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icarys's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
all_hail_grimlock's review
This is going to be a tough one for me: I'm not sure why I like X so much. There's something that feels unique about him, except I can't pinpoint it in the character itself. Much that we know, and much that is implied about his origins, are very similar to other antiheroes.
Of course, there's the lock around the choker (that the reboot flat out says is to hold him back from being too psychotically violent) and the fact that he looks like he's starring in a super kinky porn flick. Most antiheroes don't lean into the kinkiness quite as much.
Or maybe it's that unlike the Punisher or Red Hood, I can't really understand X's motivations: it's clear why Frank Castle and Jason Todd are killing people. They have genuine grievances and while we may revel in their punishing the worse guys - usually involving murdering them - this makes us sympathize with them. On the other hand, supervillains murder and we are intended not to sympathize with them (for the most part, and I'm using Joker type villains here, not Magneto who had understandable reasons for his wrath and took it too far. Villains who kill for money, or fun, not for the protection of their people.).
X's history - and potential current alliances - implies that we might not want to sympathize them as much as we do, and yet he's targeting only corrupt people, gangsters and corrupt police officers and on and on. It's made clear from the beginning, and throughout this volume, that the city he lives in - Arcadia - has been destroyed by the corruption; we are reminded every now and then about the homeless who are sneered at and spat upon by the type of corrupt people X targets. And while he never actively helps hopeless people, he is in a war against the people who look down on them. But they are brought in, threatened, interrogated and X does nothing against that, nor does he actively help them; when a young boy is made homeless because of X's war, X acts cold and distant, even pulling a gun on this hapless character, dragged into a fight he never wanted, comes to X for help.
So perhaps it's the ambiguity. I honestly don't know how I feel about him. Am I cheering him on because there's just enough to code him as on the good side, even if using methods that aren't quite heroically pure? Because I am cheering him on - but there's enough to make me doubt myself, and create a little pit in my stomach. He might turn out to be corrupt as well - and I'd actually be crushed about it. I want to like him.
Then again, I'm invested enough to care about what side he's on, and I'm enjoying the stories unravelling this. I did knock down one star because the story feels like it's taking a little too long to get to it's eventual end: there are one-off issues that break up the larger arcs, and plot and character revelations - and some of those felt slightly unnecessary, like the Ghost story which felt like a reminder that Ghost existed in X's universe.
Still, excellent art, loved the longer story arc - even if I haven't gotten to the endpoint yet - and so I enjoyed this immensely.
Of course, there's the lock around the choker (that the reboot flat out says is to hold him back from being too psychotically violent) and the fact that he looks like he's starring in a super kinky porn flick. Most antiheroes don't lean into the kinkiness quite as much.
Or maybe it's that unlike the Punisher or Red Hood, I can't really understand X's motivations: it's clear why Frank Castle and Jason Todd are killing people. They have genuine grievances and while we may revel in their punishing the worse guys - usually involving murdering them - this makes us sympathize with them. On the other hand, supervillains murder and we are intended not to sympathize with them (for the most part, and I'm using Joker type villains here, not Magneto who had understandable reasons for his wrath and took it too far. Villains who kill for money, or fun, not for the protection of their people.).
X's history - and potential current alliances - implies that we might not want to sympathize them as much as we do, and yet he's targeting only corrupt people, gangsters and corrupt police officers and on and on. It's made clear from the beginning, and throughout this volume, that the city he lives in - Arcadia - has been destroyed by the corruption; we are reminded every now and then about the homeless who are sneered at and spat upon by the type of corrupt people X targets. And while he never actively helps hopeless people, he is in a war against the people who look down on them. But they are brought in, threatened, interrogated and X does nothing against that, nor does he actively help them; when a young boy is made homeless because of X's war, X acts cold and distant, even pulling a gun on this hapless character, dragged into a fight he never wanted, comes to X for help.
So perhaps it's the ambiguity. I honestly don't know how I feel about him. Am I cheering him on because there's just enough to code him as on the good side, even if using methods that aren't quite heroically pure? Because I am cheering him on - but there's enough to make me doubt myself, and create a little pit in my stomach. He might turn out to be corrupt as well - and I'd actually be crushed about it. I want to like him.
Then again, I'm invested enough to care about what side he's on, and I'm enjoying the stories unravelling this. I did knock down one star because the story feels like it's taking a little too long to get to it's eventual end: there are one-off issues that break up the larger arcs, and plot and character revelations - and some of those felt slightly unnecessary, like the Ghost story which felt like a reminder that Ghost existed in X's universe.
Still, excellent art, loved the longer story arc - even if I haven't gotten to the endpoint yet - and so I enjoyed this immensely.
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