The List #33 Part 1

X-Force #28
Writers: Craig Kyle & Chris Yost
Artist: Mike Choi
This issue opens where we left off last time, with Cable letting the T/O virus take him over so he can get through the time portal. From there it allows for X-Force to just barely get in behind him and return to the present. They're all in rough shape, but none as rough as Cable considering he follows his grand entrance with a grand exit with only a moment between the two. Yes, Cable is Second Coming's big finale death as he explodes into pieces after he smiles one last time to Hope; only leaving behind his metal arm.

Meanwhile, Bastion's frustrated that his plan has failed and decides to turn Lang and Creed into sentinels and then rushes out to take care of the X-Men. Back on the bridge there's mourning with "heart-touching" flashbacks to Hope and Cable that seem excessive and sentimental. Cyclops attempts to comfort Hope, but she tells him for the millionth time that she hates him or wants him dead. This is probably the first time I've considered her angst parade reasonable.

This is interrupted by Bastion sending down a laser beam that splits the bridge in half and causes the X-Men to either fall into the water below or just be knocked back from Hope. Bastion floats on down to tell Hope that he's had it with her and that she needs to be eliminated. Hope decides to fight back and her powers finally manifest. What they are confuses me, I'm thinking she's a mimic? At first it seems the "glow" around her is Armor's power, then she fires optic beams like Cyclops, and later her hand seems to turn to metal which would be Colossus. All this time Bastion is speechifying and it's nothing new, useful, or interesting. Note to X-Creators: Please make the next villain mute if it in any way resembles this unimpressive character.

The fight continues, with Hope having the upper hand by shooting off eye beams followed by then seeming to do something all too familiar. She manifests the bird we all associate with fire incarnate. Yes, it seems she's got some Phoenix in her indeed, and from there you can just see Cyclops' thoughts in his visor:

From there Cyclops goes to Hope with Emma protesting. Wolverine stops her and tells her to stay back because there's nothing she can do. She looks down and says, "I know," in defeat as Wolverine follows Cyclops. Yeah. So it seems the idiot with a healing factor and claws is more useful than the mega-telepath with diamond form. How logical.

Cyclops and Wolverine join the fight, there's a, "THIS IS FOR KURRTTTTT!!" moment from Wolverine, and in the end Hope blows up Bastion and destroys the bubble. The issue ends with the X-Men gathered around Hope who's floating and just looks like Jean.

Conclusion: This issue in general was half convincingly intense that made for genuine excitement with the other half being overly sentimental and forced. Cable's death was definitely one of the moments done well, and despite my dislike for the character, I still could appreciate the way he was sent off.

X-Men #1
Writer: Victor Gischler
Artist: Paco Medina
If you've seen the previews for this issue then you've just about read the issue [Here] and [Here]. Why? Because that's almost every page of this issue. Not only that, but it's really not the most exciting book anyway.

This issue opens with Jubilee and Pixie hanging out in San Fransisco with Pixie having been sent to keep tabs on Jubs. From there a vampire shows up and explodes with his blood getting on the surrounding people which includes Jubilee.

A lot of the rest of the issue is Dr. Rao, Cyclops, and Dr. Nemesis keeping Jubilee on Utopia because they know she's probs going to turn into a vampire. There's also vampires invading San Fran, and them calling out to the people infected by the blood. It's standard vampire shit that calls into question why anyone thought a vampire storyline was good to have as the first arc consider it really has nothing new to offer.

The rest of the issue is Wolverine, Pixie, and Angel finding the vamps and invading one of their bases to find people strapped upside down and being drained of their blood. Two other things of note: Storm wanted to help considering her history with Dracula, but they said she's maxed out her page time for the month considering she's still married and therefore "useless". Should she consider a divorce, they'll reconsider. Kidding, that was just the subtext of what was said. Oh and also, Dr. Nemesis was needlessly prickly again. The thing is writers are probably thinking of the television character House when they do this, but I'm sure House's prick factor is much better executed. In the case of Nemesis, he's likely supposed to come off as having a disregard for oversensitive feelings, but all he sounds like is an immature teenager trying to come off like he doesn't care even though you know he's dying for your disapproval which he translates to self-approval. In the end he just comes off as pathetic.

