SOLDIER X #1

Brand new book, same old look

By Tony Whitt     August 13, 2002

It's been two years for Nathan Summers - though through the magic of comic books, it's only been about two weeks for us) - and his reporter friend Irene is worried. She's convinced he didn't die in Kazakhstan, and the weekly sweeps of her apartment by S.H.I.E.L.D. to look for evidence that she's been in contact with him would seem to confirm that. Meanwhile, Nathan's hanging out in the desert with other soldiers displaced in time, and he's about to meet an old friend.

When X-FORCE ended and came immediately back as X-STATIX, none of us really expected that much of a change, and therefore we weren't disappointed. When a creative team tells us that we're rejoining their main character two years after the end of his last title, however, we expect more than minor cosmetic changes. But SOLDIER X doesn't even have enough of those to make it at all different from CABLE - especially since the word "cosmetic" implies that something at least looks good.

Yes, I know Igor Kordey has a fan following, and I know he's respected as an artist who can do the sort of quick turnaround that escapes an artist like, say, Frank Quitely. And it's true that his backgrounds and cityscapes are incredibly intricate and impressive. Sadly, that expertise doesn't extend to renderings of the human face, or at least not consistently. I've rather enjoyed his work these last few months on NEW X-MEN, so I simply don't understand why that same talent can't be applied to anything involving Nathan Summers.

I also don't understand what makes Darko Macan incapable of writing a script that isn't offensive or silly in some way. In this issue, he manages to do both. The opening scene in probably in the poorest taste of anything we've seen since the last time Ron Zimmerman was allowed to write a SPIDER-MAN title. Are we really over September 11 enough that we can now make jokes about it, even this obliquely? A scene in which a passenger with ethnic features is mistaken for a terrorist when he takes his shoe off - a passenger, by the way, who speaks with one of the most stereotypical accents imaginable - is not funny. Hilarity does not ensue. The Sumo wrestler later in the book who's unable to pronounce the letter "r" correctly is only one step above this, and it's not even a big step. And as for the silliness, are we truly expected to believe that S.H.I.E.L.D. would hire such idiots as the ones who accost Irene in the ladies room? Even she can't believe it, and she's a fictional character. Finally, don't get me started on how all of this jars completely with the rest of the book, which is played dead straight as soon as Nathan "no-sense-of-humor" Summers appears on the scene...unless you count his spitting bits of his metal arm at people as a joke. That's the only way I was able to account for it.

But the biggest problem with this issue, one which is impossible to fix now, is that starting Nathan's story over with a new book and a new numbering system implies that new readers should be able to pick it up and follow it from here. That's not going to be the case with SOLDIER X, riddled as it is with backstory. And here I thought the definition of mutation was "radical change"?

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at
feedback@cinescape.com.