March 2008 Archives

Being a fan of Pride of Baghdad and Runaways, I get that Brian K. Vaughan has a flair for the dramatic. And so I expected a bit of a melodrama going into Logan, but this was too much. The opening says it all: “I’ve made a hell of a lot of enemies over the decades, but I don’t lose sleep over ‘em. No, it’s the women that keep me up at night, the handful of girls I was dumb enough to fall for over the last century or so. See, I can recover from just about anything…Anything but getting my heart ripped out.” I hate to say it, because I really like Vaughan, but Logan looks like it’s shaping up to be a bad emo song, with Logan haunted by lost love.

The storyline could be fairly interesting: Logan wakes up in a Japanese POW camp during World War II, fights his way out with an American soldier, and meets a Japanese woman named Atsuko. Logan turns hero as he prevents the American from killing Atsuko, at which point she takes him home to hide and feed him. The story is refreshingly different from your standard “Wolverine as ultimate badass” story, and reveals a new side of everyone’s favorite X-Man. Unfortunately, it is also surprisingly offensive. The romance between Logan and Atsuko reads like a throwback to the World War II era narrative of the Western man (soldier) who rescues the timid Japanese woman who then falls wildly in love with him and needs him in her bed. In real life, this fantasy scenario often led to rape, so it’s surprising to see the usually conscientious Vaughan employ such a shoddy trick.

The disappointing writing is at least well contrasted by Eduardo Risso’s artwork. His renderings of Logan humanize the character in a way that few artists have. The work is dark and powerful and adds the subtlety to the characters that the writing lacks. The attention to detail coupled with Dean White’s coloring makes for truly beautiful pages. Perhaps what I appreciate most about Risso is the really unusual portrayal of the sex scene: no real nudity. Atsuko strips herself for Logan, an occasion during which most artists would relish in drawing the lines and details of her body. Instead, Risso is able to show what is happening while keeping Atsuko’s body almost completely shadowed. Vaughan’s writing objectifies Atsuko far more than the artwork.

Overall, Logan #1 proved disappointing, but Risso and White’s artwork may be worth giving the mini-series a chance.

Now that Endangered Species and Messiah Complex (the last two crossover story arcs of X-men) have completed their back-to-back runs, the different X-Men titles have finally resumed their individual storylines. X-Factor's return to it's more contained storyline at the end of February was truly impressive, not only because of great writing and art by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi, respectively, but because of that rarest of scenes: an actual conversation about abortion.

The conversation is between X-(Wo)Men Monet and Theresa. Theresa has just revealed that she is pregnant with Madrox's baby. It goes something like this:

Monet: "My God, Theresa, are you sure...?"

Theresa: "The doctor confirmed what the test already told me. I'm six weeks along, and before you ask, yes, Jamie's the father."

Monet: "So...look, Theresa. Do you want me to come along? To hold your hand?"

Theresa: "What are you talking about?"

Monet: "Well, when you go for the...YOU know..."

Theresa: "Wait...M! You don't seriously think I'd...CRIPES! We're talking about a LIFE!"

Monet: "What about your life, huh? You don't need it saddled with...I mean, come on! You're too young..."

Theresa: "I'm the same age my mother was, Monet."

Monet: "And I'm sure HER best friend told her what I'M telling you, except maybe you'll be smart enough to listen."

Theresa: "M, Haven't you realized how important EVERY life is if our race is to survive?"*

Monet: "Oh, so you're going to take one for the team. Wonderful. And Madrox? A father? PLEASE. Your EMBRYO is more mature."

*The mutant species, the X-Men are dying out. The Scarlet Witch unleashed a virus that made many mutants lose their powers and only one mutant baby has been born since (the subject of Messiah Complex).

The conversation is short and not the most in depth thing in the world, but IT'S THERE! These conversations just do not occur in pop culture. Generally speaking, movies, tv shows, comics, and the like gloss over the issue of abortion. Even when young characters become unexpectedly pregnant and the storyline seems to require some sort of discussion about abortion, the option manages to get left out.

And so I find it incredibly refreshing to have an honest discussion and evaluation of alternative options to single motherhood in X-Factor, which is a major title from the Marvel imprint, meaning that it is fairly mainstream. This discussion, then, is reaching a considerable and large audience. Well done, David, well done.