Conclusion: It's definitely the weakest out of this week's bunch, and considering the cover you'd expect more X-Men to have been involved especially for a first issue. Instead we get Cyclops, Wolverine, Pixie, Jubilee, Dr. Rao, Dr. Nemesis, and two seconds worth of Storm and Angel. That's hardly an all-star cast.

X-Force #27 Review

X-Force #27
Writers: Chris Yost and Craig Kyle
Artist: Mike Choi
The first 12 pages of this issue are all about the fight scene between the X-Men and the Nimrods. There's no word bubbles, it's all up on Mike Choi and his ability to convey the intensity of a battle; which he does exceedingly well.

The important moments of the battle scene are this: Psylocke rips a Nimrod in half with her telekinesis (You go, girl!), Hellion gets his hands and part of a forearm shot off (seen in the preview pages [Here]), and Hisako gets her ass beat. One thing that bothered me is Rogue gets one of her absorbed wings ripped out again, and I get the effect of her losing something is good for contributing to the seriousness of the fight, but why the hell doesn't she just fly with Betsy's telekinesis rather than make herself vulnerable by making more of herself that could get hurt?
What bothered me loads more was apparently Iceman got third degree burns. Except it's been established so many times that Bobby's able to come back from just about anything nowadays, so I have trouble he can even be scratched these days.

Anyway, in the end we get a bleak page of the X-Men picking up their wounded, and then we turn to Bastion's force which now is Bastion, Graydon Creed, Trask, and whatever Nimrods they can pull from the future. So that's the villain head count right now.

Back at X-Central, the injured are being reviewed, and everyone's in a frightened mood. Which I can say that thanks to the resurrect-a-thons of the past 5 years that it doesn't mean shit to me. Because I know Nightcrawler will probably be back in two years. And there's a chance Karma's leg will be fixed sometime in the future. When dead doesn't mean dead, it's hard to tell a convincingly serious war story.

Anyway, the facts about the white sphere are in and apparently it links to the future. And the supply of Nimrods available to come through is over 170,000. Everyone's confidence starts to shake worse, and then Emma turns to Cyclops--->

Except Cyclops is Jim Jones here. He brought a bunch of vulnerable people to one place which is surrounded by ocean. Or more like Fraction attempted to convince us that an experienced leader like Cyclops would actually pull a suicidal stunt like this. Utopia's real name is Masada. Except at least Masada wasn't in the middle of the ocean.

Cyclops does come up with a plan though. He wants to send X-Force into the future with Cable's one last jump. And he wants Cypher to "speak the language" of the Nimrods to re-wire them. Remember when I said Cypher was going to become an Ink? Yeah, right about now. BTW, his tag is now "Cypher is Deus Ex Machina".

Oh by the way, Storm finally finds out about X-Force:

Um, no no no. Let's review what formerly marked the difference between Cyclops and Storm's leaderships.

Storm was all right with killing first, k?

I don't care that this was 20 years ago and she was under the influence of Inferno. This is just one of the examples I can pull out that shows Storm as the harder leader. Which was true up until we decided Scott needed to be "badass" like Wolverine because otherwise he's a lame character (which started post-Apocalypse possession).

Moving on, Cyclops hands out assignments like telling Rogue to get all the noncombatants into the Atlantean column underwater. And Betsy gets the most badass job of all:

Speed-telepathy while riding motorcycle? Ohhhh Betsy, it's no wonder why we love you.

Anyway, just as more Nimrods are coming out, the modified X-Force leaves to the future. Cyclops turns to Emma and whines about how he's killed X-Force because they have no way to get back. Really? Why say it like that, Yost and Kyle? Does anyone for a second think that Wolverine, X-23, and other well-liked or recently brought back to the X-Circle characters are really going to die? No. So just say they're screwed, and leave it at a place where we can be convinced. Conclusion: For all my complaints this issue, in the end it was a pretty decent issue considering my complains are more over consistent problems in the X-Universe rather than just this issue. This issue is actually probably one of the better issues of Second Coming.

X-Force #26 Review

Writer: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Artist: Mike Choi
I know I'm already a little late jumping onto the review train for this issue considering the plot of it has already been so over-predicted that it basically got stale the day after it hit the stands. Before I begin I have to thank Adi Granov for his gorgeous Emma Frost cover...which also had that girl, but she's not important. A problem with Granov's covers is that he keeps putting Emma in her Hellfire costume on the covers even though everyone else's is current. Does she really need to be running around in panties? Do pants inhibit her telepathy?

