Written by Simon Spurrier
Illustrated by Paul Davidson“WE DO SCIENCE!”
In the wake of SCHISM, the X-Men’s Science Team takes it upon themselves to make a gesture of goodwill on behalf of mutantkind and better the world…using SCIENCE. But just as construction of the X-Club’s state of the art space elevator nears completion, chaos erupts! And it appears to the world that mutants are to blame. Can Dr. Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, Kavita Rao and Danger clear the X-Men’s name before their experiment backfires? Don’t miss this new limited series that will surely change how you look at the X-Men and the Periodic Table of Elements FOREVER!
Did you know Matt is mad at me? Maybe not “mad” at me per se, but when I claimed this book, he called me a nasty name! I almost cried, but instead I decided to persevere and tell you about the adventures of the motley crew of brilliant scientists (Dr. Rao), brilliant mutants (Dr. Nemesis, Madison Jeffries), brilliant machines (Danger), and the not-so-brilliant-but-seemingly-everywhere-these-days Cyclops!
They’ve been in the pages of Uncanny X-Men for ages, but now they get their own title in which to play around. Check the cut to see if the book is as mad as the team inside!
As a note, there are some spoilers discussed.
To put it bluntly, this book IS pretty mad, but what did you expect? Everything from the prologue (which confused me at first, I thought I was reading a misprinted Captain America & Bucky), reads in a way where you’re not really meant to know what’s going on at first, but has levels of snark usually reserved for movies starring Robert Downey, Jr. The confusing plot, which would normally be a detriment in any other book, is actually a strength in this book, as it provides a sci-fi mystery for our brilliant team to decode. It likely lies in the owners of the corporation they’re working with, as he might as well be named Dr. Claw, as he speaks with a similar voice (if the lettering is any indication) and you can only see their hand in a preciously scant one panel. Who else can tie in evil business in space with evil business in the sea? Big companies! #Occupy Utopia, right?
I digress.
Dr. Nemesis, the aforementioned character with RDJ qualities, was the breakout star of the Uncanny X-Men title from Fraction and later Gillen, so it only makes sense for him to take center stage in this book, acting as the put upon leader who really doesn’t like dealing with people who he finds less intelligent that himself, but has to in this regard. Madison Jeffries, however, doesn’t get much in the way of screen time, for lack of a better term, so unfortunately, he reads a tad bland. But in his pages, we get hints of a possible Danger/Jeffries relationship, which actually makes a lot of sense, from a character point of view.
Danger is probably in the most interesting position in the book. She is directly affected by the events of the prologue, and the ramifications are the crux of the plot. She doesn’t seem very bothered or affected at all by the affections of Jeffries, and instead does her work the way she wants to, everyone else be damned. This doesn’t exactly work out in her favor, however, which sets up the following issues. I’m not entirely sure it works out in our favor either, as it means Danger is either A) a villain again, which we’ve seen, or B) being manipulated by StratoCorp, which doesn’t bode well for her autonomy. That’s a case for another article, but it’s a little distressing how easy it was to strip away both her redemption and agency in one fell swoop.
Perhaps the greatest injustice is how Dr. Rao was relegated to lackey (it even says so at one point in the book). She’s brilliant genetic bio chemist, but she doesn’t have…much to do. Hopefully, this will change in the following issue, as the problems in the sea will need her expertise; much to the chagrin of the slightly misogynistic (but mostly misanthropic) Dr. Nemesis.
Continued belowAs a fan of the character, however, I think the best character work goes to everyone’s favorite visor wearing leader of Utopia, Scott Summers. He’s kind of a lovable dork in this issue, awkwardly trying to speak to a crowd of reporters AND taking a dig at his Gold Bannered Rival Wolverine all in one page. His lines are usually in the all-too-serious tone, and given the general levity in the book despite the circumstances, it really works. He even earned a few nicknames! The idea of the leader of Mutantkind as the butt of Nemesis’ jokes and recipient of left-handed nicknames makes for a truly amusing addition to the book.
However, while the writing from Simon Spurrier is a lot of fun (minus some issues with the use of the ladies on the team), the art, from Paul Davidson, is not as hot. There are goofy faces all over every page (mostly from Cyclops and his partner from StratoCorp) and the figure designs have an oblong sort of feel to them, and nothing looks as clean as it should. There is little in the way of emotion on either face either. There is a point in which there’s an explosion, and Cyclops looks on like he’s playing poker and the StratoStooge (who was so generic I can’t even remember his name) looks like he just caught his wife making out with the pool guy. It didn’t feel organic, and it took me out of the story for a moment. The rest of the book falls along these lines, and somewhat ironically, the best drawn characters are the characters that were the worst handled by the writer. Dr. Rao and Danger look great, and they have some of the best expressions and designs in the book.
This book is actually a lot of fun, but it does have several issues in it that I think could be improved, possibly even within the time of the trade. I’ll be keeping up with it, hoping it gets better. There is SO MUCH potential. I’d hate to see it wasted.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy
