REVIEWS
BY STEVE PHELEY

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Mad props, or whatever the kids are saying these days, to the esteemed Mr. Sebela for taking over while I was victimized by Michigan weather last week. An hour and a half for my commute home. Bleh. I have no idea why people ever settled in this region.

Breakfast After Noon (Andi Watson, Oni Press, $2.95)

Yet another series I'd been avoiding only in hopes that a paperback collection would soon follow, Breakfast After Noon is a fine book by Andi Watson, of Skeleton Key and Geisha fame. It's a "slice-of-life" story, the kind of thing that in any other medium would fall smack dab in the middle of "mainstream". It stars a pair of young Brits named Louise and Rob, who are having a few financial problems as they get ready for their impending wedding; she's just recently gotten a diploma and is having trouble getting in anywhere on the ground floor, he's been laid off from his job and has taken to making some shady dealings. Even worse are the emotional troubles that continue to drive a wedge between them.

Jumping into the series with its second-to-last issue wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. While I've obviously missed out on a good deal of background, the story is down-to-earth enough that no introduction is really necessary. Louise and Rob and their relationship are established quickly up front, with a minimum of obvious exposition and a good deal of honest dialogue. They're compelling people, well-characterized by Watson in both writing and art; it would have been easy to make Louise a pushover or Rob an incontrovertible jerk, but Watson knows to keep from going too far. Louise is maybe a little too understanding or forgiving, but won't sacrifice her own happiness for her fiance's; Rob isn't unredeemable, but as the story progresses we get the feel that he's a man spiraling downward, clearly not the guy Louise fell in love with. The result is life on paper, easily recognizable to anyone who's felt a relationship deteriorate.

I think Andi Watson's art style is something people will either love or hate, and personally I love it. I don't know what it is, really; I usually don't go for the kind of simplified, almost minimalist look he's going for. But he manages to say a lot with fewer lines, and that's a skill. He also works in gray for shading and backgrounds, which helps give the art more depth without sacrificing the style.

Breakfast After Noon is a very cool thing, a rare gem. It won't get even the token mainstream-media attention that some books do, and that's a shame, because it's got the kind of lifelike, touching story that comics are often sorely lacking.

Promethea #12 (Alan Moore & J.H. Williams, America's Best Comics, $2.95)

After almost every issue of Promethea, I close the book and just sort of say, "Uh...yeah. Okay." It's a strange book that tends to mess with the average person's head a bit. This issue is no exception.

Two snakes (Mack and Mike) drag Sophie/Promethea on a tour of the major arcana of the Tarot, and in the process neatly describe reality and human history. Meanwhile, a bunch of Scrabble-like tiles spell out meaningful anagrams of Promethea's name, and Aleister Crowley tells a joke about two guys on a train that explains all the magic in the world.

It sounds like a mess. It sounds hokey and New Agey. But somehow, it works, which really only reinforces the theories that Alan Moore is both a genius and a madman. It's not a quick, one-shot read; between the snakes' narrative, the Crowley bit, and the anagrams, it's easy to get distracted and lose the flow of things a bit. It also doesn't really do a whole lot in the way of advancing an overall plot for the book, except just allowing the lead character to learn more. Neither of these things is a failure in the least. This book sets out to tell a story about stories, and does so with well-crafted, almost lyrical poetry.

There's a running bit that I'm a little torn about, and that's how once Mack and Mike are done with their piece for a page, Promethea basically translates and sums it up. It's helpful if you need it, and it's conceivable that she'd want the clarification herself, but at times it feels a little too blatant, like Moore is assuming the reader can't figure it out. Which may very often be the case, but why discourage people from working it out for themselves?

(By the way, Alan Moore writes good rhyming verse. A lot of people don't.)

Ultimate X-Men #1 (Mark Millar & Adam Kubert, Marvel, $2.99)

Starting off, my first thought was: Oh crap, they're opening with the Sentinels. To me, those giant robot things have always been symbolic of the whole problem with the X-Men: they're a minority facing irrational hatred and prejudice by the general populace, which has all kinds of symbolic value, but then Marvel's creative types take it too far, having the government sending giant killer robots after them. The metaphor breaks down.

But Millar manages to grab me back just a couple of pages later. He knows the Sentinels are over the top - this is the guy who writes The Authority now, it's what he does best. And now, within the "Ultimate" series, he doesn't have to worry about how the government's actions in UXM are going to affect Captain America. No more "Project Wideawake" shadow conspiracy or vague Congressional "mutant registration" threats - Magneto and his followers have bombed the Capitol building, and the government is very publicly fighting back.

Caught in the middle, as expected, are the X-Men. Millar's sticking with the mainstays: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Colossus, and Beast, picking up Iceman along the way. It's your basic "getting the team together" issue one story, but it's got enough energy and potential that I really don't mind. Millar and Kubert have brought new life to the X-Men, keeping what works and discarding the excess. They even came up with explanations for the costumes and codenames (the former, a bit iffy, but a good effort; the latter, kind of cool in a weird spiritual way) that are so often a hurdle when dealing with superheroes.

I'm actually enjoying the X-Men again. I have two fears: one, that this and Ultimate Spider-Man are the beginning of a "universe" which will just have the problems of the original on a smaller scale, and two, that Millar's work on this book will be overshadowed by Grant Morrison's upcoming run on one of the "main" X-books. But aside from that, I think the early signs here are pointing to another winner from Millar and company.