The issue begins with a look at all the main players and where they are currently. By the way, the issue is done by Choi who is talented, but as I've said so many times, a HORRIBLE choice for X-Force because his style is way too pretty. Like dark grey inks aren't going to remove the fact that everything he draws is too pretty. This sort of issue comes up in the opening two pages.

If you didn't already know who these characters were, what would age would you think these three characters are? Because 16/17 year old X-23 looks the oldest out of these three and around her early to mid twenties. Psylocke looks around 17 even though I'm pretty sure she's mid to late twenties. And Emma looks like kid Layla Miller in lipstick. So 13. Except she's late twenties. One thing Choi does succeed at more than any other artist it seems is making Psylocke look like she's actually Asian.

But moving on, it turns out Karma's in bad shaper considering her leg was just eaten up to mid-thigh. Which maybe should have killed her pretty quickly? But apparently, science of the X-World being like magic again, her uniform helps stop the bleeding. How? Especially from a major artery? Anyway, the NM are undecided as to where they should go and talking it over with Cyclops. Because it hasn't been emphasized in this past two years that every mutant life matters. Finally, Cyclops tells them to head back to Utopia. And then Prodigy cameo queens it to say that communication is down.

Back at Alpha team plus Cable, they're still busy with fighting off Smileys and it's ok. The only thing that really stuck out at me was Psylocke and X-23 doing a Fastball Special. Which was pretty neat. Also, Colossus was pissed, and continues to be throughout the issue, about Ilyanna's being pulled into Limbo. This continues to be covered in next week's Second Coming- Revelations: Hellbound (click for preview).

Turning towards Hope, Nightcrawler, and Rogue, Kurt's exhausting himself with all the teleporting he's doing. Rogue offers to help him out by siphoning his power and doing the rest of the way. He refuses. Then Bastion shows up and Rogue gets to show off all the powers she has in her. Which I found pretty epic especially since Rogue is always wonderful in a fight. But. Her and Nightcrawler get their asses kicked in the end. And just as Bastion is about to get to Hope, it happens. Second Coming's. Next. Top. Death. Isssss....

Nightcrawler!
*cue Nick Nolan's "Free For All" that they play whenever someone wins ANTM*

Nightcrawler teleports himself so that Bastion's arm is right in Kurt's chest. He prays for strength and teleports Hope and himself all the way back to Utopia. Then dies. Later on, Alpha Team shows up and see Emma and Scott's faces. Psylocke asks, "Who?" and Logan already knows saying, "Elf." And that's pretty much the issue.

It was a powerful scene for what it was. But the thing is we all saw it coming, he was barely ever used, there was even a Manifest Destiny one-shot to emphasize this. Half of us probably won't even notice he's gone because we didn't notice his presence to begin with. Essentially, I'm saying I'm over it, and hopefully that when he comes back (which hopefully won't be next week) that he's taken back out because someone knows what to do with him.

Now to address the poll which had the question, "Who do you think is Second Coming's big death?" I have to say thank you to the 29 people that voted, I really do appreciate even just a simple thing like voting on one of my polls. The results for the poll are: Nightcrawler got 86% of the votes (25 people), Colossus got 0%, Beast got 3% (1 person), Archangel got 3% (1 person), and Other got 6% (2 people). So I definitely feel comfortable saying that those of you who read here weren't all that shocked by this issues big reveal.

Now for a bit of housecleaning which includes discussion of some recents news items and a new poll:

• Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow! For a list of the comics are this year, click here. I'm planning on going to Coast City Comics for FBCD needs especially considering they've also got sales going on at the same time. And plus, they've got quarter bins and it seems every three weeks they call my name.
  

• I found this picture of Cyndi Lauper recently and was just shocked. Take off a decade and she's Ariel, seriously. And I think it's perfect that Ariel's real life equivalent can be found in an 80's icon.

• Marvel released a teaser image about the upcoming New X-Force. My guesses for the new team members and what looks REALLY likely considering the image are: Deadpool, Gambit, and Psylocke. And the flying one is probably Archangel. And for my new poll, I want to know from all of you "Which X-Man do you want to see in X-Force the most?" And of course, yet again for the Other option, please feel free to leave a comment saying who your vote goes to in specific.
  

