X-Men (vol 3) #7 - Post Vamp Arc

May I say that I am really enjoying Victor Gischler's run on this title. I also like that we've had the fortune of going from a good artist to another good artist. Medina's art was enjoyable, and now that we have Bachalo on board, I'm just having a ball. Bachalo's pencils just have a way of making me feel jazzed.

Onward to plot. One question: Why does Storm always seem to get sent on missions in which there will be teeny, tiny corridors? That Cyclops has a love of irony when he's rostering his operations.

I'm thrilled to see smaller groups of X-Men taking part in smaller scale adventures. It's refreshing to see a quartet spelunking in sewers rather than watch an all-out, no-holds-barred, every-mutant-gets-frame-time extravaganza. Yes Wolverine is being used, and yes a majority of the panels are splashed in yellow spandex, but it's not bothering me as much as normal, somehow. I love Storm and Gambit books, too. The addition of Emma within the gathering adds a bit of the unexpected. She adds flavor with complaints and boobs.

One bit of malicious criticism is in regards to a certain faux pas that either Chris Bachalo or someone who edited the particular page in question may have committed. A double use of a single drawing is never acceptable unless is for the sake of comedic repetition, ie: a delayed reaction sequence. Well here's one that bothered me quite ruthlessly. I don't know if it's time restraints, or an editorial choice, but I think this trick is above an artist like CB.

I'm a little verklempt...
Talk amongst yourselves...
I will give you a topic...
Shadowcat is neither a shadow, nor a cat...
Discuss

Ok, I'm betta.

Seriously, though. I hate that

I want to point out one last thing before I relieve y'all. Vic Gischler has lived in Louisiana and he pays special attention to Gambit's dialogue. I've made this point countless times, and I'll make it again.

Gambit is my favorite modern age X-man. I'm married to a Cajun girl from Crowley, LA. I have always wanted someone to make Gambit's dialogue valid and believable. Suffice to say that this single frame satisfied me.

My wife says what Remy says in this panel all the time.

I'm not joking, Vic. I want my muffaletta to make an appearance in the Cajun's hands. He could even charge it and throw it at The Lizard for all I care. As long as that crusty, salty, meaty, olivey sandwich makes it into an X-Men comic, I can die happy.

Make mine, Gischler.

Laissez les bons temps rouler

 My wife and I watched the first season of True Blood this week.
***THIS POST IS A SPOILER - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED***

While I know there is a comic adaption of this series, I have not read them and this isn't directly comic related, but I'm going to pick it apart anyway. First, let me explain something about my feelings towards Louisiana.

My wife is Cajun, and a history major, and a religious studies minor, so I've learned alot about Louisiana and things related to the culture and history of the Acadian people. That being said, is always angry to see Cajuns depicted on television. People don't seem to know alot about Cajuns, so when they watch the show Swamp People, they will assume Cajuns are all bayou-treading, back-woods, gator-shootin' rednecks. Disney is guilty too. The newest cell-animated Disney movie depicts a Cajun firefly wit tree teef an' some bayou folk wit ugly yella overalls. Not very well represented, dem. Which leads me to True Blood. People hear the character Rene speak in a strange dialect. He's trying so hard, and Michael Raymond-James even hired a dialect coach to train for his role. We find out near the end of the season that Rene is the killer. My wife interjects "Of course the only Cajun guy is the psychopath". Well, we learn later the the accent is fake and the killer is not really Cajun, so no harm, no foul, right. Still...

Where the hell is Bon Temps?
It looks like southern Louisiana, it sounds like southern Louisiana but these folken just don't seem to know where they live. At one point someone says they goin down to Shreveport. Shreveport is nearly at the northernmost point in LA, so if they goin down to Shreveport, they be in Tennessee, chere. At another point in the season, someone says they plan on going up to the Gulf....so apparently Bon Temps is in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Also, since it looks and sounds like southern LA, yet all of the people at the cemetery are buried underground...they are buried in water. Cemeteries in the southern part of LA are beautiful because the water table is so high that people don't get buried, they get an above-ground family tomb. So Bill Compton would have a hard time staying out of the hot sun.

Also, I have this thing in which I try to figure out what movies British and Aussie actors study to pick up the American accents they use in shows and movies.
Robert Pattinson is Marlon Brando. "Hey BELLA!!!"
Hugh Jackman is Clint Eastwood. "Do you feel lucky, bub?"
Stephen Moyer is Elvis Presley. "I'm a hunka-burnin' vampire."

The show is entertaining, but some of us have to suspend more disbelief than the rest.