You know what comics need? Brash arrogance ala the Hives. Go to your record collection and grab your copy of their first LP, Barely Legal (and fuck you if you don't own it, you suck and I will never have sex with you). Got it? Good, look at the back. We have the songs on the album and then reviews of the album by the Daily Planet, and the Globe and Howlin' Pelle, the lead singer of the band. I want to see comics where the writer praises the book and that quote is on the fucking cover. Ever see a Hives show? Brash arrogance! I love it.
Yes, I am your new favourite blogger and you love what I write more than anyone else.
(See what music does to me sometimes? And people wonder why I don't drink or do mind-altering drugs.)
Back to comics, we present Uncanny X-Men Annual 2001 by Joe Casey and Ashley Wood, presented in fabulous Marvel widescreen technology! That's right! A widescreen comic! Long horizontally, short vertically, all kinds of fun! And the cover looks like the poster for Apocalypse Now.
The basic plot of the book is this: kids are getting high on a drug that turns them into mutants for a little while and the X-Men want it stopped. Chamber and Stacy hit a local club to see what's what while Wolverine and Iceman go to Cuba where the supply is coming from. Turns out the man in charge is the Vanisher and he's getting the necessary X-genes from his mutant cousin who is a giant and he's got living off the coast in the ocean, pretty much dead.
This issue has Wood go between clear styles and his unclear stuff, but it all works. Casey writes a great story, has an interesting idea about the mutant drug (which Bendis later used in his Daredevil run--and yes, Casey came up with it first as it didn't show up in Bendis' book until 2003--not that I'm saying Bendis ripped off Casey-in the recent "Bendis tapes" podcast, someone asked if Bendis was ripping off Morrison's kick drug and he said no, thought up his drug on his own, but I call the poster who asked that question a moron since kick was a totally different drug, whereas Casey and Bendis' drugs are identical). Using the Vanisher was also inspired.
It all comes down to the second-last page where the Vanisher says: "NONSENSE. THERE WILL BE NO PHYSICAL CONFRONTATION HERE TODAY. I'M A BUSINESSMAN. I HAVE CREATED A NEW MARKETPLACE FOR OUR GENETIC PERSUASION. IF ANYTHING, I SHOULD BE CONGRATULATED."
This is where we first really see Casey's interest in the mixing of the superhero and business worlds, which will continue in the next (and final) two issues of his run. See you in 30 for more of the greatest blog in the world.
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