The revival of the Marvel Knights line came as a bit of a surprise, but definitely a welcome one. Marvel has lately been pushing the bounds with their creator-focused publishing and a series of miniseries with “indie” creators at the forefront is nothing to sniff at. And Brahm Revel writing and drawing an X-Men story? Well, that’s nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
Written & Illustrated By Brahm Revel
Marvel Knights presents Brahm Revel’s thrilling and dark X-Men adventure that asks: what happens when your past comes back to kill you?
Wolverine, Kitty & Rogue set out on the road to rescue new mutants from being murdered. But their help may not be welcome in this backwoods town–and the murderer may be closer to them than they think.
A gritty murder mystery told by the talented and new to Marvel creator, Brahm Revel (Guerillas).
With “Marvel Knights: Spider-Man” we saw a focus on a story free from the bounds of continuity and art that eschews standard sequential panels for a more abstract experience. Here, we… don’t. Brahm Revel plays things surprisingly straight here, not straying too far from Marvel NOW! in terms of continuity or story. This isn’t a bad thing, mind you, just surprising in the wake of how out there the previous offering from Marvel Knights was. So, adjust your expectations accordingly as this isn’t the mind-bending, psychedelic trip into the world of the X-Men, but actually a fairly stripped down murder mystery placing the X-Men in the upper south. It may not be that far out of the norm, but Revel makes the plain-clothes outing work.
Revel starts off by doing one thing really right: he takes the Marvel NOW! continuity, in which the X-Men have refocused on helping new mutants, and strips away the costumes and the inter-group feuds to show a raw X-Men team simply trying to help someone. While Revel starts by setting up the over-arcing murder mystery, the crux of this issue is simply in seeing Wolverine, Rogue and Kitty Pryde try to protect a young mutant who has just discovered their power. That would be a good enough story to tell, but Revel juxtaposing that with the south’s penchant for intolerance creates a very different setting for the X-Men to exist in. The X-Men’s allegory for being different and being an outcast is one thing when they’re living in New York, but setting the story in the south allows for a unique look at the allegory. Revel sets that up beautifully here with Wolverine standing off against locals and even showing Rogue’s perspective as she tries to connect with the young mutant. While this issue is largely set-up for what is to come, including a hell of a last page reveal, what Revel does set up is surely the start of something beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful things and terrible segues, the art ain’t too shabby either. Brahm Revel illustrates this series and with Cris Peter’s colours, it looks simply gorgeous. Revel’s writing creates a very specific atmosphere (think Deliverance with less banjos and more metal claws) and his art backs it up to create a concise package. Revel’s heavy ink style creates a lot of shadows in the panels that, complemented with Peter’s soft, pastel palette, creates a unique atmosphere for the book which totally fits into the idea of the Marvel Knights line. The soft colours with the heavy shadows create a contrast that allows the X-Men to exist in the story without the atmosphere overpowering them into submission and black leather jumpsuits.
There’s still a hopeful idealism to the X-Men’s quest present in colouring, but the oppressive atmosphere really speaks to the setting of the story. But enough colour theory because Revel’s panelling is just as impressive as his storytelling as he positively fills the page with story, creating a lot of small moments beside the action. However, if there’s one small detail in Revel’s art that brought it down it was that his heavy inking style sacrifices a lot of detail in the drawing. It’s a very minor quibble that doesn’t actually bring down the overall book because the atmosphere created by the inking style is more important to the issue, it was just something I felt needed mentioning.
Overall, while there’s not a whole lot to say about this issue due it mostly being set-up and an introduction to the story, it’s still an impressive opening. Despite being Marvel Knights, Revel doesn’t stray too far from the Marvel NOW! norm and actually benefits from it as he tells a tale that could easily stand beside the strongest X-book right now. It’s Revel’s art that makes this stand out the most, though, as he creates an atmosphere unlike any other book thanks to heavy inks and a soft colour palette from Cris Peter. This could very well count as one of the better X-Men series of the decade thanks to Brahm Revel speaking to what makes the X-Men great while stripping them down to a raw, bare bones story. This is definitely one to pick up and if the rest of the series and the Marvel Knights series can keep this up, Marvel will definitely be onto something.
Final Verdict: 8.7 – It may be mostly set-up, but it’s a definite buy for X-Men fans and fans of good comics.
