World Enough and Time

A good day, though not what I wanted or expected.

(1) When I walked to the gym, it was snowing - in bright sunshine. When I walked home from the gym, it was hailing. When I went for lunch with fairestcat, it was windy and cold. When we left the restaurant, it was snowing again.

(2) I wore my new coat, which I bought yesterday. My excuse is that my old winter coat, which I got years ago from Mountain Equipment Co-op, is wearing out. The truth is that I've been simply tired of the drab, boring old coat for a couple of years now, and simply wanted a new one. This new one probably isn't as warm as my old one, since it isn't down-filled - but then, then old coat isn't as warm as it used to be, either.

The new one looks like this:



except it has no fur around the hood. Bottom line? I fell in love with it for its colour.

(3) Today's comics were fabulous. Note to self: write letters to Marvel about them. I am accustomed to Hawkeye being superb, and it was, despite the art by Javier Pulido rather than David Aja. David Aja is a god in my pantheon, but Pulido is .. growing on me. Red She-Hulk, which I expected to be lacklustre, turned out to be interesting - and it made me like Machine Man as a characer, which I hadn't before. Kudos to Jeff Parker on that one. Avengers #1 had a story I found someone unclear, but I loved the characterization, and it had some of the slashiest scenes I've seen in comics in ages - Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. This is not a complaint. And Iron Man? Definitely fun, and I like the way they are writing Tony to be more like the Tony Stark of the Avengers movie. This isn't a bad thing, either.

And Nick Fury's son is now a part of the regular Avengers storyline... That's okay, too.

Only two disappointments. X-Men continued and finished a story teaming up Domino and Daredevil. Now, I happen to love both characters, but found them a somewhat awkward fit: their banter fell a little flat. More to the point, neither of them are X-Men. There's nothing about this title now that I recognize as an X-Man story. Yeah, Domino's a mutant, and she's worked with X-Force, but that's as close as it comes. Is this a random mutant book now?

The other disappointment was X-Factor. This comic used to be snappy and smart and funny, and I find lately that it isn't much of any of those things. Some of my favourite characters are in this book - Shatterstar, Longshot and Pip the Troll, for example - and they aren't doing much for me these days. Last week, there was a story by Peter David in A + X #2, with Kitty Pryde and Tony Stark playing off each other - and Lockheed playing his role - and it was as funny and smart as Peter David has ever been. So... is he getting stale and uninspired on X-Factor? I keep feeling that his stories now are digressions from the main theme, but that's been the case so long now I fear there is no main theme.

Why am I not seeing Wolverine these days? He used to be in all the X-titles, and Avengers too.

(4) Wrote. Did laundry. Vacuumed. Fell asleep so suddenly and soundly in the middle of the afternoon that I shocked myself. What is it about December? Woke up and read some Bond/Q slash. I had other things I should have been doing, but it was calling to me.

(5) Had supper with maaseru and Pim and we talked about Bond/Q slash, and looked at the beautiful DK book Pim had bought with pictures from Skyfall. It's beautiful, but has a little too much of the producers and cameramen, not quite enough of Naomie Harris or Ben Whishaw - though a fine sufficiency of Daniel Craig. We were looking at the fan art, and marvelling that while many fan artists draw a beautiful Q, only a few manage a recognizable James Bond.

Some comics just fill me with joy - and sadly, others do not. This was one that did: Peter David's run on X-Factor. I read the collected issues #13 to #17, Many Lives of Madrox. See, Jamie Madrox is a Marvel mutant who's been around for a while, and he has the power, like Triplicate Girl in the old Legion of Super-Heroes, of splitting himself in to many identical selves. Only the selves aren't identical - they show different facets of his personality, or even his potential. And unlike Triplicate Girl, he isn't limited to two or three bodies. He isn't limited at all.

And this can get him into trouble.

This series of stories explores some of the scenarios. One of his selves gets married, settles down, has a kid, and doesn't want to re-integrate into the main body. Another self gets a job with S.H.I.E.L.D. - at least it wasn't Hydra. And closer to home, one self has sex with teammate Monet, while another self has sex with teammate Teresa. Each thought she was with the prime integrated Jamie. And when they find out, they're angry as only upset super-powered mutants can be.

Given that we've seen the close relationship between Rictor and Shatterstar in the past, in X-Force - and this is before Shatterstar reappeared in our world - I was interested in a conversation about sex ( between Jamie and his psychiatrist... )

Another conversation about sex a little later on, between ( Rictor and Jamie... )Thank you, Peter David. I love it when superheroes actually have sex lives.

Here is a picture of the team, with Rahne (Wolfsbane) in the middle, and, clockwise from the twelve o'clock position: Guido (Strong Guy) Monet (M), Layla Miller (who knows stuff), Jamie Madrox (sometimes called the Multiple Man), Julio Richter (Rictor), and Theresa Cassidy (Siryn).( Read more... )