This is an...odd comic. Yeah. I'll go with that. Is it bad? No, not really. But it's not particularly great. It's not what the X-Men need to come back. It somewhat continues the interesting development the series introduced in its first issue, which I'll touch on as we enter into the review itself, but it also somewhat backtracks on those concepts and more sets up far different things. I fear that the series may not, at least for a little while, be what it's meant to be about. Obviously this idea is not going to last for long--or it will, and get changed back.
Am I being vague? Okay, good, just making sure. It's more fun this way.
One thing I'll say about this book is that it really fills you in on what's been going on post-Secret Wars (I really need to find out how to write comic book titles in these reviews, huh?). The first page tells you who's on the team...ish...as well as the recent developments. It's something every major comic book should do, not just one with a big name like "X-Men" or "Avengers." Even if it is a only a second issue, there are still years worth of backstory that occurred prior to this.
That's also the problem with relaunches, or even new launches in this case. I brought this up in my review last week, but it can really be a problem if poorly handled. This book treats it's situation well, as I said, with a info page telling you where everyone is and how they're doing, in a broad sense. But, what if it didn't? What if I were forced to go in blind reading this? How's a new reader supposed to get into it? Sure it's only a second issue, but really only by title. I'm not suggesting that there be a whole new story every time, I just suggest that all books have a good info page for the fun updates, or even do what Spider-Gwen does and have an entire page dedicated to a "previously on" section, with images from previous books.
But, enough of my rambles. Let's hop right into the book itself!
The cover is...meh. Just on its own, it's simply okay. It's just Jean Grey against a wall that says "No More Mutants." Nothing really special about it that pulls in my attention. Though, within the realms of the story, it doesn't make any sense. I know it's an homage to an older Uncanny X-Men cover, or at least a striking similarity, but, it has to make sense guys.
Okay, well, it sort of does. Jean is in an area where a wall like this is around...but she's neither in costume nor in any sort of real struggle. In fact, Jean never puts on the costume in this issue at all. Use her powers? Yes. Act worried? No, not really. If the point of the cover is to show the X-Men are in a tight spot, it sort of does that, except Jean isn't at all in this issue. Magik and Colossus? Oh yeah. In fact, I say the cover should have been on them!
We open with such characters, delving into some light comedy as well as finding Nightcrawler's tail lying around, after he got in a scuffle the previous issue.
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| Just some fun family bonding! |
We cut over to Canada, where Storm, Iceman, and rewired Sentinel Cerebra (basically imagine a mobile Cerebro, but...a girl I guess) should run into none other than Old Man Logan, as they discovered him at the end of the last book. You know, I'm glad they didn't bother looking anywhere else besides Canada. That should be literally the first place they go.
Logan doesn't apologize for nearly shredding apart Cerebra, as it looks just like a Sentinel, and instead catches up with Storm and Iceman as we are told Cerebra's purpose, for the new readers (+1 this comic): to find what's left of mutantkind, which is ironic, since Sentinels are programmed to do that...except to make sure they are never found again.
Logan has a tough time believing its on their side, and given recent events with Ginger over in Valiant's Unity, I do too. However, he doesn't have any issue relaying his backstory for us!
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| What a time to be alive! |
I also love how he explains Secret Wars: "I was there, then I wasn't, and now I'm here. Not sure how." And nobody else does, Mr. Logan. Nobody else does.
And while this scene is going all well and good, I just have a difficult time feeling the weight of all this. Mostly because there is no weight. Let's figure what the situation is: Old Man Logan is notorious for having killed all of the X-Men, and he is riddled with guilt about it for over two series now (soon possibly three, we don't really know what he's going to be doing in the upcoming Lemire/ Sorrentino series). He hasn't see Storm or Iceman, two of his best friends and allies, in years. He never thought he'd see them again.
As gruff and tough as Old Man Logan is, you have to think this comes as a fun surprise for him! Plus, Wolverine is finally back in some degree in an "X-Men" comic! And we're just going over exposition? There is a sense that he's afraid he may kill all of them again, so he tries to keep his distance, but he has to be curious as to how he got there in the first place.
It's implied that the end of Secret Wars will come with Old Man Logan leading a charge against God Doom to end it all. If that's the case, then he is clearly all for teamwork again. Why not now?
I don't know, maybe it'll be explained in his own series. If he's written this convoluted now by Jeff Lemire, though, then I'm not sure how high my hopes are for his solo series.
Iceman tries to pry some information out of him about the Terrigen Mist and M-Pox and oh man do I have some stuff to lay on you guys.
