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Slowed
down, you moved too fast...
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Jason
Schachat's
Occasional Breakdown
12/20/05 page 2
page
1 here Now,
while Bendis may have ended things right in House of M,
the chaos it caused in the Marvel universe is still... well...
chaotic in Son of M #1.
While
Generation M gives us an outsider’s view
of the depowered mutant population, this one puts us right
into the internal monologue of Quicksilver, son of Magneto,
brother of Scarlet Witch, and the man responsible for twisting
reality into a hard-to-swallow pretzel.
Now, the speedster no longer has the abilities
which defined him. The quickness, agility, and intellect
are all gone. All that remains is a simple, filthy human:
the very thing Quicksilver has despised for all these years.
Unfortunately
for him, Spider-man also remembers the recent alternate
reality debacle. He remembers that he had a son, that Uncle
Ben and Gwen Stacy never died, and, worst of all, he remembers
being married to the woman he loved – and it wasn’t
Mary Jane.
As luck would have it, he also remembers
that Quicksilver’s to blame for all this torment,
so it only makes sense that they bump into each other in
a dark alley one night.
Sadly,
this is a story that both benefits and suffers from Marvel
continuity. Reading House of M will hammer home
the pain of Peter Parker’s loss. However, reading
the recent Spider-Man “Evolve or Die” crossover
completely confuses the order of things. Is this the evolved
Spidey? He seems the same, so that suggests “Evolve
or Die” comes after House of M and this story.
But Peter didn’t have this life-altering ordeal buzzing
through his head before “Evolve or Die”, and
Son of M shows him living in Stark Tower...
...and this is why some people may not go
for this book.
Even
though it’s the first issue of a miniseries, it bases
a lot of its story on the events of “Avengers Disassembled”
and House of M. However, if you read TOO many Marvel
books, the chronology is going to send your head spinning.
Writer
David Hine gives us some good food for thought in this issue,
but it doesn’t hit you as hard as the recent Generation
M. While this miniseries may be a must for Quicksilver
fans, the reveal that Spider-man remembers House of M messes
with continuity at least as much as the “No more mutants
= only 90% of mutants, actually” and “Mutant
genes may be gone, but mutations aren’t, necessarily”
problems.
Do we
want to see what happens to Quicksilver? Definitely. Do
we want the Marvel universe to get even more absurd while
we’re doing it? Well, I guess that depends on what
you think of the return of Lockjaw, the giant teleporting
dog...
For
yet more dredging through the Marvel B-list, Cable
& Deadpool #23 gives us a rip roaring
fight between the aforementioned protagonists, Black Mamba,
Asp, and Diamondback (collectively known as B.A.D. Girls),
The Cat, Black Box, and an endless army of Rive and Makeshift
clones.
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Worldshaking
action with characters nobody remembers!
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Yes, the blank looks on your faces are completely
justified.
Wrapping up the story of the Dominus Objective
(a virus that acts like a hard drive that acts like a server
that’s really just a MacGuffin), this issue opens
with the reveal that Black Box is, in fact *cue drum roll*
Comcast.
No, not the cable company, just a villain
who used to wear a colander on his head..
As it
turns out, Comca– er, Black Box has been cloning himself
and getting killed for years, as have Rive and Makeshift,
but now he’s out of clone... stuff... so it’s
REALLY him this time. No, really. Really, definitely him.
This
segues into a cyberspace duel between Cable and Black Box,
where we finally get some backstory and motivation from
our villain, and a one hundred on one battle between Deadpool
and the Makeshift and Rive clones.
Oh, and then B.A.D. Girls and The Cat come
in and start slaughtering clones, too.
Unfortunately, writer Fabian Nicieza chooses
to focus more on getting inside Black Box’s head and
less on giving us that witty Deadpool banter we crave, so
the story feels a bit too Matrix-inspired and not quite
irreverent enough. Truth be told, he kind of dug himself
a hole with the pseudo-technical Dominus computer virus
when he could have spent more time developing this sorta
new Cable and the plans for his great society that are hinted
at here.
And there’s never enough Deadpool,
but that should go without saying.
While
we get some fun out of this issue, and interesting new pieces
are put into play, the final showdown seems to lack weight.
While it’s worth buying for Cable & Deadpool fans,
new readers should hold off for next month’s Deadpool
vs. Spider-Man issue.
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