odditycollector

[Originally posted June 8, 2005.]

As we saw in the last installment of What If... Magneto And Professor X Eloped To A Tropical Island? removed from any impertinent questions like "But, isn't he a registered terrorist" or "But, didn't he try to wipe your mind a couple times," Charles and Erik have been living in frighteningly domestic bliss. Unfortunately, the outside Marvelverse will *insist* on intruding eventually (most lately in the form of Erik's daughter loosing a few more of her marbles and killing some friends, you know how it goes), and we're quickly reminded that theirs is a relationship that has difficulty surviving exposure to things like politics, inlaws, non-mutual friends, alien abductions, alien visitations, out of body experiences, cloning debates, personal history, world history, mutual friends, past arguments, alternate future arguments, funny hats, UN council meetings, attempted homicide, successful homicide, successful suicide, ferrous metal, the colour purple, and, it wouldn't surprise me, oxygen.

Context for today's episode: Erik has, at this point, rescued Wanda from the unreasoning hordes that would prefer her to seek professional help, dealt with his 'too many clothes' problem, and asked Charles to fix her back up again. Charles, of course, tried to do the good step-parent thing and agreed.

Now, one would think this situation would end in a mega crossover event happy family bonding moments, but it seems that repairing a woman with power over reality is harder than it looks, and so we have Erik being broody and passive aggressive instead.


 

Charles is aware that things aren't going as smoothly as he'd like, and goes to Dr. Strange for help... putting Strange in the unenviable position of having to give advice to a friend who's back in an obviously unhealthy relationship that ended in tears, blood, and genocide the first time around.

Somehow, Strange manages to keep his thoughts on the matter to himself, but (especially considering Charles *is* the world's premier telepath here) ( it's certainly not for lack of trying. )

 
One of these days, the creative minds involved in the Charles/Erik relationship are going to forget to fade to black, I swear. (In fact, depending on how traumatized I'd like to be just then, I'm occasionally convinced this *already happened*.)

[Sometimes I am sad that my Excalibur summaries were stuck from the internets. But I remembered I could fix that! This one originally posted on March 28, 2005.]

I... hesitate to use the word spoilers for this post, because although the comic came out less than a week ago, the whole of Excalibur v3 so far has been Claremont's attempt to resurrect the noble traditions of the silver age.

That is, a spoiler warning implies you'll be spoiled for something, which implies plot, which implies a logical sequence of events, and... I really don't want to give that impression. Anyway.

 
( I'm. Too sexy for my hat. Too sexy for my shirt. So sexy it hurts. )

I debated adding the second page of this scene, because my sense of humour tends to degrade when I'm tired, and I was afraid I'd scar everybody with any bukkake jokes comments I might provide. But, you know, I'm sure the people reading this could have come up with better ones *anyway*.

(I wonder what it says that I actually *budget* for comic books?)

So, the My Faith in Frankie paperback turned out to be slightly less than the best thing evar, on account of it is in manga format and is thus small and without interior colour.

I love it anyway. I am a very happy fangirl right now.

Hmm. Otherwise, Ex Machina continues to kick all kinds of ass, Y: the Last Man reminds us that yes, it is telling an actual story, and the strange, happy domesticity in Excalibur is making my head spin like whoa.

( Here's an example, if you don't believe me. )

I'm sure there's a plot, as well, but I honestly haven't noticed it. It's possible it's a similar one to penknife's Zion, which would explain the incredible deja-vu.

The latest Lucifer disappointed me a little, though. It's not that I didn't see it coming, but it wasn't handled all that well, IMO. The new Astro City guide book is probably not worth the $10 (being another one of those 'secret files' things. I thought they had stopped *making* those.) but the into story was cool. Fallen Angel continues to be interesting, but still doesn't really push any of my emotional buttons.

Gotham Central rocks the house, but I've completely given up on following the other Bat-books. I find I don't really miss them at all. I wonder if perhaps this is not quite what DC was trying to accomplish with their War Games thing.

Hmm. That's about it. I have many actual *thoughts* on Ex Machina, but they're spoilerly and bounce around all over the place. Maybe some day. I also have thoughts about My Faith in Frankie, but they're still along the lines of 'Ya know? Somebody should really write some porn for me....' But I've already mentioned this several times and won't bother you with it again.

*cough*