them. He's promised a plot involving Hellion in the next arc. Now if he could just bring back Sofia into the fold...

I can't blame David for his take on Wolfsbane. Rahne has turned into a dry character since dragged into X-Force, and I sincerely hope David can salvage her with the whole dubious thing. Heck, even Professor X has hit limbo these days, since Carey let him go. Seriously, Xavier really needs to take the reigns in one of these x-books.

CKyle and CYost have raped the shit out of all these characters so much they turned these characters dry. The Elixir disappearance is BULLFUCK. The Asgard-Rahne-baby hybrid is BULLFUCK. The Necrosha shit made me want to puke.

Well, that's enough of my rant on how much I hate CKyle and CYost.
I'll try not to make this a habit every time I post here.
I enjoy reading your insights, Mr.Hellfire. Keep them up, dude.

Suzene said...

You're a lot more generous than I am re: your interpretation of Rahne lying to Ric. She passes out, her stomach flat as a board, then wakes up looking like she swallowed a basketball and she doesn't ask questions about it? No, either she know what happened and she's lying, or she is simply too stupid to live.

I'm more pissed at the writer than the character, though. Rahne had enough character assassination over in X-Force -- she didn't need it here.

Mr. Hellfire said...

Mmm, I just figured David had enough sympathy for Rahne to just have her be dumb rather than manipulative.

And egh, I've never liked her, so I just view anything she does as absolutely annoying.