Inhumanity, schminhumanity. Who cares that the world is changing when you can go out on the town? Brian Michael Bendis brings in Kris Anka for this one-off story in which all of the X-Women have a girl’s nights out that blows all X-Women stories out of the water.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Kris Anka
INHUMANITY TIE-IN!
• The ladies of the UNCANNY X-MEN go out on the town and find themselves face-to-face with the effects of INHUMANITY.
• Wait, is that Kitty Pryde with the UNCANNY X-MEN?!?!
• Rising star KRIS ANKA (covers of UNCANNY X-FORCE, ALL-NEW X-MEN SPECIAL) comes in as guest artist for this special issue!
Every since taking over “Uncanny X-Men” and pairing it up with “All New X-Men”, Brian Michael Bendis has really shown the world that he gets the X-Men. His focus on a social implications on mutations as well as zero-ing in on how characters react to their mutations has brought back the X-Men to the fore of Marvel’s publishing line. That being said, “Uncanny X-Men” has had a much harder time finding it’s footing than “All New X-Men” has. While the first arc was definitely solid, introducing readers to new mutants as Cyclops gathers his revolutionary team, after a quick detour to Limbo the title seemed to jump around a lot, setting up plot points before the series was interrupted by ‘Battle Of The Atom’. Thankfully, “Uncanny X-Men” #14 (last issue, for those keeping score) eased us back into the swing of things with a one-and-done story about one of the new mutants and brought the series back to the quality of it’s first few issues. Here, Bendis pulls much the same trick with another one-and-done story tying into ‘Inhumanity’ that focuses on the women of “Uncanny X-Men”. And, boy, does it pay off.
It’s been noted to the death that Bendis is a very dialogue-heavy writer at times, but more often than not that plays into his favour. His dialogue allows him to convey information about the characters through their interaction with others that works here. I’ll be upfront about this issue: nothing much happens. Only one major plotpoint actually shows up across the entire issue, ushering in the conclusion, but honestly I was sad when it did because it interrupted an issue I was enjoying a lot. Bendis uses this issue as a way of exploring the mindset of all, literally all, of the women hanging out with Cyclops’ team post-‘Battle Of The Atom’ (including the newly-joined members of Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde) in the forming of a far-less-cliché-than-it-sounds shopping trip. This leads to an issue where characters really just stand around talking, but it works because of who the characters are. These are the ones who, more often than not, get relegated to background panels or issue snarky quips while our hero gets another story arc examining his angsty man-pain. Here, though, Bendis gives them all full leeway to speak their mind in a way they never really get to do in other issues and it works.
When the touted connection to ‘Inhumanity’ rears it’s head in the form of a terrigenesis pod showing up a little more than halfway through the issue, it interrupts the issue just as it was getting really good. Just as the characters really got to sit down and talk to each other instead of being panel decoration or have to have filler small talk, the plot kicks the door down. This isn’t a complaint about the issue itself in so much as the issue could have done with more space to operate. I certainly wouldn’t have complained if Bendis employed his patented decompression here even if it was just to give these characters more of the centre stage. Hell, boot Cyclops for an arc or two and let Emma lead the team and you have comics gold.
While Bendis was almost shooting himself in the foot, cutting a great issue short before it could get really great, Kris Anka was showing off his skills as a comic artist. Anka is an artist who seems to have only just been recognised for talents and he really gets to explore them here and seeing as not much actually occurs in the issue, that’s a feat. See, Anka’s greatest talent is creating a believability in his art not through photorealistic pencilling, but in the smaller details like characters’ body language and clothes. That last part is something Bendis really allows Anka to show off by way of the shopping spree, letting Anka create outfits for each of the women that feel real and not catoonish as well as being representative of each character. It’s not exactly a huge action setpiece or breaking the mold of page layouts, but it’s a much simpler form of artistic innovation. It’s giving these characters a sense of humanity in having them wear clothes that don’t look like they came straight out of a bad 80s music video.
The worst part of this issue is that there’s not enough of it and that’s the highest compliment I can give it. From Bendis’ exceptional dialogue, giving characters that so often languish in the background an actual voice, to Kris Anka’s art that brings real world sensibilities to the smallest details in the book that allow it to feel believable even in the most fantastic of moments, this is one of the best issues of the series. This could be a whole story arc unto itself. Hell, this could be a series unto itself. Hopefully, this is the start of Bendis allowing these characters a larger role in the story going forward instead of just offering a glimpse of their potential before hiding it away.
Final Score: 9.2 – Even if you haven’t been reading this series, this looks a good place as any to start.
