Best of the Week // Sometimes Your Dad Is Pirate Satan

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By on November 12th, 2013

Welcome, dear readers, to another week of comics and commentary at Comics! The Blog! We kick things off, as always, by handing out awards for the Best of the Week - beginning with two Award postings, followed closely on Tuesday with this past week’s Best.

Amazing X-Men #1

 

Hey kids. Remember that time that Chuck Austen was writing X-Men, and we found out that Nightcrawler - a devout Christian and sometimes-priest - was the son of one of Marvel’s various Satans and Mystique? No? Well, don’t worry - through the magic of internet links, I will refresh your memory by sending you to my Drunk Comic Recaps regarding that particular storyline. Spoiler alert: Iceman doesn’t make it out of the event without becoming what I assume is some kind of strange man-of-urine.

Anyway, that’s a thing that happened, and Jason Aaron is (quite bravely) revisiting that story with Amazing X-Men #1 - featuring the return of Nightcrawler and his crazy pops! Like most people’s fathers, Azazel has been spending his time trying to find a way to conquer what might be heaven. Aaron isn’t too specific about where Nightcrawler is in the afterlife - and rightly so, considering the world has several different sets of gods, judging none for their various religious peccadilloes - so it could also be just a super nice floating island, like where ever the hell Knuckles is from in those Sonic games. (You guys, I’m so comma so super tired. You will get the recommendation you get, and you’ll be glad about it.) Things happen,. The X-Men are called away from their plain of existence, and they arrive to help fight Azazel with their fists or whatnot. It’s pretty great.

This issue is rendered lovingly by the super talented Ed McGuinness, whose larger than life art style is the perfect match for Aaron’s take on the X-Men. The levity present in the art plays well with Aaron’s tenancy to make things fun instead of dour, and the fight scenes sing as a result. In fact, the work by the entire creative team creates a fantastic package. I get the sense that McGuinness’ art is fairly clean, but even the cleanest of lines can be shaken with the presence of a sub-par inker. Dexter Vines is more than up to the task of inking, and as such, the book looks amazing.

Marte Gracia should also be applauded for his colouring. If you want a sense of how good he is, take a look at the cover. Because of the way the art appears on the page, Nightcrawler could have just melted into the body of the pirate ship in the background, a result of shadow bleeding into the foreground colouring of Kurt’s costume. Instead, he adds an accent around Nightcrawler’s image that pops him out into the foreground, making him the focal point of the page without looking too clunky. It’s pretty amazing. We bestow upon this book our coveted Snikt! Is Another Word For I Love You Award, and hope you enjoyed it too.

AND OH YEAH:

THE COMPLEAT DRUNK “THE DRACO” can be accessed by clicking the following (which were named while drunk. So.):

You’re welcome, internet.

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