Alright, so, this book does have an interesting premise to it, I promise. It also ties into the "Inhuman" titles in a rather interesting way. Basically: the major Terrigen Mist released during the events of Infinity last year helped, obviously, to expose new Inhumans all around the world. Not really what matters now, sort of. What does matter is that somehow the Terrigen is poisoning mutants, harming them and making them almost radiate a lethal disease onto humankind. Not only that, but now all exposed mutants are sterile, meaning that mutantkind is on, technically, its final leg unless a cure of sorts can be found.
Storm, thus, has decided to take the reigns and recreate the X-Men to lead the charge against this new threat to their kind and show the mutantkind, and world at large, that the mutants are not afraid of this and will persist. After all, this wouldn't be the first time an extinction-level event has occurred. Scarlet Witch at the end of popular miniseries House of M uttered, when returning the world to "normal": "No more mutants." This did eliminate most mutants, some dodging it because plot, only to be changed back to normal in Avengers vs X-Men. Here, while the situation is more scientific, that means that science may provide a cure for it. I would love to see teams of Inhumans and X-Men banding together to figure out a way to solve this. It would bridge the gap in their differences and show that two versions of humanity can indeed coexist.
As we all know, the X-Men have all been an allegory for the outcasts, for the people who feel left out, who feel that the world looks down on them. This is their darkest hour, and they are persisting. There are some stronger, implied messages later on that I'll touch on, but the point is that Storm and Iceman are really shining as heroes now. This is a fight that, for all they know, will lead to their deaths no matter what. They may very well never see the next step for mutantkind, but they don't care, because like it or not, they are X-Men. They have to do what Cyclops and Professor X can't anymore.
And, while Storm basically says this to Logan, it isn't enough to sway him. Instead he gets pouty and leaves. Which I still argue is stupid, as he of all people should want to figure out why he is where he is. Also: was he affected by the Terrigen Mists? If this is Old Man Logan from, indeed, an alternate timeline, then the Terrigen Mists may never have gone off on his world. Couldn't they get a cure from his blood somehow?
But, guess not, because we just cut over to Brooklyn where teenage Jean Grey is flirting with some random dude at restaurant before they make out and it's just weird. I'm not really sure why. I don't care that it's not either Hank or Scott, because that's not what matters. It's just that...
Okay, look, I've been dodging this the entire review, but Humberto Ramos's art is really bugging me. It worked just fine for me during his tenure on Amazing Spider-Man, but for some reason it's really getting at me here. Every girl's face looks almost exactly the same. Nobody looks real. Their faces are stilted, and just look the same. Jean looks just like Mary Jane and it throws me off so hard. Magik is drawn decently, but even then, it's similar to Black Cat. I won't accuse him of tracing, I'm just saying that it's something about his facial expressions that bothers me in this issue. They're either too over-the-top, or too similar to other works.
The coloring by Edgar Delgado? Great. Everything is bright, the shadows work well when needed, and nothing feels oversaturated. It's got great color for a decently dark book, something I advocate in most comic books. The exception, of course, is Andrea Sorrention's style. That just seems to stand on its own and fits his stories every time.
Anyway, Jean and the guy split and find someone being beaten up outside by a gang of thugs, accusing the person of being a "mutie."
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| Yeah...totally a mutant....? |
Okay it should be instantly obvious to these idiots that he isn't a mutant. One: they're in Brooklyn, so New Attilan is literally one body of water away. Two: he just doesn't really look like a mutant. From first look, I could tell he's an Inhuman (and I'm right).
I also find their reason for beating up stupid. They attack him, but don't want to touch him...so they punch him in the face? They're afraid he has M-Pox, so they beat him up? What? No. That's stupid.
Jean decides she's had enough of this after her boy-toy also throws the term "mutie" out and she sort of flips out. But only slightly.
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| Ya done goofed |
After the bullies scurry away, Chris also splits, since she's a mutant and he's something of a butthole. The Inhuman, surprisingly, also runs away. Okay, that I don't agree with. He doesn't drop a thanks, doesn't show any appreciation, and just high-tails it because she's a mutant. I find that too hard to believe. Maybe I'm a better judge of people than this book wants, but an Inhuman and an X-Men have so much in common in terms of their place in the world. It would be a much better story if Jean and the Inhuman were to have sit-down and talk the world Jean lived in was before all of this went down. Did people hate mutants? Well, not everyone did. Jean of all people has had an incredibly difficult life, so, she could easily help this Inhuman cope with his new life.
