STATIC WIPE

Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's X-STATIX comes to an abrupt end with issue #26, shipping next week, and in a typical example of Marvel circuitousness, it crosses orbits with Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza's new X-FORCE #1, an echo of the title that X-STATIX replaced and subverted. Those fans who were outraged to see sophistication and wit in their much-treasured guns-and-creases showcase should be enormously grateful to welcome Liefeld back to the x-books, at least for the three months it takes before Marvel has to fire him again.

The stated reason for wrapping up X-STATIX is that the creators feel the book has run its course, which is certainly the best possible reason to end a title. In fact, that the creators were even allowed to exercise that decision makes X-STATIX something of a novelty in Marvel's history. It wasn't cancelled - as far as we know - and it isn't being relaunched with a new creative team. The creators called it a day, and the book is ending. In that sense, it's the Marvel mutant equivalent of a PREACHER or a SANDMAN.

Unfortunately, for all that X-STATIX was a brilliant series and a highlight of the monthly schedule, it won't have the legacy that books like PREACHER and SANDMAN had, because it doesn't have the library.

The books are all there on the shelf, but with such an uneven history - two volumes collected as X-FORCE, four as X-STATIX, and that monstrous carbuncle of the hastily rewritten Princess Diana resurrection story squatting at the centre of the run - it won't stand together as a cohesive whole.

'X-STATIX won't have the legacy that books like SANDMAN had.' What should have been a creative triumph, and one of the House of Ideas' finest hours, now carries the smear of editorial thumbprints on its pages, and it won't be a book that people come back to. That the series also lacks a major arc is also perhaps a weakness, but at Marvel, under the peculiar whims and vicissitudes of its editors, publishers and investors, a major arc is usually a fool's errand. At least DC only has one Paul Levitz, where Marvel seems to have a boardroom full of them.

It's a great shame, especially when the collection of Milligan's other long-form work, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, currently stands at one lonely volume. His second attempt at a Vertigo ongoing, THE MINX, was aborted at issue eight, and his current series, HUMAN TARGET, may struggle to survive.

The X-STATIX creators already have their next projects lined up. Allred is working on an adaptation of the Book of Mormon, and his enthusiasm for that unlikely project may explain why his pencils on X-STATIX have suffered in recent issues.

As for Peter Milligan, he'll get another chance to build up the library at Marvel when he takes over X-MEN from Chuck Austen. This could be regarded as the easiest job in the world, because whatever he produces he's likely to look good in comparison to Austen. Then again, many of us said the same thing when Austen took over from Joe Casey.

Milligan has had his missteps in the past, of course, and it's usually when he's working in the mainstream, with pedestrian work on titles like ELEKTRA and the MAGNETO miniseries. Not only does Milligan seem to invest less in these titles, but the traditional superhero artists he's asked to work with tend to flatten the subtleties of his characterisation. Salvador Larroca on X-MEN may not be the best fit.

Whether Milligan excels on X-MEN will ultimately depend on whether he's given the sort of free license that was afforded to his friend and contemporary Grant Morrison, but with less of a brand and less of a following, and with Chris Claremont and Joss Whedon to go up against, there's good reason to be sceptical.

In the meantime, X-STATIX is dead. Thanks to its spotty publishing history, it's probably buried, too.

ROUGH TRADE

If you do fancy picking up the X-FORCE and X-STATIX trades, a word of warning; do so sooner rather than later. Marvel's trade programme is not what it was. Or rather, it is what it was, but it's not what we thought it would be.

The very concept of Marvel publishing trade paperbacks seemed revolutionary back when the Jemas/Quesada regime kicked in. The only Marvel trade I own that predates the big push of the past few years is an Alan Davis/Jamie Delano CAPTAIN BRITAIN trade from 1988, and beyond the overpriced MARVEL MASTERWORKS hardcovers, I'm hard pushed to remember any others.

Marvel went about its trade programme with unprecedented enthusiasm when it started, testing different formats, different wait times, and testing the market as a whole to see what it could support. Initially, the general quality of the books even seemed to merit such a comprehensive programme.

'Marvel is not in the business of building libraries.' Unfortunately, Marvel has always struggled to strike a balance between expanding into new markets and serving its existing customer base. There was a time when its willingness to get trades out there with such speed seemed laudable, especially when compared to DC's laggardly pace.

Now this haste has become indecent, and the entire backlist has become transient. Marvel does not keep its trades in print. Following the spirit of its no overship policy for monthly comics, Marvel only prints as many trades as it's sure it can sell. In fact, this has been Marvel's stated policy since 2001, despite public perception that the company is attempting to build a permanent backlist.

Unlike DC Vertigo, Marvel is not in the business of building libraries. The fumbling treatment of X-STATIX suggests it, and Marvel's attitude to its backlist confirms it. Anyone attempting to find trade paperbacks on the redesigned Marvel website can attest that finding current trades is a cinch, but tracking down stuff from a year ago is a nightmare.

And since Marvel doesn't want libraries, readers don't get libraries. Even books that one would expect to stay in print, like Garth Ennis's PUNISHER and Grant Morrison's NEW X-MEN, don't really work as multiple-volume collections. NEW X-MEN suffered from late artists leading to fill-in artists leading to an uneven final product (much like Morrison's INVISIBLES). Ennis's PUNISHER, now boasting two Volume Ones, has too many shifts in tone to make sense as a series. Even ULTIMATE X-MEN, designed from day one for the trade paperback market, has wavered enormously as recent writers have tried to recover the book from Mark Millar's excessively cynical early stories.

From Marvel's point of view, the programme is a success. The company has made money, and printing-to-order means it's risked very little. But just as Marvel never had its WATCHMEN or its DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, it seems determined never to have its PREACHER or its SANDMAN. For a major publisher to lack that kind of creative ambition seems shameful, and it's the reader that suffers in the end.

That said, there is one creator who has succeeded at Marvel where Morrison, Milligan and Ennis have failed. With both DAREDEVIL and ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, Brian Michael Bendis has displayed the vision and dedication required to produce a magnum opus (or two), and as Marvel's favourite son, he's been granted a freedom and respect that other creators simply don't receive.

Bendis seems committed to seeing these series through, and Marvel is in no hurry to lose him. If the books can go the distance, they'll be New Marvel's only legacy on the shelves.

Andrew Wheeler is a London-based entertainment journalist.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution by private individuals on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.