• Last week's Buy Pile had an amazing blurb in it about the Firestar one-shot:

Marvel, apparently, wants female readers. That's fine. However, making something as whiny, self-indulgent and bland as "Firestar" #1 is probably not gonna make hordes of estrogen-powered new fans ring up the Comic Shop Locator and rush to wherever this kind of tedium can be found.

I agree completely. Also, Marvel would do well to stop pandering to fan boys by having men always be the stars. Seriously, DC seems to get it with their solo female books, but Marvel, uh, where are yours? I know of a few, but I'm not even interested enough to list them. And the X-Men, supposedly a metaphor for minorities, has white, hegemonic males running everything. If Marvel's surprised by their inability to appeal to female readers, they stand alone there.

The List #20

Psylocke #3
Writer: Chris Yost
Artist: Harvey Tolibao
This issue we come back to Rage man almost killing Betsy. Again. With no actual suspense because we know Psylocke is going to come out of it without a scratch because she's the star of this series. Also, according to her hair, Betsy's near death this issue is brought to you by the letter 'S'. Unfortunately, this issue focuses way too much on Rage man. Which is a waste of page time because he is a cliche of a character: Overly aggressive, illogical man going to kill the man who killed his lover. Truly groundbreaking. It's like I haven't seen at least 30 mainstream films with that same plot before. And books. and video games. At least in the fight that continues between him and Betsy we get a neat side by side panels thing.

Ok, here's the entire plot of the issue in a few sentences: Psylocke and Rage man fight because both are trying to get to Matsuo to kill him. They find him, Rage man is taken out, Matsuo's disfigured so he wants a mercy killing, and Logan comes to make sure no one kills him since he wants him to suffer.

Yeah, I was on the edge of my seat too. Anyway, here are some details of interest that happened in between all that, including this issue's Sash Watch. First off, Chris Yost appears to be under the impression that angst makes a hero more appealing. Like in the way, that packs it on to a ridiculous level. This beautiful wangst that we have on the side here is from Logan after he exits the bar. Except Logan has just been drinking or hitching a ride this series meaning we have no idea what the fuck his problem is all of a sudden. Seriously Logan, just because your mother wouldn't let you go to the My Chemical Romance concert doesn't mean you have to give up on life. I just love how Logan gets away with whining all the time and few people pick up on ridiculous he starts to sound after awhile. Yes, don't school me on his past, I know it's shit. But if he's really all Zen like he is these days you would think he'd understand to move on. Whatever, I suppose the translation of this would be: "I am a man. When I smile and seem happy, other men hate me. So I will conform to their values and seem sullen because people respect me when I'm mad."

Continuing on the same note, Psylocke has also been quite self loathing throughout this series. Again, I understand crap past and this series is about revisiting it. But the thing is is that this does not convincingly sound like a woman in her late 20's to me. To me, Betsy's angst lines up better to a 16 year old who's just been hit by the Overdramatic Hormones fairy. Of course, this just adds another reason to why I think Psylocke is the X-Men's Spider-Woman considering Jessica's series is littered with why she's broken, how hollow she is, and how one time her mom told her she couldn't use the mini-van.

Now onto Sash Watch! This issue Betsy's sashes displayed an ability that I think should be considered noted on her Wikipedia page. All right, so Betsy spends the page discussing how she loved Matsuo, he loved her, just basically mentioned love a few times. And then at the last panel we find her sashes have formed into a heart. How neato supermo is that? Betsy's got mood sashes. Is there any way to pay Tolibao to make her sashes form into a frowny face when she's pissed next issue?

Oh, just so you know the deal with Matsuo because I was definitely surprised when he appeared in all his Dawn of the Dead glory: Matsuo killed Mariko, Logan's Japanese lovely, so Logan decided to disfigure him horribly once every year, but make sure he wouldn't die so he could suffer. So at the end of the issue Logan and Betsy have a conflict over her wanting to kill Matsuo. What this means for us next issue is that we're punished for liking Psylocke by having mandatory Logan overexposure time. It's going to be. SO. THRILLING. I LOVE HIS INCLUSION IN EVERY CREVICE OF THE MARVEL UNVERSE!

Oh and for conclusion: the only reason you should give money to anyone for this issue is if you are looking to collect the entire mini series.