The allegory for oppressed people uniting in peace to discuss the issues and find a solution practically writes itself. Instead, we get the X-Men books having to crawl their way out while the Inhumans have more of the super battles. It almost feels like the actual X-Men books are the X-Men themselves, when that used to be so different. I don't really buy into the fact that Marvel is suppressing the X-Men books and promoting the new Inhuman stuff because of the films. I can't. Why would there be three regular X-Men titles and various solo titles? Where's the solo book for Black Bolt or Medusa?
Back in X-Haven, where Storm is keeping mutants for the time being as a place of sanctity, Forge gets a small surprise from Magik and Colossus: Nightcrawler's tail! Because that's what you want teleported to you, right?
As they get ambushed in a sewer in pursuit of Nightcrawler, Storm and Iceman arrive in X-Haven's Workshop to meet with Forge. Iceman brings up a good point about Magik: that she should be in X-Haven. Given that she is the one holding up defenses for the place, it's smarter for her not to be out in the field in combat. Storm says it's okay, that they've got back up plans...yeah...
So, anyway, they catch Forge up on the issue's previous events and we cut back over to the fight in the sewers, and here's where we get more into the allegory the X-Men face now.
To be honest, it's sort of easy for me to speak on this. Risky, even. I'll just say what my interpretation of this is: the mutants are backed into a corner. Scared? Perhaps. Unsure of what's ahead? Again, perhaps. But Storm's upcoming dialogue captions seem to present us with the implication that the X-Men are all going to respond now with violence rather than harmony. That there is no clean future for mutantkind right now because they are forcing themselves to fight. Nowhere is that more evident than when Magik skewers her opponent, and Colossus ruthlessly fights off his, juxtaposed of images by Storm helping others.
It's clear that Lemire is painting an extremist picture. The message of violence, thankfully, is subdued and it just becomes a super romp, but you know what, I like this. A lot. Particularly with the above image. Magik isn't possessed, she isn't crazy. She kills her enemy because she thinks she has no other option, when there so obviously is. It's a haunting yet true image, and if the X-Men are historically consistent, it's usually on this. Obviously, this image and this implication isn't going to change anything. And I could be wrong. But it's trying to get across that fear makes people do irrational things, when they should have nothing to fear but fear itself (thank you FDR).
Storm's captions, though, do turn more internal as she questions herself as a leader, that she may have put too much weight on the knife's edge and that it is going to tip. I just love that the hopeful image also appears right on the same page as someone that can definitely bring a good sign for the heroes:
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| Oh...oooooohhhh. This is bad. Just not good. |
Ah, exactly what the doctor ordered. Well, hey, at least we have a pretty awesome splash page? Seriously, though, Mr. Sinister looks awesome here. Ramos does print a sweet image of this man in his intro. Sure it's against a pure black background, but his design is what stands out the most here. You just know, instantly, that things have gone from bad to "end of the world" level.
Sinister one-shots Magik and the defenses around X-Haven begin to fall, and we discover that X-Haven was actually in Limbo this whole time.
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| Is this real? |
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| Thanks, Reggie. |
I...I just...
Okay, sure. Limbo. Yeah. That makes sense. Yes. Purgatory. The place of no escape. The place right below Earth, but just above the Demon realm run by Mephisto who has timelessly proven to be a thorn and where all of your dead enemies reside.
As you can tell by the image, it backfired on them. And, really, I have nothing to say on this sheer stupidity. Moving on...
The book ends with Logan, in a bar (then subsequently leaving) as he gets a call from Jean Grey and uses the opportunity to divulge on more of his backstory!
And so we end this epic tale of woe, loss, confusion, and heartache with the one image that can truly resonate with all of us until next month:
Teenage Jean Grey complaining about the cold to Old Man Logan standing outside his trailer in Canada. Truly this is the image we deserved (not to mention her face is impossible to make out and makes her look even younger despite the love Logan presents to her...which is creepy).
As I said at the start, this is an odd, odd book. The premise, again, is interesting, and has potential that is sadly not at all being followed up on. I think this book would have been much better if it focused more on Logan and the X-Men and how to deal with him. Jean's scenes could have been cut, they provided little the story. Plus, why would she go running to Logan if it were Storm that presented the opportunity to her?
The things with X-Haven and the siblings was neat, but was just tons of exposition and the siblings were supposed to be comic relief but weren't all that funny. This issue felt more like set-up than progressing the story, and while it does help out new readers, it isn't the most engaging read to hook them on for the rest of the series.
Next week, be sure to come back as I take a look at one of the year's most hyped books--and ironically one I am not looking forward to--The Dark Knight III: The Master Race. See you then!
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