X-Men First Class - You Are Not Alone

There are many things that have been associated, metaphorically, with the X-Men. It could be about race, gender, sexual preference or just being a teenager, but overall, the heart of the X-Men is about finding acceptance (from others and from yourself) for what makes you different.. X-Men First Class captures this, and more, beautifully, in what I have no problem declaring as the best of the Marvel movies, by far. Possibly one of the best comic book movies of all time, period.

Focusing on the origins of  the most complex pairing of fictional hero and villain that I can think of in Xavier and Magneto, the movie manages to give us a conversation with a lot of gray. I've always argued that Magneto is not a villain. He's not wrong. Seeing his story told in this movie, I would be surprised at any disagreement with that. And it is through Magneto's story, more than any other character's in the movie, that another great thing about the X-Men comes through: the idea of learning to live with emotional pain. Whether the pain comes from loss or not fitting in or what have you, the pain is palpable in these characters. The fact that these characters can use that to focus extraordinary powers is a perfect metaphor for what we all ultimately wish we could do. And I think that's a big part of the appeal of the X-Men comic book. For the movie to capture the complexity of that is an achievement I don't think many other comic book adaptations have accomplished. What we usually get in these movies is style or a character that we can't ultimately relate to and that's fine, but here we get what attracts us to any story: the humanity of it. To me the line that sums it up best is "You are not alone." Whether it was spoken verbatim or not, that is the message of the X-Men, and every single "you are not alone" moment, starting with the very first one, involving children, was moving.

There are tragic characters in this for sure (Magneto, Mystique, Beast). There are also great action sequences and humor. Young Xavier as a suave pick up artist is fantastic. Nazi hunter Magneto could easily be a whole movie unto itself. A certain brief cameo in a bar was played perfectly. Azazel was badass. Basically, I can find no fault with the movie. I couldn't tell you how much of it was accurate to comic book continuity, and if you know me, you know I don't care about that anyway, but here, I think it matters less than ever. Because here, they captured the heart of the X-Men and that's what matters.

Comics of the Week

I continue to be surprised by how much I enjoy Uncanny X-Force. Issue #9 was no exception. The story was simple enough, Magneto has received some information on a Nazi officer, and we don't know for certain what he did to Magneto, possibly killed his family. Either way, Magneto wants revenge and he asks X-Force to help him, which is already interesting since no one is supposed to know the team exists. Wolverine agrees to do it, alone. What we get is a simple tale of revenge, trying to outrun your past, the weight of guilt and the inevitability of justice. To start with, the exchange between Magneto and Wolverine is fantastic. Very few words throughout the issue, but these are characters that understand each other all too well. This was an excellent stand alone story, but still lays pieces that will be picked up later, I'm sure, with Magneto knowing about X-Force.

On a completely different plane of existence is Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #3. This mini-series was so much fun. It had me laughing out loud and barely able to explain why I was laughing to my wife, because the more I tried to explain it, the more out there it sounded and the funnier it got. And the great thing is that even though it was crazy fun, there was at least one moment that picked up on what seemed like a throw away bit from the first issue, in order to wrap the story up. I hadn't heard of Axe Cop until this series came out, but I'll now have to go back and read the web comics. We need more books written by 6 year olds.

Comic Moments of the Week

Uncanny X-Men 534.1 is the latest of Marvel's .1 issues, designed to be jumping on points. In this case, I think it accomplished it's purpose because I am going to try to jump on. I didn't feel lost reading this, even though I haven't read X-Men in a very long time. But then, again, the last X-Men I read wasn't THAT long ago. It was during the Dark Reign, which I think set up most of the current status quo. In any case, Magneto is an X-Man now and the whole meat of this issue is that they've hired a publicist to help make him more acceptable to the public. Right off, that's a great concept. The execution is even better as most of the issue is spent in conversations between Magneto and the publicist about propaganda, fear, respect, etc, that manage to fill you in on events while not coming off as exposition for exposition's sake.

A new story arc, though I'm not sure a good jumping on point, begins in Sweet Tooth #20. I just don't see skipping the first 19 issues. The series hinges on these characters' development and even though part of what makes it brilliant is that the characters are revealed in every panel, their development over time, in relation to how all encompassing each panel can be is something to behold. There's two pages of conversation between Jeppard and Sweet Tooth in this issue that are absolutely perfect. Jeff Lemire, writing and drawing, puts a scene together that I would love to buy the original pages for. I won't post the whole page, but here's the first panel, which, by itself, would make a great painting. Beautiful composition.

And, what the hell, here's another panel from the issue that I love.

Also out, and as insane as expected, Axe Cop Bad Guy Earth #2. There's not much I can say about this issue that pretty much any random page couldn't tell you better. To top it off, this happens to be the first page. It's just pure, imaginative fun from a six year old brain.