Nation X #2
Writer #1: CB Cebulski and Jim McCann
Artist #1: Mike Choi
First story up is about Jubilee. Here's the idea: She meets up with the fan favorites of the New X-Men (it's nice to see them used somewhere), discusses the situation (no, not that Jersey Shore guy), has Surge be pointlessly pissy to her, and then she decides to finally send along some note to Logan that is really pointless. Get a cell and text him, honey.

Things to say about it? Dust pulls a pretty neat move.
Also, two things are concerning Surge: 1. What the hell was with her attacking Jubilee for not being a mutant anymore? To put it in other words, what was her motivation because her animosity seemed to come out of nowhere. Well. Her animosity towards depowered mutants at least considering she's generally an unpleasant character. 2. Why were her eyebrows and eyelashes blue? Her blue hair is dyed for anyone wondering, and I have to say that it's rare, or at least for me, to encounter someone with unnaturally colored hair who also did their eyebrows that color. As for eyelashes, I'll just assume she had blue mascara.

Unfortunately, this story is pretty damned dry, the dryest aspect being that crap note, which I find just weird because Jubilee is the spunky X-Man. But points to her for remembering this--> At least someone does. And I have to say I think Storm should be depowered again and yet again be put in charge of a team. It'd help remind the audience that the depowered mutants aren't totally useless. Although, I doubt any of them are trained like Storm, but you get my basic idea.

Writer #2: John Barber
Artist: David Lopez
I have done a little extra interview reading concerning this story and it seems this is Mr. Barber's first venture into X-Writing since he was an editor before. And I would like to say unto him: Read your fucking stories closely before you write on a character. You wrote about two characters with very few appearances: Quentin Quire and Martha Johansson. Some of this a matter of fact and some of it's a matter of my opinion.

First off, the narration is in second person point of view. I get it: Martha has only ever had one line and that was in HCT. Other times it's a Cousin It or the teacher from Peanuts thing, where people repeat what she said or give the idea in their response because we can't understand her (in this instance it's because she's communicating telepathically). Whatever, second person point of view didn't become interesting all of a sudden because of those reasons. Also, she was a teenage girl before her brain was cut out, she does have a personality.

Which is another weird moment: When she possesses Iceman she does talk, but seems to have no idea how to use her contractions. Um. Yeah. Something I saw on some annotations for Y The Last Man, and I'm inclined to agree with: Why do writers seem to think contractions are totally fucking beyond people who are not regular English speakers with normal lives? Like I said, Home Girl in a Jar was a teenage girl up until some point in New X-Men. Never showed on panel, but read the news captions somewhere in Imperial and you'll see her mentioned as kidnapped.

Also, how is her 'second ability' the ability to turn of powers? Yeah, I know it's probably part of the deluxe psychic package, but to state it as a separate ability? I'm sorry, but explanation and PROOF please? I do not remember her ever doing anything like that.

Now onto Quentin Quire. Let me explain first off: I love the character for his arc in Riot at Xavier's and should I ever write X-Comics I'd like to have him as my breakout star. First problem: Where did Morrison state Quire as becoming vapor? He didn't seems to me. He was in liquid when he died and Xavier said he went onto a different plane of existence, which I assumed was physically a vegetative state. And then Pak and Land interpreted this as meaning Quentin melted?

More importantly, why is he still a 'villain'? At the end of Riot at Xavier's he apologized for his actions and had seen the error in his way. Greg Pak chose to ignore this and had him rampage again in Phoenix Endsong and in the end he yet again apologized and peaced out. As someone who's an avatar of the Phoenix, you'd think he'd be portrayed more intelligently instead of a predictable story where he, of course, does not win and invites the person that ends up defeating him and to go ahead and try. Which, y'know, with his million brilliant thoughts a second would mean he's smarter than that since he's not on drugs this time. Seriously, stop keeping this character as some static know-it-all and evolve him to being a useful, strange, unconventional X-Character. Rather than pretty, normal-acting, and moral.

Oh and in the end Martha gets her brain jar shattered and shards fall into her brain. Does that mean dead? Because brain outside of fluids pretty much says dead to me in the first place, but fucking shards of glass? So yeah, I'd say No-Girl's fate is uncertain.

