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Underground > Comic Books >

Uncanny X-Men: how I learned to stop worrying and love Chuck Austen...

17:55 / 30.03.03

Okay, I admit that I've ragged on UXM a lot lately, for being OTT and melodramatic and all that shit, but reading this week's issue it finally hit me: the OTT melodrama is the point. Austen is deliberately giving the whiney fanboys who don't like Grant their preferred mix of fetishwear, grand guignol soap opera and ludicrous four-issue-long fight scenes, but in such a way that it deliberately, knowingly, verges on self-parody. In fact, fuck verges. It is self-parody.

I mean, look at the new issue, for Christ's sake.

In ridiculously fast running order, we have: retro-continuity (werewolves killed Warren Worthington II! Good lord!); gratuitous philosophy; manga babes in pain, religious iconography-a-go-go, spiritualism, Iceman and Northstar in colour-co-ordinated shades, Polaris dressed up for a night out at Torture Garden...Oh my god! Annie raped Havok in his sleep!; unbelievably gratuitous New Age expository dialogue while fleeing werewolves; 'Is the healing factor in my blood?'; homoerotic bloodletting/imitation of Christ; 'Did you just press your naked chest to mine?'; Marvel does Enron; 'Thank God! The X-Men are here!'; Look! It's Juggernaut! He's strong! Grrr!; big explosions! Self-sacrifice! More gratuitous philosophy! More healing through dodgy self-mutilatory ptactices! Wide-eyed manga bedroom scenes! And my personal favourite shot of the entire issue...The Wolverine/Nightcrawler picnic!

Having enjoyed this issue in a most ridiculous way, I can only come to one conclusion: Grant's X-Men is cosmic, evolutionary fable delicately blended with well-observed human drama; Milligan's X-Statix is the X-version of Pop Idol; and Austen's X-Men is a weird splicing of Sunset Beach and the WWE. I can only look forward, at this point, to Annie's shocking transformation into the series' major 'heel', following the disturbing revelations about her and Alex Summers. Christ. As if having an affair isn't enough for Scott, he's had some human violate his brother in his sleep. He'll be leading the new Brotherhood in no time...

19:20 / 30.03.03

Six words: At least it's better than Casey.

Matthew Fluxington

19:25 / 30.03.03

You know, as awful as Casey was, I'm going to have to disagree: Chuck Austen's Uncanny X-Men is so much worse. It's a mess for every reason Velvetvandal outlines, and though I can understand why someone might enjoy this mess ironically or unironically, it just depresses me. I think that the apparent goals of the Austen Uncanny X-Men could be met without the end result being half as insipid as what has been released to date.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

01:18 / 31.03.03

I'm with you, Flux. I stopped picking it up this month. It just feels so terribly flat and a gleaming neon sign for why writers should stay away from internal monolgues. (I won't even start on internal monolgues with exclamation points!)

!

The Photographer in Blowup

19:54 / 31.03.03

Christ on a motorcycle!

Now i know why i stopped buying this shit so many months ago: velvetvandal, that was one creepy post.

Casey's run really opened my eyes: that's why i'm leaving the X-Men for good as soon as Morriosn leaves the title - and before the next bloke decides to bring back Magneto from the dead... or just from the Age of Apocalypse - which one's worst, i don't know.

Oh well, at least Austen isn't involving his characters with Morrison's, unlike Mr. Claremont.

Matthew Fluxington

21:13 / 31.03.03

As I've said before, I think Chris Claremont has been wise to include NXM characters and concepts into his stories. I'd rather other X-writers integrate those ideas and expand on them rather than to ignore them as Austen has for the most part. I would very much like to have Grant's stories have a lasting relevance in the X-franchise rather than go down in X-history as a weird period of time in early 2000s when the X-Men didn't fight Apocalypse and Magneto all of the time.

I think Joe Casey really meant well, but just couldn't execute his ideas due to some fundamental problems with his writing style. I can't imagine why you'd accuse Joe Casey of being at odds with what Grant was doing - I find it unlikely that you'll ever see a writer on the franchise go as far out of his way to run with Grant's concepts as Casey was. Joe just forgot to make the stories good, that's all.

21:43 / 31.03.03

Could someone please summarize what went on in the Casey episodes, versus how Austen is worse? I am only picking up NXM, and recently picked up the "Schism" issues by Claremont cuz they "looked" interesting. I know they were para-military initially, but have fallen into a mangahero-y schtick of late... that's all.

23:34 / 31.03.03

From what I recall....

Casey sent his "mobile" X-team to england where they attempted to save a UK morlok group of underground dwelling mutants from the Church of Humanity and their flamethrowing killing machine...Mr. Clean
Meanwhile Chamber hooks up of some Britney Spears type Popstar.

Most of the UK morloks are killed, Wolverine kills Mr Clean & Nighcrawler offers the survivers aid, but they prefer Europe. Chamber & the chick break up & now he's an X-man.

