Victor Gischler writes one final issue (before handing that baton to Brian Wood) of the adjectiveless “X-Men” book he started in 2010 with Paco Medina. From vampires to sentinels and assassins, the book has run the gambit with its stories and it all ends with a Skrull-tastic showdown.
Written by Victor Gischler
Illustrated by Will ConradA lost team of Skrulls infiltrates the X-Men Pixie is taken hostage…or did she go by choice?
After beginning the book by re-introducing vampires into the Marvel Universe hardcore, writer Victor Gischler used “X-Men” as less of a tool to appease to the litany of fans obsessed with Marvel continuity and has instead used it as an opportunity to accomplish the similar side-canon ideal formerly held by “Astonishing X-Men.” Unlike “Astonishing” , though, which focused on X-Men hanging out with X-Men, “X-Men’s” basic goal was to insert the X-Men into the rest of the Marvel Universe. It had a wider scope in its vision, and every arc sought to raise te stakes and use a different enough cast to keep things fresh and lively without rocking any boats.
That’s where the final story comes in. Despite the rather vibrant cover and the wide array of characters assembled (referencing previous stories), this issue is merely part two of an arc in which Pixie and Spider-Man help a few remaining Skrulls fight against one bad Skrull. Back in New York, part of Cyclops’ Blue Team is now helping the Marvel Universe on a global and cosmic scale, with some light cameos thrown in just for good measure. The fate of the planet hangs in the balance of this one (or, well, at least New York and it’s importance in our culture), and it’s up to Pixie to step-up and remind everyone everywhere why Pixie is a great character. Oh, and to remind everyone why you hate Skrulls.
When you look at “X-Men” alongside other X-Men books recently released (those dealing with “AvX” or those getting very specific mass-media coverage and hype), it’s certainly less marketable. The Skrulls big time to shine was 2008-2009 with the prologue, duration and post-era of “Secret Invasion”, but now not so much. And despite being a great character, if we pretend that “X-Men” is for people who don’t want to get messed up with tie-ins and heavy continuity, Pixie isn’t that familiar enough to seemingly justify a lead role. Truth be told, a lot of Gischler’s “X-Men” has been fairly insular, oftentimes self-referential and isolated from that which helps the other X-Books sell. Yet, through Pixie taking center stage and the general light nature of the book, “X-Men” #29 and the finale of Gischler’s run ends up shining and matching up well with the rest of his run.
A big part of the appeal of “X-Men” is really quite simple: screw it, lets just have some fun with it all. It’s a two-fold item in that aspect, though; the average mainstream superhero comic fan will tell you that before you buy a comic, there should be some kind of “reason” to buying it — perhaps related to continuity or some other such notion. “X-Men” doesn’t really offer any f that, because the only change this book has ever introduced was in turning Jubilee into a vampire and introducing Raizo Kodo and the Forgiven. Regardless of this, the book has always stuck with this element: the X-Men went through numerous stories just with this idea; they hung out with the FF and Doctor Doom, fought off Lizards with Spider-Man, a bevy of familiar Marvel assassins on an island controlled by vampires and Sentinels with War Machine. It wasn’t excessively audacious, nor did it try to be game-changing with every storyline, but instead it delivered stories that hit all the right notes and worked best as short stories showcasing mutants with other characters, something other X-Books severly lack.
There in lies the rub: if you like Gischler and you like the idea of a story that you can read simply arc by arc, then “X-Men” works well. If that’s not what you’re looking for, though, the book could leave a lot to be desired, especially held to the quality of books like “Uncanny X-Men” and “Wolverine and the X-Men”, to books that ostensibly matter in the comic book sense of the word. Mattering only goes so far, though. Sometimes you just want to see Wolverine and the Thing fist bump and make jokes, or twenty pages worth of Pixie teleportations. For that, we had “X-Men.” Sure, some parts are a bit too silly (the kid and the controller being the obvious one), but it’s a comic that makes you smile, and that’s respectable.
Continued belowWill Conrad’s art is a big part of what helps this book move along at such a pace as it does. Somewhat evocative of a style crossing the line work of Mike Deodato and the character design of Adi Granov, Conrad sends the book off in style. Conrad handles the line work himself and jumbles quite the cast of characters through the entire book, and yet he still manages to give everyone their own distinct style visual cues and attributes, most impressively with a group of otherwise indistinguishable shape-changing aliens. With a nice wash of glossy covers by Guru eFX over the entire book, we’re given a big smashfest superhero comic with a nice set of realism mixed into the characters to keep it all on the level.
When “X-Men” was announced as a book that would deal with vampires in what seemed like a blatant grab to the popularity of the bloodsuckers, I’ll admit I thought the book wouldn’t amount to much beyond it’s gimmicky grab for attention. Yet, the book blossomed slowly but surely into quite an enjoyable run thats more memorable than you’d assume at first glance, and with a bevy of talented artists all getting a swing at the interiors for the past 29 issues, it was certainly a well-executed example of why we like comics with mutants in the first place.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy, or at the very least check it out when the Victor Gischler Ultimate X-Men Collection Volumes 1 and 2 come out some day