Writer and Artist #3: Tim Fish
Basically this story is Northstar having trouble with his boyfriend being long distance. It'd be a good story except the art and basic script make it seem superficial. Like it was either gay ditsy feeling or anime-ish annoyingly 'cute', both of which I'm not a fan of whatsoever. Especially since we should be working towards having gay characters being taken more seriously instead of RicStar getting a slap in the face every issue and now this. Seriously, here's a dialogue example:

It's basic like this throughout the entire issue. It reminds me of when you learn a new language, so your sentences have no variation. I will give Fish mega-points for doing something though:

Northstar did have off-panel sexytime.

And he did end up holding hands with his boyfriend at the end of the issue, but I'm still going to rag on Fish for not going for the gold and having Northstar kiss his boyfriend on-panel.
Seriously, how hard is it for two characters in a serious, homosexual relationship to have an on-panel kiss? Is it only ones between exes where the next issues will devalue the kiss?

Writer and Artist #4: Becky Cloonan
All it is is Gambit has self doubt and self loathing so he leaves. Then he helps people and comes back to the X-Men. Oh. My God. Like that hasn’t happened thirty five times in this year alone.

Conclusion: Fag edition of Nation X did not work out so hot. Or at all. Don't buy it, but toon in next issue because we've got ANOLLLLLLLEEEEE! (Imagine Oprah's celebrity-announcing voice for that).

X-Force #18 Review

Writers: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost

Artists: Mike Choi and Sonia Oback

I have to say that I'm surprised that this book got back on track so well. It's been a sort of lackluster drop for awhile now, I ended up dropping it when Messiah War started, but now it's come back in full force with this issue. Not to say I'm enthused for the upcoming crossover Necrosha because honestly I think it might be flat, but who knows, I might cover all of it.

To start, coming back from the cliffhanger of last issue with Surge possibly exploding, it turns out that Hellion saved her by guiding her blast away harmlessly. While this makes me glad that none of the X-Victims of the Leper Queen (Hellion, Surge, and Boom Boom), it also makes me sort of irked that there was all this tension for nothing. Unless you're a Fever Pitch or Beautiful Dreamer fan. I think. Did they die? I assumed they did when they popped, so why didn't Surge, she still popped? Whatever, on to more important things: Warpath.

If I could have any X-Man as a boyfriend, I'd TOTALLY go for James. He's just too fucking hot for his own good. In fact, his tag will be 'my boyfriend Warpath'. Anyway, the panel above was originally a soldier begging for his life with Warpath saying "No." But now it's me and him....at a costume party with me as a soldier. And him saying yes to a date with me. XD Anyway, fucking yummy man.

This issue also contained the thrilling return of one of Emma's torture victims, Kimura! She's as insane as ever and I'm TOTALLY ready for her to start bitching about Emma. Mainly because I f#$^ing miss the days of Miss Frost acting like Miss Emma Grace Frost. More on her in a sec.

This issue also remembered that Rahne is a member of X-Force. I mean, she's still having total furry porn stories with Hrimhari or whatever his name his, but she's just doing her part.

What's most fun about X-Force is the revisiting of reanimated Caliban along with the return of Eli Bard and Wither. I for one am in LOVE with this page.

Normally I feel very iffy about posting a full page, but this page is TOO GOOD to keep to myself.

Also, fuck Logan for doing this:

My first nightmare ever when I was 5 was about red eyes in the dark. Thanks Logan. Doucheman. No wonder why I want to banish him to Limbo for ten years followed by an off-panel death.

Something I find VERY fun about Mike Choi is that he totally has a lower version of the disease that affects Bianchi, which is gay porn pencils. The guys' poses at times are totally kind of gay and the style itself is very bubbly and sort of a weird fit for X-Force. Personally I think Crain should be sole artist of X-Force, wax-y faces and all, but every so often I see a moment where Choi totally makes me ok with him being there.

Seriously, what cute butt cheeks he makes.
Plus he totally helps fuel the fire for Scott and Logan's secret love.
They just can never seem to get their hands off each other.

Now, the issue ends with a scene that is pure magic. If someone posts it somewhere I will definitely link it on this entry, but 'til then I'm not going to spoil it except saying that it's one of the best X-Force moments I've ever seen. Anyway, for those of you like me, who dropped for the book for a bit, get back into it, and for those who've never read it now's a good time to start.