Gambit 11, A+X 7

Gambit 11
Asmus (w) and S. Mann, C. Mann, Vlasco, and Medina (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Things are happening a little too swiftly for Gambit after a nice little interlude sleeping with Joelle in a snowbank. Rogue shows up, prompting a hostile response from Joelle, which Gambit eventually stops, after letting it last long enough to see if it was still his dream (that's weird, Gambit). Things settle down a bit and Rogue asks to speak with Gambit privately well Joelle waits on the ship. Gambit and Rogue talk for a bit about their feelings and about how she's worried that Gambit is getting himself into more than he can handle. She proves correct as Tombstone's men descend on them and Joelle takes off in the ship. Tombstone has been probing Fence for information back on the mainland. Fence has given up Gambit's coordinates, confident that Gambit can get himself out of trouble. Tombstone prompts him to look deeper into Joelle's history, which Fence is willing to do as he has no loyalty to her. It turns out she's far older than she's letting on and that she's been around for a long time. The item that she stole, Tombstone informs him, is a WMD, not a cure for whatever child she's convinced Gambit she has. We see Joelle at her child's bed at the end of the issue (her child is an elderly woman now), swearing vengeance on the world in lieu of a cure. Tombstone meets her there (with the information Fence learned) and cuts her throat as the issue ends.
So there are intriguing things happening with Gambit right now. Tombstone, though he seems to realize Gambit didn't really know what he was getting into with Joelle, is still out for blood against our Cajun hero for stealing from him and destroying the wall of his night club. The team he sent after Gambit and Joelle, too, are unaware of who it is they're chasing, knowing only that it's one male and one female. Unfortunately for Rogue, she and Gambit fit under that banner so she's tied up in this beyond her attachment to Gambit now. On top of that, they have their own relationship problems to work out, having broken up previous to this series so Rogue could get a little bit of space and "find herself" before jumping back into another relationship. The twist of Joelle being older than she appears and fighting for a daughter who is in her twilight is a neat little twist, reminiscent of what I've read of Brubaker's Fatale series. I need to read more of that series (just nominated for a couple Eisners) but this kind of does fit that bill. Still, Fatale works, among other reasons, because that's a solid premise so a little pilfering (if that's what this is) doesn't hurt Gambit. I'll be interested to see where this goes.

A+X 7
Iron Man and Beast: Wells (w) and Keown and Lee (a) and Hollowell (c)
Thor and Iceman: Yost (w) and Bernales and Turcotte (a and c)

Another couple fun stories from A+X, which has really carried on longer than I'd have expected. It's kind of a glorified Marvel Team-Up but without a story that runs through it. Anyway, the first story is Iron Man and Beast, who team up at the behest of SHIELD to create a protection system in case Hulk should ever turn on his new employers. SHIELD has come up with, essentially, a new version of Tony's Hulkbuster armor while Beast had come up with a serum to try to make SHIELD officers temporarily Hulk-like (it did not work). They bring in Tony to stop hostile code from overtaking their Hulkbuster armor, as it's threatening to do. Tony brings down the safeguards in place so he can eliminate the code, but it moves faster than he anticipates. Before long, the Hulkbuster armor is completely compromised and starts attacking them. At the last second, Hulk himself jumps in and crushes the armor before powering down into Banner. As Tony and Beast leave with their tails between their legs, Banner reveals that he had planted the code just to show Tony and Beast who's smarter. It's a fun story with a lot of fun banter. When I told my girlfriend about the team-up, she accurately pointed out that it sounds like it would be obnoxious. It is, but Wells clearly knows it would be so is smart enough to make the obnoxious banter fun. He also is smart to make sure neither character "wins," as it means each has to kind of back off on their bravado. Overall a pretty fun story for fans of the two characters with a couple of real fun moments (like Beast faulting Tony for creating a helmet that splits down the middle simply because it looked cool and Tony accusing Beast of calling him "dude" in the middle of their fight).

The second story is my favorite of the two. The art style is completely different than any other comic I know and makes the story feel very much like a Pixar film, specifically the Pixar film The Incredibles. It doesn't hurt that Thor serves as a good stand-in for Mr. Incredible and Iceman makes a good Frozone (as those two characters in the movie were based heavily on at least the types of characters like Thor and Iceman, particularly Frozone-Iceman). Ymir and the Frost Giants are attacking Earth with the newly made casket of future winters, accidentally activated by Thor when Ymir goads him into using his lightning. Thor is angry with the Frost Giants but perhaps angrier with Iceman, who is joking throughout the entire issue. Finally he snaps at him and Iceman calmly explains that he jokes to keep everyone sane because the Avengers and X-Men already have "grim, stoic, and angsty" pretty well covered. He also explains that he's not taking this threat seriously because they've turned the world into ice and he's Iceman. He uses the ice to power himself up and take the Frost Giants down pretty handily. As the winter starts to disappear, his powers start decreasing and he gets weaker, cracking a final joke (about the Jotuns needing to be careful about licking their wounds, lest they freeze to themselves) that Thor actually laughs at and says is "truly funny." The writing is tight and solid and the questions from Thor are valid, is as the response from Iceman. It's not exactly a world shattering revelation (all the joking type heroes in the universe eventually have to answer for why they joke and it's always that answer) but the story itself is well done and Iceman is truly funny in it. Good book, pretty fantastic art, particularly the full-page spread of the reveal of the Frost Giants.