What the Huh?
I'll be honest, had I bought issue 6 when it came out I would have dropped this book then and there. As it is, I bought it today with this issue. Issue 6 did not thrill me. Issue 7, however, had to be read and I'm glad I had it. I went from wanting to drop this book to looking forward to issue 8.
The change of art in this issue is awesome. I love the hackneyed lines of a setting in Paris. It oozes cool. It oozes sexy. I miss Ron Garney dearly, but the art of the past few issues has been really fun.
The story is nuts. You get flashbacks and you get now-stuff. You get skanks in hero costumes and superhero "moms." I could never make this stuff up myself and that is refreshing. Humphries isn't limited to a certain way of telling this story. (This is very obvious by a scene that trumps the last page of the first issue. You'll see what I mean.)
So that's the issue.
*******
Here's my beef with this series. It's sold as a team book. The solicits mention a team. There is no Elfring team. The covers show Spiral as a team member and she is far from it. The solicits mention story arcs (an arc ended in issue 4?) but there has been no single resolution outside of finding out why Bishop went crazy (and now he's simply been unconscious for 4 issues). The mission Wolverine gave is not completed; Psylocke is rogue; that Ginny girl is possessed but we don't know her significance. I mean really, Marvel. It is obvious you don't know how to market this book. It's very different for the superhero genre and I love the uncertainty of it all, but Marvel is giving me odd impressions with its inability to properly depict this series.
Bottom line: This series would be a total blast if marketed properly. It's not the typical team book; don't try to sell it as one. It's crazy characters combined to make an unlikely book that works. Humphries is weaving stories here and there and making this grand, unmarketable tapestry of events that looks to build on each other and I'm excited to see how each thing is resolved. So, I'll keep buying while completely ignoring what Marvel tells me. That should prevent me from writing this type of review again.
