Common Grounds - A No Flying, No Tights Review

Common Grounds is a lost treasure of the Modern Age of Comics. (That’s not hyperbole. I literally lost my copies of the original six-issue mini-series somewhere along the line and only recently rediscovered the series after chancing upon the trade paperback collection in a used book store.)

There is no over-riding plot or main character in Common Grounds. Instead, writer Troy Hickman presents a series of thirteen vignettes built around the titular chain of coffee shops. Founded by a retired superhero named Big Money, the goal of the chain was to give costumed crime-fighters a place to relax in their masked personas while they were off duty. In an effort to foster understanding and peace, costumed criminals are also welcomed provided they leave their grudges at the door.

These interludes run the gamut from low comedy to high drama, occasionally playing with both comedic and dramatic elements at the same time. The opening story, “Beyond the Speed of Life,” sets this balanced tone perfectly. It tells the story of a reporter interviewing his favorite superhero, The Speeding Bullet, at a nearby Common Grounds location. The Speeding Bullet is a speedster who is widely beloved by the public and acknowledged as one of the greatest heroes in the world. He is also, to the surprise of the reporter, largely unsatisfied with his life outside of heroism. While he loves helping people and is thankful for the opportunities his powers give him, “SB” does express his wish for the ability to slow down on occasion and his desire to live a normal life.

It would be easy to play the problems of a man with super-speed off for laughs or for Speeding Bullet to come off as a bit of a whiner, but Hickman seriously examines how super-speed with the heightened perceptions to match your reflexes would make everyday life a bit more difficult. For instance, being able to eat whatever you want due to a heightened metabolism that burns off excess calories in minutes sounds great in theory, but the fact of the matter is you have to spend more time in the bathroom than a normal person. Why? Well, there are some things you can’t do at super speed. Such is Hickman’s gift as a writer that he can play up the comedy such situations while simultaneously exploring the dramatic elements of the superhero genre.

The book’s cast features a host of other such memorable characters, but my favorite is probably Moshe Chomsky. Moshe is a devout Hasidic Rabbi who somehow developed the power to melt anything he touches. Moshe is an honestly good person who prays for guidance and struggles to find constructive uses for a destructive ability, all while trying to tolerate “the smart-alecks in the media” who dubbed him “The Acidic Jew,” with good humor. There’s no small amount of irony that such a potentially deadly power should wind up in the hands of someone so ill-disposed toward violence and hurting people and it is fun to watch Hickman play off the clichés of comics (which demand that anyone with fire powers have a temper or anyone with cold powers be emotionally distant) in this way.

This is one of the best-looking comics series I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, featuring an all-star roster of artists. Dan Jurgens does the lion’s share of the work, having drawn six of the thirteen vignettes but there’s not a single scrub in the line-up. Michael Avon Oeming. Ethan Van Sciver. Chris Bachalo. Carlos Pacheco. Angel Medina. Sam Kieth. The legendary George Perez. You’d be hard pressed to get one artist of this caliber for a mini-series, let alone all of these fine artists!

Common Grounds is a must read for any fan of the superhero genre, as well as those who typically dismiss superhero stories as childish fantasies. There are some truly complex stories here, with none of the gore or overt sexuality one usually expects in a Top Cow graphic novel. Indeed, apart from some frank discussions about superhero sexuality ala the Man of Steel/Woman of Kleenex debate, there’s no material in this collection I would consider objectionable for a teenage audience.

Common Grounds
by Troy Hickman
Art by Dan Jurgens, Michael Avon Oeming, Ethan Van Sciver, Chris Bachalo, Carlos Pacheco, Angel Medina, Sam Kieth and George Perez
ISBN: 9781582408415
Top Cow Productions, 2007
Publisher Age Rating: (13+)

X-Men: Schism - A No Flying, No Tights Review

SOURCE: X-Men: Schism



Mutants – those beings born with natural super powers – once represented the future of humanity. But as a wise man once said, “the future isn’t what it used to be,” and various circumstances have reduced the number of mutants world-wide to just about 200. Most of them now live on an artificial island dubbed Utopia, located just off the coast of San Francisco. With Mutantkind in such dire straits, their de facto leader, Scott Summers (a.k.a. the X-Men leader Cyclops), intends to go before the United Nations and ask for the recognition of Utopia as a peaceful nation. More, he plans to ask for the destruction of any weapons technology that specifically targets mutants.

An attack on the UN by a telepathic mutant terrorist leaves the rest of the world largely unsympathetic and leads to a run on the sale of Sentinels, the robotic assassins built exclusively to hunt and kill mutants. This is all according to the machinations of Kade Kilgore, a young munitions magnate and owner of most of the world’s remaining Sentinels. As Kilgore’s plans develop, the X-Men find themselves stretched increasingly thin trying to protect a world that hates and fears them from an army of malfunctioning Sentinels. And as the threat of total destruction builds and Cyclops forces more and more young mutants into battle, Wolverine will find himself taking a stand against his leader and starting a fight for the future of Mutantkind.

I’ve never been a big X-Men fan. In fact, it would be fair to say that I believe that X-Men comics in general are the epitome of everything that is wrong with American superhero comics. The storylines are dominated by characters who had far more thought put into their powers than their personalities. You need to read more than a doctoral student working on her thesis to have even a basic grasp of the continuity. And on the rare occasions a creator tries to do something unusual or thoughtful with the concept (I’m thinking Grant Morrison’s New X-Men or Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men), the fandom revolts and demands more of the same epic storylines where Everything Changes Forever.

X-Men: Schism is guilty of all of these generalizations. And yet, I found myself enjoying it anyway. The story Jason Aaron tells here is remarkably accessible, despite being mired in some complex continuity. While most of the supporting cast doesn’t get much definition and there are a few bits where only long-time X-Fans will get the joke, the action flows well and Aaron takes the time to show off the hidden paternal side of the team badass, Wolverine. Indeed, some of the best scenes in this story involve Wolverine and his efforts to try and give some sense of normalcy to the life of a 14-year-old girl who considers herself a monster because of her powers.

While the script flows well enough, the art doesn’t always aid the story. Each of the five chapters of X-Men: Schism is drawn by a different artist, each of them possessing a completely different style. They are all good artists, but the differences seem jarring at times as the story transitions from one scene to another.

Kieron Gillen, who wrote the final issue in this TP collection, fares somewhat better in his story, detailing how the two factions of mutants are formed in the wake of the titular schism. There are a lot of effective character moments here and some good humor. Sadly, the artistic metaphor of the B-story of this chapter – an odd sequence depicting the various X-Men as a tribe of cavemen rallying around two of their fellows battling for supremacy – seems to be less about tribalism as a metaphor for the current state of the Mutant population taking sides with either Cyclops or Wolverine and more about giving artist Billy Tan a chance to draw the X-Men as fur-clad barbarians.

Despite this tiny bit of fan service and the general sense that we’ve seen a lot of this story before in various pieces (Wolverine bonds with a troubled teenage girl, Wolverine fighting Cyclops, the return of The Sentinels, etc.), I’d still recommend this book. It isn’t the greatest X-Men story ever written, but it is a must-read for those who wish to know the current status quo of the team. It is good for what it is, a well-paced action flick on paper.

X-Men: Schism
by Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen
Art by Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuna, Alan Davis, Adam Kubert and Billy Tan
ISBN: 9780785156680
Marvel Comics, 2012
Publisher Age Rating: T (13 and Up)