Comics Wrap Up - The Line Between Hero and Villain

This week, my comic reading seems to have gone along in a sort-of theme. Maybe it's just me, and what I've been reading into things, but it seems like all the comics that I've read this week have been focussed in some way on the line between heroes and villains - and the uber-fuzziness of said line.

Maybe it's just Marvel in the modern age (and we all know I love me some Marvel,) trying to draw attention to the complex moral issues (woo! go Marvel! gotta love complex moral issues!)

So, this week, I read a Panini-published UK compendium (under their Essential X-men title;) this collected Uncanny X-men #19 (USA) and #20 (USA) (of the modern, Marvel Now run,) with Guardians of the Galaxy #13 (USA.)

These are very good comics - but my God, when we start faffing around with multiple disrupted timelines, two of several characters running around, and Jean Grey having a whole Phoenix/wtf-is-going-on? moment again, even seasoned Marvel girls like myself can get a little in over their heads.

If you do want to take a running leap at these ones, then just accept the madness and move on. It's just easier that way.

I personally think the whole direction that Marvel have recently taken regarding Cyclops and the battle for mutant rights is quite brave - Cyclops has, after all, been labelled a terrorist, and Mystique and the brotherhood et al. (in these comics at least,) are faffing about in a newly-established Mutant state in Madripoor (and my God, are there moral issues to burn here.)

Taking a step back in X-men history, this week I also read X-men Unlimited #40 (US link.) This is a 00's comic with stand-alone X-men stories from a variety of artists. This issue has villain stories - featuring Mystique, Sabre-tooth, and Juggernaut.

They're great - with a beautiful set of artwork and some really thought-provoking story lines. Though I have to say, I wasn't a fan of 'Slam,' the last story in the issue, which kind of felt like a filler story/what the hell is going on? story.

On the non-mutant side of life, Daredevil: End of Days #1 of 8 (USA,) is simply sublime. The artwork is fantastic - almost painterly, with a twist of the noir for flavour. Matt Murdock, the Daredevil, is dead. But what happened? And has he taken one more secret along with him?

This comic asks a lot of pertinent questions - not least when a hero stops being a hero, and the role of the media in news events. And isn't that what comics have always done? They take the world, and they reflect it back at us. They make us ask the questions of ourselves that we don't want to ask, and they do it with style.