Returning to the states Angel finds out members of his board of directors have been funding an X-ranch in Las Vegas. Comic's first Mutant Bordello. Again the Church of humanity strikes but the team saves Stacey X X-stacey who can control pleasure centers with a touch.

The Vanisher then makes a come back creating a black market in a mutant DNA based drug which gives humans mutant abilites for a few hours before killing 'em. Traditional attempts to stop him fail he gets away.

At some point they get some intel on the C.O.H. and take the offensive. Nightcrawler is captured and tourtured with some mind trip connected with the Church of Humanity's Savior/leader. The crew saves hime but he is from this point on haunted with doubts to his faith... "could GOD really be granting the church of Humanity power?" "is the extrmination of Mutants a Devine mandate?" "is being a mutant a sin?"

meanwhile Angel considers running for a public office. The Vanisher makes his move to take over the drug market of NYC. Angel make a move to use his money & influence to buy out the whole of the Vanisher's franchise. He's stopped. That's about it...

it was almost OKAY...
Sean Phillips was the run's saving grace...

I wish he wrote it like Wildcats... which I totally dug.

Matthew Fluxington

01:10 / 01.04.03

You skipped the longest story of his run! (I can't blame you, though.)

After the Church of Humanity thing, there's the X-Corps storyline. Former X-Man Banshee has set up a paramilitary organization of mutants who have take it upon themselves to police other mutants. The X-Men find out about this, and do not approve. Things end up going all wrong, and as it turns out, Mystique and the new female Mastermind (plus a bunch of Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants characters) take over the X-Corps and trash most of Paris. The X-Men stop them, but not before Mystique slashes Banshee's vocal chords, permanently damaging his vocal powers.

17:41 / 01.04.03

I haven't bought a single issue of UNCANNY in years. Sean Phillips' art wasn't enough to make me buy any of the Casey issues, nor was the kinda-sexy, nicely-drawn-for-Ian-Churchill Jean/Wolvie makeout cover. Austen's stuff hasn't done it yet either. Almost bought the Casey/Ashley Wood Vanisher UNCANNY ANNUAL but didn't do it. Kia Asama's art wasn't much to crow about. The stories are kinda lame with occassional hints of potential. (I speed-read/skim them in the store, wondering if one day an issue of UNCANNY will win me over, or even more startling, become a 'must buy even without skimming' like Morrison's NEW X-MEN.)

Can anyone make me pay hard-earned money for an issue of UNCANNY? We shall see.....

18:07 / 01.04.03

"...permanently damaging his vocal powers."

again.

A

01:40 / 02.04.03

Why did Uncanny have a Jean/Wolvie makeout cover again?? I didn't think Jean was even in Uncanny. And they snogged in NewXMen.

08:43 / 02.04.03

'Twas Casey's first (or second) issue, which featured Jean and Wolverine being sucked into this guy Warp Savant's head. They thought they were going to die...

Cyclops also featured in the issue.

Guest appearances, like Archangel in New #131.

11:01 / 02.04.03

Oh, how I regretted having even looked inside that Casey's first issue... Jean looked like a virgin teen super model out of Bev-fucking Hills... Cyclops like a bloke stiff on coke... and I think it was there Logan earned his first impression as a guy from Village People... and the "plot"...

The Photographer in Blowup

13:09 / 02.04.03

You mean it had a plot?

Should i read it again to try and find it?

20:40 / 01.06.05

Yes, this is an old thread, but I'm resurrecting it because it covers precisely what I want to talk about. What I want to confess: I'm enjoying parts of Austen run! Which, normally, would be code-speak for 'kill me now,' but here, I'm serious and I'm content with it.
Once I took it was a hyper-emo comedy, my displeasure sort of dissolved into that mid-nineties bustangstular swoon, in ways the Lobdell/Nicieza/Waid era never tapped quite purely enough. Even Lobdell was more serious, that is to say, made the attempt to be serious.
I suddenly find myself enjoying Annie and Stacy, two characters who previously just annoyed me with their checklist of, well, annoying traits. And pairing them off with Iceman and Nightcrawler, respectively, has a strange sort of sense to it. Emotionally immature, damaged, repressed... Annie and Bobby need a kid whose name starts with C and ends in an ie/y sound. Yes.
So, was Austen being intentionally goofy, or was he trying to be serious and adult, et cetera, or is the comedy intentional? Has Austen written a female-type individual well, anywhere else, just to show if he can? Or is silly psychodrama nurse-stalkers and Lorna - Darkstalker - Dane pretty much the run of his mill?
His interviews turned me off, pretty quick, but I don't like to let an author's (or anyone's) personal comments and opinions hinder my experience with their work. 'Mein Kampf' isn't bad because it's written by Hitler, but because it's a shit book that's blind to its own internal retcons and pettiness, viciousness, and faults. Casey talks a good game but his X-Men and 'The Intimates' just don't have it.

21:50 / 01.06.05

I was thinking about this topic today for no good reason.

Anyway, Havok offered to pee Iceman a new body in one ish, that's good.