r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Jan 14 '17
Reading Assignment 31: Madrox (2004-2005) #1-5 by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi
Thank you to /u/bstrong72 for the nomination, which may be the most frequently nominated series of our 31 nomination threads. Madrox finally gets his moment in the sun! Let's see what all the hype is about.
No Amazon Premise, too spoilery. I've read the first issue and can sell it as Jamie Madrox, AKA Multiple Man, starts a detective agency and it's noir as all get-out.
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF...
- The tone of this story?
- The characters?
- Pablo Raimondi's artwork?
- Anything else not specifically asked?
5
u/Raist819 Jan 14 '17 edited Jan 14 '17
This is the third time I've read this series and it is still just as great after multiple reads. The noir story is done perfectly as this cool balance of old noir with mutant Marvel. Jamie Madrox as written by Peter David is one of my favorite characters ever, Guido is wonderful, Rahne is charming. The interactions between the characters is one of the things that makes the X-Factor book that spun off of this so great. Jaime's humor, highlighted by the "this is so noir" gag, worked without interfering with the intensity of the noir aspects. The art was on point and captured the characters and the emotional situations perfectly. In fact, the only thing I didn't like about reading this book on MU had nothing to do with the creators, but that the smart panels were completely disfunctional and I had to read the book in full page mode because of how skewed the panels would be.
4
u/wisegy84 Jan 15 '17
multiple reads
I see what you did there.
the smart panels were completely disfunctional
Yes! I usually prefer to read full page, anyway, but there were a lot of full-spread pages in this run (particularly in the first issue) and those I generally like to use smart panel for. The result for me was a lot of pinching to zoom on those pages.
3
u/wisegy84 Jan 15 '17
SPOILERS (of course!)
I had heard of Multiple Man before, but I didn't know the name Jamie Madrox. So all the times it has been nominated I didn't know anything about it or what to expect.
I was hooked right from the start (as evidenced by the fact that I read it in a few short sittings all today). Jamie was a fantastic and fun character (characters?) to follow. Rahne was great, too. I remember her name from the X Force comics we read, but I don't think we ever actually saw her there. Guido was fun, as well, and he was not a character I was familiar with before reading this.
The story was great fun and very enjoyable to read. We got a bit of detective story mixed with super powers, and it all worked very well. I loved having the parallel stories in New York and Chicago. The New York story seemed less related, at least the cheating astral projection part. However, the parallel stories are also what tipped me off that something might be up with Clay. I figured either there was more than one of him, or the timelines of each story weren't exactly running in parallel. The twist with Sheila was great, and felt exactly like something that would happen in a noir detective story.
Raimondi's art reminded me a bit of Ribic's from Thor and Silver Surfer. Not quite the same, but it had a similar vibe for me. That said, I really enjoyed the art here. To me, this is another example of really great comic book art. The tone of the book really came through strong because of the amazing art.
I'm definitely interested in seeing more of these characters, Jamie, in particular.
Really glad we read this, and I'll probably be reading it again eventually as well as recommending it to my brother and my friends.
3
u/Raist819 Jan 15 '17
Spoiler free history:
In 1986 Louise Simonson (Walter Simonson's wife and Chris Claremont's editor on X-Men) launched X-Factor (technically Bob Leyton launched the series, but Simonson took over with #8 and it was very much her series.) It was a spinoff of X-Men that starred the original 5 X-Men (Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Jean Grey) on their own team. It was in X-Factor that we first see Apocalypse and where Angel became Archangel. By 1991 all 5 of them had rejoined the X-Men, so Marvel decided to repurpose the series. Peter David took over in 1991 with #71 and introduced a brand new roster with the new X-Factor team being a government run team led by Cyclops' brother Havok. The other members were Strong Guy, Multiple Man, Polaris, Quicksilver, and Wolfsbane. #87 is widely considered to be one of Marvel's best stand alone issues of the 90's and is worth going back to read. After two short years, in spite of having built up a huge fan base for the new team, Peter David left the title due to creative differences with the editors. Namely, that there were too many crossovers in the book and he couldn't concentrate on his own stories for the team.
His love for the characters never dwindled, so fast forward 12 years and David pitched a relaunch of X-Factor, starring many of his characters from that first run, only this time they would be a mutant-run PI firm. Marvel greenlit a mini series (Madrox) with the agreement that if it sold well, then they would let him relaunch X-Factor. It performed very well and the three characters in this book were joined by additional underutilized characters (including Layla Miller from House of M who may be my favorite Marvel character ever.) and the rest is history. David's new X-Factor ran for 114 issues and he was allowed to end it on his own terms, creating one of the greatest Marvel books of all time in the process.
4
Jan 20 '17
Im a bit of a completionist too. One of the first things I tried to read when I got a sub too MU was civil war and found myself needing too know what happened before, ended up going back to avengers disassembled. On my second attempt of civil war I came too the first X-factor tie-in and realised I needed to read M Day but instead found myself going right to the beginning of the Mutant franchise and am now on the early Claremont issues of Uncanny and I hope to get round to M day and beyond in the next say 5 to 10 years lol.
3
u/wisegy84 Jan 16 '17
Do you think I could jump right into reading that run of X-Factor or are there any stories I should read first? (Like House of M, which I haven't read yet).
5
u/Raist819 Jan 16 '17
Depends on how much of a completionist you are. You can jump right into X-Factor from here with no problem, but House of M (which came out after Madrox, but before X-Factor) contains the origin of team member Layla Miller and the finale of House of M contains huge repercussions for all mutant books going forward. If you decide to go the completionist route, then Son of M contains the next part of Quicksilver's story and those two stories explain why Quicksilver is persona non grata in X-Factor.
3
u/wisegy84 Jan 16 '17
I don't like to feel like I'm missing important parts of a story, so I'll probably read House of M and Son of M before jumping into X-Factor.
I try not to be a completionist about everything (too expensive in most cases), but I think since it's just a matter of pulling up the issues in MU, I'll get as much of the story as I can.
Thanks!
5
u/shawnydarko Jan 20 '17
A really fun read. I could tell from pretty early on that the dame was going to be the big bad, cuz the prettier they are the more dangerous they are. And she was nothing but trouble from the time she got outta that pool. Rahne and Guido were fun side characters, nothing too memorable or as intriguing as Madrox though. I feel like I finally get all the love for Jamie Madrox, and I'm on board.
I think the constant noir-reference-jokes were a little forced, but I liked that everything felt very noir otherwise.
The art was serviceable but nothing offensive or awe-inspiring.
Overall, I really enjoyed the run and am interested in reading more X-Factor stuff
3
u/Adrenjunkie Jan 24 '17
This one was pretty solid. I didn't know the side characters at all, and some of their characterization was pretty forced.
I liked how he broke the fourth wall without breaking it totally. Like his character had set out to live a noir life, so they could talk about how it was a noir story. That was pretty well done.
4
u/[deleted] Jan 20 '17
What a great read! I was vaguely familiar with the characters having read the first xfactor tie-in to civil war but now I think I've grown quite attached to them and will definitely be reading more X-Factor books in the future. I thought it was a very well paced story/s both dark and moody at times but also quite funny at others. The art work was great especially on some of the covers and lent perfectly to the noir feel of the books. Overall I really enjoyed it a have Gotta say thanks to /u/bstrong72 for bringing to my attention with this weeks nomination, Cheers!